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Published: September 8th 2009
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mountainsAfter a lot of waiting, it was finally time to leave to go skiing on Thursday. We loaded up the truck and drove to Marcela's parents in Chillan. Her parents were out of town but we still go to stay at their house. When we arrived we had a little bit to eat and I had some hot milk. I went to sleep around 11 or 12. We wanted to leave for the mountains by 7:30 a.m.
I woke up around 7 a.m. I ate some breakfast and got bundled up to go skiing. We didn't leave until around 8 a.m. We stopped at two gas stations, one to use the ATM and another to get gas. We were finally on our way to go skiing. I think it took about an hour or so to get there. It was so cool when we could finally see the mountains in the distance. We stopped at a ski rental place to rent equipment.
We went on Friday because if you have Entel you get lift tickets 2 for the price of one. In total I paid 24500 pesos, which is about $50. I paid 4000 pesos to rent snow pants, 12500 for
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Cristobal the lift ticket and 8000 for the ski's, boots, and poles. After we got that stuff we had to go to a different place to actually get the lift tickets. After we had our tickets we were on our way up the mountain. There are lots of places to rent equipment and lots of hostels on the way up the mountain. The road to the ski place is not paved. It is a rough, gravel road. There wasn't any snow until probably half way up the mountain but it is almost summer here.
We finally arrived at Nevados de Chillan. We parked and headed to the ski hill. I wasn't sure if I would remember how to ski very well but it came back to me quickly. I skied with my host brother Cristobal. We went on a nice little hill first because I wasn't sure how ready I was. After that we went down a long winding trail. We repeated this basically all morning. Up the lifts, down the little hill, down the long trail and then back up the lifts. I took lots of pictures. The mountains were so pretty.
It wasn't as cold as I thought it
might be. Definitely not as cold as MN and WI in the winter. It was a little windy when we got there but it died down after a little bit. You have to wear sunglasses or goggles when your skiing because the snow is so bright and the air is so cold.
We probably didn't start skiing until 10 a.m. We skied for a few hours and then I was getting hungry. Before we went in and ate, Cristobal and I decided to go up the lift to the top of the peak. He said it wasn't too hard to ski down. The lift kept going up and up and up. We saw a guy being taken down on a backboard by two medical skiers while we were on the lift. The view from the top of the peak was amazing BUT there was a steep drop right when you get off the lift. We began to ski down. When I get scared that I'm going to fast or can't stop, I fall. I didn't make it very far before I was sitting in the snow wondering how I was going to get down and Cristobal wasn't going anywhere either.
Since not a lot of people go to the peak the snow was harder and more slippery. It would have been perfect for sledding! I slid down on my butt for aways. Finally we got smart and decided to take our skis off and walk down the hill with them. It was a long ways and it was hard to walk but it was safer than trying to ski down. We had to walk sideways so we didn't fall and slide down the hill some more. When it was less steep we put our skis back on and skied down to the bottom.
After that lovely experience, I was ready to rest and eat. Marcela brought ham and cheese sandwiches and snacks. I ate 2 sandwiches, some snacks, and had a coke. Then we got french fries for everyone to share. I guess I didn't mention that Marcela wasn't skiing since there were 5 of us. Just Jorge, Cristobal, Sebastian and I were skiing. The others went back out to ski and I rested for a little bit longer.
I headed back out to ski by myself for a little while. It was very peaceful. I stopped and took pictures
along the way. I met back up with Cristobal and we went down some other trails that were a little more challenging that branched off the long, slow trail. We skied for the rest of the afternoon until about 5 p.m. By that time it had started to snow.
We packed up our stuff quickly because they wanted to get down the mountain before the roads got bad. I was going to meet Catie, Hayley, and Hayley's families somewhere and spend the rest of the weekend with them and Catie's parents' cabin. It turned out that they were at the same place, Nevados de Chillan but they were at the termas.
Termas are like giant hot tubs but the water comes from the volcano. I waited in the car with Hayley's parents while Catie and Hayley changed. Hayley's host mom had never seen it actually snow before. She was so excited. Catie and Hayley finally came. The cabin was about 30 minutes or so from the ski place.
The cabin was very cold when we got there. I think I was cold from skiing all day and they were cold because they had just gotten out of a hot tub
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host dad and brothers and were still wet. We kept our jackets and under armor on all afternoon and night. When we got to the cabin we ate lots of bread.
Later on we watched a movie with Hayley's parents. It was called "In the Garden " or maybe it was "from the garden". I'm not really sure. It was in english but it was kind of a strange movie. It was good, but I didn't really get it. After the movie we stayed up playing Uno and eating more bread. I never won at Uno 😞 Catie, Hayley, and I decided to all sleep in the same bed so it would be warmer! We were all so cold that we kept most of our under armor on and we had probably 8 or so blankets on the bed.
