"oh lord, woncha buy me, a mercedes benz?"

Well, it's been almost a month since I've updated my blog, and I bet your wondering why. Well, here is it: my computer's power cord ripped out of my computer and not in a way that could be fixed, so my wonderful boyfriend bought me a brand spanking new one and sent it to me via express mail. It was a really trying 2.5 weeks without my computer since in that time I had come back from my amazing vacation in the desert and wanted to update you all, and had just found out how to read Harry Potter online for free....
So here it goes: San Pedro de Atacama.
For those of you who don't know, I had a week long "Spring Break" in September and took a vacation to the Atacama desert, which is not the in Atacama region, but in Antofagasta, go fig. I took a 24 hour bus ride with about 8 other people, and while I did not think it was that bad, some people definitely did (even though being the shortest of the group and my legs not being long enough to rest on the floor comfortably should have made it worse for me). We left at 11pm on a Thursday night so I had all of Friday to watch Chile pass by. Mostly I saw huge sand dunes and ... nothing else really, but when we had to make stops we would wander really close to the coast and be able to see ocean towns and little villages. Not much else happened on the bus -- oh it was a double decker and we were on the top, so it was cool.
We arrived in San Pedro de Atacama-- a teeny tiny town in the middle of nowhere, that, at most is about 3 sq. miles, or something like that... -- at 11pm, wandered around to our hostel and passed out. All 9 of us shared a room and let me just say it did not smell great in the mornings, especially around the third or fourth day.
The first morning a few of us set out for breakfast at around 9 (way to early for Chile) and nothing was open except for this hole in the wall place that is not really meant for the tourists, but it was really good and super cheap (like 3 dollars). Next our whole group rented bikes, I am not a bike person, but I went along. I was wearing a T-shirt and black yoga pants, wrong decision. Also, I had no idea where we were going, but we only had the bike for 3 hours, so I knew it couldn't be that far. Well our groups kinda filtered into 3 groups, mine stopping just outside town to hike around an Inca ruin, it was really cool to think that the walls and steps had been there for way longer than the U.S. has even been a country. After this excursion, I was feeling way hot and decided to go back and rest, eat and buy a 3 gallon jug of water before our next outing. The Atacama desert is the most arid desert in the world, and I, never having been to a desert before, was floored. By noon it is so hot and dry that you think sitting in the sun is a good idea, but the sun is unbelievably harsh that this isn't possible for more than 15-20 minutes. At 3pm this same day we had a scheduled tour of Valle de la Luna -- Valley of the Moon -- and surrounding areas. This time I wore jeans, and a light long-sleeve sweatshirt because even though it's hot, the clothes keep your moisture in so you don't bake. We walked around some canyons, and down some sand dunes and I was fine and well until about 5pm when I realized I had an epic sunburn and was majorly dehydrated. But the tour included a sunset view from the top of a massive sand dune. By the time we all climbed up the dune and found a good (read: dangerous) ledge to sit on I was feeling not so great. The sunset was beautiful and after the sun went down the mountains and sand dunes all turned pretty purple and pink colors, but right after I needed to get to the bus and my water ASAP. One thing I should mention: While it is VERY hot during the day, it can be equally cold once the sun goes down. I felt pretty ill when we got to the hostel, but I managed to eat some dinner (avocado on bread, yogurt with granola -- best meal EVER) and felt fine by the time I went to bed. In the AM every exposed part of my body the day before was chapped and sunburned. If you've never had a sunburn on the back of your hands, it is hell. I think its from the bike riding the day before... I'm not saying these things to complain because really, San Pedro is beautiful and I would go back, I'm just trying to emphasize the force of the sun and aridity (?).
At our hostel there was a man, Pablo, who lived there (for free?), and helped out the owner, but he was a tour guide and gave our group a deal to take us two hours away to see the geysers go off at down and a hot spring. Also the tour included a trip to the salt lakes in the pm. So we all wake up at 330 and bundle up because according to Pablo, who spoke very accented English, it is "so FUCKING cold up there." After about 30 minutes on an actual road, our van/bus turns off into the very bumpy desert, seriously it was like sitting on a jackhammer at various points. As one kid put it "I feel like I have shaken baby syndrome." The geysers were really cool and we could walk right up to and around the little ones bubbling out of the earth, but it was about 10-20 degrees F. and even though I was wearing everything I could (athletic pants with knee socks, hat, mittens, sweatshirt, fleece, wind breaker, etc) it was still too cold to be out long. Next Pablo took us to a hot spring and there was much confusion about how warm it would be when the sun was properly up. I knew it couldn't be too much warmer, so even though Pablo promised it would be warm in the water, I opted not swim in it since when I got out I would have to get completely naked in the brisk below freezing air (oh, in front of all the other tourists, too). Momma did'n raise no fool. So I sat on the ground next to Pablo and laughed when the others got out. On the way back to San Pedro I passed out and woke up in the heat of the day with all my layers still on and quickly peeled them off and ate lunch (avocado, bread, tomato, pears, yogurt, granola -- I can eat this everyday of my life, PLUS the produce here is amazingly fresh and ripe when you buy it... perfection).
