A Visit from Some Loved Ones

Over Thanksgiving mom, dad, Jolene and Adam came down to Chile to visit me for the week. I was really excited to see them as I obviously haven't seen anyone from home since I left in July and I wanted so bad for my loved ones to see the place that I've been calling home in person.





It was a wonderful week, even with the bumps in the road that we experienced, starting with waiting for our rental car for two hours while all the other companies were sending cars out one after another. But eventually we finally got our car and made our way to our little rented apartment in Viña del Mar. Once we got settled I got to take them to the market to grab our fruits and veggies for the week and show them a little bit of weekly life here in Viña. The Feria (Market) is only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays so it's not really a daily thing here, but it was an interesting experience for me as well because I've always been to the feria with my host mom. So the whole experience of talking to the vendors and translating for my family was very fun and interesting. After that we dropped off the food and went to a nice Italian restaurant two blocks away because we were so hungry. We hadn't eaten since early that morning before their plane had landed, and we were also tired so we took a nap before heading to my host family's place to share dinner.

Dinner was very very nice, my mom had made a paella for us that was very tasty, and I got to "show" my family how my Spanish has improved since I've been here since I did a lot of translating back and forth for both families since the only other person who knows both languages is Jolene, which I was definitely grateful for a second person with the ability to understand both! For me, conversation was always going since in order for both families to talk they had to go through me, making it a little hard to eat since I hate talking with food in my mouth. In all it was very fun, and my parents were so excited to see this side of me that they've known was there but never got to see because it's English almost everywhere we've gone before, except for El Loro... Which that really doesn't even count. :)





Sunday was a pretty lazy day, after sleeping in we went for an afternoon walk on the beach and to the artisan fair that was there. We had planned on getting much more done, but we ended up staying at the apartment when we had only planned to stop for ten minutes for a new application of sunscreen. Not really a big deal for me since I like the quiet of hanging out at home with my loved ones. When dinner came along I was really excited because I've missed my parents cooking so much and the smells of their stir-fry brought me back home and made me excited for my homecoming Also, I got to have some of dad's Dr. Pepper that he brought back on the plane with him, and oh my god. I miss it. First thing I'm buying when I see it in Atlanta. Hopefully.

On Tuesday and Friday we went and toured a winery on each of those days, which was the main thing that my family had wanted to do while they were here. The first winery we went to was from the Casablanca valley in between Santiago and Viña which was the Casas del Bosque winery where we did a tour and got to try four different wines, all of which were very good. Our Friday winery/vinyard was the Concha y Toro company, the biggest wine exporter of Chile and one of the largest of the world. We went to their location south of Santiago which is the only location that the wine is bottled. There we got to try two pours and also had a wonderful lunch there before driving home to make dinner for my host family.





Dinner for my host family at our rented apartment was very similar to Saturday night's dinner, just enjoying conversation, and food. We discussed a lot of what we had done over the week, which was a little less than what we had planned on doing, but with me having classes still and other unforeseen circumstances it still turned out great. Much less I know it's not the last time we'll be here. The other things we did over the week don't have a lot of details, so they don't really get their own paragraph, but they do deserve mention. We visited the beach one more time before they left, visited Viña's flower clock, went to the Mall and to Centro (kind of a commercial center) and drove up along the shore to some of the cities north of us.




It was very hard to say good-bye to my family at the end of the week, but it was a lot easier than it would have been had they visited earlier in the semester as I would be seeing them all again when I land back in Minnesota two weeks later.

I Went to Machu Picchu - No Big Deal

I know, I know, my blog post on Machu Picchu is LONG overdue. I'm sorry! Basically I came back and got started on all of my homework, papers, studying and finals preparation, worried that if I even took a minute to say something I'd go over the time I had given myself and be stuck writing papers with Adam and my family here. Which by the way, they will be arriving in less than twenty hours! I'm really excited, but it's hard to think that it's really real. Time has flown by super fast, I feel like it's all just a dream.


Anyway, Peru. Words can't describe this trip. It was awesome, a different kind of awesome than Patagonia however. I feel like Patagonia left a strange sense of awe about the wonders of nature, whereas this was amazement about what past civilizations accomplished. We arrived in Cusco, Peru in the middle of the afternoon and went straight to our hostels. My traveling companion was the lovely Mia who planned it all and did very well. Our hostel was beautiful and amazing. It had a very hippy, spiritual good vibey feel and the way it was decorated reflected part of my decorating style. It was just a great inspiration and if I could have hung out there the entire time, I probably would have. But we didn't, we had places to be and things to see. :)



The first night we toured the small street that our hostel was on and then at dinner we tried alpaca steaks. Very tasty, definitely a dinner I would recommend. On Friday morning we woke up early to catch the tour that we had set up the night before of the Sacred Valley, which consists of smaller ruins around the city of Cusco, it gave us a wonderful taste of what Machu Picchu was going to be like the following day. We visited three places and had a Peruvian style buffet for lunch. At the end of the tour our tour guide brought us to a home where they make and sell traditional hand-woven items where we were shown how they spin and die the wool and the process of creating their blankets, table runners, etc. It was an amazing process to watch and I loved being able to see how versatile plants can be.


At the end of our fourth stop we took a taxi to the town we had been in previously, Ollyantantambo to catch our train to Aguas Calientes where we would catch the short bus up the mountain to Machu Picchu. Mia and I unfortunately weren't able to buy our tickets online because of technical difficulties so we got stuck with having to buy our tickets for 11:00pm. Arriving in Aguas Calientes near one, where someone from our hostel would meet us at the train station to bring us there. Well, unfortunately we got there and no one from the hostel was there to pick us up. We attempted to find the place, with the help of the two cabin attendants from the train but never did. So we had to search for a 24-hour hostel and we found one near the plaza where we would be taking the bus up to Machu Picchu and for us to buy our bus tickets and tickets to the ruins. After setting ourselves up with the new hostel, we got to our room for our one, or one-and-a-half hour catnap before having to get in line at 4:00AM in order to be the first 400 people so we could make our way up to the ruins of Huayanapicchu.


So in that picture above, do you see that mountain in the background? Yea. That's the mountain that Mia and I climbed on one hour of sleep. At the top of that mountain is the other Incan ruins of Waynapicchu (two different spellings, I switch between both of them). We pretty much ran on adrenaline the whole day, but we were able to explore almost everything about the two ruin sites. It was definitely one of my favorite accomplishments of my life so far. At one point during our explorations of the Machu Picchu ruins, one of the workers/guides of the place took us under his wing and showed us the small things that many people don't notice, but he does because he's there every day. It was obvious that he had such a passion for the ruins and I am so grateful that he shared that passion with us. After about eight hours of wandering around the ruins, we headed back to Aguas Calientes for a nice Mexican lunch/dinner, went back to our hostel and slept for a good four hours. When we woke up, we went and got some dessert, and then again, back to sleep.

