8 week mark today-longest time I have been out of the country!

I apologize for the lack of motivation I have been experiencing. I thought that I would regain some motivation after I finished my 5 page history paper, but I was wrong. I have been doing a whole lot of nothing. I feel a little guilty, but I guess it is nice. So here I am now, and I will try to recap some things I have done the last 20 days...

April 7th: I flew to Buenos Aires! BA was, hands down, the best thing I have done since I have been away. It was incredibly refreshing to put on my backpack and crash at a hostel for a week and explore a new city. Buenos is very European and the night life is absolutely insane. The owner and staff at our hostel, El Sol in Recoleta, were helpful, lovely, and real. One night a few of us stayed up all night playing Beatles songs on the guitar and having a sing-along. I was in heaven...the little bit of wine helped too. While I was in BA, I also took a Tango lesson and went to a live show! My friends from Boulder were actually in BA when I was there, unfortunately because we didn't have cell phones we only got to see each other one night, but it was a good one-went out dancing till 6am! The things I did in BA were very touristy, but enjoyable. I ate the best meat I have EVER had. We went to this restaurant for about $20 USD called "Siga la Vaca"-follow the cow. This price included- all you can eat- appetizers, salad, bread, french fries, and MEAT, one desert, one bottle of wine, and soda pop. It was the best food I have had for a very very long time. There is a steak there called Bife de Chorizo-man, everyone in the world needs to try it. Besides the point, Argentina did not disappoint me.

April 13th, I returned from BA and had an hard week. One reason being, I was working on my 5 page history paper. There were about 1,000 pages of reading, like I have mentioned before, and I read about 10 pages in all. I wrote the paper though, I just did a lot of Internet research. I am trying to avoid that situation for the next paper by actually reading!  Also, I would say I was more homesick this week then I have been the entire trip. It wasn't too bad because I seem, now, to be incredibly content!

April 16th: I had my first Volleyball game of the season! It was so fun, yet we lost. I played the entire time which was great! However, I hit my knee really hard on the bathroom sink and had to miss practice on Monday. We have another game this week, wish us luck!!! (We really need it). Something else happened on this day which was very crazy/scary, but I will have to give its own blog when I feel like I have better words to describe what happened...so stay tuned-pretty much I got stuck in a middle of a protest and was second-hand tear gassed! Family-DO NOT WORRY EVERYTHING IS OKAY.

April 17th: I went to the colegio again (primary school) to work with the children in their English classes. This week went smoother than the last because we broke into smaller groups, which helped keep the wild animals more tame. After I went to Mexican food and got fajitas-made me miss the Terrace more than it satisfied my craving! Then, I went home and took a very long, lovely nap. I woke up and went to a GREAT dinner with a few friends in my program. We got all pretty and sophisticated looking...and shared wine and appetizers. Was a nice change of pace. 

April 18th: WINE FESTIVAL! This was another highlight of my trip. Across town in Santiago can seem like another world. Where I live there are 24 hour car alarms, filtered by construction and sirens...wild dogs and people sleeping in the street waiting for the public hospital to open. There are people selling fruit on the streets, fresh orange juice, their old books and shoes-I live in the heart of Santiago. But across town, where the wine festival was, is another universe. The air is cleaner, the streets are shimming (relatively speaking), Armani stores line the streets, and it is QUITE. Anyway, situated next to a perfect little hill, was our pretty luxurious wine festival. For about $12 USD you got a glass and as much wine as you could taste. There were tons of vineyards from all over Chile, along with the wine, they were selling great food, chocolate covered strawberries, churros, hunks of greatly cooked meat, and more wine-Not to mention the PIANISTS!!! It was just perfect!

April 19th: Day of homework-sucked!

April 20th: For  those of you know, I celebrated the holiday. I had a "party" at my house with some friends, including Tim and Vlad, and we all just had a marvelous time! 

April 21st: I registered for classes next fall-  I will be taking Marketing Management, Financial Management, Intro to Entrepreneurship, Intro to Sustainable Business, and Philosophy of the Human Body (because I dropped my Philosophy class here-way too hard). I only have class on Tues and Thursday, in hopes I can find a job! It is unbelievable to me that I will be in my LAST year of college! Boy oh boy!

I also went and had dinner with Tim in Plaza Nunoa, near his house. After, I took the bus home and it dropped me right in front of the hostel I stayed in the first two weeks I was here. So, I peeked my head in and, believe it or not, I knew about 5 people that have been staying at the hostel since I arrived in the end of Feb. So, I stayed and enjoyed their asado (BBQ) until 1am when I decided to go home!

Today: I have done nothing. I go to class in about an hour and will come home from class and probably do nothing. I know-sounds like a lot of fun. I hope to do some reading, but I can really only hope. Then at 7pm I have volleyball practice.

Future Plans:  There are three 21st birthdays that will be celebrated this weekend, Tim's being one of them. Obviously, it will be a crazy weekend in Santiago! Woo! Also, I will be going to Patagonia in a week to hike the "w." I can't wait! 

Until next time...

besos

Oh, This Beautiful Day!

Today was my first day of  social work here in Santiago. I work in a highschool with six other students from the US. We help teach english. We help in three different classrooms. The first class has students that are about 4 - 6, the other 6-8, and then the next 8-11. These kids are extremely excited to have us and are very friendly. But, let me tell you, the school system here is CRAZY! Maybe it is just this school, but I think this commotion is spread out through Chile, maybe its a Latin thing? Anyway, these kids do not listen, even when the teacher screams, they yell, they flight, they run around, they climb on the desks and chairs- honestly a zoo. It was full of wonderful energy though. I enjoyed my first day,  it was just a lot of work. We are working on time, family members, and simple commands. I will start going every Friday! I am looking forward to spending time with children-considering how much I miss my nieces. 

