and my world was rocked...

well, the world knows what happened here today...but i'm going to begin with something more positive.

yesterday was laura's birthday. she turned the ripe old age of 20 and to celebrate, John and i began our day at the chilean version of the DMV. for about three hours. however, our chilean IDs will now be ready to be picked up, although after today i am not sure when they'll be ready. so anyways, after that we met laura and ellie at a mercado at los dominicos. this mercado was sooooo nice. and very expensive. there were tons of different pieces of lapis lazuli jewelry that at some point i'm going to splurge on as my gift from here because the bracelets are so beautiful and so different from anything i can get at home. after drooling over things we couldn't afford, we went and purchased tickets for our vina del mar trip for the weekend(which we had finally ironed out some of the details for) as well as bus tickets to mendoza, argentina for the next weekend. next, we walked around the las condes mall to again drool over things we couldn't afford and then headed off to la casa de laura for her birthday asado (remember i taught you this means bbq..haha). the bbq was...well a bit awkward at first but after a little bit we all got comfortable with each other and it was a really good time. We got to eat more choripan, home made guac and salsa, and yummy potato salad. then i helped laura's host mom light 20 candles for her birthday cake (nearly lighting my arm on fire in the process) and we enjoyed some yummy raspberry almond torta thingy. deeeelish.

normally at this point in a birthday evening, you would head out on ze town and discoteca it up. since we all had to get up at 7am though, we decided we'd hold off until tomorrow when we are vina. this turned out to be one of many accidentally lucky decisions.

so john and i got home around 1 and i went straight to bed so i'd be semi fresh for a day of vina fun the next day. mid sleep, however, i was just JOLTED awake. i'm not sure i can explain the feeling of being completely peacefully asleep and then wake up to everything around you moving. and it's not just shaking. it feels like the whole world is shifting. i think in my head i assessed that it wasn't too awful-my stuff wasn't falling all over the place and the walls weren't cracking so i pushed the doors of my wardrobe closed because the noise of them slamming back and forth was adding to the scariness of it all. this went on for about a minute and a half. when it was over my legs were shaking, although at the time i didn't register fear just mostly confusion. i immediately put my robe on and went downstairs to find everyone else huddled in the living room, pretty shaken. at this point, we had no electricity so no tv or internet. we stayed up for an hour or so until the aftershocks slowed and calmed and then i went back upstairs. we had no idea that we had just experienced tremors from an 8.8 earthquake. i wasn't even sure that anyone outside of chile would know that we experienced a tremor. wrooooong.

that morning i woke up at 7 to get ready for vina. since i thought it was just a minor santiago tremor, i went ahead and showered (in the dark). then i got a message from laura saying that homes in vina were partially destroyed...uh oh. this was clearly more than just a little tremor. luckily, at 7:30 our electricity came on and John, Santiago (the night watchman), and I watched the news to find out there had been an 8.8 earthquake 200 miles away from us...a much greater magnitude than what hit Haiti, though luckily it was farther off the coast and Chilean construction is much better. at this point i was really scared for a couple reasons. 1) my parents are going to FREAK out 2)are all my friends safe? I had friends in vina, pucon, and actually in transit at the time of the earthquake. luckily, everyone is safe and i was able to communicate with parents even though my phone company was down and wouldn't allow me to make calls. it was a long day of stressing out about everyone's safety...a feeling i've never had before, at least not associated with a natural disaster.

so...the lucky decisions we made were: 1)deciding to go to vina on saturday instead of friday. had we been there on friday would have been stuck there away from communication and where there seemed to be a lot more chaos. 2) not going out friday night. the most dangerous places to be were roads and bridges, which collapsed even in santiago. had we been out we could have been on the roads. my neighborhood in santiago is fairly new and therefore there wasn't much damage...when i walked outside there were smashed roof tiles and street lamps but nothing major. there were also people sitting outside of large apartment buildings, afraid the aftershocks would cause more damage to the buildings. unlike what the news may say, the entirety of chile is not in disrepair. however, there are SO many people here, especially near the epicenter, without homes, electricity, or running water. roads are closed, hospitals evacuated. so help out if you can.

overall though, i'm really okay. it was a long, stressful day and my thoughts go out to the families with missing or lost loved ones. i really hope this doesn't sound super melodramatic because i was here in safety today, and i really appreciate the messages i received from everyone. loves, steph.

