... I WON!

So, International Studies Abroad, had a photo contest for the Spring semester abroad and I won grand prize!
I found out that I first won with this picture:

I was so excited to win, I forgot to look over everything and make sure it was legit. And then I read the disclaimer...the winning photos had to be taken by an ISA student, and this one was....NOT. I am in the picture, all the way on the left. THey would have printed this photo and put it on the wall in the Austin office, so I had to do the right thing and tell them that it was in fact not taken by an ISA student. 

Feeling bummed, I sent the email, but felt good about doing the right thing. I got a call from the woman the next morning and she confirmed that the photo would have to be taken out of the running because it wasn't taken by an ISA student, which is the whole point...

but then she told me that I was actually the runner up with another photo! They had chosen the jumping one because it has ISA students in it and it got the most amount of votes, but then since it had to be taken out, the runner up won, and that was ME!

here is the official winning photo!

here is the website where you can see all of the other winners! these pictures are beautiful! ENJOY!

Spring 2011 Photo Contest Winners

the LOVE of being home!

So, Yes...we all know that I am home, and I am loving it. But i wanted to show you guys this video that my friend made. She was supposed to stay in Chile for the full year, but because of all of the strikes that the University was having, she wasn't able to stay. She kept this secret from her family and surprised them, and made this video. It is so cute i cried, plus i loved the music in it! It'll make you smile :)

more peru!

this is gonna be sort of crazy, im just trying to whip out these posts, and they won't be posted in the right order...so try and keep up :)

Monday 04/07/11
So after our first day in Cuzco, we had day 2 which was...more relaxing and sight seeing! It was pretty sweet. Here are some views of the beautiful city of Cuzco.

one of the main plazas in Cuzco, the rainbow flag is the flag of Cuzco.

more beautiful buildings of Cuzco!

you get the idea! beautiful buildings with houses that go up into the hills!

Cuzco was by far my favorite large city that we went to. It was beautiful looking up into the hills and seeing the terra-cotta roofs. At least i think they are terra-cotta. You know that classic tiled roof. Susie and I were lucky not to have any symptoms of altitude sickness. We had headaches here and there, and definitely weren't able to move around as quickly as usual, but other than that, nothing! We found a pretty great place to eat named Jack's Cafe. It was super yummy and we had quite a few meals there!

grilled pita and hummus! it was super yummy!

Tuesday- 05/07/11

So then day 3 in Cuzco, that's where the adventure began! Our goal was to go see the sites of crazy names. and yes this is where i have to look back to the pictures of the signs that i took so i can remember the names of them. 

We were headed to the archeological site of Saqsaywaman. To get there we took a public bus, which in Peru was a WHOLE lot different than in Chile. We had seat numbers, but as we were heading out a flood of people got on the bus and susie was sitting on the isle seat with a woman's briefcase jamming into her ribs. hahhaa, oh the memories. 

We asked the driver to tell us when to get off, and when we finally got there, it was basically us swimming through people to get off of the bus, and then we were on the side of the road...and this is what we looked at. 

houses up in the hills. 

VIVA EL PERU, in the side of a mountain. so cool!

So as we were walking down the road trying to find these ruins...we were spotted by this men as tourists. Yep, and they offered us a tour of a couple sites on horseback...and we haggled the price down a little bit, and so we hopped on a horse!

Susie on horseback! what an adventure!

So Susie is a speed demon! She kept trying to get her horse to go faster, so our guide would whip the back of her horse, which would then scare my horse...and well. My horse would start running! totally not fair!

We stopped off first at some caves, which weren't really caves but cave-ish.

Susie in the cave

Next we headed to the Temple of the Moon, which is supposed to have good vibes for women. It didn't really seem like a temple to me.

semi stairs there!

Then it was time to get off of the horses and see the sites that we had gone to see in the first place. Qenco, and Saqsaywaman.

Once again we were picked as tourists and offered a tour of these 2 sites. It cost us about 10 bucks, so it was worth it. He was very helpful and told us some information about the sites that we otherwise would not have known. 

some archeological site.

where they used to prepare the bodies to be buried. at the site of *kenk-oh* in Quechua.

Susie's cool panorama setting on her camera!

