A Darker Side of my Experience

"Te gusta Santiago?" someone will ask me.

I usually answer, "Si. Mucho. Hay muchas cosas que hacer aqui," but that's it really. I've met some really cool Chileans, but I've bumped into a lot of unpleasant Chileans.

I've recently gotten my iPod nano pick-pocketed while climbing up the bus. It really sucked. I bought that iPod right before leaving for Chile. It was six months old! It makes my stomach sick thinking about someone enjoying my stolen iPod. I know it could've been worst. I know I should've been more careful. I've learned my lesson, I know. I know it's just a thing. I'm over it, but I'm not over the fact that this city is filled with petty thieves. I fuckin hate it! I've been to big cities. I went to NYC regularly and I've never had to worry about petty thieves. I hate Santiago for their fleites.

And it's not just the fleites. People here are kind of rude. They cut in front of you and take advantage of extranjeros. It's all man for himself here, and I'm starting to acquire that attitude. Ugh. Is this how all big cities are? My Chilean student lived in Toronto for three months and he expressed how Toronto is a friendly and safe city while Santiago is the opposite. People on the streets hardly smile at you. They just look at you with a stare. I've started to have staring contests with strangers in the bus and subway. I don't want to taint the rest of my experience here but that fleite asshole who took my iPod has. It's his fault. It's his parents' fault for raising him a fleite. Seriously. I'm so surprised how much of the kids here lack discipline.

Well, at least I got that out of the way. In 12 days I will have a new iPod and my boyfriend here in Santiago. He will most definitely enhance my Santiago experience.

Summertime Here, Wintertime There

Well, while everyone up North is freezing their asses of, we here in Chile are enjoying the lovely beach weather. Monday, we went to a beach in Viña del Mar called Reñaca to soak up some sun. Unfortunately, some of us soaked up a little too much sun.

mas allá es Valparaiso

rico


Mel & Brea


whoops. alguien ha olvidido poner sunblock. pobresita mel



Fun beach day with the ladies.

It's been tough tryin to get into the Christmas spirit here. We've put up Christmas lights in the apartment and I've walked through shops and malls and.... U.S. still does Christmas the best. I also think it's because back in the states, we're too busy shopping and spending and running into traffic. We become so stressed out that we just want to get to Christmas already to alleviate all the stress. Here, we do not have that kind of stress, so we don't look forward to Christmas so much.

corner of San Pedro de Valdivia and Providencia

December in Santiago

It's December now and it just doesn't feel like the holidays are coming. Streets and stores are decorated, but where is the cold and the snow?

It snowed in NJ the other day.

My nephew Gabe enjoying the first snowfall of the season.

Much Has Happened

But first.... Halloween in Santiago, Chile fue muy divertido! Halloween is new to Chile, about five years old. Also Chile is a Catholic country therefore not many agree with its pagan practices. My colegio was one of the only few schools that celebrated it.

The seniors had a classroom decoration contest, and I believe this is the classroom that won.



My favorite girls, Emilia, Josefa, y Sofia of Pre-Kinder



The kids are ready to head over to the seniors to go trick-o-treatin'!


"Dulce o Travesura?"



Check out all that candies!




These kids went all out- I love it!



Casa del Terror turned out to be very popular. Kids lined up to enter it!


Over the weekend, a couple of us gringos went camping south Santiago with Chilieans for Halloween. Us roomies and Ben's friend were Los Flintostones!


Meet the Flintstones!



Que épico



Half the campers haven't even woken up yet and Phil has already started his day with a can of beer.





Wes ready for a brawl.



USA win the Chile vs USA soccer game

La Piojera

La Piojera is a bar in Santiago, whose name literally translate to a flea's nest. Apparently, the name was coined by a former Chilean president Arturo Alessandri in 1922 during his first visit, in which he asked, "What is this place, a fea house?" Well, La Piojera is as Santiago as it gets.