"life" in santiago

alright...so this past week nothing exactly newsworthy occurred but it was a really really fun week. as i mentioned, our little spanish class started and the last day is tomorrow. i actually secretly really enjoy going to the class because it's nice having something i have to get up for...and i'm also secretly excited to start class. i know i'm always secretly (or not so secretly) excited to start every semester and then disappointment follows as i realize that a school semester doesn't just involve learning but a lot of annoying crap...but i feel like this semester will probably just be a lot different. i'm also probably only having three days of class a week...schweeeeeet!!

so...activities of last week. we had a little BBQ (asado) at the dorm that was a lot of fun. laura, kelsey, marc, nico, and his friend ended up coming over as well and then the whole lot of us went to a discoteca until 4 in the morning...definitely still getting used to the late hours here. i think by the end of the semester i'll be used to that and all the dancing. i'm still an embarrassingly horrible dancer. all of the men are better than me, well except for maybe one guy here. so that's something i'll learn too.

saturday we were out late again for our friend, Silvana's, birthday. i've only met her a couple of times but she is just SUPER nice and her birthday was a lot of fun. we did some more dancing and laura, ramiro, and i did some karaoke (BSB-I want it that way), which people got really into. obvs.

this weekend we're trying to get to vina del mar...which is proving difficult. it seems all of our travel planning is difficult...haha. oh well. s'laters!

a taste of the andes...and not the mint

alright so this time i am very unmotivated in writing this blog, probably because about 432897432 happened since last time. haha. i'll start with a week ago...

soooo, kelsey, laura, and i finally got a sort of trip planned: Valdivia! valdivia is south of santiago by about ten hours and a little west. it sits on a river and is super cute. so anyways, we took an overnight bus there and arrived wednesday morning. we got to what we thought was our cheap hostel...turns out this was a classy bed and breakfast and cost $90/night. ruhroh. but anyways, after we got settled there we headed over and walked around town a bit, saw the fresh seafood market and some lobos marinos (see ottery things, not sure exactly but they like to get out of the river and lay out next to the sidewalk...pretty funny). walking around valdivia was nice. it reminded me a lot of wisco and there were a lot less catcalls and carhonking. score! so after walking around a bit we decided to go to the beach in niebla. so we got our swimsuits on and stepped off the bus and...crap. no beach. some dirt. definitely a lake, though. that was pretty. our afternoon was unspolied, however, as there was also this little culural festival which included food, music, and artesan stands. we decided to get some empanadas (the cheese ones were delish, the seafood ones were...well...questionable) and we talked to this chilean family who was sitting next to us. i was distracted the whole time by the dad who had an uncanny resemblance to johnny depp, but it was an interesting time nonetheless. after walking around looking for a fort we didn't actually go in, we headed back to valdivia and enjoyed a nice seafood dinner on the lake. yumbo.


next day included the kuntsmann brewery which we were excited to tour...but the unfortunately don't actually give tours...so we just ate food and drank their beer instead. it was a fine trade off, really. after the brewery, we took the bus home and ran into one of the bartenders, named Juan Pablo, from the brewery and we started talking to him and went and watched an outdoor volleyball tournament which was actually way more fun than i thought it would be. that night we just went back to the hostel because the hostel was in a sort of shady part of town. sorry juan pablo.

alright, next day we headed off to pucon, which is about three hours away. then we hopped another bus up to huerquehue national park. the bus ride was a treacherous hour ride up a mountainside. fairly terrifying. so we got to the park, which is located in the southern andes. this means that the andes are smaller but covered in trees and absolutely beautiful. there were lakes everywhere. the first day we found one such lake and just laid there in the sun. amazing. the second day we did about an 8 mile hike to two of the other lakes and it was just so beautiful. getting there was a little scary as the trails are not maintained like they are in the US. this means there are tree roots everywhere trying to trip you, mud to make you slide, and very few handrails. awesome. the hike also made me realize i should probably exercise more than once every seven months...but ehh. probably not. here are some pictures of the beauty.