This is the site of Saqsaywaman. Pretty cool! Every rock was brought from the mountains and carried to this site. limestone.

me standing next to the tallest rock, SO TALL, and they moved this with man power.

and the biggest rock.

more than a ton!

Susie and I in the only remaining original entrance.

After exploring the ancient archeological sites, we collected our stuff from the hostel where they let us store it while we were out exploring. We put on our bags and headed down the road to try and find the taxi to Ollantaytambo, which we just ended up calling O-town because it was super hard to say. On that taxi ride, Susie lost one of her sandals on top of the van. Sad day...

We settled into our hostel and i found a bug in my bed! ahhh!

so i slept in my fleece blanket that mom had packed for me. that was the beginning of that trend.

And Ollantaytambo started a whole new adventure!

and now...PERU!

I almost forgot i was supposed to be updating the blog because I have been having such a wonderful time at home! It has been so great to see some people, but I still cannot wait for family gatherings to get to hug everyone!!!
I have kept myself busy with Maine and catching up on my tv...that I forgot that I should probably do this before it all escapes my memory.
So here we go!

Saturday 02/07/11
I picked Susie up from the airport on Saturday morning bright and early! I was looking classy after a whole night without sleep, well we both were because Susie didn't get *much* sleep on the airplane...so Saturday we were both in a delerious state...which you will come to find out we were like that the majority of the trip. We named this state "not being in HD". like a tv, to work great and be on top of everything...you gotta be in HD which we were not the majority of the time. Let me tell you traveling with Susie and my brains...we were probably in HD maybe 7% of the time. There were multiple times that we left items somewhere, lost items *like my travel pillow on the very first bus of the trip for me*, locking keys in the room, etc...
So I met Susie at the airport and I was able to look out over all the people going through customs and i caught her eye through the window. *i had not even realized at this point that i left my travel pillow on the bus.. i was too tired*. After Susie breezed through customs we headed to the bus, metro, and finally arrived at our hostel. Our plan: relax and view the town a little bit.
I had only been to Santiago a few times on ISA trips...so finding my way around was quite an adventure. We were "lost" staring at our maps and almost forgot to look up, and then we found this.

pictures never do it justice...but this amazing building with the mountains in the background...

stupid haze. Santiago pollution is real bad...

then we climbed a hill to get a look out over the city. and we found these statues

haha oh susie.

and here was the view!

i adjusted the picture a little bit...but you get the idea of the smog.

and then we finally got a good nights rest in a real bed!

and there is susie in her cocoon! this is the goof i had to travel with! jk, it was wonderful :)

Sunday 03/07/11

We didn't sleep long though! Because we had such an early flight...our taxi picked us up from the hostel at 3:20am! yea, it was a joke. they pick you up 3 hours before your flight wether you want them to or not! Good thing though, because the airport was pretty busy once we got there.

We had to fly through Lima to get to Cuzco. But things got a little bit crazy at the Lima airport.

We were a little bit confused as to wether we had to get our luggage once we landed in Lima. At first we were told yes we had to, so we waited at baggage claim...and never saw our luggage. My cell phone clock at this time said we had about 30 minutes until our plane left. Frantic we talked to people at the desk and they told us to look again. Both of our bags were bright blue, and we could see from the desk that our bags were not there...luckily they took care of it and said that our bags would be transfered and that we should continue through customs for Peru. That went super quick, and we were about to go through security again with 10 minutes to spare til our flight and they stopped us saying that we had not paid the airport fee. We had no idea about this, and thought that it would have been covered in our ticket purchase. The security guard was telling us that we could either go back downstairs to the Taca counter *name of airline was Taca* or pay at the window right there. With little time to spare we paid in USD our airport fee and went through security. Some how my suede boots made the metal detector go off, so i had to take them off, and after passing through, we were running and I was carrying my boots in my hand. It would have taken too much time to put them back on again. As we were running to our gate we saw so many food places that we wanted to get food from, but decided that we would miss our plane, and we were not going to let that happen.

We get down to our gate and frantically ask if people are going to Cuzco, they responded yep, and we thought ok sweet, now why isn't our plane here yet! After 20-30 minutes of waiting we were getting quite annoyed at the airline. They should have at least told us that our plane was going to be delayed so that we could go get food!

then HD bulbs lit up....TIME CHANGE. duh... My time was still on Chile time, and Peru was an hour behind... SO my phone said that our plane should have already left, but we were early and had plenty of time. WHO KNEW. took us a while to figure that one out.

