Total amount of time spent on a bus during my time in South America (so far):

306.5 hours !!!!

I’ve been saving up more quirky Chilean facts to try and pass along…here are some more of the things I’ve come up with.

1. Continents — I had always been taught that there are seven continents. Period. We probably had a song to list them back in kindergarten. So after a lifetime of brainwashing, I was shocked to hear my Chilean lit professor mention the six continents of the world. Here in Chile (and around the world), there seems to be much more dispute as to the number. It appears that the majority of Chileans count North and South America as one continent, and my classmates seemed slightly annoyed that North America didn’t want to share its name with its southern sister.

2. Americans — Along the lines of the previous comment, “americano” here refers to anyone living in the Americas, not just people from the United States. General terms for Americans here are “estadounidense” (United States-an) or “norteamericano” (North American). Though we Americans are accused of ethnocentricity for calling ourselves such and forgetting about the rest of the continent (or two continents), I have to wonder at what the justification is for excluding Canada from the description “North American.”

3. Sucks to be a Chilean cat. The life expectancy here is shorter: only 7 lives instead of 9. What a rip off!

4. Prince Charming in Chile is refered to as the “principe azul” (blue prince).

5. Characters in Chilean fairytales don’t live happily ever after (well, they do, they just say it differently)…there doesn’t seem to be one standard phrase, but my favorite is “y vivieron felices comiendo perdices”  (and they lived happily, eating partridges).

6. Gringos — the term here isn’t at all offensive. It merely refers to anyone who has light skin and hair. It can be used to refer to Americans, Canadians, Europeans, or Chileans who meet the description.

7. Children who lose their teeth are visited by Raton Perez, a mouse who leaves coins in exchange for molars and bicuspids.

8. Colors symboism — In the U.S., the color green usually represents envy or jealousy. In Chile, it represents hope. I was also told that you should never give a yellow rose to a Chilean girl, because here it means that you are jealous or suspicious of her. In the U.S., a yellow rose usally means friendship.

9. These huge bumble bees are, according to my host mother, extremely good luck to have in the house. For a while in the late spring, we had jars all over the house trapping these bees, waiting until they died so that Jacqui could pin them above the doors, like this poor bugger:

The good-luck bee above the door

Here's a close up of the poor guy

10. Colds — I know this rant of mine is getting old, but it still drives me nuts. Colds here are considered crippling diseases. If you ask someone who has a bit of a sniffle how they are doing, the will tell you, in a voice that would lead you to believe they were dying of cancer, that they caught a cold last night. This debilitating disease is then treated with every kind of remedy imaginable.

11. Most Chileans are surprised to hear that we don’t have a national dance in the U.S. Chile’s national dance is the cueca, and kids grow up dancing it from elementary school. I think it shows how dance is so much more central to life here.

12. Chileans love to dance, and they love to dance late. Parties on the weekend start around 1 am and continue until daylight. I usually wimp out early…my American inner clock can’t handle the late hours. Plus, I actually like to be awake for part of the following day.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. Hope you enjoy!

Nothing too crazy to report for Easter weekend…I slept in every day, and usually didn’t leave my bed until it was time for lunch. The Easter Bunny made a brief cameo appearance Sunday morning, leaving little bags of chocolate eggs in front of each of our doors. It is also possible that there was an easter egg hunt that I slept through…but I’m not sure. We had beautiful fall weather and a nice lunch to celebrate.

In the afternoon, I got a sudden craving for Chocolate Kiss Cookies, something that my family usually only makes for Christmas. However, I figured I’d make an exception. After all, both Christmas and Easter are holidays about Christ…one celebrating his birth, the other celebrating his rebirth (in a sense). So, according to my stunning logic, if Chrismas = Easter, and Christmas = cookies, we can mathematically deduce that Easter = cookies. Simple.

