From the Mountains to the Sea: a little bit of everything

There seems to be a little bit of everything in Chile. I've had the opportunity to go to the beach twice and to the mountains once. My first weekend in Chile I got to go visit Santo Domingo with Barbara's family. It's a really cute community about an hour and a half from Santiago, just south of a major port town called San Antonio. I went over to San Antonio one afternoon with the boys and we bought seafood for the dinner-we got mussels which were AMAZING and sea snails which were interesting. I still can't decide whether I liked them or not-they didn't taste bad, but they had a weird texture and it kind of grossed me out whenever I thought about it. Even though it was winter, the beach was absolutely beautiful. It was a little chilly, but not any colder than the California coast in the winter. And the ocean was beautiful, of course. The next weekend I got to go to a town called Algorrobo with EAP. We had our orientation there, which was cool. Not the orientation, the fact that we got to go to the beach. The orientation was okay, it was a lot of information crammed in to a short amount of time. There wasn't too much going on in Algorrobo because it's the low season right now. They had a few little ferias (outdoor markets) which were fun to look around in. They had lots of cute artisan crafts, I wanted to buy a lot of things, but just kept reminding myself that I'll be here for a year so I have plenty of time to get things, and also I really just don't need more stuff. Also, the worlds biggest pool is in Algorrobo, so that was kind of cool to see. It is pretty big, but it was only half full because the resort isn't open right now. I also don't completely understand why they need a huge pool when the ocean is right there, but I guess it's because the ocean is cold. But, they had kayaks that went in the pool, and floating docks in the middle and a huge water slide.

This last weekend I got to go up skiing in the Andes. It was amazing. The resort I went to is called El Colorado-it's a lot smaller than most of the resorts in Tahoe, but it was still fantastic. It's above the tree line, so there are no trees anywhere, which is kind of weird because I'm used to there being a lot of trees when I go skiing. We got really lucky on the day we went because it had been snowing all day the day before so there was a ton of fresh powder, which was awesome to ski through. The snow is a lot lighter here than in Tahoe, like it's a lot stickier and wetter in Tahoe--I enjoyed the drier snow, especially when I feel into several feet of powder. We also saw a bunny while we were skiing! We were off in the powder and all of the sudden there was a big brown bunny hopping up the hill...I'm surprised it wasn't freezing, or buried in the snow, because it was pretty deep. Anyways, it's pretty easy to get up to the snow because there are several companies that have shuttles that take you up in the morning and back in the afternoon, so we just went with one of those, and they rent you equipment and everything, although I think it was more expensive than at other places, but oh well. The road up to the mountain was a little bit scary because it was only one lane (because it had been snowing) but for two ways; luckily there weren't too many cars coming down as we were going up, so it wasn't too bad. Also, there's no chain control like in Tahoe, people just pull over to the side of the road whenever they feel like they need their chains and put them on. But, the skiing was pretty awesome.

This week is our last week of ILP (the "orientation" class we all have to take before school) which is crazy, it seems like we just started. I'm kind of happy to be finishing up though, it will be nice to have a little break, because 4 straight hours of class every day is a little much, although I have been learning some interesting things about Chile, especially the culture and politics (and slang). After this week we have a week off before we start our real classes.

Last week we got to visit La Moneda which is the presidential palace. It's kind of like the White House I guess except the president doesn't live there (they used to, but not since the 1970s I think), but it's where the government is based and the president goes there every day to work. We got to go in the room where he holds conferences and gets televised and everything. They had one display with a coin for each president Chile has ever had since their independence, but Pinochet didn't have one because he was not democratically elected. Also right outside the main entrance is a statue of Salvador Allende, which I thought was interesting.

We also got to visit a vineyard called Viña de Concha y Toro (literally Vineyard shell and bull). It's the biggest vineyard in Chile and has the most exports of any vineyard in Chile. They make a side variety of wines...my favorite that I've tried so far from there is Casillero de Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon. They make a kind of wine in Chile called Carménère which they don't have in California, or at least they don't make it California and I haven't seen it in the stores. Anyways, the vineyard was really pretty, although most of the vineyard part of it looked kind of dead since it's the middle of winter. But, we got to see a few different rooms where they had barrels of wine sitting and we got to go into the "Devil's locker" (which was more like a dungeon) which is where they keep the wines for Casillero de Diablo. While we were down there, because it's underground, they turned the lights off and played a "scary story" about that wine and how it came to be, then they cast the devil on the wall, it was kind of funny, but creative on their party I guess. Oh, they also had a kind of wine called Amelia! It was one of the more expensive ones and only came in Chardonnay, but it made me smile.

Well, that's a little bit about my adventures so far. I'm still loving Santiago (and Chile in general) and I'm so glad that I'll get to be here for a year because there's so much to see and do. But, I also cannot believe that I have been here for almost a month now! The time has gone by so quickly.