so that was really really awesome. back in santiago now and i've had three days of my "intensive" spanish class. not so intensive but really not bad at all. fun maybe in a weird way. or at least something today that isn't tourism. i'm actually quite exited for real classes to start and to see the campus with everyone on it. it's really pretty right now but really empty except for the stray dogs the school takes in that live there. (i love those dogs though b/c i know they are rabies free so i can actually pet them). also, more people have been coming to the dorms so that's been really fun. there are two people from my program who live here now and so far we have a really great group.

and that's it...i think this was exceptionally boring so sorry about that. but at least i took the effort to copy and past those pictures in...haha.

the good, the bad, the sunburnt

two days, two blogs. for realzz. i'm starting with the bad. cuz it really sucked.

so i woke up this morning ssuuuupper pumped. kelso, laura, and i made plans to go to a winery and i woke up just really excited to be here. so i got dressed, put my camera in my bag along with my other things and peaced out. went to the bank, got on the micro (the bus system) and thought "oh shucks. i'm early to meet laura and kelsey. let's go order starbucks in spanish." so i did. while there, i realized my camera was no longer in my purse. shit. seriously shit times about a hundred thousand shits. i hailed a cab back to my dorm and ravaged the dorm. then watched as yvonne and daphne did the same. nothing. the lesson from this is: there are assholes everywhere. my camera was FOUR days old, super nice, and my birthday present from my mom since i'll be gone for my birthday this year. i was upset, and i'm still pretty mad about it. i called my mom, which was actually nice in a way to just use a phone and talk to her. at this point, i realize that i can't be upset because there was nothing i could do. i was careful, kept my bag in front of me, and yet still did not manage to feel someone putting their hand in my bag. the fact that i can't remember someone even touching me makes it hard to believe i was actually pickpocketed. it feels like the camera will just show up somewhere...but i know that's not going to happen. i mean i'm thankful that my wallet wasn't taken because that would have been a way bigger hassle. but it still pretty majorly sucks. not the way i wanted to start out my trip, although i know that could have happened in any big city in the world. bye bye birthday present...

anyways, after i calmed down a bit with the help of kelsey and laura (seriously guys thank you SO much for being there today), we headed out for our wine trip. according to kelsey's tour book, there was a tour at 1:00. We showed up at one and learned they changed their tour times. of course. so we waited around for, ya know, an hour and a half. which was still fun because we got to take cheesy senior pictures and enjoy the sun. finally our (english) tour started, and it was just the three of us plus our tour guide, david. he was super cool and actually goes to school in santiago so we got his number for when he's in town. and then we'll all add him on facebook as well. haha. but the tour was really fun and the wine tasting was great. however, considering none of us had eaten since early in the morning, we got a little giddy afterwards. by this time, i was burning to a crisp as well. in my frenzy of searching my room for my stolen camera, i accidentally left my sunscreen behind. so i'm just a weeee bit red after spending the day in 90 degree heat. ay.

so that was my day. without the pickpocketing incident, it would have been pretty perfect. i just wish i had my camera back :/

Gringas

Okay, so I've put this off long enough. and because of this, my post will be really long and disorganized. also, i'm going to put out a disclaimer. i don't really like capitalizing when i type because i'm bad at typing and i always end up capitalizing the wrong letter and then having to backspace. so, pardon my all non caps but just so you know, i am aware that you capitalize "I" and words at the beginning of sentences. haha.

