No es adios, es hasta proximo

Querido Bubs

Estoy escribiendo esta carta mientras tres vacas aparecieron en el sendero de la campana. Que raro pero que Chileno no? Hace 4 meses y 4 dias llegaste aca en Chile. Que rapido el tiempo ha pasado. Hoy dia recordaste el bus desde el aeropuerto a Olmue. El primer día, jugando fútbol en el jardin y Nicole perdiendo la pelota. El proximo día aca en la campana con vivi y Pame. Las noches en Olmue, primer pisco, juegos de tomar. El primer día cuando Vivi gritó antes de bajarte el bus. El paseo por los calles de Viña, y dijiste si a todos. Que más pasó? Las primeras dos semanas tuviste mucha clase con Manuel. Ahora saves su vida pero no te diste cuenta sus propios desafios. Conocer la familia, conocer la ciudad, conocer, conocer, conocer. Tu primera noche de shock llegó en la cueva con los gringos por el cumple de Anna. Que fuerte el poder de pisco no? Y todo el tiempo absorbaste mas y mas de castillano. Recuerdas el primer asado con todas las familias? Que rico la celebracion. Oye que lento el primer mes. Solo ahora estás recordando el fin de semana en Santiago. Que suerte la opurtunidad para esquiar en Agosto. Y la noche, corriendo, tomando, y la situación con el hostal. Después solamente tuvisted 2 semanas antes del mejor viaje de tu vida. Conociste los padres de Nicole, y te diste cuenta porque vomitó esta noche. Fuiste al curso de pisco sour y el asado con Emilio y los weones. Y a las 5 Chau. No tengo que explicarte su experiencia en Argentina. Nunca vas a olvidarla por toda tu vida. Pero probablamente vas a olvidar los bagels. Oye que rico. Y llegaste por dieciocho y todas las fiestas. Asado en casa, a la casa de Eli a la casa de Gisela a la fila de barcos. Pero después llega la realidad la U empezó a durar y tuviste trabajo. Cada algunos días había un carrete o un asado. No puedes olvidar la vivi, (la otra vivi). Después a Mendoza. Por bus al noche y todo el resto es la historía. Otro fin de semana rico con las chicas de Argentina. Volviste a Viña y el resto de octubre con el asado de cumple de Weisser. Hasta Morir Hasta Morir, y si carreteamos hasta morir o por lo menos hasta la madrugada y el alamanecer. El primer carrete con los mecanicos y por supuesto no era el ultimo. Noviembre llegó. Pero antes de esto tuviste que ir a San Pedro. Otro fin de semana magnifico con algunos hipos. Pero por otro lado era Fabiana. Que bueno. Dos semanas de carrete con los mecanicos y fuiste a la Serena. Pero antes, parate y mira. La gente que has conocido. Las amigas de Ale, son buenas ondas pero a veces pueden molestarte. La relación entre Gabe y Eli cambia todos. Por mejor o peor, no viste este grupo más. Pero en momentos de cambio encuentras algo nuevo. Empesaste carretear con los mecanicos. En sus palabras Filete Weon. Gonzalo, el que le encanta carretear, que le avisó tu y Amelia tienes que vomitar, el que siempre esta listo para hablar y contar sus historias. Y Lohrmann el bombero con las expresiones inolvidable. que mira el NFL y siempre esta burlandote. Siempre en buen humor. Y mientras escribiendo las vacas están en tu mochila. Recuerdas la vez cuando querías decir torticolis pero en realidad dijiste cicatriz. Oye los momentos comicos de tu viaje. Quién más. Nacho, el que llevó la polera de surf y se sentó al lado de la piscina, y salió la fiesta temprano porque tuvo que despertarse temprano para hacer body board. Y German, el jugador no necesitas decir más. Pizarro, siempre estabas en la misma pagina con el. Como olvidas Pelao, el vecino, el hermano, el weon. Recuerdalo, dont fuck with him porque sabes que pasa en este momento. O Emilio, el weon mas manipulativo en todo el mundo, pero buena onda. Finalmente, El Weisser, el rey. Tu hermano y los dichos; Gatorade, Breaaaaaad, siempre huevonando bromeando carreteando. El maestro de la parilla, el bailador. Nunca vas a olvidar la noche en Scratch VIP, o Ovo, como tiene el poder, fucking weon. Los asados, las fiestas, nunca puedes decir gracias bastantes veces. La Vivi, muchas gracias por todos. Me encanta su voz, tu actitud, y tu consejos de la vida. No te preocupes cuando sea Bill Gates puedes tener cualquier casa quieres. Y Fernando, eres la roca. Siempre enseñandome el humor, y las cosas importantes de Chile y la vida. El sabio mas intelegente. Basta Bubs, ahora vuelves a tu experiencia. La ultima mes voló. Después de la Serena Amelia llegó y te disfrutaste much bubs. Tienes mucho suerte para tener una hermana y profesora de la cultrura como Amelia. Que rico la semana con ella. le amas mucho. Después era el día de acción de gracias, con la cena de despedida. Muchas gracias a IFSA y todas las madres. Sin las madres de miraflo, tu experiencia no estaría tan bueno. Sabes que si. Proximo día tuviste un gran día de acción de gracias. Recuerdas las duds tuviste? Pero buen hecho weon, tu chupaste arriba y ellos te probaron falso. Buen trabajo todos. Después los finales llegaron, y antes de podias creerlo estabas en un avion a Punta Arenas. No voy a decirte mucho sobre Patagonia, solamente que era un gran viaje para reflejar, pensar, y darte cuenta tu experiencia en total. Ahora estas saliendo. Vuelves a los Estados Unidos. Estas muerto de ganas para ver la Emily. Pero ten cuidado con el Shock Cultural Reverso. Cuando necesitas un recreo, parate y piensa sobre tu vista desde tu cama, avenida Valparaiso y donde JL y girafas, la playa, la feria, USM, las dunas, los puestos de sol, la familia, los amigos, y cada aventura. Tienes un monton de experiencia, y memorias. La unica cosa que tienes que hacer ahora es aprovecharlos, recordarlos, y sonreir.

