I have read an entire book in Spanish!!!

Last night/this morning (1:45 am) I finished reading "Luna Nueva," the second book in the "Twilight" series, in Spanish! All 578-ish pages of it!!! I am quite proud of myself. And the best part is that I understood most of it. I mean, I lost a lot of details, but I got the main gist of it. =) I probably stayed up too late reading it and would probably understand more if I reread it, but it was still really good! Now I just have to go buy the third one so I can start on it!

Other than that, the other excitement of my week was going to lunch with Adrian Subercaseaux's family here in Santiago. He's a friend of the family of ours who lives in San Fransisco, but has family in Santiago. They are SO amazing and wonderful! I finally managed to call his sister, Antonia (the phone number system here is quiet complex - add a zero if you are calling a home phone, drop it if you are calling a cell - or something like that, probably got it backwards). Antonia said the live in Providencia (same neighborhood as me) and invited me to lunch at their house!

They were all so welcoming!  I really enjoyed being in a big family environment again.  Her two adorable kids met me at the gate when I arrived: Antonio (4 yrs old), and María (9). Her brother Nico, and husband were also there along with the hyperactive puppy, Blanco - or Planquito as the call her (little Blanco). I was quite surprised by how good María's English was, but it makes sense since the rest of her family speaks English, too. Even little Antonio knows all his colors in English. Unfortunately, Antonia's mother was at a relative's house, and her two eldest boys were rooting for their school at a Track and Field Competition (?) so I did not get to meet them.  Nico encouraged me to call him sometime and tell him when I would like to go to his beach house in Coquimbo (about an hour north of Santiago). So nice of him.  Maybe another weekend the kids would be willing to accompany me to the Zoo. I've been wanting to go, but it would be much more fun with kids. =P

After lunch we went to the park and then to an icecream shop. It was amazing - they had Lavender, Apple, Pear, Lemon, Pisco Sour, and Lemon with Ginger ice cream! The lemon with ginger was the biggest surprise. It was lemon ice cream with tiny bits of ginger in it!  Crazy ice cream flavors.  

As for my Spanish test on Friday... at least I did it. I don't think I did too horribly, but at least on one section, I know I didn't get anything right. But that's partially because our professor told us that we wouldn't be asked to provide definitions of the vocab, and that they just might be in some of the questions she asked us that we were supposed to reply to. So I was more concerned about getting the grammer right than memorizing vocab when I studied.

Unfortunately, she told us wrongly because all of section III was using 8 of the 12 vocab to write a paragraph and use the words to show that we understood the meanings. Jolly. So to avoid writing nothing, and because I didn't recognize ANY of the words, I decided to get out my creativity and used whichever words reminded me of other words. For example, one word reminded me of "premonition," so I used it like I would have used premonition. As it turns out, that word that I used actually means "first born." So instead of "it was a premonition," my paper says "it was a first born." At least I can think that it will give my professor some amusement in the midst of the dreariness of grading. Oh, well. Such is life. No one else did very well in that section, either.

Another unexpected event: I got home Friday afternoon to find that I couldn’t get into my room because two workers were hacking at the ceiling in the corner of my bathroom with a sledghammer. There was plaster all over everything! They were trying to find/fix the leak in my ceiling that apparently has been there for six months. I noticed it when small drops of water started sliding down my wall from the ceiling about a month ago. My host mom is NOT happy that it has taken them this long and that they have been so slow in fixing it – they won’t be back until Tuesday to repair the hole they made! So my bathroom now looks a little like cave (they did come back yesterday morning to put boards over it so it looks slightly nicer). But the leak is still there, so my garbage has been converted to a water bucket.

Anywho, this week we have friday off (Labor Day) so that's good! I think I'm going to go to see Zac Efron in "17 Again," hopefully at a new theatre that I've never been to before (hopefully I won't get lost), and Tuesday is always reserved for Salsa dance class - YAY!!!

