You know what sucks? When you´re sitting on the toilet and you shift and it flushes on you!! Gosh don´t you hate that. Anyways, that´s just what happened to me earlier this morning and I got all flustered and annoyed like usual and then I stopped and thought... WHOA it´s been a while since that happened! I realize I´ve been in 2 huge tourist trap cities for the past week and a half, but before that (and even at some points during that) we were really living rustic style with toilets that often lacked seats/flushers/toilet paper. I had almost masted the concept of flushing a toilet by dumping a big jug of water down it. So, the point is that it was almost comforting today when I felt that unexpected splash of toilet water rush under me as I was still peeing. But next time it happens it will once again become just plain old annoying.
Okay it´s 5:35 and I´ve been in the Lima airport since 8 AM (Jamie´s flight to Cuzco was earlier and I didn´t feel like paying separately to come to the airport). It´s pretty elegant, even for US standards. I was basking in the elegance of a Papa Johns, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks earlier and then I overheard someone saying that there is an international departure tax of $30. What the HELL. That´s why the airport is so nice... because they´re raking in millions from innocent travelers. Outrageous.
I expected to be reallly bored today, but it hasn´t been so bad. People watching has been more entertaining than usually. There are a ton of gringos here because I think Lima tends to be much cheaper than other South American airports to fly into and out of. Earlier this morning around 11 AM I saw a group of about 10 American adults (in their 40s or 50s) throwing back a TON of Cusquenas (the national beer). I repeat, it was 11 AM, and these people were getting BUCK with the booze. When they got up from the table it took SEVERAL trips to dispose of all their empty bottles. Then they rushed off to the bathroom/their flight where I can only assume they were going to indulge in some of those mini bottles of cheap wine or hard liquor. Really living it up. That´s all from the Lima Airport. The air conditioning in this room is blasting and paying more than $2 an hour for internet is something I have never done, so time to wrap up. I fly out at 8:30 and get into Santiago around 1 AM where I have booked a luxurious hotel room with a delicious breakfast included for 4 nights. Don´t judge me... I never claimed to be a budget accomodation type girl.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Sky high in Lima.
Today was my second Latin American (or anywhere) parasailing adventure! A couple blocks from our hostal in Lima, right on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, there is a launching site for paragliding companies that several travellers we met a couple weeks ago (on that bus with no brakes, remember that?) recommended. We indulged, and it was BUCK wild. I´m not sure I´ve ever done anything quite so insane. It´s only like a 15 minute ride, but it´s directly over not only the ocean but also the highway and RIGHT next to buildings. While my guide was a little conservative (you know, we only went about 5 feet from buildings), Jamie said he could have kicked teh side of a building. It is insane and definitely a little scary but so fun. And we´re all alive. A PLUS!
Today we went to ¨downtown¨Lima. It was nothing to speak of. Then we went back to the grocery store and bought more produce/bread. Last night I made a bangin fruit salad that probably would have cost about $50 in the US to buy all the fruit for. I´m really taking advantage of this cheap fruit while I can... only a week more.
Tonight we´re heading to one of the best restaurants in Lima to indulge some more. It´s called Astrid y Gaston and there´s also a location in Santiago that President of Chile Michelle Bachelet appraently frequents. Oh it´s good to be living the fine life after freezing our asses off for several weeks in the Bolivian desert.
Today we went to ¨downtown¨Lima. It was nothing to speak of. Then we went back to the grocery store and bought more produce/bread. Last night I made a bangin fruit salad that probably would have cost about $50 in the US to buy all the fruit for. I´m really taking advantage of this cheap fruit while I can... only a week more.
Tonight we´re heading to one of the best restaurants in Lima to indulge some more. It´s called Astrid y Gaston and there´s also a location in Santiago that President of Chile Michelle Bachelet appraently frequents. Oh it´s good to be living the fine life after freezing our asses off for several weeks in the Bolivian desert.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Mayo much?
Okay CLASSIC Latin American experience I had to share...
Today James and I were buying lunch in the local grocery store called METRO (confusing... no... just normal for Peru). Anyways, I´m filling up a little plastic container with Metro´s salad bar options - very limited by the way - and I begin to investigate the literally 12 or so options for ¨salad dressing.¨A cursory glance at the dressing names and even a couple tastes that I shamefully licked off my finger when no one was looking told me that most were all different colored variations of chili seasoning. Then there were 3 or 4 variations of mayonaise. Then there was some white sauce called ¨garlic sauce.¨I figured... okay, it could be gross but it could be pretty decent also, and I certainly am not up for putting any type of mayonaise or chili sauce on my salad, so I went for it. Salsa de ajo.
I went ahead and had my salad weighed, and went on with my Metro shopping experience. I walked past the prepared food section, gazed for a while, and moved on to the panaderia to buy some bread. I had just made my decision for a delicious looking whole wheat roll when a woman taps me on the back and says something along the lines of.... ¨PERMISO... ESTA ES SALSA DE AJO!!! NO ES MAYONAISA!!! ES DE AJO!¨(Excuse me... that is garlic sauce! Not (our beloved) mayonaise!! It´s garlic!¨ She looked genuinelly concerned and I giggled at the thought that this woman had probably been watching me and following me for the last 3-4 minutes if she was just NOW confronting me. I told her I was aware of my (apparently outrageous) salad dressing selection, and we both moved on with our lives. Except I still giggled. Only in South America would someone be concerned that i DID NOT drench my salad in mayonaise.
Today James and I were buying lunch in the local grocery store called METRO (confusing... no... just normal for Peru). Anyways, I´m filling up a little plastic container with Metro´s salad bar options - very limited by the way - and I begin to investigate the literally 12 or so options for ¨salad dressing.¨A cursory glance at the dressing names and even a couple tastes that I shamefully licked off my finger when no one was looking told me that most were all different colored variations of chili seasoning. Then there were 3 or 4 variations of mayonaise. Then there was some white sauce called ¨garlic sauce.¨I figured... okay, it could be gross but it could be pretty decent also, and I certainly am not up for putting any type of mayonaise or chili sauce on my salad, so I went for it. Salsa de ajo.
I went ahead and had my salad weighed, and went on with my Metro shopping experience. I walked past the prepared food section, gazed for a while, and moved on to the panaderia to buy some bread. I had just made my decision for a delicious looking whole wheat roll when a woman taps me on the back and says something along the lines of.... ¨PERMISO... ESTA ES SALSA DE AJO!!! NO ES MAYONAISA!!! ES DE AJO!¨(Excuse me... that is garlic sauce! Not (our beloved) mayonaise!! It´s garlic!¨ She looked genuinelly concerned and I giggled at the thought that this woman had probably been watching me and following me for the last 3-4 minutes if she was just NOW confronting me. I told her I was aware of my (apparently outrageous) salad dressing selection, and we both moved on with our lives. Except I still giggled. Only in South America would someone be concerned that i DID NOT drench my salad in mayonaise.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
A little ketchup.
Laziness always comes back to kick me in the butt when I try to write blog posts. I find it easier to keep my thoughts straight in list format, so I´ll go with that. Sorry if my thoughts seem to have no sequence or relevance. Here goes....
1. Food.... We discovered early on during our time in Cuzco that the ubiquitous set menu meals found at most restaurants generally tend to be cheap, but also disgusting. After a couple nights, we had explored enough to know where to get the good deals without sacrificing taste. I ate some of the best salads of my life and didn´t really mind that they weren´t really all that Peruvian.
2. Entertainment.....Our hotel room had a TV where we watched a lot of Law and Order in our down time. We also continued our tradition of finding excellent movies to watch on TV including You, Me, and Dupree (I think maybe I already mentioned that but it was so good that it deserves another nod) and Hitch, featuring Will Smith. Reeeal good.
3. Machu Picchu.... just as fucking awesome as you would expect. It´s breathtaking, especially at 6 AM. After a brief and groggy period (we woke up at 4:45) when we were convinced that we would be able to climb (almost entirely) vertically up a mountain to get to MP, we came to our senses, turned back, and shelled out $7 each for the bus. Best decision of our lives; however, despite getting there at 5:30, we got on bus #22 heading up the mountain and there were about 600 people in front of us. Once we arrived, we got in line for limited tickets to climb the coveted ¨Huana Picchu¨(the large peak that is often seen in teh background of pictures of MP). Unfortunately, the 800th ticket was given away to the man directly in front of us in line, so we admitted defeat and walked off to explore, not all that disappointed. I ended up feeling pretty sick that day, so I basically just layed down on the grass and took occasional glances up at the scenery to remind myself of where I was. Jamie did some manly man hikes, one of which was (according to a Peruvian guide) way more badass than that sissy Huana Picchu.
4. Shopping.... I actually wrote a post the other day about shopping and then didn´t have time to finish/post it. When I went back to read it, I realized it was basically one giant rant that made me sound like an angry whiner. Let me just say, the other day we went on a little daytrip to a town outside of Cuzco called Pisac that has a weekly Sunday morning. After about 20 minutes, I thought I was going to ring the necks of just about every overbearing Peruvian salesperson. It is nearly impossible to just look at things in markets here, and for someone who likes to shop in peace without being constantly solicited, Latin America is not the place to come. I was in no mood. Another thing, I know these people may hate their terrible jobs of trying to squeeze money out of obnoxious and often clueless foreigners, but don´t tell me a hat is ¨hecho de mano¨(made by hand) when I´ve seen 20 of the same exact hats at the last 20 vendors and everywhere else in Peru. Puh-lease. My mama didn´t raise no fool.
Also regarding shopping, Jamie is going somewhat buck wild with the Peruvian currency, the nuevo soles. At the Sunday market he bought not one but TWO sweaters - one alpaca and the other baby alpaca. A couple days earlier he also bought not one but TWO hats of identical style but different colors. Who am I to stop him?
5. Lima.... today we flew there. We´d heard some not-so-impressive stuff about it just being kind of a big city with little going on, but it´s not all bad. We´re staying in a section of the city that is right on the Pacific Ocean, and there is an American style mall (meaning, there´s a Hooters) built right into the side of the coast so you can shop for baby alpaca sweaters while looking at the waves come crashing in. It looks like we´ll spend most of our time here walking around (maybe even running a little!) and eating. Luckily, our hostal has a kitchen and there are really nice grocery stores around so hopefully we can save some dinero and cook a little. It had been so long since I had been in a grocery store and I was so excited that I sort of had a Supermarket Sweep-type feeling earlier today. I bought cereal and soy milk and bananas and had an incredibly enjoyable dinner. In addition to eating (if anything else is worth mentioning), we´re also planning on hitting up the movie theaters and doing some parasailing in a couple days. There also seems to be Vegas-style casinos on every block that I´m itching to investigate. I´ll report back.
Four nights in Lima followed by four nights in Santiago and then I´m back in the homeland!
1. Food.... We discovered early on during our time in Cuzco that the ubiquitous set menu meals found at most restaurants generally tend to be cheap, but also disgusting. After a couple nights, we had explored enough to know where to get the good deals without sacrificing taste. I ate some of the best salads of my life and didn´t really mind that they weren´t really all that Peruvian.
2. Entertainment.....Our hotel room had a TV where we watched a lot of Law and Order in our down time. We also continued our tradition of finding excellent movies to watch on TV including You, Me, and Dupree (I think maybe I already mentioned that but it was so good that it deserves another nod) and Hitch, featuring Will Smith. Reeeal good.
3. Machu Picchu.... just as fucking awesome as you would expect. It´s breathtaking, especially at 6 AM. After a brief and groggy period (we woke up at 4:45) when we were convinced that we would be able to climb (almost entirely) vertically up a mountain to get to MP, we came to our senses, turned back, and shelled out $7 each for the bus. Best decision of our lives; however, despite getting there at 5:30, we got on bus #22 heading up the mountain and there were about 600 people in front of us. Once we arrived, we got in line for limited tickets to climb the coveted ¨Huana Picchu¨(the large peak that is often seen in teh background of pictures of MP). Unfortunately, the 800th ticket was given away to the man directly in front of us in line, so we admitted defeat and walked off to explore, not all that disappointed. I ended up feeling pretty sick that day, so I basically just layed down on the grass and took occasional glances up at the scenery to remind myself of where I was. Jamie did some manly man hikes, one of which was (according to a Peruvian guide) way more badass than that sissy Huana Picchu.
4. Shopping.... I actually wrote a post the other day about shopping and then didn´t have time to finish/post it. When I went back to read it, I realized it was basically one giant rant that made me sound like an angry whiner. Let me just say, the other day we went on a little daytrip to a town outside of Cuzco called Pisac that has a weekly Sunday morning. After about 20 minutes, I thought I was going to ring the necks of just about every overbearing Peruvian salesperson. It is nearly impossible to just look at things in markets here, and for someone who likes to shop in peace without being constantly solicited, Latin America is not the place to come. I was in no mood. Another thing, I know these people may hate their terrible jobs of trying to squeeze money out of obnoxious and often clueless foreigners, but don´t tell me a hat is ¨hecho de mano¨(made by hand) when I´ve seen 20 of the same exact hats at the last 20 vendors and everywhere else in Peru. Puh-lease. My mama didn´t raise no fool.
Also regarding shopping, Jamie is going somewhat buck wild with the Peruvian currency, the nuevo soles. At the Sunday market he bought not one but TWO sweaters - one alpaca and the other baby alpaca. A couple days earlier he also bought not one but TWO hats of identical style but different colors. Who am I to stop him?
5. Lima.... today we flew there. We´d heard some not-so-impressive stuff about it just being kind of a big city with little going on, but it´s not all bad. We´re staying in a section of the city that is right on the Pacific Ocean, and there is an American style mall (meaning, there´s a Hooters) built right into the side of the coast so you can shop for baby alpaca sweaters while looking at the waves come crashing in. It looks like we´ll spend most of our time here walking around (maybe even running a little!) and eating. Luckily, our hostal has a kitchen and there are really nice grocery stores around so hopefully we can save some dinero and cook a little. It had been so long since I had been in a grocery store and I was so excited that I sort of had a Supermarket Sweep-type feeling earlier today. I bought cereal and soy milk and bananas and had an incredibly enjoyable dinner. In addition to eating (if anything else is worth mentioning), we´re also planning on hitting up the movie theaters and doing some parasailing in a couple days. There also seems to be Vegas-style casinos on every block that I´m itching to investigate. I´ll report back.
