6:00- 22:00

Hola!

I left this morning at 6 am, and just got back from a wonderful day skiing in the Andes. Talk about beautiful. The day was beautiful, the scenery was beautiful and the skiing was fantastic. It has been six years since I've been on ski's, so finally when I really started to go... I had a greeaaaat time! A couple things, these mountains do not have any pine trees, so its straight down the mountain. There are a lot more pully lifts than chair lifts, there are less signs saying "caution" "raise the bar now" or "keep ski tips up". Who needs to spend money on signs, when you are already paying your employees. On one of the first runs I took, a man yelled from below "deja la barra!! deja la barra!" which means, lower the bar. A few friends of mine learned to ski in the Andes, and they loved it! I wish you would've seen this scenery, I will put pictures up, but justice will not be served.
We were at the very tip top of a mountain, and looking over, were other mountain tops. The fog that engulfed these mountains amidst the gray clouds, complimented by a glowing blue sky was absolutely amazing. On our way down the mountain, we experienced the sunset, pink clouds, white mountain, Chilean mountain side, textured clouds and alpenglow. Spectacular.
Other than my amazing day today, I've been going to school. I'm taking a "paper making" class... should be, fun. And a biotechnology and bioethics class, it will discuss cloning, human experiments, morality... and things such as this. Should also be fun.
If you have seen all the exchange students at our house, you will know upon arrival to the USA, they do not have a good opinion of it. Its quite interesting the amount of bad information these people are receiving, and absolutely believing. The media leaves a beautiful blond cheerleaders and football players type on the people, one class I was in said, the US did a human experiment on healthy children who were incompetent as humans (genetic disease) then asked why a country that stands for human liberties would do this. I watched a spoof movie today that was ridiculous, and Latin America thinks US is the owner of them. Its quite interesting.
Spanish is hard to learn in a society where I'm surrounded by so much English. But don't worry, my skills in both speaking and listening are getting better. Many people continue to go out of their way to be nice, however, many people don't. Every day is getting warmer, but I still went skiing in August.
Un abrazo
xoxo... Kati

Cultural Activities

Well the weekend is over, and tomorrow I have school at nine in the morning. I hope classes actually start. My friend Natael and I went to the concert the next night. It was nice because there were actual Chilean youngsters, not just gringos, or Chileans who only go to the clubs. Not to mention, the music was very enjoyable. After the concert, a Chilean girl started talking to me on the Micro, she speaks English very well, and I think we will hang out later.
I returned home extremely early in the morning, and got a very limited time of sleep before I took a tour of Valparaiso with my COPA group. We were all stuffed onto a tour bus winding through super tiny streets. I don't know if I told you, but these house are built on hills. Its all up and down. The Chileans either have to walk up the hills every day (which a few of my friends live up hills, I've walked a few myself) or, take ancesores (elevators, almost). A lot of hills are not accessible with cars either. The tour was very entertaining. Despite discovering the streets, we went to a house of Pablo Neruda, took a boat tour (we saw sea lions), took a ride on the ancesors, and walked around in the city. I will definitely be returning to some spots we saw!
My friend Alysha noticed this is like a Doctor Seuss city. The houses are many many colors, and wind up and down ths city in no apparent manner.
Last night I went ot my first "asado" which is a barbecue. A young German girl, enamored with a Chilean man invited us over to her house. Five years ago, this girl studies abroad in Chile and had a crush on her brothers best friend. Despite not speaking German, the friend did a study abroad in Germany. This is where they fell in love. The German girl returned ro Chile with the boyfriend and they live together in his parents house. So, the girl is so kind and friendly. We ate chicken, sausage, and chorripan; a little bread sandwich with sausage in the middle. Like everything in Chile, it was suuuuuper rico ;).

We were going to go to a concert...

