Food, Food, Food...

I think I am going to explode!

Friday night was dinner at a co-workers house. Judging by all the food on the table, I would have thought there would be a dozen people there, but it was just the three of us....and we ate well. Salmon with a clam sauce! Wow! And, my, did we have a good time! I knew this particular from school...one of the first people I met, very friendly. After winter break, she disappeared. I kept asking where she was...turned out she had lazer surgery, but the doctors goofed and she was sitting in her house practically blind...that was back in July/August. Now, she is finally up an moving, however her vision isn´t good, still....but that sure didn´t stop her from coming to pick me up for dinner! ha ha...great lady, fun lady...and her husband is so nice too. He is a folklorical singer and he is so nice. He taught me how to do the huaso ¨oooe oooe oooe¨...I might need to practice it more.

After dinner there, I stopped to celebrate a friend´s birthday. I could hardly drink a beer at her house, nor eat the fabulous pizza her husband had made. Gosh, I swear it was the most beautiful pizza I have ever seen! Mushrooms, tomato, salami, peppers, onion, garlic...PILED on top of the pizza dough. Wow! I got home about 2 am.

Saturday, I had lunch here at the house with Angelica...CArbonada...which I already mentioned.

Saturday night, I went to the house of another woman from school..Nana...the woman who gave me the eggs and who is always giving me sandwiches. She works in the school casino where they have food. We had a fabulous dinner at her house! Yum! Meat, potatoes, mushrooms, all fried on a pan that resembled a giant metal saucer sled. We ate in the kitchen...she, her daughter, her sister, her daughters friends, another woman from school...and finally her Mom, who is 83, and reminded me of my own grandmother....sharp and a good sense of humor. Oh my she made me laugh! After dinner, we all piled in the car and headed to the Casino....the casino with slot machines. I didn´t win anything, but one of the other women won 20,000 pesos, which is roughly $40. We left after midnight.

This morning, me and the family, went to Rancagua to have a birthday lunch with our Chilean Uncle. We went to the country club where I saw my first golf course in Chile. We also saw the futbol team for Rancagua...nice looking group of young men. ;) My CHilean Uncle pointed out where the copper mine was, the one he works at...it was tucked in the hills off in the distance...with the snowcapped peaks behind...well, at least there was still a fair enough amount of snow to call them snow capped.

We stopped at the mall on our way home, where I bought a suitcase. It seems as though I have accummulated some things...

On the drive home, I started thinking about what it will be like to go home, to the US, and I started to get excited. So many people I haven´t seen or talked to for 6 months (minus email, which is great, but just not the same)...people I miss seeing...my friends and my family. Things I haven´t tasted for 6 months....like a big cup of REAL coffee! Then, I started thinking about what it is like to leave any place you have lived, have worked, and have made friends...any place that you have experienced...and it never is easy, because it isn´t because of the people you are leaving, it is because the time has come....and when the time comes...everything is perfect and you forget the bad...you leave a place you have grown to love and that will always be a part of you. And, as long as you don´t drop an A-bomb before you leave or manage to burn every bridge you have built...you can always to back. That has been the beauty of every place I have lived...people always leave me with something to come back to....