Welcome Home

I cannot believe that my three weeks in Santiago, Chile, are behind me!! As I sit here typing, I am sitting on my bed in my apartment back at school in South Dakota...aka Winter Wonderland!! When I was driving up to my house a few weeks ago, I literally had to laugh out loud over the sheer amount of snow there is there! Quite a difference from my South American experience :)

It sure has been one crazy whirlwind since my last update. While I did have every intention on making a post before I left Chile, the time absolutely disappeared! So, I will do my best to try to recap on most of what I was up to while time was slipping away...

When I last wrote, I was on the brink of the new year! So, HAPPY 2010 EVERYBODY! It was a wonderful experience entering into a new year in a new country :) My night was spent in the company of my wonderful host family eating delicious food, drinking champagne at midnight, watching fireworks on a nearby bridge, and dancing until the wee hours of the night!

-extended host family & I...Happy New Year!-

I really enjoyed seeing the many differences in culture but also found myself happy to be able to enjoy the similarities, as well.

-watching all the fireworks on the bridge-

Immediately after New Year's, I was able to fit in a good night's sleep (or at least a "sufficient" night's sleep...) before waking up in the morning and hopping on a bus with my school friends and heading to the cities of Vina del Mar and Valparaiso. After only a few short hours of driving, we arrived in a place distinctly different than Santiago and I found myself instantly relaxing at this "vacation during my vacation". Once we located our quaint little hostel that was tucked atop a steep street overlooking Vina del Mar, we headed out by foot to check out the beach. I found the beach beautiful and breath-taking...especially "breath-taking" once I tested the waters (I'll let you know when I think of a word more intense than freezing...)!!!

-just the Pacific Ocean & I- :]

That night, we ate at a quaint little Italian restaurant that had horrible service but amazing food. After filling ourselves to the brim with delicious Italian, we walked the 20 minutes back to our hostel and turned in early to prepare for the next full day exploring Valparaiso.

The next morning, we woke up, got ready, and took the metro the short 10 minutes to the neighboring harbor city of Valparaiso. May I just begin by saying that I have NEVER WALKED SO MUCH IN MY LIFE!! It was a fun place to explore and really was a nice break from the touristy feel of Vina del Mar, but we sure made good use of our legs that day! Whoosh!! The best/worst part was when we decided to (after lunch, nonetheless) walk up quite possibly the steepest street I've ever seen to visit the old house of Spanish poet Pablo Neruda. Once we actually made it up to the top where his house resides, it was really neat and I'm glad we went there and took the audio tour and everything...but man was it tough-going on the way up!

-quite the work-out, but beautiful view-

I found it rather comical because everybody walking down would just laugh and say "Everybody looks like you guys...sweating, breathing heavily, trying to keep going..." haha :) But, yes, needless to say, we made it to the top, went through the house, and had a good time enveloping ourselves in some cool history!

-sunburnt and sweaty...but happy to be there!-

-Pablo Neruda's house, "La Sebastiana"-

After our short weekend getaway, we headed back to Santiago to begin another week of school (and my final week in Santiago!!)

I planned many things for my "utima semana" in Santiago. Most of my plans went through, a few did not, but what I can say is that it was a blast and made me want to stay a bit longer. School continued to challenge me and as the week came to an end, I got more and more nervous for my last exam, but am proud to say I passed! :) Aside from school, however, I kept myself very busy with taking salsa lessons at a "salsoteca", celebrating my last night full night in Santiago at a club with all of my school friends and professors, and rafting in the Andes Mountains!!

-mis chicas y yo, salsa lessons!-

-at a club with my friend Gustavo!! what a wonderful brasileño :) -

-Jeferson and I...another great Brazilian!-

-getting ready to go RAFTING in the ANDES with my classmates!!-

-my class on my graduation day at school-

-my first "profesora" at school, Ingrid...she taught me SO much-

-my last "profesora" at school, Trinidad...check my sweet "diploma" :) -

-"mi casa" for 3 weeks-

After all is said and done, I do not regret one single thing about my trip. It was a long time coming and it cost me a lot of stress and anxiety in the months leading up to it, but looking back, it was overly worth it. Being welcomed into the home of a family I'd never met, meeting new friends from all over the world, finding a new passion for speaking Spanish, seeing amazing sights, and pushing myself to my personal limits...all of it is so priceless and only makes me hungry for more.

