Pichilemu

alrighty...this is my last post before i'm back stateside!!! Jen and I went to Pichilemu for a week to surf and relax, etc...Pichilemu is a pretty small town right on the coast (obviously) that is super cute, has really chill people, and is basically just a really well-known surf town. All along the coast/beach there are various surf shops and surf schools, restaurants, a fish market where you can buy freshly-caught fish, artesania markets, etc. The main beach is huge and i'm sure that in the high season (january, february) it fills up completely with beach-goers, tourists, surfers, etc.
So anyway, when Jen and i arrived, we had no set plans as to where we were going to stay, so we wandered up to the first hostel we saw which was right next to where the bus randomly dropped us off, and the old lady at the hostel said it would cost us each 3 mil a night, per person, to stay there (that's 6 dollars a night...) so we were kind of skeptical at first, but she showed us the room where we'd stay (it was a huge room with 5 beds, floor space, a light...all the necessaries...)so we just decided, what the heck? so we paid the lady, got settled, then headed out to find the surf shop we'd read about with the owner/surf instructor who is really well-known in town, etc...Elvis Munoz. We eventually find his shop, meet him, and decide to do some surf lessons to begin the next day...monday...pretty good deal. The next day, we had our first lesson of surfing, where he suited us up in full-body wetsuits (the water there is FREEZING), and taught us how to stand up and position ourselves on the board in the water... then we headed out to the waves. Those first few minutes (or rather...the whole first hour) i was terrified. Elvis brought us out to the big waves first, where we had to paddle a ton, avoid big waves, try not to get owned by the waves, and eventually head back in toward the beach...wow, i was so scared. not to mention, the freezing cold water on my hands and head only made me more anxious...phewwwww...but in our 'class' there were also these two girls from Germany--Mary and Pepsi--who were doing their last semester of med school in Buenos Aires and were travelling for a bit in their break, and they were really cool, we ended up hanging out at the end...etc...and they didnt really surf either, so i felt better about that...and my lack of surfing capabilities...
Anywayyyy...so each day we had 'class' at around 10:30 in the morning (which in Elvis' world really means that he'll show up around 10:30 or 11 and we'll get in the water around 11:30ish...) and we surf for 2-3 hours, then have a break for lunch, and come back around 5ish to surf in the high tide waves (much bigger) and experience the wonderfully strong current that the beach had...) so basically every night, jen and i would walk back to our hostel, have something to eat, gather enough energy to shower, and then hit the sack...haha...however, to add a twist to our schedule, we realized one day (i think it was thursday) that well, (jen realized it first...) that our money had disappeared. yah. Jen was searching crazily for her money that she knew she didnt spend and had gone through everything, had torn the room apart, and just couldnt find it. So then i decided to just make sure the remaining money i had set aside for the rest of the week was still weher i had put it...and it...wasn't there! what do ya know? soooooo it was in that moment that we were just turned off from that old lady, frustrated, angry, and not really sure about what we should do....we decide to approach this lady (we still had 3 more nights in pichilemu...and had a great deal as far as the per night price went...) so anyway, we tell the lady that well, we're missing some money, kind of alot, the only money we had left, and well, we were 100% positive that we had locked our door every single time we left, etc. and that this kind of told us something was going on. On a side note, we were the only people staying htere at that moment, and the old lady had these two young girls working for her...So yah, this old lady gets absolutely pissed off that we would even think that we were stolen from, and starts lecturing us that no one has ever been stolen from who's stayed at her hostel...and then she says that only she has the one spare key for the rooms, that she keeps them hidden from everyone, and then proceeds to ask one of the girls (who both came in to listen) to go and get the hidden keys...pshhhh...THEN both of the girls were like, "oh, well your door was unlocked one of the days...like...one or two days ago..." and jen and i just looked at eachother and we were like, RIGHT. NOT. liars. we are sooo positive that it was closed, i mean, it was this huge lock, like you use on lockers, so its kinda easy to tell if its locked or not...anyway, the lady proceeds to yell and lecture us more, and then says, well, if you dont trust me, i dont trust you, so i dont want yall to stay here anymore...we had already paid for all nights, so jen refused to leave without the money for the remaining 3 nights, and we left quietly, after the two girls had started crying...haha...
So after being kicked out of our hostel with our approximately $36 that we had for both of us to find new alojamiento for three more nights, we wandered a bit, and ended up at a really nice residencial that offered us 5 mil a night per person ($10) and we were just like, fine, lets do it...ahhh...then we went and grudgingly got more money out of the atm (we were set on not getting any more out..but well, we wanted to eat....) skipped surfing that night, relaxed, etc.
The previous day in surfing i had hurt my knee in the wave after falling off the board (apparently i had a ligamento torcido...messed up ligament)...go figure...hurt once again...so basically i couldnt walk normally, which meant no more surfing for me for the week. which meant, being bored for those 6ish hours everyday while everyone surfs. oh well. at least teh people at the surf shop where i chilled were friendly and nice, right?!
Soooooo that's basically what we did all week...surfed, slept, ate, scrounged for the cheapest food, met cool surfer people, etc. Our last night in Pichilemu, Elvis invited us all to an asado that his friend/neighbor was having...so he comes to pick us up at our new hostel at 10:30 ish, and we show up to someone's backyard where there are basically a group of older people (ok, not that old, but parent age...people with kids...with a few younger ones, like 25 yrs old...) and it's basically just this tight-knit group of friends, a few surfers, and lots of them related in some strange way, etc...but they were all so cool! Once the awkwardness turned into conversation, and once the chileans who spoke english (which turned out to be most of them...and very good english) they would just keep asking us questions, and really wanted to practice their english...so it all worked out...and then these two moms there insisted on us drinking the suave piscolas that their husbands kept making them...i dont know how many piscolas i drank while we were there, but mannnnnnn were they suave or what! and THEN at 3 am, when all the liquor had disappeared, they decided to head out to a club...so of course we had to go! Anyway, we went and danced alot, met more people at the club, had a good time, and after the discotheque's lights came on and closed at 5 am, we eventually made it home and were in bed at 6 am...only to wake up 2 hrs later, pack, and head out for jen's last surf lesson (to which elvis showed up an hour late, adn they ended up getting in teh water at 12:30...haha) and then we grabbed a quick empanada, and caught the bus for our commute back to santiago and vina...

all in all, a good week, but it was nice to come back to a comfortable bed, normal food, and not having to pay for everything. haha. AND, today i packed with jess (i hate packing with a passion), and tomorrow i'm taking the bus with the group and heading out tomorrow night toward miami, then dallas, then AUSTIN!
It's been a great semester, it's flown by, but it's time to get back (if only for a little), to see people, absorb as much American as possible, and relax over x-mas and new years, and then head back overseas for some more adventures...!

Siete Tazas...and an Israeli couple...

So for my final week and a half down here in Chile, I took off with Jen to go south to Reserva Nacional Siete Tazas with Jen to camp for a couple of nights before heading to Pichilemu to surf. Before we actually arrived at Siete Tazas, we were sitting around in a plaza in a small town, Curico, waiting for the only bus that runs out to the park, when these two gringo-looking people approached us and we all started chatting. Turns out they´re a couple from Israel taking a WHOLE YEAR travelling around central and south america! wow. So anyway, they were going out to siete tazas as well, so we ended up getting a campground near them, sharing a fire, hiking together the next day, and listening to their endless stories from all around the world, their travels, and what it´s like to live in Israel...needless to say, it was really interesting, but jen a i both realized we felt really boring when we were with them...Melissa, the wife, was also full of rasicst and non-politically correct jokes, so sitting around the campfire witht htem was really fun! however, they also gave us crap for having "soo much stuff" for only 10 days...they each only had a huge backpack and another backpack a little smaller than the ones we had...for an entire year. Man, I really dont know if i could go a full year travelling like that, but props to them...
The next day when we went up to the actual park, we had to hike about 6.5 km along a dirt and rocky road to get to the entrance to the park, where we could actually see the waterfalls. Siete tazas refers to what is at the bottom of the waterfall(s)...There is this one huge waterfall that falls into a little pool area, la taza, that then turns into another waterfall that falls into another taza, and the cycle continues seven times...it was really a sight to see all the continuous waterfalls....there were also a couple other relatively big waterfalls along the way...and all this water is just so bright blue! We were able to climb down to near the bottom of one of the waterfalls, (the water is freeeeeezing) and we only stuck our feet in, but the crazy Israeli, Ilan, went swimming in the water...ahhhhh....The park itself was really pretty too....lots of green green green everywhere...
That night we just had a relaxing night around the campfire with the Israelis, heard more stories and more jokes, felt boring, and then said goodbyes, since they were leaving super early in the morning to their next destination....phew. The next day Jen and i had a nice long run along the wonderful rocky and desolate road, came back and quite literally iced our legs in the freezing river/creek that ran right by our campsite...Then after lunch time when we were just pathetically laying on our cheap sleeping mats out in the middle of our campsite trying to stay warm and avoid the crazy dogs and chickens that just roamed the campsite, the sketchy men from the campsite next to us came over and gave us a plate of their wonderful campsite-food lunch...i really think they thought we had no food, since they probably didnt see us eating anything...but nonetheless, we got a free extra lunch out of it...potatoes, chicken (delish), and a tomatoe salad that Jen got to enjoy on her own...
That afternoon we caught the bus that runs by only 2 times a day and headed back to Curico to get a hostal for the night (that was the MOST disgusting place EVER) before catching yet another bus to get to Pichilemu, where we are now, surfing, eating, running, sleeping and relaxing for our last week in Chile.

