Field Trip Friday.

Today was an experience..that's for sure!
So i woke up this morning getting ready to be at the school for 830 to head to Santiago for a field trip with my Pre-Columbian Arts and Society class. Total we are 6 students in the class, but only 4 made it to the field trip today. Our goal was to go to 2 museums in Santiago.
The way they do it here is we get a guide. He is supposedly a translator, but we spoke in english all day, because it is my 1 english class, so i'm not quite sure what he was supposed to be translating, but he was also the credit card. He worked for the University as a translator/bank. He paid for our bus tickets, the metro, and entrances to the museums.
The first museum we went into was the Pre-Columbian Art Museum. Museums are very small in Chile, this particular one that we were in had 2 floors, and only about 4 rooms. The most impressive part of the museum was closed...bummer but we got a great tour by our teacher. One of the school girls was VERY interested in our english and would creep very close to us trying to listen. She would drag her friends closer to try not to be so awkward...finally security asked her to leave us alone. We felt like objects being studied instead of all of this historical artifacts.

these statues were placed in burial sites, they were supposed to be guides to the underworld.

As we were walking along the streets of Santiago we came across a church that took up the whole block. Without any real schedule our teacher asked if we wanted to go in, and of course we did. So we were about to take a look in the church. 

I got too close before i realized that i wanted to get a picture of it...but you get the idea!

I am learning a lot about the Catholic religion by going into these churches. They have many altars where people pray to saints that they need at that time. 

San Ramon Nonato, Patron and Protector of future mothers.

After the church we headed to our second stop of the day, the Museum of Visual Arts. The real display we were looking to see here was the Archeological section which consisted of 2 rooms. I found the visual art much more interesting than the archeological part... here are a few things that I saw.

these were pieces of paper stacked, with holes and design cut out of them. I touched one to make sure it was real paper...it was. there was also a spider living in one of the holes.

a small section of a huge mural, all done with pencil.

trippy painting. i'm not sure but i think this is something to do with the human cells and viruses or something...

So that was the end of our museums, and this is where it got interesting. We were hungry so we asked our teacher where to go for cheap but yummy food, so she started leading the way, and we ended up at....a BAR. everyone was drinking terremotos. (White wine, vodka, grenadine, and pineapple ice cream on top). We found a table, and the first thing the waiter asked was a pitcher of terremoto? we looked to our teacher and we all said "porque no"? aka WHY NOT, when in chile right! so yes. we got a pitcher of a VERY strong alcoholic drink with our art teacher today. 

Redyn holding the pitcher, and yep, that's my teacher to the left...

Apparently the director of the exchange program suggested that we go here for lunch. He wanted us to interact with local chileans...that happened. and i guess that happens here in chile. While we were done with our pitcher and an empanada for each of us, 2 men came in with an accordion and a guitar to sing some classic chilean tunes. everyone else in the room knew the songs except for us. 

not the greatest picture, but you get the idea! there are a lot of musicians who are just trying to make as much money as possible by entertaining.

After that we headed back to the metro and Redyn and I topped off a lovely field trip with some Menta Chip gelato...that was crazy trying to eat an ice cream cone on a packed metro. Redyn's cone almost ended up on the back of some guys neck, luckily she caught it. Perhaps we threw out our bowls too early? A few stops on the metro and we were on the bus headed back to Valparaíso. A great field trip, and a pretty good way to spend a Friday.

Tomorrow should be an adventure. Our goal: to find Penguins! We are told they are about an hour and half north. I'll let you know if we find them!

Patagonia Trip: Day 7

Nothing special about today... Just went to class this morning, handed in my take home exam...so hopefully that'll go well. I don't expect to get anything back anytime soon. I imagine that chileans are not very prompt with their returns of tests and papers.

Tomorrow I have a field trip at the Pre-Columbian Art Museum in Santiago, so we are meeting at 830am to head into Santiago, and then i have no idea what time we will return...but it'll take up the majority of my friday. Looks like tomorrow will be a high of 70 degrees in Santiago. love it, although it is getting colder here. I am sad that i am missing the days when everyone comes out in shorts when it is barely 60. although i hear there have been some 70 degree days! I'm getting a nice base tan so when i come back i wont need sunscreen!! 

ha. i can hope right!?

