dunas Con Con

I decided that I should stop sleeping in until noon on Sundays and instead try out the Lutheran church in Valparaíso. La Iglesia Luterana Alemania is located in Cerro Concepción, and I have passed by several times, even entered once, but did not make it for a service. The service itself was remarkably similar to what I am accustomed to at St. John's in my hometown, in fact almost exactly the same but for the language (I typed the word "idioma," erased it, typed it again, then remembered that I had to use the word "language" instead; this is a good sign.) The communion wafers and wine were significantly better though; the wafers are like sweet crackers, and I want more. I really liked the passing of the peace; it involved a simple "la paz" followed by much hugging and kissing. I don't know much of the service in Spanish, but I can understand it easily, and it translates to exactly what we use for my normal service. After the service there was some form of special performance by the choir. This went on for some time but I opted out early to make it back for lunch with my family. I did manage to snag Jonothan for a quick chat though- he is the dude I met the first time I checked out the church. I told him I'd be back.

After Dani's lasagna invention for lunch (ke rico!) the two of us caught the "ositos" micro to ConCon for some fun on the dunes. There is a dude at the bottom of the massive sand dunes who rents sandboards out of a van for rather cheap. They do not have foot clamp things like the ones in San Pedro did, which made them more... interesting. And harder to use, but all the more fun. My favorite aspect of this was that the dude had a megaphone and would summon all of the sandboarders whose rental time was up. The only thing I could hear the entire time was the ridiculous wind and the names of about 50 different people. Dani served as photographer, and I as novice sandboarder and extreme sledder. If you wax the board and use it as a sled, it is insane, there is no way to slow down; it ends when you run out of wax, hit something (which would be extremely dangerous as this is super fast) or roll/fall off. Same goes for the sandboarding, though I usually fall when I get to a high speed. At the bottom of the shore side of the dune is a line of tires sunken into the sand to prevent you from falling 12 feet into passing micros. I think if you would smash into that you would fly into the road anyway, or break your neck. And so, I disembarked early. The sea side of the dune was better because the harder sand sends you careening towards the ocean, though the wind pounds sand into your face like nobody's business. Other highlights included the view of ConCon, the ocean, dunes, and Reñaca all the way to Valpo, as well as the sand tornadoes. I watched a little kid that was playing in the sand get mowed over by one. It passed in about 10 second, and he looked all around wondering what just happened.

Let me tell you about the sand. It formed a film that lined the inside of my mouth, plugs in my ears (both inner and outer), crusted around my eyes so I looked like a raccoon, and I carried about a pound of it around in my pants. After I showered and shook out all of my clothes, it could still be found lurking... everywhere.

I like having a sister, and an older sibling. This too is a new experience. With an older sibling you can do lots of stuff, like taking ridiculous pictures, trekking through the inclined dunes. microing your way back to Reñaca for Sanhe Nuss Mcflurries, and watch the Sex and the City movie. Big sisters are good to talk to for just about anything. I did not have one growing up, but I want one now.