Monos!

That's right, monkeys. While thinking about this post one theme kept popping up in my mind, monkeys! So here we go, the update for the last two weeks-

Let's start off in Mendoza. I was there for 4 days with Ian Holmen helping him celebrate his CCHS graduation. We had a great little hostal that was right in the middle of downtown, complete with our own patio! We spent the first day wandering the streets and plazas scoping out places for dinner. Argentina is famous for having good beef at very very cheap prices. Day two we decided to find Cerro La Gloria, a tiny little hike up to a huge monument (see photos). After asking around 10 people and getting 9 bad pieces of advice we finally found the right micro and were off. Little did we know, there's a zoo right next to the Cerro! So of course we went on a little zoo hike as well. Funny thing is, there were wild monkeys everywhere in the zoo! They were running along the handrails next to us, swinging from the trees above us and taunting the monkeys in the cages. Speaking of monkeys in cages, the howler monkeys were the showstoppers at the zoo...they had a bunch of cute babies! However, what was not so cute was the sight of one howler monkey eating another's baby....I'm still having nightmares. Very National Geographic. Emphasis on the Graphic.
Day three we took a bus about 2 hours outside of Mendoza to a little town called Potrerillos. It's a fairly popular tourist town during the summer months but now in the winter (yeah it's winter down here, kinda weird) it was completely deserted. We spent the day hiking around this gorgeous pristine lake in the foothills of the Andes, which were really quite impressive. Day four I headed back to Vina, thankfully the pass was open!

The next adventure was a bit closer to home. Last weekend I returned to La Campana this time with Dan. He has a tent and I had some freeze dried food (thanks to a sweet care package) so we decided to go camping. Due to the nature of the park, we had to base camp in the campground. So we spent the days hiking up the side of the mountain and the nights huddled around a swingin' campfire. We were commenting on how camping away from all the Spanish speaking people and the hustle and bustle of our respective cities made it feel like we were back in the Bob Marshall or the Boreal Forest...until we heard the monkeys! That's right, on Friday the 13th we were 'serenaded' by monkeys for most of the night. Sounds fun but was actually quite unnerving at first!

Today marks the beginning of my last full weekend in Vina del Mar. It still hasn't sunk in. I spent the whole day in Valparaiso (which has easily become my favorite place in Chile). Jose, my fabulous guide to all things Chilean, took me to his favorite places. Those included Cerro Alegre (translates literally to Happy Hill, it's the artsy-est neighborhood of the creative city) then we went to La Sebastiana. La Sebastiana is Pablo Neruda's house and is now a museum of sorts, completely amazing. He built the house to resemble Valaparaiso so the whole house is full of twists and turns, small hallways and a million staircases (some that lead to just a wall!). Each wall is a different vibrant color and all the windows that face the sea are huge and those that face the rest of the city are portholes like on a ship. I could EASILY live a content life in that house. Afterwards, we went to a fabulous little Cafe for Once and watched the sunset over the city and the ocean. Sadly I have no pictures of any of this as my camera bit the dust last weekend.

This next week is "finals". Not nearly as stressful as school back home. I've got one take home test, one in class test and one presentacion and then I'm done! Next Friday is my going away party (ah!) and then on the 29th Dan and I fly out to Arica. From Arica we are going to bus our way into Peru (it was much cheaper than flying all the way there) and make our way up to Macchu Pichu. From there, we've got around 2 weeks to do whatever strikes our fancy in Peru before flying back to Santiago on the 15th and then I take off again on the 16th, this time the destination is Tofte.

It's been quite the life down here, to put it mildly. I'm already planning my next trip to Chile :)
See you soon!
Clare

Fotos!

Hola!
I'm busy with school right now (shocking I know) so this update is a shorty. I've posted 3 new albums on Photobucket for your viewing pleasure. They are:

Ciudades Hermanadas (Twin Cities...a nod to my MN roots with a touch of my new Chilean identity)- These are pictures of Vina del Mar and Valparaiso that Dan took while he was visiting. Thanks for letting me steal them!

Un Dia de Sol en Conce (A Day of Sun in Concepcion...literally)- These are the pictures I took (on the one sunny day where I wasn't afraid to ruin my camera) in Concepcion when I went to visit Dan.

Graduacion en Mendoza (Graduation in Mendoza, Argentina)- These are the pictures from last weekend when I went to Mendoza to help Ian Holmen celebrate his graduation from CCHS!

