Bank Holiday

So the past weekend was a bank holiday here in Chile so I wanted to make the most of it.  Straight after work on Friday I headed to Bellavista (the Bohemian quarter), where most of the pubs and restaurants are, to a karaoke bar with two workmates and their friends.  Being amongst young Chileans speaking at the speed of light was a little shocking to begin with, but slowly I got used to what they were saying, and after some pisco and dancing I ended up signing in Spanish!  It was a good night and some of the Chileans were having an argument over which football team I should support in Chile.  I also got my new Chilean name “Lucho” which is much easier to pronounce. 

Saturday I spent chillaxing, catching up with some TV programs and talking to friends back in the UK and those in Santiago I haven’t seen for a while as we are all busy working. 

Sunday was ski day.  My housemate Javier and my other housemate´s brother took me to El Colorado ski resort high up in the Andes at 3,300 metres above sea level!  I think I suffered from a little bit of altitude sickness whilst I got acclimatized- but it was the highest place I have ever been in my whole life, and the views were fantastic.  The journey up was hair-raising at times as we wound our way around the 46 U-bends up the steep mountain side.  As we got to the top of one mountain, we turned the corner to see another taller mountain, and passed through the clouds to get to the resort.  We hit the slopes straight away and I was surprised at how quickly I got back into my parallel turns- needless to say I won a race between the three of us :D  After 6 hours of fantastic skiing, we headed back home down the mountain in the dark to the City of Smog (Santiago).  It was such a clear day from the mountains with brilliant sunshine that you could see the bath of smog covering the capital city.  The view was pretty disgusting and it made me realize how unhealthy the air is that we breathe everyday.  One Chilean informed me that it does the same amount of damage as smoking 3 cigarettes a day.  I wonder how long it will be before I get ill?

Monday I got up early to head to Estación Alameda with some friends so that we could catch a bus to Valparaíso for the day.  However, when we tried to book the tickets we discovered that being bank holiday we could get there but all the buses back were completely full!  So I decided to head home to catch up on sleep, do some shopping and talk to mum.  My housemate Mauricio then decided he wanted to cook me a Casuela- Chilean casserole.  And it was AMAZING!  The best meal I have tasted since being here, and I have eaten out quite a bit!  Just goes to show you can’t beat simple, home cooking.  In return I cooked a peach crumble which after a few nervous moments turned out really well.  It got wolfed down pretty quick too which is always a good sign.

So here I am with a spare moment at work keeping you all up to date with the comings and goings of Chilean life.  I will put some more pictures on the blog sometime soon for you all to see what has been going on!