seis punto tres

So I officially completed and passed my first class with Chileans. Passing is a 5 average in the class, (I think. Someone told me it was lower...I'm not exactly sure.) The highest you can get in this grading scale is a 7 - which I don't think happens much. Kind of like an A+.

Anyways in my Spanish lit class I have had three grades... the first in class essay, first take home essay and the last take home essay. (Haydee decided to let us not do the last last final essay since she thought it would be too complicated, haha.) Anyways I got a 5 on the first essay, a 6 on the second! I finally got to pick up the grades from the extranjero office and I can't tell you the relief to see a 6.3! Especially after I thought I hadn't written a very good paper. I honestly don't know if Chileans would consider this a good grade or not... but I'm incredibly incredibly happy. I did it. I passed a class with Chileans. Now let's see how Art History comes out....

Anyways update on the traveling... I'll be home August 2 but got some traveling to do in the mean time. Andrea and I will be traveling up north to see some penguinos and some desierto. Then to Peru! We're going to La Serena, San Pedro de Atacama, Arequipa, Cusco, Aguas Calientes y Machu Picchu and Lima where I will be flying out of to my home sweeet home. I'm way stoked about Peru. But I'm also dying to get home and simply be with my family. I've "started" the process of moving out. I have to do this interview today for my journalism class which I hope will be relatively quick and not time consuming as I have a lot to do by Saturday.

procrastination [dilación -- según el google traductor]

cemetery in valparaíso... this is actually the section where they bury little kids.

so if i were to add up the amount of minutes i have spent in my life procrastinating... sheeez i don't even want to have the faintest hint of an idea.
things i love about chile (as we get somewhat close to wrappin' it up)
-they speak spanish here
-pan de leche
-chorillanas
-how in order public transportation is
-guateros
-vino navegado
-un besito para ti
-jugo natural
-palta

things i'm looking forward to
-fast food how i love it
-having my life in the crazy chaotic yet orderly way that it is
-southern smells and sounds
-southern accents
-california summer
-beach
-tan
-sisters
-mommy
-daddy
-angus
-spicy
-coffee

graffiti at the ex cárcel... an abandoned prison taken over by artists who have painted murals on every wall.












http://www.samsararestaurante.cl/
[[where we went tonight]]


went to a protest the other day... the were protesting the educational law that they've pretty much been protesting all semester. it was my first experience in a march. i didn't exactly march with them... just "walked on the sidewalk...." i felt excited to be there.








the march started in plaza victoria and walked several blocks of valpo. i stayed on the sidelines.

my goodness

So a good amount of people have already left.
I have a good amount of work to do before I can call it a semester. But I can't really believe it. This went by fast. A week and a half and I'll for suuure be done!!

bare feet and how they possibly affect my health

Alright. Every time I clear my throat if there happens to be a tickle in it or sneeze I hear ah Brett! You're gonna catch a cold! You need to keep warm! Um, honestly? I promise people it's not like I walk around barefoot in a tshirt and shorts. oh no. I wear layers ok? Lots of them. Often an undershirt tank top, and undershirt longsleeve, a sweater over that, leggings (if i have clean ones) and pajama pants around the house. I feel like I wear the same stuff everyday even though I guess I don't really. I also wear socks -- long socks if available -- and slippers. Oh and at times a scarf when it's very cold. And to top it off, I sit in bed most of the time under the covers.

Alright. So I wake up this morning and find my upper half of my body uncovered apart from my sweater and undershirt. Lovely. And I also feel the feeling of a chest and head cold all throughout. My blankets are cold. My hands are cold. My face is cold. Everything is cold! I have a cold which evolves into a fever today which I took advil for and which has currently subsided.