The next morning we awoke, packed our bags and made our way to the train station to return to Ollyantantambo, where we would catch a bus back to Cusco and return to our first hostel for the remainder of our trip. Mia and I had plans of touring Cusco and the ruins and cathedrals within the city, but unfortunately Mia got sick from brushing her teeth with the water in Aguas Calientes (I tried to warn her...). So we went back to some of the tourist shops we had been to before and made some last minute purchases, ate another Lunch/Dinner and crashed early again to be able to wake up and make our flight the following morning. Definitely a fun adventure, and I would love to do it again, hopefully with more time next time :)

Six Weeks Left

I've got six weeks left here in Chile, and what an eventful end it's going to be! This weekend was a really tame and lazy weekend for me. I don't have any pressing projects to do, and even with the intent to get ahead on my history paper I only got a intro started and a few pages of references up. But it's quite alright, most of my stressful work is over with and most things aren't due until the end of the semester now so I have time. :) Although by the way everything else has gone, it's still going to fly by. Anyway, while this weekend has been pretty lame to write about, I have yet to explain last weekend in Pucón.


So obviously, last weekend we took a trip to Pucón. By we, I mean all of the program, it's our last trip with all of us being together and one of the last events with the program. The weekend started off with a very long overnight bus ride to the city of Pucón where we stayed in some really nice cabins. The bus ride was nothing worth mentioning other than the fact that it was the most uncomfortable bus ride that I've ever been on in regards of attempting to sleep. Shorter people had issues, meaning that those of us with taller statures were basically out of luck, but after a fitful night of off and on sleeping we made it and we're all young enough to bounce back from it easily anyway.



After settling into our cabins and eating breakfast we made our way to the bus for the ride to the city of Currahuehue where we met with a Mapuche family there, toured their museum and then were welcomed into their home for lunch and activities. Their home included a large portion of land where we played games, explored the riverbank, learned a mapuche game similar to hockey, took a weaving workshop, learned to dance, and of course ate some amazing food. Our hosts were wonderful and were happy to share their culture with us and we were all grateful for their hospitality.


The next day, Saturday, was an activity day where we chose our activities the night before. We had the option to climb a volcano, go rafting, and canopy (ziplining) among a few other things we could have done on our own. I chose to do the canopy activity because it was more economical and I've always wanted to do it. The volcano sounded interesting, but it was expensive, and in the end I'm glad I didn't do it because they had to turn back early due to the weather from the night before and the scattered showers appearing later on. I was one of six girls that chose to do our activity, which didn't last long enough, but was amazing as well. If you ever have the chance, I strongly recommend ziplining, I know I will take the opportunity to do it again should it present itself. After our activities we were given some free time before heading to a nice restaurant for dinner where I had an amazing steak and potatoes dish with a bottle of wine that my table bought and shared.



On Sunday, our last day there before heading out later on in the evening for another overnight bus ride back to Viña we did a two short hikes to see some waterfalls in the area and then spent a few hours of the afternoon lazing around in the hot springs. Afterwards we went back to our cabins to pack up before being served a "classy" asado (barbecue) at the resorts castle kitchen. Once we finished there we hopped on the bus to head back, and a second uncomfortable fitful overnight on the bus ensued.


Not really an adventurous weekend but it was still nice and relaxing. Our trips with the program seem to have been high end which is a blessing in some ways, but then you realize how much cheaper the trip could have been with a slightly ritzier locales. Oh well.

Wednesday night I will be spending the night with a group of gals from the program at the airport anxiously waiting for our morning flight to Peru where we will visit Cusco and Machu Picchu. :) Super excited and I hope that everything goes as planned. We won't want a repeat adventure of Patagonia since we won't have as much room for improvisation.

Patagonia - The Southernmost Part of the World

That's right, the southernmost part of the world. This weekend I was about as far south as you could get without going to Antartica, however I was very tempted to hop on a plane or boat to go there! When I think about this past weekend, all I can say is "wow." Never in a million years would I have thought that I would've ever had such an experience in my lifetime, and I am so glad that I had this opportunity.


We arrived in Patagonia in the city of Punto Arenas by air early Thursday morning, about three AM. At that time, no buses were running leaving us with no hope of getting out of the three-terminal airport to travel to our destination city of the day, Puerto Natales. We got off our plane and left the "secured" part of the terminal and made ourselves comfortable to take the following four hours to wait for the rest of our group arriving in a later plane, sleep, and figure out what bus we needed to catch to take us to our next stop.


[One thing of note that I have learned about national flights through this past weekend is that security really isn't all that tight in these airports, or as tight as we expect it to be based on experiences from the United States. We all got through security with our bottles of water that we brought with for the flight on the way out, and on the way back Mia managed to get three boxes of matches and other "banned" items such as gel through the security check. Thankfully the likely-hood of something bad happening is very slim.]


The bus ride from Punto Arenas to Puerto Natales gave us a taste of how beautiful and amazing our trip was going to be. It's difficult for me to describe, so I'll be posting pictures to show what I wish I were able to convey in words. The wind in Patagonia tends to be super strong, so much that most of the trees in the region are formed in a windblown state that is kind of lopsided. With that in mind, Patagonia can be really cold but a lot of it is a mix of the wind and the cool temperature of being at the end of the world. When we arrived in Puerto Natales, the bus took us along the shoreline of the port and it took my breath away. We made sure that we found our way down to the shore while roaming the city, and we pretty much fell in love. Mostly we spent the day relaxing and planning our camping trip in Torres del Paine over the following days. After packing our backpacks, we tried to make it as early of a night as possible since we had to wake up early the next morning for another three-hour bus ride to the park.


