hola chiquillos! (hey everyone)
whelp, i am past the half way point of being here in chile and less than 2 months and counting until i touch back down in the united states...back to reality. and lets be honest, thats scary. i know i say this every time i write but seriously, i cannot believe how fast time is going. to think back and look at my pictures from when i first arrived, to remember how i felt seeing people and places for the first time that are now so familiar, its crazy. Chile feels normal to me now. like home (almost). dont worry, im coming home and i cant wait but really, Chile feels like a second home. or a third home i guess if we count Noblesville, Butler, and now, Chile. my heart keeps leaving itself in places but i guess that is the life of a traveler. and for now, i am good with that. leaving little pieces of myself wherever i go, bringing smiles to the faces of those i meet.
there are so many things about home that i miss. and each day i am realizing how many things about chile i will miss. but the thing is, i still have 7 or 8 weeks or so and for that reason, i am determined to make the very most of each day that i possibly can! and enjoy those who i am with and all the things we see and do. not that i havent been before but it seems like everyone here has suddenly just realized that the end is coming. studying abroad in chile will end. before it just seemed like this huge long indeterminable time but now it is as if we are all filled with a fervor to rather than put off going to see such and such place tomorrow, to go today, and live in today rather than in tomorrow. so enough of the rambling, back to refocus.
the longer i stay in chile and frequent the places that i enjoy, i am starting to be recognized by shop owners and even though we dont know each others names, we share a little bit of life in those fleeting minutes when i arrive to buy a little pastry or some dinner on the go. we chat and share a smile and then i am on my way. the smiles of these owners is something a bit difficult to describe but its kind of exciting. when they recognize me and remember the last time i visited. its pretty neat.
so. events. my MOM came and visited for 5 or 6 days last week. we had beautiful, sunny, warm weather each day she was here. it was a whirlwind of activity as i played tour guide and showed her all over Viña and Valpo, we even took a couple short trips to a vineyard and another coastal town farther north, Cachagua, where the Humboldt penguins reside on a little island. it was SO beautiful there, the beach was deserted, the water a deep blue, and the penguins small and so cute. we couldnt see them too well but close enough to know they were penguins. super sweet. it was incredible to see her, i hadnt realized how much i had missed her. seeing my mom was kind of like seeing the rest of my family as well, and i definitely miss them. being away from family and friends for this long, in completely new and foreign surroundings has really made me realize not only how much i am loved, but how blessed i really am. i know some amazing people and really truly appreciate and love all of your letters, notes, pictures, random shout-outs. i wish you could see how excited i get and the huge smile that spreads across my face when i see something waiting for me.
so anyway, i played tour guide and showed my mom my Chile. i had her try almost all of my favorite foods here: lúcuma ice cream, maicena, churrascos and completos, empanadas, mil hojas...all sorts of the delicious things Chile has to offer. it was fun to just be with her and show her my life here as well as meet my host family and friends that i have made here. its always interesting showing your life to someone else and seeing what they think of everything, re-seeing things that are super normal to you but through their eyes. not knowing much Spanish but still trying to understand and doing a pretty good job communicating with my host family, i played translator most of the time which helped my bilingualism somewhat and increased my confidence as we maneuvered through the bus and metro system among other things. we rented bikes and rode along the coast, stopping to explore some tide pools where we found some sea anemones clinging to giant kelp covered rocks and even saw a dead sun star. the penguin colony visit was most definitely the highlight of the week though it was a long 2 hour bus ride into uncharted territory..they never really tell you when you arrive to a city so we had to guess when we arrived to the city we wanted and ended up getting off on the side of the highway and hiking alongside the ocean until we finally found the path we needed. such is the life of a traveler. we cooked for my host family (chicken divan and apple crisp mmmm) and spent our last day together in Santiago, exploring around there. i ate really well the week she was here and before we both knew it, it was time for her to get back on the plane and fly back to the states. my dad comes in december to go travel south with me so that will be exciting as well though it is still far off for now...it will come fast.
we also recently sprung forward and are enjoying daylight til almost 8pm now which is glorious. i love daylight savings time and once it stays consistently warm and sunny i hope to really make the most of the longer hours of daylight.
classes here are not really that hard and i am realizing that i get a lot of pity points simply for being not from Chile or natively speaking Spanish. i've gotten a couple tests back recently where i received much higher scores than i definitely deserved, some of which i didnt even really answer the question being asked but i guess my effort got more points than actual content or maybe i did write what they were looking for. either way, the days of study are few and far between and with the onset of some gorgeous weather i find it difficult to sit inside and study anyway so i suppose it all works out. as i have told some, i am not really here to study though that is part of the experience..being in Chilean classrooms and seeing how university classes are conducted here and learning a bit. i am more here for the experience and learning the culture and the language. and with the latter goal i believe i am succeeding to the full. as i said at the start of this entry, Chile holds a piece of my heart and i consider myself extremely blessed to be able to be here, in this particular country, meeting the particular people i have, seeing so many places and truly discovering the true meaning of -living life...in its most purest form-.