We finally got on our plane and had a quick trip over to Cuzco. When we got there it was drizzling and the sky was all clouds! We walked around the city a little bit, but mostly stayed in the hostel to rest and acclimatize to the altitude.

Here a few pictures we took that first day.

cloudy, rainy, Cuzco, Plaza de Armas

statue they had in the middle of the plaza.

There wasn't much excitement that Sunday, mostly huffing and puffing around the city trying to see some stuff...that didn't really work out because we were tired. So we got some stuff at the grocery store and headed back to the hostel real quick. Our dinner, Peanut butter and Jelly! ...that happened a lot.

So that was the end of Cuzco day 1.

and finally...

an UPDATE that you've all been waiting so patiently for! yay.
So, I have made it back to the US, and I am in Maine currently, so it is crazy here trying to fit in all of my trips that I usually have all summer to do, but now i have to cram it all into one week.

But, let me tell you guys about my amazing trip to Peru!
It was amazing to start...lets just say that. but let me begin with my last night in Chile with the whole crew.
Technically my program ended on the 2nd of July. Perfect planning put Susie in Santiago Airport that morning. It sort of worked out perfectly because there was a bus that went directly to the airport at 5am. 5am! wowzers. The night before was our night of "despedida" or good bye.  Everyone from my program (Spring 1) was heading to the airport on the 2nd, and so of course we had to go out on our last night...trying to be somewhat responsible I decided it would be best for me not to go to the club...so i headed home around 2am instead of going straight from the club to the bus.

Here are some pictures from our last night!
These people are so special to me, and i will never forget them!

i whip my hair back and forth! Julianna and I making a dance floor in the middle of the living room. 

haha this only lasted for so long because i got a head ache after. It was funny was watch the host sister who was worried about us getting sick on the floor. haha. we were fine!

Here are the girls! Me, Natalie, Julianna in back, Kelly in Front, Renee, Redyn, and Abby H.

Here is the nice smiling photo...

then we got goofy.

Here's the group! So many people that make me happy!

For guys there is: Gustavo, Mattia, and Ian in back, and Fabian in front. 

It was a great last night. Sad to say goodbye to everyone, but then we just realized that this isn't going to be good bye, just see ya later! We are all perfectly placed across the country which is handy for a roadtrip!

and Auntie An just brought out SUPER NACHOS, so...this blog will continue later.

woah peru...LOVE

first of all...i´m sorry for the lack of posts. We haven´t really been on the internet that much except to check up on emails and facebook a little bit, but never enough time to update the blog.
Believe me there will be many more blog posts to come with lots of pictures, but i just wanted to let you all know that I am doing well, and so is Susie! She has come at a time when i needed a friendly face from home to keep me going for the last 2 weeks.


I have seen so many things that i have missed like the bridal shower for Jennie today actually, and easter, and all the family gathers, and they just make me realize how much i love spending time with my family, and i miss EVERYONE!!
it has been a long time traveling abroad in south america, but i think i am ready to come home.
Just 6 more days left, with some amazing treks such as one in the 2nd deepest canyon in the world (2 times deeper than the grand canyon) and then maybe some white water rafting the next day?!

i am excited for adventures to come, and to get home to the US of A where i can reunite with all of my family and be there to celebrate all the exciting things coming up!! (wedding, grandparents 60th anniversary, baby!!)
it´s all so exciting.

so chao for now, and i will be back in the US on the 17th, so leave me a lovely welcome back text message ;)

oh, and if you want to surprise me at the airport, i´d love that. chat with the momma. ;)
miss and love you all!!!!

Peru...HERE I COME!

Ahhh i cannot believe the time has come. Almost my last night in Chile. This is pure craziness! We had our last despedida tonight with some of our friends leaving for home to the US tomorrow. I can't believe it! If i hadn't changed my flight, i would be going home tomorrow!

