Firstly, I´d like to apologize for falling so very far behind in the blogging game. I don´t know if anyone actually reads this, but as a self-proclaimed blog-addict, I know how frustrating it is to wait for a blog post. Now that that´s out of the way:
Argentina! We went to Argentina back in February and it was amazing. I was going to name a blog post “Beef and Icecream, a.k.a. why I´m moving to Argentina” but, as you can see, that didn´t happen. The food was legitimately amazing. One night, we had a seafood buffet appetizer and then SEVEN courses of meat that was all extremely delicious. You know, a typical dinner for me. Also, they have this thing called Dulce de Leche that is like caramel on steroids, and if you ever have the chance to have it in icecream form, you need need need to try it! Argentina did have more to offer than food, though. We walked around a bunch of neat neighborhoods, saw historic sites like the Casa Rosada (pink house, like our White House...only pink), saw a Tango show, and went to an Estancia, or ranch, that was very touristy, but very fun. We also went to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay and it was an awesome little colonial town with Spanish and Portuguese influences. Except for the theft of passports and cameras from three of the guys in my group, it was a wonderful experience.
After a week of classes, I went to Pucón, Chile for the weekend with seven classmates and it was fantastic. Among the highlights of hiking up one of the ten most active volcanoes in the world, sledding down a glacier on the side of said volcano, and biking to some pretty awesome waterfalls and a beach on a dirt road through the Andes mountains, we also stayed in a hostel with a lot of traveling Europeans and Canadians, ate great food for dirt cheap, and had plenty of bonding time as the eight of us shared a loft. Maybe too much bonding time :) Needless to say, I pretty much love Pucón.
Classes have been going pretty well. It´s still a lot of work, but I´m learning so very much about Chile and it´s people and it´s really fascinating. We´ve been going to lots of museums in Santiago lately and we went to a few vineyards this passed weekend with Dr. Cass. I am communicating so much better with my host family and other Chileans. There are still moments when Spanish makes me feel incredibly stupid, but that´s all part of the process (I hope) and I am no longer quite as timid or ashamed to talk to natives. I am officially two-thirds of the way done with classes. I know this because WE´RE GOING TO PERÚ TOMORROW! I´m super excited (if you couldn´t tell by the caps lock screaming I just did)! Lord willing, I will break my late posting trend and give you an update on that before July :)
Speaking of the Lord, He is crazy good to me. I know for a fact that I would have gone nuts here in Chile if it weren´t for Him constantly looking after me and showing me how foolish most of my frustrations are. I have really been shown how great God is no matter where or when I am, and it´s so great to know that he doesn´t change like shifting shadows. The time seems to be moving so quickly here, and through all this traveling and fast moving time, it is awesome to know that He is timeless and placeless (real word?) yet everywhere in every moment. Mind boggling, but oh so great. Both in my trip to Ecuador two summers ago and in this trip, finding out that God is the same everywhere has just blown my mind and I feel like it shouldn´t. I don´t know why I´ve been surprised to find out that He deals with my foolishness in Chile with just as much grace as he deals with it in the Carolinas, but I´m grateful He´s given me the opportunity to notice it. I guess I tend to put God in a box and think I´ve learned what to expect from Him, and that´s just asking Him to blow my mind as He pulls a Houdini out of the box I built and shows me that He´s way too big for me to fathom. I feel like I might be rambling at this point, so I think I´m going to rap this up and go have icecream with some friends to celebrate turning in our mid-term paper for History.
I hope God blesses you (whoever you are and if you even exist) as greatly as He´s been blessing me lately.
Ciao, pesca´o (fun fact: that is a Chilean phrase similar to See you later, alligator)