After a rest we took off to go swimming in the salt lakes. This time, I had prepared myself with a scarf/sarong thingy and planned to swim in my long sleeve shirt and shorts because of my burn. So there we were, jackhammering around on the bus again, but only for around 40 minutes. So we're driving around in the desert, I'm looking out the window at absolutely nothing but huge sand dunes/salt mountains, and at this point the driver is playing Mapuchean (the major indigenous group here) music, which sounds vaguely arabic, I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt and have my white and light blue scarf draped over my hair and crossed under my chin when I think "I could totally be in the Middle East right now with this scenery, the music, and my head scarf." I was wearing shorts, but if you saw my from the window, you wouldn't know.
We got to the salt lakes, and they were really cool because you didn't need to do anything, you just float with no assistance, but it was scary because its very clear around the edges except completely black in the middle -- oh that's the drop off. (!) Where it drops off it is very sharp too, so don't touch it or you'll cut yourself. Also very cold, freezing in fact. so after about ten minutes I got out and Pablo instructed me to take off my shirt because it's going to stick to my body if i don't, so my anti-sun burn plan failed, but I managed to tie my scarf around myself for a little protection. After we were done swimming Pablo instructed us to walk around the lake, barefoot, so see the flamingos. Walking around in flamingo poop makes for a smelly bunch of students. By this time the salt from my shirts has crusted on my legs in streaks and everyone is dying to rinse off. So Pablo takes us to another "fresh water" (really, just less salty) lake which is literally a hole in the ground that you jump about 12 feet into -- also freezing, but nice to have the salt off. Everyone files onto the bus and changes, (underwear and everything because it's about to get cold out) which was difficult as there was little room and the road was so bumpy. Also, Pablo was half in the bottle and we had to keep reminding him we were pant-less and to please just turn around for 5 more minutes. (There were only 3 other boys in our group and they had the sense to just look out the window for the time being.) Another beautiful sunset and we were set to go back. I think we got lost as it took twice as long to get back to the main road, but hey, we made it.
The next day only the boys had "planned" something. They were going to wake up early and go for a long bike ride so they could be back by the heat of the day. By 2pm I was starting to worry about them since San Pedro is about 30-50 miles from anything else.... They got back okay at 3pm but confessed that they had indeed been lost in the Atacama desert for 7 hours. Can you imagine being lost among canyons, salt mountains, and blistering heat for 7 hours with only a small water bottle each?! They were almost very nearly lost. When they got back to the hostel, my friends Sarah and Mia and I went on a Gatorade hunt for them because they were to' up. I secretly imagine them crying out there...I would...
A word about Pablo: he's crazy. Always at least somewhat drunk, and reeking of cigarettes. During the lazy days we noticed that Pablo really loved to sing songs around the hostel, such hits as Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" and James Browns "I Feel Good." He said he lived in "'Frisco" for 40 years, but I think that was a lie. Also he has 3 sons, one's a doctor, one's a lawyer, and ones "a BUM, like ME." One day he asked my friend to translate some rules into proper English for him, one rule, evidently an important one; "How you say, donna put your buggers in da sink?" One night we made dinner for everyone there and Pablo helped us, really it was his idea, so we helped him. Pablo, was not a conventional cooker, and as I've said before, washing hands is not as emphasized here as it is at home. Sarah walks into the kitchen and sees Pablo do something like, I don't know, stirring the salsa with his hands and she asks him "Did you wash your hands?" he looks at her and says "Look, because you a girl, I not say what I thinking." I think he was annoyed at all our questions, but he told us to help him... hahaha oh Pablo. (oh he's also like 60)
The next day was also a lazy day spend shopping in the markets and looking at all the kitschy junk, and beautiful woven goods. I really wanted to buy a very colorful hammock for Grandma, since we broke hers this summer, but I would not have been able to fit it in my bag...
Another quick 24 hour bus ride and mile walk from the terminal and I was here! Then my power cord broke the next day. Next week I'm going to Mendoza, Argentina so we'll see what craziness happens there!

