So far, I have spent approximately 3 hours this morning washing 1.5 loads of laundry. And of course, only washing because whenever I try to wash and dry clothes at the same time, the power goes out. And of course, it's not one of the sunny days we've been having for the past weeks, but suddenly it's nice and cold, cloudy and damp. Of course. So that's frustrating.

I'm going to Buenos Aires tomorrow night. Bussing it with Annie. Half the cost, way more travel time, but we get to go through Argentina so it will be nice to see the landscape...I guess. I'm pretty excited for BA, getting out of Santiago and skipping classes...shhhh don't tell my parents.

I've been having some really great nights, going out but just having some really good conversations and everything. I feel though that a lot of the talk leans towards us leaving or the States. It seems like time right now is starting to go really slow...but at the same time it's not. I just feel like I've been saying that I'm going to be leaving in a month and half for like 2 months now. But actually, it is exactly a month and a half today. 6 weeks...and the panic sets in...

When did I become a cartoon character?

This is one of my more ridiculous pictures...ever. Anyway, new pictures on my link...there are generally always new pictures somewhere in the albums...finding them is the key.

Missed the bus to Mendoza...pretty stupid. OH well...beach tomorrow instead!

I´m running on a one touch ground, oh no

The days are getting perfect here. Yesterday after working out and cleaning my room, I went to the park and had myself a little picnic. There are times when your mp3 player just picks all the right songs when it´s on shuffle. I looked up from my book to see a group of guys passing around a L bottle of beer. 2 in the afternoon, you have got to love that. When I got home I found flowers in my purse that had dropped from the tree I was curled under. Perfect.

Going to Mendoza (again) this weekend. It should be a nice rest and a needed break from planning trips. Getting a little burnt out, but at least the dad has picked up some reins for the family´s trip here. It´s good to have some input from the people that you are planning a trip for, ideas are even better.

sidenote: you know the Walgreens on State Street? Yeah, I´ll be living above that second semester. wooooo

I´m being followed by a moonshadow, moonshadow moonshadow

So I haven´t been feeling great lately. Not like horrible bad, but like "something´s weird" bad. For one, constant bit of a stomach ache. Ok, sometimes it´s more than a bit, sometimes I think I´m going to throw up, but not all the time and I´ve definitely had worse. The really distressing detail is that I have no appetite. And I mean zero. Today I have eaten an orange, a yogurt drink, water and a piece of toast with peanut butter. It is 6 in the evening. And I am not starving. And I have been up for about 11 hours now. Yesterday was the same. Day before that, the same, except that for lunch I went out for sushi. The sushi was good, didn´t leave me feeling bad, but I´m pretty sure that´s where my appetite died. No worries, I´m sure it will pass by tomorrow. But it´s still weird.

Perhaps it has something to do with the weather. It´s beautiful here. Today was hot though. And I mean, you walk outside and sweat standing in the shade. Here´s the crazy thing. I´m walking around in sandals, jeans, a tank top and a very light zip-up and I am WARM, like roasting, shave off my hair because it attracts heat warm. I look around for someone to share my pain and see women and men swinging their arms as they walk in their all black boots, pants, shirts, sweaters/jackets...I stare from person to person, wondering if there is some sort of breeze they are getting that I can´t feel. Not a bead of sweat on their face. It had to have been over 80 degrees, no breeze, and humidity like August in Wisconsin. How can you not be hot?!

sidenote, found the brazilian flight I need through expedia...$50 more than through Gol...guess you can´t always win

I am slowly going crazy...

