Pucon!

Hola!

I am off to Pucon tonight. It's about 12 hours south of Vina del Mar... I am not looking forward to the 12 hour bus ride there but I'm pretty excited to go... they have some sweet things to do there apparently... aka CLIMBING A VOLCANO! Which I plan on doing.

I will write back on Friday when I return!!!!!

CHAO!

I'm BACK!

Me and my sister chilena!

there were cows! COWS!

Me and two chilenos!

These guys were definition creepers!

Hola!!!

So this weekend has been awesome so far!! On Friday I went to a BBQ/Party/Drinking fest with Tati and the rest of her law student friends. It was a party hosted by her University for law students and it was pretty much a day just to drink (FREE BOOZE!) and socialize. I met a lot of interesting and new Chileans! And they were all so nice to me. Needless to say they pumped me full of beer and PISCO COCACOLA so me and Tati had an EXCELLANT time! haha.. then we managed to make it back to our house just in time for my Chilean Mom's birthday party that night! Me had to make sushi and help set up the party and then we ate some good food, drank more, and took tonnes of pictures! It was fun. THEN... just when I thought the day was over and was ready to go to bed (It was 3am at this point) Tati and Diego told me to get ready to go to the club. So we went half an hour north to a city called Con Con and went to the club there until about 5. It was a lot of fun!!!!! I was exhausted yesterday.

Yesterday I didn't do a lot... I went to the beach (I am trying to soak up as much beach time as I can while it lasts!) then we went to our friend Laura's house for a BBQ with the 4 of us and some more Chileans. It was awesome... they know how to make EXCELLANT FOOD and I ate guacamole... I HATE GUACAMOLE AT HOME! But here its so good. Then we went to a pub ... we're friends with the owner of 2 pubs here so we went to his pub and I had some sort of drink... it was awesome.. my zio I think has made it a few times for me before.

I slept at Laura's house because its sketchy to walk anywhere by urself at night and I didn't want to walk to the bus stop and then take the micro and walk home by myself. I got back home this morning! I will post more pics of Friday. Chao Chao

Reñaca!

The ocean obviously, and the place where all the sea lions hang out!

Me and Tati

Me and mi mama chilena!

Me and mi hermana chilena!

I have nothing to say

Hola! Yesterday Tatiana & Taty took me to Reñaca which is only like 10 kilometers north of Viña to drop off Diego and his friend at University and then take me to some really beautiful places along the coast so I could take some photos! School is getting a lot better now... I am able to understand a lot better and communicate more! Yesterday I met my conversation partner and we talked for about an hour and it was awesome... I really feel like I am getting better and I am making more Chilean friends! Also, yesterday in my Human Resources class we had to get into groups (1 exchange student per chilean group)... because of my previous Sociology class I had major anxiety about this because before I was constantly rejected! But I went into a group with some Chilenas and they actually talked to me and helped me understand! It totally boosted my confidence. Last night Taty and her best friend Dani and Diego and I stayed at home and drank Pisco Cola. It was so fun and I have discovered that I am able to speak better Spanish when drunk haha! Dani told me that for a month of being here I can speak really well... so that was really nice! I went to bed at 4 and now its 10ish:( and I am off to the country side with some law students to drink beer and play games. Talk about random... since I don't study law nor am I even a student at that University.. but oh well. I will post pics from yesterday! They are all from Reñaca! Chao Chao

FINALLY!

Laura and I in the Desert!

My best friends in Chile! Allison, me, Laura, and Hannah!

PENGUINOS!!

Y MAS PENGUINOS!!

I have finally found the pictures of the penguinos!!! They were my absolute favorito! Last night we went to a little cafe/pub in Valpo where we had wine blended with fruit and a cheese tray. It was so good and so CHILEAN! I then met another chilean named Rulo and he owns a few pubs here in Valpo.. we are going to his house tomorrow night to have a BBQ.

Um not much else is new with me.. I went exploring around Valpo this afternoon... mainly because I needed to find a post office in order to send off some things to some ppl in Canada... mission accomplished!!!! I have been meaning to do that for a couple of weeks!

This is a really boring post... just wanted to put up pictures in reality. haha. Talk to you soon!

