Hey guys, So! I am coming back soon! The other night...the night before my finals, I only got 3 hours of sleep because I seriously thought and thought about everything and anything possible for about 4 hours with a ton of knots in my stomach. It was just mostly reflecting but yeah. It's crazy. I am ready ,but I'm not also. I am really going to miss speaking spanish, being abroad and being around latinos all the time and being able to tone out people talking when I want to. Lots of times it's kinda embarrassing because I'll be around a conversation of friends and then I'll get asked if I understand what they're saying ,but I won't have been listening or focusing on it so it's kinda like, "yeah , but I wasn't listening so I missed out on a lot of the content" So you guys have all probably heard of the volcano that errupted like 3 times in 2 weeks. Didn't really affect Santiago , except for a lot more pollution. 
   Tomorrow most people in the program are leaving. I'm really glad I gave myself a week to just "chill" and do the things I wanna do again and shinanigans and just get ready to go and hang out with Ricardo a bunch.I think I'll be fine with packing...definitely gonna leave a lot of stuff here. I don't really know what to do with it though. The other day I went to a really big grocery store......like.... as big as winco...and I could barely handle that.
   So this is my last weekend here. Last weekend I went to the Cajon de Maipo to camp for a night with some people. It's just an area in the andes. We didn't go very far ,but it was cool and pretty. I went with 5 other girls and my friends pololo and Ricardo. It was fun. One of my menstrating friends was being super mean to Ricardo though and had a problem with absolutely everything he did so I got pretty fed up with that. We just all kinda ate, drank and hung out and gave some love to a stray dog that had followed us. The next day we went back. Then during the week I had tests and just kinda did that. Yesterday was kinda big, since it was so many peoples last night so I met up with Ricardo to get food and then we went to a girls apartment from my program to hangout/pregame before meeting at a beer place with practically the 40 other people in my group. It was pretty emotional and I got sad and cried a little bit and I think pretty much hugged everyone.There was karaoke too which I didn't do but lots of people did. It was difficult to say goodbye ,not really because I'm great friends with many of them but because they've been a part of the experience here. Then tonight I'm gonna get together with Ricardo and we're gonna go to a girls birthday party tomorrow which is at a really big park here. I wish I could take pictures my last weeek here. Not really sure where to find a disposable camera. , but it's okay. It's kinda cool because Ricardo is applying to do a work holiday in Canada and so he might visit if he gets his visa and stuff but it'd be pretty far from where he wants to be in Canada. It's been hard to develope close relationships here and not be able to show people the same side of my life, but I can at least talk about it. But yeah! Not too much going on. Just sad to go and excited too. It's hard to not think about it. When I'm with Ricardo it's hard to not talk about going back. Anyways, I'm having a hard time thinking of more to write, despite my almost sleep-less night this week. I love you all so much and again, thank you for all your support and love through this experience and I'll talk to you guys in person about it soon for the first time in over 8 months!!!!!!!! :-o <3 It's gonna be a tearful next week I think, and I'm dreading the plane ride because I fear that I'm gonna cry and want to cry for like 10 hours. But not just from sadness, but happiness that I've had this experience, that i've done it and happiness for seeing my loved ones soon. 

Hey everyone, it's 1:40 am and I can't sleep. I don't think this is going to be very uncommon though because I just can't stop thinking about leaving. I'm excited to return, but I'm sad to leave a place I've made my home for the last year where I've learned so much, met amazing people , has a beautiful culture and country. I think it's hard because it will be so hard to come back, but I guess it will be more likely that i'll return than me coming here to study abroad in the first place, so maybe I'll be able to make it happen. Tomorrow we have our goodbye dinner. Last semester it wasn't nearly as weird because I wasn't leaving like the majority of the travelors. Anyways....

As most of you know, I had my garbanzo bean incident. I accidentally fell asleep while cooking garbanzo beans. So they burned, the fumes were strong, firemen were called, and I woke up with about 4 of them in my room. They were cute at least. Fun fact is that the firemen here is that they are volunteers. The next morning, someone in the lobby pointed at me and said " That's the girl who started the fire!" So yes, at least I'm famous for another reason than being a gringa in my apartment.

Luckily, I had going to get food and drinks with Ricardo to look forward to that night so that made me feel better, especially because something similar happened with his mom once. Now , there is no longer any odor ,but I had to throw away the pan...but it was pretty poor quality. 

I've been doing a lot of things with Ricardo. Sometimes after his work during the week we just kinda make food and hang out or go out. He's a really great singer so that is fun.He's always singing to me and sometimes it takes me sometime if he's singing some song he knows or one that he's making up. I've also been learning some karate moves from him. His family is very sweet to me. 

