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Hey guys, It's been a pretty normal past few days, but here's a summary.

Sunday - I went to a medium sized church about ten minutes from my house. I liked it a lot, and the people there were great. Afterward, I played frisbee in the afternoon, and that's always a great time. Other than that, just chatted and hung out at home.

Monday - I spent the morning applying for my student visa. They said that it would probably take about four months to get it. Just in time for me to leave :). At night I went over to the house of one of the frisbee players for a poker game. It was a lot of fun, and I like that group a lot.

Tuesday - I finally had my first Oceanography class! It's definitely not going to be too challenging, but I think it will be interesting, and the professor seems great. I'm looking forward to my next class. Other than that, I had my Chilean Culture class, I worked out a little, and I spent the afternoon chilling out and working on a little homework.
Sorry nothing more exciting happened, but my dad is coming to visit on Saturday, and after that I'm sure things will get pretty crazy! You all know how we like to party late into the night. (With an owl tape)

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, and I know my public is clamoring for news. I'll try to keep this organized.

Wednesday and Thursday - Went to class, hung out a didn't do too much. My classes will probably be pretty boring, but it's ok, I only have class three days a week ;). One night we played Dutch Blitz in a restaurant, and we definitely created a ruckus. I can't remember what else I did, so yeah, pretty standard.

Friday - I went with some friends to a beach to the south called Laguna Verde. It was a lot of fun, but a long way away. I probably spend at least two or more hours each day commuting in the micros, so that's something that I need to get used to. I got sunburned on the tops of my feet, but the day in general was very relaxing.

Saturday - Today in the morning I went to the dunes again in Reñaca and the great overlook of Viña and Valparaíso. I then came back to my house, and met up with my host brother to go to a soccer game. The Valparaíso team, the Wanderers, were playing against the team my host brother is a fan of, so I thought it´d be fun to go. The three big teams in Chile are Colo-colo, La Católica, and La U. The Wanderers were playing against La Católica today, and it only costs eight dollars for a ticket. I´m officially a Wanderers fan, but unfortunately they lost today 2-4. It was a blast to see the whole stadium filled with green Wanderers fans, and the hard-core fan section sang fight songs the entire game. I´m not kidding, they only took a break for half-time. After that, I went to play soccer myself a little bit with my host brother´s friends, and now here I am, going to bed early (1:00).

The name of the Wanderers´ ¨barro¨ is Panzers (a barro is like a hard-core soccer fan gang). Here they are:

There are two sliding glass doors in the dining room next to the table. Every meal time, John Lennon will come to those doors and do this for the entire meal. Needless to say, I usually will crack up randomly in the middle of eating. Also, there are never awkward pauses in conversation.

Yesterday I played Ultimate Frisbee for over three hours. Needless to say, I'm pretty sore today :). Today I went back to Concon in the morning to go birding again, see the sights, eat empanadas, and enjoy the gorgeous weather. The highlight of the day is that I managed to see a penguin! I only got one short look, but they are there, and I will see more!

This is a view of Reñaca on the left, Viña del Mar in the middle, and Valparaíso on the right.

La Campana

Yesterday I traveled with some friends to La Campana National Park. It's not too far away, but we needed to take the micro all the way to the park, so we had to leave very early by Chilean time (8:00). It took about two hours to get there, but it was well worth the trip. La Campana is a large, bell-shaped mountain/hill that has several trails going up to the top. We couldn't go all the way up because there was some trail damage from the earthquake, but we still got to see the sights and some great views. We ran into some wildlife, including two new birds (Fire-eyed Diucon and Moustached Turca, some foxes, and a couple tarantulas. After the hike, I got back to my house, took a shower, ate onces, and then my host brothers wanted to go out to eat in Valparaiso. I didn't get back until 2:00, and then my host family was all singing karaoke, and they wanted me to join in. I couldn't stay awake at this point, but I fell asleep to the sounds of my host brother crooning Coldplay. He's pretty good. I found out this morning that they didn't go to sleep until 5:30.

