The last two weeks flew by! After returning from Mendoza I was exhausted and filled with so many postive thoughts and memories. I came home to find my new roommate, Maya. She is 20 years old and from Holland. The week went great, we ate dinner together, watched movies, and got along like we knew eachother for a long time, as if we were real roommates. She's very sweet and we have a lot in common. The weekend after we went and saw the sand dunes in Con Con. Which is a town 15 minutes from Vina. The sand dunes are awesome, but it is such a shame the way people in Chile litter and have regrets in doing so. Here is this amazing natural beauty and people don't think twice after throwing their trash all over it. I think that has been my biggest beef with Chile. It's such a beautiful country, but they haven't gotten the memo of how to put trash in the trashcan, let alone recycle. They will realize sooner or later.
Anyway, the following school week I had a new professor, Francisco. I liked him a lot and thought he was very inteligent. However, something that amazes me is the ups and downs of learning a language. The week before I was top on the world and thought I was finally getting comfortable and confident with Spanish. This week however, I feel as though I have lost my ability to speak Spanish. My tongue cannot pronuciate anything and everything is jumbled in my brain. It's very frustrating. Learning a language is such roller coaster for me, when it's going good it's the best feeling and I feel so proud, then comes the weeks when I feel completely inadequate and a lost cause. Not going to let it get me down though, I know the next two weeks traveling I will be obligated to speak a lot of Spanish, and I am just going to read a lot and hopefully it will come back...
So I have reached the end of the first part of my trip. All in all I did have a good time in Vina. It was very mellow and slow paced, which I think is a good way to start a trip. I met a lot of good people and I really got to know the city. The school was really good to me, and I think I have progressed quite a bit. 6 weeks did fly by however, and I look with great anticipation to the "unknown", which is the rest of my trip. I am very happy that I still have 10 more weeks to work on my Spanish and hope that the time will help me be more comfortable with the language. I begin my "vacation" today, I am going south. The itinerary is something like this: Pucon, Valdivia, Chepu (a small town on the island of Chiloe), Puerto Montt, Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales, Torres Del Paine National park, then off to Buenos Aires. Tonight, in 6 hours, I leave for Pucon and should arrive tomorrow morning at 9am. I don't really know what to expect because every time I picture something in my head, it's usually not at all like that. Part of the excitement of life. So my bag is packed, my bus ticket is in my wallet, and the hostel is booked. Hopefully the next blog I write will be filled with amazing stories of the adventures I have in this 2 week trip.
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| kids sandboarding down the sand dunes |
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| a typical chilean dish |
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| Sausalito lake in Vina |
 | the city is filled with awesome sand sculptures | | | | | |
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| my bag all packed for the trip |
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Bon voyage!!!
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