La belleza de Valparaíso

This past Thursday was a holiday from school. I found out that we didn't have class on Thursday during our class on Wednesday. Apparently everyone else had realized this for some time. Anyways, Maggie invited me, Luke, and Meg to go to Valparaiso for the day. We got a whirlwind tour of this town that is only 1.5 hours from Santiago. It is the Chilean version of San Francisco because it is a city built on a hill. It even has ascensores which are little cars that run on tracks down hills and all around the city. "Valpo" is the oldest port town in all of South America and when it was first founded, people came from all over the world to trade in this port. We decided to sample out some of the fish that makes Valpo so famous when we arrived so we went to a restaurant right on the water. Our table was out on the balcony with an ocean view as our dessert throughout the meal. After a pisco sour, a cup of vino, and a platter of Reineta fish with papas fritas, we were all stuffed. Megan and I had split our impressive fish platter but we had also wanted a salad so we picked one that said: Ensalada de plata y tomatoe. Well they aren't kidding, because they brought us a plate of just palta y tomatoe...sin lechuga. I guess that's how they do it here because one girl in the program ordered una ensalada de plata and was greeted with a plate chock-full of palta (avocado). haha So Megan and I enjoyed our plate of pure tomato and avocado. At the end of the meal, we all took a shot that is supposed to help with digestion. Es usualmente un trago amargo que ayuda a calmar la guata despues de la comida. Quizas el trago nos ayudó porque exploramos por la ciudad durante el resto del día. Las fotos siguientes son de nuestra aventura en Valpo:

View from our restaurant by the shore

Maggie and her friend Adriana

Megan, Me, and my host brother Luke

This is how I feel sometimes when I am exploring Chile.

The City on the Hill

Every house is painted some bright color...

...so the city resembles a variety box of Crayola crayons.

Now THAT'S a McDonalds.


When your world breaks down
When the voices tell you turn around
When your dreams give out, I will carry you
When the stars go blind
When the darkness starts to flood your eyes
When you're falling behind, I will carry you.


La Vista Anochecida


Listen to life while connecting the dots


If you listen, the art might just speak.

Amor.

Si no fuera por ti, no sería feliz.

Una mezcla de la naturaleza y la arte hecho de mano

Good 'Ole Starbucks

My first experience at Starbucks in Chile was magical. Jeanny and I met Megan there so we could all study...but mainly talk. Let's be honest here. Who really goes to Starbucks with good friends to just study?? haha The Starbucks is about 4 blocks from my house and it is huge and there is even a fountain outside. It is amazing...to say the least. I went up to the counter to order my coffee and it went like this:

Rose: Hola, me gustaría un Misto. Lo se vende?
Starbucks Girl: (confusion) Que es un Misto?
Rose: Ohhh ummm es....
Starbucks Dude: You can speak English to me and I will translate.
Rose: No...voy a tratar de decirlo en espanol. Pero gracias...Un misto es una mitad de cafe negro y una mitad de chocolate caliente.
Starbucks Girl: Como una mocha?
Rose: Si como eso. Sería mas facil si me da una mocha.

Once I had gotten my coffee, I thanked the guy again but said that I was trying to speak Spanish as much as possible. When we left the Starbucks about an hour later, the guy asked us where we were from. "Somos de California...en el sur." He proceeded to tell us that he grew up in Palmdale...this hella Chilean looking guy actually grew up in a town that is just 2 hours from me and Megan. He even knew Llano (for everyone who doesn't know Llano, it is a TINY town in the desert between Palmdale and Pinon Hills <--where me and Meg grew up). So this past Sunday, Megan and I went to see HARRY POTTER and the Half-Blood Prince. Loved it! And I wouldn't have wanted to see it with anyone else. Then we went back to Starbucks to do some Spanish studying and Chris was there again. He ended up giving us free coffee and teaching us some Chilenismos too. What a small world it is. Hope you enjoy the following pictures. Megan and I got a "surprise present" in our movie meal which was definitely a pack of tiny dinosaurs. So we decided to make the most of our awesome present in Starbucks. Much love to all of the people who take the time to read this blog. I love sharing my experiences with you all and I trust that you are all having a ton of fun too! MISS YOU ALL TONS! :)

Megan and I have so much talent that it's scary sometimes.

