Te echo de menos

Alright, so this week a bus drove off of a cliff in northern Chile and killed twelve American tourists. I got a phone call from my mom at one in the morning, and she was freaking out about it. Then, I got about a thousand e-mails from people at home asking if I was still alive. Yes, I am still alive, and no, I didn't see the accident first hand. I watched it on the news down here, though, and that was pretty weird. They aren't afraid to show blood on the news here, that's for sure. They showed the bus, and it was basically crushed to nothing, but then they showed the inside of the bus, and it was all bloody and really disgusting. US news normally doesn't show all the blood and stuff, so that was a little shocking to me. And the day after the accident, another American tourist died in Valparaíso, which is the city right next to where I live. He was getting onto an asensor--it's basically a little elevator that looks like a roller coaster and it takes people up the steep hills in Valpo when you can't get there on the roads--and he didn't really know how to board it, and so it started moving and he fell through the crack and fell about a hundred feet. I didn't see that one either, but I do take the asensores every week to get to my dance class.
So my sister and her boyfriend are in Peru right now, and I get to see them on Tuesday. Then they're spending a couple days here in Viña, and then on Thursday me, my sister, her boyfriend, and my friend Heather are going to Mendoza, Argentina for a week. We have plans right now to go paragliding off of a mountain on Saturday...I just hope I don't freak out or die or something. Americans haven't really been having much luck down here lately. Then Heather and I are going canopying between two mountains, above a river. Canopying is where you're tied to a harness that's attached to a wire, and you basically just sort of glide down the wire. That should be a little less freaky than the paragliding. Then once we return from Mendoza, our study abroad group is taking a trip to La Serena, Chile, which is up north about seven hours from where we are. I'm not exactly sure what we're doing there yet, but there's a beach and it's warm, so it should be ok. And the week after we get back from that trip, a group of us are going to Pucón, Chile, where they have a volcano that you can hike, and the lake district, which is supposed to be really gorgeous. Ice Age II comes out on the 31st, and I can't even go to see it right away because I'll be in Argentina! Guess I really can't complain too much, though. Well, that's about it for now. Besitos!

Not better, not worse, just different

Ok, so this weekend was a little crazy. On Saturday, our group took a tour of Valparaíso, the city that my school is in, and we got to visit one of Pablo Neruda's houses. He's a famous poet that won the Nobel Prize, so it's a really big deal down here. Then we got to go out on a boat around the port, and we saw a whole bunch of sea lions lying on the boats that were in the bay. At first I thought it was really cool, but then I watched one of the huge sea lions (they looked like walrus' to me) jump onto one of the boats and I thought to myself "Hmmm, that boat is the exact same size as the one I'M on" and from that point on I was terrified of being crushed by a giant sea mammal. But it was really fun though. And as we were getting onto the boat, one of the Chilean guys that was helping us board decided to practice his English, and he kept saying "West Side!" really loud and with a really heavy accent, which was hilarious. Then on Saturday night one of my friends got robbed by a guy with a knife, which pretty much freaked us all out. He stole EVERYTHING that she had, including her money, credit cards, ID, phone, camara, everything. Luckily she didn't get hurt, but still it was really scary. And another one of my friends got robbed at a club, but luckily all they stole was her cell phone. Like I said, crime is REALLY bad down here, and people will steal from anyone. I refuse to walk alone at night here, and sometimes even during the day it's a little sketchy. All of us are sort of freaking out now, a lot of people are starting to get really homesick, and yes, we still have four months to go. The last couple days here have been a little cold and cloudy, so maybe that's why everyone is so down. Hopefully it'll get a little better soon. My sister gets here this weekend, and I get to see her on Tuesday! And then next Thursday we're heading to Mendoza, Argentina, so that should be cool. Oh, I have to mention some of the things I've noticed since I've been down here. First of all, the micro (bus) drivers are out to kill us all. They all drive incredibly fast--and by fast I mean we seriously FLY by all the cars on the road--and, honest to God, they RACE each other! They're all individually owned buses, so the drivers compete for people to ride on THEIR bus and then they have to be the first bus at each stop, so they all drive past each other and honk really loud, and then it becomes a flat out race to the next stop! And sometimes, the buses will pause at your stop instead of actually stopping, and you have to just sort of jump off. And another thing I've noticed is that the shirts that they wear down here that have English writing on them don't make any sense. And other ones are completely inappropriate, and I really don't think that the people wearing them know what they say. No joke, the other day my friend Heather and I were at the beach, and a guy walked by with a shirt that said, "Caution: I fuck for fun." And then we were at the mall the other day, and there was this really nice-looking store that had shirts in the front window that were really nice, but across the front it just said "Jackass." Nice. And then Heather and I went to the music store, and we were looking at all the music, and we looked over and there was actually a section labeled "Black Music." Wow. Anyways, I actually have homework to do now--lame--so I better get started. ¡Chao!

