It is currently 6:45pm on tuesday evening. Today is a Chilean holiday so I am the only person in the entire building. Tomorrow, at 7:00pm I leave Chile after just over two months. This is a thing about which I have very, very mixed feelings. On the one hand there are certainly things from the States that I miss. Family, friends, having internet access at home, hot showers, football, decent beer, etc. On the other hand, I love this country, I love the people and I love the food. Not to mention the fact that over this past week the weather here has taken a dramatic turn from cold and rainy to clear and downright hot. The idea of returning to below freezing temperatures is not one that I am terribly happy about. Nor is the idea of going from a place where it's light outside until 9:30 to a place where it gets dark at 4:30. Losing daylight is not something I will be happy about. When I get back to the states I will reflect on these things more. For now, I want to talk about the last week that I've had.
Up until last friday it had been a fairly relaxed week. Students were all taking their final exams, so I didn't have a whole lot to do. One nice little story though involves Fran. As you may recall from my previous blog she has taken to calling me tanto every chance she gets. Tanto means dumb. So that's always fun. I find it all hillarious. Well, the other day, thursday I think, I was sitting in the kitchen talking with Fran, trying to get her to say my name. So I am sitting on the kitchen floor with her while she shows me pictures from her favorite book. And I say, 'Fran, como me llamo?' what's my name? To which she looks at me and replies 'TANTO!', and then promptly spits on me, then starts laughing. That last bit was new a new trick of hers. Gotta love children.
Like most of my experiences in Chile, Friday came along and I had no idea what I would be doing. I never seem to know what's going to happen in the country until maybe an hour before it happens. Not that I'm complaining, as I like that kind of lifestyle. All of my friends were busy that day. Victor had to work and then spend time with Rocio, Marjorie was going to a friend's birthday party. So I really didn't know what I would do. I knew I wanted to do something, since it was my last friday in Chile. So I stuck around the office rather late taking care of some stuff, then went home. My plan was to take my stuff back, get ready, then go to a local pub to grab a beer and see where the night would take me. Instead, 45 minutes later Marjorie called me. Evidently at her friend's birthday were a lot of my students. So they insisted that I come out and party with them. I obliged and walked to the party, which was near the University. When I got there I was greeted by many entoxicated Chileans. It was decided at once that I needed a drink, so I was quickly provided with a rum and coke. Anyone who has ever done much drinking with me in my dark and foggy past knows that hard alcohol and I don't get along terribly well. But for lack of a better option I drank what they gave me. Three rum and cokes later they had dragged me onto the dance floor where I did everything within my considerable power to look stupid (dancing). After I could take no more of that I went outside and talked with some of the guys from my class. As it turns out, drunk guys are the same no matter where you are in the world, as is the humor. As we were talking they were all kind enough to point out to me such important information as why each other were gay and how each other had small penises. Yes, guys make fun of each other the same way the world over.
After we finished at this party we decided to go downtown and continue at a pub. On the walk there a young guy followed us so he could talk to me. We had just met at the party and I had mentioned a few of my thought on life and the significance of things and he decided he needed to continue the conversation. So there I was, walking down the street, drunk, talking to some guy about the meaning of life and the universe and everything. Strange. When we got there we ordered more beer and some french fries that were topped with all kinds of meat, sausage, avacado, and eggs. At the time it was great, later not so much. We stayed there for several hours. At one point they told the band that was playing that It was my last few days in Chile. So they said some things I couldn't understand in my current state of mind and then dedicated some songs to me. It was very cool. Of course I was then dragged back out onto the dance floor, this time to look stupid in front of a even more people, and none of which I knew. It was all very fun, but, unfortunately at a certain point in the night most of the people I was with had decided to stop helping with the massive jug of beer we had. So I ended up drinking most of it. At about 4am everyone decided that it was time to go home and sleep. I, however, decided that 4am was far to early, so I called another friend from the class, Oscar, and he came and met me.
By this point I was pretty far gone. So when Oscar suggested that we go to a 'cafe con piernas' I said 'sure, why not.' A 'cafe con piernas' is a nice, shady establishment where the girls walk around in lingerie and give you drinks and talk to you. I suppose it's something like our strip clubs, but without the stripping and nudity. Upon arrival there it was decided that we needed more to drink. So Oscar ordered us some piscolas, that is pisco with coke. Now, Pisco and I are not at all friends. In fact, we tend to hate each other passionatly. But I was drunk so I just went with it. This meant that during the course of the night I mixed rum, beer and pisco. This is a recipe for a terrible experience. Oscar and I talked for awhile, about life, school and how unattractive all the girls at this place were. Eye candy they were not. I spend most of my time staring at the floor and avoiding conversation with them. After some time, I really have no idea how much, we decided to leave. By then it was starting to get light outside. Oscar lives near Marjorie, so we walked together and continued talking. When I got back home I promptly passed out. And then promptly woke back up to revisit all of the food and drink I had had during the evening. This occurred 3 different times before I was finally able to fall asleep for any stretch of time. Never again with the pisco, never again.