We woke up bright and early Friday morning to eat a quick breakfast and caught our bus that would take us to our starting point of our camping weekend, and the biggest adventure of my life. Once we made it through the entrance to the park and paid our entrance fees, the bus brought us to Lake Pehoé where we would catch a catamaran for a thirty minute ride across the lake to the site where we would be setting up camp for two nights. We got to the lake early enough where we had some time to take a short hike up to a waterfall that "emptied" water from Lake Nordenskjold to Lake Pehoé and decided to continue our hike a little bit further than the waterfall to see more of the park. Two of the girls stayed back and returned to the boat launch and boarded the catamaran waiting for us to return near 12:30 for our shuttle to the other side of the lake. Little did we know that we misinterpreted the sign until we returned to the boat launch at 12:10 to find the Catamaran, and our two friends, gone. Apparantly the catamaran leaves the other boat launch at 12:30 and it left the one we were at, at noon. Our visit to Patagonia was two weeks before tourist season started, so that was the ONLY chance we had to take the shuttle across the lake, unless we wanted to pay five-hundred dollars for a charter. Nuh-uh. So our only other option? A five hour, seventeen-and-a-half kilometer hike (almost eleven miles). With our roughly twenty pound backpacks loaded with our tents, sleeping bags, food and other camping and hiking gear. Obviously a huge change of events for us, but thankfully the four of us girls kept our spirits up and took it as everything happens for a reason. The hike turned out to be wonderful, and we made it to our campground just over an hour before sundown allowing us to set up camp in the daylight. We were also fortunate that Courtnie and Stephanie, the two girls who managed to make it to the catamaran on time, had spent their time waiting for us talking to the workers of the lodge (in which we were not allowed to enter because we were lowly campers...). I say this, because as we were preparing to set up our campsite and make dinner, one of the workers there offered to cook our food for us, to which we gratefully accepted. Not only did this man risk getting in trouble for cooking our food for us, he also threw in some additional ingredients to our spaghetti, he gave us some bread and orange juice as well, and invited us to a "party" with all of the workers. Most of us declined, opting to jump into our sleeping bags and pass out, but some of the girls took the opportunity to meet some new people.

Saturday morning we slept in a little bit, opting to recuperate from our change of events the day before, but once we woke up we got ourselves fed and ready to hike a trail that led to Glacier Grey. This hike being an eleven kilometer hike one way, twenty-two kilometers round trip and about seven hours if you don't dilly dally... Which we did... But not too horribly. It only turned out to be, ohhhh lets say, nine, ten hours? Anyway, it was so worth it. I still can't find the words to explain the vastness of my feelings about the experience. You can see pictures of a glacier and be like, yea, cool, gigantically huge chunk of ice. But seriously, in person, it's like the dawning of a new day. It was massive, amazing, gorgeous and indescribable - and the hike wasn't all that bad either. Beautiful in and of itself in it's own way, at a much, much smaller scale.


I'll say that we spent a lot of time hiking during the first leg, so much so that we had to really truck it to make back before sundown and before the store at the campsite closed since we ate all of the pasta we had bought the night before. Poor planning? Not really, we were just very hungry the night before after our impromptu hike. I literally stopped maybe once, at most twice an hour during three or so hour hike back. We again made it back just about an hour before sunset with enough time to get to the small store and buy the supplies we needed for dinner that night. The rest of the night there really isn't much to tell, we were all pooped again and just worried about eating, showering and making it to bed. One thing that we were all surprised about was how comfortably we slept those two nights at the campground and how warm we stayed despite the typical cold during the day and at night in Patagonia. We were really warm and toasty in our tents to the extent that we were able to sleep in a t-shirt and pants and we probably would have been fine in shorts as well. We have the amazing sleeping bags we rented from our hostel for that.


In the morning we woke up to pack up camp to catch the 12:30 catamaran back to where our bus would pick us up, and yes, this time we made sure that we were going to be catching that boat. Otherwise we would have been stranded at the park another day, which was in no way going along with our plans to see the penguins before we left on Monday. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, we caught our buses to get us to Punto Arenas where we would be flying out of and where we would be seeing the penguins early the next morning. Let me tell you, the penguins were ADORABLE, and super fun and interesting to watch in their natural habitat. When we were there they were basically working on courting and mating as they had just reached Punto Arenas earlier in September for the breeding cycle of the year. I have a few videos of them that I'll share. Later though, because this post is getting super long, but only because this last weekend was amazing and made me realize how lucky I am to have this opportunity to study this semester here in Chile. This weekend I'll be heading to Pucon (southern Chile again) with my program, so hopefully I'll have some interesting things to say about that when I return. :)

Nothing New. Really.

As I mentioned in my last post, I haven't really had anything happen recently in the weeks before I start my trips (with Patagonia next week!!!). I've pretty much been working on schoolwork and having some relaxation time, even though my mind is constantly running with all the things I need to take care of. I've been doing a pretty decent job at getting ahead of my schoolwork, or at least working on the getting ahead part. Things creep up a lot faster than I expect them to so in the end the time I felt I had is just shorter.

That being said, even though I don't have a lot of exciting things to talk about I do have a have a recent "realization." Although not totally recent and realization is not the word I'm really looking for. Anyway. This trip and this experience has made me aware of the good things and people I have back at home. I didn't really have any expectations when I came here as to not disappoint myself or to become overwhelmed, the only thing that I had expected was to break out of my shell and start creating connections with people again. In recent years I've become pretty reserved around people I don't know very well, and it's made it difficult to create new lasting friendships that everyone else in the world seems to be making. So, to the point. I expected to come out of this with some new good friends and I higher confidence in my relationship building skills, but in reality it's been hard and not very successful for me. With that said, I have been taking advantage of my private time and reflected on my life and worked on other things and the most important thing I feel that I've discovered is how much you all back at home really mean to me. I know that for some of you I don't really show my gratitude very well (especially mis padres), but it's definitely there. And I miss you all very much. It makes me excited to come back home when I talk to you all on Skype, or Facebook, or hearing you Sue and Jay in the background of Adam's Skype! :) I knew before I left that I had a lot of things to look forward to when I return home, but I think the best thing will be returning to the companionship that you all give me and I can't wait to see your lovely faces again! :)

Whoa

I just realized that I missed my two-month mark of being in Chile, which was just a few days ago. Definitely an exciting feeling. I am enjoying my time here, my family is awesome and classes aren't too horrible (sometimes even pointless), but at the same time I am looking forward to the day that I get to come home to my friends and family. There are some difficulties that I have experienced here, but nothing that I can't handle. The next three weeks are going to be relatively quiet and hopefully I can get ahead on my studies during that time because once they go by, I have a feeling that everything else will start coming pretty quick as that starts the sequence of weekend trips and family visits.

Between October seventh and December 11th when I return to Minnesota I only have two free weekends where I will get to laze around the house and play catch-up with anything that has gone by the wayside. October brings two weekend trips, one to Patagonia and the other to Pucón - both in the southern portion of the country. Then my final month and a half brings my loving family and amazing boyfriend for a week during which I have two final papers due and then two final weekend trips first to Machu Picchu at the beginning of November and then to Rio, Brazil at the beginning of December. So I guess that even though I'm not happy with my idle time right now, I should be taking advantage of it since I won't have the chance again later.

