Thursday, October 4, 2007 Saints Feasts and Birthday Feasts. Man am I spoiled!

Thursday, October 4, 2007 Feasts and Feasts

Volunteering this morning actually went amazingly well. Courtney’s idea to play Pictionary worked like a charm and I for once feel like I taught them something!! By the third class came around, we had figured out what works and what doesn’t. That class which is usually the worst behaved actually sat quickly and played civilly without yelling. I think they had fun and I felt great when I went home. It’s amazing how much energized and happy I feel after a successful class as opposed to the last few weeks when I left exhausted and grumpy. I finally understand why teachers like good students.

After volunteering I came home and had lunch with Olga. Then I met up with Calli, Sarah Benheke and Will Boyd at the bus station to buy tickets to San Pedro de Atacama over the Oct. 15 Feriado. The tickets were $50 a piece for a 23 hour bus ride, but everyone we’ve talked to has said it’s worth it. I’m excited about seeing another important part of Chile. Afterwards I headed back home to work and try to knock out some of the homework I had before our camping trip.

At 7:30 Olga and I met up with Courtney at San Francisco, the beautiful old church at the center of town to go to mass. Today is Saint Francis of Asis’s feast day, so Olga and I along time ago had decided to go there to celebrate. We got to mass right at 7:30 and the place was absolutely packed. And it’s a big church to begin with. The next hour and a half was one of the most beautiful, longest masses I’ve ever been to. They pulled out all the stops including incense, a presentation with the story of Saint Francis’s life, and three First Communions! After mass there was a procession but Courtney and I left early because we were already really late to meet up with Christian to celebrate his birthday with his family.

So Courtney and I took the metro to meet up with Christian and got there an hour after we said we would. They had been waiting for us to do cake and sing, so as soon as we got there we ate Completos (yummy Chilean style hot dogs) then Christian’s mom brought out two cakes, one for Christian and one for Manuel. We sang, ate cake, drank coffee and sat and talked till late in the night. It was only Christian, Manuel, their parents, Courtney, me, and the big surprise: my religion professor/priest Rodrigo!! Christian had told me he’d invited Rodrigo, but I didn’t fathom he’d come, so I was pleasantly surprised. It was great to hang out with him again outside of class (and outside of the bar after class!). He is just as funny and just as hard to understand, but he told me that I should talk more in class because he knows I’m paying attention and really enjoying it. I told him I’m embarrassed and don’t want to break the flow with my broken conversation. He also asked me about why I’d written GW Bush in my notebook. I have no idea how he saw it, but I laughed and explained. At the end of class yesterday he was talking about the 10 Commandments and said that taking the Lord’s name in vain is more than just saying his name like a cuss word. It is actually more about using God’s name to justify actions that aren’t from God. Hence my writing "GW Bush". He got a good laugh from it.

It was getting late so Christian and his dad drove Courtney home first, then me. On the way we had a nice chat about the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism. I kind of pulled some Baby Alien Spanish (read the article) and just agreed when I really just couldn’t figure out how to put together my argument. Anyway, before going to bed I packed up my stuff for the camping trip and scrambled together the bits of homework I wanted to bring.