Hey all,
Just wanted to let you know that I have decided that I am going to be heading back to Santiago, Chile between July 2013 and Feb. 2014. I know that It's a long time away, but just wanted to let you know that I will be posting a blog about preparing for the trip and my journey down there. There probably won't be many posts until I am officially down there, but hey if you're planning on teaching English or moving to Chile around the same time I am maybe my posts will help you or you can help me. Either way I'm excited to go back, I haven't really told my parents yet, or at least they don't really believe me that I am going. But as the time comes closer... reality will set in.
Anywho, I'm looking forward to making this huge step in my life.
Thanks for reading!
Leslie.
P.S. my new blog title will be... Back Again: A Gringa's Return to Santiago
Mi
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
nothing prepares you for this...
So I finished the semester, well yeah let's just leave it at that, so I am done. Finite. Terminada..and other words..And am super excited to be heading off to Peru tonight with a newly made friend Nicole who goes to notre dame! so close to home! yes we, or at least I hope, are going to be good friends for a long time. But that's not the point of this post..
So as the months turned into weeks and the weeks have now turned into the 23 days that I have left in Chile. I have officially started saying adios to all my nuevos amigos with hopes I will see them again. This feeling is really heard to explain. I mean you spend 6 months building relationships with people and with some you get really close and then you have to leave and go back to your own country. It completely sucks! I'm not going to lie, I don't want to go back to the states because of all these amazing people I have befriended down here, but I know most of them are going home, so if I would stay the year they wouldn't be here anyways.
But on the other hand, besides leaving this emptiness in your chest, it kinda makes you feel cool to know that if you go to a country you have a friend there to visit and they can show you around and what not. So it's not all so bad. I am determined to visit all of my friends that I have made down here in their own cities and/or countries at some point in my life. And also having facebook and skype really help too. It's a lot easier to keep in contact with people now rather then when our parents were growing up and all they had was letter and stamps... who uses that anymore anyways?? jp I'm sure plenty of people do.
So I guess those are my thoughts on leaving.. I'll have to write about them later too seeing as I have 23 days left... so weird to think that it used to be 5 months and 3 months.. but to be down to days is absurd.
Anyways, good luck to everyone who's traveling! stay safe! have fun! and I hope to see you soon! well I guess i'll see a lot of my friends when I get back from Peru...It's just the beginning of the 'see ya later''s.
<3 Leslie
So as the months turned into weeks and the weeks have now turned into the 23 days that I have left in Chile. I have officially started saying adios to all my nuevos amigos with hopes I will see them again. This feeling is really heard to explain. I mean you spend 6 months building relationships with people and with some you get really close and then you have to leave and go back to your own country. It completely sucks! I'm not going to lie, I don't want to go back to the states because of all these amazing people I have befriended down here, but I know most of them are going home, so if I would stay the year they wouldn't be here anyways.
But on the other hand, besides leaving this emptiness in your chest, it kinda makes you feel cool to know that if you go to a country you have a friend there to visit and they can show you around and what not. So it's not all so bad. I am determined to visit all of my friends that I have made down here in their own cities and/or countries at some point in my life. And also having facebook and skype really help too. It's a lot easier to keep in contact with people now rather then when our parents were growing up and all they had was letter and stamps... who uses that anymore anyways?? jp I'm sure plenty of people do.
So I guess those are my thoughts on leaving.. I'll have to write about them later too seeing as I have 23 days left... so weird to think that it used to be 5 months and 3 months.. but to be down to days is absurd.
Anyways, good luck to everyone who's traveling! stay safe! have fun! and I hope to see you soon! well I guess i'll see a lot of my friends when I get back from Peru...It's just the beginning of the 'see ya later''s.
<3 Leslie
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Santa Lucia.
So Jessica and I headed to Cerro Santa Lucia today, we've only been in Santiago for almost 5 months and still haven't made our way there. To put it all together... It's a hill, in the middle of the city, with a few old buildings and fountains on it. It's really pretty, hard to walk up in flip flops, even a little dangerous really, I slipped once going down a steep stair case. No worries I'll still be able to bowl next semester, if I am that is... here's some pics! hope ya enjoy!
