The adventures of Alison and Allyson

This post should really be the length of a novel, but seeing as it's almost midnight and I need to get up early to do some work, it's going to be short for now. Mostly I just wanted to show off what has become a rather lengthy album (well 3 pictures) of Alison and I eating ridiculous food in ridiculous places.

Exhibit A: Eating whole veggies on the mountain. (I believe this one has already made its debut on the blog).



Exhibit B: Eating kiwis on a different section of the Andes. As Alison puts it, "what goes down when you don't have any utensils to cut the kiwis". I would argue that, utensils or not, this was bound to happen.



Exhibit C: Eating bread and cheese/salami at the beach (we are so chilean, oh my goodness). This is what happens when you sleep through your hostel's complimentary breakfast. P.S. Please note the awesome chilean sunglasses.

Rando

That's right, I'm writing ANOTHER blog post and 500 years haven't even passed. Who am I? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvbcLzFtM6I) hahaha it couldn't be helped.

I don't really have ganas to write one of those long blog posts, but here are some snapshots of here there and everywhere:

This is what all of the packages of cigarettes have on them. Basically saying YOU AND YO BABY GONNA DIE FOOL, DO YOU KNOW WHAT CIGARETTES DO TO YOU? My interpretation. But close enough.


In my human rights class (I officially had the last class yesterday, whoaaa!) I wrote an essay on el estadio Víctor Jara. Jara was a folk musician during the time of the dictator, and was one of the first people to be killed, just a few days after the coup. I went to the stadium where he was assassinated--which happens to be only about 10 blocks from my house--and walked around it a bit. It's really fascinating, because many of the spaces dedicated to the memory of those tortures/desaparecido/killed during the dictatorship, are so hard to distinguish from normal buildings/monuments. One reason, I believe, why it's still so hard to talk about what happened during the years of the dictadura--everything is still so hidden.

One weekend we went with CIEE on a 15 mile (oh yes) bike tour of literally ALL of santiago. Bikes for short people + 7 hours andando en bici=one sore poto the next day.


I forgot to write about this one time when I went to Argentina for the weekend. hahhh. Three friends and I decided to take the bus to Mendoza, Argentina, famous for wine tours, a beautiful little city, and paragliding (we did not partake in this however). Also, Christine and I needed to get out of the country for a hot second before our visas expired and we were deported back to the US. Woops. Here's a picture of us at one of the vineyards, having a wine tasting.

We rented bikes for only about $3 a day, and headed out through the beautiful, sunny Argentinian countryside, stopping every now and then at a wine bodega. Quite a wonderful way to pass the day. Sun, bikes, wine, and good friends.


Love them.


Oh, and then our bus broke down on the way home....




....While stranded in the middle of no where Chile, we decided to have the world's best picnic.


But good thing that no matter where you are in Chile--even if stranded--you tend to be in the middle of the most beautiful scenery. Not to bad of a night all in all.


Back in Santiago:
Alison and I go trekking at Yerba Loca!

Everyone thinks the gringas are loca because we eat veggies like this. Maybe we are a little crazy, quien sabeee.


The other weekend I went with my Indigenous Rights class to Valparaíso to visit a Mapuche community. Alison and I asked our profe to leave us in Valpo, and we spent the night hanging out with Anna, and then bummed around Valpo the next day!


Gosh we're the coolest.

Last night I went with Christine and my host dad to see Harry Potter 7! SOOO GOOD. Also it came out a day earlier than in the US so whaaaaatttt. I guess Chile's just cool like that. This morning I woke up late (we got home around 2am), and took a nice swim in the building's outdoor pool! Aaah spring is lovely. Now, off to meet friends, and tomorrow we're going on another trekking (or hike as one might say in english).

Lots of love,
Allo (pronounced "ah-joo". Names from 2 year olds are the best, yo.)

pizza personal por 990 pesos? claaaro que sí.

Today after lunch with my family I set off to meet many a CIEEer working in the Starbucks in La Reina. I tend to make it a general rule that I don't like to go to Starbucks and haven't really done so before, but today I needed to be able to sit in a cafe for hours without having to buy lots of coffee/food the entire time. I set out towards La Reina, one of Santiago's many comunas, which happens to be lightyears away from my house. However, the sun was out, I had my trusty flipflops, shorts on (!!!helloooo summer), sun glasses, and my wonderful cellphone/ghetto radio. I got off of the metro at the world's most confusing intersection and started towards the cafe. It was hot hot hottt, but I was walking through a beautiful park, with small houses on one side and a little creek running on the other. After about twenty minutes I decided that, yes I was probably lost, and decided to ask a friendly jogger to point me in the right direction (less of a jogger, and more of a walker bouncing along, with grandma running arms. Adorable.). Obvio, I had walked in the wrong direction. As I turned back, slightly frustrated to have taken up so much time with my mistake, I spun and took in the view in front of me. In the center you don't really see the mountains unless you're in the right place on the street, but here the Andes loomed up over me, a majestic view to stumble upon. I love living so centrally to everything, but it was also incredible to be out in the burbs and see the cordillera so close.

After finally arriving at Starbucks Alison and I caught up on life, laughed really hard (I would like to appologize to all my fellow patrons--those guffaws were my fault), and shared good music. (ohhh yes, you know you like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E46BhMIRujI). We worked hard for two hours and then called it quits. On the walk back to the metro we stopped at telepizza, and got delicious $2 personal sized pizzas. We walked back to the metro, swapping stories and eating pizza out of the box. So often while I'm here the big trips and the crazy sightseeing is what sticks out in my mind as something remarkable to share with the world. There was nothing particularly exciting or "chilean" that happened today, but often the laidback, guffaw-filled days are the ones worth remembering as well.