Alli and I got back from our trip to the south on Saturday the 5th early in the morning and right away, on the metro ride home, we were greeted by a hilarious interaction with Chileans as a group of high school aged guys threw around all the English phrases they knew, said "It's like the UN on this metro," and we took turns giggling.
At first I thought this would be a strange limbo week because most of my friends were still traveling and I was alone in Santiago with not too many loose ends to tie up. I did get to do some of the things I meant to before leaving but I also watched a lot of TV. On Sunday I took the funicular up to the top of Cerro San Cristobal in Parque Metropolitano, where we had gone during orientation but I wanted to see the view of the whole city in the summer. The park was full of bikers enjoying mote con huesillos, which I tried for the first time. It is a traditional Chilean drink with wheat husks, peach juice and a rehydrated peach in it and I agree that it is rico because I had it twice more that week. I walked all the way back down through the rest of the park, which I had never seen, and found a great pool, a small Japanese garden and lots of picnic areas. I went souvenir shopping a few times and finally got that out of the way. On Wednesday I picked up the last of my money at the Tufts office and went up Cerro Santa Lucia for the first time, which turned out to be a pretty big park. On Thursday I had my oral exam/interview with Peter Winn about the internship and he brought galletas, which brought me right back to orientation - except this time I wasn't scared of Spanish and felt at home. I had my last interaction with the gypsies by Santa Lucia, my last amazing ice cream at Sebastian, my last meeting with my history professor when I went to pick up my paper, my last trip to Patronato and Bellavista, my last jugo natural from La Vega, my last sightings of park PDA and my first walk through Parque Forestal. So somehow in between the excessive hours spent at home in my bed in pajamas I managed to stop by a lot of my favorite places and finish off the semester with some pretty great nights.
On Monday night Diego invited me over to his house for a last carrete (party) before he left to work at a ski resort in the US for his summer break. Needless to say it started with piscolas and ended with dancing around a dark living room with some of my favorite Chileans to all my favorite reggaeton, with all of my favorite chilenismos in between. On Thursday night a bunch of my friends got back from their travels and I went to Becca's house for Javi's birthday dinner. I think her family wasn't amused by the "Oh look, there's the virgin!" story (we think the virgin on top of Cerro San Cristobal is a great conversation starter). Just as we were about to call it an early night we got a call from Raul who invited us to a friend's house for a party which went almost exactly as we predicted. My self-imposed rules that night almost prevented bad decisions. Sleep schedules this week were either barely sleep at all or spend all day napping with periodic breaks for food and Facebook. Friday Alli and I went out to dinner to a Chilean restaurant in Bellavista, for our last pastel de choclo, with her friends from Tufts, Zack and Ellie, and then hung out with them at bar. Because going out for part two of Javi's birthday got called off it ended up being a low-key evening, which was perfect. I had no big expectations for the last night because lasts and firsts tend to be overrated but it ended up being a great ending. Daniel invited us to his house for burgers and a despedida so we spent our last night almost the way we spent the night when I first met them, when we had completos and played kings. As amusing a night as any with them and I even left with my very own Chilean nickname: La Muchacha.
Sunday I packed and everything surprisingly fit back into the two suitcases I came with. I didn't have an emotional goodbye with anyone, they were all rushed and words were left for emails but it is better that way because there isn't much that is original to say. 5 months of my life in two suitcases, a few dozen new Facebook friends, hundreds of photos, a bunch of passport stamps, and too many journal pages. I guess what stayed the same was the number of times that I questioned who I am and what I am doing with my life. Like the song, I think that I am differently the same. Sometimes my instinct is to say something in Spanish, sometimes my eye is drawn to a different part of the world map, maybe I know a little bit more about the world. I think that this was an amazing experience and I was lucky to have it and maybe by someone else's standards I didn't take advantage of it the way that they think I should have but for me, it was great. One thing I learned is that for me, no matter where I am, the most important things are relationships with people. Now I just get to be one of those snobs who says that guacamole in the US has no taste and says that her semester abroad was the best time of her life. List of life goals: study abroad...Check! Addition to list of life goals: Go back to Chile.
Now I just have to get used to the cold and the dark at 4:30.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Alli and Katy go to Patagonia
I warn you that this is a long entry but I write it as much for my own memories as for you so instead of summing the trip up in a few paragraphs and city names I include the details.
Tues 11/24 - after a couple hours of sleep, the best alfajores I have ever had, and a flight attendant who was on a rampage against our comfort we landed in Punta Arenas around 6 am. The city was still asleep. We had some coffee at a fancy hotel while we waited for a bus company to open. We walked back and forth along the main streets looking for a bus that would stop at the penguin colony on the way to Puerto Natales but eventually decided to cut that part of our trip in order to get to Puerto Natales early enough to rent equipment, pack, rest and mentally prepare for the trek in peace. We got lunch and walked around the small, cold town which somehow felt like the tip of the world (which it is, the tip of continental South America, at least). We got to Puerto Natales in the late afternoon to Erratic Rock Hostel - one of the homiest hostels I've been in, family-run, full of useful resources, with amazing American breakfast and buzzing with conversations between those who just got back from and those heading out to Torres del Paine National Park. We rented our equipment (a tent, a camping stove, a hiking backpack, a sleeping bag + pad) and got some quick advice on the schedule we should try to follow in the park. As we were packing in the common room too many people tried to give us advice that just made me nervous (ex. you're bringing lunch?, you've never hiked before?, bringing pitas is brave - which we later found out was said by a girl who had never hiked before...). We tried to bring as little as possible so all hygiene products except toothpaste were left behind. I turned off my nervous thoughts and went to sleep on what later seemed like an amazingly comfortable mattress.
Wed 11/25 - at 7:30 we got on a shuttle to the park. You have got to be determined to get here because the easiest way is a plane, a 3 hour bus and then a 2 hour shuttle! After a short hike to see a waterfall we got on a ferry that brought us to the west side of the W, where we started our trek. We decided that all the people around us were just trying to look intense and we were prepared just as well as them and wouldn't take ourselves too seriously, so we spent the entire ferry ride laughing about stupid things and probably attracting too much attention as usual. Although the day started out sunny and hot, just as we booked our campsite and left our backpacks at Campamento Paine Grande it started to rain - our first encounter with crazy Patagonian weather. When I am at home and it rains I try to avoid going outside, it changes my plans. When I am in Patagonia I put on my hood and start walking. We walked up two hours to the first mirador (lookout point) from which we could see Glacier Grey and feel the knock-you-off-your-feet-no-joke wind. Decided not to keep going to the next mirador because it was quite foggy and we wouldn't be able to see it much better from there. The weather cleared up so we decided to go ahead of schedule, luckily got a refund on the campsite, took a quick break in the refugio and set off, this time with our packs, to Campamento Italiano. Refugios are lodge/hotel type things in a few places along the trail that are a great comfort for those who are badass enough to do the trek but want a bit of a break from being a badass each night (and have the extra money); some are quite nice, and just after we spent too long joking about facebook status updates in a whiny girl voice ("had to hike in the rain and my brand new boots got mud on them," etc.) we saw computers with internet in a refugio. Complete joy and relief is the simplest way to describe our feelings upon seeing the campground; sometimes the approximations of how long a section takes are not exact and by the end of a day you start counting every minute. We set up our small two person tent, made dinner and went to sleep. It stays light down there very late in the summer so I think every night we went to bed before it was completely dark. 7 hours of hiking today.
Thurs 11/26 - we woke up at 11...not very hardcore hiker of us but we did everything we planned to anyway, part of not taking ourselves too seriously. Every muscle in my legs hurt and I was beginning to develop blisters but apparently my body is capable of much more than my mind because I survived 3 more full days of hiking. Another rainy, foggy day. Went up to Valle Frances to the mirador, had lunch back at the campamento, met "The German" and then had our most trying weather. As we walked for over two hours the rain and wind got pretty hard and for part of this we were walking along the shore of a lake so the wind was whipping water off the lake right into our faces. But we kept going, clothes slowly getting soaked and got very luckily at Campamento Los Cuernos because they let us put up our tent inside a half finished addition to their lodge. The best part of that was that our clothes dried and our tent didn't get soaked. Oh yeah, our Thanksgiving dinner was 3 minute pasta, powder soup and someSahne-Nuss as a dessert treat. 6 hours.
Fri 11/27 - we could barely believe our eyes when we woke up to sun but yep, the weather was amazing and we spent most of the day in t-shirts. This was probably my favorite day as we walked under bright skies and past lakes of all kinds of amazing blues, green mountains, snow-capped mountains and meadows. Alli even went for a swim in one of the lakes during our lunch break, following the example of some brave Europeans. As we turned up the last leg of the W we found ourselves going straight uphill on a narrow ledge, in a wind tunnel with pebbles flying in our faces - it was intense for a little while. After a break at Refugio Chileno we went up to Campamento Torres where we dropped our things are the first campsite we saw. We had a very social dinner and met "The Russian," "The Crazy NY Lady," two Australians our age who are both doing long term South America trips during their summer break and accidentally met up to do the trek together, and reunited with "The German." 7 hours.
Sat 11/28 - after my best night of sleep because I discovered a pouch in the sleeping bag that is meant to be a pillow stuffed with your belongings, we woke up around 4 to go up to our last mirador, from which you get a good view of the famous Torres, in time for sunrise. The fact that this was after 3 of some of the most physically demanding days I have ever lived through, combined with a very steep climb on rocks, sand, and through thick forest after we lost the trail, made this the hands down hardest part for me and morally I kind of wanted to give up, sit down and tear up. As a group of 6 Israeli guys panted right along with me I was wondering how I figured that little old out-of-shape me could be doing the same thing as men who had just finished years of army training. We ended up at the top of a different mountain because we lost the trail and even though the tips of the Torres were in a bit of a fog, the view from up there was still incredible. The way down was pretty fast and easy, although my knees were shaking by the end, and sadly not the best views of the trip to end with - it was just lots of sandy, rocky barrenness. Because of that, and then we had to wait around for hours for the shuttle out of the park, the end was almost anticlimactic but damn the actual trek was not. Less than 4 hours today. While waiting for the shuttle we bonded with the the two Australians and six Israelis, exchanged inappropriate phrases that we knew in Hebrew and Spanish respectively ("Quieres semi-cama conmigo?" "Pitma"), named all the foods we missed, and passed around a box of wine that NY lady bought at the first convenience store. Some people said that Alli and I both were crazy to take me on the W for my first ever trek but I'm so glad I did because I don't know that I would ever do this if not now and, like I said, my mind doesn't believe that I am capable of things that apparently my body says I am. Every hour was a different thought, from "well hey, look at me, I'm really doing this, this is nice, maybe I'd like to do more of this in my life" to "this is a once in a lifetime trip so put a smile on your face and enjoy it, once, as in never again am I doing this." Thank you Alli for taking me, I hope I wasn't too whiny or slow because I tried my best, and I hope you had as good of a time there as you wished. After a shower, brushing through my hair and putting on different clothes I felt like a different person. Was it even me that had just hiked for 4 days with a huge backpack? The pack by the way was not nearly as difficult as I had thought, the waist strap makes it quite comfortable.
Sun 11/29 - we almost missed our bus because we got caught up at breakfast and forgot that 3 blocks is still a distance. On the bus to El Calafate , Argentina I had too much time to listen to Israeli music and get pensive/panicky about my life. This continent is full of young Israelis traveling for many months all over the place after their time in the army. It just makes me question my life although I can never really answer the question of whether I would like to just pick up and go somewhere without plans and without ties. I don't think I would really be happy with that, my happiness is very dependent on my relationships with people and I get too attached to them to be that independent. A lot of things on this trip reminded me of my brother and I thought about his effects on me, inconclusively. After sneaking some fruit across the border and driving through hours of plateaus with nothing but sheep in sight, we arrived in El Calafate , a cutesy tourist town full of chocolate and souvenir shops. It's interesting why even though as a country Chile is better off economically, Argentina feels wealthier, more showy somehow. +2 for Chile: we get tap water for free in restaurants and we have turkey. Che Lagarto Hostel was unexpectedly new and hip and we ran into a few people from Torres del Paine because everyone has a similar itinerary down there.
Mon 11/29 - we decided to splurge on an ice trekking trip to Perito Moreno Glaciar and after observing it from afar from different miradores we got crampons and set off to walk around a glacier. Definitely worth it. We also got to see a big chunk fall off into the lake and cause a huge crashing sound and wave. The tour was finished off with whiskey with fresh glacier ice and my newest favorite treat, alfajores. This was so exciting that it gets a mention: we did laundry!
Tues 12/1 - we almost missed another bus because we thought it was picking us up at the hostel until we decided to check the paper, just in case, 4 minutes before it was leaving from the bus terminal about 15 minutes away, so we ran again and caught it. I almost got in trouble at the border crossing back because I forgot about a tomato I had in my bag and Chile actually checks. Today was all buses, from El Calafate to Puerto Natales and then another to Punta Arenas, but we didn't have to wait at all in between them which was great. We made a habit of being the first people to come in for dinner, because we were back on an American dinner schedule and a toddler's bedtime. Spent the night in Punta Arenas.
Wed 12/2 - we had a roundtrip ticket so the flight was to Santiago but it had a stop in Puerto Montt, where we planned to get off. Amazingly they didn't lose our luggage. After another supermarket run to stock up on bus food we spent another day on a bus, but really they haven't been so bad and we found ways to entertain ourselves (Cosmo in Spanish, getting excited about every town we stopped in, listening to lots of reggaeton and overhearing someone else on the bus listening to the same exact songs, etc). The lakes region of Chile was a great change of scenery with green everywhere. Pucón was a beautiful place, with a lake surrounded by green mountains, a huge smoking snow-covered volcano in the background and a great vibe. It reminded me of all those summers in upstate NY and made me long for a summer roadtrip with friends. I was bit nervous about our trip choices because the famous volcano climb sounded daunting and I wasn't sure if I wanted another 5 hour uphill trek. Alli agreed that we'd probably had enough and she had a cold, so we settled on horseback riding and rafting. After dinner at a place called Volcamburguer, which gets mentioned because I love the name, we watched Knocked-Up at Nativa Hostel.
Thurs 12/3 - woke up to breakfast with Sarah, a hilarious individual, who introduced herself by telling us that she is probably sick because she smoked too much and made out with some Chilean for 3 hours on the beach last night and he's just alright, etc. The 3 hour horseback ride was not the most thrilling thing because we went really slowly and with no real destination, just around the campo (countryside) but it was pretty and we got to see some more sheep. We skipped the "hot springs" because they were just pools filled with hot water and it was quite hot outside. Walked around the town some more and decided to make our own dinner. At night we hung out on the terrace drinking wine with Sarah, her Chilean (who was equally ridiculous), the owner of the hostel and a group of Israeli girls. It was lots of fun, with occasional dancing and singing, the creation of a pitma dance, and invites to visit each other. We almost changed our plans for the next day to go on a hike with one of the girls and her other Israeli friends but then decided to go rafting as planned and not get attached to temporary friends. Then it got a bit messy as one of the girls got upset about a boyfriend she had broken up with to come on the trip. For us the wine only meant that we looked through too many facebook pictures at 2 in the morning and I wrote an email to my family that made them think I was in love with an Israeli boy and staying in Chile.