2 weeks notice

wow. november absolutely flewwwww by. sorry it's been a month. anyway, obviously a ton has happened since october...let's see:

• i went to Horcon with Jen...a small coastal city about an hour and a half north of vina... (the place where jen and i originally planned to bike to previously...we took a bus this time...) and got to have a nice relaxing friday on the beach. We had to go down some really treacherous 'stair's to get to the beach, which we ended up having to ourselves, until about 30 minutes later we decided we were hungry and got up and went searching for empanadas...only making us go back up the same stairs...it was an experience. So anyway, we finallllly found a place that actually had empanadas that day, and had a nice lunch of cheese empanadas and beer along the beach. oh i love chile. later we found another beach, laid out there for a bit, while getting constant piropos from the surfers and bodyboarders out in the water....
• we had our last COPA group trip up to La Serena...yet another beach city, similar to Vina, like 5-6 hrs north. We stayed in some cabanas by el mar, which was cool so we got to do some cooking instead of gastar-ing todo our plata en restaurantes. Anyway, so the first night there all of us decided to do a big pot-luck feast, where each cabana brought a dish or two of their choosing for everyone, and it turned out really nice! There was tons of food, the guys did some barbequing, and it was really fun. The next day, Katie and Jess and I decide to hit up downtown La Serena, so we walk to the highway to get a micro, we get there ok and walk around...hit up the huge mercado, see the old colonial-style buildings and walkways, and then decide to head home. its 4.30 in the afternoon. only thing is, we didnt know the name of the cabanas, nor where exactly they were located, cuz they were sort of out of the city...so we get on a micro that we thought was the right one...turns out it starts driving teh completely wrong way on the highway, so we get off immediately, cross the highway and realize we have no idea which micro we need to subir. sooo i call Vivi, our lifesaver, and she told us to get on one that says '4 esquinas'...right after i hang up with her, one drives by us that says 4 esquinas, so we chase it down and get on! phew, we think we're on our way...hahha...well, we're going the right way, but then the micro starts going up into the cerros, and getting further and further away from the ocean, which is where we need to go....so i was voted to go and accost teh driver and ask what is going on...where do we get off...so i go up to him and say, "ehhh...vivimos en unas cabanas cerca del mar..." (we live in some cabanas by the sea...) and he cuts me off and says, "bajen, bajen al tiro" (get off right now!) soooooooooo he stops, there are people on the micro definitely getting a kick out of us by now, and we're like, hmmm...what to do now? luckily, we were right next to a line of colectivos (pseudo-taxis...) and i go up to a window and say the exact same thing "vivimos en unas cabanas cerca del mar, nos puede ayudar?" and he's like, you dont know where, or the name, or anything? and im like, ughhhhhhh no!! sooooo he tells us to get on in, we'll find it, and im just like, holy cow it shouldnt be this hard...after all, to get into town that morning it took maybe 10 minutes...so anyway, we're driving, and explaining our situation, how we'd recognize the place if we saw it but other than that we're clueless...and he just probably thought we were ridiculous...which was true, but whatev. soooooooo a while later we finally arrive...but by this time its 6:30...wow. 2 hrs getting back. we're gringas, what else can we say? Ok, moving on. that night we went to an observatory…it was absolutely incredible. The stars actually glistened and twinkled…like they do in cartoons where it looks all fake…well that’s how it really was, and there were sooooooo many stars, you could see tons and tons of constellations just filling the black sky and it was so clear…and the stars actually TWINKLED! The next day we went to a restaurant that uses only solar energy to cook the food. And while that fact alone is cool, it was even cooler to see the little town that had formed up on the mountain where this and several other solar restaurants had formed; actually, a group of about 25 women somehow got involved in the solar energy ‘world’ and ended up just starting a business of it up on this side of a mountain where the heat of the sun is just absolutely blazingly hot, and they really turned the town around for the better. This place is now a big tourist spot, the restaurants cater to tons of tourists groups, and it’s just really helped the poor community out…and these women did this, a lot of them at least, without any education, which is really cool! After that we went briefly to a pisco factory, where we got a less than brief description on the process of making pisco, and a ‘gustacion’ period where we got to taste test a few of the flavors. Pretty cool. Our last little excursion of the trip was on our way back to Vina the following day, when we stopped at Parque Nacional Fray Jorge to go on a little hike with a guide. So basically, we’re in the desert region (or where the desert region begins) in Chile, so all around it’s dry and pretty arid, not many trees, etc. Well, at Fray Jorge, we were taken into a sort of cloud forest type thing. Basically what happens, is there’s this cordillera (mt. range…) just lining a portion of the desert, and at the top of each mountain, all of the clouds and moisture that gets blown that way from the coast just gets caught in the cordillera by the plants and trees that are up in the micro-ecosystem at the top of the mountains. So when you’re at the bottom of the mountains or far away, you see this mountain range that just has clouds hovering over the top of them all. What’s really weird is that all of the plants/trees/etc that are found in the cloud forest are originally found in the southern part of Chile…Patagonia, where the weather is just completely distinct from northern chile. This cloud forest literally has an ecosystem so far removed from what’s surrounding it that its just crazy…it was a sight.
• I know there are other things that happened, but this just happened yesterday so it’s fresh on my mind. It was the last day of class for my Brasil class, and the professor (who’s a native Brasilera), brought the class some typical brasilena comida. So anyway, this experience just sticks out in my mind because it’s just so ‘chilean’…meaning, I don’t think/well, I know it would most likely never happen in the states, or at my school at least…so anyway, first we wait 30 minutes for everyone to show up, to then go on to the girls’ house who had volunteered her house for us to eat at/heat up food/etc. This girl doesn’t show up, so we start making our way downstairs to wait for her, and then she shows up finally…so we all head out as a class walking to go catch a micro to her place up in the cerros. Along the way, we stop at the huge fruit/veggie market for our professor to quickly shop for some stuff…she buys some huge lemons, onions, and tomatoes while we all wait on a busy street corner. When she’s done, we continue walking, get to the street, wait for the right micro, and finally all get on and we’re on our way. It’s a pretty long micro ride because she lives up pretty far in a cerro (don’t remember the name), but apparently it’s a pretty shady place to live…So we arrive, our professor starts heating up/preparing the food, and some students go out to buy some potatoe chips and drinks at the store at the corner so we can munch while we wait…finally at almost 5 pm our lunch is ready (let’s keep in mind that this class originally starts at 2) so we sit down and indulge. The meal, which according to my great professor is sin prejuicio because it has both black and white, consists of black beans, white rice, cooked spinach or other green stuff, and a salad. Once it’s all served on your plate, what the slaves do and what most typical brasilians will do, apparently, is just mix it all together…it was tasty…simple yet tasty. So anyway, we sit and talk and talk and talk, until we decide it’s time to clean up, so then we sit and talk some more while the dishes are being done, and then wayyy later we all finally leave the girls’ house…to go get ice cream. Our professor seemed to really want it, so we were all like, uh, sure. So we walk a lot, and finally get to this ice cream place, we all get our ice cream, sit and eat it and talk a lot, and then get on our way to head home….but we had to walk like 20 blocks SLOWLY to get to where one girl could catch her micro, and to where our professor could catch her bus to Santiago, and hten to where I could catch my micro…it was all very slow….slow and relaxed. Anyway, luckily I had nothing else to do that day because I get home, look at my clock, and it’s 8:45 at night. Holy cow. Chile.
• Ok not going to lie, I’m writing this entry really late tonight and can’t remember what else I was planning on writing about…but I just really felt obligated to post something because I’m leaving tomorrow morning for 10 days until a day or two before I leave chile, and I wanted to have a last little post so people didn’t think I completely abandoned this blog. My apologies, once again. Anyway, tomorrow I’m going down to Reserva Nacional Siete Tazas, which is in the 7^th region, farther south, and in the cordillera, further away from the coast. This reserve nacional is famous for its beautiful waterfalls, who’s water each go into 7 ‘tazas,’ or little cups…in the earth…use your imagination, or just wait for pictures…my description won’t do it justice. Anyway, my friend Jen and I are going camping there till Sunday, when we’ll then head a bit more north to a town called Pichilemu, that’s located on the coast, and is known for its crazy big waves and surfing…big surf competitions are held there every year. We’ll surf and relax and soak up being gringas for our last few days in Chile before heading back to the states where we’re expected to know how everything works.
• Classes ended well…despite the terrible last 2 weeks of school when seriously everything and their mom was due…professors realize they have few or no grades for us so they decide to assign anything and everything—absolute craziness. But it’s over.
• Soooo….sorry I really bombed the blog thing….hope for those of you who read it that you enjoyed the little that I put out there, and if not, sorry. There’s always next semester, right?!
• See you kids on the flip side…in the U S of A.

sunscreen costs an arm and a leg down here

for realssss...i just spent a good $10 on a bottle of sunscreen. blah.

but on the upside, the fact that i even have to buy suscreen is great news. the weather is finally hot and sunny (most of the time), which means that the beaches are ridiculously full of people on the weekends, and even after classes. but i dont care about full beaches...i'm just happy to be able to go outside and not freeze my a$$ off...we waited long enough for this, i'm going to enjoy it as much as i can before i have to go back to the wonderfulness (rrrright) that is winter.