The Beginning of the End

As I wrap up my Chilean experience I have been reflecting a lot and I realize that I should make my last blog post in spanish. I apologize for everyone reading back stateside. However, this blog will be for all of you guys who have probably wondered what the little captions at the bottom of each blog mean. Here I will translate each of them, starting with my very first blog post. Enjoy

I love the Chilean people, culture, and life. It will be a great experience. Until next time!

I really enjoy the family relationships of the Chilean people

The classes kinda suck but they are very important in the study abroad process. Im really lucky to be here.

But thats life no? I cant wait to see the next 5 months.

Its art, and all the world should know that the murals can be very important.

Good luck Bubs

The days fly by like the wind, each day faster and faster.

What a great saturday

You can sleep when youre dead, see ya

If each adventure is as good as the past one, I will be one happy man.

Just keep walking along the road for your whole life and breath.

I have to travel to another continent to be in a major motion picture.

SWEET I'm a resident officially

See you later

In the words of my friend, I could write poems if I lived here.

I love Chile's style

See you next week for Chile's independence day

What a life, the people of Argentina and Chile are incredible. And thank god for my friends. They are the shit

Happy independence day. Happy 200th birthday Chile. Thank you for letting me celebrate with you.

This weekend was really cool and I learned that I dont have to go to other places to still have wild adventures.

Its really fun to play with the kids, but when you are trying to teach them something its wicked hard. What a shame.

The hours the days the weeks move perfectly slowly. How awesome.

That sucks

CHI CHI CHI LE LE LE Long Live Chile

The strength is incredible

Happy Birthday Weisser. Thanks for your hospitality, friendship and the life you have shown me here in Chile

Wow Chile is crazy but I love it. Why dont they have a word for shenanigans in Spanish?

The desert, one day of rain a year. 80 degrees during the day 30 degrees at night. What power this planet has. How impressive San Pedro is. I will never forget the landscape of that place and the memories of that great land.

In the words of Anna. I love how 5 guys can dance together in South America

Thank you Pame and Vivi and all of IfSA I couldnt ask for anything more. You created the perfect trip this weekend and the perfect program overall.

Family. How rich are the relations between siblings. Never in my life have I experienced our relationship. Just me and Amelia together enjoying every moment we had. Life is good.

On a day to say thank you and remember all the oppurtunities in life, I have to think of my experience here in Chile, my experience in college, my decisions throughout life. They have been good, and bad, and learning the consequences is not easy. But really, life is life and I have a ton of things for which to say thank you for.

Enjoy life, but make sure you keep learning every day without fail.

You havent lived until you have seen the lights of Valpo in the night sky.

