I'm in Chile!

hmmm

2008-02-13T19:34:00.002-02:00

I feel like every day I'm here, I miss Chile more and more. I'm also very glad I'm back. Why can't I just apparate to Chile and back whenever I feel like it?

probably no one is ever going to read this... haha

I lied...

2008-02-08T03:33:00.001-02:00

Sorry, I didn't mean to! But here's the real last pictures from Chile... I realized I never made the Quintay album (although I did have some pics from that up here), and also when going through those, which became 2 albums, I realized some other pics never made it either. So here you have them:

Quintay 1:
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2173268&l=97d28&id=14218621

Quintay 2:
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2173273&l=71fdc&id=14218621

Miscellaneous last days:
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2173277&l=488b5&id=14218621

Last pictures

2008-01-05T18:32:00.000-02:00

OK, finally here are the rest of my pictures:

Patagonia part 5- penguins, Punta Arenas
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2161702&l=b1dee&id=14218621

Patagonia part 6- Crossing the Strait of Magellan
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2161845&l=60774&id=14218621

Last pics... beautiful beach sunset on my last full evening in Chile, about 20 pictures of the baby, and a sea lion!
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2164602&l=d4845&id=14218621

and more

2007-12-16T16:37:00.000-03:00

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2161263&l=d60fd&id=14218621

http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2161293&l=c8746&id=14218621

Pictures

2007-12-13T16:50:00.000-03:00

Album 1: http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2160933&l=894f6&id=14218621

Album 2: http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2160937&l=474a7&id=14218621

More to come.

I'M HOME!!!

2007-12-12T00:04:00.000-03:00

Hi I'm in the United States!!!!!
Anyway, just thought I'd let you know ;-)

I'll probably (hopefully?) get the Patagonia pics on Facebook soon, and I'll also make a final post with some favorite pictures and such, later this week.

Love,
Katie

Patagonia!!

2007-12-09T22:02:00.000-03:00

Well, I'm supposed to be packing, so just a quick run-through with pictures here since I can't get them to load on Facebook and I can tell the stories... well, in person very very soon. lol

Monday was a fantastic day. We hiked to the Torres del Paine look-out. Danielle and I hiked together (there were 6 of us on the trip total) and we made it in about 3 hours, 2 of them tough and uphill. But when we got there the clouds were just clearing up, so we stayed for about an hour before hiking back down. I wish I had gotten to know Danielle better earlier in the semester, we had a lot of fun and also a lot of coversation about God, faith, Catholicism, etc. (she is also Catholic)... it was great.

The first hour out/last hour back was up along a hill overlooking this valley. Beautiful.

The 45 minutes or so just before and after we got to the Torres, we had to climb this. yikes!

The middle section of the hike was generally like this:

On Tuesday we took a bus tour of the park. This is looking towards the Torres- we got lucky, because if we had gone on Monday it would have been too cloudy to see them in the morning. In the foreground of the pic you can see a few guanacos, which I think are kind of like llamas.

The Cuernos del Paine.

Some icebergs, and in the back center you can see a glacier!!

The last stop was this enormous cave... I wasn't even halfway back when I took this one.

PENGUINS! On Wednesday afternoon we went to a penguin colony. I got within about a foot or 2 of this one. The rest of them we mostly saw from a distance.

Overlooking Punta Arenas, the southernmost city in the world. (and it wasn't really that warm, but we had just walked up the hill so I had my winter coat off. lol)

On Thursday we crossed the Strait of Magellan to the Tierra del Fuego, the large island that forms the tip of South America. This is the ferry docked at the island.

I took this at about 11pm... wow! Its not even completely dark yet!

Overall, very very awesome trip...

Well, I think I'm going to go computer-less tomorrow, in order to A, pack and B, enjoy the last day here. So, next time you hear from me, I'll be back in the States! Its so weird to think about! Its going to be really hard to say good-bye tomorrow, but I'm soooo excited to come home!! See you soon!

Love,
Katie

I'm back!

2007-12-08T16:37:00.000-03:00

Back to Valpo, my trip was amaaaazing. Patagonia is gorgeous!!! I have the pictures loaded on my computer, but I figure I only have 2 days of summer left before coming home, so I am going to go out for a while and maybe put them up tonight.
Love,
Katie

The end of the world!

2007-12-01T18:02:00.000-03:00

Well, I'm off tomorrow to the "end of the world"! (Really! look at the map on the right of your screen- I'm basically going to the very bottom of that)

I'll spend two days at Torres del Paine National Park (click here), the first day hiking and the second day on a bus tour that will include getting to see a glacier!

Then we will return to Punta Arenas, the southern-most city in the world (here). On Thursday we'll be visiting a penguin colony in the Strait of Magellan! Then we fly back on Friday and I'll get back to Vina/Valpo on Friday night or Saturday, depending on whether we make the last bus Friday night.

Have a good week everyone!

Love,
Katie

la Amandita

2007-11-30T14:27:00.000-03:00

Ok, editing again... I'm leaving the video link in case it works for someone. If not, find someone with Facebook, have them load the video application, and then they can show it to you here: http://pitt.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=536786992543
Or you can wait til I get back.

In any case, it looks something like this:

only on a different day so different clothes lol... isn't she adorable!?

Today I discovered flavored alfajores...

2007-11-28T21:27:00.000-03:00

Ok, well first of all, I'm done with school!!! Yeah Christmas break!! And before you complain, remember that I started 2 (Mom and ?Abby?) to 6 (Olivia) weeks before you did-- August 1. So you really have to wait at LEAST 2 weeks to complain, and by then most of you will be about done as well. ;-)

Anyway. I decided that since it was my last couple weeks here, I would be more liberal in my alfajor and kuchen buying. Kuchen is a German pastry that is super popular in Chile... its like apple pie but with a thicker, sweeter crust and less apples. You can buy a small square of it in just about any bakery, and there are lots of bakeries here. Alfajores are basically two cookies sandwiched together with manjar (like dulce de leche) in between, coated in chocolate, and often with sprinkles on top. Well, today I discovered flavored alfajores. They had about 15-20 flavors. I got cherry. So instead of manjar (which is good, but not fantastic) in between the cookies, it had like a sweet cherry filling (think, like jelly doughnut, but with real cherries in it more like jelly). DELICIOUS. It was at a chocolate shop in the mall. I see more mall trips in the near future, seeing as I'll only be in Vina del Mar a total of 5 more days!

Wow! 5 more days?? Crazy... Tomorrow I'll be in Quintay for a picnic all day so that doesn't even really count... then I have Friday and Saturday, then I leave for my trip. Then I have Saturday and Sunday when I get back, and then I leave on Monday! This week is already flying by...

Happy Thanksgiving/Christmas decorating day!

2007-11-23T15:53:00.000-03:00

Last night was ISA's annual Thanksgiving/good-bye dinner. It was sad because it was the last time out group will be together, but most of the people who were there I will see again before we all go back to the states. It seems so unreal that we're almost done here! The dinner was nice. ISA provided the turkey, the families brought corn, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, rice, and salads, and the students brought desserts. There was a lot of food!!!

Missing Thanksgiving was weird- I've never not spent Thanksgiving with my family. To be perfectly honest, though, I think I'm more upset about missing today! I loovvveee the Christmas season, but I refuse to listen to Christmas music or anything until the day after Thanksgiving. Its one of the best days of the year! After mom gets home from shopping and we eat lunch (leftovers if we're lucky!), the Christmas CDs go in, and 5 (or 6?) boxes stuffed with Christmas lights and other various decorations come out... and that doesn't even include the boxes of ornaments and the trees!! We then spend the whole afternoon basically taking everything off every shelf we have downstairs and replacing it with Christmas stuff, setting up trees, decorating trees, putting lights outside... I love it!! (last year)
This year its just weird... Halloween and even Thanksgiving didn't seem that out of place for me, but I just can't really make sense of the concept that its Christmas time when its almost 90 degrees outside. Listening to my Amy Grant Christmas music seems wrong- my memories associated with that are more along the lines of riding in the car on a snowy day! Today just seems so out of place... I went into Jumbo and I just wanted to stay there in the middle of the Christmas decorations because that was the only time I felt like it might really actually be the end of November. Plus I always spend the day with my family. I guess maybe I'll have wait until I'm home for the Christmas spirit to really hit... meanwhile I'll just keep trying with my Christmas music and the mini-stocking I bought to have some sort of decoration. lol See? Beach stuff on sale with the Christmas decorations?!?

Mail

2007-11-18T11:45:00.000-03:00

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to let you know, no more mail! The last time I will be able to go to the ISA office is in less than 2 weeks, so I can't guarantee I'll receive anything you send now. If you for some reason are just dying to send me something, you may mail it to my home address here for the next week or so... if you need that one let me know or call my parents and they can give it to you!
Love, Katie

El Volcán Villarrica

2007-11-16T14:18:00.000-03:00

On Saturday morning we woke up to clear skies at 6:30am. We got on the bus around 7:10 and proceeded to the offices of the tour company to gear up for a day of climbing- pants, jacket, ankle-warmers, boots, helmets, backpacks, clampons to strap onto our boots, and piolets (ice-pick/climbing stick). Sure now that whether would not keep us from going, imagine our thoughts: "This will be the coolest thing I have ever done!" "How amazing it will be to see the top of the volcano!" "It will be so fun to slide down when we make it!" etc.

