First Week of the next 4 months....

I've spent the past week going to the school that I'm teaching at. It's called Divina Maestra. Luckily, I've had the other volunteer (my new housemate) helping me. Carolyn was in Peru my first two weeks around here so I met her for the first time on Sunday when she came back. Really cool chick. She was a Spanish teacher in the states so, again, I'm the only one clueless in Spanish where I am. We went to Viña del Mar yesterday which is about a 20 minute bus ride from Villa Alemana. Viña is essentially just another part of Valparaiso since they're right next to eachother, but it's cleaner and more touristy. We watched a futbol game of U. of Santiago vs. Chivas (Mexico) and Chileans are NUTS about this stuff. A futbol game is just one long chant. It was a little hard to handle actually especially since some idiot was whistling in my ear every other minute. I mean, honestly, how many times do you have to do one of those fingers-in-the-mouth type shrill whistles before people get the point that you really like soccer? Apparently about 50 times.

Anyway, class has been...interesting. I'm sure its just the first week but things are run differently here. Based off what I've seen, I'm not sure exactly how much teaching I'll be doing in front of the class. Everything is very last minute here. As in, "Ok..go teach something now Carolyn and Evan! Teach  what? It doesn't matter!" I'm not sure what the kids were supposed to learn today in English class but these are some of the things that they did practice during class:

1) How to make an elephant mask out of normal notebook paper.

2) How to yell at your friend from across the room, WHILE standing next to your teacher, and doing it without him noticing.

3) How to make random animal noises in class and pass it off as English.

4) How to draw up blueprints for a perfect butterfly shaped swimming pool.

I'm trying not to make waves since I'm just here to learn Spanish anyway, if I teach I teach, if not, I look over my spanish english dictionary during class so it's all good. In other news. I went to recharge my phone today (I have a prepaid phone that I just put money on) and the lady said something about not understanding Castillian spanish after I spoke. I think that was code for her saying that I speak Spanish like a retarded person. Either way, speaking the wrong dialect is better than speaking no dialect.....si?

I think I'm learning how to speak better but I still can't really understand what my parents are saying. Having Carolyn here is good since she can help me learn/translate for me. This weekend I'm going to Viña again to hang out with Carolyn and her friends. We're staying at a hostel since we don't want to worry about going home late. Hopefully I come out with all my internal organs intact...

Los Campamentos Invierno....al final

Well. I returned to Villa Alemana today after a long but fun week in Cartagena. We definitely had some issues in the beginning. Two of the other American Volunteers who were supposed to come never showed up so we only had the 4 of us to run the camps. I came into the situation not knowing any of the people. Nicole and Camilla were two Chilenas from around the Cartagena area who were running the program and the second day a guy named Brennen showed up to help. The week was fun...but we had very little to work with. The room we were in had one working light, no insulation and bars on the windows. Not what I'd call a "learning environment"

Sin embargo, the kids were great. Everyone who showed up was awesome. Very excited to speak english, intelligent and cool personalities. I had some very rough mornings waking up since most of the nights I spent huddled like a stray animal under paper thin sheets. I had to shower in tepid water (which meant that I showered twice this week since I hate being uncomfortable) and it was raining or cloudy most days. However, the kids were really the saving grace. Every morning, they got ME excited about the day...I don't think I could have done it without them.

Of course, I was the only person in a room full of 30 people who couldn't speak Spanish but they were all really nice to me. Some of the highlights of the week:

1) Morning wake up dance sessions to get people warmed up. Dancing for me essentially meant doing a strange kind of moonwalk, sidestep slide. I think it entertained other people. Also, I can't get that stupid Ke$ha song out of my head.

2) Being interviewed by CNN CHILE...and being asked to say the "And NOW back to the studio!" part for the camera. My bets are that the camera was probably not even turned on when I did my part. I think my friends asked the anchorwoman to have me do something since I was the only person they didn't interview due to lack of spanish and charisma. Either way...it made me feel powerful

3) The lunches that usually consisted of a strange dishwater/chocolate/coffee drink and rice with a hardboiled egg in the middle of it.

4) The Ending ceremony today. There were some heartfelt renditions of Sweet Child O' Mine and Zombie. I was given the award for being "Shakira's Lover" since I wrote a poem about her for class. Brennen, the other volunteer, was given the award for "Most Handsome" I will kill Brennen and take his award for myself. I was robbed.