Four nights in Lima followed by four nights in Santiago and then I´m back in the homeland!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Breathing problems in The Paz, Bad Pizza at Titicaca, and Welcome to Peru.
Hello PERU!! We´ve been in Cuzco for a couple days now.... we were part of the few who managed to make it through the massive roadblocks that exist on every road leading into Cuzco right now. Lucky us. The downside is that we´ve had to adjust our plans a little (what else is new) and book some flights. Expensive flights. Lame.
Before I talk about Cuzco though, I realize I haven´t updated in quite a while longer than I thought. La Paz was nice and busy and pretty. We watched some excellent movies in our hotel room to occupy the prime time hours (Georgia Rule featuring Lindsay Lohan. I liked it. My Best Friend´s Wedding. Never seen it before which was weird but I´m related to Dave ¨Julia Robert´s second husband¨Munro so I guess I´m inclined to say it was pretty good. Also, to top it off... NORBIT. If you have not seen this film masterpiece there is no reason to wait. Netflix your heart away and Eddy Murphy will not disappoint.) Anyways, it was hard to breathe in La Paz with it being at such a high elevation and with so much pollution due to really outdated automobiles. We had to leave.
On to..... Copacabana and Lake Titicaca. Hmm... We spent 1.5 hours on a boat heading to the island where we (unknowingly) had to climb quite a steep mountain of stairs with our souvenir-heavy backpacks. Trecherous. Once arriving at our hotel, we had a cold room but a great view. That night, perhaps the worst food decision of our lives..... do NOT order pizza in South America unless it comes highly recommended. We knew better and still had to suffer the consequences. After a beautious hike the next day, it was time to leave. We had originally thought of staying another night, but after feeling like we were being scammed everytime we turned around (ohhh... you want to step off the boat? 5 bolivianos. Oh you want to step on that grass? 15 bolivianos) that desire to stay faded away.
Back to Copacabana where we enjoyed a nice dinner (thanks mom and dad!) with an excellent salad bar with a sassy waitor. Our room was right on the ¨beach¨ where we thought about partaking in a paddle boat adventure but then the sun went down too fast. We sort of watched Bridget Jones Diary, which I re-realized I strongly dislike.
The next day, after a 10 hour bus ride, we arrived here in Cuzco. It´s really beautiful... lots of pretty squares and cobblestone streets. It´s also fulll of gringos to an extent we have yet to witness. In the past, we saw mainly travellers from Australia, the UK, and Israel. So, it came as quite a surprise (good or not) to hear so much American style english. Tour groups are everywhere and we met a Political Science professor from Princeton last night at our restaurant and then immediately went to an internet cafe so Jamie could stalk him. Couldn´t find anything on him so he´s either... 1) not famous or 2) a liar. Who knows. The bright side is that after spending a horrendous night in one hostal where we were subjected to guitar music and horrendous singing from a nearby bar while we were trying to sleep, we´ve found a great place. There´s an old man who has a serious bathroom-hogging problem which does not correspond well with my constant need to pee, but we have a TV again!! In the downtime, we´ve been enjoying a lot of those reality murder mystery shows (that give me nightmares), Law and Order (that also gives me nightmares), and YOU ME AND DUPREE. GO SEE IT. You won´t be sorry.
Now, now... don´t get the impression that all we do is sit in the hostal and watch TV. We´ve been doing a lot of walkign around Cuzco and tomorrow we leave for a 3 night trip to some nearby towns during which we will visit MACHU PICCHU. We´re planning on getting there at 5 AM, so if all goes according to plan, ít should be fun. If all does not go according to plan, then it will just be normal South America.
Before I talk about Cuzco though, I realize I haven´t updated in quite a while longer than I thought. La Paz was nice and busy and pretty. We watched some excellent movies in our hotel room to occupy the prime time hours (Georgia Rule featuring Lindsay Lohan. I liked it. My Best Friend´s Wedding. Never seen it before which was weird but I´m related to Dave ¨Julia Robert´s second husband¨Munro so I guess I´m inclined to say it was pretty good. Also, to top it off... NORBIT. If you have not seen this film masterpiece there is no reason to wait. Netflix your heart away and Eddy Murphy will not disappoint.) Anyways, it was hard to breathe in La Paz with it being at such a high elevation and with so much pollution due to really outdated automobiles. We had to leave.
On to..... Copacabana and Lake Titicaca. Hmm... We spent 1.5 hours on a boat heading to the island where we (unknowingly) had to climb quite a steep mountain of stairs with our souvenir-heavy backpacks. Trecherous. Once arriving at our hotel, we had a cold room but a great view. That night, perhaps the worst food decision of our lives..... do NOT order pizza in South America unless it comes highly recommended. We knew better and still had to suffer the consequences. After a beautious hike the next day, it was time to leave. We had originally thought of staying another night, but after feeling like we were being scammed everytime we turned around (ohhh... you want to step off the boat? 5 bolivianos. Oh you want to step on that grass? 15 bolivianos) that desire to stay faded away.
Back to Copacabana where we enjoyed a nice dinner (thanks mom and dad!) with an excellent salad bar with a sassy waitor. Our room was right on the ¨beach¨ where we thought about partaking in a paddle boat adventure but then the sun went down too fast. We sort of watched Bridget Jones Diary, which I re-realized I strongly dislike.
The next day, after a 10 hour bus ride, we arrived here in Cuzco. It´s really beautiful... lots of pretty squares and cobblestone streets. It´s also fulll of gringos to an extent we have yet to witness. In the past, we saw mainly travellers from Australia, the UK, and Israel. So, it came as quite a surprise (good or not) to hear so much American style english. Tour groups are everywhere and we met a Political Science professor from Princeton last night at our restaurant and then immediately went to an internet cafe so Jamie could stalk him. Couldn´t find anything on him so he´s either... 1) not famous or 2) a liar. Who knows. The bright side is that after spending a horrendous night in one hostal where we were subjected to guitar music and horrendous singing from a nearby bar while we were trying to sleep, we´ve found a great place. There´s an old man who has a serious bathroom-hogging problem which does not correspond well with my constant need to pee, but we have a TV again!! In the downtime, we´ve been enjoying a lot of those reality murder mystery shows (that give me nightmares), Law and Order (that also gives me nightmares), and YOU ME AND DUPREE. GO SEE IT. You won´t be sorry.
Now, now... don´t get the impression that all we do is sit in the hostal and watch TV. We´ve been doing a lot of walkign around Cuzco and tomorrow we leave for a 3 night trip to some nearby towns during which we will visit MACHU PICCHU. We´re planning on getting there at 5 AM, so if all goes according to plan, ít should be fun. If all does not go according to plan, then it will just be normal South America.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Peachy.
A new color for a new day. I´m hungry.
Wishing the best to all my fellow DC red-line travellers. Hope everyone is safe!
Wishing the best to all my fellow DC red-line travellers. Hope everyone is safe!
Monday, June 22, 2009
There is no such thing as a ¨plan¨ in South America.
We´re slowly learning. Today, we took a 45 minute flight from Sucre to La Paz. Unfortunately, we had to settle for 1st class since those were the only tickets left.... a real bummer... sort of wish it had been a transcontinental flight when I saw how much butt space I had. Upon arrival, we had planned to book tickets to go immediately to Rurrenabaque, the Bolivian Amazon. We had heard that flights to Rurrenabaque were somewhat unreliable in terms of whether they would leave or not becasue the ¨runway¨in the jungle is made of grass. Still, we were hoping to persevere and go ahead with the plan. Ha, the plan... we were such amateurs.
Upon arriving at the ticket counter we talked to a Amazonia Airline worker who told us that we would not be able to leave today but MAYBE tomorrow. She provided no further information (whch is sort of the trend on this continent... people aren´t going to tell you shit unless you ask direct and very specific questions. Even then, it´s certainly not a guarantee that their information is the truth, and we often just don´t even know what to ask.Very frustrating.) Anyways, after chatting with a lovely German couple who had been bumped for take-off several times (and who exchanged several ¨this is shiza¨´s between each other as they were receiving little help from the airline), we decided that we would forgoe the jungle trip. If we ever did make it there, flights back are just as uncertain and we really didn´t want to throw off the rest of our trip.
Currently, we´re in a hotel in La Paz and planning to spend a couple days here. Jamie´s back in the room resting after yakking up some street-cake he foolishly consumed last night. Once he´s better, we´re really looking forward to rocking this city... there are tons of actually cool sounding museums (this coming me, a self-proclaimed philistine), a Witches Market, and lots of streets to explore. Our cab ride from the airport into the heart of the city was amazing as the main highway is basically a slow decent as it circles the city. First thoughts... I sort of felt like I was back in India. It is pretty wild and crowded here and my words can barely describe the juxtoposition of the beautiful distant mountains with the lower-income neighborhoods that line the higher altitude parts of the city above the center. Can´t wait to see more. And eat, ofcourse.
Upon arriving at the ticket counter we talked to a Amazonia Airline worker who told us that we would not be able to leave today but MAYBE tomorrow. She provided no further information (whch is sort of the trend on this continent... people aren´t going to tell you shit unless you ask direct and very specific questions. Even then, it´s certainly not a guarantee that their information is the truth, and we often just don´t even know what to ask.Very frustrating.) Anyways, after chatting with a lovely German couple who had been bumped for take-off several times (and who exchanged several ¨this is shiza¨´s between each other as they were receiving little help from the airline), we decided that we would forgoe the jungle trip. If we ever did make it there, flights back are just as uncertain and we really didn´t want to throw off the rest of our trip.
Currently, we´re in a hotel in La Paz and planning to spend a couple days here. Jamie´s back in the room resting after yakking up some street-cake he foolishly consumed last night. Once he´s better, we´re really looking forward to rocking this city... there are tons of actually cool sounding museums (this coming me, a self-proclaimed philistine), a Witches Market, and lots of streets to explore. Our cab ride from the airport into the heart of the city was amazing as the main highway is basically a slow decent as it circles the city. First thoughts... I sort of felt like I was back in India. It is pretty wild and crowded here and my words can barely describe the juxtoposition of the beautiful distant mountains with the lower-income neighborhoods that line the higher altitude parts of the city above the center. Can´t wait to see more. And eat, ofcourse.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Sucre Day 1.5
Two posts in 1 day? I know, I know... I am out of control.
Anyways.... Sucre is wonderful!! It´s beautiful. All day Jamie and I have been trying to find a suitable comparison and here´s what we´ve come up with (I´ve tried to make this geographically non-discriminatory so hopefully anybody will be able to understand.)
For those of yall who have traveled through the SurAmerica, it´s sort of like Mendoza, Argentina but with many many more beautiful buildings and better maintained parks. It´s also more crowded and an all-around better place. The similarity here is the pretty parks throughout and the classic laid-back, ¨let´s hang around and sit in a park all day and chill out¨feeling.
For those in the good 'ol US of A... it´s sort of like San Francisco. It´s pretty hilly and once again... the square parks that randomly turn up (sort of like downtown DC as well) . There tend to be a lot of people lying around without much of an agenda, but then there´s certainly plenty of markets and cool stores. The only thing missing is the ocean. And the sourdough ofcourse.
For the Euro-types, I imagine it´s sort of like Spain. That being said, I´ve never been to Spain but seeing as how they colonized Latin America and all... I´m probably somewhat correct. And also totally wrong. Come and see for yourselves.
The basic gist is... life is good and we really really like what we´ve seen. Today we hung around a lot at the Central Market which is mainly food (produce heaven which I´m hoping is a trend for the rest of the trip. I wish I could upload pictures! Erin, get excited!) We had a delicious lunch with hearty sopa de maní (which means peanuts, but this soup had no trace of peanuts) and some chicken dish. Mmmm... it cost us a whopping $2.50 for 2 lunches and was more than satisfying. Tomorrow we head on a day trip to a nearby town called Tarabuco which apparently has a famous market that will satisfy every tourist´s desire for consumerism. I can´t wait.
Anyways.... Sucre is wonderful!! It´s beautiful. All day Jamie and I have been trying to find a suitable comparison and here´s what we´ve come up with (I´ve tried to make this geographically non-discriminatory so hopefully anybody will be able to understand.)
For those of yall who have traveled through the SurAmerica, it´s sort of like Mendoza, Argentina but with many many more beautiful buildings and better maintained parks. It´s also more crowded and an all-around better place. The similarity here is the pretty parks throughout and the classic laid-back, ¨let´s hang around and sit in a park all day and chill out¨feeling.
For those in the good 'ol US of A... it´s sort of like San Francisco. It´s pretty hilly and once again... the square parks that randomly turn up (sort of like downtown DC as well) . There tend to be a lot of people lying around without much of an agenda, but then there´s certainly plenty of markets and cool stores. The only thing missing is the ocean. And the sourdough ofcourse.
For the Euro-types, I imagine it´s sort of like Spain. That being said, I´ve never been to Spain but seeing as how they colonized Latin America and all... I´m probably somewhat correct. And also totally wrong. Come and see for yourselves.
The basic gist is... life is good and we really really like what we´ve seen. Today we hung around a lot at the Central Market which is mainly food (produce heaven which I´m hoping is a trend for the rest of the trip. I wish I could upload pictures! Erin, get excited!) We had a delicious lunch with hearty sopa de maní (which means peanuts, but this soup had no trace of peanuts) and some chicken dish. Mmmm... it cost us a whopping $2.50 for 2 lunches and was more than satisfying. Tomorrow we head on a day trip to a nearby town called Tarabuco which apparently has a famous market that will satisfy every tourist´s desire for consumerism. I can´t wait.
Sucre Day 1
So did I ever tell you about that time when our bus lost ability to brake with about an hour left to go? No? Oh, well, here goes....
Yesterday Jamie and I hopped on a 9 hour bus ride from Uyuni through Potosí to Sucre. With about an hour left to go until we reached Potosí, there was a loud sound. We pulled over, people got out to stretch/pee/etc and ten minutes later we were off once again, with the impression that we had just been leaking oil or something. This is Bolivia. No big deal. A while later, I started noticing we had been driving rather slowly for a while, and sooner or later, despite a lack of announcement or anything from the driver, we all realized the brakes were shot. Ooops. Luckily, this may be more common in than we would all think, since it really didn´t seem like a huge deal to the Bolivians. No pasa nada, we reached Potosí about 1.5 hours late. Once there, we hoped to god that this same bus would not be the bus for the continuation of the trip to Sucre. Luckily and somewhat surprisingly, a new bus showed up and after minor troubles boarding and a scary interaction with the hostile driver, we boarded and off we went. This ride was much more comfortable (hello pavement... I´ve never been so happy to see you in my life).
