Bariloche!

I am back in Chile!  Our time in Bariloche was short and sweet.  Turns out we didn’t have internet access (well we kind of did but it never actually worked) so I just published the post I wrote last Friday, today.

Our initial arrival started out being very stressful – a few of us were/are having lots of trouble with LAN airlines trying to get our flight changes sorted out (another purpose of our trip to the south at the end of the main chunk of the program is so that those doing their ISP down here can just stay and change their return flight to a later date).  About 5 weeks ago we were given the name of a woman who works for LAN whom we were to contact if we needed to change the date of our return flight.  All of us who needed to contact her did so weeks ago, but only a few received a confirmation email or response of any sort.  Even after repeated emails, no response – which was fine until it came to be a few days before the original date of the return flight (tomorrow/Monday).  Somebody finally got a hold of her by phone and she said was “we’re slowly confirming all the flight changes.”  When told that it’s very time sensitive because the flights are Monday she just responded saying, “Well if you don’t receive confirmation you’ll have to either use your original flight or buy a new ticket.”  Which obviously is absolutely ridiculous since we all contacted her multiple weeks in advance.  Anyways, Friday it was all very stressful because it was the last business day before the return flight back to Arica and a handful of us (including myself) never received a confirmation email.  Rossana (our academic director) finally got a hold of her by phone and it looks like (fingers crossed) that we should be okay – they’re technically just cancelling our original tickets, refunding Rossana/SIT, and booking new ones for our requested dates.  The woman was supposedly going to go into her office yesterday (Saturday, which she made seems like was a huge deal) to complete the changes but I have yet to get any email from her.  It’s super stressful and frustrating just because it’s so unprofessional and ridiculous (I sent a very nasty email to her and so did a few others).  Once again, it made me realize how easily and efficient things usually work in the US.

Besides that initial stress, our time in Bariloche is wonderful.  It’s a beautiful city located in northern Argentine Patagonia; a touristy ski town nestled next to a magnificent lake and volcano.  As I mentioned in my last post, Bariloche is known for it’s chocolate, and this became apparent right away.  Our hotel was located on the main street and right away we could see that just about every other store was a chocolatería or chocolate store.  We got in pretty late Friday night so not too much exploring was done, we just walked through the streets in anticipation for the next day. 

Saturday we had the entire morning until 4:00 free (which was great, I was definitely needing some free time).  After a great breakfast of sweet croissants and yogurt in the hotel we headed out to get to know the city.  We did lots of window-shopping (Bariloche was full of lots of modern boutiques similar to any you’d find in a city in the US) and finally entered Rapa Nui, our first chocolate experience of the day.  Walking in you’re instantly taken back by the incredible smell.  We spent probably 45 minutes drooling over the display cases filled with delicacies and picking out boxes and bags of things to bring home. 

The day continued with that same routine of window-shopping and chocolate sampling and souvenir buying.  We ran into a really neat artesianal market with lots of great jewelry.  We also learned the reason for all of the duendes around the city.  A duende is a goblin or fairy-like creature, and various depictions of them fill the city.  It may not be noticeable at first, but after we saw one we realized they're ever.  Anyways, we asked a vendor in the market and he told us that the Europeans (Bariloche is full of European influence, mostly German) brought the duendes with them to Argentina from Europe, because that's where they originally lived and were cared for, and now they're all over the city. It sounded like a pretty unclear explanation to me, but it was better than nothing.  My friend Alina (who's coming to Valdivia with Elyse and I) purchased one and we named him Hans.  He's going to be the mascot for our ISP month... it's quite funny.

cathedral in Bariloche

glass products at the artesianal market

duendes

That afternoon we loaded the bus to go do some touristy things, which included driving to see the infamous Hotel Llao Llao.  It's a beautiful hotel nestled next to a mountain about 30 kilometers away from the city.  Many famous people have stayed there, including Bill Clinton.  We joked about how we wish we could have stayed there instead of our other hotel, and our tour guide told us it would cost approximately $650 per night.  Crazy!  But, it looks beautiful.  On the way back to the city we were going up a steep hill and after a loud crunching noise our bus slowly started slowing down and eventually started smoking.  I don't know what actually happened (I think they said it was something with the gears), but we all had to get out and wait for a few hours for a different bus to come pick us up. During this time, somebody accidentally dropped Hans (everybody was quite sad) and broke his arm.  Luckily, after we made it back to Bariloche we ran back to the market to ask the duende vendor what we could use to fix him, and the man actually let us trade the broken figurine in for a new one.  He was so sweet.  So now Hans is Günter, and he has dark brown hair instead of white.  He's become pretty famous within the group, and we're going to make him his own Facebook page and write a story of "Günter y las tres gringas", or "Günter and the Three Gringas" during our ISP month.  Be excited!