Well, last night my good friend Natael convinced me to go to a concert in Valparaiso with her. The plan was to go to the concert and meet up with our other amigas at a club in Valpo. So, it was first and adventure finding the place. We took the wrong bus, and had to ask directions a couple of times. But low and behold, we made it to the venue. We walked up the stairs expecting to be the only white girls in the bar, however, we were surprised to see nobody in the bar. Natael read the information wrong and only the workers and owners were there. We decided to stay for a couple of minutes, and Natael accidentally ordered us a tuna salad. we mixed up aceitunas (olives) for atun (tuna). So, our salad came out with tuna, corn, lettuce, tomatoes and get this, potatoes from a can. The potatoes were not so tasty. Because the employees went out of their way to prepare it, we ate and enjoyed our salad. not too long after we sat down, the bar owner sat down in the room with his friend, and two more people came to join them. Being the outgoing child of my father, we struck up a conversation with them and got invited to sit with them. It was one mans birthday however we just sat at the table and talked about Chileans, economy, government, Obama and McCain... pretty interesting.
Underneath this bar is a pizza restaurant. Despite the Chileans smoking like chimneys, a smell came from the pizza restaurant and everybody was coughing uncontrollably. Natael and I found this the perfect chance to escape.
After this, Natael wanted to go home so I hopped on the bus. Immediately, our other friends called, and after making Australian friends on the bus and paying $1, I exited the micro to meet my other friends and go to a club called "Huevo" (Egg). There was a sea of people, we had fun dancing but it was not what we expected. We exited the club when the club closed. Outside of the club, three food stations were setup. A popular food here is hot dogs with guacamole, mayo, cheese, mustard and ketchup on it. Two stations served these up, and another station fried sopapillas and sold them for 20 cents. My friend Katelynn and I ate a sopapilla and got on the Micro to go home.
I have learned that the micro's are privately owned. So I feel the bus driver owns his micro, and despite paying little tolls while he drives, retains all the money. Sometimes, there is another guy who will well at you to get on the bus, ask where your going and shove you onto his bus. I have no idea what interest he has on getting people onto the bus, but I'm positive its economic. Well the Micro didn't leave until it was stuffed with people. It was about 10 minutes of waiting. But nevertheless, I made it home safe and sound, and I'd call it an enjoyable taste of Chile.
As far as the three classes I'm taking with actual Chilean students, only one started the week school starts. I am the only blonde amongst all the black hair. However, this doesn't bother me.
Next week I will have more to say about school (hopefully) and tonight, I believe I will conquer the concert scene again; I'm positive the band plays tonight!
Un abrazo
xoxo... Kati

By popular demand

Hi,
I finally uploaded some pictures. Click here to view them! http://picasaweb.google.com/ktcrouse2
It is an album page, so check back periodically.
It was a beautiful day but all I did was go to school!
Un abrazo
xoxo... Kati

The weather is out of check everywhere!

I heard about the rain and the snow in Colorado, so I hope you all had another happy Soggy Grass. How about that?! Snow in August, I think Grandpa read a book called that. Haha, you guys get to experience winter in August just like me! On Friday, we experience honestly a typhoon! It rained, and rained, and rained, the entire day long. There is a ditch in the middle of the city which sometimes serves as a parking lot, farmer market grounds and a play place for the birds, but on Friday, it did its job. It took all the rain water to the ocean, and was filled up with rain like a raging river. My parents stared out the window amazed and informed me, if it continued to rain like that soon the water would overflow and this happened one time last year. Lucky for us, the water stayed in the ditch, however, reports came up and all around Vina, Valpo and Renaca houses were flooded in. Our maid didn't come to the House today because the first floor of her building collapsed. Our family friends were telling us about the rain penetrating into their house and I saw in Santiago the rain created a hole in the road. I believe there was a construction project being done but the many vehicles were washed away, and a ditch that they were digging is no longer there. The huge rain storm turned out to be quite the problem!
Despite this problem, my weekend was very nice. I've now met the entire family because both daughters stayed at the house this weekend. Saturday night we had a nice once with a fair amount of people. I thought they were going to stay awake until 4:00 in the morning to see Gonzalez play for the gold. This didn't happen and people dispersed around 1:00 Am. Also, I give applaud Chile for winning the Silver metal in Tennis. Unfortunately, our tennis player was mentally beaten and he lost twice in a row.
On Sunday I went out to see a movie with my friend. It was a Chilean movie called la Buena Vida, and I enjoyed what I understood.
Classes for school started today. I got up and went to class at 9 Am, however to my dismay, i got together with only exchange students and art classes do not start until next week. I don't see where we missed that memo, but the Chileans know something we don't! Haha, welcome to Chile!
Love you!
Un Abrazo
xoxo, Kati

Dia del Nino but more importantly, my birthday!

The past few days have been very entertaining. In short, it was two days dedicated to me! Day of kid and my birthday. I can't understand this day of the kid. All Chilean families walk around the street, giving their kid anything they want. The spoiled little kids get to go to movies on the street, sing on stages, get their face painted and do anything they want to. This is one day where they do no hear no... and its disgusting! hahahha. I even saw a child marking his territory on a tree while waiting for a micro. The streets were so crowded and so was the mall. I can't imagine how many cheese pizza's we would've sold at this festival.
Moving on to Aug. 11, 2008, 20 years since I was born, I fell of sugar mountain. However, the fall wasn't so bad when the beaches caught me. My birthday in Chile was very entertaining. I got up in the morning, at a tasty bowl of fruit, went back to bed and had a very leisurely morning getting ready to go to class at 2. After returning from my Spanish class, my friend Alisha and I went shopping.
We went into this tiny little shop where the shop owner began speaking with us. She was very enthusiastic. Moments later, a lady who lived in New York came in and announced she didn't like black people... and after that, the shop owners daughter came in with a 10 day old baby. Sooo little. The mom and daughter had a fight because the mom drank a beer before the baby came in, and the daughter was afraid that breathing on the baby might intoxicate the little thing. I just laughed. Shortly after this, Alisha told the shop owner it was my birthday, she was very exited, gave me a warm hug and then preceded to give me jewels for my cell phone as a gift.
Other than that, my friend got me chocolate, my mom gave me earrings, my sister some jewelery, I received a little leather box with Chile written on it, and a coin purse from my dad, with a beautiful picture, my name and the date written on it. It is very special. At 7, my friends came over for an "once" or tea time. This was very special, we had cheese, chicken with avocado and tuna sandwiches, sopapilla covered in syrup, fresh tasty hot chocolate, chocolate nut bread, and a delicious strawberry torte. We were stuffed! They sang happy birthday to me, and tried to stick my face in the cake. Thank goodness to my experience in Mexico, they weren't tricky enough. After filling ourselves, my papa brought out green olives and champagne.
It was wonderful to have my friends meet my family, and we enjoyed ourselves all night. As many of my birthdays, it was spent traveling, and will be on I will never forget.
I have to get ready for school now, but I wish you all a spectacular day.
Un abrazo
xoxo... Kati

