Yesterday, i met my host mom after the EAP orientation at the hotel. the program directors passed each of us half of a postcard and our host families had the other half. I found my host mom right away! Her name is Mary and she has been so nice! I live with her and her husband Robert and their 13 year old son Leo.
Their apartment is very cute, we live on the 15th floor a couple blocks away from acbeu ( UC center) which is wonderful because i don't have to walk very far to get to class! I have my own room and it faces the ocean, its super nice! the apartment is about 1 blockish from the water.. and then its about 20min walk to the beach! ahh its been amazing so far! its beautiful here.
I feel like all i have done so far is eat, my host family keeps giving me food! When I came home with Mary the first thing i did after unpack was eat! My host family has a maid? I dont really want to call her that.. but i dont really know another word, she lives in the house monday-saturday and does all the cooking, cleaning, and laundry and then on sundays she leaves and returns to her own family. her name is Zeleta ( probably spelled it wrong..), but she is super sweet and her cooking is amazing! the first thing i ate was a cake she made and fresh juice! she is amazing! Its definitely going to be hard to get used to someone in that kind of a position, i wanted to bring my dishes to the kitchen to wash them and my host brother stopped me and she took the dish from me! kinda i weird, i dont want her to have to clean up after me!
yesterday my host brother had a birthday party to go to, so i went with Mary to drop him and his friends off. After we dropped him off she took me to this restaurant on the beach and we drank "agua de coco"... water from a coconut! it was SOOO good, i always thought that drinking out of a coconut seemed kinda gross... but it was SO good! after she drove around town a bit to give me a tour!
This morning i woke up and i was like oh my gosh im in brazil. haha its a funny feeling that this will be my home for the next 3 months, but i am definitely looking forward to it!
for lunch today Mary and Robert took me to what i can only describe as a Texas BBQ brazilian style. i honestly think it was the best meal i have ever eaten in my life! I kept thinking, my family back home, especially my dad would LOVE this! the best was i had a pineapple that had been grilled over the fire with like cinnamon or something, it was fantastic! ahh so good, i hope they take me back sometime soon!
the only problem so far has been the enormous language barrier.... Mary speaks a little bit of spanish and a tiny bit or English, so ive been kinda talking to her in spanglish. Robert only speaks Portuguese... so i havent really talked to him much besides responding with "tudo bem" ( which means Im fine) when he asks how i am.
My host brother seems really cool, but hes 13 so i dont really think he wants to hang out with some older girl who cant speak his language haha. but he really likes the sims and we watched twilight together yesterday, it was in Portuguese but he put on english subtitles for me!!
Tomorrow is the first day of class! and then on tuesday we already have an assignment due... we have to read like 75 pages then write a quick write up about it. i cant remember the last time i ad to read for a class, so this will definitely be an experience for me! i started working on it tonight so i can hit the beach manana!
hugs from Brasil!!!!
Boa noite!!!!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
in Salvador!!!!!
Hi!
Last two days in Santiago—
Our hostel in Santiago was filled with Brazilians… the 3 of us were the only “gringos” as far as we knew. But it was fun to be surrounded by Brazilians and it was fun to attempt to talk to them. We stayed in a 6-person dorm room and our 3 other roommates were Brazilian and they were very fun!
On Tuesday we went to a giant outdoor market and did some damage… in Chile we all went a little earring crazy… but that’s ok! I was worried about theft so I didn’t come to south America with any jewelry, so its like I am starting a whole new collection! Tuesday night we met up with Eva (my friend from UCD) and we got drinks at this bar called The Clinic. I’m not totally sure about the whole story behind the bar, but I guess it is pretty famous in Santiago… the clinic used to be a newspaper. But anyways, Noey and I decided to order teremottos, (which means earthquake) these drinks were crazy! Its pisco, pineapple ice cream and some other thing mixed in. haha it was exciting!
On Wednesday we took a tram up Cerro San Christobal (which is where a couple of the photos below are taken). The View was gorgeous! From the top of the hill you can see all of Santiago. I tried to get a good as a photo as I could, but Santiago has pretty bad air quality you don’t really notice it until you are that up high and all you see is smog! Wednesday night we met up with matt, a friend we made at out hostel in Valparaiso who is living in Santiago… we met up with some of his Chilean friends and got drinks and it was fun! I really like that we have hung out with some many Chileans!
