Toss a Coin

Sometimes I miss blogging before this whole thing started. I put random pictures up and my posts were simple. Never really telling a lot of stories like I do now. When I stumbled across this picture I had to post. I love this because it's so true.

Kunstmann!

Today we went to the German brewery as promised. It was pretty much all I did today on account of the power being out from 8am-3pm. Now that I think back it would have been a good time to get outside and walk around because it was really nice outside. I, however, took it as an opportunity to stay in my pjs and read my book until 3:30pm.
Anywho, there was a huge group of us that went to Kunstmann. I definitely think it would have been more fun if I actually drank beer. There was a whole museum thing that I was totally uninterested in too. The food was good, as promised, and judging by how much beer everyone else drank, that was good too. You definitely need a visual to understand what it was like, so here ya go:

Yeah that's beer.

There was about 8 of these that were empty by the time I left.

Biggest hamburger ever?

Pretty sure this is a whole cow's worth of hamburger.

Friday Night

Friday night turned out to be a little more adventurous than I had planned. A lot of the other students were talking about going to a beatles cover band concert so we decided to join them. I'm pretty sure every single person in the program was there so it was fun. Laura and I didn't stay for very long because 1) They started an hour late-love Chilean time.. 2) It was so smokey in there I could barely keep my eyes open let alone breathe. 3) They were lipsynching so really we got the point pretty quick. Especially since we couldn't see the band. Anyway we stayed till halfway through before we decided to go home. We're both pretty lame and we were tired. Luckily it had stopped raining (it was tsunamying again all day and we had already gotten soaked once) so our walk home was nice. We were so proud of ourselves for staying out till almost one in the morning! We always laugh at ourselves because we are sooo laaame.

The only guy I could see and only if I was standing on a chair.

Laura and her beloved beatle..

..She stole this picture..

Natalie and I


Our third attempt to get both of us in the picture failed so we gave up.

I'm telling this story backwards because that's the order of the pictures. Before the beatles we went to a movie showing at the school. We felt all cultural because the movie was in French with Spanish subtitles (which I could actually understand. High five anyone?). It was an interesting movie. I'm going to sum it up for you:

Seraphine is an older french woman who works as a maid.

She can also paint.

Her painting is discovered by a guy who likes paintings(?)

The guy encourages her to paint and buys her paintings

The guy has to leave because of some war (because he is german)

She keeps painting

German guy finds her after a few years through her painting

The guy helps her sell her paintings and sets up art shows

Then he bails on her before any of it goes through

She goes crazy and eventually dies.

Yeah I didn't say it was a great movie. There were a lot of random characters that showed up without explanation and not a lot of talking. However, like I said, I feel like I put myself out there and tried something new and I dont regret going. This is a true story though and the paintings are really cool. You can google them.

Tomorrow we're going on an adventure to a German restaurant brewery place. I'm trying to be more social. Also everyone says the food is amazing. I need amazing food. I'm all toasted out.

Better days

I thought I would like weekends. I was all excited for today because I got the house to myself (without kids) and was looking forward to relaxing. Turns out relaxing is kind of boring, and loney.Instead I've just gotten increasingly homesick over the course of the day. I even counted how many weeks I have left until I get to go home. 15 weeks. 3 groups of 5 weeks. Sounds better when I put it that way. I wanted to go walk to the plaza today but it's so rainy and windy that I don't even want to go outside. It's depressing. Everyone else in the program seems to be partying it up and having a grand old time but all I want to do is go home and see my friends and family. I know it'll get better but right now it sucks. I keep asking, 'what did I get myself into?' I'm so tired of spanish I don't even want to hear it anymore let alone speak it. I feel like someone inside my head is screaming 'get me out of here!' I'm sure that someone is me. I'm sure tomorrow will be a better day.

Fingers crossed.

Comfort

Cutest thing ever? I think sooo..