8/4/11

8:30am wake up nice and rested super windy outside...skeptical about hiking

8:45am went down to lobby for breakfast. what a surprise, more CARBS (bread, cereal, croissants, tea, coffee)

9:30am pack up and prepare lunches for day hike.

10am leave for hike to Laguna Torres. Super windy we packed 3-4 layers each. should have worn shorts. almost got lost in town.(we had to walk through the town to get to the start of the trail)

 hardest part of trek: getting up hill into town for start of trek. 

mirador (1hr) beautiful overview of area. 

beautiful leaves...it is funny to think that this happens in march and april in Argentina

both the Fitz Roy (or as we called Sir Fitz-a-lot, and the horns i think they were called)

finally go to laguna at 1:00pm, just in time before dying. super hot. ate nice long lunch while looking at the view and resting... PHOTO SHOOT, during which and Argentinian w/ dread (down to crack) and mini fro skinny dipped and swam to iceberg.

Natalie found a maggot in her plum....GROSS.

view of what we were looking at while eating lunch :)

yep, that's an ice burg in the water....that is a glacier at the bottom of the mountain

me in front of Laguna Torre, name of the lake

this was my profile pic for a while, love this one :)

2:40-4:50pm busted it back speed walk style. don't know where we got the energy from... perhaps Natalie's maggot filled plum?

5pm Nat gets yummy ice cream (super dulce de leche). Abby showered.

Natalie got ice cream instead of showering, a quote from the bus

"The flys keep landing on me, they must think i am food or something... I really have to shower" -Natalie

6pm-9pm Bus to El Calafate

taken on our bathroom stop on the way back to El Calafate.

9:30pm Checked into hostal. Natalie showered, BAM and out the door to eat dinner at Cambalache. We asked our hostal where would be a good cheap place to eat and the woman suggested this restaurant, but she said we would have to bring a note for her friend who worked there...so we brought a note from hostal woman to hostess. yummy dinner (veal, papas fritas, PENGUINITO! 7up and dulce de leche crepe)... it was lucky that that was the dessert of the day. 

12am Back to hostal go on computer. Tin house not available :(  *we wanted to stay in the nice hostal that we stayed in before, but they didn't have any openings. 

Sleep at 1 am.

So that's about it... Only a few more days left of the Patagonia trip...i will have to bug Natalie to type them up :)

its almost MAY...where has the time gone!

Patagonia Trip: Day 6

Una Sorpresa! Natalie emailed me the blog entries 6 and 7, so i will be posting 6 today while i sit here waiting for my student portal to open up so i can register for classes for next semester. I am giving my RAC number, aka a number i use to go into the online student portal to choose classes...but my RAC number only starts working at 12:01 eastern time, so here i am waiting for 1:01am to choose my classes. 

So in the meantime, i will write this blog entry!

7/4/11

6:40am ...woke up far too early for a carb overload at America del Sur!

7:40am Taxi to bus terminal AG$15

8am Bus to El Chaltén. AMAZING views of the mountains from the bus. so excited. Bus was suuuuuper hot. sun beating down on us (yay sun)! stop at viewpoint! even more excited. sweet pics. 

this is what we saw as we were driving up to El Chaltén. so beautiful!

Natalie and I in front of El Chaltén's famous peak the Fitz Roy

12:00pm arrive in El Chaltén finally. so cute! love the town. Fitz Roy sitting right behind town. Amazing! 

the welcome sign to El Chaltén... hard to see but im wearing my backpack in this picture...

Also, on the way into town bus stopped at National Park office. Learned: We can drink any water in the park. Endangered deer (dogs=#1 predator). Throw rocks at dogs if they follow you.

12:30pm find hostal... super cute. we are in the green room. weird feng shway (probably not how you spell it but whatever. They had a bunk bed right as you walk in, and they say you're not supposed to sleep with you feet or head facing the door because it's like you're in a casket being brought out of the room.) 