Here is a picture of Manolla helping me with the cookies. We had a minor tiff because she was tired of coating the dough in sugar and demanded being promoted to actually rolling the balls of dough. I don’t like taking orders from a seven-year-old, so we had a brief power struggle…I told her that she could do it for the next batch, but that I was going to finish the first tray of cookies, and patience isn’t exactly Manolla’s forte. Here she is, finally allowed to roll the dough, and quite pleased with herself.

Manolla baking cookies

Here’s a picture of our final product. Chocolate kisses had to be replaced in the recipe by chocolate easter eggs cut in half. They were a hit.

Cookies!

As I reached for the shampoo bottle to wash my hands this morning, I had a fascinating revelation: in my 8 months here in Valdivia, I don’t think I have passed more than 2 consecutive weeks using the same type of hand soap in our shared bathroom. This may seem like an odd reflection, but take a moment to think about it. Think of how many times a day you use the bathroom, and then imagine how it would be if every single time you were finishing your business, you had to spend several minutes hunting for something with which to wash your hands. It would have a significant impact on your life. You now understand the serverity of this issue.

The more I think about this disappearing soap dilemma, the less sense it makes. One would expect soap to rotate or change when a bottle or bar was finished, but here, bottles that are only half-used suddenly go missing, and entire bars vanish without a trace. A jar of green soap one week, a fresh bar the next. A full bottle of chocolate-scented soap (as bizarre as it sounds) disappears to be replaced by a nickle-sized sliver of an entirely different bar of soap, which in turn vanishes and leaves nothing in its place. The now total absence of hand soap has me reaching for anything that will produce suds. The shampoo from the bathtub is serving as substitute this week.

I suppose the logical solution to this great mystery would be to buy my own soap and have it on hand in the bathroom…but that involves spending precious pesos that could be otherwise employed to ride the bus to school on rainy afternoons.

So where does all the soap go? It’s not being used as dishwashing detergent (I checked), nor is it being used in other bathrooms. It’s not hidden in the back corners of the bathroom shelves or cabinets. Perhaps it disappears to that mystic void with that swallows orphaned socks and missing earrings. However, I haven’t given up on finding a hidden safe somewhere in the house, filled with half-empty bottles and half-used bars of soap.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig. Here are some of the bullet points of my month back in my home away from home.

THE FAMILY: Upon my arrival in Valdivia, Jacqui (my host mother) asked me whether I liked dogs. When I said yes, she told me, “Good, because we’re thinking of getting a puppy for Manolla.” The idea sounded great but, knowing Jacqui’s tendency to speak of distant plans as if they were to take place tomorrow, I didn’t put much stock in the comment. Imagine my surprise when, 3 hours later, a fluffy ball of white fur that looked more like a large mouse than a dog was rolling around Manolla’s feet. At first I didn’t know whether the little guy was going to make it. Manolla isn’t the gentlest of 7-year-olds, Jacqui doesn’t like dogs, and I , the person who has never owned a dog, was somehow the one who seemed to know most about caring for a puppy. It was a recipe for disaster. However, I’m happy to report that, rather than kicking the bucket, Copito (Snowflake) is still alive and kicking. He spent the majority of his first weeks sleeping, but his energy level is increasing as quickly as his size, and I think in another week or two he might be able to keep up with Manolla.

A delighted Manolla and a slightly terrified Copito in his first minutes in his new home.

THE UNIVERSITY: I’ve been learning from the mistakes I made last semester and, having figured out how to navigate the system (or lack of system), I was able to spend the first few weeks shopping for my ideal four classes. Several potentially interesting classes were nixed for long lists of reading or too many quizzes, in favor of classes like “Film Appreciation.” Always the perfectionist, I am determined to appreciate those movies more than anyone else in the class. Though my courses aren’t homework-free, they are a huge improvement on last semester. Aside from the film class, I’m also taking Contemporary History of Chile, Contemporary Latin American Literature, and Chilean Theater. The majority of my classes only meet once a week, which leaves me plenty of free time to sleep in and hopefully do some volunteer work (which I’ve yet to organize). Fellow gringa Catherine and I are also playing with the women’s soccer team at the university (very fun, though not quite as impressive as it sounds). Unfortunately, I had class the day that Catherine attended the try-outs for the Chilean National Soccer Team.

