Kitten!

So as many of you know, but host sister got a new kitten a few weeks ago!


He still does not have a name, but he is so tiny and super adorable. He has the loudest meows I think I have ever heard and he is quite the vocal little guy. He hates being alone, loves to play with feet and hands, is very interested in the process of eating and drinking, and apparently my comforter reminds him of his litter box...so that's fun....


Just thought I would show a few photos :)

Last Day With Kelly!

Our last day together was a Monday. Luckily it was a holiday, so I didn't have any classes, but that also meant that a lot of restaurants and buildings were closed. I also had zero money and no way to get any until Wednesday, so luckily Kelly is amazing and was able to spot me for the day.

Nolan decided to do a walking tour until 2:30pm, so Kelly and I thought we would spend some some girl time together. We decided to walk up the Cerro Santa Lucia while we chatted. The last time I went I was about a staircase short of making it to the top because it was so crowded and the stairs were pretty narrow (I don't do well with heights...or stairs) but it was less crowded this time around, so we spent a good half hour getting our exercise on and see a pretty decent view of Santiago. After we made our descent we decided to go and find something to eat. A few nights before when Kelly was walking back to her hostel by herself from a restaurant, she had gotten lost in an area with a lot of good looking restaurants, so we decided to try and find this street again. It was pretty close, but a lot of the restaurants were overpriced or closed. But we ended up finding a real live cafe called Wonderful (there aren't a lot of real cafes here with real coffee) that I am now in love with. My vanilla latte was amazing and the was a heart in the foam! Plus I had a ham and cheese croissant, which is pretty hard to mess up. And Kelly's tuna salad was huge, and looked pretty good!

Afterwords we decided that we wanted to get some ice cream. Pretty much all the guidebooks and people you talk to will tell you that La Emporio de la Rosa had the best ice cream in Santiago, so we decided to find it. Lucky for us, there was a map at the end of the street we were on (it must be a pretty touristy area) and it turns out it was only a block away! Their ice cream is seriously to die for, especially their rose flavored one! So I got a double scoop of rose and Kelly got a scoop of rose and a scoop of honey banana, and we headed over to the park across the street to sit in the sun, eat our delicious ice cream, and enjoy the wonderful company ;) One of the hardest parts about Kelly's visit is that it made me really miss home! I don't really get homesick for the people because skype and facebook do a pretty good job of letting me stay in touch, but Kelly is somebody that I always see at home, so I think seeing her in a foreign setting felt weird, and made me miss our Tuesday night dinners and study sessions, and really made me miss Seattle.

Anyways, after finishing our ice cream and giving up on trying to name the last 3 countries in South America (I mean, how can anybody be expected to remember Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana?) we headed back to the hostel to meet up with Nolan and then headed to the Mercado Vega which is a big fruit and vegetable market. We spent some time walking through the stalls, eating churros, and drinking some more Jugo Natural. Once we were good and full, we decided it was finally time to head over to the Cerro San Cristobal.

Now I thought that the Cerro Santa Lucia was impressive, but San Cristobal makes it look like a bump. To get to the top, you can spend forever walking up the winding roads, or take a funicular to the top. Nolan happens to be pretty scared of heights, and as many of you know, I'm not to fond of them either, and his nervousness was definitely contagious as we waited in line. It didn't help that there were babies screaming either. On the ride up Nolan and I pretty much faced the back wall and held on for dear life, refusing to look out at the view, I mean, I've been on the Tower of Terror, I know what happens if those cables break. But everything was fine once we finally got to the top and I could put my feet on solid ground once again.

The view was stunning. You could literally see the entire city from the top. Fog was starting to set in around the Andes, so their view was partially obstructed, but the view of Santiago was breathtaking. They had some food stands and artisan crafts at the top along with a gigantic (seriously really freaking huge) statue of the Virgin Mary. There were also several gardens with benches to sit and reflect. I definitely plan on going back up the hill. There are apparently 2 swimming pools, and even a zoo (!) on the hill.

