Past Weekend

My host family has another house in Ninhue, which is about a 30 or so minute drive from Chillan.  It is a very "rustic" spot, mostly of farmland and not as many houses.  My family has a much larger house there compared to the one in Chillan.  At the country house we have a swimming pool, tennis court, ping pong table, and three dogs! I've never been a dog person, but I am becoming to like them very much.  My host Mom's parents live across from our house and own a lot of farmland.  Last weekend my host Dad showed me around the land.  The have lots of animals, including horses, chickens, sheep, rabbits, cows, etc. It's a great spot, and the views of the mountains from there are so pretty.  It's really nice to go there because there's no WiFi, so it's a great opportunity for me to speak more Spanish and just hang out with my family without distractions from friends back home and those kinds of things.  Quality family bonding time!

The past weekend I got to see a little bit more of Chile.  My family took me to see the beach!  It was about 45 minute drive from Ninhue to the first part of the beach that we stopped at.  I was so excited to see the ocean.  It's gorgeous there, I can't wait until the summer to go swimming!  They have this seaweed that basically looks like a black garden hose that you can eat.  I just couldn't get myself to try it this trip, but maybe next time!  There were a couple of surfers and when they came out of the water they would just walk up to the pile of seaweed a break themselves off a piece of it and eat it!  It was an interesting thing to see! The last place we visited on the beach was basically like a mini mountain that had parts were you could walk through to the other side and then at high tide it would be filled with water.  It is also a place were people come to pray, there were various religious statues inside of it.  It was really cool though.  It was also great to see more of Chile, I hope to do more traveling in the future while I am here!

.