Sunday is typically a day of relaxation here - most all the shops are closed and people tend to spend the day with their families.
After sleeping in much later than planned (the combination of a lot of activity, a new language and a new city have left me completely exhausted pretty much all the time!) I started to get my act together. I had a leisurely morning, had some breakfast, took a shower, etc. I couldn't decide what to do - I didn't think that I had enough time to take in a museum before we would have lunch with our host family, Sunday lunch is always really nice so I wanted to be here for it.
I don't think I mentioned this: we have another student staying in our house now! Her name is Sze Ming - she's originally from Hong Kong but has lived in the US for the past 15 years or so. It's been really fun to have another student in the house! This is her first week learning Spanish (ever) so I've been able to really put my Spanish to use in helping translate! Super fun and really makes me feel like I'm actually learning!
Anyways.
The weather was absolutely amazing on Sunday - it was super warm, super sunny, one of those rare really warm fall days that I love so dearly. I decided to go take a walk, just to get out into the sunshine. SzeMing wanted to come with, so we set off in a direction that I hadn't walked yet. We had a great time just strolling through the tree-lined streets; talking about learning Spanish, missing college, work, living in the US, and many other things.
When we got back we had some time to rest and then we had a delicious lunch with our host family. On Sundays we eat in the dining room (normally we eat in the kitchen) and on Sunday we even broke out some wonderful Chilean wine :) What better food to serve at a sunday meal than LASAGNA?! Yes. It's as though my host mom already knew all of my favorite foods! We had a great meal, chatting about everything from politics to the movie Fargo (somehow this keeps coming up... no matter where I go I cannot escape the familiar Ya Sure ya betcha!)
It's even more fun to have these discussions now because I can contribute complete sentences instead of just one or two word answers! Sometimes I even surprise myself with how much Spanish I can use - there more enough are times in which I can't think of the words in Spanish of English... but I'll choose to focus on the happier times :)
After lunch the 2 of us went to the Museo de Arte Precolombino. It was a most excellent museum! It features art from throughout Central and South America, all dated pre-Columbus. It takes you through the art work (more or less) geographically, so you can see how things change between cultures but you can also see a lot of similarities.
A lot of the art (mostly sculptures and the like) were used to accompany the dead. There was something so reassuring about this thought - that people would make things that would help protect and guide your soul- so that the person was never alone. There was even one culture that would carve huge wooden figures that would stand guard at your gravesite, mainly to ensure a safe passage into the afterlife but also as a general protector of the deceased. I don't entirely know how to explain it, but something about these very large (taller than me) wooden figures was incredibly calming. And not just their physical presence, but also just the general idea was very calming.
They also had a really neat part of the exhibit that was devoted to weaving and clothing as a form of artistic expression. Some of these weavings were just incredible - so detailed and with such fine thread. I would never, ever in my life have the patience with which to do that. I could envision myself being REALLY enthusiastic at the beginning of the weaving, then tearing apart the loom when I wasn't even 1/2 way through because it would just take such concentration and such time. Amazing.
Following our time in the museum we stopped in a cute little outdoor cafe and had a coffee and shared some crepes - delicious! Since dinner is usually a little later than I'm used to, a snack is usually necessary in order to make it all the way to dinner time.
A very excellent, relaxed day in Santiago :-)
Monday, June 27, 2011
Valpo!
Hola!
Due to a holiday today - I've been told mostly that it's "some Catholic holiday" we didn't have class. So, we've had a perfectly beautiful 3-day weekend - just what I need to help soak up all the Chilean goodness I can before I head back to the Northern hemisphere on Sunday (whoa.)
I can feel that things are definitely starting to wind down around here, lots of my good friends are starting to leave; and while there are new people coming each week - it's still hard to see those original people that I started my classes with leave. But, it is starting to get me in the mindset of going home which ought to make the transition easier. I already have just about every minute of this last week planned out - so I'm going to have to make sure that I take a step back once in a while and truly enjoy everything I can, while I can.
Anyways - my last full weekend here was definitely a memorable one :)
Friday night I went out to some bars and clubs in Chile - one of our teachers' bands was playing so we went to his concert. Very fun, a little strange (they were wearing masks similar to the facepaint KISS would wear) but still, a most excellent time.
Saturday morning (which came all too early) I set out with another friend from school to go to the coastal city of Valparaiso. It is definitely a unique city - it was built to be one of the main coastal ports in Chile (if not THE main one) but it's set up against both the ocean and the hills/mountains of the Andes. So, as the city grew, it grew up onto the cerros (or hills) so the many beautifully colored houses spread upwards and outwards from the city center.
While I got some good pictures, they don't entirely do the city and its colors justice, so please also check out this link: Valpo!
The bus ride, again, was beautiful. We got to go through Chilean wine and farm country and then out to Valpo. While I ended up sleeping for more of the ride out there than I had intended, I did get to enjoy it on the way back.
When we arrived in the city we didn't have any sort of plan of what we wanted to do, we just knew that at some point we wanted to eat the fresh seafood that the city is so famous for, and also wander through some of the beautiful hillside neighborhoods. One thing that you have to be very careful of is getting lost - partly just because there's little rhyme or reason to the streets in the cerros (they make tangletown, MN seem like childsplay to navigate) there is also much more poverty in Valpo than we see in Santiago. But, we had absolutely no problems whatsoever with either concern.
So, we set off from the bus station and immediately came across a huge antiques market. A lot of crap, but also some fun stuff - books, old spurs, typical antique-y things. We wandered through the market for a short while, marveling at some of the stranger goods that were offered (spurs that looked like they were intended for murder, strange childrens' books, etc.) then decided to move on to the OCEAN!
For those of you who don't know, I am obsessed with the ocean. I truly believe that I was a manatee in a past life - thus I am constantly trying to get back to my ocean roots. Or rather, my water roots - depending on if I were a fresh or salt water manatee. But, I digress.
I knew that there was ocean somewhere in Valpo - I could see the battleships in the distance, but we weren't sure what our best vantage point would be. So, we started walking in the direction of the ocean. Let me back up for a moment - Valpo is also home to the Chilean navy and I believe the Bolivian navy as well (because apparently a landlocked country is always in great need of a navy!) I'm too lazy to look up the details on that, but there were lots of huge battleships in the harbor. They must belong to someone.
We got close to the water - but we still couldn't really see it. Valpo's metro/lightrail runs right along the water so the train's embankment kind of blocks the view.
We figured out roughly where we wanted to go and started walking. We decided to stop and ask some people exactly where we were on our map (we were kind of confused) and it turned out one of the woman is from New Hampshire originally, so we had a nice little chat about the US for a moment - then set off on our way to the downtown area.
At this point we could smell the sea air, and we knew it only about 100 feet away from us, but we could only catch brief glimpses of it through the fence. Frustration was setting in.
We kept on walking, along the way of the lightrail on one side and large, dark, imposing European looking buildings (made from dark stone, pretty tall, beautiful but kind of eerie to be honest)
We decided to branch off of the main drag and explore some neighborhoods. We quickly came upon the Valpo funiculars (while, we just came across one - there are 4 that are currently working, and there are about 17 in total, they're restoring a number of them this winter.) While I'm always up for a challenge - why hike up steep hills and steps when you can take a super old, kind of terrifying (but very fun!) ascensore?!? For about $0.50 we got a nice short ride.
Up to this point I was a little... disappointed with valpo. I had heard how amazing the city is, and we had been there for about an hour and hadn't seen anything that was overly impressive.
That is, until we stepped out of the ascensore.
We were met with a cute little alley, with a beautiful littler artesan fair at the end - and even better, we could finally see that beautiful turquoise (yes, turquoise) ocean!!! It took all my strength not to go running/skipping down to it. I had had a very particular image of valpo in my mind - one of winding cobbled streets, colorful houses, and ocean. Up until this point I hadn't seen any of this, but from the bottom of the hill.
Everything changed at this point. I could not stop smiling; the sun was shining, the ocean was waving (see what I did there? I'm so funny) the birds were calling, the empanadas were cooking, life. was. good. I forgot to mention earlier that we had PERFECT weather. It's been pretty chilly in Santiago, but we could walk around in tee-shirts in Valpo, it was awesome. We went through the market then continued on through the lazily winding streets.
Each corner- well, not so much corners as a corner implies some sharp perpendicular meeting of streets and these were much softer, winding streets - brought with it a whole new array of colors and views. Purple, lime green, orange, yellow, hot pink, magenta... the list goes on and on. Everything I love about life- bright/bold colors, sunshine, ocean, good friends, and windy streets - were suddenly present. I should say that a general lack of sleep also got the day started a little rough, and we were never unhappy - but things really took a turn for the better once we ascended the hill.
Something interesting is that it is painfully apparent that the more money you have, the higher you live (quite literally, in Valpo) We were out of the graffitied streets we had been wandering and were suddenly surrounded by beautiful street art. Much like in the Bellavista neighborhood of Santiago - street art is encouraged in parts of Valpo (as long as the building owners approve the art work) so there are amazing murals and other paintings around every corner.
The artwork, coupled with the beautiful houses, made it feel like there should suddenly be creepy carousels and dancing penguins (...Mary Poppins, when they jump into the sidewalk art for those of you not getting my reference) Anyways - it was breathtaking.
After meandering for a while we realized that it was high time for lunch as we could no longer ignore the rumblings of our stomachs. Up on the hill you end up not only paying for your food but also for the view - so we hiked back down in order to find food that better fit our budget.
I kind of attempted to consult my guide book, but was more or less unsure of where we were and how to get to any of the restaurants mentioned in the book. So we decided to test our luck and just wander around until we came across something that was both affordable and delectable.
We came across a few ice cream shops, a lot of uneatable souvenirs (no, I did not try to eat anything that is inedible) but very few restaurants. Valpo is a town that I had a really hard time figuring out - Santiago and Mendoza both have several streets with a loooot of different restaurants but Valpo didn't seem to (we very well could have just missed it... but the map didn't show a huge restaurant area either.)
I decided that there MUST be restaurants down near the water, so we walked through the main center/plaza of the city only to find that it was just more souvenir shops. So. many. souvenirs. I did end up buying a bracelet but I went there with a mission to do so, so it was ok.
A little discouraged, we decided to just ask some people if they had any recommendations. We found a nice little group of elderly people speaking Spanish - so gave it a shot. Best thing we have ever done. They pointed us in the direction of a fun looking place right on the water - it looks like it's in an old boat, nautical themed with (you guessed it!) SEAFOOD
Looking at the menu, we discovered that it was a bit more pricy than we had hoped - but we both love seafood and would both only be in Valpo this one time so we threw caution to the wind (and money...) and gave it a whirl.
We had a cute little table on the porch overlooking the harbor. We could watch the boats coming and going: sailing, taking tours of the harbor, going out to the military ships, there was quite the hustle and bustle out on the water.
At that point I had decided that even if I didn't like my food (Cachas Parmesan - Razor clams with parmesan cheese and white wine sauce) the view and general feel of the restaurant made it worth it. However, the food far surpassed any hopes I had for it (my host mom recommended the dish saying that it was to die for) and MAN would I have died for that dish. There were about 12 clams on the plate, each with a heaping pile of perfectly melted parmesan and sitting in a delicious white wine/garlic sauce. It. was. amazing. Each bite was just heavenly - even the one in which I ended up eating a piece of shell on accident (apparently Chile hasn't helped me in my quest to become a dainty eater...) It was gastronomic perfection.
The food, combined with the sun and scenery, brought me back to that wonderful place where all I could ask was "how is this my life?!?!"
You would think that by this point I would learn that everything is here is perfect and that I shouldn't be surprised when everything greatly exceeds all expectations, but it still catches me off guard sometimes.
Please, do yourselves all a favor and add Chile to your top 4 places to come in your lifetime. It is just too amazing to be missed. The people, the food, the scenery, everything is just exquisite.
Anyways. After our amazing lunch and just general relaxing on the fake boat we made a b-line back to an ice cream place (because when you're painfully full, the natural thing to do is eat ice cream.) And yes, it was delicious. It was worth every painful bite and lick.
We continued to aimlessly walk through the streets and we came across a beautiful plaza that had a puppet show for kids! It was kind of strange to see, but the kids were loving it and it seemed like a delightful way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon.
By the time we got back to the bus station area we were completely exhausted. We tried to go and walk up a small cerro, but due to the fact that it was getting dark and the stairs were unlit and we were completely and utterly exhausted - we opted for sitting in the park and then the bus station.
Thankfully I made it back to Santiago without any delays - my host family was a little worried with my previous traveling record :-)
Due to a holiday today - I've been told mostly that it's "some Catholic holiday" we didn't have class. So, we've had a perfectly beautiful 3-day weekend - just what I need to help soak up all the Chilean goodness I can before I head back to the Northern hemisphere on Sunday (whoa.)
I can feel that things are definitely starting to wind down around here, lots of my good friends are starting to leave; and while there are new people coming each week - it's still hard to see those original people that I started my classes with leave. But, it is starting to get me in the mindset of going home which ought to make the transition easier. I already have just about every minute of this last week planned out - so I'm going to have to make sure that I take a step back once in a while and truly enjoy everything I can, while I can.
