The end?

I haven't written in a while...and since I've last written I've traveled to Peru and to Patagonia.  In Peru I went to Arequipa, the 2nd biggest city in Peru, and closeby is the Colca canyon, which was absolutely beautiful. Next we bused to to Puno, Peru and visited Lake Titicaca, and the Islands.  The floating islands were made completely of reeds, which was really cool, and Taquile, where we ate lunch, had the most beautiful view.

Two days after returning from Peru, we flew down south to Patagonia, which was quite possibly one of the most beautiful places i've ever been to. While our trip started off slow, (we slept on the floor of the airport for two hours, then slept on a couch of a hotel for an hour and half), Torres del Paine national park was absolutely beautiful, and the view from our hotel was like nothing i'd ever seen. Another day we went over to Argentina to see the Perito Moreno Glacier.  I will put up pictures soon.

I spent 6 more days in Santiago, and tomorrow I leave pretty much for good.  I will come back to pick up suitcases, but will no longer be staying with my host family, and when I return, most of my friends will not be here.  This semester has gone by faster than I ever thought it would. I've been gone for 6 months, and the experiences and memories will never be forgotten. I can't believe it's over...It seems like I got here yesterday.

I'm traveling for about 3 weeks, then will be home after new years, and then it's back to real life...

Almost there!

So it's been a while. I spent this past week working. a lot. Almost as if I was a real student. I finished my incredibly long paper--20 pages single spaced, with a 3 page bibliography and an annex (what?) with transcripts of all of my interviews, and came to a grand total of 39 pages. After this and three more exams this week, Thursday at 4pm could not have come fast enough. But it's here! Only one more exam and one paper left, and I’m on vacation!

Last weekend we went to Santiago’s gay parade, or as they called it 'open mind fest'. We walked around for a while and I was impressed. In general, I've found that  the people here are not very open to gays, and that might be a bit of an understatement. But this 'open mind fest’ shows the society is changing, that the people are moving towards having an open mind, which is so important. The youth of today are the children of those who spent most of their youth during the dictatorship (1973-1989). The life of the youth today is completely different than life around 25-35 years ago. It's pretty cool to see the changes happening, and it makes we wonder what's in store for Chile in the future.  This was my excursion for the weekend, and I spent the rest of my time in my room working. Not so much fun.

Yesterday we went to the general cemetery of Santiago. The place is absolutely huge. Apparently over 5 million people are buried there. What was so interesting about the place was that the class divisions are so clear. Each section is separated by a small road. We started in the wealthiest area, which had small buildings, really intricate and beautiful. Sometimes the coffins were housed in the buildings as opposed to in the ground, which is more common in the states. The above monument is a memorial for Salvador Allende, the president from 1970-1973 before the coup d'etat with Pinochet. Our guide (the same one from villa grimaldi) explained the irony of Allende being buried in the wealthy area of the cemetery because one of his goals was to work on the social inequality.

As we continued to walk through the cemetery, the buildings got smaller as the burials were for upper middle class. Then instead of buildings, they were single burials. The pictures above are from middle class, (I think, I can't really remember). Victor Jara, from the bottom picture, was one of the most famous Chilean folk singers, who was killed during the dictatorship. His tomb had a lot of flowers, and there was a guitar close by that a lot of people had written on.  His wife had him buried in this part of the cemetery because it was where she thought he would want to be buried, which is pretty humble.   As we were in the cemetery we watch a funeral procession, and the people were in street clothes, which I thought was interesting. Our last stop in the cemetery was the wall of remembrance for those who disappeared or were killed during the dictatorship.  There were a lot of names on the wall, which was pretty powerful.

Not sure what's in store for today or tomorrow, I should probably do some work but once again have lost the motivation. This past week or so was an exception to the rule. By this Wednesday or Thursday I will be done. Then it's travel time! After our goodbye dinner Thursday night (our own version of Thanksgiving), a friend and I are off to Peru! We hope to spend a few days at Lake Titicaca and do a one or two night homestay with people who live on the islands in the lake. I can't wait!!!

We're almost done here, I just can't believe it. Where has the time gone?

Villa Grimaldi

Today was a tough day. We spent the afternoon at Villa Grimaldi, which just 26 years ago was one of the over 700 secret torture centers during Pinochet's dictatorship (1973-1989), where people were murdered and 'dissapeared'. While it was not easy to visit this place, I think it's important in Chile's recent history. The place was beautiful, which I feel is a little ironic. Our guide was a guy who had actually spent time as a prisoner in Villa Grimaldi in 1975, which made the experience especially emotional. After a brief overview of the history of Chile immediately before the dictatorship, we started to walk around, and we took the path that the prisoners did.

We first went to the  front door. The plaque above says 'Here began the prisoners journey. Old entrance. This door will stay closed forever. Today the entrance to Villa Grimaldi is at the other side. The old door is locked shut.

One of the next stops was the first torture chamber. All of the buildings were destroyed at the end of the dictatorships, but some have been recreated. Hearing about the torture techniques almost made me sick. The peoples' legs and arms were tied, and they were blindfolded, with one time a day to go to the bathroom, and 3 minutes to eat lunch. I won't go into detail, but the inital torture treatment was between 1 and 3 hours of electric shocks, along with beatings and so many more terrible things. The second room involved more electric shocks, but with metal bunk beds, so that one could listen to someone else suffer.

Torture room. Metal beds with electiricty

Although you can't see very well, this is a wall of names of people who had dissapeared. We next walked over to a tower where some people were kept in solitary confinement and taken out once a day to be tortured. There is a beautful rose garden dedicated to all of the woman murdered and raped in the torture centers in Chile. 

Throughout the tour, our guide shared some personal experiences, or experiences of friends who had spent time in Villa Grimaldi, and the stories were heartbreaking. It's so hard for me to fathom that this was happening less than 30 years ago. Our guide was 23 when he was taken to the torture camps, and spent 13 months in total in 3 different camps. 23 is not that much older than I am, and I can't imagine being in that sitution. Seeing this place- this evidence- made me so angry that there are still people who deny, or try to diminish the important of existance of the camps. While I can understand the opinion that Pinochet did good things for the Chilean economy, how can you disregard the violation of human rights? I would say the Chile is still very politically divided. About 40/45% of Chileans agree with the dictatorship.

One story our guide told me affected me especially. He told us that there was a man who wanted to get married at Villa Grimaldi. While the first thought was that the man was ignorant, uninformed or insensitive, the reason was that his father had dissapeared at Villa Grimaldi, and he wanted his father to be with him on one of the most important days of his life.

This visit eerily reminded me of the holocaust. While I know they are completely different,  hearing about the horrible treatment of these 'communists', the feelings were similar.  I felt like I was walking around a concentration camp. The idea of this place though is a memorial, and just like the holocaust, it's our reminder of the past to ensure-never again.

