Chao po!

So I'm back in Michigan! For the last three weeks I was adventuring through Peru and Argentina, and I'd love to write all about it, but seriously, that's just not going to happen. But I'd love to tell you all about it and show you pictures so come visit me!

In summary: 20-hour busrides, Machu Picchu, no hot water in a town called "Agua Calientes," "altitude sickness," horse-back riding, bungee jumping 122 meters, sweating, sun burn, taxi drivers yelling "Lady, I take you. Get in my cab. Ladyyyyy.", a Peruvian Thanksgiving, pretty churches, a bull fight, a man licking bus window, buying corn on the cob with cheese from ladies on the side of the road, llamas and alpacas, eating an alpaca, Evita's grave, Iguazu falls, more sweating, more sun burn, seeing dog-walkers with 15+ dogs attached to their belts, 95 degree heat at 10:30PM, and much much more I'm sure.

And then to relax, on my last day in Santiago, two friends and I snuck into the Crowne Plaza and went swimming on their terrace. Ha! And that was yesterday. And now I'm surrounded by snow. Brr.

Pictures on facebook soon! Or come on over and I can show you the unabridged version. (Let's just say I filled up my memory card on the third day... there's a lot of pictures.)

Thanks for reading my blog! I hope you all enjoyed reading about my adventures! I don't see any other huge trips in the near future... but for next time, I'm thinking... China! Ni hao China!!

Until then... besos y abrazos a todos!! Chao!

Just real quick...

Hey everyone! I don't have too much time, but I figured I give you all a little heads up... this is officially my last week in Santiago! (I can fill you in about this past week in person when I'm home, okay? Okay!)

These next couple days will be absolutely filled with school stuff (3 exams, 2 essays, and 1 presentation), yet it still feels like I still have a coupe more months to go! Weird, huh? Saturday morning I had off to Peru, and I'll be traveling to Cuzco, Machu Picchu, and Lima. On December 1, we head off to Buenos Aires. Happy birthday to meee! We're still figuring out plans there, but I think we might be going to the Iguazu Falls and/or taking a ferry to Montevideo. (We have to wait and see how much money we have...). I come back to Santiago on December 10 then fly out the next night to come home!! I'll be in Detroit on December 12 at 11:30 AM. And we're having a party on the 13th, so if you're in the hood, stop on by!

It's so weird to be leaving soon. I already said goodbye to my aunt. She woke me up yesterday morning and was like "Bye Jenni. Never in my life will I ever see you again. Okay bye!" Buuuut, I think I may have convinced a friend of mine to come visit me, so yaaaay! But really, though, I'm actually going to miss Chile alot. I've met so many amazing new people, and the sad reality is is that I'll probably never see alot of them ever again. Verdict is: Jenni is happy she came to Chile and is sad to be leaving. Don't worry, I'm super excited to see all of you again too!

Annnd here's a little something to leave you with.... I came home a couple days ago and turned on my camera just to look at my picture. Mind you, I keep my camera in the drawer of my nightstand. So I took it out and turned it on... and this is what I found:



It kind of scares me that she went into my room and found my camera, but seriously - how freaking adorable.


Besos y abrazos!

Time is flying!

Last Sunday I went rafting in Cajón del Maipo, which is about a 45 minute busride southeast of Santiago. The day before was really hot and alot of the snow from the mountains melted into the river, making the waves super big. The guy said that a raft had flipped the day before too! Yikes. Anyways, it was tons o' fun!
















I'm the one in the red. The waves aren't very big in this picture, but there were some moments where I felt like I was on the Titanic as it was sinking. Like, you'd see a huge wave coming at you, and all you could do is wave your paddle at it.
















At one spot in the river the guide told us we could jump in and go swimming. One of my friends jumped in and I followed right along because, frankly, sometimes I don't think. Let me tell you, that water was freaking cold.
















The scenery was beautiful though. At the end of the trip the water was a little more calm, and when we went around this little bend, suddenly there was a bunch of cows standing on the side of the river. Cows!! Cows in a river!!