I did sniffle though when I was helping with the preparation of once and I think I have pretty dark circles under my eyes, so I was asked if I was sick. Yes, I said. I have a cold and I had a fever earlier. Now ok... SOMETIMES when I'm like out of clean socks I just sit in bed and pretty much don't get up. But I'll run and put on slippers if i have to get out and do stuff. And then throw on dirty socks to go out of the house in. Yes I'm really glad everyone now knows my sock habits here. Sheesh. My ability to do laundry is another topic altogether that I don't want to vent about. So apparently I've done this more than once and enough times to be noticed because after I tell her I'm sick, Marcela asks me... Brett where are your socks? Well dangit I'm in slippers for a 20-minute once. Ok, well right now I'm not exactly wearing any. Just my slippers. Welp, that's why you're sick.

Ugh! Really? That's why I'm sick??? Is this even true? That your feet can affect if you are sick or not. I mean... I think generally being cold all the time can have an affect on it. Or not taking vitamins. Or lack of sleep. Or just riding the micro a lot and catching germs. Or sitting next to someone in class who is coughing up a lung.

So I have decided to research this topic -- this perhaps urban myth of whether or not one can catch a cold if their feet are cold.

Well I found a few answers. One source seems a bit more credible than the other.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~myranya/bf_sickness.html

and... here's the CNN article which i find a bit more credulous.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/11/14/cold.chill/index.html


Ok so according the CNN article... a decrease in temperature can possibly lower your immune system which leads to the ability to catch a cold. Ok MAYBE it makes a difference if my feet are always 100% warm or not. But I mean alllll I'm saying is that regardless of whether they are warm or not I am always cold, haha. Even with a down jacket outside I am cold. So my point is that it isn't necessarily my feet. Haha, mk??

Anyways, also found this article: http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/travel/escapes/22hike.html


ps... [please guess which feet featured above belong to me!]

just a second

Having a memory.
On the road to Alabama from California. Me and Brynnie and Momma had just gotten across the Arkansas border and with the goal of making it to Memphis by dark, stopped for a 15 min rest at the Welcome Center, just as the sky opened up and it went from just overcast skies to an incredibly heavy downpour. We wandered the Welcome Center that was newly built and smelled like eucalyptus wood. Then we walked out the back into a covered porch, sat down in some rocking chairs and watched the rain fall down hard tapping the leaves of every tree, bush and vine of the lush, overgrown forest surrounding us. The sweet aroma of wet nature reached our noses. It smelled like the South. It sounded like the South. I could hear the cicadas' nonstop chirp even over the rain. The nearly oppressive August humidity was not so bad as the clouds had made the heat subside a bit.

It makes me want to cry. I love the South. I love the beginning of the school year. I love what has become my home for the past three years. Man, I don't want to leave it.

But, haha. Here I am in South America. This place is fabulous, too. And I'm always going to have a piece of this city, this country, in my heart.

And in a month, I'll get to spend a couple weeks with my family. Nearly cried today thinking about being able to hug my momma after not seeing her for five months. I miss California, too. So much.

And why is it that even when I'm somewhere incredible my heart longs for home? For both my homes. I'm so happy with my life.






In other news....
I like, pretty much love him

this is how it works

[picture of the casa central of my school as the sun goes down]

In a colectivo this morning I heard "On the Radio" by Regina Spektor. Dude, I never even hear reggie on the radio (ha) in the US... I mean I guess I don't listen to a TON of radio but yeah... anyways I was super excited to hear her sweet little voice and wanted to tell the colectivo driver that omg i love this song! but i mean i don't think he would have cared too much haha.
We had our despedida dinner last night... what da hayyck? how can this semester actually be coming to an end? some people actually leave next week. I am happy I get to chill (um, like....literally) a little bit longer, although I have

been thinking about home an awful lot lately. Anyways the dinner was good! I had salad dressing for the first time in three months. Caesar salad dressing at that. So good. And the chocolate mousse was also exquisite. Part of the presentation made by the ISA staff said that all of us will be leaving here different people. I think it's true. I'm not even really sure in what aspects I am different, but I know I am. I might be bolder now. I might have less fear. I might be more chill about things. Maybe..haha. I think I see now that I don't have to be scared of what's coming ahead, like there's only one way to live my life successfully. I think I see that life is going to come, and there might be scary parts. It might be scary that I'm not sure what I'm going to do forever, where I'll end up, what I'll end up loving. The doubt is scary, but now I see that it doesn't have to be. What an adventure to live life and not know what's going to happen next. That every turn is a surprise. That I have the potential to do what I want. What an adventure to have a whole exciting life ahead of me and know that I'm not powerful enough to mess up any plans that He has made for me.

