La Serena

In summary, La Serena = much better than Santiago.

We got to La Serena around 2ish on Friday and had to find a hostel to stay in. The first one we found was "Maria's Casa." There were so many different people staying there - people from Switzerland, France, England, and the US. The place def had its personality (I had Homer and Marge Simpson on my bed sheets), but we had already made reservations at a different hostel for the rest of our stay. Sorry Maria.
The next morning we walked to the beach and the whole walk there we walked down the street through palm trees. Seriously, it was like being in a movie. The La Serena beach was absolutely amazing. We're planning on going back in November when it's summer and actually warm out. (It's only around 50-60 degrees there now.)




My friend Catherine and I rode horses on the beach! It was so neat riding along the beach with the Pacific on one side and the mountains on the other. Really, you guys should try it.






That night we went to Mamalluca Observatory, one of the view amateur astronomical observatories in Chile. The sky was super clear, so we could see pretty much everything. You could see Jupiter shining really brightly in the sky, and then through the telescope you could see its 4 largest moons too. Very cool. We also learned about other big telescopes around the world, such as the VLT (Very Large Telescope) in Chile, SALT (South African Large Telescope), and CELT (California Extremely Large Telescope). Another telescope that will be finished in 2012 in Chile is OWL (Overwhelmingly Large Telescope). And I'm serious. The trip fee also included a bag of cookies and a Pisco Sour. Random, yet extremely enjoyable.

Sunday morning we left La Serena at 8am to travel to la Isla Damas. The views from the bus were amazing!

So we get to this very small town (population: 500) and meet Jorge, our guide to Isla Damas. Fue muy guapo. There were about 20 people (mostly from Switzerland and some from France) and we all hobbled into the boat one by one. As we were riding out to the island, Jorge starting shouting, "To the right! Delfines!" Sure enough, about 50 ft away I could see the little fins of the dolphins. Every time the dolphins came back up, they were closer and closer to us! Oh, it was so cool.
As we neared the island, we could see another little island, and on top there was a flock/herd/family of sea lions (lobos marinos). I liked these ones much better than the dancing one at the aquarium. They're so cute. I want one.

And then we saw penguinos!! They were so little and cute and I want one of those too. Most of them were just kind of standing and huddling there, but there was one waddling over some rocks and I just about peed my pants with delight. Or maybe I was just so cold.
After seeing the lobos marinos y penguinos, we stopped at la Isla Choros and got to walk around. One of the other guides took us on a wee detour to try to find some penguinos but, sadly, we had no success.















On the drive back, we saw a guanaco!! AKA a llama. (If you click on the picture it gets bigger and you can see it better.) And if that weren't enough, we passed a mountain full of goats, which we cleverly dubbed "Goat Mountain." (It was funny at the time...)







Monday we went to La Recova, a super cool handicraft market. Gosh, I wish you guys could just go to La Serena because it doesn't sound as cool with me writing it.

Anyway, if you're lucky, you just might have a little something with your name on it from La Recova...



We stopped by the mall later that day just to shake things up a bit. And attached to the mall is a medical center. I'm sure you can imagine how funny the "shop til you drop" joke must have been.

Tuesday morning we went to el Parque Japones to go to el Jardin del Corazon.

By the way, that black coat cost me $6 USD.

In other news.....

When I got home there was an email waiting for me saying they had found me a new family to live with, so I'll be moving there on Friday. I haven't really told my family yet, but I think I'll wait as long as possible to. But I guess me packing my suitcases might give it away.

So, back in Santiago, people are just more outgoing with their thoughts. I went to get my cedula de identidad (an ID card) today and I was sitting there reading a book, and a guy walks in the door, comes over to me, says "hola," kisses me on the cheek, and walks away. A little (or a lot) caught off guard, I just kind of mumbled a quick "hola" back to him. But hey, I suppose there are worse things a guy could do.

Now, I will share with you the discovery I have made since being here in Santiago. I call it "The First Three Questions a Chilean Man Will Ask a Gringa." It goes a little something like this:
1. ¿Cómo te llamas? (What's your name?)
2. ¿De donde eres? (Where are you from?)
3. ¿Tienes un pololo? (Do you have a boyfriend?)

They really get to the point here.


Okay, that's enough. Sorry for the lack of wit and cleverness. Maybe if someone hadn't been so pushy I could've given this post a little more thought. You know who you are. But I still love you.

Oh, and I have more pictures up on facebook so you can also stalk my travels through there.