The link to the main page (albums will be links on the left hand side) is: http://photobucket.com/clarehansen

Alright, enjoy and I'll post a full update on Mendoza as soon as my test on Friday is over~
Chao,
Clare

Back in Vina...briefly

Well, I made it back from Concepcion (2nd largest Chilean city, south of here)!
I spent a week there visiting Dan. It's a very different city from what I've grown used to in Vina and Valparaiso. Conce was a bit more "typical-city" like for lack of a better explanation. For one thing, it's by the Bio Bio river instead of the ocean and it's flat. Wonder of wonders my calves weren't burning after an hour long walk, very different from the extreme ups and downs in Vina. I have to say of all the cities I've visited so far Valparaiso and Castro are the most 'south american' in the sense that we north americans think of it.

Dan lives in a pension in Conce with 15 other chilean students. I think I met half of them since some are pretty reclusive. We were served a fabulous lunch everyday with a little 'once' each evening by the lovely (albeit totally crazy) Maria. There was also a lot of soccer watching/discussing going on, most of which was over my head since I'm not really following the games much (I don't have TV here and forget about understanding those games over the radio!)

The University there is HUGE in comparison to mine! It reminds me much more of back home in Montana, complete with a clock tower and everything. It occurs to me that I haven't put up any pictures of my school, Adolfo Ibanez, but it is very small and takes up about one block with a few extra buildings scattered around about a 3 block radius.

Tomorrow bright and early I'm heading off to Mendoza, Argentina to meet up with Ian (finally)! I've only been home from Conce for three days, just long enough to go to school :) I'm a little bit nervous about Mendoza because the buses have to drive over a large mountain pass and apparently it's not all that uncommon for the pass to be closed for a week or so at a time due to snow....so they tell me I should be able to get there tomorrow just fine but keep your fingers crossed for my return trip on Monday! If I do get stranded I think the first option is a super long (like 48hour) bus ride around the pass or worst case scenario I'd have to buy a plane ticket to get back. Yikes. However, I'm super excited to see Ian and help him celebrate his high school graduation on the 31st! I've been reading up on Mendoza and I think there will be plenty of things to keep us happily busy for a few days.

That's the really quick, kind of vague update, sorry! But I've got to go pack :)
I have pictures from Santiago, Valparaiso/Vina (thanks to Dan for letting me steal these), Concepcion and soon from Mendoza so there will be a rather large upload to Photobucket next week when I get home.

Hope the summer is off to a swingin start for everybody back in the States, I'll be seeing you all before too long!
Paz-
Clare

wait, what? It's May?!

Whoa, when did that happen? I looked at my watch today and had the heart stopping realization that it is May 18th. I have about two months (give or take, I still don't have a ticket home yet) left in Chile. Alejandro and Veronica are even planning my going away party, scary! It seems like just yesterday I was wandering through the streets of Vina not understanding a word or having any idea what was happening. Oh wait, maybe that was yesterday.
In all seriousness, my time is flying by before my eyes. I'm starting to feel at home in Vina del Mar though, I know where my favorite ice cream shop is, where the hole in the wall market is with the best deals, I've made a lot of friends both fellow exchangers and Chileans and I can finally understand my colectivo drivers! All this, and now I have to go home. It is wonderful to know though that no matter where I find myself I can make it feel comfortable and I know that it will be great to see my friends and family back in Minnesota and Montana again.

As for my last two months in Chile, there are of course some big plans! I recently went to Santiago for a long weekend as mentioned in the last post. It was a lot of fun, we ended up taking the metro all over the city to see as much as possible in the short time. We also did a lovely little hike, the very same one featured in the ever popular "Sol y Viento" (you Montana kids know what I'm talking about)

This coming week we have school off on Wednesday. It's the anniversary of a big navel battle (La Batalla Navel de Iquique, thank you Spanish Class) which Chile actually lost...not sure how that translates into a free day from school but I'll take it! So, in order to take full advantage of this free day I'm heading down to Concepcion to visit Dan. Concepcion is considerably farther south than Vina so it will be fun to see yet another part of Chile, it's amazing how much and how quickly this country changes from north to south!

Long term plans are to head up to Peru and Bolivia in July after school is done and before I head home. I'm super excited for that, but also to see all of you once again too! Life is pretty much a win-win situation right now.

Besos-
Clare

Santiago is not Cordoba

My new motto for Chile is this:
Always have a Plan B.

