Viña, lost luggage, and THE DOLL.

This morning Katie, Mariclaire and I went to La Víña, a church much like the one I go to in Evanston but here in Santiago. The pastor is the father of a friend, and it was so fun to be in a place I´ve heard of so much. I understood everything and was able to worship God in another language, which was wonderful!

What I didn´t tell you yesterday was that Katie´s luggage was taken as we left the airport, but after many phone calls, it was found! This morning, Yali answered the phone and started yelling in Spanish, ¨Katie!! La encontro su maleta!!¨ There are many wealthy Americans who come to Chile for cruises and vacations with a vacation company, and the company grabbed Katie´s suitcase thinking it was part of the cruise... But it was found. Yay.

Yesterday we walked through the city for 4-5 hours... we were going to Santa Lucia, but on our way, we walked into a ¨mar humano¨ (sea of people) who were waiting to see ¨la muneca¨ (the doll) which is a three-story wooden puppet from France. It has only visited France, London, Belgium and the last stop is Santiago... The sight is incredible!! It takes seven people to control it and dances, walks, winks, changes clothes, showers and pulls a live band behind it! We waited in a crowd of thousands of people in the streets to see it ¨wake up.¨ I held a random little boy on my shoulders so he could get a glimpse of her. I think my whiteness and broken Spanish terrified him.

Things that please me much about Santiago: There are no screens on the windows and the temperature is perfect! Kisses on the cheek when meeting people. If I look toward any edge of the city, I see mountains -- they´re brown and dry-looking but still beautiful. All the streets are lined with trees; Chicago should take note. There are chocopandos (mullets) everywhere on men AND women. Everyone is outside here - in parks, walking the streets... The metro is super clean! I like manjar - not as much as peanut butter (pipe) but it´s good! It´s like dulce de leche and we had it on crackers for breakfast. Onces. I love onces. I want onces every night. Onces is dinner here, but it´s not dinner - it´s onces. Lunch is the big meal, and then around eight, we sit down for onces = bread with tons of different toppings. Last night it was chicken, cheese, ham, fresh guacamole, pollo picante spread, vegetables, marmalade, salsa picante... mmm... and then sweet bread for dessert!

Part of me didn´t believe that men would like us just because we´re gringas. It´s true. Yesterday we were walking through the park and four men were playing soccer. Katie and I joked about how we could beat them as we walked past. Suddenly, we heard applause and ¨bravo!¨ We figured one team had scored but turned around to find that they had stopped their game to stand and cheer for us. We laughed incredulously and continued on our way. Soccer is everywhere -- also in the park was this stud three year old who was attempting a rainbow.

Last night we were too exhausted to go dancing, but tonight Yali is throwing our first ¨carrete¨. In a few hours, a handful of her friends are coming to meet us. We´ll have food and dancing and music and much conversation... Yali calls herself ¨el leon del circo¨ (the lion of the circus) because everyone comes to see her. She´s out-of-control sweet and fun. At lunch, she asked if she was ridiculous. Yes. She said, ¨Bueno!¨

Words of the day: anhelar. to yearn for. choclo. corn.