Hotel Llao Llao 

Hans

That night we had our farewell dinner for the program (which didn't feel nearly as sad as the farewell dinner with our families) and went to bed.  Yesterday (Sunday) was entirely spent traveling (literally from 10am to 9pm.  We spent the last night in Temuco as a whole group and just a few hours ago the 5 of us staying in the far south bid farewell to all those returning north.  It was such a strange feeling!  We've spent 2 months as a unified whole, and now we're all separating to do our own things.  I has all gone by so incredibly fast, I seriously cannot believe that our ISP month starts tomorrow.

In a half hour or so Elyse and I are going to head to the bus station to catch a bus to Valdivia.  I am so, SO excited to finally get there and get settled in our hostel.  We're staying in a beautiful hostel called Hostal Bosque Nativo (Hostel Native Forest, they do a lot of work in sustainability and environmentalism; click on the name for a link to their website/pictures).  Wednesday we'll meet with our advisor in the clinic for the first time to begin our research.  Today and tomorrow are feriado (holidays), so we get a few days to explore without any responsibilities.  Then Saturday morning Alina will meet us in Valdivia (she's going to Santiago for a few days first), and our adventures will begin!

Chao!

Brittany



photos are up!  www.picasaweb.google.com/bliebhard

interculturality in the south

We have arrived in the south!  Seven hours and two flights later we landed in the tiny airport of Temuco, Chile.  The first thing we all noticed was the green.  How refreshing it was to see grass and trees again!  While Arica is definitely beautiful in its own respect, we were all aching for the fresh, crisp air that the desert lacks.  I instantly knew that my choice to stay in the south for my ISP month was a good idea.

The first official morning, Thursday, we all loaded into our vans bright and early and headed to Hospital Makewe.  La Región de la Araucanía, Temuco’s region, is known for it’s large Mapuche population.  The Mapuche are one of the largest indigenous groups in South America that are located primarily in Chile (and also in Argentina, Peru, and Bolivia).  Because of the high indigenous population, the region boasts many intercultural health centers that are designed to meet the needs of the diverse population.  Essentially, the entire focus of this excursion is exactly that – intercultural health and traditional medicine.  Hospital Makewe served as our first look into this system.  We were greeted at the hospital by our excursion director, Juan Antonio, and the hospital director, who showed us into the ruka (a traditional Mapuche “hut” for lack of better words) where we’d be having class that day, and in the consequent days in different locations as we were soon to find out.  The hospital director gave us our first introduction to intercultural health in the Mapuche context, and then we went out into the woods with a wantuchefe, or Mapuche herb specialist, who taught us of the importance of la tierra, the earth, to the Mapuche and Mapuche medicine.

the ruka

Hospital Makewe

Miguel the wantuchefe, or herbalist

Intercultural health, in short, asks the question “How can we utilize and value both the Mapuche and Western health systems?” Interculturality, in terms of health, takes into consideration how the patients, la machi (Mapuche medicine man/woman) and doctor relate and compliment one other.  It can either mean that a machi and doctor work side by side or that they refer patients to one other when needed.  Interculturality is all that is cultural awareness and respect between the customs, traditions, and beliefs of the Mapuche people and the sistema de salud occidental, or Western medical system.  It is not something that you can impose on somebody; it has to be practiced every day.

