other recent things

Well, over the weekend we had another quesadilla-fueled volunteer get-together!  This time we were making quesadillas for 10, so it took us quite a while, but we had a pretty nice assembly line going. We were at one of the volunteer's houses, cooking for his host family and a friend of his who was a volunteer here in Angol last year, who was visiting for the weekend.  Look at the quesadilla/smiling face ratio here:

I also went this weekend with my host family to visit their great uncle (host grandma's brother), in the little villa town where host grandma and all her siblings grew up.  We got up at 8 to make the best of the daylight, since it was a 2-hr drive through countryside and bumpy hills, and we finally made it! It was tiny. Just one street and a cluster of houses set on a hillside.  The official population is 365! I believe that's a little more than half of my high school graduating class.  But they do have police, and a school, and apparently there is zero crime because everybody knows everybody like family.  My host great uncle had a very nice house, and a little locale in front where people could come in from the street to get drinks and food, plus a large plot at the end of the street with lots of livestock and vegetable gardens and whatnot. It seemed like quite the operation! We had a nice big meal with chicken, beef, and pork from their animals, and homemade bread and sausage. They told me the little town is called Pichi Pellahuen (which is Mapudungun, the Mapuche language, but I don't know what it means). Unfortunately, it was freezing cold that day, and I was extremely tired, so I don't have any pictures of it.  Just imagine a picturesque little neighborhood in the middle of hilly farmland where there is no cell service and everybody knows everybody's secrets (I am extrapolating here, but only with the second one). 

I DO have pictures of the copihue flower that I got that day.  The copihue is the Chilean national flower, and we saw a bunch of them growing along the side of the road on our drive so we pulled over and my host dad plucked some off for me and my host mom. They're pretty, bell-shaped flowers that hang down from their viney stalk, and come in red or white (but mostly red). From a distance I thought they must be very dainty, because you can see the light through their petals, but it turns out they're very sturdy/succulent. I was advised to hang mine so I can keep it when it dries out, so it's currently brightening up my bedroom.  Look! 

I also recently had another run-in with my favorite llama!  It made for a nice Monday treat.

still too scared to try to pet him, but stay tuned

In other news, it is getting COLD here. As I type this, it is pouring down rain outside and the internet says that it feels like 36 degrees (not having heat has really affect my perception of temperature, so the degrees hardly mean anything). I think tonight is the night I will finally use the hot water bottle that I bought as my failsafe!