Side trips

Well I'm back in the US but I'd like to catch up on all the blogs I never did so we can all remember all the fun times years and years from now. First I'm going to tell you all about a couple of trips I did while I was in BA.

The first trip was to Colonia, Uruguay. Buenos Aires is only separated from Uruguay by the river so a short hour ferry ride will get you there. An Argentinian tourist visa is only valid for 90 days so at the beginning of May I had to leave the country and reenter to revalidate my visa. We decided to make a day trip out of it so we woke up early to catch the first ferry over to Uruguay. Colonia is tiny and calm and quiet and a couple of hours is all you need to see the whole town. We actually had to wait a while to eat breakfast once we got there because the restaurants still weren't open. What a contrast to Buenos Aires.

We spent the first part of the day walking around the colonial, historical district sightseeing and snapping photos. There are old bridges and lighthouses and we saw some women doing Uruguayan dances in the street. Also the Uruguayan accent is similar but a lot easier to understand than the Porteño accent. The weather had been questionable and there were clouds in the sky but during the day it just kept getting better and better. After seeing those sights we walked along the coast (right next to the beach, which BA doesn't have) for about an hour to the other side of town. Again not much to see up there but the walk and the weather were nice and it was pleasant to chill out for a while. There was an old bull fighting ring and a pirate museum. We didn't pay to go in but did get some good photos with the 15 foot tall pirates outside. After walking back and grabbing lunch we did some souvenir shopping to use up our Uruguayos and then caught the boat back. Not too exciting of a trip but a really nice and shocking change of pace from the city.

A couple of weeks later we left the city for the day to visit Tigre. Tigre is about an hour trainride from the Capital Federal. It is known for having a ton of rivers and the boat tours are supposed to be spectacular. We took the scenic train up there (after a bit of confusion on my part) and then found a bout tour to take. The tour was about an hour and a half through some of the main rivers. The leaves were just changing colors and the sun was out. There are a lot of cute properties and hotels in Tigre and it would be a really nice place to go to get out of the city for a couple of days. There is also a big market with any sort of tourist souvenir that you could want but we didn't have the energy for souvenir shopping so we skipped the market. We ate waffles on sticks filled with either savory or sweet fillings and caught the train back that afternoon.

In July I finally got to realize my trip to Iguazu Falls in the north of Argentina. The falls are on the Brazil/Argentina boarder and are in the top three biggest waterfalls in the world. People say that Niagra pales in comparison and some say they are more impressive than Machu Picchu. The busride up there was 18 hours and unfortunately I was only able to go for the weekend. This meant that I caught the bus up one night, got there the next day and spent half a day at the park, spent the first half of the third day at the park and then caught the bus back that afternoon. Short and sweet, but incredible.

There are many different parts to the park including the Devils Throat which has more water running over it each second than I have ever seen in my life. There are trails along the upper and lower parts of the waterfalls and you can take a boat tour. The boat tour I did was amazing. First they take you into the canyons to get some photos of the falls from below and then they tell you to put your cameras away in your waterproof bag and they drive you under the waterfalls (not all the way under but enough that you are completely drenched when you are done). Right after this I had to catch the bus back home, so I was fairly soggy on the bus, but the boatride was incredible and I had an amazing time. Definitely something you can't miss if you are in South America. It is also up in the jungle so the temperature was about 80F the whole time and although it was very misty the second morning it cleared right up and the weather was gorgeous. Lots of rainbows and lots of cute wild creatures running around in the jungle. I didn't even see any spiders to spoil my fun.

So thats the brief summary of those trips. Nice, short excursions out of the city and time to see other parts of the country. Next up, maybe some more about activities in the city, Spanish and Medicine Program, and last but definitely not least...'backpacking' on the way home!

The Porteño Life

So the terrible, awful, horrible med-school app opened two weeks ago and needs to be submitted soon, so I have been working on that like crazy. Therefore, everything else has taken a back seat. But I never told you all the fun things that there are to do and see in BA so I think I'll take a minute to do that. There is lots so I may have to divide it into two posts.

