I'm alive!

I wish I had some amazing story of why I have been unable to post these past two days. Like being kidnapped by a band of gypsies, an impromptu trip to Easter Island or even just having eaten a bad chorizo and being bed-ridden. But nooooo, it's just that nothing has been happening worthy of blogging. Unless you consider studying and sleeping fascinating reading. And today is Friday and I STILL have nothing exciting to write! Nor will I for the rest of the weekend since all I have planned is working on the final projects that are due Tuesday. They are numerous and they are major. So I just have to suck it up for one more weekend and then.... freedom!

But this afternoon in class we got into a discussion about dealing with culture shock (both of our students if we're teaching in the US or of ourselves if we move to another country) and it brought up some points about Chilean culture/life that I thought were interesting:

• While eating, it is considered rude to put your hands under the table as "they don't know what you're doing under there" if your hands are out of sight. Just the opposite of America, eh?
• Many stores/take-out restaurants have a system wherein you have to wait in two lines: in the first line you wait to place your order and pay for the item/s and then you go stand in the second line and wait (again) to turn in your order slip and have your item prepared
• No drinks here are served with ice. Ever. And milk is drunk warm. Blech.
• Most kitchens do not run hot water as it is considered too expensive to heat. Hence, dishes are washed in cold water. (That one took some getting used to...)
• It is impolite to walk in someone's house with bare feet. Shoes are ALWAYS worn inside the house, even in your own home
• Bumping into people on the street without saying "I'm sorry" or "Excuse me" is perfectly acceptable
• To partake of something in front of others (be it cigarettes, gum, a drink, etc...) without first offering one to the others is a major affront and considered extremely rude
• To walk into a room or a gathering, even one with a lot of people, and not greet every single person with a kiss and, when necessary, an introduction is another major affront and would quickly get you labeled as a "snob"
• Everyone has two last names, the first being the father's last name and the second being the mother's. Women do not take the husband's name upon getting married, which makes it nearly impossible to know who is married to who. My host parents full names are, I kid you not, Edgar Gregorio Fernandez Dominguez y Maria de la Carmen Navarro Ramirez. Whew!
• And, my personal favorite: when invited to someone's home for dinner, it is actually considered rude to show up on time; it is expected that you will arrive at least a half hour late so as to give the hostess enough time to get ready. Seriously, I can totally dig that!

And that's as exciting as my last two days have been. Other than the part where I booked my flights to Argentina/Brazil. Woo-hoo! For now, I'm just trying to survive this weekend so that the really fun stuff can begin..... !

The beginning of the end

It's crunch time. Today officially marks the end of my third week of classes, which means that I only have one more to go! This is both very relieving and oddly sad all at the same time. I will miss the time spent with these people every day, the tear-inducing belly laughs that happen an average of 3 times daily (seriously!). I will NOT miss 8 hours of classes a day or 3 hours of homework a night; although, even so, I feel that I'm just now starting to TOTALLY get it all and I know that if there was a way to have another week or two of classes, it would be really beneficial for me. Nevertheless, I'm sure I won't be saying that come next Tuesday as between now and then it is going to be bru-tal. I had a major paper due this past Monday and then she had the nerve to give us another one that's due Friday! As well as a number of other major and very time-consuming assignments along with our final portfolio. Let's just say I'm not making any plans for the weekend.

But today I got my one "day off" and it was truly divine. Sadly, by 'day off', I'm talking about just a 3-hour period, the time of day that I usually have to sit in on my fellow trainees classes and observe/critique. Brutal. Amazing how suddenly 3 hours out of the classroom can feel like SUCH an amazing gift! Even more sadly, I used it to study. But being able to have those extra hours to get that much ahead on everything else I have to do for this week took SOO much pressure off! It also helped that I was able to go sit outside at a coffee shop that had wireless internet and do my work there in the fresh, warm air while downing macchiatos. Aaaaah.

So tonight I was able to come home relaxed and enjoy sitting and talking for a couple hours with Edgar y Maria. We talked about all sorts of things but at some random point, right after a good laugh about something or other, Maria just came out with "Ay, Katy, we're really going to miss you". (In Spanish, my name is pronounced Kah-tee and I loooove how it sounds!). It made me sad as I know that the feelings will truly be mutual.

A random sidenote: I have been SOOO good about eating all sorts of unknown Chilean food and avoiding anything even remotely American. But this week I have had a major craving for pizza and, despite the fact that I pass a place every day that advertises on its canopy specialties of "Pizza y Chorizo" (among other things), I have resisted. Until yesterday. I couldn't take it anymore and decided I was going in, darnit. So I get to the counter and the conversation goes something just like this in Spanish:

Me: I'll have the pizza and Coke special, please.

Guy: We don't have pizza today.

Me: Um, okay. Then I'll have the chorizo special.

Guy: We don't have chorizo.

Me: What do you have?

Guy: Churrasco.

Me: Great, I'll have churrasco!

And so life goes in South America. And, no joke, this is not the first time I have had a very similar conversation. I've learned at some places to not even look at the menu and just ask what they have that day. Avoids disappointment. Although it begs the question, why do they even bother having menus?? So one more reason to be glad I'm a super laid-back person. South America is not for the uptight!

Weekends rock!

I loved everything about this weekend (minus a few panicky minutes at the bus station in Viña... read on). From the simple pleasure of the movie and meal prepared by Edgar Friday night which I wrote about until the bitter end on Sunday. We should have a lot more weekends and a lot less weekdays, as far as I'm concerned.