We ended the night by heading to a restaurant across the corner from the hostel which was surprisingly good and had big portions for a pretty low price.

I headed home pretty soon after dinner since they had an early morning plane to catch back to Buenos Aires. Basically it was a ton of fun, and I am super happy that Kelly got to come and visit me! And I am so unbelievably excited to visit her tomorrow!!

Which reminds me, while I am going I will not have my computer with me *gasp*! I'm actually already having separation anxiety, but I should have sporadic access to computers at the hostel. So basically, I will be less available that I usually am, so don't freak out! :)

Kelly's Visit: Day 2 and 3

We decided to keep the next day pretty low-key since we had stayed up pretty late the night before and we were a little hungover.

My host mom, Paulina, wanted to have them over for lunch, so I went and got them at their hostel and we headed to my house to eat. Paulina made Cazuela a Chilean beef stew which is pretty good, and of course, a ton of lemony vegetable side dishes. It was a good, relaxing lunch after a hectic first day.

Cazuela

After lunch we headed to Concha y Toro, one of Chile's biggest and most well-known vineyards for a tour and tasting. I underestimated how long it would take us to get there, so we were a little late for our scheduled tour, but we just joined the next available one, so there weren't any problems! The grounds were beautiful and it was cool to learn a little about the process. I wish I could do a tour in the summer when the grapes are ripe and the vines are bigger. We got to taste two red wines, one of which was their famous Casillero del Diablo but unfortunately I found them both pretty nasty. They were very woody and smokey. The first one actually tasted like smoked ham, and the second like sawdust. I think I will stick to my sweet whites and roses for now...Towards the end of the tour some Brazilian ladies asked me to take their photo. I recognized that they were Brazilian since they were speaking Portuguese and I mentioned that I had just started learning Portuguese online. One of the ladies was very excited about this fact and started speaking at me in very fast Portuguese; to be honest, I don't think she spoke Spanish. Luckily I understood most of it, due to my few lessons and its similarities to Spanish and we had a pretty lengthy conversation in a combination of Portuguese and Spanish. We ended up swapping emails and she told me to email her with any questions I had about the language or if I ever wanted recommendations about where to eat or what to do in Brazil!

Administrative building at Concha y Toro. Used to be the owner's house.

So after the tour we headed back to the hostel to freshen up (such a weird saying) and we went to meet another girl from Kelly's program for dinner that had been in Santiago for the past week visiting. We went to a restaurant called Galindo which came highly recommended, especially for their pastel de choclo. Pastel de Choclo is another typical Chilean dish that is essentially a corn and beef pie (choclo means corn, pastel means cake or pie). Kelly and Nolan ended up getting that and I got some mini cheese empanadas and some fries. The pastel de choclo was a really interesting combination of sweet and salty, and they ended up loving it, though I'm not really sure I could have eaten an entire meal of it, maybe as a side dish.

Pastel de Choclo

We ended up calling it a night pretty early because we had a bus to catch for Valparaíso the next morning at 9:20am. We all got to the bus station fine and had a pleasant hour and a half journey over there. We went to Pablo Neruda's house there, bought a few souvenirs (I got presents for my dad and Gina), checked out the Naval buildings and statues, looked out over the port, rode several acensores up the cerros, visited the market, walked around the city admiring the graffiti and crazy buildings, drank wine, ate good food, and just generally had a pretty fun day. Feel free to check out my earlier post on my first visit to Valpo to get a little bit more detail.

Unfortunately the day kind of ended on a sour note when my purse was stolen in a park outside of the bus station while I was putting on my jacket. :( I lost my wallet ($20, all my ID's, and one of my credit cards), my iPod (biggest sad face), my camera (which I was borrowing from my parents), and some makeup (my MAC MSF Natural, my favorite NARS Orgasm Lipgloss, my MAC lipstick in Hue, and my Korres Lip Butter).

