Gooooool

Alright so I have a lot to catch you all up on. Time does fly here, and now that classes have really started to pick up (you mean I actually came here to go to school?) I am busier than ever. I guess I’ll rewind to Thursday. On Thursday night I went out with Chilean Max, my new Chilean posse, Gonzalo and Matias, American Max, and a few other Chilean friends to this really chill brewpub called HBH. It was highly entertaining, and I got to meet some new people who were all super cool. We all then departed to a gathering for gringos where we could dance and ostensibly meet more people from around the world who are also studying at La Catolica. It was more fun than I expected, but I mostly hung out with Chilean Max, Gonzalo, and another girl from the United States named Beth who I knew from the previous gathering and from sushi.

After a night of revelry I was incredibly tired when I got home. Before I knew it, I woke up to my host mom yelling at me. Turns out I had a slept through my alarm and six phone calls (not sure how this is possible, even with earplugs), and it was 12:45. Since my bus was supposed to leave for La Serena at 1:15, and I am NEVER late to anything I had a miniature panic attack. But my host mom, being the saint that she is, kept me from having a breakdown, and I quickly changed my clothes and ran for the door. Luckily, I am super type A, so I had laid out an outfit and packed my bags the night before (thank you, Mom for instilling this in me). We managed to make it to the bus stop in 20 minutes even though it usually takes 25, and I sprinted onto the bus about two minutes before it departed from Santiago after hugging Maria Elena goodbye and thanking her for everything. Although I hadn’t showered, eaten, brushed my teeth, or even combed my hair, I was happy to be seated next to my friends Katie and Tess on our way to La Serena. And they were happy to see that I wasn’t, in fact, dead.

The bus ride took about 7 hours, so we reached La Serena a little after 8 pm. I was famished by the time we got there, but first we wanted to drop our bags of at our hostel. Since it was my first time in a hostel I didn’t know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. The hostel we stayed at was very clean, and we were upgraded to two private rooms instead of one large dorm. It was run by a few people in their twenties and painted with murals throughout. The hostel also had a computer with internet and provided a free breakfast. All for around $20 per night! Amazing. After we settled into our room and got the tour, we found a place to grab a quick and relatively tasty bite to eat and returned to the hostel. It was Pisco Sour night there, so we climbed up to the outdoor patio to socialize with the workers and the other inhabitants. It turns out that there was a group of 13 pilots-to-be staying in the hostel that night as well, and they were all super chill. Most of them were chileans but I ended up chatting with a Brazilian named William who was friendly and spoke four languages (Spanish, Portuguese, English, and German). Tess, Katie, Brita, and Nona (the latter two finally joined us at around midnight since they had a class Friday afternoon) talked to a guy named Nico, who suggested we all get together sometime in Santiago, since we are all studying there. I think we are going to make that happen. Anyway, the conversation was great, but the Pisco sours may have been even better since the guy who made them juiced the lemons himself. By far the best drinks I’ve had, and they were incredibly cheap too. I couldn’t help but rave to him about them. I also talked to a couple studying law at La Universidad de Chile and a couple of Americans who had just graduated from the University of South Dakota (their Spanish made me feel a lot better about mine). By around 2:30 we were ready to hit the hay since we had to get up early the next morning to do some exploring.

The weather in La Serena was splendid the next day, and I loved walking around town. First, we went to the Japanese gardens in town, which were beautiful despite it being winter. I’ll include pictures of all of this, so you all get a better idea. We then ended up strolling down the shoreline of the ocean, and stopping at a restaurant that was basically someone’s kitchen for a cheap and delicious lunch. It cost somewhere around $4 for a salad, rice, and chicken. Yum. After lunch, we hiked around the area and snapped more photos of the gorgeous views. We also stopped at an artisanal market called La Recova to do some shopping. All in all, it was a fun and relaxing day with plenty of exercise built in to the adventure. Needless to say, we all passed out on hour bus ride from La Serena to Vicuna (except Brita and Tess who watched the sunset). We then walked to our next hostel in Vicuna. This one was very nice as well but a lot more formal. Again it only cost around $20 a night for two private rooms, which is incredible. The woman who owns the hostel reminded me a lot of my host mom, and she was so friendly to all of us foreigners. After settling in for a second time, we picked up some dinner at a café in town and chose to spend the night in talking, drinking wine, and eating chocolate. Very relaxing and much needed after doing so much walking around during the day.

