about as good for you as a pack a day habit

so, after a week in the smog-ridden santiago, we took to the hills, or more aptly, through them. this weekend was spent at the beautiful beautiful beach of viña del mar and in the happening city of valparaíso. and yes, while y´all are freezing your butts off, i currently can not sit on mine because it is pretty badly sunburned. but, hey, i think ive got the better end of the deal. we stayed in a hostel on a hill that had a rooftop patio that overlooked the harbor and the city, wow the views. we also hobnobbed with more mulletted chileans and an absolutely crazy finnish guy that spoke five languages. by a stroke of rough luck turned good, we got to see this random folklore dance recital in a small town nearby while waiting for our bus, and we still made it home before most of the other kids in the program.

i felt my first temblor, or mini earthquake, while lying on the beach. theyre pretty common in chile, but it was still a pretty cool/strange experience. its not the kind of thing that does any damage.

also tried my first mote con huesillas, a tea-like drink with re-hydrogenated peaches and oat like things in it. its super sweet, but really good. its kind of like the national drink here, and they sell it on all the street corners.

the chilean jungle and the island of gringolandia

i should really try and write about smaller chunks of time because looking back over like 3 or 4 days is just so overwhelming. there is definitely far to much that has happened to sufficiently explain anything. but anyway... I LOVE IT HERE!!!!! absolutely amazing. the perfect weather, my amazing ´mom´´ the kids in the program, the country, the city, the cheap access to public transportation, love it love it love it. we have been rolling like 20 gringos deep for a lot of the week because real classes havnt started yet so we havent really met chilean kids yet. that will come. for right now i am content to hang with the other expats because i know that we wont be like this forever, and they are all pretty cool. as i write this, a horse drawn buggy just drove down my street. havent seen that yet. anyway, we have kind of settled into this spanglish when we hang out together which is really funny, basically saying things with whichever phrase comes more naturally. i feel like ill be saying ´´que´´ for what for the rest of my life. another amazing thing- mullets. they are everywhere. its like a gallery of mullets of all sorts. there is also a wide range of faux-hawks and extended faux-hawks that we call fauxllets. other notable things in brief - illana, my housemate, is ´´superbien´´ pisco = amazing, as does buying a fifth of it for less that 4 bucks. chilean men are intense, and so is the machismo, which doesnt quite jive with my whole feminist side illana´s guy with his own bodyguard pools! the people that have pools are automatically my favorite. the heat of the day is too much without it. my language skills fluctuate with the time of day and my state of mind, but in general are better than i thought. i dont know what else, its great.

falling with style

i have arrived safely and lived through my first 36 hours in chile without incident. well, except for paty (my ´mom´)´s car not starting in the parking lot and needing a jump and then it starting to sound like the muffler was dragging along the cobblestone type streets halfway home. but other than that, it was great. the last bit of the flight was amazing, because out the window were absolutely breathtaking views of the andes. my god, i have never seen anything like them and let me tell you, they are something to write home about (haha, sorry). from where i live, by the plaza egaña in ñuñoa (i know i know, two ñs -- which definitely makes me sound stupid when trying to say it), i am about a 3 minute walk to the metro which makes the rest of the city really easy to access. we had our first class today, which was pretty cool, getting to meet everyone in the program. we are already making plans to go to the beach this weekend. by the way, its like the perfect climate down here...averaging about 75-80 degrees (except for in the subway) and without humidity. amazing. anyway, so we´re probably beaching it up this weekend. ill be sure to think about all of you freezing your butts off in mi (or wherever). my housemate is pretty cool too. shes been her for two weeks already so she knows all about how to use the bus system and how to go to the beach and stuff. a good friend to have. it also makes it easier when trying to understand paty, who´s spanish is very chilean, meaning that it is heavily accented and full atypical spanish words. i love it here already, but i do miss you guys a lot. its strange being so far away, speaking an entirely different language. sometimes i feel pretty glamorous and all bilingual and stuff (although im only sort of). although today we were hanging out in a large group after our orientation class and speaking english obnoxiously and i definitely felt like a stupid imperialist american. i guess that comes with the territory. te extraño mucho. photos to follow in the next few days i hope.

the akward (obligatory) first post

so, im not all about the group email thing while abroad because i feel like they wind up going to a lot of people who couldn't care less. hence, the blog. check it, dont check it, whichever. i know its horribly cliche, but its just easier, so now anyone who isnt interested can be uninterested without dealing with my emails. of course, i would also love emails from you that i will definitely respond to...individually. im not promising that this is going to be exciting or even interesting. more like those wrap sheets that some people insist on putting in christmas cards. at any rate, it will be a rough account of my life. im hoping to put photos up when i get any. right.