Family Vacation 2009

My mom has always said that one of the perks of having her kids travel is that she gets to travel to go see them! Well, my Chilean adventure proved to be the perfect family trip for 2009! I was going through serious family withdrawals. (If you know me very well, you're aware of the fact that I either call or text one or both of my parents at least 3 times a day with the most random of information.) So after waiting all day at the airport after their flight got delayed, then rerouted to Lima, then delayed again (8 hours at the Santiago airport...) my family FINALLY arrived! A flurry of crying and waving through the glass ensued, followed by trying to find bags, stumbling over the language and more tears by both my mother and me. Typical. We got settled into the hotel and headed back to my apartment, starting an unforgettable adventure!
The trip started out with a splendid acrobatic show by PJ when he "fought a bum" out on the street. What really happened was that he fell in a hole up to his knee and cut up his leg, but we felt that the bum-fighting story would look better for his work buddies. (Hi, guys!) I got to show my family all the ins and outs of shopping at the local pharmacy, and Alex got to practice asking for things in Spanish. I would say the whole experience was a positive, but PJ might disagree. We continued the tour through downtown Santiago through Mercado Central and La Vega, after a delicious seafood lunch. For dinner that night we went to El Hoyo, a famous Chilean restaurant which Anthony Bourdain visited on his trip to Chile. I introduced the family to terremotos, which I seemed to like more than anyone else, and after mentioning the show to the waiter he took us on a tour of the restaurant to show us the pictures of Anthony Bourdain.
The next day we explored more of Santiago, including Cerro San Cristobal (See picture above) and visited the nativity scene. It was a beautiful wooden nativity scene, but there was no Baby Jesus. Mom and I asked, "Where is Jesus?" The security guard just looked at me like, Oh silly little girl, and replied, "He hasn't been born yet." Duh. It was December 21. We toured Pablo Neruda's house, went to the artisan market, and ate a quick dinner before we took an overnight bus to the island of Chiloe...12 hours! Sound unpleasant? For some, maybe. But honestly, the seats are more comfortable than an airplane, the ride is smoother than any Airbus you'll ever take, and unlike any US airline, they serve breakfast!
We arrived in Puerto Montt the next morning and immediately got depressed and grumpy. Okay, well I was grumpy because I'm always grumpy when I wake up, but when we arrived in Puerto Montt we were greeted by a small monsoon, and our thoughts of an exotic Christmas in Chile were dashed. Luckily we got on another bus to go to Chiloe, where we were greeted with mild sunshine! 15.5 hours on a bus...we were more than ready to get out! We rented a small cabin because everything closes on Christmas, including all restaurants. We explored the town including the palafitos, which are houses built up on stilts. Mom had quite a bit of trouble with these, although she tried. "Jody, what are these called? Peelafatos?" "Palafitos." "Right, pilafeetos." Not quite, but she got much closer at the end of the trip. We had a great dinner at Sacho's, where they gave us Christmas ornaments after our meal! Southern hospitality is true in Chile too! Christmas Eve was spent in the national park, hiking to the beach (Mom and I were quite happy) and marvelling at the "wild" horses. We attended a Catholic mass that evening, which was completely different than what we were expecting. Very informal, kids running all over, and dogs wandering in and out of the sanctuary. I also taught Dad the "ghetto shopping cart" dance. He's quite good. Ask him to show you. I haven't seen him laugh that hard in a while.
Christams Day was when the rains came, and so we had a very quiet day in our little cabin. Santa came in the morning, and we had delicous pastries bought the day before. We took a walk (just to get out of the damn cabin after a while) and encountered the only thing in all of town that was open: the liquor store. That's also where we met Buddy, our loveable four-legged friend that followed us all the way back to our cabin, somehow got through the gate, and slept on our porch and we periodically gave him food. That night Mom made what I think was my favorite meal on the whole trip: ossu buco. It was delicious!
The next day we headed to Punta Arenas...the end of the Earth! The town itself was meh, but the activities around the town were great! We went to Isla Magdalena and viewd 69,000 pairs of penguins! I fell in love, and seriously considered the consequences of slipping one into Dad's man-purse, but thought better of it. Penguins choose one partner for life, and they are the most protective animals parents. So cute! Despite the fact that the island was one of the coldest places I have been (we were next to Antarctica...what was I expecting? Honestly...) it was one of the coolest things I have seen. Penguins walked right in front of us as they crossed the path, waddling down to the water and back up to their caves. I'm sure I thoroughly embarrassed my family as I waddled around the island. We spent the next day hiking through part of Punta Arenas and going to see the fort, the first settlement in Punta Arenas. Our tourguide was very informative, telling us 1.)People from Punta Arenas don't want to be Chilean. In fact, the region has its own flag and is called the Independent Republic of Magellan. and 2.) That Chilean leaders must have been smoking crak when they claimed to own part of Antarctica.
The next day we were up VERY early to fly back to Santiago. After a short stopover at my apartment to trade our winter clothes for our swimmers we headed off to Valparaiso. Whew! I'm tired just writing about the whole thing. We arrived in the afternoon, explored the city and had delicious tapas for dinner. The next day we headed to Reñaca beach outside Viña del Mar. (Please, did you seriously think we wouldn't take advantage of the reverse seasons down here and skip the beach?) We all experienced the stronger than normal South American sun (ask to see the pictures of poor Alex after the beach) and headed back to Valparaiso for a delicious dinner at a new tucked-away restaurant. We had our fair share of short "road-trips" through the windy streets of Valpo, and by the next day we were ready to hang out for a while before the fam had to catch their flight back to Winter Wonderland. It was a great trip, and I honestly wish it hadn't ended. But, alas, Alex had to head off to Spain and I have to get ready for Brazil...oh what a tough life it is....

