Reñaca, Con Con and a little Valpo

Reñaca a beach/resort area.

Beach front apartments: Tsunami/earthquake tested & approved!

View from the restaurant Bella Mar in Con Con.

"Locos"- I'm still not sure what they are, but I ate them anyways.

shark soup. just kidding.

The dunes of Con Con.

The decorations of Jota Cruz (restaurant). Looks more like a serial killers abode circa 1979.

Eating Chorillana at Jota Cruz: the place where it was first created!

palomas.

Volver

When am I coming back?

Do I need to have an end date for my experience here? My whole life has been determined by periods of time up until now.

Grade school. Move to and from Texas. I can't wait to be in Middle School. I can't wait to be a high schooler. Summer vacations. Athletic seasons. I can't wait to graduate from high school. College semesters. Study abroad in Spain. Winter breaks. Biding time until Chile.

Everything I did during or in between those times had a limit. For the first time in my life I'm not constrained by these time frames anymore! As a teacher, yes, I follow semesters. But they do not dictate or control my time or experience here in Chile. Time isn't running out for once, nor am I waiting for it to pass by quickly. The only thing that will run out is my visa, and that can be dealt with.

All of this puts a new spin on something my friend Alyssa wrote: Take charge of your minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years. Do not let them pass you by as you keep your head down while walking down the street. Look time in the eye, and watch life become a technicolor miracle.

When am I coming back to the states? I get to decide that. Not time.

So we'll see.

Your Spring is My Fall

Best people in Santiago! Jorge, Cris & Marcelo.

Inside La Catedral de Santiago.

Street art in La Plaza de Armas.

Celine after discovering a nearby fruit/veggie market!

Laden with kilos of strawberries and avocados.

Lovin' the Churrasco.

In front of El Palacio La Moneda

Again, the famed Churrasco.

In the foyer of el Museo Bellas Artes.

April came and is almost gone! It's getting chillier here in Santiago...sweatshirts and even coats are a necessity at night. It's so strange to think about everyone back home getting excited about wearing flip flops and going to Rice beach while I'm here wondering when my window will be fixed so it will actually shut. My room is FREEZING! Anyways, during the day it's a perfect 75 degrees, so I can't complain yet. I even prefer cooler days and am fine with forfeiting hot and humid 4th floor classrooms at Duoc.

TOURISM.

April has been an amazing month! (Hence the lack of blog posts...) I've made a few friends and have been able to do some sightseeing on weekdays before work. A couple weeks ago I went to the Bellas Art Museum. It's a gorgeous building in a part of the city that I hadn't been to yet. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see because the exhibits were not ready. We were able to see a sampling of Chilean art (old and modern) and then take a quick walk up Cerro Santa Lucía (a historic park on a hill in the middle of the Bellas Artes neighborhood).Last week my friend Jorge took me to "el centro". I had been confused about what was ACTUALLY the "center" of Santiago...to me, Santiago is a big city, and it seemed like many locations could be considered the downtown area. Turns out the true "centro" is around "The Plaza de Armas" (which makes sense now that I think about it!). There we visited La Catedral de Santiago and "La Moneda" (the Chilean version of the White House) and the museum attached with La Moneda (Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda) which was having an exhibit on ancient China and the "Terra cotta Army" (more than 100 statues that were excavated dating back to 212 B.C!).

WORK.

As I've told many of you already, I am liking teaching a lot! I knew I liked teaching ESL from my experience in Spain...but I was unsure of how it would go as a full time English teacher. Unexpectedly, I enjoy it a lot! There are some difficulties with the boss and with some inattentive students, but all in all it is pretty fun! Three of my 5 classes are really fun- the students are great and I'm pretty sure that they like the class. They all call me "Miss" (pronounced "meeeees") and "Profe". One class (my smallest beginner class- 8 girls, 3 boys) has gotten into the habit of kissing me on the cheek before and after class. I'm not sure if it's appropriate but I'm gonna go with it until I know otherwise. It's the norm here to kiss on one side of the cheek (I mean, it's not even a kiss...your cheeks hit and you really just kiss air). In Spain it was a double kiss, right cheek first then left cheek. Thank God I got out of that habit in the last couple years...could have been weird here. Anyways, their second written quizzes are coming up this week and I'm nervous for them. It's a difficult subject and as it is not their major...I'm sure they are more concerned with their other classes. English isn't a study priority. The thing I enjoy most is reading their responses to the questions. Many of them don't talk in class, but when forced to be creative and fill in an answer I get the wildest responses! I don't even want to know where they picked up some of the words they used. My favorite responses include:

"My mother used to washed me in the toilet."