I have seen the big north, the little north, the central regions, and now the south. How impressive the difference is between each part of Chile. I will never be able to forget my experiences en each place but there is something special about Patagonia. Maybe its what the taxi driver said. In Patagonia, you can hear the silence.




Thank you all who have stuck with this blog through my whole trip. I hope you have enjoyed my stories.

PATAGONIAAAAAAA

It is only fitting that my experience of a lifetime was capped off by the trip of a lifetime. For those who don’t know, I spent the last 8 days in Southern Chile doing a 5 day backpacking trip through the Torres Del Paine National Parque in Patagonia. The scenery was gorgeous, the company was fantastic (but I already knew they were awesome travel buddies) and the overall experience was unforgettable. We trekked over 100 kilometers (around 60 miles) in the 5 days and even though we were dead tired and sore each day, it was well worth it and I would do it again in a heart beat. There are some places I have been in South America that have been really cool, but if I don’t know that I will ever return, Patagonia however, is a place that I know I will see again. So here goes the day by day play by play similar to my other blogs, so if you were bored reading those, you probably will want to close out this tab right about now.

Our flight left on Friday at 3:00 pm so we finally got the luxury of sleeping in and not having to take the LAN bus at 5:00 am like we have done each of our other times going to the Santiago airport. Therefore in typical Chilean fashion we went to an asado until 5:00am, which was perfect, because that is precisely when gabe left for his earlier flight. After getting on the bus and watching ned say goodbye, we were on our way. A smooth flight south to Punta Arenas (the furthest southern city in Chile) was capped off with a slightly choppy landing due to the wind; something we would soon learn was a constant in Patagonia. We went to the bus desk to ask about the buses to Puerto Natales, our first stop on the way to the park, however, we soon found out that all the buses were full…shit. Thanks to annas quick thinking we decided to take a cab for the three hours instead of putting us behind schedule and messing up our plans. It was expensive (about 50 dollars a person) but we got really lucky and our taxi driver was also a tour guide. He let us stop and take pictures of the sheep, flamingoes, and the gorgeous sunset, and explained everything and anything we wanted to know about the area. What a great taxi driver, and what a way to see most of the twelfth region. We made it to our hostel around 11:00 that night, met up with gabe, and then crashed because we had a 7:30 bus to the park the next morning.

Day two was an early one, and the whole crowd caught some Z’s on the bus heading to the park. Around 10:00 we made it into the park. Luckily for us Gabe made a great call on using our Chilean IDs to get the admission price reduced from 30 dollars to 8. Such a deal. We had to switch buses and it was for good reason, because about 10 minutes later we had to cross a bridge that was only about 6 inches wider on each side than the new little bus was. Very funny watching the driver manage that one. We made it to the trailhead and by 11:00 we were on the trail. But before we could start hiking we ran into some of our German friends that we had met up in northern Chile. Crazy coincidence, one of many we encountered along the trail. We also met up with Gordi, a guy from the advanced program who was doing the W as well. After a solid couple of hours on the trail we make it to our first refugio, Refugio Chileno. Refugio means shelter, but these places were far from just shelters. With hot showers and three meals a day I was definitely doing some luxury backpacking, but hey, it was well worth it. We ate lunch and dropped off our packs before starting our side hike up to the Torres del Paine lookout post. It’s a good thing we were able to ditch the packs because this hike was very steep and somewhat slippery at times. But the views at the top were absolutely amazing. As we reached the crest of the hill we found an emerald glacier pond at the bottom and the torres rising above. What a sight. We hung out there for a while, exchanged a couple of friendly snowballs in one of the better snowball fights of my life, and gabe was even able to find a granite “Lay-z-boy” that was actually rather comfortable. We managed to leave just in time though, because within minutes of our descent, the winds came, the clouds moved in and you could no longer see the torres. An overall understatement of the week is that we got lucky with the weather. Usually the weather changes by the hour and rain snow sleet hail winds are very common. We were knocking on wood all the way along and luckily for us it never rained and only was cloudy for a bit of the week. We made it back to the refugio a little early so we just hung out and chatted with the other trekkers. At one point a man looked right at me and anna, snapped his fingers and yelled “hey guy”. We were somewhat taken aback and tried to respond, only to realize that he was actually talking to his buddy directly behind us. Oops. That night we ate a great dinner and met Gaston our Argentinean friend who was doing the trek in the same way we were. For the next three days he would be our closest companion. He also had an awesome job, as we came to learn. He is the athletic director for a school in Buenos Aires and he was giving a speech in Punta Arenas. The school he was speaking at not only paid him to come, but also paid for his transportation and a 4 day trek through Torres del Paine. What a bause. Everyone was dead tired so we went to bed around 9:30, even though the sun wouldn’t set for another hour and a half. Welcome to the bottom of the world 10 days from the longest day of the year.