It amazes me that our guide gives tours 1-2 times a month. He has to relive these horrible memories every time. They have to be so strong.  It's so important though, we need to remember even the horrible parts of our history.

Sorry if this was a bit of a downer, and a bit more serious that usual, but I guess this visit impacted me a lot more than I had expected...

Salsa, Poll dancing, and Halloween

We spent the weekend in Santiago which was nice since we hadn't really done for a while. Being ambitious, we decided to go out on Thursday night. Since I started teaching English Thursday mornings and having to get up at 6:30, I usually am so tired at night that I go to bed early. I decided to rally this time, and we went to a barrio we had never visited, Barrio Brazil. It's crazy that we've been here for more than 4 months, and theres still so much more to see. We went to this Mexican restaurant with delicious food and margaritas. We wanted to go out dancing after, but the club we were looking for was closed on Thursdays. We went to another neighboorhood, and walked around, but of course at 12:30/12:45 everything is still empty. We sat at a club that had a live band, and I was falling asleep in my chair. I decided it was time for bed. I made a valiant effort though--got home around 3am.

Friday afternoon we had a talk about Religion in Chile. I'm taking a religion class this semester, and I think all of it is so interesting. There's so much about religion that I don't know about, and especially in the context of Chile, which is a rather catholic country, it's especially interesting to learn about. I went to a salsa club for a friends birthday. I hadn't gone salsa dancing in a few months, but it was extremely fun. At first I was horrible, and not that I magically became fantastic, but I started to get the hang of it. It's nice because at salsa clubs people will ask you to dance, you will dance for a song or two,  say thank you and then you part ways. Its fun to dance with different people, and not have to worry about the creepers you might find at other types of clubs. We got there early, around 11:30ish, and after dancing for a couple of hours, everyone cleared off the dancefloor and there was----a poll dancing competition. of course. The lucky contestants were two woman, one guy who probably should have kept his shirt on, and then one tiny woman in her 30s or 40s who climbed up the poll. Bottom line: very entertaining. At around 3 they started playing reggaeton music, and we decided it was time to go.

Saturday, Halloween!! Definitely not as popular here. Apparently it because a holiday as we know it about 5 or 10 years ago. There were a lot of parties that probably were 'halloween parties' but no one really dressed up, it was very easy to spot the foreigners. We decided we had to dress up--i mean it's halloween, so we bought wings and went as fairies. We went to a club in an ex-factory, which was huge, and had 3 or 4 floors all with different types of music. It got packed really fast. When we decided to leave, there was a line of people waiting to get in, at around 3:30am. I don't think i'll ever get used to the nightlife here...
out 3 nights in a row, impressive right?!

I'm in my last 3 weeks of classes, crazy! Time to do all the work that I didn't have all semester, uh oh...

Mendoza!

So this seems like it's mostly just a blog about weekend trips...my weeks (Monday-Thursday) are mostly uneventful, involving class, homework (I actually do have stuff to do) and relaxing. This morning I had a 40 minute spanish presentation in my religion class, which was pretty scary. I've never talked for that long infront of a group of spanish speakers, but I survived and it went okay. Next up an final paper of 25 (single spaced) pages. The newest development, that it was single spaced paper, was a bit of a bummer. When I finish, not only will it be the longest spanish paper I have ever written, but the longest paper I have written. ever. So we'll see how this goes...It's weird that I have less than one month left of classes. By Nov 25, I will be done with everything and on vacation! I cannot believe that it is already almost November...time is flying, and it's absolutely insane...I don't like it very much.

So this weekend was Mendoza...There's a group of students at Universidad Católica who plan trips for exchange students, so we decided to go with them instead. I had a good time, but I learned that I would much rather plan trips on my own. We got to the bus around 9:30 am on Friday. While Mendoza is really close to Santiago, because we have to cross over the Andes, it takes more time. The bus is probably about 7 hours. Everyone told me the trip over is beautiful. While it was pretty, I have seen a lot of other prettier things since I've been here.

                                                            view from the bus

We arrived around 5:30 and went to the apartment we would be staying at for the next two nights. The place was alright, and if the beds were taken out of the living room, the paint changed, the windows changed (they were like prison windows), and the kitchen changed, I could maybe think about staying for longer than 2 nights...
We went for a walk to the big park, and spent less than 5 minutes there before deciding it was time to eat (here I go with the food again). We found this really good parrilla restaurant, with really good argentinean meat and got meat, salad, wine and dessert for 32 pesos ( a little over 8 dollars!) We decided to go out dancing later, and it was actually a lot of fun. We only stayed out until 3 which meant that people had just started dancing, but it was still a good time.

5 hours later we were up and on a bus for a day of tours- city tour, chocolate factory tour, vinyard tours, you name it. We saw all different parts of the city, got to eat free chocolate and try lots of different wines. I would call the afternoon a success.
That night we decided to go out with the group, which was decidedly not a success. They took us to a club and we got there around 11:30, about 3 hours two early. There was no one there, so after about two hours of sitting, we decided to leave. Across from our apartment building we found an open icrecream store. It was my first time I had ever seen icecream stores open after 2am. We sat outside and ate our icecream, which was delicious. Best part of the night.

Sunday was more relaxed. We walked around, ate, and went to the plazas which had a lot of artesania. At 10:30 pm we boarded a bus back to Santiago. 10 hours later, we made it home. I drifted in and out of sleep for most of the ride, but one time when I woke up, there were a lot of police on the bus and they were checking bags. Apparently we pulled over to the side of the road and stayed there for over an hour and a half, but  I was unaware of this at the time. Around 4am we all had to get off the bus to go through customs, which consisted of waiting in one line to "leave" argentina, and then wait in another line to "enter" Chile.  It was really cold out. In line, I learned that we were stopped for a long time because two girls tried to smuggle drugs across the border. Each had 1 kilo of cocaine, to be exact. I guess the dogs found it, and they got off the bus. I would not want to be in their shoes.  Around 8 we made it back to Santiago, just in time to hit the morning metro rush.

No upcoming weekend trips as of now, but possibly the beach soon? It's finally getting warm out here!

Buenos Aires!

Just warning you all this is a long one...

This past (long) weekend was our first trip outside of Chile--Buenos Aires, Argentina! It amazed me that less than two hours away from Santiago (shorter than my normal trip from Boston to St. Louis) was a city so completely different. This is not to say that I liked one city more than the other, only just that it was like being in two different worlds.

1. the accent-- Argentineans and Chileans speak completely differently. All the Chilean modismos don't work in Chile. I found myself holding back my 'si pohs' more than once. Argentineans also pronounce "y" and "ll" differently, more like the "su" in casual. There were many times when I asked someone where a certain street was and when I said the word "calle" without the different pronounciation, I got a lot of funny looks.