Saturday afternoon we had a very traditional Chilean cookout at home. It was orchestrated by the housekeeper, Fresia, in honor of my last full week in the house. (Have I mentioned the housekeeper before? Yeah, something I could tooootally get used to. But, alas... ) It was great!! We had chorizo with homemade picante salsa (my favorite thing that I've eaten here so far), chicken, beef, Chilean potato salad, and all other sorts of goodies... and, of course, vino. One of their granddaughters joined us and later on one of their sons and his family consisting of 6 children (VERY unusual in Chile) stopped by. We sat outside under the grapevines, shared good food, fun conversation and lots of laughs. It was such a simple pleasure but, truly, one of my favorite times of the weekend.

And then Saturday night came! And I went to see...... ready?...... Journey in concert! In Santiago! How cool is that?! One of my favorite bands from the 80's and I finally see them in concert and it's in Chile. And I must say, they rocked! Peter Frampton opened for them and made some humorous attempts at Spanish for the crowd. Then Journey came on and the place went crazy. Tens of thousands of people who don't speak English and yet know every single word to every single Journey song ever written (even though most of them don't know what any of the words mean, literally). The concert was at an outdoor stadium that is set right smack in the middle of the Andes. So not only was I in Chile, hanging out on a lovely summer night with super-funny people listening to a great band but I was doing it all while also having a view of the Andes Mountains peeking over the top of the stadium! Note: for those Journey fans out there, and you know who you are, they have a new lead singer and I swear you wouldn't even miss Steve Perry!

Sunday I decided I was going to go to the beach. I've been working hard, darnit, and deserved a day of rest! So I hopped the bus in the morning and by 2 or so was in the town of Viña del Mar. I checked out the town briefly then headed to the beach. I chose the more "rustic" of the two beaches the town offers, the one that's not built up and in which everything around it is very traditionally Chilean: empanada stands, churros vendors, stray dogs running all over the place, cars parked ON the beach, artesan stands set up along the sidewalk... it was great! I have to say that since I've spent all of my time in the city so far, I have been feeling like I've seen much of the "real Chile", so to speak. Problem solved on Sunday. It was really good for me to get out of the city and see the smaller towns, how the "real" people live, the little roadside stands selling homemade empanadas along the way.... I love that stuff!

Anyhow, it was a GREAT day, totally serving its purpose of relaxation and rounding out what was a completely perfect weekend... until I went to leave. I had a return ticket for 8:45 pm and left the beach in pleeeeeenty of time to get back to the bus station but, as it was a Sunday night and half the world was apparently in Viña over the weekend and was now trying to leave, traffic was at a total crawl. Needless to say, I missed my bus. No worries, right? I'll just have to cough up another 2,500 pesos ($5USD, +/-) and get another ticket on another bus line, right? Wrong. I went to EVERY window there and there was not one ticket to Santiago to be had. Had I not had a huge paper due Monday morning at 9 am, a paper that will make up about 20% of my course grade, I would have chilled and just spent the night in a hostel. But the paper added some pressure and I was standing in the last possible line asking for a ticket which I knew didn't exist and was THIS close to freaking out when I just so happened to overhear the people behind me talking about a "promocion" bus that was taking people back to Santiago for 4,000 pesos. Think buying knock-off Gucci purses in Chinatown in NYC. Very back alley, very hush-hush and very shady. So me and another guy from the line headed off and got in on the deal! At one point as we were following the dude to the super-secret bus in the super-dark alley I asked the guy from the line if this was safe. His answer was nothing more than a shoulder shrug and a little grunt. My gut told me I may want to consider bolting, but then I pictured flunking out of my course and the decision was made. At least if I got kidnapped and was taken hostage, my teacher would have been far more likely to give me an extension on the paper! "I missed my bus" is such a lame excuse in comparison. Anyhow, it turns out that the "promocion" was on a micro-bus that was designated only to be driven within the city limits of Viña (Santiago is an hour and a half away). And it was old and rickety and small. And there were 3 people crammed in rows only made for two and people standing and people sitting in the aisles. Good times. As close as I could gather from my seatmate, the guys operating the bus, um, borrowed it from the bus company and were illegally driving it to Santiago. One was driving and the other was watching out for cops. And then they dumped us all off at one Metro stop and sped off.

On the one hand, it was a pretty dumb thing to do. On the other, it made for a really interesting South American experience! On the way home, I was looking out the window listening to music and just started laughing to myself. Seriously, I dig traveling!

P.S. The random hot dog picture is of my lunch in Viña del Mar. I know it's hard to tell from the tiny picture, but it was truly disgusting. I have been trying to have something new and different every day, even if I order it without knowing what it is. This day it was an "Italiano completo", which pretty much equals an undercooked hot dog, diced tomatoes, avocado puree and a big heaping serving of mayonnaise slathered all over the top (which I thought was cheese when I ordered it!). I repeat: disgusting. Even writing about it makes me queasy. And, really, I'm trying to be a good sport but, seriously, how many avocados can one person eat a day?!?