Speaking of Salsa, last Tuesday was basically the best night of my life. I got to dance with one of the professional, or at least very talented, dancers! He was SO good. I was on cloud nine – and a half! I was quite proud that I was able to keep up with him. I only messed up a few times. He was impressed, too. (^_^) Unfortunately, he had a competition coming up I didn’t get to dance with thim the rest of the night as he was dancing with his partner, but it was still AMAZING to get the chance to dance with him! I enjoyed EVERY SECOND.

Afterwards I was sitting watching Silvia dance when my friend Antonio showed up. He was my dance partner the first time I came to salsa class. He spent the rest of the evening chatting and dancing with me and Silvia. I didn’t know it, but apparently there are Merengue classes after the Salsa ones. We just never stayed late enough to enjoy them. So Antonio was my partner for Merengue. He’s not a bad salsa dancer, but is definitely better at Merengue. It was really fun! He’s a really nice guy and is studying Law (? Derecho) at University of Chile (I think). He’s in his third year. Hopefully he’ll be at salsa this week.

My last statement of the week: I definitely am falling in love with Santiago (especially Providencia). I wish I could stay here longer!

Hope you all have a great week!
 

A weekend to end a long week of studying

A Dying Glacier

I seem to have forgotten to post the pictures that I took that make it appear that Serrano Glacier is bleeding.  So they are: a slowly shrinking glacier.  

El Día de Pascua: Amazing Grace, Garfunkle, and Little Chocolate Eggs

Happy Late Easter, Everyone!  I know it's a week late, but I had some homework to do after my trip to Torres.  =)  

As Chile is a generally Catholic country, I was expecting that Easter would be a big deal.  And it was in certain areas and families (several small cities in the north, south, and on the coast had giant reenactment parades, and many of my friends' host families had big Easter lunches with all the family).  But in my family, Easter was a fairly low-key affair.  I had tried to figure out if we had any plans for Easter, but was still quite unsure that we would be doing anything for the holiday.  Sunday morning started normally until my host mother informed me that she would be going to Mass later.  I wanted to go with her, but didn't know if she would want me to go with her and felt shy about asking her.  But eventually, after I asked if Victor and Fransisco (my host brother and nephew) would be going, too (they weren't), she asked if I would like to come along.  

The church was much smaller than I imagined it would be.  It was called Parroquia ("pastoral church) Santa Cruz (so Santa Cruz Pastoral Church, or something like that).  It reminded me more of some of the churches I've been to at home:  it was small for a Catholic church - just a mid-sized open room on the corner of a building.  The two corner walls were glass window and the choir and musicians sat in the balcony above the entrance.  Of course, a big cross with Jesus on it occupied the wall at the head of the church, and small scenes depicting his crucification were spaced along the white walls.  People were already sitting in the chairs that filled the room and the patios outside (they had opened the glass doors so that those outside could join in).  

The service was quite similar to a Presbyterian service except that there was a "Padre" and his attendant (sorry, I'm really not very familiar with the specifics of Catholicism) in long white robes who sat on the diaz.  They biggest surprise was the songs that we sang.  The first was to the tune of "Amazing Grace!"  It was in Spanish and about Jesus and his love (or something like that, I can't quite remember).  A while later we sang a song to the tune of Simon and Garfunkle's "Song of Silence," and then later heard the choir sing one that I'm pretty sure is a Jewish song (I think they may have even sung a line or two in hebrew).  It was really funny to recognize these songs and sing them in Spanish! 

Anyway, the service was nice and of course there was communion (my host mother didn't take part for some reason) and then we slipped out towards the end when they started giving the children chocolate eggs.  We walked the 20 minutes or so home and had lunch (nothing particularly special or different from our normal weekend lunches).  The only difference was that Fransisco was quite excited about searching for his Easter eggs and kept asking when he would get to look for them.  After tea, was the answer (so around 5/6 pm).  Naptime came next, as usual for the weekends, and I did my homework in my room.  I usually work in the living room, but I wasn't sure about the extent of this "egg hunt" though and didn't want to get in the way of anything.  

