Carly Turns Cajun

Nawlins

2021-03-23T18:44:00.004-07:00

Day 1- Drove to Slidell, LA

Chatted with the game wardens at the campsite we found just enough to get a “good ole boy welcome” as Michael says. They advised us that if we created a ruckus they would have no choice to ask to see our permit....but if we weren’t at the site before they arrived at 8am the next morning, then heck, they couldn’t ask us to leave. So we stayed for free. A nice site with oak trees, spanish moss and a free white noise machine created by the nearby highway.

Day 2- Enjoy New Orleans!

Heck yeah. I took today to show Michael around to taste some of the best culinary inventions in the region. First beignets and chicory coffee. Then muffalettas, Dat Dog sausages and then a classic- Creole Creamery.

The 'Rona

2020-05-10T15:42:00.001-07:00

54 Days ago things got real. It was clear around that time that the coronavirus was not contained within the United States.
Two weeks later states began issuing "stay at home" orders, including West Virginia. The virus was already deemed to be causing a global pandemic.
Things escalated quickly, and I'm not going to recount all the events, but I just wanted to reflect on some of the happenings during this time period.

The last global pandemic of this magnitude was in 1917-1918, also known as the 'Spanish Flu'. That means that just about no one that survived that pandemic and remembered it would be alive today. Every citizen of the globe is living in unprecedented times. And boy does the media like to throw that phrase around. "These are unprecendented times folks!" You hear it everyday, about every thing.

Let me put some things in perspective.
Everything started when Covid-19 was identified as a highly contagious virus in an area of China called the "Wuhan region" in December 2019. People in the US (me included) read about the rapid transmission rate and unexpected death rate that ensued from this new virus. But, we all thought that this was something affecting the people of China. Perhaps this virus would be handled similarly to SARS (a virus that caused a multi-nation epidemic in 2003), and cases would be contained. No one in the United States was currently affected, and most of us assumed that it would stay this way. The United States is the great nation of innovation, with the best healthcare system in the world, and a government that has its citizens' best interests in mind. Right? We can't get the corona.

Yet on January 21, 2020 the first case of the coronavirus was confirmed in the United States in Washington. Oh man. In the matter of a few weeks the virus had spread to every single state, except West Virginia (lucky me!), which held out for a few days before we finally identified our first case. State governors started issuing "stay at home" orders which are essentially a type of temporary marshall law that strongly encourages/necessitates all citizens to stay at home unless he or she is getting essential goods and/or visiting a family member. We are talking full on lockdown folks. In the land of the free, home of the brave, no one is leaving the house unless you absolutely have to. So of course, here comes the panic.

People started buying up ALL THE GOODS because heck, they are gonna stay inside for the next few weeks to months, so they better get the supplies to sustain themselves. The things that started disappearing from the shelves included-

Hand sanitizer
Toilet paper
Paper towels
Lysol wipes and all cleaning products
Yeast
Flour
Meat
Milk
Alcohol
Butter
Potatoes
Bananas
etc

And when I saw 'disappeared from the shelves,' I'm talking about weeks of empty shelves. It took mom and dad a whole month to get their hands on toliet paper and it came from Amazon mind you, not the local stores. While the paper products and cleaning supplies posed a problem, overall I truly do not think we experienced any sort of true food shortages. They do still have limits on certain items like flour, eggs, milk, etc. Thankfully the viral transmission of covid-19 was not linked to food, so people could get take out, fast food, etc.

Other things that happened:

Schools are shut down, so all kids are now 'homseschooled'. This includes me. All my lectures are now held via Zoom which is a platform for group videochats.
TV production comes to a halt. Talk show hosts and entertainment stars recorded from home (in whatever they want to wear)
No one has gotten a haircut, massage, pedicure, dog grooming, etc. in the past month. People resort to watching youtube videos to help them learn how to trim their bangs and touch up their roots
People freak out about the food supply (even though grocery stores are generally well stocked, except for a few things here and there) and start planting seeds, baking their own bread, freezing all the foods they can get their hands on
Essential workers are the only people that can continue to work in public (healthcare workers, grocery store/food service employees/food manufacturing, and a bunch of other stuff thats not essential but somehow got included in 'essential category'. For example, dentists were not deemed to be essential workers, but car salesman were....interesting.)
Everyone else mostly adapts to work from home. Otherwise they were furloughed/let go, and had to file for unemployement

Sidenote- I'm not even going to begin to talk about the economic impact of this thing, but tons of people (millions) became unemployed because the economy came to a screeching halt. I mean who wants to buy a car, book a trip, or invest in the stock market when you don't know what next week is going to look like. You're gonna have look elsewhere for a more in depth discussion on that one, cuz its complicated.

Gyms close down and at-home workout videos reach an all time high. I start using "Les Mills On-demand" to complete kickboxing workouts at home. I ride my bike a bunch, and pedal real fast if anyone comes my way.

The CDC issued a statement indicating that every citizen should- wash your hands frequently and especially after you travel anywhere, sanitize anything that others have touched (I'm talking groceries, mail packages, anything that is going into your home), avoid touching your face/mouth/eyes while in public, and wear a face mask in public

Sidenote- at first the mask thing led to a huge shortage of masks that affected healthcare workers. People were buying up all the masks and cleaning supplies they could get their hands on. Eventually people began sewing their own masks out of cloth. The healthcare shortage lasted a few weeks, and eventually enough people donated those official healthcare masks (N95s) they had hoarded back to hospital, so that all worked out in the end
One more sidenote- the mask and overall personal protective equipment shortage had doctors and nurses wearing the SAME MASK ALL DAY. Let's just say that healthcare workers were definitely getting infected during this time.

Travel comes to a halt. Planes, buses, trains, etc. try to continue running, but people are not going anywhere. International travel brought covid to the US, and I see no better way to spread the virus than to bring a group of people from all over the world together on a small vessel. I've gotten multiple emails from Delta, American Airlines, etc. telling me how they are cleaning their planes and all these other measures to prevent the spread, but I doubt I'll be traveling via plane in the next year. At this point in time the biggest role for air travel becomes the transportation of medical equipment and medical personnel.

Sidenote- a lot of companies have adapted and collaborated to see how they can contribute to the pandemic in a positive light. For example, clothing facilities may start producing cloth masks, packaging plants are used to make face shields, and food plants are making hand sanitizer.

The people hit the hardest- nursing homes, healthcare workers (residents, nurses and doctors treating patients with Covid-19 are exposed to the virus over and over, day in and day out), and those with immunocompromising conditions such as diabetes, lung disease, heart disease, etc.

Other things to consider- most hospitals are instituting a no visitor policy, meaning that if you are admitted with Covid-19, you will suffer and possibly die alone. Pregnant women are only allowed to choose one person to attend deliveries. All elective procedures are cancelled, ambulatory clinics are closed. The only people seeing a doctor in person are those with true emergencies. And even the ER is seeing a drastic decrease in admissions because people are scared to go to the hospital. To try and offset this, most major medical centers have designated one hospital as the 'covid' hospital and another as the 'sick' hospital. That way the covid patients are hypothetically more contained. In some areas such as New York and in other countries, hotels and apartment complexes became make-shift treatment facilities for those who needed to be quarantined from their families as they battled Covid. Of course these people had a mild-moderate course of the virus and did not require serious medical equipment such as ventilators.

What this means for me- Daily life is different. I'm not complaining either. The pandemic has affected everyone differently, and I'm lucky to say that I am fortunate enough that I have been able to (mostly) enjoy this slow down in life. I remind myself that it is only temporary. I was instructed to leave clinic on March 17th, 2020. St. Patricks Day. No cases had hit WV at that point, but the threat of Covid was present in my mind. I remember testing people for the flu and crossing our fingers the test came back positive, because if the patient had the flu it was unlikely that they also had Covid. Those patients wore a mask and so would I. We encouraged everyone to get the flu shot, but patients still refused. My favorite was when one patient said, "I got the flu shot one year, but I didn't really like it." So he didn't want to get it again. I bet he will get the flu shot next year. I hope every one will.

My thoughts about quarantine passed in phases. At first I was happy to stay at home. Michael came up to live with me, and we had never spent that much time together, so it was almost like a vacation for us. We had been long distance for 3 years, our entire relationship. We had always lived anywhere from 1 hour to 5 hours apart. We cooked, watched TV, walked outside, and drank wine. We made a sourdough starter from scratch, leading to tons of bread and baking recipes to use up the discard. English muffins, naan bread, tortillas, big pretzels, pizza, and pancakes just to name a few. We watched a TON of TV. I painted a picture of Maia. I deep cleaned my room. Sewed some patches on my backpacking bag. Baked banana bread at least four times. We cuddled and talked about our life after Covid. Watched the star wars movies with my roommate. I stole the covers and Michael got his beard hair in my sink, but really those were our biggest complaints about living together :D

We only leave the house to go for a walk/ride, get groceries (about once every 2 weeks to minimize exposure), and to see family occasionally (we've traveled to NC twice in the past few months). At first going to the grocery store was nerve racking and probably gave me the closest thing I've ever experienced resembling a panic attack. During those first few trips I felt overwhelmed by all the people, stocking up on enough food to last us, and buying what we needed before certain items ran out. I wanted to get out of the building as fast as humanly possible.

We still wipe down every piece of food/packaging that enters our home, but I'm now a pro at shopping during quarantine. Tips- if someone gets too close= run away. if someone touches all the items on the shelf, well you are gonna have to get that cereal next time bubs. use self checkout for less anxiety.

At certain stores there is a person counting the amount of people and employees entering and exiting the building, because it is regulated (ie: only 1/3 of the fire code permitted capacity). Also aisles are supposed to be one way so that you don't have to pass people. Even the lines outside the door where you wait to enter have people standing 6 feet apart. Stores altered their hours so that they have extra time to restock and sanitize. Most close by 7pm.

It is going to take a while to go back to any sort of normal when I wear a face mask just to get groceries...but I digress.

I continued on with my family medicine clerkship, and after just 3 weeks in the clinic, and 5 weeks at home I took the end-of-rotation shelf exam. I passed and even honored my exam. I had so much time to study that this really did not come as a surprise. I feel like I still learned some from shadowing my preceptors because even in those short 3 weeks I got to see how they approached note-writing and differential diagnoses. Missing out on family medicine wasn't heart wrenching. The rotation has the reputation of being a 'chill' rotation where you generally work from 8-5 with no real emergencies or really sick patients. The doctors are nice and have more of a laid back schedule because everything is outpatient. So missing out on this really just meant more time to relax and study.

Fast forward to now- I'm on my pediatric rotation and I've seen about three patients total within these first two weeks. Of course the patients were Tele-medicine visits. And all of them were older than 13. I'm missing out on those crying babies, cranky toddlers, and sassy teenagers. The weirdest part of all this is that I feel guilty for how lazy I've become. When I found out that I did not have to complete my 'hospital inpatient weeks' because we would be staying at home during that time, I was pretty excited. No 24 hour shift for me! Yep, I'm gonna have a rude awakening when I actually have to show up on time, dressed and ready to go. I have such mixed feelings about the situation, and at the same time, a total lack of control. I try not to get upset over the circumstances, because first of all, my life is not really all that bad right now (compared to the unemployed Americans who have hungry family members at home) and I am getting a huge vacation instead of finishing out my third year of medical school with a rotation known for longer hours and early mornings.

I guess I'll close this reflection with some photos, gifs and a few links to some videos that have brought me joy during this time. As I said before, I feel incredibly fortunate that I am able to spend more time with my family because the past two and a half years of medical school were a whirl-wind of hardwork and little sleep. I am getting so much sleep lately, and I even get to cuddle with Arri on occasion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxtGJsnLgSc (if this link doesn't work, just try googling "Italian Mayors tell residents to stay home with coronavirus")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xzGc1yC7JA&feature=youtu.be (if this link doesn't work, just try googling "Names in Kindergarten Class of 2026")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTYxDMYKyiI (if this link doesn't work, just try googling "How Rednecks prepare for the coronavirus"

Apparently murder hornets are a thing. A thing that is going to wipe out the bee population if we don't get them under control. Lovely.

Homemade Risotto

No gym. No problem. Cambells to the rescue

Moo the cat is probably wondering why we dont leave the house anymore

Sometimes I held this book in my lap and pretended I was studying.

Meagen was our quarantine buddy at the beginning of this mess <3

I did some workout challenges. Woo!

When you buy 25 pounds of flour for your brand new sourdough starter. Your best friend for the next 3 months...

my sourdough starter is alive!

Arri needs her own pillow

Zoom Snapshots!

How I feel during quarantine...

A handstand tshirt challenge

THE FINAL FOUR (days)

2015-08-14T13:42:00.003-07:00

This post will be guest transcribed (from my notes) by my lovely sister- it's a rough recap of our machu picchu tour- enjoy!

DAY ONE
Quotes of the Day:
"I feel like I'm in a bike gang or something"
"I don't think we have hot water in this hostal..."
"The fruit is made up entirely of seeds...kinda like a passionfruit- our guide told us it is the female fruit of the passionfruit or something like that

6:00am- bus to breakfast buffet while we kind of get to know our fellow tour mates
9:00am-2:00 pm: cycled down beautiful mountainside (p.s.-we had knee pads, chest suit of armour thingys, and fancy neon jackets (all the rage fashionwise if you ask me-dc)) across streams (where waterfalls intersected with the road), through clouds, and luckily finally into the sunlight. We somehow ended up racing another tour groups as they did their bike ride too at the end- and we won, of course (:

3:00pm- delicious three course lunch (the food just kept comin')
afternoon- explore teeny town called Santa Maria, shower sans hot water (and die a little while figuring this lovely fact out), play cards & chill
7:30 pm- end the night with three course meal and pisco sours-clutch

DAY TWO
Quotes of the day:
"There is the option of hot showers, cold showers, or freezing showers"
"The snake isn't killed-it's put into the liquor bottle while it is still alive" (the secret touch to incan liquor)
"Do you want to see the guinea pigs in the kitchen?"

6:00 am- breakfast, car ride to the start of the hike
7:30 am- hike for 3ish hours- stopping at various houses, buying water, hearing stories, and eating snacks. Two of the 15k hiked were part of the original incan trail

We did it!

See us??!

12:30 pm- another four course meal per usual
3:30-5pm- a little more hiking till the hot springs. We also crossed a bridge that had probably been there since the 1800s (and seemed to never end, especially with one of the boys bounding across shaking it), a wire cable car to cross back over the river, and met two monkeys, one badger, and many dogs along the way. Also tried inka licor (the aforementioned one made with the live snake),
7:30 pm- four course meal (again) and snacks after dinner to make up for uneaten, gross french fries :)

DAY THREE
Quotes of the Day:
"We should have a competition to see who has the most bug bites"
"You're going to need the baby harness" "Babies zipline?!"
"We finally have soap!" (In context to the pattern of no soap in any of the hostels or restaurants along the way, hand sanitizer became a lifesaver)
"It is the truth.." one of our tour guide's favorite phrases
*we may have stolen an avocado from the forest...

Moustache monkey!

7:30 am- Breakfast, drive to ziplines, ride across 6 platforms over a beautiful valley on the longest zipline in South America
12 pm- delicious meal of chips/guac, quinoa soup, chimichurri chicken, and some sort of drunken nectarine dessert

Machu Picchu town Group Shot

1:30-4:20 pm- hike with our heavy-ass backpacks to the city of Machu Picchu
7 pm- Dinner (fancy), pack for the next day, and make sandwiches with the avocado the size of my head that we stole from the jungles of the zipline plantation before setting alarms for 4:15 (!!!) and crashing hard

DAY FOUR
Quotes of the Day:
"Danielle, I found the tunnel!" (referring to the tunnel that Ronald told us we had to cross through to get to the peak of Huayna Picchu)
"It is not impossible, but ex-tra-met-ly* difficult" -referring to the Huayna Picchu climb (with the pronunciation of extremely given by Ronald)
"Top 150/2500 ain't bad at all" -we arrived at the Machu Picchu ruins when the gates opened after hiking from the base in under an hour at 5 am

4:10 am- alarm, eat banana, fix hair, put on shoes and head out
4:30 am- flood the streets with all the other tourists in the pitch dark to reach Machu Picchu bridge and the path up to the city itself
6:00 am- meet up with tour guide (Ronald) at the garden house, freeze a little (but get amazing pictures without 1000 other people in them) and eat a lot while listening to his speel on the history
9:00-10:00 am- explore Machu Picchu
10:00-11:30 am- hike/struggle to hike Huayna Picchu without falling off the steep cliff, getting stuck in the tunnel, or dropping our cameras, we finished in record time, about 45 min to the top (according to Ronald it should have been at least an hour)

12:00 pm-1:00 pm- hike back down to Machu Picchu town

Scary and narrow tunnels are just a part of the Huayna Picchu hike..

