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.

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.