WEATHER: March was an unbelievable month, with warm, beautiful weather. I spent as much time as possible outside, well aware of the impending doom that was fast approaching. With arrival of April has come the first of the rains…it’s going to be a long winter. Fortunately, I recently purchased an entire sheep’s-worth of wool, and Jacqui has promised to teach me to knit a sweater.

TRAVELS: After a summer of wandering, I’ve been mostly content to relax in Valdivia and live the bum life. I did make a return trip to Curinanco with Catherine and Victor, a small town on the coast near Valdivia that claims a stunning beach and is virtually untouched by tourists. Last weekend, Catherine and I headed to Pucon with the plan of climbing Volcan Villarrica. Our appearance in town made the campground owner’s month and we had our choice of any campsite we wanted. Poor weather conditions kept us off the mountain, and we had to settle for whitewater rafting and bicycling instead. It is a hard life we lead. With all the rain we had on the second day, it was hard to say whether we got more wet paddling down a river or peddling down rural roads.

Two of the new recruits: Catherine and Victor

Curinanco

Hello all! I’m finally back home (Valdivia) after 2.5 months of unforgettable summer travels. I know you have all been glued to your computer screens, pressing the “refresh” key every five minutes, waiting for my update so, after a period of shameless negligence on my part, I will try to make it up to you with a photo essay of my wanderings:

Family portrait on Volcan Villarrica, Chile

It wouldn’t be a Dappen vacation if somebody weren’t jumping. I met up with my family in Santiago in mid-December. We spent about two weeks making our way south in our rented car through central Chile, dipping briefly in Argentina for stops in San Martin de los Andes and Bariloche. Highlights included the discovery of what looked suspiciously like tarantulas in a national park near Valparaiso; a three-hour singing marathon during part of our road trip; swimming outside on Christmas day; greeting the new year on a street corner in Bariloche, discussing Ayn Rand with a Brazilian (random); collecting strange tan lines; and discovering that Heather and I have almost identical tastes in what we want to name our future children (don’t ask).

Day-hiking near Bariloche, Argentina

We rolled into Valdivia in time for Manolla’s 7th birthday, and I got to try out my skills as a translator while Chilean and American families got to know one another. It was an enormous success. After a tearful goodbye, Dad and I put Mom and Heather on a bus back to Santiago and then decided that, after months of procrastination, it was finally time to plan our week together. For more pictures of the family, click here to see my facebook album.

Volcan Antuco, aka Mt. Doom

Part one of my week with Dad was a stop in Parque Nacional Laguna del Laja, where we day-hiked and climbed the park’s volcano. I have never seen so much volcanic scree in my life. I made it to the top, only because I was promised that we could find a way down that was less terrifying than the way up (NOTE: “terrifying” is a relative term…Allison has a tendency to perceive danger in situations that other people find relatively safe).

Campsite of questionable legality

From the national park, we spent another day driving north and, near Santiago, crossed into Argentina. Our stint was filled with exploits of questionable legality (such as our campsite along the side of the highway, pictured above), as border crossings in South America are much more complicated than necessary.

Snapping pictures of Aconcagua

In Argentina, we spent three days backpacking at the base of Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside of the Himalayas and therefore the tallest in South America. We camped at the first of the series of camps on the mountain and then hiked to the base of the southern face of the peak at 13,000 ft. Click here for more photos.

Back in Santiago, I said goodbye to Dad and hopped on a plane south. I was worried that seeing my family would make me want to go home too badly, but it was the opposite. It was definitely hard to say goodbye to them, and I cried both times, but in the end it was perfect the perfect cure for the homesickness I’d been feeling before. At the end I felt rejuvinated and excited for staying another semester.

