Tongoy and Maitencillo

bus trip to La Serena

1 & 4 view from the house
2 a part of Tongoy
3 the house

lunch

puerto, sea lions, tons of shells and the guy who braided our hair

you can even see some stars on the picture!

beach

finally some partneracro :)

playa negra

Tongoy

cacti

cacti and salt

view of Tongoy at night

lovely tower in Maitencillo

Maitencillo

Now I’m in Santiago again and I’m going to tell you all about the trip to Tongoy and then about the week in Maitencillo as well.

We got a couple of days off and the trip ended up being 4 days long. Our biology teacher (Mariana) and her family (father Emilio and daughter Fernanda (7)) invited us to their house in Tongoy.

Thursday morning we all got up very early and left with our bus at 8 in the morning. The trip to La Serena took about 6 hours, but it went by super quickly and there was lots to see along the way.

When we got to La Serena didn’t stay long but went to Coquimbo by bus and then to Tongoy with taxis.

Mariana told us that they would get there later but sent someone to open the house for us and told us to feel like we’re at home. The house is absolutely amazing. There’s a terrace, a huge garden and a lovely view of the ocean! After we had enjoyed the amazing view for a while, we decided on making pasta. : )

The next day (Friday) we slept in and then had a nice breakfast with fresh, still warm bread! Then we went to the Puerto – the little marina of Tongoy. We saw sea lions and lots of scallops and pelicans and lots lots more!

Afterwards we went to a market and lots of us bought some new clothes or bracelets and then food for our lunch.

Then we had lunch back at the house and some relaxed time where I ran around with Fernanda - it was so nice to finally be around a kid again! Their garden is huge and beautiful and there’s a lot to see and do if you are 7 years old – but also if you are almost 19! : )

Later we went to a place where they always put the old shells. There were millions and it was very impressive!!

We saw a lovely sunset in the pacific and then had Empanadas for dinner.

Then we did what was one of my absolute favorite moments of our unbelievable 4 days - we went to the boca del lobo – a name the family came up with. It’s a place where it’s super dark and you can see all of the stars sparkling above! It was absolutely beautiful and I didn’t want to ever leave! After a while everyone started to get cold though so we drove back to the house and slept soon after an amazing day.

The next day we slept in again and then had our awesome relaxed breakfast.

Once everyone was ready we went to the beach and Lea, Catherine and I had fun doing some gymnastics and in the end even some partneracro!

After a while at that beach we went to another beach, this one had round black rocks. If you lied on the rocks you could hear the waves going by underneath you and feel the vibration of the power and energy of the ocean. It was very impressive to feel that huge amount of power and energy!

Back at the house we all made lunch together which was always lots of fun! : )

Afterwards we drove to a place with lots of huge cacti! We started out on a little hill where you had a lovely view of a river. It was pretty incredible! We walked for a little while and really saw some huge cacti – they are really cool! : ) After some more walking we found a little lake of salt, the ocean used to be there but when the ocean ‘left’ that part dried out.
Then we went to get our hair braided – four of us wanted to get a little braid with tiny little shells in it. All of the braids turned out really cool!

Later at night we went to a hill and saw a beautiful view of the area. Then we went back to the boca del lobo and I even saw a couple of shooting stars. Again it was an incredible time to see those millions of stars!

On Sunday we got up early and went to that hill again to see the sunrise – we didn’t end up seeing it but it was beautiful nevertheless and even a bit creepy with all of the fog and mist.

Then we started our trip back to Santiago – back to reality after an unbelievable and unforgettable weekend.

So far that was my absolute favorite time in Chile. We really got to see CHILE and we got to see and do many, many incredible things! None of us will ever forget the kindness Mariana and her family gave us!

When I finally got to my house on Sunday night I washed my clothes and then repacked everything, because Monday morning my grade left to go to Maitencillo. We had Semana Economica (Economy week), basically what we did all we long was that we all had companies in groups of 6 students and every day we had to decide what we want to do with our enterprise…  If you want to know more about the whole project – here’s a link: http://www.esst.ch/de-CH/Home.aspx
My group decided on making watches and we called ourselves ‘KRONOS – Time to be gods’. It was a fun week, we worked all day long but still it was almost always fun! Our hotel was right at the pacific, but we only got to go there at night before and after dinner because there wasn’t any time the rest of the day. When we did get to go though it was so nice just to sit and listen to the waves! There was also a little tower thing that I fell in love with and went to every night.
On Friday night we had to present our company – it was like a general assembly and it went pretty well.