1:00-2:50 pm- lunch and wait at the train station for our train back to Cuzco

Tour Group 411:
Couples-
1x French and Belgian
1x England (Will and Nic(ola))
1x New Zealand (Laura and Archie-the docs)
Friend Groups-
3x France
3x Ireland

Loner-
Mario-Austria

Tour Guides:
Ronald (Head Guide)- always said things were "nec-es-ssary" to remember and follow
Anthony (Tony-hilarious trainee, had the tendency to whine/wail the few english words he knew)

Final Thoughts-
The only two other memorable events in the rest of this trip was our agitating encounter with the Peruvian customs offices (see below for my entire account) and then our horrible taxi ride to the airport to return the the US which consisted of a late transfer, an unmarked vehicle (usually it has the Transvip icon on it and the driver has a uniform...), an incredibly impatient driver who ended up buying us candy bars at one of the stop lights on the way to airport and eventually got us there on time.

Play by Play of the battle between the Peruvian authorities and Carly Clark:

6:30am- we attempted to pass thru security in the Cusco airport, but apparently the airport is so small that they do security on a flight by flight basis (as in everyone on the next flight has a set time frame to go thru and only they can pass thru to where you then immediately board the planes)
6:35am-6:55am- spend the rest of our Peruvian soles on toast, yogurt, eggs, coffee and snacks that were supposed to get us through a long day of traveling (two flights later we would be arriving in Santiago at like 5pm)
7:00am- this is when the feud began. It all started when the dude asks me if I speak a "little" Spanish so that he can proceed to lecture me about what is in my bag that shouldn't be. This right here is one of my biggest pet peeves- when I speak in spanish to another human being who also speaks spanish and therefore we converse in spanish for a minute when they ask me if I can speak spanish...YES I CAN. I hadn't spoken a word of english the entire time buddy.
As he is questioning me he is simultaneously removing some of our newly purchased snacks, an opened pretzel bag, some cereal and our precious peanut butter jar. He puts them into piles and at this point he repeats over and over, as he points to each item- "this cannot come on the flight", "this neither". OKAY BUDDY i get it. Although it's just about the most absurd thing I've heard (mostly because when we came into Peru they didn't give a crap about our luggage or their contents, yet when we leave it seems to be a big deal that we may be bringing goldfish into another country) I accept the fact that we will lose most all of our food (except the food they hadn't found in outside pockets and underneath jackets that I was not about to inform them of) and I politely ask if it is okay for me to eat my yogurt and drink some of the rest of my water right here, right now so that I don't have to waste it. At first I don't think this lady who began
'help' me shortly after my other frand lost interest in arguing with me (oops) really believed that I was truly going to pop a squat in airport security and scarf down my yogurt and granola snack that I was going to eat later on. If there is one thing I hate in this world- it's food waste and therefore I was completely and entirely serious. So when she hesitantly hands it to me- at this point I'm real agitated about losing the rest of our food- so I'm all like "bitch please" I'm sitting on this floor right now and you can watch me if you like but just give me the damn yogurt. (cool your jets, this was not the exact dialogue).
Next thing ya know our flight has apparently arrived and thus the lady seizes the opportunity to snatch my waterbottle out of my little paws literally as I'm reaching the bottle up to my mouth to take a sip (I KID YOU NOT). I was just about to bite that lady's head off when some of the other security guards begin ushering us out towards our plane. I think that is the most upset I have ever been with an airport official and I actually have a series of past stories that almost reach that potential...
So this little rant is silly because in reality all we really lost was a jar of PB, sandwiches we had packed for lunch, some pretzels and some cereal. After the incident I wrote down this detailed account so that one day I could look back on it and laugh. Nevertheless, the truth is that the whole thing was uncalled for and completely unnecessary. They acted like I didn't understand what they were saying (probably because I reached for my food and yogurt (to eat as much as possible in the next 5 min) in response to their speel about not bringing food or drinks on the plane) even though I responded in Spanish and what's more, she ripped through my luggage without an ounce of concern for what fragile items might me in there *cough* my camera!! *cough*
I could have said some really inappropriate things but instead I bit my tongue (contrary to how it appears) and gave those workers the death glare because they were truly less than amused by my attempt to salvage as much food as possible. With some luck my charade did end up distracting the officials from our Incan chocolate bars in Danielle's bag so there is that(:

Thanks for sticking it out with my rants, hope you enjoy the pictures and don't hold your breath for any more posts anytime soon cause I am hitting a major writers block but I'm glad I chronicled all the adventures thus far (:
xoxo <3

and it continues....

2015-08-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

Day two in Bolivia: acclimating to the altitude- the hard way (with hills)

Quotes of the Day:
"Which way are the gunshots coming from??"
"I thought Bolivia was supposed to be cheap"
"Coca is not a drug- or the cause of poverty"

8:00am- breakfast of champions= oatmeal, bananas, bread and peanut butter (note- their bread is not near as good as Chile's, it's sweeter and less filling)
9:30am- After trying to catch a micro (bus- like a 12 passenger van really) for a good ten minutes we just end up walking to the first stop on our touristy overview of La Paz. We visit the church de San Francisco (where THE Pope was about 3 days previously),

the Museo de Coca (describes the local tradition of chewing on Coca leaves, how it is not the same thing as cocaine, the differences and the legality issues), all the handicraft stores and vendors I ever want to see, and eventually we stop in for lunch. The entire time we avoid the street area around the main square because there is a protest going on, gunshots fired in the air (by the police- no violence, I guess it was just getting a little to chaotic for their taste)

1:00pm- Chicken and Quinoa Soup, Llama burger and delicious garlic bread
2:00pm- check out the Witches market, look at some preserved llama fetuses, ignore the storefront owners who attempt to sell us love potions, constipation remedies and herbal supplements
3:00pm- Follow the locals who stream by with ice cream cones in a search for the source (please note- we only had one dry spell without ice cream, when we went to Cusco- all other days included at least one ice cream cone ;)
4:00pm- Look for a bus that will take us to the Mirador, realize the bus is probably not coming to this street and walk two blocks higher (as per the traffic officer's suggestion), and as per usual we ask one more person after we figure that the bus ain't coming to this location either.

Finally after walking two blocks more we finally see a bus with the name of the street we are pretty sure that the Mirador is near. We reach the hill, jump out of the bus (paying a fair of 30 cents per person) and hike up the mirador. Hike is a strong word but at this point the altitude is killing our lungs just for walking down the street- let alone walking up inclines.

The view is INCREDIBLE. I know I have said this before but I could totally spend another 5 days in Bolivia. Don't worry immigration man- I'm coming back(;
4:30pm- when we decide it's probably time to head back we encounter a slight problem in our attempts to catch a bus back (they are all full). Eventually we hail a cab, but due to the protests he is only able to take us like 10 blocks down closer to the city so we suck it up, pay our fare of one dollar and 13 cents and walk back to our hotel. Our cab driver tells us that the protests have been going on for about 2 weeks now, and that the citizens are from a small town about nine hours south. Every night they sleep in the streets and the next morning they rally all day for the government to keep their hands out of their work, health and social affairs.
7:30pm- After a minor meltdown (via yours truly) due to my lack of planning, we find out that our idea of visiting Lake Titicaca are not going to happen and thus I drown my sorrows in food as we head out for dinner. We hit up a nice Italian place, I treat myself to a glass of a Tannat/Merlot red wine blend, and then get oreo cheesecake for dessert. It turned out okay I guess(;

Day Three in Bolivia: Riding shotgun in our favorite form of public transportation

Quotes:
"Can we walk there from here?"
"Give the front seats to the gringas" - smirks all around
"It kinda looks like those drip sand castles we used to make"

10am- After asking approximately four people (I think we have hit an all time record here folks) we find a bus that is heading to Mallasa and thus to the beautiful Valle de La Luna// aka the Valley of the Moon. Although at the time the bus that was waiting around appeared to be incredibly full (not seats except for the passenger seat), the operators of this fine establishment suggested that if we wanted to get to Mallasa that we needed to get in this bus right here, right up in the front seat- both of us. Nothing really surprises me after 5 months in South America, so while Danielle was skeeved out I was just like whatever. We'll be okay. Who needs seatbelts when you can hold hands eh?

Our bus back was relatively uneventful other than the continual stream of people who jumped on (some when the bus was still moving- reallyyyyy slow- but still!). It wasn't bad until we started going up hill, then the nervousness from Danielle started to rub off on me.
3:00-4:00pm- take the teleferico (kind of like a ski lift without the snow) up to El Alto, the city that you first land in when you fly into La Paz. It's about 1,000ft higher in elevation and it has a lovely view of the entire valley and all the houses that fill it.

5:00pm-7:00pm- walk to the Central Parque, catch the bus to the main plaza and find dinnah

new friends

7:30pm- walk home exhausted- we walked 10 miles on this day! and watch some Harry Potter in english on our hostal TV

Travel Day to Cusco DAY FOUR (15 July)
Quotes of the Day:
"Did you check the reviews for this airline??"
"80% tourist, 15% local, 5% women carrying lambs around trying to get you to pay them to take a photo with the adorable little creature"
"I don't think this is actually ice cream"

This day started off with early breakfast, a cab ride x2, checking into our hostal, trying to pay for our Machu Picchu tour but failing when we realized that we did not have enough cash on us. What's more, the ATM would only let us take out $125 dollah at a time and thus we paid a million ATM fees just to pay for the tour and dinner. Then we bought and ate (most of) our crappy ice cream cones (that ice cream flavor could not have truly been passionfruit), ran from the rain, discovered the lack of trashcans present in Cusco and find backroads that demonstrate that there certainly are locals in this town. Besides this area, the entire town seems to be filled with tourists from every country. While Danielle and I both really enjoyed Cusco and it's pretty colonial (Spanish) architecture and quirky layout (lots of one way cobblestone streets) we both agreed that we could do without the millions of tourists and that Bolivia was better because it actually felt like we were experiencing the culture and tradition of the country, rather than experiencing a disney world of sorts where everyone is essentially staying the night on their way to see Machu Picchu.

On this day we hit up another artesian market (if I see another artesanal market in the next year I may puke). I resisted to order some local food (Danielle insisted that I would actually be puking) and we managed to spend much more money than we should have.

I met a chilean tourist which was exciting because it felt like I belonged and wasn't so much of a foreigner(; Although we avoided the sweaters, llama keychains and colorful blankets, we did leave with some dark chocolate, and a duffel bag to lug all of our purchases back to Santiago.

We realized we were actually in Peru during their independence week celebration!- cue fireworks, parades and dancers

Then we secured our Machu Picchu tour (finally!), ate a great dinner and things started looking up (this was a rough day because at first the tour group couldn't find our entrance reservation for the actual Machu Picchu park and on top of that we realized we had to pay for the tour in cash- even though the ATMs seemed to hate us, we did end up managing to scourge up enough money to fulfill our dreams and go to Machu Picchu- adventure style ;)

DAY FIVE (16 July)
Quotes of the Day:
"Mis Amigos..." - this was the start of every other paragraph spoken by our run of the mill tour guide
"Let's just take a mental pic- k?"
"We cannot connect to your bank right now" -FAIL via ATM

This day was jammed packed of bus rides, spanish guide speeches, ancient ruins, a delicious lunch buffet and learning about how locales make silver jewelry and dye sheep yarn with natural herbs and such

Check the next post for the re-cap on the last and most important part of this trip which includes that lovely 4 day excursion!

The Great Adventure- the one I'll nevah evah forget (part one)

2015-08-12T10:50:00.002-07:00

I didn't write down much from when Danielle spent the day in Santiago, but the main kicker for that portion was the fact that her flight (that was supposed to arrive friday morning) was delayed 10 hours, she left the airport for a sketchy hotel, got five hours of sleep and then I met up with her at the airport after taking two buses and the metro....Anywho- instead of sightseeing on Friday, I slept in and went to spin class! My spin instructor had mentioned that he had a gift for me but he had left it at home my last class, so it was kinda a happy accident that I ended up going one last time. He was so sweet- he gave me a huge (I would say at least 1 1b) chocolate bar and this little bike model made out of rubber and wire (it's quirky). He said I always had a good attitude and other nice things that I will never forget- he was great! All tatted up, with dreads and a huge hole in his ear (from a gage earring) you would never know that he is such a nice guy but he always tried to make sure I understand his chilean (very broken) spanish and that everyone was having a good time.
That night, once Danielle and I made it back to the house she was greeted with an always enthusiastic and rapidly speaking Mama. Finally, someone who could experience the overwhelming sensation I feel on occasion with Mama when she starts her rapid-fire questions upon my arrival. I translated and Mama learned all about Danielle's struggles. After many "pobrecitas" she went downstairs to fetch Danielle some dinner and next thing you know she has a tray filled with a feast for Danielle to munch on in her bedroom- because obviously we shouldn't eat a table- downstairs is just too cold she insists. Typical.
The next day we pack sandwiches on fresh bread that Danielle is already in love with (she had some the night before with her pumpkin, bean and spaghetti dinner). We hiked up to San Cristobal were unfortunately the smog covered most of the city. We enjoyed the 'views' and then trekked right back down.

One of Danielle's two expressions that she makes in pictures- either mouth opened, eye brows raised or smiling. Nada mas

At the top of the 'hill' overlooking Santi is a statue of some religious figure that I'm too lazy to fact check

The rest of the day was filled with handicraft and gift shopping- we spent all the (cash) money that I had left and then treated ourselves to a lovely high class dinner at a wine bar (on the credit card of course ;). I enjoyed a trio of samples of typical Chilean wines (all three glasses had the equivalent of one glass) and Danielle tried her first bit of beef stew. It was great.
The next day is when I really began taking notes- so here is a direct transcription of what I have written- Enjoy!

Day One: Getting to Bolivia (and surviving the altitude change)
Quotes of the Day:
"Did he just take that picture?!"
"The view is INCREDIBLE"
"Oxygen masks are in, ATM Cards are out"

4:40am- rise and shine
the transfer takes us to the airport with the chattiest driver I ever encountered in my transvip experiences (there have been many trips to the airport). He was also the first I've seen that had a TV, but nevertheless he complimented my spanish skills so he got an "A" in my book.
5:45am- arrive at the airport only to encounter a long-ass line; typically there is NO line at the check-in counter (like I said- I have experience with this airport- ie: like 7 trips maybe)- took us at least 20 minutes to check in
6:00am- go thru security for the first time only to walk out so that we could access an ATM and 'Casa de Cambio' for the darn Bolivian border police. At this point I stupidly rush off with my money and receipt but WITHOUT MY ATM CARD. That's right- Carly Clark left her ATM card in the machine. Trust me, it was quite easy the way they operate those things because they tell you to take the money, then take your receipt and then they ask you if you want to make another transaction and thus hold your card hostage until you say 'no, I do not want another transaction' thank you very much.' So yeah. Some stranger tried to withdrawl a buttload of money but thankfully my bank is great and did some investigation schenanigans that fixed my oopsie and re-imbursed us.
I unfortunately did not realize I was missing my ATM card until I had been through security for time numero dos and thus I made it through Chilean security three times in less than an hour (each time took approx. 5 minutes- I kid you not) so theres that.
11:00am- Land in Iquique, Chile (on the border essentially), go thru Chilean 'export customs' or something like that, re-board the plane and fly to Bolivia
12:30pm- The best part of the day- We leave the plane and are faced with a long line ahead of us (this is what happens when you have to pee and therefore let everyone get ahead of you in line). I complain that I feel both light headed and pressurized at the same time and continually ask Danielle how she feels (she has a history of altitude sickness). She keeps telling me she feels absolutely nothing and I do not believe one word of it but nevertheless we move on and eventually reach the counter where you hand over a grand sum of 160 DOLLARS PER PERSON to the Bolivian officials. But hey- now we get to come back and bother Bolivians anytime we feel like in the next ten years. Woohooo for a ten year visa.
Let's back it up a bit though so I can explain the story I may tell one hundred times in my lifetime- it's just that great:

It all starts as the Bolivian border control/immigration officer person begins to ask me questions to put on our visa applications. He starts with Danielle's and therefore I begin by translating for her.
"Hey Danielle, you gotta sign this visa page for him"- Me
"Yeah, Okay, just a second"- Danielle, as she puts her head down on the ledge right in front of the immigration guy's little window. She looks like she is about to pass out but every time I ask her if she still feels okay she insists that she is perfectly fine. Literally at this point I've heard "I'm fine, I'm fine" maybe 5 times.
Eventually she lifts her head just long enough to scribble a signature on the form and goes back to resting her little head on the ledge.
"Okay Danielle, now you need to take a picture really quick,"
No response.
"Danielle?" Next thing I know she is slouching over, about to lose her balance and crumble into me. I try to put her arm around my neck so she can stand and put her weight on me but that is when she began acting irrational and continually responded that she was still fine. Instead of accepting my help she grips the ledge/counter and sways like she is about to faint. Thank goodness at this point the kind samaritan behind me notices that she doesn't look so hot (the immigration officer apparently disagreed as he insisted that we could finish the visa application and then she could go see the medic- I respond by talking in a more pressing tone and say that I think that is a horrible idea and could you please call the medic over NOW) and helps me try to pry her away from the countertop. She refuses and continues to sway until we pull her from her death grip and she relents. At this point, the customs man casually snaps a picture of her as she is getting dragged over to seat- I kid you not, and the best is that the picture will be valid for the next ten years. She still stubbornly continues to say that she is fine (I've heard this so much by now that it doesn't even sound like a word anymore) but I toughen up and insist that she will be taking an oxygen mask and breathing deep for the suggested 5 minutes per the medic's instructions. After those long five minutes pass she appears to be lucid and we are about to go on our way when the medic stops me and asks me if I can actually hang back for a minute and help the immigration officer translate. Lovely- he brings back 2 semi-agitated Americans who appear to have insufficient funds for the absurdly priced visa and who are incredibly confused about what the Bolivian security peeps would like them to do. Welcome to Bolivia.
1:00pm- We end up buying Danielle some Gaterade, I make a judgement call on which taxi we should trust- clearly we choose the one that two nuns are getting out of. 30 minutes and eight dollars later we arrive at the hostal.
3:00pm- After a decent but not delicious meal of roast chicken (the good part), rice with cheese and fries dripping in oil (the not so good, untouched part) and a salad of lettuce and sliced tomatoes, we realize that we do not have enough money to pay for this meal. OYE. I once again leave Danielle behind to plead with the waiter, tell him I will be right back and go search for an ATM. After asking 2 strangers and walking 10 minutes I finally find an ATM, pray that there are sufficient funds on my backup ATM card and withdrawal about 30 dollars- because hey- everyone said Bolivia would be cheap right? I return to the restaurant, pay our grand total bill of $7.26- confirmed. Bolivia is cheap! Looks like that 10 year visa will come in handy- because dinner was only 6 dollars...total(:

xoxo, More to come loves

One time I went to Chiloé- an archipelago right off the coast of Chile

2015-07-24T11:37:00.002-07:00

With all the trips I have taken from Chile, I've found that there were two types: The kind where you go to a place knowing that you will be doing A, seeing B, and eating C. You have plans, tours and restaurants in mind and typically these trips are to the more toursity areas of the world. The second kind of trip is the kind where you go with the bare minimum about the town- you know how to get there, that you have a plane ticket/bus ticket, a hostal reservation and a suitcase in hand.

