the big adventure

im going to miss these mountains.

2009-12-12T15:54:00.000-08:00

last weekend i camped out gypsy style with a bunch of my friends at this awesome little beach on the shore. we obviously fell under the choripan-palta spell again, and i officially have decided i will never touch, let alone eat choripan or avocado for a longg time. its way too stressful.

because who really needs a tent?
lena, jackie, me and austin (note that lena and jackie are sharing a sleeping bag)

our camping grounds.

around the campfire <3

how bittersweet it is to think that in a little over a week i will be back in the united states...and in rockville. on monday afternoon i fly out of santiago :( and into buenos aires where i will spend the week doing that argentine thing (and maybe mix some uruguay into it) with a nice little mix of the friends i met through my study abroad program and hopefully some new ones...

im never eating choripan again.

2009-12-04T10:48:00.000-08:00

so I decided to go on a full on camping trip for the first time, and what better place than San Pedro de Atacama--the driest desert in the world. sounds appealing, yeah? as sarcastic as that was intended, my experience was anything but dry (pun intented..haha so lame, but I had to put it in there).

Anna, Lena and I flew up to Antofogasta and then bused it to San Pedro, at which point we met up with Jackie, Derick and Briteye at the camping grounds. I believe there is something in the air up there because you feel like you are on a high of sorts (and we didnt even have to take the san pedro...)

The town itself is pretty turisty, but being the travelers that we are, we have gotten pretty damn good at getting around paying tourist prices. what, what. so, on saturday night, lena, anna, jackie and i hopped in a chilean man's army-style truck with a french couple, and all of us drove to the salt flats. the water at these flats are saturated with salt to the point that when you jump in, you immediately float to the top. When we first arrived, the flats were crowded with tourists, but no more than half an hour later it was just our truck of people...and so we watched the sunset together. And saw wild flamingoes flying over head. It was magical.

the four of us relaxing at the flats :)

the moon coming up

on sunday, we rented bikes in the morning, first heading to rio san pedro. after some wrong turns we finally got to the water and came across a lovely french couple who invited us to go swimming, we obviously followed and happily stripped down to our bathing suits giving the couple room to enjoy the surroundings. it wasnt until maybe 10 minutes later when we caught them casually having sex maybe 15 feet away that we were a little unsettled at the situation. at any rate it wasnt too long before they parted ways, and we set up a little picnic and enjoyed our private space (for the most part).

a picture of me biking through the desert

after lunch, we made our way to valle de la luna, a famous spot in san pedro for watching the sunset. it was filled with tourists who bused their way up. we were gypsies and walked/biked first to some caverns and then eventually made our way towards the sunset. it was breath taking...

Valle de la Luna!

happy thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T09:31:00.000-08:00

hey all, it is certainly weird being in south america for thanksgiving because it honestly feels like any other day. no worries though, a few of my gringo friends and i are together this afternoon cooking (although the food is only half as good as anything from back home...). im going to have to say the weather down here is more agreeable than anything back home. its sunny, about 70 with clear skies and best of all tomorrow im heading to northern chile for a weekend at the beach and camping in the desert. i love you all, and i miss everyone!!

Beach Weekend

2009-11-16T17:32:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I headed over to the coast, about an hour or so away from Santiago via bus, to hang out at the beach. I was just traveling with my friend Jackie, so when we randomly ended up in a fishing town called Quintero north of Valpo we were slightly disheartened to be the only gringas in town. However, we wanted something off the beaten path and we certainly got what we asked for: seafood empanadas and white wine on Friday night.

And on Saturday, paradise...

we randomly got into a discussion with one of the women who was staying in the same house/residencia as us about how her daughter (a 10 year old girl from Chile) wants to become the President of the United States. we laughed, but she got way too serious and told us it simply wasn't funny, that there are a lot of problems in the U.S. and her daughter could help. a true gyspy if you ask me.

later on Saturday we bussed our way to Valpo and lived the traveler's dream among people from Australia, Canada, Germany, England and other Americans (weird, I know)by cooking up an awesome burrito dinner followed by a lunchin chilean club.

after walking around Valpo on Sunday, we headed back to Santiago...
so until my next adventure, i hope you enjoy the beach pics :)

I can think of 25 ways I would prefer to spend these next 25 hours.

2009-11-10T09:27:00.000-08:00

We got back to Puno on Tuesday evening, and from there took a bus to Lima...are you ready for this one? A 25 hour bus ride. What, what. If you can imagine the grossest bus ride through the middle of no where, it would probably be half as gnarly as our trip. I think the bus ride actually enhanced our experience though (seriously.) For one, it was mind-blowing to see the kind of poverty that people live in. The majority of the bus ride that I was awake for was through the desert, with literally nothing but sand for miles. Then all of a sudden there would be a collection of pueblos that were all dusty and dirty, but people still lived there. And there was nothing. I am so thankful for my house back home, and hot showers, and just water in general. You don’t realize how lucky we have it until everything is taken away. In reality, not much was even taken away from me, because I could still afford to buy clean water and at least try to find hot showers (which were more or less non existent).

