La Vida Chilena con la Influencia Americana :)

Today I finished my first week of classes.  In some ways it feels as though the time is flying, and in others as though I have been here forever.  Life living in the city is really wonderful.  I love the fact that every convenience that I could possibly want is here, that there is always something to do, and that all at the same time it is surrounded by beautiful mountains.  One theme I really noticed this week was that American cultural influences are everywhere here.

One of the "city-highlights" was heading out of the metro stop where I am staying and running into a concert in the middle of the street.  I was amazed at how many people had stopped in the middle of the street to watch these guys play.  I stayed for awhile, and managed to grab a little video to share.  They are actually pretty good, but it´s a little ironic that they sang mostly American songs.

This week I managed to make my yearly trip to a club :).  For those of you who know me well, I am NOT a "discoteca" kind of girl, but more of the brew pub type.  But even more than that, I am the type of person who if you ask me to do something, there is a great chance I will say yes just for the experience!  So when the group of Brasilenos asked me to join them for a night out, I said "yes".  The first club we went to was called After Office (that is not a translation, but how it is called here in Santiago).  The have no cover fee if you show up before 9, which was a little tricky for a group of people who work on Latin American time (I am including myself in that).  We literally RAN up 8 floors to make it there at 8:59.  PHEW!  It was really a good time.  It is atop a 10 story building, and the main part of it is on the roof.  So with a rooftop view of all of Santiago lit up, I was super happy I decided to go out if only to get that kind of view of the city.  The second club was more of the type you would find in Ybor, kinda dirty and no "wow" effect.  I was amazed at both that about 95% of the music was American, unfortunately the prices for the drinks were the same as well.  All in all we danced, drank, and lived it up.

Last night I headed out with some other new friends from my classes.  One of them is leaving Chile in a few days and has really wanted to try a nicer restaurant called, Liguria.  The food was more Italian than anything, but nonetheless, delicious!  The Chilean wine wasn´t so bad either.  Afterwards, we decided to head out to the mall in Santiago.  It was as though I was in the US and could have been in any American mall.  We strolled around and got some ice cream.  There is a huge movie theater there and I am hoping to catch a Chilean movie (most of what they offer is from Hollywood and subtitled or dubbed).

Although life in the city is wonderful, the plan for the weekend is to enjoy a bit of the AMAZING nature here.  Tomorrow I am headed to a place called Cajon Maipo, where we will hike and then enjoy some hot springs (I will try to find a bathing suit today for this, which will be really difficult mid-winter).  Sunday, I am heading to the Andes to ski!  It will be my first experience and while I am a little nervous, I am mostly ready to embrace winter.  If things don´t go amazingly skiing, I will be posting lots of pictures of snowy mountains. :)

Hasta la próxima!

Santiago, Una Ciudad Perfecta

Sunrise from my bedroom 

When you travel time seems to move at a completely different pace.  It´s like Jerry Seinfeld says when talking about traveling with a boyfriend or girlfriend, he says that traveling is the way to put the relationship in a incubator.  For this reason I feel very much like I have already been here for weeks, not just under three days.


Typically I would say that I am not a huge fan of the ´´city life´´; but Santiago has really changed this for me.  Where I am living is about 4 metro stops from the school where I am studying.  I love being able to hop on the metro and head to school, passing the wonderful smells of bakery shops and the sights of people all heading their own directions to start the day.  Santiago is extremely clean, the people couldn´t be more friendly and helpful, and the architecture is simply impressive.  I happen to live on the same street as the tallest building in South America (or maybe it´s just the tallest mall?).  I haven´t gone yet, but hey, it´s fun to have something famous a block from where I am staying. Yesterday I tried some local brews, where were wonderful and definitely worthy of great write-ups in the brewlong :).  Last night I took a Cuenca dance class, and enjoyed a Chilean asado (like a barbecue, but more amazing) while sharing a bottle of Chilean wine.  Honestly, the wine alone makes me love it here!

