Patagonia

I really wish that I had the ability to post photos right now (I'm at a hostel without camera cords), because I don't really think anything I could write could describe the awe-inspiring Torres del Paine. We just finished 5 days in the park-- hiking and camping. It was painful, breathtaking, hilarious, frustrating, thought-provoking and exquisite all at the same time.
Amy arrived a little over a week ago and, without letting her recover from her 20 hours in planes/airports, we set out for the South of Chile, otherwise known as the "fin del mundo" or "end of the world."
It's definitely cold and WINDY at the end of the tip of the continent, but our excitement overcame any obstacles. The change of scenery was incredible... it's dramatic, bleak, desolate and lovely. Very "we're going to fall off the globe"-esque.
I could talk about the hiking, but I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves... expect them in about 4 days.
Needless to say, Amy and I were wiped out! We decided to splurge (way past our budgets) and have a massage at a posh hotel in Puerto Natales, the gateway city to the park. It may have been the best decision I have ever made! Ha ha.
Just a short post, to say that I'm alive and enjoying a little port town with their famous King Crab dishes. Yummmmm. They are also famous for lamb/sheep here, but haven't been brave enough to try it yet.
More later from Santiago!

P.S. I lost my toenail yesterday. I feel like a real mountain woman now.

I have so much catching up to do, that I thought I would write short stories in 100 words or less... but as it turns out, I'm much too wordy for that. Enjoy the words.

After a 9 hour overnight bus, we arrived to paradise (otherwise known as a Swiss-run dream hostel located in between 3 snow capped volcanoes with hiking access to a national park). 6-hour hike turned to 9 after a little mis-navigation. Volcanoes, Chile’s national tree (the araucaria) and incredible lookouts filled our day. Wayne cooked fried rice in the cleanest hostel kitchen ever and I tried to mend my sad feet. Note of advice: don’t break in new hiking boots on an all day hike. My toes were grateful when it rained the next day deterring our intentions to hike. Played chef and adopted 2 Canadians using their 1 year of maternity leave to travel. A new family invited us (after less than 10 minutes) to a bbq on their land the next day. I’d heard of the famous Chilean asados, so this was really exciting! The dad told us we could hike up to their waterfall in the morning while he went to… ahem, take care of the “animal.” After a stair climber hike (my feet are seriously pissed at this point, with moleskin taking off major amounts of skin), we met our new family who had a prepared “animal” on a spit. Greeted with bread, pebre, beer, soda and 4 excited kids! The boys played soccer and we all practiced our conversation skills. Finally, the meat was ready (not sure at what point, but we discovered it was goat). I couldn’t eat much… knowing the story behind our fresh meat was a little too much for me. But regardless, it was tasty and anything from a spit is a-ok with me! They drove us into the nearest city, refused to take anything for their trouble or food. I had heard of the generosity of Chileans (Mile says people from the south are especially noteworthy for this) but experiencing it was awe-inspiring.

This still qualifies as my favorite weekend in Chile to date. I love this place. Don’t worry… I am coming home. Reluctantly.

Weekend in... Kentucky?

When Milena was in the U.S. she told me that she would be spending her spring break in Kentucky. I was appalled, ¨Kentucky? Why in the world would you want to go to Kentucky?¨

This was essentially her reaction when I told her we wanted to go to Talca for our first weekend outside of Santiago. I like to pick random places in Lonely Planet so when I read that there was good hiking and tons of vineyards around Talca, I was sold. On top of that, it is only 3 hours away (which is pretty close by Chile standards). We decided to take the train, which was lovely and comfortable. A couchsurfer who I had contacted met us at the station and took us to the hostel he had found for us. It was run by a real cute old couple. The guy kept telling us that there was internet and that we could use it, WHEVENER we wanted. ¨3am, you can use the computer. Anytime you want, there is internet.¨

Our new friend and local guide, Jorge, took us on a town tour. We stopped to have mote con huesillo. From wikipedia: ¨It is made from husked wheat, mixed with sun-dried peaches that have been rehydrated in water for hours. The water in which the peaches were rehydrated is mixed with some sugar, and the wheat is mixed in a glass with the peaches and the peach-flavored sweetened water.¨ We sat down with locals on both sides of a U-shaped counter to try the only thing that was being consumed. Delicious (and a bit strange).