We got up around 10 a.m. We ate breakfast and got ready to go. Hayley and Catie kind of wanted to go skiing but they didn't want to pay a lot so we weren't sure if we were going to go. We stopped at a rental place and soon they decided that they didn't want to go skiing so we went to the termas instead.
We decided to go to the lower termas that aren't at the Nevados de Chillan. It cost 3000 pesos to get it, which is about $6. Hayley, Catie and I decided to explore and climb around in the forest when we got there. It was really foggy and wet out. After we explored on the hill, we came back to the car and Hayley's parents had decided that these termas were too cold and that we were going to go to the other ones at Nevados de Chillan.
Since we had already paid to get into the lower ones, Hayley's host dad paid for us to get into the other ones because he felt bad. The upper ones cost 3500 pesos to get into ($7). I didn't bring my swimsuit with this weekend so I had to wear Hayley's host sister's suit which was really tiny. It didn't matter once I was in the water but I wish I would have brought mine with. We lounged in the termas for probably 2 hours. The water is really from a volcano so it is kind of dirty looking because of the sulfur. It is supposed to be really good for your
skin but I think it smells funky.
It was windy and rainy outside which didn't make it any better. You bring your bags outside with you so nothing gets stolen but everything was getting rained on, which was not good since it was so cold out. The last thing I want to be is wet and cold. At about 2:45 I decided that I had had enough of the termas and went inside to take a shower. The showers were your typical campground style-dirty-you might get hot water if your lucky-kind of shower. We did get lucky and had hot water. I was happy to take a shower and not smell like volcano water.
I bundled up and tried to dry my hair a little bit under the hand dryer while I waited for Hayley and Catie to finish changing. By this time it was probably 3:30 or 4 and we were hungry. We usually eat a big meal aorund 2 so we went up to the cafeteria to warm up, eat, and wait for Hayley's parents. They wanted to stay in the termas longer and we didn't want to make them leave.
I ordered cappauchino and a hot dog-completo.
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note to self. Don't go up the big hill A hot dog completo is a really big hot dog on a bun with salsa/tomatoes, guacamole and mayo. It sounds pretty gross but it tasted good! This is a typical Chilean food and this was my first time eating it. Catie got the same as I did and Hayley got a gyro. It wasn't too long before Hayley's parents were ready to go.
When we got back to the cabin, of course, Hayley's host mom started cooking right away and none of us were very hungry at all. She served us huge plates of spaghetti with some roast on the side and of course, more bread. We did our best to eat what we could so she wouldn't feel bad but we were all so full.
After dinner we watched the movie "How to lose a guy in 10 Days" with Hayley's parents. It is an American movie but it was in Spanish. I have seen it before so it was fun to watch it and actually know what was going on. Hayleys parents went to bed pretty early. They were planning on going to las termas again in the morning and we were gong to stay and hang out
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ahhh... yep, walking down sounds good at the cabin. They would come back and we would eat around 1 or 2 and then we would go to Chillan. We stayed up playing Phase 10 until midnight.
We didn't get up until 11 on Sunday. We expected Hayley's parents to be gone but they were still at the cabin. They decided not to go to the termas because it was too cold and rainy. It basically never stopped raining Saturday or Sunday. We decided to pack up and head to Chillan. Hayley's host dad decided that after we packed and before we went to Chillan we were going to go to a cave that was only about 5 minutes down the road. The cave was used by robbers to stay the night and keep dry. It's not a cave like you would imagine but more like a rock overhang.
It was so pretty. There were two waterfalls coming out of the rocks and lots of beautiful trees. There was a place for the animals to sleep. There was a fire pit and a grave also. Everything was so pretty and I took lots of pictures. We probably spent almost an hour there. Once we were too cold
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I learned how to take panoramas but i'm not very good at it yet. and wet we headed back to the car and we were on our way to Chillan.
In Chillan we went to the market. I bought a hat to match my winter jacket, some socks to use as slippers and a Chile keychain. We are going to Chillan this weekend with our class to sight-see, ski and go to the termas. I can't wait to go to the market and do more shopping. I honestly don't want to ski or go to the termas again but I think I will probably ski. I wish there was more snow so more trails were open but it will be fun to ski with my classmates.
