SIKE!

I thought that my super-sentimental post would be my last from Chile, but I figured I should update and say
A) I decided not to spend the weekend in Santiago because it was too much of a hassle to coordinate and mostly because I really, really love Valdivia and I wanted to spend my last days in Chile in this city that has been so good to me for four months. So I have 1.5 more days in Valdivia before I get on a 12-hour bus to the airport to take a 9-hour plane ride. And then I'll be home!!!
B) My birthday was yesterday! It was really lovely- my family had a celebration for me complete with red wine and cake, I had coffee with some friends (actually, I had mint hot chocolate, YUM), and at night we went out and I danced to all my favorite reggaeton songs. It was a great Chilean birthday.

The other day I mentioned to my host family that it's a little anti-climactic to have my 21st birthday in Chile since it's already legal for me to drink here, therefore it's not as important of a celebration. To which my host mom replied, "But it is an important age! It's the age you can legally get married in Chile without your parent's consent!" HA! Don't worry, not planning on getting married before Sunday. BUT I COULD, which I guess is pretty cool.

So with those brief updates about my life, I'm back to packing :( It will be a Chilean milagro if I manage to fit everything without having to buy another duffel bag.

despedidas

So here I am, at the end of my study abroad experience, and I have some very cliche mixed emotions about it. They are cliche for a reason!! It's hard to leave a country that has been so great to me. I love living in a new culture, learning new things every day, exploring, speaking more and more Spanish, etc. At the same time, I miss almost everything about my life back in the States and am beyond excited to return to that. Sometimes all I want to do is sleep until Sunday when I get on a plane back to the US. (Of course, that might also just be because I'm really tired. Going to goodbye parties every night last week wears a girl out.)

So how do I balance the excitement of adventure and knowledge of exploring the world with the familiarity and undying love I have for my life stateside? I guess the answer is to travel often. But one thing I loved about studying abroad and (mostly) staying in one place for four months was the slow process of becoming fully integrated into Valdivian life and Chilean culture. Of course, I'm not fully integrated after four months, but I was starting to feel like Valdivia was my home. I am a pro at public transit, the Chilean slang is rolling off of my tongue with ease, my favorite karaoke bar knows my name... I would love to live in another country long enough to fully become a part of another culture. Which I guess is why anthropology fascinates me. But will I ever be willing to part with my awesome life in the US for long enough to create a whole new life for myself somewhere else?

LUCKILY I am still young (living my last days as a 20-year old, as a matter of fact!) and I am sure that in my life I'll have plenty of time to travel & live abroad and also live in my home country. One of the things I got from this experience that I didn't expect is that now I have so much appreciation for US culture. There are still a lot of things I dislike about it, but being away has reminded me of all the things I love about it. (Of course, that might be Chilean culture rubbing off on me... they are very patriotic here.) One thing I love about the US is that since it's so large, with so many states and regions, there's a lot of diversity- of people, of ideas, of FOOD (Indian food get back into my life!!), of clothing styles. Not to say that Chilean culture is completely monotonous, but the US definitely has it beat on diversity.

Basically, as much as I have fallen in love with Chilean culture, I have also re-fallen in love with US culture. We'll see if that infatuation lasts once I'm back or if it's an "absence makes the heart grow fonder" type of situation.

But ramblings about cultural differences aside, the hardest part about preparing to leave has been saying goodbye. Last week was an emotional rollercoaster- I oscillated between pure joy that I got to experience Chile with so many amazing people and pure heartbreak that most of these people will cease to be in my day-to-day life. I'm still kind of oscillating, but now that I've said most of my goodbyes (triiiiste) I'm feeling more leveled. And excited because my birthday is in two days!!

And my adventuring isn't even over yet! The two days before my departure will be spend in the capital city, Santiago, in a hostel that has a pool. My only impressions of Santiago so far have been of the airport and the bus terminal, so I'm excited to see what else the city has to offer me. Fact about Chile: HALF of the population of the entire country lives in Santiago- somewhere around 8 million people! So if you don't hear from me before I'm back in the states, it's because I'm becoming a city person for the weekend and also probably slightly an emotional wreck. But of course, no one wants good experiences to end, and I love that I've been here and I love what I'm going back to. So chao for now, see you in the States!

vida cotidiana

I realized the other day that I really only blog about the times that I travel and have awesome adventures, and to whoever is reading this it probably seems like I go traveling every weekend. Really, it's more like every other weekend. (The life of an exchange student is so hard.) But I figured I should write a bit about what a typical day in Valdivia is like.

