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.
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 :)
