Tango and Uruguay

Well it has certainly been a while since I have last posted and I have lots to update everyone on!

To start, I am completely settled in here in Argentina and I am absolutely loving it. Seriously, everyone needs to visit this city once in there life...or more...it is outrageously wonderful! It is on a totally different spectrum than Santiago, much more european with a latin american flare. I have been keeping a list of some of the great things about Buenos Aires:

1. Nike outlet stores...and just in general a plethora of beautiful clothes to choose from!

2.There is toilet paper in all the public bathrooms...I may not have mentioned this but in Santiago if you have to use the bathroom you better have brought some tissues because there is no toilet paper to be found any where in that city.

3. The stop lights here go RED=STOP, YELLOW=Start moving your car, GREEN= GO...pretty legit huh?

4. It is a 1 hour bus ride to Uruguay (more to come later)

5. There are hardly any stray dogs which means far less dog poop for me to step in walking down the street.

I could go on and on but those are probably my top 5 as of right now! Something I do not love about BA is that they have a weird accent where they pronounce everything with a double ll as j's. Weird. I normally have to have someone repeat themselves a few times before I realize what they are saying. And the worst part of BA is there stupid transit system! I may have been spoiled because of Santiago but I don't know who thought of the one in BA but it is terrible! There are 5 or 6 metro lines which all meet at one spot in the south part of BA, so there is no way to go "across town" without going all the way down town and then back up on a different line, so a commute that should take 20 minutes takes over an hour. And then the buses, don't even get me started, they are impossible. Thus far I have not gone anywhere without getting lost, I normally get off to early or stay on the late and then when I try to walk home I almost always walk in the wrong direction and get frustrated and just take a taxi home. My goal for the next 4 weeks is to figure them out...wish me luck.

Well since I have been here I have been very busy with seminars about education...duh, and some school visits. This past thursday we had to opportunity to go the Plaza de Mayo, where every Thursday the mothers who lost their children or husbands or family members march to remember those killed during one of Argentina's dictatorships. We marched in the 1661th march by the Madres de Plaza de Mayo. Although it was blistering hot is was beautiful to see these very old women walking and know that they have done that every Thursday since the end of the military dictatorship.

We have also had a good amount of free time since we have been in Buenos Aires, which has been great for exploring this wonderful city or basking in the hot tropical weather that I am quickly becoming accustomed too. On Friday it was over 90 degrees here and I couldn't help but think how unbearably hot it is going to be when I am back in Argentina with my dad is mid-december. YUCK! We get a lot of free time these two weeks because about half of the people on the program will be leaving Argetina next Friday to go back to Santiago to conduct there ISP. I have chosen to stay here, I am really excited to share with everyone what I am going to be studying and researching for the next month but I want to wait until I get my idea approved before I tell everyone all about it! Keep your fingers crossed!

I am living with another family here in BA, this is family number 3, becasue moving in with a new family every few weeks is just a really fun thing to do...at least it is getting easier! Here in BA I am living with an old but wonderful couple! They have hosted 40 students in the past, so they really really know what they are doing. Although they are lots of fun I think I am going to switch to a new family for my last month here, just so I have some more space...this is also not positive yet so again, keep your fingers crossed!

Today I went to Uruguay, yes I said Uruguay. It is weird because if I were in Europe, I would be doing lots of traveling to different countries, but here that is just not as normal, so when a group of 10 of us left for Uruguay this morning we were all pretty pumped! We took a speedy fairy to Colonial Sacramento, a strictly tourist town in Uruguay, we paid a little extra for an all inclusive tour, including a delicously large lunch. Although it was cloudy it was still an amazing experience. And besides the fact that I got to spend a day in another country and explore a new place, probably the best part was how much I am noticing my understanding of Spanish improving. We had the tour in Spanish and when I paid attention I was really able to fully understand everything the said! While we were in Colonial we saw the oldest standing (well somewhat standing) wall in Uruguay, I learned that prostitution is legal and we walked down the street where prostitutes are most commonly found at night...cool I guess. We ate a huge and delicious lunch in the campo (country-side) of Uruguay where we say the WORLD'S LARGEST PENCIL COLLECTION!!!! And of course I got some good shopping in!

This week is going to be very busy with lots of school visits and really starting to plan my ISP...scary!

Happy Halloween!

Buenos Aires

Well I am officially in the Paris of South America, otherwise known as Buenos Aires. Not much to report yet, but I am spending the night in a hotel and will be meeting my host family tomorrow. We had a delicious lunch today and sat through many hours of orientation.

