Saturday, October 20, 2007 NOTHING AGAIN + Chilean Birthday Parties
Despite the fact that I didn’t go to sleep till 6:30 this morning, I woke up around noon. I intended to get some work done today, but like yesterday, I somehow managed to really not do anything. I got so lazy today that I didn’t even go running. But I did a few push ups and sit ups before I took a shower to not feel so pathetic. In reality I spent a long time catching up on this very blog, which I guess is something.
As you can imagine, it takes me a long time and since I’m so far behind it feels like I don’t get anywhere. For those of you highly dedicated Blog readers, I’ve now written over 106 pages single spaced with one inch margins on Word. That does include a few pics, but not too much. So basically I’ve written a short novel. Unfortunately for you it doesn’t have the typically story line but rather random rantings of my random adventures. But while I’m on the subject, I want to thank each of you for reading my blog. And especially thanks to those of you who make comments. Each one makes me feel loved and remembered, which is important for me. It’s good to know that you take time out of your busy day to read about my silly life. So thank you. If I ever got this published, I’d dedicate it to all those who faithfully read my blog.
I digress. Background for the evening: Calli’s host sister Nayadeth turned 18 and apparently in Chilean fashion, decided to throw a huge formal birthday bash. Calli got to invite some friends so she wouldn’t be the only gringa and those of us who know her family and her sister got invited. We’ve known for over a month and Kristen came over at 7:30 to get ready and Natalie came by around 8. Olga knew that they would have dinner at the party but not till really late (it didn’t start officially till 9:30 pm) so she bought us cookies and made us coffee to have before hand. We all got ready and Olga helped us pick out jewelry and then gossiped while we drank our coffee and ate our cookies.
Time flew and before we knew it was passed 9:30! We called a taxi and by the time we got there it was almost 10:30. But we obviously hadn’t missed anything because people were just hanging out drinking a tasty alcoholic punch. Nayadeth looked adorable in her pink princess dress with everyone else in black dresses and suits. We hung out mostly in our gringo blob which consisted of me, Natalie, Kristen, Sam(antha), CJ (Calli’s brother) and Calli, but managed to talk to random relatives and a few of Nayadeth’s friends.
Around 11:30 we ate dinner and after dinner the dancing began. Like last night, the time passed filled with dancing, singing, and goofing off. Everyone hour or so they stopped the dancing for a “show”. The first was a belly dancing performance by an aunt. Next was a Michael Jackson impersonation by an uncle (the one married to the belly dancer!). A while later the brought out tables, salt, lemons and shot glasses and almost everyone took a shot of tequila! The gringas went first with Nayadeth, which I guess was quite an honor! We sang Happy Birthday and had cake around 4 am and the party ended around 5 am. By that point most of the relatives were good and drunk. Luckily all the gringas except one had stopped drinking early.
We then began the epic journey of trying to get home (like every time we go out). We called a radio taxi like the one we’d taken here and again Natalie, Kristen and I shared the cab home. I didn’t get back till well after 6 and once again crawled into bed half asleep.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007 NOTHING + Chilean Concerts
Friday, October 19, 2007 NOTHING + Chilean Concerts
I slept in since I literally had NOTHING that I had to do today. Of course I had a nice list of readings and such that I should do for the next week, but nothing too pressing. After breakfast I laid in bed updating my blog, downloading my pics, checking my email and facebook, just basically wasting time. Olga went to run errands etc. and when she got back to eat lunch she gave me hard time for not moving since she’d left. After lunch I went for a nice long run, showered, then climbed back into bed to do more “work”.
Around 5 Courtney called me and invited me to go with her to a concert tonight with the University of Chile. The concert was right outside Parque O’Higgins by my house and I’d actually seen them setting up the stage when I was running. So I met up with Courtney around 8 and we bought tickets for the concert. She came back to my apartment and had once with us and Olga was absolutely thrilled to have her. We were supposed to meet up with some of Courtney’s Chileans classmates, the ones who actually invited her to go, around 10:30, but in usual Chilean style, they didn’t get to the concert till almost midnight. While we waited we got some ice cream to share and chuckled at the fact that while most people were getting drunk before the concert, we were enjoying dessert!
