The Ensayo From Hell

I had an awesome last excursion to Cajón del Maipo the past two days. A lot of stuff happened and I really need to start working on my essay soon, so I'll try to update you all on everything that happened fairly quickly.

Thursday morning, got up and went to the Teatro to find our amazingly huge and comfortable bus waiting for us. It was big enough that all 22 of us or so got our own row, so no scrunching was necessary (thankfully). We drove to Santiago and stopped at this market called Los Dominicos which was essentially hundreds of small shops and stores of handicrafts all enclosed within this really big area that resembled a jungle. There was even a few small streams that ran all the way through it. Unfortunately, we only had an hour to shop in an area that we could have spent a day in. I was happy to board the bus again though because I was growing very hungry and couldn't wait to arrive at Cajón del Maipo to eat lunch.

Once arriving, we immediately headed to the fairly nice restaurant to eat our lunch which consisted of platters of food being brought to us gringos to pass around the table, and then the waitresses bringing large dishes of chicken and meat for us to grab out of. Shows what they think of Americans...bucket-o-meat for us pigs to eat out of like a trough. Though the meals were very good, I wasn't too fond of them because we never ordered anything, they just brought it out and we never knew how much to eat or how much more was coming out. (The only time I actually got full was lunch our second day...)

After lunch, we took our bags to the super sweet cabins. My cabin had a loft above one of the bedrooms that had another two beds hidden in it. I luckily got a really sweet group of people and we enjoyed our time together during the trip.

Next on our agenda was one of the greatest parts, zip-lining across the river that ran through the valley some 70 feet or so above it. It was so amazing and I had a blast, though I wish we could have done it more than once across and once back. I took video on the shorter run back and I'll upload it on facebook later along with all of my photos from the trip.

Free time consisting of exploring around the camp area and the river, followed by a slightly more classy dinner came next (we all got individual plates with meat and rice on it). After dinner, we hung around and talked until a few of us decided to go and sit along the river to star gaze. Since we were pretty far from any real civilization, we had an absolutely amazing view of the stars and the milky way galaxy. One of my friends mentioned how cool it is that we've never seen these stars in our lives before since we're in the Southern Hemisphere, it was a crazy thought. Later, we headed back to the restaurant for a dance party that they had. It was fun to be able to just dance by myself without caring what anyone else thought, though they did play a lot of salsa music which I'm not too fond of since I'm not good at pretending to salsa (I'm taking lessons with Alyssa next semester though, I'm super stoked).

They closed the restaurant at midnight, so I headed back to my cabin and we talked for a bit then decided to get some sleep so we wouldnt be too tired the next day. David and I were awoken by our friend jumping on our bed and yelling, so I got up and showered and read part of my novel for my Social and Political Themes class. Breakfast was a let down since it only consisted of more bread. It really threw us off when they offered special fruit bowls to the vegitarians, which caused us to think we'd be having some nice meaty meal coming (we didn't, by the way).

Next, we all signed our lives away for the third time (first was on the bus on Thursday, second was before zip-lining) before we headed out on our hike to two different waterfalls. We got to cross three different bridges, the first being a really big suspension bridge over the main river, and the second being a small and rickety suspension bridge that only five people could be on at a time. The third was the smallest and consisted of a few logs hooked together with railings along it. The hike itself was fairly easy, though our guide booked it so the few of us who managed to stay with him got pretty tired out. One of the coolest parts of the day, there is a natural spring that runs through the area that they have made pipes for and such, so we were able to all stop at one point and drink water directly from the spring. The waterfalls were pretty cool, though the bigger of the two was still less than half the size of Multnomah Falls. It did feel really good though to hike and just sweat (as weird as that sounds), since I haven't had time to actually work out here. A lot of us agreed though that the opening of our pours just felt cleansing somehow and very relaxing.

After getting back, we ate our lunch which was chicken pasta, so amazingly good. I've been wanting pasta for so long, and it actually filled me up. We still had a while before we were to live so some of us headed down to explore along the river again and I found a very comfortable rock that I just rested on for a bit.

Next, we hopped on the bus and headed back to Santiago to go to a winery. Literally every single person on the bus fell asleep and slept for the duration of the trip.

