Potluck Christmas

Since the school was closed for the holidays, I decided to do a long weekend trip to the Chilean coast. Initially, I had intended to go to the beach side with Natalie, but I wasn't interested in surfing or bumming at the beach. Hence, I ended up in a port town called Valparaiso, famous for its brightly colored, old houses along the hills.
It's about a 3 hour bus ride from Santiago. If anyone is headed in that direction, make sure to buy a return ticket (date can be open); it saves you some money.

I arrived at my hostel around the same time as two backpackers from Colorado – Gina and Tucker. Like me, Gina is on an around the world trip. Unlike me, she's on her first continent. I've been on the road for the past 9 months, but I'm totally not deterred by the idea of travelling for a much longer period. I wish I was still on my first continent!!! Lucky her!!! Tucker was tagging along with her for his 2 week holiday. Very nice people.

For Christmas, the hostel was putting together a potluck dinner. Each one of us (or as a group) needed to prepare something. Since we were rather late arrivals, Gina, Tucker, and I partnered up for our contribution.
We headed down to the supermarket with not a clue as to what to make. As with any city I've been to so far in my life, the supermarket was an absolute madhouse at this time of the year! After wandering up and down the aisles, we agreed on kebabs and French fries. For some reason, though, we couldn't find frozen French fries anywhere!!! So, change of plans – we picked up something that was made of potatoes and fried, but round.

Given that the hostel only had 2 stoves, cooking was slightly chaotic. And took forever. Our kebabs turned out excellent, but the potatoes...well, lets just say that they didn't work out. Somehow, it turned into a glob of mush that didn't resemble anything like fried potato. Rather wasteful, but we had to dump it into the garbage can.

Once the dishes were completed, the hostel owners and guests (I'd say about 20 of us) gathered around in the yard for a wonderful Christmas dinner. Our kebabs were a hit!!! Other dishes included the healthy salads, the greasy sausages, and the yummy tuna pasta made by an Italian guy. We also had a patisserie staying over, who contributed a delicious berry tart sort of thing. Mmmmm : )
Here's all of us having a great time!
This was my first time spending Christmas with strangers (usually I'm with my family or travelling with friends). Something different. Something fun.