By the time we got through all the security to get into the concert (or rather into the gates around the concert) it was past midnight. The place was completely packed with University of Chile students and a few random gringos like Courtney and I. We spent the next 4 + hours dancing, singing, and screaming anti-Pinochet chants at the top of our lungs. We heard three famous Chilean bands play: Chico Trujillo, a cumbia/ska group, then Sol y Lluvia, a well know leftist/antiPinochet group, then finally Tommy Rey, a dearly loved latin style brass band (think Ricky Ricardo). Courtney’s classmates were really really friendly and an absolute blast and before I knew it they were shutting down the concert around 4:30 am. ( I guess now its Saturday but it felt like Friday, so it’s staying here!)
We decided that Courtney would hang out at my house until the metro opened at 6 am then begin her hour + journey back to her house. So we walked home together, got a little snack in the kitchen, and then helped keep each other awake until 6. I walked her half way to the metro (like we used to do at night in the neighborhood), then half asleep crawled in to my bed back home.
Thursday, October 18, 2007 EVERYTHING
Thursday, October 18, 2007 EVERYTHING
I woke up super early to get to the high school for my volunteer job. I helped the kids pronounce the irregular verbs in the past tense, which was fun for me to hear them try to pronounce stuff. But I don’t think they really learned anything. After a while Ms. Mabel gave up and handed out a worksheet (that they didn’t do) but I didn’t mind because I could study. For the second class we reviewed the verbs then had them play charades to act them out. They had fun with it and behaved themselves relatively well.
I left after the second class to get to campus on time for the test. On my way to the classroom I ran into Christian and Manuel so instead of last minute studying I chatted with them. I went to take the test and it ended up going a lot better than I’d thought. The question was really opened ended, like any good essay test so I could basically regurgitate everything I’d memorized. I made an outline then speed wrote for over one hour. By the time I finished my brain hurt, so I just turned it in without rereading or reviewing it. I hope the professor understands!
I’d made plans to meet up with Calli and CJ to go to the Concho y Toro winery, the biggest winery in all of Chile (which is saying something). I’d thought I’d have enough time to go home and eat there before heading out but since the test took longer than I’d thought I ended up staying on campus and eating there. I ate with Christian and some of this classmates and after I few minutes I gave up trying to understand them.
At 2ish I met CJ and Calli in the metro and we took it to the end of the line then got on a bus to make it to the winery. We had a tour in English at 3 which lasted about one hour and included 3 glasses of wine. Plus we got to keep the fancy wine glass. Besides the wine and the glass, I wasn’t too impressed with the tour. We didn’t really see anything and I didn’t really learn anything. I guess compared to the other tour we did it was really touristy and superficial (actually a lot like the tour of the Pisco factory in La Serena).
I got home from the tour around 6ish and relaxed for a while. At 10 a big group of us met up at the movie theaters to see Superbad (or Supercool), the new movie with the kid from Arrested Development. Despite being horribly inappropriate, it was hilarious (plus it was in English). I hadn’t laughed out loud like that in a movie in quite a while. After the movie we all took the bus to Plaza Nuñoa and got drinks. I shared a Malta con huevo (a malt beer with a raw egg and lots of sugar) with Hanna. It’s a popular drink in Chile and we’d seen the movie called Malta con Huevo, so when we saw they had it we really wanted to try it. It was actually not that bad, almost like a beer milkshake. But it was really rich and strong and we couldn’t even finish it between the two of us! The bar closed and kicked us out of our relaxing patio seats at one and we all took buses home.
p.s. The litre is pretty much completely gone. I’ve got a few patches of dry skin and one little spot on the side of my lip but it just looks like I broke out. With some makeup you can’t tell at all!
I woke up super early to get to the high school for my volunteer job. I helped the kids pronounce the irregular verbs in the past tense, which was fun for me to hear them try to pronounce stuff. But I don’t think they really learned anything. After a while Ms. Mabel gave up and handed out a worksheet (that they didn’t do) but I didn’t mind because I could study. For the second class we reviewed the verbs then had them play charades to act them out. They had fun with it and behaved themselves relatively well.
