"Valparaíso, mi amooooor!"

Heeeeelo all!
I have spent a lot of time in Valpo lately and it has been just wonderful. I reeeeally love it. I´ll do a little overview of how the last few days have been, as they have been lovely time spent with friends and a mom.
A few nights ago, My friend Emilie Sanchez´s mother (who is visiting from CA and is just lovely) took me and some of our other friends, Sophie, Ali and Nico out for a really nice Pizza dinner in Cerro Alegre in Valpo. It was this cute little restaurant tucked away in the midst of the un-seperated bildings and had a nice homey feel to it. We sat around our table in chairs and the bench seats with pillows. For dinner we got some wine and pizza, and conversed about everything from "hipsters" to the concept of infinity and movement. I learned a phrase that is "sobre mesa" and literally, it means "about (over) the table" but it signifies conversing before, during and after the meal, just because you can. Where food is not the central theme or reason for your going-out, but rather a nice touch, an extra little something to do while you are talking about big, small and interesting things with your company. We were there for about 3 hours, and it was one of the better meals and "sobre mesas" I´ve had. After dinner, we went to a lookout it see all of Valpo, and I learned that the Southern hemisphere actually sees more stars than we do in the North because they look through a bunch of different galaxies, while we look only through the Milky Way. (something like that, at least...)We then proceded to sing and play songs on a funy, beautiful instrument that Nico, our ´token Chilean´ had, made out of an armadilo shell. It was a reaaaallly nice night.
The next night was very Valpo. My other friend, Emily invited me to her friend´s art exhibition which consisted of a display of his photographs of people wthin Valparaíso. They were hung on clotheslines outside in the open air. The photos in black and white were set on either black or white clothing, and those in color were set on clothes that complimented the tones of the photo. Sunset over Valparaíso, Chile, drinking Pisco Sours and wine, conversing over the makeshift fire amongst an open-air photo gallery... yea, good stuff...Later on in the night, our friend started playing (wonderfully!) his accordion, and I agreed to translate a Noam Chomsky book, Government in the Future, for the man who owns the Communist Completo stand and bookstore. Again, very Valpo.
The Next night (last night) was a little more frantic, but awesome as well. I had agreed to go to see my friend play the accordion at this commie Bookstore, and so Emilie and her mother and I all went. I took the "wrong" micro to get there, but ended up meeting a nice guy from Kansas who studied in Santiago, so there you go... Anyway, I had inquired about a dance class earlier in the week to find out that Tuesday nights at 8:45 there was a class of baile contemporanea. I was so excited, and wore a leotard underneath my dress so that I could go see my friend play the accordion, then back to Viña to daaance. So, Emilie her mother and I walked a bit up the cerro into the bookstore, into what seemed to be a gathering of some sort. My friend wouldn´t arrive for another little while, so we made small talk and got lost in an idealogical discussion amongst the folks there. Then, my friend came and played some songs with this girl who really rocked her guitar singing Violeta Parra songs. We only stayed for a bit, though, as we had another engagement to attend down the street. It was getting close to time for me to leave for my dance class, but I had already agreed to go to this poetry reading/book launch, and so I did for a little but. I didn´t stay long, however, because my mind was dancing, and I knew I "had to dance". So, I flagged down a micro and caught traffic back to Viña. I was running about 5 minutes late, but figured Chilean Time was in my favor. I excitedly ran up the stairs and asked the lady (whom I had talked to earlier) where the class was. "Oh," she looked at me, "the classes won´t resume until January as we are in the holidays now..." awesome.
SO, went Back to Valpo, because one of our profesors was reading his poetry that night, and it sounded cool. Little bummed that I didn´t get to dance then, but I made up for it later...
Got back to Valpo and had a complimentary glass of wine, and listened to some poetry and a (not so) short story, written and delivered by a 12-year-old. ha, Another Valpo moment. Then Emilie and I conversed with our profe/friend for a bit and agreed to meet up later to celebrate his book release (which was what the event was for). We walked Emilie´s mom to her hostel, and ran into our friend, the accordion player! With him, we went to a new bar (for me) and got some wine blended with fruit of the season. So yummy! A little bit about his bar...
You walk in, and the floor and parts of the wall (as well as a sculpture on the bar) is all in mosaic tiles. It is dimly lit, and has paintings on the walls, and every table is painted differently as well. We were next to a painting that depicted an over-exaggerated body (eyes, arms, stomach painted with large strokes that gave it a very surreal, desolate look) in a "field" with train tracks overgrown with weeds, and tree stumps littering the ground. The figure, with eyes BULGIING, was eating his own fist. It was weird. And I loved it. Then we were sold a student magazine for 200 pesos (like, 60 cents)and an accordion player came in to play some songs and ask for money. The "art scene" in Valpo is just wild, its Everywhere! On the walls, floors, tables of buildings, on the streets, in the air... its awesome.
Later into the night, we parted ways with our accordion friend, and met with our profe friend Alejandro Banda. We went to his friend´s house (which is in the construction process of becoming a restaurant) and then to another friend´s house to play insturuments. We were listening to some jams, Emilie sang (like an angel) and then they asked me to dance. Well, I thought... "I´m not wearing this leotard for nothing!" So I warmed up stretching, and daaaaaanced. and danced, and danced. And they played and played and played. It was great. Then Sr. Banda gave me a ride home, and I feeeellll asleep. Por fin.
These past few days Have been great, and I am looking forward so much to starting my travels (on Saturday!) and then coming back to experience Valpo again, deeper and with more intention. Let the journey continue...
Happy holidays to you all up there, love and miss you all...
Chau!