LAST POST FOR NOW--Tucumán 2008--Christmas in Argentina

This is Jean Bernard. We met in a hostel in southern Chile as I was waiting for my friends to come back from the supermarket. Being the slight gallophile I am, I tried to practice the little French I know with him. Anyway, after parting ways at the hostel, I ran into him again on the trail in Torres del Paine. We said hellos and then goodbyes. Afterward, in a bus terminal in Mendoza, I see him yet again as I was wandering around aimlessly killing time! We sat eating ice cream, him drinking tonic water, talking about politics, immigration, family, and work. I felt like I needed to take a picture before he boarded his bus to Salta just because he felt practically like a travel buddy. This guy wasn't like no jote creeper ginger Chinese boy. Thank goodness...

A 23 hour bus ride, making an old Mendocino friend on the bus who works in agriculture, and several Argentine provinces later, I arrived in Tucumán. I left my heart here last year and I came here to pick up the pieces. ; ) Pablo Lopez, Yanina, Pastor Jorge y Josué came to pick me up. Pablo greeted me with a bag of cookies and a hug.
Pastor Jorge dropped me of at Victor and Norma's home for the night because they were still renovating and fixing up their home for my arrival. Their two daughters were into making bracelets, so I joined in on the fun and made one for myself. And afterward I helped them make empanadas because Norma sells empanadas on the side. I think it is a common way for people to make some extra money.

That night I also went to IBM's midweek Bible study at Doña Maria's house, where I saw a bunch of people from the church (~30). It was the funniest when Virginia arrived, and greeted everyone one-by-one, giving the Argentine kiss as usual. When she got to me after about 15 people, she kissed me and then did a double take upon seeing me. She was rather shocked that I suddenly showed up at Wednesday night Bible study. It was a sweet reunion :)

Norma invited me to go to the women's Bible study for the new believers of the church. She taught at someone's house and the woman's hubby was such a gentleman as he made juice for us and poured it for us. Juice in Tucumán is like the Chilean stuff--sold in powder packets. Mmmm artificial and processed. One thing I missed about USA was definitely the fresh juice sold in the markets. Anyway many people from the church also knew of my arrival in Tucumán, so the 20-something-year-old girls of the church, Mariana and Eva, invited me for Grido Helado. =) Marta accompanied me for safety after the Bible study for the new believers. Afterward, I insisted on taking the Tucumán bus for the cultural experience, and they thought it was hilarious how badly I wanted to take it. We originally were going to get off after one stop, but we still had a lot of time so we took the us all the way to Centro, downtown Tucumán and walked around and window shopped. I saw a lot of Floggers, which apparently is the Argentine version of the Chilean Pokemón.

I arrived the next day at the Ahualle house. I had never been there before, so I was surprised at the cleanliness and coziness of their home in Yerba Buena. I gave them a tapestry I had bought in Punta Arenas from a Ecuadorian Quechua (I struck up a conversation, and he gave me a good deal. Woo hoo!). Norma was so happy to receive the gift and told me God knows the petitions of our hearts; she had been hoping to buy a tapestry herself but couldn't because it's expensive...and in came me with a tapestry for her home! =)

My first day at casa Ahualle.

It was soooo stinkin' hot and humid in Tucumán. I'd wake up from a siesta (afternoon nap) soaked in my own sweat. Gross. So here is Josué and Pastor Jorge sleeping on the cool tiled floor. Lucky. Pastor Jorge kept on joking throughout the week that I stole his bed (Norma and Pastor Jorge let me stay in their room while they slept on mattresses in the living room...that's so sweet) and I joked back saying I'll leave and go to some youth hostel then.

And they entertained me with some songs =) That bookcase is what Pastor Jorge calls his library. They're mostly books LBC gave to him during the missions trips.

Pastor Jorge agrees with my jersey.

Then Pastor Jorge took me, Norma, and Josue to San Pablo, a villa of Tucumán for a children's program at Virginia's house. A villa is a shantytown, and the one in San Pablo is nestled between sugar cane fields and a dirt road with the mountain range closeby. After the children's program, we walked some of the children home and there were houses that didn't even have electricity. LBC evangelizes there too and I went there my 2nd year. Here are some of the kids from San Pablo. I think the girl in the pink is so cute. She looks kind of Asian.

Me and my very good friend Pablo!

Virginia, a very warm woman with a huge heart for evangelism. She opens up her house for 40 kids to hear the Gospel during the children's programs.

Then, the Sunday service was at the new IBM site! There was a run down structure in the front that needs to be destroyed. I wouldn't feel safe in it. Also, church usually starts at 10:30, but being in Argentina, we started at 11. Yay! Anyway, this is Aldana, one of the beloved girly princesses of the church. She's already 3, and speaking in complete sentences. It was weird.

Dario leading worship. Then Pablo (Natalia's husband) preached a message on the importance of influence. It reminded me of what Pastor John preaches telling us about the importance of discipling the younger generation.

Then, after the church service, a group of us stuck around at the church to chat and eat empanadas and sandwiches for lunch!!!! I forget who made it (well, I forget her name...the older lady with clear blue eyes) but they were the best empanadas I'd eaten in Argentina!

Norma wanted to take a pic of me alone with the empanadas...giving a false illusion that I'm an endless pit of empanadas. Nooooo! But man did I miss Argentine empanadas...regular Chilean ones off the street are really bad...

