And the Bings!

After my parents left, I slept and have been slowly reinserting myself into Stanford life in the past week. And to the Chilean-ness. Waking up after my feverish stupor, I wrote and wrote and wrote for Spanish and then went to a giant festival concert with Aubrey and Kevin. We saw Low Bunkers, Jorge Gonzalez, Dividios and I caught the beginning of Los Tres before deciding to head home again (if you want to check out some Latino rock groups). Keane was also headlining the festival, which was aptly named ¡Vivo Latino! because the UK is part of Latin America too.
On a side note, I was so excited to discover Los Bunkers when I was looking at a mix that my daddy had brought me and he had put Los Bunkers on the playlist. Sad panda moment for Julia.
Not a lot happened last week aside from a classical concert, a yoga class and my thesis proposal. Oh and I got my ear pierced, again, but in a different place. Then on Friday, we were all flown to La Serena for the weekend, courtesy of the Bings. La Serena is a 50 minute plane ride and a 5 hour bus ride north of Santiago and is known as the beach town where all the beautiful Argentineans from Mendoza go. Inland from La Serena is Valle de Elqui, where a whole bunch of hippies, crazies and astronomers live. Fabia went a little New Age-y on us and started preaching about auras and the flow of our spirits and all such happy-goodness but she calmed down once we left the Valle and the energies didn’t effect her as much. Per usual, the Bings kept us well fed. There was lots of food and per usual, lots of Stanford students complained about every minute of the trip, while the Bings provided free transportation and sustenance wherever we were. I’m glad people realize how many resources and opportunities they have.
I’m also glad I’m not the Bings (really, really glad). But I’m also really, really glad the Bings are around to take me to crazy places. In any case, I gave myself a day off of Stanford on Sunday and took off, first walking down the beach in La Serena. I decided that there were no waves so went off in search of some. Bummed a ride to the bus station and then to Coquimbo, the smaller port town next to La Serena, it’s like Viña and Valpariso. In any case, Coquimbo was amazing, and filled with stray dogs, but still gorgeous, there were pelicans everywhere and the people were so friendly. Had an empanada at the fish market with these hilarious women who worked there (though still not as good as Picheliemu) and then caught the bus to Totorallilo. I had been told that Totorallilo was a beachtown where I could get a board and had good waves that broke in both directions. However, when the bus let me off on the highway off ramp. I realized that Totorallilo was a little smaller than a beach town. It was more like a cluster of beach houses, with a manmade beach island down in the water, which was so blue and green against the yellow, golden-y landscape of the desert that crept up to the water. The ocean was also as flat as a soda that’s been open for three days so no matter if there was a board the surfing was out. I decided the manmade beach was also not a legit place to lounge so I crawled over some rocks to find one large and isolated enough to feel private and then I read and watched the ocean.
When it was time to leave, I headed back to the highway on ramp and waited and waited for a bus to stop. One eventually did and I headed back home to La Serena, showered, talked to my sorority girl roomy (only for the weekend) and spaced out for three or four hours, tried to cheer up a friend by searching for karaoke but ended up teaching a “bartender” how to make White Russians and Tom Collins (we realized when we saw everyone drinking Brahma or Coke that we were in the wrong place for these kind of drinks but it was too late by then). And slept.
Today, I got back to school and am finally ready for the quarter to start. Got home around 6,30 and played with my host brothers. And now it is time to get back to the crazy work. I’m back off to Buenos Aires this weekend and that should be so relaxing and wonderful.