2. About a week before I left, I was walking back from a coffee shop, and two young girls handed me a brightly colored flyer. When I looked at it, it was a flyer with the message "abortion is homicide"

At la plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, I was approached by a woman who was representing a campaign about AIDS awareness and prevention. This contrast in issues has really stuck with me.

Now onto my trip...

It started out late, as our flight was delayed about 2 1/2 hours. We got to our hostel around 1:45, and instead of going to bed, we got dressed and went out to a club. The club was absolutely packed, I'd say almost a little too crowded, so we left around 4:30am to go wait in line for tickets to the Argentina/Peru soccer game. It was a really important game because Argentina had to win in order to possibly classify for the world cup. We waited for about 3 hours, and by that time I was pretty exhausted, but had a ticket! We got back to our hostel around 9am, and after only having slept for about 6 hours of about 30, we decided it to take a nap and wake up around 2 so we could still have half the day. Instead, I woke up at 1pm to a pain on my side, and a top bunk on top of me. That ladder someone had removed from the bunkbed the night before, turned out to be pretty crucial--it was what held the bed up. Aside from a nasty bruise, there was no harm done, but I wasn't going back to sleep.

That afternoon we went in search of food. We went to La Boca, which is a barrio with a lot of brightly colored houses, which we actually never saw. We were searching for restaurants that didn't seem to exist, so after a pizza lunch, we ended up leaving because the area isn't so safe at night. Argentina is known for its book shops, so we stopped by a huge one that is in a converted theatre, and decided on a some delicious icecream for dessert. success.

Saturday morning we headed to Recoleta cemetery. The cemetery is interesting because no one is buried in the ground, everyone is buried in what almost look like little houses. The cemetery looked like a small creepy town, and it was so easy to get lost in the rows and rows of buildings which house coffins. A lot of famous people are buried there (the only way to have a spot in the cemetery is to have a family connection), including Eva Peron, which is the above photo. We also stopped by the museum of Bellas Artes, which had a lot of really cool modern art. After lunch we rushed back to the hostal in order to get ready for the soccer game.

The soccer game was definitely an experience I will remember for a very long time. It was so cool to see an entire country rooting for one team, something we don't have in the states, and something which I think we would benefit from. The stadium was packed, and everyone was chanting. In the second half, the score was 1-0 Argentina, and it began to rain. It drizzled at first, then stopped, and then all of sudden the skies opened up and it started pouring. There was no scoreboard so we didn't know how much time was left, but as it continued to rain, and we watched people start to leave the stadium, we decided we should be probably go too so we could find a taxi and not have too much trouble leaving the stadium. No such luck. It continued to pour, and thunder and lightening. There was not a taxi in sight. Our cell phones didn't work in Argentina. There was nothing to do but wander looking for a taxi. It was probably one of the most pathetic sights ever. It looked as though we had jumped into a swimming pool with our clothes on, we were absolutely soaked. We were in a residential neighborhood, so there weren't very many places to go. We finally found a restaurant and practically had to beg them to let 4 soaking wet girls in the restaurant. We sat down and decided it was about time for bottle of wine. There are pictures that document this part of the evening, but they were just too embarrassing to put up here--i'm sorry. We finally called a cab from the restaurant and found out that the final score was 2-1 Argentina, and the final 3 minutes were extremely exciting. Too bad we missed it.

Sunday we were to a huge artisan fair that happens in the Barrio San Telmo every Sunday. They had everything from jewelry, to maté containers (a type of tea drink that practically all Argentineans drink) to antiques and incredible freshly squeezed orange juice. We spent the late morning/early afternoon wandering around, and it felt like we were in Europe. (I haven't been to many places in Europe, but it looked more like Europe than Latin America) That night for dinner, we had to go out for some meat, because that is of course one of the things Argentina is famous for. Our hostel recommended a good restaurant that wasn't too touristy.  The meat and vegetables were delicious, and the dessert, a waffle with dulce de leche (almost like a stronger caramel sauce, and another symbol of Argentina)  was to die for. Another successful food day in Argentina.

On Monday, two of my friends went home, and another one had work on an essay, so I did a little bit of exploring on my own. I walked over to the main plaza, the casa rosada (the pink house- their version of the white house), the obelisk, the the main theatre which actually ended up being closed. It was absolutely gorgeous outside, so it was really nice exploring. That afternoon I met up with my high school friend's college friend who was studying in Buenos Aires (thank you Rachel Bauer!) She was at a park with her friends, and I didn't realize how big this park would be. I wandered for a while looking for non-couples or groups without babies. I found a group who I thought might be them, so I walked an awkward circle around them--it was them, and it was okay I was so awkward. We stayed at the park for a couple of hours playing frisbee, guitar, and it tried my first maté! Everyone said it was extremely bitter, but I didn't find it that bad. Once again I realized that the world of exchange students is a very small one. I met a couple of people who were friends with people I went to high school with, or go to college with, which was exciting.

That night we went to a drum show, which was extremely cool. This group plays every Monday, and are extremely extrememly talented. The venue was also really cool. We went with a group from our hostel, so we got to meet some new people. We met some very interesting characters, but a on a whole some really cool people. Although there were some people from the US, we also met people from Australia and Brazil, all who have their own stories of why they were in Buenos Aires, which was really cool.  This was my first experience staying in a real youth hostel, so the experience was exciting.

A pair of leather boots and some more delicious icecream, and we were on our way back to Santiago...5 days does fly by fast. Up next: a weekend of some homework (I mean I am here to study?) and next weekend: Mendoza!

Hope this wasn't too boring...

Viña and Valpo+ more

I went to a club last weekend, and for the first time in my life I got carded. Carded, meaning I look younger than 18. I mean I know I look pretty young, but younger than 18? We went to this club with my   friend's host sisters, and they're in their late 20's, so we were easily the youngest people there, but it was one of the most fun clubs I've been to. They played everything from Madonna to Mambo #5 to Hot n' cold and there were some really funny dancers.
This past Friday and Saturday we went to Valparaíso and Viña del Mar, which are about an hour and a half from Santiago. We stayed in an the apartment of our Spanish teacher's son's girlfriend (long story how we found that) but they rent out the apartment on the weekends.  It was absolutely gorgeous out, so we did a lot of walking around. Viña del Mar doesn't really have a ton of stuff to do, besides the beach, but I'm so glad it's finally get nice out, it's about time! We decided to "make dinner" since we were in this apartment, so we picked up food to make salad at the grocery store, and bought these delicious empanadas, one with shrimp, mushrooms, onions and lots of other stuff, and others with spinach and cheese. But before we ate dinner, we we walked to the beach and got some icecream. (Fascinating that everything I do revolves around food...but not surprising at all)After our wonderful dinner, we we met up with our spanish teacher's son's friends (another long story), which was fun because we got to hang out with Chileans.