Saturday was spent in bed feeling terrible. I didn't get out of bed until around 6pm, and then just to eat a bit and drink some juice and water. I was back in bed sleeping by11pm.
Sunday turned out to be a damn fine day. For one, I felt a lot better than I had on Saturday. I started the day by going to my office to make some phone calls. Victor had told me that he was going to throw me a going away party on Sunday. So I tried to call him. I couldn't use my cell because I was out of minutes, so I tried skype. Unfortunatly he didn't answer. So I assumed he was probably at work. I walked to the mall hoping he would be there, but he wasn't. I decided to just head back home and wait to see what would happen. Sure enough, while I was walking he called me up to make sure I was still free that night. I said yes and we made plans to meet up at 8pm in front of McDonald's as is our custom. I went back home and took a nice, freezing shower, relaxed a bit and then went to meet Victor. We met up and took off to the store to buy some things for the party. When we were done we hopped into a colectivo and went to Rocio's house. Here I learned what the night would entail. Namely, delicious food, grilled on an old BBQ, lots of beer, and some good people. There were a couple people from one of the English classes I had taught there, and some other people I had never met. We sat around, ate food, drank beer and talked for a long time. At one point they decided that beer was just not enough so we went and bought rum. I, having learned an important lesson on Friday, decided to stick with beer. It was a lot of fun, we just sat on the back patio, telling jokes, or trying to tell jokes at least, kinda hard to translate some of them, and talking about soccer. As the night progressed people started leaving. Until it was just Victor, some other guy and me. This was at about 4:30am, and at about 5:30am I decided it was time to go home and try to get some sleep. I was feeling very good. Sticking with beer was a great choice. I was able to control my intake and keep a nice mellow buzz throughout the course of the evening. Victor called a taxi for me, and I was home by 6am, asleep by 6:30.
Monday I woke up around 1pm. I got up to go take a shower, opened the door wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt I had slept in, and was greeted by Marjorie and six of her friends who were over studying. I knew none of them, so it was a bit on the awkward side. But no matter, I took a shower and then took off for a day on the town. I decided that this was going to be a good day to go exploring and to buy some souveniers. Every time I have ever been in another country, and been trying to buy stuff like that, I have always been with someone else. Another American. This was my first time trying to navigate through all the vendors of a foreign country alone. Gotta be honest, not much of a fan. First off, I don't much care for souveniers. I just find it very difficult to sum up an entire country or city, and an entire experience with a trinket. But I did my best and found some good stuff. After wandering the city for several hours I decided to go back to the house. When I got there Marjorie was getting ready to leave. As she was walking out the door she asked me if I was going out that night. I told her I didn't think so. She told me that I couldn't go out, and that I had to stay there because she was going to do something special for me. So I hung out for a bit and waited for her to get back.
She got back a couple hours later with Roxan. The plan for night was to have a going away party at the house. A nice, relaxed party with plenty of food and, of course, beer. The food for the night was a giant hunk of cow, and a whole lot of chicken and sausage, put together and slowly cooked in the oven. Damn good eatin. Around the time the food was almost ready three other students showed up. Oscar, Diego and Carolina. All very good people. While we waited for the food to finish, the guys went to the store to buy beer. When we got back it was time to eat. Great food. All the different types of meat cooked together made for one hell of a fine flavor. After we finished eating it was time to relax and talk. The subjects of conversation included soccer, music, movies, school and family. I busted out my laptop at one point and showed them all pictures of my family. Meg and Liv will be happy to know that Oscar found them both very attractive and was kind enough to take some pictures of himself with my camera so that I could show them. The night ended fairly early by Chilean standards, and I was in bed by 2:30am.
Like I said before, today is a Chilean holiday, so there was no school. I got up around noon today and started packing. When I finished that I showered and then went downtown to continue shopping for stuff. My last stop of the evening was the office so I could check the old fantasy football scores (I won) and write this blog. The last thing I want to say before I leave Chile is that I am very lucky. I have had this amazing opportunity, and during my time here I have had some amazing experiences. I have made some great friends that I will have for life. The people in this country our incredible. So friendly, so warm and so welcoming. My chilean friends have been great, and I am very fortunate to have met them. I hope to return to Chile someday in the future, hopefully to work as a teacher. It is a beautiful place, with beautiful people. And I am going to miss it a lot. Hasta luego.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Thanksgiving, Corral, "NO! TANTO!" and "Panpo"
I haven't written anything in over a week, so I though I would take a few moments to update everyone on what's been going on down here. First off, things on the school front have quieted down quite a bit. This is the last week of the semester, so all the classes that I work in have been taking tests. So there hasn't been a whole lot for me to do other than help grade. On top of that, since all the students are so busy studying for their finals, it's been a bit on the quiet side lately. For these reasons last week was relatively uneventful. But, a few cool things did happen.
