Las Aventuras de una Tortuga

Time flies

2008-05-01T21:40:15Z

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. :))

Woah, hey.

2008-04-26T13:53:37Z

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. :)

Wow.

2008-04-18T03:22:01Z

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.

Last Saturday, she felt really bad. Her back hurt, her stomach hurt, she didn't look too good, felt ill. Anyway, I saw her around lunch and then her and her fiance went to work on their apartment because they're moving in after the wedding. My mom went shopping to buy a bunch of food for the party they were going to have that night. Anyway, she goes to the bathroom and they figure out that she's bleeding internally because of all the blood. Like, there's no way to put it delicately, she had bright red, bloody diarrhea. That's a good sign, right? Obviously, they take her to the hospital. Well, clinic because it's better service than the hospital. My mom comes home and tells me all of this then leaves to go to the hospital. Well, actually, she makes about 10 phone calls to cancel the party then tells me what happened. I offer to put away the groceries so she can leave asap. I don't see her again until the next day because I had 2 birthday parties to attend to. Besides, there was nothing I could do sitting at home. I doubt they even came home early.

Sunday, they were gone pretty much all day. I stayed home, watched the dog, answered the phone (which I hate, by the way). They came back and told me that they were waiting for the test results. I think at this point she had the endoscopy and they discovered the 5 ulcers that were in her esophagus and stomach. Grand. They say it was from stress and aspirin use. There was a small chance she'd have some disease something or other, but probably not. She'd come home the next day if she was doing better.

Monday, Consuelo comes back. She was super anemic because they say she's lost over a liter of blood. They gave her iron, but no blood transfusion. They tell me she's supposed to be in the house on bedrest for the next week and she should be fine. I brought her flowers because I didn't know what else to do. She's walking around (which I don't think is a good idea) and entertaining the people that come to visit her because that's basically the Chilean way. When we have onces (teatime, for those not keeping up with us), she starts to feel bad again, her stomach hurts. She's freezing because it's cold and she has low blood pressure from the blood loss. Anyway, she lays down, and when she goes to the bathroom again, she finds blood. They call the doctor and he says this is pretty normal but keep an eye on it, everyone goes to bed. I wonder if it was a smart decision to let her leave the hospital so soon, but it was probably a matter of money. Not my place to say anything.

Tuesday, I wake up to the sound of Andres trying to wake Consuelo up. It's about a minute of Andres getting louder and more scared sounding because Consuelo won't wake up. He calls my mom over. One of the scariest sounds I've ever woken up to, seriously. It's disorienting and terrifying. I open my door because, wow, that little exchange scared the crap out of me. Andres tells my mom that she got up very suddenly, went to the bathroom, "se boto todo" (apparently there was a lot of blood), then passed out on the bed. They finally wake her up and I can barely hear her voice, which is a big deal because you can hear practically everything in my house. My mom tells me to just take my shower and get ready for school because I can't really do anything. I get out of the shower, and they're about ready to leave. They're going back to the clinic because Consuelo is barely responsive. Andres carries her to the car. I close the doors, make the bed then leave for school because, again, I can't do much of anything to help.
I come back kind of late and they aren't here. I went to sushi because I knew they wouldn't be. My mom calls me when I'm on my way back and says they transfused 2 liters of blood into her. Keeping in mind the human body has about 5 liters of blood. She's a skinny little thing too, I'm amazed she was let out of the hospital. She's in intensive care, but already doing better. I come back to the apartment and take messages. When my mom gets back, she says the doctors think it's very likely that Consue has Crohn's Disease which is serious and complicated. They're probably going to start steroid treatment, but they are still waiting for the biopsy to get back. We have take-out for dinner, the first time I've had it in this house. It was really good too.

Wednesday
My mom and Andres come home very tired from the hospital around 8:30 or 9, I'm taking a nap. My mom says she's doing better, but she's still in intensive care. She'll probably be in the hospital for the rest of the week. I can go and visit her on Friday. She got to meet Sergio Lagos in the clinica, so that was cool. They say she got her appetite back, and they were going to start giving her solid food to see how she responds to it. Good news.

