Fiesta

For my birthday, it seemed that the wonderful city of La Serena was Chile's gift to me! I woke up early to go for a run to all of my favority places in the city - the lighthouse, the Plaza de Armas, and the market for breakfast of fresh fruit. My work day was equally satisfying, as I recently completed the first round of calculations for seventeen stars, and next I will begin analyzing the trends.

After work, I walked with my housemate to pick up some groceries and a cake for my party later. When we returned, the boys had prepared pizza for dinner, and soon our friends arrived at our house, casa 13, for a small party. Our Chilean friends taught us to make Pisco Sour, a typical lime drink of the region. We juiced about 20 lemons and limes to mix in the blender, and you can see in the picture that the drinks were a group project!

When everyone was here, we shared the cake from a local pasteleria (cake bakery). I spoke with the woman baker when I ordered the cake, and asked for her speciality, which was a surprise for us until we cut the cake. The cake was delicious - about 5 layers of thin white cake, with strawberries in between, covered with whipped cream icing, and toped with slices of pineapple. Chileans make very good pasteles (cakes)!

Nearly all of my friends in Chile came to my party! My housemates, some Chilean and Australian students working here, and two co-workers. We hung out for a few hours, listening to music, and enjoying a relaxing evening after work. My friends even sang to me twice for my birthday, once in spanish and once in english!

On Friday night, my friend Macarena and I continued my birthday celebration at a nice restaurant called "Porota's" (literally, "Bean's") on Avenida del Mar, where we saw the sunset over the ocean! We shared machas (mussels), and a fish called mero (grouper). Of course, we had fresh orange-banana juice with our meal! After dinner, we walked along the beach at night, and saw a jazz concert on the sand.

La Serena seems to have a tourist campaign, with the slogan "La Serena: More than a Summer," and the city organizes events like this during the summer. Every day, and every night, we can find a fun way to celebrate our new lives together in Chile!