Hello hello,
Another quick update.
San Pedro was alright. We took a star gazing tour in the middle of the driest desert in the world. Got some good photos. Next day we chilled in town, not much to do there. Saw a cute guy while walking down the street that caught my eye. Didn´t talk to him. Saw him again when grabbing a bite to eat with Ann, pointed him out to her, still did nothing.
That night we left for a Arica, Chile, a city about 12 hours away. So much crazy shit happened there that I can´t say the name Arica without laughing a little. We walk into the hostel that afternoon after buying some food to make lunch, and I see the same cute guy...yes, in a differnt city 12 hours away...he´s staying in the room across from mine. The girls and I hit the beach for the day, I get sunburned, and later I finally strike up conversation with him.
That night BBQ with the rest of the people staying in the hostel, and the owner, the craziest motherfucker I´ve ever met. His name is Roberto and his mantra for life is ´Fuck Off!´ So I talk to cute guy more. 22. Sweed. Traveling with a buddy for the hell of it. The whole group of us drinks a horn full of pisco, hits a bar, gets slammed. That´s when cute guy´s friend totally cockblocked him, worst cockblock I have witnessed in the history of cockblocks. He lectured me on the dangers of smoking for a good hour. Fuckre. So eventually we head back to the hostel, which I remember, I walk up the stairs, which I remember....and then I time traveled. The next thing I know it´s 2PM and I wake up with a wicked hangover. I don´t remember 10 minutes of that night, and aparently something really bad happened, because when I saw the guys the next morning it was awkward as all hell. I´m pretty sure I got in a fight with one of them, but I can´t tell if I remember that, or if I dremt it. Ann had a more interesting night. After the bar she ended up in a strip club with Stewart, a ruggedly sexy English man. Kristyn slept. The next morning the hostel staff informed me that one of the Sweeds was spotted butt naked in the hostel shortly after returning from the bar, and asks me if I know anything about it. I plead the fifth...we still haven´t figured out exactly what happened.
Next day back to the beach for a bit, then off to Arequipa, Peru. So we´re at the border crossing and guess who I bump into. Cute guy. Again. Then were two hours away from the border in the Tacna, Peru bus station waiting to make our connecting to Arequipa. Yup saw him there too. And he was on the same bus as us. In the seat right behind us actually. Kind of hilarious right?
Anyways....now I´m in Arequipa, which is my favorite city we´ve hit so far. My Uncle Craig studied here when he was my age, when he heard that I wanted to travel Peru, he booked a flight and we metup here yesterday. We walked the city, saw Santa Catalina, an INCREDIBLE monistary, and then met the family that hosted them while he was here. They treated me like their own. So much fun, and a great opportunity to speak Spanish. Traveling with Craig is great...he´s from my mom´s side...yeah you get it. He´s completely nuts, out of his mind, and so much fun.
Travel plans have been a little messed up, had to make some changes today. We want to do so much and we have so little time left here. But it´s all chill. Ok I´m off. Gotta call mom to check in so she doesn´t tweak. Miss you all, see you soon.
-Christina
Friday, November 30, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
¿Puede Ser?
Hola!
Went to Valparaiso - one of my favorite cities so far! Houses of all colors stick out of a hillside on the shore. Went on a boat ride, saw some sea lions, lots of birds, ate food that I cant remember the name of. It looked kind of like shit. It was actually wheat thingys and peach juice. Yum!
After that went to Viña del Mar - the more expensive resort version 10 min north of Valpo. Not as cool, but it was fun to hang out on the beach. Realized that it was the first time I saw the Pacific Ocean. Check.
That night drank some Pisco at a hip little bar with some new friends, Zack and Diego. Total BAMFs in my opinion. Ann got tipsy.
