cucarachas

spontaneous first night out in Chile to Barrio Bella Vista - a neighborhood known as Santiago's bohemian quarter, with new hip restaurants and boutiques. tons of bars and discotecas.

we went to an irish pub. 

photobombed by a Chilean dude

nuevos amigos!

cucaracha shot: tequila and kahlua.

                                      

you drink these really fast with a straw. don't burn your face, my friend found that out the hard way.

got home at 5 am, woke up at 8:30 to take a spanish oral placement exam.

the exact notes I took about my night when I got home at 5 am:

“I thought I lived in a decent area en el barrio Ñuñoa pero luego vi las casas de otros y I realized I lived in a kind of ghetto area”

“couldn’t enter club porque Tomás estaba llevando sandales”

“cab driver no conoció dónde vivo”

“hard to write in English porque estaba hablando mucho espanol todo el dia”

my brain was extremely confused which language to use, it was a very difficult moment and something I have not experienced before.

paula jaraquemada

this is my street/sign:

this is the duplex I live in:

my “bip” card for el micro y el metro (bus and subway):

the janky map my host mom drew for me so I don’t get lost finding the bus stop:

I proceeded to get lost finding the bus stop because I couldn’t read the handwriting.

[future dilemma: a taxi driver didn’t know where I lived, and neither did i]

redemption: I made it all the way from my house in Ñuñoa to Campus Oriente with 15 minutes to spare without missing mi parada.

host stranger

[haven’t had internet on my computer for the past 5 days because the networks in Chile are strange. i've asked my host mom to call the company mulitple times and it still hasn't happened yet -_-]

my host family consists of:

host mom: Maria Helena

host dog: Alana (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

host cats: Gaston y Gretta

Alana - 3 yrs old. super awesome.

Gretta - likes to sit on the refrigerator

Gaston - he somehow knows how to open my closed door

host stranger: some dude that lives in the room next to me named Alfredo, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him. or I might have mistaken him as my host mom’s husband who came home from work wearing a hot pink polo. I approved.

I don’t really know if mi madre chilena is married, separated, divorced, or widowed. either way, I like her because the first thing she said to me was that I have the same name as the main character in Grey’s Anatomy.

this is my room:

after unpacking I realized I literally brought no clothes with me

view from my window

strangest door handle i have ever seen

bonus points: the coffee mug Maria Helena put out for me to use during breakfast 

                            

wingardium leviosa! 

green heart of the 'hood

3 hours SFO => DFW; 9.5 hours DFW => SCL
and i made it! got through customs and waited at a cafe for 2 hours with all my luggage on a cart to meet up with 2 other UCSBers. only downside to this was that the cart couldn't fit into any of the restrooms and i really wanted to brush my teeth.

*when i checked my email at the cafe my Dad spelled Chile like this: "Chili". twice.

SCL => taxi => Hostelling International Santiago

                                      
 

Plaza Brasil - gnarly tree - monkey puzzle?

here is the description in the Lonely Planet guide for the neighborhood i am currently staying in: local's are often baffled by Barrio Brasil's popularity with foreigners; it's short on sites and has a dodgy reputation after dark.

good thing it's 8:30 pm and the sun is still shining.

to make matters worse better, Lonely Planet describes Plaza Brasil as "the green heart of the 'hood", due to the monkey-puzzle tree shades. what?

Plaza Brasil - super cool play structures

here are some highlights of my first stroll through Santiago:

1. babies on a trampoline - i wish i got a picture of this. i watched two adults literally put together a trampoline at the park and then put all these tiny kids, 2-3 years old, on it to bounce around.

2. dog with crazy eyes attacking people - okay, so no one actually got hurt. but this stray dog at the park would start barking viciously and lunge at a person walking past it (all victims were males).

this dog would approach a man walking by and start growling and barking and each man would react differently - one guy kept trying to kick it away, but the dog was too quick for him. others stared it down.

however when my group of 3 walked past it, it laid there and did nothing. this particular dog especially liked this lady on the bench next to him with a bright red bob.

3. endless stray dogs, pet dogs, fanny packs, mullets, and rat tails

4. ordering a pitcher of beer from a cafe

i already feel like i experienced so much today, tomorrow will surely be crazier.

peace out california

this is how i symbolize my transition from a NorCal rainy winter to a Santiago summer:

now all i need is a tan.

i could tell you all thing things that i'll potentially miss about California, but how about this instead - one thing i surely have no problem leaving behind:

seeing this sticker on the back of my mom's pt cruiser.

now off to the airport!

final countdown

i leave TOMORROW!

