Mango Sours and Tours Galore

Hola todos!

First let me preface this post by explaining that there are a lot of random things I'm about to talk about. IT'S JUST BEEN SUCH AN EXCITING WEEK!! Chile is literally SO fun! There's so much to do and see and explore here! And I can now call myself a true Chilean because I ate my first completo (at 2 in the morning which apparently is the only time to eat one...or so I hear?) A completo is a foot long hot dog, covered in avocado, tomato, mayo and mustard and ketchup if you're American. Simply delish. The men selling them ask you about your night and you feed some of it do the stray dogs around you- everyone benefits from completos!

On the topic of food, I figured (actually my mom said I should) explain the food sitch here in good ole' chilz: it's customary to have breakfast at like 9 in the morning, a huge lunch at like 2 and then what's called "once" at 7 or 8 at night. No dinner. At first I was like, oh no way baby girl's gotta eat some dinner but now I'm alllllll about once (pronounced like the number 11 in Spanish.) Once is usually made up of tea or coffee, toast and cheese and ham. Sometimes though my Chilean mom gets wacky and likes to throw in avocados or one time she gave me jelly to put on my toast! I know, wild.

Tea and bread with avocado and ham- quite filling actually! 

Chilean's also love alcohol.  Lots of alcohol! One of the first nights I was here my CM (Chilean mom) asked me if I wanted to go to a friends' house with her. I was expecting to walk in and maybe drink some tea and be back in bed by 10 like good girls. Boy was I wrong! It was like a party straight off of Real Housewives of Chile, except no one threw drinks and everyone got along! We drank these things called mango sours (kind of the unofficial drink of Chile- the recipe is on the back of every postcard) and we drank a lot of them. It was so fun and funny to get to see my CM in that environment! I've also gotten drinks with the girls I live around from my program- one day we had margaritas and one night we drank Chilean beers!

A margarita the size of my head

This weekend we toured around Valparaiso and Vina del Mar to get better acquainted with the areas.  In Vina we went to a really cool park right by my house that I had no idea even existed! My neighbor and I decided on Monday's after class we're going to go to the park and do our homework and just chill like Chileans (that pun never gets old)

Riding a lion in the park 

This picture didn't really fit anywhere so I'm putting it here because my hair looks like a lion's mane? My CM took me to the beach! 

Today we had the tour of Valparaiso and although it was a lot of walking, it was super cool! We went to another one of Pablo Neruda's houses* and then walked around the city. We also rode in a funicluar, an elevator carved into the side of the mountain essentially, rode on a boat around the marina and looked at lots of weird street art! It was a wonderful way to get more acquainted with the city I'm living in! 

** Sidenote**: Pablo Neruda is Chile's spirit animal. He was a famous Chilean poet who loved to fix up old houses and make them tell a story (basically a crazy old dude who was quirky but everyone praised him for it). He has 3 houses in Chile, and we've seen 2 of them so far. Next weekend we're seeing the third, yippee for me.

***Sidenote pt. 2***: I'm wearing the same green jacket in all of my photographs but it's because it's so dang cold here! I promise these were taken different days. I also promise I'm buying a new jacket so y'all don't have to look at this one anymore!

A view from Pab's house! That lucky bro got to look at this view everyday when he woke up!

This is a funicular! If you google "Valparaiso" this picture pops up with the blue house on the right!

Looking down from the funicular

Selfies on the funicular. Aren't my friends cute?!

Standing in front of the Naval Base (I think???)

SEA LIONS!!! They're actually fluffy and have weird feet and kind of smell

A mural casually painted on the side of a building

Oh yeah, I'm also taking classes! Ha! They're pretty good and I think they're going to be really helpful! The only homework I have for one of them is to find a new word every day and present it to the class! Swag. In the school, all of the international students are quarantined to this little section of rooms that to get to you have to go up and down so many stairs, pass through a secret door, knock 3 times and hop on one foot (not really, but they are really hard to get to!). Right now only international students are in school because it's the universities' break! Monday starts my first whole week of classes so I'll let y'all know if I really like them once I have to go to them everyday. 

It's nice to have a little routine (even though it's pretty new still) and my CM and CS (Chilean sister) are very encouraging and helpful when I have questions or appear to be lost, which is often. It's so fun getting to know them and their friends more! 

All is well here, but if anyone wants to mail me some fuego queso I'd be one happy camper! 

Chao!

