Dia de Independencia

I got to celebrate two Independence Days this year; the 4th of July, and September 18th. This morning mi familia sang Chile's National Anthem followed by Feliz Cumpleanos and cake. It was thrilling to see the red, white and blue Chilean flags all over the town and houses (it's a law that you must have a flag on your house on Sep 18). We celebrated with about five other families at the house of a family friend. There were lots of little kids running around and some kind adults that were willing to humor me and listen to my feeble Spanish. I learned that the occupation of the man of the house we went to is President of the Family History work for the Church in Chile. Whoa. Sounds like the real McCoy to me. He travels to Salt Lake City about every year for conferences and training and he thinks the "This Is the Place" Monument is really neat.

Chileans eat SO much. They kept handing me all kinds of sausages, hot dogs, and chicken, which I learned the hard way were only appetizers. My favorite quote of the day is when a man offered me more meat and I said "no tengo hambre," to which he replied "ah, no importa." It made me laugh because that's such a Chilean attitude regarding food; just keep going.

Here is Alina with all things Chilean: torta (cake), festive napkins, flag, and of course, empanadas.