A lesson learned... at least for THIS weekend

I’m not one to learn anything the easy way. But I have to say that the lesson I learned last weekend stuck pretty close this week. So when tonight rolled around, I decided to apply what I’ve gleaned and so passed on the big fiesta happening tonight. If I HAVE to tell the truth, I passed because tonight’s get-together was going to be mostly of the American English teachers at the academy that I attend; had it been a party with Chileans, I would have totally gone! But since I can hang out with Americans any old time I want, I decided that I would value sleep more. But let’s just call it a lesson learned, anyhow!

So I came home tonight and mentioned to Maria that I was thinking of going to see the movie “Atonement” (in Spanish it’s called “Expiacion Deseo y Pecado”… how did one word become four?!) and I could tell that she really wanted to come with me so I invited her to join me and she immediately and very excitedly jumped at the idea. As we were getting ready to leave, their 17-year-old granddaughter stopped by unexpectedly and ended up joining us as well. What a fun time it turned out to be! Poor Edgar stayed home by himself as, in his own words, he can’t stay awake through a whole movie so why bother wasting the money. Maria felt bad leaving him home (but not enough to miss the movie, obviously) and we were teasing him that he was really going to be lonely without us. He scoffed at the notion (literally, scoffed) but it seems he just must have been as when we got home he had gotten the dinner all ready and set out and had made up a cute little sign welcoming us to his “first class” dinner. Too sweet! Especially from a man who I have yet to see lift a dish.

About the other random pictures today, I went to the grocery store after class this evening and it seems that no matter how many times I go to other countries and see it, I just can’t used to seeing milk in boxes and bags in a regular aisle. (Tonight I was looking for milk at home and saw there was none in the fridge so I assumed we were out; then Maria told me which cupboard to get more from… how freaky is it to get a new thing of milk from a CUPBOARD?!?!). Anyhow, they also do the same thing with their eggs. Maybe Americans are just too hyper about refrigeration but it somehow still makes me cringe just a little to eat an egg I know has been sitting unrefrigerated in the pantry for days on end. And all sorts of things come in bags: mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, salsa, jelly… in bags. Yeah, bags. Anyhow, being the total nerd that I am, I just had to take some pictures. Oh! and the coolest thing I’ve seen so far in the grocery store was the bread in huge, open bins. No plastic bags, no covers for the bins, no bread from a factory, just fresh baked bread out in the open. And then when I was picking some out, this little window thing behind the bin opened up and one of the workers started filling it up with fresh, piping hot little buns. Hot buns, hand made, right out of the oven! I almost started to weep with joy. They were still warm by the time I got them home…. makes me tear up just thinking about it.

My cool little class...

Today was a quiet day. I showed up to class this morning and found out that our teacher was sick and we were on our own. So we had time to work on some assignments and then we did our practice teaching. So by 1 we were done and having lunch and then had nothing else planned for the afternoon.... a miracle! After lunch we made a valiant effort at being responsible students and getting some work done on our own.... I would say that lasted for, oh, about 15 minutes. That's when Megan suggested going to this cute little outdoor cafe that serves killer gelato. The original idea was to go there, have our gelato and then just chill and do our work there at an outside table. Yeah, that clearly was a faulty plan from the very beginning and destined to fail.

But we DID finally get back to the academy to use some of our time wisely in planning our lessons for tomorrow (and some of it for IMing, but we won't mention that part). Tomorrow we start in with the final teaching stage, the hour-long lessons (up to this point, they've only been 40 minutes). This is our cute little class of beginners that I'll be teaching tomorrow and I love them! The guy in the white shirt is Jorge, the one who had us all over to his house on Saturday night. The others are Paula, Elisabet y Ivan.

I plan to go out with the ladies one night for dinner. There is an odd and very fine line here between teachers and students. It seems in the States that there is a very definitive line that doesn't get crossed. Teachers on one side and students very firmly on the other. But it isn't like that here. Within the first couple of days we were all hanging out with Margaret (our TEFL instructor) and she regularly spends time out of class with her Chilean students. I have to think that it has something to do with the fact that in a culture where you greet each and every student with a beso (kiss) at both the beginning and ending of class, how could you possibly maintain that line? You can hardly remain distant from people you're kissing twice a day! But I do have to say that, interestingly enough, despite their obvious friendships outside of the class where the teacher is just one of the gang, there somehow remains a very definitive respect of the teacher role while in the classroom. It's a very interesting balance to observe. But one I'm anxious to adapt as I'm all about the relationships and could never see myself in that stern "I am the teacher, you are the student" role. Another reason I think I'm well-suited to South America!

Edgar y Maria

I love my host parents. I really don't think I could have been placed with anyone more suited to me than Edgar y Maria Fernandez Navarro (a mouthful, no?). Staying with them has truly been one of the highlights of my time here. From day one they have made me feel absolutely welcome and comfortable, like a part of the family. We have since moved past some of the pleasantries and now genuinely enjoy spending time together and chatting and laughing. They call themselves my "Chilean grandparents". I would have posted about them earlier, but I wanted to wait until I had a picture to put up. But I guess that women are women around the world and whenever I suggested taking a picture to Maria, she always wanted to wait until she was better dressed, her hair was done, she was wearing earrings.... finally she went to the hairdresser the other day so she was suddenly willing to let me take her picture... woo-hoo!

