Walking by the smell of warm bread is irresistible.

That is just one of the many things I love about being here--the countless pastelerías, bread shops, that woft their delicious smell of homemade bread into the city multiple times each day. Mmmmm.

In other news, it was another super fun week here in Chile! I was able to do a lot of fun and different things around Santiago, despite the cold weather that has officially stopped creeping and is officially settled in. On Tuesday after my exam I interviewed with three Chileans from La Católica as they asked me questions about my experience thus far, why I chose Chile, etc for a sociology project. It was great language practice for me and they were really nice. Later that night I went to my first (and hopefully not last!) fútbol game! It was a lot of fun and a great first game to go to. The game was La Católica vs. Universidad de Chile and ended up being a tie, which disqualified La Católica from the championship. Bummer!
The stadium is in the worst part of town and this is the norm with fútbol stadiums in Chile. If they build them in the poorer parts of town they are 1) paying a lot less for the property and 2) catering more to the locals who cannot afford to entertain themselves in other ways. Overall it makes sense, it also just makes it harder for a group of gringos to go to the games. A few funny things about the game: there were cops everywhere (which was expected) but they looked like soldiers, it was crazy! There were barbed wire fences separating the different sections of the bleachers instead of a simple bar, the fans did not stop cheering the entire time and the cheers were never repeated! I tried singing along when I could pick out the words, but after a while I decided it was in my best interest to just enjoy the atmosphere. Lastly, before exiting the stadium we had to wait about 45 minutes until the fans from the other team had all made their way out to prevent uncontrollable brawls of course (I only wish I was joking). It was pretty interesting! Oh, and I loved the Rosaries on sale in support of La Católica, pretty comical. "Sure I'll buy a Rosary, and then I'll beat up that guy from the other team!" There just seems to be a strange disconnect there...

On Wednesday I didn't do much of anything except go to class and pick on Mama. We danced in the kitchen, joked around and she teased me for still not wearing shoes in the house.

On Thursday Ellie and I went out for Tai food after class with Pablo and a few of his friends; it was a lot of fun!! We didn't leave San Joaquin until about 7:45 pm so we ended up eating dinner at 10:00! Love that Chilean way of doing things! But in all seriousness the food was really good and well worth the wait. I also tried one of the hottest peppers in the world. It is so hot that in fact the R-rated name of the pepper tells the consumer that their mouth will indeed be on fire if they choose to eat it and will proceed to shout profanities.

On Friday night I taught English again, this time alone and afterward there was a gathering/dinner for all of the teachers in the Belen UC program. It was at the house of an apparently pretty important man, Carlos Larraín, who is the president of Sebastian Piñera's (Chile's President) political party, La Renovación Nacional. His son is in charge of coordinating our program so I didn't actually meet don Carlos. The 350-year-old house was absolutely gorgeous, despite the damage from the earthquake and it was really fun to spend time with some Chileans that reminded me a lot of my friends in Madison. It was also nice to see a different part of Santiago and practice my Spanish without feeling any pressure whatsoever. Score!On Saturday we did a walking tour of Barrio Yungay
which was really cool! We saw a couple of churches, tons of cool graffiti, and saw some of the oldest, most European-style parts of the city. Apparently back in the day when Chile was colonized by the Spaniards the Plaza de Armas in each city was always the first thing to develop and then the rest of the city would be built up around it, expanding outward. Plaza Yungay was the first plaza outside of the Plaza de Armas in Santiago to develop in this way and it is part of a really neat, tranquil neighborhood. After we finished the tour we stopped at Peluquería Francesa, which is a pretty well-known coffee shop/barber shop in Santiago. It's pretty old and has a 1950's feel with the barbers trimming away downstairs.
After enjoying the café, a couple of us split from the tour group and walked around town, strolling through Mercado Central and Barrio Patronato to Barrio Bellavista, where we stopped and had a quick, cheap lunch. We then proceeded to walk up Cerro San Cristobal, enjoying the beautiful afternoon and the views of Santiago. I really don't think I'll get sick of the views from the top of the cerro, they are just so beautiful! Ellie's friend Caleb is here for a little while so we wanted him to see all of the best parts about Santiago. We continued to the top where we shared a mote con huesillos, which is a delicious drink/treat that consists of, yes it will sound strange, corn and peaches in a peachy nectar type liquid. It's actually really good and when it's hot out you cannot walk down the street without seeing masses of people with one in hand. After thoroughly enjoying that we watched the sunset over the mountains and made our way back down on the funicular to save about two hours of a hike back down.

