This past weekend we went to my grandma's house in Coihueco, a town about 30 minutes from Chillán. When l got there at 10:30 AM on Saturday, only my grandma (who insists on being called "Lela" instead of "abuela" because "abuela" makes her feel old) and the nana Rita were awake. But within the hour, my 3 cousins who live with Lela got up and came to the kitchen to eat breakfast. Lela's house is quite big and therefore very cold. And since the kitchen is a separate building and always has a fire going, it is a very popular place to be and I spent as much time there as possible haha. I was very excited because I got to help Rita make the empanadas--she had already mixed the filling and made the dough, but l helped her assemble them and they were delicious (well, all empanadas are delicious).
Sunday was an election day in Chile and they have a "dry law" that says the night before an election, all places that sell alcohol (pubs, bars, and discos) must be closed. So on Saturday night instead of going to a disco with my cousin Rogelio, we stayed in and all 5 of us sat around the dinner table for 2 hours telling jokes and eventually they got so bad that we switched over to cards and I taught them the game "BS" (a.k.a. I Doubt It).
On Sunday we got up late and I went with my host mom, her sister and Lela to vote. When we got back, we had an asado (barbecue) and hung out for a while. Then around 4:30 all the smaller cousins and I piled into my host mom's 2-door SUV and drove to my cousin Tati's 11th birthday party.
Sunday was an election day in Chile and they have a "dry law" that says the night before an election, all places that sell alcohol (pubs, bars, and discos) must be closed. So on Saturday night instead of going to a disco with my cousin Rogelio, we stayed in and all 5 of us sat around the dinner table for 2 hours telling jokes and eventually they got so bad that we switched over to cards and I taught them the game "BS" (a.k.a. I Doubt It).
On Sunday we got up late and I went with my host mom, her sister and Lela to vote. When we got back, we had an asado (barbecue) and hung out for a while. Then around 4:30 all the smaller cousins and I piled into my host mom's 2-door SUV and drove to my cousin Tati's 11th birthday party.
At the party, there was a mechanical bull which, I am happy to say, almost every person rode. This includes all the aunts and uncles--a VERY funny sight. This is my host brother on the mechanical bull, Ignacio (nickname Nacho, yes, like the food). At the party, there was an insane amount of food. Chileans love food and love to celebrate with lots of food, but this had more than the average party. There were chips and cookies all strewn on a table and then my aunt served us completos, pizza, beef, chicken, and cake. A marathon day of eating.We left the party early because we were all pretty tired, and when I got home I knocked on my friend Valeria's door (who happens to be my next-door neighbor) and we went out for a walk and then sat in her room and talked for a few hours. By that time it was 10 PM and since it was a school night l went back home and collapsed into a deep, deep sleep.
1 comment:
Jennie, great note about the birthday celebration. We just heard all about it from Javi as we celebrated HER birthday here. She shares a birthday with Bill Gates (1955) and Harvard University (1636). We ate as much as we could tonight at the 'Tango' restaurant in Arlington and had Bife de Chorizo, entrana, and empanadas( but not as good as Lela's -- Javi.) I ruined the surprise birthday flan they brought out for Javi in the restaurant; but we tried to make it a sweet 16th for her anyhow. She can still speak a little Spanish we found out.
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