Aves 

From Santiago to Vina del Mar

Where to even begin?! Since the last time I posted, I've experienced a ray of different emotions ranging from miserably sad to incredibly happy.  A friend helped me realize that I'm only going to be here for 10 weeks and then I'll be in America for the rest of my life, so why not spend every moment here exploring and learning new things and not crying and missing everything about my home?? That being said, I am fulling embracing Chile- the ups, downs, accomplishments and struggles.  My spanish has improved leaps and bounds since Thursday (when we got here) and last night my Chilean mother was praising me for speaking so well! God is good and all is well within my soul!!

That being said, here's what I've been doing!

On Saturday we all got up and took a bus to an AWESOME winery, Vina Cousino Macul, where I'm probably going to get married to the Chilean man of my dreams because it's beautiful!! We got a tour from a pocket-sized Chilean and free wine and it was basically a darty (day-party)!

Gorgeous, right?!

The baby vines 

Me standing next to the huge barrel that the wine is fermented in 

Giggling in a vineyard. Is this my life??

After the vineyard we had lunch in a suuuuuuper cute area called patio bellavista with lots of outside shops and little stores everywhere.  From there we went and visited the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's house (he has 3, but we visited the one in Santiago).  It was pretty cool, considering the fact that it was turned into a museum and y'all know how I feel about museums...

His casa

Then we went back to the hotel and I passed out (sans dinner) because I wasn't feeling too hot. The next morning we woke up and I was feeling much MUCH better and decided to go to a catholic mass with some girls in my group! It was a really neat experience because I've never been to a mass spoken in spanish before.  I was lost pretty much the whole service but it was nice to just sit and listen and watch. 

So pretty, even under construction! Everyone was passing by like, don't mind me I see beautiful churches all the time

After mass, as a group, we loaded up and headed to pueblo de los dominicos aka a bunch of arts and crafts shops. Very cool. I bought a sweeeet bowl to put earrings in.  We ate in one of the outside restaurants and I reaffirmed my love of empanadas.  Cheese, wrapped in bread, cooked to perfection. So good. We walked around the center, took lots of selfies, and had just a wonderful afternoon overall! 

The sign above the center 

God's gift to Chile: empanadas 

An orchestra casually playing in the middle of the center

After the arts and crafts center we headed to the place Santiago was supposedly founded! Cerro Santa Lucia- an old lookout point surrounded by a beautiful building. From the top of it we could see literally all of Santiago, and because it had rained the day before, the Andes mountains! Smog free! While I was standing up at the top, I had a hard time understanding how people just don't understand in God. He was evident in every slope and rise in the mountains and every cloud in the sky.  It was a very humbling experience for me and my "hispanic panic" as my friend Jonathan calls it. (Hispanic Panic is anything and everything that stresses me out about living/being/speaking in a different country. As of right now, my HP is at about a 2 :)) 

Just hanging out in front of a the fountain

See what I mean? Simply beautiful 

Don't mind me, just riding a cannon 

After looking at the top of Santiago, we all loaded up for the last time and left Santiago and headed for Valparaiso to meet our host families!! Valpo, as the natives call it, is like a Chilean San Fransisco. Seriously, google image Valparaiso. You'll die. I died. It's more beautiful in person.  I'm living in Vina del Mar, which is only like 8 minutes from Valpo by metro (I know, I'm so cool saying that). We were all pretty nervous when we arrived, but I didn't need to be because my family is simply wonderful! I'm sure everyone else is saying that but mine really is. My "mama Chilena" is Patricia but I just call her "mama" and my "hermana Chilena" is Camilla, or Cami. They're beyond what I imagined.  Cami and I both love One Direction, Justin Beiber, and she tweets like every fifteen seconds like me!! God knew what he was doing putting me with this precious family.  My mama calls me "my love" at the end of everything and they think I'm funny when I mess up words! They teach me new vocabulary in spanish and I then tell them the english word! Ah, I just can't get over them.  (I'll try to get a picture of them soon!) 

I am happy, healthy, and living in a beautiful city. I love Chile. I love Vina del Mar. I love my ISA friends. But mostly, I love the constant encouragement I'm getting from 6102 Knoxville Dr. as I undergo this exciting (and sometimes frightening) adventure!! 

Thanks for the love, you all know who you are--

Chao! 

Aves 

Dia Numero Dos (Day Number 2)

Whew! What an absolute whirlwind the last 2 days have been! As I'm writing this I'm sitting near my balcony window overlooking the beautiful Santiago night sky.

