Shout Outs and a Teaser Trailer

Holy Smokes do I have things to tell you all!

I just got back from 10 days of traveling in southern Chile and I can safely say that the more I see of it, the more I like it. It's already 2:00 am here so I'm not going to go into the details of the voyage right this instant, but here are some teaser photos of what's on the docket for us to discuss:

In CHILOE 

(pronounced cheel-o-ay)

             

PARQUE NACIONAL TORRES DEL PAINE

(Paine is pronounced pine-nay)

PUNTA ARENAS

Sometimes I hang out at the Strait of Magellan. It's not a big deal, it's just, like, spitting distance from Antarctica.(pronounced ant-arK-tica)

Don't worry about it. 

BUT BEFORE I GO...

 even though it is a day (or 15) late and a dollar (i have none left) short...

A HUGE thank you to the most on-top-of-it grandparents in the world, who managed to send me a highly appropriate valentine's day card, on valentine's day, in Chile. Grammy B and Grandpy Marv you continue to amaze me. You never miss an opportunity to make me feel loved. 

I hope you all are feeling loved regardless of what day it is.  

BEST DAY EVER

Only it wasn't really today, because I've been slacking. Nevertheless, you need to know about it.

I actually stressed about how to adequately communicate the utter awesomeness of this day. Let me break it down for you as best I can:

The day began at school. Remember my school? This dump.

Went to class. Had a lovely time. Nothing too miserable nor too exciting happened. After school I piled

into a bus full of my friends to head to a vineyard for a wine tasting. My first one ever!

They say wine is an aphrodisiac. Some of us were more affected than others. 

(Brian and Isela sittin' in a tree...)

Michael (Miki), Isela, Me

After our trip to the vineyard my compañeros and I were starving so we set out to find some Peruvian food, because some fatty (me) was dying to try it. Then things took a turn for the worst. Because none of the restaurants were open for dinner yet and we were starving, we were forced to go get a snack before dinner so that we (I) didn't kill anybody out of hunger. 

Naturally we got gelato and all members of our group managed to continue living until dinner time. 

Dinner was the aforementioned and heavily anticipated debut of peruvian food on my taste-buds. And I gotta tell you guys, it was one of the best dinners I've ever had in my life. The success of it all was as much about me as it was about Peruvian food itself. I hit it out of the ball park with my order on this particular night. Three words: Seco de vacuno. It is the most tender, delicious piece of beer/cilantro marinated beef I have ever had. And this is coming from someone who rarely eats meat outside of burgers and bacon. My only regret is that I don't have a photo of the masterpiece. 

I also gave my new acquaintance pisco sour another chance to woo me. Peruvians make their pisco sour with an egg white, lime, sugar and pisco, as opposed to the Chileans who go sans egg. Peru and Chile have a long-standing debate about in which country Pisco actually originated. Both countries have a town containing the name Pisco in some form. I surprised myself by choosing the peruvian version as my favorite of the two types I've tried. 

But it doesn't stop there! After dinner we went back to the ice cream shop and made friends with the employees! Allow me to be explicitly clear here: when I say "we made friends" I mean we exchanged names, cracked jokes, and even tossed around a "palabrota" (bad word) or two. This interaction ended with an invitation for a weekend trip. Gahh!!

It was a day of sunshine, laughter, deliciousness, and great company. Best one yet!

 

Happy girl.

(P.S. I learned that wine tasting is very, very fun)

More ketchuping up

This actually happened to me LAST TUESDAY! You guys are sooooo behind. So forgive me for flooding you with information now:

So I promised you all I would learn something, and learn something I did! I learned that although all parts of Chile are near the ocean seafood is not very widely consumed. Fresh seafood is very much an upper class food. Therefore, when it comes to meat, Chileans eat mostly beef and chicken, although pretty much everywhere has some sort of ceviche.

 I bet you’re wondering if I have thought about anything other than food since I arrived here?

And the answer is yes! I thought about the metro once (granted I was thinking about which route to take to arrive at food but…whatever)

So back to food...I have a story for you. 

Food comes in weird packaging. Yogurt comes in a bag, milk comes in a box, mayonnaise and ketchup come in squeeze bags with plastic twist openings like on the orange juice carton. It's weird. 

Weird I tell ya!

But, in any unfamiliar place that you go you will find things that you recognize, things that you don’t recognize, and things that are comforting and discomforting all at the same time.

The things that you recognize will give you comfort:

Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, gelato

The things that you don’t recognize with frighten you, maybe intrigue you, and cause you to ask questions which will inevitably induce the moment when someone shakes their head at you out of pity or rolls their eyes. This I know for certain.

But the comforting/discomforting stuff is today’s theme:

Laundry detergent is the perfect example of this. I have encountered powder detergent many times in my life. In past years, even in my own home. Theoretically, I know how to use it. But you give me a box of powdered laundry detergent with the label in Spanish and the whole train breaks down. The fact that the label is one I don’t recognize causes me to want to read the directions, even though I know how to use laundry detergent. But for some reason I get uneasy and am inspired to read. So I start reading the directions and even though it’s accompanied by little pictures I start to think to myself, “What if this has bleach in it and I don’t know that there is bleach in it? What if putting bleach in detergent is just the standard in Chile and I’m just supposed to know that the bleach is already in there? They’d have to tell me if there was bleach in it right?”