But for now...Chao, mi casa Chilena! Chao, Santiago! Y chao, todos mis amigos de ECELA! I miss you all so much and cannot wait until we see each other again.

And to everybody who found me interesting enough to read about, thanks! I have very much appreciated all of the "How are you?!"s and the "I can't wait to hear all about it!"s :)

Now to start planning my next adventure...

;)

Love,
Andrea

Motes and Mercados and Museos...Oh My!

How different Santiago is (transportation-wise) than my good ol' South Dakota! I find myself walking and walking and walking....and then usually walking a little more. However, I've found that here, the walking goes by so fast with tons of little stands and shops and interesting people to keep you occupied along the way. And if you've got a good friend by your side, time sure flies! Aside from walking, I've found the subway and bus systems very helpful. Once I finally got up the nerve to try the subway, I was pleasantly surprised by how much less tired I was once arriving to school! (and much less sweaty for that matter...)

-huge Christmas tree in central Santiago-

Things have gone well since my last post. Christmas came and went like a flash! To be blunt, I don't really feel as though I had Christmas this year. No family and no snow... If your Christmas traditions are anything like mine, all of you Mid-Westerners, you can do the math on that one. But nonetheless, I enjoyed seeing how they celebrate here in Santiago, Chile, and was happy to see that the core rituals are very similar. I went to the house of my host family's grandma on Christmas Eve and we had a big dinner and then opened presents. My Spanish was really put to the test this night due to the "family effect"...you know, when families all get together and everybody talks at warp speed?? Yeah, happens here, too! :) Christmas day, for me, was spent sleeping, Skyping with family, and watching movies...can't go wrong there!

In other news, I'm happy to anounce that I passed my first exam and have, therefore, moved onto the next level at school! While I am impressed with myself and thrilled to have passed, I also am biting my nails at the thought of the next level of my Spanish ability...However, so far class this week has gone well!

One memorable day last week was spent outside of school with my new friend Leila. She's a friend from school and she met up with me in her neighborhood of Las Condes where we went shopping at the local mall there. After our shopping fix was satisfied, we headed through metros and bus stations to El Cerro de Santa Lucia. I know I posted about this last time, as I did visit it the first day of school...but being that Leila hadn't been there and I forget my camera when I went the first time, we decided to visit.

-at El Cerro de Santa Luica again-

We took lots of pictures and took our time slowly winding up to the top of the stony mini-mountain. This time, I also had the opportunity and time to stop and try a popular drink called Mote con Huesillos. It's a very popular Chilean concoction and although I still cannot fully describe what it is (looks interesting..), from what I gather, it has these little barley pieces that are corn-like (mote) with cooked, dried peaches (huesillos). These things are served to you in a cup of syrupy fruit juice (like what peaches come with in the can). If you're ever in Chile, you'll have to try it for yourself!

-mote con huesillos-

After the climbing, we were by far ready for some down-time. Leila invited me to one of her distant relatives' house in the neighborhood of La Reina. Boy oh boy, we found the "rich" neighborhood! The property where her cousin lives was so beautiful, with a fancy intercom-equipped gate, and long driveway, and a gorgeous home. I felt super priviledged that night to be able to mingle with their guests, many of whom were bi- and trilingual! Two of the children there knew FOUR languages!! Whoosh! Talk about a bright future. It was really neat to see. The guests at the house were all so encouraging with our speaking Spanish and overall, I was able to enjoy wonderful food with stimulating people...just what I needed after a long, challenging week!

Other days, outside of school, have been spent with my new friends walking around the city. Often, we'll choose a place of Santiago we want to visit, then either walk there or take the metro there, find some place to eat lunch, and then explore until evening comes. It's a really great "ritual" we have set up and I very much enjoy walking, talking, and visiting different parts of Santiago.

-some of our school group in front of El Mercado Central-

-Leila and I enjoying lunch in El Mercado Central-

On top of just exploring in our little group, there are usually activities after school we can sign up for. Since our trip to El Cerro de Santa Lucia, we've visited El Mercado Central, which is in the center of Santiago and they have different restaurants that are famous for their fish and mariscos. We also visited the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino. It was really cool to see the very different artifacts and hear about the history.

-Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino-

Thank you to everybody that has been checking on and thinking of me! I'm blessed. Also, I've got a fun weekend full of traveling coming up...so make sure to check back soon! I hope everybody has a safe and fun New Year weekend! Chao pescao! :)


Love,
Andrea

Que?? No Entiendo...Repeta, Por Favor...