I´m guessing that is the tallest building :) 

As far as classes go, I am as happy as can possibly be.  My first class, a grammar class, has been changed 2 times, which is actually perfect, because now I have had the chance to review the phrases like, ´´I like chocolate and have 2 brothers´´to´´If I saw my best friend´s boyfriend cheating I would tell her for sure´´.  No, but in all seriousness, the classes are perfect.  There are 3 of us in my current grammar class (the correct one), and about 6 of us in my conversation class.  My classmates are from all over the world: Germany, Brazil, South Korea, Italy, and one other from the US.  It´s wonderful to have Spanish as our common language and not speak in English at all.  I have really stayed pretty true to this, and even told a guy last night that if he wanted to chat with me he would have to do so in Spanish :).  He kept chatting, frustrated, but hey- I didn´t come here to speak English with American boys.

Life at ´´home´´ is great as well.  My host family is a sweet couple, Gabriel and Carmen.  They have a wonderful place.  Gabriel sells an emergency insurance and Carmen works in translation.  Together they have been hosting students for over 10 years.  He is super social and funny, which I love.  We spent two hours chatting today during lunch.  He also does all of the cooking!  How lucky is Carmen??  :)

My bedroom 

There is a certain feeling that I have here that is difficult to explain.  I feel very much in love with this city- and we know from my first moments here it wasn´t quite love at first sight, but probably the next best thing.  After only two days Santiago has me dreaming of returning, dreaming of finding work (although teaching Spanish wouldn´t go over really well), and in all reality not dreaming very much because I´ve already managed to go out with some new friends!!

Un abrazo desde una ciudad perfecta!

Vale la Pena: A long story, for an even longer morning

This about 10 hours after it happened to not forget the crazy details, because I am sure I will block this morning for my memory. So I will say that I expected the trip to Santiago to be a little stressful arriving at 2:55 a.m. and knowing that I would have to wait in the airport for a few hours before the bus schedule started.  I had pulled up Google Maps beforehand and felt pretty confident about the bus schedules and where I was headed.  After going through customs I planned to get myself a coffee, and try to clean up a little bit before meeting my new Chilean family (hoping to make somewhat of a nice first impression after a night no sleep in the airport). I took my sweet time with a coffee, journaled a little bit, and made myself the warmest and best looking that I could for an airport. The plan was to wait for the sun to rise, which due to the lack of free internet, and the winter time here, I had no clue when it would happen. I asked the waitress at the cafe where I was sitting and she told me that she works night shift, goes home at 6:30 a.m., and never sees the sun. I knew then that it would really be a long morning.

At about 7:20 it seemed light enough out to get on the bus. I showed the bus driver my directions and he was so kind to help me and not only let me know that they weren't quite right, but take the time to write out the correct ones for me. I rode to the metro station where I would take two different metros and arrive about 8:30 a.m.. I thought to my  myself, "Wonderful! I am really doing this."

The bus driver indicated to me when it was time to get off and head to the Metro. I remembered reading online that I needed to buy a BIP card for the metro here in Santiago. I went to the cashier and explained to her where I was headed and asked her what I would need. During this time a beggar, who was selling pens (maybe I should call him an "entrepreneur"?) came up to me and was saying, "Oh beautiful Spanish girl.  How are you?".  Now normally I don't seem to give much attention to beggars, but two things were going on here: 1) I actually took what he said as a compliment because he mistook me for being from Spain (great compliment to my Spanish); and 2) I had to get out my wallet in order to pay the fare for the metro and he was extremely close to me.  I asked him nicely to give me some space, so did the woman behind the window and her co-worker.  He didn't seem to want to do that. About 5 seconds later enters a huge police officer. Now I have done some reading that the Chilean police officers are the kind of people who pride themselves on moral character and really providing a service to the people.  After about 2 minutes of this officer asking him to leave and give me some space, he didn't seem very willing.