Last thursday was thanksgiving. This was the second year in a row that I was in a different country on thanksgiving, which is kind of unfortunate because thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Nothing like a day when all you do is eat wonderful food and watch football. Sadly, for me, American football isn't very popular down here in Chile. And by not very popular I mean noone ever watches, noone knows anything about it, and it's almost impossible to find a game on TV. That is one of the few things I really miss about being in the US. Oh well. Last year when I was living in Canada during thanksgiving I decided to start my own little "I'm not in the US for thanksgiving" tradition. This tradition consists of going out and eating my favorite food, pizza. I figured that if I can't have turkey, then at least I'll have pizza. And since pizza is something found universally, I figure I will be able to maintain this tradition wherever I end up. So, after I finished up with everything in the office I went down the street to a local pizza parlor and ate a medium peperoni pizza. It was fantastic to say the least. Then I went back to the office with the hopes of being able to call home via skype so I could talk to the family. Unfortunatly, when I got to the office was only able to make a short 5 minute call to my dad before the internet decided to stop working. I waited around the office for a couple hours hoping it would come back online, but alas, it did not. So I was a bit disapointed. I had wanted to talk to everyone back home, and I was hoping to listen to a game online. Oh well, such is life.
Last friday was a bit more eventful. I started the day off right by sleeping in. At around noon I got a call from Victor. He asked me what I was doing and I told him I had nothing going on. He asked me if I wanted to go on a short 'travel' with him. I said yes and he told me to meet him downtown at 1:30. So I took a nice cold shower, got dressed and headed downtown. I had no idea what we would do or where we would be going, so I took the necessary items for adventure; sunglasses, rain jacket, pocket dictionary, camera, money, etc. I met up with Victor and we hopped on a bus to Niebla. Niebla is a small town about 20 minutes from Valdivia. On the ride Victor told me we were going Corral, a small town on an island close to Niebla. He had to do an interview at the local navy post for one of his classes. It all sounded pretty good to me, so I was happy.
It was a really nice day, lots of sunshine, warm temperature, everything you would want for an outing. One the ride to Niebla Victor acted like a good tour guide and pointed everything of interest out to me. Since he is tourism student, he's pretty damn good at this. He told me all about the history of the area, how it was an important Spanish sport a long time ago. Pointed out all the old fortifications and explained how they were used. When we got to Niebla we took a 20 minute ferry to Corral. The island is right at the mouth of the river, so on one side of us was the fresh water of the river, and on the other side you could see the pacific. Very beautiful area. While we were on the ferry Victor continued telling me about all the fortifications. He also told me about the earthquake and subsequent Tsunami that destroyed the area in 1960. I had heared a lot about this before that day. It was one of the biggest tsunamis recorded and destroyed most of Corral, Niebla, and even made its way all the way to Valdivia. There is still no working train system in Valdivia because all the tracks were destroyed in the tsunami almost 50 years ago. So I took it all with a grain of salt when we got to Corral and saw signs warning "Danger, Tsunami zone" and saw all of the signs for evacuation routes.
The first thing we did when we got there was go to the local fortification. It was very cool. Most of us was original, though there were some spots that had been restored. All the cannons were originals though, so that was really cool. After that Victor had to go and do his interview, so I wandered around the town for awhile. When he was done we decided that we needed food. By now it was about 4:30 and I was hungry. We went to a little covered restaurant/food shack and got some empanadas mariscos, empanadas full of different shellfish. They were great. Very fresh, in fact, I don't think they were prepared in any way until we ordered them. Plus they came with some sort of chile salsa that was incredible. I could feel it burning in my stomach for an hour after we ate it, really spicy. As Victor put it, it was manly food. After we ate we walked down the street to a pub and had some beer. The owner was an old guy and he and Victor told me Chilean jokes and we discussed such important issues as which actresses we thought were the most attractive. We wanted to have another beer, but unfortunatly the owner had to close up. So we went back and caught a ferry back to Niebla, then a bus back to Valdivia. When we got back it was decided that more beer was, in fact, exactly what we needed. So we went to a local bar near campus called tratomundos and had a couple more beers. Finally, at 8 Victor had to head back home. So we made plans to have a going away party the next weekend and went our seperate ways.
Saturday day was pretty uneventful. Marjorie was studying and I was doing school work most of the day. She put Fran to sleep around 9pm and continued studying. At around 10:30 she stopped, looked up at me and said, tonight we need to watch a movie and drink beer. I was, of course, in complete agreement. So I went to the store and bought six, one liter bottles of cheap Chilean beer. Six was way too much for just us, but one of her friends was going to come and join us later. So we hung out, drank beer and watched The 40 Year Old Virgin on my computer. I put on the Spanish sountrack and turned on subtitles in English. At around 1:30am Marjorie's friend, Carolina, showed up. Various beer fueled conversations then took place. The topics of which included life goals, family, school, then deteriorated into what we like about ourselves, what we didn't like, and eventually got to swear words in English, and the fact that 'according to her' chilean men were just not well enough endowed. All of this of course took place over several hours during the course of the entire night.
