The Day Has Come...

I have a bit of catching up to do in the blogging department..and I am gonna do it. I'm committed to this blogging bit. fore real...mainly for my own selfish reasons so that when I am older I can look back and feel nostalgic by reading all my AWESOME authentic blog posts.

Okay...catching up time...here goes...I believe the last post touched on Thanksgiving and 14 year olds playing rugby...So from there, a few great things have happened..I haven't been to more rugby practices due to scheduling conflicts (full time jobs can be lame sometimes), but in 2012 I am coming back fully rugby steam ahead.

Some notable things (in no particular order):

-Tenue, the dog that lives in Jess and Mai Ann's house (owned by Vicki Johnson who is an expat who's been here for 30 years), impregnated one of the street dog whores--who he tends to impregnate---and she had puppies. They are cute little fur-balls. very fun to play with.

-Mai Ann works for a Salmon exporting company so she gets sweet deals on fresh fish..trout and salmon typically. So the other night she cooked us a great dinner of trout with a blueberry-walnut-onion topping..and keenwah (i have no idea how you spell that food..the thing that's like rice slash cous cous). and salad. twas amazing.

-I learned (from reading some random shit online) that if you have an ipod or a cell phone you are trying to play music from out loud, but the volume just isn't enough... you stick it in a ceramic bowl of some sort..and it amplifies the sound. MindBlowing. For shitty rental car-rides where there is no ipod adapter or cd player, a bowl is a good substitute.

-I made a baked ziti...big enough for an entire family...made kinda like how my mom makes it, but i had to substitute the cheese (didn't have any mozzarella) for this creamy weird cheese that comes in tuby-packaging...It was good though. Because of it's size..I had it for lunch and dinner for approximately 6 days.

OKAY...now the most important event or thing to report was the trip from the weekend of December 9thish...when i saw MATI!!!!!! So I headed up to Santiago on Wednesday night December 7th. Poor guy flew in leaving BsAs Wednesday Night and landing in Santiago at 2am. My bus didn't get to Santiago until 7am, so he had to stay in the airport in the early morning hours..but then he came and met me at the terminal..yet another blissful reunion. Granted we were both delirious from travelling and lack of sleep ...best way to remedy that..you guessed it, we got on another bus to head to Valparaíso. Mati conked out on the bus, while I watched Forest Gump, dubbed. The dubbed version of Forrest Gump is really offensive. They make Forrest have this like overly exaggerated mentally retarded voice...just dumb.

2 hours later, we arrived in Valpo. From the terminal we hopped on a public bus, but we were unaware of where to get off...so we went all the way across the city..figured out our mistake and came all the way back on another bus. We took an little lift elevator type thing to get up to the section of the city where our hostel was. Valpo is just a bunch of hills and cliffs...thus to get around easily by foot, they've installed all these funiculares.

Our hostel "Jakarta" was pretty cool. These two dudes run it, and there were a bunch of Australian and French people staying there at the time. Mati and I napped for a bit and then headed out for a late lunch to what we were told, is the best seafood place in Valpo..Called "Los Porteños II"...On our way there, as we were arriving to the restaurant, Mati almost got pick-pocketed. HE accidentally put his wallet in his back pocket, and some ASS tried to take it out...right as he was doing it, Mati noticed and turned around, and they guy just played dumb and pretended like it was an accident...Mati was about to throw some punches, but he took a deep breath, decided not to make a scene and we sat down to eat. We had beer and Paella. YUMMMM.

After stuffing ourselves to the brim, we decided to head to Viña del Mar (next city over) to go to the beach. It happened to get really cloudy and windy at this point, so we froze our little tooshies off on the beach. We went and had coffee at a McCafe to warm up...McCafes are funny...they try to be Starbucks, but are still so clearly McDonalds.

After Viña we were still sleepy from all the travels so we went and napped some more at the hostel. It was like 11pm before we mobilized for dinner and found this weirdass restaurant that was open (everything was closed because Thursday December 8th was a holiday in Chile..and Argentina)..so we decided to go..we were the only ones there and It was like someone´s house..very strange. Had some Asian chicken dish, which was quite good.