Fun times at the beach

The past couple of days have been exciting and fun. Beginning with Friday, in the morning I got up early (9:00...) and went to buy some tennis shoes. After this, I took a jog/walk along the beach. Its very entertaining because there are little exercise machines on the beach so, when you are tightening your abs, you can dream about the ocean because you can actually see it. Exercising is kind of like going to the park. After my productive morning, my friends and I walked to a beautiful beach called Reñaca. Here, we ate ice cream, empanadas, and watched the sunset (like always). A man selling Chile towels on the beach chased us, and a few stray dogs came to say hello.
Today, saturaday, I went to the grocery store with my dad. These stores are huge! At one time, child music came on, and mascots 10 feet tall roamed the store. I was scared to death, and my papa and I ran to the wine section, where these scary mascots were not present (haha). After having lunch, I went with my madre and padre to the farmers market. You can get all fruit and vegetables for a very low price; iceberg lettuce is 20 cents! This, was also an experience. They let all the fruit and veggies sit in the open and as you walk through, they yell prices and vegetables at you. Seeing as I'm always up to run e rrends, this was entertaining. I also got to ride in a vehicle, and see where I live from inside the car.
Tonight I went to the mall to do a little shopping. My friend Alisha and I ordered ice cream. You know how I told you the ordering process was interesting? Well... here's what happened. We paid for our food, and got numbers. Alisha and I thought they would call our number when the food was ready. We sat and watched the sign to see when our turn was. Before we knew it our number was skipped. At this point, we had no idea what to do. We stood in front of the icecream case and looked at each other fairly confused. It finally occurred to me what happened. Our number would've been called, we would've told them what we ordered and then we would've finally gotten our food. However, we had to interupt someone, explain what we did, and they had to make a special trip for us. At least we know what to do and next time we will do it better!
Un abrazo
xoxo... Kati

It always makes me laugh

One of the best parts about the experience, is hearing all the embarassing things that happened to all the "gringos". For example, a couple of days ago, in my favorite Micro's, the driver took a sharp turn and I slid right out of the seat! It was really odd at the time, but is fun to laugh at now. My friend Alisha fell asleep on the beach, before she knew it the waves crashed on her and got her all wet. The families are also fun to hear about. Everyone is living a different life, however I find the people to be so much the same. The people always want you to be happy, are worried about your safety, want you to eat more and dress warmer. I have found them to be loving people. The two classes the began in my school (Ponticific Catholic University of Valparaiso, if you didn't know) both have precios teachers. However, they are not perfect. The Chilean people think all gringas can not speak spanish, therefore, in many little stores, I find them speaking english to me. Of course, I correct them but they always seem suprised I can actually speak spanish.
In bakeries, the buying process is disorganized. First, you order what you want, and they give you a slip of paper. The little paper says how much you owe, and you pay your pesos in a differet spot. Just to tell you, the exchange rate is 1 dollar to 500 pesos, however, due to inflation, I don't find things to be much cheaper than the US. Okay, so you pay 1000 pesos for you bread and get a pay receipt. You finally take this receipt and can pick up your order. I just figured this process out tonight!
Tomorrow I believe I am going to walk to a beautiful beach, at least thats what they tell me. Oh and one more thing, if you have any questions please feel free to ask!
Miss you guys
Un abrazo
xoxo... Kati

The Rain Boots

So, on Friday it rained in the city. I was so excited because it gave me a chance to wear out my rain boots. The rain made it difficult to walk on the streets because everyone had an umbrella. It is not uncommon to have the umbrellas bump into each other, I needed to learn how to walk again; but this isn't a bad way to meet someone! Saturday and Sunday my mom and dad went to Santiago to buy little things for "Dia del nino". This stands for day of the kid and is Aug. 10. If I hadn't mentioned before, my mom owns a little Disney store called Dis Planet, her business should do better this month. I always stop by the shop to say hello to her after school.
Speaking of school, this Monday was my first day of class. I went to the Spanish class that the COPA exchange program requires. My teacher is precious and labels herself as "politically incorrect". I expect a lot of debate and an exciting class. My classes with actual Chilean students will begin on Aug. 18th. I still have a lot of time to spend in the city.
The sunset is beautiful right now, wish you all were here!
Un abrazo
xoxo... Kati