The one with all the pictures...

Ok, so they're not exactly organized, but whatever, at least I finally got them up here. The top pic is of my group when we went to the national park called La Campana and we went inside of the copper mines, which was really dark and scary, but kinda cool. Then there's a pic of a replica of the moai that are found on Easter Island, and it's at a museum that's right down the street from my house. The next pic is of some friends of mine on our last night in Olmué, right before most of them got picked up by the police. Then there's a pic of my little brothers on Laguna Beach--not the TV show but rather an actual place. They're kinda far away, but I swear it really is them! And the last pic is of the beach that is literally like a five minute walk from my house. It's usually pretty crouded, but that doesn't matter because it's gorgeous!!!
So, last week the new chilean president--a woman named Michelle Bachelet--was sworn in. They did it right next to where my school is, so that was pretty cool. And then we had daylight savings time, and fell back an hour, so now I'm only two hours ahead of MN time. Oh, and just when I thought I was getting the hang of things around here, I went and got reeealllly lost yesterday and almost died again. I was in a really sketchy part of town and my host mom told me where to get off of the bus, but I couldn't see any street names so I totally missed my bus stop. And so then, when I finally did get off, I had to do exactly what they told us NOT to do at orientation, and that's stand on a corner looking at a map. And so I'm in my map (hahaha, gotta love Friends..) and I realized I was like a mile from where I was supposed to be, and I had to ask about ten people how to get to the building, and when I finally found it I was about 45 minutes late for my first day of dance class. And the torture didn't end there. I finally got into the dance class, and then we did a little dancin' and everything was fine, until they made us all sit in a circle and write down the lyrics to the song we were dancing to. I was still ok at this point. But here's where the torture came in. The professor then assigned us all a chorus of the song to sing--SOLO--in front of the entire class. Now, let me describe this class to you: all chileans, all music majors, all really good singers, all talented...and me. Yeah, I won't go into detail, but lets just say I didn't like it so much. I can say one thing, though, I've definitely lost any shyness I had before this trip started.
My host brothers are still adorable, but their friends Max and Chloé are not so cute. They spent the night last night, and since my brothers are right across the hall, I got to hear crying, laughing, and yelling until 6 am when I had to get up for school. Good times. Next week I start my Intercambio de Idiomas, in which I get to talk to my chilean partner, Luis, for an hour, and we have to speak a half hour in Spanish, and the other half in English. Should be interesting. This weekend we all get to go on a tour of Valparaíso, the city that my school is in, and we get to go out on a huge boat in the ocean, so that should be cool. That's all I have for now, later!

