Winter Vacation (Ha!) and Orientation

I got back to Santiago last night from my 4-day vacation up north. It was a huge success! We left Saturday night at about midnight and arrived in La Serena around 6 30. La Serena is a decent-sized city of about 150,000. After checking into our quirky hostel (Maria's Casa) we explored all day. We walked to the beach (my first peek at the Pacific Ocean from Chilean shores!), got some bread and cheese for breakfast at a tiny shop near Maria's, went to the archaeology museum (I won't lie, I'm not much of a museum-lover, but this one was free so whatevs), had more cheese and more bread (but this time with avocado and tomato) for lunch, went to Parque Pedro de Valdivia where there was a petting zoo (with the goofiest animals, most of which I didn't really want to pet), walked around the Japanese garden (see photo), and watched the Sunday afternoon soccer game in a bar that seemed to be full of locals. There was also an outdoor market, but I'm starting to find that a lot of the products are the same from market to market. That's not to say they're not cool, but it makes me less crazy about buying everything. Actually, that's probably a good thing. We made dinner at the hostel that night because it had a full kitchen for guests' use. There were lots of people from Europe staying there as well, and everyone was really friendly. We met one girl, I think her name was Dee, from England who is traveling the world by herself. She'd been to several places in Asia (Thailand, India, China) and Australia and is now working her way around South America. Bad ass.

On Monday we took a tour of Elqui Valley. Our tour guide was this really neat older man who has lived all over Chile and parts of Europe. He spoke English with us, French with the other person on our tour, and also lots of Spanish. The countryside between La Serena and Pisco Elqui (a small town in the heart of the Valley) is pretty majestic. The photo hardly does it justice (if you click on it, it'll show up bigger). One of my favorite parts of the tour was lunch at a restaurant that cooks using mostly solar ovens. How awesome, right? Below is a picture of the ovens, which sit out in front of the restaurant.


Tuesday morning we woke up early and took a bus a little bit south to Ovalle, a smaller town. We wanted to see Fray Jorge National Park/Forest so as soon as we got to the hostel in Ovalle our host set us up with another tour. This time our tour guide was a 34-year-old named Percy who was pretty lively and carted us around in his tiny car which has to have been from the 90's at the latest. Fray Jorge was cool, we hiked up really high to get to a place where we could see the Pacific again (photo inset). It wasn't much of a forest, but considering the surrounding areas were basically desert, the dense vegetation on the ocean-side of the mountain was a change of scenery. The weather was as beautiful as it looks - sunny and warm and not a could in the sky. We stopped at Valle del Encantado on the way back to Ovalle. Its main attraction seems to be the 2000-year-old petrogliphs but I thought the gicantic boulders that they're drawn on were way cooler. Percy took us to a yummy fish restaurant that night. We were so tired from the day that we went to bed around 9.

Woke up early on Wednesday and went to Ovalle's version of a farmer's market. It was ha-uuuuuge! There were five or six loooong isles with booths on either side belonging to people seeling mostly fruits and vegetables but also olives, fish, and some grains. I bought a Fuji apple (delicious). We bought more bread and cheese from another little store (pattern?) and ate breakfast on a big boulevard. We caught a bus home in the afternoon.

Soooo after an action packed weekend I stayed home last night. It was nice to see Lily again. Today was orientation for all international students. They did a really nice job of welcoming us. There is a student organization that plans a bunch of events throughout the semester which seem aimed at getting exchange students to meet chileans and each other. Tonight they're taking us to La piojera, the bar that serves terremotos. Good thing I already know how much (or how little) I can take. Somebody's got to be the token puker and it ain't gonna be me.

Hooray for the weekend!

Yesterday

Yikes this post is out of cronological order. How disorganized. Yesterday, I met Mariana at the subway station closest to her house, ñuble. We took the metro into Santiago Centro and walked allllllll over downtown and west of downtown. It was a beautiful day. I ate my first completo/italiano, I think there's a difference between the two but I can't remember what it is. Anyway, they're typical college student food around here, like the Chilean version of ramen noodles. An italiano is a hotdog in a bun with tomatoes, avocado spread, and mayoooooo. Even though I don't like hotdogs, this was yummy because the hotdog-to-everything else ratio was pretty low. Here I am eating it . It was no easy task.

We walked through some of the older neighborhoods. They had much narrower streets and obviously older architecture (see left). After we walked for about two hours, we stopped for a big bowl of ice cream. Then Mariana showed me around Bellavista a little bit, which is one of the favorite neighborhoods for going out at night to bars and restaurants, etc. It is really close to Plaza Italia, which aparently is where everyone gathers after an election or an important soccer victory.