Some of the last few adventures...

the view from the top of cerro santa lucia in santiago

playing chess in the plaza de armas, santiago

blurry but i like it... on the night bus to La Serena

feeding the birds in la plaza de armas, La Serena.

So in other news.... It continues to be freezing.

Bailando asi....

Yo
So I'm up late writing some essays and jazz....

I like to listen to songs that play a lot here and I hear people listening to (in Spanish obviously) and when I start hearing the lyrics when I hear them around, I feel like... happy for starters, that I hear it. But then I feel like, I get something a bit more. I don't really know exactly what it is I get. But I think about Chilean friends or just the people I see taking the micro or hanging out in Casa Central and I think ha- this is what you hear and understand perfectly.

Weird observation that probably just Brett Louise Bralley understands.

Oh, and I'm going through a phase where I like, really like reggaeton haha. Knew it was bound to happen. I'll put pictures up when my camera's not dead.

writing since i never write...

Am I the only one who writes the date wrong all the time because she honestly can´t remember what month we´re in? And also still can´t get used to the fact that she´s in 2008? I swear, every time I want to say I´m in January or February (I guess that is probably because I´m living in the winter) and I think there have been several times I write 07 and realize, oh... Also I always write the date in "spanish." so there.

anyways, besides the fact that i suck at writing the date and my internal clock that knows when she's living is screwed up, everything is good.

school is kind of getting crazy. the one crazy week i'll probably have all semester so i shouldn't complain, jeje. have two essays, a presentation and an interview to shoot and edit for my journalism class. so fun.

although this might not be interesting to people i feel like my spanish is on the border of becoming like, really good. like i think a lot when i use certain grammar and i still mess up on the most basic things... but like dangit i'm close! haha. i miss home a lot and my family and school in alabama... but like, if i had just a little more time i could picture another semester really doing some good.

I'm off to La Serena y Valle elqui this fin de semana. With Andy and a few others. Should be delightful... I hope we check out the observatory and the penguins (ermmm omg...) haha if they are there. Gotta check my guide book for that.

Chile is still pretty sweet. I love riding the bus and watching people, and listening to their conversations now that I can understand a lot more. People are just cool in general.

más acostumbrada a la once

Hello! Hace un rato.

Well the biggest and best news is that Andrea is coming tomorrow! Or technically today since it's half an hour to midnight. I'm guessing she's somewhere over the ocean right about now. Over Mexico or Costa Rica maybe. She gets here in like seven hours. Unfortunately I can't go meet her nor can i go to her apartment right away because I'll be doing something else.

Ok the something else I'll be doing is "helping" in a "group project" for my journalism class. It's a tv journalism class and we are supposed to be making a video clip that can be about pretty much anything I guess. I mean basically I think we can like make a music video if we want, haha, (seeing as that's like what nearly everyone in the past has done) and we just need to include a journalistic perspective in what we shoot. So that should be cool. I put the words helping and group project in quotes because for the rest of the people in my class this is like, as Marcela put it when I explained to her the situation, "solo uno más." Yep, just one more for them. My film making experience has been limited to my summer class at Strausberg and the occasional attempts to help Brass with random things when she really just ends up doing it all. So there's that aspect of them having to show me, and then there's the other aspect that my Spanish is still.... you know. But igual, I think it will be a good experience and hopefully fun. They understand that I'm just taking this class because I can, because I want to, and it doesn't even count for anything.

