Everwood anyone?

The town of Pucón is super quaint. For anyone who is as big a TV fan as I am, it reminded me of the town in Everwood, a show that was wrongfully ended on the WB.
Saturday morning I had no morning plans so some friends and I walked around the town. It was also my dad's birthday on the 12th of March, which I was not able to call or get online to wish him a happy birthday! Skyped with him today though and heard he had a nice dinner at the PUB 97 so that was good to hear!
While walking around we came across the lakes with some stray dogs. They were so cute! At first they were a little bit scary, because we just wanted to get to the water and they would get in front of us. It took us a while to figure out that they just wanted us to throw the wood for them, so of course we did!

teasing the dogs a little bit :)

After walking around and looking at some of the hand made crafts (artesania) shops we went to lunch at this small restaurant. There were only a few other tables occupied. It was here that I had THE BIGGEST hamburger that I have ever seen in my life! It was filled with tomatoes, avacado, cheese, mayo, lettuce. There is no way that I would have been able to eat the whole thing! I cut it in half and let the other people I was with try it and I finished the rest for myself. OH BOY was it good! Could have done without the mayo, but they're into la mayonesa here.

it was practically the size of my face!!

After that amazing lunch it was time to go horseback riding! I was looking forward to this because I have always had a fascination with horses. They scare me because they're so powerful and could crush you in a second, but they are amazing creatures! I had a horse named Morena. She was 14 years old which apparently is prime time for a horse because they live to be about 36. I was with a group of 7 girls who chose to go on the horses (las/ los calbagatas/caballos). We started up this dirt road and it took us a while to get used to our horses. One of the girls had a horse that had a small problem with gas! that was funny haha. Morena was lovely and did most things I told her to do :) We were going uphill for a while until we came to this field where we got off the horses for a little trek. Little did i know it would be an intense lets climb down the side of this cliff and go see a waterfall kind of a trek. But it was amazing!! here is the view of what we saw when we started our trek. 

amazing view right?!

So then from here we hiked for maybe 20 minutes until we got to another water fall. Every waterfall that I have seen so far has just taken my breath away! It is such a change from the central Chile where they do not have as much rainfall. Central Chile has more temperate weather and is definitely not as GREEN as the south of Chile. 

you sort of get an idea of how tall it is...

Right before we got back on our horses we decided we wanted a picture with one of the tour guides. He was an older man and he didn't quite have all of his teeth. I was standing next to him for the picture and before the picture was taken he said something to me which I didn't understand. (This is normal for me. I don't understand most Chileans unless I am expecting the question like do you like it here or how is your horse). The man apparently asked me if I liked the heat of a man. So weird right!! I am glad I didn't understand him because I do not even know how I would have responded if I had. Thanks to all my advanced spanish speaking friends to fill me in on all of the things I am missing!

Another hour on the horse and we were being picked up to go back to the cabin. I didn't want to say good bye to Morena and I had a good photo shoot with her before I had to leave. She was wonderful and just stood there as I had my friend Natalie snap at least 20 photos. 

This is one of my favorites :)

Shipping off to Pucón.

I'm going to try to make these posts as clear as possible because there was a lot that I did and I want to try and put as much information as I can in each post. So I'm going to split each day up into different posts..that way you don't feel like you're reading a book when really it was just my amazing weekend :)

So to start we left of thursday at 930pm. It was a 12 hr drive approx, so we left at night so that we wouldn't miss any sunshine!
Or so we thought! We got there and what was it doing, RAINING! que horror! We had a tour planned for the whole day and it rained...all day! We arrived there around 10am and was brought right to our cabana. It was a lovely cabin that had a wood stove and nice beds.
When we first got to our cabañas we saw this...

they were adorable and so cute! they let us hold them and they were really the only thing i would feel comfortable holding without worrying about getting fleas!

I was exhausted and wanted to just take a nap, although one thing i have learned from ISA is that there are no breaks. The majority of the time there is something planned to do. Within an hour after arriving we were off on our adventure for the day. It started with going to the travel agency that we used to hike the volcano. I had to be fitted for boots, jacket and pants etc.
After taking care of some tourism business we headed on the bus to start the tour. Our first stop was a waterfall (un salto). The waterfall was named La China. It was pouring but still an amazing sight to see! We ended up seeing 2 saltos, but we were able to get closer to the biggest one.