Concón

Thursday was pretty uneventful, I just went to my classes and chilled out some. My oceanography class didn't meet, but my history class did. It seems like it'll be a little boring, but relatively easy, so that's good.
On Friday I traveled north to the town of Concón. It's only about a half-hour micro ride north, and it only costs 200 pesos. The town is next to where the river Aconcagua meets the ocean, and there is definitely some good birding there :). I saw some good things like White-backed Stilts, Great Grebes, Yellow-billed Pintail, and Inca Terns. We then walked back south along the ocean, and there are lots of great views of the city and rocky coast. Also, there are some huge sand dunes right next to the ocean that we climbed up. I think that the pictures saw more than I can, so here they are.

Cuye

This is definitely a week of ups and downs. While I'm still super excited to be accepted to grad school, there was a tragedy in my host family. For reasons unknown, the pet guinea pig "Alvin" was found dead in his cage Tuesday morning. However, this fact was kept secret from his owner, my six year old host brother Diego. Instead, we told him that the lid to Alvin's cage had been left open, and Alvin, sensing freedom, took off into the night and is now living with the rabbits in the nearby forest. Diego seemed sad at first, but he didn't mention him at all today, so I guess he's over the loss. He did ask if he could visit Alvin sometime. We told him it would be very hard to find him because the forest was so big.

I also started classes this week. So far, I've only had one, because one didn't meet on Tuesday, and another of my classes that was supposed to meet today was, unbeknownst to everyone except the professor, canceled. However, I enjoyed the one class I did have, and am looking forward to starting two more tomorrow.

Today was also my host brother's 21st birthday, so there was a bunch of family over and a big party. There's been at least one party every week so far. I could get used to this.

Yay!

I know this is my third post of the day, but I have lots of great things to talk about. First of all, I practiced with the track and field team here this afternoon. The team is small, but there are some fast runners, and they're all great, friendly people. The coach is also a lot of fun, and he's always cracking jokes, laughing, and harassing people in a good-natured way. They practice four days a week, and I think I'll go whenever I am free and have the time. Two days a week they practice on the other side of the city, but twice a week they practice at the Sporting right next to my house.
Second, I got a message today that I am accepted into the graduate program at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science! It's with the College of William and Mary, and I also got a fellowship which pays for tuition and a stipend. I'm so thankful, and this is the answer to a lot of prayers. I start in the fall, and I will be working with Dr. Debbie Steinberg. She does research on plankton, jellyfish, and nutrient cycling. It's been a good day, and tomorrow is my first Chilean class!

Reporter

This is why Chile is awesome. One of the more well-known television reporters here is Santiago Pavlovic. First of all, that's an awesome name, but how can you not take this man seriously and hang on his every word?

Weekend

I had another relaxing weekend in Viña del Mar, and didn´t do too much other than rest, relax, and see the sights. On Saturday I went back to the botanical gardens, and walked around on the roads and trails. It was a very nice afternoon, and I got to spend some time in the fresh air. Then, Sunday was my host father's birthday, so Saturday night we had a party that started at midnight. It wasn't too big, but we had a lot of fun just sitting around and talking.
On Sunday everyone slept late because they were up until 5:00 am. I still can't sleep too late, and got up and putzed around for a little while. In the afternoon, the Ultimate Frisbee club got together and played at the Sporting center just down the hill from me. It was a blast, and we played for about three hours. It's definitely an amateur league, and one guy lit up a cigarette in the middle of the field during play, and continued playing with a cigarette in one hand and the frisbee in the other.
Last night after I got back from frisbee there was a nation-wide power outage that lasted for over an hour. I heard that it was from a bad transformer somewhere, but most of Chile was with out electricity. However, this meant that this was the first night that people went to bed before midnight.

Classes for real

First of all, my bus driver today looked just like a Chilean version of Dustin Hoffman. Pretty exciting. Even more exciting is that I finally got all of my classes straightened out and they're all approved by the registrar! Here they are:
General Anthropology - Wednesday 10:05 - 11:35
Introduction to Oceanography - Tuesday and Thursday 11:45 - 1:15
Spanish Communication and Chilean Culture - Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 2:00 - 3:30
History of Latin America: 20th Century - Thursday 5:20 - 6:50

Now, those of you who have been paying attention will note that I do not have any registered classes for Monday or Friday. This is not a mistake, and I do indeed have a four day weekend every week. However, I now need to figure out what to do with my free time. I am open to suggestions, and I hope my free time won't weigh too heavily on my hands. Please post you suggestions, and I hope that I will be able to accommodate them all.