Darío and his 6 children came by church to chat and hang out, and Darío and his Von Trapp singing family sang for us :) I like Eunice, this little girl right here. She's so stinkin' cute and she sings even though she's about 4 years old. Or older? I dunno.

Tucumán that week was HOT. I would wake up in the morning in my own sweat. It also didn't help that during the night I was eaten alive by mosquitoes and other unknown creepy crawlies. When I talked to people, I'd be scratching at my legs until they bled or until the skin was scratched raw. And the bugs worked their way to my thighs and hips too! (My formerly blemish-free legs are now scarred with bite marks. It looks pretty bad like I had some skin disease or something so I'm reluctant now about wearing skirts or shorts. Uhh...could I live in Tucumán like this? Pastor Jorge kept on joking that the mosquitoes like chinita blood. Jaja.) Couple this with Tucumán summer=baaad. But God was gracious and that Sunday, the wind started blowing really strongly sweeping up dust and papers...and then RAIIIIIIN! It poured and showered and it was glorious. This is me and Josué in the back of the car leaving church after it started raining.

We went to Doña Maria's house again. That was probably the 3rd time that week I was there. We sat in the back patio, Pastor Jorge playing guitar and me recording the show on my camera, and Josué's cousins were around too. In the back of Pastor Jorge is Lucas, who asked me a lot of questions about USA.

I also discovered that Pablo Lucero (middle) was taking English classes at a language institute! So I was the English convo leader as I led conversations with Pablo y Pablo so they could practice speaking and listening. : ) It was fun! Who would've thought a chinita could be an Engrish teachuh? What a funny sight to behold.

And this little girl, whose name I do not know, is learning English in school too. She got to speak some, which was cool to know that Tucumán schools are implementing English education at a young age.

Really bad picture of me and Cristian, but Marcelo and Silvia's family invited me over for an asado to celebrate 3 things: 1) Return of Pablo Espeche 2) Fabiana's boyfriend was staying at their home 3) My visit. I helped Marcelo make chimichurri and I cried cutting the onions. I ate too much asado and was full the entire day.

On the 23rd, church was having a Christmas service followed by a potluck. I wanted to contribute something so I made arroz primavera. I didn't know how to do a lot of things, such as cooking rice in a pot and stuff, but Norma helped, and this is our wonderful result.

Chop chop! I miss Argentina supermarket prices, especially on beef. It was $3 a pound. That's hard to find in USA. I spent in total only $11 on the entire arroz primavera. Norma also accompanied me to a verdulería to get the fresh veggies. A verdulería is like a vegetable store that operated from a home in the middle of the 24 de septiembre neighborhood. Norma said she liked that verdulería because they have really good quality veggies. It's a tiny little shop, so being a non-Argentine I stood out quite a lot. The veggie vendor asked me about where I was from, etc. etc. because I'm just so gosh darn interesting!

Looks great, no? I think the red serving bowl really brings out the colors of the veggies (all fresh ingredients!). It was kind of icky though when I suggested we buy paper plates so that everyone could have their own eating plate, bu Norma told me that everyone was bringing finger foods an that it wasn't necessary to buy it. In the end, she brought a few plastic spoons, stuck it in the bowl, and people just took turns eating out from that spoon. Shuddddder...germs...See? Even I have some hygienic standards.

Norma made some sanguichitos (little sandwiches). The bread is this huge sheet (bigger than 8"x11") of white bread with a hard crust. Norma just spread mayo, cheese, and ham and cuts it up into smaller pieces. They're simple yet addictingly tasty, los sanguichitos argentinos.

Since I had been in Tucumán randomly hanging around, I think a lot of people at church who did not know me were wondering why I was there. During church service and Bible studies people kept on mentioning that I was here and welcoming me. I decided to take this opportunity to share about my reason for being in Tucumán and how I love the church, my time in Chile, and a little about Lighthouse.

Then, after sharing and some time singing as a church, people went up to sing and perform. The night before the Ahualles took me to Darío and Claudia's house for a visitation. We had pan dulce (kind of like fruit cake, but spongier) and mate. We sang (something that usually happens when there are a lot of people hanging out together) and Claudia and Darío taught me a chacarero, a typical Argentine song, but this one I sang was with Christian lyrics. Kind of like Argentine country music, I suppose? I hate singing in public, but I wanted to encourage the church and humor them by seeing a chinita singing a chacarero argentino. Since I have no sense of tempo, I needed Darío to signal to me when the next verse started. The church indeed was humored, encouraged however I'm not sure...

Pastor Jorge made a joke afterwards about our chacarero singing trio, saying that our website name was "Chinita punto com punto turco medio punto Dario"=chinita.com.turco(medio punto)Dario because I am a chinita, Pastor Jorge is a "Turk" (although Pastor Jorge this is a racist term because he has Syrian and Lebanese heritage...but he don't care) and medio punto because Dario is short. Pastor Jorge also joked after the song that he and Norma had been praying to adopt another little girl ("little girl" in Argentine Spanish="chinita"), but God sent them an already grown one--ME! HAHAH.

Christmas Eve dinner the next day. More sandwiches! Norma made the main dish, which was matambre...juicy delicious oven-cooked beef. With roasted bell peppers and onions. DROOL JUST THINKING ABOUT IT.

I took family portraits for them. Hehe. Josué's such a funny kid. He liked to make a lot of jokes at the dinner table. I needed a lot of explanation of the jokes because I didn't understand.

