Buenos Aires

Hello All!!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still alive! Even though i haven't written in over a month. I've been here for a few weeks now and the city is really great despite a rough start. Xole has been here for a couple weeks and we have been trying to find really great steak place but sadly haven't found anything. And to be completely honest - the food here isn't that amazing.

We've been volunteering at an organizing called LIFE. It is an org that targets to tourists, so you could volunteer for as long as you want, a day, a week, 6 months. We are volunteering for one week. It is an after school that takes volunteers to barrios and play games with the children. It's been good so far, we have one more day.

I hope all is well at home!

Maritza

Another Culture.....

I am realizing the importance marriage is to women here in Chile. The women I talk to who are my age (between 23 and 26) seem to be only interested in getting married. Meaning, they make many comments about when they will get married, having kids and how their getting old (a 23 year old said this one to me).

Valparaiso es muy bien pero esta poco frio ahora. Ustedes tienen mucho sol. Yo estoy extranando Parque de Dolores intonses deja de escribir en Twitter que tu vas a irlo.

Tres hace dias, yo ayude mi profresora con su clase de ingles. Ella ensena ninos jovenes y los son muy energético. No los se sientan por un minuto. El clase ha estado divertido. Ella ensena cada sabado y voy a ir proxima sabado . . . tal vez.

Ahora, estoy organizando mi viaje a Buenos Aries. Estoy buscando un departamento y lugares puedo voluntario. Mucho lugares de voluntario costan mucho dinero pero yo encontre un sitio de Internet con enlaces libre y barato lugares a voluntario.

Bueno, tengo hambre y necesito hacer mi tarea.

Adios mis amigos!

Maritza

(Valparaiso is very good but is a bit cold now. You guys have a lot of sun. I am missing Dolores Park so stop writing in Twitter that you are going to go there.

Three days ago, I helped my teacher with her English class. She teaches young kids and they are very energetic. They do not sit down for one minute. The class has been fun. She teaches every Saturday and I am going to go next Saturday . . . maybe.

Now, I am organizing my trip to Buenos Aries. I am looking for an apartment and places I can volunteer. Many volunteer places cost a lot of money but I found a website with links to free and cheap volunteer places.

Well, I am hungry and I need to do my homework

Bye, my friends!

Maritza Torres)

On My Own Again....

Laura was here for two weeks and it was so great seeing and drinking with her. She left today for her long trip home. After she left Santiago, I decided to come back to Valparaiso. I found a room to rent for the next few weeks.

Valparaíso is a hilly city by the bay with political protests in the streets....and I wonder why i like this city so much. I decided to not stay in Santiago for a month but to rent a room here in Valparaíso.

saludos de pucon....from Laura

Hello everyone!! So Martitza insisted that I write to everyone about our past few days since we met up in Santiago. There is one particular note worth event that I want to share with everyone before you here Maritza's twisted version. So here are the events that transpired one morning after a night of excessive drinking. So we went out drinking one night and it started with drinks at dinner, then we moved to a bar, then drank at the hostel, and the went out a bar in the wee hours of the morning. So it's safe to say that we were both hung over the next morning. Surprisingly enough I was up somewhat early, like 10-ish, but resisted getting up. Around 11 i started getting hunger pains and attempted to wake up Martiza but she refused and just grumbled and turned over. I waited another hour and decided to just go get food on my own since Martiza still refused to get up. I woke her up to tell her I was going out to grab lunch and planned to be back in time for our vinyard turo. I of course was polite and to the point but somehow Martiza interpretted it as me being mean and YELLING at her. So for the record, I was NOT enraged nor did I yell at her. So remember it's all LIES!

So now that the TRUTH is out there, I can move on. We arrived this evening in Pucon, after an 11 hour bus ride, which was actually tolerable, we had frequent stops to stretch our legs and grab food. And since we rode during the day the we saw a great deal of the country side, which is absolutely beautiful, green and lush, against the backdrop of ranging moutains.

I am in Panama

I just needed to share the crazy fact that I am in Panama. So crazy....

