Aloe Vera Yogurt

Hola! I hope everyone is doing well! Congrats to the Swimmers, you guys rock. Also, thanks for all the comments on my last post, i love hearing from people and i´m glad people are actually reading my ramblings.

Things are going pretty well here. Sundays are especially hard because I miss waking up late in my dorm room studying and relaxing in my sweats and then going to dinner and focus with some pretty great people. Before I came, a friend of mine said the key to getting through the first few months abroad is to stay busy. So true. Usually I like to take Sundays to stay in my sweats and hang out but here that´s not going to work, or atleast not yet. The second I try to chill I suddenly feel very alone in this new HUGE city. I know its normal and will eventually change with time but even in this amazing place everyone has their ups and downs. I am looking forward to when this place becomes home, but until then I just need to keep embracing every change i get to explore and experience new things. I write this to help you get an idea of the whole experience.

Moving on. So on friday I had my first test and paper due. Both were hard but they´re done. Friday afternoon a group of us ate lunch with one of our profs at the market. The dishes were huge and the bread AMAZING as usual. The place we ate was above the market. Even in the resturante there were cats and dogs roaming around. Friday night I went to a friend´s house for dinner and was able to talk with the family for a while. Both of the parents had just come home from the US and it was interesting to hear their perspecitves.

On Saturday, Erin, Hedi, Marren, and I went to a town called Limache to climb la campana. We took the metro to Limache and then took a bus to the mountain. Limache is probably my favorite place we´ve been to so far, and that was just driving through it! It reminds me a bit of decorah and I love all the bright colors. Anways, we climbed for about five hours and the vew was pretty amazing the whole time. It was interesting to hear my "padres" reactions when i got home. They were SHOCKED that we didin´t get a guide to hike up because "Women usually get lost on trails." Anyways, the hike ended with some much needed ice cream. yum. Last night we went out about 11pm (that´s considered early) . We were going to go to a discoteca with five, yes five floors all with different themes such as salsa, swing, rock, etc...Instead we met up wiht some people at a cafe to dance and talk. We met three chileans who are studiyng in Vina right now. One of them swims for the team here and gave tme the number of the pool in case i want to join. Definalty a possibility.

Toda I walked to JUMBO. It´s like a target or super walmart but 3x the size. Anways, they have everything and anything you need. I even found SKIPPY peanut butter...didn´t buy it, but i´´m sure that day will come. I´ve decided that Chile must be on a yogurt kick. THe store has a whole isle of every type of yogurt inmaginable, including yes, ALOE VERA...not sure how that works. Yogurt also comes in bags (along with jelly, mayo, ketchup, ustard, spaghetti sauce, you get the idea..). I spent about five minutes of my short trip in the cookie and choclate isle. No, I didn´t buy anything, but it was tempting. As you probably can tell, I´m going through a cookie and choclate withdrawl. Its incredible how many products are here from the US...everything from herbal essence shampoo to oreos. Another thing I´ve notifced is that each book store has atleast three books regarding the US and Bush...definatly interesting to get different perspectives.

Another cultural characteristic I will share with you are propios. THey are cat calls in excess. Everythime you go out you can expect atleast a few. Most of the time I´m just able to ignore them, but on days that I just want to walk in peace I get annoyed. We were told to just keep walking and looking forward. It´s the funniest when they try to speak bad english to us. Another thing that I have to be much more aware of here is safety. My bag is always in front of me with a hand over the top. When I go out I only take the exact amount of money I will need, and I´m always looking around and as our program director said "being aware of my surroundings."

Well thats all for now! Miss you all and love you all!

Cristina