Anyways - my last full weekend here was definitely a memorable one :)
Friday night I went out to some bars and clubs in Chile - one of our teachers' bands was playing so we went to his concert. Very fun, a little strange (they were wearing masks similar to the facepaint KISS would wear) but still, a most excellent time.
Saturday morning (which came all too early) I set out with another friend from school to go to the coastal city of Valparaiso. It is definitely a unique city - it was built to be one of the main coastal ports in Chile (if not THE main one) but it's set up against both the ocean and the hills/mountains of the Andes. So, as the city grew, it grew up onto the cerros (or hills) so the many beautifully colored houses spread upwards and outwards from the city center.
While I got some good pictures, they don't entirely do the city and its colors justice, so please also check out this link: Valpo!
The bus ride, again, was beautiful. We got to go through Chilean wine and farm country and then out to Valpo. While I ended up sleeping for more of the ride out there than I had intended, I did get to enjoy it on the way back.
When we arrived in the city we didn't have any sort of plan of what we wanted to do, we just knew that at some point we wanted to eat the fresh seafood that the city is so famous for, and also wander through some of the beautiful hillside neighborhoods. One thing that you have to be very careful of is getting lost - partly just because there's little rhyme or reason to the streets in the cerros (they make tangletown, MN seem like childsplay to navigate) there is also much more poverty in Valpo than we see in Santiago. But, we had absolutely no problems whatsoever with either concern.
So, we set off from the bus station and immediately came across a huge antiques market. A lot of crap, but also some fun stuff - books, old spurs, typical antique-y things. We wandered through the market for a short while, marveling at some of the stranger goods that were offered (spurs that looked like they were intended for murder, strange childrens' books, etc.) then decided to move on to the OCEAN!
For those of you who don't know, I am obsessed with the ocean. I truly believe that I was a manatee in a past life - thus I am constantly trying to get back to my ocean roots. Or rather, my water roots - depending on if I were a fresh or salt water manatee. But, I digress.
I knew that there was ocean somewhere in Valpo - I could see the battleships in the distance, but we weren't sure what our best vantage point would be. So, we started walking in the direction of the ocean. Let me back up for a moment - Valpo is also home to the Chilean navy and I believe the Bolivian navy as well (because apparently a landlocked country is always in great need of a navy!) I'm too lazy to look up the details on that, but there were lots of huge battleships in the harbor. They must belong to someone.
We got close to the water - but we still couldn't really see it. Valpo's metro/lightrail runs right along the water so the train's embankment kind of blocks the view.
We figured out roughly where we wanted to go and started walking. We decided to stop and ask some people exactly where we were on our map (we were kind of confused) and it turned out one of the woman is from New Hampshire originally, so we had a nice little chat about the US for a moment - then set off on our way to the downtown area.
At this point we could smell the sea air, and we knew it only about 100 feet away from us, but we could only catch brief glimpses of it through the fence. Frustration was setting in.
We kept on walking, along the way of the lightrail on one side and large, dark, imposing European looking buildings (made from dark stone, pretty tall, beautiful but kind of eerie to be honest)
We decided to branch off of the main drag and explore some neighborhoods. We quickly came upon the Valpo funiculars (while, we just came across one - there are 4 that are currently working, and there are about 17 in total, they're restoring a number of them this winter.) While I'm always up for a challenge - why hike up steep hills and steps when you can take a super old, kind of terrifying (but very fun!) ascensore?!? For about $0.50 we got a nice short ride.
Up to this point I was a little... disappointed with valpo. I had heard how amazing the city is, and we had been there for about an hour and hadn't seen anything that was overly impressive.
That is, until we stepped out of the ascensore.
We were met with a cute little alley, with a beautiful littler artesan fair at the end - and even better, we could finally see that beautiful turquoise (yes, turquoise) ocean!!! It took all my strength not to go running/skipping down to it. I had had a very particular image of valpo in my mind - one of winding cobbled streets, colorful houses, and ocean. Up until this point I hadn't seen any of this, but from the bottom of the hill.
Everything changed at this point. I could not stop smiling; the sun was shining, the ocean was waving (see what I did there? I'm so funny) the birds were calling, the empanadas were cooking, life. was. good. I forgot to mention earlier that we had PERFECT weather. It's been pretty chilly in Santiago, but we could walk around in tee-shirts in Valpo, it was awesome. We went through the market then continued on through the lazily winding streets.
Each corner- well, not so much corners as a corner implies some sharp perpendicular meeting of streets and these were much softer, winding streets - brought with it a whole new array of colors and views. Purple, lime green, orange, yellow, hot pink, magenta... the list goes on and on. Everything I love about life- bright/bold colors, sunshine, ocean, good friends, and windy streets - were suddenly present. I should say that a general lack of sleep also got the day started a little rough, and we were never unhappy - but things really took a turn for the better once we ascended the hill.
Something interesting is that it is painfully apparent that the more money you have, the higher you live (quite literally, in Valpo) We were out of the graffitied streets we had been wandering and were suddenly surrounded by beautiful street art. Much like in the Bellavista neighborhood of Santiago - street art is encouraged in parts of Valpo (as long as the building owners approve the art work) so there are amazing murals and other paintings around every corner.
The artwork, coupled with the beautiful houses, made it feel like there should suddenly be creepy carousels and dancing penguins (...Mary Poppins, when they jump into the sidewalk art for those of you not getting my reference) Anyways - it was breathtaking.
After meandering for a while we realized that it was high time for lunch as we could no longer ignore the rumblings of our stomachs. Up on the hill you end up not only paying for your food but also for the view - so we hiked back down in order to find food that better fit our budget.
I kind of attempted to consult my guide book, but was more or less unsure of where we were and how to get to any of the restaurants mentioned in the book. So we decided to test our luck and just wander around until we came across something that was both affordable and delectable.
We came across a few ice cream shops, a lot of uneatable souvenirs (no, I did not try to eat anything that is inedible) but very few restaurants. Valpo is a town that I had a really hard time figuring out - Santiago and Mendoza both have several streets with a loooot of different restaurants but Valpo didn't seem to (we very well could have just missed it... but the map didn't show a huge restaurant area either.)
I decided that there MUST be restaurants down near the water, so we walked through the main center/plaza of the city only to find that it was just more souvenir shops. So. many. souvenirs. I did end up buying a bracelet but I went there with a mission to do so, so it was ok.
A little discouraged, we decided to just ask some people if they had any recommendations. We found a nice little group of elderly people speaking Spanish - so gave it a shot. Best thing we have ever done. They pointed us in the direction of a fun looking place right on the water - it looks like it's in an old boat, nautical themed with (you guessed it!) SEAFOOD
Looking at the menu, we discovered that it was a bit more pricy than we had hoped - but we both love seafood and would both only be in Valpo this one time so we threw caution to the wind (and money...) and gave it a whirl.
We had a cute little table on the porch overlooking the harbor. We could watch the boats coming and going: sailing, taking tours of the harbor, going out to the military ships, there was quite the hustle and bustle out on the water.
At that point I had decided that even if I didn't like my food (Cachas Parmesan - Razor clams with parmesan cheese and white wine sauce) the view and general feel of the restaurant made it worth it. However, the food far surpassed any hopes I had for it (my host mom recommended the dish saying that it was to die for) and MAN would I have died for that dish. There were about 12 clams on the plate, each with a heaping pile of perfectly melted parmesan and sitting in a delicious white wine/garlic sauce. It. was. amazing. Each bite was just heavenly - even the one in which I ended up eating a piece of shell on accident (apparently Chile hasn't helped me in my quest to become a dainty eater...) It was gastronomic perfection.
The food, combined with the sun and scenery, brought me back to that wonderful place where all I could ask was "how is this my life?!?!"
You would think that by this point I would learn that everything is here is perfect and that I shouldn't be surprised when everything greatly exceeds all expectations, but it still catches me off guard sometimes.
Please, do yourselves all a favor and add Chile to your top 4 places to come in your lifetime. It is just too amazing to be missed. The people, the food, the scenery, everything is just exquisite.
Anyways. After our amazing lunch and just general relaxing on the fake boat we made a b-line back to an ice cream place (because when you're painfully full, the natural thing to do is eat ice cream.) And yes, it was delicious. It was worth every painful bite and lick.
We continued to aimlessly walk through the streets and we came across a beautiful plaza that had a puppet show for kids! It was kind of strange to see, but the kids were loving it and it seemed like a delightful way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon.
By the time we got back to the bus station area we were completely exhausted. We tried to go and walk up a small cerro, but due to the fact that it was getting dark and the stairs were unlit and we were completely and utterly exhausted - we opted for sitting in the park and then the bus station.
Thankfully I made it back to Santiago without any delays - my host family was a little worried with my previous traveling record :-)
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Pictures!
So I have been posting pictures on facebook but I posted some on Picasa as well so here are the links!
Enjoy! I didn't leave too many comments so if you have questions, just leave them!
Wineries, Mountains and Mendoza
Hangin' out in Mendoza
Horse back riding in Mendoza
Enjoy! I didn't leave too many comments so if you have questions, just leave them!
Wineries, Mountains and Mendoza
Hangin' out in Mendoza
Horse back riding in Mendoza
La Vida
Well, now that I have updated you all on my trip to Mendoza, Argentina, I'll back track a bit and talk about general life here in Chile.
**Below you will find 2 posts outlining our trip**
For my 2nd week in Chile, life became pretty routine (still wonderful, but routine) I get up and eat breakfast with my host dad - we chat in Spanish and English, read the paper, drink our coffee and eat our toast. Well, he usually is there more to keep me company as he eats when I leave, but either way it's wonderful company!
I then am at school until about 1pm each day - class consists of different activities each day, but in this level we are mostly practicing our speaking abilities (which are rusty, but we get better each day!) We've been learning the past tense, which is very helpful in order to be able to explain my day to my host family - as it gets confusing when all I could speak in was the present tense.
In the afternoon we do a variety of things - some of us from school will usually go and get lunch somewhere, we've done everything from typical Chilean sandwiches to Chinese - as lunch is usually a little later than I am used to I am usually so hungry that everything tastes wonderful!
Some days we'll go out to see different things in Santiago - last week we went to a beautiful Artisan market where there were about 50 different little shops selling kitchy touristy stuff (jewelery, leather, clothing, etc) but it was fun to see!
Other days we hang out in our neighborhood, study at school, or I'll go off walking by myself to take pictures.
Around 7:30 or so we'll eat dinner with my host family - on Tuesdays and Thursdays my host mom's granddaughter (Valentina, 8 years old) comes over for dinner while her mom and my host sister go to a dance class (or aerobics, I don't remember.) Those are always fun dinners as she is very funny, animated, and very smart. We discuss everything from school in the US to our favorite fruits and vegetables. As the days go by and I become better in speaking Spanish, I can contribute more and more to the conversations.
Wednesday nights (for some stupid reason) are the big going-out nights here, so we typically start out hanging out at a bar then move on to a club/discoteca - where much fun and dancing ensue.
I'm definitely starting to get a feel for the city and whatnot now, and am starting to feel much more comfortable getting around here. The metro (although is usually very crowded) is very clean and efficient. I have only taken the busses once, as the metro usually works fine, but the busses were great too!
It's become more about the little things now in Santiago - successfully negotiating things in Spanish (the other day I bought 2 pens at the store and did so very successfully without much stumbling in Spanish!) hanging out with students from school, drinking a good coffee (which is surprisingly difficult to find as most is just instant) putting minutes on my cell phone, practicing Spanish with my host family (we have been able to have some political discussions! After Michelle Bachman showed up in the papers here, we had a fabulous discussion about American politics and the Tea Party)
Being here, with a family and a school to go to has allowed me to feel like I am less of a tourist and more of a normal person here. Granted, my silly sounding Spanish and my blonde hair will always give me away, but I've been able to settle into a nice little routine that gets broken up by the constant adventure of being in another city, in another country, and living in another language.
I have a little over a week left here in Santiago, and I just cannot believe it! While it feels like I have been here forever, and Denver feels like years ago, it has also just FLOWN by.
As this was the first time that I've ever really traveled on my own, I have definitely learned a lot so far! I'm really looking forward to getting to enjoy every moment that I have left here, especially since I know that it will go by way too quickly.
On Saturday we are planning to go to Valparaiso for the day (a beautiful little town on the coast) - I'm not sure what I will have planned for the rest of the weekend. Probably sightseeing and playing around Santiago - unfortunately I don't think I'll get to all of the other places that I had planned to go to, but that's ok! I knew that there was no way to get it all in, and whatever I do manage to fit in will be amazing and wonderful.
I am just so thankful that I get be here, experiencing all of this - I couldn't have imagined or hoped for a better way to spend my summer.
**Below you will find 2 posts outlining our trip**
For my 2nd week in Chile, life became pretty routine (still wonderful, but routine) I get up and eat breakfast with my host dad - we chat in Spanish and English, read the paper, drink our coffee and eat our toast. Well, he usually is there more to keep me company as he eats when I leave, but either way it's wonderful company!