(P.S. I want to share my happiness that I almost wrote about a bunch of Spanish words in those sentences. Hey, even though my Spanish still sucks doesn't mean I'm not at least thinking in the language a little bit.)

I don't have many much more updates. I've been taking it pretty easy the last few weeks. I haven't really gone out on the weekends lately, just chilled with my family which I have loved. Some of the random things we've done are taken trips to the supermarket or to the ferria, where we buy all our fruits and vegetables. I run a lot of errands with Marcela, but it's cool because we have really gotten to talk a lot more and get to know each other a lot better. The first month or so I would be traveling on weekends, or be spending a lot of time with my friends. And then I think on top of that I just wasn't understanding as easily so I think it was hard for her to explain things to me. Today while I helped her with lunch I asked her about her job. I know she doesn't like it very much but she really was talking about how lately it's just been getting so hard with the people she works with and everything. Anyways, I know having a job for her is really stressful with three kids that she wants to be home with. So she came back today after going back to work after lunch, and told me that she quit. At first I was like, whoa... but she was like no Brett! This is good, this is what I've wanted for so long and now I can! She told her kids and man they were so happy they were about to cry haha. So I'm happy for them. And plus this means, as she said, that she and I can spend more time together too. Talking, watching movies, etc. So that's good! She also told me how the house is always going to be clean from here on out.... uh oh. Gosh I'm such a slob. I really do try, too.

Anyways I've rambled and rambled on updating things.


I'm reading a book right now (for niños) called "El Niño que Quería Dormir." Marcela lent it to me to read, and seeing that it is for children it is easy. It's about a little brasilian boy who loses his mamá and is homeless. It's pretty sad, but it's a beautiful story.

Oh another thing I've been doing lately is volunteering at an elementary school. I'm working with a program called English Opens Doors. I'm supposed to be a non-Spanish speaker doing activities and exercises with the kids. However, these kids are in their first year of learning english and today we learned the verb "to be." Soooo... I pretty much have to speak Spanish to them. I feel kind of useless but still it's kind of cool because the teacher is having me just bring my own stuff to teach. At first I didn't like this. I mean helloo I'm the volunteer you're the teacher. But now I kind of do like it. This is my first experience teaching a class room really, besides maybe a Sunday school story somewhere in my past. And on top of that, I'm teaching in Spanglish people. Mostly Spanish actually haha. So THAT is cool. Really cool. It's a classroom of all little boys... ten years old about. Anyways, I really like it.

I miss my homes. Peace.

no internet!

So since Saturday night when I came back from Santiago after being there for two days, I have no internet. I am still in the process of diagnosing this problem. I don´t know if it´s the internet in the house that is failing or if it´s my computer that is simply refusing to cooperate, but that is my current situation. I am in the PIIE office on the computers here that will close in about an hour or so. I got to enter from a super secret entrance only for us extranjeros it appears.

So a little bit of an update... this paro is STILL continuing. Not only that, the students have now completely taken over the seven (i think) buildings they have placed all over Valparaíso and Viña. Casa Central is a big deal though because it is from there that all the adminstration operates. I took some cool pictures and I´ll put them up once my computer gets internet.

So we went to Santiago Friday on an excursion that was really really interesting and a bit overwhelming sometimes. We learned more about the dictadorship of Pinochet and about the thousands and thousands of desparecidos (missing persons) during his rule. The most intense part of the day had to have been the Villa Grimaldi, where we learned about the torture these people who were arrested when Pinochet came into power went through, and met a man who was in prison for three years... Really, it was all overwhelming. And I´m sure I´m doing a sucky job of portraying it to anyone who reads but I feel like anything I say to describe what I learned is lacking.

I did spend my Saturday with Mary Elizabeth from Alabama, and that was really fun. We wandered Santiago a bit, ate at the Mercado Central, which is an experience in itself, and shopped for El Día de Mamá.

Buenooo.... I have a lot of work to do tonight. Chau.

