It's strange to think that it has now been close to two months since the big earthquake that rocked the country. Like I tell everyone back home, the damage they see in the media is not what we have here in Santiago - we're further from the epicenter and things have been much more mellow. A lot of help is still needed south in the 7th and 8th regions of Chile, but Santiago has since returned to normal, or as normal as we can get, post-earthquake. Since then though, I've moved apartments, started my internship, and have just been keeping busy enjoying my last months and weeks in Santiago. Now, I have less than a week left here in Santiago, and I am sad to leave. At first, I was so excited at the thought of finally going home to see friends and family, but now that I'm starting the "Last time [insert action here] in Chile..." for some things, it's starting to hit me that I'm going to have a hard time adjusting to life back home stateside come Saturday.
With two of my coworkers from my internship this semester
Another wine tour at Viña Undurraga - there's been a lot of vino visits in the past 6 weeks :)
On a lighter note, my friends Steven and Spencer flew into Chile during their spring break at the end of March to visit. We spent the first several days sightseeing through the city, before leaving Sunday night to go to Mendoza, Argentina, otherwise known as The Trip That Almost Wasn't. Why is that, you ask? Because right as we were about to board our bus, we realized Steven had forgotten his tourist card, a dinky little slip of paper that tourists have to carry around when traveling. We were about to grab our bags and go home, not knowing if we could get another bus or even a refund, when Steven finally found it. Insert hallelujah music here.
Posing with the guards at el Palacio la Moneda
In front of the palace, which is where the president used to live, but now only works there
Our trip to Mendoza was really relaxed - I guess the copious amounts of red wine we consumed helped there, haha! Our first full day we overslept after a gnarly bus ride from Santiago to Mendoza, so we wandered around Mendoza, eating ourselves into a food coma at a buffet and later indulging in some Argentinian alfajores, a chocolate-covered, cookie sandwich-esque. That night, while we were still trying to walk off our food babies, we were approached by a local news reporter for some kind of contest going on. Apparently, they were having a soccer shoot out - if you scored, you would win an official Argentinian national soccer team jersey. Steven and Spencer were apprehensive at first, so we just hung in the back watching. We were about to turn away when we heard the reporter announce, "And, we also have international participants!" Oh boy. We volunteered Spencer to take one for the team. He missed, but the crowd was nice enough to let him try a second time. Fail again. But it wasn't our fault that the goalie was even bigger than the actual goal! We knew Spencer'd made it big the day after when we were approached by a local who got excited at seeing Spencer because he recognized him from TV the night before, haha!
Being harrassed in Plaza Independencia near our hostel by Steven even though I took care of him the whole time
Being interviewed by the local news channel, who had to make it a point that Steven was from California, although his parents are from Vietnam
Our second day was of course the famous Bikes and Wines tour. After a little bit of hassling at the bus stop from various bike rental stores, we finally got on our way. We ended up stopping at the same vineyards that I had visited on my last trip, but this time we actually got wine. For a small fee, one of the vineyards was willing to deliver our wine to our hostel, so that we wouldn't have to ride around clumsily drunk with over six bottles of vino.
On our way to our first winery
Who knew that being friends in ASB in junior high would equate to spring breaks in South America together almost a decade later?
Steven and Spencer left for Viña del Mar and Valparaíso on their own after we got back into Santiago because I couldn't miss any more days of work, but we were able to hang out after they got back! Overall, it was great to see some familiar faces after being away from home for so long!
A visit to Concha y Toro's vineyards in Santiago was the last hurrah before the boys took off
Us at the airport that's now full of makeshift tents because of damage to their terminals from the earthquake
