~Cony~

Okay, now that I’ve had time to mourn the loss of my friend I can write about her. So Cony, this is your special tribute. Cony is the daughter of Jose who lives in the US with her mom. She was here the for about the first week I was here, but then unexpectedly and suddenly she had to go home. Which was very traumatic for me. See, she is fluent in both Spanish AND English so she was my personal translator. Without Cony I am forced to actually pay attention to when people talk to me. And I hate to say it, but without Cony my life is just not complete. LOL Cony and I had a different adventure everyday, I’m telling you this girl is out of control. Always wanting to go somewhere and look for an adventure of some sort. What kind of adventures did we have? Hmmm…. There was the surfing lesson, parachuting, and the time we thought the nanny was a burglar. Don’t know that story?

So, I am staying at the house of a doctor and his family, but the first 10 days he and his family were in South Chile for a vacation. So it was just me, Cony, and the nanny. Also, the doctor had his hardwood floor re-done, so we couldn’t walk through the front door. We had to use the sliding glass door to the kitchen, walk through the kitchen, outside to the pool, then into our room through another sliding glass door. We couldn’t lock the doors, because they didn’t have locks or keys. And we were limited to the kitchen, our room, and a little computer room to hang out in the house. Cony’s last day, we forgot the keys and she had to scale the wall to let us into the house, which after she did that made me feel real uncomfortable. I mean, it was rather easy (but incredibly funny to watch) for her to scale the wall, then enter the house with the unlocked doors. Later that night, before Cony and I were leaving to go to Papa Gallo for some drinks all of a sudden the door in the kitchen is pulled shut. Strange. Then the light goes on. Cony is like “Staci, there’s someone in the kitchen.” We totally didn’t think it was the nanny because she always talks to us, so we start freaking out. Not to mention, it was the weekend and we hadn’t seen her in 2 days, so we thought she was visiting family in Bolivia. There’s not much noise being made or anything, but we can see shadows. So I’m like, okay Cony we need to call the cops just in case you know. As soon as she starts whispering in her cell phone, the lights go out. Like 5 minutes later I see shadows in the window of the bedroom of the nanny, so I creep over the window with my mini pepper spray (thank you mommy). And I discovered that it was the nanny in there after all. But…. I mean, who the hell does that? Who the hell comes in late at night when two girls are there and doesn’t even speak to them. I mean honestly, we were scared to death. And we truly did not believe that the house was safe (robberies are pretty common here), so we went to Papa Gallo’s then the beach with friends until the sun came up.

That same night, while on the beach we for some reason decided it was a good idea to instead of walking down the ramp to the beach, we would run/walk/sink down the huge sand dune or whatever it was. Then, we ran up it like 3 times to go back into the house to get a sweatshirt, use the bathroom, etc. Talk about amusing…. Oh yeah, and the nanny apparently not caring about us very much locked the kitchen door from the outside. And took the key. Which meant we couldn’t get into our room…. Unless we walked on across the hardwood floor. So, we did what we had to do. Yeah, let’s see passed out at 7:30 a.m. get woken up around 9:30 by the man who did the floor and get lectured in Spanish….. not cool. I had no clue what he was saying. Spanish + early mornings after late nights = not happening

I’m sorry for all of you who are reading this and not caring. And Kelly, yes I know that I am probably rambling, buuuut Cony I know that you will appreciate these stories. So everyone else either quit reading or enjoy!

Hmmm…. Then there was the day when we were bored, but our feet hurt so incredibly bad that we could not possibly walk around the mall any longer. So we decided to see a movie. The only movie we could see was “Over the Hedge” only called “Vecinarios Invasores” and completely in Spanish. And we liked it…. Not so much the little kids climbing all (literally climbing) over the theater. Over chairs, crawling up and down the aisles….