New stuff

Well, it's definitely been an interesting two weeks here. This morning there was another earthquake (6.9) about 90 miles south of us, and there were several strong aftershocks as well. The big deal was that there was a tsunami warning for Vina and Valparaiso, and everyone left the city for higher ground. I was in the main building of the university, and we just climbed up to the fourth floor and waited there. After it was deemed safe, I took the micro back home, which is a heady 400 ft. above sea level. The other interesting thing is that the new president, Sebastian Piñera, was being inaugurated a few blocks away from me when all this was happening. Everything is good, and I hope that all this craziness ends soon so I can get back to birding. I think I might take a nap now :)

Classes

The past few days have been pretty relaxing. On Monday I took the micro into Valparaiso, and spent most of the day just walking along the coast. I just started at one end of the city, and I followed the main road that follows the coast until the road ended. It was a beautiful walk, and there were great views of the docks, beaches, coast, and ocean. I think I walked 10 miles total. I stopped for lunch at a little restaurant on the ocean, and I had Conger Eel to eat. It was pretty good. I ended up getting a migraine in the late afternoon, so the rest of the day was spent sleeping.
Yesterday I took it easy in the morning and then took the micro to the main mall in Vina. It's pretty much the same as any nice mall in the US, with a couple big department stores, a food court, a thousand shoe stores, and random people at the kiosks in the middle asking you if you want to get a massage, try the newest aromatherapy, or buy a soft pretzel. I didn't buy anything, and afterwards I walked along the beach in Vina to meet up with the Ultimate Frisbee club that was getting together to toss on the beach. I was surprised that there is an Ultimate club here, but I guess there's a big enough gringo influence that it's successful. Yesterday we just tossed around, but we're going to have a game on Sunday!
This morning I went to orientation at the university, and I felt like a freshman again. We all had our nametags, group monitors, and several hours of boring speeches and awkward mingling. But I got a class schedule, and now I'm trying to figure out what I need to take. I'll let you know once I do.
There's three things that every Chilean has: an extreme love of simple carbohydrates, a penchant for occasionally smoking unfiltered cigarettes, and a dog. The Chilean diet is this: 5% soda, 5% vegetables and fruit, 15% rice and potatoes, 25% chicken and beef, 50% bread. They love their bread, and most of breakfast and dinner is bread.
I hope everything is going well back in the states, and you´re all enjoying the beginning of spring!

I went to the National Botanical Gardens today. It's only ten minutes away from my house, and I'm definitely going to go back. I got some new birds, and it's a very nice place to walk around and relax. New birds include:
Pied-billed Grebe, Black-crowned Night-heron, Spot-flanked Gallinule (pictured), Austral Blackbird, and Common Diuca-Finch.

Look alike

The teleton finished last night, and they succeeded in raising $57,185,250 US dollars! The money is going to help rebuild houses and community structures in the areas affected by the earthquake and tsunamis.
I've been running quite a bit while I'm here, and it's a great place to run. The sidewalks are great, and I'm only a ten minute run from the Valparaiso Sporting Club, a huge sports complex of sports fields, a horse track, pools, tennis courts, and things like that. Also, the hills here are pretty intense, and I'm definitely a little sore from them. Every run ends with a 0.6 mile 350ft climb back to my house. Also, I often see other runners out and about, and it's not some crazy gringo thing to do.
My host family is convinced that I look just like Chris Martin from Coldplay. I'm not so sure, but cast your votes here.


Last night we had another family over, and it was a great time with carne asada, salad, games, and fun. Also, many Chileans drink this thing called "fanshop" in which they mix their beer with orange Fanta. It's the strangest thing I've seen so far.