I left after the second class to get to campus on time for the test. On my way to the classroom I ran into Christian and Manuel so instead of last minute studying I chatted with them. I went to take the test and it ended up going a lot better than I’d thought. The question was really opened ended, like any good essay test so I could basically regurgitate everything I’d memorized. I made an outline then speed wrote for over one hour. By the time I finished my brain hurt, so I just turned it in without rereading or reviewing it. I hope the professor understands!
I’d made plans to meet up with Calli and CJ to go to the Concho y Toro winery, the biggest winery in all of Chile (which is saying something). I’d thought I’d have enough time to go home and eat there before heading out but since the test took longer than I’d thought I ended up staying on campus and eating there. I ate with Christian and some of this classmates and after I few minutes I gave up trying to understand them.
At 2ish I met CJ and Calli in the metro and we took it to the end of the line then got on a bus to make it to the winery. We had a tour in English at 3 which lasted about one hour and included 3 glasses of wine. Plus we got to keep the fancy wine glass. Besides the wine and the glass, I wasn’t too impressed with the tour. We didn’t really see anything and I didn’t really learn anything. I guess compared to the other tour we did it was really touristy and superficial (actually a lot like the tour of the Pisco factory in La Serena).
I got home from the tour around 6ish and relaxed for a while. At 10 a big group of us met up at the movie theaters to see Superbad (or Supercool), the new movie with the kid from Arrested Development. Despite being horribly inappropriate, it was hilarious (plus it was in English). I hadn’t laughed out loud like that in a movie in quite a while. After the movie we all took the bus to Plaza Nuñoa and got drinks. I shared a Malta con huevo (a malt beer with a raw egg and lots of sugar) with Hanna. It’s a popular drink in Chile and we’d seen the movie called Malta con Huevo, so when we saw they had it we really wanted to try it. It was actually not that bad, almost like a beer milkshake. But it was really rich and strong and we couldn’t even finish it between the two of us! The bar closed and kicked us out of our relaxing patio seats at one and we all took buses home.
p.s. The litre is pretty much completely gone. I’ve got a few patches of dry skin and one little spot on the side of my lip but it just looks like I broke out. With some makeup you can’t tell at all!
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 A good balance of work and play
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 A good balance of work and play
I woke up early to finish my essay. Luckily I decided to take my Doctrina Social test on Thursday instead of Wednesday (today) so I had extra time to finish the essay. My Doctrina Social professor lets us take the test in either section he has. Amazingly I got the essay done before I needed to head to class. I headed to campus, printed off the essay (not corrected by a Chilean, therefore FULL of grammar errors) and went to mass. After mass I had my Education class, then ate lunch with my gringo friend Nick.
I headed to my Biblia class, ready to turn in my essay. In between class I went to get a coffee at the market in the metro station and on the way out I tripped up the stairs. It was really embarrassing and I spilled half my coffee, some of it on myself. And worst was that I scrapped my elbow and it was bleeding a tiny bit. Now that I write it out it sounds a lot worse than it was, but I was quite embarrassed. After Pobreza a bunch of us went to a bar/café across the street to watch the last 20 minutes of the Chile vs. Peru soccer game. The place was totally full and from our seats outside we could barely see the TV inside. But Chile was up 2-0 so it was more about the environment. We shared a couple of pitchers of beer and after the game ended we stayed another 30 minutes or so discussing religion and God. It was great to have a real conversation about a real topic. The whole time I kept thinking about the fact that I had a test tomorrow but I wasn’t really worried about it. When it comes to class here I am definitely a different person than I am at Tulane and I love it! Maybe that is just the life of a liberal arts major! (Note the sarcasm to those of my friends who study the wonderful and priceless liberal arts!)
I took the metro home, ate a quick once with Olga and headed to my room to study. For some reason my internet wasn’t working so I couldn’t talk to Trevor, which was probably for the better so I could study! I feel asleep reading through my notes.
I woke up early to finish my essay. Luckily I decided to take my Doctrina Social test on Thursday instead of Wednesday (today) so I had extra time to finish the essay. My Doctrina Social professor lets us take the test in either section he has. Amazingly I got the essay done before I needed to head to class. I headed to campus, printed off the essay (not corrected by a Chilean, therefore FULL of grammar errors) and went to mass. After mass I had my Education class, then ate lunch with my gringo friend Nick.
