Halloween Weekend

On Friday I went to OHSU for an information session about their nursing and midwifery programs. At first the campus/hospital and the filled auditorium of prospective nursing students were kind of intimidating but as the session went on things sounded better and better.

The program I’m planning on applying to is 3 years total. The first year is an accelerated bachelor’s of nursing degree and then the next two years are a graduate level midwifery degree. I found out that last year they accepted 8 students out of 35 applicants to this program. So we’ll see what happens when I apply!

Friday night I hung out with Casey and her house mates who are all Reedies (students who go to Reed College in Portland). It was a big difference going from the OHSU campus which had signs posted outside saying “NO Smoking…Call such-and-such for assistance”. Meaning that smoking is prohibited across the entire campus. To Reed where students were smoking INSIDE the pool hall on campus because the Reed students believe that they are above State laws when they are in their student union building.

Here is Casey and her boyfriend Elliot getting dinner ready Friday night. She did homemade pumpkin soup and served it in the pumpkin!

Saturday I headed south again so that I would be in Eugene for Halloween! I went to a couple get-togethers at friends’ houses and had a great time. I dressed up as a “Photo Album” for Halloween which involved safety pinning photos all over the front of my dress. Someone had a great idea and suggested that I could have been a Yearbook and then I could have written on all the pictures with a black marker, for example devil horns on one person, hearts around another, BFF under one, etc.

This is me trying to drive south on Saturday with a football game a UO and at OSU on the same day! All three lanes looked like this. Note the flags and pompoms. Go Ducks!

At one point Saturday night Adrien and I were standing outside a house on 24th and Alder when a group of boys walked up to ask us a question…
Boy: Hey we’re trying to get to 15th and Harris. Do you guys now if Harris is that way or that way (boy indicated east and west directions)
Adrien: Harris is that way (Adrien points west)
Boy: Awesome thanks!
All Boys start walking south…
AlexAnn: Hey guys…15th is that way…(AlexAnn points North).

Here’s me at my friend Amelie’s house. The guy next to me is dressed up as Facebook. One of the girls is a sunflower and one is an eggplant. You can’t see my photos in this picture.

Here’s Hannah, Me, Lindsey and Adrien all in our costumes! Hannah has book pages glued to her dress and is a bookworm, Lindsey is a seamstress and Adrien is a flapper. You can see some of my photos in this picture but they actually blended in pretty well to my dress pattern. Sometimes I would talk to a person for a while and then suddenly they would say, “Whoa! You’ve got pictures on you.” Because they didn’t notice right away.

Tuesdays…When I’m Lucky

Next time I say, “Guess what! I only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays this term!” Don’t be jealous. Only having classes 2 days a week means Tuesday’s can occur as follows when my lucky stars all line up.

5:30 AM – Wake up to finish studying for Human Physiology midterm which starts at 8:30 AM.

8:00 AM – Almost ready to leave for campus when I happen to glance at my Human Physiology LAB schedule and notice that a 2 page lab report introduction is due today…immediately after my midterm. After a slight panic attack and a delusional idea that maybe I can get it done before Lab I give in to reality and deal with the fact that I’m going to lose 10 points out of 170 on the report.

8:30 AM – Midterm starts. And it went decent. I already got my score: 40/45 = 88%. Next midterm goal = A.

10:00 AM – Finished with midterm and go to Human Phys Lab. Turns out that I wasn’t the only student who spaced our assignment that was due. Only 3 out of 10 students in my lab remembered! So I didn’t feel so stupid anymore If you fail it’s always nicer to do so with company. It really wasn’t funny that we were all losing so many points but when I realized it was so many of us I couldn’t help but giggle. The sad thing is that most students have lab later in the week so they will remember to do it because they won’t be so focused on studying for the midterm which was today in lecture class.

So in lab we stared at lights, poked each other, tasted jolly ranchers, and tapped our patellar tendon to watch our knees jerk among other fun tests. My group finished up early and I had time to watch the 1931 version of Frankenstein which I was supposed to watch for my Spanish cinema class (not sure exactly why, but I did it). I watched it through netflicks online which was pretty cool!

