---> Cumpleaños Eileen

There's getting to be quite a big list of things I haven't done before coming to Chile, and one of those things is going to a birthday party on a weeknight until very late at night . . . 

On Monday was the celebration of my friend Eileen's 18th birthday, and to celebrate was a dinner with family and close friends. It was different from other birthday celebrations I have been to, on Saturday I went to one that was exactly the opposite - a huge party with lots of people in a rented out location. This was a family kind of celebration, with a huge table full of yummy food like barbecued meat, salads and most surprisinly of all these onions that had been bathed in water and marinated in cumin. Food was eaten, speeches were made, then birthday cake and dancing! 

Andrea, Eileen, Cony and I

The last weekend really was a busy one, because not only on Monday did I go out, but on Friday night went to my friend Sofía's house to watch movies and have pizza, but on Saturday was a barbecue for members of the Rotary club, and family.

Friends in Sofía's room

The barbecue was really fun, it was at like a kind of park one rents out, it had like a little unit, a barbecue and some swings and a fire pit. We ate lots of barbecued meat, then after played pool, danced Cueca, the national dance of Chile. Rotary does student exchanges too, and one of the Rotary exchangers was there, as well as a returnee who went to Canada. Us three hung out a bit, and waited for the bread cooked in the barbecue to be cooked. Pan Amasado is really really really yummy with butter, like pretty much all the bread here.

And here's a thing which makes me think 'oh, Chile'. Last Sunday night was a kind of cultural celebration of Chile, and later on was a concert. There's not really a mosh pit, but there were a lot of people there watching the show. I was right at the front, when I looked back and saw that some of the people standing behind me were standing around something. I looked down and there was a drunk man sleeping, right in the middle of the crowd of people watching the concert. Ah, Chile. He'd just fallen asleep right there.

Coming up is the 18th of September, which, this year, is the 199th anniversary of Chile having it's independance. It's a hugely important celebration here, because Chile is an incredibly patriotic country. Even now cars have Chilean flags on them, houses have put up flags, and today my school had a celebration of dances and traditional Chilean food to celebrate. I'll update after the 18th to let you know just how it went.