final suitcase count, more or less in the order i packed it in:
5 jackets (northface, raincoat, zip up hoodie, pull over, "leather")
5 long sleeve
5 pants (3 jean, 1 black jean, 1 navy)
3 large shirts
3 sweats (1 black, 1 adidas, 1 cut off)
6 skirts (5 short, 1 long)
5 dresses
3 shorts (2 jean, 1 navy)
6 tanks
4 camis/layering tanks (2 black, 1 grey, 1 cream)
2 cardigans (1 black, 1 grey)
17 tops (at number 14 i started to get nervous and went and weighed my suitcase -> 38.5 lbs!)
3 pajama tops
3 pajama bottoms (2 shorts, 1 pant)
4 bikinis
+ socks & undies = 44 lbs

# hours it took to pack all this perfectly: 3 hours

time it took to tear apart the entire suitcase because i realized i packed way too much:
less than 5 minutes

:(

but do i REALLY need that tie dye shirt?

this is the pile of clothes i eliminated:

final suitcase weight: 36.5 lbs ! shoes included :)

am i anywhere close to being done? nope. 

damn all the little things.

lucy was jealous of all the pictures i posted of buster yesterday, so here she is!

clothes galore

packingpackingpacking.

everything  probably about half of what i've decided to take

{disclaimer: i haven't tried fitting any of this in a suitcase yet; i'll let you know how that goes}

buster helping me.

the essentials:

{snowboarding gear; camping pack; golden retriever calendar; hiking boots + socks; fanny pack (they are all the rage in Chile, i'll leave it up to your imagination as to why i already own one); digital camcorder; luggage tag tribute to my BFF sarah palin. oh, and tampons}


something i'm packing that i probably shouldn't be:

 pterodactyl sweatshirt 

something i want to pack but have forced myself not to:
all 20 of my bikinis (although my Vegas-loving, hair-extensioned, stiletto-wearing hair dresser recommended i bring at least 15, since you can stuff them into shoes and stuff)

undecided:

uggs? or do i leave them for buster?

more helpful, although completely unrelated words of wisdom from my hair stylist: 

stand with your back against the bar so that the bartender doesn't make you anything.

this way, men will have a full view of your sexy body and ask if you want something to drink

consequently you won't end up paying for anything.

*apologies for all the hair dresser references. i just got my hair cut yesterday and she cracks me up.

death by flat iron

1000 ways to die?
today i learned that i must wash my hands after using my new multi-voltage travel hair straightener. why? because i might get cancer or cause birth defects in those unborn babies i've been planning on having.

P.S. does anyone understand the reasoning behind this punctuation? the best i could come up with was that someone wanted to condemn cancer to bracket jail.

look what i bought today

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

{drumroll}

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

236 tampons.

will i need this many? no

will i need over 150? quite possibly.

will other girls in my program forget to pack some? most definitely.

in Chile, tampons are super rare, and are only sold in very small packs for 3 times the price you would normally pay. solution? bring more than enough to go around. maybe giving out feminine products will make me cool and people will want to be my friend.

story time:

while strolling through target with a cart full of nothing but tampons, my dear mother was beyond embarrassed. i decided to make things worse by taking all of these to be rung up by the only male cashier in the store.

Voy a pasarlo chancho, ¿Cachái?

and so it begins.

in less than a week i embark on my 7 month adventure into the unknown depths of the other america. i thought i would pop my first-ever-blog-cherry (<-- i should be ashamed that i just wrote that) by answering the typical question: why do i want to go to Chile? this brings me back to a facebook status i posted last year when going through the decision process: Spain or Chile?! out of all the comments, only one person said Chile. and that person was me. but that's the beauty of it.

my thought process was as follows:

1. mining accidents - i was quite intrigued after seeing so many Chilean miner costumes during Halloween 2010

it isn't halloween if it isn't sexy.

2. earthquakes - we don't get enough of those in California

3. volcanic eruptions - way better than any light show i'll ever get in isla vista

Puyehue Volcano, S. Chile
June 2011

4. chillin with the alpacas 

Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival 2011

5. "going to school" - participating in student protests and avoiding deportation 

6. palta - eating it (avocado) all day long

7. a chance to get myself into some life-threatening situation worthy of my favorite animal planet reality show "i shouldn't be alive" - but only if i actually get on tv, i need to make up for the embarrassment caused from my previous television debut

licking my elbow, New York 2011

8. i am addicted to second hand smoke - bring on the nicotine
9.  i've always dreamed of going to a private catholic school

10. dichos - Chilean slang is obviously the most useful thing to learn in California, since we border Mexico

number ten brings me to explain the title of this post/my blog!

"pasarlo chancho" literally translates to "pass it on pig" or "to pass pig". clearly, this has no meaning whatsoever to the average Spanish speaker. in Chile they somehow find this to convey that you are having an awesome time.

"cachái" is a word that many Chileans use at the end of every sentence, sort of how Americans United Statsians (not trying to get dirty looks from the South Americans) tend to overuse the words "like" or "yeah". "cachái" is a term of mutual understanding translating to "you know what i mean?". say this to any non-Chilean and they most likely will not have any idea what you are talking about. oh the irony.

on that note.

i'm going to be having a great time, ya feel me?