I was pulled out of the dark torch-lit chase after Frankenstein when my Gasoline Lovers presentation group members showed up for last minute talk before our group presentation at 2:00 PM. In our Global Energy Policy class we were assigned to argue in a presentation to congress that Gasoline is the way to go to fulfill America’s future energy needs. Just stick with gasoline and we’ll all be OK! No worries! People have been saying that it’s running our for years and we’ve still got more so what’s the problem? Right?

Presentation went well even though we all know gasoline is doomed, sometimes it’s fun to try to argue for the losing side. Not that coal, nuclear power or wind power (the other groups) were winners either or anything.

4:00 PM – Finishing Spanish homework before class at 5:00PM. I have not been home since 8:00 AM. But it’s my last class, good thing all we do is watch movies because by this point in the day that’s about all I can do!

6:20 PM – Finally…done…for..today…I skipped the group cycling class that I’ve been going to Tuesdays in the Rec Center and made chocolate chip cookies instead. This was a good idea because I’m still sore from racing in the Beaver Fever Duathlon (Run 5K/Bike 18mi/Run 5K) on Sunday in Philomath. But, then at 8:00 PM Christie convinced me to go workout with her so the resting plan failed, got to work out the soreness I guess!

Okay time to go do that lab assignment that I was supposed to turn in today!

Despedida

On Monday I checked off the last things on my “List to do before leaving Valdivia”. I went by the Hospital and the Clinic (well I thought they were going to be my last visits but I ended up going to each on Tuesday as well…), I had everything packed except for the things I really needed to use, I bought ingredients to cook pizza for dinner on Tuesday because Regina wanted pizza, etc.

In the afternoon chilling in my room Tomas asked me if I had any plans that evening and invited me to go get a coffee with him when he got out of classes. I thought that was really sweet of him and was happy that I was going to get to chat with Tomas for a while.

Around 6:00 PM John came home from classes and out of the blue I asked him if he wanted to go to the beach with me to watch the sunset. We hopped on the bus and made it there just in time. John commented on how symbolic it was that I was watching the sunset on my last full day in Valdivia:

Tomas called me to go meet up with in for coffee while John and I were at the beach so we hopped on the bus to head back. John went home and I went to the University to find Tomas in the library. We walked to the gas station which is the central hangout/coffee/empanadas place to go. It’s really exactly what is needed just a couple blocks from the University, a 24 hour place with cheap unhealthy food and free wireless internet.

I was wanting to hang out with Tomas but I also wanted to eat dinner with the family. Tomas told me that he had to pick up some papers from someone at his work just after 8:00 PM. He works at a sushi restaurant that’s in-between the university and our house so I suggested we go get the papers and then go back home to eat.

We walked into the restaurant and Katia, Regina and John were all there! My first thought: “Oh they decided to go out since it was only the three of them!” But that didn’t really make any sense because the family never goes out. The last time we did eat out as a family was for my birthday in April. Then Katia said, “This is your farewell dinner!” And at that point I caught on that it had all been a plan. Marcelo and Marcelo (dad and son) also showed up shortly after. John didn’t know about the plans until he got back to the house from the beach. Katia said they didn’t tell him because they didn’t know if he would keep the secret.

It was supposed to be a farewell for my friend Kate too but she didn’t fall for the fake invitation like I did. And then when I called her from the restaurant and told her the truth that it was a surprise for us she couldn’t come because she had plans already.

It’s a Japonese sushi restaurant but I’m not really a fan of sushi and Katia doesn’t care much for the idea of eating raw stuff either so everything we had was at least fried a little and it was all delicious! It probably helped that we had Tomas ordering for us and he knows the whole menu. Along with the wonderful potstickers, shrimp, rice rolls and yumminess I got some photos too because luckily I had my camera with me because I had brought it to the beach.

Here’s John, Regina and Tomas:

Then I gave the camera to Marcelo and ran around to get in the pic:

Then Marcelo the dad said give me the camera and Marcelito went around to get in the picture:

These days we differentiate between Marcelo and Marcelo with the nicknames “Pelado” and “Peladito” which are “Baldy” and “Little Baldy” because Marcelo the dad is bald and Marcelo the brother has been shaving his head recently. Also families that have a dad and a son with the same name will differentiate by using “Marcelo” for the dad and then “Marcelito” for the son because the “ito” on the end means “little”.

