This will be the last post from my host family's house. It's kind of sad. I've already moved some of my stuff into the new place, so I have about 2 more trips to make. Yeah, I'm moving by bus. It's rad. The city is kind of shut down for labor day, so everything's closed and there is really no one around. My sister Consuelo went on her honeymoon last Sunday, so it's been quieter around here since the Argentinians left. It's been a bit of a crazy week, but I'm moving into my little apartment for a month with Kristina.

I don't think you all understand how much I really don't want to leave this place. I mean, leaving my host house is one thing, but I really don't want to move back to the states. Moving out of the house is kind of a signal for the end, and it makes me really sad. I feel like I have much more of a life here, I learn more, have more friends, have a seriously amazing boyfriend, I'm happier... I mean, besides my amazing family who I never stopped missing and the food which is infinitely better, I don't have very much to look forward to going back to in the states. I just really want to stay. The hypothetical discussions aren't helping either because I know I have to go back no matter how much I don't want to.

Anyway, in the new place, I don't think there is wifi, so my internet connection will probably be few and far between. I was definitely spoiled with my connection in this house. Aww, I'm gonna miss it here. Especially Tom because, really, it's Tom. Silly, but whatevs.

Alright, well I guess I'll go start the second trip to the new place. My third trip ends with me giving back my keys. :/ Maybe I'll get onces out of it, who knows?

Chau Las Condes. Bye Chesterton. Later Jardines de Apoquindo. Familia chilena, nos vemo.

(2 hours later: The rest of the move went well. Now everything I own down here has been on a bus... how fun! Also, it looks like there's an internet connection I can mooch off of, so whoo! Looking forward to this place. Cable, cleaning, electricity, all included. It's going to be good. :))

Getting into the final stretches.
I have like 3 days-ish left of school. Something like that. They've gone crazy giving us essays, projects, and other random homework in addition to the tests. Ayyyy.

It's also slightly difficult to finish my essays seeing as my house has gone absolutely nuts. No, seriously, have you ever been kind of an accesory to a house where the daughter is getting married? It's a little insane and not conducive to a writing environment. Especially when she's just gotten back from an extended hospital stay. Good grief.
But she's getting married today, so that should be over soon. My mom says we're supposed to be preparing for the hangover tomorrow. Thanks Chile mom. This is such a crazy situation.

Anyway, we already had our farewell dinner. Basically, I think it's impossible for me to have a Spanish teacher who doesn't like me. My literature teacher wanted to have a picture just with me! How exciting is that? She's adorable, we were her first class ever. Yessss, favorite student in her first class. How's that for a lasting impression? Then my regular Spanish teacher Marcela lets me get away with just about anything. She gave me 3 excellents and a highly advanced on my evaluation in reading/writing/speaking/listening. I was pretty pleased. I think I have to thank Aldo for part of that because I practice my Spanish with him the most, ha. Then I gave Marcela some flour and water mixed together in some bags for our bread project... she liked that too. She went home and baked it. She's crazy and fun, haha.

In other news, I hope everyone up north in good ol' Nevada is doing alright with the recent string of earthquake crazyness that's been going on. Almost a 5.0? That's kinda a big deal. Don't try to leave your house, you'll get crushed by a falling door or something. Careful with that.

Anyway, I got home at 4 am, woke up at 8 with all the action that's going on. So I think I might go and find out what the grand master plan for the evening is because I don't even know where the church/reception are... This is going to be an interesting day, I believe. I'll be updating about it soon, probably. :)

A lot has happened in the past couple of days, and I haven't updated in about a month. Sheesh!

Anyway, I've been with Aldo for over 3 months now. We had an anniversary. We went to the movies and watched The Eye and it was sufficiently terrible. He's a cool guy, I know I don't talk about him much on here which is unfortunate. He's hard to describe, but... he's kind of moving to Lake Tahoe for 4 months to do his internship, so looks like you just might get to meet him.

