Trip to Buenos Aires

Like most of you guys might know, it is not good for me to travel alone, because then usually something comes up...
Amanda and me got up very early then to leave to the airport, I think it was not even 6 yet, when we arrived there we had to splitt up, after she was going to Lima and I to Buenos Aires (was a very quick decision I just had made 3 days before). So when I came to the Check-In it was not even opened yet, also it was just an hour before the flight, people werealready lining up big time. Anyhow when they finally started to check luggage, it took at least 45 minutes till everybody had a ticket, then I went to pay airport tax and to the check-in point for the international waiting room... YEAH, what to say, people were lining up again and the woman up front said, I am sorry I can't let anybody in quiet yet, because the airline hasn't confirmed the flight... Hmm, okay I thought, It's still ok, I don't have to switch planes in La Paz and will have 3 hours in Santa Cruz to change.... About an hour later, we were finally allowed to go through the passport check and the self-check-in. The problem then was just, as soon as we were in the international waiting room, which looks like this, a big hall with chairs, about 3 TV's and 2 restrooms, nothing more and freezing cold, an airline representative told us, they don't have a plane yet, so we will have to wait another 2 hours...Bien, everybody just thought great, we are freezing here and they are not even offering to bring in some tea or something... Anyways when the plane was there everything worked out just fine for a few minutes, at least until I was told, because I am having 2 stopps in Bolivia, I have to go through immigration, really nice, getting of the plane, running once around the airport to enter the same plane again, interesting have never been through the paperwork faster. When we arrived in Santa Cruz then, from where I was supposed to fly over Asouncion to Buenos Aires, we were already more then late, but at least a nice Airport Representative greeted us and helped the late comers to still catch the plane... me of course not without complications... I had to get my luggage out and check it back in and get a new ticket, because the connection was with another airline, after this was done. I went to pay airport tax and then to the self-check-in again, which seemed to be fine, till the guy finished searching through my purse and started taking a look at my passport, he decided I travelled to much in the last weeks and had to many south american stamps and was coming from Peru to go over Boliva to Argentina, so he told me, sorry but you have to go into this room over there for a body check for drugs...I just thought thank you, being late was not enough I guess... But lucky me, I still somehow got the plane in the very last minute. Then actually everything went quiet well I stopped in Paraguay and switched flights there, I met a nice scotish girl going to Buenos Aires too and when we finally landed in Argentina, we decided to take a taxi together downtown, after the airport is a bit out of the city and there is not really any public trasportation there. I arrived pretty late at my hostel and went kind of straight to bed to have the next day to explore the City. And it was really great, I had like the best weather ever and saw a lot of the center of the City that day, the next day I was already about to leave again...

Peru - Macchu Picchu

Wow I just saw how far behind I am in writing... Still in Peru, yeah, I kind of wish I was still there...
Lake Titicaca was really great, also the City around, Puno, is not that nice. In the evening of the day we visited the lake, we took a bus towards Cuzco, where we arrived at around 5am in the morning. Like everywhere as soon as we entered the bus terminal tons of people came to us asking if we would like to stay in their hostel or hotel, about an hour later, we made then our finally decision and went with Juri a really nice guy to his hostel, we had 2 nice little rooms for 13 soles a night, what is about 2,50 euros. The first thing in the morning for us was then finding out about the different options we have to visit Macchu Picchu, the great Inka City up in the mountains. Juri explaint us everything, it was just great, to make sure so that we will get the best prize we went in the City to check different travel agencies, after it was sunday we also got a better inside in Peruvian traditions, they had like a little sundays parade festival at the market place, after we finished our research we sat down in one of the little coffeeplaces balconies and enjoyed watching what was going on at the market. Afterwards we booked our trips for the next days, that also meant saying by to some good friends, Lucie and Franzi were going to take another trail then Amanda and me. The rest of the day we enjoyed hanging around the City, which is really beautiful and in the evening we even got the chance to meet up with our friends from Spain and Sweden and Maria and Chris again. 4 o'clock in the morning we said a last goodbye to the girls who left for their trip and then our trip already started as well.
Amanda and me had decided to do a 3 days trip and fly out of Cuzco on the fourth.
The first day started, we got picked up by a bus and drove to a place to pick up others, meet our guia Marco Antonio and get some bikes. When this was done the trip could really start, we drove about 2 hours up into the mountains and arriving there we decided the best thing to do would be put on more clothes, it was soooo freezing. Then ready to rock, everybody got onto a bike and they way down started, after about an hour we made a lunch break with a beautiful view and then went on, it was really great, the sun , the mountains, just everything... In the evening then we drove by bus to another town to stay there over night, I got a bit sick of that ride so and went kind of straight to bed to be fit for the next morning. We got up kind of early and had a nice breakfast and then starting hiking, the first view hours were really nice along waterfalls and through the countryside after lunchbreak so, we had to walk a view hours straight over train tracks, but didnt matter, when it started raining we could finally try out our ponchos, looking totally ridiculous so :D On that hike I also got a chance to talk with our Guide Willian a bit more and hear more about life in Peru. In the evening we were very happy when we finanlly arrived at the hostel, we were a bit afraid, cause everybody who had been there had told us, they had the worst hostel ever there, but surprisingly we got one of the bests we had throughout our whole journey through Peru. This evening Amanda didnt feel so good from the hike, so we decided after we both werent really fit, we will take the bus in the morning up to Macchu Picchu instead of hiking. After a bit of trouble with getting up at 4 in the morning, we took a bus at 5 and met the others right in front of the gate up on top and were even fast enough to catch a ticket to hike up wayna picchu, because only 400 people a day are allowed to go up there, to keep it saver. The first 2 hours up there we had a guide showing us everything and explaining todos. It was really impressive. We also saw the sun rise over the mountains soooooooo nice. Around 10 am then, we just relaxed in the sun, which was another weird point after everybody hd told us the days before they were up there and it was pooring rain, anyways I convinced Amanda to do the hike up Wayna Picchu, we took our time and made stopps all few minutes, but at the end it was really worth it, we had a totally amazing view all around and towards Macchu Picchu. Around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, we took another bus back down to the village, had some lunch and catched our train back towards Cuzco, where we spent the night and got up early to leave for the airport, but thats a totally different story again, I will tell soon. Besos

