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