Last weekend I went to the beach with my new flatmates. It was definately interesting. Both of my flatmates are from the States and bilingual (one has lived in Chile for 4+ years; the other has lived in Chile for over a year, and her family is from El Salvador), and the rest of the group was Chilean. It was Spanish the entire time (except for the couple of times I had no idea what was going on and someone had to explain what was going on.
The fact that it was all Chilean all the time made it a challenge, of course. But what was also challenging about it was being dropped into a group of close friend without really knowing any of them. This made me realize how much this move has made me grow as a person. I never would have done something like that in the past. This experience has really made me come out of my bubble. I want to thank Santiago for that, despite its high level of weirdness.
I got to try a fantastic new food last weekend! They were patties made out of carne de soya, so it was kind of like a Boca burger or something of that nature. This was so much better though! Carne de soya is much like dehydrated tofu- you soak it in water and then mix it with stuff and it picks up the flavors of whatever you mix it with. We mixed it with egg, onion, and bread crumbs, formed it into a paddy, and grilled it. I put the grilled paddy on a toasted bun with palta (avocado), tomate, and lechuga (lettuce) and had a burst of flavor in my mouth. I am going to get some carne de soya the next time I am at the store. It is a great source of protein and can easily be added to almost anything.
One last share about the fondas from the celebrations for the 18th- it can prove to be challenging to be a vegitarian, especially on the last night of a fonda. There were no vegetarian dishes left at the fonda I went to the Monday after the 18th. There were tons of antichuchos with more meat than any one person should eat (I thought Americans ate a lot of meat, but they have nothing on the Chilean anticuchos), but nothing sans meat. I found caramel corn though. And mote con huesillo. It is this fantastic sweet drink. They put mote (boiled wheat stuff) in a cup, and then they put a dried peach and peach juice in the cup. It's fun. Look:
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| Mote con Huesillos |
I found a recipe, and I want to try to make it (for those that might be interested in trying such an ethnic beverage) when I come back to Iowa. It might turn out right though because I hear the closest thing we have to mote is hominy.
I, along with many of my friends, feel that all we think about is food and what our next meal is going to be. I am always thinking of what I can try to make (because half of the time I have to alter recipes and find alternatives- remind me to tell the story of baking cookies). I also love thinking about the new and exciting foods I get to eat while I am here (i.e. carne de soya). Tomorrow I get to check out a Thai place with some friends. We will see how this goes.
Finally, I just want to say that I think Travis is right (to some degree) about only being friends with people because it is convenient. If you aren't right there, people kind of start to forget about you. I have to decide if he was right about the part where you just stop being friends when the distance becomes to inconvenient. I really started to think about all of this last week when all of my classes were getting canceled and I was starting to get bored out of my mind.
Peace and love
Current Tunes: Dresden Dolls (I am in the process of moving all of my music from my iPod to my computer, so I am being reminded of all the great music I started to forget about. I have been listening to this fantastic "faggy" (in the words of Travis) music while walking to classes today.)
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