Anyhow, the Fernandez Navarro's are what I would guess to be in their late-70s. They have been married for over 50 years and have 3 children and 11 grandchildren. They are one of those couples that you can tell, ever after so many years, still totally digs each other. They talk constantly and make each other laugh all the time. They're affectionate with one another in a really sweet way and have a continual banter going on. The other day Edgar cut his finger while fixing a light and ended up going in to the doctor to have it looked at. Hearing Maria tease him about that ("Men. Men will go to the doctor for anything; a cut finger, a splinter, a speck of dust in their eye.... ") made me laugh. Because, really, underneath her teasing, she was really worried about him and has been babying him even more than usual since his "injury". Just watching them is a pleasure.

Edgar is an engineer. Notice I did not say he is a retired engineer, he is an actively working engineer. He says that he has no intentions of retiring as then he's sure he'll die (but when he says it, it sounds funnier). One of the major landmarks in Santiago is Plaza de Armas and Edgar made one of the two major statues that are in that plaza (I tried, but couldn't find a picture). It's very impressive. Maria is a housewife who spent her time raising their children and now mostly spends her time keeping house and helping Edgar as he often works from home.

Maria talks a mile a minute AND non-stop, to boot. Literally. Sometimes my head spins when I'm trying to keep up with her. Even her granddaughter told me she has trouble understanding her sometimes, which made me feel better. Edgar talks in a nice, slow, easy way and so it has naturally progressed that he and I have had some great conversations together, mostly at the dinner table. I usually get home to have my dinner after they have already eaten but he always, without fail, comes out and sits down to "acompañarte", to keep me company while I eat. It often stretches into two hours and these are some of the best times we've shared. I think our initial bond was within the first few days of my stay when he offered me some hot sauce to try. I asked if it was very hot and he said no (he really didn't think it was). I took a big taste and the look on my face, followed by the tears streaming out of my eyes, gave us our first really big, genuine laugh together. There have been many more since. We also share an enjoyment of vino so it has become our ritual to alternate turns of bring a bottle to dinner to try out. Now he jokes about marking the unfinished bottles "Edgar y Katy" and drawing a line where we left off so we would know if anyone else got into our "stash"! We talk about all sorts of things, from what I'm doing in class (he's interested in my teaching him some English words) to politics to religion to wine to travels to Chilean jokes. Tonight he told me a full-out Chilean joke.... and I got it! I can't tell you what a victory that was for me (and him)! Getting humor in a second language is tough, even more so when you're not totally fluent. So before he started the joke he says "I'm going to tell you a Chilean joke now. Are you ready?", thereby preparing me to reeeeeally listen to him. And I got it! And it was funny! Ah, the small things that are exciting while living abroad.

Tonight I mentioned that I didn't have much homework as I had gotten it all done before coming home so Maria insisted that I watch a TV special that was on at 10 (first TV I've watched since being here). It turns out that it was a show marking the opening of a festival in a nearby town, Viña del Mar and that one of her favorite singers was going to be on: Miguel Bosé. It was pretty funny to watch a nearly 80-year-old lady get all giddy about a pop star and to sing along to most of his songs. She would grab my arm and say "Ay, this is such a beautiful one!" and then sing away. It was another cool moment for me with my Spanish and realizing that I could just hang out like normal on a couch watching TV and be understanding what was going on along with all of the little side commentary that Maria was making. Progress, I'm making progress!

But I digress. Edgar y Maria have been wonderful to me and I already get a little pang of sadness when I think about leaving their house in two weeks. We talked about it tonight at dinner and they want to know why I can't "just stay until Christmas". Why isn't it just that easy??

P.S. All of these pics were taken in their yard. We had grapes from that grapevine for dessert tonight!

The clouds have lifted...

For those of you who were a little worried about me yesteday, rest assured, all is well again! It was just a brief bout of grumpiness. And I think I figured out the the main source of my problem yesterday: total exhaustion. The kind of absolute, complete tiredness that makes everything, even the tiniest of things that you would normally brush off just seem either a) insurmountable or b) super annoying. And that was pretty much my day yesterday in a nutshell. Normally crowded buses and participial adverbs do not send me to the brink of tears.

Now why would I be tired? Just because of the 8 hours of classes a day (it's been a loooong time since I've been in school and even then, let's be honest, I wasn't studying 8 hours a day), the 3 hours of homework in the evenings, adjusting to a new culture and way of doing everything, trying to get myself around a new city on a daily basis AND speaking in a second language? Nooooo, that can't be it! (Note: Since I originally posted this last night, it has been suggested to me by a number of people that yet another possibility for my extreme tiredeness Monday might just be related to my two all-nighters over the weekend. But it can't be... all-nighters don't wipe out young people!)

But I knew that things were back to normal today when I was on the bus and it was SOOO crowded that I literally had to go THREE stops past where I wanted to get off before I could worm my way out of the masses. Yesterday that would've left me either in a heap on the floor or punching out a bunch of Chileans. Today I just kind of chuckled and got on the next bus that came by (albeit 25 minutes later) to get back to where I had tried to get off in the first place! Pays to be laid back in South America.

Katy and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Okay, so the title may be sliiiiightly overdramatic but not by much. I guess it was bound to happen: my first grumpy day in Chile! I knew it pretty early in and, really, would have been better served to just go back to bed (everyone would've been better served, actually). But, alas, I am FAR too responsible a student to ditch class.... yet!