Fun fact: the bus had TV screens and they played these random hour long music video mixes with 30 seconds or so of tons of different songs, and after our trip to Cajón, we all realized why Chileans think Americans are all sluts. I cannot believe how dirty and scandilous some of the videos are. But anyways, as we were riding I woke up for a bit and opened my eyes and looked and thought to myself, "It looks like that girl doesn't have a shirt on, weird. Must just be a very scandilous bikini because I just woke up and can't see it very well...whoa, she's bending over now, and she just pulled down her bottoms?!?! OH MY GOSH, SHE REALLY IS NAKED!!!" Yeah, I picked the wrong fifteen seconds to look at the screen, and by the time I realized what was happening, it was too late for me to close my eyes again because the video changed. I definitely was shocked, to say the least.

The winery we went to was called Concha y Toro, and it's one of the ten biggest or most important in the world. It was so big, I couldn't believe the size of it. It definitely was much more touristy then the last winery we went to though, which I wasn't too fond of. We watched a video, walked around a bit, and then got to go to the rooms where they keep the thousands of wooden barrels of wine as they ferment. They also took us down some stairs into a really old cellar where they make a special kind of wine called Casillero del Diablo "Cellar of the Devil", which is based off of some old 19th century myth that the devil actually lived there himself. It was weird, and then they shut the doors and turned off all the lights as they told us the story. They even had a little room where you could "see" the devil (a light down the end of a hall with something in front of it making it look like its his silhouette). It was an interesting place, and I now have two different wine glasses from two different wineries that I have to try to take on the plane without them breaking, what fun that will be.

Afterwards, we all hopped on the bus for the last leg of the trip. I ended up reading 20 or so more pages of my book, and was so ready to go to bed as soon as I got home. Today, I woke up and sent some emails and such to get ready for the camp I'll be working at later in August. I was supposed to go to Santiago with my family but they never said anything about it so I guess that idea got shelved for now.

I only have like four more pages left in my book, then I have to start writing the actual essay. I was a little worried about it because I haven't been able to understand all of the book and a lot of it seems irrelevant to my topic, but I decided I'm just going to write the essay with whatever I think the book is saying and not waste hours looking up word after word in a dictionary, only to discover it really is saying what I thought it was saying. If he doesn't like the quality of my essay, I don't really care at this point. As long as he doesn't fail me I'll be happy with the class.

Rodrigo is using some electrical saw right now to cut stuff, it's going to be hard to want to read and write right now...poo. I better go though, I really want to get it done by tonight if possible. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Chao amigos.

I Should Be Reading

I was told yesterday by Alyssa that even she doesn't read my blog. It makes it difficult for me to want to write when my own girlfriend wont even read it. I guess I'm just that boring.

So, my boring news for yesterday:
-Claudio finally gave me my book, which was supposed to be given on Monday
-I am sick of sandwiches for lunch
-Actually, I'm sick of bread in general. It's all we ever have for dinner, bread. Breadbreadbreadbreadbread. I want dinner
-Carlos talked about the coup that took down Allende and then showed some clips from a documentary of the dictatorship of Pinochet. It was some really crazy stuff, I'd share the youtube link with you but it's a little intense so if you're interested I'll let you search on your own
-I came home and had some soup for lunch, which I think later gave me a really upset stomach that didn't go away until I woke up this morning
-I got to Skype with Alyssa for a while, very nice
-I also got to watch one of my favorite movies in Spanish, Matchstick Men (best Nicholas Cage movie ever, or maybe only good Nicholas Cage movie?)
-I had to read about 50 pages of a Spanish novel, not fun
-I went to sleep

Today, I had another day full of boring news, even less productive then yesterday though.
I'm lettering these ones:
A. Woke up
B. Showered
C. Had to go to the University early to meet with Claudio
D. Had an awkward meeting that I didnt really know what I was supposed to do, but I now know what my topic will be for my essay
E. Only one more real class day for his class, I'm stoked
F. Had a meeting about our excursion tomorrow and Friday
G. We're headed to the mountains, it's going to be snowy and cold, we'll eat, go ziplining I think?, go to another winery (I'm not looking forward to hearing about wines again, definitely not my thing), hike a couple hours to a waterfall, come home
H. Carlos had us talk about Machuca, you should watch it if you like funny/serious movies about Chile during the early 1970's
I. Came home on the micro, it was probably one of the best rides yet. The bus even had arm rests, and we only made a few stops the entire time. Made it home within twenty minutes or so, definitely a new record
J. My record for most number of cats before ever seeing a dog is 5, this happened a few weeks ago
K. Dogs may rule the streets by day, but cats reign supreme at night and early morning, I found this out last Saturday
L. I thought I would get home in time to Skype with Alyssa, but she didnt have time to
M. I then wasted the next 6 hours watching movies and resting in my room
N. Rodrigo bought him and I empanadas (Gabriela is in Papudo for a while, and the other two were at some meditation class or something)
O. I wont forget to take a picture of them mom, it's just awkward to say at dinner, "Hey, all of you stand up right now and get really close together so I can take a picture"
P. After eating, I went back to my room and wasted more time
Q. I should've been reading the past couple hours
R. I should read now
S. I should actually sleep now since I need to leave here at 8:30 tomorrow morning
T. Another foreign exchange student is going to be staying here for the next semester and she's arriving the morning I leave here
U. I don't know what she's going to do when my family takes me to the airport though since their car only has five seats and she wont want to go back to the airport after just getting here
V. I probably wont update this again until Saturday or Sunday
W. I dont want to write my essay this weekend
X. I dont want to do any more work, I'm too lazy
Y. I'm not going to do z, so chao

