I SEA food, I eat food, I eat everyone's food.

This entry, as well as the last one, will be more entertaining when I have a chance to upload pictures tonight (a very slow, painstaking process). This  past Saturday night, I attended a 21st birthday party of one of Dani's (Gloria's daughter) friends. In the States, this usually equates to excessive drinking in celebration of the legality of alcohol consumption. In Chile, they start drinking at the age of 12 and a 6-year-old can buy a pack of cigarettes...so this was just like any other birthday.

Dani was the star of the show at the girl's house because she brought the American. I fielded questions and got my photo taken for a few hours. It was 2am before there was any movement towards the door. And man, oh man, was I ready to leave. I was up way past my teacher bedtime and was quite tired after my 11K shuffle. We all piled in the car and when we came to a stop, I stepped outside to find that indeed, I was NOT back at Tia Gloria's. I was outside of a very crowded discoteca (dance club). Oh did I miss this when plans were being discussed earlier? Clearly I need to work on my listening comprehension skills.

There was a very long line- the end not ever in sight. So naturally, the group of people I was with did the logical thing and marched straight to...the front?? There were some words exchanged with the bouncer. Then, I was pushed up to the front as a sacrificial offering to the biggest, most muscular Chilean that I have ever laid eyes on. His face broke into a stupid grin and he asked if I was American. Sensing that this was one of those times that I should not be trying to camouflage myself, I said, "erm....yes...I mean....SÍ!!" He asked Dani to take a picture of him with the Gringa and practically threw her his flip phone. Next thing I know, the birthday group and myself were being ushered inside. I made some fast friends after they all got in free of a cover charge (and without having to wait in the building-wrapped line). Pitt status, I owe you one.

The undivided attention from the Chilean is one thing when I'm running a race...but if I am being forced to dance, I certainly don't want to have all eyes on me. I was able to deflect their attention by singing very ostentatiously to the music (most of it was American). They were mesmerized by my mastery of American pop song lyrics.

It was circa 5am before I was crawling into bed.

The next day, I felt as if I had pulled an all-nighter writing a midterm paper. I had that weird feeling in my stomach...I call it the bottomless pit. You think you're hungry, but you're not. So you eat and eat and eat but are never able to satiate the growl. Of course, Gloria has the bright idea to take me to her favorite lunch restaurant on the coast so I can try all the traditional Chilean seafood plates. At the time, this sounded great.

Three empanadas, two sopapillas, a bowl of seafood stew, a Chilean salad, half of Dani's salmon, some weird conch-type grey shellfish that don't have a translation, and essentially all of anorexic Nelson's crab LATER, I literally couldn't move. (pictures to come!) We sat at the table for a half an hour after the bill was paid so that I could try and digest a little. Gloria also had the waitress bring out some Chilean remedy for digestion...it tasted like a shot of apple liquor to me...and did NOT help to ease my fullness. After that, we went to the pier in a futile attempt to walk it off. Back at Gloria's, for the third time since I've been here, I was prepared the special digestion tea to cure over-eating. Truly shameful.

The lunch feast:

More pictures to come tomorrow...that one took me two hours to upload. Curse Chilean internet connections!