sunday afternoon

it´s a gloomy sunday afternoon. it´s 3 and i barely just got out of bed. i was kind of sick, more like exhausted, for 2 days and went to bed on thursday and friday night around 7pm each night. winter school on friday was intersting. like i said, 2 girls got into a fist fight in the bathroom while they were supposed to be preparing their english skits. one of the girls had scratch marks all over her face, so obviously she was the one that lost. the really stupid thing about it all is that they had to preform their plays in front of their parents like an hour later. whatever though, stupid kids are stupid kids all over the world i guess. after mcdonald´s, i got on my bus home, #12, but i ended up taking it the opposite direction than i needed to. i ended up on the opposite side of town, where there just happened to be the giant mall of maipu, mall oeste. i ended up buying a new pair of tennis shoes, which i needed badly because my other ones were old and worn out and i could basically feel the pavement through them. after the mall, i took bus 12 back to the opposite side of maipu, where my house is, and went to bed at 7:30. that leads me to yesterday...yesterday, after staying in bed til noon, i decided that i was sick of bed and even though i felt like crap, i told my friend tania, who works at the hostel international santiago, that i wanted to go out. she got off work at midnight and her parents came and picked me up with her in their car. they live really close, and their house is awesome. the fam was super nice to me and asked me a ton of questions. after talking to them for a bit, tania and i took the bus into santiago and went to a club in an area called palermo. it was really nice. we danced until 5, which is totally what everyone does here, then we took a colectivo back to our condos in maipu. i went to bed by 6 and now here i am at 3 on sunday. i´m going to go meet up with jamal and talk, since we haven´t seen eachother since we got back from the trip, so that is what i am about to do right now. i will write tomorrow after my first day of school and let everyone know how it goes...cross ur fingers that it goes well :) oh and mom, email me, i haven´t heard from u in forever! and derek and grandpa, have a blast fishing!
chau

here's the link to the argentina pics

http://sandiego.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2042088&l=b43ce&id=24504079
I'm out of batteries after sitting in mcdonald's for the last 2 hours trying to figure out how to connect to their wifi then uploading pics once i figured it out. but all is good...last day of winter school was today and the kids put on a play and i got a cool book for helping out. there was a fist fight between two girls and that was interesting. other than that, i might be going to a red hot chili peppers cover band tonight and tomorrow i am going to my friend tania, from the hostel, 's house who lives in maipu close to me for her parent's bday party. i'll write more tomorrow but check out my pics.
peace and chau

living in maipú

i am in my house in maipú...i got picked up at jamal´s house last night at 9 by my new host sis, daniela, and i came back and unpacked and went to bed. i live in a 2 story condo in a really nice new area of maipu, with a really big park across the street. i live on the 2nd story, where the other 2 daughters live, and the dad lives downstairs. right now, since we are on winter break and daniela is a spanish teacher at the school i work at, we are both home at the moment. the rest of the family is at work, but daniela said that they are all pretty independent anyway. last night when i got here, the oldest sister, who doesn´t live here with the other 2 sisters and the dad, was here with her husband and 2 kids. the 3 year old niece was adorable and so shy to meet me, but didn´t want to leave my room when it was time to leave. so cute. the house is in really nice new condition, in contrast to a lot of the other houses outside of this small area of maipu. i am volunteering in the winter vacation school today and tomrrow in the center of maipu. on the way to class, on the micro (bus) i passed by shack after shack just outside of the new condo developments. crazy. but the winter school was from 9-2 and i was exhausted. after so much traveling by bus (which i will NEVER do again, much to no ones surprise that knows me haha) and dealing with 4 people for 9 days straight that i´ve only known for a month, i´m getting a cold. don´t get me wrong, i had a blast and such an adventure, but it´s difficult. i am getting amazing at biting my tongue and breathing through about any situation down here :) not such a bad habit to learn. anywho, i am all over the place today. there is no wifi at my house and i don´t want to upload my pics onto my new fam´s computer, so i am going to attempt to find a cafe or somewhere with wifi tomorrow after my second and last day of working at winter school. the other 2 girls that have been there since monday, stef and ali, want to get pedicures, so we´re going to try and find somewhere, but i don´t know how much luck we are going to have. one of the girls that works at the hostel, aka my second home, lives somewhere near me in maipu and said she´d call and we could meet up on her day off. today, it´s 5pm already, but i plan on putting my pics on my laptop, editing them, painting my nails, watching tv, reading a book, and being an all around bum to get over my cold, or attempt to. i think i´m going to start wrapping this up but i miss everyone...i don´t know what i´d do without my virtual journal, even if everyone is reading it :) it´s good to know that people are there reading what i´m going through...haha...okay well that´s all for now...if i feel like finding energy, i´ll upload pics online tonight, but i doubt it. tomorrow for sure though. and i´ll take some pics of maipu and my house and fam and winter school just to show u the new area :)
peace and chau