                                        

On Saturday, we had a really good lunch (here I go with the food again) with great fish, and the funniest english translations I have ever seen. Potatoes and the Pope are both the same word (papas) so everytime there was potatoes on the menu it was translated as 'popes'. Papas fritas (french fries), was translated as crispy popes, papas salteadas (salted potatoes), translated as skipped popes. My favorite was probably 'empanada loco queso' translated as empanada crazy person cheese.

After lunch we took a tour of Valparaíso. The city is really cool, with really brightly colored houses, and old elevators. We walked all around the city, walked over to Pablo Neruda's house (I've now seen all 3!) and then walked around the port, and made it for Saturday night.  I'd really like to go back to Valpo and Viña sometime soon, maybe go to the beach, eat some more good food?

Off to Buenos Aires tomorrow!

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Yesterday I began my volunteer work with "English Opens Doors," a program created by the chilean ministry of education. Native english speakers (such as university exchange students) are assigned to chilean public schools to help the English teachers with their classes. I'm going to be helping out between 4 and 5 hours each week on Thursday mornings.

So I woke up at 6:30 yesterday so I could get to the school around 8:15 and be able to talk to the teacher before she started classes at 8:30. I left my apartment at 7:30, and went searching for the first bus stop. 15 minutes later, and after asking about 5 people, I got there. To catch the second bus, I went searching for stop #9, but couldn't find it anywhere. I spent probably about 20 minutes searching for this imaginary stop, and when I decided to take out my notebook where I wrote down the directions to show someone where I was going, I unfortunately realized that with the route I was taking, I was actually looking for stop 3, which I had past by at least twice. I ran back to that stop, and waited for the bus. At this point it was 8:30. I walk into the highschool right across the street from the bus stop, and go to the office. Someone walks me to the classroom, and I introduce myself to the teacher saying that we had talked on the phone the night before. She doesn't recognize me. Her name is Cecilia, I'm actually looking for Maria Luisa. Turns out i'm at the wrong high school. Oops. The good news though, is that the correct high school is just next door. I get to the right high school, and find out the woman I talked to isn't here today. So I get walked to another class. By 9, I finally make it to where I was supposed to be.

I helped with two classes of 1st years (probably 13/14 years old), and it was pretty cool because the teacher kind of let me work with the class (she gave the things to do of course.) I played about 50 games of simon says. We wrote all the names of body parts in english and in spanish, and also added some verbs such as to laugh, to cry, to dance. I've always known that english is difficult to learn and pronounce, but being in the classroom I actually got to experience it firsthand. For instance, the sound "th" is really difficult.  The word "mouth"was hard to understand. The word knees, not only is the fact that it starts with a silent "k" make it complicated, but while "e" in spanish is "eh" and "i" makes the ee sound (as in knees). In my second class, they asked how to say "mejilla" which is cheek, and "dientes" which is teeth. For me, the words don't sound very similar, but for the kids, the couldn't hear the difference, which for me was really interesting.  I tried exaggerating the sounds, but in the end decided to avoid both words in general. They recognized the words shoulder and back really easily, but knees and eyes were a lot more difficult. We ended the class singing (ended up with me singing) the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" about 5 times. Both classes were relatively well behaved, especially since I had been warned that they usually didn't behave at all. It was probably because I was new. Although I did get whistled at in the hallway at some kids at the back of the class told me they loved me, I think it's the fact that I'm younger than most of the teachers and don't look very chilean. Those things don't bother me as much as they used to, and overall the kids seemed nice, and were enthusiastic about playing simon says with me, which made everything a lot easier.

If anyone knows of any english rhymes or games good for beginner beginner english, let me know! It seemed like she expected me to come prepared with something yesterday, and I had not, so maybe it'd be a good idea to think of some things for next week.

Fiestas Patrias!

Happy (chilean) independence day!! September 18th was the celebration of the 199th anniversary of Chilean Independence, and we are now in the 200th year! Independence day, Fiestas Patrias, is a really big deal here. Not that July 4th isn't a big deal, but I think the fact that we're in summer vacation makes it not as exciting all the time. Most of the Chilean schools and Universities had all of last week as vacation because of fiestas patrias. I, unfortunately, had an exam last Wednesday, but a 4 day weekend wasn't that bad.

Wednesday after class we went to the 'festival de la chilenidad' at the University. They had 3 legged races, Cueca dancing competitions, and a lot of food. We didn't participate in any of the activities, but it was beautiful outside, so it was nice to sit and relax. On Thursday I went with one of my friends to the fonda in Providencia, which was kind of like a town fair. They had them all over Chile starting on the 17th. We watched Cueca dancing competitions, walked around a lot of different artisan booths, and of course ate a lot of food. My host mom told me that people usally gain about 3 kilos (~6 lbs?) during fiestas patrias, I hope that was not that case with me...but I can see how that could happen. At this fonda we ate chorripan, which is very common to eat on Fiestas Patrias, I think it's kind of like a sausage? Really good! We ate churros filled with manjar, which was delicious, and also chocolate covered fruit. fruit=healthy right? It's also common to drink chicha, which is a kind of wine, or something called borgeño (I'm not sure exactly of the name) which is white wine with peaches. After wandering this fonda for a couple of hours, we went over to the moneda, which is the main government building of Chile. We had heard there was something going on for the bicentennial, but weren't quite sure. We exit the metro station, and there was a huge concert going on. I'm horrible with  gauging numbers, but I want to say about 6 thousand people? There were all different chilean music groups playing. I didn't really know any of them, but everyone around me was really excited, so we jumped around and tried to sing some songs...Around 10:00 Bachelet (Chile's president) came to the concert which was pretty cool.  This concert was celebrating the beginning of Chile's 200th year...I cannot even imagine what this country is going to be like for fiestas patrias next year...absolutly nuts.

Friday through Sunday I spent at my host family's parcela, which I guess is kind-of like their country house, about an hour outside of the city.  It was really nice to get out the city for the a while. The parcela was really beautiful and relaxing.  We did a lot of eating, which was not at all surprising, and was delicious. We ate a huge lunch around 2:00, and then I talked for a while with some more people in my host family. The idea that at 18 we go and live by ourselves to go the college shocks people here...every time. I've found people are also really interested in what I think about familial relationships. The more I spend time with people down here, I've found that we're probably a lot more similar than we think. While we don't  have sit-down dinners/lunches every week, and I go to school 2 hours in plane from my house, I don't think that means that my relationship with my family is weaker because of this, it may even make it stronger.