Thursday was our last day in Santiago, and by then we kinda felt that we had seem what the city had to offer. It is a great city, but there’s only so much you can see and do. So we decided to sleep in, do laundry for the first time and look around and some shops for the last time! For dinner we met up with Eva again for one last goodbye!
Today, we left our hostel at 4:20 AM… so early. Our flight to Sao Paulo left the Santiago airport around 7 am, we had a quick layover in Sao Paulo where we had to go to baggage claim, go through customs and immigration then re-check in and check our bags again… not really sure why we did it in Sao Paulo instead of Salvador, that didn’t make much sense to me… but really nothing has. As soon as we got on the plane headed to Sao Paulo, we knew it was going to be a battle trying to communicate. None of us know Portuguese… so trying to navigate from Sao Paulo to Salvador then trying to get a taxi from the airport to our hotel was an experience! But we did it!!! We got in to Salvador around 5pm and didn’t make it to our hotel until 6ish, by then it was already dark so we really haven’t been outside of our hotel at this point.
When we checked in the hotel, we were kinda shocked, there wasn’t anyone from EAP anywhere to be found and we had no info about any schedule of what to do or where to be… but we found a bunch of students in our program and joined them for dinner at the hotel. So far, everyone seems really cool!
The plan for tomorrow is to have breakfast at the hotel and then have “orientation”… our host families will meet us for lunch at the hotel and then take us home with them after! I am so excited to meet my family, but SUPER nervous because I only know 5 words in Portuguese… hello, thank you, yes, no and sorry…. All pretty important I think. Haha but it wont get me very far with my host family!
Its technically winter in Brazil right now, and it is gorgeous! As soon as I stepped off the plane, I would say it was about 70 degrees… so nice! And this was in the late afternoon; I am excited to have my first full day tomorrow!
I just can’t believe I am finally here! I’ve been waiting since Christmas and now I am finally here!
Last two days in Santiago—
Our hostel in Santiago was filled with Brazilians… the 3 of us were the only “gringos” as far as we knew. But it was fun to be surrounded by Brazilians and it was fun to attempt to talk to them. We stayed in a 6-person dorm room and our 3 other roommates were Brazilian and they were very fun!
On Tuesday we went to a giant outdoor market and did some damage… in Chile we all went a little earring crazy… but that’s ok! I was worried about theft so I didn’t come to south America with any jewelry, so its like I am starting a whole new collection! Tuesday night we met up with Eva (my friend from UCD) and we got drinks at this bar called The Clinic. I’m not totally sure about the whole story behind the bar, but I guess it is pretty famous in Santiago… the clinic used to be a newspaper. But anyways, Noey and I decided to order teremottos, (which means earthquake) these drinks were crazy! Its pisco, pineapple ice cream and some other thing mixed in. haha it was exciting!
On Wednesday we took a tram up Cerro San Christobal (which is where a couple of the photos below are taken). The View was gorgeous! From the top of the hill you can see all of Santiago. I tried to get a good as a photo as I could, but Santiago has pretty bad air quality you don’t really notice it until you are that up high and all you see is smog! Wednesday night we met up with matt, a friend we made at out hostel in Valparaiso who is living in Santiago… we met up with some of his Chilean friends and got drinks and it was fun! I really like that we have hung out with some many Chileans!
Thursday was our last day in Santiago, and by then we kinda felt that we had seem what the city had to offer. It is a great city, but there’s only so much you can see and do. So we decided to sleep in, do laundry for the first time and look around and some shops for the last time! For dinner we met up with Eva again for one last goodbye!
