local celebrities

Rebecca and I went to the beach on Saturday and just happened to meet a nice photographer working for the local paper... needless to say, now we're in the local paper!

click here!

Now I'd like to say that I've been super busy with my project but I haven't. The plus side of that is that I've had time to go to the beach!!! and fully enjoy living close to the ocean (something I've never been able to experience before)  here's a snapshot of my life the past 2 weeks...

my family has bikes! so this is my transport

and this is my view...

One of the craziest days I've ever had

So yesterday I pretty much had a breakdown...

I'm in the independent study part of my program and I'm living in Arica which has been a cool experience. I'm about halfway through my time up here in the north and I haven't really gotten much done on my independent study.  I'm researching peruvian and bolivian immigration and it has the potential to be really cool but for a number of reasons I haven't done a single interview.  One problem is that my advisor doesn't seem to be the best at communicating with me and hasn't been super helpful with providing me with contacts.  While I'm pretty fed up with her I realize that the situation I'm in right now is partly my fault because I could have been more proactive in asking for and setting up my own interviews and meetings.

Anyways yesterday was my breaking point as far as stress about my project goes and then my chilean mama came home from work at about 5 puking and obviously REALLY sick.  Luckily my sister was home and they went to the clinic to get her help.  I worked on my project for the rest of the night; talked to my academic director and cried a lot.  At about 10 my sister called to see how I was doing and I was like dude, I'm pretty sure I'm the one who should be asking that question.  She said they were still waiting but that it shouldn't be too much longer.  I went to bed at about 11:55 only to be shaken awake - literally rattled by a "temblor" of rather large size 6.5 on the richter scale at 12:05.  My sister called me in the middle of the earthquake to ask me if I felt it, i was like ummm YEAH! Then she told me that I should go out into the street when an earthquake that big happened, and I was like well I was on my way but then you called and I ran back to get my phone... I got another phone call an hour later, 1am - that's late for me! to see if I could wait up for them cause they had forgotten keys.  They got home from the clinic at about 1:45 am (it makes me realize that our "health care crisis" isn't anything compared to a 9 hour wait in a clinic just to get diagnosed with a urinary tract infection... and have to pay for it yourself because the wait at the place where they have insurance would have been even longer!)

Anyways, I'm doing much better today.  I got some work done on my project and actually have a plan (no thanks to my advisor)!  I only wish that I'd been more proactive and less cautious about going over my advisor's head to make contacts. Pictures to come as soon as I start taking some!

#6 through #10

6. PUTRE!! we spent almost a week in this little town and I loved it! If I've learned nothing else during my study abroad experience it's that no matter how cool cities are, I'm a country girl at heart.  It was with a weird sense of relief that I settled into the routine of classes and community service up here.  People said hi to us on the street, and things got reallly quiet after about 9:30 or 10 most nights.  The views and open spaces were definitely a relief after nothing but city views for a couple of months.  On one of our last days we visited 7 murals spread throughout the pueblo that depict some of the local history and legends. They were created by kids and painted by the community... very cool.

7. Lago Chungara. We were told that this is something like the highest unnavigable lake in the world which while it kinda sounds cool also doesn't sound that impressive/I'm sure there are ponds that are higher so I'm not even sure if it's true.  Anyways the trip up there was really cool, we met a couple of angry alpacos and a really cute llama!! The lake was gorgeous, it's situated between two giant volcanoes.

8. Finding out that there are flamingoes at 14,000 feet!  So this is more about Lago Chungara but also I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it so here are some pictures...

I had to take the picture through a pair of binoculars because they were kinda far away!

9. My homestay in Belen.  The last 5 days of our excursion to the north were spent in rural homestays.  I lived in Belen, which is a town of between 35 and 40 people depending on who you talk to.  It's kinda eerie walking through the streets because it seems a lot bigger, but most of the houses are deserted because most of the people from Belen have moved to Arica, the city on the coast to find work.  I got to tend the goats with my mama and little 3 year old brother.

My mama makes goat cheese, and it's won all sorts of prizes! Even though it was super fun and interesting, I was definitely ready to get back to a bigger town because while I like small towns there was NOTHING happening in this one... 5 days were enough to get a feel for the town but living there would definitely be tough and although I think it's super sad, I can understand why so many people have moved to the city.

10.  This was actually kinda sucky as well, but last Sunday me and one other girl from the program, Rebecca, went to the airport with the rest of the group and waved goodbye as they all went back to Valpo without us!  Now we're alone in Arica for about 3 weeks to work on our independent studies.  I'm  studying illegal immigration and the racial and social problems associated with that issue.  The work is really interesting and I'm super excited to start talking to immigrants early next week!  The one major bummer is that the homestays are awkward and uncomfortable and REALLY expensive (relative to other options) but we're required to stay in a homestay because of safety and so that SIT can keep and eye on us.

More to come later! I've been pretty bored so the posts should start coming more frequently...

Not about school! (sort of)

So once again it's been a long time since I last wrote so I'm going to do a super lame list of the 10 most awesome-est things that I've done or had happen to me in the past 3 weeks (in no particular order... or maybe chronological order depending on how they come to me).

My friend Teshika and Pablo

1. Visiting Pablo's house - We went to Isla Negra a couple days before I started my excursion to the north and it was cloudy and cold but still super cool.  The house was described in the guide book as being Pablo Neruda's favorite house and I can totally see why, it's probably one of the coolest places I've visited in a while.  We couldn't take pictures in the house, which was totally lame but here are a couple from outside.  After visiting his house we had really yummmy empanadas and ice cream!

The house...

2. Saying goodbye to cerro Alegre/Concepcion - Although technically I was living in Viña del Mar during the last 8 weeks this was one of my favorite neighborhoods to explore in Valparaiso and a couple weeks previously I had seen a bag that stuck in my memory... Needless to say I really wanted to find is so when we were wandering around a couple days before leaving I was super excited to find it!! I ended up buying the bag, and getting driven to the bank by the owner to take out money to buy it! Definitely a memorable experience.

The store

"Yes we take credit cards... now get in my car"

3. Saying goodbye to my familia -  This one is a little sadder, I love my Viña family. They're great (I expecially realize that now that I am living with a family that I'm less than thrilled with) and even though I still have a week and a half left with them when I go back to Valparaiso before the end of the program, I'm super bummed that we didn't have more time together.  On the night before I left to go north they took me to "the best chorrillana place in valpo"which was literally down an alley/one of the greasiest places I've been in a while.

this wasn't taken the night I left but it's a pic of my sis, dad and bro

4. Landing in Iquique - It was surreal, I mean I knew we were going to the desert but I hadn't planned on the foggy moon-scape that we encountered.  It was super cool and I don't think picture do it justice but check them out...

the view leaving Iquique

on the "pampa" the desert out of the coastal fog

5. One of the coolest places I've ever peed... Maybe I shouldn't brag about this but I've peed in some pretty cool places.  On our drive from Arica up to Putre (sea level to about 11, 700 feet) we made a couple of stops.  One of these was at an old Aymara ruin site.  I really had to pee and after we walked around for a while I wasn't sure I could hold it until we got back to the bus.  So I ran, calmly (you can't do anything to fast at 10,000 feet when you're used to 0) to the top of the hill and well.... it was super dry so I'm betting my pee lasted all of 10 seconds before evaporating/absorbing.  I'm sure it's considered totally bad form to pee on ancient indigenous ruins but it was still really pretty and really cool!