If you look at the pictures along the side of the blog you can see a lot of these things told through pictures too. So lets start with the neighborhoods. The two nice neighborhoods that are close to the school, and that we spend a lot of time in are called Recoleta and Palermo. Palermo has a lot of shopping and trendy restaurants and bars. One of the places that we go a lot is a little square called Plaza Serrano. There are tons of restaurants and bars and clubs there and especially in the summer you can sit outside and have a very nice night. San Telmo is a neighborhood thats a little cheaper and a little more bohemian. Every Sunday they have a huge market along one street that covers maybe 10 blocks. You can buy everything from leather wallets, to tango CDs, to mate cups, to sunglasses. Its cheap and crowded and a lovely way to spend a Sunday. The other well-known neighborhood is La Boca, known for its colorful houses and of course its football (soccer) team. Its not safe at night, and can get a little crazy when theres a game but we went over for a day to take some photos and walk through the market.

The school offers a lot of activities during the evenings so one evening we took a city tour. We walked to the heart of downtown, Plaza de Mayo where Casa Rosada is located. Casa Rosada is where the President works during the days and they light it up pink at night. We learned the history of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. We then walked over to Puerto Madero, the super upscale, very safe, very expensive downtown part of the city.

There are also a lot of sights to see in the city. There is a spectacular, old graveyard near the school and a big metal flower in the middle of a park. There is the largest Japanese garden outside of Japan, and the Botanical Gardens. There are tango shows in the streets. I've also found (thanks to my bestie Natalie) a huge theater that has been converted into a bookstore. Its an awesome place to go and do work, take pictures, and hang out.

The two most popular football teams here are Boca and River Plate. One weekend a couple friends and I went to a River game at the River stadium, against some team that wasn't as popular. The crowd was crazy and they had riot police and dogs. However, neither team scored so we didn't get to see just how crazy the fans can get. But it was definitely something that you have to experience in South America. The school also organized an outing to see a tango show; something else that Argentina is known for. It was spectacular with lights and sets and a live band. I enjoyed it but find it frustrating to watch a dance form that I am so unfamiliar with.

We've also found lots of fun things to do. We had a potluck and wine tasting party at the lovely apartment of my friend Julia. We went to a Flash Mob, city wide Pillow Fight and my friend Jasper set us up to go to a huge trans show. Jasper works for a Dutch company that represents many of the biggest DJs in Europe and in the world. One of their DJs, Armin Van Buuren, who is supposedly the biggest DJ in the world right now was doing a five continent tour and one of the stops was in BA. Jasper got us free VIP tickets and we spent all night partying with about 5,000 other people to some serious trans. It was a great time.

Lastly, I had a very small world story and a friend from college was down here for a couple of days. He works on cruise ships and just happens to work with a girl who went to college with my bestie Natalie. So I met up with them a couple of times and they brought me on the cruise ship to see what cruise life is like. It was cool and I enjoyed the afternoon sitting by the pool drinking fruity drinks and listening to music, but think I would get bored pretty quickly on a cruise.

Other than that we've eaten at a lot of different restaurants, gone to a lot of bars, and danced at a lot of clubs. For the most part I'm not a huge fan of the clubs here. They are huge and crowded and VERY smoky. The food is kind of boring here if you don't eat meat. Argentina is known for its parilla or grilled meat but of course thats not something that I've had the pleasure to take part in. So I've just eaten a bunch of empanadas and a lot of dulce de leche.

Okay I know this was a huge post, and I've just kind of skimmed over everything very fast. I'm sure I'll come back to more of it later. I think next time I'll tell you about all the near death experiences that I've had here. They seem to be piling up :p Much love and thank you everyone for the birthday love this weekend.

Weekend in Wine Country

So I'm teetering back and forth between weather I should use this blog to catch up on my free time and the fun things I have done in Buenos Aires or write about my weekend in Mendoza while its still fresh in my mind. I guess I'm choosing Mendoza. Since I'm already behind on fun things in BA another week or so cant hurt. So, here it goes.

Last week I started classes at ECELA again. The weekend, Easter weekend is a long one in Argentina. We had classes off on Thursday and Friday so some friends and I decided to go to Mendoza. Mendoza is the area, right at the base of the Andes on the Argentinian side, where most of the wine from Argentina is produced. Its about a 12 hour drive from Buenos Aires and about an eight hour trek from Santiago. One friend, Daniele, who is Italian, and who I met in school, rented a car and the two of us and one of his friends, Jonathan, from Colombia drove up there on Thursday night. Both Daniele and Jonathan speak English, but prefer Spanish so for the entire trip up and back we only spoke Spanish. Good practice, but exhausting for me. After stopping for a sleep in the middle of nowhere, Argentina, we arrived in Mendoza mid-day on Fri. One of my friends from school in BA, Kristian, who is now studying in Chile, took the bus from Stgo and met us there.

