El bicentenario: Una gran aventura en el sur de Chile

For Fiestas Patrias, which is the holiday for Chilean Independence Day, we had a week off of classes, so I went on a trip to southern Chile with six friends from my program. This year Chile turned 200. I've heard people saying bicentenario so much that I forgot what the word was in English! We left Santiago on an 11pm bus and arrived in Pucon at 9am the next day. The amazing thing about Chile is the diversity in the climates. The north is desert and the south is very wet and green. It rained almost every day on our trip, but because of it the scenery is amazing. Pucon has one main street and is a tourism-based town so it has tons of hostels and shops that coordinate outdoor adventures. We took a short bus to Pucon's lake and walked along the beach. As we walked, we came upon some wild sheep that decided to follow us. We had to walk fast to get away from them, as their baaah-ing was intense. We heard drum sounds from very far away, which turned out to be some hippies playing music on the beach. We think the sheep were confused and trying to follow the music because according to Chileans, sheep only flee from people. We we got back to town, we went to one of the adventure shops because we wanted to climb volcano villarica, which is a very popular thing to do there. The shop was run by French people and we got a good laugh out of their ability to speak Spanish in a French accent. We tried on all the clothing that we would need to use for the climb, but we knew that we had to wait for a weather evaluation to see if the trip could happen. Ecole, our eco-friendly hostel in Pucon, was a wonderful surprise. It had warm, comfortable beds and a vegetarian restaurant! Madeline and I shared their lasagne which was absolutely amazing. The next morning, we had to meet thehiking group at 7am. They still weren't sure about the weather conditions so they said we had to get our gear on and drive up to the base. Unfortunately, we couldn't climb because it wassnowing at the base. It was hard to be sad about that because I was soexcited about the snow! When we got back to Pucon, we took a bus toVillarica. This picture, from outside the municipalidad has a stoplight that tells people about

the condition of the volcano. If

the light is

red, it is erupting and toxic. If it

is gree

n, it is safe to climb. In Villarica we

went to a farm and had a guided tour of it by

this man that lives there. The fields were absolutely beautiful, and even though we had to climb through some barbed wire fences, it was definitely worth it. We saw cows (including one that was just

born) and sheep and visited a Mapuche family's cheese factory. We purchased some cheese to share which was delicious. Our tour guide then took us to the

Crater beer factory. The man who owns the fac

tory gave us a tour and explained the process. We laughed when he told us that he built all the mac

hines but has to apply the labels to the bottles with glue and a paintbrush. In the evening, we leftVillarica on a bus to Puerto Montt.

We slept in Puerto Montt and woke up early to head to Chiloe. The owner of our hostel in Puerto Montt made us a delicious french toast breakfast before we left for Chiloe. Chiloe is a large island off

of the mainland of Chile. Our hostel owner told us we could take a bus to Ancud, Chiloe from Puerto Montt. We weren't too sure how that was possible since Chiloe is an island, but we soon found out that the bus drives straight onto a ferry which takes the bus to Chiloe. When on Chiloe, the bus keeps driving to Ancud. It was such a fascinating experience to be on a bus on a boat! We went to Mundo Nuevo, our hostel in Ancud, which had beautiful views of the ocean. Our hostel owner arranged a tour of the penguin sanctuaries for us. Two taxis came to our hostel to pick us up and take us to the beach.

The drive was amazing because the island is basically green hills that seem to never-ending. The taxis drove us straight onto the beach where we were then given por-si-acasos (lifejackets, or literally just-in-case's). We then had to ge

t onto a wooden trolly type thing that two men pushed so that we could get onto the boat without getting wet. Once on the boat, the driver took us the rocks where we could see the humboldt penguins. They are very small and there weren't too many since it is not quite the season yet, but it was definitely worth it!

That night we went out to dinner for traditional

Chilean food. Some of my friends ate curanto, which is this huge plate of meat, chicken, seafood, and sausages. We the

n went to the supermarket to stock up on food

because the supermarkets close for three days for the holiday! The next morning we got on a bus to go to Castro, Chiloe for the 18th, the actual holiday. Along the way, a couple got

on our bus with a huge drum set that the driver had to fit in the passenger seat. In Castro we saw a typical fiestas patrias parade with Chileans in

traditional outfits and playing instruments. We

then walked through many artisenal fairs. Since most things were closed, we got on another bus to go to Achao because we heard that there were beautiful views there. Yes, the ocean was pretty but there was literally nothing to do there. We asked a family what there was to do there and the guy asked us why we would ever have gone there. So we headed back to Castro, had dinner, and then Martin, Allison, and I went to a fonda, which is the

typical Chilean family party for the holiday. It was fun to see all the families dancing the traditional dances together. Luckily, CIEE had an evening for us to learn Cueca, the national dance. We were glad we had learned before the trip because we were able to dance the cueca a

t the fonda, impressing the Chileans with our abilities.

