Argentina Adventure

This past weekend I went to Mendoza, Argentina for a quick visit with two friends who are also from the US. One I know from work, the other, her roommate, is the one who needed to make the trip because her tourist visa in Chile was about to expire. It was a very brief trip, the total travel time was about the same amount of hours that we were actually in Argentina, but it was totally worth it because it was certainly an adventure.

I had never been to Argentina plus I had just picked up my brand new Chilean passport so I was excited to use it for the first time. The bus to Mendoza left at about 10 PM Saturday night and we arrived in Mendoza at about 5 in the morning. The ride there involves driving through the Andes mountains, so it is very windy and bumpy. I really wish we had been able to make the trip during the day because I can only image how beautiful it must be. A few times when the light from another vehicle was just right, I got a glimpse of the surrounding peaks and it was pretty awesome to be reminded that I was actually in the mountains. The view of the stars was really lovely, so clear as there aren't many lights around, plus being that high up made me feel as if they were a little bit closer.

When we arrived in Mendoza we didn't really have much of a plan but we figured it was best to head somewhere where we could rest for a couple of hours, take a shower, and have a place to keep our stuff while we explored the city. We ended up getting a pretty good deal on a hotel room from a man who was searching for customers at the bus terminal. He gave us a ride to the hotel and at first we were pretty hesitant to get into the car with him, but he was quite elderly so we figured between the three of us we could beat him up if we had to. He ended up being very nice and brought us safely to the hotel.

After resting a little we headed out to explore the city. Unfortunately, since it was Sunday, most everything was closed. We had been hoping to go on a wine tour that was recommended to us by two Canadian guys we had met on the bus (one of whom has been traveling around South America for the past four months) but that didn't work out as Sunday is definitely a day of rest for many Argentineans. We were able to explore the city though, we walked all around it. Mendoza is a nice city, I'd like to go back sometime during the week when more would be open. It's very clean and well taken care of and the streets are very wide, many of them made with brick and stone which looks quite nice. It has a very European feel and it is full of parks and plazas. Definitely a nice change of pace from the much bigger and much more polluted Santiago.

Our lunch was probably the highlight of the trip for me. We ate a lovely, leisurely meal outside, staying there for about three hours. Of course, since it was Argentina, it was not easy to find something without meat, but I ended up having spaghetti and it was very, very good, the noodles tasted so fresh. Argentina does have a huge Italian influence so I'm sure that's why it was so good. My friends took advantage of eating high quality meat for such a low price and both throughly enjoyed it, they say it was delicious. The other great part about our meal was the wine. We ended up having two bottles that were really good. I'm not a huge wine person, but this wine was definitely good. The waitress told me that it was from a winery owned and operated by a church right there in Mendoza and that they give some of the profits from wine sales to local schools.

Everyone we came across was very friendly and happy to answer our questions. It's clear to me that people in Mendoza are used to tourists, perhaps more so than people in Santiago. There was just an overall sense of patience, kindness, and understanding that I don't always experience here in Santiago. But I know that's just how it is in Santiago, and definitely not in all of Chile.

Our bus ride back to Chile was interesting, but not so much in a good way. We were having trouble finding a bus company with open seats, as we had to get back to Santiago by a certain time so my friend could get to work so we ended up taking a small, cheap company. It ended up being the same company we took to get there and it was fine, but the return trip was a different story. The bus driver was a tad bit crazy. He drove the bus as if it were a two door sports car. But it wasn't a sports car he was driving, it was a full bus carrying twenty-five or so people, and not only that, but he was driving through the mountains. He took curves so wide that more than once I was sure we were about to drive off the side of the mountain. Occasionally he would take out his iPhone and play around with it, or he would put on his reading glasses and start reading different sheets of paper. Now maybe you can get away with this behavior when driving a straight path like on a highway. But when driving through the Andes mountains? Not such a good idea. We almost hit a number of things: a semi-truck, other buses, a dog, the side of tunnels, a motorcyclist, a mountain... To make matters worse, I was assigned to the very first seat so I had a great view of everything, which served to heighten my anxiety. I tried my best to stay calm by listening to music, but needless to say I just could not fall asleep during that journey. Furthermore, I was stick sitting next to a very large lady so it was not the most comfortable ride. However, I suppose I was actually a little safer because most of the time at least some portion of her body was on top of mine, so if we had actually crashed, her body weight would have probably kept mine from going flying.

Not only was the bus ride terrifying, but we also spent about three hours at the border crossing to get into Chile. The process was extensive and not efficient and it was hard to feel happy about waiting in the cold for three hours in the middle of the night. But finally we arrived home safely at about 7 am, each of us thankful to have made it home in one piece. The trip was definitely full of many obstacles, but it was an adventure that I'm glad I had.

Posing with the people from the restaurant, they were so nice and welcoming. We were all kind of in love with the little old man, we thought he was super cute because he was always smiling. We ended up running into him later on and he turned out to be pretty sleazy which we were all sad about.

Hayley and Mary Dallas excited about their meat. It was a wonderfully satisfying meal, and even better, it was incredibly cheap.

The big clean sidewalks of Mendoza.

This is one of the many plazas in the city. There is a huge park in the city that has a zoo that the man at the hotel told me takes three hours to walk through it all because it is so big. Unfortunately we didn't make it to this park, but I hope to someday come back to Mendoza for another visit. I also really want to visit Buenos Aires, so I'm sure I will go back to Argentina at some point.

Thanksgiving in Chile

Of course Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Chile and I was feeling a little homesick yesterday, missing my family on the northern hemisphere; so a few of my American friends and I decided to go out to eat after work. A Chilean friend came along for the cultural experience so we tried to share all the customs with her. We ordered the most Thanksgiving like food we could (a little tricky to do at a German restaurant in Chile), we all said what we were thankful for, and we talked a lot about what our individual Thanksgiving traditions are. Since I don't eat meat my meal was a little...unbalanced. (Which is definitely for the better since most of the meat was unrecognizable. The best way to describe the meat brought to one of my friends is that it looked like a meat wallet that was fried, so basically it was a fried rectangle with some kind of meat inside). I ate a huge plate of mashed potatoes, my favorite Thanksgiving food, and a German version of apple pie, delicious! To drink I had a fanchop, a very Chilean drink which is half beer and half orange soda, pretty good actually. It definitely was unlike any other Thanksgiving I ever experienced, but it was nice, we laughed a lot, and most importantly I felt very full and satisfied afterwards. I felt totally American and I fully enjoyed that feeling. And I know for sure, it was a Thanksgiving I will never forget.

Football fanaticos

I am definitely living in a country that is crazy about soccer. Tonight Chile is playing an important game against Uruguay. I'm not sure why it is important, I just know it is because that's what I've heard and the game was on all the TVs at work and in front of each one gathered a crowd of mostly men. While I was walking home from work, when I was maybe a block away from my apartment building, I suddenly heard crowds of people shouting and clapping, from at least four different places around me. "Oh, Chile must have scored," I thought. When I heard someone shout GOOOOOOAAAAAAAL! my hypothesis was confirmed. Later, while I was talking to my dad on Skype another goal was scored by Chile, and my dad could here the shouts, just from my window being open. It never ceases to amaze me just how important games can be to some people. Sports (especially soccer in most of the world) certainly have the power to unite a country, at least for a couple of hours.

My new favorite place in Santiago

Yesterday I went to explore Parque Metropolitano which is basically a huge huge hill called Cerro San Cristobal that is dedicated to parks and and other recreational areas. There are theme parks, I saw a lovely Japanese garden, there is a zoo, swimming pools, picnic areas, hiking paths all over, and you can take either a cable car or a train up to the top to visit the statue of the Virgin Mary and the church that rest up there. Now it's a very big hill, so I only explored just a little bit. I didn't see the zoo or the vehicles that take you to the top, but I know they exist and I am excited that there is so much left of the hill for me to explore. Perhaps someday I will walk to the top, I need to work on getting into better shape for that though. It's truly a gem of the city though. Lots of beautiful vegetation; trees, flowers, cacti. And it is possible to find paths that are quiet and take you away from the crowds. It's wonderful to find a place in a city where you can forget for a moment that you are in a city. I will definitely be going back. Plus the walk to get there from my apartment is really nice, an area of the city that is full of beautiful houses and stylized architecture plus the street is lined with big beautiful trees that are covered in flowers right now. I brought my camera, but didn't take many pictures. Here are a few.

I didn't even go that high and I still had some great views of the city.

This is the Japanese garden with a great view of the city and mountains although it's hard to tell from this picture.

Beautiful trees and yes, still in the city.

I always say that I think Santiago is an ugly city, but from this park, that is just not true. I'm glad to have found some natural beauty in a concrete city with a smog problem.

"The highs are high and the lows are low"

Normally I prefer not to write so much about my personal emotions and feelings for a few different reasons:

1. I prefer to keep some things private. I don't really want the entire internet knowing all about the way I am feeling as I go through life.

2. I realize it's not that interesting to read just about feelings, because who really cares about my daily emotions?

3. I don't want to accidently offend anyone with my honesty.

4. And again, privacy. I don't want everyone knowing everything. I am not a blogs-ibitionist (I just made that word up, pretty good, huh?)

However, I am going to talk vaguely about emotions for a purpose. The title of this post is in quotes because this is something my dad told me while I was getting ready to leave for Chile. His advice to me was just to ride out the waves and experience life; he told me that I would experience a lot of highs and a lot of lows and that when I looked back at the experience, I probably wouldn't remember anything in between. And boy was he right. The highs are certainly high and and the low points are quite low. Personality wise, I have always been a bit of an emotional roller coaster; those who know me well can attest to this, like the weather, my mood can change quickly and unpredictably. But this statement speaks to more than just changes in my mood. It is more about experiences. I think that anyone who has ever lived somewhere new can relate to this, whether in a different country or not. When you adapting to a new place or a new experience, it isn't easy. The high points are great, and for me quite often. Sometimes it is just something little that I consider to be a "high" such as an enjoyable night spent with new friends or even figuring out how to pay my bills all on my own. And there are the bigger more intense highs, such as breakthrough moments in forming real and meaningful relationships with members of my family and seeing new and beautiful places.

And then there are the lows. Living in a foreign country that is far away from the home I know and from many people I love is full of challenges. Throughout the course of the day I may feel frustrated, lonely, homesick, sad, annoyed that I can't properly communicate my thoughts, and so on. But, throughout that same day, I have moments where everything falls into place or something good happens and I remember how great my life is and how lucky I am to be experiencing this. I am learning a lot. So, Dad, you were right.

Life in Santiago

I have been living here for almost a month, and I am starting to feel comfortable navigating the city. I have finally started to learn some of the street names and I am able to find my way to a number of places. In my opinion, Santiago may not be the most beautiful city I have ever seen, on cloudy days especially the city smog and other inevitable city stuff such as street litter become more noticeable to me. Plus recycling in almost non-existent and that it is common to see street dogs risk their lives crossing the busy city streets.

But of course, there are also a lot of great things about Santiago. For example, as I have written before, I love that you can buy almost anything you could want on the street. I love that at 3:30 AM it is possible to find someone making and selling fresh, homemade mini pizzas on the street which you can buy for like 50 cents. The city streets feel so alive to me during the day with all the hustle and bustle and the people out on the street trying to make a living. I also enjoy the circus street performers that you often see putting on shows in intersections during the brief red light moments. There are also some nice parks, green space is very important to me. There are plenty of nice places to visit in general.

I have decided to try to visit as many tourist spots as possible during my free time. This past week I have managed to walk to Plaza Italia, explore a statue park which is very close to where I live, and one day I walked to La Chascona, one of the three houses in Chile owned by Pablo Neruda. Today I walked up to the top of Cerro Saint Lucia, a big hill located in the center of the city that is home to a number of beautiful parks all the way up. It's really a very nice place. There are a number of different paths to take, and along the way you can see fountains, waterfalls, small parks. And the view of the city from the top is great. For the first time I really noticed how much of a sprawling city Santiago really is. It's filled with small to medium sized buildings that they don't really come together to form a clear skyline like that of Chicago. It's more just like a extended area splattered with buildings and houses that stand between the large, rolling hills. Here are some pictures I took from Cerro Saint Lucia.

The other day I took advantage of the great light given by the setting sun and I took a few pictures from my tiny balcony. Here are two of my favorites.

The other day I saw a show on TV about design in Chicago, it was mainly about the architecture in the city, but also talked about the city in general. After watching that I definitely felt a little homesick. I do miss Chicago quite a bit, it is just now starting to hit me. I really miss the lake, I loved living close to it. I feel a strange almost magnetic pull from large bodies of water. I am amazed by their mystery, their power, yet I am also comforted by their cyclical nature. Maybe someday I would like to live near the ocean. Although to me, a lake is a lot less scary than the ocean. Anyways, although Santiago doesn't have a large body of water and it's architecture certainly doesn't compare to Chicago's (at least aesthetically), I have already found some parts of the city to love.