More photos

On the bus on our way to La Serena.... god the bus smelt so bad.

Me, Hannah, and Allison outside of the fish market in Coquitlam!

Allison and I on the boat on our way to Isla Dama... in the middle of the pacific on dingy's! Only in Chile...

Me, Laura, and Hannah in downtown La Serena... just walking around on Friday because nothing was open!!

Ashley returns from La Serena!

The ISLAND I WAS ON!!!!!

Me holding a clam on the beach! I had to take a pic because I didn't think anyone would believe that I would touch this!!!

Me on the beach after burning the crap out of my face!!

Me in the desert chasing after random animals! Look at that cactus!!

The seals that we boated by!! So cute but smelt so rank

Hola Todos!!!

I am officially back from my miniature vacation! I went to La Serena for the weekend with 3 friends... it was amazing!! I left Vina del Mar at 8 on Thursday morning and had to walk to the bus station with all my luggage (as per usual I over packed). We caught the bus and it was a good 7 hour bus ride.. then when we got to La Serena we didn't really know where to go... so we found our hostel and it was quaint. It was really cheap but nice at the same time... except for the bathroom.. we shared bathrooms with the other guests. I had never been in a hostel before so this was a good experience! After checking in we went to the beach and looked around the city for a bit for a few hours because that night we went to the observatory which is in the Andes mountains. We got to see Mars and Saturn and the Moon from a telescope and see and learn about tonnes of different constellations that you can't see in North America; only in South America. We then left at 2 in the morning and drove back to our hostel where I passed right out because I was not feeling very good. In the morning we didn't have much to do but walk around the city and the sister city (Coquitlam) and take in the sights and drink mucho CAFE from different stores around the city. It was awesome. We also went to the fish market (SICK!) and to different markets where I bought a very unique jewelery box for $20... I may have overpaid but that is OK. Also I ran into some gypsies (the first ones i have seen!) they are like the actual ones you see in movies!! haha... bright colored clothing and they touch u a lot but u just have to watch your stuff and keep walking... I have heard stories where they throw children at you and then steal your money.. like actually!! This didn't happen to us this time!

On Friday night we bought some wine and snacks and stayed at the hostel and just chilled all night because we decided to go on an excursion on Saturday morning which started at 8 so we didn't want to stay out to late... it was fun! Chilean wine is so good and oh, so cheap!!!

On Saturday it was the hi-lite of my trip! We booked an excursion to Isla Dama... it is an island off the coast of northern Chile! We got picked up at our hostel at 8 and then had to drive for 2 hours through the desert... where our bus stopped and our tour guide demanded that we get off the bus (IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DESERT!) to chase after these wild animals that were deer! It was crazyness because I was in flip flops and ill-equipped to be doing this!! haha. But it was fun.. the cactuses were like 10 feet tall!! We then got back on the bus and drove some more and finally made it to the site where we had to sail.. we got life jackets and then boarded these fishing boats and sailed for an hour to the island! As we were sailing I saw wild dolphins and seals and different types of fish and pelicans! It was awesome! We sailed around the rocky areas of the island where we saw even more seals (and the driver of the boat got us so close that we were seriously 5 feet away from them.. it was actually really scary!!) then we saw PENGUINS (PENGUINOS EN ESPANOL)!! My question was... how are there penguins in a Mediterranean climate? Beats me but it was amazing! We went into caves and random beaches where we got off the boat and could tan ... the water was turquoise blue and the beaches were white and so hot and it was awesome... unfortunately we had to sail back an hour later because we had to drive to the restaurant where we were served lunch! My friends and I made some friends on the bus... with some students from Mexico.. and we ate lunch with them and talked about the country! Then we got dropped off at home at 7 and chilled at the hostel for a bit... went to a pub and got some drinks then came back and had to go to bed somewhat early because we had to get up at 5 to catch our 6:15 bus out the next morning!

