WHAT!?

I have exactly one month left in Chile.
AHHHHHHHHH! Its so bittersweet already- Im getting ready to go home. I miss so many people and comforts of home, but yet I really dont want to leave. My spanish is coming- sorta. its real slow, but im finally gaining some confidence in speaking and its going to be time to leave. I loooove my host family. I didn't realize how close to them I was until this week my mom was like ahh you only have a month left! where has the time gone- we're going to miss you soo much! then i realized how much im going to miss then. Its going to be weird.
I know for sure I'm coming back. I dont know when, but Im going to for sure. Mom even told me I can come stay with them whenever I want and that I always have a home here. so thats sweet! I realized there isn't enough time to go south to Patagonia, which I realllly wanted to do, but I cant go for only 3 days, there is just too much to see. Instead I am going to take a bus south (about 9 hours?) to the lake district, and spend a weekend there. Mom said its beautiful and that I will reallly love it, so I cant wait (Im going to do that the first weekend in Dec)!
This week started off pretty well, it was nice and warm and sunny and great! But then tuesday it got overcast and cloudy and stayed that way all day (normally it burns off around lunch time (aka 2ish) but not this week) so it was a little depressing. Oh well. Tuesday and Wednesday there was a strike! The city workers want a 14.5% raise (which sounds like a lot but apparently they have wanted even more in the past. and when it gets broken down and stuff through taxes and what not its not really THAT large of an increase? i think...) so they closed a bunch of offices and buildings and marched. They marched Tuesday in Valpo and Wed in Vina! Wed I only had one class (my other class got cancelled...) so for class we went and walked around the march to check it out and everything. It was soooo coool! It was peaceful, no one was throwing things or anything like that, but it was loud. everyone had whistles and drums and shouts and everything. It was really interesting. It makes any strike that the US has had look weak. walking in circles with pickett signs... FOME! hahahaha
This week was back to the Chileno style of classes- a few cancelled, the others were a movie or on the street interviews or walking around watching the strike. I cant come back to the states because I wont know how to do school! hahahaha We are finally getting down to the end and having real work. I have a presentation on Tuesday and then my parents come into town on Sunday and then the following week I have another presentation and at least two 10 page papers due... allll in spanish. so I've actually been productive and started the research and stuff for those and have them in mind!
Im sure I've portrayed Chile in sort of a negative way, I dont mean to at all. There are things that are different and unique and more than anything I wanted to tell you those things, because how boring to tell you all the similarities between here and the US... And some of these differences are good, others have some room for improvement. Its what makes it unique! So take what I say with an open mind. I love Chile and want people to want to come visit, not scare them away or anything. (I was reading the blog of another DU student who is here and it felt really negative and I was afraid mine gave off the same vibe; so that was my disclaimer? hahahaha)
That was my sappy emotional blog, Im sure there will be more to come. especially when I get home and have to go back to the real world... hahahaha
misss you!!!
Chau!!!

La Serena!

I am finallly back in Vina for more than 48 hours!!! WOOOOO!
When i got back from Peru my family had a surprise birthday party/dinner thing for me!!!! It was great!!! SOOOO MUCH FOOOD!!!! hordourves once (lots of sandwiches!) and 2 cakes... i ate enough for everyone so dont even worry. hahahahaha.
that was on tuesday and then on wed had class and volunteering (same with tuesday when i got back from the bussss) and thursday we left for La Serena
La Serena was a trip with all of COPA, my program (the intermediate program) and the advanced program. So that was neat. We stayed at this really cool little place where a group of like 5 or 6 had their own little apartment/condo thing! So we got to cook our own food (and our own portions!) which was sweet and just relax. we were across the street from the beach and out hotel had aneat pool and everything. So friday we went into town cuz it was cloudy in the morning and went to a Japanese garden and then came back, had some lunch and went to the beach for a while in the afternoon. Then after dinner we went to this observatory. it was reaaallllly neat! we saw jupiter, some of jupiter's moons, venus, and i have some really neat pictures of the moon through the telescope (posted on flickr!) On saturday we got to sleep in and then went back the conservatory area (which was about a 1.5 drive each way....) and had lunch at this solar resturant. But not solar like we think of with solar panels and stuff. no no no, they have boxes with silver almost mirrors around them and they put the food right in there and it cooks. its actually really neat. and pretty good. from there we went to Gabby's museum as I like to call her. Gabriela Mistral- she was a super good poet who won the first nobel prize for chile and was the first woman to win it for Latin America. so that was neat. a little fome, but something you just have to see. Sunday we headed out early and went to a national park, which actually wasn't nearly as cool as i had hoped. i mean it was sorta neat, but not overly picture-esque. It was in the hills along the coast and so those hills cause sort of some weird climates. Really foggy and cold and wet, and then just 20 yards down the hill its dry and arid like....
We made it back to vina, had some once and went to bed and now am back to the grind. things are actually starting to feel like real school? we've got papers and projects starting to be due! (well still not for another 3 weeks... but at least we've talked about them now?) and i missed a ton of school last week, and then this week i already have one class cancelled tomorrow and then the next two weeks one of my professor's is going to be gone and he cant find a sub, so there is another class cancelled... which works out so im not missing as much when the parents are here.
well thats all for now. more pictures are up on flickr! enjoy!
CHAU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peru, Machu Picchu, and 21!