Fri 12/4 - we considered renting bikes but all of the trails were too long to do a half-day trip so we walked to a different part of the lake, up to a monastery, and finally got some campo queso, which we ate on the beach. Rafting was really duckies, which my best non-technical way to describe is that they are somewhere between a raft and a canoe because they are for one person, but blown-up. We were dressed in a bunch of gear by the driver, and along with one other boy and two guides we were off. It was one of the most fun things I've ever done. So much adrenaline from having to control my own ducky, going through so many rapids, getting turned around backwards so many times, getting stuck on a rock and getting flipped over once. Despite my complete lack of upper-body strength I was alright. Of course we almost missed the last bus of the trip because we got caught up in conversation over dinner and then I just casually glanced at my watch and it was 5 minutes before the bus left. We threw down some money at the restaurant, ran to the hostel through town, grabbed our bags, jumped in a taxi, which we underpaid with our last pesos, and again made it! Before going to sleep on this night bus back to Santiago we made lists of things and people that we did and did not obsess over during the trip - surprisingly long and hilarious.
This was my favorite trip over the semester and I had a great time with Alli. How did we not get sick of each other just the two of us for 11 days and not complain about all those times we were tired and on buses for hours? During other trips I was ready to come back to Santiago and tired of hopping around from hostel to hostel with a bag full of dirty clothes and bad showers, but this time I could have stayed for longer. I would love to come back to the south of Chile, and because after deciding not to climb the volcano I felt doubt instead of relief and everyone told us it was amazing, I think I'll just have to come back and climb it next time.
Congrats, you just read that monster of an entry! Hope it was worth it. Check out the map of everywhere I have been during the past 5 months (link on the side).
Tues 11/24 - after a couple hours of sleep, the best alfajores I have ever had, and a flight attendant who was on a rampage against our comfort we landed in Punta Arenas around 6 am. The city was still asleep. We had some coffee at a fancy hotel while we waited for a bus company to open. We walked back and forth along the main streets looking for a bus that would stop at the penguin colony on the way to Puerto Natales but eventually decided to cut that part of our trip in order to get to Puerto Natales early enough to rent equipment, pack, rest and mentally prepare for the trek in peace. We got lunch and walked around the small, cold town which somehow felt like the tip of the world (which it is, the tip of continental South America, at least). We got to Puerto Natales in the late afternoon to Erratic Rock Hostel - one of the homiest hostels I've been in, family-run, full of useful resources, with amazing American breakfast and buzzing with conversations between those who just got back from and those heading out to Torres del Paine National Park. We rented our equipment (a tent, a camping stove, a hiking backpack, a sleeping bag + pad) and got some quick advice on the schedule we should try to follow in the park. As we were packing in the common room too many people tried to give us advice that just made me nervous (ex. you're bringing lunch?, you've never hiked before?, bringing pitas is brave - which we later found out was said by a girl who had never hiked before...). We tried to bring as little as possible so all hygiene products except toothpaste were left behind. I turned off my nervous thoughts and went to sleep on what later seemed like an amazingly comfortable mattress.
Wed 11/25 - at 7:30 we got on a shuttle to the park. You have got to be determined to get here because the easiest way is a plane, a 3 hour bus and then a 2 hour shuttle! After a short hike to see a waterfall we got on a ferry that brought us to the west side of the W, where we started our trek. We decided that all the people around us were just trying to look intense and we were prepared just as well as them and wouldn't take ourselves too seriously, so we spent the entire ferry ride laughing about stupid things and probably attracting too much attention as usual. Although the day started out sunny and hot, just as we booked our campsite and left our backpacks at Campamento Paine Grande it started to rain - our first encounter with crazy Patagonian weather. When I am at home and it rains I try to avoid going outside, it changes my plans. When I am in Patagonia I put on my hood and start walking. We walked up two hours to the first mirador (lookout point) from which we could see Glacier Grey and feel the knock-you-off-your-feet-no-joke wind. Decided not to keep going to the next mirador because it was quite foggy and we wouldn't be able to see it much better from there. The weather cleared up so we decided to go ahead of schedule, luckily got a refund on the campsite, took a quick break in the refugio and set off, this time with our packs, to Campamento Italiano. Refugios are lodge/hotel type things in a few places along the trail that are a great comfort for those who are badass enough to do the trek but want a bit of a break from being a badass each night (and have the extra money); some are quite nice, and just after we spent too long joking about facebook status updates in a whiny girl voice ("had to hike in the rain and my brand new boots got mud on them," etc.) we saw computers with internet in a refugio. Complete joy and relief is the simplest way to describe our feelings upon seeing the campground; sometimes the approximations of how long a section takes are not exact and by the end of a day you start counting every minute. We set up our small two person tent, made dinner and went to sleep. It stays light down there very late in the summer so I think every night we went to bed before it was completely dark. 7 hours of hiking today.
Thurs 11/26 - we woke up at 11...not very hardcore hiker of us but we did everything we planned to anyway, part of not taking ourselves too seriously. Every muscle in my legs hurt and I was beginning to develop blisters but apparently my body is capable of much more than my mind because I survived 3 more full days of hiking. Another rainy, foggy day. Went up to Valle Frances to the mirador, had lunch back at the campamento, met "The German" and then had our most trying weather. As we walked for over two hours the rain and wind got pretty hard and for part of this we were walking along the shore of a lake so the wind was whipping water off the lake right into our faces. But we kept going, clothes slowly getting soaked and got very luckily at Campamento Los Cuernos because they let us put up our tent inside a half finished addition to their lodge. The best part of that was that our clothes dried and our tent didn't get soaked. Oh yeah, our Thanksgiving dinner was 3 minute pasta, powder soup and someSahne-Nuss as a dessert treat. 6 hours.
Fri 11/27 - we could barely believe our eyes when we woke up to sun but yep, the weather was amazing and we spent most of the day in t-shirts. This was probably my favorite day as we walked under bright skies and past lakes of all kinds of amazing blues, green mountains, snow-capped mountains and meadows. Alli even went for a swim in one of the lakes during our lunch break, following the example of some brave Europeans. As we turned up the last leg of the W we found ourselves going straight uphill on a narrow ledge, in a wind tunnel with pebbles flying in our faces - it was intense for a little while. After a break at Refugio Chileno we went up to Campamento Torres where we dropped our things are the first campsite we saw. We had a very social dinner and met "The Russian," "The Crazy NY Lady," two Australians our age who are both doing long term South America trips during their summer break and accidentally met up to do the trek together, and reunited with "The German." 7 hours.
Sat 11/28 - after my best night of sleep because I discovered a pouch in the sleeping bag that is meant to be a pillow stuffed with your belongings, we woke up around 4 to go up to our last mirador, from which you get a good view of the famous Torres, in time for sunrise. The fact that this was after 3 of some of the most physically demanding days I have ever lived through, combined with a very steep climb on rocks, sand, and through thick forest after we lost the trail, made this the hands down hardest part for me and morally I kind of wanted to give up, sit down and tear up. As a group of 6 Israeli guys panted right along with me I was wondering how I figured that little old out-of-shape me could be doing the same thing as men who had just finished years of army training. We ended up at the top of a different mountain because we lost the trail and even though the tips of the Torres were in a bit of a fog, the view from up there was still incredible. The way down was pretty fast and easy, although my knees were shaking by the end, and sadly not the best views of the trip to end with - it was just lots of sandy, rocky barrenness. Because of that, and then we had to wait around for hours for the shuttle out of the park, the end was almost anticlimactic but damn the actual trek was not. Less than 4 hours today. While waiting for the shuttle we bonded with the the two Australians and six Israelis, exchanged inappropriate phrases that we knew in Hebrew and Spanish respectively ("Quieres semi-cama conmigo?" "Pitma"), named all the foods we missed, and passed around a box of wine that NY lady bought at the first convenience store. Some people said that Alli and I both were crazy to take me on the W for my first ever trek but I'm so glad I did because I don't know that I would ever do this if not now and, like I said, my mind doesn't believe that I am capable of things that apparently my body says I am. Every hour was a different thought, from "well hey, look at me, I'm really doing this, this is nice, maybe I'd like to do more of this in my life" to "this is a once in a lifetime trip so put a smile on your face and enjoy it, once, as in never again am I doing this." Thank you Alli for taking me, I hope I wasn't too whiny or slow because I tried my best, and I hope you had as good of a time there as you wished. After a shower, brushing through my hair and putting on different clothes I felt like a different person. Was it even me that had just hiked for 4 days with a huge backpack? The pack by the way was not nearly as difficult as I had thought, the waist strap makes it quite comfortable.
Sun 11/29 - we almost missed our bus because we got caught up at breakfast and forgot that 3 blocks is still a distance. On the bus to El Calafate , Argentina I had too much time to listen to Israeli music and get pensive/panicky about my life. This continent is full of young Israelis traveling for many months all over the place after their time in the army. It just makes me question my life although I can never really answer the question of whether I would like to just pick up and go somewhere without plans and without ties. I don't think I would really be happy with that, my happiness is very dependent on my relationships with people and I get too attached to them to be that independent. A lot of things on this trip reminded me of my brother and I thought about his effects on me, inconclusively. After sneaking some fruit across the border and driving through hours of plateaus with nothing but sheep in sight, we arrived in El Calafate , a cutesy tourist town full of chocolate and souvenir shops. It's interesting why even though as a country Chile is better off economically, Argentina feels wealthier, more showy somehow. +2 for Chile: we get tap water for free in restaurants and we have turkey. Che Lagarto Hostel was unexpectedly new and hip and we ran into a few people from Torres del Paine because everyone has a similar itinerary down there.
Mon 11/29 - we decided to splurge on an ice trekking trip to Perito Moreno Glaciar and after observing it from afar from different miradores we got crampons and set off to walk around a glacier. Definitely worth it. We also got to see a big chunk fall off into the lake and cause a huge crashing sound and wave. The tour was finished off with whiskey with fresh glacier ice and my newest favorite treat, alfajores. This was so exciting that it gets a mention: we did laundry!
Tues 12/1 - we almost missed another bus because we thought it was picking us up at the hostel until we decided to check the paper, just in case, 4 minutes before it was leaving from the bus terminal about 15 minutes away, so we ran again and caught it. I almost got in trouble at the border crossing back because I forgot about a tomato I had in my bag and Chile actually checks. Today was all buses, from El Calafate to Puerto Natales and then another to Punta Arenas, but we didn't have to wait at all in between them which was great. We made a habit of being the first people to come in for dinner, because we were back on an American dinner schedule and a toddler's bedtime. Spent the night in Punta Arenas.
Wed 12/2 - we had a roundtrip ticket so the flight was to Santiago but it had a stop in Puerto Montt, where we planned to get off. Amazingly they didn't lose our luggage. After another supermarket run to stock up on bus food we spent another day on a bus, but really they haven't been so bad and we found ways to entertain ourselves (Cosmo in Spanish, getting excited about every town we stopped in, listening to lots of reggaeton and overhearing someone else on the bus listening to the same exact songs, etc). The lakes region of Chile was a great change of scenery with green everywhere. Pucón was a beautiful place, with a lake surrounded by green mountains, a huge smoking snow-covered volcano in the background and a great vibe. It reminded me of all those summers in upstate NY and made me long for a summer roadtrip with friends. I was bit nervous about our trip choices because the famous volcano climb sounded daunting and I wasn't sure if I wanted another 5 hour uphill trek. Alli agreed that we'd probably had enough and she had a cold, so we settled on horseback riding and rafting. After dinner at a place called Volcamburguer, which gets mentioned because I love the name, we watched Knocked-Up at Nativa Hostel.
Thurs 12/3 - woke up to breakfast with Sarah, a hilarious individual, who introduced herself by telling us that she is probably sick because she smoked too much and made out with some Chilean for 3 hours on the beach last night and he's just alright, etc. The 3 hour horseback ride was not the most thrilling thing because we went really slowly and with no real destination, just around the campo (countryside) but it was pretty and we got to see some more sheep. We skipped the "hot springs" because they were just pools filled with hot water and it was quite hot outside. Walked around the town some more and decided to make our own dinner. At night we hung out on the terrace drinking wine with Sarah, her Chilean (who was equally ridiculous), the owner of the hostel and a group of Israeli girls. It was lots of fun, with occasional dancing and singing, the creation of a pitma dance, and invites to visit each other. We almost changed our plans for the next day to go on a hike with one of the girls and her other Israeli friends but then decided to go rafting as planned and not get attached to temporary friends. Then it got a bit messy as one of the girls got upset about a boyfriend she had broken up with to come on the trip. For us the wine only meant that we looked through too many facebook pictures at 2 in the morning and I wrote an email to my family that made them think I was in love with an Israeli boy and staying in Chile.
Fri 12/4 - we considered renting bikes but all of the trails were too long to do a half-day trip so we walked to a different part of the lake, up to a monastery, and finally got some campo queso, which we ate on the beach. Rafting was really duckies, which my best non-technical way to describe is that they are somewhere between a raft and a canoe because they are for one person, but blown-up. We were dressed in a bunch of gear by the driver, and along with one other boy and two guides we were off. It was one of the most fun things I've ever done. So much adrenaline from having to control my own ducky, going through so many rapids, getting turned around backwards so many times, getting stuck on a rock and getting flipped over once. Despite my complete lack of upper-body strength I was alright. Of course we almost missed the last bus of the trip because we got caught up in conversation over dinner and then I just casually glanced at my watch and it was 5 minutes before the bus left. We threw down some money at the restaurant, ran to the hostel through town, grabbed our bags, jumped in a taxi, which we underpaid with our last pesos, and again made it! Before going to sleep on this night bus back to Santiago we made lists of things and people that we did and did not obsess over during the trip - surprisingly long and hilarious.
This was my favorite trip over the semester and I had a great time with Alli. How did we not get sick of each other just the two of us for 11 days and not complain about all those times we were tired and on buses for hours? During other trips I was ready to come back to Santiago and tired of hopping around from hostel to hostel with a bag full of dirty clothes and bad showers, but this time I could have stayed for longer. I would love to come back to the south of Chile, and because after deciding not to climb the volcano I felt doubt instead of relief and everyone told us it was amazing, I think I'll just have to come back and climb it next time.
Congrats, you just read that monster of an entry! Hope it was worth it. Check out the map of everywhere I have been during the past 5 months (link on the side).
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Santiago Lasts - the week before the Patagonia trip
I spent an entire day researching the Chilean public education system for my social history paper and trying to piece together something coherent from the random facts I pulled from articles. I gave it in on Thursday at the last class I would be attending (because the semester got extended a week and we all decided to travel during that time anyway) and left during the break in the middle because there was no more reason for me to stay around. Done! There was also a group project assigned about two months ago and after the initial email from my Chilean classmates they never responded to my attempts to participate so I guess they decided it would be easier to do it without trying to assign something I could do. By the time it was due I was in Patagonia anyway. Obviously took my academics very seriously this semester.
Went to my last day of volunteering at the school and my last Miercoles Po.
Went to my last day of volunteering at the school and my last Miercoles Po.
For my Spanish class we all went to see a play in Parque Arauco on Thursday called "Días contados" and I don't cease to be amazed by understanding Spanish.
Friday was a good day. Alli and I went to a bunch of outdoor supplies stores and to Alto Las Condes to get me my first pair of hiking boots for Patagonia. We also went to a supermarket to figure out the food to bring camping and decided that we would have been great in that comedy "Super" that we saw because we are hilarious gringas. We rushed home to bake a ton of pumpkin pies which we had volunteered to do for the Tufts Thanksgiving dinner. The oven caught on fire and it was a bit of a mess but eventually the pies baked, and although we got there an hour late everyone had waited for us. Dinner was really nice at a country club of sorts and everyone got dressed up. Then we got tipsy off the wine they gave us and were not classy enough for the place and had photoshoots on the staircase. Afterwards a bunch of us went to Becca's house (singing Christmas songs and spraying whipped cream into each others mouths), got drinks, played kings, took more pictures, ate the leftover pie with our hands, discussed how each of us is Asian, committed too many bias incidents (poking fun at the uproar at Tufts last year over a bias incident), pretended to call TUPD (Tufts police) with requests for help in Santiago, and practiced Barbie hugs. Quality Tufts-in-Chile bonding night.