back in santiago

so i am finally back in chile and it feels like i am back in my home, which is kind of an odd feeling. we got stuck in mendosa between 12 hour bus rides because the road between chile and argentina was closed through the andes from the snow in the mountains. so we hung out in mendosa, known fo rits wine, but didn't do any wine tasting. we ended up staying at the hostel and sleeping a little, then going out and hanging out at this really cool buffet style restaurant, where we stuffed ourselves.then this morning we got back on the bus and got to sit at the base of the mountain, on teh bus, for a good 3 hours before proceeding to ride the bus 9 hours to get to santiago. i guess the government in argentina didnt want to let people through if the weather wasn't good, but it ended up being fine and sunny. the snow looked pretty through the bus window too. so i am staying at the hostel tonight with the 4 i've been traveling with and then i am going to be picked up by my new host family tomorrow night at gabe and jamal's house. i will try and post pics by the end of this week, but i don't know how my internet situation will be. i know i need to write a long blog, because they've been rather short lately, but all i want to do right now is take a shower and lay down in a real bed, even if it is a bunk bed at a hostel, becausen i've been on a bus for close to 3 days straight. ick. okay so i hope everyone is doing well and hold a good thought for me tomorrow that my new host fam is awesome. miss everyone and a long blog and pics will be up by the end of the week.
peace and chau

igauzu

so today i am leaving igauzu to go back to santiago, then maipu. i´ve been having the most awesome vacation ever and i´m so glad that i came. argentina is a wonderful country and igauzu was a nice vacation. it is warm here, which is a huge plus as well. yesterday we all went to the waterfalls here in igauzu and they were absolutely breathtaking. i will post pics once i get back to my laptop that´s in maipu. i also got an email from the ministry with my stats of my new fam...there is a dad that´s an engineer and two daughters, one that´s 26 and an english teacher and one that´s 24 and a general ed teacher. i will meet them monday night after my 36 hours of bus rides. ugh. tonight we get on the bus and at least on this bus i get a full cama...which is a bed that reclines the entire way. there are a bunch of people waiting to use the internet so i´m going to just write a couple more lines. i really don´t know what else to say though--i am having a blast, i am in a wonderful mood, i´ve gotten some pretty cool presents for a lot of people, it is warm here and it´s made me so much happier, and i talked to derek last night, which always makes me happy :) i hope that everyone is doing well and having an awesome summer, and i will definitely keep this posted on how my new host fam is! i´m so nervous and excited to meet them, it´s crazy! okay, well i´m going to go but i wanted to check in real quick. miss everyone and i will write monday night or tuesday morning and upload pics shortly thereafter.
peach and chau
g

argentina

hellllooooooo everyone. okay, so i am here in buenos aires and its just as pretty and fun as i remembered it being. plus the weather is way nicer here than in chile. i only have to wear a sweater during the day, not a giant coat or anything, so that is nice. and i also went shopping at zara last night, which i love everywhere i go in the world but they dont seem to have one on the west coast in the us. oh, i dont know where the apostrophe is on this keyboard so im sorry if it looks like i have no concept of grammar. anyway, heres my trip in buenos aires in a nut shell so far. we got here the first day around 11, after a long but beautiful 20 hour bus ride. the pics of the snow in the andes mountains is absolutely unbelievable, but i will have to wait and post them until i get my laptop back. all of my stuff, minus the stuff for this trip, is sitting at jamal and gabes host fams housr in maipu waiting for our return. so we got here around 11, ate lunch, checked in, napped and then went exploring a little. that night we went out to a nice dinner with a bunch of other people that we met at the hostel we are staying at, called hostel inn, and it is a branch of the one that i called home in santiago. then, yesterday we went and saw evita perons grave in a really awesome graveyard and went to an all you can eat cow place. i obviously didnt eat any so that sucked for me but it looked pretty good. we walked back to teh hostel from that and went to the plaza de mayo, where the moms of the people who were taken during the dictatorship still march every saturday. last night we were going to go to a tango show through the hostel, which was going to costa around 70us, but we decided to take a cab to the same part of town and ask the locals where to go. for 4us we got to see a tango show and for 3us we could order a bottle of wine. way more price effective and it was one of those places that only the locals really know about. so that brings me to today. we are going to go and wander around a couple other areas in buenos aires today, then we are taking a bus overnight to a place in the north called igauzu falls. it is supposed to be the most amazing waterfalls ever. beautiful and tropical and warm. i cant wait...except that i am super white and pasty and dont really want to be in shorts or a bathing suit. we are planning on being there for 2 or 3 nights, then coming back to buenos aires sunday night, then taking a bus to mendoza, which is between here and santiago, for monday night, then making it back to santiago by tuesday night or wednesday morning. it is definitely going to be more of an adventure...which is exciting ;) okay i need to get going because there is a line to use the computers at the hostel here, but i wanted to check in like i said i would. again, happy bday katie and der and john and i hope u guys all had awesome bdays. i will check in in a couple days and if anyone needs me, my us cell is always on.
peace and chau
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last night in the hostel!