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| Lapis Azul, I bought it at the artisan St. Lucia |
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| Jessica |
Pictures from pt of Pucón/Halloween 2010
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| Sarah and I at the top of the mountain |
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| Mirva and her horse. Matt too |
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| on our way to Los Ojos |
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| Los Ojos |
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| A girl and her horse |
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| Jess, Sarah, Mirva and I at the metro |
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| Jess, Sarah and I at the metro We got looks. |
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| Matt, Jess, Mirva, and I at the club |
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Cooking in Chile
It's been a while since my last update.. maybe not that long though.. I can't remember. Anyways it's official, my mind has switch over to Chile Time.. there's not stopping it now. Maybe I should explain this Chile time thing I'm taking about. Chileans have a thing about time, and it's not that their time is wrong, it's just different than in the US. For example, classes never start early, or even one time very much, you're always starting a few min late. And there are always a bunch of people who come in late to class. Well, at least this has been the experience for me. And this doesn't just apply to school, meeting up with people, or going somewhere late is common too.
Also I think Chileans don't have a strict, oh I HAVE to be here AT this time, kinda of concept like the people in the US do. They just kind of go, if they're a few min late, that's ok. It took me a while to get used to it, but it's nice not to be in a rush to go everywhere and see everything now. (this is also going to be difficult when I get back to the states, classes, bowling tourny's,
Also I think Chileans don't have a strict, oh I HAVE to be here AT this time, kinda of concept like the people in the US do. They just kind of go, if they're a few min late, that's ok. It took me a while to get used to it, but it's nice not to be in a rush to go everywhere and see everything now. (this is also going to be difficult when I get back to the states, classes, bowling tourny's,
Pucon Pt 2. Rainy days and horseback riding.
Ok, so since my friends couldn't climb the volcano that day there was a drastic change of plans.. While Jessica slept off her hangover accompanied by laura, Claire went on a bike ride to national park called Los Ojos de Caburga, and the rest of the group and I went on a trip through the Mapuche land on horses. Now this plan sounded fine and dandy except for the fact that it was raining, and pretty hard as a matter of fact. We were hesitant to go horseback riding, but the tourist agency it was better for us to go during the day rather than at night.
So the 5 of us hopped in a van and picked up a French girl from another tourist place and took a drive out into the middle of the country. We crossed this really narrow sketchy bridge that I thought was going to collapse, but we made it over just fine.. then it was down a muddy road where fish tailing occurred. We finally got to the place. The guide gave us ponchos to protect us from the rain, and we hopped on the horses and went... I apparently with the mist riding experience got a horse that just wouldn't fully cooperate with me. He wouldn't go when I asked, and on the way home.. oh ill describe that in a bit.
We started out just walking down some roads, the whole area was pretty cool to look at, and about an hour after that we got to the foot of a mountain. And the guide said we were going up it. Now, I'm not going to lie, I was really scared because the trail on this mountain was pretty steep and soo muddy i thought my horses feet were going to slip out from underneath him. But I kept myself calm and talked to my horse. My friend Matt probably things I'm crazy, but I think it's important to get to know your horse, even if it is just for a few horse. Eventually we had to abandon our animals and walk the rest of the way up the mountain.
This was an adventure in itself. It got soo steep and it was soo muddy we had to grab on to trees and maneuver our feet in so many different ways to get up to top. When we were at the top of the mountain, the guide kinda started insulting us, and giving us his opinion of what kind of personalities people have from which countries. But I won't get started on that. We were up there for about 20 min, took some photos, learned some history of the Mapuche, and headed back down.
The way down was pretty tricky. If we had plastic bags to wrap around ourselves we could have just slid down the hill to our horses, but with the lack of resources we had to walk. Or attempt to, most of us slipped on our bottoms a few times, and Sarah accidentally pulled the guide down with her once. We eventually made it back to our beloved horses.
We were heading back...Well it took a few min because Matt's horse would just not move...and I encountered the scared moment of my life on a horse. The first part of the mountain that we came up was this really, it' hard to explain, but Iwas sure my horse was going to fall down it. Yes, I was scared, but there was another guy to help us down this part, so I made it through safely.