Dear Gol Airlines,
Although you seem to be giving me a great deal on my ticket from Rio to the Iguazu Falls (or however you spell it, you know what I´m talking about), I still have some complaints. Complaint number one is that I can only get to the falls at 11:30 at night or at 1:30 in the afternoon. Really, what suck options. The number two complaint is that it seems you do not have any actual travel booking places. If you do have them, I wonder at your refusal to put them on your website, or hide them so cleverly on your website that I cannot find them. Now, I wouldn´t really care about the actual booking places if I could pay online. However, seeing as you only accept AmEx from people outside Brazil, Argentina, and some other country, I am not in the best position. My Visa is as good as theirs! And I´m talking about the credit card, not the way I get into the country since they don´t need a visa, obviously. So, in conclusion, you are stupid and are making me frown.

I pronounced this week my week of wonder, my semana of spending, my prime planning time...the week I was going to plan and buy tickets for the rest of my South American adventures (minus the weekend bus tix, those are not stressful at all). It is the 3rd day, and I have to say I have already made some pretty great strides, the pace has been set. But, stupid Gol airlines has put a bit of a kink in the planning parade. Maybe I will do some homework while I contemplate this...AmEx, psh, who even has AmEx!?

might as well face it your addicted to love

I am a woman obsessed...with travelling. And surprisingly, even more so with planning for travelling. It doesn't help that I find awesome sites that suck me in like a showing of The Breakfast Club at 2 in the morning. At least I now have a ticket for getting into and out of Brazil and into the states. It is official: December 6th concludes my South American adventure for the time being and Decmber 7th ushers in my next great adventure, Reverse Culture Shock! YES!

But time makes you bolder

Some nights, you have the best night when you don't go out. Friday I was planning on going out but a headache nixed that a bit. But instead I had a really great conversation with Sarah and Tap (ok really they mostly talked and I listened...but it's still great to learn about household drama you missed or vent about stuff going on in the house and be able to keep attention and understand a Spanish conversation that lasts for over 2.5 hours).

Saturday was our third and final paseo for my exchange program. We went to Concha y Toro vineyard. I've already been but who I to turn down free wine and lunch? Our lunches on our paseos are always awesome. They're in these quirky places that Antonia, the head of our program finds and we eat until it is painful (college kids + free lunch = the waitstaff thinking that gringos starve in Chile). The wine tour was a bit different than when I went with my dad too, so that was good. It was a girl from my program's birthday, Kate. So I experienced some firsts for myself. We went to Hooters. That's right, Hooters. Definitely the first time I have ever stepped foot in a Hooters. Didn't try the wings and the pitchers were definitely overpriced. My next first? Karaoke. Karaoke at Hooters. Could it be more perfect? It was pretty insanely fun. Doesn't mean I'm going to be a Hooters regular...or karaoke for that matter. But the mix of two 21st birthdays, a day filled with wine, and gringos hanging out in the middle of Santiago with a mic in their hands, it's obvious that fun times are to be had by those lacking cranky pants. Annie and I on our walk home...Hooters gave us these New Years bowler hats that Annie kept saying reminded her of Clockwork Orange...Since I've never seen the movie, I have no idea, but she seemed uncomfortable at the thought...

How about a snake bite next

Things noticed yesterday:
-apparently the paint cans in my backpack were slamming against my back a little harder than I thought on the walk home from school as I woke up with a very pretty bruise and a bit of a jarred spine.
-I don't know what bit me...but something did...and left a nice dime sized swell right above the knee with a bit smaller one a few inches away...very itchy, very not fun
Things I noticed today:
-While doing some situps, I noticed that the swell was pulsing a whitish color, then a darker red color. Interesting when you can SEE your pulse...If I die from a spider bite I am going to be slightly upset.
...Obviously, Chile isn't all that kind to my body.

I love speaking Spanish today. I love understanding and not understanding...and being able to ask questions until I understand. Sounding stupid and not being able to think of the word in Spanish...and then not being able to think of the word in English because my mind is too Spanglished up. I love understanding when I am corrected, learning new words and having to repeat them 4000 times until I can remember them. I love that I can explain cooking in food in Spanish, and that my roomies ask me questions about that sort of thing. Definitely one of my favorite topics in Spanish, one of the only topics that I feel smart talking about all the time, even when I'm making mistakes or don't the Spanish words. But it was a good day for Spanish, especially considering I didn't have any classes.