1pm PIZZA LUNCH. Delicious. Natalie found bug in napkin, unfortunately food was not on the house. we had a salad (with a pound of onions), pizza (ham, red pepper, olive) and chocolate mousse (AG$52 each)... and we had enough left for dinner! 

(guy who works at hostal uses wrist pressure point hair tie, hahahhaa he was a creeper. definitely not the best host that we have had)

2:30pm return to hostal and set off on hike. beautiful day!!! Town has a lot of construction going on. cute tiny dogs= predators? These dogs are tiny! and do not look like they could kill deer.

2:30-5pm Hike was perfect in difficulty (incline) and length. Breathtaking views of Fitz Roy and other mountains... INCREDIBLE!!!

a stop on the hike

who cares how long you're hiking when you are looking at this!

this was our view at our destination point on hiking day 1.

... on way back walking through town, get asked if we want to play Foosball in the side of the street, that was weird.

5:30pm exhausted from lack of sleep and hike. Grocery store (super expensive), check out a few stores...

6:30pm return to hostal... awesome shower! the water pressure felt so nice!

8pm eat left over pizza w/ cucumber... and met two Canadian girls. They were on vacation mode, not learning. 

"you can get raped for free, why would you pay for it?" (prison in La Paz, Bolivia). This needs an explanation. So one of the girls was saying that there is a prison in La Paz where you can bribe the guards to let you in the prison, and then you bribe an inmate and they are your "tour guide" for the day, and then of course you have to pay to get out of the prison. Her friend was not into the idea hence her quote. It seems like something i would NOT want to be doing with my time, but this girl thought it would be a great story. apparently if you get caught doing it you can get deported. great time.....not!

11:30pm SLEEP EARLY! first night slept like a rock. yes!

That's it for now! I had a lovely night playing soccer, or futbolito they call it. I took a few pictures that I will post later! As for now, i am sleepy and i have successfully signed up for my classes for next semester! 

The Line Up:

Sociology of Medicine :)

Spanish Phonetics (pretty interesting i think)

Latin America & The World (Boarders, Immigration, and Globalization)

Introduction to Spanish Literature and Thought......HORRIBLE. I DO NOT WANT TO TAKE THIS.

bedtime and a full day of classes tomorrow. boo.

take home exam, boo.

So i am working on this take home exam, which isn't that much fun. but I want to be able to post something every day. So it may not always be a post, because i wont always have time for that. Im thinking i'll most likely be putting up quotes and pictures that i like  :)

So here is my picture for today!

Easter Weekend.

This weekend, So much happened, and then again not so much.

Thursday began the Semana Santa, which is what they call the religious holiday here. Basically they cancel classes after 1pm on thursday and then after that, most things are closed besides restaurants. Apparently everyone from Santiago comes to Vina del Mar during this weekend.  Thursday started a lovely weekend! I had class at 830 until 945. Not my favorite part of the day, but then i got home and took a nap from 10:30-3pm! I guess i was tired!
Slept a little bit longer than i wanted to, and that left Natalie waiting for me. I was finally ready to get up and leave the house again around 5pm.
and good thing i went back and checked my blog, cause apparently i already wrote about thursday...anyways!!

FRIDAY- well thursday night, we went out to Stingray to celebrate Natalie's birthday. She bought a disposable camera and still has a few pictures to take in order to get it developed, but i have a feeling there are going to be some great pictures on that. I got home from Stingray around 5am, and went to bed. Then friday day i woke up around 1pm and sat outside on the patio. I am a great fan of our patio that is right off the kitchen. One day i will take a picture and show you guys, but pretty much i lay out on this beach lounge chair and soak up the sun which is always so strong that i end up moving to the shade shortly after. and believe it or not i have only gotten one really bad sunburn. I bought a bottle of SPF 50 before i came here, and i still have some left! with only one small bad burn in the middle of my back where i couldn't reach. that's a pretty good record!
Friday night the plan was to go to a cheap pizza place to just have a nice relaxing dinner with some of the girls here. We got to La Gula around 930pm and decided on our pizzas. It was a great deal, one family size pizza plus 2 dollars, you got 4 drinks. So that worked out well because only 4 of us wanted drinks, so we ended up getting 2 family size pizzas, and one of those a special. I can't remember what type of pizzas we ate, but it was lovely.
Unfortunately a few of the girls couldn't make it to pizza because they were sick. Turns out you're not supposed to eat home made chocolate chip cookie dough uncooked. The baking soda and flour here is something that apparently is stronger or something like that. There was baking soda already in the flour? anyways it created great stomach pain for at least 3 gringas.  Yes, i did eat the cookie dough, but i didn't eat as much as these ladies that ended up getting some serious pain from it.
i guess i was lucky. that teaches you...always eat in moderation :)
after we ate pizza we went back to the house of 2 gringas, Abby and Kelly and we sat around talking which was fun.

