Living the life

Hi!
So, the teleton started, and I believe it is like a television drive, however there is shows and concerts all over the country. But, I wouldn't say I have seen a change in anybody, or the feeling. However, I did get handed 2 mil on the micro last night for no reason. So I tried not to take it, but figured I would donate it to the teleton. Anyways, we have had two big dinner in the past two days. It was yummy!
Seeing as they do not celebrate thanksgiving here, I did miss it! But I miss the leftovers even more. However, I do not miss seeing the leftovers for two weeks after thanksgiving, so I hope you eat them all, very quickly. Here, it didn't feel like we were missing much, because the country went on like normal, with no knowledge of thanksgiving. But, we did have or going away dinner for our program. It was a nice dinner, with three courses of drinks (non-alcoholic), appetizers, salad, a main course and as many desserts as you could eat. I am sure we didn't' get drunk on alcohol, but we did get a food high! And everyone was there with there mom's. And the mom's love to gossip, so we had a great time. After the dinner, a lot of the students went out in Valpo, where we all had finished off a great night, however, just like COPA told us, two girl got robbed three different times that night. Chile won't hurt you, but it will rob you blind!
And last night, we decided we would have a rap up dinner for our spanish class. So, the five students went to renaca where our Spanish teacher prepared some food. We ate chips, crackers, peanuts and cheese to start, and for dinner we ate this cheesy, tasty ham lasagna, and for dinner we had a manjar and cream mousse, and a fruit tart! During all this time (8-12:30) we drank pisco sour and red wine! Haha, and we talked and laughed outside on her Patio. It was a wonderful experience. It seems here parties are nice because the host makes her home that of her friends, and neither party feels uptight. It makes for a very relaxed time. And the food was wonderful! My spanish teacher did a lot of traveling, they lived in Russia for an amount of time, and also one day decided to pack up and move to England.
So, as I have preached before, world relationships are such a valuable thing to have. And I know I have family in Chile, as they also have family in the US.
Un abrazo, eat all those leftovers.
xoxo... Kati

Oh Chile...

Hello,

I know it has been a while since I have written so hello, I hope everything is going good. I am using the school computer, so even though I am excited, you can not see the exlamation mark because i can not find it. Anyways, everything in Chile is going well, however I am running into some frustrations with school but only for my two classes purely chilean. First, in my biotechonology course, we have to give group presentations. So, earlier this month during the presentations, the professor missed two weeks of classes. This week, my group thought they had to present, so we met this morning to get together all of the information. Do not ask me why the procrastinated so long, I can not tell you. Anyways, this morning we also discovered we do not present until the 9th of december, when I have travel plans. Well, that means because the class was delayed two weeks, so was our project. The thing is, we have our project done and the girls are not willing to accomodate my needs. At the end of class when I was asking the professor if we could change the date, some girl came up and said well, I am in here group and we picked this because we knew it was one of the last presentations and we can not change the date. So, what will happen with that I will tell you later.

In my business class, which in business communication is very important, I had earlier attempted to contact my group multiple times. My plan was to do the busienss presentation this week, so I could leave for vacations next week. Well recently I talked to a kid from my group who told me that we were not going to be ready. Another grand frustration considering I tried to communicate my needs earlier. 

Other than that, my grades will be turning out fine, and it is not really a problem. 

Chile right at the beginning of the Teleton. This is a money drive for kids, and has been promoted for 2 months now. Some people do not see why they drive so hard, and guilt you into giving money, but in general the opinion is that the Teleton is a beautiful thing. It unites Chile, which is still a country of two sides (Allende vs. Pinochet), into a common goal. They have parties and shows, and the feeling in the country is positive. 

Well, this weekend when I was in Zapallar, we went to the beach, and they were charging 200 pesos to get on the list to play volleyball, and it was a drive for the teleton. So, I played volleyball and soaked up the sun. I have earned the ever so popular name of gringa, but sometimes they do call me Kati. I had a great time, and got to practice my skills in beach volley ball.

I am getting very tan, I wish you all could be here to leave your house to lay on the beach everyday with me.