Ya tienes mi corazón, Santiago

Sorry I have been horrible about updating the last few weeks. I don't know where the time has gone. I have been in Chile for 2.5 weeks now...where did it all go?! Not that that's a bad thing, because I am thoroughly enjoying it here. Here are a few anecdotes from my time here so far:

My first encounter with the metro:

On my second day here I went on the metro to go meet someone. Unknowingly, I accidentally went during rush hour. The subway is usually fairly crowded to begin with, during rush hour you can hardly. Luckily, Barbara had shown me the metro station before and where to get a ticket and everything or I would have been completely lost. So, I go up to the counter, tell them I need a ticket to the metro station Pedro de Valdivia. They kind of look at me funny, and ask, what? I tell them again, again, they ask, where? Finally, I show them (because I have it written down), and they say, oh, Pedro de Valdivia (apparently I wasn't pronouncing it quite right), they give me a ticket. What I later realized is that you just ask for a ticket, because it costs the same to go 1 stop or 20 stops on the metro. So I think they just thought I was really weird for asking for a ticket to a particular destination. Anyways, I get my ticket and the nice ticket-counter-man points me in the right direction. I put my ticket into the machine to get into the metro, and it eats my ticket! I was expecting it to come back out, like it does at Bart, because you have to scan your ticket to get OUT of the station (again, still didn't realized that the metro is one-ticket-for-all-destinations). So, after a few seconds of contemplating if I should ask someone I just decide to proceed to the train. The platform is literally packed with people. And, whenever trains pull up, it becomes a mad shoving frenzy. It took me about 4 trains to actually be pushy enough to get on. But, finally, I made it on to the train, and made it successfully to my station. Since that first trip I have learned a lot about the metro--when rush hour is, that you just need to ask for a ticket in general, that you don't need a ticket to get out of the metro. It's not so complicated now that I've got the basics down, pretty much like any other metro system.

Navigating from the metro:

Whenever I am trying to get somewhere once I get out of the metro, I get really disoriented. I never have any idea which direction is which. So, before I go places, I have taken to looking up directions on google maps and writing which streets I SHOULD cross after popping out the station to reach my destination and which I SHOULD NOT cross. It's a pretty good method that works like 90% of the time, the other 10% I just end up wandering... People are really nice when I ask directions, the problem is (and everyone here warns us of this too) that people will point in a direction with complete confidence even if they're not sure if it's the right direction. So, you can think you asked for directions from a local and are headed in the right direction, and end up on the opposite side of town anyways.

Chileno:

Everyone I meet, literally, asks the usual questions--how long are you going to be here, what will you be doing, etc. When I say I came to study Psychology and Spanish they always laugh and say I will learn Chileno, not Español. It's true--they have a very unique way of speaking here and there is a lot of slang, cachai? But, I've adjusted pretty well to the accent and speed I think.

First day of school:

Somehow, I ended up getting super lost on my way to the first day of classes. Luckily, there's another girl from the program who lives right across the hall from me, so I wasn't lost all by myself. My host mom gave me directions on how to get there, and told me it should only be about a 30 minute walk. So, Bonnie and I set out...we had been to the campus the day before, but had been given a ride back to our apartments, and the route driving is different than walking. Anyways, it turns out the street we were supposed to turn on doesn't intersect all the way across the main street. And, of course, we were walking down the wrong side of the street, so we didn't see it. We asked someone for directions a few blocks after our house because my host mom had told me the street was really close by our house. And, of course, the very nice man assuredly pointed us in the wrong direction. Then, we somehow ended up turning in the wrong direction (after walking the opposite direction of where we were supposed to turn). 45 minutes later, we decided to stop and ask for directions. The guy at the store was very nice and pulled out the phone book. We told him where we were going, and he looked up the street in the index and opened to the map. We found the campus, then asked him where we were. He looked at the opposite side of the map and pointed. Oops. We decided to hail a taxi because at this point we were already 15 minutes late to orientation and it was going to take another 15 minutes to drive there. Luckily, we got a nice taxi driver who took us straight there (we've been warned that some taxi drivers will take advantage of foreigners and drive in circles to get more money). Anyways, right as we were pulling up to campus I get a call from my host mom: where are you? how did you get so lost? I gave you directions! But, we made it and everything worked out :) And, now we successfully walk to campus every day.

Let's see, those are some of my funnier stories. Everyone is really nice here, it just amazes me. For example, I brought my big backpack and suitcase on the metro from Barbaras house to my host families house and everyone was holding open doors for me and helping me up the stairs.

My friend Barbara, who lives in Berkeley now but is from Santiago, has been amazing. She has taught me so much about the city and helped me get oriented, helped me get a phone. Everything. I don't know how I"ll every be able to thank her sufficiently.

My favorite things in Chile: guatero--my "hot water bottle" that I sleep with at night to keep warm, pisco sour--a really delicious mixed drink, the view of the Andes no matter where you are, the beach is beautiful

My not so favorite things: there's no central heating--anywhere, the air becomes brown when it doesn't rain, they only drink instant coffee

There's so much more to tell, but I'm sure this is plenty for now :)