The first sign of trouble was when I got on the bus this morning and there were what I would conservatively estimate as 2 billion people on it. Needless to say, I spent the half hour standing and being touched by a minimum of four different people at any given time. I've gotten fairly used to this in my first two weeks here and would normally just smile about it, suck it up and try to make polite chatter with whoever happens to be standing 2" from my face. Today I just got annoyed. When we were already packed in like sardines (seriously, people were pressed up against the doors) and we got to the next stop and they were shoving (literally!) more people on, I almost screamed. Out loud. Things went downhill from there.

When I finally made it to class, covered in sweat (have I mentioned the buses are not air conditioned?), recovering from my post-claustrophobic trauma, and still terribly exhausted from the weekend, I walked in only to find that we were studying grammar. I hate grammar. A lot. Seriously, who knows what a participial adjective or a modal auxiliary verb is? Anyone? (Heidi, you don't count). And, more importantly, who cares? When she gave us a paper with a whole short story written out and we were instructed to identify the part of speech of EVERY single word, I almost broke down into tears. Seriously. I was just too tired to deal. And then we were assigned a 5-page research paper on.... ready?.... a grammar theme. Five pages on the passive voice. And I'm PAYING for this!

Then on the way home, I suddenly felt SO tired that I thought I was going to be physically sick. But of course it was packed and I had to stand. Finally, about half way home on my second bus, it cleared out a bit and I was able to sit down. Finally! Rest for the weary! And then, I kid you not, no more than 30 seconds later, the bus broke down. Oh, SO close to tears. But instead I sucked it up and walked to get another one. That was good times, fitting everyone from OUR bus onto another bus which was already full.

Finally.... home. Aaaaaaah. I went out to the back yard to read my homework for tomorrow and Edgar y Maria were sitting out there, too. So we all just sat together in the shade with the Andes Mountains in view, reading and chatting. It was lovely. Then dinner. Both Edgar y Maria had eaten already but they both came in to sit with me and talk while I ate my lentil soup. I told them about my bad day and what a 'mal humor' (bad mood) I had been in and they laughed and I laughed and then I felt better. Just like that.

¡Que fin de semana! (What a weekend!)

I am not 21 anymore. But sometimes I think I am, which is when I try to pull off what I tried to pull off this weekend. And then I remember.

The lone male in our class, Davis, comes to class every morning and regales us with tales of the fabulous things he cooks himself for dinner every night (he is the only one of us not living in a homestay; he is in what I can most closely describe as a 'commune'). So of course we told him that he must cook for us one night and, since he is outnumbered 3-1, he happily obliged. So Friday night we were treated to steak, veggie stirfry and garlic mashed potatoes.... mmmm! Guys that cook rock.

Then around 1, we decided that we needed to head out to one of the cute little outdoor places that is within walking distance of his place. We lasted there about an hour and, admitting our defeat, were all just about ready to leave for home when we heard someone exclaim "Oh my gosh, they're speaking English!". There was a weird moment of confusion wondering who was speaking English to us but we soon met two other American girls who were SOO excited to have other people to speak English with (they're in the picture on the right). So, needless to say, the night continued.... until 5 am. The picture below is the 4 of us is us all waiting at the bus stop for my ride home. Not bad for 5 am, eh?

Had that been the last big venture for the weekend, I may have been able to maintain the illusion of youth. But, nooooo. Saturday night one of our beginner English students, Jorge, had a fiesta at his house. We were invited to show up at 10 (nothing social here starts before 10 pm) but, since we're now in the Chilean mindset, didn't arrive until 11. My American guilt was kicking in bigtime about showing up so late until we got there and there were only 3 other people. No one else started to show up until midnight! In the end, there were about 25 people there and it was a GREAT time, one of the first that I've had to really hang out and mix with Chileans in a social setting outside of my home. There was music, a great mix of people, tons of chatter in both Spanish and English, dancing and a wicked Michael Jackson impression. In fact, it was SO fun, it lasted until 6 am, when we finally had to call it a night... although there were still other people going strong.

I will not tell you how long of a nap I took this afternoon, so don't even ask. But let's just suffice it to say that when I woke up and came downstairs for dinner and walked into the room where Edgar y Maria were, there was a pause when we all just looked at each other and then burst out laughing. Pathetic. So maybe I'm not 21 anymore... but, come on, I should totally get points for trying!

Gotta love Chile!

This has got to be one of my favorite moments so far in Chile; it made me laugh and like the culture here just that much more. This evening I was riding home on the bus and, as it was quite full, I was standing. About halfway into my trip, an elderly woman got on the bus and there were no empty seats so she worked her way towards the back and took hold of one of those things that you hold on to while standing on a bus (what's that called?). She ended up standing next to the seat of a boy that I would guess was in his mid-teens. When he didn't get up to offer his seat, another woman who was seated behind him SMACKED HIM UPSIDE THE BACK OF HIS HEAD! I almost burst out laughing out loud. And of course he immediately got up and gave the elderly lady his seat, mumbling an apology. No attitude, no getting hostile at the lady that hit him, just realizing the error of his ways and quickly rectifying it. I LOOOVE that!

Also, tonight I went to a movie, Love In the Time of Cholera, which is based on one of my all-time favorite books (although everyone that I have ever recommended it to ended up hating it. Whatevah). Anyhow, it was in English with Spanish subtitles. About mid-way through, I realized that outside of the classroom I had not heard/spoken English since I've been here until that moment. At all. I can't tell you how relaxing it was to sit and be able to just understand without any effort on my part. After two hours of listening to English, I honestly walked back out thinking I was in the US and was genuinely surprised to walk into the theater lobby and hear Spanish being spoken. It was a freaky moment.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! ¡Besos de Santiago!