Anyways, after the market, we stopped at the Cathedral briefly to take pictures and then loaded up to go back to Concepcion. When we got to Chillan, the sun came out and it quit raining. Go figure. Hayley's host dad wanted us all to come to there house to eat when we got back so that's what we did. Hayley's host mom made rice, pork and salad. We had some really good wine that Hayley's host dad go from a friend and we also had peach juice. I'm
not a big fan of peaches though. Of course there was bread, cheese, and manjar too (Manjar is a kind of mix between peanut butter and carmel. Dulce de Leche is another name for it. It tasts like carmel but it has more of a peanut butter consistency and you eat it like PB). After we ate we went for a walk around Hayley's neighborhood. It was starting to get dark, which means it was almost 7 p.m. and I was really to go home.
Hayley's host dad took me home and I was glad. It was a great weekend but it was also very long and I had a lot to do. Once I was home I checked my e-mail and unpacked. I showered and skyped with my parents for a while. After that I settled in to do my homework. Thank goodness Professor Triana decided at the last minute that we didn't have to do an essay this week because I hadn't even started mine. It is only one page but I really wasn't looking forward to writing it.
My host parents wanted me to watch a Chilean movie that was on T.V. at 10 so I did.
It was called "Teresa". It was alright but I didn't quite follow it completely but I got the gist of it. For it being a movie on T.V., it was pretty short. It only lasted an hour and a half. I went to bed around 1 am I think and I really wasn't looking for ward to getting up in the morning.
I got up around 8 a.m. even though I didn't have class until 10. I wanted to take the micro to the University and I wasn't sure how long that would take. I ate breakfast, got ready and left the house around 9 a.m. My host parents were gone already, the Nana wasn't there yet and my host brothers were still sleeping since they have the next two weeks off from school!
I walked to the bus stop because I wasn't sure if the bus would pass by our house. Just as I got to the bus stop and turned around, the bus was coming down the street. What great timing. I wasn't quite sure where to get off the bus but there were lots of other students on the bus so I would follow them and I
knew I could always get off at the same place that I get on near campus. I thought maybe the bus went a little closer to campus but I ended up getting off with the other students only one block closer than where you get on it. It only took about 15 minutes though and then it is about a 10 minute walk to campus.
I arrived on campus a little early so I went to the computer lab and printed some articles for my class that I needed to read and then I went to class. I usually don't have class until 11 but we met at 10 to make up and hour of Professor Triana's class. Basically all we did was go over a few events for the week and tell her about what we did that weekend. After class she wanted to talk to the 4 of us that have work study. We are just going to help her whenever she needs us but she doesn't have enough things for 4 of us to work 20 hours a week. Sometimes I'm sure we will work more but it will be nice to not have to spend all
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our nice bed that we shared of our time worrying about putting hours in.
I'm going to help her tomorrow from 3:15 to 5. Not sure what I'll be doing but I'm sure it won't be too hard. After we talked with her, I had class from 11 to 2. This teacher just likes to talk and talk and talk all day long. I take notes just to stay occupied even though he is going to post them all online. After class I went running with Hayley, Catie and Adrien. The sun was out but it was still pretty chilly. Catie and Adrien left around 3 but Hayley and I stayed and ran some more until probably 4. I wanted to take the micro home again but I needed some change.
I stopped at a little store on the way to the bus stop and bought an orange gatorade. It was been so long since I've drank gatorade and it tasted really good. I waited and waited for the bus. I hate waiting so much. I was happy I had my i-pod or I probably would have went crazy. I think I waited atleast 20 minutes and there were a lot of other people waiting for
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waterfall the same bus. I was so happy when it finally came. It had the big LOMAS sign in the window so I thought it might drive by my house but I wasn't sure. There must not have been a bus for a really long time because lots of people got on at every stop. Soon the bus was very full. I was sitting by a window and I was a little worried about getting out.
When we got to my neighborhood I decided just to get off where I got off last time and walk the rest of the way because I wasn't sure if it would go by my house. I was too scared and hungry to stay on the bus and the bus was so full. I managed to squeeze my way out though.
Wouldn't you know, literally as I was going in the gate to the house, the bus drove by. So now I know that I can stay on the bus and it will pass my house. Oh well, it was nice out anyways and it doesn't kill me to walk a little bit.
I ate lunch and it was yummy as usual. We got a
new washer today. I guess the other one was 15 years old and it broke so it was time for a new one. I showered and have been doing homework and putting pictures on my computer ever since. Tomorrow I have class from 10 to 12 and then I'm going with some people to the registro civil to show them where it is so they can get their ID cards. Well I think I've written a small novel by now and it is definitely past my bedtime! Buenas Noches!
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Phase 10
and I forgot to add that I won at phase 10 both times, which made Hayley really mad because it is her favorite game! haha Beginner's luck I guess!