Another half-hour bus ride took us to the base of the mountain, where the guides gave us beginning instructions and the option to cut two hours by taking the ski-lift, which we declined as it cost roughly US$14. We started off just before 9am, walking in single file line in order to create a "rhythm".
From the very beginning we were hiking through snow, but by the first stop we were all sweating from the climb. We stopped for a break around 10 and the guides fastened the clampons (spikes) to our boots,
and told us what to do if we should fall (so we wouldn't slide all the way down the mountain or stab ourselves with the piolet or end up tumbling instead of sliding) and how to use the piolet. By 10:30 we were starting the zig-zag pattern that is necessary to tackle the steeper parts, and I was already exhausted and wondering whether I would make it to the top! All this time we were hiking in and out of clouds/fog, but would often get clear views to the top. I have never seen the sky such a deep, clear blue.
When we stopped at 11, the large group of us (16 total, I believe) started to break up, first into 3 groups- the first 2 of about 6-7 people and the last one just 2 people and a guide. The first group went on, rarely stopping at all, while those of us in the middle would walk a minute or two with 15-20 second breaks (doesn't sound like much, but it was very necessary!) We kept telling ourselves how worth it everything would be when (/if) we made it to the top and had an incredible view and could look into the crater, and how fun it would be to slide back down, and how great we would feel after such an accomplishment! I already realized it was physically the hardest thing I had ever done in my life. For one endless zig-zagging stretch, I would stop, say an Our Father or a Hail Mary and then challenge myself to take 50 steps. You have no idea how difficult 50 steps can be! I think once I even gave up after 20-some!

After a stop probably sometime between noon and 1pm, Jen and the guide in the back of the line started going much slower. I stayed with my group maybe another half hour, and then started falling behind as well. Another guide from our company, Cristian, happened to be at near us then (we were passing him, he was with a woman probably about 70 years old!), and I stopped and he put a band-aid on the blister on my left foot, putting me behind enough to finish the climb with Jen and her guide, Leandro. They were going at a much nicer pace!
(Jen)

We eventually made it to the last main stopping point, nicknamed the "pinguinera" because when people hike in the winter, they are so cold and huddled over by the time they make it that they look like penguins! We didn't know it at the time, but that would be the last place we got a clear view until well on our way back down. From there it takes 1-2 hours to get to the summit. The rest of our hike was defined by whiteness. Besides Jen, Leandro, and occasionally other groups passing us on their way down, all I saw was whiteness for that entire hour. White snow, white clouds, white everything. (This picture is not even the best representation, because you can make out a rocky ridge.) We eventually passed the other two ISA groups, who warned us that there was absolutely no visibility at the top, and although discouraged, we decided to continue on. (I have to admit, I still had hopes of the weather clearing- occasionally we would get a bit of weak sunlight) By this point the wind was fierce. We had already had icicles forming in our hair for some time, and the wind was making the cold almost unbearable. Our guide kept turning to us and telling us "10 more minutes" "Almost there" "We're practically there already" "a few more steps". The sulphur gas from the volcano hung thick in the clouds, turning the air yellow, and we began coughing. Finally, Leandro turned to us and said that the crater was "right there" (I could hardly see him, 10 feet away, so I have no idea where "right there" was) and said that we needed to turn around- "toxic gas, toxic gas". That may have the most miserable moment of my life. Every muscle in my body ached, my lungs were burning, the cold was ridiculous... and all this with no reward at the top. We turned around and started trudging back down. Exhausted, disappointed, and discouraged, it was also scary! The volcano at this point was quite steep, and after zig-zagging back a little we started on a more direct path almost straight down, with our clampons and piolets keeping us from sliding down the mountain. We also began to realize that the snow chutes we had been looking forward to sliding down would not be an option... we could hardly see 20 feet in front of us, it would be too dangerous to slide. Occasionally we would hear the other guide (Cristian) with the old lady yelling for us (they actually made it up!! they were the last- the two girls in our group who were behind us had to turn back), and once we stopped to wait for them but eventually decided to move on. At some points I was still able to marvel at how fascinating it was to be in a world of absolute whiteness- like we truly were in the middle of nowhere- but most of the time there seemed to be this complete sense of isolation and desolation... it seemed that we could end up lost forever on the side of this mountain, wandering endless hours in pure whiteness and utter exhaustion...

We started the descent from the summit around 3:10pm. I have no sense of our timing for that part but I would say that between an hour and 2 hours later we came across a group of Spaniards (the group the old lady was from) with yet another guide from our tour company. Leandro sent Jen and I to catch up with them while he waited for Cristian and the woman. Shortly after that, we finally came out of the cloud cover, and the view from that point was spectacular.Spectacular, but also let us see how far we still had to go! We were hiking straight down a very steep slope- once again, thank goodness for the clampons! Those last hours were awful. After a seemingly endless 3.5 hours after reaching the top of the volcano, we made it to the van waiting to take us back to the town.

Overall, I still haven't completely come to a conclusion on the ordeal. I am still pretty bitter about our experience at the summit, especially when I see my postcard with the aerial pictue of hikers looking down into the crater of the volcano, or pictures from other ISA students' experience last semester. I could hardly walk the day after the volcano, but that has passed, and I still have a large sore from the blister on my left foot. I'm proud of myself for making it to the top, though, and despite the negatives, it was an amazing experience that I will never forget.

The rest of the pictures:
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2155448&l=1ae4c&id=14218621

Pucón

2007-11-15T17:49:00.000-03:00

Ok, well here's some pictures! Finally!

Pucón is a cute little tourist-y town about 12 hours south of here, built on the edge of Lake Villarrica and nearly at the base of Volcan Villarrica. The buildings were all wood-and-stone lodge kind of construction. It was nice to get away to someplace quiet for a weekend of nature!

The first day in Pucón, after making our excursion reservations (volcano climbing, horseback riding, rafting, and canopy were all optional... I did the volcano and canopy), we visited several waterfalls

and a lake

and finished up at some hot springs, natually heated water pumped up from under the volcano. That felt nice, although the weather was cold there- like real November!

Then all the girls in my cabin (5 of us), plus three other girls and Zan's dad made dinner together! Our original plan was cook-out, but as we forgot to buy charcoal we settled for oven... we made chicken that we marinated in teryaki sauce while on the tour, spaghetti, salad, and brownies! yum! That was nice. Yay for ISA-paid trips being in such nice accomadations (we had a two-story cabin!)(Notice I'm eating with a spoon... our cabin, like I said, was for 5 people. lol)

On Sunday, most of the group had signed up for canopy, which is like zipline, so we went to do that in the afternoon. The place we went boasts the longest canopy in South America, 4 lines (and 2 practice lines) for a total of 3km (~1.8 miles)!(looking back at one of the shorter lines)

And, here's the albums. Volcano is coming, don't worry.
Pucón: http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2155327&l=4efca&id=14218621

Pucón 2: http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2155333&l=c268e&id=14218621

Love, Katie

I climbed a volcano

2007-11-12T15:01:00.000-03:00

and it was the most hardest and horrible and painful and coldest and longest and disappointing and ridiculous and awful thing ive ever done in my life.

When we got to the top, after SIX hours, it was cloudy and we couldnt see ANYTHING except pure yellowness because the sulphur gas was so thick that we couldnt breathe,and it was super windy, and then we had to walk all the way down instead of sliding because the visibility was so bad.

Here's what the top of a volcano looks like:

Ok, well thats my paintshop rendition... haha.

Really, I do have some cool pictures from farther down. But I'm exhausted so the complete story and more pictures will come later.

Love,
Katie

Volcano!

2007-11-08T18:08:00.000-03:00

Well, I'm off again. I'm trying not to get overly excited just in case we have bad weather/seismic activity but I'M GOING TO CLIMB A VOLCANO THIS WEEKEND!!! I mean, could that not be just about the coolest thing ever? So, pray for safe travels, good weather, and, er, no volcanic eruptions. Haha. Really though, if there were increased seismic activity we would cancel, so don't worry about me. Ok, have a good weekend everyone!

P.S. I went to Jumbo (the supermarket) today to get some flip-flops and a couple snacks for my trip, and I discovered they have Christmas stuff out! Not so weird, since I'm sure its been out longer in the US, but the weird part is that it was right next to the beach stuff! I think I'm going to have to go back and take a picture of that next week. lol

Crossing the Andes

2007-11-05T16:42:00.000-03:00

Yep, crossing the Andes gets its own entry. lol. I think the trip was worth it just for the travel itself! Because, of course, the whole border between Argentina and Chile is the Andes mountains, the highest range outside of Asia. So, how exactly do we get across? Like this:

Our bus- two stories!

I don't think the sky was actually this blue, but it was pretty close.

Not the best picture, but the mountain in the distance is Mt. Aconcagua- the highest mountain in South America- and anywhere outside of Asia in general!

Welcome back to Chile! (not the actual border- the actual is in a tunnel!)

Check out the road! The Chile side is definitely much cooler

Coming from Argentina, it didn't seem like we went as far up, because the climb is more gradual... its just like, I got in the bus and it was 85 degrees outside, but 3 hours later there's is snow on the ground! It was a really cool ride... except the customs... because it was a holiday weekend (everyone had Thursday off), there were TONS of travellers. On the way back, we spent 4.5 hours at the Chilean checkpoint!! Making a total trip of 12 hours! Luckily, we had 2 movies (although I only watched one) and doubly luckily, they were in English with Spanish subtitles! lol. So even when it was hard to hear because of the bus, we could read it. The bus also had catering (although, that just means drinks and cookies). Yep, thats about it I think. Entry on Argentina in general below.

Argentina!

2007-11-05T16:06:00.000-03:00

Hello! I've spent all afternoon putting up pictures and responding to emails and such, so here's my blog finally! (although, its only 2:30 there, so not so much "finally"- its 4:30 here!) Argentina was nice. I got there around 6pm on Thursday, and walked around with Maria and her Chilean family for awhile. On Friday Maria and I met up in the morning and spent the day wandering around- checking out different parks and plazas, stopping at a chocolate factory, browsing the millions of artisans tents, etc. We went to a nice restaurant for lunch and sat outside and ate (it was warm there! Probably highs around 90 degrees!). I got a steak with mushroom sauce with a side of rice, and counting the water (~$2) and the tip, I paid less than $10!!! Later we met Maria's family in the evening and went out for pizza with an Argentinian family they know. The pizza was amazingly delicious, and the family was a couple with a 2-year old daughter who was absolutely adorable! Saturday morning we went on a cabalgata (horse-back riding) which was awesome... We were in the pre-cordillera (cordillera=mountain range, here it always refers to the Andes), which is older than the Andes and about a third of the height. It was just the two of us and our guide, climbing rocks, winding up and down and around curves on narrow paths over large drops... in other words, it was a very good thing the horses know the area and know what they're doing, because a wrong step could have been pretty bad at times! The rest of Saturday we didn't do too much, just relaxed, and I went to Mass at a very nice church just a few blocks from my hostel in the evening. Speaking of my hostel, that was not a good experience. Loud, people coming in and out talking loudly alllll night long, not very clean bathroom, and the company I made my reservations through online messed up so I was not in an all-female dorm (and I also lost the 5 dollar deposit I paid through them grr.) But I guess you can't expect too much more for $8/night, and at least I had Maria's family's hotel room to go to!

