Vacaciones de Primavera (Spring Break)

As promised I have included my pictures from Buenos Aires! But first I want to make a few shout outs to Rory “the anti-chirpse” Davidson for being our wonderful tour guide, to Andrew Crook for being awkward and introducing me to media lunas, Erin Dunk for being fabulous as always and to Andre Boudreaux even though I only got to see him for like a second! Yall made my trip to BA soo unforgettable! Thank you!

A few differences between Chile and Argentina:
1. The people in Argentina are not as friendly. They have this “I’m better than you” air about them that just didn’t appeal to me. I don’t know if it’s specifically a Buenos Aires attitude or all of Argentina.
2. The food in Argentina is more flavorful than in Chile!
3. The people in Buenos Aires are not stuck in the 80s as far as fashion goes. They are more modern.
4. People in Argentina speak slower and clearer than people in Chile. They were so much easier to understand! And now I don’t feel so dumb for struggling to understand Chileans my first few weeks here!
5. I’m really glad I chose to study in a smaller city. Being in Buenos Aires was comparable to New York City. I would have been incredibly overwhelmed if I lived there. Which just goes to show that Viña del Mar was the PERFECT choice for me!




Puente de la Mujer, the bridge made to look like a man and woman dancing tango...its abstract.


Casa Rosada (Pink House) where the president lives!


Obelisco


Trinity friends in Buenos Aires! So magical!


The tomb of Evita in the Recoleta Cementary. It had the most elaborate graves I've ever seen. Not that I spend that much time in cementaries but this one is definitely worth going to.


After my adventure in Buenos Aires I still had a few days of spring break left. So I hopped on a bus to the south of Chile! This is a picture of Volcan Villarrica, the volcano I was supposed to go skiing on! But then it rained and I couldn't. Sad day.


Ojo de Caburgua. It was so incredibly beautiful!


Then I went home to Viña just in time for my 21st birthday!!! This is a picture of my host parents Nancy and Adrián and my good friend Mary Kate (she's another Trinity friend!)

Comida (FOOD)

Y’all are probably all really curious about I’ve been eating down here in Chile. So just to clarify the food here is NOTHING like Mexican food. If you’ve been envisioning me eating tacos and enchiladas and spicy foods you are mistaken (and weird if you’re imagining what I eat….)

For breakfast every morning I have a small bowl of oatmeal, a piece of toast and usually an orange. Occasionally, I also have some freshly squeezed orange juice too! It’s kind of a plain breakfast but I really like because it’s not that different from what I eat for breakfast at home in Texas.
Lunch is by far the biggest and most formal meal of the day. And believe me when I say that lunch is HUGE! My family had to start giving me smaller portions because I never eat all of my meal. We usually start off with a salad of lettuce, pealed tomatoes (I still haven’t asked why they peal tomatoes, but I still think its weird) and maybe some broccoli. They don’t use salad dressing like we do. They use salt, oil and vinegar or lemon juice as salad dressing. Sometime we have soup too or whole artichokes that we dip in mayonnaise. (side note: I hate mayonnaise and skip this part of the meal).If we don't have soup or artichoke then we will eat empanadas of jamon y queso (ham and cheese). Also they’ll give me just a piece of bread to put pebre (basically salsa) on. Then we have the main course, which varies day to day but almost always has potatoes or rice and chicken many times. Pastel de papa, arroz con pollo, ravioli, portono con riendas (I think that’s what it’s called, it’s a bean and noodle soup). The other dishes have names that I’ve forgotten. But you get the idea. And for dessert we eat fruit! I really like having kiwi but oranges and apples are good too. Sometime Nancy and Adrián will have bananas with honey (platanos con miel) but I’m allergic to bananas so I just stare at them longingly while I eat my kiwi.
Dinner is small and informal and not called dinner. We say tomar té (to have tea) which, I think is just precious and wish more people in the states drank tea! So we’ll have tea with sandwiches of ham and cheese and sometimes after going to the feria (farmers market) we’ll have palta (avocado/guacamole). And if they’ve been to the panaderia we’ll have some kind of pastry for dessert! I especially like this pastry called a berlín, that has a cream filling and powdered sugar on top! Delicious!