if you are still reading, i applaud you for slogging through my ramblings with little focus. why focus when i can just write what is on my mind? thats the most raw anyway, what i really feel rather than some organized, neatly written, organized piece about the experiences i am having. thats not really who i am either. i am messy, all over the place and i like to ramble. (much to the chagrin of my host mom in regards to the messes i make..i dont mean to, they just happen. she is extremely concerned about me staining stuff..its a good thing i am 20 and not 2 otherwise she might really wig out)
In the spirit of previews, I will be traveling to Argentina with Kelan and Luke next Wednesday, consequently Halloween which we shall celebrate on the bus as we travel through the Andes. So look forward to some Argentine tales!
i hope you too are truly enjoying life and living it to the fullest. there will always be work to be done but not always life to be lived. with that in mind, i send my love and wish you the best. thanks for all your love and support and cyber hugs! God is good.
love,
katie :)
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Living in the Beautiful Whirlwind Called Life
Life has definitely picked up recently. I continue to revel in the fact that I do indeed go to a Latin school and with that in mind, have lots of classes cancelled, rarely have work to do, and have the ability to just not show up for class if i have something better to do. quite the contrast from Butler but i am definitely still challenged. kind of. a little. at times. i've actually spent the last few days-week or so studying and getting a ton of stuff done. so i have been studious but upon finishing my essay at 8.30 this evening i am now looking forward to 2 weeks of fun in the sun and a little bit of class. next week one of the colleges at my university, the college of business actually, is celebrating its anniversary of becoming part of the university and therefore, we dont have business classes all week long. i'll take that. im soaking up the fun now b-c i know it wont be so laid-back at butler but to each his own.
so, what HAVE i been up to since i last checked in? spring is here with full sunny warm vengeance and spectacular green-ness and growth. there are flowers everywhere and the leaves are the trees are coming out full and new and happy. i love walking down the side streets of the cities, lined with green leaves finally as the warm sun beats down on my happy bare feet. its awesome to be able to break out the sandals yet again. i missed them.
i've had lots of random adventures...studied for a few days for a philosophy test i thought we had only to find out the night before that i was mistaken. i'd misunderstood what the profe had told me. but it worked out b-c the next week we had our test and i had already reviewed a lot of it! another essay test, they sure like those here. i went to an aerobox class with my language partner..we meet up every week or so to speak in English and Spanish as she is trying to learn english and well, im here for spanish. ive resigned myself to the fact that i will not be fluent by the time i leave here. always close but never quite there. chilean spanish isnt really the easiest to become fluent with and while i have become very fluid in my speaking theres still a lot to learn and know and grammar to correct. i try but i just dont think i will get to fluency. who knows though, i did just pass the halfway point of being here. i cant believe its nearly mid-october...it seems so weird that fall is happening in the U.S. with happy springtime here.
oh right, the aerobox class. so i met up with Gigi one saturday morning a while ago and we went to the basement gym of PUCV and i basically made a fool of myself for an hour. there was music and all these movements and punching and kicking the air and spinning. i just kind of tried to move around but kept running into people and looking silly. it would most deifnitely have been exactly the same had i tried it in the states so i cant even pull the language barrier card. i just dont have aerobox rhythm.
this past weekend i first went to Cajón de Maipo with leslie, kelan, and caroline. the 4 of us caught train after train and bus after bus until finally after exploring most of santiago's train system, we arrived to a small town on the edge of a beautiful canyon in between the Andes mountains. we backpacked around the area and climbed a few of the nearby foothills. for the evening we were told by a few as well as a sign that camping was prohibited in the area. however, after hiking for a bit and coming across a roped off area with a peruvian woman standing guard, we talked to her and were granted permission to camp, though she was surprised to see that it was just us women, no guys. chilean women arent hardcore and i doubt many of the friends i have made would be up for camping in the wilderness like we did. we brought along food, mostly crackers and a few loaves of bread and some meat and cheese sorts of stuff. ate along the River Clarillo and set up camp a little ways away. we had a gorgeous view of the snow-capped Andes as well as some neat rock formation mountains and trees. one big difference between camping in the states and camping in chile is that you cant leave your camp set up and then go hiking..it will get stolen so we had to carry everything around with us and our huge intense looking backpacks. that made hiking a bit more tricky but we definitely managed. after deciding we didnt have enough firewood to start a fire we sat around the leftover ashes from someone who had found enough wood and ate our ramshackle meal. the stars eventually started popping out, one by one and within a few minutes we were greeted to quite the display of southern hemisphere stars. it was absolutely gorgeous and after kelan and caroline went to sleep around 9, leslie and i stayed outside looking up at the sky in simple silence and awe, giving way to sharing life stories and soaking up the chilean evening and the beautiful night sky. we crawled into our sleeping bags shortly before 10pm...theres not a whole lot to do without electricity! the next morning we went farther into the canyon and were told that if we wanted to hike we had to pay the equivalent of ten bucks to go on some trail. after looking at our incredulous faces, the guide told us about a secret trail a few blocks away. we were greeted by a pack of 3 dogs at said trail and continued on anyway. the dogs became our companions and followed us all the way up to the very top of this mountain where we were all greeted with more stunning views of the canyon and mountains. the hike was super tough and at times we werent really on a trail. but we made it eventually and it was super worth it. good friends, camping, hiking, nature, laughing, living. life in its most pure of forms.