"Michael Jackson used to be a black boy."

"My mother used to love me but now she loves me more." hahahaha

and of course...

"My favorite class at Duoc is English because it is so funny." :)

FOOD.

I have been surviving mostly on palta (avocado), hallulla (the most popular kind of bread), and eggs. At first I found the food here to be kind of boring...but I am slowly finding things that I like. Either that, or my tastebuds are becoming accustomed to Chilean cuisine and aren't missing Siam Delight or atomic lattes quite as much. That's right, I am STILL drinking nescafe.

Anyways, what they do have here in Chile are EMPANADAS and CHURRASCO. Empanadas can be baked or fried (way better baked)...they are like a doughy hot pocket filled with chicken, beef, cheese, seafood...whatever you want. They are yummy. Churrasco Italiano might be the very reason I stay in Chile. It's the national sandwich. Thin sliced beef (tastes like corned beef-very salty) with tomatoes, mashed avocado, mayo in delicious bread. You can find it anywhere, anytime, and it's cheap. After visiting La Moneda we stopped at a place that was like the fast food churrasco mecca. Everyone was standing up and a waiter came and took our order and yelled it to the kitchen (which was completely exposed). Five minutes later...BAM. Sandwich. The next place I need to hit up I first saw on "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations" travel show on Chile. It's called "Fuente Alemana"; a place similar to the one I went to...but the sandwiches are triple in size and for sharing. Lastly, along the lines of the Churrasco is a sandwich called an "as". Last night we ate them at a place in Bellavista (at 4 a.m after karaoke), only this shack of a restaurant spelled it "ass". In this case, the "ass" was like a steak bomb but without the cheese and add diced tomatoes, guac, garlic mayo, and green chili salsa. SO GOOD.

maybe I should just turn this blog into a food review site?

...more Pichilemu photos

(1) Tsunami damage & some lucky fishermen (most boats were destroyed).

(2) The park. This town LOVES Volkswagens.

(3) Dr. Seuss tree in Parque Ross.

(4) Llamas. On the beach. Best combination ever? Yes.

(5) ¡Fuerza Pichilemu!

(6) This town has so much colorful graffiti. I love it!

(7) More graffiti. We called this one the tranny-mermaid. It is great though! (notice the container sitting up top...that was placed there by the Tsunami!)

(8) Chile has so many great fences. I don't know why I am so obsessed with them.

Pichilemu (day 3): Punta de Lobos

Pablo's afternoon surf class got cancelled so we were able to all go to "Punta de Lobos" and then head back to Santiago a little earlier than expected. Punta de Lobos is very picaresque, but today Pichilemu decided to be super misty and foggy. Like, we could barely see past the cliff's edge. We hung out there for a couple of hours and hiked down closer to the water. It was really beautiful in person, my pictures don't really reflect that because of the fog. I guess I'll have to go back when the weather is warmer! There was a sweet foggy rainbow though and it actually hung off the cliff; we were able to get really close to the end of it.

I got back to Santiago last night around 10 or so. There was a lot of traffic, but it was way nicer being in a car! We listened to music and made a pit stop for some Churrasco sandwiches at the boys' favorite restaurant along the way.

Pichilemu (day 2): Surf Lessons

On Saturday we got up, ate some cookies for breakfast, and sat up in our loft of of hostel room (P.S if you ever go to Pichilemu stay in room 17. You can fit 3 people in there...one in the loft!!) where it gets super sunny and warm. It was a gorgeous day out! Perfect for a picture taking excursion. We went on a walk around town and then ended up in the center where there are lots of cheap eats. We found a Burrito place (Praise God) and had some delicious chicken & guacamole burritos. Then, as fate would have it, we bumped into a guy that we had met in Santiago a couple weeks back (another "we're at a bar, and a group of guys comes and sits with us and makes things hilarious and slightly uncomfortable" time). Turns out Nick, a surfer from Northern Cali, and his friend Pez, from England were here for the weekend too. It was much less awkward this time as they were lacking the third leg of their entourage, Craig.