Besos y abrazos!

Oh, it's normal in Santiago

So I got on the micro yesterday morning and got all cozy in a seat to get some last minute homework done. All of a sudden, some guy starts talking really loudly. Not in Spanish-listening mode yet, I look up to see a short little Chilean man holding up two toothbrushes. He then proceeded to give a 5 minute spiel about the importance of brushing your teeth and ended by asking everyone to buy one (and then they'd get one free, because, ya know, it was one of those 2-for-1 deals). I go back to focusing on my homework and figure the man would get off at the next stop and go bother another micro. Because that's how it's done in America. But oh no, the next time I look up, the woman across the aisle from me is eagerly buying toothbrushes.

Then, on my way home, I tried to find a different route and got terribly lost. I just kept telling myself I was exploring. A very old Chilean woman found me looking in my little map book (I was trying to be discrete too) and told me she would help me find a bus. "I practeece mi Eengleesh y you practeece youuur Español," she told me. So I walked with her for a good 5-10 minutes, her talking in English and me responding with Spanish. Apparently she's been to Pennsylvania and New York for her job. I told her about my things "disappearing" and was hoping she'd offer to let me stay with her because she was a very nice old lady. Sadly, she didn't.

Well, she did help me find a bus and I very happily boarded because I had been wandering around for approximately 2 hours. I really should've stopped and asked for directions, but that always feels like defeat. Anyways, I get on the very crowded micro and squeeze myself next to the window. And then, again, I here some man talking very loudly, in the tone only a salesperson has. I look up to see what goodies he's selling, and couldn't help but chuckle when I saw the little screwdriver he was waving around. I mean, it was a nice screwdriver and everything (one of those ones you can switch from the "+" to the "-" and there are different sizes of "+"s and "-"s), but really, selling screwdrivers on a bus? I'm sad now that I didn't watch to see if anyone bought one, but frankly, I was too tired to care.

I'm going to La Serena tomorrow, which is about a 6-hr bus ride. It's the third oldest city in Chile and I guess it has some pretty old churches. I also found a tour where you go in a little fishing boat out to Isla Damas, where there are penguins and dolphins! http://www.paseosenchile.cl/espanol/destinos/laserena/Tour/Isla_Damas.asp So hopefully my travel buddies will want to do that.

It was really clear a couple mornings ago, so here's some mountain pictures. I know you guys just love them.



I took this one as I was walking to the micro stop in the morning.











I took this one walking from the metro to campus. The statue is Jesus, just in case you're wondering.












These are the "perros callejeros" (stray dogs). There are a ton on campus, but there are also a lot on the city streets too. They are super nice and super cute, but I bet they're filled with God-knows-how-many diseases.






I just flipped throught the TV channels here and saw "Walker, Texas Ranger." Seriously.

And about the whole housing situation, I'm planning on dealing with that when I get back. I'll be gone until Tuesday night and then I'll put pictures up from La Serena! Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

And Happy Birthday Dad!! :)


P.S. Aunt Patty, "clepto" in Spanish is cleptómano. You can now add another word to your Spanish vocabulary! And although mousetraps and broken glass are superb ideas, I'm not angry enough (yet) to physically hurt anyone. But I think I'll leave some cookies out in my room and see if any are missing when I come back. Ha, no one can resist cookies.

Have you heard...

Oh, have I got news for you. But I'll start small and work my way up.


Some other gringas and I went to a nice bar/restaurant Saturday night. I ordered a margarita because I wanted something fun, but it was hella strong and tasted more like a glass of alcohol with some lemony-lime juice squeezed in it. The globs of salt on the rim did not help. Guácala! (That's "yucky!" in Spanish. Look! You're learning!)

Anyways, we chose this place because of it's happy hour... 12:00-9:30 is happy hour. It's happy hour all freaking day! Aunt Kim, I thought you'd like this :)



Sunday I went with la Cata and Blair and her family to el Museo Interactivo, which was super fun, but super filled with people, and an aquarium where I got to see a dancing sea lion. I'm still not sure what my thoughts are on that.

And apparently snapping turtles are exotic.




Oh, and I don't think I've mentioned how totally NOT politically correct people are here. If a chileno was commenting on the a person walking down the street, he would say, "Oh hey, look at that gordito!" which is saying, "look at that fatty!" Also, there's not a lot of black people here, so if they see a black person, "Oh, hey look, a negrito!" Anyways, this candy bar reminded me of that.

