Cold

I've decided something: I don't like being cold. I don't mind cold weather, but I d0n't like being cold.

You would think the two go hand in hand - cold weather and being cold - but they don't.

For example, I like sitting by a window and watching it storm outside. I love the feeling of walking from the cold outdoors into a heated house. I like when I have to wear so many layers that it doesn't even matter what the bottom 3 layers are because nobody will ever see them. I love an excuse to wear fuzzy socks, warm scarfs, colorful gloves, and cute hats. I love drinking warm beverages and warming myself from the inside out. I enjoy being able to see my breath. I enjoy the comforting weight of having like 13 layers on my bed. I like the warm food that comes with cold weather - soup, squash, etc. I like cuddling up with other people to get warm.

However, Santiago is a bit different kind of cold. Not only is ''it cold,'' but ''I'm cold.'' Different. And no me gusta.

I don't like worrying that my fingers and toes might fall off. I miss sleeping starfished out on my bed instead of in a cramped ball. I don't enjoy standing in front of a shower running with lukewarm water, fighting myself to undress and get in. Or on the chance that it is a warm shower, the warmth overshadowed by the feeling of a million needles like when you jump into a hot tub after rolling in the snow. I don't enjoy practically sprinting from the bathroom back to my bed after a shower. I miss real heating - whether it be a fireplace (which is illegal here because of pollution) or real house heating (which is ridiculously expensive). Instead, I have a space heater that is the eqivalent of if Easy Bake Ovens made heaters. It's basically a lightbulb that is supposed to heat my room. To compensate, I forgo fire hazards (sorry Kerry) and bring it in bed with me. Setting it up 4 inches from my face so it simultaneously heats my face and my pillow. I don't enjoy being so excited to go to bed because it means blankets, but dreading going to sleep because it means turning off my heat light bulb. I miss not having a snuggle buddy. I don't enjoy the weird weather that is freezing in the morning but warm in the afternoon so I am stuck carrying 14 other layers around with me all day.

I had a dream (notice: not a nightmare) that I wet my pants because a) it would be warm, and b) I didn't want to have to pull them down to go to the bathroom.

So, in short, it's cold. And I'm cold.

I'm not miserable, and the weather is only a VERY small part of the experience, but I wanted to write this as an explanation as to why I'm opting out of traveling to the South. It's supposed to be one of the most beautiful parts of Chile, but for me right now heading anywhere except towards the equator seems like a bad idea. But the weather, combined the with fact that I don't want to carry all the clothes necessary to make it bearable much less enjoyable, combined with the fact that I would have to backtrack BACK from the South in order to continue North, makes it seem unappealing at the moment.

So I am going to save the south for when one or more of the following conditions are true:
a) I have a snuggle buddy
b) It's summer down here
c) I can do an awesome trip where I start in Santiago, go down to the tip of South America, pop over to Antartica, come back, and head back up through Argentina so I don't have to back track
d) I have enough money to afford lodging with sufficient heating
e) I have a cammel, donkey, or llama that can carry all my stuff
f) I magically have enough time and money that makes an expensive 12 hour bus ride that I'll have to repeat to go back worth it
g) I turn into a polar bear

Yep, so that's it. Again, not complaining. I'm still super happy here. Just a little freezing.

Okay, I'm going to stop typing now so I can put my llama gloves back on.

LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

Stanford

Today I saw a guy wearing a Stanford sweatshirt.

I sent up a quick prayer: "Forgive him, God. He knows not what he does."

Halloween Loot de Chile

So you know how when you go trick-or-treating on Halloween, you end up with a pillow case full of loot? There`s the good stuff, the gross stuff, the mandtatory-Halloween-experience stuff, and the other stuff, all thrown together into one big pillow case (or for all you lesser. . . *cough*. . . i mean other trick-or-treaters, a bag or tiny little pumpkin thingy). Well, this is my pillow case full of my Halloween Loot De Chile. Or in other words, my disconcordant thoughts that I am somehow going to relate to Halloween in order to give them some sort of consistent thread.