The above title pretty much sums up how I've been feeling for the 4 days that I've been in Chile..."What? I don't understand...repeat, please..." :) But, as I've also said a million and one times thus far, "Esta bien"..."It's okay."

-flying into Miami-

-the nifty gadgets on my international flight-

I FINALLY arrived in Chile after more than 24 hours of flying (and waiting). And when I did finally arrive in Chile, the adventures were already lining up for me. After making it to the other side of the riDICulously long line for customs, I found myself delighted to see BOTH of my suitcases waiting for me. I thought to myself, "Wonderful! Things are going off without a hitch!"

Then, I began looking for my transfer from the program with whom I am studying (Escuelas y Centros de Espanol en Latin America...ECELA), but to no avail. However, every flight of my trip had been delayed and I arrived more than 2 hours later than I had told the school...so I wasn't very surprised to find myself without a ride to my host family's house. So there I was, a complete "gringa" (an American, more or less) alone in the Santiago airport with very little Spanish practice. Long story short, after some "kind" gentleman found me a taxi, the police got involved (yes...the police...) and asked how much this man was charging me for the taxi. When the police stopped me, I honestly didn't know yet since the taxi man and I were still walking to his car. After a lot of heated Spanish and a call to my host family, I realized that this taxi was "illegal" and was going to rip me off. Whoosh! Gracias a Dios por la policia de Santiago!! Thank God for the Santiago police. After this, the police that spotted the taxi man and I helped me find a transfer, for a good price, to my host family's house. What a start to my trip, huh?!

After my little run-in with the illegal taxi man and after arriving to my house, meeting the family, and settling in, I was more than overwhelmed. My host mom, Nancy, was so kind and took me walking to show me where I needed to go for school the next morning and showed me around the area where they live. They live in Providencia, a nice neighborhood with tons of malls, little tiendas, restaurants, and a Starbucks across the street! :) The apartment is very small, especially my room, but it's definitely plenty of space and I enjoy the location. Sometimes the noise is very hard to get used to (one night a bomb went off nearby...Nancy said it happens a lot and it's just teenagers protesting and the "bombs" are just for the noise...but still!)

I went to bed pretty early Sunday night (my first night) because I had a placement exam early Monday morning to see what level Spanish class I needed to be put in.

-the front of my school-

After 30 minutes of walking like a tourist to my school, I arrived completely sweaty and frantic at being 1 minute late. NOTE: Latin Americans are. not. punctual (especially Brazilians...) So after fretting the entire walk there, I realized all was well. Once done with my exam, I was placed in "Intermediate 1A". And although all of the materials that I have learned so far are the things I already learned in the United States, I always feel totally lost and insufficient. School is super challenging and my "profesora", although very nice and helpful, is very strict and makes me say everything correctly. There are 4 students in my class...1 Spanish-speaker from Canada, 2 Brazilians, and me. Obviously out of the above listed students, I am the most inept at speaking Spanish, so usually class is a little intense for me :/ But "esta bien"!

Aside from school, which takes up 4 hours of each day, I have been trying to participate in every activity possible to get as much out of the experience as I can. The school offers activities after classes a lot of the days, which is nice. The first day, we were taken on a tour of a place in the heart of Santiago called El Cerro de Santa Lucia. It was a beautiful place! We had to climb and climb up tons of hills and stairs, but each level we went up had another great view of Santiago...a perfect first experience. And yesterday, the school showed the movie "El Ofanato"...a horror-type Spanish movie that all of the Chileans fawn over. It was pretty good, but again, my Spanish is lacking which always contributes to not getting everything during stories and such. Yesterday (Tuesday), a few friends and I went out exploring in the neighborhood of Bellavista. It has a lot of trendy little restaurants and places to buy neat gifts and such. The neighborhood is really beautiful and it was fun roaming around there!

-me on Patio Bellavista-

Because my host family (Nancy, the mom, and her two sons Sebastian and Claudio) are always either working or out, school has been an awesome outlet for me to meet people. Already I have become friends with 2 Brazilians who took me under their wings, Gustavo and Jefferson. Gustavo knows Spanish, Portuguese, and English...so helfpul!! They are both very patient with me and my choppy attempts to tell stories and contribute to conversations. I've also met tons of other people from all over...one guy from Paris, a few from the U.S., a lot of Brazilians, and a lot of Germans. Everybody is so willing to meet everybody else, so we have a good time mingling on our breaks and during activities.