My mom and Aunt Lisa made me realize this week, I never said anything about my classes or daily life! Que horror! Well to start, I live right across the street from the international office, lucky me because some kids have to talk a long bus ride to get there. I just walk out of my building, up a staircase to the street, and dash across (drivers here are CRAZY) and I'm there. The international office is not part of the main campus, and doesn't look like any university office I've even been in. It's an old salmon-colored house converted into the office. It has two floors, a basement and a nice sun deck upstairs. This is where all of my classes take place, I never need to go to the main campus, and don't know what it looks like.
I'm taking four classes. A grammar class, a Chilean culture class, phonetics, and Cultures in Contact -- with Chilean students to learn about each others' culture. The first three classes I take with the same people, there are 3 German students, and 4 of us Americans (it started out just American's and the Germans each were added one by one). I hope there will be no more additions because I like the small classes. The classes are all in Spanish except when we need more explanation (which is a lot of the time).
Cultures in Contact I've only had once, and it is a once-weekly class. We get 2 credits for the class, but 3 if we volunteer. I signed up for the "English Open's Doors" program, which I will go to a high school in the area and sit in with a teacher for 4 hours per week during English classes and help explain things in English or banish American stereotypes if they need me to. ("No, we do NOT put ketchup on everything," side note: Cecy -- the mom -- bought me a HUGE bag -- yes bag -- of ketchup the other day. I didn't ask her to, but I do feel better knowing it's in the house...go fig.)
My classes are usually done by 2 and I don't have class on Friday -- party! So usually after class I will either go downtown to window shop, or really shop, or go home for lunch with Cecy, which she appreciates. Fridays I usually lounge around the house, if it's nice go to the beach, or over to a friends house. I found a blockbuster downtown and get a couple movies every now and then.
Wednesday night is the night to go out. I have no idea why, but it is. Since I have class until 7 on Wednesday I can dash back across the street and eat or get ready and then hit the town. Since my apartment building is so central, I don't ever really take public transportation and can walk everywhere, more money for the bars. Weekends are for family at my house and lunches are a big deal since that's when Enrique, the dad, is home from Santiago.
That's my sched. I'm going to post pictures this week of my building and such and next week I'm going to the Atacama Desert -- the most arid in the world -- exciting!

Do you think I'm the type of person who should go skiing? Skiing, the sport that mixes nature, sports and heights into a terrifying coctail.

The program I am affiliated with here, Academic Studies Abroad, payed for me to go on a skiing trip with the rest of the international students this week. I knew about this trip since before I left for Chile and was ready (bahaha).
The night before, I asked my mom to pack me a lunch because I knew I would be gone from about 5am to, at the earliest, 6pm. This is what I got.