Real tennis!

WOOO! Played real tennis this morning (as opposed to wii tennis). We played on clay, wich I've only ever done at the SPTC. It was funnnnn! Pablo and two of his friends picked me up around 10:15 and we went to a court that's actually really close to the apartment. Magda came to watch. They are such great company.

Lucy, Mathias and I are leaving for a little 4-day trip up north tonight. Cheap bus ride, cheap hostels, hopefully cheap food. Should be a great time. Hasta miercoles!

"Weón po."

This week has been pretty routine. (Ha! Routine, in Chile, weird.) I've really just been going to class and walking around with Lucy and Mathias. One day it rained, which is supposed to be a disaster in Chile because everything floods and no one can do anything. I didn't notice any flash floods but it was so cold I came home from class and laid in bed all day. Can't win 'em all.

Last night was fun though!!!!! Mathias' host brother Ramiro is out of town for the week but his friend Felipe had people over for tacos and beer. It was supposed to be an "asado" (BBQ) but the grill was too wet apparently so there was a change of plans. Felipe is so much fun! He reminds me of some of my friends in St. Paul. (Except he was surprised that I have both kinds of soccer shoes - cleats and flats. Please.)

Mathias has told him a little bit about our spanish class, in which we spend the majority of our time talking about vocab and expressions that are specific to Chile. So we were joking all night about our "Chilenismos 101" class. Some of the things they say that are unique to chile are "weón," which basically translates to "man" or "dude"; "po" which is really just a space-filler as far as I can tell. I think it comes from "pues." There are a million more. Everyone jokes with us about coming to Chile to learn Spanish. They say that if we can understand this spanish we'll be fine anywhere else in the world. Ha!

Got a pre-pay phone today. I'm such a noob, I'm afraid to use it. I'm all like, "gotta keep all calls under a minute! No texts unless absolutely necessary!" Yikes mcgikes.

Plans for this weekend? Mathias, Lucy and I are talking about heading up north to Ovalle and maybe la Serena to do some sightseeing and some hiking. We wanted to stay relatively close for our first trip. Our profesora told us today about this phenomenon that happens rarely in the Atacama desert called "desierto florida" where the desert is wetter than usual and so little flowers pop up everywhere. She says its gorgeous. So we're saving the Atacama for another time.

Finally took some good pictures of the Andes!!!!!! These I took from the roof of my apartment building (where there is a pool... that will be filled in November I guess. BACÁN.)

Pics of my room!

Two different angles of my bedroom - I love it! My favorite room is the living/dining room, but I haven't taken pictures of that yet. Coming soon!

Wii tennis.

Spent the whole day with Pablo and Magda today (host sister and brother-in-law). They are both so gracious, not to mention fun as hell.

We went to the supermarket to get groceries first, and then to their apartment for lunch. And lots and lots of wii. Haha! They live in Providencia, which is the municipality just West of the one I live in, which is called Las Condes. Supercute apartment. When I met Pablo, they told me he has the soul of a 15 year old. So true. His favorite game is Guitar Hero Metallica. So funny. He gets so into it, with his stance and everything. And he loves metallica! Ridiculous! Lily came over for dinner so we ate that over there too.

And I thought Sundays were boring... :D

Rengo

I met my host grandparents yesterday. Now I know why Lily is so warm and welcoming. Here, they use the word "amoroso" ("loving") a lot to describe certain people. That is exactly what Pepe and Lily Sr. are. (Since Lily's mom's name is Lily, they call my Lily "ita." Isn't that perfect? I guess it's like calling someone "Jr.")

Pedro and Magda (my host sister and brother-in law) picked me up around 11:15 Saturday morning and we drove south about an hour and a half to the small town of Rengo, where Lily grew up. We stopped by Lily's sister-in-law's house to pick her up because she had gone down the night before. I was nervous to meet so many new people, but everyone was really nice. Magda's cousin Ale(jandro) is seven and reminded me of Nicco. So cute.

Then the four of us went over to Lily's parents house for lunch. Her older brother stopped by. They are all incredibly nice and charming. To top off the amazing company, the food was sososososososososoooooo delicious. We had fried cheese empanadas and mango liquor before the meal; the first course of lunch was avocado halves with a chicken filling; and the main course was mashed potatoes with strips of beef in some yummy sauce. Lily's brother told me they only make good food when Lily comes for lunch, hahahaha. After lunch, we went for a drive around Rengo. It was a lot different than Santiago. There were some really big houses and some really run-down ones. Lily's parents' house didn't look like much from the outside but inside it was muy linda. After the drive we sat in the living room in front of the fireplace for a few hours talking and looking at photos from Magda's wedding and their trip all around Europe.