That night Pablo and his friend Mario took us to a sweet discotheque that was definitely not near the Santiago that we know but was a lot of fun. Great people, free entrance for women, balloons, confetti, Madonna, Eurythmics. Need I say more? It was a lot of fun, especially with Ellie and Caleb, and we never would have been able to go all the way there had it not been for Pablo! He is really generous with his auto and it sure makes transportation easier, and more fun!

On Sunday after spending time with my family at home there was an asado (barbecue) at Ellie's so I went over there and got teased by Ellie's family for a little while. That was fun. Her dad convinced me to give the grapes a shot, even though I have been avoiding them after what happened to me last time and before I knew it they were almost all gone! And for those of you wondering, the next day I had no problems. Also, on Saturday my "sister" finally showed up! Her name is Loreta and I think she is 26 years old. She's really sweet and she was just spending some time in Germany and Italy (hmmm sound familiar?) and will be here for the week until she returns to Iquique in northern Chile to get back to the grind.

On Monday we all met up again, this time with Laura too, and went to the Santiago famous bar, La Piojera, which is one of those things you just have to do here. It actually got its name in 1922 when some friends of the president took him to the restaurant for a drink and after seeing the unfavorable conditions of the place he asked, "¿Y a esta piojera me han traído?" which translates to, "And this is the flea-hole that you brought me to?" That should tell you a little bit about the fine establishment. We sampled the famous terremotos, which are combinations of very cheap wine, fernet (a type of disgusting alcohol) and pineapple ice cream.
It was a pretty fun experience and the guys at the table next to us paid a photographer with the world's largest camera to take a picture of us and then just gave us the picture for no reason! It was a little hard to concentrate on their offer when the host came by clearing the table and doing doing Michael Jackson dance moves at the same time. Oh, and don't forget about the 65-year old curado (drunk man) singing at the top of his lungs while the rest of us clapped him on.
We spent the rest of the day enjoying the city by walking around downtown, watching some guys play uncontrollable checkers, stopping to have some delicious 2 for 1 pizza, and then finishing off the evening in Bravissimo, a wonderful gelatería with a plethora of options. It was a great time to sit around, enjoy good company, and watch Caleb drown in his tricolor, especially the Blistex-flavored favorite.

Overall, a super fantastic week and I still love Santiago! Until next time! Chau!!

Making pottery and making friends.

Ahh the simple joys in life! I am looking back on this past week with sheer joy as I think about all of the wonderful people I met and the fun things I did. The week started out with just some simple things planned--classes, test, meet up with tandem partner. It turned out to be a great week and I was even more reaffirmed that I love Santiago! First, although I have met some Chileans, I actually made a friend! His name is Pablo and I met him at church at San Joaquin. He works in the Pastoral UC and is a director of student affairs. We went around the city first to a Schoenstatt sanctuary, then to the sanctuary of San Padre Alberto Hurtado, and Cerro San Cristobal at night! San Padre Hurtado is one of Chile's two national patron saints and actually died in 1952 and was canonized in 2005. Not only is his tomb there, but there is also a museum where you can see a lot of the things he used etc, but I learned about his life and he seems to be a pretty amazing man. Ironically, my tandem partner gave me one of his books as a gift the first time we met up, so I am practicing Spanish and reading about an amazing man at the same time. It's called Un fuego que enciende otros fuegos and is definitely a nice change-up to the Spanish Picaresque novels that I have to read for one of my classes. Well the week went off without a hitch, I took my exam on Thursday, which is certainly nothing like the exams at UW-Madison, let me tell you. It was two essays that were each a page long, but for each one we could choose between three. Hopefully I'm not too overconfident on this one but I'd say it went alright. Ellie and I decided to celebrate after a long three-day week regardless and her, Laura, Ramiro (Laura's host brother) and I took a bus to Bar Apoquindo to relax, sit outside, and enjoy a trago, or drink. The next day was Friday so of course that meant getting not much done and hanging out with Mama. On Friday night however Yvonne and I did teach our English class at San Joaquin and although less students showed up than last time, I think the audience was a little more captive due to the fact that we were a little more prepared.

