This past week was one of the biggest celebrations in Chile (besides New Years, which I´m told is amazing.) It was Días de Patrias, or National Days. Unlike Or humble one-day celebration of Canada Day, in Chile, they celebrate for an entire week. The official "birthday" of Chile is on September 18, but we got the entire week off school to join in the celebrations.
The celebrations started off on Friday 14. Our last day of "school" before vacations, although we really only had one class. The rest of the day was spent eating empanadas, watching a talent show that the younger grades put on, and participating in traditional Chilean games. The talent show was definitely my favorite part, because all the younger kids dressed up in traditional Chilean clothes and danced the Cueca, the official dance of Chile. The games included tug-o-war, potato sack races, 3-legged races and, of course, a soccer game, because what South American celebration would be complete without soccer? At night, we went to the school in a small town called Limarí where my mom teaches English part-time. There was a talent show, with much Cueca-ing, and empanadas.
Saturday was not only the first day of vacation, but my younger sister, Fernanda´s 10th birthday. Not a lot to tell here. It was just like a tenth birthday party in Canada. 25 kids running around yelling, eating too much and the High School Musical soundtrack blaring for 5 hours non-stop. That movie is, believe it or not, more popular here than it is in Canada. Also on Saturday, I met my older host brother, Luis, who came for a week from Santiago. Saturday night, I went to the disco once again with some of my friends, and some of Xime´s friends who came from Santiago to visit their families as well.
On Sunday, we went to Luis´girlfriends house for lunch. But in Chile, going to someone´s house for lunch means going at 11:00, eating from around 2:00 until 5:00 and going home around 6:00. I met a lot of really nice people, not to mention a lot of dogs. They lived in a big house just outside the city, and it seemed to be a kind of homeless shelter for dogs. For any kind of celebration, Chileans have an "asado" which is a huge BBQ. First you eat chedipan, which is basically a big smoky on bread with mayo, lots of mayo. After, there are salads. The most popular Chilean salad is lettuce, tomato and onions. Tomatoes here are never eaten with the skin on, though, always peeled, and onions are always soaked in water so they have no spice, which is ok with me because I never used to like onions. The only dressing used on any salad here is lemon juice (from fresh lemons grown in the backyard-delicious) and SALT. A lot of salt. Also, there is just plane lettuce with lemon juice and plane (peeled) tomatoes with lemon juice. And salt. The main course is every kind of meat you can imagine. I though that I was accustomed to eating lots of meat, being from Alberta, but here, they really eat MEAT. They have pork, lamb, chicken and beef. And usually a bit of fish. The only seasoning used here is, of course, salt. And everyone eats some of everything. Even when I had lunch just with my family the next day, we had an asado with enough meat to feed an army.
On Tuesday, the official birthday of Chile, I went with my family to two small towns on the beach near Ovalle. First, we went to Guanaqueros, where we had lunch (fish, not meat!) and walked around. After, we went to Tongoy. There, we walked around the market by the ocean and went to the beach for a bit. The sand on the beaches here are so soft. Even on the smallest, least popular beach, it´s like being at a five -star resort. I also tried a new type of empanada, "queso y camarón," cheese and shrimp, which was way better than it sounds. My favorite type of empanada so far, though, is the truely Chilean empanada chileno. It has ground beef, onions, raisins (I wasn´t sure about those, but they turned out to be really good), an olive (never some olives, the real empanadas chilenos have only one olive) and half a boiled egg (again, real ones have only have, no more.)
I finished off my week with a trip with some friends back to Guanaqueros. We stayed at a friend´s house there, went to the beach, and of course, we had an asado. On Sunday, I went to my first church service with my family. The church here is huge, and really beautiful. Everyone here says the church is nothing compared to the ones in Santiago, but compared to churches I´ve seen, it was amazing. There were statues and carvings and a huge shrine at the front with paintings and murals. The church service included a lot of standing up and sitting down repeatedly and a lot of singing. They have a live band play at every service. Afterwords, we went to La Serena, where we walked around the mall, and had lunch. Even in the food courts, the lunches are impressive, with side courses and bread, like a meal at home.
It was a really busy week, but I´m so glad that I was here for this celebration. I learned so much about Chilean culture, and I´m looking forward to New Years now!