¡Brasil!

Now that work here in Chile is over I'm off on my next big adventure: a trip with two great friends to Brazil! Alexandria, my oldest and dearest friend, and Allegra, my roommate here in Chile, are meeting me down in Rio where we'll start what will be a month of beaches, jungle and caipirinhas. Ahhh....what a life!
We start in Rio and spend about a week there, visiting the tourist sights, and above all else, the beach :) Then we fly to Iguazu Falls. Thanks to the Brazil AirPass, we get to fly around the ENORMOUS country of Brazil, which lets us see a lot more! We are planning to see Iguazu from both the Brazil side and the Argentinian side, and hang out around the falls for a few days. Then from Iguazu we turn in our shorts and tank tops for long pants, high socks, and very fasionable mosquito net hats. (Thanks, Mom.) We are off to Manaus to do a 6 day, 5 night ecotourism trek through the Amazon jungle! We get to sleep in hammocks, fish for piranhas and canoe down the Amazon river. Along with this I plan on finding both El Dorado (The City of Gold) and the Fountain of Youth. That is, if I don't get Dengue Fever first.
After our trek through the jungle we fly over to Recife for what will most likely be some much needed time in the sun. We plan to do a bit of exploring the town, leaving lots of time to hit the beach. After 2 days in Recife we continue down the coast to Salvador, where we explore more beaches. Are you noticing a trend? With our safely tanned skin (I have 3 full bottles of sunscreen) and our bellys full of caipirinhas (the national drink) we head back to Rio by bus, stopping whereever we darn well please :) It's going to be epic!
So I've got my big yellow backpack almost all packed, a few Reals stored safely in my oh-so-fashionable money belt, and I'm ready to head out and meet up with my girls! Now to learn some Portuguese...

Elections in Chile

Presidential elections are coming up here in Chile, and, just like back home, the streets are full of signs, people are passing out leaflets and pamphlets, and TV is full of ads for different candidates. There are some interesting differences, though, between Chile and the US in terms of the elections.
The elections are scheduled for Sunday, December 13. Elections are held on a Sunday so that people that work won't miss the opportunity to vote. This is really important because here in Chile, if you are registered to vote but don't vote, you are fined. For this reason, many of my students don't even sign up to vote. The president serves 4 years, and can serve as many terms as they want, but not consecutively.
There are 4 main candidates running in this election:
Sebastian Piñera represents the Alianza por Chile (Alliance for Chile) which is a center-right winged party. Piñera is one of the most wealthy businessmen in Chile, and holds part or full ownership of several major companies, such as LAN airlines and Chilevisión.
Eduardo Frei represents the Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia (Concert of Parties for Democracy), the center-left party. Frei was president of Chile from 1994-2000.
The Socialist party chose Jorge Arrate as their candidate, an economist and lawyer who studied at Harvard.
Marco Enriquez-Ominami is running as an independent. He was part of the Socialist party, but resigned earlier this year.
The streets are full of huge posters, signs and people handing out material about each candidate. The candidates are out and about in different parts of Santiago and other cities doing the obligatory meet-and-greets and public appearances. A debate was just shown on TV a few days ago, but unfortunately my background in Chilean political issues isn't strong enough that I could understand everything that was going on. One thing I think is interesting is every night this last week Chilean public television (currently the only thing I watch because I don't have cable.) has played a 20 minute program, on EVERY channel in which each candidate has 5 minutes to put together an advertisement. They are shown one-by-one with the presidential candidates along with the senators and regional representatives. There is a huge campaign to try to get more people involved in the election process. Many people aren't really interested in politics because now that the Pinochet dictatorship is done, people don't really care about the politics. As one of my teachers put it, "We don't really care anymore because any one of these candidates is better than the dictatorship." Not a great attitude, but understandable seeing as the dictatorship ended in 1989, not all that long ago.
I still don't know enough about the candidates to know who I would vote for, but I'm sure as the elections get even closer I will learn more!