Alli and I went to La Vega, the big market, on Saturday to buy trail mix for the trip, and then walked around the downtown/Plaza de Armas area. There was a ton of cheap and delicious summer fruit so we got a bunch to make fruit salad. I looked like tomb raider as I broke in my hiking boots around the city. In a pharmacy I got to help two Russian women from the US ask for a hairbrush. That night we went to Bellavista and while Alli and I waited for Becca, Meera and Emily we walked around and people watched for a bit since we haven't actually been there on weekend nights that many times and then went to a flaite (ghetto) club called Delphos (I think), where I went with Emily and Kamillah way back. Hung out there until the girls got back and then met them at Bar Constitucion, the original plan. It was fun because it was a different vibe, lots of international people, a real DJ spinning music that was different than most places and everyone just dancing really freely. Of course the night had to end by getting fries and completos.
Sunday was the one day this semester that everyone actually did schoolwork all day because we had a paper for Spanish, our Spanish final and our internship journals, which most people didn't keep up to date on.
Monday was kind of frantic with finishing hw, going to the office to print things and pick up money, being late to the Spanish final, and packing but everything worked out and I even had time for a short nap. I made olivye, which made me happy and a bit homesick. Around midnight we got a taxi to the airport and were off on our Patagonia adventure.
Monday, November 16, 2009
The Beginning of the End
The last Tufts group trip was last weekend to La Serena (beach town in the north) and Elqui Valley. We spent most of Friday and Sunday on a bus and Saturday doing random sightseeing, which included a tiny village with the oldest cemetery in Chile, an old church, Gabriela Mistral's tomb (these three are essential on every Tufts trip), a tapestry artists workshop, a dam, and the Mistral Pisco factory, which we got lost on the way to but it was worth it for a hilarious movie from the point of view of a grape as it become pisco. We got to spend a couple of evening hours on the beach but the water was too cold for all but a few brave ones in the group. The coolest part of the trip for me was the Mamalluca Observatory with some very powerful telescopes and knowledgeable guides who told us about all kinds of constellations and astronomical phenomenon and we got to see Jupiter. TheElqui Valley has a lot of observatories that are used for scientific research because it is believed to have the clearest skies in the world. Many hours of bus time meant many Tuftsesque conversations about the our education system and society, ambitions and past world-saving endeavors, etc. Sometimes these make me feel lucky and inspired and sometimes they just wear me out and frustrate me. I think it's a little bit of my cynicism mixed with a little bit of the hypocrisy of such conversations.
Last Tuesday after dance class Alli, Jenny (a girl from the class) and I went to La Chascona, Pablo Neruda's third house, which we hadn't seen yet although it is right here in the city, in the Bellavista neighborhood. As our time here comes to an end we are trying to make a list of things we have to do.
When my sister Andrea got back from a trip to Mexico and we had story and picture time with the family I was happy at the thought that in the future I can travel not only to Cancun but to remote Mexican villages and find my way around. Now all I need is the momentum to plan such trips.
I registered for classes for next semester: two for comp sci, two for the cognitive and brain science major and a Spanish class.
Another highly educational history class was spent making lists of foods to cook next semester when we all live off campus and then Tilly made a wonderful drawing of all of them - just one class left since we're all skipping the last one to travel.
Thursday night Rita Reznikova, who I met at Tufts through Russian Circle when she was a senior my freshman year, called me because she was in Santiago and I went out to dinner with her and her cousin who has an internship in Santiago. It was interesting to have three Russians from different cities in the US having dinner together in Santiago in a Middle Eastern restaurant owned by a Palestinian woman who was born in Jerusalem but has been living here since she was 2. What a world.
Friday was an epic (day) - we may start using epic as a noun instead of an adjective. Meera, Becca, Alli and I agreed to meet up at Starbucks at noon to figure out travel plans. I started out stressed and nervous because everyone had their shit together and I was clueless, but as we sat there until 9 pm things miraculously came together into a pretty great arrangement. Originally the three of them were going to do Patagonia and then go to Buenos Aires, which would mean that both parts would be rushed. In the end they decided it was best for people to do the trip their ideal way, so Becca and Meera will be spending the whole time in Argentina, and Alli will be spending more time in the south and will meet up with them in BA later. Now that you know about my friends' plans, where do I come in? I will be with Alli from Nov 24th until Dec 5th for an epic 11-day trip which will include Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia with a 4 day hike, El Calafate in Argentina to see an enormous glacier, and Pucon in the lakes region of Chile to climb a volcano and go rafting. Again I was very lucky as a great trip more or less fell into my lap. We spent all day thinking up different itinerary options, looking up flights and buses and hostels and all that. If I survive, this will be one of the most amazing things I have ever done, I am sure of it. I will have a few days alone in Santiago to recuperate before coming back to the US, so you all will not have to defrost me :).
This weekend I had a quiet Saturday during which I did odd things around the house, did a bit of non-priority homework (instead of a paper), did some more trip planning and at night Alli and I rented a Chilean movie from Blockbuster and bought a liter of ice cream. Funny thing was that the main character was played by a friend of mine from high school when he was a kid. Although it wasn't the most thrilling of days it was a nice reminder of reality and of the fact that life in Santiago is not a magical nonstop adventure. I am slowly getting more ready to go home and I am definitely missing home food. On Sunday Alli and I checked another thing off the list of things to do and went to the beach in Viña, or more specifically in Reñaca, a 2 hour bus ride away. Although we pigged out on what we once thought was gross Chilean fast food, the water was too cold to swim, and we got sunburned, it was the perfect day for the beach.
Last Tuesday after dance class Alli, Jenny (a girl from the class) and I went to La Chascona, Pablo Neruda's third house, which we hadn't seen yet although it is right here in the city, in the Bellavista neighborhood. As our time here comes to an end we are trying to make a list of things we have to do.
When my sister Andrea got back from a trip to Mexico and we had story and picture time with the family I was happy at the thought that in the future I can travel not only to Cancun but to remote Mexican villages and find my way around. Now all I need is the momentum to plan such trips.
I registered for classes for next semester: two for comp sci, two for the cognitive and brain science major and a Spanish class.
Another highly educational history class was spent making lists of foods to cook next semester when we all live off campus and then Tilly made a wonderful drawing of all of them - just one class left since we're all skipping the last one to travel.
Thursday night Rita Reznikova, who I met at Tufts through Russian Circle when she was a senior my freshman year, called me because she was in Santiago and I went out to dinner with her and her cousin who has an internship in Santiago. It was interesting to have three Russians from different cities in the US having dinner together in Santiago in a Middle Eastern restaurant owned by a Palestinian woman who was born in Jerusalem but has been living here since she was 2. What a world.
Friday was an epic (day) - we may start using epic as a noun instead of an adjective. Meera, Becca, Alli and I agreed to meet up at Starbucks at noon to figure out travel plans. I started out stressed and nervous because everyone had their shit together and I was clueless, but as we sat there until 9 pm things miraculously came together into a pretty great arrangement. Originally the three of them were going to do Patagonia and then go to Buenos Aires, which would mean that both parts would be rushed. In the end they decided it was best for people to do the trip their ideal way, so Becca and Meera will be spending the whole time in Argentina, and Alli will be spending more time in the south and will meet up with them in BA later. Now that you know about my friends' plans, where do I come in? I will be with Alli from Nov 24th until Dec 5th for an epic 11-day trip which will include Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia with a 4 day hike, El Calafate in Argentina to see an enormous glacier, and Pucon in the lakes region of Chile to climb a volcano and go rafting. Again I was very lucky as a great trip more or less fell into my lap. We spent all day thinking up different itinerary options, looking up flights and buses and hostels and all that. If I survive, this will be one of the most amazing things I have ever done, I am sure of it. I will have a few days alone in Santiago to recuperate before coming back to the US, so you all will not have to defrost me :).
This weekend I had a quiet Saturday during which I did odd things around the house, did a bit of non-priority homework (instead of a paper), did some more trip planning and at night Alli and I rented a Chilean movie from Blockbuster and bought a liter of ice cream. Funny thing was that the main character was played by a friend of mine from high school when he was a kid. Although it wasn't the most thrilling of days it was a nice reminder of reality and of the fact that life in Santiago is not a magical nonstop adventure. I am slowly getting more ready to go home and I am definitely missing home food. On Sunday Alli and I checked another thing off the list of things to do and went to the beach in Viña, or more specifically in Reñaca, a 2 hour bus ride away. Although we pigged out on what we once thought was gross Chilean fast food, the water was too cold to swim, and we got sunburned, it was the perfect day for the beach.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Halloween, "Super," y cumpleaños
Halloween weekend: Alli and I went shopping for Halloween costumes in a neighborhood called Patronato, which is full of cheap, tacky, ridiculous clothing that Chileans wear. Although the salespeople didn't find it too funny, we got full body costumes in animal prints - I was a leopard and Alli a zebra. On Friday night was Aaron's (boy from Tufts group) birthday party which started out in a hostel basement and later moved to a club. It was nice to be out with a bunch of Tufts people that we don't see that often outside of Spanish class. Around 4:30 when we left we got the ultimate Chilean food for that time of night: chorillana. On the day of Halloween 5 of us girls had a pregame party at Becca's, including ridiculous photoshoots, and that was so much fun that half of us never made it out like we planned. I got enough looks on my walk over there so it was worth dressing up. The way it is celebrated here is tricky. Some kids go trick-or-treating, many clubs host costume parties, everyone knows what it is, my host mom told me that even 20 years ago when her kids were young they celebrated it here, but then there is a whole sector of the population that doesn't celebrate it at all. Sometime during the weekend some carabineros (policemen) tried to get our numbers.
Last weekend I went to the movies here for the first time and saw a Chilean movie called "Super," which was a stupid comedy without a plot and all takes place in a supermarket. It was quite funny, especially for us because it was very Chile (discussion of the nutrition in a completo, lots of po-ing and huevon-ing, a high school couple in uniforms making out all over the place or fighting, etc.) and I was really excited to be able to watch a movie in Spanish without subtitles and understand it, even though it wasn't exactly challenging content. That and another movie we watched in Spanish class, "La buena vida," inspired me to watch more Spanish movies. I feel a cultural obsession coming on, to be intensified upon return to the US.
Last Wednesday we went to Maca's birthday (Becca's host sister) with an interesting combination of family and friends of all ages who didn't know each other and all kind of stayed in their own space. The 4 of us just ate everything that came our way, as usual. Then when most people left, we sat around talking to Becca's mom and uncle who are really sweet, while Alli and I inconspicuously drank roncolas before going to another very entertaining Miercoles Po. Santiago can be a small world.
I have another paper due for my history class this week and I'm not even sure what the topic is. I should be more worried than I am. Five real classes next semester will be interesting.
Last weekend I went to the movies here for the first time and saw a Chilean movie called "Super," which was a stupid comedy without a plot and all takes place in a supermarket. It was quite funny, especially for us because it was very Chile (discussion of the nutrition in a completo, lots of po-ing and huevon-ing, a high school couple in uniforms making out all over the place or fighting, etc.) and I was really excited to be able to watch a movie in Spanish without subtitles and understand it, even though it wasn't exactly challenging content. That and another movie we watched in Spanish class, "La buena vida," inspired me to watch more Spanish movies. I feel a cultural obsession coming on, to be intensified upon return to the US.
Last Wednesday we went to Maca's birthday (Becca's host sister) with an interesting combination of family and friends of all ages who didn't know each other and all kind of stayed in their own space. The 4 of us just ate everything that came our way, as usual. Then when most people left, we sat around talking to Becca's mom and uncle who are really sweet, while Alli and I inconspicuously drank roncolas before going to another very entertaining Miercoles Po. Santiago can be a small world.
I have another paper due for my history class this week and I'm not even sure what the topic is. I should be more worried than I am. Five real classes next semester will be interesting.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Mostly Buenos Aires
The night before leaving for Buenos Aires I found out that Alli was seriously considering staying for the year and I had a slight internal freak-out on my way home followed by an hour long conversation with Anna which made me feel better. The idea that a close friend may be staying here combined with the feeling of sadness about leaving and not having much free time left here in Santiago and having a fun couple of weeks before this just made me really want to stay. I wondered if I would regret it if I didn't because when else will I have such an opportunity. Do academics and a difference of one semester really matter in the big picture? Just made me question life and overreact for about an hour. I know that in this mindset my life here seems more fun than it actually is and I know that it's the small social things that really make or break an experience and I have plenty of fun in the US and most of my good friends from here are coming right back to Tufts with me. I'm all done freaking out now and although I will be sad to leave, Anna is making me a list of reasons to come home and I bet they will all be worth it :).
Buenos Aires
I was not a well prepared traveler but things worked out. I basically knew nothing about what we were going to do. I barely looked up or planned anything and figured we would just wing it there. We were very lucky to have KateCarpenito , who is studying abroad there right now, show us around. She did most of the research for us and spent every day tour guiding. We didn't have to worry about figuring out the crazy bus system or having much of a sense of direction. Also Emily, a Tufts friend from my program who I travelled with, had a Tufts friend, Sam, studying in BA and he joined us about half the time.
Wed 10/21 - flew in, had lunch with Kate, walked around Palermo Soho, the neighborhood where Kate lives and our hostel was. It isn't called Soho by accident. Very trendy area, lots of boutiques, coffee shops, restaurants, bars, etc. Got out onto a main street, Santa Fe I think, and just generally walked around taking in the sights since it was a rainy day and we were tired from the trip. Walked through a mall. Emily was enamored with the shopping opportunities but we decided that she would do it alone one day. After a nap, a norm on travels now, we had an Indian dinner on pillows and then went to a bar with board games where we played Taboo and Scrabble in Spanish andJanga , which were all really fun. First impressions: like everyone says it felt very European and not like I was in South America. Parts of it reminded me of New York. People are all tall and thin and well-dressed. Coffee shops are at least on every corner and in between them are leather stores. It felt like a bigger city than Santiago although I just looked it up and it isn't, maybe more densely populated or more parts are commercial rather than just residential.
Thurs 10/22 - took the metro, which they call the subte, into the center which reminded me of Times Square with a theater districts and billboards and lots of busy downtown things. CrossedAvenida 9 de Julio, which is over 12 lanes wide I think. Saw the Obelisco, a statue to 400 years since the city's founding. Lots of the key sightseeing was done this day with Plaza de Mayo, Casa Rosada, la Catedral, colonial government building, etc. Then we went to Puerto Madero and walked along the river, which reminded me of the promenade/Brooklyn Heights area back home. Had some delicious happy hour daiquiris at TGIF and felt very unauthentic but satisfied. Had dinner at an amazing middle eastern place and went to bed early for the next day's early start.
