I forgot to post this one, yep...

Once upon a time, there was a place called Valdivia. It was very picturesque and fairly close to the ocean. If you’ve ever been up the Columbia River Gorge, it looks like that. But not like Portland, it’s very scenic and on a very large river. In fact, the river is so large that boats and sea lions swim from the coast to Valdivia and back again. Then, the Germans immigrated, during World War II, bring with them chocolate and Chilean prejudices that everyone in the region is blond and blue-eyed and speaks slowly. Neither of these beliefs are true, but they do make some good chocolate. Then, the Bings decided to sponsor the Stanford group to go to Valdivia and see the parade they have in honor of “La Semana de Valdiviana.” So that was where we went this weekend. Sadly on the plane flight over, I lost my aisle seat to Noah, because he has long legs. But we arrived in Valdivia and had a very cheese-y dinner at the hotel, which Fabia said was the second nicest (they gave us free soap!). Seriously, everything at that meal was smothered in cheese. Which is too bad for Ilana because she doesn’t eat cheese and too bad for the rest of us because it wasn’t that good. Then, we wandered down to an Artisans fair and I found the only braided leather belt in all of South America, only it was too red and I knew Paul wouldn’t wear it, ever. But otherwise, it was a pretty awesome artisans fair and someone asked me if I was German rather than speaking to me in English right away, which was pleasant. Then, we headed home and dreamt, which is when I decided to tell Ilana that Honda civic hybrids are the best cars ever and she laughed at me in the morning.
We also got to see the fish/fruit market, where they were selling lots of fish and fruit. Large boats drove down the river towing smaller boats, filled with fruits, veggies and fish. The sea lions also came up the river to have some fish. Then, we wandered to the chocolate factory to see what was happening. Then the Bings decided that we should drink, so we went off to a beer brewery to go “beer tasting,” in which they gave us a five minute tour of the brewery and then brought out beer in three giant glass columns and gave us shot glasses, which made it a free-for-all. Then the Bings took us to lunch. They like to make sure that we eat and drink well. Lunch was right on the mouth of the river and the ocean. It was gorgeous, there was folk music playing, it was sunny and flowers were everywhere. It felt like a commune or a home for disabled people, we were all very content. We also explored a fort, or took a tour of it. But the most amazing thing about this fort was that it overlooked the ocean and that the ocean spread out forever. So Rita, Wendi, Dylan and I climbed down one of the cliffs that the fort was on so that we looked directly into the waves crashing below us. And then walked back down to the bus all in blissful happiness. Then, we walked around an museum of German Valdivia and then around the town some more. Then, we ate (what else) and headed off to the festival, which was a bunch of people watching boat floats on the river (La Mueñeca made an appearance! Okay, not the real mueñeca, but still…) and a bunch of people throwing confetti. Not in celebration, but into your eyes and mouth. So we eventually decided that we had had enough of that party and went to the hotel and watched Harry Potter and deconfettied ourselves. Only to arise the next morning to hop on the plane and return to Santiago.
Then, I turned out to be bed-ridden for the next couple of days and in my few waking moments reflected on existence or groped for water. But then I got drugs and now everything is okay. Yay!