You can only imagine how excited life was when we got off that bus. Anywhere would have been better then inside it, but things were so much more awesome because we were in Lima, the capital of Peru which is on its coast. When we were in Cuzco we met an Aussie who gave us good vibes and recommended a hostel in Lima, so we headed over to it…and I am 100% sure this guy was a God-send. For the first time we were in Peru, we were at a place that was clean and had running, hot water. Basically, this hostel was the shit. It had really good food, super cool people working there, bomb drink specials. We were in heaven.

Nothing went down Wednesday night because we were all strangely tired after the bus ride. After dinner, we treated ourselves to ice cream, and ended on the open porch of the hostel, attempting to play drinking games, but failing miserably for lack of motivation.

Thursday we walked around the city and just relaxed. I was basically just thrilled to be clean. It was an easy-going day, the highlights were basically just eating. Low point.

On Friday, things were still pretty slow. Jackie, Anna, Austin and I went paragliding which is basically the calmest adventure sport I have ever done, especially after all the hardcore activities we have been up to these past few weeks. You are connected to this huge kite-type contraption with a guide who navigates the wind; it’s a wonderful way to check out the city and look over the ocean and I would definitely recommend it to all types of people. Even if you have heart conditions. It’s that calm.

Afterwards, we went down to the beach and dipped in the water…which was pretty dirty. Haha, there were pieces of trash, and probably hair…body parts, I don’t know, but we survived and crawled out only to lie on the rocks and nap under the sun. As we headed back to the hostel to hang out for a little bit, we ate sushi and I tried ceviche for the first time. Ceviche is a dish of I think just raw fish, as dangerous as you may think the dish was delicious, and no one got sick of it. A little more shopping, then back to the hostel to pick up our bags and then we were off to the airport. Our plane back to Santiago late Friday night and I was SUPER bummed to leave. Peru was such the adventure of a lifetime <3

on the beach in lima..

walking through the city

jackie, me, anna, and lena

Lago Titicaca and third world fun

2009-11-10T09:18:00.000-08:00

Sunday night was all about transportation. We took a train from Aguas Calientes to a place called Ollantaytambo, at which we got picked up and taken to Cuzco. From there we took a 9 hour bus ride (the equivalent of $3 USD) to Puno. How did I know I was roaming around in a third world country? When we got woken up at 4:30 in the morning randomly to connect to another bus. It was a shitshow; the 6 of us were running around between two buses with our huge backpacks alongside all these women with their kids meanwhile there were randomly a bunch of bicyclists who try to take you around like a taxi. UGH. But in the end, we found ourselves in Bus #2 with all our things, and all of our people, and without too many problems.

Puno probably has some perks to it, but we didn’t see it because our next stop was Lago Titicaca. (The name is funny really only until you get there, and then you realize, damn I have been so immature up until this point). The Lake shares a border between Bolivia and Peru and has the highest altitude in the world. Just taking a boat on the lake is equivalent to the height of most mountains. Wonderful, yes, except if you have lived at sea level your entire life and get altitude sickness that constitutes not eating and surviving only through sleeping. No big deal. I’ve had worse problems, and the best part about it was I could wake up and look onto a beautiful lake view.

Anyways, our stay on the lake was over the course of 2 days-Monday and Tuesday. On Monday we boated to 3 islands, the first two I missed because I got SUPER sick from the change in altitude. But my friends who were on the island for the tour had a little dress-up session and got to try on traditional clothes from the island while singing and dancing. Throughout the tour, we got a taste of the culture there which included a traditional round of breakfast/lunch/dinner foods, a hike up one of the mountains to get a picturesque view of the lake, and a festival. All in all it was a good time. I’m sorry I can’t give you details. Basically this part of the trip=sleeping for me. I can tell you however that the view was absolutely gorgeous, and while I have never been to Greece I imagine the views are something similar.

the Lake (I had to steal this pic from a friend because I never made it up to this view!)

Anna and I with our host mom for the night, and some random little boy from the island

this was some of the cultural and dressing up going down on the island..
(joe, anna, lena, austin, and jackie)

Lena and I after lunch on the second day

Machu Pichu

2009-11-10T09:01:00.000-08:00

Machu Pichu=bomb.com. Simply put, words and pictures together barely do the ruins any justice. After 3 hardcore hours of sleep the night before, we awoke to a free little hostel breakfast and got in line to take the buses up to the ruins sight (which are in the mountains…which is part of the reason the whole idea of Machu Pichu blows my mind—that a civilization could basically just pick a place in the middle of no where and make it one of the most reknown places in the world. Rep the Incans.) If you don’t know, Machu Pichu was actually discovered relatively recently, and part of the mystery of the ruins is the fact that historians/archeologists don’t actually know the reason behind the place. Mainly there is just speculation about what it COULD have been. Whatever it was, it still takes your breath away.

Being that we were one of the first 400 visitors (it gets thousands on any given day), we were able to also climb Waynapicchu. Almost 9000 feet of sweat and haggardness has never been so rewarding. And here we thought little Ms. Rockville, MD would willingly spend her time climbing a mountain.