This last weekend we decided to go to the beach for a night in Valparaiso. We planned on leaving in the morning around 9am, but didn't get on a bus until 4pm. Once we arrived we looked to find a hostel...and we found one that was really rad. I didn't take any pictures because I have no functioning camera, but he took some! Afterwards, we went out exploring and found a boat to go on a boat tour around the port. It was dark out, so it was very pretty to see the gently lit town and the dark ocean. I lost my sunglasses though. I was just not doing anything and suddenly felt a tap on my leg and a splash into the water. Not sure how they fell out of my bag,but I'm glad it wasn't my wallet! I've definitely been having that kind of luck lately. Afterwards we found a place to have dinner and drinks and a different place. Then we found a place that was doing karaoke and then had dancing... like reggaeton music. We had a drink and danced and it was lots of fun. The next day was neat! We went on our own independent graffiti tour which was fun, had some empanadas and I bought a sweatshirt. I'm starting to feel like I need to buy a bunch of stuff from here, although I don't think I really do. There are a bunch of war ships at this port that have free tours. We were going to do that ,but I wasn't allowed to since I'm a foreigner and really suspicious. We then went for dinner and then found a park to rest in the grass until it was time for our bus. A stray dog cuddled up next to me. It breaks my heart the dogs here...they're sooo loving...but they're kinda sketch to give love to. The domestic dogs are way more obnoxious and are the ones usually barking and what not. Three things i've learned that are common in chile are that it's uncommon to spay pets, It's uncommon to have your dog live indoors and that houses have gates around them, with the exception of the places where you wouldn't really call a person's house a "house" if you get what I mean. I think I talk a lot about pets to Ricardo or he's caught on that I really like animals, he's been talking about how he was going to buy me a little battery operated dog that walks and barks that he's seen being sold on the street... so of course we get back to Santiago and a guy is selling them. So of course, he buys me one. Now I have a small walking and barking dog that's eyes glow green. Looks a little dynomic ,but there are pink bows on it's ears so it's kinda precious. 
This might be my last blog post here....just cuz my laptop is not charging very well at all. Next week is my last week , mostly consisting of tests. I might go camping this weekend. but yeah. I'm leaving soon! Crazy ! I love you all! I'm excited to be home soon! Super bitter sweet and mixed, but still excited and stoked.

Hey everyone, so I was cleaning my room and I came across my letter and card stash and it just really kinda gave me a giant happy/sentimental/ sad pit in my stomach. I had to read them all again. I want to thank all you guys for sending me mail and keeping in touch with me and just how special it is to have people in my life like you all even when I'm thousands of miles and a hemisphere away. I'm pretty sure I have the biggest mail stash out of anyone else in my program, but I won't go ask around just because I don't want to make others jealous. But really. This is so special and is always such a highlight. This experience wouldn't be what it is if I didn't get to share this experience with all of you and I want you all to know how special and helpful it has been to have your support, encouragement, love, interest and contact. Thank you for this and keeping me in touch with your lives. I'm so excited to see you all whenever that may be ,but since I've been here I don't feel like I've gotten further away from any of you. It's been difficult to be deprived of your company, but I look forward to reuniting with all of you at                                                                                           some point or just being in contact. You all are the best and I love you all                                                                         soooo much. Thank you for being you and being there for me.                              <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3 Now I have to clean my room with letters and cards everywhere.

Hey! So here I am with not even 2 months to go. Crazy right? It's definitely gonna fly by with all of the school work I have to do and soaking up my last stretch of time here. Today there are clouds and it is wonderful and tomorrow it's supposed to rain. It was funny because we had our hottest day on the first day of fall which was around 97 degrees.
I think I left on the 5th for my spring break! On the day my pigeons eggs hatched...so the chicks are kinda big now. There's poop everywhere. They were kind of habituated in a bird poop stash. They climbed out of the nest though...so maybe they got tired of that or my roommate scared them. They're pretty cute. So we got to the southern town called Punta Arenas in southern Chile.  We arrived at 12am since the bus we needed doesn't run that late we spent the night in the airport to catch the 7am bus to Puerto Natales and then to Parque Torres del Paine/Patagonia area. It was a pretty small airport, so we went up stairs, rolled out our sleeping bags and managed to get as much sleep possible in that kind of situation. So we got up early, packed up and caught our bus which brought us to Puerto Natales and then we took a bus to the park. We arrived around 4:30 and began our hike at 5. We had about a 4 hour hike to go and it was probably the easiest we had since it was fairly dry and flat. In my group was one girl named Richelle and 2 guys, Luke and Adrian. It was cool because while hiking on a narrow path on the side of a hill, we were surprised by a herd of horses passing on our path. I'm not sure if they were wild or not, but no one was with them and they weren't equipped with anything either. So that was pretty awesome. Maybe around 50 or so had passed us? We got to our camp( Camp Serán) around 9 pm and made our dinners(mine being ramen) which tasted sooo good after a long day. 
Day 2 
This day was tough, but was kind of a warm up for what I was in for. We headed towards camp dickson. We lucked out with rain, until we got to camp, but then it started raining on arrival. This is the day I got my gnarly blister on the bottom/side of my heel. We had met some drunky/hardcore hikers who were planning on popping it for that night because they were going to pop this guys blister in their group who had a gnarlier blister than mine. They let me have some moleskin for it during the hike though. When they came for me at camp to be my blister popping doctor, I became aware that it had popped on it's on...and I was kinda grateful for that. That night Richelle and I stayed in the warm lodge...where we probably weren't supposed to be since we weren't paying to stay in the refuge....but it was warm and the camp rangers were cute and nice and shared wine with me. It was fun. Eventually I went to bed, but didn't get much sleep because of how cold I was. I also had to pee for half of the night ,but wasn't going to go out to the bathroom...now looking back it maybe would've been worth it ,but it was cold and rainy.  I think the hike we did this day was a six hour hike