just for Aunt Sloan...!

ok, from here on out I'm going to try to update once a week...try!
Anyway, so oh! i forgot to mention on the last post that i also went to a national soccer game in Santiago last week with a group of friends! It was Chile vs. Peru, and for those of you who aren't (too) familiar with the relationship between chile and peru, well, it's a tense relationship. As of late, lots and lots of Peruvians have moved into Chile looking for work, and thus stealing the jobs from chileans, making chileans suuuper bitter towards them, which only adds to the discrimination that they receive from the majority of the chilean population. Chileans, generally-speaking, think they are far superior to Peruvians in nearly every aspect, and I think this superiority complex definitely adds to the bitterness chileans have when peruvians come and take their jobs...so anyway! At the stadium, Estadio Nacional, there were more carabineros (police) than i have ever seen in one place at the same time...they were all lined up inside the track, lots of them with shields, some lining inside the seating area, and then the small, small part of the stadium wehre the peru fans were seated was surrounded by tons of cops and security people. The stadium atmosphere was markedly different than a football game in the states, or at least I think so...well, at each 'end zone' or where the goals were, (in the curved part of the track in the stands...) the seating area is called 'la galeria' and it's known to be/ characterized by its rowdy-ness (?) and chaos and noise and fun and people setting off smoke bombs, and screaming and cursing and crazy stuff (it looks like sooo much fun to be there!) and then in the rest of the seating, called 'la tribuna' is where there are normal stadium seats, and well, it's sooo much more calm there, so much so that everyone sits down the whole time, except when we're about to score or something reallllly good or bad is about to go down. I'm not kidding at all wehn i say people sit down; everyone yells at everyone else to toma asiento! (take your seat!), and everyone follows this model! it's rude to stand up! weird. maybe? also, i thought it was incredibly quiet during the game (in la tribuna where we were, not in la galeria)...i once turned around to look behind me, and everyone's eyes were just glued to the field, watching every single movement and play, afraid to miss anyting...i felt really gringa to turn around, i was clearly probably missing something on the field...but at the same time, when people did yell, man, they cursed the refs, the peru team, everything...they let their cursing fly to the wind...there was this kid two rows behind us, couldn't have been older than 10 or 11, and man, he was there yelling right along with his dad the same foul phrases and everything! To say the least, it was a pretty comical situation just putting everything together...oh, and of course, chile won. 2-0. the cheer they would not stop yelling the whole game was: "CHI CHI CHI! LE LE LE! VIVA CHILE!" (in case you wanted to know...it's pretty catchy, no?)

ok...this weekend my friend Kam and I took a quick day trip up to a little city (town?) called La Ligua, about 2 hrs. north of vina. My host family had mentioned it severallll times to me, telling me that the city is famous for its fabrics/sweaters, and its dulces...which are really just pastries. So I figured i had to go and see this place before i leave...The city itself is really small, and when we arrived at the bus terminal, when we got off we, along with everyone else, was immediately bombarded by los vendedores de los dulces (people who sell the dulces...they just line the streets!)...we resisted on the sweets, and just took a stroll around the town to see if it had anything else to offer us before we indulge...well, turns out this town is just like nearly every other small town and has its many kiosks in the plaza selling the typical artesania, though this town was much less tourist-oriented than the other cities ive been to...which was a relief...though it didn't help with the many stares along the way...oh well. So anyway, we asked someone for a suggestion for where to eat lunch, and we ended up in a pretty neat, typical restaurant, nothing special...but then i got this drink. this is clearly an exaggeration but i dont care, it was so refreshing. it was called 'leche y frutilla'...milk and strawberries...um sounds simple, and it is, but this one was delish! it had this foamy top, and it was freezing cold and just delicious and its soo easy to make! I think ive just been missing smoothies that having a drink similar to one just stands out so much. Annyway! After lunch, we headed over to the neighboring town called Valle Hermoso to check out 'los chalecos' (sweaters), because apparently that's where they were moved to, and well, it was pretty disappointing. There was this one main street, and it was just lined up and down on both sides by stores selling sweaters...and the sweaters had nothing special to them either! I was expecting alpaca wool, or something along those lines, but noooo. In the end, we walked through most of the stores, i think just wishful thinking, but by the end we ended up chillin with this vendedor de dulces de la ligua, whose name is Mauricio, and it was so much fun! At first we just asked him where to catch a micro back to La Ligua, but he was pretty helpful, and his dulces looked tempting, so we each bought one and ended up sitting there with him at this bus stop and talking to him and a few other chileans that were just sitting there for a good while! A few micros went by and each time he'd look at us questioningly, and we were just like, nahhh, let's talk. I hate to be so presumptuous, but after we sat down with him and started talking to him, he got a lotttt more business from everyone! He kept calling us 'los prometedores de los estados unidos, directamente a los dulces de la ligua' (as if to say we came from the US just to la ligua for the dulces...hah)....he even used me as a pseudo bag-woman to help him bag the dulces...haha...So we had a pretty good conversation, he kept cracking jokes with us and everyone else on the street and it was a ton of fun...then we returned to la ligua to go to this cafe artesenal that makes dulces de la ligua, and of course they were twice as expensive, but oh.my.gosh. they were like 10000 times better, so it was sooo worht those extra 25 cents of difference! haha no seriously, we tried the BEST alfajor i've ever tried. ever. and just everything was suuuuper rico there! So anywya, after that, i went to a street seller and bought some for my family (my mom had given me was is equivalent to $5 and told me to buy what i can...i walked away with 25 dulces...not bad...though i looked suuuper touristy...what's new?) That was pretty much it...a calm day, but out of vina and with a new atmosphere, and we spoke spanish like the whooole day...which we definitely didnt have to, so that was reallly good and beneficial i think.

WEll, that's it for now. Off to tomar once con la familia...hasta pronto!

2 meses mas?

wow. i apologize for being absolutely terrible at updating this thing. a quick recap on my last few weeks here in chile:

• a couple of weeks ago, Jen and I decided to rent bikes and ride up to a city called Horcon, north of vina...well, first we had to get out of vina, but it was a bit complicated because on the north end of vina there was some construction, so riding the sidewalk wasnt really an option for a portion of the way...luckily, there was an older guy riding a bike in front of us right before the construction part, so we just decided, what the heck? let's follow this guy, he seems like he knows what he's doing! hahaha. welll, that decision, which i probably never would have done in the states, led us to riding our bikes through vina traffic, right along side teh cars, dodging oncoming traffic, and eventually leading us to safety...omg it was crazy...jen and i were yelling at eachother in the traffic, trying ot contain our...surprise/shock/amazement about what were doing...it was crazy. ok, but anyway, the ride turned out to be wayyy more north than we originally thought, but we only decided to turn around after riding a good 3 hours north, and still not reaching the town...hahah...Jen is a triathlete, aka, she can bike/go up hills/not die...I, on the other hand, was...struggling. There were a few pretty good hills, but i guess to make up for those hills, i had some great views: the view up and down the coast, some hills/mts. in the distance, etc. So anyway, after deciding to turn around, we biked back to Con Con, got some empanadas really fast, and took our time coming back to vina/valpo to return the bikes...we rented the bikes out at 10 that morning, and returned them at 4 that afternoon...needless to say, my legs were dead! oh! and how could i forget? I got in a head-on collision! on my bike, of course....we were on a sidewalk (a pretty narrow one..) along the highway in between vina and valpo, i was in front, and coming toward us were two guys on bikes...so i get over to the right side of the sidewalk, which i thought was normal...but the guy coming our way decided to go the same way as me...sooooo we ended up just crashing head-on...it was pretty hysterical...jen and i just could not stop laughing...i think the guy was just soo embarrassed, he said nothing and biked off...hahah...no injuries, but soo soo funny!
• the next day we ran in a "5k" in vina...adidas is doing a running tour through all of Chile, and they had a 5k here in vina, it was free, near our houses, so we were like, why not? well anyway, this "5k" turned out to be maybe 2 miles...i really don't know what it is here in Chile with races, but everyone ive done so far (ok, only 3, but still!) is either so blatantly short, or too long. But after the race, one guy was saying that they just call it a 5k for marketing purposes...ok, that kind of makes sense, but whats so hard about naming it for the distance it really is, or just making it a real 5k race?! Nonetheless, it was fun. It's really funny here: there are lots of free races (maybe thats why i shouldnt count on them being the real distance...?) but before everyrace when everyone gathers together near the start, there's a stage with people leading aerobic exercises (like jazzercize, i suppose), yoga/stretching sessions, and just major 'pump up' stuff going on. it's really funny to watch/be a spectator at that sort of thing, especially because i think if something like that were to happen in the states before a race, not a whole lot of people would take part in it, or be embarrassed to be jumping around doing crazy things like that...! but here, everyone does it!
• i read a whole novel (300 pages, in spanish por supuesto) in 24 hrs for a test the next day. i really really thought i would either a)never finish it on time, or b) just not start it in the first place, and see what happens...oh but no, i did it. in retrospect, it's just so funny...i just had this inclination that the chileans in my class wouldnt do it, and figured it wouldnt be a problem if i didnt do it either, but man, i did it...and it was actually a good book! but, when i got to class the next day, only me and the two other gringos in my class, and two chileans had actually read the novel. and what did the other studnets do when she passed out teh test to us? oh, they left. yep, that's right. they said they had 'other stuff' to do, and that's why they couldnt finish it, but um, hello? and i dont? gee, getting some sleep that night would've been nice...oh well, we took the test, and we most definitely got some major brownie points from our prof. yesss!
• i traveled to Santiago to the Spanish consulate to get my passport notarized for my spanish visa...I really had no idea where the consulate was, aside from teh address, but i asked Pam y Vivi (the most amazing program coordinators) if i should call to ask for directions, or if they knew where it was, but they jsut took over for me. Pam called the consulate right away, asked them what metro station to get off at, and then printed out some maps for me to see how to get there! I didn't even ask for that much, muchless expect that! Anyway, it was reallllly easy. the consulate turned out to be just a few blocks away from the metro station, and i just had to drop off my papers and passport, and that's it! Jess came with me (she insisted i not travel alone), so when i was done with what i had to do after a quick 15 minutes, we were like, ughhh what do we do now? So we ended up walking around for about an hour, before deciding that santiago is just so big, and you'd have to have an idea of what you wanted to do there/know where to go, in order to do something worth your while, so we went to a restaurant real quick before heading back to vina...Then, the next week i went back to pick up my paperwork from the consulate, and mail it off...it felt great to be able to navigate my way through these transactions alone in chile! yes!
• last weekend, Christan, Jen and I went hiking/camping in El Parque Nacional La Campana, between vina and santiago, because we had monday off school for some religious holiday...we left friday afternoon, stayed in a hostel in Olmue on friday night after going grocery shopping for the next couple of days....So early Saturday we arrived at the park, talked to the guy at the entrance who told us about some waterfalls at the other side of the park, so we decided that was our goal for the weekend--to hike over to them before we leave monday morning...So Saturday was really just a day full of uphill climbing with our heavy backpacks on, full of food and water...mann...its almost a week later and i still feel it in my legs/butt! turns out the trail wasn't clearly marked, so we ended up taking a wrong turn at the top of the mountain, making us go in the wrong direction for the waterfalls, so we ended up somewhere totally different, thus making it impossible for us to be able tos ee the waterfalls, but oh well. So we got to the campsite that night, and well, i think i just attract boy scouts. even in foreign countries. there were TONS of boys running around, well into the night, all around the campsite...the boyscouts here have chants that they kept shouting nonstop all weekend, and it was pretty interesting because, well, as far as i know, when the boyscouts/really when anyone goes camping in the staes, you get up with teh sun, or relatively early, right? or am i mistaken? well, we were heading out for our hike the second day around 12 after having an easy morning, and the boys were just then getting up and ready...and then at night they were up till like 12-1ish...is that weird or is it just me? ok whatever. the weekend was fun. the three of us ended up camping in a 2-PERSON TENT. biggest. mistake. ever. the first night, i was lucky enough to be in the middle, which basically means, lay on the hard ground (we didnt have sleeping pads), and dont move. dont move at all. even if youre uncomf, cold, hot, in pain, or need to go the bathroom. it was super painful. i slept a good 1.5 hrs that night. the next night i was on the outside, whihc is equally painful, but with more space to move my head...that was good. :) all in all, it was a good weekend. really relaxing and fun!

