Hurones

Last night I went to La Piojera with a bunch of friends from the Tufts program. It was a little bit of a trek. I met up with Katy at Cristóbal Colón metro station and we took the blue line to Tobalaba where we switched to the red line and took that all the way to Los Héroes, where we switched to the yellow line. I walked up the steps and Katy wasn't far behind on the escalator, so I turned around to make sure she was able to get on the train, but didn't see her. I was looking all around, and finally looked right in front of me. I saw her staring back at me on the other side of the closing doors of the train. That's what I get for trying to make sure we stayed together. I pushed and shoved my way onto the next train and we met up again at Cali y Canto, where La Piojera is located.

La Piojera is the oldest bar in Santiago and is famous for its Terremotos. (Sorry, there was no English entry for the drink.)
For the Spanish impaired:
"Terremoto" means earthquake. Chile happens to be known for its earthquakes. This drink is a mix of cheap wine, cheap liquor and pineapple ice cream. There is a bitter version and a sweet version. The liquor you add to the wine and ice cream is the difference between the two. The bitter one is overwhelmingly more popular, more traditional, so the bartenders make about 20 at a time and the line is out the door. You have to order the sweet one, but they are way to busy to take orders at the bar, so that will have to wait until next time, and there will be a next time.

La Piojera es un hoyo en el muro pero cuando se entra, tienes que caminar por un pasillo para llegar al bar. Al cada lado del pasillo hay salas donde hay mucha gente. Hay mesas con taburetes donde se sienten personas, pero la mayoría de los patrones están a pie porque el bar en lleno de gente. Sólo hay una gran puerta y un pasillo que se puede ver de afuera, pero lo que quiero decir es que cuando se entra, el ambiente no es parecido a lo que se imagina. Cada Terremoto vale 1.600 pesos o casí $3.00 (US). Las personas más grandes sólo requiere tres de estas bebidas para estar bien borrachas y por eso, es un bien oferta. A mi me gustan los terremotos, pero creo que no les gustan a todos. Sin embargo, todos que vienen a visitar Santiago de Chile tienen que probar esta bebida. La Piojera y el Terremoto son dos partes fundamentales de la experiencia de la cultura chilena, como la cazuela y la empanada, creo yo.

That was last night. I got home early, around 130, and then went to bed a little later. I woke up to a knock on the door, but it was one of those times where I wasn't sure what had happened until about 10 seconds later. Still in my bed, under the warm covers, I reached my arm out and grabbed the door knob to turn it to see if, in fact, someone had knocked. It was my older host brother, Matias. He was coming to see if I wanted to help him out with the ferrets he had imported. He imports animals from time to time and sells them in Chile as a side business. Yes, my host brother is an importer. We drove out to the countryside, about 45 minutes from Santiago, to his granparents house where the ferrets were. It has been a really disgusting, rainy day, so the transportation of 21 ferrets wasn't the most pleasant, but I got to spend time with my host brother, and that was a lot of fun.

I have been trying really hard to immerse myself in the social scenes here so I have a chance to improve my Spanish, listening and speaking. I was able to have a small conversation about politics with my older brother, and that made me really happy. It was a little frustrating becuase it was early and my Spanish is rarely ever acceptable before 10am.

On a similar note, my Chilean great aunt turned 93 this week. My host mother had a tea party for her. When I arrived home on Wednesday, there were 10 women chatting away in the living room. My host mom summoned me into the living room to chat with them. They spoke very quickly, but were extremely nice. It was a chance to improve listening comprehension, that's how I look at it.

More to come,
Dan