Graffiti

We made some progress yesterday with Claudio's class, though he still had to have the upperhand and successfully pissed me off yet again. When we walked into his classroom, Ashley walked up and handed him our letter and asked if he could read it. The next five minutes or so seemed to drag on forever as he read it a few times, obviously deciding what he should do. Although he continuously told us he's not upset with us but rather the office that has caused lots of problems in trying to get ahold of the resources, I could tell he was extremely upset that a bunch of gringos would try going against his almighty self. He eventually gave in and said that instead of the 6 page, 3 sources research paper, we only have to read two chapters out of a book of our choosing, then write a 3-4 page summary/response about it. This is extremely great news, though he made a big deal about pointing out all of our points that weren't valid.

First off, concerning us not having resources, he blamed it on us for not sending him an email over the weekend so he could bring us a book, which I did on Sunday evening. I kindly told him this, and he asked me when, and I said around 8 PM, and he responded, "Oh well yeah I'm not up then". How am I supposed to know you wont get it at that time? You told me to email you over the weekend, I did. Don't put the blame on us for not having resources if we're doing exactly what you told us to do.

Second, we have an excursion on Thursday and Friday, our final one for the program. These excursions have been built into the program since day one, and part of the tuition went towards paying for bus and van rentals, the programs themselves, etc. Now after reading that we have this coming up and it will make things difficult for us to get work done, he simply replied "It's your choice to go on the trip, that's not my problem". Um, maybe if you were to check the information the University gave you before teaching the class, you would see that this has been scheduled since day one and that we actually don't have a choice, unless we want to waste a couple hundred bucks by not going. Don't try to make us feel like it's our fault for going on a trip that is included in the trip. If it was our decision, we would still have class on those days. But since we don't, obviously the coordinators feel it's more important than your stupid class.

Finally, just to have the upperhand, he decided to make it due Monday instead of Tuesday. So now instead of being able to relax and enjoy my last Sunday in Chile, I'll be slaving over an essay for his class. Thanks chief, I appreciate it.

No respect. I have absolutely no respect for this man. I cannot stand people who try to place blame on other people for something they can't control. I have managed to stay calm in his class though and haven't actually said anything bad to him, so no worries. I'm not like that, I'll just be sure to leave him a friendly little evaluation before I head off. Man am I stoked for that...

On a happier note, Carlos was finally back! I love his class so much, I literally go from the worst example of a foreign exchange student professor to the best example. He knows how to incorporate hands-on experiences with classroom material, and never makes it overly difficult. It challenges us, but it's not difficult; that's the big difference between his and Claudio's class.

After class, Carlos took all of us on a micro up to the old prison for our final graffiti workshop. It was a really cool place, and we walked through numerous old buildings and passageways before we finally arrived to a back corner of the jail. Graffiti is literally everywhere in the jail, on every wall, bulding, and anything else with a nice surface to paint. Graffiti artists in Valparaíso started out painting the jail, and then from there it spread through the whole city. Charquipunk told us that his plan for us was to have a man holding a camera (drawn by him) and then a long filmstrip would be painted running along the wall and around two different corners. Then, each of us would get to paint whatever we wanted in each of the filmstrip boxes. It was a really cool idea and I stepped right up to paint my background yellow. I initially wanted to paint a monkey, but then I realized the only colors we were using were yellow, blue, green, and white. So instead, I just grabbed a few different shades of blue and green and started painting. I ended up painting something that looks like the sketches I make in my spirals while taking notes. Some people tried reading into it and finding deeper meanings, but I just laughed. I like to keep that stuff to myself =)

After everyone was finished, Charquipunk and Carlos drew the black filmstrip border around all of the boxes and Charquipunk added a few extra touches. The finished product actually looks really sweet, and it was such a cool way to end the workshop. I uploaded photos on my facebook if you want to check them out.