Love you very much

Un abrazo

xoxo... kati

Chile has a mind of its own

Hello,

So, as I was traveling to the Botanical Gardens yesterday with my friend, it was a Sunday, so not that many Micro's were running. Well, we asked a micro driver if he went there and he replied he would drop us off close, but we would have to do a little walking. No problem there. Well, when we got off, we were then informed it was about a 30 minute walk. We then ran into some other people walking the opposite direction and asked where to go. They said, keep going straight, its gonna be about 1 hour. Haha. So, we continue to walk, and end up getting a ride with some friendly people, who then informed us it would've been about 2 hours! Well, I don't think it would've been 2 hours, I feel it would've been 45 minutes. But as we were talking in the car, the my friend said the Micro driver will lie sometimes just so to get your money, and the driver of the car said, ya, you have to be careful about Chile. Well my friend was obviously Chilean, and so was the driver, but Chile will get the Chileans if he can. O Chile. Other than that, my friend and I ate subway sandwiches (I was so happy to discover regular mustard instead of sweetened mustard, and you can add avocado!), chips, and drank wine from a melon. Its entertaining, you open any type of fruit or melon (we had honeydew), get all the seeds out, poke the fruit so it mixes with the wine, then add sugar and white wine! You can drink it out of the side, or from a straw. Not to mention, the botanical gardens were beautiful. I am living in the garden city, where they are many flowers, trees, plants...
Well, Sat and Sunday this weekend were beautiful and great for going to the beach! Today, in my paper class, we have been preparing paper pulp from dried plan for about 4 weeks. We finally got to use the pulp to make paper. So what I have is a few sheets of paper made from palm tree! How cool... Other than that, I need a hair cut and am having a wonderful time. O yes, and right now there is a strike of government workers going on. One day, they woke me up with their whistels and magaphone while walking in the street. Today, I saw they had traffic all backed up, and in a huge parade, they were at the center plaza in Vina. They had whistels, drums, people, flags, horns, loud speakers and energy. Good to them for being activists, but it impeded me from getting a card I wanted, so I will have to wait till Wendsday.
I wish everyone at home the best.
Looove you all!
Un abrazo
xoxo... Kati

La Serena

So, I learned an interesting thing about Chile yesterday. In Chile, there is no ozone layer! This means, someone who receives 14 years of sun exposure in one state, would receive 50 years of sun exposure here! What a difference. So. when in Chile, don´t forget your sun screen, nobody wants premature wrinkles. With this said, I had a wonderful vacation this weekend. With my COPA exchange program, I traveled about 6 hours in bus to the north, in a place called La Serena. Considering Chile is the longest and skinniest country on earth, the drive was all coast line and was very beautiful. But, I slept. Anyways, let me tell you what I did in La Serena, other than have an amazing time. The location we stayed at would be like a resort kindof. It had a pool, a ping pong table, pool table and foosbal. The condos were connected but had two floors, seven places to sleep, a kitchen, two bathrooms, a living room and a balcony. Absotlutely beautiful. We could see the ocean from our back door, and were located next to Iguana Empanadas. 

All the activities were pre-paid, so all I was responsible for was food. Upon arriving, we went to the grocery store and my friends and I bought stuff for burritos (white beans from a box, they were already cooked, cheese, tortillas, salsa, which were actually spicy, and rice), stuff for sandwiches, cereal, fruit and chocolate. We ate like queens. Night one we made our burritos, and they turned out grand! The next day, the day was cloudy untill about 3, however we laid on the beach for 2 hours in the clouds! Don´t let this confuse you, your white skin will get burnt in the clouds. However, once the sun came out it was sooo nice and warm. We laid on our towels and soaked up the sun. Around 4 I went inside with my friend but stopped to have a fried cheese and shrimp empanada before going in. It was good. That night, we went on the bus and traveled to an observatorium with our group. It was very beautiful however the light from the moon made it impossible to see all of the stars. But, we did get a real close look at the moon, and that was awesome. 

Day two, we left at twelve and drove two hours to go to a solar restruant. They use the sun power too cook. This meant, they have solar ovens. It takes two hours to cook little rolls, and they even boil water for tea using the sun. The food was awesome considering how slow cooked it was. We had rice and chicken, followed by flan for dessert. I had an herb tea, which had a mint leaf and hot water in it. Very natural. After this, we visited the Gabriela Minstral musuem, who was a Chilean poem writer and won the Nobel Piece Prize. My friends and I ate this popsicle, bright green and pink, tasting exactly like a watermelon. It costs us 30 cents. After we got home, we went to play in the ocean. Despite my terror of waves, the water was warm enough to play in, and we worked up an appetite for dinner. We went to a seafood restruant, and I had lobster pinchers and salad. Very tasty. I didn´t tell you yet, but me and two of my friends were the color of the lobsters. But, I didnt´get my face burnt!!!

