Tania in Temuco

 We managed to get Tania into a club XD It was the best night here so far. The music wasn't all that great, but the company was the best I've had over here. We made complete fools of ourselves in the best possible way. 

 The bouncers almost didn't let me in, which I find hilarious since they didn't really question Tania who is 5 years younger than me. 

 I finally got to dance with the cousins too! I'm glad that they were as excited to go out dancing as my sister and I were. The music was pretty retro though; we all got a chance to bust out our disco moves.

The next day was Laly's birthday party! She was so excited. She began reminding everyone at least four times a day and entire week before we we're going to celebrate. Every time we went out she'd remind us to go buy her a present. The moments she was the happiest was when we sang "happy birthday" (five times) and when she opened her mountain of birthday presents. She isn't very picky about what she gets, but she really lets you know if you gave her something she doesn't like. She got a red vest, but she already has a blue one. She was so upset that she got something she sort of already owns that she threw it aside from everything else she received.

 The twins (Clau and Fran) got to hang out with me and Tania. I definitely felt like a little kid again because of them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LALY

More Pucon

Something fun about he hotel we stayed at was that the had a theater with a performance almost every night. The days there weren't dance performances, we got to join in on some Bingo and Karaoke competitions. Here we were waiting for the performance to start. It was called Abracadanza. clever.

The show consisted of a bunch of classic Disney movies. Obviously I was ecstatic. However, the songs were all dubbed in spanish; it sounded pretty gross to me. But the funniest part was when they did a skit from Beauty and the Beast. The Beast's mask/costume looked like he had leprosy. An eye was missing and its fur and mouth were falling off. HAHA

They even got some Annie in there!

Time With Friends

Thank goodness for people to hang out with. If there's anywhere I want to go at night, these two girls are always there. Woohoo. This night we had a house party at Rosa's house. Its a super cute little house, but like most places around here, I just want to take over it and put some colors on the wall!

Its extremely weird that I feel tall in Temuco. (Example above) I'm not supposed to be tall compared to people. Gah! ...and just when I had gotten used to my shortness...

I went to visit Claire in Conce and one the places we went to was the "big lake." On the way there we walked into various little shops. The painting above really caught my eye. Its so cool! Someday I'll have to make a semi-copy of it.
When we got to the park I realized that it was full of random stuff. It started off as an outdoor gym with a bunch of exercise equipment, but I'm skeptical that it can give you a real workout. The most any of that stuff can do is make you improve on balance--you never know when you might fly off.
The second part of it was a skate park. It's not the first I've seen here in Chile, but it definitely was the nicest one. Then came the lake, which was gorgeous. Any summer day and I probably would have gone running into it. There was the typical park equipment-- swings, monkey bars, slides, but the last thing I saw was the coolest. There were abandoned boxcars and two coal powered train engines! I've been in these before at some ghost town, but I never got to climb up on them like I did at the park. There wasn't any dressed up conductor to tell me not to climb up on top of the roof XD

The next day we had a giant bbq for four. We drank some delicious cheap wine--someday I'll have to buy some for myself-- and we ate lots of meat, veggies, and dessert.

We had arroz con leche for dessert and we made s'mores! There aren't graham crackers here, so we used vanilla flavored water crackers instead. Its not exactly the same, but still delicious.

That One Time in Pucon

I went to Pucon for a week of vacation. Before I left a friend told me that the place would remind me of Hayao Miyazaki and his work. Oh boy did it ever! It was BEAUTIFUL! the colors were so pretty; the shadows were purple instead of grey and the entire town was made of timber. I finally got to hang out with Tania in Chile. The two of us got a room to ourselves and we had some sisterly bonding. Which somehow ended up consisting of staying up late every night and a lot of sleeping the next day.

Our hotel had a great view of the lake, but we had a room facing the other way toward the city.

The first night we got there it started to snow. Even though the snowflakes melted as soon as they hit the ground, just seeing the snow fall around us was amazing.

We went skiing/snowboarding one day when the day was clear and sunny. The volcano is the first to get clouds in that area, which is why we had to wait for a nice day. Otherwise, you can't see anything and it gets so windy that the lifts become dangerous.

The ride up to the slopes was an adventure in itself. The old reason we were able to get up there was because we were traveling in a big 4x4 suburban. Most cars around here get no bigger than a little truck. I don't even think I've ever seen a flat bed truck in Chile. 

This day was monumental; only because Tania decided that she was going to attempt going on the slope for the first time in years. Hopefully this helped her get over her previous bad experiences on the snow. I stayed with her for half the time. Then she got tired at sat the rest of the day out. I took that time to test out my RUSTY skills. I went on the only intermediate slope there, and although I went down alright, I am nowhere near as good as I used to be.

The next day we went sightseeing. Everywhere around Pucon is just as pretty as the town itself, if not more so. It kind of depends on whether you like nature or being around people more.

The sun setting in the fog looked crazy.

We found a lake that was surrounded by snow. This is where the ex-president lives. Right by the water, with a view of the calm lake.

Then we went to the Ojos de Caburgua. This is another place I'd really like to go to during summer. I've been here before, but I just barely remember. I couldn't have been more that 5 the last time I was there.

Cute dogs are all over the country!

We went to some the most beautiful hot springs I've ever seen, but then again I haven't seen ever many. It somehow made me think of a mixture of Japanese gardens and bath houses.

When we got there we were all freezing, but we had to change outdoors into our bathing suits. Just imagine taking off your five layers to put on one tiny one in the snow. I died. As soon as I was ready I practically ran across ice barefoot just to get into the first hot spring. It was only at body temperature, but I was so cold that it burned the most out of all of them. After getting into the first bath, everyone could pretty much just get out and walk around for five minutes before getting cold enough to have to get in again. 

Our bodies wouldn't really get too cold, but the water that dripped from everyone's body would freeze on the floating walkways and make it really hard on our feet.