The following day we were up early again, eager to get back on the trail because we had quite the long day ahead of us. As we were trekking along gabe noticed a guanaco, a local animal similar to a llama, in the distance. We kept walking and noticed that he hadn’t moved. He was just hanging out next to the trail and we eventually got to about 15 to 20 feet from him before he turned around and trotted off. Very cool, I don’t know that I have ever been that close to a wild game animal of that size in my life. The on-trail encounters continue, this time we ran in to the Argentinean girls and exchanged stories of the trail for a little bit. (Direct quote from the notebook “now we know why Ned was sprinting along the trail all day). About an hour later we made it to refugio Cuernos and once again ate lunch and dropped our packs. The refugio had lost their power, therefore there was a little mix up regarding who was supposed to stay that night, but luckily in typical trusting Chilean style everything worked out very smoothly. Shiela, gabes mom who was also trekking with us, decided to hang out there instead of going up valle frances, so she kept watch on the bags while we made the trek. With the wind blowing like crazy, we crossed a raging river, walked along the beach, and booked it up the mountain to make it to the mirador. After a long and strenuous hike even without packs, a woman stops us and tells us that we are really close. Our moral was lifted but only for a second because we realized she in fact had no idea what she was talking about and we were still a couple hours out. But after a while we finally made it to the look out and let me tell you vale la pena. It was definitely worth it, as we got a gorgeous 360 degree view. We met up with another friend from the trail, this guy from spain and shared the views and some stories with him. As we came back down we saw an avalanche take place on glacier frances. Absolutely awesome. Our water bottles were empty, but fear not we stopped by a river and drank straight from the glacier. The water was pure and never tasted so good. We then had to hustle a bit in order to make it back for dinner, but we did, exhausted but satisfied, and amazed by what we had seen. Unfortunately me and gabe each took a digger, but we came up none the worse and everyone made it back in one piece. In total that day we hiked over 33 kilometers (roughly 20 miles) but every single step led to another spectacular view. The wind that night was wild, and unfortunately it kept me up for a while. But as I fell asleep a huge smile crept across my face. I was in complete awe of where I was.

After a long and tough day 2 we decided to sleep in as day 3 was significantly easier. Another hearty breakfast and we were back on the trail, once again having to cross the river, this time with our packs. Fun, fun, fun. We had already seen that part of the trail yesterday during our hike so we didn’t take too much time to stop and look around, instead we just hiked on through to campamiento italiano. After crossing a crazy wooden suspension bridge, we found out that Shielas hip belt broke. Neds quick thinking immediately came up with a plan to fix it and we were back on the trail. The entire second part of the trail that day was full on wind. At one point it started to rain than the wind blew the rain upward instead of downward. A couple of minutes later a gust came so strong that it blew Anna over, and me and ned had to grab on to each other and crouch down in order to keep our footing. After about 4 hours of hiking we make it to our next spot, refugio Paine Grande. This was definitely not a refugio as it came with wifi, satellite tv and a full bar. Once again the crew went out for a day hike this time to the lookout spot at lake Pehoe. Anna takes us up a rock face thinking it’s the lookout, and it sure did have a great view, but we realized that it wasn’t so Ned “Usain Bolt” Lutz led us back down the jagged rock face and back onto the trail. It was here he also earned the nicknames Larry Longlegs and Sir Strides-a-lot. When we got to the lookout point it was well worth the hike. Another gorgeous view of the rock formations and a crystal clear lake in the foreground. I know I have said it before, but it was amazing. Back to the refugio for dinner, and some down time talking with Gaston. We talked a lot about politics and social issues, you know typical conversation topics while backpacking in Southern Chile. That night we taught him how to play hearts and he quickly caught on. Another fun, but early night.