I'm actually going to miss these kids....I think they'll miss me too for some reason. Maybe they found my awkwardness endearing? Monday I start observation at my school....yikes.

el Terremoto Pequeño

I forgot to mention that while we were watching the soccer game, in the middle of the conversation on Wednesday, Manuel hushed me and told me to look at the banister leading upstairs: it was shaking and soon the entire house was. Nothing was knocked over because it was just a small "seismo" but it was a reminder of what this country is all about. Apparently small tremors like this happen almost daily. Some you're awake for, some not. Just to remind people that might be fearing for my life: large earthquakes like the one that happened a few months ago, scientifically speaking, happen only every 25 years so I'm not worried. However, catfish are known to be especially sensitive to seismic activity and have been said to be able to predict upcoming shocks weeks in advance. My suggestion: everyone buy a catfish and keep it in your toilet. There are earthquakes all the time near Chicago. You'll thank me later.

Showering has become the highlight of my day (unfortunately?) while living here. As you can see to the right of this post, it ain't warm here. I sleep in my clothes every night under 5 blankets. Chileans don't use central air/heating. It's not like they don't believe in it, they literally do not have central air. This entire apartment building has not a single air vent to be found. Even if they had furnaces, there would be no way to carry the heat into the rooms so the only thing protecting you from the cold are the walls and windows. Luckily, they do have hot water so this has forced me to shower out of the pure need of ten minutes of comfort.

Last night, my family, who are quickly becoming just roommates since they're so young and informal, invited people over for a small get together. Luckily, there was alcohol this time ( I don't drink a lot here since Giovanna doesn't drink at all) to lube the social wheels. There were two teachers from my school who seem very nice as well as a next door neighbor who spoke pretty good English. The neighbor's girlfriend was Brazilian and spoke Portugese so there were a lot of languages flying around. I just tried to cling to the seat of my pants and listen. It was fun. I got in some words but usually only when conversation was directed at me. It was literally 8 people sitting around a table talking at eachother for like 5 hours. I showed off the power of my liver by being the only one drinking Pisco (think Chilean tequila) straight though...so I think that gave me some points. The guy who spoke English was named Antonio and we became friends. He said he wants to hang out to improve his English and help me improve my remedial spanish so that's pretty keen.

Today, Manuel and I watched a vampire movie called "Daybreakers" which did the trick for my vampire fix although it was nothing spectacular. It had subtitles in Spanish so that worked for everyone involved. Manuel is such a nice, easygoing guy. It's great having him around. I love Giovanna as well but Manuel and I can talk about action movies and Def Leopard so that's cool. Tomorrow I leave for a winter camp which is basically just going to be me and a bunch of Chilean kids for a week. I won't have a computer then but I'll update soon. Ciao Ciao and thanks for reading.

Villa Alemana: Day 3

Yesterday we all dropped off Giannina with her abuelita and went on a drive to the coast. We went to Valparaiso again and ate at some place called Mastodonte which was decorated and shaped like a cave. I had a craft beer called barba rubio which was actually decent. Something to remember about Chile, beer is not as huge as it is in Europe and especially America. Chileans are known for their wine and wine here is super cheap and super good. "Cervezas Artesanals" are not a common thing so to drink a microbrew here is rare.

Now..the lunch. Chileans eat HUGE lunches and small meals the rest of the day. A really popular thing in Chile to eat is Chorrillana. It's basically what it looks like: a heart attack on a plate. A giant plate of fries, topped with a ton of meat and cheese, often with fried eggs on top. I attempted to eat the Chorrillana Puerco yesterday and made it about half way through. It's a disgusting amount of food. I'm going to need to change my eating habits soon if I don't want to get adult onset diabetes.

Valparaiso, although it has streets, also has what are called Funiculars which are pretty much just boxes that are dragged up the side of a mountain with steel cables. It's a common way to get transported from one place to another. We took one yesterday to the top of some cerro in downtown Valparaiso. I'd be lying if I wasn't imagining the cable snapping the entire way up.