Saturday- I DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! I'm pretty sure i was in bed all day. I have gotten into the habit of waking up around 1pm, which is not ideal, but this was wonderful to sit in bed literally all day. I am catching up on many romantic comedies that i have been wanting to see, and some that i didnt even know existed! I have seen at least 6 romantic comedies in the last week. that's one a day people!
I would also like to share that Mama Vivi bought me Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream. that by itself was amazing, but put that with a romantic comedy and you have one happy Abby :) Arielle (my high school roommate for those of you who don't know) is also a huge fan of rom-coms as she calls them. We have been communicating and helping each other find new movies to watch.
So besides movies, i have finished the book that my mom bought me in the airport. that took 2 months! it was a super good book. I definitely recommend it!!

House Rules by Jodi Picoult


SUNDAY- easter. I woke up early to go to the bathroom and opened my door to a chocolate bunny sitting in the hallway. I have been looking at it and eating the little eggs that had been in the box, but while skyping my mom this evening, she wanted to know if it was hallow...so obviously i had to bite into the ears to find out.
I was pretty sad to be missing all of the family activities that happened at home. The usual family gathering with all my extended family, which usually only happens on holidays. I was able to skype but just a quick hello, not nearly as extensive as i wanted the skype convo to be, but what can you do. I was all bummed about not being in Topsfield, when mama vivi knocked on my door and asked if i was free to come down for lunch. OF COURSE! I love family meals, even if i can only understand 20% of the table conversation. It was great to just be around the table and watch the family interact. I love the family dynamic here.
Then, Paulo came into the living room and did, BEND AND SNAP. which obviously i broke out into laughter because 1. paulo was bending and snapping, and 2. he always comes up with the craziest lines. That was probably the highlight of my day besides skyping my family. So all the Topsfield crew got to watch Baby Gav sing to Alicia Keys, and I got to watch my 18 year old host brother bend and snap. haha oh golly.
After lunch i headed back up to my bed, and i finally started using stumble upon. this is dangerous. I have found so many cool things, and i have definitely loved a few of the pictures that i have seen on here. I checked off weddings as my like, and i have gotten websites on how to do weddings yourself, and wedding photos. I have one engagement photo that i love and has inspired me to continue taking photos and potentially do something like that as a side job.

i love this one. especially the scrabble letters seeing as it is a huge game in my family.

also i found a really cool website from a father who takes pictures of his daughters. He uses photoshop a lot but i still love his pictures. this is one of my favorites.

note justin beiber.

this is his website if you want to look at them. they're adorable.

Blog by Dad.

so that's that. 

today is monday and i got my first take home exam. ahhhh! i have spent today procrastinating. it's a good thing it's not due until thursday morning!

one month until Adam and Michelle are in Chile!!

a few Stingray snapshots.

One night we brought out a friend's camera to Stingray, our usual Saturday night dance club. Here are a few of the special moments we caught that night.

fabs and some of the girls

Mattia and the girls

backstreet boys came on as the last song. obvio the gringas went crazy and sang along (cause we actually knew the words to this song!)

we were pretty happy obvio.

oh and one thing i learned. when they do the peace sign, it doesn't actually mean peace. but i wasn't quite sure what it actually meant, although i don't think i want to know. it was one of those things that was lost in translation. 

