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.

So I Fought Nature and It Kicked My Butt

Just for clarification: I bought a sleeping bag and a sleeping pad...not 2 sleeping bags...thanks Dave. Sunday I went to Cascada de Animas (Waterfall of Spirits) to go white water rafting. It was $80 USD for transportation, rafting, lunch, and we could use the pool. So for my boat, my guide was named Benjamin (say it with a spanish accent). He gave us instructions in spanish and we were off. About 5 minutes into the trip, we hit a huge bolder and our boat got stuck on top of it. When the boat fell off, I was thrown into the river. The only scary part was, at first, I couldn't come up because I was under the boat. When I was able to surface, Benjamin threw me a rope, and the rescue boat picked me up. Then, I was taken back to the boat. I thought it was awesome. My favorite part was sitting in the front and getting hit by all the waves. No one else was thrown from their boat. After that, we went to the pool and then hiked to the waterfall which was incredible. I stood under the waterfall, but was yelled at by the guide because apparently I could have been hit in the head with a rock from above...woops. After getting back from the trip, I went to a show at La Moneda. The show featured a 50 feet woman/puppet which was held up by a crane. The show was incredible. Yesterday, I bought more stuff for my camping adventure. Today, I visited a place where I might do service. It was called Centro Abierto. It's an after school program for underpriveleged kids. The workers there took us to the house of two of kids who go there. We were able to talk to the family for about a half hour. It was really eye opening to see the poor side of Chile because I live in a city which can be compared to New York.

Future Plans

Last night, we went to a dance club for a girl in my class's birthday. Apparently, Chileans like to party really late. We left the dance club at 5am!!!! Yeah, I was exhausted, but it was worth it. We had so much fun! Today, I went to the park and did a little homework.
So my plans for the future are:
Tomorrow: White water rafting on a river named Maipu
February: Go camping in Patagonia, Torres del Paine, Tierra del Fuego, Ushuaia, Punta Arenas, and possibly hit Cape Horn. All these place are in the south of Chile.
Yesterday, I bought a hiking backpack, a sleeping bag, a sleeping bag, and a tent. I know I need more than this to go camping, but I'll get that stuff later. I'm so excited to camp in Torres del Paine. It's Chile's National Park.