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Published: September 15th 2009
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scenery pics on the way thereI tossed and turned Thursday night. I basically didn't sleep at all. My stomach really hurt and I was hot and cold. I woke up wide awake at 3:30 and I had only gone to bed around 1. I had to get up at 6 because we were leaving from the University at 7 to go to Chillan(pronounced Chee-on). In the night I had pretty much convinced myself that I wasn't going to go. My alarm when off at 6 and I thought I felt alright. I decided to go but really my new philosophy is going to be that when I think I should stay in bed, I really should.
There wasn't anybody of the roads of Concepcion at 6:40. We got to campus a little early but everyone was there shortly. I think Professor Triana was the last one. She needed to go to the ATM though. We waited and waited and waited. Turned out she left her card at home and had to go all the way back to get it... and she's not a very quick person. She finally came back and we were ready to go. We walked out to the parking lot, basically expecting a
coach bus but of course not. It was a crappy micro bus. The equivalent of a city bus. There aren't school buses here, the kids ride to school in coach buses but we take a city bus to go to the mountains over 2 hours away. This probably should have been my cue to go home. haha
We loaded up and were on our way to Chillan. I guess the best part was that I slept all the way to Chillan which is about an hour. We stopped on the way to rent equipment. We got a great deal. 6000 pesos for everything, which is about $12. We would have to buy a lift ticket later because the only sell them at a few places right near the ski place. Renting equipment took forever but we are a large group so I guess that is normal. Most of us rented ski's. A few people rented snowboards and there were only like 3 people who didn't rent anything. We packed all of our stuff in the bus and headed out towards the mountain.
It probably takes an hour to get to the mountain from Chillan. I was pretty much miserable because
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the majority of the houses look crappy like this I didn't feel good and I just wanted to get there and get off the bus. Some people wanted to eat breakfast but we ended up not stopping anywhere because there really isn't anywhere to stop. We finally made it to the ski place probably around noon. I decided I wanted to eat first and then ski so I would only need to buy a half-day lift ticket.
I brought food but I bought some crackers and a powerade because I didn't feel like eating the stuff I brought. Once we were finished eating, I headed down to the bus to get my ski's with Hayley. By the time we got all ready it was 1 o'clock. The weather was super nice and warm out and we didn't need many layers. I just had my jeans and leggings on, no ski pants. We went up to get our lift tickets.
On Friday, lift tickets are 2 for 1 if you have Entel as your phone provider. They wanted us to have ID but we had left it on the bus. The guy in front of us was nice and let us use his info to get the deal. yay! It
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wood place was only 11,000 pesos or about $20 dollars. Amazing! It was Catie's first time skiing so I had fun trying to teach her how to ski and stop. She got the hang of it eventually. Hayley's ski fell off when she was on the ski lift. Thank goodness it was right away and it was on the little practice hill. I skied with Hayley, Catie, Al, and Lucas for awhile. Then I skied with Hayley, Adrien, Al, and Trevor. We decided to go up a big lift because they told me they had already went down it and it was pretty easy.
WELL we got up there and the first part wasn't bad but then the next part was the SAME hill I had walked down last week. I wasn't sure if I was gonna make it but I decided to go for it. I made my way down really, really slowly. I only fell one time! It took me awhile but I MADE IT! yay! Eric and Jessica were also up at the top of the hill and they went down with me at my pace. Hayley and Al.... well they basically ended up sliding down on their butts/stomachs
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there was a combine but the tree got in the way and made it down probably 15 or 20 minutes after we did.
After conquering that big hill I decided I needed to take a rest and get something to drink. I couldn't believe it was already 4:30. Once I sat down I lost motivation and I ended up not going back to skiing. A group of us were sitting around the table talking when a guy came up and started talking to us. He was originally from Wisconsin and then Colorado. He works at the ski resort in Chile as a trail groomer guy or whatever you call it. He was really happy to speak english to us. He goes back to Colorado in 2 weeks because the snow is almost gone since it is getting to be summer here in Chile. I bought french fries and a gatorade to eat.