I headed to my Biblia class, ready to turn in my essay. In between class I went to get a coffee at the market in the metro station and on the way out I tripped up the stairs. It was really embarrassing and I spilled half my coffee, some of it on myself. And worst was that I scrapped my elbow and it was bleeding a tiny bit. Now that I write it out it sounds a lot worse than it was, but I was quite embarrassed. After Pobreza a bunch of us went to a bar/café across the street to watch the last 20 minutes of the Chile vs. Peru soccer game. The place was totally full and from our seats outside we could barely see the TV inside. But Chile was up 2-0 so it was more about the environment. We shared a couple of pitchers of beer and after the game ended we stayed another 30 minutes or so discussing religion and God. It was great to have a real conversation about a real topic. The whole time I kept thinking about the fact that I had a test tomorrow but I wasn’t really worried about it. When it comes to class here I am definitely a different person than I am at Tulane and I love it! Maybe that is just the life of a liberal arts major! (Note the sarcasm to those of my friends who study the wonderful and priceless liberal arts!)
I took the metro home, ate a quick once with Olga and headed to my room to study. For some reason my internet wasn’t working so I couldn’t talk to Trevor, which was probably for the better so I could study! I feel asleep reading through my notes.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007 Back to the hussel and the bussel
Tuesday, October 16, 2007 Back to the hussel and the bussel
I woke up on the bus and spent the next 12 hours reading and sleeping and watching the TV on the bus. They played the movie Déjà Vu (dubbed in Spanish), with Denzel Washington that takes place in New Orleans, so that was pretty exciting. But it made me miss it! I finished reading the book, notes and highlighting included, so that was a relief. As you can imagine, not much happened otherwise. We got in a 7ish and I headed home, ready to be back. I took a shower and had once with Olga while I recapped my adventures. She loved the gift I got her and how it’s hanging up on the wall by the door. It actually looks really good, so that was a relief.
Side note: More wisdom by Olga: I explained to her my anxiety about giving people gifts because I’m afraid they won’t like them. She told me that it was only my insecurity and that I shouldn’t care if they like the gift or not because the fact that I got them something is what is important.
I had to do an essay for my Biblia class for tomorrow which required watching the movie Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio about the diamond trade in Africa. Nothing like waiting till the last minute, but luckily Calli’s family had a pirated copy, so I went to her house and CJ and Calli and I watched it together. It didn’t finish till after 1 am so I took a cab home (it only cost about $2). I worked as late as I could before I crashed and was able to get a good outline done.
I woke up on the bus and spent the next 12 hours reading and sleeping and watching the TV on the bus. They played the movie Déjà Vu (dubbed in Spanish), with Denzel Washington that takes place in New Orleans, so that was pretty exciting. But it made me miss it! I finished reading the book, notes and highlighting included, so that was a relief. As you can imagine, not much happened otherwise. We got in a 7ish and I headed home, ready to be back. I took a shower and had once with Olga while I recapped my adventures. She loved the gift I got her and how it’s hanging up on the wall by the door. It actually looks really good, so that was a relief.
Side note: More wisdom by Olga: I explained to her my anxiety about giving people gifts because I’m afraid they won’t like them. She told me that it was only my insecurity and that I shouldn’t care if they like the gift or not because the fact that I got them something is what is important.
I had to do an essay for my Biblia class for tomorrow which required watching the movie Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio about the diamond trade in Africa. Nothing like waiting till the last minute, but luckily Calli’s family had a pirated copy, so I went to her house and CJ and Calli and I watched it together. It didn’t finish till after 1 am so I took a cab home (it only cost about $2). I worked as late as I could before I crashed and was able to get a good outline done.
Monday, October 15, 2007 More San Pedro
Monday, October 15, 2007 More San Pedro
Will, CJ and I woke up early and went on another tour with Juan to Lagunas Cejar (in case we haven’t seen enough lagunas right?). But Lagunas Cejar are famous for being the only Free Floating bodies of water in all of the Americas (North and South). There is so much salt and other minerals in the water that your body natural floats on top, like in the Dead Sea. Plus the first 4 top feet of the water is ground water that is FREZZEING cold but after the water is burning hot. The heat is produced by a chemical reaction between the water and the salt crystals 30 feet below. And the two layers don’t mix because of the difference in density.