Today, we left our hostel at 4:20 AM… so early. Our flight to Sao Paulo left the Santiago airport around 7 am, we had a quick layover in Sao Paulo where we had to go to baggage claim, go through customs and immigration then re-check in and check our bags again… not really sure why we did it in Sao Paulo instead of Salvador, that didn’t make much sense to me… but really nothing has. As soon as we got on the plane headed to Sao Paulo, we knew it was going to be a battle trying to communicate. None of us know Portuguese… so trying to navigate from Sao Paulo to Salvador then trying to get a taxi from the airport to our hotel was an experience! But we did it!!! We got in to Salvador around 5pm and didn’t make it to our hotel until 6ish, by then it was already dark so we really haven’t been outside of our hotel at this point.
When we checked in the hotel, we were kinda shocked, there wasn’t anyone from EAP anywhere to be found and we had no info about any schedule of what to do or where to be… but we found a bunch of students in our program and joined them for dinner at the hotel. So far, everyone seems really cool!
The plan for tomorrow is to have breakfast at the hotel and then have “orientation”… our host families will meet us for lunch at the hotel and then take us home with them after! I am so excited to meet my family, but SUPER nervous because I only know 5 words in Portuguese… hello, thank you, yes, no and sorry…. All pretty important I think. Haha but it wont get me very far with my host family!
Its technically winter in Brazil right now, and it is gorgeous! As soon as I stepped off the plane, I would say it was about 70 degrees… so nice! And this was in the late afternoon; I am excited to have my first full day tomorrow!
I just can’t believe I am finally here! I’ve been waiting since Christmas and now I am finally here!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
fotos de Santiago
Cerro San Cristóbal In Santiago- we took a tram up the hill to reach the top, amazing views!!!
Monday, August 23, 2010
just arrived in Santiago...
HOLA!!!!
I got in to Santiago around 2pm chilean time today... (11 am California time). and i want to share with you all my last 2 days in Valparaiso!
on Saturday, we took a bus to Vina del Mar to met up with Valentina, one of Lindsey's host sisters from when she studied abroad in Chile 2 years ago... Valparaiso and Vina are super close, so it was an easy bus ride. Vina del Mar is such a great town! It is right on the beach, and is much more upscale and less poor than Valparaiso. its crazy that these two towns are so close together and yet so different! We met Vale in front of Hotel O'Higgins and walked around downtown Vina then drove to Renaca ( a near by beach town). In Renanca we had empanandas for lunch! I dont know why we dont have them in the US, but they are yummy :) Imagine a calzone that is filled with anything. So far i have had a pino and a pollo empanada. pino is very typical chilean... its meat with onions, olive and hardboiled egg... kinda a weird combo, but it was good. so far the pollo (chicken) empanada has been my favorite!
Renaca is so beautiful! It was very chilly while we were there... since its the winter in Chile. But during the summer the beach is packed with tons and tons of chileans and people from all over neighboring countries. Back in Vina, we did some tourist shopping and looked at chilean goodies for sale in stands that lined the water front.
On Sunday, (our last day in Valpo) We met up with Valentina again and went to several flee markets in Valparaiso. Valentina was so sweet, and i was so happy that i was able to meet up with her! After hearing so many stories from lindsey, it was so nice to put a face to the name. I can only hope that my host family in Brazil is as amazing as Valentina and her family. On our last night it Valpo, i think we made one of our best dinners! Valparaiso can be a little dangerous at night.. especially on the hills which is where out hostel was located. So we never ate dinner or walked around at night. if we did we always took a taxi... so we have been making all of our dinners at our hostel. but anywho, our dinners have been great, eating lots of veggies because its hard to eat anything but bread when you eat out in Chile.
This morning, we checked out of our Hostel in Valpo and took a bus to Santiago which is where we are now. Santiago and Valparaiso could not be more different! Santiago is humungous and much more city like compared to the bohemian/artys city of Valpo. OUr hostel here is much more modern and hip than our homey Caracol in Valpo. we are staying at Andes Hostel which couldnt be in a better location! We are right in the center of downtown and there are tons of shops near us... thank god i dont have to climb up more stairs! Valpo and Santiago are both great, very different cities, my experiences here are going to be completely different... but still both great!