We arrived early this morning and I am overloaded with emotions. Excited to be in a new city and to have the opportunity to explore and learn about a new culture. Nervous about starting over in a new family and dreading those inevitable awkward moments. Sad to know that about half of the kids on the program will be heading back to Santiago in about 2 weeks and I won't see them for a month.

But I guess being overloaded with emotions is normal when studying abroad! Wish me luck tomorrow.

Chau for now

Besos y abrazos

Mapuzugukantuayiñ

Mari Mari (hola),

Early yesterday morning I arrived back from my one week rural home stay in Chapod, Chile, it is a small country town outside of Temuco, a bigger, but still rather small and gritty city. I had the most incredible time during this past week and there is so much I want to share but for fear writing too much I will keep it as short as possible.

I will start in the beginning, when we left Santiago two Saturdays ago after Chile had just won a huge game which allows them to go to South Africa this coming summer for the Soccer World Cup, people went crazy! Trying to take the metro with my backpack and luggage for the week while people were screaming, singing, and jumping up and down was quite the adventure. After finally making it to the bus terminal a little overwhelmed we got onto our pimped out coach bus. The bus was a double-decker bus and each seat reclined, with a foot rest, to an almost perfectly horizontal position. We were given a blanket and a pillow, along with some snacks and we all quickly dozed off for the remainder of the 8 hour bus ride. We arrived in Temuco at about 6:30 am and headed to Chapod, about a 20 minute car ride where we were quickly taught how to say hello in Mapuzugukantuayiñ (we pronounce is as Mapundungun), which is Mari Mari. We were introduced to our host families for the week and all went our seperate ways with our families for the rest of the day.

I moved in with a papa named Estaban and a mama named Maria. They are both Mapuche, Chile's group of indigenous people. Although most chileans have Mapuche in their lineage and background many chose not to associate with it. This week all 15 of us in the program lived with Mapuche families. Unfortunately the Mapuche culture is quickly dying as the Evangelical church has become a big part of many of the Mapuche lives. Most families no longer speak Mapuzugukantuayiñ (or as we would pronounce it, Mapundungun) and there is only 2 hours of Mapundungun class a week for the children who live in Chapod. I was very lucky because my papa is one of the profesors of Mapundungun so he tried to teach me a lot during the week. The language is very different than any language I have ever heard, it has a mix of spanish and asian influence in its sound. During the week we were able to take a 2 hour Mapundungun class as well where we learned a few basic phrases and it was really cool to go back and impress my papa with what I had learned.

Throughout the week we partook in some really great activities. The first day we drove 2 hours west (towards the coast) and spent the day at Lago Budi, which was absolutely beautiful and breathtaking even though it was cloudy.

We spent the day learning about Mapuche culture, traditions, and religon, as well as the impact turism has had on these small Mapuche communities.

Tuesday we spent the day at the local school in Chapod, which only had 35 students. We observed some classes in the morning and then in the afternoon had the opportunity to teach the kids in our class english. My group and I had 6-9 year olds so we stuck to some pretty easy songs that we could translate back and forth from english to spanish. I am not sure if they actually retained anything but it was fun to work so directly with the kids.

Wednesday morning we helped build a ruka, a traditional Mapuche House, which are not really used as much for living in becaue most families have actual homes but are used for parties. We worked all morning just building the base of the ruka, which included digging up lots and lots of dirt for a 8 in. dirt floor. In the afternoon we learned how to play Palin, a traditional Mapuche sport, which is just the same as hockey, but with a few obscure rules. It was a lot of fun but quite dangerous, think flying wooden sticks at shins. After Palin we played soccer with a bunch of the adults and kids in the community...it was so amazing to play soccer and everyone was really good, even some of the old folks!

The first picture is what a real ruka looks like and the second one is as far as we had gotten on the Ruka that we helped start to build, it doesn't look like we did much, but it was a lot of work! The door to the ruka always opens up to face the sun rising in the morning.

Thursday we went to another rural town and visited a different school and then spent the afternoon shopping and exploring in Temuco. Friday we ate a traditional Mapuche feast, which included lots and lots of bread and lots and lots of meat...SO DELICOUS! In the afternoon we played more soccer and then in the evening we celebrated my friends 21st birthday in the pitch black, minus the stars, it was a really fun experience. Saturday was our last day which consisted of playing lots of basketball and a ton of soccer and of course another incredible Mapuche inspired feast! I ate so much food all week, and the biggest part of my diet was bread and sopapillas (aka fried dough)!

