Almost 4 weeks!

It is almost my fourth week here in Chile!  Crazy to think, right?  Not much has happened since I last wrote, but figured I would still update because I probably won't be able to write until after I come back from Machu Picchu! 

Friday, I had classes.. the usual haha.  Later that night though, our group went out to Monesterio, a local pub, to hear our group leader's boyfriend play in a band.  They were awesome!  The singer had such a unique and amazing voice.

Our group leader's (Kim's) boyfriend is on the left, Javier.



Saturday night we were invited to un asado (barbecue) at one of Javier's friend's house.  It was a gorgeous house and had a perfect view of the beach in the backyard.  We all had tons of fun playing games, hanging out, and eating great food. 

Sunday was kind of a chill day for me.  I met up with my friend Janae to work on our presentation that was supposed to be due Wednesday, but it got moved to Friday.  Works for me! haha 

Monday was a holiday here, so we had no classes.  My host family took me and my house mate, Allyson, to different areas in Arica.  They took us a cemetary to visit our host mother's father's grave.  It was a private cemetary and it was very similar to the United States.  Afterwards, we went to this place called Eco-Truly.  The people that live there practice Hinduism and live in these interesting houses.  They also use no water.  It was very interesting to see.  I would not live there though haha.  When we were done visiting Eco-Truly, we went to a place for lunch.  Can't remember what it was called.. but I ate some good food.  I had pastel de choclo.  It was mainly of corn, chicken, olives, and I have no idea what else was in it haha.  It was good though. 

Also, my mom has been begging me to show pictures of my host family so here is some.

Antonio (my host father), me, and Allyson

Me, Karla (my host mother), Allyson, and Francisca (my sister)

Last but not least, I'm going to talk about Machu Picchu!  The plan is that I leave Sunday for Tacna, Peru.  From there, I will take a bus to Arequipa and will stay in a hostel called Misti House.  The next day, I will have pretty much all day in Arequipa until I leave for Cuzco on a bus at 9:00 pm.  We will travel at night and will arrive in Cuzco around 6:00 am.  I will stay the night in Cuzco at another hostel called El Tuco.  Then at 7am on Wednesday, I will be at Machu Picchu!  I will be there all day and won't leave until 9:30.  I heard it is amazing there at night, so it will be awesome to see.  I will take a bus to a town called Ollantaytambo and stay at Hostel Los Andes.  Thursday, I will travel back to Cuzco and that night will have another bus ride to Arequipa.  After arriving in the morning, I will go back to Tacna and eventually back home here in Arica on Friday.  Should be an exhausting trip, but it will be all worth it. 

This week is going to be a hectic week, because tomorrow I have a quiz, Thursday an oral exam, Friday a presentation, and then at 1:00 on Friday I will leave for my overnight excursion in the mountains.  Not sure if I'm looking forward to that or not because they say it is freezing there.  Well, I need to get some studying done!  Until next time.. chauuuu!! =)

Chhiiiiiiillllllleee!!!

We ended up finding a place for us to have our classes in.  We first tried a different place across town that belonged to the university, but the next day the students took over that part as well.  I'm ok with it, because we would of had to take taxis everyday to go to class.  Now, we are renting a classroom that is right next to the university.  It is a little farther of a walk and is a really small classroom, but at least we don't have to take taxis and wake up earlier. 

During the week my primo, Diego, asked me if I wanted to hang with him sometime this weekend.  We decided to hang out on Friday and invited my roommate, Allyson, and her primo, Mauro, and his girlfriend to go along with us.  We met at the university and took a bus downtown.  We walked around and they showed us a few new places and taught us some new Spanish words.  They ended up taking us to a place where they make natural juices.  I ordered Frutilla Leche (which is strawberries with milk).  It was delicious! 

On Saturday, we left at 8:30 in the morning for our second excursion.  We went to the Terminal Agropecuario (Agro - which is like a farmer's market), Parcela de las aceitunas (place where they grow olives), a place where we could view geoglifos, and etc.  At the Agro we walked around and learned about all different, local grown foods in Chile.  Some of the products are from Peru and Bolivia as well.  We got to taste a few things; food is definitely different here in Chile haha. 