Summer time and the livin´s easy...

A recap of this weekend:

Friday: Morning run in the sun. Afternoon meeting. Sunbathing on the roof with my current read, Isabel Allende's Ciudad de las Bestias.

Saturday: Morning seminar at work, walked home in the sun. Sunbathed on the roof with beers and bestie, Allegra. Evening bbq on the rooftop.

Sunday: Long morning run in the sunshine. Drawing and reading on the grass in the park. Evening walk through the neighborhood to the fruit stand.

Monday morning: Walked to work in the sun.

I LOVE SUMMER IN NOVEMBER :)

¡Feliz Cumpleaños a Mi!

I've always been a huge birthday person -like, annoyingly so. I just think there's nothing better to celebrate than another year of living, exploring, traveling, seeing the world and sharing with other people. Going into this birthday, however, I was a little bummed not to celebrate it with my family and friends from back home. All my best birthday memories include loved ones that have known me for years who can share stories and memories rather than gifts. Here in Chile I have great friends whom I love dearly, but I still felt a little twinge of homesickness at not being with my family on my birthday. But once the day arrived, I realized that I have a whole new family here, and they made my birthday spectacular. I worked all day on my birthday, which to some would be a drag, but it actually made my day! I walked into work and was immediately greeted by several teachers wishing me happy birthday! Only one or two people knew, but I think they spread the word. My first class lined up to give me hugs and kisses as they left, and practiced their English by singing Happy Birthday to me. I was slightly annoyed to start my next class because 15 mintues after class started there were only 3 people. As I was wondering where all my students were, all of a sudden they walk into class together, holding a birthday cake with candles, balloons and confetti and started singing Happy Birthday Miss Jody. I was really taken aback! These are students that save their pesos to be able to make photocopies at school, or take the metro home 1 hour instead of a bus which takes twice the time. For them to save money and all contribute to a cake and soda for the class was really touching. We spent the class talking about our favorite birthday memories, traditions, and got absolutely nothing else done. It was perfect.
That night was the anniversary dinner for my school. Teachers, secretaries, custodial staff and security got all dolled up and headed to the military country club, which overlooked the entire city, to have a huge soiree celebrating the hard work everyone puts into our school to make it run (or sometimes run. Sometimes it's more like a limp, but it's at least moving.) My coworkers must have mentioned something to my boss, because as the campus director made his welcome speech, he announced that there was a birthday, and made me stand up to be recognized. Ahh! A little overwhelming! Throughout the night other professors came to give me hugs and kisses and flowers (from the centerpieces, but hey) and little gifts. I had never met some of these people, and for them to stop by my table and congratulate me really meant a lot. It was a great night of good food, good company and great dancing. Definitely a birthday not to be forgotten! Pictures to come soon!