5 ham, cheese, and butter sandwiches (FIVE)
3 bananas (b-a-n-a-n-a-s)
2 oranges
1 apple
1 yogurt

Everyone else got a big lunch, no one else got five sandwiches.

The ski resort is on the opposite side of the Andes from Vina del Mar. All the students gathered outside the international office at 5:30am, not the safest time of night/day to be out walking around, but it was fine. We departed from Vina del Mar in the dark, so I couldn't look out the window, but I knew the mountain range was visible during the day. Most people slept for a while until we got to Santiago (about a 1.5 hour drive) where we could rent things like ski pants, jackets, gloves, etc. At the stop, I ate a sandwich and a banana and drank a chocolate milk my friend gave me (her mom packed her 2). Once everyone got their stuff, which took FOREVER, we got back on the bus and started to climb the mountains.
At first the terrain is still somewhat green, because it's winter here, and pretty rocky, looks a little like West Virginia. There are a few houses, pretty secluded and surrounded by mountains. Then we get to a much narrower, less frequented (I assume) road. The tour guide we were with then announces that on the way up the mountain there will be 54 "switchbacks." I had no idea what that word was, so I'll explain in case you don't either. A switchback is when you're driving on a road and you need to make a 180 degree turn because you can't drive strait up a mountain. Okay, no big deal, 54. No. It is a BIG deal. It took us an hour to get to switchback number 22. Each one had a sign to indicate how far you had gone. This is when I start to regret eating my butter, ham and cheese sandwich. Hello altitude sickness, we've met before, like when I fly, but never like this. The whole way up I am thinking "Pleasedon'tletmebethegirlwhothrowsuponthebuspleasedon'tletmebethegirlwhothrowsuponthebus!!!" Also I was in the window seat and kept looking down at how close we were to the edge of the road. It is at this time when I think to myself, "Kaylie. What are you doing? You've never been skiing in your life, what makes you think you can go to the ANDES, which are taller than the Rocky's and just wing it? You are really dumb, aren't you?"
The whole time we are driving up, it is very beautiful and about half way up you can really see that your starting to get level with the mountain tops and while there was no snow at the bottom, little by little it adds up until everything has a thick blanket of snow. Very pretty. It's around the time we get to the point where snow is everywhere, that we pull over (as much as we could) and there are all these buses pulled over too and men standing around outside. What are these men doing? They are putting chains on the tires of every auto bigger than a sedan, how nice of them. This process takes an hour. "Picture time!" chirps Carlos, the instructor of the International student. It was fun because we could get out of the bus and take pictures, and get some air. As one Mexican student said to his buddy, "Picture time, pendejo!" ("pendejo" is a Mexican word, maybe Chilean too, I don't know, for asshole.) I got out of the bus, went over to the edge, and sank into 2 feet of snow. Awesome. I get back on the bus to put my extra socks on, and it starts to rock back and forth, already being nauseous, I get off the bus again quickly and spend the rest of the break outside. It was pretty cold and windy, but when the wind stopped I was okay with a sweatshirt and my fleece (and my polar tights).
