Casas Del Bosque

One of my favorite places my boyfriend takes me in Chile is this winery, Casas Del Bosque.  It's a boutique winery with amazing wine, a beautiful location, and one of the top winery restaurants in the world.  Their wine regularly wins high awards and I enjoy myself thoroughly and maybe a little too much every time we go.
Below are some pictures of different trips Carlos and I have taken to Casas Del Bosque.  The wine is amazing, the food is amazing, the scenery is amazing-- Plus there's an actual wine tour, so you can learn about wine in general, as well as what makes wine from Casas Del Bosque so wonderful!

There are plenty of great wineries in Chile, and many of them have tours and restaurants and tastings available as well.  However, I know when I have friends and family come to visit, Casas Del Bosque will definitely be on our to-do list.

If you'd like to know more about their sustainable agriculture and wine-making process, wine awards, or anything else, the website for the winery is www.casasdelbosque.cl

Moving to Chile-- Step Two: Find a plane ticket!

Not just any plane ticket, but a reasonably priced one!

Having made the trip three times now, I'm not necessarily saying I'm like a travel professional, BUT I will say I've done enough slaving over internet sites looking at plane tickets and stressing over my bank account to know a thing or two.

Now, I've generally never spent more than $1400 on a plane ticket to Chile (flying out of Memphis is just expensive.. If you're a lucky person living in Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth, or Miami areas, you probably think I'm being scammed on that price.. The truth is, that price is a scam, but it's an industry-wide scam, so what are any of us going to do, stay home?), but I have always gotten the tickets ranging from $1200-$1400 for trips to Chile during their definite low season or else right after the end of their high season.
I have yet to buy a ticket so close to their high-season, and let me tell you, I've come close to peeing myself, like, twice.

There is a specific week that I can see where things in November just go crazy and tickets begin going up from one day to the next by $600.  By the middle of December, I could expect to pay over $2000, if I could still find a seat.  It seems to stay that way basically through the end of February.

So, having picked a general date to arrive (early, before any of my "obligations" officially begin), I started my search.  As usual, the search begins between 3-4 months out.  Buying an international ticket too far in advance or too close to the travel time can tack on hundreds of dollars that you wouldn't have originally paid if you had just been more patient/planned better.

There are several things I do when I'm looking for cheap airfare.  One of the first things I do is to check the airline sites directly.  Sometimes you really don't need all these travel site go-betweens, you just need to stop feeling like the airlines are directly trying to rip you off.  I mean, they are, but it's not just them.  Priceline and Expedia will do it, too, they aren't as innocent or helpful on international travel as their commercials or William Shatner might have you believe.

Most of the time I can find the exact prices on the airline sites that I can find on travel sites, and sometimes I Can find them cheaper.  There is one exception to this rule, and it's the greatest exception ever:

www.studentuniverse.com is amazing.  I use them all the time.  The trick, sorry for some of you, is to be a student.  When you want to first join, they'll ask you what university you go to and they'll verify your enrollment at that institution.  Then, you'll have access to the airfare deals they have for students-- some are great, some are just as good as the actual airline sites themselves, so worst case scenario, it doesn't hurt to look.  Of course, you can find the deals without signing up and proving your enrollment, but in order to purchase the tickets at the listed price, you will need to sign up.  Student Universe also offers a service to find hotels and hostels abroad, if you're just looking into travel and not a full-on move.

Generally, I buy my tickets through Student Universe, although the last time I bought a ticket (for a trip during March 2012), I found the exact same deal on the actual American Airlines website.  So just saying, if you have to look around a few hours, for several days, it's worth it if you're broke and saving $300 means something to you.