Maybe you wrote down the names of the Plazas in town, a museum or two and a pretty view you should check out. The truth is there probably wasn't TOO much to do in these towns, but nevertheless they were enjoyable and full of unexpected events and unforseeable delights. This is basically how my trips to La Serena, Puerto Varas, Montevideo and now Chiloé went. Like I said they were great- but one of the biggest reasons that I went was to get out of Santiago and to enjoy some of the varying landscape Chile has to offer. I mean we've got the desert in the north, beaches and mountains running along both borders and the beautiful, lush but cold southern region.

Chiloé falls under the cold but enchanting category. Like I said before, it is made up of an archipelago of many islands (some big and inhabited, some small and essentially just wildlife and forrest).

My friend Hannah and I decided that one of our last weekends in Chile we should visit the hyped about Chiloé to see the Palafitos (houses on stilts on the waterfront of the islands)

eat some good seafood, and enjoy the beauty of southern Chile. And we did!

One day we went to a market of handicrafts (because doesn't every south American city have on- and I ALWAYS buy way too much),

we visited many churches (the area is famous for its abundance of ancient wooden churches)

another day we hopped on a bus that then hopped on a ferry that we were about 80% certain would take us to an island we had googled the night before. It did indeed take us to Lemuy Island, but we soon found out that in low season this island is virtually uninhabited (but still beautiful!) and inhospitable (only one restaurant was open- the lady who ran it served as the hostess, waiter and chef- and the food was kinda awful...but we survived(; ).

Luckily the trip redeemed itself through the vistas from the bus rides and the heladeria that was on the street corner in the main plaza. I told Hannah that I would have been happy just hopping on a bus each day to wherever it was going and just looking out the window because no matter where you were- it was lovely- and there wasn't much else to do anyways! haha
We enjoyed many coffee breaks (I have now decided that this is the best way to travel- get coffee and a dessert at around 3pm in the afternoon),

I enjoyed ice cream every single day (per usual) and we got our aforementioned pics with the palafitos. One night we watched the Copa America game with the locals in a nice little bar (Chile won- duh!) and the last day we got to go horsebackriding (in the rain- bummer)

in Chiloé's national park. It was only like 40 USD (upside) but I do wish we had gotten to go during high season when the flauna was in bloom and maybe it was a little warmer (downside).

The horses were great (tired- but responsive and did their job) and Hannah had a ball (she had never really been horsebackriding and was dying to go).

Even though we seemed to get the gringo treatment at some restaurants- they would tell us that they only had certain things available and then we would see them deliver it to another table- this actually happened twice!- we found two gems- one had delicious pizza and the other had tasty sammies on homemade bread. Unfortunately my leftovers from the pizza place somehow got thrown away...even though we were the only guests in the hotel- but my main man/hotel worker felt so bad that we reimbursed me for the lost food..so I just went a bought myself a delicious sammie instead.
So as you can see from my random assortment of anecdotes, it was a great trip- and even though it's been a while- I couldn't leave it without a re-cap

Confessions

2015-07-22T18:37:00.001-07:00

There are some things I haven't told you. Some things you probably don't want and don't need to know. Because typically ignorance is bliss. But in this case I'm being selfish and making this my public journal, and a way to remember my experiences for a long time. So if you are over the age of 70 or have had a previous experience with anxiety about my safety in Chile, skip to the sappy part about me leaving Chile....or just know that I survived so all the things I did in the past were a-okay.
Confession- once I got in a cab that didn't have a meter
I got in that cab with my drunk friend who insisted that he would pay once we realized there was no meter and that we should probably find another cab. But no- he insisted it would be fine and that he would pay. When we arrive at our destination he realizes he has no money- and therefore I pay for the 10 dollar taxi (in retrospect this would have been cheap for how long the drive was- but you have to take into account what about to say to counter that point...). I paid with a 10.000 bill (20 bucks) and he gave me back a 5.000. All was fine- I wasn't kidnapped, robbed of my cell phone and credit cards or anything like that.
BUT, the next day when I went to pay for my bus ticket, the lady looks at me with a raised eyebrow and tells me that the 5.000 I am trying to use is fake. counterfeit. not accepted.
She GIVES ME BACK the counterfeit money (I still have it- but I am really not sure why she was going to let that one stay in circulation..) and I am thoroughly embarrassed and angry that the cab driver essentially robbed me of ten extra dollars and that my friend owed me big time.
Confession- I never told you that once when I was riding a bus and really had to pee (what else is new) so I used their bathroom; which turned out to lack any lighting, and therefore I peed in the pitch black darkness in what I prayed was the toilet (and that the lid was not closed) and threw my toilet paper out the open window- oops.
Confession- I have been to this heladería five times in the past three weeks. They know my name. I have convinced my favorite lady who works there to break the rules and let me order three flavors instead of the two that all other patrons must finally decide upon. I am quite the charmer eh?
Confession- almost every single time I plugged in my computer charger to the outlet it would spark...oops
Confession- one of the things I will most in Chile is the liquor to soft drink ratio here in Chile....let's just say its more than 1:1
Confession- Actually I will probably miss the price you can find for a pretty damn good bottle of red wine. 5 dollars!? Please somebody find me this steal in the states...
Confession- On the subject of alcohol...I have come home slightly drunk before only to be interrogated (this is an exaggeration- she was merely making small talk- but when you are tipsy, questions in spanish are hard) by Mama and I just played it cool. Another time she came down to the kitchen at 2am when I had just gotten back from a party and was making myself a bowl
Confession- I haven't cried yet. I've been holding it in. I'll probably get an aneurism or something because I've heard it's bad for your mental health to hold back the tears. But when Mama comes in and asks if she can help me pack, or when I'm swiping my metro card and the person behind me is in a hurry and I get hit by a wave of emotion or when I order my final starbucks coffee and realize that I will never come back to this campus again- these moments are just not ideal for getting weepy. I can't cry because it will probably turn into an ordeal and I just don't like being stared at more than I already am.
Confession- When Danielle finally gets here I will probably cry. a lot.

so I just realized I never posted this...I didn't cry when she came, but I did have a meltdown a little later in the game; but its all good now.
xoxo

Vamos chilenos

2015-07-08T17:39:00.001-07:00

Before I start my combined post of all of my Copa America memories...here are some of my favorite chilean chants:

"Chi-Chi-Chi, le-le-le, VIVA CHILE!"

"Vamos, vamos chilenos, esta noche tenemos que ganar" // "Let's go, let's go chilenos, tonight we have to win!"

"yo soy chileno, es un sentimiento, no puedo para" //
"I am chilean, it's a sentiment, and I can't stop"

So you already heard about the first round game with Chile-Ecuador where I went to a random bar with my chilean friends and stormed the plaza for the true Chilean experience. I watched game two from Mama's bed with Camila and Mama while Mama hid her face behind a pillow because she was SO NERVOUS that she couldn't even watch haha. Another game I watch at a viewing party at the university with my friend Emily- because yes, the university sponsors activities that involve chanting, getting rowdy, drinking and watching the futbol game on a projected screen(; But one of the best games I saw was in the stadium right here in my little community of Nuñoa! (Luckily the stadium was within walking distance because if there is one thing I have learned about watching the Copa America games...it's that you CANNOT get a taxi, bus, or any form of transport back to your house afterwards so you better either 1. walk as far as you can until you get tired and pray that the bus will eventually come (this happened once), 2. wait for a taxi for about an hour (also happened of course) or you plant yourself close enough to home that you can walk off the victory).

So Hannah and I got dropped off at the Estadio Nacional at around 5:30 under the impression that we would be hanging out with her host fam until the game started because they also had two tickets, but in true gringo fashion apparently we had misunderstood those apparent plans because we were dropped at the curb and Ciao Ciao for us. At first we thought that we could kill time by sipping a pre-game beer but alas, Chileans actually enforce the no alcohol at soccer games rule EVEN OUTSIDE of the stadium. There were no bars within like 5 blocks and the only restaurant we found couldn't serve us alcohol (even though they had it) so close to the game.
Instead of fueling our inner chilean spirit with booze, we spent the next 3 hours exploring the section of the stadium we had seats for (they only let you into your section and all the sections are disconnected- including the concessions and stuff so you can't walk around very far) and then planting ourselves in some of the best seats in the section...because in typical Chilean fashion- most people didn't arrive til about 7ish.

In the meantime we took selfies, scouted out our food options (coke, hotdogs and hamburgers- and this is when I argue with Mama when she tries to tell me that there is more fast food and unhealthy food in the US...mmmhmm). By the time the game started everyone was PUMPED sans alcohol. That's right peeps alcohol is not the key to having fun. They sang the national anthem- a flag went over our heads for that one, because apparently since there is no flag pole in the stadium they just cover one section of the stands with the flag

There it is! Right over our heads it went and the Chileans screamed their anthem from the top of their lungs. Much louder than in the states and EVERYONE sings.
They gave us these green cards to hold up during the Bolivian national anthem because in the past people in the stands would boo during the opposing team's anthem. This actually worked quite well! Another thing they apparently do to keep the tensions to a minimum is not showing the replays. I did not like this at all because then if you missed something you were just sol. Additionally they didn't have a score board or timer which was just weird...

They game went by so quick and by the end we had scored five goals while Bolivia finished with a big fat zero. I guess we picked a good game(: Afterwards we walked a ways to a restaurant that serves phenomenal pizza (muy expensive but worth it) that is just 5 blocks short from my house. We started the post-game feast with one pizza thinking that it would be enough for the two of us. I mean it was 12"...

But after finishing a bottle of wine (hey- a bottle is way cheaper than ordering one glass a piece and then realizing you want just a teensy bit more..) we realized that instead of dessert we would be ordering another pizza please. The first one had chicken, mushrooms and a ton of onions while the second was like ham and peppers or something mouth watering delicious. We closed up that shop after they delivered our second pizza, we finished the bottle and got the heck out so that we could sleep and they could clean up(; Keepin' classy here in Santi
So part two of this post is about the most recent- MOST EPIC Chilean game. The semi-finals took place while I was in Chiloé so I'll leave my recap of that game for another post. Meanwhile the final game in which Chile won the Copa America took place last Saturday on July 4th. We played Argentina and let me just start off by prefacing with the fact that Argentina and Chile have some slight rivalries going on (but honestly- ever Latin American country seems to have some beef against every other country in this continent). Another thing you should know is that Argentina is freaking good. Their player "Messi" is known worldwide as being like the best player ever and I will admit he is pretty amazing.
So when this game started at 5pm in the afternoon, I'm sitting there in this room with a bunch of my friends sitting in these chairs facing a projector screen holding my huge ass cup of beer thinking, man I hope we win but I really just don't know if it will happen. That was me doubting Chile- please reprimand me for that one when I get back because man was I wrong.

The beer bottle was like 500mL i believe- so way more beer than I have ever drank in my life- but it was free with admission

So after we went into overtime, played for 2 hours straight (commercials are not a thing during soccer games), and then proceeded to win (if you want a detailed recap or a video of Alexis Sanchez (aka sexy Chilean player who I am in love with along with all chilean girls...) and his winning penalty kick and then his victory run around the field without his shirt...I actually highly recommend google searching that one <3) I stormed the streets with the rest of Chile. I kid you not. Those bar doors busted open and everyone spilled out into the streets and headed for Plaza Italia. All the streets were filled with honking cars, flags streaming past and people sticking their heads out the windows yelling VIVA CHILE.

Here are some of my friend's pics- because I didn't want to lose my phone so I didn't bring it

That one is from the newspaper- but I was there and it was real(:

We sang some chants, jumped up and down, threw confetti, took pictures, tried not to get robbed, ran away from the tear gas and enjoyed the show. Did you read that right- i said TEAR GAS. That was part two of the night. Part one was drink your beer, lose your voice, chant your heart out and cover your eyes while Chile executes their penalty kicks. Then came the screaming, jumping up and down and more chanting. After searching high and low for an open restaurant (only the crazies would be crazy enough to let us/ the mob of Chile in) we finally found a place that was open. But apparently that was just our first hurdle because after I tried to order about 4 things on the menu, none of them were available. The best was when the waitress told me that I couldn't have my salmon (she came back after I ordered) because the filets of salmon were too frozen. Come on lady, where is your dignity lol- you should have just said that I needed to order something else.
Part two started once I paid for my eight dollar ice cream, sixteen dollar mojito (on top of the outrageous price it had like zero alcohol) and we fled a bar before they could charge us a cover for the live show that was about to start. Penniless and ready to dance my two friends and I started walking towards a club. We walked the wrong direction. Next thing ya know there are kids (maybe in their twenties, but with their maturity level I have no shame in calling them children...) pulling those stakes with the nice little municipal ads on them out of the ground and throwing them into the street. Glass bottles are shattering and the police are there on the scene with riot gear- I'm talking shields, helmets and battons. For some reason these kids just get even more riled up when the police arrive (not sure why they were even called to the scene because everything was fine and dandy until then) and they are calling for reinforcements. Obviously at this point we are walking the opposite direction and as we pass about 30 police cars, vans and tanks (okay that last one might be a lie but hey they were speeding by so you never know!- i might have missed it) with flashing lights sirens and apparently TEAR GAS. We try to escape the coughing, crying and burning of our throats in try in every direction but it appears that people are coming from all directions towards us with their faces or shirts over their mouth and noses. Joy. the carabineros have apparently spread that poison as if it they were Hansel and Gretl marking their passage. We decide to just book it in the direction along the main road that will eventually lead us to a main area that probably has some clubs. At this point we passed through the "let's just go home" phase to the "aw screw it, it's not like we will be able to get a cab anyways" phase and thus we found ourselves about a mile down the road at a club that once again robbed us that night with their cover of 10 bucks and their coat check fee of 2 dollah. At this point I am relying on my friend to pay for an Uber (google it friends) on her phone because I am straight out of the 40 dollars I had budgeted for the night. We danced, celebrated and finally went to sleep knowing that this great country WON THE COPA AMERICA for the first time ever. and on top of that we deserved it. Viva Alexis(:

xoxo

En Toma \\ the takeover

2015-07-07T14:00:00.002-07:00

Universidad Diego Portales has been "en toma" ie: taken over for like three weeks now (can I also mention that I HATE spanish keyboards because it just took me way too long to locate the stupid quotation marks and right now every single word I have typed thus far is underlined in those annoying little red squiqqly lines because these words are in english and thus unrecognized by the spanish spell check- also there goes my spelling so forgive me please- just for this post).

