The Bee´s Knees

Like always, it has been a while. There hasn´t been a lot going on though, so there wasn´t much to write about.

This past weekend was a long weekend. It was Columbus Day (yeah, he discovered South America too). Most of the Tufts people went on trips, to Mendoza, Argentina or Valdivia, Chile (to the south). I stayed back and took in Santiago for a few days. Went to a bar on Friday night, cooked enchiladas with Gabrielle and Emily on Saturday night, went to Pierre´s house in Buin on Sunday and came back on Monday. It was a nice weekend.

Sunday was a big day though. I used the Metrotren for the first time. It´s nothing big, it´s just that I had never been on it before, so I was a little nervous about how it all worked and everything. It´s actually a really pleasant ride outside of the city. The tracks run along a highway que junta el campo con la ciudad, but it doesn´t take anything away from the views of the rolling hills and the Andes mountain range to the east. I took the train out to Buin to visit Pierre at his family´s house. He was out there because his dad had been visiting for two weeks so Pierre was staying with him. His dad left for Belgium on Saturday afternoon, so I went out there to keep Pierre company on Sunday. We ended up going to an asado, my first one and hopefully not my last.

Pierre´s friend, Daniel, came to the house to pick us up. His uncle (only 20 years old) drove with his girlfriend in the passenger seat and the three of us squished in the back of a teeny tiny Chilean sedan. We arrived at another gated community, but not as nice as Pierre´s. We sped down the road to the end of the block and arrived at a house that didn´t look any different than the others. We walked in and there was the grandfather of the family, his daughter, and her husband in the kitchen. There were a couple of huge pots on the stove and I could hear the sound of a bunch of guys giving each other a hard time in the back yard. We walked out there and there were about five or six teenage guys, all with Heiniken in hand, chatting up a storm...huevon this, huevon that, ¿cachai, po? It was a cool scene. The obese mut sat there staring up at them waiting for the asado to begin.

Finally the husband walked out with a huge tray of meat. The sausages went on first. The the pork loin, then the pork ribs, then the flank steak, then the chicken, then more sausages. First course, Choripan, I´m guessing it comes from chorizo y pan...aka a sausage on a delicious, fresh-baked roll. Then the pork loin was taken off the flame, cut into large, bite-sized pieces and hands dove in like starving pihranas. The bottle of Kraft barbecue sauce was gone faster than you could imagine.

In addition to the many types of meat, there was a few types of beer, three types of pisco, whisky, rum, and coke and sprite. It was a feast. There were also two salads. One was just lettuce with lemon juice and salt and the other was ensalada chilena, or tomatoes, onions, and cilantro. They were both good. After I thought I was done eating, I was offered homemade chicken soup. I was way to full to take them up on the offer, but now I wish I had.

I had a really good time talking to everyone. I was an American at a Chilean barbecue and everyone wanted to chat me up. The people were really friendly and very welcoming. I had a good long chat with the father of the family about everything. He is really well traveled. He´s from Ecuador, lived in France, Switzerland, the U.S., and now Chile. He was an enormou man with a belly that seemed to hit the Andes, and he was a cool guy. Really laid back and relaxed. I hope I get to see him again, pick his brain about things. We´ll see.

That night, Pierre and I followed a couple of the other guys to a friend´s house to hang out. It was a good time, but again, being the American, people wanted to chat me up like crazy, but when people have had a few drinks and are surrounded by their chilean peers, the language gets mutilated beyond belief, so it was really hard to understand.

I had a great time that day. Hope to go back to Buin soon and can´t wait for the next asado!