The good and the bad of my time here in Chile

Where do I even start?

Well two weekends ago, I went to Mendoza, Argentina. This was my first trip since I've been in Chile which was absolutely amazing and sad at the same time. My friends and  had tried to go a few weeks prior, but the mountains had been temporary shut down at Argentina's customs due to the bad weather. So we left on a Thursday night and got to Argentina's customs at god knows what time but we were there for about three hours. It was a lot of just sitting/sleeping on the bus until we were forced to get out into the cold and stand in line to get things stamped and passsports looking at. After they send you back onto the bus and an hour later or so we are off the bus again to get our bags checked, which was an absolutely stupid process because my bag didn't get checked so I could have totally brought drugs in if I wanted to... JOKINGGGGG! Anyways, back onto the bus, we had about a three hour drive I think and we got into Mendoza at 8am.

It was a sort a strange/awesome feeling getting off the bus and just looking at each other saying, what the hell do we do now?! We stood around for about 10 min before acquiring a map and making our way out of the bus station to walk around and find a hostel to stay at. We ended up making our way to the hostel we had booked for the previous weekend which ended up being absolutely amazing :) We ended up falling in love with the people who worked at the hostel. The hostel itself wasn't too horrible, but definitely had false advertising with their 24 hot water sign. We all got settled into our 10 bed dorm mixed room, showered (epically cold), and got ready to just go walk around.

Saturday, we went to a wine tour which was fun for the most part until I got a headache and was just over it and wanted to go home. Finally after getting back and getting rid of my headache, the hostel was giving out free drinks from 10-12pm. So clearly we had to go.... cause I love booze and free things! They had these ghetto versions of mojitos, body shots, and dancing on tables. The dancing on tables ended in my friend literally breaking a window with her ass, which was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Anyways, since my friend was a bit upset about the incident, I stayed in with her to make sure she was okay (plus because I'm a grandma and hate being out late). I was first woken up by two of my roommates coming home, which including a very very drunk blacked out German boy. It wasn't until a few hours later that I was woken up by a presence standing next to my bed (I could feel the presence there even with my sleep mask on), so I proceeded to take off my mask and look at him and say "what the fuck are you doing?!". In which he responded with absolutely nothing and just walked away. So we all woke up in the morning and I looked down on the floor and saw brown spots all over the floor which I screamed "OMG SOMEONE POOPED ALL OVER OUR FLOOR!!!!". Well the brown spots were actually red, so someone actually bled all over our floor which was the drunken German boy who I think was looking for the bathroom. That was all interesting to say the least.

So Sunday, my friends and I went on a horseback riding/wine/bbq tour. We went horseback riding with gauchos which are basically South American cowboy. We were horseback riding for about 2 hours and came back to eat, sit around a fire, and listen to the gauchos sing to us. I absolutely fell in love with horseback riding (though I've been before) but most importantly I loved galloping with my horse, Miguel. However, I didn't love how my butt hurt for a good two days after. I did meet this wonderful sexy gaucho man who I will never see again :(

Mendoza's highlights:

• Going on a wine tour. I found out that I actually really do like some red wine but it gives me headaches after a while (thanks mom for passing that onto me)
• Going on this horseback riding/wine/bbq tour. 
• Waking up to a drunk German boy standing next to my bed in the middle of the night as I was in the top bunk. 
• My friend Liz legitimately broke a window with her ass 
• Being with some of the amazing friends that I've made here in Chile

That's basically my trip to Mendoza which was the amazing part. Like I mentioned before it was also sad.

After going on the trip to Mendoza, it really made me feel sad that I don't have to opportunity aka time to go travel. First off, traveling in South America isn't that easy. You basically have to take buses everywhere and in most other places you have to pay a reciprocity fee, which for Argentina is $160. So not only does it take a long time to travel, but it can end up being very expensive.

This semester has been absolutely wonderful for me though studying abroad for me hasn't been all unicorns and butterflies  I've found myself to be very unhappy these past few weeks. I put a lot on my plate for this semester and have been stuck to finish it all. I am in four business classes here (all with chileans), two spanish classes (just learning spanish), plus I am working at my internship 17.5 hours a week. Also with my internship, I'm in a class through Butler right now for my internship. With this class, I have to write about four papers in addition to my full classwork load I have here in Chile and work.  Most days I am up at 8, out the door by 9 and not home until 7:30 at night if I'm lucky. By the time I get home, I'm absolutely exhausted. I don't even have time to workout which kills me a little. I'm lucky if I get 8 hours of sleep. And if anyone knows me, I'm not a happy camper and quite grouchy with a lack of sleep. I'm just at the point where I'm not enjoying school or my internship at all and have been counting down the days until I get home. The thing is, is that I don't think I'm homesick (I could be in denial). Obviously I miss my friends and family from home, who wouldn't? But I LOOOOVEEEEE <3 my friends and family here and I love Chile as well. I just kinda got stuck with a heavy work load so I could graduate on time and also do an internship abroad because I know it will look amazing on my resume.