La China

Next on the tour we went to a couple more spots in the forest. The tour was in spanish so I didn't quite get all of the information, but they were beautiful sights to see! After we were all freezing and wet (mojada) we went to see a typical Mapuche hut (una ruca). The Mapuche are the indigenous people of Chile. The woman lives in a normal house today but has kept her hut and her Mapuche values. 

inside la ruca

It was nice to warm up by the fire and dry up a little. We were served coffee y tea along with some special bread that tasted like fried dough! It sure was yummy! I wish that my memory were better so that I could relay all of this information back to you guys, but I'm REAL bad at remembering things. I think I might start carrying around a small notebook so that I can write things down!

After the Mapuche part of the tour we got to my personal favorite: the hot springs!! It was so nice to sit in there and relax. We were cold all day and by the time I was just stepping into the hot springs my feet were already wrinkled! We had a good 2 hours at the hot springs which was greatly appreciated!

some people in the hot spring

It was a wonderful tour and I learned a lot, although it doesn't seem like it because I can never remember the things! Overall it was a super rainy day that ended wonderfully all curled up with a cup of hot chocolate sitting next to a warm wood burning stove! 

And so ended day 1 in Pucón. Un Poco Del Sur de Chile

2 weeks ago, I was in Mass.

I can't believe that 2 weeks ago today I was getting on an airplane to come here! it seems like a whole world ago!

I think one of the biggest challenges for me here is going to be the spanish. now that may seem obvious because it is definitely a whole different ball game going into a place where I don't understand the language. But for me its going to be able pushing through and speaking spanish even when i am compltely fed up with the language instead of just going back to my room and listening to some english music, or even write this blog. So far I have been really good at getting away from spanish when i want to, but the challenge will come when i force myself to stay immersed in the spanish language!

So far my classes seem to be exactly the level that I want them to be at! they are not too stressful that I find myself working all the time, but at the same time I am definitely not sitting back listening to someone blab at me in english. I am taking 4 classes and 3 of them are in spanish. the one class in english is for my art general education requirement and it is almost as hard to understand the teacher speaking english as it is for me to understand others speaking spanish. I have to actively try and understand everything that i hear in all of my classes.

It is so nice to be near the water here! any time i have a couple hours in between class i can head to the beach! one of the main reasons i chose Valparaíso! Here is a picture of a few girls that I have been hanging out with! We are standing on an anchor, although it is kind of hard to tell from that angle ha

So after my classes were done a few of us walked down to the beach. On our way to the beach we saw this out in the water and there were Sea Lions bathing in the sun! It was so cool to see them so close! This is definitely not a sight that we see up in Maine unless we are out in the boat.

So Viña del Mar is super different than Valparaíso. Viña is know for its tourism and it is so easy to tell. I think I will need to spend more time exploring both cities before I determine which one I like better. But this clock that is at the entrance to Viña is definitely something that i LOVE! and it is a real working clock with a second hand! And yes it was really that sunny at 7pm! it's amazing here and I love the fact that the sun is out this late, although this will be changing after daylights savings time. 

So this weekend there is an excursion that comes with the program that I am on. This weekend we are headed to this place called Pucón which is 12 hours south of where we are on the coast. To optimize our time there we are leaving tomorrow (thurs) around 930 at night. This will put us arriving in Pucón in the morning and then we jump into our days activites! So many amazing things are going to be happening! There's a volcano to be climbed, hot springs to relax in, horses to ride, camping, kayaking, zip-lining through the forest. Anything outdoors thats you could imagine, it will probably be there. There is no internet there, or at least I will not have my computer, so the blogging with have to wait until I come back with some AMAZING pictures!! So, don't think I have fallen off the face of the earth or something happened to be, because I will be relaxing without internet for the weekend and I will have lots of stories to tell when I return!

PHOTOS!

I have added some photos under the photos page. I have not quite mastered how to add them yet, but I was able to put some up there for those of you who aren't able to see my facebook collection :)

and to answer Lindsay :) (the first question!)

The typical chilean dinner....hmm it ranges. Usually there is the main meal which most of the times would be enough for me! The main dish usually ends up being something like lasagna, meat and potatoes, chicken patties, or just recently we had a shepherd's pie type deal. The main part is most likely something that you would heat up in the microonda (microwave).

Then for the sides there are usually 2. Fresh fruit, and fresh vegetables. Fruit can be anywhere from peaches, honey dew melon, to pears. Most of the time it is cut up perfectly with the skin peeled off which I am definitely excited that the fuzz is off of the peach! Then the fresh vegetables! Lately it has been fresh tomatoes, sometimes with the skin off sometimes not. Cucumbers are usually in the mix as well! Sometimes  in the beginning there was ice berg lettuce but we have cut that out and have gone straight for the tomatoes and cucumbers now :)

Then it's usually the exact same thing for lunch! Leftovers are a huge thing here! I think it would be a tad crazy for me to expect that mi madre make me something different at every meal! That would take a lot of effort haha.