Arica and Lake Titicaca

We arrived in Arica the northest big City in Chile and went on the search for our hostel. It was a nice place, we shared a room with 2 canadians and it was my first hostel where I got a welcome snack... We also had our own kitchen and bathroom, really nice.
The next thing we did was going to check out the bus times for the next day to Peru, the problem was just that the people told us there won´t be any busses going to Peru the next day because of a strike... We said ok we´ll see and went to an internet place to check our mails and there we found out that the guys were in Arica, too. Stefan, Jono and Thomas flew to Arica after their little "adventure" in Brazil, what a nice coincident. We called them up and just a bit later we found us in the city with them and Wally and a lot of Torres de cerveza. Was a great evening. The next day then Amanda and Franzi, Luis and the Spanish arrived in Arica as well and it became an even greater reunion when we found Maria and Chris walking by at the busstation :D
After a nice lunch in the City and some hang out time at the beach we took a bus to Tacna in Peru and it was actually pretty fast, maybe an hour and we were there. YEAH PERU!!!
Peru is really so different from Chile, you see it the moment you cross the border. It is very colorful and the women all wear those big skirts and carry a ton of stuff with them. The spanish gets slower and a lot easier to understand.
Our actual plan from there on was to take a bus right away to Puno to see Lake Titicaca, but after the strike from the day before all busses were booked out, so we spend a night in a very simple and also very very cheap hostel, had some food from a street stand and took the first bus in the morning around 8am. The thing with the busses in Peru is, you should never trust on their given schedule. We planned on arriving around 5, seeing the lake doing some stuff and taking a night bus to Cusco, but like always everything came a bit different :D
We arrived arround maybe 8.30 and then decided to stay over night. Amanda and me were pretty hungry and went out to get some food and we found this really nice little pizza place across the street, sooo good, Pizza baked over fire and coca mate tea.
The next morning we went to get our bus tickets for the night and walked down to the harbor to take a boat out on Lake Titicaca. We went on those swimming Islands made out of reed, it was pretty interesting to see that people live like this, its like a whole village out of islands like this.
soon more... :D

In the hostel...

we met a really nice American Lady who told us about all her travels, she like started out in Argentina a couple month ago and worked her way up through whole Chile, mostly through hitchhiking, crazy. She told us the next day she wanted to go on and visit the gigante de Atacama, a great big drawing made in the ancient times out at the desert. We spontanously decided to go with her and as soon as the new day started Lucie, Mara and me were off to the desert. The gigante is really pretty big and in the middle of the desert in the total silence.
After being out there we enjoyed a nice lunch in a very little town, think it was called Huara or something similar and then or ways splitt again Mara went to Arica and we hitched to Humblestone. It was actually pretty easy to get a car to stopp and take us :D Humblestone is an old Salpeter town,
where you can go around and visit all the old buildings and production places, which was really interesting, especially seeing how the people lived, we read before in our lonely planet that the people working there were kind of bounded to the area and the boss from the factory also owned the city and paid the people in special money which they could only use in the city and so he kind of got all the money back and non of his workers could leave him because they didn´t have real money.
The time came that we felt like no more walking and we left and stopped another car at the street which took us back to Iquique.
The next morning then we catched a bus to Arica. The funny part was we were waiting for it and it was late and then when it was there we didn´t know that it was our one, because it said Atacama Vip as company and we booked Pullman, but apparently they are working together but nobody told us, so we got it like last minute, when they called out our seat numbers :D But anyways it was a great ride, about 10 minutes into the ride the guy came up to us and asked if we would like to move downstairs to the more comftable cama seats, because he wanted to start cleaning the upstairs, so we said why not and really enjoyed the next 5 hours in the bus :D
Ok time for a second breakfast, I will continue later ;)

Vacation

Hallo mal wieder :D
Guess where I am... YEAH!!! Buenos Aires, but just for a day so...
Lets start from the beginning. I cant believe it, its already about 2 weeks ago since I started my journey.
It started out with a lot of goodbye evenings, like the one at Mels place we bought a lot of stuff and made sushi, sooo yummy. Then the last friday night we spent at the Australiens place, kind of the way we startet into the semester :D Was a very late night. The next day Stefan was off to his adventure and I had to pack, really not easy, how do you know what you will need in a 4 weeks vacation??? and I had to pack everything else as well and move out of my room.
Then the next morning it startet, I said bye to my hostfamily and left to meet up with Lucie with who I would spend the beginning of the vacation. Her hostdad drove us to the busstation and after buying a few empenadas for the ride we were off, 26 hours up north :D Was such a nice ride, I had to get back a ton of sleep and was out for about 20 of the hours.
Then we arrived in Iquique, it is such a nice city, the busstation is packed so, I really dont know how they do it but there are busses over busses and one blocks the other. Our hostel there was a bit weird, they cleaned up our stuff in the closet and there was always a person on the floor and you kind of felt watched, but all in all it was nice, with a great church on the other side of the street.
The city was just lovely and the beaches, with soo high waves. We went to eat everyday, you could get a whole meal with soup, segundo and drink for about 2,50 euros. In the hostel ... to be continued... have to free the computer...

How does it happen that time goes by soooo fast....

Hi everybody it's me again :D
what should I tell you, I had a few very busy but also very fun weeks again.... A couple of good Parties, a couple of good chats with you guys and a few not so good tests :) I am also still working on finding an internship and am still on the search for every single spanish word I can find on my way through life :)

First the most important thing: THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for all your nice Birthday Wishes I am really so happy to have you all as my friends !!! After this was like the biggest thing happening in the last few weeks I guess I gonna tell you about it in this post.
Like you all know, I usually don't like birthdays that much and try to keep quiet and not do anything, what never works so. Yeah, this year it didn't either, but it was more because one of my new friends over here, Amanda, has the same birthday as me and after she is american and turned 21 this year, we needed to have a big thing going on... ( I of course spontaneously decided to turn 21 as well :P ). We already started planning for the party a whole while ago and then we figured out that our friend Franzi has her bday right a day later, so why not celebrate together and then when Jono heard about our plannings he was in too and so Cumple^4 was born :D
A bit later we decided we need to have a nice party area and found a nice big room we could rent, the good thing was the room came with two security guys and a cleaning crew for the next day, so was a pretty sweet deal. Next thing we knew, we need a name for it and after a bit of thinking over a nice dinner at the Asian Buffet, we decided we should make something out of the beginnings of our names, outcome???: Joder!!! La Mejor Fiesta del Año!!! --- the best Party of the year. So, what now? Of course, we girls decided, we need to dress up and went dress shopping, YEAH!!! Amanda is just so lucky, there is like no dress which doesn't fit her and they all looked great. At the end the decision fell on a real nice one, I will add pics ;) Franzi and me needed a bit more time to think and at the end we came up with a pretty simple solution, we wear some we already got and save some money. Worked out very well, after I have a dress nobody knows about, at least until that day. It got more and more exiting day by day.

The night before my bday then we went into the Sheraton, the fanciest hotel in the City in the Bar to have cocktails and when they heard its our bday, Amanda and me got a plate with cake and it was made so nice, it was written Feliz Cumpleanos on the plate and everybody got a glass of champagne. Afterwards we went over to Jonos place and played poker through the night. The next day my plan was to sleep all day, after I never find much time for sleeping and after I knew my only Birthday wish wouldn't get fulfilled anyhow, why bother getting up. Lunch was really nice, my host mom had bought German Beer and we had nice talks and I even got a present, she had bought me really beautiful earrings. In the evening we girls were invited for a dinner at Maria's place who had decided to cook for us, and how she cooked, soooo good and soooo much nobody could ever eat in a week. It was a real nice evening, at the end Chris came over and brought us choclate, so sweet and then Amanda, Franzi and me decided it is time to go to the Casino.

