home.

im home. and desde este punto se convertió este blog en un blog de mi vida aca en california para que los chilenos puedan saber de mi vida aca! (pero luego voy a escribir un poquito sobre mis aventuras en el sur de chile, con fotos y todo, entonces tienen que esperar un ratito mas antes que escribo en puro español ¿ cachai?)

goodbye santiago!

i shall see you once more in 15 days, but for now, i am making my way down to the the tip of the bottom of the world. chau!!!

eyes .

Miercoles, 26 de noviembre


Today was the last day of my seguridad ciudadana clase, well actually my last day standing walking through the edificio of la escuela de gobierno y gestion publica. Sighing with relief at the completion of the nearly done semester I suddently felt my eyes, like magnets, becoming attracted to all that surrounded me. The building with bright yellow paint, old 19th century architecture. The one I once called feo. The creaking, old, dark, wooden stairs that I had always run up in my haste. The sharp sweet smell of disgusting cigarettes lazily floating in the damp air near the copiador. I had so habitually walked through this school without giving any attention to it. I probably had looked at it a few times but intentionally decided in its ugliness not to pay anymore attention to it. But today, today something hit me and my eyes were open to this strangely beautiful run-down building that was my academic home for 4 months. As I walked out of the massive wooden doors my heart secretly waved goodbye.

I walked to the right, as I always did, towards the San Martin Metro station. The construction that was there when I first came, the construction site that forced people to detour onto the street, yes that same one that nearly made me get run over by a bus, was still there. The same sounds of jack hammers, the same paint and dust covered construction workers with eyes that wandered. As I crossed the street, I saw the same sight I had always seen. The long line of unhappy looking Santiaguinos waiting to get home in the hora of suckiness and tacos, aka. 5pm-8pm. Oh Transantiago. I made my way towards the open mouth that would led me "under the skin of Santiago" into the metro station, but as I did, I heard something that I had never heard before--or possibly had, but never had noticed it. It was the loud deep clanging of the church bells of the bright orange Catedral San Martin. I stopped abruptly and just stood there staring a the massive church, listening and listening to the bells that roared while a pack of pigeons flew chaotically over my head. Time seriously seemed like it stopped and people seemed to stop. I noticed a few suit-cladded Chileans looking at the Catedral too. I looked back at the Catedral, ella que nunca yo había visto por tanto tiempo. It was old and significant in the Santiaguino urban landscape. It had massive and smooth pillars that soared high up and meet with the edge-filled features. Huge wooden doors welcomed its visitors. Above the door was a metal star with rays shooting out from its sides. The steeple sat high above and on top of that was a metal, near black, cross with rays emitting out from the circle that was in the middle of the cross. It was simple, but beautiful.

The first time I passed through this part of Santiago central I only fixed my eyes on the dinky sprinkler they called a fountain in front of the Catedral. I often laughed to myself at how sad that fountain was. But behind me loomed this massive structure. The thoughts of how I had critized Santiago for its lack of Latin American flavor rushed back into my mind and a voice in my mind poked me and said, well here you go, Latin flavor.

Somehow all of these things reminded me of God. How it takes a massive ringing bell to make us notice the grandeza and belleza of God, or merely His presence. How we walk by everyday, knowing vaugely that God is with us . But we forget to just stop and look at Him, beholding Him for who He is. We often, like I did many times with the dinky fountain, look at our surrounds and critize the lack of this or that, critize the dinkiness of things. God forgive me. Help me pause more to behold Your majesty and beauty.