I've discovered comfort in Chile since the last time I posted. I'm the kind of person who likes to keep to themselves. I don't party, I only socialize with a close group of people on a regular basis, I stay within a specific comfort zone, and I like to be lazy and comfortable. I figured out how to do that here. First of all, you can't watch online episodes here, I think I already mentioned that. So last night I figured out how to rent movies on itunes (best idea ever, last night I rented 'The Backup Plan'--good movie), it's cheap and easy. I also started something close to a sugar craze yesterday. I found a mini mart right by the school and bought pepsi (they have pepsi here but not other pepsi products), and a ton of other candy. Not to be eaten all at once of course. Ok I ate a snickers on the way home but I deserved that after the first day of classes. I rented another movie tonight called 'Babies,' I've wanted to watch it forever so I downloaded it today (it takes two hours) so I could watch it tonight. Tomorrow I don't have class until 4 or something like that so I am so looking forward to my movie and my snacks and staying up late (by myself--you learn to value alone time when there is four kids in the house.) and enjoying myself. Now all I need are my besties. I feel lame telling people that while I'm in Chile that THAT is what I get excited about but give me a break, these last 2 weeks (yes TWO!) have been tough. I'm discovering what works for me. I will branch out later..tonight, it's just be and pure comfort.



I suppose since it was the first day of classes today that I should talk about them. I had two, The culture of Chile and Grammar & Conversation. They kind of covered the same information today (Culture) so I didn't learn anything too profound. I think Grammar and Conversation will be the class that I'll dread. Just because there's only like 10 of us in the class and we're all expected to talk. Tomorrow I have one class (Cine-I think we just watch movies) but not till like 4 or some random hour like that. I'll let you know how that turns out. Until then, Ciao!

More fun facts about Chile (and other super fun lists)

Some of which I discovered on my trip to the grocery store today:

1. Notebooks only have graph paper. There are none with just regular lined paper.
2. You can't buy pencils unless it comes as a 'free gift' with something else. Only pens.
3. Eggs are not refrigerated.
4. Chileans do not have social security numbers. They have identification numbers that they use everywhere (i.e. at the grocery store)
5. The drinking age is 18
6. At discos (clubs) grinding is not a form of dance.

Things that bother me:
1. 5 year olds
2. communication problems
3. 5 year olds
4. The college campus. It has been likened unto a labyrinth.
5. Chilean coffee. Bleh.
6. 5 year olds
7. People who interfere with my naptime
8. You can't watch online episodes here. How do they know where I am??
9. The nightlife. No I don't want to go out at 12am that is my sleepy time.
10. 5 year olds

Things that I like about Valdivia:
1. Sea lions
2. Fish market
3. They have Starbursts (I may or may not have just inhaled a whole package so fast that my jaw hurts from chewing)
4. empanadas (While I haven't really had a good one yet, I know there's one out there.)
5. Rain

To be continued...

Drowning in rain

You can't really see the rain so imagine looking out your window and seeing this plus buckets of water pouring down.

Seriously. It's raining so hard I can't believe it's not leaking through the roof and drowning all of us. I was soaking when I got home. Thank goodness for a waterproof raincoat and backpack (waterproof backpack was totally accidental but the best idea EVER!) or else I would have been drenched. I was wearing boots which lasted me just about until I jumped in a puddle riiight by my house...and it filled my boot up. Like the take of your boot and pour water out of it kind of fill it up. Anyway, I didn't realize I was so wet until I took off all my layers and the underneaths were wet too! (i.e. socks, long johns-to give you an image they look like leggings but they're fuzzy warm on the inside-shirt, undershirt-no idea how that one happened-etc.) I put my sweats on and dry socks and a shirt and then parked myself in front of the gas heater. I am enjoying this weather though. I love having an excuse to snuggle up in bed.

Things are definitely looking up. Today we went to the police station to get our IDs? Orr to get registered as residents..I don't really know. It was all in Spanish. That's all we had to do today so then a group of us went and grabbed empanadas at a food stand on campus which were..interesting...they tasted ok until you got to the cold unheated part but they looked horrible inside. But they were filling so it was okay. Yay Chilean food?

Tomorrow we start school which I'm happy about...though that might change after tomorrow. Our schedules are really random. Like my first class is from 9:10-10:40...and they're all like that. The good part is I only have classes before or after lunch depending on the day. Then I can go out and party all night...ha...HA...not.