A Day in Santiago

Nope, no post yesterday. That was because my brain was soooo tired it just wanted to curl up in a little ball and go to bed. This week we started teaching 40-minute lessons during the days, which means even MORE work preparing in the evenings. Who would have even thought that was possible?!

So, for today, I thought I would just keep things simple (my brain is still recovering) and tell you what my typical day looks like in Santiago. Quite honestly, at this point it's fairly non-exciting as my world is consumed by studying. Other than my jaunts last weekend into the center of town, that's really all I've been doing since arriving. (But I have high hopes for this weekend; plans are in the works!) So, this is pretty much how my normal day goes:

7:30 am - Wake up. Okay, okay, 7:45. Alright, alright... 8! Oh-five. Ironic, no, that I actually have to get up earlier on my "vacation" than I did while working?

8:20 am - Come downstairs to my sweetly laid-out little breakfast which usually consists of a mini-ham sandwich (yes, a ham sandwich for breakfast), a piece of fruit and a cup of tea. I'll have to take a picture of the presentation one of these days... it's really cute. Of course, that would be dependent on my ever having an extra 30 seconds in the morning, so don't hold your breath.

8:35 am - Get on one of two buses which take me to my classes at Bridge Linguatec. Sometimes the ride takes 25 minutes, sometimes it takes 40, depending on when the bus driver feels like showing up. Today it was the latter.

9 am - Classes start. I drink coffee. Lots of coffee.

2:30 - 3:30 pm - Break for lunch. The first week this was all fun and games as we went out to cool Chilean places every day. Then we started counting our money and, whatd'ya know, now we pack our lunches. But at least we can still sit outside on the little terrace and enjoy the sunny goodness of Santiago.

3:30 - 6 pm - More classes. More coffee. I have a feeling espresso will soon be involved.

6 - 8:30 pm - Either hang around the academy to get a head start on the next day's lesson, head home to sit out in the back yard so I can enjoy the fresh air and the last of the sunlight while doing homework, run some errands or, my personal favorite, go out for some vino with my classmates to both work off the stress of the day and/or to counteract the effects of 12 cups of coffee.

8:30 - 10 pm - Dinner time! Sometimes Maria has already eaten by this time but Edgar always waits for me and we sit and talk and laugh together. Even if he has already eaten (they're older so eat earlier than the typical Chilean), he will always come and join me and have some tea and lots of Spanish conversation (they speak not a word of English). We've developed a cool little rapport and I really enjoy these times of sitting and talking with him. Other than lunch time, this is the only time of day that I feel truly relaxed.

10 pm - ???? - This is when the rubber meets the road. Homework time. And shower time. And computer time. Most nights I get to bed by 2 am, sometimes as late as 3 am and on rare occasions as "early" as 1 am. I always knew being a night owl was going to pay off somehow! Then finally to sleep.... so I can get up at 7:30 (alright, 8:05!) and do it all over again. Woo-hoo!

Editor's Note: No, I have not actually seen people hanging off of the bus like in the picture above.

Chilean culture

Hmmph. I think I have finally mastered the bus thing and, along with it, the system of who gives up their seat to whom: men almost always give it to adult women of any kind, men and women give it up to other women who have children in tow and both men and women ALWAYS give up their seat to an elderly person, without question. So after seeing a woman today on the bus offer her seat to a little old lady, I was thinking that I’d now mastered the etiquette system and was officially a pro on Chilean culture. I clearly needed to be knocked down a peg. And, sure enough, not 10 minutes later, a woman offered her seat to… ME! Me, with no kiddos straggling behind. So that only leaves one category for me to fit into: she must have thought I was too old to endure the bus ride standing up! After suppressing my urge to slap her, I politely declined and decided that it was best for all involved if I chalked it up in my own mind to her being gracious to an obvious foreigner. Uh huh.

Some other tidbits I’ve gathered in my first week here:

• On a public street, it is perfectly acceptable to run into another person and not offer any sort of apology. The first couple of days I was constantly offering up “excuse me”, “pardon me” and “I’m sorry” until I realized that no one else was doing the same. Since finding out it’s cultural and not considered rude in the least (my understanding is that the Chileans don’t even notice how often they get bumped and shoved), I have been bumping with abandon!
• There is a Metro system here. But no maps for said system other than the one large wall map at each station. Guess you have to have a good memory! I have asked at every Metro station if they have a pocket version and have only been met with quizzical stares, as in “Maps? Why would we have maps? Silly gringa.”.
• And while, yes, there is a relatively newly revamped bus system here, there is NO timetable for it. I kid you not, the first time I asked somebody what time the 501 bus came, they laughed at me. Out loud. I have since been told that “The bus comes when it comes”. I have personally witnessed times when 3 will come consecutively and then not another one for 20 minutes. Sometimes 5, sometimes 15. Gotta love the South American concept of time! (Actually, I do)
• Speaking of time, if you were to invite a person to your home at, say, 8 pm for dinner, it is EXPECTED that they will not show up before 8:30. It is actually considered rude to show up any earlier than that as then the host will not be prepared.

Unrelated side note: Maria was sick for the second day with a migraine so, once again, dinner was up to Edgar. And, you guessed it, Alphabet Soup again! Men.

