What a weekend!
Our mom is in Venezuela for a while to take care of some family stuff, and it was just me and Antonio at home on Friday night. Our dinner conversation went like this:
A: What are you going to do tonight?
J: I don't know yet, you?
A: Yeah, I don't know either.
We ended up each inviting a friend or two, but we ended up with more than just a few guests. We all went to Goose, a discotec, and danced until we were ready to fall over. They don't seem to believe in drinking straight water here, and Antonio felt pretty bad the next morning.
I spend Saturday at the beach from after lunch until sunset, which is basically how I've spent all of my days here so far. One of my U.S. friends, Jacob, was celebrating his 21st birthday that night, so Kacie and I made some jello party treats in order to share our culture with the chilenos. Jacob's host mom is pretty liberal, and their house is basically a constant party. The college students hung out outside, and I was soon introduced to some of Cristobal's friends. We exchanged jokes, sometime laughing at the punchlines, and sometimes laughing about how the language difference kills some kinds of humor. They didn't understand my favorite joke, the one about the guys with the black eyes. "Eh, no funciona en español," they told me.
Guillermo, Jose Manuel, Diego, and Chicon
They usually stay in, but I convinced them to take me out dancing. We ended up going to Cafe Journal, 'the place where all the college students go'. It had a splendid mix of hip-hop and 80s/90s hits. Cris's friends are pretty fun, and they told me all sorts of things to say to him to get his goat. Upon leaving the club, we gringos amused the chilenos with our sympathy for the street dogs, and Jacob and Sam amused us all by climbing stone walls. Antonio kept calling me to ask me where I was, and I kept having to tell him I don't know, but I'm with Cristobal's friends so stop calling me.
I expected Antonio to be home when I got there, but instead found a strange drunken college guy, who didn't really make sense and tried to go to sleep in Cristobal's bed. Luckily, Cristobal and Sebastian got home shortly after and interrogated the poor guy before letting him go. It was after 6 am by the time I got into bed.
I woke up surprisingly early this morning and prepared myself for another day at la playa. I haven't tanned as much as I would have expected, but I feel like it means the sunscreen is working. We met a few new people, and hung out with some beach-bum street dogs. Our favorite was Atreyu, a fierce black lab mix who stayed with us the rest of the night.
Jacob with Atreyu
Once the sun started to go down, we headed out for some tex-mex, mostly because I had been complaining about the lack of Mexican food in my diet. Midway through our overpriced meal, the lights went out. Sam happened to have a headlamp in her bag, and we continued eating happily. Our server told us that all of Chile lost power. The walk home was kinda sketchy. I went most of the way with Jacob, but I was pretty afraid of ladrones during my walk alone.
You can't quite tell, but there were definitely no lights
The power didn't come on again until about 10:30, but it wasn't really a huge deal. Chile is one of the wealthiest countries in South America, but the chilenos have told me that a lot has changed since the earthquake. It seems like there is a lot of solidarity in the country right now, and those in Viña definitely recognize how fortunate they are.
After the lights came back on, I got to have my first hot shower since being here. I can't even tell you how good it felt after spending so much time in the sun, in the sea, and on the dancefloor. Things are a little crazy right now, but mostly people are living life as normally as possible. It's kind of like an adventure for all of us.
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