But we made it back in time for me to watch the latest Dexter episode online :)

Kelly's Visit: Day 1

Sorry for my lack of posts, but my camera was stolen last weekend, among other things, and I don't really like blogging without photos. But some of you *cough*Jodie*cough* have been complaining about my lack of updates, I decided I would just write about my adventures and maybe add some photos from google...anyways....

So Kelly came to visit me last weekend, which was a lot of fun! She got in really early Friday morning with two of her friends from her program, Gia and Nolan, and we met up at her hostel at 10:30am to start the day!

We decided to head over to Plaza de Armas which is one of the centers of the city and a great place to people watch. It also holds one of the largest and most impressive cathedrals in Santiago. Cathedrals have always held a special magic for me, maybe it is because I am Catholic (though not a very devout one) or maybe it is just due to my love of history, either way, this cathedral did not disapoint. It was filled with decorative murals, detailed stained glass windows, and ornate architectural detail. Lining the walkways through the church were several opened-up cubical type things where you could sit on the offered stool and confess your sins to a priest sitting behind the table. While not the most impressive cathedral I have ever been to (I have visited St. John's in London and Notre Dame in Paris) it did not fail to fill me with a sense of awe and wonder that something so magnificent had been built so long ago.

Outside view of the cathedral.

After Plaza de Armas we headed to the mercado central, which is basically a fish market. I had thought that there were other things there too, but other than the occasional overpriced restaurant, we had no such luck. So, driven off by the overwhelming smell and the realization that it was lunch time, we headed to another part of town to find some food. We ended up stopping in a cheap okay-food type place in Santa Lucia. Kelly and I split a chorrillana which is a very typical chilean dish that consists of a pile of fries, sauteed onions, chunks of beef and sausage, and topped off with a few fried eggs. Definitely not healthy, but gluten-free and pretty delicious. Gia ordered an italiano which is a hot dog bun filled with mayonnaise, palta (avocado), and tomatoes, and apparently does not come with any type of meat...We found out later that it is called an italiano because the green, white, and red of the the avocado, mayo, and tomatoes resemble the colors of the Italian flag.

Chorrillana. I'm not a huge sunny-side up fan,
but you can usually get them to cook the eggs with the meat and onions,
so there isn't just a yolk staring at you.

Anyways, after lunch we headed a few blocks over to the Feria Santa Lucia to do some shopping. I ended up purchasing a necklace and a ring for myself and I was able to get presents for Jodie, Cailin, and Aileen, so it was a pretty successful trip.

We spent the rest of the day walking around Santiago. We saw the governmental buildings and the giant Chilean flag posted outside of them. We walked through a few picturesque parks and saw the giant satellite tower that gives cell service to just about everybody in Santiago. We ended up taking the metro to the bus station to get our tickets for Valpo on Sunday, and on the way back to the hostel we stopped at Estación Central which has a huge indoor and outdoor market with just about everything you can think of. From socks and shirts to earrings and postcards. There is even a carousel there! Before we left we bought some jugo natural which consists of your fruit or fruits of choice (sometimes they are frozen, sometimes they are fresh), water or milk, and a big spoonful of sugar. I ordered a raspberry-banana mix with water and it was really light and refreshing. I can't believe it took me so long to purchase one of these, but I am kind of obsessed now. :)

For dinner we went to a Peruvian restaurant close to the hostel that was pretty good. I ordered Chaufa con Pollo which is basically Peruvian chicken fried rice (though I am pretty sure they used beef and not chicken....) which was good and very filling. We headed back to the hostel after that and broke into the bottle of Pisco I brought by mixing it with raspberry juice and sprite and playing a very short game of Kings before leaving for the Santiago Pub Crawl.