Since my meals at home are already prepared/paid for I haven’t eaten out since I got here. I only buy ice cream! And let me tell you, Chileans LOVE their helado (ice cream). Even when I first got here in the dead of winter they were nomming on ice creams cones ALL THE TIME. There’s one ice cream place right on the beach that I have become a regular at! It’s soo yummy and the perfect start or end to a stroll along the beach!

Okay dearest readers I’ve done enough procrastinating in the form of blogging/skyping/cleaning/eating and should probably write my paper that’s due the day after I get back from BUENOS AIRES!! Did I mention that I’m spending my Chilean spring break in BUENOS AIRES!?!?!?! I’m so excited I can hardly stand it! So obviously my new post will be all glorious pictures from my wonderful spring break!

Besitos,
Gaby

CAMPING (yes this is what you think it is)

A Vocabulary Lesson:
Colchoneta- pad you put under your sleeping bag (which I did not have and my professor told me "vas a morir de frío"luckily my tent mates shared theirs)
Saco de dormir- sleeping bag
Carpa-tent
Cocinilla-little mini camping stove top

For those of you who I haven’t talked to in a million years this will be news to you, I am in a Mountain Sports class (deporte de montaña). Yes, I know I’m not the most outdoorsy or athletic person. But trust me, this is the best decision of my life. Our first excursion a few weeks ago was to go rock climbing and rapelling. I’ve been rock climbing before…you know like on a dinky little rock wall at summer camp. This was a real rock on a mountain. I was kinda scared but at the same time I was thinking to myself I just went rock climbing in Chile!!!! Wahooo!!!!!

Anyway, our second excursion this past weekend was a camping trip to Cerro Roble. So in true Gaby fashion I waited till the day before to buy all my supplies with my group at the Lider (Chilean Walmart). I’m so excited because this is the first time I’ve been camping in twenty years! Friday comes around and I’m so excited (I hope you are now singing Rebecca Black’s Friday in your head). We take the metro and a bus ride to get to the bottom of the Cerro. Once we arrive our professors inform us that there is a 90% chance of rain that night…why are we here if it’s going to rain??? I’m still not really sure about the answer to that question. But I’ve learned that I’m never in control here and to just go with the flow.

We start up the mountain and it’s beautiful and I’m having a great time hiking up the cerro. When it starts to get dark I get to use my linterna frontal (basically the forehead flashlight you wear like a miner). It’s so awesome and I look really cool AND I’m putting those hiking boots to good use! We finally reach the campgrounds, which have cow pies all over (I’m not sure why the cows are in the mountains but whatever). After kicking the cow pies out of the way we pitch our tent! After the tent is set up we cook the most delicious soup and PB&J sandwiches I’ve ever had. Seriously. It was amazing. Then it was time to go to bed before the rain started and we got soaked.
I’m at the point where I’m almost asleep when I hear the rain start. Great, now I’ll never fall asleep because I’m too nervous that the rain will soak through the tent. I try to calm down and sleep but then I hear the ferocious winds blowing. Oh dear, our tent is going to blow away! I keep trying to sleep but now I’m freezing and scared our tent is about to get blown off the mountain. And then it happens, I feel freezing cold water on my arm that’s not good. So I readjust and keep trying to sleep and keep failing.
Finally morning comes and our professor is walking from tent to tent giving important instructions. He comes to ours and says (in Spanish of course) “don’t get out of your tent it’s still dark out and there is snow on the ground.” SNOW?!?! No wonder I was so cold!!! I now don’t feel like such a big baby for being cold and unable to sleep all night. But now what? I’m not hiking in the snow to come back and sleep another night in this tent that is covered in snow/rain. Luckily I didn’t have to because our professors informed us that it was too dangerous to go hiking and that we would just go back. Which of course meant hiking down the slippery snow and mud covered cerro.
It was still snowing when we began hiking back down, which made it difficult and we moved at a very slow pace. Good thing because the mud was super inconvenient. But then we get to where the stream is and its like a rainforest on this portion of the mountain! Green leafy trees everywhere and water! And not that much mud. We keep walking and make it back to the bus that takes us to the metro station. Then I finally get home!!!! And it’s a beautiful sunny day in Viña when I arrive. I then spend the rest of the day/night sleeping (only after I showered and ate a real meal).