The next morning we woke up early again and enjoyed another free breakfast (though I was bummed to find out that this hostel didn’t have computer), and then headed out for more exploring in Vicuna. We started our day at the Gabriela Mistral museum where we learned more about the history of the Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet. Her life was very interesting, and it surprised me how little I had heard about her before. After the museum we stopped in some more artisanal shops around town and went to confirm our observatory tour for that night. Mostly I just enjoyed basking in the sun, since it’s so rare that I feel warm here. Another lunch passed by, and afterwards we trekked out to Planta Capel. Capel is the most popular brand of Pisco in Chile, and the plant happens to be located in Vicuna, so of course, we had to go see how it was made. The factory tour only lasted about 30 minutes, but I got to learn more about the fermentation process and the different types of Pisco available in Chile.  For example, did you know there are four different categories of Pisco, and that they are differentiated by their proof? We also had a few laughs along the way, since a stray dog accompanied us on the entire tour. For some reason the same dog had followed us all of the way from the center of town, and even though we hadn’t fed it a morsel. Strange. Anyway, the tour ended with a pisco tasting, and I sampled the Mango Pisco Colada. It was delicious and refreshing. We were all loving the mango, so we bought a bottle of mango sour to split that night. It also came with a free glass, which I paid a little extra to be able to keep. Definitely worth it. When we returned from the tour, we were disappointed to find out that our observatory for that night had been canceled since it was too foggy out. Still it was another pleasant night in with the girls, and I really liked getting to know them all better through the course of the trip.

Unfortunately, we had to return to La Serena the next day but not until after we hiked up a giant hill on the edge of town. It was a lovely two-hour hike and what I needed to stretch my legs before the hour bus ride back to La Serena and then the seven-hour bus ride back to Vicuna. Getting to the bus terminal less eventful than my trip into town (thankfully), and we arrived with plenty of time to spare. The bus ride was MUCH more painful though as I was seated directly across from the bathroom for all seven hours. It felt as though I was sitting in a Porto potty, and the stench was unbearable. Therefore by the time the seven hours were through I was pretty cranky, even more so when I realized that in my rush to escape from the bus my water bottle fell out. Very sad indeed. But I was happy to get home, shower, eat, and catch up on my emails in peace. All in all, it was a great weekend and a nice respite from the craziness of Santiago. Tess, Brita, Katie, and Nona deserve a shoutout for planning everything and being great to travel with. Definitely hoping to take another trip with them again soon. Like I said, I will work on posting pictures ASAP.

Today it was back to the grind, and I actually enjoyed both of my classes of the day. Not as boring or self-explanatory as some of the lectures in the past. Plus, I got to have lunch with my Chilean friend, Felipe and catch up with him. He is pretty awesome, and I like discussing linguistics (among other things, of course) with him, since he is studying English linguistics. Interesting to compare our experiences. I think we might get lunch again next week, which would be awesome. Clearly, whoever said I would have to work to make friends who aren’t foreigners, never met Chileans. I have met some amazing people already. Everyone is super nice here, though I must say, in my experience, the women are shyer than the men.

After a nice easy half hour run, I got ready for my first soccer game here. Gonzalo picked me up along with Matias, and we all headed to the stadium to watch La Catolica take on a Uruguayan team called Bella Vista. In Chile, the three main teams are La Catolica, La Chile, and Colo Colo. La Catolica has the smallest fanbase of the three, La Chile is somewhere in the middle, and Colo Colo is basically the Chilean version of the Yankees.  Still it made sense to me to be a La Catolica fan since it is related to my university, and Gonzalo offered to take me to a game. The stadium was only about half full since the weather was cold and overcast, but I still had an awesome time. La Catolica won 3-0, and it didn’t rain a single drop. Plus, Gonzalo is becoming a really good friend of mine here, and I liked hanging out with him and Matias a lot. I also enjoyed getting into the spirit of the game and chanting with the Chileans even though I had no clue what they were saying 95 percent of the time. Note to self: look up cheers. I’m definitely going to get to know the players better too, because I anticipate going to more game in the future. Gonzalo even bought me a La Catolica sticker, and I kept the program for future reference. On the way back from the game we discussed soccer and music and agreed on a music exchange since he obviously knows more Spanish songs than I do. Perfect for me as a lover of reggaeton and all things Chilean, and perfect for him as a lover of popular American music. In fact, I am listening to one of the songs right now and loving it.

Basically, the last few days have been amazing. Not to jinx it but I am seriously starting to thrive here. Thanks parents for this wonderful experience. Too bad for you, I may never come back.