Pepe and Lily reminded me a lot of my great aunt and uncle Dick and Jody. Allllways bickering and making everyone else laugh. When we left, they said I could come back any time and Lily assured me that they meant it. I was overwhelmed by how amoroso they were, really.

Today is Sunday and on Sundays here everything shuts down. There is practically no one on the streets and no businesses open. As if Sundays aren't depressing enough! Haha. But actually I think Magda and Pablo are coming to pick me up pretty soon. SCORRRRRE. Oh! Pablo taught me something funny yesterday: small-sided games of soccer are called "fútbolito" here. Isn't that great?! Another useful piece of vocab is "pucha" which is like "damnit" only not as vulgar. I'll probably have to use "pucha" a lot while playing (aka getting my ass kicked in) fútbolito with chileans, so good to know both of those words.

I was going to get up early and go to (FREE!) yoga at Cerro San Cristobal this morning but it's overcast outside, and I want my first experience with outdoor yoga at el Cerro to be perfect, so I'm waiting until another day. Ciao!

Soccer court!!!!!

The church at Los Dominicos.

One of the artisans' shops at Los Dominicos.

Anna Richardson, explorer.

The best thing about today: the discovery of shredded apple. Joana, our maid, made me breakfast this morning and instead of just plain yogurt and granola (which I love) she shredded apple first and put it in there! Whoa yum.

Even though breakfast was a tough act to follow, the rest of the day ended up being real cool. I went for a run to el Parque Araucano. My first run in Santiago! It was a beautiful day for it. Our program coordinator actually warned us against running outdoors at first because of the dirty air, but I didn't notice it being too bad. After lunch I went for another long walk westward on Apoquindo. Lily had told me that there was a plaza with a bunch of artesanos up that way, and I found them! Really cool stuff! They're in this plaza called Pueblito de Los Dominicos. There is a big church there, I think it might be a monastery? Not sure. Anyway, there were a ton of little tiny shops. I could have spent all of my money. After that I walked up towards another cerro that supposedly has a space observatory that's open to the public, but it didn't look very friendly so instead I checked out this tennis park across the street - sooooo cool. It's called Parque Tenis El Alba. There is a main entrance and then after a little refreshments stand, a path winds around about twenty CLAY tennis courts. The park sits on a hill and the courts aren't really in a grid pattern so its a nice park for walking. I sat and watched a doubles match for a little while. The park also has at least two small soccer courts. Hoohoo! If only I had a crew to play with.

Something funny I noticed today: a lot of people smell really good. I haven't gathered sufficient data to say that everybody wears perfume or cologne but almost. I was thinking that maybe it's because the way people greet each other here is by kissing each other on the cheek, so one's BO is a lot more noticeable. Maybe I'll ask Mariana. I ask so many questions, especially to Lily. Dinner is calling my name. Joana's making fish. Ciao!

Cerro San Cristobal...

...is AMAZINGGG. I had seen it on maps and it's easily the biggest park in the city. I had NO idea what it was actually like though. I went with Lily, Lucy, and Mathias. Lily says she goes there once a week or so, which is one more thing that makes her so BA.

So the thing about parks here is that if it's a "cerro," that means it's a hill or a small mountain and "parque" means it's flat. Cerro San Cristobal is huge! We easily hiked two miles up a winding winding winding road to get to the top. It was tiring enough to walk and there were people running and biking! The top reminded me of a Saint Paul Bike Classic rest stop because everyone was relaxing with their bikes and something to drink. Except here you could see alllllll of Santiago plus the Andes. Also, there is no giant statue of the Virgin Mary at any St. Paul rest stop, that I know of. There are several shops at the top of the cerro and one sells mote, which is a chileno drink. We shared one. Wikipedia describes it better than I could.

Lily is superbacán. I can't stress this enough. She gets cooler every day! Today, as we were walking up the hill, she said she really likes people who exercise because they're more sane (yes!). Also, that her family is catholic but she doesn't like to go to mass much because she'd rather be outside and enjoying nature. She says that's when she feels closest to God. She. Rules.

Moral of the story: San Cristobal is my everest. I told Lily I'm going to run up it before I leave Santiago. She says she'll believe it when she sees it. Ha! Sassy. I'm doing it.

TGIW

Long weekend!! We don't have spanish class tomorrow or friday so we're off for the weekend. A bunch of the gringos from our group talked about going out tonight. I'm relying on Mathias to call me since I don't have a celular yet.