Random side fact: the mosquitos at Machu Pichu make you want to scratch your legs off. Thank you nature. It is a week later and I still have nasty remnants from those little suckers. The craziest part though? I wasn’t even the one who suffered from the most bites. My friend Jackie literally had/has hundreds of bites all over her legs. She has some amazing willpower though, because while I couldn’t resist scratching she kept her hands off to let things heal. Good work Jackie.

climbing up Waynapicchu...

my friend Joe heading up one of the parts of the trek...

Machu Pichu!

up on top...

Sacred Valley Saturday

2009-11-02T15:42:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, we went on a private tour of the Sacred Valley ruins…a compilation of different ruins dating back to pre-Columbian cultures thousands of years ago. Each has its own distinct identity and it seemed odd to me that one could just sit and become lost in thought on a rock just looking at the wonders around them. We were hiking through nothing much, and so much all at the same time. And even with hundreds of people around us, it felt so quite. And peaceful. Oh, I love Peru <3

we visited a llama/alpaca farm on our tour

if you were wondering, yes that is a baby lamb.

Saturday night, we took a train to Aguas Calientes, probably the weirdest town in the world, in preparation for Machu Picchu.

What's good with Spring Break 09?

2009-11-02T15:31:00.000-08:00

As you all know, last week was my spring break and so I headed up to Peru for 10 days. It was epic. There is really no way to explain with words or pictures my experience, but I am certainly going to try. Just to make things easier on myself, I am going to break it down into sections based on where I was and what I did.

The experience began on Thursday, October 22, 2009 when I flew to Lima from Santiago, with a randomly large group of people from the USAC program, but while we all flew there together, we did not stay together. The actual flight wasn’t that long, but there was a two hour time change, which never fails to throw me off. We got into Lima about 12 at night, but my little group of 6 took a connecting flight to Cuzco, that didn’t actually connect until 5 in the morning. What does this mean? We slept in the airport. I know you are jealous, so I won’t brag by going into details. What I can tell you though, is that way too many lunchin characters hang out in the airport.

We got to Cuzco on Friday morning, and after being bombarded by taxi drivers we chose a good looking fellow and got dropped off somewhere. Basically, we wanted to go to one specific hostel recommended by Lonely Planet, but it was obvi full. So we walked around, found ourselves in a plaza with all sorts of Peruvians coming up to ask us if we needed a place to stay. My friends decided on a place, and as sketchy and third world as it was, I agreed. Let’s say I had to bite my tongue on this one. But in the end, it didn’t up being as bad as I feared.

After taking a monster recovery nap, we walked around the tourist-y Cuzco and figured out our plans for the rest of the weekend. After a coffee shop break, and din din, we came across a street festival of sorts. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell you what exactly the celebration was for, but it certainly entailed the stereotypical South American idea of crazy costumes, dancing and music.

working the streets of Cuzco :) minus Lena, who is probably taking this picture

Cuzco at night

obviously people dressed up like birds.

creepy man, there was a bunch them who did this coordinated dance. it was like a nightmare on acid.

spring break :)

2009-10-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

ladies and gentleman: i am off to peru tomorrow until halloween. it should be a phenominal experience. ill write about my adventures when i get back! besos <3

my life is hardcore.

2009-10-17T09:38:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, a group of 4 other girls and I left for Pucon via a night bus. Pucon is a city about 9 hours south of Santiago and is made up of several volcanoes. The original plan was to go climb a volcano, but because it was rainy for a good part of the weekend, conditions were not safe. No worries, though, because we found plenty of other crazy activities to get ourselves into. We arrived at around 9AM, and walked around for a little bit looking for a hostel. Once we found ourselves situated, we did a little bit of research for the activities that didn't start super early (a.k.a 7 in the morning), and discoverd a rafting company. But why go rafting, when you can go hydrospeeding? What is hydrospeeding, you ask? Well, first of all, we were told it is a sport illegal in the States, awesome. I wonder why? Because hydrospeeding consists of riding out class 3/4 rapids on a little boat that is more of a boogie board that anything else. Let's talk about one of the most intense experiences of my life: The rapids will flip you over and literally you have to flip yourself back around or else you risk drowning. Wonderful, of course you have full gear on (helmet, wet suit, life jacket...the works). However, the waves were a little too rough at one point and the board wacked me in the face, leaving me with a bloody nose and a busted lip...

those are the little boats we each rested our lives upon :)

the girls!

this was where the rapids started, but they do not give us nearly enough credit!

(sexy, i know)

my friend lena got a nice black eye as her battle wound

this last picture brings me to day 2 of my Pucon experiance. while it was too rainy to go on some of the adventures we had originally planned on, we got a chance to drink wine and relax in some of the hot springs.

chile played columbia in preliminaries for the world cup, and won!! so we HAD to go out and celebrate like everyone else and their mother. it was a crazy night, but not crazy enough to miss out on canyoneering en dia 3. this is another outdoor activity that is similar to hiking on steroids. its more than just hiking, with full gear, you hike, slide down natural rock slides, jump into rivers...

i think we look pretty hardcore haha

sliding down a natural rock slide

my friend brit

chillin on a waterfall

we extended our stay one day longer to rent bikes and tour the town and the surrounding areas. we packed a picnic and the mood was set. ohh, how romantic.

p.s.

