Valparaíso & Viña del Mar!

The first weekend in May I went to Valparaíso & Viña del Mar. These are two important coastal cities not too far from Santiago; Valpo is a main port declared "World Heritage" by UNESCOand Viña is a main touristic destination in Chile. Enjoy the photos!

A view of Valparaíso from Viña

Exploring "los cerros" (hills) de Valparaíso.

Downtown Valparaíso.

Valpo from one of it's cerros.

skinny house.

After taking this picture I noticed a sign: "no photos, please."

These are tracks of the "funicular" (elevator) that you can ride to get to the top of the cerros.

They are very old and unique to Valpo.

Valparaíso ART

In Valparaíso there is A TON of graffiti. This might be the only place in the world where the graffiti doesn't take away from it's beauty and history but actually adds to it. In a city where every house is painted a different brillant color than the one next door...the graffiti only acts as a compliment and is another expression of the Valpo's creative spirit.

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.