More Poetry

Heh, just kidding. So maybe you weren't a big fan of that last post, since it had absolutely nothing to do with Chile. Sorry.

Some friends and I attempted to go karaoke-ing last night, but we got distracted by the idea of getting ice cream, got to the bar too late, and didn't get to sing. They were just finishing up the karaoke, and one of the last singers was this guy who sang "New York, New York." Seriously, every person in the bar started singing along. To "New York, New York." Chileans, you're funny people.

Some guy (actually, it was the guy who sang "New York, New York") asked me to dance, and he taught me how to salsa. When he introduced himself, I could've sworn he said his name was Phil (or Will, or Bill, or something that ended in -ill) and I thought that was weird since it wasn't really a Chilean-sounding name. So was like, "Phil??" and he responded, "No, I'm Luis." What the heck? How do you mistake "Luis" for "Phil"? I don't even know what to think of myself.

Then I spent the better have of today laying at Parque Ines de Suarez, the park I run through 3-4 times a week. There's a lovely little field there, and my friend, Adrienne, and I went there to lay out in the sun and read. We both had a lot of reading to catch up, but I'm not sure we really got a lot done. For some reason there's fair number of palm trees too, so every once in a while, I'd look up from reading, see a palm tree, and think, "Wow, that's cool. Palm trees. How exotic. It's like Hawaii. No, it's like a whole different country. Oh wait..."

Random thoughts:
- I heard Michigan lost today. Boo.
- I'm on the mission to find a guitar. Preferably one that is cheap enough so I won't have to sell my liver on the black market to pay for it.
- I have sore throat #1.
- I missed Welcome Week at school, so I'm very excited for the Welcome Back Jenni Week that Rayna suggested.
- Madonna is having a concert at the Estado Nacional on December 10. The tickets are ridiculously expensive, but since the Estado Nacional pretty close to my apartment, I think I'll just sit out by the pool and listen from there. With a Pisco Sour in hand.
- After teaching at the YMCA on Thursday, one of the new students asked me, "Are you always this happy?" I love it when people ask me that.


Besos!

Jenni's Guide to Poetry

1. Show some emotion:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
Guess what Chilean poetry?
No one likes you.


2. Rhyming can be fun:

I had an essay due today,
that I didn't want to write.
I procrastinated quite a bit,
and stayed up til 2:30 last night.

Then, bright and early this morning,
I believe the clock said 7:00 AM,
Benja was whining about going to school,
and woke my tired ass up again.

I eventually fell back to sleep,
and slept another two hours.
I really needed to finish my paper
so I decided not to shower.

I actually did finish my paper on time,
even though I was hella tired.
I don't really care what grade I get,
because I'm a math major and the grades don't transfer anyway so all I need to do is pass.


3. Structure is important:

I don't trust haikus.
After I read a haiku,
I count syllables.


Thanks for reading. Hope you learned alot.

I'm off to work at the Y!

Besos y abrazos!

Skiing in the Andes

So I can now officially say that I have skied in the Andes Mountains!! How insane is that? Last Friday, some friends and I went skiing at Valle Nevado, a resort about 2 hours away from Santiago. We went through a company that provided the transportation, equipment, and clothing if you needed it (mittens, snow pants, goggles, etc) and it worked out so well! About 30 minutes after leaving Santiago, we started the climb into the mountains. The road was literally a one-lane road that twisted back and forth all the way of the mountain. (I do recall our bus passing other buses though. How? I don't want to think about it.) Apparently, in the mornings, there are only cars and vans going up the mountain, and then around 3pm, there's only traffic going down.

This is the view from the main lodge/hotel building. I only used the bathroom, but I suspect that it's a hella nice place.


The weather was absolutely amazing the whole day. In the morning the sun was shining, which kept me so warm I didn't even need to wear a hat. It cooled down a little bit, but it was still super nice. The snow was amazing. Really, I've never skied in more perfect conditions. I had a smile on my face all day long. I still cannot believe that I got to do this! Like really, the resort was on the TOP of the Andes. Not in the Andes, on top of the Andes!



















Around 12:30, two other girls and I stopped skiing at grab lunch. Right next to one of the chair lifts was a restaurant with tons of outdoor seating, so we sat outside and ate lunch! So not only have I skied in the Andes, I have eaten lunch in the Andes too! Ha!


















