Los fin de semanas en Chile

This weekend was kinda crazy. On friday I came home from shcool so I could watch the soccer match. There was a bunch of people here for a barbecue to watch the match. After, I went to Church with my Chilean sister to watch a play. It was so cool. A bunch of teenagers put on a play about the hardship of growing up and the pressures of life. They sang a bunch of songs (even all the single ladies and the backstreet boys in spanish. It was hilarious). After the play, I met up with a bunch of gringos. We went to a club called la sala in Valparaiso. Me and Anne got giggy on the dancefloor to this type of music called Regaton. She was a really good dancer so we decided that every thursday we would go to Llevo for salsa lessons a juntos. I didnt get home until 5 in the morning. On saturday I took it pretty easy. I went shopping in the morning for clothes and a present for my moms neice because it was her 6th b-day. Calle Valparaiso is the best place in Vina to go shopping. The clothes there are super cheap and of good quality. That night we went to the neices birthday party. It was so cute. In the morning me and my Chilean mother and Father went to Maitencilla to their beach house. They lent me a bike and I biked around for a bit along the beach and watched people surf. I cant wait to go surfing next weekend. Maitencillo is pretty small. Not too many people there during the winter but in the summer its an attractive tourist area. The rest of the weekend was pretty out of control, I went out with some friends that night, and at the end of the night I met una chica chilena named Camilla. I ended up at her place that night. Nothing too crazy happened, but Chilena girls are definately muy passionante. The next day I left Camilla´s place after the soccer match. After that I met up with Anne and we went for a nice walk along the beach. We encontered a bunch of other gringos and chatted for a bit (Funny im in Chile and everyone I meet is gringo). On our walk we saw this guy making sand mural. They were the best I have ever seen. What an amazing artist all he had was sand and water and made it into this magnificent lizard looking thing. Another person was juggling fire on a unicycle. People are incredibly artistically talented here. Everywhere I go I always see something amazing. The street performers, the graffiti, and musicians are some of the best I have seen in the world. The weekend had finally come to an end. Oye, los fin de semanas en Chile jajaja!!

 I love Chichou. This is unfermented wine ripe from the vines.
We picked up a couple of bottles on our way to the beach house.
 Mmm Yummy!!

View of Maitencillo. The place my chilean parents have their beachhouse.

View of the coast on our drive back from the beach

La Universidades y los estudiantes

 School Field Trip to Pablo Narudas House



The first day of clases was on Monday. There were so many gringos there. I met alot of people, exchanged some numbers. The University is located on the edge of Valparaiso. It is a brick building built in the early 19th century. The main area of the university is an open air concept ( So when you are inside, it still feels like youre outside). On the first day we toured the University. We visited where our classrooms would be and chose the classes we wanted to take, but for most of the time we watched the soccer game between Chile and another team in the teachers lounge. It was kinda weird cause the teachers that will be teaching me later were swearing at the TV and shouting loudly. The classes im taking are Literatura y Cultura Chilean y Grammatica. After school my mom picked me up. I think she might be cooler than me because when I got out be was chattin it up with all the other moms. First day of classes went well, I was pretty excited to start classes on tuesday.


Pablo Nerudas House

View from Pablo´s House

My Family, house, and Valparaiso.

The taxi dropped me off right in front of the house I would be living at for the next six months. This is a great place to live. Its a gated house in Vina. The location is very convenient. It is located 5 blocks away from the ocean, has great views, is a safe neighborhood, and all of the buses take me to Valparaiso and downtown Vina. My family here is very nice, they welcomed me into their home with open arms. Nury is my Chilean mother and Daniel is my Chilean father, Nury has two children from a past marriage in the house. Their names are Ignacio and Valentina. Valentina is 19 and Ignacio is 14. When I got here Nury and Daniel took me shopping at the local market to buy fresh fruit. I had no idea what was going on. I just kind followed them around like a lost puppy dog all day. Thats all I can do right now, just sit back and try to figure out whats happening. Mi espanol es muy poco, but slowly I am able to understand more and more through experience. I think that is why I am so incredibly amazed by Chile. There is so much to do, so much to see, and I want to see it all. After the fruit market, they took me on a tour of Valparaiso. My profile picture is from one of the balconies people go to sightsee. Valparaiso has steep hills and goes very high up, so the views are incredible. But the hills are also very dangerous and the place where tourists are most frequently robbed. Valparaiso is where my University is located. There are many poor and dangerous areas in Valparaiso and the city is not as clean as Vina. Personally though, I love valparaiso. The city has so much flavour. The streets are always busy with street merchants and up in the hills the ecclectic architecture, incredible graffiti and artwork, historical landmarks, and ocean views give the city its calouful flare. Here is some pics of the view from the house and the view of the city from the hills of Valparaiso.

City Views (Middle), Pics of Me and my parents (Top), and view from my house (below)

Taxi troubles

I´ll begin where I left off. As I exited the doors of the airport I was accosted by taxi drivers. I was their peice of meat. I walked by a hoard of them abbruptly and went to the very end of the airport to gather my thoughts. One of the taxi drivers even followed me to the end, but I told him to &%$# off. After checking the information, I knew the transportation I was supposed to take from Santiago to Vina. Only problem was, I had booked my flight late and I was not sure that the info I sent to my host University had arrived in time for them to know when to pick me up. After searching around the airport for a while, I was certain that no one was coming to get me. It was time to take a taxi. I knew that I was going to get ripped off but what could I do. The trip took about an hour and a half and cost 200 dollars. Heres some pics I took on the way.

Getting Here

Chile is unbelievable. I have been here for a total of 5 days, which already feels like an eternity. Where do I begin. The journey to get here was a long one. This is my first time travelling solamente, the whole experience up to this point is too overwhelming for words to describe. It began when I boarded the greyhound to Vancouver. Saying goodbye to my family for 6 months was emotional. After 14 hours of travelling on the bus and an uncomfortable sleep, I was determined to get my visa from the Chilean embassy. I got my visa 1 oclock that afternoon, and somehow managed to book a flight to Los Angelas that evening(it was much cheaper to buy a flight from Vancouver to Los Angelas and then a return ticket from Los Angelas to Chile- I know kinda dumb hey, thats what I thought too but I was willing to prolong my trip to save an extra $500). That night I arrived in Los Angelas at 9:30. It was the night the Lakers won the championship. I had no energy to celebrate and plus I still had my hundred pound bad of luggage with me, so I boarded the first hotel shuttle I could find that took me to a hotel called La Hacienda. If you didnt already figure it out from the name of the hotel had a Spanish appeal- everything from the spanish architecture to the spanish staff to the 50 plusers salsa dancing in the bar gave it a spanish appeal. The next day I got up early and went to a electronics store to buy a camera. The camera I bought was sick; HD capabilities, 10.2 megapixels, top of the line. It cost me $500 dollars, but I got a sweet deal. It took alot longer than I thought to go shopping and it was time to get to the airport with only three hours left to spare before my flight. My last leg to Chile boarded at 2:30 pm. It was an overnight flight, and I had the whole seet to myself, so I just kicked back and relaxed. The time had finally arrived. All passenjeros dissenbark we are in Chile. Once i got through customs, I knew it was time. On the other side of the salida I would officially be in Chile.