A couple notable things about Argentina- First, the prices! Everything is really cheap! On Saturday evening I bought 2 sandwiches and a small cup of ice cream for what would be a little more than 2 US dollars!
Another thing that was really striking was the diversity... still not as much as the US, but much more than Chile! I did not feel weird, because plenty of Argentinos were naturally blonde and red-haired also! What a new feeling! lol

Mendoza had a lot of trees! It reminded me sometimes of a bigger version of Ann Arbor.

Plaza Espana

At the chocolate factory!

Our guide ahead of me on the cabalgata.

Me and my horse, Lluvia (which means "Rain")

Mendoza:
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2153191&l=32231&id=14218621
Corssing: http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2153198&l=a800e&id=14218621

Love,
Katie

Happy All Saints' Day!

2007-11-01T00:08:00.000-03:00

Well, I'll be leaving bright and early tomorrow (Thursday) morning for Argentina! Say a prayer for me for safe travel! I believe there is internet access in my hostel, but I don't plan on using it much if at all, so I'll be back Sunday if you're sending me emails and waiting for a response. Chao!

A Map!

2007-10-28T14:23:00.000-03:00

I realized, after talking to Dad today, that most of you probably have no clue where the places I'm talking about are, I woudn't even if I weren't here. So, I made you a little map! If it doesn't show up well, just click it to get the full size version. The green star is where I am right now; the purple is Mendoza, Argentina, where I'm going next weekend; the blue is Pucon, where I'm going with ISA the next weekend for the volcano-climbing; and then the red is where I'm going in December (notice how close it is to Antarctica!).

oops

2007-10-27T13:18:00.000-03:00

I forgot! One of the mooooosssst annoying things ever: PDA. PDA (Public Displays of Affection) is perfectly acceptable here. You have to be careful of sitting behind couples on a bus if you don't want a show. Bus stops and stores are fine for plenty of kissing. Beaches, parks, any random bench is fair game for making out. It drives me crazy.

Also, the US-ism really bothers me. The Chilean culture is soooo infiltrated by US culture, in TV shows (MTV, TV movies, sitcoms, you name it), movies, brands and products, language (email, for example, means email), etc. etc. etc. I go from being annoyed at not being able to see the real Chilean culture, to frustrated that they can't come up with their own stuff (lol), to sad that we're corrupting them, etc.

But anyway. I don't spend most of my time thinking of what I am annoyed about, honest I don't. This has just been a bit of a frustrating week, although better since the weather has been great (probably in the 80s) the past couple days. In any case, the next few weeks should fly by and then I'll be wishing I had a few more months here.

Why will they fly by? First, because I have a few trips. First, we don't have school on Thursday- all Saints' day- yay for Catholic school!- so I leave on Thursday to go to Mendoza, Argentina for a few days. Its about 32 dollars for a bus taking you through the Andes mountains, and then I'll be staying at a hostel for about 7 dollars/night. Awesome! I'm going with my friend Maria, and we haven't made definite plans yet, but we're thinking about a horse-back-riding tour in the foothills of the Andes for a few hours on Saturday. Then the next weekend is Pucon! Its an ISA trip, meaning the transportation, hotel, and breakfasts are free. What does that leave? CLIMBING A VOLCANO! Yes, thats right, if the weather is agreeable, I'll be paying about 70 dollars to climb a volcano on Saturday the 10th. That is pretty awesome. Secondly, there are only 4 more weeks of classes left! So in the next four weeks, I have at least 4 tests, 2 final projects, one take-home essay test, and the second half of don Quijote to read. Should be fun...

So, in summary, I should get back to reading El Burlador de Sevilla... (and watching football scores on ESPN.com's game cast)

Love, Katie

Day 100

2007-10-26T19:21:00.000-03:00

Today is day 100! To celebrate, I made a list of all the things I will most definitely NOT miss about Chile. haha. But don't worry, I balanced it out with a list of all the things I will miss. I had longer lists before, but I can't find them. Oh well.

Things I will not miss:
1. Stray dogs
2. Fleas- I only had one problem, but I'm always paranoid.
3. Sticking out- sometimes its cool or at least ok, sometimes it bugs me that everyone is staring at me...
4. Buses with no schedule
5. Paying for transportation- yay for Pitt student IDs and PAT buses!
6. Cloudy days- because cloudy=cold. And rain is cool, but it never rains, its just cloudy!
7. Host mom- To be completely honest, she's nice, but I won't miss her all that much. At first I thought she was very absent-minded and thats why she never remembered ANYTHING I told her, but now it just seems like she doesn't try. And she asks me dumb questions. "What?! You were tired after the caminata?" "Well, yeah, it was 27 km"... *sigh* Among other things.
8. Communication. I'm tired of waiting for emails from people I see almost every day in Pittsburgh, and of my family not being able to call me.
9. Chilean time. Sometimes its nice that I can be late to everything, sometimes it annoys me that everything starts late.
10. Windows without screens. Its a nice day. Do I leave the window closed? Or open it and let half a billion flies in my bedroom?
11. Bakeries on every corner. Oh the temptation.
12. They put tons of oil and salt on their food. Umm, you don't need to cook noodles with soooooo much salt! Along the same lines, I don't need so much food! My host mom gives me (and everyone, except herself and Alejandra because Ale complains) enormous serving sizes, and usually I'm not hungry anymore after just the soup.

Things I will miss:
1. Fruit! Its so cheap here! And they have every kind, almost all the time!
2. Pan (bread)- also really cheap, and I'm getting used to eating lots of Chilean bread fresh from the bakery every day!
3. Flowers. There were plenty of flowers even in wintertime. And now its spring!
4. el Mar (ocean)
5. Summer. Its going to be cold and gray when I get home.
6. Easy-access transportation. Step 1: Walk out front door. If I'm going to Vina, Step 2: cross the street.
7. Prices. While there are some things that cost a ton (like a regular bottle of sunscreen for 11 dollars), most things are really cheap.
8. My host niece, Amanda. I'll never see her first step, first word, etc.
9. Free time. Although I have busy weeks, in general I have a LOT more free time than at home. And this sometimes gets boring, but seriously, who would not miss having so much free time?
10. Mountains.
11. Bakeries on every corner.
12. Chile is gorgeous. They say that God created the world, and then took all the leftover parts and put them in Chile. Its probably true. It has the driest desert in the world, the highest mountain range outside of Asia, 4000 miles of coastline, glaciers, etc. etc.
13. My ISA friends!

Caminata!

2007-10-24T21:56:00.000-03:00

Well, to get a better description of the walk and my general feelings on Catholicism in Chile, see Alli's blog (link is in the next post down). She sums it up well. For a quick description, on Saturday I left home at 3:30am to go with about 40 other college students from the area, including Alli and our other friend Ann and my group Pastoral, to bus to Chacabuco to walk a 27km (17 mile, the first half all up-hill) pilgrimage with 70,000 Chileans to the shrine of St. Teresa (where I went the week before). It was AMAZING.

As many times I have said this since arriving in Chile, the view on our way up was the most incredible thing I have ever seen in my life. And I really mean it this time. Because not only could we see miles of Chilean country-side--hills, cliffs, vineyards in the valley, and the Andes mountains to the left--but we could see miles of other pilgrims behind us and ahead of us, winding around the dirt road that we had passed hours before, or that we still would not get to for a couple hours. And perhaps the most amazing thing was that these were, in the vast majority, teenagers. High school and college students from all over Chile, and while it was clear that some were just there for a fun trip with their friends, I cannot imagine that they were not all touched in some way by our caminata from St. Teresa's childhood home to her tomb at the shrine.

St. Teresa is one of my new favorite saints. She was soooo holy, and she never even reached her 20th birthday! What a great inspiration for anyone, but especially those of us who are so young! And she has really united Chile... they have SO much pride in their first saint (and one of only 2 so far). You literally cannot go anywhere without seeing a picture of her!

(click this one, you'll be able to see the people winding all over the hills below us)

Ann and Alli

Me with Jorge and Mary Carmen, our group leaders (hence the 3 over Jorge), and Lorenzo

Reaching the summit

We made it!

For the second album, click here.

la Caminata!... to start with

2007-10-24T16:52:00.000-03:00

Well, I need to get going for class, but I have one album for the Caminata done so far. I plan to make the other and post pictures here when I get back and after dinner, so it probably will be around 8 or 9 your time.

http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2149383&l=c29da&id=14218621

Also, I plan to just make a few comments, you can get details of the walk and a lot of how I felt about it from Alli's blog (click here). She summed up a lot of what I felt and I don't see a need to be super-repetitive.

Quintay

2007-10-22T15:19:00.000-03:00

Last Monday (I know, I'm getting more and more behind!) I went to Quintay with my friends Lauren, Jen, and Maria. Its a quiet little fishing town about 45 minutes from here. We explored an old whaling port (I don't know what you would call it exactly...) (the boat below is one they would use to bring in blue whales a loooooong time ago! wow!), ate seafood and empanadas (and probably drove the waitress crazy... we were the only ones in the restaurant, so she kept waiting for us while we couldn't make up our minds. Plus, they didn't have a lot of things on the menu, so she kept having to clarify), played on a playground, and explored some paths on a hill going down to a rocky beach on the other side of the town. It was a beautiful day!
I took well over a hundred pictures, so when I finally put them on Facebook I'll let you know :-)

Santuario de Sta. Teresa

2007-10-14T14:11:00.000-03:00

Edit: Pictures!! http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2146927&l=0bbbd&id=14218621

The Church

Inside

St. Teresa's tomb

One of the stations on the Way of the Cross up a hill behind the church

(click on this one to see it bigger!!!)