Tuesday morning I invited friends to Entrelagos, a chocolate shop/cafe to eat crepes filled with ice cream for breakfast. I was running low on cash so I paid for Kate’s juice with my credit card and she gave me cash so that I would have just enough cash to survive the trip to the airport. I made my last trip by the University with a box full of recycle paper that I had been collecting for 6 months because the University is the only place I know of where I can recycle paper. Then I made my last trips by the hospital and clinic to say bye.

For lunch we had Cazuela because Katia asked me what I wanted and that’s what I picked. I would compare it to pot roast or stew but the liquid part is very watery and it had chicken, whole potatoes, carrots, rice, and corn on the cob. Then I finished packing and made pizza dough with Regina. The pizza dough didn’t rise again…I don’t know why I have such problems working with yeast sometimes but I’m just going to blame it on the yeast and say it was bad.

Everyone came over for pizza and the regular bread, avacado, jams dinners that we have. When I say everyone I mean: John, Kate, David, Maxi (Marcelito’s best friend), Marcelito, Marcelo, Regina, Katia, Tomas, Hillary and Me. I was feeling really pressured in the last few minutes to be sure my stuff was ready and eat with everyone and call a taxi and in the table I kept having to take deep breaths and remind myself that I had plenty of time and everything was ready.

Everyone finished eating and Katia and John fought over who was going to carry my bags from my room outside to wait for the taxi. Out in the carport I did a test run to make sure that I could carry each of my 2 enormous suitcases, plus my carry-on suitcase that was full of books plus my backpack. And I did it! I made a couple laps with all my stuff under the car-port to prove it. Kate took a picture so I didn’t have to go searching for my camera in my backpack.

I hadn’t thought about actually saying bye to the family until it came down to the second to say goodbye to the family. Katia told me that she loved me and that she knew I would be successful in life because I’m a persistent person. She was almost crying and that’s when it hit me that I really was leaving. I ran inside while Katia made sure the taxi waited and John put my suitcases in the trunk. I gave everyone hugs and cheek kisses then got in the taxi. I had asked John and Hillary a few minutes before if they would go to the bus station with me so they hopped in too.

“Vamos a Estados Unidos por favor,” (We’re going to the United States please), I said to the taxi driver who laughed. I had no idea, and Hillary didn’t either, but John knew that Cota and Jeffery, our Chilean peer advisers were at the bus station to see me off too. They had a good-bye card for me and everyone helped me get my suitcases in the bus so I managed to avoid much suffering with my suitcases in the beginning.

I wrote this all when I was waiting in the Santiago airport but then hadn’t posted it yet. I’ve been home for 4 days now and this is the first time I’ve had a moment to go on the computer and post it! I love you all, thanks for reading my blogs so that I could share some of my experience with family and friends. I hope you had as much fun reading them as I had writing them!

Fiestas Patrias

On September 18th Chile celebrated it’s independence day. Except it wasn’t just Friday the 18th that was celebrated. People were celebrating all week and all weekend. The family spent the long weekend relaxing, cooking and eating mainly. Friday, Saturday and Sunday we ate typical Chilean lunches at home. Friday was empanadas made by Marcel (el papá) and Tomás. Sunday was Chupe de Loco which was a shellfish of some kind that was cooked and eaten in a cheesy sauce. Plus salmon and homemade french fries.

On Friday I noticed that we had a Chilean flag hanging up outside the house and said something along the lines of “Oh look we have a flag! How pretty!” (Sometimes the things I say in Spanish are very deep and thoughtful as you can tell). Then Regina told me, “Yeah, it’s obligatory.” My reply was a wide-eyed surprised look and “En serio!?” (Seriously!?). Regina: “Yep, supposedly they can give you a fine if you don’t display a flag on the 18th.” The family didn’t seem to have any problem with that. They just saw it as something patriot and in my opinion Chile is a very patriotic country.

But I was really surprised and between John and I we came to a couple conclusions. 1) Our generation in the US doesn’t have much respect for the government or for patriot symbols like the flag, 2) If I was told that I HAD to fly the flag or I would be fined, that would be enough reason for me to NOT do it.

They don’t have any fireworks in Valdivia but on Saturday we went to the nearby park there was a small fair. A LOT of people were flying kites, there were a few fair like games and some very old carnival rides. Tomas told us that the cool part about the rides wasn’t that they were fast or scary the exciting part is that you never know if it is going to break and kill everyone.