We arrived in Sucre and realized that, despite no indication of poor driving, our driver reaked of alcohol. That being said, here we sit in an internet cafe looking up cheap Bolivian plane tickets for the next legs of our adventure (Sucre to La Paz to Rurrenabaque and back to La Paz). Hearingn about all the strikes causing road blockages in Peru, the frigid conditions of overnight 16 hour bus rides, and the desire to avoid dangerous Bolivian bus drivers... we´d like to shell out the extra bolivianos to remain alive and keep this trip on course so we don´t waste too much time.
One note about our journey... EVERYWHERE (rocks in the middle of nowhere Bolivia, waterpipes, sides of stone houses, etc) was propoganda in favor of the new Bolivian constitution that was a big deal back in 2006. A lot it read ¨Si a la nueva constitucion¨or pictures of the Bolivian flag with ¨unidad¨messages. The new Constitution, which is supposed to give more rights to the indigenous groups and which was eventually passed, was controversial because President Evo Morales changed the amount of Assembly support needed for the new Constitution. Basically, I was shocked by the widespread propoganda created by the government throughout small (small!) communities thoughout this country.
To leave on a happy note... Sucre is beautiful and after having a little trouble finding a hotel with spaces, we´ve landed in a nice place where we have a private bathroom, TV (CNN in english and more movie channels than we have at hoome in NY), and breakfast included. And ... IT´S WARM. I´m wearing t-shirt outside right now and no gloves!!! We haven´t seen much of the city yet, but more of an update about what Sucre is all about coming soon!
Yesterday Jamie and I hopped on a 9 hour bus ride from Uyuni through Potosí to Sucre. With about an hour left to go until we reached Potosí, there was a loud sound. We pulled over, people got out to stretch/pee/etc and ten minutes later we were off once again, with the impression that we had just been leaking oil or something. This is Bolivia. No big deal. A while later, I started noticing we had been driving rather slowly for a while, and sooner or later, despite a lack of announcement or anything from the driver, we all realized the brakes were shot. Ooops. Luckily, this may be more common in than we would all think, since it really didn´t seem like a huge deal to the Bolivians. No pasa nada, we reached Potosí about 1.5 hours late. Once there, we hoped to god that this same bus would not be the bus for the continuation of the trip to Sucre. Luckily and somewhat surprisingly, a new bus showed up and after minor troubles boarding and a scary interaction with the hostile driver, we boarded and off we went. This ride was much more comfortable (hello pavement... I´ve never been so happy to see you in my life).
We arrived in Sucre and realized that, despite no indication of poor driving, our driver reaked of alcohol. That being said, here we sit in an internet cafe looking up cheap Bolivian plane tickets for the next legs of our adventure (Sucre to La Paz to Rurrenabaque and back to La Paz). Hearingn about all the strikes causing road blockages in Peru, the frigid conditions of overnight 16 hour bus rides, and the desire to avoid dangerous Bolivian bus drivers... we´d like to shell out the extra bolivianos to remain alive and keep this trip on course so we don´t waste too much time.
One note about our journey... EVERYWHERE (rocks in the middle of nowhere Bolivia, waterpipes, sides of stone houses, etc) was propoganda in favor of the new Bolivian constitution that was a big deal back in 2006. A lot it read ¨Si a la nueva constitucion¨or pictures of the Bolivian flag with ¨unidad¨messages. The new Constitution, which is supposed to give more rights to the indigenous groups and which was eventually passed, was controversial because President Evo Morales changed the amount of Assembly support needed for the new Constitution. Basically, I was shocked by the widespread propoganda created by the government throughout small (small!) communities thoughout this country.
To leave on a happy note... Sucre is beautiful and after having a little trouble finding a hotel with spaces, we´ve landed in a nice place where we have a private bathroom, TV (CNN in english and more movie channels than we have at hoome in NY), and breakfast included. And ... IT´S WARM. I´m wearing t-shirt outside right now and no gloves!!! We haven´t seen much of the city yet, but more of an update about what Sucre is all about coming soon!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Hollller Bolivia! The land of pizza, salt, and cheap everything.
Okay, before I say anything, I have to talk about the really really delicious meal Jamie and I just had. Yes, we are in Bolivia, so yes, we should be rocking it indigenous-style, but Lonely Planet gave serious puntos to this place called ¨Minuteman Revolutionary Pizza¨so claro, we had to check it out. The name seemed weird until we arrived to find it loaded with gringos (the cool kind though, not the obnoxious ones that we try to stay away from) and talked to the owner, a man from Amherst, Massachusetts who married a Bolivian woman and moved down here 12 years ago. (okay... yeah, the name still seems weird to me especially for a pretty rural area of Bolivia). Anyways, pizza! To make it plain and simple, the pizza in South America is bad. Bad bad bad. However, Minuteman Revolutionary pizza was all the rage and it felt good to be eating pesto (young James got llama meat on his pizza). To top it off, I downed a delish chocolate chip cookie taht made this whole month long trip worthwhile.
Now, let´s back it up a few days. On Tuesday, Jamie and I started a 3 day journey from the San Pedro de Atacama desert in Chile to Ayuni, Bolivia (the quite unfortunate town where we are now). Along for the ride in our cramped 4x4 were our Bolivian driver, our Bolivian meal cook, 3 Brazilian chicas who turned out to be really cool and surprisingly not-lame, and one French dude that has been traveling though Asia and South America for a while. We unfortunately did not end up travelling with the buck wild Australians that we saw in San Pedro (pretty sure they would have livened up the trip tremendously), but it was a good group all the same. Our driver was really into off-roading - and when i say off-roading I mean the things considered ¨roads¨were dirt and rock filled already so it was like one of those extreme SUV commercials set in teh desert times a million. During the trip, we saw some geysers, LOTS of lagoons (some with flamingos), and most importantly, the Great Salt Flat (basically, an expanse of salt 30 meters deep and 12,000 square kilometers - for those who are measurement impaired, that is really fucking big. The biggest in the world in fact).
While the trip was fun and definitely more intersting than sitting on a bus for 10 hours, thre were ofcourse some downfalls. I feel like I haev been in a constant state of cold since late April, and this trip just made that feeling more intense. Although they were promised, sleeping bags were nowhere to be found at any of the hostal-type places we stayed during the trek, and the places we stayed were barely insulated structures. Last night, we stayed in a building supposedly completely constructed of salt (although I saw some concrete). Words of wisdom: salt is not a good insulator and should be avoided as a construction material should you desire warmth. Anyways, here in Ayuni sought out better accomodations and immediately found a lovely hostel with double rooms for only $4 per night per person. Hollller... that totally justifies that $15 splurge pizza dinner, yeah?
Recently, I´ve been having some serious nostalgia for weirrd things. I don´t necessarily miss people (no offense, love you all) so much as I miss places and certain feelings. For instance, yesterday (perhaps due to the sub-par freezing accomodations), I had the strongest desire to be at the Scranton, PA hotel where we stay every Christmas eve. There´s nothing special about this hotel except that the same people are working every year and it´s warm and bright and there´s always a big Christmas tree and lots of empty boxes wrapped in colorful paper (and a menorah ofcourse). The ice cream in Provincetown, a Saturday morning of garage sales in Delmar, the drive down the Unirondack camp road ... all things that have been on my mind a lot recently.
That being said, I´m so pumped for the rest of the trip. Tomorow, after indulging in a large and hpefully very satisfying breakfast, we will board a 9 hour bus to Sucre, Bolivia´s judicial capital (La Paz, where we will be later in teh week is the capital for the other governmental stuff). According to Lonely Planet, we might actualy be able to get a cheap room that includes heart-shaped pillows (no joke) and cable tv. I´m also hoping that in the next week I´ll be able to find some sort of gym so I won´t feel like a slob who is failing to appropriately train for a marathon in October.
Here´s a rough schedule for the next month for those who care:
June 19- travel all day from Uyuni to Sucre, Bolivia
June 21- take overnight bus to La Paz, Bolivia
June 25- travel (hopefully by plane) to Rurrenabaque (THE JUNGLE which will hopefully include a day long community-based eco tour of an Amazonian community that Lonely Planet speaks highly of)
June 28-fly back to La Paz and stay over a night
June 29- take a bus to Copacabana, Bolivia (Lake Titicaca!!)
June 30- travel by ferry to Isla del Sol and stay over night
July 2- head back to Copacabana and bus it to Peru (the other side of Lake Titicaca or Cuzco or wherever else)
At that point, we´ll be in Peru and schedules are unnecessary (at least at this point because it took us long enough to even figure out Bolivia) as long as we see Machu Pichu. Jamie´s girlfriend Erin will join us on July 8 and we´ll likely go buck wild until the 12th when I´ll head back to Santiago for a couple days. Oh to be young...
Okay, it´s 9:16 (i.e. WAY past our bedtime. En serio, we haevn´t made it past 8:30 the last couple nights). Chao for now and feel free to comment and demand post cards and presents (did I mention that our hotel is $4? I have a feeling I will be going consumer crazy here, as long as I can figure out a way to carry it on my back around South America).
Now, let´s back it up a few days. On Tuesday, Jamie and I started a 3 day journey from the San Pedro de Atacama desert in Chile to Ayuni, Bolivia (the quite unfortunate town where we are now). Along for the ride in our cramped 4x4 were our Bolivian driver, our Bolivian meal cook, 3 Brazilian chicas who turned out to be really cool and surprisingly not-lame, and one French dude that has been traveling though Asia and South America for a while. We unfortunately did not end up travelling with the buck wild Australians that we saw in San Pedro (pretty sure they would have livened up the trip tremendously), but it was a good group all the same. Our driver was really into off-roading - and when i say off-roading I mean the things considered ¨roads¨were dirt and rock filled already so it was like one of those extreme SUV commercials set in teh desert times a million. During the trip, we saw some geysers, LOTS of lagoons (some with flamingos), and most importantly, the Great Salt Flat (basically, an expanse of salt 30 meters deep and 12,000 square kilometers - for those who are measurement impaired, that is really fucking big. The biggest in the world in fact).
While the trip was fun and definitely more intersting than sitting on a bus for 10 hours, thre were ofcourse some downfalls. I feel like I haev been in a constant state of cold since late April, and this trip just made that feeling more intense. Although they were promised, sleeping bags were nowhere to be found at any of the hostal-type places we stayed during the trek, and the places we stayed were barely insulated structures. Last night, we stayed in a building supposedly completely constructed of salt (although I saw some concrete). Words of wisdom: salt is not a good insulator and should be avoided as a construction material should you desire warmth. Anyways, here in Ayuni sought out better accomodations and immediately found a lovely hostel with double rooms for only $4 per night per person. Hollller... that totally justifies that $15 splurge pizza dinner, yeah?
Recently, I´ve been having some serious nostalgia for weirrd things. I don´t necessarily miss people (no offense, love you all) so much as I miss places and certain feelings. For instance, yesterday (perhaps due to the sub-par freezing accomodations), I had the strongest desire to be at the Scranton, PA hotel where we stay every Christmas eve. There´s nothing special about this hotel except that the same people are working every year and it´s warm and bright and there´s always a big Christmas tree and lots of empty boxes wrapped in colorful paper (and a menorah ofcourse). The ice cream in Provincetown, a Saturday morning of garage sales in Delmar, the drive down the Unirondack camp road ... all things that have been on my mind a lot recently.
That being said, I´m so pumped for the rest of the trip. Tomorow, after indulging in a large and hpefully very satisfying breakfast, we will board a 9 hour bus to Sucre, Bolivia´s judicial capital (La Paz, where we will be later in teh week is the capital for the other governmental stuff). According to Lonely Planet, we might actualy be able to get a cheap room that includes heart-shaped pillows (no joke) and cable tv. I´m also hoping that in the next week I´ll be able to find some sort of gym so I won´t feel like a slob who is failing to appropriately train for a marathon in October.
Here´s a rough schedule for the next month for those who care:
June 19- travel all day from Uyuni to Sucre, Bolivia
June 21- take overnight bus to La Paz, Bolivia
June 25- travel (hopefully by plane) to Rurrenabaque (THE JUNGLE which will hopefully include a day long community-based eco tour of an Amazonian community that Lonely Planet speaks highly of)
June 28-fly back to La Paz and stay over a night
June 29- take a bus to Copacabana, Bolivia (Lake Titicaca!!)
June 30- travel by ferry to Isla del Sol and stay over night
July 2- head back to Copacabana and bus it to Peru (the other side of Lake Titicaca or Cuzco or wherever else)
At that point, we´ll be in Peru and schedules are unnecessary (at least at this point because it took us long enough to even figure out Bolivia) as long as we see Machu Pichu. Jamie´s girlfriend Erin will join us on July 8 and we´ll likely go buck wild until the 12th when I´ll head back to Santiago for a couple days. Oh to be young...
Okay, it´s 9:16 (i.e. WAY past our bedtime. En serio, we haevn´t made it past 8:30 the last couple nights). Chao for now and feel free to comment and demand post cards and presents (did I mention that our hotel is $4? I have a feeling I will be going consumer crazy here, as long as I can figure out a way to carry it on my back around South America).
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The desert
Hola San Pedro de Atacama! Here we are in the vast expanse of desert in Northern Chile after a lovely 20 hour bus ride in the ¨semi-cama,¨ or sort-of bed, section of Turbus. It was quite delightful and although we didn´t actually get out or stop anywhere, we received three snack boxes. That´ll do it for me. We also drove through La Serena on the way (about 6 hours north of Santiago) and it looked really beautiful so I definitely regret not making a weekend trip there. Next time.
Jamie is sitting at the computer next to me and I think he just farted. In an internet cafe. Poor other customers who had no previous warning that they were in the presence of a savage American. Speaking of savage, yesterday on teh bus I spilled my peaches all over the floor and had to deal with that sticky peach smell for the rest of the ride. Whoever decided it would be a good idea to serve peaches on a 20 hour bus ride was asking for trouble.