The next morning, we went back to our hostel in Puerto Montt. We then took a bus to Puerto Varas. We explored the town and went to more Chilean fairs. We searched for chicha, the typical Chilean drink for this holiday. It is pretty much fermented grape juice, but not quite wine. The tourist office there told

us to go see the waterfalls. So we got on yet another bus and it took an hour to get there. When we arrived, the park had just closed, so we literally got off the bus, crossed the street, and got on a different bus to go back. We would have stayed to walk around, but since it was pouring rain, we didn't want to risk having to wait for the next bus. That night, we slept at our hostel in Puerto Montt and woke up early the next morning to get on the bus to come back to Santiago. The bus ride was definitely one of the most boring experiences of my life. Since we were further south than where we arrived in Pucon, combined with the traffic from the holiday, the ride

took 15 hours. The ride was too bumpy to read and the sound on the tvs didn't work. It was such a wonderful trip but after that ride, I was so happy to be back in Santiago!

Here is a short video clip of Allison and I dancing the Cueca!

La semana antes del bicentenario

My week began with a very unexpected event. My pants had just been washed, but I wanted to wear them and they were still wet, so I decided to spend about 15 minutes using the blowdryer to dry them. Well on the bus on the way to school, I'm sitting in a seat right near the middle doors and there is only one other person on the bus, sitting close to the driver. All of a sudden, water explodes from under the door. I have no idea where it came from, but I heard a bursting noise and then all of a sudden, my hair, face, and all my clothes on my one side were soaking wet! It was the strangest experience because no one saw this rare occurance, so it was as if it never happened! I got off the bus, soaking wet, and very confused as to what just happened. When my friend at school asked me what happened, I realized how hard it was to explain what had just happened in Spanish!

I have begun to volunteer once a week with an organization called

Inglés Abre Puertas (English

Opens Doors). Every Thursday, I spend five hours in an all-girls high school in central Santiago. I thought I would be assisting one of the English teachers in her classes, but it turns out that she prefers that I take half the class and her the other half. The students that I work with are all about 15 years old, and most don't exactly want to listen, which has made it quite a challenging experience. I have come up with creative activities to make the class more interesting, but I learned quickly how difficult it is to be authoritative in another language that you are not fully confident with. Being serious and gaining respect requires confidence, and I am going to have to try harder to be confident with my Spanish because they only understand very basic English. At times, when we do an activity with both classes together, there are a few students who really want to learn. Helping them understand what they are reading and want to say is a very rewarding experience for both of us.

George and I representing L&C!

On Friday, Alice and I went to

the CAUC asado (bbq with the group at La Católica that plans events for the foreign student

s) which was at Cerro San Cristobal. We had a hard time finding the group because there were so many groups having

their own bbq's there. We finally found them, got some food, and went to sit where we could talk and watch the sunset. I don't remember what we were discussing, but we couldn't remember how to say spices in Spanish, so I pulled out my dictionary because I had just come from classes. The funny thing was that this guy came up to us because he saw us using the dictionary and thought he could practice his English by talking to us. He thought it was pretty funny when he figured out that we only wanted to know how to say spices. Alice and I then went to see Inception in theatres. Luckily, it was in English with Spanish subtitles. It was so confusing though, I don't know how people who don't speak much English could understand everything from the subtitles!

Probably the worst/funniest translation

On Saturday, I went to Pomaire, a small town about 45 minutes from Santiago, with some CIEE friends. The town was literally one street filled with restaurants and artisan shops that are only supported by tourists. Every shop sells chanchitas, which are three-legged pigs that are apparently good luck here. The pottery and crafts were fun to see, but after the first ten shops, they all started to look the same. Saturday was September 11th, the anniversary of the golpe militar (Pinochet's coup in 1973) so we were advised not to leave our houses at night. Although it was completely safe where I live, there have apparently been protests in the past on that day.

Today I woke up early to join 3 friends from CIEE and my friend Sebastian from the last hike with El Montañista to hike a mountain called San Carlos de Apoquindo. It was a rainy day, but the views were still amazing with the fog surrounding us. The mountain was beautiful and the hike was very peaceful. When we reached a midpoint, it started to rain pretty hard, so we decided to call it a day and head back home.

