Bom Bom,

Bloging frequently is tough when you only have an iphone as your only means of communication.  I also have no idea if I´m making spelling mistakes since spell check is in Spanish.  We´ve now spent a month and a half in beautiful, always sunny, Sucre.  I spent about half my time trekking, and half my time hanging out in Sucre.  The backpacking down here is fairly tough.  At 10,000 ft + every step carries a little more punch and wears you out more than normal.  Also, the sun is killer, especially for a white boy like myself. The countryside, however, is crazy.  Waterfalls pour off of huge cliffs while bulls and goats drink from the sky blue waters.  The mountains are literally every color imaginable.  I have walked on purple, blue, turqouise, orange, and every other color ground.  Speaking of the ground, the ground in the countryside is littered with fossils and dinosaur tracks.  Nothing like following along a trail carved by a t-rex.  I wish I could post pictures, but right now that may prove too technologically advanced for my current internet situation.

Bolivia is very different from US, or even western culture.  Their beliefs can be strange and they way they live their lives often makes little sense to me.  One guide told me that he was convinced that the Earth was flat.  Others are convinved that after 6pm at a certain waterfall, a demon whirlpool forms and sucks anyone there under to their death.  I´ve also been told that Bolivian children up to age 8 are bound to help bone growth.  Weird stuff.  There is a certain rural community in which one of their festivals essentially reinacts fightclub.  Community members join into a dance where they fight, and often die, for honor.  Also, it´s not uncommon for women in rural communities to have 15+ children, and in some communities men choose mates from the women who rotate through on a yearly basis.

And of course the great part about Bolivia is that practically nothing works, especially their government.  Bolivia´s national sport is protesting and going on strike.  The people are against the government, the police are corrupt, you can make bribes for your drivers license, rural people dont believe in medicine, and road blockades are common.  Speaking of which, the first part of our travels in the morning literally involve running a blockade to get out of Sucre.  The truckers are angry about paying taxes and have blockaded every single road out of and into the city.  I heard about one car getting out, they drove across the rail road tracks.  The truckers are slowly strangling the city.  Millions of dollars have been lost aready by crops rotting before they can get to the market.  Fortunately, they don´t seem to care if you cross on foot, so we´re waking up early to walk a couple of killometers until we reach the other side.  The US travel site warns against this, but it should be fun!

One of the best parts about being in the city had been living in our apartment: La Selenita.  We live in the garden of a French painter and an anthropologist from Brussels.  The French painter reminds me of Captain Jack Sparrow, he´s crazy and loves to switch between English, Spanish, and French as he rambles and makes French jokes. We have a fantastic cabaña surrounded by pear trees, tomato plants, walnuts, and vines full of pumpkins.  We also have a beautiful shaded terrace that looks out over the city and provides a great view of the sunset framed by the Andes.  There is also a friendly dog and simease cat, the later of which enjoys climbing into our bathroom sink.  I spend a lot of my time in Sucre doing absolutely nothing, a welcome change from my life in the US.  I´ve read the first Harry Potter book in Spanish and have now moved on to the second, we bought all 7 for 20 USD.  I also spend some of my time teaching English to some of the guides and helping out with other projects around the Condor office.  The guides are a lot of fun and I have enjoyed getting to know them over the last month and a half.  The other day we played walley ball (a raquet ball-volley ball hybrid) with some of them and made fools of ourselves.  It´s sad leaving this community that we´ve come to be part of over the last 1.5 months, but it will be a nice change to get out of Sucre and take in a little but more of this amazing and beautiful country.  Tomorrow we head to Potosi, the highest city in the world at 14,400+ ft, and then on to the Salar to Uyuni and La Paz. Thanks for all the prayers and support, I´m excited to travel, but I´m also excited to get back to the good ole US of A.  BOM BOM

Ling Ling

Bolivia... Cool!