I then am at school until about 1pm each day - class consists of different activities each day, but in this level we are mostly practicing our speaking abilities (which are rusty, but we get better each day!) We've been learning the past tense, which is very helpful in order to be able to explain my day to my host family - as it gets confusing when all I could speak in was the present tense.
In the afternoon we do a variety of things - some of us from school will usually go and get lunch somewhere, we've done everything from typical Chilean sandwiches to Chinese - as lunch is usually a little later than I am used to I am usually so hungry that everything tastes wonderful!
Some days we'll go out to see different things in Santiago - last week we went to a beautiful Artisan market where there were about 50 different little shops selling kitchy touristy stuff (jewelery, leather, clothing, etc) but it was fun to see!
Other days we hang out in our neighborhood, study at school, or I'll go off walking by myself to take pictures.
Around 7:30 or so we'll eat dinner with my host family - on Tuesdays and Thursdays my host mom's granddaughter (Valentina, 8 years old) comes over for dinner while her mom and my host sister go to a dance class (or aerobics, I don't remember.) Those are always fun dinners as she is very funny, animated, and very smart. We discuss everything from school in the US to our favorite fruits and vegetables. As the days go by and I become better in speaking Spanish, I can contribute more and more to the conversations.
Wednesday nights (for some stupid reason) are the big going-out nights here, so we typically start out hanging out at a bar then move on to a club/discoteca - where much fun and dancing ensue.
I'm definitely starting to get a feel for the city and whatnot now, and am starting to feel much more comfortable getting around here. The metro (although is usually very crowded) is very clean and efficient. I have only taken the busses once, as the metro usually works fine, but the busses were great too!
It's become more about the little things now in Santiago - successfully negotiating things in Spanish (the other day I bought 2 pens at the store and did so very successfully without much stumbling in Spanish!) hanging out with students from school, drinking a good coffee (which is surprisingly difficult to find as most is just instant) putting minutes on my cell phone, practicing Spanish with my host family (we have been able to have some political discussions! After Michelle Bachman showed up in the papers here, we had a fabulous discussion about American politics and the Tea Party)
Being here, with a family and a school to go to has allowed me to feel like I am less of a tourist and more of a normal person here. Granted, my silly sounding Spanish and my blonde hair will always give me away, but I've been able to settle into a nice little routine that gets broken up by the constant adventure of being in another city, in another country, and living in another language.
I have a little over a week left here in Santiago, and I just cannot believe it! While it feels like I have been here forever, and Denver feels like years ago, it has also just FLOWN by.
As this was the first time that I've ever really traveled on my own, I have definitely learned a lot so far! I'm really looking forward to getting to enjoy every moment that I have left here, especially since I know that it will go by way too quickly.
On Saturday we are planning to go to Valparaiso for the day (a beautiful little town on the coast) - I'm not sure what I will have planned for the rest of the weekend. Probably sightseeing and playing around Santiago - unfortunately I don't think I'll get to all of the other places that I had planned to go to, but that's ok! I knew that there was no way to get it all in, and whatever I do manage to fit in will be amazing and wonderful.
I am just so thankful that I get be here, experiencing all of this - I couldn't have imagined or hoped for a better way to spend my summer.
Days 2.5 and 3 and 4
Well. So, as you may have read below, we were kind of "stuck" in Mendoza.
**Disclaimer: There's only so much I can say about how beautiful Mendoza/Argentina is. I'll post pictures soon, but keep in mind that the pictures don't do it justice. I will do my best to describe it but without going on for pages about it... I can only do so much**
We got back from the bus terminal and checked back into our hostel - we had to change rooms (we decided to see if we could make it each room of the hostel... I can tell you right now that we didn't, but were pretty close!) So, we were pretty familiar with the process of checking in as we had done it just 2 days prior, so we did the usual, dropped our stuff off, and hung out for a bit.
Since we had time to kill we decided to sign up for a Sunset Horseback ride through the foothills of the Andes followed by a traditional Argentinean BBQ... I mean, if you're going to be stuck you might as well do something that's kind of cool... right???
So, we left for our horse back riding excursion. I LOVE horses and horse back riding so I was beside myself with excitement, one of my other travel mates was excited but had done something similar in the South of Chile, and my other travelmate had never ridden a horse before, so she was a little nervous. We had yet another incredible drive out to the horse ranch - we went through winding side streets in the wine country of Mendoza, then continued through the countryside - I would say it was like driving through a mix of Arizona/The Badlands/the foothills in Denver/ the Rockies... it was absurdly beautiful and breathtaking. I find it hard to come up with new adjectives to describe everything. Because it's winter everything is pretty dry, so we could watch the dried grasses blowing the wind, the cacti poking up every now and then, and the beautiful reddish sand/dirt that was everything.
As we were driving out there I had to stop and wonder (for the 100th time) what I had done in life to get here. To a place where I was driving through the Argentinean wine country to go horse back riding at sunset. I had expectations for this trip, but my trip has SO FAR exceeded my expectations that I just don't even know where to begin anymore. It's just kind of like an amazing dream that I actually get to live.
Anyways.
So, before we even arrived at the ranch I was overwhelmed with contentedness (always a good place to start.) We get there and find a beautiful little ranch, there's a little thatched roof thing covering some tables, a traditional Argentinean bbq spit thing, a fire pit, and a hitching post.
We unloaded and waited for our horses. Mine was a gigantic, beautiful black one whose name translates to "Black Soul" - reassuring. We were quite a good match as he wanted to stop every 20 feet to eat... but he was a very relaxed horse who just did his horse thing. We rode up and down and round through the countryside. At several points we were quite literally riding off into the sunset. There was a pack of about 10 dogs that ran along with us, it seemed that they wanted to herd the horses (however, the horses would give a cautionary stomp is they got too close)
We were lead by Guillermo - the perfect guide as every time he would gallop up a hill his hair would flow behind him - quite picturesque. Our other guide (whose name I never got) was straight off a Marlboro add, he consistently had a cigarette in his hand/mouth and he was outfitted like a true cowboy. There were about 15 of us in all, several from Australia, several from Colombia, and some from Buenos Aires - it was a very fun group!
After about an hour ride, we came back to the main area where we started and hung out and watched with drooling mouths as our guides started grilling for us. It was an open fire (again I have pictures I'll post) and it was delicious. I mean, totally delicious (this coming from the former vegetarian) I ate probably 1/2 a cow alone. We had simple sandwiches (bread, meat, and tomato) but then just cut out the middleman and had just hunks of the meat. I'm drooling just thinking about it. Our meal was accompanied by some fabulous Argentinean wine and a campfire. We all sat around, ate, drank and chatted while the sun sank behind the hills.
Then it became even more impressive. Nothing beats a campfire under the stars - I'm pretty sure I was able to find the Southern Cross (the star constellation, if not, it was something that really looked like it!) So, we spent the evening just chatting (in English and Spanish) and sitting around the campfire while all of Mendoza spread out in twinkling lights below us.
It was at this time where I was truly able to say that life was perfect. There was nothing I would have changed about that moment - even though it was getting rather cold, it was just complete perfection. Somehow I have gotten lucky enough to be here, and I am so thankful for that.
We then had a quiet drive back to the hostel, as we all reflected on how amazing our evening had been. I can say, without hyperbole, that it will go down as one of the top 5 best nights ever.
Monday morning we went down to the bus station with little hope of going home. We were right - we were in Mendoza another day! We went through the speedy process of changing our tickets, getting another taxi and heading back to the hostel. By now they knew us pretty well there and we always had a good laugh whenever we showed up again. We checked back into a new room and then went out to explore Mendoza.
In total, we walked for about 6 hours - up to a soccer stadium from the World Cup (that is now under renovations so we couldn't see much) through the park, then basically through the entirety of the downtown area of the city. We saw beautiful houses, beautiful churches, beautiful parks... beautiful everything. Kids playing soccer in the park, families strolling, and there was plenty of jumping in the leaves - mostly by me. It was a great way to see a wonderful city.
Monday night we had dinner at the hostel and hung out with some of the other guests, studied some Spanish, and hoped we'd get home to Santiago and school the next day.
Tuesday morning we headed back to the bus station where we waited hopefully for about an hour - but to no avail. We did the usual exchanging of tickets and taxied back to the hostel. We were told (correctly) that this would be the last time, as we'd be able to go home on Wednesday.
So, we made it back to the hostel, did the usual checking in routine, and decided to go on a 1/2 day winery tour. We were told that we would be seeing new wineries, but we also got to go to an Olive Oil factory, so that was neat. It ended up being 2 of the same wineries that we had been to already, but they were great the first time and they were just as fun the 2nd time! We had a group of very boisterous Brazilians with us on our tour, so that made for a different experience! The olive oil place was really interesting, and we got to sample some incredibly delicious breads/spreads/oils - so that was fabulous.
We did some more wandering through Mendoza prior to the tour, so we got our exercise in! Which was good because we consumed a lot of chocolate/wine/food on our trip! We ate plenty of Argentinean steak, pasta, salad, french fries, and goodness knows what else.
For our last supper in Mendoza, we tried to go to a place that had been recommended by a family friend - however, in true Mendoza fashion it didn't open until 10 and we were far too hungry to wait that late, so we found another great little place and had some beers, some steak, and lots of fun times!
Wednesday morning we set off for one last go at the bus station. We got there, waited a little while, then boarded our bus. We had another beautiful drive through the now snowy Andes, though we had a fun 4-hour wait at the boarder then another fun wait in traffic in Santiago, so after 11 hours we made it back! I had a very joyful reunion with my host family, a much needed dinner and shower, and a chat with some people from back home. Then I was off to bed to get ready for a day back at class!
We have our test tomorrow, eek - lots to study in order to make up for the 3 days of class that I missed!
I'm sure that I'm leaving out details about the trip - but, the most important thing to know is that Mendoza is beautiful, the wine is wonderful, and the mountains were breathtaking :)
**Disclaimer: There's only so much I can say about how beautiful Mendoza/Argentina is. I'll post pictures soon, but keep in mind that the pictures don't do it justice. I will do my best to describe it but without going on for pages about it... I can only do so much**
We got back from the bus terminal and checked back into our hostel - we had to change rooms (we decided to see if we could make it each room of the hostel... I can tell you right now that we didn't, but were pretty close!) So, we were pretty familiar with the process of checking in as we had done it just 2 days prior, so we did the usual, dropped our stuff off, and hung out for a bit.
Since we had time to kill we decided to sign up for a Sunset Horseback ride through the foothills of the Andes followed by a traditional Argentinean BBQ... I mean, if you're going to be stuck you might as well do something that's kind of cool... right???
So, we left for our horse back riding excursion. I LOVE horses and horse back riding so I was beside myself with excitement, one of my other travel mates was excited but had done something similar in the South of Chile, and my other travelmate had never ridden a horse before, so she was a little nervous. We had yet another incredible drive out to the horse ranch - we went through winding side streets in the wine country of Mendoza, then continued through the countryside - I would say it was like driving through a mix of Arizona/The Badlands/the foothills in Denver/ the Rockies... it was absurdly beautiful and breathtaking. I find it hard to come up with new adjectives to describe everything. Because it's winter everything is pretty dry, so we could watch the dried grasses blowing the wind, the cacti poking up every now and then, and the beautiful reddish sand/dirt that was everything.
As we were driving out there I had to stop and wonder (for the 100th time) what I had done in life to get here. To a place where I was driving through the Argentinean wine country to go horse back riding at sunset. I had expectations for this trip, but my trip has SO FAR exceeded my expectations that I just don't even know where to begin anymore. It's just kind of like an amazing dream that I actually get to live.
Anyways.
So, before we even arrived at the ranch I was overwhelmed with contentedness (always a good place to start.) We get there and find a beautiful little ranch, there's a little thatched roof thing covering some tables, a traditional Argentinean bbq spit thing, a fire pit, and a hitching post.
We unloaded and waited for our horses. Mine was a gigantic, beautiful black one whose name translates to "Black Soul" - reassuring. We were quite a good match as he wanted to stop every 20 feet to eat... but he was a very relaxed horse who just did his horse thing. We rode up and down and round through the countryside. At several points we were quite literally riding off into the sunset. There was a pack of about 10 dogs that ran along with us, it seemed that they wanted to herd the horses (however, the horses would give a cautionary stomp is they got too close)
We were lead by Guillermo - the perfect guide as every time he would gallop up a hill his hair would flow behind him - quite picturesque. Our other guide (whose name I never got) was straight off a Marlboro add, he consistently had a cigarette in his hand/mouth and he was outfitted like a true cowboy. There were about 15 of us in all, several from Australia, several from Colombia, and some from Buenos Aires - it was a very fun group!