I'm hoping that just because the next two and a half weeks have nothing exciting going on that I'll still have things of interest to say in the tedium. If anything, I can try and post more pictures since I haven't really been doing a great job at that for you non-facebook users...

Fiestas Patrias (Independence Days)

This last weekend was a huge weekend for Chile. Every year on September 18th and 19th Chile celebrates their independence, (even though it's not actually their independence day...) and this year was the celebration of their bicentennial. As the 18th and 19th also fell on a Saturday and Sunday, the government declared the weekend of Fiestas Patrias to be a four-day weekend, giving Chileans the option to have Friday and Monday off as well. Me? I got almost an entire week off, all but one of my classes had been canceled last week. While it wasn't the same for all of my companions here, it was definitely something to be remembered.

Everyone celebrates Fiestas Patrias differently, most Chileans spend the days partying it up drinking seasonal beverages, eating lots of meat, and just enjoying the company around them. Some people go crazier than others, but it's all a big huge countrywide party. My family being the laid-back calm family that we are, spent the weekend much like we do back at home for the Fourth of July - family and barbecues.

Our week(end) started on Wednesday doing our shopping for the entire weekend as the big corporate stores legally had to close on Friday and Monday so we had to make sure that we had all of the bread, meat and drinks that were necessary for the weekend lest we had to go out looking for a small family-owned store to be open. Which on the actual days of the holiday you'd find very few people not out celebrating with their own friends and family if they had the choice. I finally got to go to the Feria (basically farmers market) where my mom stocks up on all of the fruits and veggies for the week on Wednesdays.

The barbecuing began on Thursday at my brother Mauri's house where we grilled up kabobs, ate empanadas and drank some wine to start the weekend off. Friday was relatively the same but at our apartment with my other brother Rolo and his three children, the menu for the day was beef, pork and chicken, a rice dish, some yummy baby red potatoes, and of course pebre (a salsa that reminds me of the bruschetta tomato mixture that goes on bread and crostinis) that goes on everything and anything you can think of. After a short rest and/or nap for us all we went for a walk along the beach and went to Bravissimo, one of the "best" ice cream shops around in the area according to my mom. It was definitely very good, but I don't think anything can really compare to Sebastian Joe's back at home.

Saturday I was given the option to go out to the country for another asado with my sister Maca and her friend Alej at Alej's uncles home where they have a lily plantation to sell to Chilean florists, or to go to the yacht club with my mom and dad for a celebration there. Since I live in the city and don't get many chances to go out to the country, I decided to go with Maca and Alej to meet her family. When we got there I was given a huge warm welcome, which is something that I really enjoy about life in Chile. We had a very similar lunch to what we had the day before with my family, so not a whole lot to say about that, but the "party" lasted for hours with the family talking, catching up and enjoying each others company as well as Alej's three-month old niece who was as bright eyed and busy tailed as you could get with a baby. So adorable. Anyway, when we left we were in a rush to get home in time to see the fireworks display that they were going to have off the beach in Viña, however we kept getting stuck in traffic with everyone heading back to the city for the display or to just get home. Which reminds me, back at home we say Minnesotan's don't know how to merge... just wait until you see Chileans merging on a freeway when the exit ramp is slightly blocked up. I also don't think they really know the meaning of traffic jam either, I've seen worse every day back at home - but it's all relative to perception, because it was weird to see my street all blocked up for miles when it's normally pretty clear. Anyway, I digress. We got back just as the first half of the fireworks were finishing up, as a surprise they had pretended that the fireworks ended after just ten or fifteen minutes leading to a great disappointment to many people, but after the five, ten minute break they started back up and suddenly everyone started running back to where they originally had been watching the show. Definitely a site to see - especially with the amount of people crowding the streets, parks and plazas.

After all the excitement from Thursday through Saturday we took a break on Sunday and spent the day lazing around the apartment enjoying the leftovers from Friday. On Monday we walked to the beach for the afternoon airshow and boat parade, which was exciting and dull at the same time. You can only watch so many of the same boats go by slowly when the only difference you see is whether it has a Chilean, Canadian, Argentinian or U.S. flag, but I enjoyed being out in the sun and getting a little color to my florescently pale skin. Afterwards we had a barbecued lunch again with Rolo and his kids, this time with a meal similar to Thursday's of kababos and sides. The day didn't last long after lunch this time because we were all pretty beat from five days of celebration. It's amazing how different types of sitting and relaxing can still take a lot out of you.

We are now back to our regularly scheduled program of life, classes started again yesterday and no one was really totally there since most of us had a pretty long weekend away from anything involving work or school. For me, I got go go back to my longest day of classes after a week off, and it started out with my dance class at ten o'clock in the morning. Not the best wake up, it's back to school call... Also, our calefont (water heater) broke on Monday morning and wasn't fixed until last night - so I got to go a couple days without being able to shower because no one wants a freezing shower. But it's been fixed, and my shower today - while it wasn't as warm as I like it, was still heavenly.

Mendoza!!!

This last weekend I went to Mendoza, Argentina with four of the girls from the CIEE program that I occasionally hang out with and we all had a great time. It is such a beautiful city, and once you get about twenty minutes out of the city I found the country-side appeal that I feel like I've been looking for ever since I got here. But it's one of those sensations that you don't realize what was missing until you stumble upon it. Anyway, our night started on the bus where we sat in the lower deck with the full-bed sleepers. We sat with three girls from France who were in back, and in the middle of all of us was an Argentinian soccer coach for a Chilean boys soccer team (all of whom were housed in the upper-deck of the bus with the semi-beds). We spent the first hour of the bus ride talking to him and got to know him a little bit, he was very nice and helpful to the extent that he paid for our two taxi's that took us to our hostel once we arrived in Mendoza at about eight or nine o'clock in the morning. He had given us an open invitation to come to lunch or dinner with the soccer team where we would get deeply discounted meals because the group was so big with the soccer team, however his phone number didn't work with Skype, and after two hours of searching for their hotel/hostel we never found it. But he was very understanding when we met up with him and the team again on the bus ride back to Santiago and said good-bye to us once we got there.