woo hoo tonight is my last night of calling hostel international on calle moneda y cienfuegos my home in chile! :) i'm excited but sad to leave it as well because it's been so nice having my own space for a week. tomorrow i am off to buenos aires via a 22 hour bus ride through the andes. initially i was completely against going via bus, but it's supposed to be beautiful and the rest of the group opted for that one. so, it'll be an adventure and it stops in a pretty town called mendosa. i'm pretty sure i wrote this in my blog yesterday but i am on my laptop now, so it's a hell of a lot easier to type than it was on the computer i was using in the internet cafe down the street. the wireless has been down in the hostel for a while because of the rain, but it's somewhat better right now. it vaires between 1 and 3 out of 6 bars of wifi connection. but it functions and that's all that matters. so i've been getting a lot of love from jeff, nina, derek, mom, laurie, felipe, grandpa, dad, derek, lily, dani, ryan and katie and it's made me so happy :) thank you for being such an awesome support group and helping me stick it out down here. it's been lonely and it's so nice to know that i have people up there that care :) so, corny, but really i do appreciate it. i got to talk to grandpa this morning as he was leaving the dock to go fishing and that was cool. okay well i need to go and try and find a hostel online in buenos aires, because the one that we thought we were going to be able to book was completely full because it is vacation week all over south america. but not to worry, there are about a million cheap yet nice places to stay in buenos aires, so that is cool. i will write another blog tuesday moring to be realistic, since i will be on a bus all day tomorrow and i get into buenos aires monday afternoon and i'm betting i'm going to want to walk around and not be sitting after that long of a bus ride. so, if anyone needs to call, i have my us cell and it works and i may not answer if i'm not by it, but i can check voicemail (it's a pain but i can) or texts are always the easiest route to go. oh ya, and happy happy happy birthday katie (tomorrow) derek (the next day) and john (the day after that) i hope that you are all having a blast in the summer and i will try and call/write to wish u happy bdays individually.
chau & peace
g

sorry i´ve been so bad about writing...

so i am in the middle of moving from santa maria to maipu. i have been staying at a hostel in santiago by myself for the last few days trying to figure everything out and it has been hectic, which is an understatement. i got a text from dad today saying that he´s been checking and there´s been no blog, so here is a quick one.
i have to go to a meeting with the chilean ministy today and they are telling me the facts about my new school and new host fam. so far, all i know is that i am moving to maipu, and am living with a 24year old girl and her dad. next week is my week off, so 6 other volunteers and i are going to buenos aires via bus. the bus ride is 20 hours but they break it up with a trip to a really nice vineyard area in the andes called mendoza. so that should be awesome.
other than that, i´ve just been really busy packing my stuff and moving from santa maria into the hostel, then meeting with the chilean ministry to try and figure things out. i went into maipu for the weekend last weekend and was hanging out at jamal and gabe´s house and their host mom told me that there was no good reason for me to go back if i wasn´t happy. she helped me contact the chilean ministry people and talk to them and tell them i wasn´t going back. apparently it is almost impossible to move both schools and cities, but i didn´t leave them much choice because i packed all my stuff and got out of santa maria.
the director of my area, clayton, was a jerk about the whole thing and claimed that he hadn´t been receiving my emails of complaints. but i caled karina and belen, two women in charge and above clayton´s head, and they helped me immediately. i think they felt bad for me. i also met a couple other volunteers since i´ve been at the hostel that are here volunteering for 8 months and they seem to have similar problems with the ministry. this summer program is the pilot program for the 10 week program, so i am the person being used to help fix out the kinks. kind of lame for me, but i am glad that i have everything figured out and that i´m going to buenos aires for a week and then i´m moving to maipu.
i am sorry that i lagged on the blog but as u´ve read, it´s been a pretty hectic week. right now, i am in santiago staying at the hostel and hanging out with 5 of the volunteers because we all have a meeting this afternoon with the ministry. i am excited to have people to hang out with and believe me, i waited a while to write a blog because i didn´t want to worry anyone with any bad news. but no bad news as of now. i´m cold and it´s rainy, but i´m happy things have worked out.
okay time to go get some food...email me if u want and again, sorry if i worried anyone by lagging on the blog. i haven´t been able to get ahold of grandpa, so if someone could tell him to call my american cell, that´d be awesome.
chau
g