After about an hour ride, we came back to the main area where we started and hung out and watched with drooling mouths as our guides started grilling for us. It was an open fire (again I have pictures I'll post) and it was delicious. I mean, totally delicious (this coming from the former vegetarian) I ate probably 1/2 a cow alone. We had simple sandwiches (bread, meat, and tomato) but then just cut out the middleman and had just hunks of the meat. I'm drooling just thinking about it. Our meal was accompanied by some fabulous Argentinean wine and a campfire. We all sat around, ate, drank and chatted while the sun sank behind the hills.
Then it became even more impressive. Nothing beats a campfire under the stars - I'm pretty sure I was able to find the Southern Cross (the star constellation, if not, it was something that really looked like it!) So, we spent the evening just chatting (in English and Spanish) and sitting around the campfire while all of Mendoza spread out in twinkling lights below us.
It was at this time where I was truly able to say that life was perfect. There was nothing I would have changed about that moment - even though it was getting rather cold, it was just complete perfection. Somehow I have gotten lucky enough to be here, and I am so thankful for that.
We then had a quiet drive back to the hostel, as we all reflected on how amazing our evening had been. I can say, without hyperbole, that it will go down as one of the top 5 best nights ever.
Monday morning we went down to the bus station with little hope of going home. We were right - we were in Mendoza another day! We went through the speedy process of changing our tickets, getting another taxi and heading back to the hostel. By now they knew us pretty well there and we always had a good laugh whenever we showed up again. We checked back into a new room and then went out to explore Mendoza.
In total, we walked for about 6 hours - up to a soccer stadium from the World Cup (that is now under renovations so we couldn't see much) through the park, then basically through the entirety of the downtown area of the city. We saw beautiful houses, beautiful churches, beautiful parks... beautiful everything. Kids playing soccer in the park, families strolling, and there was plenty of jumping in the leaves - mostly by me. It was a great way to see a wonderful city.
Monday night we had dinner at the hostel and hung out with some of the other guests, studied some Spanish, and hoped we'd get home to Santiago and school the next day.
Tuesday morning we headed back to the bus station where we waited hopefully for about an hour - but to no avail. We did the usual exchanging of tickets and taxied back to the hostel. We were told (correctly) that this would be the last time, as we'd be able to go home on Wednesday.
So, we made it back to the hostel, did the usual checking in routine, and decided to go on a 1/2 day winery tour. We were told that we would be seeing new wineries, but we also got to go to an Olive Oil factory, so that was neat. It ended up being 2 of the same wineries that we had been to already, but they were great the first time and they were just as fun the 2nd time! We had a group of very boisterous Brazilians with us on our tour, so that made for a different experience! The olive oil place was really interesting, and we got to sample some incredibly delicious breads/spreads/oils - so that was fabulous.
We did some more wandering through Mendoza prior to the tour, so we got our exercise in! Which was good because we consumed a lot of chocolate/wine/food on our trip! We ate plenty of Argentinean steak, pasta, salad, french fries, and goodness knows what else.
For our last supper in Mendoza, we tried to go to a place that had been recommended by a family friend - however, in true Mendoza fashion it didn't open until 10 and we were far too hungry to wait that late, so we found another great little place and had some beers, some steak, and lots of fun times!
Wednesday morning we set off for one last go at the bus station. We got there, waited a little while, then boarded our bus. We had another beautiful drive through the now snowy Andes, though we had a fun 4-hour wait at the boarder then another fun wait in traffic in Santiago, so after 11 hours we made it back! I had a very joyful reunion with my host family, a much needed dinner and shower, and a chat with some people from back home. Then I was off to bed to get ready for a day back at class!
We have our test tomorrow, eek - lots to study in order to make up for the 3 days of class that I missed!
I'm sure that I'm leaving out details about the trip - but, the most important thing to know is that Mendoza is beautiful, the wine is wonderful, and the mountains were breathtaking :)
Travels in Argentina - Days one and two
Life has gotten pretty busy down here! Even just the every day - class, exploring Santiago, eating, etc has started to take up more time than I had originally imagined! Thus, here I am with less than a week and a half to go on my trip! Time isn't flying by... it's doing something much faster, I"m not sure what... zooming? That's fast, yeah?
Anyways - I have much to write about but want to start with our trip to Mendoza, Argentina as it is still fresh in my mind and chockful of stories and adventures!
Our original trip was planning for Friday - Sunday, we would end up having less than 48 hours in Mendoza.
So, this past Friday we traipsed down to the bus station (well, took a taxi) immediately after class in order to make sure that we made it in time for our 1:45 bus. The bus station is kind of on the other side of town, so we left plenty of time. We got there, found our bus... gate and then sat down to wait. One thing about South AMerica in general is that times are more or less negotiable- especially when international bus travel is involved. So, we sat around for about an hour and a half and feasted on pita bread and nutella, chocolate, and chips (the lunch of champions.) Our bus pulled in around 2:30, we boarded, and off we went!
As we were boarding they were checking passports, making sure everything was in order. I didn't have an original paper from when I came into Chile (which apparently I needed...) I asked the bus driver about it, he kind of shrugged and ushered me onto the bus. Presumably he wouldn't have let me on if I couldn't make it across the boarder... but we were all a little unsure as he didn't really say much to me. Once we were about 15 minutes into our trip I was able to ask one of the other bus drivers to which he immediately said "no, you can't cross the boarder with out it." I sat in panic while he went to double check with the other driver. He came back and said that it wouldn't be a problem, and on we went! So, a brief moment of panic, but that was all.
After a beautifulllllllll drive through the Andes (we went over the highest point in the Andes!) we arrived in Mendoza. But really, the drive alone was worth the bus ticket. It was just unreal - beautiful mountains and streams and houses and ranches, there just aren't words to describe it all! I have tons of pictures that I'm working on posting - so you can look at those eventually :)
Mendoza is an incredibly beautiful little city. It has wide roads and sidewalks, most of them are beautifully lined with trees. Every few blocks there are beautiful, open Plazas with fountains, beautiful homes, and no smog! I am definitely planning on studying there next summer... and possibly moving there for a while eventually. Something about it, the quiet bustling of the city, the streets, the homes, the shops, everything was just perfect!
We stayed in a wonderful little hostel that was in a fun part of town - lots of restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and stores right around it so everything was easy to get to. When we were checked in and whatnot we headed out to find food. We found a really nice little restaurant, sat down, and began to try to decipher the menu. Because we were in Argentina, I figured I should have some wine. Judging by the price, I assumed that I would be getting a glass of wine (it was about $4 US) but nope! I apparently had ordered a whole bottle (no wonder the waiter looked at me funny when I had said that was just for me...) To my delight, it was some delicoussss wine (you couldn't wine that good, at that price, anywhere in the US)
The food was also amazing, we had big steaks (mine was with a great mushroom sauce) and we had a fun time just hanging out, eating and drinking. We also became aware of the fact that there's a time difference between Mendoza and Santiago (good to know!) so we were eating at about 11:30pm, just like true Mendozans! The long say of traveling, and the wine, had us pretty tuckered out so we headed back to the hostel to get a good nights' sleep before our wine and bike tour!
Saturday morning we got up, ate a delicious breakfast of dulce de leche, coffee, corn flakes, and juice at our hostel (included in the price of the hostel) and then got picked up for a wine/bike tour that was arranged by our hostel.
We started out at an older vineyard, whose name I am blanking on at the moment but I'll look up later, and got a full tour and tasting! Because it's winter here, there wasn't a WHOLE lot to see, but the vineyard is still gorgeous and it was neat to see the whole wine making process. Argentina is best known for its Malbec wine (super good red wine)
We then all hopped on our bikes and biked down the road to another winery. We had a van following us and a guide leading us, so we were very safe. Granted, I can't imagine that wine and bikes usually mix... but no one got hurt!
The 2nd winery was much more modern, but still super interesting! Again, got a full tour and then got to taste some of the goods. It seemed like in general the processes were very similar, just different equipment used in order to process the grapes and separate the grapes from the stems. It was really interesting just to see it all as I don't know a whole lot about wine and whatnot. I do know that it's quite delicious, but that's really more or less the extent of my knowledge. We did learn the proper way to taste a wine (smell it, swirl it in the glass and smell again, put in your mouth and... daintly gargle it or whatever you call it, to get air through it, then taste it again because it's acidic and your mouth reacts differently the first taste than the 2nd taste, then enjoy!)
On our tour there was a group of college students from Colorado College (which is very close to Denver, and also where my brother went to college) so that was kind of funny, small world!
Anyways, we then biked on to the 3rd winery, where we had a much shorter stay. The woman just kind of talked about the wines they have then let us try one. We didn't get a tour, but from what I've gathered a winery is a winery, and while there are subtle differences - the process is always more or less the same, so it was alright to skip the tour.
So, after a delightful morning of chatting with the other people on the tour (in Spanish and English), tasting wine and biking through the beautiful Mendoza wine country - we got back on the bus and drove home.
As we hadn't had lunch yet, we were starving so we were across the street to an incredible pasta restaurant. We inhaled heaping plates of pasta in various forms (I settled on a spectacular meat ravioli with a creamy garlic/basil sauce) and downing glasses of coca-cola, we were ready for some exploration in Mendoza. We walked up to the beautiful main park of the city (modeled after Central Park in NYC) and wandered through the quiet tree lined streets of the park. We came across a lovely little lake/pond on which people were rowing! While it's fun to watch rowers now, I still don't ever have the desire to step back into a shell. The weather was perfect, a beautiful, sunny, warm fall day (you needed a light jacket, but that was all)
Later that night we went out to a restaurant with some French guys that we met at the hostel - so I was able to practice my Spanish and French as they didn't really speak English. While at dinner one of them mentioned that the pass to Chile was closed on Saturday AND Sunday (we were supposed to leave on Sunday.) We kind of freaked out when we heard that, but didn't think too much of it as we didn't know any details.
Sunday morning we confirmed that there was too much snow in the Andes to allow traffic to travel over the mountains. So, we hiked down to the bus station, waited in line, and changed our bus tickets to Monday. Thankfully the process was totally seamless, they just took our passports, our old tickets, and put us on the first available bus out in the morning. Little did we know that we wouldn't be leaving until Wednesday morning... but I'll write about that in later posts!
Anyways - I have much to write about but want to start with our trip to Mendoza, Argentina as it is still fresh in my mind and chockful of stories and adventures!
Our original trip was planning for Friday - Sunday, we would end up having less than 48 hours in Mendoza.
So, this past Friday we traipsed down to the bus station (well, took a taxi) immediately after class in order to make sure that we made it in time for our 1:45 bus. The bus station is kind of on the other side of town, so we left plenty of time. We got there, found our bus... gate and then sat down to wait. One thing about South AMerica in general is that times are more or less negotiable- especially when international bus travel is involved. So, we sat around for about an hour and a half and feasted on pita bread and nutella, chocolate, and chips (the lunch of champions.) Our bus pulled in around 2:30, we boarded, and off we went!
As we were boarding they were checking passports, making sure everything was in order. I didn't have an original paper from when I came into Chile (which apparently I needed...) I asked the bus driver about it, he kind of shrugged and ushered me onto the bus. Presumably he wouldn't have let me on if I couldn't make it across the boarder... but we were all a little unsure as he didn't really say much to me. Once we were about 15 minutes into our trip I was able to ask one of the other bus drivers to which he immediately said "no, you can't cross the boarder with out it." I sat in panic while he went to double check with the other driver. He came back and said that it wouldn't be a problem, and on we went! So, a brief moment of panic, but that was all.
After a beautifulllllllll drive through the Andes (we went over the highest point in the Andes!) we arrived in Mendoza. But really, the drive alone was worth the bus ticket. It was just unreal - beautiful mountains and streams and houses and ranches, there just aren't words to describe it all! I have tons of pictures that I'm working on posting - so you can look at those eventually :)
Mendoza is an incredibly beautiful little city. It has wide roads and sidewalks, most of them are beautifully lined with trees. Every few blocks there are beautiful, open Plazas with fountains, beautiful homes, and no smog! I am definitely planning on studying there next summer... and possibly moving there for a while eventually. Something about it, the quiet bustling of the city, the streets, the homes, the shops, everything was just perfect!
We stayed in a wonderful little hostel that was in a fun part of town - lots of restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and stores right around it so everything was easy to get to. When we were checked in and whatnot we headed out to find food. We found a really nice little restaurant, sat down, and began to try to decipher the menu. Because we were in Argentina, I figured I should have some wine. Judging by the price, I assumed that I would be getting a glass of wine (it was about $4 US) but nope! I apparently had ordered a whole bottle (no wonder the waiter looked at me funny when I had said that was just for me...) To my delight, it was some delicoussss wine (you couldn't wine that good, at that price, anywhere in the US)
The food was also amazing, we had big steaks (mine was with a great mushroom sauce) and we had a fun time just hanging out, eating and drinking. We also became aware of the fact that there's a time difference between Mendoza and Santiago (good to know!) so we were eating at about 11:30pm, just like true Mendozans! The long say of traveling, and the wine, had us pretty tuckered out so we headed back to the hostel to get a good nights' sleep before our wine and bike tour!
