feliz navidad NZ

So it's Christmas morning in NZ right now, and here in Chile it's around 5pm.  I'm going to call my family in the next hour so I hope they are home! Like I said in another blog it hasn't really felt like Christmas much here. My apartment is half empty because it has been sold so everything is getting moved out including the fridge apparently in 3 days which means I get to live without a refrigerator for 2 weeks haha (not actually so funny.) Anyways so here is the extent of the Christmas decorations in my apartment.

My festive bed frame.

We have been celebrating at Aldea this week which has been really fun and I will write about that in another blog as well about my trip to Vilches.

Last night I had a lesson with a Chilean guy who I meet with weekly to teach him English to earn a bit of extra cash for expenses here. It was really cute as he had got me a Christmas present which was this book called 'Speaking Chileano' to help me with my Spanish. Too bad I'm leaving soon and won't get much of a chance to use it as Chilean spanish/slang is useless in every other Spanish speaking country but Chile. This morning Lily, Stephen, Meghan, Chris & I went to Aldea to celebrate a Christmas breakfast with all the other staff that work at Aldea. The key word here being breakfast, I was surprised to find that completos (Chilean hot dog with tomato and avocado) were on the menu. I'm not sure how my tummy felt about eating these at 11 o'clock in the morning along with some 'Cola de mono' (tail of the monkey) a Chilean liquor that kind of tastes like watered down Kahlua. Gifts were exchanged between the Tias who were doing 'amigo secreto', and then each of us volunteers received a box of biscuits which I'm munching on as I write this. They said a big thank you to everyone working at Aldea including us. They called us 'magos' (magicians) ha ha. 
I just finished making a banana cake, a dessert for the asado (BBQ) we're having tomorrow for Christmas at Chris's place. It's a bit of a fail but nothing a bit of manjar on top can't fix.

Christmas eve is much bigger here than Christmas day in Chile so tonight I have been invited to celebrate with my 'familias regalonas' Eduardo. I don't think I have mentioned this before but I participated in a programme along with a few other volunteers that matches you up with a Chilean family as a kind of cultural exchange. I signed up for it in the hope of getting the most out of my experience here and the opportunity to meet more people. Eduardo and his family are so kind and warm, and I feel lucky to be invited into their home to celebrate Christmas with them Chilean style...hopefully not with another completo.

Of course I wish I could spend Christmas with my family today, but I still wouldn't trade places for anything to missing toda mi experiencia de Chile!

Feliz Navidad NZ xxx