Friday night Laura, Ellie and I went with Laura's host brother's friends to a fire station turned private party and danced the night away. It was a lot of fun but the 7:30 alarm came a lot sooner than we all would have liked! However, that alarm was well worth it and Saturday was the best yet. When I first arrived in Santiago Mama gifted me a nice ceramic cup and saucer set and told me that there is a city nearby that specializes in greda and all of the other students that come here always end up buying some for themselves and taking it home. Since that first day I have wanted to go to Pomaire and Saturday I had just that chance! Our Michigan-Wisconsin program went as one of our three scheduled trips to Pomaire for the day and it was cool being so close to Santiago yet in a completely different world. The whole 8.000-person town revolves around the greda industry and their amazing gastronomical productions. They are known for their medio-kilo empanadas, pastel de choclo and other Chilean cuisine.

We got there just in time to enjoy a wonderful breakfast in a home of the people who would be our "guides" throughout the day and then went to a taller, or workshop, for greda and witnessed the process from start to finish, an incredibly laborious process! It was so amazing to see the guy just slap some clay on a spinning plate-type thing and within less than two minutes, bam! An amazing greda pot. The childlike nature of all of us came out when we were able to make our own! No, we did not get to keep them but I am positive that they will definitely be selling those beauts.
After that we walked to another house in Pomaire to make our own chanchitos! Pomaire is known for their pig-like pottery and chanchitos are little coin banks that are one of those "you have to do that in Pomaire" kind of thing. We went to the house of a sweet old man and he showed us the whole process from start to finish so that we could make our own. Again, it was fun taking a blast from the past into 4th grade art class and making pottery like children. Unfortunately, although not surprisingly, by the time I got home my chanchito had no ears and was missing a leg. But it was the memory that counts.
After that we all walked back to our starting point of the day where they had prepared us a home-style, Chilean lunch. They had "empanaditas" (which I find comical because that translates literally to "little empanadas" and these were anything but little!) as an appetizer (yes, I know what you're thinking) and then chicken and rice, corn, salads, and popsicles for dessert. You could say that I enjoyed Pomaire in all facets.
After that we were allotted some time to walk around, check out the artisan shops, see all of the different types of greda and see most, if not all, of Pomaire. You could spend an hour and a half walking and see plenty of the city, believe me. But after that we left, I zonked out on the bus home, and was in casa by 7:30 pm. That left me just enough time to get back to Madison to meet Kate and Leah at the Nitty to celebrate their big 2-1!
Well I may not have been there but it was actually Yvonne's 20th so we, and by we I am talking about 26 people, went out to celebrate. It was a lot of fun to be with all of these new people from different countries who only two months ago had no idea that one another even existed. We danced the night away and clocked in around 4:30 a.m. for the second night in a row. Oh the joys of being young! On Sunday I was surprised when the extended family started showing up and found out we were having a big barbecue for lunch! It was fun eating some more of Carlos' exquisite grilling delights, chit-chatting with all of my aunts and uncles and having them poke fun at me. At first I just got nervous and accepted everything they said to me with a smile and a nervous giggle but I think I can say that I have successfully graduated to a stage where I can tease back and add in my own commentary in conversations!

It looks like it was a great week in Santiago overall, and I am still loving every minute of it, despite the "cold" weather that is starting to come in.
Until next time, chau!

Santiago is a wonderful place to be.

That is no lie! I was fortunate enough to spend the entire weekend here; that's right, no traveling for me this weekend folks! I love picking up and noticing the little details that make Santiago so great. For example, the weather is still beautiful. Sunshine every single day, knock on wood. I think that may be my favorite part. There is a nice little bench out on our patio and it's right in the sunshine. Of course Mama thinks I'm crazy when I sit out there in the direct sun, but don't worry, I take caution and apply SPF. ;)

Another fun thing about Santiago is surprisingly the stray dogs! While I avoid them every time I approach one on the sidewalk and by avoid I mean I either turn around and walk a different way or cross the street and hope he doesn't follow me, they use the sidewalks and abide by the crossing signals! Of course they like to roam in the parks and whatnot, but for the most part the dogs stay on the sidewalks and even if there are no cars coming, they wait for the "little green man" to cross the street in the crosswalk! It is so funny! I smile everytime I see it.