At around 3:30am we ran out of beer. Rather than call it quits for the night and escape with some semblence of well being and good health, it was decided that more beer was necessary. So we called a taxi, which bought the beer and then brought it to the house at a much inflated price. But we were having fun so it was all good. Around 5:30am Marjorie finally hit the wall and had to go to bed. I had not realized to what extent she was entoxicated until she stood up and almost fell over. We much effort she was able to stumble the entire ten feet to her bed and promptly pass out. This just left Carolina and me, though I was rapidly approaching the end of the line myself. She, however, seemed to be going strong. She seemed to just be hitting her stride, and I was inches from falling asleep where I sat. These Chileans really know how to stay up late and drink. My gringo blood just can't seem to get grasp on it. Yeah, I can stay up right there with them, but the next day is always terrible. We ended up sitting and talking until around 7:30am. Finally I had reached my limit and needed to get some sleep. She was staying with a friend a couple blocks away and asked me if I could walk her over there, which I did.
Stepping out into the sun at 7:45am after a night of drinking can only be desribed as really, really bright. I was fairly intoxicated by this point, and so things like sunglasses were beyond my cognative abilities. Carolina was tanked. I hadn't realized it until we got outside, but she could barely walk in a straight line. This fact became evident to me when she came outside, took two steps, and immediatly tripped on the curb and landed on her ass... all in what appeared to be slow motion. I of course laughed my ass off. We then proceeded to stumble down the middle of the street in the exact opposite of a straight line. I could have handled myself fine, but she could barely walk and needed support in this endeavor, which meant that the 5 minute walk turned into 15 minutes. We were walking directly into the rising sun at this point and could barely see. So she opened her umbrella and held it in front of us like a shield to block the sun.
So picture all of this. It's sunday morning at around 8am in a little nieghborhood on Isla Teja in Valdivia, Chile. There are two drunks stumbling down the middle of the street, a Chilena and a gringo. It is a beautiful morning, not a cloud in the sky, and they are holding an umbrella in front of them trying to block out the sun, but also making it so they can't see where they are going. It was a pretty good time. We finally got to where she was staying, said our goodbyes, and I went back to the house. This time it took me all of 5 minutes, and I walked nice and straight. I think I drank more than both of them, but I also went to bed the most sober. Hmmm. By the time I finally got into bed it was 8:15am, sunday morning. I passed out. And then got woken up at 10am when Marjorie came into the room looking for something with Fran. I have no idea what she was looking for, I was way too out of it. All I could do was lie in bed and stare straight ahead while I though 1. please leave so I can go back to sleep, and 2. I am going to hurt when I get up in a few hours. As soon as they left I fell back asleep and didn't wake up until 3pm, and then I had a massive headache. It's funny, in the US I never get headaches when I'm hung over, just nausea. Here I just get headaches. Must be whatever they put in the beer.
So that was pretty much my week. Nothing too spectacular, but some new experiences and some good stories. In another update, Marjorie has been trying to teach Fran to say my name, Ryan. Right now I am just 'tio'(uncle). She can't quite get the hang of Ryan though. She tries, but it always comes out something like Rahblahblah, which is pretty adorable. Also, for some reason, I am now called 'tanto' on a fairly regular basis. Tanto means dumb in Spanish. So whenever I try to do something I usually hear "NO! TANTO!" So it will look something like this, 'Hola Fran, quieres ducle?' (Hi Fran, do you want a snack?) "NO! TANTO!" At which point I put the treat on the table and she comes over and gets it. This all usually depends on how tired she is, but it's become pretty common. Marjorie- "Fran, say hello to uncle." Fran- (looks at me for a second, measuring me up) "NO! TANTO!" Me- "Fran, why am I tanto?" Fran- "TANTO!" If she wasn't so damn cute I may be offended, but as is, it's a constant source of ammusement for me.
The other day I had a very nice "Stupid Chilean moment". Chilean Spanish is full of slang. For example they will add the word 'po' to the end of another word to emphasize it. 'po' doesn't mean anything really. It is a shortened version of the word 'pues' which means 'well...' as in 'well, I could do that I guess.' So the other day we were getting ready to have 'once' and Marjorie asked me if I could go to the market to pick up a couple of things. So after she finished I ran back over the last and asked if I'd forgetten anything. To this she replied, "Y panpo." I sat there with a dumb look on my face for a moment and said, "Panpo?" She said, "Sí". "Qué es panpo?" I asked confused (What is panpo?) "Panpo, panpo." she replied. I mustered all of my Spanish speaking abilities and asked "huh?" Then the realization came to her, "Pan! Pan...po." And with that I felt nice and stupid. 'Pan' means bread. I knew this, but the 'po' threw me off. She started laughing and I pounded my forehead with my fist. Stupid Chilean Spanish. Two months and I still don't have the hang of it. maybe after two years, but two months just isn't enough. Oh well. Maybe someday. Hasta luego.
