Tuesday, January 28

Today I woke up late in Santiago, but still earlier than all the other kids (I don’t understand how they sleep in until like 1 everyday). Nancy, Tia Irma, Tia Gladys from Argentina and I all walked down to a nearby feria to buy vegetables and fruit for lunch. We came back absolutely burdened down by bags. As we were walking back to the house, a thief that had stolen a woman’s purse and was running away ran into Tia Irma and almost knocked her over. I thought that was a pretty cool/scary situation but nobody else seemed at all phased by it so I just kind of let it go. I then helped them cook lunch, and Seyla and I peeled beans for a while. After we had peeled all the beans, they realized that they hadn’t bought enough, so they sent Seyla, Nancy, and I back to the feria to get more. We cooked lunch (I found this great recipe of cauliflower, peanuts, and homemade mayo mixed together to form a really yummy salad) and ate all together. After lunch, a lot of people went upstairs to take a nap (I didn’t understand how they could possibly be tired after sleeping so late and not doing anything all morning) and I went to play computer games with Benja (Nacho’s 9 year old brother), Monse, and Gabriel. We played “The World’s Hardest Game” for like 3 hours because we couldn’t pass the stupid level. Then Matias came back from babysitting his little cousin and I was so absolutely bored that  I couldn’t handle it anymore and offered to take all the kids to get ice cream down the street. Gabriel, Matias, Benja, Monse, and I walked over to get an ice cream and then hung out in the nearby park eating the ice cream, playing on the play structure, and talking.

We had relay races, I taught Monse how to sit spider on the swing set, and we had a good time. Nacho joined us after a while, and before we knew it 2 hours had passed and Nancy and Gladys came looking for us because although they knew where we had gone, it was a dangerous neighborhood and we had been gone a long time. We went back to the house, had a quick dinner, and then Nancy, Monse, Gladys, Tio Rolando, Gabriel, Seyla, and I drove back to Rancagua through heavy traffic and while watching the dramatic Mexican soap opera. When we got home it was around 10:30 and I was expecting us to sit around talking for a little while and then go to sleep. What I was not expecting was for Eric to be waiting for us with meat on the grill outside. We prepared a bunch of salads and bread and everything and had a giant asado outside. We stayed out there talking until like 3:30 in the morning. I know I said that Chileans stay up late but I actually think that Argentineans are worse.