I actually have, like, good friends now. We're all moving into an apartment for a month after our family deals run out. It's going to be sweet. Seriously though, they're all really cool girls, and they all live super close to me! Kristina's in Reno, Melissa and Rachel go to school in Chico. It's kind of awesome. Then we throw Aldo and the Chileans in, and I'm having a really good time. We went fake camping, and we're going fake camping again. Fake camping because it's "camping" (in the campo/countryside) in a house. So, not really camping at all. Really, "roughin' it" with our running water and microwave. My apartment here doesn't even have a microwave! Sheesh. I'm having such a good time though, I'm really sad I have to leave in a month and a half. Getting so close. My Spanish skills have gotten really quite good, if you don't mind me bragging a little. I actually started thinking entirely in Spanish sometimes without even realizing. It's pretty amazing. I'm pretty sad to be leaving so soon because I know I still have a lot of room to improve. Ay, anyway.

In other, much heavier news, my Chilean sister Consuelo is getting married in 9 days. Now, that itself isn't bad news, but the circumstances surrounding the wedding are increadibly complicated.
( Alo complicado? )
So, obviously, I'm going to the campo for the weekend, then attempting to finish all my homework for the last 2 weeks of school. Crazy times, huh?

PS. Check out Tea - Time because he's the son of one of my professors and he's kind of a big deal. Seriously, he was in one of the bigger Chilean rock bands (Los Tetas), now is in Funk Attack, and he's going solo. His mom played his music video Barrio for us in class. He's good. Watch out for him (and his stupid stage name). I like Camilo better, really. His mom gets mad at him when he sings in English, so that's funny. He can also rap in German. It's pretty impressive.

I believe that's all for tonight. G'night, I hope you're all well.

Back from Argentina.
Go me.

Alrighty, so... the Chileans have officially started class again.
Republica was so very tranquilo, and now it's so very not.
Anyway, hazing is atrocious here. Atrocious. Basically, it's disgusting and revolting and I refuse to support it.
Basically, what the older kids to to the newbies is they cut their clothes, take their shoes, and cover them with stinky food and whatever else they can get their hands on. Seriously, these kids are covered in flour, paint, eggs, fish oil, ketchup, and all manner of rancid smelling stuff. It is disgusting. Their clothes are reduced to rags, and they walk around in their socks begging for money to buy their stuff back. It's terrible. I refuse to give them money because it perpetuates the cycle and it is disgusting. I mean, I feel really bad for the kids, but I can't really do anything about it unless I give them money to give to the people that did it to them. They seem to take it in fairly good stride, but it's unbelievable. I have a strong stomach, but the smells that come off of those kids is just plain nasty. I can't believe someone can do that to another person just because someone did it do them. Insanity.

Anyway, in other news... It is officially spring break for us. Yes, the Chileans come back to school 2 days ago and the gringos go on vacation. So, the group trip to the south got cancelled due to lack of interest. In my infinite wisdom, I failed to make plans when I found out the trip was cancelled. Anyway, I finally bought tickets yesterday to go to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to Argentina. The France of South America. Go me. Anyway, the thing is, since I failed to make plans in a timely manner, that means that I'm basically going by myself. While, yes, I know that there are people I know there and that I should, in theory, be perfectly capable of traveling alone, I'm still a little freaked out. Anyway, I still need to figure out where I'm staying (Kristina is going to give me the name of the hostal she stayed at where Melissa is currently staying), but I should at least be slightly prepared, right? It's going to be fine... It'll be an adventure in the least. BA is supposed to be super cool and super safe, especially in recent years. Any everything is hecka cheap! Oh, jeez.

Wish me luck, yes? Thanks doods.

A whole range of emotions revolving around an incident with the upstairs neighbor, whom I have never met.

Anyway, so when I was in Peru, my (Chilean) sister told me that there was a problem in my room. Part of my closet flooded because the upstairs neighbor has a problem with his plumbing or something.
She said everything was moved and there wasn't a problem.

The neighbor says the water is turned off and no one uses the little bathroom, so everything is peachy.

So the thing is, I pretty much keep everything in my closet. Including my laptop. My connection to the world, and, admittedly, my closest friend.

So imagine my shock when I pull down my computer yesterday afternoon and it's dripping on me, and not just a little bit.

I was not happy.
I put it on my bed because I know it needs to dry out if I want to ever use it again, so I leave it to dry for a while, while freaking out, watching TV and playing with Tom 'cause I don't know what else to do.
Right, so when I go to turn it on, it doesn't do anything. I take out and replace the battery for about a half hour, fairly upset, and my computer isn't responding. Like mechanical CPR. Anyway, after a while of this, it turns on. Thank God, but the screen is almost completely black. If you looked at it the right way, you could barely make out the Windows whatnot. Relief, but what am I going to do down here with a non functioning computer?