On the way back we got the opportunity to not only trot, but canter back to the starting point. Omg this was the best part of the day! Once I started cantering my horse didn't want to stop, I made him so the rest of the group could catch up, but he just wanted to get home and get this gringa girl off of is back. I'm not going to lie, if I could I would have skipped climbing the mountain and just rode that horse all day. I miss horseback riding a lot. I hope I can continue it someday.
Well, we got back to the hostel, after getting stuck in the mud and having to help push the car out. Later that night we went to some termas, hot water springs, and relaxed. We met 2 boys from Israel and learned that it is mandatory to serve in the military there for 2 years after you are 18 for men and women. It was interesting to talk to them.
On Sunday, while the others climbed Villarrica, Laura and I walked to los Ojos. It was a 13km walk.. no it think it was longer. Well, anyways we walked in the blazing sun and talked and talked and talked some more. It was a lot of fun! and well worth the sun burn I received because I did not wear sun screen because Los Ojos were soooo beautiful! It was a small park, but we got amazing pics there! we caught the bus back to the hostel and relaxed until the other peeps got home around 5pm. They had some of the most interesting tan lines ever from climbing the Volcan! hahaha i still laugh about them. That's about all we did on our trip. I'm going to post pics tomorrow, they are still on my camera and not on my computer.
hope ya enjoyed!
Leslie
So the 5 of us hopped in a van and picked up a French girl from another tourist place and took a drive out into the middle of the country. We crossed this really narrow sketchy bridge that I thought was going to collapse, but we made it over just fine.. then it was down a muddy road where fish tailing occurred. We finally got to the place. The guide gave us ponchos to protect us from the rain, and we hopped on the horses and went... I apparently with the mist riding experience got a horse that just wouldn't fully cooperate with me. He wouldn't go when I asked, and on the way home.. oh ill describe that in a bit.
We started out just walking down some roads, the whole area was pretty cool to look at, and about an hour after that we got to the foot of a mountain. And the guide said we were going up it. Now, I'm not going to lie, I was really scared because the trail on this mountain was pretty steep and soo muddy i thought my horses feet were going to slip out from underneath him. But I kept myself calm and talked to my horse. My friend Matt probably things I'm crazy, but I think it's important to get to know your horse, even if it is just for a few horse. Eventually we had to abandon our animals and walk the rest of the way up the mountain.
This was an adventure in itself. It got soo steep and it was soo muddy we had to grab on to trees and maneuver our feet in so many different ways to get up to top. When we were at the top of the mountain, the guide kinda started insulting us, and giving us his opinion of what kind of personalities people have from which countries. But I won't get started on that. We were up there for about 20 min, took some photos, learned some history of the Mapuche, and headed back down.
The way down was pretty tricky. If we had plastic bags to wrap around ourselves we could have just slid down the hill to our horses, but with the lack of resources we had to walk. Or attempt to, most of us slipped on our bottoms a few times, and Sarah accidentally pulled the guide down with her once. We eventually made it back to our beloved horses.
We were heading back...Well it took a few min because Matt's horse would just not move...and I encountered the scared moment of my life on a horse. The first part of the mountain that we came up was this really, it' hard to explain, but Iwas sure my horse was going to fall down it. Yes, I was scared, but there was another guy to help us down this part, so I made it through safely.
On the way back we got the opportunity to not only trot, but canter back to the starting point. Omg this was the best part of the day! Once I started cantering my horse didn't want to stop, I made him so the rest of the group could catch up, but he just wanted to get home and get this gringa girl off of is back. I'm not going to lie, if I could I would have skipped climbing the mountain and just rode that horse all day. I miss horseback riding a lot. I hope I can continue it someday.
Well, we got back to the hostel, after getting stuck in the mud and having to help push the car out. Later that night we went to some termas, hot water springs, and relaxed. We met 2 boys from Israel and learned that it is mandatory to serve in the military there for 2 years after you are 18 for men and women. It was interesting to talk to them.