Tonight I asked my host mom if I

could use the iron to mend my pants with some iron-on patches that I had grandma send me. Well, my host mom set it up in the dining room where my host sister and her boyfriend were eating. Little did I know, they had never seen iron-on patches before and were absolutely in awe at what a novel concept they are. Soon enough, the entire family was watching me iron patches onto my pants and exclaiming what brilliant ideas people in the US have!

Viaje a Iquique y Pica

Click on pictures to make them bigger!
This past weekend we had our first weekend trip with CIEE. We met at the airport at 6am on Friday morning for our flight to Iquique, which is in northern Chile. Unfortunately, Elsa (our trip leader) and two students had some trouble with their tickets and did not make it to the plane on time. So the other 15 of us headed to Iquique, where our tour guide was waiting for us at the airport. Iquique is amazing because the town is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean on one side and the desert on the other side (both giant sand dunes and mountains). We had a small tour bus that took us to our hotel in Iquique. The hotel was right on the beach and had absolutely amazing views and a natural pool outside. We had lunch at a restaurant and began the tour of the city in the afternoon when the other 3 arrived. We walked along the beach and visited different historical buildings, mueums, and the Zofri (a discount mall where we watched people doing a tribal dance!). In the central square, we were able to watch people of all ages practicing the Cueca, the national dance that will be danced all over Chile during their holiday for independence day. We saw these signs that say P.E.E. and were very intregued as to what they mean. We learned that they mean Punto de Encuentro Ante Emergencia (emergency meeting place).

On Saturday we woke up, had breakfast in the hotel, and then left the beach and headed to the desert. We drove to Santa Laura and Humberstone, which are ex-oficinas salitreras (old mining locations). We were able to tour both si

tes, which have preserved their machinery and buildings. At Humberstone, we were able to learn about the lives of the miners and their families because it had a church, theater, pool, houses, offices, and cl

assrooms. When we were a

t Humberstone, this girl came up to me and told me that she is in my education class at La Católica. I had no idea who she was, but she recognized me. It was so strange to be far away from Santiago and run into someone!

Our tour through the desert continuted to the site of the Geoglifos de Pintados which are carvings (more than 350 anthropomorfic, geometric, and zoomorphic figures) in the mountains that have been preserved because it never rains. There was literally no vegetation or

civilization around us for many miles in all directions. The picture on the right is one of many where the meaning is lost in translation. It says "Baños" and "rooms of bath."

Our tour then continuted to Pica, which is a small town about 45 minutes away from Iquique. We had lunch there, visited a natural hotspring, walked around the town (one main street where people sell crafts and fruit--lots of mangos). We watched the sun set, had dinner in the town, and then played bananagrams in our hotel room.

On Sunday, we woke up late and everyone relaxed by the pool of our hotel. On our way back to the airport, we stopped in La Tirana, a town of 1200 people, to learn about the religious folklore celebration that happens every year and draws over 200,000 people to this town.

It was a great weekend, especially because it was warm and we were able to see areas of Chile that are so different from Santiago.

The next entry is new too...

¿Hablas español?

So this week I was swimming and one of the guys in my lane turned to me and I swear he said "Como te llamas?" Well apparently he said "cuantos llevan" (how many laps are left) but he spoke so fast that there was no way I could have understood that. So I responded by saying "Alison" and he looked at me as if I'd just landed from another planet and then told me what he what he was actually saying and we laughed. It's so hard to hear people in the pool that I really think they think that I don't speak much Spanish.

Spencer's younger sister (Madison) became friends with a Chilean girl (J

uani) who was spending the year in the US with her family. Well now she is ba

ck in Chile and she lives with her family in Santiago. Spencer gave the

m my information and they invited me to dinner at their house. Her dad picked me up on his way home from work and took me to their house, which was absolutely beau

tiful and the area was unlike anything I've seen in Santiago. Juani is 15 and she has a siste

r that is 8 and two brothers (12 and 17). They were all so nice to me and basically decided that they want to switch lives with me so that they can live in LA.

One of my friends here told me about this hiking group called El Montañista. Last weekend I went with 3 friends on one of their hikes. The group met at a metro station and then drove to the trailhead, which was called

the Quebrada de Macúl. There were about 30 people in the group, and most were families with young children. The hike was very easy, and we stopped about every 20 minutes for snacks. When we reached a waterfall and river, we stopped to have lunch and then headed back do

wn. Luckily, it was a beautiful day and we made some Chilean friends! The group posted an article about our hike on their website. It is in Spanish, but you can check it out here by scrolling down to where

it says "Salida de Trekking: Quebrada de Macúl) http://www.elmontanista.cl/component/content/article/52.html

Other adventures of the past two weeks include:

-going to a Mexican food restaurant with friends from CIEE, which was basically Chilean food with some Mexican aspects

-Alice and I made dinne

r together at my house because, for the first time, no one was home! We then tried to go to a movie but the tickets were all sold out (who knew it was such a big thing here?)