ALMOND JOY (the "do I really want to tell anyone about you because you're so good and there are so few of you. I'm not sure if I want to share this part of my loot" candy)
Now don't go getting too excited. I'm not about to spill any mushy details from some recent love affair. Especially because the only action I've had down here are my daily kisses and cuddles from Minnie. The dog. But I've very content with Minnie. She's an excellent snuggle buddy.

No, what I wanted to write here is that I don't really know exactly what this blog has become for me, and I feel like that might be something I should figure out. I should figure out how much I want to share on the "world wide web" (as someone over 45 would put it), and how much I should save for e-mails I can control who reads. I think I forget that people actually read this thing. Even people I don't know personally (wierd, but true). But the other part of me is saying, "Lila, nobody wants to read a censored version of your adventures. Where's the fun in that?"

So I guess what I want to say is that I want to formall announce that I'm not writing for anyone. I'm writing for me. For my own personal enjoyment, because I love writing, and to document my travels. And I love that this is a forum that allows you all to travel with me. But, that being said, I'm not going to censor myself or leave out parts out of concern for "my readers." But you should remember that this is me that we're talking about. Now that I've said that I'm "uncensored", it's not like I'm going to start writing about stip clubs or start dropping F-bombs everywhere. This will still probably be a PG blog or at worst PG-13. I just wanted to give you a heads up.

THE TOOTHBRUSH (the "cleaning up the day after" candy. . . that obviuosly isn't really candy)
So back to the whole "Sex on the Beach" fiasco. There have been some friendly accusations that I was asking for the misinterpretation by the way that I formatted that blog. What I was hoping for with that format was that if you glanced at it, you would say, WHAT??, but then if you actually read it in context you would realize that I was obviously talking about the drink. My bad.

CANDY CORN (the "mandatory experience" candy)
So I thought I would take this candy space to talk about some mandatory Chilean experiences. The first is, since we're talking about candies, the Super8. Pronounced "Super Ocho," not "Super Eight." I don't really know what the big deal is about them. I don't think that they're amazing, but apparently they are. They are chocolate covered . . . flakey things. Similar to a kit kat. Do you know those cookies that come in vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry? Maybe not. Well, it's chocolate covered that. Anyways, this is already more time than I wanted to be spending on Super 8s. Moving on.

Another mandatory Chilean (or any foreign country) experience: screwing up your words. So far, I have said that I wanted to ride a gentleman (I meant to say horse), I was from the United Students (meant to say states), asked someone that was almost done with school if he was sexually stimulated (meant to say just normal excited), and somehow insulted the entire female gender (meant to say . . . I actually have no idea what I was trying to say). Live and learn, right?

Mandatory Chilean Experience #3: (side note, I had to press the "Alt" button and the 3 to get that # sign. These computers are so weird). Biting into a salad that you think consists of one vegetable visible vegetable - clerary or onions or lettuce or carrots any other singular vegetable - and finding that the vegetable is not alone. No, it is accompanied by enough lemon juice, vinegar, and salt to make. . . smomething do something. I can't really think of anything right now. Sorry.

APPLE (the "real food that isn't candy that you're a little bit unsure about because there could be blades in it or whatevwer - do people really do that? - but you know that it has the potential to be the best thing in your bag of loot, so you're very tempted to eat it anyways" candy)
Awhie ago in a random conversation about food, I mentioned that I thought the whole "just bread and water" thing in jail wouldn't really be so bad. After a lot of thought, and a lot of bread, I've come to the not-very-surprising conlusion that I was right. (Ha! Bet you weren't expecting that one). Here in Chile, they have two food grops: bread, and things you put on bread. I have bread for desayuno (breakfast) and once (dinner). And when I say that, I don't mean bread on the side with veggies and meat as the main course. Nope. Bread is the main course. You can varry it with different toppings - palta (avocado), queso, jamon (ham), jam, etc. But the bulk of your meal is bread. We're on our own for lunch, and I usually end up buying some sort of bread and something to put on it. It's generally the cheapest option. Also, sandwiches come with 3 layers of bread. Bread, lots of maynaise and maybe some other stuff, bread, more maynaise and again the potential for other stuff, and another piece of bread.