bad at keeping up on my blog...

so i´ve kinda sucked at keeping up on the blog this week. sorry if u´ve been checking it and didn´t find anything. i hope that everyone looked at my pics too.
i´ve been trying to not catch a cold this whole week, but i don´t think it´s working. my english teacher, lindsay, and 3 of the other volunteers in the area are all sick. yesterday was our 2 week mark of being in our assigned cities, and i think the climate has started to sink in to everyone´s bones. i didn´t go to school today. the cats (there are 3 that live outside of the house) all decided that it´d be fun to jump and crawl and pounce all freaking night long, right above my head. the roof´s really thin, so it sounds like they are bouncing on my bed. ugh. and i don´t feel so hot. yesterday in class, i felt like i had a fever all day. the kids were really rowdy because it was raining outside, and that didn´t help either. one of the teachers said that when it rains, the kids and the animals all lose their minds. it makes sense to me.
so i am basically sitting here, trying to kill time, before i go into santiago and spend the weekend with the volunteers there. they all don´t get done with school until around 4, so i should probably leave around 1. i was thinking that i might go early and look for some new shoes, since my boots and my chuck taylors have the thinnest soles ever. it´s like walking on concrete, which is why i alwys have 4 or 5 pairs of socks on, on top of 2 pairs of tights. i just don´t want to walk around the big city with my backpack full of clothes for the weekend.
ugh, i am exhausted. my english teacher has been "sick" all week with "head aches" but obviously, i think she´s full of it. lindsay went with her to viña last weekend, and florinda (the english teacher) bailed on her and treated her like she was the hugest burden ever. she´s a bitch. my host dad calls her "la bruja" and it´s hilarious because she rides around sant maria on her little bicycle and it totally reminds me of the evil witch in the wizard of oz. haha.
next week is the last week before i get 2 weeks of vacation. i´ve emailed clayton, the director of my area, 2x and asked if i could volunteer in maipu for a week, but he sucks at responding to emails in a timely fashion. oh well. if i don´t go to maipu for one of the weeks, i think i might travel with some of the other girls that have 2 weeks off, too. only the volunteers in maipu get 1 week off, everyone else gets 2 :)
alright, well i am going to go and finish packing up and get ready to take a bus to san felipe, then another bus to santiago, then walk around and stall til i have someone to hang out with. i miss u all and hope that everyone had a fun 4th. i watched chile and mexico play in the copa america, but neither team could score a point. if anyone needs to get ahold of me, the chile cell sucks internationally, but i always have my u.s. phone with me.
peace and chau
g

weekend etc

this weekend was an amazing break from santa maria. i am putting up pictures on facebook and i think i can put a link on my blog to view them, so hopefully i'll figure out how to do it.
alright, so this weekend, in a nutshell:
friday i took the bus into santiago and met up with hannah, maggie, jamal, gabe & michael. we all went out to dinner at a restaurant near the hostel and then called it a relatively early night for latin america (2am).
sautrday we walked around all morning in santiago, then met up with gabe and jamal's english teacher, who took us to his aunt's beach house in quisco. it was nearby isla negra, where one of pablo neruda's houses, but we never got around to going there. in quisco, we watched the copa america game, where chile lost, and just hung out and mellowed out a little. it wasn't warm, but it was definitely warmer than santa maria. i didn't even have to wear leggings under my jeans like i do everyday here. i had a good weekend, but it was interesting trying to get anywhere in a timely matter with 8 people. i am such the person in charge that it was hard to let the english teacher, lorenzo, take over and do things his way (latin=slower pace)...okay they are kicking me out of the biblioteca, where i'm using my laptop, because the school is closing, so i will write more at home later, or in the manana. okay chau for now :)

here is the link to my photo album so far...if it doesn't work, email me asap and let me know...
http://sandiego.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039290&l=ae7f0&id=24504079