Adventuring, partying, gringo-ing.

All right, so a LOT of things have happened since my last post:

Mendoza

I have a tourist visa instead of a student visa, which means that I have to leave the country before 90 days or I’ll be illegal and since Mendoza, Argentina is just across the border, I thought I would take a nice weekend trip there. I asked a few weeks before if anyone wanted to go with me, but everyone had plans…so I went solo (which sounds sad, but no worries; this story has a happy ending!) 90 days was October 29th, and I bought my tickets for October 25th: close call much.

I strolled on over to the bus terminal to purchase my ticket with my passport in hand to verify that I could cross the border. They examined my passport and then proceeded to ask me for my visa, where I flipped open to the page with a little piece of paper stapled; they told me that wasn’t my visa. They told me it was a yellow piece of paper that they had given me coming into Chile when I arrived at the airport and asked me if I had it. I said yes, thinking to myself “why would I throw that away, it must look important enough, right?” I went back home and started looking…and eventually destroyed my room not finding it anywhere. I realized that when I moved houses, I had thrown away a lot of things, including that yellow piece of paper that turned out to be my visa. I was under the impression that it was just a receipt for the transaction and the paper that they stapled to my passport was my visa…reverse that. Now I was stressed; I was supposed to leave for Mendoza the next day and I didn’t have a visa to cross the border to Argentina so that I wouldn’t be illegal in Chile. I had to change my ticket for the day after and scrambled to find everything I needed to get my visa (which is another novel in itself…I’ll spare you the dirty details because this blog is going to be painfully long as it is). After a long day of taking the metro to Valpo, dealing with the receptionist, hopes being crushed, thinking I would be illegal in Chile and be evicted from the country, going back to the bus terminal, going to the police station, feeling hope on the horizon, almost being a criminal and getting Carlos (director of the UVM) in trouble for not having a student visa, and explaining to many officials how I accidentally threw my visa away, I finally ended up with one, beautiful, clean, new visa in my possession. I don’t think I can tell you how relieved I was.

I arrived at the terminal with only the phone number of a family friend whom I was supposed to call when I arrived to show me around the city a bit and help me find a hostel. I changed my money and searched for the information center to find a map and a phone. The gentleman there assisted me in getting a hold of who I needed to get a hold of, and after a nice conversation with him, Maria de la Luz arrived to show me around. She and her friend (and now mine as well) Ivana walked around the city with me, showing me some plazas and finding me a safe, clean, and cheap hostel to stay at for the night. We got along immediately. Mendoza is known for its leather, so after Luz had to go to class, Ivana, her boyfriend, and I went shopping. She continued to show me around the main streets and I got a good feeling for Argentinians and their culture.

Later that night, Luz came to the hostel with her boyfriend Pipi, and we went out for some light drinks and conversations a nearby bar. We talked for hours about the differences between Argentina and Chile, the USA, soccer, and life in general. Then we went over to Ivana’s apartment and played a board game until 4 a.m. Great night.

The next day I woke up at 8:45 a.m (don’t ask me how…), ate some breakfast, chatted with some French guys who stayed in the hostel the night before, and then packed up my stuff to go over to San Martín Park. The park is gigantic! There’s a zoo, garden alongside a lake, sporting fields, and lots of beautiful statues/fountains. I simply wandered around leisurely. I found a spot under some trees, took out my Bible to read and napped in the shade.

Luz and Pipi invited me to an asado at their house, where we had some delicious Argentinian BBQ and watched Zorro. I tried mate for the first time, which is absolutely delicious traditional tea in all of South America. We also had a sweet jelly (I forgot what it’s called) with cheese later before I left. Then I departed for the terminal, and it seemed like I hadn’t spent enough time there…so we agreed that I had to come back! Which I will in the coming weeks to get to know the city more and go rafting and bungee jumping. Excited 🙂

Soccer Championship

And so here we are, UVM going against la Universidad Católica in the championship game. After some incredible shots, a red card losing one of our fastest players, and plenty of aggressive play, we ended up claiming our champion title for the 4th year in a row. We won 3-0 and proudly posed for newspaper photos (you can see the article here).