Last thursday was thanksgiving. This was the second year in a row that I was in a different country on thanksgiving, which is kind of unfortunate because thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Nothing like a day when all you do is eat wonderful food and watch football. Sadly, for me, American football isn't very popular down here in Chile. And by not very popular I mean noone ever watches, noone knows anything about it, and it's almost impossible to find a game on TV. That is one of the few things I really miss about being in the US. Oh well. Last year when I was living in Canada during thanksgiving I decided to start my own little "I'm not in the US for thanksgiving" tradition. This tradition consists of going out and eating my favorite food, pizza. I figured that if I can't have turkey, then at least I'll have pizza. And since pizza is something found universally, I figure I will be able to maintain this tradition wherever I end up. So, after I finished up with everything in the office I went down the street to a local pizza parlor and ate a medium peperoni pizza. It was fantastic to say the least. Then I went back to the office with the hopes of being able to call home via skype so I could talk to the family. Unfortunatly, when I got to the office was only able to make a short 5 minute call to my dad before the internet decided to stop working. I waited around the office for a couple hours hoping it would come back online, but alas, it did not. So I was a bit disapointed. I had wanted to talk to everyone back home, and I was hoping to listen to a game online. Oh well, such is life.
Last friday was a bit more eventful. I started the day off right by sleeping in. At around noon I got a call from Victor. He asked me what I was doing and I told him I had nothing going on. He asked me if I wanted to go on a short 'travel' with him. I said yes and he told me to meet him downtown at 1:30. So I took a nice cold shower, got dressed and headed downtown. I had no idea what we would do or where we would be going, so I took the necessary items for adventure; sunglasses, rain jacket, pocket dictionary, camera, money, etc. I met up with Victor and we hopped on a bus to Niebla. Niebla is a small town about 20 minutes from Valdivia. On the ride Victor told me we were going Corral, a small town on an island close to Niebla. He had to do an interview at the local navy post for one of his classes. It all sounded pretty good to me, so I was happy.
It was a really nice day, lots of sunshine, warm temperature, everything you would want for an outing. One the ride to Niebla Victor acted like a good tour guide and pointed everything of interest out to me. Since he is tourism student, he's pretty damn good at this. He told me all about the history of the area, how it was an important Spanish sport a long time ago. Pointed out all the old fortifications and explained how they were used. When we got to Niebla we took a 20 minute ferry to Corral. The island is right at the mouth of the river, so on one side of us was the fresh water of the river, and on the other side you could see the pacific. Very beautiful area. While we were on the ferry Victor continued telling me about all the fortifications. He also told me about the earthquake and subsequent Tsunami that destroyed the area in 1960. I had heared a lot about this before that day. It was one of the biggest tsunamis recorded and destroyed most of Corral, Niebla, and even made its way all the way to Valdivia. There is still no working train system in Valdivia because all the tracks were destroyed in the tsunami almost 50 years ago. So I took it all with a grain of salt when we got to Corral and saw signs warning "Danger, Tsunami zone" and saw all of the signs for evacuation routes.
The first thing we did when we got there was go to the local fortification. It was very cool. Most of us was original, though there were some spots that had been restored. All the cannons were originals though, so that was really cool. After that Victor had to go and do his interview, so I wandered around the town for awhile. When he was done we decided that we needed food. By now it was about 4:30 and I was hungry. We went to a little covered restaurant/food shack and got some empanadas mariscos, empanadas full of different shellfish. They were great. Very fresh, in fact, I don't think they were prepared in any way until we ordered them. Plus they came with some sort of chile salsa that was incredible. I could feel it burning in my stomach for an hour after we ate it, really spicy. As Victor put it, it was manly food. After we ate we walked down the street to a pub and had some beer. The owner was an old guy and he and Victor told me Chilean jokes and we discussed such important issues as which actresses we thought were the most attractive. We wanted to have another beer, but unfortunatly the owner had to close up. So we went back and caught a ferry back to Niebla, then a bus back to Valdivia. When we got back it was decided that more beer was, in fact, exactly what we needed. So we went to a local bar near campus called tratomundos and had a couple more beers. Finally, at 8 Victor had to head back home. So we made plans to have a going away party the next weekend and went our seperate ways.
Saturday day was pretty uneventful. Marjorie was studying and I was doing school work most of the day. She put Fran to sleep around 9pm and continued studying. At around 10:30 she stopped, looked up at me and said, tonight we need to watch a movie and drink beer. I was, of course, in complete agreement. So I went to the store and bought six, one liter bottles of cheap Chilean beer. Six was way too much for just us, but one of her friends was going to come and join us later. So we hung out, drank beer and watched The 40 Year Old Virgin on my computer. I put on the Spanish sountrack and turned on subtitles in English. At around 1:30am Marjorie's friend, Carolina, showed up. Various beer fueled conversations then took place. The topics of which included life goals, family, school, then deteriorated into what we like about ourselves, what we didn't like, and eventually got to swear words in English, and the fact that 'according to her' chilean men were just not well enough endowed. All of this of course took place over several hours during the course of the entire night.
