Weekends rock!

I loved everything about this weekend (minus a few panicky minutes at the bus station in Viña... read on). From the simple pleasure of the movie and meal prepared by Edgar Friday night which I wrote about until the bitter end on Sunday. We should have a lot more weekends and a lot less weekdays, as far as I'm concerned.

Saturday afternoon we had a very traditional Chilean cookout at home. It was orchestrated by the housekeeper, Fresia, in honor of my last full week in the house. (Have I mentioned the housekeeper before? Yeah, something I could tooootally get used to. But, alas... ) It was great!! We had chorizo with homemade picante salsa (my favorite thing that I've eaten here so far), chicken, beef, Chilean potato salad, and all other sorts of goodies... and, of course, vino. One of their granddaughters joined us and later on one of their sons and his family consisting of 6 children (VERY unusual in Chile) stopped by. We sat outside under the grapevines, shared good food, fun conversation and lots of laughs. It was such a simple pleasure but, truly, one of my favorite times of the weekend.

And then Saturday night came! And I went to see...... ready?...... Journey in concert! In Santiago! How cool is that?! One of my favorite bands from the 80's and I finally see them in concert and it's in Chile. And I must say, they rocked! Peter Frampton opened for them and made some humorous attempts at Spanish for the crowd. Then Journey came on and the place went crazy. Tens of thousands of people who don't speak English and yet know every single word to every single Journey song ever written (even though most of them don't know what any of the words mean, literally). The concert was at an outdoor stadium that is set right smack in the middle of the Andes. So not only was I in Chile, hanging out on a lovely summer night with super-funny people listening to a great band but I was doing it all while also having a view of the Andes Mountains peeking over the top of the stadium! Note: for those Journey fans out there, and you know who you are, they have a new lead singer and I swear you wouldn't even miss Steve Perry!

Sunday I decided I was going to go to the beach. I've been working hard, darnit, and deserved a day of rest! So I hopped the bus in the morning and by 2 or so was in the town of Viña del Mar. I checked out the town briefly then headed to the beach. I chose the more "rustic" of the two beaches the town offers, the one that's not built up and in which everything around it is very traditionally Chilean: empanada stands, churros vendors, stray dogs running all over the place, cars parked ON the beach, artesan stands set up along the sidewalk... it was great! I have to say that since I've spent all of my time in the city so far, I have been feeling like I've seen much of the "real Chile", so to speak. Problem solved on Sunday. It was really good for me to get out of the city and see the smaller towns, how the "real" people live, the little roadside stands selling homemade empanadas along the way.... I love that stuff!

Anyhow, it was a GREAT day, totally serving its purpose of relaxation and rounding out what was a completely perfect weekend... until I went to leave. I had a return ticket for 8:45 pm and left the beach in pleeeeeenty of time to get back to the bus station but, as it was a Sunday night and half the world was apparently in Viña over the weekend and was now trying to leave, traffic was at a total crawl. Needless to say, I missed my bus. No worries, right? I'll just have to cough up another 2,500 pesos ($5USD, +/-) and get another ticket on another bus line, right? Wrong. I went to EVERY window there and there was not one ticket to Santiago to be had. Had I not had a huge paper due Monday morning at 9 am, a paper that will make up about 20% of my course grade, I would have chilled and just spent the night in a hostel. But the paper added some pressure and I was standing in the last possible line asking for a ticket which I knew didn't exist and was THIS close to freaking out when I just so happened to overhear the people behind me talking about a "promocion" bus that was taking people back to Santiago for 4,000 pesos. Think buying knock-off Gucci purses in Chinatown in NYC. Very back alley, very hush-hush and very shady. So me and another guy from the line headed off and got in on the deal! At one point as we were following the dude to the super-secret bus in the super-dark alley I asked the guy from the line if this was safe. His answer was nothing more than a shoulder shrug and a little grunt. My gut told me I may want to consider bolting, but then I pictured flunking out of my course and the decision was made. At least if I got kidnapped and was taken hostage, my teacher would have been far more likely to give me an extension on the paper! "I missed my bus" is such a lame excuse in comparison. Anyhow, it turns out that the "promocion" was on a micro-bus that was designated only to be driven within the city limits of Viña (Santiago is an hour and a half away). And it was old and rickety and small. And there were 3 people crammed in rows only made for two and people standing and people sitting in the aisles. Good times. As close as I could gather from my seatmate, the guys operating the bus, um, borrowed it from the bus company and were illegally driving it to Santiago. One was driving and the other was watching out for cops. And then they dumped us all off at one Metro stop and sped off.

On the one hand, it was a pretty dumb thing to do. On the other, it made for a really interesting South American experience! On the way home, I was looking out the window listening to music and just started laughing to myself. Seriously, I dig traveling!

P.S. The random hot dog picture is of my lunch in Viña del Mar. I know it's hard to tell from the tiny picture, but it was truly disgusting. I have been trying to have something new and different every day, even if I order it without knowing what it is. This day it was an "Italiano completo", which pretty much equals an undercooked hot dog, diced tomatoes, avocado puree and a big heaping serving of mayonnaise slathered all over the top (which I thought was cheese when I ordered it!). I repeat: disgusting. Even writing about it makes me queasy. And, really, I'm trying to be a good sport but, seriously, how many avocados can one person eat a day?!?