When we finished rafting, we walked back up to the main road to try to figure out a way home. A couple was just pulling out of the parking lot and asked if we wanted a ride back to Santiago. Of course we said yes, so we hopped in. Gonzalo and Consuelo, that's them. Yeah, they were really nice and very talkative. This was still before the election, so they asked us a bunch of questions, like if we could vote and who we were voting for. Like all Chileans I've talked to, they loved Obama and Gonzalo went so far as to say that "Bush is the devil." Anyways, so we were driving down this windy mountain road and Consuelo suddenly reaches under her seat and grabs a beer. So I'm thinking, Hmm, ok. There's a possibility that this a little illegal. And then she hands the beer to Gonzalo, who is driving. Yep, this is definately illegal. But no worries -- we made it home safe and sound.

On Tuesday I just wasn't in the mood to stay up til 3AM to figure out who won. So I went to bed. When I woke up Wednesday morning, I walked out of my room and Patty came running up to me and gave me a big hug, saying "Obama won! Obama won! Jennita, it was a landslide! Yaaay!" Obama was on the cover of all the newspapers too.

On Thursday night I went salsa dancing with some of the people from my YMCA class, and it's official -- I cannot dance. Really, I'm awful. Gonzalo, my friend who was trying to teach me and not the drunk driver, kept telling me, "Listen to the music! Feel the rhythm!" Um, yeah, okay, like you guys know me. I'm a musical-ish person. Like, I know rhythm. Right? Right guys?!? Ugh. I blame it on the song. It had stupid rhythm. Yeah, so I can't dance, but I still try my darnedest and I have a blast doing it, even though I look like a dufus.

Tonight I'm going to a Juanes concert! He's a singer from Colombia. And tomorrow I'm going on a fieldtrip with my YMCA class! Only two weeks left of classes -- yikes! I'm actually getting kind of sad that I'll be leaving all my friends. Don't worry, I'm also super excited to see all of you when I get back!

I can't believe this.

You will never guess what I did Thursday night. Never in my life would I have thought I'd do something like this. I went... I went....... to a 50 Cent concert. No, not a concert that cost 50 cents. Like, it was a concert featuring the rapper 50 Cent.
























Yes, seeing those abs in person was totally worth the $23 I spent on the ticket. A friend of mine asked me if he rapped in Spanish. Heh, like I could tell. 50 (Fiddy?) needs to enunciate. However, one of the things I did understand was when he yelled, "Alright, Chile... how many of you smoke WEEEEEEDDDD?!?!?" It was weird because first the arena smelled like cigarette smoke, and then marijuana, but then it smelled like a campfire for a while. But after 50 asked about the whole weed thing, the lovely aroma of pot became much more prominent. Yahoo.


















This before the concert. Get it? "50"?


Last night my friend Catherine had a fiesta de Halloween at her apartment. It was actually planned by her land lady, who instructed all of us to bring common dishes from our respective countries of origin for dinner. It was like an international Thanksgiving! There was food from France, Colombia, the Caribbean, Pakistan, and of course, Chile and the US. I brought Pringles. Original and Barbeque.

Can you guess what I was for Halloween?























I was a stoplight (un semáforo)! Patty could not stop laughing when I showed her.


These next 3 weeks are filled with presentations, papers, and exams, but I'll try to keep you updated with my goings-on. I don't know if that's a word or not but it sounded right in my head... hmm. Oh, and I'm going white-water rafting tomorrow at Cajon de Maipo, so hopefully I'll be able to put up pictures of that soon! Hope you all had a happy halloween!!

Besos y abrazos!


P.S. Here's a little reminder!!

Hey there! It's been a while!

Yeah, yeah, sorry about the lack of updates -- I've just been so busy! Man, I LOVE school! Sooooo, here's a little summary of what's been going on en mi vida.

Okay, so my parents' visit was tons of fun and I'm super duper glad they got a chance to come down! On a side note, they brought me a guitar and I love it. It's a little baby. I planned on going to play outside the metro station one day. I was going to today, but I slept til 11:30 then watched Kate & Leopold on TV. Lame, I know.