ok, i know there's more, but those stand out in my memory right now...and oh my gosh! less than two months left here! how crazy...time has just absolutely flown by down here...maybe because i'm in the other hemisphere?! JUST KIDDING.

cuidense!
-amor-

here's a funny story...

...4 of my 8 classes this week were cancelled, and 2 of them were 3-hr. long classes...mannnnn chile. I don't even know what I do with my time...it feels like my days are full of stuff, but then at night i'm like, "what have i done today?" But it's okay; I spend a lot of time with my family, well, mom and sister, just talking about random things, so at least I'm using my spanish...my friend Kam and I were talking yesterday and she pretty much summed up how I feel down here...pseudo what she said: there is just a constant sense of tranquility and relaxation, without feeling the need to go out and DO a bijillion different things...the lifestyle down here just promotes that kind of perspective, i think, and it's a nice feeling to have...for the most part.
I started volunteering at a public school about a week or so ago; I'm volunteering through the program Ingles Abre Puertas, or "English opens doors." Basically what I do is work with an English teacher once a week during english class and essentially lead the lesson; the goal is for the kids to just get used to talking in English more, feel more confident about it, and obviously having a 'native' english speaker helps them out...the teacher i work with speaks good English, but she still has her moments where what she says is just...weird. The 'kids' are 16-17 yrs. old, and they're all suuuuper nice, funny, friendly, and speak surprisingly good English! At the beginning they were shy and didn't want to open up or ask questions, but as each class progresses it gets better and we have a fun time doing silly speaking activities...it's even helping my spanish because they ask what a word is, like last time they had to choose fruits and veggies for the activity, and i learned alot of vocab words then, and sometimes before and after class i'll talk with the kids...(i love it b/c each time they compliment my spanish! yesssss! i think that's my favorite thing to hear down here!) So anyway, I really like it, but it's too bad I just recently started it (the company who organizes it took like a month to get it together...arghh), because i only have 2 months left! omg!!!
Here's another funny story: some friends and I--Maddie, Jeff, and Jen--ran in a 10k last weekend in Valparaiso, really just doing it for fun, and mainly to get a t-shirt that says 'valparaiso medio-maraton' on it (ballllller)...so anyway, the weather that morning was kinda nasty (cold and pseudo-misty and cloudy and cold!), so we show up, try and warm up inside the building they were using, and then went out to the start line...Earlier when we showed up some men were unloading a big cannon (yes, you read that correctly...a CANNON) from a truck and we were just joking around that they were going to use that to start the race...well, as it turns out, we were right, but we didnt realize we were right until the ground shook and my ears started ringing after they shot it off...OMG i freaked out! We were all expecting a simple gun to go off, but nooooo! So anyway, we run the race, finish, and wait around afterward (during which time we met a crazy cool girl who's studying abroad in Santiago and had come down with some friends to run the race...funny how meeting another gringo wherever you go immediately turns into an instant friendship, if only for 2 hrs)... There was the half marathon still going on so we had to wait for the awards ceremony until that race finished, so we went over to a store nearby in attempts to warm up...when we get back, we're approaching the stage where they had apparently already started the awards ceremony, and we hear Maddie's name being called, and being told repeatedly to come up to the stage! We were all kind of surprised, but anyway, Maddie runs up there because she got first place in our division, and she got a medal and a trophy! it was crazy! Then they call my name, and i'm like, whattt? (jen finished in front of me, so i thought there was a mistake...) and they give me 2nd place and a medal! and then in the following division they call Jen up to get her 3rd-place medal! (older division) This was sooo crazy! Apparently, we found out that running as a sport is really only what adults do down here! I think we were among the only people in our divisions running the race, and to add on to that we were all gringos, stealing the medals! It was great! And also, at runs in the states, as far as i'm concerned, you don't get trophies for winning...do you? well, i wouldnt know--there's no way i'd place in the States, which makes my medal seem so much cooler! hahahaha...my new prized possession... :)

Aside from that, life continues on...Jen and I are running regularly nearly everyday together, and I've noticed that I'm in such a better mood now! Man, I guess I just can't ever stop running...darn :) Today Jen and I went to Club Sporting, which is basically a huge horse track and place for horse races, with tons of soccer fields inside the track, and an old dirt track, which we went to...we started doing an 4x800 workout, but after our second 800 this stupid dog started bothering us and wouldn't leave us alone. When i say 'bothering us,' i mean, he was biting our shoes, wouldn't let go, was biting our shoe laces, undoing them, and 'nibbling' at our ankles, without actually biting us, but he would NOT leave us alone...it was really scary...we were pseudo-laughing about it, but at the same time on the verge of tears because we just didn't know what to do...and to make it worse, there was a runnign class from some school at the track, and they were just watching us and chuckling to themselves, as we're there, flipping out about nearly getting bitten by a stray dog...so we gave up with the workout and were on our way out, when the woman with the group came up to us and told us to run with rocks in our hands, and if the dog continues to pursue us, to throw rocks at it...we laughed but totally took her seriously and grabbed a few rocks...so then we decided to just try again at the workout, and actually even just pretending to throw a rock at the dog scared him, and he left us alone! Long story short, lesson of the day, i'm not running without rocks anymore. no rabies for me.

autorretrato

ever had to describe yourself to someone else? have you ever really thought about how'd you describe yourself to others? hmmm...well, we did this for my spanish class and i ended up really liking it...it's based off Neruda's autorretrato...en estilo nerudiano:

Con respeto a mi persona, soy o creo ser pálida de tez, adversaria de perros, amiga de mis amigos, guarda de secretos, pésima de correspondencia, peligrosa de manejar, competidora a perpetuidad, odiosa de teléfonos, fanática del correr, sensible de las emociones, admiradora de la tierra, las estrellas y el mar, mujer de los caballeros, amante de los rubios, entusiasta del sol y el verano, atemorizada por la aviación, mañosa de la boca, aficionada a libros, líder por casualidad, pensativa en la naturaleza, observadora sin defecto, golosa todo el año, inútil en el frío, llena de energía bajo el sol, incansable consumidora de agua, intelectual apasionada, estudiosa, leal en relaciones, partidaria de libertad, gato en investigación, tímida en confrontaciones, feliz en amor, individuo obstinada, independiente, espontánea con amantes, coleccionista de recuerdos, rápida de amar, y nada sin mi familia.

Three Cups of Tea...

