Aventuras en el fin de la semana!

Hola!

¿Está bien si yo escribo mis blogs en español a partir de ahora? Porque necesito practicar más escribiendo en español y a veces es difícil cuando necesito cambiar entre los dos idiomas. Chiste!

Any one who can understand that, let me know! :)

Alright so more updates. This weekend was a lot of adventures.

First on viernes (friday 4 de septiembre 2009) Erin, Marcelo, and I went to Santiago to go watch Maite play on the national volleyball team of Chile. She had told us earlier in the week they were going to be having some kind of tournament against Perú, so we wanted to go and support her. Also, I guess the national team doesn't play in Chile all that often and usually they are only traveling and playing tournaments in other countries. For example, Maite gets to go play in the upcoming months in Brasil, Argentina, and maybe even go back and play again in Europe. So we needed to make sure we took advantage of the opportunity to watch her since who knows if we could get another opportunity to see the national team. So Erin and I took a bus from Valpo to Santaigo and we met Marcelo in the bus station in Santiago since he was coming from Casablanca. He couldn't drive because he threw his back out the previous week (such an old man he is - but we can't tell him that, its a sensitive subject) and still had problems when he tried to drive. On friday Erin and I were supposed to have a tutor session for our Literature class, but when we got there (super late since we had to make sure we dressed chilean for Santiago) we found out Romulo (the tutor) was sick and couldn't make it. So we got leave for Santiago even earlier than planned!

Getting on the bus in Valparaíso is always a challenge because after you buy your ticket you go out to where the buses are and its such a terrible system, I never have any clue which one is mine. So we asked a guy that worked for one of the bus companies and he pointed us in the right direction. So we waited for the bus, and then the same guy returned (he was so incredibly nice) and showed us to where exactly our bus was since it was in a different place than usual. On the bus, there are always people at the station who get on trying to sell things like newspapers, sweets/snacks, things like that. But once we were seated this guy got on and starting handing out like 5 packaged bandaids to each person, and then the driver got so mad because his guy gave them to each passenger and then expected us to pay him even if we wanted them or not. So the driver collected them all and pretty much dragged the man and threw him off the bus... the man definitely did not go willingly and was yelling the whole time. It was an interesting way to start the trip. Also, while on the bus I watched a man openly read a porno magazine. He opened up the posters and stared at naked women for the whole trip. And no one found this odd. I should have taken a photo, but I couldn't do it inconspicuosly.

After waiting for Marcelo at the bus station in Santiago, we started on our fun day in Santiago walking around and enjoying the day, since Maite's game wasn't until 7:30 in the evening. We rode the metro around, and spent most of the day in Providencia, a region of Santiago. We walked around, ate lunch at a salad place (Marcelo picked it for me, how nice right!, of course he ate more cow than salad though), shopped, and just had a fun day. Marcelo really wanted new sunglasses so we went to tons of stores looking for good sunglasses (lentes is how you say it in spanish) and even on the streets since there are vendors with just little blankets and goods they sell. So we were looking at a guys sunglasses he was selling on the street, until suddenly he saw the carabineros driving by and he quickly grabbed his blanket full of glasses and ran away. Marcelo still had a pair in his hand and the guy dropped like 4 pairs, but he didn't care because he didn't want to get caught by the carabineros. Because its illegal to sell goods like this in the street, and you can even get a fine for buying the goods. But after the carabinero car drove by all the people set up shop once again. I have a feeling this isn't really enforced too much though. Also, we had to hit up a Starbucks while in Santiago. And let me tell you, it tasted amazing! I love going out for coffee/tea with Marcelo because we always have amazing conversations, intelligent conversations about interesting and profound topics. Lots of good times.

So after the relaxing day exploring Santiago we made our way over to Manquehue, where Maite was going to be playing. But once we got there we found out Maite was only playing another team in Chile. Like her teammates on the national team, just a different division. So we watched and cheered her on, even though it wasn't the most exciting game. But its always fun to watch her, I can't believe how good she is. And it was great with the funny commentary by Marcelo and then the technical commentary from Erin who used to play volleyball. And then there was me just trying to take it all in. But after Maite played we got to watch the other division play against Perú. Marcelo gave Erin a hard time since she said Perú was the better team and would probably win. Just to make a fuss I of course pointed out that I was rooting on Chile because I am here in Chile and must support my country. I couldn't get many photos in the gym though, the lighting was awful and then they all moved so fast, and this with my exhaustion, I had no patience to try and take good photos. So sorry for the bad quality, but you can at least see Maite again, and see the Chile jerseys. :)

It was quite the long day. So after the game, we all (Erin, Marcelo, Maite and I) all took the metro and then the bus back to Viña. It was a super fun day. I love going to Santiago, but I don't think I would ever want to live there. It's almost too much city for me. But I have to say the view of the Andes Mountains from Santiago is just incredible!