We sloshed our way through a marshy field then across a salt flat to get to the first Laguna. Juan told all of us to get in the water and warn us how to avoid the shard salt crystals along the edge. But when we stepped into the water and realized how cold it was, we started to question whether or not it was worth it. After a few minutes of gaining courage, I slowly lowered my body into the water and floated out. Except that it was so cold that I could barely breath. My whole body froze up and every inch of me was covered in goose bumps. But I toughed it out and put my feet down and felt the crazy hot layer. It was bizarre. The guys wimped out and never got in the water but the other girl on the tour with me joined me for a couple minutes. Eventually I realized that I wasn’t going to get use to the cold water; it was just that cold) and the thrill of the crazy phenomenon faded so I climbed out. I my venture to say it was the coldest I’ve been in my entire life. But luckily the sun was out and I started to dry pretty quickly.
Next we crossed back over the salt/marsh land and then drove to another nearby Laguna called Los gemelos (The Twins). This Laguna had the same different water temperature phenomenon and you floated but this Laguna was the most incredible color I’ve seen in two perfectly circular holes side by side. The pools formed when the salt formations collapsed underneath and form inverted conical holes 90 feet deep.
This Laguna was a little bit warmer (that or my body was still numb) so Will toughed it out and got in this time. CJ jumped in for about 3 seconds and got out as fast as he could. We swam around in the pool as long as our bodies allowed us and when I pulled myself out my muscles were so cold I could barely move. We drove back to the hostel, the entire time shaking and shivering despite the fact that I was completely dry.
I took a shower to warm up and finally clean myself, and then we headed into town to grab lunch. After lunch we got ice cream and walked about 1.3 miles to Las Ruinas de Pukara, “The Ruins of Pukara, which are the remains of an indigenous fort. It was a beautiful walk and climb up the fort and from the top you can see the entire town of San Pedro de Atacama. We hung out at the top enjoying the incredible view and soaking in the immensity surrounding us. Later we climbed down and walked to a huge hotel we’d seen from the top to check it out. The security guard stopped us but explained that it was under construction but it already had guests. There was a cute little plaza and next to it Will found the entrance to a cave. CJ and I went spelunking (cave exploring; its super popular in Missouri) for a while and you could go surprisingly far because there were breaks in the rocks above letting in light.
We then walked back to town and bought some last minute souvenirs in the market, including a pretty hand woven wall hanging for Olga. We had to catch our bus to Calama at 7, so we hurried back to the hostel; got our stuff together and Roberto the hostel owner drove us to the stop. We said a sad goodbye to Roberto and when I told him he was the best hostel owner ever, seriously, he just smiled and shrugged his shoulders as if it were nothing!
We piled into a crowded bus heading to Calama, the next biggest town about 1.5 hours west of San Pedro. When we arrived we had to walk a good mile to the Tur Bus bus station with all our stuff (that’s cheap college students for you right, won’t even get a taxi!). Since we had an hour before we got our bus to Santiago, we ate dinner at a delicious, cheap, but really nice Chinese restaurant across the street from the bus station. It made me miss Shanghi Boy!!
At 10 we piled onto the next bus and began the long trek back to Santiago. At the beginning of the trip Will told us a cute story about his first girlfriend in 8th grade and when I mentioned that Trevor and I “dated” in junior high they asked me to tell them the story. I warned them, but they agreed that since we had a 23 hour bus right, a long story wouldn’t be too bad. So I recounted our now 8 year history in about 25 minutes. For two guys, they seemed to enjoy the story and even asked questions! It was quite endearing. After the recounting of the epic love story, I read more of the book for my Doctrina Social test on Wednesday then fell asleep.
Will, CJ and I woke up early and went on another tour with Juan to Lagunas Cejar (in case we haven’t seen enough lagunas right?). But Lagunas Cejar are famous for being the only Free Floating bodies of water in all of the Americas (North and South). There is so much salt and other minerals in the water that your body natural floats on top, like in the Dead Sea. Plus the first 4 top feet of the water is ground water that is FREZZEING cold but after the water is burning hot. The heat is produced by a chemical reaction between the water and the salt crystals 30 feet below. And the two layers don’t mix because of the difference in density.
