Photo Contest: Vote Again!!!

I don't know if you remember but, about a month ago, I asked for you to help me choose which pictures I should enter in a photo contest. 
First of all, the deadline to enter the contest wasn't May 1st -- it is May 31st! So I accidentally sent in my photos a month early! Secondly, at the time, I was only eligible to enter my photos in category #1 and category #3. Now that I have a new internship, however, I am eligible for category #2: 
2. Photos in the field (shows work activities on 
internships/research/volunteer projects)
Which photo do you like the best?Which photo do you like second best?
♥ ♥ ♥

I work as an intern at the Ichauc Kindergarten, which belongs to the Kairos Corporation for Education and Social Promotion. The kindergarten provides educational services, food, and healthcare to 107 children in need, whom range in age from three months to 5 years.

Which picture is the best?
	boy with red turtleneck
	boy lying on bricks
	close-up of a little girl
	girl climbing jungle gym
pollcode.com free polls

Which picture is the second best?
	boy with red turtleneck
	boy lying on bricks
	close-up of little girl
	girl climbing jungle gym
pollcode.com free polls

THANK YOU!

All My Children

Here we are, at weekend 2 of 6. CRAYZAY! Here's a recap:

On Thursday, the internet shut off in my neighborhood. You know those nights when the power goesout and you and your family/friends kind of camp out together and light candles and it feels kind oflike "the olden dayz"?? That is what it felt like! Rachel & I had minor panic attacks and then camped out in my room, chatting, eating candy, and watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall on TV. Isn't it crazy how dependent upon the Internet our generation is? In our defense, our Internet addictions have spiraled out of control since we've been studying abroad. YOU try being on a different hemisphere from your family and friends and everything you have ever known with only a cheap pay-as-you-go cell phone on which you can't even make international calls! It's a hard knock life!Come Friday morning the connection was fixed and our lives went back to normal :)


Oh guess what?! I brought my camera to my internship on Friday!! The kids were sooo excited and kept demanding that I take pictures of them. They had a dance performance that day, so, if you were wondering, NO they don't dress in these kinds of clothes/wear hooker makeup on a daily basis haha














Look at this child and tell me you do not love him. His name is Alonso. I love his huge eyes and chubby cheeks but my favorite thing about him is his voice. I don't know if I can describe it... it is like a baby munchkin robot voice HAHAH. Love <3


This is Fabian.  I juusst may be in love with him. Such a sweetheart. Maybe I feel attached to him because he kind of looks like one of my nephews. Or maybe it has something to do with that smile. 


Danae is my secret favorite. She reminds me a lot of myself when I was her age. First of all, we had the same haircut hahaha. And despite the fact that her mother always dresses her up really pretty and girly, come recess time she is always out playing with the boys. Just like I used to! 


Okay and Francisca is just adorable. She pretends she is a cat at ALL times. 


When I got home from the internship, I collapsed in bed and nearly didn't make it out to go to the Mexican Food potluck that my friend was hosting. Ummm hello I said nearly!! I was NOT going to miss the opportunity to eat REAL LIVE mexican food! I ended up making jalapeño popper dip (which did not turn out as good as it did the first time I made it...but it was a strange cooking situation haha).By the end of the night, however, I noticed that the pan was scraped clean. Great success.My friends and I sat around a table for most of the night (blame it on our food comas) debatingabout: politics, religion, western medicine, the food industry, animal rights, and more!Call me crazy but I live for nights like those. You could tell that some people felt uncomfortableby all of the differences in opinions we had, but I honestly enjoy hearing other peoples' points ofview, whether I agree with them or not. I think it is quite amazing that we live in a world where it is possible to disagree with someone while still having complete respect for them and where having different perspectives/values/choices doesn't have to affect your friendship in any way.
Saturday was homework day for me. I hung out at Starbucks with my friend Jade and wrote a pretty darn good paper en español about Mapuche religion. We'll see what my Chilean group members think about it hahaha... Today will be spent doing more homework, applying to jobs (help meeee), and baking oatmeal raisin cookies :)
Cheers to another successful weekend!
♥

Our Time is Running Out

I have spent a lot of time recently missing home like crazy. The things I miss most:

Surprising Melissa at her apartment in Irvine whenever I happened to be in town and cuddling with her in bed whenever we went back home, even though there were three other empty beds in the house.