This morning she left intensive care. The results of her biopsy aren't in yet. She's doing a lot better, and I get to see her tomorrow. I answered the phone earlier and got to talk to her, and she sounds good. She actually has a voice again. I get to go see her tomorrow. I heard one of the ulcers is a lot worse than they thought it was, but she's recieving treatment.

Anyway, on top of all this, this girl is supposed to get married in 9 days. She was already banned from going on her honeymoon. (A nice trip to Caribbean Colombia, her dream honeymoon) She is still most likely going to get married in the civil ceremony (the legal part), but the church wedding is still very up in the air. After the civil, they are legally married, but in this country they're not really married until after the church wedding. I feel so bad for her though. Man, that really sucks. They've made a ton of plans for this thing too, as you can probably imagine. Every weekend, they're doing wedding plans, and now... Well, we don't really know.
But, knowing Consuelo, she'll be pretty upset, but not overly sad. She's good at overcoming obstacles. She's a pretty amazing 24 year old. My mom is dealing with it pretty well too. She's just really tired from being in the hospital all day, and all the emotions. Ay, poor family, I don't know what to do for them.

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.

Right.

2008-03-16T03:17:20Z

Back from Argentina.
Go me.

Leap of Faith

2008-03-14T02:01:59Z

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.

That was interesting...

2008-03-04T22:25:17Z

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.

tortuga_chilena @ 2008-02-19T21:13:00

2008-02-20T01:28:48Z

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. :)

Must be cat scratch fever...

2008-02-14T02:36:24Z

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.

tortuga_chilena @ 2008-02-06T23:59:00

2008-02-07T03:10:22Z

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.

I'm...

2008-01-30T01:26:02Z

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.

Haha, oops...

2008-01-12T17:21:18Z

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.

BACK

2008-01-10T05:47:48Z

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

That be a beautiful song.

2007-12-31T08:46:54Z

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

2 Days...

2007-12-06T23:04:13Z

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. :)

7 Days

2007-12-01T23:16:34Z

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. :)

Que me pasó...

2007-11-19T20:52:22Z

So Saturday, I woke up and looked really hot, all covered with my red, red rash.
So my mom comes in and asks how I'm doing. I tell her that the rash has grown, and she looks at me and calls in her sister.
Her sister comes in and looks at me and before I know it everyone is in my room (which is very, very small) talking about me. Seriously, my mom, her sister, their mom, my sister, and her fiance were all standing over me talking in Spanish figuring out what to do 'cause I looked just that amazing. They decided I needed to go to the "Urgencia". So it was like urgent care, not quite the emergency room, so that was comforting. Well, we didn't go right away, it was decided that it would be better if I ate first then we could go. Well, then it was decided that after my sister and her fiance took showers then we would go. So, the rash just kind of kept getting better, and my aunt came in and looked at me. She decided it wasn't good, so this conversation ensued because we needed to get going.
Tía Cristina "¡La Siobhan está grave!" (Siobhan's condition is serious)
Consuelo "Siobhan, ¿estás muriendo?" (Siobhan, are you dying?)
Me "No... un poco." (No... a little)

So, this was about 30 minutes before we went to the Urgencia. Apparently I got blotchier, but I didn't take those pictures. Consuelo has some though.
So Consuelo, Andrés, and I went to the urgencia. Let me tell you, it is a lot easier to deal with secretaries when there is someone who speaks the language well there with you.
We waited a little bit, and Consuelo and I went to the "Box" as it was called. The nurse came in and said it looked like I had Rubella... Good. They asked me if I had all my vaccinations, and I said that I did. I said it was impossible that I had rubella 'cause I had my MMR and got a blank stare, so I settled for I already had that vaccination.
So the nurse took my blood pressure, temperature (first time at the doctor's office they took my temperature here), pulse, and everything was right on target.
At this point, Consuelo decided it was a good time to take pictures of my back and of us together, ya'know, like a sister would. That was funny.
Then the doctor came in and Consuelo described my problems 'cause it was easier. He asked me to explain in English, but gave me a blank stare when I did, so it was easier for Consuelo to do it. She said I had the "amigdalitis" (which I'm now convinced that tonsillitis and strep throat are synonyms in this country) for the past 2 weeks and I've taken amoxicilin and lyncomycin. The doctor looked at my throat, my skin, and the pills and decided that I was allergic to lyncomycin and needed a couple shots and other antibiotics and allergy pills. He arbitrarily decided that I was allergic to the lyncomycin too, so that was good. We have other theories, but I guess we'll find out for sure when I go back to the states.
Anyway, he also said it was impossible that I had "amigdalitis" for the past two weeks, but I had it then. Alright, so that was the end of doctor time. Seriously, it was like 3 minutes.
So, then another nurse came in and asked me what happened, and I said nothing. I was laughing 'cause that's what I do, and the nurse was amused by me. She gave me the two shots and then I was quite suddenly very tired. That was the end of that.