...is about how much tea i drink in a typical day...maybe that's why my teeth are slowly changing their color. Ok, but actually, that's the title of a book i just finished reading, and i just wanted to recommend it to everyone. The authors are Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, and it's the story of "one man's mission to promote peace, one school at a time..." (off the cover). Basically, it narrates how Mortenson's failed attempt at climbing K2 in the Himalayan mountains led to his discovering this small town that inspired him to build them a school...eventually leading to the founding of a whole institution for the purpose of building schools and promoting education all throughout Pakistan/Afghanistan/other 'stans', etc....highly recommend it!

so i got a cavity...then i went north

Getting a cavity here in chile showed me a part of life here I wouldn't have known otherwise...the wonderful healthcare system...as far as I'm concerned, people don't have family dentists, they just go to a clinic, sign in, and wait for the next available dentist to see what's wrong with them...so when I told my host mom my tooth hurt, she responded immediately with, let's go to the clinic right now! Well, I convinced her to wait till the next morning, but when we got there--after the car breaking down in the middle of the road and me and some old man having to push it into the parking garage--i got to experience what i assume chileans have to do on a regular basis just to see a doctor...it's called waiting. we sign in, say i need to see a dentist urgently, as i was leaving that evening for the north, and got to wait. i got called back, told the dentist what hurt, was told to go back out and wait until the xray lady was ready...got called back for xrays, sent back out, got called back again for xrays, waited, saw the dentist again, and then got the most painful and long-lasting anesthesic shot in my gum to get a hole drilled in my tooth and some temporary filling until after i returned from my trip...all in all, this process took about 3 hrs.

but then, finally, i was on a 20-hr bus ride up north! me, Jess, Jeff, and Andrew went north to San Pedro de Atacama and Iquique for the week of Fiestas Patrias. San Pedro is basically a major tourist city, but rightfully so, as there are tons of tours to take to see cool things nearby...
Our second day in San Pedro, we got up at 3:30 to go see the Tatio Geyser 3 hrs away...when we were standing outside our hostal waiting to be picked up, people were just then returning home after a long night of carreteando, and there was still lots of loud music playing throughout the city...haha...anyway, the geysers were cool...there were tons of other tourist groups out there too, all with there little tables of desayunito standing outside the vans, and people huddling trying to keep warm in teh freeeeeeezing cold weather. Jess and i both got a case of the altitude sickness...no vomit...but still no good. after that, our group went to see some termas where people went swimming...and then we went on a little hike to a small waterfall, and got to see some cool cacti, some rocks, plants, etc...the north is so pretty!
The next day, the guys and i biked to Valle de la Muerte to go sandboarding--another really popular thing to do on all the sand dunes...it was tons of fun, but my camera is now almost dysfunctional after getting sand in the lens...ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh...later that day, we biked 12km to valle de la luna to explore around and watch the sunset...it was just absolutely espectacular! actually it was really funny because on our way up a big sand dune to watch the sunset, we were just a few of the tons of people who were making this 'pilgrimmage,' if you will, to see the sunset...but the at-times-difficult-and-uphill bikeride was well worth it, to sit up there and have a panoramic view of everything around you--the mountains in the distance, the various colors of the sky, etc--as the sun set...in the middle of the desert...bacan! then we got to ride back to san pedro in the dark...that was fun...!

after san pedro, we made our way even more north to Iquique, a city on the coast that seemed pretty similar to Vina...we took an overnight bus ride, that i originally thought would arrive there at at least 7 in the morning...WRONG! we got to Iquique at 5:30 am...i really just thought this was the funniest thing...hello?!?! what are you supposed to do/where are you supposed to go at 5:30 in the madrugada in a strange city? well, luckily our hostel for the following night was chill and let us show up around 6 to have us crash on the couches till we could get our room later that day....ahhaha...what a day. BUT! jess and i went paragliding! apparently this is a hugely popular thing to do, and the guy that i went up in the air with actually came from germany to south america: brazil, argentina, and finally chile, just for the paragliding! it's a legit sport...aparentemente. anway, it was awesome...to put it simply.

after our time in iquique, we got on a 24-hr bus ride to head back to vina...except this time the bus didnt play a single movie the entire time...oh. my. gosh. jess and i were going crazy. but oh well, i'm here now, just facing all the work i have yet to do for this upcoming week... it was a good trip, but i'm glad to be back... :)

Mendoza!

I went to Mendoza with my host mom and sister last weekend...we really just went to buy my sister ballet shoes because they're cheaper there, have more options (or something along those lines...) so I suppose I shouldn't have expected a weekend to go explore the city, but I did anyway...ohhh well...we got lots of walking in, saw some reallllly good-looking argentinian men and women, ate good food, and then went to the zoo...!
So anyway, we took a 9-hr bus ride through the Andes to get there, which was obviously a really scenic drive, even if at times I seriously thought we weren't going to make it up and around all the crazy/steep/scary switchbacks...but we got there. The first day we showed up, me and my sister and mom stood around listening to tons of men try to persuade us to stay at their respective hostels. My sister and I stood around for a good 10-15 minutes while my mom stood listening to this one guy try and persuade her to let him drive us around the city, showing us sites and find a hostel...which from the beginning i knew my mom thought it was a bit sketch and didn't want anything to do with him, but for some reason she couldn't get the nerve up to just say NO...anyway, we eventually found a hostel, put our stuff up, and went out to walk into town. Mendoza is a decent-sized city, and it's really pretty...it actually has trees on the side walks! We took a good 4 hrs or so looking for stores that sell ballet shoes, found some good places, but my mom felt rushed, so we'd return the next day to buy the shoes... that night in the hostel we met a nice Chilean caballero during once, he talked to my sister and tried to convince her not to study psychiatry...even though los psicologos are suuuuper popular/comun here in chile. next day: we walk in circles around the city because my mom/sister (my sister especially) had a fear of asking for directions (they reminded me of north american men...haha) so they preferred wandering, looking for obscure stores instead...oh well it was ok, that way we saw lots of the city...that night in the hostel i met a guy from north carolina, Blake, who was traveling around different countries in south america, working at farms and the like to study the different techniques used, etc...we went out that night to have a little wine-tasting of our own...we bought a couple bottles of mendoza-n wine, brought them back to the hostel, and sat out on the terrace talking for a while with my sister...good times. Our last day in mendoza, we went around the city a bit more, ate lunch on the peatonal and saw/listened to some great Mariachi music and Mexican singing (i felt more at home then than any other time here in s.a.), then went out to the Mendoza Zoo...which is prettyyy big...definitely the biggest zoo i've ever been to, and saw lots of lots of animals...oh! and on the way back to the hostel that night, we were walking through the street, when we approached a dressed-up barney in the street...earlier that day he had been handing out balloons, etc. to little kids, and he's barney, so i figured he was nice and gentle and not scary. WRONG. Anyway, so we're about 5 ft away from him when he jumps in front of us three, throws his arms out and is like, BOOOO! what?!?!?! barney is not supposed to scare people. so anyway, i like jump into the street, scared and just shocked out of my mind, my mom and sister are cracking up, and there are some men behind us telling barney not to scare the 'nena'...omg...
ok. things i noticed about chileans/argentines/etc:
-chileans don't like to ask for help, directions, or risk the shame of not knowing an answer (confirmed by my host mom...)
-argentine people are very, very good-looking...more so than chileans :)
-argentine people have much more personality than chileans (told to me by my mom, confirmed by me!)
-argentine people take 4 hr lunch breaks in the middle of the day...makes buying stuff dificil...

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Now after having taken tests in nearly all of my classes, i can officially confirm that i worry wayyy too much about the level of work required/expected from me, and lose sleep for no reason...example, i stayed up till the early morning studying all the info given to us for a test in my vasque class...dates, lots of numbers, names, vocab, etc...get to the test, it's like 8 questions: fill in the blanks with correct tense of the verb, write out how you'd introduce yourself, label the different provinces, and answer a couple short answer questions...like 20 minutes worth of work...wooooh, wayyy to go, caitlin.

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today at lunch i had a good conversation with my mom about the maturity level of south american guys, mainly my brothers. Since it is Chilean culture (and basically any other south american culture) to live at home with the family until they get married, or find a decent job after the university, many guys still have nearly everything catered to them up until their late 20's, even into the 30s, or as my mom puts it, "they need help breathing" haha. Anyway, i can't help notice day in and day out how my brothers act, what they do, and how my parents react to them, cater to them...I'd say this alone is one of the most DRASTIC changes for me to have to get used to...perhaps because i am used to doing things on my own, feeding myself when im hungry, asking for directions (lord knows i always need help with directions), etc. So anyway, to put this in some sort of perspective, both of my brothers, 23 and 26, have girlfriends, and if they're not physically with their gf, they are either talking on the phone with them, or talking online with them...i mean literallly, they are always always always on the computer with them, and get frustrated if my sister needs to use the computer to do hw, or the phone to call a friend...another example that i thought was ridiculous was 2 days ago when my bro had to take a micro to Con-Con (a small little 'city' right outside of Vina...)for a class...the whole family is familiar with Con-Con, but my bro didn't knwo where he was supposed to get off the micro and didnt want to ask the chofer where to bajar, so he didnt want to go alone...instead, he wanted his dad to drive him to where he was supposed to go and drop him off. My mom and dad thought that idea was bogus, since 'todo el mundo toma la micro' a con-con...but alas, my dad got up early the next morning and took him there himself...hmmm anyway, i thought that it was really just me who noticed the guys' dependence on their parents/girls, so i've always been afraid to bring it up with my parents...but today somehow the subject came up and my mom, as well, thinks that guys here in chile, especially nowadays (compared to guys when she was their age) are just simply immature and ridiculous. When i heard my mom say this, it was as if i had a huge weight lifted off my chest...it wasn't just me who thought this! She even told me that sometimes when I'm not in the house and something comes up with the boys, she and my dad will compare them to me, telling them to grow up and be more independent like me...ahah i'm sure they just LOVE hearing that! hahaha

k that's it for now...i leave tomorrow to go north to the desert for the week of fiestas patrias! i can't wait!