The next day, which was Franzis Birthday we met in the evening after classes for Pizza at Jonos place and played picturnary (however you would write it), but not with drawing, with pantomime. Great fun especially after it was in spanish and nobody really understood all teh words. The rest of the week flew by pretty fast, we went shopping for decoration and drinks and suddenly it was Saturday the big Party day. The night before I already received my present, which turned out to be a Poker Night with drinks, I think the rules were something like this, whoever goes out has to drink a shot of beer, over 500 lost, baileys, who loses Jägermeister and who wins can chose, I guess you can imagine the end of the night. Jono also gave us presents, really great of him, we all got a candle, chocolate and a scarf, YEAH
But now La mejor Fiesta. We had invited all our friends and had told them to bring even more friends, we were so nicely dressed up and the room was decorated, we had totally great security guys and the best music. I think it worked out unbelievably fantastic. At 2 am we left and went into the city in a club and danced till it closed. It was really good, I mean there are always some downsides, but there were also a lot of highlights at the party, somewhere inbetween I lost my tiara so...hmm... Anyways it was definitly one of the best parties of the year, most people no recuerdan mucho, but that can talk for itself, too, I guess ... The best part is still, that we didn't have to clean the next day...
Until soon again, lots of hugs and kisses in the world

Where to beginn...

it's been a busy, great and crazy time. 

About 2 weeks ago, I decided it is time to plan the next vacation :D But where to go? I thought it would be a pretty good idea to go visit the girls in Uruguay. After a bit talking, everything was planned and Stefan decided to come too, so I booked the flights with vacation in sight, work didn't really go easier but kind of faster.

The weekend before the journey then we had a big intercambio party with the Motto, wear your Pijama. So the girls and I went to get some Party PJ's. Before the party we had a Pre Party at Amanda's place which was pretty cool, a lot of people already showed up there in their PJ's and we had a lot of fun. Around midnight we arrived at the club then, after it was an intercambio party, we had free entrance, but it was still not that easy to come in for some of us after the security wanted to see ID's. Inside then we had to see that even it was a Pijama Party almost none of the chileans were wearing one, kind of boring, but that didn't matter, we were in a good mood and dancing all night. Some of us even won in the contest. When we left we had an interesting collectivo ride home again, after we were more people then allowed in a car again because Amanda had lost her key once more and stayed over in our place for that night, but that's really no problem over here you just pay the driver a bit more.

The following day, I met up with Franzi and Lucie to watch Germany's next Topmodel, I didn't have any idea about it so, after it was the first show of that season I watched, but at the same time one of the final ones. Was fun so. Afterwards we went over to the apartment of the spanish guys for a semáforo party, for everybody who doesn't know what that is, semáforo is a traffic light and it means everybody coming to the party needs to wear a shirt or a sticker of the color they belong to, red for in a relationship, yellow for in between and green for being single. Great party with a lot of nice people. 

A few  more days of hard work for university and the trip to Montevideo started. Tuesday night we went to Santiago and visit Britta, because we stayed at her place over night, was a short night so, after we talked a lot and had to get up around 5 again. At the airport it all went pretty quick, although it was weird to see some people wearing masks, because just 2 days before Chile got the first case of the flu. In Montevideo they then even had 2 doctors with a camera observing all the people landing at the airport. We left the airport and were suprised that it was so quiet and not like in Santiago where you are welcomed by a flood of Taxi drivers who kind of fight for your attention. Annika had given me directions to her appartment, so we took the next bus we saw and drove into the City. The suburbs looked a lot like the Santiago area, but coming downtown, the City seemed not that big considering Buenos Aires or Santiago.

About 45 minutes later we arrived at Annis place and were welcomed by her landlord, because she was still in class. We had a nice talk with him, who had a lot to tell about the world. He is british and living in South America for about 2 years now, one day he just came saw the one house he liked and bought it, started fixing it up and has students living in it now. It is so nice, high walls, big doors, some rooms even seem like you are in a castle. After listening to the story of his whole life and all the places he had already lived at Anni and Maren came, yeah :) Everything kind of fell back into place and was like we never left Germany. 

First thing we went out to eat, I forgot the name, but it was some kind of very typical burger for Uruguay with likly everything you could think of, bacon, eggs, potato salad... We also got first impressions of the downtown area and took pictures of the bears of the world which were just visiting :) The next days really run through like nothing, we went shopping and to parties, I finally got to cook again and on Saturday Stephi and Bene came. It was just soo great to have this little IM Reunion. We went through the City had some coffee, talked about good old times and just enjoyed the time together. Sunday night then we went to have a steak and it was really so good. Bene  got a new mission now in finding a better one in Argentina :D Monday our already last day, was a bit full of work Anni and Maren had to do research for a group work and I had to write a paper, but nevertheless we had a great time.

Around midnight or 1 in the morning then, we decided now it's time to have some choclate to stay awake, but we didn't have any anymore, so Anni and I decided we need to go and get some :D Montevideo has those little night kiosks. We were actually suprised how many people we still met outside by that time, busses were going and the some security guards were taking night pictures with the bears :D At the little shop then we met a nice guy from Mexico and bought some Milka. It's so weird, because at nights those shops have their fences and stuff down and you have to talk through it with the people inside to tell them what you want, then they are showing it to you and you say yes or no and pay :D I jsut love 24 hours shops. After having that snack I worked through till 5 and slept 2 1/2 hours before we had to get up and leave. That's also why my story today is kind of short and with not that many details, I am kind of tired and still have a lot of work to do, but thought it would be nice to give you guys at least a little update on our time here ;)

The flight back was pretty relaxed then, so nice views on the Andes and then being back in Santiago, where it took us a while to enter again, after the people checking your papers leaving and coming back have different impressions of what you need to give in or not, so we were missing a paper, because they took it from us when we left... but all is fine again, we are back :D back in the crazy world of chilean life. 

I will add some off Annis pics to my story, after my camera still needs to be fixed (the people at the Nikon store said it will take 3 month if they send it in... so I will try another place in the City)

Have fun and enjoy life, I will be talking to you soon

Atacama!!!

HalliHallo,

we are back from our roadtrip in the desert :D It was really amazing.

As soon as class was over last thursday, Jono picked us up at our place with a rental car, a Kia --> turned out to be a pretty good one. Thomas, who was supposed to come too, sadly could't make it after he had to finish an assignment for his university. So we drove off to meet the others in the city and then all drive together north with 2 cars, the first group already left a couple hours earlier.

