Fin de Semana Largo

They increasingly celebrate Halloween here, just like in so much of the rest of the world. Gotta love the exportation of U.S. culture around the globe... In honor of the holiday, I bought a bag of chocolate pumpkins. All the other Halloween candy at the grocery store looked unappealing--I miss Kit-Kats and Sweet Tarts!

But much more exciting than Halloween is the fact that this is a long weekend, since tomorrow is a real Catholic holiday (All Saints Day). It's a perfect break for me between classes and volunteering. I've suddenly become productive, studying Spanish vocab all day Saturday and organizing digital photos all day today. (Public Service Announcement/shameless product promotion: Kodak Easy Share software is evil and Google's Picasa has suddenly become the answer to all my wildest dreams for photo organizing and sharing)

Yesterday afternoon Taylor and I had lunch with Terri during her 24 layover between trips, and afterwards we enjoyed a nice walk around Cerro Santa Lucia, another of Santiago's urban parks. And, on the way there we captured photo evidence that we're actually living here for a reason:

Campaign posters

Tomorrow we're going hiking in the foothills above Santiago, and I plan to avoid all contact with plants and lather on the sunscreen. The drugs did their job and I am no longer itching (at least not enough to prevent sleep), thankfully. I will be careful in the future, but I refuse to stop hiking because these stupid plants!

Edited to add--here's a picture from our hike:

Atop the mirador in the foothills

Español III

Today I finished my Spanish classes, yay! I'm excited to do something different, because in the last week I really began to feel like I have reached the limit of the usefulness of classes, for now at least. We've been "practicing" the subjunctive by answering inane questions and giving lame advice to hypothetical problems. It's just not doing it for me anymore--I feel like I've covered the major grammatical structures, so now I need to use the language for real to actually improve. Which is the main reason why I'm starting to volunteer with children next week--I'll be spending at least 4 hours a day in an environment where all communication is in Spanish, so it's got to help. But I'm also terrified that they are going to hate me, because they'll expect me to know more and I'll just be dumb.

It is very not clear to me how my Spanish has improved over the past 2 months. Taylor says it has, but I honestly do not feel that I am much more competent "el la calle" (on the street, as one of my Spanish teachers always likes to say). Being here has suddenly made me understand how it is possible to live in a country and never really learn the language--e.g. immigrants to the U.S. As long as you have a basic support structure of friends, and even more so if you have some employment and services available in your native language, it is so easy to get by with just some basic words. You can hear the other language every day on the street, and even watch tv, but it doesn't have to sink in unless you force yourself into a situation where it has to. And when you are an adult, with a developed personality, interests, and skills, life is just so much more comfortable in your native language (or even a second language in which you are already fluent). So although I definitely believe that every new language enriches a person's life, and that integrating into local society (which requires language competency) is valuable, I certainly will never pass judgment on anyone who doesn't speak the language of where they live. And I have the highest respect for those who learned a new language later in life and completely adapted themselves to live in a new place.

Litre

So I have the Chilean version of poison ivy/poison oak, which is called Litre. It sucks, although to be fair it sucks less than the poison oak I had back in March. I seem to have been exposed to it during my ill-fated Columbus Day hike up Cerro Manquehue, a hill in Santiago. Everything about that hike was bad, and it won't go away! I thought it would be nice to do a day hike that was easily reachable by public transportation, so I went with 2 friends. It started out ok, but then it got really steep and I felt like crap. I ended up turning around before reaching the top because I had to rest every five steps and it just wasn't fun at all. Two days later I had a fever, and the following weekend (last weekend, in Mendoza) I had a spot on my arm that was oozing extreme grossness. I knew then it was from contact with a poisonous plant, but although it was gross I was relieved because it didn't itch that much and it didn't seem to be spreading. The oozing finally dried up after a week, and I thought I was in the clear, but then yesterday I broke out with an itchy pin rash over almost all of my body. Since I couldn't sleep and I didn't know if the rash was related to the hike or something new, today I went to the doctor. She confirmed that it was Litre, and prescribed me some drugs, that I hope will work as well as the steroids I got for my poison oak. So I guess now I just wait.

Apparently the allergic reaction is sensitive to the sun, which is perhaps why I broke out yesterday--on Saturday I went on another excursion to the Cajon del Maipo, this time a bike excursion. It was fun to be on a bike, and the weather was beautiful, although it was another trip where the transportation and preparation time exceeded the actual activity time. Instead of public transportation, we had a guide who met us at a metro station with the bikes and a van to take us to the cajon. But the guide was an hour late (and he wasn't even Chilean! He was an American, but he apparently had been living in Chile for too long), and then after we drove to the cajon it took at least another hour to get all the bikes ready for riding. A bit frustrating, but what can you do. Here are some pictures:

crossing the Rio Maipo

view down a tributary and across the cajon

the bus almost packed up and ready to head back to town

Mendoza

Well, I made it to Mendoza and back, and it turned out to be a great weekend if a little different than expected. First of all, Geert and I got lucky with both our transportation and lodging. On Thursday night we purchased some of the last available tickets for Friday night's trip to Mendoza. The company was random and the bus was a mini-bus, but that turned out to be good for crossing the border because it took less time. And since a high mountain pass at 2 am is freakin' cold and boring, that was a very good thing. We arrived in Mendoza at 5 am with no hostel reservations and no idea what we were going to do for the next few hours. Fortunately, there was a woman at the bus station promoting her home/hostel, and after short deliberation we decided to go with her because it seemed a lot better than wandering around the city. It turned out to be the best decision we made all weekend, because the room was comfortable, she let us sleep the rest of the morning and fed us breakfast, she was super nice, and in the end it was amazing value--we were there for almost 2 full days, including sleep and breakfast on Saturday morning and access to a shower before our Sunday night bus, and it cost $7 each. Moreover, we found out later from other guests who initially declined her bus station solicitation but then returned, that all the other hostels in town were full.

Anyway, after our Saturday morning rest and breakfast we set out to explore Mendoza. Mendoza has a few sights--a few parks and small museums--but really it's about walking around and enjoying the Argentine architecture, food, wine, and prices. On Saturday the first thing we did was stumble upon a parade, that seemed to be some sort of exhibition of dance, mostly Spanish, in honor of officials visiting from Spain. Here are some pictures, which show both the dancing and the lush greenery of the city.

view down the street

closer up, geert in the background

the guests of honor

Mendoza has many beautiful plazas. Here is one of them:


In the afternoon we did some shopping (I bought shoes!) and more walking around, with a few breaks for snacks or beer. The whole time we were waiting to hear from Peter and Erin, who told us they would call when they got back from wine tasting. We were supposed to meet up for drinks and dinner, and in general coordinate some of our sightseeing, since that was why we were there this weekend in the first place. Well, they never called, so we returned to our hostel, rested and cleaned up, and set out for dinner on our own. Fortunately, the Argentine steak and wine did not disappoint. We each enjoyed a big juicy steak and we split a bottle of tasty wine, for a total price of less than $20. All in all, it was a very satisfying evening.

On Sunday most of the shops were closed, so we walked to this huge park at the edge of town and took a tour. We went to the top of the cerro (hill) in the park, but unfortunately vegetation obscured the views of the city and clouds obscured the views of the mountains. But it was still a pretty park. After a delicious lunch of ravioli in vodka sauce (Argentina also has great italian food), we walked to the other side of town to the Area Fundacional, where the city center was before an earthquake destroyed it in the mid 1800s. We visited the archeological museum and took a tour of the excavated fountain under the plaza. After the tour, we hung out in the plaza for a while watching the traditional cueca dancing that people were enjoying on the lovely Sunday afternoon.

folks dancing

with panuelos!

view of plaza, with the museum behind

As the sun was going down we returned to the hostel to clean up and pack up for the night bus back to Santiago. I had considered staying an extra night in Mendoza so that I could travel back during the day, but ultimately I decided I'd rather return home. At least there was a full moon, so I did see some of the mountains and some interesting light effects during my two overnight trips.

Overall it was a pretty great trip. We were able to "do" Mendoza completely in 2 relatively relaxing days, we ate and drank well, and spending the whole time with Geert turned out to be a lot of fun. At first I was worried that we would run out of things to talk about, and therefore I was super annoyed when it started to look like Peter and Erin were ditching us. But, that didn't end up being a problem, and overall our two days were probably better than if we had been traveling in a group of 4. So, despite the stressful planning (or lack thereof), everything worked out. Yay!

Planes

So I've decided I really need to get off my butt and start making plans for the rest of my time in South America. Like, taking trips around Chile to take advantage of my free time here, and start thinking about what I can do in Peru so that I can really set something up. It turns out that this "bum around and see what falls into my lap" thing isn't jibing with me too well. Although I've definitely enjoyed the relaxation of the past month and a half, I really haven't accomplished much and unless I have a lot to do I'm pretty lazy. And in terms of taking trips, I need to step up and start planning because when I try to relax and let other people take charge, I get stressed out when things fall apart or come together at the last minute!

For example, this past weekend was a long weekend (apparently they celebrate Columbus Day all throughout the Americas), and I was going to go to the coast (Vina del Mar and Valparaiso) with Renata (from Brazil), Terri, and Erin (from California). It was originally Renata and Terri's idea, I was deferring to them to plan--I thought we might need hostel reservations in advance because it was a long weekend. But since Renata and Erin are no longer in school we had to communicate over email (and in Spanish, since Renata is much more comfortable in Spanish than English), which was slow. Finally, on Thursday night we decided not to go because Terri and Renata wanted to save money and Erin had to work. So a lot of planning stress for nothing. The weekend ended up being enjoyable--we all got together for dinner and went to a party on Saturday night--but still.