Don't ask me what that means because I'm actually not sure...but this was at the entrance of UDP

I found out that being "en toma" is actually different than being "en paro" because taking something over includes giving ultimatums and canceling class indefinately while being "en paro" is more of a temporary call for changing conditions or requests. So my fellow Chilean students, PAYING students (this is a private university) are refusing to go to class for the last month of the semester all for the cause of something that maybe one half of the student population could explain to you if you asked. Most students really have no idea what they are protesting, they just go along with it, sleep in, drink more and skip class. How productive right? The cherry on top is that yesterday after the teachers and administration tried to meet up with the students in charge and talk about their demands and how they could move forward towards a solution, the only thing that was confirmed was that the student population would continue their takeover (I know it sounds silly but takeover is actually the most accurate english word I can think of; they have literally put chairs up against the doors to the school, blocking the entrances and classrooms. In fact, since they are paying students, the security guards that typically stand at the entrances have to listen to the students when they tell them not to let anyone in.) Furthermore, while only 10% of the students showed up to this nice little negotation meeting, and less than half of that said population voted in favor of continuing with their protest, the school has to accpet their wishes because for some silly reason there can be no shadow of a doubt and it would have to be a unanimous vote or something like that for things to change. Loco I tell you. These kids have parents paying for their educations and yet they refuse to go for silly ideas like arguing the fact that a higher education should be free (for a failed model of this just look at Germany where people are capitalizing on the free education system and staying in school until they are 30) and that they should have a say in the way the classes are taught and structured. When my Chilean friend tried to expalin the later to me, it took all my will not to laugh about this absurd proposal. "You mean you want to choose the format of your tests, the lectures and how the teacher schedules the semester? Who do you think you are..." But to him it seemed perfectly reasonable.
One last thing that the students have been protesting within their individual facultades (departments) is the repression they have encountered amidst their peaceful protests. I'm pretty sure I mentioned on here how a boy from U. Catolica (see below picture; also side note- they are lucky he was attractive because his face makes for a great attention grabber...just saying) was knocked down by these giant, powerful hoses the police use during the protests. Although there are many stories, upon further review the government did find that the police were much closer than the legal limit to the students when they started spraying students with the hoses (I think I heard something about 6 vs. 10 feet- which is almost half the distance if you think about it..). And yes you may say the students provoked it but the optimist in me has heard my friends who have participated in these events (chileans of course) who suggest that typically the protests only turn violence after the police do things like spraying down a 20 year student who was then sent to the hospital and suffered severe head trauma....Anywho- there's another side of the story you can ponder of your morning coffee. Rodrigo was apparently a normal, respected student at La Catolica and so when he was hospitalized and severely injured the students at this university, where I was taking classes took it hard. I heard that he is doing better now but when it first happened it was looking bad for his health..

In other news when I was looking at my blogging notes I realized there were a few anecdotes I had written down about my trip to La Serena from the last post. One night we decided to go shopping when a little girl came up to me and asked where I was from. When I said I was from the US she got so excited and told me that I was the first person she had ever met from there and then proceeded to call her mother over to come talk to me. She was only 14 years old but she confidently told me that one day she would be going to the United States to study and that she was one of the hardest workers in her class because she desperately wanted to learn english. Her ideas about the US and everyone from there were just about the sweetest and most naive (probably misguided because she had quite optimistic ideas about us) things I had ever heard but nevertheless it made my heart melt a little because I hoped to God that she was able to find what she was looking for and that she would truly make it there one day.
Yet another beautiful soul we encountered that weekend was our tour guide for the Pisco Distillery of Mistral who gave us (me and my 4 friends who went to La Serena with me) a HUGE compliment. She said that at first she thought that we would all only speak english and pretend to understand her speel about how Pisco is made, the history of the facilities and such. She said a lot of times when she gives a tour in spanish the gringos just kind of nod and pretend they understand but she can tell that they have no idea what she is saying in spanish. On the contrary she said that she was surprised to see that we actually easily understood and even had questions (mmmhmmm snap judgements...). While it may sound silly that this is such a big deal for us gringos- the truth is when Mama or the store clerk or whomever decides to stop listening to me and bring over a english speaking employee (this happens all the time- and the sad thing is that most of the time these Chileans don't even try to listen to what I say, they just hear my accent and assume I have no clue what I'm talking about) it really hurts your ego. It's like I've been here for four months now, I'm pretty confident that I can get by with my spanish and honestly that was no easy task. It is NOT easy to speak another language when you learned it when you were already in high school. The truth is that I have days where I feel like I am doing great and can have conversations, but then there are days where I don't understand a single word that comes out of Mama's mouth (especially when it's early in the morning and she wants to have full, enthusiastic conversations...). ANYWHO- the moral of the story is that it is really hurtful when people do or say things like that because I feel like I try really hard and it's frustrating when people can't take a minute to reciprocate my attempts to communicate and just assume that I'm just another gringo...When someone compliments your spanish in Chile either you know they are lying and probably hitting on you or you feel amazing inside for just that one moment because you feel like you really have achieved something!
xoxo

Pirate's Booty

2015-07-03T06:49:00.002-07:00

I really should be packing. I HAVE 10 DAYS LEFT IN CHILE. holey smokes. therefore- to distract myself I am going to try to make up for lost time and reflect on the lovely trips I've had in Chile that I have failed to account for. Starting with La Serena. That is the name of the port city I visited approximately a month ago. oops. La Serena is known as being a historical pirate fort and is located in Northern Chile. While packing I associated this fact (north=closer to the ecuador=warmer than Santiago) with the optimistic idea that I should pack clothes for a sunny, breezy beach town. Yeah okay there was a beach there but unfortunately that beachy, humid air knows how to hold in the cold.
La Serena is located right next to the magical distilleries that are spread amongst Valle Elqui. During our trip there we visited two Pisco Distilleries that heat and distill wine Walter White style. First up was Capel, which is know as being the cheapest pisco in Chile. Although it's not bad- it's not good either. I would equate it to the Crown Rousse or Smirnoff of Vodka. The true reveal of just how cheap this alcohol is was when the tour guide told us that they keep the first hours' worth of the distilled liquid that comes out of the distillation process and make it into their mixed drinks that they sell in grocery stores (like pre-made Pisco Sours and Pina Coladas) while the second Distillery we toured said that in their distillation process they reserve this same liquid (made during the first few hours- the impure stuff) and sell it to Pharmacies to make rubbing alcohol and antiseptics. Mmmmhmmm. Let's just say that I may be buying Mistral Pisco now over Capel.

Other highlights from this trip included walking around taking pictures of everything, eating delicious sushi and ceviche, watching the sunset on the beach, trying many types of Pisco and enjoying our vacay with some nice red wine and cards(; Because I'm lazy and way behind I'll let the pictures (with an occasional caption) do the talking:

The first day included lots of pictures, plazas, churches, etc.

The main church- in the city of churches!

There was a random Chinese garden that was beautiful!

Hannah decided that since we paid 2 dollars to get in that we could explore...and pull the samurai sword out of it's case...oops

For lunch we had Papaya Sours- kinda like Pisco sours, but Papaya instead of Lemon/Lime (I forgot to take a pic obviously)

The first night we feasted on DELICIOUS sushi and ceviche

This was our hostal- a teeny kitchen, grainy coffee and bread for breakfast! What else is new(;

On this day we were supposed to sail off a see some penguins but you can't always get what you want....

Apparently the port was closed due to weather so we got a partial refund on our tour

They took us to a beach to take photos and walk around

At least it was pretty!

No penguins, but we did end up seeing foxes later..

and a nice little desert landscape

FOXES! People stopped on the side of the road to feed them bread but our tour guide actually said that was really bad because now the foxes have stopped eating the mice that destroy the cactuses...they were quite docile and adapted to people though

The third day we found the lighthouse and the beach

and beach dogs of course!

All together now(:

Lunch before our pisco tasting- don't want to get drunk on an empty stomach(;

Valle Elqui was beautiful (haven't seen many ugly things in this country really..)

At the Mistral distillery we tasted expensive pisco, even more expensive pisco, a cheaper variety and a desert wine/pisco respectively

The last day we found an old military fort that the Spainards built to protect the city from Pirates!

VIVA CHILE(:

xoxo

The crazy Italian lady that just so happens to be my Ceramics TA

2015-06-22T14:50:00.001-07:00

And my personal assistant apparently...
Today Francisca, the peppy teaching assistant for my Ceramics class ended up essentially painting my one bowl for me. She kept showing me things and then I would intend to finish them myself but sometimes she just gets into it and she just is chatting and chatting and she is so good at fixing all my sub-par masterpieces that I am fine talking her up while she makes my pieces more beautiful. The best part though was when she was showing me how to dry the paint so that it doesn't drip by holding it next to the portable heater she found in the closet (probably from 1990). Next thing I know she is laughing as she wipes her finger on my piece to pick up the excess paint and then wipes it on a nearby stool. She giggles and tells me "we shouldn't do this". LOL she is a child I tell you. I love it.
Other important things I know about this lady? Essentially her life story...or the bits and pieces I picked up. She is Italian, used to be an alcoholic and likes to wear colorful clothing because her grandmother used to dress her in bright colors so that she wouldn't get lost in the snow. She thinks that Americans use more color with their art and clothing but she told me that it reminds her of her grandmother....so there's that. I think we might be friends(;
Other schenanigans of Chile include my canine friend who decided he needed to take the bus to his next destination. One day I am minding my own business, sitting on the bus- when a dog hops up on the bus (from the middle doors- he didn't even have to pass the bus driver!) and sits right up under a seat. Guess he just needed a lift eh

Can you see him?!

How bout the fact that my cycling class was cancelled today along with all and any sports on campus due to the severity of the contamination.

Even with the smog campus is GORGEOUS

Of course I didn't know this until I showed up (hey- walking across campus with the intent to exercise is kinda like the same thing as exercising right?) but I should have taken the hint last night when Mama informed me that there were going to be a lot of transportation restrictions today (only license plates with certain numbers, like odd/even, can drive on certain days) but then again she also informed me that I would get sick if I didn't blow dry my hair before going to bed- ain't nobody got time for that. Ps- my bed has Ariel sheets on it right now(;

On the bright side I went to this cute little cafe I had been eyeing for weeks. Whenever I am on the bus I like to look out the window and search for hidden gems or places that look worthwhile. Especially now that I am coming in on the home stretch I've been trying to check them out one by one. The lady was adorable- It is just too cute when older ladies call you "qué necesitas linda" // it's along the lines of "what can I do for you beautiful- and she made a fine Moccacino. Step one to effectively writing a 10 page paper in Spanish is getting coffee in your bloodstream.

Step two is to repress any desire to have fun for the next 5 hours because while it may have taken me a week to write this paper in ENGLISH, my paper about the corruption and crime of Latin America can now be added to my list of things I've done that ate up a 1/100 of my lifetime that I can never get back. aka- too long.
Something else interesting I wanted to mention before I forget is the absurdity of the way you sign credit card receipts. You sign your name of course but then you have to either put your passport number or your RUT (Chilean ID number) underneath. Seriously- are you going to track me down if I don't pay- granted that you can actually read my scribbles or that I put the right number....
Other things I will probably forget if I don't record them= everyday life

How bout them sheets- gotta love em'

I will never forget the street dogs

Some little fairy in Santiago has been putting jackets on the street dogs- it is TOO CUTE

or the MASSES of people waiting for the metro during rush hour

Street vendors selling sopapillas (fried dough- I'm almost positive a version of fried dough exists in every country- churros, donuts, funnel cakes...)

Things I will Miss // And things that I WONT

2015-06-22T14:49:00.000-07:00

My friend on the program wrote this great blog post about the things that she "will probably miss" It's great. artsy and you should read it

http://www.eschoenmakerphotography.com/blog/2015/5/20/bobbin-along

Now I'm not going to even try to replicate that work but I do want to write down some things I will miss and things I am looking forward to. So here goes;

At first I thought I was going to avoid the bread here. That's right- If I am being truly honest when I got here I was like dang- white bread is unhealthy and I should seek out alternatives if I can because I like to eat healthy and such. But now I am firm believer in the magic of fresh white fluffy bread that is still warm when you buy it at the store. At this point in my life I can say that if bread is not brought to my table at a restaurant you can bet your life that I will ask the waiter for some because it is usually the warm and magical variety.
Another thing I'll miss is Mama's constant adoration. Okay so maybe it's not all genuine (like when she asks me how my day was and when I start to tell her a story about something that happened she interrupts me and asks if I need to pack a lunch for tomorrow..she really has no intention in listening to me struggle through the decisions of telling the story with verbs in the past tense or the imperfect tense (THEY BOTH ARE ACTIONS IN THE PAST- Spanish is freakin complicated I tell you) she just really is fulling her daily quota of asking me questions- my favorites include, what did you eat for lunch, what time do you have class, did you go to the university today, are you hot, what did you eat for dinner, why? (this usually happens when I eat before she gets home because I'm starving and don't want to wait for her to get home just to sit down and watch me eat while she merely sips some tea because apparently she isn't hungry...even though it's 8:30 by then) and last but not least why aren't you wearing shoes!?- as you can see that one is usually directed at me in a horrified, disbelieving manner) Anywho- back to the part about her being all cute and such and pretending that she will miss me and remember me amongst the other 18 exchange students she will have...like when she says things like "ah pobrecita" because I say that I have a lot of HW or have to wake up early the next morning (yes dad- sometimes I do like some empathy every now and again instead of the standard- you can handle it) or when she laughs at my use of Chilean slang, or brings me home a chilean colored joker hat for the Copa America.
On the other hand- things I will not miss about living with a Chilean family are thus:
Constant questions that usually receive the same answers, repeating my plans over and over because she didn't understand or forgot that I said I would be leaving for the next four days, making me get off of my bed at 8:30pm because she hadn't made it for the day and my convincing argument that I would just be undoing the sheets and blankets in about 2 hours was insufficient against her impending desire to clean. Or how about the two gates and one front door (without a handle which makes it sooo much harder to open) that stand between me and the toilet when I have to pee upon arriving back at home (which is about 90% of the time due both to the lack of public bathrooms and the amount of time it takes to get home...). I will most certainly not miss Mama's habit of pouring sunflower oil on perfectly beautiful and tasty things like ripe tomatoes or avocado (they are perfectly delicious without your highly processed trans fatty oil thank you very much)- I'm being a princess here but really tomatoes don't need to be greasy to taste good.
I will not miss the people (ironically it is usually the women) that STARE at my on the metro, on the street, in the checkout line...even when I look back or smile they continue to crane their neck and look at me in awe. No I'm sorry I can't take this as a compliment...Chileans just don't have a sense of consideration or privacy. Although they are generally friendly and approachable one thing I can't stand is how nosy they are. Mama has no filter and asks me questions about every aspect of my life- do I have a boyfriend, do I get an allowance (back to the stupid assumptions that I am rich), how much did that cost, what do your parents do...ya no all the questions we were taught from a young age not to bring up. Ironically the other day I found out that Camila goes to one of the most expensive med schools in the country. Mama always complains about money and while I feel bad I know that they are making a decent living off of me...and the millions of Alfajors that Camila makes and sells. Literally half the time I walk into the house (gross exaggeration- it happens maybe once a month) She is piping dulce de leche in between two thin cookies and then covering them in chocolate and packaging them up. Alright- let's call it a day folks so I don't get all ranty (too late) and ramble on and on...
xoxo

I'm a Troublemaker

2015-06-17T16:22:00.001-07:00

So I like to be difficult- but only when I feel like I can get away with it. ~~Usually~~ Always when it has to do with food. Like today- I tried to convince the poor girl that scoops ice cream at the best ice cream place in Santiago (LAN Airlines magazine told me so- I think I have read every edition of LAN and Sky Airline's magazines from April on...frequent flyer alert) that she should break company policy and let me have three flavors instead of two. Even though they pile on the ice cream when you order two and I really just wanted a teensy bit of all three, she stood firm (she did still let me try virtually all the flavors though so I still like her) and only let me choose two flavors. I guess indecisiveness and high maintenance just come hand and hand. And in my hand I left with Mango and Paçoquinha (its from Argentina and it tastes like Peanutbutter- aka my favorite flavor at this place- and y'all know how I feel about my chocolate ice cream...). Last time I also got the Paçoquinha but with Dark chocolate. Holey Moley. If I go on and tell you all the delectable flavors I tried I may start salivating...but I'll do it anyways(; for the memories right! They had two yogurt flavors- one with berries and the other with sesame and honey, then they had tiramisu, raspberry, pistachio, and cherry. Those were just the ones I tried...My secret mission might just be to go to this place any time I am within two metro stops. Yeah good plan. Oh and I should probably take a pic next time eh?

More trouble? How bout the fact that I still need to re-cap my time in Colchagua Valle AND La Serena. Oops. Let's take a time out and I'll think of what to write...

Here- check out this pic I forgot to put up from the time my friends and I took a tour of La Moneda (the White House of Chile) where I also saw the VP of Chile!

In the courtyard with the orange trees!

Let us begin with Colchagua Valle- aka the Chilean city between the coast and the mountains that collects all the wine (get it? It's a Valley!). Anywho, this 'Valley' consists of like a billion vineyards- but with our program we only went to one...what a shame!

A semi-decent photo of the vineyard entrance

Look I have friends!

Haha- We went to the Vineyard of Laura Hartwig for a wine tasting of three varieties; Carmenere, Syrah and Petit Verdot (Daddio- what's up with this one? I had never heard of such).

I've heard the process of making wine twice now but always in Spanish- not positive I still actually understand it though

But let's back up a little before we get to the wine. Because when I say we 'went' to a vineyard I mean we biked for like a million miles (I wouldn't complain if I was on my road bike of course but these bikes were less than desirable to my rear end..)

Am I smiling because I love biking? Or because we were done for the day...?

Pichelemu, Chile aka Surf Central

The vineyards of Colchagua

The (overcast) view from our cabañas!