I went to the bus station this morning to hop onto my 18-22 hour bus ride (they're pretty darn vague about that dontcha think?) to Cordoba and when I got there to my surprise...it was cancelled. What the crap is the first thing that came to mind. The bus station was packed and people were pretty pissed needless to say. May 1 is Labor Day here in South America so that accounted for some of the crowd and some of the confusion with the buses and the scheduling I guess. Anyway, they told me I could still go to Santiago if I wanted to. That is about two hours away...and definitely is not Cordoba. It's like somebody from Grand Marais who's bus to Chicago gets cancelled and Greyhound telling them "We can still get you to Duluth though!" Yeah, so not the same thing.
So on to Plan B! Which is going to Santiago, but not until tomorrow. I've got some friends there to visit and I'm looking forward to getting to know the capitol of my new country a little bit better as well.

Today was a beautiful day in Vina, but even still I was feeling bummed that I couldn't visit Ian. Then I started being bummed about missing out on other things back home. Adam and Carl's graduations for example. Then it struck me, it's Ian's high school graduation this year too! And I bet he's also bummed about missing it! So now Ian and I are planning on meeting up in Mendoza over the weekend of May 31 and having ourselves a Graduation Extravaganza, Sudamerica style. If there's anything you want Ian to get/know/if you have any ideas whatsoever for me, shoot me an email asap! The most reliable email is dancin_clare@hotmail.com

Chao!
Clare

Oh yeah, I'm an exchange STUDENT....

Hola a todos! Been awhile since the last update, I know I know.
The thing is (or rather my excuse is) that things here are becoming more normal to me and so quirky differences are a part of life now and it's hard to think of what I should write, what would stand out if I still had fresh eyes? If there's anything in particular you are curious about don't hesitate to leave me a comment....unless it's about my love life. In that case dream on kids.

The last couple of weeks I've been firmly settled in Vina and going to school. It's about midterm right now so the first set of tests/pruebas/controls/examenes/whatever you call 'ems is upon us.
My first control which is like a small quiz was not so hot. Granted, it's in a business management class (don't ask my why I'm in it I have NO idea) and the TA grades them. She is not the friendliest of people and I have a hunch that she is slightly elitest and maybe a bit anti-exchange student. Who knows. Anyway, after chatting with the professor he told her that we were allowed to do our quizzes in English! Normally I would not take them up on that, I'm in class mostly to learn Spanish, but in the spirit of passing school I busted out the English on the next one. I used the most ridiculously over-worded, crowded, run on sentence-filled, Elizabethan English that you will every read. I also tried to state all of the same in Spanish just to show some effort. Hopefully the snotty TA takes it as pure genius. It remains to be seen as the grades aren't back yet.

My first big test though was in my History of Cinematography class and that went really well. I got about the equivalent of a C on it but I think here the A's a little harder to come by than they are in the States. Here C is actually average. Anyway, my friends in the class gave me a round of applause when I got it so that's a good sign!

The OTHER big test I had this week (I told you they were upon us!) was in my Modern Chilean Literature class. It was an essay test in which I had to describe the birth of the national chilean identity after the independence of the country based on the readings of two novels and various essays. Also I had to explain what I thought two particular authors' goals were in terms of chilean literature in general. These are authors from the 1800's remember. Good Lord. But I actually feel like the test went well, it's the most interesting class as far as I'm concerned so I actually enjoy mulling over questions like how a country forms it's own identity amongst it's people after a revolution. Call me crazy.

So that's school, in a rather large nutshell. There really isn't much other news so since I'm Minnesotan here's a weather update. It was really foggy and cold here last week and that was a huge bummer. Makes it really hard to get motivated in the morning when you can't even see out your window. However today and yesterday everything has brightened up and it's back in the mid 60's-70's again. We had a big thunderstorm last night too which was really fun! I've been warned that there are a lot of earthquakes here and that I will surely feel a few before I leave but that hasn't happened yet.

Also, this last week my friend Dan from Montana came to visit. No, he didn't come all the way from MT, he's actually studying in Concepcion for this year to finish college. We had a good time and discovered that we have more in common that just UM, we're both also avid fans of the ColoColo soccer team! I think secretly he wishes he had gone to school here in Vina del Mar/Valparaiso now that he's seen that they are just about the coolest places in Chile to be a student ;)

Tomorrow I'm off to Cordoba, Argentina to visit Ian Holmen, another gringo from Cook County. He's been there since August so his Spanish should kick my butt and also make him an excellent tour guide. I'll let you know how it goes!

Besos-
Clare

Stay Left!

