The last few weeks here in Santiago have been interesting to say the least... definitely different than Buenos Aires. Feel free to skim this one cause it's pretty long!... THERE ARE MANY PHOTOS!! Failed exams, the Crazy House, and Street Dogs The first thing I realized during my first week was how terrible my Spanish really is! haha. Chileans speak very quick and have lots of slang so it's really been a challenge. At my school Ecela, which I highly recommend to anybody, the professors speak slow enough so I can understand them. However, I still managed to fail my test and had to retake the level I was in... bummer. Needless to say I've been trying to listen to some local radio, watch The Simpsons and other TV shows in Spanish, and only speak in ... read more

It's been 3 weeks now since the last update and the weeks are starting to blend together, but thankfully I have photographic evidence to remind me of what I've been up to... so here it goes!! Be forwarned, this will be long... (there's 2 pages of pictures) Rock and Reggae Thursday March 3rd some friends and I were out and about at night wondering the Palermo neighborhood, which is where there is a large cluster of various boutiques, restaurants, bars, clubs etc. I've stumbled upon many trendy cool places there but this night we found a "dive" bar/restaurant where all the locals (Porteños = from Buenos Aires) hang, Makena Cantina. We tried to blend in as much as possible as the band rocked the rest of night away. Reminded me of Seattle Also went there a ... read more

Hola Mis Amigos y Familia! This comes to you from beautiful Buenos Aires, Argentina in South America. I'll try to create a blog entry every weekend for the 16 weeks I'll be down here. So stay tuned! (Future posts will be shorter) My agenda for those 16 weeks are... 8 weeks in Buenos Aires, Argentina 4 weeks in Santiago, Chile 4 weeks in Lima, Peru This first week in Buenos Aires has been great! I flew in on Thursday the 10th after about 22 hours of traveling. Ugh... but wasted no time exploring the city for some good eats and a place to stay, and story my 70+ lbs of luggage. I found a cool Hostel in the Palermo barrio (neighborhood) recommended by my friend Trong who's been here for a month already. On Friday I ... read more