Coming in as runner up for things I spent the most time with on this trip is....BREAD. So much bread. Bread for breakfast x2, bread before lunch, bread delivered again during lunch, bread with pebre, bread with butter and even stranger, bread with marmalade and queso fresco (not like cream cheese at all but we can pretend). I think I may have eaten more bread during this trip than I do in a typical week (we were only there for three days...). Let's be real though. This trip exposed me to my love for Chilean Pan Amasado. Because while Chile boosts some darn good bread, I have no become a bread snob and highly capable of identifying the different types. Including when Mama gets the bread at the equivalent of Walmart instead of the local Panadería down the street #princess.
Pan Amasado is this wonderful creation

Look at that- I found you a nice lil' inforgraphic

and now I seek it out whenever I can because it doesn't seem to be as popular in Santiago as it is in the outskirts, or what the Chileans like to call, 'el campo' // the countryside.
Other food on this trip included a new to me dish that I actually enjoyed way more than I thought I would; Lomo al Pobre// Poor Man's steak. which looks a lil' something like this:

Hey Sophie(;

Not my pic obvi- but here's a close up

The cheapest cut of steak with a fried egg and french fries.
If there is something I learned in Chile (actually I really had to resort to this survival skill in India.....) is that if you are served food (especially free food) you should try to eat it. It may be good- it may be unhealthy- but you won't die. In fact it's probably necessary if you don't want to live on bread (or rice if you are back in India). So the moral of the story is that although this wasn't the healthiest meal I've had here, and at first I was like ew, I don't want fast food fries and a fried egg, but after I tried the homemade fries and dipped them in that nice runny yolk I was actually quite content. Salty fries are almost as good as salty popcorn(;
After we were nice and filled up we biked more, kayaked some and had a lovely little asado (Chilean BBQ) the weekend was over before I knew it.

I'd say we biked a good 40km that weekend

These kayaks were the topsy turvy type- hardcore for the (non-existent of course) cat. 5 rapids

My precious Hannah Banana <3

Punta de Lobos- world famous for extreme surfing!

The travels continued the next week in La Serena....I'll get there soon I swear!

Here's a teaser photo that contains no spoilers(;

xoxo

Playing Ketchup

2015-06-16T16:51:00.002-07:00

So this post was gonna be a re-cap of my time at Colchagua Valley but then I got all rant-y and this happened haha-

I have been off my game lately. It got so bad that I started writing down the embarrassing things I have been doing lately. The list started off with the time when I pushed and said excuse me to everyone in the metro train so that I could fit in without the doors closing on me. Thirty seconds later, after I have annoyed just about the entire metro car, when I had semi-successfully arranged myself in a way that would only potentially allow my backpack to get smashed in the doors, I realized that I would have been going the wrong direction and therefore I jumped out of the metro car and ran over to the other side. Oops.

Secret picture on a crowded bus- I counted 65 and then I stopped- because I couldn't count them all- also this is a school bus sized automobile....

The saga continued a week later when I got on a bus that I had taken before to meet up with my friends to watch the copa game. I wasn't sure exactly of the bus's route but I was pretty sure it would pass the station I needed. Nope. The sad part is that lately I had been bragging about how I knew the routes for like 7 buses to get home. However, after passing more and more unrecognizable land marks I realized that I was way off the route I thought the bus was going to take. I hopped off and paid a cab driver 6 dollah to salvage my pride and arrive on time because there was no way I would know any buses in that area. Oye.

The next and last story is just plain BAD- two days ago...I get off a metro to transfer to another metro and I just follow the herd of people to get on the next connection train. I sit down, mind my own business, do a little homework and nada más. It takes me FIVE STOPS before I realize I am going the wrong direction. In Santiago transit time that is a lot. I think my brain is deteriorating or something because my Spanish is plateauing, my English is getting worse and my ability to study or work for longer than 1 hour is virtually nonexistent. I blame jet lag (lies I've never been across a time zone- but maybe it's contagious and I got it on all the planes I've been on!) and pisco (my favorite chilean brandy that goes great with coca cola) (;

Random beautiful sunset shot on my street- check that contaminación (;

In other news- it's been damn cold. the cold here will be hard for you to understand because I would wager a few dollars to bet that you have never woken up in 40 degree weather...unless...have you been camping? Alright- but.. were you camping for a month and a half? Oh yeah that's right- hand over the money son because I win this one(;

In all honesty it could be worse really but nevertheless imma complain a little about how hard it is to get out of bed, from beneath five blankets (none of which are heating blankets that some of my friends have been blessed with) into the chill of my room. Let's not even talk about showering...can't even. The thing is- we Americans are used to a cold in which you suffer when you are outside but then once you get into your car, house, classroom, etc. you warm up pretty quick. But here....there is no refuge. Especially when mama decides that it's a bad idea for her little girl (me) to be at home alone with the heat on. What if there is an earthquake? What if I forget to turn off the gas when I leave? What if I'm an adult and deserve to spend my days in heat?! One day when there was an earthquake up north she called and asked if I had the heat on (which I did because Camila had just left the house). She told me I had to turn it off because there might be an earthquake in santiago (HIGHLY unlikely), and the heater might fall over and it could catch the house on fire (once again- the chances were like one in a million). That day from freakin 4:00 in the afternoon until 10:00 at night (when mama finally got home) I spent the day under my covers, essentially incapable of doing an homework. Well it was a pretty good excuse in theory not to do my homework...but the point is she doesn't trust me with the gas heater which is totally unjust because I am a young adult and can handle it just like everyone else in my program...

Intermission= some photos I've started taking to document my everyday life because I actually didn't take many in the beginning and I wanna remember everything(:

Mi casa is the one farthest to the left with the gate- it's like a town house so not all of that is our house

always on strike- that big face on the side of the building is the boy that got seriously injured by the police repression in a recent protest (yes it was proven to be unprovoked and the police's fault)

Those would be chairs in the fencing- they are on strike- for reals

I made them meatloaf with asparagus and they loved it!

Universidad Catolica and it's fall beauty

The lovely gym and the view of the mountains

Fall on campus!

My street in three views

Last but not least we have the first Chilean fútbol game I watched at a bar with my friends. It was great (after we found a bar that had affordable beer and seats). I went with my Chilean friend I met at my salsa classes and his friend. The actual watching of the game involved lots of chanting, cursing, drinking and those loud noise maker things. But the aftermath is probably what I will remember most. We all headed to Plaza Italia (like a 5 minute walk from where we were) and we joined the masses that had migrated over to the heart of the party. Everyone was rallied up because we had just won 2-0 and thus just as those silly college kids climb the goal posts after their home football games- Santiago teens proceeded to climb the lovely Manuel Baquedano on his horse (statue). OF COURSE i did not participate in this grandad- I merely took pictures and scouted out the first taxi I could find (it was freezing and I was hungry). Thus I will leave you with these (;

xoxo

A Day in the Life

2015-06-09T19:35:00.000-07:00

7:05am- Mama knocks on my door "Permiso...La Carly..." (that's right; Chileans address other people by saying
'the Carly' as if you are an object and not a person) She tells me that the micro (bus) workers are on strike and that I won't be able to catch a bus and therefore will have to walk to the nearest metro station if I want to get anywhere...lovely- the one place in Santiago that is just out of reach from the metro is Nunoa. This is where I live and this is where the workers conveniently decided that they needed better working conditions (maybe it has something to do with the fact that maybe half of the people I see getting on the bus ACTUALLY PAY). Of course if you live in Nunoa that means that you have to take a bus to get anywhere- aint no metro station for miles. Therefore the 30 minute walk to the nearest station plus the travel time from that point on was not going to allow me to arrive to class on time (or even before it was over for that matter...). Back to dreamland I went.
9:30am- Wake up from a less than peaceful 2 hour semi-nap. Camila and Mama typically are incapable of keeping the noise to a minimum when they get ready...I'm talking blender usage, blow drying their hair, yelling up the stairs to one and another...Anywho- I finally drag myself out of bed and get some breakfast in my belly. Today I have cereal with strawberries and I eat it while checking my email and starting my homework.
12:00pm- I make myself some lunch after working on my homework, scrolling through facebook, emailing my professor to explain why I wasn't in class and reading up on the latest "contigency plan" the transantiago bus company has come up with. I re-heat some rice and chicken and eat that before I leave for my indoor cycling class.
1:00pm- I re-load my Bip! card with money (I seriously feel like I put money on my card like 2x a week...whoever said public transportation saves you money didn't know about the re-entry fee you have to pay if you get back on the metro even within a 5 minute time frame) so that I can catch a re-purposed bus that has my bus number in the front window. Apart from my typical 403 orange bus I instead board a turquoise bus that the lovely transantiago has employed to get all the Nunoa residents to a trusty metro station.
2:00-3:00pm- after a 45ish minute commute I arrive at the San Joaquin campus for my indoor cycling class with my favorite 'prof' ever. We start the class off with some ab, tricep and push-up exercises and then make our way through a cycling workout that takes about 40 minutes. I really enjoy this class and it always goes by pretty fast- we do a combination of speed work, intervals and some high intensity pulsing.
4:30-5:50pm- my Advanced Spanish class. Today we talked about some grammar concept having to do with indirect speech. Don't ask me what that means because I'm still not sure- which isn't surprising because apparently it's not a thing in English. It's just one more thing I have to memorize as far as which tense to use when talking about something someone said in the past...oye.
5:00-5:45pm- in transit via metro to Plaza Egaña, the closest metro stop to my house and also the home of a pretty large shopping mall. Here I peruse the department stores for a Chilean futbol jersey and I finally decide on a white one with blue and red accents. When I bring it up to the cashier I am met with a dilemma I often face. The silly man wants me to speak english because apparently that would be "más fácil" for him. Newsflash- my spanish is not that bad and it would not be easier for me to speak english. I continue to answer him in spanish when he asks me questions in english because I know for a fact that he could understand me if he tried. That's the thing- lately I've noticed that often Chileans automatically try to speak to me in English instead of trying to understand my semi-decent spanish. They just give up trying to listen and move on. It's quite annoying and I just wasn't having it today. In fact he was all like are you accustomed to Chile? and of course I said yes and then I told him I was excited to go to the Copa America game and that was why I was buying the jersey, but I mentioned that I was a little nervous about it (all of this was in spanish and he understood it all mind you). What is his response? Well do you think you will be able to ask for help or directions if you need to? Seriously dude...I just spent the last 2 minutes talking to you in spanish, YES I CAN SPEAK SUFFICIENT SPANISH TO SURVIVE. rant over.
7:15pm- Catch the bus back to my house and surprisingly enter to find that Mama is already home. She wants to have dinner together and of course I am more than happy to do so. Especially when she suggested that we have a (mini- maybe 1/3 of the typical) glass of wine with dinner(; She typically doesn't get back from work until 7:30ish and I usually opt to eat before then because she never really makes dinner for the night of- we typically eat leftovers or I make eggs if I don't want to have the same thing 3 meals in a row... (lunch-dinner-lunch). She heats me up some 'porotos' which is the chilean word for beans- this dish had a little bit of pumpkin sauce with collard greens, white beans and spaghetti. It is definitely one of my favorite dishes that she makes and I gladly ate some with her while I told her about my trip to La Serena and she told me about the meeting she had to go for the study abroad program and how she is a great host mom and about how some of other families just aren't up to par like she is. She really likes to tell me all about the things she does that are a part of her 'duties' because apparently not everyone enjoys the hospitality that I do. While this is probably true...I think I've heard her list off these things about 5 times now....so I just sipped my wine and listened to the Gray's Anatomy theme song that played from Camila's room. The princess didn't join us for dinner because she has spent every waking moment in the house as of late binge watching Gray's Anatomy.
7:45pm- taking a shower...it's a process
First up, convince yourself that it's worth it because it is going to be freakin cold when you exit the shower (the house does not have heat- duh). Second, light the calefactor by turning on the gas, sparking the pilot light and turning the knob to full blast. Third- commandeer the heating device thing from Camila's room so that you can heat up the bathroom while you change out of your clothes so that at least when you first get out of the shower it won't be so cold. Fourth- turn on the shower, but make sure you don't put the water pressure on full blast because then the water won't be hot. This leaves us with a steady little stream of a shower but I'll take it because it's pretty warm...unless mama decides to do the dishes with hot water while I'm in the shower...like tonight. Oye. Finally- stand in about 6 inches of water while you shampoo, blah, blah, blah because the drain doesn't work as fast as any other shower I've ever been in (even the hostals have somehow had better drainage than this shower).
8:00pm- scamper to my room and quickly put on layers to evade the cold. Notice that Mama has made your bed even though you just told her- right before you got in the shower that she didn't have to because you were going to go to sleep in a mere 3 hours or so. She also put the blanket you had taken off the bed back on it because it felt like you were suffocating when you sleep under the heavy weight of like 5 blankets.
The rest of the night- I made my typical after-dinner snack of fruit and yogurt, researched places in Bolivia to travel to, wrote this blog post and pondered the idea of waking up early to go to ceramics tomorrow before I have a tour of La Moneda....we shall see...Until next time folks.

xoxo

That time I didn't blog for two weeks...and had a lot to say

2015-06-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

It all started off with an innoncent suggestion- "Carly, you should come to my house, I'll show you southern Chile!"
Yeah yeah- that sounds amazing, but too good to be true. That was- until I bought my plane ticket(; Can you believe that? Let's call it Irish luck or something because looking back on that experience makes me realize how lucky I was to get matched up with a mentor who was a girl, incredibly friendly and someone who actually wanted to talk to me. Some of my other friends received mentors who never even contacted them or chatted with them once maybe and then forgot about their grand idea to "mentor" an America. lame. On the other hand- after our first meet-up, andrea literally invited me to her own house, where I would proceed to eat delicious homecooked food, have wine with virtually every meal, get chaufered all around town and sleep in a bed that was not in a room with gross hostel boys who snore! Irish luck I tell you.
Andrea and I booked our transfers, packed our rain jackets and ventured off to the lovely town of Puerto Varas two weekends ago. We were greeted by a rainbow and promptly picked up by Andrea

We drove straight back to her house where she toasted up some fresh homemade bread and we chatted over nescafe (I'm almost used to it by now...almost). That day we ventured off to Lagos Todos Los Santos- a beautiful lake that lines the shore of the two volcanoes in PV.

As you may remember, one of those volcanoes- Calbuco- erupted a few weeks.

This isn't the one that erupted but nevertheless you can kinda see it peeking out from under the clouds

In fact when we were driving to the lake area we passed a lot of destruction and there was a layer of soot that covered any and everything- eliminating the green beauty that once enveloped that region.

Nevertheless our lovely chauffeur showed off the parts of PV that are still beautiful; aka the whole town. Really check out these views

the view from her house

It reminded me of Maine

Just a 5 minute drive from her house- the main strip of town

Since I'm so behind on my blogging (I'm cringing as I say this) but imma have to just give you the highlights of the rest of the trip..
One night we hit up the infamous club of PV (perhaps the only one? It was quite packed...) and proceeded to dance until they kicked us out- just a little past 4 in the morning(;
Other than that Andrea drove us around to take more pics and to check out their local seafood market

Speaking of seafood- I was BEYOND SPOILED on this trip in terms of food (and wine). Andrea's dad loved to cook (I'm pretty sure either he or Andrea's grandmother had made the fresh bread) and he made us a pressure cooker beef shoulder, homemade lasagna, king crab salad, steak (I have become a serious meat eater after this trip and Uruguay) and some fabulous seafood dishes so that we could try all the new fish and shellfish that we had never tried. That included this little sea urchin ceviche/chilled soup type thing

It was a little too strong/acidic/unknown fish taste for me

but hands down the best dish was the "Pulmai"

which was a seafood boil of sorts made with smoked sausage, chicken drumsticks, white wine (they actually served the reserved broth that you strained the meat/seafood from in glasses to drink with the dish- interesting but it was so rich and delicious I couldn't resist drinking my whole glass), mussels, pyuras (these weird lookin' bivalves that actually just look like they are rocks but apparently there are little critters up in there too).

I have to say I wasn't a fan but I did try it!

It was exquisite. In fact Andrea and her brother both thanked us multiple times for visiting because it prompted their dad to make some of his best/most delicious dishes (;
On top of that- we had wine for both lunch and dinner....and how can you say no to a free glass of wine. I enjoyed some fresh chardonnay, a great carmenere and a cabernet sauvignon. I was a PRINCESS that is forshure. Now that you are salivating...I'm going to call it quits for this post so it doesn't get too long- My Colchagua Valle excursion is up next(;

xoxo

When in Chile, Aprovechar // Take Advantage & Enjoy

2015-05-20T17:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the re-count of my journey to a country full of delicious beef, immigrants from all over, unique wine blends, a nine mile stretch of sand and beautiful waters, and a place where, if you do not have a cup of mate tea in one hand and a hot water thermos in the other, well then you are not from URUGUAY.

Here is a panorama shot of the boardwalk that lines the entire coastline and city

My friend Ozie and I ventured across the border of Chile, right over Argentina (because ain't nobody got time to pay for the $160 reciprocity fee Americans have to hand over when they enter the country) into the land of the little known Uruguay. Because remember- I am the child who books plane tickets to places I know nothing about. What did I learn? I'm glad I didn't study abroad there- because I would have had the strongest accent I have heard thus far- but I am happy that I visited because the weather was WAY better than it would have been in Santiago (ie: it's starting to get colder and I have just not been able to get used to this whole 'there's no heat in the house' thing). AND good food, wine and ice cream are three things that I am happy to enjoy in any country(: You can't really compare Santiago to Montevideo because there are too many differences, but I will say that Montevideo was better kept (like the buildings were well maintained and appeared nicer than the building and streets of Chile), obviously it was on the beach and I will also note that the architecture there was much more sophisticated and nice to look at.