Overall, my 4 days here so far have been wild. I'm always tired, mentally and phsycially, but I would have to definitely say the 4 days have been positive! This is only the beginning of my trip and I'm very excited to see what the rest of it has in store for me!

So, with all of that said, MERRY CHRISTMAS!! I hope all of you in the Midwest are enjoying your blizzard. This will be my first Christmas without snow! I sure picked my timing right, eh? :)

Love and miss you all...I'll be sure to update again soon!

Chao!

Chile Is Here! ...well, kinda

So, my excursions began yesterday at 8am when the time came for me to drive to Minneapolis/Andover to stay with my friend Katie. The drive was pretty quick and painless (maybe too quick...I got a speeding ticket...shoot). After arriving in Minneapolis and dropping off my wonderful travel buddy Fernando at the airport for his flight, I headed to Andover where Katie lives. We had a great time catching up, and before I knew it, it was time to get ready for bed in preparation of my 3:30am wake-up.

If any of you know me, I am not a morning person, so getting up was a little rough. And to be completely honest, excitement didn't change things because I wasn't excited. The flight part has been the one thing I've been nervous about the entire pre-trip time and I today already, I have been given plenty of reason to have been nervous (notice that I am blogging when I'm supposed to be flying...)

So now here I sit at Gate C12, where my plane should have already loaded and taken off by now, but we are still waiting to board. Ish. Any other time I would not have really minded a delay, but considering I have to make 2 other flights after this one, the delay only presents unwanted frustration and anxiety.

However, I know that things will work out! I will make it to Santiago eventually, with or without my baggage, ha! But if any of you out there have a private jet, fly it my way, would ya?

In closing, here is a picture of my good friend Katie and I when she dropped me off at the airport this morning. Katie, if you're reading this, THANK YOU for waking up soooo early and supporting me. It really meant a lot :)


Thanks for reading, and hopefully my next blog is from Chile!! Saludos amigos.


-Andrea

IT'S OFFICIAL: Compré mi boleto!

It's finally official! A short (ha!) 7 months later than planned, I am finally officially making my way down south...waaaay south :)

While I had originally intended on going to both Argentina and Chile...and then I changed my mind to just Argentina...NOW (big breath!) I have decided on Chile. I will be studying there for 3 weeks over my Christmas break from school and am very anxious.

anx⋅ious/ˈæŋkʃəs, ˈæŋ-/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [angk-shuhs, ang-] –adjective

1.	full of mental distress or uneasiness because of fear of danger or misfortune; greatly worried; solicitous: Her parents were anxious about her poor health.

2.	earnestly desirous; eager (usually fol. by an infinitive or for): anxious to please; anxious for our happiness.

3.	attended with or showing solicitude or uneasiness: anxious forebodings.

While I must admit I am feeling all of the above definitions of "anxious", mostly I am eager to go! It's been a long time coming for this trip and even longer for me simply wanting to travel outside of the U.S. and the time is finally here!

My intentions are to revive this old blog so that friends and family can see a few pictures and have a few updates on how my trip goes as I am down there...

So stay tuned! :D

To the Best Man I've Ever Known

Arnold O. Hanson: August 22, 1924- April 10, 1009

Last week on Friday, April 10, 2009, my grandpa passed away. I wasn't even at home when it happened so I never really got to say a last goodbye or anything. In an attempt to try to compensate for not being there when he passed, I really want to do this post to tell people about this great man who left the world...

First off, in the blog title, "best man I've ever known" is not in any way an exaggeration. My grandpa was literally the nicest, sweetest, and funniest guy. When I shuffle through the memories I have of being out at my grandparents' house (which occurred quite a lot being that they only lived across town), I honestly cannot remember a single time when he was unkind to somebody. Don't get me wrong, he was strict when he needed to be...but he wouldn't hurt a fly (maybe a cat, though, haha).

At least a third of my "Grandpa flashbacks" are of him hauling us grandkids around in a little trailer that he'd hook to his lawn mower/tractor. My grandma and grandpa had a house just outside city limits and had a lot of property to ride around on...and boy did we cover it all (INCLUDING ditches....backwards....) Grandpa was ALWAYS the jokester and a visit never ended without a good laugh and big goofy grin from him. Even when he was in his last stages of Alzheimer's, every now and again his "old self" would just shine through with a hysterical look, complete with crinkled eyebrows and ridiculous smile...what a ham!