The first afternoon we just spent wandering around the city. There is a huge beautiful park, and the city itself is very cute and quiet. It was such a nice contrast to the noise and pollution of Buenos Aires. I needed some time out of the big city in a bad way. The hostel we stayed in the first night was a little bit out of the city (everything was booked up because of the holiday weekend) so we took a cab into the city for dinner that evening. After that we headed out to some bars that we had had recommended to us. We spent the entire evening barhopping and really hit up every big spot in town in one night. We only had a few slight mishaps upon arriving home and having to tiptoe a very narrow path by the pool to get to our room :p

The next morning we got up and decided to visit some vineyards. The first one we went to was a small vineyard, owned by a French couple. We took a tour and tasted some wines and got some nice photos. We then went to a huge vineyard, the Familia Zucchardi vineyard, and took another tour and tasted some more wine. The comparison in the size and the processes of the two vineyards was amazing. And so was the wine! We switched hostels that evening and after preparing some dinner at the hostel we went met up with some other friends from Buenos Aires and went out again that night. Again the night ended with only a few mishaps involving dark hostel rooms and glass bottles left in precarious places.

After far too few hours of sleep we got up early the next morning to enjoy our final day. Jonathan, being an avid photographer, was keen to take a trip up to the mountains to see some sights and take some pictures. We decided to drive a huge loop up into and through the Andes. The roads were steep and winding and gravel for a good portion of the drive but the sights were fantastic. We saw guanacos, and eagles, and lizzards, the leaves were changing to gold and the distant mountains were capped with snow. It definitely satiated the mountain girl in me. And luck was with me; my camera battery lasted until about 5:00 Sunday night. That evening we went back to the city for a couple of hours, dropped Kristian at the train station and started the long journey back home. We stopped again overnight and got home Monday evening.

It was a lovely weekend and taking a break from the hustle and bustle after three months was more satisfying than I can explain. However, I was still excited to return home at the end of the trip and to be back in my city. Tune in next time for some of the fun activities that Buenos Aires has to offer.

Real Life

Hola! My new computer has finally arrived and so I can finally put Leah's mind at ease with another post about how I am not homeless in another country.

So I finished up my classes about four weeks ago now and I have been kinda puttering around trying to establish a life here since. The whole apartment fiasco turned out alright. My roommate from my old apartment left town the weekend that I needed to move out so I moved into his room for about five days which bought me more time to look for my own apartment. I then stayed with another friend who had an extra room for a couple of days and finally found an apartment of my own on Craigslist. I'm living with a 30 year old Argentinian girl in an itty bitty apartment, but its fully furnished and fairly comfortable. Its also very centrally located so its easy to get anywhere.

Other than that I've just been enjoying the city, trying to find a job, and keeping myself busy. And I finally got offered a job yesterday! I met an American girl in Santiago who worked with ECELA (my school) as an international representative. She lived in Santiago but worked with universities in the US to promote ECELA. From her I got the name of the (American) guy who runs ECELA and emailed him my CV and cover letter kind of on a whim. Well he was very helpful and they actually kind of created a position for me with ECELA. They are bringing down a group of premed students for a one month program this summer. I will be working with an Argentinian girl to set up that program and to work with the students and pre-med advisors on the trip. I'll also be talking to other students and advisors who contact ECELA with questions to promote our school. I'm going to take four more weeks of classes and work part time for a while and also do some volunteering at the clinics to kind of test them out before the group of students gets down here. One of the nicest things about the job is that I can do it from anywhere. They want me to stay in BA at least until July when the group comes down but after that I could move to Chile or anywhere else, and they actually want me to keep working from the US once I got back. It will also be partly in English and partly in Spanish so I'll get to practice some more Spanish. So I start the new job next week and I'll start classes again the week after. I'm really looking forward to it.

