One of THOSE days

Recently I've been finding myself say/think..."yeah today is just one of THOSE days". You know, the kind: you forget to do something you've been repeating over and over to yourself, you wake up 20 minutes late, whatever. Pretty much everyday I have a "one of THOSE days" moment. Whether it's trying to push my way onto a completely full metro, just to be shoved back out to wait as 4 more trains go by; or perhaps causing a huge line behind me while trying to leave the library (because yes, there are turnstiles to leave the library, and apparently there's some secret way to swipe your student ID, because I tend to take 10 minutes trying to position it in every different way possible, until if finally beeps and lets me out...I'M NOT GOING TO STEAL THE BOOKS TE JUROOOO). While these things are certainly extremely tiring and trying, I find myself appreciating things more. At times it's so frustrating to continuously stick out (hellooo tall and blond), so when I figure out the little things it's a huge victory.

This past weekend I went with some of the gringas para ir a trekking (to go hiking!). It was really great--we went with this group recommended by a Chilean friend. Basically they seem to be the equivalent of the chilean sierra club. We met at 8:15am on sunday morning at a metro station in macul (I got up at 6:30 ON THE WEEKEND. yes I swear it is still me.). It was really nice--some of the group meets there to give transportation to those without cars. We went to the trailhead, and ended up with a group of about 30 people, including lots of families! It was about a 2 hour hike up to a pretty waterfall. We stayed there for a half hour lunch break, and then headed back down. Alison and I ended up talking a lot with two Chileans, and they gave us lots of great suggestions to go hiking in the area. Hopefully we'll get to meet back up with them later to learn the good hiking spots! The group posted a link/description of our trip. At the end they even mentioned that they had 4 people from the US with them on their trip! Here's the link: (http://www.elmontanista.cl/component/content/article/52.html) You have to scroll down to Salida de Trekking: quebrada de macul. Step two, find someone to translate for you haha.

In other news, I've recently become addicted to a new telenovela called La Primera Dama, or the First Lady. If you haven't watched a telenovela, you really haven't truly lived. My description wouldn't do it justice, so here's the trailer for the show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXs_ZlTayFM). Seriously, you'll get hooked, I swear.

Happy belated birthday to my mom! I had a wonderful time skyping with you crazy partiers the other night. (Way to taunt me with watermelon; uyyy just cruel!)

I'll leave you with another song (of course from la famosa Allie). The wonderful Americo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCFRYupdMXU

Besitos a todos. Cuídense!

Juevesss what up

It is thursday hallelujuah I can sleep! Lovely. Somehow I've managed to not get a lot of sleep OR do a lot of homework. (Really good equation to never get ANYTHING done: put a natural procrastinator in a new country, and all they do is sit there thinking "i'm in chile, i'm in chile, heehee this is so cool, i'm in chile". Oh yeah, it's that bad.)

Also funny thing, is that parents here actually encourage kids to go out on the weekend. Example: as today is thursday and i'm really tired, I plan on doing some homework (hahahaha yeah. right.) and then going to bed. When I say things like that to my family, they're like, mannn you should go out, take advantage of life, what are you doing at home?

Oh that? Just normal life with a two year old. Today we took out all of my head bands and then put ALL of them on...


In other news, today my class at la Chile was canceled, as were all classes there, because the students in my "facultad" (department) are having demonstrations and participating in protests organized by the ANEF (Asociación Nacional de Empleados Fiscales). Clearly I was productive with my hour and a half off: Christine and I hypothesized ways to initiate making more new friends without being really awkward (we're going for the natural, just slip into being friends thing). So far we have 1) trip and fall into someone, 2) spill something on someone, 3) fall in the fountain by "accident" and hope someone takes pity on the soaking wet idiot, 4) learn how to play the guitar...by tomorrow, 5) sing "La Bamba" at the top of our lungs to the quad. Clearly all of these are looking like they'll have positive outcomes. (I predict that after the "La bamba" performance we'll have friends galore.)

One last thing...the vote has been taken and I am temporarily changing the name of the blog. (Dear Rebecca and Travis, I hope you're happy.)

Well that's all for now. chauuu!

Visitas, despedidas, y NOTICIAS!

Hola hola amigos! Yet again I have so much to write about, where to start...