We got in to Santiago around 2:30pm and immediately hit the town around our hostel. Today i saw the most beautiful cathedral i have ever seen! I think the Cathedral was called, El Cathedral de Santiago.. but im not totally sure. it was located in la plaza de Armas. It was gorgeous, definitely put all other Cathedrals that i have seen to shame! After grabbing a quick bit to eat, empanadas of course, we decided to go see a Chilean movie that was playing in a film festival. This was a good and bad idea... it was cool to watch a chilean film to learn a bit more about the culture. But at the same time i really don't know spanish and there were no subtitles, so i had NO clue what was going on. But the main actor was very attractive so it was definitely not a complete waste! Because our hostel is is located downtown we felt very safe going out for dinner for the first time... so we decided to go to a Peruvian restaurant. I had french fries, it was great!!!
Tomorrow we are going to explore Santiago more and meet up with my friend Eva from UCD who is studying in Santiago right now.
All is well, and i cant believe i will be in Brazil in like 4 days!
I will post picture soon!
I got in to Santiago around 2pm chilean time today... (11 am California time). and i want to share with you all my last 2 days in Valparaiso!
on Saturday, we took a bus to Vina del Mar to met up with Valentina, one of Lindsey's host sisters from when she studied abroad in Chile 2 years ago... Valparaiso and Vina are super close, so it was an easy bus ride. Vina del Mar is such a great town! It is right on the beach, and is much more upscale and less poor than Valparaiso. its crazy that these two towns are so close together and yet so different! We met Vale in front of Hotel O'Higgins and walked around downtown Vina then drove to Renaca ( a near by beach town). In Renanca we had empanandas for lunch! I dont know why we dont have them in the US, but they are yummy :) Imagine a calzone that is filled with anything. So far i have had a pino and a pollo empanada. pino is very typical chilean... its meat with onions, olive and hardboiled egg... kinda a weird combo, but it was good. so far the pollo (chicken) empanada has been my favorite!
Renaca is so beautiful! It was very chilly while we were there... since its the winter in Chile. But during the summer the beach is packed with tons and tons of chileans and people from all over neighboring countries. Back in Vina, we did some tourist shopping and looked at chilean goodies for sale in stands that lined the water front.
On Sunday, (our last day in Valpo) We met up with Valentina again and went to several flee markets in Valparaiso. Valentina was so sweet, and i was so happy that i was able to meet up with her! After hearing so many stories from lindsey, it was so nice to put a face to the name. I can only hope that my host family in Brazil is as amazing as Valentina and her family. On our last night it Valpo, i think we made one of our best dinners! Valparaiso can be a little dangerous at night.. especially on the hills which is where out hostel was located. So we never ate dinner or walked around at night. if we did we always took a taxi... so we have been making all of our dinners at our hostel. but anywho, our dinners have been great, eating lots of veggies because its hard to eat anything but bread when you eat out in Chile.
This morning, we checked out of our Hostel in Valpo and took a bus to Santiago which is where we are now. Santiago and Valparaiso could not be more different! Santiago is humungous and much more city like compared to the bohemian/artys city of Valpo. OUr hostel here is much more modern and hip than our homey Caracol in Valpo. we are staying at Andes Hostel which couldnt be in a better location! We are right in the center of downtown and there are tons of shops near us... thank god i dont have to climb up more stairs! Valpo and Santiago are both great, very different cities, my experiences here are going to be completely different... but still both great!
We got in to Santiago around 2:30pm and immediately hit the town around our hostel. Today i saw the most beautiful cathedral i have ever seen! I think the Cathedral was called, El Cathedral de Santiago.. but im not totally sure. it was located in la plaza de Armas. It was gorgeous, definitely put all other Cathedrals that i have seen to shame! After grabbing a quick bit to eat, empanadas of course, we decided to go see a Chilean movie that was playing in a film festival. This was a good and bad idea... it was cool to watch a chilean film to learn a bit more about the culture. But at the same time i really don't know spanish and there were no subtitles, so i had NO clue what was going on. But the main actor was very attractive so it was definitely not a complete waste! Because our hostel is is located downtown we felt very safe going out for dinner for the first time... so we decided to go to a Peruvian restaurant. I had french fries, it was great!!!
Tomorrow we are going to explore Santiago more and meet up with my friend Eva from UCD who is studying in Santiago right now.
