Adventures

** The photo uploading feature is not working at the moment so I will try to upload photos this weekend :)

On Sunday the 28th we had another group excursion. This time we went to the town of Isla Negra to visit another one of Pablo Neruda’s houses. This was by far my favorite of his 3 houses in Chile. Unfortunately we are not allowed to take pictures inside any of the houses but I do have some photos from outside. After touring the house we went to the beach for lunch. A professor from the university came along with us and was going to bring us to a good restaurant for lunch. This ended up being a wild goose chase. I’m not sure if the restaurant had closed or if it was just farther then she remembered but after walking for what seemed like forever the group split up and went to various restaurants. It was probably better that we went in smaller groups rather than try to have a group of 30 in one restaurant. I went to a cool little restaurant with about 6 other people. I really could not decide what to get and finally decided on a sandwich called “campesino.” It was an excellent decision! It was roast beef style meat called churrasco, a fried egg, green beans and tomato. Sounds like an odd combo but it was amazing. The only thing that could have made this sandwich even better is palta (avocado). After lunch we wondered around looking at the artisan stands for awhile and walked on the beach until it was time to leave. While walking on the beach we saw a couple starfish!! They were really neat. Before long it was time to go back to Vina. I had the brilliant idea to keep reading for senior seminar like I had done on the way to Isla Negra, only this time I think I lasted about 3 minutes before I fell sound asleep until we were back in Vina.

Last Tuesday was my 21st birthday, it was probably one of the busiest days I have had so far! My day started out at the crack of dawn- I got up at 6:30 to have breakfast and get ready for my 8:00 AM cine class. As I was eating breakfast my mom and sister came into the kitchen to wish me happy birthday and give me a box of alfajores (popular Chilean pastries- 2 cookies with manjar in the middle, all covered in chocolate). Then they went back to bed, nobody ever gets up with me on Tuesdays because I have class so early. The alfajores were amazing, they were the kind from a bakery, not the packaged kind:). My 11:00 history class sang “feliz cumpleanos” to me. Then I had two meetings. One was a check up with our director and the other was for our service learning assignments. After the meetings I rushed home so I could eat lunch with my parents. After lunch they sang to me and we had cake. I have to say the cake was pretty darn good (I made it myself). It was chocolate with a layer of peanut butter mouse in the middle. The frosting was chocolate peanut butter. My parents said it was very good but I don’t know if I believe them. They may have each had a second piece of cake but the rest I ate and shared with friends on our trip to La Serena. When I got back from La Serena, 4 days later, there was still cake in the fridge. Now that I think about it, and have seen some amazing cakes walking by the bakery, I should have picked out a cake. I missed the only chance to have a Chilean Birthday cake. Oh well, it was fun to make. After lunch I talked with Laura on skype for about 5 minutes before I had to leave once again for a make-up history class. We had to meet to Valparaiso at 4:00. Luckily the make-up class was not your typical history class. We met in at Plaza Victoria, learned a bit about the history, walked around, went to one of Pablo Neruda’s houses (we have now seen all 3 in Chile), walked back down to the plaza and went to a café. Even though it was a 3 hour “class,” it went surprisingly fast. Kari and I left the café a little early to go to trapecio. We had to go back up to where we had been an hour before (near Pablo Neruda’s house). Trapecio was much more fun than normal for some reason. I also got lots of birthday wishes and hugs throughout the class as people found out that it was my birthday. After class we headed back to Vina where we met up with some people at a restaurant called Margaritas. Kari and I had dinner there but since it was 11:00 pm, most people had already eaten. I had an amazing and huge sandwich. It was called the Margarita Sandwich- chicken, fried egg, tomato, avocado and lettuce. And of course, we all had margaritas. In my opinion margaritas are ok, not my favorite. Originally we were going to go to a club after Margaritas but everyone was tired, plus it was a Tuesday, so we all went home around 12:00-1:00. When I got back to my apartment, I found a couple little gifts sitting on my computer. I got a really neat little journal and a funny little cat figurine from my family. All in all it was a great birthday, certainly one I will never forget. Since I wasn’t home for more than an hour and a half on my birthday, my family took me out to eat the next day. We went to a little Chinese restaurant near the center of town. I didn’t really have a clue what I was ordering but it was delicious!! We got some wontons to share as a family. I soon learned that wontons here are not like in the states. Instead of cream cheese in the middle there was a little bit of pork. They also use soy sauce instead of sweet and sour. They were good but not the same.