I walked towards the metro station, more slowly than normal, pesnando en estas cosas. I pulled out my 100 pesos and gave it to the Chinese woman who laways stood in front of Santa Ana at this time. And she gave me in return a friend MSG packed spring roll that was her source of material bienestar. As she handed it to me, for the first time I looked at her face, at her eyes as I said "Gracias". I walked down the stairs wondering how my days would have been if I payed this much attention to everything around me. But no regrets. God give me eyes.

please disculpar my lack of writing juice

I realize I haven't written in a while. Partially because I've been busy, but that word doesn't necessarily mean the same as having a lot of work. When I say busy, I could mean busy sleeping, busy chatting, busy cooking, busy doing homework, and maybe busy studying. It's understandable though. I have less than a month here in Chile and I'm trying to savor as much of the remaining time left. It's been a bit hard to do so though because in the back of my mind I know I should be focusing on finishing strong at school. But I want to say that I've learned/ am still learning, that school isn't everything, and relationships with people, and God is way more important. Of course I should study, and I am still studying (Mom I promise!), but it's not my biggest priority really. God somehow blesses me with the strength to memorize things, cram study, and even retain all that in my mind. So thank God!

Um. So I love my church here. And I feel so loved by them even if they do do crazy things to express their love. Such as drench the gringos. And chuck the Korean boy up and down. But in all honesty, like Andrew said in his farewell letter-speech-thing, this church, ICLAM, truly esforzarse to become a church the way God intended it to be, and it shows! Love, generosity, humility, family-likeness, and all that jazz is so evident in that church. And of course the people in there aren't the most perfect people in the world, pues nadies es, but they are certianly a group that is willing to stand up for Christ, live for Him, and find His heart. Small, but happy family. =)

I'm really mixed though in how I feel about wrapping up this experience. I want to come back and visit them. Really. I know that if I came back, I'd have open arms waiting for me. But at the same time I'm so darn excited about going home and sharing all of these stories about God moving to all my friends, family, and .. dogs? And yes, I do miss home (finally right?), and San Diego and people there. It's strange to have a life in 2 worlds.

I'm sort of brain dead from sleepiness, and I just took a prueba today, so I shall give a more intelligent-sounding.. jk. more profound. update soon. with pictures and all.. but for now. Good day to you, 24 de noviembre. Que te vaya bien!

despedida =(

um how time flies. and how painful next week is going to be. but after that. we're freeee!!!!

BLEEEH

i haven't been this sick in a long time. BARF.

30 horas en los zapatos

The World Vision event organized ICLAM's youth group GX was similar to 30 hour famine except we didn't fast.. nor was the event for children in Africa but rather for Chilean kids in poverty.We were supposed to experience being in poor people's shoes, while at the same time raising money for un hogar por niños con menos recursos. Although Chile is one of the most "developed" Latin American countries, the rate of poverty is still pretty high. Outside of Santiago there are still millions living in conditions that are cosidered "inadequete for a dignified life". Many can be fooled by the seemingly affluent urban landscape of Santiago, but the hard truth is that many are still making barely enough to suficiently provide the basics to their families.

A colegio en Peñalolen, a comuna on the outskirts of Santiago with a mix of rich and poor, acted as our homebase. From there we debriefed about the purpose of the event, had jammin worship, and prayed for the event, the churches in Chile, Chilean kids, and a bunch of other things. Although things apparently didn't go as planned (as they planned), God had His plan, and ultimately people were blessed.

We raised a total of 81,000 CLP doing all sorts of things such as playing/singing on the micros, selling used things, doing acrobatic tricks and juggling on street corners, taking blood pressure, selling a species of popsciles, washing windshields, etc. etc. Praise God!