lesson of the day...or month...

guys here are so very immature. maybe because everything in their life is catered to them up until they decide to move out of the house...? it's bordering on unbelieveable...

lo que pasa, pasa

So classes are in full swing, and now I can definitely say that school here is sooo vastly different than back in the states, or at least at Southwestern. Attendance isn't a huge deal, especially if you have two sessions of the same class right in a row; alot of people will come to the first half and not stay for the second half...seriously, school here compared to our curriculums/classes/professors at SU is soooooooooooo easy and such a joke! In a weird, discombobulated way, seeing how education is here and liking it all the same, its made me soo appreciative of my education back home, and not only MY education, but our whole school system back in the states. There are times when I'm like, "oh yah, chile is all up-to-date with the states, blah blah blah" etc. but then even later that day, or the next day, or later in the week, little things happen, or I have a convo with someone and I realize, "wow, chile is sooo lagging in this, or in that, etc." I've had several convos with my family about upper education here, about the healthcare system, about politics, etc, and its just really....(for lack of a better word), really interesting, to compare the states and my personal experiences with how it is here in Chile, but then I'm like, DUH, thats what this experience is all about! so its really great to just sit there sometimes, and just imagine how it could or would be in the states...
Also, the workload here is a lot less, and still the students don't do it...I guess I'm just used to always having tons of reading/writing/etc up at southwestern, and being surrounded by people who I don't know...actually do their work...that now being put in a big university with tons of people and easy work (for the most part) is just really...strange. For example, for my lit. class we were supposed to read 2 stories and have something to talk about in class...easy...well, we had 2 wks to do it because class was cancelled one week, but still in class, he went around the room asking who had read it, and well, let's just say it was really only the gringo's in the class who had done any of the reading, minus a few chilean exceptions...and still the prof just joked about no one having done the work, after he walked out of the class to have a chat on the phone...hahah oh man it's so different for me. In another class, we have to write a paper on a subject of our choice, and our profe even said we could write it in english if we wanted to...WHAT?? who does that? but at this point, writing a paper in english would be harder for me to do anyway...pheww, just spanish for me, please.

Another thing, while I really like the 'chill' culture here (duh) and I could totally see myself adjusting and adopting/adapting to this way of life, it's made me realize how american I am, or shall I say NORTH american (some people here are pretty picky...) I mean, it's as simple as, I love getting up in the morning early to go for a run...but here, it's like thats taboo, or in my family at least. Why not wake up later and run later? I feel like I waste so much time sitting around (perhaps i should be doing other things, but I usually have nothing else to do), waiting for the appropriate time to do something.....

I've found a running partner, Jen, who is a crazy triathlete and has professional friends up at her school. We ran in what we thought was going to be a 6k race, but it turned out it was only about 2 miles, and it was all about participation, not competition...get this, we show up to the place where the 'race' was going to start, and they have a stage set up in front of a large open area for people to gather around, and first they have a yoga instructor up on stage going through a quick yoga routine before the race, and then afterwards, they have a Richard Simmons protege going through a warm up 'routine'...? Just picture lots of people jumping around doing crazy stretches to soem good music and people in costumes the shape of hearts walking around...I wish I had my camera! Anyway, so Jen and I are going to start running together in the mornings, and we're planning on doing a half marathon at the end of Sept. (maybe) but then definitely a half maraton at the end of October down south in Los Angeles...apparently it's a really small race, but you get to run through a cool, small, cultural town and see some good sights, and it only costs about $15 to enter...so we figured why not?!

My family just had some family friends over for once, and as usual, my family warned me that they talk suuuper rapido (like all chileans) so I just expected the normal...Nope. My family wasn't kidding...We're sitting around the table eating/talking/me listening, and man, I felt like I was back in my first week here in Chile...especially when more than 2 or 3 people start talking at the same time,and there's like 4 conversations across the table...it's insane...also apparently I'm not so great at hiding my confusion with all my facial expressions, so that made for some awkward situations when someone would point it out to everyone else and they'd basically just sit there staring at me and laugh...yesss. But other than that, once was fine... :)

Next weekend I'm traveling with my sister and mom to Mendoza, Argentina for a long weekend getaway. My sister here is a ballerina and apparently she can only get here ballet point shoes (i don't know what they're called in english...zapatillas de punta...) in Mendoza, and you can't order them online...so it calls for a trip! My mom and sister keep telling me how stoked they are to go, and how beautiful Mendoza is, so it should be really fun. It's about an 8 hour drive on a bus to get there, so we're leaving thursday morning, getting there in the afternoon, and we'll have until Sunday to just explore around and eat 'media lunas,' (some sort of dulce/postre/dessert thing) which evidently are the greatest thing under the sun, and they're suuuuper rico, so I have a feeling we'll be eating those at every meal knowing my mom...

hasta pronto-

loving it!

sorrrry it's been so long since i last updated this thing, to all of you who are sooo interested in the whereabouts of caitlin. A lot has happened since the last time I updated...to sum it up let's see, I played ultimate frisbee for the first time in my life and loved it and am now hooked, i've been running (almost regularly...wellll not as regularly as i'd like, but still) along the beach and the gorgeous views of the ocean, Valparaiso, and nearby Renaca, i've fallen, or shall we say i've eaten it, various times on the sidewalks of Vina and gotten some great applauses from the encouraging Chileans, i've started classes and finally gotten used to the routine, i've gotten closer and much more comfortable talking to my family, i've gotten sick, i've traveled to a small town outside of Santiago called Cajon de Maipo for a long weekend trip with some friends, and i've had some fun times on the beach late at night with chileans (and gringos, which in Chile does not have a bad connotation. Everyone who is from anywhere outside of South America is referred to as a gringo).
My classes are pretty varied as far as subjects go, but they're all classes that are pretty unique to South America, I suppose...I'm taking a required Spanish class with people from my group, and it's actually really fun. Our profe is really cool and he's great at teaching us all the little idiosyncrasies of speaking 'chileno'. Also taking a class called 'Temas Sociales y politicos" and i really like it...it's basically learning a concise/brief history of contemporary Chile and how everything that has happened recently has affected Chile hoy en dia; the next class is called Brasil: magia y diversidad...i LOVE this class. The profe is a native Brasilena (afro-brasilena to be exact) so she has kind of a crazy accent, mixing her portuguese accent with her imitation of the Chilean accent, so it's kind of hard to understand her sometimes, but she cracks jokes all the time (i know this because all the chileans break out in laughter...so i just tag along), and she's good at involving the class and telling personal stories about brasilenas...soooooo basically it's an anthropology class on the effect/impact of the African traditions/customs on the Brasilena cultura...and as i'm a sucker for anthropology, it's perfect! Next class is basically another anthro class, but on the Basque culture of northern Spain. We'll also be learning basic vasca lengua, soo that'll be cool, but also really kind of hard, considering Euskera (the language) is completely unrelated to anything i've ever seen or heard. next class is a chilean literature class...obviously lots of reading, but we're just focusing on chilean short stories, so luckily the readings arent too long, nor hard...oh, last class is called Modernidad y Problemas Sociales...I think this class is going to be difficult. The profe seems good, but everything just goes soo fast and some of the terms she uses just go in one ear and out the other and i just sit there, lost as could be...but it's ok, i figure it'll force me to accost a chilean to ask for help...which means possible new friends...which means possibly more practice...vamos a ver. I've noticed how easy it is to go through an entire day not speaking barely any spanish. It's so easy to get so involved with the other gringos that when we're all together it's just so much easier to speak our mother tongue that we just pass the time in english...but we go through our phases on the micros (buses) where we really want to fit in so we'll speak our broken spanish...I think more and more of us are realizing how much we still speak english together that there will definitely be more focus on the Spanish aspect from here on out...ojala!

