Ah! Things have been INSANE this past week. My dad just arrived today which was possibly the greatest thing EVER; I literally ran towards him as soon as I saw and gave quite possibly the biggest hug of my life.
SOON, I PROMISE I will update this blog about my trip trip to Buenos Aires and Montevideo, the tests and school business of late, and more Dad stuff, as well as any assorted things that pop onto the page when this update occurs.
SOON! I PROMISE!
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Monday, 19 April 2010
Relaxation Weekend
This weekend was very very very nice and relaxing. Some may say I didn't really do much of anything, but I on the contrary think I did quite a bit, a majority of it was just intentionally relaxing!
How many times did I set my alarm this weekend? 0.
How many times did I put make up on this weekend? 0.
How many times did I sleep until after 11am this weekend? 4.
The list could go on and on.
Friday evening, after a rainy day in cuddling with blankets and catching up on some things I headed out for our weekly Date Night and a theater production. We ate dinner at a restaurant called Patagonia (thus there was an ongoing joke all night that we were going back to Patagonia, how I wish this had been true) and ordered a bottle of vino (wine) with our dinners (how I love being able to do that down here) before heading over to the Instituto Norteamericano Chileno (Chilean Northamerican Institute) for a low budget theater production that cost about $6. It was in Spanish and called "De Cristal", an adaptation of a Tennessee Williams productions (The Glass Menagerie). It was clearly somewhat amateur and there were only 4 actors and no props, but it was a really fun experience and I'm really glad we went! The story was also pretty interesting! Afterwards, we got some ice cream for dessert at our favorite heladeria, Bravissimo, before heading home. I thought the day would never come after the countless days of sweating bullets where ever I went and wearing shorts and tank tops and still overheating, but I even got to comfortably wear jeans, uggs, a long sleeve shirt, a sweater, and a scarf! I think fall has officially arrived!
On Saturday, I slept in once again which felt so good after waking up and going going going for 3 days straight during the school week. That afternoon, Gina and I finally tackled the laundry beast that had been building for nearly 2 weeks and found the lavanderia around the corner from our apartment. A unique cultural thing down here is that many people never do their own laundry. For instance, we don't even have that option. Our building has a washer but we have to pay the owners to do our wash for us. We instead opted for the no more expensive location around the corner and our clothes saw a dryer machine for the first time since we left the US! A source of much excitement when we got our clothes back today and they didn't feel starchy and stretched out for the first time in 3 months! We also cleaned our apartment that afternoon, even the bathroom (Mom would be proud!)! That evening after preparing some pretty awesome guacomole involving mashing up 5! avocados and after Gina got carded buying a six pack of beer (which is hilarious since no one gets carded down here unless your 12), we went over to Lindsey's apartment and met some other friends for a movie night. Lindsey had made brownies from scratch and put manjar (dulce de leche) in the batter and her roommate Ariel (Chilean) had set up a big projector on their white wall where we watched a movie and then youtubed hialrious videos until 2 in the morning while eating copious amounts of guacomole and brownies. Yum!
On Sunday, I slept in once again and began to tackle the mountain of reading I have to do for the two tests I have coming up next week. I skyped with my parents and with Jess (who is now a Western District Officer of Psi!), and then Gina and Lindsey and I headed out for some dessert and planned to go ice skating later that night. As it turned out, the ice skating rink was really empty so we decided to go back on a friday or saturday soon and instead headed back to Lindsey's and had a drink while watching a movie meant for 8 year old girls, but boy was it fun!
After setting a sleeping in record today (noon, eek!) I was actually fairly productive. I finished the mountain of reading for one of my tests so now I just have a book for the other class, we got back our laundry, I went for a run, and we made a delicious dinner of pasta with sauteed eggplant and zucchini with oregano and garlic and sauce. Chile is starting to turn me into an actually decent cook, thanks to the general lack of flavor I am learning to modify things to make them delicious! Cooking will never be the same when I return to the US! Tonight, we attempted to go to a Yoga Class but due to the seeming inevitability that nothing we try in Chile will actually work out the first time, we failed. We did however, figure out how to successfully attend one of these yoga classes and will be doing so soon!
Besides these things, the weekend was spent making reservations, plans, and preparing for our trip to Buenos Aires and Montevideo this coming Thursday-Monday (SO EXCITED!), and enjoying the feeling of fall being upon us! I looooove not being unbearably hot every where I go these days, it is glorious! I definitely feel like I'm ready for a vacation so I am very excited for this weekend, just have to get through a day of class and a day of interning and then we're off!
How many times did I set my alarm this weekend? 0.
How many times did I put make up on this weekend? 0.
How many times did I sleep until after 11am this weekend? 4.
The list could go on and on.
Friday evening, after a rainy day in cuddling with blankets and catching up on some things I headed out for our weekly Date Night and a theater production. We ate dinner at a restaurant called Patagonia (thus there was an ongoing joke all night that we were going back to Patagonia, how I wish this had been true) and ordered a bottle of vino (wine) with our dinners (how I love being able to do that down here) before heading over to the Instituto Norteamericano Chileno (Chilean Northamerican Institute) for a low budget theater production that cost about $6. It was in Spanish and called "De Cristal", an adaptation of a Tennessee Williams productions (The Glass Menagerie). It was clearly somewhat amateur and there were only 4 actors and no props, but it was a really fun experience and I'm really glad we went! The story was also pretty interesting! Afterwards, we got some ice cream for dessert at our favorite heladeria, Bravissimo, before heading home. I thought the day would never come after the countless days of sweating bullets where ever I went and wearing shorts and tank tops and still overheating, but I even got to comfortably wear jeans, uggs, a long sleeve shirt, a sweater, and a scarf! I think fall has officially arrived!