Wine tasting turns out to be pretty pricey in Santiago (only 2 tastes per vineyard) so we decided to do our own sampling. We bought only wines from the Maule Valley to enjoy and marvelled at the low prices. Jorge pointed to a really excellent wine, but warned that it was very expensive. It was about $13. Incredible.

The next day we rose early to go to Siete Tazas (seven cups) waterfalls. Road a bus that smelled like gasoline, hiked into the park, swam under a waterfall, just the usual stuff. :) Very beautiful place and a fun group. Jorge had all 10 of us over to his house for chancho en piedra, a local dish made by grinding garlic, chile and tomates. They served it with homemade grilled bread.
As it turns out, there really is nothing special about Talca itself, but with the beautiful national parks and wonderfully generous locals, the weekend was unforgettable.

More to come!

P.S. Check out my friend Wayne´s blog too. We´ve been traveling together, so he has the same stories, but we tell them differently. He´s super funny, so if you´d like to hear embarassing stories and see pictures (like one of me drinking boxed wine on a bus... yuck!) that I won´t post here, click bigtallwayne.blogspot.com. Why not make it a favorite?

Quick tidbits

Just a few fun thoughts, notes, stories in no particular order:

Ok, so I lied, there will be an order. I'm going to give little titles to subjects.

Milena:
-Has been working hard on her thesis while the rest of Chile is enjoying their 2-3 months of vacation.
- Must be the most patient person I know and for that, I more grateful than I can express.
- Milena made kuchen, a german dessert that I've eaten since I was a child. All Chileans seem to love it, so I had my mom send me the recipe.
- I call her mama sometimes to tease, since we are only 5 years apart in age.
- I owe my happiness here to her.

Hugo:
- Is in his first year of internship after medical school. Their 1st section is on surgery (yikes!)
- His university had their 1st graduating class in the med school and they tested 2nd in all of Chile, ahead of all of the long established programs (and only a small amount behind #1).
- Even after working all day, all night and then all day at the hospital, is still funny, spirited and a joy to spend time with.
- Calls me Mackie.

Tate:
-Is Estaban's nickname. I can't imagine calling him Estaban now. Nicknames are very popular here.
- Spent his summer here taking a college prep course in mathematics. This means he is a 15 year old who gave up his summer vacation to spend all day M-F preparing for his future as an engineer.
- Taught himself English and then competed in national English debates.
- Left for his hometown yesterday. :( We miss him already.

Teresa:
- Is our maid. I would trade my right arm to have her in the states.
- She is an awesome cook, so on Tues and Thurs we eat really well, including Chilean specialities like pastel de choclo.
- Irons my clothes and folds them perfectly. She even irons my underwear. For those of you who don't know the significance of folded clothes in my life, suffice it to say there are now pictures of my underwear on the internet because I was so excited about this.

Gata (aka Gatita):
- I'm pretty sure she belongs to me now. After crying outside my door during the night, Milena threw her outside. She climbed to my second story window to be in my room.
- Is sitting on my lap right now.
- Only likes to eat while being pet. Milena takes her shoe off next to the food bowl and pets her with a bare foot (and we think we spoil our cats!).

Comida (food!):
- Typically there are set menus at cafes around the university with 2 choices for $3-4.
- Can include pastas or a chicken or beef dish with a side of rice or potatoes. They usually come with soup and salad and a dessert (most times fresh fruit).
- Bread is always served (yes!!) and is spread with butter, jam or pebre. Don't forget to click on cool links.