Then at midnight, the entire neighborhood set off fireworks. Josué set some off and I was a bit afraid that someone would blow off their fingers. Afterwards, we went over to Doña Maria's (again) where there were ~25 people sitting on her front yard in a circle just chatting and drinking soda (gaseosa in Argentina, bebida in Chile). Pablo Lucero and I talked about his school and what it's like, bad teachers, teenage pregnancy, what he learns, and what his academic passions are. The party ended at 2 or 3 a.m. Argentines stay up LATE. On the streets people set our their dining tables and chairs and ate al fresco on the sidewalk, drinking wine and playing loud cumbia music. What a Christmas experience to behold!

The next day, we went to a river with the youth group and the families from the church. I've never been to a river on Christmas day, and I sure wasn't used to not celebrating Christmas on Christmas Day. But hey, when in Argentina, right? So this river didnt look the cleanest, but the dudes went in anyway. Haha look at Pastor Jorge's face! The river was an interesting place to be with a conservative church; lots of drinking, young people in swimwear, loud cumbia music (I think it's cumbia; I hear it a lot in the neighborhoods just blasting). It was a very popular place (popular in the sense of common) so I was a bit conscious of my Taiwanesey self. But strangely enough, I barely got any attention in Tucumán like I did in Chile. Even in the supermarkets no one stared, whispered "Look! Chinese!" to each other, looked at me like a sideshow, or went up to me to ask me where I was from. It was kind of nice to be left alone.

We played movie charades in Spanish. It was hard since I only know movie titles in English! So when I had an inkling, I would yell it out in English or do a rough translation of the title.

Monica...what a woman. She and her family all moved to Buenos Aires to study at Word of Life Bible Institute so they could be more equipped leaders in the church. I don't know how they're doing there or if they've found a job, but I'm praying for them and their children!

On the drive back from the river, Pablo Lucero rode with us and we saw a 12 year old riding a motorcycle. So illegal. And dangerous! Anyway, after an exhausting and hot day at the river, Pastor Jorge and Norma kept on talking about a surprise for me when we got home. I was really confused but they wouldn't tell me anything. I guessed that we were going up on the mountain by their house, but they refused to tell me. After going home and resting up a bit, Norma said, "They're outside!" I said, "Who?" and she told me to go outside and look. And lo! A van of about 15 people from IBM pulled up front to pick us up and take us up the Cerro San Javier! It was such a lovely surprise, and I can't believe that planned it all for me, since they kept on talking about how I needed to go up the cerro and see it. At the top of the hill was the Cristo Redentor statue, one of 8 in the world, the most famous one being in Brazil.

Tucuman looks like it's on fire at night.

Fun fun cerro fun! The view is beautiful, but getting up is a drag...so many winds and turns got me really sick. Up on the cerro, we saw a group of gringo tourists, so I whispered to Norma, "I see gringos!" she joked that I should've waved my hands up and say, "Hellllo gringos!" It was cute because Norma actually attempted to speak English, as she had been all week. Her English is pretty bad haha. So is Pastor Jorge's. I think that's what makes it so much fun though ; )

These are the Ahualle dogs. All three of them. They're fun. They have a huge yard to roam around in during the day, as there is no fence on the Ahualle property. I took this pic on my last day in Tucumán before treating the Ahualles to lunch to thank them for being my familia argentina for a week. Sigh. I'm so wuved.

After lunch, we went to visit Raquel and her family. She kept on inviting me to come over that week but we didn't have time until my last day. She lives suuuuper far away in the boonies. Later, Ana Maria joined us. She's a very pretty mom. Actually, she and Raquel are both very pretty mothers. It was strange that I got to sit at the table and talk with the adults while the children played outside. I'm always used to being the child to play outside...but it was a rude awakening that I was a grown up. Okay, maybe not a rude awakening, but a realization I'm not a kid anymore. But these house visits always involves pan dulce and mate. I looooove.

And here are some videos of the new church building:

Josué is very talented. Aww. My lil hermanito argentino.

The Von Trapp singing troupe! Have a listen. It's cute how the sis is playing with Eunice's pigtails.


The Christmas service at a rented building. Singing Ante el trono celestial (Before the Throne of God Above), which they learned from LBC just 6 months ago.


I really like this song Pastor Jorge sang; it's about someone whose heart is for the people of Argentina and wanting to see them know the Lord. He sings that he wants to go to the pampas and the cordillera (of the Andes). Perhaps this song can apply to Chile too then! : )


Josué singing the chacarero I sang at the Christmas concert! I want to sing this again some day. Someone learn to play it!


Josué's drumming is so cute in this video : )

Well, readers. This is my final post on GMW Abroad. It may have taken me 2 months to finish this post, but I wanted to finalize it and close this chapter of Grace Mao Wu's travel adventures in South America. It was an eye-opening 6 months of being a patiperra (one who's always out and about) and I'm thankful to God He let me fulfill my goal of visiting the church in Tucumán at the end of my trip. I hope this won't be the end of my South American adventures! And next time I travel, there definitely will be updates on this website. : ) ¡Chau!

Muahahaha

Don't think that I'm through with this blog yet. I still have a Kansai picture post to do. I originally wasn't planning on doing it but seeing Grace's strong will for posting her Patagonia pictures, I've decided to go out with a bang.

So! After my bacteriology midterm's over, I'll start doing a Kansai picture post during study breaks (since I have an immunology midterm the week after! x_X!)