Then, there was the time at Zofri when we bought clothes and the crazy salesman (who yes, spoke some English just not much and not very well. I mean my Spanish was better than his English, which didn’t say very much for him at the time.) wouldn’t let us leave the store. I think we said 50 times we did NOT want to buy jeans since we had already bought boots & jackets…. And then there was the crazy guy who like I thought was going to like attack me or something. La la la we were just walking along talking about boys and how cheap liquor is here and all of a sudden this creepy guy is like staring at me and walking towards me. And when I say staring in mean like creepy, staring with a passion into my eyes and my face. Like all the way to like 5 inches from my face, but thank god keeps walking in the other direction. “Cony, did we meet him last night with Johana or what? Who the hell is that?” She had no clue….. creepy is all I can say.

Cony and I almost got beat up by some women at the festival for the Virgin del Carmen in La Tirana. We were minding our own business waiting in line at the church to see the Virgin del Carmen when all of a sudden I get nudged in the hip. This women behind me is trying to get a head of me and Cony because her daughter or something was with other family in front of us. (This line was long & we had been waiting for quite some time) I mean this lady was honestly, rude. We were in line first and she was obviously behind us. She kept nudging me and nudging me, but Cony and I weren’t moving and we had the upper hand because the little fence thing was to our immediate left so we couldn’t be knocked out of place. Then, she nudges me again this time almost knocking me over and I finally turned and looked at her. She rattled off something in Spanish, which I ignored because I didn’t care too much. Then she said something else along the lines of me letting her in front of me and I was a brat and I looked at her just o-so-sweetly and in perfect English “I’m sorry mam’ but I don’t speak Spanish.” Cony & I won of course & walked up to see the Virgin (which wasn’t all that amazing actually)…. If you don’t think that was funny I totally understand…. But had you been there and seen this lady and her face ooo soooo funny. Especially since she knew I spoke Spanish….. it’s the little things in life which amuse me so much.

But Cony…. My favorite memory with you is when your dumb ass forgot to get your change. So, we decide while were at La Tirana to buy some souvenirs, which were like a dollar. We both pay with $20s (the money is different here, but to explain the exchange rate and pesos right now, just isn’t worth it) and bounce. Like 20 minutes later, we decide to buy another souvenir. Except Cony can’t find her money. I’m like, oh god you lost your wallet, someone robbed you. “Wallet, who needs a wallet? I just throw my money in my huge suitcase of a purse and try to find it later. It’s only tough to find when I have a zillion items in my purse and it’s pitch black outside….” So we’re in the middle of the street trying to find her money, her dad and her are going through her purse while Nicolas is holding his cell phone for light and I am silently laughing. Her dumb ass had forgotten to get her change from the woman earlier. So we had to walk all the way back across town and convince this woman that Cony didn’t get her change. Needless to say, she bought a wallet that night.

Cony my love…. Our goal lives on through me & I have fulfilled it the only problem is that your not here to enjoy it with me. But, when I return we will be reunited and create a new goal & live it up ;) MISS YOU!!!!

Zofri & Mall de los Americas

Okay, so Iquique has lots of places to shop here.... which means that I am in heaven. Iquique is a port city and it happens to be basically the cheapest city in Chile. Everything here (or so I've been told) is basically cheaper than any other city in Chile because it's a port city and because of Zofri. Zofri, is a HUGE "mall." There are tons of stores just kind of crammed together, but everything is so cheap. For example, a bottle of Jack Daniels costs ummm $8. They have tons of electronic stores, too bad I'm not into electronics so I can't give you a comparision on prices. But it has to be cheaper because there is no TAX. The entire area of Zofri is duty free.... you can buy a Mercedes, a BMW, and all the other kinds of cars at Zofri, I bought boots & a jacket so far and I plan on buying some jewlery before I leave. Oh yeah, and the other thing that is different about Zofri, the stores are so tiny inside, but all the stuff they sell is on display in the window panes. To cut down on robbery I assume. So it's pretty cool to shop, it is the ultimate window shopping.

Lets see.... then there is the Mall of Americas. It is like our malls. The quality of clothes is better than that in Zofri. There are some clothing stores with decent clothes, but more of the clothing stores in Zofri are kind of cheap with poor quality clothes. (Not ALL but the majority). So if you want to buy clothes you go to the Mall of Los Americas or Ripley. Ripley is like the Chilean version of Kaufman's. And you can't go into Ripley without your Ripley card or you pay like double the price. (Thank GOD I have made some shop-a-holic friends that of course have a Ripley card)

And there are all kinds of small street vendors with local crafts and jewlery that are really neat to look at....