Hey everybody! Do I ever have an update for you....
Several posts ago I did a bit of foreshadowing by mentioning some upcoming 'adventures'. Well, by that I meant "I just bought a ticket to Anguilla but it's a secret!!!"
That's right, about 2 weeks ago my grandpa 'Keck' emailed and asked if I'd like to redeem my graduation present of one trip to Anguilla and surprise my mom on her vacation there. There are two things in this life that I will never turn down: ice cream and Anguilla. So on April 9 I packed up my sarongs and bikini and hopped a plane to the Carribean.
When I got there, Nana and Keck picked me up off the ferry from St. Maarten and rushed me to the villa. I promptly hid while Keck told my mom that he had me lined up on a video conference call on the computer. She came hurrying up stairs to 'chat' with me. Keck told her she needed to say my name really loudly to 'voice activate' the program. (Really Mom, who is that gullible?) So she started shouting my name at the screen when lo and behold, I jumped up behind her! Her reaction was priceless and very Cindy Lou like. There was a moment of totally disbelief followed by "What the HELL are you doing HERE??" Followed by much laughter on everyone's part. We spent the next few days lounging on the beach and brushing up on our mini golf skills with my Auntie Sherrie, cousins Anna (the waterbug) and Will (Mr. Hole-In-One) and of course Nana and Keck.
You may be wondering what StayLeft! is all about. Well in Anguilla, they drive on the 'wrong', that is to say left, side of the road. Sounds easy enough until you are on a tiny little gravel road with a huge truck coming at you. That is when every instinct in your body tells you to sharply swerve right, which would be bad. So came the tradition of the entire car yelling "Stay Left!" at every intersection and roundabout and stoplight and you get the idea. Anguilla's motto is in fact not "Stay Left!" but rather "Tranquility Wrapped In Blue" which I thought was particularly fitting on my last morning as I sat on the deck in my blue sarong and drank my (real) coffee while looking out at the ocean and St. Maarten. All in all, a fabulous vacation.

Now I'm back in Vina trying once again to settle in. I had my first little twinge of my version of homesickness today. Several factors all sort of ganged up at once and took me out at the knees. One being that I am no longer in Anguilla. The others were a compilation of sleep deprivation, the first Sawbill crewmember arriving at home (though I don't envy him the Mason Ordering he'll be doing), and the fact that I had my first huge test today. Carl had told me before I left home that he used to brush his teeth in Norway to ward off the bad days so I tried it out. My teeth felt great, but that test was still at 3:45 and it was still worth 33% of my grade and I still didn't speak/write fluent Spanish.
But I geared up anyway and headed out on my walk to school. Halfway there none other than Bob Marley popped up on my I-pod shuffle. 'Three Little Birds' was the song and I suddenly realized that this one test was not the end all be all of my academic career. Of course every little thing was gonna be alright! Sometimes I'm such a hippy I can hardly stand it. But, regardless, I have discovered what turns my mood around, exercise and a little Bob Marley!

Thankfully, I think the test went okay and the profe is pretty nice. He even cracked a joke at the beginning of the test saying that there was a new rule...you had to write your answers in Spanish. Everybody else laughed and I whipped out my 50 pound dictionary.

That's all the news for now, this weekend is shaping up to be a good one with birthday parties and BBQ's galore so more posts to come!

Paz y Amor desde Chile~
Clare

oh ps- pictures of Anguilla are posted on Photobucket. Just go to http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg297/ClareHansen/?special_track=nav_tab_album
The album is called Wrapped In Blue and the link is on the left-hand side of the page...you know the drill!

Mas Vino? Por Favor!

So being that I live in a town literally called "Vineyard by the Sea" it seems only fitting that I explore the local wine scene here in Chile. Luckily for me, Kindra's host brother Felipe and his girlfriend Aranza arrange tours to the vineyards of Casablanca, about a 45 minute drive towards Santiago from Vina.
We left around 10 am and drove first to the church Lo Vasquez. It's a very popular church located directly inbetween Vina and Casablanca and apparently many people will even walk the long distance from Vina to attend Mass here. Since it was Sunday, we sat in on a few minutes of the Mass which was truthfully pretty uneventful but interesting nonetheless.
We continued on to Casablanca and toured two vineyards. Vina Andomida and Vina Mar. The first tour was in English, but the rest of our day unfolded in Spanish. It was really fun to see how the whole process works. Harvest season here is March/April so the grapes were all ripe and delicious and everything was processing and working inside the vineyards. This is truly their busy season with many seasonal employees around since all the grapes are handpicked. Yet somehow, there was an air of simple tranquility that permeated every corner of Casablanca. We would tour the whole vineyard, learn about how they made their special wines, and then we would taste it! It wasn't just one of these 'swirl it in your mouth and spit it out' deals either. We drank 7 or 8 full glasses of wine throughout the day! They would give us the glasses, explain what to look for/taste for/smell for and how to taste it/hold it/swirl it/smell it/drink it properly and then leave us to enjoy the sunshine and the view...and of course the wine.
After these first two tours we went back to Aranza's family's house where Felipe had been busy cooking us lunch. We had a ridiculous amount of bread, homemade salsa, emanadas, and choclo(those tamale type things that are wrapped and cooked in a cornhusk packet...I can't remember what the English name is...). After that we waddled on over to the final vineyard tour.
The last one was easily my favorite, Vina Casas del Bosque. It was much smaller than the others and had a very friendly/relaxed vibe. There were a lot of kids playing and laughing and the tour guide was very personable. Their Merlot was also excellent, how fun to be able to say that!
At this point, we were all quite tuckered out from our hard day of wine, grapes, sunshine and conversation so we hopped in the car and returned to our own Vina del Mar.
I've posted the pictures from this adventure and also from my hike in La Campana on Photobucket. The link below will take you to my main page and if you look on the lefthand side you will see the links to the albums. They are entitled La Campana and Vino en Vina and should have accompanying descriptions under each photo.