Patagonia-- all done! Ready for Viewing!

Last huge trip in Chile! This is to go to Torres del Paine, but it's stinkin' far away from Santiago. I had to fly to the major airport in Punta Arenas first. Richard and I got there first and met up with Riley, Andrea, Christy, and Grace because they were traveling to Argentina first. Here is the welcome sign to Punta Arenas.

Here's Richard relaxing by the bay. A very boring, cold, windy, and steely kind of bay. I thought that having a body of water would be pretty, but no. It was still pretty cold and steely. Chilean-American author Isabel Allende called Punta Arenas wind-blown, harsh,and proud. Much more elegant than my own words.

It's a super windy city!

And I saw a tulip-shaped trash bin!

This is my face after seeing the ugliness of Punta Arenas. C'mon, a graffitti-tagged seal statue?? I do not like.

We went to the cemetry in Punta Arenas. This tomb was surprisingly empty and plain.

In comparison to the elaborate tombs. A lot of them of Croatian immigrants in the early 20th century. A lot of crazy Croatian last names.

And these are more modest tombs.

There was a tombstone that planted REAL peonies!! My favorite flower!

A tomb in honor of the Indians of Southern Chile. They all were killed by the Spanish conquistadores.

More cemetery.

Cool neatly trimmed hedges. So neatly trimmed I had to give it a big (but spiky) hug.

Richard and I found a Chinese buffet...all the way in Southern Chile. What the heezy?? So being the Sinophiles we are, of course we went in and had a fatty meal. I talked to the workers in there, and it turned out they worked in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. It was cool cuz the name "Tierra del Fuego" directly translates to "Fire Island" in Chinese!! I wanted to talk to that worker more, but he had to work. :( But I tried saying hello to all the Chinese-looking people in the restaurant. I dunno, they all seemed cold and didn't seem that happy to see my Chinesey face. Boooo.

Downtown Punta Arenas, where it's much richer with mansions from the 1800's. It's very prettily constructed, unlike the area where there was that graffiti-tagged seal. But in general, Punta Arenas was a pretty boring city. Richard and I went back to our hostel to sleep off the boredom. We woke up seeing the sun shining brightly outside. I guessed it was around 4:30 or 5, but being in Southern Chile, the sun sets super late...it was 8 p.m.!! We were so sad that we had nothing to do for the entire night.

Richard and I went to Puerto Natales, the city closest to the Torres del Paine National Park to met up with the rest of the group. We went to Erratic Rock hostel, a Oregon native-owned hostel for a lot of gringos. It was weird, cuz when Richard and I entered, we heard a slew of English all around us!! We were completely thrown off because we weren't used to that. Richard and I went to Abu Gosch, the hipermercado nearby and bought pernil and rice to cook in the hostel for dinner. I bought an Austral cerveza, but was a tad disappointed. Later that night, the rest of the other group met up with us there. That night, we took everything out and packed and organized everything that we will need for our survival for the "W" trail in Torres del Paine National Park. We had toiletries, food, sleeping bags, hiking poles, and everything backpacking related. The room was a mess!

Gracey Wang saw the collection of my cool clothes, and told me to toss it all together to take a foto of the amazing outfit. You like? ; )

That morning, after running around the town (literally) for last minute buying stuff, we hopped on the bus to go to Parque Nacional Torres del Paine!!! The road was scenic and rugged, and we stopped by a little tourist stand to stock up on water and to rest the bus. Then on the road we saw guanacos!! They are a llama/camel-like animal, brown, fuzzy, and oh-so-cute. (Side note: My mom always asked me when I was in Chile if the country was a backwards boony Third World kind of place. The word that encompasses this in Taiwanese is "hwa-na-coh," which is the exact same pronunciation for this animal! My mom thought it hilarious when I told her .)

Can you imagine how I felt when I saw the entrance of the park? The sparkling lake, the prancing guanacos, the tall Torres (Towers) peeking in the distance...I was quite excited for this 4-day backpacking excursion. Usually, the entrance fee to the park is 15000 Chilean pesos, around $28. But I had a Chilean ID card, which means I am a Chilean resident, I got in for only 4000 Chilean pesos...around SIX dollars. I FELT SO COOL! I WAS CONSIDERED A CHILEAN RESIDENT! There were gringos behind us who thought they only had to pay 4000 pesos, but too bad they had to get in for the gringo price.

This. Was. My. Pack. Everything hanging off of it. So. Heavy. I had my rest shoes, my sleeping bag, sleeping mat, and my life supply in the backpack. Incredible, huh? I usually have no endurance for this kind of strenuous work, but I think cuz survival was the motivation, so that's how I managed to endure the whole trek without dying and complaints. Thanks, God!

Our Patagonia 2008 team!! This is when we were still clean and bright-eyed about the whole trekking trip. The after pic is quite different. Our hair is matted, our clothes caked with sweat and dirt, and fatigued to the max!

We had to ride the catamaran to the main campsite, so that we would skip the boring part of the hike. The water was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was called glacial milk. It was a pastel turquoise and looked cool and refreshing. The color comes from the minerals in the glaciers that come down into the lake. I don't know what else to say about it but amazing. Pictures are not enough to describe the beauty because it has to be seen with your own eyes.

Glacial milky water with craggy snow-sprinkled mountain peaks in the background. Seeing only this was almost worth the entire trip. Almost.

Me and Andrea (emo ninja, we joked) on the catamaran.