So here I am, having not slept, and I now have a police officer, a heckler, and two metro employees all causing a little bit of a scene.  I just want to buy my ticket and get to my destination. Eventually the scene seemed to clear up and I thanked police officer and the workers. Of course I was a bit frazzled, but managed to make my way to the metro and towards my destination.

It hasn't been mentioned it yet, but it was really cold.  Cold is not something I naturally respond well to anyway, but in this scenario it just added to my stressful moment.  I eventually arrived at La Cisterna, the metro stop where I would be staying. I asked the metro worker for directions and he took time to Google it on his phone for me. Chileans have officially made it to the list of most helpful people ever, at least in my mind. I headed out in the cold and got a cab. I must say, in this moment I thought to myself that Jessie was kinda right, Santiago wasn't the more modern metropolitan city I had imagined.  What I actually thought was,"holy shit, I am staying in the ghetto".  Honestly, I was okay with the ghetto if it meant I would find myself in a bed within the next hour. We headed down the street and both looked for the house number. In this neighborhood it seems that they all just pick their favorite number and put it on the house. There was no 139, which was extremely discouraging to me at that moment.  The cab driver was friendly, but didn't seem to know the address at all. He asked me if I had a phone number, which I did but I told him I had no cell phone to call.  This extremely kind man offered to call for me. I didn't understand the whole conversation, but what I did understand was that he was going to take me BACK to the metro station.  In my mind I thought "NO, NO, NO,NO!!".  Of course, I thanked him so very much for calling for me after he got off the phone and told me that I was in the wrong providence altogether!

OMG.  How did this happen?  Well, there are two El Sur Bosque in Santiago.  Well no, there is El Bosque Sur and El Sur Bosque.  Of course, I was about forty minutes from where I wanted to be and it was already almost 10a.m..  With everything in me, I listened to the cab driver's directions and just trusted he would get me there.  I thanked him a million times over and in the most kind way told him I hoped we didn't see each other again.  :)

This time I was determined I would get to a bed, even if that meant giving up and getting a hotel.  I once again got on the metro and headed right back to where I came from in hopes of arriving before noon.  I feel bad for the people of Santiago on the metro this morning who had to look at my face, so grumpy and communicating, "don't mess with me, I will freak out on you."  I followed the signs, made the transfers, and got off at my stop.

I walked up the stairs and all of the craziness seemed to fade and a rush of excitement came over me as I saw the most beautiful mountain range!  Now this was better than anything I could have imagined. A beautiful city surrounded by mountains like I've never seen, and can I just say I've seen some mountains (Alaska, New Zealand, Colorado). In that moment it didn't matter if I was lost; the quaint tree covered streets, with the impressive architecture, (and did I mention the mountains?), made everything okay. Fortunately, I was only about a five minute walk from where I was headed.  I was so pleasantly surprised when I did see 139 El Bosque Sur. I stopped to take a photo and then headed inside where I was greeted by a door man. He let me know I was in the right place and to head up to the 7th floor.  There I was happily met by Gabriel and Carmen.  Both they and their home made me feel like I have won the lottery.  Honestly this journey has already taught me so much about Chile and the amazing people here.  I am so happy today is now over, but couldn't feel any more grateful to have arrived safely to what seems like paradise.

Hollywood, English, and Playing Pool: This Peruvian Life

I spent the day at the hostel in Lima, and honestly couldn't have asked for a better day. I slept in until 9, which meant that I missed the free breakfast. Although, I'm me, and so this just gave me the opportunity to chat with the girl at the front desk to see if they didn't have "solo algo pequeno para mi" (just a little something for me). Sure enough they did :). Fresh fruit, pan, and cafe instantaneo (kinda regretted not bringing those little Starbucks packets). But who am I though to complain about the great free breakfast that I slept through and they so graciously gave me?