Patagonia Trip: Day 5

I had a wonderful day yesterday, thursday 4/21. I had class at 8:30, which was not the highlight of my day, but after that class i came home and napped from 10:30-3. Totally unexpected. I was only planning on sleeping until about 12:30, but apparently i was tired!

I lounged in bed and wrote some emailed and found a good movie to watch on this new website that i love called cuevana.tv. It has a lot of romantic comedies which make lazy rainy days like today fun :)

After i got motivated and showered, it was about 5pm and i headed to meet Natalie to do some shopping. I had a feeling that i might find somethings that i really wanted so i brought some extra money. good thing i did because i found some GREAT deals. 

I have been looking for some good journals to record things like my crazy dreams, or words that i learn and then never remember. but now that i have my journal...hopefully i'll remember to write them down!

We went into this store called Casa & Ideas, which is pretty much like a crate and barrel right here in CHile. love the story and obvio it reminded me of my UNH earthy people. I found some great journals :)

Next on the street we saw JACK SPARROW, yes. in full outfit looking completely like johnny depp. it was crazy how much he looked like him. and then we saw these puppies that were so cute and adorable, but in a cage and that just made me feel bad, so we didn't stay for long. just long enough for one of them to gnaw on my finger which was adorable. i wish i could give them a lovely place to sleep.

Then, i saw a book store, and i needed to go in and see if they had harry potter, which they did. I bought the first one and it is my goal to finish it by the time i leave chile. I think reading the spanish will really help me with the organization and construction of my sentences. It is something that i have been looking for for a while now, and i'm super excited to have the chance to read it! i know it'll be a brain hurter, so im thinking of trying to do at least a chapter a week at first to see how it works out. 

then last night we went out to Stingray, our favorite club for the last night of Mattia being home (redyn's host brother) and Natalie's 20th birthday. such a baby. 

So anyways, here's the update for day 5 of our Patagonia trip, it's been so long it is nice for me to re-read these and go through all of my pictures again :)

hope you guys are enjoying it.

hint: 4 argentinean pesos to 1 US Dollar.

DAY 5: 6/4/11

7:30am woke up + ate breakfast. carb overload (cereal, toast, cake).

8:20am Board bus (ag$100, 25 USD) to glacier!

-10:10am Amazing views from bus window of Lago Argentino. Payed ag$100 to get into National Glacier Park.

10:15am Take boat trip around glacier on catamaran ($50). windy but really cool to get close to glacier. Got some great pics! Boat trip=approx. one hr.

rainbow over catamaran. 

11:30-4pm viewing of GLACIER. Rainbow sighted over glacier. 

Glacier Perito Moreno

i look goofy, but you get the idea. the glacier was HUGE!

look how big it is! it is the only growing glacier in the world, aka it is growing faster than it is melting

After we got off of the catamaran we were able to walk along these trails that were beautiful wood along the side of the land so you could see the glacier and walk along with it. We saw amazing views of lake with mountians around it. 

beautiful shot. you get the glacier, the mountains, and the pathway that we walked along

do you spot the rainbow?

We had walked downhill for at least and hour and we definitely were not excited about the idea of going back up all those stairs. and then we saw the sign for a Free Shuttle. 

We attempted to see huge chunks fall-unsucessful. We were always behind trees when we heard crashes. Cafeteria is outrageously expensive and had tiny portions... I wonder if that is in all of Argentina or just this place. papas fritas=ag$17. Our point of view is def. skewed because we are used to American portions. 

4-5pm Fell asleep on bus. Drooled. 

5:15pm- SCARE! attempted to change $ CH to AG but the only casa de cambio in town was closed! Went to only ATM that was open and had cash in it... got out $ successfully!

6:00pm back at hostal showered and waited to eat ASADOOOOOO!

9:00pm ASADO! very yummy.... steak, chorizo, pollo, corn, rice, potatoes, salsa, salad... and penguino aka house wine pitcher.... talked with three guys at our table (1 from greece/germany, 1 from holland, 1 from lebanon/boston!). Hilarious!

We had some crazy times at that asado, and remember these quotes are not ours, only the people that we sat with.

-"I have always had dreams about having sexual relations with a gringo"- Brazilian Drag Queen (w/family) to greek... Hollander suggested his response should have been "me too."