Right around 6pm we started on our way through rush hour in Vina, which was not the easiest thing, both cars driven by Australiens who are used to the left side of the road :D, but it worked out just fine, only once we hit our mirror on a dumpster, when a bus came across our ways. All in all we were actually pretty happy about just being 4 people in the car now and have a bit more space, Jono had packed a lot of great cd's and Amanda had bought snacks, so we were all set :)

Soon it started to get dark, so we could't see much of the surroundings anymore and I fell asleep shortly, after we had the deal that the back seats sleep to be fit for driving later on and the front is driving and navigating. We just made some quick stops at gas stations and Jono just went on driving like crazy, he really enjoyed the ride. Only once we went of the wrong road, but came back on track after only a few minutes and once we lost the car up front, after all cars look so similar at nights, but we took a roundabout and came out right behind them again :D

Around 3 or 4 in the morning I took over driving then and had I would say one of the nicest parts, the way through the desert towards Antofagasta. You are really out in Nowhere. I was really happy at some points so, that Chris was driving in front of me, because while going through the mountains it got really really foggy, some parts I almost couldn't see his back lights although I was kind of right behind their car. Around 6.30 then it got light out and the sun started to rise over the desert, it was so beautiful, the others started to wake up and life came back into the ride. Then about 60 km before Antofagasta the light for the gas turned on and we just hoped we will do it. There was really no gasstation out there on the whole way, at least not since I had been driving. We somehow did it so and now we also were already very close to our goal San Pedro de Atacama. The last bit was really great too, espeacially the last few km into the "City", if you will call it like this. It's more like a little touristy town out in the middle of nowhere in the desert. Arriving there, we met up with the guys from the first car, which had arrived half an hour before us. They had already found us a hostel " Casa de sol naciente " . We had 2 eight bed rooms and were 6 people in each of them. The first thing then after our very fast 16 hour drive, it's really so nice up the Panamerica, without any speedcontrols, we booked a tour for the afternoon and went to get some lunch.

At 3 pm then, we all went out to the Lagunas, those were very little and deep, lets say kind of like ponds with sharp edges and water with a high percentage of salt. First thing we learnd was how to enter the right ways, so nobody would get hurt, you kind of need to walk in a bit and stand right at the sharp edge before it gets deep, close your eyes and mouth and go for it, with no splashing if possible. If you get this water in eyes or mouth it burns terribly and you need to clean it with fresh water immediately. We were just floating around for a while, after you can't sink in there and enjoyed the time. Afterwards we went to another pond, but only a few people jumped in there, because it was a bit chilly out by that time. After putting on some warmer clothes, we went a bit further to see the sun set, which was amazing you are like on a salty lake like walking as far as possible and have the mountains behind it in the setting sun, reflecting in the salt. We took pictures and had some Pisco Sour and cookies, a great end to that day. Arriving back at the hostel, we took a fast and hot shower, which was really needed after feeling so cold and to get all the salt of you. Then we went to get some Pizza, which was sooo delicious, one of the bests ever and went to bed, we had a log day ahead of us.

Saturday morning, we woke up at 3.30am, without any light, because the energy is getting turned of for 7 hours over night in the whole city. Was really interesting to get dressed and brush your teeth in cell phone light, especially after we were supposed to wear as much as possible, to not feel cold, the hardest part is to figure out if a shirt is the right way around or not. At 4 am a bus picked us up and we drove to the Parque de geysers. It was really nice being out there so early and see the sun rise over the mountains so close to the geysers. Afterwards we went on driving up a bit more and going to natural hot springs, where you can bath in, but only 3 of the guys really went for a swim after the water was not that hot yet so early in the morning and most people were just not that eager to come out later in the very very cold outside. From there on we drove further through the National Park and stopped for breakfast at a little village like area, with about, I don't know, lets say not more 8 houses, where you could try Lama empenadas and meat from the grill. Around lunch time we arrived back at the hostel and went in the town to do some shopping and ate some ice cream. :D

In the afternoon we took another tour to get to know the area a bit more. We went to viewout points, to Valley de la muerte and Valley de la luna (don't think so I would know how to write those things, just a wild guess ;) ) In the first valley, we walked along some dunes and some of the guys went crazy running them up and then down again, which was really not easy. Stefan and Hendrik even made it up top. In the valley de la luna then we went through some caves, lot of fun and then up the stone desert to see the sunset and have a great few over the valley, which is supposed to look like the moon. Up to this point I will also show you pictures, later on it's sorrowfully not possible, after I don't have the possibility at the moment to get pictures from my phone on my laptop and my camera kind of ate some sand while being in the cave and has to get cleaned first before I can use it again :( The moon valley was really impressiv so, I can tell you. That evening we went to a a bit nicer place to eat. First of all it was Happy Hour so we got 2 cocktails for 4000 peso, so about 5 euros and then I ate the menu of the day, which was a nice soup, some kind of fish with veggie, I never had before. Then I had chicken with rice and afterwards dessert, Crème brûlée, yummy and this all the food and the cocktail for 8500, so about maybe 10 or 11 euros, which I think was okay. After the late dinner I went straight to bed and slept through till 8.30 am :D

Sunday we went out to the rocky desert not too far behind the hostel and just walked/ hiked through out it and a lot of caves, which was great fun, at least until the point, were Jono decided to get crazy and climb up this one mountain. All around it was not really rocks it was more like build up dirt, which got hard and dry over the times, so if you would climb, it is like losing up and just breaking apart, but somehow he just climb further and further and wanted to be up top, a few times it was as if he would fall any second. Of course so, typically guys, after Stefan saw him, he needed to do the same and started climbing the other side.... I can just say now it might sound like a little thing and girls worring about things which they shouldn't at all, but imagine, being out somewhere in the desert, no cell phone service, nobody around, you don't really know where you are anyhow and the two guys which are with you climbing up pretty high and you just see them sliding of all the time because they can't really hold themselves and the dirt already breaks down and you already see them fall any second, Amanda and me really weren't worried without reason. I will put you one of Jonos pics from up top in here. Anyways after his camera case was already fallen down and Stefan decided that there is no way to go on, they tried to come down again, which was even harder then going up, more and more rocks and dirt came down, but finally after a lot of sliding and trying to hold onto stuff they made it down. After this exciting start in the day, we had some Pizza and went out in the dunes again, where the others tried out sand boarding, which out of known reasons, is a bit to dangerous for me... :( But I took Jono's cam and took some pics :)

try to find me on there!!!

