Snow+Cupcakes=Content

So, this weekend was pretty boring. Just your typical Chilean weekend... snowboarding in the Andes mountains, seeing Pablo Neruda's third house, and getting to make real cupcakes... yeah, no big deal.  Who am I kidding, this weekend was INSANE. I seriously have no words to describe it.

Guess we'll start with Thursday! That afternoon, my friend Laura and I had a mission. One of her professors had told her about the only bagel shop in Viña del Mar, so naturally, we had to find it. Once we did, we were so excited that the owner was actually laughing at us a several points. While they weren't quite as good as Colorado Bagel Co. in Steamboat, they satisfied the bagel craving.  That night I finished class and got home around 9:15. After walking to my friend Nolan's house to borrow his ski gloves, I got home and met my friends Rachel and Geneva. They live in Valparaíso, and the ski bus was meeting at 5am in Viña, so for safety and easiness reasons, they spent the night in my house! From there, we went to bed, only to wake up 5ish hours later to go to PORTILLO to ski!

Friday: The day was finally here. I had been trying to go skiing for the past month, and whether it was too snowy of roads, not enough people signed up for the group to go, or other conflicts, we just hadn't be able to make it. But finally we could! The roads from Viña del Mar to Portillo had been closed the whole week leading up to Friday due to too much snow/icy roads. This was still the case when we pulled up to the beginning of the pass going to Portillo and on to Mendoza. It was about 9:30am, and the roads were still a little too icy to drive over. Because of this, we had to wait. Yup, waiting for ice to melt. Similar to watching paint dry, it's not that fun. It was alright though, we got to get out of the bus and walk around a little, and even met some nice Argentinians! They had been waiting to get back to Mendoza for a couple of days, but hadn't been able to due to road conditions. They were really nice, and very excited about meeting some blonde gringas... and for this reason, they insisted on all taking pictures with our group. After waiting for about an hour or so, we finally we able to get moving! Yay! The drive up to Portillo was amazing in itself. I love the mountains in Colorado, but these mountains were at an entirely different level. They were magnificent.  Words and pictures cannot even do them justice. The pass up to the resort was also unlike anything I have ever seen. It was hairpin turn after hairpin turn, I think all in all there were more than 26 corners (there were signs on every one). See crazy road below:

After a little more driving, we finally pulled up to the resort. This past year, I was lucky enough to be able to see the annual ski movie premiere by director Warren Miller, and a lot of the movie was on Portillo. The movie was obviously insanely well done and very high quality, but even the professionals couldn't do justice to the beauty of this place. I felt so at home in the mountains, and so blessed to be able to experience a place like that. The skiing was really great too. Since not a lot of people had been able to get to the resort due to road conditions, all of the powder from the two weeks prior was still great! The combination of all of our awesome thrift store 80's ski gear and the bright white snow was quite the scene, to say the least. The mountain had chairlifts, and then in the places that didn't have lifts, there were poma lifts (I had to google the spelling on that, so much for being a ski town native).
However, these were unlike any poma lift you have ever seen... they were for 4 or 5 people at a time, and there were only two actual pomas.  So there'd be one at the bottom where people were getting on, and one at the top that people had just gotten off of. The first time using one of these was quite the experience for our group. To put it in perspective, there are 4 of us going up a steep hill (I'd be willing to say a 50-55 degree angle), and at the top, when the poma stops, there is no landing or anything. It just stops, and you are backwards facing an incredibly steep slope, and it's terrifying. So this first time, we didn't know when it was necessary to let go, and so we all just kind of screamed and let go... bad idea. It ended up  being a pile of skis, snowboards, legs, hats, and arms tangled up sliding down the face. I can only imagine how entertaining this must have been for everyone watching from down below. After sliding down the face by myself a little bit more, I finally managed to pull it together and strap on my snowboard.  Here's a google picture of more experienced people on the poma:

 Later we had a woman tell us how you're really supposed to get off the poma's, and this made things much easier for the rest of the day :) After skiing a lot, taking snack breaks over looking the amazing Lago del Inca, and skiing some more, I was exhausted by the end of the day, but so so happy.  At the end of this amazing day, I had a feeling that I've had a couple of other times in my life, but this time so much stronger. I felt truly content with everything happening in my life right now. Sitting there in the snow, overlooking this amazing lake and mountain range, I just breathed in and felt happiness and content-ness seep throughout my entire body. It was like realizing, wow, this is real, and this was meant to happen to me. I was meant to come here to Chile, and to see all that the world has to offer. Bah. No words.

