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.