Teleton

Over the past day I've been experiencing a uniquely Chilean phenomenon: the Teleton. Every year, the Chilean broadcasting companies put together singers, celebrities, and politicians in a big two-day production to garner donations to a charitable cause. It's been going on for over thirty years, and usually its at the end of the year. However, there is a special one this weekend just for victims of the earthquake. You can check it out at www.chileayudaachile.cl. It's a huge deal, and it's a big social event every year.

Weas

So I've been learning some Chilean slang, and one of the most useful is the word "wea" which just means "thing" or "whatchamacallit".
The public transportation here is very good, and they have three types: They have a subway system for long commutes, they have "micros" which are small buses for shorter commutes within the city or between Vina and Valparaiso, and they have "colectivos" which are taxis which function just like buses with established routes. So far I've only taken micros, and they're a lot of fun. It only costs about 90 cents to go from my house in Vina del Mar to Valparaiso. Also, there are usually people that will jump on the bus for a stop or two and they'll try to sell something, usually candy, ice cream, or something like that. But yesterday a guy jumped on the bus and gave this long sales pitch about the PedEgg, AND it normally costs 3500 pesos in the store, but just for us, he would sell it for 1,990 pesos. I'm glad my host brother was there to restrain me from buying it. Also, the micro drivers are crazy, and it feels like a Formula 1 race. Today we were waiting in a long line at a light, and our driver cut into the left lane against traffic, and then forced his way back into the line at the light and turned right.
I saw three new birds today: Chilean Swallow, Silvery Grebe, and, I'm not making this name up, Blackish Oystercatcher.
My host mother said that one of the other students she hosted thought before he came here that Chileans ate food like rats and rabbits and strange meat. So on his study abroad form he put that he was a vegetarian. She thought that she was going to have to cook a lot of vegetables and pasta, but as soon as he got here, he saw that they were just eating chicken, and he quickly blew his cover. Then I told her about the muskrats and guinea pigs I've eaten. Now my six year old host brother thinks I'm going to eat his pet guinea pig.
Here's a little bit of Valparaiso.

This afternoon we had a little aftershock, but it didn't last long. I heard that it was larger down south and it was 5.0 in Santiago. We hung out on the beach some before that, and even though I put SPF 50 on, I still got burned. I saw some good birds and another sea lion. The new birds where Whimbrel, Surfbird, Grey Gull, and Franklin's Gull.

Here I am with my host brother Maximo, and a view of the beach, Vina del Mar, and Valparaiso.

Bird update

Yesterday and today were much more productive bird-wise than other days. So far I'm up to 27 birds. Some highlights are:
Peruvian Pelican
Peruvian Booby
Red-legged Cormorant
Green-backed Firecrown
Striped Woodpecker
Thorn-tailed Rayadito
Kelp Gull
Plain-mantled Tit-spinetail
White-crested Elaenia (There's only one Elaenia in Chile, thank goodness)

And the most alliteratively endowed bird:
Tufted Tit-tyrant

Hopefully I'll get some more seabirds at the beach today.

Familia

I've been settling into my new home and host family, and they are fantastic. I have four brothers, Diego (6 years old), Joaquin (15), Maximo (19), and Felipe (21). My host parents are a blast, and already my host mom treats me like one of her own sons. One thing that will take getting used to is the hours they are active. So far, everyone, parents included, stay up until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, and everyone sleeps past 10:00. I think that this will change once school starts and things go back to normal, but they still keep late hours. Last night, another family came over to visit at 11:00! Also, they have two dogs (Robby and John Lennon) and a Guinea Pig (Alvin). They know more about American bands and musicians than I do (admittedly not too difficult a feat), and they spent an hour last night teaching me all of the Chilean slang (some of which my host mom told me I wasn't allowed to repeat). My house is right next to an undeveloped scrubby forest with eucalyptus trees, and we have a great view of the ocean and Valparaiso. Today, I'm going to go to the beach. The ozone layer is much thinner here, and so I'm glad I brought the SPF 50. Here's a picture of the view from my window.

Here are some pictures of my hotel room and a church we passed on the way out of Santiago.