After breakfast I sat down to plan out the day in Lima. I didn't really want to go too far, because I only had about 8 hours and wanted to be sure not to miss my flight after yesterday's extravaganza. Just as I was thinking of all this two American guys walked into the hostel. Peter, a guy with the largest beard I've ever seen (I REALLY missed this photo opportunity) and Jonathan (a med student who has an amazing ability to look things up on his iPhone and incorporate them info into a conversation in an amazingly natural/seemingly impressive way). They both were full of amazing travel stories that we shared over lunch at the local market (which, please note, was as LOCAL as it gets). We were the only tourists there. I ate a great bowl of soup for 3 soles, about $1 and it even came with a yummy tea. We headed back to the hostel after roaming around the market a bit and played some pool.

After awhile, I decided to head to the other room where some American guy and an older Costa Rican woman (maybe 50s) were watching Bridges of Madison County. It was kinda a funny sight, and a funny way to spend my first day in Peru; but I decided to join them. She left after some time for the airport, and he and I started chatting (which means I missed the end of the movie, but there's always my next trip to Lima). We chatted for about 2 hours. He had just quit his job and spent the past two months in Peru. He hiked the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, swam in Aguas Calientes, and learned a great deal of Spanish- quite impressive! I introduced my new friend, Nick, to the other guys and we decided to head out for dinner.

It was nice to have 3 guys to not only pass the day with, but also to walk through the shady streets of this airport neighborhood with as well. We ate at a chicken place, which reminded me how happy I am to be eating meat :). The dinner was a whopping 10 soles, about $3.50usd. Afterwards, Nick and I shared a cab to the airport and kept each other company for the next few hours chatting, sampling Cafe Britt, and petting a $1200USD baby alpaca blanket for as long as we could before the employee came over to ask if we wanted to buy it. :) He told the guy he'd be back in 10 years for it (honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if that happens). My flight began to board and we said our goodbyes; for him the end of an incredible journey and for me just the beginning!

South America Here I Come!

As a graduation celebration I decided to scrap the graduation ceremony in Bemidji and head down to Chile. I've been talking and thinking of this trip for years, and each time I see photos my heart leaps. This has always been an indicator of where I should go on my next trip; to Chile it is!

Well, after watching flights for months, I decided to fly through Lima and save almost $600. This also gives me the opportunity to see a bit of Peru as well. The plan is to spend about 5 days there on the way home, after 4 weeks in Chile. That brings me to this morning.

Part of saving so much on the tickets meant that I had to fly at 7:45, a bit of a challenge for a teacher on summer break, and even more so, out of Orlando. Fortunately, I was able to spend the last few days with Kelsey and JP because of it. Early this morning I awoke, after only a few hours of sleep, I finished shifting things around in my backpack for the 30th time, and headed to MCO. I must say, packing for 5 weeks of winter is challenging to do in one small backpack.

But, back to the morning. I headed to the extremely hidden Orlando International Airport (the signs are small and brown, and look like the 'Adopt a Road' signs). Needless to say I was running late and a bit stressed. I arrived to the airport and parked the car for Kels and JP to pick up later. Upon entering I thought, "PHEW, this line is nice and short." As this is my first flight with Spirit Airlines, I wasn't aware the it takes 26 minutes to check in 2 people. The agents called for those flying to Ft. Lauderdale, and I, and about 4 other parties indicated we were on that flight. I felt fortunate when she called me 2nd, but had a suspicion I wouldn't make it. In that moment I made the right decision to carry on my bag. I ran to security, only to find a line of about 300 people. When I mentioned to the TSA agent that I was about to miss my flight, she responded, "Everyone is about to miss their flight." I took a moment to remember that I was headed on a 5 week vacation, and she spends her life herding unhappy people who are all taking off their shoes. I didn't say anything, but made peace with the idea of missing my flight.