This morning we got up and went to the bus terminal at 5:45 to catch our bus back to Vina and to make sure that we got there on time... however... time kept rolling by and sooner rather than later it was 6:30 and we had not seen our bus come yet... this was kind of odd but not really because this is typical of Chileans! So we went to go ask the people at the kiosk and they said "oh ya.. the bus left 15 mins ago.. 12 ppl got on how did you not see them?" and we were like "WHAT! we asked every bus driver if this was our bus!!" even now its a mystery... but long story short we had no way to get back home.. we had no place to stay for the night... so finally we found a round-a-bout way to get back.. we had to take the bus to Santiago and then from Santiago to Vina.. which added on an extra 3 hours but that is ok! We are now back safe and sound and I had a wonderful weekend! I will put up pics so you guys can see!!

Chau Chau... besitos y abrazos!!

Ashley.

Lalala!

Hola Todos!!

Well this weekend/week has been somewhat eventful! On Saturday we went to the beach yet again and tanned all day!! All the Canadians that are at the school!! Haha there are only 4 of us.. and 3 of us are from U of L... and of course Hannah, our american friend. It was awesome... so hot and I got pretty tanned... unfortunately Allison fell asleep with her sunglasses on and you can only imagine what happened... its definition HILARIOUS. Later we met up with these Chilean police officers who drove us to the mall and helped me buy minutes for my cell phone because I have not had to buy them by myself before... and then we got Booster Juice... or in Chile... Boost Jugo.... it was awesome. I had to run some errands at the mall so everyone else left me and I had to make it home by myself... of course being me with no sense of direction I left the mall a different way then I usually did and go sooooooo lost... I had NO IDEA where I was or how to get home... and I was all paranoid that people were following me because I was walking the same area for an hour and 15 mins and I was too scared to ask someone for help haha. On a sadder note, they were selling puppies in the park that day too... $5 for a puppy... what they do here which makes me sick is they breed dogs here and people buy them when they are a puppy because they are cute... then once they are full grown or almost full grown they dump them on the street and then the dogs are homeless... and thats why there are so many stray dogs here!! I was scared of them at first but most of them come up to you and just want to be loved... but I can't touch them in case they have rabies or flees or something.. but it breaks my heart everytime! I've made a new friend though... he's the puppy I see every day and he has a little house and I've named him Fernando.. !!

Saturday night I didn't do too much because I have been sooooooo sick and the sun just took so much out of me... but at 5 in the morning I was awoken to Tati and Diego and their friends coming home.. and they were wassssssssted!! Anywho's long story short... I mingled with them and somehow got talked into drinking 3 bottles of wine with them... so I went to bed at 8 in the morning pretty drunk.... and had to be up at 10 for church!! haha. On Sunday we went to the house of Diego & Tati's dad's brother... it was in the country somewhere between Vina and Santiago and it was incredible!! SO HOT and they had a pool and a tennis court!! I ate a traditional Chilean meal and then tanned all afternoon...

Monday came around and I had my sociology class again... I had to drop it because I can't understand the prof... she speaks so fast and she promised me that she would send me notes and she hasn't yet ...because she just sits there and talks and writes nothing down and I can't catch anything!! I'm the only exchange student in that class and no one wants me in their groups... so I felt so rejected.. so I had to drop it. I am now in a Chilean history class (BORING!) but its easy apparently and the prof speaks slow... so if its easy I'm game! haha.

Tomorrow I'm leaving with my friends to La Serena... its a beach town approx. 8 hours north of Vina.. we are taking the bus and staying there for 4 days because this weekend is LA SEMANA SANTA!! I will update soon!! xoxo.

I've attached pictures of the weekend!

Beach Bum!!

Hola!

So for the last few days I have been spending some much needed time at the beach!! Today all of us girls went to the beach and tanned for a few hours... you can't spend a lot of time at the beach because the ozone layer is so thin here that you burn so bad... as I have learned from when I first got here!! Last night I got my hair beaded chilean stylez and bought some hippy jewellery... I feel so laid back here you can pretty much wear anything!! I am still super sick so it is hard to get out there and do stuff... but I'm trying to press through!! Yesterday we had to go get our "rut card" which is like a Chilean ID for foreigners... that took a whole 4 hours of my life that I will never get back... things here are so disorganized and there are no signs so you don't know what the hell you are doing half of the time and you pretty much have to figure everything out for yourself. I seem to be living at the mall lately as well but I never buy anything!! I AM STILL SHOCKED THAT NOTHING HERE FOR THE MAIN PART, IS CHEAPER THAN IT IS IN CANADA!! That is because Chile is the most industrialized and economically stable country in South America... but I hear once I go to Argentina or Peru everything is much, much cheaper. So I am trying to wait for that. Tonight I think we might be going out.... I love to go out but I HATE HAVING TO TRY TO GET HOME!!!!! You cannot walk anywhere by yourself after dark... you are pretty much asking for trouble if you do!! Anywho's I will update soon! I have attached some pictures from yesterday then today at the beach!!! xoxo

Pics!

