I found a house!

Hello everyone,

Just a few updates,

1.  I found a house! I officially have my key and am living there and am very excited to see how it goes.  It is a 17 person house with three stories about 3 minutes from a metro stop that goes directly to my campus.  It is also really close to the center of the city and some really cool little barrios so I am super excited! I will be living with both international and american students but the land lord specifically picks a variety of people to insure that groups based by country do not start and that the language of the house is spanish.  I know that next door to me on one side is living a chilean girl and on the other a spanish girl and I am very excited to meet them! I am going to be moving in on March 2nd when I get back from my backpacking trip in Patagonia!

2.  I went wine tasting with my program which was very cool and we went to a 130 year old vineyard called Concho y Toro a little outside of Santiago.  It was beautiful.

3.  I also went to visit the main market called La Vega which is in AMAZING! There was so much fruit and meat and everything you could ever want but it was an incredible social experience because it was the first time I had been to the poorer part of town and the difference was noticeable to say the least.  The demographic was very different and we were probably the only foreigners there... I am planning on going there to get my produce all semester though!

4.  On sunday I went to my host mom's friend's house right on a beautiful lagoon outside of santiago as well and we just sat by the pool all day and ate delicious food and got pampered and I felt so spoiled but it was a good relaxing day.

5.  Lastly, I went to the Museo de la Memoria (Human rights museum designed around the Pinochet Dictatorship) today and had a tour with my group and it was extremely interesting but I didn't get to really explore and read everything so I look forward to going back and really sinking my teeth into it.

6. I LEAVE FOR A TWO WEEK TRIP TO PATAGONIA ON FRIDAY!  I can't wait!

Love you all

 my group in the vineyard

reallly good wine!

La vega market!

Kelsey, Me, Kathleen and Owen

Kathleen Kelsey and Me

Trying Mote con Huesillo which is really popular which is peach juice with some type of wheat grain at the bottom..... very different haha

Host family

Here are a couple pictures of my host and her daughter and me and the daughter.  A friend came over and insisted on a photo shoot..... also, my friends and I definitely hailed down a bus today just by sticking our hands out.  A whole bus.  He probably saw us running toward the next block and we stuck out our hands in shame hoping maybe he'd pick us up and he did hahahah it was awesome.

Zumba in the land of Zumba

Ok so picture this incredibly gay zumba instructor, about 24 probably, teaching a zumba class in short shorts and an oblique showing cut off tank.  Then add the fact that he is latin american so he is just NATURALLY that much better of a dancer and then put him in a room with a bunch of latin american mothers and me..... you're laughing.  Then blast the music super loud and picture a normal zumba dance with all of the fun dance moves and stuff but pour some mayonsaise on it (since we're in chile) and it was pretty much the most sexual hip moving dances that could ever be done yet is completely ok and normal and allowed because we're in latin america hahaha.  I went with my host mom and her 15 year old daughter and it was so much fun and I would have made you proud Schmen.  Shook that booty as much as I could! It was such a funny scene, I would have done anything for a video to show you guys.  Mom would have been crying she was laughing so hard.  Great work out though! Also, really liking living in this house more, still moving out obviously because I can't stay but I'm genuinely enjoying it now that the daughter is here so the mom is too and its fun.  Love you all! Go do a little salsa for me :)

Fun Fun Weekend

Experienced a lot this weekend!  Went out for the first time with my one chilean friend and all of his friends and two of my best friends from the program (Kelsey and Kathleen) and we went to a discotec and boy oh boy do I love dancing haha.  The three of us americans just looked like idiots but we had sooooo much fun dancing.  Also, they go out here from 2 am to 6 am..... so that is different.  We didn't get home until 4:30 am and apparently that was an early night... I personally think its pretty stupid/pointless to make it that late but when it doesn't get dark until 10 I guess it makes a little more sense.  

Then Friday night I had a pretty incredible experience.  I went to dinner at this amazing house up in the mountains of Santiago and it was BEAUTIFUL.  THe family I was with was (stay with me here) the family of the daughter of one of my grandma's 6th grade students when she was teaching in Santiago right after college.  Crazyyyy.  My grandma Bertie stayed in contact with that student over the years, who then put me in contact with her daughter who invited me to dinner because she has 5 kids, 24, 21, 19, 16 and 12.  They were all so nice and it was really nice to feel so welcomed and we had a really great time and I plan to go visit again/hang out with their kids.  

Then Saturday I spent all day at the baptism of my host's niece's baby ha Lets just say that 9 hours of small talk with a bunch of family members who all know each other and have no clue why you're there is a little much.  It was actually really fun and they were all super nice but 9 hours was just way too much time to be there ha.  

THEN, today I woke up and hiked up Cerro San Cristobal which is this super popular/famous mountain to climb.  Everyone does it on the weekends as exercise and there is a zoo, pool, tons of little parks, restaurants, and at the top a HUGE virgin mary statue ha.  It was really cool though and honestly just really nice to be outside and surrounded by active people.  After, we got lunch at this nice little cafe that was delicious and walked through a street market/ garage sale of hundreds of people selling all their old stuff in a park.  Ended the afternoon with the Bellas Artes Art Museum because every sunday the museums are free! Im going to try to go to one every week.  It was really pretty and they had so cool exhibits.  A lot smaller than I would have thought but thats ok, still interesting.  PHEW, so much going on here.  Possibly going with my chilean friend Tito to watch the super bowl soon!

Mapuche indigenous statues

View of Santiago

goober

the Virgin

Bellas Artes Museum entrance

Huge protest piece that was put up in London during the Pinochet Dictatorship and was on display in the museum

one of the exhibits (

pretty artwork mural type things