- Tomatoes and avocados are consumed daily. Almost everything comes with avocado on it here. It makes me so happy.
- Also, popular are hot dogs. Weird? Yes. Called completos, they usually have tomatoes, avocado and a TON of mayo. Sometimes pickled stuff, onions, aji (chili) sauce and other condiments.
- Someone told me that Chile consumes more ice cream per capita than any other country in the world. We have tried flavors such as tomate, basil and lemon, harina tostada (which is kind of like toasted flour), lucuma, watermelon, mango and a million more.
-Milena was telling me about Chilean food and told me about a strange fruit "papaya." I said, "oh yeah, we have papaya in the States." Then she was sure I was mistaken, so she explained what it was, until I promised to send her a pic from the grocery in Reno. Hee hee.


That's it for tonight. I need to write about our weekend adventures, because they are truly spectacular. More time needed. Love you guys!

Staying busy...

We are all going on an adventure... back in time. Back to the time when I should have been keeping up on my blog. I have been posting pictures frequently (make this one of your favorites: http://picasaweb.google.com/kenzikat or click on See My Photos HERE link to the right), but slacking on the blog posts. Here's the reasons why: I commute approx. 2.5 hours a day (to and from school), take intensive Spanish, work in the office, travel far and wide on weekends and spend quality time with my "host family." By the end of the day, I am ridiculously exhausted. However, no excuses!

Here we go, back to the exotic land of January 18th.

Remember that we were invited to a sushi dinner? Well, it was awesome watching an apparently multi-talented med student prepare this feast:
I didn't think I get the opportunity to eat sushi while I was abroad (raw fish in another country sounds like a bad idea), but it would be a shame to not take advantage of the 2500+ miles of coastline here. Plus, home made sushi? Best experience ever. Many more pictures of the chef and the group on my photo site (how many times do I have to plug this before you click on the link...?). The house was awesome, designed by the chef's architect father, plus the paintings in the background are by the brother who joined us for dinner. Really spectacular.

Let's keep this train rolling-- we are now going to embark on a night at the theatre.

So, Santiago has this really awesome theatre and performing arts festival in January. There are tons of performances (from Chilean groups and internationals alike) some free, but most discounted for these few weeks. We decided to see an opera called "Viento Blanco." If you're interested in knowing the true tragedy it was based on click here. It was lovely and I actually understood most of the spanish (with a subtitle screen, of course).
I belong here:

Because the theatre prices were so cheap we bought tickets to see Hamlet done by a Lithuanian group the next week. There were some really interesting design concepts which was fun for me (especially since I don't understand Lithuanian and Shakespeare Spanish subtitles are difficult).

Almost time for "once" (tea time), so I will write more later tonight!

Love to you all!

La gata, "Gata"

I didn't mention in the first blog, that Milena has a cat, named "Gata," which means they essentially named her cat or kitty. Funny. Gata decided she loves my room, so I have made a new friend very quickly. Last night, she waited for me to go upstairs to bed, then cried outside my closed door. She came in for a while and then begged to go out. Just like a cat, huh? In the middle of the night, she started meowing loudly again because she wanted into my room. She woke everyone up and Mile threw her outside. I fell asleep again quickly, to be woken up by a cat meowing INSIDE my room. Turns out, she had climbed a tree to a little rooftop outside my room and came inside my window. Talk about determination. It was hilarious.