On Saturday, I slept in once again which felt so good after waking up and going going going for 3 days straight during the school week. That afternoon, Gina and I finally tackled the laundry beast that had been building for nearly 2 weeks and found the lavanderia around the corner from our apartment. A unique cultural thing down here is that many people never do their own laundry. For instance, we don't even have that option. Our building has a washer but we have to pay the owners to do our wash for us. We instead opted for the no more expensive location around the corner and our clothes saw a dryer machine for the first time since we left the US! A source of much excitement when we got our clothes back today and they didn't feel starchy and stretched out for the first time in 3 months! We also cleaned our apartment that afternoon, even the bathroom (Mom would be proud!)! That evening after preparing some pretty awesome guacomole involving mashing up 5! avocados and after Gina got carded buying a six pack of beer (which is hilarious since no one gets carded down here unless your 12), we went over to Lindsey's apartment and met some other friends for a movie night. Lindsey had made brownies from scratch and put manjar (dulce de leche) in the batter and her roommate Ariel (Chilean) had set up a big projector on their white wall where we watched a movie and then youtubed hialrious videos until 2 in the morning while eating copious amounts of guacomole and brownies. Yum!
On Sunday, I slept in once again and began to tackle the mountain of reading I have to do for the two tests I have coming up next week. I skyped with my parents and with Jess (who is now a Western District Officer of Psi!), and then Gina and Lindsey and I headed out for some dessert and planned to go ice skating later that night. As it turned out, the ice skating rink was really empty so we decided to go back on a friday or saturday soon and instead headed back to Lindsey's and had a drink while watching a movie meant for 8 year old girls, but boy was it fun!
After setting a sleeping in record today (noon, eek!) I was actually fairly productive. I finished the mountain of reading for one of my tests so now I just have a book for the other class, we got back our laundry, I went for a run, and we made a delicious dinner of pasta with sauteed eggplant and zucchini with oregano and garlic and sauce. Chile is starting to turn me into an actually decent cook, thanks to the general lack of flavor I am learning to modify things to make them delicious! Cooking will never be the same when I return to the US! Tonight, we attempted to go to a Yoga Class but due to the seeming inevitability that nothing we try in Chile will actually work out the first time, we failed. We did however, figure out how to successfully attend one of these yoga classes and will be doing so soon!
Besides these things, the weekend was spent making reservations, plans, and preparing for our trip to Buenos Aires and Montevideo this coming Thursday-Monday (SO EXCITED!), and enjoying the feeling of fall being upon us! I looooove not being unbearably hot every where I go these days, it is glorious! I definitely feel like I'm ready for a vacation so I am very excited for this weekend, just have to get through a day of class and a day of interning and then we're off!
Friday, 16 April 2010
Rain!
It's overcast and gloomy and rainy and I LOVE IT! I really think this is my favorite kind of weather and I've had the perfect day to go with it! I slept in until 11, went for a 7 minute run before I started getting soaked and turned around, showered, put on fleecy pants and a sweatshirt and socks, watched lost, had a great skype date with my big bro David who I love and miss so much and always enjoy talking to, finished lost, figured out how to make toast without a toaster after a few failed attempts (a very entertaining experience), and have basically sat and chilled in comfy clothes and a blanky all day. It's been perfect after such a busy 3 days!
Also, I figured out that I am only 1-2 classes away from a Latin American Studies minor at UCLA, so I'm seriously (pretty much decided) considering changing my current Spanish minor that I was considering dropping and have at least 3 classes left for to Latin American Studies! More to come as I hear back from the undergraduate advisers for my major and minor!
Tonight I will finally get dressed and go to dinner and a theater presentation with some friends and then maybe get dessert, and tomorrow we must go to the grocery store and figure out where we can do laundry.
But for now, this day of lazy rainy weather and talking to people I love has been perfect.
Also, I figured out that I am only 1-2 classes away from a Latin American Studies minor at UCLA, so I'm seriously (pretty much decided) considering changing my current Spanish minor that I was considering dropping and have at least 3 classes left for to Latin American Studies! More to come as I hear back from the undergraduate advisers for my major and minor!
Tonight I will finally get dressed and go to dinner and a theater presentation with some friends and then maybe get dessert, and tomorrow we must go to the grocery store and figure out where we can do laundry.
But for now, this day of lazy rainy weather and talking to people I love has been perfect.
Thursday, 15 April 2010
The half way point.
Tomorrow mark 3 months since I left the US! I can't believe that it's already been that long and I am more than half way through this experience! It's so strange that I haven't seen any of the most important people in my life for 3 months. Thank god for skype, but it's so not the same.
After the times when it felt like time was moving so slowly, now all of the sudden the time is FLYING by! It's crazy to think about how much I've learned, adapted, and have yet to do and learn in the less than 3 months I have left here. It's also crazy to think back on what I've already done. I've made some incredible friends, gotten used to life in Santiago, adapted to the food, traveled some very cool places, improved at Spanish, gotten over some pretty severe homesickness, passed the 5th largest earthquake in history, started classes entirely in Spanish and am able to stay afloat and even excel, and so much more. At the same time, there is SO much more for me to learn and experience and do here. Every single day is a learning experience living in an entirely new culture. A day never passes that something new doesn't catch my eye or surprise me. At the same time though, it's surprising how much I've adapted. For instance, waiting for the bus or metro, taking public transportation everywhere, eating bread a avocado with butter and jam for dinner with tea, and so much more just seem like everyday occurrences now. The times when these weren't part of my everyday routine feel distant. While I've adapted to a lot of things, there are some things I will never get used to but have learned to live with a little better such as the ridiculous behavior of some men, the metro at rush hour, and some others. I've grown to appreciate SO MANY THINGS about California, the US, UCLA, my family, and my friends through this experience and love and appreciate all of the above even more.
I've learned a lot while down here, but I really and truly think the most cherished thing I have thus far gotten out of this experience is an entirely new view on the word "home". "Home" is pretty much the highest pedastal in my life these days and the way I look at it will never be the same. It's not so much that I've learned things about how I feel about home as much as the things I knew but didn't take the time of appreciate enough or take note of have been exaggerated. I live here, I have a house here, I have very good friends here, and for all practical purposes this is my home for these 6 months. However, regardless of how much I am enjoying and learning and so much more down here, I have a hard time allowing myself to say "I'm going home" at the end of a trip or a day of school. It may be cheesy, but "Home is where the heart is" is irrevocably true. I am growing to love Chile and the life I have created for myself down here, but my heart is in California. Even now, when I am not and have not felt homesick for several weeks now, I get teary eyed thinking about how much love I have for every single member of my family and my incredible friends back home. Chile can try its hardest, but that aspect of home is one thing it doesn't stand a chance at rivaling. This feeling and love, though undoubtedly present before, has only grown with distance. For the relationships and friendships that truly matter to me, these 3 months apart have not resulted in a feeling of distance but rather of a closer, stronger relationship that is simply accompanied by a feeling of missing them and certainly not losing them.