So, I wake up. Sometimes I take a shower, which requires me to go downstairs and turn on the gas water heater. If it is a Wednesday morning (the day that I have class at 8 AM), I press my snooze button anywhere between one and five times as I curse the gods for inventing 8 AM classes. Eventually I make it down to the kitchen for breakfast! Desayuno in my casa usually consists of toast with butter or manjar (dulce de leche) and fruit/yogurt, with the option of oatmeal.

After breakfast, I walk 3 blocks to catch a micro. The micros are wonderfully quirky parts of South American culture that I actually totally love. I think I've written about them before, but here's a visual:

Photo by Erin, my face on the left!

It takes around 20 minutes to get to school. My campus is on an "island" between two of Valdivia's rivers, so on a sunny day, I get to see this on my way to/from school:

I'm not going to write about my classes because they are a lot like US classes, only all in Spanish. The biggest difference is that there is a 3-hour break between my morning and afternoon classes so that all the students can go home for lunch. Almuerzo is the biggest and most important meal of the day- I've only stayed on campus for lunch 3 times in the past 3 months because lunch is such a crucial part of the Chilean family life and also is delicious. My lunch is usually a meat/starch combo (chicken and potatoes, lentil soup and steak, etc.) with a "salad." You'd think that there would be little variation between salads of the world, but it is not the case. The first day that I was ever in Valdivia, I ate a salad that was just shredded carrots coated in lemon juice. Sometimes my salads have any combination of lettuce, celery, tomatoes, cucumbers, tuna, and once even OCTOPUS. (Not kidding.) Salad dressing is a mix of lemon juice, sunflower oil, and salt. (Important: Chileans Love Salt.) Recently, my salads have been tomatoes coated in oil, lemon juice, and oregano, which is surprisingly delicious.

Dessert is generally fruit or yogurt. On a good day I get flan or ice cream, and on a REALLY good day my host mom caters to my sweet tooth and brings me a surprise. Last week I had this suuuper dense piece of orange cake.

After lunch, I go back to campus on the micro, go to class, and then come home. My evenings are pretty chill on the weeknights. I do homework, read, chat with my family, eavesdrop on the women who come to my mom's pilates classes, etc. Somewhere in there I have once, which is what they call dinner. Once is very similar to breakfast and is usually toast with butter, cheese, turkey and often avocado. Sometimes some Oreo-like cookies show up, and there is always the option for another yogurt. Oh, and tea is present at all of the meals and at any point in between. Hella tea.

If it is a weeknight in Valdivia, there is a good chance that I will go to my favorite karaoke bar, Madero, and sing an ABBA song. Empanadas are often involved. Sometimes afterward I go to a disco and dance to reggaeton. (Reggaeton is totally growing on me, by the way. I am downloading it frantically!)

This week has actually been a little different because it's finals week, so I've been studying and writing papers during every second of my free time. So far this week I've had 3 tests, 3 essays, and a debate. Bah! Now I only have one more essay to write, and after Monday my Chilean classes are over!

Also, December has arrived! My favorite of all the months! Tomorrow night is my birthday celebration at Madero and it will involve SO MUCH ABBA! (My actual birthday is not for two weeks, but this is the last weekend that a lot of my gringo friends will be in Valdivia, so we are celebrating it early. I love my life.) Anyway, I'm going to celebrate finishing my penultimate essay by watching an episode of The OC. Chao a todos!

Puerto Varas: Chile is full of volcanoes

Hanging out with volcanoes is pretty routine for me.

This past weekend, we had our third and final excursion with our program. We went to Frutillar to see a German museum and a lake, and we made a stop at a mercado in Puerto Montt to do some souvenir shopping, but the city we spent the most time in was Puerto Varas, a lake city with amazing views of some of Chile's finest volcanoes. We also visited Río Petrohué, which had more amazing views and some of the most beautiful water I have ever seen in my life.

The coast of Lago Llanquihue with two volcanoes in the distance!

Los saltos del Río Petrohué

A beautiful lagoon of glacial water.

I may or may not have taken a swim in this gorgeous turquoise paradise. Unsurprisingly, the water was freezing! Still, how often do you get a chance to take a dip in the shadow of three Chilean volcanoes?

As y'all can probably tell from my photos, Chile is amazing and every day I get sadder and sadder about leaving it in a mere three weeks. And at the same time I get more and more excited to return to my awesome life in the states. Aside from feeling slightly conflicted, what I really feel is overwhelmingly thankful. So in honor of Thanksgiving, and also because I think about this a lot, I have to say: I am so lucky to be here, and so lucky to have amazing friends and family in Chile and in the US. I hope everyone back home had a great holiday season!