I think I am also getting used to the buses and the metro more and more each day. This is a definite plus because when you get the hang of how they operate it makes life a whole lot easier! Yesterday I went out to lunch with my friend Karrah and we just sat outside and shared a pizza del huerto, or rather, pizza of the garden. Corn, esparagus, eggplant, tomato, and mozzarella....mmm it was pretty delicious. And it was also my first time actually eating out in Santiago-I am used to Mama always cooking me meals so I don't need to spend my money, but I thought it would be a nice changeup, and a nice way to see some more of Santiago only costing roughly $5 for a full tummy.

Ellie and I have begun taking nightly walks which has also been nice; Las Condes is a really great neighborhood and honestly I'm more afraid of the dogs (although they really are harmless) than I am of the people. Funny story: the other day on the way to school the micro (bus) was really packed and there was a slightly shady man next to Ellie. She said he was acting kind of wierd (which was true) and when he got off the bus she looked and the front pocket of her backpack was unzipped! Luckily we have been warned not to keep valuables there but it was definitely an eye-opener for me because as many may already know, I can be very trusting, especially of the elderly. This reaffirmed me that I need to constantly be aware of the people around me, no matter their age.

It was a great weekend in Santiago for a few reasons, but especially because I was able to spend so much time with Mama and Carlos. If I have failed to mention Carlos he is Mama's younger brother who lives with us. It is actually really nice having him around because he is like my improv Chilean dad/brother. I was able to eat lunch on both Saturday and Sunday with them (which is a treat because I've been gone so often!) and even have once (OWN-say), which is kind of like their dinner but usually consists of bread and some extras, with them. They teased me for not being able to pronounce my r's, but I loved every minute of it. On Sunday, apart from being Divine Mercy Sunday was also the feast day of Quasimodo, which is an age-old tradition in Chile in the Catholic Church where they bring the sick and injured to mass to get a special blessing. I didn´t get to witness any of the traditions, but perhaps another time.

On Friday night was also the birthday party of our friend Kevin. He is a sweetheart from Michigan in our program and we all went to Jess and Alyssa´s house where they threw him a little party. There were a lot more Chileans than gringos which definitely surprised me! It provided a fun atmosphere to practice spanish and learn a little bit more of how young people actually speak, rather than always talking to Mama and Carlos. However, two things that are present in conversation regardless of age is the infamous "¿cachai?" and "po". Cachai is literally thrown in after every 4th or 5th word in most conversations and it translates to "understand?" I love it. And po is added to most, if not all words. I think it is something that although I am accustomed to, I will still smile each time I hear someone say sipo, OBviopo, Chilepo, etc etc.

In school-related news I officially have a tandem conversation partner, which is someone that signs up with the university to practice their English with a student who wants to practice their Spanish. His name is Christian Morales and we meet weekly to practice our respective languages, chit chat about life and whatnot. It's pretty fun and is helping me learn and gain confidence with my speaking. He is also an ayudante, or TA, of one of the classes I was about to take so I had met him before we found out we got paired together. Small world, even here in Santiago!

Lastly, on Friday night was my first night teaching English to Chileans! Belén UC is a volunteer program with the Pastoral UC on the San Joaquin campus and they have a program where they teach adults who either did not finish college, got pregnant, or who simply want to come back and learn a variety of subjects. My friend Yvonne from New Zealand actually signed up to teach as well and we got randomly paired to teach the same class! What are the odds? I repeat, small world. But it was definitely an interesting experience and I am already looking forward to this Friday! The students are mainly between the ages of 17 and 22 so they are my own age, except of course for the nice 60 year old caballero who sat right in the front row.

Overall, it was an enjoyable week in Santiagopo and I am looking forward to what this week has in store! Ciao ciao!

Time out!