We arrived in Calama this morning around 9 am to find that it is exactly the shithole that Lonely Planet describes. Fortunately, although we originally thought we would have to head back there to get a trip into Bolivia, it now looks as though we´ll leave directly from this town and never ever have to enter Calama again. No tears about that. We just bought tickets for a 4 am trip to the geysers tomorrow which promises to be butt-chillingly cold. Apparently there is also an option to swim in the hot springs afterwards but I´ve heard the term ¨hot¨is used pretty loosely so I´m not getting my hopes up. Tuesday morning we´ll leave for a 3 day expedition into Bolivia riding in a 4x4 with other tourists who with serious luck won´t turn out to be dumb bitches. I think we´ll be seeing a significant amount of things made of salt during this adventure, which sounds just to my liking. I´m also enthused for the cheapness that will come in Bolivia. No doubt it will satisfy my itch for consumerism.
Hope all is well back in the estados. I hear the NY State Senate is in shambles (what else is new) and that Delmar has a new farmers´market.... I´ll be happy to hit that up upon my return. July 16... plan those parties.
Jamie is sitting at the computer next to me and I think he just farted. In an internet cafe. Poor other customers who had no previous warning that they were in the presence of a savage American. Speaking of savage, yesterday on teh bus I spilled my peaches all over the floor and had to deal with that sticky peach smell for the rest of the ride. Whoever decided it would be a good idea to serve peaches on a 20 hour bus ride was asking for trouble.
We arrived in Calama this morning around 9 am to find that it is exactly the shithole that Lonely Planet describes. Fortunately, although we originally thought we would have to head back there to get a trip into Bolivia, it now looks as though we´ll leave directly from this town and never ever have to enter Calama again. No tears about that. We just bought tickets for a 4 am trip to the geysers tomorrow which promises to be butt-chillingly cold. Apparently there is also an option to swim in the hot springs afterwards but I´ve heard the term ¨hot¨is used pretty loosely so I´m not getting my hopes up. Tuesday morning we´ll leave for a 3 day expedition into Bolivia riding in a 4x4 with other tourists who with serious luck won´t turn out to be dumb bitches. I think we´ll be seeing a significant amount of things made of salt during this adventure, which sounds just to my liking. I´m also enthused for the cheapness that will come in Bolivia. No doubt it will satisfy my itch for consumerism.
Hope all is well back in the estados. I hear the NY State Senate is in shambles (what else is new) and that Delmar has a new farmers´market.... I´ll be happy to hit that up upon my return. July 16... plan those parties.
Friday, June 12, 2009
I went to Easter Island?
EASTER ISLAND!!! Ahhhh!! Okay, so for those who are unaware, Easter Island (or, la Isla de Pascuas in Spanish, or Rapa Nui in Island talk) is a sub-tropical island that is about a 6 hour plane ride off the West coast of South America. Word is that it is the island farthest off of any coast in the world (but I don’t have any legit sources for that and I’m not sure I believe it, so don’t call me out on that). I don’t think I ever would have heard of Easter Island, except that when I was little and I used to have to fill out my address online for random things that I didn’t want to provide my real address for, I would always put Easter Island (not sure why… just liked the sound of it).
There are about 5000 people that live on the island, and according to Lonely Planet, about 50,000 tourists per year. I expected our flight from Santiago to be small and scary, but it was actually the biggest plane I think I’ve ever been on (picture Snakes on a Plane minus the upstairs part) and it was very comfortable and smooth. There were 44 movies to select from (everything from current Blockbusters like He’s Just Not that Into You, which I watched, to oldies like Ghost and Flashdance). We took off at 8 AM, but with all this entertainment there was no hope of sleep. Besides, the semi-creepy men sitting across the aisle from me were playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire from the game options and were continuously getting up to help each other and screaming when they got an answer correct. Hooray for them. But in the end… 6 hours… no problem.
Arriving on the island was really exciting. It was really neat to fly in and see water on both sides of you (hoping there’s a strip of land in there somewhere). I think the runway might actually span a large portion of the island. We walked off the plane right outdoors (I love when you can do that, I feel like it’s so Hollywood) and all the tourists are greeted by their hotel guides with beautiful flower lays. I’ve never been to Hawaii, but I imagine it’s sort of like arriving in Hawaii (minus 99 percent of the development and tourism nonsense).
As I'm writing this, I just received an e-mail from my father saying,
"How about a blog update, it's been 3 weeks, pathetic! love, dad"
True. Okay, back to Rapa Nui!!!
The first two days were filled mainly with group excursions (in a bus) to the different sites on the island. For those unaware, Easter Island is famous for the "moai" stone statues that are all over the island. According to Wikipedia there are about 887.... I don't think we saw that many, but we did see a tonnnn. There are all sorts of interesting historical facts about these statues and a lot of them have been restored after having been moved or pushed down during a war on the island. Sorry I can't be more specific- I got back about a week ago so some of my memory is shot, but I was also only half listening when we first learned all about this because I was so in shock by the beauty all around me on the island. We also saw an old volcano that may or may not be the coolest thing I've ever seen... I'm still deciding. That night, we went to a traditional Rapanui dance show featuring both men and women with the sickest bodies I've ever seen. Seriously, I was so impressed by their toned and chiseled stomachs that I had a hard time focusing on anything else. Later, some people in my group went out to a club (I was asleep as usual) and met these same male dancers only to discover that they were 100 percent creepy). What a shame.
The last full day on the island - our free day - was the best day I've had all semester I think. My friend Keiko and I rented bikes and without really realizing what we were getting ourselves into, we started to bike around the island. In the end, we biked almost the entire perimeter of the island (50 km or 30 miles) and saw beautiful scenery everywhere. We weren't in any sort of rush, but our bums hurt real bad and we kept running into gangs of cows or horses that we became convinced would charge and kill us. Luckily, we made it through alive and successfully made our way around the island to the main beach on Easter Island. The air was cold. The water was warmer. Keiks and I ate a meal for kings prepared by a real passive-agressive Rapanui woman who was kept entertained by a much younger French man guide on his day off. He told us several outrageous things about his life: He came to the island and after 18 days, married a Rapanui woman who he has been with for the last 16 years. His twin brother and he once switched passports and went to different continents (thus: he has never reaaaally been to the US, but his passport has, so he HAS). He was also part of the current royal family on Easter Island which is selected every year by some strange tradition I don't recall. After spending about an hour with this man, we went for a quick dip in the ocean, biked the final 20 km and rested our bums for a long time.
I have to stop writing as it's my LAST morning in La Reina at Cecilia's house and I have to leave in 30 minutes to go meet Jamie at the bus station for our 20+ hour ride to the very north of Chile into the desert. Our actual plans are still shaky but they include several weeks in Bolivia and then more in Peru. Who knows... Here's a few scattered pictures .
There are about 5000 people that live on the island, and according to Lonely Planet, about 50,000 tourists per year. I expected our flight from Santiago to be small and scary, but it was actually the biggest plane I think I’ve ever been on (picture Snakes on a Plane minus the upstairs part) and it was very comfortable and smooth. There were 44 movies to select from (everything from current Blockbusters like He’s Just Not that Into You, which I watched, to oldies like Ghost and Flashdance). We took off at 8 AM, but with all this entertainment there was no hope of sleep. Besides, the semi-creepy men sitting across the aisle from me were playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire from the game options and were continuously getting up to help each other and screaming when they got an answer correct. Hooray for them. But in the end… 6 hours… no problem.
Arriving on the island was really exciting. It was really neat to fly in and see water on both sides of you (hoping there’s a strip of land in there somewhere). I think the runway might actually span a large portion of the island. We walked off the plane right outdoors (I love when you can do that, I feel like it’s so Hollywood) and all the tourists are greeted by their hotel guides with beautiful flower lays. I’ve never been to Hawaii, but I imagine it’s sort of like arriving in Hawaii (minus 99 percent of the development and tourism nonsense).
As I'm writing this, I just received an e-mail from my father saying,
"How about a blog update, it's been 3 weeks, pathetic! love, dad"
True. Okay, back to Rapa Nui!!!
The first two days were filled mainly with group excursions (in a bus) to the different sites on the island. For those unaware, Easter Island is famous for the "moai" stone statues that are all over the island. According to Wikipedia there are about 887.... I don't think we saw that many, but we did see a tonnnn. There are all sorts of interesting historical facts about these statues and a lot of them have been restored after having been moved or pushed down during a war on the island. Sorry I can't be more specific- I got back about a week ago so some of my memory is shot, but I was also only half listening when we first learned all about this because I was so in shock by the beauty all around me on the island. We also saw an old volcano that may or may not be the coolest thing I've ever seen... I'm still deciding. That night, we went to a traditional Rapanui dance show featuring both men and women with the sickest bodies I've ever seen. Seriously, I was so impressed by their toned and chiseled stomachs that I had a hard time focusing on anything else. Later, some people in my group went out to a club (I was asleep as usual) and met these same male dancers only to discover that they were 100 percent creepy). What a shame.
The last full day on the island - our free day - was the best day I've had all semester I think. My friend Keiko and I rented bikes and without really realizing what we were getting ourselves into, we started to bike around the island. In the end, we biked almost the entire perimeter of the island (50 km or 30 miles) and saw beautiful scenery everywhere. We weren't in any sort of rush, but our bums hurt real bad and we kept running into gangs of cows or horses that we became convinced would charge and kill us. Luckily, we made it through alive and successfully made our way around the island to the main beach on Easter Island. The air was cold. The water was warmer. Keiks and I ate a meal for kings prepared by a real passive-agressive Rapanui woman who was kept entertained by a much younger French man guide on his day off. He told us several outrageous things about his life: He came to the island and after 18 days, married a Rapanui woman who he has been with for the last 16 years. His twin brother and he once switched passports and went to different continents (thus: he has never reaaaally been to the US, but his passport has, so he HAS). He was also part of the current royal family on Easter Island which is selected every year by some strange tradition I don't recall. After spending about an hour with this man, we went for a quick dip in the ocean, biked the final 20 km and rested our bums for a long time.
I have to stop writing as it's my LAST morning in La Reina at Cecilia's house and I have to leave in 30 minutes to go meet Jamie at the bus station for our 20+ hour ride to the very north of Chile into the desert. Our actual plans are still shaky but they include several weeks in Bolivia and then more in Peru. Who knows... Here's a few scattered pictures .
Friday, May 22, 2009
Cake and Chilean theater.
Hey heyyy!
As usual, it's been a while... not because I'm lazy (although that's more than true), but more because life has just been pretty casual with not much to report on. Yesterday was Chilean Navy Day (so.. in addition to not having to go to my internship, Michelle Bachelet also gave a speech sort of like The State of the Union in the US). It was awk. I tried to watch it on tv, but I realized as I was watching that I couldn't pay attention to what she was saying; instead I was so annoyed by all the stylistic problems that she would be critiqued on in the US. Chileans talk fast, but she was motoring through this speech. She was also holding a piece of paper and pretty much (not even trying to hide it) reading off of it. Super awk. I had to turn it off.
I didn't do much on the day off, until night time when 6 other girls and I went to see a play for our spanish class. It was wild. I wasn't all that excited to go, but once we got there and had some food before hand (some food= the BEST piece of cake I've ever had in my life. And I have high standards. There were 7 of us and we all ate one piece and were all full. And don't be like... oh you're just girls that's nothing. NO. NO. I can eat cake with the best of them. This slice of cake was JUMBOlicious). The play was actually really good too. It was a story of 5 people and how their work and love lives interact. I actually understood more of it than I expected, except for one scene where there was a conflict between two men who were supposedly uncle and nephew. Okay, have you ever gone to a play or movie and like... imagined some crazy storyline that didn't really exist but would have been better than the one that actually existed? In my wildest dreams, these two men (uncle and nephew) were gay lovers. Turns out my dreams aren't that wild. When we came out my friend who's really into arts/plays/spanish explained what happened to the rest of us (she's much less of a philistine than I am).... yup turns out they were gay lovers. Go figure. Pretty progressive for Chile (although the play was Argentine so that explains a little). Still, the Chileans were going buck wild with laughter.
Not much else to report on, except that Jamie arrived safely in Buenos Aires yesterday! It's not like I know that because he's emailed me or anything.... but good thing I have my mom to forward me his emails so I know what's going on.
One more week of classes/final tests/papers and then EASTER ISLAND!
As usual, it's been a while... not because I'm lazy (although that's more than true), but more because life has just been pretty casual with not much to report on. Yesterday was Chilean Navy Day (so.. in addition to not having to go to my internship, Michelle Bachelet also gave a speech sort of like The State of the Union in the US). It was awk. I tried to watch it on tv, but I realized as I was watching that I couldn't pay attention to what she was saying; instead I was so annoyed by all the stylistic problems that she would be critiqued on in the US. Chileans talk fast, but she was motoring through this speech. She was also holding a piece of paper and pretty much (not even trying to hide it) reading off of it. Super awk. I had to turn it off.
I didn't do much on the day off, until night time when 6 other girls and I went to see a play for our spanish class. It was wild. I wasn't all that excited to go, but once we got there and had some food before hand (some food= the BEST piece of cake I've ever had in my life. And I have high standards. There were 7 of us and we all ate one piece and were all full. And don't be like... oh you're just girls that's nothing. NO. NO. I can eat cake with the best of them. This slice of cake was JUMBOlicious). The play was actually really good too. It was a story of 5 people and how their work and love lives interact. I actually understood more of it than I expected, except for one scene where there was a conflict between two men who were supposedly uncle and nephew. Okay, have you ever gone to a play or movie and like... imagined some crazy storyline that didn't really exist but would have been better than the one that actually existed? In my wildest dreams, these two men (uncle and nephew) were gay lovers. Turns out my dreams aren't that wild. When we came out my friend who's really into arts/plays/spanish explained what happened to the rest of us (she's much less of a philistine than I am).... yup turns out they were gay lovers. Go figure. Pretty progressive for Chile (although the play was Argentine so that explains a little). Still, the Chileans were going buck wild with laughter.
Not much else to report on, except that Jamie arrived safely in Buenos Aires yesterday! It's not like I know that because he's emailed me or anything.... but good thing I have my mom to forward me his emails so I know what's going on.
One more week of classes/final tests/papers and then EASTER ISLAND!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
1. I signed up (and paid $90) for the marathon... so there's no backing out now. Cheering sections welcome.
2. It rained today for the second time in 3 months. Un aguacero.
3. Go to this website: http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/. Enjoy.
4. Tomorrow in Spanish class we are having a debate about the upcoming Chilean elections. I and 3 others are speaking in favor of Sebastian Piñera, the billionaire, Harvard-educated, scandal-plagued candidate who is up against Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, who was president prior to Michelle Bachelet (in Chile, presidents cannot have consecutive terms but they can run more than once). Should be fun.