All is well, and i cant believe i will be in Brazil in like 4 days!
I will post picture soon!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Valpo.
my mother informed me that i need to keep this updated... so here we go!
The Past 3 days in Valparaiso have been wonderful! Valpo is such a beautiful city, it is north of Santiago and its right on a bay. i really don't know how to describe the city, its a built on a bunch of different hills. Homes, Business and restaurants are all intermixed and are seriously on top of one another. To get up and down the hills there are TONS of steps. My Hostel is in Cerro Bellavista, and to get down to the city center you walk down at least 500 steps... going down is no problem. its the walk back up the steps that is a killer, especially after a day of walking all over the city.
The city is covered in really amazing graffiti and every building is is painted in bright different colors. something really cool, is there are several "ascendors" which are the like one roomed mini houses that are on a pulley system are bring you up a hill so you don't have to walk. of course we tested them out. you pay 300 pesos for a ride one way ( which is about USD 60 cents). the best way i can describe the ascendors is to compare them to the basket ride at the Santa Cruz beach board walk... only instead of going across the boardwalk you are going up a hill in a little house haha.
this is my first experience staying in a hostel, and we could have not picked a better one! we are staying at Hostal Caracol and the owners/staff are so awesome as well as the other travelers staying here! we have met a couple from Ireland who have been in South America for 5 months.. first teaching english in Peru and are now just traveling around Chile, argentina, peru and Uruguay. We have also met a brother and sister from France who are traveling all over the world! they first started their trip in South Africa, then Australia then the US and are now traveling all over South America. Their stories are SO amazing... it makes me so jealous, i have to have stories of my own!!!! i soon will!
Yesterday we explored the city and went to the very end of Valpo, took our first ascendor ride to a look out point call 21 de mayo. This spot is like the highest point in Valpo and gives you a full panoramic view of the entire city, thats where i got most of my best photos! (like the one below).
Nicole has a friend of a friend who is a Chilean who lives in Valparaiso, so last night we met up with her and group of her friends and went out. this was my first bar experience so it was pretty exciting, and it was the first time that i was really able to interact with chileans. it was so fun!!!! i ordered my first drink... yay for being legal before 21. but they didn't even ask for my ID so i couldn't whip it my license and be all cool. The chileans we were with were super nice and two of them were actually americans who were studying abroad so it was really fun to talk to them about their experiences.
I am really struggling with spanish.. i guess my 3 years in high school have not stuck with me. It was difficult to talk to the guys we were with, but the language barrier was actually really entertaining. Their english was as about as good as my spanish hahaha, it was really fun to say the least!
Today we went to Pablo Neruda's house. Nablo Neruda is a very famous Chilean poet and one of his houses is in Valparaiso. his house was amazing! it is 5 stories and it is at the top of Cerro Bellavista (same hill as my hostel so it was a quick walk up) and the view is amazing!!! all the hallways and staircases within the house are super narrow but there was SO much character in the house. we took a tour and as we were leaving a giant american tour group walked in... and guess what? They were a group of UC Davis students. it was crazy. Noey knew one of the girls and thats how we figured out they were Aggies... seriously what are the odds?!?!! the group is on a summer abroad program in Santiago and they came to Valparaiso and Vina for the day. its just super crazy that we ran into them. as we were leaving the 3 of us were just in total shock that that just happened.
Tomorrow, we are going to Vina del Mar which is a beach town neighboring Valpo. I get to finally meet two of Lindsey's host sisters who live in Conce! I am so excited to meet them!!!
All is well and I am having such a great time!!!
The Past 3 days in Valparaiso have been wonderful! Valpo is such a beautiful city, it is north of Santiago and its right on a bay. i really don't know how to describe the city, its a built on a bunch of different hills. Homes, Business and restaurants are all intermixed and are seriously on top of one another. To get up and down the hills there are TONS of steps. My Hostel is in Cerro Bellavista, and to get down to the city center you walk down at least 500 steps... going down is no problem. its the walk back up the steps that is a killer, especially after a day of walking all over the city.