Mountains, mountains, la la la


















See the end of the chairlift? See it?! It goes all the way to the TOP!





















So, it was an amazing day. People are talking about going back this Friday, but I've been calling it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so it would be weird to go, um, twice. However, it's low season, so I hear you can find cheap deals if you look for them. We found out the resort next door (next mountain?) had a 3-for-1 deal once we had already been skiing for a couple hours at Valle Nevado.

My legs declared mutiny overnight, so I was pretty much out of commission all Saturday. Is that normal for a 20-year-old? Geez.

More pictures on facebook. My friend has some pictures too, so I'll steal those and show you guys once she puts them up.

Saturday night I went to my first discotech, Subterraneo. If I'm ever in need of overly sweaty Chileans, I now know where to go.

I started volunteering at the YMCA last Thursday and that was a lot of fun. I'm helping teach an English workshop for adults. We went over past tense and the future tense. We did this game where Person A had a bunch of cards with problems on them and Person B had cards with things that he "will" do (future tense) to help. I don't know who wrote this game, but some of the things Person B will do are "I will murder you" and "I will buy you a gun." Person B is clearly a bit disgruntled.

Oh, and Patty sat me down yesterday and was like "I'm really worried about you. I don't think you're eating enough." Oh honey, that is the last thing you need to be worrying about. Goodness gracious. I was honestly at a loss for words; I had absolutely no response. All I could do was laugh at her.

Good luck to everyone starting school this (or next) week. However, I don't feel sorry for any of you because I doubt any of you are taking a Chilean poetry class. Yeah, a Chilean poetry class which makes me wish I had a friend like Person B...


besos!

Happy Hump-day!

I could be doing work right now. But I'm not. Mostly because poetry makes me want to poke my eyes out. (On a side note, when I told my mom this, she laughed. It feels super great when my own mother laughs at my pain from 5,000 miles away. Thanks, ma.) But I suppose I chose my own fate when I signed up for a class entitled "Poesia Chilena e Hispanoamericana."

On a different note, I met a professor on Monday who will start teaching my "Mujeres y Sociedad" class in October (there are three different professors and she will be the third). And guess what? She looks just like Mother Willow. And I'm dead serious. She's kind of balding too, which makes her look more like a tree.











That's about as exciting as it's been here. Random thoughts:
-Tomorrow I'm going to start volunteering at the YMCA (Patty pronounces it "eemp-ca") helping teach an English workshop to young adults.
-I woke up two days ago to find my right index finger being strangled by the tassels on my pillow. Really, my finger was all cold and I was very worried it would be permanently damaged. But, no worries, it's not.
-I'm going skiing in the Andes on Friday, and I'm super excited.
-I finally found chapstick, after searching four pharmacies and a HyperLider (Wal-martishy store). It was approximately $3.50, so it better be the best chapstick ever made.
-I found out Luis's mom invented SuperOcho, which is the most popular candy bar in Chile. People sell them in the streets. Literally. They stand in the street, yelling "SUPER OCHO!!" What is a SuperOcho, you ask? Well, it's pretty much a waffery cookie dipped in chocolate. Sadly, Luis's mother shared her recipe with the wrong person, and he started mass-producing them.


Besos y abrazos

rain, rain, go away

Dude. When it rains here, it freaking pours. Yesterday, I was supposed to leave with my family to go to my great-aunt Julia's apartment at the beach. However, it was raining so hard that Patty thought there would be no point in going. She made this decision around 10 am, and good thing she did, because it continued to pour until 7:30 am this morning. So maybe you're thinking, Wow, Jenni. How did you know it was raining at 7:30 this morning? Well, I will tell you.