Pica

Okay, I think that I should probably update this blog. I've been lazy with it the last few days because I was kind of homesick and needed to keep busy otherwise I'd think about home too much.

So, last weekend I went basically to the middle of the Atacama Desert with a Rotarian and his wife. For those of you who don't know, the Atacama Desert is the driest desert in the world. It gets like no rain ever. We went to the Huasco Valley where a friend of theirs lives so that I could see what life in the desert is like. Their friend is an anthropolist professor in Iquique, but on the weekends he and his wife drive to their house in Huasco. Yeah, if you thought West Virginia was boring and in the middle of nowhere definately re-think that one. This guy lives in a FOR REAL ghost town. Waaayy back in the day there used to be more water in the area and a society lived there. So he is studying how they lived. On my pictures, I took a picture of what looks like trenches or ditches in a row, that was their system of irrigation. I understood about 3/4 of what the guy was telling me about the desert which was pretty interesting. But I don't want to type it out just in case I misunderstood. I'd hate to put my foot in my mouth and mis-educate everyone.

That night we stayed in the town (there is a town about 10 minutes away from that guy's house in the middle of nowhere) at a Rotarian's house. The next morning, all I wanted to do was take a shower, but apparently when you're in the middle of nowhere they don' t have hot water.... so I was dusty and gross all day. Sunday, we went to Pica & Matilla. Neighboring towns that have natural hot springs & like natural hot water pools. The towns are sooo small though, not much to do & I am not so much a fan for the middle of the desert. I give major props to those brave souls that live there because it is so hot, not much color, & definately nothing to do.

I have pictures posted from Huasco, Pica, & Matilla on my webshots, so check those out because it just takes way to long to put them on my blog.

When I get back....

Things that I plan on doing ASAP:

1. Eat a gigantic steak salad w/ lots of ranch dressing
2. Eat onion rings w/ ranch dressing
3. Eat french fries w/ ranch dressing
4. Lie in the grass
5. Play golf
6. Go to Bent with my girls, drinkWashington Apples & Pineapple Upside Downcakes
7. Wear stilettos & a skirt to Bent
8. Play with my kittens
9. Eat Fettucini Alfredo
10. Take a nice, hot shower (these showers here are killin' me... now I'm in a house w/ 3 other girls and I'm always the last to take a shower)
11. Eat a Ceaser Salad
12. Call all of my close friends as soon as I land in D.C. (at 6:45 a.m.)
13. Can't wait to sleep in my bed
14. Drink too much with Randi
15. Go out with George to my favorite bar
16. USE MY 21 ID
17. Drink Captin & Ginger Ale
18. Be scandolus with Patti
19. Spend time with my family & friends just talking about everything I missed
20. DRINK MILK & LOTS OF IT (the milk here is totally different and sucks!)

Missin' ev'ryone

Two nights ago I went to a party with my friend Carlos and his friends. So far everyone I've met has been so nice and understanding with my Spanish. Some people have wanted to practice their English and others have helped me fix my mistakes in my converstaion. Until Friday night... I met two guys who had the audacity to say to me "I don't understand you, speak English." You know, their English wasn't that great, but I tried to understand them. In that moment, I started to miss my friends. My slang.My cuss words. My 3 Olives Cherry. My clothes. And yes, my stilettos. The girls here don't wear stilettos & they never have on skirts or dresses. Jeans & cute tops. I'm sick of my jeans and shirts. I want to get dressed up and go to the club with my girls. I want to wear my stilettos and fall all over the damn place.

I miss Patti & her popped collers... I miss phone calls from people (like Baker & Maggie) begging me to come to the club... I miss Randi getting me to drink more than I should....I miss my "sanctuary"....I miss my big and her boy stories.... I miss Jennifer's random comments.... I miss talking to my close friends (and you know who you are) & complaining & speaking English .....I miss the food of the Pines (just to clarify, I don't miss the work or the situations that I have to deal with daily)... but I do miss my co-workers (my fellow slaves) & my managers & my favorite members that are so nice to me everyday I'm there.... I miss the mountains & the grass & the river.... and I miss seeing a NORMAL hot dog....I miss my family & my pets....I miss drunk texting & getting drunk dialed.... I miss my seXI's....I miss Bent & Vice & Lizard & RANCH DRESSING

I am having a good time here, I just want you all to know that I really do miss you. A lot.