So now I have a house, and a job, and some friends and life is good. Unfortunately most of the friends I'm making are from the school so they're only here for short periods of time, which means lots of goodbyes. Fortunately some are staying for a pretty long time so thats nice. I'm also still trying to get used to the Argentinian ways of doing things. Buenos Aires is really fun and there is always something to do or see, but trying to live life here, and be productive and efficient is enough to make any American go crazy. Everything, from mailing a letter to paying my rent to trying to get my computer, has been a nightmare. I will definitely appreciate many things about the US when I get back.

I'm also hoping to plan a short trip or two within the next couple of weeks. My friend Julia and I want to go to Iguazu Falls, a huge series of waterfalls at the boarder between Argentina and Brazil. They're supposed to be some of the most spectacular sights in South America. I also want to go to Mendoza (wine country) before it gets too cold. I think it'll be nice to get out of the city for a while. Well I guess thats all for now. Kinda a boring post. Next time I'll tell you about all the fun things I've been able to do here. And also about how I find myself in a near death situation on almost a weekly basis :p Keep checking in!

To Argentina!

Okay I'm kind of embarassed about how long its been and how far behind I am on my posts. My computer decided to die though so I haven't really had a way to post anything. I'm borrowing a friend's computer right now so I can post the blog but you're going to have to wait for pictures. Also the keyboard is European so please pardon any typos.

So I left off with the end of my time in Chile. After five weeks in Santiago I boarded a bus that would take me over the Andes, through Mendoza Argentina, and 24 hours later to Buenos Aires. Buses are the most common form of transportation in South America, and they're a lot cheaper than flying. I paid and extra $10 to upgrade to 'Cama' which is like first class and fairly comfortable. I like driving and traveling and thought the sights over the Andes would be awesome so this seemed like the best choice. It was. I would absolutely recommend it if you ever have the option. Breathtaking views (I promise I'll include some photos later) and fairly easy and comfortable. Getting across the boarder was kind of a hassel and took about two hours - they make everyone get off the bus, get all the luggage off, and stand in line for visas - but it does save Americans from having to pay the $140 for a tourist visa. Definitely worth it.

I arrived in Bs As at about 8:30 in the morning. One of my dad's grad students is from Argentina, and her brother and his family live just outside of Buenos Aires. He was nice enough to meet me at the bus terminal and take me to my apartment. The lady who owned the apartment was not expecting me until much later so I spent the day and Sebastian's apartment with his family. This was just the first taste of how helpful and kind Argentinians are. So a big thank you to them and to Soledad for all of their help.

Monday I started school. The way ECELA works is that you are supposed to be able to transition seamlessly from one class at one school to the next class at another school. Of course nothing is seamless here and they had me in the wrong level when I showed up, but after a little bit of rearranging I got off to my first day of Intermediate classes in the B1 green level.

I had kind of a rough start in Buenos Aires. The other students in the class were at a lower level than my classmates in Santiago and the class was very slow. I also wasn't getting as close to the people I was meeting at school, and wasn't really happy in my living situation. I was living in the apartment of a woman (maybe about 60 years old) and not with other students like I was in Santiago. The first week there was a couple from the school living at the apartment but they left and then it was just me and Amalia, and it was kinda dreary. I also still didnt have a telephone so it was hard to make plans with people and I ended up staying in my apartment a lot. Also the internet was terrible so it was impossible to post pictures and talking on skype was awful.

I was also supposed to be doing medical shadowing here for the four weeks I was at the school. So my first week I started asking the school for information about it, and they kept telling me that they didn't have information but would let me know when they did. So I waited...and waited...and waited...and after about two weeks I finally learned that the doctors and hospital that they have worked with in the past had taken off for the summer and didn't want to have anything to do with the school until university resumed in the fall. So I had four weeks of medical shadowing I had paid for and had to figure out what to do with the money. But nothing that I tried to do (taking another week of classes, taking private lessons, taking salsa classes) worked out. So after much back and forth and trials and failures I ended up just getting a refund of the money and not doing anything. This seems to be kind of a recurring theme down here.

So all in all I just did the four weeks of classes at ECELA in Buenos Aires and finished up the B1 level. At this point I would only have four more weeks until I finished all of the Intermediate classes and moved on to advanced. This means if I were to take four more weeks of classes I would have learned all the grammar and after that its just talking and reading a writing and learing vocabulary and reviewing. So at some point I may go back to school to finish up the B level.