Okay, to be fair I haven't and won't be leaving the airport - but the fact remains I am in Panama right now. :)

Yo necesite compartir un hencho loco que YO estory en Panama. Muy Loco.

Esta bien, no he salido el aeropueto - pedo un hencho es YO estoy en Panama.

Maritza

Mas Espanol

Voy a salir de Gunanajuato pronto. Este dia, estoy saliendo a la Ciudad de Mexico porque tengo mi vuelo el Sabado a Chile. Estoy muy emocionada por ver Chile y mu amiga Laura tambien. Nunca he visitado Sudamerica, pero estoy cambiando eso en 48 horas.

He aprendido mucho espanol pero todavia es muy dificil para hablar con la gente porque hablo muy lento. No he practicado el espanol que yo necesito con mucha gente porque no me gusta hablar como tonta. Pero, pienso que es muy importante hablar como una tonta con la gente porque si he practicado todos los dias mi espanol mejor que ahora.

Adios!

(I am going to leave Guanajuato soon. Today, I am leaving to Mexico City because I have a flight on Saturday to Chile. I am very excited to see Chile and my friend Laura as well. I have never visited South America, but I am changing that in 48 hours.

I have learned much Spanish but still it is very difficult to speak with people because I speak very slow. I have not practiced Spanish like I need to with many people because I do not like speaking like a fool. But I think that it is ver important to speak like a fool with people because if I have practiced every day my Spanish better than now.

Bye!)

The Devil Line

Kammy and I decided to rent a car to go to Zihuatanejo because the van from her friends decided to become a small car. As many of you know the great driver I am and how much I love to drive - why in San Francisco I owned multiple cars just to drive something different everyday - but in Mexico it becomes slightly difficult.

Mexico has crazy drivers! And crazy lanes with crazy rules. Please be sure to watch out for people running across the freeway, which happened on more than one occasion for us. Be sure to go at least 140 km or the car behind you will ride your tail because you are going to slow. When a huge truck puts on his left blinker and rides on the end of the one lane he wants you to pass him, even with the double yellow lines and the cars doing the same thing on the other side. Watch out of the ramdom speed bumbs. And be sure to watch out for the devil line....

As i was driving on a two lane highway, a weird red line was right in the middle of my lane. It had bumbs on it so if your tire hit it you would know. The only way for my tires not going dunt dunt dunt is drving with the line in between my tires (because on the outide of the lane does the same for when you fall alseep). Anyways, this doesn't sound to bad right? Well it wasn't that bad until I realized that the cars on the other side was using this devil line as a way pass the cars in front of them. So two double yellow lines, than a red line in the middle of my lane - the cars would (without hesitation) cross the yellow lines but not the devil line.

Either way, driving in Mexico is pretty crazy. But we made it there and back safe and sound.

International Hoop Star

I met a friend: Kammy.

She is officially an International Hoop Star. She met some clowns (circus performers) and they asked her to be in their show. She was really great, hooping for about 5 minutes and sadly unable to bring out her fire hoop. She makes hoops by hand as a career: http://cosmichoops.net/

After the show, they asked her and myself to go the beach for the next week. I thought it would be a great idea to skip school and head down and get some dirty sand in between my toes (and if you have ever been to a beach with me, you would know how much I hate sand really really hate it - I only put up with the sand for the ocean and the sun and the tan i will get by the end.

Sorry to trail off topic, but there is much happening right now. Performances and people going to church to pay their respect, it is very lively here :)

Time Away from Time Away...

I am currently in Guadalajara enjoying my own hotel room without a host family and being on their schedule. I am already enjoying my own space.

I think I came to Guadalajara a couple years to early - it is a really nice city but they are in the midst of making it better being many sidewalks and streets being turned out. The cathedral is muy bonito but i really want to see it this evening, i can imagine it being a nicer image.

Having completely my own space has been so great, it makes me excited for Chile because I am planning on renting an apartment while I am there.