Last night I met the other college student that lives here with my host family. His name is Ignasio...Ignacio...Something like that. Anyway apparently he's never here...he plays rugby and goes out a lot and isn't here on the weekends. So when I met him he was running out the door and he nice to meet you blah blah I come back at 10 so I'll talk to you more then. But I didn't think he really meant it. I mean in the U.S. we say like talk to you later kinda think as a way of saying bye...so I thought that's what he was saying. Nope. I got a knock on my door (after everyone else had gone to sleep) at ten. I pretended I was asleep because I wasn't about to get up and have a conversation with someone. I just thought it was kinda funny. Raincheck (teehee..no pun intended) on that conversation I guess.

Right now I think I'll enjoy the next couple hours until all the kids get home (the youngest one gets home earlier..yay..) and I can enjoy the quiet house.

Happy birthday to mi mejor amiga! Te amo!

Ciao!

Monday

Hola! I feel like I haven't written in forever even though that's not really true. Today is the Monday of all Mondays. Just because it seems to be the start of everything, not just the week. I had more orientation today. I took a written and oral test (boo). They were really hard but we decided it didn't matter since it's not like they are going to send us home if we fail or anything. Classes officially start on Wednesday. I'm taking a grammar class, a conversation class, a movie culture kind of class and a culture class. I'm in the classes with the other exchange students so it'll be fun to get to know them in a class setting. Some are so good at spanish so this will seperate us into levels I think so I'll stop feeling like the only one who doesn't know anything (I hope).
My host family is great. I'm not used to having so many people around so I think that's my only issue. When I come home all I feel like doing is shutting myself in my room and getting on the computer or reading but I'm trying to not do that. The 2 youngest boys are constantly talking to me and asking me questions. I havent' figured out if that's a good thing or not.
I'm feeling better about this whole thing today. My biggest issue is not having coffee. Without it I feel sick all day because it helps my stomach. Last night it felt like I was constantly getting up and down thinking I was going to throw up but it never happened. I feel a little bit better this afternoon. I hope it'll go away eventually. I feel bad for my host mother because she tries to help but there's nothing I can do. The coffee here will just not suffice. I was talking to her earlier and I'm pretty sure she said all she has for dinner is coffee...Which is really going to aggravate the situation if it's true. Eating more food at night helps me not get sick in the morning but we'll see. I'm definitely feeling more awake than I have been so that's nice. I don't feel like I'm going to die if I don't lie down. I did get a little tired this morning during orientation but I think that was more out of boredom than anything. Did you know it's rude to yawn here? I'm like the yawning queen, I do it every 2 seconds. Who knows how many people I have offended.
Anyway, right now I'm thinking about trying to curl up in bed and read a book without offending anyone. It's cold and that sounds so nice and cozy. I miss everyone so much. Thanks for your support!

No hablo espanol...

I'm really feeling down today. It was the first day of orientation (the only day I guess.) and I realized how much I don't know. It was nice to see a few people I know from my past spanish classes. One girl's boyfriend is in Luke's band so it's nice to have that connection. We both have the same (negative) outlook on this whole thing. We miss our boyfriends, we miss home and we can't understand anything anyone is saying! I was amazing to see how many people in the program are completely fluent already! They were jabbering away to eachother in SPANISH. Once I caught up with the girls (Laura and Natalie) I was happy to find out that none of us knew what anyone was saying. We've only taken two years of spanish and it sounds like everyone else has taken a lot more...or we're just retarded. I can only hope everything gets better in a hurry. I move in to my host family's house tomorrow and Mom leaves on Monday. I wish I could go with her.

Meeting the host family

Yup, I finally met them today. They are the nicest people ever. The mom's name is Gloria, and then she has 4 kids, Bárbara 12 años, Joaquín 10 años, Claudio 7 años,and Agustín 5 años, then there's a girl that works for them, Laura, who is 19. All the kids are really cute and nice. Gloria knows quite a bit of english (thank goodness, it's necessary for the first encounter) and apparently the kids do too so I don't think communication will be a problem. If I can't express an idea in spanish I will be able to in English. The house is really nice. I have my own room and I'll have internet and TV and all that. I was scared because people made it sounds like I would be living in a third world type place but I have more ammenities here than I do at home! (Food cooked for me, laundry done for me..when I get back I'm going to have to go back to the hard life!). There still is not, however, coffee. So not everything is perfect. Tomorrow is the first day of orientation. I'm not moving in with my host family until Sunday so I can spend the last couple days with my mom. I'm looking forward to it though. I think it'll be really fun to live with them.