So now I’m looking for some sort of indication of bleach on the box, which except for the Spanish, looks like every other box of detergent I have ever seen. And I’m thinking to myself “Oh crap! How do you say ‘bleach’ in Spanish? Clorox? Cloro? I’ve seen that here. People use chlorine bleach in Chile. It would at least say “cloro” on the box, right?”

FULL FLEDGED PANIC.

Eventually I throw precaution to the wind and just do the damn laundry but not without a stress headache and a strong cocktail before the spin cycle is over.

THE POINT of this story is this: Whether we (maybe just I) like to admit it or not, we derive an enormous amount of comfort from familiar packaging. When a familiar item shows up in a different package, you might find yourself suddenly distrustful of it. Perhaps you’re questioning the quality of it in a way you never would have if it arrived looking the way you’re used to seeing it. I know I did that with these products:          

            

What I would say, though, is it’s fine to approach with caution at first. You have a right to probe slowly and carefully around what is unfamiliar, in fact evolution suggests that you should, but just don’t forget that it’s more about the stuff inside the packaging.

If for some reason you read to the end of this and are feeling like I could be speaking metaphorically, you would be right. I wasn’t originally. I truly began with the honest intention of talking about laundry detergent, but I warned you I might have a profound thought, or something, every now and again so I guess this can be the first one.

Hope everyone is well.

Chao! (Chilean for ‘Bye’)

Anybody there?

So my Dad says people are, like, anticipating my next blog post? So basically what I've gathered is that I'm now famous and that my manager and the millions are hurdling my way at this very moment. I'm ready.

Ba haha! Just kidding!

Actually I've gotten really into thinking about things in terms of blog posts. It helps me to be more present in my day. I even have a word doc dedicated to planning out future blog posts. That being said, you and I have some catching up to do:

Unfortunately Chile does not quite have the culinary pizzazz of my homeland of Mexico. Perfect evidence of this would be this stuff: Quillayes, amazing flavorless cheese!

The good news is there are foreigners in every country and thankfully for me these foreigners have not abandoned their food. I’ve already located which metro stop disembarks in the neighborhood housing the Middle Eastern folk (shwarma, falafel, and hummus are all I need to be happy in life!), there are at least 2 good Mexican restaurants that I will eventually network my way to (I’m developing a network!), Japanese food is alive and well (and since all of Chile is pretty much a coast line I actually trust that the seafood is fresh, unlike in Mexico city. Do not eat sushi in Mexico City! askmehowiknow). Peruvian food is abundant and spicy, something that Chilean food is most definitely not. 

Chile does contribute something to the gustatory party, however. The empanadas are cheesy and often the size of tennis shoes (size 8-10). The bread is unremarkable but usually warm. Chileans eat a lot of bread! Someone told me Chile is the second highest ranking country for bread consumption after Germany.

There are also rumors of some delicious desserts known to inhabit Chile so you can rest assured that if they exist. I will find them. 

The lazy follows me everywhere

Anyone that knows me, which is to say all of you given that I'm not officially famous yet, is aware of and obviously charmed by my laziness. (charmed i say! right, mom?) And even though I am in another country, and even though I am exceedingly aware of the need to, as my sister loves to say, "carpe the hell out of this diem" I am still plagued by this well established trait. So I am here to admit to you that I didn't do very much today. (here you should picture me hanging my head and over-extending my bottom lip)

Changing ya backdrop don't change who ya are, gumdrop. Sorry bout it.

Nevertheless! I am very excited, because even though I didn't do much in the way of exploring I did a TON of research about where I need to go, what I need to see, and where I need to eat. I now have a massive list that is thoroughly adorned with circles, stars, smiley faces, and exclamation points galore. And you know what? I'm thrilled.

Shout out to Grandpy Marv and Grandmy Barbara for giving me a fantastic guidebook that is 100% in cahoots with the recommendations on the internet.

Lesson #3: Trust people, sometimes things work out, Revisited

Last weekend my compadres and I were whisked off to the countryside to a place called Cuncumén, also known as BFnowhere... so naturally I was elated. The program coordinators arranged for us all to stay at a rustic little resort called Las Colinas de Cuncumén where we relaxed, sunbathed, and had ourselves a little private orientation.

After receiving months of questions and raised eyebrows about where I was going to live after my home-stay, how I planned to find a place, how I was going to fair with all of my administrative stuff being in Spanish, etc. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that not only is the program director NOT an idiot, he is actually a very organized, funny, capable, and approachable man. And when it comes to program directors, ladies and caballeros, that is my favorite type of man!

Furthermore, he has a staff consisting of two other tiny, but equally capable and approachable, women to help him (and us) with whatever difficulties we might encounter. Also! these women know EVERYONE. Allow me to elaborate: In order to get my chilean visa, it took me upwards of 6 phone calls and a voicemail to obtain an appointment with the consulate, 2 FBI background checks, an HIV test, 5 1/2 hours of waiting at the actual consulate during the appointment, and unmeasured quantity of begging and eyelash batting. These women were able to obtain chilean visas for 3 of the students in my program in 2 days, with 2 phone calls, and without involving the FBI.

All I'm sayin is... if armageddon happens and the only way to obtain supplies is through networking, than I'm in better shape than you fools.

But enough chatter, here are the pictures.

Bonding 101: Ropes course. We found this one by accident. 

(side note: the sky really is that blue)

Trust falls!

I really am in Chile and I have this flag to prove it.

Interestingly enough, many parts of the Chilean countryside look very much like California.

Cross your fingers it becomes a home-away-from-home!