Wedding Weekend in Concepción

So I went to my first Chilean wedding.

The entire weekend was really great.  I traveled with EME bus company, and the bus was really nice.  I had an empty seat next to me, and with the wireless internet the 6 hours flew by.

When I got in around 7 on Friday evening, Jorge (one of the bride’s friends) picked me up from the bus station, and I stayed with him.  Estefanía (the bride) had put me in contact with him a few months ago, so we had chatted on Facebook and he assured me it wouldn´t be a problem to stay with him. 

As we drove out of the terminal it started to rain.  Jorge told me that Concepción is known for having four seasons in one day, and sure enough later it was clear and cold.  We made a quick stop at Lider to buy groceries, and after that he dropped me off at his place.  He had to go to the university he works at to take care of some work, and I was content to stay in and watch TV.

Jorge has cable, so it was a treat getting to watch Chilean TV.  (I still don´t have cable, as I see it as an unnecessary luxury and would rather save the money to travel).  And I was able to watch HGTV!  I got to see Property Virgins and House Hunters International.  It was the exact same show as in the States, except there were subtitles in Spanish.  I like to live vicariously through the people on the show, and so it was quite a treat getting to see it here.

When Jorge got home around 10:30 we decided to stay in.  We stayed up for a while just talking and getting to know each other.

Then Saturday morning Jorge had to go teach some classes, so I stayed in and waited for Cecilia to arrive.  I found out the night before that she would be arriving from Santiago for the wedding, and she got in around 10.  She´s also an English teacher, so we spent time getting to know each other until Jorge got back around 1.  After that, we went out for lunch and to see a bit of Concepción.

Lunch was at a nice bar/restaurant, and we got a table at the outside patio.  I got a huge salad and an empanada to eat.

Afterwards Jorge had to go to the gym and Ceclia had an appointment at the hair salon, so I wandered around a bit.  I was anxious to check my email since Jorge doesn´t have wireless internet in his apartment, so I made my way to the mall.  Directly inside was a café with wireless, so I got a hot chocolate and checked my email.

I was really full from the large meal and hot chocolate, so I made my way back to Jorge´s place to get in a nap before leaving for the wedding.  Jorge and Cecilia were back by 6:30, so that gave us about an hour to get ready and head out.

This was my first Chilean wedding, so I was very excited.  Obviously I was happy for Estefanía and Amar, but being invited to share in the occasion was an honor.  I was also curious to see how the wedding would be different from the ones I´d been to in the States.

We arrived to the church at 8:00, and people were standing outside waiting.  We introduced ourselves to the others, and eventually we saw Amar (the groom) and made our way inside greeting his brother, sister in law, and niece and nephew. 

There was guitar music and singing as each group of people walked up the aisle, and the bride and groom had special seats at the front of the aisle.  The ceremony was relatively short, with a few songs, a speech by the priest, and the exchanging of vows and rings.  When Amar and Estefanía walked out people threw flower petals into the air, and they got into an antique car to go to the party.

We arrived to the location of the party, called Sur Activo around 9:00.  There was a cocktail hour, and so I got to chat with the other guests while enjoying drinks and h´or dourves.

We made our way into the main room, and I was seated at a table with English teachers.  Apart from Amar´s family visiting from London, I was the only foreigner at the wedding.  The food was great, and there was a slideshow with pictures of them together over the years.

After we finished eating, Estafanía threw the boquet to all the single women, and Amar removed the garter and threw it to all the single men.  Ceclia (who was staying at Jorge´s place with me) caught the boquet, and Jorge caught the garter, so it was a funny coincidence since they had only met about 10 hours prior to that and Cecilia was staying with him.

The dancing started around 1 in the morning, and there was an open bar.  I danced here and there, and there was a bubble machine that shot bubbles onto the dance floor from time to time.  I took breaks and chatted with some of the other guests, but around 4 I was getting pretty tired.

As I went out into the lobby to use the restroom I noticed a few guests knocked out on couches and found my new best friend for the next 45 minutes:

Seeing that other guests were doing it, I didn´t think it would be wrong to take a nap for a bit.

At 4:45 I made my way back inside to see about 12 people still dancing.  I joined them, and Cecilia asked where I was and commented that she had been worried about me.  It turns out that the party was ending at 5, and so I decided to dance the last 15 minutes with everyone.  The last song of the night?  I gotta feeling by The Black Eyed Peas.

Once the music was turned off, we stood around talking until everyone was ready to leave.  Six of us piled into a 2 door car and headed out, and after dropping people off we were home a little after 6.

The wedding was such a great experience.  It was truly an honor to be invited to a Chilean wedding, and Amar and Estefanía really went out of the way to make me feel welcome.  I´ll always remember their wedding night and seeing them so happy, and I feel blessed to have such wonderful friends in my life down here in Chile.

A Trip to Concepción and a Celebrity Look Alike

As I type this I´m on a bus to Concepción.  The bus has free wifi, and it is certainly helping the 6 hour trip go by more quickly.