http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg297/ClareHansen/

Chao for now-
Clare

Theologians

In a note completely unrelated to anything I must mention that as I write this the only Chilean radio station we get in our house, Las Dunas, is playing Theologians by Wilco. A very welcome little taste of the United States, I much prefer this to the occasional Abba that works it's way into the playlist.
Things in Chile have been falling into a routine, finally. I now have a pretty set school schedule. I've gone to class regularly, though one keeps getting cancelled! This is so very different from school back home. Things here are done so last minute and I've only had each class twice in the last month! I was initially a little bit freaked out by this, in the States we have the same class three times a week! But I've been assured that this is totally normal and not to worry, I will still get the credits.
The weekends are spent exploring little towns near Vina (Valparaiso, ConCon, Renaca, Limache). Each town has it's own very distinct vibe and even the architecture is strikingly different. Mostly though, Chilean buildings don't follow any sort of building code. You can basically build it to look how ever you want! They are also painted all sorts of crazy colors. One house that I walk by on the way to la Universidad is all bright magenta; I'll try to snap a picture of it this week.
Now that I'm a bit more settled here, cultural subtleties are beginning to present themselves. It's really hard to put them into words just now, as I am only starting to comprehend them. As things clear up, I'll write more.
Spanish is going pretty well. I had a break through in my Cine class this week. I actually understood exactly what we were doing for the first time ever in a class! We would watch 10 minutes of an old silent film and then one student would have to comment on the different styles and techniques of cinematography used in the montage. When it came time for me to provide my commentary I actually had a few valid comments to make and I feel like for the first time I was able to contribute something of substance to the class, such a great feeling. I have also discovered my favorite Spanish word: abeja. It's pronounced "ah-bay-ha" and it is super fun to say! It means 'bee'.
That's all the news for now although I have a few adventures coming up in the next 2 weeks which should make for some pretty fun blog entries/pictures.
Until then- hasta luego!
-Clarence

La Campana

Hey there!
It's good to be back 'home' in Vina after the big trip down South. I had a few days of school, which went pretty well, I think anyway as I still don't really understand much of what my professors are saying. I find that following along in class is like walking a tight-rope. Lots of focus and if you lose it for a second, forget about recovering! Luckily, I've made friends in each class who are very very helpful and patient with me.
In my spare time, which there is a lot of, I've been getting to know my new roommate a bit. Her name is Katie and she is from Arkansas. She's here to teach English at a local tech-school. She's super busy and not around a lot but when she is home, there is usually a lot of laughter!
Also this weekend, I went on a fabulous 12k hike with Kindra, my friend from UM. La Campana is a mountain/National Park located about an hour inland of Vina. We hiked as far as we could in the time we had and almost made it to the top. We also bumped into a girl from Wyoming who knew some people from Missoula that Kindra also knows. Small world! The hike was beautiful, landscapes that I have never before seen. Lots of oddly shaped mountains, lush trees separated by dust dunes, and even a tarantula (granted it was a roadkill tarantula but I still have the heebie-jeebiez)!
Speaking of Kindra, she also has a blog and has a much better description of our hike. She's a bit more on-the-ball than I am about posting. My travel buddy Laura also has a blog with a very complete story about our trip down South. If you want to cheat on my blog and read their excellent writing instead, I won't be jealous.
Kindra's blog is www.ungulatedreams.blogspot.com
Laura's blog is www.chillychilepepper.blogspot.com
My friend Dan has also posted some pictures of Bariloche, which is great since I didn't take many there :) You can find them on his blog at www.danshirley.blogspot.com
Hope all is well in los Estados Unidos, I think of you all often!
-Clare

Pictures!