Instead... I am headed to the airport in less than an hour to go pick up Susie and then we are spending the day in Santiago. A quick night in some hostal, and then we fly to Peru! Plans for peru....not yet set in stone but i know that it's going to be pretty amazing!
I can't wait to travel with Susie and just have a blast.
i was pretty happy with my last facbeook status, so i thought i would repeat it here :)


"International Weather Warning: Storms Susie Q and Abby Z are predicted to touch down in Santiago, Chile and then head north to Peru. They are predicting extreme craziness, so stay in your houses. Reporters say that these storms could be on the loose for up to 2 weeks. Normalcy should resume on July 16th when Abby Z is said to move north to the US, and Susie Q heads east to take on Argentina."


I don't know the next time i'll be on the internet... but i'll try to update if possible!


LOVE TO ALL!
Safe travels to all heading home tomorrow....or later today!

Last week in Chile.

Wow, today is my last sunday in Chile. Seems very weird. I have been here for a little more than 4 months, and it is almost time to head home!
This sunday is a special one, we get my new sister moving in today. She is coming around 6pm and then we're going to have a family dinner with her. Lasagna! yumm. Her name is Uyen and she's from Georgia. I'm pretty excited to meet her, but sad that i'll only have a week here with her.

The toma is STILL happening. This has been truly a crazy semester here in Chile, although they say it has been a true Chilean study abroad now with this toma. The office suggested to all of the teachers that they should just end the semester. That worked out pretty well for me!! I got one of my final research papers taken away, an in class exam made take home, and grammar well im sure not sure what i have to do for that one. That class has been a complete waste of time and it doesn't even count for my major. Such a bummer! The way classes ended has just sort of been a joke, and it makes me glad that i have the education that I do back home at UNH, even though I hate doing homework! And now that my procrastination is at an all time high, getting back into REAL classes should be a struggle for me...

This last weekend, and the last week ahead will be filled with hanging out with friends and family, and trying to finish up the last homework assignments as quickly as possible.
Here are a few pictures from the last few nights of going out. I'm so glad that Redyn has been bringing out her camera to document everything!

fire dude who entertains at red lights.

abby and I at the bar.

It was Redyn's best friends birthday at home, so she made a sign ad brought it to Stingray with us. She got up on stage with the dj to get a picture. There were some pretty amazing photos taken with that sign...what a thoughtful gift!

dj from upstairs took a picture of us...with the sign of course!

prom pic!

more pictures to come :)

Toma Continues.

Tomorrow marks the 3 weeks of this toma. These kids know what they want! Apparently education used to be free, so it's not like they're fighting for something that hasn't happened before.

pajita-straw
lima de uñas- nail file
lagartos-lizard
caimanes-alligator
cocodrilo-crocidile
recoger-pick up
tres veces seguidas- 3 times in a row.
obnoxious-molesto, iritante

I was in the middle of writing this blog when Gonzalo came in...so above are the words that i learned while he was in the room.
Anyways, SO THIS TOMA....still happening! On wednesday morning, 22/6, the students of PUCV took over the PIIE office, which was where we were having our classes and walking in through our door way. I was on my way to give a presentation for art when there were a bunch of people waiting outside the door, and that's when i knew that they had taken over PIIE. Then classes were canceled for the day because they didn't have anywhere to put us.
Within the next day they had moved our classes to another building in Valpo. This was a thursday, aka another crazy day of protests, water cannons, and tear gas. I finished up a project for culture and then a group of us carefully walked our way to the classroom.

Our project. Kinda crazy but basically the idea is that we are fishermen on the boat S.S. Cachai. Chileans use the word cachai after they say something and to make sure you understood they say cachai? like did you catch it? So, we took that and then made a poster about everything that we "caught" or learned about chilean culture. and here is what we came up with. It'd be a whole blog itself to describe every part, but basically we got some fish with scarfs, obvi because chileans wear scarfs all the time. Then we have some words with some common chilean words, "weon, chao, bakan, fome" and we have some protesting sea horses. The tiny little grey no name fish represent all of the people who were killed during the dictatorship. There's lots more to it, but if you want to know more i can describe it later. :)

So after class, Amie, Natalie and I went to Amie's house to make blueberry muffins! they were amazing and it made me so excited to get home and just have all the good stuff that i have been missing! 

Friday wasn't anything special. Can't really remember what i did, but it has been beautifully sunny these last couple of days! it has been wonderful.

Chao for now.

the streets of Valparaíso today. 23/6/11.

i didn't see any of this, i was in class giving my presentation. But this is what the streets looked like today as the students were protesting for free education.