            

me with my host mom and host aunt

After lunch, we made empanadas. While this time it wasn't nearly as eventful (no fires or anything), it was a lot of fun. We made about 45 empanadas with meat, onions, a piece of hardboiled egg, olive and a raisin. We put all the empanadas in the brick oven outside, and soon enough they were ready. With 14 people, we had no problem eating all of them. We didn't have dinner, but the empanadas were more than filling. After a while, most of the adults went to bed and I stayed up with my host siblings and their friends, and some how managed to stay up until about 3, which in Chile, of course is really early.

Saturday, after eating a huge lunch, it was kind of like paella, (all different types of meat, and rice, and in one of the hugest pans I have ever seem), we flew kites outside. I cannot remember the last time I flew a kite. It was so nice out, it was perfect weather for being outside and relaxing. We didn't eat dinner, but more of an 'once' with pan amasada (spelling?) homemade bread that I helped make!, with piebre, which is like salsa, avacado, and tea/coffee. It definitely sounds like all we did was eat...which is not true, but the food is definitely worth mentioning. That night I again hung out with my host siblings, and managed to stay up until 5am...a lot more respectable.

host cousin, me, host sister,

host brother and friends

Today we managed to wake up just in time for a  2pm lunch of cazuela (I'm pretty sure i've already mentioned this) but it's a soup with meat, potatoes and a portion of corn-on-the-cob. Really delicious, and I've also figured out a less awkward way to eat corn on the cob out of a soup, which is exciting. After lunch we packed up and came back home. All in all, a really nice weekend, and the fact that I don't really have much work to do makes it that much better.

Bought some honey at the fonda, maybe it's time for some apples and honey? shana tova everyone! (a little late? I think it's okay...)

this week: a talk about chilean folklore, cueca dancing with host moms, a lot more food? sounds good. until next time!

September 11th

September 11th takes on a whole new meaning here. In the US we remember 9/11 as the day when the twin towers fell. Every year since then we've thought of this day a little differently. We commemorate the day with a moment of silence.  Today it's 8 years, and I can't believe it's already been so long,  I still can remember exactly where I was in 2001.

Today, September 11th in Chile, I was told that after 5pm I could not leave the house, hence, I'm here in my room on a Friday night. When I mentioned this to family or friends, they were surprised that people in Chile were so moved by the events of our 9/11. But it's not that. Along with being the 8th year anniversary of the day the twin towers fell, today is the 36th anniversary of the coup d'etat and the beginning of Pinochet's almost 17 year rule over Chile. Today marks a day of protests, some peaceful, others not so much.  The school libraries closed at 4:30, and many other stores closed early as well.  One of my classes was cancelled this whole week because the students in my department at la universidad de Chile tend to be extremely politically active.  I was told to avoid certain neighborhoods altogether today, and after 5pm was told not to gather in public places.  My whole family is home tonight, which is something that rarely happens on a weekend night.

I've looked at Chilean newspapers and read about protests in many places that I'm familiar with, and read that at least one person has died in the commotion. I've seen pictures as well, all of protests with banners and photos of Former President Allende, with messages like 'Allende vive' (live Allende), and banners from the socialist party.

It's obvious that this issue is a very sensitive subject, and that this type of activity on the 11th is something that will continue. I was out this morning and afternoon and nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but apparently everything happens around this time. Better that I'm home. Get a good night sleep and be ready for things to resume back to normal tomorrow?

San Pedro de Atamcamaaa!

I just wrote an extremely long blog entry which just got erased, so you'll all have to bear with me as I try to re-write this all again...

San Pedro de Atacama is by far my favorite place I have visited in Chile, and is one of the coolest places I have ever visited. In three days we saw some many things, but this was probably because it was a group trip, meaning everything was already planned and paid for. The trip almost felt 'free'! I didn't have to pay for anything, it was great (thanks mom and dad)!

We got to Calama, the closest city to San Pedro that has an airport, at around 6:30 Thursday night. It was a really tiny airport. Our bags came fast and our guides met us right outside. The ride to San Pedro was about 1 1/2 hours long. The rides weren't that great, and our driver wasn't stellar, but we did make it in one piece! We dropped our stuff of at our hotel/hostel, which was a lot nicer than anything we would have ever stayed in if we were here on our own, and went off to dinner. A great meal, and a celebratory pisco sour and we were on our way!

We woke up at 7:30 Friday morning and got right down to business. We first went to a really pretty laguna with a lot of flamingos. There are a lot of different types of flamingos, a lot of who only live at certain altitudes. San Pedro is about 2000 meters above sea-level? I'm kind of making that up, but I know wSan Pedro de Atacama is by far my favorite place I have visited in Chile, and is one of the coolest places I have ever visited. In three days we saw some many things, but this was probably because it was a group trip, meaning everything was already planned and paid for. The trip almost felt 'free'! I didn't have to pay for anything, it was great (thanks mom and dad) e were high up. Surrounding this laguna, and almost all of San Pedro are a lot of volcanoes. Our guide constantly tested us on all the names of the volcanoes, and I can't remember anything except for the fact that one of the volcanoes is 5916 meters high...We next went to a really beautiful valley with a very small "river" and some llamas.

After a big lunch (we never went hungry), we went to see some what I thought were the prettiest parts of San Pedro. First was valley de la muerte (death valley). There is a certain reason for it's name, but all I can remember our tour guide saying is something about tourists falling over the edge...We next drove to this rock called '3 Marias' which was shaped completely by the wind. It's supposed to look like women, but I didn't think it looked much like anything. After walking through some caverns, we made it to Valle de la luna (moon valley) just to watch the sun set and the moon rise. It was absolutely beautiful. The sun turned sand turned different colors, and being so high up we had a really great view. I don't think the pictures do it justice. The moon was so huge,  only a few other times has it looked so close.

                                                            valle de la muerte

                                                             valle de la luna

The next day we woke up at 4:00 to go to the geisers.  I cannot remember the last time I woke up that early. We drove two hours, and up to 4200meters to get to the geysers. It was absolutely freezing up there. At the time we got there, I think it was about 10 degrees. With 3 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of socks, jackets, hat, scarf, and gloves, I still couldn't feel my toes or fingers.  It is best to go early in the morning because the geysers are clear. They 'smoke' better (but it's not really smoke). We walked around the geyers, and then went to the 'big geyser' which also a pool you could go in. It  wasn't exactly hot, but more like a lukewarm bath with an occasional burning hot current. Never have I taken of so many layers to find myself in a bathingsuit. Next stop, a small village called Machuca, with a population of about 5 people, but with a lot of visiting tourists. Their specialty is llama meat, and it was quite good! We made it to the thermal baths before noon. It was quite the productive morning!  It was really nice to relax in these baths. It finally got warm out, so we were able to enjoy the pools without freezing. After another big lunch- i think salmon, funny I've eaten more salmon in the desert than anywhere else, we went back to the hostel for a nice siesta.