Day 3
This day was rough...because it rained a lot and it was muddy, but the hike was incredible and we began to see more of the glacier. We were headed to Camp Los Perros today and it rained a lot, was cold and muddddy! It was like an obstacle course. Streams /small rapids to cross, sketchy bridges, steep hills and slopes to go up and down...but we made it!!! We got to camp wet. My feet were soaked and muddy from crossing streams and dodging endless patches of deep mud. At our camp there was a little lodge that they let all the hikers take over to dry out our wet stuff...which space was pretty competitive for that. It was pretty crowded because the hikers that had gone to do the hike beyond that camp that day had hike a good 3 hours to the top of this mountain pass..on the other side the snow was too deep and the wind was too strong so they turned back...which sounded super sucky. It was iffy if the conditions would be better the next day so the rangers said that the next day, any hikers planning on doing this hike would have to meet with them at 8 am and we would do it together. One camp ranger stayed in front while one stayed with the last person in back. So we tried to get our things dry for the next day. I wasn't really feeling like meeting anyone and just went to bed as early as possible. It was hard to not get muddy, especially because I couldn't wear my hiking shoes anymore than i had to because they were just killing my feet so I was walking in pretty deep mud at times with my flip flops on...yea no wonder i had some infected owies. 

Day 4
So we went off to do this hike that we didn't even know we'd succeed at...most difficult and awesome hike I've done. The first stretch was foresty, full of mud and streams. I was trying to appreciate the mud...and right as I did that I fell forward , hitting my knee on a rock which made it a little tender for the rest of the day, mostly on down hill. Then there was the part where I actually saw what I was climbing up...and it was really like a mountain. The people in front of me looked like tiny little things. Lots of the mountain was just rocky with water/streams running down it , but that eventually just became snow. I had know idea I would be hiking in snow. 
At parts it was over a foot deep too. Luckily, the weather was being much better that day. The view while going up the mountain was absolutely incredible. I would look at an area and it would just all be white.. and made me feel like I was in another world. I made it to the top. Going down hill was probably more intense, plus hurt my knee. It was very steep, slippery and kinda windy, but it was so incredibly beautiful. At the foot of the mountain was an amazing view of a blue glacier. I didn't even really know what a glacier looked like or that it looked so incredible in person. The last third of the hike was back in the woods ,but there were little views of the glacier that would surprise me every now and then. I was having a rough time on the way down. I just kept falling and falling and falling and falling. I also probably rolled my ankles a couple of times, but after 5 hours, I made it! I reunited with my group and we decided to hike the next 3 hours to the next camp that had a lot more to offer(such as a lodge and a little shop) since this camp was kinda plain and not in a very good area. So we did that. My feet...were just terrible and felt sooo manyy different versions of pain with every step...but we made it. This was a really nice camp...for the people paying to stay in the lodge at least. They had a bar, shop and restaurant. It was kind of difficult to meet people because I was sharing wine with my friend and she's kinda a conversation/attention hog so I barely would get words in. Just as I was getting kind of annoyed and had to go back to the shop for something, I think he was a worker who had stopped after seeing my face and had to touch it and then tried kissing me ,but I told him no. He's probably tried kissing all the white blonde girls there. Anyways, it was a fun and lame night. 

Day 5
We had a shorter hike this day. I think it was like a 3.5 hour hike. Weather was finally good this day. We still were getting awesome views of the glacier and glacier ice and the lake and just beauty. It was alll so cool. The camp we got to was at the foot of a valley and was soooo windy. Maybe the windiest I've ever experienced. This area was beautiful, there was a boat, the valley, so much space, and alll of these cute colorful tents. This night didn't really differ from the others. We had finished Circuit O and Richelle and I were going to do the "w" which is a much more popular and shorter hike the next day and the guys were going to split off to do the "q". I went to bed that night and realized how painful it was for anything to be touching my big fat ex blister that I had gotten the 2nd day. 
I woke up the next morning and kinda discovered that it seemed fairly infected and hurt a lot. It was shitty because I didn't really have soap ,but I managed to drowned it with antibiotic ointment. So it came down to a decision. There was a ferry that would come and go to that camp every so many hours and go to an area where buses picked up/dropped off campers. So I could take that...and go back to the city, or continue hiking and have no access to leave for 2 more nights. So I chose to go. I left with 2 other people in my program who had planned to leave that day. We arrived and they got on a bus, I waited because I had a 2 way ticket but my bus wasn't there....and it didn't show up for like 5 hours... so I went and wrote in small, pricey cafe with some coffee. It felt pretty good though. My bus came and I got into town maybe around 11? I needed to find a hostel. I didn't really want to walk at night ,but I should've at least walked a block to find a different hostel than the one right across the street that cost like a million dollars. But it was comforting to have that and have more control over my foot situation...plus, in the morning I got to shower ...which I hadn't for 5 days. So then I left that afternoon to punta arenas to spend another night at a different hostel. I was very short on money because of the dumb hostel I stayed at and could only make sure to spend it on a hostel and for transportation to the airport the next day. I got to Punta Arenas, found a cheaper hostel, paid for a shuttle to the airport the next day and went to go find beer to buy with the dollar I had left. I walked around the town a lot and it was pretty cute and quaint. There's not a beach, but lots of boats and it's a pretty cool area. It was  kind of a tease walking around with no money. I went back to my hostel to make dinner out of leftovers from my hiking trip...carrot, dehydrated veggie meat and instant mashed potatoes. It was pretty gross, but it was good to have food. It sucked though because the beer I had was seriously the most disgusting beer I've had in my life. I met some nice people at that hostel and went to bed early. I woke up the next day  and just didn't have a lot to do. I had to check out of the hostel, all I had to eat was a stash of carrots....really bitter carrots and just had my journal. So I wrote a lot. I hung outside when I could, but it was rainy so I stayed at the bus station for like 8 hours on and off, waiting for my ride to the airport at 8 pm. Eventually that happened. My driver was awesome...and scary. He had asked about my adventure and then managed to show me pictures of himself at Torres del Paine on facebook from like 10 years ago. Then I mentioned to him that I liked to salsa and he got so excited. He blasted on his salsa cd, began hollaring and dancing to the music. It brightened my very non eventful day. I got to the airport...to spend the night once again since our airplane would leave around 6am on Saturday. I hung around waiting to meet with Richelle. A  young guy who worked at a chocolate shop  began talking to me since he was pretty bored and there wasn't anyone interested in his shop.  So he was good company for the next 2.5 hours and even offered me some chocolate samples which....I appreciated so much, only having had eaten terrible carrots that day. So the night past and I spent the night there and shinanigans. The next day I arrived in Santiago and that was the end of that trip!It was cool on my hike because we could drink the stream water...and it was the best water I've had in my life and you didn't have to worry about purifying water or anything since it was just water coming from the glacier and snow.

