French Fries with a Fork

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French Fries with a Fork. It’s been a week now since I first noticed this peculiar habit. Chileans eat French fries with a fork! To my chagrin, I was forced to follow suit so as not to be rude, but it pained me with every jab of the metal prongs into the delicious potatoes. Clearly they don’t understand the North American way ☺
Chaos. I don’t know how else to describe life in Chile this last week or so. There have been 2 or 3 student marches in Valparaiso and Santiago since I have been here and it appears that a lot more goes on than just marching. Unfortunately, what are meant to be peaceful demonstrations turn violent very quickly. Luckily there have been no fatalities thus far. Tens of thousands of people gather for these marches through the streets of Santiago, Valparaiso and sometimes Viña del Mar as well. One of these marches occurred last Thursday thus our classes were moved from Valparaiso to Viña for safety reasons. On Friday, the day after the march, I arrived in Valparaiso for classes (assuming they had been moved back to Valparaiso, turns out they had not.) only to be greeted by a strong residue of the tear gas the law enforcement had used to break up the marches. Tear gas works…an entire day after it had been sprayed, I could still feel the affects quite strongly. Note to self: steer away from suspicious, air-born gases.
When I’m not sitting in a classroom, I spend most of my time hanging out with friends from church. The activities include watching fútbol games, playing fútbol games, walking through town, movies, watching the sunset on the beach, worship nights, prayer nights, and all sorts of other gatherings. I have taken part in some sort of social activity with the church every day for the last 10 days or so.
My host family has also started to come to church activities with me! This last Saturday, my host sister, Francisca, came to a worship night at the church. She was very moved by the whole experience and wants to come again ☺. My host dad came to church with me on Sunday morning and he also really enjoyed it. He asked me a few nights ago if it “would be alright if he came again?” Let’s just say I had a little trouble containing my excitement. ☺ If you all could keep my Chilean family in your prayers that would be much appreciated.
Well, I can’t think of too much else going on over here. I absolutely love it here but I do wish you all could be here to share this experience with me. Miss you all! “Well, that’s all from Viña del Mar, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” (Garrison Keillor reference, don’t worry about it.)

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