back in santiago, kelan and i joined up with heidi luke adam and jordan for a bit. kelans birthday was monday and the two of us celebrated by touring the city and climbing another hill that greeted us with less pretty views...just smoggy santiago and the mountains kind of in the distance. we spent a lot of time in the train station, traveling from one side of the city to the other. by the end of the day we joked that we could win in the scattergories category of Santiago Metro Stops...probably not far from the truth. the metro in stgo is much crazier than that of Viña-Valpo. for one thing, there are 7 million people in stgo compared to less than a million between the two cities of viña-valpo. therefore, most of the time you are running to catch the train before the doors start to close, almost cut off your leg, and then you have to kind of force people to move a smidgen to give you a bit of room to stand and kind of breathe. expect to almost fall over every time the train moves or stops or goes. it was quite the experience but fun all the same. kelan knew of some restaurant that made salads so we went there for lunch and it was delicious...the -salad- here is normally random raw veggies cut up onto a plate covered in vinegar and salt. these salads we ate were real and soooo good. a huge bowl with lettuce and nuts and chicken and veggies and goodness. yes.
the evening arrived, bringing the point of our trip to santiago in the first place: the Incubus concert. i dont really like incubus and just went along for the ride and to hang out. i ended up narking out standing up and only knew about 2 songs. the lead singer greeted the crowd with his two phrases -gracias santiago- and -que tal-. they also brought out the chilean flag and waved that around a few times, much to the glee of a pretty packed house. the concert was only 1.5 hours, incubus was the only band that played. it was fun to hang out with everyone, but not really something i'd care to repeat. after the concert we met up with a bunch of people we'd met from the hostel we were staying at from all over the world: england, spain, brazil, and some others i forget. we celebrated the last bit of kelans birthday and the start of adams in a perkins looking place on a street near our hostel.
i am eagerly looking forward to this friday now when my mom flies in from indy to visit for nearly a week. i cant wait to see her and show her around this life of mine here in chile. i miss you all a lot but am definitely enjoying chile and really cant believe its almost half over. i love the people i have met here and cant wait for more adventures though i am also counting down the days until i can brighten all of your doorsteps and see you all again. time will pass as it does and i have been learning so much. not just Spanish but about myself, about life, the perspectives of others towards the U.S. and a variety of other topics. i could go on and on but i think this is probably long enough already. the point is, study abroad if you arent already, travel whenever you get the chance, and always be ready for plans to change or not work out, perhaps for the better.
jump in a pile of crunchy leaves and drink some warmed apple cider for me!
love,
Katie
so, what HAVE i been up to since i last checked in? spring is here with full sunny warm vengeance and spectacular green-ness and growth. there are flowers everywhere and the leaves are the trees are coming out full and new and happy. i love walking down the side streets of the cities, lined with green leaves finally as the warm sun beats down on my happy bare feet. its awesome to be able to break out the sandals yet again. i missed them.
i've had lots of random adventures...studied for a few days for a philosophy test i thought we had only to find out the night before that i was mistaken. i'd misunderstood what the profe had told me. but it worked out b-c the next week we had our test and i had already reviewed a lot of it! another essay test, they sure like those here. i went to an aerobox class with my language partner..we meet up every week or so to speak in English and Spanish as she is trying to learn english and well, im here for spanish. ive resigned myself to the fact that i will not be fluent by the time i leave here. always close but never quite there. chilean spanish isnt really the easiest to become fluent with and while i have become very fluid in my speaking theres still a lot to learn and know and grammar to correct. i try but i just dont think i will get to fluency. who knows though, i did just pass the halfway point of being here. i cant believe its nearly mid-october...it seems so weird that fall is happening in the U.S. with happy springtime here.
oh right, the aerobox class. so i met up with Gigi one saturday morning a while ago and we went to the basement gym of PUCV and i basically made a fool of myself for an hour. there was music and all these movements and punching and kicking the air and spinning. i just kind of tried to move around but kept running into people and looking silly. it would most deifnitely have been exactly the same had i tried it in the states so i cant even pull the language barrier card. i just dont have aerobox rhythm.