My next adventure was this last weekend. I went to a beach town (el Tabo) with some friends, my friends boyfriend and his friend. We rented a cabin for a night and it was awesome. We spent some good time on the beach, relaxing, walking and playing soccer. I had a blast and everyone was impressed with my soccer moves so I'm glad I can still do some things. The guys were pretty into playing music. There was a guy who would sing, and there were two guitars and 2 odd percussion instruments. One being the güira which I think takes special talent to make sound good...since I had to play it and I'm pretty sure I wasn't making it work. It's kinda like scratching a cheese grate with a fork? I'll post a picture of it. I had lots of fun dancing and hanging out with everyone while having drinks and eating bread with avocado and grilled veggies. I brought vegan brownies for everyone to enjoy too. The cabins were pretty cute. We saw some exciting wild life. I found a really cool moth and we also saw a tarantula -like spider which was creepy since it was right after I had gone under the porch to grab keys I had dropped. One of the most fun weekends I've had here. I also danced a lot and just had a blast. It was a lot of fun getting hanging out with the girls in my program and the guys and just being goofy and jolly. 

Hey! Not a lot has been happening...I think I've felt 2 earthquakes this month? Once while in bed and then another while at school. the one at school was a 5.8, but my professor just shrugged it offf...I guess if it had lasted longer we would have evacuated. Anytime when someone in my class is bouncing the leg...shaking the floor, I have to realize that it isn't an earthquake. I've now felt 4 though, definitely something to brag about.  Not a lot has gone on this month. I had a field trip to the beach which was the same as last semester. This time I didn't stay the weekend though so I could celebrate valentine's day. I haven't been dancing that much, but I think I'm still improving. It's not that I've been enjoying it less. Just less opportunities maybe. This time at the beach the sand dunes were too hot to climb and I saw dolphins from far away! 
   Classes have been good. I really enjoy all of my classes. My short story and essay class is really cool. We get really deep into discussion about important themes/concepts in latin america that are portrayed in writing and it's actually really interesting. I never though I could enjoy a class so much, especially in spanish. Then there's my writing class where we write but also read some trippy stories...that sometimes just don't make any sense. Then I have my latin american cultures class where we learn about the inkas, aztecs, mayans and the spanish conquistadors. 
    So, I'm going home kind of soon. I'm starting to feel pressured to make the most out of the remainder of my trip. It's weird because Chile has become a second home to me. A way of life that will soon be thousands of miles and dollars away. Chile isn't even that different than the states, but it is. It's been difficult lately because I get excited that I'll get to go home soon....but then I get sad because I realize I'm leaving soon. It is going to be incredibly bitter sweet and as excited as I am, I'm uneasy about it. There are plenty of things in the states that I don't miss...and that's what I think about when I'm missing home. I'll do the same when I leave Chile I guess. 
     Living in my apartment has been good. Traffic is loud, but it's loud everywhere in Santiago. After this experience I am going to want to travel more, not necessarily to Chile, but to other latin countries. Plus the Spanish is bound to be better anywhere else. I feel like there are many small differences here that I will miss. Like people being more approachable. Being a foreigner here can be terrible for my confidence at times ,but it can also be great for it. They also have hugeeee, parks here...the most beautiful, nice parks I've ever been to. I have more fun here, I've had the most fun I've had in my life. Fun is more accessible and part of the culture I feel like, or maybe it's part of the studying abroad culture. Maybe I'll be better at having it though. Traditional chilean food....mmm nothing I'm going to miss, but I'll miss the cheap market I got to to buy my produce sometimes . I'll miss seeing the Andes mountains everyday ,but I won't miss the smog. I'll miss the metro system. I miss being able to compost.  I will miss the big giant windows that I can have open all the time without too many bugs entering, but not the heat that keeps me from sleeping and dehydrates me constantly. I miss more affordable, vegan friendly and thai restuarants.  I will miss the incredibly diverse landscape of Chile, but I'm now encouraged and excited to travel and explore more of what the states has to offer me. I miss yummy water. I don't miss the usa media and I love being away from it. I'll miss the clothes that are in style and sold here. Their style is much more fun. I will miss seeing men wearing fashionable scarves. I won't miss being catcalled but I might miss being called beautiful by strangers. I miss paper bags and free public bathrooms.I will miss spontaneous 5 dollar buses that will take me to the beach.I will miss the ability to completely block out noisy conversations ,but I miss being able to understand a language pretty much all the time. I'll miss the salsa, bachata and old school english music they play here. I'll miss the non annoying and pretty birds here ,but I miss the squirrels. I miss having a backyard. I miss actual mexican food and my bed. I'll miss seeing that people love each other in public and graffiti as real art, I miss things being easily accessible. I'll miss everyone I have met here and been lucky to have had this experience with such as David ,the relationships that I've developed  in my program, with people in Chile and other travelers , but I miss all of my friends and family more than ever and more than I knew I could. I just know though that it is going to be more difficult adjusting back to things than it was to adjust here.
        This week I'm going to the south for about 9 days. I'll be going with 4 other people so I'm pretty excited but have a lot to do. On Thursday we will fly to the south of chile in Punto Arenas and then take transportation to Torres del Paine national park to do the "W" circuit which should be about 4 days. So I'm going to Patagonia pretty much, the Chilean part. Patagonia is also in Argentina. I'll post a picture of Torres del Paine. Today I was going out shopping for warmer/better hiking clothes and totally managed to lock myself out. I have been really great about having my keys on me, but I went running yesterday so I disconnected them from my key chain, not realizing my keys weren't attached when I left. So that was annoying. I went down to reception to see if they could help me in any way and he tried to bust through my door with a plastic thing which didn't work..luckily my roommate was coming back from vacation today and would be back in 3 hours. So I went and did my shopping and it all worked out really well! I was proud for how well explaining my problem to the receptionist worked or just that he understood me and what not. 
      I've been salsa dancing, but not as much as I had last term. It was cool because David planned an outdoor salsa/bachata event at a park that had a really great outcome. Every now and then I go to couch surf meetings at a bar where travelers/foreigners go to meet eachother and chileans just to chat and mingle. It's a lot of fun and I always meet new people who are patient with my Spanish. I guess I really enjoy these events because they're fun and that I don't feel intimidated or uncomfortable when speaking spanish. So yeah! That's kinda the scoop. Oh and there's the pigeon, that I've already told you all about! she'll probably be traumatized with me leaving the week and get pissed that no one is feeding her peanuts, but maybe her babies will be there when I come back!