And that is the story of my very first camping experience! I feel like after this, the next excursion and my trip to Machu Picchu will be a piece of cake! And good news I didn’t get sick! And even though this whole story probably makes it sound like its was awful (and the weather was awful) I still had a wonderful time! We were all tired but happy because otherwise we would have started panicking about the snow and such. Well anyway, I hope yall enjoyed this adventurous story as much as I enjoyed living it!
Till next time
Besitos
Gaby

Business in the front/Party in the back....?

Do you love the 80s???? Like really really love the 80s???
If you said yes then you should most definitely make your way down to Chile, because they are stuck in the 80s as far as fashion goes!!

For men the mullet is the ONLY acceptable haircut here (insert barfing noises). I am not kidding. This is not a joke. Mullets are everywhere I go and I always want to take pictures but I’m too scared they’ll notice and ask me questions, or worse break my camera!!! But anyway, if the regular old mullet is too tame for you I’ve seen a mullet that makes all the other mullets look…well almost normal. I am talking about the infamous dread/mullet combo!!!!!!!!! That’s right business in the front, dreads in the back. It involves super short hair in the front and dreads that don’t quite reach your butt in the back. I almost vommed everywhere when I first saw this ‘do’ so now when I see regular old mullets I am relieved.
Men’s fashion is mostly high top sneakers with your choice of either acid wash jeans OR white jeans. Then on top they have the lovely crew neck sweatshirts or northface looking jackets (side note: If you wear actual northface here it is very VERY obvious that you are a foreigner).

Now for the ladies the hair is not so extreme. Many Chilean women just have very long hair, but unfortunately it’s not 80s voluminous hair with a whole can of hairspray in it. They also wear the crew neck sweatshirts along with scarves that mostly have floral patterns on them. They wear this under their leather jackets! The girls either wear acid wash skinny jeans/jeggings or leggings as pants. But these are not just your regular everyday black leggings (how boring would that be?!) these are patterned leggings. Usually floral patterns once again. For shoes the girls also wear the high top sneaks OR ankle boots that more often than not have heels. Why you would wear boots with heels when you walk on uneven sidewalks all day, I do not know! But they do!

So there you go! A lovely description of Chilean fashion. I REALLY hope that the 80s make a come back in the states so that all my friends born after the 80s can witness this glorious sight!
Besitos,
Gaby

La Vida Diario (daily life)

And now a day in the life....in pictures!!!
First I wake up and open the blinds and see this



After eating breakfast and getting ready for school I go to the bus stop wait around till I see the right one and hop on a micro.


Okay this isn't actually the micro I take, mine is blue and much prettier.


And here is Plaza Miraflores, which is where I get off the micro then walk across a bridge to my school. I'd give more details but I'm becoming Chilean so I will just tell you the bare bones of my walk to school.


This is my school! But remember this building is actually an empty high school, the university is in another location that I'm not allowed to go to because of the protests being violent and all. But good news! They put a microonda (microwave) in the school, so no more weird sandwiches for me!


After a long day of classes (okay I actually only had one class today and it didn't start until 11:45). I retire to my bedroom to do some of my reading for my one class. And this is the view from my desk.


Well I hope you all enjoyed seeing instead of reading about my daily adventures!
Hopefully the next post I can update you on Chilean fashion :)

Abrazos,
Gaby

La Huelga (Strike)

Before I tell all of you about my first week of school I feel like I should explain why the Chileans students are protesting. That way all of you gringos (whiteys) will understand why my first week of school was so absurd.

The college students all over Chile are protesting the price of education here. Basically what has happened is the education system has become a way for the government to make money, making the price of education very expensive (much like in the U.S. let’s be real, it’s RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE). But unlike in the U.S. they don’t give out scholarships for every little thing to help the families pay. So that being said the low/middle class are unable to pay for college without taking out an obscene amount of loans, which take years and years to pay back. (Hmmm doesn’t all of this sound familiar). Now the biggest difference is that if you do not go to college and instead get a job directly after high school you are pretty much stuck with that low paying job for the rest of your life. There’s really no way to move up the corporate ladder here. Which means that if you have a minimum wage job you can’t pay for your kids education so they have to get low paying jobs and can’t pay for their kids education etc. etc. It’s a vicious cycle.
So when you hear this you think to yourself “wow, no wonder these students are protesting! They want to be able to better themselves and their future children!” Well yes and no. Because then you hear that not only do they want lower prices on education, they want FREE education. And that is a huge problem because there is no possible way to have free colleges. Now not all of the students are this extreme in what they are asking for (only the communist ones, according to my host dad).
Hopefully that cleared up a few things about what is happening down here. (Side note: Before I continue I want everyone to know that I AM SAFE and AM BEING CAREFUL).