Why am I off to Concepción you ask?  Well, for a Chilean wedding of course!

The couple is a Chilean woman and an English guy.  I met them on a tour when I was traveling in Temuco and Pucón.  If you go to my post from August 8th, 2010 you can see them with me in the hot springs with a few other people.  We hit it off talking about our lives and travel adventures, and we´ve stayed in contact since then.  They met met when he came to Chile about 5 years ago, and she was actually his Spanish teacher.  Since then they´ve gotten to know each other and are both English teachers in Concepción.  I was very flattered to be invited to their wedding, but I am very excited for the opportunity to attend my first Chilean wedding (and my third wedding ever).  A blog post with the details of the weekend will be coming, don´t worry!

On my way to the bus station today I had a bit of situation.  After waiting for the buses going up Antonio Varas I decided to get a colectivo.  It´s like a taxi but it has a fixed route and will take up to four passengers at any given time.  When I got in I had a few bags, and the driver gave me a death stare that seemed to say "How dare you step foot in my vehicle."  He then asked me if I was on a reality show.  I gave him a puzzled look and told him no, but thinking back I do have to admit that my black bag looks very similar to the ones that contestants use on Big Brother.

He went on to tell me that I look like the twin brother of a contestant on the show Mundos Oppuestos.  Apparently it´s a reality show that is very popular here in Chile, but I haven´t seen it at all.  It´s similar to Big Brother with contestants living in isolation, except they either live in the past or future.  I didn´t know what to think of his comment, and after doing some Wikipedia research and consulting with a few friends he seems to think I´m twins with a guy named Richard.

So here is Richard:

And here I am:

Is it me, or is that colectivo driver blind?

Easter Weekend Adventures: Cerro San Cristobal and Jesus Christ Superstar

This Easter weekend has actually turned out to be a bit of an adventure.

On Friday I met up with a friend named Phoenix, and we decided to hike up to the top of Cerro San Cristobal.  As I waited for him to arrive at Plaza Italia, I realized that I had only been up to the top twice before this: once with Donny, Erin, and Walker when we first arrived in March 2010, and with my dad when he visited in February 2011.

When Phoenix walked up to me, I asked if he got a haircut.  His response? "Yeah, just a few."  For those of you that know my personality and sense of humor, he and I get along well.

Phoenix is a very interesting person.  He is a fellow blogger and traveler.  We met back in November when I responded to his Internations post looking to meet Santiago locals to practice his Spanish.  I noticed that we lived nearby, so we met up for some Mexican food.  We spoke Spanish for about the first hour or so before switching over to English.  I don´t know exactly how to call it, but he´s on an adventure/quest/experiment to live outside of the states for 5 years.  In that time he´s working with international companies, networking, traveling, and finding places he enjoys living.  Oh yeah, and he´s also keeping a blog of his adventures for every day for 5 years.  He´s a little over 6 months into his experience.  If you´re interested in following his adventures, you can do so at www.fiveyearsabroad.com

Origianlly one of Phoenix´s friends was going to join us, but in the end he wasn´t able to.  As we made our way towards the hill, a black dog joined us.  We decided to name him after the friend who wasn´t able to make it, and he followed us up about one quarter of the way before taking off.

The weather was a bit cool at first, but I knew that it would warm up quickly.  The sun was shining, and it got up to about 80 degrees.  The walk up wasn´t that strenuous, but it was still good exercise.  We had amazing views as we wound around the hill on our way up, and at our relaxed pace we made it up to the top in about 2 hours.  There were a good amount of others walking, jogging, or biking their way up too, but it was still very peaceful.  And about three quarters of the way up we saw the dog from earlier in the day, but now he was coming down from the top of the hill!

Our reward for the climb up to the top? An amazing (albeit hazy) view of the city, and some empanadas!  

We took the furincular down.  There was a great view, but with the staggered compartments it was difficult to get pictures with our cameras.

As we walked back, we passed by a Taco Bell.  We talked about getting lunch there, but we decided on empanadas instead.  By curiosity was tugging at me, so after going inside I saw they had a value menu with items for 500, 600, and 800 pesos.  And there were cinnamon twists on the menu too, so that was a good sign for going back another time.

On our bus ride home we chatted about the public transportation system in Santiago before parting ways.

The second adventure was going to see Jesus Christ Superstar on Saturday.  Ann and Rodrigo (jokingly my aunt and uncle) invited me to join them with some other friends.  We met up at a bar beforehand, and it turns out it was actually an important part of Chilean history.  It´s called El Rincon de las canallas, meaning roughly The corner of the scoundrels.  It was popular during the dictatorship.  During that time there was a curfew that people could not gather in public places after 8 PM, but people could knock on the bar´s door and say the password of "Cannalla llamando a Canalla" (scoundrel calling scoundrel) in order to get in.  People would then meet secretly to talk about what was one their minds or about what was happening with the government at the time.  The place is decorated with papers that people have pinned to the wall with their own personal messages.  Next time I´ll have to bring my camera to take pictures of what it looks like.

