El Medio Ambiente de Chile: Patagonia

After a month of waiting I am now starting my adventure with volunteering for organizations down here! What am I doing you ask??? Well I'm starting to work with an organization that works to save the beautiful flora and fauna of Chile named CODEFF (Comite Nacional Pro Defensa de la Fauna y Flora)! This group works with many different cities around Chile, north and south, to help the environment surrounding the cities! So for Valaparaiso we are going to work in La Campana, which is a national park about an hour away from the city. I was super hesitant at first about volunteering here because it's in a whole different language... however I am now telling myself everyday, "Amelie you know Spanish. You can speak and understand this language!" I tell you it's all about courage in yourself to know that you have the vocab to get your point across.

So yesterday was my first day volunteering for CODEFF at a rally for Patagonia! The slogan was Patagonia! Sin Represas... This means Patagonia (famous wilderness region in South of Chile) without dams. This hits home because Fort Collins is really battling against daming the Poudre River! It was exciting to work at this rally that is really similar to the problem we're facing on the front range! We worked for about four hours getting people to sign a petition against these dams. There was all sorts of things going on with different organizations there fighting for the same cause (this included GreenPeace), there was different types of music from New Age jam band, Hip Hop Reggae (super sweet and I got a video of it so check it out), traditional music of Chile, and much more. Overall it was a very cool experience here in Chile and I'm excited to volunteer more.

Above: Our director Bernadita giving a pump up speech
Below: MC and background of all the banners
Above: Guys walking around with TV's on their heads pertaining to the ignorance people have with what is going on in Patagonia with the dams.
Below: Guy signing the Petition!
Tomorrow I have a meeting with the other organization I'm volunteering with. This volunteering will really relate to what I want to do with my psychology degree in the future. I will be working with kids who have problems with drugs and alcohol. It's going to be tough especially trying to get a relationship with the kids in a different language! But I'm excited for it even though it's going to be really sad and tough to work with kids with such problems. However if this is the direction I want to take my life then I need to start somewhere! Wish me luck! Abrazos y Besitos to all! (hugs and kisses)

Un Poco de Cultura: A little bit of Culture

So today I'm writing to give you a lesson on Chilean Culture and what it's like to live a day in Chile! Ok.... Chile for one loves food... what country doesn't? But Chile lives and breathes around food. Chileans love their bread down here! It's served at every meal, but especially at breakfast and Once or what they call dinner down here. There are tons of different types of bread (way more than the US) and lots of things on the table to put on the bread such as marmalades, meats, cheeses, butters, palta (avocado), salsas, manjar (which is amazing dulce de leche equivalent here), etc... you get the picture... the options are endless! Lunch is the most important meal of the day here because if you don't eat it, you'll starve the rest of the day pretty much. Usually there is a soup or sopa, a large plate of rice or potatoes (mashed usually or pureed), and then some type of meat... usually chicken because Chileans don't eat a whole lot of red meat... That's Argentina. Once is not at once (11 pm) but usually around 8 or 9 pm and is usually just tea and bread again with all the toppings. However sometimes we'll get other things such as sopapillas or the other night we had McDonalds! Ya this company is everywhere! Part of Chile's culture is also their Empanadas which are amazing and I love them! They are basically a type of calzone that usually has some type of seafood or meat inside along with cheese! I thought it was hilarious that McDonalds sells empanadas here and they're awesome, which is probably not the best thing. I learn a different type of plato or plate each day! However I need to start writing down names because I don't understand what they're saying most of the time!

As for daily life here.... nine o'clock in our house is early... I have to tip-toe around to not wake anyone up! Most people (or maybe it's just my family) don't start their day until after lunch, which is around 2! The streets are so busy that sometimes I feel like I'm in New York or something trying to weed my way through the crowds! As I've mentioned before the bus drivers, taxi drivers, and normal drivers all drive with reckless abandon! Every time I get in a bus here I feel like I'm going to die because there are so many cases where I think they're going to hit the car next to them or one in front of them. Pedestrians DO NOT have the right a way! haha I learned that one the hard way... and all drivers use their horns regularly. If they don't use them it's like a sin or something!

