More Pictures

My host mom, Erika.



My host brother Christian. Serious.



Christian shows his other side : )

Here are the photos I promised of my host family, though just of Erika and Christian. I'll get some of Marjorie and Hector next weekend when they're around more.

I had a decently, if not extremely, fun night last night. I went with a couple of friends to see The Magic Flute at El teatro municipal in Viña. I'm terrible for getting the times and places of things mixed up, and last night I got there an hour and a half early because I'd remembered the time incorrectly. So I wandered around Viña and was impressed by how clean and prosperous it is compared to Valparaíso. I stopped in a little German bakery and got a pastry, which was delicious. By this time the opera was about to start, so I headed back to the theater and found my seat with some of my friends. Anyways, the opera confirmed my belief that orchestral music is fantastic and that opera singers are pretentious and ridiculous. Hah. It was enjoyable though, especially because we'd gotten the tickets for free. I hadn't thought that I knew the Magic Flute at all, but the whole time I was there I was trying not to hum along. Its weird how some music slips into your mind without you evening realizing it.

Afterwards we went with a Chilean girl, Yasna, to a little hole in the wall eatery. I was glad that I'd filled up on pastry so I didnt' have to sample anything on the menu, which consisted of Chilean hotdogs ("completos") and other Chilean specialties, like "Lomo a lo pobre", which is eggs, steak, and french fries all mixed together. I enjoyed talking with Yasna though, who is remarkably friendly. She's also, I learned, the daughter of an Evangelical preacher. That's pretty unusual for 90% catholic Chile.

To finish the evening off, we went to a couple little coffee shop/bar places near Plaza Aníbal Pinto. We heard a great, really great live band and got our pictures taken for the local newspaper (!) Now we are not only gringas, but famous gringas ; )

Saturday the 30th

Well I'm sitting here eating Guittard's chocolate cortesty of Gody Kris and reflecting on the past few days, which have been great. First of all, I got the VISA business taken care of. Though I had to go to Santiago and back two days in a row--4 hours and 10 dollars a trip--it turned out to be more of an adventure than a hassle. In Valparaíso, I get lots of stares and people are always curious about what I'm doing there, which is both nice and annoying. Santiago on the other hand has a really anonymous feel, and it was fun to wander around a bit, go shopping, and run my errand knowing that absolutely no one thought twice about me.

I got back to the program yesterday afternoon in time for the talk on extra curricular activities. It was strange being back around my CIEE friends, who were making all kinds of plans to take the bus to the Andes, to Southern Chile, to Arengtina, etc. Having spent four hours on the bus that morning, I was in no mood to do more of that.

I've been having a really good, satisfying, relaxing time around here though. The awkwardness around my host family that I was feeling a few days ago is mostly gone and time goes quickly with both Marjorie and Christian in the house--they're hilarious together.

Yesterday I made a budget for this academic year. Though I've bought loads of things here, everything is cheap, and I've only spent about $10-15 a week. That includes the expensive trips to Santiago and the food and metro tickets I had to buy there. I've also bought some food things that I like but I feel like my host family wouldn't buy if it weren't for me. Obviously through CIEE I've already paid for my 'room and board' here, but I think money is a little short here and my host family appreciates me buying some of my food.

I met this really nice girl who just finished doing the CIEE program and is friends with my host family. She seemed pretty worn out though, negative about a lot of things, and anxious to get back to the US. My time here is going so fast. I wonder what I'll feel like come around December. I'm guessing great, because it will be summer, my parents will be here, and we'll be travelling comfortably. But who knows, maybe I'll be burned out too.

Santiago

My view right now : )


Well my trip to Santiago early this morning was actually pretty fun. I even enjoyed being able to be in a sleepy bad mood on the bus on the way there, with no one to ask me a million questions about how I slept and what I want to eat each meal of the day...heh. Its quite a beautiful drive, and I saw lots of different neighborhoods including some very poor ones, where they put garbage in huge piles in the street because no one comes to collect it. The drive also takes you through the coastal mountain range. Anyways when I got to the metro station this girl who works for CIEE was waiting for me. She's actually an american who did this program, fell in love with Chile, and then managed to get a job as the extra-curricular programs manager for CIEE. Anyways we went to the Immigration department and waded through the bureaucratic bs. As it turns out, I have to go back to the same place tomorrow morning. Hopefully it will be ready by then.
Taking the bus made me appreciate just how cheap, comfortable, and organized buses are here. Tonight I'm going to read about different trips from here. Its exciting thinking about doing that kind of stuff. There are so many beautiful towns and great national parks around here.