We sloshed our way through a marshy field then across a salt flat to get to the first Laguna. Juan told all of us to get in the water and warn us how to avoid the shard salt crystals along the edge. But when we stepped into the water and realized how cold it was, we started to question whether or not it was worth it. After a few minutes of gaining courage, I slowly lowered my body into the water and floated out. Except that it was so cold that I could barely breath. My whole body froze up and every inch of me was covered in goose bumps. But I toughed it out and put my feet down and felt the crazy hot layer. It was bizarre. The guys wimped out and never got in the water but the other girl on the tour with me joined me for a couple minutes. Eventually I realized that I wasn’t going to get use to the cold water; it was just that cold) and the thrill of the crazy phenomenon faded so I climbed out. I my venture to say it was the coldest I’ve been in my entire life. But luckily the sun was out and I started to dry pretty quickly.
Next we crossed back over the salt/marsh land and then drove to another nearby Laguna called Los gemelos (The Twins). This Laguna had the same different water temperature phenomenon and you floated but this Laguna was the most incredible color I’ve seen in two perfectly circular holes side by side. The pools formed when the salt formations collapsed underneath and form inverted conical holes 90 feet deep.
This Laguna was a little bit warmer (that or my body was still numb) so Will toughed it out and got in this time. CJ jumped in for about 3 seconds and got out as fast as he could. We swam around in the pool as long as our bodies allowed us and when I pulled myself out my muscles were so cold I could barely move. We drove back to the hostel, the entire time shaking and shivering despite the fact that I was completely dry.
I took a shower to warm up and finally clean myself, and then we headed into town to grab lunch. After lunch we got ice cream and walked about 1.3 miles to Las Ruinas de Pukara, “The Ruins of Pukara, which are the remains of an indigenous fort. It was a beautiful walk and climb up the fort and from the top you can see the entire town of San Pedro de Atacama. We hung out at the top enjoying the incredible view and soaking in the immensity surrounding us. Later we climbed down and walked to a huge hotel we’d seen from the top to check it out. The security guard stopped us but explained that it was under construction but it already had guests. There was a cute little plaza and next to it Will found the entrance to a cave. CJ and I went spelunking (cave exploring; its super popular in Missouri) for a while and you could go surprisingly far because there were breaks in the rocks above letting in light.
We then walked back to town and bought some last minute souvenirs in the market, including a pretty hand woven wall hanging for Olga. We had to catch our bus to Calama at 7, so we hurried back to the hostel; got our stuff together and Roberto the hostel owner drove us to the stop. We said a sad goodbye to Roberto and when I told him he was the best hostel owner ever, seriously, he just smiled and shrugged his shoulders as if it were nothing!
We piled into a crowded bus heading to Calama, the next biggest town about 1.5 hours west of San Pedro. When we arrived we had to walk a good mile to the Tur Bus bus station with all our stuff (that’s cheap college students for you right, won’t even get a taxi!). Since we had an hour before we got our bus to Santiago, we ate dinner at a delicious, cheap, but really nice Chinese restaurant across the street from the bus station. It made me miss Shanghi Boy!!
At 10 we piled onto the next bus and began the long trek back to Santiago. At the beginning of the trip Will told us a cute story about his first girlfriend in 8th grade and when I mentioned that Trevor and I “dated” in junior high they asked me to tell them the story. I warned them, but they agreed that since we had a 23 hour bus right, a long story wouldn’t be too bad. So I recounted our now 8 year history in about 25 minutes. For two guys, they seemed to enjoy the story and even asked questions! It was quite endearing. After the recounting of the epic love story, I read more of the book for my Doctrina Social test on Wednesday then fell asleep.