After the catamaran landed, we set up camp at a paid campsite. Paid means bathroom services and a building with a kitchen--later which we discovered was a luxury. We envied this French tour group who drank wine, ate cheese, had lanterns, and a high-class tent in comparison to us poor college students with our 6-person tent, squeezed like sardines in a can.

We got a late start on the day, so we had only a few hours to do the first part of the trail. We were fortunate that the sun set at 10:45 ish, but we couldn't go far enough to see Glaciar Grey up close and personal. But this was a little of what I saw during the trail. Trees, sun, and body of water! I realized on the first day though that I am one slowwwwww hiker. I was trailing way behind, trying to catch up to the front fast people and I lost a lot of motivation to go on further after seeing 5 people way head of me. We switched roles and I led the team so that no one would fall behind and that I could keep up my endurance.

This was the last part of day 1 trail. We couldn't go any further or else the return trail we would be hiking in the dark. That would be no good. Here is me and my cool hiking pole. It's like a third leg, seriously. Without it I probably would've fallen multiple times (maybe to my demise?)

Mmm. A little peek of Glaciar Grey.

Our way back to our campsite. The sun is setting.

The next morning, we had some problems because we didn't wake up early enough (we left at 11am instead of 9am). Good thing I am a not-too-anal person person and really go with the flow rather than freak out over changes in plans. We hiked, took a too long break, only to discover this idyllic lake a few minutes after our too-long break. So, we took another too-long break, but it was totally worth it.

TOTALLY WORTH ITTTTTT! The water was so cold. Christy, Richard, and I had a contest to see who could keep our feet in the crisp cold water the longest. I won, although 'twas painful.

This day was a pretty difficult one, as we had to pack up all our stuff and carry it with us, as opposed to a day hike with only water and snacks. This was also the day I dressed the worst--parachute pants, Chilean soccer jersey (although I got a few compliments!), and a long-sleeve t-shirt as my hat. So ugly. Compared to Gracey Wang who looked all pro and athletic, I was quite tacky.

Heading to the next campsite.

This crazy bridge led to the campsite. It was like what you see in adventure movies--wobbly, shaky, and looked like you were gonna fall in and be washed away by the rushing river.

Here's our new home in our new campsite! It was a free campsite, so the amenities such as bathroom, showers, and kitchen were not there. In fact, the toilet was gross and backed up so I didn't even bother going. We went on a day hike to Valle Frances. Christy thought she got stung by a bee, so she took a Benadryl and knocked out. We went on the day hike without her.

Gracey Wang likes my outfit.

Super excited me about the hike!

The view from the valley. Andrea couldn't stop saying it reminded her of Land Before Time.

Yay group (minus sleeping beauty Christy).

Us at top of the mirador (lookout point).

The many glaciers and the melting waters flowing down into waterfalls were breathtaking. That huge river we crossed on that bridge--all that water came from these glaciers. Water from God, I thought.

Grace doesn't love me! :( Is it the pants? I can change!

The next day, we woke up late...again. But this is the trail. This might have been the hardest day, as it took us 10 hours to get to our next campsite.

And the world is too small. We ran into fellow EAP-ers coming in the opposite direction. They were the 3rd EAP group we ran into in the past 2 days.

Our stopping place for a late (4pm) lunch. Beautiful viewpoint, and Gracey Wang snapped a cool photo of me having a little alone time looking out at the vast glacial lake.

And a terrible river crossing. I had heard about it, thinking it would be a piece of cake since I had $100 Asolo hiking boots. The water was rushing and so cold it felt sharp. I fell in on my first step and I was so scared I would damage my camera, fall in and be swept away by the river, or die. I sat down on a rock with the river rushing next to me, trying to catch my breath and be calmer, but my jacket was getting wet so I had to muster up my courage to continue crossing. I prayed the entire way that God would protect me. He did, which is why I am here, alive to tell my harrowing story!

Our 2nd-to last leg of the trip. We found our campsite off in the distance in this Sound of Music-esque green hilly land. We had to cross yet another river, and Andrea had the bright idea of instead of crossing by carrying her shoes, to toss it over to the other side. We all were questioning her brilliant ideas, but she proceeded anyway, only to result in the shoes flying up then straight down into the river rapids. She had to chase them downstream, resulting in even wetter shoes than originally planned.

Me and Grace, with our matching jackets and backpacks. We are so stylish even when in the wilderness :)

We set up camp at 11 p.m. Hooray for 10-hour hiking days!

Our day to hike up towards the crowning jewel of Torres del Paine--The Torres! They are 3 granite towers that sit atop a peak that requires about a 60% uphill 3 hour hike (one way) to see the beauty and majesty of these grand looming towers. Here, I didn't bother leading because it was such a difficult hike. I let my other teammates go ahead of me (some were ahead by 20 minutes, probably a mile ahead of me. I'm so slow). I was so glad for Christy though we likes to take her time as well so she stayed by my side the entire time as I took my time. In this photo, it was pretty much scrambling on whatever rock we could find. It was stressful too because by this part I couldn't take my time anymore; there were a bunch of tour groups trailing me, so if I stopped or slowed down I'd slow about 15 other people down. It was good in that it would keep me moving without taking too many breaks. An Argentine old man saw me wearing my Boca jersey on the way up and made fun of me saying I can't wear that. Turns out he was a River fan.

