time lag

Definitely not updating as frequently as I had thought but it's alright. So I've been in Santiago for almost a month now and I can't really imagine 1/13 of my trip is already over, I'm getting too relaxed too quickly I need to be more proactive. Anyway, I spent the 4th of July waking up early to go meet up with friends to go to a ferria, an outdoor market where they sell things from used barbies, electronics, food, and the reason Maggie and I went, road bikes. After walking around for what seemed like an hour through a maze of different blocks we encountered some men who were selling bikes and after checking them out making sure they decently worked we bought bikes for roughly $40. I've ridden it around a couple of time, once to school where there's apparently a guard at the bike rack who watches the bikes and checks you in and out-go figure the private university to have such a position. Anyway, once Maggie and I got back from the market we went to my house where my host family prepared pasta and sausage for us. My parents are nice and they generally cook some type of meat and a side, but the conversations at the table last for an eternity, the other day Lucky, my host-mom, pulled out her photo albums from when she vacationed in Europe, but the dates on the photos were definitely from the 70's and I'm pretty sure things have changed, but nonetheless it was nice of her to show me a part of her past, which isn't as simple as I had thought. Anyway, after lunch and Alden meeting up with us we left for the La Chile v. Union Española soccer game at the stadium right near my house. It was awesome having the game so close because we were able to walk to the game and not have to deal with public transit. The game was dreamlike, a thing you only imagine being at with crazy soccer fans chanting something every time something happened on the field. And I have never heard so much heckling, it was awesome. But the best part had to have been when La Chile, the favorites, scored and we were right behind the goal they scored on, everyone instantly starting chanting and was hugging whoever was around them. Across the field we could see fans lighting what seemed like street flares in the stands, and looking into other parts of the stands you could see everyone just jumping up and down, it honestly looked like waves. The game ended with each team with one goal but there weren't penaltys because there was another game that Tuesday and that would decide the winner of the season, which ended up being La Chile. After the game all the fans in the stands flooded the streets near my house, I have honestly never seen so many people in my neighborhood before. I live kind of far away from main streets with a lot of commerce, but hopefully that'll change soon. The street in front of my apartment building is a main street but as far down as I am there isn't much to do except for the soccer stadium and a new gym they just built. However I hopefully found a place to live! It's no longer in ñuñoa but in Providencia, the sector north of the one I'm currently living in. I'll be living with my friend Alden and 8 other people, it's sort of like a co-op style house, with 4 women downstairs and 6 people upstairs. Each floor has their own kitchen, living room, and dining room which is nice, but upstairs, in my opinion is nicer than downstairs and I'm super excited about the change. I'll be right next to a metro station so I have the ability to get around the city much quicker than I do now and there are a ton of restaurants around-my teacher told me he also lives in that area and that because there are a lot of universities around the streets are just full of young students, which is awesome. Oh but the best part about the place, which I didn't know before going to see the house, is that downstairs has a dance studio so hopefully I can get a job teaching or something to make some extra cash, it just seems too good to be happening. Plus one of the owners of the house used to play for La Chile, the soccer team and I'm hoping that over time I can become good enough friends with him so that he can help me out with some world cup tickets-ha. 

ILP, the language intensive I had to take for the first three weeks, is now officially over and a group of 7 of us decided to celebrate by going to Valparaiso. This city is one of the cooler I have visited, there's art everywhere, its common to come across some sort of tagged work or even really nice murals on every block. The city itself is a little old but it's still full of live and has a lot to offer. There's definitely a different vibe than Santiago, in Santiago I feel the people are more closed off and are harder to get to know. Still taking public transit and getting stared at is a common occurrence, I didn't think it'd bother me as much. Either way we enjoyed our time in Valpo and even made it out to Viña, which is the richer neighboring city. I'm excited that Natalie is arriving this week!! Hopefully when I visit Valpo next she can show me around her parts, god it's such a cool city. 

But yes, I have two orientation this week, one in 45 mins and then next on Thursday so I don't have much time to travel before school starts on Monday-it really sucks not having a summer, but I'm just pushing toward December when all will be balanced! Enjoy the photos, they're from the past month...

We went to see a winery in Santiago, Concha y Torro, the grounds were beautiful, our guide was awkward. We did get a chance to taste two types, and see where they fermented various types of wine. Above is the original family's house.

Their makeshift lake and forest.

Atop Cerro San Cristobol in Bellavista overlooking all of Santiago, well almost all of it-the city is huge and this is a great place to go after it rains because the majority of the smog drops. Pictured with Alden, Maggie, and Molly.

Santiago in all it's glory.

Papudo: A great place to do nothing. Went here for a school project, picturesque but not a lot of life in the winter, thrives on summer tourism. Below is the famous Barco Rojo restaurant where Pablo Neruda, a god in the Chilean eye, frequented. He also had 3 houses, one in Santiago, one in Valparaiso, and one in Isla Negra, and had a different woman for each one.

Above is the famous Papudo sign, and the blue house in the back became my favorite. To the right is a picture of Papudo from the shore. The fishermen told us that there isn't much fish in the water so instead they've been harvesting sea weed, which my host mom tells me is really good and can be used in many Chilean dishes-not sure how I feel about that, but as long as its not caked in mayo I think I'd try it.

The backside of Papudo at sunset, or rather puesta del sol.

My friend Gael, from the blue house in the picture of the Papudo sign. He's the reason I'd go back to visit Papudo, honestly. The biggest baby I've ever seen, he tied to stand on the fence so we could pet him more. He was only a year and a half and already weighed about 70 kilos which is roughly 150 pounds and expected to get bigger. He would put my hand in his mouth but not even do anything to it, he was such a baby.
The next day I wanted to see him again so we stood outside his gate and made him all hyper until his owner came out and we got to pet him some more, he honestly was my favorite thing about this whole trip.

Aside from long romantic horseback rides with Alden-spent $4 to ride a pregnant horse for 30mins on the beach. Didn't know she was pregnant until after I got back and felt back for kicking her to go faster-opps. But the guys who rented the horses were really entertaining, Jorge and Ruben-Ruben had a glass eye and three teeth, but loved to laugh and make others laugh, he was the closest pirate we saw that trip. (reason we chose Papudo was because of the legend of a pirate cave which we never found-thanks travelchile.com)