Friday was our first day in Mendoza and after we cleaned up a little bit at the hostel and got our room squared away and ready to check in to later on in the day we walked around the city to do a little exploring, figure out the money exchange and a little shopping. The girls were very interested in finding some nice boots there as their host-mom's here have been raging about boots in Argentina, but it seems like we didn't find anything all too special. Afterwards we took a walk to the biggest park in the city too meet up with Hannah's best friend who is studying at one of the Universities there and a couple of her other friends. There we just relaxed and enjoyed the warm weather and talked about the differences between the two countries and their cultures. We stayed with them for a couple of hours and then decided to head back to the hostel to check into our room and get ready to go out for dinner. On the way back to the hostel we walked by a small artisan fair that we decided to walk down and found a really interesting wire jewelry maker who made some beautiful pieces. I wish I had felt comfortable taking a picture of it to show you all but, that didn't happen. We got sidetracked there for awhile but finally made it back to the hostel and then to dinner where the workers at the front desk had suggested a pizza place around the corner and we got coerced by the hostess at the restaurant next door to come to their restaurant because it was cheaper. Didn't turn out to be such a bad thing as we found that they made some amazingly good french fries, so good that we went there for dinner every night just for the fries.



Saturday we did what I primarily went to Mendoza for, biking wine tour. We woke up a little bit later than we had planned, but the four places we stopped at were more than enough for us, and enough to pique my interest to go again someday down the line (hopefully plane tickets from the U.S. to South America will drop sometime in the next twenty years). Our first stop wasn't a winery, but an olive oil, chocolate, liquor and olive product maker. There was a short tour of the place and then the tastings. First was the oil that they make which was then paired with their balsamic vinegar - which was the best balsamic I ever had. For those of you that know me well, you know that I'm not the biggest fan of balsamic although I do use it. So if I like it enough that I actually buy a bottle of it, you know it's pretty darn good. We then tried the olive pastes, and spreadables that they had for sale in their shop and we ended with a tasting of their alcohol where I had my first shot and taste of absinthe. For a 150 proof liquor, I think I'll stay with the Bacardi 151, but it was still worth the experience and may try it again another point in time. Our second stop was a winery where we received a free tour of the vineyards and the places where everything happens. Nothing hugely exciting to note, although it was a nice experience. We then decided that it was near time to bike to the next place for lunch since we were hungry, and when we got to the place that the bike renter had suggested the owner told us that he was out of the meat for the meal - so stop number three was a bust. We were pretty bummed about that, until we reached the little winery that we did eat at and had the most amazing meal. It was pretty unanimous that it has made the top five meals of the entire semester so far. I had a traditional Argentinian lamb and potato meal that was very rich, hopefully I'll get the photo to show. After that we had dessert which we all ordered and shared some brownies with ice cream and tiramisu.

Once we finished dinner we headed back to the house where we rented the bikes to turn them in and had a final glass of wine before heading back to the hostel. Later on I went to a big artisanal fair at one of the larger plazas a couple blocks away from where we were staying with Kariesha and Maddie to get a quick look at what they had there, so that we could return the following day with Courtnie and Hannah (who had stayed behind to rest/have dinner with her friend). The main thing of note for the artisan fair was the basket of kitten's that one of the vendors had with him that he was giving away. Cutest little things ever - and I wanted so bad to take them home with me, but I don't think that would work very well with customs or my host family... :(



Sunday was our last day there and was another lazy day. We had made plans to go to the hot springs, but decided upon waking up that it would be to difficult to do with three of us not having any bathing suits. Then we thought to go ziplining but we couldn't find the company to go there. So we just ended up buying some cheeses and bread and went to the park from Friday again to hang out, rest and enjoy the Argentinian air. After a few hours there we returned to the the large artisan fair and made our final purchases that we had looked at the night before or found that day and finished the day at our favorite restaurant in Argentina and had our french fries.



All in all the trip was pretty amazing, Argentinian's seem like the nicest, most helpful people in the world (just a little exaggeration for ya'll). Some things about the trip made me reflect on whether or not I chose the right place to study but I have come to the conclusion that both places have their pros and cons and that if anything I'll just have to do a summer study program in Argentina for grad school. Shouldn't be too hard of a deal for me, I'm definitely enjoying South America and want to explore it all throughout my lifetime so I'm going to keep all my options open for that and take any chance that I get.

Something that takes getting used to...

The one thing that has taken time, and is still taking time getting used to is the host family stay. I love my host family, I feel totally welcome and cared for here. But it's like I am caught in the middle between being a member of the family and being a prolonged guest in the house. Whenever we sit down to have lunch together as a family I am always served first, followed by my host dad and then whoever else is left between my mom, host sister Maca and her friend Alej who lives with us. But I also help clean up the table and set things right after we eat and then Maca, Alej or my mom wash the dishes, sometimes they leave them for the next morning or whatever, but they always do them. Also, when I say I'm being cared for, I'm REALLY being cared for. I'm in the habit of making my bed at home. Simply because I feel that it's nice to get into a bed that is all laid out and you don't have to work out all the twists in the blankets when all you want to do is put your head on the pillow and sleep. So, I've kept that habit up here, especially since there are about three extra blankets on my bed due to how cold it gets inside the house at night. Many times when I leave early in the morning for class, I come home to my mom having re-made it to look super nice. My mom always does the laundry, sometimes with the help of my sister but nonetheless, all I have to do is put my dirty clothes in the washing machine for one of them to sort out when it gets full. Then all of my clothes get folded up and left on the chair by my door for me to put away. Monday is normally cleaning day when the whole house gets cleaned, swept, etc. meaning my room is also included in this, and once again, I come home from class to everything being sorted out and looking nice in my room even though I keep it pretty tidy myself. There have been nights that I come home after once (ohn-say) which is basically dinner and my mom will be laying in bed hanging out and she will get up to make sure I've eaten, and normally I have - but she'll still go to the kitchen and grab me a little plate of dessert or an apple.

All of this makes me feel loved and well cared for in my family, but it's kind of hard for an independent girl who is used to doing her own laundry, making her own food (or at the very least plating her own dish up) and just tidying her place up when she finds the time for it. You might say that I'm loving not having to really do any of the work or chores around my house. While I might agree to an extent, it also is very unbalancing for the student with a U.S. mindset, because this is normal here. It's a very maternal society where the mom's are used to caring for everyone and doing everything, whereas back at home we work hard as soon as we can to assert our own independence.

