Chilly Chile

Hello everyone!

I am currently in an internet cafe next to our hostel. It is frigid.
Thought I would give you an update on my life: Chile is AWESOME! I have been so incredibly busy every day, I can barely absorb it all. This orientation is really intense, but really interesting and fun too! We have been learning all about Chilean history, and learning from INCREDIBLE people, like the woman that ran the workers' union in Chile during the dictatorship, and a news reporter, and a guy who was tortured in the concentration camps here and took us on a personal tour of one of them. Soooo intense and sad but very interesting. I really didn´t realize how bad Pinochet´s rule was, but I am learning more and more that it was extremely horrific. It makes me appreciate our government much more.
The orientation isn´t all serious. We are also going on fun excursions, like wine tasting at this really fancy amazing vineyard, where we had the most delicious, enormous dinner EVER. Avocados, beef (the best I´ve ever tasted, and I know I´ve been a vegetarian, but seriously. amazing.) crab stuffed shells, mussels, rice with yummy spices and things, a ton of types of cheese, asparagus, swordfish, vegetable lasagna, three types of cake (merengue, dulce de leche, and peach) and chocolate truffles. The man serving us saw how excited I was about the truffles, and after serving everyone, came back and put the rest of them at my place. So funny!
The people here are really great. I am finding out more and more that they all have a great sense of humor. There isn´t the major obsession with Americans that I have sometimes found in Peru and Guatemala, which might be why people say that Chileans are less friendly than people in some other Latin American countries, but I have found them to be fun and friendly, often with a kind of ironic sense of humor. Today we went to the Aconcagua valley, and saw the second highest mountain in the Andes. It was beautiful! Later we talked with farmers who were part of a labor union there. They farm walnuts, and so after the talk we went to a really cute restaurant in the area, which was very homey with raisins and garlic and other things hanging to dry on vines on the ceiling, and a little woodstove. I sat next to Daniel, one of the men who spoke to us earlier, and he was the sweetest man ever! We shared stories about having horses growing up. : ) I thought I had the best food in the world at the vineyard, but actually I think it was here. We had WALNUT SOUP! It sounds strange but it was absolutely phenomenal. Creamy and warm and mild tasting, with chicken and potatoes in it. Soooo heavenly. Later we had a very unusual squash dessert which was sweet and apparently the "caviar of desserts in Chile." Afterwards we went to a musician lady´s house in the mountain area, where we had a gorgeous view of the mountains and she played us songs she had written. Then we all went to a Chicheria, a surprise. It turned out that it was a sort of moonshine making place, which was full of tubs of grapes fermenting with other spices. As the man there said, "this stuff would never pass any of the country´s regulations on drinks, but it´s the best Chicha you´ll ever find." I´m slightly curious about whether my stomach will be in pain tomorrow, but it was worth it! Soooo good. It tasted like mulled cider, with a little orangey grapey taste and a little alcohol.
What else... it is very cold here. VERY cold. I guess the actual temperature isn´t that bad, in fact it is above freezing, but there is no central heating anywhere! I sleep in my coat and scarf and two wool blankets every night! Quite the shock after the 90 degree weather we were having. I am a bit concerned that I am starting to get a cold, as is everyone else on the program. We shall see...
Last night I went on a much more successful discoteca trip than last weekend. We arrived late instead of at 11 like last time, (which I had THOUGHT would be late enough before we found out everything starts at 1230.) The place we went to was actually on the top floor of a parking garage! Kind of sketchy looking but it ended up being really fun! I went with a group of 11 other Tufts students. Danced with a very amusing guy named Antonio. His mom is an english teacher, so we spent much of the time switching between languages- it was quite challenging. It turns out that he lives right down the street that I will be living on this semester! What a coincidence. Maybe I will run into him again. Anyways, the discoteca was packkked with hundreds of people, and had colorful lights and great music. It´s awesome to be allowed into a place like that here!
Tonight I am trying to decide whether to go Salsa dancing. I will have to see if I am still feeling a bit under the weather in a few hours. But it´s so tempting!!!
Tomorrow we are leaving late in the morning to go to a shantytown. Should be very interesting. I have so much more to tell you but the keyboard in this internet cafe is impossible. And this is already an essay.

Miss you all!!!

~Molly