This Weekend~Hiking a Volcano!!

Today was pretty simple..I woke up early to study some, went to class, had a test, then got out 3 hours early because our 2nd teacher was sick.  I went to the mall with Gardner, Anna Grace, Sarah Grace, and Elizabeth and we just walked around for a little while, took Elizabeth's camera to a Nikon store to charge, and ate lunch at Bravissimo.  We went to the counter to pay and I handed the lady a $1000 peso for my meal that was like $4000 pesos.  She just started laughing at me and it was so awkward/funny then I had to step out of line and find pesos and then when I was paying she was making fun of me and telling this other lady haha..so awkward.  After the mall we rode back to Calle Arlegui and SG and I got her money out and waited for Laura Kate to get money out too.  Then I came home and ate lunch and skyped with Mom, Nana, and Papa.  Right now I'm skyping with Dad.  In a little while I'm going to meet all my friends at the bus stop and we're going to leave for our 10 hour bus ride to Pucon!! We'll arrive there in the morning and tomorrow we're going to the hot springs nearby.  Then on Sunday, at 4:30 am our tour to hike the volcano will leave. The entire hike should take 9 hours then when we return we'll get on our bus to come home and get here in Vina in the morning.  Everyone is so excited!!  The next time I talk to everyone I will have hiked a volano :)

Jorge el Curioso

This is going to be quick because I'm exhausted/we have a test tomorrow and I'm studying.  This morning we had class...it was pretty boring because we were doing all this grammar stuff.  But the other class was interesting when Chris & Anna Grace gave their presentations on Sebastian Pinera and the girl who is the number one most influential person on Forbes list this year...she was in charge of the protesting about education...I can't remember her name.  After class I went home for lunch.  We had pasta with tuna, peppers, and salad.  It was good!  After lunch I met LK and we walked to Nino de Amor together.  Today I mostly read Jorge el Curioso a bunch of times to some kids then I played with the baby a little before we left because he had just woken up from his nap.  The orphanage was so fun today because there were other volunteers there so all the kids were getting tons of attention so everyone was really happy :)  After volunteering Tara, SG, Gardner, and I walked toward this secluded beach and met Elizabeth for helado.  Then Tara, LK, Elizabeth and I went to the little beach to do homework for a little while.  After that I went home and packed for Pucon tomorrow!! Then I had dinner and since then I've skyped home and talked to Mom, Payton, Drew & Logan.  Then I skyped Jordan for a few minutes and we connected Savannah and Elizabeth.  It wasn't great connection so Jordan went to Savy's room and we all had a little roomie chat so that was fun.  Then Elizabeth and I skyped and studied for our test and now I'm about to review a little more and go to sleep!

Moody's Aren't Mapuche

Before I get going with today, let me tell about my embarrassing moment last night.  First I need to set up the scene: our apartment building is right beside another one and we're on the second to highest floor so we can see lots of people below us in the next building over.  So, here I am just working on my computer and I hear this really loud music coming from outside.  We are really close to the beach and there have been several concerts there so I figured it was a concert. Wrong. Anyway, I was like oh cool!  This will be something good to get on video.  So I grab my camera and crack my window some, barely pulling back my curtains because I don't want any neighbors to think I'm crazy.  A guy is out on his balcony so I wait for him to go inside then I start videoing in the general direction of the beach.  As I standing there, I see the guy looking at me from inside the window and I'm like um okay great what's going on...he comes outside and starts laughing at me and turns his stereo up.  yep that's right...definitely not a concert.  Needless to say I was laughing so so hard and I ran back inside.  I looked out again and noticed some homemake wii dance going on.  In the same apartment people had a large screen tv up on youtube and they were dancing in front of it.  It was really funny so I videoed that for a sec because my friends across the way had already made fun of me so I had nothing to be ashamed of.  It was def the highlight of my day yesterday :)

