Wait where am I again?

What a night yesterday! It seriously felt like being back in the PR, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. hehe So my Papà had to go into Santiago for 3 meetings, which just happened to be in the same neighborhood as Nacho's, so I called him and he's like for sure, Seba is here too and we'll all hang out.

So the next day, I took the bus with my bro Jose Pablo into Rancagua. Its always an adventure. We were waiting for a colectivo by the highway which were all full. Then we waved to the bus or la micro and he just went by. Out in the country they don't come by that often. So 15min later we were finally on our way into the city. Then we had to take a colectivo from where they dropped us off to where my dad was meeting us. WOW! We finally got there though, luckily we were in chile and my dad hadn't even gotten there yet! :)

So my bro took his car, and I went with my papà to Santiago! I am seriously head over heels in love with that city. I saw the US Embassy and some other really cool buildings, since he was in the business secition of the city. Nacho and Seba finally showed up and we went to Nach0's house. His mom was there and she is from Argentina and has the cutest little accent. His sister Jose (Josefina) is studying art so it was cool to see some of the stuff she was working on. We watched Juno, and just hung out and talked. It was cool hearing about their trip to the United States. After his Dad resigned from his job they rented and RV and drove alllllll across the country. They even were in Chicago for the taste!!

So then we had some once pan con palta, bread with avacado, and chillaxed. Then we had to go pick up his friend Jose Manuel, and go meet my dad so I could go back to Rancagua. My papa was finishing up his meeting at... 9PM! I was shocked!!! They were at Starbucks and told us to meet them there. He's like its on Alfonoso Cordova and Vitacura. Not too bad, far from where we were, but we were like 15min we'll be there. We got there and I called him and I was like where are you? He's like outside... Im like know I am outside... Confused the guy was like there is another Starbucks 3 blocks down there and then take a right and its at the end of the street! Who would have thought that there would be two starbucks with in walking distance in Santiago, Chile!!!! I mean they are not as frequent in other parts because its double the price as America. Can you imagine Starbucks being even MORE expensive? WOW!

well that's my story for now! hope all is well!

Santiago with a Santiaguino!

So I finally made it to Santiago. I am going to be honest, I really wasn't all that excited until the very last minute because so many people in Rancagua hate the city and all I knew is that it was over crowded and full of smog. What they didn't tell me is that it is absolutely BREATHTAKING! But let me not get ahead of myself...

The guy who was taking me around is named Ignacio or Nacho. I met him at San Alfonso and he is one guy even my Papà absolutely adores! yay! He invited me, but never called. Being a Chilean girl or attempting, I was forbidden to call him. Real gentlemen call. So he called my mama and didn't even ask for me. Apparently this is also very Chilean. Scumbags call you, and real guys talk to your parents? either way it made me feel special. He made my mama walk outside and confessed he had lost my number and asked for it again. Later after plans had been made to meet at the bus station, he called me to see if there was anything special i Wanted to do. :) I said Santa Lucia... so we said good night and I went back inside. If you don't know me well I always feel the need to walk around outside when talking on my phone.

Anyway, right after that my cousin got violently ill... she just started throwing up and other fun stuff... so we had to take her to the hospital. Its very latino that the whole family goes with the person to the hospital. So it was me, my mama, my aunt, and 2 cousins! WOW! We stroll up to the ER and she has to get an IV because she's dehydrated, but its just a virus. That is now in my house so I am crossing my fingers I don't get sick. The hospital is about 30 min by car, so Im pretty sure if there was ever a real emergency well we would just die! So we finally got home around 1:30 and I still had to iron my shirt and then everyone had to drink tea because that's how we roll here. So finally around 3am I got to bed. Then had to get up at 8:30!