Ok, so this past weekend i went with a group of 7 other friends to Cajon de Maipo, a pueblito outside of Santiago. It was absolutely breathtaking there! We stayed at this cute little hostal out in the country up a dirt road, but it was great because we were the only one's at the hostal...it was basically just a wooden cabin with great views of the Andes and the small town down below. The first day we went on what we thought would be a quaint little walk through the woods, but it turned out to be a rather uphill, fast-paced climb to the top of something where there were more great views. The next day after 3 more people came, we went horse back riding up the side of the mountain, along snowy edges and nonstop switchbacks. I think I just have terrible luck when it comes to horses, because at the very beginning of the 'trek' up my horse decides it doesnt really want to stick to the 'paved' path and follow the rest of the group, but it'd rather climb up a sandy hill and eat dead grass. Great. So here I am, not knowing how to control the horse, feeling like im going to fall off the horse/mountain, and freaking out, while my lovely friends just keep on trekking, laughing up a storm as they leave me behind...luckily, one of the 'guides' we had with us, Jorge, came to my rescue and brought my horse back down and kept telling me 'sin miedo, sin miedo' (don't be afraid!), as I'm assuming ihad a shocked face...anyway, Jorge proved to be very helpful and calming during the trip up the mountain, especially when we came across steep cliffs of snow and mud and rocks...I was convinced that I would fall off my horse, or that my horse would fall down the cliff, so i tried to talk to Jorge...but i ended up just talkin gabout the riskiness of riding horses up a cliff...he assured me that no horse has ever fallen, but yes, people have fallen off the horses...thankssssss... Anyway, we finally made it to the top of the mountain and we were surrounded on all sides with views of the Andes and everything was so surreal. Standing up there I felt sooo small and miniscule and meaningless...Goshhhh! The world is sooo big!!
Anway, the next day we went into a neighboring town to go to a 'vineyard,' but it ended up being more complicated than that...two of the other girls and i caught the first micro to go to San Alfonso, and apparently Katie asked someone on the micro where we get off and the lady said the driver was going to stop for them, so we were just going to tag along...long story short, the driver didn't stop, he drove right through San Alfonso, so by the time we got off the micro, we were a good 2 km outside of town on the side of a winding road...but we had a nice walk back into town, got some good pictures of the Rio Cajon (or Rio Maipo?) and ended up eating some of the best empanadas ive had yet...then when we finally met up witht hte rest of the group we went to the aforementioned 'vineyard'...it ended up being a very small piece of land with lots of dead trees in teh back, with chickens running around, where they sell you wine and liquor in old, recycled coke bottles...quite classy if you ask me...So that's my weekend in a nutshell, but me and few people made a list of 'lessons' learned on the trip, so down below are some of the little things we learned this weekend....

• a lot more people can fit on the metro that you think
• always carry phone # of the hostal if you were given it, especially if your hostal is in the middle of nowhere, and youre getting there when it's pitch-black outside.
• it's better (not necessarily safer) to walk down hill backwards after a hike...
• always pack for freezing weather
• apparently empanadas are only sold on weekends, regardless of the numerous signs
• chileans put ketchup/mustard on sopaipillas, if you eat them plain youre weird
• PATIENCE
• always turn the califont on as high as it can go!
• granada is a beautiful city and the standard of living in spain is much better than in Chile...
• you don't always need to agree with everything a chilean says to you saying, 'si, si , si, claro', in fact, they like it if you actually say something different!...like, perhaps, 'no'.
• always take your backpack off on the metro
• carabineros (police) can be good colectivo drivers
• if you're gringo and you have $$, people will help you and treat you nicely
• chileans are reserved and speak quietly-->always be listening!
• Lou Reed has good music
• you can walk away with a huge box of food for only $40
• Dave is by far the least asian person in the group
• just because youre from texas, doens't mean you can ride a horse
• a small burro is a burrito!
• "SIN MIEDO! SIN MIEDO!" (especially when rding on a cliff...)
• micro drivers are not trustworthy
  
• i truly am part of 'mainstream america' no matter how much i think i'm not
• you can dance the cha-cha to CCR, Michael Buble, and any other music with the appropriate beat...crazzy!

I love Chile more and more everyday, and time is flying by! I can't believe I've already been here a full month...i'd like to think my spanish is improving, but i really just can't tell...What i really want is to get the accent down, because then i think i'd feel more confident to talk more, but i can't really get the accent without talking, soooo....it's hard.

that's it for now...i'll definitely try to do this more often, because it's good to just write everything down anyway to look back on...
-paz

good first impressions

Sooo today was my first day of classes. I had Modernidad y Problemas Sociales this morning and i left the house in plenty of time for the micro ride to valpo...however, i lucked out by getting who has to be THE slowest micro driver in all of chile, thus causing me to show up late...so i get to the room and open the door to a room full of people and a professor already talking...stupidly, i thought that it was still the class from before and they just hadnt gotten out yet, so i quickly left...but then i had no idea what to do...i looked at the clock and realized that well, that was really my class in there, but i didn't want to go back and interrupt again. Luckily, just then another girl walked by and paused by the door...turns out she was late too so we decided to go in together...man i must've been soo red, i felt like an idiot. however, the COPA staff kept reiterating how professors typically lock doors at the start of class, thus preventing you from even showing up late, so i guess we lucked out and at least got in the door. The class seems really interesting, the prof is laid back but there is going to be a good amount of work, i think. also, about 1/3 of the class is exchange students (she had everyone go around the room and introduce ourselves and where we come from), so i'm sure we'll have alot of comparisons to make with the chilean culture. There are two guys from mexico, one girl from Austria, one guy from Spain, (well he specifically said Vasque country, but still) and i think the rest of us are from around the US and Chile...i think it'll be a cool class...
After class i came home for lunch, had a great stew/soup mixture of sausage, spaghetti, white beans, and pumpkin squash as the broth (i never would've eaten that in the states) and a pudding/icecream-ish thing for dessert...and then on to my second class...! I had the required spanish class of the program, so it was jsut people from my group that i know already...no sweat. until i get lost in the building. yahhhhh i asked someone this morning where the classroom was so i'd be prepared, so i thought i knew how to get there...turns out i was on the clear wrong side of the building... (thanks whoever...hah), so i asked about 5 people where the classroom was, all to no avail, before i ended up going to the exchange student office to find out, at which point i was already a good 10 minutes late...anyway, i walked in late and got the professor's side glance and i was just like, mannnnnnnnnnnnn way to go, caitlin. basically, i hate being late, to classes, to the first day of classes, especially....just not a great day...i think tomorrow i'm giving myself a good 45 minutes to get to valpo and find my classes...
Aside from that, everything's great. after class Katie and I walked around Vina looking for a book store so we could buy some good spanish books, but there are none...ahhh...so we settled for going to a panaderia and indulging in a weird pastry thing to 'celebrate' our first day...woooohhh...we got alot of piropos as usual, by some pretty creepy looking guys, which is like completely normal to me now, but that doesnt mean i really undersatnd why they do it...i mean, ok i have blonde hair and that's obviously rare in chile, but honestly, its just my flippin hair color, and other than that, nothing different...i dont know...i mean, i know we're hot and all, but come on!
My mom and i talk alot everyday...or rather, my mom talks alot and i listen alot, or try to add my two cents when appropriate...i told her i just felt stupid talking at the table when al the kids wehre babbling on and on cuz i feel like i just pause the conversation and stutter so much, but she was really encouraging and said i should just give her a 'look' when i had something to say or wanted to talk and she'd stop the convo to let me talk...hahahah rrrrrright...she said that by the end of september i'd be normal and talking all the time like a regular chilean...two more months?! ahh!
k ciao!
oh, and my dad still doesnt do anything.

life is different, but good

sooo i'm not too good about updating everyday online, but I've jotted down somethings over the past few days that i've noticed/ wrote vaguely about my days, so i'm just copying/pasting...sorrry...oh and it wont let me upload pics for some reason, but you can see all my pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/caitlinbuck

Noticeable differences…

Sunday, July 29, 2007

-family is super important, at least in my family here…we/they can sit around the table after each meal for hours just talking about each other’s lives, what’s going on, etc. even if they come to a disagreement, each person does their best (or at least I think) to not offend the other, and it seems like everything eventually turns into a laughing matter…which I really like.

-hernan, the dad, does nothing in the house. This is very different from my house, where yes, my mom is in charge of most things, even if it’s just delegating responsibilities, but here, no, the dad doesn’t really do anything. From what ive seen/experienced so far, he watches tv or is on the computer all day, until he is called down for meals. At meals, he is always the first served, has his tea or other drink served according to what he wants that time. Janny always serves him tea after every meal, takes up his plate right when he is done so there isn’t a dirty plate in front of him, and the meal isn’t over until he wants to get up to leave, or until he has other better things to do. Today, he was laying in his bed watching tv, he called up his son from downstairs, and ‘ordered’ a coffee. I mean, my dad asks us to do stuff for him, but this is just really different for me…a type of machismo to the extreme. Also, he gets up in the morning early, and just acts like he’s the only one in the house, but everyone has to let it be and not argue cuz he’s the man…he’ll turn on the tv and computer and radio all at the same time right outside my room and his daughter’s room, it seems without any forethought that, yes, it is still 7 am on a Saturday morning and we would like to sleep. Other than that, its ok…

-from what ive noticed, there doesn’t seem to be much to this life down here. I mean that in the best possible way. Maybe its just because I have a professor dad and the mom bakes pastries from the house, but even from what ive heard from my friends about their families, it just seems a lot more low key, a lot of home and family time, and a lot less work time. like, its normal to see full families out in the middle of the day on the beach, boardwalk, park, etc.