When we finally make it to the parking lot, it is 11:30 and now we need to get our equipment. Chileans do not believe in lines. Everyone crowds around the desk and pushes to get to the front, it's complete chaos. I get my boots, and skis and lift ticket an hour later and realize I really have to use the bathroom. No one else does though. Finally I hear someone say "Oh Janine has to go to, go with her." Finally! I turn to Janine and say "HEY! Do you want to go to the bathroom with me?!" only, it's not Janine, it's some random American girl who kinda looks like her, so I don't even have the maybe-this-is-a-foreigner-thing on my side. I notice this as I say "HEY!" but I decide it's better to pretend like I'm asking this random person on purpose... She gives me a who-the-hell-are-you look and says "Noooo". So I say, "Oh, I'm just looking for someone to go with...." and exit the building asap.
So at 1pm we had a lesson for beginners, it was me, maybe 5 other girls and 2 Spanish guys. The instructor spoke English, but would not speak it to us. So here I am, learning how to ski in Spanish. Skiing being a sport that you should probably learn in your mother tongue so you don't miss something important, like how to stop, for example. We spent about 10-15 minutes just walking around in our boots, sans skis to get a feel for them, like I hadn't been walking around in them enough. Then when we finally get to put our skis on, Christian, the instructor, was a pretty impatient guy. On accident a girl, Catie, went down the hill before he told us to, and he just stopped, and yelled at her. "BIG A, BIG A," he shouted down to her. That's all we learned in the lesson, just how to go strait down the hill making a pizza shape with our legs. I'm no expert or anything, but I'm pretty sure going strait down the side of a mountain is for expert skiers, not us beginners. So I went down the practically horizontal beginner slope about 2 times, called it a day and went to eat lunch in the lodge. (Perhaps if I had acted more like Bridget Jones and had grappa in the lodge before the ski lessons, it would have been "bbllurry easy peasy.")
We left the resort at about 4:30 and started the trek down the mountain, I told Sarah, the girl I was sitting by that she had to sit next to the window this time. But it didn't really matter because it was a white-out outside and you couldn't distinguish mountain side from sky. Good thing I wasn't driving. Every time we turned around on the switchback, the side of the bus scraped the snow dunes.
I was a little nauseous on the way back down again, and severely dehydrated from going out the night before and not getting enough sleep so when we stopped in Santiago again I bought some Gatorade and water and it lasted for the ride home. I stumbled into my apartment at 9pm, took a hot shower (two in one day, score!), watched Ratatouille and went to bed. It was an exhausting day, and even though skiing is definitely not for me, I'm happy I got to see the Andes and be in the snow and hang out with my friends here. If you go to http://internationalofficeoiieuvm.blogspot.com/ you can see more pictures of me in the snow and read what Carlos Torres had to say about our trip!