Did I ever mention how messed up the metro system hours are? Well, it closes at 11 pm (10:30 on weekends). Thus, all Chilean parties start around 11ish and then last until at least 6 am, which is when the metro opens in the morning. Well, a friend of mine had a party at his house and I went, totally intending to take a taxi home. Because, you know, it would be bad to stay out until 6 am. Well, that's not exactly what happened. I believe it was around 5:15 when I finally looked at someone's watch and thought, Wow! It's really late! and I figured I might as well stay up and take the metro home. I'm actually quite impressed with myself, because in case you guys didn't know, I like to sleep. And when I'm tired, as one should be at, say, 5:00 am, I usually like to sleep. Well anyways, I left my friend's house with a couple other amigos at 6:30 to get to the metro and it was raining, raining, raining. It had rained so much that there was absolutely no way to avoid the rivers that had formed on the sides of the streets. It was kind of like walking through the little creek in front of Jean's house at the cottage. Except the water was flowing at a much higher rate here. Seriously. Needless to say, my feet were very wet. "Water resistant" doesn't exactly work when the whole shoe is submerged in water. It took about an hour to get home, and I finally collapsed onto my bed at 7:30. And it was raining. I slept until 2, and my family thought it was very funny. Also, my shoes were still soaking wet. And so were my socks. And pants. And jacket. Yay rain.

On Thursday night I went to Patty's mom's birthday party. I had met her before, and I knew she was super duper nice, so of course I wanted to celebrate her birthday with her. Well, it never occurred to me how awkward it could be. Let me tell you, it was awkward. However, after 3 pisco sours, I was ready to go. And let me just say, I never asked for anything to drink, they just kept giving more and more and more. I think it was after my 8th pisco sour when we sang "Happy Birthday" and they all ask me to sing it in English, so, you know, I did. And they all thought it was hilarious.

Did I ever mention how my old mom, la Pity, had told me that I had an ugly nose? Well, she did. Viva Chile. Anyways, when I first met my g-ma, she told me how much she loved me nose and how linda it was. She was absolutely appalled when I told her what la Pity had said. At the party, Patty's sister also told me how much she loved my nose. Before I could even mention how la Pity had hated it, Patty and g-ma started telling everyone about it. Seriously, everyone in the room started bashing la Pity, and they were all yelling things like "I bet she's ugly!" and "What an idiot!" and "Your nose is beautiful!" I like it when people are on my side. Patty's family really reminded me of what our Christmases and Thanksgivings and Easters are like, with all the people and the food and the talking at high decibels. It was hilarious just to sit and (try to) listen to everyone talk. When we got home, Patty told me "te quiero mucho, Jennita" and that I was family. Yes, she calls me "Jennita," which I think is adorable and I answer to it gladly.

Angie, chilenos guapos come few and far between. It's rather devastating. Sorry Chile, but you know what's up.

Auntie Kim, you're silly.

Here's a picture a friend took of me in Valparaiso. Notice allllll the houses in the background. Es loco.


















Mucho amor <3

A little visit from HELP! Emergency

Alright, so usually around 7-7:30 I get woken up from all the hustle and bustle going on as my dad gets ready for work. It's annoying, but whatevs. I usually can just go back to sleep. With a big pillow over my head, that is. Well, today I thought it was another routine awakening when I heard people talking and walking around, but after a few moments I realized that they were being really loud. Which made me really annoyed. Because Jenni likes her sleep. So I was laying in bed debating what to do. I'm sick of this, I thought to myself. They are so rude! So I decided I would nonchalantly walk out of my room for a little bathroom break, trying to make it known that they had awaken me from my sweet slumber. I opened the door to my bedroom, walked down the hall a little bit, and looked into the living room. What's the first thing the catches my eye? "HELP! Emergency" written big bright letters on the back of an EMT's jacket. And sitting right in front of said EMT is Benja with a huge oxygen mask over his face. My mom, Patty, realized I had woken up and came over to explain to me that Benja's throat had closed up because it had gotten so cold. And she said something about the flu too. (No, I don't know if he has asthma.) So there I was, feeling like a humongous jerk because just a minute before I was cursing my family for being loud while my little brother was gasping for air. Way to go, Jen. I wanted to do something to show that I cared, but it was 3:00am and I had just woken up and I was really tired so I couldn't think of anything. So I just went back to bed. I mean, what was I supposed to do? Anyways, when I woke up again 7 hours later, Benja was home and I asked him how he was feeling and he said he was feeling better. So no worries. Until tonight when it gets cold again. Hmm.