This weekend I might be going to Mendoza (Argentina), which if works out should be nice--Mendoza is supposed to be pretty, cheap, and I need to go at some point to renew my visa--but at the moment the trip is a bit of a planning mess. I would prefer to go next weekend, simply because this weekend is only 2 days away and I would like to plan better. I'll be traveling with Geert, and he doesn't care which weekend but since he has to work he has to leave on Friday night and return on Sunday night. I'd prefer to travel at least one way during the day since the trip over the mountains is supposed to be gorgeous, and I'm kind of hoping that with more notice he could take a day off work. But Erin and Peter are going this weekend, and can't go next weekend because Erin has to work, so since it would be fun to hang out with a few more people there, we'll probably join them. But they will be going on Thursday night and we would be going on Friday night, and we don't have bus tickets yet and there are fewer buses that run overnight, so it might not work out in the end anyway...vamos a ver.

p.s.--in case any non-spanish speakers are wondering what this post has to do with airplanes, it doesn't--planes=plans, i.e. the plural of plan.

Español II

So, one month of Spanish classes down, one month to go (I'm pretty sure I'm going to do some volunteer work in November instead of taking formal classes). I'm still going along in my intermediate class, some days feeling pretty able to explain myself and some days feeling lost in the conversation. I like learning the past subjunctive! But there are just so many words I don't know...

Terri joined our class the third week, which changed the class dynamic, generally for the better. She is pretty chatty, but in my opinion a much more interesting and definitely less judgemental way than the german girl from before. So, our class has been relaxed but lively, with Terri "greasing the wheels" enough for me and Anna de Suecia to chime in when we have something to say.

A bunch of new people started this week, and it's weird suddenly being one of the "old hands" around school--knowing the schedule, the teachers, and having been on some of the city tours. I should be making friends with the new people since I will see them all month, but I've mostly been hanging out with Terri and Katrien since we don't have to go through the "getting to know you" stage. But they are leaving at the end of next week, and then it will be just me and Anna from September. Plus a Japonese woman who's been taking classes pretty much continuously since February--that's insane.

Rafting

I intend to make all my post titles in Spanish, but here rafting is rafting, so what can ya do...

Yesterday I went rafting in the Cajon del Maipo, with a group from school (one of the selling points of Escuela Bellavista is that they organize optional excursions for their students). Rafting itself was fun--not too scary but still exciting--but the day was ridiculously inefficient. We met at 9:30 at a Metro station in town, and we waited until 10 for everyone to show up. Then we took the Metro to the end of the line and boarded a bus to the Cajon. The Cajon is south of Santiago, and since it is the closest serious recreation area and it is accessible by public transportation, it is a popular weekend destination. But it is still early in the season now--the temperature of the river was about 3 degrees celcius.

Anyway, we arrived at the rafting place around 12:30. So 3 hours between when the group met in Santiago and when we got to our destination. But then Cristian (the school's office manager/excursion coordinator) told us that now we had time for lunch, because we weren't actually scheduled to start rafting until 2:00. Um, so why did we meet at 9:30 again? 2:00 came and went, and around 2:30 they finally rounded us up for our safety briefing and wet suit distribution. I think we pushed off from the shore about 3:30, and finished our run at 4:30. The drove us back to the start, we showered and changed, and then waited around for them to prepare a DVD of the trip (which we bought...and proceeded to share among us, thanks to the wonders of digital reproduction technology...). Then we had to wait for the bus to come by, which it did about 5:30. I got home a little after 8. So, 11 hours out of the house for 1 hour of rafting...

It was fun, though. Class 3.5 rapids. Apparently the river is rated class 4 in season, but the snow has only just started melting now so the river is a little low. The only person to take a dunk was a woman on the boat with us (not from school) who fell backwards when the boat pushed off from shore. Oops.

Photo evidence (of the trip, not of the dunk):

The group waiting to be called to raft...

Some rafting action--I'm second from the front on the right-hand side.

Now you can see my face.

Also this weekend a big group of us went out on Friday night. Friday was the last day of classes for a bunch of people, who are either starting full time work (mostly internships), volunteering, or looking for a job. We started out at a restaurant called Santo Remedio, which serves large "tablas" with a little bit of everything that are good for a group. Here we are:


After dinner most of us intended to meet up with the weekly Escuela Bellavista "happy hour" at this bar called Dos Gardenias, but it was so crowded when we got there that Terri (from Colorado), Katrien (from Belgium), Felipe (Katrien's boyfriend, from Columbia), Taylor and I decided to go somewhere else for a relaxing drink. We ended up splitting a bottle of wine at an outdoor cafe, and it was soooo much better than a loud, smoky bar. We also spoke in Spanish the whole time, and although I probably said the least it was still a fun time!