Algarrobo: Fun in the Shade

The weather has started to get really nice here in Santiago, so some friends and I thought it would be great to hit up the beach! We met up early Saturday morning, got our towels, bikinis, sunscreen and cameras and headed off to Algarrobo, a quiet beach town with less tourists and pizzaz than Viña del Mar, and more beach area. We left Santiago by bus and were super excited to get some time in the sun. After the typical shinnanigans of Friday night we all fell asleep on the hour bus ride. We woke up to a very unwelcome surprise: the weather on the other side of the mountains was not warm and sunny like Santiago, but rather cold, overcast and very breezy. So there we were, 4 gringas and 1 Chilena wearing flip-flops, bikinis and t-shirts heading to the beach in the 50° weather. We stood out...just a little bit. But

being the optimists that we are (and realizing the next bus didn't leave until that afternoon) we made the most of our day! We ate at a fabulous seafood restaurant where I ordered a creamy fresh crab casserole that was just as delicious as it was artery-clogging. Then we headed to the beach! We examined the creatures in the tide pools, marvelled at the views, and buried ourselves in the sand. Yes, I said it, we buried ourselves in the sand. Nevermind that we are 23 (woo hoo!) year old professionals. And it didn't stop there. We completely revisited our childhood, including giggling at the anatomically correct mermaid I was made into. It was a really fun day, and after we recovered from the cold front, we all had a great time. How could you not when you're at the beach?!

September 18: Fiestas Patrias

September 18 is Chilean Independence Day, celebrating the day that Chile became an independent nation under Spanish monarchy. The 18th is celebrated much like we celebrate 4th of July, only on a much bigger scale. The city starts setting up and decorating for the holiday near the end of August, and people often take an entire 2 weeks off work for the holiday. All stores are closed starting the afternoon of the 17th until the 19th, and it's impossible not to notice the red, white and blue splashed on every light pole, store front and bus stop.

I was really lucky to get to spend the 18th with some Chilean friends and their families, so I got to see how the holiday is traditionally celebrated. Scott flew in that morning, so he got to experience everything too! Scott, Allegra and I went to our friend's house out in the country, in a town called Melipilla. The landscape was beautiful: rolling hills, huge plots of land and absolutely no smog. We arrived at Babi's house, which was actually more like an estate, and immediately started celebrating. There were traditional Chilean games, the names of which completely escape me, along with other games like ping-pong and foosball, or taca-taca. There was also cueca dancing and of course, tons of food!

We were welcomed by Babi's entire family with food and drinks in hand. We ate an amazing lunch, drank chicha, the traditional liquor, and danced cueca. After hearing that Scott plays soccer, the men invited him to play in their soccer game. Then as we were eating lunch they called Scott up to the front of the table and gave him a Colo-Colo jersey, one of Chile's professional teams. He was thrilled, and later exchanged a Sounders jersey with them. Scott played in the soccer game while Allegra and I danced cueca. As the sun started to go down the music changed from cueca to salsa and reggaeton, and a dance party followed. It was awesome!

New Address!

I have moved here and have a new address. Here it is:

Jody Schisel
General Jofre 41
Dpto. 908
Providencia, Santiago de Chile 7530139

Letters are welcome!

Snowboarding in the Andes Mountains!

For my friend Kate's birthday she wanted to go skiing in the Andes Mountains (because, first, it's pretty cool to say you've been skiing in the Andes, and second, it's pretty cool to be able to say you went skiing in late August!) We all woke up at 6:30 and took the bus to Portillo, Chile, which is about 2 hours from Santiago near the border with Argentina. It was beautiful! The ski resort was surrounded by mountain peaks, and right in the middle was a frozen lake. The snow was perfect and we had a blast! After growing up skiing, I decided to try snowboarding for only the second time. My roommate Allegra is pretty much an expert, and spent all day coaching me down the slopes. I must say I did better than I expected, but I still have a long way to go! We all fell more than once, shared a few laughs and beers, and had a great day! I uploaded some pictures to Shutterfly, so send me your email and I can send them to you!

Second Semester: "How do you say 'bald,' with love?"

I'm a full week into my second semester, and so far it's going really well! My classroom dynamics are definitely different this semester: I have 2 design classes at the Intermediate 2 level with really energetic and creative students which is really exciting. (Although it means more work for me because I have to come up with a lot more interactvie activities!) To review the second day of class I had the students get into groups and make up skits. They were awesome! One group made up a song and sang it in front of the class, another group acted out Alladdin, and another group made up a cooking show. We had a whole discussion in class, in English! about "green" buildings and how they are all hoping to design them someday. I also have a class of Basic 2 students, with a lot of my students from last semester. I had a lot of students ask to take my class specifically, which is always a little ego boost :) And it's exciting to see that they're enthused about learning...finally!! To practice describing physical characteristics I used magazine pictures and had the students describe the people. This was really exciting as most of the class (17/18) are guys, and People magazine tends to feature women more than men. I think sexy was the most frequently used vocabulary word that day...We're listening to Flogging Molly today to practice conditional consequence phrases. We'll see how they feel about Irish punk...
I feel much more at ease and prepared with one semester already under my belt, and I think that will make my students more comfortable too. Allegra and I have started what we call La Mesa Inglesa (a bad translation of English Table). Every other week we invite our students to meet us at a local bar, and we share beer and conversation. So far we've had a pretty good turnout (imagine that...) and the students have said it really helps. I don't know if they're just saying that so we keep drinking beer with them, or what, but it really does help the fluency aspect of speaking. All in all I'm really excited about teaching again, and almost everyday I come home on a high about my job and my little kiddies :)