My day to day life has been uneventful. I'm looking forward to school starting so that I have more structure, because as it is I feel a little strange sitting around the house while Erika goes to school and cooks and cleans frenetically and while Christian frantically tries to finish his mechanical engineering thesis. I'm not bored, because I can always entertain myself by going wandering around town, but at this same time I'll admit that its a bit awkward attempting to LIVE here ( a far different thing than being a tourist) without any particular "life" except for a handful of american friends and a house I live in. So I need things to fill it up: trips, classes, harp, chilean friends, maybe volunteering.

Haha...Christian just started blasting Manu Chao : )

Two weeks, and frustrations

Time is going so quickly! Now I understand why a lot of my friends in CIEE are here for 2 semesters instead of one!

Unfortunately, I have the feeling that tomorrow will go rather slowly....Let me explain: the awful, rude, disorganized, unprofessional woman at the consulate office forgot to write on my student visa the little number that actually makes it valid. Umm yeah, so now the damn visa does me no good. I KNEW that awful woman was going to mess something up!!! Now I get to spend tomorrow in the cold chaos of Santiago trying to convince the bureacrats that my visa should be valid.

Compare this to Dylan's experience at the Japanese consulate. He called, at one ring an actual person picked up the phone, directed his call to the VISA department, he asked what he needed to send in, only needed a few things, its free, and it takes 24 hours for him to recieve it once they get the information. Unbelievable.

Its weird, Chile is so beautiful and people so nice and normal that you think its the first world. From what I've seen, the only really third world thing about it is this lack of organization...and it is really aggravating!

Weekend

Me at the top of Acensor Polanco, a funicular.



Neighborhood below Acensor Polanco.

My weekend was pretty mellow other than a bizarre Friday night experiencing the Chilean bar scene at the grungy, sketchy "El huevo." Saturday, Christian took me around sightseeing a bit and we went up the Ascensor Polanco as you can see in the pictures. We also went to the ocean and walked along a walkway with views of the ships coming in and out of the port and of course of lots of sea lions...so cute! Saturday night we went to visit some cousins of my host family. I've described this in depth in emails to my parents and Dylan, but anyways it was quite the family gathering! Everyone was shouting and waving their arms around and music was playing and they had this huge dog that was bounding around and the baby was crying. It was overwhelming! Now and then someone would look at me and be quiet, which I knew meant that they had just asked me a question, but I of course had no idea what they 'd said, so I'd just smile and nod. Lol I now understand that listening and communicating with ONE person in another language is quite another thing from listening and communicating in a group of them!

Today we got the list of classes we can take this semester. I'm considering taking some of the following: Chilean Literature, Modern Chilean History, Oceanography, International Relations, Music, Linguistics, Geography....There are lots of classes offered compared to Grinnell, because La católica has 12,000 students and Grinnell 1200! So all the selection is exciting. I think I need to take five classes to fill the requirements.

We had a welcome breakfast this morning for the start of International Students Orientation week. They had a Chilean folkloric music group, and there was a harpist playing! When he was leaving I went up and said I'd enjoyed his playing and asked him some things about the harp professor here. What I've gathered from talking to about 5 people is that there IS a folk harp teacher here, but no one has any idea who it is or how to reach them. This kid was even a harp student, and he wouldn't tell me who the teacher was. But he also had a terrible stutter and I don't speak spanish great, so maybe there was a misunderstanding. Anyways he asked for my phone number and he's supposed to call next week, once classes start, to FINALLY give me some kind of information about the harp program....

Photos of Valparaiso

Pretty view of the city.



Don't you think its similar to SF or Daly City?



Local store.

I added photos to the Rabuco post too, so scroll down for those.

Friday

Lots of good things to recount lately...

Today was slightly warmer (!) and instead of class we went to La sebastiana (the second of Pablo Neruda´s three houses) and then to El museo cielo abierto, which is a neighborhood converted into a ´museum´of murals and brightly painted houses. The views were gorgeous and I took lots of pictures.

