Ok, can't think of anything creative for this one...

Alright, so Ruby Tuesday's in Chile pretty much rocks my world. It didn't taste exactly the same, but I got chicken strips--what else--and real french fries with SEASONING!!! For those of you living down here, you know how important and rare that occasion is. The dessert didn't have any sugar in it and was pretty plain, but seriously it was almost like a holiday back into the US. Alright, getting past that...On Saturday we went to the largest copper mine in the world or something like that, and it was a loooong trip. I thought we were going to be like dropped down into the mine or something cool like that, but no, it was just a regular cave looking thing, and we DROVE into it and took an elevator down like 15 km or something. Overall it was pretty uneventful, but the little (heavy) suits we had to wear were pretty cool. The downside--after we went through the mines we had to listen to a guy talk about the history of this deserted town for like 3 hours...and we were all clearly bored out of our minds. On the way back down from the mines (which were way up in the Andes Mountains at like the highest possible altitude) I got altitude sickness, which consisted of the worst headache I've ever had in my life, and I felt like I was going to die. But other than all that---great trip :) Hahaha. I went to Mission Impossible III on Sunday, and surprisingly I actually liked it. I didn't think I was going to at first, but it was one of the few selections that we have in movies here right now, so I gave it a chance, and I really liked it. So now maybe I should see the first two...My birthday is in 5 days!!! And my mom and my sister get here on Saturday!!! It's been a great week for me...no homework, no tests, and it's been sunny and warm all week. OH, and I'm not sure I'm going to the desert anymore, I might go to Easter Island instead, but I'm still trying to chose between the two. Someone help me pick! Well, I have to go get some sleep since I have class at 8 tomorrow. Chau!

Chile and the Chocolate Factory

Ok, wow, so I didn't exactly keep the promise of keeping this updated...sorry! Anyways, last weekend our group went to Isla Negra, near Santiago. Our first stop was a chocolate factory owned by this cute old man named Félix, and all of the chocolate they sell is made from pure, natural ingredients, with no artificial anything. It sounded really weird at first, because some of the chocolates had cheese inside of them, which sounds incredibly gross but tasted really good. We got to sample all of the different kinds, which ended up being like twelve pieces of chocolate, and I felt like I was going to throw up, but it was really good. Then we got to try these brand new chocolates that contained Omega 3, which is found in fish and is really healthy for you...I think it reduces cholesteral or something...and it was the very first time EVER anywhere in the world that you can find chocolate that has that stuff in it. So that was pretty sweet. After the chocolate factory, we all went to a Chicharía, where they make Chicha, a popular liquor in Chile. We got to see some nasty little barrels of fermenting grapes, and of course we got to sample the chicha. After that, we went and visited another one of Pablo Neruda's houses--he has three--and it was GORGEOUS! It was right along the shoreline, and the waves in the ocean were a really gorgeous blue color. The house was really nice, too, and it was huge and had amazing views of the ocean. And this house is where Pablo Neruda was actually buried, so we got to see the tombstone and everything.
Last weekend was Mother's Day here, too, and so we all bought our host moms chocolate from the factory. My little brothers made breakfast that morning, too, and it was....not good at all. I had watery cold oatmeal, semi-warm chocolate milk, a bunch of fruit, a bunch of bread, and random cereals mixed together. Mmmmmm...
This weekend, we're taking another trip to some sort of copper mines, and we get to go down way deep inside of them, and we have to wear all this gear and masks and stuff...should be interesting. A couple days ago there was another huge bus accident down here again, this time a little closer to home. It was with the bus company I always travel with, Turbus, and it was travelling at night to some place down south, and it drove off the road and flew head first down a steep hill and hit something, I'm not sure what, but it decapitated all of the passengers that were inside of it. On the news, they showed a fireman holding the legs of a baby, but the baby wasn't attached. It was a little harsh. So that was really sad.
Well, that's all I've got for now. Today I'm going to Ruby Tuesday's for lunch, hoping that it tastes semi-normal. Chau!

The weekend, which we started on Wednesday...