2009-10-15T21:06:00.000-07:00

the new heading picture? yeah, i took that.

and the story continues...

2009-10-15T20:43:00.000-07:00

on saturday morning i woke up after sleeping for maybe 4 hours to go shopping. obviously, i headed solo on this trip. eugene's apartment is probably 8ish blocks away from some hardcore boutiques, and all things considered it seems weird i didn't buy any clothes from any of the boutiques. i think i was just so overwhelmed with the whole shopping opportunity environment, however i did snag some cool odd and end pieces at an outdoor market on this little trip around town. oh and i used the bathroom at starbucks: buenos aires. as much as i love all things starbucks and coffee related, i have yet to purchase something from a starbucks down here. weird, i know.

on saturday night, we again got ourselves together and went out for what was supposed to only be dinner at a restaurant for a friend of eugene's who was celebrating his 21st birthday. im not sure what i had in mind, but the night turned out wayy better than expected, and lucky for me, i met about 300 new friends. so we get to this italian restaurant and to my surprise there are about 20 people already sitting there, the majority of them are from england, but there were some chicos from argentina and brazil as well. dinner was great, nothing magical until we ate dessert, which was a traditional argentine dish made by one of the girls and was this awesome cookie/cake mix. we had planned on going back home, but i randomly got along really well with the english girls who insisted we join the party. the first party we went to was certainly fun--the students from the united states were teaching the kids from the other countries classic drinking games. i.e. beer pong, but the second party we went to was crazyyy. this party was in a little apartment, but the girls in charge had hired a dj. there were people all over the place, having a good time, dancing...the normal things. at about 6AM the police showed up and basically were like you need to turn off the music, because it is 6 in the morning. so after that we headed back to the apartment...

on sunday, we went to this HUGE outdoor market called san telmo with literally HUNDREDS of vendors and performers selling everything from food to drinks to jewelry, shoes, everything. it was delightful :)

some street vendors...

tango in the streets (obviously)...

sunday night we just relaxed because i had to catch a flight on monday morning. here is a view of buenos aires from the plane:

hey team, im still alive.

2009-10-15T20:11:00.000-07:00

as per usual, i have failed to update the world on my life in any sort of real time. what matters is that i am alive, and doing quite well. on october 1st, i flew to buenos aires to meet up with my high school friend, eugene, who is living and studying in the city. needless to say, i don't think it would be surprising if i ended up living in argentina at some point in my life because my weekend was that wonderful.

i got to eugene's apartment on a thursday evening (obviously after i had been up since 6, studying for an exam, taking an exam, then taking a bus to get to the airport), and so after a quick conversation about the trip and non-essential one-overs, we went out to dinner. basically, all you need to know about food in argentina is that it is kick-ass. the restuarant, although quite gringo-directed, gave us champagne immediately after stepping into the place, just to hold us over until we got a table (maybe a 5 minute wait)...always a classy sign that you have made a right decision in your dinner choice. all things considered, we left the restuarant at 2 in the morning, after eating for 4+ hours. wonderful.

on friday, we awoke to picture-perfect spring weather, with clear skies and joy filling the air. the plan was to go do some site-seeing, and while this was accomplished, i think something around 3 naps were integrated into different parts of the day. we took the metro to a different part of the city (santiagos transit dominates the system in buenos aires). the first stop was plaza san martin, and being that it was a friday with wonderful weather, obviously no one wanted to be at work and so they weren't...

after strolling through the plaza, we went over to puerto madero, a beautiful port in the city which was all the more amazing because of the weather :)

there was also randomly a ship from uruguay at the port that was in service for 100 years, but has since retired..as a ship. im not sure how that works, being that i have no experiance with anything boat related, or really fish related. what i did discover though, was i have a secret passion for ships because the little self tour made me so happy <3

eventually, we made our way over to "la casa rosada" which is basically the white house of argentina, but way cuter. (im not 100% sure if that was what they were going for, but they definitely win the prize)

after walking around the city all day, and napping at random plazas, we headed back to the apartment and eventually found the motivation to get dressed to meet up with some friends at a dinner party. it was super fun because the people at the party were from all over the world, and at some point during the night either english, spanish, french or german was being spoken. it inspired me to continue practicing my spanish, and to hopefully learn more languages. following dinner, we left for a club. fun fact: most clubs don't even open in buenos aires until 2 in the morning. repp. another fun fact: argentine men are out of control and grab at you like you are there long lost friend. it is stressful at times. last fun fact: the club played backstreet boys at one point during the night. plus one.

FYI

2009-10-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

Just a way too quick summary for a way too incredible weekend: Buenos Aires may or may not be the city of my dreams. I will outline my wonderful weekend once I get my photos uploaded, however I have a speech due tomorrow and a paper to write for Thursday (reasons why I love school in Chile: my speech is about drugs in the Incan and surrouding sub-Andean cultures, my paper is a review/interpretation of the movie City of God. if you have not seen it, you should probably watch it asap).

