El Día de la Madre

   Feliz Día de la Madre! (And yes, Mother's Day is, indeed, a holiday here... except in my house... where evidently mothers are not appreciated.) 

   So today was Mother's Day here in Chile, and it was a lot less awkward than expected. I asked my host dad/brothers last Wednesday or Thursday about what we were going to do on Sunday... and received blank stares and then "Ummmm... I don't know... We'll have to see..." after informing them it was going to be Mother's Day. So, we had a big lunch with grandma, aunt and many cousins-- it was fun, but we pretty much do that every Sunday, so it wasn't particularly special... whatever floats your boat. 

   Note: At lunch, my grandma asked my what my sign was... I had no idea what she meant until she started listing off zodiac signs. Then we talked about the downsides of being cremated after you die(Having dust blow into your mouth as you spread the ashes was at the top of that list...) Yeah. My host family rocks. 

   Also, I called my real mom's cell phone for the first time, and called my grandma's home phone and pretty much shocked them both with my skyping cleverness- Yesssss

   Let's see... OH! I had a real dose of America last Tuesday after Bible study when I went to the 

PIZZA HUT here in Viña with some friends for 2x1 Tuesday!! Yes, it's a little trashy to go and eat American pizza while you're living in a foreign country, but ooh, there is something beautiful about gorging on multiple stuffed-crust pizzas whose ingredients are imported from the United States. 

  Yesterday the IFSA-Butler group went on a little journey to 3 cities...

   1. Curucavi: a Chocolatería with the CUTEST dueño in the world: a man about 80 years old, don Felix, who is just so in love with chocolate and the production of delicious chocolates in his tiny house-factory that it's insane. We got 8 free samples of some of his more exotic flavors- my favorites were albahaca (sweet basil), orégano, and mascarpone -- very strange but súper rico. Silly don Felix also tried to convince us that his chocolate was fat-free because it's so dark and has a "crack" when you bite it.. so maybe it was even health food?!

   2. Pomaire: Famous (in some circles...) for its pottery... which was suuper cheap and suuper plain... but, of course, when in Rome... had to come home with a bowl

   3. Isla Negra: We visited the second (of 3) houses of Pablo Neruda (Chilean poet/Nobel-Prize-winner/politician/all-around-big-deal) ...

Pretty, but I liked his home, La Sebastiana, in Valparazíso more... however it did have an awesome view and a very strong ocean-themed interior.  Also, we saw THE most beautiful sunset EVER from his beach... SOO incredible (see above post) !

   So yeah- that was my week! Not too shabby at all- gearing up for another week of learning, and then I think I'm gonna go and poke around Santiago for a day or 2 this weekend... you wish you could say the same. 

Hope all are well and enjoying their summers! 

Hasta luego, faithful readers!