Anyway, here's us at Isla Negra, one of Pablo Neruda's favorite houses. The sun made us squint though, so we look a little wonky, but I still like it.






















I want to live there.
























We ended up staying in the SUITE at the Cap Ducal (it's shaped liked a boat), due to faulty windows in our first room. I'm actually pointing to the wrong room here... our room was the one in the top right-hand corner, but whatevs, you get the picture. If you look real closely, you can see one of the chairs on the deck.


















This is at Mercado Central, a famous fish market. We didn't eat there, but I went back a week later and ate with some friends. And I actually ate fish! It kind of tasted like nothing though, so that's no fun. But my friend Sarah got swordfish and that tasted really good. Sooo, if any of you get a chance to go to South America, and a chance to go to Santiago, and a chance to eat at Mercado Central, I recommend the swordfish.

The day after my parents left, my program took a field trip to a winery called Concha y Toro. Apparently it's famous. I mean, it was really pretty and everything, but it wasn't like the freaking Garden of Eden or anything. Sheep were walking around though, so that was exciting. All in all, it was actually kind of boring. BUT, we did get to sample their "finest" wines. One wine, Casillero del Diablo, was pretty root-tootin' special back in 1891 so the owner put it waaaaay back in the corner of his cellar. However, barrels of wine kept disappearing so he figured the devil must have been stealing it. Thus, Casillero del Diablo, or Devil's Cellar.

















Mind you, this hallway was gated off. Special, special. We just stood there, looking down this hallway, waiting for something to happen. Like the devil popping out from behind a wall or something. I don't mean to be a party pooper, but it was pretty underwhelming.

The last couple weeks have been a blur... tons of homework. But you know what my dad says: "work hard, play hard" ....

I know you love my stories from my bus rides, so I'll tell you another exciting story. This man, oh this very special man that I want to tell you about takes his job very seriously. He even has a uniform. Or maybe it's been a coincidence that I've seen him "on the job" in the same outfit twice. Jeans, red t-shirt, and blue baseball hat. That's how you dress for success, I say! He kind of talks like an auctioneer too. Like, he'll start out by saying something like, "Good day, ladies and gentlemen, good day! Good day!" but like super fast. Yeah, anyway, he'll pull a blue pen out of his back pocket and wave it in the air so we can all see. He talks about how great it is, and that we can but it for just 500 pesos! 75 cents!! (By the way, 500 pesos was worth a dollar when I first got here. Yay for the world economic crisis??) Moving on, he pulls out a black pen and then a red pen - we can get all 3 pens for just 500 pesos! What's that? He'll throw in a second black pen at no additional cost! But wait, just wait. He pulls out a big black permanent marker. Major selling points: "It writes on wood, it writes on plastic, it writes on paper!" All four pens and the marker for just 500 pesos! Still unsure? Ok... he'll throw in a mechanical pencil too! As he's talking about how great it is, he's clicking the eraser part to make all the lead come out, like "Look see! It's real!" Today being the second time I've seen the speil, I really had to hold back the laughter. I mean, he was clicking the teeny pencil eraser with such fervor. I guess he should be commended. Anyway, ok, final offer: this guy will throw in mechanical pencil refills in the mix. That's right, four pens, one marker, one pencil, and pencil lead for 500 pesos. The thing, if you think about it, that's actually a good deal. They looked like pretty nice pens. For a split second I thought about buying them, but then my the voice of my conscience (or my mom) started talking: "Jen, do you really need these? Are you sure you don't have any other pens at home?" Yeah, yeah, okay.


On a different note, I'd like you all to meet my Chilean family!!!

















Here's Patty, Montse, Luis, and Benja. Benja loves smiling for pictures. They are now the happy owners of tons of Coca-Cola and UofM gear. Yay!


















Ok, here's some smiles!


















Look! "Michigan Mom" ... how cute! Aww, I love this lady.