Photo creds go to Ozie

The people there were friendly in the sense that people were always interested in talking to Ozie and I, making us feel welcome, making sure we like Uruguay and they were just generally interested in learning more about us as people. While Chileans have a bad habit of staring and trying to figure out someone's story or background, Uruguayans were open about their curiosity. At virtually all of the restaurants we went to, we ended up making conversation with either the waiters or the people surrounding us (in fact at one restaurant the waiters took turns coming to our table just so they could talk to us lol). They wanted to know why we were there, why we were studying spanish, what we thought of Uruguay and where we were from in the states.

A cute little whole in the wall we found after we checked the prices to eat at the Mercado del Puerto...yeah steak is not worth $35

People told us about the problems Uruguay has been having with jobs, unequal education and the amount of immigrants that come due to the depreciated worth of Uruguayn pesos (so they can pay back loans, etc. in their country faster). It was nice to feel welcome and not like a blatant foreigner that gets stared at day after day on the streets of Chile. Anywho- enough hating on Chile, because let me tell you, there were definitely things that I missed! For one thing- their bread was just not good. It was weird, dry and NOT FRESH (I have been so spoiled in Chile and I may just lose a part of my soul when I return to the states and inevitably end up buying pre-packaged bread...because even though I say now that I want to make my own bread forever more, everyone knows that just ain't realistic). I just can't even think of how I could describe it- it was flaky, but not buttery like a croissant, it came in a cube shape that you peeled apart and it was dry, white and just nothing in comparison to what I am used to. And no that I realize that google can't help me out on this one I regret not taking a picture of this stupid bread!

You can look at our selfie instead(;

Lemme just recap the food situation as a whole real quick so I don't spend too much time on it..cause you know how I do. The lineup went a little something like this- baby beef steak
(still not sure which part exactly this is but it was good, and I can only pray that it really wasn't a baby animal..),

Brotola and Bachetta (types of white fish- the Bachetta was cooked whole and served with the head (how's that for adventure!),

This was the Bachetta...mmm

chocolate lava cake with passionfruit ice cream (I have a newfound love for passionfruit flavored things- Chobani does good, but this ice cream may win), Entrecot (another steak, filet type thing), Media y Medias (half wine, half champagne),

lots of pumpkin, Tannat Uruguayan wine (Daddy- a case for my birthday please!),

and SO MUCH ICE CREAM- per usual(; Honorable mentions go to: Banana Split (my favorite South American flavor thus far that consists of banana ice cream, dulce de leche and chocolate chips), Maracuya (passionfruit), and Café (it's so hard to find coffee ice cream here!).

Shameless Selfie- I got three flavors the last night..because YOLO

The first day we took a tour of Punta al Este, Uruguay, a mere two hour drive in a tourist bus full of middle aged Brazilians, a peppy tour guide, Ozie and I. The tour included stops at Piriápolis (a cute little town with a cool chair lift thing that gave you a panaramic view of the hill overlooking the beach)

A stop at the Museo Ralli that was filled with quirky art and was constructed by hand (no straight walls, lines, schematics, etc.)

Also by Ozie

And lastly to the weird but cool sculpture of a hand in the sand on the beach

It was a nice tour and although we were the only youngins' the history was interesting and it was nice to get out of Montevideo for the day because honestly there wasn't that much to do there anyways. We passed most of our time walking around and exploring, eating, checking out the market and taking pictures of the plazas and statues.
So...Ozie and I thought we had struck gold when we had the four person mixed dorm room at the hostal to ourselves for the first two nights. For nineteen US dollars a night a bunkbed filled room to ourselves seemed like a steal. Even though the breakfast was just that weird bread, butter, jam, cereal, "yogurt" (In South America yogurt is more like slightly thicker milk with tons of sugar and a fruit flavoring), and on some days there was fruit- yeah this is your typical hostal breakfast, because in reality South America doesn't do breakfast. they just don't- its a tragedy really. So back to the story...let's start with night #3: the adventure of Saturday night/Sunday morning. Ozie and I made plans to do the South American style club, bar hopping thing. We planned to leave the hostal at midnight and hit up some bars and then head to the clubs afterwards because that's just how they do here. PARTY ALL NIGHT. In the midst of this master plan we encountered a slight bump in the road. We discovered that we had roommates. Cute boy roommates no less(; Miraculously (and with no help from my less than perfect spanish) Ozie and I coaxed our new friends to accompany us. Eric and Nicolas shared a beer while Ozie and I opted to try out a typical Uruguayan liquor- Uvita (it was sweet, but strong, served on the rocks and it had an aftertaste of honey, which I guess is a good thing). Eric was a Mexican geography student that was studying abroad at the time in Buenos Aires- where he met Nicolas, an English (from England) med student who took a year off during his schooling (apparently that's a thing there!). They were great and it was nice to have some new faces, practice my spanish and get to know other people from all over the world.
Our next stop was the club- alright grandparents- I'm sorry now but I am sparing no details- we went to a gay bar. Not on purpose, but let's be real- even when we found out, with the great music there was no reason to leave. That is- there was no reason to leave until Eric lost his phone, Ozie and I traded our roommates for new (straight- yes there were straight guys there...) dance partners and after we danced for about an hour or so- we found out that for some reason you had to pay TO LEAVE. I guess that's what happens when there is no cover..anywho. Ozie and I peaced out and left Eric (with Nicolas of course!) to attempt to find his phone (there was no hope and we were hungry). We proceeded to get in a cab, got dropped off at the local street vendor, ate our choripan (chorizo hot dog type thing), walked home (the streets are safe and we were only 3 blocks away so please stop worrying) and passed out in our lovely bunk beds.

The park we passed through on Sunday

Unfortunately our luck ran out, dried up or perhaps got stolen by a leprechaun because the fourth night was painful. Our Colombia roommates were so sweet- a young couple passing thru Uruguay just like so many others. However their disposition did not dictate their sleeping habits (or should I say horrors). This man snored like a rhinoceros (maybe they snore, maybe not). I have never heard anything like this- not even you dad! It was just about as loud as me putting my headphones in and turning up the volume all the way. Yeah, I was not having any of it. At 4:30am I proceeded to leave the room and sleep in the lobby where the person at the desk was already setting up for breakfast. Although there was light and it wasn't the best set-up I fell asleep and slept away the angry sentiments I had towards this guy. Especially when the cute guy that works at the hostal came over and put a blanket over me....
We spent the last day bike riding along the 9 mile 'rambla' // boardwalk to one of the famous Montevidean beaches named Pocitos. Then we headed to a Tango show where we learned that Tango is not only dancing, a big part of it is music. So therefore we enjoyed the live performance of some great vocalists along with the chance to people watch the elderly community of Montevideo because apparently the tango club is where they spend their sunday nights(;

The females do all the work in the Tango! So many complicated leg raises and such

The lady at the front set us in the front row along with some friendly regulars who chatted to us about Uruguay and made cute small talk (how can you resist the charm of old people really). Although I will say the older women here do try to rock the blue eyeshadow...
Like I said before, we ended our four day journey off right with a steak, good wine and my triple ice cream cone(:

xoxo
Until next time Uruguay!

THERE WAS AN EARTHQUAKE

2015-05-20T05:12:00.002-07:00

And no one even tried to contact me to make sure I was okay. What is this life. Isolation? Ignorance?
Here's the info:
Lunes, 11 de Mayo de 2015, 21:38. Un leve sismo se registró en la Región Metropolitana. El movimiento tuvo una magnitud 3,5 y el epicentro se ubico a 18 kms al oeste de la localidad de Farellones. // Monday, May 11th, 2015, 9:38pm. A minor earthquake was recorded in the Metropolitan Area. The movement had a magnitude of 3.5 and the epicenter was located 18 km to the West of the town of Farellones.

I realized I never published this...so it's gonna be a short one. Let's see- there was an earthquake, we had a Mother's Day feast of pork tenderloin, celery/radish/avocado salad, pebre (you should know what it is by now), rice and boiled cauliflower. Wow now that I write that down it seems quite random but the pork tenderloin was pretty good and Mama shared some vino with me so overall it was a good day(:

oh and here is a fun fact I don't think I ever mentioned: Chileans use shelf stable milk...which is fine, until Camila finishes the carton and then doesn't put a new one in the fridge and I have to use warm milk in my cereal....

Last fun fact? The beautiful colors of the sunrise and sunset are actually produced due to the contamination/pollution in the sky. How strangely, yet sadly beautiful. I'll leave you with this-

The Uruguay post is coming soon(:
xoxo

PS- mom if you are reading this again...I made the correction for YOU!

Sometimes Chileans do weird things

2015-05-09T18:36:00.002-07:00

Like using hand soap in the shower- slightly annoying. There is never hand soap by the sink because people (obviously Mama or Camila or all of the above) keep putting it back in the shower. It's like a typical gel/liquid pump of hand soap too, not the kind I would imagine is the best to bathe with..To each his own. While I'm at it- I may as well mention that there is also no hand towel- perhaps because they never really have to use the bathroom and thus wash their hands in this bathroom....but for Ms. I have to pee every hour it is quite the problem.
Numero Dos= the other day when I was on the bus I saw a middle aged lady across the aisle putting on her makeup on the bus- no of course that's not the weird thing- the weird thing was that she was curling her eyelashes- with a SPOON. I kid you not. Half the time I see things in public I have to remind myself that although study abroad has been like a dream, I am in fact awake- like when I saw a mother holding her kid (maybe 2 years old) over the grass on the side of the sidewalk so that she could pee on the grass. I actually saw this on two occasions so I would say it's safe to say that this was not a one time thing.
Numero Tres= Chileans do strange things with their dranks, like mixing white wine, grenadine, pisco (Chilean brandy) and PINEAPPLE ICE CREAM all in one drink. And they call it a terremoto. Come on mis amigos- what does that one mean? They literally have created a drink and named it after a natural disaster that ceases to evade their land- an earthquake. It is named with good reason- these tragos (chilean word for drank) are damn strong. Actually let's be real- all of the drinks made here are much stronger. When you order at the bar they make the drink in front of you and I always just watch them pour pisco straight out of the bottle for a good 10 seconds- I'm talking like maybe 2+ shots in every standard drink. And drinks aren't even that expensive. In fact you don't want to know how much I paid for my very first terremoto at the Universidad de Chile party I somehow found myself in the midst of this last friday- A dollar and a quarter. A US DOLLAR and a quarter. It is wasn't half bad! The key is to mix the pineapple ice cream in real good so that you can't taste the cheap white wine.
Let's back it up a little bit and lemme give you the low down on how I ended up imprisoned in the courtyard of the Law School of Universidad de Chile.
It all started when I made an executive decision to get to know my U.Chile mentor a little better since I have a plane ticket and plans to visit her in two weeks. So when she invited me to go to a carrete with her- she conveyed this as being a casual, "I'll probably just have one beer with my friends and then leave" type party- of course I said yes. I mean why not pre-game the birthday party I was going to hit up later. Yes parents and family. I did just say pre-game. Sorry if that is too much- but the best stories are likely to come from my experiences in Chile when I am potentially have a blood alcohol level of slightly higher than 0.0 (only slightly!) Anywho- I invited Hannah to come with me because when you get invited to a Chilean event you typically need backup- a small talk buddy, escape buddy or a "what the heck did that Chilean just say to me" buddy.

We were smiling before we discovered we were being held prisoner...

Once again Hannah had the brains to document this experience and thus I stole her pics- again

We met up with Andrea at a metro stop near the law school and walked over with her friends to wait in line for this shin-dig. Um what did I get myself into? There's a line and a cover....alright.

There was an entire courtyard filled with Chileans, booze, cigarettes and great music. While I could done without the smokers- seriously Chile, have you heard of lung cancer? Every 16 year old and their mother smokes in this country (but actually)- in no time everyone was dancing. Andrea asked me if we have parties like this in the US. lolz- no Andrea, our universities don't sponsor parties every friday (apparently there is a carrete at one facultad or another just about every single friday) where students bring in alcohol, dance in the courtyard to a DJ and sell their own mixed drinks, tequila or jello shots for dirt cheap. Nah- that doesn't really happen that often at Tulane.

Hannah and I had our terremotos, took a jello shot and got enough pisco sour spilled on us that we determined it was time to peace out. Funny story. I never thought exiting a crowded party would be something that a security guard would try to prevent. Apparently there were so many people outside of the gates trying to get into this party that they were afraid if they opened the gates to let those of us who wanted to leave, then all the stranglers would rush in. It only took 30 minutes, a desperate search for another exit and some girl's temper tantrum (she screamed and jumped up and down a couple of times saying that she needed to be let out AHORA) before the guards agreed to raise the metal garage door "only a meter! only open it one meter high". We all darted out and claimed our sweet victory. And that is the story of how I escaped La Chile Party Prison.

When you have 20 minutes to kill while the guards decide if they want to let you out....you take selfies

Not a happy camper

I returned home, sobered up (not that I was drunk- I merely think it is quite funny that I sobered up in between parties, I think that is the first time I have rallied after one event involving alcohol and moving on to the next) ate some pasta, and google mapped how to get to my friend's birthday party. One bus, three metro stops and 25 minutes of walking around being lost, Hannah, Andrea and I finally found the apartment.

Can you guess which one is which?

I had a great time talking to my Costa Rican friend (I met him a Mier-Po) and his Argentinean friend that tagged along. The best was that his friend Nicolas had a Scottish accent (He took english class in Argentina that were taught by Scottish teachers or something like that). I will admit we talked almost exclusively in english but they insisted that it was just faster that way. While some people insist that their spanish improves when they are drunk- I beg to differ.

Until next time loves

xoxo.

Schenanigans

2015-05-07T15:04:00.000-07:00

this is an old pic- and unrelated to this post but my blog has been lacking photos...and I still am not done going through mine...

So today we got our grades for Ceramics class. It went a little something like this...we all set our ceramic plate pieces that we have been working on the whole semester (remember that we had to make clay at the beginning- so at this point I had made and painted 5 plates) on the table in front of us and then the professor (old man with missing teeth- i noticed that one today...) and the TA (overly peppy assistant who is always drinking coffee and eating some sort of cookie- no joke, once she told us she would teach us but first she had to go buy a cookie) walked around with a nice little official grade book and evaluated everyone's work. Now this may sound all scary and formal and all but let's be real- this is an art class. And we all know that artists are mostly chill. Thank goodness that sentiment carried over when it came to my grade because I don't know what I would do if I had to come back to Tulane with a failing grade in Intro to Ceramics...
The profe (so much more fun to say than professor- sometimes I even hear chileans address them this way!) walks over, takes a look at my work and says something along the lines of what the TA had told me last week. Not bad. "Too much color on this one" (apparently this isn't a painting class and therefore if you use too much color it subtracts from the beauty of the ceramic piece- this was roughly translated from spanish so I could be entirely off track) "This one would be great if you don't look at this part" (she then proceeds to cover 60% of the plate) "and this one, well, if you were an art student I would have to give you a 3" alright. Good thing he then proceeded to ask me if I was an art student and I responded with a shorten summary of how I am a pre-med student. While this is irrelevant to the story- it is always difficult to explain to people the fact that I am in a university and I will be going to med school after, because here they go directly into med school after high school. That's right- your doctor here could potentially be 25. Oye.
Back to the story- the long and the short of is it that out of my 5 plates they said they kinda sorta liked one of them and therefore I could receive the gringo grade of 6.0 which about the equivalent of a B+ I think. All I know is that it is passing and coincidentally it was also the exact same number that the TA had written next to every single other student they had evaluated. Classic. Perhaps in art we are all equals(:
In other news today I had my first class at U Chile in over a month. And while I felt slightly overwhelmed at the fact that I now have 14 hours of class a week instead of 11, I managed to get my things together and carry on. Even if it meant sitting through class during dinner time- what a drag.
In my indoor cycling class I was forced to interact with my fellow Chileans and thus I promptly looked for an approachable looking face- this only took about oh maybe 45 seconds (these girls are intimidating!)- luckily by this time the kid still didn't have a partner. Maybe it was because the first thing he said to me when I walked up to him was "ARE YOU A FOREIGN STUDENT?" yay for Chilean social skills- always forward and never considerate. Luckily for him, he had gorgeous blue eyes and it wasn't the first time I had been asked that blatantly obvious question. We chatted for a bit but then the conversation ended when I exhausted all of my go-to spanish questions like "where are you from," "what are you studying" and so forth. The thing is after you ask those and then answer a multitude of questions about how you like Chile and how long you've been here....I just can't think of much else that I could respond to with my spanish vocabulary. Okay that's a lie but really, when you try to explain complicated things in spanish the conversation just becomes broken and awkward.
Maybe that's why Mama and Camila never invite me to their early morning breakfast chats over a nice little tray of fresh food that Mama brings up to the bedroom every morning. Yuup. hold the phone, because I have a little something to say about this royal treatment and the step sister that just happens to live one room over. (cough- ME!). While I totally understand that I am just one of the MANY (I think I'm number 13, going on 14) host students that this family will have. In fact, we come so frequently that there will only be a week- seven days people- in between when I leave and the next one arrives. However, this fact doesn't make me feel less jealous to see Camila get the true mother-daughter treatment. I feel slightly jipped and would love to have a fresh tray of toast with avocado or scrambled eggs brought up to my room when I have to wake up at 6:45 two days a week. They just sit in Mama's room with their hot tea, nice breakfast and chat while I'm in the bathroom (literally less than a foot away) brushing my teeth and trying to see through my squinty eyes (the bathroom light is so bright!) so that I can put on some makeup and get outta that place. And so I ignore the delicious aroma of freshly toasted bread, forget the fact that the families receive 500 dollars a month to feed us and truck along down the stairs to grab my lunch. What's that there on the stovetop for Camila? Her freshly made lunch! Mama has stopped asking me recently if I even need a lunch anymore- yet she wakes up at the crack of dawn to make Camila new food (no leftovers for Princess) and half the time Camila "forgets" her lunch (I'm pretty sure she much prefers to buy lunch). All things considered, this day in particular does not make a strong arguing point for me because she had made Camila a lunch of boiled corn, a frozen hamburger patty (obviously that she cooked it, but the adjective 'frozen' may give you some insight as to what these lovely pieces of meat taste like...mmm fat) and some mayo. Alright Alright, I'll shut my mouth and put some pasta with meat sauce in my own darn tupperware...
One last thought- something I actually meant to include in my Valpo/Viña recap is the interesting fact that our ceviche contained a seemingly new and exotic type of seafood. After trying it and then googling it when I got home I found out that it was actually just a sea scallop, but the reason it looked so exotic is because in other countries (the US just likes to do things their way- cough, metric system, cough annoying) when you shuck sea scallops you leave the roe attached to the white part that we all know and love. Now this was not the best thing I've ever ate but it was interesting to try and the article I found via google says that it's the part of the scallop that is rich in Omega 3's (yay for health).

exotic no?