Well hopefully you've all been reading your daily newspaper and know about the wonderful news in Chile; a mine caved in, trapping 33 miners inside about 3 weeks ago, and it was unknown whether or not they were alive. A few days ago the rescue workers pulled up a drill (they were trying to get to where they thought the miners were) and a note was attached from the miners, saying that everyone is fine! This happened on Sunday, and as I walked down Alameda, the main street running through Santiago, cars everywhere honked their horns in celebration. People leaned out of car windows, flying their Chilean flags and shouting in celebration. There was a real sense of euphoria in the entire city, which was extremely powerful to feel. In all the plazas around Chile people gathered to sing, cheer, and show their happiness and support for the miners. It's going to take a long time to get them out, but it had been a hard few weeks not knowing whether or not they were alive. (Here's an article from today's NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/world/americas/25chile.html?_r=1&ref=world). This picture is of Presidente Piñera with the miners' note ("We're fine en the refuge, the 33").

Another noteworthy piece of news is that a thermoelectic plant has been approved to be built in Punto de Choros, a beautiful area in the south of Chile known for its diverse ecology. People have been really upset about this, as a) it's basically going to destroy the environment in punto de choros if built, and b) Piñera promised to oppose the construction of just such a plant. Yesterday there were peaceful protests that turned a bit crazy when the carabineros (police) brought out fire hoses and tear gas (!!!). Here's an article about the construction of the plant: http://www.santiagotimes.cl/news/environmental/19641-regional-environmental-board-approves-thermoelectric-plant-near-chilean-marine-reserve. I don't know what the reaction of everyone in Chile is, but a lot of students that I've talked to have been really upset about it. (Another link: this is in spanish, but there's a video that shows some of the protesting/scenes here http://tele13.13.cl/noticias/nacional/20399.htm).

Let's see...This past week was full of visiting and enjoying time with people. The weekend was a mixture of saying goodbye/hello. On friday Allie had an "anti-despedida" (despedida=farewell) on Friday, and we all got together to say goodbye, but mostly just to celebrate in the here and now. Simultaneously the Valpo CIEE kids came to visit for the weekend so I got to see Anna and Maddie!! It was so so wonderful to see them and show them around the city; also extremely surreal to meet up with K kids in the middle of Santiago, but lots of fun! Anna came over for once on Saturday and got to meet my family. Renato basically couldn't stop showing off for her/staring at her. It was really freaking cute. (My parents joked that I should bring my blond gringa friends over more often so that Renato will behave that superbly all the time.) The valpo kids stayed at an awesome hostel really close to my house in Barrio Brasil, which was super convenient, and also cool to meet other random people traveling from all over the world. Anna and I decided that hanging out in hostels is definitely something that has to happen more often. The entire weekend was so warm--the most beautiful that it's been since I've been here! On Sunday I showed, Maddie, Anna, and their friends Emporio de la Rosa--it got a great review from everyone (new flavor to try: ginger-orange).

Once again, some quick snapshots:

• Continuing my daily walk home tradition (I cannot express how happy this makes me at the end of everyday, no matter how tired I am), yesterday I zigzagged across downtown Santiago, starting at a bookstore and ending up at a random church (I saw some awesome steeples from far away...what can I say, I had to check it out!). From there I pushed through the rush hour swarm of people, stopping at a sopaipilla stand to get two delicious fried disks of dough with the secret salsa. There is nothing like ducking through crowds of people with a steaming hot sopaipilla in hand, heading towards sunset over the screaching traffic of downtown santiago.
• Metro fail. I left late today and got to San Joaquin (one of the la catolica campuses) right as my class was starting, but I still had to print my homework. However, the printint system here is so convoluted: basically you log into a computer, press print, wait in a line in another room, give your paper to a person at another computer (they put it into a printer), you go to ANOTHER computer, sign in, press print, and wait for your papers, hoping that it worked. In other words, I wound up 20 minutes late to class. However, this is a pretty standard thing for a lot of chileans, so not a problem. Excellent. (I already show up an hour late to most things here...aka meeting up with friends...I just want to let you all know that I'm never going to be on time to anything ever again.)
• I TOOK A NAP IN THE LIBRARY TODAY IT WAS SO GREAT. They literally have a section of arm chairs FOR NAPPING. New favorite place at San Joaquin.
• A few weeks ago Allie, Ale, and I went to a concert to see wonderful folk/traditional/chilean indie artist Pascuala Ilbaca perform. So cheap, so great. Definitely not enough people take advantage of the concerts (thank you Allie for pointing this out to me). Anyway, here's the link to her myspace: http://www.myspace.com/pascualailabaca. My favorite songs are "Diablo Rojo Diablo Verde" and "Ay mamita mamita". Basically, she's just awesome and has this super impressive, powerful voice.
• I HAVE A NAME!! And by that I clearly mean that Renato has finally given me a name, although it's still used pretty infrequently. I'm called Allie but pronounced cute baby chilean style aka "Ahgee" ("ll" turns into a "j" sound en espanol). Name name, I have a name!
• It sounds like two dogs are killing each other outside my window. Just normal.