We headed back to the bus around 5 or 5:30 and made our way down the mountain. Everyone had a good time and was tired out. We returned our equipment. It took awhile, but not as long as it took to rent it. Even got a refund because the strap on his snowboard broke the first time he went
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our awesome bus down the hill so it made it a lot harder to snowboard all day. After that, I expected us to just drop the kids off that wanted to stay but of course, nothing can be that simple.
I guess it was probably 8 o'clock by now. I don't blame the professor for not wanting to just leave this group of kids on the street but that is what they wanted! We drove around looking for hotels for them. Then, I'm not sure who's idea it was, but then we had to take a vote to see who wanted to eat. Of course all the kids who were staying wanted to eat right then so we went to a restaurant to eat. The restaurant was near the craft market. Everything closes up around when it gets dark out. I would have preferred to just go home but since we were stopping, I went in to eat.
The restaurant looked to me like there were just about to close but they agreed to serve us. I ordered a longaniza with rice. Longaniza is a sausage. Chillan is famous for their sausage I guess. Amy and I decided to share it since we
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hayley and catie getting of the ski lift. Hayley lost her ski on the way up. weren't that hungry. It seemed like we waited a long time but we just wanted to go home. Our food was one of the first ones done. The waitresses had to go buy tomatoes and avocadoes just to make some of the food people ordered. People were being really rude to the waitress. Brenna sent her food back 3 times. Finally Amy and I just paid our bill and went to wait on the bus.
Marcela kept calling me, wondering when we were going to come back. She was concerned because Friday was September 11th and that is a military anniversary so there are lots of riots and violence on this day. That is why the University was closed. Finally the others came back to the bus. We still had to take them to a hotel and get them all settled. This took about another 45 minutes. There was talk of us all having to stay in Chillan if it wasn't safe to go back to Concepcion. Thank goodness that didn't happen because I would have been so upset. I just wanted to go back to Concepcion and sleep in a familiar bed.
We finally left for home around 10
or 10:30. We talked the driver into driving us all back to our houses so our host parents wouldn't have to wait up and we wouldn't be stuck waiting at the University for them to get there. I managed to sleep most of the way since there weren't a lot of people on the bus and we could lay across the seats. I got lucky and was the first one to get dropped off. I literally walked in my house, went upstairs, washed my face, brushed my teeth and went to straight to bed.
I had to get up around 8 to meet Alison, Catie, and Hayley so we could go to the travel agent, which we thought opened at 7:30. Jorge gave me a ride to the collectivo because he was on his way to work. I was supposed to meet them at 9 in the Plaza de Independencia. I wasn't even sure what street that I needed to get out of the collectivo on but the driver helped me. Once I got out of the collectivo, I wasn't really sure which way the plaza was. I walked a few blocks in the wrong direction, then looked at my
map again, then turned around. Turns out I was only a block away when I got out of the collectivo. Oh well!
The other girls were waiting. We walked to the travel agency, Gestur. We got up to it and guess what? It was closed and didn't open until 10:30. We decided to wait. We went to a pharmacy. We found a store that sells Chile souvenirs, including postcards! yay! I haven't seen any postcards since we got to Chile. We sat on some benches in the plaza for a while. Catie and Hayley both bought flags of Chile. Finally it was time so walked back. It was open but the lady we wanted to talk with wasn't there and wouldn't be there until 11:00. We decided to go to a cafe and have a little snack. I had a cappauchino and cookies. yum yum. We went back to the travel agency and our lady, Paulina, was there.
We told here where and when we wanted to go. It took her a long time but we finally worked out that we are going to Buenos Aires, Argentina on September 24th until September 28th. We are flying from Santiago, Chile to
Montevideo, Uruguay and finally to Buenos Aires. We will be spending 4 nights, 5 days in Argentina. We get transportation from the airport to the hotel, breakfast, a city tour and a ticket to a discotheque all included from our hotel and all for $360, round-trip airfare included. Now that's a great deal! Paulina asked if we wanted to take a later flight from Montevideo so we could explore the city a little bit. We said yes but she misunderstood and booked the earlier flight so we are going to try and change it before we fly out of Santiago. We will have to take a bus to Santiago from Concepcion. I can't wait! We paid for our airline tickets but we have to go back and pay for our hotel. Catie never told her credit card company she was leaving the country so her card wouldn't work. She used her mom's and later the company started calling her mom, thinking that it was fraud. She got it all worked out though.