5. Today for development class we went on a field trip to a school called "La Escuela de Esperanza" to play with kiddies in the "Adopta un Hermano" [Adopt a Brother] program. It was nice to see a more rural part of Santiago.
6. I don't remember if I already told you this, but I'm officially going to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas (each for one day) in August. I hope to 1)eat at as many all-I-can-eat buffets as possible 2)see Celine Dion in concert and 3)get a drive-thru marriage. If you're interested in being the lucky guy, please present yourself with a life-time supply of grape Now-and Laters (male dowry) at the base of the Vegas roller coaster of your choice. If we pick the same coaster, it was meant to be...
7. Is anyone still reading this?
2. It rained today for the second time in 3 months. Un aguacero.
3. Go to this website: http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/. Enjoy.
4. Tomorrow in Spanish class we are having a debate about the upcoming Chilean elections. I and 3 others are speaking in favor of Sebastian Piñera, the billionaire, Harvard-educated, scandal-plagued candidate who is up against Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, who was president prior to Michelle Bachelet (in Chile, presidents cannot have consecutive terms but they can run more than once). Should be fun.
5. Today for development class we went on a field trip to a school called "La Escuela de Esperanza" to play with kiddies in the "Adopta un Hermano" [Adopt a Brother] program. It was nice to see a more rural part of Santiago.
6. I don't remember if I already told you this, but I'm officially going to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas (each for one day) in August. I hope to 1)eat at as many all-I-can-eat buffets as possible 2)see Celine Dion in concert and 3)get a drive-thru marriage. If you're interested in being the lucky guy, please present yourself with a life-time supply of grape Now-and Laters (male dowry) at the base of the Vegas roller coaster of your choice. If we pick the same coaster, it was meant to be...
7. Is anyone still reading this?
Monday, May 11, 2009
If Oprah can do it I can.
October 10, 2009.....
In addition to celebrating my brother's cumpleaños, I will also be running a marathon in Baltimore. I had to write this here so that you all could remind me and not let me quit...
Inspirational comments welcome....
In addition to celebrating my brother's cumpleaños, I will also be running a marathon in Baltimore. I had to write this here so that you all could remind me and not let me quit...
Inspirational comments welcome....
Sunday, May 10, 2009
fotos!!
There's an actual blog entry below, but these are the long overdue pictures from Mendoza, Argentina that my dad has been pressuring me to add... alas, the only way anything ever gets done in my life... or at least with this blog.
Classic Dave... getting schooled on proper boozing...
Momsies and I getting suited up for our big dive....
Eileen Hoffman part of the mile high club...
My expert Tito and I... he told me it was his first time too...
Dave joins the club!
In case you were concerned, I do actually have a couple friends... or at least people who will pose in pictures with me.
OK KEEP READING..... grab the ugliest outfit you own that hopefully involves a large bow or a hideous pattern, because in the next post, we travel back in time!!
Classic Dave... getting schooled on proper boozing...Momsies and I getting suited up for our big dive....
Eileen Hoffman part of the mile high club...
My expert Tito and I... he told me it was his first time too...
Dave joins the club!
In case you were concerned, I do actually have a couple friends... or at least people who will pose in pictures with me.
OK KEEP READING..... grab the ugliest outfit you own that hopefully involves a large bow or a hideous pattern, because in the next post, we travel back in time!!
LOS ANOS 80!!!
Friday night was by far the most epic birthday experience of my life thus far... pretty sure it won't be topped for a while. We rented out a smallish pretty shady bar in Providencia so we could throw an over-the-top 80s themed bash. At first, I was a little worried that maybe I would be the only one passionate about this theme, but my doubts were quickly pushed away when the masses started arriving. Everyone in the program came (allll decked out to perfection in bright colors, spandex, sequins, shoulder pads, sweat bands, side pony tails, leg warmers, high-tops, etc) and brought all the Chilean friends we have met thus far (a lot of the chileans also dressed for teh occasion, which was excellllent) The only way I can describe the night is with pictures below (stole them from everyone else... hope they don't mind)
Why 80s? Why not.... do you know me? Okay, but seriously, some explaining is necessary. This country is for some reason stuck a few decades behind the rest of the developed world. It's sort of awkward... I think we all had some issues trying to explain to our host families what exactly the theme of the party was (because... they didn't necessary think this was anything out of the ordinary). I showed the dress I purchased to several Chilean women (Cecilia, our neighbor Ines, and Cecil's daughter-in-law) and they all said "Ohhh que bonita" (Oh how beautiful...) I wish you could all see this dress. I don't really have an adequate picture that does this dress justice but I can guarantee you'd be laughing if you saw it. But not the Chileans... it's still like perfectly fashionable here. Another reason why this country is perfect for me I suppose...
This week I really need to buckle down and actually think about doing work. For my environmental class I'm working with 2 other chicas on a paper about eco-labeling (like products that are certified with various green promises... organic, sustainable, etc). My part will talk about the differences with this practice in different parts of the world (mainly the US/EU vs. South America). Since South American nations are big exporters, they are starting to have to bump up the eco-labeling stuff to stay competitive in international markets, but domestically, they don't really seem to be as concerned/interested in the reasons behind these eco-labels. Sorry if I'm boring you... however, I'm fascinated... perhaps a future senior capstone topic? Hollllerrr. So ahead of the game.
I've been wanting to chat a little about environmental stuff in this country....
It's very strange. Compact florescent lights are everywhere, there is little to no heat in houses (trust me, I'm currently freezing...), very few people use driers for clothes, all the produce is local, office lights actually get turned off at night unlike in the US where office buildings always seem to stay aglow during the noche. However, ask someone about the possibilities of printing double-sided and they'll look at you like you're out of your mind (or at least at the university I attend...). In some ways it seems like Chile is so far ahead of the US in terms of environmental stuff, but that's probably a consequence of actually being behind. I hope they never get to the point of laziness/wastefulness where the US is. At one lecture I attended for my internship, one of the speakers mentioned that Chile as a country has not yet become comfortable with the idea of certifications and eco-labeling type stuff that has been popularized in the US (for example: Nothing like the US Green Building Council LEED certification exists here), so I think it's hard for the country to progress in more institutional sustainability type stuff until more of these regulatory organizations exist. However, as I mentioned, they're doing pretty well with the personal behavior stuff...
Why 80s? Why not.... do you know me? Okay, but seriously, some explaining is necessary. This country is for some reason stuck a few decades behind the rest of the developed world. It's sort of awkward... I think we all had some issues trying to explain to our host families what exactly the theme of the party was (because... they didn't necessary think this was anything out of the ordinary). I showed the dress I purchased to several Chilean women (Cecilia, our neighbor Ines, and Cecil's daughter-in-law) and they all said "Ohhh que bonita" (Oh how beautiful...) I wish you could all see this dress. I don't really have an adequate picture that does this dress justice but I can guarantee you'd be laughing if you saw it. But not the Chileans... it's still like perfectly fashionable here. Another reason why this country is perfect for me I suppose...
This week I really need to buckle down and actually think about doing work. For my environmental class I'm working with 2 other chicas on a paper about eco-labeling (like products that are certified with various green promises... organic, sustainable, etc). My part will talk about the differences with this practice in different parts of the world (mainly the US/EU vs. South America). Since South American nations are big exporters, they are starting to have to bump up the eco-labeling stuff to stay competitive in international markets, but domestically, they don't really seem to be as concerned/interested in the reasons behind these eco-labels. Sorry if I'm boring you... however, I'm fascinated... perhaps a future senior capstone topic? Hollllerrr. So ahead of the game.
I've been wanting to chat a little about environmental stuff in this country....
It's very strange. Compact florescent lights are everywhere, there is little to no heat in houses (trust me, I'm currently freezing...), very few people use driers for clothes, all the produce is local, office lights actually get turned off at night unlike in the US where office buildings always seem to stay aglow during the noche. However, ask someone about the possibilities of printing double-sided and they'll look at you like you're out of your mind (or at least at the university I attend...). In some ways it seems like Chile is so far ahead of the US in terms of environmental stuff, but that's probably a consequence of actually being behind. I hope they never get to the point of laziness/wastefulness where the US is. At one lecture I attended for my internship, one of the speakers mentioned that Chile as a country has not yet become comfortable with the idea of certifications and eco-labeling type stuff that has been popularized in the US (for example: Nothing like the US Green Building Council LEED certification exists here), so I think it's hard for the country to progress in more institutional sustainability type stuff until more of these regulatory organizations exist. However, as I mentioned, they're doing pretty well with the personal behavior stuff...
Sunday, May 3, 2009
The majority of this post is about food... shocking I know.
Aghhhh. I feel like it's been years, and let's be honest... if i tell myself to do homework right now I'm just going to be on Facebook, so might as well update while things are fresh in my mind.
After my last post, my mom sent me an email suggesting that perhaps I was a little too harsh on Cecilia. Let me be clear ... I love Mama Cecilia. She amuses me to no end, makes delicious vegetarian comida (what will I do without her lentils, garbonzos, etc?), and generally let's me do lo que quiero without being overprotective. Thank god.
Anyways, just finished one of the best meals I've had here yet (some sort potato/avacado salad with the traditional lemon/olive oil/salt dressing that could make a dirty shoe taste good, a tomato stuffed with salmon, and deviled eggs- shoutout to 2 Amys, the only other place I've ever had deviled eggs). This meal was followed by Cecilia's very own Betty Crocker-style boxed brownies topped with dulce de leche. Didn't even know that they existed in Chile, but delish nonetheless...
Cecilia, her 30 year old son Tomás whom I looooove (I wish he would be a normal 30 year old Chilean and live with us still) and I spent the meal time mainly discussing Jumbo and China ... naturally. Generally when Cecilia goes off on one of her rants about disliking something, Tomás and I roll our eyes at one another with the unspoken thought: "yeaah, she's crazy and slightly offensive but she's an old Chilean woman so whatever." Today was a little different in that they were both expressing a very anti-China sentiment (because... they are sneaky in business transactions, kill all the females, eat rats, are COMMUNISTS). As usual, my suggestion that perhaps we should not be blaming the entire population of one billion people for these problems was pretty much completely disregarded, and I finally put an end to the conversation by declaring my love for Chinese food and suggesting that we all eat it together sometime and only then would we continue this conversation. Case closed.
Speaking of ethnic food... had a delcious Indian meal on Thursday night with some friends at one of about 4 Indian restaurants in Santiago. Lentils, rice, naan, chicken tikkamasala. I was really overdue and can't wait until Indian food once again regains a steady place in my diet.
While Indian food is rare but still good here, hummus is rare and gross here. En serio. I tried it once and immediately called upon my parents to bring some tahini into this country immediately so I could make my own. Last night was the night it went down... and it really hit the spot. Garbonzos in the can aren't really common here, so we soaked and pressure cooked some, and then made a magic combination that will have to be duplicated real soon since it was gone about 5 minutes after arriving at the asado (BBQ) that our Chilean friends were throwing. Cecilia also loved it (after telling me that she was going to have to keep the kitchen door closed for a week to extinguish the smell of the entire head of garlic that we used). She already told me I should make it again this week. It's time for Cedars/Sabra/Julie's future hummus company to get the hint: Chileans love hummus so it should be sold here.
Several other random notes:
Friday was El Dia de Los Trabajadores (Labor Day) in Chile (and I think everywhere else in the world except the good old US of A). I was shocked. It's a legit holiday here. NOTHING - not even Jumbo - was open. Can you imagine malls being closed on Labor Day in the U.S.?? Giving labor a chance to breathe instead of just creating another excuse to go sale shopping? Preposterous.
On Friday, while everything was closed, my friend Kaitlan and I ran ten miles in possible preparation for a Rock and Roll Half Marathon in September in Virginia Beach. I'm still not sure if it will work out because hotels seem quite expensive, but the entry fee to the race includes a free rock concert and glass of beer afterwards and during the race there are 20 bands on 14 stages to pump up racers... http://www.rnrvb.com/home.html. I think I might have to participate. Does anyone know anyone who lives in VA Beach?
My post-South America summer is shaping up to be very minimal but packed with excitement. I get home to NY on July 16th, head to Philly for a Taylor Swift (don't judge me, I won't judge you) concert on August 1st with some of my new friends from this program, possibly head to the Outer Banks between August 2nd and August 5th, at which point I will fly to Arizona for a 4-day conference before flying back to Boston for a week in Ptown, Cape Cod with my family for our annual drag-queen fill. Then I'll come home, pack my life up again and head back down to DC to move into my NEW HOUSE!!! Hooray! I have the master bedroom... so visitors encouraged!
After my last post, my mom sent me an email suggesting that perhaps I was a little too harsh on Cecilia. Let me be clear ... I love Mama Cecilia. She amuses me to no end, makes delicious vegetarian comida (what will I do without her lentils, garbonzos, etc?), and generally let's me do lo que quiero without being overprotective. Thank god.
Anyways, just finished one of the best meals I've had here yet (some sort potato/avacado salad with the traditional lemon/olive oil/salt dressing that could make a dirty shoe taste good, a tomato stuffed with salmon, and deviled eggs- shoutout to 2 Amys, the only other place I've ever had deviled eggs). This meal was followed by Cecilia's very own Betty Crocker-style boxed brownies topped with dulce de leche. Didn't even know that they existed in Chile, but delish nonetheless...
Cecilia, her 30 year old son Tomás whom I looooove (I wish he would be a normal 30 year old Chilean and live with us still) and I spent the meal time mainly discussing Jumbo and China ... naturally. Generally when Cecilia goes off on one of her rants about disliking something, Tomás and I roll our eyes at one another with the unspoken thought: "yeaah, she's crazy and slightly offensive but she's an old Chilean woman so whatever." Today was a little different in that they were both expressing a very anti-China sentiment (because... they are sneaky in business transactions, kill all the females, eat rats, are COMMUNISTS). As usual, my suggestion that perhaps we should not be blaming the entire population of one billion people for these problems was pretty much completely disregarded, and I finally put an end to the conversation by declaring my love for Chinese food and suggesting that we all eat it together sometime and only then would we continue this conversation. Case closed.