Okay, what else? Hmm. Well I had a paper due Monday. I pretty big one. It was supposed to be between 4-8 pages, but I didn't start it until Sunday. Whoopsies. I finished it Monday morning and it was barely 4 pages, but *shrug*, I felt I still deserved a little celebration, so I went to Starbucks!! First frappuccino in months, and it was absolutely heavenly.

Yesterday I told Patty that I wanted to start eating a little healthier, not that I don't love my sugared wheaties and freaking loaves of bread that I eat daily. But ya know, carbs and sugar only get you so far. So today for lunch, she packed me a platter, yes, a platter, of vegetables. Corn, green beans, peas, carrots, broccoli, and cellary. And two hardboiled eggs. Patty does not kid around when it comes to eating healthy!


Annnnd, guess what!! I've officially booked my trip to Peru and Argentina!! Yahoo! I'm flying to Lima Novemeber 22, then somehow we're going to get to Cuzco (fly, bus it, hitchhike, apperate?) and from there we're going to go to Machu Picchu!! We're hoping to take the Incan Trail, which would take about 3-4 days. Then from there, we go back to Lima and fly to Buenos Aires on December 1 (happy birthday to meee!). We fly back to Santiago on the 10th and then I fly out the next day to come home! So, my last couple weeks will be totally crammed pack with life, but that's how I like it. As long as no poetry is involved, I'm as happy as a clam.


Mucho amor a todos! Besos y abrazos!!


P.S. I voted! Yay!!

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves...

here's a couple more pictures from paragliding in Mendoza!



































Me and Gwenny... getting ready to run off a mountain.



















I'm the orange one.





































Next post... my parents' visit!

Don't cry for me Argentina

Soooo I spent the weekend in Mendoza, Argentina with a group of extranjeros from all over the world, and let me just say, I had an absolute blast! I just wish I could have had more time to spend there! We had to be at the bus station at 9 AM on Friday morning, which means I had to use the public transportation system between 8-9 AM. The metros were so incredibly packed that people had to stand and wait and wait and wait on the platform until another metro came that wasn't so crammed. What a pain. Well, as some of you may know, I don't like waiting. So me and my big backpack just kept pushing through the crowds trying to get on the metro. I standing right in the doorway when the noise which signals the doors closing starting to ring. My hopes of getting on the metro started to dwindle when suddenly this ginormous man shwoops me and my big backpack onto the metro. Yes, he shwooped me. I looked up and flashed my pearly whites as in to say "Thank you, sir. I appreciate that" and his response was a blank stare that I took to mean "What the hell are you smiling about?" Good morning Chile!

The busride to Mendoza was pretty awesome since my friends and I got seats in the very front of the top layer of the bus, right above the driver. So it was like a roller coaster, except going alot slower and staying on the ground. Okay, so maybe not. Anyway, the view of the mountains was spectacular.



















(I spilled of cup of coffee all over my friend Blair in the taking of this picture. Whoops.)


















We got to our apartments in Mendoza around 7ish and had the night free to do whatever we wanted. The kids in the apartment I was staying with decided to go out for a little drink and we ended up sitting down in the outdoor part of a restaurant. We were in the middle of a conversation when a lady came over to us and started talking. I just assumed it would be the waitress, but when I looked up, I realized it was a woman holding some sort of cards or stickers in one hand while breastfeeding her small child. The stupid thing is, I still thought she was our waitress and was surprised Argentina didn't have stricter laws about, well you know, waitresses breastfeeding their children on the job. Duh, Jen, you dummy. Anyway, we all mumbled that no, we didn't want to buy anything she was selling, but thanks anyway. All throughout our time sitting at this restaurant, people came up to us asking to buy stuff. Because you know, we're clearly Americans, and all Americans are filthy rich. Obviously. Well, when we all got up to leave after our drinks, my friend Leslie realized her purse was no longer by her side. That's right, one of those people offering to sell us their stickers robbed her purse, which had all her money, credit cards, phone, cedula (Chilean ID), and her camera. Needless to say, this was not the best way to start off our time in Mendoza. Getting robbed kind of puts a damper on things. We didn't know this, but apparently Mendoza is known for pickpockets and stealing. So, um, watch out if you ever go there.

