My neighborhood

Today I definitely woke up on the wrong side of bed. After a gloomy morning, I decided I needed to do something to fix that. All in all I've been trying to be more independent and to use my time in ways that make me glad to be here. After all the main reason I'm here, other than wanting to become fluent in Spanish, is to have the challenge of an enormous change in my life. I hate change, so I figure this is good for me. So anyways I decided to go out for a long walk around my neighborhood instead of moping which was what I felt like doing. It was a beautiful day...the first sunshine we've had in a long time. I brought my camera along and took quite few pictures. I really love walking around with the purpose of taking pictures, because I find I notice and appreciate so many more things. I took pictures of bakeries, bridal shops, antique stores, and hardware stores. I went in to two churches and by four parks. It was great.

Here are the pictures of the Plaza O'higgins and Calle Uruguay, where I live. They're actually some of the least pretty of the pictures I took. But I want to post them so you can see what its like. As soon as I walk out the huge metal gate from our appartment building (the blue building on the left in the first picture) I'm out in this mess. Its really noisy and energizing.

Lluvia

Its been raining so, so hard here. Its beautiful, in a damp, chilly way. I've gone out walking in the rain and gotten soaked and muddy so many times that I've gone through about 4 times as many clothes as I should have this weekend. Yesterday I walked an hour in the pouring rain to get my favorite kind of chocolate. Probably not many people would do that. But the walk was lovely and the chocolate was incredible (I say WAS incredible because unfortunately its gone already).

Santiago is completely flooded and Marjorie is so glad that she's here (her foot's broken so she's off work for three weeks) instead of there in the chaos and muddy water. They've been showing it on tv, and it looks awful. Lots of the poorer families lost their houses and things. The minister of education has said that there's school as usual tomorrow, but I can't imagine kids going anywhere with lots of areas three feet deep in water and many of the schools being used to house families who were evacuated from the flooded areas.

I had a fun time last night. I went first to a vegetarian/vegan supper/party thing with Kristin, Carla, and Mariah. The people there seemed really cool and I liked the atmosphere. We just talked the four of us, had some amusing conversations, and had a soycheese pizza ("Soycheese....it even melts!"). Dylan would have loved it ; ) Afterwards we walked to Plaza Aníbal Pinto to go to the mosaic bar, "Ritual." We had kiwi and pisco drinks, which were suprisingly delicious for being as strong as they were, and then walked home. Kristin, Carla, and Mariah had a lot to do today, so they left to take transportation back to Viña and go to bed. I wasn't really sure what to do but then Christian invited me to hang out with him and his friends. We drank beer in Christian's room and talked until 4 in the morning. We talked about politics, Bush, socialism, gay marriage, machismo, environmentalism, friends, drinking stories, and hookup stories. You can kind of see a progression from intelligent topics to more drunken topics as the night went on. I had a great time. I don't think I'd laughed so hard since I got here.

Today Erika and Tío are visiting the abuela. So Marjorie, me, and a hungover Christian are just hanging out in the house, snacking and watching the rain in comfortable silence. How did I get such a cool host family.

I'm really looking forward to my reall family getting back from Santa Barbara tonight so I can actually talk to them. Its been a while!

The gaudy and the beautiful...

Photos from the Bandalismo concert






Luis, Marjorie, Me.

Walk to Playa Ancha

My boat!


Friendly scuba guy.


Such beautiful water...


The Oceanography school.

Machuca

I just watched this movie with a couple of friends and it was amazingly good. I would recommend it without any reservations. Its one of those heartbreakingly bittersweet, intelligent, beautiful movies that sticks with you for a long time after you see it. I won't tell you too much about it because you should see it! But I will say that its about friendship across class divisions in Chile in the 1970's, during the transition period from Allende to Pinochet. One of my favorite things in the movie was a huge wall that the kids would ride their bikes by on the way to school. First, a sign was painted on the wall saying "No to civil war." The next time you see the wall, the "no" has been erased. And when you see the wall after Pinochet is in power, everything has been painted over and the wall is gray and blank. To me this is a perfect picture of that period in Chilean history: conflict, more conflict, and finally, under Pinochet, a haunting oblivion. The Pinochet military officers, having killed off the boys' (Jesuit) headmaster, tell them "We do not think of these things any longer." How terrifying that philosophy is.

Like I've said before, its bizarre to me to think that just 15 years ago Chile was ruled by a military government infamous for its human rights abuses. I keep trying to stretch my mind around that idea.