At around 3:30am we ran out of beer. Rather than call it quits for the night and escape with some semblence of well being and good health, it was decided that more beer was necessary. So we called a taxi, which bought the beer and then brought it to the house at a much inflated price. But we were having fun so it was all good. Around 5:30am Marjorie finally hit the wall and had to go to bed. I had not realized to what extent she was entoxicated until she stood up and almost fell over. We much effort she was able to stumble the entire ten feet to her bed and promptly pass out. This just left Carolina and me, though I was rapidly approaching the end of the line myself. She, however, seemed to be going strong. She seemed to just be hitting her stride, and I was inches from falling asleep where I sat. These Chileans really know how to stay up late and drink. My gringo blood just can't seem to get grasp on it. Yeah, I can stay up right there with them, but the next day is always terrible. We ended up sitting and talking until around 7:30am. Finally I had reached my limit and needed to get some sleep. She was staying with a friend a couple blocks away and asked me if I could walk her over there, which I did.
Stepping out into the sun at 7:45am after a night of drinking can only be desribed as really, really bright. I was fairly intoxicated by this point, and so things like sunglasses were beyond my cognative abilities. Carolina was tanked. I hadn't realized it until we got outside, but she could barely walk in a straight line. This fact became evident to me when she came outside, took two steps, and immediatly tripped on the curb and landed on her ass... all in what appeared to be slow motion. I of course laughed my ass off. We then proceeded to stumble down the middle of the street in the exact opposite of a straight line. I could have handled myself fine, but she could barely walk and needed support in this endeavor, which meant that the 5 minute walk turned into 15 minutes. We were walking directly into the rising sun at this point and could barely see. So she opened her umbrella and held it in front of us like a shield to block the sun.
So picture all of this. It's sunday morning at around 8am in a little nieghborhood on Isla Teja in Valdivia, Chile. There are two drunks stumbling down the middle of the street, a Chilena and a gringo. It is a beautiful morning, not a cloud in the sky, and they are holding an umbrella in front of them trying to block out the sun, but also making it so they can't see where they are going. It was a pretty good time. We finally got to where she was staying, said our goodbyes, and I went back to the house. This time it took me all of 5 minutes, and I walked nice and straight. I think I drank more than both of them, but I also went to bed the most sober. Hmmm. By the time I finally got into bed it was 8:15am, sunday morning. I passed out. And then got woken up at 10am when Marjorie came into the room looking for something with Fran. I have no idea what she was looking for, I was way too out of it. All I could do was lie in bed and stare straight ahead while I though 1. please leave so I can go back to sleep, and 2. I am going to hurt when I get up in a few hours. As soon as they left I fell back asleep and didn't wake up until 3pm, and then I had a massive headache. It's funny, in the US I never get headaches when I'm hung over, just nausea. Here I just get headaches. Must be whatever they put in the beer.
So that was pretty much my week. Nothing too spectacular, but some new experiences and some good stories. In another update, Marjorie has been trying to teach Fran to say my name, Ryan. Right now I am just 'tio'(uncle). She can't quite get the hang of Ryan though. She tries, but it always comes out something like Rahblahblah, which is pretty adorable. Also, for some reason, I am now called 'tanto' on a fairly regular basis. Tanto means dumb in Spanish. So whenever I try to do something I usually hear "NO! TANTO!" So it will look something like this, 'Hola Fran, quieres ducle?' (Hi Fran, do you want a snack?) "NO! TANTO!" At which point I put the treat on the table and she comes over and gets it. This all usually depends on how tired she is, but it's become pretty common. Marjorie- "Fran, say hello to uncle." Fran- (looks at me for a second, measuring me up) "NO! TANTO!" Me- "Fran, why am I tanto?" Fran- "TANTO!" If she wasn't so damn cute I may be offended, but as is, it's a constant source of ammusement for me.
The other day I had a very nice "Stupid Chilean moment". Chilean Spanish is full of slang. For example they will add the word 'po' to the end of another word to emphasize it. 'po' doesn't mean anything really. It is a shortened version of the word 'pues' which means 'well...' as in 'well, I could do that I guess.' So the other day we were getting ready to have 'once' and Marjorie asked me if I could go to the market to pick up a couple of things. So after she finished I ran back over the last and asked if I'd forgetten anything. To this she replied, "Y panpo." I sat there with a dumb look on my face for a moment and said, "Panpo?" She said, "Sí". "Qué es panpo?" I asked confused (What is panpo?) "Panpo, panpo." she replied. I mustered all of my Spanish speaking abilities and asked "huh?" Then the realization came to her, "Pan! Pan...po." And with that I felt nice and stupid. 'Pan' means bread. I knew this, but the 'po' threw me off. She started laughing and I pounded my forehead with my fist. Stupid Chilean Spanish. Two months and I still don't have the hang of it. maybe after two years, but two months just isn't enough. Oh well. Maybe someday. Hasta luego.