Rest, Theft and Starbuck's

Aaaaaaaaah, the weekend. I can not be more literal in saying that I don't know that I have ever really, truly, so completely appreciated the arrival of a weekend as much as I did on Friday. It's hard to explain how only 3 days of classes could produce that feeling of NEEDING rest, but it sho' did! The knowledge that I could come home that evening and not have to face 4 hours of homework and that I didn't have to get up early the next day to go to class was so sweet it nearly brought a tear to my eye. So Friday night I chiiiiiilled. After the aforementioned vinos with my class, about all I was capable of was coming home and having dinner with my host parents. We had "pastel de choclo", which is a very typical dish here in Chile, made of a particular type of corn which is ground very fine and mixed in with all sorts of ground veggies (olives, onions, something I couldn't identify), pineapple, ground beef AND chicken. Interesting. But oddly good. Once I can figure out how to link photos from my Picasa album, I'm going to post some pics of the food I've been eating. All sorts of interesting stuff!

Saturday I decided I was going to sleep in, but that only translated to 8:55 am as breakfast was at 9. Doh! But it was good to get up and get moving and mostly I just moseyed around, took a walk to the grocery store to buy some things for this week's lunches (yeah, eating out every day adds up) and then in the afternoon met with one of my classmates, Sarah, in the "centro" of the city. I both live and attend school in the "suburbs" of Santiago so I was anxious to go see the true downtown. There's lots of beautiful, old European-style architecture mixed with the modern. My host dad is an engineer and designed one of the major statues in the main plaza in the city... it was very impressive! But of course I forgot to take a picture. I repeat: doh!

We mostly spent the afternoon just ambling around and checking stuff out, being completely oblivious tourists, when out of NOWHERE a young punk came running up from behind us and grabbed the camera right off of Sarah's wrist. It happened SO fast that by the time she screamed and I looked over, he was already across the street. He was a speedy little bugger! Super annoying, but a good lesson. My host dad later told me that especially in the center of the city, it happens all the time, both to tourists and natives alike, and that you just can't be too guarded and careful with your possessions. From now on, picture me guarding my bag in a kung fu type vice grip as I walk down the street. What naive "gringas" we were... but not anymore!

This morning I had intended to go to the Catholic church with my host mom but just didn't quiiiite make it up in time. So I did get to sleep in a bit and then in the afternoon met up with all of my classmates to work together on our lesson plans for tomorrow. Granted, four hours together elicited only about an hour of actual studying, but it was good times. It's quite an interesting group of people: east coast, west coast, big city, small village (literally, a village), a Buddhist, an agnostic, a "lapsed Presbyterian", a wandering drifter.... and yet this experience we're sharing has joined us in a unique way as we all know exactly what each other is going through.

I have a rule that when I'm overseas I try not to eat anything that I can get at home i.e. American brands, McDonald's, pizza, etc., but today I broke my own rule. We went to Starbuck's and it was SOOO good that I don't even feel bad for breaking my own rule! But it won't be regular occurence as my frapuccino worked out to about $6.50USD. Ouch. But, oh, SO good.

I came home tonight in time for dinner around 8:30. Normally, Maria has very elaborate meals prepared and laid out just so and Edgar does not much more than sit down. I have, quite literally, not seen him lift a dish since I have been here. But tonight Maria had a headache so it was up to Edgar. Needless to say, dinner consisted of Alphabet Soup. Yeah, like the kind you buy from Campbell's and heat up in the microwave. Hmmm, guess men are men no matter what country you're in!

P.S. It was 86 degrees here today. Woo-hoo!

I'm a teacher!... sort of

I survived my first week of classes! Granted, it was just a 3-day week but, trust me, even surviving that made it a celebratory occasion. In fact we, my fellow trainees AND our trainer, did just that at the end of the day tonight... via a lovely little outdoor place with fine Chilean vino near the academy. Here is a picture of my little class. It's a GREAT group and I can't believe how quickly we built a great rapport and ability to laugh through all the intensity, both at ourselves and with each other. Seriously, laughing-out-loud, crying laughter. The teacher, Margaret is on the left. The others are Davis, Megan and Sarah. Good stuff, all.

To say the least, the intensity has not decreased. I thought that perhaps we would be learning and observing for at least the first few weeks and then teaching the last week or so, MAYBE the next-to-last week, but noooooooo.... we taught our first classes today! Yes, today. Our third day. With real, live Chilean students. Yikes. Of course we each only did a part of the class (20 minutes or so) and we were working with the beginners so they didn't know if we were or weren't doing it right... whew!

But I survived it... and having done so will make it that much easier with the class I will teach on Monday (40 minutes Monday!) and each future one. The workload is only going to get worse as we now have official lesson plans to create each day... in addition to all of the reading and the other homework.... but I can already see that the teaching time is going to soon become fun rather than nervewracking and no doubt it will soon be my favorite part of the school day... already I love the students I'm teaching!

HOW many hours of homework?!

Note: It took me a couple of days to get connected, so if you want to catch up with the beginning of things, be sure to check out the posts below, starting with the last one and working your way up....

Well, yesterday was my first day of TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Classes. You will notice that I did not add an entry to my blog yesterday. That was because my brain was mush by the end of the day. I knew that the course was termed “intensive” but I’m pretty sure that was a severely gross understatement. In a nutshell, classes run from roughly 9 am to 5 pm (time is fluid here), with an hour for lunch thrown in there. Then there is an average of 4 hours of homework thrown in on top of that. Good times!

