week in the south!

This past week I went to the south of Chile with about 35 other exchange students. We visited some very cool places such as, torres del paine, Puerto Natales, Punto Arenas, Cueva del Milodon and a ton of other cool places!! It was amazing!!!! If you have any questions about where specific pictures are or whats going on just leave me a comment and I will let you know!!! Hope you enjoy what I saw!!!!

Day at the lake

So yesterday we went to some lake that was about two hours away....i dont remember the name of the lake because it was some mapuche name....which are the native people from this area...like indians basically... so on the way we stopped in curepto and took some pictures on the PACIFIC ocean and with some antique cars that my host dad freaked out when he saw..hahah but anyways it was a good time and enjoy the pics!

this was a sign in the church window in curepto (which happens to be a really old town so we stopped to take pictures but) that says you dont need your cellphone to talk to god so please turn it off before coming in the church..thought it was kind of funny...

sorry the pics are out of order but this is the view from side of the lake...with the palm trees in there...just to make you vermont folk jealous that you are going into winter while i am going into summer!!! hahaha just kidding...

this is a pic of the neighbor and a random cat....hahahha

this is the owners daughter...she was soo cute...oh and by owners i mean the people who owned the house that we had lunch at...you will see a pic of the house later on....

this was some creepy bug on my leg....just thought everybody should see it hahaha

this was the sunset on our way home...it was really pretty and as we kept driving it kept getting more red and  closer to the water it was really pretty

just some flowers by the lake...

just a kewl pic of some floaty things next to the water...

chilean style scare crow.... 

ghetto rigged hose....hahah the ghetto rigged stuff here is deff really common and kind of cracks me up....

pretty view of the lake...

the controls in the boat....STORY! we get in the boat and it takes off and then starts to die...so im kinda freaking out...but then the guy driving the boat picks up the whole black thing there and rearranges it...and everything started to work again...just again another example of how flightay things are down here...hahahha

just a goose in the water 

the second group of people that went out in the boat.....

part of the hotel...slash the area where we hung out....

some really pretty flowers...my host mom said they were called something of the sun...i dont really remember 

this is my host mom, tia isabella, and tia leti from left to right....nice people

some important looking building that i took a picture of....haha

the boat that we rode in.....not the blue one...the other one...

the neighbors in the kayaks.... pretty fun...

pic of my host dad.....rocking the life jacket ahhahah

beautiful pacific ocean!!!

one of the roads we drove on....pretty intense....you cant really tell but it was

view from the house we had lunch at

the house we had lunch at....really nice

another view from the house we had lunch at

more Pacific ocean!!

cool chair thing...

a place we stopped along the way...

some old cars that my host dad and neighbor freaked out about!! hahah

tia isabella, tia leti and my host mom from left to right

the plaza in curepto....

some men on horses....

my host dad and mom and neighbor and i

sign of where we were...because i knew i would forget the name of the town

first view of the pacific....well that day at least

the street in curepto

my host dad my host mom and i

all of us that went except my host dad who was snapping the shot!!

the church which had that sign about cellphones on the front door

well thanks for checking it out.....post more stuff later!!!!

Trip with the rotary PART TWO!!

soo here are some more pictures from the amazing weekend...sorry its taken me a while...but things are pretty crazy here...i have been doing a lot in school and hanging out more with my friends now that my spanish is good enough to make conversation..haha but yea things are going really well for me...i miss everybody from home...but hate to say it....i dont really wanna come home haha this is a great experience and i am loving every minute of it!!! soo enjoy some more pics!!!

this is a sketchy elevator that we took to this vista point thing in valpariaso...from the top it was really pretty.... but getting there...well lets just say it was interesting...or chilean...haha everything in chile is flightay (chilean word that pretty much means ghetto...not really sure on the spelling but thats deff the way it is pronounced)

this is some of the view from the top of the vista...it was really pretty and very close to the ocean... oh yea thats the pacific ocean... incase you didnt kno...

another pic of the ocean and some war boat thing from the vista or cool lookout place

now this is some graffiti that we saw...and i kno that you probabaly wont understand it unless you speak spanish...but it says no entiendo which in spanish means i dont understand... but also its really close to the name of the game console nitendo...just a funny play on words...us gringos thought it was pretty funny...

anther view of the ocean slash valpariaso 

from left to rite...a girl from france (dont kno her name) a guy from france(dont kno his name) a guy from germany (dont kno his name either) sam then theresa then annie

another pic of the flightay elevator thing that we took up to this vista point thing...

another pic from the top of the vista point....very pretty and lost of houses pretty much built on a hill...they were really pretty though because they were all different colors and things...

more pics of the cool houses and buildings

this was at the cerro san cristobal...or the statue of the virgin mary... this was off the side and there were many prayers and thank you notes from people who believe in her

here people lit candles and placed them here in honor of the virgin mary or to pray for things

this is a pic of all the rotary kids.... that came to chile from somewhere else  in the world...but they are mostly from the US with a few from europe

same pic except with the rebound students....or the kids that went to different countries last year...but live here in chile

another pic of the view from valpariaso

pic from the top of the cerro san cristobal or the statue of virgin mary

the statue of virgin mary

inside the statue

more of inside the statue

this was a sign that said...kids dont be scared of what you see...(which was jesus on the cross) and that its important believe and pray with him in mind... or that was the gist of the sign haha

veiw from the bottom of the statue before i climbed up...

policemen.... on horses....pretty cool

another statue at the base of the virgin mary statue

another pic looking down from the top of the statue

the stairs leading up to the statue

P.S. sorry that the pics arent really in order...but you will have to read the whole thing to understand it all...but anyways...thanks for checkin it out...will post more when more exciting things happen!!!!