The temperature in Santiago is absolutely delightful. It is COLD!!! Woo-I am wearing a long sleeve and actually can wear my hair down! 

I am going to an art gallery opening tonight presenting young new artists in Santiago then to a French movie at this old theater by my house. Last night I went to a Cumbia concert, which was absolutely incredible! The chilenos love to dance; it was more like a dance club with live music. For instance, during band change and set-up music was still playing, but people were dancing with just as much energy and spunk as when the bands were playing. I got my buggie on with the crowd and was exhausted by 4am when we all went home. 

All in all, today was a beautiful day for these reasons: working with the children, the weather, Cat Stevens, talking to Brielle, and having lunch with my roommates---and my nap I plan to take.

PAZ Y AMOR

End of March

Yes...I have not updated in a while (sorry). I just feel like nothing much has happened. I know I am here, 4000 miles away in South America, but really I am just living the regular life. For instance, the first week of school our Wednesday classes were canceled for the anual "PASEO." 85 tour buses came to pick up about 3.000 students at 9am to bring them to Isla de Maipo. This was a HUGE park surrounded by trees, fields, pools, and such about an hour away from Santiago. A DJ was set up in the middle, along with a consession stand that obviously sold pisco and beer. In short, just imagine 3.000  dancing, swimming, and drinking college students- this is what school was cancled for. The buses picked us up again at 9pm and brought us back to school. It was a blast and extremely exhausting! 

Along with this, I went to Radiohead. It was awesome...they played their old music, which I enjoyed, because the chilenos LOVE the 80's and 90's. Hearing them sing in broken spanish was very enjoyable as well. 

Que mas? I made the volleyball team at my school, which sounds like a great accomplishment, but really they suck. It is every Monday and Wednesday. I have really been enjoying playing for a team again, it has been a long time since I have competed in anything. 

School has officially started and I am now drowning in reading. My modern philosophy class is pretty hard-I had my first test today, but I think I did okay. It is hard enough to understand Descartes, Hume, and Kant in English, let alone Spanish. My history class is FULL of reading, and those of you who know me, know how much I LOVE to read-WOOOO!!! We have about 400 pages of reading and a 5 page paper due by the 20th of the April. Poetry is informative and interactive. Also, I will be starting my community social work this week. I will be helping teach English at a school in a less fortunate area of town. 

Oh! I forgot to mention...I am going to Buenos Aires on Tuesday for about a week! I can't wait to see it, we are also going to Montevideo...I say we because I am going with 5 other girls from my program. I am also trying to go to Patagonia and hike/trek the "W". I will be missing some school, but I REALLY want to go. 

My apartment life is incredible still. My roommates and I are still getting along. We cook dinner and drink really good chileano wine almost every night. There was a Chile vs. Peru soccer game here last night, which is like war. They are not just playing a game-its politics. CHILE WON!!! Anyway, every time Chile scored the streets went completely nuts. I looked outside my window and EVERYONE in every apartment building stuck their heads out of their windows and shouted, along with bars going crazy, and people in cars honking their horns. It was incredible. The street roared with victory and pride!

See regular life. 

Saw this guy on the street, thought he was neat

Apartment Pictures

Here is my apartment: I live on the 9th floor of an apartment building and I am located in Santiago Central. I am about 15 minutes (walking and metro) from school, and perfectly located by a few parks, bars, grocery stores, and such. I had Philosophy and history today...they will both be hard, but the teachers seem very nice. Tomorrow is Saint Patrick's Day, so our group is going to one of the only "gringo" bars in Santiago to have some green beer and celebrate. Again, I am doing well and would love to hear from everyone. 

School

School started on Thursday. At first it was very overwhelming. I am taking  poetry of Latin America, History of Chile, Modern Philosophy, and Poverty and Development (a theology and social work class). I am hoping that I will be able to tackle them all, but if not I will probably drop Philosophy. There might be too much reading. I am a little nervous, but I am also hopeful that I can succeed. The people in my program are really nice, and the faculty at my school is very helpful, just a little unorganized. I also hope to participate in Volleyball and Pilates. Apparently every Sunday in a nice little park there is free yoga, so I am going to start this as well. Last night our program had a BBQ. The food was incredible and it was nice to hang out with the group outside a school environment. My roommates went camping this weekend, but I couldn't go...too much homework already..eeee. 

The heat in Santiago is killing me. It is about 90-95 degrees everyday, makes me sorta lazy. The heat is especially bad in the Metro (underground subway system that is extremely efficient). 

One more thing, for those of you who know Radiohead, I bought a ticket to their concert! Can't wait! 

 

Valpariso

Valpariso was great. I went with Vlad, Tim, and our new friend Arjun. Vlad has some friends with an apartment in Vina del Mar (ten min. from Valpo) that we were visiting. Tim, Arjun and I stayed at this pretty cool hostel. Unfortunately, I woke up with a stiff neck!!!! It was awful. However, I didn't panic. I put heat on it right away and stretched. It got better throughout the trip. Anyway, the first day we went to the beach. It was very hot and the water was really cold. I couldn't go in the water because it was WAY too rough,  but I waded a little. Then we went to Vlad's friends house and cooked a spectacular dinner and had some good Chilean wine. The next day we went to Pablo Neruda's house...it was really nice.