Today, we had class for 3 hours then we ate lunch at UVM.  I had a pretty good turkey sandwhich and pear today.  After lunch Chris, Laura Kate, and I went to the artisan fair so Chris could get some shoes and everyone else went to the park.  We left there and met everyone else at the park after Chris got his $8 toms knockoffs.  At the park I found a four leaf clover so that was cool.  Then we walked back to UVM to meet Marisol for our field trip.  A little after 3 pm we went to the metro and rode for about 30 minutes.  We got off in a tiny ghost town and walked for about 15 minutes.  Hidden behind some trees was our destination...one Mapuchi hut.  We were like um...okay then.  We were under the impression that we were going to a large Mapuchi village complete with several totem poles, huts, and well...Mapuches walking around living their lives.  Instead we walked into the hut and one very kind lady who was half Mapuchi taught about Mapuchi culture for an extremely long time from a powerpoint.  While I have a great respect for these indigenous people of Chile, I was very glad that the Moody's aren't Mapuche.  After the presentation we ate some Mapuche food.  I liked two things--one was the type of bread that I put honey on and the other was this chocolate manjar ball wrapped in oats.  The other food was just a little too spicy and oaty for me.  After a longgg time we left the hut and rode the metro back to Vina.  When we got back everyone just went home and since I've gotten back I've just done my homework, eaten dinner, and skyped with the fam + Mimi.  I was disappointed that I couldn't go to church with Mama tonight...I just had so much homework and we have a test Friday so I'm studying for that too.  Hope everything's going well in America & with the SC primary tomorrow, I hope everyone's making wise decisions about who to vote for!!!

Cheaper by the Baker's Dozen :) Oh and temblor numero 5!!

This morning I did not want to get up.  Relaxing in Chile is just so tiring J  I put on athletic shorts, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes because we’re volunteering at the orphanage later today.  Also, I just wanted my outfit to scream “I am an American” just in case locals couldn’t already tell.  We had class this morning and it was pretty boring.  We talked about the Mapuches and while I respect their culture, I really am not a fan of literally going over our homework word for word in class….seriously; we’re not in middle school anymore.  After that class we had grammar.  Everyone figured we’d just finish the movie today but Veronica started going over our homework, made us do more activities, and handed out another worksheet.  She asked Chris to read something and he was reading so fast we couldn’t even understand him because he thought if we finished that we’d get to watch the movie.  Ten minutes before class is over she announces that we’re finishing it tomorrow.  We all had our hopes up the whole day for that movie haha oh well.  After class I walked home and had lunch with Mama, her aunt, her cousin, and her niece.  Since lunch I’ve just been doing homework and in 30 minutes I’m meeting Laura Kate to walk to Niño de Amor together.  After that most of us are going to the beach to finish homework.

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Alright so I wrote the above earlier...now it's later and such random things have happened.  We had a great time at the orphanage! Laura Kate and I walked there together and it definitely took a good 30 minutes because we got lost going on our shortcut and couldn't find it so we def walked all the way back down the mountain and went the long way.  When we finally got there LK pulled out her crayons and coloring books and I pulled out the 2 books I bought at PotteryBarn..."Jorge el Curioso" & a kids book with colors/numbers/etc in spanish & english.  The coloring was a big hit and the kids tried to color my books so we had to put the books away for a little while.  Later LK got out Curious George and read to about 6 little boys.  It was so cute!  I mostly played with the baby again.  He loves being out of his seat and it was so sad when we had to leave because he screamed in protest when I was putting him back in it.  Everyone else left as LK and I were getting Curious George from a little boy who was ripping the cover.  I'm going to leave the book with them but on a day when I can give it to a tia without it being destroyed by a 6 year old.  After we left we got waters from a nearby store and walked to the beach to find Chris.  There were a ton of people on the beach with no room to sit and there was some kind of rescue mission going on in the water with like 10 people so we left with Chris.  Elizabeth called as we were walking and she was creepily behind us so we waited for her to catch up.  As we were walking LK and I were talking about how we want to adopt all 13 of those sweet kids.  Lk said that it would be like cheaper by the dozen, but with one more.  Then Chris was like...oh wait, it'd be cheaper by the baker's dozen. So clever.  Thus, it's the title of this blog entry.  Elizabeth and I went to my house to get a band aid (because I have a gash in my foot from my new shoes from walking all over the mountain) before we went to the beach.

We walked to a little beach close to my house to do homework and we had been there for a little more than an hour when the earth shook...yes that's correct.  There was another temblor.  Elizabeth said the windows on a nearby restaurant were shaking badly and it lasted for a good 5 or more seconds.  Then a few minutes later there was another earthquake.  We decided it was probably time to leave only after we took a hundred pictures down by the water.  We walked back home and when I got here Fernanda said that the earthquake was a 6.1 on the scale!  So crazy...