As we were traveling to a few different places, I was starting to feel sick.  My upper stomach was hurting really bad and sometimes I felt like I couldn't breath.  My professor was kind enough to let me stay on the bus while everyone else enjoyed the excursion.  The day before my stomach was hurting a little bit, but I didn't think much of it because our malaria medicine that we take has been making people sick.  I thought that I was just not feeling well because of the medicine.  On Saturday though, I was starting to wonder something different because it was not going away and felt like it was getting worse.  What we believed that happened was that when I took the pill, I didn't drink enough water for it to go all the way down to my stomach.  I was having tons of pain in my chest, upper stomach, and my back.  I was able to get medicine that would help.  I am doing much better now, so no worries! =)

On Tuesday, we all met up downtown to talk about our free week of travel.  All of us students decided that we are going to Machu Picchu!  We ordered our tickets, booked our hostels, and are all set to go!  It was better if we split up in groups, so in my group is Janae Holtkamp, Katie Wencl, and Liz Bauer.  We are the best group! ;)  I will go into more detail later about exactly when, where, and how about the trip once I have all the information. 

After our meeting, Allyson, Katie Kinsella, and I went to a restaurant called Schopdog.  We all got crispy chicken sandwiches that had cheese, tomato, avocado, and mayo on it.  I asked for no avocado haha, even though they have really good avocado here.  We also went and exchanged more money.  I have already gone through $100.  Eeeekkkkk!!!  I blame it on the taxis.. we have been taking taxis everywhere.  We have started walking downtown, but don't think we can do it every time because it is a 30-45 minute walk. 

Later that night, Janae, Katie W., and I took a collectivo downtown to meet up with some of the members of our group to watch a parade.  I'm still not quit sure what the parade was for, but my guess is that they were celebrating the end of fall and the start of winter.  Don't know why that would be a celebration =P  The winter here isn't that bad though.  I think I will take the weather here over the 100 degree weather in Iowa =)  At the parade we sat outside of a restaurant to watch.  Janae and I shared some french fries that had salsa and queso on it.  It was pretty good.  I also had a chocolate milkshake.. hoping that it would solve my chocolate craving, but I'm still craving chocolate.  I hope to buy some soon!  I did ask my mom to send me some haha.. along with goldfish =) 

Well, that's it for now.  Here are some pictures from the parade!  Chauuuu!!

El fin de semana!.. the weekend!

Sorry, about not writing on Sunday like I said.  It is hard to get to my computer and have time to actually write something.  Probably shouldn't say when I'll post next ;)  This past weekend, was one of the best!

Friday, our primos threw us a welcoming barbecue party.  It was at Allyson's primo's (Mauro's) house.  It was so cute, because they had American flags hanging and a welcome sign with all of our names on it.  The party started about 7:30, but we didn't eat until 10:30.  I was starving! haha  It was very delicious food though.  We had chicken or steak, rice, corn (with mayo on it... that's how they eat their corn), and potato salad.  When everyone was done eating, we all just hung out, danced, and played musical chairs.  I came in second against Phil.  We first tied, but he ended up winning.  He only won, because I got dizzy and fell haha =P 

Rachel, Kenzie, Ray, Bri, Ally, Me, Liz, Janae, and Hayley

On Saturday, my host family took Allyson and me to the beach!  We got ice cream and walked over to the rugby game.  We only stayed for a few minutes of the game.  Also, we ended up running into Liz!  She ended up coming back home with us and joined us for lunch.  We ate soup, corn (with mayo again haha), and they had steak and rice.. while I had chicken and rice.  After eating, Allyson wanted to take a nap.  Liz, my host father, and I sat around the table and talked.  He ended up showing some pictures of some special race that was held here.  Boys would of totally loved the conversation haha.  It was still interesting though, and it helped that Liz knew a lot about the topic.  Later that night, we all met downtown to go hang out at this place called Chill-Out.  Afterwards, we all took taxis and went to the club, Drake, to go dancing.  It was a pretty fun night.

Me, Katie, and Hayley

Yesterday, was kind of interesting.  Not about my classes haha, but there has been a strike going on at the university.  If I understand correctly, the government is trying to make all the universities in Chile private, which will raise the cost of school.  All students across Chile are having strikes at their schools and some schools have been taken over by the students.  Last night, some of the students took over the university here in Arica.  The students are taking classrooms and are not wanting to have classes at all this week.  For us foreign students, it looks like we may have to have classes somewhere else.  Today, we are supposed to watch a movie, but it just got moved to the American Corner in the library.  We will have to see where we will end up having classes this week. 

I have a test on Thursday and a paper due Friday.. hopefully by some chance we can't have class! =P  doubt it though, unfortunately haha.  Well, that is all I have for you now.. until next time... Chau! =)

And The Classes Begin!