(It was actually really, really good. It was like an inside out s'more.)

I watched the Disney Channel with la Cata today, and it's pretty much the same as the U.S. version, with all the same shows dubbed over. A lot of U.S. shows are on TV here, and the shows for younger kids are dubbed over and the shows for adults have subtitles.

So, my big news. I came back Saturday night and saw my purse I had left home was all messed up and opened, so I went and checked the wallet that I kept in my closet to see if my money was still there. Sure enough, it wasn't. (I had a feeling last Tuesday that my money had been taken from my room, but I wasn't 100% sure so I didn't say anything.) Well, I had checked my wallet before leaving, so I knew there was money in it, blah blah blah, and I waited until morning to let the shit, as they say, hit the fan.

la Pity: "Buenos dias, Jenni."
me: "Hola." (with a hint of a glare in my eye)
la Pity: "Estai bien?"
me: "NOOO! RAWRRR!"

And I continued blubbering on in incomprehensible Spanish through my sobs. People were emailed, called, met with, talked to, so on and so forth. The Chilean verdict is that I was still so stressed and nervous and confused about being abroad that I must have misplaced the money and didn't know how to react. "It's not right to accuse your family of theft, Jenni." Well, it freaking is if they're stealing from you.

Anyways, I think it was my little sister just kind of messing around, being the curious little chica that she is. (Stop thinking I'm naive. I know that it's still not right.) It was only $20.000 pesos, which is like $40, but it's still a lot to be taken. Cecilia (the home-stay setter-upper), la Pity, and Meme all gave me $5.000 pesos to make up for it. (I take that as a sign that they admit to their thieving ways.) Cecilia also made them all agree that they couldn't enter my room without me being there, however there's no lock on the door, so who knows if they'll listen to that. I'm also going to try to find a lock box to put my more valuable things in.

For now, I'm staying here with this family, seeing if things are awkward (and seeing if I happen to "misplace" anything else. I can switch if I want to, but what if the new family is mean? Then I'll be sad. This family may steal, but at least they're nice to me.

So, if anyone knows nice, non-thieving, gringa-liking people residing in Santiago in a house/apartment close to the metro with an extra bedroom, let me know.

And don't worry about me guys, I'll be fine. You all worry too much!

On a much happier note, I don't have classes next week, so some other gringos and I are traveling to La Serena, which is close to be muy linda and close to the playa.

Besos y abrazos

It's Chilly in Chile

It's been cold the last few days. Brr.

This is the moon over the mountains. Que linda.

I've been here a whole week! I just have to survive 4.75 more months. Totally doable.

We went to the movies Thursday night to see El Caballero de Noche (that batman movie). It's was all in English with subtitles on the bottom, so it was pretty awesome. Apparently, some movies have the subtitles and then some have it dubbed over (more with the little kid movies, I think). It's weird because all the movies that the theater shows were all American movies. Like, la Cata just saw "Kung Fu Panda" with a friend of hers, and then saw "Wall-E" with her cousins yesterday. Que interesante.

Getting into the theater was a little rough though because we got there late, and they wouldn't sell us tickets to the show that had already started. So when we showed them are tickets to get in, the guy was like, "Ok, go stand in line over there to wait for the next showing." Buuuuttt, we just kept walking through because we wanted to go see the show with the rest of our friends. So the worker is yelling after us "Chicas! Chicas!" and we kind of started running into the theater. I think this is one of those you-had-to-be-there stories, so sorry if you don't get it. Anywho, we run in and sit down, and the worker follows us in and tells us we were in the wrong movie, and we told him "No, no, this is the right one" in really bad Spanish, and he got frustrated and walked away. My friend next to me was like, "Dude, you totally just pulled the I-can't-speak-Spanish card." Haha anyways, the movie was good, si po?


Blair, my "cousin," and I went to a bar on Wednesday just because we could. We got piscolas, and then we wanted to try something else, and "Cerveza Dunkel y Leche Condensada" caught our eye. Yeah, we drank beer and condensed milk. And it tasted just how you would expect. I think it was just so disappointing because it looked like chocolate milk so I was expecting that. It most def did not taste like chocolate milk.




I'm really liking my family now. It took a few days to get to know them, but yesterday la Pity told me at dinner that "te queremos" (they loved me!). Yay! And Meme calls me "mi amor," which just makes me feel so special. By the way, Meme is an excellent cook, and I've loved pretty much all the food she's made. I always ask her the names of the food she makes, but I always forget. Sorry, kids. She does try to feed me way to much though.