Day 2 we once again loaded into the vans and set off for Proyecto Intercultural de Salud Boroa Filulawen, or Boroa intercultural clinic.  Hearing the history of this place was particularly interesting to me.  20 or so years ago, the people of the Boroa region (about 6,000 people in total) only had a posta rural – a small, rural health center only equipped to care for very basic medical attention, for a very small amount of people.  The people of this region were unsatisfied with their options for health care (or their lack of health care), so they joined together and made a petition which almost 2,000 people signed asking for funds from MINSAL (minsterio de salud, or minster of health) to build a new clinic.  Their wish was granted.  They now have a full intercultural health center, staffed both by a western medical team (doctor, nurse, OB-GYN, psychologist, kinesiologist and nutritionist, but also by a Mapuche team as well (machi, herbalist, etc.)  The center is still lacking in resources, but it is worlds better than what the people of Boroa had before.  Another aspect of this clinic that I found really interesting was their development plan for when more funds are available.  They don’t want to buy an ambulance or hire more staff, but they want to build a casa para los adultos mayors, a home for the elderly, para que no mueran solos con su sabiduría, so that they don’t die alone with all of their wisdom. 

eyesight exam

We spent the next two days after that travelling to similar intercultural health centers and learning about various forms of Mapuche medicine; we even had a chance to talk to a machi.  Then on Sunday the 23^rd we packed up and left Temuco en route to Llaguepulli.  I’m not quite sure how to describe Llaguepulli, I don’t think it’s a town (I never actually saw a cluster of houses together), so I’ll just call it a region. It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to in my life.  Lush, rolling green fields eternally spotted with free-roaming cows, sheep, and chickens – but not in the “farm” sort of way, more in the all-natural-way-the-earth-should-be way (if that even makes any sense).  We spent the day learning about the Mapuche philosophy and cosmovision I think it’s been my single favorite day of this entire semester.  To top it off, we spent the night sleeping in rukas.  We were all split up into groups of four and my group’s ruka was separated from all the other ones.  We were literally isolated on the Chilean countryside in our Mapuche ruka, hanging out around the fire, the only other life around us being the cows moo-ing in the pasture over and the cat that was climbing on our roof.  I was so at peace, and so content with life. Who gets the opportunity to learn about Mapuche cosmovision from a leader in the community, take a Mapudungun class, and then sleep in a ruka?!  I felt so lucky, and at that moment didn’t want to be anywhere except exactly where I was.

inside the ruka

Waking up the next morning feeling more calm and centered than ever, I was very reluctant to leave the ruka.  But our tourist vans showed up bright and early and once again we were off to our next destination.  Our first stop of the day was an intercultural school in the town of Chol-Chol.  We listened to a very interesting presentation by the director of the school about how intercultural education works in the country.  We then headed back to the bus stop in Temuco to part ways for our estudios de pueblo, or village studies.

The village study was a 3-day (more like 1.5 day) trip to one of the rural villages surrounding Temuco.  We were split into groups of 3 and given the task to “get to know the town,” or learn about various aspects of the town such as the economy, education, transportation, health, arts, communication, etc.  My group got to the bus station and bought our tickets to Cunco, a 75-minute bus ride that only cost us $2.20.  When the bus left it was only about half full, but as we snaked our way through town on the way to the campo more and more passengers hopped on, until all the seats were full and a few were standing in the aisle.  Various venders would also hop on and off while we were still in Temuco, selling various items such as candy, gum, and nuts to all of the passengers.  I wasn’t a big fan of these guys because they were loud and took up so much space trying to move throughout the bus with their giant bags of goods.  Once we got outside of Temuco, however, I was just in love with the scenery.  The best part (besides all the wild sheep) were the fields of flowers.  I’m not sure what type they were, but there were just fields and fields of bright yellow flowers.  It reminded me of Dorothy in the poppies in the Wizard of Oz.  So, so pretty. 

Anyways, after a short drive we arrived in Cunco, a town of about 10,000 (it seemed way smaller) about 55 km east of Temuco.  The village study was easy and not too time-consuming, so I’m not going to talk about it too much.  However, a few funny points to bring up about our hostel: 

·      No electricity.  Apparently it had gone down the day we got there, but of course we didn’t realize that until night time and after we had already paid.

·      No toilet seat or toilet paper.

·      Chickens next door that would hop through the fence and into our yard. One morning one got inside and pooped on the floor.

Showering by candlelight, using a t-shirt as a towel, going to bed at 9 because doing anything in the dark is impossible, and not having any clean clothes.  I think you could definitely say I have lowered my standards, haha.

