Week 4

Monday through Thursday of this week were typical of a school week: I got up, went to class, came home, and did homework. BTW for Ithaca people: Sodexo is global: luckily I’m not required to have a meal plan in Chile! Nothing too outstanding or worth mentioning, so instead I present to you more pictures of my gorgeous campus (Includes the top). (Jealous?!)

Friday I met up with a (Chilean) friend from class, and we went to see “Los Juegos de Hambre” (the Hunger Games) together. The movie theatre we went to is semi-famous in Chile, and was enormous! The building had three floors containing 16 theatres, as well as a small restaurant and lots of stands where you could buy junk food, ranging from the typical popcorn and candy to gelato to crêpes! Anna and I got some gelato (I had a mix of Tres Leches and Manjar: very delicious) and Anna enjoyed blackberry cream.

At 4:30 Saturday morning I had the “exciting” experience of my first seismic tremor. (Ever). While it was only a 4 and lasted a short 3 seconds, the entire household woke up. For those concerned for my well-being, don’t worry, this ‘temblor’ is common to the country, and I was in no danger.

The highlight of my week was Saturday. I had been planning on going to Valparaiso for the day Saturday and to stay over until Sunday, meeting up with friends who had headed down on Friday. Through the IES facebook page, I knew some girls were going to what I thought was Valparaiso at 7:10am, so I planned to go with them. However, as I found out while riding the metro, they were really going to Cúrica for the day to attend the famous grape harvesting festival there. Making a spontaneous decision (which I proud of myself for doing) I went to Cúrica for the day, change of clothes and all!

Cúrica is a small, ‘quaint’ little town that reminded me a lot of Hollis, and Old Homes Day. Since we got there before the festival officially started, my friends and I climbed the small hill at the East end of town, which provided a stunning view of the town and surrounding area:

At the top of the hill was a gathering of some sorts, celebrating the 100^th anniversary of a school in the town. Included was a group of boy and girl scouts: when I told some of them that I too was a scout, they all gathered together to let their “sister scout from the United States” take their picture!

Also at the summit were preparations for a wedding reception. They even had an entire pig they were preparing to roast on a spit over some coals!

The grape harvest festival commenced with the typical speeches of politicians and other famous figures. This year they had invited some people from Belgium to partake in the festivities: I do not fully understand the significance of this, but we got to see some traditional Belgian dances! At the Cúrica festival there is an annual “Wine Queen” of the festival, a young woman who is chosen ‘by the people’, and gets to partake in different functions of the festival. One activity she is key in is the “weighing of the queen”. They have a large balance, and place the queen on one side, measuring her against bottles of wine on the other side. However much the queen weighs she gets to take home!

Another tradition is the grape stomping contest: teams of 4 with a 5^th captain are given the challenge of stomping as much pure juice out of grapes as possible within 7 minutes, the way wine was produced in ancient times. The team with the most juice is the winner. Belgium had an honorary team that was amusing to watch, as they were fairly clueless to the process, but were having a good time anyway!

 

A highlight of the grape harvest festival was the food: there were stands set up that had everything from empanadas to jugo natural to pebre on tortillas to Chinese food to what we refer to as “meat on a stick”. (Known to Chileans as Brochetas and Anticuchos). It was all delicious. The festival also included a section of artisans, including jewelry, leatherwork, chocolates, and more. However, my favorite part was the wine tasting! It was a dollar a ‘taste’, but each ‘taste’ was about half a glass: thus, my friends and I would each get a different type and share. My favorite ended up being the wine produced by the company whose workers won the grape stomping contest.

The afternoon provided some cultural performances, including the Cueca, the traditional dance of Chile, performed by young dancers. We also wandered through some of the street markets next to the Plaza del Armas, where a young girl from Easter Island started asking me questions because she heard me speaking in English. (My favorite of which, (asked in Spanish) was why Americans say “yes” all the time. I had to respond by asking why Chileans say “si” all the time!) She took my picture so I asked to take one with her as well:

To conclude, it was a busy week, and the upcoming one is looking to be a lot of work as well, but I’m having a great time in Chile, meeting the people, becoming acquainted with the culture and overall just taking in all in.