The next morning we decided to stay in Santiago for another night. Best choice ever. We spent the day wandering around the city, super cool main plaza! Then we took a ride up to the highest point in the city and witnessed some spectacular views. We decended in these plastic ball things. Felt like I was on the Jetsons. That night we had our own little party in Diegos apartment...and thus Chile was introduced to Circle of Death. They loved it. We hung out and around sunrise decided to start dancing. What a great morning.
Spent the past 24 hours on a bus. Now Im in San Pedro de Atacama in the middle of the Atacama desert. Excuse me...I mean....middle of NOWHERE! Just desert as far as the eye can see. San Pedro is a little oasis, a town of about 6 block, and the perfect place for us to rest up. Tomorrow its on to Arica for a few days on the beach.
Sorry for the fast writing and all the typos, trying to spend more time living than interneting. But still want to keep in touch with you all.
Kisses.
-Cris (my name here)
Went to Valparaiso - one of my favorite cities so far! Houses of all colors stick out of a hillside on the shore. Went on a boat ride, saw some sea lions, lots of birds, ate food that I cant remember the name of. It looked kind of like shit. It was actually wheat thingys and peach juice. Yum!
After that went to Viña del Mar - the more expensive resort version 10 min north of Valpo. Not as cool, but it was fun to hang out on the beach. Realized that it was the first time I saw the Pacific Ocean. Check.
That night drank some Pisco at a hip little bar with some new friends, Zack and Diego. Total BAMFs in my opinion. Ann got tipsy.
The next morning we decided to stay in Santiago for another night. Best choice ever. We spent the day wandering around the city, super cool main plaza! Then we took a ride up to the highest point in the city and witnessed some spectacular views. We decended in these plastic ball things. Felt like I was on the Jetsons. That night we had our own little party in Diegos apartment...and thus Chile was introduced to Circle of Death. They loved it. We hung out and around sunrise decided to start dancing. What a great morning.
Spent the past 24 hours on a bus. Now Im in San Pedro de Atacama in the middle of the Atacama desert. Excuse me...I mean....middle of NOWHERE! Just desert as far as the eye can see. San Pedro is a little oasis, a town of about 6 block, and the perfect place for us to rest up. Tomorrow its on to Arica for a few days on the beach.
Sorry for the fast writing and all the typos, trying to spend more time living than interneting. But still want to keep in touch with you all.
Kisses.
-Cris (my name here)
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
And We're Off
Hola todos,
Last night I said bye to friends and family, and Cordoba in general and caught the 10PM bus to Santiago. Let's start there. First Kristyn barely made it arrving just before 10 and then I had to beg the bus driver to wait for Ann who arrived around 15 after. So while Kristyn and I are talking to the driver he realizes that we are from the States and asks us for our visas to Chile. We explain to him that we do not have to register for Chilean visas ahead of time, they just stamp our passports at the boarder, and he thinks we're full of it, tells us to find our luggage and de-board. After some insisting...and flirting...he finally let us on but declares that when we are stuck at the boarder he is leaving without us and it wont be his fault. The whole mess turned out to be a stroke of luck because it bought Ann the time she needed to catch the bus with us.
So we head West. We hit the boarder around 9AM this morning and after crazy delays thanks to customs, they stamp our passports and we get across problem free. Told you so!...So we get in to Santiago around 6PM and headed to Ann's friend Diego's apartment, where we're crashing while we're here. We actually ate a home cooked meal, which we scarfed down cause we hadn't eaten all day. Now we're just chilling in the apartment watching the Chile versus Paraguay futbol match. Chile is down by one. Every one looks depressed. And last night Argentina lost to Columbia! Which makes me kind of glad I wasn't in Cordoba, but have been a sad evening...wait...I care about soccer....when did that happen?
Even 24 hours later it totally still hasn't hit me that I've left Argentina for good. I don't think it will 'till I'm back in Glenview.
Muchos besos!
