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