*muah*

La Comida

I think that I have spent sufficient enough time here to have formed an opinion about the food. First of all, it’s extremely difficult for me to go out to eat because I have no freaking clue what the menu is saying. Yeah, I can speak Spanish and read Spanish, but specific names of fish, and meat, and dishes that is a whole different ball game. Annnnd, so far all the restaurants that we have eaten at the menus don’t have descriptions of the food. Just the name and the price. So, I typically just take a whim and hope for the best. For those picky eaters, I think you would starve to death.

With every meal, there is “Ensalada Chileana” and it is sliced or diced tomatoes & onions. Sometimes it is a little spicy (which is how I prefer it), but most of the time it’s just normal. I love tomatoes and even more onions, so sometimes that’s my favorite part of the meal. Their “salads” don’t have dressing. You get a plate with lettuce & whatever vegetables comes with the type of salad you unknowingly ordered. I couldn’t eat the one “salad” with cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, and lettuce because I NEEDED dressing. All I want is a little Italian and I would be okay…..

I’ve eaten a lot of different variations of meat, and they’ve all tasted normal. I had a really good kind of fish the other day. But my favorite so far has been Empanadas. Emmm…. I had one with cheese, one with like meat, onions, and egg or something like that, and one that had seafood in it. (an empanada is basically bread folded over something like cheese and then fried a little bit) The seafood one I didn’t care for much, but it was worth a shot.

Let’s see…. I’m going to talk about the combinations of food. Like, for example when I think of hot dog I think “chilli, onions, ketchup, mustard, maybe coleslaw, relish” something along those lines. Right? Right. Here, nope. It’s more like “salsa verde, tomatoes, avocado, mayonnaise, maybe ketchup or mustard, salsa, hmmm what else, onions.” Just imagine how weird that would look. Now, look at the pictures. Yes, a hot dog fast food jammie @ the mall, and yes I ate one of those things. With avocado, tomatoes, salsa verde, & mayo and surprisingly I didn’t throw up. Actually it was quite delicious. For another combination, try ketchup in your rice. Or mayonnaise. Or both. Quite good once again. Let’s see… last night I had pizza with hot dog, pepperoni, chicken, the normal cheese and marinara sauce, and pineapple. Not so good…. I have to draw the line somewhere with the obsession with hot dogs. I mean, hot dogs aren’t even real meat…. Blah… I’ve eaten pizza that just had cheese & ham & tomato on it (no marinara sauce)… it was okay. Honestly right now I could go for some BCW pizza right about now (Kelly can you hook me up w/ some from Curly’s pleeeaaazzzze?)

I am obsessed with “manjar” on my bread. I could try all day to describe it, but I would never do it justice. It’s the texture of peanut butter, but it’s sooooo sweet. Almost like honey but not as sweet. Basically it’s my heaven on earth of Chilean food right now.

Don’t drink the milk. It’s gross. It’s so different than US milk, they sell it in cartons & it’s warm. You treat it like juice, only refrigerate after opening. Either drink their COLD chocolate milk or only put it in your coffee. Their juice is really good. They have tons of juice in all different flavors and it’s completely natural. My fav is Pineapple. Emmmmm…..

They have McDonalds and KFC here, but I haven’t eaten there. I really don’t care for either when I’m in the USA, so it makes no difference to me if I eat it now. Apparently, in Santiago there are more American restaurants.

Enough for now….

K-World Ltda.

The pic on the left is of their warehouse, and the right is Karina with a huge shipment of clothes. She's 5 months pregnant :)
















I have finally found out where all the clothes go that the Goodwills can't sell.

Yesterday I hung out all day with Karina & Jonathon Rameriz. They're really close friends with Jose and they have their own business of import/export. They buy used clothing, shoes, toys, etc from Goodwills and Salvation Armys and then sell then to people in Bolivia. The people in Bolivia are very poor and buy the stuff like hot cakes. But, the won't buy the high heels because the mountains are so hilly.

