Livin' on a Prayer

So much has happened. I really should do this more often. Make sure you grab your coffee and get comfortable before you continue reading.

I'm going to split this up into sections.

Part 1: THE STREETS
The streets are straight up scary. I have decided that there is only one rule: as long as you honk and speed up, you are free to do whatever you want. If there is a person walking in the crosswalk, honk and speed up. If there is a car pulling into your lane or if you are dangerously pulling into another lane, honk and speed up. If you want to run a red light, honk and speed up. One thing I have definitely learned is to not trust any moving vehicle ever.

Also the dogs have no fear. One time some of us decided to walk home from school instead of take the bus, and up ahead of us we saw a dog literally walking straight into oncoming traffic. Luckily there wasn't a lot of traffic or else he would've been a goner. The cars had time to swerve out of the way, but all of us who are new to this whole street-dog thing were all squealing and gasping and looking away every time a car came close, expecting him to be roadkill when we looked back. If you ever are afraid of something, just channel your inner Chilean street-dog and you will be fine. This is not a joke.

Twice now I have seen fights in the streets. One was between two drunk men who were (and I am not exaggerating) kicking and punching each other in the middle of the street. I'm sure their spirit animals were Chilean street-dogs because they couldn't have cared less about the oncoming cars that only honked and sped up. One man did get thrown into a car. The other fight I saw was between a colectivo driver (kind of like a taxi) and a bus driver. They both tried to get in the same lane at the same time so they both stopped their vehicles and began to punch, kick, and yell while their passengers waited. Along with what seemed like a mile-long traffic jam they created behind them.

Here's where the drunk men fought. Great placement to get hit. 

Speaking of colectivos, Colin and I had an interesting experience with them, to say the least. Neither of us are even used to taxis in the states, and these colectivos are on a whole different level, so I was definitely expecting something exciting. We didn't know that they fit as many people in them as possible, or that you pay at the beginning, or that you have to get out the right side only, or that the driver won't stop at the location you told him to unless you say something again, or even how much it costs. All of these unknowns led to an interesting experience where we got off at the wrong spot and I'm still not even sure we paid the right amount. If our looks didn't give us away that we are gringos, our actions definitely did. Dead giveaway.

Here's a model shot of Colin. 

Part 2: Carretes
In Chile they don't say "Fiesta", they say "Carrete" (thank you Stacey for warning me). But everyone is always going out to party or having parties at their house or doing something at night.
One night a couple of us went to a karaoke bar and we did like any good gringo would do and we belted out American classics. Sam (a friend of mine) and I did a duet to "Livin' on a Prayer", Colin and Sam sang "Yellow Submarine" (they love the Beatles here), and Alexa (another friend) did a Norah Jones song and "Hey Soul Sister". They loved them all and they clapped for us. "Don't make us sing....don't make us sing!"

There have been 2 family birthday parties in the past two weeks that I've been here. One was last week for one of the aunts at a restaurant with only about 15 people, and another was yesterday for one of the cousins with somewhere around 40 people. The family is so huge, and it was only one side of it! Now, I'm used to having big family birthday parties, but this was just ridiculous. There was tons of food, tons of people, tons of pictures, and my favorite: tons of singing. After the birthday girl blew out her candles, a night of singing commenced, complete with 3 guitars, 2 microphones, bongos, and a whole lot of voices. Having Skold and Brown genes inside of me, I fit right in and we had a good time. I loved it a lot and it reminded me of my family back at home. They made me sing American classics like (yepp, you guessed it) Beatles songs and "Livin on a Prayer". I really should have memorized those lyrics from the screen in the karaoke bar.

Too much fun. 

And then a couple nights ago I went out to a restaurant at 10:30 with my host sister and some of her friends. In the states, people come home from the restaurant at 10:30, but here we left our house at that time. And after the restaurant we went to one of their apartments and hung out until 5 am. Guys, this is normal here! And they expect me to wake up at a normal hour the next day? Good thing I've practiced staying up late in college - I knew there was a good reason for that ;) We ate Chorrillana. Here's a photo I found online of this popular heart attack on a plate.

I feel like Ron Swanson would like this. 

One last party to talk about (Are you bored yet?) Some church friends invited Colin and I, along with other gringo friends, to their house and we had an Italian dinner! It was a bunch of fun and we got to learn a lot of slang and chilenismos. These are the "jovenes" (young ones) of the church so we got to learn all the hip words.  Lo pasé chancho. :) 

Part 3: Untitled
This is where I list all the other random things that have happened. I went to the fair/market with my mom and we bought two-weeks worth of food. It was like a farmer's market but everyone in the whole town goes to buy their food. I felt like a local there. Too bad no one saw me as a local.....I also went to Valparaiso again with a group from school and we got to go inside Pablo Neruda's house and take the incline and do all the touristy things. Including almost dying on the bus going around sharp and steep curves.

For me, this view doesn't get boring. So you're gunna have to deal with all the photos of it. 

 One day we had a little taste of Maine in our house! I brought Moxie, blueberry jam, lobster meat, and saltwater taffy, and that's what we had for lunch. The Moxie wasn't super popular, but the lobster meat sure was :) I can now say that I drank Moxie in a different continent. This makes me pleased.

I went bodysurfing in the Pacific Ocean! Sam met these really cool Chileans who invited me to go swimming and I of course said yes. They even gave me a wetsuit to try on. It was frigid water but it wasn't so bad with the suit and plus there was an amazing sunset on the horizon, so how am I supposed to complain? This has been my favorite memory so far.

Here's my superhero picture. With that suit on? I had to. 

BlahBlahBlah If you are still reading this, congratulations. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. One more thing: Colin and I went to a bakery to buy some empanadas. And guess what was on the radio? Livin' on a Prayer.

Oh yeah, also classes began last week. But they're boring to talk about so I'll spare you the pain. I'm going to be living on YOUR prayer that I can do well in those ;) But for real.