Monday, February 23, 2004

Menus that Lie

For some reason, all the restaraunts that we go to hardly have anything in house that is on the menu. This has happened like five times and it is starting to get pretty old. This past weekend, in particular, I was highly disappointed when the restaraunt on the pier at the beach didn´t have a single empanada that they were advertising on their sign outside. I really wanted one with cheese and shrimp or shellfish, but no. I think that this tactic is used just to trick people and geth them to come into the restaurant. Obviously it works.

The Festival

Out of control. There were sooo many people at this festival, it was amazing. And once again, we were the obvious gringos, just like at the soccer game. Although, it was even more obvious this time around because on Saturday night, my friends bought party hats and masks for my birthday (even though it wasn´t my birthday anymore) and we wore them everywhere we went. It was really funny- everyone was singing the Happy Birthday song in broken English. At midnight, the party turned into one for Fabian, a student at Bridge Linguatec from Switzerland, because it was his birthday. We sang him happy birthday and the crowd joined in with us. It was a Kodak moment. Some guy even bought him a beer.

We had hoped that the party hats would bring us good luck when we went out to a club that night, but the bouncers didn´t care at all. By that time, the string on my hat had broken, so I ditched it once I got inside. But this club was amazing. It was right on the beach with two huge patios overlooking the crashing waves on the rocks beneath. We definitely stayed until the club closed, right before sunrise.

Bus Rides

We always seem to have awesome busrides. We are a very obvious group when we travel in a herd and people always talk with us and help us since we are usually lost. On the way home on Saturday, we met this group of high school kids. I ended up talking to them until about 9 am about being a Chilean teenager. It was very interesting.

The Best Moment.

My friend Mike from Canada jumped out of the window of the restaurant on the pier. It wasn´t planned, he just stood up and said he was going to jump. We didn´t really believe him until he stood up and took off his shirt and shoes and jumped. The crowd in the restaurant thought it was great- some people starting chanting "Otra! Otra!" (another! another!). The manager didn´t agree...he was a little upset.

Final Thought

Being at the beach was a great experience. It was a lot of fun, but I will have to return since I didn´t really get to know the city of Vina Del Mar or Valparaiso, which have a huge history and heritage. I was too busy with other things...

The very best part of the weekend though was swimming in the ocean. I haven´t done that in forever. The waves were huge and kicked my butt, but it was great. When I was done, it was an enlightening moment when I realized that I was swimming in the same Pacific Ocean as the one in California. I am so far away, yet still so close...

posted by Rebecca @ 2/23/2004 07:52:00 PM