A Great, Tranquil Weekend

Friday night, I did not go to practice because we had a big dinner for Pablo after his graduation ceremony. The food was great and we had a merengue pie that was to die for. Fabiana, Juan Pablo, Pancho, Niko, Marta, Valentina, Pablo, my mom, my grandmother, and I were at the dinner. It was great to have big family dinner. Afterwards, I met up with Claudio, Rob, Brittany, Eli and Pia. We just relaxed at Pia's apartment, and talked until 6am. I love having Chilean friends because my spanish is really improving. I didn't feel too bad staying out too late because I wrote two essays during the day friday. Saturday, I shopped for mother's day gifts for my host mom, her sister, and mama Ana. I got my host mom and her sister each a set of hand cream and spray, and I bought mama Ana a scarf. Then, after working on an presentation for class, I went out with Laura, Cathleen, Arturo and Stephanie. It wasn't that exciting of a night, but we did have fun. I had some really good mango juice and shared a pizza with Laura. This morning, I went to church at 9am, and then called my mom, Nan, and Corinne's mom to say happy mother's day. Then my host mom and I went to her sister, Marta's house for a mother's day cook-out. The food was absolutely amazing. The meat was incredibly tender, and I ate until I couldn't possibly eat anymore. After lunch, I danced in a circle with Carlie (4 years old), Darinka (9), Gabriel (12), Valentina (14), my mom, and Marta. Carlie was telling us what to do. It was so funny. Darinka and Carlie were so cute. They were very timid around me at first, but by the end of lunch, they wouldn't leave me alone....haha. After we ate "3 milk" pie (don't knock it, until you try it), we watched a horror movie about the loch ness monster. We had such a great time.