Así es Chile

Hola! As the end of October creeps up on me, I am having a hard time accepting that I have less than 2 months remaining in this corner of the world.  Although I do have things to look forward to after leaving Chile (a trip to Machu Picchu and Bolivia, Christmas, seeing family and friends again) I know it’s going to be tough to leave.  It’s moments like the one I had tonight--sitting on a balcony with incredibly generous and welcoming Chilean friends, eating delicious food and watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean—that I know I will miss the most. 

5 hours later, we were standing on the top looking down

 A few weeks ago, a friend invited me to hike up a really pretty “hill” that is near his house in Olmue, a town about an hour away.  I’m always up for a nice little hike, so I wrangled up some other friends and, after a fun Friday night and very little sleep, we hopped on a very early bus Saturday morning to get to the national park.  Turns out this little hill was actually a mountain. A mountain of extreme difficulty. (I found it described as “death march” “complete shock” and “hysterically terrible” from others who have climbed it) [Fun fact: Charles Darwin climbed this mountain on his “Voyage of the Beagle”, he must have been a pretty fit man…] The first half was winding, uphill forest paths leading to an old abandoned mine--two of our companions only made it this far.  The top of the mountain is sheer rock face, so the second half consisted of literally clawing up boulders, free form.  It was simultaneously awful and amazing.  Finally, after 5 of the most breathless, physically exhausting hours of my life, we reached the top.  Words cannot describe the view or the feeling of awe and accomplishment I felt.  Surrounded by the Andes on one side and the Pacific on the other, I can honestly say it is probably the most beautiful view I’ve ever seen.  After attempting to soak it all in, we started back on our trek down which was even more painful than the trek up.  Coming down the boulders was like walking down a ladder frontwards, and I have more than my fair share of scars, cuts and bruises to testify my many falls.  However, it’s a wonder what endorphins, good company and a tasty bag of trail mix can do to keep moods up.  All in all, it was a great day.

don't look down...

The view from the top

 

As the end of the semester is nearing, school-work is starting to feel a little suffocating.  Within the next few weeks I have 3 papers, 4 oral presentations and 3 tests. Yaaaay. However I have not let this bring me out of my “When in Chile” mentality and have still found time to “enjoy my youthfulness” as my host mom would say.  Going out with friends on the weekends to the local pubs and clubs never fails to be a good time. Also, I am leaving tomorrow for 5 day trip to the Atacama Desert in northern Chile!! It is such a highly recommended place by everyone I have talked to—I can’t wait.  Speaking of that, I need to start packing so I will end this update pronto.  Oh, but I can’t forget a shout out to my lovely mother on her birthday today! None of my successes or adventures would have been possible if it weren’t for her wonderful parenting skills :)

Happy Halloween!! I will be spending it with the naturally preserved mummies of the Atacama.  Miss you all!!

My friend Rhiannon and I with our host moms (who happen to be best friends)

Montevideo del Sur

View from Paula's balcony

Last week I was lucky enough to travel to Montevideo, Uruguay and be shown the city by some of the best guides I could ask for. The trip was unforgettable. It’s safe to say I was a little nervous about making an international flight by myself in a Spanish speaking country, but the stars must have been aligned in my favor because somehow all my bus/taxi/plane travel went off without a hitch (for the most part…). 

Hello Montevideo photo exposition

To give a short background, Federico Estol, a photojournalist from Montevideo, Uruguay made trips to my Montevideo the past 2 summers to make a photo book about Monte and its connection to its southern sister city—Hello Montevideo.  While in Monte, he stayed at our house and practically became part of the family (he told me he considers my dad his 3^rd dad, after his real dad and stepdad, adorable).  The book was released a few months ago and has become pretty popular in Uruguay!  Popular enough, in fact, to earn an exposition of its photos in a beautiful historic building in Montevideo’s oldest plaza.  As it turns out, the grand opening of this exposition fell right in the days that I was planning on visiting.  So after arriving and getting settled in at my friend Paula’s house, I headed off to represent my city at the exposition.  It was such a fun experience!  I don’t think there’s anywhere else in the world where I would get such attention and interest for the sole fact that I grew up in Montevideo, MN.  I was formally introduced to the crowd, presented with flowers, and chatted up by multiple important Montevideans.  It was surreal to see these people dressed in business suits, sipping wine, intently studying large photos of Monte’s trailer park, main-street, and Duffy’s.  Definitely an experience I will never forget :)