Unfortunately, nobody could remember the address and the meetup was located on a very busy and confusing street. After a very tense 10 minutes, we finally located the meetup location and waited for everything to get started while trying to drink some very unappealing cerveza. The pub crawl hit up 3 bars, which all provided a free shot and discounted drinks, and ended the night in a club. It was actually a lot of fun, despite the fact that I ended up spending more than I intended to, and I fell on my leg while walking up the stairs in the club, an injury which still hurts over a week later :( We left the club around 3am, and took a cab home, dropping them off at their hostel first and then heading out to La Reina the area that I live in. The cab driver was a little weird, he asked me if I had a facebook and what my name was...but I got home in one piece and everything ended well. :)

So that is the end of Day 1 of my adventures with Kelly. I will try and post the next 3-4 days of our travels together up sometimes in the next week or so :)

Grocery Shopping

Similar to my Fun Facts about Santiago post, I decided to comment on a few of the differences between grocery shopping here and in the states.

Variety
Your average supermercado (grocery store) does not have a lot of variety compared to the US. For example, they only have Skim, 2%, and whole milk here. There is no half & half, no buttermilk etc. You can find soy, but not all store carry it.
(Fun Fact: I wanted to bake some chocolate chip cookies so I went to our local Jumbo, which is like a super Wal*Mart and they usually have a better selection than the other grocery stores. Anyways, after looking for about an hour I still could not find brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, or chocolate chips. I have also yet to see a single grape at any grocery store I've been to. Which is upsetting because frozen grapes on a hot day are delicious, but they don't really stock fruits and veggies if they aren't in season.)

Cracker: Where Art Thou?
They don't really "do" crackers here I guess. They have plenty of chips, but very few other types of salty snacks. If you're lucky you might find some pretzels or some soda crackers, but seriously, who eats soda crackers without cheese or some kind of spread?

Bags vs. Jars
A lot of condiments and spreads here are offered in packages as well as in jars. Everything from jam to mayonnaise to ketchup can be found in bags. For some reason, this actually really bothers me and grosses me out.

<--Mayonnaise. In packages! Tell me this doesn't weird you out...


(Fun Fact: Turns out you aren't supposed to take photos inside the grocery store by my house...I have no clue why, it's not like they are keeping trade secrets in there, but yeah, I got told off in Spanish by a very scary looking security guard.)

Milk in the Aisle
You don't find Milk in the refrigerated section next to the yogurt. Instead, all of the milk is in soy-milk-sized cartons in a regular aisle. I'm not sure how milk here is different exactly, but I guess you don't have to refrigerate it until after opening.

Instant Coffee
Seeing as how a lot of coffee is grown in Latin American countries, I assumed coffee would be a big deal here, but it really isn't. My family doesn't own a coffee maker, and this must not be that unusual because about 98% of the coffee at the store is instant.

Alcohol
It's sold in grocery stores! It's just so convenient!

Baggers
Every store has baggers to bag your groceries for you. This practice has mostly died out in the US, so it's weird not bagging my own groceries, but more than that, these baggers are usually not paid by the grocery store. They work solely on tips, which nobody told me the first few times I went...

Sorry there aren't more photos, but like I said, apparently you aren't allowed to take photos. :)

Fiestas Patrias

The 18th and 19th of September are Chile's fiestas patrias, a celebration of Chile's independence. Since this year the holidays fall on a Sunday and Monday, the celebration started on Friday and continued all weekend.

On Friday, my Chilean family had an asado (barbacue) which is an extremely popular way to celebrate. Meat sales are at their highest around this time in Chile and everywhere you go in Santiago you can smell the smoke from the grills. We had the asado on Friday because my host brother, Gonzalo, was flying back to Madrid on Saturday and my host brother, Francisco, took a bus up from Valdivia (a city in southern Chile) for the weekend to see him off. So I got to meet a lot of their extended family and my host mother, Paulina, was happy to have all four of her children together one last time. The food was great, we had choripan, which is a very typical Chilean dish, which is basically just a hot dog, but smaller and with better bread and better meat (chorizo means sausage and pan means bread so choripan is a pretty perfect name). And of course there was grilled beef and chicken, which might actually be the best chicken I ever had.
(Side note: They really cook their meat here in Santiago. It isn't too bad for me, but if I think that the meat is overcooked, then that is really saying something as I'm sure my family will agree. Every time we eat meat here, I always think of my "blue-rare" family and their reactions to overcooked meat.)

