All My Bags Are Packed, I'm Ready to Go

Hey folks!
With some luck and a lot of scrambling I purchased all of the gifts that I needed to buy (there may even be one for YOU!) and packed all of my bags, pretty amazing that the last day is already here. After so much preperation and build up to Chile the time here seems like it went by incredibly quickly. I am definately excited to get back home, especially for the holidays, but it is also a bit weird leaving here. I've learned a lot here and made a lot of friends from around the world that I am sure I will keep in contact with. Thanks to everyone who kept up with the blog! It was a lot of fun to make (please don't tell people that I think blogging is fun) and I hope evryone enjoyed it! Take care during the holidays and be fantastc! Chao

Journey to the Bottom of the World

Hey folks!
I'm back from my trip to sotuehrn Patagonia and it was a great way to finish out my travels in Chile. We flew into Punta Arenas, the southern most city (over 40,000 people) in the world and stepped off the plane to a landscape identical to what you would expect just a few miles north of the Antarctic circle. The land around Punta Arenas is completely flat and windswept. You can see so far that it seems like you can actually see the sky curving. The weather that far south changes about every 15 minutes from sun to rain to snow to hail always with a constant and loud wind. We went to a penguin sanctuary with over 15,000 Magallenic penguins (as seen in picture above, if I ever run for office I will use a shot of me with penguins to show how caring I am) before backpacking for three days in Torres del Paine, Chile's best national park. Torres del Paine is absolutely massive, it has lakes, giant peaks, caves, glaciers, and lots of hiking. We managed to do the 4 day "W" hike which hits up the higlights of the Gray Glacier, one of the largest glaciers in the world outside of the poles (as seen in above photo where you can also see how long my hair has become! If I stick it straight up everyone in the residencia thinks I look like this weird Chilean superhero), the Torres (towers) which are massive peaks of twisting rock and extreme vertical drops, and the Frances mountain range which features various lakes, glaciers, and mountains. The hiking was fairly intense and thanks to the changing weather we got pretty drenched in our tent at night but it was totally worth it. The vistas and the colors within the park are amazing and vibrant and the pictures do no justice to show how amazing this park is. Tonight is my last night in the residencia ad we are having a bit of a going away party for everone before they head back to their respective countries for the holidays. I still have quite a lot to do (including packing, yuck) before I head out tommorow so I'll post more tommorow. Chao for now!!!

The Last Hoorah!

Hey everybody!
Things have started to calm down a bit here. Pinochet is on his way to recovering, I am beggining to the think that he is a robot. As of yesterday I am officially done with classes in Chile and on Christmas break! The group flight back to the United States is today so most of the gringos from my program have left now. I'm catching a flight down south with two of my friends to Punta Arenas, the southern most large city in the world. From there we are heading on a 3 or 4 day hike in Torres del Paine, Chile's best national park complete with glaciers, volcanoes, and unusually high towers of rock rising up throughout the park. We are also planning on heading to Chile's largest penguin reserve. It's back to Santiago on the 15th and then I leave for the U.S. on the 16th, a whirwind trip!! In any event I'll post again when I am back in a week, have a fantastic week! Chao for now

Nunca Puedo Dormir!

Hey everybody!
Things are crazy here in Santiago and in the residencia lately so there has been a distinct lack of posts from me, yet another apology! Last night finished up the Teleton, a giant nation wide telethon that has been advertised for almost two months straight here. The event is huge and everywhere you go in Santiago there are Teleton organized parties to organize excitement for donations. Banks, McDonalds, Pharmacies, and all sorts of stores stay open all day and night for two days straight and give you the ption to donate every time you purchase an item. I'm pretty happy that it's over as I don't think I can stand another advertisement for it.
On top of the Teleton Chile had its biggest soccer game in over a decade a few days ago. Every year the best teams from all of Latin America's various soccer leagues play in a giant tournament. Chilean soccer, although well loved, is fairly bad but this year the Chilean team Colo-Colo (Chi Chi Chi Le Le Le, Colo-Colo es de Chile!) has made it to the championship games against a Mexican club. The first game of the two game series ended up in a 1-1 tie in Mexico but the next two days of solid partying in the streets and my personal favorite of driving around honking non stop would have led most people to believe that they won. The day of the game kind of felt like a holiday as everything except bars and restaraunts were closed and nobody is on the street. I'd hate to see the reaction if they lose, mass chaos. Speaking of chaos, this morning Augusto Pinochet (former dictator of Chile if you ignore news) suffered a serious heart attack and is currently in critical condition. At 91 Pinochet is said to have 16 known diseases, a fact that has kept him from prossecution for crimes during his presidency. If Pinochet does in fact die it will be interesting to see how Chile reacts as opinions to this day remain extremely mixed and emotional for Chileans.
Finally, (wooh this is a marathon post!) we've had some scary stuff going on in my residencia. Two nights ago while walking back from a friend's party, two of my Frnech friends who live in my house were hit by a car that swerved onto the sidewalk. After speniding a night and a day in the hospital, they are back in the house with neck braces, staples, mild spinal injuries, and a lot of cuts and bruises. Thankfully the car hit some stuff before striking them and although they are fairly banged up and extremely shaken up they'll both be fine. In the mean time we are all taking our turns as nurses and helping out the doctor that lives in our house! In any event, hopefully things get a little less crazy in my final two weeks. I finish up class on Wednesday and on Friday I leave for Punta Arenas (the southern most large city in the world) for a weak of touring Patagonia and southern Chile. I hope that everyone is fantastic! Chao for now.