Throughout the week I was toured around by Paula and Alina, two lovely ladies that I had met briefly through my Dad while they were spending time in Minnesota.  Both are English teachers, and I had the cool opportunity to go into their classes to speak and answer questions about Montevideo.  Alina mainly teaches adults learning English to help further their careers.  I was surprised to hear about how it’s pretty much necessary to at least have a general knowledge of English to even get a degree in Uruguay.  Almost everyone there talked about going to college and being expected to read books, articles and research in their area of study in English.  That would be like me going to college to study psychology and being assigned psychology books and articles in French! Oye. They were also kind of excited to hear that a town in the U.S. is so interested in them because they generally feel ignored by the U.S. and rest of the world in general, being such a small country.  Alina and Paula also teach middle and high school English, which was a very different but just as fun experience.  They were enthralled by the book and thought everything looked exactly like the movies.  Four girls even wanted to take pictures with me after class to post on facebook.

Besides all that, I had a blast exploring the rest of the city.  Some of the highlights were: watching tango at Montevideo’s oldest bar, experiencing the beautiful architecture in the old city, accompanying Paula on her blind date ;), going to Federico’s 30^th birthday party, taking a trip to Punta del Este (a neighboring beach city), and of course trying every food and drink that Uruguay had to offer.  Dulce de leche, chivitos, pascualina, milanesa, mate, uvita, media y media, and of course Uruguayan’s pride and joy: their meat.  One day, Alina and I feasted on a lunch of French bread, huge pieces of melted cheese, French fries, chorizo, beef AND I even tried gizzard. Not half as bad as expected.

Tango at Montevideo's oldest bar

Happy Birthday Fede!

Overall, my trip to Montevideo was super enriching and memorable, I only wish I would have listened to Fede’s advice and missed my flight so I could stay longer :)

noticias locas

El apagón!

Life in Chile has been as exciting as ever within the past week!  In one of my daily conversations with the chatty guard at my apartment last weekend, I was informed that an out of control NASA climate satellite was en route to fall from its orbit and plummet into Chile at any given time.  He assured me that it was only the size of a city bus, and with any luck the atmospherical pressure would break it up into 6 pieces. Being hit by a satellite a 6^th of the size of a city bus couldn’t do too much harm..right? Later that night, this fun news was accompanied by a country-wide blackout that affected over 10 million people.  All lights, internet, and most cell phone connection were completely out.  It really frightened many people who associated the blackout with the big earthquake of 2010, in which there was no power or water for 3 days. Luckily, my host-mom and her group of friends that were over playing bingo didn’t let it affect their fun.  Their solution was to fill the house with candles and pop open another bottle of wine.  After 2 and half hours, the lights were welcomed back on with a big round of applause. However, the fun didn’t stop there.  On Monday, everyone and their brother was talking about how the alignment of the planets on Tuesday was going to cause a huge earthquake.  The reasoning behind it was semi-complicated (my host mom read me multiple news articles on it and had the TV on all night) so I’ll spare you the superstitious details.  Luckily, the only notable thing that ended up happening to me on Tuesday was being followed and harassed by a clown with a fake gun while walking down the street (freaky, but I’d take that over an earthquake any day).  And, the NASA satellite crashed somewhere in the waters of the Pacific, close call! :)

Part of Neruda's house

On Wednesday our group took a trip to Algarrobo, a beautiful little beach town about an hour away. A little further down the road was another house of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.  While I don’t have a huge interest in or connection to Neruda, I must admit that I loved touring his house—it was hands down the quirkiest thing I have ever seen. It was huge and expansive, built on the rocks of the Pacific’s shore, each room having a different theme including bug collections, ships in bottles, masks, a paper mache horse, Hindu carvings, and sea creatures (he even has a narwhal tusk!).  It was a great trip.  While I love living in Viña, it is always fun to explore other areas as well.  In fact, I am leaving on Wednesday for a 5-day trip to my sister city, Montevideo, Uruguay!  I am so eager to finally explore this city that I have heard so much about growing up :)