Fri 10/23 - took a ferry over to Colonia, Uruguay, the oldest town in Uruguay. It was a tiny little place but cute and we got a small city tour of the historic center, which was more of a shameless advertisement to tell your friends to come visit and think about having your wedding there. The usual lunching, wandering, running into craft fairs, etc. We spent probably too much time inspecting and admiring all of our passport stamps. We took a monster nap when we got back in preparation for an attempt at going out. In BA people don't go to clubs until around 3 so we had to brace ourselves. It ended up being just Emily and I tonight and amazingly we made it until 3, sat in a bar in Plaza Serrano for about 3 hours chatting, and then headed over to ClubNiceto , recommended by a guidebook and Sam. It was fun but not exactly my scene, as I forgot that clubs have different "themes" every night. I can't even categorize the kind of music it was but some combo of jazz, hipster,swingy, alternativey mix with the same sort of crowd. The tired hit me soon after getting there and I wasn't feeling well so I left a bit before Emily and got home around 5.
Sat 10/24 - went to the Recoleta feria (craft market) with Kate while Emily went on her shopping day. Stopped by the Recoleta cemetery to see where Eva Peron is buried. Saw the huge famous metal flower. Then we went to MALBA, an art museum, which currently has an Andy Warhol exhibit. Dinner was a big happy Tufts family with more friends studying in BA, and some of their friends from their programs, at a very friendly family restaurant with traditional northern Argentine stews. After that we went out to Plaza Serrano again where I was horrible at darts but enjoyed trying.
Sun 10/25 - San Telmo street fair, which is only on Sundays, was an interesting mix of all the standard souvenirs and antique sections with the randomnest merchandise I have ever seen. Sam bought a ram's skull from a man dressed as a Native American, which was probably the highlight of the day. Ran into another fair in a nice large park and although I barely bought anything at any of them they were nice to see. People drinking matte everywhere - a lot of people carry around thermoses with hot water and their gourds and just bust out matte on the street. My stomach hurt for no reason and I kind of wanted to curl up into a ball for most of the day - Emily and I later discussed how we are getting old and probably have to pay attention to what we eat. Generally this whole week we ate way too much because we had to go out for every meal and because walking around a city when you get tired the best way to rest is to stop by a cafe, get a snack, etc. We had considered going to see tango, either at a fancy show or at a milonga, a place where locals go to dance tango and often before it starts a lesson is offered for curious tourists, but left it for the last night when it was late and we were tired. Unfortunately we didn't end up seeing tango, which is probably something we should have done in BA, but oh well, another time. We also didn't do the other famous tourist thing, which is go to see La Boca, the area with the famous colorful houses, but everyone told us that it is just a couple of blocks of those houses that are in all the pictures and otherwise there is nothing to do there, so we passed on that. I also didn't buy anything leather or try matte. Bad tourist?
Mon 10/26 - walked around our neighborhood some more and looked into some of the shops. We forgot to check out of our hostel and just went out for the day but it wasn't a problem. Met up with Sam and Kate for our last lunch at a parrilla, a place with the famous Argentine grilled meat. Then we all went to a large park in Palermo to see a rose garden that was closed and maybe go for a boat ride but we only found the lake without boats. Still it was pretty and afterward we stopped by the Botanical Gardens. After a slightly delayed flight, on which Emily and I made up a great movie script, we got home after 3 in the morning.
Overall: I was really tired for most of the trip and wasn't feeling fantastic. I think that objectively BA is a much nicer city than Santiago but I am happy that I chose to be here instead. I feel like I am getting a more different experience which is what I wanted. I am happy to be on a Tufts program because it is small and personal and we all know each other and get to have 20 new friends back at Tufts. Because of the timing of the trip, with how I was feeling a bit torn about leaving Chile right before going to BA, I think that I wasn't as amazed by BA as I may have been at a different time. Maybe I was a bit resistant to liking BA as a tourist, maybe I was tired, maybe I'm getting a bit jaded from all this traveling. Also because Emily is not having the best time in Santiago primarily because of her host family, is homesick and excited to leave, and was so in love with BA, I probably felt like I had to defend Santiago and maybe because of that too didn't fall in love with BA. Kate also cannot wait to go back home and really misses her family, friends and boyfriend. I'm sure that if I had studied there I would have loved it but it didn't give me that magical feeling that I sometimes get walking through cities like NY. I was happy to go back to Santiago and I've noticed a trend that I feel a bit homesick when I get back from travels, probably just due to exhaustion.
This Tuesday Alli and I baked awesome cupcakes that we decorated with a Halloween theme with different colored frosting and M&Ms as a present for Diego. It was the height of my artistic abilities and creativity.
I have come to really appreciate and like my host family. Compared to some people's stories of how their host moms tell them they are fat, snoop around their rooms, etc. my family is great. I have complete freedom but they are also always happy to see me and hear about my travels, etc. We had a good night this week that reminded me of home. My mom, my sister and I had once (teatime), which we almost never do, and talked and laughed about how "low fat" the crepes and manjar were. Then we planned out who was going to have to hide which favorite jam from whom because we all felt fat but were joking about it. Currently I have my sister's favorite orange jam in my room and she has the manjar in hers.
Buenos Aires
I was not a well prepared traveler but things worked out. I basically knew nothing about what we were going to do. I barely looked up or planned anything and figured we would just wing it there. We were very lucky to have KateCarpenito , who is studying abroad there right now, show us around. She did most of the research for us and spent every day tour guiding. We didn't have to worry about figuring out the crazy bus system or having much of a sense of direction. Also Emily, a Tufts friend from my program who I travelled with, had a Tufts friend, Sam, studying in BA and he joined us about half the time.
Wed 10/21 - flew in, had lunch with Kate, walked around Palermo Soho, the neighborhood where Kate lives and our hostel was. It isn't called Soho by accident. Very trendy area, lots of boutiques, coffee shops, restaurants, bars, etc. Got out onto a main street, Santa Fe I think, and just generally walked around taking in the sights since it was a rainy day and we were tired from the trip. Walked through a mall. Emily was enamored with the shopping opportunities but we decided that she would do it alone one day. After a nap, a norm on travels now, we had an Indian dinner on pillows and then went to a bar with board games where we played Taboo and Scrabble in Spanish andJanga , which were all really fun. First impressions: like everyone says it felt very European and not like I was in South America. Parts of it reminded me of New York. People are all tall and thin and well-dressed. Coffee shops are at least on every corner and in between them are leather stores. It felt like a bigger city than Santiago although I just looked it up and it isn't, maybe more densely populated or more parts are commercial rather than just residential.
Thurs 10/22 - took the metro, which they call the subte, into the center which reminded me of Times Square with a theater districts and billboards and lots of busy downtown things. CrossedAvenida 9 de Julio, which is over 12 lanes wide I think. Saw the Obelisco, a statue to 400 years since the city's founding. Lots of the key sightseeing was done this day with Plaza de Mayo, Casa Rosada, la Catedral, colonial government building, etc. Then we went to Puerto Madero and walked along the river, which reminded me of the promenade/Brooklyn Heights area back home. Had some delicious happy hour daiquiris at TGIF and felt very unauthentic but satisfied. Had dinner at an amazing middle eastern place and went to bed early for the next day's early start.
Fri 10/23 - took a ferry over to Colonia, Uruguay, the oldest town in Uruguay. It was a tiny little place but cute and we got a small city tour of the historic center, which was more of a shameless advertisement to tell your friends to come visit and think about having your wedding there. The usual lunching, wandering, running into craft fairs, etc. We spent probably too much time inspecting and admiring all of our passport stamps. We took a monster nap when we got back in preparation for an attempt at going out. In BA people don't go to clubs until around 3 so we had to brace ourselves. It ended up being just Emily and I tonight and amazingly we made it until 3, sat in a bar in Plaza Serrano for about 3 hours chatting, and then headed over to ClubNiceto , recommended by a guidebook and Sam. It was fun but not exactly my scene, as I forgot that clubs have different "themes" every night. I can't even categorize the kind of music it was but some combo of jazz, hipster,swingy, alternativey mix with the same sort of crowd. The tired hit me soon after getting there and I wasn't feeling well so I left a bit before Emily and got home around 5.
Sat 10/24 - went to the Recoleta feria (craft market) with Kate while Emily went on her shopping day. Stopped by the Recoleta cemetery to see where Eva Peron is buried. Saw the huge famous metal flower. Then we went to MALBA, an art museum, which currently has an Andy Warhol exhibit. Dinner was a big happy Tufts family with more friends studying in BA, and some of their friends from their programs, at a very friendly family restaurant with traditional northern Argentine stews. After that we went out to Plaza Serrano again where I was horrible at darts but enjoyed trying.
Sun 10/25 - San Telmo street fair, which is only on Sundays, was an interesting mix of all the standard souvenirs and antique sections with the randomnest merchandise I have ever seen. Sam bought a ram's skull from a man dressed as a Native American, which was probably the highlight of the day. Ran into another fair in a nice large park and although I barely bought anything at any of them they were nice to see. People drinking matte everywhere - a lot of people carry around thermoses with hot water and their gourds and just bust out matte on the street. My stomach hurt for no reason and I kind of wanted to curl up into a ball for most of the day - Emily and I later discussed how we are getting old and probably have to pay attention to what we eat. Generally this whole week we ate way too much because we had to go out for every meal and because walking around a city when you get tired the best way to rest is to stop by a cafe, get a snack, etc. We had considered going to see tango, either at a fancy show or at a milonga, a place where locals go to dance tango and often before it starts a lesson is offered for curious tourists, but left it for the last night when it was late and we were tired. Unfortunately we didn't end up seeing tango, which is probably something we should have done in BA, but oh well, another time. We also didn't do the other famous tourist thing, which is go to see La Boca, the area with the famous colorful houses, but everyone told us that it is just a couple of blocks of those houses that are in all the pictures and otherwise there is nothing to do there, so we passed on that. I also didn't buy anything leather or try matte. Bad tourist?
Mon 10/26 - walked around our neighborhood some more and looked into some of the shops. We forgot to check out of our hostel and just went out for the day but it wasn't a problem. Met up with Sam and Kate for our last lunch at a parrilla, a place with the famous Argentine grilled meat. Then we all went to a large park in Palermo to see a rose garden that was closed and maybe go for a boat ride but we only found the lake without boats. Still it was pretty and afterward we stopped by the Botanical Gardens. After a slightly delayed flight, on which Emily and I made up a great movie script, we got home after 3 in the morning.
Overall: I was really tired for most of the trip and wasn't feeling fantastic. I think that objectively BA is a much nicer city than Santiago but I am happy that I chose to be here instead. I feel like I am getting a more different experience which is what I wanted. I am happy to be on a Tufts program because it is small and personal and we all know each other and get to have 20 new friends back at Tufts. Because of the timing of the trip, with how I was feeling a bit torn about leaving Chile right before going to BA, I think that I wasn't as amazed by BA as I may have been at a different time. Maybe I was a bit resistant to liking BA as a tourist, maybe I was tired, maybe I'm getting a bit jaded from all this traveling. Also because Emily is not having the best time in Santiago primarily because of her host family, is homesick and excited to leave, and was so in love with BA, I probably felt like I had to defend Santiago and maybe because of that too didn't fall in love with BA. Kate also cannot wait to go back home and really misses her family, friends and boyfriend. I'm sure that if I had studied there I would have loved it but it didn't give me that magical feeling that I sometimes get walking through cities like NY. I was happy to go back to Santiago and I've noticed a trend that I feel a bit homesick when I get back from travels, probably just due to exhaustion.
This Tuesday Alli and I baked awesome cupcakes that we decorated with a Halloween theme with different colored frosting and M&Ms as a present for Diego. It was the height of my artistic abilities and creativity.
I have come to really appreciate and like my host family. Compared to some people's stories of how their host moms tell them they are fat, snoop around their rooms, etc. my family is great. I have complete freedom but they are also always happy to see me and hear about my travels, etc. We had a good night this week that reminded me of home. My mom, my sister and I had once (teatime), which we almost never do, and talked and laughed about how "low fat" the crepes and manjar were. Then we planned out who was going to have to hide which favorite jam from whom because we all felt fat but were joking about it. Currently I have my sister's favorite orange jam in my room and she has the manjar in hers.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Mendoza and Some Fun Times in Good Old Santiago
Last Tuesday (10/6) after dance class I had lunch at La Vega, the big market I visited the week before, with Alli and another girl from class. It was great and incredibly cheap. Some Chileans don't even know that there is prepared food there because they do not go there. Another social class difference - the rich do not shop at La Vega. Then as Alli and I were walking to the office we passed a movie theater and saw a HUGE line down the entire block so we stood around trying to figure out what it was all about. We asked the security guard and he said tickets were only $2 that day. As we turned around a TV camera and interviewer were right in front of us and asked what we were seeing that day. Alli answered something along the lines of "oh we are just here looking at the line because we are confused." We laughed for a few blocks about how they would definitely toss that bit. That night a friend of ours said she saw that clip on CNN. FML but really hilarious. That night Alli, Becca and I made butternut bisque at Becca's house - they like to cook and introduce Becca's Chilean family to new cuisines.
Last Wednesday after class Alli, Becca and I went to Maca's house to make fajitas and watch Sex and the City. Spanish subtitles on that show are hilarious. Generally everything is funnier in Spanish. We spend a lot of time laughing at the actual meaning of the things we say incorrectly. Reflexive verbs are a hoot.
I got back my paper for the history class and got 4.7/7 which I think is considered decent. In any case I was happy with it because I'm taking it pass/fail anyway. The professor made zero constructive criticism and just scribbled illegible things all over my references page, which I believe I know how to do after psych classes at Tufts.
Mendoza
Thursday 10/8 - After frantically packing and skyping mom, dad and Anna after class, Alli, Becca and I headed to Mendoza, Argentina on an overnight bus. We got to the wrong bus terminal but luckily the right one was only a few blocks away. Around 2 we were woken up for an hour of standing in the cold for customs which was painfully slow.
Friday 10/9 - After a nap at the hostel we spent the whole day exploring the city on foot. We saw all of the plazas, some of the major streets, and their big park. All day we made mental lists of things where Chile vs. Argentina get a point. (Chile: creatively gross hair, Cerro San Cristobal, completos, currency, Plaza de Armas, po, cabs) (Argentina: pastries, the statue on top of the cerro, unidentified meats, height of males, clothing, customs officials). We had mixed parrilla, the traditional grilled meat, for lunch and I'm really not a carnivore. After another nap we stumbled upon a celebration of Spanish culture in honor of Columbus Day aka Día de la raza in a plaza. We got great paella and sangria and watched a performance of Spanish dance.
Saturday 10/10 - We went on a bike tour of wineries. Saw 3 different wineries where they explained the process, gave us a tour, gave us samples and taught us how to be pretentious about drinking wine. Who knew a wine could smell like honey and pineapple but taste like tobacco (or other such hilarious descriptions)? For no reason at all I fell of my bike and scraped my knee but luckily didn't break another front tooth. The tour also included an olive oil factory and a chocolate/liquor factory. At night we met up with Alli's friend who is studying in Mendoza and his gringo friends and had dinner at a fancy Italian place followed by very not fancy wine at a gas station with a patio. We considered going out but were tired and had another early day ahead of us.
Sunday 10/11 - We went rafting which included a lot more time waiting around than being in the water but it was fun. We got to wear full body wetsuits and still freeze when the water splashed us.
Monday 10/12 - Instead of 7 or 8 hours, it took us 12 hours to get back to Santiago. A one lane road with lots of people coming back after the long weekend, a protest blocking the road, really slow customs and I don't know what else, caused this. We spent at least 3 full hours in standstill traffic. Children got out of their cars and sled down the snow on the Andes. Not sure if it was worth it but the idea was to go during the day to see the beautiful drive through the Andes and beautiful it was.