Rather than being a post to describe some of my exciting adventures and life in South America, I want to give you a wonderful opportunity to help out at no cost to you! During high school I had a couple of wonderful opportunities to go on a mission trip to Mississippi and work with MadCAAP (Madison County Allied Against Poverty), and they are an organization that builds homes for single mothers who can barely feed their children. It was very moving to see the families of 7 or more children living in vans, tattered homes, and yet we came to the work site each day in our air conditioned coach bus. The crews that we worked with were incredible--friendly, generous, patient, humble and kind. They live to serve and it is extremely inspiring!

Sometimes we forget how lucky we really are! Pepsi is giving away a grant of $50,000 to the idea gets voted as the best and this is your opportunity to vote for MadCAAP!

http://www.refresheverything.com/madcaap

You can cast your vote each day until April 30th, please take just a few seconds each day to do this! Your vote will go a long way! We jumped 5 spots in one day, I know we can do this! Also, after you sign in you have to hit the vote button again, make sure that your vote counts!

Thank you so much for your help! MadCAAP will appreciate it!

Video from Iguazu

Here is a link to a little compilation so that you can actually see and hear the falls at Iguazu! Incredible!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiPf4I49RdQ

Enjoy!

Could I please pay in Argentinian pesos and get Uruguayan pesos in return?

Feliz Pascua a todos! I hope everyone had a great Easter, mine was definitely one that will be remembered, but first to tell you about the rest of my trip to Argentina! To begin with, Iguazú Falls was hands-down my favorite part, no contest. After being able to spend nearly a day and a half in the park frolicking through the falls, wandering the trails, seeing little raccoon-like coatis snatch people's sandwiches, taking moonlit tours... it is easy to understand why we all liked it so much. Whenever there is a full moon, for the five nights surrounding it the park does tours to the Garganta del Diablo (devil's throat) to see the falls by the moonlight. It was such an amazing experience and to think that we just happened to be there at the right time with beautiful weather is incredible. We ended up doing the tour and a dinner at a fancy restaurant inside the park where there was some amazing steak and an all-you-can-eat buffet (uh-oh...). We enjoyed some exquisite Argentine dining, fine wine, and even caipiriñas, which are sugary cocktails popular in Argentina and Brazil. It was definitely a different experience to visit the park at night; there were different aromas, sounds and overall a much more tranquil feel than during the daytime. There were a lot of people there and when we were eating dinner the lights went out (which quite frankly didn't surprise me) so we were able to enjoy our fine dinners by candle/cell phone light. The harpist continued to play, almost as if out of a movie. How romantic. We also met some girls from England and California that came with us and it was exciting and inspiring to hear about their travels. The number of people that are simply traveling for five to six months is so cool; there are so many young people just like me who are simply taking advantage of the time and their youth and backpacking through South America. Although I'm technically "studying abroad," I sometimes feel like I'm doing the same thing! The next day our bus was not scheduled to leave until 2:50, so the four of us girls walked around Puerto Iguazú, wandered in and out of tourist shops and enjoyed delicious $.75 ice cream cones and believe me, they were worth every peso. It was extremely hot (although no complaints here, I thrive in the warm weather); in fact so much so that even ice cream shops were closed due to the heat! Imagine that! Puerto Iguazú is a really quaint little Argentine town, basically thriving off of the tourist industry being the main gateway to the falls, but one thing that it does have will blow your mind: an uncontrolled 7-way intersection! The Siete Boca, which roughly translates to seven mouths, is pretty interesting and I sure am glad there is nothing like that in Wisconsin! We eventually made our way over (all the way across the street from our hostel) to the bus terminal to await our shuttle to our next destination: Buenos Aires (referred to as Buenos or B.A. in this post). Our 2:50 scheduled take-off time turned into 4:00, so unfortunately we had not eaten lunch and were getting a little testy. About an hour after being on the road we were stopped in the middle of the countryside for another hour and after many detours, pit-stops and practicing our patience we finally had a dinner consisting of three empanadas at 1 in the morning. I will say no more about this bus ride except for the fact that I *publicly* do not recommend the company Expreso Singer because a 17-hour ride can quickly turn into 22.5 hours.
After arriving in B.A. we all took much needed showers, ate a wonderful meal and got ready to enjoy our time in one of South America's biggest metropolis'! The next few days are all sort of rolled into one: we did some sight-seeing, went to a famous cemetery in La Recoleta which was really cool, and we even got to see the tomb of Evita (Eva Maria Duarte a.k.a. Evita, wife of former Argentine president Juan Peron). We went to La Boca neighborhood which is famous for its colorful buildings, traditional Euro-Buenos flare, and a bunch of artesanas, tourist shops and restaurants. We had lunch at a nice little restaurant where I decided I would order the milanesa completo, because here in Santiago the "completo" signifies lettuce, tomato, avocado and mayo (I usually nix the mayo), but apparently in Argentina it means cheese, ham, tomato and lettuce...not the same. Needless to say my sandwich turned out to be a fail, but it was still fun being entertained by the tango dancers on the stage and Lyndsey and my Kiwi friend Yvonne got pulled up to dance with them!

