Mendoza, Argentina

OK, it’s been a while since I’ve written about what I have been doing (about 3 weeks or so).  Things have been picking up here and I’ve been a lot busier than the first couple months.  That and I probably don’t manage my time very well, so I keep putting off writing on the blog.  Anyways, part of the reason I am a little busier now is that I finally started my service learning.  Service learning counts as one of my classes—I get the same number of credits as I would for a normal class (4).  We choose from a list of service learning sites and document our hours and, at the end of the semester, write a paper about the experience.  For my service learning, I am volunteering at a private k-12 English school (St. Peter’s School).  I know, it sounds kind of ridiculous to say that I am volunteering at a private school—not really what one thinks of when talking about service.  We were able to choose from various different places to work at, one of them being a poorer school attended by kids from poorer families.  However, that school only had 3 openings and it involved working with early elementary age kids.  I wanted to work with older kids, so I was paired with St. Peter’s, where they had like 7 openings.  Anyways, I help out with the English classes (grade 7, 8 and 10).             

            When I first started a couple of weeks ago, it was really chaotic and they basically just put us in any class that they felt like (one day I ended up in a 7^th grade tech. class that was in Spanish and I just basically sat there because I didn’t know exactly how I was supposed to be helping—awkward!).  Then I went to one of the English classes and the teacher basically let me take over.  I started out just introducing myself and then I took up the rest of the class asking the kids questions and answering theirs.  That was in a 7^th grade class and now that teacher is having me come with her to her 8^th and 10^th grade classes also.  Now I prepare exercises and activities for the classes and I like it a lot more than I did at the beginning. 

 

            I’ve definitely noticed how different schools are here compared to schools in the US.  For example, I can literally just walk in St. Peter’s School with out stopping at a desk or getting a visitor’s pass or anything.  Also, the school is much smaller with about 30 students per grade.  Also, the school, since it is private, is family owned and operated more like a business.  Other private schools in Chile are considered corporations.  Another thing I’ve noticed is that the teachers are often late to class and, in general, very disorganized.  Often times the class will be completely nuts and the teacher won’t do anything.  Sometimes the teachers will just leave the classroom for a period of about 10 minutes or so.  I was really surprised that day that I “helped out” in the tech class when I saw that a student had brought a paintball gun to class and was showing it off to his friends after class had ended!  The English teachers I’ve been working with don’t put up with any bull crap, however.   

 

I go to St. Peter’s on Wednesdays and Fridays in the mornings.  Since I have class Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, that means no more sleeping in.  I’m somehow supposed to get 80 hours in before the end of the semester, but I don’t see that happening, since I’m limited to Wednesday and Friday mornings and will have to miss some days for traveling.  

A couple weeks ago our group went to a partido de futbol (soccer game) at the national stadium in Santiago.  It was Chile Vs. Argentina, their historic rival.  Argentina always wins—they’ve won every game in the past thirty-something years.  But, this time Chile won!  It was a pretty exciting game to see.  On the bus ride back to Vina people were honking their horns and waving their Chilean flags out car windows, it was wild. 

 

We got back to Vina at about one something in the morning after the game, a Wednesday night.  A group of us skipped our senior seminar class on Thursday and went to Mendoza, Argentina, about an 8-hour bus ride from Vina del Mar.  We drug our sleep-deprived bodies to the bus terminal at about 7 in the morning.  I slept a little on the bus.  The bus ride through the Andes was gorgeous.  Click here to see photos  We got to Mendoza in the

afternoon and found our hostel.  Mendoza, and Argentina in general, is known for having excellent food that’s reasonably priced.  The first night we were there I confirmed that popular belief.  A large group of us went to an all-you-can-eat buffet that was a-m-a-z-i-n-g!!! Hands down, best buffet ever!  For those of you who have eaten at the Mystic Lake buffet, this one was better, and I love the Mystic Lake buffet.  The buffet was like 20 Argentinean pesos, which equals about 7 US dollars.  Since the buffet was so cheap, we decided to buy a few bottles of cheap wine.  We all ate WAY more that we should have and left feeling like we had bowling balls in our stomachs. It was awesome!  