Yesterday we all reunited in Temuco and drove to Pucón.  Pucón is seriously one of the coolest towns I’ve been to.  It’s situated right next to a volcano and a beautiful lake, and is one of the most touristy places in central Chile.  We didn’t have any actual classes there, just did presentations on our village studies and had an orientation for our ISP travel.  I really hope I can go back to Pucón (maybe during ISP) to try out some of the fun adventure tour options they have there, and just to enjoy the general ambience of the town. 

As for today, I’m currently in a bus on the way to Bariloche, Argentina.  Hopefully we have internet in the hotel tonight (I’m sure we will) so I can post this.  Other than that I’m super excited to see the city (it’s supposed to be awesome) and find some chocolates (Bariloche is know for their chocolate, apparently there’s an entire street of just chocolate stores and factories!).  We’re here until Sunday and have a cena de despedida del programa (program farewell dinner) on Saturday, which is both sad and exciting at the same time.  Then Monday it’s off to Valdivia to start my ISP!

Always in the back of my mind:  class registration and spring/summer internships.  I hope I can find some free time soon to get all that straightened out… it’s already November (basically) and that’s kind of scary.

Anyways, more stories soon, hopefully. I really don’t recount even half of what we do or of the cool things I learn about... there’s just so much to say.  But I really hope this is semi-enjoyable to read and that you all are getting a good feeling and understanding of my experience in South America. 

Chao from Argentina!

more photos on picasa soon! www.picasaweb.google.com/bliebhard

¡Hasta luego, Arica!

As hard as it is to believe, today marks my last day in Arica.  The two months just flew by and it feels like just yesterday that we were in orientation trying to meander our way around the city for the first time.

Tomorrow our groups leaves for Temuco, a city with a population of about 300,000 people that's located 600 kilometers south of Santiago.  What a change of scenery it will be!  The green, lush, wet terrain will be quite different than the brown, dry desert that is Arica.  After a week and a half in Temuco we will hop over to Bariloche, Argentina for four days to relax and enjoy our last few days as a unified group.  After that, October will be finishing and we'll all head on our separate ways for our ISP's.

My ISP month seems like it will be quite the adventure.  I will be spending the first two weeks in Valdivia, a quaint city in La Región de los Ríos (The Rivers Region).  Valdivia is known as "The Pearl of the South," and is thought to be one of the most beautiful cities in southern Chile.  I absolutely cannot wait to go!  I'll be traveling and staying there with one other girl, Elyse (who is actually from Olney, MD -- the same town Jimmy! such a small world).  We'll spend most of the two weeks in a clinic  doing research and gathering information along with getting the skeleton of our papers done (all while experiencing the city, of course!). From Valdivia (this is all tentative, but probably won't change much) we'll head to Pucón for a few days, where some of the most beautiful volcanoes and lakes in Chile are supposed to be.  From there on we will move on to Santiago, Valparaíso, and Viña del Mar.  Exploring, trying to not seem like tourists, using our spanish, and getting to know the Southern culture.  I'll then be flying back to Arica on the 22nd of November to meet up with my friends who are staying there for their ISP's and head to San Pedro de Atacama that night.  Four days I'll return to Arica, do the final revisions on my paper, take a deep breath, turn it all in, and prepare to present my findings to the group.

Doesn't that sound crazy?!  Fingers crossed that it all works out.  Assuming it will, I know it's going to be amazing.  Here it all is written out more clearly:

• October 19 - 27:  Temuco
• October 28 - 31:  Bariloche (Argentina)
• November 1 - 12:  Valdivia
• November 13 - 15:  Pucón
• November 16:  Santiago
• November 17-21:  Valparaíso/Viña del Mar
• November 22 - 25:  San Pedro de Atacama
• November 26 - December 5:  Arica

and then after the program is over...

• December 5 - 13:  Arequipa, Cusco, Aguas Calientes, and Machu Pichu! (Peru)
• December 14-15:  travel HOME. 

Wow, that just makes my head spin!  I will definitely be taking all of this one day at a time trying to make it the best experience I possibly can.  Fingers crossed (again) that by the end I have a camera full of pictures, a blog full of stories, a successful ISP, some money in my bank account, and a lifetime worth of memories.  And of course, my sanity :). 