Bomba Lacrimogena

So the paro continues, for lets see... what is about the third week, I guess. Oh and today the students took over several of the buildings, which means we can't even enter them. Now that just blows my mind, haha. Also we have a long weekend this weekend... Thursday is a federal holiday and Friday most departments cancel classes, also. Ok out of the four sentences I have written so far I have almost used a Spanish word in place of another word about four times. I guess that's a good sign.

[Above (sorry for the misplaced caption)]One of the many signs announcing the paro that students have posted through the Casa Central. "Te Desafío," it says. "I defy you."

Anyways, as I was walking to class today at about 2, traffic was stopped as students were protesting in the street. I was already late to class so I hurried past. I got out at about 3:30 and hung around outside. At this point there was still action but not as much. I went inside to check my email, then headed back out and inhaled a bunch of tear gas. The funny thing was that it smelled more like the remains of tear gas... And I
definitely wasn't smelling it five minutes before. Maybe it was
sprayed far away and finally made it's way over to the Casa Central, but shoot. My eyes watered and my nose ran and I still have a headache.

More signs all through the Casa Central showing different departments protesting together, etc. >>>

Anyways... this guy in my journalism class told me today that he thinks I'm pretty much fluent. HA! ok... IF that's what he thinks, haha.... I'm good with that. He says he always understands what I say and that he thinks I usually understand what he says. Which is true, for some reason I can understand this guy almost perfectly. No exaggeration. I still don't understand why home is so different. Home is almost hardcore Spanish. I almost always understand the majority of what Marcela tells me, but like her kids are sometimes harder to understand. maybe it's because they speak with more Chileanismos. So I hung out with this guy today after one of my classes and we walked around Cerro Concepción. I just can't get over the beauty of that neighborhood. I wish everyone could see it. The murals, the different colored buildings. The whole neighborhood is like a community art project. Actually, it's safe to say all of Valpo is a community art project. I want so badly to live in an apartment in that cerro and to always be able to walk around, discovering new murals, hidden cafés, daily drinking in the view of the ocean, and wandering through colorful alleyways. I could live there forever if it wasn't so dang far away.

He told me how if a muralist wants to paint in a general area, he'll check with the neighbors. Knocking on door to door asking if the proposed mural would be to their liking. After getting the neighbors' approval... the muralist paints all day for several days, just painting and tomando cerveza. He alsowalked me past steps that he had painted as a kid with his uncle. I don't know. It just seems so cool to be able to say, oh I contributed to the uniqueness of this place.

Well, I am super excited because I'm going to the Isla de Chiloé this weekend. I hear it's just a completely different part of Chile, about a 15-hour bus ride South of Valpo/Viña, and then we'll have to take a ferry over to the island. I'll take several pictures of course. One thing I've heard is that this place is like stepping back in time. And the people, so I've heard, invite you into their homes for lunch, to stay, to tomar once, after just knowing you for a few minutes. "Sin exageración," I've been told.

Oh, I guess I can also share that we went to Pablo Neruda's third house in Chile and his favorite, Isla Negra, on Saturday. It's on the water, absolutely beautiful. Oh and he had some insane collections of insects, sea shells, pipes (of all things, haha.... and he had TONS), sculptures from all over the world, oh and hm... I can't even remember the word, but they are the figures that are in front of ships, usually female figures. Anyways, Pablo had a ton of those. I don't have a ton of pictures... but there are some on my facebook...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2232147&l=d20c9&id=27415785

I miss everyone so much. Now I'm off to reading and falling asleep to the rain. Besos.

que entretenido

verbs that for some reason i still have a problem with mostly in conversation: ugh,

oir:
oigo
oyes
oye
oímos
oyen

(preterito)
oí
oíste
oyó
oímos
oyeron


reirse:
me río
te ríes
se ríe
nos reímos
se reín

me reí
te reíste
se río
nos reímos
se rieron


those are hard verbs for me. and trust me, it's not like those are the only ones. but those are a bit tricky yo.

entonces, exploramos

,

Alright, well I realize that I've not written in awhile, but things have changed here in Viña/Valpo since arriving. Now it's cold. Cold and foggy. I really wouldn't mind the cold if only the fog would lift so I could see the water as I ride to class every day.