Monday, was my first day of classes.  What a day! haha  My first class was from 8:00-10:00 a.m. The class is called Cultura Hispanoamericana and my professor's name is Jaime Gomez.  He graduated from Iowa!  I already met him before the actual first day of class, because he was the one that took us on our excursion on Sunday (the day before).  I can already tell that this is going to be my favorite class.  I can understand most of what he says and the subject is the most interesting to me.  After my 8:00 class, I have a break which is called "cafecito" from 10:00-11:00.  It is in the American Corner of the library and only English is spoken there (yaaayyy =P ).  At 11:30 I have my next class, Espanol Escrito, with Monica Neira.  She seems really nice and helpful.  I can tell I will learn a lot from her.  Our first assignment for her is to interview a Chilean and write a 2 page story about their life.  I think I'm going to choose my new friend, Carolina, who helps with CISP.  The class gets over at 1:30, and then I go home to eat lunch and have a little break.  At 3:15 I leave with Allyson and Liz to go back to the university and go to our class, Literatura Hispanoamericana.  Our professor's name is Miria Luque and she speaks no English.  So, if we don't understand anything all of us students kind of have to rely on each other to help out.  To be honest, this is my least favorite class and I dread going to it haha.  Our first assignment was to read this long story that made no sense to me.  Hopefully the class will get better though.  Luckily, we don't always have the same classes everyday and at the same time.  We have each class three times a week and usually get done with class around 12:00 p.m.  Mondays are the worst.  After tomorrow I will have completed my first week of classes! 

After my first day of classes, we all met up at 9:30 downtown with our primos to celebrate the 7th of June.  The 7th of June is kind of like our 4th of July.  It is celebrating their independence from Peru.  Everyone went shopping, watched clown shows, and just hung out.  At 12:00 we watched the fireworks and took tons of pictures.  It was a really fun night! =)

On Tuesday, we all went to the beach!  It was super fun, but it was really cold.  Of course the day we wanted to go the beach, the sun was hidden by tons of clouds.  Oh well, we made the best of it.  This day was also my first time trying helado (ice cream) in Chile.  They had a little restaurant next to the beach and we all went there to get food or ice cream.  It was delicious!  haha 

Katie and Me

Bri, Liz, and Katie

Now, the weekend is coming up and hopefully on Sunday I can write what I did.  Until then, CHAUUUU!!!

Finally in Chile!

I made it!!  Finally in Chile!!  It was a very long day to get here, but it was all worth it.  I love the people here and the city.  Everyone is so friendly!  =)

The first day that I arrived was a day to relax, sleep, and hang out with my host family.   

The second day though, the UNI students and I met up with our "primos" (our conversation partners) in el centro (downtown).  My primo's name is Diego.  He is very sweet and I know he will be a great conversation partner.  He knows English so well.. its almost not fair haha.  All of us students walked around downtown, exchanged some of our money, and went shopping for things that we needed.  Of course, the first thing I wanted to buy was a hair straightener! =) 

                                 Diego, me, Allyson's primo, and Allyson

Later on we had a birthday party for Hayley, a UNI student.  It was fun for all of us to get together, hang out, and meet every ones host moms.  Afterwards we went to a club called Drake.  Very different from the ones in the U.S.  The clubs here don't open till midnight and everyone stays till 5 a.m.  That is something I will probably have to get used to.  They actually play a lot of the U.S.'s music here.  Its kind of funny.. they know the words and everything. 

On Saturday, we all went to a party for the foreign exchange students.  This day was a blast!  We met tons of Chileans and most of them spoke English.  We ate lunch there and hung out with everyone.  The Chileans taught us tons of new words and some of the slang words that they use.  We also danced salsa with them.  Well, I didn't haha.. I'm not much of a dancer... BUT I did play musical chairs! haha  Tons of people played and I think I got 6th place haha.  The day was muy divertido!

Today was our first excursión for our culture class.  We went to the Museo del Morro de Arica, some caves, and around Arica.  It was very interesting learning all the information, but towards the middle my brain was starting to hurt because I was concentrating too hard to understand.  Chileans speak really fast.. it is taking a while to get used to them speaking and fully understanding. 

Overall though, I am having a blast here.  It is so much fun to go out and explore and meet everyone.  Classes start tomorrow, so we will see how that goes.  Here are some pictures of what we did today and I hope you enjoy them!  I will try to update again soon!  Chau! =)