Hey gang,

Made it safely to Bolivia bom bom.  This place is cheap!!  Lisa and I went out to a super nice restaurant and almost had to pay 7 dollars total.  Crazy since I've become used to spending 2 dollars for a 3 course meal.  But anyway Sucre is awesome.  It reminds us of a mix between San Francisco and Chapel Hill.  I think Sucre has the oldest university in the western hemisphere, but I could be wrong-o since it would be faster to fly to a US library to look that fact up rather than muddle through slow-as-evolution Bolivian internet speeds.  To balance the slow internet, however, they drive very fast and very reckless.  Roads don't have lanes, cars don't have seat-belts, and pedestrians get to practice their car-dodging skills at nausea.  Sucre is maybe also the chocolate capital of the world (again, not gonna look that one up, not trying to wait til the rapture).  But for real though, Sucre  is awesome.  It's like a mix of mountains and tropics, with crazy valleys that seem to change colors at every glance.

The getting here was tough, something like 30+ hours of transportation, but it is so worth it.  Sucre is known as one of the most laid back cities in South America and, coming from someone who tends to avoid cities, it is probably my favorite city that I've been to.  We've only been here for 5 days, but we've already done so much.  The highlight of our time has definitely been a 2.5 day backpacking trip with the organization with which we are going to volunteer, Condortrekkers.  Our group consisted of a Bolivian, two girls from Denmark, an Israeli, an Australian couple, a girl from Colombia and us two Americans.  The scenery was incredible and the days were long.  We crossed wicked mountain ranges filled with rivers, waterfalls (so so so many waterfalls), cliffs, dinosaur tracks, and rural Bolivian communities.  Backpacking in Bolivia is so much different than anything I've done before.  Along the trail, you are constantly passing by indigenous Bolivians herding their roosters/goats/sheep/chickens/bulls/dogs/children through the countryside.  We also slept in local buildings equipped with both comfy beds and showers.  Not hardcore, but hardcore isn't cool anymore.  The only aspect of the hike to rival the scenery were the conversations. Many complex subjects were brought up with as many as 3 or 4 languages flying between the group at one time.  We learned an Israeli card game in which lying was key.  Switching between Spanish and English was fluid and continuous as we attempted to trick and back-stab each other.  We could also stop at local shops along the way and buy candy and drinks for literally nothing.  Beer and wine was readily available at both campsites.  At one of our campsites we were even able to eat figs off of a tree  One highlight was rocking out to Bohemian Rhapsody with my Israeli friend in a Bolivian hut in the middle of nowhere.  Coming back form our hike we took a really rickety bus packed with Bolivians back to Sucre.  What else...  Oh, and the pizza restaurants in Bolivia have trampolines in them, for digestion.  We're eager to begin volunteering more with Condor and the  Australian who runs it.  I've tried to post pictures, but they may not load till November at this rate.


BOM BOM

South Again

Looking back over my Chile posts I've decided that blogs are kinda embarrassing because they capture how immature you were in your past.*  Anyways I'm scooting down to Bolivia in a few days to lead backpacking trips in a town called Sucre (I'm guessing the locals fondly call it su-cray-cray). After that I'll probably rofl over to Peru and perhaps peruse the sights there (LOL).  Ah yes...  I had forgotten how bad some of the jokes were on this blog.. .  I personally can't even bolivia that I just wrote that (LOL). I might keep up with this blog, but then again I also might be a robo-cat.  But really though, I like the idea of linking my new adventures to old.  It worked great for George Lucas and Star Wars <_<  so it'll probably hold true for me as well.

In all seriousness though, prayers for myself, my beautiful girlfriend Lisa with whom I'll be travelling, and the organization, Condortrekkers, with whom I'll be volunteering, are all greatly appreciated.  If anyone will be in the area during the next 3 months, shoot me a wazzup. I'm looking for a Peru travel buddy from mid May to mid June, so let me know if you would be interested in joining me.  Right now it's just me and an alpaca, and neither of us are great at Spanish :(.  Much love friends!

Bom bom,
Nathaniel


*Hindus suffer significantly greater embarrassment if they have blogged in past lives.