After a while, around 6 or so, Silvia called me to come because it was time to look for the eggs.  I thought she meant that it was time to watch Fransisco look for them, but then she told me that I was "getting warmer" to finding my basket of eggs, and that Victor was "getting warmer" as well!  Fransisco, of course found mine for me (in the closet) before finding his own under his bed.  Victor found his hiding on his chair under his desk.  We each received a shallow basket with yellow and green paper stuffing filled with little chocolate eggs, candies that LOOKED but did not TASTE like slightly elongated jellybeans (kinda a disappointment), and a little chocolate bunny with a basket on its back.  The chocolate bunny tasted WAY better than any chocolate bunny I've had in the US.  It wasn't that cheap chocolate stuff that we usually use.  Fransisco's basket also had a huge egg wrapped in shiny plastic wrapping that had a toy car that Victor put together for him.  For some reason Fransisco decided that he didn't like the taste of his chocolate bunny so he gave it to me!  Yay!  It's long gone now, but my original bunny is still mostly complete (it's missing its head though).

So anyway, it was a lovely Easter surprise.  Nice and relaxing.  I did miss the business and fanciness of the annual Easter festivities at home though.  And it was hard because I hadn't talked to my parents in a while and really wanted to but couldn't. 

Other highlights from last week: Wednesday one of my classes was cancelled (our prof had to travel for his regular job), and so I decided to go finish exploring Cerro Santa Lucia, the crazy palace/park/hill place that is crazy, amazing, beautiful, and slightly dangerous (the stone steps are steep, and super worn, and some of the iron railings are broken).  

Thursday I found out that I got into the Washington Semester Program at American University for next semester!!!!!  I'm so excited!  I will live on Tenley campus (a few blocks from main campus) with the other students in the program from different schools inside and out of the US, and take classes related to Peace and Conflict Resolution.  I will also do an internship (I have to start looking), but it doesn't have to relate to the program.  Mid-semester we will go on a three-week trip to Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia to learn about Peace and Conflict Resolution in the real world!  I am SUPER excited and can hardly wait!  The boy in our program here in Chile suggested the Washington Semester program to me (he went to Ecuador and the Galapagos with his Int'l Environment and Development program) and the next day I decided to apply!  

Friday we went on a tour of el Palacio de La Moneda, the Chilean equivalent of the White House (except that the President doesn't live there).  It was really cool because we got to go into some of the rooms and actually sit in the chairs and such.  It was crazy how easy it was to get in though.  All we had to do was give them our Chilean ID cards in exchange for a visitor pass.  We didn't have to go through security, check our bags or anything!  We did have a guide, and one of the spiffy entrance guards who brought up the rear of our tour.  He was nice and kindly answered my question when I asked him.  I asked him what the price-tag looking like sticker was on the chandelier.  It really looked like a price tag and therefore was slightly humorous.  Fortunately, he told me that it is an identification number and barcode.  Every piece of furniture, etc in La Moneda has one.  

Friday night I spent talking and laughing with my host brother and his friends in our living room (didn't get to bed until 5 am - but it was really fun), and Saturday night three of the girls from my program and I went to the Wine Festival.  It was really fun, we paid for a wine glass and then got to go around tasting wines from the different booths.  They also had an "asado" (BBQ), a booth with churros, hotdogs (we got weird looks when we requested that they not include the mayo and avocado), strawberries covered in chocolate on a stick, and popcorn, a performance stage with live music, an artisan's market, and free donkey rides for the kids.  We were quite disappointed that we weren't little enough to get a ride on the donkeys.  =P  

So like usual, the week flew by and now another week begins.  I can't believe I only have two more months to enjoy this wonderful country!  Sadness!  That also means that I should start working on the papers that I have to write, in Spanish, for all of my classes.  Ooo boy.  I'll get them done though.  Friday I have a Spanish test (that I am not looking forward to), but I have started studying for it and plan to do so every day, so hopefully I'll do well.  