I love feeling proficient enough in Spanish to be completely comfortable wandering around and striking up a conversation with anyone. It doesn't feel like I've improved that much, but I now realize that I'm actually having more conversations with my host family as opposed to sitting at the dinner table, nodding and smiling like an idiot (hahaha that happened a lot.). I still make a ton of mistakes I know, but it's slowly getting easier!

So I appologize--I sort of fail at taking pictures here, but I'm going to try to take more (aka pester my friends to bring their cameras out and then steal their pics...but of course). Here are some for now!



With Alice and Allison one of the first weeks here, trying delicios pasteles! Side note: basically ever gringa is named something like Alice/Allyson/Alexandra/Alejandra. If you yell "Allie" into a crowd of gringas, I bet you at least half of them would respond to you.

Some pics with mi familia:

Renato playing before lunch.

La Leo! So adorable. (The papelito on her forehead is a secret trick to get rid of hiccups.)























Hector teaching me to make panqueques--what we'd think of as crepes.

Today was beautiful! Enjoying the sun in one of the quad/plazas at san joaquin (la cato)

We like to play with my camera a lot. (...It's better than coloring on my homework with pen. Slash also lots and lots of fun.)

One of my favorite streets in Santiago near Baquedano/Santa Lucía--It's got lots of fun cafes, bookstores, is close to el parque forestal (awesome huge park), and the heladería of course!

Much love to all! Cuídense y besitoss.

One month in Chile whaaat

Hiiii, sorry sorry I know it's been a while since I have updated this, I've been pretty good at procrastinating doing really pointless things, and then hours later remember that I could maybe update my blog or something. Oh well.

This past weekend was excellent! Thursday Allie, Christine, and Allison came over to my house for a bit and got to meet my family. Very nice to have friends over, because we all live so far apart that we tend to just meet up at a certain location versus at someone's house. However, that day we planned to go out to meet some friends at a bar later, and it was easier to stop at my house (yet again, I love living in el centro...so close to everything!). Before going to Bellavista we stopped at a small whole in the wall restaurant (there are A LOT of these especially in my neighborhood, because there are so many hungry university students around). We got completos--basically a hot dog topped with tomato, avocado, and mayo--burritos, and "jugo natural", which is literally a piece of fruit blended with ice/water. We met up with our friends, Carlos (Allie's pololo), Carlos, and Matías and spent a long time at a fun bar in Bellavista befor braving the micros (buses) home. On friday I went to CIEE to watch the movie Machuca. I've already seen it, but it's a really great movie, I definitely recommend it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_p3QAPtdEY). Basically, it tells the story of the coup but from the point of view of two middle school boys--one from the lower class and one from the upper class--which is a really interesting way to view the conflict. Afterwards I was planning to go to a concert, but the movie went really late so I decided to call it a night and go home. However, as I was leaving, my friend Alexandra invited me to go eat Peruvian food with her and her mom. Ashley (from CIEE) and I went with her--it was really fun because we would never have found this wonderful little peruvian restaurant tucked away on the second story of a building, in the middle of Santiago (also it would probably not have been safe to walk there as just two gringas). It was really fun to eat with Ale and her family--felt a lot like going out on a friday night with the neighborhood families (also the peruvian food was so good!).