View from outside the Funicular that we took to get to our first hostel

Friday morning we got up and had a yummy bfast at the hostel..free with our stay! Toast, a fruit drink made with apples, oranges, and bananas...and some salami and cheese. A-ok.

We decided to trek to our next hostel..called Casa Club or something..which was in a different area of the city..kinda shitty area, but the room we stayed in was huge, which was nice! And it did have a spectacular view of the port and water. After dropping our bags, we headed down this path that has a great view of the city...we also went to the Naval History Museum...and we walked EVERYWHERE and took a bunch of photos..making it back to our previous hostel (we accidentally had taken the key with us)..We had some empanadas for lunch. YUM. It was kind of an overcast day, so we opted out of the beach, but did go to a shopping area to buy mati a bathing-suit slash shorts ..bc he was silly and forgot to pack a bathing suit or shorts of any kind.

We headed back to our hostel to nap in the afternoon...and get ready to go out at dinner timeish. In true Argentine fashion, at 8pm we decided to "tomar la leche" which literally means "drink milk" but actually means have some coffee. So we went to this cafe that was on the pathyway with the great view..called Cafe Arte Mirador. The old man running the place was totally overwhelmed and short-staffed and our coffee and pastry were a little weird. Not gonna lie. But the view was breathtaking and great for a photo op.

After coffee, we headed back to the neighborhood where our first hostel was..bc supposedly there was this festival of lights thing happening. the flyer looked cool, so we went...and then after hiking up the horrifyingly steep hill to get there, we realized festival of lights meant some of the hostels in the area put up a string of Christmas lights and maybe a lantern. It was a bust for sure. But at least we were getting a lot of exercise walking all over creation. So then some time after 10pm we decided to head to dinner. We went to this place, that was really hard to get to and involved hiking like 6 flights of steep cement stairs...called Altzaga. It was delicious. We shared two fish pasta dishes. The pasta is all handmade, right there in front of you (it's an open kitchen concept). Mati tried his first Pisco Sour...he was definitely underwhelmed and prefers his Fernet and Coke...granted Mati and most Argentines like to take any opportunity to say they are cooler than Chileans...I try to be unbiased and appreciate the beauties of both places...but I obviously have a littttle bit of a bias ;)

Saturday we woke up, waited for the dude at our hostel to serve us breakfast...literally the man that was running the hostel didn't know shit...there is a giant sign in the hostel that says breakfast will be served between 8am and 11am. So Mati and I got up at 10...we went outside and there was one other couple there also waiting to eat...and the dude runs out and is like "BE righttt back...gotta go buy the bread"...so we were delayed a bit on starting our day...and to spite the dumb man...we stole some of the bread (he had given us 2 pieces each..but we took a third) mwhahahhahah.

It was finally sunny in Valpo..so we put our suits on and prepared to have a beach day..We got to Viña...to the same beach we went to on Thursday, Reñaca, and started to catch some rays...it was another one of those days where empanadas for lunch were in order (for me, that´s like everyday). As we lied on the beach, I put on minimal sunscreen...and didn´t reapply. When we were leaving, I felt a little crisp, but didn't think it was that bad.. Then we went back to the hostel and I showered...and I was SOOO RED. Like fireball Candy red. everywhere. IT was like 6pm and we wanted to get on the road back to Santiago...we were gonna spend our last night there. So we headed to the terminal and got on a bus to Santiago.

One of the other PiLAs, Julia, is working in Santiago and she has an apartment there with her husband (who came with her to Chile)..they happened to be away for the weekend, so she offered up her apartment to Mati and I. Which was sooo generous and so great! Free place to stay. And the apartment is in a great part of Santiago (called Providencia) 1 block from the metro, and just all around very nice.

Mati and I grabbed a bite at a place near the apartment..then we treated ourselves to some gelatto. I was hurting pretty bad at this point because of the sunburn. I tried not to move much as I lie in bed, bc the slightest movement caused quite a bit of pain. I was also emitting a ridiculous amount of heat.