Speaking of classes, students are protesting the raise of the student price for the micro (city buses) so most of my classes are on paro. They're stopped. The only class that is officially meeting is my Conversación y Cultura Chilena class, which meets three times a week for an hour and a half. So I have things to do. I also said meeting "officially" because my Spanish Lit class, which had me way stressed in the beginning, as been sort of meeting. Just a couple gringos and the teacher. This has actually been a really big blessing that I didn't realize until today. We've been having one on one sessions with the teacher and she makes sure we understand absolutely everything before she moves on. I can understand her a lot better in these meetings than in the classroom too. There's something about being in a classroom with Chileans. When I'm not making direct eye contact it's harder for me to understand everything. I never realized just how much I rely on direct eye contact when speaking Spanish. Or also, if someone Chilean asks a question in class, I usually miss the question, and in turn don't understand the answer. But after these little meetings we've had, I feel much better about a lot of the material.

The past couple weekends have been spent exploring Valpo more, which I am very happy about. I live kind far-ish from a lot of the cerros of Valpo, which I guess has prevented me from getting up there and exploring. A couple weekends ago we went to La Sebastiana, which is la casa de Pablo Neruda, with the ISA group, and afterwards went over to El Museo Cielo Abierto, which are streets and ally ways filled with murals.

The view from the top floor of Pablo Neruda's house

This past weekend I went over to the ex-carcél. It used to be a prison but has now been transformed into almost a museum of murals and art and culture. We couldn't actually enter the prison itself, as they are renovating it I guess. However the murals were fabulous. I feel like painting one, not like I'm a real experienced muralist or anything.

One of the walls of murals at the ex-carcél

this wall was covered with a black cloth and somebody made these ojos grandes

I do feel really frustrated about one thing, and that's that I feel my ability to speak hasn't really improved to where I thought I'd be. I can definitely understand muuuch much better. So much better, although I still have problems now and then obviously. But I do lack some confidence speaking. I guess the obvious solution to that is to speak more. So, yeah. I'll be doing that.

I miss everybody. So so so much. I'm enjoying myself, but I feel like things would be perfect if everybody could be here with me.

Also... at the risk of making this super-long (although it might be necessary after failing to write anything in forever) I want to share this. I think it's exactly the words how this place makes me feel. It's not the entire poem, but here is a part of "A Don Asterio Alarcón, cronometrista de Valparaíso" or "To Don Asterio Alarcón, Clocksmith of Valparaíso" by Pablo Neruda

Olor a puerto loco
tiene Valparaíso
olor a sombra, a estrella,
a escama de la luna
y a cola de pescado.
El corazón recibe escalofríos
en las desgarradoras escaleras
de los hirsutos cerros:
allí grave miseria y negros ojos
bailan en la neblina
y cuelgan las banderas
del reino en las ventanas:
las sábanas zurcidas
las viejas camisetas,
los largos calzoncillos,
y el sol del mar saluda los emblemas
mientras la ropa blanca balancea
un pobre adiós a la marinería

Calles del mar, del viento,
del día duro envuelto en aire y ola,
callejones que cantan hacia arriba
en espiral como las caracolas:
la tarde comerical en transparente,
el sol visita las mercaderías,
para vender sonríe el almacén
abriendo escaparate y dentadura,
zapatos y termómetros, botellas
que encierran noche verde,
trajes inalcanzables, ropa de oro
funestos calcetines, suaves quesos

Translation:
Smell of a crazy seaport,
Valparaíso has,
smell of shade, of stars,
a suspicion of the moon
and the tails of fish.
The heart takes to shivering
on the tattered stairways
up the shaggy hills.
There, squalor and black eyes
dance in the sea mist
and hang out the flags
of the kingdom in the windows-
the sheets stitched together,
the ancient undershirts,
the long-legged drawers-
and the sea sun salutes the emblems
while the white laundry waves
a threadbare goodbye to the sailors.

