The feeling of the US can exist in Chile-a Weekend with the Walkers

So some WONDERFUL alum from Luther hosted me for a "getaway weekend." It most definitely was that and more! After a warm greeting, I had met them at the beginning of Mar, we chatted about life since I had last seen them and then had a delicious dinner with broiled tomatoes, pork, and a nice red wine. How I love Chilean wine! i forget what we talked about the rest of the night but that was that. I was asleep by midnight!

The next morning I woke up before everyone thinking it was 11:45 when it was only 8:45. After GRANOLA, something I haven't eaten since leaving the states, I went for a BEAUTIFUL run. Granted I got a little turned around, it was well worth it! The autumn leaves were in full bloom and this set against the Andes cordillera was GORGEOUS. After what turned out to be a 40 min run and an 1.5 walk Anne made a delicious BRUNCH consisting of a strawberry batido ( like a smoothie), EGGS with ham (another thing that I dont eat often here), bread with homemade jams (plural), and a tomato. John and I discussed my senior paper and I really do not only have a topic but an angle. I'm gonig to talk about how music has become a consumer's product and how the meaning of music has been lost but in cultures such as Mapuche where music is a participatory act, the meaning is still alive. And then for the business aspect, talk about how both parties would be affected if teaching x's culture to tourists. Is there a market for such a thing? So that's really exciting that I have that and yesterday I went to the library and found at least 9 more sources! I never imagined it, but I am basically doing a community case study!

So after that significant achievement, we went for a drive through the mountains to a new mall area with an artificial lake and ran into more foreigners who live in Chile. There were cattails taller than me! We then made tacos after finding out I had a HUGE craving for them and I made nachos and homemade guac! We ate so many nachos with Corona :) that we played a scrabble game to give our stomachs time to digest before the tacos were actually eaten! I even managed to use the word larynx and got triple word score twice so I was the champion :) Playing Scrabble made me realize how much I miss board games because they don't exist here! TV and computers have taken over all Chileans and it makes me very sad and I am going to try to share board games with some friends-board game night brought to Chile! Anyway the tacos were DELICIOUS! Watched bits and pieces of Apocalyptica-not my style-and Taking Change-really good movie about carrying a fallen marine home.

Mother's Day was wonderful too despite the fact I couldn't spend it wiht my mom :( We went to church which was a lovely small English contemporary presbyterian church with many songs that I knew and talked about lasting love. Did you know for 1st time marriages the divorce rate is 41%, 2nd time 58% and 3rd time 61% or something like those!! I have a new worship song I really like talking about wanting to be God's extended hand. And the definition of love is the nature of God.

Went to the Jumbo because apparently they have free things for mother's on Mother's Day haha so we got face massages and chocolates, Anne asked for me to have one too haha. Then we got some delicious smoothies and after finally finding John, went home and had a delicious lunch of fish and wine. Afterwards John gave Anne some mother's day gifts as I looked at old Luther yearbooks and sat by the fire. They are such a cute couple and really do know each other very well. They met at Luther freshmen orientation-awww. Then John showed me his studio, software, some compositions, and we started talking music...Hours passed and Anne insisted I didn't travel in the dark so I ended up going to bible study with them and then playing HORSE with Joshua their son, the first time I had shot hoops in....YEARS! And somehow I wasn't bad like normal! And then Josh showed me all the things you can do with a keyboard and then stayed up way too late, resulting in my relaxed weekend being tired :( Mon morning woke up at 9ish anxious to hear what John had to say about th ebusiness side of things and made salsa verde for them as a thank you/Mother's Day present! I can now make it by myself! I was then enlightened by john's business advice, shared some of my compositions with him, and then had a DELICIOUS lunch of pesto pasta-yet another food I hadn't eaten since the US.

So yes, it was a lovely lovely weekend where I seriously felt I had left Chile. And test city is over! Well off to sing in my first concert. Chau.