I will take a picture of my little tray that mi madre Vivi sets up my food on. It is lovely and usually no matter what time in the day I will be able to go down to the kitchen and my food is right there waiting for me! It's an amazing gift, and I will definitely miss that aspect when I head back to the states! but that won't be for a while...so I am soaking it all up while I can!

El Primer Día!

So today was the first day of school! Crazy right! I had my first day of classes today and the majority of my friends back in the states are struggling with Midterms!

Yesterday I did the irresponsible thing of talking on skype until 2am, which was lovely to chat with my dear friend Kimberly Mayo, although it caused problems when I had to wake up at 6:45am. I took a super quick shower, because i haven't quite figured out how to get the shower less than scalding hot, and then to severe freezing. Breakfast was my usual fresh fruit and yogurt. I headed to school with Gonzalo (or Gon Tom, my favorite from his list of nicknames) today. This morning I had Contemporary Latin American Short Stories which went well, although I could barely understand the teachers assistant who was teaching us.
After class I went to JUMBO, the store that if i have it right is owned by Walmart, and I bought myself a cell phone. They like to keep it simple here so I'm rockin an old school Samsung phone. it's got some blue on it so I like it :)

I made it home and took una siesta...i'm getting to be really good at these! I woke up around 12:30 and had lunch on the patio in the sun. It felt so nice to sit outside with my book and not worry about anything! So lovely! Then I had to hop back on the metro to go to my second class of the day which was Grammar para extranjeros (foreigners) 3.  This class doesn't get me credit at my school I don't think, but I think it will help me with my spanish speaking and writing!
Another trip on the metro and I was home once again! I passed a beach on the metro home and ALMOST stepped off for a little time at la playa, but i didn't have my book so I made plans for tomorrow! I must soak up as much sun as possible before it gets cold here!! Then.... I took another nap. I know what you're thinking but let me tell you it wasn't planned! I was just planning on listening to some music and then next thing you know it's 8pm! It's ok though because I can sleep in as long as I want tomorrow because I dont have class until 2pm!
Dinner today was an omelet with green beans and pepper, which wasn't my favorite but was interesting to see the difference in the cookings of an omelet. Of course on the side I had some fresh fruit, today was honey dew melon and also some tomato and cucumber! Very yummy! The only thing i'm missing in the mix is some ranch dressing to dip those in!

lazy sunday!

Today was the first day i have lounged and boy did it feel good! I went to be early last night around 11 and woke up around 11 this morning. It felt so good to get a nice amount of sleep! After stretching in bed for a little bit I headed downstairs to find my nice little floral tray where mi madre puts my food. On it was a beautifully grilled piece of bread here, which isn't like a normal slice of bread but more like a bagel shaped/sized piece of bread like a roll consistency. It was grilled and on top was an egg over easy. How did Vivi (mi madre Chilnea) know that I had been craving a bagel! it tasted almost the same to me! SO GOOD! and of course on the side i had my usual yogurt with fresh fruit in it.

Most people who are reading this know that I love fruit. I could eat it all day, and here I do! I had a peach when I first woke up. Then had a banana in my yogurt and for lunch which I didnt eat until 4pm I had honey dew melon! I could not be happier with the fresh fruit here!

I was looking to get some sun without leave the house, so I ate my lunch out on the patio that is really in the middle of their house here. It was so nice to soak up some sun while eating my fresh fruit and chatting with Viviana. I could not have asked for a more relaxed day :)

Oh yea siestas. They're a big thing for me... I love them and here they are socially acceptable. So HA to all of those people who used to make fun of me for taking naps! A lot of people do it here! perhaps its because spanish is so hard to understand and my brain gets exhausted after a couple hours of spanish! or ....maybe that's just me! anyways I have found it very frustrating to try and keep up with my shows from the states. Every show i try to watch from hulu or sidereel or whatever else says that they're only for people in the US. so i have been watching shows from sketchy websites that are not legit. but they work!

tomorrow is my first day of classes :/ I have a class at 8:15am. wowzers. ok I will definitely update you guys on that tomorrow. i like this once a day blogging thing, although we'll see how well i can keep it up!

an attempt at a daily update...

Ok so here we go. im going to ATTEMPT (key word there) to put a daily update. this way you will be able to look at it and catch up with my daily life instead of reading a full 8 paragraph thing every once in a while.