Next time you hear from me I will be 1,700 miles south in Temuco, Chile!

Chao,

Brittany

to end, a photo from our cena de despedida (farewill dinner) with our families last night:

more photos:  picasaweb.google.com/bliebhard

Cruzando la frontera -- crossing the border to Tacna, Peru

Once again I am way behind on my blogging -- I am almost two weeks behind on this Tacna post! But as usual, better late than never.

Tuesday, October 4th our group loaded our giant, aquamarine turismo bus once again and started on the road to Tacna, Peru.  It was a very quick ride, only about an hour in total (30 minutes to the border + 30 minutes to Tacna), but somehow in that short amount of time we crossed two time zones. Crazy, right? We loaded the bus during Chile time and got off the bus in Minnesota time! The first night we just got settled into our hotel and ate dinner at the restaurant there, which was really nice. It was on the seventh floor of the hotel and had a beautiful overlook of all the beautiful city lights.

Overall, the differences between Arica and Tacna really surprised me.  The actual size of the two cities are pretty similar, but they felt so different.  Arica has the feel of a small town - everything is very calm, even the downtown area. The city mostly consists of single family one-story homes and small tiendas.  Tacna, on the other hand, really felt like a city. The first thing I noticed is that everything is so much taller.  Two story buildings equipped with rebar and scaffolding so they can be built up even more, and even some interesting architecture. The downtown streets were lined with wedding dress shops and specialty medicine clinics - dentists and orthodontists, plastic surgeons, optometrists, etc.  While it may seem random, there is a little reason to it:  Tacna is a tax-free city so Ariqueños (people from Arica) and Chileans as well as Peruvians travel to Tacna to utilize these services.  In fact, most of the city's revenue is generated by "foreigners" that travel to the city for just that reason.  The city really felt like a metropolis - everything seemed to move at a faster pace - which was a nice change from the sleepy city of Arica.

Wednesday morning we left for our first pasantía to Peruvian health center.  We were greeted by one of the directors of the hotel who presented a really fascinating powerpoint on the fundamentals and basics of the the health system in Peru. After that we broke up into six groups to participate in visitas domiciliarias (home visits) to various patients of the clinic.  The different groups included tuberculosis patients, pregnant women, the elderly, newborns, and two others that I can't remember.  I chose to participate on the newborn visit, which we did with a matrona (midwife or OB/GYN).  It started off with a bit of a rocky start since our patient wasn't home, but we ended up just visiting a different one.  The last time the woman had visited the clinic was during her eigth month of pregnancy, which was when the clinic referred her to the hospital for her birth.  During the visit the matrona asked her questions about the labor and delivery, post-delivery procedures, breastfeeding, contraceptives, etc. Unfortunately, the woman had a very, very bad experience at the hospital.  This was her second child, and because of a bad experience with the first one she wanted the delivery to take place at home.  However, she developed a case of pre-eclampsia and was rushed into an emergency c-section.  From there, the anesthesia didn't take and she could feel every single part of the surgery.  To make it even worse, there was a team of medical students overseeing the procedure, and she could hear everything the doctor was telling them.  It was an incredibly traumatizing experience for the poor woman, and as a result of it she no longer had any trust in the health care system (which is why she hadn't been attending her controls, or check-ups, with her new child, which is why the home visit was necessary). The rest of the visit went smoothly - the matrona emphasized the importance of solely giving breastmilk to the child for the first six months, they discussed contraceptive methods, and went over signos de alarma, or warning signs that tell you that your child is very sick and needs to be brought to the doctor or emergency room.  Overall it was an incredibly fascinating visit and I feel really privileged that we were able to partake in it.  Afterwards the matrona assured us that "horror stories" as this patient's aren't the norm, but that unfortunately, they do happen.  It really opened my eyes to how good we have it in our country.

That afternoon, after an amazing lunch at Mar Adentro, a great seafood restaurant in Tacna, we visited a comedor, or community kitchen.  The comedor provides one meal a day, at a very cheap price, to participating families who rotate doing the cooking.  About 40 families participate in the center we visited.  I got the chance to talk to two of the leaders of the comedor and they told me that one of the hardest parts is the lack of refrigeration.  Many, if not most, families in Tacna cannot afford a refrigerator.  For this reason, food needs to be bought every single day; the concept of "buying in bulk" does not exist because there's no way to store the food.  This also limits the types of foods that can be made, as the only available items are whatever's at the market that day.  All in all, it was great to see how the community comes together to provide for each other when few resources are available.

