Vacuum the Fire

This is going to be a short post but funny none the less. I learned a new method for starting a grill today. They dont use charcoal down here just wood, so in order to get the grill going today my father lit the wood and then pulled out the vacuum cleaner turned it on reverse and vacuumed the fire for about five minutes. Never knew the power of ordinary house hold objects. Me gusta el estilo de chile.

The sun is sometimes wrong.

What a weekend I have had so far and its still only saturday night. Last night my neighbor had a party with her friends and invited the cinco gringos. It was a lot of fun hanging out on a small scale without having to party to hard. That doesnt mean we didnt party however. The first person I met ironically lived in Mt. Lebo for 4 years in high school and her mom still lives there. Small small world. Later in the night we taught the Chileans beer pong. Let me tell you it is rather difficult explaining such things as the elbow rule and heating up to a bunch of Chileans. I dont know why. But anyway we hung out til about 3:30 and then I went home because we had an excursion today. Four short hours later I was awake again...driving the bus. First we went to the town of Curacavi and toured a local chocolate factory. They had all different kinds of chocolate and the best was hands down chocolate filled with marscipone cheese. Delicious. We also stopped for an empenada before heading on to our next town, Pomaire, a little artisan village. They are famous for their ceramics and these things were absolutely beautiful. And they were priced at around 3 dollars each. Our next stop was la Isla Negra, a small town that is the home to Pablo Neruda's beach house. I know I have mentioned him previously but I want to reiterate that he was the coolest person ever. His houses were amazing, decked out with all sorts of stuff from his worldly travels. We finally boarded the bus back to Vina after a long but enjoyable day. Pictures will be up soon dont worry. And now as I am writing this post, I can hear my mom singing Jay Z's empire state of mind. Weird. Aright I am off to a BBQ and then who knows. En las palabras de me amigo, yo podria escribir poemas si yo viva aca.

Esto es para mi madre

After getting home tonight, I found an amazing email from my mother. So this post will be for her. Tonight we went to cafe journal, the usual hangout for gringos on wednesday. Each wednesday its packed with foreign people and its always a good time. Tonight my brother came out and it was especially nice to have a chilean there with us. Also this week has been good in terms of getting used to classes. Even though we dont have too much homework we have a good understanding of how the classes will work. Saturday we have our first excursion to a chocolate factory and then pablo nerudas house on the ocean. I will be sure to post after that. Until then, hasta luego.

Officially unofficial

I picked up my Chilean ID card today which means I am an official resident of the country of Chile. It actually means nothing because it says all over it EXTRANJERO which means foreigner/non-citizen but it is pretty cool to have a form of Chilean ID so I dont have to carry my passport everywhere. Que bueno soy residente!

Homework? You call this homework?

So our most recent homework for Spanish class was to go to Valpo and interview people we saw around town. We had to at least go down to the docks and talk to people there and also take a funicular and talk to people up in the hills. I was pretty excited to go just because it was a nice day and it would help us get to know the city a little bit better. So we met up and wandered around the docks talked to some of the artisans selling jewelery and paintings and scarves and all that fun stuff. Then we walked back to the main plaza and over toward the hills. As we were walking we noticed some people blocking off the street so we stopped for a minute to see what was going on. We then noticed a police SUV with bullet holes all over the side and front windshield. The only issue was that it seemed perfectly normal, no one was gathered around the car, people were just walking around minding their way. So we round the corner and find ourselves in the middle of a movie set. It was so cool to see the amount of production equipment that that these guys had. The camera car was so cool. We decided to wait and see what was going on and about ten minutes later these guys starting screaming "no one can cross the street". We hung out on the sidewalk for a minute or two and then we hear the director yell "when I say action, everyone start walking". Literally ten seconds later we heard action and everyone around us started hustling and bustling up and down this street. Another ten seconds later the SUV we saw before was speeding up this street followed by the camera car. I couldnt believe that I was actually on the set of a movie. It felt like the bourne identity. So Cool. Tengo que viajar a otro continento para estar en una pelicula.