Sand, Snow, but most importantly SMILES!!

“It’s ridiculously long!” That’s what she said when we questioned a female Chilean Travel guide as to why it took so long to travel around this razor thin country which hugs the western most coast of South America. The truth is that Chile is roughly the length of the United States but much, much thinner. For those of you more culinary-minded, think of the USA as a huge chunk of meatloaf while Chile is a crisp, thin, succulent, Pepridge Farm Milano cookie. For those of you who aren’t culinary minded, aka Chileans (honestly, please import banana pudding and peanut butter) It’s roughly the difference in size between a Snuggie and a bowtie. For those of you who aren’t fashion oriented, aka Chileans again, let me put it in terms you’re sure to understand: it’s roughly the difference in size between a mullet and a rat tail.

Now that we’re all on the same page, let me tell you about some adventures. But “waahhhhh” you cry out, startling those in your immediate vicinity, “I want to hear about culture and museums and fine arts and cuisine.” To which I respond “it exists, museums are for old people, Star Wars, and gag me.” Yes I’m in a new city, all that means however is that I spend all my time orchestrating new ways in which to escape this city. Santiago is a unique city in that the Chilean military has begun to initiate a program of complete isolation from the outside world. It’s simple really, In order to deter any western influence which threatens to bring reasonable hair styles and palatable food to the city, the Chilean military has invested billions of dollars into a city wide smog screen which effectively hides Santiago from the outside world. This brilliant idea successfully allows the Chilean government to continue to broadcast 90’s music videos in an attempt to subdue the Chilean populace in a grand effort which will culminate in the installation of Justin Beiber as supreme dictator of the city. From the safety of their smog sanctuary, the Chileans will slowly begin to amass enough mayonnaise to flood South America. Once South America is taken it won’t be long till the mayonnaise and rat tail tendrils reach out and snare the unsuspecting continents od North America and Europe.

As much as I dislike this city, I have truly come to appreciate other areas of this beautiful country. Two weekends ago, I was fortunate enough to travel to the northern desert, to a town called San Pedro de Atacama (my guess is that is was named after a famous cama). Atacama is the driest desert in the world and, a lesser known fact, the funnest, desert in the world. To get to Atacama, I had to take a 20 hour bus ride, I know what you’re thinking and the answer is most certainly yes, I did watch a plethora of movies starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson during the journey. Once in San Pedro, the first thing we did was go sand boarding in La Valle de la Muerte (For those of you who don’t speak Spanish, this means “Valley of Life”). This was, of course, completely and vomit-inducingly sick nasty. We shredded for the majority of the mourning and then decimated a group of 7 year olds at soccer. With our self-esteem boosted roughly 200X higher after this well-earned victory, we decided to bike to La Valle de la Luna (For the non-Spanish speakers, this means “Valley of the Sun”). On the way there we stopped at a sand cave, made friends with a sand dog, and were told to shut up by a group of extremely polite tourists trying to listen to a guide whose other job probably involved smuggling drugs to Bolivia. After politely making a gesture to the tourists which more or less conveyed the sentiment of “Oh, we’re real sorry to have interrupted this info sesh, most of which is probably false anyway, have fun on your tour, hope sand dog rips out your eyes J.” After navigating out of the sand caves, we got back on our bikes and tore across the desert up to a huge canyon lined with dunes and what appeared to be chunks of rocky road ice cream though, now that I’m reminiscing, that may have been an incorrect diagnosis. Huh, weird. Anyway from this point we watched the sunset and reminisced about life, the universe, and everything. The sunset, by the way, was absolutely stunning and gave way to an even more stunning array of stars (San Pedro is known to have some of the best star gazing in the world, some of my amigos were able to observe the rings of Saturn via a telescope). What we now realized was a little weird was the fact that it was now dark outside. Perplexed we quickly affirmed the fact that night comes after day and then made our way back down to our bikes. This part we hadn’t really thought out, we now had a 14 km (that’s like 250 miles) ride back to the town, through the middle of the desert, in the pitch dark. While we were initially distressed, we quickly realized that this is what Batman would prefer, which obviously justified all that we were about to do. So we got on the bikes and rode all the way back to town in the dark, narrowly avoiding getting hit by tour bus after tour bus. It was an absolutely awesome experience, racing across the desert in the middle of the night with shooting stars to light the way across an eerie, almost Martian, almost moon-like landscape. As fun as it was though, it was extremely dangerous and something I will not be repeating for a long time to come. We finally got back to our Hostal and snuggled up in bed for a well-deserved night’s rest.

