How (not) to apply to grad school from South America, and other misadventures

I wrote a poem some time ago about how much I distrust and dislike our culture’s dependence on technology. Big Brother must have been watching me scribble away from the built-in camera on my Mac. He is now determined to make me pay the karmic price for saying, “What’s ‘tweet’??” and “I hate Facebook.”


So, hear me Microsoft Melusina, Facebook Fiend, P.C. Posidon, “The Cloud.” Mea culpa! Lo siento! Je suis desolee! Entschuldigung! I’m sorry! Please just let my computer survive and connect to the internet long enough to apply to grad school.

You may remember that the last time I took a computer abroad, a two-year-old projectile vomited on it. (For the full account – which I’m sure you want after such a lovely brief description – click here: http://troisbisous.blogspot.com/2009/09/small-preface-au-cas-ou.html). This time wasn’t quite as dramatic. Lauren and I were simply moving to the last shaded corner in the courtyard of our hotel in Mendoza when a loop of my power cord caught on the arm of a lawn chair and jerked my netbook right out of my arms. It thunked the slate patio and continued to work juuuuust long enough for Lauren and I to laugh about what a disaster it would have been if it had broken. Ha. Ha.

Fortunately – the luck in the unluck – not only was the manager of our hostel a computer technician, but his entire family was as well. I sent my Acer off with a random Tio who brought it back to me the next morning with a new 500 GB hard-drive (hello thousands of trip photos, hello). Everything’s dandy except that the entire thing is in Spanish. Windows, spell check, Skype, EVERYTHING. It’s also taken to making mystical Peruvian-esque noises whenever I do something it doesn’t like. But, it works. It’s still a capricious bugger when it comes to Wi-Fi, but it works. I just need to remember to pass everything through Lauren’s computer for spellcheck before submitting grad school applications. Helo, my nme is Briann Carpeter and I am a perfec candidat fore your vary selectiv programm. I’m smrt and I writ pomes.

Other than that rather significant blotch on the radar, Mendoza was ideal. Plenty of sunshine and wine, some of the world’s friendliest people, and an odd cat to distract us when personal statements got too boring.

The courtyard at the hostel in Mendoza.

On our second-to-last day in Mendoza, we went on a vineyard tour. Neither Lauren nor I claim to be a wine connaisseur in any way, so it was amusing when the first guide asked us if we had ever been on a vineyard tour/wine tasting. We smiled, said, “Oh, some.” He said, “Where?” “Hmmm, well, Bordeaux, Southern Germany, Napa, Sonoma, Virginia, New Zealand, Tuscany....” At this point we realized how ridiculous we sounded, so we finished with a sound “Queremos vino...mucho.” Well, said. Well, said.

We got to visit some really lovely vineyards and try some wonderful wines. At the second vineyard – an organic one that does nearly all of the work, including labling, by hand – we also got to try olives and this quince gelee that was unbelievably good. It tasted fruity and floral-sweet and had the texture of something half-way between preserves and fruit leather. You’re supposed to eat it with cheese, but I think I could have chomped down the entire brick allll by itself.

Lauren and I enjoy our first taste of Bonarda.

The charming organic winery.

Vineyards with the hazy Andes in the background.

We (sadly) left Mendoza for Santiago, where we stayed for a day (our one destination was a famous gelatto cafe) before heading south to Puerto Montt. Upon arrival in Puerto Montt we began following some very vague directions to the organic vegetable and goat farm. We got on a packed bus full of Chileans who clearly thought we were getting on the wrong bus. It was the kind of bus that doesn’t stop unless you ask it to. Lauren had to repeat “Kilometre 30, por favor!” about a million times before the bus got it. He dropped us off at Kilometre 30 in front of a small sign that said “Pte. Metri.” We took some happy-giddy pictures of our new home and began to imagine all the exciting scrambles we could have along the coastline.

Our directions told us to “go over the bridge and head up a hill toward some houses.” Which we did. In both directions. Several times. With all of our luggage. Finally we decided to head back down the hillside to La Universidad de los Lagos (I read online that they study fish migration) to ask for directions. A very kind man came out to greet us. He only spoke Spanish. “Somos perditas. Claro.” I said. (We’re lost. Obviously.) “Buscamos una granja.” (We look for a farm.) “La granja de Matias Doggenweiler, un Allemange.” (The farm of Matias Doggenweiler, a Gireman – which is what my made-up word for “German” probably sounded like.) “Sabez?” (You know?)

Miracle upon miracle, he did know. And where was the farm?? Only straight back up the hill we’d just hiked down. So, we made our way back up, found the sign, and traipsed around the property for a good 30 minutes look for...well... a farm, a farmhouse, farmers. Instead we made some nice animal friends and found several run-down greenhouses and storage sheds. The absence of any sort of welcome gave us a weird vibe. We decided to can it. Even if there were nice farmers around the corner, it didn’t seem like a place we’d want to be, especially for three weeks. We spent a couple minutes contemplating stealing the farm cat, decided against it, and hit the road.

We hiked a couple miles back to this little kiosk where we bought a Coke and some potato chips, pulled out our guide book, and re-stratagized. We took what was possibly a school bus back to Puerto Montt where we decided to stay for a day or two to regroup and figure out our next step (and shower.)