Anywho, the next day we got up, bought some bread and jam and breakfasted at the apartment...We planned to sightsee all afternoon becuase my bus left at 10:30 that night (Sunday), and Mati´s plane left Monday morning at 7am. So we went to Plaza de Armas, El Museo Nacional, La Catedral Metropolitana (which is gorgeous)...and La Moneda (the presidential palace). I am pretty sure we went to all those places when we did the high school trip in 2007, but it was so long ago, so seeing all that stuff again was cool. We then took a taxi to La Vega, or El Mercado Central, which is this ENORMOUS fish market with a giant seafood restaurant in the middle. It was quite cool..we had shome shcallops and a cold beverage, and then we decided to WALK to San Cristobal (the mountain I went to with Laura that one time..with the Virgin Mary statue on top of it). We decided to walk, mainly because from the Mercado Central we could see the peak of the mountain...but GUESS what...it was a long walk and I was in flip flops, sunburnt, and shvitzing like none other. When we finally arrived, we took the funicular up the mountain, snapped some amazing photos. It was my second time there and I was hot and tired and sunburnt...so I definitely wasn't all that thrilled about the breathtaking views..but Mati was!! He was loving it and with his new camera was having a blast taking some stellar photos.

We headed back around 5ish to the apartment..bc we wanted to go in the pool that's on the roof of the apt building. So we did. Very refreshing. Then we got changed, relaxed a bit and Mati accompanied me to the bus terminal. Again, saying goodbye never gets easy...it's always hard and sad...but we had the most amazing and fun weekend together...just the two of us...and that's something to be happy about.

Mati stayed at Kris and Julia's until he had to head to the airport at like 3am. They are really chill and said he could stay there (they got back from their trip on Sunday night). 13 hours after I left Santiago, I was back to work in Puerto Varas. It was definitely a rough morning. I had kind of a rough week that week.

This past Saturday, I went to the Angelmo marketplace (place with all the wool and stuff) in Puerto Montt to do some xmas shopping. On Sunday..didn't do all that much...in the afternoon I really wanted to watch the Patriots game, which wasn't on any of the channels I have in my house. So I headed down to a bar that I had heard has DirectTv...and asked if they would kindly put the game on. And they did! And I drank some beer. Some peeps from Colorado showed up and at the beginning of the game, the Broncos were winning, so they felt bad for me and said they would buy me a beer (the dad offered me the beer...he was an older like in his 60s and was there with his son. he was nice)..then the patriots turned it around and we won like 41 to 23 or something. I got a free beer out of it too! So all in all...a good day.

Yesterday (Wednesday December 20th) we had a breakfast for new socias at the Hotel Cumbres (that we always do events at)...it was goodddd. Had some yummy foods. THen I went to the office, worked and then came home to get everything ready to leave on my 8pm bus to Santiago!!!! EEEKKKKK. On the bus to Santiago, I was in the front row seat on the 2nd floor. It was aweeesooommmee. Seriously.. I felt like I was driving the bus, bc the whole front is a giant window.

They put on The Bourne Ultimatum...which is a quality film for bus rides, in my opinion..Half way through the bus made a stop and turned off the engine which restarted the movie, and they couldn't get it back to the place we had left off. As a solution, they put on the movie Hotel for Dogs...not sure why..But of course I watched it...of course it was bad...then i went to sleep.

NOW, I am in the office in Santiago...meaning the Day HAS COME that I leave to go home for Christmas. I AM SOOO PUMPED....i really miss all my loved ones...like so much, so this is a much needed break and trip for me. My transfer to the airport picks me up at 6pm!! Sooo soon.

See many of you very soon!!!

BIKES, Thanksgiving, Naps, Santiago, 14-year-olds-playing-rugby

I feel the need to sputter a list of things I have been doing that are noteworthy/fun/I wanna remember...I've been in sort of a gloomy mood lately...for no particular reason, until TODAY when Mati and I confirmed our trip to Santiago/Valpo for next week. (Thursday Dec 8th and Friday December 9th are holidays here). SO, that has obvs instantly lifted my mood, thus prompting me to share shum shings.

