Fiestas Patrias (Independence Days)

This last weekend was a huge weekend for Chile. Every year on September 18th and 19th Chile celebrates their independence, (even though it's not actually their independence day...) and this year was the celebration of their bicentennial. As the 18th and 19th also fell on a Saturday and Sunday, the government declared the weekend of Fiestas Patrias to be a four-day weekend, giving Chileans the option to have Friday and Monday off as well. Me? I got almost an entire week off, all but one of my classes had been canceled last week. While it wasn't the same for all of my companions here, it was definitely something to be remembered.

Everyone celebrates Fiestas Patrias differently, most Chileans spend the days partying it up drinking seasonal beverages, eating lots of meat, and just enjoying the company around them. Some people go crazier than others, but it's all a big huge countrywide party. My family being the laid-back calm family that we are, spent the weekend much like we do back at home for the Fourth of July - family and barbecues.

Our week(end) started on Wednesday doing our shopping for the entire weekend as the big corporate stores legally had to close on Friday and Monday so we had to make sure that we had all of the bread, meat and drinks that were necessary for the weekend lest we had to go out looking for a small family-owned store to be open. Which on the actual days of the holiday you'd find very few people not out celebrating with their own friends and family if they had the choice. I finally got to go to the Feria (basically farmers market) where my mom stocks up on all of the fruits and veggies for the week on Wednesdays.

The barbecuing began on Thursday at my brother Mauri's house where we grilled up kabobs, ate empanadas and drank some wine to start the weekend off. Friday was relatively the same but at our apartment with my other brother Rolo and his three children, the menu for the day was beef, pork and chicken, a rice dish, some yummy baby red potatoes, and of course pebre (a salsa that reminds me of the bruschetta tomato mixture that goes on bread and crostinis) that goes on everything and anything you can think of. After a short rest and/or nap for us all we went for a walk along the beach and went to Bravissimo, one of the "best" ice cream shops around in the area according to my mom. It was definitely very good, but I don't think anything can really compare to Sebastian Joe's back at home.

Saturday I was given the option to go out to the country for another asado with my sister Maca and her friend Alej at Alej's uncles home where they have a lily plantation to sell to Chilean florists, or to go to the yacht club with my mom and dad for a celebration there. Since I live in the city and don't get many chances to go out to the country, I decided to go with Maca and Alej to meet her family. When we got there I was given a huge warm welcome, which is something that I really enjoy about life in Chile. We had a very similar lunch to what we had the day before with my family, so not a whole lot to say about that, but the "party" lasted for hours with the family talking, catching up and enjoying each others company as well as Alej's three-month old niece who was as bright eyed and busy tailed as you could get with a baby. So adorable. Anyway, when we left we were in a rush to get home in time to see the fireworks display that they were going to have off the beach in Viña, however we kept getting stuck in traffic with everyone heading back to the city for the display or to just get home. Which reminds me, back at home we say Minnesotan's don't know how to merge... just wait until you see Chileans merging on a freeway when the exit ramp is slightly blocked up. I also don't think they really know the meaning of traffic jam either, I've seen worse every day back at home - but it's all relative to perception, because it was weird to see my street all blocked up for miles when it's normally pretty clear. Anyway, I digress. We got back just as the first half of the fireworks were finishing up, as a surprise they had pretended that the fireworks ended after just ten or fifteen minutes leading to a great disappointment to many people, but after the five, ten minute break they started back up and suddenly everyone started running back to where they originally had been watching the show. Definitely a site to see - especially with the amount of people crowding the streets, parks and plazas.

After all the excitement from Thursday through Saturday we took a break on Sunday and spent the day lazing around the apartment enjoying the leftovers from Friday. On Monday we walked to the beach for the afternoon airshow and boat parade, which was exciting and dull at the same time. You can only watch so many of the same boats go by slowly when the only difference you see is whether it has a Chilean, Canadian, Argentinian or U.S. flag, but I enjoyed being out in the sun and getting a little color to my florescently pale skin. Afterwards we had a barbecued lunch again with Rolo and his kids, this time with a meal similar to Thursday's of kababos and sides. The day didn't last long after lunch this time because we were all pretty beat from five days of celebration. It's amazing how different types of sitting and relaxing can still take a lot out of you.

We are now back to our regularly scheduled program of life, classes started again yesterday and no one was really totally there since most of us had a pretty long weekend away from anything involving work or school. For me, I got go go back to my longest day of classes after a week off, and it started out with my dance class at ten o'clock in the morning. Not the best wake up, it's back to school call... Also, our calefont (water heater) broke on Monday morning and wasn't fixed until last night - so I got to go a couple days without being able to shower because no one wants a freezing shower. But it's been fixed, and my shower today - while it wasn't as warm as I like it, was still heavenly.