So by this time, my family notices that I'm physically upset. We explore my closet like I did earlier to find that there is absolutely no. moisture. whatsoever. Seriously. So there's that, but my sister calls a friend that has a computer fixing business who is aptly named Michael. He says leave it in a warm place for a while because it's probable that the backlight had moisture on it and wasn't working.

So I leave it on my bed all day. I come back, turn it on, and the screen works. The whole thing isn't functioning at 100% (I can just tell), but it's a hell of a lot better than not functioning at all.
The mystery of the moment is, how did the water get there? It's possible that we'll never know.

Anyway, I'm deeply relieved that my computer survived, no longer lives in the closet, and will never be allowed to go swimming or drink anything ever again, thank you very much.

I guess this isn't really Chile related, but it did scare the crap out of me. Then I realized I'm slightly too dependent on my computer and I'm ok with that. I know it's probably slightly unhealthy. Other than that, though, it does go along with the thing our teachers keep telling us: relax, nothing works really in South America so you just have to go with it. Ay.

I dunno about you guys, but the big news here is that Castro stepped down this morning or last night.
It was kinda a big deal. I don't know, I'm just curious if we really found out about it before you guys did... because we knew before 9 this morning. Probably not, but whatever.

So I need to write a paper that was due last Wednesday tonight. Yeah, the whole class is a little behind on the times. Then the next one is due on Monday. It's a little silly. I'm a little behind the times. Then I need to pick apart a poem by Gabriela Mistral entitled "Bailarina" so that should be fun.
Then tomorrow I'm skipping class to go on a field trip to Cafe con piernas again. I'm kinda excited. Actually, I'm not really skipping class because I'm auditing that particular class and temporarily joining another one. And I just realized I didn't even really have to take track. Damn, I could've been in this class for real. Aww, sadface. It's ok.
The Festival de Vina del Mar is going on/about to go on. It's some huge concert type deal.
Um, I really should go write that essay that was due last week. I'll be back with more ramblings later. :)

I'm a little weirded out by the happenings of the moment. It's just been an odd day. Not in a good or bad way, just strange, you know?

However, that being said, I have been up and down in Spanish all day long. I wasn't even really having a good Spanish day, but I understood and was able to communicate everything I wanted to. It felt good. I'm fairly certain I'm getting closer to fluent. It'll still be a while until that happens, but I'm doing a lot better. I've come a long way. I don't really have to pay attention to listen sometimes, and I like that a lot.

Anyway, I got scratched by a kitty en la calle today. I learned some Albanian (well, technically that was yesterday), set my host mom up on Skype, called Albania with her because it's Matias' birthday, kinda didn't do my homework but it was ok because we changed professors this morning and the new one was all cute and nervous, was slightly terrified by the middle aged women in the house playing the internet, and spoke a whole lot of Spanish. So proud.

Something important that I have to mention though... If you're on the list of people that I have called or would call, I'm sorry but I don't really have the resources to call you anymore. Apparently my computer has gone deaf because the microphone jack gave out. I know because my headset didn't work, so I figured it was cheap and broke. No, no, because the new one doesn't work either. Bummer. So, I'm not sure what will become of that at the moment, but just so you all know.

Ayer fue Super Martes. Obviamente, no pude votar porque no estoy en los EEUU. Hablamos sobre la eleccion en nuestras clases. Era interesante estar en otra pais durante este dia importante para los EEUU.

That's enough of that. Super Martes (aka Super Tuesday) got a lot of coverage down here. It was interesting.
I still owe a update on what all I did in Peru. I admit, I didn't do Peru right because I didn't really leave Lima, but I had a lot of fun in Lima. I will, however, confirm on this here lj that I have a boyfriend. Don't make a big thing of it. He's a nice Peruvian that lives in Chile. There, no more questions, yeah? No big thing.