Thursday morning we headed to Viñani, a small health center located in the poorest area of Tacna (you could almost consider it a slum).  After touring the health center we went to the "conference room" of sorts to participate in a nutrition workshop for pregnant women and recent mothers.  These women voluntarily sign up for classes that occur every two weeks that have varying topics on pregnancy and motherhood.  My Peruvian partner for the workshop was named Carmen, and she had a newborn baby who was only 10 days old!  We learned about which foods are appropriate for children of different age groups and also learned about the importance of nutritious diet while pregnant and breastfeeding.  At the end we prepared our own meals based on what we learned and presented them to the class. It was a really, really great experience -- probably one of the things I've enjoyed most so far this semester.

After another lunch at Mar Adentro we headed back to the same neighborhood (called Ciudad Nueva, or "New City") and met up with with a group of second-year obstetrics students.  Most of the girls were around our age and were studying at the local medical school in Tacna.  We paired up with them (I was with two great girls named Leslie and Jenny), and were given a paintbrush, can of paint, and some stencils and were put to work painting house numbers in Ciudad Nueva.  The neighborhood is essentially a giant slum that's just popped up over the past ten years.  The houses are organized in blocks called manzanas, but within those manzanas it's hard to tell what the home are actually like.  From the outside, it seemed like many of the houses were just dirt floors with metal sheeting for doors and walls and a tarp roof.  Consistent running water is also a scarcity as most of it is consumed by the local copper industry.  Anyways, as you can imagine, having house numbers would be beneficial for many reasons, but our primary one was to assist the health teams doing visitas domicilarias, or home visits.  It was nice being able to get involved with the community and interact with Peruvian girls my age -- it always makes me feel more confident in my language abilities, if nothing else.  We took lots of pictures together afterwards, especially ones showing off our new blue Avatar-ish hands (a result of the non-washable paint).

                               

Friday morning we met with another group of obstetrics students at their university, this time with girls in their fifth and final year. We split up into groups and discussed various health problems in the Peruvian context - my group discussed eating disorders, specifically anorexia.  It was interesting to see how their views and experiences of eating disorders compare and contrast with ours.  After that we had the rest of the afternoon free.  I, along with many others from the group, decided to take advantage of the tax-free city and bought some more alpaca gear.  After a few hours of shopping and wandering the day came to an end, and we once again hopped on our turismo bus and headed home to Arica.

Oh, I almost forgot - we also booked our train tickets to Machu Picchu. I can't remember if I ever posted about it, but about a month ago I got my flight home pushed back and I am officially returning to Peru and visiting one of the New Seven Wonders of the World!

Chao,
Brittany


and of course, food photos!

Train, costumes, beach, Las Peñas

Yet another week has passed by.  This week marks week #7 being in Arica, how crazy!  My semester abroad is almost half over.

Last weekend was a really fun time.  Not only did we have an amazing week in Putre, but we got back on a Friday afternoon so we had a whole weekend ahead of us when we got back.  Saturday I went to my cousin's birthday party (Fiorella, she turned 12), which was pretty entertaining.  She's everything a diva 12-year-old girl could be.  The party basically consisted of her and her friends dancing and singing along to American pop hits - everything from Katy Perry to Justin Bieber to Lady Gaga and many more.  It was kind of fun to watch them try to sing along, because obviously they don't actually know the words or understand the lyrics, they just sing what the words sound like to them.  One girl came up to me and asked "So wait, you really know what they're saying right? You understand the whole song?" I laughed and told her yes and she proceeded to ask me what some of the lyrics were saying (the current song at the time was Hey, Soul Sister, a personal favorite of mine, and as I learned a favorite of my host mom as well).  I did my best but it was a little iffy at time since the song lyrics don't really make sense in English as it is ("my heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest" -- you get the point), but it was fun and they thought it was really cool.  After that I headed over to one of my friends house for her host sister's birthday party which had a costume theme.  Another girl's host mom just happens to own like a hundred costumes (not really sure why), so we all got to dress up and it was a really fun time.  I wore what I think was supposed to be a little red riding hood costume and put my hair in pigtails, and the girl's mom came up to me and pulled on my hair because she thought it was a wig!  There really are no blondes in Chile!

