Hola, de los EEUU

Hello,
I am back in the US. well actually I have been back for about a month and a half now?! OYE! I miss Chile. A lot. I miss summertime, the culture, the LANGUAGE!! my host family, the beach, empanadas- everything!!! Leaving was soooo hard. I cried off and on for at least a week before I left. I didn't want to go out and hang out with anyone, I just wanted to spend the last little bit of time with my family. The goodbye at the bus was sooo sad and I couldn't believe how attached I had become to my family. even typing about it now about a month and a half later makes me sorta teary...
They warn you before you go that reverse culture shock could be worse than the initial culture shock, and that was for sure the case for me. Yeah it was wonderful seeing my family and friends (and Mike!!), but its time to go back. Its really funny to look back and see the things that I thought were so weird and awkward (such as greeting people with a kiss) I now miss a lot. Handshakes just feel cold and unfriendly. I got so used to the latin american pace- yeah it could be frustrating at times, but its so much less stressful.
School has been a huge culture shock also- schoolwork didn't really exist a whole lot in Chile. and back here (esp on the quarter system) there is no time to slow down. Within 3 weeks of starting school I had 2 tests and a presentation. thats more tests than all of my classes combined in Chile... so thats been a huge adjustment.
I am still keeping in touch with my host family, but im sure they think I am the worst student ever because I can never respond fast enough. Between school, getting settled into my apartment and the real world and work and everything else I run out of time to send them a long email to touch base with them. Blah. Im pretty sure the solution to all my woes is to just go back. hahahaha
On a positive note though- my spanish is SOOOOOOO much better (declining rapidly from only using it twice a week in class...). I have used it a few times at work, and whats really exciting (and sort of invasive?) is eavesdropping on conversations. hahahaha. The spanish here is sooooo much easier to follow/understand!!! I am lucky because my spanish class this quarter is with the 3 other kids from my program in Chile. so that has made the transition somewhat easier.
Anyway, I'll leave some advice-
If you have the opportunity to go abroad- DO IT!!!! It has been the most incredible experience of my life. No doubts and no regrets. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. I have learned more about myself and the world and the US in those 4.5 months than I have learned in my 21 years of life. There really is nothing like it. (sorry this sounds so cheesy and cliche, but its how i really feel.) If you want a traveling buddy- Im there. I cant wait to go back and explore more of the world.

thats all for now-

CHAU!!!!!!

Pucon and one week!?