Weekend

Honestly the best thing about having a long, crappy, boring week at school is the amaaaaaaazing feeling of finally making it to the weekend. That was my feeling when I got up this morning. To celebrate my four day weekend I put on my "fun stuff" mix from Jaime : )

My favorite health-conscious person (Dylan!) might not want to hear this, but I had the most delicious junk food today. I went out for American-style pizza with Mariah, Jessica, and Carla. The company was lovely, and the pizza fantastic: hot, salty, cheesy, covered in black olives. Yummm. Then we all had icecream. I'm still full from lunch and Erika is cooking one of her big weekend meals.

Its so strange to think of everyone getting back to Grinnell this weekend. The thought of the cornfields, moving back in in the humid heat, the parties, French House...it all makes me nostalgic, but from a distance. I'm really glad that I'm not doing all that right now. Grinnell seems so far away.

I tried Coca today. You can buy it for really cheap in little bags of dried leaves. It kind of tastes like bitter mint or like tea bags. Its really popular here and in the whole Andes region--people chew coca the way they would drink coffee. Its supposed to help you stay alert, to settle your stomach, and to help with altitude sickness. Marjorie told me that they sell huge amounts of it to tourists to Macchu Picchu, who without it would be too sick to do anything.

Chile played Peru in a really hyped-up soccer game a few nights ago. I watched some of it and it was pretty exciting, though Chile lost. The Peruvian players were huge and dark, and the Chileans really little and light, on average a foot and a half shorter, it was kind of cute and sad. Well at least I learned a lot of swear words from the frustrated Chileans I was watching it with. And from watching the spectators on TV I learned the Chilean version of 'the wave'. How it works is that someone shouts, "He who doesn't stand is Pinochet!" And then everyone jumps up!

La gringa

Being here has changed my perspective on so many things, most of all on foreign-ness. Its always been a goal of mine to live in various cities around the US and around the world, while I was young and didn't have too many roots put down. But I have so many roots already, and while I still intend to travel and live around the world, I think this is going to be a lot harder than I imagined, just because its so lonely! I knew zero Chileans when I arrived in Santiago, and after being here a month I know about 20. That isn't very many, and the ones I know I don't know very well. I'm often tempted to walk up to friendly-looking strangers and say to them "I know almost no one in this country. Do you want to be my friend?"

Its so much easier being an 'immigrant' here than in the US, I imagine. There's so much prejudice towards immigrants in the US. In my experience, Americans feel self-congratulatory for having even a neutral attitude towards foreigners, and most don't go out of their way to help someone out. I remember having an old Russian man come up to me on the street in San Francisco asking for directions. I didn't know any Russian at that time so though I was friendly, I just vaguely pointed him in the right direction and let him try to figure out the rest himself. Here in Chile, I've been lost so many times and had to ask for directions. I wish that more people would say, "Oh, its just a few blocks from here, let me walk you there," and go out of their way a bit. Like that Russian guy probably had no idea what directions I was giving him, and probably had to ask another 10 people before he finally got where he was going, if he even found it at all.

So while people are nicer to me than I imagine Americans are to Chilean (for example) immigrants, let's just say that you can never do enough to help out someone who doesn't speak the language, doesn't know anyone, and has NO idea what's going on.

On my walk home from school today I saw:
-horsedrawn carts of vegetables
-16 feral dogs (I counted)
-two foot long cellery and pumkins the size of small children
-a protest that blocked off the entire square
-San Francisco quality fog

I love this view so much....

La Bandalismo

I just realized that I forgot to write about one of the funnest parts of my weekend! And a part that I think Shelly and Dave would like to hear about. On Friday, I went with Marjorie, Christian, Luis and Sebastian to hear a band called La Bandalismo. They play Chilean folk music from the Andes and from the Atacama desert region in Northern Chile. We got into the concert for free, which was cool, and found some empty seats behind a couple of old ladies. The concert was in Valparaiso's municipal theater, which is an elegant old building complete with red velvet seats and red velvet curtains on stage. I had no expectations whatsoever about the concert, but I was still completely surprised when without any kind of introduction the band started playing and dozens of dancers came out on stage. They were dancing to simulate the Fiesta de San Pedro de Atacama, in which thousands of Atacameños wear outlandish clothes and masks and dance in the street for days in religious and cultural fervor. The music was loud, brassy, and incredibly fun to listen to. There were lots of drums, Andean flutes, and whistles. It was so wild and happy that it made me wonder why I ever listen to whiny American crap. The audience was going crazy and everyone left their seats to dance salsa in the aisles. The band had heard that it was a little girl in the audience's birthday, so they had her come up on stage and dance salsa to to one of the songs, which was incredibly cute. I danced salsa too, and no one laughed at me (!)

