Feliz Cumple a Mi

Today is my 21st birthday!!! I have been waiting for this day to come for probably the past 4 years and happy as I am to be 21, I still feel just a little bit sad that I can't be spending it with my family and friends at home. With that being said, my host parents have been an amazing otra familia for me, and I was greeted this morning with a huge hug and present from my host mom Antonieta, she gave me a cute little hand crafted box and a flower. Our housekeeper also was excited to show me the cake she made for me, and I am excited to eat it tonight with some friends!!
The past few weeks have been amazing, and it's hard to believe that next week it will already be May, and my trip will almost be halfway done! Last week I only went to class one day, due to a cancellation, exchange student meeting, hurricane-like weather (I will explain more later), and semana santa, or Holy Week. It was a nice break not to go to class, but it really turned me off even more to going to school, which isn't so good. The hurricane blew into Valdivia on Thursday, and it was so bad that school got canceled. We actually did end up going to campus for a little bit in the morning, but with 100 km/hour winds and rain at the same time, even with rain boots and an umbrella I was soaked by the time we got there. A tree fell down over a power line around 12pm, and all of Isla Teja (where I live) was powerless until about 1030 PM that night. So me and Lena played cards until it got too dark to see and then hung out with my family for a little while.
This weekend was Easter weekend, and many Chilean families go on a mini vacation for the weekend, since there is not class or work on Friday. My family took me on a trip as well, and we stayed in a cabin in the town of Lican-Ray, which is close to Pucón. Lican-Ray is absolutely beautiful and is situated on a huge lake at the foot of a volcano, so the sand is black from the volcanic ash. There are also mountains surrounding the lake and huge waterfalls can be seen coming out of the mountains and into the lake. It's really amazing. My family took me to some thermal springs, which were amazing as well. They were basically a huge pool with naturally heated mineral water in them. I stayed in the one that was about 38 degrees Celsius, which felt so nice on my cold body, the air was freezing!! Even though I am in South America, it is really chilly! I am closer to Antarctica than the Equator so all of you who think I am relaxing in the South American jungle are very wrong :)
For my birthday today, we are heading to the Bunker, which is a restaurant/bar literally down the street from my house. They have really delicious potatoes and hamburgers, and today they have a 2x1 happy hour, which I plan on taking full advantage of!

My favorite pic from this weekend, even though it was cloudy/foggy, the lake was still beautiful!

Sunday Blues

Hi everyone! These past few weeks have been crazy/busy/lazy/fun/hungover so writing in my blog has been a bit of an issue. But, as I sit here again attempting to do my homework, writing in english sounds a lot better than analyzing a story that I have had over a week to finish, so here I am.
I have met a lot of new people in the past two weeks. We were getting our school IDs a few weeks ago and were talking to the adviser Macarena and she invited us to come get dinner with her and a few other foreign students the next day. At first we were a little hesitant, because we felt like she was inviting us because she had to, and we weren't too keen on making pity friends. But, Lena and I decided that pity friends are better than no friends, so we went, and ended up having an awesome time! We met 2 american girls from University of Wisconsin, 2 guys from the Netherlands who are here on a farming internship, a girl studying in Valpo that goes to Hope college, 2 hispanic exchange students (1 from Colombia and 1 from Mexico) and a few Chileans. After dinner we went to the bar with a few of them and had a lot of fun.
After meeting all of them we made plans to go to the local beer brewery, Kunstmann, that next weekend, which was also a lot of fun. They had traditional German food and 8 different types of beer to try, and for the most part they were awesome -except for the one that was 7% alcohol, woof! We stayed there until it closed, ended up ordering 8 columns of beer and had a great time.
During the week we are usually busy with school and other things, but on Wednesdays we like to go out to a bar at the end of my street called the Bunker, and take advantage of their 2x1 happy hour special :) Lena and I also enjoy going to the town plaza and creep on everyone, especially the high schoolers who chain smoke after school. They are the coolest. The cotton candy man is pretty interesting too.
This weekend was really beautiful, and we had originally made plans to go to a place called Corral, which has old Spanish forts that are supposed to be really cool to see. We were supposed to get there around 3, because you have to take a 30 minute ferry ride to get to Corral, but we got there too late (the Chilean way) and decided to walk around Niebla instead (which is the place where the beach is). We stumbled on a fort we didn't even know existed and went there instead for about 50 cents, and it was so cool! It has a nice little museum and great views of the ocean and river, and at a great price!
Last night our pity friends threw a party at their cabaña, which me and Jake went to-Lena stayed home like a good responsible person to start the buttload of homework that we have due this week. All the friends from La Última Frontera were there, along with 3 Chilean girls I didn't know, and a guy from France that we actually met the night before at a bar. It was a nice relaxing party, mostly sitting around the campfire drinking Cristal (the Chilean Bud Light) and chatting with everyone, and it was the first time that I actually felt like my Spanish was getting better. I had a conversation with 2 Chilean girls (alone) for about 30 minutes, and afterwords I felt awesome! They told me my Spanish was good which was really nice to hear, and made me feel more confident about my speaking abilities. It was good to know that I am actually improving and getting better, and thinking back to my first day here in Santiago, I can already say that I am 100% better from that point. And it has only been a month! :)
Things outside of school here are fantastic, but, the Sunday Blues are kicking in, and my homework is calling. Until next time!

 This is one of my favorite pictures so far, these flowers are so unique and EVERYWHERE here. I love them!