Trip of a Lifetime!

I just got back from a 2 1/2 week long backpacking trip through Northern Chile, Bolivia and Peru. It was incredible! I started by heading from Santiago up to Arica, Chile, which is right on the border. I took a bus to La Paz and spent a few days in La Paz. The city was so different from Santiago - it was full of bright colors, patterns, and indigenous people. We stopped at the witches market and saw the dead llamas fetuses, (which are supposed to bring good luck when moving houses) sexual enhancement herbs and shrines to every kind of god imaginable. I took a picture of the llamas and was cursed by the store owner...
From La Paz we headed by bus to Copacabana, a town on the edge of Lake Titicaca. Copacabana was nothing more than a tourist layover town, but Lake Titicaca was awesome! It's the highest navigable lake in the world. We headed to Isla del Sol and stayed 2 nights there. Isla del Sol was beautiful, and we hiked for 4 hours to some ruins that are older than the ruins at Machu Picchu. While on the island we experienced a phenomenon that happens once every 10 years...snow!! The island was full of farmers with sheep and goats and llamas.
We left Isla del Sol to go to Puno, Peru. Upon reaching the border of Peru we were examined by doctors and given basic information on contageous diseases and how to avoid spreading them, like covering your cough. Swine flu is a major issue down here. We stayed in Puno a matter of hours while watiting for a bus to Cusco, and in that time we managed to hit up the biggest tourist trap ever: the floating islands. The concept is really cool: islands constructed out of reeds and anchored to the bottom of the lake. The Uro people lived this way for centuries. Now, no Uros exist but the islands have been taken over by people pretending to live there, and trying to sell you things. It was worth a see anyway.
From Puno we headed to Cusco, Peru, which was an great city! Lots of culture and awesome sites. We hiked a tour of ruins just outside the city and explored within the city as well. We stayed about 2 days before starting our grand adventure.
Allegra, Gerhard (her boyfriend) Scott (her brother) and I went on a 5 day, 4 night hike through the Salkantay pass to Machu Picchu. We had horses that carried our heavy packs, and cooks that provided meals for us. Now don't get the wrong idea - it wasn't a walk in the park. The first day we hiked 6 hours and camped at the base of Salkantay Mountain at 3,900 meters (12, 792 ft.) The next day we hiked a total of 10 hours. We summitted the 4,600 meter (15, 100 ft) pass at Salkantay Mountain. (That's higher than Mt. Rainier! Woop woop!) Then we headed down into the jungle and over to Machu Picchu. If you haven't been to Machu Picchu...GO! It's incredible. We woke up and started hiking at 4:00 am to be some of the first people to the top. (Too bad about 200 other people had the same idea.) We reached Machu Picchu as the sun was coming up while the city was still a little grey and misty. The city is surprisingly intact for being so old, and I could almost feel the spirits as I walked through. We hiked up Waynapicchu (the mountain that you see in the background of all the classic Machu Picchu pictures) and it was one hell of a hike. It could have been the fact that I was walking uphill for the previous 4 days for at least 6 hours a day, but it was worth it once we reached the top. The view was awesome! We spent all day walking around and exploring, and at one point I even snuck in a quick nap inside the ruins :) We hiked to the Inca Bridge which is part of the 2 foot-wide original Inca trail. There is so much rich history surrounding the place and it was awesome to actually go there and see it! The Peruvian government is trying to figure out a way to limit the number of people who visit Machu Picchu because it is estimated that its foundation is slipping. Soo glad I got to see it when I did!

Life Update!