Monday then we decided to drive to the Flamingo park which according to the map is close to the argentinean border, but in Chile... if that's really true we don't really know so... We drove out of the City and really through the most beautiful country side ever, at least for dry areas like this. While driving we already thought we got bad fuel or something, because, we couldn't go fast at all, also the street seemed to go just straight, but as we had to see later, it actually went up, you just don't really feel it, but suddenly we were above 4000 meters and even more sudden we passed a Bienvenida Argentina sign... So that means we had the greatest drive ever, didn't find the Flamingo Park and were in Argentina... We took some pictures and decided to turn around before going down the street, because there would have been the border control and after most of us didn't have an ID with them and Maria wasn't allowed to enter Argentina without Visa anyways, we thought it would be the best to turn around. On the way back then we kind of decided to leave for Vina already in the evening instead of the morning to drive nights. So we wanted to go for Pizza for one last time, but had to see that the place was closed :( So we went somewhere else. Afterwards we were one last time at the Feria for some shopping. We all got one of those fancy pants, which nobody really wears, but which just seem fun to have ( we all put them on for the ride later on :D ) and I got myself a poncho, so cool and really nice and warm for cold study days back in Vina. When we came back to the hostel, we had to realize that none of us had a phone with them in the City and apparently the others didn't have a key for the room, so the guy from the hostel, had to open the door with a knife. ( kind of scary so, if you think, that your door can just be opened by the use of a knife ). So we packed our car, got gas for one more time and left the city by 7.30pm. It was a pretty go drive. In the desert right outside of Antofagasta, we stopped this time to see the giant hand, it's a hand in the middle of the sand, we just got out of the car, which lighted the hand with the lights and run to high 5 it :D. I tried to take pics, but my cell doesn't have a flash and Amandas and Jonos camera were out of battery :( Anyways the rest of the drive went pretty relaxed, we made one longer stop in La Serena for breakfast, where we had to realize that people over here don't eat out for breakfast and if you find something open that early ( about 8 am ) then they will offer burger and hot dogs. We just went into the one place then and asked if they have toast, so they gave us some toast and jelly, which was fine :) For La Serena it was not that far to "home" anymore and the way, seen by day was really nice along the ocean. We arrived back around 1 pm, but it took us about half an hour to get Amanda home to her place and we almost thought we would get pulled over by the police, so close before really finishing the trip, but I guess they had better to do then stopping us for running a red light... lucky for us :D

All in all I have to say it was really a fantastic long weekend and I just hope you had as much fun doing whatever you did as we had up North.

PS: if you think with being back the excitement was over, wrong... we wanted to take out the car one more time as long as we had it in the evening, to go to the movies... we had to see it had a flat tire, so happy that didn't happen out in the desert :D After the guys changed it, the movie was good.

Hi :)

After everybody is writing today, I thought I should bring a tiny update, too, so everybody is in on the newest news from Chile :D

Since we have returned  from our little trip to the south, our life got busier and busier day by day. We studied a lot wrote a lot of tests and learnd more every day ;)

Then last friday I decided it's time for a break and went shopping with a friend for a few hours and then afterwards to the chinese buffet, which was delicious. The plan was to go out later on, but I passed then after I decided to go to Casablanca the next day. 

So after getting up early last Saturday morning I met up with Lucie and we took a Mikro to the busstation where we were supposed to meet the others but at the beginning nobody showed 15 minutes/ half an hour later a few of the spanish exchange students came along and after another 15 minutes and still nobody else there we decided to go alone. We were 7 people by then so a nice little group. Another half an hour later we arrived in Casablanca at the vine festival. It was a beautiful day, nice and warm and the fest was in a park in the middle of the town. Up front was a stage with music and people dancing typical chilean dances. We bought our entrance tickets, 3000 peso, for a wine class and three tickets for testing and we went around got the different wines explaint and tried one and sat down in the sun and listened to the music, just wonderful.

Later on the others arrived, a few chileans and people who do internships or work in Vina and then the french exchange students :) So we decided to go to the other building, highly watched by the police after we had to cross the street with a wineclass in our hands, also it was empty, but drinking in pulic is not allowed in Chile. There we signed in a list and were able to do a course about how you drink wine the right way, which was really interesting. Afterwards we go some food and enjoyed the rest of the day.

In the evening back in Vina, the other girl called us up, to go and drink cocktails with them, so after a quick stop to crab some food at Lucie's ( was the birthday of her host sister, yummy cake ) and a little time meeting new people in another friends house, we went over to the Sheraton, which is like the biggest and best hotel in the city. So where just a few weeks ago presidents and ministers of different countries met, we were sitting now, having cocktails. I had a Mai Tai which was really great. Fantastic Day !!!

Sunday then I had to go back to serious thing and started writing applications for internships again and read texts for classes, the same happened monday. Yesterday then was a day of classes and in the evening all the exchange students were invited to a "Cena Bienvenida" by the university. We even got half an hour earlier out of our spanish class and after we heared it is probably going to be a bit fancier, Stefan and me went home to change, 5 minutes later back at university, we got into the car of our spanish teacher and drove to the other end of the City. The dinner was in "Club Naval" which belongs to the Navi and it was good that we dressed up a bit. We found a room full of round white tables and buffet to the side. It was a pretty good dinner and it was nice to see the Santiago group again. The end came a bit sudden so, as soon as the coffee was gone, the other group left and we decided to go too.

So we wanted to go back to the street, but the fence at the end was kind of closed by that time, but after it was just like 2 or 3 meters high, we climbed :D Shortly afterwards we got on a micro towards Renaca and there to a club. We had cards for free entrance before one and 100peso for a pisco before that time to. But somehow, they didn't really let people go in, only like little groups of 5 like every ten minutes and a few chileans always passed the line. After a while we decided, no that's not for us and we left, then they suddenly started calling behind us, but no, we were gone.

Now we had to go back into Vina, but after it was tuesday night there were no mikros anymore and just a few collectivos (= shared taxis) and we were 12 people but could only find 2 cars, so what should we do, asked the driver for options and he says no problem we just do 6 in each car :D so crazy. So in our car Thomas, Jono and Stefan were sitting in the back and Lucie was just laying on them and then Edouard and me were up front, which wasn't easy after you would always bump your head and then Edouard saw that the second car had already left, so he said to the driver, hey, it's no problem to get them or? So a minute and 120 km/h in the city later and we were passed them...

To end my today actually planned to be very short hallo, I should tell you, that you can't really reach us the next days, because as soon as classes are over tomorrow, we will go to Atacama in the north till tuesday or wednesday. If we can trust google, then it will be an about 28 hours drive, so sit back relax and wait for stories of us driving up there, which will come sometime next week.... Ciao and to the ones who know who I mean, be careful  and stay safe.

Easter Holidays

Hola again from far away Chile!!!

Long time no post, but there was nothing really to tell. University consumes most of the time. The first few weeks were really not easy, but after I got used to everything it is slowly getting better and  all puzzle pieces fall into place. With a bit of luck we should have our visa by monday and our study fees paid by tuesday :)

I hope all of you had great Easterholidays. We decided the weekend before that we should travel a bit after university gave us a WHOLE friday off, so after a few mintues we thought the best idea would be to go as far south as possible in the short time before winter comes and it is too cold to travel there. The decision was made, we booked our flights to Punta Arenas in Patagonia, after the time still seemed a bit too short, we gave ourselves the tuesday off and went for almost a week.

Our flight was leaving from Santiago friday morning at 2.40 am. So after a whole day of classes we packed the rest of our stuff (the day before I went shopping with Lucie and bought myself my first trekking backbag ;) ) and took the 9.30 pm bus to Santiago. When we arrived at the us terminal, we were told that it was already too late for busses to the airport, so we had to take a taxi, which was still ok after we could split it through tree (another german exchange student Lena went with us). Arriving at the airport we only had to check our bag, after I already checked us in online and then we wanted to go on through the self-checking, but apparently nobody was working at this time, so we had to wait till shortly before boarding to go through. The flight then was pretty good, nice view by the time of starting and a lot of sleep till the landing.