Saturday morning I met up with 7 other gringas from my program at Estacion Central, which is one of the main connecting metro stations to the bus depot. We bought tickets and 15 minutes later were on a bus headed to Pomaire, a small town about an hour outside of Santiago. Pomaire is known for its traditional ceramic bowls and small "chanchitos". These are little 3-legged pig sculptures; if you give one as a gift, it's supposed to bring luck to the recipient. I found Pumaire to be really touristy, but I had a wonderful time nonetheless, spending the day out of the city and with friends. When we got there we went to lunch at an amazing restaurant, where we all got either pastel de choclo (similar to pastel de papa, but with corn) or a half pound kilo (!!!) empanada, with delicious delicious jugo natural of every flavor you could imagine (melon was the best by far). We walked around a bit. and saw about a thousand ceramic pots and chanchitos. It was a little strange, because the main attraction was about 5 blocks of stores selling the same thing, which clearly runs the economy in Pomaire. However, at the same time if you looked down the neighborhoods past the main shops, there was a stark difference between the bustling artisan streets, and the deserted, more run down residential area. After wandering around and getting completely confused about how to find a bus back to Santiago, we finally hopped onto a micro going to a neighboring town, where we could catch a bigger bus to Santiago. The packed, rumbling bus dropped us off in the middle of a road. None of us quite knew where we were/anything about the bus we were supposed to get on. But not five minutes later, a bus to Santiago pulled up to our group of lost looking gringas. The sun was strong and the day was very warm, making it a lovely day to be outside exploring and away from the concrete of the city.

Waiting at a bus stop somewhere in Chile. Lost? Of couse not...

Here are some snapshots of this week:

• Yesterday I fed Renato his dinner which, although not really remarkable at all, made me feel infinitely more a part of the family. (Also kind of fun because I got to do the airplane trick. heh heh.) It was good to be helping out.
• As I am always on my pursuit of making chilean friends, yesterday was another venture in the long journey. I was supposed to meet Ale, for lunch at the U de chile. I went to the cafeteria at 1:35 to meet her, and didn't see her anywhere, although there were tonsss of people milling around. Being here and trying to make friends/lunch buddies basically launches me back to middle/elementary school/summer camp. Basically anywhere here you don't know anyone, they alllll know each other, and you somehow have to initiate contact. Take that feeling and then multiply it by 20 because everyone is looking at you because you are tall and blond and obviously gringa and lost. To say the least, I have had many experiences where I have to get over the fact that the situation is about to be reaaally awkward and everyone will be staring blatantly at me. Anyway, after going in and leaving the cafeteria 3 times, I finally found Ale and got to eat with her and 4 of her friends. I pretty much couldn't hear anything from the conversation over the dull roar of the cafeteria, so my part often included a ton of nodding, but I'm excited to get to know them all better (and be able to understand them too!)
  
• After my next class, which ended at six pm, I decided to walk home instead of taking the metro (my new fave thing to do). It's about a 30 min walk and it's nice to stretch my legs, join the rush hour crowds, and see people and places. I walk from my U, right by Santa Lucia, an old spanish fort on a hill, past the "White House", and then to my house. Yesterday was cloudy and gross all day, but when I left my class the clouds had mostly broken, leaving amazing streaks of pink and orange across the sky. I walk toward the west away from the mountains, so I had the most spectacular view the entire way back. It was a really wonderful way to end the day.
• Today finally felt like spring! (Although I'm sure it's just teasing.) It was so warm that during the lunch hour, everyone was spread out across the large expanses of grassy area at la Catolica, just enjoying the beautiful day.
• Mi hermanita, Leo, had her one month birthday on August 9th. It's so exciting to watch her grow, she is so much bigger than when I first met her and she was only 6 days old.
  

With everyday I feel more and more at home with my family, at the universities, and roaming the various streets of downtown Santiago. It's hard to think that over a month ago I didn't know Renato and his carshh or the best ice cream place in Bellavista (on that note, I was at Emporio la Rosa the other day and ended up eating chocolate-basil icecream. This is what happens when you order things and have no idea what they mean. I say it's always worth the adventure.)

Much love to all. Happy and safe travels to all the other students who are now on study abroad! Can't wait to here your stories.

Besitos!

Some pictures! Also, I'll leave you with some reggaeton this time (this one suggested to me by Allie). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RKfnvLPdLM

Looking at la Universidad Católica's campus central where I have my lit class. The picture doesn't really do it justice--if you go inside there are numerous, gigantic courtyards always filled with students chatting, playing small partidos de futbol, and stopping at outdoor cafes for a coffee (mmm Nescafe) before class. If you walk down this street, I live about 30 minutes away.

Kalamazoo girls in Santiago! Wishing Jessie farewell before she left last week.

Love this kid.

chilAY

Hello! So it's been rather CHILLY in CHILE. HAH. But for real, today was absolutely freezing, while the day before was almost t-shirt weather. I'm sensing that Michigan's unpredictable weather patterns have followed me here. Great.