-Hollander took Nat's drink and poured it into his b/c 19 is too young to drink. (she is 20 today!)

-Hollander subway story "lady, I have been to subways around the world. They put more on it. Look at the picture." (Hollander was complaining that the woman at subway wasn't putting enough meat on his sandwich)

-Sat at BBQ table for 2 1/2 hrs with three men all over 27... had a great time!

-12:30pm BED! out like a light. 

until next time :)

Patagonia Trip: Day 4

Today was a really good day! well, not that school part that lasted the majority of my day. I was super antsy today and couldn't stop shaking my leg or doodling on my notes all day. it was weird cause normally i just sit there and zone out, but today i was just agitated and wanted to be OUT of the classroom!
My day ended with a lovely BBQ or *asado*. It was a going away BBQ for Redyn's host brother Mattia. He is headed to Turkey to teach little kids how to play bocce. So cute! Apparently he is like a bocce champion or something. The meat at these asados are AMAZING. 


Natalie got back from the trip with her fam, so we are back on track with getting these Patagonia journals posted.


DAY 4.
this entry was written at Borges + Alvarez Librobar in El Calafate, ARGENTINA

6am woke up in hostal in Puerto Natales. Packed up in the dark and eat a quick breakfast.

our room in Tin House Patagonia. We loved this hostal! very comfortable beds and common area.

6:40am taxi arrives ($1000 aka 2 USD) to take us to bus Zaajh (?)

7am leave Puerto Natales. ---> 1 hr to edge of Chile. Beautiful sunrise over Argentinian border. Yesterday on the way to the park we were only a few steps from argentina. thanks for telling us, chain-smoking tour guide!

me in front of the sunrise...yes it really looked like this! it was so beautiful!

8pm-9am checked out of chile and into argentina! STAMP THAT SH*T!!! *this was our phrase, and has now been coined. we were very excited to cross the boarder into Argentina*

*previous day's goal: completed. *remember- to not get caught with drugs*

9am-12pm- drove thought arg. plaines *spot torres and arrive in el calafate around noon.

12:30pm- exchange chilean $ to arg. 

NOTE: 4 arg. pesos= 1 us $

take taxi to hostal (ag$10)

1pm check into America del Sur Hostal-amazing common area with panoramic view of lake, mountains, and town. Rustic wood. rooms are nice enough- 4 people one private bathroom. sharing with two guys, brothers from B.A. (hard to understand!)

America Del Sur Hostel. You can't really see the great view that it had from this picture. just believe it.

1:30pm Head out on the town. Eat AMAZING meal at Viva la Pepa... our new favorite restaurant! LOVED IT. Fantastic. One of those places where everything on the menu is sure to be amazing. We had individual Pizza (Nat- ham cheese, olive. Abby- tomato, cheese, basil, basil sauce). We are going back after the wine tonight to have crepes.

Viva la Pepa on the inside. you get a good feel of what it was like from this picture...loved this cafe!

me and the menu. notice the dimple there, don't know where that came from!

2:30pm Walked around town, down Libertador, the main st. Check out shops, but very pricey, and many shops were closed. I guess they opened later... siesta time?

4pm Bought super expensive but delicious ice cream. cones were about 1/2 the size of this page. (we were writing in the journal, so the page was super small!) this tiny thing cost 3 USD.

not the greatest picture, but you get the idea of how small it was!

5pm went back to hostal, confirmed bus to glacier tomorrow (ag$100)! Hung out for a bit, Abby napped on a random mattress stack-up  w/ a blanket on top of it in the loft of the lobby. 

7:30pm decided to go out for a drink, found a cute Librobar and bought copa de la casa-vino tinto! (aka a cup of the house wine. ag$20 or 5 USD).

my first ever Argentinean wine!

10:30pm Just ate delicious red berries, homemade whipped cream, chocolate, and honey tower on top. MMMM!... but next time we will probs get bannana or strawberry!... mañana :)

our 2nd time in Viva la Pepa for the day. This was our crepe!! On top was like sugar honey. so good.

