The Black Island

I am currently sitting in bed, listening to Jack Johnson, and painting my nails a lovely shade of purple.

Life has been quite a whirlwind recently and I need moments like these to regain my sanity. Would you like a recap? If so, continue reading. If not, scroll to bottom of page to view pictures :)


School hasn't been quite so painful. It is a little depressing to see that friends of mine in CA are already graduating while I still have seven more weeks of school before I am officially done with college. I just found out, however, that I have no final exams at the end of the semester! That makes the comingweeks seem not as daunting. The majority of the work I do in my classes are group projects and, so far, I have had a really great experience working with the Chilean students. They are so smart!Sometimes I forget that I am attending the most prestigious university in the country, but when I showup to class and one of my group members has taken it upon himself to plan our entire project andtype it all out in a Word document, complete with the school crest, I am quickly reminded.



I wish I could say that it has been smooth-sailing with my internship, but that would be a fat lie!If you don't remember, I have been working for Wedding Planner Chile, a Santiago-based, spanish-speaking event planning company. If you are friends with me on Facebook or Twitter,you have probably seen the blogs I have been writing for them. Well, today I quit the job. My boss has been treating me very badly... she has been condescending, unappreciative, rude, and recently, quite vicious. I am not the kind of person to take ill-treatment sitting down, so I wrote to my program director, found a new internship, and quit the old one. To put it simply, my boss was PISSED. I just don't understand how some people in positions of authority think it is okay to treat other people badly. My new internship sounds amazing though -- I will be working in a daycare for underprivileged children. BABIES!!!!!! I love babies.
  
Other than that, life has been good. I haven't been doing much... last weekend I stayed bundled upin my bed/the Starbucks next door reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hossieni. What a beautiful, moving story. I love falling into a book like that. The book is on my TO READ list, which reminds me that I really need to start working on my Day Zero Project!!The reason I haven't been doing much lately is that I have been trying to save money for my HUGE trip in July. Speaking of which, my partner in crime & I have just bought our flight tickets! Our plan is to travel through Montevideo, Uruguay to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Buenos Aires, Argentina (with a few possible stops in Iguazu Falls, Tigre, and Colonia).I am so excited! Taking this trip, however, means I literally cannot spend a dime until July.The other day I bought a burrito from taco bell (which was super gross), a generic face wash, and bobby pins. Do you know how much that cost me? TWENTY DOLLARS. Ughh Santiagois such an expensive city to live in. I can't believe I ever thought it would be cheap to come here!When I return home, according to my very tight budget, I will have a negative bank account.Looks like I'll be spending my summer working off all my debts...


Without further ado, here are some pictures I totally forgot about.I went on a field trip with my program a couple of weekends ago, but you know how I feel about tours.We visited the houses of many Chilean artists/poets. It was pretty enough, I suppose, because we spent the majority of the day by the beach. The reason I went was I have been itching to get to Isla Negra, the third and most important of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's houses, and this wasa free way of getting there (it is two hours outside of Santiago). Vale la pena. (It was so worth it!)




























the end ♥

Some Peace & Quiet

Getting settled in my new apartment & trying to register for classes has been completely 

exhausting... To retain some sanity, I have been taking solace in my pretty little room.

Exhibit A:

I hung these pretty little birdies I bought from an artisan in Chiloe (I will talk about 

Chiloe later) from a light in the center of my room and it is incredibly cathartic 

watching them spin around, casting shadows on my long red curtains.  

Exhibit B:
While on vacation in Patagonia, I read "My Life in France" by Julia Child in its entirety 

and completely fell in love. It reminded me of "Eat. Pray. Love.," I think

due to the whole "leaving your tired, old life at home and running off to discover 

a new world, and in doing so, discovering delicious foods and yourself as well!" thing.

Inspired, I walked over to the campus book shop and picked up some new/old reading material.

Exhibit C:
After a terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad morning of registering for classes,

 I dragged myself back to my apartment, ready for a long, hot shower. 

My mood completely lifted when the concierge downstairs handed me the 

bouquet of 2 dozen roses that was sitting on his desk. Anniversary gift from Bryan ♥




I mean, I guess I haven't been suffering TOO much... hehe.
I also had an amazing night out with friends this past weekend to celebrate
a friend's birthday and ended up trying duck for the first time at a little French bistro.
Yum!!! Yay for new experiences!! Speaking of which...

Our last day in el Parque Nacional Torres del Paine was spent
dillydallying over to a beautiful waterfall and encountering many, many
guanacos on the way. Guanacos are a type of llama, btw, and they
are so awesome! We were literally walking with them on the road.
And when we reached the waterfall, we were thrilled to see
that there was a rainbow over it. Absolutely breathtaking.












The waterfall was amazing and seeing it definitely inspired me to plan a trip to
Iguazu Falls in Argentina! And possibly to Niagra Falls in the more distant future.

Well it is way past bedtime here so I bid thee goodnight!
¡Buenas noches!