Adelante International Internships and Study Abroad

Leaving for Barcelona in two days! ...still not packed.

So this is my first journal entry! I am very excited to go to Chile in just a few weeks, but at this point I am minimally prepared. I am reading a couple of travel books about Chile to get an initial feel for the culture and everything before I get there. I still have to figure out what I need to pack! I have a lot of travel experience but I've never had to prepare for living in another country for two months. I feel like I have a lot to do, but I'm excited about doing it!

This weekend I went to La Serena. This town, 5 hours north of Viña, is the second oldest in Chile and boasts the clearest skies in the world.My travel buddy, Kara, and I went on the overnight bus Friday night and arrived early Saturday morning. We ate our TurBus breakfast in the bus station and walked two blocks to our Hostel Casa Maria at 6AM. After a nappy poo, we got out and about. We grabbed a collectivo to the beach and tried desperately to find food. It turns out that Saturday was the Chilean version of Labor Day, so everything was closed. We found a little outdoor cafe and tried to order a h...

I'll be arriving in Barcelona on May 1, 2010.  I'm super excited and nervous at the same time...hopefully I'll adapt to the lifestyle there quickly.  

The seasons continue to change here in Vina del Mar and day after day the weather gets cooler, cloudier, and the darkness creeps in a little earlier in the evenings. Just in time for Good Friday, we were all pleasantly surprised to be greeted with amazing Easter weekend weather! Thursday was brilliant and all the people of Vina flocked to the streets and beaches just like summer (but 1/5 of the population). Mara, Nunu, Pete and I decided to join them. We made sandwiches and packed up some other goodies to take to the beach. WE enjoyed basking in the sun, eating, reading and napping. After about 4 hours of...

Since the last update, after the tremors and tsunami scare, there still wasn’t much need for me at the winery. Peter actually went on Monday last week and we were told not even to come until Friday so they could “figure out what to do with us”. I heard that there was some damage to the front part, aka, “el palacio”, where the tour starts and the sales room is, so they weren’t doing tours for the week. I finally showed up at work on Friday the 12th, after 2 weeks of post-terremoto vacation, and was sadly surprised by a haggard, crumbling palacio. I wasn’t able to t...

Our last minute Mendoza adventure was spurred by the after-affects of the earthquake. Since the city was still getting back on its feet, there was no immediate need for our irreplaceable expertise…what a better way to spend the weekend than a bus ride to Mendoza? We left Vina del Mar at 10:30pm for the night bus. We got a sandwich, a cookie and some coffee…the comfy seats reclined and Mara kept getting hit on by the bus attendant. We traveled like royalty on our two story bus! I slept most of the way until our bus started rocking back and forth as we rode through the Andes. Although ...

1st of all, I’d like to thank the city of vina del mar for finally getting our water and electricity on! woot woot! After two full days and three full nights of no running water, lights or internet, I totally have a new appreciation for modern amenities. So wow, where do I start? I spent Thursday and Friday enjoying two days of sleeping in after my first three days at the winery. Friday, Mara and I spent a good part of the day soaking up some sun at the beach then met up with Dan and Pete to make tacos for dinner. That night the staff and other interns from the International Center i...

Saturday some of us made plans to head up north to another beach town called Con-Con; it’s about a 10-15 min bus ride on a micro from Vina. We have all been craving some good seafood and Diego told us about an awesome restaurant called la Pica de Martin. It’s so funny traveling places where you literally have no idea where you going, but somehow you get there... so we told the bus driver about the restaurant; which luckily he knew of, so when we got close he let us know and we jumped off. After asking a few people for directions we finally got there around 1:30. Our friend Dan is training for ...

So along with me, and Mara, my roommate who went to school at UNC, our other 2 roommates that just moved in are from Colroado, along with a guy in our Spanish class, Nunu, from Denver and another dude from Longmont! I guess Colorado is just cool like that- Well yesterday was a whirlwind of a day. We were at the International Center by 9:30am where we met Nunu, Michael and Peter; 3 guys that are apart of the program doing different internships in the area. We had an orientation together to go over schedules of work, classes etc. and then we took a bus to the Casablanca region for a tour at Vina Mar...