Pichidangui

What a sight to see the mountains on one side and the sea on the other. Our 2.5 hour bus ride displayed mountains upon mountains, avocados (palta), sheep, and even some deer. Nestled between the Andes and the Pacific is another mountain range so all you can see in the distance is more mountains.

I enjoyed my first bbqs (asados) and ate more meat than you could imagine. We had a bbq every night. You start by eating some choripan which is kind of like a little hot dog or brat, but better. We then moved on to grilled pork, chicken, and steak and some zucchini.

Since it was September 18, they have la fonda, which is basically a big tent you pay to enter. Pichidangui was apparently the happening place this year, so there were thousands of youth at the fonda we went to. It kind of felt like a high school dance with old music, but we had a lot of fun.

Our first morning in town, one of the Chilean girls in the group and myself went for a walk. We saw gorgeous views of the coast and a whole bunch of pelicans!

Our group was made up of four of us from the states, five Chileans, and one guy from Ireland. We met-up with some Chilean friends while there and the group got along really well together. We spoke lots of Spanglish!

I know you want to write me...

My address:

Alberto Baines 1130
Ñuñoa Santiago
Chile SA

First Week Teaching

I taught my first class Monday evening! I have five adult students named Tamara, Oscar, Juan, Carolina, and Marcela. We will have class together every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8-9 at the downtown location of Sam Marsalli. The students are beginners, so our classes are very basic, but I'm enjoying them so far and look forward to teaching more classes next week. Thankfully training is over and now I know that I will for sure be here in Santiago for the remainder of my stay in Chile.

Yesterday I climbed Cerro Santa Lucia, the smaller of the two mountains you can walk up here in Santiago. Couples adorned every park bench, admiring the last rays of light as dusk approached. Sloped roads turned into steep, slippery steps as I neared the peak and my fear of heights made my final steps less enjoyable, but it was a great experience nonetheless. Sometimes in a city of six million people it's hard to find a place to "escape" into nature, so it was a pleasant afternoon for me.

Life at home has been fun. Yoya writes poetry and in addition to reading the 19 poems she has written, I've started helping her translate them into English. She knows quite a bit of English but cannot write as a native speaker, so she gets excited when she reads over what I've translated and it's exactly what she meant :)

It's another cloudy day so I'm bundled up in my sweaters to keep warm, and I now must start packing for my travels to the beach town Pichidangui later this afternoon.

September Eleventh

I love it here. In addition to getting to know the city and people, I'm immediately learning the holidays. It seems I moved down here at an eventful time!

September eleventh will forever be infamous for those of us in the USA, but in Chile the day also lives in infamy. It marks the anniversary of Chile’s 1973 military coup against the government of Salvador Allende. It's now a dangerous day here in Santiago because there can be many riots and gangs that destroy any and everything. For this reason, there are certain parts of the city where you shouldn't go. The newspaper reported some disastrous events from last night, but in my quiet neighborhood I was far from the action.

I have more friends than I could imagine. I met Sandra (Christian Facebook friend) and her friend Elisa at the metro station my first night here and we went to Pizza Hut to get to know one another. The girls invited me to a party to watch the Chile vs. Brazil soccer game the following evening. Right after work I met up with them and though Chile lost the game, I enjoyed the experience.

Georgette's name here is Yoya, which I think is much more fun and I will now forever refer to her as such (she is my host "mom"). She introduces me to every neighbor we see and last night I hung out with with my neighbor Nico and his friends. There were about a dozen of us in his backyard enjoying the "carrete". That's what they call a "party" here, but it basically means a bunch if people drinking and smoking and dancing. Everyone there was around the age of twenty and they had fun teaching me more Chilean slang. "Cachai?"

I ventured up Cerro San Cristobal yesterday late afternoon. This is the tallest mountain in Santiago and provides breathtaking views. I'm including a link below to the pictures I've uploaded to Facebook up to this point. The smog makes it hard to see the mountains and even harder to see them in pictures, but photos never seem to do justice anyways.

I've met teachers from Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, and all over the US at the school. Everyone's different accents are a lot of fun to listen to. Overall my training is going well, though I'm definitely ready to start teaching. My last day of training should be this Wednesday, just before our long weekend to celebrate Independence Day!

Photos: http://tinyurl.com/qatjx3

Arrival...

As the plane descended into Santiago this morning, the breathtaking views of snow-capped mountains at sunrise added to my excitement. An older man named Victor took me under his wing and accompanied me throughout customs and even took the same bus as me to make sure I would be okay my first day in South America. He gave me his phone number and email in case of further need before he reached his house.

Little did we know the bus company somehow lost the full address of where I was supposed to be staying and the school had only given me the name of the Residencial. This meant that I rode around for quite some time before we were able to get ahold of the school, and I was finally dropped-off at the school instead of the place I´d be staying! There I was greeted by a few other teachers and we joked that I´d actually be living at the school since I had all my luggage with me.

Chile´s independence day is next Thursday, September 18, so everyone leaves the city I hear. One of the teachers informed me that a group of about 10 are headed to the beach, so it looks like I´ll be joining them on the voyage. Perhaps it was to my advantage to detour to the school so I´d be invited along...vamos a ver.

I finally took a taxi to my Residencial where Georgette greeted me. She is an older woman who lived in Los Angeles for awhile and speaks more Spanglish than I know how to handle. She gave me some instant coffee to drink and then her friend arrived to pick something up. Georgette asked me to close the kitchen door behind me to keep the heat in, so naturally I closed the front door to the house after me as well. Oops! The key was in the house and the door was locked! Way to make a good first impression, Andrea. Fortunately, the other girl who lives at the house had her key with her at the school and about 20 minutes later we were in the house.

Georgette then made me a sandwhich for ¨breakfast¨around one and we´ve been running errands ever since. We met the neighbor, Joaquin, who she suggested I date. We went shopping and bought groceries. We took a taxi from there and the driver commented that he knew I was not Chilean because I closed the car door so forcefully. We bought a BIP card and metro tickets so I´m ready to venture out. I finally made it to an internet cafe where my patience is tested by the slow connection. In just a couple hours I´m meeting my facebook friend, Sandra, at the metro station.

Walking down the street affords me a view of the mountains and the weather feels like a chilly fall day. I start training at the school tomorrow at 2:30 and I´m looking forward to really delving into life here. I feel at peace and have not been nervous about anything, which is all to normal for me!