It´s hard to believe I have been here almost three weeks already!  Boarding the metro this morning for my first day of classes without the usual support group of other CIEE students, I felt almost local (though I´m not sure all the true locals would agree.)  This weekend was amazing!  Friday night I got my first experience with Chilean cooking.  Although anyone who knows me in the states is aware that I am attempting to improve my culinary skills, even choosing a cake mix here proved challenging.  One of my fellow CIEE students was anxious to purchase the Pillsbury chocolate cake mix from Lider (neighborhood grocery store) so that at least part of the cake would taste "how it´s supposed to," so we ended up going with classic choclate and risking Chilean frosting.  My host family, who rarely cooks, lacked even the most basic measuring device, so we ended up trying our luck with mL, Celcius, and a large plastic CocaCola glass labeled "amateur," "professional" and "champion" printed at various increments.  (I think it´s safe to assume this glass was not originally intended for baking purposes.)  A fair number of my friend´s host family and Chilean friends attended, and although they threw in some local "chants" (the kind often heard at pro sports games) I think the art of "carreteria" is pretty much world wide.

     Early Saturday morning, myself and three friends set off for Cajon del Maipo, an mountainous area south of Santiago, equipped with energy bars, new hiking boots, and (of course) cameras.  We had no definite plans, but navigating the "Tur Bus" scene proved much easier this time, thus we were feeling brave enough to disembark prior to our anticipated destination.  (Basically we were sick of riding the bus and decided to get off as soon as we saw a promising cafe.)  As we watched the bus pull away, however, we realized that the town consisted of only two roads, both of them dirt.  One, according to the lady making empanadas at a stand constructed from corrugated metal, led into town and the other one led out of town.  Looking around at the sun baked mountains and lack of power lines, we realized that this could prove more of an adventure than we bargained for.  Even the gas station bathroom consisted of only a urinal and had a conveniently placed hole in the wall....Fortunately, we had a rare stroke of good luck.  While asking advice from the lady at the gas station counter, a nicely dressed man in a four wheel drive jeep pulled up, and eventually offered to give us a ride to a mountain lake near the border of Argentina.  Thus commenced the best few hours of my life.  The ride was amazing (think Dodge Ram commercials) as the man and his wife, (who was from Honduras and had trouble understanding Chilean Spanish herself,)  drove us on mountain roads, through a river, past various waterfalls, through snowy peaks....We had to stop several times, either to take pictures of the breathtaking landscape or to let herds of unattended goats cross the road.  Eventually we reached the lake, and were set free to explore.  Herds of wild horses ran free in the setting sun, and numerous mountain streams fed into the lake.  One of my fellow explorers has promised to post all of his digital camera pictures from this excursion on ifoto, so I will put a link up here pretty soon.  This experience was just amazing altogether.  One of my friends commented that it felt like we were standing on the edge of the world.  On the drive back, late Saturday night, we pulled over and watched the satellites go by as the Southern cross glistened just above the mountains. 

   It´s amazing when you´re in any foreign country how quickly frustration can turn into elation and vice versa, but it´s moments like those when you know what living is all about.