That night was the Chile-Venezuela fútbol game, one of the games for entrance into the world cup 2010, so we decided to go to a bar/cafe to watch. This place had the biggest empanadas I had ever seen. Anyway, we watched the game with a lot of Chileans which was really cool. They got really into it and so did we. Chile completely dominated the game, but it the score didn't show it. The game ended up tied 2-2, so I guess it's better they didn't lose.  The Chilenos didn't seem too bummed, so what do we do once the game ends? dance of course.  A little bit of cueca, some jumping, a little bit of everything.  Every once and a while we would have to sit down and be quiet because live music and parties are illegal. When the police came around we'd have to sit around and pretend we were just eating. The whole thing was pretty funny. We spent a lot of time dancing which was really fun.

Sunday morning we did my favorite activity of the trip: sandboarding. It's like snowboarding down a huge sand dune. We climbed up a super high sand dune, waxed a wooden tablet, velcroed our feet in, and then slid down.  When our guide waxed the board, I literally went flying.  It was scary at first, and I think everytime I went down the dune I screamed, but it was still fun. My director took a lot of pictures so as of right now I don't have them, but I hope to get them soon.  We were at the sand dune for about an hour and half, and I progressively got better. But even by the end I think I was better at falling, but I had some pretty great falls... In the afternoon we went to two different archaeological ruins, which were both really interesting, and so crazy to think that these ruins were built so long ago and are still here. Our last dinner was at our first non-touristy restaurant, which had really great tacos. I know it was non touristy because as we walked in, it was clear that the men had not seen many foreigners. I think we were stared at the entire meal.

It was sadly time to go...sorry that this was extremely long. It will definitely be difficult to live up to this weekend...

Another update: watched Chile-Brazil fútbol game tonight (look at me becoming such a soccer fan!) but they lost, too bad.

a weekend of fútbol, jazz, y politics

Yesterday I went to my first soccer game! Two of my friends and I went with this group of around 15 people, all of whom I didn't know, but were all nice and fun anyway.  The game was at the estadio nacional, which is one of the major stadims in Santiago (i think). The game was Universidad Católica vs. Colo Colo, two Chilean professional teams. What is interesting about the teams is that the fan base is largely related to social classes. Fans of Universidad Católica are mostly upper class, fans of La U, or Universidad de Chile, are mostly middle class, and fans of Colo Colo are more lower class. Even though 2 of the 3 teams are named after Universities, the players are not university players. I think, however, that the teams are owned by the universities. Colo Colo, which is  supposed to be more like the team that represents Chile  (Colo Colo was a Mapuche (indigenous peoples in the Southern Chile) chief), is owned by Piñera, who is the presidential candidate who represents the right.  Apparently he owns a lot of other stuff as well (television channels etc..,) but I'm actually going to talk about politics a little bit later...
So at this soccer game, we sat on the Colo Colo side, which had a lot more people.  While I really don't understand much about soccer (that might even be an understatement) the game was really fun. The first half was a bit dull, but in the second half it was a lot more active and everyone was getting more excited and anxious. The teams had coordinated cheers, and it felt like I was back at sleepaway camp again.  Coming from Newton South High School, with zero athletic spirit, and the coming to WashU with generally minimal school spirit, I've never really known what it's like to be in a place that appreciates sports or gets excited to watch them, so this was really fun. Colo Colo ended up losing, 1-2. I also heard that they have the most money and buy the best players, but never win...
They only let out one side at a time so that the there aren't any fights.  We took a micro (public bus) back from the stadium and there were Colo Colo fans on the bus, banging on the sides of the bus and waving banners and flags out the windows, considering the fact that there were both Colo Colo and Católica fans on the bus, and there we no fights, I'd call the day a success.

Saturday night I went to see a jazz concert. The singer was the cousin of my friend's housemate. She had a really good voice, and sang in English, Spanish, French, Italian and German. I think she's generally a jazz singer but along with some jazz was some Beyonce and of course, Michael Jackson. While riding the metro last week, I saw a flyer for a Michael Jackson Tribute party...it never gets old does it? We went dancing afterwards at this bar/club that from the outside looked like nothing. If I hadn't been with girls who had been to this place before I would have walked right past it.  It was extremely crowded and the music was okay, but it was still a lot of fun.

Yesterday at lunch was started talking about politics. The Chilean presidential primary is in December, and the deadline to register to vote is in the next two weeks. I've seen posters all over the metro stations reminding people to vote, and in Chile it's mandatory.  Apparently if you don't vote you have to show some sort of medical note or have another valid excuse...I wonder what would happen if voting was mandatory in the US?
If one candidate wins more than 50% of the election in December, they are automatically president, but my host sister said that rarely happens so there's usually the second round in January.  The three presidential candidates are
*Piñera, who I mentioned before, who represents the right,
*Frei, who was president 8 years ago,  and is from the Concertacion, (endorsed by Bachelet, the current president) which is more left and socialist, and then
*Ominami who broke off from the Socialist party and is running more as an independent.

It's really interesting to listen to my host family talk about politics.  I think we have differences in out political beliefs, but it's so fascinating to hear the other points of view. I'm excited to see how everything plays out in the next couple of months. Apparently there's a Piñera rally coming up soon, and maybe some debates/ question and answer sessions with the candidates.

On a side note, plans to Buenos Aires are set! We have flights and a hostel, and are off for 5 days at the beginning of October. Calling Argentina was an adventure, seeing as every country and city has it's own code it's very confusing to know which numbers you have to use, especially since it depends whether you use a landline or cellphone. I attempted to call the number of the hostel about 5 times, each time I found myself listening to the lovely recording of the woman who told me that I'd dialed a nonexistent number.  It's a voice I got to know very well, but since I finally got the hang of making phone calls in Chile, I hadn't heard her voice in a while.  It was good to hear it again. But I finally got through, and the hostel told me I had to book everything online...But now I know how to dial Argentina!

This weekend we're off to San Pedro de Atacama, which is a desert up north which is supposed to be beautiful. We'll be seeing sandunes, geisers, and Sandboarding...I have no idea what it is, but can't wait!

Empanadas & Cueca

Saturday night: empanada and cueca dancing.  I managed to cut onions without crying and cut meat into tiny pieces, even though I was pretty incompetent with the knife. The woman showing us how to make empanadas mixed together a bunch of ingredients and poured about 3 pounds of flour on the counter. Add some eggs, sugar, yeast, water, and mush together.
BUT  BE CAREFUL: pouring hot water into a pot of oil is a bad idea.  It will cause a huge fire and will cause all observers to run in the opposite direction of the fire, which coincidentally happens to a corner with a door we don't notice. Definitely the biggest fire I have ever been close to.
After we all resurfaced from the corner of the kitchen, there was enough dough to make about 1000 empanadas. We kneaded the dough, and rolled it into the size of mini pizza pies, reminding me of when Bertucci's pizza gave out free dough for kids to play with.
We made empanadas de pino which have meat, onion, a piece of a hard boiled egg, and one olive (two is as lucky as finding a four-leaf clover) and another type of empanada with tomato, cheese and basil. Aside the fact that some of my empanadas were juicing out the sides, i'd say I did a pretty good job. We also made fried shrimp and cheese  empanadas. To cut out the shape we used the edge of a glass, and with this I was not so successful. We of course had to eat a substantial amount of our creations before off to our next adventure: cueca.