Although I only washed my hair once in a small bowl full of freezing water and never washed my body, and woke up each morning shivering it was absolutely incredible. The people were so warm and made me and the rest of the people on my program feel right at home and unbelievably comfortable. My favorite part of the trip was playing soccer with the community of Chapod and getting Here are a few more pictures from the wonderful adventure:

A waterfall near my house in Chapod
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Mama Maria and I outside our house

The view from my backyard in Chapod.

I will be here in Santiago until Friday, I will be running around trying to get myself organized for the next 6 weeks in Buenos Aires, I am looking forward to the next chapter of my adventure but I am certain I will miss how comfortable I have become here in Santiago.

Besos y Abrazos,

Ana

To the Country and Beyond

Well this past week just flew right by, yesterday (friday) we finished our spanish class and handed in our final papers for our seminar class. I cannot believe that the class portion of my trip is over...now on to excursions and independent studies!

Tonight at 9 pm I will be getting on a bus to travel 9 hours south to Temuco where I will start the rural part of my trip. Me and my friend Jackie will be living with a Mapuche (indigenous people of chile) family for the week, most likely without running water and electricity. Temuco is actually a fairly big city but we are going to be staying just south of it in a small country town named Chapod. Over the week they are keeping us very busy, busing us from rural schools, to lectures about the mapuche and education, we will be taking a crash course in an indigenous language and learning how to play a popular indigenous sport. I am not worried about not eating well because our directors have informed us that they eat a lot in the south. I sprayed all the clothes that I am going to be brining with special flea spray so I hope to avoid the fleas and I have packed all the medicine I could possibly need. We have also been told that the water should still be okay for us to drink down there especially because we have gotten used the water in Santiago and it is not much different.

I have really been looking forward to this part of the trip so I am glad that it is finally here. I will be taking lots of photos and can't wait to share the experience with all of you when I get back.

Besos y abrazos,

Ana

Cajon del Maipo

Hola,

It has been another crazy and long week here in Santiago and I cannot believe that I only have 2 more weeks left in Santiago! Here is a quick update on my timeline for the rest of the semester:

10/5-10/10: Santiago (last week of spanish and seminar classes)

10/11-10/17: Rural home-stay in Temuco Chile (10 hour drive south of Santiago)

10/18-10/23: Preparation for Buenos Aires (last week in Santiago and Chile)

10/24-11/6: 2 week group excursion to Buenos Aires

11/7-12/4: 1 month Independent Study Project (ISP), I will most likely be spending this time in Buenos Aires

It is crazy to think that I have already been here for 6 weeks and the half-way mark is just around the corner!

This weekend was another wonderful adventure. A group of 7 of us went to Cajon del Maipo, a mountain area just outside of Santiago. We left late Friday night and after being stranded at a bus stop for over an hour we finally made it to La Bella Durmiente (sleeping beauty) where we stayed in a 7 person cabana or cabin as we would say in the US. We got settled in and pretty much headed straight to bed. The next morning a few of us early riser took a nice little walk down the road and enjoyed the many mountains that were surrounding us. In the afternoon all 7 of us went HORSEBACK RIDING in the mountains (aka the Andes!)!!!! Can you believe it?!? We went on about a two hour trek essentially straight up the mountains and then straight down. I think the last time I went horseback riding was when I went to a camp in Long Island with my aunt...and I am sure that was when I was 7 or 8...it was a little bit of a struggle. One of my friends, Meg, horseback rides a lot and she made the rest of us look pretty bad, and another friend, Abby, almost fell of her horse when one of our guides whipped it for eating too much. It was terrifying riding these horses because we were so close to the edge of the mountain the whole way up and down. I had to keep telling myself to breathe and try to enjoy the view even though I was terrified...going down was even scarier!! It was pretty dangerous, which may be why horseback riding is against the rules, but it was totally worth it...check out these photos and tell me if you disagree:

After horseback riding we were all terribly sore and exhausted so we went back to the cabin and relaxed a little. That night we cooked ourselves a delicious dinner of my personal favorite, chicken, pasta, and lemon (thank you gabby), steak, a delicious salad, and grilled vegetables! It was amazing!

This is a picture of all of us right before dinner! We were so hungry, I never realized horseback riding was so exhausting!

We spent the rest of the night relaxing and laughing a lot. It was great to get away from Santiago and the stress of the program, we had all been feeling pretty down last week, they call it the 5 week slump, but having the weekend hidden away in the mountains definitely did the trick for all of us!

As you can see from the schedule above things are coming to an end here in Santiago and this is the last week of classes, which I am so happy about! I have two projects due this week as well as two papers so I will certainly be busy. There are many places I still want to explore in Santiago so I am going to do my best to fit everything in these next few weeks!

Muchos besos y abrazos