¡Me pinchó! The good thing is that I'm allergic to the adhesive on the surgical tape, so I had a rash on top of the rash for a little while. That was fun.

We went and paid, then we went to the pharmacy. They wouldn't give me a refund for my lyncomycin ('cause I was supposed to be on that for 10 days, but was only on it for 3), so we had to buy a whole bunch of random crap to spend the money. That was fun, and I was standing there about to fall over 'cause I was all tired.
Then we came back to the house and I finally had an appetite! It's only been like 3 weeks since I've eaten regularly, so this was fun for me. We had soup and pizza, an interesting combination. Then I went and passed out for a couple hours. When I woke up I was told I looked a lot better.

So I still have the massive rash all over everywhere (palms of my hands and soles of my feet too) and it only itches a little. It's just so sensitive! I have a couple hickey looking things in places because it's so sensitive.
I've decided to stop taking the antibiotics because my breath smelled like bread (which means that whatever was in my throat was probably yeast), so taking more antibiotics would be counterproductive. I don't care what the doctor said, I have developed a great distrust for the Chilean healthcare system. Anyway, all the nastyness that was in my throat is gone for the most part, except there is still a little swelling and it looks like one of my tonsils is bleeding (it's not, it just looks like it). I just feel all after-allergy now I guess. Kinda dizzy and gross and rashy and very, very thirsty (I just bought a 1.6 litro of good water), but I have an appetite and I can swallow, so I think we're good.

I even went back to school today! Whoo! Tomorrow morning I have to go in and figure out my insurance, so wish me luck with that. I'm going to be very glad when this is all over. Seriously, just in time for Thanksgiving and my birthday. :D

Day XX of the Chilean Mystery Illness

2007-11-17T01:56:45Z

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!

Today...

2007-11-11T03:06:35Z

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.

Yo soy la I de Chile

2007-11-06T03:40:14Z

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. :)

I do have information that is culturally significant!

2007-10-27T01:00:13Z

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. :)

Sweet.

2007-10-26T16:25:00Z

I'm doing a lot better! I'm fairly certain that my fever's gone 'cause I slept soundly last night, so now I only have a sore throat and a little fatigue. I think I'll go out and buy some awesomeness for our trip up north today, so that'll be fun. I'm so lazy, haha. I did miss our trip to the 27a Feria Internacional del Libro de Santiago or Santiago's 27th annual International Book Fair, so I might go check that out. My conversation class went yesterday, but I was chilling at home trying to get better. Yes! I was kind of sad I missed that. I just need to figure out where it is, but ya'know. Hmm... Yeah.

So Sunday we're leaving for San Pedro, an oasis in the driest desert in the world. Bwah. Yes. I've been here for 2 months already, that's crazy. I only have a little more than a month left before I go home for Christmas. I should be traveling more, ayyyyy. Alright, so after San Pedro, we're taking a trip to Argentina. Then in November, we might go to Buenos Aires. All this planning business is stressful, but it's not too hard to just hop in a bus 'cause that's all you have to do. Right, get on the bus.

Other than my not traveling around this continent really and being ill, things are going well. We took a test over the subjunctive that kicked everyone's ass, so that wasn't fun. Dance class is really tiring 'cause it's 2 hours of movement after hanging out in the sun all afternoon. I'm just chillin' on Consue's bed, watching Mad About You with subtitles 'cause I kind of hate things that are dubbed. Um, yeah... another pointless entry. I'm gonna go.

Awesome.