Later, we went to another school to put on an event for the kids in the neighborhood. Although they expected more kids to come, the 40 some kids that did come had a blast playing games, pegging Emily with a waterballoon, watching the GX kids do "hi-ho" (hip-hop), eating a mountain of sweets, and watching our little skit ("you are special" by max lucado). The whole day was non-stop moving around so when we regrouped in homebase, everyone was already exhausted. We were supposed to bring friends, but unfortunately not a lot of friends were able to make it.. but the night was nevertheless sweet and beautiful. After a nice dinner of pasta and viensa-tomato sauce, we had more worship... Leah rockin' out on the drum set, Fernando on the keys, Felipe on the electric, David on the bass, and Gabby singing, and all of GX (for the most part) jumping up in down, moshing to the melodies of "El es el Rey" and "One Way" spanish version. My legs were already super sore running around catching micros and afirmaring myself on the micros while playing guitar, but somehow God energized me enough to participate for a little while in the moshing smoshing. We had more typical G-X games.. and after a night of rememberance of God's role in this world, in social injustice. The night ended at around 2 am.. and the boys and girls were separated in their little rooms. Of course the night was still young for them Chileans--the girls were chatting up until who knows when, and the boys were being boys. We slept on the hard ground as to try to experience sleeping like many poor people sleep, but la verdad es que I slept super well.. sleeping on a hard surface was quite nice (although I can't imagine sleeping on the ground everyday like so many people do). Perhaps it had to with the combination of fatigue and the indifference held to being dirty since I was already dirty. We all gradually fell asleep.

We woke up and packed our things together, cleaned the rooms we used and headed to church to finish off the 30 hours. Pastor Toñio spoke about el amor. A really touching and good message. I seriously love Pastor Toñio's messages. Not only is he gifted in preaching, he is a Chilean crazy for God. He has really been an encouragement and figure of influence here in Chile.

Apuntes (Pa ti, Grace M. Wu):
(Gal. 5:22)
1) ¿Qué es el Amor? (What is love?)
-Lo que no es es: Afición, Sexo, Enamoramiento, ni Romanticismo
(Love is NOT Affection, Sex, "falling in love", or romanticism)
a) el amor es dinámico:
- el amor busca cambiar a otro por lo mejor
- la natrualeza : es bella, pero también funciona, tiene un propósito.
- la creación muestra el amor de Dios.
- no está sentando esperando, sino está adelantando, fluyendo.
b) el amor es concreto:
- el amor actua; no es una idea, concepto, una palabra; sino tiene ojos, brazos, orejas, etc.
- amor sin frutos no sirve para nada.
- Juan 3:16
- cumplimiento de una promesa- eso es el amor de Dios, a pesar de lo que hemos hecho, Él todavía cumple su promesa a nosotros.
- ser capaz de tolerar; muchas veces una persona dice "no puedo amar a ella o él",pero eso significa que ella no entiende lo que es el amor. El amor es esforzar, es ser generoso, es ser un sacrificio, es lo que vemos en Jesus.
c) El Amor es constante
- Ex. 34
-Salmo 33
- todo las historia de Israel en el antiguo testamento lleva el mismo tema: que Dios es
constante a pesar de lo que había hecho Israel, a pesar de su desobedencía, su pecados, su rechazo de la palabra de Dios, su ignorancía, etc.
-El amor verdadero prevalece por todo, en cualquier situación
- The lack of forgiveness asphyxiates love.

-the parable of the prodigal son-

fernando y nico debrief worship band algunas chicass jaja pastor toñio is strange. (i don't know to flip pictures still.) Julian practicing for this juggling act on the street corner (to raise money) la cenaa sleepy time!

in santiago. we watched.

el rostro de la ciudad urbana que ella no quiere que veas

For quite sometime I've been seeing the same señora wandering around Irrarrazaval and Chile-España. I saw her on a bus once, crouched in the corner of the bus with people distancing themselves from her because she smelled like she hadn't showered in a long time. With her hole-saturated plastic bag holding her old old water bottle, with plastic bags of something, and a blue paragua sticking out, here stood this little woman of probably less than 5 feet, whom I later found out was 90 years old. Dressed in layers of shirts and a dark woolen jacket, skirt covered in dirt from sitting on the trash-littered streets of santiago and blacked from the accumaltion of dirty air. Her grey and white hair braided together with tangled pieces of hair ties. Her mouth was suken in for lack of teeth. Her face was weathered and tan, full of wrinkles and age. Her eyelids dropped concealing her clear blue eyes, her lashes sticking together from the liquid her eyes were producing. To see she always had to tilt her head back to see the people staring at her, ignoring her, and or dropping money in her little cardboard box. She always is sitting down, and because of her small size and her position, typical of any urban landscape, she is often missed or ignored. The times I've seen her I've wanted so bad to talk to her, but I would either be on the way to class or in a group of people herding around. But I also had the fear that I wouldn't be able to communicate very well with her because of my limited Spanish and my limited comprehension.

