Raw Chicken

Thursday morning I woke up and went into the kitchen to eat breakfast. My host mom always makes me a breakfast tray with my name on it. The typical tray includes: bread, avocado, ham, cheese, tomato, cut fruit, oats, and coffee. It is a wonderful way to start a day! So Thursday I walk into the kitchen to get my tray and the tray is there, the plates are there, but all that is left in crumbs!! Somebody ate my breakfast.


No big deal. I decided to take the opportunity to make an egg scramble. I go to get a spoon and I see 2 big chunks of raw chicken sitting on the dish drying rack!!!!! I appreciate education and knowledge, and I was happy to be certified by Spokane Public Health Department in Food Handler's Safety, but there are some times that ignorance is bliss. My sister walked in and grabbed a spoon from the rack, wiped off the chicken drips, and started eating. I decided I wasn't hungry because I couldn't stop thinking about how every knife, fork, spoon, cup, and plate had been bathed in raw chicken juice.

e-SKI-ando en la Cordillera!!

Yesterday I WENT SKIING IN THE ANDES!!!!!
It's hard to miss the fact that I love skiing. I am obsessed with the sport. By late August/early September I am ancy for ski season to start again.
My new favorite aspect of Chile? Skiing in August. My ultimate birthday dream has been fulfilled.

The Tufts group met up at 8 am Friday morning, rented gear, loaded the vans, and headed toward the Andes. We had recieved multiple warnings about the curvy road and carsickness. As a vomitphobe I was freaked out about other people getting sick on the way up. Fortunately the van went slow and the view was distracting and nobody got sick. There were 40 nearly vertical switchbacks with steep drop-offs on both sides.

Unfortunately Farrellones is the lamest resort I have ever seen. I remembered to pack my positive attitude (skiing is always awesome!) along with my retro $4 ski suit and I had a great time! Lots of my friends had never skiied before and I got to teach people how to ski and I was able to take hilarious pictures of 20 yr olds yardsaling in neon ski suits.

Hopefully I will get a chance to go skiing for real in a few weeks. If not, I had a great Andean ski experience!

Going Out: Chilean Style

It's Friday night, 11PM. You are at Tufts. What are you doing? Most likely leaving for a party or at a party.

It's Friday night, 11PM. You are in Chile. What are you doing? Maybe eating dinner, giving a friend a call, and thinking about going out in a few hours.

People go out LATE here!!

Partying is also not the same here. During my first Sunday lunch with my family my Chilean grandmother asked me if I was partying the night before and my host mom laughed and asked if I was hungover. (No). I have never discussed partying with my real grandma and I don't plan on doing it soon.

Friday night I went out to a dance club and bar with my friend Becca's host family. The group included Becca, Meera, and I (las gringas!), Becca's host sisters, their boyfriends, one of their friends, the friend's brother, and the brother's friend. We range in ages from 18-27. In the US that is considered a large age difference; however, here in Chile it is quite different. We were also joined by Becca's host mom, her boyfriend, his sister and brother-in-law, his cousin, and his cousin's friend. I can't say that I've never partied with my parents but I certainly can say that I don't regularly volunteer to go dancing with them at 4 am on a Friday night.

Maybe I am out of the loop, but I don't consider karaoke clubs a popular option for young people in the US. I'm afraid that I have to admit that I have participated in karaoke parties more than once..but never in the US.

Saturday night I went out to El Pub Chihuahua with several friends from Tufts and Maca and Rodrigo. We spent hours drinking 2 x 1 cocktails, eating mini-empanadas, listening to drunk Chileans sing, and dancing on our chairs. At around 3 am the DJ called "Maca y Las Gringas" up to the stage and we sang or, as Rodrigo later pointed out, we yelled Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer". Sorry for the bad picture but that's all I had.

I'm starting to understand nightlife in Santiago. You plan to pregame at 11:30, actually pregame at 12, go out at 1, start dancing at 2, leave the club at 4, chow down on chorillana until 6, then head home. And don't worry about what your parents will say because they are probably with you.

Baking does not exist

Mom, this post is for you.
At home I take fresh baked cookies, pies, cakes, and cobblers for granted. If I want chocolate chip cookies, if it's a birthday, if there is a team party, etc all I have to do is open the cupboard, take out all the ingredients, and bake something. If something is missing it is a quick trip to the baking aisle of any grocery store and I can find all the flour, sprinkles, frosting, and candies that I could ever need. Becca and I decided to bake cupcakes for our friend Rodrigo's birthday. It was not easy!