If nothing else, I know now that I will be glad I did this. I don't only learn something new about Chile and life down here everyday, but often times something about myself or a friend as well. There are many people I miss more than I could possibly express, but the half way mark is encouraging and time is flying by at this point. And one of these people arrives in just 2 weeks!
So, I'd like to make a list of goals for the time I have left:
-Find out where to do my laundry! Tomorrow! hahaha
-Continue working on finding ways to speak more Spanish; Soccer and my language partner have really helped this but I still have a long way to go
-Study, read, and do well in classes
-Build up the guts to do the oral exposition of the text I have to do in front of my Population Geography class in which I am the only exchange student
-Ask questions to the professors when I have them
-Go out a little more; yes going out until all hours of the night is not really my thing as I have learned, but it is part of the experience of Chile and I do enjoy it occasionally and should partake more often
-Travel Goals: Uruguay, BA, Pucón, San Pedro de Atacama, Bolivia
-this list will grow
As far as my first soccer game tonight, it wasn't quite as fun as I was anticipating seeing as we lost 5-0, but let's hope it was just rustiness and things only get better from here on out. I think I've been 100% converted to a runner over the past 5 or 6 years and now very much prefer sports that have no winners and losers and where I do not have the potential of letting down a team. Let's face it, I was never that good at soccer to begin with but tonight was a particularly off evening that peaked when a corner kick bounced off of my thigh and into our own goal. Go me. Not. Now I remember why I switched to running and one of the many forgotten reasons as to why I love running so much! That being said, all of the ladies on our team are very nice and it's fun to talk to them. They kept playing me in positions where I don't play! At the end, I started to get more in the swing of things again and asked to move to a side rather than the middle. The second half was definitely better than the first. Hopefully things keep moving that direction.
Besides sucking however, it was definitely fun to kick the ball again. I need to move away from my LB Poly aggressive soccer playing roots very quickly though, or I am clearly going to pay with calls! I was raised to play aggressive and things wouldn't be called and that got me a few calls tonight, oops! The main component of my skills it seems came from said aggressiveness so we'll see how things go. Anyhow, here's to next week! Hopefully we improve, because that would certainly make my $60 investment more enjoyable!
What else have I been up to? Well let me start by saying Gina and I ate a delicious dinner of sauté-ed eggplant, zucchini, and onion tonight! mmmm! I've also discovered I LOVE asian pears! We also went through a family sized box of cereal in less than a week! My culture class started and is definitely not going to be the most riveting class, seeing as tuesday she somehow managed to talk for 2 hours saying copious amounts of things that ultimately simply could have been said as "Chile is a country of mixed-race people and is Catholic." I think it will get more interesting though because the professor changes almost everyday!
Besides soccer, this week has been pretty busy just with school, my language partner, my internship, and various errands. I finally replaced my school ID that was lost when my wallet was stolen and I also went and picked up some lovely letters from my loving family and friends today! Thank you and I love you all! School is very much in swing these days and I realized this week that 4 day weekends means 3 very very busy days of work! It's definitely worth it though for the traveling abilities and the slow pace of the weekend when it finally comes! I have lots of work to do this weekend, but 4 days to do it in since we'll be staying in Santiago and thus I can combine work with fun each day!
Summary: School is busy and in full swing, having the first time I touch a soccer ball in 5 years be an official game is a bad idea, I am thrilled it is the weekend and have some fun plans and plenty of reading and studying to keep me busy, and I am officially more than half way through.
After the times when it felt like time was moving so slowly, now all of the sudden the time is FLYING by! It's crazy to think about how much I've learned, adapted, and have yet to do and learn in the less than 3 months I have left here. It's also crazy to think back on what I've already done. I've made some incredible friends, gotten used to life in Santiago, adapted to the food, traveled some very cool places, improved at Spanish, gotten over some pretty severe homesickness, passed the 5th largest earthquake in history, started classes entirely in Spanish and am able to stay afloat and even excel, and so much more. At the same time, there is SO much more for me to learn and experience and do here. Every single day is a learning experience living in an entirely new culture. A day never passes that something new doesn't catch my eye or surprise me. At the same time though, it's surprising how much I've adapted. For instance, waiting for the bus or metro, taking public transportation everywhere, eating bread a avocado with butter and jam for dinner with tea, and so much more just seem like everyday occurrences now. The times when these weren't part of my everyday routine feel distant. While I've adapted to a lot of things, there are some things I will never get used to but have learned to live with a little better such as the ridiculous behavior of some men, the metro at rush hour, and some others. I've grown to appreciate SO MANY THINGS about California, the US, UCLA, my family, and my friends through this experience and love and appreciate all of the above even more.
I've learned a lot while down here, but I really and truly think the most cherished thing I have thus far gotten out of this experience is an entirely new view on the word "home". "Home" is pretty much the highest pedastal in my life these days and the way I look at it will never be the same. It's not so much that I've learned things about how I feel about home as much as the things I knew but didn't take the time of appreciate enough or take note of have been exaggerated. I live here, I have a house here, I have very good friends here, and for all practical purposes this is my home for these 6 months. However, regardless of how much I am enjoying and learning and so much more down here, I have a hard time allowing myself to say "I'm going home" at the end of a trip or a day of school. It may be cheesy, but "Home is where the heart is" is irrevocably true. I am growing to love Chile and the life I have created for myself down here, but my heart is in California. Even now, when I am not and have not felt homesick for several weeks now, I get teary eyed thinking about how much love I have for every single member of my family and my incredible friends back home. Chile can try its hardest, but that aspect of home is one thing it doesn't stand a chance at rivaling. This feeling and love, though undoubtedly present before, has only grown with distance. For the relationships and friendships that truly matter to me, these 3 months apart have not resulted in a feeling of distance but rather of a closer, stronger relationship that is simply accompanied by a feeling of missing them and certainly not losing them.
If nothing else, I know now that I will be glad I did this. I don't only learn something new about Chile and life down here everyday, but often times something about myself or a friend as well. There are many people I miss more than I could possibly express, but the half way mark is encouraging and time is flying by at this point. And one of these people arrives in just 2 weeks!