By Arrival in Punta Arenas it was very windy and a bit rainy and we had to take another taxi in the city to the bus station, which also didn't open for another half an hour, so we went to drink a hot choclate in the next gasstation. After being back at the bus place we had to find out that the early busses were already sold out, but no problem, we got on the 9.30 one to Puerto Natales and till then I was relaxing a bit and Lena and Stefan were thinking about Uni again and started reading papers. A couple hours later we found ourselves in Puerto Natales in a little travel agency with a really helpful lady explaining us all the options for our trip and half an hour later we had our bus booked to go to Los Torres del Paine National Park.

Now we just had to go to the grocery store to buy food for the following days and rent a sleeping bag for me and hiking sticks or whatever there names are for Lena, another hour later we were on a bus and had a beautiful ride and the first views to the mountains and a lot of meetings with animals :)

The first day out in the park we wanted  to hike up Torres del Paine, but already after the first half an hour it started raining and there seemed not to be any ending in sight. Lena and I only hiked to the first camp, which was about 2,5 hours up the mountain and then decided to go back, after we both were pretty sick the week before and wanted to stay at least a bit healthy the next days. Stefan in between went on to the top part. When we arrived back at the refugio we were totally soaked, pants sticking to our legs and water dripping down from the inside of our jacket, the only thing still dry were my feet :D After a hot shower we started hanging up cloths whereever we thought there could be the slightest chance for them to get try.

A bit later a huge group of Australiens arrived and started hanging up strings everywhere in the common room to hang up their clothes as well :D A few houres later Stefan came back too, that evening we didn't do much anymore, we had dinner at the cafeteria and relaxed a bit, had nice talkes with some of the others.

The next morning, it was Easter Sunday, and we didn't even think about it... We got up and started packing again at 9.30 our bus was leaving to bring us to a catamaran. While we still had about an hour time, waiting for it to bring us over the lake, we hiked up to a little view point with waterfall, it was so beautiful, but also very windy. On the catamaran then we enjoyed the ride with an amazing view to the mountains surrounding the lake and a hot chocolate. After checking in our new room and having a little snack we already left again to our next hike. This times goal: Grey, a glacier. The hike was pretty good not too hard and had really its moments after about I would say 2,5 hours we arrived at the viewpoint and were totally stunned. It was just awesome, the eternal ice, the water and the sun. Sorrowfully we couldn't really stay that long, after we wanted to be back at the the refugio before it gets dark. In the last 20 minutes then our "luck" came back and it started raining again, so my second pair of pants got wet as well. In the evening everybody was standing in front of the fireplace in the common room, holding clothes which needed to try after that was the only place in the house which was kind of warm. Sleeping in the rooms was only possible with a sleeping bag. At the end of the day we had to say all in all it was a pretty amazing Easter Sunday.

The next morning, we had to leave our rooms by 10, but kind of slept in, after my cells battery died in that night. But like everybody knows Germans usually have timing, so 5 to 10 we woke up, looked shocked at our watches and started packing and really point 10 a Lady was standing in the door asking if we are leaving or staying for another night, 2 minutes later we were packed and downstairs in the common room having breakfast, consisting of Oatmeal and peaches :D 2 hours later we left with the catamaran and took a bus back to Puerto Natales where we booked our trip to Argentina for the next day and found ourselves a hostel. After checking in Lena wanted to relax a bit, so Stefan and I, went out alone to buy bus tickets for wednesday morning to the airport, we didn't want to take a change on having a booked bus again and then bought stuff to make sandwiches the next morning.  Lena also didn't feel like eating out, so we looked around for a place for us and found a nice restaurant, where we enjoyed a nice steak.

Tuesday we got up early, our bus picked us up just a few minutes after 7, shortly afterwards we were sleeping again. At the border everything went pretty quick, you get a stamp for leaving Chile and after a few kilometers out in nowhere you arrive at the Argentinien border and get an entering stamp. Aout 2 hours later we took a 15 minutes break in El Calafate and then went on into the National Park Los Glaciares. There we went on a boat, directly up front the glacier Perito Moreno,

which was really impressive, and so huge, if you think you are right in front of it and can hear it cracking and braking. Later on we walked around and even saw an iceberg poping up from under the water, which apparently happens sometimes when the wheater is right. Leaving the park behind us, we took a little coffee break in El Calafate and returned back to Chile by night time. 

Yesterday then was our flight back, which was nice too, I just love to see the sun set in the clouds. We were happy to have the warmer weather back, but still miss the impressions we got in the south. 

Today then life got us back. My alarm woke me at 6 or 7 and I started studing for my test at 9.30, I think it went pretty ok, then over lunch I studied for my control in the afternoon and now I am reading on my papers for my test tomorrow :)

I think that's about it from my side for tonight. I hope you all will have a nice weekend and I will be talking with you soon.

2 month and life caught up to me

Yeah, that's right I totally can't believe it myself, today I am already here for 2 month, doesn't it sound sooo crazy and very long??? but it kind of isn't. And life really got me now. Two weeks ago the new semester started and since then so many things have been happening.

                                                    (Britta & Carmen alias Amanda)

I have 5 different courses now and they are all in spanish. After monday isn't really my day I decided not to take any classes that day, means I am starting out every tuesday around noon with Organizational Behaviour, which is really a great class, the only thing is this Professor is really, really talking fast, so I usually don't understand much in class, but I am getting better, another little disturbing thing or lets just say I am not used to it anymore, we have to read for this class every week 2 chapters in the book and also have cases and articles to work through and then at least once a week is a test to it, the bad thing is even if you read it, but you didn't really get what its about, you have no chance... but I decided I will manage somehow :D like always. Then later on tuesdays I have my chilean culture class, that's kind of learning spanish over topics like history, economics, politics and so on... we will see how it goes, we just had it once till now and it was nice, but the teacher also seemed a bit strange.  That's my whole tuesday at 8 in the evening I am finished. After the big workload all over I decided it's better to have good breaks, so wednesday is my study day, where I review everything for my thursday classes and read a lot... we will see how this great idea works out. Thursday then is my longest day I packed it kind of. In the morning, that means 9.45 I start with Psycology, which I think is a great class, the professor is really nice and it'S fun being there, also if I only understand like have of that what is said, soon it will be more so. After a short lunch break, where I go home to eat, so nice walk 5 houses up the street or the hill of street and you are home and get lunch :D, I have Orga Behaviour again, at least there are other exchange students in there too. First time we had to search for our thursday room it is not so easy, because the entrance for it is actually not in the building, it is outside, on the backside of the building, a bit hidden, but that's what you need to know first. But anyways found it and at least still kind of on time, here somehow is the rule, 5 minutes late and you can't join anymore and every class they check names if everybody is there, you miss a few classes, you fail. So after this one I was actually going to take Negotiation and Conflict Management, but after sitting in one time, it was just too boring, after I heard a lot of the stuff tought already in other courses, so I wanted to switch, but it was really not easy to find anything suitable, which didn't fall on other classes, because most things are at the same time as spanish, which I totally need or they don't work out with my friday class. So I just took the easiest decision and kind of one and only option anyways and switched into Stefans Modern Political Theories class, which is long not one of the easiest, but pretty interesting. At the moment we are discussing Skinner. Half of the time it's kind of class discussion, which is hard to follow, but we will also catch up on that one. Thursday evening I can tell you, you are just happy to be done and can'T wait for friday to come and be over as well. Fridays then I chose to take development economics, which is really interesting so far and also good to understand, the professor always has ppts and lots of examples and so on which make my life easier :D This class is afternoon filling and then it's suddenly or more finally weekend. 