La Isla de Chiloé + más

Hello blog-readers! Sorry it's been awhile since my last update. Here's what I've been doing:

1. La Isla de Chiloé

Last weekend, I went with three of my amigas to this gorgeous island in Southern Chile. Chiloé is famous for its houses on stilts, its food, and its rain. Somehow we picked the MOST AMAZING WEEKEND to visit and it didn't rain once!

The first thing we did was take a series of busses (okay, only two busses) and a ferry to this tiny pueblo called Chepu, which is the location of Chepu Adventures, a little adventure tourist company run by a couple from Santiago. We slept in a cabin next to the river and woke up at 5 AM to kayak at dawn!

Ready to kayak at 5:15 AM! Rachel, me, Kerry and Danit. Photo taken by Fernando, the dueño of Chepu Adventures.

Sunrise. Photo by Kerry.

I'm in the front of the kayak on the right. Danit is behind me, and Rachel is on the left. Photo by Kerry.

Needless to say, Chepu was AMAZING. Plus, all of their cabins were powered by wind/solar power, and they had recycling and a compost bin! Hardly anyone recycles in Chile, so we were pleasantly surprised by how eco they were.

After that, we took a bus to Castro, the main city on Chiloé. We found a cute little hostel and spent the next day eating and exploring the city in the SUN!

Me with some palafitos (houses on stilts). Photo by Danit.

one of the many famous churches on the island. Photo by Danit.

Train plaza! Photo by Kerry.

It was a beautiful, relaxing weekend on an island full of culture and natural beauty.

2. HARRY POTTER AT MIDNIGHT!!!

When I realized that the first part of the 7th HP movie would premiere during my study abroad experience, I was a little heartbroken that I wouldn't get to see it at midnight. So imagine my SHEER DELIGHT AND EXCITEMENT when I found out that not only was there a midnight showing, but it was a full 24 HOURS before the premiere in the US! This magical moment took place last night, and was all that I could've hoped for. Around 20 of the students in my program went- my friend Erin drew a scar on my forehead and I put some tape on my glasses, so I felt adequately nerdy. The movie itself was AWESOME!! I don't want to spoil anything for those estadounidenses who haven't seen it yet, but I was enthralled the whole time. Seriously cannot wait for part two.

3. NEW CAMERA!!!!

After my camera was robbed during my spring break, my dad sent me a new camera. I waited and waited, and it did not arrive, so I finally accepted that it was lost in the mail (despite my program director's insistence that Correo Chile never loses anything) until....

I GOT IT TODAY!!!!!!!!! So, blog readers, expect a LOT more pictures from me. Today, of course, I had to go on a little photo adventure.

Me with my favorite piece of graffiti in Valdivia. There are actual pages from poetry books pasted onto the wall. And obviously, the giraffe.

More to come!!!

Besitos,
Marie

Bariloche: Chocolate Paradaise

The first picture is me eating a chocolate giraffe on a mountain in northern Patagonia; the second is of my friend Rachel & I eating chocolate in front of a CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN. (The chocolatería that the fountain is in is called RapaNui, which is the native name for Easter Island. It was one of my favorite chocolate shops because there was ANOTHER chocolate fountain inside, as well as a cafe and ice cream shop.)

Clearly, my weekend in Bariloche was awesome. Not only did I eat more delicious chocolate than I ever have in my life, but I saw some truly breathtaking mountains and had a really fun time exploring the cute little mountain town.

When Jeff, Rachel and I rolled into Bariloche on Thursday afternoon, it was pretty cloudy, but we still had ganas to eat some chocolate. Rachel and I discovered the most delicious chocolate in the world, which only cost 3 Argentinian pesos (around 75 cents). I also bought a book of Pablo Neruda poetry. (In Chile, there's an "entertainment tax" on books, music and movies, so it was a lot cheaper to buy a book in another country.) We also made dinner in our hostel, which made me realize how much I miss cooking, even if all I know how to make is stir fry and grilled cheese.

That night, we attempted to experience the Bariloche nightlife. Our friends had told us about a reggae bar called La Cantina, so we figured we would check it out. Around 11:30 we left our hostel and walked around for an hour in the windy, windy cold night trying to find this elusive bar. We finally did find it an hour later and realized we had actually walked past it at least 3 times during our search, but didn't notice because the whole building (including the sign) is black and there were no lights on. Turns out the bar doesn't even open until one in the morning. We were SO COLD at this point that the thought of being outside for half an hour longer was too much to handle, so we bought some chips at a gas station and walked back to our hostel, where we fell asleep like losers.

