Choripanda and Camila Moreno

So La Universidad Catolica, the smaller, private, obviously Catholic University I'm taking classes at, has a wonderful welcome committee for exchange students and they put on events throughout the year to help us acclimate, make Chilean friends and generally enjoy our time in Chile. The first and major event they sponsored was last night and it was a traditional Chilean bbq, called a Choripanda, where you eat choripan, a delicious mini sausage/chorizo thing. Anway, a ton of exchange students came, there are almost 300 of us, and a ton of Chileans were there too so it was a really great party. At first there were definitely tables of Americans sitting separate from the tables of Chileans, but after a while(and some free Pisco sours=Chile's national drink) we all started talking and mingling and I made friends with Bolivian, Korean, American and Chilean students who were super nice.

Saturday I went to the Buddhist community center again for a student division meeting(ie when just University students get together to chant and talk) and I met like half a dozen really sweet Chilean buddhist students. They asked me to do a powerpoint presentation about myself and my major, which I was surprised by but figured it would be a good way to introduce myself, so I agreed. Turns out its more of an exercise in public speaking and presenting info than a get-to-know you, but it went well regardless and now they know all about me. I told them I live in Nunoa, which is my neighborhood, and now they're looking for a district near me so I dont have to go all the way to the center everytime I want to meet up with buddhists(its like 45 mins away)

THEN Saturday night was concert time! I found this Chilean singer-songwriter named Camila Moreno who's only 23 but is incredible and sounds a lot like Chile's female version of John Lennon, Violeta Parra, and I was dying to see her in concert. Turns out she plays all the time but Sat was a free concert downtown with two other singersongwriters, so I dragged my other American friends and it was FANTASTIC. I highly recommend her(she has a myspace) and the other artists were great too, plus my friend Grace and I, being obvious gringas, showed up on the jumboscreen?tron? two times in the hour long concert, which was hilarious.