Crazy stuff. This gas is super strong and is illegal in most countries. It stays on the streets and in the air all day, and is even felt at night as you drive by. Pure craziness Chile!

I'm glad I didn't get hit with one of those.

Toma Update.

So, the toma is still in session.
on Thursday, June 16th, there was a national protests by students fighting for a free education. The protest started at 10:30am and was pretty peaceful in the morning...mostly just a ton of students in the plaza/streets with signs.

students in the streets.

I did not go to this protest. I was in the ISA office working on my presentation for class from 10am-2pm. Around 1:30pm things started getting crazy. Students were running through the streets. The tear gas and water guns were coming out in full force. I made it to my class safely across the street and up to my class room to set up for my presentation. There were about people in the class, and they almost wanted to cancel it because of the craziness that was happening outside, but i wanted to get it over with, so we stayed and i did my presentation. It went well! Yay, so now only 6  more projects/papers to finish until the end of the semester.

When it came time to leave the classroom things were getting crazy. The tear gas was so strong that i could feel it as soon as i stepped out into the streets. There was a huge police truck coming down the side street that we exited out on, and police were jumping out in full armor and taking people down at random. We were quickly ushered back into the building so that nothing would happen to us, and the police truck passed.

water truck. Spraying kids. Students ran into the buildings for protection. 

kid being sprayed.

tear gas truck.

This tear gas is VERY strong. It is illegal in most other countries and it is a very common tactic for the police here in Chile. That gas stayed in the air for a very long time. I went out to the bars last night in Valpo and on the way home we could still feel the affects. we were sneezing on the bus ride home.

Dylan, Amie, and I walking back from class. I am behind amie... i have my black fleece on. Luckily i had my scarf so i could cover my nose and mouth from the gas. 

We made it to the ISA building safely, and went up on the balcony to see what was going on. Outside of the office there were a pack of police officers in full riot gear.

police.

They were not playing around. A peaceful 2 girls walked into the streets with signs and they quickly shut that down. 

police moving the sign.

It was a pretty intense day. Overall i felt pretty safe even though all of this craziness was happening around me. We were all in ISA until Lizette told us to go home, which barely getting any sleep the night before because of my project, i was happy to head home and take a nap!

A bunch of us walked to the metro and headed home. It was packed. It seemed so weird to have such commotion on one side of the ISA office, and then one block over it was normal with the same clown dressed up with balloons as boobs trying to entertain the people at the red light. Craziness.

I made it home and took a nap, and that was the end to a crazy day....until we hit the bars at night in Valpo. I'm contemplating if i want to expose the pictures that were taking that night. We will see.

Overall. Great day. Very CHILEAN!

San Pedro de Atacama.

DRY DRY DRY, but amazing!
That basically sums it up. I headed up north to the Atacama this weekend with Natalie, and a bunch of other people who happened to be there as well. I am in LOVE with my pictures, so i hope you guys enjoy them too. We went on 4 tours, all for about 100 USD. These were well worth it and i will try to give you a tour through pictures :)

Thursday-
We took a flight from Santiago to Calama and got in at about 10pm. Luckily we had planned with the hostal guy to pick us up. So 8 gringas piled into a car and we headed to San Pedro de Atacama.  Our hostal was a tad bit sketchy...lets just say that. It was dirty, FREEZING, and just not the place for us. We slept there that one night, and moved the next morning to an AMAZING hostal with heat! finally *por fin*! it was amazing.

Friday-
Change hostal in the morning. walk around town and figure out plans for the rest of the weekend. Natalie and I chose a company and planned 4 tours. Starting in the afternoon on friday. 3pm.
First tour up was Valle de La Luna. It was a good start to the weekend. They picked us up around 3 and we got to see our first views of the true desert. dry dry!

looks like Mars no?!

dancing on the rock? :)

our view as we were walking

wow.

Then we walked for a ways up a hill, and got to the spot where we were to watch the sunset. and this is what it looked like. I wasn't as amazed as i thought i was going to be, but it was still a pretty view!

and that was the view. Not as bright popping colors as i was expecting.

We went out to dinner for Abby H's birthday which was nice. We didn't stay out long though because our tour the next day left at 4am!

Saturday- LONG LONG DAY!

