The Cabins

First Trip To the Cabins

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We went to the Cabins, Los Andes (near Chillan), with the Fulbrighters.. That is, most of the Fulbrighters, since Annie was still on the island, and Marisol, Doug and Nathan were in San Pedro de Atacama. We went to the Cabins, cuz we had a 4 day weekend, also it was the 20th - Roxy and Dan's Birthday. The first day there, Roxy, our friend Josefina, and I found a little puppy (the one in the picture) we named him Bobby. He was really, really cute, and very tiny. But then we went on a walk, and when we came back to the cabins he was gone.:(

The next day, it was Roxy and Dan's birthday. But we pretty much just hung out and cooked. Then, we had a Thanksgiving birthday feast!! It was sooooooooooo good, we had potatoes, chicken, (but me and dad ate salmon) salads, and more!!! Then we had delicious desserts!!!!!!! Yummm, it was just like a Thanksgiving dinner (only no stuffing or turkey, and it was in May!) At night we would all gather around and listen (or sing) while Dan played the guitar! One time, we were all sitting in a circle, and Amelie started crawling around, it was really cute!!!


For more pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/smrd51400/1stTripToTheCabins

Second Trip to the Cabins

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About a month later, we went back to the cabins, mainly because Marisol, Doug, and Nathan could make it this time, and it was all of their birthdays. Instead of making a cake we bought one from Lider, but it was still very good. It was really cute when Nathan blew out the candles! Oh I almost forgot!! It snowed when we were there, and Amelie looked really cute in her new jacket.


We were very sad to leave the Cabins!!! :(

For more pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/smrd51400/2ndTripToTheCabins

My new school

Here in Chile, I am going to a Waldorf school, called Rudolf Steiner. It is a really fun school, with really friendly people, but the curriculum is very easy for me. At Waldorf schools, kids don't start reading, even really little books, until they are in first grade! But I am really glad I go there for the Spanish reason. I have made three great friends there, they have been to my house and I have been to theirs and now, it seems like we have been friends forever! When I have to leave I am really going to miss them!!! My best friend (in Chile) has shared the best experiences, and also the worst, for example, getting stuck in an elevator! School is definitely different here, even in a private school, the kids are very rude to some of the teachers! Especially the language teachers, I think it's cuz they kinda take advantage of them since their Spanish is pretty bad! Like my English teacher is from Austria and she speaks many languages, her first language is German, then English, then some really weird language (I don't know the name of it), then Italian, and THEN Spanish.

As for where my school is, it is about a half an hour away from our apartment. Here in Chile they have a much different schedule, I go to the bus stop at 7:30 and then school starts at 8:30, sure it seems early, but for me school ends at 1:30. Roxy doesn't get out until 2 and that's when the bus leaves. That is one thing I am looking forward to when I get back home - not riding the bus anymore! In school, we have 1 hour in the morning with our main teacher, then we have music (three days a week), recess, then either language, sewing class, or chorus, then language, recess, and then language again. There is a lot less time spent with our main teacher. My teacher is Alejandro, he is a very good teacher. But he has a very different way of teaching than the teachers back home. For instance, every morning we go to a room where we kinda just play games and stuff. He also tells a lot of great stories.

I really am going to miss my school here!

Pictures:http://picasaweb.google.com/smrd51400/School

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Amelie's 1st B-Day

Amelie is now one! We had her birthday party at our apartment. It's a long story, but I'll try to make it short. We thought we could have our big party room for the birthday, but the guard person said we would have to pay this bill that isn't our bill. So we said "fine we don't need to use the big room then". Which seemed fine cuz the family (John's exchange partners family) wasn't planning on coming, that meant that we would only have half of the guests.

Next thing we knew, I was standing on the balcony and I saw all of them coming! It was crazy! If you read my blog entry on my trip with Nana, Aunt Sally, Jessie, Lucas, and Jan, you remember how I said it was really packed in here, well this was absolutely scrunched! Especially, when we were eating, there were people eating on the balcony, on the floor, on the couch, in some chairs in the hallway, and Dad and Melinda were even eating in the kitchen! You can understand why we wanted to go to the park for cake.

When we got to the park the kids played hide-and-seek and the adults talked. Later we ate the cake, Melinda had made two (Amelie's birthday party theme was animals!), one was a carrot cake with green colored coconut on top (grass) and Amelie has a little puzzle that has all these animals on it, so Melinda placed the animals so it looked like they were grazing in the grass on top of the cake! The other was called a monkey cake since it was shaped like a monkey, but was really a banana cake! They were both really really good!

Since Amelie's b-day is so close to Easter, the kids went up to the apartment then and looked for chocolate eggs! When we returned to the park, the family had to go to chuch. So it was again just the Fulbrighters, so we opened up Amelie's presents. I made her a poster that had a bunch of photos of her when she first got here, and others of now when she is one! When I was all finished it was very pretty.