Hey, my title doesn't mean much..just trying to make things a little interesting except they do apply. Classes have started and they're awesome.  It's fun getting to know the knew students. The other day I got bit by a dog. It was very miner and a wimpy dog bite. Wasn't my fault or the dogs fault. I walked into a store and someone left their nearly invisibly white dog(same color as the tiled floor) on it's leash in the entry of the store. So of course I step on it's tail or paw. and of course it bites me. It was a small bite ,but it bled. It's fine though. I felt bad for the dog ,but it seemed fine except for traumatized. It was a bad place for someone to leave their dog though. I'm sure they didn't have bad intentions ,but it was shitty because I felt bad for stepping on their dog and their dog hurt me. So I hope the dog gives their owner a good talk about that. Also, there was an earthquake last night! It was small. My 2nd earthquake while in Chile! Pretty exciting. I was in bed this time....trying to sleep(it's hard to sleep because it's so hot). And then my bed jumped...it felt like a pet had jumped into bed with me...which was a very freaky feeling since I don't have any pets, I was half asleep and I live alone. So it was pretty small...I'm not sure what number it was on the scale...still pretty crazy though.In the picture below...notice how low of a place the dog bit me..cuz that's how small it was. Also the other day I was walking to the metro from school and 2 kids were looking at me...and I was kinda concerned that they were gonna try to mug me ,but then one of them just ran up and poked me and they were cracking up. They were playing "poke the gringa game"

Hey everyone, First post of the new year! Bet you all weren't expecting it to be this early with how much I've slacked. I've been on my vacations since around December 11th and return to my classes on January 12th I believe. Last week:( On the 7th I'm going to the welcome orientation dinner to meet the new students! It will be entertaining to see all of the dazed, overwhelmed and excited new students just like I was 4 months ago.
Anyways, my new year celebration was wonderful. I went to David's house for dinner which was yummy. We had wine and started with some mini empanadas and then the main course included a big salad , these mashed potato balls that you bake, chicken(for them) and then for dessert we had were a walnut thing that was very rich and delicious. Afterwards, we went to a stadium where we had a table reserved and were accompanied with more family members. We hung out for some time and danced a little to remixed hits that are from the popular U.S. music, totally wanted salsa music though. David's grandmother and her brother proved that they can dance though. At 12 everyone had their champagne in hand and counted down from diez to uno. Then it was time for the fireworks to start! I guess the do it yourself fireworks are illegal here. We all gathered on the futbol field to watch the firework show which was pretty and enjoyable.As we watched David's grandmother was teaching me some bad words. The fireworks ended and then salsa music finally began. So David and I danced on the lawn for maybe 30 or so minutes. It was fun because there were people watching us. After that David and I headed to a party at an apartment. There was music, dancing , lots of cigarette smoke , lots of alcohol and snacks. It was pretty full. David, a friend of his and I shared coke with pisco(a chilean liquor). We danced , mingled and that sort of shinanigans. We stayed there until 8am until the metro was up and running again. So that was my new years. 