"I don't know why, but I've been sleeping on my ear weird here." "Oh, it's because we're south of the Equator."

Things are different here. Pretty different, and pretty much everything. This post will be dedicated to all the (major) differences I've noticed so far.
Hot Water
Apparently water, light, and gas are really expensive here so they are (understandably) pretty fanatical about not wasting these things. Cecy told me that the combined bill for these three things might be about $300 a month. This is outrageous. Chileans must light there water heaters before they shower. This is really inconvenient say, when you want to wash your hands before lunch. They also will turn the water heater on when they have a lot of dishes to wash, but if its just a few after breakfast, cold will suffice. I literally have to psych myself up to wash my face before I go to bed. "Ok Kaylie, here it goes, it won't be so bad." On the plus side, my face feels really warm after I dry it....
Food
The food here is really good! I like it a lot. However, its funny because we eat bread with pate, or avacado, or whatever else for breakfast, lunch is the main meal around 2, and dinner is the same as breakfast about 8 or 9. Lunch is a huge meal and they think I don't like their food because I can never eat as much as they want me to. Like today, we had chicken, and some kind of pork with roast vegetables as the main dish. Then there was a plate of (skinned with salt, and olive oil) tomatoes, a bowl of broccoli with lemon juice and salt, and a bowl of lettuce, again with salt and lemon juice on top. Oh, and more bread. The tomatoes, broccoli and lettuce are always present at lunch, but I can almost never eat it because there is no room in my stomach left.
The fruit I eat for breakfast is always peeled. Even apples. I asked Cecy why they don't like to eat the skins of fruit and she said she doesn't know why because that's where the vitamins are...duh
Me
Everywhere I go, I am on display. There are no people of color here, no Asians, no African Americans, no (other) Americans. Everyone here is homogeneous, and I stick out like a soar thumb. There are definitely zero blonde Chileans here, and try as I might, my clothing doesn't look like theirs either. When I go out with my family to the supermarket or to the farmers market I get only curious stares. When I go around town after school or to the bars at night, I get obvious stares and sometimes "Where you are from?"'s from my peers. Today, in the car Cecy and I were stuck in traffic because a soccer game had just let out and we were moving at a walkers pace, and everyone we passed did a double take, or simply stared. Its a little unnerving because when I go out, I know people will stare, so I can't just go out like I would at home, I feel like I have to be more presentable here. Last night I went out with another blonde girl and we both have white NorthFace coats and it was awkward because we looked like we were twins or something haha.
English
I am forgetting my mother tongue. When I talk to my American friends, we pepper our conversations with Spanish and in turn I find myself forgetting the word for "souvenirs," or "eyeliner," or "hand sanitizer." It's annoying when I don't know the word in Spanish, but when I forget the English one too, I want to scream.
Going Out
When I go out in my car, or am walking around down the street or in a store at home, I don't have to worry about which pocket my cell is in, or where my money is, but here you must be conscious of everything. Never put anything like money or your cell in your back pocket here because it will be gone when you get home. If you want to use your cell and you're out of the house, stand between two walls because someone will take it from your hand if your not. If you wear a coat out at night, put everything your taking with you in your jeans. Don't take a lot of money either, the most $10. One day I went down to the plaza in front of the casino with 4 other friends and it was really nice, but starting to get dark out (about 630pm). This older lady was walking her dog and he ran over to us, so she came and started asking us about ourselves and she told us to go home because it was not safe there, but it looked fine and we were in a big group, and no one had any valuables on them...people on the streets will often warn you about staying outside by yourself. At first I thought, "Wow, people here are so nice and helpful," now I think, "Jeez, okay, I get it, I'm very aware of my surroundings and I only have 2000 pesos in my pocket," (around 4 bucks).
Driving
The more I write about the differences here, the more they come to me. I would never, EVER drive here. Drivers are erratic, there are no lane lines, and people often dart out in front of your car, it's like they have no sense of self-preservation. I live on the side of a mountain that goes down to the sea. The hills are steep, and include hair-pin turn, which people will take at about 40MPH. I seriously have to close my eyes when we go out in the car.

Well tomorrow I start school and I'm pretty tired today and have a bit of a cold, but I have more to tell and pictures to post next time. Chau!

Chile today, (not) hot tamale

Well I made it!
Just a quick 3 hour plane ride, 3 hour layover, another 10 hour plane ride and a speedy hour and a half car ride to get to Chile. And is it NOT hot here. It is winter, this fact hit me like a brick when we landed and I saw many leafless trees, among witch was the occasional palm tree too. While waiting in one of the customs lines I overheard a girl: "When they said 'winter' I thought, 'yeah, ok a light sweater.' it is freezing!" (duh, it's WINTER). While the coldest is only about 40 degrees, the apartment has no central heating, so it is VERY cold inside.
While I was unpacking, the two sons came into my room (yes, I have my own room, bathroom too, but they are both very tiny, anyway I'm grateful) showing me a Rod Stewart CD and a Bruce Lee ninja DVD. "You know?!" "Si" "Here, take them."
The children are very nice, Juan Ignacio, 16, is very outgoing and is a joker. Javier, 20, is also outgoing, but more serious, and Claudia, 22, is also nice, but only lives here on the weekends. Cecy, the mom is caring and jocular. She left today for Santiago, about 1.5 hours away because that's where her husband lives, he also only comes home on the weekends. I will meet him tomorrow.
We has lunch, and I got settled, then took a nap, when I woke up it was dark outside which made me panic, thinking I had slept for 7+ hours, then I realized it was only 6:30. So that brings me up to now, and I don't know what I will do tonight, probably just sleep more. There is wireless here, so I can Skype and be online alot, but I don't get my cell until Monday.
Besos y Abrazos,
Kaylie