There are markets everywhere to buy vegetables, fruits of all kind, fish, meats, clothing (used or maybe new maybe), hardware tools, flowers, herbs, shoes piled into a bin so it's a treasure hunt to find the right pair... haven't ventured into that one yet. Pretty much anything you need is in this market! It's fun to walk around to see everything, but also very dangerous for pickpocketing!

I can't think of much else right now.... there is a lot going on down here and I learn more about the culture everyday especially with my culture and communication class (right now we're learning all about the bus systems: how they work, all the workers involved in them, ect...) I hope this post finds everyone in good health! Abrazos y Besitos! Chao Chao!!

A story of three Coloradan girls....

Most people from Colorado when asked what comes to their mind when they think of Chile is.... The Andes! I was constantly asked before I left to come to this amazing place if I was going to ski! Well guess what guys? I went skiing in the Andes with my two good girlfriends! All being from Colorado and loving to ski, we made a mission to find snow and mountains that we love so much!

Jeannie (my roommate here in my host house) is from Castle Rock, Colorado. After our adventure to the mountains we now call her Mama Jean because she put everything together.... transportation, rentals, and passes! Amelie (yes she spells her name the same as me but pronounces it Am-elee like Amy) is from the greater Denver area and we have so much fun introducing ourselves together because 1. we have basically the same name (in both of our three names we have five letters different. She's Amelie Elisabeth Lanning and I'm Amelie Elizabeth Kastning!) 2. we look a lot alike with freckles, short body, and short hair and 3. We love basically everything the same! Someone would probably say we're twins! Jeannie, Amelie and I all attend Colorado State University and have so much in common and guess what that includes... Love for Snow and skiing in the snow!!!

Now for our adventure.... The three of us started out from Jeannie and I's house at 4:30 in the morning, after an all hands in cheer of "Go Team," for our bus to Santiago. We were nervous because this was literally our first adventure out on our own with no program to show us where to go and what to do when we finally get to our destination. The three of us made it to Santiago, trying to be as wide awake as possible because Santiago is dangerous on the subway. We were on the subway for 3o minutes going from one side of Santiago to the other in search of our next stop the shop Ski Total. There we would buy our tickets, get our wonderful gear, and find our transportation up to the mountain. We found the shop and it was a mad house in there because the company can take you to any of the major ski resorts in Chile! After about 45 minutes of scrambling to get everything as fast as we could and being sort of yelled at by our driver for looking like we were just standing around when everyone else was in the van waiting to go.... we were on our way to the resort Valle Nevado which is one of the bigger resorts in Chile!

As a side note the drivers here in Chile especially the bus drivers are crazy and I feel like I'm going to die every time I get in a bus! The ride up to the resort was crazy! We made friends with our driver by saying sorry for making him late, giving him a cookie (at 8 in the morning), and a piece of gum! He was a very nice man who talked with Jeannie and I because we were put up front with him. He told us all about Valle Nevado and the drive there which is an hour and a half from the ski shop, on basically a one lane road, and consists of going up 40 yes 40 switch backs!! Usually people get very sick with the ride, but we all made it there in one piece! Pulling up to Valle Nevado was an amazing sight! These mountains are to die for and the three of us just wanted to pool our money and go heliskiing! To bad we don't have a couple thousand laying around for that!

Finally we got to ski! The feeling of being at the ocean early in the morning to skiing on snow at 10:30 am was incredible! I think only in Chile that can happen! Being adventurous girls we found some good powder to skim through! However there was also a lot of crusty snow from melting and then freezing with powder on top so it was hard to ski it in rental gear! But we had a blast non the less! We had adventures of skiing over to other resorts and finding out we had to hike back to Valle Nevado! I can officially say now that I've climbed an Andes mountain! We had to hitch up our pants and be real Coloradan girls and climb all the way back up to where we were before! This happened to us TWICE!! But we laughed about it in the end and I think it made our day that much better!