After finishing up in La Boca we made our way across the city to the cemetery and spent a little bit of time oohing and ahhing at the extremely ornate and decorated tombs. Our last night in B.A. we ended up going to a tango show and there was a special promotion with our hostel that included transportation, a free lesson, an amazing meal and a show all for roughly $45US. Not a bad deal! It was a lot of fun to get all dressed up and go experience a little more of the Buenos flare, and the tango is just such an amazing dance when the dancers are good! For dinner we had amazing Argentine steak (jugoso or medium rare) with all-you-can-enjoy red wine, followed by a delicious brownie for dessert. They even invited people to dance with them during the show and I decided to accept the offer and danced with one of the performers! Everyone was in agreement that the night was a success after two previous nights of letdowns with the discotheques and afterward we came home, had ample time for girl talk and hit the pillows. Karrah, Lyndsey, Laura and I got up nice and early to go catch our ferry back to Uruguay and made it there in about an hour, which was MUCH faster than the amount of time it took to get there! After getting to Colonia we took a bus back to Montevideo, grabbed some lunch to use up the rest of our Uruguayan pesos and before we knew it we were back in the airport, laughing and getting ready to board the plane. The plane ride was great, until of course we approached the Andes where the pilot advised everybody to stay in their seats and buckle up. I wondered why because I figured it would be just like flying over any other piece of land, but I soon realized why when we took a 45 degree nose dive and were experiencing some heavy turbulence. It is the norm when they cross the cordillera; I'm assuming because they have to make it over the mountains, it just caught all of us off-guard. I made it back home and realized just how much I missed Santiago when I heard the passport guy use the phrase "al tiro" which is exclusively and also very frequently used in Chile. I do love the Spanish here and would absolutely love to have the ability to speak like they do.

After visiting a couple other South American countries I really do prefer Chile and one of the reasons is that overall Chile is a much safer and secure país (country). It is the only country in South America where the cops cannot be paid off with bribes and there is also not the problem of counterfeit money as much as in other countries. Little to my knowledge I was handed a 50-peso bill in Argentina and when I went to exchange it for Chilean pesos at the airport I was informed that it was false. Due to the fact that it is actually about $14 I decided that I could not just throw it away, so I found a convenience store where luckily the cashier was not very attentive and ended up taking it. Technically, had I never gone to the currency exchange place I never would have known, so it's okay that I did that, right? Right. I also did get ripped off when I went to buy a glass of milk and paid with Argentine pesos and got 2 Uruguayan pesos in return, when I should have gotten 24. I may be a gringa but I'm not stupid.

Today was Easter and I finally got to experience a little bit of the tight-knit family life that most Chileans have. Almost all of Mama Maria's family came over and after going to mass at Las Nieves with Laura I ate lunch and sat around talking and sharing with the family, watching three-year-old Esperanza hunt for huevitos (little chocolate Easter eggs) and just enjoying some new and some familiar faces in the comforts of my own "home". Also, I have never seen people eat as much meat in one sitting as I saw today: fat and all! Carlos grilled out and returned with new pieces of meat every 20 minutes for a few hours and some people just do not turn him down! People actually laughed at me for staring but it was just something I have never seen before, even with my own dad!
I am excited (as well as Mama Maria) to stay in Santiago for a while and practice Spanish, catch up with my studies (and my sleep schedule!) and actually experience life in this city for a while! I hope you enjoyed my trip to Argentina!