Well, there's my trip from yesterday, the pictures really speak for themselves. I'll just add that it was a beautiful day (except, notice those clouds covering the Andes in the last pic, they were pretty much there all day), very nice and quiet and peaceful even though there were lots of people around- there were plenty of buildings and trees to muffle noise... I also met some priests from the US, they were there as a last stop on a one or two week tour that included talks in Brazil and Argentina, as part of the GK Chesterton Institute, which sounds really cool. Anyway, it was neat getting to talk to them for a little while (only I realized half an hour later I should have asked for confession since I'm wary of doing that in Spanish... oh well). Thanks for the prayers, I had a wonderful day!!

Love, Katie

Random

2007-10-12T14:11:00.000-03:00

Dear everyone,
I see the ocean several times every day. Sometimes it is really hard to remember that I'm not just on extended vacation... I mean really, wouldn't you rather go walk along the beach in the waves on a warm spring day than do homework? Boo homework.

Tomorrow I'm going to the shrine of St. Teresa de los Andes. A personal mini-retreat. I'm excited. Its also my way of making up for missing the barn dance with the Newman Club in Pittsburgh tomorrow- my favorite event of the year. So say a prayer for me tomorrow! :-)

Fuzzy purple flowers!!

Monday is basically Chile's Columbus day. That means no school! My homework for that class is just due later in the week though...

I think the time changes here this weekend. We're springing forward!

I warned you this was random :-)

Love,
Katie

Catching up

2007-10-08T16:53:00.000-03:00

Well, I finally have a short homework break, so here's three new posts!

First of all, on Thursday, I finally tried a completo. A completo is a hot dog, Chilean-style. That means, a hot dog with tomatoes, avocado, and mayonaisse (adding ketchup and/or mustard is optional). A lot of people like them, so I figured I shouldn't leave Chile without giving it a try. At first taste, it actually wasn't too bad. Well, by about 2/3 of the way through, I was getting a gag reflex so I tossed the rest in the trash. I think it had to do with the tomatoes, because I was sick to my stomach the rest of the day (I ate it at about 1:30pm) and felt like throwing up everytime I smelled something that reminded me of tomatoes. Yuuuucccckkkkkkkkk. Never again. Interesting, though, last week when I told a tia who was visiting that I had never had a completo before, she was shocked. "Don't they have hot dogs in the United States?" "Well, yes but not with all that on them... just with ketchup, or mustard" And she got this look on her face like that was really disgusting. Hello?!? Have you looked at a completo recently? Besides, if you're going to call it "hot dog" like an American (yes, the Chilean Spanish for hot dog is hot dog), then we should be the ones who get to say whats normal or not.

Anyway, going back a little farther... I have the best parents ever:Yes, that is a heath cake. They sent me the ingredients for a heath cake. Plus a really cute skirt and top. They are awesome.

Love, Katie

Playas del Norte- Oct. 6

2007-10-08T16:41:00.000-03:00

The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, and if you want longer captions, the album is here. Plus there are a lot more gorgeous pics as well.

First we went to Reñaca, just a few minutes stop. Then on to Concón, where we rode horses. My horse's name was Lausha, and I was one of the last people to get a horse. There is a reason that Lausha is one of the last horses they send out. First of all, she and Brittany's horse kept going towards grass. And when they found a patch of green they would stop suddenly to eat. Now, I would not have gone horseback riding if they had been the bone-thin horses you see at some beaches, but seriously, these horses must have been hungry! Second of all, Lausha apparently was afraid of the water. We would start getting close and she would start running in the other direction, no matter how hard I tried to calm her down and turn around. (ok, probably trotting quickly, but for someone who has never ridden a horse before it was a bit too fast) So, we went back after about a 15 minute ride, and I still had to pay the half hour :-/

Next stop, Horcón, famous for their queso (cheese) y camarones (shrimp) empanadas. They were quite good, although not any better than just a plain cheese empanada in my opinion. It was a really neat beach, with lots of moss and barnacle covered rocks and tide pools and sand full of tiny seashells and sea glass. You really ought to check out that Facebook album when you have time ;-) Finally, we went to Zapallar, which is clearly a very very rich area. Huge houses on the side of a hill with gardens sloping down to the rocky beach. Gorgeous.

Horcón

Zapallar

Santiago- History trip- Sept. 28

2007-10-08T16:25:00.000-03:00

Click here for the Facebook album (39 pics). If you're going to look at that, you might as well skip this, because I'll probably just copy and paste captions and descriptions.

First we went to the Archivo de la Vicaria dela Soidaridad, which is an organization started by a Catholic cardinal right after the golpe militar (coup) in 1973. It helped people find their loved ones that went missing during the 17 years of dictatorship. Now its mainly a source for historians, with detailed info on all who went missing, thousands of newspaper clippings, etc.

Then we visited the Fundacion Solaridad. They started during the dictator years by giving the prisoners something to do- make art. Now they help poor Chilean artists sell their work in Chile and all over the world at fair prices. These patchworks are their most recognizable products, and often made political statements during the dictatorship and still do now sometimes. However, there is also stonework, woodcarving, greeting cards, jewelry, etc.

Next stop was the Cementario General, the most incredible cementary I've ever seen. Its where most of the rich and famous of Chile are buried- its like walking through a museum. Plus some of the family tombs are basically giant stone buildings with intricate carving and stained glass and such (the album has better pictures- I didn't upload the one I meant to)

This is the "poor"-er area... notice how devoted people are to caring for the graves... mini-gardens, shade tents, stuffed animals, flowers, etc. etc. etc.

Finally, we visited Villa Grimaldi, center of dentenetion, torture and extermination between 1973 and 1979- 4500 tortured and 226 disappeared and executed. Its so sad that so many people still support Pinochet. Yes, he got rid of communism. But I don't think it was necessary to kill and torture thousands of people to do it. Our tour guide here had been tortured, not here but in another center, and some of his stories about what happened in Villa Grimaldi and what happened to him personally made me feel sick.

The Pinochet regime burned everything when this place was discovered, but this is where the prison/torture buildings were. The trees are planted individually in their little enclosures, like prison cells, and they are birch trees to represent the prisoners- on the outside, they're all crooked and the bark is peeling, but inside its one of the most durable kinds of wood.

A replica of a cell. And no, it doesn't extend to the left- the wall is pretty much right where the door closes. 1-6 people would be kept in a cell this size. Imagine, 6 people, no room to breath practically much less sit or lie down, hardly ever going out even to use the bathroom, in the heat of the summertime or the cold of the wintertime...

el motemei

2007-10-01T20:51:00.000-03:00

I know, I know, almost two weeks with hardly anything, and now two long entries in a single day... But as I was writing my paper for my Spanish Writing class, I thought people at home might find it interesting as well, because it is about a cultural figure of Valparaiso. And so I translated it into English. (If it sounds funny in some places, its because there was no perfect way to translate what I said in Spanish... also, lets just hope that my actual paper is this gramatically correct too. lol)

quick vocabulary-
motemei=type of food made from corn, eaten a lot in the old days in the winter because it was high in calories
motemelero=person who walks through the streets selling motemei. One of a group of people that doesn't really exist anymore, who would go through the streets calling out their product- motemei, fresh milk, etc., usually in a sort of song unique to what they were selling.

p.s. We watched a documentary about him before the break, and then this past Thursday he came to our class to speak... it was pretty cool...

EL MOTEMEI, Defender of Tradition

The short and thin stature of the last motemelero of Valparaiso does not agree with his dynamic personality, but the other parts of his appearance reveal the truth. His eyebrows, which arch above sparkling eyes, are expressive, showing to everyone all of his happiness, sadness, pensiveness, and determination. His clothes are important as well. His shoes, made from old tire, as well as his poncho, which is 150 years old and was used by almost 4 generations before he inherited it, are signs of the motemelero tradition. His plaid shirt, rolled up pants, and traditional rural belt complete the portrait of this worker from another time.

Carlos Martinez Becerra, also known as “the motemei” because of the food that he sells, was born 56 years ago in a street in Santiago, and his grandfather took him later to the hospital in his motemei basket. Therefore, he says, he has his roots in being a motemei seller. He learned his work from his grandfather, who was a third-generation motemolero, and he still continues the tradition today although he has very few clients. He walks through the streets of the “ciudad porteña” [port city- Valparaiso’s nickname], calling out “Motemeeei, pela’o el meelll-o,” announcing his presence to the world and selling his corn product, made fresh that day. The motemelero, also a poet, wants to rescue tradition in a world constantly changing. And he rescues it well. Although he may not be able to sell much, that doesn’t discourage this good-humored and optimistic man, and so he also works in schools, talking about the history of his job and his own history to the young people of Chile. A very extroverted and dynamic person, Carlos loves to speak of his life as a motemelero as well as of the importance of maintaining tradition.

The motemelero of Valparaiso, self-proclaimed “defender of our traditions,” has a unique perspective of the world. To him, everything is a poem—the hills of the city, its people, even its stray dogs. Although it makes him sad to realize that the world is changing and losing the sense of tradition, he has hope for the future. His job is to sell motemei, but his part in the world is to preserve history and point out the beauty of society. In this sense he can be compared to the famous don Quijote, not in insanity, but in his goal of remembering the ideas and practices in past ages in a world that is not always changing for the better. In this, the “motemei” of Valparaiso merits admiration.

Salamanca

2007-10-01T12:59:00.000-03:00

Well, my test was cancelled this morning, and then we only had half the class, so I figure I have time for an entry... First of all, don Quijote. I read a grand total of about 170 pages this weekend, leaving me 200 pages short of where I was supposed to be for the test today, but I was feeling *ok* about it because I had a good summary and I knew I had read as far as I possibly could. Then about 10 minutes before class I found out the test was cancelled. Boo. That would have saved me a LOT of stress if I knew beforehand. (she put it on the email account that we have access too, but she doesn't use that too much so I didn't think about looking there all weekend). But, on the good side, it pushes everything else back- we were supposed to have a test over some other readings next Monday and then a 20-30 minute small group oral exam over critiques of don Quijote that Wednesday or Thursday... but since we don't have classes the 15th, all that gets pushed back two weeks. *phew* That means I can finish part 1 of don Quijote this week, and have 2 weeks to read all that other stuff.

