I meant to start this post about three hours ago, but one thing led to another...I ate once...I met a new neighbor...I got really sad about not going back to school and all my friends and family and then I shut down emotionally for a while and it was strange and hard to explain...and then I talked to Izaak about how we were both, coincidentally, in La Serena this weekend and did not see each other. Which leads me to the point of this post, which is to write about the weekend since Saturday.
Sunday we took super easy. A group went to a beach about an hour away called Tongoy to watch the sun set, and Rosie and I followed a little while later. We missed seeing the sunset on the beach (in fact we missed the beach altogether because it was dark when we got there and the other group was already walking back towards the town when our bus stopped), but we saw it along the coast from the bus and it was very beautiful. I talked to the fam for a while, which was nice but kind of stressful because it was just Rosie and I on the bus and I felt bad for abandoning her to talk to MDLJ and then felt bad for rushing them, especially Dad. Oh well, I can just look forward that much more to having a great conversation next weekend. She said it was okay, that she liked overhearing people talk to their families, but to be honest it made me feel nervous and self-conscious to be doing it, let alone rude. Anyhow, Sunday night was uneventful because we all had to wake up early Monday morning...
...To go to Isla Damas. After a cramped and bouncy 2-hour van ride through beautiful harsh hill/coast country, we got to Punto de los Chorros and hopped (I should say stumbled) into these tiny little wooden boats for a ride through choppy seas around Isla Chorros, on which we saw many sea lions and pelicans and penguins and cormorants and swallows and things like that, and then to Isla Damas, where we walked around and took lots of pictures because it was beautiful. REALLY windy. The boat ride itself was completely miserable and I was very unhappy--soaked in salt spray, freezing, seasick. I could not WAIT to get off. The ride from Isla Damas back to shore wasn't so bad because the sea was calmer and because I wasn't in the back I stayed a lot drier. Then we had a really good lunch of shrimp and cheese empanadas, fried fish and rice. Delicious. Then back in the van for another two hours. I tried to sleep, but more and more I am coming to the realization that I can't sleep on things that are moving if I don't have tons of space to get comfortable. I can sleep in a tight space if I know I'm not going to get bounced out of position, and I can sleep on something that's moving if I stretch and turn and put my head at the right angle, but there's no middle ground. Oh well.
Monday night we decided, geniuses that we are, that we should go to the grocery store and cook dinner for ourselves and the people who own the hostel we stayed at, Casa Maria. Shopping for dinner for 15 people with 8 different ideas about what should be eaten really, really sucks. We all ended up super stressed out and yelling at each other about who would pay for what and blah blah blah it was not enjoyable. After finally agreeing to just buy some stuff separately and some together. Then we came back and Alex and Ester got to work right away and then I went and helped. Ester was a saint, basically cooking everything except Rosie's and my string beans and our pasta, which I made because Rosie was sick. But we ate (every little splinter group had variations on a theme: Rosie and I ate bowties with parmesan, chopped beef and string beans) and it tasted good. Then everyone but Rosie and I got extremely drunk and decided to go out. Vickie and Durham in particular were hilarious.
This morning, the people on the 10:15 bus packed up and left and then the people on the 11:45 bus (that would be Rosie, Amalia, T-Dubs and myself) got stuck haggling with a suddenly psychotic Maria about how much we owed for the rooms. A moment to bitch about the hostel: When we got there, everyone (Mauricio, Pancho, Maria and Andreas) seemed incredibly nice and accomodating and generous. Maria needed some money for shopping so a few of us paid her 2500 apiece for Saturday night, when we had our tour bus mishap she suggested that those who couldn't fit on the bus just take a regular one and make our own tour, which turned out great. But the whole time, there were signs of the incredibly disorder of the place. They told us we'd have a room on Sunday night that they then gave away to some French kids. Maria bitched loudly about a group of Germans about how they'd underpaid. And this morning, she made paying a horrible, horrible experience. The previous rate of 2500 was suddenly too low and we owed 3000 apiece for the rooms, which we got together, of course, after the first group had left (minus me, cause I had absolutely no cash whatsoever...I had to borrow) and then decided that it was 4500 a person for the rooms. This was insane because the rate per room was supposedly 9000, but we had slept three to a bed, hence the earlier discount of 2500 per person. She continued to insist and then started yelling at us about how she wasn't working for this, that she couldn't live with this. Andreas took out a pad of paper and started scribbling some figures on it, but it was really Amalia (this is when having a friend who's totally fluent REALLY helps) who worked it all out. Andreas was nice about it, but Maria was just awful, putting on a huge show about how we were just selfish exchange students and she'd never host another exchange student again and then going back to sweeping before letting loose another stream of invective. Such a sweet lady until today...but seriously, I just wanted to scream, "Look, you crazy idiot, if you're running a business it helps to be clear up front about how much your clients owe you and come up with some kind of system for keeping track of money. Otherwise, when it comes time for them to pay and they pay you at the rate you told them before and then decide that it's too low, shit gets confusing. So maybe try having people pay up front. Oh, wait, then you don't get to have your little hissy fit about how much you hate exchange students. I guess that takes the fun out, huh?"
Anyhow, after that joyous interaction, we peaced out and walked back to the grocery store, where we bought stuff for lunches (turkey, ham, fresh bread, cheese, mustard, yogurt, chips, chocolate wafers, Coke--oh BABY) because, as we learned on the way up, food is not really provided on the bus. Then we headed back to Santiago. They played What Women Want and Troy on the bus, and some incoherent Spanish movie. I tried hard not to watch and distracted myself with the scenery and Bastard Out of Carolina, which I like so far (I got through about two thirds today). Now I'm back in Santiago, I really have to pee and then I really have to study for my Spanish test tomorrow (food, the body and diseases...hoo boy, I just love vocab). Julia, I listened to your mix today and I miss you a lot. I'll definitely visit Bs As sometime before the semester's over. Okay, that's enough for now. 'Night everyone.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment