V-Day, A Poet and Some Graffiti

Only one more day of Spanish class!!! I did my group presentation yesterday. We presented on Cerro San Cristobal and Bellavista. It went pretty well, but I totally forgot to include a whole paragraph that I was supposed to say. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now! Live and learn everyone. Haha. Tomorrow is our final exam...and then no more class until real school starts! AHHHHH!!!

Monday was Valentine's Day, or as they say here, El Día de Enamorados, and my friends and I decided to have a nice dinner together at my friend Aaron's house. Melanie decorated all the table with candles and rose petals, and it looked GORGEOUS. Aaron's brother used to be a head chef, and he made us amazing ravioli, Caesar salad, and garlic bread. I have never been so excited to eat a Caesar salad before. Mostly because it actually has lettuce and dressing in it. Attention Chileans: A BOWL OF TOMATOES IS NOT A SALAD. Brenan, as a fellow tomato-hater, I'm sure you understand the pain I feel everytime I'm served a giant spoonful of this so-called "salad."I eat it and want to cry. Here's some pics from our V-Day dinner:

On Tuesday, we had our last "cultural activity" with our groups. My group went to Pablo Neruda's Santiago home, which is called La Chascona. It was exactly how I would picture a famous poet's house would look, super quirky and artsy, with eyeballs hanging from a tree, LOOK!

Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so this is what you get! The whole tour was in Spanish so I didn't understand a lot of it, but I'm sure it was fascinating...Afterwards, our group monitors took us to an ice-cream shop that they said was the best in Santiago. So many cool flavors. I had strawberry mint and a mango/pineapple/peach blend (I think?) which were both delicious and tried my friend's...drumroll please...NUTELLA ICE-CREAM!!! I had no idea such a great thing could exist, but yes, it does exist and it's amazing in every way. After our ice-cream, we still had money left (since the trips are included in our fees, we're given a certain amount each time to spend), we headed over to a bar in Barrio Lastarria. I tried a vino sour, which is white wine and...lemon juice I think? Anyway, another delicious discovery.

Going to Reñaca this weekend!

Love the graffiti in the city:

Chao until Sunday!

Wine and a Llama

So on Thursday we took the best field trip ever...Viña Concha Y Toro to go wine-tasting! The vineyard was about an hour outside Santiago, and it was gorgeousss. We watched a video about the vineyard, tasted two of the wines (I didn't think I liked white wine, but after this field trip I have changed my mind. Delicious.), ate some grapes right off the vine, and went down into the wine cellar, which was super dark and spooky. The cellar was called the Casillero del Diablo, and in the back there was a smaller room that was lit up with red light that was supposed to be the devil's wine hallway or something...it had to do with some legend. Fun facts! Concha y Toro was the first winery in the world to have its shares traded in the NY Stock Exchange, and it is the official wine partner of Manchester United. Also, we had a tour guide the whole time who all the girls thought was cute...he got two girls' numbers, and then we found out he is married with children...........

 It rained while we were there, and right after it rains is the best time to see the mountains:

Yesterday, we went to Cerro San Cristobal to check out the weekend féria, where they sell a bunch of random stuff, and there was a llama there!!! I had to sneak a picture of him because you were supposed to pay and I had no cash...it's blurry but incredible. My first llama sighting in South America. We had our friend Pedro pick us up at the bottom of the hill and drive us up to a picnic area where he and his friends were having an asada (BBQ). We met a bunch of Chileans and got an amaaazing view of the city.

And I found an apartment!!! I'll be living with my friend Marcella, a Chilean student and his mom in the middle of Providencia, which is considered the safest part of the city. Everything we need is super close, including a Starbucks downstairs! The Starbucks here are super nice, and usually have a whole floor for couches and tables. Definitely gonna be my new study spot. My room is connected to Marcella's by a big balcony that only we have access to. I'm sad to leave my host family, but sooo excited to move in to my new place. The mom that lives there is really nice and said to just pretend she's not there, which is exactly what I need. We move in the 1st week of March!

Hammer Time

Here, Mom! Sorry I haven't updated in awhile...

