My Last Blog from Chile

It is currently 6:45pm on tuesday evening. Today is a Chilean holiday so I am the only person in the entire building. Tomorrow, at 7:00pm I leave Chile after just over two months. This is a thing about which I have very, very mixed feelings. On the one hand there are certainly things from the States that I miss. Family, friends, having internet access at home, hot showers, football, decent beer, etc. On the other hand, I love this country, I love the people and I love the food. Not to mention the fact that over this past week the weather here has taken a dramatic turn from cold and rainy to clear and downright hot. The idea of returning to below freezing temperatures is not one that I am terribly happy about. Nor is the idea of going from a place where it's light outside until 9:30 to a place where it gets dark at 4:30. Losing daylight is not something I will be happy about. When I get back to the states I will reflect on these things more. For now, I want to talk about the last week that I've had.

Up until last friday it had been a fairly relaxed week. Students were all taking their final exams, so I didn't have a whole lot to do. One nice little story though involves Fran. As you may recall from my previous blog she has taken to calling me tanto every chance she gets. Tanto means dumb. So that's always fun. I find it all hillarious. Well, the other day, thursday I think, I was sitting in the kitchen talking with Fran, trying to get her to say my name. So I am sitting on the kitchen floor with her while she shows me pictures from her favorite book. And I say, 'Fran, como me llamo?' what's my name? To which she looks at me and replies 'TANTO!', and then promptly spits on me, then starts laughing. That last bit was new a new trick of hers. Gotta love children.

Like most of my experiences in Chile, Friday came along and I had no idea what I would be doing. I never seem to know what's going to happen in the country until maybe an hour before it happens. Not that I'm complaining, as I like that kind of lifestyle. All of my friends were busy that day. Victor had to work and then spend time with Rocio, Marjorie was going to a friend's birthday party. So I really didn't know what I would do. I knew I wanted to do something, since it was my last friday in Chile. So I stuck around the office rather late taking care of some stuff, then went home. My plan was to take my stuff back, get ready, then go to a local pub to grab a beer and see where the night would take me. Instead, 45 minutes later Marjorie called me. Evidently at her friend's birthday were a lot of my students. So they insisted that I come out and party with them. I obliged and walked to the party, which was near the University. When I got there I was greeted by many entoxicated Chileans. It was decided at once that I needed a drink, so I was quickly provided with a rum and coke. Anyone who has ever done much drinking with me in my dark and foggy past knows that hard alcohol and I don't get along terribly well. But for lack of a better option I drank what they gave me. Three rum and cokes later they had dragged me onto the dance floor where I did everything within my considerable power to look stupid (dancing). After I could take no more of that I went outside and talked with some of the guys from my class. As it turns out, drunk guys are the same no matter where you are in the world, as is the humor. As we were talking they were all kind enough to point out to me such important information as why each other were gay and how each other had small penises. Yes, guys make fun of each other the same way the world over.
After we finished at this party we decided to go downtown and continue at a pub. On the walk there a young guy followed us so he could talk to me. We had just met at the party and I had mentioned a few of my thought on life and the significance of things and he decided he needed to continue the conversation. So there I was, walking down the street, drunk, talking to some guy about the meaning of life and the universe and everything. Strange. When we got there we ordered more beer and some french fries that were topped with all kinds of meat, sausage, avacado, and eggs. At the time it was great, later not so much. We stayed there for several hours. At one point they told the band that was playing that It was my last few days in Chile. So they said some things I couldn't understand in my current state of mind and then dedicated some songs to me. It was very cool. Of course I was then dragged back out onto the dance floor, this time to look stupid in front of a even more people, and none of which I knew. It was all very fun, but, unfortunately at a certain point in the night most of the people I was with had decided to stop helping with the massive jug of beer we had. So I ended up drinking most of it. At about 4am everyone decided that it was time to go home and sleep. I, however, decided that 4am was far to early, so I called another friend from the class, Oscar, and he came and met me.
By this point I was pretty far gone. So when Oscar suggested that we go to a 'cafe con piernas' I said 'sure, why not.' A 'cafe con piernas' is a nice, shady establishment where the girls walk around in lingerie and give you drinks and talk to you. I suppose it's something like our strip clubs, but without the stripping and nudity. Upon arrival there it was decided that we needed more to drink. So Oscar ordered us some piscolas, that is pisco with coke. Now, Pisco and I are not at all friends. In fact, we tend to hate each other passionatly. But I was drunk so I just went with it. This meant that during the course of the night I mixed rum, beer and pisco. This is a recipe for a terrible experience. Oscar and I talked for awhile, about life, school and how unattractive all the girls at this place were. Eye candy they were not. I spend most of my time staring at the floor and avoiding conversation with them. After some time, I really have no idea how much, we decided to leave. By then it was starting to get light outside. Oscar lives near Marjorie, so we walked together and continued talking. When I got back home I promptly passed out. And then promptly woke back up to revisit all of the food and drink I had had during the evening. This occurred 3 different times before I was finally able to fall asleep for any stretch of time. Never again with the pisco, never again.
Saturday was spent in bed feeling terrible. I didn't get out of bed until around 6pm, and then just to eat a bit and drink some juice and water. I was back in bed sleeping by11pm.