Last night I said bye to friends and family, and Cordoba in general and caught the 10PM bus to Santiago. Let's start there. First Kristyn barely made it arrving just before 10 and then I had to beg the bus driver to wait for Ann who arrived around 15 after. So while Kristyn and I are talking to the driver he realizes that we are from the States and asks us for our visas to Chile. We explain to him that we do not have to register for Chilean visas ahead of time, they just stamp our passports at the boarder, and he thinks we're full of it, tells us to find our luggage and de-board. After some insisting...and flirting...he finally let us on but declares that when we are stuck at the boarder he is leaving without us and it wont be his fault. The whole mess turned out to be a stroke of luck because it bought Ann the time she needed to catch the bus with us.
So we head West. We hit the boarder around 9AM this morning and after crazy delays thanks to customs, they stamp our passports and we get across problem free. Told you so!...So we get in to Santiago around 6PM and headed to Ann's friend Diego's apartment, where we're crashing while we're here. We actually ate a home cooked meal, which we scarfed down cause we hadn't eaten all day. Now we're just chilling in the apartment watching the Chile versus Paraguay futbol match. Chile is down by one. Every one looks depressed. And last night Argentina lost to Columbia! Which makes me kind of glad I wasn't in Cordoba, but have been a sad evening...wait...I care about soccer....when did that happen?
Even 24 hours later it totally still hasn't hit me that I've left Argentina for good. I don't think it will 'till I'm back in Glenview.
Muchos besos!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Chau Còrdoba
Hello all,
Note: After re-reading this post I realize that I use the phrase ``all of us`` a lot. I am so lucky that I came here and met the people that I did. None of us knew each other before we got here, litearlly 20 completely different kids from all over the states, and now we couldn`t be closer. We`ve said that if we went to the same college we plrobably never would have even been friends, and now we call ourselves a family. It would have been very easy for us to divide up into smaller cliques, choose our best friends and leave the others behind, but that never happened, we`re just this huge group of 20 best friends. So when I say ``all of us`` that`s who I mean. The family.
Last weekend was Mary Marshall`s 21st birthday so we took her out to dinner at our favorite place in Còrdoba, Estaciòn 27, and drank at 6 different bars before we decided we`d had enough. The next day a friend of our threw a rager and all of us went there. Good music, lotta booze, and some great stories.
Sunday of that weekend was...different. I actually lived what is now the greatest story that I have in my arsenal. This is too good to type out in here, I need to tell in person. A few posts back I mentioned that someone asked me out on a date. We`ll it involves him, a serious case of mistaken identity, and a few things I thought could only happen in movies.
Last week was chill, not much to do, classes died down, so we partied every night. Saturday we headed to Carlos Paz for our last weekend here. Carlos Paz is esentially the Lake Geneva of Còdoba for all you Chicago readers. I rented a cabin and we had a rowdy time. The owners were assholes, but I actually negoticated a rental contract in Spanish so I was pretty proud of myself. It was perfect, 13 of us, we make a huge dinner, hung out by the pool, and played flip cup, a lot of flip cup. So yeah...Sunday was hell. I was falling apart, really hung over, got a bloody nose, and for some reason I went temporarily blind. I`ll still don`t understand how it happened but if I stood in the sun my eyes would burn and I couldn`t open them, it`s better today but I still can`t see outside with out sunglasses.
The next 24 hours is going to be crazy...as usual. I have 3 final exams tomorrow and then I catch a bus to Santiago, Chile at 10PM. I still have to pack, study, say bye to my host family and friends who I`ll probably never see again, and as of 10 PM tomorrow night I am homeless.
Check the blog during the next few weeks, I`ll be updating every few days to let you know what city I`ll be in and what I`ve been up to. The plan is to move up through Chile into Peru and maybe hit LaPaz, Bolivia for a few days. Then I`ll spend my last week in South America in Pisco, Peru helping with the earthquake disaster relief.
Still having mixed feelings about leaving. Goodbyes are always bittersweet right? Honestly it really hasn`t hit me yet. This is going to be rough. I`ll be back in the States in less than a month. Wow. That`s weird to think about.