Thursday night, a group of us are heading to Pucon (a city about 9 hours south of Santiago) to climb a volcano, visit some hot springs..you know, all things I would normally do on a holiday weekend. So when I do update, it's going to be something good.

Besos!

ohh mendoza.

2009-09-30T19:13:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I took a little trip to Mendoza, Argentina, which is on the west side of the country. Without a doubt, I am going to categorize this weekend as perfect. On Friday, after classes let out four other girls and I headed over to the bus station and prepared for a magical weekend.

(From left to right: Anna-from Iowa, Me, Lena-from Washington, Jackie-from Southern Cal, and Evita-from Italy)

The bus ride is about 5 hours of driving, but because of customs it can take 6-8, depending on traffic. On Friday, our bus left at 2, and I think we got into Mendoza at 10ish (but keep in mind that there is a zone change in time). We met up with some other friends at a hostel, then proceeded to go to the coolest bar/club ever because we didn't get home until 7:30 in the morning. Right on time to eat our free breakfast at the hostel. After napping for a few hours, we took charge of the day by renting bikes and going on a wine tour. Our first stop was at this little chocolate/olive oil store that had crazy good food for free. I tried Absynth. It was absolutely the worst drink I have ever had, and all things considered I would probably try it again. Then the actually wine drinking began. We biked 6km down the road to my first vineyard. After a short explanation of the different wines, we got to drinking...

...and indulged in a DANK afternoon lunch...

the wine-tasting crew:

By the time we were finished with all of our drinks, we weren't in any shape to be biking around town so the owner of the bike-renting place (he was SUPER cute, the business is run out of his house :) and his wife/daughter/cat/dog are all hanging out. It was wonderful) picked us up, and we proceeded to drink more wine at their house with the other tourists who had gone biking that day. We were exhausted by Saturday night, so after dinner we headed back to the hostel to get some sleep <3 because on Sunday, we woke up and went white water rafting.

Obviously, Mendoza gets five days of rain on average per year, and we happened to choose to go rafting on the one day it snows. I couldn't feel my fingers, or my toes, and yet I will forever be a raft lover.

We were supposed to go zip-lining, but because of the snow, we couldn't:( That's okay though because after heading back into town, we went to this great outdoor market with cool, local vendors who rep-ed us for rafting in the snow. We ended our trip with a cute family meal...

feliz dieciocho!

2009-09-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

This weekend marked the 199th year of independence in Chile, and thus there was a huge celebration. And by huge, I mean I cannot really think of a holiday to compare it to in the United States. We did not have classes on Friday, so Thursday evening I went downtown to La Moneda in front of the President's offices to enjoy the second biggest concert I have ever been to (the biggest one was def. the free concert on the Mall for the Inauguration. Reppp Garth Brooks and Beyonce). This concert definitely held it's own; the music ranged from the traditional Cueca music in Chile, to futbol chants to what I think was Chilean rap, but I am not 100% sure because it was one of the strangest performances I have ever seen. What I really liked about the entire situation was the representation of the Chilean people. I realize this sounds dumb, but it was cool to be around people our age, as well as families with young kids and the older adults. Everyone was having a good time and strangely enough, I think everyone knew all of the songs. At midnight there were fireworks <3

After the concert, a few of us went over to a friends house, but not before stopping at a liquor store whose owner randomly gave us shots of Chicha on the house. Chicha (I hope I am spelling this right...) is an alcoholic beverage that is more or less just a seasonal drink to celebrate Independence day, think in terms of eggnog during our winter season.

On Saturday, my host mom Maria and I headed over to a barbecue at her ex-husband's family's house (I know it seems weird, but they are all still on good terms). It was especially endearing when I arrived at the house and got the warm welcoming of "The Gringa is here." Bueno. But, I am getting used to being called a Gringa. Besides the point, the family was so nice to me and lunch lasted for well over 3 hours. It obviously consisted of some good wine, fresh veggies and empanadas (which I have yet to get sick of).

Today, I went to a fonda in the indie sector of town. Fondas are more or less festivals here that consist of a wide range of things to do: vendors selling all sorts of odd and end pieces, dancing, live music, food..you get the picture. This fonda happened to be a completely vegan one where after eating all meat-free foods, everyone played Bingo. It was magical. Afterwards, I met up with Maria to go to the movies. I don't know what I had expected, but the majority of the movies here are from the United States, so they are still in English but have Spanish subtitles. We watched "New in the City" or "New City" (I don't know the title in the US because they try to translate it down here, but it always ends up being different. For example, the movie "Hangover" is called "Que paso anoche" which means what happened last night.) Anyways, the movie has a relatively large part concerning the dessert of tapioca, but because people don't eat tapioca down here about half way through the movie my host mom questioned what it was and I gladly explained it to her.

For dinner tonight, I know this sounds terrible, but I ate a hot dog with cut up tomatoes, avocado, and mayonnaise. Lunchin, I know, but they are called "Italianos" down here and everyone reps them so hard so I thought I should at least try it. In reality, it wasn't terrible...to get an idea, here is a picture of what a Completo Italiano looks like, but imagine mine with double of all the toppings.

finally...

