my first earthquake.

6:57 am. My bed starts shaking, I wake up. I'm swinging for a couple of seconds, and am literally swung back to sleep.

I guess I'm slowly turning into Chilean, since the earthquake was a temblor, not terremoto, a lighter form of it, and as a friend put it well, "it was strong enough to wake me up, but nowhere near convincing to get out of my bed". And I was expecting my first earthquake to be one of the rescue-mission-with-helicopters-and-handsome-lifesavers kind, but I'm sure that Mum likes it better this way.

In other developments, yesterday was my first attempt of introducing my family to Latvia cuisine. I guess you just can't fail with potato pancakes, so introducing carrot and onion was eventually a success. The dish actually turned out to be a cultural blend, since, as they obviously don't have sour cream or cranberry jam, avocado or palta, as it is called here, was like a cherry at the top.

La Cami's happy, you see? Everybody survived, no casualties.

DesSert was the thing. The thing. For you information, this is arándano.

Not this.

Nevermind the fact that Spanish doesn't have a decent name for it (not event considering finding it in a shop). As you might imagine, melleņu debesmanna can't be half as good as dzērveņu debesmanna, so I'll just blame the climate for the poor Chileans not having some of the most amazing berries on this planet. It looked very "cultural", though, with the bright purple colour. Too bad the flavour didn't live up to it. Menos mal, they didn't know how it is supposed to taste, so the general feedback was positive.

Phew!

The last weekend was also an experience, as I participated in a camp for the exchange students currently living in Chile, most of whom are about to leave in a couple of months. And I instantly thought about the faraway land at the edge of world who I used to call home, and still find dear.

New Zealand! I never told you how Rodrigo, my work colleague, went on a work trip to NZ and was kind enough to bring me some kiwifruit Whittaker's. This, along with the students' stories of their amazing homes over here, frustration of having two homes, boyfriends and girlfriends about to be left here, friends from abroad, said good-bye to with phrases like "I really hope we'll meet again some day" (and they mean it).. All of it awakened some sort of homesickness to NZ, Latvia and all 100-percent-pure-happiness places (including Santiago) I've been to, and willingness to be in many places at the same time. Still, the Southern Cross in the sky and the NZ pine across the street from by bedroom (the one I'm looking at now) moves something inside. I guess that's why I enjoyed talking to Kate from Hokitika, a small village in the middle of nowhere in South Island, who better than anyone else can understand how cool it is to be a Kiwi.

Hokitika, April 2010.

I fully enjoyed my time in the camp with 26 inspired and oh-my-god-I-want-to-travel students (still reminding of myself back in the day), even though it was probably one of the greatest challenges for me as an AFS volunteer, since it was only me and Maru, a lady from the office, who actually organized the orientation, resulting in a slightly more boring AFS experience than I'm used to.

You can also spot the wannabe-exchange-student Madara.

The feedback received was worth it. And the best part came at the end, when the students gave me a Thank You card with the nicest things, including my name in Thai.

Apart from the orientation, we went to the Museo de Colchagua, one of (if not the) the most thorough collections of Latin American culture, from fossils to WWII. 

It was amazing to see the grandeur of the ancient civilizations, though, I still have the question of what defines  the Chilean identity, as opposed to Peruvian, Argentinian and so on. What I liked most about the museum, however, is the story about its owner, Carlos Cardoen, who made his fortune by selling arms to Iran during the Iraq - Iran war and is now hunted by FBI, which pretty much means that he has to stay in Chile in order not to be deported to the US. He is loved by the local inhabitants of the town of Santa Cruz, where he is alone ir responsible for its recognition among other Chilean towns. Cardoen has the museum, casino and vineyard among other things, employing loads of people and advertising the town to tourists.

Speaking about vineyards, we visited one. Mont Gras is really a thing, having nice wine, awesome guides and beautiful setting. Check out for yourselves!

It is beautiful, isn't it?

Since the wine was in its 18th day, it tasted more like sour juice. Can't say I didn't enjoy it, though. Yes, I know what you all want me to take home, I have wine on my mind all the time.

A very beautiful me sending you the nicest wine kisses. I would like to write so much more about how awesome it is here, but as a typical traveler, my suitcase for tomorrow's trip isn't even half packed.

I didn't tell you about the trip to the most southern town of Chile, did I? Well, it stays in the "to be continued..." phase then.

Cheers!

P.S. This is what you get to see in micros. "Fight against capitalism, fight until it falls."