The other night I went out to a jazz club ´with a couple of friends who live nearby. It was a great atmosphere--break walls covered in old posters, dimmed lights, little tables of people drinking and talking, and of course a live band that sounded really good to my uneducated ears. We walked back to Plaza O´higgins late at night and even then it felt safe, with loads of people out. The city is really beautiful at night--there are lights covering the hills, and some of the light reflects off the water at the docks so it looks shining too.

We went out to a cute little traditional Chilean restaurant for lunch. It was hard to figure out the menu, and even when I´d managed to order what I wanted, what I got was way to greasy, sweet, and salty for my liking. This seems to be a trend with Chilean food, though my host mom does cook some delicious food. One kid in my program was telling me that his host family puts sugar in their water!

I´m looking forward to the weekend. The week has been really hectic, and if I can find a way of sitting around the house that is un-awkward, that is what I´m going to do.

One Week

So I´ve been in Chile for exactly one week! Actually, a little more than that, almost 8 days. Lots of fun and weird experiences squished into very little time! I would write more about things, but honestly they are moving too quickly : )

Since I´ve had a little time to observe life here, I´ve made a list of interesting things I´ve noticed
-Everyone and everything here has european sounding names that are pronounced with a chilean accent. For example, I live near Plaza O´Higgins. That´s Plah-za Oh-EEEgEEns : )
-The standard way to greet someone, or even meet someone new, is with a kiss on the cheek. Shaking hands is considered very cold.
-Chile is famous for its fish and wines, but no one here consumes them. They´re all for export.
-I´ve never seen so many stray dogs in my life. Every dog seems to have its street corner, and sometimes you´ll see the shop owners throw it a chunk of meat.
-A couple of Chilenismos, or Chilean terms: bacán=great, fome=boring.
-The verb for ´to date´is pololear, and a boyfriend is un pololo. I asked about this strange sounding word, and my host family informed me that a pololo is an insect that lives completely stuck to another pololo. Thus the verb to date: to be an insect that goes everywhere with another of its kind.
-Everyone in my program has been commenting on how obsessed with cleanliness their host moms are. Mine goes into my room while I´m gone, RE-makes my bed, and puts any stray object in a drawer : )
-One of the more popular salads here, and the one you´ll often get if you ask for ´ensalada´(salad) in a restaurant, is a plate of cold canned green beans.

...and the list could go on.

Rabuco

The mountains near Rabuco.



Village women teaching us how to make empanadas.



The owner of a nearby ostrich farm shows us his setup.

Today we went to a really rural area about an hour from Valparaíso called Rabuco to visit a small farm. We broke into small groups and spent all day there, in very beautiful but of course freezing surroundings. We learned how to make empanadas, saw grapes, kiwis, lemons, and mandarin oranges growing, visited green houses of flowers (which they ship to Santiago), had a class on how to dance the national dance of Chile, the Cueca, and had a delicious lunch made by the village women. It was a really fun and exhausting day.

This area really reminds me of home, and its odd to hear the other, mostly midwestern kids oohing and ahhing about the ocean (which looks a lot like the ocean by Pacifica), the coastal mountain range (again, Pacifica), the vineyards (Napa...I thought of Jaime!), the different kinds of plants growing (nearly all of which are familiar to me). For me, its not really that big a switch in terms of the natural landscape, though of course its a tremendous switch in terms of the people and ways of life.

Our bus to go to Rabuco left from Viña del Mar, Valparaíso´s twin city, so for the first time I got to see it. It had lots of beaches, whereas Valparaíso is mostly port. It was also really posh, clean, and quiet...in Valparaíso there is more bustle, chaos, garbage, fish venders, etc, which gives it a livelier feel.

Freezing

Well, I have the host family of my dreams, the city is beautiful, I like all the other american students, have become friends with some of them...everything is perfect except that I am freezing! They don´t heat the houses and I´m guessing its somewhere in the 40´s with high humidity right now as I sit in the house, shivering under my multiple pairs of long underwear, shirts, and wool sweaters, etc. This is going to take some getting used to : ) We went to visit a sister of my host mom´s last night, and she is apparently very rich. Her house was huge, beautifully decorated, etc....but no heat! Wouldn´t you think if you were really rich at least you´d pay for heating!

