Brithday Weekend

Hola todos,

Today is my birthday! I am now 22, which I am thankful that I am in Chile for because otherwise this birthday year isn't very exciting. I mean, what changes when you turn 22? But regardless of this, I had a very nice birthday/birthday weekend.

If I may have mentioned previously, I do not have school on Fridays, so 3 day week ends every weekend! On Thursday, I got together with 2 of the girls in my program, Micaela and Arantxa, and we went to Bellavista to have dinner. Bellavista is a beautiful area. It is one of the "happening" places here. We picked a restaurant, and because I pride myself on being eager to try new things, I looked through the menu and decided I would get, steak with quail eggs and a side of some sauce that I had never heard of. I can't say I know quite what it was, but, the meal was really good! After dinner, we went for a nice walk around the area.
On Friday, I went to a Universidad de Chile sponsored carrete (party)! I wish the U.S. had events like this. It was in the center of the Law School where they had drinks, music, and dancing. There were apparently more than a thousand people there. It was a beautiful day and it was so nice to be at an event where everyone was my age. I met lots of new people, some internationals and... Chilenos! I can now say that I have Chileno friends. Definitely an accomplishment. After this event I met up with my the girls from my program, and a few others, with our "cultural mentor" Freddy, and we saw a play. I honestly cannot entirely say what the play was about. Not in a bad or good way, I just didn't comprehend what was going on. I think I would have felt the same way even if the play were in English. It had something to do with Disney characters and the U.S. I got that much after seeing a Cinderella and her "rat" friends. The best part though, was the deranged Barney. He was dressed in a Barney suit, and he was holding his dinosaur head with his arms. I cannot give the play justice in describing it. Either way, it was an experience and I got a taste of Chilean theater, maybe?
Afterwards, Arantxa, Micaela, and I went out for dinner to a lowered plaza called Plaza Ñuñoa. We sipped on drinks and talked.
Saturday, I went to Arantxa's house where her host mom (a sweet 60 (give or take) year old women) made us lunch. It was her son's birthday and she invited me over to share birthday lunch with them. The son is 32 and has a 2 month new born baby. We ate quite an abundance and all of it was wonderful!
That night, I got together with the usuals, a new friend named Ally, and Ignacio who is Laurel (one of the usuals)'s Chilean friends. We went to a birthday party at his friends house. The guys birthday was actaully a week ago, but we also considered it my birthday celebration. It was so much fun! I met a lot more Chileans who were all eager to meet us. When it turned 12AM, I really did feel like a Chilean.
Last bust not least, today, Sunday, I slept in and then got together with the usuals plus a girl named Anna from Finland. We all went to El Cerro San Cristobal (San Cristobal Hill) which is near Bellavista. There is a funicular there and we had planned to take it up to the top of the hill and overlook the city, but the funicular was closed down, so we trekked up the road to the top. The walk wasn't too steap, though I still wasn't wearing the proper shoes. The view, wow. The view was spectacular. We got to the top at about 5PM so the sun was still in the sky, but not quite so burning. This Cerro overlooked all of Santiago, and I realized that Santiago is quite expansive. It is a huge city! We spent some time up there, and then we went down to Bellavista and we had my birthday dinner. We sat outside at a typical Chilean Cuisine restaurant. I got a fish called Marzula. It is a Chilean fish. Very good. And we ordered a bottle of Chilean wine. It was not only a great dinner, but a very Chilean one too.
Today was a great day and I have a wonderful tranquil birthday. In total, the birthday weekend extravaganzas were all successes! Tomorrow I begin my second week of school.