Feliz Cumplianos Usted!

Today was the 91st birthday of my host Grandma, the entire family got together for a big lunch-into-dinner at a local resort. The grounds there had multiple soccer fields and plenty of tennis courts as well; the pool was closed for the 'winter' despite it being nearly 70 degrees today (well I guess that's too cold for swimming but it's certainly not winter).

The day started off early with preparations at home, my host family didn't know then that I have a lot of kitchen experience from back in the states so they assumed my requests to help were merely politeness. Later on in the day that changed though and they were glad for the help. I don't know if this is how all families work but in mine we usually spend the day cooking and preparing for a family reunion and then pull everything together already completed at the party. It was fairly different here: The clams, muscles and other shellfish (super cheap here, by the way) were all cleaned in advanced and the ingredients collected but all of the cooking was done at the venue.

Starting with the onions and continuing to other vegetables, meats and the salad everything was prepared at the resort. I spend most of the early afternoon cutting onions and steak with my pocket knife because it was the only free knife available. I then lent it out to cut through chicken legs because it was also the only one with an adequately bad-ass serrated edge. Everything was then thrown into giant pots that were similar to woks but much shallower and wider, then it was all simmered until perfect. Es no mas complicado.

The ingredients (in no particular order) as I remember them:

Lots of muscles, lots of clams, lots of pork, lots of chicken, lots of steak, lots of onions, lots of vegetable oil, lots of wine.

Delicious.

People brought drinks and ingredients for the salad (which was a simple iceberg and avocado mixture with a white wine dressing). Drinks were Chilano wine, Pisco sour (Pisco - similar to a rum or brandy - egg white and lime, totally delicious), Heineken, some other traditional Chilano drink (a sweet wine blended with one egg and a little sugar, super strange tasting but not bad) and soda. I don't think that the Chilean people know what water is.

Drinking started around 1215 and its strange how alcohol is simply a part of life here. It wasn't an opportunity to binge or get drunk (though a few people were noticeably giddy) but it's a custom that's just normal. "Estas aqui? Tomas una cerveza!"  I like that people felt no pressure here to drink or not to drink, it was really just chill and social, totally enjoyable. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy partying and and socializing like we do in the states, it's just that there was something I cant quite put my finger on that was different here, and I liked it as well.

Son mis padres Latinas. This is Maria Elena and Carlos, they have been wonderful in making me feel at home. All throughout the party they were introducing me as "mis hijo gringo" and I am proud to be that. Gringo is often used as an insult but in the context of a family it's totally affectionate. The family is so willing to work with me through language, especially the ones who understand some English or are closer to my age. All the children of my host parents go way out of their way to make me feel like a part of the family.

I'm finding that through my extroversion and everyone's interest in helping there are so many similarities in myself/American (US) culture and Chilean culture. Well maybe culture isn't the word - though differences aren't that huge aside from the language - but I've already been invited skiing, skateboarding, paintballing, cooking, tennising, golfing, plenty of activities. I've even found a CrossFit gym in Santiago (a passion of mine, check out www.crossfit.com)!

I'm just amazed by the cool stuff that is here and being offered to me.

Ok, I think that's it for me tonight. I'm gonna take off, catch up on what Lyra is doing in her Golden Compass alternate universe and then go to sleep. Oh, a word of advice: if a bus driver is talking too fast for you to understand, it is best not to assume he's trying to make conversation; just get off and talk to someone else instead of riding to the end of the route and having to wait at the station for a returning bus. Also don't assume that he's telling you the days he drives in order to give a full tour of Santiago during his shift... I'm not sure he wasn't inviting a tour, but its not like I would have understood him anyway... I just wanted to go to the mall.

His name was Juan, by the way.

Chao!