Saturday morning we got up, ate a delicious breakfast of dulce de leche, coffee, corn flakes, and juice at our hostel (included in the price of the hostel) and then got picked up for a wine/bike tour that was arranged by our hostel.
We started out at an older vineyard, whose name I am blanking on at the moment but I'll look up later, and got a full tour and tasting! Because it's winter here, there wasn't a WHOLE lot to see, but the vineyard is still gorgeous and it was neat to see the whole wine making process. Argentina is best known for its Malbec wine (super good red wine)
We then all hopped on our bikes and biked down the road to another winery. We had a van following us and a guide leading us, so we were very safe. Granted, I can't imagine that wine and bikes usually mix... but no one got hurt!
The 2nd winery was much more modern, but still super interesting! Again, got a full tour and then got to taste some of the goods. It seemed like in general the processes were very similar, just different equipment used in order to process the grapes and separate the grapes from the stems. It was really interesting just to see it all as I don't know a whole lot about wine and whatnot. I do know that it's quite delicious, but that's really more or less the extent of my knowledge. We did learn the proper way to taste a wine (smell it, swirl it in the glass and smell again, put in your mouth and... daintly gargle it or whatever you call it, to get air through it, then taste it again because it's acidic and your mouth reacts differently the first taste than the 2nd taste, then enjoy!)
On our tour there was a group of college students from Colorado College (which is very close to Denver, and also where my brother went to college) so that was kind of funny, small world!
Anyways, we then biked on to the 3rd winery, where we had a much shorter stay. The woman just kind of talked about the wines they have then let us try one. We didn't get a tour, but from what I've gathered a winery is a winery, and while there are subtle differences - the process is always more or less the same, so it was alright to skip the tour.
So, after a delightful morning of chatting with the other people on the tour (in Spanish and English), tasting wine and biking through the beautiful Mendoza wine country - we got back on the bus and drove home.
As we hadn't had lunch yet, we were starving so we were across the street to an incredible pasta restaurant. We inhaled heaping plates of pasta in various forms (I settled on a spectacular meat ravioli with a creamy garlic/basil sauce) and downing glasses of coca-cola, we were ready for some exploration in Mendoza. We walked up to the beautiful main park of the city (modeled after Central Park in NYC) and wandered through the quiet tree lined streets of the park. We came across a lovely little lake/pond on which people were rowing! While it's fun to watch rowers now, I still don't ever have the desire to step back into a shell. The weather was perfect, a beautiful, sunny, warm fall day (you needed a light jacket, but that was all)
Later that night we went out to a restaurant with some French guys that we met at the hostel - so I was able to practice my Spanish and French as they didn't really speak English. While at dinner one of them mentioned that the pass to Chile was closed on Saturday AND Sunday (we were supposed to leave on Sunday.) We kind of freaked out when we heard that, but didn't think too much of it as we didn't know any details.
Sunday morning we confirmed that there was too much snow in the Andes to allow traffic to travel over the mountains. So, we hiked down to the bus station, waited in line, and changed our bus tickets to Monday. Thankfully the process was totally seamless, they just took our passports, our old tickets, and put us on the first available bus out in the morning. Little did we know that we wouldn't be leaving until Wednesday morning... but I'll write about that in later posts!
Friday, June 10, 2011
Claro
The title of this post is "Claro" which means of course - and is used frequently in our class. There are little words like this that seem to be slipping into my everyday language more and more, even my English.
Well, a stupid cold and just general exhaustion have me lying in bed under my blankets with my space heater a-goin' on this Friday night. But, one thing that I've found is that I'm just so much go-go-go here that I do think it's good to take a break once in a while and reflect on things and just process it all. The hard thing about taking so much class and learning so much at once is that it feels like it all (the language, the cultural things, etc) all just sort of pile up in my brain and never really sort themselves out.
One thing that I'm finding is that it's becoming harder to figure out what I want to say in English! This poses a problem on several accounts, the main one being that I definitely do not know enough Spanish to be able to carry on a real conversation in Spanish, so if I do want to talk I have to have that English at the ready. What I've been finding is that it's easier to think of the French equivalent of all the grammar things that we're learning because Spanish and French grammar are basically the same, whereas English grammar kind of just does what it wants. So, in thinking so much in Spanish and French, my English is starting to get confused.
Not to get on my political soap box or anything, but all those people out there who are believers in "English Only" education clearly have never tried to learn a new language while immersed in that language. Yes I am learning quickly, but goodness it gets exhausting and frustrating and overwhelming. I cannot tell you how wonderful English sounds at those times when I just cannot figure out what's going on or I cannot find the words that I want in Spanish. As much as it pains me to admit it, sometimes English really does sound heavenly (plenty of times it sounds irritating and everything else that goes with it..) In short, sometimes you need that break and that help in your own language. I could go one about this for ages, and I probably will at a later date - but I have more adventures to tell you all about!
One big accomplishment of mine was taking/mastering the Metro! With my BiP card in hand, we went to the Metro station to put money on our cards. They then scanned their cards and went through the gate-things into the metro. I was unaware we were going anywhere, so this was fairly surprising. For some reason I was fairly nervous to take the Metro, so really I couldn't have asked for a better way to be introduced to it than to just be thrown on to it (almost literally.) Once I saw it, I realized that it's my fear was completely ridiculous as there are only 4 possible lines and it's absurdly easy to navigate. It was crowded and everything else that any Metro system is, but overall it's clean and efficient and a great mode of transportation! As you all know, I'm someone who just needs to DO something in order to get over my fear/nervousness/whathaveyou.
We've used the Metro to go both down town and then more out of town to a mall. Both places (le centro and the mall) were... unimpressive. Le Centro is basically a small NYC - lots of shops, lots of people, lots of visible poverty, lots of street food, and not a lot of personal space. We got some coffee in a bizarre, mirrored coffee shop, walked around some, then just came home. I would like to go back and get some pictures of the government/historic buildings that are done there, and there are some museums that I'd like to see, but overall I don't really feel the need to visit Le Centro again.
The mall was even less impressive, it's hard to be excited about a place that boasts both TGI Fridays and Tony Romas all in one courtyard... Unfortunately a mall is a mall is a mall, no matter what the country. It was fun to do some shopping (window shopping for me...) and to hang out with my classmates, but overall, not the most exciting part of my trip.
Though, there is a certain sense of accomplishment accompanying the completion of any of these trips, no matter how unimpressive the actual results may have been. And regardless, it's a mall (or a part of the city) in Chile, so although it's moderately unimpressive, it's still wonderful and Chilean and an adventure!
Yesterday was a real adventure for me... after class I stopped at a fruitista and got a wonderful pear, banana and some yogurt (this is not the adventure.) After a nice lunch I put on my walkin' shoes and headed to La Plaza Italia and its surrounding neighborhood. My original intent was to go to a cellphone shaped building and see their free, traveling art exhibit. Turned out to be pretty neat - it was all about invisible things in our society such as the internet and cell phones. So it attempted to artistically show how many people are using facebook or twitter or whathaveyou at any given moment in Santiago. It did this using colored tubes with water being pumped through them. There was another part to the exhibit but its meaning was completely lost on me, not necessarily because of the language barrier but moreso because I don't always understand modern art... But, it was a fun little exhibit, and free! So it was well worth it.
Following the museum I got a coffee in a little shop in the parque and caught up on my deportivos - there was a big soccer match last night between the Universidad de Chile y la Universidad Catolica so I was attempting to read up on the match. Some friends and I tried to get tickets to the finals match on Sunday but they sold out in less than 30 minutes.
Anyways. Following a relaxing coffee in the Santiago fall sunshine, I decided just to wander through this part of the city. I managed to stumble across another small museum (this one cost about 2 us dollars) - the Museo Nacional Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna. It's a small museum, with a LOT of writing that is all in Spanish. I managed to slowly work my way through most of it (though I had a significantly larger headache after the museum than I did going into it...) and I found that I was able to understand most of it! Mackenna was a politician in Santiago who's known for bringing the city into the modern age (more or less) and really bringing to light the plight of the lower classes of Santiago. Really the most interesting part of the museum for me was trying to read in Spanish, then finding that I was actually right! Everything here is a surprise... what will I find at the end of this street, what am I eating, what did I just order... Everyday is a delightful surprise :) Makes life much more fun!
Then the real adventure began. I have this habit of thinking that i know where I'm going when i really don't, so I confidently set off on my way. After about 15 minutes I began to think that I didn't know where i was, but that it was high time to chart some new territory, so I kept on going. I kept wandering, taking pictures and not watching what I was doing. Soon enough I was in a part of town that seemed to be getting... less nice and it was starting to get dark. I stopped and realized that I had NO idea where I was and that I needed to find out quickly. Had it not been getting dark I would have not been quite as nervous. So, I started to really think about where I had been and tried to use a map and make my way back to familiar territory. I managed to walk through a really cute little historic part of town (that I need to go back to) but I couldn't entirely enjoy it as that little voice in my head was saying "get home!" After about 30 minutes of aimful wandering (the opposite of aimless wandering?) I managed to come to some things that I recognized and was then able to make my way back to a main road that I knew and then finally make it home.
Today I was with some friends and I was telling them about my adventure and they were terrified when I told them where I was... apparently I had wandered a little too deeply into a part of town that I should not go back to ever again, even in the day light. Oops! But, I'm here writing now so no harm, no foul, right?? All in all, I'm definitely learning to simply enjoy the adventures- my natural tendency is to get nervous and scared but I'm quickly learning that it all works out ok in the end (if nothing else I can always take a cab home!) and that I might as well enjoy it while I'm here!
Today I had a big day! I passed my first exam! WOO! I'm now in the 2nd book! I hear that I'll get to learn to talk in the past tense, thank goodness! I keep confusing my host family by trying to tell them about what I did during the day, but I have to use the present tense so they think that I'm talking about the future (such as what I'm going to do that night) so everyone ends up really confused in the end. But, the main thing is that I'm actually able to describe a lot of things that I'm doing, so that's a plus! Tonight at dinner we were able to have a discussion about politics in Chile! Peruvians in Chile are looked upon in much the same way that Mexicans are in the US - people have Peruvian house cleaners and its Peruvians who are on the street offering to wash your car. It seems that no matter where you go, you'll find these type of relationships.
I'm glad that I can start contributing to conversations, even if it is just a sentence or two here and there. Last night I was able to play some games with my host mom's granddaughter. It was really fun - we were quizzing one another on synonyms and antonyms (in Spanish and English) because it was what we were both learning in school. She's 8. Awesome. But, it was fun to sit around the kitchen table after dinner and chat and play games - I am so lucky to have this host family, they are so wonderful and patient and funny and did I mention patient?
It's just been so much fun to go out and wander through the streets of Providencia - there are so many beautiful and colorful houses here!
OH Today we took the funicular up the Cerro San Cristobal. We were going to hike it, but then decided to just ride instead. I do plan on going back and walking up, in for nothing else than just to say that I did it! The top of the cerro provided a beautiful panoramic view of Santiago and the mountains. It was a mostly clear day, but you could definitely see the smog in the air. It was neat to get such a full view of the city in order to really appreciate how big it is, but also how beautiful it is (smog aside.) I can't believe that I've almost been here a week already! Which leads me to want to soak in as much as possible because it's already flying by!
Well, those are some highlights for you! I'm sure I'll have tons more to write about as tomorrow we're going to Pomaire! We were going to go to Isla Negra on Sunday with my school, but I might just go on my own as our school trip was cancelled because there weren't enough people who signed up to go. Either way, I'll find something wonderful and adventurous to do!
I'll leave you with one of my favorite Pablo Neruda poems (his favorite sea house is in Isla Negra)
Lost in the Forest
Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig
and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips:
maybe it was the voice of the rain crying,
a cracked bell, or a torn heart.
Something from far off it seemed
deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth,
a shout muffled by huge autumns,
by the moist half-open darkness of the leaves.
Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig
sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance
climbed up through my conscious mind
as if suddenly the roots I had left behind
cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood--
and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent.
Well, a stupid cold and just general exhaustion have me lying in bed under my blankets with my space heater a-goin' on this Friday night. But, one thing that I've found is that I'm just so much go-go-go here that I do think it's good to take a break once in a while and reflect on things and just process it all. The hard thing about taking so much class and learning so much at once is that it feels like it all (the language, the cultural things, etc) all just sort of pile up in my brain and never really sort themselves out.
One thing that I'm finding is that it's becoming harder to figure out what I want to say in English! This poses a problem on several accounts, the main one being that I definitely do not know enough Spanish to be able to carry on a real conversation in Spanish, so if I do want to talk I have to have that English at the ready. What I've been finding is that it's easier to think of the French equivalent of all the grammar things that we're learning because Spanish and French grammar are basically the same, whereas English grammar kind of just does what it wants. So, in thinking so much in Spanish and French, my English is starting to get confused.