Maca and I!!

Me and Roberto!! such a cool guy

Me drinking my new fav drink.. pisco y coca cola

Roberto y I again

Diego (my bro),me, and maca and roberto!!

These are some of the pics from Santiago that I promised in my last blog!! But they wouldn't upload... they are just pics of my new friends before we went to the bar!!!
Yesterday I went to the beach with my new friends and then we went for ice cream at this really cheap but AMAZING ice cream place... not to much is new with me.
I started classes on Monday and they are so scary!! So intimidating... especially the classes meant for chilenos... the exchange student classes are a lot easier because the profs speak very slow and you are able to understand everything. However the school system here is very laid-b ack... usually the profs are like 30 mins late to class or they just dont even show up at all. And classes seem to be cancelled a lot for some unknown reason.. its good but also frustrating because u rush to get to school when its completely unnecessary. My classes are all messed up right now too because I might need to switch some around but they all conflict!!! its so frustrating.
Other than that nothing new though so until next time!!! xoxo

Back from Santiago!

Hola!

So this weekend was awesome. On Friday I went to a party for the exchange students where the school rents out a club and the exchange students went their for a night. It was pretty sweet... the girls in my group, Ricardo, and me ended up getting drunk off of Chilean Pisco... its so easy!! And somehow during the night I saw my exchange coordinator at the bar WASTED! It was so funny... we ended up talking about sex in the bathroom... so random?

So this weekend, my first actual weekend in Chile, I went to Santiago with Tati and Diego and their friends to go to a carnival. We left Vina at like 12 and got to Santiago at like 2 or so. Santiago is so huge and while driving through it I definitely saw the poverty infested areas... where there are kids on the street begging for money or trying to do tricks for any sort of charity. It was really sad. We went to Maca's house whom I've met before and we all just chilled at her house, and ended up sleeping away the afternoon during SIESTA. But then later at night we all got ready and went to the club "LA PLAYA". It was really cool... super packed and way different then the clubs in Canada. I ended up dancing with a ton of Chileans who were all trying to dance mirengue and salsa.. and I had no idea how!! It was a blast. And you know what they do... they shoot shampoo into the dance floor!! So random but FANTASTIC when you are wassssted. Also, I ended up meeting a really cool guy too. He is the brother of Maca - the girl who we were staying with in Santiago. He's some sort of engineer and is going to Berkley next fall.. super nice guy... a lot of the young people here can speak some sort of English so its fairly easy to make minimal conversation with strangers. We left the club at 4 and walked to the van that Nico was driving to take us home.. I was talking to that guy that I met in the back seat of the van and the door was open and there were 5 people standing outside the van... when all of a sudden 4 girls came into the van and stole Tati's purse and ran. It happened so fast NO ONE knew what had just happened!!! Unfortunately my driver's license was in the purse but nothing else.. but it just goes to show how careful you have to be in countries like this, especially huge cities. It was kinda scary because I have only been here for a week and everyone was concerned about me but I felt bad for Tati because it was all of her stuff stolen!!! But anyways today we hung out in Santiago all day and then went for Chinese food and now I'm home! I'll post pics of the ppl I was with!! Talk to you soon.. xoxo

Wow

So today was quite eventful... mi and the people in my group went on a tour of the all the campuses in Valparaiso/Vina del Mar that belong to my school and we did that all morning. I absolutely LOVE our group leader... his name is Ricardo and he is freaking awesome... SO FUNNY! Anyways we went on a tour which is pretty sweet... he protects us and always makes sure that we are safe... and he was responsible for the whole tour so we got prime seats for everything!