Suprisingly, I was so excited I really didn't mind the lack of sleep. I got on the bus and read all the way there. My friend called me at about 11 to see if I was there and he's like look out the window... im like maybe I am in the city. I was definitely expecting something much more. I mean when you get into Chicago its most obviously a city. They retain the traditional latino architecture with colorful stucco and its cute. This kid took me everywhere. We went to the predisdent's office. She doesn't get to live there... she stays in her apartment from before. I also learned that the best doctors make more than the president. Hmmm... interesting. Then we went to see the house of Pablo Neruda. It was so beautiful. I am a huge fan, so it was cool to be there and be like oh my gosh he was in this house. He has this collection of colored glass as well and it was soo beautiful. Unfortunately, you can't take pictures in the house, but i bought some postcards afterwards. From there we went to this ski lift thing and saw the whole city from up above. The day was absoutely perfect... I am totally in love with Santiago and I would be content living here as well!!! I guess we'll seee.... hahha

Baila Gringuita

Hola todos!!

So Wednesday night starts the parties here in Rancagua. My really good friend Cata invited me to the discoteca here in Rancagua that's called Estudio 3. It was so much fun! We had "once" at like 10:30 and then we were talking, her mom was telling me how she met her husband.. then at 11:30 we showered and got ready. At 12:30 her friend picked up Catalina, me, and her brother Moncho. Moncho works there, so he put us on a list and we got in for free! It was so much fun because we messed with them pretending like I didn't understand a word of spanish. So the bouncer was like well I'll see you inside later. He found me at the bar with my friends and he's like you speak perfect spanish... I'm like uhh whooops!

So i met this guy Felipe... a friend of a friend of a friend who was there. haha and we were dancing. It was crazy. They played Reggaeton, English Music, Techno but nobody danced so they stopped and KUMBIAAAA!!! I am absolutely in love with Kumbia now! Its awesome! So then this crazy kid took me to the stage and me and all of his friends were dancing on the stage! it was freaking hilarious!!! And then he said for a Gringa I do very well! hahah!!

So we stayed until the disco closed at 4 am and got home around 4:45. Her mom had made us fruit salad and left us juice. It was seriously soo cute! Then we slept and slept and slept! It was sooo much fun and I simply cannot wait to go again!!

Hope all is well! love you all!

San Alfonso del Mar

Hola todos! I just got home yesterday from a wonderful 5 days in a resort in Agarrobo, Chile! I had such a good time! The place was huge... and that is probably an understatement. There is this lagun that stretches 1km where you can swim or windsurf or kyak. Unfortunately, they didn't rent kyaks only for owners but I went out in a kyak with my cousin and my new friends. We had such a good time! The water is salt water that they take from the ocean and they filtrate it and they put it in this pool. I was not expecting it to be soo salty and it was kinda gross.

There wasn't a whole lot to do. I did take a spinning class with my mama! It was sooo much fun to do together. We ended up just sweating and sweating and sweating!!! But the good kind of exhausting where you just feel totally dead. It was amazing!! hahahah.

I also found out I can play poker. I ended up winning 1,000 pesos!!! Sounds like a lot but it is really like 2 dollars. High roller!!!

The boys went to the cancha volleyball court and they just drank a lot and their freind played the guitar. It was funny because in Chile when people get drunk there were many who came up to me just to talk in English. It was hilarious!!!

Because my mama knows pretty much everyone, one of her former students was there. He was soo cute and such a caballero a gentleman. He invited me to come visit him in Santiago and he'll take my to la moneda where the president, Michelle Bachelet, lives right now. I am so excited. I have been to Santiago, but haven't done anything touristy! Maybe I'll even get to see Pablo Neruda's house! Well we'll see!!! I'll keep you all updated!! cuidense!!!

Antartic Ice Bar

Ok so last night was sooo much fun! It was definitely a once in a lifetime experiance. So at 12:30 last night we got all dressed up and went to San Martin, a really upscale bar area probably equivalent to Lincoln Park, and went to Antartic. To get in its 7.000 pesos which is probably around 15 dollars, but that includes a trago fuerte hard licquor and a cerveza beer. The beer was Heinneken too, so not like really bad Cristal or Escudo. So you go up there and this guy hands you gloves and you go into a room that's a little cold but not really and they give you a winter jacket. I was suprised how cute they were for being the jackets they give you to wear. Then you go to the bar and get a drink. You really can't get soda because it will freeze. The whole bar is kept at -5ºC! BRRRRR! So then the bartender puts your drink in a regular class but hands you this block of ice with a big whole and you go sit down on these fur covered ice benches and pour it in a little by little and drink it. Its sooo cute. We probably stayed there for 2 hours maybe and by the end we were sooo cold! My toes were hurting a lot and I had polarfleece socks on!