Streets of sea and wind,
of the hard day swaddled in air and waves,
alleyways singing upward
in a winding spiral, like shells-
the market afternoon is shining,
the sun touches the merchandise,
shop fronts smile like salesman
opening windows and dentures,
shoes and thermometers, bottles
enclosing a green darkness,
impossible suits, clothes of gold,
gloomy socks, bland cheeses

pensamientos

cada vez que veo un bebe chileno o niños chilenos, estoy celosa. yo sé que sus mentes han absortos o absorberán castellano más completamente y rapidamente que podré en mi vida.

It trips me out when I think about the fact that there are things that I will never be able to fully comprehend.

awkwaaaard

I am very sad to report that I had a bunch of photos and then i let constanza play with my camera and she took a million videos of her and her friend fernanda jesus and of me, her gringa, and then she somehow erased a bunch of pictures i had.

so i have no new photos.

but here is something interesting. no existe una palabra en español para "awkward." there is no word. i guess that would make sense because i don't think chileans have much awkwardness. you kiss everyone you come into contact with practically. that would probably de-awkward any situation. although i mean there has to be a way to describe someone who is somewhat socially awkward... not just situations. anyways, i taught everyone the awkward turtle. it was interesting explaining why the tortuga is nadando in una forma muy incomoda.... but we had an awkward situation and one of our chileans friends did it. it was great.

the weather is cold today. we have had random hot days and a few cold ones. it's making me sad. ¡Necesito el sol!

And last night i got sort of ripped off by the colectivo driver. (colectivos are sort of like taxis that have specific routes) some gringos have said yeah man the colectivo prices go way up after 11. and i had said, well i´ve never had that problem it´s still like 500 pesos mas o menos. which is about a dollar. some people have said they paid 700 pesos. So last night I just had to go like for a three minute ride up a hill, so i said in my lovely gringo accent... Avenida Alemania y Cerro San Juan de Dios. And of course since I am thinkign it's always a flat rate, I just say ok and get in instead of asking how much. I said se paga, handed him 1 mil, and i get back 300 pesos. I didn't say anything because one... my spanish just sucks. and two... i thought maybe it's true, maybe the prices do go up at night. when i got to marlayna and jennifers their host brother told me i was for sure ripped off. oh well. the end.

echo de menos a mi familia.

i climbed this

ok so yes now i can say i've climbed a volcano. so maaaybe i was one of the people at the end but still people, i climbed it. this is volcan villarrica en pucón, chile -- a 12-hour bus ride from viña/valpo. pucón was lovely... i went to the beach, went rafting on a river, saw birds and trees and so many other things i had never seen before. i went canopying over el campo de pucón. oh and also! las ternas! hot springs. that was fun. i ate several moras (blackberries) and this wonderful apricot like fruit that i don't know the name of. but it was fabulous. alsooo in pucón, i went to a fruit juice shop. very lovely. we ordered jugo de frambuesa (raspberries), which i think i´ll make all the time from now on. i also ordered chocolates right before i left for home. they´re gone now.

(¡lo hicimos!)

so the only thing i didn´t like was that i spoke english like the whole weekend. definitely need to improve on that one. i feel like i´m getting better at understanding what people say. i still hear conversations with my host family that don´t even let one word register in my head, and then there others where, although there is a light fog over the conversation, i still get it. some days you eat the bear; some days the bear eats you. don't think that would make much sense en español. oh and i might cook for marlayna and jennifer´s host family this fin de semana. if i don´t disappear for semana santa like everyone else is. que bueno!

sweet. tomorrow is my traditional dances of chile class. what should i take? spanish lit 3 or history of chilean theatre?? i need to decide by miercoles.

also i miss people a lot. couldn't help listening to "my father's gun" and thinking of two very lovely people. i wish everybody could be here.

uhh no entendí

I am unsure what class to take here. A somewhat interesting class about modern Chilean theatre with only extranjeros, possibly making it more facil.... or a Spanish Lit class with Chilean students. It seems kind of silly to study Spanish lit in Latin America, but I don't know... I think I'd improve more HAVING to understand that professor.

