18 days

Lately the days down here have been filled with a flood of emotions. I might be up one moment and feel so excited that I almost done with this experience because I want to see everybody from home. Then 5 minutes later I might feel like 18 days is still so long and that I can't believe I still have more time down here when all of my friends who studied abroad are already home and have been for a while now. This roller coaster can be pretty tiring.

I want it to be Friday, my mom will be here and we will be pretty busy until I come home on the 13th. Valparaiso, Santiago, Cusco, Machu Picchu, Lima, Santiago, Seattle.

It is going to be interesting when I readjust to life back in the United States. It might be a little lonely at times because nobody will be there who totally understands my experience. I know it is part of the process though and so many other things will be amazing.

Spanish blog

If you are interested, I had to create a blog for my Spanish writing class and I have attached the link to it. Some of the information I have blogged about here, but also a good amount is different. It is in Spanish though so you will need to translate it to read it! I always use Google translate, it works decently well when translating.

http://chile2013escritoblog.blogspot.com/

20 days until I am home, 5 days until my mom arrives, 10 days until I go to Machu Picchu

The photos are from my horsebacking excursion with my group! First time on a horse :)

 

Chiloe/Puerto Varas (Last week in April)

So I am starting the updates that I never blogged about...



Amelia and her curanto

This was the weekend I went to Ancud and Puerto Varas with Amelia, Julie Ann and Sam. We headed on out Thursday night after our classes and took a night bus down to Puerto Montt. After the 14 hour bus ride we needed to get some fresh air and walk around a bit. We decided to check out Puerto Montt a bit but there is nothing there. It wasn't very pretty in my eyes either. We found a restaurant to eat at that was recommended by a carabinero (police here) because it was his families. The place was kinda a hole in the wall but pretty full and we could tell that it was authentic Chilean food from the south. Amelia decided to try curanto which is the dish you need to try when you go the south. It is basically just a bowl full of clams, mussels, meat and potatoes. It was a huge proportion and super delicious! I decided to get cazuela which is just basically a soup with meat and potato's, squash and potato's. It is also super delicious and authentic to Chile. After our lunch we went back to the bus station and bought bus tickets to get over to Chiloe. You have to take a bus for about 2 hours and part of that involves going on a ferry because Chiloe is an island.


On our way on the ferry



Ancud on Chiloe

We arrived in Ancud right next to the hostal that we were staying at. 13 lunas was recommended by my friend Brittney in my class. The owners were super friendly and showed us the place. We rested for a bit and then decided to walk around a bit along the water and get some food. The island was beautiful when we rode onto it and getting to walk around a bit in one of the towns was nice. That night after dinner we went back and hungout. The next day we woke up kinda late and decided to walk around and look at all the towns museums and little spots. We saw an old military spot, museums, Church's, ferias, and much more. It was a good day and made me feel like we got to see the town. We had been debating if we wanted to go to Puerto Varas and spend a night there but our hostal emailed us in Puerto Varas and had to cancel. Because of that we knew the best choice was to stay in Ancud one more night. We played games that night and talked.

 

Top of a church

Amelia and I dancing

On Sunday we woke up early because we had a bus from Ancud to Puerto Varas at 8:30. We got in around 11 and walked around the town a bit and also looked for ways to get to Saltos de Petrohue which is a beautiful waterfall. We found a touristic office and talked to her about what to do and made a plan. We went into the cutest cafe for a quick lunch and then took a mini bus to the waterfall. The ride to it was gorgeous. There were rolling hills, beautiful landscapes and animals. We all really felt like we were out in nature. The bus took about an hour and once there we walked up to the waterfall. I thought it was going to be more of a hike than it was but, oh well. The view was awesome and we all just sat and soaked it in for a bit. We had more time to kill so we walked down the river a bit on a few of the trails and I decided to find a spot to put my feet in the water! It was freezing but I had to do it. We decided it was time to start heading back so we went out to the road and had to wait an hour.... for the next minibus to come. On the way back it became full of people and I gave my seat up for an old man and had to stand for about 45mins. I think I fell asleep standing up hahah but it was the most uncomfortable thing I had done in a while because I was squished between people and it was warm. Back in Puerto Varas we found a pizza restaurant and ate because we were starving. We found ice cream also at this cute little diner place (we got ice cream every day on the trip :D). Afterwards we bought some food at the supermarket and walked up to the bus office to wait for the bus. 45mins later we were standing outside a gym waiting for our bus with everybody else. We weren't in a bus terminal because that town didn't have one, so you just have to wait on the side of the road. We got on and continued our 13ish hour trip back to Valparaiso.

Salto de Petrohue

My feet in the water!

Overall the weekend went well, but it was a little frustrating at times because I felt like I had to make all of the decisions and the other girls didn't want to ask questions. Every group is a little different and my other trips went better! More to come about my trips!