Lilly, Alex, and I with Glacier Grey in the background

Sunrise at Torres del Paine

In Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, I met up with Alex and Lilly and we spent 8 days hiking a circuit around the park, 7 of which included some form of precipitation. Despite the often crummy weather, we saw some truly spectacular views and had a wonderful time. On our 8th and final day in the park, we were rewarded we a beautiful view of the torres (towers) at sunrise and gorgeous weather for the hike down. Back at the main road, we waited for the boat to carry us out across the road that had been flooded by all the last week’s rain. Click here for photos of the entire epic.

Headless penguin on Isla Magdalena

From Puerto Natales, we took a ferry out to Isla Magdalena, and island covered with more that 75,00o couples of magellanic penguins and their offspring. Penguins were EVERYWHERE!

Lighthouse at the end of the world

We then headed to Ushuaia, Argentina — the world’s southern-most city. We sampled the ice cream, took a tour of the Beagle Channel, hiked in Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego and, while wearing our down coats in mid-summer, marveled that the indigenous tribes who used to live in the area went clothed in nothing but a tiny cape and seal fat. Check out my facebook album from the end of the world (in case you haven’t noticed yet, I took A LOT of pictures).

Perito Moreno Glacier

I left Lilly and Alex and traveled north through Argentina to El Calafate, Argentina. There, I visited the Perito Moreno glacier. The ice creaked and groaned and popped like a living beast, and pieces occasionally would calve off and come crashing into the lake below.

Cerro Torre

I then headed to El Chalten, where I spent three days backpacking through part of Parque Nacional de los Glaciares. I had gorgeous weather and was lucky enough to have unbelievable views of Cerro Torre (above) and the Fitz Roy Massif (below).

Laguna de los Tres with the Fitz Roy Massif behind

A colorful break from the bus ride

I then hopped on a bus that took me north through Argetine pampa…42 hours later I arrived in Valdivia, safe and sound and with enormously swollen ankles. For the complete photos from my solo trip, follow this link. I spent a week resting, washing laundry, and answering emails before I packed up my bags again and headed to Cuzco, Peru to meet up with my friend Kate, another Midd student who will be joining me in Valdivia next semester.

12-sided inca stone in the streets of Cuzco

We spent one full day wandering around the streets of Cuzco, which is a fascinating blend between Inca and Spanish culture. We ate a wonderful American-style breakfast, visited some of the churches around the main plaza, and wandered through the streets, where you can find houses and shops built around the remains of Inca walls.

Misty Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu was just like the postcards, multiplied by 100. The ruins, set among the clouds and surrounded by sheer cliffs, deserve every bit of hype they receive. We spent the entire day wandering around, discovering passages and buildings that were off the route of the main tour groups. For such a famous, popular site, it was amazingly unregulated. In the afternoon, we stalked llamas and, waiting for the last bus, were able to get a glimpse of the ruins without the huge hoards of people. Beautiful!

Sillustani tombs

From Cuzco, we headed to Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We took a day trip out to see the Sillustani tombs, constructed by the quechua tribes living on the altiplano. Click here for the first album of Peru photos.

Kate and I on Isla Taquile

The next day, we took a boat out on the lake, where we were able to visit Los Uros, a series of floating islands built out of reeds by the local people. From there, we went to Isla Taquile, where we were treated to a typical lunch and were pulled in to join in a demonstration of the wedding dance. Kate was lucky enough to snag the best date: the three-year-old son of the restaurant owner.

Plaza de Armas, Arequipa

In Arequipa, we wandered the city, found a great book exchange, visited an excellent museum with the frozen mummy of a child sacrificed by the Incas to the volcano gods, and I had my wallet robbed. Fortunately, nothing irreplaceable was lost and, by the time I found out the wallet was gone, I had already ordered a cup of hot chocolate — the perfect comfort drink!

Rock formation near Valle de la Luna

Lake in the altiplano

Flamingos in the Atacama Salt Flat

From Arequipa, we headed south into Chile and spent four days in San Pedro de Atacama. While there, we took tours out to see the Valle de la Luna, a valley of beautiful, twisted desert rock; the salt flats; the lakes in the altiplano; and the Tatio geyser field, the highest and third largest geyser field in the world. The desert was truly spectacular and we were finally able to enjoy warm, summer weather! Here is the last collection of photos from the summer.