4am. up and atem! 

We started off our day with a tour called Geyser del Tatio. We were warned that it would be pretty cold, and being from New England i was prepared! It was -12 degrees celcius, that's about 10 degrees F. This was a pretty cool experience, even though I was super tired from my 4 hour nap. For those of you who don't know, Geysers are holes in the ground that release hot air. I think there are things flowing underground to make it super hot. I can't remember though because I'm pretty sure my brain was not processing things that early in the morning. 

smoke everywhere.

close up!

Then we got breakfast...that was pretty good. They hard boiled eggs in the geysers and also put a carton of chocolate milk in there so we could have some warm drinks for those of us who don't like coffee.

Natalie holding the warm chocolate milk! so yummy, just what i needed!

Then to warm up a little bit, but not much because the water was cold, and then blasts of hot...we got into a "hot" spring. 

it was super smokey, so i didn't get many pictures of this. But just know that changing back into clothes....NOT FUN!

it was cold. and smelled of sulfur.

after the geysers we headed to a small town to see the local culture. it was amazing. all of the houses had a cross on top, and a solar panel. I am so glad someone is finally capturing the power of the sun and using it! 

one of the most photographed churches. There was a man charging money for pictures, so i had to snap one through the hole!

then we got to try some new meat. LLAMA!

so amazing and yummy!!

llama and onion. the most amazing mouth watering taste ever! these puppies were expensive! 4 dollars for one. Obviously i had to try it!

Next up on the tour. 

8 foot tall cactus. 

why not hug it!

That tour ended at around 12:15pm. We all got into bed and napped until our next tour at 3pm. This one turned out to be my favorite! Our tour guide was pretty cool, Felipe. It was just a great experience to have a smaller tour of 6 girls with Felipe as our trusted driver of the jeep This tour was Laguna Cejas.

getting in the lake was chilly. but it got a little bit warmer as you went in.

This lake had 4times the amount of salt as the ocean. It was crazy, and kind of stung my super dry skin from the desert.

floating!

Next stop, some cool lake reflection!

jumping. we found the other 6 gringas there as well! We did the same tours, but with different guides so we didn't always end up at the same place at the same time. but i'm glad that we got this picture in!

LOVE.

Next stop, sunset over looking a lake with amazing reflecting abilities. pretty cool!

nicole and i in front of the lake. that white stuff we are standing on is salt!

love this picture. Nicole, Ruth, and Dánika.

With some pisco sour to end the trip, we enjoyed some snacks over looking the water and then headed back to the hostal. 

Sunday- MORE TOURS. our last one, started at 6am. The early morning thing was kind of killer, especially since it was SO COLD!

FLAMINGOS!

the view in the morning. just beautiful!

in flight. we were being too loud! well not natalie and i, but some other girls on the tour.

cool rock balancing...until Natalie said "hmm i wonder how this works" and touched it. knocking it over. luckily our guide was a super pro at standing it back up.

ivan. our guide.

i should really sell this one to the company!

Sunday night we relaxed, and Monday...we relaxed some more. Our flight left at 6pm, so we headed home and it all went smoothly!!

So there was my photo tour of the weekend. If you want to know more, just ask :) 

Now, i should really be getting to my homework seeing as it is finals week coming up! Not so fun.... After next week though, i will be done with everything.

Art and Society-

Presentation (on the same topic that i gave my last presentation...so i dont know how to switch that up...)

Paper  6 pages.(on the topic of the presentation, that'll be easy. my one class in english).

Chilean Culture-

Dylan, a kid in my class from Southern California is my partner for this one. What we need to accomplish:

Collage- describing anything in Chile

2 page paper- describing collage

Presentation- to present our collage

Dylan is a pretty creative kid, and i think we have a good idea brewing for this one!

Contemporary Latin American Short Stories-

Take home exam. Should be about 4 pages long. Easy Peasy....it'll just take a long while to figure out these stories...whoops. (Due Monday)

Grammar-

Who knows! Honestly, we have not had class in 2 weeks, and it is not because of the toma! The teacher has been away on a conference, and who knows what else. Canceling class all the time. I will be back in class on Weds, so hopefully i will figure out what needs to be done then!

Oh yea, and all of that is due next thursday. except for my take home exam.

time to be a college student!

Chao for Now!