Pesaj en Chile

Yo yo,

Again, it has been a while and this will be a short post because I am leaving in a bit to go north to La Serena for semana santa, which is just a long weekend for Easter. Since the last time, I have gone clubbing a little, and to all of my classes. So far that Learning class is tough. We have a group project. I have no group. La profe said she would help me out though.

Meanwhile, I celebrated Passover here! The first night I went to another host family's house, who are non-practicing Jews. They expected me to lead seder, ha! The food was yummy though and we had a great time. Then last night, thanks to the girl who lived her last semester I met a Jewish family who included me in their seder. They live in Renaca (lil squiggly over the n) which is super nice. The rich part of Vina del Mar. There had to have been at least 40 people there, all with Hebrew names. I never saw so much Judaica in one house. The bobe (bubbie) lived really close to me and also invited me for Shabbat. I was overwhelmed, not only cuz I didn't know a soul, but because I didn't know all the songs! We did the ENTIRE seder, even after the glorious festive meal which included matzo ball soup, latkes, and brisket. The daughters who lived in the house were all very sweet. Every one started speaking in English and asked if I knew Spanish. Personally I think that is a stupid question, seeing as I'm here. They also do a Yankee swap, which i was included in as well. I got a pedicure set. It was nice to be in the company of a big happy Jewish family. However, las nanas (nannies) did all the cooking! Yeah, they have 3 nanas. Slightly unnecessary if you ask me, seeing as the two older daughters live in Santiago.

In terms of classes, I am going to re-add one of my exchange student-only classes. I need an easy, lenient class. To be a student here at La Catolica you need 16 credits, and most of my classes are only 2 or 3. Luck of the draw. So I'm enrolled in 6. One is dance and one is CIEE and 2 others are for exchange students. Monday is course registration at Clark!! Time to finally fulfill my math perspective, blech! Its shaping up to be a busy year, shocking.

Last Friday we took a day trip to Rabuco, which is a farm town. It was absolutely gorgeous and we did not know it would be so hot!! We took a tour of the vineyard, which is actually part of Dole. The grapes were almost the size of plums. We also learned a little bit of Cueca, the traditional dance of Chile. The food was also soooo good. We tried new fruits, of which I really liked the pepino. Its like melon, but with more juice. Delish. They also made empanadas, which is one of the more traditional dishes here. All in all it was a good day. Long, but good. I took pictures which are all on my laptop, just not uploaded yet onto FB or Snapfish. Soon to come, I promise!

I taught mama to make charoset for passover. She tried to make it without me the first time. She mixed apples with honey and put them in a jar of merlot. oops. sounds like a treat Sandra Lee would make ;). I showed her how to do it correctly and she really liked it. We found matzo in the market today and passover cookies. Here they sell "matza dulce" (sweet matzo) instead of egg matzo. Its pretty good actually. I'm bringing it to La Serena even though I'm sure I won't be keeping passover in the hostel. If I plan on living off cheap food for a few days i'll be eating lots of sandwiches and pasta. No worries though. I should be packing because I am leaving in a half hour! I'll update when I get back!

Love,
Carolina