Lately

A lot has happened since I last blogged and I hopefully will blog more specifically about those when I get a chance. I went to Chiloe with Amelia, Julie Ann and Sam. Then RJ came and we hungout and went to Pucon. I then went to San Pedro de Atacama with Patricia, Tijana, Issac, Leon, Calli and Mike. Finally we hit this weekend which was my birthday weekend.

It has been pretty great with my family and friends. We went out on Friday and celebrated by going to Kelsey's house and then going to bar La Playa afterwards. Then on Saturday I received flowers from RJ and the card from my mom for my birthday. Later in the day I hungout with Kelsey, Tijana, Amelia and Calli and we went to Desayunador to get some chocolate cake. It was really delicious!! We sat there for quite a while and just talked about everything for a few hours which was really great actually. It is funny to think about that all of those girls and I have boyfriends right now. Afterwards we left and all went back home. On the way I bought flowers and chocolate for my mom because it is her birthday also on the 1st and came home to a dinner with the family. They had all the family over and we celebrated my moms birthday and mine a bit. Tonight is when we are celebrating my birthday a little more since we didn't much last night and Tess is heading over right now to come hangout.

I have 41 more days here which is crazy to think about but I think that is about as many days as it has been since I last blogged.. So I am going to do better and update more often.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

We went on an excursion to Buenos Aires this last weekend!!!!

On Friday morning we met my advisor in Vina and headed to the airport to catch our flight. Going through security, immigration and everything else was super easy but hilarious because the immigration officers did 3 different things between everyone in the group and so a lot of us had different papers, stamps in different places and others didn't receive a paper. Our advisor freaked out a bit but we all thought it would be fine. The flight was quick, only about 2hrs. Once we were in Argentina we all made it through the airport with no problems and went to our hotel. We relaxed for about an hour and then went to go get some pesos. Then we met back up our advisor and we had a bus tour that I fell asleep on and we went to a tango bar. We had some dinner and learned how to tango. It was pretty funny to watch all of us gringos with the Argentinians but we all figured it out by the end of the night. After that we went back the the hotel and all went to bed.




The tango night

Saturday: We had two walking tours which lasted the whole day. We got to see the main tourist attractions such as Church's, plazas, and ended in plaza were we got to see a monumental cemetery. It was actually really cool. After that we were done for the night and a group of us went to the feria that was in the plaza. We then went back to the hotel and bought some alcohol on the way back. All of us met up and had a steak dinner together which turned out to be a little frustrating when the check came because with groups that large it is always so hard to get all of the money figured out. Afterwards we went to the hotel and went up to my room because we had four beds and so the majority of us hungout and drank. I learned a new drinking came called "Cheers to the Governor" which was fun. Then most of us went out to find a bar or a club and ended up walking around for probably like 2 hours. It was kinda frustrating because there was a girl who lives in Buenos Aires that was a friend of someone in my group with us and I thought she knew where we were going. That night ended in a frustrating way and I was exhausted from walking so much.

Feria San Telmo

On Sunday we had breakfast and checked out and then a group of us went to the feria in San Telmo which is 4 blocks long. It was really awesome and I bought some cool stuff for pretty cheap. We were so hot though because it was 80 degrees and humid and all us hadn't totally prepared for that. After walking through that for 3ish hours we got some ice cream, iced tea and then headed back to the hotel. We hungout for bit and then went to the airport and headed back to Chile.

All in all it was a good weekend and I really enjoyed getting closer to some of the other people in my program. It was awesome to see a new city but the company really made the trip great.

Below are some photos of the trip!

I am in front of Casa Rosada in Plazo de Mayo

Plaza Mayo

Paintings at a museum

Amelia and I with some guards



The scary toilet and baday at the museum



People who died in a concentration camp

Beautiful Church

 

Trips planned

The rest of my trips planned for Chile!

April 19/20 Buenos Aires, Argentina
April 26/27 Puerto Varas and Chiloe (Ancud)
May 3/4 Santiago
May 10/11 Pucon
May 17/18 Nothing
May 24/25 San Pedro de Atacama
May 31/June 1st Nothing
June 7/8 Patagonia
June 14/15 Chiloe (Castro) ?
June 21/22 Nothing
June 28/29 Vina/Valpo
July 1-12 Lima and Cusco, Peru and Santiago

I am super excited about all of this and am going to be a broke little lady but travelling is worth it and this is an experience of a lifetime.

Below are photos from my excursion with my group that was before the wine one but I realized I forgot to put them up! We went to the Fonck museum in Vina. There they have a large selection of early Chilean art, bugs and then a section on Easter island. Then we went to a Mapuche center and had a lesson about Mapuche people. The museum also had information about them so that was why we did them together. They served us some super delicious sopapillas with ahi and then we went to a hospital that uses Mapuche medicine. Then we ended the day doing loom. It was quite a packed day! I think it was on the 22nd of March.

