Making pottery and making friends.

Ahh the simple joys in life! I am looking back on this past week with sheer joy as I think about all of the wonderful people I met and the fun things I did. The week started out with just some simple things planned--classes, test, meet up with tandem partner. It turned out to be a great week and I was even more reaffirmed that I love Santiago! First, although I have met some Chileans, I actually made a friend! His name is Pablo and I met him at church at San Joaquin. He works in the Pastoral UC and is a director of student affairs. We went around the city first to a Schoenstatt sanctuary, then to the sanctuary of San Padre Alberto Hurtado, and Cerro San Cristobal at night! San Padre Hurtado is one of Chile's two national patron saints and actually died in 1952 and was canonized in 2005. Not only is his tomb there, but there is also a museum where you can see a lot of the things he used etc, but I learned about his life and he seems to be a pretty amazing man. Ironically, my tandem partner gave me one of his books as a gift the first time we met up, so I am practicing Spanish and reading about an amazing man at the same time. It's called Un fuego que enciende otros fuegos and is definitely a nice change-up to the Spanish Picaresque novels that I have to read for one of my classes. Well the week went off without a hitch, I took my exam on Thursday, which is certainly nothing like the exams at UW-Madison, let me tell you. It was two essays that were each a page long, but for each one we could choose between three. Hopefully I'm not too overconfident on this one but I'd say it went alright. Ellie and I decided to celebrate after a long three-day week regardless and her, Laura, Ramiro (Laura's host brother) and I took a bus to Bar Apoquindo to relax, sit outside, and enjoy a trago, or drink. The next day was Friday so of course that meant getting not much done and hanging out with Mama. On Friday night however Yvonne and I did teach our English class at San Joaquin and although less students showed up than last time, I think the audience was a little more captive due to the fact that we were a little more prepared.

Friday night Laura, Ellie and I went with Laura's host brother's friends to a fire station turned private party and danced the night away. It was a lot of fun but the 7:30 alarm came a lot sooner than we all would have liked! However, that alarm was well worth it and Saturday was the best yet. When I first arrived in Santiago Mama gifted me a nice ceramic cup and saucer set and told me that there is a city nearby that specializes in greda and all of the other students that come here always end up buying some for themselves and taking it home. Since that first day I have wanted to go to Pomaire and Saturday I had just that chance! Our Michigan-Wisconsin program went as one of our three scheduled trips to Pomaire for the day and it was cool being so close to Santiago yet in a completely different world. The whole 8.000-person town revolves around the greda industry and their amazing gastronomical productions. They are known for their medio-kilo empanadas, pastel de choclo and other Chilean cuisine.

We got there just in time to enjoy a wonderful breakfast in a home of the people who would be our "guides" throughout the day and then went to a taller, or workshop, for greda and witnessed the process from start to finish, an incredibly laborious process! It was so amazing to see the guy just slap some clay on a spinning plate-type thing and within less than two minutes, bam! An amazing greda pot. The childlike nature of all of us came out when we were able to make our own! No, we did not get to keep them but I am positive that they will definitely be selling those beauts.
After that we walked to another house in Pomaire to make our own chanchitos! Pomaire is known for their pig-like pottery and chanchitos are little coin banks that are one of those "you have to do that in Pomaire" kind of thing. We went to the house of a sweet old man and he showed us the whole process from start to finish so that we could make our own. Again, it was fun taking a blast from the past into 4th grade art class and making pottery like children. Unfortunately, although not surprisingly, by the time I got home my chanchito had no ears and was missing a leg. But it was the memory that counts.
After that we all walked back to our starting point of the day where they had prepared us a home-style, Chilean lunch. They had "empanaditas" (which I find comical because that translates literally to "little empanadas" and these were anything but little!) as an appetizer (yes, I know what you're thinking) and then chicken and rice, corn, salads, and popsicles for dessert. You could say that I enjoyed Pomaire in all facets.
After that we were allotted some time to walk around, check out the artisan shops, see all of the different types of greda and see most, if not all, of Pomaire. You could spend an hour and a half walking and see plenty of the city, believe me. But after that we left, I zonked out on the bus home, and was in casa by 7:30 pm. That left me just enough time to get back to Madison to meet Kate and Leah at the Nitty to celebrate their big 2-1!
Well I may not have been there but it was actually Yvonne's 20th so we, and by we I am talking about 26 people, went out to celebrate. It was a lot of fun to be with all of these new people from different countries who only two months ago had no idea that one another even existed. We danced the night away and clocked in around 4:30 a.m. for the second night in a row. Oh the joys of being young! On Sunday I was surprised when the extended family started showing up and found out we were having a big barbecue for lunch! It was fun eating some more of Carlos' exquisite grilling delights, chit-chatting with all of my aunts and uncles and having them poke fun at me. At first I just got nervous and accepted everything they said to me with a smile and a nervous giggle but I think I can say that I have successfully graduated to a stage where I can tease back and add in my own commentary in conversations!

It looks like it was a great week in Santiago overall, and I am still loving every minute of it, despite the "cold" weather that is starting to come in.
Until next time, chau!