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!