National Parks and I....

So.....last Saturday, in the morning, I walked al centro to meet up with a friend of mine to buy my plane ticket (more on that in a sec). She came with me to make sure that I got a good deal and wasn´t cheated (everyone knows I´m a foreigner..) After that we walked around talking and such...and that was the morning (keep in mind that it takes about 45 minutes to walk from my house downtown, and that´s going at a good pace..with a friend it takes at least an hour). In the afternoon, I hung out with another friend, Harold, for about an hour before meeting up with Claudia again to find one of the English teachers houses and work on the debate. When I arrived home, noone was there. I found a note saying my fam would be back soon; I had figured noone would be there, because I had heard talk of a birthday for a friend of my host parents. Awhile later, another phone call asking if I was ok, and saying that they would be home much later (ie the next morning...hehe) Gonzalo called in the afternoon and asked what I was doing sunday..and so far didn´t have any plans. I was invited to go with him on a mystery excursion (the mystery part being that I had no clue where we were going..only that it was a tour thing, I had to bring a lunch, and extra clothes, and that it was a day in the outdoors...) So...I woke up at 8 to call Gonzalo and wake him up....and then got my lunch together, ate some breakfast and was ready when he picked me up at 8:45. We waited at his house, chillin and talking (a bit about the standard chilean lateness..as we were supposed to be picked up at 9, and they arrived at 9 45) And then we got in the vans and headed out. I met another english teacher volunteer (this one actually from england...) so it was cool to talk to her a bit. We stopped at some old boats that are beached. They were pretty cool, took some pics and such. It´s hard to describe them.....A lady sitting next to me in the van brought back a piece of rhubarb, not knowing if I would know what it was. I did....And then we got back in the vans and continued driving......I had no idea how long the drive was. Turns out in total about 2 1/2 hours. We arrived at Parque Nacional Pali Aike. I had read about this park...and was excited that we had gone here (but I mean really..i would have been stoked about anywhere...) I had kinda figured tho that since the park was a fair distance, I may not get to see it. It is the site of an old volcano....so there was lots of volcanic rock and an immense amount of wide open space, it was gorgeous. Also some very cool mosses and stuff on the rocks (i tested out my artsy picture taking skills....) We saw evidence of pumas...but no live evidence (kinda glad about that...) Lunch was an interesting experience with all the wind.....the vans were parked strategically to try and block it. We went into the volcano....as in climbed down, very carefully....normally you put your hands on the grass to keep from sliding....but this wasn´t grass (forget the name) but it pricked and stuck into your hand...so no dice with that one. We were originally sposed to be back in Punta Arenas at 5...but at that hour we were still in the park (without cell phone reception...). At about 6 20ish..my parents were contacted and told I´d be arriving home later. Gonzalo mentioned how red my eyes were..but I didn´t think much of it on the way home. We were lucky..because I learned that it had rained most of the day in Punta Arenas, but we had had gorgeous sun. I ate a bit of food..then headed to bed, exhausted from a day of hiking and being outside. The next morning...my eyes were super sore, and I couldn´t actually open one of them. I didn´t go to school, and spent most of the day in my bed. I was able to open my eye only for short periods of time, and what I saw was very blurry. The worrying thing was that I had my contacts in, and my eyes were so swollen and painful that I couldn´t take them out. I wore my sunglasses at lunch....because the light hurt and also to spare my host family from looking at it....Tuesday morning, I again didn´t go to school...and was finally able to remove one of my contacts at around 10 30. (in the eye that was mostly normal)..it was incredibly dry. skechy. I was able to see much much better, and figured I would go get my Chilean id card and deposit the money for my trips...(again....i´m keeping you in suspense...hehe) since these things can only be done in the mornings, and I figured i probably shouldn´t miss another morning of school..due to the upcoming lack of class....I got to the bank after getting my card (went about 8 blocks too far in the collectivo, so had a nice walk...) and learned that apparently i needed my passport to deposit money...so I returned to my house, removed my other contact, ate lunch, and then headed back to the bank. After that...I quickly went home and changed to go to school in the afternoon. There have now been many comments about how the wilderness and I don´t get along (first leg, now eye....). I still love it tho. Wednesday, classes in the morning, and in the afternoon I helped out with the english debate again. We were told Tuesday that we are the opposition team to censoring the internet...while we had been told the previous week we were the proposition; therefore we have had to redo all our arguments. Very frustrating..especially since the other group knew the whole time that they were the proposition....we lost more than a week of work! After working on that...I went home and hung out there for a bit until Harold came by to go watch soccer. There are binational games between Chile and Argentina right now, so the stands were packed. The game with Punta Arenas started at 10 at night....(we watched the first as well..starting at about 8ish). I was...as usual, a bit sick and so we walked back to my house around 11 or so, at the middle of the game. The next morning, many of my classmates and I were very tired (they had stayed til the end....around midnight....punta arenas lost 3-2, the other team scored in the last minute...). Yesterday,morning classes. At lunch, I talked with Maxiel for a while (she had gone to argentina for a week) and then walked back to school to help out with the debate. We spend a lot of time on it...but talk about other stuff too, and its fun, so it doesn´t seem like work to me, which is good. I left around 6ish to meet up with Harold and we talked as we watched some track stuff (hurdles and the 4 by 4....and I had fond memories of the west hill track team...) Then we walked to a gym downtown (which i didn´t know existed) to watch some basketball, meeting up with another friend, Pierre along the way. After that, we walked back to my house and I pretty much headed straight to bed, talking a bit with my host parents and grabbing a bite to eat. And now..here I am..friday morning...exhausted from 2 nights without a ton of sleep and....now goingto tell you about the reason for the plane ticket.
Next Friday morning (at 20 to 8..what was I thinking when I bought the ticket?) I am flying out of Punta Arenas to Santiago. Then..the 18th, I am joining a group of other exchange students (from the santiago district) and heading to the north in bus for 9 days. Should be fun......Then, I´m staying in Santiago for a few days...and going on another Rotary trip to Easter Island!!!! We return to Santiago the 6th, and I return to Punta Arenas the 7th. When I get back, there are no classes the 8th...and the oldest year...the cuartos, finish classes on the 7th....it´ll be weird my last week of school with like 100 of the students gone.
So....i have no idea when I´ll blog next, and no idea if I´ll be blogging on my trip, but I´m sure it´ll be amazing (and I´ll be trying very hard not to get some kind of injury....)