Brilliant

This week went a lot better than last week, that's for sure. So far no more creepy guys, and I'm finally starting to fit in here. I was mistaken for a Chilean on the bus the other day, and people on the street actually asked me for directions. I was on the beach with my friend Esther the other day, and a vendor came over to us and we were like, "No gracias," and the man pointed over to a group of guys and told us that one of the guys had bought a bag of snacks for us. Hahaha it was hilarious. I guess here it's the equivalent of the American "buy a girl a drink" thing. And then of course one of the guys had to come over and talk to us, and he was really kinda sketchy...here they call them "flighties," although I'm not exactly sure what that means. But Esther and I booked it out of there as fast as we could--we had to "meet up with someone." Hahaha. I'm in a literature class with almost all Chileans, and so far I've been doing ok, up until the professor assigns homework, then for some reason I can't understand a word she says. Not so great. Hopefully I'll get the hang of it though. Yesterday my host mom told me to invite one of my friends over for dinner and to spend the night, which we were told is really uncommon here, so I wasn't expecting it at all. It was good though, because I know that my host mom wants to get to know all of my friends--it's the whole overprotective thing again. I really miss the food back home...and guess what the only food that makes me sick down here is? McDonalds. Every time I eat it I get sick, so now I don't know how I'm going to live. And they eat a ton of fruit all the time. For breakfast my mom gives me like two plums, a banana, and a bowl of grapes, along with cereal, a sandwich, and yogurt. I swear I'm going to come home weighing like a million pounds. Oh well. 18 days down, 127 to go. My sister and her boyfriend are coming to visit in less than two weeks, which will be interesting considering neither one of them knows a word of Spanish. Can't wait. Again, still trying with the pics, I have some really good ones! Later!

Si no fuera por ti, no quería vivir

Ugh, ok, so I still can't figure out how to put my pictures on here because half the computers down here don't have a disc drive, but I'm trying. This last weekend was extreme hell for me, and seriously I hope I never experience it again. After our small earthquake that scared the crap out of me, I learned that Chile is also prone to tsunamis, so that's really cool:( And then on Friday night I got attacked by a Chilean guy at a party that I was at and luckily I was able to escape that one. He was being extremely forward and then he tried to drag me upstairs and literally tried to carry me there, and he was being really gross. Luckily, I was there with one of my friends and they were able to help me out, but I don't know what would have happened otherwise. It was seriously traumatic. And then I woke up Saturday morning with pink eye, so that was a fun little surprise that I'm still enjoying today. And then today, I was late for my very first class here, and by late, I mean I almost missed the entire class and really shouldn't have even shown up. But hey, at least I'm starting to understand people a lot better here, and I always have the beach to fall back on I suppose. I think I'll be staying away from Chilean house parties for a while and stick to the bars and clubs, because I definitely learned my lesson this weekend. It was my friend Paul's 21st birthday on Thursday, which isn't a big deal down here since the drinking age is 18, but it was still fun. I went to my first movie down here, Syriana, and it was so confusing I didn't get any of it. I got to watch the Oscars in Spanish last night, which was really annoying because the translation was totally off, but at least I was able to see it. Plus we have MTV in Spanish here too which is hilarious by the way. Anyways, that's all for now, just pray it doesn't get any worse for me! Just kidding, I really am having fun down here, just learning a lot along the way. Later!

Ooops, I did it again

So I completely fried myself at the beach the other day. I have never been more burnt in my entire life. I got back to the apartment and didn't seem to feel too bad, but after about an hour, my skin was sooo burnt that it was almost purple. My host dad told me that there's a hole in the ozone layer right above Chile, and because of this the sun is about ten times stronger. Of course, I learned this AFTER I had just been on the beach for five hours without sunscreen. Oh well, you live and learn I guess. Now my host mom calls me La Roja ( the red girl), and I've gotten a lot of sarcastic comments from my friends down here. We all found this really fun bar down here called Café Journal, and now our whole group goes down there almost every night. Apparently here it's normal to stay out until six in the morning...for me it's just tiring, and I think my family is starting to worry because I sleep all the time. It's been so hilarious down here because we're all getting so messed up with the languages. Now it's hard for all of us to speak English, and when we try we all start mixing the two languages and sound completely ridiculous. I'm still getting used to kissing perfect strangers every time we're introduced to somebody...it's still a little odd for me. It's custom here to hug and kiss people we know every time we meet up with them, and when we're first introduced to people we have to kiss them instead of shaking their hand. Very different from the US, but, oh well I can get used to it I guess. I registered for classes today, and school starts on Monday. I'm taking a lot of literature and social classes, and a traditional dances of Chile class. Today I have to go shopping and try to explain to the guy at the computer store why my computer isn't working...it should be interesting. Not much else is new, other than my skin color, but I'll try to get more pics on here as soon as I can. Later!