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.