weekend in santiago, vina del mar and valpariaso....PART ONE

sooooo where to start...i went on a city tour this past weekend that included a visit to santiago, vina del mar and valpariaso...three touristy cities and important places in chile....Santiago is the capital of chile and vina del mar is the largest tourist city in chile.....Valpariaso is just another city near vina del mar that is very pretty...soo here are some pics from the trip... the next post is part two....sooo beware in this post there are no pictures from valpaiaso...

this is a model of the moneda...which is there government building....basically the chilean version of the white house....very pretty

this is me chillin on a sculpture at the moneda

these are my friends and i on the same sculpture....

all of the inbound exchange students in chile...about 40 or so

we visited a museum which was basically for the moneda... very nice

me and one of the gaurds at the moneda!

some of my cool cat friends...posing for the pic

other cool cat friends

some coins on display inside the moneda

this is the view from the house of pablo neruda...look him up really famous chilean poet....had an amazing house and deff got to go in it...but wasnt allowed to take any pics....bummer but i got some from the outside...

the rebound students....or chileans that went with us...that had gone on an exchange last year....

me and some of my friends

cool star in santiago

the outside of the moneda (chilean white house)

outside the house of pablo neruda

pablo neruda's house again....it was very pretty inside

p and m stand for pablo and matilda... it was their house

the garden type things at the house of pablo neruda

these eyes were there so that people wouldnt hit there head on the tree...i know this because one of my friends asked the tour guide

train station in talca

el bueno muchacho... restaurant in santiago watched a bunch of dances and did a little dancing myself....it was a lot of fun

some native dance

the food!!! sooo good

other dance....

thanks for checkin it out....i will post part two soon!!!

Weekend in Santiago!

We left Talca at 9 in the morning on saturday and headed to santiago...on the way we stopped to see my host dad's mother..we were supposed to have lunch with her but she wasnt feeling well so we left after a a short visit....oh by the way..i dont feel like uploading any pictures rite now....sooo ur just gunna get a written explanation...hahah sorry about that....after we left my host grandmothers house we headed to santiago...when we got there we went to my host mother's mothers house.... there we had lunch and they talked for a while (in spanish...haha very fast so i only understood half of what was going on....) then my host dad basically took my on a mini tour of the city...or i should say one sector of the city because it is pretty big

we went down these streets simular to bridge street in burlington where tons of chileans were selling everything u could think of....from movies to sunglasses to food to halloween costumes...pretty cool...then we went to the train station it was actually pretty interesting my host dad was telling me that the train station itself is built on these beams that pivot at the ground level so then when there are earthquakes the building is able to move a little and not stay rigid and break.... neat fact!!!

next we walked around to more shops where crazy chileans were yelling at you to buy their stuff next we walked to this building that was shaped like a cone...before we got to it i asked my host dad what it was because it kind of stood out and he was trying to explain to me what it was but i didnt understand so he decided to just bring me to it to show me

when we get to the front of the building there is a sign that says "planetario" which means planetarium.... i know pretty cool...soo we go inside and there is a mini museum of some interesting space paraphernalia and while we are looking at this.... a staff member comes up and tells us that there is a show in half an hour....soo my host dad gets all excited and asked how long it is and how much it costs...needless to say we end up going to see this show about the planets in the planetarium...it was all in spanish but suprisingly i understood quite a bit...the funny thing is...my host dad told me before we went in there that i wasnt allowed to fall asleep...and during the show i look over and sure enough my host dad is passed out in the seat next to me....

later that nite we went to a costume birthday party for a family friend.... i went as a witch, my host mom was a arab person (not trying to make an ethnic slur just dont know what the proper term is) with a cloth wrapped around her head and my host dad went as the same thing and my host brother went as a ninja... it was pretty fun...the party started at 8 and we finally left there at around 2...long nite...but it was kewl and different and i got to speak a lot of spanish and learned some new things......

then we went to my host dad's sisters house and slept there...i slept in this room with an older lady who i think was another one of my host dad's sisters but im not sure... then in the morning we left around noon and went to a mall in santiago...... lots of fun...the stores there were pretty expensive but had really nice stuff....i was soo tempted to buy one of everything but held back and didnt buy anything....i kept telling myself i have a whole year...i dont need to go crazy in my first month!! haha... then we left the mall around 4ish and went and had dinner at my host dad's moms house (she was feeling better today) then came home...well there is my weekend in a nut shell.....sorry i didnt upload any pics.....but i didnt take that many and i figured a little reading would be a pleasant change!!!!

thanks for checking it out!!!! 

my birthday!!!!!

these are some pictures from my birthday party... i had a really good time and there were quite a few people there.... lots of fun!!!

me laughing at something....

blowing out my candles!!! that wouldnt blow out..because they were those ones that keep burning for ever!!!

eating cake!!!

ivanna me panchy alberto and lorenna from left to right!! friends from school

i got a bag that says chile on it from some of my friends

my birthday cake!!!!

a bunch of my friends

another pic.....

the gringos!!!! haha me annie theresa and sam....(the americans....)

cake time!!!!

thanks for checkin it out!!! more pics later

these pics are of a festival at my school... last week sorry i havent gotten them on sooner... i have been really busy... but yea check it out... 

these are my friends doing some dance...

some other friends that jus did a play.. i think its kind of similar to a one act... i didnt really understand that much of the play.....hahah

the national flag dance

the area where everyone watched the dancing and acting....

VIVA CHILE!!!

vilma, panchy,me and ivanna from left to right,......

cristian.... rockin the peace sign...

some other dance i think native to easter island