Joaquín & Claudio

Bárbara


Agustín

Farmer's Market

Today was our first full day in Valdivia! I was feeling kind of down about it yesterday but today helped shine a new light on Valdivia. We started off walking on the waterfront. Valdivia is beautiful and we were surprised when we ran across sea lions on a dock right by where we were walking. I had no idea there were sea lions here so it was a big shock. We watched them for a while, they're fascinating! It's so cool living somewhere that has wildlife like that.

Anyway we continued on and found the farmer's market which we had heard about but didn't know where it was. It had the Pike Place feel but not as big. It was really cool though. This town is full of culture. It had tons of fresh produce and sea food. The professor we met on the bus said it was hard to go to the farmer's market when you can't cook and now I understand why. You could make a feast! We bought grapes, avocado and crab. Yum.

For lunch we walked to this place that the professor had pointed out on our way into town. The menu was in Spanish so we had no idea what it said. We kinda pointed and agreed with whatever he said because his english wasn't very good and neither is our spanish. What we ended up getting was AMAZING, although way too much food. First course (who knew we were ordering courses? Not us!) Were these amazing pork strips. They were the most flavorful thing I had ever tasted. Then they brought us a steak which was also amazing, and topped it all off with fries. The food was cooked on this open bbq stove thing and it gave the food this amazing smoky taste. Even the rolls! The cook let us take a picture in his kitchen, they were all so nice. We're definitely going back there, but maybe not ordering so much.

17 weeks until I come back! What? I'm not counting or anything. 2 more days until I meet my host family. This whole adventure hasn't even really started yet and it feels like it's been forever..in a good way...mostly. I love traveling but I miss my peeps back at home! Love you all!

¿más fotos por favor?

Okay since the internet here is too slow to download pictures I put them on a slideshow for all you visual people. If you push on the slideshow it you can look at the pictures bigger and at your own speed. Enjoy! Let me know what you think of them!

The long road to Valdivia

And it really was. We left this morning, late I might add, to the airport. Never listen to anyone who says you only need to be there an hour early for national flights. Not true. When we got there we couldn't get our boarding passes so we were late getting into the line which was super long. Anyway by the time we got through the line we had to run to the gate and we made it there right before they started boarding (Okay we might have had time to get coffee).

The plane ride was really short and comfortable. We stopped Osorno to drop people off and then continued on to Valdivia. Mom got to sit by this really cool (sleezy) guy who propositioned her the whole way. We landed and got onto a bus that took us to our hostel (Mom thought that "hostel" meant "hotel" in spanish). We met this guy on the bus (any American is my best friend right now). He ended up being a professor at the university I'm going to be at. He gave us names of some good hotels and places to eat and asked me about school and what not. We exchanged emails and he said he'd send me some contacts of english speakers at the school so that was nice.

The bus dropped us off and the hostel.It was ok for a hostel I guess. Unfortunately it had no heat. We left our stuff there and went to find food. We went to McDonalds (lame, I know but by we hadn't eaten all day and it was something familiar). Unfortunately there was something else familiar in McDonalds (mom's proposition guy), luckily his back was to us so he didn't see us. There was also a clown there. By this time we were tired, hungry and grumpy and not in the mood for a clown. He made us both balloon animals before he left us alone.

After that we went looking for a hotel (call us stuck up Americans but all we wanted was comfort. And room service. That's when the tsunami started. Okay maybe it wasn't a tsunami but it was pretty close. We got soaked within seconds and the wind was so strong that mom almost got blown into the street. We finally found a hotel (one that the professor had recommended) and got our stuff moved. I got right into the bathtub because I was soaked and cold. I'm hoping tomorrow will be better. It's not that I wasn't prepared for rain, but it's hard to figure out a new place when you can't go outside without getting blown away (literally).

Anyway, I meet my host family on Friday so I'll keep everyone updated! Ciao!