2007-10-25T21:19:54Z

How I've managed to contract like 11 illnesses while I've been here is beyond me. I'm sick again. Seriously, this is like the 5th time. Yesterday morning I woke up feeling like a pile of shells. Why shells, you ask? I don't know, ask the fever 'cause it always makes me feel crazy things. Yesterday morning it was shells.
Anyway, I only went to one class yesterday and promptly returned here. I missed the meeting about our trip up north too. We're leaving Sunday. Anyway, Maria Elena and Consuelo came home and asked how I was. I said sick, and they didn't really believe me until they felt my forehead. Then they were like, yeah... have some medicine and some tea. That was good.
I slept until like 1 yesterday, then came back at like 4 and was in bed practically until 3 today. Then I took a shower and went to buy orange juice and Sprite and Gummy Worms 'cause I wanted to. Good lord. I'm still exhausted though. I even missed our field trip to the book fair this afternoon! I'm pissed about that.

Ok, so I'm going to be better by Sunday because we're going to San Pedro de Atacama. It's going to be a ton of fun and I'm going to get credit for it too. After that, because we're still going to have 4 days off, a group of us is probably going to Mendoza, Argentina or someplace else. We don't really make plans too far in advance, ya'know.

So some school girls just knocked on the door and sold me a ticket for a dollar... I don't really know what it is, but I think it's helping them go on a trip, so that's good. Yeah, I don't know what it is. No idea, but I have a million coins, so I can give them away, right? Right.

I know this isn't a very good "what's going on in Chile" entry,but I'm tired and I think I'm going to watch a movie or something. Flojera, flojera.

Um...

2007-10-20T02:12:40Z

I was just served some "pizza".
Contents:
Crust which is more like flat bread
Ketchup
Diced tomatoes
Cheese slices
Ham

This is not pizza. Mostly because ketchup is not tomato sauce. Weirdo Chileans. En serio.

This is a public service announcement to all the gringos that they need to appreciate their pizza 'cause it's delicious. Pepperoni is plentiful and you have real cheese. Here, pepperoni is imported and the closest thing I found to real cheddar thus far has been individually wrapped plastic cheese in all of it's bright orange glory.
Although, I did eat some delicious cheese-mushroom-chicken empanadas this afternoon. Those were BOMB. We're still seriously lacking on the pizza front here though. Sheesh.

In other news... my brother's a crazy liar. :p That is all.

Quick update

2007-10-19T03:31:48Z

I'm so bad at keeping this thing updated. My papar journal too. Sheesh, it's so difficult to keep writing. Even though this is in English, it's still hard to keep writing because writing in Spanish takes so much out of me. I mean, we're on our second composition class and don't actually have to write that much, but it's still so draining to keep on writing in Spanish, listening in Spanish, and speaking in Spanish inside and outside of the classroom. I feel like I need 12 hours of sleep a night to keep up with it. Of course, I don't sleep that much, but I go to bed tired and wake up tired. I guess it's all part of the process.

We went to Viña del Mar and Valparaíso this weekend. We had Friday off to take our tours, and we had Monday off too for some reason. I don't know why. Was it Columbus day? It's possible because they apparently renamed it. Viña del Mar and Valparaíso were amazing. We stayed in a hostel in Valparaíso that was very nice and only $10usd a night. We were there for two nights just hanging out and exploring.

Viña del Mar is a beautiful place. On the tour we went to some rocks on the beach (I have some amazing pics that I need to post) and I was climbing them for a while. I only feel and beat the crap out of my elbow once. It's looking pretty nice. Then we went and climbed on the sand dunes. I went to the top! Yeah, go me. I have some cool pics from up there too, but since the sand was blowing the whole time, my camera got some sand in the lens. I think I cleaned it out alright though. We went there and hung out on the beach a couple times. We also rented a "jankety-ass bike" and peddled down the street. All four of us on this bike car thing. Viña del Mar was definitely beautiful and a chill place, but it wasn't my favorite.
Valparaíso was where our hostel was, and it has so much character. They have a crazy system of funiculars, so we rode one of those up for $150clp. There was so much street art everywhere. Not just any street art either, good street art. I have pics of that too. It's hard to describe. It has some characteristics in common with San Francisco though. Very cool place.