Meat cooking on the grill.

One of the most popular things to do to celebrate this holiday is to go to one of the many fondas, which are held in parks all over the city. They are very similar to street fairs or carnivals, with food stands, rides, artisan crafts, games, face painting, dancing, music, and performers. On Saturday & Sunday I went to one of the biggest and best known fondas in Parque O'Higggins with a group of people. We were actually pretty diverse as there were 3 Chileans (they didn't go with us on Sunday), 4 Italians, 1 French Colombian, 1 girl from France, 2 girls from Mexico, and 1 American (me!).

Partial Group Photo of Katerine, Elita, Chiara, Mariana, Me, and Nydia.

Anyways, on Saturday we got to the park around 6pm and spent several hours walking around the HUGE grounds and soaking up the festive atmosphere. In Chile, empanadas are extremely popular, especially as street food. You can basically fill it with whatever you want, but the most popular types are empanadas de queso (cheese), de queso y camerones (cheese and shrimp), or de pino. Empanadas de Pino are the most popular type and are filled with a beef and onion mixture, half a hard-boiled egg and an olive and they are baked (the cheese ones are usually fried). They are actually pretty good, since it's pretty easy to remove the egg and olive, but I decided to purchase an empanada de queso for $2 since I have been missing cheese.

As we walked around we saw a mini parade of Chilean dancers, a man dressed as a woman dancing around, and several boxes of baby chickens, which were the cutest things ever. While exploring the artisan section of the fonda I bought some pink aretes (earrings) and some chicha to drink, which is a typical Chilean drink that was described to me as a "lightly fermented wine". It is delicious and tastes very similar to Sangria.

Chilean dancers.

CHICKIES! so cute!

Chicha

After everybody had finished eating their empanadas several people in our group were intent on finding some cerveza (beer) to wash everything down. At first we were worried that they didn't sell any alcohol there (which would have been very peculiar for Chile) but the Chileans in our group assured us that we just had to go to another section where there was more food and drinks. The national drink of Chile is the terremoto, which means earthquake, aptly named for it's ability to make the earth "move" if you drink too many. It's made by filling a glass with a sweet white wine and then adding a shot of Pisco (a grape brandy that is very popular in Chile), a splash of grenadine, and a scoop of pineapple ice cream or sherbet. Not too many bars serve them year round, but during the fiestas patrias they are served everywhere, so of course several of us opted for the $2 terremoto. Nearby there was a game where you paid 200 Chilean pesos (around 50 cents) and you got 8 tries to throw a wooden ring around the top of one of the many liquor bottles that they had grouped up in back. If you got it around, you won the bottle, which, unfortunately, I did not do.

Katerine and I with our terremotos!

After sitting in the grass and talking for awhile (the Italian guy, Fabrizio, is a fan of the Big Bang Theory and we were convincing Katerine to watch it) everybody decided that we were hungry once again, and that we should head to a nearby "restaurant" for food (this restaurant consisted of a giant circus-like tent and plastic tables and chairs). We all ordered pork kabobs (another popular food) and several pitchers of terremotos for the table. It was interesting being surrounded by people from so many different cultures. Everyone was comparing and contrasting different aspects of their home countries, and it was fun, if a little weird, being the minority in the group. Everybody kept asking for my "American" view on things and I was often asked how to say certain words in English.
(Side note: Whenever people ask me where exactly I am from in the United States, and I reply Seattle, the first thing people say to me is "Grey's Anatomy!". I guess that is Seattle's claim to fame across the world.)

When we went back on Sunday and ate dinner,
a mime came up to us selling roses. When nobody
wanted one, he put a fake gun to Fabrizio's head...