Saturday: My program, ISA, took us to Pomaire and Isla Negra! Pomaire was a small town about 1 1/2 or 2 hours from Viña (I'm not really sure how long it took since I slept the whole way there, skiing in the Andes sure does take it out of you!). It was really great for touristy shopping, empanadas, and exploring. Gifts may or may not have been bought, but Mom, no matter what kind of questions you ask to try and snoop and see what I got you, I'm not going to tell. And you're not going to guess, because it's a weird Chilean thing that you probably can't even begin to pronounce, so just keep the 20 questions  game to yourself. Love you :) After Pomaire, we drove another hour or so to Isla Negra, where Pablo Neruda's third house is. It was beautiful, just like the others! The view was by far the best of any, overlooking steep rocks and waves.  All of his houses are insanely decorated, and with more things in them than any house should have, but that's what makes them pretty wonderful. He was so eclectic. I'd say that the tour of the Santiago house was my favorite, but this house and the views were my favorite of the three. When we got back, I had to hustle and get ready for something new, because it was time to make dinner with the same crew from last week! This week the theme was Brazilian food, it was delicious! We also enjoyed some caipirinha, which is a typical Brazilian drink. Very strong, but very tasty! Also, it was the night to make cupcakes. Yes, I had told the group about how I like to bake, and how my mother is an expert baker, so therefore I was assigned the task of making cupcakes. I was super excited about this possibility! Last night, on the way to dinner, I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a couple of the ingredients that I didn't think would be at the house. This included cream cheese, powdered sugar, cocoa, vanilla, and buttermilk. I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to find buttermilk, so I looked up the substitute for that (1/4 cup milk + 3/4 cup plain yogurt).  However, finding cocoa and cream cheese were two of the most difficult things.  After spending 40 minutes in one grocery, I called my Chilean friend, Frijo, and asked where the heck I could find these two simple ingredients. He directed me to another grocery, and there I was able to find cream cheese and while I couldn't find cocoa in the form necessary, I decided hot cocoa powder would maybe suffice.  I made the cupcakes, and Alvaro's mom (whose apartment we were in) helped me to figure out the oven. When I told her it needed to be at 350 degrees, she looked at me like I was psychotic, and that's when I remembered that we use Celsius down here in Chile! Whoops! Thankfully, with the mother's touch, the cupcakes turned out, and tasted delicious as well! The Gringa didn't fail to impress - phew!

Still so amazed that I was given the opportunity to do everything I did this past weekend, and can't wait for even more future adventures! Next up, the desert in San Pedro de Atacama this upcoming weekend! Woohoo! To end this one, a quick saying for you all that I found online today:

I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is." - Kurt Vonnegut

Pictures from skiing:

Map

The ISA group! What good looking gaper suits.

Look at that powder! Polvo de nieve!

My awesome $6 ski pants with Lago del Inca in the background!

Rainy Day Celebration

I walked into the kitchen this morning, just about 20 minutes ago, to make myself some tea and cereal. I'm quite the chef, I know. As I started to get the hot water heater ready, my mamá came in and said, "What are you doing?" and I told her, "Making tea and cereal!" and she said, "No, you stop that. It's a rainy day, so we're celebrating and I'm making hot cocoa and muffins!"... There is no way I'm ever going to complain about that. These are the things I love about Chileans.  It's raining, so mamá skipped work today, Esme skipped school, and we're celebrating with hot cocoa and muffins. I could get used to this. But unfortunately, I still have to go to school later today :( Así es la vida. So now, I'm sitting in bed doing a little homework, watching the rain fall outside my window, enjoying a nice homemade cup of cocoa and my chocolate chip muffin. Just one more thing that I know I'll look back on and remember why I love my host family and Chile so much :)

This is not my picture, but is what my surprise breakfast looked like this morning (minus the marshmallows, I don't know if Chileans know what those are)

To top off the already wonderful morning (I mean really, there's nothing that makes me happier than hot cocoa on a rainy day), my host mom and Esme came into my room just a bit ago with a present! It has officially been one month since I've been living with them, and so they got me a gift!!! I really can't believe how lucky I am.  They got me a shiny perfume spray that smells amazing, as well as mascara! BAH! I really could just go on and on about how wonderful they are, but I don't want to bore, so for my parents and anyone else who could be concerned- you really have absolutely nothing to worry about with my host family, they are seriously the best I could have ever asked for. Yo amo mi vida chilena :)

I'm in love.