Traveling has been great and I've never seen so much in my life but I always come back so tired and looking forward to some down time and just staying in Santiago. We are all beginning to understand why people say you should stay for a year. With only half a year you try to fit in so many things that you don't spend enough time just living in Santiago. By the time you are comfortable with the city and the language and have started to make some Chilean friends it is time to go. The thought of that makes me sad and even though we still have almost 2 months left I already don't want to leave. Two people have decided to extend for the full year and I think in the back of our minds many have considered it but for me it is not a serious option. I need to go back to Tufts because I am not doing anything academic here for my major. Sometimes I have to convince myself that I really care about my major. Also I am not staying because most of my friends from the program are leaving and it would not be the same at all and I would probably just be homesick without them.
Last Wednesday while teaching English a girl in 11th grade asked me if I want to have children. I told her yes but not for a long time because I am too young. She told me she has a 4 month old. This is a very common thing in Chile but I was surprised because my school is not an average school and it is not common with girls in my school. Then when I thought about it I realized that my surprise was ridiculous. With minimal sex ed. (if any) and outlawed abortions I should be surprised that more people aren't pregnant. I definitely took sex ed. for granted and we always acted like it was so obvious and we knew all that stuff on our own but that is not true. We are lucky to have all that stuff drilled into our heads repeatedly.
Last Wednesday was also one of the most fun nights I have had in Chile. Alli's friend invited her over to watch a soccer game with his friends and she invited me. It was about 8 of us and everything about it was very Chile. Soccer, completos and piscolas - what more can you ask for? This was the first full game I had ever seen, Chile vs. Ecuador, and when Chile won everyone was running around in the streets and yelling. Afterwards we learned that in Chile they play kings too, and call it cuarto rey. It was just really fun to hang out with people our age.
During some group work in my history class this week I got to talk to some of my classmates, after an initial awkward period during which I tried to understand what they were saying to each other and had nothing to contribute to the discussion. It was nice and agrees with my theory that individually Chileans are really nice and want to get to know us. Also it was nice to learn that they dislike the class as well. They thought it was hilarious that none of us are majoring in anything remotely related to Anthropology, Sociology or History but are in the class.
This Friday Alli and I baked a birthday cake for Becca for Saturday. It was my first time baking here but like others had said it was an experience. Ovens don't have temperatures on the dial, there is no baking aisle in the supermarket, they didn't have a mixer at home, the only pan they had was enormous and the vanilla cake mix had a very strong lemon scent. It turned out alright because how bad can a cake called "Better-Than-Sex" with chocolate, an entire can of condensed milk and bag of manjar, whipped cream and strawberries be.
Friday night my host brother invited me to come out with him and his friends for terremotos (those wine-like drinks with pineapple ice cream that I have mentioned before) because they have made an institution of trying them at different bars. Becca, Alli and I went with him and around 8 of his friends who were really excited about gringas. The bar was equally as sketchy as La Piojera where we first tried terremotos but the drinks and the chorrillana were delicious. For most of the night his friends spoke English with us to practice. After we went to another bar in Bellavista and had a long discussion about different cultural norms here and what they think of Americans. After that we went to a club called Tunnel in Bellas Artes but it wasn't even midnight and that is way too early to go out here so the place was empty and the music was horrible. Sitting in an empty club we got bored and tired and the boys got drunk and annoying. It was overall fun and really nice of my brother to invite me.
Saturday I stayed home instead of going on what sounded like a boring trip and going to Pomaire (the pottery town) again with Becca because I needed to get some work done before leaving for BA. Finally started, and almost finished, my internship journal this weekend, which I have been putting off for over a month. At night I went out to celebrate Becca's birthday. First we had dinner and cake at her house and then we went out to Teclados Bar in Vitacura (the really rich neighborhood) with Maca and Rodrigo, one of their friends, a bunch of people from the group and one of Becca's Chilean friends from class. You can tell you are in the rich neighborhood by the crowd, Santiago can be full of interesting contrasts that way. We considered going out dancing afterward but didn't leave until 3 at which point there was only an hour until the club closed so we called it a night.
Buenos Aires on Wednesday, which I am looking forward to a lot. It is nice not to have to plan every detail because in a city you can kind of wing it day-by-day. Unfortunately I will come back to another paper and group project for my history class waiting for me. I still have so many things on my list of places to go to in Santiago and so little time. I don't foresee myself having a lot of free/bored time in the next two months.
Last Wednesday after class Alli, Becca and I went to Maca's house to make fajitas and watch Sex and the City. Spanish subtitles on that show are hilarious. Generally everything is funnier in Spanish. We spend a lot of time laughing at the actual meaning of the things we say incorrectly. Reflexive verbs are a hoot.
I got back my paper for the history class and got 4.7/7 which I think is considered decent. In any case I was happy with it because I'm taking it pass/fail anyway. The professor made zero constructive criticism and just scribbled illegible things all over my references page, which I believe I know how to do after psych classes at Tufts.
Mendoza
Thursday 10/8 - After frantically packing and skyping mom, dad and Anna after class, Alli, Becca and I headed to Mendoza, Argentina on an overnight bus. We got to the wrong bus terminal but luckily the right one was only a few blocks away. Around 2 we were woken up for an hour of standing in the cold for customs which was painfully slow.
Friday 10/9 - After a nap at the hostel we spent the whole day exploring the city on foot. We saw all of the plazas, some of the major streets, and their big park. All day we made mental lists of things where Chile vs. Argentina get a point. (Chile: creatively gross hair, Cerro San Cristobal, completos, currency, Plaza de Armas, po, cabs) (Argentina: pastries, the statue on top of the cerro, unidentified meats, height of males, clothing, customs officials). We had mixed parrilla, the traditional grilled meat, for lunch and I'm really not a carnivore. After another nap we stumbled upon a celebration of Spanish culture in honor of Columbus Day aka Día de la raza in a plaza. We got great paella and sangria and watched a performance of Spanish dance.
Saturday 10/10 - We went on a bike tour of wineries. Saw 3 different wineries where they explained the process, gave us a tour, gave us samples and taught us how to be pretentious about drinking wine. Who knew a wine could smell like honey and pineapple but taste like tobacco (or other such hilarious descriptions)? For no reason at all I fell of my bike and scraped my knee but luckily didn't break another front tooth. The tour also included an olive oil factory and a chocolate/liquor factory. At night we met up with Alli's friend who is studying in Mendoza and his gringo friends and had dinner at a fancy Italian place followed by very not fancy wine at a gas station with a patio. We considered going out but were tired and had another early day ahead of us.
Sunday 10/11 - We went rafting which included a lot more time waiting around than being in the water but it was fun. We got to wear full body wetsuits and still freeze when the water splashed us.
Monday 10/12 - Instead of 7 or 8 hours, it took us 12 hours to get back to Santiago. A one lane road with lots of people coming back after the long weekend, a protest blocking the road, really slow customs and I don't know what else, caused this. We spent at least 3 full hours in standstill traffic. Children got out of their cars and sled down the snow on the Andes. Not sure if it was worth it but the idea was to go during the day to see the beautiful drive through the Andes and beautiful it was.
Traveling has been great and I've never seen so much in my life but I always come back so tired and looking forward to some down time and just staying in Santiago. We are all beginning to understand why people say you should stay for a year. With only half a year you try to fit in so many things that you don't spend enough time just living in Santiago. By the time you are comfortable with the city and the language and have started to make some Chilean friends it is time to go. The thought of that makes me sad and even though we still have almost 2 months left I already don't want to leave. Two people have decided to extend for the full year and I think in the back of our minds many have considered it but for me it is not a serious option. I need to go back to Tufts because I am not doing anything academic here for my major. Sometimes I have to convince myself that I really care about my major. Also I am not staying because most of my friends from the program are leaving and it would not be the same at all and I would probably just be homesick without them.
Last Wednesday while teaching English a girl in 11th grade asked me if I want to have children. I told her yes but not for a long time because I am too young. She told me she has a 4 month old. This is a very common thing in Chile but I was surprised because my school is not an average school and it is not common with girls in my school. Then when I thought about it I realized that my surprise was ridiculous. With minimal sex ed. (if any) and outlawed abortions I should be surprised that more people aren't pregnant. I definitely took sex ed. for granted and we always acted like it was so obvious and we knew all that stuff on our own but that is not true. We are lucky to have all that stuff drilled into our heads repeatedly.
Last Wednesday was also one of the most fun nights I have had in Chile. Alli's friend invited her over to watch a soccer game with his friends and she invited me. It was about 8 of us and everything about it was very Chile. Soccer, completos and piscolas - what more can you ask for? This was the first full game I had ever seen, Chile vs. Ecuador, and when Chile won everyone was running around in the streets and yelling. Afterwards we learned that in Chile they play kings too, and call it cuarto rey. It was just really fun to hang out with people our age.
During some group work in my history class this week I got to talk to some of my classmates, after an initial awkward period during which I tried to understand what they were saying to each other and had nothing to contribute to the discussion. It was nice and agrees with my theory that individually Chileans are really nice and want to get to know us. Also it was nice to learn that they dislike the class as well. They thought it was hilarious that none of us are majoring in anything remotely related to Anthropology, Sociology or History but are in the class.
This Friday Alli and I baked a birthday cake for Becca for Saturday. It was my first time baking here but like others had said it was an experience. Ovens don't have temperatures on the dial, there is no baking aisle in the supermarket, they didn't have a mixer at home, the only pan they had was enormous and the vanilla cake mix had a very strong lemon scent. It turned out alright because how bad can a cake called "Better-Than-Sex" with chocolate, an entire can of condensed milk and bag of manjar, whipped cream and strawberries be.
Friday night my host brother invited me to come out with him and his friends for terremotos (those wine-like drinks with pineapple ice cream that I have mentioned before) because they have made an institution of trying them at different bars. Becca, Alli and I went with him and around 8 of his friends who were really excited about gringas. The bar was equally as sketchy as La Piojera where we first tried terremotos but the drinks and the chorrillana were delicious. For most of the night his friends spoke English with us to practice. After we went to another bar in Bellavista and had a long discussion about different cultural norms here and what they think of Americans. After that we went to a club called Tunnel in Bellas Artes but it wasn't even midnight and that is way too early to go out here so the place was empty and the music was horrible. Sitting in an empty club we got bored and tired and the boys got drunk and annoying. It was overall fun and really nice of my brother to invite me.
Saturday I stayed home instead of going on what sounded like a boring trip and going to Pomaire (the pottery town) again with Becca because I needed to get some work done before leaving for BA. Finally started, and almost finished, my internship journal this weekend, which I have been putting off for over a month. At night I went out to celebrate Becca's birthday. First we had dinner and cake at her house and then we went out to Teclados Bar in Vitacura (the really rich neighborhood) with Maca and Rodrigo, one of their friends, a bunch of people from the group and one of Becca's Chilean friends from class. You can tell you are in the rich neighborhood by the crowd, Santiago can be full of interesting contrasts that way. We considered going out dancing afterward but didn't leave until 3 at which point there was only an hour until the club closed so we called it a night.
Buenos Aires on Wednesday, which I am looking forward to a lot. It is nice not to have to plan every detail because in a city you can kind of wing it day-by-day. Unfortunately I will come back to another paper and group project for my history class waiting for me. I still have so many things on my list of places to go to in Santiago and so little time. I don't foresee myself having a lot of free/bored time in the next two months.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Over the Hump, Unfortunately
I came home from vacation to a small package from Tanya with a card and a frame with a picture of us. At the same time I saw a facebook album of a party at the Russian house. I felt a pang of homesickness. It was momentary and I think being tired from all the travel was a part of it. Now as I try to plan future travels and flip through the months on the calendar I see that there is so little time left. It has been half already and I'm not ready to leave. Getting back to Santiago at that "midway point" made a lot of us reflect a bit I think. I realized how very unintegrated I feel here. Not that I feel out of place but it's as if we have carved out our own place within Santiago and live comfortably in it but not so much in the actual community. I don't really have any Chilean friends and I have very few interactions with any of the students in my classes. It makes complete sense: the Chileans have known each other since childhood, take all of their classes together because of the carrera system at the universities (very rigid, unlike a major, so almost all of your classes are in your field) and live at home. We are friends with each other because we have personalities in English and it's nice to be able to express that. So individually I think a Chilean and a gringo would be interested in getting to know each other but with two groups neither is willing to approach the other and risk being an unwelcome intruder. It's not all so grim. Sometimes we hang out with friends' host siblings, some people have friends through a program called Tandem (language exchange basically), sometimes we meet randos at bars but still for the most part we are with each other. On that note I have become pretty good friends with a bunch of people in the group, which is nice, and I look forward to knowing 20 more people back in Boston.
For my only real class, Social History of Chile, our first paper was due this past Friday so ever since break it had been hanging over me. Like most of the Chilean students, I had barely done any of the reading for the class. The professor is a bit crazy and most of the lecture is a tangent so we haven't learned too much in class. The readings he assigned are also somewhat random tidbits of history. So for us, having no background in Chilean history, this paper was quite a challenge. The question: What were the principal sociopolitical and/or economic tensions in the 19th century (and how did they contribute to Chile as it is today - which he let us omit from our essays since we really don't know how Chile is today). My background knowledge came mostly from Wikipedia - Tufts would be ashamed - and I pulled random bits from the readings just to fulfill the minimum number of sources requirement. In the end, after countless hours of procrastination and eating most things in my house, I wrote a 4.5 page history paper in Spanish and my host mom even said it was good. I often regret staying in this class because it is disorganized and really painful to sit through 3 hour lectures (so sometimes I just play solitaire on my ipod) but then I remind myself that I've had bad classes and crazy professors at Tufts too and I've survived. Why did I think it was a good idea to take a class in Spanish on a topic that I would be intimidated to study back home?
Volunteering for English Opens Doors is in full swing. I have been placed in a very good public junior and high school so most of the students have remarkable English. So far I have usually been asked to sit with groups of about 5 girls in the library and just talk to them. They have all been very interested to learn about me and the United States. I guess there are many observations I have made and more that I could say but it isn't coming to me right now. I also haven't started keeping the internship journal that I'm supposed to, so me not having much to say right now is a bad sign. Must get on that.
My host mom left for almost a week to visit family in the south where they are from. I like having her around but I also enjoyed having even more independence that I usually do. I liked that she stocked the fridge with a month's supply of my favorite foods. Not having to watch those stupid fake judge shows on daytime TV during lunch was also nice.
Kate Carpenito, who is studying abroad in Buenos Aires this semester, came to Chile for a weekend with a friend and we got to hang out. It was really nice to see her and interesting to be a tour guide instead of a tourist. Unfortunately the weather was pretty crummy and on weekends the city is generally pretty dead but we had dinner on Saturday night and went to a party at my friend's house and on Sunday we walked around the city, saw some of the main sites and had teatime at my house. It accidentally came up that she is living in a house off campus with space in it so we got really excited about the prospects of living together. Then it turned out that the second free room was just given to some boy and Alli was actually about the take the third room. We would really love to live with the three of us girls because we all know each other and would bake and get along but I don't think it's going to happen. That just opened up a whole new issue because now I like the idea of having a kitchen and am looking at subletting a room instead of living in a dorm but don't like the idea of moving into a house with a group of close friends who I don't know. Currently sans decisions.
On Tuesday for dance class (actually had nothing to do with dance) I went with Alli to La Vega, El Mercado Central and Plaza de Armas. La Vega was an amazing, enormous market with endless piles of delicious looking fruits and vegetables, a meat market with some graphic displays, random stands like styrofoam cups and scattered tiny restaurants with cheap home cooked food. We got fresh squeezed juice and just wandered around for a while. I'm a big fan of open air markets. El Mercado is much classier and smaller and mostly a seafood market and nice restaurants.