Did you notice how I said the emergency people worked for HELP! Emergency? Why use English? Gahh. Decide on a language and stick with it, people. Sometimes, I think people here buy clothes that have English writing just because they think it's cool. Like, I saw a man yesterday with a nice leather jacket on, and then when he turned around I saw huge orange letters that read "BEER DELIVERY GUY." Classy. And when I was browsing through Ripley's once (it's comparable to a JCPenny's, I would say), I saw a shirt that said "I *heart* World Peace." Well, um yeah. I think we all do.



No, Auntie Kim, you still could not see the ocean if you stood on a ladder from San Cristobal. Es triste, yo sé.

I'm taking 2 classes specifically for foreigners, so I think I'll be alright in those. The 2 classes that are with the other Chilenos have been pretty difficult so sit through and understand, so I don't know how I'll end up doing. In one of the classes, an intercultural health class, we have done little group discussions in every class, so I've met other students that way. Hopefully they'll be able to help me if I need it.

The Pacific Ocean was superbien! Lake Michigan comes in a close second. I'm actually going back to the beach this weekend to stay at my great-aunt Julia's beach house. So I'm super excited about that.

I haven't read Isabelle Allende, but I've heard of her. I might look around for the book though. Gracias por la sugerencia!



I've been here exactly one month already. Super crazy, huh? I think so.


Besos!

Valparaiso!

Ok, first things first: 1) No you cannot see the ocean from the top of San Cristobal. Why? Because it's 50 miles away and between Santiago is a wee thing called the Andes Mountain Range. 2) People were murdered at the Estado Nacional during the reign of Pinochet. I've heard that they buried the bodies underneath the field, but I don't know if that's for real. But they detained some 40,000 prisoners there at one point. Pinochet was un hombre loco.

Alrighty, so this was my first week of classes. Wahoo. I actually register this coming Monday, so this past week I just went to any classes that seemed interesting in case I wanted to take them. You know, I've always found it easy to zone off when my teachers spoke in English, but now that I have teachers talking in a different language, it's soooo much easier. Sorry Mom and Dad. It just takes so much brain power to concentrate on what the profs are saying! Gaaah.

Last night, the international welcoming committee (I'm sure there's a formal name of some sort) hosted a choripanada, which is una fiesta con choripanes. A choripan is a kind of sausagey thing, which is super tasty. And they served piscolas, which I found to be rather hilarious. There were a lot of other extranjeros from all over the world, which is super neat. I also met some more chilenos. It's weird, but I still think it's cute when people have Spanish-sounding names, like Gonzalo or Pablo or Francisco. Ha, I giggled as a typed that.






Today my program took a paseo to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. This is my "creative" panoramic picture. We first stopped off at the beach and walked around for 15 minutes or so. I just wanted to test the water out, since I've never touched the Pacific Ocean. My friends and I wanted a picture of us with our feet in the water, so we went and stood in about an inch of water right on the shore. Right as the picture was being taken, however, a big wave came and hit us. And this is the result. Attractive.















This is from a lookout point in Con-Con, which is a little north of Vina del Mar. It was pretty. Let's see how this video works. You can see the sand dunes in the video and our guide said that people go sandboarding (like snowboarding, but in the sand) there.




Valparaiso is super neat because all the buildings and houses are painted different colors. There's no rhyme or reason to it, but the city (some committee, I suppose) tells you what color to paint your building. They wanted to maintain diversity in the city. I took pictures of the houses, but the postcards I bought look the prettiest. They always do.



Oooh, another cool thing is that you can be walking down the street and be like "Wow, that's a cool one-story building" and then you could turn the corner and see the other four stories of the building. Like in this picture, I bet that guy on the right didn't know there was another story beneath it. Ha!













Valpo also had some interesting graffiti. In a 10x10 ft space, we have a creepy boyscout, dogs humping, a cat craving cigarettes, and dolphins (to name a few). Viva Chile.



Once again, more pictures on facebook.

Next week starts my first week of real classes. Eeek. Wish me luck!


Abrazos y besos y chili con queso!

My butt hurts.

On Saturday 4 friends and I hiked up San Cristobal, and my butt is just getting over it now. San Cristobal is a hill in Santiago with a huge statue of the Virgin Mary on top. This is the few of it from our starting point at Plaza Italia.