Recap: our plane was supposed to leave Dallas Wednesday night at 9:25 however, due to tornados (I didn't know we encountered any of these?) our flight was delayed and we didn't end up leaving until 1 a.m. After a long 9-hour flight (which wasn't full at all because apparently no one flies to Chile from Dallas...?) we literally hit the ground running.  We met the ISA staff, who are fabulous, and proceeded to the hotel where we're staying for 4 days getting acclimated and doing lots of orientations.  After dropping all of our stuff off at the hotel we had a quick lunch (pollo con vino or chicken with wine) and then went to San Cristobal Park. So! Cool!  It's this really neat park that was created in an effort to spruce up the city and from it you can see like all of Santiago.

This is one view- those are the Andes Mountains! Also, that's not dust, it's smog. Yuck. 

A little flea-ridden puppy dog.  It's been really hard resisting petting all of the dogs here because they're disgusting strays and there are like millions 

Another view from the top of the park 

 This statue is at the very top of the mountain/park we were at.  Saint Christopher himself! 

 Lovebirds and really cool benches

By far the coolest view complete with the Chilean flag 

A vineyard on your way down the mountain- when do you actually see grapes on a vine on a pergola?? Only in Chile

Then, we had a free evening where pretty much everyone went to dinner and the passed out because we were so exhausted from traveling and touring all day. 

Today, we woke up and went to an orientation meeting led by our ISA leaders where they basically explained that big cities are dangerous and you can't be a dumb American whenever you're taking the metro. After the meeting we got on a bus and went to what is considered "downtown Santiago". Basically lots of buildings and cool restaurants.  One of the leaders was explaining to me earlier that Santiago is so big that there are multiple "downtowns" but we went to one of the more well known ones. 

We had lunch in the Central Mercado, which Natural Geographic Magazine rated as the #5 coolest/best market to visit! 

Me cheesin' in the market- I ate pescado y papas fritas (fish and french fries) 

The market was made out of this really cool iron, and naturally they flew the Chilean flag proudly

Some gentlemen chopping the heads off of fish, while people eat nearby. Yum 

After the market/lunch combo, we walked around downtown all while trying not to look like dumb Americans.  I think we gave ourselves away though because several times we were walking and then discovered we were in the street and nearly got hit by cars several times.  Our director wasn't very happy. We went to a square where there were several street performers and a cool church. 

Church (I'm sorry I forgot the name!) that we went into in the square

A view of the square (the church and the yellow building on the right is a museum)

 Remember in Mary Poppins how Mary meets Dick Van Dyke and he's a dancing entertainer? WE SAW THE CHILEAN DICK VAN DYKE!!! These guys were seriously so good. 

More dancing. I wanted to stay all afternoon and watch them 

Me in front of the nameless church (it has a name I'm just an idiot and was watching the Dick Van Dyke-wannabees) 

We walked around the city some more and came upon these bank doors! (Sorry for another movie reference), but they were like the doors into the Wizard of Oz's castle! It's a legitimate bank!

After walking more we finally got to our destination! The Presidential Palace! It's like the White House, except the President doesn't live there anymore. 

 This is the front of the Presidential Palace

 Flag outside the front of the Palace

My official badge to enter the palace, swag I know 

Inside the palace, the orange garden 

Officers in the Palace protecting it from dumb Americans 

My friend Jonathan and I taking some really good selfies while we were supposed to be listening to the guide (aka being stupid Americans) 

Giving a speech using the same podium as the President of Chile! So official 

A fellow Kappa Delta and I standing with a guard in olive green and pearl white (our colors, obvi.) We were made so much fun of by all the non-Greeks on the trip

Post Prez Palace, we went to a textile museum. Boy do I love museums. That's sarcasm. I'm not a fan of museums but the "yarn" that was across the ceiling was super cool. 

Comic book wall

 Whoop for maroon- get it??

Finally, after a long day of museum-ing and palace-ing, we were all very sleepy and were dismissed.  A few friends and I went to a restaurant called Surreal and had the best empanadas I've ever consumed. 

Yum!

As you can probably tell, we've had a full few days.  It's been kind of difficult getting used to the accent that Chileans use, but everyone is very nice and accommodating to our American-ness. The weather has been absolutely lovely (jackets and jeans) and it sprinkled a bit on our way to dinner but not enough to get wet. We're staying in Santiago for a few more days and then Sunday evening we travel to Vina del Mar and Valparaiso to meet our host families! I'll post back after I've met them and we've enjoyed our last days in Santiago! 

Ciao! 

Aves