Then we woke up 3 hours later at 4 in the morning to go to the Tatio geysers, located at an elevation of 14,000 ft. It was -8 C outside (this translates to roughly -76 F) but when arrived at the geysers and our guide boiled eggs and milk for us in a thermal pool. Some of us then swam in a promiscuous thermal pool which couldn’t make up its mind between scalding and freezing so it would just hit us with both back to back. Later that day some of us explored an oasis. At one point Adam and I climbed up on top of some giant archaeological rock head and some locals told us to get down. I didn’t really see what all the hubbub was about and the rock guy didn’t really seem to mind, but we got down anyway and then went over and vandalized some other artifact. All in all San Pedro de Atacama was a fantastic trip and a land of unmatched beauty.

This last weekend, I went to an alpine, almost Patagonia town called Pucón, and let me tell you, it is a place of unmatched beauty. Unlike the boiling sands of San Pedro, Pucón was an artic wonderland dominated by lakes, forests, and volcanoes. Within the first hour of our stay in Pucón, we were already in trouble. As we sat in our hostal, we noticed that one of the recommended activities in Pucón was bird watching LOLOLOL. Who does that? After bashing on bird watching for a while, the one other person in the hostal informed us that he was an avid bird watcher. Hahahaha…….. “Well of course we love birds and we’re all about looking at uh feathers….. and uh beaks……. and stuff….” we quickly explained to the bird watcher attempting to give our best “oh we got you good with jokes obviously against our true bird-watching nature” smiles. “Do you like Penguins?” he queried. “Yeah” we said. “They are birds too.” “Oh” we said, clearly floored by this profound idea. Anyway after we shook big bird we went to some thermal springs where an old Mapuche Chilean cast spells on us. I’m not sure what spells exactly were cast, but I felt a little dizzy later that night and one of my friends, Quinn, briefly transformed into a talking piece of asparagus. The next morning we got up, grabbed bikes, and cut a muddy swath 50 km through the Chilean countryside to a dope lake that was full of water and stuff. Let me tell you the bikes that we rented were absolute winners. Over the course of a couple hours, my tire came off, my brakes locked up, and my chain came off repeatedly. In one such occasion my bike helpfully anticipated my need to break by abruptly stopping as I was flying downhill. This worked out really well because I had been eyeing a certain piece of gravel and was really happy when my bike helped me get that closer look. Nothing says good old fashion fun like a face full of gravel. On the way back from the ride we decided we would try to find a waterfall called Salto el Claro. 3 different Chileans I had talked to had told me not to try and find the waterfall, so of course we immediately embarked on a grueling quest to find the waterfall. The waterfall is sometimes referred to as the hidden or secret waterfall because it is very difficult to locate and if you don’t know what you’re doing (like, for example, us) you have a very slim chance of success. After wondering up a dirt road for a ways, we displaced some local pandas by hiding our bikes in their bamboo grove and continued on foot. Morale was running low and daylight was going fast but we kept on going. After what seemed like forever, we finally encountered a no-name trail that took us over barbed wire fences to the edge of a cliff hidden within the forest and snowcapped peaks. We had finally found our waterfall, a dazzling 100 meter cascade of foamy goodness that was worth every second of the hunt. How we found that waterfall, I’m not entirely sure. The odds were stacked against us, but I’m super proud of my boys for sticking it out in what is probably my favorite experience in Chile thus far. At this point it was already sunset and we had a long way to go. We quickly got back to our bikes, apologized to the disgruntled pandas for the pandamonium, and then raced down the mountain, in the dark, on bikes, again. That night we ate a huge supper and went to bed physically exhausted, but having spent an awesome and unforgettable weekend in beautiful Pucón