This was what I saw when I arrived. That woman in the blue started crying when she arrived because she was so proud of herself for her feat. I didn't know there was a lake there but behold!!!! Lake!!! Towers!! Clouds!! Ice!!

Grace and I were very very happy to have arrived.

Photo by Gracey Wang. It makes me look more athletic than I really am. Must be the baseball cap.

I went down to the lake to touch it and the water was thick! Almost like jello, I claimed but no one really thought so. Oh well, I thought it was the strangest water texture I had ever touched. A narcissistic but very friendly Frenchman took my picture for me.

I tried to take as many Torres pics as possible because Sara said she regretted not taking more Torres pictures.

It started drizzling and being all windy and cold at the top, so after a picnic lunch of pita bread, tuna, and pasta sauce, we hiked back down. I had no rain jacket, but I did have a trash bag Andrea saved for me! It worked great and was free. But since then, I have invested in a rain jacket. I bought it last week actually, Timberland brand for only $10! And it's red,
perfectly matching with my backpack. : )

Copihue, a bellflower, national flower of Chile.

Waterfall. A small one though, but precious nonetheless. My camera didn't capture the beautiful color, so this photo is a bit disappointing for me.

Beautiful landscapes on the hike back. Easy hike, since it was all downhill.

The downhill. I couldn't believe I hiked all the way up this stinking hill. Or rather, mountain. On the way up, I kept my endurance by not looking up at how much more mountain there was to hike. I just looked at my feet and every step I took. It also helped to think about Jesus and him taking up his cross on Calvary. Though an incomparable comparison, it helped me understand how excruciating it must have been for Jesus. But downhill was sweet and slopy. And I got to talk with Andrea about her family and past travel experiences. I like Andrea : )

The looming mountain view I got from my tent back at our campsite. What a sight to wake up to, huh?

Our humble trusty 6-person tent. Every night, either one of us was too cramped, too cold, or too hot. Sucks. I slept like a log most of the time. We spent our last day in the park relaxing as we had finished the "W" hike. We showered (I took all of Gracey's hot water. Sorry), rested our feet, and pooped. Yes. Y que?!

Our bus leaving Torres del Paine National Park. My last view of the proud granite Torres. Such nature, such beauty that I never would have imagined to see with my own eyes and be all intimate with.

Sky meets land on the Chilean pampas.

Gracey and I enjoyed the view outside the bus on my iPod, playing Hijos del Sol, a musical group that I supported by buying one of their CDs on the Santiago bus. We enjoyed their renditions of traditional Chilean music. Oh, and the bus smelled disgusting on the way back because of all the unshowered dirty hikers. It was revolting.

Richard got a golden farmer's tan from our 4day excursion. Lookin' good.

To congratulate ourselves for our survival of the "W" hike, we went back to town 3 hours way in Puerto Natales to return our rented gear and to have a real meal other than trail mix, dried fruit, oatmeal, pasta, and other camping food that will forever scar me. I can't look at spaghetti and tomato sauce the same way again. But anyway, we got these fatty sandwiches at Milogodon (I think that's the name), a family-owned sandwich shop where they have their children working and really good service. I got a leche platano, a mix of milk and bananas. Yum!

We stayed at Backpacker's Paradise in Punta Arenas, where we experienced very interesting memories of a certain ginger chinese boy (not capitalized for a reason), the Special Room, and a left-behind thermos. Shudder. It's an interesting story, if you ever want to hear it you can ask me.

It was the nicest to meet fellow trekkers, such as Brandon, a grad student bird watcher from Minnesota. Richard and I also went to the zona franca, a duty-free shopping zone to pass the time until we had to leave back to Santiago. It was quite boring, but I remember being in a store where there was this Chilean older man with piercing blue eyes and dark hair and a weathered face, whispering loudly and sharply at his family "Look at the Chinese girl!" every time we passed by each other in the market. I was a little dumbfounded at the blatant lack of discreetness in pointing me out. Couldn't you at least do it AFTER we passed by each other, sir? I guess not. I got so annoyed because we ran into him multiple times so finally I stared him straight in his sharp blue eyes and said "Hola." I don't think he was expecting that.

So that ends my journey to the southern tip of Chile. It's really awoken desires to rough it out in nature even more in the future.

Despedida Gringa--ICLAM's goodbye party for us gringos

Andrew, Grace, Christine, Emily, Leah and I came in as the gringos of the church this semester. It started out as a small group of the UC kids, and then I met Emily on the bus (funny story, but great results) and Grace met Leah through a mutual friend. We all became involved in the church and the butt of many jokes since we suck at Spanish at times :[ Nevertheless, they embraced all of us as their own, and our departure was something worth commemorating, put together by GX, our youth group which stands for Generación Xtrema. And thee are pics form the church retreat. I'm too lazy to update with everything now...so photo posts all the way!!

Chiloé part 2

Hello, I'm back in the US, and I have a bunch more pictures to upload, such as:
-Gringo goodbye party at church
-Church retreat
-Backpacking in Patagonia
-Christmas in Tucumán

But before I get too ahead of myself, I need to finish uploading Chiloé pictures!The Kennison family, a missionary family in Curaco de Velez (a bordering city of Achao) invited me over for lunch at their home. Their neighbor had a sheep! SO typical Chilote.

Their dining room. Evidence of 5 kids living there. :)

Two of the kids use strollers. Grace and the baby whose name I don't remember...

A cool looking trash can in Curaco.