-going to the Human Rights museum in Santiago as a fieldtrip for my class (My professor, Juan Guzmán, came with us. He is a famous Chilean judge and his fans came up to us in the museum! Google him for more information!)

-there is now a box in the fridge that is just for me so that my Chilean siblings leave me some food

Viviendo con los andes

My first adventure this week was on Tuesday when I decided to take a new route to my class at La Chile. I thought that instead of taking one bus and two metros, I would just take two busses. I looked up the route of the bus that stops by my house and it appeared to go along the exact route that I needed to get near the campus. Well, I did not know that yes, it goes along that route, but it does not stop during the entire middle section because it goes on the autopista (a freeway) for 20 minutes. When I pushed the button for the stop I wanted, a lady approached me and asked if I wanted to get off there. When I said yes, she said "Oh no, you can't get off for a long time now!" So I had to ride that bus for 30 more minutes and when I got off, the lady showed me where to get on to go back the same way. So after another 40 minutes heading in the opposite direction, I finally was able to find my way to the campus. The entire trip took me a little less than 2 hours, but luckily I wasn't late to my class because I had planned to go early to study. Now I know to stick to my original route!

On Wednesday my second class was cancelled so my friend Mary and I decided to

be tourists for the afternoon. We went to two museums: Museo de arte precolumbiano and El Museo Mapocho (which is an old train station). We were at the Museo Mapocho while the sun was setting and it was absolutely amazing behind the big glass windows. The first two pictures are of me inside the station. When I was walking, a lady came up to me and I'm not too sure what she was asking, but I know it involved the world "moneda." So basically, she was either

asking me if I could give her some money, or if I could tell her which way for La Moneda (Pres

ident's office and Chilean mint). Very unsure of which she was actually asking, I just responed with a "Lo siento!"

On Thursday, I went out with some friends (both from my program and Chilean). The funny thing is that I was with my friends Alice and Allyson, and we went to meet

Allyson's friend Allie (who studied here last semester). The Chileans like to shorten names so of course we were all Ali.

It was very confusing and made for some good laughs. Now they think most girls in the US have a name that can be shortened to Ali.

On Saturday, I went with 5 friends from my program to hike Cerro Pochoco. We took a bus from the city to the area near the mountain. When we got off the bus, we hiked for about two miles just to get to the bottom of the trail. The streets didn't exactly match Mary's directions so we went the wrong way for a while, but then found some people who gave us the right directions. We hiked up this intense staircaise which took us much closer to the trail. When we final

ly got to the trail, we decided to eat half of our lunch and save the other half for the top. The mountain we climbed was covered with cactus, which was quite strange because the surrounding mountains were covered with snow. The hike was about an hour, and once we got to the top there were amazing views of the city. The only thing that was quite unpleasant that we could see from above was the blanket of smog that covers Santiago. A stray dog (very common here), but with a collar that said Jesus, followed us from the city to the top of the mountain, stopped for our rest at the top, and walked all the way back down with us.

On Sunday, my friends

and I went on a trip for the day to Cajón de Maipo, which is a town outside of Santiago. We left Santiago at 9am and got on a bus to take us to the town, which took about an hour. When we got there, we walked around but really didn't know what to do. We went to a tourism office where they told us we had to go higher up to find things to do. Well the bus only comes once every hour so we walked around the town and bought fresh manjar (dulce de leche) which is so much better than what they sell in the stores in Santiago. We then got back on the bus and rode it up the mountain for another 30 minutes. When we got off the bus, I ran into a Chilean fri

end from one of my classes who was with her boyfriend. They didn't have any specific plan so they decided to spend

the day traveling with us. I think my friend Matías was very relieved to have other Chileans in our group. We decided that we wanted to climb the mountain which, unlike the one on Saturday,

was purely rocks, which actually made it easier to climb. We decided we wanted to reach the patch where there was snow and a waterfall. Of course, the climb ended with a small snowball fi

ght and sliding down the bits with the snow on our butts. The views were absolutely amazing so we stayed up on the rocks for a while before going down. When we got to the bottom, we walked along the road for a while and finally came to a restaurant that sells empanadas. They are cooked in ovens outside so while we were waiting we dried ourselves by the fire of the ovens. Well we ordered them quickly, but had to wait about an hour and a half before we got them! My Chilean friends didn't even get theirs after all that time so they decided to ask for their money back. So we left and went to another one further along the road that was much faster. Then we got back on the bus (I didn't enjoy this part being that it was very wind-y (as to not be confused with windy) and packed with people) but it was almost 8pm at this point and we were all very tired and needed to get home to do some homework.

