So where to begin... we’ve had a lot of fun these past few days here in Santiago. Busy, but very fun. I guess to start I need to talk about the weekend. On Saturday we each had readers for about 5 hours straight, then we left the church around 3 to hang out with one of Jennifer’s readers, Carola. She’s GORGEOUS. She’s seriously so amazing. Listening to her talk is so awesome because she’s a younger woman (early thirties), and she’s confident in being alone. Me, Katie and Jennifer have all talked about how society, and especially young christians, put a lot of pressure on getting married really early. For Katie and I, we are the stubborn independents who don’t want to get married until much later in life. Even though we feel this way, it’s still pretty scary to think about living the rest of your life alone when all your friends are getting married. As for Carola, she has a great job that she loves, great friends, and enjoys living her life mainly by herself and with God. WOW. I mean, the thought of living my life alone and being content is pretty cool, considering how much I love my “me” time. Anyway, she’s really an inspiration to us, and we love spending time with her. She’s beautiful, inside and out, and really fun too. We headed to the Museo de Bellas Artes (Museum of Beautiful Arts) and other fun places on Saturday afternoon. We looked around at some of the museums and heard Carola’s version of Chilean history. Then she took us back to Jeff and Penne’s house (where Katie and Jenn stay) to babysit that evening. We got back around 7, and it was just in time to put the boys to bed. Date night babysitting=success.
Church on Sunday was great too. We went to class to sing before the service so we could learn a few songs, then we had church service after. Of course, it was all in spanish. I could understand the preacher pretty well- he was from Brazil, so that was good to hear the different accent. After church we were invited over to eat lunch with Kelly and his wife Julie and their 4 kids, Duncan, Abby, Victoria, and Connor. Jennifer felt right at home hearing that name - love you jenn :). Anyway they have an awesome house and the little girls share a room, which is so COOL! I wish my room had been that awesome when I was little... I would’ve always been daydreaming. We watched this really funny (and clean) comedian perform on DVD, and waited for lunch to be prepared. It was really good, and the conversation was great. That family is so funny. As you can imagine, four kids never leaves room for a dull moment. The dad is really sarcastic, just like the three of us, so spending time with their family was really fun. They are one of the four missionary families left here in Santiago, and I forgot to mention earlier that all four families have created plans for their family’s remaining time here in Santiago. Each family leaves at a different time, so that one by one, the church has to learn to depend on the Chileans to keep the church alive, so that when all the missionaries return to the US, the church is able to continue serving each other and the community. The Grants (Kelly and Julie) are planning on returning to the US in December, so they’re in the process of trying to sell their home, car, etc. Each of the families wanted to make sure they left before the kids got too attached (like in high school) so that it wouldn’t be extremely difficult for them to start over when they returned to the US. Back to my story... sorry I have A.D.D... but we went to an artisan market that’s pretty touristy over near their house called Los Dominicos. There we walked around and saw a lot of the touristy stuff... keepsakes and souvenirs. After that we went back to Jeff and Penne’s house to get ready to go out with Jeff to eat dinner/see a movie. We ended up just going to dinner since he misread the times for the movie, and therefore it was 2 hours later than we initially thought. We drove around and he showed us the more wealthy community, and of course it looks just like all other wealthy neighborhoods in the world- big and new. Monday is our day off, so we had made plans to go with Penne to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. All I can say about that trip is one word... BEAUTIFUL. It was breathtaking. These oceans were literally the most beautiful I’ve ever seen... considering I’ve only traveled out of the country to Honduras, but there aren’t words to describe the beauty of these rock formations and the color of the water. The town is old and picturesque, and we had a good time just walking around and looking at the beauty of everything there. We took lots of pictures (of course), and we also had an amazing lunch at this old hotel that looks like a boat from the outside. Sea bass here= awesomeeeeeeeeee. Monday night we came home to just chill with our host families. I got to watch a movie (ICE AGE) and eat dinner with mine, and it was good just to see the kids when they are awake. They’re always asleep when I get home every night because they have school right now, so I really appreciated getting to spend some time with those sweet little babies.
Tuesday and Wednesday we worked at the church... normal long days- 10 am until 10 pm. Tuesday was a slow day for Katie and Jenn, and although I had 7 readers scheduled, some of my readers called and rescheduled. Either way it was a great day. Yesterday was amazing though. Not only was it a great day for all of us with our readers, but HARRY POTTER PREMIERED HERE!!!!!! After work yesterday, we went with Carola (one of our favorite readers who has been mentioned several times before) to the movie theaters. She's awesome, and bought us tickets for only $4 somehow??? So we arrive and the line is OUT THE DOOR to wait to get in the theatre, because there were two showings, one at 10:30 pm and the one we were going to at 8:30 pm. Finally at like 8:30 pm they opened the doors, and everyone rushed in. The anticipation was unbearable, but the movie was worth all the wait and anticipation. I loved it!!!!! I can't wait to see it again in Buenos Aires (it doesn't premiere there until the 23rd of July).
Today was a national holiday because it was some kind of catholic holiday, therefore since 90% of the population is Catholic, no one went to work today. Malls, some restaurants, and touristy places were open, so we headed off early this morning with Carola (yet again - like I said, she's our favorite and loves us too) to explore more of Santiago. We went to her work place this morning downtown because she works in this HUGE tower that you can go up to look all around the city. It was really awesome, we got to go in a restricted area, and we felt really cool. Don't hate. Since I'm turning into my mother and sort of afraid of heights, I got a little nervous and missed out on some of the pictures. Then we went to San Cristobal which is this GORGEOUS place that circles all around this mountain where everyone runs, bikes, etc, and at the very top there is this massive statue of the Virgen Mary. We took some awesome pictures, and I had an awesome conversation with Carola too. We drove about half way up, then we had to walk the rest of the way. It was quite the walk, and we were shedding layers quickly. Carola and I had truly an awesome conversation all the way up the mountain, and it was really uplifting to be able to talk to someone you barely know about important things IN A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE. After walking all the way down the mountain we went to a typical Chilean restaurant. It looked a lot like Fudpuckers (as far as the walls were covered with writing from customers), but yet was more like a sit down family-style restaurant. We ordered, and after a little encouraging from Carola (because I said I wanted fish), I ordered a small *what I thought was* entry of salmon with these spicy potatoes for my side dish. Well my "entry" came, and I thought it looked a little strange. It was like creamy pieces of salmon that were mixed with onions that were COLD. Well... I figured I'd better eat it just because I ordered it and didn't want to disappoint Carola or make her feel bad since she suggested it. Then I started wondering about how this was cooked considering it was really cold.. but then I decided to ask her if this fish was even cooked at all.. and of course... it WAS NOT. For a girl who doesn't even eat sushi, I tried to hold back vomit. I seriously have NEVER eaten raw fish... except for the one time I tried sushi.. and immediately spit it out. Well I held it together... just because I'm a champ, but it was pretty gross, and I couldn't eat it anymore. Everyone else liked it, but I guess I became the picky one for a moment. Anyway overall lunch was a success, and now we are currently babysitting for my host family because tonight was their date night. They just got back, so it was a short babysitting night. We played a little soccer with all four kids - girls against boys of course - and the boys won. Whatever, we let them. Then we made pancakes and watched HOMEWARD BOUND. Great night, great people, great city, even greater God. Tomorrow's our last reading day, so pray that we can have great last reading sessions and that God can work through us tomorrow like he never has before.
God is good.
Annie B
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