So after that Ricardo told the bus driver to just drop us off by the casino... and we pretty much got ditched hardcore. No one knew where to go or where we were and we didn't know how to ask someone for directions.. and hell, I DON'T EVEN KNOW THE ADDRESS TO MY HOUSE!!!! Haha.. so we eventually found our way to the tourist area of Vina and got some Empanadas and ice cream and then went to the mall... its magnifico!! Very huge and to my disappointment ... the prices of clothes are not cheaper than Canada. However, I FOUND A VICTORIA SECRET OUTLET.... you know what that means!!!!!!!!!!! ;) haha for those of you who know me... I have a tendency to overdo it in that dept.

Anywho's... I came back home after the mall and chilled out and ate lunch and enjoyed SIESTA con mis hermanos (my brother and sister)... and we sat around and talked for hours which is really, really good practise for me. THEN... at 7 all the students met up at casa central and we went to a concert en the pier where all of the boats and cruise ships come in... absolutely amazing.

Everything about it was just so... CHILEAN!! It was absolutely amazing. So much fun! Then we wanted to go out for drinks after but a couple of the girls forgot their ID's so we decided to go tomorrow night instead.. so me and Hannah and Allison took the micro to Vina home by ourselves which is definition SKETCH... and then I had to walk to my house by myself... and I think someone was following me... so I took off my shoes and booked it all the way home... up 50+ steps but I was so afraid!! I learned my lesson... never ever taking the bus home at night again!!!! ahhhhhh... tomorrow will be another day with a new adventure!!! xoxo

Week of Classes!

Hello!!!

So its Tuesday already and this week is my first week of school... classes haven't started yet it is just the week of orientation for the exchange students. On Monday we had to meet and form into groups with a group leader who is a student at the University... our group is made up of the two girls from my school, another girl who is from Calgary and that I SWEAR I HAVE MET BEFORE! A girl from the states, Minneapolis, a girl from Germany, and a girl from Alaska. It's really cool... but we all speak English so that is all we talk which isn't that good.. but I'm glad that I made some friends already. It is so difficult to understand what the professors and coordinators are saying to us ... most of the information that they give me is going in one ear and out of the other... but slowly I am getting better. We had to take a written test on Monday which yes, was complete bullshit... everyone failed!! I got like 23% and so did the other girls that I am with... so that totally put me off and I thought to myself how am I going to survive here!! But its going to be ok... last night I went with Diego and Tati to their friend Nico's house for home made sushi and for drinks with this alcohol that is only sold in Brazil... it was AMAZING!!!!! That's what people do here all the time... any excuse to drink and get wasted!!! SO we ended up coming home last night at 4 in the morning.. thank god i didn't have school today until 3 in the afternoon! And all we did was walk around the city a bit and take pictures... then I had my oral exam at 5 and the professor asked me questions and made the conclusion that I am intermediate.. which I do not agree with... oh well.
Today was also the first time that I had to take the bus "el micro" by myself... and its nerve racking because I look different then everyone else and people always look at me... and its really sketchy to take the bus because that is where a lot of robbing and purse snatching takes place. I am right now picking my classes and it sucksssssssssssssssss!!!!! I am trying to pick the most easy ones but I don't know anything!! I start my spanish class tomorrow so I'm really nervous for that.... but after, I'm hitting the beach ... to look at the hot latino men ;)

Talk to you soon!!!! xoxo

MAS

MAS FOTOS DEL DOMINGO!!!!!
(more photos from sunday)

I love Sundays!!

So today we went to the beach called Con Con which is like half an hour north of Vina del Mar. It was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! Last night we went to a club and that was pretty crazy too... we didn't leave the apartment until 1:30 in the morning and we didn't go into the club until 3 in the morning and then we left at 5 in the morning. Crazy!!!

In Con Con the family took me to a classic latin american restaurant where we ate tonnes of Empanadas, Wine, and salad!!! So good... then we walked around the streets where there were little stores and I bought a few bracelets, nothing too exciting. Then we went to the beach which was down some sketchy path in the middle of nowhere and ended up at the nicest beach I have ever seen!!! So I tanned all afternoon and swam in the ocean, it was awesome!! I posted some pictures of last night and then of the beach today!!!!!!!

xoxo