So, I'd like to make a list of goals for the time I have left:
-Find out where to do my laundry! Tomorrow! hahaha
-Continue working on finding ways to speak more Spanish; Soccer and my language partner have really helped this but I still have a long way to go
-Study, read, and do well in classes
-Build up the guts to do the oral exposition of the text I have to do in front of my Population Geography class in which I am the only exchange student
-Ask questions to the professors when I have them
-Go out a little more; yes going out until all hours of the night is not really my thing as I have learned, but it is part of the experience of Chile and I do enjoy it occasionally and should partake more often
-Travel Goals: Uruguay, BA, Pucón, San Pedro de Atacama, Bolivia
-this list will grow
As far as my first soccer game tonight, it wasn't quite as fun as I was anticipating seeing as we lost 5-0, but let's hope it was just rustiness and things only get better from here on out. I think I've been 100% converted to a runner over the past 5 or 6 years and now very much prefer sports that have no winners and losers and where I do not have the potential of letting down a team. Let's face it, I was never that good at soccer to begin with but tonight was a particularly off evening that peaked when a corner kick bounced off of my thigh and into our own goal. Go me. Not. Now I remember why I switched to running and one of the many forgotten reasons as to why I love running so much! That being said, all of the ladies on our team are very nice and it's fun to talk to them. They kept playing me in positions where I don't play! At the end, I started to get more in the swing of things again and asked to move to a side rather than the middle. The second half was definitely better than the first. Hopefully things keep moving that direction.
Besides sucking however, it was definitely fun to kick the ball again. I need to move away from my LB Poly aggressive soccer playing roots very quickly though, or I am clearly going to pay with calls! I was raised to play aggressive and things wouldn't be called and that got me a few calls tonight, oops! The main component of my skills it seems came from said aggressiveness so we'll see how things go. Anyhow, here's to next week! Hopefully we improve, because that would certainly make my $60 investment more enjoyable!
What else have I been up to? Well let me start by saying Gina and I ate a delicious dinner of sauté-ed eggplant, zucchini, and onion tonight! mmmm! I've also discovered I LOVE asian pears! We also went through a family sized box of cereal in less than a week! My culture class started and is definitely not going to be the most riveting class, seeing as tuesday she somehow managed to talk for 2 hours saying copious amounts of things that ultimately simply could have been said as "Chile is a country of mixed-race people and is Catholic." I think it will get more interesting though because the professor changes almost everyday!
Besides soccer, this week has been pretty busy just with school, my language partner, my internship, and various errands. I finally replaced my school ID that was lost when my wallet was stolen and I also went and picked up some lovely letters from my loving family and friends today! Thank you and I love you all! School is very much in swing these days and I realized this week that 4 day weekends means 3 very very busy days of work! It's definitely worth it though for the traveling abilities and the slow pace of the weekend when it finally comes! I have lots of work to do this weekend, but 4 days to do it in since we'll be staying in Santiago and thus I can combine work with fun each day!
Summary: School is busy and in full swing, having the first time I touch a soccer ball in 5 years be an official game is a bad idea, I am thrilled it is the weekend and have some fun plans and plenty of reading and studying to keep me busy, and I am officially more than half way through.
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Villa Grimaldi, Cementario General, big dang piece of CAKE, and Medio Maratón de Santiago!
After a very busy week, it has been an eventful and exciting weekend to say the least!
Allende's Tomb
The weekend started on Friday with a required EAP brief chat and visit to Villa Grimaldi (a torture center during the Pinochet years) and the Cementario General (where Allende is buried and there are lots of monuments to the desparecidos during Pinochet, not to mention over 5 million graves). The tour was led by a very incredible and nice man who was actually tortured in Villa Grimaldi in the 1970s. It was definitely intense but very very interesting. Our guide began to cry on several occasions while describing his own past as well as some historical Chilean events such as President Salvador Allende's life and death as well as some first hand experiences within Villa Grimaldi. He told us he was tortured withe electricity to the extent that he could not bend his knees, however he regained all function. He told us that while many Chileans choose to not talk about these horrible years and the things that happened during the time period, he thinks it is very important to share the history and his story to ensure people never forget, have the knowledge, and ensure that it does not fade into not being an important, horrible, period that should never happen again. It was very awesome to learn more about the history of Chile that we know happened, but no one will talk about in a day to day or even school situation.
This is a memorial in the Cemetary for all the disappears and killed during the Pinochet years.
After the field trip, we had our weekly eating out night that we've come to refer to as Date Night. We went to dinner at a delicious restaurant in Parque Arauco, which is a very nice mall that always has live entertainment on the weekend evenings. We ate some delicious Italian food (starting our carbo laoding, not the we don't eat loads of carbs every day any how) outside in the plaza of the mall while chatting and listening to music. Some very nice Americans from Arkansas gave a MASSIVE piece of delicious chocolate cake for dessert which we proceeded to go a little crazy over, and then we saw Shutter Island which I think was the first scary movie I ever saw in theaters. It was very eery, but really good!
Yesterday, Saturday, we went over to the Marathon Expo to pick up our number, timing chips, and shirts. As soon as we walked into the giant station I was incredibly impressed and got super excited for the run! I honestly think this marathon was the most organized thing I've experienced in Chile and it was HUGE. We picked up our (very nice) stuff, took tons of pictures, bought a few souveneirs, and headed back home. Later, we headed over to Lindsey's for a Pasta Dinner! I ate loads of pasta with lots of friends before hitting the hay early to prepare for this morning!
Today was the Maratón de Santiago! This was definitely up there with the coolest things I've done while abroad! We woke up dark and early to head to the Presidential Palace (La Moneda) where the race both started and finished. Then, our group of 10 took off! I ran by myself the whole race listening to my ipod, but it was INCREDIBLE. It was definitely the biggest event I've ever participated in and the environment was amazing! It was so amazing to be running amongst 10,000+ runners who would random break out into super loud and proud "Chi-Chi-Chi-Le-Le-Le-Viva Chile" chants. I even saw a blind person running the half marathon, how incredible is that! Not only was the event and environment and the scale of the morning incredible, but I also had a really good run especially based on the minimal training I did. I ran the entire 13.1 miles straight through, as opposed to my other 2 half marathons where I ran with intervals. It felt great! And, I only missed my PR by 2 minutes and kept up below a 10 minute mile pace the whole run! Overall, I am SO glad I did this while down here and it is something I know I will never forget for the rest of my life.
