Well much has happened since the last post. So you get a short little summary of the happenings of the past few weeks. So we traveled for our free week by bus to Caldera. We left at 10:45pm Thursday night, then arrived in Caldera the next night, friday at like 11pm. So lots of sleeping on the bus. We were on a double decker bus, top floor. They play movies on the buses and they all are rather violent. The first movie we watched was Taken, and wow was that ever a mood lifter. It is about girls being kidnapped in foreign countries, then the kidnappers addict them to drugs and use them as sex slaves. So in Caldera we stayed in a hostal, we were all in the same room which was nice. Showers here, oh my. I am not a fan. Nor of the toilets. Here you have to pay to use public restrooms. Inconvenient? Yes. But not as bad as being without toilet paper, they do not supply toilet paper in the bathrooms of buisnesses or restaurants. In Caldera we met this interesting lady who had a book of autographs of random people which I don't really understand what the point was. That was an interesting experience. The day after we got to Caldera we walked 5 km to the south to Bahia Inglesa, they have a gorgeous little beach with white sand, called white beach. Ha. We kayaked there for a little while, I was in pants, it was rather chilly. I ate a danky which is like our icecream drumsticks, delicious.
The next day we went to Copiapo, there were more people there. We spent 2 days there. Our 2nd day we went on a tour of the national park, three crosses. We saw desert, the saltiest salt flat in the world, the highest active volcano, a very bright blue lagoon, and flamingos! But they were in the middle of the lagoon. But watching them fly is very interesting with those lanky necks of theirs.
Then we went to La Serena for 2 days. There are beaches there but we didn't go. We went to the center and there is a cute little plaza. Plazas are amazing, I wish we had plazas. They have this street where there is a big walk way in the middle with statues, it is gorgeous. I could live there, if I had to chose a city, that would be the one. So my group was soon to find out that ice cream is my heart, and they were entertained by a little dance like movement I do with my shoulders when I talk about delicious food, such as ice cream. The ice cream here is very good. They have some flavors that we don't and I like them. Rasberries and cream is very good, as well as swiss chocolate. And others that have names I do not know. I could spend quite some time just talking about ice cream but that would be more detail than this summary needs. The second day we were in La Serena we went to Humbolt National Park. There we went on a fishman's boat and they do tours of the islands, there were penguins! We also saw sea lions and dolphins. It was very beautiful, on the way back my face got soaked though. My eyes were stinging from the salt water. We had 5 people in a taxi, not comfy. But on the way back I got shot gun which was wonderful. And we spent quite some time playing 20 questions.
So after La Serena we went to Santiago for their independce day! That was interesting. We stayed in the hostal, Plaza de Armas which is right by that plaza, ha. Took the metro, I love the metro! It is so fast and easy. The metro is the subway. There were some crazy bums. Fireworks off of the roof of a building! Awesome. There was a big concert like thing going on in front of the presidencial palace, we didn't know the songs :/ But it was cool to see, lots of people. I danced with this older man and that was entertaining because I don't know how to dance! Woooo. So we spent the next 3 days in Santiago. We went to a "fonda" which is a lot of food, drinking, rodeo, games, music, people dancing the cueca (the national dance). Ice cream of course! Delicious. We spent a day sight seeing more or less. All the stores were closed because it was a holiday. Well the majority. Not a lot of people in the street. Interesting. It would be cool to see it in its normal state.
So yeah that is it for the travel portion. I am currently doing volunteer work in a girl's high school, which is hard but interesting. I am also doing a converstation thing with this guy named Kevin who is from CA also. It is every tuesday from 5:30-7:00. We talk with chileans, come up with activities and things to do in the conversation group. Other people do it too, but at different hours. It is called American corner. Yesterday I showed them a powerpoint that I made about my life.... my family, where I live, my university, my dorm room, high school dances, sports, dress up days in high school, redding, seasons. That was entertaining and somewhat embarassing, just because they were concentrating on all these pictures and discussing them, but I had fun.
I am going to dance classes on Mondays and Wednesdays which are not really like classes, it is an optional thing, like come if you want to. I am not a good dancer and only dancing an hour a week probably won't yeild results for my dancing skills, but I am trying to get to know some chileans. I am also doing another optional activity thing on Friday's, Shogi! Which is Japanese Chess, and let me tell you it is awesome. Very difficult. But much more entertaining than regular chess. The professor is a profesional player so he plays handicap against me, as well as with the other players. But playing handicap against me he uses just his king and the ponds, and I haven't won yet :( But it is tricky because you know how in chess when you knock someones piece off the board? Well in Shogi that piece becomes yours and you can put it on the board whenever and where ever you want (with a few regulations for ponds). I recommed it.
This weekend my program is going to Pucon (Me and the other americans). And well I have to write an essay for monday and don't have much time to do it this weekend :( So I need to get on that. Hasta luego.
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