Speaking of ethnic food... had a delcious Indian meal on Thursday night with some friends at one of about 4 Indian restaurants in Santiago. Lentils, rice, naan, chicken tikkamasala. I was really overdue and can't wait until Indian food once again regains a steady place in my diet.
While Indian food is rare but still good here, hummus is rare and gross here. En serio. I tried it once and immediately called upon my parents to bring some tahini into this country immediately so I could make my own. Last night was the night it went down... and it really hit the spot. Garbonzos in the can aren't really common here, so we soaked and pressure cooked some, and then made a magic combination that will have to be duplicated real soon since it was gone about 5 minutes after arriving at the asado (BBQ) that our Chilean friends were throwing. Cecilia also loved it (after telling me that she was going to have to keep the kitchen door closed for a week to extinguish the smell of the entire head of garlic that we used). She already told me I should make it again this week. It's time for Cedars/Sabra/Julie's future hummus company to get the hint: Chileans love hummus so it should be sold here.
Several other random notes:
Friday was El Dia de Los Trabajadores (Labor Day) in Chile (and I think everywhere else in the world except the good old US of A). I was shocked. It's a legit holiday here. NOTHING - not even Jumbo - was open. Can you imagine malls being closed on Labor Day in the U.S.?? Giving labor a chance to breathe instead of just creating another excuse to go sale shopping? Preposterous.
On Friday, while everything was closed, my friend Kaitlan and I ran ten miles in possible preparation for a Rock and Roll Half Marathon in September in Virginia Beach. I'm still not sure if it will work out because hotels seem quite expensive, but the entry fee to the race includes a free rock concert and glass of beer afterwards and during the race there are 20 bands on 14 stages to pump up racers... http://www.rnrvb.com/home.html. I think I might have to participate. Does anyone know anyone who lives in VA Beach?
My post-South America summer is shaping up to be very minimal but packed with excitement. I get home to NY on July 16th, head to Philly for a Taylor Swift (don't judge me, I won't judge you) concert on August 1st with some of my new friends from this program, possibly head to the Outer Banks between August 2nd and August 5th, at which point I will fly to Arizona for a 4-day conference before flying back to Boston for a week in Ptown, Cape Cod with my family for our annual drag-queen fill. Then I'll come home, pack my life up again and head back down to DC to move into my NEW HOUSE!!! Hooray! I have the master bedroom... so visitors encouraged!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
PB & J - hold the PB and add Mayo please. While you're at it, hold the J.
Damn.. I was on such a roll with updating and then this week happened. Sorry for being lame. Let's be honest, I shouldn't even be writing right now. It's 2 Am, I'm getting up in 6 hours to go to my internship, but earlier tonight I had an exchange with Cecilia that I thought might be blog worthy. Blog-potential, if you will. You be the judge...
So, several of my friends and I are going to Viña del Mar (hellllo beach) this weekend with some of our Chilean friends. I was in a terrible mood today for multiple reasons, so instead of going out tonight I decided to stay home and bake brownies for the weekend. Peanutbutter chocolate chip brownies to be exact. Cecilia tends to stand over me when I bake, which I've gotten used to even though it still drives me insane. So, I forget to turn the oven knob after pre-heating (don't get me started on Chilean ovens... they just say 1-7 which is really helpful when I have to distinguish between 350 and 375). Anyways, my brownies start to puff up and I thought an explosion was nearing. I'm so frustrated at this point I just want to take them out of the oven and throw them out. Cecilia comes in and tells me they look abnormal. Thanks.
Here comes the really stellar part. She starts questioning me as to why I'm making something so "pesado" with both butter AND peanut butter (god forbid). I should probably mention that peanut butter is NOT all the rage in this country like it is in the good old US of A. Give these people peanut butter and jelly and bread and they'll be confused. Instead, mayonnaise is the condiment of choice. (Hold back your vomit...) So anyways, Cecilia is like WHY did you make these peanut butter brownies (I should probably also mention that last time I made them she really liked them and she also loves peanuts, but can't figure out that peanut butter is ground up peanuts with added SALT- another Chilean obsession). How could anyone POSSIBLY ever eat anything with two kinds of BUTTER. I was not in the mood. Normally, I might have smiled and gone along merrily with my baking, but tonight I was enraged. I called her out on her beloved Paula Deen-style mayonnaise servings. PEANUT BUTTER IS HEALTHIER THAN MAYONNAISE. She didn't buy it. Said something about how natural it is. I ignored her. I really wish I had back-up. Then she left the room which I took as surrender.
Okay, it's 2:23, but one more thing...
Everyone here wears shirts in English. Apparently, the Salvation Armies in the USA ship bulk quantities of clothing here to be sold in the thrift stores. As a result, every other person walking down the street is wearing a "Boston Redsox" or "University of Michigan" t-shirt. As another - less acceptable - result, people often wear clothing with really outrageous and inappropriate words/phrases. The other day, we saw a girl wearing a shirt saying "Hard Boy, Core Girl." Pretty much "insert your own insulting adjective" and I've seen it on a shirt. The lesson here ... never wear a shirt that showcases a language you don't speak. As long as we're in agreement on this, you can continue reading this blog. If not, go put on your "Dirty Skank" (in another language) shirt and navigate away from this page immediately.
So, several of my friends and I are going to Viña del Mar (hellllo beach) this weekend with some of our Chilean friends. I was in a terrible mood today for multiple reasons, so instead of going out tonight I decided to stay home and bake brownies for the weekend. Peanutbutter chocolate chip brownies to be exact. Cecilia tends to stand over me when I bake, which I've gotten used to even though it still drives me insane. So, I forget to turn the oven knob after pre-heating (don't get me started on Chilean ovens... they just say 1-7 which is really helpful when I have to distinguish between 350 and 375). Anyways, my brownies start to puff up and I thought an explosion was nearing. I'm so frustrated at this point I just want to take them out of the oven and throw them out. Cecilia comes in and tells me they look abnormal. Thanks.
Here comes the really stellar part. She starts questioning me as to why I'm making something so "pesado" with both butter AND peanut butter (god forbid). I should probably mention that peanut butter is NOT all the rage in this country like it is in the good old US of A. Give these people peanut butter and jelly and bread and they'll be confused. Instead, mayonnaise is the condiment of choice. (Hold back your vomit...) So anyways, Cecilia is like WHY did you make these peanut butter brownies (I should probably also mention that last time I made them she really liked them and she also loves peanuts, but can't figure out that peanut butter is ground up peanuts with added SALT- another Chilean obsession). How could anyone POSSIBLY ever eat anything with two kinds of BUTTER. I was not in the mood. Normally, I might have smiled and gone along merrily with my baking, but tonight I was enraged. I called her out on her beloved Paula Deen-style mayonnaise servings. PEANUT BUTTER IS HEALTHIER THAN MAYONNAISE. She didn't buy it. Said something about how natural it is. I ignored her. I really wish I had back-up. Then she left the room which I took as surrender.
Okay, it's 2:23, but one more thing...
Everyone here wears shirts in English. Apparently, the Salvation Armies in the USA ship bulk quantities of clothing here to be sold in the thrift stores. As a result, every other person walking down the street is wearing a "Boston Redsox" or "University of Michigan" t-shirt. As another - less acceptable - result, people often wear clothing with really outrageous and inappropriate words/phrases. The other day, we saw a girl wearing a shirt saying "Hard Boy, Core Girl." Pretty much "insert your own insulting adjective" and I've seen it on a shirt. The lesson here ... never wear a shirt that showcases a language you don't speak. As long as we're in agreement on this, you can continue reading this blog. If not, go put on your "Dirty Skank" (in another language) shirt and navigate away from this page immediately.
Monday, April 13, 2009
We don't have a Cat & And other tales..
So, have I told you about the cat? I can't remember if I have or not, so I'm just going to write, and if you feel yourself in one of those situations where you're already familiar with a story but it would be awkward to stop the story teller that mid-story.. all you have to do is stop reading. Easy as cake. I'll never know and won't be offended.
The CAT- After a couple weeks of being here, I realized there was a kittycat that kept showing up around our house - constantly in the back yard and occasionally actually entering the house. I thought it might be a stray since there are stray doggs like allllll over the place here, so I just ignored it. Before I knew it, the cat practically became a resident of the house right beside Coca, the deaf puppy. Cecilia would offer it little snacks, and I finally questioned its presence. Turns out, the story is way more ridiculous than I ever would have thought. The cat is not a stray. The cat has a family. The cat's family is not Cecilia and me. I was confused. The cat is ALWAYS here. When I asked Cecilia why this cat was always in our house, she answered that it liked us better than its own family. Figures. Then I noticed a pink collar on the cat, and apparently, it was Cecilia who had taken it upon herself to put a collar on a cat that doesn't belong to her. She didn't find this strange. I did. Whatever, I moved on. THEN the other day we were walking and she points to a house and whispers, "That's where the cat's family lives." This woman is loca... meaning we're a great fit.
THE CAR WATCHERS- When you go out at night to a bar or club or restaurant in the United States, there's usually a parking lot or street parking or SOMETHING. In Chile... not so much. Since we've started going out with Chilean friends who have cars, I've noticed that it's a bit different. When you park on the street in a neighborhood near a club, there are young guys standing on the street who sort of direct you into a spot. You get out, do your thang at the dance club, and come back at 4 AM [insert your personal bedtime here] and, assuming your car is still there, you provide a small sum of money to these young men who are still standing there. Whereas you might be thinking... oh how nice they looked after my car, most Chileans (understandably) are not so thrilled with this whole system. Apparently, these men present themselves as "caretakers of autos." In reality, if someone is going to steal your car, they aren't going out of their way to stop the thief. At the end of the night, if you don't give them money (a mil or two- about $2-4), they've been known to do some damage to your car themselves. BOGUS.
More tales coming soon...
The CAT- After a couple weeks of being here, I realized there was a kittycat that kept showing up around our house - constantly in the back yard and occasionally actually entering the house. I thought it might be a stray since there are stray doggs like allllll over the place here, so I just ignored it. Before I knew it, the cat practically became a resident of the house right beside Coca, the deaf puppy. Cecilia would offer it little snacks, and I finally questioned its presence. Turns out, the story is way more ridiculous than I ever would have thought. The cat is not a stray. The cat has a family. The cat's family is not Cecilia and me. I was confused. The cat is ALWAYS here. When I asked Cecilia why this cat was always in our house, she answered that it liked us better than its own family. Figures. Then I noticed a pink collar on the cat, and apparently, it was Cecilia who had taken it upon herself to put a collar on a cat that doesn't belong to her. She didn't find this strange. I did. Whatever, I moved on. THEN the other day we were walking and she points to a house and whispers, "That's where the cat's family lives." This woman is loca... meaning we're a great fit.
THE CAR WATCHERS- When you go out at night to a bar or club or restaurant in the United States, there's usually a parking lot or street parking or SOMETHING. In Chile... not so much. Since we've started going out with Chilean friends who have cars, I've noticed that it's a bit different. When you park on the street in a neighborhood near a club, there are young guys standing on the street who sort of direct you into a spot. You get out, do your thang at the dance club, and come back at 4 AM [insert your personal bedtime here] and, assuming your car is still there, you provide a small sum of money to these young men who are still standing there. Whereas you might be thinking... oh how nice they looked after my car, most Chileans (understandably) are not so thrilled with this whole system. Apparently, these men present themselves as "caretakers of autos." In reality, if someone is going to steal your car, they aren't going out of their way to stop the thief. At the end of the night, if you don't give them money (a mil or two- about $2-4), they've been known to do some damage to your car themselves. BOGUS.
More tales coming soon...
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Fancy hotels just aren't for us...
Have you ever met Dave Munro? Self-proclaimed cheapest Scotsman ever born; however, turns out Dave has a wild side and decided to pull a Donald Trump on us by booking a room at the ritzy Sheraton Hotel in Mendoza. Really classy, really sterile.... really not for us.
As much as I hated to stifle my pa's wild spending spree, we HAD to move. It just wasn't our style... there was no free wi-fi and despite the sprawling western-style breakfast, there was no jelly for my toast. Also, my mom went a little wild and attempted to use the bidet (European butt washer) and was shocked when the overzealous water pressure created a large pool of water all over the bathroom floor. Efff that. Instead, we moved into a place that was $100 less per night (yeahhh) and is 100% more Munro-style. It still has a bidet, incase you were wondering. Something tells me there might be a second attempt. Eileen is very persistent.
Today we headed out to the country for a vinyard tour with a really neat tourbus company that also owns a hostel. For $20 (60 pesos) each, we visited 2 vinyards (each with several wine tastings) and one olive oil factory. There were some other gringos on the tour and then some Argentinians and Ecuadorians. It was pretty awesome, except that I felt like everyone else on the tour kept taking one small sip of the wine and then dumping it out - not my style.
The olive oil factory tour was alone worth the $20 for the delish pieces of bread soaked in olive oil and sun dried tomatoes that were provided at the end. Enough said.
Tomorrow, the Munro/Hoffman family gets wild and is going PARA-GLIDING. You heard me (or read me..), Mamacita Eileen Hoffman is getting a mile high to sail through the sky. She's expressed serious concern about yakking her breakfast down on the townsfolk of Mendoza, but she didn't stop us from putting a deposit on her participation, so SHE'S GOING! Pictures to come, get excited.
As much as I hated to stifle my pa's wild spending spree, we HAD to move. It just wasn't our style... there was no free wi-fi and despite the sprawling western-style breakfast, there was no jelly for my toast. Also, my mom went a little wild and attempted to use the bidet (European butt washer) and was shocked when the overzealous water pressure created a large pool of water all over the bathroom floor. Efff that. Instead, we moved into a place that was $100 less per night (yeahhh) and is 100% more Munro-style. It still has a bidet, incase you were wondering. Something tells me there might be a second attempt. Eileen is very persistent.
Today we headed out to the country for a vinyard tour with a really neat tourbus company that also owns a hostel. For $20 (60 pesos) each, we visited 2 vinyards (each with several wine tastings) and one olive oil factory. There were some other gringos on the tour and then some Argentinians and Ecuadorians. It was pretty awesome, except that I felt like everyone else on the tour kept taking one small sip of the wine and then dumping it out - not my style.
The olive oil factory tour was alone worth the $20 for the delish pieces of bread soaked in olive oil and sun dried tomatoes that were provided at the end. Enough said.