                                                            (great new friends)

Actually I guess everybody should go out by that time, but I didn't feel like it today. I kind of, no idea how, caught a cold yesterday. All in all that fits to my not too good week so. I mean it should have been good after not having lectures before thursday because tuesday and wednesday afternoon were of f because of first semester activities. The story is like this so. Monday was still ok just a lot of reading, tuesday started out fine as well, but then it started. In the afternoon was this first semester event , where I didn't go to so. It was somewhere out of the city, with a big field, a pool and apparently a stage, but no idea, Stefan went and said it was nice. The next day so we heard that some student got hurt at the pool and was in the hospital, what you hear, he is paralized and will be disabled, that was really shocking to hear, the next morning the had a big thing at the university build up, kind of like church for an hour outside in front of the buildings. Back to tuesday night so, in the evening was also a party for the first semesters in a club in our neighbor city.  We went to eat some Pizza first with the Australiens, we were so stuffed afterwards, so we just stayed at there place for another hour and then went to the club. When we arrived after a little bus ride, we still had to walk for a bit and it was so wierd, we just walked by some buildings and the one had the door open and of course the guys wanted to go in, I am sooo happy they didn't, cause when we were right at the doorstep and adjusted our eyes to the dark, we saw it's not really going in anymore, it's only going down down down, so it was like and old building only the outside walls left and nothing then darkness inside. I finally got everybody to go to the club, but they said they wanna go back later on, I was so happy that they forgor about it, after it really looked very dangerous. When we arrived at the club it was nice, but it was interesting, I mean everywhere here everybody needs to show there ID to come in, but there they also searched you and you purse. It was really great, it looked like an old fabric building which was turned into a club with different areas. We started out going on the roof, from there you had a great view and just a few minutes later the dance instructor came, up there was the Salsa area, which was fun. The guys went right away and tried and I took pictures, later on when the others came we were really trying so :D with more or less success. Later on we went downstairs and tried out all the other areas. Around 4 or 4.30 the club closed and everybody had to go home, that's when the next step of life over here started. In front of the club were a lot of busses to bring everybody home, so we just went to them and climbed in and I was already inside but still on the steps and somebody got my purse... It was so wierd and fast, I didn't even see anybody. I had my purse in my hand and under my arm, but whoever it took, cut it, ripped really hard and was gone. But not to worry too much after I had heard that Valpo was dangerous I didn't take much, I had my keys in my pockets and in my purse was only a copy of my passport, some snacks and so on and about 400 peso, what is around 50 cents. So I am sad about my lost purse, but happy that nothing important is gone, but now I kind of say, I totally arrived in South America. The next day then I heard, I was not the only victim, two friends got their jackets stolen, in one was all the money, cell phone and key, so not so nice, but still nothing what couldn't be replaced. 

                                                           (first tries in Salsa)

The story of the week doesn't end with this so, we kind of got a bill for the studyfees, I mean we don't directly have it yet, but you could say it's  like in the mail, so we know we probably will have to pay next week, which will totally throw my bank account out of balance after I still didn't hear anything from germany... Life goes on so, better days will come.Yesterday night we went to another friends place, to a little housewarming, which was really nice and afterwards we had late night food at Mc Donalds and crazy Thomas spent us a Taxi ride home. Gracias ;)So that's about it from me for today. Later on Isi will come and visit, which will finally bring some noise back to the house and I have to read a lot and a lot over this weekend, about 300 or 400 pages, don't even know how to do this yet, hopefully at least my spanish will improve with this and I also have to find an internship, still don't really know what I should do, any ideas?

I hope you all are doing great, will talk to you soon, have a great weekend, I miss you all                      

another weekend, another post

Hola my friends,

today I am writing you again. I have to say so, I am kind of tired after we came home late or better early in the morning and then just a few hours afterwards those construction guys started working on the roof or something, but at least it's saturday.

Maybe you wanna know something more about life over here. The first thing you should know, when you go to the grocery stores and you already have bag in your hands you need to go to the guy at the entrance and he puts a tape strip over it, that shows that you are not intending to steal anything. Then when you are once in, it's pretty easy to find the right things you are looking for. You can find a lot of european and US-products everybody knows, the only wierd thing is, you can find like a lot of things sold in bags, for example you don't buy Mayo and yam in a glass or bottle, even ketchup is sold in bags. If you want to buy bread, doesn't matter where it's sold by weight, so you pick first what you want put it in a bag and go and wait in line to put it on the scale :D If you wanna buy meat at the butcher you need, like almost everywhere over here, pull a number first and wait you turn, I guess it's a good thing after everybody tries to cut in line over here whereever he can. At the register then you usually have to wait for a whole while too...

Maybe more now to the last week, like most of you might already know on Monday we had Orientation Day, that meant we actually had the information that we have spanish class first at 9 and then an meeting at 12 where we were supposed to get all the important information. But then we came at 9 and couldn't find any class so we went to the international office, where we already met other people with the same problem and then we all went to the language office where we were told that classes will start on tuesday, but that was okay after by then it was already 20 to 10 and our informationmeeting was moved up to 10, the only thing then was at least half of the internationals wasn't there for it after everybody who didn't take spanish didn't know. The introduction was good so, we got our new university email, our RUT we need to have for the inranet and our moodle login, yeah right, they are also using moodle over here, just called different, bu the same program. Then the AKI from here greeted us and we got a campus tour, which ended in a nice room with couple couches and food, we all sat down and the professors came to introduces themselves. It was nice two of them directly came to talk to me, they spoke german so :D Then we had time to get to know everybody from the internationals, which was great, I would guess we are about 50 or 60, not sure so. Everybody is really nice. It didn't help my spanish so, after the english speaking group was formed in a sec, Carmen was there again and we met all the crazy Aussies and figured out that we live pretty close to each other, the best thing ever after most students live on the other end of the city. On tuesday then spanish started, which went pretty okay as long as nobody asked me a question. Later on that day we checked out where the guys live and spend a fantastic evening. The rest of the week pretty much just went on with classes and tons of homework. Yesterday then we had Carrete Benvenida, the welcome party for us internationals. So the guys wanted to play poker before, so Britta and me decided to visit Carmen first, the only problem we didn't exactly know where she lives :D So we just took the bus to the Mall and started asking around for the right building, the problem with this was, there are 4 buildings belonging together and we didn't know into which on we have to go, so we just went in one and asked the guy at the desk, yeah, they have a guy at a desk in the building to announce visitors, he checked but didn't find her name ( later on we found out, she hadn't signed in yet, after she just moved in a week ago) so anyways I said okay then lets just go to the Mall a bit and later on we will surley just meet somebody on the street we know and who knows :D And totally when we left the Mall about an hour later, the guys were standing right in front of us at the light :P we were lucky they were an hour late for poker. We went with them to the game place after it was in the samebuilding and just a minute after sitting down, Thomas, Britta, Pierre and me decided it's actually more fun to just show up at Carmens door then calling first ( he knew her apartment number) The only difficult thing was figuring out the elevators some go only to the high floors where we were at at that moment some go up to the lower once and some hidden once go there where we  wanted to go to, but after some tries and meeting new people, by knocking on wrong doors we finally found it and decided to just hang out at her balcony for a bit. It really has an amazing view. It got a bit later and then more people showed up and then the game was over and even more people showed up, so about 3 hours late we decided to move over to the next building to the actual party. The Party was great, meeting lots of fun new people. When we decided to go home, we were surprised that a bus was still going in hour direction, I mean it was about 3 in the morning ( 10 hours after I left the house), some people just come in and bring there on party cds and going by bus from the one to the next city :D I was then in bed by 4 and like I said at the before had to wake up sooo early, but doesn't matter anymore, I am tired but 10 more minutes and we are gone again over to the Aussies, there roommate is cooking for us tonight :D