Here’s John showing that he’s having a crazy awesome time with the carnival games. I thought it was interesting that part of the games included having about 8 fosball tables:

That was Saturday but jumping back to Thursday. Giovanna, a midwife in the clinic invited me to come to their work party Thursday afternoon to watch them dance cueca. Here’s me with the midwives Giovanna and Scarlette, dressed up in their traditional cueca dresses:

Here’s a link to a video of them dancing along with other workers in the clinic. The surroundings look like we’re in a basement because we are in the basement of the clinic. I assure you that upstairs everything looks very lovely:

Bailando La Cueca en La Clinica Alemana

Dealing with the Consequences of Sunny Days

I was just biking along enjoying the sun on my way home from the bus station where I bought my ticket that will take me to Santiago to catch my plane home in a week when I bee flew down my shirt and stung me! Then instead of leaving it decided to hang out for a while and crawl down towards my tummy. I stopped the bike, used one hand to pull my close fitting sweatshirt and t-shirt away from my body while I unbuckled and pulled off my Timbuk2 bag, which was definitely not helping with the situation, with my other hand. So finally, bag thrown on the ground, clothing pulled away from skin, I managed to fold up the bottom part of my shirt and sweatshirt and flick away the bee with my finger because it wasn’t about to leave on its own.

Sigh of relief, danger passed, rescue mission a success in the sense that I only got stung once instead of a billion times…Then I realized that I was stopped in the middle of the road flashing my boobs to everyone who passed by…

Solita en Pucon

Friday afternoon I hopped on a bus to go to Pucon, the outdoorsy tourist paradise of mid-southern Chile. A Chilean friend loaned me his helmet, goggles and snowpants and I already had gloves and a jacket so all I needed was a board and boots to go snowboarding on Volcan Villarrica. I arrived after dark and went looking for Etnico Eco Hostel which had the best reviews on hostelworld.com plus people said on the website that they had a big dog:

I found the hostel a short walk out of the center of town and by chance there were a couple people just on the other side of the gate when I arrived. A girl opened the gate and I poked my head in and asked in Spanish if there was space. She was answering and then she lunged towards me and half pulled me in and half closed the gate. After a few seconds of being very confused I realized that a stray dog was trying to sneak in around my legs.

The girl was very outgoing and talkative but obviously Spanish wasn’t her first language. As we walked around to the entrance she was explaining to me that the owner of the hostel, Gustavo, wasn’t there at the moment because he had a restaurant that was opening up that evening. She asked where I was from and then said “Oh good we can speak English, did you understand what I said about the owner?” It turned out she was from Brazil and the other guy who was with her at the moment who hadn’t said anything yet was from England. So before I showed up and started speaking in Spanish they were speaking in English.

I was immediately invited to go out to dinner with them that night at the restaurant of the hostel owner. Juliana, the Brazilian girl had already been staying in the hostel for a few days along with her sister Ana and friend Vanessa so they were very much at home there. I just hung out in the living room and chatted while we waited for a reasonable hour to go out to dinner (8:00 PM was much to early apparently).

In addition to the 3 Brazilians and Jordan, the English guy, there was Maxim, a guy from Quebec, Canada. When I first started talking to Maxim in English his English was really good but not perfect but I never would have guessed where he was from because the French spoken in Quebec doesn’t have the same accent as the French spoken in France plus he learned English in Ontario, Canada.

At one point before we all left for dinner Gustavo came back and found me sitting on the couch in the living room all by myself with my book. He knew I was coming at some point because I sent him an email asking about snowboarding because not only does he have the hostel and a restaurant he also leads excursions in Pucon like climbing Volcan Villarrica, so after I introduced myself he wasn’t surprised to find me sitting there and he showed me a room.

At 10:00 PM, very hungry, we left to find the restaurant and eat dinner. Gustavo had told the directions to get to the restaurant to Maxim and Juliana, but each of them was expecting the other to pay closer attention and as a result we were wandering around a bit before we found it. Plus he probably told the directions in English which he speaks very well, but English is a second language for all 3 of them. While we were walking around searching I kept finding that I was walking way out in front of everyone. I told Maxim, “I think I walk really fast,” and he said, “No, the Brazilian girls walk really slow.” I was kinda bummed that it was a sushi restaurant because I’m not a sushi fan and sushi is expensive, but luckily they had really good sushi-free empanadas as well.