2009-09-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

the last stop on our mini adventure was valparaiso. we took a bus from isla negra, which was somewhat stressful because there were about 8 of us who had ordered fresh empanadas and obviously the bus came before they were finished cooking :( but the trip ended well, as valpo is my favorite place in chile thus far. the city is all hills, and the streets are covered with creative artwork and bright colors. we went to a discoteca until 5ish in the morning, and had rented a room in a super cute hostel which was the cherry on top. i'm looking forward to going there again, and enjoying a stay at the beach in the future!

2009-09-13T14:53:00.001-07:00

after pomaire, we headed over to isla negra, about an hour away. we got to visit pablo neruda's (a famous chilean poet) house turned museum just off the coast of the pacific ocean. the house had a boat theme to it, and was a little unusual. unfortunately, we weren't able to take pictures inside of it. how i did get some photos of the ocean, which was cool because it was my first time seeing the pacific. the weather was absoluely gorgeous, and the water was breathtaking. i think the pictures barely do it any justice!

pomaire, isla negra, & valparaiso

2009-09-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

on friday, we set out for some cities along the coast and we were lucky enough to get beautiful weather (for the most part). (side note: september 11 also marked the day pinochet's military coup took place here in chile cira 1973. generally, each year there are countless, and sometimes violent, protests for this very reason. i think that was the main push to get us out of santiago.

pomaire is an old town that makes a living off of pottery and folklore. there are lots of opportunities to buy little nick nacks or pots and pans, but after a while the shops get repetitive. the roads are small and dusty, and the stereotypical south american "market" takes up an entire street (mind you, there are only two main streets). here are some pictures below.

vamos...vamos chileanos.

2009-09-10T18:35:00.000-07:00

alright, so last night chile played brazil in the preliminaries for the world cup and lost. and while all hope is not gone because we have more games in october, lets forgo discussing the depression i felt after chile held the ball for the majority of the game, and couldnt pull through. what you really want to know about was who i watched the game with. apparently, it was a mistake to go out right as the game started because all of the bars were to capacity, but such my luck i went down to pio nono (rep it if you know it) with my friend brit and jackie, jackie of which has bright blonde hair aka gringa hair because people in chile think its the be all end all to have blonde hair. so we are sitting outside some random bar that looks like its at capacity, but no. they make room inside for the three of us. magical.

so jackie and i sit in one corner with some 40 year old man named samuel, who as we later find out, is a chilean poet. and not only is he a poet, he created this rubrics cube contraption that when you move the cubes, creates a poem no matter which way you turn/read. how do we know this? samuel pulled two out from his briefcase and personally autographed them for the each of us. he proceeded to tell us that he sold his idea/cube to barnes and noble. so if you happen to be in your local store and should stumble upon this little toy, you now know its wonderful origins.

after the game, we politely refused salsa dancing and intended to create plans after talking to the other kids. but wait, we happen to walk by a bar and see theres a camera crew. because the three of us can barely speak enough spanish to maintain conversation, we werent expecting anything more than something to watch. luckily, the gringa hair raised us up to a whole new playing field. the crew asked us if we were interested in getting interviewed under the condition of only using spanish. obvi, it was a done deal and not 2 seconds later we were filming slash singing the futbol cheers slash some other random chilean from the street was pole dancing on the metro stop pole and singing. all in all, it was a pretty good night (minus the whole losing part). and should i fall upon the video from last night, i promise you i will post it.

i think this is a great opportunity to emphasize how much fun chilean futbol games are. for example, on saturday chile played venezuela and austin, emily (2 of the other americans living it up down here) and i started the night by going to a place called aliens, aliens, aliens. sounds legit, yeah? because it is. we quickly made friends with the two chileans sitting next to us in this big open room with a screen to watch the game. it should be noted that one of the chileans was wearing a great pair of black leather pants with a matching leather overcoat. what, what. people here go crazy; chilean hats, flags, horns, the whole shebang. fans are constantly chanting and yelling, commenting on the game and just enjoying the moment. without a doubt, i am an official fifa fan.

last thursday, i went out with out with one of the other girls, heather, and her chilean friend who brought his chilean friend. i know this sounds complicated, but i was getting at is that both of the chileans go to the same university as me and heather and thus i have seen the friend, aka alejandro, on campus several times now. i must say, it is really magical when you know someone other than an american in another country. alejandro talks to me like i always know what's up. but in reality, i pretty much only catch about half of the things he says. i guess smiling and nodding your head goes a long way.

speaking of chileans, literally everyone i have met and talked to is super nice. it probably has to do with the fact that everyone kisses cheeks before and after all conversations. it has been mutually decided that this breaks the ice in any given situation, so if you're not down to kiss cheeks i encourage you to change your mind. its customary here to invite people over to your house on the reg, which is still a little bit creepy in my head and will take some getting used to. basically every time a group of us has gone out someone (aka a chilean) will ask us if we all want to continue to party at their house. ehh, im not so sure on that custom chief.