Okay so First Week of School, I was signed up for 20 classes (not 20 credits, TWENTY CLASSES) so obviously I skipped out on quite a few. Monday-Wednesday classes went as scheduled mostly in the locations we were told (some were moved last minute, Oh you silly Chileans always keeping us on our toes!) Then Thursday there were huge violent protests at our school (Like tear gas and water cannons violent), so to keep all the extranjeros (foreigners) safe our classes were moved to a completely different location for the time being. It was nice that they wanted us to be safe, but it kinda sucks not knowing what bus to take/how long it will take to get to school. Luckily, I figured it out and Monday I will know where to go (and to bring a sandwich for lunch because this location does NOT have a microwave. I learned that only after Nancy packed me a lunch that needed to be heated up.)
Overall I think my classes shouldn’t be too difficult. Except for the fact that they are college level courses taught only in Spanish and some of my professors speak incredibly fast and have illegible handwriting. AWESOME. NOT. Despite that and the strikes I am hopeful that I will find a way to become friends with real Chileans. Maybe I can get them to do my homework for me since they will be bored to tears what with the whole no classes thing going on.

Besitos,
Gaby

Below are some pictures of my school building Casa Central

OUT OF CONTROL!

After living in Vina del mar for a little over a week, I have a new found appreciation for anyone and everyone that lives/works/studies/whatever in a country that does not speak their primary language. Because these people are either incredibly brave or completely insane! (You decide which category I fall into)
It can be very frustrating at times when I understand what people are asking me but I can only give one or two word answers. Even though I really want to be able to elaborate on my day or my daily routine at home or just ask questions in general, I lack the vocabulary to do this. For this reason I have so many problems trying to conversate with these crazy Chileans! And it makes me think about all the people who move to the good ole US of A not knowing English and how a lot of times we think of it as a handicap (not knowing English). When really they’re probably smarter than us because they figured out how to get a job even though they don’t speak the language. So to these people I say RESPECT.

Now I know y’all are probably wondering by now “Gaby, how the heck do you get around this awesome city without a car??” Oh don’t worry I am about to tell you my tales of public transportation in Chile. You don’t want to miss it!
1. My primary mode of transportation during the day is walking (good thing my hiking boots are all broken in!!) Many places in Vina del mar are within walking distance for me, including the beach (la playa)! Can you say #winning?!?! I can also walk to the mall, many other apartments/houses, and various other places that have escaped my memory at this moment.
2. Unfortunately, I have to take the micro (bus) to get to and from school. Well let me just start with this, remember how Chileans don’t follow any rules when speaking? Yeah, they don’t follow any rules when driving either. Entiendes (Understand)? There are many bus stops scattered throughout the city, however there is no schedule. You never know when a bus just might happen to drive by the stop to pick you up. And if one does you better hope they slow down enough to let you on. (side note: look at the signs on the bus to see where they are going, you don’t want to get lsot!) Okay so now you have flagged down a micro and are on your way to school, congratulations you’re half way there! Now you have to know exactly where you need to get off, otherwise the micro will not stop and you will be stuck on that stinkin bus forever! NOT GOOD. When you see your stop coming up just stand and walk to the front of the bus, then push a little button to let the driver know you need to get off. If you miss your stop never fear, the driver will stop where there is no designated stop, sometimes they’ll even let you off in the middle of traffic!
3. Another mode of transportation is the metro, similar to the subways in New York or DC or other big cities. The metro is more reliable than the micros (but then again its difficult to be less reliable than the micros!) The metros have set schedules and stops and are smoother rides than the micro. However, it is quite a walk from my humble abode to the metro station so I take the more adventurous mode of transportation, the micro!
4. There are also two types of taxis, the colectivos and the radiotaxis. The colectivos you flag down like in New York. The radiotaxis you call a number and they send a car to pick you up. Radiotaxis are safer.

So there you go, a guide to public transport in Chile. If you ever come to visit you should be able to successfully navigate your way around Vina del Mar/Valparaiso. And hopefully you my readers, now have an appreciation for all the extranjeros (foreigners) out there!
Besitos,
Gaby
P.S. My next post will be all about my first week of school! (I know school on August 1 HOLY COW that’s early!)