Well that's all for now- I'm off to take a lukewarm and semi-enjoyable shower. The hot water here is no longer hot, and I'm really hoping it doesn't get worse than this when it gets colder...

Even though I'm sure the Patagonia Pictures > Blog Post...

2015-05-03T18:50:00.001-07:00

Dude- 900 is a big number. It's close to one thousand. And very overwhelming, especially when most of the pictures are essentially the same scenery, taken just about 100 feet later, after a single wispy cloud passed or upon rotating 20º. When I write this out it just seems quite absurd, but the reality is- I haven't posted my pictures from Patagonia because its an overwhelming task! Apologies. They will come with time(:
In the meantime I booked a plane ticket (I'm sensing that an expensive habit is forming....) to visit my mentor in the South- coincidentally near where the volcano erupted...but her house is fine! It actually erupted a third time on Thursday but there have been no deaths which is good. My Wednesday started out after I arrived to ceramics at around 9:30, thinking I was late- and ended up being the third person to arrive- this class's start time appears to be pushed back week after week (My theory is that it's because Chileans just can't get out of bed in the 'cold'- I'm telling you when I was walking to class that day, it was MAYBE 50 degrees and I passed a woman with a puffy jacket, boots and a scarf! In comparison, I was wearing a long sleeved shirt and jeans with my birkenstocks and socks..). So here's the funny part of the story: when I get my ceramic plates that had been put in the kiln, the TA comes over (now when I saw TA, don't envision a young grad art student- instead picture a short, overly animated, middle aged woman) and points at my little triangle tile with a turtle. To say I was proud of this little guy would be an understatement. She points to it and says "No malhecho// Not poorly done" Now it this cross roads in my life I can interpret this one of two ways. 1 would be that she is saying "that's not bad- its actually pretty good- wow Carly you are a champ" or 2 she could/probably is saying "That's not poorly done, but you I think you still have some work to do". She went on to inform Hannah and I that gringos for some weird reason always use a lot of color...as if it was a bad thing- so there goes my general knowledge and thinking I had a vagueish idea of what the professor (who is a balding, soft spoken and seemingly 'wise' old man) and his peppy TA are looking for....so how do grades work again??
That night had a great time at Miercoles Po'- the gringa fiesta that goes on every Wednesday at a different club in Santiago. It's crazy- there is an actual Miercoles Po Ltd. company that runs the show and I am sure they are making BANK. These clubs are always full and it is always a great time. The kicker is that Chileans have to pay a cover to get in (and I heard it's really pricey) while extranjeros walk in for free. Anywho- my friends and i enjoyed that one, and luckily I don't have class until 2:00 on thursday so I can sleep in the next day- which is important because as you should know by now- Chileans start the party around midnight, usually a little later..
On Friday my friend Emily and I ventured out to Viña del Mar, a short bus ride (maybe a little over 1.5 hours) to a beautiful port of Chile that attracts quite a bit of tourism, but is nevertheless full of culture and delicious seafood! It has a 'twin city' named Valparaiso which is about a 10 minute bus ride along the coast, so we were sure to visit this gem as well. Emily had been there before, so fortunately I just let her guide me around town, merely requesting that we eat seafood and get ice cream at some point(: What else is new- food=priorities.

My partner in crime with her ice cream(:

We started our adventure by setting up camp at a hostel called the Garden Street Hostel which is an adorable little nook of a building that has a courtyard overflowing with flowers, herbs and green plants. We left our bags in cubbies, picked a nice looking bunk bed and headed to a fabulous Italian restaurant that the desk attendant helped us make a reservation for. We were greeted by a nice looking maitre d' (yes that is the second time I have googled to fact check my writing :P) who showed us to our table with a view, right by the window. It appeared that we were the sole patrons in the dining room, but that only helped our cause. After asking a million questions- as I never have any idea what chilean words for food are because there are so many variations- I attempted to order some fish with veggies on the side. In the meantime they brought us chicken pate, some sort of caviar (I think he said octopus but who knows) and smoked salmon tapas. I felt like I was moving up in the world at this point. They brought our plates out and I died. My order was surprisingly representative of what I had imagined (this often is NOT the case, ie: that one time we dined out with the program and they said "salmon" was one of the options- people thought they were getting fish- but in fact, salmon ended up being some a chilean meatloaf-esque dish with a random hard boiled egg in the center- I don't even know). Anywho- it appears that the fish I ordered, Corvina, is actually often translated to Chilean Sea Bass in english (I'm guily of a third google search there...). SO GOOD. It's crazy how when you get a dish like the one I ordered that day, how much more special it is here. You grow used to the underseasoned soups, rice and iceburg lettuce salads that when you are presented with a nice piece of fish and some fresh veggies (which could be an absolute norm in the US), every bite is a delicacy.

After lunch we perused the boardwalk, sat down and read by the ocean, got some ice cream (chocolate almond and mokka) and then watched the sunset we decided that our previous notion of cooking dinner to save money was realistically not gonna happen- because let's be real- treat yo self. it's important.

We walked around and stumbled upon a Peruvian restaurant that Emily had been to before (I guess its kinda like a Chilean chain restaurant or something). We split a mixed seafood ceviche with scallops, calamari, salmon and octopus and then some Congrio (Chile's most popular and notorious fish) that was bathed in a creamy cilantro sauce. Lol yes it was bathed- that's what the menu said! "congrio baño en la salsa"
Now get this- the didn't bring us any bread. The horror. Somehow we evaded bread during a meal in a Chilean restaurant. Do you know what happens when this goes down? You actually feel kinda hungry after dinner- and everyone should know by now where that leads us....ice cream. duh. Two times, one day- that is a record right there. Imma have to start having breakfast dessert if I wanna beat that....
So I got a raspberry and chocolate Mo' (the company is called Mo' gelateria) ice cream cone with the most ice cream I have EVER (and I have seen a lot of ice cream cones) seen any barista fit in one cone. The picture is coming soon....but it was bigger than my very amused smiling face. After the after dinner treat Emily and I watched a rom com and finished a bottle of red wine. What a perfect ending to the night. What wasn't so perfect though was the fact that we shared our room and four sets of bunkbeds with some serious knuckleheads. You know- the kind that come in at 4:30am, turn on the lights, have deep late night conversations with their friends, make pasta and then eat it on their beds- because eating outside of the room would just be flat out rude. Know the type? Oye dios. It took all of me not to crawl out of my top bunk and have a little chat with my co-inabitants. It actually probably had more to do with the fact that I would not have been able to yell at them in spanish and less to do with my level of irritation to tell the truth...
After breakfast (Chilean breakfast of champions=bread and butter- free with our hostel stay so I'm not complaining, only my stomach was- two hours later when I was hungry again...) Emily and I headed over to Valpo (Valparaiso), the city famous for it's historic poetic resident- Pablo Neruda (please look this guy up if you are ignorant in your Latin American historical knowledge- he was a cool dude) and for it's classy street art (legal and incredibly well done graffiti).

We walked around, took some pictures and went on a tour of Neruda's house.

The view from La Sebastiana

It was 4 stories high, slender and had a central view of the harbor and all of the houses on the hill between his house and the water. Valpo is kind of like Santorini but with brightly colored houses and Neruda's house is right smack dab in the middle of the hill. It was a nice way to end the trip and with that we boarded a bus and headed back to santiago. THE END(:

Since when are deserts situated at 8,000ft above sea level?

2015-04-30T18:15:00.002-07:00

Elevation kills. Actually that's not a scientific fact- but it was painful. Oh the symptoms- I'll spare you the deets but luckily I never puked and I survived to tell the tale so all is good. San Pedro de Atacama is a Chilean desert approximately 7,896 feet above sea level. Some claim it's the driest desert in the world- not sure if that is a scientific fact either but one thing was for sure. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. After Patagonia I never thought I would be able to perceive things as being absolutely pristine and gorgeous because the bar was just set so high there. However- in the best way possible, the bar was set a little higher. The landscapes of Chile cease to amaze me. With a country so thin and long I've encountered the most diverse landscapes- San Pedro included. In total we ventured to the Moon Valley, Death Valley, The Devil's Gorge, the National Flamingo Reserve, The Atacama Salt Flats, and The Tatio Geysers (the highest elevation geysers in the world! but we will get to that shortly....). I think that's all...
The trip started off with a case of Deja Vú- a cold, dark morning journey to the airport at 4am. Good times. Luckily the trip was filled with airplane rides and busing so I don't think I ever actually was in debt to sleep the entire time. The plane ride and bus trip there was uneventful despite the fact that they didn't feed us lunch until 3pm in the afternoon....the horror. Chileans and their eating times. smh (shaking my head). Luckily for us, the food was muy bueno and we actually ended up having every meal at the same place which also coincidentally was in our 'hotel lobby'. They had great pebre and as always we were served three courses at each meal. Delightful(: The best part of the CIEE programed events is the fact that you never really have to buy anything (that never stops me....but they were gifts! possibly for others...possibly for myself). Anywho- here's a fun fact we learned upon our introduction to San Pedro- did you know that the reason the indigenous people of South America (specifically those in higher altitudes) are shorter and slightly stockier (with larger chests and shorter appendages) Guess-

and then read this: it's because they have evolved to develop larger lungs and require less blood flow to their shorter arms, legs, etc. Isn't that COOL??
Unfortunately for us gringos- specifically this gringa right here- with freakishly large hands, feet, long legs, and all of the above- that means that it is much harder for me to adjust to the altitude (excuses.. I know). In attempt to make these adjustments easier for the group (or so they claimed), the program decided to make some executive decisions about how we would prepare for the altitude changes ahead. Specifically the 8,000 foot climb we would be making one early morning to reach the Tatio Geysers- similar to the geysers in Yellowstone park. For starters they starved us. (lies)- but let's be real, you know I like to embellish this blog- right dad?) The night before we had to wake up in the dark, cold early morning (I am sensing a theme in my chronicles of this trip...) the program dinner included a three course meal with the amount of food suitable to satisfy for a toddler. We started with egg drop soup, then had two teeny tiny pieces of some sort of meat (pork tenderloin perhaps?) served up with some sauteed zucchini and then finished us off with some jello. The program guide warned us not to eat after dinner to prevent altitude sickness/participants from puking all over their nice little tour bus (sorry for the mental picture but obviously this part of the story was memorable for me- ain't nobody got time for a hangry Carly). So what did I do? I went and bought a double scoop ice cream cone, set my alarm and called it a night. Oh and I prayed a little that hunger should in fact take precedent over listening to the authorities...

Aforementioned Bus

And graciously my prayers were answered- it could have had something to do with the coca leaves I stuck in my mouth (not the tastiest things in the world, taste kinda like...leaves) or maybe I just have an iron stomach, but whatever the case- I made it all the way up to the highest geysers in the world sans puking.

Success. Unfortunately the real concern then became keeping warm..because second only to being incredibly hungry, I hate being cold more than most things in this world. Now you won't even believe this next part...

Hint- check out some of these people's expressions- and the fact that I'm still wearing my hat..

THE FAMOUS TATIO GEYSERS ARE NOT HOT. That's right. Hot springs, boiling geysers and the accumulation of magma were insufficient in their attempts to maintain a hot spring on the top of this mountain. Despite my gut instinct to avoid removing my clothes and putting on a skimpy bikini in the 20 degree weather, Adventurous (or maybe just peer pressured..) Carly decided to listen to the authorities this time and jump in. oye dios it was cold- okay actually it was just lukewarm, but it was not the hot tub temperature I was willing to strip down for. Dreams crushed. and this time there wasn't any ice cream to console me...
Alright- not that you feel sorry for me here are some of the incredibly beautiful things I saw on the remainder of the trip

So we did a lot of sightseeing, I star gazed one night and saw the milkyway! We also went mountain biking the last day and I learned how to successfully (more or less- the more being that I made it across without crashing and the less being that my bottom half was soaking wet) execute a river crossing in the trail- which were actually much larger and deeper than I had ever attempted.

And then I ate some llama meat...

Which is cholesterol free apparently! And I'll leave you with those pics. Enjoy(:

Tata for now
xoxo

Mama please stop throwing away my food in the fridge :(

2015-04-26T14:25:00.001-07:00

How is it that Mama manages to keep broccoli, squash, apples and potatoes until they are moldy and stinky- yet she frequently throws out something I have in the fridge for more than two days. WHY. Bye bye yummy pumpkin/bean/collards pasta thing that I was going to have for lunch today. One day I will understand the logic of Chilean thought processes....
Speaking of mysteries: the mysterious boy in the photos on the wall has been identified. When I was sitting in the car with Mama on the way to La Vega (gigantic, magical fruit and veggie market where she goes every week to purchase our produce for the week) she casually mentioned that she talked to her son on the phone and that he was happy, which in turn made her happy. Her son- hmmm...is this a metaphorical son or an actual son? Is this kid related to Camila or are there two dead beat dads in the picture? Oh the questions I wanted to ask. The funny thing is that if the situation had been reversed I'm sure she would have had no problem asking me a million personal questions- seriously these guys have no filter. Do you have a boyfriend? What does your dad do? Do you have a big house? Who pays for your expensive wine habits? Do you get an allowance? Oye dios mama. I promise I'm not a spoiled rich white girl! (Although that may be up to interpretation...)
Since apparently she had OBVIOUSLY mentioned this son before in the past...I didn't want to act too alarmed and ask too many questions but from the few I did ask, I gathered that he is 33 years old, lives in China and thats about it. What he does, why he is there (actually she did mention something about him switching jobs to make more money- Chileans are slightly fixated on making a lot of money and consumerism- really, it's not just a stereotype I swear- we talked about it in Spanish class) or how long he will be staying there- but now I know that Camila only has only child syndrome, she actually has an older brother!- so really there is no excuse....except for Mama's serious babying habit- alright I think this is turning into a run on sentence so imma stop now(:
In other news, today I went on a 3 hour hike right outside of Santiago, yesterday I FINALLY got my bottle of wine and pretended that I like to socialize. Whenever someone mentions meeting up at Plaza Nuñoa I feel obligated to go because it's only like 15 minutes from my house and in reality most of the bars and other parties everyone wants to go to are so far from my house- therefore when my friend posted on facebook about how her Mama Chilena thinks she is a homebody (it doesn't take much- my Mama is always like don't you have a party or something to go to tonight? lol) I couldn't help but relate and help a girl out by meeting up for drinks in Plaza Nuñoa. Additionally there is an ice cream place that is far too easy to make use of and there is reason #2 for my facade of socialization(;

Proof of my love

Let's be real- I had to make up for my entire day of me time and "Carly you can treat yourself because you just took an exam and you did great!" This consisted of:
*a 6 dollar ice cream cone- didn't see that price coming...but I don't think they would have liked to see the dine and dash trick...although in a mid sentence thought: here's an interruption/quick story: the first ice cream place I went to had a bunch of flavors and me being me felt the need to try all (4) of them. Upon my last request to try another flavor I was like don't worry- this will be my last one- and he replies- I know, we have a four flavor sample limit! lol, the best is that I didn't even end up liking ANY of their flavors (a lot of flavors here are really sweet, don't have enough chocolate or have too much dulce de leche) and therefore I played the- "I need to think about which flavor I want" card and promptly left to never return...oops
*a winter jacket- because I have become a true chilean and freak out whenever it is 50 degrees outside
*a new watch band- my sport watch band freakishly broke and thus I somehow convinced this watch man to pretty please try and see if he could get ANY watch band to fit my watch face because I was in serious watch withdrawal
and last but not least
*a FABULOUS filet of Salmon that was only mostly overpriced and slightly embarrassing to consume solo. Nevertheless it was all great. Until I decided to top it off with a nice glass of wine- I blame my parents who have no self-control and have yet to Skype me without showing off their full glasses of freshly poured wine. apparently talking to me is chore or something...(; Anywho, I decided to just buy a bottle and called it a night but things didn't exactly go as planned. Upon my suggestion of leaving the house to go buy a bottle of wine real quick (which would have been INCREDIBLY simple) Mama didn't quite react as I thought she would. She, along with Camila and pololo all laughed at me and questioned why I could possibly need to have a glass of wine right that moment. I tried to convince them that I wasn't intending to finish the whole bottle, but that I just wanted one glass.

