This weekend was amazing.

On Friday my family and I set out for Olmue, Chile. Olmue is about an hour north of Viña, in "el campo" or the countryside. On Wednesday it was my Chilean dad, Julian's birthday and then Thursday was Anibal's 10th birthday so we went to the countryside to celebrate.

The weekend started off with a small interruption. About 20 minutes down the road Leon (2 years old) vomited in the car because he was carsick. So… we had to pull over and do a little clean up. Ick!

We arrived to Olmue at about 8pm. It was quite a "different" type of lodging than I am used to, but hey isn't that why I am here? There was only one room filled with bunk beds; I think they were made in the early 70's and still had the same mattresses. There was a small kitchen and bathrooms, but two of the three bathrooms didn't work. We unpacked a little bit and then other family members and friends showed up. Nora (my Chilean mom)'s sister, boyfriend and two year-old (Martín) came and were very sweet people. They spent a lot of time talking with me and getting to know me, of course no English was spoken!

We all ate dinner around 10 pm, which is a pretty typical time for dinner here in Chile. We spent the rest of the night drinking delicious Chilean wine and eating cake. I was actually the first person to go to bed at 2pm; the rest of the family, including the kids, all came to bed around 3:30 pm. Here, people stay out really late in the night. It's rare for people to go out before 1pm and to return before 5pm. It's taken some getting used to because I have to get up at 3:30am Colorado time (7:30 am Chile time) every day for school. There were about 14 people in one room that night!

The next morning I woke up around 9am and we headed into downtown Olmue to buy some fruit and vegetables for lunch that day. Downtown Olmue is a lot calmer than Viña and Valpo. It was filled with markets of produce and hand-made merchandise. Olmue is known for their tomatoes. We bought a huge crate of tomatoes for about $6 USD. After, we headed back to play in the pool and around the camp. I played "pretend" ping-pong with Anibal because we didn't have ping pong balls. I also taught Sophia how to play Speed with a deck of cards. It was great to be creative and find different ways of entertaining ourselves. J Nora's sister Andrea also taught me a card game called Veinte y Uno. We ended up playing for a couple of hours. A lot of kids showed up in the afternoon to celebrate Anibal's birthday. We ate a typical Chilean meal for lunch with was a hot dog with tomatoes and avocado on top, definitely a little different than the states.We left around 8pm that night to return to Viña. I thoroughly enjoyed sleeping 14 to a room in bunk beds, not showering for two days, and playing with the kids in "el campo." It was definitely an adventure that I won't forget.

I came back Saturday night and met up with some other students to go out to a club in Reñaca (20 minutes north on the coast from Viña). The club was so amazing! It is located inside an old castle that is right on the beach. For miles you can see the lights of Viña and Valpo illuminate the entire coastline. They actually play quite a bit of American music, mainly pop and techno. It was a fantastic night of dancing; I ended up back home at 5:30am.

Sunday I slept in until noon and then met up with everyone for a beach day at Acapulco Beach in Viña. We soaked up this Chilean sun and swam in the ocean. Apparently I haven't developed great skills when it comes to swimming in the ocean because I ended up with a bloody nose when a got knocked over by a wave AGAIN. Hopefully soon I won't have any more stories of losing my top or getting bloody noses at the beach. We ended the day having a few cocktails near the beach at a restaurant. It was the perfect end to a great weekend in Chile!