Sigue andando el camino por toda su vida...respira BREATHE

I have now been in Chile for almost a month and I am at the point where life is very normal. However with that comes some of the trials and tribulations of normal life. I realized this weekend that I have to relax and just breathe more often. There is not a whole lot I can do about other people and the way they carry themselves so I need to just keep walking along the path for all your life and breathe. Sigue andando el camino por toda su vida, respira

From Colorado to Colorado

This past weekend marked my first adventure down here in Chile and what an adventure it was. Although it only lasted a short 48 hours it seemed to last forever. We made our first trip to Santiago to ski the andes which was one of the things I really wanted to do while in Chile. The bus to Santiago was comfortable and our first cab ride was pretty good, basically we didnt get ripped off because we were able to negotiate a price. 1 point for understanding Chilean cab drivers. This weekend also marked my first time staying in a hostel and I can now see exactly why my dad wanted to write a book about them. They are such great meeting places as well as welcome locations for people from out of town or out of the country. Our first hostel was, from what I've heard, very hostely. We had a room with five beds in it and a shared bathroom, then there was a kitchen downstairs with a little bar and living room that people were hanging out with. Unfortunately we didnt get to hang out in the hostel for very long because we had to be up at 6 am the next morning to hit the slopes. Me and ned however did take a walk around santiago attempting to meet up with one of his friends. It turned a little bit flite (sketchy) when we experienced our first high speed car chase and take down for the caribineros (police) but all was well when we made it back to our hostel to crash. The alarms rang super early and the next day we were up and on our way to the ski shop. We rented our gear and then purchased our tickets, but lucky us, friday happened to be buy one get two free day. I kinda felt like I was back working at JAB for a bit but hey we took the deal and ran. So that means that the lift ticket which was originally 34 dollars turned out to be 12 dollars. I couldnt believe it. In total with rentals, tickets, and transportation we paid about 60 dollars. I love being the Chilean exchange rate. So we hopped on the bus and I quickly passed out, only to wake up on the craziest mountain pass I had ever seen in my life. The switchbacks were crazy and it made Loveland pass look like nothing. The bus would bottom out on every turn and I was convinced we were going over the edge at somepoint. But everyone seemed calm, until the bus driver stopped at the wrong mountain and the entire bus erupted in argument. I thought this one Chilean was going to throw the driver out. We finally made it to the mountain and hit the slopes. It was a gorgeous day probably around 50 and the spring skiing was incredible. The snow softened up really nicely as the day went on and we skied nonstop for about 6 and a half hours. Its nice because the lifts dont close until 5:00 pm so we skied a little later then headed home. We had met up with two of neds friends and skied with them all day and then enjoyed the apreski listening to an elvis cover band. Dont worry all the pictures are on facebook for you to see. The bus ride down was just as hairy but we all made it back safe and sound. After dropping our stuff off at the ski shop we decided to test the Santiago subway system. With only one little mistake (getting on an express train that flew past our stop) we made it to our next hostel which proved to be far different from our first. We had booked a four person room only to realize that it was actually a sweet loft apartment with a kitchen king bed and two twin beds. For the low low price of 20 dollars a night. And i shouldt forget the roof deck observatory from which you can see the entire city. It was incredible. We hung out for a bit then went to dinner at this nice little restaurant and ate a fantastic Chilean meal. Its called Chorianna and it is made up of french fries chicken steak sausage and two fried eggs on top. Not the most healthy of meals but it certainly hit the spot, especially when you add the pitcher of beer we had with dinner. We walked around santiago for a bit and then headed home as we were all exhausted from a long day on the mountain. This morning we woke up and started on our self guided tour of the city. Santiago is huge but we tried to cover the downtown area. We ended the tour by going up to the top of this hill that looks over all the city. It was amazing to see the size of Santiago from high above. After a nice lunch in the city we grabbed our stuff and headed back to Vina after a full and amazing weekend. What a first adventure to have. Si cada aventura es tan buena yo estare un hombre contento. En serio.