Lazy weekend and PACKER GAME

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October 5th 2009

Published: October 6th 2009

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hundtc

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protest

Friday I slept in since we don´t have class on Friday. I ate lunch with Jorge around 1. We had this casserole type thing. It was kind of like what is in empanadas but more in a pie form. Jorge put sugar on his which I thought was a little weird but I tried it and it wasn´t bad. After lunch I had to go meet Lizzy at the University so I could get my purse. Lizzy, Sonni, and Sam were going to the beach but I was meeting Christina to go explore Parque Ecuador.
Christina wasn´t going to be there until later so I just hung out on campus and waited for her. I got a pop and walked around campus. I found a little store that I didn´t know was there, that sells UdeC t-shirts. I could hear music and drums. The students were still protesting but I thought it was a marijuana march that was supposed to be going on. I was intrigued though so I walked towards the sound. It wasn´t the marijuana march, it was a student march.
The students were across from a campus office chanting and singing. I stood and watched from a distance.

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more protest

I was taking a video when I realized the students were walking my way. I quickly got out of their way so I didn´t get caught up in anything. This march was very peaceful. They were just carrying signs and chanting. Right after I watched the march go by, Christina called, she was there. I met her by the arches. We kind of took the scenic route to Parque Ecuador but we made it. We just walked along, looking at everything. We have heard the hills around there are dangerous so we stayed on the path by near the street. We saw a really pretty waterfall and we couldn´t resist going to get a closer look. It was surrounded by steps and such so it seemed pretty safe. There were other people up there taking pictures. We waited for them to finish and then we took some.
Al, Evin, and Lucas were going to play basketball at the University but they couldn´t so they came and met us at the park. We chatted for awhile and walked some more. Lucas and Al left. Christina, Evin and I kept walking until the end. We went through the little museum. It was

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protest moving through campus

neat. There were little models of historical scenes and some from the present. There were some stone pillar things at the end of the park also.
We left the park and went into a Unimarc store. Unimarc is a grocery store chain. We wondered around awhile. Evin bought a spanish dictionary and some pencils. Then we walked to the downtown. Christina wanted a thermos but she didn´t want to pay a lot. We looked in a few stores there and then we decided to take the collectivo to the Lider store. Christina got a Thermos there and we all bought a bunch of munchies. We walked to the mall, eating our munchies.
Brad met us at the mall. We at more munchies and then we all got ice cream. We sat around a table in the food court for probably 2 hours just eating and talking. We started to walk around the mall but it was closing. We stood in a circle for awhile and talked and then Christina and I took collectivos home and Brad and Evin took micros. I stayed up on the computer for awhile and then went to be since I had to get up early

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students sitting in the windows of a taken building

for volunteering.
I got up at 6:30am on Saturday. I had to be at the stadium in Chillao at 8 am. I accidentally set off the house alarm when I went downstairs but I shut it off. I ate some breakfast and got dressed. I left the house around 7:20. I waited for a collectivo for quite awhile. I arrived at the university around 7:50. I needed to catch a number 7 collectivo to the stadium. Lucas was waiting for one too so I waited with him. We saw one go by but they only had room for one person. Another one went by with only room for one person. Al was sitting in the front seat grinning as it passed. We finally caught one.
We arrived at the stadium but we weren´t really sure where to go. We finally got in the stadium and found the rest of the group. There was a group of Physical Therapy students from a different university there. We chatted with them and waited to be told what to do. Brenna and Al helped in a little food stand and the rest of handed out gatorade. The events began around 10 a.m. Brenna, Adrien

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bus stop

and I went outside the stadium to a little market to buy sunglasses after Professor Triana told us about how people get cancer in their eyes from the sun down here because there is no ozone here. I bought some for 1500 pesos ($3) but they ended up breaking later.
The track meet had 3 classes of participants. One was people in 3 wheeled bikes, people in w/4 wheels (wheelchairs) and people with mental handicaps. They did mostly 100m stuff but the bikes did a mile race too. For field events there was shot put and long jump. There was an 800m race, a 400m race and also a 4x100 relay. Everything was really fun to watch. Around 1 or 2pm we took a break to eat lunch. They gave us a sandwich, an apple, cookies, a granola bar, and a juice box. After lunch we lounged in the grass. Professor Triana was dancing with all the students. It was funny to watch. Soon everyone started lining up for a parade down the front stretch. We thought we would just get to watch but we were the last group of people in the parade. It was kind of fun. After

