let's talk

ive been reading my friends blogs and realized that they do a way better job of logging their experiences abroad. ive lately been using this site as a cop out to post pictures, thinking that they express what's really happening right now. i have so many small experiences that, in addition to the bigger experiences, make this whole thing pretty amazing.

to start, today on the way home this woman asked me in spanish if i knew the bible. she didn't really seem to believe when i told her yes, and she kept asking me if i understood it, because its very hard to understand. i told her yes again, and she asked me where i was from. we exchanged a little in english, she said she had been in new york for three months and when i asked her if she liked it she said "not to live. i prefer my own country". i understood completely. she ended up giving me a religious track, in spanish, talking about how difficult the bible is to understand.

being away last week made me realize that i need to travel as much as i can. i bought a bus ticket to a small beach town called Pichilemu. it set me back about 4.500 pesos ($9). when we were in Pucón we met these two girls from Chicago who are studying in Concepción. one was Gina, and she's meeting me in Pichilemu this friday to pass a calm and hopefully dull weekend out of the city.

Pucón was as beautiful as everyone told me it would be. a friend of a friend, jack, studied there (or in the general area) when he was in high school, and without knowing that we already had plans to go there, he recommended it to us. the first day we did a 40km bike ride, all the way to these waterfalls called ojos de caburga. we didn't know it was going to be that long (it converts to 25 miles, más o menos) but it was definitely an experience. the next few days were spent being generally lazy, since the holiday took up a whole day. we took a rowboat out on lake villaricca for about 30 minutes, we ate lunch, we lounged around our hostel, we drank chicha. chicha is a traditional sparkling alcohol made from grapes, but it's not the same as pisco. i guess its traditional because we've only heard about it around fiestas patrias, and we haven't seen it since.

one of the best choices on the trip was to take a day excursion to Valdivia, which is my new favorite place that i've been so far. the day started off like shit-- we thought the gate was locked; the three other girls jumped the wall and amy skinned her knee. i woke up the owner of the hostel to let me out, because the only bus available by the time we bought the tickets was at 6:05 and i thought i was going to miss it. weve learned that buses in chile dont generally run on schedule, and at about 7 we finally boarded the bus. it only took about 2 hours to get there, but since it was the morning after independence day everything was closed and people were still drunk. luckily we found a kitch-tastic seafood restaurant to eat breakfast, which really was like eating lunch at 930 am. luckily fish markets never sleep, and we hit that up, staring at the pelicans, sea lions and rows of every kind of seafood, including purple crabs! we also found a really cheap artisan market and bought souvenirs to our hearts content.

that day (sept 19) was the military celebration day, and we watched the parade with much enthusiasm. at one point we spent about an hour just watching the rows of young chilean men pass, trying to wink at them. our favorite part was that their army has a special ski department to rescue people in the mountains.
the next part of the day was spent taking a boat tour down the river to see two spanish forts from the 17th century. i cant even describe the views, but the best way is to say that i felt like i was in a decemberists song. a strong colonial european air was left about the island (isla mancera and isla corral), something really beautiful and interesting. we were on the boat for about 6 hours. we ate lunch and had a small dessert with tea, and the whole thing was $24. i highly recommend it next to youre down there.

other than that, i guess i've got no much else to report. i promise to try to be better about updating with funny anecdotes and whatnot. until then, take care of the us for me.