---> Thought from a few days ago: On the way home from Torres del Paine, quirky bus driver drove through the tight streets of Puerto Natales, took his hands off the wheel, covered his eyes and yelled "¡sin manos!".

11pm arrive back at hostal. Abby finished pizza and nat had banana + nutella

12:30pm music blaring from lobby. couldn't sleep. make sure to request room further away from the lobby next time.

GOALS for tomorrow: Bad-ass glacier pictures. See glacier chunk/cube fall. Preferably not too close to us. 

Chao for now!

Lazy Sunday, guess it's a good day to update the blog.

So, Natalie went away on a trip with her family this weekend, so I have yet to receive the journal from the remaining days of the Patagonia trip, but that doesn't mean that amazing things haven't been happening to me in the mean time. It's been a really good weekend back in Viña del Mar.

Friday was a gloriously sunny day, so obviously we headed to the beach. There was NO ONE on the beach. Apparently it is winter here. It is crazy, you see people on the streets all bundled up in their jackets and i was sweating because the sun was so strong! It is crazy. So we were on the beach for a while soaking up the sun and we got too hot, so obviously ice cream *helado* was our next step. We went to this little place that didn't really have a name. I got mocha and it was AMAZING. We were eating our ice cream on the street when we saw these 3 girls walking up holding THE cutest puppies. We started to pet them and then one of the girls asked if we wanted them. Never have been asked if i wanted to buy a puppy on the street before. They were adorable, however i don't think mama vivi would let me bring a puppy into the house. They were adorable though. After I got home, I showered off all of the remaining SPF 50 that i lather on daily and took a lovely nap.
That night we headed to the house of my friend Renee because it was her birthday a few days earlier. Her mom has a tradition of making a home made ice cream cake...mint chocolate chip. LOVE IT. It was amazing. It was nice to go see a different Chilean household. Her family was super cute and she had younger cousins there that were making me miss the kids i work with at school.
After the cake, so delicious, I headed home while the rest of the crew went out to the bars. They had changed the lock to the front gate of my apartment building, and I didn't have a key, So i wasn't about to go out and then have someone wake up and let me in in the wee hours of the morning. Good thing i decided to come home, turns out the button to open the door from the inside of the house wasn't working, and Gonzalo had to come out and open the door for me.  I made it inside! yay. stress gone.

Next was Saturday. We had an ISA excursion to go to our 2nd of Pablo Neruda's 3 houses. It was set up in the hill *cerro* and you could see everything! It was a great tour where they gave us these remotes almost. It had a speaker that you held up to your ear and you pressed the buttons as you went along and it told you different things about the famous Chilean Poet and his house. Next was a walk through the Open Air Museum. This is literally just some paintings on the walls through a neighborhood. I wasn't all that impressed. I made it home to have a long nap and food. Gotta love lazy days. That night there was a plan to go to our local favorite disco named Stingray. I was skyping with Mom, Uncle Don and Uncle Chuck who were up in Round Pond, ME opening up the house. I was talking with them a while and their main piece of advice for the night was that if any guy tried to touch me i should hiss at them and show my claws, like a cat. Thanks fam. hahaha.
It was midnight when I finally left my house. I can't even believe it. It it hadn't of been for my nap I never would have made it that late! We hung out at Redyn's house until about 2 and made our way to Stingray to find an OUTRAGEOUSLY long line outside of the club. We sat in that line for an hour and didn't get in the club doors until 3am. An hour and a half of dancing, and at 430 the music stopped. McDonalds was our next thought. At UNH everyone goes to DHOP (Durham House of Pizza) after they have been drinking...well in Viña del Mar, it is McDonalds where everyone goes. I got a Big Mac meal and it was super delicious. Finally made it home and was in bed and asleep by 7am. Golly. What a night.

Today-Sunday!
I woke up around noon. Which seems like I slept super late, and got a good nights sleep, when in reality i only slept for about 5 hours, which is not enough for me. So today was a super lazy day. Woke up, ate breakfast and immediately went outside to the patio and set up a lawn chair in the sun. I had my ipod and Mama Vivi brought me some nice cold jello to help with the heat. The sun is SOO STRONG down here. Eventually I couldn't handle it anymore and I had to move into the shade which was a lovely change.
I've spent the whole day horizontal and I am completely exhausted. I will for sure be asleep before 10pm. It'll be nice to get a good nights sleep before my 830 class every monday morning.