Today was a success with planning travel. This next weekend is a long weekend so I am going to Mendoza, Argentina (across the Andes basically) with Alli and Becca. Then on the 21st I am going to Buenos Aires with Emily. There is still more planning to be done but it will be good because we are going to meet up with friends who are abroad there and try to go to Uruguay for a day. I wish I could go everywhere in South America and fill up my little Google map with markers. Now I think the only trip left is to the south of Chile at the end of the semester. I think that I will not be extending my ticket back because I think that trip will fit in the two weeks we have of "finals" (but really free time) and I think most people aren't planning to change their tickets.
I wore flip flops for the first time today. People have allergies. Everything is green. Spring is here and that's fantastic.
For my only real class, Social History of Chile, our first paper was due this past Friday so ever since break it had been hanging over me. Like most of the Chilean students, I had barely done any of the reading for the class. The professor is a bit crazy and most of the lecture is a tangent so we haven't learned too much in class. The readings he assigned are also somewhat random tidbits of history. So for us, having no background in Chilean history, this paper was quite a challenge. The question: What were the principal sociopolitical and/or economic tensions in the 19th century (and how did they contribute to Chile as it is today - which he let us omit from our essays since we really don't know how Chile is today). My background knowledge came mostly from Wikipedia - Tufts would be ashamed - and I pulled random bits from the readings just to fulfill the minimum number of sources requirement. In the end, after countless hours of procrastination and eating most things in my house, I wrote a 4.5 page history paper in Spanish and my host mom even said it was good. I often regret staying in this class because it is disorganized and really painful to sit through 3 hour lectures (so sometimes I just play solitaire on my ipod) but then I remind myself that I've had bad classes and crazy professors at Tufts too and I've survived. Why did I think it was a good idea to take a class in Spanish on a topic that I would be intimidated to study back home?
Volunteering for English Opens Doors is in full swing. I have been placed in a very good public junior and high school so most of the students have remarkable English. So far I have usually been asked to sit with groups of about 5 girls in the library and just talk to them. They have all been very interested to learn about me and the United States. I guess there are many observations I have made and more that I could say but it isn't coming to me right now. I also haven't started keeping the internship journal that I'm supposed to, so me not having much to say right now is a bad sign. Must get on that.
My host mom left for almost a week to visit family in the south where they are from. I like having her around but I also enjoyed having even more independence that I usually do. I liked that she stocked the fridge with a month's supply of my favorite foods. Not having to watch those stupid fake judge shows on daytime TV during lunch was also nice.
Kate Carpenito, who is studying abroad in Buenos Aires this semester, came to Chile for a weekend with a friend and we got to hang out. It was really nice to see her and interesting to be a tour guide instead of a tourist. Unfortunately the weather was pretty crummy and on weekends the city is generally pretty dead but we had dinner on Saturday night and went to a party at my friend's house and on Sunday we walked around the city, saw some of the main sites and had teatime at my house. It accidentally came up that she is living in a house off campus with space in it so we got really excited about the prospects of living together. Then it turned out that the second free room was just given to some boy and Alli was actually about the take the third room. We would really love to live with the three of us girls because we all know each other and would bake and get along but I don't think it's going to happen. That just opened up a whole new issue because now I like the idea of having a kitchen and am looking at subletting a room instead of living in a dorm but don't like the idea of moving into a house with a group of close friends who I don't know. Currently sans decisions.
On Tuesday for dance class (actually had nothing to do with dance) I went with Alli to La Vega, El Mercado Central and Plaza de Armas. La Vega was an amazing, enormous market with endless piles of delicious looking fruits and vegetables, a meat market with some graphic displays, random stands like styrofoam cups and scattered tiny restaurants with cheap home cooked food. We got fresh squeezed juice and just wandered around for a while. I'm a big fan of open air markets. El Mercado is much classier and smaller and mostly a seafood market and nice restaurants.
Today was a success with planning travel. This next weekend is a long weekend so I am going to Mendoza, Argentina (across the Andes basically) with Alli and Becca. Then on the 21st I am going to Buenos Aires with Emily. There is still more planning to be done but it will be good because we are going to meet up with friends who are abroad there and try to go to Uruguay for a day. I wish I could go everywhere in South America and fill up my little Google map with markers. Now I think the only trip left is to the south of Chile at the end of the semester. I think that I will not be extending my ticket back because I think that trip will fit in the two weeks we have of "finals" (but really free time) and I think most people aren't planning to change their tickets.
I wore flip flops for the first time today. People have allergies. Everything is green. Spring is here and that's fantastic.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Epic South America Trip
Wed 9/9 - after two hours of sleep, because I finally decided to look up some tips on places to see on our trip, we took a flight to Lima. We saw most things to see in Lima in one day. Plaza de Armas, La Catedral (where Francisco Pizarro is buried), guard changing ceremony at the gov building, Museo de San Francisco y Catacombas (more religious artwork, a pretty cool library with old scribes, lots of skulls and bones in the basement which I didn't fully understand the explanation for). The first day pretty much fulfilled our interest in churches and religious artwork. During Spanish colonization Lima was very rich so the old architecture is impressive but now the country is not very well off economically and the capital reflects that. It seems like a layer of gray covers most things and outside of area with regal looking churches and government buildings there is not much to see. Then we went to an ancient adobe pyramid, called Huayamarca, which now looks very out of place in the middle of a rich suburban neighborhood of Lima. In the small museum there they have a mummy with preserved eyes! We walked to the coast, which isn't a beach, and then went to the Miraflores neighborhood, which has a lot of the restaurants and bars and is safe to be in at night. By this point everyone was exhausted and we got dinner, had some ice cream in a park and decided to head back to the airport. Our flight to Cusco was at 5:30 in the morning so we had a long wait ahead. Check-in didn't open until 4 so we all took turns napping on the floor and on food court tables in the airport. Generally on the trip I got really good at falling asleep instantly, in any circumstances, for any length of time. Random: Starbucks manages to create the same atmosphere inside no matter where in the world it is.
Thurs 9/10 - in Cusco we went straight to the hostel, downed some coca tea to prevent altitude sickness (Cusco is really high up so the smaller amount of oxygen in the air can actually make people sick) and slept until 4:30 PM. As planned, we just rested and adjusted to the altitude. The part of Cusco surrounding Plaza de Armas is pretty but the most tourist oriented place I have ever seen. As we learned when we came back to Cusco, just a few blocks away the scene changes drastically. The water was not safe for us in Peru; our orientation professor told us he once brushed his teeth with beer in Peru when he didn't have bottled water. This also meant that fresh fruits and vegetables and cheap local restaurants were not safe - although I'm sure we were overly careful. This sometimes got frustrating with all 6 of us trying to agree on a restaurant that was both cheap enough and inspired trust. This also meant that a lot of our meals were PB & J sandwiches, which was actually really cute and made us feel like a family, and snacks, so by the end I was thoroughly sick of cookies, crackers, and cereal bars, and probably a few pounds heavier. The whole trip we were all classic nerdy tourists with pouches under our clothes with all our money and documents - uh-oh I think we're getting old and starting to do embarrassing parent things.
Fri 9/11 - got a bit lost on the way to take a taxi to Ollantaytambo, a town between Cusco and Aguas Calientes, the closest town to Machu Picchu. The train ride was beautiful with huge green covered mountains rising up all around you and a river running alongside the train. Aguas Calientes is a tiny place filled with the tourists stopping over before going to Machu Picchu. Went for some souvenir shopping but quickly got disenchanted by how every stand had the same exact things. In Peru you have to barter for absolutely everything and they always try to rip you off. For example at dinner that night a mysterious tax appeared on our bill so one of us went next door to ask at another restaurant if such a thing exists and they told us it is 10%, but on our original bill they had charged us an arbitrary amount more than that. We were at the same hostel as all the other travelling groups from Tufts in Peru. The 20 of us divided into 5 groups for break, 4 went to Peru and 1 to Argentina.
Sat 9/12 - we woke up at 3:30 to get in line for the bus to Machu Picchu because there is a limit of 400 people per day that are let up to Waynapicchu, the famous peak, and we wanted to make it. At 5:30 we got on the second bus and managed to get the tickets (our numbers were in the 300s because some people hike up instead of taking the bus and get there even earlier). For a couple of hours we walked around on our own, took pictures and watched the sunrise over the mountain peaks. No pictures capture the feeling of being there. It is an absolutely breathtaking place, both the stone constructions of the Inca city (the only one the Spanish didn't find, and so didn't destroy, because it is so high up), and the natural scenery surrounding it. I didn't know much about it before being there so I think it was better that way because I didn't have any expectations from a picture in my mind. At 8 we had a guided tour, which helped explain some of what we were seeing but still left a lot of blanks in my mind that I mean to look up (things on my mental list of things to look up never really get checked off). I like that whenever given the option we always chose Spanish-speaking guides. At 10 Steven, Dan and I started our climb up Waynapicchu, which took a bit under an hour and was probably the most physically challenging thing I have ever done. It was almost purely stairs, steep narrow stairs on the side of a mountain with nothing really stopping you from falling off. The view, but even more so the feeling, at the top were incredible. We rested and had our PB&Js before heading down, which was even harder than coming up. I basically crawled half the way, facing the mountain (like on a ladder), and by the end my knees were shaking. I'm really glad I went up and amazed by all the fit older people I saw there. We all got sunburned and spent the evening napping, eating, drinking a lot of water and recuperating. I had a bit of a headache so I passed on going to the hot springs and stayed in the hostel with Emily, who twisted her ankle that day.
Sun 9/13 - took the train back to Cusco and everyone continued recuperating. Tried to do a bit of sightseeing and then more souvenir shopping, which I learned I am not a big fan of.
Mon 9/14 - we had planned to go to more Inca ruins near Cusco but people decided not to because that would mean being out in the sun all day. Instead we saw other parts of Cusco, had a leisurely lunch and then killed time in our hostel watching something on the National Geographic channel until it was time to go to the bus terminal. I think I got equally as tired on a day like this, where we didn't do much of anything, as I did on action packed days. Our bus seats were amazing, big and leather, reclined pretty far back and had footrests so it was almost like a bed. The ride from Cusco to Arequipa was 10 hours overnight.
Tues 9/15 - the hostel in Arequipa kind of messed up our reservations and instead of giving the 6 of us a single room they split us up and I was alone but it was only for one night. When planning to come here I think that what attracted us were the volcanoes and hikes up them and a spot to watch condors but when we actually got there and looked up details it turned out that both of these were far out of the city and we didn't have the time to go. So just having a guidebook and no concrete plans doesn't always work out but we took a city tour. It was really random and involved a lot of animals (ex bullfighting bull, alpacas, llamas, vicuñas, horses, guinea pigs, etc.), a few lookout points, the city founder's house, a horseback ride, a farm, a wool factory store, and a church. I guess it was good way to see a bunch of different parts of the city, which is actually the second biggest in Peru. Of course we saw Plaza de Armas, can't miss it. I hit my head on the van door frame at least 3 times so I was a bit unhappy and consoled myself with delicious street ice cream, called queso helado, disregarding potential health risks. In the evening we went to a museum to see a Juanita, a famous frozen mummy of an Incan girl who was sacrificed on top of a mountain. (Peruvian food I tried: aji de gallina, lomo saltado, sopa de quinoa, recoto relleno)
Wed 9/16 - I started off the day poorly, by oversleeping. We took a morning bus to Tacna, the border city in Peru, which was about 5 hours and the movies they played passed the time quickly for me. Took a taxi across the border to Arica, Chile and it was almost like coming home; suddenly there were so many familiar stores and foods around us. Everything was decorated with flags because the 18th is their Indep. Day and a really big deal here. We saw the beach, a church designed by the same man who did the Eiffel Tower, the set up street fairs for the celebrations and ran into one of the Tufts groups while walking around the city. I can't judge with so little information but the atmosphere on the Chile side of the border seemed a lot more lively, with locals out on the streets, in cafes, and at the artisan markets. It was funny how quickly I got used to Peruvian money and had to think about what Chilean prices really meant. Our second night bus was from Arica to San Pedro de Atacama, and except for a checkpoint at 4:30 where they made us get out, I slept wonderfully and am generally a big fan of these cheap overnight buses.
Thurs 9/17 - San Pedro de Atacama is in the dessert and popular with tourists because a lot of nature attractions are a day trip away. We signed up for the 3 most recommended tours right away and it felt good to have a set plan of what to do. Our first tour was to craters and mountains made almost entirely of salt, Valle de la Luna, Valle de la Muerte, sand dunes (which are tons of fun to run down barefoot) and a mountain to watch the sunset. The night sky in the desert was amazing and I wish I knew constellations because this would be my first time seeing these (different because it's the southern hemisphere).
Fri 9/18 - another day of waking up at 3:30, this time for a tour to the Geysers del Tatio. After a two hour ride on the bumpiest road ever, which we all slept through peacefully, we got there. The reason to go so early is that while it is really cold (-8 C. when we got there) the contrast in air and water temperature allows you can see the steam coming up from the geysers. After watching them shoot up water from underneath the earth we went for a swim in hot springs - my first time. The last stop was to see some 700 year old cacti. For a classic Chilean lunch on the 18th we had some of the best empanadas and pastel de choclo I have tried yet. After resting we went out for dinner and then went to the fonda, or carnival area. Since San Pedro is a small town and we went around 10, which is really early by Chilean standards to go out, it was not the huge party we were hoping to find. Mostly older people were there and we didn't stay for long but I enjoyed watching Chileans have a good time eating anticuchos, (bbq skewers), drinking chicha (fermented drink) and dancing. From what I heard the 18th in Santiago is much more fun, and at least a 3 day celebration, but I think it was worth it to extend our trip and see the north of Chile instead.
Sat 9/19 - all day trip which included salt flats and flamingos at Chaxa Lagoon, amazing blue lakes surrounded by snow streaked mountains at Laguna Miscanti and Laguna Miñique, a couple of desert towns, and an oasis.
Sun 9/20 - we got a flight from Calama, about an hour away from San Pedro, back to Santiago, which saved us about a 24 hour bus ride. Only in Chile can you get an empanada and beer as your flight meal. I got home and instead of a welcome party was locked out because my mom was away and my sister locks the door when she is alone on the one lock I don't have the key to. It was a bit of a fiasco to get in because my mom's cell was off, my sister was asleep at 4 PM and my brother was 10 hours south of Santiago, but it didn't take too long.
Overall an amazing trip even though I came back feeling like I needed a vacation. It helped me see that planning a trip is not so intimidating but also that you can't forget the details.
Thurs 9/10 - in Cusco we went straight to the hostel, downed some coca tea to prevent altitude sickness (Cusco is really high up so the smaller amount of oxygen in the air can actually make people sick) and slept until 4:30 PM. As planned, we just rested and adjusted to the altitude. The part of Cusco surrounding Plaza de Armas is pretty but the most tourist oriented place I have ever seen. As we learned when we came back to Cusco, just a few blocks away the scene changes drastically. The water was not safe for us in Peru; our orientation professor told us he once brushed his teeth with beer in Peru when he didn't have bottled water. This also meant that fresh fruits and vegetables and cheap local restaurants were not safe - although I'm sure we were overly careful. This sometimes got frustrating with all 6 of us trying to agree on a restaurant that was both cheap enough and inspired trust. This also meant that a lot of our meals were PB & J sandwiches, which was actually really cute and made us feel like a family, and snacks, so by the end I was thoroughly sick of cookies, crackers, and cereal bars, and probably a few pounds heavier. The whole trip we were all classic nerdy tourists with pouches under our clothes with all our money and documents - uh-oh I think we're getting old and starting to do embarrassing parent things.