SO..two weekends ago Zoe, the PiLA that's in Bariloche, came to visit. She's a real cool cat and on the Saturday that she was here, we had some grand plans to go to the Saltos of Petrohue (some waterfalls that aren't too far from here). Due to Friday nights festivities and imbibing, the group really didn't mobilize until about 330-4pm on Saturday...and the last bus to Petrohue left at 4pm...AND all the rental cars were rented. We were bummed, and it was Zoe's last day so we had to come up with a new plan. ENTER BIKES. Mai Ann has a bike, and some friends that own a hostel had two available bikes..So Mai Ann, Zoe, and I set out on what was initially going to be a leisure bike ride around PV...25 km later, my derriere was hurting quite a bit. But honestly, it was pretty awesome...we went all around Lake Llanquihue and had breath-taking views the entire way.

The following day, I was invited to eat a crap-ton of seafood with a friend from the rugby team...The deal was that a boy in town has cancer, so a family/group of people/i don't know the actual relationship, cooked up a bunch o' "curantos", and sold them for 3000 pesos (6 bucks) to raise money for the boy with cancer. A Curanto is essentially a clam-boil bag..equip with mussels, clams, chorizo, potato, chicken, and some weird potato massy things that were delish..and BROTH...So we stuffed our faces with that and then I went into a serious food coma.

The following week entailed a lot of prep for thanksgiving. By a lot of prep, I mean on Wednesday night Janine and I trekked to Puerto Montt to a giant grocery store in search of a whole turkey...and some other gringo-ingredients. IT was a serious adventure..we also had to find a turkey baster..easier said-than-done. But we were successful. I came home at 10pm Wednesday night and made an apple pie. That's right i made an apple pie. From scratch. I also attempted to do some of the prep work for my stuffing...that I had to make a ton of! Thursday I worked all day (well, I snuck out of the office an hour early...i had to COOK..don't tell anyone). I came back home and started a cooking frenzy. The stuffing had about 3 million ingredients so it was a long process. Just before 8 i popped it in the oven to cook (the thanksgiving feast was supposed to start at 830).

Mawenko, the hostel that lent us bikes, let us rent out the place to have our Thanksgiving feast. It was 4 gringos, some Spanish peeps, and bunch o' Chileans totaling 20 people. I rolled into Mawenko at like 845 thinking I would be incredibly late...and i was the first one there. Typical South America.

We ended up feasting at 10:30pm when I was absolutely ravenous with hunger. Our meal consisted of:

TURKEY (duh), cooked by Elias-Chilean, on the mens rugby team, bigfan of pisco sour (basically the national drink of Chile)...the turkey was in fact infused with pisco sour. yum!

BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP: so freaking yummy. Made by Mai Ann!

MASHED POTATOS (another DUH), cooked by Janine. Smooth, buttery, and scrumptious!

MY stuffing: ingredients included: bread, walnuts, apples, chorizo, chicken broth, sage, onions, cellery, among others. It was a hit.

FALAFEL BALLS with YOGURT SAUCE: I bet your scratching your head right now...BUT because we had a multicultural Thanksgiving where 90% of the guests didn't know what Thanksgiving was, falafel balls were in order. Ibai, Spanish dude, was the chef!

Apple Pie: made by yours truly..little burnt on top, but plenty of butter and sugar to make up for it.

NOT-Pecan Pies: 2 faux-pecan pies made with Walnuts (pecans don't exist here) made by Ben.

BEER, PISCO SOUR, and SPRITE. And wine. duh.

We feasted, clutched our overstuffed bellies as we tried to eat more, and there were NO leftovers. That's a first for me at Thanksgiving. I normally eat leftovers for approximately 1 week after turkey day.

I peaced from the party around midnight, bc Friday morning I had a really early day...Our Annual Seminario started at 830am on Friday and I had to be there before 8..GASP. I normally roll out of bed around 830 and stroll in to work before 9! The seminario was a mixed success...a lot of people didn't show up, so instead of having 150 peeps, we had like 80...but the speakers were fantastic.