So I'm in my 2nd week of Spanish classes at La Católica, and they're going well except that it's 4 hours a day and I can't focus on ANYTHING for that long, let alone Spanish. I don't feel like my Spanish is getting too much better yet, but I'm hoping that changes once real school starts and I have no choice anymore haha...


Last weekend almost everyone in my program went to the coast, but I stayed in the city with some of my friends. On Friday night, we hung out with our friend's host brother and his friends. It started out super awkward since we were too nervous to speak Spanish and they were too nervous to speak English, but after a few rum and Cokes (ron y coca) it got a little easier, and I practiced a ton of Spanish until they busted out their English. Turns out a few of them were actually pretty good, and the best ones had never taken any English lessons. Who says Friends isn't an educational show?!? One guy learned entirely from watching Friends and Lost, and another one said he learned from watching movies and listening to American music. (Okay Grandma, you win. I should've watched your novelas with you.) Anyway, the Chileans I've met so far are all super friendly, exactly what I was told before I came!


On Saturday, we went to Patronato, which is a whole district of cheap clothes, shoes and jewelry kinda like Santee Alley in downtown LA. My friend Marcella and I bought some M.C. Hammer pants to fit in with the Chileans!!! Can't wait to sport those bad boys, but I don't think they will ever make an appearance outside Chile. If they do, please tell me to change.


On Sunday, we went back to California Cantina for the Superbowl! Sooo fun, but one MAJOR disappointment. No Superbowl commercials!!! What did they think I came for? To watch the game?! Please. Every commercial break was just soccer highlights from the past season...in Spanish. The same ones, every time. And THEN, the power went out right as Usher got onstage during halftime and we missed the whole thing. Either way, the Packers won and we had a great time. California Cantina is gonna be our new hangout whenever we miss home. The owner already knows us and they have special events for every holiday: Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day (okay that's Irish but they don't celebrate it in Chile), Easter, 4th of July...plus reggae nights on Wednesdays and it turns into a club at least once a week. Perfect! 


Today after class, we went on a fieldtrip to Palacio La Moneda (the presidential offices) for a tour. We only got to go into the courtyards and a few rooms, but it was really cool to see. Who knew I would be at the Chilean White House before the American one? Apparently the president was there today, but we didn't get to see him. I thought it was interesting that the presidents haven't lived in La Moneda since the bombing in '73; they stay at their own houses and are driven underground to work every time they have to come in. 


More updates soon!


La Moneda:

With some of the girls at California Cantina:

Ayyy Ay Ay

Monday was my first day of Spanish class! For some strange reason, I was placed in the intermediate class. I thought for sureee I would be in the lower one. The first thing we had to do was get up in front of the class and talk about ourselves. YIKES. It went fine, but I probably sounded like a 3-year-old compared to the people who went before me. I swear they're just pretending to be American. Sounded pretty fluent to me! Oh well...I like my teacher and I feel like I'm slowly getting more comfortable speaking Spanish. Very very slowly.

Yesterday morning, we went as a group to register our visas with the international police and apply for our Chilean ID cards. SUCH. A. NIGHTMARE. After meeting at the metro station at 8am (which was really far from my house), waiting in lines all morning and filling out paperwork and making copies (all at different places), I finally get to the desk to submit my info for my ID. Then the lady tells me she can't accept my application because the stamp in my passport is too light and she can't read my arrival date. Luckily, I wasn't the only one in my group with this problem. Another girl, Kellee, and I had to walk all the way back to the international police station to request another stamp, but the guy who gave us directions sent us to the wrong building. We finally found it and had to go to 3 different counters, then got lost on the way back and finallyyy made it back to submit our forms. To top everything off, not one person we asked could tell us what bus to take to school, so we had to take a taxi and were an hour and a half late for class. Then had class until 6, and a "mandatory" dinner with our Chilean student guides (and by dinner, that meant a 2-hour meal and a bar after). Longest day everrrrr. Anyway, it's over and I get my Chilean ID in 10 days!

I bought a plane ticket to Patagonia last night! Can't wait to see some real live happy feet! Oh, and giant glaciers.