Oh, and I'm almost done reading my book in Spanish!  I only have about a quarter of the book to go.  It's sooooo good!  I want to read it now, but... unfortunately, it won't be on the test.  =P  Oh, and proof that I'm learning Spanish from reading it: I was able to provide the Spanish equivalent for two words in Spanish class last week (fruncir el ceño - to knit one's brows/frown, and one other that I don't recall)!  I was so happy!  

Okay, so that's all the news.  I hope you all have a great week!  Wish me luck.  Love, Kaia 

Easter, Cerro Santa Lucia, La Moneda, and the Wine Festival

Torres del Paine - AT LAST!

Early Monday morning we flew out of Santiago to go on our fieldtrip to Torres del Paine, the famous national park in southern Chile, Patagonia. They started picking us up at 12:15 am, and our plane left at 2:40 am. We got to Punta Arenas, the main city in Patagonia around 6 am, and then took three buses to arrive at Puerto Natales around noon. The rest of Monday was spent exploring the town and sleeping. We were just a little bit tired. (^_^) Tuesday we headed to the National Park and to see the mountains.

They were even more breathtaking than I ever could have imagined. They were unreal – too perfect, too gorgeous to be anything but a masterpiece painting: jagged peaks, straight drops and deep valleys, and gigantic glaciers hovering in the crevices and slopes, all with a light dusting of delicate, white snow. Clouds hung to their tallest peaks and the glaciers had a blue hue to them that made them seem to glow. I wish I could have stayed there for a week hiking, sleeping, eating, and all the while gazing upon them with awe and wonder. And the colors! Greens, blues, purples, and bits of orange and red decorated the trees and shrubs while brown, yellow, gold, gray and black covered the mountains and hills.

We spent most of the day on the bus and hiking. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t raining so we were happy. First we went to the Milodon Cave and then traveled through the beautiful countryside to hike and have lunch in the National Park.

We saw several herds of guanacos (they are related to llamas), a gray fox (whose boldness showed that she had probably been fed by past humans), a huemul (a kind of endangered deer that is one of the national animals and is on the national seal), and a condor (the other national animal that is on the seal).

Our walk before lunch was on these cute trails that wound over the magnificent hills across from the awesome mountains. They were covered in small, rounded shrubs that made it seem that we were walking through someone’s well-tended, if not giant, garden. And where the rock peaked through the vegetation, you could see the amazing diagonal, horizontal, vertical, and wavy lines of sediment in them.

It was so beautiful. My friend Kelsey, who I knew before the trip from pep band at AU, immediately thought of the quote from Pride and Prejudice that goes something like this: “Oh the glories of nature! What are men compared to rocks and trees.”

We had our “box lunch,” which consisted of a chicken sandwich that took up the whole plate, and our choice of a drink, in The Grey Lake Hotel which sits right on the edge of Grey Lake with a clear view of the glacier with the same name. It was a spectacular view of not only the glacier, and the lake with some small floating icebergs, but also of the stunning mountain.

After lunch we walked down to the beach that went out to the lake and had fun taking pictures and enjoying the view, before heading back to Puerto Natales (the small town where our hotel was). It was funny – the guide told us that he would point out a few more things and we would have another photo opportunity, but we all (Paola, our program coordinator included) fell asleep on the bus and our guide didn’t want to disturb us.

The next day we went on a boat up the Fiord of Last Hope from Puerto Natales to Serrano Lake to hike to the glacier there. It was really fun to be on the boat. It was about a three hour boat ride but we got to see a colony of sea lions, many waterfalls, two condors, several small ranches that were on the banks of the fiord, and even had a rainbow that kept us company on the fiord all day!