On Thursday I left for La Serena, the second oldest town in Chile (I believe). After senior seminar I went straight home to finish packing and eat a quick lunch. I had less than two hours from the time class ended until I had to be at the bus terminal. (Luckily I live relatively close to the terminal.) Since I was going to be gone for dinner, my mom left a sandwich in the fridge that I could take with me. I don’t think I have ever seen a larger sandwich in my life- It was probably a foot in diameter! Needless to say, I had plenty to eat for dinner. I also brought a bunch of birthday cake to share with the group since there was a good half of the cake left. The 6-7 hour bus ride to La Serena seemed to take forever. I read during most of the ride but pretty soon got tired of my reading. The problem was, I should have read the first 200 pages in the book for senior sem earlier that day but due to the busy weekend and my birthday, I “only” read the other 200 pages of the book that was assigned and wrote the essay. Attempting to play catch-up is not fun. Finally we arrived in La Serena around 8:30. Finding our hostel turned out to be a little harder than we anticipated. Actually we just need to learn how to read a map. We took a wrong turn out of the bus terminal and went in the opposite direction and therefore ended up walking way out of the way. Once we found our hostel and dumped our bags in the rooms, we headed out to find some food. Everyone else was starving but since I had my gigantic sandwich, I pretty much just went along for the ride. We soon found out that there is not much night life or many restaurants open late in La Serena. That would have to be the one disappointing part of the trip. Every night after dinner we just ended up back at the hostel. Sometimes we planned on going out but it never really happened. On Friday we slept in and then headed to the market since that is suppose to be a highlight of La Serena. To me, it wasn’t really anything special. It was very similar to the other markets we have visited. They did have some good treats I had not seen before but a lot of the stuff was the same as everywhere else. The best treat they had was manjar leche which is pretty much manjar flavored fudge. The candied papaya was also really good. Papaya is one of the things the region is known for. After shopping a bit it was time for lunch. We bought empanadas, veggies and fruit at the market and went back to the hostel to eat. For the first time, we tried a fruit called Chirimoya. It was pretty good but not terribly flavorful. I think the one we tried wasn’t quite ripe. There were a ton of big black seeds that made it hard to eat but it was fun to try something new. As always, the empanadas were great! Once we cleaned up from lunch it was time to head to the beach. It ended up being a lot longer walk than we anticipated but the whole way we walked on a palm tree lined avenue so at least it was a pretty walk. We sat on the beach for about an hour and then had to go back so we could get some dinner before heading to the observatory. For dinner we stopped at a little restaurant on the street and got sandwiches to go. I ordered turkey with tomato and avocado only they forgot the avocado!! I was disappointed. Unfortunately I didn't find this out until we got back to the hostel and had a little time to eat before we left. There are quite a few observatories in this area. The skies are really clear and there is lots of uninhabited land/hills. Four of us decided to go on the observatory tour to Mamalluca which was one of the excursions offered through the hostel. At 8:00 we piled in a van and drove for 1-1.5 hours out into the hills. We had about a 2 hour tour at the observatory. It started out on the observation deck where we got to see the moon (up close and personal), Jupiter, star clusters, and much, much more. Then we had a presentation about stars, their life cycle, etc. Lastly, we went outside to another telescope to see more stars, planets, constellations, etc. It was a very chilly night and by the time the tour ended we were all freezing. I always forget how cold it gets once the sun sets. To our surprise, when we got back into the van we were served coffee/tea and cookies. What a perfect treat!
On Saturday we got up a bit earlier to go on an all day tour of Elqui Valley. It was a beautiful day. Our First stop was the Pulcaro Dam. It was absolutely gorgeous with the lake was surrounded by hills. Then we rode through the vineyard covered valley and stopped at the town of Vicuna. There was a really neat central Plaza and some artesian shops to visit. Vicuna is the birthplace of Gabriela Mistral- nobel prize winning poet. Our next stop was at a Pisco distillery. Pisco is a very typical alcoholic drink here in Chile. It was an interesting tour and of course at the end we got to try some. The first thing we tried was super, super strong. I don’t remember what proof it was but it was higher than you would sell. Pretty much like liquid fire. After that we got to try a mango sour which was actually good. Then it was time for lunch. We headed to this little village and ate at a restaurant where they cook everything in solar ovens. When we arrived, we saw some of our food cooking in the ovens. It was really cool and delicious. We got salad, bread, meat (either goat, pork or chicken) with mashed potatoes or rice and mote con huesillo for dessert. Mote is a very typical Chilean dessert but I am not a fan. Montegrande was the next stop. There we visited a museum about Gabriela Mistral and also visited her tomb. Our final destination was another town called Pisco Elqui. Once again we visited the artesania and spent some time in the park/plaza. By this time we were all worn out and were happy to get on the bus and head back to the hostel. It was a very good day and our tour guide was super nice. She even gave us some recommendations on where to eat once we go back to La Serena. We ended up not going to the restaurant our guide suggested (why, I don’t know) but we should have listened to here. We went to a little restaurant we found wondering around. The challenges started when the waitress brought 2 menus to our table of 6 and said there weren’t any more. This made it a bit tough to decide what to order. Then the first two or three things I tried to order ended up being out. I was pretty annoyed, especially since the waitress kept hovering, waiting for me to make up my mind. In the end I settled on a hamburger (which came with tomato and avocado, of course). It was good but took an eternity to come.
Sunday was a very relaxing day. After breakfast I went back to the market with some friends who hadn’t gone the other day. Unfortunately for them, it was Sunday a lot of the stands were not open. After shopping around a bit we went to the grocery store and got to have a picnic lunch on the beach. I got a ¼ rotisserie chicken, hallulla (bread), fruit and cookies. It was a delicious lunch but we ended up attracting some dog friends during our lunch. They kinda stayed around the whole day. While on the beach, I read some more for senior seminar, chatted, and made 2 friends into sand mermaids. It was a simple, relaxing day. 3 of us ended up staying until the sunset but most people left because it got quite cold as the sun set and most people were not dressed for nighttime. Then we made the trek back to the hostel and found a pizza place on the way to have dinner. We split a pizza with pepperoni, tomato and green pepper and an order of breadsticks. It was good but not my favorite. I have had better (both here and in the states). Once we got back to the hostel, I finished packing up my stuff and then we hung out for a couple hours. Our bus left at 11:30 PM so we had a bit of time to kill. On the way home, we chose the “bed seats” so we got big reclining seats. I was able to sleep most of the ride home, waking up every now and then to resituate myself. We got back to Vina at 6:30 in the morning, went home, showered, had breakfast and headed off to 9:30 cinema class. On Monday I went to rowing again for the first time in about 2 weeks. It was fun to finally get to row again.
Tuesday was a very cloudy day. I think it has been cloudy every Tuesday since we got here, weird. After classes, I went with two other girls to meet with the principal of Escuela Archi where we are going to do our service learning. When we got there we met a couple girls who helped us figure out where to go. They were very helpful, cute and excited that we were there. Apparently they have been waiting for us and cannot wait to start classes. We are all signed up for 2 credits and need to do 40-50 hours of service. This is going to be more challenging than we anticipated. The students are divided into 3 classes for English and each of us was assigned on class. I have the 3rd and 4th graders J We will meet once a week from 1:30-3:00. That is only 1.5 hours a week for the 8 or so weeks we have left. It’s pretty easy to see we will not get 40 hours of service. We talked to our director and he is going to talk to the principal again so we’ll see how that turns out. Since it was Tuesday, Kari and I went to trapecio/gymnastics class. This time Kari’s sister was unable to go with us. We managed to get there by ourselves so we were pretty happy. During class we worked on some different pyramids, tela positions and figures on the trapeze bar. I’m getting a better hang on things but still have a ways to go.