My host mom is retired and now just stays at home, cooks, cleans fanatically, and attends hairdresser classes every afternoon from 3-6. She kind of looks like Elvira and is very nice. Her husbad died almost one year ago exactly, and I think that the family´s decision to start having host students was an effort to make the house seem fuller and more cheerful. My host brother is 23 and is some kind of student in some kind of school. I have a hard time understanding educational stuff because it is such a different system. However, I think he is doing something that has to do with machines, engineering, fixing machines, and business : ) He´s really serious about things (trying to be the man of the house after his father´s death) but also has a silly fun side. One of his hobbies is dressing up like a clown and juggling for people. The older sister, Marjorie, only lives here on the weekends. She´s in her late 20´s and is just moving out, amidst dozens of phone calls a day, hysterical tears, etc. People seem to leave the nest extraordinarily late here!

My room is lovely, with a view of all of Valparaiso. Its especially lovely in the nightime, with all the lights in the hills. I have a bed, a sofa, three little tables here and there, and a wardrobe. The first day here I very, very neatly lined up my shoes (in a out of sight way) underneath the sofa, but my host mom was very upset by this (she´s a neat freak ; ) so she got me a little shoe container too. Heh.

Well, that´s all for now. If anyone reading this ever decides to go to Chile in the winter....bring TONS of warm clothes!!!

Valparaíso

Well, we got to Valparaíso yesterday morning and since then things have been great. My house family is really nice and their house comfortable. The city is beautiful and colorful.

I was going to send emails, but I´m using the computer at my host family´s house, they´re out, and I can´t figure out how to make the àt´sign...lame I know. But they have monthly internet, a microfone, and a webcam, so I am set!

My number here is --------. The 56 is the country code and the 32 is the city code. I´m really not sure how calling from the US works, but hopefully you can figure it out from the information.

I´ll write more tomorrow, but I want to spend my first full day here doing things and not sitting glued to the computer screen : )

Pictures of Santiago

This is a picture of the Santiago skyscrapers and the Cordillera (mountains) from La Chascona, one of Pablo Neruda's houses.






This is me on one of the patios at La Chascona. It was very cold!

Host Family

Today I was given a sheet with some information about my host family, who I'll meet tomorrow.Here is the list of people and their family description:

Mother: Erika Olguin, retired, at home mom, 56 yrs old
Daughter: Marjorie Olsen, Biochemist, 27 yrs old
Son: Christian Olsen, Auto mechanic, 23 yrs old

"Family that has travelled a lot, and are excited by the idea of a reciprocal learning experience. They like the outdoor life, especially in the summertime. Christian plays soccer and juggles. The grandmother, aunt, and neighbor often stop by to visit."

They live in Valparaiso (suprisingly, most of the families don't) at Avenida Uruguay between Victoria and Independencia. My guess is that this neighborhood is less upscale than neighboring Viña del Mar, but the advantage is that it will be only a 4 block walk to the university.

Santiago

Well maybe I was a little too hard on Santiago in my last post. It IS true that all the buildings are concrete and everyone wears black though. But on a sunny day like today it is much more inviting. I got a whole 13 hours of sleep last night, which made a difference too.

This morning we went to the Museo Chileno Pre-Colombino, which was pretty neat. An architect who collected pre-columbian artifacts donated them along with his house to the state, who then turned it into a museum. We had a tour guide for the first hour we were there. She explained the most important pieces. Here are some of the ones I found most interesting:

-the "Quipu," an Incan method for counting. We saw one that looked like an enormous woven, beaded necklace. Certain boys were brought up from infancy and trained especially to use this intricate counter that contained information on crops, population, trade, taxation, etc.
-A musical instrument designed to sound exactly like a bird singing. It was made from two pots that were connected by a thin tube. You then put different temperatures/amounts of water in and moved the pots from side to side, and it made a beautiful sound.
-Statues from the Macchu Picchu of stocky little clay people. Each person had one puffy cheek, and the guide explained that this represented the wad of coca they were chewing. Chewing the coca leaves (something like the equivalent of drinking very strong coffee) is one of the only ways they can survive at such a high altitude.

We also went briefly (too briefly!) into an exhibit on Colombian gold. The lights were dimmed and the walls painted black, so that when you went in all you saw was glowing, huge, intricate carved gold. My favorite was a nearly foot-long carved gold crocodile...it was beautiful.

We went to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch today that had slightly boring--but at least edible!-- food. After lunch I went wandering with three other people. We ventured into the metro system and after looking pathetically lost and touristy eventually made our way to Cerro Santa Lucia. Its a big hill with terraced walkways and gardens that leads to a view of the enormous mountains that surround Santiago and the city itself, in all of its smoggy glory.