Tomorrow, the Munro/Hoffman family gets wild and is going PARA-GLIDING. You heard me (or read me..), Mamacita Eileen Hoffman is getting a mile high to sail through the sky. She's expressed serious concern about yakking her breakfast down on the townsfolk of Mendoza, but she didn't stop us from putting a deposit on her participation, so SHE'S GOING! Pictures to come, get excited.
Friday, April 10, 2009
The bottom of the world!
Here I am- it's 6:14 AM and I'm in my 7th hour at the Santiago airport. After returning from Southern Chile late last night, I'm meeting my parents here in about an hour and we're taking off for Mendoza, Argentina at 9AM. They've been here for a couple days already and I'm anxiously awaiting to hear how that's gone over with their minimal Spanish and overwhelming gringo appearance. I could suggest that my dad take a turn at this blog writing with a Lee Greenstein-esque guest appearance, but his typing is so slow (law school really needs to hire 6th grade typing teacher extraordinaire Mrs. Linford) that it might take the rest of his vacation to complete any such task. All I know so far is from an email I received from my mom saying the gypsies have already tried to scam them (something I have yet to experience myself, but doesn't surprise me to hear). Even in a place like Chile where fanny packs are considered really popular/hip, my Dad will still find a way to stand out....
Okay, enough about the old folk. Onto Patagonia! The trip as a whole was great - put me in a hotel and I'll be fine, but the place is a little different than I expected. For Christmas, my brother gave me the book In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin. I'm ashamed to say I really haven't started it yet except for the introduction by Nicholas Shakespeare, which definitely echoed a lot of how I felt about the Patagonia I saw - mainly the small town of Puerto Natales.
One line in particular struck me (sorry this isn't a 7th grade DBQ but I guess I'm too lame to write my own words):
"In Patagonia, the isolation makes it easy to exaggerate the person you are: the drinker drinks; the devout prays; the lonely grows lonelier, sometimes fatally." We were only there for 3 days, and I clearly wasn't lonely surrounded by 20 energetic students, but I can certainly understand the depression and loneliness that I'm sure is quite prevalent. The economy of the town is overwhelmingly based on tourism which was both good (delicious delicious vegetarian restaurant called "El Living" where I ate 2 meals including a grilled PB and banana sandwich that you can't appreciate until you've been in Chile and deprived of PB) and bad (the poverty in the town was pretty obvious and there was basically nothing going on outside of the several main tourist streets).
Our group trip to Patagonia was a lot of different things, so I'll just give you some highlights that stuck with me:
-None of us really knew what to expect going into the trip (were we going to be the Chilean version of Jon Krakauer, soon to be documenting near-death expeditions?). No, we were not. We spend wayyyy more time on buses (1st day: Torres Del Paine National Park) and boats (2nd day: the glacier visit) than any of us expected. I think it's difficult to be dissatisifed though - we were at the bottom of the world!
-While we were on a bathroom/consumer stop the first day at a gift shop, I bought a hat for myself. As I was paying, I noticed the cashier was wearing a Mountain Hard Wear coat similar to mine. I pointed it out, and he gave me a free Bon Bon. Score... I knew buying this overpriced (albeit on sale) coat would eventually be worth it.
-GLACIERS ARE MELTING... turn off those lights!
Okay, sort of ridiculous, but sad and true. When we got to the glacier, i think we were all amazed by both their wonderful blue color and also by their very evidently shrinking appearance. Even the comparison between the picture on the brochure and the real thing was pretty substantial. After viewing the glacier and once back on the boat, they think it's really cute to give you a glass of Pisco (liquor) with glacier ice. First of all, perhaps a terrible idea to be offering alcoholic beverages to potentially sea-sick travelers. But also, what the F. Sort of made me mad...
And alas, let's end on a good note....
Okay, enough about the old folk. Onto Patagonia! The trip as a whole was great - put me in a hotel and I'll be fine, but the place is a little different than I expected. For Christmas, my brother gave me the book In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin. I'm ashamed to say I really haven't started it yet except for the introduction by Nicholas Shakespeare, which definitely echoed a lot of how I felt about the Patagonia I saw - mainly the small town of Puerto Natales.
One line in particular struck me (sorry this isn't a 7th grade DBQ but I guess I'm too lame to write my own words):
"In Patagonia, the isolation makes it easy to exaggerate the person you are: the drinker drinks; the devout prays; the lonely grows lonelier, sometimes fatally." We were only there for 3 days, and I clearly wasn't lonely surrounded by 20 energetic students, but I can certainly understand the depression and loneliness that I'm sure is quite prevalent. The economy of the town is overwhelmingly based on tourism which was both good (delicious delicious vegetarian restaurant called "El Living" where I ate 2 meals including a grilled PB and banana sandwich that you can't appreciate until you've been in Chile and deprived of PB) and bad (the poverty in the town was pretty obvious and there was basically nothing going on outside of the several main tourist streets).
Our group trip to Patagonia was a lot of different things, so I'll just give you some highlights that stuck with me:
-None of us really knew what to expect going into the trip (were we going to be the Chilean version of Jon Krakauer, soon to be documenting near-death expeditions?). No, we were not. We spend wayyyy more time on buses (1st day: Torres Del Paine National Park) and boats (2nd day: the glacier visit) than any of us expected. I think it's difficult to be dissatisifed though - we were at the bottom of the world!
-While we were on a bathroom/consumer stop the first day at a gift shop, I bought a hat for myself. As I was paying, I noticed the cashier was wearing a Mountain Hard Wear coat similar to mine. I pointed it out, and he gave me a free Bon Bon. Score... I knew buying this overpriced (albeit on sale) coat would eventually be worth it.
-GLACIERS ARE MELTING... turn off those lights!
Okay, sort of ridiculous, but sad and true. When we got to the glacier, i think we were all amazed by both their wonderful blue color and also by their very evidently shrinking appearance. Even the comparison between the picture on the brochure and the real thing was pretty substantial. After viewing the glacier and once back on the boat, they think it's really cute to give you a glass of Pisco (liquor) with glacier ice. First of all, perhaps a terrible idea to be offering alcoholic beverages to potentially sea-sick travelers. But also, what the F. Sort of made me mad...
And alas, let's end on a good note....
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Only in Santiago...
Okay, so after going to bed at 6 AM (don't question.. that's just how life is here), waking up at 9 AM, going to Santiago's own amusement park FANTISILANDIA all day, I should be resting, drinking tea, and thinking about how good sleep will be tonight. That's how life would be if this place were normal. BUT NO. Never. Instead, I'm sitting in my bed looking at the explosion of clothes that is my floor, and procrastinating packing for my flight to Torres del Paine, Patagonia in 4 hours (at 2 AM). So, yeah... that's where I am.
I haven't updated in a while, so in lieu of recounting two weeks of my life, I'll just tell you about today and promise to start updating more.
Got home at 4:30 AM this morning after hanging out with some of the chicas in the group and our new Chilean guy friends who are awesome beyond words. Unfortunately, they all speak really good english so we don't practice spanish enough, but it's nice to have non-creepy guy friends to talk to. Last night, we dined at an all-you-can-eat pizza restaurant in Providencia (hellllo dessert pizza!) It basically made my life.. I wish I had pictures.
Today, after 3 hours of sleep, and a trip to Jumbo (don't even remember what I bought, I just like to go there...), eight of us headed to FANTISISLANDIA. I had no idea what to expect from a Chilean amusement park (death might have been in my thoughts...?), but when we arrived, it seemed pretty legit. The first ride we went on was probably the best theme park ride I've ever experienced. I'm at a loss of words to describe it.. but there was reggaeton blasting in the background and everyone was smiling. Basically, the place was just great - the perfect mix of fun and trashy at the same time with short lines and cheap food.
Now, after a second trip to Jumbo to buy snacks for the trip, I'm half packed, and half falling asleep as I await to be picked up around 12:30 by the airport shuttle. After a several hour flight to Punto Arenas, I believe there's a several hour bus ride, and then we'll arrive in Torres del Paine National Park, in the Chilean part of Patagonia. I've packed pretty much everything I brought to Santiago because it's going to be freeezing in the South and because I won't have to come home and get more clothes between my return flight on Thursday night and my flight to Mendoza, Argentina with my parents early Friday morning. Yiiikes, this should make for some interesting blog entries. Now I should actually finish packing....
I haven't updated in a while, so in lieu of recounting two weeks of my life, I'll just tell you about today and promise to start updating more.
Got home at 4:30 AM this morning after hanging out with some of the chicas in the group and our new Chilean guy friends who are awesome beyond words. Unfortunately, they all speak really good english so we don't practice spanish enough, but it's nice to have non-creepy guy friends to talk to. Last night, we dined at an all-you-can-eat pizza restaurant in Providencia (hellllo dessert pizza!) It basically made my life.. I wish I had pictures.
Today, after 3 hours of sleep, and a trip to Jumbo (don't even remember what I bought, I just like to go there...), eight of us headed to FANTISISLANDIA. I had no idea what to expect from a Chilean amusement park (death might have been in my thoughts...?), but when we arrived, it seemed pretty legit. The first ride we went on was probably the best theme park ride I've ever experienced. I'm at a loss of words to describe it.. but there was reggaeton blasting in the background and everyone was smiling. Basically, the place was just great - the perfect mix of fun and trashy at the same time with short lines and cheap food.
Now, after a second trip to Jumbo to buy snacks for the trip, I'm half packed, and half falling asleep as I await to be picked up around 12:30 by the airport shuttle. After a several hour flight to Punto Arenas, I believe there's a several hour bus ride, and then we'll arrive in Torres del Paine National Park, in the Chilean part of Patagonia. I've packed pretty much everything I brought to Santiago because it's going to be freeezing in the South and because I won't have to come home and get more clothes between my return flight on Thursday night and my flight to Mendoza, Argentina with my parents early Friday morning. Yiiikes, this should make for some interesting blog entries. Now I should actually finish packing....
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Let's not discuss moral issues before 9 AM
You know when you get up in the morning to go to the bathroom with the complete intention of going back to sleep for another hour? Yeah... today that was the plan, until I was intercepted by Cecilia who wanted to know what my plan was for the day (I really hadn't thought that far ahead). We then got into talking about how I don't have school Friday because it's the Dia del Joven Combatiente where violent protests are staged in regions of Santiago by the Revolution Left Movement (when the US embassy tells you not to go to school, it wouldn't be right to disobey). Then we got into talking about how the U.S., despite having a solid democracy, still has so many restrictions on its people (she cited the drinking age). When I brought up the fact that Chile has quite a few restrictions itself, she looked confused. Such as (dare I say it...) abortion? Cecilia looked at me and said, "Oh but that is a moral restriction because it takes lives." I didn't get very many words out after that. After about fifteen minutes of lecture, Cecilia told me she was proud that she could tell my spanish skills were improving. Eh. I then went back into my room, but there was no chance of more sleep.
It's Tuesday, so no class, but my internship should be starting soon (Thursday hopefully?). Last week our program director Paola emailed two other girls in the program and myself to tell us we had an interview with some guy in the engineering department at UDP, our university. We were all confused and doubtful. Turns out that this man is awesome and works in the Energy and Sustainable Development office (part of the engineering school). He wants us to work on different projects about renewable energy in Chile and doing research/writing recommendations about how to "green" UDP (hello Eco-Sense?). I promise it is going to be cooler than I can describe - I have a good feeling about this! He's also very flexible, which is really nice in case I want to go on a trip or maybe even spend some time with my parents when they come in a couple weeks.
Time for about 6 horas of shuteye before another day!
It's Tuesday, so no class, but my internship should be starting soon (Thursday hopefully?). Last week our program director Paola emailed two other girls in the program and myself to tell us we had an interview with some guy in the engineering department at UDP, our university. We were all confused and doubtful. Turns out that this man is awesome and works in the Energy and Sustainable Development office (part of the engineering school). He wants us to work on different projects about renewable energy in Chile and doing research/writing recommendations about how to "green" UDP (hello Eco-Sense?). I promise it is going to be cooler than I can describe - I have a good feeling about this! He's also very flexible, which is really nice in case I want to go on a trip or maybe even spend some time with my parents when they come in a couple weeks.
Time for about 6 horas of shuteye before another day!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Bus Rapping and Near Tears
Santiago seems to have filled every sort of profession niche possible. Need your windshield cleaned when you're sitting at a stop light? No problem. Want to add money to your cell phone while you're waiting for the metro? Easy. Forgot your Ipod and need some entertainment on the bus? DONE.
Yesterday, my new friend Lauren and I decided to walk to the neighborhood that our school is in (since we didn't acutally have school, we were actually going to a market that's nearby). It was probably a 5 mile walk, but awesome and very liberating. On the way back, I took the bus back alone and was really feeling pumped up from the awesome walk, but had no Ipod to satisfy this music craving. Next thing I know, a man behind me carrying a huge boom box (think Fresh Prince of Belaire) starts beat-boxing to the jam playing on his BB. Then, his lady friend starts breaking out in song and while at first she gave a bad rendition of Alicia Keyes' "Fallin," it wasn't long before they were deep into a Spanish rap session that quenched my thirst for tunes. Imagine you're in that scene in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit when Whoopi first sees the group of students on the pavement basketball court and they're all rapping about each others mamas before Whoopi tells them to get the hell back home (one of Lauryn Hill's finest rap performences). I felt like this bus rap was straight out of that movie. (If you don't understand this reference because you've never seen Sister Act 2, why are we friends? Why are you reading this blog?) Anyways, I wanted to get up dance... but instead, I played the Chilean cool and just sat there straight faced and handed them 500 pesos when they walked through the bus after they finished the performance. So, next time you forget your Ipod on the Bus... no pasa nada!
Then there was today, when I almost cried. It wasn't because I didn't understand something - that happens on an hourly basis. Instead, these tears almost came because I was so happy that I had finally mastered a part of Santiago only to almost have this happy feeling ripped out from under me. Since realizing that there's a student Tarjeta de Bip (ie Smartrip/metrocard) discount, I've been so fed up with paying the normal 400 pesos (this is actually only like 75 cents, but when you ride the metro at least twice a day - which I don't do in DC - it adds up). Anyways, ENOUGH I said to myself. So I went to see a lady in an office who Paola (our program director) told me to see. I was flat out rejected by this lady, who told me I first needed my Chilean ID that won't be coming until March 27. Back to Paola, who then consulted with a fellow office mate and realized that they could help me out and send my info to the government to receive the student discount. Great... Excellent... then they told me it would arrive in a month. A month? We're only here til June. Absolutely not. I had already been thinking about all the extra things I could buy with my extra 300 pesos for every ride (the student fare is 130 pesos)... more agua con gas, more rice cakes, more earrings! A month was an unacceptable amount of time I told myself. Then Paola's office mate (a woman of much knowledge whom I should probably pick apart one of these days and see what else I can get out of her) told me that I could get a temporary discount card. SIGN ME UP, I said.