Serrano Glacier was absolutely mind numbing. Just seeing all that hard, packed snow, with its blue glow, stacked all the way up the mountainside was quite humbling. It was SO BIG! But it was also extremely sad to realize how fragile it was. This is what we are trying to protect, this is the biggest proof that we are harming the environment in which we live. It was sad to see such beauty and know that it was being destroyed right before our eyes. Already we could see the change in size from the pictures in the brochures to what we were seeing. The glacier used to fill up most of the lagoon, but now we had to hike a ways to get closer to it.

On the boat, one of the tour company guys offered us a deal to take a boat so that we could get closer to the glacier and actually touch it. I didn’t want to touch it, and I didn’t want anyone else to either! Why would I want to help it melt even faster?! It might just have been my cynical frame of mind, but it seemed that all the tour company cared about was making money – not about the state of the glacier. While on the boat, I had figured out how to replace certain colors in whatever picture I was taking so at the glacier lookout, I took a picture that made it look like the glacier was bleeding – just to express myself.

The hike to and from the lookout and the boat was very beautiful. All the fruits and leaves of the plants and trees were all miniature due to the extreme temperatures that they have to live through during the year (Patagonia is a micro-climate, so things are changing constantly). Back on the boat they served us pisco (the Chilean liquor) with ice from the glacier. I politely refused mine as I didn’t want to take part in destroying the glacier, but the nice guy that worked on the boat that I had been talking to earlier thought I didn’t like pisco so brought me a glass of orange juice with glacier ice, instead. Despite my reasons, I didn’t want to offend so I gave in and drank it. They had already gathered the ice anyway, so it just would have been wasting it.

Lunch was at the ranch of the family who owns the tour company. They had two adorable puppies that we enjoyed playing with while waiting to use the bathroom. We had BBQ’d sheep, sausages, and peeled potatoes along with some delicious soup and fruit for dessert. While we were eating, I glanced out the window and saw all their sheep being herded back home! It was cool. Apparently they were outside when people started heading back to the boat, but were gone by the time I got outside. After lunch we started the 2-hour trip back to Puerto Natales. Everyone except for me, Paola, and the guide slept. I enjoyed practicing my Spanish with Paola and the kind guide – much more interesting than sleeping, anyhow. =)

The next day we headed back to Punta Arenas (the city that has the airport) and flew back to Santiago. It was an amazing trip! I hope to be able to go back there again, some day.

Torres del Paine

GOOOOOO CHILE!!!!!!!!!!

Yet another crazy week is almost done.  Life here is just so exciting!  I've been out until the wee hours of the morn several nights in the past week, have been making more friends, dancing a lot, feeling more Chilean, and working hard at my "practica" (internship). 

Last Friday we didn't have class as they were anticipating that there might be protests that day due to the "Day of the Young Combatants."  During Chile's dictatorship, there was a protest and two brothers were shot by police.  So even though that was 30 years ago or so, every year some people gather to remember, but others (especially younger people) have just taken it as an excuse to create havoc and violence.  Nothing ended up happening Friday, but the actual "Día de los jovenes combatientes," which was Sunday night, eight police officers were wounded and one 12 year old girl lost her eye due to some violence in the poorer neighborhoods of Santiago.  There was also several fires and buildings damaged.  

So anywho, instead of going to class, we went out Thursday night for drinks with our professor (the drinking age here is 18), and then on Friday went on a UDP (Universidad Diego Portales) school field trip hosted by the Student Government (?)!  It was SO crazy!!!  All the first and second year students at UDP were loaded on buses for the 30 min. or so bus ride to Isla de Maipo where we went to a resort/park called "Oasis" that had pools, camping, picnic areas, and a playground.  Everyone was drinking and dancing and picnic-ing and enjoying the weather.  There was also a live stage where "Las Tres," a famous band from Mexico performed. But there were SO many people!  And many were already drunk by the time they got there.  