Of course, there are several ways to get to the top, such as taking the Funicular (a wee train), a gondola (like the ski lift kind, or a taxi. But we hiked. I'm thinking if I walk up it every week until December, I will have buns, thighs, and calves of steel when I come home. Weather.com said it was going to rain, but it clearly did not. 80% my butt.




This is us at the very top, minus Madeline who took the picture. And by very top, I mean we're standing directly in front of a humongous statue of Mary.






Everything is superbien with my new family. I love them so much! This is a picture of Monse (Monsay) "reading" my map book. She just wandered in, laid down on the bed, and picked it up.






This is Monse with Benja (Ben-ha). He talks super fast and I never understand him, but I do know it's usually about videogames, so I always say how cool videogames are and how good he is at them.

Today was the first day of classes that you could go to. They kind of have a trial week of classes where we can go and decide if you like the professor or whatevs, and then real classes start next Monday. Es un proceso interesante. I tried to sit through a class today, but when the professor is speaking in Spanish (like they often do here), it's easy to zone out. But I guess it was a good class, because my friend said she thought it was interesting. I'm not slacking, honest. I'm going to kajillion (or 4) classes tomorrow though, and they sound more interesting anyway. So ha.

Oh, and some interesting news... Blair, my friend who lives with my old "aunt" and "uncle" said my old family had dinner over at their house the other day. Meme said I was "problematic." Uh, yeah, I caught you guys stealing from me. Sorry I caused you find that problematic. My bad. Buuutttt, Andres, previously known as my uncle, sent me a message on facebook (yeah, we're friends) and he said I'm welcome over there anytime and they'd love to see me. I just hope we don't all wander over there on the same day. Eeh.

About the movies -- most of the children's movies are dubbed over, while you can see adult movies either dubbed over or with subtitles. When I went to see Dark Night (El Caballero de la Noche), it was all in English with Spanish subtitles. So that's super nice. (btw, Heath Ledger was AMAZING, wasn't he?) There is a little lag time with openings though, like Mamma Mia isn't out yet here. Thus, I'm super duper jealous of you, Aunt Kim!

And yes, Patty is a wonderful name and everyone named Patty is super awesome! :)

Besos!

I have 2 moms named Patty

Guess what kids! I'm all moved in at my new house! Woohoo! It was super duper awkward at the old house so it's been awesome just being out of that house.

So here's what went down... I never really told my old family that I was going to move out for sure, so I packed up everything in phases so I wouldn't be as obvious. This morning I knew I was going to be picked up at 12:00, so around 11:30ish, I started bringing my suitcases down whenever Meme and la Cata were in their bedrooms (so they wouldn't see). I was actually planning on just saying a quick "ciao" and peacing out of there, but the janitor man came up and asked Meme why there were suitcases sitting by the front door. Awkward much? Yes. Yes indeed. So I was like, "Oh yeah, I'm leaving soon" and walked back into my room and sat there killing time for 5 minutes or so. When I thought Meme had sufficiently recovered from my wee surprise, I went to tell her goodbye. She seemed sad/angry, but gave me a hug and told me "te quiero mucho." Really. I had to fight back tears. I told her "te quiero tambien," and I wanted to continue to say "I really do trust you and you've have been super nice to me, but I'm pretty 100% that your daughter is a wack-job clepto." But I'm not sure how to say that tactfully.

At 12:00 my new mom walked up to the gate and gave my a huge hug! Her name is Patty (just like my real mom! Like, oh my gawd!) and she is amazing. She talks super slow so I can understand and on the car ride home she told to just forget everything that has happened so far and start my trip over stating today. (Later when we were eating lunch, her sister-in-law asked when I arrived in Chile, and I started to say 3 weeks ago, but Patty interrupted and was like "No, no, no remember? You just got here today!") Patty lives with her husband and 2 kids, Benjamin, 6, and Monserrat, 2, in a very nice apartment in Ñuñoa. It even has a pool!

Well, I'm being attacked by Monserrat and Enrique (you made now him as Ernie, a friendly orange puppet) so I must go. I didn't want to be the creepy gringa with a camera, so I haven't taken any pictures here yet, but I will soon -- the kids are freaking adorable!

besos