El Kiwi en Sudamérica

Un Fin de semana grande

Well to move on where I left of with my last post- I went to the doctor last Thursday and the diagnosis was: Take antibiotics, take an anti-flu drug, don't play sport and 'don't do anything extreme':
Friday at school was great (the weather was terrible by the way, the most rain in october for one day on record supposedly) It was 'dia del profesors' so we got the second half of the day off. The plan was to go to Parque Araco to see some of Faishon week (of all things) but first to have sushi close by.
Well sushi was good times, Sergio (a friend of ours) is such a funny guy, Phil and Alex were there and so were Helen and James- The other gappies at the grange now.
So we caught a cab to the Mall but the show was rained out (awwww... I was looking forward to some freebies) so we just went around the shops for a while. I tell ou this mall is hugemongous, totally 'gringolandia' . As well there was a stand in one part with people getting their hair done, so being the inqusitive types we found out that it was a competition with Sedal, a hair products company. All they were doing was washing, applying differnet stuff and making peoples hair look fabulous for a photo. Helen was the first to give it a go, James didn't want someone to touch his hair (chicken) so I went boldly were few men have gone before and entered as well. I asked how many guys had enterd the competion and they said that on average only one would enter every day (talk about good odds) and the prize is a years supply of their stuff, fame, fourtune...
anyway, that was kinda fun.
Friday night was also Phil and Alex's farewell party, at Sergio's place. Good times, It was cool to be able to catch up with some of their mates and stuff. So, following doctors orders, I left at around 1.30. That's not extreme is it?
Saturday was good times. First up I went to the grange to watch the first 15 play the Old boys second team. Unfourtuantly some of the 1st 15 weren't playing because of dicipline issues so they were missing some of their big forwards (there still was this beast of a guy I see at the gym all the time) so they were soundly thrashed 50ish to 10ish. It seems as if you don't need to be that big to play rugby here, I was talking to John about it (John was at the party on fri, and was playing for Old boys) and they have forwards at around 80 something kilo's. So maybe if I come back I should bulk up a little, then I could even be a flanker here (they don't have many tallish people here) haha, maybe maybe.
After that I got a call from Omar asking if I wanted to play futbòl that afternoon. Of course I'm always up for a run around and completly forgot about the doctors orders... But when I go thteir I told them my mistake so I played golie instead.
As well I got to met Jonathan, a guy from the states, who's visiting them for a few weeks to pratice english with them and be an encouragement.
Also to my suprise it wasn't the usual futból game- heaps of people turned up as it was Valentina's birthday, so it was a far bigger event. And we had completo's after the game (yes!!!). But, alas I had to leave early for the next event on my social calendar.
Sammy and Fern Lago were having their birthday at their cousins place up in Los Dominigos, Las Condes. So I rushed from the Futból and got home in time for a quick change then met up with Timo and his brother to catch a micro to the party. We kinda gave ourselves to much time, as we arrived at the party about 15min early (in Chile time I think we were more like at least 45 before, your supposed to arrive after the stated time). You could say that the house impressed me very early, we talked thought the gate intercom, then the driveway gate opened up to reveal a long tree lined driveway. Anyway so it turned out that we arrived before even the Birthday boy and girl.
But it was all good, Fransica (I think that is her name, I have even worse name memory than back home, and back home it's abysmal) showed us into a lounge/dining room, with quite a high stud. Off to the side was some stairs up to a kind of mezzanine floor with a pool table, a small bar and an attached music room (all decked out with piano, drums, quite a few guitars and lots of sheet music. So we chilled and played pool until other guests eventually arrived.
For the birthday boy I bought some 'wax' for his hair. (Wax is impossible to get her and Sam needed some more control of his ever lengthening hair. But the wax I got him is like this white fluidy stuff- definitely not the good stuff- and it's all Iíve been able to use since mine ran out) which was well appreciated.
So, by this stage all I knew was that the house was kinda big, but I was only in one of the wings. So after playing abit of pool, playing some piano, having a chat with some of the crew and having some eats Katie gave me a tour round the house. Katie is both cousins of Sammy and the homeowners and studying Interior Design at Uni, so she was the perfect tour guide. I can't write about how the walk through went but their place includes: Good sizes bedrooms on the other side of the house, good as kitchen, library, TV room, A good sized lawn, a gym, tennis court, pool, and the house had this brilliant 'huge country house with mod cons' vibe. I kinda felt like I was on MTV's "Cribs" or something. I've never been in such a house before (That doesn't say much come to think about it, I'll better stop rabbiting on).
Soon after we got back to the party's proceedings some of us started having a sing around the piano. Mark was playing the chords of heaps of songs that we found in some song books; everything from The Backstreet boys, Abba, Stuff from quite a few musicals, amongst others. It was definitely 'good times'. So we chilled, sang, ate, chatted until about 2 (another perfect example of not being extreme, esp. because it was daylight savings as well I was informed by Ashlee just before we left).
I really enjoy hanging around with this lot. And fortunately the Barretts (Jase, Mely and Katie) had brought their 4wd so we pilled in- Timo, his bro (see I can't remember names) and me in the back, with the Gringas getting a ride as well in the cab (in total we fit like 10 people I guess-sheesh- Don't worry Dad, it was perfectly safe and it saved me having to pay for a mammoth taxi ride).
After church on Sunday I visited some family friends of the Ramos family. Their daughter Lorena is going to NZ in late December for a few months before going to Uni next year. They were really cool, so we had abit of a chat about what kind of things to look out for, but it was mainly so I could touch base with them and hopefully be able to find some possible contacts.
Well, I was tired as after all that. As you can see I followed the doctors orders perfectly... A very non-extreme, non sporty weekend if you will.
Hopefully your not finding my last few blogs to long winded- It's hard to be able to write these up in a manner were you get the inside info of what's up, but also not get bogged down with details. If anyone has any good ideas on this please throw me an email or something- I want to give the people what they want. I should probably have a glossary of terms as well (some other time)
Proxima capitulo: Some more about the peeps/experiances at the grange, A Futból game of epic preportions, and more excessively detailed posts.
Chao Chao,
Nathan

and here are some photos:

Ashlee on some drums

Me sitting at the bar

Feliz Cumpleaños...

Sam, playing some pool

Katie chilling behind the bar

The Mirralles family

posted by Nathan Sinclair @ 11:31 AM