Sunday, October 14, 2007 Sandboarding in San Pedro
Sunday, October 14, 2007 Sandboarding
I slept in till 10:00 am and Natalie and Sam and I headed into town to go to church which we thought started at 11:00 am. But it didn’t start till noon, so we spent the hour trying to buy our bus tickets back to Santiago. The tickets for Sunday were all sold out, which meant the 3 of us who hadn’t bought tickets home had to stay an extra day. But I didn’t have class on Tuesday and had been hoping to stay, so I didn’t mind at all! We also watched a German movie being filmed in the plaza! For a town of only 4,000 people we were amazed to see the big production. We found out later that it is called Honeymoon in Chile (but in German) and I really hope I get to see it! We went to mass at noon and the church was absolutely packed, about half of us obviously tourists.
After mass there was a Mexican dancing group that performed in the plaza. We watched for a while then headed back to the hostel to get ready for our Sand boarding trip! Only 4 of us ended up going since Courtney was still feeling a little ill and now Calli was throwing up. But Sam, CJ, Will and I spent the afternoon climbing up a huge sand dune, waxing up our sand boards, then sliding/falling/embarrassing ourselves all the way down the hill! The sand board is basically a smaller, little thinner snowboard and the idea is to go down basically like snowboarding. But its a lot harder because the sand breaks you instead of snow which accelerates you. So you have to stay lean really far back on the board and try and turn, which is nearly impossible. After about an hour we figured it out enough to go down the hill in a single diagonal instead of zigzagging like you are supposed to. I definitely wasn’t very good at it but descent enough to enjoy myself. It was a great workout and I’m glad we tried it. Plus it was a good step for me to “get back on the horse” after breaking my wrist snowboarding. I was really nervous at first but felt more comfortable by the end.
When we got back from snowboarding I took a well needed shower then said goodbye to all the girls that were leaving. They had class Tuesday so needed all day tomorrow (which is a holiday) to get back to Santiago. So I was left with CJ, Calli’s brother, and Will, another friend in my program. They are great guys and we had fun hanging out and it was only a little weird being the only girl. For dinner we met up with Andy and Taylor and again afterwards came back to the hostel and hung out. Andy and Taylor went back around midnight because they hadn’t slept at all the night before (hanging out with us than going to the geysers) and they had to catch a flight early in the morning.
I slept in till 10:00 am and Natalie and Sam and I headed into town to go to church which we thought started at 11:00 am. But it didn’t start till noon, so we spent the hour trying to buy our bus tickets back to Santiago. The tickets for Sunday were all sold out, which meant the 3 of us who hadn’t bought tickets home had to stay an extra day. But I didn’t have class on Tuesday and had been hoping to stay, so I didn’t mind at all! We also watched a German movie being filmed in the plaza! For a town of only 4,000 people we were amazed to see the big production. We found out later that it is called Honeymoon in Chile (but in German) and I really hope I get to see it! We went to mass at noon and the church was absolutely packed, about half of us obviously tourists.
After mass there was a Mexican dancing group that performed in the plaza. We watched for a while then headed back to the hostel to get ready for our Sand boarding trip! Only 4 of us ended up going since Courtney was still feeling a little ill and now Calli was throwing up. But Sam, CJ, Will and I spent the afternoon climbing up a huge sand dune, waxing up our sand boards, then sliding/falling/embarrassing ourselves all the way down the hill! The sand board is basically a smaller, little thinner snowboard and the idea is to go down basically like snowboarding. But its a lot harder because the sand breaks you instead of snow which accelerates you. So you have to stay lean really far back on the board and try and turn, which is nearly impossible. After about an hour we figured it out enough to go down the hill in a single diagonal instead of zigzagging like you are supposed to. I definitely wasn’t very good at it but descent enough to enjoy myself. It was a great workout and I’m glad we tried it. Plus it was a good step for me to “get back on the horse” after breaking my wrist snowboarding. I was really nervous at first but felt more comfortable by the end.
When we got back from snowboarding I took a well needed shower then said goodbye to all the girls that were leaving. They had class Tuesday so needed all day tomorrow (which is a holiday) to get back to Santiago. So I was left with CJ, Calli’s brother, and Will, another friend in my program. They are great guys and we had fun hanging out and it was only a little weird being the only girl. For dinner we met up with Andy and Taylor and again afterwards came back to the hostel and hung out. Andy and Taylor went back around midnight because they hadn’t slept at all the night before (hanging out with us than going to the geysers) and they had to catch a flight early in the morning.
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