This morning I went for a long walk around my comuna (which means district, kind of) before catching the metro to school. (Barb Rose in case you're reading this, I was holding my "WALK" stone the whole time and it was very soothing. I got a little sad thinking about missing you but that's okay.) I found el Parque Araucano, which Lily had told me about before. It was beaUTIFUL. So beautiful that I was willing to go the extra mile and take a few pictures (one is on the right there>). I am going to go running there tomorrow if I don't have too much of la caña (hangover). This park has three SWEET playgrounds for the little ones, a bunch of basketball courts, tennis courts, and a really nice path for walking and running. Aaaand some soccer goals that were chained up, unfortunately. Then I went walking down two of the main avenues - Americo Vespucio and Apoquindo. Americo Vespucio has a median like summit only with a man-made walking path. AND Apoquindo seems like the Michigan Avenue of Santiago and I even found a building that looks like a mini Sears Tower. Or Hancock Tower. Whatever.

Coolest thing (or most bacán - chilean for cool - thing) I found while looking around my campus today: SOCCERRRR HEAVENNNNNN. There are at least three full sized grass fields and two smaller hard top courts. Super bacán.

One of the most valuable things I have learned so far is how to politely say "excuse me." It is very necessary and useful on the metro. "Permiso" is how everyone seems to go about it. Such a gringita.

Fin de semana!

Thirsty Tuesday

Nooooooo, no emborrachemos. But I did go to my first Chilean bar tonight! For some reason I am having a mental block with the name, but it had something to do with piojos (lice). I guess one could say it was a dive, but we had a lovely time. At first I was a little uncomfortable because a guy at a table not far away was giving me the eye for a good fifteen minutes, but after he left and I started feeling the effects of my "terremoto," (drink named after an earthquake? miiiiight be bad news) I was fine. I went with Lucy, Mathias, and Emily.

Emily is Lucy's roommate who did our same program last semester and is leaving in a couple of days. She helped me make the most important decision I made today: I'm going to take the class at La Catolica called Futbol Femenino!! I wasn't going to because the title makes it sound like a bunch of girls running around not really knowing what they're doing, but Emily said she knows a couple of girls who took it and really liked it, and said it wasn't a piece of cake. Yay!!!!!! Have to get up early. Ciao!

Cheeleun at the apartment on DAY 3

Did I mention I can see the Andes from my bedroom? Still blows my mind.

We started our 2-week instensive spanish class yesterday. It was nice to see some familiar Wisconsin faces. I was feeling pretty lonely when I got home from class (plus not happy about having homework all of a sudden) but as soon as Lily got home the feeling basically went away. I showed her pictures of the fam (she says Alice looks older than me) and of our vacation to northern MN. She says there are places that look similar in southern Chile. Maybe when it gets warmer I´ll have an opportunity to visit.

She made us a yummy salad with avocado, oranges, sesame seeds, some mozarella-like cheese, and dressed it with what aparently is typical Chilean salad dressing - oilive oil, salt, and lemon juice. So good. I told her my mom loves to make salads and, on top of everything else I´ve told her about my parents, she keeps saying she thinks they would get along great. Yesterday she told me that she likes to turn lights off when she´s not in the room to save energy. Barbara Jeanetta.

Ooh there are some sk8r boyz outside my window. Annie Arnold, you should have come with me after all!

I think I have the metro figured out pretty well. There are only 4 lines so it´s not like figuring out Chicago´s or Boston´s. One thing I think I still need to perfect is etiquette. I remember in Barbados, younger people always gave up their seats to the elderly on the bus. Am I expected to do that here? I can´t tell yet. There seem to be very few seats, so usually I just stay on the safe side and stand.

I will start taking pictures soon, but I attract enough attention as it is being a (tallllllll) gringa (we stick out like a sore thumb) so I don´t want to be a huge tourist n00b flashing all kinds of pics if I can help it. At least not when I´m by myself. Es todo!

I am here!!!!!!!!!!!! In Santiago. It´s only been one day and already I don´t know where to begin. At the beginning perhaps?

Mariana and her dad picked me up from the airport this morning. It would have been crazy trying to get a fair-priced taxi, so I am REALLY thankful for them. They brought me to my host family´s apartment and we arrived around 745 AM. This place is wonderful. I can see the Andes out my bedroom window.

My host mom´s name is Lily and she is the mother of 2 daughters, both of whom are married and moved out. I napped all morning and when I woke up it was almost lunch time. The only other person who lives with Lily and me is another student named Magdalena. Lily´s daughter Magdalena and her husband also came over for lunch, as did Mariana. They are all SO NICE. Lily made risotto - yum!

It´s getting dark already, at 6 PM. Our 2-week spanish class with the rest of the Madison students starts tomorrow. Can´t wait to see the campus!