Friday, November 20, 2009
New Experiences and New Perspectives
This past week has been very interesting and full of new experiences. On monday, when I got to the university, I was approached by one of the professors and the secretary. As it turned out, one of the teachers I work with, Raquel, couldn't make it to school that day because her mother was sick. Her mother had been getting steadily worse over the past couple of weeks and Raquel had been increasingly stressed. So when I was approached and told that she wouldn't be at the university that day I understood why. They then proceded to ask me if I would be ok teaching her class by myself that day. I said that I could do that, though I had not prepared anything. They gave me some review handouts that Raquel had prepared, so I would have something to do with them. Then they asked me if I could do the same in another of Raquel's classes, one I had never been in before. I said that I would be happy to do anything to help. This was all about twenty minutes before class started. So I had to rush around and look through the review materials and get to class with not very much time to stop and think. That being said, the classes went OK. No my best classes, but considering how little prep time I had, I'm fairly happy with how they went.
After the classes ended I went and had some lunch with Marjorie, Dayanne and Roxan. Then I went back to my office to do some work for the next day. As I was getting ready to leave one of the other teachers came to my door. Her name is Paola and she is just a couple years older than me. She asked me if I had recieved the email that the secretary had sent out. I said no, so she told me that Raquel's mom had passed away, and there would be a wake at one of the local churches the next day and a funeral on wednesday. She then told me that she didn't want to go to the wake alone, and asked me if I could go with her. As sad as the situation was, I couldn't pass on an opportunity to see another facet of the culture here, so I agreed to go. We decided to meet the next day after classes, around 5pm.
The next day I had class with Ximena at 2pm. I went to school around 9:30am to do some work. When I got there Ximena came to my office to talk to me. She told me about Raquel's mom, and I told her I already knew. Then she asked me if I could teach her class by myself that day so that she could go be with Raquel. I said that it wouldn't be a problem. All the students were doing that day was giving presentations, so I thought I could handle it. Then she asked me if I could cover the next days class aswell. I said yes, so we talked for a minute about what I would do in the class, then she left. The class went fine that afternoon. We had some problems with the computer and the projector at first. But we were able to get everything worked out. The students gave their presentations, and when class was done I went back to my office to get ready to meet Paola.
I have never been to a wake before. Least of all a wake in Chile. I had no idea what to expect. I had no idea what to wear. Was this a formal event, requiring black clothes? What would I be doing, just sitting for some undisclosed time? I really had no idea what to expect. I walked to downtown and met up with Paola, and we started walking to the church. On the way we chatted about classes and things like that. When we got to the church we went and an said hola to Raquel. I was at once relieved to see that my attire, the clothes I had taught in, were acceptable. We gave out condolences to Raquel, Paolo put her flowers next to the open casket, and then we took our seats. At this point I didn't know how to act. I was under the impression that this was a grave, somber event, and that I should just sit there and stare at the wall or something. However, Paola quickly started speaking with me. We started talking about our lives, our schooling, our interests, that sort of thing. She told me that she had gone to Eugene, OR to study English. I told her that I'd grown up only 20 miles south of Eugene. We started telling stories and jokes. All of a sudden I realized that I was laughing and smiling no more than 15 feet away from an open casket, surrounded by the dead woman's family. Shit, I thought, and waited for some reprimand or bolt of lightning. Then I looked around, and everyone else there was doing the same thing that I had just been doing. This wasn't the grave and somber event I had expected. While being respectfully quiet, people were talking, and joking, and smiling and laughing. This really wasn't what I had expected, but such is the way of life to take our expectations and toss them aside like they mean nothing.
The next day I taught Ximena's class by myself, and I have to say that it went very well. The students told me that they really enjoyed it after class. So I was very happy. There is something very special about seeing you students start to understand a new concept. When you see that click, and the light of understanding is suddenly on their face, it's very nice. Thursday I went to another class and did a guest lecture. Great students in that class. Very responsive. I think they really enjoyed having me there. What's better, right before that class I ran into Victor for the first time in about a week. He had invited me out for that night previously because his best friend is a poet, and there was a poetry reading at another school in town that night. So after my class I ran home, took a nice cold shower, then went downtown and met with Victor at 6:30pm. We walked about a mile to the other school and went to the auditorium. It was a very cool experience. I had a hell of a time understanding half of what was being said, but occasionally I was able to comprehend what was going on and I was very impressed. Especially with Victor's friend Claudio. Very good poet.
So it has been a strange week. I taught my own classes, by myself, for the first time. I went to a wake. And I went to a poetry reading. Then to top it all off, last night Marjorie confided in me things about her life that I will not repeat on a public forum like this. Things that boke my heart and made me greatfull for the charmed life I have. Let me just say that that poor girl has not had it easy. Every once in awhile things happen in life, or we meet people, who change the way we think or the way we see the world. Well, I don't know how much effect last night's conversation had on me, but I know that it gave me a different perspective to think about. I am very greatfull for all the bessings I have had in my life. Too often it is too easy to feel bad when something goes wrong. It's too easy to not feel gratitude for what you have. Looking at my life I don't see how I can ever be justified in being unhappy. I have had amazing opportunities, and a loving, supportive family. I have always been lucky in life, things have always managed to work out. Part of that is my own faith that what will happen, will happen, and all we can do is make the best of it. But a lot of it has been luck. I am very fortunate to have the life I have, and I really hope I never forget that. Hasta luego.