Next, Paola sent me to a mysterious building with a looong line coming out the door. I waited for about ten minutes surrounded by girls wearing 80s jeans and boys with mullets (or chocopandas, as they're called here), and then I consulted someone who looked like she had authority who told me that I could go straight to an office in the building. There, I talked to a man named Charles who asked me why I only had one appellido (or last name) before entering my info into his computer. He asked me if I was Italian.. I wish. Then, after about 15 minutes of waiting, Charles handed me a printed piece of paper to take to the Metro. I was feeling really good at this point (holy crap, I figured something out without speaking English).
Once I was at the Metro cashier, I handed them the paper and realized I had NO idea what this temporary metro discount was. The girl behind the counter looked just as confused as me and failed (shockingly) to understand my broken spanish. I became very distressed at not being able to communicate with her, since even I had no idea what I was looking for. I could feel that pain that comes near your eyes just before you start to cry. Was I really about to break down in the Metro Station? God I hope not. Just then, the Chielan girl behind me started explaining to me in English what the cashier was trying to say and she told the cashier what I was trying to do (MIRACLE). I walked away with metro tickets (that I have to buy each day) but that only cost 130 pesos! Hooooray! I felt so rich that I went back and got a juice box in the cafeteria before politics class!
I love Chile!
Yesterday, my new friend Lauren and I decided to walk to the neighborhood that our school is in (since we didn't acutally have school, we were actually going to a market that's nearby). It was probably a 5 mile walk, but awesome and very liberating. On the way back, I took the bus back alone and was really feeling pumped up from the awesome walk, but had no Ipod to satisfy this music craving. Next thing I know, a man behind me carrying a huge boom box (think Fresh Prince of Belaire) starts beat-boxing to the jam playing on his BB. Then, his lady friend starts breaking out in song and while at first she gave a bad rendition of Alicia Keyes' "Fallin," it wasn't long before they were deep into a Spanish rap session that quenched my thirst for tunes. Imagine you're in that scene in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit when Whoopi first sees the group of students on the pavement basketball court and they're all rapping about each others mamas before Whoopi tells them to get the hell back home (one of Lauryn Hill's finest rap performences). I felt like this bus rap was straight out of that movie. (If you don't understand this reference because you've never seen Sister Act 2, why are we friends? Why are you reading this blog?) Anyways, I wanted to get up dance... but instead, I played the Chilean cool and just sat there straight faced and handed them 500 pesos when they walked through the bus after they finished the performance. So, next time you forget your Ipod on the Bus... no pasa nada!
Then there was today, when I almost cried. It wasn't because I didn't understand something - that happens on an hourly basis. Instead, these tears almost came because I was so happy that I had finally mastered a part of Santiago only to almost have this happy feeling ripped out from under me. Since realizing that there's a student Tarjeta de Bip (ie Smartrip/metrocard) discount, I've been so fed up with paying the normal 400 pesos (this is actually only like 75 cents, but when you ride the metro at least twice a day - which I don't do in DC - it adds up). Anyways, ENOUGH I said to myself. So I went to see a lady in an office who Paola (our program director) told me to see. I was flat out rejected by this lady, who told me I first needed my Chilean ID that won't be coming until March 27. Back to Paola, who then consulted with a fellow office mate and realized that they could help me out and send my info to the government to receive the student discount. Great... Excellent... then they told me it would arrive in a month. A month? We're only here til June. Absolutely not. I had already been thinking about all the extra things I could buy with my extra 300 pesos for every ride (the student fare is 130 pesos)... more agua con gas, more rice cakes, more earrings! A month was an unacceptable amount of time I told myself. Then Paola's office mate (a woman of much knowledge whom I should probably pick apart one of these days and see what else I can get out of her) told me that I could get a temporary discount card. SIGN ME UP, I said.
Next, Paola sent me to a mysterious building with a looong line coming out the door. I waited for about ten minutes surrounded by girls wearing 80s jeans and boys with mullets (or chocopandas, as they're called here), and then I consulted someone who looked like she had authority who told me that I could go straight to an office in the building. There, I talked to a man named Charles who asked me why I only had one appellido (or last name) before entering my info into his computer. He asked me if I was Italian.. I wish. Then, after about 15 minutes of waiting, Charles handed me a printed piece of paper to take to the Metro. I was feeling really good at this point (holy crap, I figured something out without speaking English).
Once I was at the Metro cashier, I handed them the paper and realized I had NO idea what this temporary metro discount was. The girl behind the counter looked just as confused as me and failed (shockingly) to understand my broken spanish. I became very distressed at not being able to communicate with her, since even I had no idea what I was looking for. I could feel that pain that comes near your eyes just before you start to cry. Was I really about to break down in the Metro Station? God I hope not. Just then, the Chielan girl behind me started explaining to me in English what the cashier was trying to say and she told the cashier what I was trying to do (MIRACLE). I walked away with metro tickets (that I have to buy each day) but that only cost 130 pesos! Hooooray! I felt so rich that I went back and got a juice box in the cafeteria before politics class!
I love Chile!
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Soy un desastre total.
Today I....
-broke a glass plate all over the kitchen floor, causing Cecilia to sweep and mop
-dropped my mascara in the toilet, causing me to have to put my hand in the toilet
-spilled cooked small pieces of carrots and zucchini all over the same kitchen floor, causing Cecilia to sweep and mop AGAIN
It's only 8:48 pm and the Chilean days are looong so who knows what else I could mess up.
In other news, tonight Chilean time moves back an hour so by tomorrow, we'll be the same time as US Eastern Standard time!
-broke a glass plate all over the kitchen floor, causing Cecilia to sweep and mop
-dropped my mascara in the toilet, causing me to have to put my hand in the toilet
-spilled cooked small pieces of carrots and zucchini all over the same kitchen floor, causing Cecilia to sweep and mop AGAIN
It's only 8:48 pm and the Chilean days are looong so who knows what else I could mess up.
In other news, tonight Chilean time moves back an hour so by tomorrow, we'll be the same time as US Eastern Standard time!
Friday, March 13, 2009
No pasa nada!
This is the most relaxed place I've ever been. In the first couple weeks I was here, I really didn't know what to do with myself... I was so used to having endlessly busy days in DC and here I found myself with so much free time and so much day light. It's like, time just passes and I shouldn't be concerned that I haven't accomplished anything meaningful. Daily trips to Jumbo just to walk around? Four hour naps? Relaxing by the pool on top of my friend's building?
I've since realized that it's not just me... Chileans are just in a constant state of relaxation. Although it originally concerned me a little, I'm now embracing the extra time (more opportunities to walk, listen to Taylor Swift, etc).
Tonight we had a group dinner in Providencia. At a steakhouse. Yum.
After the appetizers and salad were served, the waiter came to remove my salad and placed another, larger, and more intense (avocado, hearts of palm, artichokes) salad in front of me. I did NOT complain. I never say no to vegetables.
Tomorrow is Sarah's (the chica living next door) birthday. Despite several attempts, I have yet to really succeed with the whole idea of Chilean nightlife. I've been maxing out at 3am at the latest, but my plan for tomorrow is to be prepared with some extra hours of sleep because Sarah has rented out a bar/club and I need to bring my A game in terms of staying awake. With that said, goodnight!
PS- I'm not going to pretend like I follow AU sports or anything, but tonight we made it into the NCAA tournament. I think this means that boys will actually start applying to American ... just want to put that out there.
I've since realized that it's not just me... Chileans are just in a constant state of relaxation. Although it originally concerned me a little, I'm now embracing the extra time (more opportunities to walk, listen to Taylor Swift, etc).
Tonight we had a group dinner in Providencia. At a steakhouse. Yum.
After the appetizers and salad were served, the waiter came to remove my salad and placed another, larger, and more intense (avocado, hearts of palm, artichokes) salad in front of me. I did NOT complain. I never say no to vegetables.
Tomorrow is Sarah's (the chica living next door) birthday. Despite several attempts, I have yet to really succeed with the whole idea of Chilean nightlife. I've been maxing out at 3am at the latest, but my plan for tomorrow is to be prepared with some extra hours of sleep because Sarah has rented out a bar/club and I need to bring my A game in terms of staying awake. With that said, goodnight!
PS- I'm not going to pretend like I follow AU sports or anything, but tonight we made it into the NCAA tournament. I think this means that boys will actually start applying to American ... just want to put that out there.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Valpo, Vina, and Very cute children!
Hey alll! It's been far too long and the longer I wait to post, the less manageable it is. Last weekend the group went to Valparaiso & Vina del Mar for some culture and THE BEACH.
Okay, Valpo first... In the span of just a two hour walking tour, all 20 girls on the program fell in love with our guide. I'm blanking on his name, but I think it might have been Daniel, so we'll just stick with that. Valpo is the most wildly planned (or perhaps unplanned) city I've ever seen. The downtown flat section called "El Plan" is alright, but the "cerros" or hills are are experience! Winding "roads", graffiti, and the craziest wild streets dogs I've experienced yet don't even begin to describe the experience. Here is a picture of Daniel perched on the side of a burned "house" in the cerros. He explained that since there aren't a lot of roads for firetrucks, fires are often unstoppable and structures like this are deserted. Valpo also has more than 10 "ascensores" for lazy people (we took two up the hill rather than walking... it was wonderful). Mom- you will either love these ascensores or be terrified of them. I cannot decide.
Since Valparaiso isn't all that fun or safe at night, our group stayed in Vina del Mar, a fun beach town about 15 minutes away. The program paid for our first night at the Best Western and then the second night, we all decided to reject the nearby hostels and splurge for another night at the good old BW. The complimentary breakfast itself was worth the extra money, but the people behind the desk were just so darn friendly too. Speaking of friendly and helpful... the chilean cabineros (or police) deserve a little shout out in this entry! Within about 15 minutes of being on the beach in Vina in a group of about 15 girls, my friend Kristen's purse got swiped!
In America, I might report this incident, but I definitely wouldn't expect any sort of follow up or happy ending. With this in mind, I figured that the Chilean result would be the same or even more bleak. Regardless, I and another friend told a beach security guard who immediately called the police to come to the beach (while this was all happening, a Chilean girls purse also got stolen, and we didn't feel so stupid for being dumb gringas anymore). The police brought Kristen back to the hotel, and by the time that happened, some other cabineros had found the purse (minus a camera , pair of glasses, but still with all her cash/credit cards) and were on the phone with the hotel workers. She had the bag back by the end of the night and we all rejoiced. Hooray for cabineros! Anyways, the beach was otherwise great, and we had some fun nights out on the town (although it was hard to leave the hotel room with the Disney Channel in Spanish- my roommates seriously considered ditching the group dinner for High School Musical, as you can see in this foto).
Lastly, allow me to introduce you to the extended family, who I saw for the second time after getting back from this weekend trip. These are the three kids of Cecilia's oldest son- Cristobal, Ignasia, and Trini (short for Trinidad). Straight out of a pottery barn kids ad, aren't they? On this day, they were all trying to knock pecans out of the pecan tree that is apparently in the back yard... thus the stick.
Hope everyone is doing well! Classes started this week, but it's been very relaxed since internships are still being planned and we have lots of free time. I'm trying to spend that time walking and getting to know Santiago on foot!
Okay, Valpo first... In the span of just a two hour walking tour, all 20 girls on the program fell in love with our guide. I'm blanking on his name, but I think it might have been Daniel, so we'll just stick with that. Valpo is the most wildly planned (or perhaps unplanned) city I've ever seen. The downtown flat section called "El Plan" is alright, but the "cerros" or hills are are experience! Winding "roads", graffiti, and the craziest wild streets dogs I've experienced yet don't even begin to describe the experience. Here is a picture of Daniel perched on the side of a burned "house" in the cerros. He explained that since there aren't a lot of roads for firetrucks, fires are often unstoppable and structures like this are deserted. Valpo also has more than 10 "ascensores" for lazy people (we took two up the hill rather than walking... it was wonderful). Mom- you will either love these ascensores or be terrified of them. I cannot decide.
Since Valparaiso isn't all that fun or safe at night, our group stayed in Vina del Mar, a fun beach town about 15 minutes away. The program paid for our first night at the Best Western and then the second night, we all decided to reject the nearby hostels and splurge for another night at the good old BW. The complimentary breakfast itself was worth the extra money, but the people behind the desk were just so darn friendly too. Speaking of friendly and helpful... the chilean cabineros (or police) deserve a little shout out in this entry! Within about 15 minutes of being on the beach in Vina in a group of about 15 girls, my friend Kristen's purse got swiped!
In America, I might report this incident, but I definitely wouldn't expect any sort of follow up or happy ending. With this in mind, I figured that the Chilean result would be the same or even more bleak. Regardless, I and another friend told a beach security guard who immediately called the police to come to the beach (while this was all happening, a Chilean girls purse also got stolen, and we didn't feel so stupid for being dumb gringas anymore). The police brought Kristen back to the hotel, and by the time that happened, some other cabineros had found the purse (minus a camera , pair of glasses, but still with all her cash/credit cards) and were on the phone with the hotel workers. She had the bag back by the end of the night and we all rejoiced. Hooray for cabineros! Anyways, the beach was otherwise great, and we had some fun nights out on the town (although it was hard to leave the hotel room with the Disney Channel in Spanish- my roommates seriously considered ditching the group dinner for High School Musical, as you can see in this foto).
Lastly, allow me to introduce you to the extended family, who I saw for the second time after getting back from this weekend trip. These are the three kids of Cecilia's oldest son- Cristobal, Ignasia, and Trini (short for Trinidad). Straight out of a pottery barn kids ad, aren't they? On this day, they were all trying to knock pecans out of the pecan tree that is apparently in the back yard... thus the stick.
Hope everyone is doing well! Classes started this week, but it's been very relaxed since internships are still being planned and we have lots of free time. I'm trying to spend that time walking and getting to know Santiago on foot!
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