We reluctantly said goodbye to the little town in the middle of the desert and boarded a 24-hour bus to take us through the rest of the world’s driest desert, back to Santiago and the Middlebury orientation.

I know I said yesterday that I wouldn’t be writing for a while. I lied. The truth is that writing blogs is so entertaining that I decided to write another. It’s a guilt-free form of procrastination: I’m writing, so it feels like school, but it’s fun, and therefore infinitely preferable to exams and essays. So let’s flash back a few weeks to an event that I have been meaning to write about for ages: Thanksgiving (more lengthily referred to here as Día de acción de gracias).

You can’t fully appreciate how truly American this holiday is until you are standing in a Chilean supermarket, shopping list in hand, realizing that you can’t find more than half the items that you need for your traditional dinner.

I had always believed that Bigger, the size of a Safeway or Albertsons at home, had everything you could possibly need…until the six of us from our program tried to look for pie tins, cranberries, pumpkin filling, swiss cheese, and chicken broth (among other things). I was pretty nervous to think that the next day, six exchange students with almost no cooking experience would be preparing a meal (a Thanksgiving meal, with all the enormous quantities of food that invariably come with the name) for thirteen people and would be improvising with half the ingredients. It seemed like a recipe for disaster.

We gathered at Alex’s home on Sunday morning and invaded his family’s kitchen, cooking all morning before our guests arrived in the late afternoon. Making these dishes for the first time, I learned some interesting information about what actually goes into some of my favorite Thanksgiving foods, and all gained a profound respect for my mother’s efforts to make this meal ever year. The end result of our day’s labor was a potential feast (assuming the food was edible): turkey, gravy, stuffing, salad, beets, spinach quiche, and mashed potatoes. For dessert: apple pie, ice cream, and fruit salad.

When all of our guests had assembled, we explained a bit about the holiday and the traditional foods before sitting down to eat outside to enjoy a gorgeous spring day. The cooks held their breaths as everyone took their first bites, but the Chileans all proclaimed the food delicious and, seeing that none of our guests died that day or within the following week, I think we can claim the meal a success! The apple pie was a HUGE hit for dessert, and everyone left the table feeling appropriately stuffed.

Under a blue, sunny sky, watching as our assembled friends chatted and ate, I felt incredibly thankful, not just for the food we had prepared, but for the opportunity to share these traditions with the community we had created for ourselves here. And I was also thankful for the tears and the incredible homesickness that welled up thinking about my family half a world away, because they showed me that I am finally learning to appreciate how unbelievably blessed I am in the people I left behind. How lucky to know that that same community has always supported me and will always be waiting to welcome me home!

In a lot of ways, you could say that our Chilean Thanksgiving was the perfect metaphor for my experience here this first semester: arriving without any sense of what the “ingredients” were, searching unsuccessfully for all the things I had left in the U.S. and trying to replicate the world I had known before, when replication was impossible. In the end, you improvise and you realize that, in many ways, plum sauce is just as good as cranberry sauce and, though you had to abandon the pumpkin pie, it will be waiting for you next year. Though it may be difficult at times, you can still build a life and a community for yourself amongst strangers — beautiful in spite of and because of the differences.

Ready to start cooking!

Sitting down to the feast

Chile was supposed to be my break from Middlebury and all of the hours with my nose glued to my computer screen or wedged between the pages of a book. Though the quality of the classes here doesn’t begin to compare with Middlebury, the work load certainly feels comparable. I would pick the only three classes in Chile that give homework. Somehow I can never make the combination of Allison and school equal relaxation. Even when I try.

This semester I’ve been enrolled in two classes on Latin American literature and a class one the history of colonial America. The last two weeks of the semester have been ridiculously busy with probably one the highest concentration of tests and exams that I have had in my scholarly existence. Learning that my first-ever 20-page essay would be written in Spanish was not an exiting prospect. Especially when you had thought up until the day that it was due that it was only going to be 10 pages. However, a limited time-frame increases efficiency; hence this blog entry is not mere procrastination, but a strategic maneuver to ensure that, later today, I use my time wisely.

