Venture on the Open Road: Celebrate New Years in Santiago

Happy New Year! Feliz Año!

No, I did not wake up at 6:22AM. I was AWAKE at 6:22AM. And at 7:22AM.

Cotillon = sparkly, shiny party favors!

Chileans know how to celebrate a New Year! There were no naps on the sofa, no shots of Red Bull. This was pure joy and celebration. With Piscolas (Chilean Pisco + Coke), Cotillones and a bilingual song list, we seized the first day of the New Year.

We could have paid 25.000 ($50 US) pesos to go to a club party. Ewe. But we all know how those are - open bar, long lines for drinks that aren't that great, shoulder to shoulder with people you don't know and won't ever talk to, just to uncomfortably dance to bad techno music and pretend to laugh. So, we had a small group of random and new friends come to Pablo's infamous balcony. From there, we could see the clubs in the park and watch groups of partiers leave at 7AM, some to be stopped by the ever-serious police.

First sunrise of 2013

What time did you start your New Years celebration? Try starting at 1AM. When 3:30 AM rolled around it felt like State-side 10PM. I made guacamole and Pablo grilled some choripan to refuel and keep the party rolling. At 5AM the darkness of the night crept behind the mountains and the moonlight started to switch to a faint sunrise. I still felt great. At 6:30AM, I couldn't believe it. I was still having fun at 6:30AM? No way. Someone said it was like I was a little kid who just saw Santa Claus and really believed I found him. Pretty good description since I was staring at the sky like I had never seen it before.

I'm the girl that gets up to run at 6:30AM before the summer heat. Now, I'm up with friends to bring in the New Year until 7:30AM? Here's what I used to do between 6AM - 7:30AM:

Run 10 miles
Drive to the mountains to get a free parking spot at Vail
Make coffee
Arrive to school to grade papers, have a parent meeting, plan the day's lesson, make copies
Participate in "team" meetings with fellow 9th grade teachers
Sleep

This New Years has layers to it… until most others which were just 1 party, start to finish with the same people with the same trajectory > sober... to needing a Bloody Mary for breakfast.

Dinner at my house with the house clan. Prepared by Jo, the gourmet chef. She made 2 plates: watercress, carrot puré with pork belly (brined in homemade Kombucha) and then homemade gnocchi with a roast of lamb ragu. On the table was also homemade hummus' and delicious bread. For dessert, a blueberry lemon pie and a chocolate ganache torts. Plus, we were drinking delicious Raspberry Pisco cocktails. May have had a few of those….

Pablo's Apartment: Part 1 - Chilean-International. Represented was Germany, Holland, Brasil, the USA, and Chile. Lots of English, some Spanish and some bilingual conversations. Theme: legal pot, traveling in South America, and making ceviche. This was a very random group: travelers, my Chilean sister and her friends, Pablo and Feña.

Pablo's Apartment: Part 2 - Chileans + Me. The #trendtopic was something new every hour but one thing is certain. I laughed a LOT. Thanks, Feña ;) Raul, his friend (who studies at Madison Wisconsin!) Barb, Cristobal, Pablo, Feña and I held the fort down. When I can't breath because I'm laughing so hard, that's a sign of some good people.