So, here it is the week I though would never come. The past few days haven't been too out of the ordinary. Except having a party at a professors house... Imagine 20 gringos, one prof, and one small apartment. Hilarious! Zach and Craig went to the north for a bit, and other than the usual nights out I've been snuggling in bed with Chelsea watching movies. ISA had a "last supper" for us in an incredibly beautiful location with wonderful food! All the staff were there and they gave out all kinds of funny awards. Zach, Craig, and Matt got what [View Full Entry]

---

---

The past week has involved little more than all of us starting to count down the days until we go home (22 for me!). We went to classes, went out too late, and hung out with our families. I watched Zach's baby host sister take some of her first steps as, ironically enough, her first independant steps outside the house were at the mall! My 8 year old host brother can now officially say more long numbers in english than I can in spanish... punk! I'm just not so good once I get to numbers like 24,890... We spent the weekend [View Full Entry]

---

---

The weather has shaped up a bit lately. It was nice all weekend with blue skies and no rain. Although the weather man, aka my host Dad, claims it will rain tomorrow. I spent this week not doing too much of anything! Last sunday we said goodbye to our friend Tim. He caim to Chile to learn Spanish and didn't really need the credits for school. He decided to drop out of school and head north to Bolivia where he will work on a farm in the Amazon. Cool huh? Check out this site: WWOOFING for more! Anyway, the sunset was [View Full Entry]

---

---

OK... maybe no singing... I hate rain! For a number of reasons. The top two being curly hair and rain are not friends and running in the COLD and rain sucks. So, if you didn't guess its raining here... actually for the first time since I got to Chile. Unlike the Argentines who hide under anything resembling cover when it rains the chileans take it like champs and RUN. haha. This weekend was a good one... I hung out with my family on friday night learning about the education system, which is bad in Chile, and discussing the HUGE number of [View Full Entry]

---

---

This post contains politics and history... be warned! Alright so I'll just jump right into a little background summary of Chile: In 1970 Chile did something no other country had ever done... they DEMOCRATICALLY (meaning voted, fairly) elected a socialist leader. His name was Salvador Allende. A lot of people like Allende, he was good to the working class and the poor however, the rich were not so happy with Allende taking their money to give to the poor (this is what happens in a Socialist society to make things more equal). The people of Chile were doin alright but the [View Full Entry]

---

---

So, Its been a bit too long, and actually a lot of cool stuff has happened. I guess I'll back it up to the weekend before last... I had a really relaxed weekend mostly hanging out with friends and Zach's chilean family. His baby host sister, Amanda or Amandita, turned 1! The whole house was full inside and out of friends and family celebrating one very small one yearold's (who napped through half of the fiesta) birth. When she wasn't sleeping she was being a GREAT baby. Letting everyone hold her, talk to her, and tug on her pretty new dress. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Really, I was robbed! Totally crappy! I got mugged by 2 18-20 year old jerks. The worst part was Zach's camera (the only camera we had since mine broke in Bolivia) was in it and our memory card! What crap. The good part is that Zach is super cool and of course didn't care. I got a new cell phone and new keys and even though I really liekd the purse (from Argentina) it's not a HUGE loss. Once again I am without debit cards... The good stuff, we had another awesome asado this weekend! Tons of meet, grilled mushrooms and [View Full Entry]

---

---

So this week I went home. Well sorta kinda... It was the weirdest feeling to be back in Buenos Aires. I had to buzz into an apartment I once lived in (although luckily the doorman, Daniel, let me in a few times), got to be a tour guide, and actually knew where I was goin. We went to all my favorite places, El Alamo, the cemetary, the market, Santa Fe, etc etc. We ate steak, despite the meat shortage in Buenos Aires**, went the famous all you can eat buffet (complete with Sushi), and just hung out. I had a great [View Full Entry]

---

---

So the long weekend.... A good number of people in our group travelled to a few places inside (and outside) Chile, but a bunch of us hung back. Me, Zach, and a few others spent thursday eating Yogen Fruz, hanging out at the mall, and chillin at the beach. We didnt do much friday... went out that night and just hung out during the day. However! Saturday we had an AMAZING BBQ. Mostly due the skills of Zach and the other guys we had killer ribs, hot dogs, hamburgers, sausages, and roasted corn. We also had it at the Viña del [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hey hey hey!! So, all of ISA spent this past weekend + Friday in Pucon, a small tourist town 12 hours south of Valparaiso. (Yes, another bus ride!) The town was really cute with lots of chocolate shops and other touristy features. The main attraction to Pucon is all the totally awesome outdoor activities you can do. You can raft, canoe, kayak, do a canopy tour OR climb a volcano! Due to budget I did only one of these... the volcano! It was incredible! We arrived in Pucon around 8 am and literally hopped off the bus and ran to the [View Full Entry]

---

---