This weekend I got to experience some more authentic chilean life. On Friday night we went a coffee shope in Valpariaso to see a little theatrical performance by some students from UAI. My favorite part about it was that the coffee shop was non-smoking, something pretty much non-existant in Chile. The play was pretty good too. It was somewhat difficult understand because it was in Spanish and they were speaking very quickly and had very little of the sign language most people use when talking to us to help us understand. But I was proud of myself for managing to catch at least the main ideas. It basically was a narration by 6 different people about challenges in their lives varying from being raped to having to preform an abortion to being suicidal. They were all supposed to be interconnected somehow (though I didn't quite catch how that all worked) but it was still interesting. And even without knowing everything that was said I could tell the acting was quite good. I really enjoyed it.

After the play some people in our group were hungary so we decided to go find some place to eat. Josh knew of a really cool authentic Chilean restaurant, called J. Cruz, that he had eaten at a few days earlier so we decided to go there. When he led us down a skinny dirty alley to get to the restuarant I was a little hesitant, but it turned out to be a great experience! When we got to the end of the alley where the place was located we were told they didn't have a table available for a group this size and we would have to wait for a while. Unlike in the U.S. they didn't try and give us a nice little time estimation, this was not that kind of place, they simply said it wouldn't be too long. So while we waited we started chatting with two older men standing outside. They turned out to be the musicians who worked at the restaurant and provided the entertainment. (I didn't realize until we were seated in the restaurant that they worked there and were the musicians so while we talked I just thought they were friendly Chileans.) While we waited they provided us some entertainment too. They even sang us a few songs! You could tell they really like flirting with young American girls, and had some fun teasing Josh for being the only male with 7 females, which is about normal in our group since there are 6 males and 22 females on the trip. Above is a photo of us with the musicians. (i'm not sure why its so blurry)

After about 30 minutes of waiting we were finally brought into the restaurant. It was one of the most crowded places I have ever seen. They had crammed as many tables as they could into the place and there was not even a place to stand in the entryway. The tables were all a little different and had a wide array of different seating at them. Nothing matched at all, but that was part of the atmosphere too. The walls were covered with pictures and notes from previous customers and all the tables had been signed as well. Behind the notes and pictures were glass cases hold all kinds of different nic nacs. On the wall behind me was a little ceramic hand and a toy truck. I have a picture in my one of my photo albums but it just does not do it justice. Hanging from the cielings are all kinds of random things, a dented torpedo, a very large boat propeller, and a ceramic dog are all in my field of view. It was definatley a sight to see!

When we were seated we were not given any kind of menu what so ever. It seems you just have to know what they offer and what you want before you come. Fortunately we had Josh, who knew what their specialty was, though he didn't know (and we still don't know) if they served anything else, so we ordered that. Their specialty is a famous Chilean dish called chorrillanas. It basically consists of a plate of french fries, with fried onion, scrambled eggs and beef on top. It sounds rather disgusting, but it was one of the more delicious things I have ever tried. Another name for it is Beef a la pobre (or poor mans beef) so I don't think its necesarilly what you would call a chilean delicacy, but definately a popular chilean food on par with the completo I described in an earlier bog. I have pictures of both of them for you to get the full effect in one of my photo albums.

Our server at the J. Cruz (who I am pretty sure is also the manager or owner) was very excited to get a table full of American girls. He was very friendly with us and we chatted quite a bit. He even gave us some free chilean beer! While we were eating we also got passed a note from the table next to us, written in very poor english asking us where we were from. It felt very much like being in the fourth grade again, but just added to the overall unique experience of the night.

Today I attended mass at a large church near my house. Considering Chile is about 90% Catholic I have not seen very many churches. This one has I think 4 or 5 masses every Sunday and at least one every other day during the week. When I arrived I was a few minutes late, and there was not a seat open in the whole church and already probably 15 people standing around in the back. The church was very beautiful, old fashioned and ornate. It reminded me of a smaller version of the Basillica in Minneapolis. The Mass was very short, only about 45 minutes, and there was very little singing (Dad you would have loved it). But it was very good. I was able to understand most of the homily which was good, and even though I didn't know most of the responses to things, I could follow the order of the mass just from knowing how it always goes. The most interesting part about the mass was that throughout the whole thing there were two priests in the confessionals on the side taking people's confessions as needed throughout the entire mass. It seems people here like to kill two birds with one stone and do mass and confession at the same time. This is definately not how it works at my home church, but I am not sure if its just a Chilean thing, or an old fashioned Catholic thing that still occurs in the U.S. or other places today. If anyone knows I would love an explanation. Another interesting part was how people just came and went throughout the service. After I arrived people continuosly were coming into the church right up until communion. And others kept leaving too. People seem to just get what they need out of Mass and then leave. It seemed really strange to me. I hope to go more often and learn a few more of the Chilean Catholic traditions. My host mother also made an interesting comment about how the church I had chosen (because it was the only one I knew of, and where several of my friends had gone before) was mostly the upper class people of Chile. So I would really like to find another one, more outside of Vina or in Valpo where it is less wealthy, to see if there is any difference.

Well that's about all for my authentic Chilean weekend. Chao for now!

Katelyn