This weekend was one that really has me just wanting to say thank you.  Thank you to my parents for helping me with everything I needed to do to get here, thank you to DU for having the Cherrington scholarship, thank you to my host family, I literally could go on here forever. I am falling more and more in love with Chile everyday. Okay, let's start on Friday...

Friday: Myself and the rest of gringos went to Valpo for the night. We started out with a previa at some Chilean's house, which was very interesting to say the least! Once we all got into the swing of intermingling with people in Spanish, it was very fun. Afterwards, we went to a discoteca called Bar Arena (Sand Bar), and danced the night away! In true gringo fashion, to top the night off, Laura, Nathan, Kassi, Gabi, and myself all made our way back to Viña for some papas fritas y hamburguesas at 5am at the local McDonalds. Yup, that's right, McDonalds. Enough said.

Saturday: a friend of mine from school invited me to cook dinner with him and his friends at one of their apartments! It ended up being the three Chilean boys, myself, and two French girls who also go to my school. The best part about the entire night, while also the most difficult part, was that our only common language was Spanish, so that is what we spoke the entire time. The boys ending up cooking most of the dinner, I helped a bit, but they were really the expert cocineros! We had curry chicken, rice, and a Chilean alcohol called pisco! The conversation, company, and food were all amazing.

Today was a great day spent with family. It's days like today that make me wonder why any student would come to Chile and not live with a host family. Every day that I spend with my host family continues to enrich my experience here exponentially.  They are so patient and loving, and really want me to see everything Chile has to offer! To start off our day, I woke up and heard what sounded like my whole family in my host parents bedroom.  When I open my bedroom door, I can see up some stairs into my parents room, and so this morning as soon as I got up I was greeted with yells to come up the stairs for something.  I then found out they had said to come up for breakfast, but since it was early, my spanish ears weren't functioning at full capacity quite yet. We then all proceeded to eat breakfast in my parents bedroom while watching Chilean cartoons, all the while stuffing our faces with fresh, warm bread straight from the oven of the panadería on the corner of our street and powdered sugar donut sticks (that's not what they're really called, but basically what they are).  After this delicious breakfast and bonding time, we got ourselves ready for the day and left for Laguna Verde! It was about a 40 minute drive through the steep hills of Valpo and then through the countryside, and after coming over a big hill, we saw it: Laguna Verde.  While it was not true to it's name in regards to being a green lagoon, it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen! Clear blue water, sandy beach, cute little town, the works. Once we made our way down into the valley of the town, we enjoyed almost two hours basking in the sun, playing in the sand, and just enjoying the beautiful day.  After that we found a cute little restaurant close to the beach where we had empanadas and machas con queso (clams with cheese). My host family had a good laugh when they realized I'd never eaten clams, due to the fact that instead of slurping the meat out like you're apparently supposed to, I used a fork and knife to get the meat out. Oh well. Así es la vida.

All in all, an excellent weekend spent with friends and family yet again. Below are some pictures from the weekend.

View of Valpo on the way to Laguna Verde

Looking down on Laguna Verde

Esme, Papá, Yo, y Coté

Batman, Barbie, and Lobos Marinos

On Thursday after class, a couple of my friends and I decided to finally go see Caballero de la Noche. That's right folks, Batman is in Chile.  Luckily for us, the movie was in English with Spanish subtitles, so we were able to relax our brains and veg out in true American style.  The movie was amazing as I'm sure you all already know, but what wasn't so amazing was realizing, with 30 minutes left in the movie, that I had left my keys to the house/bedroom locked inside said house/bedroom.  And the movie didn't get over until 1:30am.  Which meant every single member of my familia was sleeping.  Not unlike Meg Ryan who was Sleepless in Seattle,  I was getting ready to star in a film of my own: Kylee Swiggart in Homeless in Chile.  Well, it doesn't quite have the same ring, but you get the picture.  Thankfully, my friend Laura doesn't live too far from me, and she offered to share her twin-sized, Barbie blanketed bed with me.  After texting Mamá the situation (I was hoping she wouldn't freak out in the morning), we took the micro back and trekked to Laura's!  I wasn't lying about the Barbie bedspread, see for yourself (Laura's super excited about it too):