On Sunday, while the others climbed Villarrica, Laura and I walked to los Ojos. It was a 13km walk.. no it think it was longer. Well, anyways we walked in the blazing sun and talked and talked and talked some more. It was a lot of fun! and well worth the sun burn I received because I did not wear sun screen because Los Ojos were soooo beautiful! It was a small park, but we got amazing pics there! we caught the bus back to the hostel and relaxed until the other peeps got home around 5pm. They had some of the most interesting tan lines ever from climbing the Volcan! hahaha i still laugh about them. That's about all we did on our trip. I'm going to post pics tomorrow, they are still on my camera and not on my computer.
hope ya enjoyed!
Leslie
Friday, October 29, 2010
Just can't get enough of that peanut butter! (Pucon 21-24/10/2010
Hey people! it's been an incredibly long time since I've written. And a lot has happened, but before I forget, I'm going to write about my weekend in Pucon with my friends.
We left Thursday night around 10:50pm. It takes about 10 hours to reach there by bus, so in other words a perfect place to take the night bus there. I mean we could sleep on the bus, well somewhat sleep on the bus, wake up the next day feeling, well some what refreshed, and be ready to start our day. Oh a piece of advice, don't sit in the back of the bus if you don't have to...the smell of the bathroom when the door opens and closes is horrible! we only sat there b/c we thought it was going to be close to our other friends. Well, it turned out the seats mapped on the computer screen is kinda not proportional at all! lol so lesson learned stay clear from the bathrooms on bus, unless you need to use them!
I guess I can start with who all went with to Pucón. We had a really big group, there were 8 of us: Matt ( he goes to NorthEASTERN not northWESTERN), Jessica C. (my neighbor in Chile, who goes to UWM with me), Kerry (friend from my spanish class who's from North Carolina), Mirva (a friend from Finland who I have been going to a bible study group with), Claire (a chica from milwaukee! she goes to Marquette and is here for the year(yes, milwaukee had the majority on this trip!), Laura (she's Canadian what more can you say.. def can't be cooler than that!), and Sarah (went to la serena with me and lives in Seattle) oh and me. When we got there, I called my mom to let her know we arrived ok, and that I'll see her on Monday night, and then went to the grocery store. I was determined NOT to eat out this trip. We rented a cabin with a kitchen so I had no reason to spend extra money on restaurants.
After we checked into the cabin, claimed our beds (mine was the top bunk of a set of bunk bed), and dropped our stuff off. We were out the door to look at different tourist agencies to see what we can do. Now, here's a good place to explain that Pucón isn't a lets go explore this historical site, or see this castle, or go to this pisco distileria. Nope not at all, it's a town where you go and do outdoorsy things. Like hydro-speeding (or how i like to say it Hydro-planning) It's illegal in the US, and kinda dangerous too. I didn't do it, but my friends did...also theres climbing el Volcan villarrica, and horse back riding.
So after a couple of hours of looking at tourist agencies and getting prices we headed back to the cabin to decided what to do and when we were going to do it. In the end that day (friday) Matt, Jess, Kerry, Sarah, Laura, and Mirva went hydrospeeding and Claire and I just hung out. We walked to the beach on Lago Villarrica. It wasn't a sandy beach like by my Lake Michigan, it had black pebblish kind of things. We thought it was volcanic since right to the east of us was an active volcano. We laid out in the sun, and hung out with this stray dog that was there (yes mom I got a picture of it) and talked a lot. I learned a lot about politics from this chic, and it was really cool! I'm going to have to start following things more closely with this.
So we headed back to the cabin after a couple hours, and well ended up taking naps. I was soo exhausted from the lack of sleep on the bus. When the others returned some of us made dinner, and others went out. It was mainly just a night for relaxing for me. After dinner some people we out for a drink even though they had to climb a volcano at 7am the next day. So it was Laura, Claire, and I for the night just chilling cleaning up from dinner, and chatting. And then at around 10pm.. yes, it was only 10pm (that is sooo early for Chile, usually we don't go out until then).. not even yet I don't think Jessica made her way home. She had a few drinks and ended up jumping into pool because shes daring like that. It was an interesting night to say the least.