I'm proud though. Today has gone relatively well. Well, I haven't done my essay yet (2 pages of Spanish... I have about 1/4 page right now. It'll be alright) but I had a long conversation with Consuelo. Whoo! I'm proud because I don't really talk in my house very much. They know that I understand and have a fairly good grasp of Spanish, but I don't really talk much. Anyway, it was good to have a (although admittedly fairly one sided) conversation. I've figured out I'm a million times better at talking to one person and not two. Especially in Spanish. Then we made fun of la vecina who is crazy. I was also asked to make dinner one weekend. Whoo! Mexican food for everybody. :) Well, maybe, I haven't decided what I'd make.

Yeah, so I'm procrastinating again. I'm going to cut my hair tomorrow I believe. I was going to do it today, but I've already procrastinated enough. I need to stop eating fake pringles with Tapatio (really? That's what it's come to) and get to writing about el cine chileno! Wenas noches, amigos y parientes!

PD. I've become randomly halfway obsessed with this video. Don't ask me why.

Back from Peru! It was pretty awesome, but I'm glad to be back. Good feeling.
I'm burned, and tired, and burned (mostly just my left leg, everything else is just peeling now) from the beach and Lima... but it was a good trip. I met some amazing people. Seriously.

I, however, have been up for about a day and a half because of a crazy airport adventure which ended up with a 1.5 hour flight delay and me stopping by my house for about 30 seconds, so I'll get back to all this fun when I have energy, you know? Yeah, right.

So I went out last night, and I ended up getting locked out of the apartment. Yeah, apparently they have a new deadbolt.

In retrospect, it was pretty funny, but at the time I didn't know what to do. Eventually Consuelo came to the door and let me in. She feels really bad about it. I just think it's funny now.

Anyway, school starts again Monday. I have to get my schedule figured out because they put some of the classes I'm taking at the same time. Need to go get that figured out.

Right now, Consuelo is cleaning because apparently Tom picked up some ticks somewhere. My mom just brought be a glass 1/8 or so filled with juice because I said "a little"... Aaaaajajaja, que chistoso. Anyway, yeah, going to go have lunch at Aldo's house. Staying with his grandparents when we go to Lima, Peru! Oh, so excited.

Yeah, good to be back.

In action...
I mean, in Chile.

SantiaGO!

I should go to bed even though I slept all afternoon. Traveling for 24 hours straight is dirty business. Especially when you sit next to a hobo on the plane.

YAAAYY! Peru in una semana. Yiajoo! :D

Silvio Rodriguez - Ojala. S'check check it on out, en serio. It's beautiful and mean, perfect.

I realize I haven't updated at all since I've gotten back to this country, and for that, I apologise. It's been very strange being back. When I first arrived in Atlanta, the prices in the gift shop confunded me because they were actually in dollars. Crazy.
Then in San Francisco when going from the airport to my sister's house, we stopped at a gas station. The very sleep deprived me decided it was crazy strange that you could buy fresh milk and other common items at the gas station. I wasn't even gone for that long, but I was amazed nonetheless.

Anyway, I'm leaving again a week from tomorrow. I am SO excited to go back. It's strange, everyone thought that coming home for a month would make it so I wouldn't want to go back, but my love for that strange, skinny, long country has become oddly stronger. I've done a lot of American-ish things. We went to a Christmas concert in Smith where they sang "Proud to be an American" and I was only slightly disgusted. Sorry, mindless patriotism doesn't need to smack me at a concert, anyway... Did the whole Christmas thing, went to the movies, lots of food, and shopping, and family time. It's been good, but I'm ready to go back.

I watched some Chilean movies that I downloaded (shhh...) and, besides the graphic sex scenes, the Spanish made me ridiculously excited. Then I watched the recaps from Lola (the current telenovela), I bought my Chilean family presents for Christmas. The only thing I really need to do is pack again.

It's not like I'm not going to miss my real family, but it's like... I don't know. Life in Reno is just too normal or something. I'm not particularly fond of it, actually. I prefer being on the go. Being here for a month is kind of making me slightly dreading living here again. I like my family, but the people here are just... nyeh. Anyway, it'll be fine. I'm not going to be here too much longer after the fact, and I really don't want to be. I plan to work my ass off and get college over/work experience in so I can move away from here as soon as possible... again.