i also wanted to mention that using the public transportation is officially not necessarily safe, but always fun. the bus drivers speed, run through red lights and basically think they can do whatever they want. and considering they are buses, not many people are going to get in the way. if that wasn't enough, we get entertainment on the buses on a pretty regular basis through musicians and/or random others who jump on the bus and try to sell goods. i may or may not have had several singers attempt serenation via guitar en route to school. jealous?

it's finally warming up to the point of t-shirt status during the day, but it's really cold at night. im heading to the coast this weekend, so while it won't be wonderful beach-going weather i'm hoping for some crazy adventures. i love everyone, and hope you are having a great time wherever you are <3

2009-09-03T15:33:00.000-07:00

hmm, so basically my life here consists of going to maybe 3 classes a day tops, then heading out on little adventures to see the city of santiago. thus, it has been hard to keep up with the blog. monday was my frist day of classes and based on what ive had so far i think everything is going to be pretty relaxed, minus my art history class in which my professor is a super speaker. im pretty sure the man barely breathes when he talks because hes going so quickly. obviously this makes my life as a spanish speaker wayy easier. not.

with that being said, yesterday for class we went downtown to La Moneda to see an exhibit of the culture celebrating Rapa Nui (aka the people of Easter Island) and got a guided tour in spanish. its pretty lunchin i was able to pull any information from the tour, but i guess my speaking has certainly improved and thus i was able to find out some interesting things. i.e. that those famous stone men on the island have certain characteristics that indicate a degree of importance. the bigger the ears, and the presence of a tattoo, the better.

after class on tuesday, a few o' the other students and i went to los leones to hit up the mall aka buy chile jerseys because some major soccer (ahem-futbol) games are up and coming. on saturday, chile plays venezuela in santiago in the preliminaries for the world cup. im seriously looking forward to a good time because i live in santiago (in case you may have forgotten).

also tuesday--we went down to baquedano for our first dance class which started with a lesson in merengue (btw, i know i spelled that wrong, but im not really interested in looking up the correct spelling). obvi, i loved it and kept trying to dance with the chilean men over the guys from the US because the chicos here have wayy more practice...and wayy more rhythem. what, what. afterwards a few of us went and got drinks down is Bellas Artes, a super cool section of town with all sorts of restaurants and pubs.

today i was finished with classes at 12:30ish so i moseyed (again, a misspelling) around campus for a little, then went to Plaza de Armas with two of the other students. Plaza de Armas has all sorts of stores and little vendors selling paintings, jewelry, whatever you like. theres also these coffee shops in chile referred to as "coffee with legs." in these shops, generally visited by business men, women sirve coffee wearing next to nothing. its a mix between hooters and a diner, but theres not really a place to sit down. youre in, you drink coffee, you enjoy the view, and then its time to go. interesting yeah?

while we didnt order coffee with legs this afternoon, we did end up at Mercado Central--a mix of food/restaurants/fish. something similiar to the Lexington Market in Baltimore. one the guys i was with wanted coffee and we sort of stumbled across the market, so we walked in. the waiters and people at the different restaurants more or less harass you in an attempt to get you to eat their food. great, i understand this. but i wasnt trying to get coffee where fish is whats up. and the people i was with thought that was weird. am i wrong on this one? regardless, we ended up at one of the restuarants and i ordered cafe helado, which is a dank mix of ice cream and coffee (and which i obvi had as my lunch. good choices)

Colin <3

2009-09-01T20:43:00.000-07:00

I might be thousands of miles away from home right now, but some things can never, and should never be forgotten. Because life should be celebrated and not mourned, it seemed not only appropriate, but imperative to have a drink (or two) for Colin Sheppert Pollock. I cannot believe it has already been a year since you passed away, and while I have no regrets, I know it would have been way more fun with you in it.

I hope everyone today was able to remember something good about Colin as opposed to focusing on the anger and sadness this day brought one year ago. As for me, I know somehow the kid is all around me everywhere I go...

2009-08-30T20:28:00.001-07:00

alright so apparently i just reread my post, and i made several grammatical mistakes. my b.

mi casa es su casa

2009-08-30T19:23:00.000-07:00

I got a wonderful taste of the Chilean lifestyle this weekend visiting different places and getting a chance to see the various parts of the culture.

On Friday, the other students from USAC and I first went on a tour of our university, then proceeded to go throughout downtown Santiago, and get a feel for the city. The architecture in Mercado Central, one of the sections of the city, are breathtaking. Because we just got an overview of all the different places in the city, I don't want to go to in depth about each because I want to revisit these places and get an intimate feel for each of them.

On Saturday, I went with two other students to Cummings via the Metro to an all day fiesta. One of the girls from my program has a family friend back home in the United States who connected her to some people down here in Santiago. One of these friends then proceeded to invite her over to his house for a party in celebration of his wife being pregnant. The neighborhood this guy lives in is amazing. The houses were build hundreds of years ago, so the ceilings are much higher. I think something like 5 or 6 people rent out the house and upkeep the garden. What I liked most about this little adventure was that while at the beginning it was a bit uncomfortable to be at a party with only spanish speakers (some people did know a small bit of english), it did not take long to fit right in.