The celebrations started off on Friday 14. Our last day of "school" before vacations, although we really only had one class. The rest of the day was spent eating empanadas, watching a talent show that the younger grades put on, and participating in traditional Chilean games. The talent show was definitely my favorite part, because all the younger kids dressed up in traditional Chilean clothes and danced the Cueca, the official dance of Chile. The games included tug-o-war, potato sack races, 3-legged races and, of course, a soccer game, because what South American celebration would be complete without soccer? At night, we went to the school in a small town called Limarí where my mom teaches English part-time. There was a talent show, with much Cueca-ing, and empanadas.
Saturday was not only the first day of vacation, but my younger sister, Fernanda´s 10th birthday. Not a lot to tell here. It was just like a tenth birthday party in Canada. 25 kids running around yelling, eating too much and the High School Musical soundtrack blaring for 5 hours non-stop. That movie is, believe it or not, more popular here than it is in Canada. Also on Saturday, I met my older host brother, Luis, who came for a week from Santiago. Saturday night, I went to the disco once again with some of my friends, and some of Xime´s friends who came from Santiago to visit their families as well.
On Sunday, we went to Luis´girlfriends house for lunch. But in Chile, going to someone´s house for lunch means going at 11:00, eating from around 2:00 until 5:00 and going home around 6:00. I met a lot of really nice people, not to mention a lot of dogs. They lived in a big house just outside the city, and it seemed to be a kind of homeless shelter for dogs. For any kind of celebration, Chileans have an "asado" which is a huge BBQ. First you eat chedipan, which is basically a big smoky on bread with mayo, lots of mayo. After, there are salads. The most popular Chilean salad is lettuce, tomato and onions. Tomatoes here are never eaten with the skin on, though, always peeled, and onions are always soaked in water so they have no spice, which is ok with me because I never used to like onions. The only dressing used on any salad here is lemon juice (from fresh lemons grown in the backyard-delicious) and SALT. A lot of salt. Also, there is just plane lettuce with lemon juice and plane (peeled) tomatoes with lemon juice. And salt. The main course is every kind of meat you can imagine. I though that I was accustomed to eating lots of meat, being from Alberta, but here, they really eat MEAT. They have pork, lamb, chicken and beef. And usually a bit of fish. The only seasoning used here is, of course, salt. And everyone eats some of everything. Even when I had lunch just with my family the next day, we had an asado with enough meat to feed an army.
On Tuesday, the official birthday of Chile, I went with my family to two small towns on the beach near Ovalle. First, we went to Guanaqueros, where we had lunch (fish, not meat!) and walked around. After, we went to Tongoy. There, we walked around the market by the ocean and went to the beach for a bit. The sand on the beaches here are so soft. Even on the smallest, least popular beach, it´s like being at a five -star resort. I also tried a new type of empanada, "queso y camarón," cheese and shrimp, which was way better than it sounds. My favorite type of empanada so far, though, is the truely Chilean empanada chileno. It has ground beef, onions, raisins (I wasn´t sure about those, but they turned out to be really good), an olive (never some olives, the real empanadas chilenos have only one olive) and half a boiled egg (again, real ones have only have, no more.)
I finished off my week with a trip with some friends back to Guanaqueros. We stayed at a friend´s house there, went to the beach, and of course, we had an asado. On Sunday, I went to my first church service with my family. The church here is huge, and really beautiful. Everyone here says the church is nothing compared to the ones in Santiago, but compared to churches I´ve seen, it was amazing. There were statues and carvings and a huge shrine at the front with paintings and murals. The church service included a lot of standing up and sitting down repeatedly and a lot of singing. They have a live band play at every service. Afterwords, we went to La Serena, where we walked around the mall, and had lunch. Even in the food courts, the lunches are impressive, with side courses and bread, like a meal at home.
It was a really busy week, but I´m so glad that I was here for this celebration. I learned so much about Chilean culture, and I´m looking forward to New Years now!
The church in the photo above isn´t the one I went to. It is actually a much smaller one in Limarí, but is still much bigger than any I´ve ever seen! The first photo is me in a Cueca outfit. It is actually the outfit that the lead dancer wears when a bunch of people are dancing, the rest wear dresses with aprons