We then headed back down the hill from the prison, and I hopped on a micro and headed home. After eating my once with the family, we watched part of The Simpson's Movie on TV. It's just not the same when it's in Spanish because the voices aren't right...oh well. Afterwards, I went to my room and eventually went to bed.

Today, it's a fairly nice day out and hopefully I'll get my book from Claudio so I can start reading. My goal is to have it read before leaving Thursday so then I can get to work writing it Saturday and Sunday. It's really starting to hit me that I'm leaving soon. I have less than two weeks. It's bittersweet because I of course don't want to leave my family and all of the great friends I've met here. But I'm so ready to get out of Claudio's class and I definitely am so super excited to head to California to be with my Alyssa for a few days. It shall be perfect.

I should get ready to go soon, hope you enjoy your day.

Chao.

Sand In My Socks

Yesterday was a lazy day, I enjoyed it. I woke up and found out there was no gas so that meant no shower. Great. I knew I should´ve showered when I got back Saturday night.

After getting ready and being served breakfast in bed, we all hopped in the car and headed to Con Con, a city north a couple miles. It was a little ghetto compared to all of the other beautiful cities I´ve been to, but we enjoyed some delicious empanadas at a local shop (empanadas are Chile´s version of calzones).

Next, we walked through a local market and then headed to the beach. Rodrigo Jr. had brought a small soccer ball, and so we started kicking it around. It eventually led to Rodrigo and I on a team versus Rodrigo Jr. and Gabriela in a game of keep-a-way. Gisela eventually joined up with my two siblings because of how good Rodrigo was playing. Rodrigo told me a while back that when he was in high school, he was a really good soccer player and played with some fairly good players. He also told me that many of his friends are now professional players in Europe and he just as easily could´ve gone pro, but he chose to start a family and live a normal life instead. He said he never regrets it, but that it´s interesting for him to think about where he´d be, and that I wouldn´t be here in his house if he had. He wasn´t lying either. Sure he was only playing against kids who haven´t been playing as long as he has, but he definitely has some insane skills. I was amazed watching him play, and could only imagine what he must have been like in his prime years.

After playing for a bit, we headed home and I watched part of a movie as our once was prepared. We all ate, then I had to get to some homework for Claudio´s class. He assigned us 15 pages of fairly difficult reading to do. I can not stand this man. Luckily, I was able to find the same speech online in English so I could actually comprehend what I was reading. Later, I had some time to talk with Alyssa for a while before heading to bed.

Today, I woke up early so I could come to the University early to meet up with some other students. We´re all very worried about Claudio´s 6 page research paper essay he wants us to write using three different Spanish sources. It´s due next Tuesday, and we don´t even have any of the sources yet. I´m supposed to get one today, though who knows if I´ll actually get it. The worst thing is that this Thursday and Friday we dont have class because we have an excursion. Then on Saturday, I´m heading to Santiago with my family. So basically, I have the next few days after class, then Sunday and after class Monday to write the paper. Oh yeah, we also have an oral quiz about anything we´ve covered in that class on Wednesday. Don´t forget the 15 minute powerpoint presentation I have about a short story in Carlos´ class on either Wednesday or Thursday of next week. Basically, Claudio is trying to cram in a super hard amount of work during our last weekend in Chile, without providing sources for us to use. I don´t want to be sitting in my room reading for hours rather than enjoying my last weekend.

So because of this, our class got together today and discussed what we could do about it. We decided on writing a professional letter to him describing our problem with not having enough time or sources, and then offering some suggestions such as lowering the pages and sources, changing the essay to something easier and more managable, or something like that. We´re going to give it to him today and see what he says, and then if he does nothing about it, we´ll take our case to the coordinators and see if they can help us out. We all admit it´s not the work we´re trying to get out of, it´s the fact that he wants us to write a 6 page research paper without providing us sources until Monday or Wednesday of this week, and then expects us to read through three of them while we have other excursions and work to worry about. I´m so sick of his class, I just hope things work out.

I got to go now, I´ll let you know how things turn out. Chao.

Portillo

Yesterday was absolutely amazing. Some things you can't just express in words. Check out my photos on facebook to see what I'm talking about.

I woke up dark and early at 4:10, and was ready to go by 4:35. Rodrigo told me he would drive me, and boy is Chile a different world when everyone is still asleep. We were able to take the main road and hit only greens (and also drive as fast as he wanted). We met up at the Teatro Municipal where our van driver picked us up. He was super nice, and even brought juice, coffee, and muffins for us to eat. The drive was about three and a half hours or so, and we were all super tired. To get to the actual mountain, you have to drive around switchback after switchback. When we got close to the main lodge, we went through two different tunnels that acutally go under the longest trail on the mountain.