I headed home earlier than the rest because it seemed like they were leaning towards being up really late whereas I was only thinking about snowboarding the next day. Gustavo gave me the name and address of a good place to rent a board and get a bus ride up to the mountain in the morning. It was around midnight and I almost stopped by the market to buy food for the next day but decided I would just wait until morning to do that because it was so late.

What I forgot was that mornings in Chilean towns get started really slowly. At 7:30 AM there was absolutely nothing open in the whole town. At 8:00 AM after asking someone for help I found one little bakery open next to the bus station and then they directed me to a small market that was also open down the street but they were the only two open until around 9:00 AM. But between the 2 I managed to eat breakfast and pack myself a lunch.

Then I went and got my equipment at the snowboard place and they hooked me up with a bus ride to the mountain. This is the mountain as I was riding the lift that goes from the first lodge to the second lodge, then from the second lodge there are other lifts that go up higher.

The weather was gorgeous! I have never snowboarded in nicer weather. I was actually too warm sometimes and the snow wasn’t fluffy because of the sun but I really have no complaints.

The mountain and the two lodges are all pretty small and there were just the right number of people out that I wasn’t alone but it wasn’t crowded and I never had to wait in line. I found out that the only bad thing about snowboarding by yourself is that there’s no one to laugh at you when you fall down getting off the lift. I was really proud of myself because other than my first couple times off the lift I practically didn’t fall all day long. I did all of the runs or “pistas” really well except for the highest one and then I was trying to decide whether or not I was ready to do it also.

I asked one man on skis for his advice and told him that I had done all of the others easily but he said it was really steep and looked at me like I shouldn’t do it. Then I asked the next woman I saw and she was on a snowboard and she told me that I would be fine doing it so I went for it knowing that I could always get back on the lift and ride down if it looked too scary from on top. Here’s what it looked like from down below:

And here’s what it looked like from on top:

It was kind of steep but it was nothing I couldn’t handle plus the snow up there was much nicer and fluffier. Here’s me taking a break and enjoying the view:

The guys working in the lower lodge were all very friendly and will store your bag for you for tips. I was immediately dubbed, “La Chica de Oregon” and was called that every time I came through. They had a very cool homemade jug for their tips:

Eventually I headed back down to Pucon and rested and slept the rest of the day. Sunday I did something that I could easily do back in Eugene…bike for 4 hours in the rain…it was supposed to rain on Sunday but the day started out just overcast. I wasn’t unbearably sore from snowboarding and it wasn’t raining yet so I decided to rent a bike and go biking on a route to a lake that one of the Brazilian girls told me about.

The first half was gravel roads through lovely countryside. I passed two men on horses, one of them herding along a steer. I came upon this bridge and was on the bridge about to take a picture when I truck started coming right at me and I got off as quick as I could.

I couldn’t really enjoy the views too much because I was so busy avoiding potholes and gravel and trying to get my shifting figured out because the gravel/dirt road was constantly going up and down. Then right about as I was taking this photo it started to rain:

When the rain started my bike ride turned into a mission: Get to the lake as fast as possible and head back. My route was planned so that I went out on the gravel road and then came back almost completely downhill on the paved road. In the rain the view of the lake was far from impressive. I’m not even going to put up a picture of it. I ate some food under the outdoor cover of a closed restaurant, put on my snow coat because that was the only extra layer I had brought with me in case I got wet and cold, and headed back.

I mountain biked the 40 km in under 4 hours and got back to the bike rental place completely soaked and muddy. The lady in the bike rental shop thought that I had turned around and come back early instead of going all the way to the lake because I did it so fast but really it was just that with the rain I wasn’t stopping to take pictures or anything so it went faster. She only ended up charging me for 1/2 a day with the bike when normally the route I did would have been a full day use.

Getting Close…

I’m down to less than 2 weeks in Valdivia so I’m getting everything planned out down to the…hour. I’m getting a head start on my goodbyes and giving away the last of the gifts that I brought with me from the Made in Oregon store so that I won’t be rushed when it actually comes time to leave.