Something else that I recently noticed is that you need to be careful about the things you cook or recipes you choose to make while you're here. Something so simple that you just have tucked away in your kitchen back at home, doesn't even exist here. Like parchment paper. I've started a semi-weekly thing here with my friend Rachel to bake or make some food every Monday that we are home and not gallivanting around South America. This last Monday was our first one, and we decided to make these delicious looking brownie-like chocolate cookies that we found on a food blog called Brown Eyed Backer. Seemed simple enough because it's basically like making brownies, but dropping the batter to make the cookies - problem being it called for parchment paper. So instead of these little delicious cookies that look like brownies and taste like them, they turned out to be flat pancakes that scrunched up when you tried to get them off the pan. Even after it being greased up good. (Yes, improper grammar, there because I want it there). So we instead used the second half of the batch to make a small pan of brownies, layered some homemade butter cream frosting on them, layered the smooshed up cookies and covered it with more butter cream frosting. It didn't look the prettiest, but I know my family thought it was very good even though it just looked like a glob of brownie and butter cream frosting mixed together once I got it home. But now we know, when it calls for parchment paper - don't attempt to make it in Chile, wait until you get home. :)

That's pretty much all I have for now, we bought bus tickets to go to Mendoza, Argentina last night for this weekend so I'll hopefully have something about that when we get back next week. Then next weekend is "Fiestas Patrias" which is pretty much the birthday of Chile, and guess what? This year it's their bicentennial. So big party, and it's on a weekend. Meaning four day weekend big party with drunks all over spouting their love for their country. I'll have at least a little about that too in the next couple weeks.

Love you all!

~De

Now that I'm a year older...

I figure I should update a little bit today :)

I had been meaning to update this earlier this week but we just had our first crazy week where all the professors decide that the same week would be a great week for everything to be due. So I had two and a half papers to write (one half being a joint group project), my first business in Spanish exam based on a series of readings, and of course the normal course work of reading poetry and short stories in Spanish and interpreting those. That in itself wouldn't have been too horribly bad, but I also had my mind going in a billion different directions thinking about all of the current and future things that are big and important in my life. While I won't go into the details of that, suffice it to say poor Adam had to sit and listen to it all trying to keep up. In his words he was going 33 in a 35mph zone and I was going 80 in a 65 mph zone.

There is one thing that I had on my mind last week that is relevant to this blog and is quite important and exciting in my life right now, and that is travels. We have booked our plane tickets for a couple of the trips we've been planning in the next few months and are discussing a few others.

Next weekend it looks like we will be heading to Mendoza, Argentina. Right now it seems like a small group, but I really don't mind that. We're looking at about spending three days there, leaving Viña Thursday night and arriving Friday morning and then leaving Sunday night arriving back home on Monday morning. I don't really know the full details of the weekend, but the one thing that I will be pushing for is wine. Mendoza is Argentina's wine country, and they have this lovely system of bike wine tours that I will not let pass me by. Not much to explain about it because it's just as it sounds, you rent a bike and bike to a bunch of wineries, take tours of them and sample wine all while getting some fresh air and taking in the beautiful countryside and scenery.

Following that (for now), we'll be flying to Patagonia for a weekend in mid-October for a visit. My friend Mia is the planner for this trip and has found some pretty fun options for us to do. When we get there we'll spend some time exploring and busing to our lodging destination, and on the Friday that we get there we're going to go Kayaking and potentially horseback riding depending on our finalized plans. For the rest of the weekend we will be busing an additional hour away to stay in Torres de Paine where it looks like we might be renting tents and camping it out at the National Park. Sounds like a good deal to me!

Finally the last trip that we have booked for sure is to Peru - probably one of the trips I am most excited about. We will be spending the entire weekend at Machu Picchu and the other ruins around it. It's amazing that I have seen movies, documentaries and pictures of these places of the old empires (Inca, Maya, etc.) and now I finally get the chance to see it for myself. Unreal. If I had to choose one trip to do here, this would be it. Especially since the option to visit very likely won't be around much longer as it sounds like they will be closing Machu Picchu to the public for preservation purposes. I will make sure to take lots and LOTS of pictures of this.

We're still working on plans for Brazil, Courtnie and I are planning on staying in Rio. We were hoping to go the week/end of the 22nd of September but there are no flights available, so we still have to figure that out. We hope to still go to Buenos Aires, but that will have to depend on financial situations of everyone. Then there's Osorno still maybe, although I haven't spoken to my friend Manuel in awhile, and I'm pretty sure a bunch of people want to go up north to the Atacama. Again, another trip that I would die for, but we'll see what happens. I'll keep updating my travel plans as I make them and will of course share everything when I come back from them.

I think this is all that I can write for today without making this too long, or going into another subject. I will hopefully be updating again in a few more days. We're going to Rabuco tomorrow with CIEE for a day trip, so if there's anything exciting in that I will share it with ya'll.

As always I hope everything is going well. Love to you all.

~De

One Month In....

It's crazy to think that I arrived her in Chile only a month ago! In some ways it feels like the time has flown by and in others it feels like it is crawling by, normally the former. This last weekend we went to Santiago for an overnight for a cultural class with our program that included a trip to El Museo de Bellas Artes - The Museum of Beautiful Art, and my CIEE short-story class met with a Chilean author who is starting to become well known - Alejandra Costamagna. She is a very interesting person and her stories tend to interconnect with one another, she recently finished a novel that branched off some of her short-stories that have already been published.

When we first arrived in Santiago we had the option to visit either Pablo Neruda's house there or to take a funicular to the top of one of larger hills to see the view of Santiago, the Andes, and the smog... I may get a picture up showing the view - pretty much once you get up to higher ground you can see the very thick layer of smog that covers the city and it only goes away after it rains and sometimes in the summer. With all of the hills around Santiago and the mountains the smog doesn't have anywhere to go for it to disperse. Makes me glad that my friends suggested that I study in Valpo instead of Santiago, I could not imagine what it'd be like to breathe that air every day for five months. Gross.

We'll see!While I was in Santiago I had the opportunity to finally meet one of my Chilean friends, Lucho in person after years of meeting and talking to them online through my friend Maggie who has also lived here off and on for a couple years. We didn't do anything really exciting, just hung out and drank some piscolas with two of his roommates and my friend Kareen. I'm hoping to get a chance to meet my other friends as well, either I'll visit them or they'll come here, maybe even both. :)

Other than that I tried to find an art store when we were there to find some decent sketchbooks since there isn't any stores like we have at home here, makes me really appreciate and miss Blick, Utrecht and Michaels. Anyway, after a thirty or so minute walk to find the nearest store we got there at about four to find out that it had closed at two - leaving me super bummed. Despite the failed adventure to get sketchbooks and any other art supplies, we kept it positive knowing that we got to know a little more about Santiago. :) I'm hoping that next time I'm in Santiago it'll be more convenient to get to the store while it's open, although it probably won't be for a few weeks when Courtnie and I plan to go to Brazil during what we *think* is a week off of school. We'll figure it out before we go of course, and while we do that we'll be working on fitting in a couple other trips around South America like Machu Picchu and Argentina - all depending on how crazy life gets here...