The newest ad for Starbucks coffee

I started naming all of the dinosaurs' scientific names like Brachiasaurus, Stegasaurus, and Triceratops. Megan didn't understand how I knew all of the names until I explained that Will had wanted to be a Palientologist for a good majority of his childhood. Thanks to Dinosaur Parade and our days spent in Fern Gully with his extensive collection of Dimetrodons and Tyrannosaurus Rexes, all of the Linehan kids have quite the vocabulary when it comes to dinosaurs.

So artsy yet so misunderstood.

Oh YEAH...my best friend is here in Chile with me.

Mi yeso y el resto de Lunes

I'm always a little behind in these posts, but that doesn't mean that I don't remember the details of the last few days. Saturday was the day of the "final" for ILP which I feel I did really well on. (currently dusting my shoulder off as I write that haha) Then we had an empanada party with the teachers and students and staff. I left early to walk to the main part of town to switch out my tobillera. Jeanny ended up coming with me and we definitely went to Burger King afterwards to split the infamous King's Cone. We have a lot of fun together :) The bummer is that I had to pass up like 3 invites again being that it was Saturday night. But I had to let my ankle rest so I posted up in mi cama and found a lot of Spanish music like Reik, Cabas, Enrique, and Shakira. Now I'm gonna look like a pimp walking to school listening to my spicy latin music. Actually...that statement will not be true for the next 10 days because I definitely have a cast on my left leg that goes up to my knee...but after that comes off, I will definitely be cool when I walk to school.

Why do I have a cast? Not to worry. The doctor said that it is nothing too serious but the fact that I will have to walk to and from the metro and then to school means that I need to immobilize the ligament as best I can. Thus he put me in a cast with a little "shoe" that goes on the bottom so I can walk. I thought it was hilarious...trying to understand the doctor's diagnosis whilst trying to apply my kinesiology/anatomy knowledge. I ended up asking him to let me know exactly what ligament had been injured and he came back with a model foot of all the foot bones and showed me exactly which ligament it was. Basically, it's the one that is most commonly injured con un esguine del tobillo which is the one that connects from the distal end of the fibula to the talus. I was laughing the whole time I was at the doctor's office which I figure is a good sign. I could be all down in the dumps because there's an electric blue cast impeding me from hiking into the mountains or exploring the city like everyone else. BUT on the other hand, I need to be grateful that it is not a broken bone or an in jured muscle! Funny story: As the doctor was telling me what I would need, he said "yeso" which sounds a LOT like "hueso" so I was like: HUESO?! (bone...by the way) and Maggie and him both started laughing. Yeso just means cast so once I figured that out, I felt a little more at ease.

Maggie was a saint yesterday. She not only took me to the doctor but also to the campus office to get the need paperwork for my insurance claim. Then she took me downtown to pick up my Chilean identification card. Then we picked up my anti-inflammatory prescription at a farmacia and then went to the post office to mail off my claim. So ya...we were rockstars yesterday. My speaking was on point yesterday. When learning another language, you learn that you are going to have good days and bad days. Yesterday was a good day and Maggie and I were joking around saying things like how I should go to La Moneda to flirt with the guards because they are all altos y guapos. She was telling me some good lines to use like: "Nunca habia visto un hombre tan alto como tu. Todos los otros estan hasta mi ombligo."

For the rest of the day, we ate a yummy lunch of rice with a fried egg on top, a salad as colorful as a Christmas tree, and a Salmon filet with enough herbs to make any Santa Barbaran excited. haha Sorry--had to say it. For the record, Maggie doesn't put weed in anything she cooks. Then I helped Maggie with a computer problem and we proceeded to go through the photos of his nephew as well as past students that have stayed with her. Then Jeanny walked over to console me about my electric blue reminder of my oopsie. I Skyped with Franky who was in the barracks and had some of his fellow Marine bros with him. One guy was going through a lot and as we were talking, Frank was like: "Dude are you flirting with my sister?" Frank always does stuff like that so I decided to entertain him by asking the guy to marry me. He said he would plan on it the day that I got back to the states. So that's something to look forward to, eh? haha
Jeanny and I watched Tropic Thunder after that and then passed out. Robert Downey Jr. will forever and always be my favorite actor in that movie. Welp, that was my Monday.

On the operation table...haha

I totally got to choose the color.

Don't worry--the wheelchair was just to get me to the car. I can walk!