The church where Daniel pastors. It only has 15 people right now. Thinking about these tiny churches and how much support they need makes me think of more missions opportunities outside of Tucumán and how many other churches there are in need. The pastor is a JMac fan, so he gave me a book in Spanish called, "Distintos por diseño"...also known as "Different By Design" in its English title. Yay Spanish Christian literature!!! It'll always be a book special to my heart. I can't wait to start reading it, tackling theology and Spanish at the same time. Woot!

Me, the kids, and the wife of the pastor went to pasear (walk around) the town, and the church sits at a bay with a view of the water...pretty much common in all of Chiloé. The 8 year old daughter took my picture, since I figured it'd be good to have my face once in a while in these pictures.

The 2nd to youngest one prefers to speak in Spanish.

After I got back from the lunch, I decided to spend some time alone and take pictures. In the corner of this picture was a house/shack made of random materials. I was shocked to see poverty like that in a small town, but it still exists...

The next day, Miguel from Dalcahue called me to hang out. We met at a Bible study class at the church of Pastor Marcelo. He saw me, a gringa and he wanted to talk with me to see how I was adjusting to Chilean life. Finally we got in contact so I hopped on the bus and then the ferry to visit him two towns over. This is the back of the church. A little museum.

Chilote Catholic church stuff.

More pictures of me to prove I was really there.

Miguel and I walked all around Dalcahue as he showed me the sights and invited me to eat milcao, a typical Chilote snack made from potato flour filled with pork and pork fat. Fatty and yummy! Miguel also took me to the pastor's house in Dalcahue, who works with my church in Santiago. There, I found yet another sheep. I wanted to pet it, but here it looks so timid and scared and kept on running away from me.

So Miguel helped me catch it! He is a sheep and potato farmer, so I trusted him to catch that darn sheep!

He caught it!

After the sheep incident, we walked around the bay. I got thirsty so I bought both of us some juice to drink. Miguel showed me an animata of one of his friends, which is a very Latin American tradition where families of the deceased construct a small memorial for the dead in the place where they died. His friend was inebriated and had fallen off the cliff and into the ocean. From there, Miguel told me about his life before becoming a Christian and now how his life had changed, saying that change is necessary as a Christian. It made me so happy to hear him talk about his Christian life--a Chilote sheep farmer and I had something so profound in common. :')

Saying goodbye to Miguel after our paseo (small trip) in Dalcahue. He said bye to me on the bus, we hugged and he said to me, "I hope this isn't the last time I get to see you." I wanted to cry then; even though I had known him for 2 days, we became such good friends and it felt kind of like saying goodbye to the church in Argentina when I left them. Our friendship didn't end after this trip. Miguel still called me a few times a week to check up on me and ask me how I am. On my last day in Chile, I had $3 left on my phone plan, so I used it up to the last peso talking to him and telling him how it was a blessing to be his friend and saying goodbye.

I went back to Pastor Marcelo's house and played with the baby Marco. So cute, this fat little 2 year old. He doesn't talk a lot, but he expresses his fellings in bratty ways: "No puedo!" and "No quiero!"="I can't!" and "I don't want to!" Those 2 phrases work in any situation.

On my last day, Pastor Marcelo and family went to Ancud, and I went with them as I needed to go there as well! They look me to the feria (farmer's market).

This box is an almud. It's a unit of measurement for potatoes because potatoes are a staple in Chiloé.

I invited the family to lunch as a thanks for their hospitality and care for me. Also an excuse for me to eat curanto, which is a typical Chilote dish. It's basically like a barbeque of seafood. It comes in a huge bag filled with potato dough, shellfish of many kinds, chicken, ham, pork, sausage, and potato. And they served the broth of the seafood on the side. It was delicious and an indulgence to the seafood lover in me. And it cost less than $8...another attraction of Chiloé--great, cheap, delicious food.

And I told them about a penguin colony, so Pastor Marcelo drove for 30 minutes on an unpaved road to this obscure place, to find penguin tours!! This is me and Josue.

Biologists from the Universidad de Chile (woot woot represent) who got to do research with the penguins.

Hehe, fat little Marquito with mommy Julia. She's one of the prettiest Chilean women I've met.

Peruvian pelican. The tour guide joked that, since there are a lot of Peruvian immigrans in Chile, that it's not just people are coming over to Chile from Peru now.

The wonderful family that hosted me for 4 days. And they didn't even know me before; I was just some attendee of their friend's church. They told me that they love having people at their home and that they've hosted missionaries from Germany before.

My attractive penguin tour jumpsuit.

Me with the family. I felt like an Asian nanny when I walked around in public with them, as I bet people were wondering what this random Asian girl was doing with a Chilote family and playing with the kids. I even ran into a Korean Catholic tour group on this penguin tour! Being the honorary Korean I am, I busted out my, "ahnyonghasaeyo" to one of them and they asked Julia about me when I was in the bathroom. Hehehe =) Proud of me, guys??

The beautiful, bumpy, unpaved ride back to town where they dropped me off at the bus terminal. This trip being a month ago, I almost forget what it was like to stay with them as I just stayed with Pastor Jorge and his family and the 2 experiences were completely different. But I can recall that I was thankful for their kindness to a complete stranger as well as their encouraging talks with me about Christian life in Chiloé. I really hope I can see them sometime again. I want to own a house in Chiloé when I'm older. =)

I left Chiloé island happy, learning a lot about God, and feeling ultra thankful...things I did not expect to experience in this spontaneous trip traveling alone. Out of all my travels in the country of Chile, this was the most memorable because of all the kind people I met, experiencing being a Christian in Chiloé, and the beauty of such a cute small isolated island. In this picture in Puerto Montt, where my plane left, I was greeted once again by these 2 snowy volcanic peaks, the same ones I saw at the beginning of this unexpected trip.