So in the end it turned out to be a really fun party anyway! For more pictures, go to the site below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/smrd51400/AmelieSParty

My visit with Ashley

Ashley is coming to visit. I was soo excited cuz before I didn't have any friends coming down, and I really wanted to show someone around Santiago, plus I always have so much fun with Ashley. We decided to show them around Santiago the first few days, then we were planning on going to the coastal towns Valparaiso and then Viña del Mar. Valparaiso is an old port city where our packages from Chicago arrived by ship. And Viña del Mar is a very modern town with really nice beaches.

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In Santiago we went to places like the Central Market and Santa Lucia. Central Market is a fish market and since I don't really like fish, I don't like going there. It smells really bad, and my salmon had 14 bones in it! At Central Market they have 3 big fountains and Ashley and I were splashing around in it and we got all wet. And Santa Lucia is one of the 2 big hills in Santiago. Ashley and I have decided that when we are older we are going to move to France and rebuild Santa Lucia there and live in it. We also had tea parties on our balcony, first Roxy and Christy served us and then we served them and then we served my mom and Ms. Carole. When we were in Valparaiso we saw one of Pablo Neruda's houses and they liked it a lot so we went to his house that is in Santiago, they liked that one, too. Then one day, we were just sitting around the house so we were looking at our travel books and we decided to go to a palace that was within walking distance. We didn't know it but when we got there, they had a display of armour. It was cewl!

When we were in Valparaiso we went to a really cool hotel! The next day we went to a restaurant that felt just like a boat. I had some really good salmon (salmon is one of the only fish I like). We also went to one of Pablo Neruda's houses (he has three). It was a really cool house, because it was just like a boat, it had the little round windows. And on the top floor there was a bunch of windows that looked out at Valparaiso City. Pablo Neruda once said that during a storm he would go up there and write poems because it felt like the wind was like the waves crashing up on a boat and you felt like you were lost out at sea. He won a Nobel Prize for his poetry.

Then we headed for Viña del Mar, like I said before, there are really nice beaches there, we went to one of them. When we were at the beach Ashley and I splashed around in the water until we were so cold we couldn't feel our toes! Also there is this really cool clock made out of flowers in Viña.

On the way home we saw a lunar eclipse. Then I had to say good-bye to Ashley. :(

for more pictures click below:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/smrd51400/AshleyTrip

Our trip to the Desert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey,

I JUST got back from a busy busy busy summer. One of the coolest trips I have ever been on was with mi familia (Nana, cousins Jessie and Lucas, Aunt Sally, and my aunt and mom's friend Jan). I know, a big crowd! And now imagine: all nine of us in an apartment with only three bedrooms and a little futon couch! Yeah, talk about crowded! But, later that week we went with our friend, the "Bird Lady" Paola, and her three friends to a very small (when I say small I mean small) fishing village called Caleta Chañaral that was only a boat-ride away from, shall we say, a "Lively" island!

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We first went to a nice beach town called La Serena. There we stayed two nights, but once going to Chañaral, and once going back. Then, we hit the road again to go see some...animals!

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We, stayed in a cabin close to where Paola and her three friends were staying, but they were camping out. So, you're not allowed to go on the island, but you are allowed to get pretty close to things on it! First, we saw, let me see... more than ten WHALES, and not just their tails but well... them, it was amazing! They were twice as big as our boat! The coolest time was when one of them swam right next to our boat (you can see it in a video!) One even swam under our boat, it was pretty scary in the beginning, but later they're just plain cool.

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I really like dolphins, and always wanted to see them in the ocean. On this trip we got to see two different species of them! I was very happy to see my favorite kind, the bottled-nosed dolphins. They are so friendly, they put on a show, and we got to see one jump up out of the water, and then, we saw one swimming with it's baby! It was so cute!

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We went to the island to see my cousin's favorite kind of animal, the penguin. We saw Humboldt penguins, and we saw a baby one too! They are very cute! We saw so many sometimes it was like you could look anywhere and they would be there. Suddenly, when we turned a corner everyone was looking one way, and we turned our heads back again to see hundreds of sea lions! There were even a bunch of baby sea lions. Here are some pictures:http://picasaweb.google.com/smrd51400/AuntSallyLucasJessieNanaAndJanSTrip

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During the next two days at Chañaral we went to the beach, and other small excursions. We had a lot of fun in this village! Then we got on the road again, and headed back to La Serena. But, since it was so far away we made a few stops on the way.

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Since my Aunt Sally, and Nana (my grandma) were very afraid of going in mist because of their hair, my mom made our first trip to a National Park called Fray Jorge. There you go on a walk through the mist, and see cool plants and stuff that is completely surrounded by desert. Too bad for us, because we didn't really have that much mist to do much damage!

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Then, we went to get something to eat. My dad had already been to the place, and he said it was really good. So, they only serve one type of food, empanada's which is the most common food in Chile. The most typical is a meat filled pastry, but here they are famous for their cheese empanadas. As usual, Dad was right and it was very good. This place started out as a small highway stand and is now a very popular destination for travelers going to Santiago from the north.

