Traveling back to Argentina

So my lovely Chile trip had to come to an end (like all trips do) and it was time for me to go back to sweltering Argentina. So I did my last load of laundry and packed up my bags with a few extras: Jam. Blackberry jam, Rasberry Jam and Fruits of the South Jam (specialty jam from Chile).

So Thursday morning I got up probably the earliest at of all of my vacation (7:50 a.m.) showered, ate, and packed my last minute items (toothbrush, jammies, and shampoo stuff) and organized my backpack in such a way that would be most beneficial and safe for me (remember I was traveling alone). Than I waited. I heard Tio Ewaldo tinkering around in the kitchen so I just patiently waited while talking to Pink. At about 9:20 a.m. Tio Ewaldo comes into mine and Pink's room and says "I have been waiting for you to eat breakfast. I went to into the kitchen and it looked as though no one had eaten so I have been waiting for you to eat." Now just remember I did eat, I am just an extremely clean girl and Tio couldn't even tell that I had been in the kitchen and eaten my breakfast. side note: they keep a very emaculate house. (Mom aren't you proud of me?)

So my bus was leaving at 10:00 a.m. and we were a fair distance away from the bus terminal so we said a prayer with the family and we jetted off. It was a good thing we prayed for safe traveling mercies because we were weaving in and out of traffic at 140 kms an hour. Now I really don't know how fast that is in MPH, but let me tell you it was scary.

We made it to the terminal with 10 minutes to spare and as I am asking at the AndesMar desk where my bus stop was at and I hear a voice say (in English mind you) "taleah how was your trip?" I look and it is my friend ShaLondra. I was so excited to see her. It turns out that she and a group of about 3 other ACA girls were going to be taking the same Buses that I was back to the UAP so now I wouldn't be alone! Hooray.

I got on the bus that would take me across the border to Mendoza and it was filled with catholic missionaries who were very boastrous, but nice. They were going to build a school somewhere in Argentina so they were really hyped up. To go through customs it only took 2 1/2 hours which was really nice and than we made on our Merry way to Mendoza, ARgentina.

We get to Mendoza and decide to eat at the mall. As I walk into the foodcourt I realize that I am back in the land of meat and starch and no options. So I decided to settle for Noquis (potatoe pasta) with Mashed potato balls and a Pepsi (yes I actually had pepsi in south america it is a miracle). Than we raced back to the terminal and hoped on our bus that would take us to Parana in only a short 13 hours.

Let me tell you that it was the longest 13 hours of my life. It was interesting though. An older guy was sitting next to me and after trying to talk to him I realized he couldn't speak because he was suffering from Parkinsons. His daughter and wife were sitting in front of us. It seemed all good. I had it quiet to myself except when the daughter would stare at me for a while (she was about 8 or 9). It didn't bother me until about 2 a.m though when I wanted to sleep, but this weird child kept on looking at me.

At 4 a.m. I was startled awake because this family had to get off the bus. The husband and wife moved fast, but the daughter didn't move at all, she was dead asleep. The mother tried to wake her up, but it was not working. The daughter was deader than a doornail. They started yelling and she actually started making noise, but it was quite obvious that she did not want to wake up at all. Now there are people waiting for these seat 3 men to be exact and we need to get on going, we do not want to be in the bus for longer than we need to be. THe mother now is smacking the girl (not really hard) and saying "let's go, people need there seats" the little girl just whimpers. The father has had enough of this so he tries to step in and pulls her and tells her (he actually spoke I was surprised) "get up now!" She doesn't so he starts smacking her (not as nice as the mother) she starts crying loudly and says "I'm going I'm going."

She wasn't going anywhere.

They can't get her to move and so they start pulling her out of the seat, but she is a chunkster and her parents are a bit small so it wasn't working very well. The parents continue telling her its time to go and smacking her, but nothing helps it only makes the little girl yell and scream louder, it actually was a quite terrifying noise. The three men try to help pull her out it is hard but they manage to pull her to the stairs (this is a double decker bus) the mother is now telling the girl "you are embarrasing me, get up now!" Nothing is really helping though. THey still can't get the girl off or quiet. They finally dump water on her and she yells and screams off the bus. It was a quite tramatic experience let me tell you. (I think mostly because it was at 4 a.m.) I however was quite glad when they got off and I was able to relax in peace (I don't know if I could have slept though).

After what seemed like an eternity we made it to Parana, grabbed a bus that went to DIamante (about 20 km from the UAP) and than grabbed another bus to Libertador San Martin (home of the UAP). We made it from Santiago, Chile to La UAP in 26 hrs. I was so happy to get off the bus and back into the familiar little Villa, I had missed it.

So thank you all for your prayers. I am safe, my stuff is safe and soon I will be rested.

what a good vacation.

New Years in Chile!

So it is finally 2008 and I really can´t believe that I am actually in Santiago, Chile to celebrate it. It was quite an interesting experience. Here is how it went.

So because we are good Adventists the family decided to celebrate New Year´s at Sundown with a nice dinner. So we sat down to Dinner about 9:45 p.m. and had a lovely dinner and chatted and just had some good family time. Side note: I was actually able to participate in this conversation unlike the Christmas Dinner conversation. I was very proud of myself.

So after dinner we cleaned up and got ready to go watch the fireworks at El Centro de Santiago. As we were nearing El Centro we could see cars all up and down the city streets and the overpasses (we were on the autopista or freeway if you will) and people just crawling the streets. We get off the autopista and park in a little parking lot and start joining the crowd of people to this one bridge like overpass that gives a straight view of this Tower that is the center of the fireworks show.

After being covered in confetti we finally got to the top of the bridge and let me tell you the sight was pretty amazing. People crowded on this bridge confetti streaming everywhere the streets below also filled with people and confetti, wow it was awesome.

One minute before New Years and the confetti really started going and people´s champagne bottles started to pop. I froze because I did not want to get any champagne on me (ewww gross smell) and I thought that it was quite dangerous to let the corks go flying in such a small confined area with people whose eyes could be poked out by a mysterious flying cork. However never fear I was not hit by either (the cork or the horrid alcohol) and was able to enjoy the fireworks. It was so much fun to see them in such a crowd that was so hyped up.

Than we returned home, but it took forever because the rodes were full of cars and pedestrians. Important note: They do not care about pedestrians here. If you are walking in the street be aware because you will probably be hit. THe cars speed up when there are pedestrians. They do not care. So stay on the sidewalks or in the site of a police officer. So we just turned up the radio and sang along with the VIllage People to "YMCA". It was a blast. And because south america doesn´t care about the language difference we rocked out to other American oldie favorites. So all in all it was a good time.

We got home safely (sigh of relief), drank our sparkling cider (hooray!) and me and Pink went to bed around 4 a.m. and I woke up around 12 p.m. the next day. Fun fun fun.

Feliz Año Neuvo!!!

NOTE: I JUST ate my FIRST BLUEBERRY MUFFIN IN SOUTH AMERICA. IT WAS AMAZING!!! THE END

Christmas Day in Chile

So basically everything Christmassy happened Christmas Eve night. However for Christmas day we went to Viña del Mar. It was really cool because that is where the beach is. I can now say that I have had Christmas at the beach.

We also toured around the city. It is really big. This is also where the Navy is and all the Military schools, Congress and stuff like that.

Christmas was cool.