Miss you all! Have a great Thanksgiving!
Note: After re-reading this post I realize that I use the phrase ``all of us`` a lot. I am so lucky that I came here and met the people that I did. None of us knew each other before we got here, litearlly 20 completely different kids from all over the states, and now we couldn`t be closer. We`ve said that if we went to the same college we plrobably never would have even been friends, and now we call ourselves a family. It would have been very easy for us to divide up into smaller cliques, choose our best friends and leave the others behind, but that never happened, we`re just this huge group of 20 best friends. So when I say ``all of us`` that`s who I mean. The family.
Last weekend was Mary Marshall`s 21st birthday so we took her out to dinner at our favorite place in Còrdoba, Estaciòn 27, and drank at 6 different bars before we decided we`d had enough. The next day a friend of our threw a rager and all of us went there. Good music, lotta booze, and some great stories.
Sunday of that weekend was...different. I actually lived what is now the greatest story that I have in my arsenal. This is too good to type out in here, I need to tell in person. A few posts back I mentioned that someone asked me out on a date. We`ll it involves him, a serious case of mistaken identity, and a few things I thought could only happen in movies.
Last week was chill, not much to do, classes died down, so we partied every night. Saturday we headed to Carlos Paz for our last weekend here. Carlos Paz is esentially the Lake Geneva of Còdoba for all you Chicago readers. I rented a cabin and we had a rowdy time. The owners were assholes, but I actually negoticated a rental contract in Spanish so I was pretty proud of myself. It was perfect, 13 of us, we make a huge dinner, hung out by the pool, and played flip cup, a lot of flip cup. So yeah...Sunday was hell. I was falling apart, really hung over, got a bloody nose, and for some reason I went temporarily blind. I`ll still don`t understand how it happened but if I stood in the sun my eyes would burn and I couldn`t open them, it`s better today but I still can`t see outside with out sunglasses.
The next 24 hours is going to be crazy...as usual. I have 3 final exams tomorrow and then I catch a bus to Santiago, Chile at 10PM. I still have to pack, study, say bye to my host family and friends who I`ll probably never see again, and as of 10 PM tomorrow night I am homeless.
Check the blog during the next few weeks, I`ll be updating every few days to let you know what city I`ll be in and what I`ve been up to. The plan is to move up through Chile into Peru and maybe hit LaPaz, Bolivia for a few days. Then I`ll spend my last week in South America in Pisco, Peru helping with the earthquake disaster relief.
Still having mixed feelings about leaving. Goodbyes are always bittersweet right? Honestly it really hasn`t hit me yet. This is going to be rough. I`ll be back in the States in less than a month. Wow. That`s weird to think about.
Miss you all! Have a great Thanksgiving!
Monday, November 12, 2007
Entendàmonos
Whoever tells you that they travel to find themself is full of it. Traveling is about getting lost, about losing yourself. It`s about beginning to question everything about you, about where you`re from, about what you do, and why you do it. Traveling confuses you more. Challenges your values, your morals, your assumptions, and certainly your expectations. I realized that home is a word I can no longer define. Obviously Glenview, Illinois is home, but so is Còrdoba, Argentina, because I have grown as much here in 4 months as I did in 19 years in Glenview, and so is Ithaca, New York, and so is Siliguri, India. I am more confused than ever about everything. We use a line from a famous tango song to summarize how we feel after 4 months in Argentina: Y ahora no se quien yo soy. And now I don`t know who I am. I`ve reevaluated evrything. Beliefs that I held when I arrived in July were comepletely changed, and things I never cared about before I`ve become very passionate about. It`s when you`re thrown out of your comfort zone, into a completely different world where you have to start all over, where you have no friends, no family, no ties to your past, that you can really begin thinking. I`ve been through a lot here. I realize I`ve changed more than I believed I could, and now I`m throwing myself back into that old world. In one month I go back to that old life, the old me, back to the same places, people, society, expectations, hell even language. I`m picturing re-entry shock. I know that I feel completely lost right now, but in one month I`ll be lost in a world I`ve known all my life. Asì es. Y cuando me conoces, me voy.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
I arrived in Argentina 4 months ago today.
