hmm....lots of improper sentences in this one

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Hello, everyone

Maybe I should specify that I am living in a city called Vallenar. It's in the Atacama desert, which I think is the dryest on earth, but this is the not-so-dry part. The city is about 40,000 people. We're coming up on spring now. Temperatures are 50's ish at night, and get up to 70's ish in the day. Even when it's cool in the morning, however, the sun is strong.

Ok. Fiestas Patrias (FP I shall call them) celebrate the first meeting of the government of Chile. They run for several days, but the main day is September 18th, the actual day of the meeting. Schools get the week off, at least in my city. Las Ramadas are a common sight during FP. Originally, it was a place where people got together to drink and talk and dance. In the last thirty years (I'm told), it has also become quite the feria. There's a large market area where you can find everything from wool socks to pirated CD's.

For children, there were activities during FP such as a sack race (carrera ensacado), broom hockey (chueca), tug of war (tirar la cuerda), and a variation of dodgeball (el quemado). I'm not sure how common this is for FP, but we had it at my school, anyway.

During FP, there are very large lunches. At least in my family, you start out gathered in the general area of the grill, eating chorizo (a very salty type of sausage) as it comes off the grill. Cloaked in bread, it becomes its alter-ego, choripan. Delicious. Then, they start with the beef and chicken, and shishkabab looking things that they call fierritos. When that's done, you go inside and eat more meat, and salad, and coca cola. Then, when you think you can't eat any more, they bring in the desserts. A very common dessert is mote con huesillo. The mote is some sort of grain that's been soaked overnight. The huesillo is a fruit that's peeled and boiled (I think), tastes something like plum, looks shriveled and not too appetizing. I'll have to get a photo. The overall product is the mote and huesillo in huesillo juice. It is goooood

Life is pretty low key right now, with vacation and all. I'm kind of looking foreward to school again. School is pretty fun. Every now and then I have trouble remembering english words. And I spent about an hour racking my brain to find the name "Valley Fair."

Soccer (futbol) is THE sport around here. Lots of times, people get together and play futbol as we would play ultimate frisbee in rice lake. I need not say I am outclassed. I have a good time anyway.

Today, I made chocolate chip cookies. And it was ugly. For one thing, I was guessing every measurement. I knew what the measurements were from the recipe, but I guessed in the making. And we have a gas oven with no temperature setting, so I was guessing with the temperature also. And I mixed the sugar with the flour mixture rather than creaming it with the butter. Judging by the way that the butter flowed out from the cookies and burned underneath as they baked, I think there might have been a little too much. But they taste okay.

The rotary club here is about 17 members, I think...I'm not really sure. I'm not sure if they have the rule about not mentioning your business, but at least they don't have the collection bucket. They are very welcoming, and I enjoy talking with them before and after meetings. And they really like to talk. The meeting itself is hard for me. I really have to concentrate to understand, but I'm new at this, so that's ok.

Thank you, Rotary!!!! This is awesome!!! And thank you, Mom and Dad

Say happy birthday to my dad. I'm not sure how old he is anymore. Make sure you ask him.

chao,

Ian

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Photos

Caty and Lyn
Caty is from Dallas, TX, Lyn from Denmark. Caty knows some people from Booker T. Washington high school, but goes to a different magnet school in Dallas. Some of you might wonder why I threw in that detail.
Unfortunately, Caty could only be here for 3 months, and she went home recently. We miss her.

classmates
La Cata y el Diego

classmates
El Sebastián y el Alonzo

classmates
Quite a few people from Cuarto Medio (senior class). I joined them for the week when most of my class was in Brazil. I would have needed a visa to go with them, but I had a good time that week anyway.

futbol
at the music school, we often play futbol in the little courtyard. The ball we use is pretty much desecrated, I don't know if the picture shows it very well

feria
Ferias are little markets that show up in various places in the city, but a different street each day.

Bruno, Arturo Prat, y yo
Arturo Prat is a major hero of Chile. Back when Chile was at war with Perú, most of Chile's ships were up north fighting perú. Along comes the Peruvian ironclad Huáscar. Prat gives a pep talk to his men. The Huáscar rams Arturo's little ship, the Esmerelda. Prat's men board the enemy ship and fight. Arturo is shot down. Instant martyrdom.

desert
a lot of the land here looks like this

Comments

[james]

las fiestas patrias
wow, it sounds like you had a great 18th! yes, it sounds like everything you did and described, from the food to the activities around the holiday, are common and correct. how i envy you! it sounds like you're from around the twin cities. i went to macalester in st. paul. anyway, the fruit in mote con huesillo is a dried peach. saludos.