The Peculiar Joy of Eating Cookies

Hi, everyone!    I don’t know why today, but thanks for reading.  We’re heading into my eighth month of Chilean Adventure.  Wow, eh?

I’ve been cooped up inside working on an essay for my short stories class.  I actually enjoy the topic, enjoy the authors, have done all the reading, this essay is really no sweat, I’m just LAZY.  Or something.  Anyway, I’ve been home all day “working” on it but I just went out to get some fresh air and a cookie.

I went to the “Panaderia Inglesa” that Ryan and I frequented quite a bit when he was here.  I’ve bought berlines there as big as my face for 200 pesos…a ridiculous amount for such a mountain of fried goodness.  They didn’t have any berlines today so I bought two small wheat rolls (seems like wheat anything is considered “health food” here and is not very popular) and a beautiful cookie named “Deliciosa” and took the long way home, enjoying the treeshade, the warmth of the day and the relative tranquility of a Saturday in Viña.  I ate one of the wheat rolls when I got home and it was perfectly wheaty, just what I’d been craving.  I worked on the essay for an hour and then got up for a drink of water and decided to look at the cookie…and maybe try a crumb.  It was two thin sugar or shortbread type cookies held together by a thin layer of manjar (similar to caramel but muy mucho creamier [and don't ever use the phrase "muy mucho" in front of another native speaker and tell them you learned it from me]) adorned with a dollop of raspberry jam in a hole in the middle of the top cookie and sprinkled liberally with powdered sugar.  So, I had one little crumb and decided to have another, and pretty soon half the cookie was gone and I felt really bad because it was so beautiful and it was disappearing but it was so tasty that I couldn’t stop breaking off little pieces and the whole time I was eating it, I kept thinking “This is really strange…I feel really happy and sad at the same time…and I’m just eating a cookie!”

It’s been a good week.  Paula and I went shopping on Thursday and didn’t buy anything but we made semi-healthy carrot cake and got to hear all about Erin’s hitchiking adventures and see the pictures.  Friday we went to the market for lunch and ate a TON of seafood and almost bought tickets to go to Buenos Aires tomorrow but then I had a moment of sanity and realized that I couldn’t go because of my classes.  Another trip to The Best City Ever is pending…maybe in two weeks.  I’m not sure…

The workers are going to be in meeting tomorrow and in the area until Monday so maybe I’ll get a chance to hang out with them and meet the Heather’s new companion from CA.  More reason to get this great little essay wrapped up…

Chau-chau.  Because that’s what we say here.  Not adios.  And that’s what I do…chow-chow….  Har-har-har.