Made it!

I'm writing this from Santiago. It was a long flight--on the SFO to Miami leg I had to sit next to a demented Celia Cruz look-a-like who spilt her rum and cokes on me not once, but twice. Its a relief to finally be here. The other people on the program are great so far, and its exciting to be meeting so many of them at once! Santiago is about how I expected: grim and sterile. Its cold, rainy, dark, people only wear black, and all the buildings are made of concrete. I'm really looking forward to getting to Valparaiso!

Information

I've spent my last days at home sitting around, eating loads of cookies, and talking on the phone ; ) Oh and I saw Jaime and LA today, which was fun. I'm basically packed and despite lots of emotional ups and downs am excited to go.

Here's some information in case anyone was wondering.

July 14-16 Orientation in Santiago
July 17 Move to Valparaíso, meet host families
July 17-29 Orientation in Valparaíso
August 3 Classes start
November 26 Classes end
November 28-December 9 Exams
December 9-19 Travel in Chile with parents
December 20: Arrive home

Last weekend home...

Well today was pretty fun. First, we had a nice relaxing morning with Gody Kris and Uncle Mark. Then Mama, Gody Kris and I went shopping (!) I know, its hard to believe that any Tanttila family excursion would involve either pretty clothes or spending money, but today it actually did. We all got new shoes. I got two pairs: one little red, and dressy, the other yellow and orange retro looking tennis shoes. Anyways, wearing these little red shoes around everywhere made my day. Its sad how spending money improves your mood in just about a snap of the fingers.

Dylan and I figured out how to do this thing called Voice Over IP, which is like talking online on the telephone. All you need is ichat and a computer with both speakers and a microphone (which mine has built in) and voila! free long-distance. Its super easy and the quality is kind of like a cell phone. There's no lag time. This will be a great thing for when I'm in Chile.

I went to Lee Anne's birthday/housewarming party tonight and had a great time. I didn't know many people but as it turns out I liked everyone a lot, and just the experience of being around new people was extremely refreshing. Grinnell is so small that I feel like I know everyone--of course, this isn't totally true, but still. It was also fun to meet people that I'd heard a lot about from LA. As I shook each of their hands, I was thinking, "Oh if only you KNEW what gossip I've heard about you!!" ; )

Photos

At the zoo: Daddy, Chand, Auntie Shelly, Mama, Lea, Naomi




View of the city from Nob Hill/Grace Cathedral




Sam, Dylan, me.





This is Dylan and me at Donner Pass 6/05.

Good News

I got my Chilean VISA! It took hours and hours, so long that I was afraid that I would never really get it. The woman who manages the consulate, Amelia Campos, is quite the character. As I was waiting endlessly, I had plenty of chance to observe her, and it really amused me and in a way endeared her to me watching how quickly she changed tempers--one minute yelling at someone until they shook, the next minute baby-talking on the phone to her grand-daughter, the next trying to flirt with the delivery man (unfortunately, I was the one she yelled at until they shook! : ) . When she was in the last stages of stamping my paperwork I had this fear that a masked man in a black cape was going to run into the office, steal all of my files and the paperwork, and then I would have to start all over again!! But as I've said everything did work out, somehow or other!

The other good news is that my computer is finally fixed. Now that I have os x I can put all kinds of nice things like iphoto 5 on it. I've been playing with my photos all afternoon. Hopefully soon I'll learn how to post some of them on this blog.

Gody Kris and Mark got here this afternoon. There have been 10 people staying with us in the past 2 weeks! Every time people leave and we have to wash all the bedding and clean again, I feel really burned out. But then when the next people come I'm just really excited to see them. Moral of the story: people leaving is awful, arriving is fun.

I'm excited to see Lee Anne, Rudraigh, and maybe Jaime tomorrow...

Santa Cruz

Today was Auntie Shelly and the kids' last day here, so we went down to Santa Cruz with them and Auntie Uusi. It was beautiful, sunny, warm, summery down there, all the things that Pacifica is not. I'm trying to get as much sunshine as I can before I go down to Chile and its the middle of winter. Anyways, we went to this great bakery and spent a lot of time talking and eating delicious things. Afterwards, the Worobs headed back to Arizona and Auntie Uusi, Mama and I enjoyed the long, windy, beautiful drive back home along highway 1. As we got further and further north and closer to Pacifica, we could see this huge, menacing fog bank waiting for us. It looked so cold and awful it was like another world! Anyways, we stopped at Duarte's in Pescadero for some of their great artichoke soup and artichoke raviolis...yummm.