This weekend I was going to travel to Puerto Varas and bike around a Lanquihue Lake but just today I decided that I’m going to Pucon to snowboard on Volcano Villarrica instead. I’m going by myself partially because I’ve been wanting to go on a short trip by myself to be selfish and do exactly what I want to do the whole time and see what it’s like and also because my friends don’t want to go snowboarding…but I’m telling the truth I really do want to have some time to myself traveling! It’s not that my friends don’t love me…I think…

Other things that I want to do before I leave include finishing my thesis research. I thought I was going to finish this week but on Wednesday I was going to accompany a midwife with a mom who’s labor they were going to induce with the hormone oxytocin but when the midwife asked the mom if it was okay with her if I was there she said no. I completely respect that she said no but it was interesting because it was the first time someone has said no. I think the midwife was a little disappointed because she likes working with students and was looking forward to having company because an induced labor can take a long time, usually at least all day.

This particular mom was going to be my last interview…so now I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll have an opportunity next week to enter in the labor and delivery of a mom who has a normal birth, not a c-section, and then interview the mom.

Another event that’s coming up before I leave Chile is “El Dieciocho” or “The 18th” which is Chile’s independence day. People started talking about El Dieciocho a few weeks ago and all the taxi drivers already have Chilean flags stuck on their cars and the stores are all decorated. From what I’ve heard I believe that it will be more like a week of celebration rather than a day of celebration. In which we party and party and people dance “la cueca” which is Chile’s national dance and we eat lots and lots of typical Chilean food.

Also I want to cook lunch for my family once more before I leave. For lunch I want to make the “typical” North American breakfast. If I do it on a Sunday it will be just the same as if it were breakfast because the majority of the house doesn’t wake up until lunchtime on the weekends. We’re doing the “typical” breakfast because Chileans think that we eat huge breakfasts like that everyday. So we’re going to do pancakes, hash browns, eggs, toast, bacon, sausage, french toast, orange juice, milk, and maybe some fruit in there too.

So those few things and I pack my bags and head home!

Con Risueño en el Campo

Today I went out to Panguipulli where my friend Sergio’s dad is the administrator of a big farm that recently started growing hazelnuts and that has cows, horses, dogs, a lake, hills full of riding trails, a snow-covered volcano and all the other things that beautiful farm should have.

This is 11 year old Risueño, a “Caballo de Chile” who is the same horse I rode last time I went to visit el campo:

When I got to the house we put my stuff on the couch, found me some riding boots and headed out right away to bring in a steer from an outer pasture into a corral by the barn so that it would be there to practice rodeo with. I did help a little but here’s Sergio getting the steer:

Of course not just that steer went into the other corral, the other 3 cows had to follow too, so then I stopped taking pictures and actually helped guard the gate with my horse Risueño while Sergio sorted out the cows we didn’t want. Eventually we got it all right and got all the gates closed again and headed up into the hills to ride.

Some areas were pretty muddy from the rain but we were lucky enough that it didn’t rain on us this morning. Although it wasn’t raining it was still cloudy and just like last time I wasn’t able to see the volcano that is supposedly behind the clouds in this photo:

The wooden stirrups that they use here deserve a photo of their own because I think they’re really pretty:

When we were riding out in one of the various fields that we passed through on our trail ride Sergio suggested that I take a video with my camera of the side passing in the canter movement that they do in the Chilean rodeo. I’m glad he suggested it because I always forget that my camera can take awesome videos too and videos can be really fun. I put the videos up on youtube so you can watch them. One is just of me cantering a bit and the other is me playing catch with the dog while on horseback. Here are the links:

AlexAnn y Risueño en el Campo

AlexAnn y Risueño y el Perro en el Campo

After playing around we got hungry and headed back down to the house for lunch. Beef, homemade french fries and salad were lunch. We were planning on heading back out to ride again and even left the saddles on the horses but it started to rain a lot so we put on rubber boots and went out so that I could play with the puppies while we waited to see if the rain stopped. Sergio and I made a list of animals that I need to take home with me from Chile: a green parrot, another big bird that we don’t have but they do have here, 2 puppies and a Chilean Horse. Here’s me with the 2 bigger puppies but there was also a big litter of tiny ones:

After holding the 2 puppies until they didn’t want to be held anymore it was still raining so I started brushing Risueño. We didn’t get back on the horses because of the rain but I left Risueño very clean all except for the very large mat in his tail that we didn’t have a comb to use to get out.