Somehow I have less than ONE WEEK left here. WHAT!?!?! thats not acceptable and i dont want to allow it. but on the same token i cant wait to go home, be surrounded by english, see my friends and family and eat food!! so its pretty bittersweet. It has been an incredible time and there is no doubt I will be back.
Since I have last wrote, the fam came to visit! i finished off my classes (mostly...) and went down south to Pucon. its been amazing!!!
My mom, dad and steve came for a whirlwind visit. we got horribly lost in santiago, even after getting multiple sets of directions in both english AND spanish, made it to our hotel and then out of the city again and down to the largest pool in the world! Its GIGANTIC!!! (1 km long and 35 m deep?!?!) we borrowed some kayaks and kayaked around a bit and tried to take it all in. (check it out: http://spluch.blogspot.com/2007/10/worlds-largest-swimming-pool.html ) Then we drove back to vina, stopped and did a little wine tasting in casablanca valley and went to vina and i showed them where i've been for the last 4 and a half months. it was so great to be able to show them what i've been doing and where and have them experience the things i have been telling them about. We had once with my host family which was fun and an experience... hahaha and then spent the rest of the week just trying to cram in as much as possible!
Last week was my sorta final week at school so i had 1 final and 4 papers due. it was a reallly rough week.. hahahaha. but i survived. I still have 1 or 2 classes this week? Just to do a summary of everything because we didnt' do it last week? im not really sure. but oh well. hahahaha and then the rest of this week im just going to relax on the beach, get some last minute shopping in and hang out with the fam.
This past weekend me and my friend Laura went down south a bit to a city called Pucon. Its about a 12 hour bus ride from vina and is part of the lake district. It was incredible!!! Possibly my favorite trip so far. We got in friday morning (overnight bus thursday night) and checked into our hostel that was recommended by some friends. then that afternoon we went and did "hidrospeed" (aka hydrospeed, riverboarding) (think a big kick board and rapids...) which was reallllly neat!!! a little chilly at first, but still sooo cool!!!!! then on saturday we got up at 4:30 AM to meet up to go climb the volcano. but let me backtrack just a second. friday we were pretty tired fromt he overnight bus and a long week of school and papers and everything so we were pretty jazzed about going to bed early (especially having to get up so early for the volcano!) but it was reallly hot so we were not using the sheets and wearing as few clothes as possible. well as i am laying there i feel like i have bugs crawling on me, and then they are biting and even better i feel them biting my neck and face and i can pick them off. It was the grossest thing ever. I couldn't sleep on the floor because i didn't know where these bugs were coming from (i thought the window... but that wasn't it. and bug spray didn't help) andi couldnt use the sheets so i didn't know what to do other then to try not to think about it long enough to fall alseep when i wouldn't feel them anymore. anyway so at 5 in the morning we tell the guy in charge that there are bugs in my bed, he doesn't belive me, comes and looks and sure enough there they are. SICK. so he goes we'll change it all while you're climbing.. okay great. so now back to the volcano. it was so cool! we climbed pretty quickly, and it wasn't suuuuper hard in that you need to use ropes and stuff, but it is all snow and we had ice picks and trecking boots and everything, and we climbed about 1000 meters in about 4 hours- so we cruised. and by the time i got to the top, i was realllllly glad it was the top and getting pretty worried about going down... hahaha. but the top was pretty neat- the volcano is pretty active- although they haven't been able to see any lava in about 2 or 3 weeks now. but it reeeeeks of sulfur to the point where your nose and mouth and lungs burn. but it was worth it. to go down, i was pretty nervous, they had said we slide down on our butts... well its not a very gradual slope down, its fairly steep. and there are volcano rocks everywhere because a. its a volcano and b. is spring so the snow is melting and exposing more... well they lead us over a little bit and there is like a alpine slide/luge type trail in the snow. and you just sit down and go. it was INCREDIBLE!!!! there were about 6 of these little trails and youd basically ride down on your own little mini avalanche of snow. it was like going down a waterslide, but in snow, and you're going to down the side of a volcano- in chile- in springtime- in december. hahahah it was sooooo awesome!! i still cant get over the whole thing. so it took us about 4 hours to get up, and an hour to get down. hahahahaha the rest of the day we just sorta lounged about, walked around town, booked a horseback riding tour for sunday and had sort of a lazy day. back at the hostel nothing had been done about my bed. so i went and told a different guy. he comes and looks and doesn't see any bugs, but sees all the blood stains and the poop and goes oh no, we're going to change all of this. so they take the sheets and stuff and everything (meanwhile they are talking in spanish- which apparently they didn't think i knew because everyone in the hostel was english- european of some sort and a few americans... and one of the ladies working there goes they're fleas (well a specific type of flea, i recognized the word flea....) and look how big they are! ahh!) sooo that was gross. then they change the mattress and the sheets on both my bed and lauras (i was on the top bunk) and then we go to get ready for bed about an hour later (they had sprayed a tooon of bug spray and stuff in there so we couldn't go in for a while) we go in, and there are a TON of these bugs just crawling all over the wood. so i go back and tell him and we pack our stuff and they take us to a different hostel. apparently they are called chinches and they live in the wood and come out at night and now they have to get the whole hostel fumagated and everything... so thats a bummer. but our new hostel was really nice, super clean and the owner was really friendly. so i slept like a rock there!!! hahahaha. sunday we got up, went and explored town and outside of town some more which was realllly neat. i reallllly like pucon a lot and recommend it to everyone. (its suuuper touristy, everyone speaks english) out horseback riding trip was pretty fun, we went to this waterfall that was GORGEOUS!!! it was a great sunday afternoon activity. and we had reallllly lucked out with the weather because friday was REALLLLY hot and we were in the water, satuday was really sunny and nice and we climbed the volcano and then sunday was kinda grey and overcast and chilly, and we went on horseback. so it was clear for the things that we wanted to see for long distances (ie from the top of the volcano, sunday we couldn't even see the volcano) and then sunday we could see everything up cloase and everything. it was all just really great. then sunday night, we got on our bus and made it back to vina this morning!!!
I have uploaded pictures onto my computer and will try to put some of them on flickr in a bit. so look for those!
I cant wait to see you all SOON!!!! have a wonderful week!!!!

CHAU!!!!!!

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!!!