Church goings on

So, I'm realizing that a large chunk of my time here in Chile (especially on the weekends) has been spent in church, so I thought I'd dedicate this post to some of the activities I participate in and some of the people I have met at La parroquia de la Santisima Virgen Maria (parish of the Holy Virgin Mary).
Fr. Francisco and Lorena have been extremely wonderful. They always greet me warmly every time I come, and I've been over their house a few times just to visit as well. It's really nice to have them so close.
Last Friday night, I went out for a carrete (party) with the youth group/iconography class at church. We went to a disco close to the church and spent the night (yes, the whole night...1am) dancing (don't worry, no alcoholic drinks were involved...just good clean fun). After that, we went over one of the girls' apartments, sang Chilean folk music, and talked about church, religion, high school (that was funny), etc. until about 5am. Then we all went home.
On Saturday night, I sang with the choir for a wedding. The bride was actually Catholic, so there were a few Catholicisms evident, but all in all it was very nice. The music came out beautifully, I feel, and I even got to help sing Rimsky-Korsakov's "Our Father" in parts (yeah, Russian music with Spanish words is truly a multi-cultural experience).
Sunday was the parish's anniversary/feast day celebration. Bishop Sergio of Chile celebrated liturgy with Fr. Francisco and Fr. ?? (the other priest whose name I can never remember), and that also came out very nice. I videotaped parts of it, and hopefully I will be able to put all the pieces together and upload it for those of you who are interested. Afterwards, we had an "agape" which consisted of lots and lots of Arabic food and sweets :) Yum!
Wednesday, I went to liturgy again, and got to read the Epistle (again). I enjoy reading, but lets just say that some of them are more difficult than others...yeah, Wednesday's was one of those. But, I was told it all came out well, even though I think I only understood about 75% of what I was reading (not my favorite way to do things, but sometimes you got to do what you got to do). It was also funny, because prior to the service, Christine (the choir director from Pittsburgh) and I were talking (in Spanish) about different things and Fr. Francisco walked in and was like, "You guys talk in Spanish to each other?" and when we said yes, he shook his head and said (in English) "Lord have mercy". Not sure what that necessarily means, but I thought it was funny.
So, a run down of the people I hang out with at church:

Marjorie - history major that goes to my University and is getting chrismated tomorrow (yay!!)
Patricio - law student who sings in the choir and rides my bus home with me on Sundays (and makes sure I get off at the right stop, because I have a tendency to pass it)
Roberto - guy who sings in the choir and helps out all the time around church
Christine - choir director and wife of the iconography teacher, Geronimo

There are other people too, but these are the main ones.

On another note:

So, I got my poetry test back and I got a 5.9, which is about a B+, so I'm pretty happy about it (it was a tough test). Still waiting for the anthro test. Starting to work on an essay for history and education, and hoping that all works out.

I also visited the Museum of Pre-colombian Art, which was wonderful! I'm totally going back and buying souvenirs. It was an ex-anthro major's dream come true :)

Anyway, that's about it from here. I miss you all, and love receiving emails, facebook posts, etc. I sent out one batch of postcards, and others will be coming soon. Love you all!