That was my wonderful day with the horses and puppies out in the countryside. See you in 15 days!

Chiloé Chile

Chiloé is a big island and archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about 4 hours south of Valdivia. Even though it’s winter and Chiloe is known for being a very rainy place, Hillary, John and I headed for the island by bus bright and early Friday morning with the main goal of finding penguins in Chiloe. We crossed the canal in our bus and didn’t get off the bus because of the rain.

Upon arriving in Ancud the first thing we did was ask about penguins in the tourist office in the bus terminal. “No hay pinguinos,” was the immediate answer from the senora and our dreams of seeing pinguinos were crushed. Apparently we arrived one month too early because the penguins come in the end of September. But here’s some pretty parrots I saw in a tree outside our Hospedaje on Sunday:

The second thing we did in Ancud was ask around until we found a place were we could buy rain ponchos. Then we set off to tour the sites of Ancud on foot with our lovely heavy-duty rain ponchos. The first thing we went looking for in the city was the beach shown on the map in my Lonely Planet Chile book. As we were looking lost and talking loudly among the three of us in our far from perfect Spanish trying to decide which direction to walk a Señora walking along paused and asked us what we were looking for. That is not the first time that someone has nicely offered to help me in Chile just because I look a little lost but every time it catches me by surprise because people just shouldn’t be so nice.

Yay for ponchos! (We looked like turtles with our backpacks on under the ponchos.)

After taking our self-led tour of the city we decided it was best to head to Castro, the capital of the island just a couple hours to the south, right away rather than spend more time in Ancud. We bought our bus tickets then got some lunch in a restaurant. A family in the restaurant sang happy birthday to a little boy then the TV in the restaurant played the strangest and grossest music video I have ever seen. The video starts out normal, then gets a little outrageous when the singer starts stripping and then becomes shocking when he continues stripping down to his flesh and down to his bones.

In Castro we put on our ponchos again and went looking for a hostel. We found Hospedaje El Mirador. There was only one other person staying in the hospedaje and despite it’s plain looks from the outside it was very cozy and pretty on the inside and the owner was very nice. This is the view from our bedroom window at 7:30 AM when we woke up early on Saturday to go to the National Park:

We made it to the National Park with our home-made sandwiches and ponchos ready for a day full of hiking. The first trail we hiked took about 30 minutes and we were back at the starting place. A large portion of the trail was built up on bridges:

We finally figured out where the other trails were only to realize that ponchos and sandwiches weren’t enough. The trail was flooded and we didn’t have tall rubber boots, let alone short rubber boots. Next we went looking for horses to rent so that we could access the trails without trudging through the flood. Nobody was home at the horse renting place. But it was a really cool looking hostel:

We walked further down the road and found a little restaurant that’s straight out of someone’s home kitchen. We ate a bowl of shellfish soup that was delicious and only cost $3. We only ordered one bowl and 3 coffees because we already had our sandwiches and really just wanted to get out of the rain for a minute while we waited for a bus to take us back to Castro. But the owner was so nice and the food was so good we left a 50% tip.

Back in Castro we went to the local handcrafts market. Chiloe is especially know for clothing made of wool and really old churches. There are lots of really old churches and they all seem to be made of wood and sheet metal, they look really goofy. This is the church in the plaza en Castro:

This is the church in Dalcahue, a small town that we visited on Sunday that is well known for it’s woolen handcrafts market:

Sunday was our last day and our first day of nice spring weather. We were walking along the coast of the canal in Dalcahue on our way to the dock to ask if there were any boats going on trips to surrounding islands. We passed a couple guys sitting on the curb drinking who were kind enough to tell us “¡Ustedes son las mujeres más hermosas que he visto hoy!” in a drunken voice. Translation: You’re the prettiest women I’ve seen today! Hillary and I were quite flattered considering that it was 10:00 AM.

This was the view right before the charming encounter:

And here are the hermosas chicas:

Next in our wanderings through the small town we came across the local cemetery. It was jam-packed and well-loved:

And we know that spring is finally coming when we see daffodils:

Last stop before heading back to Castro was the woolen handcrafts market:

On the bus ride home we got to see the sunset from the ferry that carried us across the canal back to the mainland. Because it wasn’t raining we could actually get off the bus and take pictures and enjoy the views and fresh air.