So today marks 49 days before I leave this beautiful place named Chile. I've fortunately been able to change my attitude around a bit and am feeling much better. I know I can and I will get through these next 30 days of classes, 46 days until my last day of my internship, and 49 days until I am home bound to America. Until then, I will try to make the best out of the rest of my time here.

Watch out America, I'll be home July 17th :)

Catching You All Up on My Chilean Life

Sorry I haven't written in awhile guys! Well it has been a little over a month since I've updated everyone about my life here in Chile. It's funny to me because people keep asking me "OMG how is Chile?!" and honestly Chile is my life right now. Sometime I have to stop and remind myself that I'm studying abroad. Everything about Chile has just become a part of my life and I absolutely love it.

Well first off, I've been in my classes for over a month now. I'm taking four business classes, aka with all Chilean students. I am also in two Spanish speaking classes that are focused in helping me with my Spanish. In the beginning I was SERIOUSLY lost in my business classes. All my professors speak so incredibly fast and it's hard to keep up. Now, after a month or so of classes, I'm still lost but not as bad. I had my first completely in Spanish presentation for my Human Resources class last week. I'm alive to tell the tale so clearly it wasn't that horrible but it's honestly really intimidating having to get up in front of a whole class full of native Spanish speakers and talk. But I survived and need to already start thinking about my solo presentation coming up in the next couple months :/

Just gonna tough base on this subject of my tummy issues real quick because everyone keeps asking me. For those who know me well or maybe not that well, know that I have Ulcerative Colitis. I was a bit worried about coming to Chile because I wasn't sure on how the food and water would affect my poor tummy.For the most part, I drink filtered or bottled water. My host mom makes sure to have it in the house for me. I honestly don't drink enough of water here though. People in Chile don't seem to bring a lot of water but rather lots of juice and soda. The water isn't "bad" here, it just has different sort of bacterias in it but the coffee I drink every morning is tap water and I'm still alive and well. It took about 3-4 weeks for my stomach to really adjust to the food and water here but I'm doing great :) I was finally able to find Almond Milk but it is so expensive. I paid about US$5.50 for a small container of almond milk.

So as some of you guys know, I am doing an internship here while I am in Chile. I need to complete 300 hours for it to count as one of my two required internships to graduate. I'm working at a television channel in the Administrative Department helping with some organizational things. I started about two weeks and I really do like the place I work at. I love the work environment and the people I work with. I'm by far the youngest person who works in the department but that obviously doesn't really matter. I have been given a desk with a laptop and an additional screen. I really am thankful for being given this opportunity to work there but it is sort of taking over my life a little bit. I'm working 17.5 hours a week which clearly isn't THAT much but I now have absolutely no time to sleep in ever anymore and it's seriously exhausting to have to wake up early, go to work and then after go to classes. The classes in themselves are tiring because they are all 1.5 hours long. I thought my hour and 15 minute classes on Tuesday/Thursday were bad? An extra 15 minutes on top of that is horrible. Anyways, I haven't really been given much to do at my internship. At first, I worked on creating an organizational chart for the company and I also did some research about HSEC policies. (A HSEC policy is a policy about the Health, Safety, Environment, and Community and how a company affects these categories). All in all, I really do like it there but sitting around bored for 7 hours, playing solitaire, listening to music, and playing games on my iPod is tiring. This may the one and only time I say this, but GIVE ME MORE WORK!

Some of the interesting things about Chile:

• There isn't always hot water when you want to shower. I've learned the secret though that 99% of the time works to make the water hot. Sometimes though I'll be showering and have to hop out really quickly because the water hates me and wants me to freeze to death. 
• Some of the streets in Vina, where I live, changed directions and absolutely confused the hell out of me. I actually thought I was going crazy thinking that some streets had changed but it actually happened. So after learning the streets here and the directions Chile wanted to eff with my mind. So for that, thank you. 
• People have staring issues here. Point blank. At times, it feels like I must appear as an alien to everyone. That I must be wearing something goofy, I have something spilled down my shirt or my fly is  undone. It's none of the above though. People literally just love to stare. Like I really don't think I stand out THAT much, but apparently that's false. I'm not sure if it's just because I'm a gringa (basically an American girl) or what it is. I've just started to play along with it and stare at the person back in attempt to make them feel uncomfortable. I even went up some guy at the bar because he was staring so hard and I was like "uhmmm do you have a problem? i can see you blatantly staring at us". We ended up being BFFL'S so it was totally okay. But really, my thing is if you're going to stare, at least have the nerve to come up and say something to me. If not, look away. Or take a picture, that will last longer.
• I absolutely love the way people greet each other here. We are doing it oh so wrong in America. When you greet someone and say goodbye you give them a kiss on the cheek or basically putting your cheeks together and making a kissing sound. It's personal and I just love it. I feel like when I get back to America, I am going to wanna greet people like that and people are going to be like "what the eff is this girl trying to do? why is she trying to kiss me?"
• Two things I definitely want to bring back to the states with me in this liquid sugar that's so good. I don't know if there is an american equivalent but it goes so perfectly with my coffee. Also Chile has this amazing liquor here called Pisco. Most people pair it with coke called piscola but I love it with sprite. Gonna have to bring a couple bottles home with me...
• The mosquitoes absolutely love me here. The other night I woke up with 15 mosquito bites (and I'm not even exaggerating). I think I might be some sort of allergic to them because they get seriously red and huge. Plus they are soooooo incredibly itchy and it's just so hard not to itch
• Men straight cat call girls here. Like the regular cat call whistle, happens all the time. At first it was a nice self-esteem boost but it has just become annoying. I'll be walking down the street, two guys in a car drive by, and the driver it honking while his friend has his head out of the window trying to holler. Just stop. The answer is NO. 

Well that's all for now really. I need to get serious about starting to plan some weekend trips in and around Chile. I really do want to go to Mendonza and Buenos Aires but yeah who knows where else I will go.

By the way, for those who REALLYYYY miss me, I will most likely be coming home 1-2 weeks earlier than planning because I will be finishing my internship earlier than expected and I should go home to try to make some money and get  my life together before I have to move back to school for my senior year of college. Scary thought in general.

By the way, if there is anything anyone is curious about in any aspect of my life in Chile, feel free to comment and let me know what you wanna know about!

Hasta luego (until later),

Ciao

Already in love with Chile

Well let's see. I've been here in this lovely place called Chile for a total of 12 days now. I just can tell that I am not meant to live in America. Seriously, the past 12 days have been absolutely amazing.

My newest observations/stories about Chile:

• Watching TV here has been a bit comical. They do have a couple of English channels but most of their shows that we have in the US have been dubbed over with other voices. Watching the Simpsons and Spongebob is quite hilarious to say the least. 
• Basically all students write on graph paper. I find it so strange. When I was at the store buying notebooks, it took me and my mom a good 20 minutes to find a regular composition notebook.
• LEGIT EVERY TIME I try to go to sleep, some alarm car is starts going off. 
• Toilet paper. In Chile (at least at my university), they have one toilet paper dispenser in the bathroom that is located outside all of the toilets. You don't even think about sitting down on public toilets, seriously gross. Some of the toilets don't even have seats or covers. Anyways, back to the toilet paper. So the other day while I was at school, I needed to use the bathroom. I only know where one bathroom is in this building. I'm convinced it's the only one that exists. Anyways, so I went to go to the bathroom and there was no toilet paper. So I decided to hold it for a little more in hope that someone would change the roll. People were still using the bathroom though... I'm not quite sure about that. Maybe they carry toilet paper with them? So I waited for another 10-15 minutes, went back and checked. None. I ended up having to go to a whole other building to find a bathroom with toilet paper. I didn't realize using the bathroom would be such a struggle. My biggest issue with this whole toilet paper ordeal is what if you don't anticipate enough? YOU'RE BASICALLY SCREWED.
• Good lucking finding paper towels to dry your hands after you use the bathroom. I usually just flock my hands all over the place to air dry them. I probably look like an idiot but whatever.
• My first night out, a bunch of the American/Exchange students went out to a club. In the bathroom there is a lady who hands out a certain amount of toilet paper to the patrons. She was this little old lady working at this club and was legit falling asleep holding the toilet paper. I should have taken a picture of her.
• ALRIGHT ENOUGH ABOUT THE TOILET PAPER AND BATHROOMS, sorry :) 
• My host mom and I are very alike. She has tummy issues just like me. It's good to know I'm not alone. 
• People here don't know what a turn signal is. The driving here is absolutely terrifying. 
• Avocado is a main food group here. In Chile, they call avocado "palta". The avo here is absolutely delicious. You can go to restaurants and order sandwiches with straight up avocado on it, nothing else. It's super popular. If I didn't like avocado, I don't know how I would survive. I have it at least once a day.
• The buses are STILL terrifying. While I was on this super packed bus today, which is huge clusterfuck in itself, this dude comes onto the bus and starts telling this extensive story and starts asking for donations. While there is already a ridiculous amount of people standing in the small aisle (including myself), this dude squishes through everyone. THERE IS NO ROOM DUDE!
• So I had somehow convinced myself it was an hour earlier that it really was so I unknowingly arrived to the university early. So I found my classroom and open to door to find a classroom completely filled with students. Still convinced it should be the start of my class, everyone stared at me as I attempted to ask what class it was. Moral of the story, I made an ass out of myself. Meh, what's new?
• I am currently in 6 classes, which is definitely more than I anticipated but four of them are with the Chilean students and 2 of them are Spanish classes. I can already tell that this semester is going to be struggle for me but it's all part of the experience. 