El sistema más ineficiente

Alice, Allyson, and I eating Chilean pastries

This week I became fully exposed to the Chilean university system of inefficiency. Unlike most universities in the US, students here do not buy their books. Instead, they photocopy the pages that are assigned for that night. In most courses, the assignment for each class is from a different book. In some cases, the professor will leave a folder of readings at the photocopy station and you have to go ask for them to be copied and then pay. But in the cases where the professor doesn't leave the readings, you have to go check out the book from the library (usually only available for an hour because it is on reserve) and then take it to the photocopy station to get copied and return for it later. I think it is absolutely ridiculous that every student has to go through this process instead of having all the readings given in class. As far as printing goes, there are computer labs where you can

go but you have to bring your paper and stand in line to give it to the person working at the printer. When you get to the front, you give them the paper, log-on to another computer to make sure you are only printing yours, and then the person hands you your printed documents and your excess paper. I'm definitely not used to having to have a lot of time to print my assignments, but I sure learned this quickly. One of the strangest things about the university is that backpacks are not permitted within the library so you have to leave it in a locker when you enter.

As for my classes, I'm taking five. There are three at La Catolica- 1. Education, Society, and Culture (education) , 2. The Family: Changes and Continuity (sociology) and 3. Swimming II. At the Universidad de Chile I'm taking one course that is called Youth vs. Drugs, Uses and Abuses. I'm also taking one course with CIEE on human rights. I really like all of my courses even though it is hard to understand everything that people say. Generally, the professors are much easier to understand than the people that talk in class. As for my swimm

ing class, I really enjoy it because most people have only been swimming for a semester and I'm finally one of the fastest. It is definitely a bit of a confidence booster which is helpful because I'm often feeling lost with the languag

e.

This week in my free time, I went to an exercise dance class and a yoga class. The yoga class was hard to understand so I had to keep my eyes open and just watch everyone else. It was all elderly women and they were all impressed by my ability to speak and go to a yoga class in a foreign country.

Many people have asked me for a report of the McDonalds trip. All I can say is that I'm glad it's over! Even though we could have easily taken a bus, we took a taxi which the five of us could barely fit into. When we got there, I was very confused because my host mom asked me if I wanted a vegetarian sandwich (not too sure why she thought they'd have that??). I said I'd just have a parfait and juice. She asked me if I wanted a soda and when I said no, she said "how about sprite? It's just like water with bubbles." All of them got happy meals and argued over who should get what toy. When I said I didn't need a toy, they looked at m

e like I was crazy.

I've never experienced so many people trying to get onto a metro at the same time as I did last Friday during rush hour. The people that want to get on often don't want

to let the people getting off to exit first. While I was waiting to get on with the mob of people, this very short lady was trying to get off but couldn't, and started yelling "estoy viviendo

en un mundo de huevónes communistas." (I'm living in a world of communist assholes). It was hilarious because everyone waiting to get on started to laugh but she was very serious.

During my class on Friday, I signed the attendance list and handed it to Tami, the girl sitting next to me. Upon seeing my last name, she turned to me and said "Are you Jewish?" When I said yes, she said "no way! me too!" I really couldn't believe it because I didn't know that Jews living in Santiago would choose to go to a Catholic school. We were both excited to find a commonality and she invited me to her house that night for Shabbat dinner. Tami and her boyfriend picked me up at my house and brought me to her appartment which is only about a 10 minute drive from where I live. The part of her extended family that lives in Santiago (about 20 people) has Shabbat dinner together every week. It was hard to understand them but it was really nice to be so welcomed by a Jewish family here. Of course, there was lots of food, talking, and laughter.

On Saturday night, my host sister invited me to go out with her, her boyfriend, and one of her friends. When I was waiting for her to get ready, my host brother that is 11 entered my room to tell me that she is ready to go. When I said so I am I, he said, "Pero, te faltas un poco maquillaje" (but you lack a little makeup). It was absolutely hilarious coming from him and I had to explain that it is okay for a girl to go out without lots of makeup. We had a great time dancing and it was nice to be with Chileans who know how to get around with any doubts. On Sunday I made cookies from scratch for my family. There were all very excited since it is such a novely that they ate the entire batch. They said, "encantamos las galletas gringas!" (we love gringa cookies!).