I remember when he got really sick last year and he was in the hospital for quite a few days...I was there pretty much every day over the weekend and would talk to him when he was coherent. During one of our strained conversations, it got brought up that I was going to school for Nursing, and he stopped and looked up at me and said "You will be the BEST nurse!" and I just lost it. I really do hope I can make him proud!!

His visitation and funeral were really beautiful and you couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by all of the love and support of all of his family, friends, and acquaintances that showed up. The night before the visitation, all of the family got together and gathered pictures of him to display...boy had I forgotten Grandpa over the last year when his Alzheimer's got really bad. Going through those pictures was so neat, remembering how he really was.

He was just such a wonderful man and somebody who I will always feel nothing but respect for. EVERYBODY loved him and I can only hope that one day, somebody can say the same about me. My grandpa is somebody who loved life and found pleasure in simple things like morning coffees at HyVee and buying bananas for people (haha).

Most of all, he's somebody I will always love and will never forget.

Dancing With Myself!

And so here's the post I was anticipating to be the official "I'M GOING TO ARGENTINAAAAA!" statement...not so much, kids. However, it has been postponed and is scheduled to commence in May of 2010!

Why the delay you ask? Well, basically, timing. While I never thought I'd let something like timing get in my way of a study abroad experience (see previous enthusiastic post about nothing stopping me), I guess that's part of growing up...you start to really take different things into account. You weigh the pros and cons. Needless to say, I was bummed at first but so many wonderful things have come of my change of plans and I'm very excited to see what the near future holds!

Aside from the itinerary switch-up, I've had some really great weeks since I last blogged---and I'd like to document a few of them. This is probably going to be a longer post, but stick with me folks...I feel like I have some good things to say!

First of all...
I worked at the Festival of Cultures last Friday. My initial motivation for doing it was basically to just get a few extra credit points for my Spanish class (typical right?)...but I ended up staying twice as long for other reasons. Our booth was sort of a "drinks paradise", if you will, where we were making pina coladas, strawberry daiquiris, etc (non-alcoholic of course!) I arrived and was immediately overtaken by the hustle and bustle of getting the drinks made and out to the line-waiters chop! chop! Upon leaving awhile later (and only when I really had to), I was stung with a rather uplifting realization...when people work together for a common cause, even one as trivial as making slushies, we can accomplish so much and in such powerful ways! I know, I know...we were making slushies....for a festival....but seriously! It applies to a lot of deeper things, too! :] Ha. (Insert the peace & love hippie euphoria here.)

Secondly...
I'm only 21! I guess it turns out I'M STILL YOUNG!! This rather obvious self-characterstic has been something that I keep re-realizing lately (not sure how you re-realize something but let's go with it...) Quite a few things have been happening recently that have been tough; and they are things that bring to light how important it is to live these years up as fully as I can! I have great friends and awesome family and soooo much to be thankful for and soooo many years ahead of me (God-willing!) And sometimes the things that get me digging holes are things that should be making me want to climb mountains! This year (it's already April?!...well, for the rest of this year) I am going to make the honest, daily, devoted effort to be happy with every day...and to make the best out of every situation. Life sucks sometimes. Yes, we've all been down at the bottom of that hill; but life is also too short to not turn the not-so-pleasant moments into ways to make the future moments 10X better. (My apologies for the cliche-ness and overly optimistic quality of the above paragraph...but it's all sooo true, right?!)

Thirdly...
Kudos to a good friend of mine for showing me a song by The Donnas called "Dancing With Myself"! To all of you girls out there who think being single is lame...think again! :P Sometimes I really think the world gives us this "To be happy: Be in a relationship" expectation. FALSE. Half the people I know that are in relationships are not happy. And if they are happy, a good share of them don't have very many experiences to show for it! Now, don't get me wrong, I do think relationships, when had at the appropriate times, are a wonderful thing---statistically, they have even been shown to improve men's overall health and well-being (ha, wonder why that is...) But I also think flying solo is liberating if you have the right mentality. If you sit around and wish on every star that somebody, anybody, comes along so you don't have to be alone...good luck, amigo! However, if you look at it like The Donnas do and have the "if I had the chance, I'd ask the world to dance" outlook...you'll do just fine ;)

In closing (whew! told ya!)...I still will indeed be doing the whole "Carpe Diem" thing like I said in my previous post...but just in different ways than I had anticipated. Ahhh, life...so full of surprises, no? Until next time, I'll just be up on the table dancin' with myself (and my friends of course!)---Ha!

Happy week, all!