Thursday Night Fever

Pig head
Caitlin and I having soup, bread, pebre, and a delicious meal for under 2 luca. Only at La Vega.

Best produce in the world

Reading in the park
Typical night out

Well its official. My life here is a joke. My work-week is only 13 hours and somehow I mustered up the nerve to call in sick for my Friday morning class. Turns out I had a fever and the only cure was more dancing. My boss seemed less than pleased...so I made sure to take an extra shot or 4 to make sure I was super hungover and sounded sick just incase he called me the next day. Between the allergies and the hangover, I really sold it. Thursday night Jackie, Carly, Fro and I went out with some of our friends from Bicentenario weekend. It was the perfect way to kick off the long weekend (as luck would have it, Chris Columbus discovered South America too…who knew?!) In true Bicentenario form, I drank too much, ate too much, and fended off insults for a good portion of the night. You’ll be happy to hear that instead of calling me Steph Nash, I was just referred to as ‘Amish’ the entire night. As in: “Hey Amish, sorry I said you were boring and had a big ass. I take back the boring part.” Thanks. I think? One of the best things about this country is that it has got hangovers down. First of all, Santiago sleeps in until about 1 pm on weekends. So I hear…I’ve never been out of bed before 1 to actually confirm this. Second, there are empanadas on almost every corner. Empanadas are the best thing to happen to the hangover since the Big Mac with supersized fries. They are a vegetarians dream. Fried dough stuffed with cheese? Yes please. What’s that? They only cost a dollar? I’ll take 5. I don’t think its any surprise that I spent my Friday morning sleeping in, being too hungover to go to my hair appointment, and eating empanadas instead of going to work.

In other news, it’s finally spring in Santiago and the weather couldn’t be more perfect. And the best part? For the next 4 months it will just keep getting warmer. Just like in Chicago (oh wait…) My Spanish continues to steadily improve thanks to my three conversation buddies. I meet once a week with Vairon (from Hondoras), Maria (from Columbia) and Nico (from Chile), who are all working on improving their English. We spend an hour speaking in English and an hour in Spanish, usually over beers, food, or while walking through one of Santiago’s many gorgeous parks. Pretty sweet gig. The rest of my time is spent hanging out with friends, dancing, eating or some combination of the three. No complaints.