When I was looking up more information about Chilean music online I found this website. If you click on the names of the towns on the map, music from that region plays. See if it works for you guys. I thought it was pretty cool. The Valparaiso song is really famous, and beautiful, I think.

History

When I see how modern, beautiful, and European Chile is, its hard to grasp that fifteen years ago, from 1973 to 1990, it was controlled by a brutally repressive military government. In my experience, people don't really talk about this, which makes it eerily easy to forget. I've had two conversations this week that have opened my eyes in this respect. First, with Erika, who over breakfast described how men in her conservative, quiet family were given electric shock to their bodies and genitals for supposedly being radicals. Second, with the man next to me on the bus today. When he told me that he "was forced to leave Chile 30 years ago," I stupidly had to ask why. Again, he was tortured. Apparently the heavily-fenced military police compound that I go by on my way to Oceanography class was one of Pinochet's infamous detention centers.

My major homework assignment for Wednesday is reading 300 pages of "History of Chile," about the last century. Its suprisingly interesting, though some of the pages I have to read twice or three times to have any idea what they're talking about. And the classes I took at Urban, like "America Transformed" really help me: the story of industrialization, urbanization, and the ensuing social problems is suprisingly similar, no matter which part of the world you're focussing on.

My planned trip to Argentina did not go well, or rather did not go at all. Just when we were in sigh of the BEAUTIFUL, cold, rugged Andes the bus driver got the message that the pass was closed because of all the snow. Arghh! I was so, so disappointed. At least I had a fun time with the girls I was going with. Disappointment is good for bonding.

My cold persists. Every time I either blow my nose or sniffle (I've been alternating...usually ever 30 seconds) someone makes a sympathetic comment, "Ayyyyyyyyy La Juuuuuulia!" Its rather embarassing being this contagious and snotty! I need to go lock myself up in my room and stop disgusting the houseguests ; ) Perhaps its a good thing that I'm 'home' instead of in Mendoza after all.

Friday the 12th

This is my first time having a winter cold in August. Hah.

And tomorrow will be my first time in Argentina! I'm going to Mendoza for Saturday through Monday. I'm thrilled...it sounds so, so beautiful. I was going to leave early this morning, but with the cold thing I thought it would be better to give myself a day of rest. Plus I have 300 pages of exceptionally dry reading to do for next Wednesday.

Mama reminded me that I still hadn't put up a picture of Marjorie and Hector. Aren't they funny and cute? She's tiny and loud and he's huge and quiet. Erika's constantly talking to me about the chances of them getting married. Its a kind of obsession of hers, which I find bizarre given that they've only been dating for 4 months! They do seem really happy together though, so who knows.

Language

In my how-to-teach-ESL class we're learning about this theory of language learning called Interlanguage. This linguist Selinker developed Interlanguage in 1972 after noticing that a large percentage of the mistakes that second languages learners make have nothing to do with either their native language and sometimes not even with the language they are trying to learn. For example, if you're trying to teach Spanish to a Korean, a Russian and an American, some of the mistakes they make will be similar, and even the ones that aren't similar won't necessarily have to do with Korean, Russian, or English. So Interlanguage is the name for the continuum that you go through as you come closer and closer to mastering your target language.

Only 5% of second language learners achieve mastery, aka not being able to tell them apart from a native speaker. So a full 95% don't make it...I find that pretty depressing! And according to the theory of Interlanguage, what determines whether or not you are able to master a second language depends on whether you have not just a "latent psychological structure" but also a "latent language structure." What I think this means is that you could have a class of very advanced Spanish learners, for example, and some of your students would keep getting better but a lot of them would just reach a standstill. This "fossilization" happens because your brain just isn't able to move beyond your first language, and is always trying to transfer the structures of the first language over onto any new language you learn. So, some people "fossilize" and others don't, and I don't think there's a theory for why.

I wonder how well I'll ever speak Spanish...