Then last Friday I went with David and a group of his friends to Santiago's amusement park, Fantasilandia. It was a pretty fun park. They had a few water rides, which was perfect with the 90 degree weather, some intense roller coasters, bumper cars..and then some upside downy rides that were awesome and totally new to me. That was a blast ,but my stomach started to be a loser. Being at a theme park made me feel a little nostalgic. 
On Saturday I went salsa dancing which was great, the last time I went was when I had taken Timmy to a salsoteca so it had been some time since I went all out.

So! I have my new apartment! I don't yet have a roommate... not sure when that's going to happen. I love living at this apartment though. I love doing my laundry and getting to cook a lot. So far, since Tim has left I've made things like risotto, enchilada pie, brownies , curry, gazpacho and then just miscellaneous stuff. It's in a cleaner part of Santiago with a better view. I have a longer metro ride to my school ,but it's now a 5 minute walk to the metro instead of a 20 minute walk and I don't have to change lines like I had to last term. It's just nice to not feel like I can be the way I want to be and live how I want to. Like, I'm able to write this at a dining table. I ate at a table probably less than 10 times at my previous place. I feel a lot more relaxed and at ease not feeling like someone is hosting me and that I can just kinda do more of my own thing now. I loved having a homestay and I'm glad I did that, but I was ready to be on my own. Yay independence. 
One thing I haven't really mentioned in my blogs is how customer service is so different here. Different as in it almost just isn't a thing. I don't think it can be an expectation here. Not saying that there isn't any, but there isn't a lot of it  at a large amount of the places I've been to. An example is cashiers texting/checking you out. Another thing that I haven't really emphasized is how it can actually be hard to find things here...just cuz they might not be around...I mean I guess an example is how a lot of the produce is in season and it's great, but different. For example, today I went to the store equivalent to walmart (Lider) nearby my house. They did not have cucumbers stalked anywhere. So I walked a couple of blocks to the other "large" store here and there were like 5 cucumbers and I picked out the best one , but this is what that left me(below). It's just interesting to compare having everything so easily in reach there in the states , but here not as much. It makes it easier in the states, but there are many things I've gone without for this reason and it just hasn't really mattered to me. Things are just harder to reach in one place .

Hi everyone!This is gonna be a long post, just to warn you all. I'll try to provide a decent run down of my most recent activities by the day:
October 24

Everyone going on the northern field trip had to meet up at 4:30 pm to take a bus to the air port to go to the Atacama Desert, AKA the driest place on the planet. We arrived and went straight to the hotel in San Pedro, a small touristy town with a lot of Incan history. It was a great place to explore and is probably the most different place I've been to in Chile and made me feel like I'm actually not in the U.S. anymore. We had a mini tour of San Pedro, and later went to a museum. Our hotel was pretty cool, there was an icey pool outside

October 25

We went to the salar flat of the atacama where flamingos roamed and then we went to a salty lake where you could float and then we went to these two big swimming holes!

October 26

we went to some hot springs and cacti valley

October 27 

went to an awesome observatory

October 28
I think I sat out of the activity on this day which was a bummer because it was our last day. I wanted to rest my ankle because I injured it by sliding on a tile floor in my socks the night before and fell on it. Wanted to be able to hike the machu picchu shinanigans which was in like 3 days

Machu picchu trip
I went to machu Picchu for the rest of the week off with Matt and Forrest. It was a blast.  We stayed a night in Cusco to get adjusted to the altitude. Drank lots of coco tea. That morning we took 2 colectivo vans to santa teresa where we then hiked 2 hours along a train track to find a camp area. The first colectivo ride(these vans that have a set destination and then go once they're full) probably had 12 passengers and was a 4 hour car ride. I got quite a rush in these cars. they drive crazily along an edge that looks like youre just about to fall off from. but I'm writing this, so I lived through it. When we got to santa teresa, my legs were immediately eaten by these savages called sand flies. They messed up my legs pretty badly and made them pretty growdy. Forgot that bug spray. We made it to the pueblo, set up camp and everything was good. Before falling asleep Matt and I heard this indescribable growling...I seriously think of it as a rabid werewolf. I haven't heard a scarier growling than that night, including all of those horror movies I've seen. It was right outside of our tent. Maybe it was because there was food in our packs that were outside of the tent. 