And that’s all. Here’s me with mi amiga Hillary and mi hermanito John:

See you in 22 days!

Love, AlexAnn

Mientras Ando Por La Vida

Oh Sundays! We grilled meat over the barbecue for lunch today. LOTS of meat. Una guatita llena es un corazon contento! A full tummy makes a content heart. So lots of beef and pork plus salad, potatoes, corn, juice, beer, and wine. I don’t think that I have confessed yet on my blog that I finally started drinking things with alcohol. I tried something for the first time ever back in May but have yet to encounter something that I really like. The White Russian I had in Peru was decent but definitely not chocolate cake.

Here’s Marcelo and Marcelo cooking the carne. One of the chunks of meat that we ate today has been sitting out on the counter all week but they said it was smoked so maybe it’s okay to leave it out. But in general with food people here don’t worry about leaving things out like we do back home.

This week I finished up doing observations and interviews in the public hospital. Tomorrow it’s on to the private clinic. I’ve interviewed 14 midwives and 17 moms, I saw around 10 births and more c-sections than one should see in a 3 week time period. And I’m now an expert on how to give encouragement to women in labor in Spanish:

“¡Lo estás haciendo muy bien! Respira por la nariz y bota por la boca. ¡Eres muy fuerte! ¡Puja puja puja! ¡Eso muy bien! ¡Toma mucho aire y puja por toda la contracción! ¡Abajo abajo abajo! ¡Dale dale dale! Sigue Sigue Sigue!”

I’m kind of sad to leave after spending so much time with the midwives and moms in the hospital. Yesterday I got a picture with the group of midwives that were working right before I left, it’s a bad picture because I was using my bad camera but it’s better than having nothing. All of the midwives are wearing red because that’s the color that midwives in Chile are supposed to wear.

Friday night I was invited by the med students in the hospital to a barbecue at a gynecologist’s house that was organized to celebrate the end of their exams week. I took a taxi to get there following the instructions of the doctora I called the taxi number, got in the taxi when it arrived and said, “I’m going to doctora such-and-such’s house,” and that was all. All of the taxi drivers from that line of taxis know where her house is.

At one point in the get-together a good half of the med students (who are in their 5th or 6th year of med school) were smoking cigarettes. I was a little bit blown away because aren’t doctors the ones who are supposed to tell other people not to smoke?

On Friday I got a new brother! He’s a Husky but we’re going to take him in anyway. Miri moved out of her bedroom recently and is off traveling in Chile. She going to come back for 2 days but then she’ll head home to Germany. So John (my new brother) showed up with the new group of students from the Northwest that are going to take classes in the University here this semester and moved into Miri’s empty room. The majority of Miri’s stuff is currently stored in my room because I’ve got more space than I need.

Last night John and I went over to our neighbor’s house. Cota because she is one of the peer advisers of our program and she had a party/get-together for the new group of students. There are 18 of them total! When I walked into the room I just didn’t even know what to do with so many North Americans! I decided to act like a Chilena and went around the room greeting every person with a cheek kiss. I was wearing a UO jacket so everyone automatically knew where I was from but later on I thought that it would have been fun to dress nondescript and speak fast Chilean Spanish (to the extent that I can haha) and see if I could pass as a Chilena. The majority of the students are from the UO but I didn’t really recognize anyone.

Here’s a list of words used to describe gatherings of people in Chile:

fiesta – party, but on really used much, in Chile “fiesta” is more formal
carrete – party with young people
asado – barbecue when the meat/animal is on a big skewer over a fire.
parrillada – barbecue when the meat is prepared on a grill/barbecue
junta – a get together, comes from the verb “juntar” or to join together
reunion – meeting
cita – date but also can be appointment
hora – means “hour” but can mean appointment
encuentro – encounter…

That’s good for now. I’m headed home in exactly one month, exactly 30 days. Before then I want to go to Chiloe a big island a bit to the south of where I am, go snowboarding, ride horses once more with Sergio, and go to Bariloche in Argentina. In other words I have to get on top of it soon before I run out of time.