We all went out that night and got back to the hostel late (like 4 am late).  We were all signed up with the hostel to go on a bike ride wine tour the following morning.  However, I decided in the morning that I didn’t want to go so I stayed at the hostel and slept most of the day.  I don’t regret that decision one bit.  On Saturday, a group of us went on a white water rafting and canopying excursion through our hostel.  Some others went paragliding, which I almost did but decided not to because I don’t really like heights, and it was expensive.  The white water rafting and canopying was super fun.  

 

On Saturday evening, we went to this really good Mexican restaurant.  Sunday, we walked around the city a little, well, actually a lot, checking out the main plaza.  Our bus back to Vina left Mendoza at about 10 pm.  I actually slept a little, but had to get up at 2:30am once we reached the border to go through customs.  That took about an hour and a half.  It took a while to fall back asleep, but I for sure slept because the next thing I remember was waking up from a deep sleep as we pulled into the bus terminal in Vina.  That was at about 6am.  I caught a cheep cab back to my host family’s house but I didn’t bother sleeping anymore because I had classes at 9:30 and I knew if I went to sleep, I wouldn’t be getting up for class.  I took a huge nap after classes to make up for lost sleep.   

 

When we got back from Mendoza we had a nice little present waiting for us: a midterm exam for our senior seminar class!  It was a take-home midterm: basically write two, three page essays.  Our profe emailed it to us on Thursday, but, since we left for Mendoza on Thursday and didn’t get back until Monday morning, we obviously didn’t have time to work on it at all.  I had to pull a straight-up all nighter to get it done, and I don’t feel like it was very good. 

 

Homework is starting to be kind of a drag.  It’s definitely the biggest challenge while studying abroad—it’s very difficult to focus.  Also, I’m getting kind of bored of having all humanities classes because all you do is write.  I kind of miss my psych. classes.  

 

            This coming week, our entire group is traveling south to Chiloe.  We are gone from Saturday to Saturday.  This is the one big excursion that is part of the program so we all go together.  I’m excited because it sounds like we’ll be doing a lot of cool stuff (like going inside a mine that goes underneath the ocean floor, and touring a brewery).  Also, we don’t have classes and no homework! 

 

We only have about 7 weeks left in Chile.  I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at Christmas time.  I’ll post the week I get back from Chiloe.  Hope those of you in Minnesota are enjoying the snow! Ha ha!                          

It's hard to believe it has already been a year

Instead of writing about what’s happening in Chile, I decided to comment on something much more important, at least for me.  It’s now been about one year since my mom passed away.  Let’s not be euphemistic, this past year has sucked!  It has sucked a lot.  To say I think about my mom daily is an understatement—more like constantly.  Especially here in Chile, where I wish I could tell her about all the cool stuff I have been able to see and do and show her all the photos that I’ve been able to share with all of you who read my blog.

 

I cannot quite grasp that she is not here.  I half expect to come home in December to her waiting for me with open arms realizing that these past 12-16 months were mysteriously just a nightmare or some crude joke.  Despite that these last 16 months have been horrible, a true nightmare realized, I try and adopt an attitude that can be summarized by an album title, “When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint that Shit Gold” (Atmosphere).  It is hard to imagine how one could figuratively paint anything even close to gold with something so sour as the death of a parent, and such a great parent my mom was.  Still, I know that she would want for me, for us, to continue trying to enjoy life, as difficult as it may be. 

 

This is what I have been trying to keep in mind while in Chile.  Many of you probably know that I was originally going to go to Chile last year until I canceled the trip when my mom got sick. The day that my mom found out she had cancer, the first thing she said to me when I walked in the house, while giving me a big hug, was that she didn’t want to ruin my trip to Chile.  Obviously I didn’t care the least bit about going to Chile then—it was the last thing on my mind at the time.  But she did care.  In a very characteristic and selfless way, mom continued expressing more concern for others than she did for herself, despite that she had just received pretty grave news about her own health. 

 

Now that it has been a year, we have to ask ourselves what she would want us to be doing, as there is no better way to honor someone than to fulfill their wishes when they are no longer here. I think this year she would have wanted me to take up this opportunity and to try and make the most of it.  This is what I’m trying to do here—take those lemons and try and make something good of them.  Some days I’m somewhat successful, others not so much, but the least one can do is try, it’s what she would have wanted. 

The following photo was taken during memorial day weekend while camping about a week before we found out it was cancer.   My mom would probably be upset with me for putting a picture of her in her pajamas on my blog for all of you to see, but I really like this picture.  Forgive me mom! 