You will run into people singing with guitars and/or random percussion instruments. The night we went, a group of people were singing and dancing using an old pan as percussion.



Table full of empty teremotos cups



Terremoto ("earthquake") is first made by putting a scoop of pinepple ice cream in a cup, then filling the glass with pipeño (fermented white wine). The ice cream floats to the top is finished off with a black liquor on top.



salut!

Futbol Celebraciones

On October 10th, Chile played against Colombia and it was quite an important because if they won it, Chile would be in for the world cup. Needless to say, they won the game and are going to the World Cup 2010! We watched the game at our apartment and then celebrated with the Chileans right outside our apartament at Plaza Italia.

celebrating a goal with the people outside our window


Carabineros are ready for the mob.



When we went outside after the game, this was the scene



Celebrating with my gringo friend Phil. So funny how people took pictures of us.



Our crew of gringos and Chileans.



Either the Chileans really enjoyed celebrating with the gringo or they huddled around him solely to steal something from his pockets, because a friend of ours was pick-pocketed the next game.




So much energy in the air... and so much confetti!




If they could climb it, they did. That man is on top of a Plaza Italia sign.





We spent the rest of the night at our building's patio






Plaza Italia at around 9pm




A montage of that night.

San Pedro de Atacama

We took our first major Chile trip a couple of months ago in the northern part of Chile; the Atacama desert.

The Atacama Desert is a virtually rainless plateau in South America, covering a 600-mile strip of land on the Pacific coast of South America, west of the Andes mountains. The Atacama desert is, according to NASA, National Geographic and many other publications, the driest desert in the world. The rain shadow on the leeward side of the Chilean Coast Range and the Andes keep this over 20 million-year-old desert 50 times drier than California's Death Valley. (Wikipedia)

I have never been to a desert and was therefore looking forward to experiencing a very different and unfamiliar landscape. We spent three days in San Pedro and one day in Antofagasta- a mining city of north Chile.

on our way into San Pedro



San Pedro is a quaint little town in the dessert filled with hostels, tour companies, artisan shops, and over-priced restaurants ($8 USD for a vodka tonic!!)



View from our hostel. That is the vulcano, El Tatio



Sand boaardddiiiingg!



We had to hike our way up on the dune and it was quite exhausting, but totally worth the view










Valley de la Luna. "This valley is famous for its resemblance to the surface of the moon, owing to its different stratification and the salt formations that are caused by natural environmental factors."





Amphitheater- The actions of wind and water upon this geographical formations have created a sequence of peaks, similar in outline to the bellows of an accordion.



Amazing desert sunset.



We woke up at 3am in the morning to see the sunset at El Tatio Geysers.







natural hot spring

I love these bushes. They are called paja brava.

We saw some vicuñas on our way back. "...one of two wild South American camelids, along with the guanaco, which live in the high alpine areas of the Andes. It is a relative of the llama, and is now believed to be the wild ancestor of domesticated alpacas..."



un rio valle





I simply cannot get enough of the Andes.



llamas, obvio po.



the travel group at Laguna Piedra



We went into this freezing salt lake. "Laguna Piedra" debido a la gran concentración de sal en el agua, cualquier cuerpo que se introduzca en sus aguas flotará ineitablemente.



driving into nowhere...



Laguna Cejar, where we watched another amazing sunset.





Atacama Desert's mars-like terrain





"As the sun advances, the lagoons 'Cejar' and 'Piedra' change colors showing a turkish green radiance in its waters. A natural spectacle of great scenic beauty."







a beautiful puesta del sol



five hour bus ride back to Antofagasta



Antofagasta is a mining city in the north. They mostly mine copper









La Portada de Antofagasta.

This is a geomorphological and geological feature of sedimentary rocks and fossil remains that has been eroded by the wind and the sea for thousands of years. These agents have given shape to caverns and cliffs and have carved the great arch of La Portada with perfect detail. ( WelcomeChile.com)

my dried-out reptile-like skin by the end of the trip.