Yesterday I went to the paseo of my curso, we went to a parcelo which is one family’s land outside of Santiago. We had a barbecue and talked and it was lots of fun!

Last night we had the daylight saving time switch so now the time difference to Switzerland is 6 hours but to the US only 3.

Today I had a pretty relaxed day – I mostly worked on getting this blog post done with all of the pictures and everything! : )

pictures

 

Viña von Siebenthal??? : )

8 weeks in Chile

pretty sky on our walk to gymnastics

Plaza de Armas from above

Christoph, Livia, Martina and me

proof that I saw Livia!

Sunset view from Santa Lucia

early morning sky at school

and the first picture from TONGOY : )

Hello!!

So… I just had the most amazing weekend but honestly I don’t have any time to tell you about it… : )

Here’s the pictures I promised from last week and then one picture of our awesome weekend in Tongoy. I’ll write all about it next weekend, because tomorrow we have Semana Economica in school – which means my grade is gone until Thursday night…

Lena

8 weeks & Santa Lucia with Livia

Hello once again!
Sorry, this time without photos... The internet at the house is broken - right now I'm sitting in the mall at Plaza Egaña, there's free WiFi here! 
My familia saw wine in a store that was made by 'viña von Siebenthal', they thought it was so cool that they bought a bottle for me.
Last Thursday Lea and I have been in Chile for 8 weeks! So of course Lea and I went to our cake place again! This time we took Catherine with us. It was a really nice evening! :)
Yesterday I went home from Lea's house pretty early in the morning, because her family spent the day at the beach.
At lunch I met Steffi (another exchange student) at a mall, and then I went to the Plaza de Armas. Livia from DoJump in Portland has been backpacking through South America with two friends (Martina and Christoph) and we decided to try to get together. Well we did!!! :)
We had some ice cream and walked up a hill, 'santa lucia'. Yet I have another place in Santiago that I really like! I'm sooooo happy that meeting Livia actually worked out!!!! :)
Then I went home by metro and micro (bus). I'm starting to get a bit better with that!
Today though I got to know the worst of the public system of Santiago: The buses here don't run on a schedule, so you'll either be lucky and there's a bus after two minutes, or you have to wait for an hour. That's what happened to me today! I waited and waited and waited! In the end it was 1 hour and 15 minutes of waiting for a 15 minute bus ride!
So it's almost Easter but at the Swiss school we only get Friday off. I'm pretty excited anyway! It's been a lot of school lately!
Well I'll try to upload some pictures as soon as our WiFi is fixed or when I find a computer I can use!
Lena

Easter Eggs, Scouts and Party

microwave brownies

pintar huevitos

pintar huevitos

fiesta (i know it's an awful picture! : ) )

view from Lea's flat - our school is next to the tennis court

our gymnastics gym

building of the older kids at school

random cactus close to Lea's house that always makes me realize that I'm in the South

Andes

view from our class room in the morning

This week in gymnastics we worked on back handsprings and back tucks, it was really cool. I’m pretty sure on Friday I did more back tucks than I did in all of last year! :)

I can’t really tell you anything new about school – same old same old… : )

On Friday after practice, Lea and I made microwave brownies. We had to improvise some, but they turned out ok.
Saturday was a great day! We did lots of completely different things but still it wasn’t stressful. I spent it with Lea’s family again.
In the morning we had breakfast altogether. Then Lea, Ursula (Lea’s host sister) and I painted Easter eggs in school. Lea and I were almost the only teens, but it was fun anyway! : )
I always thought it was hilarious when I heard some random dad speak Swiss German with a dialect from Basel! But I guess that’s what happens when you go to the Swiss school… :)

Once we were back at her house we decorated a little tree that they have in the flat with our ‘huevitos’, then went to the little mall close to her house together with her whole family. After lunch we went to Scouts. Both of Lea’s host siblings are obsessed with Scouts and the exchange student, who lived with her host family last year, did Scouts as well and he really enjoyed it too. We decided that we might as well go and participate to see if we’d like it. It’s always Saturdays from 3 to 6pm. Scouts is offered for all of the people from our school, but there’s also a couple of kids from other schools as well. I met several people who are in my class! It felt a little bit like Longbridge or Hometown, running around and playing random games with a whole bunch of other people! : )
We enjoyed it both and I think we’ll probably go back next Saturday.
After dinner Lea and I went to the party from a guy in our school. My padres (host parents) picked us up afterwards and after dropping Lea off, I was in bed at 3am.
Today I slept in, and we’re having a pretty relaxing day!