Camping on the beach

Well, this weekend has been pretty great so far. On friday I don't have classes and decided to go camping with two other people from the program at the last minute. WE packed our backpacks and headed about 2 hours north to a small fishing/hippie town. The bus dropped us off and after walking for a while without encountering a campsite we decided to take a little rest on the beach. We plopped down and sat for about 3 hours, talking, playing in the sand , and people watching. The beach was incredible and the water sparkled. After a while we decided to buy some food and then go searching for a place to camp. We ended up getting some veggies to stir fry along with rice and avocado . After walking for a while we found a perfect place to camp on a bluff about 10 feet from the ocean. The only downer was all the trash thrown around , but otherwise its probably the best place i've ever camped. This beach was so secluded that we felt that we were the only people for miles . We set up camp and attempted to get a fire started. Maren and i hauled over a HUGE piece of wood becausee we didn't have an luck finding something smaller. Needless to say, after about an our of working at it, the fire never started. So we got back to cooking using our only head lamp as light. ....in the midst of cutting veggies, the lamp went out. great. So we ended up cooking and eating int he dark...the food tasted wonderful. The next am we ate oatmeal and then walked down to the beach. we ended up playing in the sand for 3 hours before heading back. What a great mini weekend. I suppose thats all for now. I'll post pics later.
Chao!
Cristina

SAY WHAT??

So contrary to the last posting, classes are proving to be more difficult than expected. I´ve been trying out various classes and so far am planning on taking Psychology of Love and Sexuality, Latin American Short Stories, History of Movies, Vision del Cine, and a Social Work class. I didn´t realize how intimidating it would be to branch out and try to make friends...it feels like the first week of college all over again, except everyone around you already has a group so basically you just have to suck it up and take the first step. I met some really nice people in my organizational psychology class, but the class is going to be killer, so i´m not sure if i will take it. The psych of love class is great. The prof is halarious!! I also really enjoyed both movie classes. Classes are so different here. Its completly different from the community feel that you get at luther. Definatly has been a good experience.

This past weekend our group went to Pucon....a town about 12 hours south of here. WE took a night bus and arrived on fri AM. Pucon is a small town filled with things to do ...one of htem being hiking a Volcano!! I was SO excited to do the volcano, but we got rained out...oh well. THe first day Erin, Maren and I went walking for a few hours. We ended up finding a ton of blackberry bushes and stopped for about an hour or so to pick them. We were covered in purple by the end...way fun. We then went to one of the three lakes surrounding the area. SO PRETTY. The sand was black and we spent about an hour sittin gand talking. Definatly nice to catch up with the two of them. That night we ended up making apple and peach crisp and a group of us ate until we were going to explode. The cabins we stayed in were so nice and we were able to cook all our meals. THe firs tnight we made Shakshuka...the israli dish we learned in Ushuaia. The second day we went on a CAnopy tour. We rode ziplines through the trees and enjoyed the view. What a nice break from the city.

I love living with my new family. They are so funny and we usualy end up talking for an hour or so each night. Last night I watched a Chilean soap opera with the "adopted" son Sergio. SO FUNNY. WEll I suppose that is all for now. Miss you all!
Cristina

Smile and Nodd

WOW. So I´ve been to two classes so far...let me tell you about my experiences. YEsterday I went to a painting and drawing class....yes, I am taking an art class..haha. So I get there, and the prof talks for about an hour...not bad so far...and just as i think i´m off the hook, he asks us to do an aptitude test and draw a picture of our hand. SO everyone whips out their special pencils and paper and furiously starts to work on their masterpiece...I on the othe rhand, rip out a page from my planner along with my mechanical pencil and try unsuccessfully to draw my fingers....lets just say my drawing skills still need some work. Today i have to draw a tree...should be interesting. haha.

This morning I left the house at 7 for my 8 :15 class because i wasnt sure where i had to walk to take a colectivo. Well, I succesfully caught the colectivo at 7:30 and made it to my class with time to spare. HOWEVER, apparently its an accomplishment if the profs even show up...ours was 30 min late. I am the only exchange student in the class and am quickly learning its VERY intimidating to approach large groups of people speaking in a different language who are all about a foot shorter than you. SO in class I learned that we don´t actually use books or really ahve any tests...of course i could´ve gotten this wrong becasue everyone was talking over the prof. Oh Chile. So now i´m killing time for the next 6 hours until my next class (the last one was supposed to be 3 hours but we got out 2 hours early. haha )

I suppose that is all for now. This weekend we are going to Pucon to climb a volcano. Should be sweet. Chao for now!

Classes in Chile

So the classes in chile are like the cufews .....NON EXISTANT. Ok, thats a bit of an overexageration, let me explain. So, classes oficially started yesterday, but i haven´t been to one yet. Apparently the first month or so is not that important, so much so that the profs are also not very consistant no their attendence. I am SO SO ready for clases to start and am getting antsy after sitting around for so long. I am taking :
Psychology of Love and Sexuality
Chilean Short Stories
Chilean modern history
Social work
Movies
Painting (stop laughing....the teacher said you don´t really need much talent :) )
Psychology of Sports
Organizational Psychology
and Psychology of the personality

WHEW. And NO I wont be taking every single one. I have to decide which ones i definatly want to take by the end of march. Otherwise, I ´ve been doing pretty much nothing for the last few days. WALKING a ton, sleeping, and hanging out. Yesterday my housemate and I walked through the hills of VALPO for about 2 hours. We got lost but definalty got to see more of valpo than we would´ve if we actually knew where we were going. Last ngith a group of us made brownies and rented a chilean film...me being the "interperative" thinker that i am had trouble interperating an artsy film in a different language :) Well thats all for now...I´m headed for my first class....hopefully the prof will show. haha. hope everyone is doing well! miss you all!