But even so, I love it so far. The teacher is an American lady from Maryland and the other 3 students are also all from various parts of the US. Within minutes we were all laughing and pretty quickly a casual, friendly atmosphere was created where we all feel safe to make fools of ourselves as we are learning together. Today we broke into tear-inducing laughter at least three times… it helps a lot to ease the intensity of the day.

I have to admit that I was expecting a bit of a “cake” day on the first day of classes, mostly spent introducing ourselves and going over the basics of what we will be doing. I was mistaken. Instead, we jumped in headlong immediately and by the afternoon were doing practice teaching sessions and were sent home with 2 hours of homework (we were informed that will be our lightest homework day of the whole course… guess that was what she considered the “cake” part of the day). As if just figuring out the bus system and how to just get to and from class on my first day wasn’t enough in and of itself!

Speaking of the bus, in my 3 bus rides so far, I have witnessed 4 instances of men giving up their seats for women. It’s so natural here… even more to dig about Chile!

It’s now almost seven and I must catch the bus home so I have some time to do some errands before dinner, then spend about an hour and a half conversing at the table before heading up to my room by 11 to start my hours of homework… who said this was vacation?!

I made it!

NOTE: This was originally written Tuesday, 2/5 but, again, the South American internet connection issue...

As promised, I am now writing from Chile! I had an overnight flight so I arrived here around 10 this morning. After about an hour in customs and coughing up a $131 “reciprocity fee” to get into the country (I am presuming that by “reciprocity”, they mean that if they ever come to Lititz, I will get my money back), I stepped outside into warm, sunny Santiago. Aaaaaaaaah. Warm weather rocks.

I then was brought straight to the home of my host family, Edgar and Maria Fernandez. After so many years working at AHLI, it’s so funny to be on this end of things. But from what I can see so far, it seems like an ideal situation for me. They are an older couple (I’m guessing early 70s?) who live in a very nice section of Santiago; I have the entire upstairs with my own bathroom to myself so it’s nice to be able to “spread out” my stuff and not have to worry about it being in someone’s way. The picture I have posted here is the view of the mountains I see from my bedroom window. Not bad, eh?

What I loved most about South American culture last year when I was in Colombia came back to me immediately. Life here is ALL about the people. Between the time I got here around noon and 9 this evening, three different times people just showed up at the door to stop in for a visit. There is no planning ahead, no worrying about if the house is clean, no concern over if you look okay or not (in fact, one of the times, Maria greeted her guests with one random roller in her hair… and left it there the whole time), just genuine happiness at having friends drop in and spend time chatting and having some tea. Oh, and kissing. The kiss on the cheek is alive and well here in Chile, both when you greet someone and when you are leaving someone. I DIG that. It somehow creates an immediate sense of familiarity and warmth. I’ve been in this home less than 12 hours and I already feel completely welcome and at home here.

The meal customs are similar to Europe, which I also totally dig. The main meal of the day is around 2 and all of the family comes home to eat together and they take their time. A minimum of an hour, anything less would be considered sacrilege. Then around 5 or 6, you have tea or coffee. Which I took to mean just tea or coffee. I was wrong. It means tea or coffee plus all sorts of food things. Then dinner is around 9 pm. And of course all meals include Chilean wine. Always wine. So far, so good…..

The Adventure Begins

NOTE: This post was actually created Monday, 2/4. But I haven't been able to get connected to the internet to post it until now (gotta love the South American system!)

Well, it’s a done deal. I am officially unemployed for the first time since the age of 16 (insert audible gulp here). No doubt I have yet to fully grasp this fact. Right now it just feels like I’m going on vacation but I’m sure the full impact will be felt in the relatively near future. Most likely when I come home to 2 months of bills and realize that, oh, wait, I have no income.

Ah, well. Pleeeenty of time to worry about such things. For now I am at the airport waiting for my adventure to truly begin. I was just on the phone with someone who asked me if I was excited and I’ve realized that my excitement has temporarily been overtaken by my disdain for flying. But that’s what Xanax is for. No doubt the second I hit the ground in Santiago, the nausea will be overtaken by the excitement over being warm again!

My last weekend at home was crazy busy but lots of fun. It started with a Latin-fest farewell party at work (oops, I mean my former employer… have to get used to saying that!). I was festooned in a Bolivian poncho and a sombrero and we ate lots of Puerto Rican food and had mariachi music playing. I’m still not convinced that Keith knows I’m not actually going to Mexico, but it was very nice and lots of fun. I will definitely miss the people that I worked with there. It was truly a blessing to work with people I so genuinely liked.

Then, in lieu of packing or doing anything else that I should have been doing to get ready for my trip, I went to First Friday downtown with some friends. Good times. See pic. I broke down and did some trip-related errands Saturday and Sunday but tempered it with spending time with my nieces and nephews both nights. More good times. I LOVE those kids! See more pics. Finally, around 11 pm on Sunday night I started my laundry. For those of you that were taking bets, I started packing around noon today (3 hours before having to leave my house). Finished the last load of laundry about an hour before leaving and ran the last errand about 20 minutes beforehand. But I got it all done! And I got a little adrenaline rush in the process. So, now, flying. I hate flying. But next time I write it will be from Chile, baby!!