I got on the micro (the bus) a couple days ago and there was this guy playing "My Favorite Things" on the keyboard. And he just kept playing and it would get jazzier and jazzier with key changes galore, but no one would clap for him because then they'd have to pay him. He was good though, muy entretenido.


The other gringos y yo went to a party for some guy's birthday last night, and I met mucho chilenos. And a guy from Panama. Jake was right -- after you start drinking, Spanish is so much easier. (I'm legal here, don't judge me.) The guy lives on the top floor of an apartment building, so the view was very pretty. Except the smoggy smog ruined it.

I think I'm going skiing in the Andes tomorrow, so I'm mucho excited about that. It's super expensive but I figure I won't have many chances in my life to go skiing in the Andes so I should probably go.

Okay, that's enough.

Mucho amor

Surprise on the Metro

I saw a Chilean man on the metro yesterday with the greatest mullet I have ever seen. He had gel on top so it was sticking up all sleek-like, and the hair in the back went almost to his butt. Such dedication.

And I blew up my hair dryer. And surge protector. Whoops.

And I got lost on the micro (the bus system) because I didn't know where to get off. But it's okay, guys, I made it back. No worries.


Here's the view of the mountains from the Catolica campus. If it wasn't so darn smoggy it would be prettier.






































This is the view from one of the metro stations that is above ground.










Sorry , but all you're going to see are pictures of the mountains. I can't get over them.

It's the middle of "winter" and it's been between 50-60 degrees out. La Pity and Meme are constantly asking if I'm cold. And if I'm hungry...

Oh, we ate lunch at my Andres's house today, and his wife, Pamela (Pam-AY-la), is apparently a big drinker. She made me take a shot of Pisco, with Coca-Cola, resulting in Piscola, which is Chile's national drink, I guess. Don't judge me, I'm legal here.

Besos y abrazos

I still don't know Spanish...

So, everything is still kind of like a dream - I can't believe I'm halfway around the world...and I still can't understand anything. But my hand motions are improving, so that's always a plus for my communication skills.

I went to a BBQ at my "uncle's" house yesterday (he's the hostdad of another girl from Michigan). He speaks a little English so it's easier to talk to him. Me gusta Spanglish. He has this book for all his host children called "How to survive in the Chilean jungle" which has all the Chilean slang in it. I desperately need this book! Later I met his mom who said something along the lines of, "Oh, if you wanted to learn Spanish, you should've gone to Spain! Our Spanish is very different!" So now I don't know what language I'm learning but I hope I learn it fast.

Oooh, and I was on the metro super early this morning, and the train went above ground for one stop and I saw the sun rising over the mountains. Oh my goodness-so gorgeous! Seriously, these mountains are insane.

Speaking of insane, Chilean pesos are messed up and I hate them. Annnd here the "." is a "," and the "," is a "." so 200.000 isnt 200 but 200,000. Maybe I'm stupid, but it took me 3 days to realize that.

Gah. Bueno, les echo de menos todo mi familia y mis amigos, y les amo mucho. Ahora, tengo que hacer mi tarea, despues el primer dia de clases! Es loco...

Besos y abrazos!


Oh! And my mom just got home and reminded me of how I walked out the door in my slippers this morning and had to run back upstairs to get my shoes. I'm her "gringa loca"! hahaha


And here's the view from my bedroom. Que bonita, si?

I'm here!

So in case anyone doesn't know, Chileans talk hella fast. It was pretty torturous buying my metro pass and getting my cell phone. And yes, Nicole, they call me "gringa."

After a lovely 9-hour overnight flight from Atlanta, we landed into Santiago around 8:30 this morning. My host mom, Pity (I swear her name is Lilian so I'm still confused about that), was there to greet me.

My grandma, Meme, made lunch and dinner, and they both tasted good. I told them I didn't like mayonnaise and they seemed a bit flabbergasted, as they spread it all over their bread.

I have a little sister, Catalina, who is 6, and she has made me feel the most welcome here. She made me a big welcome/I love you sign, and is always telling me "te quiero" and giving me kisses.















The mountains from the plane. Mountains pretty much surround the city and it's absolutely beautiful.















My bedroom... about a 6x8 ft room. So it's cozy.















La Cata, mi hermanita, and me.

Hi everyone!

Here's my blog so I can keep you updated with what I'm doing in Santiago! Woo hoo!