Anyway. Salamanca. Absolutely amaaaaaaazing. It was a much needed retreat, and sooo relaxing (although, I did do quite a bit of homework there). Salamanca is a relatively small town (15,000)in a valley about 5 hours north of here. The Chilean tenant who lives with my host family is from there, and so we went to visit his family for a few days. First of all, his family is pretty cool. They own a vineyard/orchard (but their house isn't there, its in the town), they have all sorts of fruit trees in their backyard from which we had fresh-squeezed juice every day, and they lived in Denmark 16 years. The town is pretty neat too- although unfortunately due to the nearby mine it is getting more and more modernized and such. But while Alejandro's mom grows all sorts of fruit and olives and avocados in her backyard, the next door neighbor raises chickens- and the yards are smaller and just as closer together than mine at home in the US! Besides that, it was really warm there- I would go outside on the back patio in the mornings and read, sitting on the rocking chair in the sun, after a breakfast of fruit salad (fresh oranges, apples, pears, bananas, kiwi, etc) mixed with yogurt. yummmmm. And the area was just gorgeous. Surrounded by mountains. I always called Pittsburgh mountain-y, coming from NW Ohio area, but now I would call those hills at the most, more like small bumps. Because I thought the mountains surrounding Salamanca were big, but later (on the bus) I saw them in comparison to the cordillera (the Andes). Then they looked small! When we went driving around the area surrounding the town-to the vineyard, to the reservoir, etc.- we saw that horse and bike seem to be just about as common a form of transportation as car.

The first full day we were there, we went climbing for about 3 hours, and though it really wore me out, it was pretty spectacular:

Looks pretty steep from here:

This is at the vineyard. Remember, you can click on the picture to see the full-sized version.

The backyard.

You should definitely look at the Facebook albums, though, if you haven't already and if your computer isn't too slow.... it was gorgeous. Especially the ride home, curving through the mountains- the views were magnificent (although, its harder to get that impression from a little picture) It was sad leaving there knowing I probably would never come back in my entire life. Because even if I come back to Chile someday, I'm pretty sure I won't end up in this little town nestled in a valley, and I definitely wouldn't end up back at the vineyard...

Then we came home to reality- stress and homework. How fun.

This past Friday we went to Santiago for the day- I'll post on that later, maybe when I finish writing my essay for tomorrow.

Sorry if this entry comes across really scattered or doesn't make sense... I kept going back to add more, plus its been over a week, and words can't really describe my trip...

Love, Katie

P.S. Its October now!! Which is usually my favorite month, but thats partly due to it being autumn... so we'll see how it goes haha

Half way

2007-09-29T10:39:00.000-03:00

I will get to the Salamanca entry eventually... probably a much later eventually... I just wanted to mention that today is exactly the halfway point of my trip. I've been here 73 days and i leave in 73 days.

Salamanca Pictures!

2007-09-25T23:47:00.000-03:00

I'll elaborate later. Right now its almost 11 and I'm going to go take a shower. And I have 430 more pages of Don Quijote to read by Monday. Oh my.

Salamanca was amazing.
Photos here:
Salamanca 1
Salamnca 2

Happy Birthday Chile! (and me!)

2007-09-19T10:42:00.000-03:00

Well, I'm 20 now!
And Chile celebrated the 197th anniversary of its first step towards an independent government.
I had a fantastic day... talked to my family at home, got presents, walked to Mass, had a cook-out, went to see the beginning of the sunset, etc. The weather was amazing! So weird having a birthday in spring!

On my walk, I collected flowers! Click here for the album. I also collected flags the day before, album here.

My cake!

My host mom and dad dancing cueca, the Chilean national dance!

So beautiful!

Me attempting to blow out my single candle. I tried not to blow the coconut stuff all over the table, and as a result, I didn't blow the candle out. lol. (mom, notice what skirt I'm wearing? :-) The one I got for my birthday 2 months ago!)

And for the rest of the pictures from yesterday:
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2141757&l=e86de&id=14218621

Well, I'm heading off for a relaxing trip to Salamanca, which is about 5 hours north of here by bus, this afternoon. So my internet time will be limited if any while I'm there. If you email me or anything I might not get back to you until Sunday evening or Monday.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes/cards/facebook messages/emails!

Flojos

2007-09-17T16:50:00.000-03:00

I found an interesting news article online this morning and thought I'd share (although I should be working on homework). If you can read Spanish, you can find it here.

It says that 55.5% of Chileans considered Chileans to be flojos (lazy) rather than trabajadores (workers)(44%). Hahaha. I'd have to say this is true. Its not so much a I'm-going-to-sit-around-all-day-and-do-nothing sort of laziness, more of a thats-not-so-important-right-now laziness. Like sitting around for an hour chatting after lunch is over, for example. They just take their time more. If you get up earlier than you need to, its odd. Things are more slow-paced here.

The survey also found:
65.7% think that solidarity prevails over individualism; I would agree with this one also- it seems to be more of a united group of people than the US.
61.5% see Chileans as brave, courageous
Chileans are
traditional (according to 78.8% of Chileans)
conservative (according to 64.2%)
pessimists (63.5%)
liars (76%)

Hahaha. I would definitely agree with the traditional and conservative. I haven't particularly noticed pessimism, and in fact my host mom was talking today about the importance of looking on the bright side of things. And liars? Well, if they are, I must get fooled a lot because I haven't especially noticed that either.

The survey also found that Chileans have a lot of pride in the Andes and in the national figures of Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral (Nobel prize winners).

About 67% know what is commemorated on September 18th, which I'm afraid might be pretty good compared to the US. In case you're wondering, it is the date of the first junta of government, basically the first government that Chile set up independent of Spain, even though the country later came under Spanish power again.

Anyway, just some info on the country. Hope I didn't bore you!

Picnic en la playa!

2007-09-16T16:05:00.001-03:00

Yesterday we had a picnic! on the beach! With a TON of food- two kinds of bread, turkey, salami, avacado, tomato, mayo, cheese, peanut butter, strawberry jam, apricot jam, apples, bananas, clementines, juice, and cake! Yummmmm.

Lots of food!

Cake! Don't be fooled by appearences, it wasn't really as good as it looks. lol. It wasn't bad, but Chileans seem to have lost something in translation when they got the recipe for cheesecake from the Americans (or whoever invented it... it wasn't anyone Spanish-speaking because in the store it said "cheesecake"). It was drier, and really cake-y as opposed to cheesecake-y, and the cherries on top were weird. Oh well. They try. haha.

Lauren, Jen, Maria, Zan.

And if you follow the link below to the same album as last time, the last 15 pictures are so are the rest of the picnic photos, I already uploaded them :-)

Album

2007-09-12T23:37:00.000-03:00

More from the sunset, jazz club, church concert, and a bunch of my little brother:
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2140056&l=a636e&id=14218621

September 11

2007-09-11T20:18:00.000-03:00

So today is September 11. That means a lot in the US, but in Chile, I think it really means even more. September 11, 1973 was the date of the military coup that overthrew the government, killed president Allende, and eventually put Pinochet in power. It meant he end to the rise of communism in Chile, but the beginning of the imprisonment, torture, and murder of thousands of people at the hands of the new government. It means that the police were out in the streets today in full force because even now there is the chance of riots and such. There were demonstrations in Santiago today in memory of Allende, as well as a Mass for those killed in the coup attended by relatives of Pinochet- which shows how divided the country still is over the whole situation. And its kind of funny that its just one week before their independence day, when the whole country goes all out in celebration of Chile. I don't know how my family feels about Pinochet; its not something I want to just randomly bring up, since some people here feel so strongly one way or another.

Anyway, on a lighter note, my tests went well this week. Not the most fun, since both tests were two essay questions. Thats a lot of writing, and its always harder to guess how you did on an essay test.

Love,
Katie

p.s. I think it looks really weird to write September 11. I'm already getting used to the date-month, "11 September", way! haha!

Beautiful Sunday

2007-09-09T20:45:00.001-03:00

So I was tired of sitting around all weekend, studying and not studying by having the computer nearby, so I walked down to that park again. I bought kuchen (an apple-pie-ish pastry) and went and studied for about an hour and then did the prayer activity for the Taller de Oracion (Prayer workshop) that I've been going to and then watched the sunset. The first complete sunset I have watched, actually, despite all the pictures of almost-sunset time. It was really nice. I've been working on acknowledging every Sunday as a mini-Easter, a celebration of the Resurrection, especially since this past Lent, and I would say today that was definitely a success.

And juuuusssst in case you're afaid I'm not seeing enough beautiful here... this is the road I go down almost every day, whenever I go to Valpo. (And the above-mentioned park is at the end of it)I think its one of my favorite things- starting the day with this <3

Music, tests, and other things

2007-09-08T17:14:00.000-03:00

So I finally feel like I'm seriously in school... two tests this week (Monday and Tuesday morning) and a small project due Tuesday afternoon. So I'm spending the day today studying, with a-bit-too-frequent breaks to check football scores, upload pictures, etc. But oh well. I have all tomorrow afternoon too, and all Monday afternoon for the Tuesday stuff. The main problem is that I have not read all of the books I need to read for my lit class... as in, I'm about 1.9 books behind! But I think it will be fine. First of all, we never talked about these 2 yet, so I'm not entirely sure they will be on the test. Second of all, its going to be half-in class and half-take home, so probably the later stuff will be take home. Finally, she said if the exchange students don't finish reading, we can just note it on the test. The problem is that the book that I've read a little bit of is (from an English description online) the most "linguistically complex" of the genre and includes all sorts of plays on words and double meanings and such... yikes!!

In other news... this week was much nicer weather-wise in the middle of the week- probably in the 70s. Its colder again now because its the third cloudy day in a row, but these warm days are a good sign of whats to come :-) On Wednesday I walked down to a park somewhat near my house with an incredible view, and worked on some homework there. That might become a more common occurence...

