Monday, April 28, 2014

Sunday, April 20

Today, after going to sleep around 5:30, I woke up at like 11, went into the family room to wish everyone a Happy Easter and pass out the chocolate eggs I had brought with me from Rancagua (here, the kids hunt for eggs in the morning, but they’re chocolate eggs wrapped in foil, not plastic eggs. They also don’t dye eggs. But they do sell these huge chocolate eggs in the supermarkets that are pretty cool.) Then I showered and came back to eat breakfast.
After breakfast, Ceci gave us a tour of her neighborhood, which is apparently famous for being one of two neighborhoods in the world (the other is in France) that is designed in a hexagonal pattern, making it a labyrinth. It is absolutely impossible to find your way around in there.
We walked out to the map of the neighborhood, and then Ceci let me try to lead us back to where her house was, and I absolutely couldn’t do it. When we got back, they were preparing lunch. We ate lunch and then all piled into the car to go to the mall in Mendoza.
We arrived at the mall around 5, and shopped there for a few hours. I didn’t find anything particularly interesting and everything was really expensive, but I still had fun just hanging out with my family.

Although there are still some things about them that I don’t absolutely love, realizing that I won’t have them forever has made me realize also how grateful I am for them and how much I love spending time with them. After the mall, we all went to Starbucks together and drank coffee.
Then we drove over to the Jumbo, and Maxi and I went off through all the aisles looking at the weird Argentinean brands. We even took pictures.
We drove home after that, and Nancy started cooking cheese empanadas that she had brought from Chile and her famous cheese dip. We all sat down to watch Smurfs 2, which Monse had bought at the Jumbo, and while we were watching, we ate empanadas and dipped cherry tomatoes in cheese dip (sounds weird but it’s so good).
Around 1, I was absolutely dead tired, so I excused myself and went across the street to Tia Vicky’s house. Her son had returned from wherever he was this weekend, but they were nice enough to let me and Ceci continue sleeping in his bed and he would sleep with his mom. I told them once again how thankful I was, put on my pajamas, and went right to sleep. This Easter wasn’t particularly religious for me. I guess it’s not such an important custom to go to church on Easter like it is in the States. I’ve felt the same way about all the special seasons that have passed during exchange—my birthday, Christmas, and now Easter—there are so many new and exciting things happening to me all the time, that these events that are supposed to be so special just fail to make an impression on me. It’s like always being drowned in a sea of new experiences, and when a little more water is added, it really doesn’t make a whole lot of a difference. That was probably a bad explanation but that’s how I feel.

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