Fri 9/11 - got a bit lost on the way to take a taxi to Ollantaytambo, a town between Cusco and Aguas Calientes, the closest town to Machu Picchu. The train ride was beautiful with huge green covered mountains rising up all around you and a river running alongside the train. Aguas Calientes is a tiny place filled with the tourists stopping over before going to Machu Picchu. Went for some souvenir shopping but quickly got disenchanted by how every stand had the same exact things. In Peru you have to barter for absolutely everything and they always try to rip you off. For example at dinner that night a mysterious tax appeared on our bill so one of us went next door to ask at another restaurant if such a thing exists and they told us it is 10%, but on our original bill they had charged us an arbitrary amount more than that. We were at the same hostel as all the other travelling groups from Tufts in Peru. The 20 of us divided into 5 groups for break, 4 went to Peru and 1 to Argentina.
Sat 9/12 - we woke up at 3:30 to get in line for the bus to Machu Picchu because there is a limit of 400 people per day that are let up to Waynapicchu, the famous peak, and we wanted to make it. At 5:30 we got on the second bus and managed to get the tickets (our numbers were in the 300s because some people hike up instead of taking the bus and get there even earlier). For a couple of hours we walked around on our own, took pictures and watched the sunrise over the mountain peaks. No pictures capture the feeling of being there. It is an absolutely breathtaking place, both the stone constructions of the Inca city (the only one the Spanish didn't find, and so didn't destroy, because it is so high up), and the natural scenery surrounding it. I didn't know much about it before being there so I think it was better that way because I didn't have any expectations from a picture in my mind. At 8 we had a guided tour, which helped explain some of what we were seeing but still left a lot of blanks in my mind that I mean to look up (things on my mental list of things to look up never really get checked off). I like that whenever given the option we always chose Spanish-speaking guides. At 10 Steven, Dan and I started our climb up Waynapicchu, which took a bit under an hour and was probably the most physically challenging thing I have ever done. It was almost purely stairs, steep narrow stairs on the side of a mountain with nothing really stopping you from falling off. The view, but even more so the feeling, at the top were incredible. We rested and had our PB&Js before heading down, which was even harder than coming up. I basically crawled half the way, facing the mountain (like on a ladder), and by the end my knees were shaking. I'm really glad I went up and amazed by all the fit older people I saw there. We all got sunburned and spent the evening napping, eating, drinking a lot of water and recuperating. I had a bit of a headache so I passed on going to the hot springs and stayed in the hostel with Emily, who twisted her ankle that day.
Sun 9/13 - took the train back to Cusco and everyone continued recuperating. Tried to do a bit of sightseeing and then more souvenir shopping, which I learned I am not a big fan of.
Mon 9/14 - we had planned to go to more Inca ruins near Cusco but people decided not to because that would mean being out in the sun all day. Instead we saw other parts of Cusco, had a leisurely lunch and then killed time in our hostel watching something on the National Geographic channel until it was time to go to the bus terminal. I think I got equally as tired on a day like this, where we didn't do much of anything, as I did on action packed days. Our bus seats were amazing, big and leather, reclined pretty far back and had footrests so it was almost like a bed. The ride from Cusco to Arequipa was 10 hours overnight.
Tues 9/15 - the hostel in Arequipa kind of messed up our reservations and instead of giving the 6 of us a single room they split us up and I was alone but it was only for one night. When planning to come here I think that what attracted us were the volcanoes and hikes up them and a spot to watch condors but when we actually got there and looked up details it turned out that both of these were far out of the city and we didn't have the time to go. So just having a guidebook and no concrete plans doesn't always work out but we took a city tour. It was really random and involved a lot of animals (ex bullfighting bull, alpacas, llamas, vicuñas, horses, guinea pigs, etc.), a few lookout points, the city founder's house, a horseback ride, a farm, a wool factory store, and a church. I guess it was good way to see a bunch of different parts of the city, which is actually the second biggest in Peru. Of course we saw Plaza de Armas, can't miss it. I hit my head on the van door frame at least 3 times so I was a bit unhappy and consoled myself with delicious street ice cream, called queso helado, disregarding potential health risks. In the evening we went to a museum to see a Juanita, a famous frozen mummy of an Incan girl who was sacrificed on top of a mountain. (Peruvian food I tried: aji de gallina, lomo saltado, sopa de quinoa, recoto relleno)
Wed 9/16 - I started off the day poorly, by oversleeping. We took a morning bus to Tacna, the border city in Peru, which was about 5 hours and the movies they played passed the time quickly for me. Took a taxi across the border to Arica, Chile and it was almost like coming home; suddenly there were so many familiar stores and foods around us. Everything was decorated with flags because the 18th is their Indep. Day and a really big deal here. We saw the beach, a church designed by the same man who did the Eiffel Tower, the set up street fairs for the celebrations and ran into one of the Tufts groups while walking around the city. I can't judge with so little information but the atmosphere on the Chile side of the border seemed a lot more lively, with locals out on the streets, in cafes, and at the artisan markets. It was funny how quickly I got used to Peruvian money and had to think about what Chilean prices really meant. Our second night bus was from Arica to San Pedro de Atacama, and except for a checkpoint at 4:30 where they made us get out, I slept wonderfully and am generally a big fan of these cheap overnight buses.
Thurs 9/17 - San Pedro de Atacama is in the dessert and popular with tourists because a lot of nature attractions are a day trip away. We signed up for the 3 most recommended tours right away and it felt good to have a set plan of what to do. Our first tour was to craters and mountains made almost entirely of salt, Valle de la Luna, Valle de la Muerte, sand dunes (which are tons of fun to run down barefoot) and a mountain to watch the sunset. The night sky in the desert was amazing and I wish I knew constellations because this would be my first time seeing these (different because it's the southern hemisphere).
Fri 9/18 - another day of waking up at 3:30, this time for a tour to the Geysers del Tatio. After a two hour ride on the bumpiest road ever, which we all slept through peacefully, we got there. The reason to go so early is that while it is really cold (-8 C. when we got there) the contrast in air and water temperature allows you can see the steam coming up from the geysers. After watching them shoot up water from underneath the earth we went for a swim in hot springs - my first time. The last stop was to see some 700 year old cacti. For a classic Chilean lunch on the 18th we had some of the best empanadas and pastel de choclo I have tried yet. After resting we went out for dinner and then went to the fonda, or carnival area. Since San Pedro is a small town and we went around 10, which is really early by Chilean standards to go out, it was not the huge party we were hoping to find. Mostly older people were there and we didn't stay for long but I enjoyed watching Chileans have a good time eating anticuchos, (bbq skewers), drinking chicha (fermented drink) and dancing. From what I heard the 18th in Santiago is much more fun, and at least a 3 day celebration, but I think it was worth it to extend our trip and see the north of Chile instead.
Sat 9/19 - all day trip which included salt flats and flamingos at Chaxa Lagoon, amazing blue lakes surrounded by snow streaked mountains at Laguna Miscanti and Laguna Miñique, a couple of desert towns, and an oasis.
Sun 9/20 - we got a flight from Calama, about an hour away from San Pedro, back to Santiago, which saved us about a 24 hour bus ride. Only in Chile can you get an empanada and beer as your flight meal. I got home and instead of a welcome party was locked out because my mom was away and my sister locks the door when she is alone on the one lock I don't have the key to. It was a bit of a fiasco to get in because my mom's cell was off, my sister was asleep at 4 PM and my brother was 10 hours south of Santiago, but it didn't take too long.
Overall an amazing trip even though I came back feeling like I needed a vacation. It helped me see that planning a trip is not so intimidating but also that you can't forget the details.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Valparaíso and Volunteering
Titles for these are not always easy. Like this one, do I think I'm being witty with an alliteration?
I didn't expect to have any difficulties with an American credit card but I have had a few. A major bus company doesn't take them so I had to go buy a ticket at the office and pay in cash. A funnier story was when we reserved plane tickets online but had to call to pay by phone. They seemed to accept my card but then called me back in half an hour to say it didn't work because it is foreign so I had to come in. The next day I went in and again they said it worked. When I got home they called me and said they had swiped my card through the "peso machine" instead of the "dollar machine" and so I would have to come back again. Before going in I decided to check my online statement and saw that my credit limit was showing that the transaction had gone through and I didn't have enough left to charge it again. I called them and had my first ever phone conversation in Spanish with a customer service rep. At one point we were both just talking at one another because she thought I didn't understand. She went to find out what to do and called me back to say that everything was fine and I didn't need to come in again. Plus one for me for getting my point across in Spanish and being right.
Semi-traditions: Wednesday night happy hour after Spanish class and Thursday night Comilones dinner. Last week we followed up happy hour with some classic Chilean churrasco sandwiches at Fuente Suiza and on Thursday went to Rishtedar for some really great Indian food - bindis included!
More last minute indecision about classes. Social History of Chile has not been the most interesting or organized class and after so many people dropped one of their classes I was really tempted to do the same. It doesn't actually fulfill anything I need but I decided to stay in it and chose pass/fail so that I don't feel like a slacker, maybe learn something, but don't stress out about it ruining my GPA. Now I have to write an actual paper for it...what??
Last Friday we had a group museum trip that only 8 people went on but I decided to go because I had no other plans and didn't know when I would make it out there on my own. Museo de Arte Colonial San Francisco, which is in a Franciscan monastery, had a lot of religious themed, European influence sort of art which is not my thing. Museo de Bellas Artes I really enjoyed because it had a mix of different kinds of art, like photographs taken by public school children of their neighborhoods and a great sculpture exhibit. Museo de Arte Visual had modern works and I liked it too. Overall a good short overview for a non-art museum person like me.
Saturday we had a group trip to Valparaíso, a port city about an hour and a half away from Santiago, and the second largest city in Chile. I loved it. The city is full of hills, called cerros, has 15 elevators to take people up to the peaks, all of the houses are colorful and mismatched, and the streets are windy, steep and sometimes just staircases. It really felt like I was in a foreign country, unlike in Santiago which can sometimes feel like just any metropolitan city. We had a very clear tour guide with us all day; some interesting things he told us were that unlike in most places here the poor, cemeteries and jails are on the tops of the hills and have the best views of the Pacific and that all firemen in Valpo are volunteers. Six of us planned to spend the night in a hostel after the group left. We ate chorillana (fries, fried onions, eggs, pieces of steak and probably half a cup of oil, so basically the ultimate heart attack food) in the place that claims to have invented it, power-napped, pregamed in the hostel and went out to a huge club called Huevo. Really fun night followed by acrobatics at the nicest hostel I've stayed in, which had some random bars and ropes hanging down from the ceiling. On Sunday we took a bus to Reñaca, past Viña del Mar, to these huge sand dunes where we spent hours climbing and having photoshoots while being followed by stray dogs, which we're used to by now. On the way back I got the only accessible thing from my backpack stolen: my makeup. That was just silly.
English Opens Doors: went in one day to meet with the teachers who were all nice and speak English really well, unlike stories that I've heard from friends who are volunteering in different schools. On Wednesday I went for my first day of volunteering and went on a trip to a theater competition with a group of 8th grade girls who were all thrilled to have me around. They surrounded me, asked me all kinds of American pop culture questions, sang "Pokerface," asked me to be their facebook friend, and argued over who would sit next to me. One even asked me what I think about Obama. All this in English because I am there to give them more practice, and am not allowed to speak Spanish.I think my "cool" image would shatter if they heard my broken Spanish haha.
I didn't expect to have any difficulties with an American credit card but I have had a few. A major bus company doesn't take them so I had to go buy a ticket at the office and pay in cash. A funnier story was when we reserved plane tickets online but had to call to pay by phone. They seemed to accept my card but then called me back in half an hour to say it didn't work because it is foreign so I had to come in. The next day I went in and again they said it worked. When I got home they called me and said they had swiped my card through the "peso machine" instead of the "dollar machine" and so I would have to come back again. Before going in I decided to check my online statement and saw that my credit limit was showing that the transaction had gone through and I didn't have enough left to charge it again. I called them and had my first ever phone conversation in Spanish with a customer service rep. At one point we were both just talking at one another because she thought I didn't understand. She went to find out what to do and called me back to say that everything was fine and I didn't need to come in again. Plus one for me for getting my point across in Spanish and being right.
Semi-traditions: Wednesday night happy hour after Spanish class and Thursday night Comilones dinner. Last week we followed up happy hour with some classic Chilean churrasco sandwiches at Fuente Suiza and on Thursday went to Rishtedar for some really great Indian food - bindis included!
More last minute indecision about classes. Social History of Chile has not been the most interesting or organized class and after so many people dropped one of their classes I was really tempted to do the same. It doesn't actually fulfill anything I need but I decided to stay in it and chose pass/fail so that I don't feel like a slacker, maybe learn something, but don't stress out about it ruining my GPA. Now I have to write an actual paper for it...what??
Last Friday we had a group museum trip that only 8 people went on but I decided to go because I had no other plans and didn't know when I would make it out there on my own. Museo de Arte Colonial San Francisco, which is in a Franciscan monastery, had a lot of religious themed, European influence sort of art which is not my thing. Museo de Bellas Artes I really enjoyed because it had a mix of different kinds of art, like photographs taken by public school children of their neighborhoods and a great sculpture exhibit. Museo de Arte Visual had modern works and I liked it too. Overall a good short overview for a non-art museum person like me.
Saturday we had a group trip to Valparaíso, a port city about an hour and a half away from Santiago, and the second largest city in Chile. I loved it. The city is full of hills, called cerros, has 15 elevators to take people up to the peaks, all of the houses are colorful and mismatched, and the streets are windy, steep and sometimes just staircases. It really felt like I was in a foreign country, unlike in Santiago which can sometimes feel like just any metropolitan city. We had a very clear tour guide with us all day; some interesting things he told us were that unlike in most places here the poor, cemeteries and jails are on the tops of the hills and have the best views of the Pacific and that all firemen in Valpo are volunteers. Six of us planned to spend the night in a hostel after the group left. We ate chorillana (fries, fried onions, eggs, pieces of steak and probably half a cup of oil, so basically the ultimate heart attack food) in the place that claims to have invented it, power-napped, pregamed in the hostel and went out to a huge club called Huevo. Really fun night followed by acrobatics at the nicest hostel I've stayed in, which had some random bars and ropes hanging down from the ceiling. On Sunday we took a bus to Reñaca, past Viña del Mar, to these huge sand dunes where we spent hours climbing and having photoshoots while being followed by stray dogs, which we're used to by now. On the way back I got the only accessible thing from my backpack stolen: my makeup. That was just silly.
English Opens Doors: went in one day to meet with the teachers who were all nice and speak English really well, unlike stories that I've heard from friends who are volunteering in different schools. On Wednesday I went for my first day of volunteering and went on a trip to a theater competition with a group of 8th grade girls who were all thrilled to have me around. They surrounded me, asked me all kinds of American pop culture questions, sang "Pokerface," asked me to be their facebook friend, and argued over who would sit next to me. One even asked me what I think about Obama. All this in English because I am there to give them more practice, and am not allowed to speak Spanish.I think my "cool" image would shatter if they heard my broken Spanish haha.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Skiing, Eating and Drinking Wine
Random fact: there is a "river" running through the city and it is quite strange. It has been cemented in, like a canal, but the canal is much too big for it - made that way for when it rains so it doesn't flood. So basically it looks, and smells, like a large open gutter running through the city.