-you really don’t need a whole lot of space to live, and one bathroom can work out. There’s one bathroom for the family, all the rooms are pretty small (mine is second biggest to the parents’ room), and every room is used. Versus having like 5 bathrooms, large, oversized bedrooms, and extra rooms with ‘off-limits’ furniture…there’s not really excess here, at least in my family. They live simply, and are all conscious of electric, water, etc costs. Ive gotten accustomed to waking up and opening the blinds instead of turning on the overhead light. Ive gotten accustomed to being cold and having to stand in front of the calefaccion or to throw on more layers in order to warm up. Ive gotten accustomed to always making my bed, putting everything away (even if its just thrown in the closet), and unplugging everything if im not using it. Ive gotten accustomed to waiting a week for my dirty clothes to come back; to family gatherings in my room just to chat and pet the cat, to having a ‘conversation’ and walking away not really knowing what was said to me, but knowing that apparently I did my part in listening; to sitting at the table for 2 or more hours listening to family happenings and being lost, trying to understand the jist of the conversation; to accidentally taking the wrong micro and having to find my way back home; and I think most importantly, I’ve gotten accustomed to not being afraid to ask what something means, or to have them repeat themselves, even 2 or 3 times for me to understand what they’re saying. I would say ive gotten accustomed to having people laugh at me for not understanding what’s going on, but I had that happen to me in the states so I guess im used to it…

I went to Museo Fonck today. It’s a museum about Rapa Nui, or more commonly Easter Island. It was really cool to see the progression of the advancement on the island from the original ‘tribes’ of people who lived there first. I went with Kam and Katie, and it was during this museum visit that I decided I had to go to Rapa Nui…we basically decided it was a must while we were here, so when I got home I decided to research flights out there…it costs anywhere from $600-$1500 for a roundtrip flight from Santiago…sooo we’ll see if I can actually make that happen…on the up side, while I was at it I researched flights up to Lima, Peru, and it only costs like $170 for a roundtrip flight…Macchu Picchu is definitely a go…now I just need a travel buddy. Anyway, after the museum we went to a mini theater performance at Palacio Rioja, the palace where one of the founding families of Vina del Mar lived. Obviously, compared to my house (which isn’t even bad) and the rest of the majority of Vina, this palace is exorbitant. Tons of rooms that I’m sure were never used, with fancy chandeliers and gorgeous furniture throughout. Vina was originally just an area where vineyards were located…no one lived here, until these two wealthy families decided to pack up and move out here where they basically established the town and owned everything as the city expanded. For a long time, it was just a wealthy suburb off of Valparaiso where wealthy families vacationed, but obviously more recently people have moved out here and established many many neighborhoods all throughout the city…while many people (cerca 200,000) live here, it’s still a very common vacation site for los Santiaguinos (peeps from dirty Santiago) to spend their summer months.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Today I went for a great run along the beach…it was perfect weather for shorts and a tshirt to go running, but apparently chilenos wear sweatsuits in this weather to go running…lets just say I more than stood out in my short and tshirt with my blond hair…After lunch I met up with a group of people to go walking around Valpo…it was great! It reminds me a lot of New York, or Chinatown in new york, but it still definitely has its own ring to it…I think no matter how much I go out exploring around the city, I’d still miss tons of cool things, like hole-in-the-wall shops or cafes…there are tons of little alleys connecting streets full of old and colorful buildings. I took my first ascensor today too! We went up Cerro Ascensor, and once we got to the top we had a great view overlooking a portion of the city, since it’s so big…we walked up some more hills and it was really nice and quaint up away from all the traffic and horns down below…tons of houses lining the streets, with small cafes, and cute cobblestone streets. I really liked looking out at the bay from way up there…really serene.

Later that night I went out with Andrew, Jeff, and four Chilean guys, one of whom Andrew had met on the plane on the way to Chile…at first it was pretty sketch, or flyte, (?), but we went to a pub and talked and drank beer for a while, and they all turned out to be really nice guys…a bit younger (18), but still really cool. I don’t know if it was just the fact that I was the only girl in the group of 6 other guys or what, but man I was treated like a queen, especially by the Chilean guys… (could just be the blonde hair, no doubt) They taught us Chilean slang and how life is around here, we exchanged numbers, etc…one of them, Raul, after I pseudo-tripped on the rocks on the beach where we went afterward, grabbed my hand and held it…I was like, yahhh no…but apparently, after talking to all the other Chilean guys, I found out that holding a girl’s hand is normal for friends…so I said that that’s what we do in the states with our girlfriend/boyfriend and he was like, yah us too, but we kiss them when we hold hands…or something along those lines…anyway, moral is that well, guys really take care of women down here, and that definitely wasn’t the first time ive noticed it to that extreme…also, they’re pretty touchy-feely, not in a gross way, but the whole concept of personal space doesn’t really exist down here…also, it seems like the micros down here are like loquisimos…on our way home that night we got on one at like 2 am (very early) with the music blasting with a group of teenage guys in the back of the micro jamming out and being all crazy with the driver…so of course me, jeff and Andrew started talking to them and man it was a crazy bus ride…going around all those curves and feeling like the micro might bring us to our deaths…

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Today at lunch it was just me, Gustavo, Janny and Hernan. We were all eating and such and then the cat started making this crazy noise, so Janny got up to go look at it…mind you, when I say ‘got up’ I mean, she took like 2 steps to the right to look out the window…when she did this, both Gustavo and Hernan immediately told her to sit down, that we’re eating lunch, this isn’t the time…I was really surprised! They weren’t mad at her or anything, but I don’t know, maybe it offended them or the meal or the custom or something…it’s just really weird to literally be placed in the middle of someone else’s family and life and bear witness to how they live and their lifestyle…at least now I know not to get up in the middle of a meal!

-mullets are everywhere
-cars/buses don’t pull over for sirens or flashing lights…doesn’t make the essence of ‘emergency’ seem very urgent…hmm

After lunch today Hernan went immediately upstairs and got in bed and turned on the tv. It’s a beautiful day outside…I just don’t get it…then when I was about to leave I walked by the parents room and now both were in bed watching tv…this is so weird. How do they not get bored? Go DO something.

k ciao!

i'm not in "gringolandia" anymore...

yes...my host family just told me that they, (basically all chilenos) refer to the USA as "gringolandia." Anyway...I'm here! I got to Chile about a week ago after dealing with some canceled planes, some delayed planes, and some really unhelpful airport people...after we arrived in Santiago, we went to a small town called Olmue where we had our program's version of orientation-basically getting tons of food shoved down us, learning about some basic cultural differences between the US and Chile, and making fools out of ourselves at our brief salsa/merengue dance lessons. The few days at the hotel in Olmue were kinda realllllly overwhelming, because they're basically just feeding you tons of information about Chilean culture, our host families, chilean language (which apparently is not spanish, it's Chilean and nearly impossible to understand), and what we ought to expect-or not expect- for our coming semester...I was soooo anxious to just get to Vina and meet my family and confront the city rather than sitting in a conference room listening to lectures about everything...all in all, in those 2-3 days, I felt more unsettled than I've felt in a long time, and it was sooooo hard to deal with it since I knew no one...

Anyway, we finally came to Vina del Mar where all of our families were waiting for us...everyone was nervous and excited and just really anxious to get settled and meet our 5-month family...hah...I was really scared about getting stuck with a witch or something but I lucked out...I have a mom and a dad, a 16 yr old sister Natalia, a 23 yr old bro Diego, and a 26 yr old bro Gustavo...the mom, Ale, is suuuper nice and accomodating, and most of all patient and talkative! Ever since i've arrived she's gotten me everything i need and more, and cooks great food! The dad, Hernan, is really nice as well, and pretty protective...the morning after i arrived he took me down by the coast to show me where it's safe to run where there are tons of people and a path and everything along the beach, and then when i went to take my first 'micro' (bus) by myself, he walked me to the bus stop and made sure the driver knew wehre i was going...I felt like I was in kindergarten all over again, but it's ok...i guess. Natalia and I are really starting to open up with eachother, and she's started teaching me "modismos chilenos," things that only native chileans say, so hopefully i'll be able to catch on here pretty soon...we'll see about that...the brothers are cool but i dont really see them much-theyre both in school and work and out of the house most of the time...
Vina, where i live, is a small city along the coast right next to (like 5 miles away from) Valparaiso, a large, bohemian port-city...There are colorful buildings/houses lining the streets and literally piled up the hill overlooking the bay...i really like it...havent explored the inner streets yet, but i know they're full of cool things to see/do/etc...
I'd say for now, i've never felt so limited in my ability to communicate with anyone...my family will talk to me a thousand miles a minute and i basically just sit there and smile and say 'si, si, si' over and over again...and then sometimes they'll ask me a question but i dont really know it, and they'll sit there and wait for a response, until they realize i have no idea what's going on...they're finally catching on that they talk super fast and mumble and i cant understand and the mom will say, "oh, she still doesnt understand," and then they manipulate the words alot and try to explain to me...oh my gosh it's frustrating...i really feel like a little kid learning a new language from the start. For all you spanish people, basically forget the majority of your verb conjugations, grammar and pronounciation, drop the end of most words, the beginning of the rest of the words, add a dictionary's worth of new words and phrases, some serious mumbling and speed talking, and youve got what they call Chilean. Apparently I missed the memo that chilean spanish would be this tough...

ok, more later...i'm off to freeze...there's no heat anywehre, so basically in order to get warm, you have to climb into bed...in a nutshell, getting out of bed in the morning is the worst part of my day...

two months away!

So I'm finally starting to really think about my being away, and what it takes to actually reach that point of finally sitting on the plane. I just bought my ticket to Chile a few days ago, and I'm now feeling more and more sure of my decision to actually do this whole study abroad 'thing'. I leave July 17 to meet up with the group flight to head down to Santiago...and I don't know a single person going with my program, so I'm pretty anxious about all the people I'm going to meet and get to know over the five-month period in Chile...haven't gotten my visa yet because I'm still waiting for the Chilean university to send me a form, so until then, I just wait anxiously (and excitedly) about getting all the last-minute preparations together...ahhh!!