"Fakesgiving" and homesickness

The food

family

This past Sunday, my Santiago family (my American friends) and I had what we called "Fakesgiving." We came up with this idea because right now in Chile it is fall, and it felt right to celebrate Thanksgiving while the season was right. Each of us brought a dish- I brought corn and rolls. We didn't have turkey because it would be too difficult to prepare, but we did have some rotisserie chicken along with mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, corn, pumpkin bread, wine, etc. Delicious! We even mixed a little Chilean culture in there by having terremotos. Terremotos, literally "earthquake" is a drink made up of white wine, pineapple ice cream and fernet. Good day!

Otherwise, there's not too much else new going on. The weather is getting colder (but obviously nothing I can't handle). The days are getting shorter (the sun goes down around 6/6:15- bummer!). We are a little bit more than halfway done with the school semester. Time is just flying by. I've been a little homesick lately, but I'm sure it'll get better. Apparently around the 3 month mark homesickness hits. The newness of living abroad is subsiding and being settled into a routine could be a reason. Missing graduation and all the senior things that come along with it didn't help. I wish I could have been there. I'm missing my friends, missing my family, missing the OB. Oh well. It should pass. Gotta live every day like it's my last!

Travels

In the last month or so, I've been a traveling girl. A few weeks ago over Easter weekend, some friends and I went to Pucón, Chile. Pucón is about a 10 hour bus ride south of Santiago, located in the Lakes District. It's a tourist destination but still has the presence of the locals. It's located right between Lake Villarica and Volcano Villarica. We took an overnight bus on a Wednesday and got there on Thursday morning. The weather wasn't very good- it was rainy all weekend. On Thursday, we walked around the town (it's not very big) and relaxed. On Thursday night, there was a big thunderstorm and the power went out, so we ended up cooking and eating dinner by candlelight. 

Lake Villarica with our tour guide in the middle. (Photo credit: Phillip Wong)

the whole gang at Lake Villarica (Photo credit: Phillip Wong)

On Friday, more of the gang arrived and we went on a little tour of the nature in the area. It was so gorgeous! 

the gang exploring nature

On Saturday morning, we got up very early and attempted to climb Volcano Villarica, but did not have much success. We were in a van that was going to take us up to the lift to climb the rest of the way up, but the van couldn't make it very far up the volcano because there was too much snow. Climbing was a no-go, unfortunately. That just means I will have to go back some other time and climb it! We spent the rest of the day exploring the city some more. I left on Saturday night and got home the next day. 

the girls all ready to climb the volcano (Photo credit: Kortnee Byrd)

Last weekend, I not only traveled, but traveled outside of Chile too. We went to Mendoza, Argentina. Mendoza is about a 6 hour bus ride east of Santiago, just on the other side of the Andes mountains. Mendoza is known for the many wineries in the surrounding area, so of course we had to check a couple out. 

at the organic winery (Photo credit: Kortnee Byrd)

Photo credit: Jami Herring

Emma, Mel and I tasting some wine (Photo credit: Jami Herring)

Photo credit: Jami Herring

On Saturday, we went to two wineries- one was an organic winery and the other was an industrial winery. We tasted the wine at both places. it was also interesting to learn how each place makes the wine and to tour the places. 

After the wineries, we went to an oil press and learned how they make their olive oil. I bought some olive oil there- delicious! 

olive trees (Photo credit: Jami Herring)

Finally we went to a place that had some good chocolate and chocolate liqueur, and of course we got to try a few things. 
After our tours, we had to have some meat- something you can't leave Argentina without having! We went to a parrilla (literally-grill), and everyone ordered a steak. I had some great company along with the delicious meal. 

At the chocolate/liqueur place (Photo credit: Jami Herring)

Sunday was a day of exploring the city and lots of walking. Mendoza is a beautiful city- it was great getting to know another part of South America. We'll see what the next travel adventure brings!

Around Mendoza- with my birthday! July 9th (Photo credit: Jami Herring)