Fortunately, it was plenty early and I thought that sure enough I could easily hop on the next and still make my 5 pm flight to Lima. I was very unpleasantly surprised when I got online and realized that this was the only flight until 9pm. I then decided with everything in me to try and make my flight. Another, much more kind, agent rushed me through and I ran to the gate. It was that moment when you realize you are running for nothing because the door was closed, and the plane was sitting there. Oh, the joys of post-911 travel! Shortly afterwards, groups came running towards the gate with the same looks of disappointments and expectations on their faces. Who knows what was going on that so many of us missed our flight? But I was proud that I kept it together (at least in that moment in public). I can say that I did get a great lesson in Spanish cursing. :)

From there I collected myself and decided to rent a car and DRIVE to my connecting flight. After a cup of coffee, a good cry, and a chat with a friend, I made the 3 and 1/2 hr drive. While this wasn't quite in the plan or the budget, I have a feeling it is preparing me a bit for traveling sola through Chile.

Me making the most of it on the Florida Turnpike 

I must say, I'm really looking forward to landing in Lima and getting to the hostel. This day isn't over yet, but I'm envisioning the rest of it has got to go more smoothly.

Buenas noches y buen viaje!

Weekend in Puerto Rico: The 'Ron Tour' and El Yunque

We enjoyed the last two days of our Puerto Rico trip tremendously!




Day 1: Puerto Rico is famous for their rum, and so we decided to tour the factory on Saturday morning.  Well, our planned "ron" tour, didn't quite happen when we got off the ferry and realized we were supposed to follow a group of strange men into a parking garage to get into a white van and be driven to god-knows-where.  We both made the most of the moment and talked about what a nice ferry ride we had.  :)

After that we spent the whole afternoon strolling around Old San Juan.  We saw El Morro, watched a wedding, lied in a huge grassy field while about 100 people flew kites, and then ate cupcakes at an adorable little cupcake shop.  That night we went out and made some fun friends, who kept us company, and who somehow managed to get us drinks all night without us paying a thing!  What a wonderful day.

Watching the kites fly overhead 

El Morro

Una Cena Puertorriqueña

Day 2:  We spent the day en El Yunque, Puerto Rico's tropical rain forest (and the only one in North American).  Not to be crude, but Emily decided to take this visit to "El Yunque" and make an "El Duque" on the side of the road on the way into the rainforest.  Jaja.  After our emergency pull-off, we traveled into the rain forest and were wowed at the moments where, as simple as it may seem, it rained.  It is amazing to stand in the middle of the greenest green ever, and hear the rain come down around you.  We enjoyed the sites and then headed for the airport.  What an awesome trip.

Puerto Rico: The Weekend Version

When I saw flights from Tampa to Puerto Rico for $183, I thought to myself, "Yes!".  Within a half-an-hour I called my friend Emily and she was all about it.  We booked our tickets for a weekend getaway (which seems so reasonable after having traveled to Madrid for the weekend once).

She found us a great hostel in Viejo San Juan, at only about $30 per night for a private room and a view of Plaza Colon like none other.  We arrived to the rental car agency, both Spanish speakers, to pick ourselves out a car for the weekend.  I must say, because this was the first place I came when I arrived back in 2008 on my first trip to PR, this little Enterprise car rental will now forever hold feelings of nostalgia when I think of Puerto Rico.  :)

That night we made our way to the hostel, arriving at almost 9:30pm, and then decided to stroll and find some dinner.  Puerto Rico keeps a much more American eating schedule than most Latin American countries, and so we ate almost completely alone.  As we were finishing up dinner, two Dominican guys came up to our table to chat.  They told us that they were going to convert the restaurant into a bar/club after hours and that we should definitely come back.  While the thought of staying out and dancing the night away with some Dominicans holds some sort of "vacation appeal", it was in this moment that I realized I am starting to get old.  Together we decided to head back to the hostel and just enjoy the night in so that we could make the most of tomorrow.  What happened to me??  Seriously.

Either way, it was a nice dinner with true piña coladas, and it feels great to be back in Puerto Rico!