Well that was an experiance and I'm glad I got to leave the winter wonderland where you guys have to live in it :( Hope all is well!
Sorrry I can't get the pictures up at the moment, but I'll work on it!!!

What is with your face???

Hey!
So today was another wonderful sunny day at the lovely Viña del Mar. I am sooo in love with this city. I really hope one day I can live here. No joke.
So anyway... Conie and I today went to another art and crafts fair. These stands come to this huge park and come from all over the world! Most are Chilean crafts, but some where from further away... it was cool! I got this really cute and kind of crazy necklace and a couple gifts for my family. Then there was this bee exhibit abejas. There were these ladies working there painting little kids faces and so of course Conie made us do it. It was like 50cents and it came with this attenaes made out of pipe cleaners with a headband. It was super cute! So they probably had like 30, but then they ran out. So there weren't that many running around.. So Conie and I were the only older kids getting in... seriously the rest of the people were between 3 and 6. hahaha! So we were walking around the park and everyone was staring at us.

So this lady told us there was a zoo.I went up to an information desk at the front of the park and we pretended like we didn't speak spanish. Luckily, he spoke pretty good english. And so he gives us a map... looks at us... and goes WHAT IS WITH YOUR FACE!? sweet right? I thought it was freaking hilarious!!! We went to this "zoo". It made me really sad though. I mean it was really pathetic and the cages were so small... zoos i guess in 3rd world countries just don't have the same resources as us... not to mention its a traveling zoo. But there was this guy workng there at an information desk so conie is like move your eyebrows at him... hahah!! So of course I did it. THen we walked up to see ducks and came back down and I winked at him. This kid was dying of laughter! It was sooo much fun! Then we went to the Mcdonalds drive throught and they were laughing too! hahah! Oh other note... what is worse than Mcdonalds in America? McDonalds in chile. I swear... And there is so much good food in Chile I really don't understand why Mcd's needs to take over and ruin this culture but I will save that rant for antoher time.

Now we are watching the news and hanging out with Goli, her boyfriend. I hope all is well! Just wanted to share that cute little anecdote!

Viña del Mar

Hola todos!
Saludos desde Viña! So Viña del Mar is kind of like Minneapolis. Only in the sense that there is a twin city... Valparaiso. They are right next to eachother and Valpo is a port town. It has been since the conquest of Chile, and it exports the most in Chile. It also is where all the cruise ships come in. The twon is so charming and I absolutely have fallen in love with it. It has all these little colored little houses all built into these hills. The view from Conie's rooms is just breath taking. I can't express how amazing you feel when you wake up next to these huge class windows over looking the ocean. It is unbelieveable. This city while its very busy and kind of a mesh of old and new (old being Valpo and new being viña) It is really just chill. I mean the pace of life here is great. There is a little bit of traffic in the afternoons... ok a lot a bit... but its sweet. I like driving around here because there are so many hills. its fun!

Today we went to her dad's apartment and swam in the pool and went in the sauna. It was wonderful. We rented a movie and are going to just chill at home just the two of us tonight. It shall be fun!

Culture Note: One of my new favorite chilean uhhh delicacies. COMPLETOS! It is a hot dog on a bn with mashed avacado (palta), fresh tomatoes, mayonaise, ketchup, mustard, etc. It sounds gross and its hard to eat, but so worth it. I absolutely love them!

Well that's all for now. Going shopping tomorrow! Whoo! Hope all is well!

Lola

So because I just stayed in Rancagua today, and went shopping I am going to talk about the teleserie. LOLA! I have simply fallen in love with it. In Chile, they have a national soap opera where they talk all chilean, and make fun of some cultural stuff and its just cute. But they go for one year instead of the like General Hospital or All My Children that go on for days and days. It is also shown at 8 at night so everyone can be home to watch it. :) I mean everyone knows about it and if certain characters say words like "mish" meaning "huh look at you" the whole country does it. Intense right?

