como taiii?

It's hard to believe it, but I've almost been in Chile for 3 weeks! At times it feels like I just got here yesterday, but most of the time it feels like I've been here for ages. Everyday brings a new surprise, situation, people to meet, food to try, words to misinterpret, and just adventure in general.

This weekend started off with a trip to the mall in Las Condes on Friday evening. To properly appreciate this story, you need to understand that one of Santiago's (and Chile's) biggest problem is that there exists a huge disparity of wealth. In Santiago, those who live closest to the foothills of the Andes tend to be the wealthiest. Needless to say, las condes is nestled right into the base of la cordillera. I live in the center of the city, so travelling all the way out to the 'burbs was pretty strange. Entering the mall, you walk into a large courtyard with outdoor restaurants, all covered with plastic to keep the heat in. On both sides of the escalator fountains cascaded down through glittering lights. As we walked further in, we found that the mall was not just outdoors, but also continued inside, where gaping doors lead to an expansive cove of stores. These included familiar names, such as Starbucks, Friday's, and Columbia Sportswear. (It was very strange to see a Friday's nestled next to an extremely upscale, gourmet restaurant.) Needless to say, I was quite taken aback by the luxury displayed at the mall.

We went to an heladería to get icecream, and found that they had about 60 different flavors (who knew that many even existed!). I skipped icecream because I had just stuffed myself with mi abuela's homemade sopaipillas (basically fried dough--it's seriously delicious, especially when eaten warm, right out of the pan). The six of us sat around the table, talking and laughing laudly (yep, we were probably being those gringos). It was quite a fun night--we even managed to figure out the micros (buses) and find ways to get home once realizing that we missed the last metro car by 10 minutes.

Last night I went salsa dancing again at Papagayos. This time, we were in the advanced class, which turned out to be pretty hard. I danced with Allison during the lesson, and we managed to generally figure things out by the end, but got pretty tangled up along the way. Unfortunately the salsoteca was dissapointingly empty, so we mostly sat around and talked after the lesson. After a while I decided to venture off, and took a micro to meet friends at a club (it was a fun mixture of CIEE people, Kalamazoo people, and chilean friends). After getting sufficiently lost for about 10 minutes, my good sense of direction just happened to lead me to the right building (doubly fortunate, because I had forgotten the name of the club). I told the bouncer that I was looking for friends there--I wasn't sure if I was at the right club--and could I just go in to look for them? Only a gringa could get away with something like that. Fortunately they were there (and I got away with not paying the $10 cover charge!). Chileans like to stay out reaaally late, so I didn't end up getting home until, well 6am.

Today Héctor taught me how to make pastel de papas, a tradicional meal. I of course decided to be a huge nerd and take notes, so I now have the recipe. If you're up for trying something new, this was absolutely delicious!

Boil 5ish potatoes (you'll be making mashed potatoes later for 4 people)
Cut up 3ish onions and soak them in warm water with some sugar (to get rid of the acidity)
Hard boil 3 eggs
Cook some ground beef with the onions (strain them from the water)
Add salt, pepper, and rosemary
Once the potatoes are done, turn them into mashed potatoes (you know, throw in some milk, butter)
<--(I stole this picture from google, but it looks pretty much exactly like what we made.)
Once all of that is done, you will layer things in bowls (oven safe). First, put a layer of the meat/onion/spices, next put some hard boiled egg slices and a few olives (the really big ones), then a thick layer of mashed potatoes. Last, and most important of all, sprinkle the top with at least 1 spoonful (probably 1 and a half) of sugar. I know it sounds weird, but the sugar with everything is sooo delicious. Stick the bowls in the oven until the top browns and everything is warm. Sorry that is totally not specific at all, but I have no idea how hot the oven was. What we made served about 4 people. Seriously delicious and perfect for a cold day! Although I imagine most of you reading this are plenty warm enough as is.

Now I'm attempting to choose classes; I have to enroll tomorrow! I have about a thousand options, so I'll let you know later what I end up taking. Well my fingers are officially frozen. Chau y besitos!

One last thing: I've been noticing that I've started to drop my "s"s when I talk...and so starts the adoption of the chilean accent.