Finally today God created an opportunity. I woke up contemplating not to go to my "early" class today, but I was prompted by some unknown willpower to get out of my bed, get ready, and go to class. Seeing the bus al lado de mi, I jogged to the bus stop right when the bus stopped to pick people up. I ran on. Sped walk to class, onto campus, and into the room.. where no one was there except for my gringo compañero de clase. After waiting around a bit we decided that there was no class since even the normally punctual professor didn't show up. I left a bit bummed because I could have slept in. But God had other plans.

I planned to go to my other class on another campus across Santiago really early, but when I got off the micro to change buses, I saw her right in fron of the stop. I had an hour or so before the I need to go to class. I saw a lady give her some coins. After standng for a little watching the lady give her coins and while I was looking up a word in my Spanish-English dictionary (I do that a lot), I walked up to her and introduced myself and sat down next to her. I handed her some money and started talking to her. Asked her how long she had been out here. 6 or 8 years. I asked her were she was from originally, and I think she said Argentina. She had an accent. But she was also hard to understand because she had no teeth. She started talking and talking. They just want you to listen y nada mas. What really broke my heart was when she said that she was going to die like a dog on the streets. That she was no one and no one would notice her when when she died. I tried to tell here that she was a somebody. Even though I only understood maybe 60 percent of what she said, I grasped that she had family in Buenos Aires and in Cartagena, Chile. I asked, "a Ud. se le echaron?", and she said "si, por viejo". I realized how tragic the trend of people in such situations has been. That they've been essentially thrown out of the homes of their children and relatives because they've become a so-called burden. She had been working here and there, but at 90 years old she was in no shape to work anymore. She had a hunchback, her eyes were closing shut, she had no teeth and was unable to speak very clearly. She still had a sharp mind though.

Another thing that caught my attention was that she said that she was going to go buy some bread. But I asked her, le cuesta comerlo? and she said yes, but what else could she buy? Soup or any other food that is more liquidy and soft would cost too much. I can't imagine how hard it is for someone without teeth to eat bread. I wanted to so bad to make her soup or some sort of food that would be easier for her to eat. Hopefully I will be able to do that. It was a relatively short time of talking with her, but it brought me back to reality once again, and again God tugged my heart telling me to never forget them.

She was set on getting up and getting herself a drink so I despedired myself. I walked but looked back and saw her get up slowly and waddle lentamente towards another direction with her broken bag in the midst of the fast-paced people of Santiago. Later seeing a massively fat dog and its owner, I thought to myself how sad and messed up this world could be.

La vida es.

My time here so far has been like a good book. I've been so captivated by life here that I'm not realizing that the book's ending pretty soon. I've got about 2 months left here and it shall be a quick but very busy 2 months. I wish I had updated more frequently, but now I feel like I've gotten to a point where it would be too hard to detail out everything that's been going on here.

So I'm going to ramble and see where this goes.

1) I''m quite shocked at how much I've improved in understanding (and hopefully in speaking/reading/writing as well) Spanish. I came here feel ridiculously stupid and unable to communicate, and now I'm feeling pretty comfortable with my broken Spanish. I have so many moments of delayed understanding, but for the most part, I can understand maybe 85% of what I hear. Of course this depends on the context. But Praise God for this. I 'm really happy that I have this new tool that God's granted me to use ... in life! Language is such a frustrating, but absolutely beautiful thing.

2) The friendships I have made here have been inolvidable (unforgettable). Once again, God's provided people for me to confide in, to share this wonderful experience with, to travel with, to live with, to worship and pray with... I'm so astounded by where I'm at. And I can never never attribute anything I did to this gift so given by God. I can firmly say that I love the people here, both Chileans that I know, and my fellow gringos I know. Although I'm not a very cariñosa person (I think?) I truly appreciate the frienships God's given me. Muchas gracias a Uds. y aun más a Dios.