Not to get on my political soap box or anything, but all those people out there who are believers in "English Only" education clearly have never tried to learn a new language while immersed in that language. Yes I am learning quickly, but goodness it gets exhausting and frustrating and overwhelming. I cannot tell you how wonderful English sounds at those times when I just cannot figure out what's going on or I cannot find the words that I want in Spanish. As much as it pains me to admit it, sometimes English really does sound heavenly (plenty of times it sounds irritating and everything else that goes with it..) In short, sometimes you need that break and that help in your own language. I could go one about this for ages, and I probably will at a later date - but I have more adventures to tell you all about!
One big accomplishment of mine was taking/mastering the Metro! With my BiP card in hand, we went to the Metro station to put money on our cards. They then scanned their cards and went through the gate-things into the metro. I was unaware we were going anywhere, so this was fairly surprising. For some reason I was fairly nervous to take the Metro, so really I couldn't have asked for a better way to be introduced to it than to just be thrown on to it (almost literally.) Once I saw it, I realized that it's my fear was completely ridiculous as there are only 4 possible lines and it's absurdly easy to navigate. It was crowded and everything else that any Metro system is, but overall it's clean and efficient and a great mode of transportation! As you all know, I'm someone who just needs to DO something in order to get over my fear/nervousness/whathaveyou.
We've used the Metro to go both down town and then more out of town to a mall. Both places (le centro and the mall) were... unimpressive. Le Centro is basically a small NYC - lots of shops, lots of people, lots of visible poverty, lots of street food, and not a lot of personal space. We got some coffee in a bizarre, mirrored coffee shop, walked around some, then just came home. I would like to go back and get some pictures of the government/historic buildings that are done there, and there are some museums that I'd like to see, but overall I don't really feel the need to visit Le Centro again.
The mall was even less impressive, it's hard to be excited about a place that boasts both TGI Fridays and Tony Romas all in one courtyard... Unfortunately a mall is a mall is a mall, no matter what the country. It was fun to do some shopping (window shopping for me...) and to hang out with my classmates, but overall, not the most exciting part of my trip.
Though, there is a certain sense of accomplishment accompanying the completion of any of these trips, no matter how unimpressive the actual results may have been. And regardless, it's a mall (or a part of the city) in Chile, so although it's moderately unimpressive, it's still wonderful and Chilean and an adventure!
Yesterday was a real adventure for me... after class I stopped at a fruitista and got a wonderful pear, banana and some yogurt (this is not the adventure.) After a nice lunch I put on my walkin' shoes and headed to La Plaza Italia and its surrounding neighborhood. My original intent was to go to a cellphone shaped building and see their free, traveling art exhibit. Turned out to be pretty neat - it was all about invisible things in our society such as the internet and cell phones. So it attempted to artistically show how many people are using facebook or twitter or whathaveyou at any given moment in Santiago. It did this using colored tubes with water being pumped through them. There was another part to the exhibit but its meaning was completely lost on me, not necessarily because of the language barrier but moreso because I don't always understand modern art... But, it was a fun little exhibit, and free! So it was well worth it.
Following the museum I got a coffee in a little shop in the parque and caught up on my deportivos - there was a big soccer match last night between the Universidad de Chile y la Universidad Catolica so I was attempting to read up on the match. Some friends and I tried to get tickets to the finals match on Sunday but they sold out in less than 30 minutes.
Anyways. Following a relaxing coffee in the Santiago fall sunshine, I decided just to wander through this part of the city. I managed to stumble across another small museum (this one cost about 2 us dollars) - the Museo Nacional Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna. It's a small museum, with a LOT of writing that is all in Spanish. I managed to slowly work my way through most of it (though I had a significantly larger headache after the museum than I did going into it...) and I found that I was able to understand most of it! Mackenna was a politician in Santiago who's known for bringing the city into the modern age (more or less) and really bringing to light the plight of the lower classes of Santiago. Really the most interesting part of the museum for me was trying to read in Spanish, then finding that I was actually right! Everything here is a surprise... what will I find at the end of this street, what am I eating, what did I just order... Everyday is a delightful surprise :) Makes life much more fun!
Then the real adventure began. I have this habit of thinking that i know where I'm going when i really don't, so I confidently set off on my way. After about 15 minutes I began to think that I didn't know where i was, but that it was high time to chart some new territory, so I kept on going. I kept wandering, taking pictures and not watching what I was doing. Soon enough I was in a part of town that seemed to be getting... less nice and it was starting to get dark. I stopped and realized that I had NO idea where I was and that I needed to find out quickly. Had it not been getting dark I would have not been quite as nervous. So, I started to really think about where I had been and tried to use a map and make my way back to familiar territory. I managed to walk through a really cute little historic part of town (that I need to go back to) but I couldn't entirely enjoy it as that little voice in my head was saying "get home!" After about 30 minutes of aimful wandering (the opposite of aimless wandering?) I managed to come to some things that I recognized and was then able to make my way back to a main road that I knew and then finally make it home.
Today I was with some friends and I was telling them about my adventure and they were terrified when I told them where I was... apparently I had wandered a little too deeply into a part of town that I should not go back to ever again, even in the day light. Oops! But, I'm here writing now so no harm, no foul, right?? All in all, I'm definitely learning to simply enjoy the adventures- my natural tendency is to get nervous and scared but I'm quickly learning that it all works out ok in the end (if nothing else I can always take a cab home!) and that I might as well enjoy it while I'm here!
Today I had a big day! I passed my first exam! WOO! I'm now in the 2nd book! I hear that I'll get to learn to talk in the past tense, thank goodness! I keep confusing my host family by trying to tell them about what I did during the day, but I have to use the present tense so they think that I'm talking about the future (such as what I'm going to do that night) so everyone ends up really confused in the end. But, the main thing is that I'm actually able to describe a lot of things that I'm doing, so that's a plus! Tonight at dinner we were able to have a discussion about politics in Chile! Peruvians in Chile are looked upon in much the same way that Mexicans are in the US - people have Peruvian house cleaners and its Peruvians who are on the street offering to wash your car. It seems that no matter where you go, you'll find these type of relationships.
I'm glad that I can start contributing to conversations, even if it is just a sentence or two here and there. Last night I was able to play some games with my host mom's granddaughter. It was really fun - we were quizzing one another on synonyms and antonyms (in Spanish and English) because it was what we were both learning in school. She's 8. Awesome. But, it was fun to sit around the kitchen table after dinner and chat and play games - I am so lucky to have this host family, they are so wonderful and patient and funny and did I mention patient?
It's just been so much fun to go out and wander through the streets of Providencia - there are so many beautiful and colorful houses here!
OH Today we took the funicular up the Cerro San Cristobal. We were going to hike it, but then decided to just ride instead. I do plan on going back and walking up, in for nothing else than just to say that I did it! The top of the cerro provided a beautiful panoramic view of Santiago and the mountains. It was a mostly clear day, but you could definitely see the smog in the air. It was neat to get such a full view of the city in order to really appreciate how big it is, but also how beautiful it is (smog aside.) I can't believe that I've almost been here a week already! Which leads me to want to soak in as much as possible because it's already flying by!
Well, those are some highlights for you! I'm sure I'll have tons more to write about as tomorrow we're going to Pomaire! We were going to go to Isla Negra on Sunday with my school, but I might just go on my own as our school trip was cancelled because there weren't enough people who signed up to go. Either way, I'll find something wonderful and adventurous to do!
I'll leave you with one of my favorite Pablo Neruda poems (his favorite sea house is in Isla Negra)
Lost in the Forest
Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig
and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips:
maybe it was the voice of the rain crying,
a cracked bell, or a torn heart.
Something from far off it seemed
deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth,
a shout muffled by huge autumns,
by the moist half-open darkness of the leaves.
Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig
sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance
climbed up through my conscious mind
as if suddenly the roots I had left behind
cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood--
and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Bailamos!
Oy! I have so much that I want to write about, but unfortunately I have an exam tomorrow so I need to keep studying - but I'm taking a break to write a quick message. This is of course following a quick Skype break, a quick meal break... lots of breaks...
So. Many of you who know me have seen me "dance" and know that my dancing usually consists more of... flailing. Well. Last night I got to put my flailing to its true test: I went to a salsa dancing lesson. Now, when I flail I prefer to flail with my arms and my legs, in general my torso remains stationary. My true dancing abilities lie in Irish dance which uses very little torso. My norweigan friend here put it best when she said "I was given cold, Norweigan hips. Not hot, latina hips." Being Minnesotan I think that I can claim SOME Norweigan heritage as well - even though there is no Scandinavian blood flowing my veins, there is a certain Minnesota/Scandanavian stiffness coursing through my muscles.
With all this running through my brain, I decided that it was time to really give salsa a try. I have done it before, more or less unsuccessfully. So, I put on my dancin' shoes and met up with everyone at school. We then took a bus (that had an acordian player on it!) to a salsa bar. We took up about 4 tables in the bar - and we were pretty much the only ones there. Except of course for the PROFESSIONAL salsa dancers who were rehearsing before we had our lesson. There were hips swaying, feet flying and women spinning in ways that had to have been defying physics. It was truly incredible - I can only imagine how beautiful it would be when the women had proper sals clothing on (they were in jeans and street clothes.)
Our teacher told us to use it as "inspiration" and not to get intimidated. Right....
After watching this lesson for about 45 minutes, it was finally our turn. A very enthusiastic man ushered us all onto the dance floor. With a smile and a shrug we all reluctantly lined up. The lesson (of course) was in Spanish. Which was just as well, his directions didn't mean a whole lot regardless - I simply watched and tried my best to imitate what he was doing.
With the music blaring and him yelling we began. It started out pretty easy, simple steps forward, backwards and to the side. I was starting to get pretty confident. Then the music started going faster and our feet were supposed to as well... I began to resort back to my favorite run-in-place-and-flail dance move, but I was able to catch myself and try to stay on time with the music. Really, as long as you move your hips - you're fine. I've found it's not so much about what your feet do, as long as you try and step somewhat in time with the music, it's more about the hips. Like Shakira says- hips don't lie. If you're off time from the music your hips show it more than your feet (though both of my showed that I was clearly off time...)
All in all, we learned 5 different dances - of course now I don't remember all of them, I think there was salsa, barchata, samba, regaeton, and then something else. For the salsa we dances with partners - this was definitely the hardest part. When the guy knew what he was doing, it was SUPER easy - though I still continually spun the wrong way. I got many laughs and "hahaha gringa.." to which I would smile and say "si... soy gringa..." oh well - there's no denying my gringa status.
I am proud to say that I was not the worst one there, some of the guys from our school had 2 left feet and no sense of rhythm - so I didn't feel as bad when I stepped on their toes and spun the wrong way.
After about an hour and a half of spinning, stepping, a little flailing, and a lot of laughing - our lesson came to an end. It was so much fun! It was slightly embarrassing, incredibly exhausting, but such a different kind of dancing than what I"m used to! I'm hoping to go back to the lessons each week that I'm here so that I can come back to the US a little bit more comfortable in salsa (maybe comfortable enough to try it again back in Denver!)
It's so hard to believe that it's already Friday tomorrow! This week has absolutely FLOWN by! Some other things I did this week were: go to a mall, wandered through downtown, went to some museums, ate a lot of delicious food, took the metro, and walked a LOT! I'll write more about some highlights when I get a chance - I just thought the salsa dancing was too fun not to share :-)
Tomorrow we're going to hike up the Cerro San Cristobal (a big hill that's part of the Andes that's situated in Santiago and provides a great view on smogless days) then there are some various day trips over the weekend, so I'll probably be back to writing on Monday! Expect a super long post then!)
Classes are going well, my host mom told me she was really impressed with my Spanish so far! I'm getting better each day, slowly but surely.
If you get the chance - look up the band Aventura (I'm totally obsessed) they're a Baracha band from the Bronx (go figure) but they're SUPER popular here and have excellent music!
I recommend the song "Dile El Amor"
Besos! Chao!
So. Many of you who know me have seen me "dance" and know that my dancing usually consists more of... flailing. Well. Last night I got to put my flailing to its true test: I went to a salsa dancing lesson. Now, when I flail I prefer to flail with my arms and my legs, in general my torso remains stationary. My true dancing abilities lie in Irish dance which uses very little torso. My norweigan friend here put it best when she said "I was given cold, Norweigan hips. Not hot, latina hips." Being Minnesotan I think that I can claim SOME Norweigan heritage as well - even though there is no Scandinavian blood flowing my veins, there is a certain Minnesota/Scandanavian stiffness coursing through my muscles.
With all this running through my brain, I decided that it was time to really give salsa a try. I have done it before, more or less unsuccessfully. So, I put on my dancin' shoes and met up with everyone at school. We then took a bus (that had an acordian player on it!) to a salsa bar. We took up about 4 tables in the bar - and we were pretty much the only ones there. Except of course for the PROFESSIONAL salsa dancers who were rehearsing before we had our lesson. There were hips swaying, feet flying and women spinning in ways that had to have been defying physics. It was truly incredible - I can only imagine how beautiful it would be when the women had proper sals clothing on (they were in jeans and street clothes.)
Our teacher told us to use it as "inspiration" and not to get intimidated. Right....
