chile
In 2015 when I was a student in Santiago, I also attended Pride parade, celebrating and reaffirming the rights of all sexual orientations and gender identities. This time it was a little colder, but with the same amount of "special" alfajores and beers being openly sold in the streets.
Read MoreSmall things: photo edition. I've been in a rut lately, not taking photos, not doing anything different. I just watched a TED talk about getting out of your comfort zone and not letting fear or uncomfortableness get in your way of what you want or who you want to be. (And yes this sounds like wisdom on a Pinterest board) Ugh. I hate it when I read/watch things that are timely and essentially serve to kick me in the pants and then I have to get off my butt and do something about it. I guess watching Netflix and eating manjar aren't the key to achieving my dreams. They can complement it, though. And I'm going to count eating manjar as cultural immersion. Yes.
Read MoreIt's fall here. The bike paths are covered with leaves, crunch and dull brown. It's usually pretty cloudy, and walking to the apartment yesterday I realized I couldn't see the cordillera. It was completely covered up by a mix of clouds a smog. In the midwest US it would have the decency to rain once in awhile and release the clouds, but no such luck here. It is nice breaking out the fall clothes, scarves, jeans...but the sad truth is I still don't have much of a wardrobe after packing so light. But I do have two pairs of jeans now, so that's exciting. Okay, less talk, more photos.
Read Moresmoggy Santiago skyline
The things I'll probably miss. Food vendors on the street: sopaipillas, empanadas de queso, eggrolls (but only near the bar scene at 2am)...all of it fried. Sugar roasted peanuts, hamburgers made with carne de soya, the little push carts near the metro station...
Read MoreIsla Negra, translated as Black Island, is not an island. Paradoxical Chile. This small town by the ocean is known for being home to one of Pablo Neruda's eclectic house-turned-museum, and is where my Chilean culture class went for a field trip. We had lunch on the beach, went sort-of-trekking, and visited a smaller town known for its artisanal pottery. There were many wild dogs and 1/2 kilo empanadas.
Read MoreMy program friends and I made samosas and curry over the course of a very delicious Sunday afternoon. The samosas and curry we made disappeared fast, but the pictures remain to make me hungry. Lazy Sunday afternoon cooking sessions are the best.
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South of Santiago three hours on Ruta 5 highway is Talca, a medium-sized city of about 250,000 people. From there it's an hour and a half bus ride east (towards the mountains) to get to Armerillo, small town and home of Parque Tricahue, where two friends and I spent a long weekend hiking, eating peanut butter, and somewhat-successfully building fires in our cabin's stove.
Read More19 april 2015 // flying back to Santiago from Calama, post-Atacama trip
It's the small things, like writing the date on class notes 22.4.2015 or saying I live half a kilometer up Irarrázaval. The ways in which you've changed but don't really know when exactly it happened; they just kind of sneak up on you. Elbowing my way into a metro car (forget Midwestern nice, if you're making it into that car you gotta squish), strategically placing myself in the metro car depending on how many stops I have to go to avoid having to wade through 20 people to get out of the door before it closes at my stop. Keeping spare 100 peso coins in my back pocket (damn no front pocket in womens' jeans) to give to street performers or musicians on the metro. Knowing to hold up the number of fingers you want for thousand pesos you want charged to your Bip - holding up 3 fingers for 3000 pesos - because the card rechargers can't hear very well through the glass. After three months abroad, two of them in Chile, a lot of things have snuck up on me. And it's nice to know you've learned something, especially if they're the small things.