Wow, I'm kind of behind on my blog. Oops! I'm having my computer repaired, which is partly to blame, and have also just basically been on the go for quite a while.
My first semester of teaching ended, and honestly, it feels like it just started! It went by soo fast! I had a great time, little bumps along the way, but for the most part I love all my little kiddies. (I say kiddies, but they're really my age.) I also got to experience all the administrative duties that go along with being a teacher - staff meetings, entering grades, reading and responding to the most pointless emails known to man, etc. It has been nice to have a break to say the least!
So what have I done on my break? I know you are all biting your nails with excitement. :) The first week of vacation I took a solo trip to the island of Chiloe in the south of Chile. Incredible!!! I felt like I was in Ireland (or what I imagine Ireland to be like as I haven't actually been there...) Rolling green hillsides were dotted with little farm plots of sheep and llama and some cows. Artisans weave hats, scarves, sweaters, slippers...pretty much everything out of wool and the rest of the population is involved in the fishing industry. You either fish, own a store that sells fish, build boats, repair boats, or farm. I stopped in several different cities, each with unique little quirks and character. I ate lunch at a restaurant that, after I ordered, actually went to the boat harbored at the marina and picked up the fresh seafood to cook my meal! I sampled mussel ceviche, smoked mussels and curanto, the local seafood stew specialty. Delicious! I spent about a week on the island, and explored as much as I could. I hiked through the national park where wild horses accompanied me on my hike down to the beach. I spent a lot of time walking along the beach, sitting at the beach, collecting shells at the beach, and drawing boats at the beach. I kind of like the beach...I met some really interesting people, including fishermen, the local prostitute, lots of artisans, and of course other travelers. It was absolutely beautiful, the weather was great, and it was a much needed break from Santiago. Pictures will come soon!
So for the second part of my "winter vacation" (which is so weird to be saying in July...) I am travelling with Allegra, her boyfriend and her brother to Bolivia, Peru, and the northern desert of Chile. I will definitely have some great blog posts following that adventure!

¡Bailando La Cueca en Clase!

As the end of the semester gets closer I seem to get busier and busier. All of a sudden students who showed no interest at all throughout the semester start to care about the fact that they're failing my class and want to retake quizzes and even do extra projects to make up points. I arrive to school early and leave late to make sure everything gets done, and at the end of the day I'm ready for a break. So today in my first class as the class was doing their review worksheets for the final exam I turned on the radio so it wouldn't be so boring. After most of the students finished and left class, some of my favorite students stayed behind to ask me if I knew the Cueca dance. I didn't, but I'd love to learn! My students jumped at the chance to switch roles and play profe for a while, and so ensued teaching the gringa teacher how to dance the Chilean National Dance.
La Cueca has 3 parts: First, the gentleman courts the lady and invites her to dance. Second, the lady accepts, does a few turns, and starts to tease the gentleman and start a chase in a circle. Last they finally reunite and dance together again. This is all done while twirling a napkin around over your head.
My students took me through step by step and taught me the moves (and tried to convince me that droppin' it like it's hot was part of the cueca, but I knew better.) First Carlos showed me how to dance the traditional cueca, which is more formal, and then Victor taught me the more modern version. It was an awesome class, and a welcome break from the stress of the end of the year. I passed around my camera and got some great photos of my students teaching me to dance!

Farmers Market!

Sunday is one of my favorite days here because there is a small farmers market about 2 blocks from my house.  My roommate Allegra and I go every Sunday and Thursday, and the vendors are starting to know us and remember what we always buy.  There's something about buying directly from the farmer that always makes the food taste better.  This was my haul from Sunday which cost me less than $7.  

Montañas

Santiago is surrounded by two mountain ranges: the Andes to the East and a smaller Cordillera to the west.  The city itself is literally surrounded by mountains, although some days you would never know.  Because it sits down in a valley, Santiago has a terrible pollution problem.  Yesterday was the first day in a long time that I remembered we had mountains around our city.  Here are some pics of the snow-capped mountains.

Buenos Aires!

