This is how I spent my last few weeks...

These are for a project in my vertebrate zoology class. I had the best time making these with my group.

I am not surprised I havent written more in this thing. I am horrible at keeping up with blogs and all that jazz. I leave here on August 9th after some traveling to Argentina. I finish school on Monday and after that Im just going to try to enjoy the time that I have left.

Good news and bad news

Bad news: I have to memorize and identify 80 Chilean birds by Thursday.

Good news: My host family is trying to memorize them also to help me out and motivate me.

This is only reason #399 why I love my host family.

Usnavy

So I titled this post Usnavy to intro into a funny story my Spanish teacher told my class this week. We were talking about globalization here in Chile and how the US has affected Chile. He wrote Usnavy on the board and told us that it is an actual name of a Chilean. Turns out the father of this person was a sailor from the US and the mom named the child after his father, the name written on his uniform, US Navy. Ridiculous and so funny all at once.

This update might be a little long. I will start off describing my Easter (p.s. so long ago!). That weekend we went to Mendoza Argentina. There were 6 of us that went and took a 8 hr bus ride to get there. We arrived on Good Friday early in the morning. Unfortunately, everything in South America closes down on holidays such as Good Friday so no stores were open and hardly any restaurants. The streets were dead!!! It was crazy to see hardly anyone walking around. But we made the best of our Friday. My friend Alison and I decided to go paragliding while the rest of the group went on a wine tour. So we arranged paragliding through our hostel. Paragliding wasnt the thrill I thought it would be, but it sure was gorgeous and so peaceful. You basically ran off a mountain and slowing glided down with a parachute. It was cool to see the different mountains and landscapes all around. Mendoza was really beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Chicago, just the way the streets were laid out and stuff. There were lots of pretty plazas and lots of artisans to buy stuff from. The trip overall was really fun and quite peaceful. But when I was in Argentina, I missed Chile A LOT. I missed my family, the ocean, the people, the atmosphere. It made me happy though because I finally felt like I could call Chile home.

The weekend after I went on a church retreat with the college youth group in the church I attend. That was amazing. I learned a lot from God that weekend. It was also really cool to spend the whole weekend speaking Spanish, meeting new people, and just relaxing without thinking about homework and stuff.

Speaking of school, this has been an epic week for me. After failing my first 2 weekly quizzes in my zoology lab, I finally passed my last 2! I was really excited to finally get a passing grade in something. I also had my first major test this week in Personality Psych. I believe I passed, although multiple choice is a lot harder in Spanish than it is in English. haha.

On Fridays, most of the students do not have class and I only have one lab in the morning so some of us have started what I like to call Adventure Fridays. Every Friday afternoon, we go adventuring and exploring a different area around Valpo. The first week we went back to Horcon, the tiny fishing village I went to before. We went to collect sea glass and enjoy the day. Then this Friday we went to the sand dunes (see pics below) in neighboring city Reñanca. We had to climb up the dunes to get to the top and it was so worth it! The sand was so fine and beautiful, and it was a perfectly clear day so you could see the ocean, waves, and rocks from above. I am beginning to love Fridays. This upcoming Friday is labor day, so we shall see what mini adventure will come our way!
sunset in Reñaca beach in Horcon

paragliding in Mendoza
Sand dunes

Once again it has been a long time since I have written here, but since school has been going, my time seems to be more limited. I will try to update as well as possible.
We had a beautiful few days of sun and warm weather last week. I was so happy because my winter clothes that I brought are limited so I was pleased to be able to bust out the summer wear again. Unfortunately this week we arent so lucky, rain and cold. But whatever, the weather doesnt affect my mood much.
This week in school I actually felt like I understood what was going on which was a great accomplishment for me. I am starting to forget English words also, which makes me happy that I am actually learning Spanish. One thing I must mention about school. Apparently in Chile, you have to bring all your specimens that you will dissect to class. Last week I had to go to the market and buy a congrio, type of fish. This week my lab partner had to hunt in her backyard for frogs. Next weeks assignment is to bring in reptiles. I find this so odd that we have to buy our own animals then kill them in class too! O yes, the frogs we brought in were live. :)

Last week was the futbol game for the World Cup qualifier of Chile against Uruguay. We unfortunately tied, but the game was so much fun! Chileans have so much love and pride for their country. Every minute they were chanting and shouting cheers for their country mates. Although a great time, it was not as crazy as I expected: no riots, overbearing crowds, etc. I have begun to realize that I should not believe every thing people tell me here. All of our host families told us to get to the stadium 5 hours early right when it opens because if not, we will not have seats. Ha, we got there super early and there was like no one there. Its all good though, a good time was has by all and I finally got to go to Santiago.

Then last Friday my host family had a birthday party to attend to so I went along and invited my gringa friend Kelsey. This party was for their niece who was turning 30, so it was a big deal. I spent all Friday afternoon helping decorate, prepare food, etc. The party was in a small beach town next to Viña called Reñaca. The party was overlooking the ocean and was absolutely gorgeous. I just would like to say how much I love my host family though. I got to spend time with them outside the house and see them interact with other family members. And man, my parents love to dance. We dance, chatted, and watch some drunk karoke. We got back super late in the morning, but it was totally worth it.