SNICKERS(the "good stuff" candy)
Last night I met up with a guy that I met through CS and his friend and we went dancing. It was SO MUCH FUN. We were a bit of a motley crew, you might say. One of us a gringa with short blonde hair and bad spanish, another a small blast of color (orange pants, purple shirt, turquoise sweatshirt, checkered colored jacket) in a black and white city, and the third a tall, bright t-shirt wearing, mullet-sporter. I stayed consisted with my theme song, and "the pary don't start 'till I come in." Or. . . didn't start, I should say. But since when does modern music care about grammar. Anyways, I had a blast. We got there maybe 1ish and danced to a little after 4. The boys were great. They were the type of people that if I hadn't have come with them, I would have wished that I had. You know how in high school (or junior high, or at clubs, or wherever there is music and dancing, for that matter) the whole large group of people dancing who are so preoccupied with looking cool or hot or sexy or not like and idiot that they forget to have fun? And then there are the people that are having a blast, way more fun than the rest of the room combined, and eveyone wishes they had the confidence to dance like (that last part may be an overstatement, but I'm keeping it). Guess which group we were. Needless to say, I had a really, really fun time. I freakin' love dancing.

NERDS (the "self explanitory" candy)
I'm realliny enjoying school! There are two other kids in my class, and my teacher is awesome. Yep. That's it.

POP ROCKS (The "I Love The'80s" Candy)
I tried to resist. I thought I was stronger than this. I don't know what's happening. But today I found myself thinking: You know what, maybe fanny packs aren't such a bad idea. They're actually a rather convenient, safe, and functional way to carry all your stuff. I was (. . .am) tempted to buy some leg warmers. What's happening to me??

RANDOM CANDY AT THE BOTTOM OF YOUR BAG THAT YOU'RE NOT REALLY SURE IF YOU SHOULD EAT OR NOT (the "what the heck is this?" candy)
-This computer lab smells like fish
-Santiago is really big. Rather LA like. Except with good public transportation.
-You can't turn right on red.
-Woke up at 11 this morning. It was excellent.
-I'm going to look for more places to go dancing before 2am. But they're few and far between.
-I had a shortage of pants so I bought some I found at a used clothing store. They fit in the dressing room, but are now about 32 sizes too large. Do all courdory pants stretch out that quickly? Or is this pair just special? And by special, I definitely mean short bus special. Not shooting star special.
-The only acceptable color here is purple.
-Miss you. Love you.

Nostalgic Sleeping

When I was younger, I had a canopy bed. My parents made it for me for my birthday in response to my life-long dream of having one and attempts to make one for myself by tacking sheets to the cieling. I loved that thing. Sometimes (okay, often) I would dress up in a nightie and pretend I was a princess getting into her princess bed. I would close the curtains and go to sleep, in my head, as a princess. The last thing I would see before falling into a pleasant, dreamy sleep would be the faint line of the moonlight between the two curtains that faced my window. Only the ribbons of moonlight were ever able to penetrate my princess walls. I slept as a princess.

Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night. I don't know why. Maybe because I was sick, maybe because I got tangled in my blankets (I have so many!!), maybe I was cold. . . I don't really know. But I was awake, and it was the middle of the night. My bed here is up against a wall with a window that reaches from just below the top of my bed almost to the cieling. It is covered by two curtains, one from each side. There is a small gap between them. Through this space passed the lights of the city, the harshness filtered out by the smog. This thin line of man-made glow was what I woke up to last night, and for the first time in a long time, I went to sleep as a princess.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Today I was sick. Today I was on a bus. Today I comendeered the whole back row of a bus. Today I slept on a bus.

I laid down before the bus even started; my eyes were already closed when the engine fired up. My seats (5 of them, to be exact) immediately started to vibrate when the driver turned the key. The fait humm of the engine purred in my ear, whispering of adventures to come. I was transported. What would the next port be like? How much time did I have to nap before Kellie came back and started talking? I wonder what kind of pasta and potatoes we'll have for dinner? Will there be apples? Is my computer on the floor? I don't want it to get knocked down when the waves come. . .