The rest of today has consisted of sitting on my booty and not moving, although we are going to California Cantina tonight for some free beers/sangria and nachos since we ran the marathon!
I'm really glad I've had such an incredible weekend down here because it's made it much easier to be missing the biggest night and weekend of the year for Kappa Kappa Psi tonight with Third Degree. I wish I could be there, but today has been a pretty amazing day for me down here as well. Besides, my face will definitely be there, just as it was in Big Bear this weekend with my KKPsi family whom I love SO MUCH!
It really feels like I live here now, after being here nearly 3 months. I think moving out and being on my own again has really helped facilitate this feeling. Things like waiting for the bus, taking the metro, eating copious amounts of avocado, and so much more just feel normal now. In addition, I'm joining a womens soccer league that basically is just games on Wednesdays and I'm REALLY excited! Two of my friends are on my team and the rest are Chileans, so not only will I be playing a sport I really love and miss, but it will also help me meet more people and experience more of Chile and the culture. I am so excited for this! We'll see how the fact that i haven't played for 4 years goes over.
I have so much to be excited for right now! I'm at the half way point, going to Buenos Aires and Uruguay in less then 2 weeks, I get to see my Daddy in just over 2.5 weeks, and May will undoubtedly be a month of travels and adventures (and school work)! Time is starting to fly by, ah!
Allende's Tomb
The weekend started on Friday with a required EAP brief chat and visit to Villa Grimaldi (a torture center during the Pinochet years) and the Cementario General (where Allende is buried and there are lots of monuments to the desparecidos during Pinochet, not to mention over 5 million graves). The tour was led by a very incredible and nice man who was actually tortured in Villa Grimaldi in the 1970s. It was definitely intense but very very interesting. Our guide began to cry on several occasions while describing his own past as well as some historical Chilean events such as President Salvador Allende's life and death as well as some first hand experiences within Villa Grimaldi. He told us he was tortured withe electricity to the extent that he could not bend his knees, however he regained all function. He told us that while many Chileans choose to not talk about these horrible years and the things that happened during the time period, he thinks it is very important to share the history and his story to ensure people never forget, have the knowledge, and ensure that it does not fade into not being an important, horrible, period that should never happen again. It was very awesome to learn more about the history of Chile that we know happened, but no one will talk about in a day to day or even school situation.
This is a memorial in the Cemetary for all the disappears and killed during the Pinochet years.
After the field trip, we had our weekly eating out night that we've come to refer to as Date Night. We went to dinner at a delicious restaurant in Parque Arauco, which is a very nice mall that always has live entertainment on the weekend evenings. We ate some delicious Italian food (starting our carbo laoding, not the we don't eat loads of carbs every day any how) outside in the plaza of the mall while chatting and listening to music. Some very nice Americans from Arkansas gave a MASSIVE piece of delicious chocolate cake for dessert which we proceeded to go a little crazy over, and then we saw Shutter Island which I think was the first scary movie I ever saw in theaters. It was very eery, but really good!
Yesterday, Saturday, we went over to the Marathon Expo to pick up our number, timing chips, and shirts. As soon as we walked into the giant station I was incredibly impressed and got super excited for the run! I honestly think this marathon was the most organized thing I've experienced in Chile and it was HUGE. We picked up our (very nice) stuff, took tons of pictures, bought a few souveneirs, and headed back home. Later, we headed over to Lindsey's for a Pasta Dinner! I ate loads of pasta with lots of friends before hitting the hay early to prepare for this morning!
Today was the Maratón de Santiago! This was definitely up there with the coolest things I've done while abroad! We woke up dark and early to head to the Presidential Palace (La Moneda) where the race both started and finished. Then, our group of 10 took off! I ran by myself the whole race listening to my ipod, but it was INCREDIBLE. It was definitely the biggest event I've ever participated in and the environment was amazing! It was so amazing to be running amongst 10,000+ runners who would random break out into super loud and proud "Chi-Chi-Chi-Le-Le-Le-Viva Chile" chants. I even saw a blind person running the half marathon, how incredible is that! Not only was the event and environment and the scale of the morning incredible, but I also had a really good run especially based on the minimal training I did. I ran the entire 13.1 miles straight through, as opposed to my other 2 half marathons where I ran with intervals. It felt great! And, I only missed my PR by 2 minutes and kept up below a 10 minute mile pace the whole run! Overall, I am SO glad I did this while down here and it is something I know I will never forget for the rest of my life.
The rest of today has consisted of sitting on my booty and not moving, although we are going to California Cantina tonight for some free beers/sangria and nachos since we ran the marathon!
I'm really glad I've had such an incredible weekend down here because it's made it much easier to be missing the biggest night and weekend of the year for Kappa Kappa Psi tonight with Third Degree. I wish I could be there, but today has been a pretty amazing day for me down here as well. Besides, my face will definitely be there, just as it was in Big Bear this weekend with my KKPsi family whom I love SO MUCH!
It really feels like I live here now, after being here nearly 3 months. I think moving out and being on my own again has really helped facilitate this feeling. Things like waiting for the bus, taking the metro, eating copious amounts of avocado, and so much more just feel normal now. In addition, I'm joining a womens soccer league that basically is just games on Wednesdays and I'm REALLY excited! Two of my friends are on my team and the rest are Chileans, so not only will I be playing a sport I really love and miss, but it will also help me meet more people and experience more of Chile and the culture. I am so excited for this! We'll see how the fact that i haven't played for 4 years goes over.
I have so much to be excited for right now! I'm at the half way point, going to Buenos Aires and Uruguay in less then 2 weeks, I get to see my Daddy in just over 2.5 weeks, and May will undoubtedly be a month of travels and adventures (and school work)! Time is starting to fly by, ah!
Thursday, 8 April 2010
Lo que ha pasado a partir de lunes!
Wow! This week absolutely FLEW by! I guess that’s what happens when you have a week as busy as the one I’ve had (slash am still having), but it’s been good, and I’d much rather have time fly by than slowly crawl!