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Then, we were back in La Serena. We got there pretty late, and had decided that a few people would go with Paola to an observatory. When they came to get us, we drove up there and saw different stars, like Orion's belt. But the coolest thing we did was, go up to the top of the observatory, and look out a HUGE telescope and see... Saturn! We really saw Saturn! It was awesome, it looked like it was from my science book! Saturn was white and it was glowing, also we could even see its rings. I loved seeing that.

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The next day, we went back to Santiago. And we did some activities! We got back Thursday and went to San Cristóbal (a big hill). Then Friday, my mom, Roxy, and I went to my first concert, La Oreja de Van Gogh (English Translation: Van Gogh's ear)! It was awesome!!! They are a really popular Spanish band.

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On Saturday, we went to a winery by John, Melinda, and Amelie's house. We had a lot of fun there. Later, that night we had a barbecue at our house. There were a lot of people and it was (yet again) very fun!

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On Sunday they had to leave.:( Then, all the adults (except my parents) and Roxy went to a market called Pueblito de Los Dominicos. I don't know what it was like, since I went to the pool with Lucas and Jessie.

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I am back to missing them a lot, but now I will see them in three months!

For video's of the trip click below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/smrd51400/Videos

Another Trip

We first went to a wine town called Santa Cruz to do a wine tour, but later found out it was very expensive, so we went wine tasting on our own, and we ended up staying at a huge dive that was anything but cheap!
The picture above is a picture of Catherine, Roxy, Me, and Anthony at the airport. We were very excited to see them. They were our second group to lose their luggage.

We headed to Chillan (where two Fulbrighters live), and went to their GREAT market where we have been several times. At the market we got food to have when we got to the cabins we were going to be staying at.

The cabins we stayed at were called Cabanas Los Andes, they were owned by a man that used to live in U.S.A. The cabins are located right by two Volcanos, Chillan Viejo, and Chillan Nuevo. There was a big pool that we all had a great time relaxing in. Also, they had a big trampoline that was very fun to play on.

When we were there, we decided to go on a horse-back ride. The first time we all went together, but I had a bad experience on the horse, so we had to leave that one early. The next day, Roxy really wanted to go on another ride, up to the volcanic rock fields, so my mom, Roxy, Catherine, and Catherine's mom all took the horses. And since horses weren't really my Dad and Anthony's thing, I hiked it with them instead. It was a lot of fun seeing and climbing over all the lava rocks.

Also, at the cabins we did an excursion up to the mud baths. It was a very long trip up (we had to hike up the volcano) but it was definitely worth it! We had a great time in the mud! The mud is supposed to help your skin, so we were spreading it all over our bodies! It felt like we were in muddy hot tubs!

It was hard to leave the cabins, but we had to go back to Santiago.=( When we came home it was raining, let me tell you it does NOT rain in summer in Santiago! It was very fun because right next door to the buildings where we live is a big police academy, and they had a great view of snow on the mountains. Of course we really wanted to go in and take pictures of the mountains. So, mom made friends with one of the police guys guarding the gate. And he let us go in and take pictures.

The last day that they were here it was Ms. Kathy's birthday, so we decided to take her to our favorite vegetarian restaurant, El Huerto. It was a lot of fun! And Ms.Kathy said it was her favorite birthday ever!

We had another great trip!

For picture's click on the sight below:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/smrd51400/Chillan

Our trip to the South

I just got back from my trip to el Sur de Chile (South of Chile). It was a lot of fun!! Up at the top of this page is the Volcán Osorno which is near Ensenada, Chile and is right behind the Laguna (Lake) Llanquihue. Volcán Osorno is 2,652 meters high (8,201 feet), and last erupted in 1869. The picture was taken right outside the cabañas (cabins) we stayed in, it was a very nice place!!!

This is Volcán Villarrica, near the resort town of Pucón. In Chile there are 2,085 volcanos, 55 of which are active, and Villarrica is one of the two most active! It's last eruption was in May of 2006, but was minor gas explosions. Villarrica is 2,847 meters tall (9,340 feet)! Also, when we were in Pucón we saw a triathalon going on, and decided to watch for a little while, and then realized someone we knew was doing it!! It was a lot of fun!!! I might be going back there and climbing the volcano, and my mom has a picture of what you see at the top of it (the picture below). Also, you hear loud growling, and smell a bad scent of smoke, and you stare down into a firey red pit of molten lava!

Here I am in the lava fields left by the 1994 eruption of Volcán Llaima in Parque Nacional Conguillío. We stayed in cabañas at a place called La Baita, that was a very nice place with wonderful food for vegetarians and meat eaters, too! Like I said in the beginning I am on lava fields in this photo, and you can see the huge rocks which came shooting out of the volcano. These rocks and a trail of lava covered all plants and trees in their path! Speaking of the plants and trees, it takes them hundreds of years to grow back. First lichen appear (which is everywhere right now), then small plants (there were a few examples of these), and then over a long period of time, trees begin to grow back (there were none of these yet). After another eruption, lava covers the ground again and they must start the cycle all over again. One of my favorite things in Conguillío was drinking the delicious water right out of the Río Truful Truful near a beautiful waterfall.

I really enjoyed my trip to el sur de Chile!