Hola todos,
As usual much has happened over the past few weeks.
My wisdom teeth are coming in and it´s killing me. I can no longer chew with the left side of my mouth and forget about eating hard foods at all, that means cookies, crackers, chips and stuff. Anything really crunchy. When I couldn´t stand it any more I want to a dentist, more like a scam artist. Luckilly Leah´s parents who both happen to be dentists came to visit this week and had a look at my mouth. Their advice: load up on pain killers and stick it out till I get home.
Drum roll please! You are not going to believe this. I FINALLY booked a flight home. I fly out of Lima and arrive at O´Hare airport around 11AM on December 14th. Which means, my last day of classes is Novemeber 16 so I have one month to get myself from Córdoba, Argentina to Lima, Peru. Adventure awaits.
Believe it or not there is life beyond Apple products: My laptop completely died. I´ve tried everything, been on every Mac support site, nothing has worked to revive it. And it´s not like I can run out to my local Apple store in Argentina either. It´s the end of an era. And on the same day my iPod broke. Again, figured out what was wrong, took the thing apart, nothing worked. Also, I was electrocuted pretty bad the other day while trying to fix my friends camera. I was far more embarrassed than I was hurt. So for now I´m done trying to repair electronics. I´ve stopped using anything battery operated, and now I read books. Yes. Books. You may remember them from kidergarden.
Another one of my rants: I´ve felt frustrated lately. Just kind of edgy. The first reason is that I know I´m growing impatient to be done with school. I´ve been in class since July 6th, and the actual learning itself has been more exhausting becuase it´s all in a different language. Hanging in there.
The second reason is something that has been wearing me down for the past 4 months. I´ve delt with it ´till now but lately I can´t take it any more. There are many aspects of Argentine culture that I have learned to appreciate. The machismo is not one of them. Basing a woman´s worth more on her physical appearence than her intelligence is just fucking awful. More sick twisted things happening lately. Too fucked up to post here. There are some things a girl should never have to get used to. I hate walking alone anywhere no matter what neighborhood I´m in or what time of day it is. But that´s life for now I guess.
Also, the social life is kind of a mess. Ugh. Love triangles, drunken mistakes on everyones part, watching history repeat itself. I swear our group would have made a great Real World season. ´25 kids from all over the U.S. thrown together in South America. The Real World Córdoba.´ Tired of having to guess weather or not I´m being used. Every time something happens it makes me miss my Glenview guys. You guys have no idea how great you are.
After one hell of a Friday night (the story needs to be told in person, reading it doesn´t do it justice) I went to Rosario for the weekend. It´s called Argentina´s perfect city for a reason. I loved it. A very chill weeekend with my friends Mary Marshall and Fran just hanging out on the beach and wandering around the whole city. It really gave me a lot of time to think about things. I needed it. Although I don´t mean to be cliche, I didn´t realize how much this experience had changed me until the past weekend. I´m not the same person I was last July. It´s all for the better.
Today I accomplished something huge. I got a 100% on my history final. After thinking for bit I realized what that actually meant. I read an entire history text book in Spanish, took a semester´s worth of class in Spanish, and actually managed to ace it. What?! I came here knowing next to nothing. Getting that test back today was one of the best moments of this semester.
(5 minutes pass)
My throat is actually starting to tighten up as I type this. Inhale. Exhale. I have two weeks left in this country. Two weeks from today I say goodbye to Argentina, maybe forever. Goodbye to another home. Goodbye to places and more importantly people, that I love. This might be one of the hardest things I have to do. Inhale. Exhale. Christina, snap out of it, you can´t start crying in the middle of the computer lab. Inhale. Exhale. I need to go.