3) I went "out" dancing for the first time in Santiago. I guess you could call it "carreteando" (sort of means partying). But it was with a great group who didn't get wasted.. nor did we grind to reggaeton. Rather, sino, we grooved to 80's music at a club called Sala Uno. It was.. at least according to Garrett, the wierdet club ever, but it was fun grooving in the not so fun smokey building. There were so ridiculous strobe-light disco-ball action acompanied by a big screen featuring music videos of all the songs people were dancing to. Chileans, at least según what I saw, are funny dancers. They're not too crazy... so I guess me, Garrett, and Mateo stood out a bit. JAJA. Yes all. I can groove. In my own way of course. But I will not groove for you because you will laugh at me. I went out with my new apartmentmate, Paola, quien felt a bit out of place because she's in her 30's, but after Carlitos y others came it wasn't as strange for her. We fueled up with choripan completos (delicious Chilean hotdogs)... and fueled up afterwards with sopaipillas (fried pumpkin dough with salsa!).. and some of the Chileans/Bolivians fueled up on cowstomach-on-a-bun... tasted like fish and had texture like rubber. gag . But in general, street food always tastes delicious. And food always tastes delicious late at night/ morning. So in sum, it was really delicious. =)

4) My internet was going nuts for a long time. I had it installed in the apartment because at first, to my dismay, I found out that there was no internet!! So VTR, the cable company, installed it and all was dandy.. for 30 minutes. Then it started cutting in and out. And finally it completely cut out... I called the VTR help line so many times I'm sure they were familiar with my name and gringo accent. I learned a new trade: talking on the phone. Phone conversations in Spanish always leave me super sweaty and red from embarrassment. Finally the tech man came (after another had come to try to fix it) and we had to get on the roof because thats where the other guy said the problem was it. Turns out the cable needed to be replaced... so the poor cable guy had to walk down to his truck and haul a new cable up again. ( I don't have elevators in my apartment.. even though it's only 4 floors). While he was working hard in what he knew best, I was acting like a little kiddo running around on the rooftops, climbing around, admiring the beautiful view of Santiago and the cerros.. and the melting snow-capped mountains in el fondo. I don't know why, but that was an exhilarating moment for me. I tell you, all my super happy moments have been in the most simplest of times.

5) I got a prueba back Monday. I didn't do that great. But my professor graciously gave me and the other gringa... get this... "points for effort". I nearly burst out laughing in class. I don't know why I thought it was so funny. But I guess it reminds me of elementary school, or times that people always joke about that. But lo and behold, I actually got points for effort for trying to answer in Spanish. Who knew a professor would actually do something like that. That was seriously so kind of her. But I feel a bit aprehensive handing this test to my department asking them to approve of this course... jajaja.

6) I miss people in the U.S. but I feel sad that I'm going to leave soon. So. How does one reconcile such feelings? Idurner.

7) I'm already trying to think of what I'm going to do with this blog when I come back. I think I'm going to convert it into a Spanish blog for Chileans... or gringos that want to read what I'm doing in life.. in the EEUU. Plus, even if no one reads it, it would be good practice for me?

doodadoodadoodoo

I'm sitting in a cafe eating cuchuen de manzana and drinking a batido chirimoya. My real intentions were to steal their WiFi because my internet is really not cooperating with me.

But my life in Chile right now:

1) It's getting hot in here. And we've got no ozone. So. We've got some wonderful burning of the skin action and sweaty pores. I enjoy the weather, but it's going to start getting unbearable I think. San Diego spoiled me way too much.

2) I'm only here for 2 more months !! Where on earth did time go?! School is already ending in a month and the tickets to Patagonia have been bought. Before I know it, I'll be back in the EEUU wondering if I really really was in Chile for 6 months. Crazy.