Caught in the act

Of course I didn't want to do all of this in secret because that would probably have been worse...but let's just say somehow instead of me buying my own bottle of wine- Mama and I ended up splitting one of her mini bottles, like MINI bottles (maybe a 1/4 regular glass per person). Nevertheless I had my drink and she had hers and we watched the news together and all was good until she weirdly and rudely called someone in the middle of our bonding time...I don't GET IT. Another instance of this strange (but potentially not strange in Chilean culture) and rude behavior was when the other day I asked mama if I had enough time to go on a run before she was serving lunch and she said of course! Yet when I returned about 30 minutes later, she and Camila had empty plates and were sitting at the kitchen table- they ate without me....interesante.
LIVE UPDATE: she thinks I'm an alcoholic/wine addict. she literally just asked me when I was going to have wine. Out of the blue. And I'm like what do you mean when??... I literally responded, if you want me to have wine I will but I don't have plans otherwise (that's right- I got sassy there). Her idea of an acceptable time to have a glass of wine or a beer is possibly once a week- maybe not even that much though. So when I told her that my parents had a glass with dinner every night...yeah um. cultural conflict.
Back to the grumblings from the week...
This wednesday Hannah and I discovered a sushi place that gives a 50% discount if you pay in cash! Additionally I discovered that chicken sushi is a thing here, cream cheese was in the majority of the rolls and they even had one with CORN! ew
I also bought a plane ticket to Uruguay for May 14-18, I'm going to Viña del Mar next weekend for a night (hopefully it won't be too cold because it's the beach and I've been wanting to go the whole trip!) and Mama informed me that she has to be out of town from next thursday until next monday. This actually doesn't affect me much because I will only be home that sunday and monday. She feels really bad and I'm sure she will leave plenty of food(:
I'll leave it at that. If you are feeling compassionate, send your thoughts to those in the south of Chile who were affected by the volcano eruption and to those in Nepal who had a massive earthquake. Oye dios. The disasters just keep coming (floods in the north, fires on the beaches and volcano eruption in the south!)

xoxo
Loves

It's not always rainbows and butterflys....

2015-04-23T16:15:00.000-07:00

...it's COMPROMISE that moves us along"- Maroon 5

That's right folks. If you have been reading with your +2.00 reading glasses (I'm looking at you daddykins!) then you know that the study abroad experience ain't always sunshine and happiness. The only reason I bring that up is because lately I have been seeing a lot of my friends post their blogs on facebook and upon skimming a few of them, it appears that they have become quite skilled at selecting only the best moments they have experienced thus far. Not to say that's not what you should be telling your friends and family....but it just seems like this blog would be quite bland without my occasional rant about the metro, mama or the heat. So thanks for reading- and enjoying my serious struggles, triumphs and laughable life in Chile.
So this post won't be too elaborate because I have a "solemne" tomorrow. Yes- solemn is the translation of solemne, and upon looking that one up I became slightly nervous to take perhaps the equivalent of a "serious" (test). Let's go with that. Taking it to the next level- I also found out (luckily before I showed up to my 8:30am class) that classes during this week are cancelled so that we can study. Yuup- that sounds pretty serious to me. WISH ME LUCK because I have 5-6 open ended essay questions to respond to in spanish tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn. Did I mention that tomorrow will be a friday? TGIF

In other news- I am back on Mama's good side. Exhibit A: she bought me more yogurt mid week. gasp. please note that mid-week grocery trips are a rarity due to her work schedule. Exhibit B: she has become slightly annoyed by the amount of time Camila spends with her pololo and therefore has diverted her love to me. SUCESS (just kidding- I don't think I could ever break the mother-daughter bond they got goin on) but still. Mama's mood has improved significantly and she has been quite amable.
With regards to my edu-macation- I continue to show up to my ceramics class (now I realize that on Chilean time this means you should arrive around 9am for your 8:30am art class- its a shame this doesn't apply to my international relations class...sigh) my spanish class has just been approved as a Pass/Fail credit (happy dance) and for my other class that I rarely mention- because we haven't had it in oh I don't know- ONE WHOLE MONTH- yesterday I found out that the professor is on sick leave which comes as news just a week after the students of our "facultad" have ended their strike (we didn't have class when they were protesting). Apparently he is seriously ill and who knows when we will have class again- maybe they will just give the gringos credit for trying. I mean, being a gringo ain't easy and I need at least an elective credit. OYE.
And last but not least on Carly's list of random thoughts that she should blog about is the fact that I have mastered the art of popping popcorn on the stove (apparently Camila never made the connection between popcorn kernels and popcorn...not sure where she thought popcorn came from..) I have fallen in love with fresh chilean bread and pebre (remember- it's that pico de gallo type tomato dip they serve with the bread) and I have gotten used to planning an hour for my transit time. Do you know what these things mean? It means that I could see myself comfortably living here for a while. And although that is obviously not happening- ahem- medical school- i think this is a big step for me because a few weeks ago I couldn't rid my brain of the reoccurring thought that although I was enjoying Chile- it would just be so much easier to live in the states- in my little comfort zone with green grass, coffee ice cream (a rarity here), wheat bread (no one likes it), spinach (iceburg lettuce just doesn't make much of a salad), almond milk, chobani, oh I could go on...PS. anyone else notice that essentially all the things I miss most are food....Bueller?
Anywho- the moral of the story is that while I miss somethings, in the grand scheme of things I think my life has become normalized, I feel confident and happy here and I'm glad to be able to say that.
Also a random note about the bread is that my friend says that the reason no one is fat here is because even though everyone eats so much white bread- the bread here is free of preservatives (it gets hard in like 3 days tops)- and therefore not as bad for you (even though it pains me that it is all white flour bread). I eat SO MUCH more bread here than I would in the states (I would say that not a day passes that I don't have a sandwich or two..) -partially out of necessity and but mostly because it SMELLS and tastes so frickin' good. Yeah. Imma miss that cheap, delicious, fresh white bread when I return. Maybe I'll have to perfect mom's non-knead beer bread. Nom Nom.

until next time- a San Pedro de Atacama excursion recap is coming your way! xoxo

Patagonia: The Sequel: The Wind, Mud and Glaciers Galore

2015-04-15T16:38:00.003-07:00

Friday morning we woke up ~~bright~~ DARK and early. In the southern most part of the globe the sun ceases to rise until approximately 8:00am- talk about having a problem getting out of bed- I couldn't even find my way to the bathroom! (serious Carly problems here). After convincing myself that I could not hike in the same clothes that I would be wearing to bed that night (and all the nights after that....gotta keep them dry and cleanish!) I painfully removed all of my clothes in the freezing cold and put on 4 new layers of protection. Secondly Sophie and I had to reason with ourselves that the monkey-esque noises coming from outside our tent could in no way actually be monkeys- right? It had to be a bird or something because the instructional video we watched did not mention this potential danger....and therefore we must be safe...
We proceeded to chow down on cold oats, peanut butter and pita. SO MUCH PEANUT BUTTER. We packed up our tent, did some jumping jacks and breathed hot air on our numb fingers and then got the heck out of that snowy campsite and onto the next. The atmosphere rapidly changed from an eerie snow covered forrest to a cloudy (but slowly becoming clear) blue sky that began to reveal the mountains we had just camped in. It was an incredible sight to see and furthermore- the weather started to warm up!

First day- pre-snow

Everything looked like a winter wonderland after the snow! So beautiful(:

On this day in particular we hiked 14.9 miles from the snowcapped mountains, past two lakes, a valley and many streams. It took us about 6 hours total and the elephant in the room for that day was whether or not we should carry on and hike another 2.5 hours after our 6 hour endeavor. Oye. My feet and shoulders said no, but the prospect of free camping vs. paid (a mere 12 dollars per person!) seemed to create some debate about whether or not we should march on...Thank goodness I was in the majority because I don't think I could have taken another step.(our peak mileage) When we finally reached the Refugio of Los Cuernos I chowed down on my tuna, pita, peanut butter and then proceeded to buy a snickers bar. Mmmm...sweet nostalgia. That night we were fortunate enough to camp on platforms- that's where the 12 dollars was worth it!- we also had the opportunity to take a hot shower and use indoor bathrooms our entire stay- I opted out of the shower experience- not because I wanted to smell, but more because I couldn't imagine myself getting wet in this windy and cold climate- it just wasn't worth it to me. This night we were also able to cook in a building instead of a shelter so it was much warmer and we even had a table where we got to play cards.

I resisted the urge to buy a glass of wine (it was so easy to get a beer or bottle of wine at the refugios!) and I stuck to our delicious feast of pasta (approximately 15 servings were devoured by the 7 of us). I actually kept a wee bit of my pasta and had some for lunch the next day- as to not tire myself of peanut butter and bread all day everyday. I added some tuna to it the next day and mmmm. so good.

On that note- the note of food that is- let me tell you a little something about the prevalence of rats in this national park. Apparently on our first night- when it was snowing and sub-zero (maybe- that's what it felt like but don't quote me on that!)- our ignorance to the possibility of rats eating our food didn't harm us one bit. However- on this night- we actually made the revelation that the rats in the park would chew through our tents if we had food in our backpacks. The suggestion was to put all your food in a bag and then tie it to a try. Now this maybe seem simple enough- but- when you add the wind factor to this equation- there is no way in heck that those bags would have stayed in the trees because we could barely keep our tents on the ground with that fierce wind, let alone a wimpy bag of crackers and canned tuna.

Our tent!!

Alas- nice people exist in Chile too and a girl that was staying inside the refugio offered to let us store our food in her room. Yay for friends! I cannot even imagine what would have happened if A) the rats had chewed a hole in our tent and then we had to pay the rental place... and B) if they had ruined all our food supplies and then we STARVED. An irrational conclusion I know- but let's just say there was a constant thought process on my mind about food and when my next meal was due to the intense amount of effort I was exerting all day EREDAY.

Side note- check out this trash bag swag :D

Thats me in the purple(:

Alas we set off the next morning to our third and final campsite. Although it was quite brisk in the morning, the day turned out to be nice, clear and sunny. We got to go out to the coast line of one of the lakes, Lago Nordenskjold (no I did not make that name up...) and take some really pretty pictures of the sunrise- these pics will be on facebook shortly I swear! The only remarkable things I can remember about this hike were the extreme winds, serious mud and my face-to-earth incident. Yeah- that's Carly speak for- I got blown off a 'bridge' type thing and fell into the marsh. All was good though- when I saw bridge I really just mean a handrail-less collection of wood planks that keep you from sinking into the swamp land. The wind was so strong that when I was walking along these wooden planks I just blew right over! It was probably the best time to get blown over though because previously we had endured strong winds along the coastline as we were treading carefully on some gravel trails that were exposed to the mountainside. Ow- ain't nobody got time to get blown over in those parts. Additionally I remember passing through a large valley filled with burnt tree trunks from a forest fire that apparently went down in January. The trees almost looked as if they had been spray painted with silver, but we determined as a group that their weird coloration and appearance must have been the result of the fire damage. Anywho- After we had fully encircled an entire mountain and walked so far that we were now facing an entirely different lake, 15. 2 miles later, we were at Campamento Torres Grande (I'm pretty sure that's the name). And you would not even believe what made this refugio/campsite so special....not the 4.000 peso camping charge (so cheap!) and not the fact that they sold Almond snickers...but the fact that they had a bar, a TV and a satellite dish that was streaming the Final Four game against Wisconsin and Kentucky. Let me tell you something- I thought Jack was going to cry tears of joy when he heard that one. Who would have thought- in the middle of complete isolation- that we would be watching the NCAA Basketball tournament. Unreal.
The next morning- our final day in the park!- we woke up as early as possible (granted it was only around 7am due to the time the sunrises), packed up all of our stuff for the catamaran ride (kind of like a ferry) and headed towards the glacier lookout as fast as we could. The map estimated it would take approximately an hour and a half to reach the lookout and we barely had just that amount of time. We half job-half speed walked our way to the glacier and were met with sweet success! It was totally worth it- even if we were only able to marvel in it's beauty for 5 minutes before we sprinted back...

So this is the famous Lago Grey and then behind it you can see the glacier. A glacier is really just when the lake becomes frozen and starts to cover the mountain with a blanket of ice. I actually saw my first glacier in India- but in my opinion this one was much cooler because the real beauty of the scenery was due to the reflection of the mountain on the lake. ¡Que Linda!
So the last mileage statistic was 12.6 miles (not too shabby!) and that was bulk of our trip in the national park.

We boarded an overpriced catamarran- 30 USD for a 30 minute ride across the lake!- and arrived at a bus stop where we then took a 2 hour bus to Puerto Natales- where we once again stayed in the lovely hostel of Erratic Rock.

The first thing I did was take a hot shower, and then of course I texted my mother to tell her I was alive- priorities though(;
That night we FEASTED. Hamburgers- what typical Americans we are right? Actually now that I saw that I think that Chileans may actually consume more hotdogs and hamburgers than Americans. I don't know why I haven't seen more obese Chileans but I was told it may have something to do with the quality of their bread...seriously though! Someone told me that since they don't put preservatives in their bread and they buy it fresh (it goes bad after like 3 days but they sell it everywhere so it's not really a problem) their bread is actually better for you than the white bread we have in the states. Granted I would LOVE some 12 grain bread up in here, I'm also happy that I don't have to eat Wonder bread. Back to the story...
So we all ordered a hamburger and then everyone except me ordered a local beer (that tastes like a BLUEBERRY!- I actually probably could have finished that beer in particular) but since you all know how much I adore my dear wine- I went with a classy glass of red grape juice(:

Funny story about the burgers though- when we all got ours and realized that they were approximately the size of our brains and then some (lovely reference point eh?)- my one friend turned to me and said- "I dare you to finish it"- oh girl. You didn't even have to dare me. I demolished that thing. Granted I didn't order an appetizer (what noobs my friends are for ruining their appetite before the big prize!) but nevertheless i took that burger down like a house of cards. Maybe I didn't eat all of the bread (the burger was about 2/3 the size of the bun) but I did eat every morsel of beef, tomato, avocado and lettuce. and it was GLORIOUS (sorry I keep screaming at you people- I'm just excited). Let's just say the challenger of my bet barely finished 1/2 of her burger...mmhmm. Only the boys and I finished our burgers(; so take that! For your viewing pleasure- (I am holding a quarter of the burger in my hand, this is real life I promise).

So what did we do after we had our sweet victory dinner? Pass out in a food coma? Nope- we had our sweet victory dessert. All I wanted was ice cream while others pursued some Easter candy (it was Easter Sunday after all!). When I asked several Chileans where I could some ice cream on this night I was received with quizzical looks (what else is new) and responses like "it's winter." lol. I finally encountered some ice cream cones in one of those small freezers they have at the minimarkets here. So after a night of hamburgers, dessert, wine and a movie- we went with the Goonies- what a classic (it sounded right to say that, but in reality I've actually never seen it...don't judge)- I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. After the first day of trekking I became a pro at sleeping in any and all conditions (the car alarms and dogs were nothing new and the cold, hard ground proved to be only a small hurdle in my struggle to achieve a beautiful slumber). The next morning we did that bus thing again, arrived in Puntas Arenas- walked on the Strait of Magellan (once again- so close to Antartica!), called ourselves tourists and checked out the number one recommended food stop in Puntas Arenas- it was definitely a local favorite but I would say it was mostly overrated- it was just a sandwich with chorizo and cheese. But in retrospect- they were less than a dollar and made a good snack! It was packed with people so we shouted our orders (picture a diner with only one bar and maybe 9 bar stools) and then ate outside in the beautiful sunshine. In case you were wondering- it was called Kiosko Roca and this is what the sandwiches looked like (they are little, maybe a little bigger than a deck of cards):

That is totally someone else's photo, but you get the drift. After lunch we headed over to a free museum, checked out the local cemetery and then took a cab to the airport. I had my first female cabbie! Other than that I have nothing else remarkable to report- okay I lied- I will mention that the Puntas Arenas airport was less than secure. The security checkpoint consisted of a single x-ray machine, one lady who was 'monitoring' the screen and no need to take off your jacket, shoes or jewelry. Luckily there were no bombs on my plane :D

That is all. xoxo.
Loves