I helped Karina out with some business today because she need to talk to an American guy in NC & I did the talking/negotiating for her. She wants me to help her out when I get back to the US. She needs someone to find new suppliers, check the quality of the shipments, and negotiate prices. Pretty cool..... This kind of job is down a lot over the phone and threw e-mail and involves some traveling. Who knows, but it is pretty cool that I got a job offer and I haven't even graduated yet.

This picture is of the high-heels that they throw away because Bolivian people won't buy them.

Opps....

So, the plugs here are different than in the US which means that I have to use an adapter for everything. Not a big deal. Yeah, right. I tried to use my hair dryer for the first time yesterday & definately knocked the power out of the ENTIRE FREAKING HOUSE. And the plug for my hair dryer exploded. Not too sure why that happened, but it did.

Only I could blow-up my hair dryer and knock out the power for the entire house.....

Earthquakes

Earthquakes are not cool. A few days ago, Connie and I were all alone in the doctor´s house when all of a sudden everything rattled back and forth for 30 seconds. Then stopped. It´s kind of freaky because you don´t expect it to happen, then all of a sudden it´s over. Then two nights ago, I was trying to fall asleep when we had another one. This time it was smaller, less startling. But after both earthquakes, I kept thinking ¨wonder if we´re going to have another one, a bigger one.¨ It´s definately a strange sensation. When I was lying down, it felt like someone was on the left and right side of the bed pulling it back and forth.

I hope and pray that those two are the biggest ones that I experience....

La Ducha

I´m just going to take a few minutes to vent about the shower that I have been using here. Just to clarify, not all showers in Chile are like this. Actually, I´m pretty sure it´s just the one that I am using at the doctor´s house. It has a freaking mind of it´s own. Like, for about a minute the shower is at a perfect temperature. Then, BAM it´s scalding hot and my skin feels like it is on fire. So, I try to fix it. Again, for a minute it´s perfect. Then, it´s like ice. I don´t get it. I just don´t get it.

~Runas~

Friday the 14th, Jiovana called Connie and I to go out. (Jiovana is the 20 year old daughter of a Rotary member that I met) So we got ready & Jiovana and her 15 year old brother picked us up around 8:30. They took us to this local restaurant that was going to have a live band later in the night. Runas was really chill place where I drank some amaretto Sours & Connie had a Pisco Sour. Personally, Pisco Sours are better than Pisco with coke, but that's just my opinion. By the end of the night, Jiovana's mom, two girl friends of Jiovana, her dad, Jose, another Rotarian friend (Jose's best friend to be more specific), and 4 guy friends of Jiovana, and her boyfriend had joined us at Runas. We didn't really eat a meal, we just ordered an appetizer that was meat with onions. It was really good.

Jiovana is really cool, she talked a lot but I understood most everything she said. We started speaking some Spanglish because she wanted to practice her English, so that was kind of fun. And her dad moved down the table to talk to me, which was neat. I carried on my first full conversation entirely in Spanish with him, and let me tell you after about an hour my brain literally HURT. You can't imagine how difficult it was because I had to pay complete attention to everything because I didn't know some words so I had to pick up on context clues. And anyone who knows me, knows that I have a slight problem paying attention 24/7.

Around 2:00 a.m. Jiovana, Connie, Jiovana's brother, and her friends left for a club called "Salsa Morana." From the outside, the building was so ugly. Actually, on the inside it wasn't that pretty either. Pretty basic. To be honest I liked the layout of Coyote better, but it was still fun.

The DJ was pretty good. I thought that the song selection was kind of random though. They had pieces of really old American songs (like I'm talking classic songs from the 90's and 80's) mixed into their rap songs, but it was cool. They played just enough to make the song interesting. Salsa is really fun to dance to, you actually have to have some coordination and skill to dance to it. They played some techno, which I cared for about as much as I care for techno in the US. They played some old snoop dog songs, some 50 cent. Nothing like brand brand new, but the songs were still cool club songs. But most of the songs they played were either reggeaton or salsa.