Friday afternoon I went on a shockingly long run...for me (60 minutes...insert otro GASP) and then boarded a 10:15pm bus to Santiago. I had been told earlier in the week that I had to be in Santiago on Monday Nov 28th for a stupid errand at the Chilean equivalent of the IRS. DUMB. Anywho, I thought I'd take advantage of the weekend and spend it in a warm climate. Janine was nice enough to message all her friends in Santiago asking if I could stay in their house. Shockingly, 2 responded....Daniela and Juan (they are boyfriend-girlfriend)..and Daniela picked me up from a metro stop on Saturday morning. She proceeded to take me to Juan's parents house were they were preparing a birthday extravaganza for a 2 year old. With a bombass princess cake, and lots of delicious treats! After a short stop over there, we went to Daniela's mom's house (a few blocks away)..had lunch..and I was literally falling asleep in my pork and rice, thus they offered to let me take a nap (mind you I had met these people around 1 hour before). I went and passed out in one of their beds..don't even know whose it was, and slept like a baby till 5pm..when it was time to start the 2 year old's bday bash. IT was really cute and there were a bunch of 2 and 3 year olds running around. I met Juan, and his entire extended family, and chatted it up with a bunch of people. Around 9pm the kiddies started to go home. I, being the dumb north american that I am, thought the party was over. WRONG.

The real party had only just begun. Large platters of raw meat were brought out to the BBQ..which had a spectacular view of the Andes mountain range. 1130pm, meat was served up (including porkribs, chorizo, steak, and chicken) along with tomato salad, potato salad and rice. Oh and WIne and beer. And pisco.

After we finished eating, Juan's Dad takes out the light bulbs he has set up, and exchanges them for black-light light bulbs, and hangs up a strobe light (you know, everyone just has a strobe light lying around their house). Decorating people with toilet paper and dancing ensued. I on the other hand started to lose some steam around 230am and the party had no signs of slowing down. So again, friendly new friends said I could take a nap. So I went up to Juan's mom's bed (again, I had just met this women) and napped there until 545 am when Daniela woke me up and said we were gonna head home. She and Juan live on the other side of the WORLD in santiago...so we took a bus, and were gonna take the subway, but we were there at 630 am, and the subway didn't open 'till 8am on Sundays. FAIL. So we called Juan's uncle, who has a taxi and he was out working that night. He gave us a ride home and because he was so generous, we obvs had to sit and eat breakfast with him. so we did. At 830am I went to sleep.

At noon I awoke, showered up, had lunch and then headed to the centro to meet up with Laura Marrin (one of the PiLAs in Santiago). We did some sweet touristy stuff, saw some nice views of the city, ate gellato, and then headed to Julia and Chris's apartment (Julia is another PiLA in Stgo...Chris is her husband. he came to Chile too for her PiLA year. Cute). Janine happened to arrive in Santiago that day, and another friend of Janine and Julia's from college was visiting..Elizabeth. She cooked us a delish dinner and then I had to head back to Juan and Daniela's.

Monday morning, I got up, breakfasted with Juan (Daniela had peaced out at like 5am bc she had to travel to Antofagasta) and then I had like an hour commute to work. I forgot to mention earlier, it's flipping hot in Santiago. Like 85 degrees..which was refreshing at first, coming from PV and all...but once i SWAT through all my clothing on the metro, I was not diggin' it so much.

Anywho, I worked from the Santiago office on Monday, did my stupid errand, and then took a 830pm bus back to PV.

12 hour busrides...have become a way of life for me. They sound terrible, but being able to travel the length of a large part of the country is pretty freakin sweet...and only at about 20 bucks a pop.

Erm, yesterday I went and helped out the rugby boys youth team of a friend of mine from the men's team (Cesar). His team has mostly 14 year old boys..but he's a forward and the backs don't have much guidance. So I came to lend a hand. It was actually really fun and I enjoyed getting back out on the pitch..even if I was just teaching. ALSO, 2 girls came because they want to play and get a girls team started. THey both are named Camila and are wicked badass. We are already facebook friends and have big plans for a girls team. WOOT.

Tomorrow I am likely going to see the youth team play in Llanquihue ('bout 5 km from PV)..And NEXT week on Wednesday night I head up to Santiago to meet up with MATI!!!!! SO EXCITEDDDDDD!!!

The group

My finished products!

The many steps to stuffing