The celebration really started when we got back to the locker room.

There was plenty of noise; chanting, singing, laughing, banging the locker room benches and walls. Then, of course, everyone had their turn to be drenched in trash bins filled with water. After, a few of the players tried to have a nice mil hojas cake with manjar but ended up throwing it in our coaches face and savagely grabbing at the remains to gnaw at.

Craziest celebration of a soccer win I’ve ever experienced…can’t wait to start traditions like this when I get back.

Halloween Party

The same day of the championship day was Halloween, and Olivia and I decided to invite some friends over to have a small get together. With the gracious permission from our host parents, we expected about 9 or 10 people to come over for some snacks and Halloween movies. What it ended up being was almost 20 people in the living room, most with costumes ranging from Edward Cullen to a gangster to plenty of cats. Everyone brought along something to share, so we had lots of chips and cookies; cheap college kids. One of the girls brought karaoke, so we all jammed out and sang along to every song. Then, of course, the Chilean touch of dance. Everyone wanted to dance, so with some rearrangement of furniture we created a makeshift dance floor, and after some people left there was enough room to have Bachata lessons (which I failed miserably…but with some practice I’m sure I’ll get better!…maybe). Great Halloween!

La Sebastiana

…in Valparaiso was incredible. Olivia, Oscar (host brother), and I visited another one of Pablo Neruda’s houses with a stunning view in the heart of a beautifully dysfunctional city. Walking around the city afterwards was awesome, and full of plenty of new discoveries and passing a few art galleries along with all the beautiful graffiti and murals.

Almuerzo Gringo

Olivia and I had cravings one day for some good ol’ USA style breakfast. Therefore, the idea came that we should make some for our host family. With the help of Alison (also in the program) and Scott (gringo host brother) we put together a giant gringo-style breakfast (that was more like lunch because we didn’t eat until almost 3 in the afternoon). Bacon, sausage, french toast, and a giant stack of waffles. The family loved it and decided we needed to make waffles again. You can be sure that we most definitely will.

Cachagua

Only an hour and a half ride from Viña, we took the micro at 10 a.m on a Saturday morning. I slept the second half. When we arrived we all stretched and walked to the beach; a walk we imagined would only be a few blocks…ended up being much more than that and up a hill. Finally, when I was at my point of almost frustration, we arrived at the peak and could see the bright turquoise water, the soothing waves, the white beach: absolutely unreal. I felt like I was in one of those seemingly photoshopped pictures that automatically come with a new computer it was so incredibly breath-taking. We took our places on the sand and then Emma (another student) and I decided to go for a swim. The water was not just cold, it was ice…but we swam anyway. “Getting used to the water” meant not being able to feel your body entirely, which was fun. We would brave the sea for a bit, and then clamber back on shore praising God that He made the sun to warm us. We did this 5 or 6 times.

Olivia and I also found a path along the side of the bay with boulders and cliffs that led all along the edge of the coast and went on for, what seemed like, ever. There was one bridge and waterway in particular that reminded me a lot of Pirates of the Caribbean; so cool. The waves were wild, the salty mist refreshing. Ahhhh…

And then we waited for the micro home. When it finally got to us, there weren’t enough seats for all of us, so a few of us (myself included) stood for the hour and half ride back to Viña del mar (which ended up being 2 hours thanks to the tourist weekend traffic). The driver was insane. As there were no more seats in the micro, the more people he picked up had to stand…and it got more and more full…and just when you thought it was full enough, he would stop to pick up more people. So, to entertain ourselves, the other gringos and I sang songs to pass the time. We would cheer when people would get off (both in relief that there was more space and in happiness for their freedom from the seeming death trap) and groan when more people would pile in. Entertaining ride to say the least. And for the last 20 minutes, enough people got off that we were able to have seats. Nice.

Lot of adventuring lately. Can’t wait to do more!