View of Valpo from the park:

On Thursday evening (after I went to Pastoral), my friends Jen and Zan (short for Alexandra) and I went out to eat and then to a Jazz club in Valpo. It was pretty cool. I drank legally :-) (a Pisco Sour, which is like Mike's Hard Lemonade, only a bit harder) This is the band that played.

It was a very musical week... last night Jen and Maria and I went to a church in downtown Vina to see Coro (choir) Mozart. They performed a variety of religious music, from Mozart and Italian church music to traditional Christian Folkloric songs from when Christianity was first brought to the Americas. Just before the folkloric songs were 2 "Negro Espirituales" (me: "What? Did they just say Negro Spirituals?!?" and yep they did... the first song was "Swing Low Sweet Chariot"!... talk about random... a Mozart Choir in Chile singing "Swing Low Sweet Chariot")

After the concert we walked to the ocean and just stood on the short concrete ledge edging the sidewalk and watched the waves crashing on the rocks below us and talked for probably an hour. It was nice.

This is from on the way back, the picture turned out orange-er than reality but oh well. This is from the same bridge where I have that reflection picture from around sunset time, looking the other direction.

Other interesting happenings: the students at the Universidad de Santa Maria are on strike. They are upset about some poor administration and mis-management of money, from what I gather. Mostly they're just not going to classes, but on Thursday there was a demonstration. I just happened to be walking home on Thursday and walking right past (across the highway) the university during the height of it... The police were there, and spraying high powered hoses at the students, who kept ducking behind the stone railing on the platform of the steps up to the university. Finally, the police threw out tear gas! Crazy how things work in Chile...

Well, this coming week is somewhat busy but the week after will be super-slow. There are no classes the 17th-19th for the Fiestas Patrias (Patriotic holidays), and probably a lot of profesors, at least for the exchange students, won't have class the rest of the week either, because a lot of people are leaving to travel. I might go with Sarai and our tenant Alejandro to visit his family for a few days after the 18th, they live a couple hours north of here and I guess in a really beautiful area. Not sure on those plans yet, though- we still haven't bought tickets. A lot of people are doing really big trips- there are some people going up to the desert in Northern Chile and then on to Peru and Bolivia. It sounds pretty awesome. I'm a little jealous of all the trips people are planning sometimes... Macchu Picchu in Peru, the glaciers in the south... but hopefully in the end I'll be glad that I decided to save money and only take one or 2 small trips (I plan to go to Mendoza, in Argentina, its pretty cheap by bus).

Anyway... I do have some plans for the week off. My birthday, obviously, is Chile's big holiday and so I'll spend that probably just with my host family. They always have a big barbecue here with relatives and family friends and such. The weekend before some friends and I are planning a picnic on the beach which should be fun. And I'll be able to do some more exploring. And, of course, read more don Quijote. lol.

Sorry for such a long post... I really need to work on more small stuff throughout the week!!

Love, Katie

More photo albums

2007-09-02T17:53:00.000-03:00

La Sebastiana and Open-Air Museum (the last 25 or so photos in the album)
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2131578&l=13bf2&id=14218621

More of the museum, and then the walking tour from the next day
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2137372&l=ea4f8&id=14218621

Isla Negra y Pomaire
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2137387&l=96c21&id=14218621

Pomaire y Isla Negra

2007-09-02T17:00:00.000-03:00

Yesterday we had another excursion, to Pomaire, a small artisan's village (mostly pottery), and to Isla Negra, Pablo Neruda's favorite house. It was a nice day. The village was really cool, the main street just had all sorts of pottery all the way down the street. Really cheap too- for example, you could get a decent sized painted flower pot for 80 cents! They had all sorts of things... lots of pots and vases, bowls, pichers, bottles, nativities, giant rosaries, plates, teacups, piggy banks, etc., plain, glazed, painted, etc. I would have bought a lot more, but I never would have been able to get it home! If I decide to ship some things back to the states, I may go back to Pomaire- it wasn't too far and I'm sure there are buses running out there from Valparaiso often. Anyway, it was sunny and warm there yesterday and we had two hours just to wander around, shop, eat lunch. The village is also famous for their one-kilo (2.2 pounds)empanadas! I had a much smaller one.

Pablo Neruda's house was located right by this rocky beach about an hour from Pomaire and an hour and a half from Vina del Mar(and notice, it was cloudy and cold there!) The beach was great... beautiful, and you should have seen how huge the waves were! I would have been fine with just staying at the beach for a couple hours and skipping the tour of his house, to be honest. (Although, I would say this one ended up my favorite of his 3 houses)

Isla Negra, looking up from the beach.

Among other things (ship parts, seashells, insects, butterflies, ships-in-bottles, etc) Pablo Neruda loved collecting glass- here mostly clear, but his house is full of colored glasses and bottles and vases. Once again we couldn't take pictures inside the house, so this will have to do.

People

2007-08-30T17:46:00.000-03:00

My little brother, Ian (trying to look cool lol). He's 11, will be 12 in November I think. He's pretty annoying, but usually I am ok with that, because I've never had an annoying brother before. I feel kind of bad for him too. I get the sense that sometimes he feels left out because, well first of all, he doesn't live with his own parents (don't know the story on that), and also I think he might feel that my host mom is more interested in her 20-something daughters and foreign exchange students and her granddaughter than in him. I think sometimes she is. Anyway, he mostly just wants to use my computer or look at my American stuff. He really liked my navy blue bandana, so I gave it to him, and he gave me his favorite baseball card (rookie card for a Seattle player) in return, even though I told him he didn't have too. He also was really excited once because I gave him an American dollar.

My host-neice Amanda, chillin' in her grandparents' bed and watching tv while my host mom cooks lunch. hahaha.

And Sarai. This picture is from a couple weeks ago when it was colder, hence the hopping around in her sleeping bag. Haha. But I don't think I've posted a picture of her, so there it is. I thought it fit in well with the picture of Amanda. lol

Sunday

2007-08-28T19:37:00.000-03:00

Sunday was a bit of a miserable day. I got my first (and hopefully last!) flea, and ended up with over 20 bites on my back. I pinched a nerve in my neck and could barely move my head all day. The wind was super-strong and freezing cold. Etc. (It wasn’t entirely bad. I do really like the church I’ve been going to. Its near a friend’s house—we were going to go together—and I like the music better there, the priest speaks more clearly, and it’s a prettier (older) church too!) Anyway… we went on an excursion on Sunday too. It wasn’t too fantastic of an excursion, just because we didn’t go inside anywhere! We started near the former regional government building (the ex-Intendencia), went up an ascensor to the Cerros (hills) Alegre and Concepción. A beautiful area—a few of the houses there inspired much of the architecture and colors of Valparaíso. A lot of immigrants settled there. We saw the Palacio Baburizza (house of a Yugoslavian immigrant), inside of which is an art museum that we did not see (although I’m not sure its still open?). We walked to the big Anglican and Lutheran churches, some of the first Protestant churches in Chile/South America (1858 and 1897, respectively)… but again did not enter. Then we walked around some more. It was more of a “these are some places you should visit on your own sometime” sort of tour. It wasn’t horrible—we did see some really neat houses, and more fantastic views. I think my not feeling too well just made it seem worse. Don’t worry though, I’m feeling much better now even though my back still itches and I’m still cold. Haha. Today was much warmer and so I took a long (too long) walk, and bought some cookies. :-)

The ex-Intendencia

Palacio Baburizza

Cool building- I think its a cafe or restaurant or something now...

Anglican Church

Lutheran Church, from a distance

Sorry for the triple- new posts! I was a bit behind.I’m behind on the photo albums too… those will go up later.

Cookies!

2007-08-28T19:29:00.000-03:00

On Saturday morning, I made cookies, and I think that is worth a story in itself. First of all, Chilenos are strange about cooking.
1. My host mom couldn't understand why I bought a measuring cup and spoons. For example, she told Sarai and me "Just use the whole bottle [of peanut butter]" (in Spanish of course) We measured it out, and we used about half a bottle.
2. She also could not understand why I wanted both sugar and brown sugar. I told her I didn't know, it is what the recipe calls for! Still didn't understand. "Well, they have different tastes"... still didn't understand.
3. The ovens don't have degree markings. How are you supposed to know what to set it for?

Anyway... the cookies turned out pretty good. Not as good as when we make them at home, probably because the brown sugar had a weird texture (it wasn't fine and clumpy, but loose like regular sugar and the grains were really big), and because the chocolate I bought was not all that great. But they were good nonetheless, and they lasted all of oh, maybe 7 hours. The picture below is what was left after Sarai and I each took one or two when we got back from our excursion around 5pm, and at 7pm I took the last one to stash in my room for Sunday. I know there are a lot of people in my house, but geez!

yummmmm...

Saturday

2007-08-28T19:16:00.000-03:00

On Saturday we had another excursion. This one was to Pablo Neruda’s house in Valparaíso, “La Sebastiana”, and to an open-air museum. The first picture is of the view from his house, which were the only pictures we were allowed to take from inside the house. Sad, because his houses are really interesting—he collected all sorts of random things. Colored glass bottles, ship models and ship parts, interesting artwork, all sorts of knick-knacks. The walls are all painted in bright colors too. The second picture is from the outside, of the house itself.

The open-air museum was interesting. Not really my kind of art, but interesting because it was all of Valparaíso in one area. The magnificent views, the bright houses, winding streets, etc. The Museo a Cielo Abierto (translates directly—open-sky museum) is a series of 20 murals, commissioned by my university in 1992, painted by famous Chilean artists on the sides of houses and apartment buildings along a few streets clustered on the Cerro (hill) Bellavista. Some of them represent things that unify all of Chile—mountains, like in Mural 12 (the first mural below), or bread (not posted). Not all of the murals are quite as random and abstract as these two, but pretty close. The first picture here is just of a row of houses along the way, another view you’ll find on a lot of postcards and things.

Ohhh, Chile

2007-08-23T17:09:00.000-03:00

Chile is an odd place.

