First Day of Vacation

My alarm never went off, so I woke up when the driver of the transfer bus was in front of my house. Our flight to Punta Arenas stopped in Puerto Montt and then in Punta Arenas. We had two meals on the flight. I read a few pages of Isla Misteriosa. At the airport, a man gave me times to see the penguins at la Isla Magdalena. We took a transfer bus to the hostel Backpackers' Paradise. It was only 5,ooo pesos each night per person (about 8 dollars). Then we went to make reservations to see the penguins. It was 20,000 pesos for the boat ride and 1,150 pesos for the bus to the boat. The boat ride was two hours long and then we had one hour to spend on the island with approximately 150,000 penguins. It was absolutely incredible. We were able to get a free ride back to our hostel because the driver thought we paid already becasue I told him the price of the boat but he thought I was talking about bus transportation. Then we went to the grocery store and got things to make pasta. P.S. We met Sergio Rios on our flight in the morning. He's from Mexico and he's a really chill guy. He's a graduate student at the Univ. of Alberto Hurtado for economics and knows spanish, portuguese, and english. We had pasta and stir-fried tomatoes and mushrooms for dinner. The food was incredible. Tomorrow, we will have cereal and banana milk for breakfast. We'll see how that goes. On the boat, we met a nice couple from Australia. The man worked in Ft. Meade, Maryland. We also met a guy from Brazil.

I'm Alive and I'm Not Injured

My summer vacation during February in Chile was amazing. I put up my pictures at webshots.com. This is the address http://community.webshots.com/user/Crazyjosh89?vhost=community I kept a daily journal while I was on vacation and I'll put that up as I can.

Sorry!

Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile. It's because I want to put up pictures and I can't do that until I'm back in Santiago with my laptop. Anyways, everything is great and I'll fill you all in when I'm back in Santiago.

Ready Or Not Here I Come

So these are my plans for February:
2-5 Fly from Santiago to Punta Arenas (Southern Chile) 8:30am-12:40pm
2-6 Punta Arenas
2-7 Punta Arenas
2-8 Bus to Ushuaia, Argentina
2-9 Ushuaia
2-10 Ushuaia
2-11 Bus back to Punta Arenas and then to Puerto Natales
2-12 Bus to Torres del Paine (National Park)
2-13 CAMPING
2-14 CAMPING
2-15 CAMPING
2-16 CAMPING
2-17 CAMPING
2-18 CAMPING
2-19 CAMPING
2-20 Bus to Coyhaique
2-21 Coyhaique
2-22 Bus to Chiloe
2-23 Chiloe
2-24 Chiloe
2-25 Bus to Pucon
2-26 Pucon
2-27 Pucon
2-28 Pucon
3-1 Return to Santiago

Now this is the cool part....things to do:
-See the penguin colonies
-Kayak the Straits of Magellan
-Get my passport stamped "The End of the World"
-SCUBA diving
-See ancient cave paintings of flamingos
-Sleep in a tent for a week
-Do a zip-line
-Climb an active volcano

Stop Laughing

So today I got this caricature done near the Plaza de Armas. It was $1USD. The guy asked me what I wanted and I said me at the beach....and so I got this....

3 Chileans and 1 Guy from Bawldamore

Monday night I met up with my friend, Esteban, and his two friends, Andreas and Marcelo, to go to Esteban's place in el Jardin del Mar in Vina del Mar. Esteban was born in the US, but most of his family lives in Chile. He studied abroad at Loyola College in Maryland when I was a freshman there. Marcelo is fully Chilean, and Andreas graduated from Arizona State, but he has family in Chile because his mom is Chilean. Monday night we just ate a late dinner and went to bed. I've fallen in love with tomatoe, mayo, and avocado sandwiches. They are so good! Yesterday, we went to the pool for a little bit, and then we played ping-pong. Esteban and I beat Marcelo and Andreas three straight games. Then we went to the beach for the rest of the day. It was cool to meet some of Esteban's friends and speak to them in spanish. After the beach, we got crab, razor clam, and ground beef empanadas...they were separate empanadas. They were absolutely incredible. After that we went to a dance club which was pretty cool. This morning I took a bus back to Santiago. Now I have to pack for my camping trip.

No Sleep 'Til Patagonia

Okay...sorry I haven't posted a blog in awhile. I've been so busy doing random things before my camping trip that starts on Thursday. So...last friday, I had my last class for the intensive spanish course. I won't get most of my grades until I'm back at school in March. However, I did get my poetry and grammar grade. I got a 6.6 out of 7. In Chile, they only grade from 0-7. An A is a 6.0 or higher. That night we wanted to celebrate by going out dancing, but every place we went was pretty lame. We just ended up calling it a night and went home. Saturday, I went to an incredible book fair. I bought Treasure Island in spanish, Bestiario by Julio Cortazar (my favorite spanish author), and an anthology of all of Pablo Neruda's poems. I also bought a modern poster of Don Quixote, and a few small pictures of the Beatles. Then, I had "once" which is between lunch and dinner at a friends house. The lasagna was incredible. Then we tried to watch a movie online, but it wouldn't work. We tried to watch the "Reader" and "Only in Your Dreams"....two really weird movies. Sunday, a 57 year old man from Washington state, named Bill, moved in my house. He's staying until May to study spanish. That morning, I went to the top of Cerro San Cristobal for mass. It was such a beautiful church. After church, I met up with Hanna to practice putting up the tent. I was surprised...we actually knew what we were doing. We were able to put it up, take it down, and put it back in the bag in less than 20 minutes. After that I played with Hanna's guest sister's daughter, Martina. She's only four years old, but she looks like she's eight. She is so funny and she loves Hannah Montana. They sell a four foot tall Hannah-tana doll in Chile and also Hannah-tana guitar hero. After getting ice cream, I was accused by the waiter of not paying enough. He didn't see the coin that was wedged inside the check folder...so fyi I'm not a criminal. Last night, I went to a Super Bowl party at the only United States bar in Santiago. There were so many people there speaking english. It was insane. I had such a great time. Today, I became Chilean. I picked up my Chilean ID card. Then, I went to Santa Lucia for a little shopping. After that, I went to my doctor's appt. to get my prescription filled. Now, I'm just preparing to go to the beach in Vina del Mar. I'm going with a guy I met here who studies at UAH. He actually studied at Loyola College in Maryland for a semester as a part of the same program I'm doing. He also plays on the club basketball team at UAH. Wednesday, I'll put up my itinerary for my camping trip.