Happy 2007....a little late!

April 9, 2007

Happy April (and belated Happy Easter)!!!

I realized it has been months—literally—since I sent out an update or wrote in my blog. I believe the last time I sent something out was for Christmas! Eeeekk!

Life in Chile is fabulous…so fabulous that it's just normal life. Perhaps that is why I have been scarce to write about what is going on—because at some point it seems boring to write about everyday life. Clearly I have had some really exciting experiences such as hiking the Inca Trail in Peru, visiting an island of penguins with my mom, meeting famous Chilean actors and the like. However, in general life is life. So you may be wondering what is new in my life and that's just what I'm going to tell you…

Last semester ended with quite a bit of stress due to the disorganization of final exams in Chile but in the end of things I passed all my classes without a doubt. After I got all of my final exams moved up, I traveled to Peru with my good friend Bethany. We flew into Cusco which is at an extremely high altitude. The next day we left with our group to hike the Inca Trail for four days. It was about 30 miles in total, climbing mountains at the 13,000 ft level. Needless to say it was crazy…especially since Bethany and I hadn't done any exercise for months. But we survived and made it to Machupicchu which was beautiful. Then we headed back to Cusco and left the next morning. It was a quick 6 day trip but it was fun. I had a lot of time alone to think about things because we all hiked at our own pace. Just as an FYI for anyone who plans on doing the trip, buy a baston (hiking stick) and if you have bad knees, don't do the trail.

I spend most of the summer (Dec. through Feb.) in Viña hanging out on the beach, spending time with Christian and my Chilean family. My good girlfriends (Bethany, Clairita, and Kathy) left in December which was really sad. The summer in Viña is the best. It was the strangest feeling to have a warm Christmas and New Years but the fireworks during New Years in Viña and Valpo is bakan (super cool)!!! It is actually the biggest New Years celebration in South America—it's like 25 miles of fireworks, all lit from the ocean.

My wonderful mother came to Chile on Jan. 21^st. Christian and I drove to Santiago to pick up her and her friend Janet. Then we came back to Viña for one day so that everyone could meet my family and the next day, the three of us (me, mom and Janet) left for the south of Chile which began our two week adventure. Our first stop was Punta Arenas where we spent about 5 days, saw the island full of penguins, ate interesting sea food, met a Kawaskar (one of the last living people of this indigenous group) and went to Torres del Paine for a day. The we flew to Puerto Montt where we took a day trip to a lake called Todos Los Santos—it's supposed to be blesses—and to see some waterfalls. It was fun except for the sketchy driver/guide. On Jan. 29^th we took a plane to Buenos Aires where we stayed for 2 nights close to the Obelesco . It was an interesting hostel and after being told that we would have a girl roommate…it turned out to be some Irish dude with a really cool accent. We got some good laughs out of that one. My mom and I took a city tour in a bus which was about the best thing we could do with the little time we had there. I, of course, exercised my wallet quite a bit buying cute summer clothes that are super cheap in Argentina. Next on our trip was Iguazu Falls which is probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. We had 4 days total in Iguazu and then we came back to Chile, where Janet took a plane back to the States and my mom came to spend about a week and a half with me in Viña. I took her to all the cool places and we spent a lot of time with my Chilean family and with Christian (and his family too). After her almost month-long stay, I was sad to see her go. I packed her suitcases full of my stuff to take back and she almost was over weight at the airport! I also decided, after her trip here, that I am a good translator and am now available for trips to any Spanish-speaking area. So if you, or anyone you know, wants to take a trip to a Spanish-speaking area and doesn't speak Spanish, you can take me. All you have to pay is for my trip and food. :-)

The rest of the summer flew by. I organized stuff for the U (university) and worked on scholarships. I also went to two of the Festival concerts at the end of Feb. Christian and I saw Don Omar & Ricky Martin and La Oreja de Van Gogh & Los Bacilos. Christian is working in Santiago so he leaves Viña at 6:15am and doesn't get back until 8:30pm which left me a lot of time to fill. Now, with classes and studying and preparing things to return, it isn't enough time to do it all…..I don't even think 24 hours in a day is enough for everything I have to do. Every time I go to work on things for the fall such as my school schedule, where I'm going to live, or misc. scholarship stuff….my stomach starts to ache and I feel like I'm going to throw up or pass out. It's not a very nice feeling and it kind of scares me for how I will feel when I actually get back to the States. I plan on keeping myself as busy as possible. In fact, I get back on July 31^st to Denver and on Aug. 5^th I have a week-long program in Texas with Shell Oil Company. It's the Gourami Business Challenge. I'm excited for it, but I have a lot of accounting and finance review to do before I go. Luckily I have access to the University library which has accounting books in Spanish.

About 3 weekends ago, CIEE took the 2^nd semester students (there are only 8 of us who stayed from last semester) on a trip down south. We went to Puerto Montt, Chiloé, Frutillar and Valdivía. It was a fun trip. I hadn't spent so much time with the other 7 students so it was a good bonding time. Plus we could talk about all the new gringos who got here in Feb. Hahaha….

This past weekend Christian and I went to Pichilemú which is a small beach town about 5 hours south of Valpo. We left on Friday morning and got back yesterday afternoon. It was a really chill trip, but a nice change of pace. The beach was beautiful with huge waves—it's the surf capital of Chile, but the downside of the waves is the wind.

Classes started at the beginning of May. I have 6 classes: Hispanic-American Short Stories, Folkloric Dances, Method of Oral Communication (it's like theatre), Public Relations, International Politics and Philosophy. I actually like all of my classes but they are a lot of work—or rather a lot of info. to study and know. The semester ends on July 14th but I have a feeling I'll be done before that. My friend Paula and I are going to plan a trip to the North of Chile. In May, I'll be going on the CIEE trip to La Serena again. But the most exciting thing about May is that Bethany and Claire will be back in Chile!!!!! I'm so excited to see them! We've had a hard time keeping in touch this semester with the time difference and the busyness of our schedules. It's going to be awesome to have these girls back here. Hopefully I won't have too much homework or tests so I can spend a lot of time with them.

Well that's about it for now. My Chilean family left me and Christian little chocolate eggs and bunnies on my nightstand for Easter. That was super nice of them. I missed having the Easter-egg hung at my parent's house. I better get going. I need to study and finish making my huge To-Do list. I hope all is well with everyone! I'd love to hear from those of you whom I haven't heard from in a long time. Have a great night!!!

P.S. I have a ton of great pictures, but I haven't been able to upload them to my website of pics yet because I've been having some issues with our internet. I'll let you know when I get the millions of pics updated!

--
~Tyffanie
"Sueño con tantas cosas
que quiero que sean realidad,
sueño con morir de viejo
y no de soledad."
-Juanes