Apparently some people who will go unnamed rebeccanovello think that I can do better with the name for this blog. Suggestions have been 1. Allyson is not in Mexico (a leetle politically incorrect, no?), 2. Enchil(e)ada (...mmm mexican foood), 3. Something with the witty wordplay between Chile the country and chilly the state of being less than warm. Suggestions and votes are welcome.

Tengo sueeeeeño, so this will be cortito (it'slatei'mtiredthis'llberullshortrullshort). I pretty much officially know my class schedule. Translated into English, I'm taking: Human Rights in Chile; Government and Social Responsibility; Confronting Poverty (with a service learning component, woohoo!); and Vargas Llosa, Novelista (a lit class). I think they'll all be really interesting, and if I don't die from the 300 pages of novel reading a week, this'll be a great semester!


More exciting things are happening too I'm sure, but I am too sleepy at the moment to think past tea time a few hours ago. I will leave you with this lovely picture of me from when I put off an essay and about 100 pages of reading until the last minute. Apparently procrastination doesn't leave when you go to a new country. Dammit.

mmmm school.

Oh man, has it really been a week since I wrote here? I am never going to be able to remember everything that has happened. But here are at least the interesting points.

This week has been all about trying to figure out classes in the universities here. I've been told that this is the most frustrating part of one's entire experience in Chile, and I'm pretty inclined to believe that that's true. At la Catolica (one of the universities), they are pretty well organized, but in order to sign up for a class you have to go to the office of that department, which oh yeah, is only open for a few hours every day. At la Chile (the other univ) there is approximately zero organization: the class schedules were not online/available until the day classes started (how does this make any sense??). So far I am registered in three classes, and next week will find one more to take. I am taking two classes at la Catolica (but of course at different campuses, because why should I make things easy). The first, enfrentando la pobreza, aka confronting poverty, seems really interesting. It's in the agriculture department (weird, yes) but basically talks about social issues, and we get to do a community service component which I'm really excited for. Next, I'm taking Vargas Llosa, Novelista at La Catolica's central campus, which happens to be pretty close to my house. There is a tonnn of work--we have to read something like 8 novels--but the profe is really cool, so I think it'll be worth it. CIEE offers some classes too, so I'm taking a human rights class with them. The class seems so interesting; the main profe was a really important judge in a lot of human rights cases in Chile, we get to go on field trips (!!!!), and there are visiting profs all the time. Also, so far there are only 3 of us in the class.

Basically this past week has included a lot of frantic wandering from class to class, asking Chileans where exactly I am, not understanding things, getting lost, and repeat. But I seem to be getting the hang of things little by little...One of the most challenging aspects so far is figuring out how to access readings for classes. Books are generally super expensive here, so everyone photocopies EVERYTHING. At the universities there are photocopy stations where you put in an order for copies and come back later to pick them up (and then wait in a line with every other person in the entire universe). Today I went to a fotocopiadora (not at school, just a store) and waited for about an hour and a half as they hand fed the papers through the machine. So frustrating.

In other news, a few nights ago I went with my host dad to a bar to share some cerveza and watch the big futbol aka soccer game: U Chile vs. Chivas (Mexico). Definitely heard some words there that are in no way allowed in a house with a 2 year old. Unfortunately U Chile lost...it was a very quiet walk back to the house.

Last night I went with Christine and Courtney, two other girls from CIEE, to our friend Alexandra's house. (Ale was one of the "cultural embassadors" with CIEE. Basically a chilean university student who could show us the ropes/someone to hang out with.) We went to her house and made delicious guacamole. This involved a bus ride to the supermarket to get chips. I am still getting used to riding the micros...the metro I know how to do, but micro drivers tend to slam on the breaks and swerve all over the place. I was launched into a girl, and instinctively grabbed out to catch myself. Unfortunately I grabbed the guy who was standing right across from me. Neither of them appeared too pleased with this situation. Ah well, I've learned that everyday brings another awkward experience to learn from. Anyway, I had a great time at Ale's house; we stayed for once (evening meal of bread, tea, other snacks), and then headed home before the metro closed. It was really nice to meet another chilean family and get to talk to them as well.

I'll leave you all with some more photos, some stolen from facebook, others are mine.

Everyone in the program on the second night here at our welcome dinner with Pisco sours, the national drink.

Dancing at Papagayo's

At Flannery's, an Irish pub, with friends

There are stray dogs everywhere. This one really wanted my lunch.