I wish I had pictures of this adventure. We went to, a guess it was a restaurant, where they have a band and a dance floor to dance cueca, a dance which I mentioned before is supposed to imitate a rooster courting a hen. Evelyn, our program director found people at the next table over to "teach" us cueca, and once we had our handkerchiefs we were ready to go. I of course had to be the first person to dance, and awkwardly waved my handkerchief in the air jump-hopping in circles. Sometimes I'd spin to switch things up... While there is a real technique to cueca, obviously I have no idea how it is actually done.
After many hours of "dancing" (it was lucky I had my handkerchief or otherwise I would have looked even dumber,) and an extremely expensive taxi ride, I ended up home around 4:30 am. not a bad saturday night.

I can't believe time is flying by so fast...it's monday, and then before I know it, it's already Friday and I can't remember how I spend my time. I've been in class for 3 full weeks, yet it doesn't even feel like i'm in class. While I'm not complaining that I don't have work to do all the time, i've always associated not-summer-time with school, and with school comes studying and the library. For most of my classes here, we have a lot of suggested reading, and there is so much that I have the option of reading, but don't know which ones are actually worth reading. In addition, i'm not being tested on what I read, which always makes it that much harder to do the reading. Most of my classes have one final project, or two exams, so while there will be weeks where I have a lot to do, it seems like most weeks I can read as much or as little as I want, something which I am definitely not used to. When it comes to November and I'm swamped with more work than I know what to do with, I'll probably look back and wonder why I ever questioned my lack of work, but I don't know, I kind-of like school? I've gotten so used to the work, that I kind of like it keeping me busy? I was with a Chilean earlier this week, and when it got to asking me what I do during the week at home in the United States, I said I study. That's what I'm at school to do, at least during the week. He called me "matea," chilean slang for nerd. Seeing as some people here go out every night, the idea of studying 5 nights a week I guess would be different. I'm pretty sure I can handle being called a nerd. Classes here a lot different than at WashU, I have one that I really like, the other ones are okay. While i'm grateful for this new experience in a different school system, and I know that i will learn a lot about myself, which is more valuable than any factual information I may learn, I won't lie and say I don't miss the classes at WashU. Maybe this makes me a nerd? That's fine with me.

Thursday I went hiking in Cajon de Maipo, which is about an hour to an hour and a half from Santiago. We took the metro and then a collectivo, which is a taxi that has a designated route and set price. It was really easy to get to, and it was really nice to get out of the city for a day. The hike was for about 2 1/2 hours and I learned a few things:

1. my hiking shoes are not waterproof. I'm pretty sure they are still outside drying.

2. It's time for me to start going to the gym.

3. Just because there snow on the ground, doesn't mean the sun doesn't shine. I got back to my house, and the first comments were how my face was sunburned. I can't say I should be surprised.

We hiked to 'la meseta' which means plateau, and is the picture above on the right. Once we hiked back down we were starving and went searching for a place to eat lunch. We found this place that one of my friends had been do before, but apparently was usually closed during the week. I think it was at this campground type place, so we found a woman who worked there, and she told us the restaurant wasn't open, but since the chef was in there cooking for the weekend, they could open the restaurant for us. So we opened up a restaurant. On the way back in collectivo we listened to the best 80's mix I have ever heard. It was atleast 30 mins long, with probably about 40 different songs and managed to blend every song together really well.

Last night for one of my classes, I went to a movie which was a part of the Santiago Film festival. It was about the Mexican President Calles in the 1920's, and the documentary was made by the presidents great-granddaughter. It was interesting how she compared the situation of Mexico in the 1920's to the present situation in Mexico. I have been to the movies more in 2 months then all of sophomore year, and probably more. I don't get what is so appealing about going to the movies, but I have seen at least 5 in theaters. I saw the proposal last weekend (movies come here later than they do in the States), and while I was expecting it to be really bad, I laughed the whole time.

Tonight I'm learning how to make empanadas and the how to dance cueca, the national dance of Chile. The dance is supposed to imitate the courting ritual between a rooster and a hen. This is going to be interesting...

So it looks like it's been a while. Last week my parents came down to visit, so my days consisted of visiting lots of classes, then heading straight to the hotel for TV and free food...

The first Sunday night they were here, we had dinner at my house and with my host family: (host parents, siblings, aunts, uncle, cousins..the whole family). It was fun having everyone together, and I had to assume super translator mode, considering my family here speaks little English, and my parents speak little Spanish. Sometimes, my Chilean family would say something that I wouldn't catch, and when someone ask me to translate, I would kind of just smile and laugh because I had no idea what was said. But it was a really good dinner, and it was cool having everyone together. Thursday night we took my family out for dinner, this time with grandparents, and I got to translate toasts such as "We hope Emily doesn't love this family more than she loves us..." thanks dad.

Friday night, we went to Friday night services with a rabbi whose brother-in-law works with my mom. Small world, but not surprising because it's Jewish geography... When the services started, there weren't that many people, but as time went on (meaning 7:30 Chilean time, which can be a lot later than actual 7:30,) people kept coming in. There were probably about 40/50 people by the end which was pretty cool. The service used a lot of the same melodies we use at home, and aside from saying "de pie" instead of "please rise" things were very similar. It's kind of like when you're in a foreign place, and you see a McDonald's, well probably more like a Starbucks, and you like it because it reminds you of home? It's kind-of like how this way this service was, if I closed my eyes it was almost like I was back at home.

Saturday we went to Isla Negra, which is home to another one of Pablo Neruda's

houses. The third one is in Valparaíso, which I am going to see in October. This house is said to be the best one to visit, and it was really cool. It's right on the water, so the view is absolutely gorgeous. It is designed to look like the inside of a boat. He has collections of those things you put at the front of the boat, (they kind of look like mermaids) a room of shells, and a bedroom with an amazing view of the water. We then went to this restaurant which had great fish, seafood empanadas, and these amazing "crepes de manjar" which are crepes with the chilean version of dulce de leche, and chocolate icecream mmm so good.

This week has consisted of going to class. I've got mostly everything figured out, and have almost made it to class on time (aside from the one day the bus didn't come) but I still made it. I did spend a lot of time at the photocopier this week. This is not to critique their system, because it may seem I complained a bit too much in my last post? But this photocopying system is interesting, but does make sense. There is an extremely high book tax here, so no one really buys books. Instead, the professors leave a list of required articles in a folder at the photocopier, and you have to look through the folders of classes, find your class, fill out a form with the articles you want, hand in the sheet and pick up your articles later.