It was only fitting that the skies were grey when we woke up the next day. We were on our way to Lake and Glacier Grey. The hike was once again nice, this time we had a very wooded trail that took us up a valley and then over a couple hills. We made it to the first look out spot and were unfortunately almost blown off the mountain because of the wind, but fear not, everyone made it and the pictures look pretty funny as well. Our next refugio finally felt like we were camping. It was this little spot along the lake with a very hodge podge lodge type feeling. The rooms were packed with little bunk beds, the wood burning stove was crackling and everything had a very lodgy type feel to it. To our surprise we found out that Anna had indeed paid for full board that night and to our delight we once again ate like kings at the refugio. Another drop of the packs and we were up to the close look out point to check out the glacier. The glacier was awesome, impressive and I couldn’t believe that these mountains of ice even existed. After the lookout we climbed down to the shore of the lake and each got to touch an iceberg. That night we came back, watched the sunset, met some german folks that reminded me of Thurston Howell III and his wife, and listened to anna and gabes fantastic letters. It was a great way to end the W as well as our time in Chile.

Day 5 we woke up early and hiked out in order to get the catamaran back to the entrance of the park and bus out to Puerto Natales. Those five days were gone in a blink of an eye, but the photos and the memories will remain forever. That day we just hung out in Natales, nursed our sore legs and enjoyed a delicious pizza dinner at the local favorite called Mesita Grande. It was a really cool restaurant and everyone sat at this giant table that stretched across the whole place.

The following day we were again on a bus, this time to Punta Arenas. We got in, checked out our hostal and then took a van to see a penguin colony. Very fun afternoon, minus the howling winds, but those little guys were awfully cute. I know now why they refer to it as the penguin suit. We came home, grabbed a delicious meal and then said our goodbyes to Gabe and Shiela. We made it back to the hostel and realized that everyone else was Israeli. For the first time in 5 months a language other than Spanish or English dominated the room and it felt somewhat odd. But they were pretty nice so we chatted it up for a while and then went to bed.

Day 7 we had nothing to do so we walked around the city, tried to get into the Austral Brewery, and hung out in the sky bar at the casino for a while. Only problem was that all these places were closed. But it was a fun and relaxing day. We went back to the hostel watched some Christmas movies on tv in Spanish and ended up buying the hostel workers cards off him so we had something to do. At 10:00pm we took the taxi to the airport to wait for our 3:30 am flight. We met up with some other gringos in the airport and chatted it up with them before getting on the plane and passing out. We finally made it back to Santiago, said goodbye to Ned which was really weird, and came back to Vina. What a trip, I cant believe its over.

He visto en norte grande, el norte chico, las regiones central, y ahora el sur. Que impresionante la diferencia entre todo Chile. Nunca podria olvidar mi experiencia en todos los lugares, pero hay algo especial en Patagonia. Quizas sea el dicho del chaufer. En Patagonia puedes oir el silencio.

Puro Carrete Puro Amistad

Its gonna be really tough to leave here.

No has vivido hasta has visto las luces de valpo en en cielo de noche.

Refleción

As we are now in december I realize that I have less than a month remaining in the great nation of Chile. As I take a break from my finals to prepare for one last night at Journal I look back on what a time I have had here. I had tea with my Chilean mom today and just talked with her. It wasnt out of the ordinary but it was just a perfect talk about life and experiences. Then at dinner we discussed hand gun laws, and what I am going to be doing about it when I work in the White House. (My Chilean mom has told me that I have to work in the White House one day, and I also have to become the next Bill Gates so that I can buy her a house on the coast of Chile) For those of you who do not know Vivi, thats a little preview of my wild and crazy, somewhat spacey but none the less fantastic host mom.

The last four ish months have been such a whirlwind of life that its hard to sum up. Im glad I have been blogging so one day I can go back and relive all the fun memories I have had. But this blog is a little different. Nothing overly exciting has happened, I havent traveled anywhere, and I dont have any wild and crazy nights to recount. Just normal things like listening to my host brother practice the same 5 measures of some random song that he just learned on the recorder. Or listening to Vivi dance around the kitchen singing everything from Phantom of the Opera to Old McDonald had a farm, to Fernando always saying dont worry be happy in his very chilean english accent. I have been so lucky to get a family like the Weissers I cannot even describe.