3) I'm totally just enjoying God's presence and joy that He's given me. Like Garrett's said, life is meant to be lived slowly, without anxiety and stress always gripping our hearts. God is good. That's all I can really say right now. God is so good to me.

4) I feel like I can only do a long update when I'm couped up in my room and not in a smokey cafe.. so I promise as soon as I get internet in my apartment a long, reflective, picture-filled update will come. =)

Que Dios les bendiga!!



(photo taken by Emily Pulley)

noche del debate y partido.

Esta noche estaba llena de cosas. El gran partido entre Chile y Argentina ("enemigos desde siempre" jaja) y el debate presidencial final entre Obama y McCain. Ambos fueron muy intensos. Pues. Chile ganó.. y ahora toda la gente está celebrando sonando sus horns de sus autos.. me recuerda de Francia y el partido final de la Copa Mundial dos años atrás. locura te digo. Supuestamente Chile no había ganado contra Argentina desde como treinta y tanto años atrás por lo tanto esta noche es un gran evento.

ahh debo empezar mi informe para mañana. pero la verdad es que estoy super floja ahora y solamente estoy interesada en el analysis de los debates ahora. ahh Dios dame la voluntad para hacerlo!!

la mudanza y el monte

1) I moved ... and my room is small and cute. and I thank the Lord so much for this place.


2) My shoes are dying.
3) We went to El Monte... and hour out of Santiago.. to el campo (the rural lands of Chile). Rural tourism with a wonderfully kind and generous man, Pedro, and a sweet and lovely lady named Teresa. They're alfajore/chocolate makers!!! Without knowing what to expect really, we went to El Monte and met up with these alfajore makers that we met in la fonda for el dieciocho. They're part of a committee that tries to bring tourists to this historically important pueblo... and this beauitful rural getaway. Today we learned so much about.. just so many things. By the end of the day us three could just not stop smiling. Everything was beautiful, the weather was perfect, Pedro and Teresa's knowledge and hospitality completely astounded us. We went home with super happy hearts, flowers, and bags of alfajores. God is so good to us. WHAAA.


















"There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing;
And the one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches."

Proverbs 13:7

internet-less

So. I moved into my new apartment and I`m internetless. Updates shall come soon. But I´m happy and God as usual is doing amazing things.

oof.

Dear Diary,

My brain is kind of scrambled right now. I had 2 pruebas this week.. and studying and trying memorize things in Spanish is completely different from my previous head-aching challenge of just trying to live in a Spanish speaking world. Pucha! I love it when I understand things in class and can attempt to participate in discussions and what not. But I also get emotionally pwned, as some of you who have lived with me before know, when I academically get pwned. That's something I know I need to work on. That grades and even having precise academic knowledge are not really that big of a deal. People fail from time to time. I'm human. I need seriously inject that in my head. God is good in that He humbles me in this aspect. Jajaja.

Anécdota: I probably just failed my prueba (test-midtermish thing) for my history class. I arrive to campus greeted by panic-stricken-looking gringos in my class flipping through pages of notes and assigned readings. I was honestly mixed about this test. On one hand I was calm and "sin-panic", but then again I was quite sure that I hadn't been understanding much of the lectures...at least to the degree that I would have liked to. Reading and memorizing certain facts from the lecturas was much harder than I thought. "Old Spanish" is comparably equally as difficult as "Old English"... or I'm just being humbled about my lack of familiarity in this language. Oof. (this is the sound chileans make when some gets pwned.) So pretty much we all (all 5 of us) sat in the class nerviously awaiting the professor. Btw. this professor has an extensive and super prestigious background. He's like 78 years old.. and won a big-deal premio nacional (national award) for being a historian. He's even on wikipedia (ingles..which has a way shorter profile) ! Based off of his experience and age, he's a uniquely grounded guy who has his way of doing things and no one can make him waver. So he comes shuffling in, smiling his old-man smile. Sits in the chair and leans back. At this point I had no idea that we had to use our own paper. (Most classes, at least from what I've heard, provide a sheet with a question on it at the very least). He leans back and starts orally giving the questions. 3 Questions. 1st one mandatory, and the 2nd and 3rd, we'd have to chose one. First of all, his questions were not in question format. That made things a tad difficult. It was something along the lines of: "the advancement of commercial liberation under the laws of the crown". And then he would dribble in some more information about what that would sort of entail. I don't really know.. but I'm sure I know enough Spanish to know that that ain't no question. Ok. so second question was equally, if not more, vauge and unquestion-like. So in sum, Diary, I think I did a horrible job. Partially because I was super unprepared. I know that's mi culpa. But partially too because I was so confused as to what the questions really meant. Andd. since there's nothing I can do. I need to get over it. Punto. Gracias. Weee.