Pros of the photocopier:

*a lot cheaper. I got photocopies of almost all the articles for two of my four classes for about 7500 pesos, which is about $15. I don't think I'll end up spending more than $50 on all my classes, which is about 1/10th of the price I pay for a semester of books at WashU.

*I get to test my patience. The line to hand in the filled-out form to the photocopier can sometimes be very long and tedious, sometimes about 45 minutes. So i'm practicing patience, and getting very good at it.

*I've made friends in the photocopy line. Considering I usually have a lot of time, it is a good place to start conversations and make new friends.

Another week of class ( I don't have class on Friday) is ending...today i've been here 7 weeks, which is absolutely crazy. Everything is going by wayy too fast. Let's slow it down please, thanks.

Class?!

Never again will I complain about having to sign up for classes at WashU.

I have the opportunity to take classes at two universities, one La Católica, a private University, and the University of Chile. Católica is a bit more organized, and La Chile, not at all. This week classes started only at la Chile, and as of this past monday or Tuesday, many of the classes not only didn't have assigned classrooms, but also didn't have a schedule. It is very difficult to try and visit classes that don't have professors, schedules, or classrooms...

Tuesday I attempted to go to a class. After I got off the metro, I looked for the bus that could take me closer to campus. I saw two younger guys standing at the bus stop and asked them if they knew which bus went to the campus. I think the fact that they didn't understand me/took a very long time to respond should have been my indication they had no idea. But, they told me oh, it's this bus right here, so I get on. 10 minutes into the ride, one of the guys again asks me where I'm going, and then a lady on the bus tells me I'm going to wrong direction. I walk up and ask the driver of the bus, who is unfamiliar with the campus, the street, and anything related to the campus. I finally get off the bus and cross to the other side. I ask the new bus driver if the bus goes to the campus, which of course he doesn't recognize, but he does recognize the street. I eventually end up on campus, but have no idea where my class is. I spent about 15 minutes searching for the office of the exchange student coordinator, and I find it and the door is locked. I ask the secretary and finally get the room number. I am now 25 minutes late to class, and although I probably could have just walked in, it was a 15 person class and I didn't want to...I called the department of the other two classes I was planning to visit that afternoon. The first number that I had found in the course book as of course wrong, so I was given another number. This new number was the post-grad division, so I was given a third number. After being on hold, I find out that one of the classes doesn't start until Thursday, and the other one might not start at all because there aren't enough people interested. Just great, now I'm 0/3.

Wednesday we had a meeting with the coordinator again, and I planned on going to a class afterwards. I saw that this class, which on my list said met Monday and Wednesday, on the main list said Monday and Tuesday. I got this checked out, and of course it meets Monday and Tuesday, so I missed the class. 0/4

Yesterday I actually did make it to a class! It was a comparative economics class about Chile, Argentina and Mexico. I could understand probably about 60% of what the professor said, and impressive statistic on my part. He would speak loud and slow for most of the lecture, but then when he started thinking fast his speech got fast and mumbled, and I had absolutely no idea what he said. I think he made some jokes too, because people around me were laughing. I did make a friend though, who explained a bit of the syllabus to me, and then helped me get out of the building and to the metro because I got lost.

Up for next week: visiting way too many classes at La Católica and La Chile, and traveling among about 5 different campuses. Upside: I'm getting a lot better at the public transportation...

COLD aka trip to Pucón

One word to describe our trip to Pucón: cold. It wasn't even that cold outside, but I never realized that winter without heat is a lot colder than winter with heat. Despite this, it was still a really cool trip.

Until this trip never had I ever...

*seen snow in July

*climbed a volcano

*used crampons and piolets and all of this other fancy equipment to climb this volcano

*slid down a volcano as if i were sledding--but without the sled

*worn long underwear, sweatpants, sweatshirt, two pairs of socks, a 20 degree sleeping bag and two blankets...to go to sleep.

*worn only a bathingsuit in about 40/30 degree (I don't know exactly, but very cold) weather...

Aside from the cold, I really liked Pucon. Although in the summer time it is heavily a tourist town, it was a lot of fun in the winter as well. Most of the town is made of wood, so it looked a lot like a ski town, something like I would imagine some ski towns in Colorado would look like, but i've never been skiing in Colorado so I wouldn't know. It is more of a touristy town, so they had a lot of variety in restaurants, unlike some of the small towns we were in last week where our options were a chilean restaurant or...a chilean restaurant. There were more pizza/pasta places on the same block, then I have seen in a very long time. There were also a lot of artisan markets, with more wool hats and socks than I have ever seen...but it makes sense.

It was a lot harder to speak Spanish here because so many people didn't speak spanish. In our hostel there were people from Switzerland and Holland, and they spoke to us in English. There were also a lot of other tourists who didn't really speak any Spanish at all. It was a nice little English break, but now I'm back in Santiago and it's spanish time.

On our second day we did a canopy tour, which is kind of like a series of ziplines. We ziplined across a river which was really cool. I did something like this in Costa Rica but that was about 6 years ago. It also reminded me of the high ropes courses I used to do at camp, with harnesses, helmets and the whole deal.

Friday was my favorite day in Pucon. We woke up at around 6:30am, earlier than i've been up in a very long time, and put on so many layers, and went to hike the volcano. They gave us pants and jackets, but my jacket was so big there was probably enough space for another person. We also got boots, helmets, snow axes, crampones, which are kind of like spikes you put on the bottom of the boots to make walking on ice/snow a lot easier. Pretty intense. As we walked, despite the fact that it was a snow covered volcano, I was warmer than when I slept in our hostel. We hiked for a while, it turned out no one was able to climb to the top because there was too much wind. Going down the volcano was a lot more fun than climbing up. We wore these, I guess kindof like aprons, but we wore them backwards and slid down parts of the volcano. It was like sledding, and in some parts the snow was really deep so I got stuck, but most of the time it worked pretty well.

Later that night I went with one of my friends to Los Pozones, which are hotsprings. There were at least two pools, well we only made it to two of them. One of them was so hot. The pool was steaming, and when I first stepped in it was so hot that it almost hurt. It was definitely a nice change though, and very relaxing. While running from one pool to another was cold, the water was very very warm.

After looking for the movie theatre that burnt down 2 years ago, eating to pass the time, drinking more hot chocolate, and a 10 hour bus ride back to Santiago, we arrived at the metro before it opened at 8am, which is pretty embarrassing. A true sign that no one should be up at before 8 on a Sunday morning. At 8:20 I arrived back at my apartment and went back to bed. It was very nice to be able to sleep without socks on...