Photo Contest: My Selections

Thanks SO MUCH to everybody who helped me choose which photos to enter in the UCEAP photo contest!
I'm completely indecisive, so your votes really guided my decision. Here are the four I ended up choosing:




Wish me luck!
♥

Photo Contest

I need your help! I am trying to enter a photo contest thatthe University of California Education Abroad Program is holding.Students are asked to enter two photos in each of the three categories:

1. Tells a story about an experience unique to your host country (interaction with locals, cultural events, festivals, holidays, extracurricular activities/sports)

2. In the field (shows work activities on internships/research/volunteer projects)

3. Host country travel (something really special/unique you saw while traveling in your host country. Bring out your inner National Geographic photographer with your amazing (or just plain lucky!) shots.

Although I have no photos to enter into the second category, I am going to enter two photos each into the first and third. 
Can you please vote for your first and second choicesfor each section (4 total)?
♥ ♥ ♥
CATEGORY 1: SOMETHING UNIQUE TO MY HOST COUNTRY


Viña Concha y Toro is the largest producer of wines in Latin America. Although these grapes were being cultivated to be used in wine, our tour guide let us taste them from off the vine. They were so juicy and delicious! 


Pablo Neruda, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971,has three homes in Chile. Visiting his eccentric and colorful house in Santiago was like stepping into the mind of a true artist.


Going to the General Cemetery of Santiago was an eye-opening experience. While the front of the cemetery was filled with beautiful plants, winding paths, and tombs built for kings, the back of the cemetery was in shambles -- there were graves crumbling apart, litter and weeds in every corner, and an overwhelming feeling of neglect.It really highlighted the class differences that still exist in Chile today. 

Did you know that Chile produces more copper than any other country in the world?This is a picture of some UC students taking a tour of El Teniente, the world's largest underground copper mine. 


The view of Santiago from the top of Cerro San Cristóbal


This is the Garden of Roses at the Villa Grimaldi Park for Peace, which used to be one of the many torture centers that were constructed during the dicatorship of Agusto Pinochet. There was a rose planted to represent every woman who was executed at the center. The inscription on the fountain is a quote from a Gabriela Mistral poem which says, "Todas ibamos a ser reinas," which translates to "We were all to be queens".

Which photo is your FIRST choice for the culture section?
	grapes
	dangling eyes
	cemetery
	mine
	cityscape
	roses
pollcode.com free polls

Which photo is your SECOND choice for the culture section?
	grapes
	dangling eyes
	cemetery
	mine
	cityscape
	roses
pollcode.com free polls

CATEGORY THREE: TRAVELING


This is me standing at the base of the Cordillera del Paine, the legendary  mountain range at the Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, Chile. The entire hike (there and back) took us ten hours. 


Where we camped one night in the Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, Chile. I didn't edit this photo -- it came out misty because it was SO COLD and rainy the night before.  


A Guanaco (type of llama) standing on a mountain  with one of the peaks of the Cordillera del Paine in the background. Taken in the Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, Chile. 

Which photo from the NATIONAL PARK is your first choice for the traveling section?
	me at the top of the cordillera
	tents in the campground
	llama on top of the mountain
pollcode.com free polls

The following three photos are from Isla Magdalena, an islandin the Magellan Strait which is home to 150,000 penguins. 

Which photo of the PENGUINS is your first choice for the traveling section?
	photo #1
	photo #2
	photo #3
pollcode.com free polls

♥ ♥ ♥ 
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR VOTING. By the way, by entering this contest I will be accomplishing goal#077: Enter a contest.♥

CARE PACKAGE

Firstly,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO
MY SISTER MICHELLE!

♥♥♥

In other news,

awhile back I asked my mom to send me some Mini Eggs (faveee) but

she ended up sending me an entire Easter basket filled with goodies!

I binged on Mini Eggs for about 2 minutes and then I literally had to pack all the

candy into the back of my closet so I didn't eat it all right then and there, haha.

I feel so loved :)

Oh, you're probably wondering why there are so many Thumpers!

When I was young, my mom used to say I looked like Thumper...

Blame it on the cheeks :/

Thanks Mom :)))))) You made my day! 

♥

Coochie Coochie Coo?!

While in Cusco, we thought it might be a good idea to do productive things (i.e. take a tour, see something historic). Despite the fact that we (okay, I) could never remember the name (kachacoco? kurichachii? coocooracha?), we were all dying to see the Qorikancha. The temple, which was dedicated to the Incan sun god, was the most important temple of the Incan empire. Although it was destroyed by Spanish conquistadores, scholars say that the walls and the floors of the temple were at one time made of pure gold and that the huge courtyard was filled with golden statues (all stolen by the conquistadores). Despite everything, the site was still absolutely beautiful. We ended up lingering around the courtyard for quite some time, and then went off to do some damage at a souvenir shop/fair/bazaar.

















Upon our return back to the main plaza, we realized that we had come to visit Cusco at an exciting time -- Semana Santa, or Holy Week. The plazas were BURSTING with people, as though all of Cusco had come out to watch the annual Semana Santa parade. I was reallyexcited to watch the festivities play out, but they ended up being pretty anticlimactic.  Some people carried out a statue of (a very black?!?) Jesus,people (who were tied to the pillars of a church) threw flowers at him,and... that was all. I expected more jubilation. #spoiledbydisneyland











Seriously though... Cusco??  SUCH a interesting city.We were sad to leave it the next day -- but not too sad!I mean, we were going to see MACHU PICCHU!!!!!