Saturday was super awesome though. We started the day off with a bus tour of the city. Call me crazy, but I think think may be borderline blasphemous.


















Anyway, the first thing we went to was La Cabaña, a huge chocolate factory. It was one oompa loompa song away from being Willa Wonka's chocolate factory.



Yeah, just tell me you didn't see things like this in Willa Wonka's chocolate factory.























Ever since visiting this place, I've had the same five lines of a certaing song stuck in my head...

I want the world.
I want the whole world.
I want to lock it all up in my pocket.
It's my bar of chocolate!
Give it to me - NOW!

Yep. Those five lines over and over. Ehhh.

After that, we drove around Mendoza for a while. We visited a couple different plazas, including Plaza España. Oh, so pretty. There were tiles all over! Tiles in the fountain, tiles on the ground, tiles on the walls.



















After the plazas, we went to Parque General San Martín, the largest city park in Argentina. Seriously. Huge. And in the middle, there's a big long manmade lake. How can you tell it's manmade? Oh, because it has concrete sides. Other than that, the park was absolutely beautiful.

Our last stop was Cerro de la Gloria, which overlooks Mendoza.


















See those mountains in the background? That's where we went PARAGLIDING from!! Fast forward 3 hours, and there we are sitting at the bottom of a couple of mountains in Mendoza.






After waiting an hour or so at the bottom (you have to go in shifts), a jeep picked us up and took us to the top of the mountain. Until then, never had I ever felt as if the vehicle I was riding in could fall apart beneath me. There were no doors, the side panel was strung on with some metal wires, and I easily could have kicked through the floor board. On top of that, the road to the top was this skinny dirt road which snaked its way up the mountain, and every time we turned the corner, I was praying to God we wouldn't go over the edge. Seriously, I was thinking to myself "Okay, so if we start going over the edge, I can just quick jump out this space where a door should be. Yeah, I'll just do that." Well, we finally got to the top safe and sound, and had to wait another 2 hours. Gah. But we got to watch other paragliders, so that was neat.


















The left side of the picture is where you run off the mountain.




This is Gwenny (I'm 100% certain that is not how you spell it) and he was my paragliding professional. Gwenny and Jenni. Oh how I love it when things rhyme.


















He told me to just run and run and run and not stop until he told me too. So that's what I did. And suddenly there I was in the Argentinian sky, strapped to a man named Gwenny and a parachute and nothing else. Crazy huh?























me: "Smile, Gwenny!"
Gwenny: "Whiskey!!!"























Sun setting over the mountains while I was still in the air. So cool.


















After about 15 minutes, we made it back down to earth. Yay!


















And now I'm tired and can't write anymore. Maybe more later. But here's one last picture from the bus ride home. Yay Argentina!
























Besos y abrazos!

I'm Baaaaaaack!!

Ok, so sorry about the lack updates. I mean, I'm sure you've all been dying to know what I've been up to! Buncha stalkers...

Well, school has been absolutely awful, and even though I claim to have given up, I'm still a perfectionist and try a too hard. All I need to do is pass, all I need to do is pass. Just keep tellin' yourself that, Jen.

In case you guys didn't know, the UM Chile program is partnered up with Wisconsin, so that made last Saturday's football game super duper fun. We started our tailgate at noon sharp and stumbled over to the gringo bar (and by stumbled, I mean we took 3 metros and a micro -- not convenient at all!) to watch the game. There aren't even words for how exciting that afternoon. It was almost like being in Ann Arbor... except not at all in any way, shape, or form. But we definitely made the best out of the weekend.

Michigan vs. Wisconsin! Grrr!


















Aww, jk! We're friends!


















I'm offically more than halfway done with my stay here, and I think time is really going to fly from here on out. I'm going to Mendoza (that's in Argentina for you less-worldly folks :) ) this weekend, my parents will be here the weekend after that, I have a fieldtrip (to a vineyard, I think) the weekend after that, and I have my YMCA English class party the weekend after that. And then it's November! I think a couple friends and I are going to try to fit in white water rafting somewhere in the next month too.