Then there is school. Yes school is school even in south america, but I realized today how cool it is that I finished a ten page research paper in spanish. I groan and grumble every time a DU professor tells me to write ten pages and thats in the language I have spoken for my entire life. I arrived in Chile not knowing what the hell I was gonna do with myself. I understood about 2 percent of what the lady on the plane from atlanta said to me. I had no vocabulary, and my favorite word was si. I replied si to everything. But its amazing what happens when you live in a culture. I will never forget the transformation of my language skills, and hope desperately I can hold on to them. Well first week of finals is over, one short weekend and two finals before school in south america is finished.

Disfruta la vida pero aprende aprende aprende cada dia sin falta.

La accion de gracias

While everyone back at home was stuffing turkeys, playing football, and spending time with family, I was sitting in class just like any other thursday would be. It was a rather weird feeling not being home for thanksgiving, as this is the first time in my life I have been outside the united states for the holiday. After somewhat of a crazy hectic week that seemed like the world was coming crashing to a halt, I was kinda bummed out not to be home. Fortunately however, through the use of technology I was able to skype with the hodge podge and hear all the stories and see everyone together. It almost felt like I was there. Couple that with a Patriots win and it felt just like turkey day. That night the gringos and their moms went to our programs Goodbye Dinner. We still have two weeks left but the advanced students are more or less done with their curriculum. It was a great meal at the Recreo Yacht Club and a perfect way to get my mind away from thanksgiving. Conversing with all of our chilean moms and seeing all the study abroad kids together one last time was fantastic. We got home and crashed that night because friday, it was our turn to put on a thanksgiving.

Friday morning Gabe, Anna, Nicole and I met at Jumbo to plan out and buy our thanksgiving feast; turkey, salad, mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, bread, and green beans and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. By 11:00 Gabe and I were preparing the bird, while Anna was putting the stuffing together, and Nicole worked on the potatoes. It was a lot of fun spending the whole day in the kitchen, making food, eating food, and every once in a while searching google for one recipe or another. None of us had ever made a turkey before but somehow we managed to pull it off. And we didnt even have a turkey baster. At around 4:00 our chilean families started trickling in and we were eating by 4:30. With plenty of food to go around and a table full of people, it felt just like a thanksgiving should. Except for the fact that we were eating on the patio wearing shorts and sunglasses, but thats beside the point. It was an awesome meal, and of course the leftovers were great too. After the meal we just hung out for a while. Neds family came and we were introduced to them, as we shared stories for the rest of the day. That night it was warm enough to take a swim in my pool and then hang out some more an relax. After debating politics with Emilio, Gabes host brother, I came home and passed out. A long day, but a great thanksgiving none the less.

Saturday morning I woke up to Anna's phone call and I forgot that we were supposed to go parapente today. I use the spanish word beacuse I dont really know what it is in english. Its either paragliding or hangliding or parachuting or whatever. All I can say is that it was absolutely amazing. They strap you into this onesie and then connect you to your guide who has a parachute on his back. Then you just start running and in about 10 seconds you are airborne and literally flying. The place we went was Maitencillo a little coastal town to the north of Valparaiso. It was the first time in my life that I actually felt like a bird. The guide controlled the parachute so I didnt really have to do much other than sit back and look around. What a cool experience. Other than a slight complication with the bus, me and anna made it back to Vina, exhausted after a specatular day.

Contrary to what many of you have read in this blog so far, the next two weeks will be rather difficult academically. From writing a ten page research paper to a fifteen page business plan all in spanish, while coming up with a 10 minute presentation on the interaction between the environment and the economy, I think I will have my nose to the grindstone. If I make it out alive its on to Patagonia for an 8 day backpacking trek. I cant wait for the Torres de Paine.

En un dia para decir gracias y recordar todas las opurtuniadades en tu vida, tengo que pensar en la experiencia aca en chile, mi experiencia en la universidad, y mis decisiones en toda mi vida. Hay buenos y hay malos. Aprender las consecuencias no es facil. Pero en realidad, la vida es la vida, y tengo un monton de cosas para decir muchisimas gracias.

Oh what a week it has been.

This past week I traded my student hat for the tour guide hat, as Amelia was in South America for a visit. It was absolutely wonderful to see her, and an amazing time was had by all, even though it was rather short.

She arrived on Monday so I skipped out of school and went to the airport with my mom to pick her up. We gathered her after a slight confusion, but never the less we were on our way to Viña. Amelia quickly learned who my mom was and within minutes they were chatting in french english and spanish about all sorts of fun things. We got home ate lunch and then decided to check out Viña. Amelia was introduced to the beaches of Chile as well as the beggars who come up to you and start playing the flute really loudly in your ear. Note to self, if ever asking for money, dont play the flute obnoxiously close to anyones ears. We went home for dinner and the Weissers definitely put on a show for her first night. Vivi pulled out the guitar and everyone was singing along including Christian who later did a rather interesting pearl jam impression. We finally headed to bed and crashed almost immidiately.

