Blueberries in December

On Thursday, my rural sociology class went on a field trip. We spent the day in Negrete, a small town about two hours from Conce. We visited their association of canal members and a blueberry-kiwi-raspberry farm (we ate LOTS of berries, and got to see the area where they pack the blueberries to be exported). The day was topped off by a big lunch of roast meat, boiled potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and bread. Chilean hospitality at its best. Some of the students finished up the day with a party in the back of the bus on the way home, finishing up the wine and beer from our large lunch.

At the farm, I had my first notably embarrassing moment in Chile. I've said and done other thoughtless/stupid things while I've been here, but this was the most remarkable. We were discussing kiwis, and our guide was telling us that all of the really good, large fruit is exported, so the kiwis in Chilean grocery stores are, comparatively small. He asked me where I was from, and if I had noticed how much smaller the kiwis in Chile are. I really haven't noticed this (I've eaten some quite massive kiwis here, witnessed in an earlier post), but I didn't want to completely say he was wrong, so I started explaining, "Well, by now I've eaten a lot of Chileans..." Obviously, "Chileans" referred to kiwis, but seeing as the term "to eat" is sexually connotative in Chile, and I omitted the name of the fruit, I got the entire class laughing. Whoops. In times like this, it's good to be a foreigner...

Love and fresh fruit,

Tiernan