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-