We don't need no thought control

5 minutes until I have to leave for class. Actually, 5 minutes until I have to leave to buy a huge canvas and oil paints for my subsequent class. How did I get here to be doing this? At least we're moving onto full colors instead of this black, white, yellow, blue stuff that I am horrible at ("don't paint the blue truck blue, the blue is for the cool spots"...uh, yeah)

So apparently I don't talk about school much. That's because I don't do much for school. It is a minimal (is that spelled right? looks so weird) part of my life. I have 4 courses, 5 classes, three days a week for a total of 15 hours a week. I rarely do things outside of class for class. I like my classes except my cinema class...I think it makes me actually dumber. I have learned absolutely nothing in that class except that yes, it is indeed possible for someone to talk about one theme of a movie for 3 hours. Yeah... themes in movies are slightly self-evident, but thank you for pointing out that this movie is violent...ugh

The thing is, college here is weird. And students are kind of different also. First of all, I feel like I'm in high school again for various reasons. Everybody knows everyone else. there are cliques! But there's just this different vibe. One reason I think causing my overall feeling of weirdness when I'm in classes is because the students don't seem to have the mentality that most students in the US have. Now, to begin with, obviously Madison is very political, very liberal, very lots of things that perhaps other universities in the states are not. I understand that. But still, I think it is a general understanding that university is a time for people to go through their "idealistic political stage" (I also acknowledge that for some people this is not a stage and I am not saying idealistic just in reference to liberals). It's just that here, when I overhear conversations, they are ALWAYS gossiping about their groups or something very pertinent to their immediate lives. Like something in class, who's going out with who, what movie they just saw...I have never ever ever heard anyone talking about world issues. This is not to say that they don't, but I just have never heard two Chileans, particularly young chileans, talking about something happening in other countries unless it is their recent/planned trip to Argentina or their hopes to go to Spain. Is that weird to anyone else? It's really strange to me. I have been told many times that young Chileans simply are not interested in politics. That is something I don't even begin to comprehend. I know some people in the US who aren't really political, but they still talk about things happening outside their country and furthermore outside their group.

I am not trying to say that all Chileans are like this or even that most of them are. It's just what I have encountered and noticed. Strange and I wish I had some really close Chilean friends or something to ask about this but that is an entirely different topic.

"And I'm feeling kind of funky, kinda fine"

I've decided to get healthy(er). The problem is that I don't have free weights and don't feel like spending $30 on a gym membership just so I can use theirs. After a bit of a search for something to use...something I had around all the time, same size and weight, that didn't need to be kept cold, and have settled on wine bottles. they work really well except that the necks sometimes get in the way. Perfecto. Some say crazy, I'll go with creative...either way I can drink my weights after an upper body workout.
So on Friday night I went out to eat with Annie, her parents and a couple that is travelling with them. It was so so much fun. They were such great people, and it was so fun to talk to people about Wisconsin and Manitowoc, and eat great food. It made me miss my family a bit more and maybe a bit homesick, but it was more just great. The next day I went to Vina del Mar. I can't say I was too impressed with it. Some cute things but not really my speed. Unfortunate. Also, I think I could go on for days about my feelings (mostly bad) about discos and Chilean men (in discos), but I think I would just sound bitter and high-strung. So I will just leave it at the fact that a disco with the right music and right people is one of my favorite places to spend a night...but that happens pretty rarely, and when it does it usually wears thin as the night goes on. OH well...

