Weekend

Since my mom's birthday was yesterday and today was Father's day, this has been a great weekend for food. Last night we had mexican soup with a huge green salad, both of which were delicious, and then I made a chocolate cake that we ate with raspberries. Tonight I'm going to make supper for my dad and I'm trying a recipe for artichoke pasta sauce. Then I'll get more icecream and rasperries to have with the rest of the cake. I love being home for all of the good food--of course I don't eat awful food or anything near that at college, since I cook for myself a lot, but I just don't have the time or the money to do it like we do here.

Today I did something that I've been dreading all week, cleaning the rabbit cage. I hate doing it so much because you have to rake up all the old straw, sweep it all out, empty the litter box of straw, etc., and it always makes me really allergic. Today I took a bunch of allergy medicine and bit the bullet though. When it was all done, I brought Ensi and Echo up there to see it. They were puzzled and kind of upset to see everything changed, especially Echo, who's officially blind now. They hopped around the whole place investigating and then started rearranging the new straw that I'd put in to try and make it like it had been before I'd cleaned it.

Listen to how busy our summer is:
Dylan here June 20-30
A. Shelly, Dave, Chand, Lea, Naomi, and A. Uusi here July 1-5
Kris and Mark here the weekend of July 9th

I'm really, really excited for Dylan to get here and I've been getting things cleaned up and the upstairs ready. His flight gets into Oakland tomorrow night.

Lonely Planet on Valparaíso and Viña del Mar

I've been browsing the lonely planet website (really fun) and came across these pretty descriptions of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, the cities in which I'll be living. I'll find out which one and more about my host family when I'm in Santiago for our orientation

VALPARAISO
Lying 120km (74mi) northwest of Santiago, Valpo is Chile's principal port and second-largest city. Despite its size, it is Chile's most distinctive city and one of South America's most intriguing. Occupying a narrow strip of land between the waterfront and the nearby hills, its convoluted centre has distinctive, sinuous cobbled streets, and is overlooked by precipitous cliffs and hilltop suburbs which are accessed by funicular railways and stairway footpaths. It is conducive to maze-like strolls and rides on the funicular, and its natural history, fine arts and maritime museums are justly famed. Muelle Prat, the redeveloped pier, is a lively market area.


VINA DEL MAR:
Chile's premier beach resort is just a two-hour bus ride north of Santiago. The bustling commercial centre is known as the Garden City, for reasons obvious to any visitor. Viña del Mar developed as a playground for wealthy santiaguinos when nearby Valparaíso was linked to the capital by rail. Charming assets abound: Chile's national botanical garden, a vast chunk of native and exotic plants; horse-drawn carriages that trot past turn-of-the-century mansions on river and beach frontages; and white-sand beaches that stretch from the town centre to the overbuilt suburbs of Reñaca and Concón.

Chilean consulate

Today I went to the Chilean consulate after having been told that talking with them face to face was the only way to get the process started. It was kind of exciting going there, because its in this huge old really elegant building on Market street, along with the Hondoran, Nicaraguan, and Peruvian consulates. There were tons of worn-down looking hispanic families with babies galore going into what I assume were the consulates for their home country, and I felt sorry for anyone who has to deal with this kind of bureacracy on a regular basis. Anyways I finally got an appointment from the rude ladies at the consulate. They were far more interested in helping a Chilean woman fluff her hair before taking her passport photo than anything else, which was amusing : )

Its a rainy day and I'm sitting around the house feeling happy but nostalgic, listening to the great mix cd that Sara made for us before leaving Grinnell.

I got a book today on Chilean culture, one of the culture shock series. It was reasonably interesting and here are some of my favorite random facts from it:
-18% of Chile is national parks, compared to 3% of the United States
-Chilean geography and climate are similar to those of the west coast, flipped upside down...aka the northern part is like sourthern California, the southern part like the Pacific Northwest
-Santiago is one of the smoggiest and most polluted cities in South America
-Chile is one of the most homogenous and also most prosperous Latin American countries
-politics a risky topic of conversation in a place with such a recent tumultuous past; 40% of Chileans supported Pinochet, despite his horrific and widely documented human rights abuses, when he left power.

OK I think I need to start writing on this thing if I'm ever going to get the hang of it. Yesterday I made three practice posts and then deleted them...I won't tell you how long it took for me to figure out how to do all that!

I am still trying to get my Chilean VISA. It is very frustrating and stressful. I'm just praying that I get my VISA in time. I've been calling the consulate in San Francisco about 15 times a day. Each time you call, this machine comes on and gives you a long spiel..."Welcome to the consulate general in San Francisco, located at something something something market street our hours are....our website is....press this button for this, that button for that..." Anyways I may have the spiel memorized before I get to talk to Amelia Campos, the person in charge of VISAs.

Other than that I've been enjoying my time at home. Its great to see Daughter again and the kittens are adorable. Its been really sunny and beautiful and we take long walks with the dogs every night.

Hello

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