Another tip, for anyone who hasn't taken an international trip before, is that if you will have flight that you know must connect somewhere (for instance, Memphis International Airport doesn't fly direct to Santiago, Chile, so I have to connect at another U.S. airport first), don't look for a bundle that sells you two flights at once (I.E., I have bought, via Delta and American Airlines, tickets from MEM-MIA, and then MIA-SCL, and then the same way to return).  I mean obviously it is helpful, and maybe sometimes a reasonable price,
but when you are willing to mix airlines (saving $300 means something to some people, remember?) and buy your tickets separately, sometimes you'll get a great deal. This time, I'm buying a ticket from Miami to Santiago on the Chilean  airline LAN, and my ticket from Memphis to Miami prior to that will be via wherever I find the best deal.  I've found that doing it this way will potentially save me almost $1000.  Soooo just saying.. do your homework and look things up.
This is especially an important thing to do if you're looking up one way tickets, as my next ticket will be.  The reason I say this is because looking up packaged tickets for a one-way trip to Santiago was costing the same amount as a round trip, and somehow that didn't seem fair.  By splitting up the trip into two separately purchased tickets, I'll be saving a ton of money and almost cutting the plane ticket price in half.

I don't know about everyone else, maybe it's just because I'm a broke student on a serious budget, but airline ticket shopping is the most stressful part of planning my trip/move.  Once I've got the ticket purchased, I always feel like the most terrifying and expensive part is out of the way and the rest of the planning is fun, or at least smooth sailing.

I hope some of these tips help you if you're looking into international travel from a place with a crappy airport any time soon.  I sure wish someone would've told me some of these things!

Moving to Chile-- Step One: Pick a date

So obviously the first thing I needed to look at when deciding to move to Chile was when I would make it happen.  Originally, I was all excited and eager and knew that I would be graduating August 12, and figured, "Why not go in August?"-- well because that's a stupid idea, that's why!

Moving to another country, like most things, doesn't seem like it would be as hard to plan as it actually turns out to be.  My early, vague, and unorganized thoughts about planning this adventure originally seemed like it wouldn't take long-- "Yeah, I'll just get a job and catch a plane"...

WRONG.
That is definitely not how you move across the world like a responsible adult.

First off, I kind of gave it a test run by applying for jobs in person, and let me tell you, Chilean schools will not commit to giving you a job one and a half/two semesters in advance.
So, there's that.. I came home jobless and despondent, although some of that despondence probably came from leaving my boyfriend behind there. again.
 So then it was back to the drawing board.  Not only did I realize I wouldn't have a job lined up in August because of the different school schedule (If you go to any other country, there is a very great chance that their semester starts at a different time than those in the U.S., especially if it's on the opposite side of the equator with opposite seasons!) and my conflicting graduation, but I knew even if I moved and was jobless, I would still need to have enough money to live on for... roughly 7 months before I would even get a real teaching job.  Not to mention that, but for Chile, a foreigner without a work or resident visa must leave the country every 90 days, so then there's all that.

Obviously, I needed more time to make money to save, and why not spend more time with friends and family before my big move??

Another huge factor-- my best friend's wedding. Now, obviously I can't miss it.  And seeing how it's on November 3rd, it would be a ginormous pain/expense to fly back for it, then fly back to Chile.  So that's the main way I arrived at my decision to leave in November.

Also factoring into the decision to leave in early November was the fact that airfare to Chile in December is a ridiculous price thanks to how awesome Chile supposedly is in December (as of now, I have not been to Chile during the peak of their summer).

The final, and very large although perhaps not the largest, factor in moving to Chile in early November was the start date of a TEFL in-person course (140 hours with teaching practice and job placement-- to be mentioned later) that I intend to take about two weeks after my arrival.

Of course, everyone going anywhere will have different things to consider.. I suppose my main point is that it requires more thinking and planning than you first imagine, so get yourself a notebook and a bottle of wine and start brainstorming as soon as the idea of moving strikes you!

Recent Developments

Carlos visited Memphis, met some friends, met almost my whole family, and generally had what I believe to be a good time.  We went to Graceland, The National Civil Rights Museum, Beale Street-- the usual stuff to be seen in Memphis, plus we had some wonderful food.

In less than one month I will be graduating from the University of Memphis, and will begin the mad-dash to work as much as possible to make the money necessary for my big move.

That's about all I can post in reference to recent developments right now, although I assume I will have a lot to fill everyone/anyone/no one in on back to back in the coming weeks.