Miss you all. See you in less than 6 weeks.
-Christina
As usual much has happened over the past few weeks.
My wisdom teeth are coming in and it´s killing me. I can no longer chew with the left side of my mouth and forget about eating hard foods at all, that means cookies, crackers, chips and stuff. Anything really crunchy. When I couldn´t stand it any more I want to a dentist, more like a scam artist. Luckilly Leah´s parents who both happen to be dentists came to visit this week and had a look at my mouth. Their advice: load up on pain killers and stick it out till I get home.
Drum roll please! You are not going to believe this. I FINALLY booked a flight home. I fly out of Lima and arrive at O´Hare airport around 11AM on December 14th. Which means, my last day of classes is Novemeber 16 so I have one month to get myself from Córdoba, Argentina to Lima, Peru. Adventure awaits.
Believe it or not there is life beyond Apple products: My laptop completely died. I´ve tried everything, been on every Mac support site, nothing has worked to revive it. And it´s not like I can run out to my local Apple store in Argentina either. It´s the end of an era. And on the same day my iPod broke. Again, figured out what was wrong, took the thing apart, nothing worked. Also, I was electrocuted pretty bad the other day while trying to fix my friends camera. I was far more embarrassed than I was hurt. So for now I´m done trying to repair electronics. I´ve stopped using anything battery operated, and now I read books. Yes. Books. You may remember them from kidergarden.
Another one of my rants: I´ve felt frustrated lately. Just kind of edgy. The first reason is that I know I´m growing impatient to be done with school. I´ve been in class since July 6th, and the actual learning itself has been more exhausting becuase it´s all in a different language. Hanging in there.
The second reason is something that has been wearing me down for the past 4 months. I´ve delt with it ´till now but lately I can´t take it any more. There are many aspects of Argentine culture that I have learned to appreciate. The machismo is not one of them. Basing a woman´s worth more on her physical appearence than her intelligence is just fucking awful. More sick twisted things happening lately. Too fucked up to post here. There are some things a girl should never have to get used to. I hate walking alone anywhere no matter what neighborhood I´m in or what time of day it is. But that´s life for now I guess.
Also, the social life is kind of a mess. Ugh. Love triangles, drunken mistakes on everyones part, watching history repeat itself. I swear our group would have made a great Real World season. ´25 kids from all over the U.S. thrown together in South America. The Real World Córdoba.´ Tired of having to guess weather or not I´m being used. Every time something happens it makes me miss my Glenview guys. You guys have no idea how great you are.
After one hell of a Friday night (the story needs to be told in person, reading it doesn´t do it justice) I went to Rosario for the weekend. It´s called Argentina´s perfect city for a reason. I loved it. A very chill weeekend with my friends Mary Marshall and Fran just hanging out on the beach and wandering around the whole city. It really gave me a lot of time to think about things. I needed it. Although I don´t mean to be cliche, I didn´t realize how much this experience had changed me until the past weekend. I´m not the same person I was last July. It´s all for the better.
Today I accomplished something huge. I got a 100% on my history final. After thinking for bit I realized what that actually meant. I read an entire history text book in Spanish, took a semester´s worth of class in Spanish, and actually managed to ace it. What?! I came here knowing next to nothing. Getting that test back today was one of the best moments of this semester.
(5 minutes pass)
My throat is actually starting to tighten up as I type this. Inhale. Exhale. I have two weeks left in this country. Two weeks from today I say goodbye to Argentina, maybe forever. Goodbye to another home. Goodbye to places and more importantly people, that I love. This might be one of the hardest things I have to do. Inhale. Exhale. Christina, snap out of it, you can´t start crying in the middle of the computer lab. Inhale. Exhale. I need to go.
Miss you all. See you in less than 6 weeks.
-Christina
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