Reasons why baking does not exist in Chile:
1- There is no baking aisle
We went to Jumbo (very similar to Walmart) to buy ingredients because we figured it would have everything we need. Wrong. When we found an aisle with baking mixes we thought we were in luck. Wrong. Flour and sprinkles were in that aisle but we could not find sugar, frosting, a muffin pan, or cupcake papers. After looking all over the store and asking several people we found powdered sugar near the wine, baking sheets near the rugs, and muffin liners in the party favor aisle.
2- they don't sell frosting
At first I thought that not selling frosting might be a good sign for baking. Making things from scratch is always better, right? But the concept of frosting is not really here either. They call it whipped cream even though frosting is not the same thing as whipped cream.
3-There are no words for baking sheet or cupcakes
We tried the dictionary, we tried online translators, we tried our host families.. the words don't exist.
4- The oven doesn't have a thermometer
The kitchen here is a mystery to me. We couldn't figure out how to pre-heat the over so we went and asked Becca's mom. You have to turn on the gas, light a match, turn on the stove, catch a paper on fire, turn on the oven, and light the oven with the paper. We couldn't find the temperature so we asked her again and there isn't one. It doesn't make it very easy to pre-heat the oven to 350!
5- The kitchen doesn't have measuring cups, large bowls, or mixers
Suddenly I appreciate your KitchenAid with interchangeable mixers. We searched the entire kitchen and could not find a single mixing bowl, measuring cup, or electronic mixer. In the end we used a pot, a whisk, and an empty yogurt container. We converted grams of yogurt to cups and then used the container to measure the water. There is a measuring cup after all but it is used to feed the turtle and was full of turtle water.. gross! The recipe asked us to use an electric mixer on high speed for 4 minutes. So instead I whisked as fast as I could! After finishing the cupcakes we realized that the mixer would be essential for the frosting so we rang the neighbor's doorbell. Six lilac point Siamese ran out into the hallway when she opened the door!

Anyways.. we ended up with more or less successful cupcakes and Rodrigo seemed to like them so the effort was worth it!

Pomaire

Last weekend I went to Pomaire with the Tufts group. Pomaire is a small artisans village about an hour and a half north of Santiago. It is known for its simple ceramic bowls and figures.

We started our day with breakfast at our host's house. We had bread, jam, manjar (similar to caramel), tea, and coffee. Our hosts introduced the history of Pomaire and then took us across town to the house of a typical Pomaire artist. They showed us how they dig up the soil and turn it into usable clay then they demonstrated how to make bowls and goblets on the pottery wheel.

After the demonstration I got to try to make a goblet. It was definitely a lot harder then the artists made it look! My goblet came out all right-but with a lot of help from the maestro!
After trying the pottery wheel we went to another house that specialized in clay figures. The lady who lived there showed us how to make frogs, turtles, and pigs. Here are our attempts at making frogs and turtles.

We went back to the host's house for lunch and ate empanadas and cazuela (a Chilean soup). I had been told about Pomaire's pastel de choclo and kilo empanadas so I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to eat them! After lunch we had some time to walk along main street and look at all of the ceramics that were for sale.

The mystery of the "estudiantes"

Mystery solved. I now know who lives in my apartment and I have been introduced to both mystery students.
Estudiante #1= girl, 20 Isa (short for either Isadora or Isabella- haven't figured that out yet)
Estudiante #2 = boy, 19 Juan
They are from Osorno, Chile and are studying in Santiago.

Mi cumpleaños

Sunday I turned 20 and I celebrated with my friends and my Chilean family. Saturday night I went over to Becca's house to hang out and her sister (Maca) and Maca's boyfriend (Rodrigo) invited us out to drinks. On the way there it turned midnight and they started singing Feliz cumpleaños to me. The bar was very chill and we had drinks and talked for awhile. Then they surprised me with a cheesecake and sang again!! They are so nice!

Sunday lunch was a special birthday lunch at my house. My mom, 2 sisters, one of my brothers, and my grandma's cousin were there. My mom cooked salmon, corn, tomato and avocado salad, and potatoes. After lunch they brought out a cake with trick candles! The best part about it was that since it was my birthday everyone was talking to me and I could be a bigger part of the conversation.

In the evening I went to Parque Arauco to go bowling with friends from Tufts. A lot of people couldn't make it because it was a Sunday evening but it was still a lot of fun. Maca and Rodrigo came at the end and we went out to eat waffles for dessert.

It was a fun birthday!