Other, non-cat related notes-- I am really loving my life here. Life with Milena's family is very wonderful. I think my Spanish is already getting better, but I can't wait to start class tomorrow and have more formal instruction. The whole family went out after dinner on Friday, because "all Chilenos go out on the weekends" to a little shopping and dining area. We sat down for a drink- talked and laughed until well after midnight. My Spanish is definitely better after a glass or wine. I'm being educated on Chilean wines, like Carmenere (a French wine, that was destroyed in France by a plague after its arrival to Chile).
Yesterday I ran around with a couple of guys, Wayne (from Reno!) and Andres (living in Miami, but originally from Colombia) from the USAC program. We tried Fanschop, which is half beer half Fanta orange soda. It was... interesting. Later we tried a bunch of different ice creams at a little shop. The server was so nice when we were asking what everything was. I tried lucuma, which is a fruit that tastes strangle like coffee and chocolate, although online definitions say maple syrup and sweet potato. I settled on my favorite, sandia (watermelon) and Andres had lime and basil. Really interesting flavor. Wayne and I live one metro stop away from each other, so we decided to go home together, just to find out the subway was closed! Turns out there was a protest, so the whole family came to pick us up. They said it was their 2nd rescue mission of the day-- I'll tell you why. Hugo has a friend who is 24 and she lives at home. She dated a guy for while, then they broke up for several months and have finally gotten back together. They are a little embarrassed to tell people (especially her parents), so Mile and Hugo are the only ones who know. So, they went on vacation to Brazil but took separate flights so when her parents picked her up they wouldn't see her boyfriend. So Mile and Hugo had to pick him up and they were almost caught!! They kept calling it "Mission Impossible" and "Saving Private Ryan." Very funny. As a thank you, their friend is having us over to dinner tonight and invited Wayne too. He is making sushi (at home!!), pretty cool. :)
Dinner time (9 o'clock, btw)-- better run!!

Already at home

My room

I'm so very grateful to be here and living with Milena couldn't be a better experience. For those of you who don't know, I met Mile while she was doing an exchange in Reno last Jan-May. We became conversation partners and developed a close friendship, so when she asked me to live with her during my visit to Chile, I was thrilled!
Back tracking-- orientation was great, although no real new information for me. I'm super excited to work with the wonderful staff here: Lucho, Brenda and Melissa. After Mile and her husband Hugo picked me up, we had a great lunch (cooked by their maid!) of rice, chicken, salad and spanish tortilla. Also, fresh strawberry smoothie. Yummmm. Took a little nap while Mile went to meet with a client. Did I mention that she is a psychologist? It must be why she is so patient. Later I met the other house guest, Estaban, Hugo's nephew. He's in high school, but taking a summer math course at the university. He's very polite and has competed nationally in English, so when I am totally stuck on a word, he can help out. We had once which is the Chileno version of dinner. It's very light- usually just bread, maybe meat and cheese, occasionally salad, fruit and tea or coffee. Hugo and Mile took me on a tour of the city by night. It is quite clean and with very little traffic in the summer. Hugo is just what I expected of a husband of Milena's-- kind, smart and very funny. His English isn't bad either. Hugo has vacation for one more week, then starts his 1st year of medical residency.
Santiago really doesn't feel much different from the U.S. which is the most surprising thing. No culture shock yet, but my brain does hurt from all of the Spanish. Another mellow day tomorrow- campus tour and such with the USAC kids again. I'm making friends with some of them, but I've already had a girl ask me if it was weird because I'm SO MUCH older than all of them. Charming. Although I take comfort knowing that there are at least 2 people older than I. Ha! Take that, Miss IJustTurnedNineteen.

Hope everyone is having a good week. Post a comment so I know you are out there and click on the "See My Photos HERE!!" link to the right.

On the road again...

I can't believe that I'm in the Reno airport (listening to the ever present "Wheel of Fortune" slot machine) waiting to catch a plane for another 4 month adventure. I procrastinated packing until THIS MORNING, which definitely made my blood pressure spike.
Funny story-- when I was finishing up, putting the last few items in my carry on, something occurred to me. I didn't have my passport. Usually, I keep it the my jewelry box (shhhhh, don't tell), but since I moved and boxed everything up a couple of weeks ago, I didn't have a clue as to where it ended up. I was minutes away from leaving for the airport and I hadn't thought to pull out my passport! "I orient study abroad students for a LIVING." We found it, of course, but it was a little embarrassing.
Just the first of my many coming mishaps.