The city is covered in really amazing graffiti and every building is is painted in bright different colors. something really cool, is there are several "ascendors" which are the like one roomed mini houses that are on a pulley system are bring you up a hill so you don't have to walk. of course we tested them out. you pay 300 pesos for a ride one way ( which is about USD 60 cents). the best way i can describe the ascendors is to compare them to the basket ride at the Santa Cruz beach board walk... only instead of going across the boardwalk you are going up a hill in a little house haha.
this is my first experience staying in a hostel, and we could have not picked a better one! we are staying at Hostal Caracol and the owners/staff are so awesome as well as the other travelers staying here! we have met a couple from Ireland who have been in South America for 5 months.. first teaching english in Peru and are now just traveling around Chile, argentina, peru and Uruguay. We have also met a brother and sister from France who are traveling all over the world! they first started their trip in South Africa, then Australia then the US and are now traveling all over South America. Their stories are SO amazing... it makes me so jealous, i have to have stories of my own!!!! i soon will!
Yesterday we explored the city and went to the very end of Valpo, took our first ascendor ride to a look out point call 21 de mayo. This spot is like the highest point in Valpo and gives you a full panoramic view of the entire city, thats where i got most of my best photos! (like the one below).
Nicole has a friend of a friend who is a Chilean who lives in Valparaiso, so last night we met up with her and group of her friends and went out. this was my first bar experience so it was pretty exciting, and it was the first time that i was really able to interact with chileans. it was so fun!!!! i ordered my first drink... yay for being legal before 21. but they didn't even ask for my ID so i couldn't whip it my license and be all cool. The chileans we were with were super nice and two of them were actually americans who were studying abroad so it was really fun to talk to them about their experiences.
I am really struggling with spanish.. i guess my 3 years in high school have not stuck with me. It was difficult to talk to the guys we were with, but the language barrier was actually really entertaining. Their english was as about as good as my spanish hahaha, it was really fun to say the least!
Today we went to Pablo Neruda's house. Nablo Neruda is a very famous Chilean poet and one of his houses is in Valparaiso. his house was amazing! it is 5 stories and it is at the top of Cerro Bellavista (same hill as my hostel so it was a quick walk up) and the view is amazing!!! all the hallways and staircases within the house are super narrow but there was SO much character in the house. we took a tour and as we were leaving a giant american tour group walked in... and guess what? They were a group of UC Davis students. it was crazy. Noey knew one of the girls and thats how we figured out they were Aggies... seriously what are the odds?!?!! the group is on a summer abroad program in Santiago and they came to Valparaiso and Vina for the day. its just super crazy that we ran into them. as we were leaving the 3 of us were just in total shock that that just happened.
Tomorrow, we are going to Vina del Mar which is a beach town neighboring Valpo. I get to finally meet two of Lindsey's host sisters who live in Conce! I am so excited to meet them!!!
All is well and I am having such a great time!!!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
I AM HERE!
Hi friends!
this Morning ( 8am Chile time) i got in to Santiago! The flights were long, but they weren't actually too terrible. We left Dallas last night at 9:30ish... so it was definitely nice to have a red-eye and arrive to Chile in the morning! Me and my 2 friends Im traveling with (Nicole and Noey) went through immigration and customs easily in Santiago and surprisingly managed to navigate ourselves to Valparaiso taking 2 buses and a taxi! From the Santiago airport we had to get a bus to take us to the main metro/bus station... the bus station was kinda crazy. there we so many people coming and going but we figured out where to buy our bus tickets!!
Mom and lindsey- you were so right. taking one suitcase has been glorious! i look a little crazy walking around with a giant backpack on my back and one on my belly but its just so much easier.... so thanks!!!
Our Hostel in Valparaiso is great! It is very cute and very home like. The ladies that run the place are super friendly and helpful! We had reservations to stay in the dorm-type room. but once we got here they gave us our own private room with 3 beds for the same rate... which has been wonderful! we don't need to worry about our stuff while we are out because we can lock our room! As soon as we settled in we hit the streets of Valparaiso to find a good pace to eat lunch and to look around the city! Valparaiso is a very interesting/fun/beautiful city from the little glimpses i have seen so far! there are so many dogs all over the place... (reminds me on Tijuana) and cars zip by like crazy!