Anyways, we had a surf lesson at "Manzana 54" at 330 so we headed down to the shore.

I

HATE

WETSUITS!

I think you need to be super skinny and have skin texture like vasoline to have an easy time with them. Katie and I were given, potentially too small of wetsuits, and were giggling and struggling like crazy to get them on. In front of like 6 tanned Chilean boys. Not the best time of my life. So finally, wetsuited up, we all went down to the beach with Carlos and proceeded to stretch and jog and learn surf-theory. We drew surfboards in the sand and laid down on them and "learned" how to paddle and then jump into position on the board. A second instructor, Pablo, came down and took Katie and I over as a special project...I having ZERO experience. When we were finally out in the water we would lay on the boards and wait for a good wave. Then Pablo would push the boards and we'd attempt to ride a wave. I got up about a half dozen (maybe more?) times and rode a wave about 3 times. A baby wave.

After an hour or so when I was finally getting the hang of it, I was so tired that I couldn't pop up onto the board any more...I'd get to my knees and then just fall off. Hah. I have a lot of water in my head still and bruised ribs. And just about every part of my body hurts...but it was SO MUCH FUN! Also, it wasn't super warm in Pichi. I'm suprised I even went in the water. But those wetsuits really do work!

We made friends with Pablo, who offered to bring us home to Santiago the following day, and then met his friend Dave who is from Illinois. We ended up hanging out with them later that night...we went back to the burrito place (their choice..."do you girls like burritos?" hah.) and then back to Pablo's house (he's from Pichilemu) and were joined by Oscar, who also works at the surf shop. We played Uno. I hadn't played that game since like 1992...and it was so fun! It was street vendor uno so some of the colors were messed up (brown, a substitute for blue?) We drank some Pisco and Grape Fanta (Katie's drink of choice, newly named Pisc-uva) and then headed to Waitara for some dancing and Pichilemu culture. I think we were the only "Gringas" there so I felt a little uncomfortable. People were staring so much...and one guy pinched me & winked at me while dancing with his girlfriend. Gross. Katie and I turned in at 400...but it was really more like 50o because of the time change!

(1) That's Katie! She made it on the promo poster from last time...

(2) A view of where we surfed.

(3) More views...lots of waves!

(4) Katie & wetsuit struggles.

Pichilemu (day 1)

This weekend (being a long weekend...5 days for me!) Katie and I went to Pichilemu, a surf town a couple hours south of Santiago. They are famous for annual surf competitions at "Punto de Lobos"...where surfers can ride long waves. Katie has been to Pichilemu a couple times and knows the owner of "Manzana 54" a surf shop & school.

We arrived Friday late afternoon after an excruciatingly long bus ride. The bus stopped every 15 minutes- it even picked up migrant workers on the highway? So a 2 1/2 hour destination turned into a 5 1/2 hour ride. Finally we arrived in the beautiful costal town, that wasn't as affected by the earthquake as we expected. Katie had met a hostel/restaurant owner named Marcelo the last time she was in Pichilemu so we stayed at "Hostal Surf" right on the water. They used to be connected with "Puente Holandase" a restaurant/ bar across the street where you could meet other guests, have breakfast, and hang out at night. They even had a couple hot tubs on the deck! Unfortunately, it was completely destroyed by the Earthquake/Tsunami and then looted. Katie was really looking forward to going there, so we had to make alternative plans for entertainment.

We ended up eating dinner at a place nearby called "Adobar". It was pretty nice...then we were joined by (why does this ALWAYS happen to us?) two men who happened to be P.D.I's (FBI) stationed in Pichilemu to help out after the quake. Pichilemu doesn't have much police enforcement apparently. Anyways, they were kinda strange/drunk (?) and insisted on buying us drinks and sat at our table with us. They tried to get us to go do kareoke with them...but honestly, we couldn't take anymore of them singing American music and trying to get us to figure out/correct their lyrical mistakes. Luckily, we bailed on them and were able to go the rest of the weekend without bumping into them around town.

P.S I forgot to add that on the bus they had a very small tv and a dvd 7 pack of Steven Segall movies! Dubbed. OMG. Kill me.

(1 & 2) Hostal Surf

(3) Puente Holandase (so sad...it looked like a really awesome place!)

(4) Katie!