After satisfying our post-movie hunger with bread and peanut butter (so delicious), we left a note for Laura's host parents informing them that when they woke up there would be a strange gringa in their house, and then we went to bed.  That morning we went into their living room, and I was greeted with two wonderful things. 1.) Laura's really nice and understanding host parents and 2.) A little dog.  For those of you who don't know, having had 2 wiener dogs in my lifetime, I have a small affinity for small dogs.  They invited me to stay for breakfast, and the dog (whose name is pronounced Bayleen) and I made great friends.  I then went home, had my host sister let me in the house, broke into my own room using bobby pins and my Chilean ID card on the lock, and got ready for a run! Laura, Ellen and I have been running quite a bit recently - we're training for a 10k that we signed up for in September!  Yesterday's run was quite nice, about 4 or 5 miles (we're working our way up), and at our halfway point, we were able to see lobos marinos (sea lions).  Literally translated, lobos marinos means sea wolves. This is something I had a hard time grasping, until I decided that this is just another one of those Chilean things that I will probably never understand, and so I should just accept it and move on.  For those of you who have never seen sea lions in their natural habitat, I highly suggest it. They are hilarious. We decided that they have two positions, and two positions only. Position one is a very proud position, a kind of, "Look at me and my wondrous fat belly, and be jealous," kind of position.  The other is what I've decided to call the borracho (drunk) position, because it looks like the sea lion is so tired/drunk that he could do nothing more than pass out on the spot.  The only thing that lets you know he is alive is the fact that he occasionally lifts his cute little chin up. Anyway, see said poses below.
 

That's all from me and the sea lions today! Over and out til next time.

Happy One Month!

Well, it's officially been one month since I've arrived in Chile! Yahoo! To celebrate I bought myself some peanut butter at the Jumbo grocery store in Valpo, quite the treat :)

Also, in the strange way that the world works, I got a little reminder of home this morning when I saw someone from Steamboat! I was taking the metro to get coffee with a friend in Valpo, and all of the sudden saw a girl who I thought I recognized... I stopped her and said, "Are you from Steamboat!?" and she gave me that weird look of, "Holy crap, yes I am, this is bizarre..." and then we had a little small world Steamboat moment.  She was two years older than me in high school, and is finishing up her college here in Chile! Guess it was just a little reminder from the big guy up in the sky that no matter how far away, home is always close to the heart :) Hope everyone is having a great day wherever you are in the world!

A Story For Tomorrow

A friend of mine had this video on his blog... I stole it in hopes that you all would find it as amazing as I did.  It tells the story of a couple traveling through the Atacama Desert of Chile, a place I hope to go before I leave. Enjoy.

Estómago Troubles...

Pepto Bismol is not sold in Chile.  Normally this is not something I would rant about, but considering I haven't been able to keep solid food down for the past 24 hours, I could really go for some of that stomach-settling pink stuff.  When I woke up this morning, and not much had improved since yesterday morning, I knew I needed something to help my troubled estómago.  I made it to the pharmacy without passing out, which was quite the accomplishment, but then I found out that they don't sell any medicine in the general area of the store here. This discovery occurred when a nice older gentleman said that if I needed any medicine, I needed to take a number and the next pharmacist available would help me.  One of the pharmacists who had just become free apparently noticed how confused and pale I looked, because she called me up, and said something along the lines of, "Here, let me help you really quickly, you look very confused and sick." She proceeded to let me skip about five people in front of me, and asked what I needed.  I told her, "Necesito algo para la indigestión," (I need something for indigestion).  She then looked at me confused, apparently unable to understand my accent or pronunciation, and so I said, "Necesito algo para mi estomago, tiene la indigestión," (I need something for my stomach, it has indigestion) and all the while I'm pointing at my stomach and looking rather sick, as she apparently already knew. Mind you, there are quite a few people standing around, and explaining this in Spanish while feeling like I'm going to pass out isn't the most fun thing in the world.  The pharmacist then goes to say, "Ahh....la diarrea!"... Don't think I need to translate that one.  I kept trying to explain to her, no, no, just something for indigestion, but she had already decided what I needed, and proceeded to give it to me and sell it to me.  Needless to say, for those who wish to travel to Chile in the future, bring Pepto Bismol with you, because if the occasion arises, you will definitely be wishing you had some!

