With so many new things (as in school) have happened, I have never posted about some of the other adventures I had the past two weekends! So now I'll take a few moments to share about that too.
The first weekend (August 8-9) my mom was still in town, so the Cannistra family (with whom I am staying, if you recall :)) took us to Valparaíso and Viña del Mar on Saturday, two cities about an hour and a half away from Santiago. We drove in two cars: my "chilean parents", my mom, and little Antonella in one car, and Maca, Francisco (aka Foco, Maca's boyfriend), Tomasso and me in the other.
Whenever I mention to a Chilean when we went, they can't believe it. It had been raining and raining in the days leading up to (and including!) the weekend, and the destruction of homes in that area had been all over the news. Since both cities are on the coast, the waves were absolutely huge. But all in all, I really enjoyed our visit. All the houses in Valparaíso are different colors, and the winding streets reminded me somewhat of Assisi, Italy.
As you can see, the sky was kind of gray. And it was on and off raining with super strong winds. But I was so happy that we could go then when my mom was still here :) The above pictures are of both Valparaíso and Viña, because they are like connected and I didn't know which one we were in half the time, mostly because the people in my car didn't always know either. We also went to this really nice restaurant, where a magician visited our table and wowed Anto. Wish I had gotten pictures of her face haha.
Later that night, I went to a party with Maca and Foco. It was a party of Foco's soccer team and their girl friends. Plus me. But it wasn't awkward or anything, and Maca was grateful to have me there because she wasn't really friends with any of the girls. I got a lot of questions about how things are in the USA, do we listen to reggaeton, what are parties like, is the drinking age really 21 in the US? can you really get your driver's license at 16? And at 1:30 am in the morning I found myself engaged in a conversation (in Spanish of course, most people's English is pretty horrible haha) about politics: the 2016 Presidential candidates, abortion, same-sex marriage, and the state of the Church in the US. At 1:30 am. I mean, the girl was really nice but it was kind of challenging. I wish I had more and better pictures but here are a few. I don't look very nice but you get the idea.
On Sunday of that weekend (August 9) I played violin for my first Mass here in Chile! Every Sunday the Schoenstatt family from the Providencia shrine has Mass at 12:00pm (now in the winter it is held in the large chapel of my school), and then a Mass for the Schoenstatt youth at 7:30 pm. On the 9th I played for the noon Mass with two guys youth who played guitar and sang. This past Sunday (August 16th) I played for the noon Mass again, this time with two of the Schoenstatt sisters from my school and some girls from my school as well. Then I played for the 7:30pm Mass later that day with the "Gran Coro Gran", a group of both girls and guys Schoenstatt who practice weekly and play for a variety of occasions. I am now a part of that group while I'm here these months :). All in all, I've gone to Mass 6 times while here in Chile so far, and it wasn't until the 6th Mass that I didn't play violin. It's really great, to be honest.
Finally, last Saturday, August 15, the international Schoenstatt girls youth celebrated 84 years of existence! I went to a rally day for the girls youth of Santiago at their national shrine in Bellavista (see shrine post for pictures from my first time there). There were about 120 girls, middle school through after college age, and it was a lot of fun! Made me miss my youth at home :) The chilean national youth sister, Hna. María Jesus, had met me in Germany and seen me the week before, so she decided at the beginning when she was saying some words of welcome, to have me introduced and ask me to say something to the girls...Well I was taken by surprise, but I managed to say something to all of them. I am used to impromptu announcements and speeches in English in front of a fair amount of people, but in Spanish is definitely a new thing haha. :) As usual, I played violin for the Mass we had in the beautiful Church of the Holy Spirit. Please enjoy the pictures!
Can you find me in this photo^? :)
Once again, sorry for the long post and I hope that you enjoy the pictures! All in all, I am grateful for your prayers and bring you and all of your intentions to the Cenacle of Providence shrine. :) And to all my friends back at home beginning the school year, especially those who are now Catholic Memorial Seniors, have fun and good luck!
Love,
Abby
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