The bus ride was VERY exciting - complete with people drinking, smoking (cigarrettes and marijuana), jumping up and down, banging on the ceiling, chanting, and singing songs about a spider and an elephant.  Oh, and the bus driver almost got lost.  So naturally it was an unforgettable experience.  We all kept looking at each other trying to believe this was really happening because it would definitely NOT ever happen in the US.  At least not currently.  But it kind of reminded me of something that might have happened during the 80's or something.  It was fun to get to know more UDP people and was kind of amusing to talk to talk to people pre-drinking and then later after they'd drunk.  =)  Some funny conversations.  

Friday night I went with some friends to a friend's house and then we kind of (by US standards) crashed a birthday party as the only reason we were there is because our friend's friend's friend was the birthday girl's boyfriend.  So it was a bit awkward but still fun.  Saturday night was the 21st b-day of Mary, one of the girls in our program so we had an asado (BBQ) at her house with her host sister and her friends (was able to make more Chilean friends and learn the name of my favorite Chilean songs - "Na Da Na," "Llamada de emergencia," and "Soy igual que tú"[click for links to youtube]).  

Monday I went out to lunch with my Chilean friend, Daniela (the girl I met in the bathroom). Monday night we all went out for icecream to celebrate Mary's actual b-day, and Ryan (the boy in our program) and I got lost on the way so were an hour late, but we still had a good time.  Tuesday night I went to a salsa dance class with Silvia and had a BLAST dancing!  Learned a two new steps, too!  And it was amazing to watch the professional-looking dancers glide and twirl on the floor.  Made me melt in my seat.  Will definitely go back.  

Wednesday night was the soccer game between Chile and Uruguay so the whole country was glued to the TV sets in their houses, bars, and restaurants.  During the game the streets were practically empty!  Unfortunately/fortunately, it was a tie (0-0) which was a bit disappointing but still good.  Chile had won their game against Perú on Sunday (which I FORGOT to watch because I was doing HW!!!!), and you could hear honking and cheering in the streets.  So now Chile is third in South America (I think), and their next game isn't until June.  But it was such a good game!  Very exciting.  

I am really enjoying my internship!  I have been working on going through hundreds of photos on the computer and choosing only 30 each for the presentations about the projects in Bolivia, Ecuador, Haití, and Repúblico Dominicana.  And I finished today!  Yay!  If I can figure out how to share/post/upload powerpoints I will share them.  I'm quite proud of them.  =)  It was so hard to choose the photos!

Next week we go on our school trip to Torres del Paine in the South of Chile.  We will be picked up Sunday night, actually and will take a plane at 2:40 am Monday to arrive in Punta Arenas at 6:10 am.  We will then take a bus to Puerto Natales where we will have the day free before we re-group for dinner.  Tuesday, the 7th, we will go on our "Torres del Paine Excursion" and will visit Cueva del Milodón and Torres del Paine.  Then Wednesday we will get to go to the Glaciar Balmaceda and Serrano.  And then Thursday we will return to Santiago at 11:25 pm.  Just to let you know, I have not looked up any of the places we are going yet, so can tell you nothing except that Torres del Paine is gorgeous - I've seen pictures of it!  So you would probably get the best info from looking things up on the internet.  

Because the South of Chile is cold, rainy, windy, and low on Ozone, we have been advised to bring our winter coats, wind and water breakers, UV sunglasses and chapstick, sunscreen (45+), and hiking boots.  So it should be exciting.  I came more prepared than some others in our group (they somehow missed the packing list) and only have to buy a winter hat (mine seems to have missed the trip to Chile), UV sunglasses, and a higher sunblock (don't want to mess with lower levels of Ozone).  

Oh, other news: I am finally a legal resident of Chile!  I picked up my "carnet" or national ID card on Wednesday.  It's so cool!  It's like a driver's license but has my fingerprint on it, too.  And I'm on page 150 or so of "Nueva Luna," the second book of "Twilight!"  It's hard to understand all of it but I think I get the gist of what's going on.  

So that's all that's been happening in my life.  I'll have lots of pictures and stories to tell I'm sure once I get back from Torres del Paine.  

Hope everyone is having a great week!  

Chauuuuu!

~ Kaia