I’m not sure when I’ll have the next opportunity to write, so I wanted to give you all a rough idea of my summer itinerary. I’ll do my best to keep you updated over the next few months, but my internet access will be much more limited, so I can’t guarantee consistent updates. Basically, I’ll be leaving this Friday (December 19) to meet my family in Santiago, and I’ll be traveling until the end of February. So here’s the rough idea:

December 19 – January 6: My family is coming to visit! We’ll be renting a car in Santiago and, over the course of a few weeks, will be making a tour of the central region of Chile, with a brief dip into Argentina. We’ll finish in Valdivia in time for Manolla’s 7^th birthday (the invitation was graciously extended to include then entire family, though she is really most excited about my mom, since Mom always sends her little presents tucked into my care packages).

January 6 – January 13: Mom and Heather head back to the states for the start of school and the arrival of our exchange student from Australia while Dad and I spend another week traveling. Plans are, as of yet, undefined…though I think it is a safe bet that mountains will be involved. On January 13, Dad flies home and I’ll be flying from Santiago south to Punta Arenas, in the extreme south of Chile and then taking a bus 3 hours north (still extreme south) to Puerto Natales.

January 13 – January 27: In Puerto Natales, I’ll be meeting up with fellow Midd kids Lilly and Alex for an adventure at the end of the world. On the to-do list is an eight-day backpacking trip in Torres del Paine National Park (see the picture below) and a visit to Ushuaia, the world’s southern-most city.

View of Parque Nacional Torres del Paine

January 27 – early February: Alex and Lilly head back to Middlebury for the spring semester (poor suckers), and I’ll spend a week traveling solo back to Valdivia. I’ll be traveling north through Argentine Patagonia, stopping in El Calafate to see the Perito Moreno Glaciar, and then spending a few days day hiking in El Chalten. From there, it is a quick 28 hours by bus up to Bariloche, where I’ll cross into Chile and head back to Valdivia.

Early February – February 24: After a brief stop in Valdivia to wash my laundry, I’ll be bussing back up to Santiago and taking a flight to Cuzco, Peru where I’m meeting up with my friend Kate, who will be in Valdivia for the spring semester. Plans are still very vague, but will hopefully include Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, and the Nazca lines. Finishing there, we’ll be bussing from Peru back to Santiago, hopefully stopping in one or two places along the way to break up the 30+ hour bus ride (Meredith, this summer is my valiant attempt to tackle your 400-hr record). We’ll end in Santiago in time for the Middlebury orientation for the spring semester and will spend a few days eating great food before taking the bus back to Valdivia (half of the point of attending orientation again is to take advantage of the fact that Middlebury will cover my bus ticket back home – in true Dappen form).

It should be an amazing next few months and I’m banking on the fact that, after this whirlwind of traveling, my second semester at the university will feel like a welcome vacation! I’ll keep you posted…

I hope all of you are safe and well this holiday season and are enjoying the chance to spend time with family and friends. Lots of love to all of you!

Allison

Note to self: never mix reservations with an American accents and construction.

About a week ago I called a hostel in Puerto Natales to make reservations for my friends and I for our upcoming trip in January. We are using the town as the gateway to Torres del Paine National Park (take five minutes to see the results from a google image search and you will see why we can’t wait to go there!), and as it fills up with tourists in the summer, we wanted to make sure we had our beds on either end of our epic backpacking trip.

Calling strangers has never been my favorite thing to do, and add the whole Spanish factor and you have one really really reluctant gringa. However, after about a week of putting off the call, I finally picked up my cell phone and dialed the number. A very friendly woman answered and I began to place my reservation.

What I hadn’t considered before I called was the construction going on right outside my window. Jacqui received a loan from the bank to expand her pension and hostel, and the instant the money was in hand the house began to ring with the sounds of hammers and walls began to spring up outside with lightening speed. Doing homework in the house during the day, I quickly learned to tune out the roar as white noise, and I forgot to consider that not everyone is as used to pounding, sawing, buzzing, and hammering as I am.