It's funny. I realize that I have not been in the country for too long, but I have noticed that there have been several occasions where it has actually been more difficult to speak english as opposed to spanish. Especially at restaurants and the pubs, where everyone around is only speaking in spanish, I tend to just forget I know english and legitimitely think in spanish. Hmm, who knew?

Today I had lunch with my host mom and one of her friends which obviously was a homecooked 3 course meal. Great, I hope you are jealous. I then proceeded to go downtown to Cerro San Cristobal, which is a famous hill in Chile. There is a large statue of Mary at the top and a wonderful view of the city. (I actually stole the pictures below from my friend, Abe--I haven't uploaded my pictures yet, and he is really good slash really in to taking pictures so these should be more exciting than what mine are)

One of the many views of the Andes mountain range. When I walk to and from my house to get on the bus or go to the metro, they are always there and they have yet to bore me :)

the popo: chilean style

(this is what makes this hill so important)

a view of santiago from on top of cerro san cristobal

p.s. to those of you who would understand this: i feel like ms. quinn would be super proud that i went here

rat tails+mullets= a problem

2009-08-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

apparently, its cool to have a rat tail and/or a mullet here. im going to go ahead and stalk down some people to get a picture of this as evidence. and sadly, thats not going to be hard because its extraordinarily common.

2009-08-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

my life has been a complete whirlwind since i left monday. while tuesday into wednesday was moderately stressful, orientation has helped me settle in much easier than i had originally anticipated. as of yet, i have not met one person on this trip who is not amazing. i love the new friends i have made and am so glad our hotel stay happened when it did; im super excited to see what the next four months hold for me.

i met my homestay family today, which for me is a 50-something year old woman named Maria Elena. she has two children, but both are married and have moved out of the house. maria is wonderful :) she doesnt speak english, but is extremely pacient with my slow spanish. she cooked a huge lunch for me around 2 when we got home while i was unpacking all of my things and then afterwards we went to get my bip! card which is basically a smartTrip card, but it gets you on the bus and the metro. then we went to the grocery store and got some fresh fruits and veggies, im 100% sure her cooking is going to be the death of me.

we live in las condes, and there are other students from USAC in this area. to get to school, the fastest way is to take the bus to the metro which all together takes about 40 minutes. based on the cooking/food scene though im going to go ahead and say i am going to walk the 15 blocks to the metro station in the morning and depending if i can find a gym partner, ill go to the gym and shower before my classes.

we live in an apartment and there is a great view of the mountains from my room and from the balcony. its still amazing to me that you can be walking through the city and look over and see these wonderful snowcapped mountains in the midst of 70 degree weather.

finally, i want everyone to know that im making lunchin international. while sitting at dinner last night, i spread the lingo to the ladies at my table who live all over the US and then later in the evening to the chilean bartenders while at the pub. you can thank me later.

culture shock

2009-08-25T15:28:00.000-07:00

It is pretty much impossible to explain how I am feeling right now, but I know it is nothing short of being overwhelmed. The international flight was an adventure in itself. After getting to Dulles airport and getting through security without problems, I was feeling pretty good. We boarded the plane on time, but then because of mechanical problems we waited, and there were eventually asked to get off this plane after about 45 minutes. We were hoarded back into the loading area at which point we waited some more while the United Airlines people got their plans together and then moved down to another airplane. Everything was going smoothly until, oops, Dulles had started constuction on the runway we were supposed to go off without letting United know. We then waited in the plane while some sort of crew had to unload 15000 pounds worth of cargo so we would be light enough to lift up. Three hours later, we were in the sky :)

Immediately following our 10 1/2 flight to Argentina, we literally got off the plane, Lan Chile workers were waiting for us at the end of the gate so we moved from one gate to the other, without checking in or anything. It was pretty cool.

As for actually being in Chile, things are a little overwhelming right now. It is complete culture shock, but I think for the small amount of time I have been here it is already because more acceptable.

One thing I noticed is that there are wild dogs that just walk around the streets of Santiago, it is lunchin. And sad. I also went to the supermarket today, lets talk about an exciting grocery trip. I felt so American when all I could do was stare at everything in Spanish and not want to buy anything...ohh well, I'm going to nap now before dinner (I obvi forget they don't eat until 9ish) xoxo

time to go

2009-08-22T20:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I hope everyone will constantly harass me to keep up with this blog. I am less than 48 hours away from leaving and I am super excited to get things going :)

Thursday was my last day of work, and I was happy to end with a chili themed lucheon at the Leisure World office. Since I got off, I have spent this entire weekend packing and making last minute adjustments from calling the bank to let them know whats up to buying a new suitcase and figuring out what I am bringing and what is staying here. I am going to go ahead and say that things won't get too interesting until I am boarding the plane on Monday night. It takes about 10 1/2 hours to fly down to Argentina and then another 2 hours to fly from Buenos Aires to Chile.

Kate, Loren (the two girls I am traveling with from Maryland) and I are supposed to arrive Tuesday afternoon and then we are taking a taxi to a local hostel to stay until the following day. Kate and I have orientation on Wednesday, and I meet my family on Thursday. My classes begin on the 31st, so I will be way busy until then.