The next day we went to Machu Picchu! Machu Picchu is a town that wasn't discovered too long ago that was ran by the Inkans. The Inkans disappeared, but they aren't sure why. Maybe it was because of the conquistadors but their city was untouched and not distroyed when found so that was interesting. They have the machu picchu park and then two other mountains that you can hike from that. We did the machu picchu mountain. Hardest hike I've managed to do. The stairs were way too big, steep and never ending. We got to the top and we were in a cloud. It was so amazing. It felt good. It was cool because some of the stray dogs managed to do the hike too. It was rewarding to see so many people manage to do the hike. We had to pay extra to do it and they only let so many people enter the park and do the mountain hikes for erosion purposes. We then explored the park for 3 hours and were exhausted after that. I accidentally dropped my hat into the toilet and so I threw it away. Later we saw a man carrying the same designed hat soo we weren't sure if that was my toilet hat or not. We then went back and chilled for the rest of the day. The next day we went back to Cusco and stayed at a hostel for 2 nights. The hostel was fun ,but we were pretty beat and didn't have a lot of energy. Cusco was fun. and cheap. We went out for lunch, managed to get a drink, meal and one dessert for probably less than 30 dollars all together , maybe less. I'd like to go back to Peru, but I'm not sure if I'll make it back there because the plane rides are pretty expensive.Sorry this entry is somewhat in telegraphic speech.

Hi! Sorry It's been a little bit since I've written and I apologize now for a potentially uneventful blog-post. These last two weeks have consisted of a lot of homework doing, dancing and a couple of other random activities. I suppose I left off after the Independence weekend.
That following week on Wednesday I went to a weekly couchsurfing meeting at a the Apunto Rojo bar in Bellavista area with Kailie Kai and Matt. This meeting is just a meeting for travelers and Chileans to meet and mingle and practice speaking different languages. It was a blast. I met a few people including David who I hung out with for the rest of the event. He convinced us to go to this weekly dance thing called Miercoles po that was nearby and that was free up until a certain point at night. A lot of people in my group have gone there ,but none of us had. It's interesting because it's kinda like a dance event for exchange students,but has a new location each week. The next day I went salsa dancing with David . A lot of people from couch surfing were there . I'm sure I was slightly painful to dance with that night with my mediocre dance moves, but I've been improving. I think I've gone salsa dancing 4 times in the last 2 weeks plus 2 latin dance classes I have for school.So I guess I've gone every other day for the past two weeks. That night I also learned the Bachata which is fun, but I think I like salsa more. On Wednesday we went to another salsateca where they have a free Kizamba dance lesson and then open dance. 
Then came Friday. I went on a field trip to Ocoa Valley which is in La Campana National Park. It was pretty and involved a somewhat tiresome hike. There were cacti everywhere and nearly every non-cactus plant had thorns. At the end of the trail was a waterfall. Of course we had to climb down to the waterfall area which was awesome. Some people decided to climb the rocks of the waterfall though which was pretty waterfall-sketchy. I knew someone was gonna fall. Matt was the highest ,but managed to get down okay. Oscar was up maybe a good10-15 ft. and slipped to the bottom. LUCKILY he barely had a scratch on him. It was pretty scary though. After finishing our hike, we stopped at a restuarant where maybe like 70 pre-ordered empanadas were waiting for us. It was amazing. Thennnn that weekend, probably on Saturday I went salsa dancing again with David and some of his friends. Yay Salsa and dancing and music and having David to dance with. It's a lot of fun. Also, David said that I've improved a lot...so that's reassuring and makes me feel like I might actual get good ish at some point. We went to the couch surfing thing yesterday and went salsa dancing afterwards to a club that had salsa music as well as a gypsy band with belly dancers! I've always wanted to see live belly dancers. They were great and so was the music ,but mostly the dancing. I got asked to dance by 2 other guys,but kinda sucked at it cuz I didn't know their style of salsa and/or they weren't great leads.
Home life is pretty good. I wish I saw and got to interact with my host parents more often.
It's transition into spring...or maybe it's spring now? It's a little frustrating when dressing for the weather because people dress so warmly here. I think there was a day when the high was 80 degrees. I wore shorts to my 11am class... walked to the metro and went to school and notice that there aren't any other ladies wearing shorts. If they are, they're wearing tights under them. So it's a little bizarre. It's been in the 70's ,but people still are in their pants and jackets. I can't do that. The metros are super warm usually and they leave all of their layers on. This is because they don't want their body to go into shock from the temperature change...my body will go into shock if I dress the way they do though. Well that's all. Not. But I can tell you more over video chat and shinanigans. I love you guys and I hope you all are well.

Hi!!!! I'm alive and everything. So I have a little bit of catching up to do. I'll start with as far back as I remember which was about 3 weekends ago. I went to my first movie in Chile. Libranos del Mal. It's a movie of the U.S. and was in English with Spanish subtitles. It was really freaky and scary.  Not a lot happened the following week....just school which is good. On Friday my class went on a field trip to one of the 3 houses of Pablo Neruda, La Chascona. It's named La Chascona after Pablo Neruda's mistress who had a lot of hair(on her head). HIs house was pretty incredible. Sooooo many things from around the world and just had so many cool, interesting and colorful things. I really liked his wine glasses which are colorful because he believed wine tasted better with more of the senses being activated. 

Last weekend was the Viña del Mar/ Valparaíso field trip. The field trip was only for Friday, but a lot of us stayed the entire weekend. I kind of organized for a lot of us to stay at the same hostel. It was called the Street Garden Hostel. Having their entire hostel booked out  kept the owners pretty busy, but I think they really appreciated the business because they thanked me for organizing it when I checked out.
On Friday my group first stopped in Valpo where we had a boat tour which was pretty cool. We got to be on top of the double decker boat. The weather was perfect too. We then went to a military museum there. Then we went to Concon where there are huge dunes....like bigger and steeper than pacific city. They were super fun to just run around on. The view from them was absolutely incredible. It was a pretty liberating experience. We then went to Vina and stayed there since we were gonna stay the night. We got to our hostel and kinda got our party on for the rest of the night. A lot of people partied a little too hard... The hostel was really cute. I was in an 8 person room which was filled with people from my group. The beach was pretty close and really cool too. It was too cold to go swimming ,but the sand was nice and the surfer's were fun to watch.