In other news, I have plans to go to Peru for a week. I'm going to be missing the second week of school, so that's good, right? It'll be fine, my first class that matters I'm not even taking for credit. Hurray audit class that I already took last semester! I need to find out what my schedule is, but right now I guess it doesn't really matter. I love USAC's 80% attendance policy. It's a little amazing, and this semester I have plans to TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT! It'll be fine. I'm going to be doing so much traveling, I'll probably end up broke as hell. It's fine.
Anyway, I'm glad that I came here, or I would have spent the next 5 months wishing I had. It's been good to realize things, so next year will be awesome. I'm going to speak more Spanish and travel more, not be so dependent on other people (we'll see how that one goes). It's going to be good. It will be good. I'm excited. :D

I'm ridiculously excited to come home.

All my finals are finished and I'm done with pretty much everything.

All that leaves is the shopping... Yeah, I don't really like souveneir shopping, and it kind of feels like it's required.

Anyway, so we went to Santa Lucia today to get some shopping done. Yeah, I didn't actually do much, but whatever. Anyway, there was this guy walking around with a posse... Yeah, it was Beck. We followed stalked hom for a little while laughing before we asked for a picture. "Are you guys American?" one asked. "We're not doing pictures today" said the tall guy with an afro... "I'll sign stuff for you" said Beck. They asked why we were here, not really Beck though, he was hungover. We said we were studying and we just finished our finals. He signed the back of my conversation final. It was cool.

Anyway, tonight we're going out... somewhere. Tomorrow we have to go shopping again to actually buy stuff (right, I'm prolly going to get everything from the airport anyway. :p) and there's an asado for Aldo's birthday. Sooo... yeah. Hopefully we won't get stuck in an elevator again like last time we hung out with the Chileans during Teleton. Sheesh.
Right, I think it's time to go enjoy myself for a bit now that I'm finished writing all my papers (I think I wrote over 20 pages, most in Spanish) and my finals (only 1 test, 2 essays, some dancing, and 1 conversation). Sweet life, time for our end of the semester parties, the airport (still need to get a transfer or else I'm going to end up paying like $30 for a cab) and... yeah, shopping.

WHOO! I can't wait to get back to the States! Now if only I could figure out how I'm getting back to Nevada! Sheesh. :)

I leave in 7 days.
It's good that I'm coming back because I'm realizing how much I haven't done here yet.

Seven days though... it's going to rocket by.

But now it's time for onces. :)

Alright, so... What happened last time I updated? I was feeling better, I believe.

Well, last Friday and Saturday I felt well enough to go to school, a soccer match and barbeque, and, of course, to see Hugo Chavez and his minions.
Saturday night I stayed in 'cause I'm cool.
Sunday morning I woke up feeling like CRAP again. Whoo hoo! I stayed in bed Sunday, for the most part. I didn't leave the house, that's for sure.
Monday, I still felt like crap, couldn't swallow really well, but I went to class anyway 'cause I'm a trooper and I was supposed to take a test. I didn't take the test 'cause the teacher and I mutally forgot. We also went on a fieldtrip to a famous animita. An animita is a place, typically, where someone died or someone was buried, that the people have decided is holy. It's kind of like a saint, but not a sanctioned saint. People go to the place to ask for favors (work, love, health, never money) and light candles and leave gifts. If the wish is granted, then they leave plaques and stuff. We went to a famous one. Where Romualdo Ibáñez died in Estación Central. Apparently he was coming home to visit his father who was really sick and was murdered. A lady saw that he died and left candles. He became a "people's saint" I guess when the mounted Carabineros (cops, for those not remembering) stamped out the candles. We heard a couple different stories from the people leaving candles. Mostly I just wanted to leave 'cause it was hot outside and I managed to still have a fever. Awesome. It was really interesting though, I wish I had my camera. No one seemed to know how to spell his name right on the plaques. Whoops.

Tuesday, I felt even worse (whoo!), and decided that the antibiotics weren't working. I went to class to take my tests ('cause another one had snuck up on me, whoo hoo!) The first test that I had missed was missing a page, so I couldn't take it. It's alright, it's only been like 2 weeks since that class was technically over. I took the other test though, and was throughly unprepared 'cause 1. I was sick and 2. I hadn't been to class in about 3 weeks. Seriously, I was sick before the trip and missed that class twice, the trip, then last week I finally went once. Whoo! So I don't think I did particularly well on that test, but whatever.
After that feat of mental strength (haha, mental feet) I was exhausted and didn't want to walk to the metro to go to Manuel Montt (where the doctors live), but I eventually quit complaining and walked the 2 blocks to the metro.