Here's the link to the pictures corresponding to the last post. Hopefully someday I will figure out how to get the pictures onto the blog but until then just follow this link; if you click on the first picture to enlarge it, you can see a description underneath and then just scroll through them that way.
http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg297/ClareHansen/Adventuras/

Una Semana Loca

Hola!
So I realize that it's been a long time since the last post so here it goes, my best effort to bring you all up to date!
Classes started but my first day was rather uneventful. My class was cancelled, indefinitely. So I rescheduled and now I have classes on Tues-Thurs. I've only had one week of classes though, this past week they were cancelled. Yay for going to school in a Catholic country, lots of time off for Easter!
During this free week the other exchange student from the States (Laura from D.C.) and I decided to take a little vacation. Basically we got onto a bus going south and got off at the last stop, it took 14 hours.
Day 1) We left Vina at around 10pm and headed south, ending up in Puerto Montt after a rather long bus ride. Luckily we had some Mission Impossible (dubbed in Spanish of course) to keep us entertained...
Day 2) We arrived in Puerto Montt and booked a hostel for the night expecting to leave by boat in the morning. Puerto Montt turns out to be not the loveliest town in the world. Lots of gypsies waiting to steal your money and shady characters around every corner, we mostly hid out in our hostel after it got dark.
Day 3) Went to the boat terminal only to find that the boat we wanted was late and may not show up for a few days. Thinking that anywhere was better than Puerto Montt, we booked a bus to Chiloe. Chiloe is a large island off the southern coast of Chile. On our bus we met another traveller who recognized our US accents, she was from Manhattan. We all three decided to spend the night in Castro, the capitol of Chiloe.
Day 4) Woke up in Castro, a very fun, very lively little town. It was such a change of pace from Vina that it's hard to believe they are in the same country! We spent all morning sea kayaking around the little islands close to Chiloe. There were also some cool houses on stilts that we could paddle under. All in all, a very fun town to be in. We left Castro that afternoon and headed across Chiloe to the tiny town of Cucao. It's the last town before you hit the National Park. It was comprised of a few thrown together houses and a road that supported one crazy bus driver and his ghetto bus once a day. We went through Cucao towards the park and found El Fogon de Cucao. It is an architecturally sweet house/restaurant/bar/hostel/campground/ranch built and run by a man named Miguel Angel Allendes. We stayed at his house that night and he made us an incredible dinner of the biggest hunk of salmon I have ever seen. Then he played music for us the rest of the night, he is in several traditional Chilean bands that travel the country frequently. He was a very interesting man with a never-ending supply great stories and advice. He will be in Vina in two weeks and he is planning on looking us up to show us the music hot spots he knows in Vina/Valparaiso.
Day 5) Marissa from Manhattan had to take off early to catch a bus to Valdivia so Laura and I set off on our own to check out the National Park. Since it is the off season down here, mid-fall, there were maybe 4 other people in the entire park. It was crazy! Huge sand dunes with crashing waves of the ocean as far as the eye could see. *There were cows along the beach eating seaweed, they looked very out of place* Then if you turned around there was a big thick lush forest with a large lake. We spent most of the day hiking around and picking our jaws up off the ground. Then we packed our bags and sat on the side of the road waiting for our bus. We had a momentary panic attack when we thought we saw it pass by without stopping, but luckily another one came along about an hour later and rescued us. We spent that night back in Castro.
Day 6) We had a bright and early 6:25am bus back to Puerto Montt (unfortunately it's the only town with access to and from Cucao) where we met up with my friend Dan from the University of Montana. He's studying in Concepcion this semester and also had some free time to travel this week. The three of us hopped on a bus and headed to Bariloche, Argentina! The drive over was awesome. Such a change of scenery again. We all kept saying that certain aspects of it, like the trees or the hills remind us of home or someplace else we know...but all together, nowhere else in the world looks the way it does down in Northern Patagonia. We got to Bariloche in the early evening, set ourselves up in the hostel and went out for a night on the town.
Day 7) We spent this last big day of our trip exploring Bariloche. It's a fun city, a little bit of a tourist trap, but with lots to offer. We got some good food and sat at the edge of the lake looking out at the mountains. Most notably though, this was the day I started to get sick...more on that in a bit.
Day 8) Due to it being Easter, bus tickets were a bit hard to come by so Laura and I had to leave earlier than planned. Which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We went from Bariloche to Osorno in the south of Chile. We had an 8 hour layover in Osorno and then we got on another marathon 12 hour bus ride back up to Vina. We got home this morning around 10am. The blessing in disguise is that I clearly have Strep Throat and any more time on the trail would have been difficult. I called the doctor's office today and when I told them I was an exchange student, they insisted on doing a house call. He actually showed up with a little black bag. So, now I'm on a round of meds (don't worry Mom and Dad, no penicillin) and should be back on my feet in no time! I went to the supermarket to buy some comfort foods (cranberry juice, sprite, and tomato soup) all of which had to be purchased in the "World Foods" section, aka a shelf with Safeway stuff :)
It is, of course, completely impossible to sum up this week long adventure in a blog post. Even the pictures (that I will hopefully post tonight) can't really convey what went on. It was the best vacation I could have asked for and never before have I been so happy and content to just take off into the unknown. All I can think to say is that my life is ridiculous, and I love it!