Arena y Montañas

The past two days were full of adventure! Friday, four other girls and I decided to make our way to Concón (a town about a 25ish micro ride from Viña) in order to conquer las dunas (the dunes)!! While we are certainly not experts with the micro situation here (for those who don't know, micro is the equivalent of a bus), we figured that all we needed to do was find a bus that said "Concón" on it, and we'd be in the right place! Easy enough right? Well.... not so right. We did get on a bus that said Concón, and after driving about 20 minutes through some sketchy little towns, we started to think that we may not be in the right place. Turns out we were right when at one point the driver pulled over and said, get out here! There were no dunes in sight... in fact, there was no sand in sight! This driver was pretty adamant however, and as we were not looking to get in a screaming match with an impatient chilean micro driver, we got off.  Then the bus left. And then we were alone. For those of you who have read The Hunger Games, our group decided that the area we were in would be the real life equivalent of District 12.  For those of you who haven't read The Hunger Games, this town was pretty desolate, very industrial, and there was hardly anyone to be seen.  Thankfully there was a policewoman nearby, and the oh-so-brave Katherine went up and asked her how we should get to the dunes.  When she proceeded to laugh at us, we knew we were definitely in the wrong place.  However, she pointed us in the right direction of a bus that would take us to the dunes, and we went on our way (looking very out of our element and very gringa to say the least).  Once we got there, we were amazed at the beauty of these dunes! We were also amazed at the steepness... hello calf muscles!!! One of my favorite days in Chile so far :)

Then yesterday (Friday), a big group of us gringos had planned to go hiking at La Campana, in Olmué! Olmué is a town about 45 minutes away from where we live, so in order to get there, we had to take a combination of the metro and buses.  To get to the starting point of the hike, we had been told that all we needed to do was to get on the metro going towards a town called Limache, the last stop on the metro, and then get on the bus labeled Olmué, and that bus would take us all the way to La Campana! Instead, here is what our morning composed of:

7:40am: Meet at Viña del Mar metro station
8:00am: Get on metro towards Limache
8:30am: Get off metro #1, because it apparently doesn't go to Limache
8:40am: Get on metro #2, go to Limache
9:00am: Arrive at Limache, spend 10 minutes trying to understand metro station worker on which bus to get on
9:10am: Get on Olmué bus
9:25am: Get off Olmué bus #1, because friendly local woman said if we kept going we'd be going WAY the wrong way
9:30am: After walking aimlessly for a little bit, find another friendly local, ask where to get correct bus
9:40am: Catch bus #2, driver said she'd take us all the way to the base of La Campana
9:50am: Driver makes us get out on sketchy dirt road, says walk up the hill about 1km to base
10:15am: After walking 2 kilometers, taking 2 buses, and 2 metros, we finally made it to the base of La Campana!

Note to future travelers of Chile: Most Chileans want to be really helpful when you ask them questions/directions, so even if they don't know where it is that you want to go, they will make something up in order to not have to say that they don't know. For example, when we asked how to get to La Campana, we were told, "Oh it's easy! All you have to do is get on the metro, get off and get right on the C bus to Olmué, and they'll take you the whole way there!"... Obviously, not so much the case.

Once we did get to hiking, it was absolutely beautiful! It felt so good to be hiking/in nature again, I almost felt like I was right back home in Colorado! I think I'm going to have to make hiking a more common occurrence - it just felt so nice to be in the outdoors again! After our 7.5 mile hike ida y vuelta (roundtrip), getting home on the bus/metro combo was much easier than getting there, and once finally home, a hot shower never felt so good! I was nervous there wouldn't be hot water, as there sometimes isn't, but after a couple whispered, "Please be hot water, please be hot water, please be hot water," wishes, when I put my hand under the water, it was in fact hot. Thank goodness! Overall couldn't have asked for a better two days spent with friends in the beautiful paisajes of Chile.