Salsa

Last night I went with Mariah, Rob, and Elizabeth to a salsa class at Santa María University. We had some trouble getting there (the story of my life)...but we eventually made it. It was down in this little basement room, packed with people, all Chilean except for us. I really don't know why a lot of the people were in a class of how to LEARN salsa, because they were so incredibly good! So, while everyone else was doing this crazy spins and jumps around and coordinated moves, I was practicing the basic steps, which go like this.
Beat, What You Do
1 Transfer weight onto right foot
2 Step forward on left foot
3 Rock back onto right foot
4 Bring left foot back, without weight transfer
1 Transfer weight onto left foot
2 Step back on right foot
3 Rock forward onto left foot
4 Bring right foot forward, without weight transfer
Hmm well written out it doesn't look that hard. But it is, trust me lol. Especially when the music has all these crazy beats, you've supposed to move your hips in this special suave way, and everyone around you has been dancing like this since they could walk!!! Anyways, I had lots of fun despite my clumsiness and I'm definitely going to keep going to the class. Maybe by the end of the semester I'll be good at it, who knows!

When I got back last night, Christian and Erika wanted to hear all about it. I explained how hard it was and showed them the steps I'd learned. They just burst out laughing. Heh. In general they've been having a blast making fun of me...like how I wear at least three sweaters inside. How I can't dance. Oh and Sunday they all came up with a trick to play on me at the FleaMarket. Apparently there are these little wooden indians that are part of this practical joke that all Chileans know. Anyways, you get some unsuspecting person (me) to go up to them, tell the person to pick them up. And then when you pick them up a pair of wooden legs fall down (they were inside the torso) and a big penis jumps out at you. Of course when this happened I jumped, screetched, and dropped it the statue..and everyone around looked over at me and just started laughing lol.

On a different note, I had the most wonderful evening. It started out in a bad way: I tried to go to my history class in Viña and got way, way lost. It was incredibly stressful and I felt very incompetent and dishearted. Somehow I made it to where I could see the ocean, and then I had the idea to try to walk home just going South/South West. I ended up walking for nearly three hours along the ocean. Being alone, walking along the ocean at sunset, in a strange city, along streets I'd never been before...it was so beautiful and peaceful I didn't want to ever get where I was going!

Travelling

Well, I've been working on my globalization project on crime in Chile. I think its going to be very interesting and challenging. Kristin and I have been writing questions to use in our interviews. Hopefully we can get some good resources and contacts.

Dylan got back this weekend...now I have someone to talk to again! Yay : ) I got internet in my room finally, so I spent part of the morning lying in bed, eating chocolate, and talking to him. Such a nice and relaxing way to start the day.

So, I've been here nearly one month already! Its pretty incredible that's its been that long. It seems like yesterday when I was reluctantly filling out the forms to apply to CIEE. At that point I was still doubting that I would come here. But here I am!

In honor of that, I've made a list of the places I hope to see in Chile before I leave. Some of them are just wishes, but hopefully I will make it to most of them:

LA SERENA: "Peaceful most of the year, La Serena is a trendy beach resort in summer. Founded in 1544, the city sports a good deal of interesting architecture: some of it is orginal colonial (this is Chile's second oldest city." Besides its beaches, La Serena has numerous attractions in the surrounding countryside, including quaint villages, such as Vicuña (home to Nobel Prize-winning poet Gabriela Mistral) with nearby vineyards, and several international astronomical observatories, which take advantage of the region's exceptional atmospheric conditions and dark skies"

PARQUE NACIONAL PUYEHUE: "Situated in the beautiful Lake District, this is Chile's most popular national park. It preserves 107,000ha (264,290ac) of verdant montane forest and starkly awesome volcanic scenery. Dense forest hides puma, the rare pudú (a miniature deer) and prolific bird life, including the Chilean torrent duck. Nature trails, lake views, ski resorts, thermal springs, waterfalls and examples of some of Chile's strange plant life, in particular the umbrella-leaved nalca and multi-trunked ulmo, are some of the many attractions which draw visitors."

CHILOE: "Only 180km (112mi) long and 50km (31mi) wide, the Isla Grande de Chiloé is a well-watered, densely forested island of undulating hills, with a temperate maritime climate. Its towns feature distinctive shingled houses and stilt homes, and its weather is known for precipitation and fog. When visible, however, a majestic panorama across the gulf to the snow-capped volcanoes of the mainland are revealed. Ancud and Castro are the only two sizeable towns, but there are over 150 picturesque wooden churches servicing the island's small villages. Parque Nacional Chiloé protects extensive stands of native coniferous and evergreen forest and a long, pristine coastline. The rare pudú also lives here."