We ordered some red wine with strawberries and a combination plate of meat with sides of salad, tomatoes, rice, and potatoes.  Here´s what the meat portion looked like (Thanks to Ann for taking pictures!):

After finishing our meal we were brought 4 shot glasses with amaretto and mint liqueur as an after dinner drink.  

After that, we made our way to the theater.  The theater was pretty old and a bit run down, and there was no reserved seating.  Luckily we found seating for 5 without a problem.  I snacked on kettle corn while we waited for the show to start.

I didn´t really know what to expect from the show, as I had only read a Wikipedia summary of it before attending.  I really liked the music and dancing, although it was so loud that I wasn´t able to understand much of what they were singing (It was all in Spanish).  Afterward we got some pictures with some of the actors.  I was tired, so I headed home after that.

As for Easter Sunday, I don´t have any plans except relax at home and enjoy the day.  I came across a few entertaining pictures on Facebook that I thought I´d share here. 

Happy Easter everyone!

New Year, New Housewares, and Easter Approaching

So it´s nearing the end of March now.  Most people would disagree with the idea of it being a new year, but most Chileans here see the year as starting in March since that´s when everyone returns from vacation.

This month I invested in some new housewares.  I brought a Magic Bullet back with me from the States.  It worked well for a bit, but after using it for about 2 weeks the converter I use with it made a loud pop, and then smoke started coming out of the socket.  Luckily I got it out before it got any worse.

After getting some advice from people, I present my new Phillips 700 watt stick blender:

The motor is inside the metal part, and it comes with two containers.  Each one has a blade inside that blends the food.  It cost 80 bucks.  I normally don´t like to spend a lot of money on things, but after seeing how weak the blades on the Magic Bullet were I decided it would be worth it to spend more money and get something that will last.  I´ve been mainly using it to make smoothies like this one:

Today I experimented with making pancake mix using it, and it turned out fine.  A friend was over for a gringo breakfast, and it saved a lot of time and effort on the cleanup as opposed to mixing everything in a bowl like I used to do.

The other new item I´ve purchased is an ironing board:

Up until now I had been using a mini ironing board which was only about one third of the size.  I was shopping at Lider (one of the local grocery stores), and I saw that they had full size ironing boards as well as one that was about 3/4 size.  Seeing that the 3/4 size one was only 12 dollars I thought it would be a good investment.  I managed to carry it the eight block walk home with my groceries, and it makes ironing so much easier.  Looking back, I can´t believe that I had the mini ironing board for close to 3 years.

Beyond that there isn´t much new happening here.  A few weeks ago there was a protest that caused the usual police response of teargas and water cannons, and there´s another one scheduled for April 11th.  Classes have started up again with my private students, and it´s wonderful to see them again and to continue.

I was considering traveling for the Easter weekend (Friday is a holiday here), but I decided against it.  There are so many people traveling, and of course hostels and restaurants raise their prices.  Given that getting back up to a full schedule is taking a bit longer than last year, it also makes financial sense to stay put.

Well that´s all for now.  Have a Happy Easter everyone!

Hello March!

It´s March already?  Where has the time gone?

There have been a few important events since my last update:

1. Earthquake Day

2. My dad´s birthday

3. Joining a gym

February 27th was the 3 year anniversary of the earthquake here in Chile.  I can still remember the event vividly in my mind as if it had happened yesterday.  Since then I have fallen out of contact with most of my roommates that lived there, but one of them messaged me the other day that one of our roommates is moving back to Santiago from Mexico.  We´re going to try to meet up, so we´ll see how it works out.

February 27th was also my dad´s birthday.  The earthquake was a surprise birthday gift 3 years ago, but since then I´ve decided it´s better not to pull surprises like that anymore.  I wish I could have been there to celebrate in person, but with the distance and cost of plane tickets we have a big family celebration for the 4 February birthdays around the time when I am home.  I called home, and my dad had lots of birthday wishes and meals out with family and friends to celebrate.

Then the following day I joined a gym.  Pacific Gym has many branches here in Santiago, but each one has a varying degree of quality, classes, and hours open.  There was a promotion to join one location for about $300 for the year, so I opted for the one about a 20 minute walk from my apartment.  It´s open 24 hours, so  it´s very convenient.  The one that is closest to me is very small and closes at 2 in the afternoon on Saturday and is closed all day Sunday!

I´ve already gotten in a few workouts there, and so hopefully once classes kick in I´ll be able to stick with a routine given the 24 hour availability.

Despite it being March, the weather here hasn´t cooled down.  The weather is still getting to the mid 80s or even hotter each day, so I´m wearing short sleeve shirts and bringing cold water to my classes whenever I can.  Looking at the weather forecast for the next week it will be getting up to almost 90 each day.

That´s all for now.  Have a good day everyone!