. . . oh wait.

Today I slept on a bus.

But for a moment - a long moment, acutally (I was rather out of it) - I was back on the boat.

IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION NEEDED!!!!

Hey, so due to some very confused (and worried and shocked) e-mails, I realized that I needed to add a clarification.

Sex on the Beach IS A DRINK. I wish I could make that bigger, but I don't know how.

So don't worry. My flower is still in tact. Or hasn't been picked. My ship hasn't sailed. I still have my V-Card. Or however you want to put it.

No need to freak out.

It tastes like orange juice.

Here's a picture.

¿Quieres ir al Argentina mañana?

For those of you who don't speak fluent spanglish like I do, the title says, "Do you weant to go to Argentina tomorrow?"

A question to which I said yes.

It was on Thursday that the question was asked, so on Friday right after class (class being a trip to a museum), I boarded a bus with 5 other kids and we took off for Argentina.

Oh. My. Gosh.

Just in case you aren't familiar with South American geography (which many aren't), Chile and Argentina are seperated by the Andes mountains, over which we drove. Beautiful. These were the first mountain-mountains that I've seen. America has mountains, but these were mountains. Breathtaking.

They looked just like mountains are supposed to look. Huge, grand, majestic, snowy. The trip was worth it just for the drive. As an extra bonus, though, I got to enjoy Argentina.

We went to Mendoza, which is a city in Western Argentina. The first night we just hung out and explored a bit, but we were all pretty tired from the trip and crashed in our 6 person room pretty early. I love sharing a room. I think that's something I'm missing right now, so sharing a room again (especially with 5 other people) was awesome.

The next morning we rose early to go track down Argentinian jerseys before the game. This was absolutely necessary because I (and another one of my travel companions) look German. Probably because I am German. But I had to get something to show my allegience. Screw heritage.

So after buying jerseys, we watched the game at a cool little bar/resturant thingy. We ordered a "missle," which is a HUGE thing of beer shaped like a missle with a tap at the bottom. It was pretty cool looking. I tried a bit, but I don't think beer is for me.

(sorry, I'm going to start rushing now. No more details. I have to leave soon for my DANCE CLASS. Life is good.)

Then we went to a supermarket, bought food, and made it in our hostel.

Then we went wine tasting and I discovered that a) I'm a whimp about alcohol and b) I'm not a wine person.

A was discovered because every time they gave us a taste of wine, they filled up our glass about 1/4 of the way. And out of 4 tries, I didn't finish a single taste. Wait, that's not true. I think I finished the last one.

B was discovered because I didn't really like it. Pretty simple.

Then we were all exhaousted, so we went back to the hostel and went to sleep.

Again, fun sleeping in the same room.

We woke up around 9:00pm and got ready for dinner (that's normal down here).

We went to an AMAZING all you can eat buffet. I had three plates full of food and 2 plates of dessert and didn't finish a single one of them. Wasteful, I know. But there was so much that I wanted to try! Really, they had EVERYTHING. From dead pigs hanging by their feet (sorry vegetarians) to vegetairian sushi. And octopus legs. Weird.

After that, we went out on the town. We ended up at a little bar where I had my first drink all to myself. Up until then, I've tried bits of other people's, but that day I ordered one for me.

Sex on the beach.

So good.

It took me a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time to finish it. I nursed that one drink for a good 4-5 hours. It made me laugh. Made my friends laugh too. I have such great friends here. They totallyt accept me for my non-alcohol-y-ness. They're actually quite amused by it, as am I. It was fun to try something new.

When we left the bar, we went to a playground and played for a bit. Stupid america gets rid of all the fun playground equiptment, but luckily they are alive and well in Argentina.

We got home around 4am and went to sleep. Woke up early the next morning to get back on the bus.

Another beautiful bus ride. But I slept for most of it.