As I was in a deep peaceful slumber the next morning at 6am, I was woken up by the sound of my friends who were getting ready to climb Villarrica. I couldn't stay mad for long, so I grab some breakfast and then went back to sleep. But about an hour after I fell back asleep I heard voices downstairs, I was thinking, what are they doing back, the climb is supposed to take 10 hours. Well, I guess there was a bad snow storm the night before and they couldn't get up there. So instead we changed the plans..
Thats all of now. I have to go get ready to go out... we're gonna be dancing tonight!
We left Thursday night around 10:50pm. It takes about 10 hours to reach there by bus, so in other words a perfect place to take the night bus there. I mean we could sleep on the bus, well somewhat sleep on the bus, wake up the next day feeling, well some what refreshed, and be ready to start our day. Oh a piece of advice, don't sit in the back of the bus if you don't have to...the smell of the bathroom when the door opens and closes is horrible! we only sat there b/c we thought it was going to be close to our other friends. Well, it turned out the seats mapped on the computer screen is kinda not proportional at all! lol so lesson learned stay clear from the bathrooms on bus, unless you need to use them!
I guess I can start with who all went with to Pucón. We had a really big group, there were 8 of us: Matt ( he goes to NorthEASTERN not northWESTERN), Jessica C. (my neighbor in Chile, who goes to UWM with me), Kerry (friend from my spanish class who's from North Carolina), Mirva (a friend from Finland who I have been going to a bible study group with), Claire (a chica from milwaukee! she goes to Marquette and is here for the year(yes, milwaukee had the majority on this trip!), Laura (she's Canadian what more can you say.. def can't be cooler than that!), and Sarah (went to la serena with me and lives in Seattle) oh and me. When we got there, I called my mom to let her know we arrived ok, and that I'll see her on Monday night, and then went to the grocery store. I was determined NOT to eat out this trip. We rented a cabin with a kitchen so I had no reason to spend extra money on restaurants.
After we checked into the cabin, claimed our beds (mine was the top bunk of a set of bunk bed), and dropped our stuff off. We were out the door to look at different tourist agencies to see what we can do. Now, here's a good place to explain that Pucón isn't a lets go explore this historical site, or see this castle, or go to this pisco distileria. Nope not at all, it's a town where you go and do outdoorsy things. Like hydro-speeding (or how i like to say it Hydro-planning) It's illegal in the US, and kinda dangerous too. I didn't do it, but my friends did...also theres climbing el Volcan villarrica, and horse back riding.
So after a couple of hours of looking at tourist agencies and getting prices we headed back to the cabin to decided what to do and when we were going to do it. In the end that day (friday) Matt, Jess, Kerry, Sarah, Laura, and Mirva went hydrospeeding and Claire and I just hung out. We walked to the beach on Lago Villarrica. It wasn't a sandy beach like by my Lake Michigan, it had black pebblish kind of things. We thought it was volcanic since right to the east of us was an active volcano. We laid out in the sun, and hung out with this stray dog that was there (yes mom I got a picture of it) and talked a lot. I learned a lot about politics from this chic, and it was really cool! I'm going to have to start following things more closely with this.
So we headed back to the cabin after a couple hours, and well ended up taking naps. I was soo exhausted from the lack of sleep on the bus. When the others returned some of us made dinner, and others went out. It was mainly just a night for relaxing for me. After dinner some people we out for a drink even though they had to climb a volcano at 7am the next day. So it was Laura, Claire, and I for the night just chilling cleaning up from dinner, and chatting. And then at around 10pm.. yes, it was only 10pm (that is sooo early for Chile, usually we don't go out until then).. not even yet I don't think Jessica made her way home. She had a few drinks and ended up jumping into pool because shes daring like that. It was an interesting night to say the least.
As I was in a deep peaceful slumber the next morning at 6am, I was woken up by the sound of my friends who were getting ready to climb Villarrica. I couldn't stay mad for long, so I grab some breakfast and then went back to sleep. But about an hour after I fell back asleep I heard voices downstairs, I was thinking, what are they doing back, the climb is supposed to take 10 hours. Well, I guess there was a bad snow storm the night before and they couldn't get up there. So instead we changed the plans..
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| morning after bus ride |
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| me and sarah |
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| Kerry |
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| panoramic of the beach |
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