Today we went to the beach again! so fun! we decided to go a little bit further up the coast this time to a place called Concón. In order to get there you have to take the public bus system which is called a micro. I'm pretty sure I have already mentioned these Harry Potter crazy-esk buses. It costs about 330 pesos which comes out to be about a little more than 50cents one way up the coast. It took about an hour total from the time I left my house to the time we were on the beach. Crazy buses but I guess they are so cheap that it is worth it!

I heard at this beach you can ride horses and when we arrived sure enough there were a bunch of horses just waiting to have us on their backs! Unfortunately we were not well prepared for horse back riding and decided to wait till a later time when we will be wearing pants. Can't wait!!

So a spanish lesson for you all:
Palta=avocado
Califont= the little hot water heater that they use to heat their water here. everything is super energy conscious, so in the afternoon they turn off the flame and if you want hot water you have to lite it up.

I know there is more vocab but at the moment i can't think about anything other than this sting i feel on my back from the sun. There is a hole in the O-zone layer down here so the sun is so much stronger! I will not complain about my sunburn because I know most of you are in freezing weather up there in good ole North America!

oh and another thing i learned today. I CAN'T WATCH HULU HERE! so tragic. apparently because of their licensing they're only allowed to show it to the US and US territories. shame!

My mom pointed out this blog to me where the woman asks if any of her readers have any questions, so I guess I'll do the same. It'll be better this way so you can actually find out things that you want to know about my daily life instead of just reading me ramble about whatever comes to mind. So, feel free to leave comments with questions and I will answer them in the following blog post or in a comment as well.
opps this turned out to be another long post. oh well!

<3

algunas fotos

this is the maine port in Valparaíso looking down from a hill

sea lions that we saw on our harbor tour of the port!! they were adorable! 

this is me on the boat tour. we all had to wear those really old life jackets haha. luckily no one got sick!

some sweet chicas on the beach! this is right before a huge wave came up and got the majority of us soaking wet!

yea, Chile is awesome!

Welcome to my life...there is a lot going on all the time. so i'lll try to give you a little preview of what i've been doing.
This week has just been crazy orientating myself around the cities with the help of the ISA staff. We have had tours around both cities and it is so funny to see the difference between the two. Viña is more tourist  city with block streets and lots of stores. Casinos and bars and tourist attractions.

this is the view from the beach of Viña

so you sort of get an idea of how everything is all pretty and touristy, and now here is a picture of Valparaíso, which is more hippy and run down from the port.

this is a house that is meant to look like a boat. it is one of the most famous houses in Valparaíso. The majority of the city is up in the hills and most of the walls are covered in graffiti! so pretty!!

its amazing the artwork that these people put on walls. its so pretty and soon we will be going to an open aire museum that is known for their beautiful art work! im excited about it although im super nervous to bring my super nice camera out into the streets because they're known for pick pocketing here. although i bet i would be fine, i dont want to risk it!


We went to the beach yesterday and it was so warm and beautiful! it's really weird cause the weather can be so weird. one day it will be completely sunny and the next day really cold and cloudy. i think it almost rained today! that would have been the first for my time in chile. anyways the beach was amazing and hopefully if we have nice weather we will go there tomorrow! here is a picture of us at the beach. we were jumping because we were just so happy to have the sand in our toes and the sun shining down on us :)

Last night i went to a party...that was an interesting experience! i was just getting home from a day at orientation and Gonzalo forgot to pick me up! The ISA staff had to call and remind him that his "gringa" thats me, was waiting for him! He was running and was completely out of breathe and i was the last one waiting for him. I finally got home and eat dinner muy rápido. Showered and then we were out the door to a birthday party for his friend named Ignacio, or UMPA. Craziest bus ride ever! We were walking like in the sketchiest areas ever and the buses that they have here are like that bus from harry potter. They move so quick in and out of traffic and they stop for maybe a few seconds to let you off... i have a day dream that im going to loose my sandal and it'll be lost forever because they will not go back for that. Then they just stop on a dime. good thing i had my hand out otherwise i def would have hit it on the seat in front of me. maddness for sure. thats the only thing i can use to describe my night last night. We left the house to go out at 10pm. now usually, im already in bed exhausted and wanting to turn the lights off at that time. one of the girls i was talking to said that bars normally close around 4 or 5 am. HA. funny. So we got there and there were so many chilenos...many of them wanted to speak english so i got a night off from spanish! Hopefully pictures will be tagged of me so keep an eye out for those on facebook :)


thats a good update for now. i'll try to be more on top of this blog thing but it is definitely hard when im just trying to organize my life. which i have now done. i have classes in order and next thing i just need to figure out where they all are!


buen día!