As for random observations....I know I wrote a wee something before about people wearing shirts with stupid English phrases on them. Well, I saw another one this morning and I just wish I had the skills to tell this guy what his shirt really said. Because if you know your shirt said "GHETTO. RUDE. STAR." on it, would you really want to wear it? Who even manufactures stuff like that? I was hoping for something equally as enlightening on the back of the shirt, but alas, there was only a "manly" fairy-like creature.

I just figured out to apply for an absentee ballot from overseas, so I sent that in today. Hopefully it all works out. Now I don't want to be talking politics or anything, but I think this video is hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65I0HNvTDH4. Barack is such a friggin' cutie.

Oooook, well I'm off to read an insane amount of essays.... or watch the new Heroes episode. We'll see what happens.

Besos y abrazos!

life in pictures

too tired for sentences. pictures of my life. here. now.

fiestas patrias at the estado nacional. i bought a kite.


















un asado (bbq) with some of the students in my english class at the ymca.





















bailando! but not the cueca, because that's hard.























went to algarrobo with my family. flew my kite.









































went to el canelo (a beach pueblito) for the day.















dyslexia?























the pacific


















going for a stoll.


















Then we found two huasos (Chilean cowboys).


















sunset from the roof.


















at home. tired.


















ah life.

Paseo a Pomaire

Hola po! So my weekend was pretty bacán (cool, groovy, hip, slammin', neato). Friday night I went to a fiesta at the YMCA where I volunteer. The fiesta was an early celebration of los días patrias, which is pretty much a 5-day celebration (starting this Wednesday) of a couple different things, but most importantly, Chile's independence. Anyway, at the fiesta, they had cueca dancers (la cueca is a national dance) come in and perform for us, which was super neat. I sat with the people I help teach English to, and they attempted to teach me some Chilean dance moves. Que entretenido!

Saturday, my program took un paseo to the pueblito de Pomaire, a little town known for its mastery of greda (type of clay) making. A lady from Pomaire invited us to her house and fed us breakfast and lunch. After breakfast she led us into town and took us to a greda making factory. Here, they dig the greda from the ground, grind it up, make some sort of pottery out of it, and bake it. We all got to make little pots too, but I'm pretty sure the minute we left, they took all our creations and mashed them back up so they could make decent looking pottery instead of ugly little bowls.

Here's me making my bowl.


















I accidentally pushed the first one off the wheel and smushed it, so I got to make another.


















The finished product!


















This is how the professional does it. It takes him less than a minute to make a pot.



This probably took him a half hour. I have no clue how he can make them all so similar. Que loco.
























After that, we walked to the other side of town (yeah, and it probably took all of 5 minutes -- it's a pretty small town) and were met by a lady who helped us make piggy banks! Here's my finished product. It kind of looks a lot like a fat bear, but whatevs, it'll hold my pesos.



















Saturday night, a few friends and I found a wee pub called O'Flannery's. It's everything you could ever imagine an Irish pub to be. Except it was filled with Chileans. Which I found to be hilarious. But maybe that was just the pisco. Anyway, on they were also hosting karaoke, and golly, you know me. I shoved my way up to the stage and told them I wanted to sing:

"What do you want to sing?!" they asked.
"Anything in English!!" I replied.

And 5 minutes later, I'm singing for some R-E-S-P-E-C-T. And after that, the rest of the gringos joined me, resulting in the worst rendition of Piano Man ever sang. Immediately after, they told us to go sit down. It was super fun though, and I'll definitely be going back. The people were super friendly, and didn't pull the usual "Oh you don't speak Spanish? Well, I see you're trying but I'm not even going to try to understand you because it's not perfect Spanish. And I'm too good for you" thing.

And yesterday I did absolutely nothing. And it felt wonderful.

Oh, and by the way, today it was in the 70s and the sun was shining and I wore flip-flops!! Yaaaay!!

Besitos!