this past weekend i first went to Cajón de Maipo with leslie, kelan, and caroline. the 4 of us caught train after train and bus after bus until finally after exploring most of santiago's train system, we arrived to a small town on the edge of a beautiful canyon in between the Andes mountains. we backpacked around the area and climbed a few of the nearby foothills. for the evening we were told by a few as well as a sign that camping was prohibited in the area. however, after hiking for a bit and coming across a roped off area with a peruvian woman standing guard, we talked to her and were granted permission to camp, though she was surprised to see that it was just us women, no guys. chilean women arent hardcore and i doubt many of the friends i have made would be up for camping in the wilderness like we did. we brought along food, mostly crackers and a few loaves of bread and some meat and cheese sorts of stuff. ate along the River Clarillo and set up camp a little ways away. we had a gorgeous view of the snow-capped Andes as well as some neat rock formation mountains and trees. one big difference between camping in the states and camping in chile is that you cant leave your camp set up and then go hiking..it will get stolen so we had to carry everything around with us and our huge intense looking backpacks. that made hiking a bit more tricky but we definitely managed. after deciding we didnt have enough firewood to start a fire we sat around the leftover ashes from someone who had found enough wood and ate our ramshackle meal. the stars eventually started popping out, one by one and within a few minutes we were greeted to quite the display of southern hemisphere stars. it was absolutely gorgeous and after kelan and caroline went to sleep around 9, leslie and i stayed outside looking up at the sky in simple silence and awe, giving way to sharing life stories and soaking up the chilean evening and the beautiful night sky. we crawled into our sleeping bags shortly before 10pm...theres not a whole lot to do without electricity! the next morning we went farther into the canyon and were told that if we wanted to hike we had to pay the equivalent of ten bucks to go on some trail. after looking at our incredulous faces, the guide told us about a secret trail a few blocks away. we were greeted by a pack of 3 dogs at said trail and continued on anyway. the dogs became our companions and followed us all the way up to the very top of this mountain where we were all greeted with more stunning views of the canyon and mountains. the hike was super tough and at times we werent really on a trail. but we made it eventually and it was super worth it. good friends, camping, hiking, nature, laughing, living. life in its most pure of forms.
back in santiago, kelan and i joined up with heidi luke adam and jordan for a bit. kelans birthday was monday and the two of us celebrated by touring the city and climbing another hill that greeted us with less pretty views...just smoggy santiago and the mountains kind of in the distance. we spent a lot of time in the train station, traveling from one side of the city to the other. by the end of the day we joked that we could win in the scattergories category of Santiago Metro Stops...probably not far from the truth. the metro in stgo is much crazier than that of Viña-Valpo. for one thing, there are 7 million people in stgo compared to less than a million between the two cities of viña-valpo. therefore, most of the time you are running to catch the train before the doors start to close, almost cut off your leg, and then you have to kind of force people to move a smidgen to give you a bit of room to stand and kind of breathe. expect to almost fall over every time the train moves or stops or goes. it was quite the experience but fun all the same. kelan knew of some restaurant that made salads so we went there for lunch and it was delicious...the -salad- here is normally random raw veggies cut up onto a plate covered in vinegar and salt. these salads we ate were real and soooo good. a huge bowl with lettuce and nuts and chicken and veggies and goodness. yes.
the evening arrived, bringing the point of our trip to santiago in the first place: the Incubus concert. i dont really like incubus and just went along for the ride and to hang out. i ended up narking out standing up and only knew about 2 songs. the lead singer greeted the crowd with his two phrases -gracias santiago- and -que tal-. they also brought out the chilean flag and waved that around a few times, much to the glee of a pretty packed house. the concert was only 1.5 hours, incubus was the only band that played. it was fun to hang out with everyone, but not really something i'd care to repeat. after the concert we met up with a bunch of people we'd met from the hostel we were staying at from all over the world: england, spain, brazil, and some others i forget. we celebrated the last bit of kelans birthday and the start of adams in a perkins looking place on a street near our hostel.
i am eagerly looking forward to this friday now when my mom flies in from indy to visit for nearly a week. i cant wait to see her and show her around this life of mine here in chile. i miss you all a lot but am definitely enjoying chile and really cant believe its almost half over. i love the people i have met here and cant wait for more adventures though i am also counting down the days until i can brighten all of your doorsteps and see you all again. time will pass as it does and i have been learning so much. not just Spanish but about myself, about life, the perspectives of others towards the U.S. and a variety of other topics. i could go on and on but i think this is probably long enough already. the point is, study abroad if you arent already, travel whenever you get the chance, and always be ready for plans to change or not work out, perhaps for the better.
jump in a pile of crunchy leaves and drink some warmed apple cider for me!
love,
Katie
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