On Tuesday, I finally started my third class. It is a seminar on Chilean Culture designed for exchange students and sounds like it will be pretty easy and very educational. There are 4 units, one on Latin American Identity, one on History, one on Economy, and one on Political Science. Since I kind of feel like I definitely don’t know enough about Chile, I’m pretty excited to learn more and understand more about the history and culture of this country. The kicker is that the only evaluation is the final exam that is 100%! However, since I’m almost certain it will not transfer for anything for me I am considering taking it pass no pass which would allow me more time to focus on my other, more major relevant and challenging courses. Tuesday evening Gina and I concocted a delicious meal of hamburger patties with cheese and lettuce and ketchup! Qué rico!
Yesterday, Wednesday, was a LONG day. 12 hours away from my casa to be exact, from 8-8! However the 4 hour study sesh after an 8 hour internship day hopefully payed off on my first test today, we will see! My internship yesterday also supplied me with some entertaining experiences, such as teaching a class full of 8 year olds a tongue twister that went “A robot and a rabbit run with a ruler and a rubber”. It was particularly entertaining when the teacher discovered that in the US, an eraser is not referred to as a rubber and a “rubber” can often refer to something of an entirely different sort. I guess that’s a big reason why I’m there; to bring in the vantage point of an English and North American native! Besides that, most of yesterday was spent committing to memory all sorts of Political Geography theories and the entire literary work of Samuel Huntington’s “The Clash of Civilizations”. Yesterday concluded with the exciting purchase of plane tickets to Montevideo, Uruguay (via which we will go to Bueno Aires) with Gina’s mom in just a little over 2 weeks, Aapril 22nd-26tH! I’m VERY excited!
Today, I took my first test here in Chile. I am fairly certain I am not going to have the kind of abroad experience many speak of in which they do not actually do any work and get stellar grades, because I studied my booty off for this test the same amount (or more) than I do for any midterm at UCLA and it was entirely necessary to do so. However, in the end, I felt pretty good about how it went. I wrote 3 pages in Spanish and we received the answers immediately upon turning in our exam. I’m fairly certain I hit all the key points for the first answer, and several for the second but we will see. I have 3 more tests in that class, 2 in another class, and then the culture class test. I will definitely be studying down here, but it feels good to really be back in the swing of school even if it does mean taking tests. After class and our Tuesday/Thursday daily lunch on the grass at campus with Gina and Ariel, I came back to my casa and had my mine blown by Lost, went for my last run before the Half Marathon on Sunday (figured out a good running route!), ate a super Chileana once of pan and palta and te, did some skyping with by Big Bro, Little Bro, and Little Little Bro whom I miss dearly, and then we headed down to a Bienvenido Cena for the resedencial we live in. It was a little bit awkward since everyone seemed to already know each other and as it turns out our Residencial is almost all Chileans besides 2 Germans (we are DEFINITELY the only gringas), but after some dinner and a glass or two of wine and beer, things loosened up and it was nice to meet some of our living-mates and no longer be the two super random gringas that live here.
So, I survived these past 3 very busy days but definitely still have a few more days until I can relax on Monday. This week, I have really started to feel like I live here. I’m not sure if it’s just that I’ve hit that point where this tends to happen, or whether it’s the moving and having my own place and being more free and able to eat what I want and do what I want when I want, or the fact that I have become almost as busy (if not more so) as I usually am back home in the states. Regardless of why, it’s a really great feeling after being so homesick for so long. So, here’s to this weekend! Half Marathon 3 in a foreign continent, here I come (please don’t kill me)!
On Tuesday, I finally started my third class. It is a seminar on Chilean Culture designed for exchange students and sounds like it will be pretty easy and very educational. There are 4 units, one on Latin American Identity, one on History, one on Economy, and one on Political Science. Since I kind of feel like I definitely don’t know enough about Chile, I’m pretty excited to learn more and understand more about the history and culture of this country. The kicker is that the only evaluation is the final exam that is 100%! However, since I’m almost certain it will not transfer for anything for me I am considering taking it pass no pass which would allow me more time to focus on my other, more major relevant and challenging courses. Tuesday evening Gina and I concocted a delicious meal of hamburger patties with cheese and lettuce and ketchup! Qué rico!
Yesterday, Wednesday, was a LONG day. 12 hours away from my casa to be exact, from 8-8! However the 4 hour study sesh after an 8 hour internship day hopefully payed off on my first test today, we will see! My internship yesterday also supplied me with some entertaining experiences, such as teaching a class full of 8 year olds a tongue twister that went “A robot and a rabbit run with a ruler and a rubber”. It was particularly entertaining when the teacher discovered that in the US, an eraser is not referred to as a rubber and a “rubber” can often refer to something of an entirely different sort. I guess that’s a big reason why I’m there; to bring in the vantage point of an English and North American native! Besides that, most of yesterday was spent committing to memory all sorts of Political Geography theories and the entire literary work of Samuel Huntington’s “The Clash of Civilizations”. Yesterday concluded with the exciting purchase of plane tickets to Montevideo, Uruguay (via which we will go to Bueno Aires) with Gina’s mom in just a little over 2 weeks, Aapril 22nd-26tH! I’m VERY excited!
Today, I took my first test here in Chile. I am fairly certain I am not going to have the kind of abroad experience many speak of in which they do not actually do any work and get stellar grades, because I studied my booty off for this test the same amount (or more) than I do for any midterm at UCLA and it was entirely necessary to do so. However, in the end, I felt pretty good about how it went. I wrote 3 pages in Spanish and we received the answers immediately upon turning in our exam. I’m fairly certain I hit all the key points for the first answer, and several for the second but we will see. I have 3 more tests in that class, 2 in another class, and then the culture class test. I will definitely be studying down here, but it feels good to really be back in the swing of school even if it does mean taking tests. After class and our Tuesday/Thursday daily lunch on the grass at campus with Gina and Ariel, I came back to my casa and had my mine blown by Lost, went for my last run before the Half Marathon on Sunday (figured out a good running route!), ate a super Chileana once of pan and palta and te, did some skyping with by Big Bro, Little Bro, and Little Little Bro whom I miss dearly, and then we headed down to a Bienvenido Cena for the resedencial we live in. It was a little bit awkward since everyone seemed to already know each other and as it turns out our Residencial is almost all Chileans besides 2 Germans (we are DEFINITELY the only gringas), but after some dinner and a glass or two of wine and beer, things loosened up and it was nice to meet some of our living-mates and no longer be the two super random gringas that live here.
