Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns."

Well, in all honesty I should probably be reading about chilean anthropology right now. Unfortunately, it's not holding my interest very well, and I did originally intend to write this post last week. So I guess nows as good a time as any...

p.s. I'm warning you in advanced this blog is long and somehwhat lovey-dovey.

....

Yep, it's official, Jake and I are (finally) engaged! :)

So, for those of you interested, here's my "official" story (Jake's might be added later if anybody is interested in his side of the story), along with a few other stories about our wonderful weekend in Mendoza.

I should probably start by saying that I honestly thought there was no way that Jake would propose while he was here, for a number of reasons. To begin with, he was coming directly from Honduras where he had been since the beginning of February. Also, before he left for Honduras he was incredibly busy studying for the MCAT and getting stuff together for his trip. Based on that, I figured even if he decided to propose here, he would never have had time to get everything together before he left. Also, I figured he would think it was too "cliche" to propose here, and on top of all that, after all his "you're going to have to wait until September/October/November/December/January" talk, I really thought it wasn't going to happen until at least October. That being said, I guess I was wrong :).

Anyways, so we got into Mendoza Friday night and started our adventure trying to find a hostel (family and friends who know us well, you will enjoy this story...). We  had a few recommendations from friends and a couple we had found online, and set off to go find them. This proved to be more difficult than we thought... for numberous reasons. First, the information lady told us we could take a taxi or a colectivo. We figured we would go for the colectivo, seeing as how they are cheaper and they're basically the same thing as a taxi, except they can take more than one customer at a time (so it often takes longer to get where you want to go). Unfortunately, in Argentina apparently colectivo means city bus.... so we tried to take the city bus since we were there anyways. Except you need change, or a card and you pay into a machine on the bus. But we only had bills. But by the time we realized this, people were coming on behind us and the bus was moving. oops #1. So we're on the bus, and we're looking for the plazas, except we don't see them. We see one, and decide to get off. Wrong one. oops #2. While we are there, looking like very lost and dumb tourists, we come across a nice old man. I (we?) am (are) mildly suspicious but he proves to be very helpful in showing us where we need to go (we were going completely the wrong direction. oops #3) and even gives us change to we can take the bus and pay for it this time... Except we start waiting for the bus and are on the wrong side of the street. Oops #4. Thankfully the nice man corrects us and we are able to get on the right bus and make it to the right plaza. Finally, we find the hostel we want. It's full. Apparently due to the holiday weekend in chile, everything is packed. Thankfully, we remember where the other one was somewhat, and make it there. They just barely have room for us. Phew. We also manage to find a place to eat, a bank, and walk around the city without getting lost! And thus begins our Argentinan adventures....

(I'll try to keep the rest of these shorter, but no promises. I really don't want to start reading...)

Saturday morning we get up and eat breakfast, and decide to find the big park that's nearby. Thankfully we had no problems finding this. We grabbed a few snacks/drinks and started walking around. We decided we wanted to go up Cerro de la Gloria, since it was supposed to have a nice view and a cool statue. We started walking and really enjoyed the park. It was beautiful and had great trails for walking/running. As we got closer to the cerro though, we realized most people choose to drive, or take a taxi up, and for good reason. hah! We kept walking though and ended up really enjoying the walk (even though it was long) and got to see some cool sights, and managed to not get run over (although we did get redirected by the police at some point to a safer road...). We also found a taxi/bus to take us back down. Good choice.

We just kind of hung out the rest of the day, walking around the city and doing a little bit of souvenier shopping. We also were hoping to find a wine tour for Sunday morning since they the popular thing to do in Mendoza (with close to 200 vineyards!) but had a really hard time finding one. We had finally given up hope and were looking at other touristy things to do (hiking trips and such) when we by chance happened upon an agency that was doing one! After that, we finally headed for dinner. Argentina is pretty well known for good Italian restaurants, and since we both like pasta we figured we would find a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. We had seen one that afternoon and headed back that direction. It was a nice restaurant and we enoyed just talking and eating dinner (we even got dessert!), and we had a nice waiter who we let practice his english :).

Over dinner, Jake told me that we should walk around to all the different plazas (there are 5) afterwards. I was mildly sleepy but decided it would be fun. At this point I was also starting to think that there was a slight chance that he had something more planned. He had been extra giddy all week, plus had even made some comment about a ring when I was looking at some of the handmade rings and jewelry in the park earlier that day. Plus, he seemed to be putting extra effort into making this night fun/special. First we went to Plaza Italia where we swang on the swings and took some pictures by one of the many beautiful fountains in Mendoza. The second plaza was España and here Jake decided that we should dance. We slowed danced a little under the stars and of course did a little swing dancing while he sang to me :) (insert "awwws" here.. hah!). At this point, I was trying REALLY hard not to get my hopes up, especially as we were walking to the third plaza and I asked him what we were going to do and he simply said "Oh, I have an idea"; however, we get to the third plaza, and it's incredibly lame with graffiti everywhere. I sensed that Jake was a little disappointed and we kept walking without any major events. We headed back to my favorite plaza (of course we went to plaza españa on accident first... par for the course for us I guess!). Anyways, Plaza Chile which was right by our hostel and we had been there the night before. I thought it was especially cool because all the benches have neat designs and names of cities in Chile. Jake decided we should go to the bench "Santiago" and we sat there for a while talking a little more. After a bit, I suggested we find Valdivia again (my "hometown") and when we stood up Jake told me that he had a gift for me. Yep, at this point I was trying not to freak out since I had basically figured out what was coming. He had me close my eyes and hold out my hands and started talking; however, I'm not sure I really remember what he said, other than that he wanted to give me from the moment he landed in Santiago (or something like that). Anyways, I opened my eyes and there he was on one knee. He took my hand and started to talk some more (all I remember thinking is, get to the point and give me my ring... oops.. hah sorry Jake!) and finally "popped the question". Of course I said yes, and I think I even started to laugh since I was still quite surprised. He pulled out the ring, and just kept thinking "I can't believe this is happening!" and kept laughing and saying "No way!". Defnitely not the way I always thought I would react (I imagined tears since I tend to cry really easily!), but fun and exciting nonetheless. Oh, and I should also mention that I did hit him numerous times afterwards because I was shocked that he actually proposed, and more so that he managed to put it all together while he was in Honduras!

We walked around the rest of the night, and at one point I do remember crying a little bit :). It was exciting to finally be able to talk about getting married and not have to be hypothetical about it. It's still a little surreal but at the same time a wonderful feeling. I'm excited to start planning not just a wedding, but our life together. There's a lot of changes that are coming in the next few years, but we've already figured out a lot together, that I'm just excited to continue changing and growing with him.

So that's it. Sunday we had a good time on the wine tour (the scenery was beautiful and it was fun trying some different wines) and got to enjoy some more of the beautiful weather (it barely rains in Mendoza, a nice change from Valdivia). We had one more night at the hostel and then headed back to Santiago on Monday.

Hope you enjoyed reading, sorry that it was massively long! Let me know if I missed anything important. Oh and I'll try to post the pictures up later for those of you not on facebook).

Love you all, Chau!