Mucho Carrete

Like most Spanish speaking countries, Chile has its own word for "party". In Chile, that word is carrete, and that's what I've spent this weekend doing. Discotheques, asados (bbqs), bars, la vida loca!!! All of you who understand Junior Year Anna would be very proud of me :)

Today my host family barbequed for my birthday. We had carne, empanadas, ensalada, papas, y choripan (sandwiches made with bread, chorizo sausage, and mayo) super delicioso!! And then, I got not one, but TWO delicious cakes!!! One was made of crispy waffle-like stuff, like what rosettes are made of, plus raspberries, custard, manjar (dulce de leche caramel), all covered in merengue. INSANE!!! And the other one was tres leche, YUM :) They sang Cumpleaños Feliz, it was a GREAT birthday celebration!! (One day early, of course, because we all have classes and work tomorrow.

I have met many new friends this weekend from Chile, France, Italy, Sweden, all amazing people! My Chilean adventure has been a bit like a book which takes a few chapters to get into (like 3 weeks) but once you get past the first few chapters you cannot put it down. Well, I'm past those few chapters and now I cannot stop reading!!!!!! So this week is more classes, and next weekend we're going on our first group excursion to Pomaire, an artisan village near Santiago. Today I think I'll head to the beach to try and read, try being the operative word in that sentence. It's a GORGEOUS day! The weather is getting warmer and sunnier every day.

Love to all!