Hopefully there won't be any more earthquakes while we're here.  Tonight I'm going to eat dinner, study for my test Friday, and go to bed early. :)  Hope everyone's doing well.  I can't wait to see yall soon but I am not ready to leave Chile!!

Just a day in the life.....

Yesterday I got up a little earlier than usual to look over my presentation on Victor Jara.  He was a unique guy…a poor boy who grew up to become a famous singer, supporter of Salvador Allende, and husband to a ballerina.  The presentation yesterday went well and everyone else’s was really interesting.  Classes lasted for 5 hours yesterday.  In the first class we just did the presentations then talked about the Mapuches.  In the second class we did some grammar work then starting watching “Maria full of grace.”  It’s a really good movie…I saw it last year in Miss A’s AP class.  I’m the only one that’s seen it so it’s kind of funny watching everyone’s reactions and them trying to guess what’s going to happen because the ending is not typical so they’ll be surprised.  After that class we had another team building class with Lister and Rayén.  It lasted for about 20 minutes and we got to leave early.

Elizabeth, Laura Kate, Sarah Grace, Gardner, and I went to the Tur Bus office to get their tickets for Pucon.  While LK, SG, and Gardner got the tickets, Elizabeth and I went into Lider, basically a Chilean Wal-Mart.  Elizabeth got a new phone and pens and I was going to get a folder for class but they literally do not sell those anywhere in Chile.  The other 3 met us in there and after checking out we literally walked all the way across the city to get the best helado in town at Bravissimo….definitely the place where Elizabeth’s purse was stolen.  I had manjar with chocolate chunks. J  We left there and just went home.  When I got back I did my homework and we had dinner.  Then I went with Mama to the supermarket and on the way we stopped at literally 6 different pharmacies looking for one thing.  Pharmacies are on every corner here…especially Cruz Verde.  We never even found what she was looking for so we just went to the grocery store and she got milk and candy.  I also got some candy called Frugele that is soo good.  So yesterday night I def had cake at dinner, some chocolate, some caramel candy, and a frugele.  Wonder why Mama still asks me if I have a sweet tooth after that??

#IsThisRealLife

Today was very calm compared to the previous days!  I got up late and had breakfast.  Then I finished my powerpoint and worked on updating my travel journal.  The whole family had lunch together before Papa had to go back to work (fish, rice, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and boiled eggs).  It was good...expecially the fish!  After lunch all the kids walked Papa to the bus stop.  We didn't really have to walk too far and I liked seeing new parts of the city.  When we got there we went to the ticket desk because he didn't have a ticket yet.  He had to be on a bus at that moment because his plane was leaving at a certain time in Santiago.  The ticket office said there were no more tickets so he went outside and waited in line for one of the buses.  Since people weren't showing up on time they just let him on the bus...only a well-traveled person would know to do that here.  We walked back home and then I left to meet most of the group at Cruz Verde.  Once everyone was there, we walked together to buy our bus tickets to Pucon for this weekend.  It wasn't really a hassle and there were tons of tickets left so everything worked out with that.  After buying tickets, we walked all the way across town to get helado from a specific ice cream store.  It was so goof and definitely worth the walk.  Once we ate helado everyone split up into different groups.  Elizabeth and I went to the artisan fair and walked around there for about 2 hours looking at everything.  We got a few things but mainly looked.  After the fair we walked home and when I got here I made pound cake for everyone.  It wasn't a big ordeal...I only cracked an egg onto the counter, almost dropped the mixing bowl on the ground, and struggled mixing some things but it turned out well and everyone loved it :)  We ate dinner (amazing leftovers from lunch + cantelope) then I edited my project more.  While I was doing that Elizabeth messaged me and said that the thief had tweeted on her account from her iPhone.  We freaked out about that for a while and we were both like...seriously is this real like or is this a game show or something?  Then, I practiced presenting my project to Rodrigo while he corrected my grammar in my powerpoint/politely tried to mask his laughing at my presentation skills in spanish.  It really wasn't bad though!  We're supposed to talk for 10 minutes and I rambled on for 20 so I think I'm set on the time limit.  After that we actually ate the cake then I skyped Mom & Dad then Savannah!!  I talked to Savannah for an hour and at the end MC, Elizabeth Rhee, Meredith, and Courtney came in so it was fun to talk to them for a little while!  Sounds like everyone's having tons of fun at good ole Wofford :)  Love & miss everyone!  I'm having a great trip but I can't wait to see yall soon!