Around 11:30pm we decided it was time to get going. A few people were heading out to a club afterwords, and I almost went, but the metro closes at midnight and the buses late at night can be sketchy by yourself and I didn't want to have to pay for a cab, so I decided to head home.
(A rather long side note: Two other girls were also heading home, and we got to chatting as we waited for the metro. They told me that I spoke Spanish really well, that I had a good accent and had a good grasp of the grammar, which of course made me feel good. This is actually something I have heard quite a few times since I've been down here, and though it makes me very happy to hear it, I take it with a grain of salt, because I know I have told foreigners that they speak great English when it wasn't necessarily true... But they went on to say that they have noticed that a lot of native English speakers (not just the USA, but Australia and the UK as well) often not only have poor accents but that their grammar just isn't there. Now these two girls were from France and Italy, so neither of them are native Spanish speakers, but they weren't saying this negatively. They were acknowledging that it is much harder for us to grasp this language because it not only sounds so different from our own, but is also grammatically very different. I have definitely noticed that the french and Italians seem to speak Spanish much better, and it was interesting to hear that I wasn't the only one who noticed. Of course, it was also nice to hear that my years of studying Spanish had paid off and I didn't sound too much like a gringa. I was talking to the Mexican girls the next day, and they told me that I actually speak a lot like a Mexican with my accent and vocabulary.)

Anyways, to get home I have to take two different metro lines, and the line change is four stops away from where I get off. From there I need to take a bus to get closer to my house. Now here is where I am super proud of myself. I took the first line all the way to the stop where I normally switch, but at this point it is a little after midnight, and the other line has closed. So it's after midnight, I'm alone, I'm slightly tipsy, and I have never actually been above ground at this metro stop before. But I knew that I was close to my house, and I was almost positive that one of the buses I needed to take home, would be close to the station. And sure enough, a short distance away was parada (bus stop) for the 412, which would take me all the way to my street. Granted, this wasn't exactly the most astonishing display of problem-solving abilities, but I was still pretty proud that I was able to stay completely calm and figure everything out. And I didn't even have to call a taxi (I have the number for a taxi service, so I could have got home even if there wasn't a bus there).

Sorry that this was such a long blog post, but I wasn't really sure how to split it up. All in all, it was been one of the best weekends I have had in Santiago and I am finally starting to feel like my Spanish is really improving! Ciao!

Finding "Home" Abroad

My time in Santiago has been great. I have been meeting people from around the globe, trying new food, seeing new sights, and hearing Spanish 24/7. Though I have never been the type of person to get homesick, I sometimes find myself longing for something a little less exotic and a little more familiar. Santiago really isn't that different from any major city in the US, but it's the small differences that really stand out. They have the same kinds of cell phones, but the carriers are different. They have department stores and malls, but most of the stores are different. People chat as they walk down the street, but the language is different. These slight deviations underline that I am in a foreign city far from home, and though I love the newness and the excitement this city brings, there are times when I just want the simplicity and familiarity of the US.

This is when I love that there are American stores here. I know that you're supposed to hate big American chains that come into developing countries and ruin that rustic appeal, but to me they are simply home. I love that I can walk into a mall here and buy an overpriced vegan conditioner from Lush like I would at Westlake. I love that I can walk through an apple store and play with their iPads like I often do at U Village. I love that there is a Ruby Tuesday's down the street from my house (even though I have never eaten there, here or in the US). But mostly I love that I can walk into a Starbucks here and buy an iced peppermint latte that tastes exactly the same as the latte I would buy on the Ave on my way to class. More than any other American store, Starbucks represents home for me. Probably because I live in Seattle, the birthplace of Starbucks, and because I have been going to Starbucks for as long as I can remember. Even when I was younger we went, though my parents would make me get hot chocolate or decaf coffee. Yes, it's overpriced, even more so here than in the states, but paying $6 for a latte and a reminder that I am not so far removed from home as I sometimes feel, is totally worth it.

The Starbucks on my bus route to the metro station near my house :)