Let's take a minute to talk about Latin boys & their dancing skills. First off, as soon as we walk in some guy wants to dance with Connie and his friend wants to dance with me. So, we consent. Within 45 seconds I decided that I had made an awful mistake. The guy that I was dancing with..... wow I can't even put into words what he was attempting to do. First off, we thought the 3rd guy that was with them was the one that wanted to dance with me, not the short guy. Secondly, he was like just comical to watch. I had to look up, left, right just anywhere but down (and i say down because he was my height but was dancing with his legs bent so much that he was at the level of my chest or lower) because if I looked down I started laughing. Thank GOD Jiovana's friend saved me, too bad it took him about 5 songs to realize that I needed to be saved.

Then, there were the "artistic" dancers. Everyone knows that I LOVE to out to Vise Versa & I have never in my life witnessed this type of "artistic" dance. It was interesting to say the least and I think I should just leave it like that.

Then, Latin men as a whole. WOW. If what they saw about dance ability holds true DAMN. I mean that's all I can say. But, I am going to elaborate. They have so much fun when they dance and they don't have to be wasted to dance. They dance for fun. And the dancing is different here. You don't dance pressed up on the other person the whole time, and girls don't really ever dance real close to each other like we typically do in Morgantown. When you dance here, on some songs (like reggeaton) you dance close. But for the most part you dance with a little bit of space and the guys are really good dancers. They move their hips and I don't know it's just cool. The guy I was dancing with was really good at Salsa. Salsa is so fun to dance to. The hip movements are so rhythmic and you don't stand in one spot. You kind of dance around in a circle but everything is about the hips. And the guy spins you around and pulls you close or pushes you away. I would love to dance Salsa more often.....

Jose keeps telling me that in another life I was Chilean. If you think about it, I love Salsa, reggeaton, the food, the culture, the people, the night life....

Reglas/Regalos

Yup, already made a language mistake. I was trying to tell Jose that I wanted to go to the car and get the gifts that I brought for his family. And everytime I said it, he gave me this funny look. Then it dawned on me that I kept saying "I have rules for your family" instead of "I have gifts for your family" Now, everytime we go out and people ask about my language skills, Jose makes sure to tease me about this instance.

Rotary Meeting

So once I finally arrived in Iquique, I ate dinner with Jose's family and showered. Then at 9 p.m. Connie and I went with Jose to his Rotary meeting. Apparently they always have their meeting late. They don't meet at lunch because lunch here is like our dinner. Families eat together, people come home from work to be with their families and as far as I know the kids have a break from school to come home for lunch. Dinner is more like a snack with bread, cheese, ham, and something else light. And there is always tea and coffee available. I like eating like this because I normally don't want to eat a big dinner anyway.

Back to the meeting. I think I understood 6 words out of the whole meeting. It was difficult for me because they started discussing something and everyone was talking at once. It sounded like a jumble of words and sounds to me. But after the meeting I talked to some of the members and it was much easier 1-1. Some invited me to their house for dinner and another guy has a daughter my age that he said he would have call Connie and I.

For food they served everyone a sandwich & when Connie and I asked for water they gave us that carbonated water stuff. So we learned that you have to ask for "agua sin gas" or else they give you carbonated stuff.

ME

Why I Could NEVER be a Surgeon

Friday the 14th Connie and I ate lunch with her dad, Lorraine, and Nicholas. After lunch Jose was going to drive us to the mall (Mall de las Americas), but first needed to stop at his office. He is the general manager of the local hospital and offered to give Connie and I a tour. It was really cool because we went everywhere. The hospital here is so much prettier on the inside than in the USA because the walls are blue or pink or purple depending on what part of the hospital your in. It's much more welcoming & homey. I think that if we changed the color of our walls then people wouldn't get so freaked out in the hospitals, but that's just my two cents.