I’ll post again soon to keep people up to date on what I’ve been doing the past three weeks.  

La Serena

Hey all,

It looks like the last time I wrote was before we went to the Obama-McCain debate, so I’ll just start with that.  We went to watch the debate at our university’s other campus in Santiago.  It turned out to be kind of a big deal because they had local news station cameras and photographers on site.  It looked like we were the only “gringos” in the audience of about eighty people or so, but everything was still in English.  Some people in our group even got interviewed by one of the news channels and some got their picture taken and were on the front page of a Santiago area newspaper.  I was just glad that I didn’t get interviewed!  The only disappointing thing was that there was no cocktail party beforehand like I was told there would be! 

The Sunday after the debate (the 28^th) we went on a group excursion to La Isla Negra where we saw another one of the eccentric houses of Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet.  This one was located on a beach with a really nice view (photo to the right). 

 

Between excursions and during the week I spent a lot of time reading because 

we have had an overwhelming amount to read lately for one of my classes. 

 

This past Thursday afternoon, after my last class, I went with a group to La Serena, a beach city about six and a half hours north of Vina.  (The photo to the right is from the Valle del Elqui just outside of La Serena)

It is one of the oldest cities in Chile and it is very touristy.  Since it isn’t tourist season however, it was pretty laid-back and not a lot of people were there.  On the way up we rode in a double-decker bus on the top floor in the front, so we had a pretty sweet view while driving.  We got there at about 8ish and walked around for a while trying to find our hostel, and then got dinner at a restaurant.  Friday we wandered around town during the day.  Then some others from our big group joined us in the evening (some have class on Fridays so they came up later).

 

Friday night I went with three others to an astronomical observatory.  We rode on a bus for about an hour to get away from the city.  Up in the hilly terrain out in the boonies conditions are ideal for astronomical observation because over 300 nights of the year are clear and light pollution is minimal.  One of the U.S.’s main research observatories is located there.  There are also several other observatories for tourists.  We went to one of those.  We got to see the moon through two telescopes and we could see the planet Jupiter and three of its moons.  We also saw some nebulas and constellations, some of which can only be seen in the southern hemisphere.  I really like astronomy so I thought that was pretty neat!

 

Saturday morning we got up and went on a trip that we arranged through our hostel to Valle del Elqui, which is kind of where we went the night before to look at stars except it was daytime so we could actually see.  The landscape in this area is spectacular.  We saw a big, man-made dam on the Elqui river.  We also took a tour of a Pisco factory.  Pisco is a very typical Chilean drink that’s made kind of like how wine is made.  Valle del Elqui is considered the Pisco capital of Chile because the majority of Chile’s Pisco is produced in this region.  I bought a bottle there to bring back to Minnesota in case anyone wants to try some!  We also saw the birthplace and tomb of the well-known Chilean writer Gabriela Mistral.  We ate lunch at this place that heats its food from the sun.  Pictures of the "sun ovens" are in my La Serena album below.  We didn’t get back to La Serena until about 7 so it was kind of a long day.  We just went and got dinner and then headed back to the hostel and hung out. 

 

Sunday morning, two compañeros and myself went on another excursion to La Isla de Lamas, an island out in the ocean somewhere.  We drove for a couple of hours in a van until we were in the middle of nowhere and then we got in this small boat and drove out to an island.  I’m pretty sure I’ve never been in a boat out on the ocean before and I got kind of nervous when I saw huge waves coming at us while we we’re in this boat that was about the size of a long fishing boat.  While driving around the island we saw penguins and sea lions, it was pretty sweet!  Then we went to another island and walked around for a while before heading back to shore for a late lunch.  We got back to the hostel at around 6 and then went and walked around for a while and then got some dinner.

 

Our bus back to Vina left from La Serena at 11:30pm.  We had sleeper seats on the first floor this time so I attempted to sleep, although it wasn’t very consistent.  We got back to Vina at about 6:00am and I had class at 9:30 this morning, so I was fighting to stay awake in my classes. 

 

That’s all the news for now, I’ll post next time I have something worthy of posting.  You can check out some sweet photos from La Serena by clicking on this link: La Serena

The other photos, including new ones I've added from La Isla Negra, are accessible via this link: other photos