My last week in school however I was able to switch apartments and to live with other students in a very cute apartment. Once I switched apartments and spent some more time at the school I began meeting more people and was infinitely happier. However, because of silly mix-ups I found out Tuesday of my last week that I had to be out of my apartment by Saturday that same week and wouldn't have anywhere to stay. So I frantically started searching for apartments until on Thursday of that week, my computer completely died. So I now had no way to search for an apartment and no where to stay come Saturday. At this point I was kind of starting to stress out but also sure that something would work itself out. And it did. But this has become a long post so I'll save the outcome and my time since getting out of school for another post. I also promise to post more about sightseeing around the city and the extracurricular activities in another post. So hang tight and check back soon for more Argentinan adventures! Se extraño!

Beaches and Plastic Surgery

So one place that everyone recommends and everyone in Santiago visits is Valparaiso. The city is about a two hour bus ride from Stgo and is known for its colorful houses, Bohemian nightlife, and the beaches at Viña del Mar. ECELA organizes trips out there every couple of weeks but we figured it'd be cheaper to go on our own. So six friend and I bought bus tickets to Valparaiso (for like $13) booked a hostel and headed out there for the weekend.

We left early on Sat morning and arrived in Valparaiso about 10:30. We checked into our hostel, El Rincón Marino, which was really nice for the $17 a night that we paid (which also included breakfast). We then went to find food and a beach. However, it was fairly cold and cloudy and the beach idea got less and less appealing. So instead, we decided to walk around the city and go to the lookout point on the other side of town. We walked for a couple of hours, seeing the sights, drinking coffee, and finally arrived at the lookout point. Valpo has a lot of big hills, and although there is a gondola up the hill we decided to climb it. At the top are a bunch of touristy kiosks and tourists, but it was nice. The view over the harbor and the city were really nice and the sun started to come out.

Since the sun started to make an appearance we decided to keep walking to the beach and we spent the late afternoon there. The water at the Chilean beaches, however, is cold as (insert expletive here) so there was not a lot of swimming involved. We then walked home and stopped at a restaurant for dinner. At dinner I ate maybe the best pizza of my life. It had choclo (corn), champiñónes (mushrooms), palmito (heart of palm) and maybe some other things I've forgotten. Needless to say I was surprised since the food in Chile is generally so disappointing. That night we went out to a salsa bar with a live band, had a few drinks, danced a bit, and turned in earlyish so we could get up for the beach in the morning.

The next morning we checked out and took a bus (for like $.60) to Viña del Mar which is about 15-20 minutes away. We didn't see much of Viña but I was happy to lay on the beach all day. The weather was perfect, I avoided getting sunburned too badly, and we had a lovely time. We caught the bus back to Stgo around 6 that evening.

The following week I started medical shadowing at a private clinic in a very nice part of town. The clinic was about a 40 minute bus ride from my house, and I spent about 4 hours a day there, 3 times a week for the last two weeks I was in Stgo. Because the clinic was private and in a rich part of town, the majority of the surgeries they did were plastic surgeries. I had never seen plastic surgeries before, but believe me, I've seen enough to last me a lifetime. Plastic surgery is disgusting (though still interesting) and I NEVER want to be a plastic surgeon. You all are welcome to hold me to that and take away my license if I ever decide to go into plastics.

The first day I saw a liposuction that they said was the biggest one they've ever done at that clinic. I actually got to watch that one because the first surgery I went into (also a liposuction) the surgeon kicked me out of the OR. He yelled a lot at the nurse who was telling me what to do, but I remained blissfully ignorant because I couldn't understand what he was saying :p From what I gathered, no one had told him that I would be there (just another example of how organized SA is) and he was mad. So I watched this HUGE liposuction where they actually ended up taking off about 15 lbs of fat and skin, and they informed me that this was only the first of many surgeries for this woman. Yikes!

After that I saw breast implants, a breast reduction, a face lift, a couple more liposuctions, and a laparoscopic hysterectomy (which was my favorite). I'll spare you all the details because I know not everyone gets as excited as I do about cutting people up, but it was a very cool experience. If you ever want to hear some of the horror stories you know I'd be more than happy to tell you. Some of the doctors were very nice, and were willing to answer questions and to make sure I understood what was going on. They all had instructions not to talk to me in English even though most of them spoke some. There was also one anesthesiologist who kind of took me under her wing and explained a lot and let me see a lot of neat things.