The beginnings of trips in South America are often the worst part...at least for me. Getting off a bus and being cornered and harrassed and forced to yell at men following you, "NO NECESITAMOS SU AYUDA, GRACIAS, POR FAVOR NO NOS MOLESTA!" (we don't need your help, thanks, please don't bother us) which yes, at one point I did say when two hostel owners would not take repeated "no gracias" for an answer. But we arrived and began walking through Mendoza, which became nicer and nicer as the blocks between us and the bus station increased. It was beautiful, with tons of cute stores and restaurants. We gawked at the prices at various places selling fruit and other goodies ("Strawberries are HOW much?!"). We finally got to our hostel which was right down the street from a large plaza and had little tent things selling various goods lining the sidewalks. We went to this all you can eat vegetarian restaurant (the Green Apple) for dinner (Annie and I were the only ones of the group who eat red meat, and the rest try to stay away from meat alltogether). It was fantastic though and the meal and a bottle of wine ended up costing about $5 USD...yeah, very good. That night was filled with bars and discos which were fun at first but as the night wore on, the discos started to wear on my nerves. With a bit of tension among the group, we made it home around 6 in the morning, just in time for a few hours of sleep. There were two different wine tours we could have taken. One, less expensive where you visit two different wineries and taste a few wines, the other, you visit one winery, included a tasting and lunch. Annie and I decided to take a chance and go with the second but the other girls decided to go with the other one...I think it might be in the top 20 decisions of my life. We went to the vineyard of the Familia Zuccardi (uses Santa Julia as a label). We got a pretty good tour of the facilities in Spanish and then we headed to the tasting room...which was beautiful. We tried three wines: Tannet, an experimental wine that you can only get at the bodegas, a cabernet sauvignon and the Chenin Dulce. All were Fantastic. Next we headed across the street and in the middle of the vineyards where they had placed the restaurant. We sat down to a beautiful table with a beautiful view, and for the next two hours had the following (this is mostly for my family's jealousy): various breads, three types olive oil, three different spreads (eggplant, black olive and roasted red pepper), marinated tomatoes, mixed greens, a trio of roasted potatoes, two types of sausage, a viognier, tempranillo, malbec, and the chenin dulce, two huge pieces of beef, offerings of chicken and ribs, a dessert of crumbled walnuts, roasted apricot and peach halves, strawberry ice cream and a drizzle of blueberry sauce, and coffee (real coffee, not disgusting NesCafe!)...I may have forgotten something. Absolutely stuffed, we went and bought some of the great wines for ridiculously cheap prices (4 bottles for about $12 USD?! we thought they were playing a joke on us). When we got back to Mendoza, we decided to take a walk and happened to buy a few things on the way. After a pretty uneventful night, we woke up the next morning for our adventurous excursion. Trekking and rappelling. After a bit of a hike following Mauriano, aka El Guia Guapo (the handsome guide...he was beautiful) we got to a waterfall that was next to our rappelling site. A little scary at first, it was much easier than I thought it was. More trekking followed after three times down the over 23 m (about 75 feet) cliff. We were going to go paragluiding but got back too late...so some other time. The rest of the day was filled with more food and shopping and the bus ride back home. Mendocinos are really really nice and friendly. Annie and I decided that it's probably a good thing that we live in Santiago though because otherwise our life would just be this perfect bubble...much too easy. But it was absolutely fantastic and we're definitely going back.

The Surreal Life

This hostel keyboard is too crap for details right now...which are so much better with pictures anyway ...but for the mean time I have a few things to say: 1, I am not sure I can express how awesome my life is. I am not sure I even want to write it because it ends up sounding cheesy and stupid, but I have conversations every other day--minimum--about the insane awesomeness that is my life. 2, My mom was worried I would fall in love with a Chilean and not want to come back to the states..I´m pretty sure she doesn´t have to worry about that...an argentinian may be a different story 3, Talking to Annie today, Madison was brougth up and I blurted out "ughhhh I don´t want to go back!" it´s not to say I don´t miss the states and everyone back home, but right now I´m living more than I ever have...It will be interesting when I get back to see what happens to that. A lot of things will be interesting when I get back. I love this place, these people, this life...but I hate sounding this corny, ugh!