MENDOZA, ARGENTINA: "Mendoza is in northwestern Argentina and the gateway to the high Andes and the Chilean border at Aconcagua National Park, at over 21,000 feet hosting the highest peaks on the South American continent. The city is light years away from the capital. It is very clean, quiet with mature trees everywhere and a wonderful city centre. The city and province is based both on internal tourism and its wineries in the foothills of the snow-capped mountains. The vineyards were started by Italian immigrants in the 19th century and the city boasts many bodegas with visits to nearby rural wineries possible. Out of town, there are van tours to the Altas Montanas: the ski area and Inca ruins."

SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA: "The charming village of San Pedro de Atacama, located at 2,450 meters above sea level, near the north side of the great salt deposit of Atacama (the biggest of the country), is perhaps one of the places in Chile which offers the widest number of attractions.The village is located in one of the many oasis originated by the ‘Bolivian winter’, in the driest desert of the world: the Atacama Desert. That’s why it is even more incredible to find, in the middle of it, a place with really exuberating vegetation, formed by chañar trees, carob trees, and capsicums.The majestic and mystic volcano Licancabur (5,916 meters above sea level) is in front of the village, only 40 kilometers away. The name means ‘village hill’, and it was venerated by the Incas, who carried out ceremonies and left offerings in the crater of its top. The mysterious Valley of the Moon is only 15 kilometers away. As its name indicates, the form and colors of the rocks give the landscape a lunar look. Watching the sunset from this place, gazing how the light varies the colors of the volcanoes, which can be seen far away, towards a bright red, transforms this spectacle into an incredible and overwhelming experience.The great geological activity of the area has not only created the volcanoes, but also the remarkable Geysers del Tatio (4,200 meters high). To observe the geysers at full, the best time of the day to get there is at dawn, so it is recommended to leave San Pedro at 5:30 a.m., to get to ‘Tatio’ at 7 a.m. Some geysers reach up to 3 – 4 meters high. The thermal waters near the geysers allow you to enjoy a wonderful thermal bath, while watching the dawn. The water temperature may reach up to 54 degrees Celsius.

PARQUE NACIONAL TORRES DEL PAINE: "Near Chile's fragmented southern tip, this park is Chile's showpiece: a world biosphere reserve with all the diverse scenery of Alaska in only 180,000ha (444,600ac). The Torres del Paine are spectacular granite pillars which soar almost vertically for more than 2000m (6560ft) above the Patagonian steppe. Cascading waterfalls, sprawling glaciers, dense forests, and the chance to see Patagonian guanaco make it a truly awesome experience."

!!!!!!

Saturday in Santiago

Well I think I'll write about my time in Santiago yesterday. Today has been kind of slow and lonely, so I need to think about yesterday and get cheered up by how much fun I had.

So, I went with Kristin, David (both from Grinnell), Mariah, and Jessica (both from Lewis and Clark). We left early, at 8:40. Now I don't know WHOSE idea it was to leave that early, but I have to say that a) either they are a very energetic person, or b) they don't appreciate sleep nearly enough. Heh. It was ok though, cause as soon as I got on the bus, instead of falling asleep as I'd expected, I started talking to Kristin about everything we were going to see, I got out my beloved Lonely Planet, and soon I was planning all sorts of fun things : )

Santiago was crazy, just packed with people. Today is Children's Day, and even yesterday there were clowns, balloons, candy vendors, etc., everywhere. Oh, and men with llamas in indigenous dress (the llamas, not the men). People pay the men to get a picture taken of their little kid sitting on top of the llamas. I've seen some vicious llamas before, but these were really tame and, I have to say, incredibly cute. On one street corner there was this really ridiculous band playing, and all the guys had on neon green and black outfits. It was so bizarre. The whole city was like that, in my view...grim but frankly bizarre.

After an interesting but very hungry stop at the Museo de artes precolombinos we walked out to Recoleto, the arab neighborhood and managed to find a great Middle Eastern restaurant called Omar's. I ordered "fattouch"--a yougurt, tomato, onion and cucumber salad--and falafel. It was so delicious. After eating fairly bland food for weeks now my taste buds were going crazy.

So here are a couple pictures from the day....



Cerro Santa Lucía.




Me at the top of Cerro of Santa Lucía.



La catedral metrpolitana.



La moneda (where the president works).



Me in front of La moneda. The pink sky isn't the sunset...its pollution!

Odds and ends

Well, my first (very, very easy) week of classes is over. I dont' know if you can even call it a first week of classes, because it was just two days. Two days of getting up early though! Tomorrow, Santiago with Kristin and some other people.