So, that's my update for you all at home and as always lots of love to you :)

De

Things About Chile

So I realized that even though there aren't really any exciting things happening to me in Chile right now in this instant, there are still things that I can talk about and explain. Especially for those of you who are coming to visit me and those who wish to someday visit Chile.

One of the things that you notice right away here is that there are dogs everywhere. They're the Chilean street dogs. They could be your best friend, or your greatest enemy - so it's good to be careful with them. My experiences with them have been great, in most cases it seems like the dogs cling to American's because whenever a small or large group of us walk by, a dog will join us on our walk and cross the streets with us. Sometimes they will bark at people passing by whom they deem in some way or another a threat to us, once the person is far enough away so that the dog feels we are safe, it'll catch back up to us and continue walking by our side. Some of them can be really gorgeous "purebred" look-a-likes, gorgeous mixes, or some really ugly mixes and mutt (like a german shepherd mixed with a beagle?). I've said it many times already, and I'll say it many times more; I want to take them all home with me.

Mass transit here is definitely interesting. They have two terms for buses, the first is more for our version of city buses which they call "Micro/s", then for traveling buses like our Greyhounds are "Bus/es." Not too hard to figure out those differences, but that's as far as the "easiness" of the bus goes as far as we're concerned or are used to. There is no actual bus schedule, buses come and go within minutes and sometimes seconds of each other. Part of this is because there are so many different companies and the drivers are paid on commission, so the more people that ride a particular bus the more that driver makes. A lot of times the driver will have a friend or a partner ride with them and try to get riders on the bus, especially at night when people are leaving the clubs. Sometimes I feel like I'm being herded onto a bus with five different men yelling "Viña bus this way" in my ear. Also during the bus rides, the drivers let people on the bus to sell snacks or other items to the passengers on the bus - I've also heard of people singing or telling fake "my child is sick" stories to get money or tips as well.

Along that note, there are also street entertainers who will spend their day or night at a stop light and perform an act when the light is red in hopes of making tips. So far I've seen people throwing fireballs on strings, jugglers, magicians, you name it.

One thing that is highly visibly different than what I know back at home in the U.S. is that PDA can be pretty rampant here. Currently the weather is decently brisk and I see at least two couples making out on the streets per day, and I'm sure that number will increase as it gets warmer - especially on the beach. It doesn't bother me so much, but I've definitely seen it bother other foreigners here.

Other things that you notice around town are buildings that have patched up cracks in their walls or other small structural damage from the earthquakes earlier this year. Some buildings are completely shut down and evacuated until they either get fixed or torn down and rebuilt. Otherwise just some of the sidewalks are cracked and unlevel, but Viña was relatively unaffected by the earthquake. But at the same time, earthquakes and tsunamis are a frequent topic of conversation among Chileans - even with those who have been unaffected by them. We apparently had an earth tremor last week, but I never felt it :)

Chileans are HUGE party-ers, el carrete (relatively translated to the party or something like that) is the one thing that everyone does here and they tend to last all night. Bars don't close until at least 6:30 AM and most Chileans don't start going out until 1 or so to make it through the morning hours.

So yea, that's all I have for you all right now. I know that I'm kind of all over the place and all that, but hey - be glad I'm not going into writing ;)

Update? Yes. Anything new? Not really :)

So I know some of you want updates every so often, even if there's nothing really exciting to say. Pretty much life has been going on practically like normal, just in a different country. ;) I finally had my first full week of classes which started out at 8 courses, but I decided on one to drop right away. I signed up for two extra courses so it's pretty easy to drop, and it was a good thing that I did go that route because the course that I did drop was one that I had intended to take before, but after the first class I realized it wouldn't be a good fit. Plus it was on Pacific Asia, nowhere near my concentration! The one that I am taking instead (which was suggested by a student monitor who's job is to help the international students) is translated to something like this; Chile Integrates into the World: Processes of Internationalization. It seems interesting already and the professor is a lot less dry than the Pacific Asia professor. :) The other courses that I am signed up for are Advanced Spanish Writing, Traditional Chilean Dances, Hispanic-american Short Stories, History of 20th Century Latin America, Contemporary Latin American Poetry and Urban and Regional History of Valparaíso. I have an additional class in there as I'm deciding between the last two, was planning on the history one being dropped. But now that I've had that class I don't really want to drop it, but also don't want to drop any others. So I'm stuck, but I have until the end of the month to decide and if I chose to take it it just means I'll be coming home with 7 completed courses and have to pay an additional 500-600$ in tuition.... Sucks yes, but could be worth it.

In other news... I really don't have any. I feel like I'm going to keep repeating myself on these things, which would be utterly boring and I don't want to do that to you all my lovely friends and family. :) I don't know if I mentioned this in my last blog, but since I have less commitments here in Chile I'm going to try and work on my drawing and artistic abilities.

Next weekend we are going to Santiago for a "cultural trip," whatever that means... The trip falls during a good weekend as it is my friend Pablo's birthday on Friday and he has invited me and some friends to his house to celebrate with him. I am very excited to finally meet the friends in person whom I've been talking to online for the last three or four years thanks to my lovely amiga Maggie. :)

Other than that, I don't really have much else to say. I'm excited to start tackling this semester, and seeing what I can truly do with what my lifelong education has taught me.

As always, love to you all!

-De

So it's now been two weeks since I've left home and I've got another four months left to go!

This week we went to the dunes in Con Con and a group of Chileans let us try out their sandboards which there are pictures of on facebook of course! It was so beautiful there! We caught the sunset and promised to go back again once we're more fit to climb those dunes! I never thought a bunch of sandy hills could be so amazing :P

Last weekend was a pretty crazy weekend, we went out every night and stayed out until at least two o'clock, through which my allergies turned into a cold by sunday and I've been trying to rest up ever since. I've almost kicked most of it I feel but now I'm down to the annoying can't stop coughing part. Lovely eh? Tonight we'll be going out again to one of the clubs we went to last week for two birthdays, one of the girls in our group, and a host brother's friend of another student in the group. Then we have an asado tomorrow in one of the parks, hoping that there'll be a lot of food and livery!

Other than that we "started" class this week, by which half of the classes didn't start yet or if they did the ones with Chilean students only the international students showed up. So I don't really have much to say about classes yet, we'll see how they turn out and hopefully I'll have more exciting things to say about them once we're into the semester here.

Other than that I've got nothing exciting to say so sorry guys!

Love you lots!