Gah so cute. Even though he likes to steal my stuff sometimes, this kid is adorable. And yes, that is my headlamp.

Guacamole success! (And lots of other delicious things too.)

Enjoying a wonderful cup of REAL coffee and chocolaty brownie after a long day of classes.

como taiii?

It's hard to believe it, but I've almost been in Chile for 3 weeks! At times it feels like I just got here yesterday, but most of the time it feels like I've been here for ages. Everyday brings a new surprise, situation, people to meet, food to try, words to misinterpret, and just adventure in general.

This weekend started off with a trip to the mall in Las Condes on Friday evening. To properly appreciate this story, you need to understand that one of Santiago's (and Chile's) biggest problem is that there exists a huge disparity of wealth. In Santiago, those who live closest to the foothills of the Andes tend to be the wealthiest. Needless to say, las condes is nestled right into the base of la cordillera. I live in the center of the city, so travelling all the way out to the 'burbs was pretty strange. Entering the mall, you walk into a large courtyard with outdoor restaurants, all covered with plastic to keep the heat in. On both sides of the escalator fountains cascaded down through glittering lights. As we walked further in, we found that the mall was not just outdoors, but also continued inside, where gaping doors lead to an expansive cove of stores. These included familiar names, such as Starbucks, Friday's, and Columbia Sportswear. (It was very strange to see a Friday's nestled next to an extremely upscale, gourmet restaurant.) Needless to say, I was quite taken aback by the luxury displayed at the mall.

We went to an heladería to get icecream, and found that they had about 60 different flavors (who knew that many even existed!). I skipped icecream because I had just stuffed myself with mi abuela's homemade sopaipillas (basically fried dough--it's seriously delicious, especially when eaten warm, right out of the pan). The six of us sat around the table, talking and laughing laudly (yep, we were probably being those gringos). It was quite a fun night--we even managed to figure out the micros (buses) and find ways to get home once realizing that we missed the last metro car by 10 minutes.

Last night I went salsa dancing again at Papagayos. This time, we were in the advanced class, which turned out to be pretty hard. I danced with Allison during the lesson, and we managed to generally figure things out by the end, but got pretty tangled up along the way. Unfortunately the salsoteca was dissapointingly empty, so we mostly sat around and talked after the lesson. After a while I decided to venture off, and took a micro to meet friends at a club (it was a fun mixture of CIEE people, Kalamazoo people, and chilean friends). After getting sufficiently lost for about 10 minutes, my good sense of direction just happened to lead me to the right building (doubly fortunate, because I had forgotten the name of the club). I told the bouncer that I was looking for friends there--I wasn't sure if I was at the right club--and could I just go in to look for them? Only a gringa could get away with something like that. Fortunately they were there (and I got away with not paying the $10 cover charge!). Chileans like to stay out reaaally late, so I didn't end up getting home until, well 6am.

Today Héctor taught me how to make pastel de papas, a tradicional meal. I of course decided to be a huge nerd and take notes, so I now have the recipe. If you're up for trying something new, this was absolutely delicious!

Boil 5ish potatoes (you'll be making mashed potatoes later for 4 people)
Cut up 3ish onions and soak them in warm water with some sugar (to get rid of the acidity)
Hard boil 3 eggs
Cook some ground beef with the onions (strain them from the water)
Add salt, pepper, and rosemary
Once the potatoes are done, turn them into mashed potatoes (you know, throw in some milk, butter)
<--(I stole this picture from google, but it looks pretty much exactly like what we made.)
Once all of that is done, you will layer things in bowls (oven safe). First, put a layer of the meat/onion/spices, next put some hard boiled egg slices and a few olives (the really big ones), then a thick layer of mashed potatoes. Last, and most important of all, sprinkle the top with at least 1 spoonful (probably 1 and a half) of sugar. I know it sounds weird, but the sugar with everything is sooo delicious. Stick the bowls in the oven until the top browns and everything is warm. Sorry that is totally not specific at all, but I have no idea how hot the oven was. What we made served about 4 people. Seriously delicious and perfect for a cold day! Although I imagine most of you reading this are plenty warm enough as is.

Now I'm attempting to choose classes; I have to enroll tomorrow! I have about a thousand options, so I'll let you know later what I end up taking. Well my fingers are officially frozen. Chau y besitos!

One last thing: I've been noticing that I've started to drop my "s"s when I talk...and so starts the adoption of the chilean accent.