So that was my weekend,
Chao for now.

Patagonia Trip: Day 3

I hope this doesn't confuse you, this whole this is what i did today, and then what happened on my day 3 of my patagonia trip, but it's easiest for me this way, so hopefully you can follow along!
Today started off with my 830 class, ouch. truly painful. only reason i'm taking it is because of my major. grrr...if only it were a couple hours later! Then i went to my 2nd workout class of the week, this time pilates. That was painful. She would have your legs up in the air waiting to start the repetitions, but she would talk to you for at least 2 minutes while your legs were up, and mine were exhausted before we even started counting! i'm going to be in some pain tomorrow, that's for sure.
Had my 2nd class and got out of that around 330 and headed to the mall with a friend, Amie. She had to wash her shoes because she had worn them once, and decided she wanted to return them. Apparently returns here are super serious, and at her first attempt they would not let her because they said they looked worn. So she washed them up, and tried again with success! good thing cause though shoes cost about 80US dollars. After that we got some gelato and headed to the beach, we must soak up as much sun as possible before the cold winter comes!

4/4/11 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY JON-BOY)

6:35am- woke up and ate a yummy self serve breakfast at hostal (eggs, toast, coffee, fruit, cereal, yogurt, orange juice!)

7:40am- Got picked up by tour bus.

7:50am- beautiful sunrise

- First stop: Cueva del Milodón. Pretty cool. geological info. People lived there 12,000 years ago!

-Next we stopped in a small town before entering park. Bought postcards.

-Saw guanaco fight and Abby saw one scratching itself. 

not an action shot of the fight, but these goofy things are guanacos. They are like a llama.

-entrance to park: 4000 w/ carnet (w/out 15000). Pretty sweet savings!

-walked across windy beach to see glaciar. (kind of) fail. wind in eyes and all up everywhere.

hard to see, but the point where both mounds meet is a glacier

also on the beach. super windy, and thats my camera hiding under my jacket.

-made many stops and took some great pics. 

just one of the great views we saw!

-kind of cloudy so we couldn't really see "torres"- towers,  but still an overall great excursion :)

-ANIMAL SIGHTINGS: guanaco, emu, flamengos, eagle, angus and america short horned cattle, sheep.

-patagonians attempted to farm black faced sheep= fail :( too cold.

6:38pm arrived back at hostal in Puerto Natales

7pm bought tickets to El Calafate from tour company that smelled like stingray. $15000 (on "especial" bus) that leaves at 7 am :(

7:30pm Unimart adventure began. saw the following people: Julianna, Liza, Renee, Ruthie, Luisa, and friend. 

-did not find Mexican tortillas :( (thats what we were really craving for dinner)

-almost couldn't buy chicken because there was no sticker, gotta love chile. (We were trying to buy chicken to make stir fry from the meat counter. They had run out of stickers that you print the price on, so they told us to come back tomorrow. But then they found stickers and we did end up buying them and had delicious stir fry!!)

9:00pm Internet cafe. Booked hostal in el calafate for two nights ---america del sur---

10pm finally started making dinner: stirfry rice w/ chicken and veggies. yum!

our yummy dinner! luckily there was soy sauce in the hostal!

QUOTE: "granola con piel" -abby to bus driver

GOALS: Don't get caught with drugs at the Argentinian Border!

I believe this quote and goals require further explanation. 

So as for my granola quote. Piel = skin, and Miel= honey. You can see how i would get the 2 confused right! I remembered what they meant, but not exactly which one went with what. So when the bust driver asked what i was eating i told him granola with skin, when really it was honey. Whoopsies.

As for the goal...Natalie and I were both thinking about how we get nervous when going through security anywhere because we feel like they're going to find someone on us that we're not supposed to have and then we will be detained somewhere for something that we didn't know we had. (apparently they do that on the mexican boarder. sketchy)