Wow. It's about time for an update. Nothing like a 14-page paper (NOT double-spaced) and an oral exam to make you really want to update your blog instead...
Let's do this in backwards order. At the moment I am finishing classes and getting stuff taken care of before leaving. I'm a month away!!
Over the past two weeks I've done a lot of wandering around Santiago, just to take advantage of my final time here. I've been to Villa Grimaldi (old Pinochet-era torture site), the Cementario Nacional, another cerro (Santa Lucia), the Biblioteca Nacional...etc. We even went to a gay parade!! It wasn't too exciting, but I was impressed that Santiago had one at all...
We also went for a day-long trip to Doñihue, a little pueblito about 2 hours out of the city. We basically spent the day eating and trying different artisan products that they make: honey, aloe vera, and lots of types of alcohol (not my favorite at 10 in the morning...). It was a lot of fun to get out of the city for a day. We also got to take the train, which is not particularly fast, but very nice nonetheless.
A few weekends ago, we went to Mendoza. It was a "quick" 7-hour bus ride across the cordillera. The ride over was beautiful and we got through everything pretty quickly. We got in mid-afternoon and walked around, eventually finding our way to a delicious restaurant where we dined on steaks, salad, wine, AND dessert for about $8 apiece. I'm so glad I decided to start eating red meat again before coming to South America. Anyway, it was a great weekend. We did a little dancing, took a tour of the city (which included a tour to a chocolate factory) and toured some vineyards. I even managed to study for an exam and buy a few gifts in the feria! The only down-side was the ride back. Apparently, some random girls thought it'd be a good idea to try and bring 2 kilos of cocaine across the border. Turns out not so much. It took us around 3 hours JUST to cross the border.
The week before Mendoza was busy, but with nothing particularly exciting. Except, I did sing with my padre at a big folklore festival. There must have been about 200 people there, so it was exciting, while at the same time frightening. I also made friends the sweetest 12-year-old boy who entertained me with stories in his gypsy costume until it was my turn to go on. This past week I sang with Sole at a scholarship dinner. So definitely my artistic career has not been on hold in Chile. Between that and the fact that I'm helping my colegio kids prepare a Michael Jackson dance for the graduation party...
Speaking of the colegio where I volunteer, I decided to go to a party there a few weeks ago. It was a blast!! I felt like I was in high school again. Except this time, a high school where everyone crowds together and dances reggaeton in front of their teachers! (Or WITH their teachers, in my case...)
Ok, so before Mendoza the most exciting thing that happened was going to Buenos Aires. It was one crazy weekend, that's for sure. We ate well and slept little, which I feel is the opposite of what most Argentinians do. Or at least, they're all skinny and hang out in cafes until 2pm most days. Probably the most exciting thing was that we went to the Argentina-Peru soccer game. Looking back, it was a heck of a lot of effort. We stayed out til 5am carreteando and then went to wait in line for another 4 hours to get the tickets the day they went on sale. Then, after sleeping about and hour and a half back in the hostal, Carolyn's bunkbed disconnected from the wall and fell on Emily. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt, although she had a pretty nasty bruise for awhile. During the game, it started POURING rain. We decided to leave to try and beat the crowds and the stadium was literally flooding. There was water cascading down the stairs. It really was a downpour. And once we were on the street, we continued walking around in the downpour for an hour or so looking for a taxi or some other way home. At this point the water was about a foot deep in the streets. We finally stumbled upon a restaurant which was nice enough to let us in. They called us a taxi and we left after drying off (leaving behind puddles and 2 empty bottles of wine).
That was Argentina. My overall observations are that they're much more attractive than Chileans and have delicious meat. But other than that the food is pretty bland and the women are too skinny (and grow their hair too long). And their metro is nothing compared to Transantiago. Stop complaining, chilenos. I did, however, come home with a nice new pair of leather boots. And some very wet clothes...
Wow, beyond that I can't think of anything at the moment. Which is fine cause this is enough for now. I can't believe I leave for good in less than a month. But...I'm heading to Viña, Patagonia, and Brazil before that! What a wild ride it's been...
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