Massive but short update

The beautiful view at the top of La Campana. On a nice day you can see to Argentina from one side
and the ocean on the other side.

At Casa Marin

Friday April 5th: Went to a Vineyard and Pablo Neruda's house in Isla Negra with my program. It was really awesome to get to go on a wine tour and experience that since I hadn't ever done that before. Also, I have now seen all 3 of Neruda's houses which isn't something everybody gets to do and is cool.

Part of their grape vines

Saturday April 6th: Had a little meltdown because I didn't make it to La Campana with my friends because of some confusion about transportation and other reasons. As a result, my family saw part of it and they decided to take me to Olmue and see the little town. We had lunch and some ice cream, it was adorable. They also danced to Pitbull on the radio while we were driving and it was hilarious. I then skyped RJ for a while.


Riesling, Savingnon Blanc, Pinot Noir

The museum in Isla Negra

Sunday April 7th: I went over to Tess's house for lunch because her family invited me over. They were having a little family gathering so I met a few of her host families cousins, and other extended family members. It was actually really good and nice to talk in Spanish for so long with them. They are really great people.

Monday: School. Yoga. Choir.

The start

Tuesday: I woke up early to go to a meeting about volunteering at a daycare (ish) thing and then went out to a breakfast place called Desayunador. Karla paid for all of us who came. I decided against volunteering because it wasn't really something that fit into my schedule and not exactly what I am looking for when I think about volunteering. I wish it could have worked out though.

Wednesday: Tutoring with Karla (this is going to be really helpful). Yoga. Cooking (kinda unsure about this because there are so many people there).

Thursday: Class. More class.

Friday: I climbed La Campana with my friend Brittney! It was so hard. It took us 8 hours of hiking and that was cut a little short because on the way down I twisted my ankle and landed really hard on my knee. I was really sad because I wanted to finish it and we instead had to call the park ranger to pick us up. Also I ripped my lululemon's which was such a bummer. I got home exhausted and went to bed super early.

Exhausted and so glad to have made it!



Ouchy

Super steep climbing

The top 2km of La Campana

Brittney and I

Saturday: I hungout with Amelia and we went to Valparaiso. We tried to find an empanada place that supposedly sells empanadas and juice for 1.000 pesos which is super cheap! But we couldn't find it so we ended up going to a place that was supposed to be Brazilian. They had amazing juice and I had a kiwi and lemon, which turned out to be a very weird, acidic, but good combination. We also split a tabla of brushetta like things. We then went and got ice cream. During all of this we read through Amelia's travel book and decided on our mini vacation locations. That was a major plus and so now we know we are going to Puerto Varas and Chiloe (Ancud).

Sunday: I went to church with Karla and some other girls from my group. It was good but we sat in the cry room and really couldn't hear what was going on at mass. Then we were all invited back to Karla's where she had prepared lunch for us. We had an amazing salad with mushrooms and cheese that was similar to brie. Then meet and potato cake things with a lentil yogurt side. Then for dessert a waffle with mint and Neapolitan ice-cream. The mint ice-cream was great because it tasted normal instead of like toothpaste (in Chile they add ginger to mint and it takes like toothpaste).

That's a quick overview of my past week and now I will start doing better at blogging!!

This is the video of my family singing and dancing.

Laguna Verde

The view before descending the big hill

On Saturday over the weekend I went to another asado (BBQ) with some other Chilean friends. We met in Bellevista in Valparaiso and bought some food and then caught a micro to Laguna Verde. This city is located to the south of Valparaiso but only about 30mins away. Then we road the micro farther into the city and then to the outskirts because we wanted to go find Las Docas. We then got off at the end of the micro route and started walking on a dirt road to the beach/water however we could not see at all. We hitch-hiked on a truck for about 5mins and then had to continue walking for about an hour more all the way down a dirt road until we saw the laguna. All of us were pretty tired and had no idea it was going to be this long. Only one of the chilean guys had been there before and so we were relying on him. When we got down we started a fire and cooked some chorizo. Tess and I had bought some avocado and so we ate that while the chorizo and chicken were cooking. We cut it up and put it on the bread. We then just all hungout there for a while, a few people drank but I was still wary of my stomach so I stayed away from that. Then at about 5:30 I decided I wanted to leave and talked with the girls about it. It was getting pretty cold because it hadn't been a very nice day and I knew we had a hour and half uphill walk to do before getting to the micro. So we all left at a little before six and walked up the big hill to get to the dirt path back towards the road and were able to hitch-hike on the back of a truck again and that saved us at least an hour, probably more since we were riding in the back for 20mins. We then caught the micro and headed back to Valpo. As we came into the city I heard a loud noise and looked behind me and somebody had thrown a rock at our micro and shattered the back door's glass. It was pretty crazy when that happened because the micro was full and somebody could have gotten hurt but luckily nobody did. Once in Valpo all of us girls took the metro back home and I fell asleep pretty early.





