Mi Vida es Chilena...¿Cachai?: Weekend with the Family

First off, to clear up some confusion about my safety...

No. I didn't get lost on the bus at 3 am. That was around 5:30 pm. And I knew where I was, I just didn't get off the bus in time.

When I return at night and it's late, I travel with my friends. We share taxis and each get dropped off at our individual houses.

My Chilean family takes great care of me. They have told me about all of the places that I should and shouldn't go. And we are always in contact with each other.

So fear not!

Other than that, this weekend was mostly spent in la casa with mi familia.

Yesterday, I woke up (muy tranquilo) and caught up with my true fam. As I was talking to my dad (Glenn), my Chilean dad (Marco) knocked on the door. My two dad's got to meet which was pretty interesting since my real dad only attempts to say aeropuerto and my Chilean dad has rusty English. There was a bit of a communication snafu when my Chilean dad told my real dad that he was "happy to have his sister in the house". He confused daughter and sister.. we all laughed.

After, I went to la feria with my Chilean dad (sometimes the men do the shopping...). La feria is basically a market that travels around, almost like a farmer's market. It's a lot smaller than la Vega, which we visited last week. He had me practice all of my Spanish fruits and vegetables. Next time, I'm supposed to buy them all...

We also made it to Chile's version of "Home Depot".. which Marco called el sueño del hombre.. 'a man's dream'.

Once we got back with all of the fruits and vegetables, we had a huge family lunch (Juan Pablo and José Tomás - Marco's kids - were here for the weekend) and then it was time for the siesta.. i.e. nap time. After eating that much food, I definitely needed a nap.

Last night, I went to a salsateque with a bunch of the girls in the program (Swalk - this one was much better than the one we visited in Nashville the first week of orientation..) We had a ton of fun and all of the locals loved us.

Today, I went to la misa (mass) with my Chilean mom. It was a beautiful church. The whole mass was really interesting because I could understand everything, since mass is universally the same, but I couldn't say any of it because it was in Spanish...Maybe someday soon?

When we got home (after stopping at another market - my family is big on fruits and vegetables and having me try everything), we had a huge asado (roast). We all sat on the porch and admired the Cordillera and I experienced yet another rapid-fire family meal. There were so many types of meat, appetizers, fruits, and vegetables.. everything you could imagine. And everyone was talking a mile a minute (and on top of each other). I'm definitely getting better and understanding more. So I'm pretty pleased.