Chile's "fiercely unregulated economy"

This Thursday we are leaving the busy highways of Santiago to make our way south to Pucón!

Pucón is a mountainous/volcano ridden city with beautiful vistas and sprawling lakes, I sound like the lonely planet guide book. I am in fact-SUPER EXCITED- to go there because there are many adventures in the out of doors to be had such as trekking, kayaking, and general looking at beautiful mountains.

Unfortunately, I must first get through this week.

Tomorrow I have 4 classes, this is not normal here. Granted, the classes are Independent Study, Geography, Hip-Hop (yea) and Spanish....none of which are all that hard. My hard class (thank God) is all by itself on Tuesdays and Thursdays. yipee.

anyways, como siempre (like always) I have got a bunch of reading to do...which I'm going to do now...instead of type more stuff about Chile.

it was cloudy today, summer is leaving.

yea ciao

Jorge Luis Borges

here's a photo so it's not all words, I guess you can't really tell, but this was the student protest that I accidentally found myself walking into the middle of which involved my first experience with tear gas..not pleasant.
¿Qué onda?

A common phrase in Chile which means "what's up?"

it is pronounced exactly as it is written...so yea, use that one on your friends.

Today was a normal day: went to Geography class and learned about how there WERE people in latin america before the conquistadors (yes I know, I learned this in 5th grade thank you. I'm foreign I'm not stupid), had a really long lunch with chilean/american friends (YAY I have chilean friends!), went to spanish class and finished the movie "The Nana" (which is very good by the way and really demonstrates the latin american tradition of employing a woman in the house as a nana). Came home, went for a run, ate some bread, typical Chile. I don't know why such a normal day turned out to be so great....maybe I'm just comparing it in my mind to yesterday which was not so great. Not everyday abroad is a great day...I made the mistake of thinking that all days would be great days before I went abroad. The reality is that they are not. But hey, today was so HA.

Also, inscribed in a gym with my host sister and so far we have gone to some very entertaining classes including Aero Box, Zumba, and Spinning. Spinning was a LOT more difficult than I imagined. My legs hurt today. They were blasting some killer US rock though so I was having a great time.

My Chilean mom is making some kind of dessert right now...it smells so so good. Maybe this is why I feel the need to eat something...Also, beware of Panaderías in latin america because they smell SO GOOD. Everytime I pass by a bakery I just want to eat all the bread in the world which would be a terrible thing. They smell so wonderful, I could probably loiter outside a bakery for a considerable amount of time and not be bored.

Anyways, now that I have bored you all to tears with my talk of delicious bread (seriously, it's different than the bread in the US) I shall bid the adieu for I must read more about the colonization of latin america. yipee.

This is Chile

So, like a normal gringo...I went to leave the house today to meet up with some friends at estación de metro Baquedano. I causally let my host mom know where I was going and she all of a sudden told me in a very high-pitched, semi-scared voice that I COULD NOT go there today!

I was confused

Then she reminded me of the student protests that are going to happen today.

They usually involve fire and tear gas.

Needless to say I am not going to Baquedano to meet up with friends.

This is Chile

TERREMOTO

Viña del Mar, the beach city located next to Valparaiso
The term terremoto:

can mean an earthquake; can mean a really strong drink famous at the sketchy, yet entertaining Piojera Bar. Last night I experienced both. Okay, so the earth shaking one was only a temblor (which is a smaller version of an earthquake). My host dad came downstairs though to make sure his gringa daughter was not freaking out because the earth was moving. It actually woke me up from a weird dream so I was okay with it.

In other news, we took a trip to Valparaiso today as a Syracuse Study Abroad unit. It is a beautiful city with art and tourists everywhere. It is also a port city so the ocean breeze is always flitting around and there are port sounds like sea gulls, ships, and waves. It is nice. There are also cute hostels around every corner if you are looking to be touristy. I wanted to stay in all of them, they all looked super cool.

Tomorrow I am climbing some mountain with my host siblings, they have told me that there are waterfalls at the final destination of said hike. It is also a four hour trek in/four hour trek out. Needless to say, it will be an all day event. I'm pretty pumped.

The way the weather is looking here, Santiago is going to have an extended summer! I don't hate that.

Thank You Santiago

Thank you Santiago,

you are sunny every day,

you have paths so I can run

without the traffic in my way.

Thank you Santiago,

the best bread is made right here,

when I walk by the bakery

I want to stay there for a year.

Thank you Santiago,

home of some mountains tall

the Andes make me happy

and make me feel really small.

Thank you Santiago,

your clean for the most part

the people all seem happy

and I am light of heart.

Thank you Santiago,

for the time that I have here,

you will go through fall and winter,

even though my summer's near.

For dear Santiago

I must leave in 4 months,

but I'll never forget your mountains,

your streets, your vibe, your love.

just a little breakfast time poem..enjoy

Aprovechar

Just did my first bit of solo traveling...well with Colin Delaney! He came down to visit me over spring break and we took off to Viña del Mar for the weekend, so basically the beach and beautiful sand dunes. It was a good time.

March is coming to a close and I am faced with the final processes of registering for classes here in Chile and for registering for the upcoming semester at St. Mikes. Time flies.

Had a traditional, large, delicious lunch with my host family today because I only had one class (how did that work out?) and I believe this weekend my group is heading to Valparaiso to do some traveling. Can't wait! I have also been informed that my host family is taking a trip to the beach the following weekend so I will be traveling quite a bit! ahhhh!

No time for homework in a foreign country.

Just another 80º friday

I can't really get over the weather here. It is beautiful every day, end of story.

My host sister assures me that this will change, she was really excited about a down jacket that her aunt gave her; even though I can't quite imagine wearing that now I'm sure I will need something similar eventually. yay, can't wait (just kidding)

So yea, I don't know how it worked out this way, but it seems that I don't have class on fridays. oh yea! So instead I met with my professor about how my credits here are going to count at St. Mikes and I tried to go to Registro Civil to get my real Chilean ID however, it appears they need a copy of my visa and of course I didn't bring my passport this one time. It seems I will be running there after class on Monday instead. sigh.

Ah well, my sister has informed me that we are going hiking tomorrow which might be the best thing I have heard all day. The mountains here are spectacular, I can't really do them justice with words but suffice it to say that I am surprised by their height every single time I see them...which is every day because you can't look at buildings without there being mountains behind them.

Other than that I am getting into the rhythm of classes at the Universidad Católica. I am taking 5 classes as of now and I have all of next week to finalize those classes and even try some new classes if I want. Apparently Chileans study towards a certain career such as 'oh, i study dentistry or oh, I study architecture' so when I tell them that I study ecology and spanish they are confused as to what career path I am following. I am confused on that point as well.

So whoever reads this blog, I hope you are enjoying my adventures through the city of Santiago and surrounding awesome countries. Please if you ever have a chance to go, GO because it is an amazing city with a lot to offer. Can't wait to go skiing in the Andes come winter! ahhhhh