After watching this lesson for about 45 minutes, it was finally our turn. A very enthusiastic man ushered us all onto the dance floor. With a smile and a shrug we all reluctantly lined up. The lesson (of course) was in Spanish. Which was just as well, his directions didn't mean a whole lot regardless - I simply watched and tried my best to imitate what he was doing.
With the music blaring and him yelling we began. It started out pretty easy, simple steps forward, backwards and to the side. I was starting to get pretty confident. Then the music started going faster and our feet were supposed to as well... I began to resort back to my favorite run-in-place-and-flail dance move, but I was able to catch myself and try to stay on time with the music. Really, as long as you move your hips - you're fine. I've found it's not so much about what your feet do, as long as you try and step somewhat in time with the music, it's more about the hips. Like Shakira says- hips don't lie. If you're off time from the music your hips show it more than your feet (though both of my showed that I was clearly off time...)
All in all, we learned 5 different dances - of course now I don't remember all of them, I think there was salsa, barchata, samba, regaeton, and then something else. For the salsa we dances with partners - this was definitely the hardest part. When the guy knew what he was doing, it was SUPER easy - though I still continually spun the wrong way. I got many laughs and "hahaha gringa.." to which I would smile and say "si... soy gringa..." oh well - there's no denying my gringa status.
I am proud to say that I was not the worst one there, some of the guys from our school had 2 left feet and no sense of rhythm - so I didn't feel as bad when I stepped on their toes and spun the wrong way.
After about an hour and a half of spinning, stepping, a little flailing, and a lot of laughing - our lesson came to an end. It was so much fun! It was slightly embarrassing, incredibly exhausting, but such a different kind of dancing than what I"m used to! I'm hoping to go back to the lessons each week that I'm here so that I can come back to the US a little bit more comfortable in salsa (maybe comfortable enough to try it again back in Denver!)
It's so hard to believe that it's already Friday tomorrow! This week has absolutely FLOWN by! Some other things I did this week were: go to a mall, wandered through downtown, went to some museums, ate a lot of delicious food, took the metro, and walked a LOT! I'll write more about some highlights when I get a chance - I just thought the salsa dancing was too fun not to share :-)
Tomorrow we're going to hike up the Cerro San Cristobal (a big hill that's part of the Andes that's situated in Santiago and provides a great view on smogless days) then there are some various day trips over the weekend, so I'll probably be back to writing on Monday! Expect a super long post then!)
Classes are going well, my host mom told me she was really impressed with my Spanish so far! I'm getting better each day, slowly but surely.
If you get the chance - look up the band Aventura (I'm totally obsessed) they're a Baracha band from the Bronx (go figure) but they're SUPER popular here and have excellent music!
I recommend the song "Dile El Amor"
Besos! Chao!
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Pictures!
So I don't have a lot of time to write tonight, I still have studying to do! eek!
I just wanted to share a link to pictures that I've taken so far - it's not a lot but it's a start! I'll try to get some more school and house pictures up in the next few days.
I am falling more in love with this place each day :-)
Here ya go! I emailed some people with this - if you aren't getting my emails and would like to, let me know!
Pictures!
Chao!
I just wanted to share a link to pictures that I've taken so far - it's not a lot but it's a start! I'll try to get some more school and house pictures up in the next few days.
I am falling more in love with this place each day :-)
Here ya go! I emailed some people with this - if you aren't getting my emails and would like to, let me know!
Pictures!
Chao!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Hola todos!
Look at that Spanish! After only being here a day I can already say that I feel like I have learned something! I suppose that's what a 4-hour Spanish class will do for you. At first I was terrified of the idea of 4 hours of Spanish because I had plenty of seminars in college that were 3 hours long and were torturous (plenty that were wonderful, of course) but 4 hours of Spanish seemed like it would be overwhelming.
However, much to my surprise and delight, it wasn't bad at all! In fact it just flew by! I think the fact that it was all new, and I just want to be able to communicate with the people around me, made me really pay attention and just try to absorb everything.
Ah let me back track a little bit, I'm getting ahead of myself.
So, yesterday after arriving and everything I was able to eat 2 meals with my host family. They are just hilarious, such wonderful people. We had a lengthy discussion about Lady Gaga and her many bizarre outfits (though we did all agree that the woman can sing) and also discussed the likes of John Denver and Bob Seger - my host dad loves a lot of American music so he's frequently singing for me (thankfully he's a very good singer.) My host mom and I discussed strategy of Angry Birds (a game) while we ate tres leches ice cream. Really, there are so many odd American cultural things here, thankyou internet!
Overall yesterday was a pretty quiet day, my host mom took me on a tour of the neighborhood and showed me where my school is, the supermarket, etc. I could generally understand a lot of what she was saying to me, but unfortunately couldn't respond with much. But, I'm definitely learning and that's what matters!
After that i took a nap, read, and watched some tv on my computer - I had underestimated how exhausted I was and was starting to feel slightly overwhelmed, so I decided not to push it. We had a delightful dinner of Macaroni and Cheese with an overeasy egg on top (?) and talked about weather and I told them a lot about Colorado (I was too exhausted and confused to jump into talking about Minnesota, maybe tomorrow. From what I'm told, eggs are eaten on most things here - and to be honest, not only am I ok with this eating habit but I am supportive of it! I hit the hay pretty early as I was worn out from travel and whatnot.
Today I was up bright and early to get ready for school. My host dad and I had a pleasant breakfast of toast, coffee, cheese and a ham-type of meat (not entirely sure) and then I was off to school!
I had to take an entrance exam, which consisted of me getting confused as to which part of my name to write where, so that was fun! The woman who grades them looked at it, looked me and just says "nada?" to which I smile and nod.
Class started at 9am. There are 4 other students in my class; 2 are from Switzerland, 1 is from Germany and 1 is from California. They are all really nice and speak various levels of Spanish, myself and a girl from Germany are definitely the lowest - so we can only go up, and look really smart when we do!
The class was a lot of information and a lot of vocabulary but it was really fun!
After class there was a lunch for the new students that started today - we had empanadas that was really delicious. We got a short introduction to the area and school, then I went on a walk around the neighborhood with an Australian girl (Nichola) It was nice to be able to speak English with someone, though I am super glad that I have my host family to practice with; it gets rather exhausting and frustrating at times. But, I do know that with practice will come some level of perfection/learning.
After that I came home for a bit, did my homework, then met up with Elin (the younger sister of one of my best friends in Minnesota) and we walked around the area, got some delicious food, and then walked some more. I'm still super disoriented and can't seem to figure out which way North is (although we have mountains here just like back home, they're harder to find and I just don't seem to ever be able to find them when I need them!)
I then went to a cookout at school - they made carne asada that was absolutely heavenly. It was nice to chat with people from school, some in English, some in Spanish, some even in French! Everyone I've talked to so far is super nice and friendly, so that's a good sign!
I definitely am starting to love it here already! I think that I'm going to start volunteering at an orphanage that our school has connections with - with whom better to practice Spanish than adorable little Chilean children?!
However, learning Spanish and trying to orient myself is quite an exhausting experience, so I'm gonna hit the hay pretty soon here. Pictures should be up soon!
However, much to my surprise and delight, it wasn't bad at all! In fact it just flew by! I think the fact that it was all new, and I just want to be able to communicate with the people around me, made me really pay attention and just try to absorb everything.
Ah let me back track a little bit, I'm getting ahead of myself.
So, yesterday after arriving and everything I was able to eat 2 meals with my host family. They are just hilarious, such wonderful people. We had a lengthy discussion about Lady Gaga and her many bizarre outfits (though we did all agree that the woman can sing) and also discussed the likes of John Denver and Bob Seger - my host dad loves a lot of American music so he's frequently singing for me (thankfully he's a very good singer.) My host mom and I discussed strategy of Angry Birds (a game) while we ate tres leches ice cream. Really, there are so many odd American cultural things here, thankyou internet!
Overall yesterday was a pretty quiet day, my host mom took me on a tour of the neighborhood and showed me where my school is, the supermarket, etc. I could generally understand a lot of what she was saying to me, but unfortunately couldn't respond with much. But, I'm definitely learning and that's what matters!
After that i took a nap, read, and watched some tv on my computer - I had underestimated how exhausted I was and was starting to feel slightly overwhelmed, so I decided not to push it. We had a delightful dinner of Macaroni and Cheese with an overeasy egg on top (?) and talked about weather and I told them a lot about Colorado (I was too exhausted and confused to jump into talking about Minnesota, maybe tomorrow. From what I'm told, eggs are eaten on most things here - and to be honest, not only am I ok with this eating habit but I am supportive of it! I hit the hay pretty early as I was worn out from travel and whatnot.
Today I was up bright and early to get ready for school. My host dad and I had a pleasant breakfast of toast, coffee, cheese and a ham-type of meat (not entirely sure) and then I was off to school!
I had to take an entrance exam, which consisted of me getting confused as to which part of my name to write where, so that was fun! The woman who grades them looked at it, looked me and just says "nada?" to which I smile and nod.
Class started at 9am. There are 4 other students in my class; 2 are from Switzerland, 1 is from Germany and 1 is from California. They are all really nice and speak various levels of Spanish, myself and a girl from Germany are definitely the lowest - so we can only go up, and look really smart when we do!
The class was a lot of information and a lot of vocabulary but it was really fun!
After class there was a lunch for the new students that started today - we had empanadas that was really delicious. We got a short introduction to the area and school, then I went on a walk around the neighborhood with an Australian girl (Nichola) It was nice to be able to speak English with someone, though I am super glad that I have my host family to practice with; it gets rather exhausting and frustrating at times. But, I do know that with practice will come some level of perfection/learning.
After that I came home for a bit, did my homework, then met up with Elin (the younger sister of one of my best friends in Minnesota) and we walked around the area, got some delicious food, and then walked some more. I'm still super disoriented and can't seem to figure out which way North is (although we have mountains here just like back home, they're harder to find and I just don't seem to ever be able to find them when I need them!)
I then went to a cookout at school - they made carne asada that was absolutely heavenly. It was nice to chat with people from school, some in English, some in Spanish, some even in French! Everyone I've talked to so far is super nice and friendly, so that's a good sign!
I definitely am starting to love it here already! I think that I'm going to start volunteering at an orphanage that our school has connections with - with whom better to practice Spanish than adorable little Chilean children?!
However, learning Spanish and trying to orient myself is quite an exhausting experience, so I'm gonna hit the hay pretty soon here. Pictures should be up soon!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Chile!
So, after many hours of "watching movies" on the plane, chatting with the nice (albeit odd) man sitting next to me, eating airplane food, and attempting to find that one comfortable airplane sleeping position... I am here, sitting in my host family's house in my own little room!
The airplane ride was uneventful - unfortunately I did not get to finish watching Never Say Never... maybe on the way back. I did however get to watch more Modern Family, Toy Story 3, Somewhere, Harry Potter 7.1, and some bits and pieces of other random movies. Mostly they were just background noise - I think I saw maybe 45 minutes of each movie (if even that.)
I had an aisle seat, but it actually was not nearly as painful as I had thought it might be. The plane was about 75% full, it was the kind with 2 seats on either side and then 3 down the middle - I had an aisle seat in a pair of seats.
The man I sat next to was born and raised in Chile but moved to New Hampshire 20 some years ago - I wouldn't have ever guessed that he's a native Spanish speaker as he had absolutely no accent in English. He first told me that I was very brave for going by myself for a month- then proceeded to tell me how hard and ridiculous it can be in the city (and several other things along this same line that kinda freaked me out...) But, overall he told me that same things that everyone else has - it's going to be awesome! Which I'm pretty sure I can now say that I wholeheartedly agree with.
Upon deboarding, I exchanged some money and paid my reciprocity entry fee. They're super particular about the bills that they accept, and apparently my ATM in Denver didn't give me enough clean, unmarked bills because they wouldn't accept my cash. Thankfully they do accept credit!
I have already mastered the "I-don't-speak-Spanish-and-feel-like-an-idiot-so-I'll-just-stand-here-and-smile" smile - so if nothing else, I got that goin' for me! When the customs man asked if I spoke Spanish I weirdly answered "not yet! but I will soon!" and he just stared at me, stamped my passport, and sent me on my way. I think I'll stick to the traditional "no... smilesmilesmile" route until I can actually answer something in Spanish.
I then made my way to the baggage claim where my suitcase was promptly spit out. That's always a fear of mine traveling, that I'll end up standing there seeing all the other suitcases go round and mine will be nowhere to be found. However, not this time! Everything went quickly, smoothly and was very efficient.
Speaking of efficient, they had an incredibly odd and inefficient way of getting us all through customs in Toronto. We were made to line up (as yelled at to do so by a small asian woman with a thick accent.) Then, we were lined up again to go through a door with her screeching at us to hurry up so the alarm wouldn't sound. The alarm did go off, she was not pleased. She then herded us to another place to line up (note that we have done no customs anything and we've been lined up 3 times for a total of about 30 minutes) She then yells at us to "move as one! stay together!" to go line up for the 4th time, finally at the customs window place. She then takes us all back to our former holding pen because she realized that there are people who need to make it through customs and onto their plane immediately as their last call is sounding. In the end it was fine, everyone made their flights and there was a certain amount of commaraderie felt within the group after being told 100 times to "stay together! move as one!" Had this not been at 10pm at night when I was already delirious from lack of sleep - it may not have been as funny. But man I am glad for weirdos like her to put a smile on my face!
