Vino, El Mar, Amigos: Los Ingredientes Para Un Corazón Feliz

Two weeks from today, my South American adventure will come to an end. Early on this week, I was feeling ready to come home. I was missing the familiarity of the States, my family, my friends, speaking English, and pretty much everything. But after the end of this week, I find myself wishing that I had more time in this beautiful country and I don't want to come home. For those of you counting down the days until my arrival back in the states you might be wondering, why all of a sudden did you change your mind? I guess if you're indifferent about my presence in the country, you could still be wondering the same thing. 

Thursday night the majority of our group chose to go out but I decided to be antisocial and stay in. The reasoning behind it was to try to spend more time with my family--after all, I'm here more for the culture rather than spending time with Americans speaking English all the time (even though those moments are often times incredibly refreshing and really fun). And so, I stayed in and talked with my mom slash watched some TV with her slash listened to her sing. I was glad with my decision.

Friday was also a really great day. In my sociopolitical class, we talked about Chile's education system. Naturally, due to my indecisiveness, it made me really confused about my future. It was one of the first times in class where I actually partook in conversation willingly. I loved it. Interesting fact: Chile is said to have one of the best education systems in South America (maybe even the world?). However, there are some universities where they have only fifty books for all of the students in a major. Imagine being a nursing student, along with hundreds of others at your university, and having to share fifty books amongst your peers. That would be rough. But because books are so expensive to purchase, it has to happen like that. As a result, many professors just photocopy the readings because author's aren't protected.

In between our classes, we walked along the beach and sat on the rocks, where we watched the sea lions for a little over an hour. They're so CUTE. But as cute as they are, they'll never replace cows. I also really enjoyed having that time near the sea, in the sun, and with my thoughts--I was able to journal, take more pictures, etc:

 I went to Lydia's house for lunch and ate one to many spoonfuls of potatoes... Her family is wonderful and I really enjoy spending time with them. Her siblings made fun of me for still having nightmares about Paranormal Activity 4. Her mom yells at me for not wearing shoes or slippers in the house, and just my socks. Her dog is adorable and ridiculously spoiled. And like any Chilean family, the food is always fantastic. After lunch we went to the artisan market and walked up and down the streets purchasing a few souvenirs here and there. We went back to her house for 'once' and then headed over to my house afterwards. That night we bought popcorn seeds, a chocolate bar, Dulce de Leche, and watched a lot of Friends. It was wonderful.

Saturday has probably been one of my favorite days since being here. We had to meet at the University at 9:30 to head on over to Casablanca--another part of Chile--for a tour of two vineyards and a tour of Pablo Neruda's other house, Isla Negra. I couldn't have asked for a better day. The weather was absolutely wonderful and there was so much SUN. Something I haven't seen in a few days.Yesterday was the first day that I didn't have to wear my jacket. The first vineyard we want to was called Viña Indomita. There we were able to taste three different wines, all of which were really good, at least in the opinion of an amateur wine drinker:

the red wine on the far right was my favorite.

a photo of the vineyard from afar.

After Viña Indomita, we went to Viña Emiliana, which is a smaller vineyard and it all is completely organic. I could taste the difference between the wines and appreciated the ones at this vineyard much more. Also, it was much more beautiful. There were chickens, alpacas, cats, rolling hills, much more sun, etc. Here, we were able to taste four types of wine (two white, two red). 

this was my favorite bottle. 

After the vineyards, we went to lunch at a restaurant along the coast. Unfortunately, seven glasses of wine and a forty five minute car ride and an empty stomach don't mix well... We got to the restaurant and once we got our food, we were only allotted ten minutes to eat, because we had to make it to Isla Negra by 4:00 in time for our tour. Eating steaming hot fried fish and french fries burns your taste buds, a consequence that took away my tastebuds for today's food. Shoot.

However, Isla Negra was beautiful and it was worth burning off all of my tastebuds for Not just the house, the view from the house. If I got to wake up every morning and see the view that Pablo Neruda was able to see, I'd have bruises on my arms from pinching myself so often to make sure that I didn't die and go to heaven. Literally. Pictures don't do it justice. And even if I had the writing ability of Pablo Neruda, I couldn't even describe it in words. 

All in all, life has been great. My heart and soul are happy and with each day, I need to remember how blessed I am to be here and to have an opportunity like this.