el aire dulce y viaje sin plan.

So this is what they mean when they say the air is as sweet as honey when la primavera comes. I took a whimisicle trip to Cajon de Maipo with Christy and coming back caked in 3 day's worth of dirt, sweat, minerals, and only God knows what, I could not stop smiling while walking down the road with my massive green mochila and dusty pants. Breathing in and out was one of the most pleasant treats of Santiago I have partaken in in a while. How amazing that God can tickle our brains and hearts with the most simple of things. The air is filled with the sweetness of flowers and honey. And the perfect breeze. And how comforting to the heart to seet he sight of shedded-parka people, and kids playing in the illuminated parks at night. Winter is disappearing and spring is coming. God, why are you so amazing?

-----------------
cajón de maipo (aka): "wehavenoideawhatwe'redoingbutGod'swithus-trip"

This wonderful weekend has been so filled with happiness, peace, and more awe of God than before.

On Thursday I whimsically mass blasted a facebook message to some people asking whether or not they wanted to join me in my randomness and go to Cajon de Maipo. This place is sort of a local Yosemite for Santiaguinos.. I think. It has things ranging from picnicing with the family to horseback riding to hard-core mountaineering. Rad no? Only Christy, my UCsd buddy, decided to come along so.. on Friday, after collecting all my stuff together, we headed to, por metro, down to the 2nd to last stop of linea 4. And... we got off with our massive backpacks, not knowing what to do next. Thanks to the instructions of ever-so-wise Grace Mao Wu, we promptly asked a random person (or two.. or three) how to get to Maipo. They pointed us in the direction of a random corner.. and we jumped onto a blue metrobus. numero 72. payed the fee to our destination (which in reality, we had no idea where it was. We had only heard of the name). As about 40 minutes passed, the busy city scene turned into a tranquil, meadowy-looking, boonie-land. We poked each other motioning to ask someone on the bus where we should get off, where we could stay somewhere, etc. After a long time of throwing the job around, Christy finally asked a lady where we should get off if we wanted to get to the place and she poked us when the Plaza de Armas de San Jose came up. We jumped off and found ourselves in a tiny little pueblo with colorful houses, a tiny plaza, and a bunch of mini "supermercados".

And that was San Jose. We ventured around the pueblo asking people where we could stay and they pointed us to a few places. We eventually, after circling around the entire place, settled in a hospedaje... Tio Valentine. wee. After a night of finding places to eat... and talking in a poorly lit restaurante eating fresh fries and completos... we just hung out. and chilled. and talked about life and its complexities. Ah good times.

Pulling out mr. Lonely Planet, we came to an acuerdo that we both wanted to go to Baños Morales. So we asked the hostel lady about it.. and from what we gathered only one bus left from Santiago to the place... early in the morning, so we'd have to try to catch it. We woke up nice and early and stood at the corner asking nearly every micro that came by if it was "the one". We got a bit confused asking a bunch of random mountaneery-looking people because some had told us that the bus left already and passed, other said it was still coming, others advised us to hitch a ride with a private van that took people to Morales. After some nasty coffee and a jamon-queso sandwhich, we gathered and packed our fears of looking stupid (because we knew how unknowledgable we were) and asked the chofer if there were open spots to this place called "Baños". And thank the Lord there was. And off we went. And the road was bumpy and absolutely beautiful.