It's really easy to get a doctor's appointment, and you don't really have to wait too long. It's like $36usd for an appointment, and I generally waited like 15 minutes before seeing a doctor. The only problem is they talk to you for a little bit, look at your main complaint (seriously, they only looked at my throat, didn't touch my ears or listen to me breathe or anything. That was a little sketchy), then spend the rest of your probably 10 minutes writing your prescriptions and asking questions. Fun. He ordered a throat culture (which confused me immensely because I didn't understand the process to getting one), and prescribed different antibiotics, different painkillers, and these wonderful honey-lemon things to suck on. He also told me to stay home for a few days. I got the throat culture done (you had to pay first, duh, then go to the waiting room for the lab and get an appointment, then go to the lab, obviously) and was told to come back Friday afternoon for the results.

So I stayed home and felt terrible Wednesday and Thursday. I could hardly swallow, you could see the lymph nodes in my neck which were extremely hard, I didn't have an appetite, my ears hurt, I couldn't breathe through my nose, etc. This morning I woke up and actually felt alright. I could swallow better (by the afternoon it hardly hurt anymore), there was one point where I was breathing through my nose without any obstruction, and I generally felt better. I was going to go to school, but when I woke up I also discovered that I was covered with a rash. It's amazing. I was really happy about that. It was all over my stomach, back, chest, shoulders, and arms. Apparently now it has spread to my neck and parts of my face. Also really excited about that. Then I went to eat the kiwi I was left for breakfast and my mouth was kind of bleeding. Don't know what that was about. I think I've had too much acid in the past 2 weeks in an attempt to fill me with vitamin C. Anyway, I stayed home for most of the day, making sure the rash didn't look worse than it did the previous hour. I think it looks worse now than this morning though.

So I returned to the doctor's office to get the results from my throat culture, which were inconclusive. All it said is I had scarce leukocytes and everything else in the culture was normal, nothing developed. They gave me a piece of paper and sent me on my way. I sat on the curb trying to figure out what the paper said before I went home. Accidentally took the wrong bus... Well, right bus, wrong direction. I switched busses and got home. My sister was napping (slightly unusual), so I went and hung out in my room. My mom came home and I showed her my rash (which started to itch slightly), and she told me I might have the chicken pox (I think that's what she said?) that the neighbor girl has, but I've already had those. So, my real mom and I and my Chilean mom have decided that perhaps I am allergic to the very expensive new antibiotics I'm on. Also, perhaps, they are a side effect of the pain pills. However, I talked to my real mom again, who talked to my real doctor who said it could maybe be part of the infection too.

I'm so glad we can figure out what the hell is wrong with me since I've been sick practically since I've gotten here. I will get better, I swear. When I go back to the states, I'm getting bloodwork to make sure I'm still healthy 'cause at this point that claim is questionable. It's taking me 2.5 weeks to get over possibly strep with 2 antibiotics and a whole bunch of side effects? Yeah, well, we're going to find out.
I'm tired of being sick. I want to travel around, damnit. That's why I'm coming back, I guess. Ayyy, jeez. Stupid Chilean mystery illness!

was nuts.

I went for a crazy ride with my sister and her fiance in their car. There was a lot of traffic because of all the presidents (of ALL Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries except for Mexico) in town, so we took a short cut. It's always an experience going on a Chilean car ride because the streets are so crazy.
Went on the metro, which was normal.
Got on the 103 micro from Pedro de Valdivia, which was PACKED. I think it was the most full bus I've ever been on.
Anyway, I was like the last person to get on (I didn't even pay... it would've been free anyway, so whatev), so I was by the door, holding on to a pole.
Apparently you're not supposed to hold on to that particular pole, so when the door opened (and these doors open with a lot of force) my finger stopped it. My finger stopped the entire door. So I was standing there like OMG MY FINGER, and Lexi was yelling "Stop the door!" and then she pushed it off my finger, and my eyes just started watering. It just looked smashed, so that was good. It didn't really hurt too badly, but it looked terrible.
I then moved my hand to another pole to hang on (these things are important in the busses) and this lady looked at my finger and gasped. It was kind of funny.
It's fine now, just a little banged up, but we learned that we can't speak Spanish under pressure.