I've been talking on the phone to Dylan a lot appreciating being able to do that even, before going to Chile where staying in touch will be taken to a whole new level of difficulty. I was amused when Chand asked in a puzzled, disaspproving way, "Do you ALways talk on the phone this much?" : ) The answer: no, just when I'm going to be out of the country for the next six months!

I spent hours yesterday reading this kind of boring, poorly written blog about a girl at the CIEE program in Santiago. Obviously it wasn't the most interesting reading, but I liked it because it gave me a bit more of an idea of what to expect...knowing (SOMEWHAT!) what to expect is way important for someone like me!

4th of July

Yesterday I took my computer to the apple store downtown to have them look at it, since I'd been thinking that something wasn't quite right, and Dylan had been convinced that it was completely broken. As it turned out, Dylan was right, and it has something called a "key error" in the hard drive, meaning that the hard drive has to be wiped out and made again. At first, the person at the apple helpdesk was afraid that I wouldn't be able to get my files--pictures, music, papers from school--off of the computer, even, but as it turned out we were able to, which was a big relief. I spent 3 hours at the help desk and didn't even get everything done. I'll probably go back on Wednesday to get it finished up, because its the kind of complicated and permanent computer stuff that I don't trust myself to do.

We went to the zoo today with the Worobs. I took tons of pictures but I doubt that any of them came out well. Being at the zoo brings back lots of good memories of going there when I was little, except that back then the highlight would always be seeing the slow loris, my favorite animal, and now unfortunately the SF zoo doesn't have one. One cool thing that we saw was the tigers eating their lunch. It was really upclose and everything about them was enormous and frighteningly beautiful. They were fed dead white rabbits, and while at first I was fascinated, after maybe ten minutes it got so gory that I decided to move on.

I went to buy fireworks today at the stand down the street. You have to be 18 to buy them, but I didn't realize this when I left the house, so I didn't bring my ID. The woman at the counter let about 5 kids who looked like they were freshmen in highschool buy them, but then when she got to me of course she asked for my ID, saying "Kid, you look like you're WAY under 18." I promptly went home and burst into tears. Now, I don't care if the woman cards me; she has every right and even a responsibility to do that. But she didn't need to add that damn "WAY under 18." That's just so mean. It sucks when you're 20 and even the stupid woman at the firework stand thinks you're 14, and no one seems to take you seriously.

10 Days

So, its exactly 10 days until I leave for Chile. Its really hard for me to believe! I feel excited but also painfully unprepared, though I'm not sure there's anything more I can do to prepare before I go...just try to be independent and happy and flexible when I get there.

Although I started out writing about my trip, I've been much more invested in what's going on right now than thinking about it. Like Dylan was here for two weeks, and now that he's gone, the Worobs are here.

It was wonderful having Dylan here. So incredibly wonderful that now life seems awfully bland and lonely. All in all, combination of person you love, summertime, complete relaxation, and a beautiful city is amazing. We spent the first few days alone in Pacifica, watching lots of movies, catching up on everything, cooking, and just relaxing. Then we went with Dylan's brother Sam to the Sierra, where we met Auntie Margie and Uncle Fred for some hiking near Donner Pass. Then, this week was pretty crazy, slightly stressful but mostly just fun spending time with Dylan's brother Sam and sister Maggie in San Francisco. We walked all over the place and went out to eat in just about every kind of ethnic restaurant you can think of...I'm now completely sick of all restaurant food!

Dylan was supposed to leave on Thursday, but when we got to the airport we found the United ticket counter in chaos with his flight so delayed that he would miss his connection. Since spending the night in the Denver airport sounded bleak and because I was desperately wishing he would stay longer anyways, we decided he'd stay until Saturday early morning. Having to go through process of getting upset and saying a traumatic goodbye TWICE wasn't the best, but the extra day and a half made it worth it.

Right now Auntie Shelly, Chand, Lea, and Naomi are here. Its fun having them around, and the good company, touristy activities, and added bustle has made the day go by quickly. Now, just 10 days until Chile, 364 days until I see Dylan again, and something like 800 until I finish Grinnell. My life feels like its going by so quickly and so slowly at the same time. It is the strangest thing.