Travel Life.

So far I've only mentioned the cities themselves, but I thought some of you might be interested in the rest of travel life... So here's some travel overviews for you!

Hostels.
As someone who'd never stayed in hostels before, it was quite the learning experience! We spent around $15 a night for the hostels, and were pleasantly surprised for the most part! It's about the same level as mission-trip living: bunk beds, shared showers, etc. It definitely makes you start to appreciate the small things though. You know, like sheets you can't see through, towels in general, opaque showers...
All the hostels were different and we liked different things about each of them, but overall they have such a cool community vibe, and the staff is always so helpful and friendly :)

Food.
We went to the supermarket every evening and made our own dinner. It usually came out to around $5 a person, and we ate so well! Omelettes, chicken pesto sandwiches, pizza, spaghetti. So good! The first day we found yogurt (pronounced  sho-GOOR in Argentina...) bebible--or drinkable yogurt. It's just liquid yogurt, but it comes in a bag, and for some reason it became a tradition every evening to drink yogurt out of mugs and share high/lows of the day. We invited our Brazilian friends and then Israeli friends to yogurt high/low time with us. They enjoyed it and didn't even make fun of our yogurt obsession. I think that says a lot about a person.  

Buses.
Bus trips in South America are pretty cool! You can buy overnight trips and sleep on the bus (and save money on a hostel for that night!). The longer ones (over 12 hours) only cost around $75, and the bus from Viña to Santiago only cost us $6! They give you hot tea/coffee, snacks, and play movies. One bus company even plays bingo on the bus, and the winner gets a bottle of wine! Latin America is just a party, let me tell you.

Chile vs Argentina
It was really fascinating to see the difference between the two countries. I feel like I'd finally gotten used to everything Argentine, and then we went to Chile!
--The Chilean accent is closer to mainstream Spanish than the Argentine, but it's a lot faster and more closed and thus was a lot harder on my brain. Also a lot of words are different, which was kinda frustrating... "Colectivos" are buses in Buenos Aires, but in Chile they're taxis.. And a tshirt is called a remera in BsAs, but a polera in Chile (neither of which is what I learned in Texas...), and the subway isn't called the "subte," but rather el "metro." So many things to keep straight!
--Chileans look much different than Americans--they're almost entirely black-haired and medium skinned, whereas porteños are more heterogenous, and many look more European (for this reason we got cat-called wayyy more in Chile than Argentina, because our blond heads stuck out way more!). However, Chileans dress way more like Americans (somehow it seemed to me that they had the American style, yet somehow did it better..), and have a much more Americanized culture in general.
--In my experience, Argentines in general are a lot friendlier than Chileans! Argentines are so open and quick to help you whenever you ask anything.. We didn't have that same experience in Chile.
I'm glad I got a chance to see other cities in Argentina and Chile, because it made me so happy with my decision to study in Buenos Aires! :) I loved all the other places, but I think Buenos is the best fit for me.

And here you see the best $7 I've ever spent. These are alpargatas. The misinformed American would call them "knock-off Toms," but really they're the original Toms (that's why the Toms logo looks like an Argentine flag!). My Argentinian friends were shocked to learn that these sell for nearly $50 in the States, they started laughing, because they're so darn cheap here! 
I wore them all day everyday for our two week trip--they were so gross by the end! I wish I had a pedometer to tell me how far they went! 

People.
We went so many places and did so many cool things, but hands down my favorite part about traveling was just the other people we come across. We met: Argentines, Chileans (duh), other Americans, Brits, Australians, Danes, Dutchmen, Germans, Brazilians, Frenchmen, Uruguayans, Peruvians, Swiss people... honestly I'm losing track!
I feel like when you travel abroad, the point is to learn about cultures and people that are different from you, but honestly the thing that has struck me the most is how we're all the same. The Brazilians were making How I Met Your Mother references, the Israelis were singing Disney songs with us, and pretty much anyone anywhere knew the words to Thrift Shop. It was just so cool to see that no matter where you go, people are people. And people are wonderful.