¡! la rama de olivo ¡!

Hola! Well, to start I just finished 'onces' (essentially dinner, albeit very light, think tea, bread, possibly cheese on a good day, butter) with my family. My aunt, and all my little primos (cousins) are here and they are hooligans I tell you! I don't think it helps the matter that they all take roughly 3-5 heaping spoonfuls of raw sugar into their tea. I tried it once, and it is ridiculous...they though, think I am crazy for not using any:) Today I had an unexpected day off  of school...I taught just 2 hours, but we are having yet another mysterious week of recreation (this time called, Semana de Libro, or book week) and so many of my classes are canceled...it was quite gloomy today, so I walked to the metro, came home, and took a much needed 4 hour nap:) I think I am still recovering from my long holiday weekend...which brings me to:

MENDOZA, ARGENTINA!

I was lucky enough to have 4 days over the holiday to plan a quick trip over the border! On Wednesday night, I met several other volunteers in Viña del Mar where we took an overnight bus through the Andes...we arrived to Mendoza at a very early 5 am! Unexpectedly of course, so we had to trek to the hostel in the dark (luckily very close by)... they took pity on us poor gringas and let us sleep there for several hours even though we weren't supposed to be there yet:) Other volunteers trickled in and Thursday the fun began... Mendoza is a very beautiful city, and we went there with no real plans, so it felt good to just walk around, lounge in the park, and shop of course. Argentina is much much cheaper than Chile...and so just buying everyday things costs much less. Also, in the parks there were many artists selling lots of leather, jewelry, etc. Argentina is known for their beef and leather, so I also bought a really nice pair of leather boots, that cost me much less than in the US or Chile.  We enjoyed lots of steak and shawarma as well:) On Friday, we chose to tour the many vineyards, and rented bikes from a place called Mr. Hugo's. We biked from vineyard to vineyard, for tastings of wine, cheese, liquor...etc. The worst choice possibly being Absinthe....uck, absolutely the worst thing ever...alas, now i know:) We met 2 other travellers from England this day as well, and had such a good time with them. Mr. Hugo's is kind enough to serve you as much cheap wine as you desire upon returning to the rental place...so after touring 5 vineyards and 1 beer garden, we got pitchers of the worst wine ever...obviously a good idea right? Nonetheless, this day was my absolute favorite of the trip.  Saturday we slept in, drank some real coffee and again spent time just being in Mendoza.Argentina is known for its Alfajores as well....which is two cookies with manjar or dulce de leche (caramel) in between and then dipped in chocolate...needless to say most of us are obsessed with these little cookies and indulged readily the entire trip! Saturday night we went all out, along with Jenni & Josh (our new friends from England, and had an amazing dinner...we ended up staying out til about 530am, and caught our bus at 830! It was quite fun! All in all, I really loved the feel of Argentina (not just the cookies and wine), and cannot wait to go back when Luke visits! Here are a few photos from the trip:

On the home front, I mentioned school being on and off all week. I am looking forward to a typical weekend in Chile, our friend Matt is visiting from Mauli, but otherwise staying home sounds quite nice to me:) Also,  Luke and I are busy trying to make the many decisions and plans necessary for our trip in August, we are excited to get some plans set...!

Lastly, because this is too funny to skip...moments ago, a stray cat got into our house, when I notified my mom Ely, expecting a somewhat calm reaction...absolute chaos ensued! All my cousins were screaming and climbing on the furniture, Ely was throwing things at it, and finally it was throw from the second story window by my aunt in my sister's room...I kid you not! ha! I would feel sad except I hate cats, and I highly doubt the feline will ever visit this house again:)