Halloween, "Super," y cumpleaños

Halloween weekend: Alli and I went shopping for Halloween costumes in a neighborhood called Patronato, which is full of cheap, tacky, ridiculous clothing that Chileans wear. Although the salespeople didn't find it too funny, we got full body costumes in animal prints - I was a leopard and Alli a zebra. On Friday night was Aaron's (boy from Tufts group) birthday party which started out in a hostel basement and later moved to a club. It was nice to be out with a bunch of Tufts people that we don't see that often outside of Spanish class. Around 4:30 when we left we got the ultimate Chilean food for that time of night: chorillana. On the day of Halloween 5 of us girls had a pregame party at Becca's, including ridiculous photoshoots, and that was so much fun that half of us never made it out like we planned. I got enough looks on my walk over there so it was worth dressing up. The way it is celebrated here is tricky. Some kids go trick-or-treating, many clubs host costume parties, everyone knows what it is, my host mom told me that even 20 years ago when her kids were young they celebrated it here, but then there is a whole sector of the population that doesn't celebrate it at all. Sometime during the weekend some carabineros (policemen) tried to get our numbers.

Last weekend I went to the movies here for the first time and saw a Chilean movie called "Super," which was a stupid comedy without a plot and all takes place in a supermarket. It was quite funny, especially for us because it was very Chile (discussion of the nutrition in a completo, lots of po-ing and huevon-ing, a high school couple in uniforms making out all over the place or fighting, etc.) and I was really excited to be able to watch a movie in Spanish without subtitles and understand it, even though it wasn't exactly challenging content. That and another movie we watched in Spanish class, "La buena vida," inspired me to watch more Spanish movies. I feel a cultural obsession coming on, to be intensified upon return to the US.

Last Wednesday we went to Maca's birthday (Becca's host sister) with an interesting combination of family and friends of all ages who didn't know each other and all kind of stayed in their own space. The 4 of us just ate everything that came our way, as usual. Then when most people left, we sat around talking to Becca's mom and uncle who are really sweet, while Alli and I inconspicuously drank roncolas before going to another very entertaining Miercoles Po. Santiago can be a small world.

I have another paper due for my history class this week and I'm not even sure what the topic is. I should be more worried than I am. Five real classes next semester will be interesting.