Sunday nothing exciting really happened.



Monday I had classes like usual but we also started our Tallers this week! This are workshops that the school offers and I had signed up for choir on Mondays and then cooking on Wednesday. Both of them are at 6:30 and go for about 1:30-2hrs. Choir was awesome and Tess and I were the only ones who were foreigners in the class. It felt so good to sing and I am so excited to see where this goes. Then today I had my cooking taller and there were a lot more foreigners. I am excited about this class and I thought we were going to cook today but we didn't end up doing that. However next week I know it will start. I need to look into finding an apron and a knife to bring to class... Not sure if I can find either of those at a second hand store but I hope I can!







Tess, Julie Ann and I in the back of a truck!





Moments of Peace

The past few days have been very up and down for me as I recount what has happened. I have felt frustrated with friends here and missing friends at home, I have missed RJ a ton, I have missed my family a lot and really have been doing a lot of thinking about what I want my adventure here to look like. I have these moments sometimes where I feel extreme peace that this is where I am supposed to be, but those moments never last long enough. This can be due to amazing and exciting things happening where I wish I could share it with the people I love, or it may be crappy times.

None of this really surprises me or makes me feel like something is wrong because I feel like this is a natural feeling to have when experiencing something completely different. I really wish I could share this with everyone I love, and we could do amazing things together, but I also know that I need to grow individually and that can be just as important as being with people.

Lately I have been praying/worshipping God a bit more than I was at the beginning. I feel like things have died down a bit and I am getting into a routine where I can see the gaps and holes in what I want in my life. I have no idea where this is going to lead me right now, but I am working through this mini series on my phone that is 25 Words a Day of the Bible. I am really bad at doing it everyday, but that is something I am working on. :) And I have also been watching a few more sermons from First Pres and am thinking about going to church with my advisor and her family next week. I am excited to see where this may lead and if there is something that I might be called to do while down in Chile. There might be something, but there also might not be and that is okay. Oh and also, I have noticed I have missed singing immensely and starting next week I will be singing again. I joined this workshop through my school where it is once a week and with Chileans hopefully. I want to thank anybody who is out there praying for me or who has while I have been down here. It really means so much and I appreciate the support.



Tea with herbs, jam and crackers in the morning

In other news! Yesterday I went to a BBQ with my friend Tess and Eric. It was a BBQ of one of Chilean friends that we met through the early start program. It was actually really fun and I was glad I went because I have wanted to do things with chileans. We had some delicious chorizo and other random types of meat. We also day drank which is always funny and played some card games and dominos. Afterwards, Tess and I went back to her house and had a very great conversation with her family while eating our once (their type of dinner, less food and usually bread/avocado/salad/tea...) We probably sat and talked to her mama, papa and brother for about an hour and discussed a lot of things but mainly about some common differences between the US and Chile. Also, I asked them about the protests that were going on yesterday. They had to do with students and they were protesting education and everything that it encompasses. Tess and I then hungout and watched an episode of Girls. I headed home after that and enjoyed the weather, it was very nice out still even at 12:30ish and it was nice to walk around a bit. However when I got home, my stomach started hurting really bad and I got pretty nauseous. I ended up getting sick a few hours later and felt much better after that. I have no idea what happened, I think I must have eaten something wrong because it came on so suddenly and my body was not happy at all with me. Today though my family has been adorable :) I told them about how I was feeling and my mama made me some tea with herbs and then then made me a soupish thing for lunch that was bland but it was good on my stomach. Today I just took it kinda easy and I think that was the best thing for me! I feel much better and hope that it continues in that direction.

Tomorrow I am planning to go to Laguna Verde with some of the girls for another BBQ and just some good hanging out time. I have heard it quite beautiful so will be awesome to see.

Some food pictures! I want to put more food pictures up so I am working on taking more.



My soup and crackers for lunch

Once: bread, avocado, cheese, honeydew melon, an egg, tea

Traveling, Hanging out

Lately I  have been kinda frustrated with not doing a lot of new stuff. I think that must be part of the experience especially when I did so much at the beginning. However, I feel like none of my friends down here want to go out during the day and see something new or at least just catch up. What happened to just going to get a coffee and talking about random things and our lives? I hope this gets better and doesn't continue but it is difficult to figure out how I can fix this.

I miss all my friends who would do anything with me: Go to Lewiston for the day, Sing on the top of furniture, make food, complain about driving to Walmart, get McDonalds, sit in the library and not actually study for 4 hours and so so much...