So here we sit, in a gorgeous room on the tenth floor overlooking the bay (thank you Mr. Eriks for those Holiday Inn points!!!). The sea gulls swoop incredibly close to our window. We’ve seen not one, not two, but three rainbows since noon. Our ‘clean’ clothes are drying on every available surface. The sun is setting and we’re about to open a bottle of cab. Maybe it’s just one of those times where you have to take an overnight bus, hike up a couple hills, and wander around in the rain before you get to someplace you didn’t expect to go, but can’t imagine having missed.

Ta-ta Bogota

Preparing for the expected before a trip like this is hard work enough. My clothes will start stinking, my socks will get fusty, I will often have to have wet hair. I will sleep in a cold tent, eat dehydrated food, and probably get some dizzying gastro-intestinal illness even if I take all the right precautions.

I think I spent so much time before leaving repeating things like that to myself, that I rather forgot prepare for the unexpected. (As if you ever really can...) (Also, mom, this is not the set up for anything epic, dangerous, or terrible).

In all of my preparation for this trip, I have been thinking SOUTH America. In theory, I knew I was heading to spring, but that was difficult to imagine in the 100+ degree heat in DC. When I think South America, I think sunshine, Latin beats, the Amazon. Probably true in coastal places, probably true in Bogota in the summer. Not true right now. When Lauren and I arrived at the hostel, it was barely 60 degrees and none of the buildings have central heat (or heaters of any sort). There was a fire place in one of the main rooms, but the wood was in short supply. I pretty sure we burnt an old set of bunk beds one night...

As most of you know from my near-constant harping, I am trying to finish graduate school applications during the first part of this trip. Lauren and I were very intentional about booking only hostels and hotels with wireless internet. So, when my computer refused to recognize the signal in our hostel in Bogota, I was devastated. (Though, if I had slept more on the plane, I may have been slightly less dramatic about it.) Much of what I have to do doesn't require the internet, but a lot of it does. Blogging, for one thing :)

The deal-sealer though, was the lack of heat. 62 is pleasant when you're walking around the city, hiking, or doing jumping jacks. It is less pleasant when you are sitting still five feet away from a socket for hours. I'm sure it sounds silly, dramatic, wimpy to be saying this, but apparently being warm is an important component to productivity.

Lauren and I - trying on our ultra-flexible, boho travel spirits - had emotional breakdowns. And then regrouped and decided we needed a more relaxing, warmer, less rainy environment to work in. We re-booked our flight to Santiago and left mountainous Bogota for the "semi-desert" climate of Mendoza, Argentina. In addition to being warm and sunny, Mendoza is also the wine-growing capitol of Argentina. If you have ever had a glass of Malbec, you know the delight. If you haven't, wire the cash and I'll ship you some :)

Miracle upon miracle, the internet works on my computer here. We have a lovely room with a desk and our own bathroom. The door opens onto the back terrace that has tables and chairs and a awning of blooming wisteria. If you plucked me up and plopped me here, I'd probably think I was somewhere in northern Italy.

The sun is glorious, the good wine cheap, and the rocking personal statements forthcoming.

I hope this update finds you all well. I'll leave you with some pictures of Bogota from the one nice day we had. It is really quite lovely in the sun. On the sunny day, Lauren and I took a cable car up to a beautiful church on one of the mountains overlooking Bogota. The view was stunning. She brought here pocket-sized camera and has some pictures up on her blog:

wanderyear.blogspot.com



The view from the front door of our hostel.



View from the courtyard of the upper balcony of the hostel.




The really pretty, tiled bathroom.


Courtyard.




Hostel puppy!

And...we're off!! Lauren and I leave on our around-the-world adventure at 1:00am on Thursday, September 8th. As many of you know, we've been scheming since college. The destinations have changed along the way, but the end goal has stayed the same: have an epic adventure (and try to learn some Spanish along the way!). With graduate school looming (hopefully!) on the horizon, it's either now or never.

As soon as I know what blog she'll be updating, I'll post that link here. Twice the fun! I think the internet situation will be favorable for the first half of the trip, so the updates should be (relatively) frequent.

Here's the skeleton itinerary:

Bogota, Colombia (two week retreat to work on grad school applications...haha)

Chile

Peru

Home for Christmas!

Hong Kong (two day stop-over)

Thailand

Cambodia

India

Nepal

United Arab Emirates (one day stop-over)

We've got various volunteer gigs mapped out along the way. We'll be volunteering on an organic farm in southern Chile where we'll help with the spring planting and learn how to make goat cheese! Then we'll be off to hike in Patagonia after which we'll make our way up to Huaraz, Peru. Huaraz is at the base of the Andes (ie: more hiking and even MORE pictures of mountains). We'll be volunteering with an organization that tutors/teaches some of the poorest children in the city. We'll head home for Christmas mid-December and take off again on January 2nd, 2012 for Leg II. (More on Leg II later when Leg II seems a little more like an eminent reality and a little less like an interesting idea).

For the past several days, I haven't gone anywhere without my multi-topic to-do list. It's sitting here on the counter giving me the Evil Eye. Apparently it thinks that I should be doing things like "pack" and "make copies of passport" instead of updating my blog... pshaw!

Crunch time is crazy.

I'll be writing the next post while looking out at the mountains with a steaming cup of Colombian coffee in hand. Oh, and I think our room has a fireplace :)

Thanks for coming along for the ride! Please send emails or comments along the way... it's so good to hear from folks when you're far away.