The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast and headed back to Santiago. Wait. No. I’m forgetting something. Something small, but if I don’t blog about it now, I’m sure I won’t remember later. What was it? Hmmmm. Something insignificant… hmmmm…. probably not important…. Oh wait now I remember: What actually happened the next morning was that we woke up at 6 am in order to spend 6 hours climbing 2,800 meters up to the crater of Villarica Volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in South America. Silly me, I almost forgot. This Volcano climb was freaking insane and unlike anything I’ve ever done before. What I really like was that our Chilean guides gave us little to no orientation, they pretty much just told us not to die, and threw crampons and ice picks in our general directions. Ascending the Volcanic beast took 6 hours of cramponing and ice-picking up icy slopes but we eventually reached the crater exhausted yet triumphant. Smoke was billowing out of the crater and the toxic air burned the nose and throat. Sitting at the top, taking swigs of chocolate milk, we cheerily brain stormed potential plans of action in the quite possible scenario of a volcanic eruption. Tuck and roll seemed to be the best choice with resigned death by lava coming in at a close second. On the way back down, some members of the group skied and snowboarded, but I decided to take the more skillful approach of sliding and tumbling all the way down on my butt.

I’ve seen a lot of things here in Chile. In the course of a week I’ve seen the wind tossed dunes of the Atacama desert and the snow covered landscape of southern Chile. This really is a diverse and beautiful country. I feel like I’m going through dungeons in a Zelda game; these locales honestly seem as if they are ripped straight from a Mario game. Never before in my life have I been able to stand in one place and see cacti, palm trees, and snowcapped mountains all at the same time. One minute I’m in the desert, the next in the artic, the next at the beach, the next beside a roaring jungle waterfall. This country is amazing, and I love it here.

But this country would mean little to me if I didn’t have such a wonderful group of individuals to experience it with. I’m surrounded by an all-star cast of students who are passionate, caring, fun, and hilarious. The lulz abound and I enjoy every moment with these new friends. How we all ended up in this horribly coordinated program and smog covered city, I have no clue, but I’m so thankful that we’re here together. If we all develop acute respiratory problems, I know that there is no other group of people in the world with whom I would rather hack and wheeze through this summer in Santiago.

Hospital? More like THIS ROCKSPITAL!!!!

When I awoke this morning, witnessing a vaginal hysterectomy was not very high on the old to-do-list. Granted, it WAS on the list, just much, much lower, probably right in between being forced to watch Scooby Doo re-runs and having sand rubbed in my eyes. But try new things am I right? It wasn’t till the surgeon plopped the emancipated cervix/uterus dynamic duo in a bag 2 inches from me that I realized that this friendly trip to the doctor had just gotten cranked up to level 11. Ladies, I hurt for you, I don’t know what causes this (and you better believe I’m not Google imaging it), but avoid it at all costs.

What is the context of this operation you ask? Well I was scuba diving and discovered a sunken ship in which… lol jk, I don’t know how to scuba dive. I was doing a day shift in the hospital which means I spent 12 hours, 8 am to 8 pm, following around doctors and nurses and asking lots of questions. Fairly early on I met a friendly young intern named Natalia whom I hung out with most of the day. Honestly I wouldn’t have gotten to see any of the stuff I did if it wasn’t for her. So mad props to you Natalia, wherever you are. We started off in the Puerperio which is the section of the hospital where the newborns (less than 3 days are treated). This involved a lot of baby examining and a lot of breast feeding. I participated in one of the aforementioned activities. Natalia let me help her examine the babies (most were less than 10 hours old) by letting me listen to their heart beats and pulmonary rhythm with the stethoscope. It’s interesting how much faster their hearts beat, or maybe my brain just processes information faster than most, either way, it’s interesting. I also got to check their reflexes, feel around and play “Where’s the liver”, feel the structure of their spine/skull, and monitor genital formation.