We jumped off and found ourselves surrounded in a tiny pueblo situated at the foot of the majestic peaks draped in blankets of white snow, whose population we discovered later on was 11 people. The other vistors were all people geared up in snow pants, huge backpacks with ropes, crampons, gaiters, ice axes, hiking poles, and the whole deal, getting ready to go mountainismoing. We, on the otherhand, had our gnarly one pair of bluejeans, running shoes, ghetto sleeping bags, and no palos (sticks) to hike with. "O well." We found Refugio Chicos Malos, hosted by a cheery lady with an extremely motherly personality. Her name was Isabel. She gladly made us comfortable, gave us beta about the hikes, lent us sweeet bamboo ski poles, and to Christy, a camo viser.

We stuffed my backpack with things we thought we'd need for the hike to El Monumento El Morado (whatever that was.. I don't think I know still.) Made our way towards the signs... ran into a mountain-marathon racing event... signed in the green house with the mr. CONAF ranger.. and subimos. Pretty much it was breathtaking. We were definitely not prepared for the hike, but we still went up. We met a ton of friendly mountaneeres and hard-core hiker people on the way up. I know people stared at us .. a strange sight we were indeed: us in our blue-jeans (while literally everyone else was in some form of water-proof pants, gaiters, and at LEAST hiking boots), sneakers, spiffy old bamboo ski pole, and one person carrying a lumpy pack of food, water, and a ghetto JUMBO sleeping bag. Our shoes of course started getting wet.. but we refused to backdown. The snow was getting pretty deep. Many times Christy and I fell through snow that went up to our shins and knees. At one point we found ourselves following, in a line formation, a group of mountaineeres who were trudging along with all their equipment to stay the night. A couple of hours later, we hit a level part of the mountain, a place were all the hard-corees were setting up their tents. We decided that we'd stop there too. We amaturely rolled our my ghetto sleeping bag onto a patch of dry dirt, pulled out some snacks, and just sat, marveling at God's creation before us.

Came down. Ate dinner. Delicious cazuela (the soup), and Christy's arroz con pollito. RICO. Since we were the only ones staying at the refugio, we pretty much hung out with them. A few of Isabel's friends stopped by. They taught us a few card games (vienteseis!), we had tecito, I learned to secrets of empanada making (theoretically), watched TV, and just talked a bit while having a DROP (literally) of manzanilla-flavored liquor. We met some caballeros, one Chilean-Australian and 2 Santiaguinos, who were UFO investigators. No joke. They showed us fotos of UFO ships they had taken. (go to http://galaxiaorion.blogspot.com/)
They said that they were true believers, and ever since they were kids they had been ufo hunting. They had "encounter stories" but didn't want to share them with us for fear of scaring us before we went to sleep.

Nos acostamos..actually, we HAD to sleep because the lights cut out at midnight... and slept in a bit. Woke up to the sun beaming on our faces.. the weather was warm enough to wear a short-sleeve t-shirt. We just took our time... having nothing planned to do except soak in the baños. Spent time outside having a late breakfast. There we met Balter, a lawyer/ ex-detective, Pablito-cute kid, and Pablito's dad. They were doing a day hike, and Pablo and his dad ended up going on the same returning van as us. They went off to subir the monte .. and we decided to walk around a bit before the piscina mineral.

Baño time! (baño=bath.. not toilet necessarily). It looked like spinach and carrot soup in a massive hole. HAha. But we were there anyways so we decided to dip in. It supposedly has minerals that are good for you. And it wasn't really that warm. (about 73 degrees). But it was nice.. and the sun was out. So after dipping in and swimming around for a while, we soaked some sun.

After a nice dip, we had lunch, packed up... and lounged around until 5. we ended up going in the same van we came in... (and also last-minutely asking if there was space in the van for us-- another Praise God moment because if there wasn't space I don't know how we would have gotten back... ) and off we went.. regresando a Santiago, where the aire dulce bloomed.

"Good night moon"