Begin the Countdown

The past couple weeks I've been keeping busy with final papers and exams, but with a few adventures in between.  Last Friday we went on our last trip as a program to the little town of Pomaire.  The town is most known for its pottery and claywork, which filled the shop-lined street.  For whatever reason, pigs are the most popular subject matter... I think it's a luck thing.  After walking around we had an enormous lunch at a little artisan restaurant.  The meal featured almost every typical Chilean food - an abnormally huge pino empanada, pastel de choclo, a huge bucket of grilled meats, mote con huesillos for dessert, and of course bread.  (See the "Food" tab for descriptions of what all that is.)  After lunch, we went to a workshop where we learned some about clayworking and got to play around with our own materials.  That's about when I accepted the fact that I'm not meant to be a potter...

Saturday was pretty full.  In the morning, we went with a class on a trip to Valpo to get some more historic background and go to an art museum.  The museum is actually a former mansion (on the "Yugoslavian Street", hence the building design), and just reopened a few weeks ago after having been closed for fifteen years for earthquake repairs.

After we finished up in Valpo, we hit the bus station to head to Santiago and see the Booths - our adopted family from Buenos Aires.  As they're affiliated with the Salvation Army, they were in town to present a musical through the church.  We stayed for the production and got to see Graciela, Alberto, and Laura briefly one last time.  Even though it was a short reunion, we were so glad we got to see them again!

Monday marked the last day of classes and, to celebrate, we crashed the beach for the afternoon.  After a little while, a random American guy came up to us all excited and said, "Do you guys speak English?  I haven't spoken English for like a week!"  He sat with us and we chatted; turns out that he lived in the Santiago area for a couple years as a Mormon missionary and now, eight years later, he was back on vacation.  It was his first time in Viña and he was only in for a couple days, so we agreed to have dinner with him at a typical Chilean restaurant that's pretty popular in the area.  It was just a funny, kind of awkward happenstance, but it was interesting to chat with him and hear more about how the Mormon mission system works.  

Today I officially finished with my finals; I'd already had a couple actual tests but had some essays to finish up.  It's so weird that I only have a little over a week left here.  Definitely have some mixed feelings, but for now I'm just trying to take advantage of what I have here while have it, like going out for empanadas with Alice, hanging out with the band, and of course the beach.