Cool things about Argentina (and Mendoza in particular):
-the "cute" country colors
-cheap
-beautiful parks
-really cool wineries (even though i may not be a fan of the wine)
-nice people
-death sidewalks (Some people might put this in a "cons" part, but I thought it was quite amusing. There were trenches on the steet side of sidewalks that were a good 3-4 feet deep. You could easily fall in, especially since the rest of the sidewalk is broken and uneven, just begging you to trip).
-fresh air


A couple more things before I go:
1) I am definitley the daughter of my parents. In my spanish class, we were learning about different rooms and furniture and all that good stuff in español, and in our text book there were a couple plans for house layouts. They were horrible. I was so distraced trying to remodel the houses in my head that I barely learned anything we were supposed to be learning.
2) You can't tell the difference between where the clouds end and the smog begines here. I tell myself that it's all clouds. That fog is what fills the basin that is Santiago. But my inability to take a deep, clean breath and the dryness of my eyes tell me differently. But I'm going to stay in denial for a bit more. Besides, it's raining now, so tomorrow (or whever it stops raining) will be "fog" free.

That's it for now. I've got to run to my dance class. It starts in 24 minutes, I have to take the train and then walk a bit, AND I'm starving.

Chiao!

P.S. Stuart, I have no idea what happened with skype. Lame. Let's keep trying though, okay?

Don´t Worry! I Found It!!

I know you were all desperately worried.
Something has been missing from our lives for the past 20 years.
Sure, you catch glimpes of it here an there¨- a flash of neon, an awkward haircut - but overall, the beast has been aloof.

But don´t worry.

I found it.

I found the ´80s.

Yep! All of it! Including (drum roll please. . .) MULLETS. I know I mentioned that earlier, but I just can´t get over it. Probably 1/3 of the boys are sporting the mullet. And seriously. Not like when Logan Smith did it as a joke.

But if ever you´re feeling nostalgic for the 80s, just jump on a plane to Santiago and you will be transported to a time when mullets and leg warmer were cool and no one knew smoking was bad for you.

But don´t look for neon colors. Everything is black.

Now, to help you on your trip, I have:

RULES FOR RIDING THE METRO
1. Keep your bag where you can see it
2. Hold on to it
3. Look tired like you just ran a marathon
4. Under no conditions should you raise you gaze about elbow height, or shoulder height if you´re feeling daring
5. Unless you´re staring at the foreigner, in which case, anything goes
6. Don´t litter
7. Don´t talk, or if you must (and only to people you already have a pre-established relationship with) talk quietly
8. Don´t lose your Bip! card

Yep, that´s it.

You´re good to go.

I Freakin´ Love Chile

(Here are some pictures from the trip to the North, which, I realized, I never talked about. Sorry about that. Summary: it was awesome.)

The only part of Chile I´m NOT loving are the sucky keyboards. But besides that, it´s AMAZING.

Here are some things you should know about Chile:
-People are friendly once you`re introduced, but before that. . . they`re not. It`s not that they are NOT friendly, they just won`t smile if you smile or say hello if you say hello
-Everyone smokes. Everyone.
-You greet people with a kiss on the cheek.
-Bread.

I had a lot more that I wanted to write, but I´m forgetting it know. Know that I´m having fun and I´ve made lots of new friends and I love the people here and I`m so incredibly happy.

But I hate these key boards.

I`ll put an address up soon! Bye! XOXOXO

CHILE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and the longest day ever - in a good way

(tried to post this last night. . . take 2)

¡Hola familia! ¡Estoy en Chile! ¡Y me encanto!

Just kidding. Well, all of that is true, but I wouldn´t do that to you. Write in spanish, I mean. Maybe later, when I know more. But not now.

I'm semi-regretting not bringing my lab top. All the keys are different here. It's weird. . .

ANYWAYS, I want to tell you about my never ending day. How is it still going? I feel like I've been here for weeks already. Did I really wake up in my bed yesterday? Is that even possible?