The rest of the week progressed pretty slowly with quite a bit of homework every night.  Wednesday I got together with two girls and we made chocolate chip cookies which was super fun!  We're all kind of missing the ability to cook our own food (or have options at least), so it was really nice.  And chocolate chip cookies just taste like home.  It was a bit of a struggle though for many reasons -- 1) chocolate chips do not exist in their own form in Chile - after much searching in the grocery store we just settled for a few blocks of chocolate to cut up, which worked fine.  2) No measuring cups!  This just including a lot of estimating and resourcefulness (i.e. a coffee mug and a large spoon).  3) The ovens don't set to a specific temperature!  Just a dial that ranges between not-so-hot and hottest.  But, despite all that, the cookies turned out great.  I brought a plate home for my family and my mom was so happy and intrigued (cookies aren't really a thing in Chile besides packaged ones like chips ahoy).  Apparently her and my brothers enjoyed them because when I went to the kitchen for breakfast the next morning there was only one left!  I'll have to give her a recipe and make them with her sometime before I leave.  

Friday came along and some of our group opted to participate in Las Peñas, a religious trek/ceremony that occurs every year in Arica.  It essentially consists of people trekking ~25 miles through the desert to a small church where there's a sighting or special statue (I'm not exactly sure) of the Virgin Mary.  People hike there to give thanks or to ask favors of the Virgin.  Depending on the severity of the favor, people do different things.  My mom told me that some people who are very passionate and committed and are asking a serious favor (such as to cure a relative who is very sick) will do things such as do the travel whole trek on their hands and knees or carrying a backpack full of rocks.  That's commitment, I tell you. On the other hand, it's also just a way for families to do something together -- literally people of all age (from babies to the elderly) participate.  However, I opted out, as they decided to do the trek overnight and to me staying up for ~36 hours while walking for ~6 hours doesn't sound very pleasant.  Those who did go, though, had a good time.  I spent most of the night at a friends house making guacamole and white sangria (with white wine, ginger ale, peach juice, kiwi, grapefruit, orange, and lemon, yummy!) and eating cheese.  It was a really good, relaxing night.  

Saturday afternoon I headed to the beach with some friends.  We laid in the sand, walked through the water, enjoyed the sun, and just relaxed.  After ending the afternoon with some shrimp and cheese empanadas, I was perfectly content.  Later that night was Eileen's (another girl from my program) 21st birthday party.  Her host family (her parents and two sisters, who are close to our age) threw her a wonderful dinner party for all of us (yes, all 24 of us).  Her sisters, who a few of the sweetest girls I've ever met, loved playing the role of hostesses and were so happy to make us different Chilean drinks.  After a little while we all sat down for dinner and her dad gave one of the best toasts I've ever heard.  I swear, we all (well, at least I), started to tear up.  He expressed how truly thankful he was to have all of us come to his family's home to celebrate the birthday of his new daughter, and how admirable it was for us to venture to a new country to learn about a new culture, and how after all, we all are equal - the only things that differ us from one another are the color of our skin and our language.  It was a beautiful toast, a beautiful dinner, and a beautiful day and night. 

With regards to my classes and homework, thing are continuing on.  I've been a little frustrated with the work load this week because it seems to be piling on, but in all reality I only have 1.5 weeks of class left so I can't complain.  I'm still struggling a bit with the theme for my Independent Study Project, which is becoming a little stressful, but I'll figure it out.  

Tomorrow late afternoon we leave for Tacna, Peru which I'm super excited about.  We'll be there until Friday.  I don't really know much about the city or what we'll be doing (haven't done any of my background reading yet), so I guess it'll all be a surprise.  I do know that everything is super cheap there so I'm going go try to scoop up some more alpaca gear.  Once again I won't be bringing my computer with, so no Facebook/e-mail access probably, but I'll definitely be putting all of my new pictures up next weekend along with another blog post.  

That's all for now!

Chao,

Brittany

Photos!  picasaweb.google.com/bliebhard