So we went down to the Estadio Nacional to go to the Ibero-American Cumbre!
It was crazy. We saw one of the leaders of Cuba give a very passionate speech about how the superpowers need to be stopped. That was nice. I was slightly uncomfortable. Then another guy came on saying the same kinds of things. I don't remember who he was though. Whoops.
Then we saw HUGO CHAVEZ, president of Venezuela. That guy is crazy. Actually, he is really funny. Seriously, he kept making jokes. Then Fidel Castro called, and he talked to him for a while. That was equally crazy. I was about 15 feet away from all this. Hugo was pretty long winded (seriously, he was talking for over an hour, I got 1/2 hour video), but I honestly enjoyed his speech, even though he kept bashing on the "Yankees" and the "piti-Yankees" I have no idea. It was interesting. I, of course, have more to say on the subject and pictures and videos, but I'm a little tired and have more to say on other subjects. He actually wasn't too crazy today, but he was definitely very funny. He also decided to start singing. He was singing for a while, but I didn't get any of it on tape, so I just get to tell you that Hugo Chavez in concert was pretty good. ;)
Then we saw Evo Morales speak. The first indiginous president of Bolvia. He wasn't as impassioned as the other three guys we saw.
Then it was over, and we all went our seperate ways.

So I come home after drinking a soda at the bar with Lexi, Mary, and Cory (antibiotics, you know, trying to get over this strep/tonsillitis stuff) and my sister, 2 of her friends, and my mom are standing by the door. My entrance sort of broke into the conversation and they all kind of looked at me. Coni (my sister's friend) asked "Como estai?" (a very awkward "how are you?") and I said "Bien... que paso?" (good, what happened?) because obviously something was wrong. The friends were surprised to find out that I didn't know. Apparently my sister's fiance went to jail. WHOOPS! Yeah, they said he was incarcerated for a something, I don't know. A mistake? I don't remember what they said, but they said he was in jail. I got that part. I also got the cachai, but I didn't really cache. Whoops, again.
So I went and sat in my room because there was really nothing else that I could do, and they were calling everyone they knew to find a connection that could spring him from jail. Alright.
So I hear that he took a sweater from the store from one of the girls on the phone, and they were trying to find a friend with a "paco" connection. So someone who's related to a cop, basically.
I guess they found someone (?) because all of a sudden Consuelo and her friends left to go to the jail to accompany Andres. I think that's what happened, I suppose I'll get more of the story tomorrow.
So I asked my mom what happened. What I hear is they went to the mall to do some shopping, and they went to this one store and Andres wanted a sweater. I guess they couldn't pay using the credit card they had, so Consuelo and Andres went to leave, but Andres forgot to put the sweater back. So he was still carrying it swung over his arm when they left the store, and then he was detained. Good.
So I guess it's all fine because now my mom is having a get together with her friends. These crazy Chileans, seriously. They're partying it up, haha.
Anyway, I'm all tired though because of the antibiotics which have decided to give me half of their side effects. Awesome, so I think I'm going to go chill doing something else because I can't help with incarcerated fiances and I can't party with my mom 'cause that's weird and I can't go out 'cause I'm sick. So a movie or music or bed or something. Killer.
That was a crazy day.

Laguna Miscanti, el norte de Chile
Apparently half the elevation of Mt. Everest. (5622m)
That's why half our group got really sick. Then the other half got sick later.
More on this later. Seriously, it's a good story.
The north was really fun besides the sunburn and the sickness. There was a lot of neat stuff. It was actually a lot like Nevada though, strangely enough. It was more dry and touristy though, for real. I'll attempt to get the whole story (with pics, right) up soon.

Right now, my entire family (with the exception of myself and my brother) is in Reno celebrating my brother's birthday. They're having a fancy steak bar or something. I have no idea. So happy 22 to my brother, yesterday 'cause the time changed and it's the 6th here now and not the 5th. Crazy springtime.
I'm also sick again. I had the sun sickness because I burnt myself crispy in San Pedro, so I was all fevery, dizzy, and stomachachey this weekend. Consuelo took good care of me though 'cause my Chilean mom was in Argentina. Sweet. I'm still kinda woozy and my throat really hurts. I've been like sleeping nonstop too. Sheesh. I can't not be sick in this country. So I think it's a good idea for me to go to bed and/or the pharmacy. I'll try to update about my adventures soon. :)

So about the busses...