okee, so let's start with the flights. my mom dropped me off at the airport and this was probably a bad idea because i was a hot mess for the hour i was waiting at the airport as well as for my flight up to toronto. my mom cried when we said goodbye, so of course i did too. some lady behind me in security took pity and started talking to me, but for the most part it was me sitting in the airport and tearing up like a dork. also, the guy next to me on the plane was suuuuper weird. he decided it would be a good idea to rest his arm on my leg as he was reading his newspaper. not quite sure how to respond, i just pretended like it wasn't happening but it made for an awkward flight. once i got to the toronto airport, kelsey and laura were there and i perked up quite a lot. the 10 and a half hour flight wasn't too bad but because i was in a window seat i only got up out of my seat once. ONCE! apparently argentinian men never have to pee. because they only got up that one time and i was a hurting. so once i got to santiago i took a taxi to my dorm. i also got super ripped off and tipped the guy $10 which is insane because here you don't tip taxi drivers. lesson learned.

at the dorm, i met two girls, yvonne and daphne. yvonne is a new zealander and daphne is from holland. they're bother super nice and we've been hanging out a lot. on that first day, we wanted to go to the supermarket to pick up a few things. unfortunately, the supermarket we wanted to go to was on fire. seriously. so we went to the jumbo (pronounced yumbo). this turned out to be a bad idea because a jumbo is a walmart on crack, and you all know how i feel about walmarts. so that was a gigantic fiasco. once we got back to the dorm and had downtime, i had the worst bout of homesickness ever. i decided to just let it all out as i talked to my mom on skype. since then, it's been better but i still tear up a little bit sometimes.

due to the fact that downtime=homesickness, i wanted to make sure day 2 was full of activities. so we (being me, kelsey, laura, daphne, and yvonne) went to downtown santiago and saw the plaza and la moneda. it was really beautiful and the weather is fantastic. we got some soft serve ice cream (frutilla flavored)and explored the different plazas around the downtown area. this included watching a woman bathe in a public fountain. and trust me, this woman had no shame. and she really really should have. then we went back to our respective homes to get ready for a night of discoteca. once we got all gussied up, we all got back together again with the addition of ramiro (laura's host bro) and his friends cristian aka naito and philippe. we had happy hour (called happy hour...they don't use a spanish phrase for it). then we went to a discoteca which was a little crazy. it was super hot, with strobe lights, loud music (some american some classic and cheesy sounding latin music) and people basically have sex with clothes on the dancefloor. i was glad we had our male bodyguards with us because i had a few mens come up to ask for a dance and i wasn't quite ready to be sexually assaulted at that time. but it was still a blast and we ended up singing some karaoke (bon jovi and blink-182). it was a really long night though because chileans don't go out until late, so we didn't get back until 4:30am. and you all know how much of a grannie i am.

at the moment, nothing concrete planned for this week except for a winery tomorrow which i'm pretty excited for. before i peace out i have a few random observations.

-we are most obviously gringas of the highest order. it's rather painful.
-people here dress well...interestingly. there doesn't seem to be any common fashion trend besides bad and mullets. but i enjoy it greatly.
-american crap is everywhere. all the movies on tv are american and dubbed or subtitled. ditto for tv shows. a lot of the music is american, and also outdated. haven't quite figured out the music scene...at all. haha.
-the most dangerous thing here is the driving. people are INSANE. my taxi driver was doing about double the speed limit on the way in from the airport. i was terrified. i also had a taxi driver reverse about five blocks. through intersections. in REVERSE. it seems that pedestrians are equivalent to road construction cones...you try not to hit them, but if you do, well shit it doesn't really matter.

(sidenote - i'm currently watching a guy from martinique do a hilarious dance to rap music. he is better than i am though...oh the return to dormlife)

-pesos. weird ass currency. they have 1 peso coins but these are seriously pointless. it's like 1/100 of a cent or something. yvonne was thinking about making a bracelet out of them because you couldn't buy one chiclet with them. but it's weird paying for things that cost $1200. a $1200 hotdog is hard to wrap your head around even though i know that only equals $2 U.S.

well if anyone is still reading this at this point, i'ma peace ouuut. i apologize for rambling but i'm not going to outline my blog before i write it...haha. anyways, love you all :)

a couple photos to make this look less boring...