It started yesterday. I left yesterday morning and was dropped off on my parent's way to move Kerry into his new appartment. Then I went to the airport, got some food that was way too expensive, and got on the plane. Then I got off the plane because there was a major storm in Miami where I was headed for my layover. After waiting for an hour (and talking to Stuart!), I got back on the plane and I sat in the very back row. Well, second to back. There weren't even any windows back there, which is a shame because I wanted to see the blob. But I can see it on my way home. Anyways, I was in the back of the plane (Despite asking one of the people in first class if he wanted to switch. How could he have passed up an offer like that?) sitting next to a very nice man who had a friend playing in the world open. . . that's basketball, right? So we got into florida eventually, then had a very pleasant conversation with the one and only David Melendy (congrats on graduating!) got on the next plane to SANTIAGO. The plane left a little after midnight. My plan was to sleep the whole time. That didn't work. Woops. I slept in couple hour chunks. I woke up in time to see the sun rise looking over outside of the other side of the plane. We flew over snow covered mountains. It was beautiful.

As we were landing, that's when it finally hit that I was going to Chile. Ha. A little late, huh? It was so. . . beautiful. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before. I remember one time when we were in Yosemitie, my uncle Greg said, "There may be different kinds of pretty, but I don't think it gets much more beautiful than this." I completely agree. Think of the most beautiful landscape you've ever seen. Maybe it's Yosemitie, maybe it's the Sahara at sunrise, whatever it is, translate it onto a beautiful mountain landscape and that's what you can picture when I landed. And when my family was driving me around, but more about that later.

A bus picked us up from the airport, and I met some of the other USAC kids. They all seem pretty awesome. I think I'm the youngest. And the most inexperienced at Spanish. But I'll learn.

We went to the school to meet our family. Oh. My. Gosh. The school is beautiful!!!! Amazing. I absolutely love it. I am so excited to spend time here. . . I don't know if I'll want to come back. Don't worry, I'm just kidding. . . kind of.

So I met my mama & papa at the beautiful school and then we drove to the supermarket. They're so cute! They call each other "mi amor." I love it. My mama wanted to make sure that I was all set up, so she helped me buy toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner, and other essentials. She's a little spit fire of a woman. She knows someone wherever we go and she's all about finding the best deal. She's so sweet. And Papa is such a sweetheart. He's jolly. He doesn't speak a word of english (mama does), but we get along.

We got home and had breakfast (it was almost noon) with the rest of the family. Maitas, Connie, and Sebastian. They're really great. And they're tolerant of my lack of spanish. Right after breakfast, the mom said, "Now, we cook lunch." Haha. Seriously!

But us kids played Uno. And then poker. They didn't really know how the rules and looked to me to explain them. And - somehow! - I did it! Granted, they did know the basics, so that helped. It was really fun.

Then it was lunch.

Every meal is an event. The table is set, the table cloth is laid out, the whole family is there. It's pretty cool! After lunch, mama and I took the dog for a walk. Then she reprimanded (jokingly) me about my weather inappropriate clothes. They all think it's freezing here, but it's not. It's similar to a santa cruz morning, but they're bundled up in a million layers and scarfs and hats and boots. But I did need a couple things, so I let her take me shopping and show me where to get the best deals (I paid).

Then we got home and. . . DINNER.

Dinner was exactly the same as breakfast: bread with your choice of at least 3 of the following: cheese, ham, differnt ham, butter, jam, differnt jam, weird maynoise stuff. It's good!

So that's it so far. My family is great. Santiago is absolutely beautiful. The food is good. I'm freakin' exhausted. And I am starting to get the hang of this computer.

I think I'm going to go to sleep soon. Haha. I'm adjusting to the time change quickly.

I love you all! I'll be away from a computer for awhile, but know that I'm doing AWESOME and I love you all so much. I'd love to hear from you.

lilac2(at)berkeley.edu this computer is weird and I can't do at signs.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

haha. My family just asked me if I was writing to my boyfriend. I guess that's the sign for me to get off. Bye!!

Free Stuff

Do you know what's cool?
Free stuff.
Do you know what's better?
Free stuff that doesn't suck.
Do you know what's best?
Free stuff that's AWESOME!


That's why I'm entering to win something from www.yellowsongbird.blogspot.com
Their stuff is really cute. If you're a girl, I suggest you check it out. And maybe even enter yourself!!

Happy shopping.






i hope i win a sweet rosette headband from the @ohsweetjoy giveaway at www.yellowsongbird.blogspot.com!