Feliz Dia de Gracias

Hey folks!!
Happy Thanksgiving (or day after) to all of you! Even though its not a holiday here my American buddy Clark and I deceided to dedicate our entire day to cooking up a traditional Thanksgiving meal for everyone in our residencia. Our one requirement for them to eat was that they participate in the American tradition and come dressed as either a pilgram, a Native American, or a ninja (oddly no one ended up dressing up in any of these costumes, but we still let them eat). We bought a 16LB turkey 30 potatoes, 15 bags of croutons, and a plethera of vegetables to feed 20 people from our residencia. We had never cooked Thanksgiving dinner before so it was a terrifying experience but thanks to some of my mom's recipes and the internet everything turned out surprisingly well. In about 7 hours of work we made a tequila lime BBQ'd turkey, stuffing (no one had ever had stuffing or even heard of it before last night), mashed potatoes, fruit salad, spinach casarole, rolls, and gravy. Everyone seemed to thourghly enjoy it and no one is ill today so I rank it as a success! Hats off to everyone who cooks Thanksgiving dinner every year, that is some tough work. I'm off to jump over the border for the weekend and hang out in Mendoza, Argentina for some rafting but I'll be back Monday. Chao for now!

La Campana

Hey Folks!
I purchased a cheap monitor to hook up to my laptop after the drop that destroyed the screen. Since I haven't been able to see anything I haven't posted anything in awhile, I've been slacking lately. This past weekend I took a two hour bus drive out of Santiago to climb La Campana, a 6500ft mountain with one of the most popular hikes in Chile. Charles Darwin (or Carlos Darwin as he is known in these parts) popularized the climb after he did it and wrote that at the summit you, "see Chile as it is on a map" wieth the Andes on one side and the Ocean on the other. This was probably true in 1884 when Darwin climbed it but now the ever present Chilean smog hides the ocean and only the costal fog can be seen. None the less the hike was awesome and extremely difficult. The last part of the climb didn't go over too well with the two of the three of us who were terrified of heights as it involved nearly vertical rock climbing with no equipment. When my friend Clark reached the top he accidentally sent a bunch of rocks raining down on our heads and flying rapidly towoards the heads of people watching below. Luckily everyone was able to dodge the rocks and harm was avoided. Today I went to the general cemetary here in Santiago with one of my classes to see the graves of various Chilean presidents. The average middle class Chilean doesn't buy a plot in a cemetary but rents a "room" in one of their lagre apartment like tombs. The buildings that house these tombs are nearly 6 stories tall with staircases and balconies to view the graves. After your renting period is up you are "evicted" and your family given the oppurtunity to extend the lease or clear the plot. Kind of morbid but also quite interesting! Anyhow, I'm off to go buy a turkey to cook for my residencia for dia de gracias. Have a fantastic Thanksgiving everyone! Chao for now

Real Men Drive KIA's

Hello everybody!
I know I have been terrible about posting lately, it's been a busy and fun filled past week and a half so I have a good excuse! My parents just took off two days ago after a week long stay here in Chile. It was prety fun being able to show them all around and we went everywhere from sea level to 9000ft! This was made possible by the mighty KIA that dad bravely rented to head to Vina, Valpo, and the Andes. You can see dad's absolute excitement in the above picture regarding the wonders of KIA(please note, optimal hilarity is acheived by zooming in on dad and the manly machine if possible). We also went a dinner dance show with traditional dances of Chile. I guess we all look distinctly non-Chilean as each of us was cruely chosen to participate in dances throughout the night, fairly humiliating although slightly comical also. All in all it was a lot of fun to see the folks and show them around, thanks for visiting mom and dad! It's back to routine now as I have a little over 3 weeks of school left followed by a week and a half of travel in southern Chile before I return home, time is definately flying. I hope everyone is fantastic, chao for now!