For example, next week is the history department's big "Celebrate History" week or something. What does that mean for me? No history classes. Apparently part of the celebration includes cancelling all classes from period 3-4 on from Tuesday through Friday. Even weirder, that means if you have a history class on any of those days in period 1-2, at 8:15 in the morning, you still have to go.

The micros are really weird. Micro=bus. The micros apparently are independently operated, which means that although each number has its own route and all, there is no schedule. Which is bad. But the good side is that you often don't have to be at a bus stop to catch a bus- just wave and the driver will stop. Also, you can argue with the bus driver. Regular fare is usually 280-400 pesos (~56-80 cents), depending on where you are going, but if you have a student ID, its 130-150 pesos (~26-30 cents). We don't have our student IDs yet, but we do have papers that say we are registered at PUCV, and also our student IDs from the US. You show it to the bus driver and give him 150 pesos, and he'll be like "no" and you just say "No, I'm a student!" and he'll (usually) grudgingly let you get on the bus. Nice, although I can't wait until we have our regular IDs and don't have to argue.

In other fun news for the week, yesterday in my contemporary art class we watched Marie Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst. We watched it in English, with Spanish subtitles. I was the only non-Chilean in the class. It was pretty awesome.

Also, yesterday I had my last "first" class. I hadn't had my Origins of Christianity class yet. I really really liked it. Its going to be a great class I think.

Esquiar!

2007-08-19T22:42:00.001-03:00

Well, yesterday was the big ski trip to Valle Nevado. It was absolutely amazing. The views were incredible- good thing, or else it wouldn't have been worth all the money (super-expensive! especially considering we had to rent skis and coats and all that) or the ride there (almost 2 hours to Santiago, and then over 2 more in a bus already completely full of people but then also with all of our skis, boots, etc.) It was a nice place, lots of slopes, but I found the slope-selection for beginner/intermediate to be not so great. There were a couple more intermediate that looked interesting, but you had to ride a pulley lift (like where you sort of sit on it, with your feet on the ground, and ski up the hill) up to them, and the lifts were along advanced courses, so if you fell off, you either have to walk up in your skis like a couple girls did or ski the advanced. I didn't want to risk that! It was pretty amazing all the same, and I'm glad I went!

Crazy lifts! They were really long, and really steep in parts- this one finishes by going up a cliff!

wow!

You might want to click on this one to see it bigger. Its a pasted-together panoramic of the view from the slope I skied a lot. This is the closest to getting an idea of what it looked like really being there- way too much to capture in a single photo.

A very long walk

2007-08-17T17:28:00.001-03:00

So yesterday I went for a walk around my neighborhood. It was a gorgeous day and I wanted to check out a few things that I always pass in the colectivo ride to/from Viña. So I set off, with my camera, some chocolate, a rosary, and about 3 dollars. And I just took random pictures of random things. Like a graffiti’d sign that said (translated) “Don’t scratch. Thank you very much. We are the pirates.” Ooook. And I had a conversation with an old man on a bridge who wanted to know about where I was from and why I was here. And I checked out a couple of neat churches. And I ended up at the beach in Viña a little before sunset.

View from a dead-end street.

Our Lady of Lourdes church. The church is behind this area, what you see is a shrine/replica of Lourdes.

The Flower clock of Viña del Mar.

Self explanatory…

Love this one!

For more: http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2133063&l=0daf0&id=14218621

One thing I don’t understand here is prices. For example. Yesterday I bought sunscreen for skiing tomorrow, and it cost me roughly US$11!!! But today I bought snacks for tomorrow (small bag of chips, bag of cookies, 2 granola bars), a juice box, and 2 batteries all for $2. Weird.

Anyway, thats about it. Super-excited for skiing tomorrow! I hope I can get a decent nights sleep though- its been tough with this cold, and tomorrow we are meeting at 5:15am! If you really have time to waste, here's the website of the place we're going skiing. One of the links on the side is a photo gallery. http://www.vallenevado.com/?lang=eng

Ok, thats it for now!
Love, Katie

Hola!

2007-08-15T23:00:00.000-03:00

I think its getting warmer here, but I've hardly left the house in the last 3 days so I don't know. I've been sick; don't worry though, I am already starting to feel better.

Today was the feast of the Assumption of Mary. That means, no classes. Yay for Catholic school!

I am finally starting to settle down in a routine here I think. That means homework, but hey, at least it gives me something to do right? Today was the last "feriada" for a while, so no more random days off. And I've been getting test schedules and final project information, which forces me to think about the fact that I am here for classes. I'm just glad that for once I decided to go ahead and take a really light schedule- five classes, but two of them are only 2-credit classes. The main goal here is to improve my Spanish, the secondary goal would be the classroom-learning. The literature class should keep me busy enough though- tons of reading, including Don Quijote which is over 1000 pages. That would be a lot even in English!

Anyway, I don't really have anything interesting or any new pictures. Just wanted to give a quick update.

On Saturday I am going skiing! In the Andes!

New Pics

2007-08-11T22:21:00.000-03:00

Finally put some more pics on Facebook:

Boat trip, acensor, walking around Valpo, my house, and the museums:
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2131571&l=e9e69&id=14218621

Sand dunes and ocean sunset:
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2131578&l=13bf2&id=14218621

Familia!

2007-08-11T16:34:00.000-03:00

Yay I finally have a family picture! More like I stole it, from Sarai, but all the same... This is my host mom on the left, my host sister Paola (she technically does not live here, but she probably spends the night here about half the time, and the baby stays here when she is at work), and my host niece, Amanda, 3 months old!

Trembol!

2007-08-08T22:59:00.000-03:00

This morning I slept late because morning classes were cancelled for some professors meeting, and I was woken up by a loud noise. At first I thought someone had moved or dropped something really big downstairs, but then I realized that my bed had moved- as if one of the legs had partially snapped or something. I figured I dreamed it but then when I got up my host sister asked if I had felt the "trembol". We had an earthquake! (I guess trembol must mean minor earthquake, because the word is terremoto). Just a tiny shake though.

Other than that, a boring day, except that I finished Harry Potter 7. Spent all day reading pretty much. Then I had one class in the evening, which was pretty confusing- it was really abstract and the professor was talking about terminology and word roots- a little harder to grasp when you don't know all the synonyms and things in that language. But I made friends with a really nice French girl who I had met last week before we knew the class was cancelled last week. She is the only other non-Chileno in the class.

That is all.
Love, Katie

Monday

2007-08-06T23:36:00.000-03:00

In case you want more details: http://maryanninchile.blogspot.com/ (hope thats ok, Maryann)
We had our meeting today, with all of the ISA students, the directors, the director from the US, the director of International students from the university, and a psychologist. Heard the details of what happened, talked about making sure we're here for each other and knowing that counseling is availible through the university, etc. Prayer service is tomorrow at 10. Michaela's dad will probably not be there, he was thinking of going to climb La Campana tomorrow to see what happened, and for closure I guess. She was cremated today, and I assume the family is flying back home tomorrow night or Wednesday morning.

My literature class today went really well- the professor seems really nice, the course material interesting, and I understood almost everything. Its going to be a LOT of reading though.

Love,
Katie

p.s. Hi Grandma and Grandpa!

Well, yesterday wasn't all bad...

2007-08-05T18:42:00.000-03:00

In the afternoon, before we heard the news, we had a tour around part of Vina del Mar. First we went to this old house/palace I think from the early 1900s. It was the house of the family that founded Vina del Mar. Now its a museum, both a historical museum (a lot of the original furniture is still there) and an art museum. It was pretty cool. There was religious art, art by Chilean painters, lots of portraits of the family and of famous Chileans, etc.

Then we went to this old archeological museum, but it was closing in 5 minutes- our program people didn't realize that on Saturdays in the wintertime it closes early- so they wouldn't let us in. This was outside it however- its one of the actual statues from Easter Island. And the guy on the left was our tour guide, a history professor.

Then we went to Renaca, a bit north of Vina del Mar proper, and climbed the ConCon dunes. That was pretty awesome. Climbing them though was tough- resting about every 5 steps after we were about half way up.

The view off one side of the dunes:

A bunch of us bought these wooden sleds for a dollar and went sledding down the sand.

We were supposed to go to a beach nearby then, and then we were supposed to do some touring today but that all got cancelled when we got the news. I haven't heard much today, except some more of the details of what happened Friday evening and that her dad and stepmom and a brother are here now I think. Tomorrow we're all meeting at 3pm I think just to get together and talk, and it sounds like there will be a memorial service on Tuesday.

And finally, so I can end on a lighter note,
Things I am thankful to have here:
-la estufa (space heater)
-peach jelly
-Sarai (my roommate... we'd be totally lost and confused all the time without each other)
-wearing 2 or 3 sweaters at a time
-my host family, especially my host dad, he makes me laugh
-beautiful views
-sunny days (when we have them of course)
-my gloves
-the fireplace downstairs
-warm soup
-the pancakes we had for dinner
-the ladies I met at church
(notice how many have to do with being warm...)

Prayers Needed

2007-08-04T20:41:00.000-03:00

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003821749_webdead04.html

She was in my group. Don't worry, I'm fine. I didn't really know her much, but its hard on everyone in our group just the same. Pray for her and her family and friends especially right now, and for all of us here, especially her roommate Scarlett and the other students who went hiking with them yesterday.

(Sort of) first day of classes

2007-08-01T19:00:00.000-03:00

So you all might be wondering how my first classes went today.... well, they didn't. The first class, Origins of Christianity, we waited around for 20 or 25 minutes, and the professor never showed up. I guess thats somewhat typical. Especially since it was only a 2-credit class and we don't have class the next two Wednesdays (I think-something about no class in the mornings on the 8th, and then I know that the 15th is the feast of the Asuncion so no classes). So maybe he just decided to wait until after that to start things.

Then I just went to my Wednesday evening class, and I was waiting around talking with a girl from France and there were only two other people waiting too, 2 Chilean girls, and we finally asked some people in an office and they told us we were at the wrong room. So we went to the other room and got chairs and sat down and then figured out that it was a different art class. Finally we found a sign that said the class will begin August 8.