During the nights, we went to El Huevo which was this amazing club in Valparaíso. We went with the Mexicans and the Spaniard that were on our USAC tour with us. We had a good night talking in comprehensable Spanish. It was this amazing 3 story club with everything imaginable in it. They had a bar where you could just chill on the first floor, a dance club on the second, a disco club on the other side of the second, a reggaeton club on the third, and a salsa deck on the roof, and another place just to chill on the roof. Man, it was a sweet place.
The morning after our fun night at El Huevo, we went in search of food. I got a hamburger, but the meat was pretty sketchy and I'm fairly certain that I consumed horse. Gotta watch out for the sketchy meat here 'cause it's prolly horse. That's what our teacher told us. I only managed to eat half of that hamburger. I did get a good Italiano the night before. Delicious hot dog with palta and mayo and ketchup on a freshly toasted bun.

Anyway, when I got back from this adventure (after almost missing the bus because we obviously needed pizza, the ticket was only 6 dollars anyway), my host mom was making anticuchos... Many many anticuchos (shiskabobs). I found out there was a party on Monday for Matías. I also found out the water heater was fixed, so I took a shower and went to bed.
Monday was the going away party. I knew he was going away, but I didn't really know why. I thought vacation, but apparently him and his wife are going to England, then to Albania, and later something about a boat. They're going to be gone for like 3 years and aren't coming back for Consuelo's wedding! Ay. So the WHOLE family was at the apartment. I met everyone. Thankfully, Matías' brother in law was there and didn't know anyone either. That was nice. Anyway, my host mom was all emotional and I felt really bad for her and it made me sad. The party made me really homesick just 'cause the whole family was just so close. I wanted MY family, then I snowballed down for a bit, but now I'm back. Ayyyy, yeah. My poor little host mom though.

Anyway, today we went to the park to play ultimate frisbee after the test from hell. A test completely over subjunctive, it was terrible. Anyway, ultimate frisbee... Haha, we're such gringos. So we hopped the fence 'cause we didn't want to pay the $0.40us and walk another mile around the park just to get in. Yeah, I fell from about 7 feet onto my knee. It looks pretty nice. Swollen, black, blue, and scabby. Delicious! Went and played frisbee anyway though 'cause I already went through all the trouble to get in, and that was a ton of fun. We were going to go to see "Supercool" which is Superbad with Spanish subtitles, but I guess we didn't. Then when we left we hopped the fence again. So awesome.
Anyway, it's time for bed like 2 hours ago 'cause I needs to shower in the morning.
Next Friday I believe we're leaving for San Pedro de Atacama. The driest desert in the world! Go Chile! I need to invest in the SPF 70 'cause the UV index is super high and it's a lot closer to the equator there. Sunscreen is really expensive though, like $20usd for 8oz. Then the US dollar keeps going down, what's up with that? Sheesh. Right. Anyway. Time for beeed. :)

¡o noes!

2007-10-10T21:10:04Z

1. Internet is down in the Chesterton location. I think I used it too much, so I'm in the library at school using an awesomely interesting keyboard. It has keys like Ññ°¬¡¿ on it, but it´s surprisingly confusing to get the @ sign. Well, I guess it isn't, but the Alt Gr and Q combination threw me for a loop. It is rather convenient to have that ñ key on here though. All things in different places. Silly Chile. Also, most of the Chileans I've seen type use the hunt and peck method, and it is driving me crazy. You have more than those couple of fingers to type with... Seriously, they should take a typing class or something. There are better ways! That's not nice. I'll not criticize (too much).

2. The hot water heater broke. My Chile mom asked me if I knew what a ¨califon¨ was, and I said I did not. She then told me that the califon died and there is no more hot water. Awesome, that was on Sunday. So, I took a FREEZING shower this morning, after washing my hair alone yesterday. I wonder when we´re getting a new califon...

3. We're not going to Buenos Aires, Argentina this weekend. We were unable to find the cheap flights, so I think we're going to be going there around the second weekend in November. This weekend we're going to spend in Viña del Mar and Valparaíso.

4. I really shouldn't be using my valuable internet time on MySpace, Facebook, and Livejournal, but I do anyway. This is a lot more useful than finishing up my take home test for Latin American cultures and figuring out what I'm going to talk about for my presentation in conversation tomorrow. Awesome... Perhaps I should go look into these things.

Thank you, Internets, for distracting me once again. This post is going out to todo el mundo, thank you LJ en español!

EDIT: Teh Internets LIVE in the Chesterton location. Awesome, now to get that pesky homework stuff done.