Mass

Sunday Tara and I headed up to the top of Cerro San Cristobol (the highest hill in Santiago with the virgin at the top) to attend Mass. There's a really huge one in the outdoor sanctuary December 8th to celebrate the Feast of the Virgin, but we'll be in Easter Island, so we'll miss it. Sunday was the mass to kick off the month before the Feast, so we decided we could go to this one instead.

It was a beautiful day and hovered around 72 degrees. Sitting outside listening to mass with the city of Santiago spread out below you wasn't a half bad way to spend the day. It was a little weird hearing the Creed and Hail Mary in Spanish. I actually understood the whole sermon, which was pretty cool.

The Sanctuary:

The view from our pew/bench:

The many priests:

The congregation which includes tons of tourists and a number of chileans in dress of colonial days to celebrate this special mass:

The view from the side:

Late Sunday night I got sick to my stomach, which was no fun. I went to class yesterday not feeling very well, but gave my presentation for Environment. When I got home I told my host mom that I might not be up for dinner as I wasn't feeling well. She freaked out and asked me 100 questions about where I'd been and what I'd eaten. For dinner she made me some chicken and rice soup and I had some bread. She also made me some jello for today. Finally over the course of the evening she fixed me 3 cups of mint tea (the official chilean remedy to upset stomachs). It's really nice when I'm so far away from home to have a host mom to fret when I'm not feeling well... maybe I could find a DC host mom...

The good news is I'm feeling much better today. I'm certainly not going to go eat an empanada right now, but I'm ready to tackle the rest of my final work!

Bueno bye!