Yesterday I went to a cooking class at the house of one of the other student’s in our group. Once or twice a week (depending on interest) she offers a class, teaching us how to make typical Chilean food. I have not been able to go before. Yesterday’s class was pastel de choclo- one of the dishes we ate in Pomaire. We also made leche asada which is like a flan. The pastel de choclo was good but not as good as in Pomaire. I wasn’t a fan of the leche asada. It didn’t really have much flavor but I did not find it appetizing. All in all it was a pretty fun afternoon. I would like to do it more but I’m not sure if I will. She charges $16 a class and I’m just not sure it’s really worth that much. I think I’ll talk to my mom and see if she’ll teach me a thing or two. After cooking class I had to write my essay for senior seminar. I started it around 8:00 but could not stay awake and kept dozing off every few sentences. I’m not sure why I was so tired at 8:00. The whole process ended up taking way too long and I’m not sure the end result was the greatest. Oh well, I’ll have to make sure I start earlier next week.
Today was another cloudy, gloomy day. It was a pretty ordinary day. After senior seminar I went to sailing. Today was my second time actually sailing. The last time I sailed was a few weeks ago and I went in a boat with another person. All of a sudden today, the instructor was like “your turn, hop in” so I did and nobody got in with me. YIKES! Well, it all started off fine and the instructor stayed near me in the dingy telling me exactly what to do. Then it came time to turn around which involved switching sides of the boat. I went too soon and tipped into the cold, salty ocean. It was quite shocking. After righting the boat, I got back in and started going again, this time I was suppose to follow the instructor in the dingy only I didn’t get too far before I tipped again. I’m not quite sure what happened but once again I plunged into the ocean. I’ve decided that next time I’m going to go with another person so I can get a bit more experience with everything before I have to do it all on my own. Even though today was a bit of a challenging and wet day, it was fun. I will be glad when I can sail on my own and not tip every few minutes!