The next day (after buying more chocolate, por supuesto) we set out to find a place to hike. We were directed to Nahuel Huapi National Park, so we hopped onto a city bus (the most crowded bus of my life- I could hardly fit both my feet on the ground) and went to Lago Gutierrez, the gorgeous lake that borders the park.
We found this sweet tree to picnic on. I should mention that it was raining the whole morning and at this point it was still drizzling and very foggy. I knew we were surrounded by mountains, but we could hardly see any of them. Still, it was a great view.

Despite the rain, we trekked a little more to the national park. We hiked to a waterfall and then up to a viewpoint. The more we walked, the more the sun came out, so when we got to the summit, it was an awesome view.
There were even two stray dogs that hiked all the way back down with us!

When we got back into town, 5 of our friends had arrived so we all hung around our hostel for awhile and then finally experienced some nightlife. The next day, the 8 of us went to Cerro Campanario to see what National Geographic calls one of the top 10 views in the world.

It was SO COOL. Neither words nor pictures can describe how great the mountains and lakes of northern Patagonia are. Or how windy it is.
Bariloche is the windiest place I have ever been!

The rest of the weekend was spent eating chocolate (como siempre), relaxing in our hostel with other international travelers, chilling by a lake, and eating more chocolate. Basically it was a perfect weekend.

BUT I am very happy to be back in Chile, where I understand the currency and where I feel more direction-savy and where I have more clean clothes.

Yesterday I went with 3 of my friends to the cine to inquire about Harry Potter tickets and received the most exciting news of my life: THERE IS A MIDNIGHT SHOWING OF HP7 IN VALDIVIA AND IT IS A WHOLE 24 HOURS BEFORE THE MIDNIGHT SHOWING IN THE US!!! It gets better: the ticket only cost me around 7 USD and I got a free movie poster when I bought my ticket! I am so nerdy and happy. The theater employee warned us that we would have to show up early to get in line, and when we asked how early, she responded with, "around 40 minutes." Ha! If only she knew that I spent 3.5 hours in line last summer for the 6th movie. I think I might have to watch the trailer now...

quick update before i leave for ARGENTINA!

That's right, chicos, I'm leaving for Argentina in the morning to celebrate our four-day weekend in Bariloche, chocolate capitol of South America. !!!!!!

Words cannot express my excitement, but if you know me at all, you know that I am super buena para comer chocolate - basically, I am a chocolate fanatic. Not to mention, I've heard amazing things about Bariloche and I'm excited to see PATAGONIA and experience a bit of Argentinian culture. Supposedly Argentinian Spanish is a lot easier to understand, so I'm curious to hear that and to hear their accents as well.

Speaking of Spanish, I am learning it! It's a slow process, and there are definitely moments/days where I feel incredibly discouraged that I'm not fluent after two months. But then I realize, "That is ridiculous! Who becomes fluent in a language after two months? Nobody!" And I also have total epiphany moments every once and awhile (more and more often!) where I feel really competent in this language. For instance, when I first arrived in Valdivia I was listening to the radio with my family and I remember being terrified because I couldn't understand ANYTHING they were saying. Chileans speak very rapidly already, but radio personalities speak even faster and it was extremely daunting. A couple weeks ago, I was listening to the radio during breakfast (my family listens to the radio during every mealtime) and I realized I could understand everything they were saying, save the occasional random vocab word! IT WAS SO COOL.

Still makin' grammar mistakes pretty often (and still confused daily by subjunctive) but it's nice to understand what is going on around me and be able to converse with other Chileans.

Not much else to report on. I've been going to school, chatting with my host family, celebrating some birthdays, and learning a LOT. Oh, and eating tons of delicious food all the time. Last week was my host mom's birthday and we had kuchen, a German cake-tart-type dessert that's all over Valdivia (thanks again, German colonists!) for days.

As much as I love the Spring in Valdivia, I am a little homesick for the fall, pumpkin baked goods, and US Halloween celebrations. I've also been missing feminist activism a bunch. I keep meaning to write a post on feminism in Chile, but have yet to sit down and do it. One of these days! For now, here are some more cute pictures of me that have surfaced on Facebook recently:

me with a horse statue in Parque Saval, taken by Anna. Not sure what inspired this face.

Me, Danielle, and Jahni, exploring Valparaiso. I like this picture because I look like I'm pulling out my tour guide moves. (Sidenote: I miss my job!!) Taken by Jac.

Me at La Campana (where Charles Darwin hiked!) Taken by... Jeff or Jahni, I can't remember.


Jeff and I in Pucón, with a SWEET volcano house. Taken by Jahni.

A bunch of us in my history class, with Profesor Molina, exploring La Isla de Mancera. Taken by Jeff.

Gotta go finish packing and try to teach myself to roll my r's! Wish me luck!