Sunday turned out to be a damn fine day. For one, I felt a lot better than I had on Saturday. I started the day by going to my office to make some phone calls. Victor had told me that he was going to throw me a going away party on Sunday. So I tried to call him. I couldn't use my cell because I was out of minutes, so I tried skype. Unfortunatly he didn't answer. So I assumed he was probably at work. I walked to the mall hoping he would be there, but he wasn't. I decided to just head back home and wait to see what would happen. Sure enough, while I was walking he called me up to make sure I was still free that night. I said yes and we made plans to meet up at 8pm in front of McDonald's as is our custom. I went back home and took a nice, freezing shower, relaxed a bit and then went to meet Victor. We met up and took off to the store to buy some things for the party. When we were done we hopped into a colectivo and went to Rocio's house. Here I learned what the night would entail. Namely, delicious food, grilled on an old BBQ, lots of beer, and some good people. There were a couple people from one of the English classes I had taught there, and some other people I had never met. We sat around, ate food, drank beer and talked for a long time. At one point they decided that beer was just not enough so we went and bought rum. I, having learned an important lesson on Friday, decided to stick with beer. It was a lot of fun, we just sat on the back patio, telling jokes, or trying to tell jokes at least, kinda hard to translate some of them, and talking about soccer. As the night progressed people started leaving. Until it was just Victor, some other guy and me. This was at about 4:30am, and at about 5:30am I decided it was time to go home and try to get some sleep. I was feeling very good. Sticking with beer was a great choice. I was able to control my intake and keep a nice mellow buzz throughout the course of the evening. Victor called a taxi for me, and I was home by 6am, asleep by 6:30.

Monday I woke up around 1pm. I got up to go take a shower, opened the door wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt I had slept in, and was greeted by Marjorie and six of her friends who were over studying. I knew none of them, so it was a bit on the awkward side. But no matter, I took a shower and then took off for a day on the town. I decided that this was going to be a good day to go exploring and to buy some souveniers. Every time I have ever been in another country, and been trying to buy stuff like that, I have always been with someone else. Another American. This was my first time trying to navigate through all the vendors of a foreign country alone. Gotta be honest, not much of a fan. First off, I don't much care for souveniers. I just find it very difficult to sum up an entire country or city, and an entire experience with a trinket. But I did my best and found some good stuff. After wandering the city for several hours I decided to go back to the house. When I got there Marjorie was getting ready to leave. As she was walking out the door she asked me if I was going out that night. I told her I didn't think so. She told me that I couldn't go out, and that I had to stay there because she was going to do something special for me. So I hung out for a bit and waited for her to get back.
She got back a couple hours later with Roxan. The plan for night was to have a going away party at the house. A nice, relaxed party with plenty of food and, of course, beer. The food for the night was a giant hunk of cow, and a whole lot of chicken and sausage, put together and slowly cooked in the oven. Damn good eatin. Around the time the food was almost ready three other students showed up. Oscar, Diego and Carolina. All very good people. While we waited for the food to finish, the guys went to the store to buy beer. When we got back it was time to eat. Great food. All the different types of meat cooked together made for one hell of a fine flavor. After we finished eating it was time to relax and talk. The subjects of conversation included soccer, music, movies, school and family. I busted out my laptop at one point and showed them all pictures of my family. Meg and Liv will be happy to know that Oscar found them both very attractive and was kind enough to take some pictures of himself with my camera so that I could show them. The night ended fairly early by Chilean standards, and I was in bed by 2:30am.

Like I said before, today is a Chilean holiday, so there was no school. I got up around noon today and started packing. When I finished that I showered and then went downtown to continue shopping for stuff. My last stop of the evening was the office so I could check the old fantasy football scores (I won) and write this blog. The last thing I want to say before I leave Chile is that I am very lucky. I have had this amazing opportunity, and during my time here I have had some amazing experiences. I have made some great friends that I will have for life. The people in this country our incredible. So friendly, so warm and so welcoming. My chilean friends have been great, and I am very fortunate to have met them. I hope to return to Chile someday in the future, hopefully to work as a teacher. It is a beautiful place, with beautiful people. And I am going to miss it a lot. Hasta luego.