My New Chilean Life

Throughout my few days here so far, I've noticed that Americans are incredibly spoiled. We take advantage of the simple things like air conditioning, heat, dryers, and much more. I can already tell coming to Chile has and will continue to change my perception on things.

Yesterday I got to meet my aunt and my second sister, Javiera. Javiera is 20 years old and goes to the same school as me. I honestly feel so blessed that my family is so wonderful and welcoming. I know I told people before coming to Chile that one of my biggest worries was that people weren't going to find me funny in Spanish. That's not the case though. I literally made my mom cry and her sister laugh so hard because they couldn't understand my broken Spanish.

Thus far, these are the "bad" things so far:

• I can't watch my TV shows here. You have to be in the US to watch the shows online. Goodbye TV world for 6 months.
• I can't find my favorite face wash anywhere :(
• My program leader was semi unorganized. I kinda forcefully yelled at someone about my frustrations and later that day, things got better :) 

Clearly you can see that nothing is actually bad and I'm just a little dramatic, per usual.

Here are my random thoughts about Chile thus far:

• My family is beyond wonderful. My first day of orientation, my mom gave me 500 pesos to take the bus to school. She also leaves out breakfast for me in the morning. (Apparently this is only in the beginning). She likes to take care of me :) 
• I can officially take the bus to and from school alone!
• I accidentally asked the lady at the pharmacy for a face wash with butter instead of makeup. WHOOPS. In my defense, the words are kinda close....
• The buses here are SCARY. They drive so fast, you have to hold on for your life. They start moving before the doors are even closed and before you even pay. 
• The language has been very tough here for me. Chilean Spanish is much different than the Spanish I've learned my whole life. They speak incredibly fast, they shorten their words, and have so much slang. It's going to take me some time to get used to it. I think in about a month, I'll be fine.
• My host mom literally doesn't let me help. I keep telling her I'm not lazy and that at home I do the dishes, do my own laundry (along with everyone else's usually) and I can clean. The other day when she was dealing with a repairman in the other room, I sneakily washed all the dishes and put them away so she wouldn't have to. 
• Picking my classes have been a little frustrating. I need specific classes so I can stay on track with my studies. It seems so far that I will be taking three classes with Chilean students (SCARY) and one English Spanish class where I'll learn about conversation and culture. I'm actually excited to start classes though because it will give me a chance to interact with the Chilean students.

I'll try to have some pictures soon. Everyone tells me not to whip out my expensive electronics so I'm almost afraid to take pictures!

That's all for now!

Goodbye USA, Hello Chile

WHERE TO START?!

Getting ready for Chile was probably one of the most stressful and annoying things to do. Getting my VISA was a serious pain in my ass. I do have to say though, everything that I've done thus far to get me here has been 100% worth it.

My flights to Chile were surprisingly awesome. I met two really awesome guys, one on each flight. On my first flight this gentleman and I talked about life and he bought me drinks.On my second flight, I sat next to a sorta celebrity. He plays in a band for Romeo Santos, the lead singer of Aventura.

I knew that after my long flight and meeting these great people, it had set the mood for my adventure of a lifetime.  After sitting around the airport in Santiago, Chile for a few hour waiting for the other people on my trip then traveling for about an hour (not exactly sure how long it was cause I slept), I finally made it to Valparaiso to meet my wonderful host mom, Gilda.

At first I had an overwhelming feeling, I had gotten the tears of excitement and nervousness out and I was good to go. My mom drove me around the city so I could familiarize myself with it. Here are the main things I've observed about Chile so far:

• The roads are bumpy as hell
• Everyone talks to damn fast, I can barely understand. They also use a lot of slang and shorten words.
• The city looks like it will be a lot of fun. There are lots of different bars and dance clubs.
• There is a lot of graffiti everywhere.

Now I am hanging out with my new sister, Carolina and her friends. I'm attempting to understand them, it's almost impossible.

I'll have more for you guys later though, don't you worry!

ADIOS!

DISCLAIMER: I'm lazy and hate to reread. I'm going to apologize a head of time for any grammar or spelling mistakes. I'll try to clean it up for you though!