CRUDOS.
Oh man. Good times. I'm in an extra good mood today because it was sunny alllllll day long. Que lindo. Yesterday Theo and Lindsey decided that they didn't want to go to the hot springs and wanted to go to Temuco instead. Then Danielle and I decided that we would just stick around here today and hang out. Turns out it was a really nice day.
I woke up this morning pretty late, so I skipped breakfast and just went running. Then we had almuerzo and I bummed around on my computer a bit before deciding that I wanted to take a walk to the centro to do a little shopping since it was so nice out. Pablo just happened to be leaving his house the same time I was, so we walked together (although once we got there he left me to go study. Way to be fome). But while we were walking Danielle called me and said she was going to the centro to do some shopping, too, so we met up in the plaza and then spent the afternoon together. We went to a few stores, the mall, and then to Entre Lagos (a fancy chocolate place) to get a cafecito. Once we got there, though, we decided we just HAD to take them up on their free pisco sour with a purchase of chicken quesadillas deal (and our waiter was super nice to us and gave us TWO piscos, aw). Then we went to our houses to eat some food, and here I am. A lot people are out of town, so as of the moment we don't have anyone to hang out with. As a result, Danielle and I decided that we are going to go out on our own, just the two of us, and try to make some new Chilean friends and maaaybe get some free drinks. Haha. Should be an okay time.
Oh, back to the main reason I was wanting to write this... So far I haven't had much to say about the food besides that it's fresh and yummy. All of my meals have been pretty normal, even by American standards. EXCEPT for yesterday... Okay, I'm going to teach everyone a new word, "crudo." It's very important. In English, crudo means raw. So yesterday at my grandma's apartment, we had crudos for almuerzo. What's that? Well, they take basically what is RAW hamburger meat, spread it on a piece of bread, cover it with a sauce and onions and salt and lemon, and enjoy. It's very common in restaurants and things around here and people LOVE it. So yeah, I got to give it a try yesterday (and no, I didn't get sick). It wasn't too bad, it was just weird. I only had one piece and then switched over to other food. It was really interesting to see everyone else at the table just go at it though. I can't quite see the appeal...
Another thing around here that is taking some getting used to, completely unrelated to crudos, is the type of dancing. Chileans really like to dance... at clubs, at house parties, you name it. Unlike us, they are all about facing each other and doing lots of spins and what not. It's really fun, although I officially SUCK at it. Haha. Everytime I try I pretty much die laughing... at myself. Yesterday we went to a small house party in el bosque and did a little dancing. It was hilarious because I think we listened to the same 7 reggeaton songs over and over and over. And those are all the same ones I've heard in the clubs, too. At first I thought it was amazing that the Chileans ALL know ALL the words to these songs, but now I've decided that I would know all the words too if I heard the songs 5 times a day for my whole college career. Ohh man. I love it though.
Okay, time to get my carretear on. Paz.