After lunch there wasn’t much going on so I accompanied Natalia to one of her medicine classes where we learned all about pulmonary pressure and output all in Spanish. FUN! We then went to the surgery wing where I saw some dude’s gall bladder get removed and another dude’s rectum get replaced by a bag or something. Natalia was totes impressed when I identified one of the guy’s higado (liver). Afterwards came the best part of my day: I got to witness a birth. Natalia explained in Spanish to the doctor that I was totally awesome or some jive like that and he was all like “whatevs dog you’re riding this delivery train with me.” At which point I was like “word up, I’ve played enough tee ball to have a pretty decent shot at catching this baby.” The birth was absolutely incredible. It’s hard to describe how it feels to witness new life, to watch the baby come out crying, knowing that between the doctor and I, we are the first people on the planet to lay eyes on this new, beautiful human being. And then to see the relief and absolutely joy of the mother upon being shown her new (if messy) baby; a surreal experience indeed.

What a day, I have a feeling in the US I wouldn’t be allowed to do anything that I did today. Even down here I have to thank Natalia for the inside pass. I have an exam tomorrow but studying is not on my mind. I will say however, that I love the Spanish language. Every day I can feel my Spanish skills rapidly improving. Just like in How to Train Your Dragon when the kid has to gradually learn how to tame and fly the beast. That’s me, riding the Spanish dragon. The weather isn’t too cold, highs of 60 if we’re lucky, but the houses are very cold, my estimate would be that my house is always about 40-45 degrees. Who left the fridge open? MIRITE?!?!?!? Rofl

There’s a lot I haven’t written down that I need to before I forget. In the future I’ll go into more details about partying at a US embassy official’s apartment, getting ruthlessly made fun of in a Chilean comedy show, fitting 7 people into a taxi, finally finding the Holy Grail (also known as peanut butter in this country), going to Chilean soccer games, and a bunch of other things that I can’t remember right now.

Tomorrow I embark on a 20 hour bus ride to the San Pedro de Atacama desert for 3 days. It’s the second driest thing in the world, the first being my sense of humor, BOM BOM! Dicho y Hecho

Blah Blah Blah, I'm only blogging because, as I sit freezing, curled up under an electric blanket, moving my fingers to avoid frostbite currently seems like my best availabe option. Survival of the fittest baby; just me, a years worth of propel, 3 layers of clothing, and a book of 501 really fun and interesting Spanish verbs, the real question is why would I NOT blog? MIRITE?!?! LOL, anyway.... I'm chilling in the appartment. A maid came today and reorganized the location of the couches and beds. I made a Stepbrothers joke about now having more room for activites. My host mom didn't get it. Paragraph ahoy.

Woop Womp hope we all made it across that paragraph gap in one piece! Tonight we had a dish that my mom said is typical Chilean cuisine, I always hate when she says that because I do not like typical Chilean cuisine. Since I'm starting this blog 2.5 weeks late, I'm just gonna do a quick synopsis of my favorite things I've done so far here. Villa Grimaldi toruture camp was cool, Valpariaso, Vina del Mar were interesting, enjoyable, would visit again. Beat a university women's P.E. team at handball. That's right I attend a University, La Universidad Catolica. I don't remember if I mentioned that in my other post or not, too late now, I'm not looking back. Went to a bar with some dude that works at the US embasy. I climbed Cerro San Cristobal, Cerro Santa Lucia, and Cerro Pochoco. Cerro Pochoco was hands down my favorite thing I've done here. It took us 2 hours to climb to the top but it's worth every second of the climb. The summit offers a sprawling, 360 view of Santiago on one side and the Andes on the other. Highly highly highly recommended. On the way back down you can pretty much just slide because of all the loose rock. Speaking of rocks, we climbed all over the mountain, essentially making our own trail for the majority of the hike. I aim to conquer more cerros in the future.