Update

I noticed I haven't updated this in a few days and I want to make sure i keep this going. The second week of school is going well, I am in pronunciation, two grammar classes and a vocab class. I think i am learning alot, but i think i should practice more. It is easier to speak in class but it gets a bit difficult when i have to do it with Real Live Mexicans! The good thing is people are mostly willing to help me with my Spanish especially in Cafes. My pronunciation is horrible, but i just learned something in class today that i hope will help me. I am still talking like a second grader which will be very difficult when i get to Chile because I heard they can talk pretty fast and they drop the end of words - not sure if that is true or not but there you go!

I've met two women here who are traveling with their kids, i think this is really awesome. They are staying with host families and taking Spanish courses here at my school. One woman has two kids and the other has one and is pregnant. I can imagine bringing my kids traveling because there is to much to see for me to stop when I have kids.

Ya me voy!

Maritza

Mi Espanol

A veces, voy a escribir espanol por que necesito practicar. Mi escuela muy bien. Voy a tomar cuatro clases semana proxima. Todas las noches, necesito hablar con mi familia antitriona y necesito hacer mi tarea. Estudio todas las noches por que es muy importante por mi. Quiero entender Espanol. Poco y poco, voy a aprender. Mi familia anfitriona es muy bien y van a concinar por mi a los tres todas las dias.

Gracias.

(Sometimes, i am going to write in Spanish because I need to practice. My school is very good. I am going to tak 4 classes next wek. Every night, I need to talk with my host family and I need to do my homework. I study every night because it is important to me. I want to understand Spanish. Step by step, I am going to learn. My host family is very nice and they are going to cook for me at 3 every day

Thank you)


I would have said "Thank you for reading" but i dont know how to say that yet. I speak very slowly but I am learning alot and in only one week.

Happy Birthday to Me

It's nice to know everyone is wishing me a Happy Birthday - the alerts I am receiving from Facebook.

I hope everyone goes out and celebrates my birthday with a good old fashion beer!...or wine or shot...

First Day in Mexico

I first arrived in Mexico forgetting why I decided to leave San Francisco. After seeing my friends and spending a lot of time with my family, I was already regrading my decision. I am guessing it didn't help that Senora Torres (the woman hosting me) would not allow me to sleep after my long journey from San Francisco, instead taking me to her sister's Birthday Dinner about an hour out of Guanajuato. I finally get to sleep at 7pm and start classes the next morning at 8am.

After a few classes, I remembered why I am in Mexico: for the adventure. I have four classes, none of my teachers speak English.

I think i will be learning quite a bit out here since Senora Torres and my teachers only speak to me in Spanish.

Hasta luego!

Good Bye San Francisco

A friend told me the bad thing about traveling for a year is that I wont get to live in San Francisco for a year. San Francisco became my home for the past 2 and a half years, I fell in love with this city. I created a life, a great life, that I am now giving up for a long awaited dream.

I am not sure if it was the lack of bike or the fact that it would be my last walk in San Francisco (for a while) which slowed me down for each corner sparked a memory. The bar where a couple drinks turned into a night out, the corner where the long walk home started because there were no cabs in sight and the table facing window where we sat on a date considering the irony of placement since we were hiding our relationship from the world.

San Francisco will always be part of me, but not until now did I realize I will always be part of San Francisco with my footprints all around the city.

Quitting MySpace

I am starting on this new adventure - something I've always wanted to do, something I thought I would never follow through with, something I have always feared. Now it is actually going to happen. I set everything I need in place to for this adventure and I cannot wait until I get it started.

I quit MySpace on Monday. My job, as you can imagine, was an obstacle to start this journey. On Monday January 6th, I called my Director and told her my plans to leave for a year to South America. I've been working at MySpace for three months, three short months. I was nervous out of my skin to quit - "what will people think of me?", "How many times will i hear - 'but you only just got here!'" or whispers of the woman who couldn't cut it at MySpace. None of these comments should matter, but they did to me. Stop caring what other people think should be my first lesson on this journey.