Ten fun facts

Ten Fun Facts About Santiago

(or Chile in general..Or South America in general)

1) The common greeting is a kiss on the cheek.
2) They love sugar! There are ice cream and pastry stands EVERYWHERE! They even offer sugar with hot chocolate!
3) 'Adios' is rarely used. 'Ciao' is most the common form of good bye.
4) American music is popular here (I can never escape Justin Beiber.)
5) In Chilean Spanish (and probably other South American countries) people tend to drop the consonants..while in English we drop vowels. Ever try dropping consonants? Yeah it's impossible.
6) When leaving the airport, always take the BLUE taxi. Yeah I dunno. That's what multiple people will tell you. I just saved you future travelers some money. You are welcome.
7) If you say you're from the U.S. they assume you're from Florida or California. When you say you're from Washington they assume Washington D.C. (Washington state? No sé..)

8) The people are super duper nice.

9) There is at least one guard in every single store. Pharmacies, drug stores, small stores, big stores, mini marts, todos! I'm scared they're going to yell at me for doing something wrong but they never do.

10) Tampons? Not the same. applicator? Who needs that casualty?

Those are the most important things I have learned so far. Okay maybe not the most important but the only things I can remember. I'm really proud of myself for coming up with ten! WOO!

Bienvenidos!

Bienvenidos a Chile! Yes, I'm finally here. I never want to travel that long ever again! We got up at 2:30am to leave from Wenatchee (it was supposed to be 3:30 but we couldn't sleep) and flew out to Seattle, then Texas, then Chile. 28 hours later we made it to our hotel. Between the drunk guy getting arrested behind me on the plane and the very uncomfortable plane we didn't get much sleep. We came to the hotel and slept for 4 hours. We finally got ourselves out of bed and showered so we could walk around the city.

The city is nice but not very cultural. There is a ton of fast food...Burger king, McDonalds and KFC (which sells beer..It makes me laugh everytime I see it.) The people are super nice. I expect it to be like Mexico where the people are always trying to sell you something but it's not like that at all. The people seem genuinley thankful when you buy something.

We keep going out around four which apparently is siesta time because everything is closed. Tomorrow we're making a point to go out earlier. This morning we met up with a family friend who lives here. She took us to meeting (church). We took the subway (first time experience for me, woo!) It was pretty clean and nice, I was impressed. The meeting was nice but definitely different from how it is in the United States. The workers translated for us so we could understand. The biggest difference was people kneeled to pray and didn't stand up to give their testimony. The kneeling part was very uncomfortable. Mom and I were squirming like we were 5. Also the wine is actually wine and not grape juice! Anyway, we went to lunch after and then slept for a few hours. We're very jetlagged. I'm hoping I'll be able to actually sleep tonight and get on schedule.

Communication is really annoying. My phone doesn't work and my calling card doesn't work. I'm hoping we'll get it figured out tomorrow. Speaking of communication I need to get into contact with my host family. I'm thinking I'll email them tonight..or try. Communicating with people here is easier than I thought. My spanish is coming along nicely. I mean I can't have a conversation or anything and I can't understand more than a few words at a time but it's better than I thought it was going to be.

The weather here is very deceiving. Yesterday it was probably around 70 degrees and beautiful and today it was freeezing. We but about ten layers on before going outside. Apparently winter only lasts like two months in Santiago and so its already becoming spring which is why the weather changes so dramatically. I've had like ten people tell me that the weather in Valdivia is going to be waaay worse. It's kinda worrying me because I'm not sure how warm my clothes will be. We went looking for boots today but were not successful. We'll try again tomorrow. Sizes here are european so it's hard to know which size to look for.

We're here til Tuesday and then we fly down to Valdivia. I kinda wish we could stay here the whole time and never start school but that will just be the next great adventure I guess.

Ciao!

Date Night!

We all got dressed up and went out on the town for a date night!

Brazilian Music! A new experience for all of us!

Listening to the music

Dinner time!

Love this painting!

Then we topped it all off with scattergories!

Walk on the beach

Pike Place!

We spent a little bit of time at Pike Place. Luke had never been there before so it was kinda fun to show him what it was. We got there a little late but I think he still kinda got the general idea.

Much more gum than the last time I was there.

Favorite place to get flowers!

Zoologico!

One of the things we did when Luke and I went to visit Ash. Tons of fun and a new experience for Luke and I.

Host family!!

Finally! I found out about my host family.


It's a family of 5..the mom's name is Gloria and there are 4 kids, ages 12, 10, 7 and 5. I'm excited to be around those ages. They have a pretty big house; 5 rooms and 3 bathrooms. It seems like it'll be really nice.

Cross your fingers for internet!!