So talk to you all soon, have a great sunday and I will post pictures tomorrow or some time 

Hi everybody,

this time it took me a bit longer to write something again, but I just felt a bit lazy the last days and had to deal with a lot other stuff first.

So what's new? First of all we got to meet two really nice girls which will study with us, Carmen alias Amanda and Maria :) Then we spend a lot of time at the beach, the mall, the city, went to a couple of Bars and finally found German Beer :D The one Bar at the City has Paulaner. In between I got to talk with a lot of you guys, I just love to hear all the news from all over the world. By the way, hi Mazen, I didn't forget and said hello from you ;)

Last weekend was like you all know Stefans Birthday, I made him a card, which I loaded up to his facebook, but for all of you who didn't see it, I will put it in here as well :D  After he was taking congrats all morning, he didn't see that our hostmom and me prepared "Käsespätzle" for him for lunch, I hope he liked them, after it was my first time making spätzle, the family also blew up ballons and as dessert he got a big cake with a lot of cream and everybody was singing. Then I thought what else would he like... and after we didn't have enough food already Claudia and me decided to bake triple fudge brownies, yam. So I just hope he enjoyed the day. In the evening then was Oscar night and we even got to watch about the first 15 minutes together, then Stefan was talking again :) After a while I couldn't stand the spanish talking over the normal oscar speaker voices anymore, so I found myself a livestream showing online, I am just happy that we have kind of fast internet. It was so fun watching and commenting everything with Florian, who was watching in Germany. If you read this, I am sure in maybe ten or twenty years from now, we will be there ;)

Yesterday then was on one side a good on the other a bad day. So good things first, at lunch the family said they think that they can already see an improvment in my spanish that really made me happy and I am going to continue working on it :) Then in the afternoon I found out that I still have problems with my paper work from home, most of you know what I mean, I can just say 8 month and I am still waiting... But luckily I have the greatest friends in the world thanks so much Börni, Lila and Jannis and also Ugur for always being so nice and making my days all better.

Now to come to an end I have a question, because I had a little discussion today and I would like to know what you think about it. Somehow the topic colonies came up and that Spain and Portugal did great and now many many people speak spanish and portugese, but anyways I said yeah one reason could be that they are directly at the Ocean and then I was told that Germany is directly at the Ocean, too, but for me the Baltic Sea is no Ocean it is just a Sea with a connection to the Ocean. I will put  a questionnaire to this on the side ;)

Talk to you all really soon, Miss you guys

A big Hallo from far far Away :D

The weekend is over and I thought it is about time for a new post :)

Like I told you guys we wanted to go to Santiago on friday, we went already on thursday then, plans change quickly over here. For the trip we had to get up early, what is early? In Chile 7 am is early ;) In the car we were told that we go an a bit longer way, so we can see some of the area. And it was really beautiful we drove up the hills and down the mountains through the countryside. On some spots you had totally amazing views. On the way we also got a little inside on the history of Chile. Then we arrived at the house where Yolandas mom and sister live. The first impression was great you drive through the gate and just see a house and a lot of gras all around and in the background you can see the mountains. We got out of the car and were friendly welcomed by everybody and then a few people started running, we weren't fast enough closing the gate and one of the horse was gone, but happily only for 5 minutes. Yeah that was the next thing there were 2 horses just walking through the garden :D  Now everybody changed in their bathing suits and relaxed in the sun next or in the pool. Then suddenly 3 other cars arrived with more people and cooking could start. That's anothere nice thing, I have never seen anybody having a kitchen in the garden... It was really like this, you have a little pavillion thingy open to everyside, just a roof and on the one side is a big freezer, kind of like in the grocery store just not as big as there and some shelves and a big stove. Then right behind it outside under a tree was a sink to wash dishes and get water. It was a totally relaxing day, spend most time laying in the sun, in the afternoon we got the german newspaper from chile to read and the man of the house came home, who has lived a few years in Germany and knew german and english, so finally somebody we could talk to ;) Then his son in law came as well, he is french and knows some german as well, yeah :) It got late and we started to pack up and drive home, this time we took the way directly through the city and I have to say also I haven't seen much of Santiago yet, I already love it. I totally have to go again pretty soon.

Friday was a more quiet day I went to the City for a while, but it was sooo hot. At the moment they also have a ton of events down at the beach and some famous people show up from time to time, so the blog streets and you have people everywhere, but it's nice to watch, it's so funny how some screaming girlies jump up and down on the outside of a fence to get a look to a star, I didn't even know who the person was... Next week the Festival the Vina will start so and everybody is preparing for it, then the real famous people come, I think this year Sting will be here and Carlos Santana and I forgot who else, I'll tell you later.

Then all over the weekend I did a lot of stuff with the family and I took a walk with Stefan out to the Mall which is nice, I did a lot of window shopping. In Zara you can even find sometimes still the Euro Price tags. Yesterday we went to the fair for a few minutes and ate Churros while Isi went on a karussel.  I also got to talk to Giulia and Clara, which was soo nice, finally seeing them again. In the evening then we had game night again and Stefan got a new minus record of all times from everybody, which came pretty sudden after he played good in the first round. I was middle like always not very good but also not that bad.

This morning then we went to a little spot with a great view over the City and I was just there for a minute and a car pulls up and people getting out, in that moment I already knew I am not alone, Germans are here :P and it was like it the came closer and were talking german. I wouldn't have said anything but after Yolanda heard they are from Germany she told them I was too... They were nice people from Nothern Germany and here to visit.

That's about it from me again, at the moment I am waiting for lunch to be ready and afterwards I guess we will go find a copy shop to finally get everything we still need for the studentsvisa, which we will hopefully have soon so we can do all the other office running and also get a cell phone.

So hasta luego and keep me posted about what's going on in the rest of the world!