Vacation vibes

Hi there!! 

This is gonna be a long one so I hope you got time

As you all know, now in January I took a bit of a break from writing to my blog. But there's a reason for that. In the first few weeks I wasn't really doing anything, so I had nothing to write about and for the past two weeks I've been busy vacationing and getting to know Chile a bit better. So here's some highlights from January ;)

January 2020202020202020202020202020

Things that happened during January:

I slept. On a trampoline. Outside. Which maybe wasn't that smart but we did it anyway with our friends. Although I was pretty much the only one who actually slept. For about three hours in bits but that's still something. For the rest of the day I was just taking naps because I was so tired lol.

I played a lot of ultimate and a bit of basketball. I also had a basketball game where I - obviously - got my 5th foul in the fourth period and flew to the shower. Yes, we all thought that I had stopped doing that but apparently not. It was frustrating to play since I wasn't really on top of my game, probably side effects of not playing in a few months. oof.. whatever it was still fun

I went to Santiago for a weekend with my family to go buy clothes to my siblings who are going to Great Britain in February. During that trip I also bought myself a new phone

I got mad at my big brother because he was mocking my Spanish so I told him (in Finnish) that I'll talk to him only in Finnish for a week. That was pretty fun (not if you ask him though) and I think he learned his lesson. I'll definitely use that method again if I need to. Beware.

I left for a vacation

At the beach

Now that my brother had finally done his university qualification exams, we got to go to Viña del Mar, a Beach city about an hour drive from Santiago to the west. We spent there exactly a week, which was full of sand, beaches and the ocean. I also got to go to a sauna for the first time in 6 months!!! that felt absolutely amazing. I think all of my clothes are still full of sand since we were at the beach pretty much every day. I also got to try sandboarding which was really difficult but super fun :D Bathing in the ice-cold Pacific ocean with these tremendous waves was also a new experience (or maybe not totally new but something that I don't get to do everyday) and it was great, except for the sand, which is still EVERYWHERE. 

     

sandboarding was super hard but fun ahaha     

The sunsets at the beach were also super pretty      

The same day I came back from Viña, I already had to unpack my bags and start packing for my next trip to Punta Arenas which would start less than 24 hours later. The reason? To go explore the south and to of course go hang out with Ilona, the other afs exchange student from Finland. 

Punta Arenas and the freaking penguins

So on Thursday 23rd of January I left San Fernando at approximately 11.30 and we drove about 2 hours to Santiago, where my flight would leave at 4pm. Made it to the airport and found something to eat before the flight. The flight left on time and took about 3 hours, and I was in Punta Arenas at 7pm. Ilona and her host family were waiting for me at the airport and I got a really nice welcome. The first evening we didn't really do much, we baked Korvapuustit (Finnish cinnamon rolls) and watched some Finnish tv series.

DAY 1
We didn't really do anything in the morning (like any other day) but after having lunch at Ilona's grandparents' house we left to explore the city. We found a museum which was all about the history of the Chilean Patagonia and the region of Magallanes. It was quite interesting to see and read about everything that has happened there. After visiting the museum we met up with another exchange student Irene, who's from Italy. We went through some must-see tourist spots in Punta Arenas, and later in the evening I met some of their friends and yet another exchange student, a Hungarian Balazs.

A lot of friends and family (especially from Finland but some Chileans as well) kept asking me whether or not I can see penguins in Punta Arenas (which I think was an oddly specific question to be asked by that many people). Well, Ilona told me that there's an island full of penguins close to Punta Arenas, but that was just way too expensive for us. Luckily in the museum we went to there was some stuffed penguins so I just settled to take pictures of them. And Ilona of course.






DAY 2
Didn't do really much. Irene was with us again and we went to a tax-free shopping center and spotted some Moomin shirts (!!). In the evening one of Ilona's friends had a birthday party so we went there and I got to know even more people from Punta Arenas.

DAY 3
Another Italian exchange student, Filippo, flew to Punta Arenas in the morning and was headed to Puerto Natales in the evening so we were touring the city with him until his bus left. In the evening Irene also came with us to Ilona's house and we baked Mokkapalat (coffee brownies so to say) which turned out pretty good even though we forgot to put one egg in it.. oh well whatever. We also watched Mamma Mia because Irene hadn't seen it and I gotta say, it never fails.

We also visited a view point or something (lol i don't even know how to say that in english but in Spanish mirador and in Finnish näköalapaikka) where they had distances to different places all over the world. Finland was also represented by Tampere :D










DAY 4
Day four didn't really contain that much stuff. Except me and Ilona went to a piercing shop where Ilona got her ears pierced and I got a nose piercing (sori äiti <3) Later on we went to a shopping mall to hunt "summer" clothes for Ilona, since she'd be spending two weeks in mid-Chile (i don't know how to call that either lol).

DAY 5
My last day in Punta Arenas. We visited the cemetery which I've heard is a must if you're in Punta Arenas, it indeed was really pretty. For the rest of the day we were just hanging around in the city with Irene. We somehow decided to not to sleep during the last night because we had to wake up at 4.30 and we still had to pack our bags, so we just watched some more Finnish tv after packing. obviously. I didn't sleep at all, Ilona maybe half an hour. In the morning we made it to the airport in time and flew the 3 hours to Santiago. Didn't sleep AT ALL so I was going on like my 30th hour not sleeping. Felt great. But after we said goodbyes with Ilona at the bus terminal in Santiago I finally got on my bus to San Fernando and slept almost all the ride. When I came home I obviously slept for the whole afternoon and evening...


Overall January was quite productive, I met new people and got to take a break from everything and just relax. Now in February I'll be probably playing a lot of Ultimate because we have a tournament coming up.. Thank you for January to everyone who was a part of it, I hope your 2020 started off great. Peace out,


Saara