Testing Pictures

So apperantly you can post pictures to blog posts. Let's give it a try.


Awesome, it works. OK, so this is a lion. Right after I took this picture, it jumped up and ran after a gazelle, but it got tired after 100 feet and gave up. Lazy animal.


Mongoose!! Mongooses!? Mongeese?? What IS the plural of that word? Anyways, a pack of Banded Mongoose ran down the road and surrounded our car, making lots of peculiar high-pitched noises that could make a dog wince. On a side note, a mongoose can make a great pet- they're cuddly, affectionate, and have a personality. Our guide used to have one, but had to give it away because it attacked a safari guest and ripped off a bit of her nose. As someone who didn't quite make it into the famous quotations book said, you can take the animal out of the wild, but you can't take the wild out of the animal.
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In conclusion, picture uploading works. I'll try to make future post entries less snarky and self-conscious. Ciao.

Catching up

(Some readers might notice that I just copied and pasted this post from the Columbians Abroad blog. Those readers would be right. Congrats.)

It's been a really long time since I've posted here- here's what I've been up to recently:

I spent 2 and a half weeks with my parents in Amsterdam and on safari in Tanzania. It's impossible to describe tht trip without going into superlative overdrive, but it was amazing. It was the third time I've been to Amsterdam, but the first time I didn't have to sleep with my valuables under my pillow, the upgrade in hotels being a nice benefit of traveling with my parents. We did a lot of museums, walked around a lot, and got a good feel for the city- which in my mom's priceless words is like "Disneyland without all the fat people." In Tanzania, we had basically a private guided safari with a great South African guide (accent = very cool), stayed at camps in game reserves, and did some horseback riding. We also got to get incredibly close to a bunch of wild animals- check out my facebook album.

Since I've been back, I've had a had time getting over my jetlag- I now know what it feels like to be a geriatric, getting up at 5 AM and falling asleep into my food at the dinner table. To fill those awkward early morning hours, I've discovered the joy of online shopping (not that I didn't do it before, but I didn't realize how much nicer it was not to deal with salespeople) and been stocking up on things I'll need for Chile. And I'm so excited to be going in a week- both to be in Chile, and for this interminable break to end. Having something to do= priceless.

I got my info on my host family, and they seem pretty cool (at least judging from the postage-size picture of them in the email). Dad's an accountant, Mom works ambiguously "outside the house," and my brothers are a real estate agent and a first year university student. They live in the Ñuñua district, which is a middle class neighborhood near downtown with a lot of activity. Best part of the whole deal- wireless internet in the house!! Now I just have to resist the temptation to stay in and be on my computer all the time.

I've also gotten the names of some Santiguenos (?) to meet up with once I'm in Chile- family friends, the brother of a high school Spanish teacher, some others. And in the "its a small world" department, I also very randomly met a Chilean student at La Católica (where I'll be taking classes) while we were waiting for our plane to leave from an airstrip in the middle of the Serengeti. Don't know if I'll be able to meet up with them until after orientation, but it's nice to have some locals to meet and talk to and not potentially feel completely bound to the Butler people.

Until then, it's lots of packing, tying up loose ends, calling Citibank to brush up on my Indian accent comprehension skills, and saying goodbyes. More to come soon.