**Home Sweet Home**

After numerous problems with my flight, a 7 hour lay-over in Argentina, a 10 hour flight to D.C., waiting for over an hour in customs, loosing my luggage, and having the worst sore throat ever, I am finally home. The airlines manually inspect ever piece of baggae and you can't take an liquid or gel articles with you on the plane. My deoderant & nail polish got confiscated.... bummer

I think this flight was the longest trip of my life.... I left Vina del Mar at 6 a.m. and didn't arrive in Weirton until 2 p.m. the next day.... all because of that damn 7 hour layover in Argentina.


But... I'm home and my adventure is over. This past month was the best month of my life..... only those of you who know me extremly well know how much this has helped me with so many different aspects of my life.

**Iquique will always have a special place in my heart**

*Chucha*

Yeah.... normally I would be really pumped to be coming home tomorrow. I have my wine, my pisco, my souviners, everything. Then I go to LAN Chile today to ask about what I can take on the plane since terrorists are ruining everyone's life. Yup. I can take with me on the plane these 3 things: my passport, my flight ticket, and some money. How fun and fabolous is that? So let's see, I arrive at the Santiago airport around 11:00 tomorrow. My flight's at 2... 3 hours to Argentina....4 hour lay-over in Argentina...10 hours to D.C. .... hour and a half in the airport....then another hour to Cleveland

Yup... I'm going out tonight and staying out as late as my body can handle because I'm going to have nothing else to do except sleep ALL DAY LONG.

*muah* When I am reunited with my cell phone in Cleveland, I will call everyone! And Daddy, I'll call you from a pay phone in D.C. I guess.... they still have those right? ;)

Valparaiso, Viña del Mar, & Reuñca

I'm staying in a bangin' apartment with one of the coolest families I've met here. They have a daughter whose 21, a son whose 19, and another daughter whose 14. And their grandmother is the sweetest person ever (definately reminds me of my grandma...miss you grammie!) But anyways....

Yesterday Tannia and I went to Valparaiso and basically lost ourselves in the city. We rode "ascensores" which are like the incline in Pittsburgh. Valparaiso is a city built into the hills, so there are 15 ascensores to lift you threw the city. They were built between 1883 and 1916 and look really rickety, but are actually really safe. I rode Ascensor Concepcion & another smaller ascensor that I don't remember the name.

~Ascensor Concepcion was the first ascensor to be built in 1883 & was orginially powered by steam. The entrance is kind of hidden inside the Turri cock tower.

We went to The Paseo 21 de Mayo & the Museo Naval. The view... wow. I love this city. Every house is so colorful & everywhere you walk the view is just as beautiful as the last place you where.

We left there & went to La Sebastiana which one of the houses of Pablo Neruda. No wonder his poetry was so gorgeous...his house is absolutely amazing. Every room is set up with huge windows with an absolutely gorgeous view. He was intriged by the sea & had a passion for ships so the stairwells in this house have portholes for windows & are kind of narrow like those you would find on a ship. Every wall & room is bright and colorful to represent the color & brillance of Valparaiso. And he collected all kinds of neat stuff that are on display in his house. Honestly, if you go to Valparaiso and don't go to La Sebastiana you're out of your mind.

Later in the afternoon I met up with my host brother from Iquique (Carlos) and we went driving around in Rueñca and the other little beaches on the other side of Viña del Mar. (Picture Viña del Mar and to the left is Valparaiso and to the right is Rueñca. All like a 10 minute drive from each other. And standing on the beach in Viña you can see both cities)

*Pictures*

I'm not sure how many of you are computer savy so I just want to let you all know that I have posted pictures of Santiago & Valpariaso. I have so many pictures now so they are on multiple pages. ;) Only 2 more days......

Weather

Okay. Forgot to tell ya'll about the weather. In Iquique it was "winter," people were wearing gloves, scarfs, and winter jackets. Did I mention that it was about 70 degrees? I was walking around in t-shirts looking at these people like they were nuts. I think one day it was actually cold enough to wear a jacket. But gloves and a toboggan COME ON NOW. LOL It was comical. At night, it got chilly. At night when I went walking around with Fernando I would wear a long-sleeve shirt, jeans, and my jacket. I didn't spend much time on the beach since it was only 70 or so. I got some sun when I went to Huayca (the desert), and it was hot there. I really don't want to know how hot it gets in the summer if these people thought 70 was cold.

In Santiago, it was like 50 degrees. Rainy & cloudy. But the snow-capped mountains were beautiful. Unfortunatly, I didn't get to go skiing so I can't do a comparision for ya :(

Here, in Viña del Mar it´s probably 50 or 60 degrees. Today I wore a turtle neck and no jacket, but at night you need the jacket. It´s no freezing, just chilly.

Yup. That´s the weather. Oh yeah, and in Iquique everyday is the same. Sunny. Maybe cloudy for a little bit because it´s winter, but it NEVER EVER rains there. The Atacama Desert is the driest desert in the world. Here, in Viña del Mar and Santiago it rains. It rained today :( my first day of rain in a month.... But it only rained for about 30 minutes.

p.s. Viña del Mar & Valpariaso are the most beautiful cities that I have ever seen.

Chao Chao mis amigos

Santiago

In Iquique, I lived with a doctor who has a sister in Santiago. Pola invited me to spend a few days with her family in Santiago, and Jose has a friend in Viña del Mar that has also invited me to stay with him for my last three days. Very exciting for me because I have this opportunity to know three more cities. In a few hours I am leaving Santiago to go to Viña del Mar, but yesterday I explored Santiago. Another adventure for me because I was all alone in a city that I do not know AT ALL. Pola and Arturo had to work all day yesterday, so it was either explore alone or sit in an apartment all day by myself. Pola gave me some direction on where I should go and how to get there and off I went. I took a metro (subway) to Palacio de la Moneda, which used to be a residential palace for the presidents of Chile but is now the official seat of government. Underneath is a small museum with some interesting culture displays.

After I was done wondering around the square, I hopped back on the metro to the Museo Nacional Bellas Artes... me encanta este museo. I loved the exhibit of photos from Abelardo Morell. After a few hours of admiring the paintings and photography and sculptors of Chileans artists, I walked around in the park next to the museum and wandered up and down the streets. For about 4 hours I basically lost myself in the city.... it was so relaxing. Did I mention I don´t want to come home?

Then last night this family had a party for Cote for her 27th birthday. So I met some family and friends and chilled for a little with them before I went out with a friend that I met in Iquique. We went to a local pub for a drink, and had a Long Island Ice Tea... but it was different. Had 2 different liquors in it and WOW, so much better. You´d be surprised at how much sweeter the drink is here and with Sprite instead of Coke. And when they serve drinks here the give you this glass filled with liqour, a bottle of Sprite or Coke, and an empty glass with ice cubes. So you mix your drink yourself. Basically, I had 3 Long Islands for $4.00.... quite fabolous.

Dia del Niño

Okay, so here in Chile they have a holiday called ¨Dia del Niño.¨ It´s like Father´s Day and Mother´s Day only for the kids. It was this past Sunday (August 6th) and I went with Jose Fuente's family, Jonathon & Karina and their family, and one other family to a huge park in Huayca. Here we had a cook out and the kids ran around and played all day.

For me, this was my final cookout with two of my families. The final time to play with Hanson, Matthew, and Nicolas... the last time to chat with Loranne & Karina.... it was a really special day for me because I was able to spend the entire day with my families before I left for Santiago. And I know I'm coming back as soon as possible, so I shouldn't get sad about saying good-bye. But it's so hard to say good-bye to people that you love so much.