So, I survived these past 3 very busy days but definitely still have a few more days until I can relax on Monday. This week, I have really started to feel like I live here. I’m not sure if it’s just that I’ve hit that point where this tends to happen, or whether it’s the moving and having my own place and being more free and able to eat what I want and do what I want when I want, or the fact that I have become almost as busy (if not more so) as I usually am back home in the states. Regardless of why, it’s a really great feeling after being so homesick for so long. So, here’s to this weekend! Half Marathon 3 in a foreign continent, here I come (please don’t kill me)!
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Moving, La Serena, and BUSY!
(sorry for the lack of fotos in this post, I'll try to add them later when my internet is hopefully more functional)
Hello! Sorry for the lack of blogging, 4 days without internet plus 2 very busy days with very crappy internet has resulted in a bit of a dry spell. In fact, I’m currently writing this in word processor and going to copy and paste it when my internet decides to function enough to let me log into blogspot.
Thursday was spent packing up all of my things like a crazy person and swearing there was NO way it was all going to fit back into the bags I brought it here in. By some miracle, it fit and I said goodbye to Claudia, hauled all of my stuff down, and got a taxi to my new apartment finally around 7 PM Thursday evening. Now here’s the kicker: we had to leave for our weekend trip Thursday at 9 PM and had to very quickly throw our clothes out of our bags, throw some weekend packing together, and head out towards the bus station after a very quick dinner and brief stint at our new abode. We got a teensy bit confused on our way to the metro, having never done it before from this location, and ended up going for a half hour walk through Las Condes with our backpacks on. Finally, we arrived (only slightly late but hey, it’s Chile) at the bus station and departed for La Serena with the big group around 11 PM for an 8 hour overnight bus ride.
Thus began a weekend we will certainly remember and in which a vital lesson was learned: WE WILL NEVER DO A LARGE GROUP TRIP/BUS TOUR AGAIN! The $150 weekend was full of “included tours” most of which turned out to be free, “included food” most of which turned out to be bad, “non-included lunches” which turned out to be meals you were forced to buy, a bus driver that took forever to get everywhere and took out power lines and air conditioner units in one foul swipe, a total f 10 minutes on the beach in the Chilean town famous for it’s beaches and not much else, being verbally harassed and discriminated by a Chilean man on a crappy catermeran to a sea lion island that equaled a rock with way fewer sea lions than Pier 39, and a ridiculous amount of time on a bus!
That being said, we did get to see another part of Chile that was very pretty and I spent the weekend with some very good friends!
On Friday, we ate breakfast in Tongoy and then trekked up to a cross on a hill overlooking a very pretty harbor before heading to Coquimbo to an elaborately hand built and very gorgeous Muslim Mezquita (for the 5 practicing Muslims in the greater Coquimbo/La Serena region). After that we headed over to another cross that was HUGE and concrete on a hill where we took an elevator up for a view (although it was pretty overcast and cold!). Then, we headed to our cabañas, one of the upsides of the weekend as they were very nice! Gina, Lindsey, and I ended up rooming with 4 other exchange students from the US that were each very nice and cool people to meet and hang out with! Later that day, we spent 10 minutes at the beach and headed into the center of La Serena where we went to another church and saw a Good Friday procession. We then went to an artisan market where I bought a little coin purse that I later was INCREDIBLY thankful for and ate some delicious cheese empenadas and ice cream. Then, we headed back to the cabañas where we ate some yogurt and cereal for dinner and watched a movie with our cabin mates.
On Saturday after waking up and running along the beach, we spent a whole day in the Valle de Elqui that was full of lots of ridiculous group dumb-ness but I will focus on simply what we did and the upsides. We toured 2 Pisco factories, ate lunch at a restaurant that used only solar ovens, ate some cactus fruit, went to many plazas and churches, went to a Chilean Nobel Prize winning poet's grave (but not her house since it was closed since we had obviously spent vital time at the Pisco places instead, sacrcasm), at some empanadas, and went to an observatory. The stars were INCREDIBLE! There are exponentially more stars in the southern hemisphere than the northern and we even saw mars and saturn! So beautiful, even if we did walk up a very steep hill in the pitch black to get there since our bus driver decided he didn't want to drive up the hill. We ate dinner at 2:30 AM when we returned to the cabañas and then went to sleep.
Sunday involved sleeping in, eating peeps and robins eggs, the lovely catermeran trip I have already mentioned, lunch, and the very long bus journey back to Santiago in which I swear the girl by us NEVER stopped talking and boy did her voice carry. Upon returning to Santiago in the bus station that our Chilean guide swore was safe, my wallet was stolen. LUCKILY, it was pretty much empty thanks to my new coin purse. All the thief got away with was 5 Argentine Pesos (~$1.25), my apartment keys that were easy to replace, my school ID which I'm in the process of getting replaced, and my llama ring from El Calafate :(. All of my money and credit cards and Chilean ID were elsewhere and safe.
So overall, not the ideal way to spend my first Easter weekend away from home, but at least we spoke a lot of Spanish, met some new people, and saw a new part of Chile. We also learned that we will be returning to our previous traveling ways from now on!
Since returning to Santiago, Gina and I spent all day Monday unpacking, doing homework, shopping for food and apartment things, and settling into our new apartment. Besides the current internet issue, we love it! It's great to finally be able to really feel like we live here and cook our own food again and everything! Last night, Lindsey came over for our inaugural apartment dinner of grilled cheese and ketchup (we splurged for the imported Heinz!). Then I skyped with the parents and prepared for a very busy week to come!
Today, I had class all day as my 3rd class on Chilean Culture has now started. It seems like it will be educational and not that hard at all which is good to know! In my 4 hour break between classes I traveled all over Santiago running errands such as turning in my internship form and buying an ethernet cable. Tonight, we had some delicious hamburger patties with cheese and lettuce for dinner, I finally broke down and dyed my hair (the roots were absolutely ridiculous), and I skyped with Jess.