Tonight we decided to hit of the grocery store and make dinner back at the hostel because we are still exhausted from all the traveling yesterday. I feel like ever since i left home yesterday its just been one big long day!
Hanging back at the hostel we tried to figure out the outlets here and use all the converters and adapters that we brought from home... but we failed and ended up blowing a fuse in our room and the lights were out for about 30 minutes. haha so we shall see what happens the next time we try.... but good news i think we all finally figured out the money here and we have come up with a plan of what to see and do for the next couple of days before we leave for Santiago!
So far so good!! It hasn't really hit me yet that this is just the beginning of my 4 month adventure. its Crazy!!! i cant believe im here!
Love you all!
ps, lindsey- tried that chocolate with the squirrel man thing on the wrapper with the almonds... DELICIOUS!!
this Morning ( 8am Chile time) i got in to Santiago! The flights were long, but they weren't actually too terrible. We left Dallas last night at 9:30ish... so it was definitely nice to have a red-eye and arrive to Chile in the morning! Me and my 2 friends Im traveling with (Nicole and Noey) went through immigration and customs easily in Santiago and surprisingly managed to navigate ourselves to Valparaiso taking 2 buses and a taxi! From the Santiago airport we had to get a bus to take us to the main metro/bus station... the bus station was kinda crazy. there we so many people coming and going but we figured out where to buy our bus tickets!!
Mom and lindsey- you were so right. taking one suitcase has been glorious! i look a little crazy walking around with a giant backpack on my back and one on my belly but its just so much easier.... so thanks!!!
Our Hostel in Valparaiso is great! It is very cute and very home like. The ladies that run the place are super friendly and helpful! We had reservations to stay in the dorm-type room. but once we got here they gave us our own private room with 3 beds for the same rate... which has been wonderful! we don't need to worry about our stuff while we are out because we can lock our room! As soon as we settled in we hit the streets of Valparaiso to find a good pace to eat lunch and to look around the city! Valparaiso is a very interesting/fun/beautiful city from the little glimpses i have seen so far! there are so many dogs all over the place... (reminds me on Tijuana) and cars zip by like crazy!
Tonight we decided to hit of the grocery store and make dinner back at the hostel because we are still exhausted from all the traveling yesterday. I feel like ever since i left home yesterday its just been one big long day!
Hanging back at the hostel we tried to figure out the outlets here and use all the converters and adapters that we brought from home... but we failed and ended up blowing a fuse in our room and the lights were out for about 30 minutes. haha so we shall see what happens the next time we try.... but good news i think we all finally figured out the money here and we have come up with a plan of what to see and do for the next couple of days before we leave for Santiago!
So far so good!! It hasn't really hit me yet that this is just the beginning of my 4 month adventure. its Crazy!!! i cant believe im here!
Love you all!
ps, lindsey- tried that chocolate with the squirrel man thing on the wrapper with the almonds... DELICIOUS!!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
about to leave...
i have less than a week until i leave, so i thought i would make this blog for everyone to follow along.. (mainly mom).
SO here is the plan:
-Leave for Santiago on the 17th ( making one stop in Dallas)
-Spend 4 days in Valparaiso with Nicole and Noey. Meeting up with two of Lindseys host sisters from when she studied in Chile of Fall 2008. I am so excited to meet them! Also, one of Nicole and my friends from Camp Kesem is in Valparaiso so hopefully we can meet up with him too!
-after Valparaiso, we will be spending about 4 days in Santiago!
then off to Salvador on the 27th for Orientation!
SO here is the plan:
-Leave for Santiago on the 17th ( making one stop in Dallas)
-Spend 4 days in Valparaiso with Nicole and Noey. Meeting up with two of Lindseys host sisters from when she studied in Chile of Fall 2008. I am so excited to meet them! Also, one of Nicole and my friends from Camp Kesem is in Valparaiso so hopefully we can meet up with him too!
-after Valparaiso, we will be spending about 4 days in Santiago!
then off to Salvador on the 27th for Orientation!
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