Tonight we go to Pucon!

I want to travel for Semana Santa but I don't know where.

Also... I have my Chilean art history class this evening. Sweet.

Sometimes I get tired of not being able to understand ANYTHING when I talk to strangers. Like today.... it took me like half an hour to figure out where the stupid calling cards were in Jumbo. All I understood everytime I asked someone was subir and which ever way they were pointing. Oh welllll. Asi es la vida.

aqui estoy

Well I do apologize for not writing the past week and a half or so. Almost every day has been packed with tours or with lying out at the beach since I know this weather is going quickly.

The first four days of the trip were spent in Santiago. We woke up early every day and went around the city seeing things like La Moneda, Pablo Neruda’s house, art museums, etc.

I think I was just overwhelmed that I actually was in South America after months of waiting, and not believing that it would really come. After four completely packed days of tours, and seeing Santiago, we headed over to Valparaíso to meet our host families.

A forest fire nearby darkened the sky on our way in, doing some crazy things with the sun and covering our clothes with ceniza (ash). It has finally just cleared up a couple of days ago, so now I can finally see the beautiful vistas of the oceans from the hills.

The first couple days living in Viña del Mar and learning my way through Valparaíso and Viña were a bit overwhelming. When I got to my host family´s house last Sunday, they had a large once and aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters came over. The rapid Chilean Spanish knocked the wind out of me. It was shocking to see how little I understood. But my Chilean family, which consists of Marcela, 32, Sergio, 14, Laura, 12, and Constanza, 6, along with Marcela’s pololo, and her mom and brothers, speak Spanish slowly to me. I can understand the majority of what they say. The hard part, I guess now, is actually speaking it.

Despite a little bit of a culture shock the first few days, I really love Chilean culture so far. In Chile the meals run differently… breakfast is light, tea, coffee, bread, and cereal (which I can’t tell if they are giving it to me because I’m estadounidonse or if they usually have it), lunch is huge (everyone comes home for lunch and is usually served at around 2 or 3), and once is served around 9. Once is a light dinner. Usually it consists of pan, palta (avocado), jamón, tea, jugo, etc. With all these changes, I think my appetite has yet to kick in the way it usually is, haha, so the once has been just fine with me. My favorite thing so far has been the palta in everything they serve. I have to try a completo, which looks amazing every time I walk by them. My other favorite thing has got to be the juice that is made every day. Peaches, melon, and what I think is a prickly pear? I can’t recall the name of it at this point in time, but it’s super sweet.

There have been a couple things I´ve had to get used to. I have to be really conscious of how much energy I use. I always need to turn off the lights when I leave a room, not leave things plugged in too long, don’t take long showers, etc. It will be good to have to get used to that. Another thing, they think it’s weird when I walk around the house barefoot. Although my host family hasn’t said much, Marlayna and Jennifer’s host mom told me I’ll catch the flu. So I walk around with flip flops. They don’t really put their napkins on their lap. Marcela told me that if it’s cloth then they do. I was eating dinner once and set it on my lap and they passed me the napkins because they thought I didn’t have one.

Chileans greet each other with a kisses on the cheek. Unless you both are men, then it’s a handshake. People drive here a bit more intense. Everyone honks at everyone all the time.

My first day of class is today. All I have is an advanced writing class for extranjeros at clave 11-12 which means at 17:20 to 18:50 which means 5:20 to 6:50. So fun. If I wasn’t feeling sick and lunch wasn’t in like an hour, I would probably have gone to the beach to enjoy the last few weeks of summer.

I realize that everything I wrote seems so scattered but I shall write more in a more put together manner. Chao.