'
Anyways, back to today!
As I said, make it through everything super quickly. I then found the shuttle place that had my reservation (my name was on a board and everything!) and was shuffled out and into a shuttle. We hung out for a bit, waiting for more passengers, which presented me with a great people watching opportunity. The adjustment from warm summer Denver weather to Chilean winter weather is an odd one, but also moderately comforting to see as it very much resembles a Denver winter. Some people were wearing tee shirts and jeans, some where wearing scarves, hats, and winter parkas. Overall it seemed like it really is very similar to the dress and weather of Denver.
After driving through some of Santiago - I was dropped off at my host family's house! I had no idea what to expect, and the front gate was locked and I couldn't find where the doorbell was (I was also trying not to drop my pillow/purse/jacket... I didn't look like a tourist at all!) but before I could find it a very sweet, smiling woman came bursting out of the house. She promptly introduced herself as Pabla and ushered me inside. Her husband, Roberto, came out and demanded to take my suitcase. After much hugging and kisses-on-the-cheek I was brought into the house. Pabla may or may not speak English, I'm not sure. She did say that since I'm there to speak Spanish we will speak in Spanish, but she might speak English as well. Roberto does speak English and was able to help translate some of the little things (but said not to expect that in the future.) It really worked out perfectly, due to my level of exhaustion and everything I think I probably would have been overwhelmed had it just been Spanish.
I get the impression that they have hosted a lot of students before, because it seemed that Pabla spoke Spanish more slowly than other people I have spoken to today - I could understand a lot of what she was saying, though not everything (yet!) I have a very nice little room, big windows, and little desk, and table, and a bed of course. Apparently there's another student coming "later", I'm not sure how much later, but either way that should be fun! Pabla and Roberto have a 23 year old daughter named Daniela whose room is right across from mine, she seems nice! I didn't get much of a chance to talk to her yet.
Overall, I think this is going to be completely wonderful! Classes start right away tomorrow, so it'll be nice to be able to dive into that right away!
Alrighty - it's just about lunch time so i'm gonna go make myself somewhat presentable.
Hope to hear from you all! I'll try and be on Skype more than I usually am, so hopefully I'll catch y'all there!
The airplane ride was uneventful - unfortunately I did not get to finish watching Never Say Never... maybe on the way back. I did however get to watch more Modern Family, Toy Story 3, Somewhere, Harry Potter 7.1, and some bits and pieces of other random movies. Mostly they were just background noise - I think I saw maybe 45 minutes of each movie (if even that.)
I had an aisle seat, but it actually was not nearly as painful as I had thought it might be. The plane was about 75% full, it was the kind with 2 seats on either side and then 3 down the middle - I had an aisle seat in a pair of seats.
The man I sat next to was born and raised in Chile but moved to New Hampshire 20 some years ago - I wouldn't have ever guessed that he's a native Spanish speaker as he had absolutely no accent in English. He first told me that I was very brave for going by myself for a month- then proceeded to tell me how hard and ridiculous it can be in the city (and several other things along this same line that kinda freaked me out...) But, overall he told me that same things that everyone else has - it's going to be awesome! Which I'm pretty sure I can now say that I wholeheartedly agree with.
Upon deboarding, I exchanged some money and paid my reciprocity entry fee. They're super particular about the bills that they accept, and apparently my ATM in Denver didn't give me enough clean, unmarked bills because they wouldn't accept my cash. Thankfully they do accept credit!
I have already mastered the "I-don't-speak-Spanish-and-feel-like-an-idiot-so-I'll-just-stand-here-and-smile" smile - so if nothing else, I got that goin' for me! When the customs man asked if I spoke Spanish I weirdly answered "not yet! but I will soon!" and he just stared at me, stamped my passport, and sent me on my way. I think I'll stick to the traditional "no... smilesmilesmile" route until I can actually answer something in Spanish.
I then made my way to the baggage claim where my suitcase was promptly spit out. That's always a fear of mine traveling, that I'll end up standing there seeing all the other suitcases go round and mine will be nowhere to be found. However, not this time! Everything went quickly, smoothly and was very efficient.
Speaking of efficient, they had an incredibly odd and inefficient way of getting us all through customs in Toronto. We were made to line up (as yelled at to do so by a small asian woman with a thick accent.) Then, we were lined up again to go through a door with her screeching at us to hurry up so the alarm wouldn't sound. The alarm did go off, she was not pleased. She then herded us to another place to line up (note that we have done no customs anything and we've been lined up 3 times for a total of about 30 minutes) She then yells at us to "move as one! stay together!" to go line up for the 4th time, finally at the customs window place. She then takes us all back to our former holding pen because she realized that there are people who need to make it through customs and onto their plane immediately as their last call is sounding. In the end it was fine, everyone made their flights and there was a certain amount of commaraderie felt within the group after being told 100 times to "stay together! move as one!" Had this not been at 10pm at night when I was already delirious from lack of sleep - it may not have been as funny. But man I am glad for weirdos like her to put a smile on my face!
'
Anyways, back to today!
As I said, make it through everything super quickly. I then found the shuttle place that had my reservation (my name was on a board and everything!) and was shuffled out and into a shuttle. We hung out for a bit, waiting for more passengers, which presented me with a great people watching opportunity. The adjustment from warm summer Denver weather to Chilean winter weather is an odd one, but also moderately comforting to see as it very much resembles a Denver winter. Some people were wearing tee shirts and jeans, some where wearing scarves, hats, and winter parkas. Overall it seemed like it really is very similar to the dress and weather of Denver.
After driving through some of Santiago - I was dropped off at my host family's house! I had no idea what to expect, and the front gate was locked and I couldn't find where the doorbell was (I was also trying not to drop my pillow/purse/jacket... I didn't look like a tourist at all!) but before I could find it a very sweet, smiling woman came bursting out of the house. She promptly introduced herself as Pabla and ushered me inside. Her husband, Roberto, came out and demanded to take my suitcase. After much hugging and kisses-on-the-cheek I was brought into the house. Pabla may or may not speak English, I'm not sure. She did say that since I'm there to speak Spanish we will speak in Spanish, but she might speak English as well. Roberto does speak English and was able to help translate some of the little things (but said not to expect that in the future.) It really worked out perfectly, due to my level of exhaustion and everything I think I probably would have been overwhelmed had it just been Spanish.
I get the impression that they have hosted a lot of students before, because it seemed that Pabla spoke Spanish more slowly than other people I have spoken to today - I could understand a lot of what she was saying, though not everything (yet!) I have a very nice little room, big windows, and little desk, and table, and a bed of course. Apparently there's another student coming "later", I'm not sure how much later, but either way that should be fun! Pabla and Roberto have a 23 year old daughter named Daniela whose room is right across from mine, she seems nice! I didn't get much of a chance to talk to her yet.
Overall, I think this is going to be completely wonderful! Classes start right away tomorrow, so it'll be nice to be able to dive into that right away!
Alrighty - it's just about lunch time so i'm gonna go make myself somewhat presentable.
Hope to hear from you all! I'll try and be on Skype more than I usually am, so hopefully I'll catch y'all there!
Saturday, June 4, 2011
The Art of Traveling
Flight is delayed out of Toronto so I have some time to sit and reflect on the days events. I am currently sitting at the gate in Toronto watching the NHL finals - it's true what they say about Canadians and hockey. I'm not sure which is better, watching the actual game or watching the people watching the game.
Anyways. Ironic that this is called the "art of traveling" as this is an art that I have NOT mastered at this point in my life. No matter how many times I go through security, no matter how many times I have to disassemble my careful packing, and no matter how many times I have to take off my shoes - I still get frazzled when it all comes shooting out at you. Especially today - I had roughly 50 grey tubs with my various belongings in them and as I'm trying to collect my things I have a TSA agent making fun of how much random stuff I have in the tubs. Just what I needed...
However, for all of you Denver travelers I have made an incredible discovery. There is security on the WALKWAY to the other terminals. There was NO line and basically no waiting. It was glorious. So, I recommend it, definitely beat the lines of the usual security points.
As I was sitting at the gate in Denver that nervousness that had either been non existent or I had successfully been ignoring definitely began to set in. But, in looking back on all of my travels (moving to Denver, going to visit Teresa in Colombia, going to Australia, moving to Madison) it's always a familiar feeling. It's gotten to the point now where I know it's ridiculous and I know it will pass once I'm there - and yet I still get nervous and I still shed some nervous tears.
The flight out of Denver was an easy one - Air Canada provided us with little tvs in every seat (SCORE) so I could watch Modern Family AND (wait for it...) NEVER SAY NEVER THE JUSTIN BIEBER MOVIE. There were tons of options and yet, this is what I settled on. Oddly enough, I fully plan to finish it (I ran out of time) once I get on this next flight. Interesting kid, hate the haircut and most of his music, but interesting nonetheless.
I did look moderately bizarre at one point as in my state of nervousness pretty much anything can set off the tears - so of course the stupid teenage girls in this movie crying set off my tears so I'm pretty sure the guy sitting next to me thought I was a Bieber fanatic who couldn't contain her excitement or love.
Thankfully I was able to sneak a sandwich through customs and eat it at the gate here in Toronto, that has definitely helped even out some of this emotional roller coaster. Hopefully a relaxing, quiet plane ride will allow me to sleep some and further calm down these emotions. I am looking forward to exploring Santiago some tomorrow, but a nap will definitely be in order.
There are some very sweet little Spanish speaking girls sitting near, speaking in very fast Spanish (then again, all Spanish is fast to me, so it might be normal Spanish, or even slow, what do I know?) and I can't help but think that if these little ones can learn it that there must be hope for me. Granted, it's what they're raised around and all of that so this thought really doesn't mean much, but it's still moderately comforting.
As I get more and more nervous, I am starting to hope more and more that my host family will speak some English. Not a ton, but some might calm these nerves down a bit.
Well, those are really all the thoughts I have for now. My tired, overwhelmed brain is done for now. Will write more soon once I'm there. Hopefully I'll be able to conquer technology and post pictures as well - as soon as I have some to post!
Anyways. Ironic that this is called the "art of traveling" as this is an art that I have NOT mastered at this point in my life. No matter how many times I go through security, no matter how many times I have to disassemble my careful packing, and no matter how many times I have to take off my shoes - I still get frazzled when it all comes shooting out at you. Especially today - I had roughly 50 grey tubs with my various belongings in them and as I'm trying to collect my things I have a TSA agent making fun of how much random stuff I have in the tubs. Just what I needed...
However, for all of you Denver travelers I have made an incredible discovery. There is security on the WALKWAY to the other terminals. There was NO line and basically no waiting. It was glorious. So, I recommend it, definitely beat the lines of the usual security points.
As I was sitting at the gate in Denver that nervousness that had either been non existent or I had successfully been ignoring definitely began to set in. But, in looking back on all of my travels (moving to Denver, going to visit Teresa in Colombia, going to Australia, moving to Madison) it's always a familiar feeling. It's gotten to the point now where I know it's ridiculous and I know it will pass once I'm there - and yet I still get nervous and I still shed some nervous tears.
The flight out of Denver was an easy one - Air Canada provided us with little tvs in every seat (SCORE) so I could watch Modern Family AND (wait for it...) NEVER SAY NEVER THE JUSTIN BIEBER MOVIE. There were tons of options and yet, this is what I settled on. Oddly enough, I fully plan to finish it (I ran out of time) once I get on this next flight. Interesting kid, hate the haircut and most of his music, but interesting nonetheless.
I did look moderately bizarre at one point as in my state of nervousness pretty much anything can set off the tears - so of course the stupid teenage girls in this movie crying set off my tears so I'm pretty sure the guy sitting next to me thought I was a Bieber fanatic who couldn't contain her excitement or love.
Thankfully I was able to sneak a sandwich through customs and eat it at the gate here in Toronto, that has definitely helped even out some of this emotional roller coaster. Hopefully a relaxing, quiet plane ride will allow me to sleep some and further calm down these emotions. I am looking forward to exploring Santiago some tomorrow, but a nap will definitely be in order.
There are some very sweet little Spanish speaking girls sitting near, speaking in very fast Spanish (then again, all Spanish is fast to me, so it might be normal Spanish, or even slow, what do I know?) and I can't help but think that if these little ones can learn it that there must be hope for me. Granted, it's what they're raised around and all of that so this thought really doesn't mean much, but it's still moderately comforting.
As I get more and more nervous, I am starting to hope more and more that my host family will speak some English. Not a ton, but some might calm these nerves down a bit.
Well, those are really all the thoughts I have for now. My tired, overwhelmed brain is done for now. Will write more soon once I'm there. Hopefully I'll be able to conquer technology and post pictures as well - as soon as I have some to post!
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