Día de Los Niños

Growing up, I never understood why there was a Mother's Day and a Father's Day, but not a Kid's Day! Well, guess what!? Here in Chile, they do things right and have a Kid's Day! It is called Día de Los Niños.  My mom (US mom) always said that we didn't have a Kid's Day because everyday is Kid's Day, and when I explained this to my mamá chilena, she totally agreed and said that she thought this day was ridiculous! Regardless of what everyone thinks, I had a wonderful day :) To start off the story of today, last night I asked my mamá what time we were going to leave today to go to Valparaíso for the events, and she told me that we would be leaving early, probably after breakfast.  I thought this meant around 9:30 or so, when breakfast is normally finished around my house, so I was up and ready to go by then. However, typical Chilean move, we didn't even leave until 12:30! I really think that the reason I'm here is because God wanted me to learn patience. And after five months of untimeliness and slow walking in the Chilean way of life, I think I'm going to have to learn! Anyway, we left and made our way to Valparaíso from there. There were blow up activities (climbing walls, slides, jumping arenas, etc.) for all of the kids, for gratis - free! See picture of Esme loving life below:

After that, we went to a restaurant called J Cruz, one of the most famous restaurants inValpo for it's Chilean dish called choriana! All it composes of is greasy french fries, onions, beef, and a little bit of cheese. While I was not that impressed, with a little bit of salt it was alright! See said grease-mound below:

After that oh-so-delectable meal, we made our way back to Viña del Mar, where we attended the events for Kid's Day there too! My hermanita, Esme, was in hog heaven. I seriously don't know if I've ever seen a bigger smile on any kid's face in my life. She definitely got spoiled today, with sweets, toys, and games galore, but hey, I guess that's what Kid's Day is for! When Esme was finally satisfied with her day, we all went to McCafé (McDonald's version of a coffee shop, it actually was just as nice/nicer than any Starbucks I've been to in the States), and enjoyed some coffee and treats. To walk that off, we went to a fería (outdoor artisan market by the beach), and just enjoyed some time by the beach looking at souvenirs! Overall, a wonderful day spent with family.  Every minute that I get to spend with my host family, I'm reminded how lucky I am to be with them, because they really do appreciate family time so much.  Not only this, I'm reminded how lucky I am to even know what a good family is like in the first place, thanks to my wonderful family back home in the US :) Today was exactly the kind of day that makes me remember why I wanted to come to Chile, can't wait for more just like it!

La Vida Chilena

Well, tomorrow I will have officially been living with my familia chilena for two weeks. I cannot believe how fast things are already going by! I also completed week one of classes here... they went pretty well! I started with eight, and have narrowed it down to four that I really like! Three in spanish, and one in english, and three of the classes are transferring back for actual credit at DU. The fourth is just an extracurricular. But either way, thank goodness!  The class I'm taking in english is a film class about Latin America, and the professor is absolutely psychotic, but at the same time very brilliant! He was so captivating and fun to listen to, it's a class I'm really excited about!  Because there is no central heating at the school either, I am drinking a lot more tea and coffee than I do at home. It's not because I'm thirsty or need the caffeine, usually it's solely because if I don't have something warm to hold and drink, it is possible that I would freeze to death! One thing about their coffee here though - it's terrible. Everything is instant coffee, either powdered or like the machines from the gas stations in the states.  If you put enough sugar/milk in it, it's manageable, but for some reason I really thought the coffee down here would be really good! I guess that's somewhere else in South America, whoops.

Today we had an asado with all of the extranjeros at my school! It was delicious, so much food though.  It was at a very beautiful lake/park area, however, in order to get there, it was about an hour walk from my house. This being said, the walk to and from was probably good for me considering the large quantity of food that I consumed. What can I say, Chileans know how to barbecue (see picture below)!  After the asado, my friend Laura and I walked to a grocery store to buy chocolate and water (2 things which are very rare in our households), and then proceeded to go and meet some other girls at the beach! There we enjoyed the sunset and overall just enjoyed the end to another great day in la vida chilena.  It doesn't get much better than that :)