SHWOOP PARAGRAPH GO! I have my spell check set to Spanish so I honestly have no idea what I'm spelling correctly and I have no intentions of re reading this post so deal. I have decided that being in a city for this long is torturous. I love Santiago, but keeping me pent up between streets and buildings when there are such beuatiful and treacherous mountains to be explored is cruel indeed. My heart belongs to the wilderness and I'm trying at every opportunity to bust out into some other woodland escape. Class is great, I love being immersed in Spanish, and I love learning about medicine/health. I'm pretty excited for when we actually begin doing observations in hospitals and clinics, that's when it gets real doggie dogz. Speaking of which, There are thousands of stray dogs that roam the streets, and they are awesome. If you take the time to be nice to them (many just ignore them) they'll follow you all across the city while recruiting their furry bretheren until, after a while, you have ammased an army of perros. My only gripe is that when class ends at 3:30 and it get's dark at 6, there is no time to explore the country side, especially since it takes at minimum of an hour and a half to get beyond the confines of the city. I want so badly to scale every mountain in sight. The cold also hampers my access to adventure in that I don't think any overnight trips would be wise/enjoyable. Bummer, especcialy since I feel like so many of the mountains would take more than one day to truly appreciate and conocer. I'm pumped about going to the desert, San Pedro, but again I fear that I will have but precious little time to explore. My true time to explore will come after the program at which point I would love to go back north to the deserts, to Peru, to Argentina, or to Torres del Paine, what looks to be the most beautiful palce on earth and a backpacker's nirvanna. While the allure of the rawbeauty Torres del Paine (Google Image it, I promise it is gorgeous) is almost enough to provoke me to book a flight right this moment, I have to remember a couple of things. Primarily that Torres del Paine is literally located at the end of the world, just a hop skip and a boat to Antartica. This means that Torres del Paine would be COLD. REALLY COLD. While I can picture all sorts of terrible winter accidents happening, I sitll really want to go. If not now then later in life, but I will get there.

Que sera, sera though. I have to remind myslef that travel is only a secondary goal, with spanish and medical experience being the focus. When I'm in a place dominated by such natural beauty, however, that's a hard focus to maintain.

Wuz gud thugs?

This blog is for anyone who is interested in some South American adventure, but is mostly just so that I can remember stuff.

I'm starting this blog 2 weeks into my trip, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

I'm in the city of Santiago, Chile. I'm not sure Chileans really understand cold, because I was told it would be freezing down here. It's not. It's fall and it's very nice. Santiago is an interesting city. It is located within a bowl. The Andes surround the city which is cool because thyey provide a majestic, snow capped background. When you can see them that is. The bad thing about being surrounded by mountains is that the 7 million inhabitants of the city with their 7 million cars spit out a lot of pollution which then has nowhere to go. This leads to a perpetual smog layer which I'm told is worse in the winter (It's winter in Chile right now, Chilean winter lasts from June to August, the opposite of us). Anyway, it has only rained once, but that was enough to clear up the smog for a while. The city is very beautiful with a good mix of modern and old architecture. Because it is fall the city is particularly impressive due to all the orange and red leaves of the deciduous trees. I should probably utilize paragraphs as I write. Here I go!

I'm doing a public health/medical internship down here. I have 2 classes. This blog is boring to write. I think my problem is that I don't like looking back, I want to keep busting forwards. Anyway I need to write everything down so that I don't forget. The first day I had a 9 hour over night flight from Atlanta to Santiago. Fun!!! Got to my host house which is a small apartment with me, my host mom, her daughter, and a poodle. That day I just rested. I helped walk the dog and we passed my the mayor of Providencia (my neighboorhoods) office/mansion. Turned out that it was the only day of the year that it was open so I walked inside and looked around. It was swanky. The next day I went to the IES center where I have one of my classes and I got to know the other 42 students on the trip. I don't like typing. First blog post done