Leela´s Monthly Update ©
May 3, 2004 – May 31, 2004
Edition 10

Since I have last written, things have been good, just busy in that hectic kind of way. I have been trying to squeeze everything in that I want to do before I come home.


A Few Goodbyes…

While being on exchange is wonderful for meeting people from all over the world, unfortunately, that is also its down side: saying goodbye to all of the amazing friends you make. It is a bitter-sweet symphony, but the way life works I suppose. I am mainly talking about the (early) goodbye to my friend Rumi, who had to go back to Japan. Although she is coming back in a few months to reunite with her husband (and my good friend) Kazu, who will be living in Chile for one more year, unfortunately both Suzy and I will have departed by then, making it the last time we would see each other for an indefinite amount of time. However, being an optimist, I tried to look at the positive rather than the negative. Now I have an excuse to go to Japan some day. We went out to a nice dinner at the Casino followed by one of my major weaknesses (blackjack) for her goodbye, and it must have been a good Oman because it was a wonderful evening and everyone was a winner at the end of the night.

A mere two days later, it was yet time to say another goodbye to Anik, my Canadian friend (Quebec) who had also been in Viña del Mar since last July. Although we knew each other our first semester here, we really became friends the last few months of her stay. Although goodbyes are never fun, I was more excited for her than anything, and it was not as hard emotionally because she goes to Calgary all the time, which is a close enough drive from where I will be living upon my return to the states. Also, the reason for why she was leaving was good news- - she got a job in Ecuador! As her luck turned out, a Canadian travel company based out of Ecuador employed her, so they paid for her full ticket back home since her orientation and training is in Canada. It is a contract job, so before I know it, we will meet up again, either in Canada or the USA.

Although there were only a few, going through the process definitely was a downer since I knew it meant that (many) more will shortly be on the way.


Día y Cumpleaños de Mamá

As it turns out, Mother’s Day is pretty much an international holiday, thus it fell on the same day in Chile. (An interesting fact: in Argentina, it is in October.) My family celebrated by taking my fabulous Chilean mom (or Mamá as I call her) out to a nice lunch, since we were not going to let her cook on her day! We all had a great time together talking, laughing, and joking. We all ate very typical Chilean meals, and I even tried “prieta” (cooked cow blood mixed with onions, garlic, and other spices) which I did not think I would try while in Chile. I have to admit, I was quite proud of myself for accepting the challenge.

My Chilean mother’s birthday fell just a few days after Mother’s day (lucky her), which meant that we got to celebrate yet again. This time we stayed in but nonetheless had a great time. She was really happy we were all there together.


Visitors (and One More Goodbye)…

To balance out the previous “goodbyes” that were made, luckily enough, visitors came into town! The first was a total shock, as he only came to Chile from the USA for total of a day and a half!! I am talking about Yoshi, Kazu’s brother, who, at the spur of the moment decided to visit his older brother. Since he was here for less than forty-eight hours, Kazu was the master tour guide. Since I wanted to meet him, I accompanied them on a whirlwind tour of downtown Valparaíso, which was nice to do because I actually (up until this point) had not done seen all the typical touristy attractions for which my city is famous. We took a few acensores (there are sixteen of them in Valparaíso) to get a large-scale view of the city and surrounding areas, went to the port, and saw most of the famous governmental buildings.

Around that same time frame, Ane, one of my Norwegian friends who lived in Santiago but frequented Viña del Mar often, had to head back home as she finished up her Chilean internship. It was also sad to see her go, but at least we had the opportunity to be able to meet up one last time and give a goodbye hug.

Just a few days later, Suzy and I had another visitor- - Molly! Arriving from Maryland, there was a whirlwind of emotions as the three were so happy to be together again. She was on exchange in Chile for a year, but she came the semester before we had arrived, so we only overlapped a semester. We met her through the hospital; she was the old director, which is how I came into currently being in charge. Although she was only here a week, we spent every day of it together. It was such a fun week. We caught up, went out to eat (several times), went out on the town, and just spent time together. She even came back to the hospital. Needless to say, it was great to have her here and we were extremely sad to see her go.


Weekend in Santiago

Still not having thoroughly “seen” Santiago since I have been here, I decided to kill two birds with one stone by accepting an invitation by my (Chilean) friend Olga to go and stay with her family while having her as my tour guide. In addition, it would enable me to surprise my friend Abby (on exchange here last semester) and her best friend, Jennifer as they arrived to the airport from the USA.

It was really nice to get a guided tour of Santiago by someone who knows it well. I have been there and passed through a numerous amount of times, but I had never spent a few days exploring. It is such a big city that one really needs to be with someone from the area to get a good feel for it. Luckily Olga was just the person. We walked around for hours and although I obviously did not see it all, I was able to see a good majority of the things that mattered to me. We went up San Cristobal Hill (the tallest in Santiago) and saw a view of the whole city (which seemed endless). We also went to Casa de la Moneda (where Allende was assassinated in 1973 which is the equivalent of the White House) and it was quite empowering to have been there. I felt like I was seeing a part of history, thinking to myself that I was standing at the place where the whole governmental overthrow and Pinochet dictatorship started. We also got to see Pablo Neruda’s 3rd Chilean house. In addition, Olga’s family treated me wonderfully and I had a great time getting to know them and spend time with them.
Abby’s arrival was great, aside from the fact that it was at 6:00 am! However, being able to surprise her and meet her best friend, Jenny, was worth it as hugs and non-stop talking were all around. It was quite emotional for her to come back and arrive in Chile. We look forward to spending a lot of time together during her visit (she is staying a month).

Other than that, life is good. It is that time of year with school where there are tests galore. The only hard part is that my motivation for studies is dying at an exponential rate. I am trying to take advantage of my last substantial chunk of time that is left. This next month is going to fly…

The End