A day in the life.

Nothing too terribly exciting (that’s to say anything outside of my normally wonderful Viña life) has happened lately, so I thought I would take you through a day-in-the-life…

On Mondays and Wednesdays I have classes at 2pm, on Tuesday at 8:20am, and on Thursday and Friday I have no class…regardless of my laze-provoking schedule, I usually wake up around 7:30/7:45am to take advantage of my day starting off at the gym or with an easy morning jog.

We post our schedules on the fridge in the kitchen so that our host parents can set out breakfast for us (awww) which usually consists of a yogurt with avena (plain oats) & a piece of (delicious) bread that can be paired with either cheese or marmalade. We spend the mornings doing homework, classes or still just trying to wake up. Chile in general is usually not up and kickin’ until about 10 or 11 when most stores and shops open.

Then anytime between 1pm to 3pm is lunch. Magaly, the house maid, is an amazing cook and always has something delicious prepared! Lunch usually consists of a salad, soup, entree, and (of course) dessert. We’ll sit at the table, make conversation and, if we’re lucky, watch Dama y Obrero, one of Magaly’s favorite soap operas (and now, one of mine as well!) Lunch usually takes an hour or two and then after we go upstairs to relax and digest a bit until the afternoon activities which are usually random and thought of in the spur of the moment which can range from going to the beach to learning how to dance Bachata to just walking around the city.

Then in the late evening there’s la once which consists of some bread with marmalade or meat, cheese and pebre and maybe some tea or coffee. It’s typically the most conversational part of the day where everyone lightly munches and shares about their daily adventures.

Outside of that, the spaces are filled with the randomness of life happenings, every weekend with its own zest.

As for this past weekend here’s what happened:

I don’t remember if this was the weekend or during the week, but at some point I tried something called acompleto which is a gigantic hot dog with tomatoes, avocado and a thick layer of mayonnaise on top. I asked for no mayo and then proceeded to become more and more frightened as they prepared the beast…turns out there are two hot dogs inside the enormous bun. I managed to eat the entire thing but ate little else the entire day. It was filling to say the least.

Another food experience was with my Chilean Naval school buddies, when they introduced me to chorrillana which is this mountain of french fries, covered in eggs, onions and meat. Perfect man food…but I’m not so sure if my tummy could take anymore giant food feats of Chile any longer.

There have also been temblors which are like little earth tremors, baby earthquakes. Apparently there was one at 3am that was relatively strong that I didn’t feel…but there were a few little ones during the day that I did.

Olivia and I also discovered a club full of flaites (ghetto Chileans), which I highly recommend you do not go to. It’s called Area Universitario…or something like that. We were going to go to this salsa dancing club called Cubanismo for a birthday of one of our friends, but we couldn’t end up finding her and it was really expensive to get in, so we settled on the place next door…this club of flaite which one should never set foot into. The music was horrible and the environment was dirty and…just don’t go.

Then Saturday came along and we went to the Jardín Botánico (Botanical Garden) and enjoyed an afternoon walk there. There was a French garden and Mexican cactus garden as well as some trees, a little lake and river. There was also the opportunity to do some zip-line/rope course in the park that looked pretty cool and you could rent bicycles! (Olivia and I got excited about the bikes…) It’s a very relaxing place to sit and take in.

Well, you can escape Chilean’s love for food forever because we made empanadas on Sunday. They take a lot of work, but are definitely worth it. Basilio taught Olivia and I how to make them so that we can share them with our families when we go back home. We made seafood, cheese, and the classic Chilean pino (beef, onions, egg, and a single olive). It was fun, but I’m really bad in the kitchen…so I mostly watched the Mallorca vs. Barcelona game with Messi. I helped a bit though, chopping up some of the meat and folding the empanada dough into their pretty little forms. Then we lunched on each of the 3 types of empanadas and seafood soup with bread. We were so stuffed, but even still, after lunch our host mother asked us if we were could make waffles for la once. We asked her if she was serious, and after she nodded, we unwillingly agreed and took a long post-lunch nap…luckily she forgot about the waffles by the time la once came around.

After the incredibly filling lunch and siesta we took a walk over to Avenida San Martin for the Feria Artesanía where vendors show off their wares and sell them at relatively low prices. You have to be a little more careful though because especially during the start of summer/tourist season they raise prices a little more, so it’s better to buy these things (if you can) away from that season. We browsed around the stands and saw a guy make spray paint art which was incredible. It’s also right next to the beach where people make incredible sand art statues.

It seems like this weekend hasn’t been the most exciting of weekends, but I’ve found since I’ve been here that you don’t need to go on a big trip to some exotic place to have an adventure. I love my Viña life, which of course you’re probably thinking “of course she does because she’s in Chile…” but being here, I’ve learned to love even more my Minnesota life and my Valpo life. It’s just all how you look at the place you’re in and how you choose to enjoy it and take advantage of everyday.

As Neil Armstrong once so wisely stated,

Every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.

Keep that in mind and love the life you’re in, wherever you are. Don’t focus so much on what you could be doing or where in the world you could be enjoying yourself, but rather about where you are right now and the amazing things that are happening in world around you. Find adventures in the place you are with people you love because those are the adventures that will make all the difference with the people that have made all the difference.

So as I said, and will continue to say for my rest of my days, I love my life.

…do you love yours?