We kept driving for a while and I looked behind me and realized we had passed the main entrance. The driver then stopped and started to turn around as my friend Grant hopped out and went pee. I then looked up at the sign above the road in front of us and realized it said "Welcome to Chile". We were in Argentina! I knew the border was super close, but I didn't think we'd actual get to cross it. Grant can now say he's peed on Argentina. Although we didn't actually cross through all of the security that was probably just around the corner, we did cross the official border of Chile and Argentina. Neat.

The actual lodge is situated right next to a lake, with the two main mountains on either side of the lake. Completely surrounding the ski area is just mountain after mountain, each one just as huge and amazing as the next. I think the view itself was worth the price of getting here. The lodge also has an outdoor heated pool and hut tub right next to the lake for guests staying at the resort to use (though two of my friends did bring swimming suits and hopped in before the end of the day). Every lift I went up, I was absolutely in awe of the huge mountains surrounding me. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience that unfortunately not many people get to experience.

Once we got to the lodge, we rented our equipment, got our tickets, and all headed for the super long trail. Unfortunately, things didn't start out too well for us. It was way warmer than we were expecting (around 50 degrees), and the air was thin and made breathing difficult since we were at around 10,000 feet. The start of the first trail was also very flat, so it made things difficult for the four snowboarders. There was also a girl skiing for the first time, and all of the other skiiers ended up leaving her behind, which ended up causing a miserable time with her. (She couldn't go anywhere and after waiting around for about an hour, ski patrol finally came and put her on a stretcher to help her get down) It was even worse since we had told the workers that she needed help after waiting for twenty minutes or so with her, and yet it took them forever to finally come help. I personally had a difficult time just standing up since I had my backpack on and I was super tired out after finally getting to the main hill. Once I got down, I found my friend David who was suffering from altitude sickness and just rested with him for about forty-five minutes until the others came down the hill.

After eating my lunch, shedding some layers, and getting rid of my backpack, I was ready to try again on the other hill. This is when my day really started to get good. I went up with another friend, but she wanted to take a different trail so we parted ways. I then proceeded to hit the slopes by myself for the next two and a half hours, continuously getting more and more comfortable with my skills. I never have been able to carve very well, but there was one hill where I just went for it and found myself doing extremely well. I probably went down that hill about 10 times throughout the day, each time with a huge grin on my face as I carved back and forth through the snow. I think it made things a lot easier since the snow was powdery rather than the icey snow I'm used to at Mt. Spokane. I only fell a few times during the day, and had an absolutely awesome time checking out the amazing views, listening to my music, and just enjoying being by myself.

At around 4, we all started to check our equipment back in so we could be ready to go by 4:30. The van ride back seemed to take a lot longer, and almost everyone slept for most of the trip. When we finally did arrive back to Viña, the driver was super nice and asked if we wanted him to take us to our houses. I live further away than anyone else so I knew I'd be last, but luckily it was right near his house so I didn't feel bad about making him drive so far.

Once I walked in the door, the first thing my family did was point out my sunburnt face (I did use sunscreen, but unfortunately it wasn't strong enough) and laugh about it. The UV rays are a lot stronger at 10,000 feet, especially when the snow is there to reflect it. When my sister Gabriela walked in, "Hey look at Matthew's burnt face" was the first thing they said. It was funny that they thought it was so funny. I then went to my room and changed out of my wet clothes so I could go eat. I ended up just wearing two pairs of jeans (thank goodness for skinny jeans), and I was fine the entire day. My butt got wet, but I never was cold and the snow was very dry so if I did fall or anything, I could brush it off and it'd be dry within minutes. The gloves weren't waterproof though, so that was a little uncomfortable by the end of the end. Overall, given the fact that I personally had no equipment at all, I was able to stay extremely dry and warm; it was great.

After eating and talking with my family for a bit, I headed to my room and went to sleep. It was an absolutely awesome day, and although the mountain itself wasn't all that great for the number of trails and such, it was definitely worth it to be able to say I've skiied in the Andes Mountains in my lifetime (plus the view was absolutely spectacular).

I've got less than two weeks here, it's weird to think about. My dad just brought me breakfast to my room, I guess they do this every Sunday so I should go now so I can eat. Chao mis amigos. Hope you're enjoying getting burned from the sun as much as I am from the snow.