関東 vs. 関西

I forgot that I never posted about my Kansai adventure.

If you want to see pictures, see 'em on facebook because there are just way too many pictures to weed through. Haha. And if you don't have facebook and you really really really really want to see the pictures, let me know.

Kanto (関東) is the eastern region on the main island (Honshu). That's where I lived, since Tokyo's in the east (Tokyo, 東京, literally means "Eastern Capital"). I've heard that the Kansai (関西) region is pretty different and there was even some kind of a rivalry between the two, kind of like the whole Nor Cal, So Cal thing. Of course, after living in Tokyo for a couple of months, I was ready to see just how different the Kansai region (especially Osaka) was.

Kyoto wasn't that bad. I heard a few people say, "Okini" instead of "Arigatou" and people saying "hen" instead of "nai." I giggled at it because it's so... stereotypically Kansai.

As a sidenote as to what we did, Yun and I stayed at this wonderful hostel near Kinkakuji (The Golden Temple) where yes, a building is coated in gold. It's absolutely beautiful, especially with the momiji (the autumn leaves). There's also Ginkakuji (The Silver Temple) but we decided not to go. We went around Gion, where you may be able to see some maiko (geisha in training) but they're kind of rare to come by, I think. But the coolest thing was that I got to see the Minami-za while on the bus! (The Minami-za is the Kansai equivalent of the Kabuki-za in Tokyo. They're both Kabuki theaters) There was also a statue of Okuni (the supposed founder of Kabuki) and it turned out that we were by the Kamo River (where Kabuki was first performed)!

We also went up the street to the Kiyomizudera (The Pure Water Temple) but didn't go in because we wanted to make it to the Fushimi Inari Shrine (it's the shrine that has the thousands upon thousands of orange tori, or gates) before it got dark. I really regret not going into the Kiyomizudera. Even though it was super crowded, we should've gone in. Because we got to the Fushimi Inari Shrine when it was dark anyway. D:

So yes. Fast forward. We got to Osaka and the lady who owned the hostel that we went to was Korean! It helped with communication a lot because we were having some issues talking about the reservation that I made in Japanese. -_-; She was really nice to me and when Yun and I left, she gave us these little cell phone danglys for free, saying, "It's hard to come across a Korean person like this. We have to look out for each other. Please take these." :)

Ok, so remember how I was talking about the "Okini" and "hen" thing a couple of paragraphs ago? IT WAS CRAZIER IN OSAKA. Yun and I went to the Kaikukan (I forget if that's correct or not...) which is the aquarium there. While we were there, I was trying to take a picture of this little critter that moved around really quickly, as was this girl next to me. It was really difficult to take and after a few minutes, she turned to her boyfriend and exclaimed, "Torahen!" In standard Japanese, you would say, "Toranai!" (meaning, "I can't take [a picture of] it!") so when I heard it, I literally had to choke down my laughter and then walk away 'cause I didn't want to laugh in her face.

Yun and I also went to Kobe (first we went to the Kobe station and then found out that we got off at the wrong station -_-;) to get some Kobe steak. It was incredibly... expensive. But delicious. I ate my steak with chopsticks. Hahhahaa. Mmmm... Kobe steak... I'll definitely be hitting up the next time I'm in the Kansai region. *-*...

As for other things to compare, people in Osaka really are meaner than people in Tokyo. Hahaha. Remember how in my last entry (if you read it), I said that people will always say, "Sumimasen! Gomen nasai! Sumimasen! HONTOU NI SUMIMASENNNNN!"? This usually happens in train stations and on the train and what not. Well. In Osaka, people get on the train, shove you around and don't say a word to you. Or they give you a dirty look. I actually got to take the Hankyu Line (the one that takes you to Takarazuka ^o^~) and Yun, her friend, and I were speaking in English and the people on the train just straight up stared at us. Even if we stared back. o___o じ~~~~~

And, just a note of reference for anyone who might go to Tokyo and then Osaka: in Osaka, everyone stands and walks to the right instead of the left. You know how in Asian countries, people walk to the left and stuff? Same dealio in the rest of Japan. Except Osaka. Even in Kyoto, people walk to the left. I don't know what it is about Osaka but it definitely is different. Hahaha.

Ok, that's all. I suppose that it was a very dry entry because there are no visual aids. :D

Good night.

Last few days

I got back from Tucuman a few hours ago after a 26 hour bus ride. I did not want to leave. Every time I say goodbye to the church in Tucuman it is a difficult time for me as I am snotty, sniffy, and teary. It doesn't help much either that there's a gangload of people from the church waving goodbye to me up till the vehicle departs, which makes it even more tender and special. I can't wait till heaven when we never have to say goodbye to each other and just get to worship our God together.

I'm leaving Chile tomorrow night and finally ending my patiperro (Spanish nickname for someone who's always on the move) study abroad days. Finally get to see the Wu fam! I'll keep on updating because I'm missing a lot of updates.

Oh, and Moon, I got your package. It arrived in Chile on the 19th. I'm trying to eat as much as I can so there's less for me to carry in my suitcase. My host mom loved the orange Pocky!