So this week was a short week for us, since we had Monday off from school, and I decided not to go to class on Thursday, so this weekend started on Wednesday. I had two exams on Wednesday, and one on Tuesday, so it was a little stressful. Anyways, after my Spanish exam on Wednesday, I went out with my friends Sarah, Owen, and Eric, since Owen was about to leave on a bus for the weekend. We all went to the bar at the bus station to have a couple drinks before he left, and on our way to the bus station (I have to mention this because it's so hilarious) we passed this guy on the street that was dancing around with a sticks and singing in the weirdest voice, "Dit de deee dee di dum" It was hilarious! So after we said goodbye to Owen, I went home and had a little dinner, and then I went out with my friends Yalina, Ryan, Ashley, and Joanna, and we went to this bar in Valpo called Piedra Feliz because Ryan's professor was playing in a jazz band there that night. It was really loud, but it was cool, and we talked to his professor, who's from Cuba, for a while about his life, etc. Later this weekend we're planning on going to Huevo, which is one of the biggest dance clubs in South America, so that should be fun. I think it has like five floors or something, with different types of music on each floor. My mom and my sister come down here soon! And, it's almost my b-day! Yay! So yeah, at least I'm a little more caught up now, I'll try to keep up next time! Chau!

Ain't no mountain high enough

Alright, so I'm getting a little behind on these...About Pucon, I think I've finally rested up enough in order to write about it now. Don't get me wrong, the place was beautiful, it was just a lot more exercise than I had planned on. So we took our 12 hour bus ride to Pucon, and I didn't sleep the entire night, so that helped my energy level sooo much when we got there. We ended up finding this fairly decent hostel called Donde German, and we moved all of our stuff into it and rested a little bit. The next morning, we decided to climb the volcano at 7:30...can I just add right now that I wasn't all that enthusiastic to be climbing the thing in the first place? So anyways, we put on all of our gear, which included a backpack with about eight pounds of stuff in it, boots that weighed seriously about ten pounds each, and these blue wind suits that we had a lot of fun taking pictures with :) So we drive to the volcano, and we all get out and take a few pictures and play around with our little ice picks that we got, etc. Heather and I had been planning on taking the chairlift up the volcano for the first hour, but it turns out that the lift was broken, of course!, so we had to climb the whole thing. Now, you all know that I'm not exactly an exercise person, so about thirty seconds into the climb, I'm already exhausted and can't breathe. Meanwhile, our guide was like an expert rock climber, and he's dragging our group along at Superman speed, and I slowly started to lag behind. About a half hour into it, Heather is lagging with me, and we're taking breaks every minute or two. This volcano was seriously so steep, we had to use ice picks to get up, and the picks were really short, so it was hard to stay balanced while leaning down so far. So after a while, it's just me and Heather, since our superman group is way ahead of us at this point, and we come to the rocky area, where we were basically rock climbing without ropes. I was so exhausted I could hardly move, and Heather was having a really hard time, too. We were almost silent the entire way, and our faces must have both looked so pissed off, because we were seriously stuggling. At one point when we were climbing the rocks, Heather just stopped dead in her tracks and said, "Fuck this!" And she had been the one that was the most enthusiastic about climbing the thing! So we finally caught up with our group, mainly because they had to wait for us, and after about 5 and a half hours we had finally reached the snowy part of the volcano. At this point, our guide turned to Heather (I don't know why he didn't turn to me as well, because she and I were both struggling) and told her that she should probably turn around right now and go back down with a different guide, since we had FOUR MORE HOURS left to climb before we reached the top. This was really frustrating because we could literally see the top of the volcano, and it was sooo close! But due to the snow and ice, it was a slower, harder climb. So, obviously, I gladly volunteered to go back down with her (do you seriously think I was crazy enough to keep going?) and we went back down. It was the worst feeling in the world---I was soooo tired I just wanted to die. The next day we were all so sore we could barely move. Luckily that night, though, we got to go to the natural hot springs, which was like a lake that felt like a hot tub because it's heated by volcanic activity. It was glorious! And that's pretty much all we did in Pucon, since we were too exhausted to do anything else. I'm glad I went and got to see the gorgeous view from the volcano, I just wish I wouldn't have had to torture myself with the climb in order to see it!