Since this is holy week, we do not have school tomorrow, so I am heading off to Mendoza Argentina tonight! We will only be there for like 2 days, but it will be good to see something new. I havent traveled yet while I´ve been here, so I am pretty pumped to do some exploring. Happy Easter to all!

Semana Mechona

It's hard to believe I have already been here a whole month. The time here has seriously flown by considering the slow pace of everything in this country! I really wish I had the patience to write a long post right now but really I dont feel like it. Last week was good. All my program was gone traveling except for me and my friend elena. it was good though. we explored more of valpo hung out a lot and went to this tiny potsmoking fishing town called hurcon. we mostly just climbed on rocks for 3 hours. but it was fun. a good week in all. im going to the chile vs. uruguay in santiago on wed. im so pumped!!! we won yesterday also, so im keeping my hopes up for south africa. more details to come about the game, but for right now, enjoy the pics from my week.

Se acabo la luna de miel

So the honeymoon phase of my study abroad experience is definitely over. This was probably the hardest week so far for me here. I got super frustrated with the language and not being able to understand anything in my classes. I think that is one of the hardest things to get used to here, is the school system. Allow me to explain.

The education system is completely different here. There are 8 different websites and places that you can find announcements about classes and info about your courses and books to read to help with the classes. Of course everyone knew about these places because they are used to the system, I am having an extremely different adjusting to the differences. The library is so confusing also. You don't buy your own books, you go to the library and make copies of the books that the prof reccomends. But for the week, he won't give you a specific amount like "read these 20 pages in this specific book" These are the instructions I received for my zoology class "read about the urochordates for next week". There are 9 books on the recommended reading list. I searched the library 2 days straight looking for these books. Aparently the recommended books are in a reserve area behind a counter that you have to check out specially. Anyways, a very friend TA helped me figure all this stuff out. Lesson learned; ask more, specific questions to get solid concrete answers.

Another lesson I learned this week was to really know what classes are cancelled for semana novata before you buy a plane ticket. So starting monday begins semana novata. This is a special week at the beginning of the school year for incoming freshman where there are many musical acts, cultural events, games, and many other activities. I was told that most of the classes were cancelled that week, except for the ones early in the morning. Well, aparently the labs for my classes weren't and they are mandatory to go to since we work in groups and the following lab builds off of the next. Anyways before I found out about my labs I bought a ticket for Patagonia for the week to go hiking in the national park Torres del Paine. So I couldn't go now and couldn't refund my ticket. I was really upset about the amount of money I wasted and an opportunity missed to see a gorgeous part of the country. Now, though, I have come to terms with it. I feel a peace in my heart now about staying here. I know God has a plan for why I am not able to go...

That reason might be to stay with my friend Alex who had to go to the hospital yesterday for stomach/intestine problems. She is fine now, but she had to stay overnight in the hospital and it was very scary and painful for her. I was really glad I was able to be with her and help out in any way; if I went on my trip I wouldn't have been on a plane when she was in the hospital.

In conclusion this week was probably my lowest, but I survived, realizing that the study abroad experience is a long one and it is still early. I'm going to go through many problems, highs, and lows and I need to keep pushing through. I am blessed to have met some very awesome girls in my program who are making it easier. Also, hearing about others' study abroad experiences makes me feel like I'm not alone in my journey. Man, that was probably my deepest thought yet. :)

Primera semana de clases

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So a few days before Macalester begins spring break, I finally attended a class! Unfortunately, I did not learn one single thing, since the first week of classes is just talking about the classes and what we're doing this semester. Blah, blah, blah. I'm still trying to figure out my schedule though; it is quite difficult though, with scheduling of labs, classes on other sides of the city, and all that stuff. It looks like right now I'll be taking developmental pysch, personality pysch, vertebrate zoology, and my spanish class. I might add in this camp class where seriously, you get 3 credits to learn how to camp and then go camping :). We shall see, we shall see.

My classmates were pretty nice, especially in my developmental pysch class which contains only kinesiology majors (of course they are the coolest haha). But some students approached me and made me feel very welcome and all that, especially since I'm the only gringa in my classes. In the other classes that people in my program are taking there are way more gringos than Chileans, so I sort of lucked out in my classes as of right now...

Besides from school and trying to figure out the classes, the bus system, and the hard-to-understand Spanish, I've been trying to get to know the cities a little better. Last Saturday, our program went on a tour of Valparaiso. We went to Pablo Neruda's House, La Sebastiana, which was so gorgeous, the inside was decorated so uniquely and beautiful, full of bright bold colors. Unfortunately, we could not take pics inside the house. But the view was amazing; you could see the whole city and the ocean. Perfecto. We also walked around on 1 of 42 hills that are in Valpo. There are so many artists out sketching the hills, buildings, and people of the city, I'm starting to become inspired. Haha. But seriously, though, Valpo is so beautiful with all the bright colored buildings, and they structure in which they were built on these hills is absolutely spectacular. We finished the day by taking a boat ride around valpo and vina del mar, which was refreshing.

I also go my ear pierced again. It was the spur of the moment thing, after a very bad day of classes haha. It was only the ear though, other girls got nose and belly buttons pierced (I could have been way more impulsive:) )

This week a lot of people in my program bought tickets for the world cup qualifier for Chile against Uruguay. I'm so excited for my first soccer game. Hopefully it will absolutely insane. That's all for now. I hope all is well with all who read this!