HOLA!
I hope everyone is doing well. Regardless of your political stance, I think everyone seems to be glad that the election and all the propaganda is over... Of the two classes I had today both of my professors had stayed up til 4 in the morning watching the whole election and the speeches! and then all the papers had a huge picture of Obama on them and headlines about his win and stuff. I bought a couple just because its really interesting to see the impact our elections have on the rest of the world. So if someone wants to save their paper or at least the front page to compare that would be great. hahahahaha
I am back from Peru. Finally. hahahahah Dont get me wrong, it was INCREDIBLE!!! but we had a little travel incident trying to come home and so im still dealing with that... hahahaha
We chartered a bus to pick us up from Vina del Mar and take us to Santiago at 4 iin the morning last thursday and then our flight was at 8 so we got there realllly early (esp cuz our travel agent had checked us in and gave our boarding passes to the driver etc and we were all carrying on...) but in the time waiting for the flight we got to have starbucks for the first time since we've been here- reallllly exciting to have not instant coffee! hahahahaha We flew from Santiago to Lima, had about a 2ish hour layover in Lima and went from Lima to Cusco. Cusco is the heart of the Incan territory? former territory/empire? the whole city is built on ruins and everying. AND its about 10,300 ft in elevation! hahaha We had a tour when we first got there after dropping our stuff off at the hotel, had some mate de coca (yes the leaves that make cocaine!) and toured around a little. I decided then that if I lived back in the 1400s or so, I would want to be Incan. They are sooo awesome. hahahaha really good at building stuff and carving rocks etc. really really incredible. We all felt the altitude which was no good, but it passed and we had a night tour, except it was pouring rain and it was chilly so the windows of the van were steamed up and we couldn't see anything. hahahaha oh well.
Friday we got up reallly early (left the hotel at 6:20) and took a train to Machu Picchu (4 hour train ride!) it was INCREDIBLE! I highly recommend going. and i would like to do it again, but to hike the Inca trail and get there early enough to climb the peak next to machu (only 400 people a day are allowed to go so you have to be at the gates at like 6 to go...) This only furthered my desire to be Incan... hahahaha I cant really describe it- and pictures cant do it justice. but it was AWESOME!!!!!!!
Saturday we had a tour in the Valle Segrado de Inca (incan sacred valley) which was pretty cool too. These incans are soooo good at moving HUGE HUGE HUGE rocks and making them line up perfectly and build super strong structures ON THE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN!!!! and not only did they just have houses, they had storage rooms and greenhouses and everything. ways to tell the winter and summer soltice everything. Again, hard to describe- when i get my act together and put up some more pictures i can do a better job. but just trust me, it was neat! Peru is beautiful and the people are SOOOO friendly. just the little things, like anytime someone walked into a room (like breakfast at the hostel) they would say buenas dias. and there weren't people making out on the streets everywhere and they would make an attempt to move out of your way when walking (instead of crossing the sidewalk to walk right at you like they do sometimes in chile... ahhh!) and SMILES! Peruvians are def. more friendly than Chilenos (although this could also be due to the impact we have on their economy there... cusco is a HUGE town, but majority of it is for tourists i think). Anyway that night we had a goood dinner and then a few of us went out to celebrate my 21st birthday!!! woooo!!! hahahaha these bars had people out recuriting people off the street, and so we used this to our advatange. hahaha we ended up going to 2 bars, and spending a huge grand total of $6 usd between 6 of us!! (2 free drink coupons and then 4 of us had a beer....) and we made it back before midnight! hahahahaha
Sunday was where our adventure really started... hahahaha since its about 12:30am right now Im just going to summarize (even more then the previous two days)
noys ditched us and got an earlier flight, our flight got cancelled from Cusco- spent $3 per person for a hostel near the airport in Cusco, had a 6 hour layover in Lima, thought half the group wasn't getting on the plane- bus from santiago airport was non-existent because we missed it the day before so we spent the night in the santiago airport and came back home Tuesday morning at 9 am.... (should've been home about 3 am on monday....) sooo that was reallly fun. and now Im am supposed to be packing to go to La Serena... hahahahahaha
anyway when i get back from La Serena I will post some pictures and try to do this trip more justice. I will be home sooooo soon... I am coming up on the 3 month mark here on friday?! oye!
miss you!