Saturday it kinda rained, and a lot of people were recovering from the night before. So Alysa, Sara and I voyaged on a bus to Valparaiso to check out another Pablo Neruda house called la Sebastiana. It wasn't huge,but was narrow and 5 stories. It was somewhat similar to his other house ,but I think I enjoyed the architecture more. Pretty amazing. I think this one belonged to his second wife.  Afterwards we went to el Museo del cielo abierto. It was a street with a bunch of incredible graffiti and artsy shinanigans. It was funny because at La sebastiana, we ran into a guy that I guess people met when they went skiing on the Andes....wasn't the last time to run into him either haha. We also accumulated another gringo named John who was from Georgia(the state). Museo del cielo abierto was incredible. I'll have some photos of it put up. I felt like I was in wonderland. It was just so cool how colorful of a place it was. I think when' I return to the states I'll be obligated to become a graffiti artist and paint amazing things on buildings. After that we found a cafe to have lunch at and then headed back to Vina del Mar.

Sunday was checkout day so some of us headed to the beach to relax it up. It was a lot of fun to watch the stray dogs play on the beach....because they love it as much as any dog does. They run at the waves and just run around and seem pretty happy there. Matt was encouraged to dig a really big hole, so he was doing that and got one of the dogs to help him out. At one point there was a vender on the beach who was walking around. A mass of the dogs ran to him and began barking and growling. So that was scary. You could tell that they didn't like him. He left and came back with a pole or something to hit them with. That made me really sad and was scary, but luckily another man confronted him and talked him out of harming the dogs. Really didn't want to see that happen. For leaving Vina, we had a plan to meet everyone at this one place at two to go find the bus station together as a group. I was with Forrest and Matt and No one met up with us. We were even 10 minutes late. So that got kinda messy cuz no one really knew where the station was and it was kind of far, and we had a late start from waiting for everyone who didn't show. As we were practically running to the bus stop( cuz we were late) we were calling other people in our group to give them directions. We got there 10 minutes before the bus was about to leave. Totally didn't think everyone else was going to make it in time...unless they had been running, I guess that had been running so they made it. It was awesome. SO, in the end, everything turned out okay. 

So, Independence week! I probably didn't have a super typical Independence week...,but I managed to enjoy it very much. The people at my college had the whole week off. I had 2 days off which was pretty good. I guess it was kinda like my Thanksgiving break. One thing that I respected a lot is that it's pretty much prohibited to make people work on 18, Septiembre and even like the day after. The streets are dead and nothing is really open. I guess some exceptions are a few bars/restaurants. I felt bad for the security people at my apartment. Especially because in the states... it's not a huge surprise when you have to work on a holiday and so many people do have to anyways like at grocery stores, but here...really like nothing is open. Some small businesses are open I think just by the owners ,but that's all I really saw. There are festivals that go on all week called fondas. I went to my first one yesterday. I also went to a military parade. I couldn't see a lot, but it was fun to just watch all the crash landings of kites...because nearly every kid was flying a kite. The trees were full of kites. There were a lot of venders..but it was nearly impossible to move around in that area. A lot of families were there , BBQing and was just a cool atmosphere(not the bbqing). The next day I went to a concert with some friends..I'm sure the music was good...but I was too far in the back because I was too drunk to really care about the music. It was fun. Practiced the merengue and salsa a little bit. Then.. yesterday I went to a fonda at Parque Ines de suarez. I mostly went there because there were 3 chilean bands that would be playing and I reallllly wanted to see Chico Trujillo. Even though you aren't here in Chile...I totally recommend these artists. First was the band Inti-Illimani, 2nd was Manuel Garcia and lastly was Chico Trujillo.. I kinda was standing for 5 hours because I wanted to keep my spot. It was so perfect. After each band I would move up a bit..or get pushed up but pretty willingly. By the time Chico Trujillo was playing I was pretty much in the front. All of the music was so amazing. Definitely the best concert I've been to. It was at a stage outside too. I had my first experience with mosh pitting. Which I didn't really choose. It was pretty fun actually. Just wanted to make sure to stay on my toes and not fall down to my death. It was really powerful and I didn't fall down. Lots of good energy. It was kinda like jumping and moving without moving yourself but being moved by people. Today I'm probably going to go to a market or something. 
I've been sick ish this week, but it never got too bad. 
People have been very nice to me here. I once dropped my metro card without knowing and someone ran to give it back to me. Or when I was with Alyssa and Sara in Vina, someone stopped to ask us where we were trying to get to or if we needed help. Then yesterday after the concert someone tapped my shoulder to give me a cue of the direction of the exit and the day before at a metro station a security officer asked if I needed help or anything because I was just kinda waiting for some people.
I love seeing how important this celebration is to Chile and the people here. It's just special.
Other than that, I'm going to Machu Pichu in later October/early November.  I love you all and I miss you. I hope you're all well and muchos besitos. I hope to talk to you all soon. Shoot me an email  about how you're doing if you feel like it:)