During our tour, some surgeons invited Connie and I to watch a surgery that was about to take place. If anyone of you have looked at my pictures you will see what we watched. For those of you with a weak stomach like myself I suggest that you don't look because it is GROSS. Connie and I didn't totally understand what happened to the guy, but it was something along the lines of some type of object fell on his feet possibly when he was lying down because there was a HUGE cut on his right foot and his left foot was broken. The surgeon had to remove skin from this thigh and transfer it to his foot. That was gross, but it was pretty cool watched them stich it up. If I had the stomach to be a doctor, no I can't even think of what I could want to be because every time I think about the blood I want to throw up. Yuck. I have the stomach of my mom (thanks a lot mom). Anyways.... We also got to watch the doctor's put the cast on the other foot. I was like they were making paper mache, except not. LOL

After the surgery, Jose took us into the maternity ward. Me, not paying attention which is not so good when your Spanish isn't so wonderful, agreed to watch a birth. Some girl was going to have a baby NATURAL. Only a little bit of drugs (como se dice CRAZY?). The nurse took me in the room & told me about the procedure & what was in the room. That was all I needed to see. So we left the room before the birth THANK GOD. I think I would have passed out cold if I would have watched that. I'm adopting. Just so everyone is well aware of my plans. Or if for some reason I accidently get pregnant (once I'm married of course) I want to be under the influence of very very strong drugs for 3 weeks after. I want to feel nothing. I'll have 18 years with my new kid I don't need to see them in the first 24 hours of their life. I am cringing at the thought of that pain.....

La Tirana

Despite its religious importance, there is little life in this desert town for most of the year. It lies 72 km southeast of Iquique, 20 km from Pozo Almonte and 1,773 km north of Santiago, at an altitude of 995 meters above sea level. With its population of something over 560 inhabitants, it has been declared a Typical zone, and it enjoys a privileged climate with sunshine throughout the year.

It springs to life each year between July 12th and 18th, when thousands of visitors arrive to witness the fiesta in veneration of the Virgin del Carmen. The spectacle reaches its highest pitch on July 16th.

The village, of great cultural importance, is distinguished for its church, which stands on the Plaza de Armas. On one side is the Museum of the Virgin of La Tirana, in which are kept the offerings made to the virgin and other articles used in the fiestas held in her honor.

The most striking thing about the people are the dances performed on feast days, with groups coming for the most part from Arica, Iquique, Tocopilla and Chuquicamata. The dancing is accompanied by varied instruments such as trumpets and whistles, and the dancers dress in brightly colored costumes. According to researchers, these dances are said to come from the ancestral rhythms of Inca ceremonies, with traces from other Andean cultures.

The church of La Tirana was built at the beginning of the 20th century, after the previous building had been destroyed by two earthquakes, which occurred in 1868 and 1877. The parish priest Friedrich was responsible for the construction. The old church has been reconstructed and today is used as an alternative on feast days.

To reach this picturesque village from Santiago, Iquique or Arica, travel to Pozo Almonte on Ruta 5, either by public transport or in a private vehicle. From Pozo Almonte, go south on the same highway, then at km 9 take the turning to Pica and go 11 km to La Tirana. There is good, regular public transport from Pozo Almonte to La Tirana during the fiesta.

**I didn't write this, just so you know. But I thought that this was a better explination than I could ever write. I got it from this website http://www.turismochile.com/guide/la_tirana/

PICTURES

Good morning everyone. I am way to impacient to try to upload all my pictures to this site because you have to do it one by one. Yeah, not fun. So, what I did was created a webshots account that is very very easy to use. So, I will add my pictures there and whenever I do I will put link to the website on my blog post for the day. Well, Connie has been watching my post my pictures all morning and we are dying to go to the beach. So here is the link. Enjoy the pictures and I will write the stories of my adventures later.

http://community.webshots.com/user/stacimelissa

Two days ago, Connie (on the left in the pink shirt) and I went to a club called Coyote with one of the girls we are living with. In the picture with me and two other girls, the one of the left is "Fifa" and I don't remember the other girls name. It was so loud that I could hardly hear anything, which made it really difficult to speak Spanish. The girls (for the most part) were really nice and a few knew English. But I don't know which was harder, trying to speak Spanish or trying in interpret their broken English. I tried the Chilean drink of choice "Pisco" and I'm not a huge fan. It tastes a lot like Whiskey and I'm not so fond of Whiskey. It's a little sweeter and I think has a higher alcohol content, but I'd rather drink vodka. The music and the atmosphere of the club is very similar to those in Morgantown with the exception of Salsa. But something that I thought was really unique, was that Sophie (who is only 16) was allowed to go to this party (her friend's dad owns the club) leaving at 11 and had permission to stay out until 5 a.m.