Back to school.

It's that time of year here! School starts on Monday, pretty exciting after about 3 months off. There isn't much new to report here. I spent last week in an intensive spanish class with 3 other students from France and Germany. We went on a field trip to Valparaiso where we were lucky enough to take a small boat (lancha) out into the ocean and look around the port. Valparaiso is one of (if not the) biggest ports in Chile and also home to the Chilean armada.
In other news, a friend of mine from Montana who is studying in Valparaiso this semester called me up last night. Turns out she lives in the same neighborhood as me! She stays with a really nice host family that has already invited me over for dinner.
And, since you've all been asking so nicely, I've finally put up some pictures! You can check them out at http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg297/ClareHansen/
If you click on them or do a slideshow there are descriptions for each picture.
Chao,
Clare

Internet At Last

I have internet at my house! Hallelujah!

Hopefully now I can post in a much more timely manner.

Things that have happened since the last post:

1) I had another birthday part. This one was with Alejandro (my landlord) and Veronica (his good friend, and who I stayed with first). Alejandro's friends from the area came over and we had a big BBQ. The best part of the party was that the Chileans started reading my chilean slang dictionary and pretty soon the whole table was saying things like "To screw? To screw? What means this?" Then they would read the chilean part and laugh, it was pretty entertaining for everyone.

2) I started spanish classes, and holy crap they are hard! I start real classes next Monday, or should I say Lunes, and I managed to get a schedule with classes only on Mon, Tues, Wed. So that leaves a four day weekend every weekend for travelling, woohoo!

3)Well, obviously, I got internet and everyone here is very very excited. We've been out of the loop for awhile!

Thanks to everybody who checks up on me and reads this, and thanks for all the birthday wishes! It's good to know that I'm loved back in the States.

Chao,

Clare

p.s.- Here's a fun fact- I spent about 20 minutes in my Spanish class today explaining Paul Bunyan to a mix of French and German students as well as my Chilean teacher. None of them can pronounce Bunyan to save their souls, but they liked the story!

Happy Belated Leap Year

Hola!

It’s February 29th, happy leap year! As you may notice, this is posted later than Feb. 29 and that is because I have not been not connected to the internet for several days and I have been typing updates so that I don’t forget anything. So gear up, this might be a big blog, depending on when the internet people get here.

That brings me to my first new observation of Chile. People are always late, always. By several hours, if they even show up at all. It takes some getting used to. Although, there are some Chileans that are really put off by this trend so it’s always hard to tell when you show up for an appointment if you are going to be waiting 3 hours or be scolded for being 3 minutes late. Also, no matter where you are or where you are going, they all tell you it’s “about a 10 minute walk”. 

Walking is my main mode of transportation for now, collectivos (shared taxis) are still kind of scary and the micros (bus) are even harder to figure out. On the other hand, walking has given me a better lay of the land and I can get to school in 20 minutes (it takes 30 to get back because then it’s all uphill) and it takes about 45 to get to the main beach. I’ve also lost about 5 pounds and my tan is coming along quite nicely!

Things that have happened since the last post:

1) I moved into Alejandro’s house up on the hilltop, incredibly beautiful. I have two housemates up here. They are a lovely 26 year old couple from Finland (Matte & Ana). They speak some English and not much Spanish so we are all learning together. They are mechanical engineers and are going to another University here. They are also big card players, woohoo! They teach me lots of new games and last night I learned how to say ‘clubs’ and ‘spades’ in Finnish, why not.