Last weekend I took an extended weekend to Buenos Aires. (I feel so old-money, Upper East Side saying that..."We went to Buenos Aires for the weekend...) I went with some friends from the program, Elliott, Kate and Beckie, although Beckie headed off to the coast once we got there. It was an incredible trip, filled with laughs, lots of exploring, crazy stories and some Argentinian wine!
When we landed in the airport we had to walk through a machine that measured our body temperature, to make sure we weren't bringing Swine Flu in from Chile. (Chile and Argentina have a long embittered history, and generally don't like each other at all. I think this had something to do with the whole screening thing...) Once I was medically cleared by some of the most highly-acclaimed medical experts (one of whom was smoking a cigarette, in the airport, as we walked through the machine) we were off to the hostel! We stayed in a great place very centrally located for about $10 a night.
We hit every major tourist spot in BA: Recoleta Cemetary, where Eva Peron is burried ("Don't cry for me Argentina....) along with other dignitaries and Argentinian presidents. A burrial plot alone at Recoleta costs more than my college education, and that doesn't include the massive, marble and bronze mausoleum adorned with stained glass and statues. I wonder how many African countries could be fed with the money spent on extra statues or grotesque marble tombs...
We also walked through Palermo and the beautiful outdoor park, Puerto Madero and La Boca. La Boca is the area where immigrants first landed in Buenos Aires, and they built whatever type of shelter they could. They painted these shelters really bright colors to try to make the area look less poor, and that's why all the buildings in La Boca are so beautifully bright. I will post pictures soon. It was incredible! La Boca is also the Tango Capital, and I was lucky enough to get a piece of that action. I was asked to dance by my new 84 year old boyfriend Fernando. He pulled me up on stage and led me in a tango dance to music performed by a live band. I haven't the foggiest idea how to dance tango, but luckily enough for me Fernando pretty much just shuffled me across the stage. I can literally say he swept me off my feet at one point. El amor...
We also hit up some of the great ferias, or outdoor artisan markets. Argentina is famous for leather goods, so I did my fair share to stimulate the economy.
Our last day in Buenos Aires proved to be one of the most exciting...albeit for an odd reason. This is one reason I'm glad I speak the language here...
My friend Elliott wanted to buy a thermos for his mate, an Argentinian tea. He found a street vendor with many thermoses for sale, and bought one for $40 Argentinan pesos (about $12). He paid with a $100 peso note, got his change and we walked away. As we were admiring the thermos with its leather carrying case, the street vendor started screaming, ran up to us and tried to rip the thermos from his hands. She claimed he paid with a fake bill and demanded both the thermos and her change back. This is a really popular scam in which the street vendors take the real bill, quickly switch it for a fake in their pocket, and claim that the patron paid with a fake bill. Well, we knew better, so we suggested that we call the police. Obviously she didn't want the police to come because she had counterfeit money, so while she was supposedly calling the police, we went searching. All the while this woman is screaming, causing a scene, rounding up all the other street vendors to try to get us to simply give up and walk away. Too bad for her she was Peruvian in a crowd of Bolivian street vendors, and the two groups do not trust each other. Peruvians get a really bad rap down here for being tricksters and ripping people off, which is a huge generalization. After waited for an hour for the police to come, we were finally able to find some and explained the situation. Imagine this: a screaming street vendor, two gringos trying to explain how the street vendor cheated them, and a huge crowd forming around the plaza to hear what all the ruckus was about. At one point I just errupted into laughter at how comical the whole thing was becoming. At one point, when the police told her to be quiet for a moment so he could hear our side of the story, the street vendor burst into tears. I looked at her and said (in Spanish), "Really? Are you seriously crying right now? Just stop, how ugly, just stop." The police thought my Chilean insults were hilarious and laughed at the stunned look on the vendor's face. After about 20 minutes of haggling the police made Elliott return the thermos and made the vendor give half of what he paid back. He said he believed us but because he couldn't prove it he could only make her give back half. Oh well, he paid $6 for a great story. The best part of the whole thing was at the end, the police offered the counterfeit bill back to the street vendor!! She said she didn't want it (obviously trying to prove that she didn't use it, althought I'm sure it would have come in handy for her next scheme) so Elliott asked to take it for his scrap book. It was kind of cool because it proved I knew enough Spanish to get out of going to jail. Big thanks to all my Spanish teachers over the years!
All in all, Buenos Aires is a beautiful city. The architecture is very European, with beautful ornate buildings and lovely parks and plazas. The air is much cleaner than Santiago (Buenos Aires means good air in Spanish) and the people are really friendly. I already want to go back...

Acid Rain

Today it rained for the second time since I've been in Chile!  It started this afternoon and now at 7:30 it's still raining...almost feels like home...minus all the pollution.  Santiago is extremely polluted, to the point that sometimes walking home I can't see the giant Andes Mountains that surround the city.  It's pretty hard to miss mountains like these.  It gets so bad that some days the government sends out warnings against exercising outside, and school sports are suspended.  It's great when I try to go running...