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waterfall in the park

the parade there were a few more events and they began to hand out medals. I got to help with that. It was really fun to see how happy and proud everyone was. Even the people who got last were just so happy to cross the finish line. It just takes so much effort for them and it makes me thankful for my abilities and I hope I never take them for granted.
The meet finished around 4 pm. We were all invited to dinner at a Asian buffet after. I wasn´t going to go but everyone else was going so I went. We were going to take a micro but the physical therapy students said that a bus was coming for them from their school and that we could just go with them. We waited for probably a half an hour for their bus to come and we just chatted while we waited. By the time we got to the restaurant all the other people were there and there wasn´t a lot of food left. I got some rice and french fries. I went back later and got some salad and chicken but it was still slim pickings. We

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jumping in

sat upstairs since there wasn´t any room to sit downstairs. I like sitting upstairs because it was easier to talk. The physical therapy students were really fun to talk to and they all wanted our contact information so we can get together sometime. We stayed at the restaurant talking until around 6:30. After that I took a collectivo home.
I was thinking about going out and doing something Saturday night but I never got around to it. I forgot that workers were coming to paint the kitchen and bathrooms in the house on Saturday. They were painting all the bathrooms except mine so everyone had to use my bathroom downstairs. I didn´t want to bother the painters and tie up the bathroom so I just stayed in Saturday night. I was exhausted from getting up early and being outside all day long.
Christina and I wanted to go to the beach on Sunday but it rained. I slept in until about 10:30 on Sunday. I got up and showered right away. The workers were already there finishing up the painting in the kitchen and bathrooms. They kept walking by the bathroom window outside while I was showering so I showered

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as fast as I could. They can´t see through the window or anything but it was still weird. I was a little mad because apparently the other members of my family don´t know how to move the shower curtain so you don´t get water all over the floor. The floor of the bathroom was soaking wet all day long. I spent the day catching up on my blog and relaxing.
One way you can tell that my host mom is out of town is that for lunch on Sunday we had pizza and cake that my host dad went out and bought. It tasted delicious. Another reason we had to get pizza was that the kitchen was a mess from the painters. After lunch I watched Wall-E on HBO and did some more blogging. I was really lazy but Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, right? I skyped with Mom and Dad for about an hour. I stayed up later than I should have, but that´s normal.
Monday I got up at 8:30 to get ready for class. Our class schedule and teachers changed again. Now on Monday we have class from 10 to 11 and 12

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to 2 with two different professors. The first class was about literature. The teacher was very in-your-face and enthusiastic. He went half an hour over but we didn´t really mind. The second class was about literature. The teacher is a woman. She made us get a partner and we had to go in front of the class and pretend we were our partner and talk about them and their theater experience. After that we did another activity where we had to go in front of the class and pretend we were on a cooking show. I was Christina´s partner. We pretended to make salad and I pretended to cut my cut my finger off. The class seems interesting but I am not a big fan of getting in front of the class all the time.
After class I went running with Hayley. I only ran a mile and a half. My right leg hurt. One of my muscles in my calf/shin is really sore and I can see that it is enflamed compared to the other leg. It doesn´t hurt when I walk or anything though so I´ll just see how it feels tomorrow. I´d rather not get hurt while

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I´m taking it easy! After our short workout we walked downtown to talk with the travel agent. Hayley wanted to get an idea of how much a trip to Peru in November would cost.
The travel agent wasn´t there when we got there so we wandered around in the gallerias for a little bit. Paulina was there when we got back. It took her probably 20 minutes to figure stuff out. She frustrates me. I´m not sure why but she just does everything really slow and never really answers my questions. She wants us to come back tomorrow after she checks on hotel prices but just for the flight she said it would be $660 which is not an option for me. I guess we´ll see. I´m leaning more towards just traveling after we are done with class (Dec. 3) until it is time to go home (Dec. 16). I think it would be fun to make a loop around from Chile to Bolivia to Brazil to Peru and then back to Chile but that might be really expensive. That way I would have until December to plan and we wouldn´t have to fly everywhere we could maybe take buses

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christina and i

of trains or something cheaper. I´m sure I´ll get it all figured out!
I was really hungry since it was almost 5 p.m. so I took a collectivo home. The Nana was running around like crazy. I felt bad since there was so much cleaning to do today from the painters, plus Monday is laundry day. She quickly warmed up my lunch. I ate salad, chicken and rice. It was yummy. Catie came over to watch Grey´s Anatomy with me at 6:30. I love that show! I wish they played the new episodes on t.v. but it is always re-runs. We talked, drank tea and snacked. I was sad that we were going to miss the Packer Viking Monday night game BUT thank goodness for ESPN because THE GAME WAS ON! Someone figured out it was on cable. That about makes my life for awhile. I could go for some pizza rolls and taco dip though. Catie went home a little bit ago. It is half time of the game right now. I just can´t believe it is on. All the commentary is in Spanish but that´s not important. I´m still not used to seeing Favre in purple. For the