To finish our awesome adventure we got a few Heinekins and just relaxed looking at the beautiful mountains surrounding us! It was one hell of a day and I'm so proud of us girls getting the "cajones" to get out there and find our mountains! Well we found them!!!

We made a video about our crazy adventure and there are also pictures on facebook that I've been tagged in so check them out! I'm attaching the video to this post for everyone to view so I hope it works! Chao Chao!

Mi amor con las olas (My love with the waves)

I'm falling in love with.... the ocean!! I've only seen the ocean a few times in my short lifetime so living and being able to look out my window (on clear days) and seeing the ocean everyday is amazing! I've had a few occasions to be able to visit and walk around the beaches and man it's so cool!

Both days I've been to the beach it's been cold and sort of rainy! The first day we went to Renaca and it was freezing! But being from the US and very crazy some people took off their shoes and ran around in the water! I didn't do this because I didn't have a jacket to begin with so I didn't want to get even more cold. We even had a boy that was dared to run into the water with only his boxers on... he only got his feet wet but did take all his clothes off! You can only imagine the looks we were given! The second day we went to Con Con which is about 30 minutes from our house. Our house brother Juan took us there because he had various errands to run and we had two previous days of just sitting inside because the weather wasn't the best. Con Con is know for it's comida or food named Empanadas which are sort of like calzones but with seafood and cheese or meat and cheese. They were amazing! We lucked out of not getting nailed by the rain but the storm was coming in so the waves were huge! We watched the surfers and the water crash onto the beach. It was very relaxing! Jeannie and I needed to get some air after being stuck in smoggy, busy cities so it was perfect! I'm excited to visit Con Con once it starts getting warm to lay out and walk the beach that stretches miles and miles!

However.... in the reality of things, today was our first day of school! I felt like I was a freshman again and I didn't know want I was doing with myself! I only had two classes today that started at two! Super awesome! Communications and Culture Class will be great because there are only 13 of us in the class and we'll be learning all about the Chilean way, history, politics because the elections are coming up in November, social problems, and culture with Chilean families! I'm very excited because it should cover just about everything I want to learn about Chileans! My grammar class is going to be hard because they put me in an advanced level. I'm nervous about it but it's going to be good because I need to be pushed with grammar! I've always been able to figure out grammar easily, but this class will look at grammar in a different manner: each zones or manners of speaking Spanish such as Spain, the US, Mexico, etc. It's interesting the groupings we were talking about today and how different areas of Latin American have very similar dialects. For example my teacher grouped Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay but saying that Argentina and Uruguay talk pretty much the same and that Paraguay is a tired Argentinian! I just thought that was pretty funny! It's going to be a good class because we're looking at grammer in a different manner than all of us are use to in the class room! Tomorrow I have my writing class and conversation again! Should be exciting!

For this weekend... Jeannie and I are cooking up a plan of venturing into the mountains to seek one of the things we came here for.... SKIING!! We're hoping for a fun weekend at the ski area of Portillo and to see my friend Drew Holbrook who is working there for the season. We're going with all girls from Colorado and it's going to be so much fun as long as we get a place to stay and a bus to get there! (look for pictures posted on facebook). I hope this post finds all of you in good health and enjoying the last of summer before school begins again for you! Brazos y besos! Hugs and Kisses! Chao!!!

Aventuras en Santiago

Hola!! Hey everyone! It's been about a week since I last wrote and I feel like my old life has fallen off the planet and I'm in some sort of dream! I'm slowly getting use to the life style here because it seems fast but when I start school I think it will slow down a lot and I get in the groove of school again.