So Lalo is a guy. He is a total player, and just never really was intersted in anyone seriously and liked to go to discos and have fun. Pretty successful in his business and had this neighbor girl that was totally in love with him, but he never really paid much attention to her in that way. Just good freinds. So one day this witch turned him into a woman. He is supposedly on a honey moon becasue he got married with some woman one night, britney spears style, and no one is really looking for him. ONly the neighbor and his mom know. And some crazy lady who some him turn back into a man then back into a woman. So the witch finally lets him back, but he didn't learn anything, so she turns him back. Somebody tripped the witch and she died. But if he falls truly in love then he'll turn back. The neighbor tried to get him to fall in love with her, but he didn't take her seriously. Now he is trying to but she's in love with his best friend. Well that is the general story. There are a couple other stories just to keep the drama up and add suspense.

So that is my Chilean information for today. Tomorrow I am getting up super early, and taking a bus to see Conie! Yay! I'll stay with her for a week, then I am going to a resort with my family!

Hope all is well! E-mail!

Pichilemu

Holiiii!
So I just got home this morning from Pichilemu, I'm tired and not all at the same time. Teh bus ride was 4 hours long. It was sooo latino. We would go, way crowded, and we'd stop at bigger towns on the way like Santa Cruz and San Fernando. So these guys would come on selling juice, chilean treats, empanadas and stuff like that. They speak so fast you can't understand them. So I was talking to my friend Gonzalo or "Chalo" and he said they didn't understand them either... Chileans just know what they are carrying where I didn't really. So we go over the Cordillera de la Costa (small mountains on the west side of Chile) and then go down again to the costa! PICHILEMU! I think its fun to say! hehe.

It is so crazy to be at a beach and look around you and see just beautiful, green mountains. WOW! The stars at night were crazy beautiful as well. It was just sooo peaceful. Well... not all the time. I went with one of my best friends Francisca, her boyfreind, and their freinds... we were 13 all together. It was total chaos as one might imagine. They had so much slang and inside jokes I was lost at times... It made me super tired to translate for the first day but I got used to it and now writing e-mails and this blog is hard. hahah So we'd wake about 1-2 and then have lunch and go to the beach. We'd come home around 7 then have "once" which is similar to high tea.

(culture note: some families have a larger "once" and some have smaller and like my family we have a small dinner at around 10. "Once" comes from these construction workers who weren't allowed to drink on the job, but Chile had just started to import beer in like 1850. The code word for the brewery that they made in Valpo i think... had 11 letters. So they started saying lets go have "once" and then it became a cultural thing. But its like tea, bread with manjar, coffee, and the whole family gets together to talk. I think its so cute!)

So at night we'd go to the centro or downtown and walked through ferias which all have like arts and crafts. Its soo awesome. And as you all know I am obsessed with Chilean earrings. :) One night we went to this crazy discoteca and danced to of course... R E G G A E T O N ! ! ! it was AMAZING! This crazy flaite low class... like ghetto not always poor but have a certain style and attitude that's just gross. Anyway... he finally came to ask me to dance and my freinds were like sorry she doesn't speak Spanish. It was so funny. They did that for every guy becasue guys come with friends and just ask girls to dance... its crazy! Someday we just had some Piscola and hung out. It was sooo much fun!!!! It was awkward at first not knowing anyone but we became friends quickly.

So even though it was pretty awesome... I guess all the traveling and the change in the enviornment made my immune system weaker. I have or had not sure yet Tonsilitis. Its horrible... I had a 102º fever when they took me to urgent care. It feels exactly like strep throat except there is no medicine to kill it. GRRR. The clìnica was so mmm... different shall we say. I mean they didn't cover the thermometor the doc didn't use gloves. I guess you can take the girl out of gringolandia but not the gringolandia out of the girl. Whatever. I am taking 400mg of Ibuprofein(sp?) and feel lots better. So say some prayers because this girl is going to Viña del Mar on Tuesday for a week with Conie and then to a resort with her familia! YAY! Gosh its just flying.

They aren't showing the superbowl commercials here. Just the game. So I am pretty bummed. But happy super bowl sunday anyway! That's all my updates for the moment.
I'm tired from staying up til 6 then getting on a bus at 9. Grr... So I'm gonna take a Siesta! Love the latino culture!

Hope you all are doing well! Miss you!