Here's my class schedule:
Tuesday
8:15-9:45 Processes of learning a foreign language (basically how to teach ESL)
11:45-13:15 Oceanography
17:20-18:50 History of the 20th Century seen through Film
Wednesday
14:00-15:30 The Chilean Identity: Challenges of Globalization
15:40-18:50 Chilean Literature
Thursday
8:15-9:45 Processes of learning a foreign language
11:45-1:15 Oceanography
14:00-17:10 The Chilean Identity: Challenges of Globalization

That's right, no classes on either Monday or Friday. Which is great because with those days free I can volunteer, travel, or party.

Speaking, of partying, I went out to this bar on Wednesday night with my host brother and his friends. It was incredibly fun, but of course I stood out like a sore thumb for being a) white and b) lame. Sigh. I really wish I could blend in a little better!!! Anyways, La torre, the place we went, was oozing people and fun. There are so many cheap, loud, crowded, grungy little places blasting dance music like salsa and the new hot thing, "Reggaeton." Two observations: people seem to really, really have fun here. And they dance like crazy...salsa, cumbia, Reggaeton, anything. Its amazing to watch, and maybe (MAYBE) one of these days I'll be able to learn how ; D

I came home from La torre at 4 in the morning with Christian, Luis and Sebastian. The streets were deserted, but they explained to me that this wasn't because it was late, but because it was too EARLY! ...everyone starts leaving the bars and going home around 6, at which point there are plenty of people out on the streets.

Lo cotidiano-"the day-to-day"

After my exciting trip to Pomaire things have settled down. I did some Valpairaíso exploring yesterday with Christian and Erika, saw some of the older, maritime parts of the city, and walked along the beach. Its actually getting a little warmer, and yesterday I was able to go out for two hours wearing no wool sweaters. That's right, no wool sweaters. It was incredible.

Today I got up early for class only to discover that it was cancelled. That's ok though, I need to get in the habit of getting up earlier, because I'm going to have to on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays. Its still pitch black when I get up at 7, and way cold. I have to go out on the balcony to light the hot water heater for my shower, which is tricky and usually takes me at least 3 tries :S I've made a huge pile of dead matches.

Since my class was cancelled, I went to the foreign students' office and signed up to do a "language exchange" which is an informal meeting with a Chilean student where you speak english for half the time and spanish for the other half. I also signed up to volunteer for a program called something like "English opens doors" where you go to schools and teach kids english. Should be fun.

Other than that, I don't have much to report. My life is pretty similar to what its always been--school, plans, chocolate, scrubs, talking on the phone. Trying to stay warm. Taking at least half an hour to get out the door to go anyplace : )

Oh, here is a picture of my room. Mama was asking what it looked like.

Pomaire

Today I went with a couple of friends to a little town North-east of Santiago called Pomaire. It was an adventure since the trip ended up being much longer, more expensive, and more complicated than we'd thought it would be. The bus ride there was beautiful, though. We passed vineyards, cows and chickens, and cowboys riding along the side of the road on horseback. It was rainy and the mountains and fields all had a bluish purplish tinge. We were starving when we finally got to Pomaire so we immediately found a little place to eat. We got the biggest, most delicious empanadas I've ever had and a pitcher of cider. They had a big clay oven outside the restaurant to cook everything on--needless to say it was delicious. After lunch we looked around in the shops, most of which sell either clay pots or woven decorations. I didn't buy anything because I'm in an anti-knick-knack phase, but I probably could have otherwise, since everything was really beautiful. At one place (the middle picture) we watched people finishing up pots by polishing them with stones.

Getting back to Valpo was pretty stressful! We first had to take a bus from Pomaire to Melipilla, a nearby town. Of course we had trouble finding the bus stop though, since all the streets are one way. We knew that the last bus of the day left Melipilla at 7, so we had to make that or else we'd be stuck in the middle of nowhere over night. But when our bus driver dropped us at "the bus terminal" of Melipilla to get our connection bus, we didnt' have much faith that we'd ever be able to get out of there. It was pitch black, no one was around, the supposed terminal was a little shack, and to get there you had to wade through inches of mud! When you're travelling though, a lot of times things that you never thought would work out do...and so we made it back to Valparaíso with no problems.

Its a great feeling coming home--"home"-- after a long but fun day. I had a snack and then talked to Dylan, who's going to the family lake cabin in MN this week.

As for tomorrow, my only plans are sleeping in and then figuring out where my wednesday classes are meeting.