I spend a lot of time in bed here because it has the electric blanket. Sometimes it makes me feel like I'm sick because that is the only time I ever spend this much time in bed in the US.
I've had some better interaction with the family. They are nice and they always were so I can't blame them for not having a more exciting lifestyle and therefore not involving me in it. On Wednesday I went food shopping with my mom again and we stocked up on lots of fruits, vegetables, and cereal, which is basically all I need. Got some conversation about the health care system in on the way because some relatives that came over on the weekend drove up from their city about 10 hours south of Santiago to see a specialist. My mom said that for good medical treatment everyone has to come to Santiago. She told me that her dental work gets sent to a lab in the US! One day we tried to help Andrea (sister) pick which pair of boots to keep - a silly detail but something I would do with my (real) mom so it was cute. Also I told my mom more about our Peru travel plans and asked her for advice because she has been up there. I'm still her go-to with all computer issues (like when her screen inexplicably flipped sideways or a shortcut stopped working), which is cute. So yeah, no legitimate family complaints.
Another canceled class that the Chileans all got an email about but we obviously didn't. On a more organized note my internship is more or less settled. I will be working with the English Opens Doors program starting this week as a teacher's assistant in an all-girls high school.
Club de Comilones (aka club for people who like to eat a lot) was started after we all spent too long reading restaurant reviews on the Revolver website. We are unofficially planning to go out for dinner every Thursday and try out a new place. This week was Vietnamese, my first time ever. Not the most amazing food ever but it was a nice change and cute place.
Skiing in the Andes: On Friday we went skiing to Farrellones - another free trip organized by our program. We all rented gear at this huge ski complex right in Santiago that morning and crammed into two vans for the hour and a half trip up. We were warned repeatedly that the drive up was very windy and indeed there were 40 (labelled) switchbacks. For more than half the group it was their first time but some got pretty good quickly. Since most of us didn't bring ski clothing a bunch of people bought amazing neon 80s full body ski suits at used stores for around $5. The resort was tiny with probably 5 trails total and none were very challenging. They were all also short which was the biggest shortcoming for me, because in terms of difficulty there was a trail that was fine for me. Also no chair lifts, just t-bars, which is basically a bar pushing you under your butt as your skis stay on the ground. My first time on those and I probably got as much of a workout on the lift as while skiing. The views were amazing and by the end of the day my legs were quite sore so it was a good trip. The ride back included some great discussion topics from vomit, to puppies, to racist Disney movies, to society's responsibility in raising children not to hate, to cow tipping, to cat vomit, to themed weddings. We might try to organize our own trip to one of the better ski resorts but if not then I'm already satisfied.
Went to my first ever Karaoke bar, which included a performance of a Bon Jovi song by Maca y las gringas (Becca's older host sister and us).
This Saturday Emily had a "bring your own wine and favorite drunk snack" night at her apartment which was really fun. Her host brother and his friend also hung out with us and I think it is really nice when host siblings want to hang out, especially with a mob of gringo friends.
(This seems like a choppier entry because I'm lazy and copy-pasted parts of my journal. This multiple blog for multiple audiences thing is hard to keep up with.)
I spend a lot of time in bed here because it has the electric blanket. Sometimes it makes me feel like I'm sick because that is the only time I ever spend this much time in bed in the US.
I've had some better interaction with the family. They are nice and they always were so I can't blame them for not having a more exciting lifestyle and therefore not involving me in it. On Wednesday I went food shopping with my mom again and we stocked up on lots of fruits, vegetables, and cereal, which is basically all I need. Got some conversation about the health care system in on the way because some relatives that came over on the weekend drove up from their city about 10 hours south of Santiago to see a specialist. My mom said that for good medical treatment everyone has to come to Santiago. She told me that her dental work gets sent to a lab in the US! One day we tried to help Andrea (sister) pick which pair of boots to keep - a silly detail but something I would do with my (real) mom so it was cute. Also I told my mom more about our Peru travel plans and asked her for advice because she has been up there. I'm still her go-to with all computer issues (like when her screen inexplicably flipped sideways or a shortcut stopped working), which is cute. So yeah, no legitimate family complaints.
Another canceled class that the Chileans all got an email about but we obviously didn't. On a more organized note my internship is more or less settled. I will be working with the English Opens Doors program starting this week as a teacher's assistant in an all-girls high school.
Club de Comilones (aka club for people who like to eat a lot) was started after we all spent too long reading restaurant reviews on the Revolver website. We are unofficially planning to go out for dinner every Thursday and try out a new place. This week was Vietnamese, my first time ever. Not the most amazing food ever but it was a nice change and cute place.
Skiing in the Andes: On Friday we went skiing to Farrellones - another free trip organized by our program. We all rented gear at this huge ski complex right in Santiago that morning and crammed into two vans for the hour and a half trip up. We were warned repeatedly that the drive up was very windy and indeed there were 40 (labelled) switchbacks. For more than half the group it was their first time but some got pretty good quickly. Since most of us didn't bring ski clothing a bunch of people bought amazing neon 80s full body ski suits at used stores for around $5. The resort was tiny with probably 5 trails total and none were very challenging. They were all also short which was the biggest shortcoming for me, because in terms of difficulty there was a trail that was fine for me. Also no chair lifts, just t-bars, which is basically a bar pushing you under your butt as your skis stay on the ground. My first time on those and I probably got as much of a workout on the lift as while skiing. The views were amazing and by the end of the day my legs were quite sore so it was a good trip. The ride back included some great discussion topics from vomit, to puppies, to racist Disney movies, to society's responsibility in raising children not to hate, to cow tipping, to cat vomit, to themed weddings. We might try to organize our own trip to one of the better ski resorts but if not then I'm already satisfied.
Went to my first ever Karaoke bar, which included a performance of a Bon Jovi song by Maca y las gringas (Becca's older host sister and us).
This Saturday Emily had a "bring your own wine and favorite drunk snack" night at her apartment which was really fun. Her host brother and his friend also hung out with us and I think it is really nice when host siblings want to hang out, especially with a mob of gringo friends.
(This seems like a choppier entry because I'm lazy and copy-pasted parts of my journal. This multiple blog for multiple audiences thing is hard to keep up with.)
Monday, August 17, 2009
Sucked in by Online Reading
For those of you not here with me, this article, about the 10 things you wish you knew about Chile, describes some pretty true things about Santiago. For those of you who are here, doesn't this make you feel like you're not a complete foreigner anymore, like we've really been here for a while and all these things are familiar and obvious? How else can you eat a hotdog and what is a metro if not the ideal location for a make-out session?
I spent a couple of hours on the Revista Revolver website - a local English language magazine that I believe some people from our group are going to be writing for - and found some cool things. There are too many restaurants on my list now and my stomach is grumbling after reading all those reviews. Also I should really try couch surfing one day. Is it a bad idea to use that website to find Chilean friends? I mean these people are putting themselves out there to meet foreigners and be hospitable so how bad could it be?
Last night I got equally sucked in by another online activity: trying to find popular Spanish music. Unfortunately my internet was not cooperating and I didn't get too far. Maybe those Chilean friends I'm hoping to make can help me out :)
I spent a couple of hours on the Revista Revolver website - a local English language magazine that I believe some people from our group are going to be writing for - and found some cool things. There are too many restaurants on my list now and my stomach is grumbling after reading all those reviews. Also I should really try couch surfing one day. Is it a bad idea to use that website to find Chilean friends? I mean these people are putting themselves out there to meet foreigners and be hospitable so how bad could it be?
Last night I got equally sucked in by another online activity: trying to find popular Spanish music. Unfortunately my internet was not cooperating and I didn't get too far. Maybe those Chilean friends I'm hoping to make can help me out :)
Friday, August 14, 2009
Closer to Finding a Groove
After some stressful days of finalizing classes and running around the city handing a useless piece of paper, called a pase, from one office to another, classes have finally started. It seems like all the room and schedule changes have finally settled down too. I am taking the mandatory Spanish class just for us (which we all agree is too easy and kind of a waste of time right now), a folkloric dance class and Social History of Chile. I only have one class a day and never have to set an alarm - just wake up, take my sweet time getting ready, and even get an exercise video in there when I have the motivation. Most people are also doing an internship for class credit and mine hasn't started yet. Most likely I will be volunteering in public schools helping teach English with a program called English Opens Doors. I considered working with an organization promoting bicycle use but after going there once I think I'd rather have that as an on-the-side, if-I-have-time sort of commitment.
Spring break (in Sept. here) plans magically fell into my lap when a group of 5 Tufts people invited me to join them in Peru. We are flying one way, spending a day in Lima, the capital, then going to Cusco from where we will go to Machu Picchu. We plan to bus back, stopping along the way in northern Chile to visit some more sights. I think the bus ride back is around 30 hours, or something ridiculous like that, if you go straight, so it will be interesting. The group is really nice, and since buying tickets we have hung out a lot and had some good laughs, so I'm happy to be going with them.
City buses are an experience because the map is a web of different colored lines and confusing to decipher, many streets are one way so I don't recognize where I am going one way and pass my stop habitually, there are constantly people singing for money or selling candy, some bus stops are not marked and you just have to know it's there, and I'm always alert trying to not get lost. I'm decent at getting around though and generally love public transportation systems - this one I would say is pretty good, with really frequent service. The metro stops running before 11 and although buses run all night they don't recommend we take them, so at night we do taxis which are relatively cheap when split among a few people.
Yesterday at one of the campuses there was a student riot with burning tires, etc. and cops came and sprayed water and tear gas on the crowds. I wasn't there to witness it but just thought it was an interesting story to share. Not to worry, I'm perfectly safe. Oh and my friend got a necklace yanked off her neck at a bus stop the other day. But again, perfectly safe :)
My Chilean grandma has been visiting for about a week. Very sweet lady and does grandma things like cooking yummy food and knitting. Otherwise in terms of family my feelings from the last post remain the same in that I wish they were more involving. The only time I really see them is at lunch if I'm home and even then we don't talk very much. Otherwise I'm in my room doing my own thing or out, and sometimes I don't even know who is home. They haven't made much effort in giving me advice on things to do around the city. I don't think this is an example of a traditional Chilean family, which is big and close and gets together on weekends, although I don't know how common that is anymore. I wonder what they think of me and what their past host students have been like (she has been doing this for about 7 years). No serious complaints though and I'm pretty much used to this setup.
Last Saturday went on a group trip to Pomaire, an artisan village famous for their pottery. In between a delicious breakfast with tons of manjar (dulce de leche) and a huge lunch of empanadas and cazuela (chicken soup with lots of stuff in it) we were taken to a couple of workshops where we got to see the whole process from hard rocks to soft clay to pottery wheel to perfect finished products. The professionals made it look so easy, but when we all got a turn at the pottery wheel it was anything but easy. I failed twice and on the third time with his hands basically doing everything I made something pretty ugly and the sides of my hands were bleeding a little from being scraped by the pottery wheel. At another workshop we made little clay animals and I took the frog home with me :)
Since last time I have found a bar with potent sangria, decided that I have to buy Febreeze if I don't want to reek of smoke for the next half a year, learned that there are a lot of couples out at clubs and the guys actually ask you to dance instead of creeping up on you like they do in the US, gone bowling, walked home across half the city for lack of better things to do and stumbled upon a Russian restaurant called Olivye (how the heck is that in Santiago?!), learned to appreciate Happy Hour prices, and struggled to find the balance for Skyping my parents. (I think I'm big on making lists for such overview updates, how do you feel about that?)
Tonight the plan is to go to "La Piojera," a very local, dingy, cheap and loud bar famous for their terremotos (literally earthquake), a drink with pisco, wine and ice cream. Next week skiing in the Andes. Hopefully more interesting things in between because surprisngly just being in a foreign country doesn't mean your days will be filled with excitement, especially when you don't feel pressed for time. Also hopefully more interaction with Chileans, which hasn't been that easy to find.
Spring break (in Sept. here) plans magically fell into my lap when a group of 5 Tufts people invited me to join them in Peru. We are flying one way, spending a day in Lima, the capital, then going to Cusco from where we will go to Machu Picchu. We plan to bus back, stopping along the way in northern Chile to visit some more sights. I think the bus ride back is around 30 hours, or something ridiculous like that, if you go straight, so it will be interesting. The group is really nice, and since buying tickets we have hung out a lot and had some good laughs, so I'm happy to be going with them.
City buses are an experience because the map is a web of different colored lines and confusing to decipher, many streets are one way so I don't recognize where I am going one way and pass my stop habitually, there are constantly people singing for money or selling candy, some bus stops are not marked and you just have to know it's there, and I'm always alert trying to not get lost. I'm decent at getting around though and generally love public transportation systems - this one I would say is pretty good, with really frequent service. The metro stops running before 11 and although buses run all night they don't recommend we take them, so at night we do taxis which are relatively cheap when split among a few people.
Yesterday at one of the campuses there was a student riot with burning tires, etc. and cops came and sprayed water and tear gas on the crowds. I wasn't there to witness it but just thought it was an interesting story to share. Not to worry, I'm perfectly safe. Oh and my friend got a necklace yanked off her neck at a bus stop the other day. But again, perfectly safe :)
My Chilean grandma has been visiting for about a week. Very sweet lady and does grandma things like cooking yummy food and knitting. Otherwise in terms of family my feelings from the last post remain the same in that I wish they were more involving. The only time I really see them is at lunch if I'm home and even then we don't talk very much. Otherwise I'm in my room doing my own thing or out, and sometimes I don't even know who is home. They haven't made much effort in giving me advice on things to do around the city. I don't think this is an example of a traditional Chilean family, which is big and close and gets together on weekends, although I don't know how common that is anymore. I wonder what they think of me and what their past host students have been like (she has been doing this for about 7 years). No serious complaints though and I'm pretty much used to this setup.
Last Saturday went on a group trip to Pomaire, an artisan village famous for their pottery. In between a delicious breakfast with tons of manjar (dulce de leche) and a huge lunch of empanadas and cazuela (chicken soup with lots of stuff in it) we were taken to a couple of workshops where we got to see the whole process from hard rocks to soft clay to pottery wheel to perfect finished products. The professionals made it look so easy, but when we all got a turn at the pottery wheel it was anything but easy. I failed twice and on the third time with his hands basically doing everything I made something pretty ugly and the sides of my hands were bleeding a little from being scraped by the pottery wheel. At another workshop we made little clay animals and I took the frog home with me :)
Since last time I have found a bar with potent sangria, decided that I have to buy Febreeze if I don't want to reek of smoke for the next half a year, learned that there are a lot of couples out at clubs and the guys actually ask you to dance instead of creeping up on you like they do in the US, gone bowling, walked home across half the city for lack of better things to do and stumbled upon a Russian restaurant called Olivye (how the heck is that in Santiago?!), learned to appreciate Happy Hour prices, and struggled to find the balance for Skyping my parents. (I think I'm big on making lists for such overview updates, how do you feel about that?)
Tonight the plan is to go to "La Piojera," a very local, dingy, cheap and loud bar famous for their terremotos (literally earthquake), a drink with pisco, wine and ice cream. Next week skiing in the Andes. Hopefully more interesting things in between because surprisngly just being in a foreign country doesn't mean your days will be filled with excitement, especially when you don't feel pressed for time. Also hopefully more interaction with Chileans, which hasn't been that easy to find.
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