Well, the last day came, and we went to a national park. It was in a dessert climate, very mountanious, a lot like Colorado. However, we drove an and hour and a half through the park to get to the main attraction. It is a rain forest, from the second region (we were in the 4th region) that was adapted to absorb the mist from the ocean to survive. The forest was wet, mossy and magical. Absolutely beautiful.

After this, we went home to tell our families about our vacation. Yesterday, I went to school as well as tuesday, and today I´m writing to say hello.

So, I hope everybody is doing great! I love you all

Un abrazo,

xoxo... Kati 

The pelican bath dance

If you want to see-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi-YWVpAKB0

Un abrazo,
xoxo... Kati

Pelicans are big

Ok guys,
So I just wanted to let you know I saw pelicans bathing today. As I believe I have said before, there is a river ditch behind my house. You know, the one that takes the water from the city to the ocean. Anyways, a bunch of huge pelicans were taking a bath! And these birds are huge! So, the sit in the water like a duck, but flap their wings frantically up and down in the water like they are trying to take off from the water. Haha, and they splash, and smack that water. It would be like me flapping my underarms against water for pure fun. After they get all wet and clean, they like bend their heads on top of their body and shake their tail feathers.

I have also seen these silly birds sit on top of a rock, and hold out their wings as if they are trying to dry them.

Haha,
have a good day.
Un abrazo,
xoxo... Kati

oh yea, check out my pictures they are updated!

Chile in November, the insanity continues

Hi,
this is my first post of november! Sorry it has been such a long time since I have written! But a lot of things have happened since then. First off, today I mixed up the word professor, to a word that had a spanish and an english tone! haha. Second, halloween is not as entertaining in Chile as it is in the US. So, I went to a costume party (I was a greek) a week before the 31st, but did not dress up on the actual date. My friend and I went to Valpo to walk around a take pictures of the wonderful graffiti there (it is everywhere, and very artistic!) Despite the turistic ancsesors (elevators the take you up hills) being very beautiful, we were looking more into communities. Going up one hill, called Cerro (hill) Cordiera (mountain range) which also had an ancensor (but we took the stairs, 160 of them) we found amazing artwork and took a few pictures of the view. Everyone kept telling us to put the camara away because it would get stolen. So we continue walking up, and I stopped my friend Natael saying I didn't think there was anything where we were going, when ladies called us into their shop. They asked us if we wanted to walk up any more, and we said we didn't know. They told us not to because thats where the mafia lives. So, thanked them and quickly made our escape. We then went to a hill that was more turistic and had a good time. After that, we went to one of the many restruants there. I had fish with lemon juice, a cheese empanada, and a shell fish/sea food soup. It was delicious! All through this time, the restaruants baby kitty sat with us. I imagine they buy the fish on the streets where they have markets. You can buy fruit, oil, olives, veggies, freshly gutted fish, and anything else you want! So, the food was very tasty. On our way home, we walked Valpo to Vina, we found a halloween treat. It was a dog, decomposed to the point of bone. Haha, spooky. After visiting our friend Katelynn, we saw a few Chilean trick-o-treaters doin their thing. However here, you go out asking for dulces (sweets). However, some kids did stop me on the street and ask me for monedas (money) or dulces. I was not impressed.
Other than that, elections passed, and the mayor of Vina stayed the same. I'm not sure if I told you this, but you are not required to register to Vote, but if you are registered and don't vote, you get punished! It is kind of mixed up.
Lately my school has been having a lot of expositions. One week, I saw a biology exposition where different booths showed butterflies, beatles, plants, birds and bodies. Then this week, they have tables selling clothes, shoes, bags, toys, jewelery and other stuff. I can't remember Chile doing anything esle to me this week! Because life is so different here, we think "Chile" has a personal vendetta against us. But in my paper class, we are stipping wood to make groundwood pulp and are actually going to make paper from the start.
I love eating bread and avacado, empanadas and drinking fresh coke (they have a factory here!)
I hope everything is absolutely wonderful in the US and I miss you all!!!
Love love love you,
Un abrazo
xoxo... Kati