Monday was a day like any other. I spent some time in the apartment before meeting Lily for lunch. Kevin left this morning to go hiking in Ralun about an hour south of Puerto Varas. After lunch I met Lily’s other co-worker Nati. She, like everyone else I have met down here was so nice and hospitable. In fact, she invited Lily and I to her youngest son’s birthday at her house that evening.
Prior to the dinner, I checked my e-mail quickly at Lily’s office and got some spectacular news. My brother was accepted to the Sloan School of Business at MIT. What a huge deal in a year when literally everyone is applying to business school because everyone is getting laid off. He rose to the cream of the crop and was selected to attend one of the smallest and one of the best business schools in the country. Unbelievable! I couldn’t be more proud nor happy for him. Maybe now that he has some free time he can come down to visit me and Lily in Chile.
Nati picked us up from our apartment for a hot dog dinner and cake to celebrate her son, Tomi’s, birthday. Tomi was turning 4 years old and, like any 4 year old, couldn’t have been more excited to receive presents.
Nati’s house was very pretty and very open. The floors were a dyed smooth concrete of different colors varying by room with wood pillar designs molded into the floor. I had never seen floors like that, but I like them very much. We arrived early and I met all 3 of Nati’s kids who were little balls of energy from the get-go. They loved playing games and Lily and I played matches of fusball and ping pong with all three. Soon it was dinner time and the hot dogs came out of the kitchen on a huge platter. What makes hot dogs in Chile different is the variety and quantity of condiments for the dogs. We had diced tomatoes, ketchup, mustard, diced chilli peppers, onions, and of course lots and lots of palta (mushed up avacados with different seasonings). Everyone loaded up their dogs and we chowed down on a meal that I thought was typically American, but apparently occupies a large segment of Chilean cuisine. They love hot dogs, which is good because I’m a big fan too.
It was time for the cake and emerging from the kitchen was a Power Rangers manjar cake. Manjar is a very typical Chilean caramel-type spread they they put on tons of their desserts. This cake had about 15 paper-thin layers of cake and manjar and was absolutely delicious. The night ended with a lot of conversation in Spanish in which I understood about 70%, but didn’t really add too much to the conversation. It was great practice though. I’ll need more nights and days of complete immersion if I want this Spanish thing to work out.
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