I've started to get into a bit of a routine here...which is kind of nice.  Teaching is starting to go really well.  I feel like I have connected more with my students and it might just be me, but I feel like they are a little more excited to learn.  I've tried different things in the classroom in terms of activities and the students seem to be responding better.  In my intermediate class, for example, our last unit was about food and cooking.  We went over vocabulary and did the exercises in the book, and for an added activity we watched part of an episode of Iron Chef America.  They thought it was hilarious, and it was really cool to hear them shout out "She is boiling!" or "carrots and onions."  The last unit for my basic class was about likes and dislikes, with vocabulary about music and movies, so during their review worksheet I let them each pick a song off my iTunes to play, as long as it was in English.  I'm not sure how much then concentrated, but it kept me from getting bored too!

My living situation is going great!  I really love my roommates, and my roommate Jaime brings his friends over all the time so I get to meet a lot of Chileans and practice my Spanish.  Allegra's birthday was this last weekend so we had a big party at the house and all of our friends came...at least 20 people shoved in our tiny apartment...it was awesome!  I'm thoroughly enjoying pretty much everything about life here!

I have a new adventure coming up...Argentina!  I'm leaving on the 22nd and staying for 5 days.  I will be sure to have new and more exciting posts then!

My school!

Notice how the ceiling doesn't exactly connect to the walls...it'll be awesome in winter!

Student artwork is displayed and students play ping-pong downstairs between classes.  I have yet to use the tables to introduce beer pong...

Cementario General: A City of Dead

Today Allegra and I decided to explore some more of the giant city in which we live, and we went to a really interesting, although not all the cheery, place: Cementario General.  This is the largest cemetery in Santiago, and it's also where Salvador Allende, the leftist president ousted in a military coup that started the Pinochet dictaorship, is buried.  It was crazy!  First of all, it was enormous.  It was basically a city of tombs.  There were streets within the cemetery, and all the "buildings" of tombs had numbers so you can figure out where the heck you are.  There were several types of tombs: graves, graves above ground, small grave houses and "apartment building" tombs.  All of the graves in the ground, even the most modest, had beautiful marble and usually a cross statue. The graves above ground are just like what you would find in New Orleans, but not quite as tall.  The grave houses were incredible.  Huge ornate buildings of marble with stained-glass windows and wrought-iron figures of stars or Jesus.  Whole families were buried in the little "houses" and people brought all sorts of things to adorn the walls.  The "apartment building" tombs were the most interesting to me.  They consisted of rows and rows of small square pieces of marble marking the "drawer" where the person lay to rest.  Most of the "buildings" were three stories and there must have been over 50 tombs in each row.  We didn't get a chance to see Salvador Allende's grave because we got there about two hours before it closed, but it was really interesting.

Illegal immigration: a journey of desperation...

One of the Chilean professors at my school also teaches at an institute that trains interpreters.  He asked if I would put together a short 20 minute speech on immigration so that the students could listen to a native speaker and practice interpreting.  (He also said he would pay me, which was an added bonus!)  Immigration is a pretty broad subject...actually really broad.  So I decided to steer clear of any controversial issues (like that's possible when talking about immigration) and stick with the effects of immigration in terms of demographics, economics, crime and politics.  I presented both sides of each issue in an unfairly vague manner, and at the end of the presentation students were allowed to ask questions to practice how to interpret a question and answer.  I got some pretty interesting questions like, "If my visa expires in the US what happens?"  Well I don't know...I think you get deported, that is, if you get caught.  Another question was, "What happens if I am legally married to an American citizen and we have a child, but the child is not born in the US?  Is my child a citizen?"  Umm...maybe you should talk to a lawyer?  But then a student asked the question: "En su opinión, por qué existe una desperación tan fuerte a venir a lost EEUU?"  Translation:  "In your opinion, why is there such a desperate desire to come to the US?"  Desperate desire.  That's just it.  It's not just a desire, but a desperate desire.  If we eliminate this desperation, will we eliminate the "problem" of immigration?  If we can solve the poverty and violence abroad we can create many lands of opportunity and a "dream" in which people can support their family and not worry about drowning on a raft or baking to death in the Arizona desert.