When we got home, I watched the futbol game with Manuel. Colo Colo (from Santiago) vs. Everton (from Viña del Mar). As per usual for teams that are my home teams, Everton lost. I've been a Cubs fan forever though so this is something I've gotten used to. Apparently this Saturday I'm going to leave to do a winter camp somewhere with some Chilean kids who have good English. As usual for this program, I have no idea where, when or how I'm supposed to leave but it's ok. Es lo que hay (it is what it is) More to come later

Trip to Valparaiso

I woke up today, ate a breakfast with Manuel (bread with palta (guacamole) and some tea to drink) and then we went to Valparaiso to get some things. We took the metro and, again, I had some one on one time to awkwardly conversate. However, I'm hoping I'm getting better. For those already familiar with Spanish, I'll learn you on some basics of "chileno":

-Chileans speak very fast..like the fastest of any Spanish speaking country in the world. Not like this matters for someone as clueless as me anyway but most Spanish speakers feel incompetent when they come here and try to have conversations. Imagine how I feel.

-Chileans leave off S's in the end of words and sometimes completely leave out the middle of words. Combine this with the above fact and it's disastrous

-There is a whole list of slang words that are unique solely to Chilean Spanish and heard nowhere else. Pollolo=novia (girlfriend), caña=resaca (hangover) etc. etc.

Anyway, Manuel is great. He's really excited to teach me spanish. We stay up late just talking to eachother. The past two nights, I've had to cut the conversation short because my head hurt. I don't know if he's just humoring me but I'll take it. I also ate some kind of fish today called "congrio."  Out of curiosity, I looked up pictures of it and it's a horrifying creature.  Long and snake like but Chileans love it and it's actually the only good thing I've had to eat yet here..besides the palta.  De todos maneras, yo aprendi mucho hoy, mañana voy a aprender mas.

The First Day

I got in today to Viña del Mar. It's a coastal city in central Chile about 2 hours west of Santiago. Scenery definitely gets better the further you get from Santiago (place is crowded and dirty in my opinion). Viña and Valparaîso are right next to eachother and the way they stack the houses on the cerros (hills) is pretty impressive.

I met my "house mother" Giovanna and she's definitely younger than me at 25. She lives about 20 minutes east of Viña in a town called Villa Alemana with her boyfriend Manuel and their one and a half year old daughter Gianina. She's probably the cutest damn baby I've ever met in my life. Super friendly and loud. During my first conversation with Manuel, we had to keep stopping because she kept getting on my lap. As with most foreign places I go, I'm like a circus animal that people just can't get enough of.

Now, as long as we're talking about conversation, I might as well say that none of the family speaks a word of English. For once, I speak better Spanish than someone does English. Manuel definitely knows more than Giovanna but not much. Our conversations consisted mainly of riddles and I'm pretty sure I mistakenly told them all that I would donate a kidney if ever need be. However, this is perfect for my purposes in Chile since I'm really going to have to learn how to speak to survive out here. We had sushi tonight and spent much of the cena passing an engligh/spanish dictionary around. Tomorrow we're going to Valparaiso.

To all who are actively paying attention, I have wi-fi internet in my house (which is apparently not rare in Chile) so I can update and talk regularly now. Hasta luego

Location....still undetermined

Things are going well. I've been having orientation all this week and hanging out with the people. I've been told that I'll be going to the city of Vina Del Mar...but where exactly within the city I don't know. It could be the city center, it could be the suburbs. El suspenso me mata. I also have a phone number, if you want to call me, here it is 5684160665...I can't see straight. Adios

Landing and successful retrieval

I have successfully docked with the South American mainland. Now I need to get something off of my chest...I flew first class all the way here and it was the most amazing experience of my life. Unlimited drinks, full course meals (consomme starter? really?) and neat-o robot chairs that turned into beds at the push of a button. It made me a better person and everyone needs to try it at least once in their lives...American decadence at its highest.

Anyway, I got to the hostel fine. Actually every interaction I've had in South America has been smooth sailing so far. I almost didn't even get into the air out of Chicago actually because I didn't have a return ticket booked. I also look like a terrorist so that probably didn't help. I've met some other Americans in our program and we spent the day walking around Chile.

Highlights:

1) "Pino" empanadas (filled with "meat" olives, gravy, and onions.) Amazing

2) The fish market with every fish known to man killed, chilled and on display. You can even buy an entire eel.

3) The Santa Lucia park. A hike up a big fortress-like mount that I'm sure used to have some military purpose. The view of the Andes from the top was quite nice.

Lowlights

1) Santiago is dirty.

2) Smog obscures some of the view of the Andes which is regrettable.

3) There are feral street dogs laying everywhere. They happen to sprawl out right in the middle of major walkways making it near impossible not to step on one. I'm also pretty sure they're crazy...I'm also not entirely sure that they are not the primary meat in in the Pino empanadas.