No, seriously, Transantiago is a hot topic here because it's a fairly new bus system. Previously, the busses kind of went everywhere and you had to negotiate your fair and ask where the bus was going. Sometimes they would say that they were going somewhere that they were't. I guess it was a ton of fun, but a lot of people say that it was better than the system now. I personally like the system now, but that perhaps is because I didn't know the other system.
So usually to get to school, I take the bus (read: micro) to the subway (metro). Micro y metro. There are 3 different micros that I can take: the 401, 407, and the C02. The C busses are orange neighborhood busses, the other busses are usually double length green and white things. I have pictures, but, of course, I'm too lazy to upload them. Obvio. The busses run along a specific path now, and are a lot easier to navigate.

Anyway, there is a lot of controversy about the new Transantiago system because sometimes the busses come few and far between. Then sometimes there are a million people trying to stuff onto one. I can't even count the times I've seen people stuffing onto the bus on the news. I've been on a few of those busses, and they're very uncomfortable. It wouldn't be so bad if a. the people waited a bit and b. there were more busses running during rush hour.

I like taking the bus though. It's an entirely different experience getting somewhere than taking the metro. On the metro there seems to be some unwritten rule of just sitting/standing and staring and listening to music. It certainly is a lot faster to get someplace on the metro (I can get halfway across town in 15 minutes), but it can be quite boring.
Taking the bus, however, you get to see a lot of the city. On the way back from school alone, not in order, I pass La Moneda (the presidential palace), cerro San Cristobal, Cerro Santa Lucia, Universidad de Chile, Universidad Catolica, and more interesting places. There's a lot of stuff to see.
Besides the view, there are also people begging for money! Yessss, begging for money, that's the best part, right? So there are people singing and playing instruments and yelling their poetry across the bus. It's entertaining, even if they're bad. Plus, I don't feel obligated to give them any money because even if I did enjoy what they offered, it's not like I asked them for it. Yeah, I think we're prolly getting into some ethical grey area there, but I'm alright with it. I've only actually given money to one person who was singing and playing on the bus. I'll tell you why too: 1. He was playing guitar well on a bumpy micro that was in tune 2. He was singing in key and in time 3. He was blind. That guy deserved the coin I gave him. I'm such a cheapskate. They almost always start with "Buenos dias, senores pasajeros." Then they go on to discribe what they're going to do for us. Sometimes it's reggaeton, hip-hop, classical, or some other random genres. It gets annoying sometimes, but for the most part I like it.

Sometimes, the micro drivers are really cool, and other times they're really mean. I can't imagine having to drive one of those big busses in this city with all these crazy drivers all around, but some of them still manage to be awesome. If you're out of money on your tarjeta BIP! some drivers will still let you on, but some drivers will kick you off. Today, I was on the bus for like 45 minutes 'cause I didn't feel like making transfers on the metro, and this guy hops on the back with his bike. First off, you're not supposed to hop on after the first door, so the driver has to simultaneously watch the 3 other doors and make sure that everyone getting on is paying and that no one else hops on in the other doors. It doesn't always work, especially when it's busy. It wasn't too busy today though, so the bus driver opens the back door again and walks around the bus and yells at the guy that he can't have his bike on the bus. It was funny because this other guy was like, you can't have that bike on the bus. The guy with the bike was like, the driver's not going to notice, but he did and yelled at the guy. Very entertaining, for me anyway 'cause I was sitting in the back corner away from trouble. An innocent bystander, like usual.

(Sidenote: Kenny G is coming to town and I giggle everytime I hear about it... The Killers are also coming to play a show, and Jacob and I kind of want to go with a sign that says we're from the same state. Bwah, I don't think it will happen, but it's still amusing.)

So that's what the busses are like, kind of. It's hard to explain the full experience, but I felt bad for not having told you anything cultural lately. There it is. I hope that was sufficiently culturally significant. :)