This part of Latin culture I could get used to :)

~Surf~

There are two beaches in Iquique, and currently I don't know the name of either of them. Yesterday, Connie and I were walking on the beach (which is directly in front of our house) & we walked all the way to the second beach. Not too far of a walk, but enough of a walk that we took a taxi back to the house. During this walk we decided that we wanted to learn how to surf. So, when we arrived to the second beach (which is more popular than the first) we found a surf school and signed up for a lesson later in the afternoon.

If you thought learning how to surf was hard, try to learn how to surf in Spanish. Thank God for Connie otherwise I would have been lost. And f.y.i. the water here is FREEZING. I mean it is their winter so what should I expect right? It's like the temperature of the water in Ocean City, MD. Surfing is a lot of fun & I am so proud of myself because by the end of the lesson I was able to stand up on the board and ride in a wave. A very small, very very small wave, but I am still proud of myself for being able to do it.

Just picture this scene. Staci KLUTZ of the world who has no balance on the ground in tennis shoes learning how to surf. Staci who speaks broken Spanish & only understands when people speak slowly and use proper Spanish learning how to surf from a guy who speed talks & uses words that I never in my life heard before..... Needless to say I had a good time

Just so everyone isn't confused....

Originally I came here to stay with Jose Fuente and his family. He has a wife, an 8 year old son Nicolas, and a 16 day old baby girl Maria. But he lives in an apartment & his mother-in-law is in town to help Lorrania with the new baby. Also, Jose has two children from a previous marriage Jose & Connie. Jose and Connie live in the US with their mom. Connie is 15 and is here for the month visiting as well. So, Connie and I are staying down the street with a friend of Jose. Carlos is a doctor and his wife's name is Alejandra. They have three girls Sophie (16), Gabbie (13), and Maria (4) & a nanny from Ecuador. Connie is a big help for me because when I can't think of the word or phrase or I don't understand something she helps me.

Got it?

The Do's and Don'ts of Traveling

Don't:

*Wear a Victoria Secret bra with underwire because it will set off the metal dector in every airport everytime you change plans
*Leave your laptop on the table when you are getting searched because some stupid lady will knock it off the counter
*Pack your gum in the only bag you checked because taking off and landing in an airplane sucks when you can't chew gum to keep your ears from popping
*Take any bill larger than a $20 when traveling to Chile because you will not be able to change your money in the airport
*Panic in the Santiago airport just because you can't change your money, need to pick up and then recheck your luggage in an airport that you have no idea where to go, and because your flight was delayed so much that you'll probably miss your flight. Panicing only makes you forget how to speak Spanish which is not good when noone around you speaks English.
*Panic when your cell phone doesn't work and you don't know how to use the pay phone because even if you could use the pay phone you wouldn't have any money to use it with.

DO:

*Fly first class or business class because coach seats on the flight from Washington D.C. are not very comfortable. It is very hard to sleep when you have no room what so ever.
*Eat the pasta for dinner on the plane because the meat just looks weird
*Remember that LAN Chile planes are more comfortable and the food is better than UNITED planes
*Ask the nearest nice lady to help you when you are on the verge of tears
*Hope that this woman is pacient with you
*Repeatedly call the family that is supposed to pick you up at the airport
*RELAX
*Breathe a sigh of relief when all of your luggage and the family that is supposed to pick you up is at the airport
*Drink a lot of pisco when you finally have the opportunity

Estoy en Chile

For all of you who were worried about lil o'le me flying to Chile, I am alive and well. The weather is good, so good in fact that Connie and I are going to learn how to surf. Connie is my 15 year old translator, she goes to Brooke and is also visting her father for a few weeks. So we are chillin' out together for a lil while. I am lazy right now and do not feel like writing all about my flight here soooo i'll do that later because it is an interesting story and my state of mind would currently not do the story any justice what so ever.

But, off we go to change our money & learn how to surf....