The shadowing made for very long days. I would get up and leave my house by 7:45 to get to the clinic and get changed by 9. Then I would shadow for four hours, take the bus back home and grab lunch between 1 and 2 and then have classes from 2-6. After that I'd go to the gym, eat dinner, shower, and then some nights go out. They were long days but good.

This post is going to be kind of long so bear with me. I was originally supposed to be in Stgo for four weeks but the way that classes worked out it was a lot easier if I extended my time by a week. So I paid for another week of classes and housing (which was a serious project and mess because nothing down here is organized) and stayed an extra week. That last week I moved in with a host family because they needed my room at Casa Loca (the school's house). The family was very nice. It was just a husband and wife. Their daughter lived with them too but was traveling around Peru at the moment so she was not there. I also lived with a Swiss girl who was a student at ECELA as well. The mom didn't speak any English but talked slow enough that she was easy to understand and the dad spoke some English. The food was typical, boring Chilean food, but we did eat a lot of ice cream so I was happy.

During my last week I saw some more sights of Stgo. I climbed up San Cristobal and Santa Lucia, which are two big hills in the city. San Cristobal has a large statue of the Virgin Mary on top and is supposed to be a place of fertility (don't worry I scrubbed down after). I also bought my bus ticket to Buenos Aires and spent some time at the pool. On Friday I passed my test with flying colors and advanced to level B1 which is the first intermediate level. Friday night we went out to celebrate my last night, and Saturday morning I caught the bus to Bs As. I loved Stgo and the people and everything, and miss it a lot. I may or may not have to go back there when I'm done in Argentina. Thanks for bearing with my rambling! Besitos!

Getting to Know Chile

Hello faithful friends and followers. Please forgive the long delay between posts. Like I said before, I didn't have a cable with witch to upload photos and therefore didn't want to blog until I got it. I realize this is ridiculous, but oh well. Now I have a cable and photos and you're getting your next blog.

So the morning after I last wrote I went with the school to La Isla Negra. It was about 1 hour 45 min by van. First we stopped at one of Pablo Neruda's three houses (the others are in Santiago and Valparaiso). He had all three houses built for himself and they were all created to feel very nautical. Pablo Neruda was a serious collector of things. Anything. You name it, he probably collected it. From guitars to bugs, statues to shells, and even a real narwhal tusk! It was wild and beautiful and a really cool experience. They don't let you take pictures inside, however, before I understood this in my broken Spanish I managed to snap one. I think my favorite part was his room where the bed sat facing two walls of windows that looked out of a panoramic view of the shore and ocean. Increíble!

Later we had lunch and went to the beach but it was kind of cold and cloudy, but very crowded, so this was not the highlight of the trip. The next day we walked around the city center, did some shopping, and got to know Santiago better.

Unfortunately, because its been so long I'm having trouble remembering specifics of the next couple of weeks. I'll just give you the overview of what a week at ECELA (my school) is like. Mondays and Tuesdays generally involve food and culture: cooking classes, BBQs, wine tasting, or tours of some part of the city. Wednesdays are a big night to go out in Santiago. Every other Wed they have salsa classes at the same bar I wrote about before and then head to a club. On the other weeks they have 'city tours' which really means 'a chance to go to bars and clubs and drink'. Thursdays tend to be academic: conversation classes, Chilean games, etc. And each Friday they have a going away lunch for everyone to say goodbye to the students who are leaving.

Of course Friday and Saturday nights are big for going out as well. Every Thurs, Fri, and Sat night a citywide group called Pub Crawl Santiago holds a pub crawl mainly for extranjeros (foreigners). Most of the bars and clubs that we go to are in a part of the city called Bellavista. Its a posh, bohemian, expensive neighborhood closer to the city center. They also have a crepe stand that sells probably the best crepes in all of Chile. Delicious!