So thats my day. Mostly a waste of time, although while I was at the first class I stopped by the ISA office and printed out some things, so at least that trip wasn't wasted colectivo fare.

Inside my house

2007-07-31T18:30:00.000-03:00

I know my house didn't look the greatest on the outside, but it is really comfortable inside (see mom, don't worry :-) ) This is my bedroom. The walls are a little blank now, but I bought some "Tak" (like teachers gum) and I'm working on it. The lampshade on the light hanging from the ceiling is Winnie the Pooh. cool.

And this is from the living room looking into the dining room. We don't really spend much time in the living room, unless its sitting right beside the fireplace. Mostly when I spend time with my family we're sitting around there in the dining room playing cards or something.

And from the dining room into the living room.

This is the kitchen- the only thing thats really small. I'm standing in the corner and the only things you can't see are the stove/oven and the kitchen sink on the left, and the microwave on the right.

Well, thats it for now (although, the pictures below are new- look at them too). Classes start tomorrow. I only have two classes tomorrow though, and two on Thursday, and I never have classes on Friday (hooray!). So its just a short week and then a three day weekend.

More mini-tours

2007-07-31T18:10:00.000-03:00

This is a picture from our boat ride on Friday (sorry, I didn't get any pictures of the penguins).

Then we went up one of the ascensores, a very tourist-y one I think because there were all sorts of artisans' shops at the top. I can see why though- its the farthest one to this end of the city and so it has a great view of everything. And of course, they planned it so we went up just a little before sunset so everything was beautiful, kind of pink-tinted.

Today (Tuesday) I went exploring with a friend, Maria. We went up a ascencor somewhat close to the main buildings of the school, and walked almost clear across the whole city. I think we walked about two or two and a half hours. It was pretty cool, it was a nice day today. Now I'm exhausted.

Pinguinos!

2007-07-28T21:41:00.001-03:00

I forgot to tell you, yesterday on the boat ride I saw penguins. Swimming in the water. Real live not-in-a-zoo penguins. That is all.

2007-07-27T21:33:00.001-03:00

Pictures from the Valpo and Vina, and my walk yesterday:

http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2128017&l=ed107&id=14218621

2007-07-27T20:59:00.000-03:00

This is my house. The tall-ish one in the middle.

Well, orientation week is over. Officially, at least- tonight there's an "unofficial" party. But anyway, the week finished with an activities fair (I signed up with a group called "Hogar de Cristo" (Home of Christ) and hopefully I'll be able to do some volunteer work with them), a program with traditional Chilean music and dancing, and then we finished the tour that we didn't have on Monday because of the rain. We went for a boat ride and then took an acensor (incline) up to a hill on the edge of Valpo. Great view up there. Again. Tomorrow morning I'm meeting up with some girls in our group and we're going to explore more of Valpo, probably just pick a hill and walk around a while and find someplace for lunch. Ok thats all for now. ¡Chao!

Wednesday/Thursday

2007-07-26T18:04:00.000-03:00

Again, read the entry below first and then come back to this one.

This is more of the tour from Wednesday. This is the view from behind the marine sciences building. Absolutely incredible. I discovered that you can see big snowy mountains from Valpo/Viña. Sweet. (Then today I discovered you can actually see them from my window- I hadn’t seen them before because I wasn’t in my room during the daytime before, and this afternoon I discovered you can also see the beach if you lean all the way over to the side of the window). Anyway…

Looking toward Valpo.

This is the view directly out my window. Colorful houses on a hill and the daycare center across the street.

This is my new church, its about a 3 minute walk from my house (which I forgot I had a picture of that too, I’ll upload it with the next set of pictures). La Madre de Dios- the Mother of God. Today I had a free afternoon and it was a beautiful day so I went for a walk. I didn’t know where I was going so I basically went up and up until there was no more up, and I came down the other side of the hill. At one point I wasn’t sure where I was but then I saw the roof of the church. Its not the most beautiful church, but it’s a good guide. It was really cool
This is a picture from my walk.
I’ll have more pictures of the tours yesterday and my walk today up later on Facebook. I did upload the rest of my Santiago pictures though, so if you want to see those:
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2127773&l=42393&id=14218621

Tuesday/Wednesday

2007-07-26T17:22:00.000-03:00

Hola! I don't remember where I left off, but anyway, on Monday it was really rainy and so it was even colder than usual because the sun never came out. The sun is really strong here, so its really cold at night and warms up a lot in the day time. Today it probably got up to mid-60s, and I got a little sunburned when I went for a walk!!! But anyway, Monday we did not do much touring, just school things- a welcome from the head of the university to all the foreign students, tour of the PiiE (Programa internacional/intercambio Estudiantes or something) office, and our written placement test. We also saw the national congress building. On Tuesday we had a walking tour of Viña del Mar.

This picture is from a beach in Viña, looking towards Valpo. So pretty!
The main building of la Universidad Catolica. There are about 4 university buildings and the ISA office in this general area, and the rest of the university buildings are spread all over the 2 cities. A bit annoying.

Yesterday (Wednesday) we toured some of the more spread out buildings. This is one of the art buildings- my contemporary art class will be here. Its in Viña.
The history building, a few streets over from the art building. Pretty cool place, si?

Then over on the other side of Valpo are the music building and the marine sciences buildings. This picture is on the way to the music building. It was gorgeous. You could see all over the place, and all the houses were painted bright colors or various pastels.

More pictures

2007-07-25T23:34:00.001-03:00

For more pictures of the first day and a half in Santiago:
http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2127659&l=c1a43&id=14218621

I'll try to get a bunch more up tomorrow.

Last day in Santiago

2007-07-23T22:48:00.000-03:00

Yesterday our first stop was the place where Santiago was founded, Cerro Santa Lucia. The director of my program, Lizette, told us all about the history. This monument was constructed I think around 1900. The cerro (hill) was originally a fortress for the first Spaniards there. This is a part of the fortress, at the very top of the cerro. The view from the top was absolutely incredible, especially because it was such a clear day- relatively early on Sunday=not as much smog as there usually was.
The view from partway up.
Then we drove to the outskirts of the city where there was this Dominican church and a bunch of artesans' shops. We had lunch there and then we had a little time to shop.

After that we drove to Valparaíso y Viña del Mar-we traded mountains for the ocean. I'll have pictures of that later. I am with my family now, they are really great. Mamá, Papá, a sister- Alejandra- 23 years old, and a brother-Ian-11 years old. I have my own room and I share a bathroom with Ale and with the other girl from the US, Sarai. They have a really nice house, and all the food so far had been great too. I'll say more later- right now I need to go get a shower because Mamá just showed me how to light the hot water heater. ¡Chao!

Part 2

2007-07-22T12:00:00.000-03:00

(Scroll down and read the next post first- this is the continued part)

These are the new stainless steel barrels that they use at the vineyard.
The cellar where they age the red wines:

After lunch on Saturday we went to Pablo Neruda's house. He was a famous poer- won the nobel prize- but also a politician and an ambassador from Chile. This is one of three or four houses, his Santiago house. He loved the sea and ships and everything nautical. His house was full of collections of seashells and navigational insruments, etc. There are three separate buildings with a courtyard in the middle.

It has been absolutely freezing here. Even with a sweater and winter coat and everything. They don't really have central heating here either. But anyway, it was so cold yesterday that it snowed on this hill, where it hasn't snowed in years or maybe even in forever.

Part of the view out of the window in the room on the 15th floor where we have breakfast every morning at the hotel:

Today we've had a bit of a slow morning- we all had to get individual photos for our Chilean IDs. My appointment was at ten. My hotel roommate and I tried to go to church at a church the guy here at the hotel told us about, but when we went for Mass at 9, the church was closed and locked, and when we tried back after our pictures, it was open but no one was there :-(

Later today we are going to the spot where Santiago was founded, and then I think maybe to another historical site or two before going on to Valparaíso and Viña to meet our host families. We are all really excited/nervous about it. It will be nice to go to a home though.

2007-07-22T11:43:00.000-03:00

On Friday we went to the changing of the guards at the presidential palace (la Moneda)- where President Bachelet works. They change the guards every 2 days, so the new set going in did not leave until this morning. It was really neat. Everything was so precise. There was also a military band that played international music for a while before leading the old guard off down the street. Then we went on a tour of la Moneda and learned a lot of the history of Chile. This is the O'Higgins room, where la presidente greets foreign ambassadors. It is named for Bernard O'Higgins, the Chilean son of an Irishman, who was a great liberator of Chile.
This is the Cathedral of Santiago, in the Plaza de Armas, a really neat area downtown.
The inside was gorgeous, but i didn't get any very good pictures. I did get this picture of St. Teresa of the Andes, who was a Carmelite nun.

Yesterday morning we started at a vineyard, one of (or maybe THE) nicest in Chile. These are the old barrels where wine was made, now they have newer machines for it. We got to sample the wine too ;-)

Day1

2007-07-19T20:00:00.000-03:00

Well, because I know you are all sitting around anxiously waiting for me to post pictures, and because dinner is not until 8:30 and I need to relax a bit, I have pictures!! From the airplane- Beginning of the sunrise
Mountains:
We met everyone, came to our hotel, went for a late lunch, and then we went across the city to ride a Pittsburgh-ish incline (only much taller and scarier) to the top of Cerro San Cristobal (St. Christopher Hill). At the top of this 800m hill they have a giant statue of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, watching over the city.
The view up there was absolutely incredible! You could see mountains in every direction. And the sun was starting to set (at 5:30pm- its definitely winter! cold too!) Then we rode on some gondolas and it was absolutely incredible.
Of all the things I saw in Rome and everything, this has to be the most incredible thing I have ever seen in my entire life:

I am here!

2007-07-19T13:48:00.000-03:00

Just wanted to let you all know I made it safely! More later-adios!

Packing

2007-07-18T10:42:00.000-03:00

This is my bag at 12:30 this morning.

Doesn't matter that I couldn't close it though- it was still 27 lbs overweight!!