Staying up all night with Desiree, whether we were watching movies and binging on junk food or sitting outside on the balcony, telling each other all of our boy problems and/or singing an old pop song at the top of our lungs.




Sending Michelle back to her room to change out of her wacky outfits before we went somewhere together and staying up all night researching gluten-free recipes for her, even though I am pretty sure I cared a lot more about allergen-free cooking than she did.




And I should probably add that I miss (almost... hehehe) everything about my boyfriend like crazy.




Last week, however, it dawned on me that I only have SEVEN weeks left in Santiago. Okay if you think of it like that, it sounds like a long time. Think of it like this: I only have to go to each of my classes seven more times. And what sounds even crazier -- I only have six weekends left in Santiago! Five, now that this weekend has come and gone! Suddenly I feel like time is slipping away too fast. 

I decided that during the week I am going to buckle down on my school work and on the weekends I am going to put every effort into exploring the city and enjoying this experience while it still lasts. After all, who knows if I'll ever get the opportunity to visit Santiago again? 


Let us begin the countdown. For your reading pleasure, here's a recap of WEEKEND 1 of 6
On Thursday (yeahhh my weekend started on Thurs!), some of my friends & I had a much neededgirl's night. They came over to my apartment and we spent the night drinking wine, eating warmgooey brie on slices of toasted baguette, and talking about everything under the sun. So necessary.
Friday morning I woke up at the crack of dawn and went to my new internship, which is at adaycare one hour outside of Santiago. It was completely exhausting but so rewarding. The kids loved it when I spoke English (one boy thought I was speaking Chinese...) and proceeded to requestthat I speak it all day. Every time I gave in to their requests, they answered me in a chorus of laughter. It was pretty amusing. Oh I may or may not have told them that Justin Bieber is my "pololo" (a Chilean slang word for boyfriend) and they honest-to-goodness believe me. I have a feeling that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship :)
 

Friday evening I went out to Santiago Centro to work on a photography project with Andrea, a friendfrom class and fellow EAP student. We're in this class that is called Visual Language, where we learnabout all of the elements of an image that contribute to the message communicated by the image.It is a communication class but entirely different from the types of communication classes we take at UCSB, where the focus is on the act/theory/research of communication -- not the modes ofcommunication. Anyway here are the photos we selected for our project. We had to find a haiku poem and then assign a photo to each line of the poem.  I'm super nervous because all of the students in our class are literally artists and the grades we've received on past projects have been less than stellar. 
taking a rest

I let the city noises 

leak out of my ears


Oh I forgot to mention that when Andrea & I went to Santiago Centro to take pictures, we stumbled upon a protest! We've been warned by our EAP program to avoid protests here because Santiagois a pretty politically volatile city and the rallies have been known to get out of hand. Think policeraids and tear gas. Many Chileans are angry because the government approved a hydroelectric project, which would dam two rivers in Patagonia (remember that beautiful place?), one of Chile's pride & joys. Apparently the protest got pretty violent later that night but luckily Andrea & I left before that! I have always wanted to go to a protest so I was pretty pumped to be in the midst of it all. I am definitely going to try to go to some protests when I return home and fight for causes that I am passionate about, like gay rights. 


Going to that protest means I have accomplished goal:#089: Attend a political event


Saturday afternoon I went to a mall in Las Condes with my friend Lara, where we indulged in café helados, watched Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (which we loved!!), and haddinner & a few drinks at Ruby Tuesdays (we would find the most gringo place there...). It was an amazing (and really expensive) day. 

 
(the view from outside of my apartment)
And as a perfect end to my weekend, I spent Sunday all cozied up in a corner of Starbucks-- my favorite place to do homework. 
YAY FOR A PRODUCTIVE WEEKEND. 1 down, 5 to go! 
P.S. Sorry for the long post :/