And while I'm on the subject of food, I'll tell you a little bit about typical Chilean food and drink. The Chileans eat a lot of empanadas and a lot of meat. They also eat a lot of potatoes, rice, corn and other carbs. Don't get me wrong, I love my carbohydrates, but damn I'm sick and tired of Chilean food. Their fruits and vegetables are very good, very sweet and fresh. And the food isn't bad, its just boring as hell. They do eat a lot of pastries which are good, but a girl can only survive so long on pastries :) I hear they've got good fish too but I wouldn't know. The main drink here is pisco sour. Pisco is an alcohol that they make and sell very cheap down here. Mix that with some sour mix, coat the rim of the glass with powdered sugar and you've got yourself a delicious pisco sour. (Chile and Peru actually have a rivalry as to which one Pisco Sour is native to and as far as I can tell I think it actually originated in Peru) The beer is mediocre. The wine though, is definitely worth it. They've got all the normal kinds of wine from many vineyards all over the country. They also produce a kind of wine called Carmenére which is only produced in Chile. Its similar to a Merlot, but they insist it is not a Merlot.

So that kind of sums up the next couple of weeks. I'm going to save Valparaiso, Viña del Mar, and my medical shadowing for another post cause its late and this post is long. So please check back soon. I promise it'll be up sooner than this one was. Much love to all, please feel free to write to me and let me know how you are doing! Besos!

Empezamos

Hello friends!! Its Friday and I've just finished my first week of school and I'm not going out tonight (more on this later) so I think its time to start the ol' South America Blog. First off...I hope everyone is doing well and survived the holidays and is staying warm. Miss you all mucho and if you haven't already sent me your skype name please do so! Anyway, enough about you, lets talk about me :p

I left Raleigh last Sat, Jan 1 and flew to Miami and then on to Santiago. I arrived in Santiago on Sun. The house where I am living is fondly called La Casa Loca and is owned by the school. Its got about 10 rooms some of which have one bed and some of which have two. My room is on the third floor in a big attic looking space. It was a pain in the patootie to drag my huge suitcases up the last narrow flight of rickety, wooden stairs. I think the room is one of the bigger ones and one of the only ones with a big bed so I can't complain too much. However, it gets to be about ten thousand degrees during the day so I can't spend time up there in the afternoon. But I have my own bathroom (with no hot water) and I'm very comfortable. I've taken some fotos but I seem to have left my USB cable at home so I can't upload them until I buy a new one. You'll have to use your imaginations for now.

For the rest of Sunday I mainly just puttered around...slept a bit, shopped for some food, and met some peeps. On Monday I had to be at the school (which is about three or four blocks up the road) at 8 to take a placement test. I tested into the level I was expecting and picked up exactly where I stop remembering things from school. The first day was great, my teacher was super sweet and I was seriously loving Chile. I walked around with a new friend that afternoon and met her and another friend that night for drinks.

After that things started to go downhill. School continued to be great, though difficult but I started coming down with what I think was the flu so Tuesday thru Thursday are all kinda a feverish haze. I got talked into going to salsa lessons on Wed night and I'm pretty sure I would've had a lot of fun if I had been able to breathe. I actually had a pretty high fever on Thurs so I skipped school (those of you who know my study habits know I don't take school lightly so that should be some indication of how shitty I felt.) So the majority of this week has been spent taking it easy and hoping that I wasn't going to die my first week in a foreign country. I did manage to find the Farmacia and get some drugs which helped quite a bit and today I'm feeling heaps better! Thank goodness.

On Fridays (every other friday i think) we take a test to determine if we're ready to move to the next level. Each level is two weeks but I think I came in in the middle of a session so I had one week at the level I was at, and will move on to the new one next week. So yeah, despite being sick as a dog all week, I passed my test so yay! Many of the students from the school are going on a pub crawl tonight, but its one where you pay up front and then get free/cheap drinks all night and since I'm still not feeling great and wont be drinking it seemed silly to pay that much. And tomorrow we are going to La Isla Negra to see the museum of Pablo Neruda and the beaches, etc and thats at 9 am so I figured I'd make good life choices and get some sleep tonight.

So I think thats a good recap of my first week. Hopefully things will get more exciting once I'm feeling better. There are so many little stories and fun things that I would love to tell, but then this post would be about twenty pages long so I'll refrain. Suffice it to say, I'm really loving it here. Everyone is very friendly and welcoming and the school is great. Please please please keep in touch with me via skype or facebook or email or I can even text (its a new number so let me know if you want me to text you). And stay tuned for much more excitement to come! Besos!