Santiago..... ok so we spent four days in Santiago and we saw a lot! The first day we as a group (there are around 60 students here from all over the United States) went to Cerro San Cristobal which is a place the indigenous wanted to name after the Saint San Cristobal. Cerro San Cristobal allowed us to see all of Santiago and the Andes! To get up to the top we took el ascensor or fenicular. It's a really old box that moves on a track and gets to the top of the mountain or hill in this case. Shown above.

The next day we went to the Presidential Palace which is in the downtown of Santiago. We were told all about Salvador Allende and his overthrowing. We actually stood in the place where he committed suicide. Our tour guide was a short fat man with a beard and long coat. It was really hard to understand him even though he spoke really slowly for us. I think is was me just trying to get use to the accent down here and use to listening to a tour guide in another language.









The next day we went to a vineyard named Cousin~o Macul and got to see how everything worked and even try some wine which was very good. A lot of us didn't like the cab that we got to try because of the woody taste but I loved it! Afterwards we went to the poet Pablo Neruda's house which was beautiful! He has three houses in Chile which we will see all of them eventually. He named this house La Chascona which is a hair style that his second wife wore which is basically piling the hair on top of the head. Neruda wanted to model his house after a boat so everything was really small. I wasn't able to take pictures in the house but I can say it was very pretty! I wanted to live there!!

The last day we were there we visited Cerro Santa Lucia which is where Santiago was founded in 1902 by Pedro de Valdivia. It was basically a castle with a lot of steps to get to the top. Jeannie and I took a photo at the top but the sun was really intense so I have one eye shut.

Santiago was awesome but I got really tired of being herded around by a tour guide in a huge group of Americans. I didn't like drawing attention to all of us because there were enough men yelling at us that they loved us! I'm glad to be in Valparaiso now and with my family.

My family is great! Jeannie and I are living together and are both having a great time talking to everyone. We have a baby named Martin, a sister named Camila, a brother Sergio and lastly and most fun Juan. Sergio and Juan are nephews of our mom. Juan is funny and teaches us a lot of words which is good because both Jeannie and I lack vocab. We call him Juan Juan and he calls me Melie because they can't say the A. I actually like this new nickname!

I start classes on wednesday so Jeannie and I have friday to tuesday off so we're going to try to do something fun with Juan or other girls from the program. Hasta Luego!!

Spasms of Excitment

I have now finally made it safely to Santiago for the first portion of my trip. I arrived here at 7:45 am having no idea of what to do and where to go. Firstly, the travel went smoothly considering I thought I might miss my flight in Dallas for Santiago! I was sitting in the waiting room for my flight and struck up a conversation with an obvious looking college student who just happened to be from Denver University! Small world. Once on the plane, my entire body was shaking from excitement. There was a man sitting in front of me speaking spanish with me and joking with me about the personalities of Chileans saying they like to talk a lot! Being around him made me that more excited plus I just happened to sit next to this boy from DU on the plane so we talked forever until the Dramamine kicked in and I couldn't hold my eyes open any longer.

Once waking up for breakfast at 5 in the morning, the sun was slowly coming up lighting up the clouds. Soon the coast of Chile was visible and then the most amazing view I've ever see from a plane came to me... the Andes mountains sticking up around mass amounts of clouds with white snow covering the peaks... almost more pretty than the Rocky Mountains in the fall! My breath was taken away and all I could think was I can't believe I'm doing this all on my own! Once I landed I navigated myself slowly through getting my visa, immigration, and then customs. My spanish was definitely put to the test and I made it through which made me feel some hope that I would be able to live and function in this country. I was scared to death though when I saw how many people were around me because I needed to find my friend Jeanie and make it to our hotel for the day. I didn't think I would ever find her and it was such a relief to find her in the mass of people including other students with ISA (International Studies Abroad).

The day was exciting meeting a few of the girls in our group including another girl that goes to CSU and is from Montrose which was exciting! Tomorrow is the big day of meeting everyone in our group which is around fifty students. Then we are here in Santiago for four-five days and then off to Valparaiso to meet Jeanie and I's host family!!