The first part was easy: dates of reservation and number of beds needed? Check. However, as I tried to tell her how to spell my name and my email address, we ran into some serious problems. The majority of Chileans would be able to rattle off their name without worry about the spelling, thanks to a spelling system that actually makes sense (on a related note: Chileans are baffled by the concept of a spelling bee, as there is no guessing as to how to spell a word in Spanish. Asking a Chilean to spell a word is like asking an American how to spell FBI), but because my name is foreign, we always run into difficulties. It is really funny to see someone struggling as much with “Dappen” as if it were Chinese. The combination of my accent and all of the background noise meant that the poor receptionist couldn’t figure out how to spell my name. Different versions encountered before finally reaching to correct spelling were “Tepen”, “Depen,” “Dapen,” “Datpen,” and “Datppen.”

I hung up laughing, but wondering whether we would actually have a reservation when we arrived in January. Fortunately, the confirmation email that arrived several hours later stated that “Allison Dappen” would have a bed for the dates requested. Success!

It is a truth universally acknowledged that, before embarking on a weekend of ease and relaxation, one must first endure a healthy dose of stress. It is for this exact reason that Ryan and I felt it was necessary to give Alex and Lilly heart-attacks before our Middlebury-sponsored trip last weekend. I may have mentioned before that, for a country bogged down by bureaucracy in many areas, Chile’s buses run incredibly on-time. Better than on time. If the bus says the departure time is 8:30, it will be rolling out of the station and onto the main street at 8:30:00. If you aren’t on it, you are out of luck.

When I was copying down the information that Aki (one of our program coordinators) had sent me about bus times, I accidentally wrote down that the departure was 8:50 pm, instead of 8:30. Normally, a mistake of this size would have been catastrophic. Fortunately, Ryan was given the codes to pick up our pre-bought tickets for the group, and we were advised to arrive with plenty of time. We decided to leave the house at 8:15 to walk to the station (a five-ish minute walk) which, with the 8:50 time, would have given us more than enough time to take care of our chores at a relaxed pace.

Leaving the house at 8:20, we stroll leisurely down to the station. Taking the escalator down into the station at 8:28, my phone rings. Lilly is in a panic. “Where are you guys?!” she asks. “We’re just getting into the station, don’t worry,” I respond, “we still have plenty of time.” “The bus leaves in TWO MINUTES!” She yells. AHHHHHH! We sprint down the terminal and Alex and Lilly shove Ryan into the line to get our tickets. As he waits at the ticket window, the seconds tick away…8:29…we start trying to stall the bus driver but, even as we explain that our friend is seconds away from getting our tickets, he tells us that, if we don’t have them in one minute, he is leaving us on the platform. Intense! Fortunately, Ryan sprints over at 8:29:58 and we dive onto the bus. Trying to calm our gasping hearts, we marvel at the effect that Chile has had on each of us: In the states, we would have been panicking half-an-hour before the bus left if someone hadn’t arrived. Here, it wasn’t until 8:28 that Lilly and Alex decided that they had probably better call us to see where we were!

The rest of the weekend was a welcome change of pace. We met up with our program directors and the majority of the other students in Middlebury programs in Chile for a weekend in Cajón de Maipo, a long canyon outside of Santiago. We stayed in an outdoor retreat/resort, ate wonderful food, took some short hikes, and relaxed in gorgeous sunny weather. Other highlights included a slideshow where each student talked about five photos from their semester abroad, and a game of Spanish Pictionary where our team of Valdivians was schooled by the program directors (unfortunately, though our drawing skills were superior, our vocabulary was not).

Heading back to Santiago, we had a few extra hours before our bus left, which we spent seeing some of the main tourist spots in the city: the Plaza de Armas and La Moneda (home of the president). Though it was 22 hours in a bus for about 40 hours of vacation time, it was well worth the trip!