All of the sudden I have become very busy! I have my internship tomorrow (hopefully I succeed in getting there from our new location!) and then am studying with some friend for the test we have on Thursday! Then it's mandatory EAP cemetary trip time, half marathon time, tandem time, and then time to do it all over again! AH!
We're looking into going to Buenos Aires with Gina's Mom while she is here, hopefully that will work out!
Love and miss you all! Sorry this update is so list-like, but so much has happened it's hard to regurgitate it all!
Hello! Sorry for the lack of blogging, 4 days without internet plus 2 very busy days with very crappy internet has resulted in a bit of a dry spell. In fact, I’m currently writing this in word processor and going to copy and paste it when my internet decides to function enough to let me log into blogspot.
Thursday was spent packing up all of my things like a crazy person and swearing there was NO way it was all going to fit back into the bags I brought it here in. By some miracle, it fit and I said goodbye to Claudia, hauled all of my stuff down, and got a taxi to my new apartment finally around 7 PM Thursday evening. Now here’s the kicker: we had to leave for our weekend trip Thursday at 9 PM and had to very quickly throw our clothes out of our bags, throw some weekend packing together, and head out towards the bus station after a very quick dinner and brief stint at our new abode. We got a teensy bit confused on our way to the metro, having never done it before from this location, and ended up going for a half hour walk through Las Condes with our backpacks on. Finally, we arrived (only slightly late but hey, it’s Chile) at the bus station and departed for La Serena with the big group around 11 PM for an 8 hour overnight bus ride.
Thus began a weekend we will certainly remember and in which a vital lesson was learned: WE WILL NEVER DO A LARGE GROUP TRIP/BUS TOUR AGAIN! The $150 weekend was full of “included tours” most of which turned out to be free, “included food” most of which turned out to be bad, “non-included lunches” which turned out to be meals you were forced to buy, a bus driver that took forever to get everywhere and took out power lines and air conditioner units in one foul swipe, a total f 10 minutes on the beach in the Chilean town famous for it’s beaches and not much else, being verbally harassed and discriminated by a Chilean man on a crappy catermeran to a sea lion island that equaled a rock with way fewer sea lions than Pier 39, and a ridiculous amount of time on a bus!
That being said, we did get to see another part of Chile that was very pretty and I spent the weekend with some very good friends!
On Friday, we ate breakfast in Tongoy and then trekked up to a cross on a hill overlooking a very pretty harbor before heading to Coquimbo to an elaborately hand built and very gorgeous Muslim Mezquita (for the 5 practicing Muslims in the greater Coquimbo/La Serena region). After that we headed over to another cross that was HUGE and concrete on a hill where we took an elevator up for a view (although it was pretty overcast and cold!). Then, we headed to our cabañas, one of the upsides of the weekend as they were very nice! Gina, Lindsey, and I ended up rooming with 4 other exchange students from the US that were each very nice and cool people to meet and hang out with! Later that day, we spent 10 minutes at the beach and headed into the center of La Serena where we went to another church and saw a Good Friday procession. We then went to an artisan market where I bought a little coin purse that I later was INCREDIBLY thankful for and ate some delicious cheese empenadas and ice cream. Then, we headed back to the cabañas where we ate some yogurt and cereal for dinner and watched a movie with our cabin mates.
On Saturday after waking up and running along the beach, we spent a whole day in the Valle de Elqui that was full of lots of ridiculous group dumb-ness but I will focus on simply what we did and the upsides. We toured 2 Pisco factories, ate lunch at a restaurant that used only solar ovens, ate some cactus fruit, went to many plazas and churches, went to a Chilean Nobel Prize winning poet's grave (but not her house since it was closed since we had obviously spent vital time at the Pisco places instead, sacrcasm), at some empanadas, and went to an observatory. The stars were INCREDIBLE! There are exponentially more stars in the southern hemisphere than the northern and we even saw mars and saturn! So beautiful, even if we did walk up a very steep hill in the pitch black to get there since our bus driver decided he didn't want to drive up the hill. We ate dinner at 2:30 AM when we returned to the cabañas and then went to sleep.
Sunday involved sleeping in, eating peeps and robins eggs, the lovely catermeran trip I have already mentioned, lunch, and the very long bus journey back to Santiago in which I swear the girl by us NEVER stopped talking and boy did her voice carry. Upon returning to Santiago in the bus station that our Chilean guide swore was safe, my wallet was stolen. LUCKILY, it was pretty much empty thanks to my new coin purse. All the thief got away with was 5 Argentine Pesos (~$1.25), my apartment keys that were easy to replace, my school ID which I'm in the process of getting replaced, and my llama ring from El Calafate :(. All of my money and credit cards and Chilean ID were elsewhere and safe.
So overall, not the ideal way to spend my first Easter weekend away from home, but at least we spoke a lot of Spanish, met some new people, and saw a new part of Chile. We also learned that we will be returning to our previous traveling ways from now on!
Since returning to Santiago, Gina and I spent all day Monday unpacking, doing homework, shopping for food and apartment things, and settling into our new apartment. Besides the current internet issue, we love it! It's great to finally be able to really feel like we live here and cook our own food again and everything! Last night, Lindsey came over for our inaugural apartment dinner of grilled cheese and ketchup (we splurged for the imported Heinz!). Then I skyped with the parents and prepared for a very busy week to come!
Today, I had class all day as my 3rd class on Chilean Culture has now started. It seems like it will be educational and not that hard at all which is good to know! In my 4 hour break between classes I traveled all over Santiago running errands such as turning in my internship form and buying an ethernet cable. Tonight, we had some delicious hamburger patties with cheese and lettuce for dinner, I finally broke down and dyed my hair (the roots were absolutely ridiculous), and I skyped with Jess.
All of the sudden I have become very busy! I have my internship tomorrow (hopefully I succeed in getting there from our new location!) and then am studying with some friend for the test we have on Thursday! Then it's mandatory EAP cemetary trip time, half marathon time, tandem time, and then time to do it all over again! AH!
We're looking into going to Buenos Aires with Gina's Mom while she is here, hopefully that will work out!
Love and miss you all! Sorry this update is so list-like, but so much has happened it's hard to regurgitate it all!
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