2) I turned 20! My birthday was fabulous. I spent the day at the market (see #3) and then walked down to Veronica’s where we drank wine and chatted for a while. Then I tried to go downtown to my friend’s apartment but somehow got really really lost. I was on the busiest street in downtown and feeling damn scared when I saw a huge crowd gathered around a pair of tango dancers. Needless to say, they were awesome. So I had time to collect myself and finally hailed a collectivo and shared it with a mom and her little girl who thought my Spanish was absolutely hilarious. I made it to the apartment and there was a crowd of about 20 foreign students and locals there. They bought me a lovely pink scarf and made me a yummy chocolate cake, with matches on it because there were no candles. At midnight they sang to me in Spanish and English and we stayed up drinking pisco and talking until 4:30. It was a lovely way to turn 20.

3) I went to the Farmer’s Market for the first time. It is so big and busy and full of smells and sounds and even had a live band. The first walk through I was too nervous and overwhelmed to buy anything because, of course, I had to do it in Spanish. The second time around I chanced a stall and asked for a cucumber. The old man was so nice and taught me a bunch of words for the other food. Well, that was it. I was on a roll after that and I bought so much food I could barely carry it all back to meet Alejandro at his car. I had bags hanging off of me everywhere and a watermelon (or a sandia) tucked under my arm. It was so envigorating! Now I have fabulous fruits and veggies for a while. Good news for me is, the market is open all day every Wednesday and Saturday, and it is extremely affordable. I spent only around 10 US$.

Warm Weather & Cold Showers

Hola! 

I made it to Chile- It took several long long flights via Minneapolis, Chicago, and Toronto to finally reach Santiago. There I met up with my transport who drove me to Vina. We drove through so many vineyards settled in the valleys of the surrounding mountains, they were so beautiful! When we arrived in Vina I had to take a taxi to Veronica's. I found Veronica on the internet and she runs a B&B here. When I got to her house she informed me that she is actually booked for the whole semester but she was bumping people just so that I could stay for as long as I wanted. About an hour after I got to her house, she whisked me off to see her friend Alejandro. He is a native Chilean but lived in California for many years. His house sits on top of the hill that Vina is built on. From there you can see out onto the ocean and down into all of Vina and even over into the town (and beach) of Renaca. He has two houses connected by decks, one is his and the other is soon to be mine! He and Veronica work together and so I will move in with Alejandro. They both stress the importance of foreign students feeling comfortable in their new country. This way, they say, I now have two homes in Chile! Both are within walking distance to my school too.

Speaking of school, I had orientation yesterday. The campus is gorgeous and very small. Just 4 or 5 buildings with vines and trees and small walkways that lead to gardens all over the place. Oh, and a view of the ocean. Everyone here has a view of the ocean! I met up with some other students from Australia, New Zealand, and Pennsylvania. We took a bus downtown and bought prepaid cell phones (only 30 US$!) and checked out Laura's apartment on the 16th floor, facing...you guessed it...the ocean! Tomorrow is her moving in party combined with my birthday party.

Alejandro's birthday was yesterday and Veronica's was the 19th so they too have decided to throw a party. All three of us will be celebrating on saturday and all of their friends are coming. On the menu are fresh olives from the north, lots of tasty fish, and the staple of every meal avocados and bread.

The weather is warm here, usually low 70's to mid 80's. Today it is overcast but the last few have been very sunny. Yesterday I walked for an hour and a half from downtown back to Veronica's. The whole walk is on the beach with the Pacific spraying over you every few minutes.

I have been speaking a lot of Spanish, mostly at school. The other students and I spoke English yesterday but are making a pact to stop doing that. We all decided it was too hard to get to know each other in Spanish so we took one day to fill each other in. Alejandro and Veronica both speak some English, so we discuss important things like when I'm moving in English but everyday chitchat is in Spanish. Alejandro says he will quit using English when I move in because he wants to help me get rid of my "mexican spanish".

Well, that's all for now! Pictures will be posted as soon as I figure out my new camera-

Chao,

Clare

P.S.- There are two things that have thrown me for a loop so far. One of which is the cheek kissing. I was expecting the one cheek kiss, but not so often! It's used for hello, goodbye, good morning, goodnight, and just generally whenever. My first experience was Veronica's 10 year old nephew who grabbed my hand and pulled me down so he could reach my cheek before we even said hello! 

The other thing is the shower situation. The hot water is heated with gas but you have to light it and let it sit for 10 minutes before you shower. Sadly, I am very very bad at lighting it. I've been shown countless times yet somehow I just can't get the bugger to go! So that means lots and lots of freezing cold showers, good thing the sun is so warm.

...and the kitchen sink

So here it is, three days before I leave for my semester in Chile and I'm starting to think about packing! I know a little, but not much, about the town I'm going to be living in. It's the height of summer down there so it should be warm- 

I'm going to try to check and update this blog as often as I can while I'm away so feel free to leave comments, advice, and good jokes!

~Clare