I finally got home around 1. I ate lunch with my host brothers and my host dad. I took a shower and I really wanted to take a
nap. I never did get my nap. I ended up going with my family to the beach in Penco, just to look around for a little bit. It was really pretty. There were people playing tug-o-war on the beach which I guess is common. After that we went and looked at furniture and a little place. I'm not quite sure what we were looking for though. After that we went to a little mall, literally called Smol (pronounced "small"). We went to the L'Angola ice cream place. I had a chocolate milk shake. It was pretty good except I thought it was kind of bitter. We went home and later we watched the movie, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas". It was good but really sad.
Sunday I slept until 11, which was amazing. When I got up, everyone was just leaving, which was alright with me. I lounged around and eventually got dressed. My family came back eventually. We ate potatoes, empanadas, and fish for lunch. We had some really yummy ice cream for dessert. In the afternoon, I went to the mall with Jorge and Cristobal. Cris wanted ski pants. We didn't find any that he liked. I
wanted to stay and shop but I didn't want to stay by myself and none of my friends wanted to come.
I went home and was on the computer until almost 7 when I went to church with Marcela and my host brothers. We went to the church and the Catholic University that is really close to our house. It was alright but there weren't any books to follow along, just a song book. I knew what was going on, since all catholic services are similar but I wish I could have followed along with the readings. They go up for communion whenever they feel like it I guess. There is a line but there is no formal way, you just get up and get in line whenever. I didn't end up going because I wasn't sure when to go. I guess my family doesn't usually go to this church so I hope the other one is a little better. I guess they sung the national hymn as one of the songs and my host mom said that is really rare. It was because Friday is the National Independence Day. After church we didn't wait for the priest to walk
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the gorgeous mountains. not much snow left down the aisle, we just got up and left. After church we went to the grocery store and to blockbuster to return movies and games.
We ended up getting marshmallows at blockbuster and we went home to roast them on the stove. It was a lot of fun but for sure not as good as a s'more on a campfire. We only had vanilla cookies to put them on and no chocolate but it was still a nice treat.
Monday I had class at 11. I got up at 9 so I could shower and get to class on time. I left to take the micro around 10:15. Just as I got to the corner, the micro was about 50 feet away. I threw up my arm but it didn't stop. Literally 30 more seconds and I would have made it. I hate waiting for the micro but I waited. Finally another one came about 15 or 20 minutes later. This driver wouldn't accept my international student ID card which made me mad. I didn't want to argue since I needed to get to class so I just paid him the extra money.
My Monday class is pretty boring. It
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the best pic of me by far :D is an old white haired guy and he literally just talks for 3 hours straight. It isn't completely unbearable but it is close! After class, I went running with Brenna and Hayley. Brenna and I ran 4 miles around the track. After that I took the collectivo home for lunch. The Nana made fish and french fries. There was also a salad with celery. I picked all the celery out though and just at the lettuce. After lunch I got ready to go back to the university.
There was a Welcome program for all foreign students at 6. I got to the University around 5:45 but it took us about 25 minutes to find the right building that it was in. We got little red, white, and blue pins in honor of the independence day and we also got nice little leather coin purses. The President of the University spoke to us. Then we watched a video about the University. Then students from a few countries talked. After that we watched another short video of pictures of cool places in Chile. Not sure what the point of that was because they just showed the picture and didn't tell us where
it was. After that we watched a Cueca dance. After the program there was wine, juice, empanadas and desserts in the lobby for us. I ate too many empanadas 😉. We all decided to go to a bar called "The Beer Place" after so we could all talk and get to know the other foreign students. I went for a little bit. I met a girl named Julie from North Carolina and her friend Ramon who was from Mexico. I left at 8:40 to go home with my host mom. I talked with my host parents for a while when I got home and then went to do my homework. I skyped with Alicia for about an hour and now I am finishing typing this. It only took me like 2 or 3 days to finish this! grr..
Well I need to go to bed! Tomorrow we are going to the city of Lota. In Lota there is a mine that is literally under the ocean and we get to tour it. I'm pretty excited and it should be a lot of fun. Buenas Noches!
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