Los Andes Maravillosos

Hello faithful readers! I hope you all have your brackets set for a 14-3 upset on Thursday!

Things are still chugging along here in Santiago. I don't have much to report from classes, but this weekend was pretty fun. On saturday my wonderful host sister Coté drove me, Kristen and Kaia to el Cajón del Maipo, a beautiful river valley about an hour outside of Santiago (pictured above). We weren't able to go to the place Coté wanted to show us because there was a police checkpoint and she forgot her driver's license, but it was fun nonetheless. We went hiking in a park and saw two beautiful, if small, waterfalls (pictured below). The guide was pretty chill so we were able to climb right up next to it. Coté is so funny. Every time we passed cyclists in the car she would pretend to smack with her hand and say "cinco puntos." She also made a bracelet while we were waiting (she didn't go on the hike). She makes woven bracelets that make those friendships bracelets we made in middle school look like the work of toddlers. I want to take her home with me.

Later that night there was a huge party for Sarah Flak's 21st. We rented out an entire, albeit small, bar, and invited all the Chileans we knew. They are limited to our host siblings and flaite guys people have met in bars (Coté didn't want to come :(. It was fun overall, though. I am getting sick of reggaeton but when we tried to put on some beyoncé the bar management changed it back. Bummer.

On Sunday Sara Santner's brother took me, Sara and Kristen to a futbol game. I'm certain we were the only white people there. It was insane! I mean, the game wasn't all that interesting (it was soccer, after all), but the fans were really entertaining. They have flat out songs, not cheers, and sang THE ENTIRE GAME. I don't know how any of them have vocal chords left. It was Colo-Colo vs. Universidad Catolica. Sara's brother was for Colo-Colo but they lost 0-1. At one point during the game they pulled this giant Colo-Colo flag up over the section we were sitting in. it was like in elementary school when we played the parachute game. I don't have any pictures because they took my batteries so I wouldn't throw them at the players.

I'm going to wrap this up with a couple stories about odd Chileans:
-A taxi driver asked me to name all the English cuss words I know.
-We had to register our visas with the police department. The officer that handled mine asked me what kind of romantic music he should play to impress an American woman. I told him Marvin Gaye. He then told me to watch out for catcalls and proceeded to name off 4 or 5 I might get..... thanks?