De

The first week

Wow. Is it cold here. Initially the cold isn't too bad, it's like a normal Minnesota October where the temperature hovers in the 40s and 50s. But they don't have central heating here. You might say no big deal, there's other heating. WRONG. You get your heat from showers, small space heaters and the occasional cup of coffee or tea during the day, otherwise there is no heat. So while it's not horribly cold if you're jumping outside from one fully heated place to another, it's definitely cold on an ongoing basis. Thankfully there's only about a month or so left of this cold and it'll start turning warmer. Most days I can handle it pretty well, but today is a different story so thus why I am complaining about it so much here! I'm experiencing it as I'm writing my update to you all.

I'm definitely enjoying myself here despite how cold it gets. There is A LOT of partying going on here, some of my friends have gone out every night since we've gotten here going till at least 2:00 in the morning if not later. Chileans stay out till four or five most of the time. For myself I've been out twice and haven't stayed out too late yet, but the next three nights are full of plans... Thankfully it's the weekend! Plus it's the week before classes start so everyone seems to be trying to get some good parties in before we hit the books.

My family is awesome. They tend to be very laid back and calm (except for when the grandchildren come over... then things get a little hectic when nap time is missed). We always seem to have a good amount of things to talk about and they are great at giving me advice on life in Chile. My mom is a really good cook and we always have lunch together so far. I think my favorite "meal" of the day is once (ohn-say... the Spanish word for eleven) which is their tea/coffee time. Mainly I look forward to it to warm my hands up and eat some of the AMAZING bread that is always around. I moved in with my family on Sunday and got settled and organized by the end of the night and am getting more and more accustomed to their daily life every day. The first couple of days I had the hardest time figuring out how to get into my home however and could never open the doors and turn the locks right... I still have some difficulties with the gate but not as horrible as in the beginning.

The last few days we've started our base classes for the CIEE course of our choice and we've been doing orientation meetings with the international program of the university (PIEE). We register for our university classes on Monday and start on Wednesday, I'll be taking another four classes there for a total of six which is quite unfortunate. I think I'll be looking at seventeen credits because I had to add an additional course to get me over the sixteen credit minimum of our program.

So far nothing hugely exciting, but I know you're all looking for updates so...

Hope everything is fine at home,
Love to you all!

De

I'm here! In Chile!

I have been in Chile for about two days now, shortly going to be embarking on my third. It's already been a whirlwind of things going on so I'm glad to now have a little time to relax and make an update on my life now that I am here! I've found out a little bit about my family, there's a mom and a dad, they have a 29 year old daughter and a 30 year old friend of the family that lives with them. I will be meeting them today in just over an hour and can't tell you how nervous and excited I am to meet them.

More about that later after I meet them though. First things first are the last two days. We landed here Friday morning while looking off to the gorgeous Andes Mountains that were on the right side of the plane when we landed (I picked a great seat!) and drove just under two hours to Viña del Mar where we've stayed at a hotel that's just a few blocks away from the beach and ocean. Right away we had part of our orientation that is pretty much ongoing for the next few weeks in different forms and lectures but we've also done some fun things around the city walking around. We of course had to go to the beach, even though it's a tid bit chilly, nothing that a Minnesotan girl like me can't handle :) but too chilly to jump in nonetheless. We went and had a beer at a bar nearby and practiced our Spanish with some of the people that live around here.

Amazingly haven't really had any typical traditional Chilean food yet, our first night we had a HUGE sushi dinner with about eight courses (which we were full after course four or five!) and Italian last night. It's kind of surreal eating Japanese food in a different country like Chile, definitely not something I expected and it hadn't felt like I had left home at all. I'm not sure it's really hit me yet that I'm here. I'm excited to get these first weeks out of the way to rid myself of the nervousness of being 'alone' here without anyone that I know and am close to. I'm glad that there are people here that are in the same boat as me. Speaking of which we have an amazing group of people that we're here with, everyone is laid back and seems to like each other which I am excited about. We all wish that while we are excited to meet and live with our families that we could have a little more time together in the hotel as a group. But we'll have more chances to come together for trips and the like in the future.

I feel like there's so much to say right now about where I'm at and how I feel but no way to express it all and I can't even remember it all! I hope everyone is doing alright back home, I miss you all very much and can't wait to share more with you.

~De

5 days away

I am five days away from boarding a plane and beginning a great adventure in my life. I've started packing and am amazed at what all I have been able to fit in my suitcases so far. Here's to hoping that everything I need and want with me fit! My emotions are running a little wild right now, once I name the emotion that I am currently feeling another rolls right in to replace it. Mostly I feel excited, apprehensive and a little of something else that I cant name right now. I mean I'm going to be away from home for five months, that means that all of my comforts will be left behind minus a few pictures and pieces that I bring with to remind me of home. BUT this is going to be such a great experience that I wouldn't miss it for anything. While I am still home I keep thinking of the events that I'm going to miss, a wedding here, softball tournament there, but then I remember that I'm going to be doing something much greater than all of that. It's just going to take getting there and doing it all for it to actually sink in and feel right. I get a little stressed sometimes right now though because I'm helping my mom make plans for when my family comes to visit. There are so many questions that she has and I don't have the answers for them yet! At least their trip is towards the end of my stay so that I can have the answers :) Other than that I really don't have much else to say that I haven't said before. The new and exciting stuff will start coming after this next week :D

In just under a month I will be boarding my first plane that'll eventually get me to Chile! It still doesn't feel very real that I'm going to be away from my loved ones for almost five months in a totally different country and culture. I don't think it'll really hit me until the last few days in the United States where I'll be saying the hardest good-byes in my life so far. I'm feeling all kinds of crazy. Nervous, excited, anxious, happy, sad, adventurous and so much more, I don't know what to do with it all.

In preparation I have been doing SO much shopping, buying clothes for multiple seasons, buying all of my toiletry and beauty products that will hopefully last me the entire time I'm in Chile, school supplies, etc. While I have been preparing for my adventure, I've also been helping my family and my boyfriend prepare for their visit in November. I'm super excited that they will be coming to see me and I will hopefully have time to share with them all that I've grown to love in Chile (because I know that I will love it!).

I already have a few contacts there from the years past and will hopefully be able to meet up with them, otherwise I've already met one of my travel companions through CIEE's online orientation. PLUS my friend Erika is there now and will be staying an extra month until our semester starts out back here at home, so it'll be very nice to have someone who has just been through the entire experience that I'm about to enjoy for myself.

All in all I have to say that I'm very excited for this opportunity and can't wait to have this experience [and don't worry babe and Em, I'm excited to come back home again too :) ]

Chaus!