Tuesday I took Amelia to school, because I had to take a test, but also so she could see the beautiful Santa Maria campus. Then after school got out we went into Valpo. For lunch we of course went to the famous J Cruz, the sight of my recent TV fame, and then took an ascensor up to the hills of Valpo. We wandered around, made a new friend with Juan, an artisan at the top of cerro concepcion, and then met up with anna. That evening we took a boat cruise with Gabe and his parents so we could see Valpo from the water. Afterwards we shared a Girafa at our favorite local spot and then went home for dinner. That nights dinner table adventure included signing Frere Jacque in four languanges in a round. Like I said the Weissers really jazzed up the meals for Amelia.

Wednesday I cut out of class again so I could show Viña to Amelia. We first went to the fruit market in the river and picked up a kilo of strawberries for the low low price of a dollar. Then we wandered around all the way to the plaza of Viña before turning back home for lunch. After lunch we got a random driving tour of Viña Reñaca and Con Con from Vivi before meeting up with Anna and Ned at Quinta Vergara, the giant amphitheater and park in viña. We then wandered down Avenida Valparaiso and introduced Amelia to manjar, the best food ever. More exploring led us to the beach and the feria where we checked out all the local artisan crafts and Amelia picked up a pair of the very chilean pants that everyone wears down here. We went home for dinner, but were soon back out in Viña, hitting up the Journal with Ned. Journal was its typical great atmosphere, and we spent a couple hours just hanging out, talking, and sharing a few brews. A great night was had by all.

Thursday was a bit of a struggle because I had to get up at 7 to make it to my 8 oclock class and four hours of sleep just isnt enough, but hey, es la vida. Amelia went for a morning adventure with Vivi and we reunited after I got home from school. After sharing some delicious seafood empanadas, we went to Reñaca to check out the dunes. Id never been there and it was an amazing day. With just enough clouds and sun and everything, you could see all of Valpo and Viña and watch the sun slowly fading into the west. It was a really cool sight to see, I cant believe its taken me so long to make it out there. Thursday night we hung out and relaxed, preparing ourselves for the weekend. And oh what a weekend it would be.

Friday, we got to sleep in and then after lunch we headed back to Valpo. We went to the house of Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet and diplomat, who we have decided lived the coolest life ever. This guy lived such an awesome life, from traveling the world, to collecting all sorts of weird objects to designing his house in such a unique manner that no one would ever be able to replicate it. After that we did some more wandering through the hills of valpo, met up with Anna again and tried the most delicious lemon pastry ever. Yum. We then went back home and started planning for the nights barbeque. People started showing up around 1030 and the fun was on from there. Amelia got to meet all of our Chilean friends, and it was easy for her to fit in with everyone that was there. The mecanicos were great as usual sharing laughs and stories, and including everyone, even us gringos in with the mix. After the asado we decided to head out, and our first stop was the Casino. Unfortunately our favorite club inside the casino was closed so we did a 180 and went to Stingray. We got to skip the line by paying a pretty high cover, but it was well worth it. We all had a great time dancing and singing in an awesome club. Aside from the loud ringing in our ears as we left the club it was 100 percent worth it. A great night.

After a somewhat late evening (530 AM) we decided to sleep in on Saturday. Once we finally ate lunch and got motivated we went to the beach to hang out, and recount stories from the past night. It was a great time and a fun reflection. Also important note, the Viña water is definitely getting warmer, meaning that summer is basically here. We went home had dinner, and then relaxed, just talking and watching movies until we made the late night trek to the bus. Amelia hopped on and that was that. A week that seemed to go by in an instant was over, and I was back to being a student again. It was sad, but what an amazing week I had with Amelia. I wish she could have stayed longer, but Thanksgiving with the Mos is calling. Have fun in Vermont everyone I will surely be missing you down here. And thank you Amelia for a fabulous vacation in my home city.

La familia, que rico las relaciones con hermanos. Nunca en mi vida había una experiencia como esta. Solo hermanos juntos, disfrutabamos todos y todo el tiempo juntos. Me encanta la vida.