After the classes ended I went and had some lunch with Marjorie, Dayanne and Roxan. Then I went back to my office to do some work for the next day. As I was getting ready to leave one of the other teachers came to my door. Her name is Paola and she is just a couple years older than me. She asked me if I had recieved the email that the secretary had sent out. I said no, so she told me that Raquel's mom had passed away, and there would be a wake at one of the local churches the next day and a funeral on wednesday. She then told me that she didn't want to go to the wake alone, and asked me if I could go with her. As sad as the situation was, I couldn't pass on an opportunity to see another facet of the culture here, so I agreed to go. We decided to meet the next day after classes, around 5pm.
The next day I had class with Ximena at 2pm. I went to school around 9:30am to do some work. When I got there Ximena came to my office to talk to me. She told me about Raquel's mom, and I told her I already knew. Then she asked me if I could teach her class by myself that day so that she could go be with Raquel. I said that it wouldn't be a problem. All the students were doing that day was giving presentations, so I thought I could handle it. Then she asked me if I could cover the next days class aswell. I said yes, so we talked for a minute about what I would do in the class, then she left. The class went fine that afternoon. We had some problems with the computer and the projector at first. But we were able to get everything worked out. The students gave their presentations, and when class was done I went back to my office to get ready to meet Paola.
I have never been to a wake before. Least of all a wake in Chile. I had no idea what to expect. I had no idea what to wear. Was this a formal event, requiring black clothes? What would I be doing, just sitting for some undisclosed time? I really had no idea what to expect. I walked to downtown and met up with Paola, and we started walking to the church. On the way we chatted about classes and things like that. When we got to the church we went and an said hola to Raquel. I was at once relieved to see that my attire, the clothes I had taught in, were acceptable. We gave out condolences to Raquel, Paolo put her flowers next to the open casket, and then we took our seats. At this point I didn't know how to act. I was under the impression that this was a grave, somber event, and that I should just sit there and stare at the wall or something. However, Paola quickly started speaking with me. We started talking about our lives, our schooling, our interests, that sort of thing. She told me that she had gone to Eugene, OR to study English. I told her that I'd grown up only 20 miles south of Eugene. We started telling stories and jokes. All of a sudden I realized that I was laughing and smiling no more than 15 feet away from an open casket, surrounded by the dead woman's family. Shit, I thought, and waited for some reprimand or bolt of lightning. Then I looked around, and everyone else there was doing the same thing that I had just been doing. This wasn't the grave and somber event I had expected. While being respectfully quiet, people were talking, and joking, and smiling and laughing. This really wasn't what I had expected, but such is the way of life to take our expectations and toss them aside like they mean nothing.
The next day I taught Ximena's class by myself, and I have to say that it went very well. The students told me that they really enjoyed it after class. So I was very happy. There is something very special about seeing you students start to understand a new concept. When you see that click, and the light of understanding is suddenly on their face, it's very nice. Thursday I went to another class and did a guest lecture. Great students in that class. Very responsive. I think they really enjoyed having me there. What's better, right before that class I ran into Victor for the first time in about a week. He had invited me out for that night previously because his best friend is a poet, and there was a poetry reading at another school in town that night. So after my class I ran home, took a nice cold shower, then went downtown and met with Victor at 6:30pm. We walked about a mile to the other school and went to the auditorium. It was a very cool experience. I had a hell of a time understanding half of what was being said, but occasionally I was able to comprehend what was going on and I was very impressed. Especially with Victor's friend Claudio. Very good poet.
So it has been a strange week. I taught my own classes, by myself, for the first time. I went to a wake. And I went to a poetry reading. Then to top it all off, last night Marjorie confided in me things about her life that I will not repeat on a public forum like this. Things that boke my heart and made me greatfull for the charmed life I have. Let me just say that that poor girl has not had it easy. Every once in awhile things happen in life, or we meet people, who change the way we think or the way we see the world. Well, I don't know how much effect last night's conversation had on me, but I know that it gave me a different perspective to think about. I am very greatfull for all the bessings I have had in my life. Too often it is too easy to feel bad when something goes wrong. It's too easy to not feel gratitude for what you have. Looking at my life I don't see how I can ever be justified in being unhappy. I have had amazing opportunities, and a loving, supportive family. I have always been lucky in life, things have always managed to work out. Part of that is my own faith that what will happen, will happen, and all we can do is make the best of it. But a lot of it has been luck. I am very fortunate to have the life I have, and I really hope I never forget that. Hasta luego.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Pictures
I thought I would post a couple of pictures that I have taken over the last couple weeks. Just so you can see who I've been spending my time with and what that's looked like.
From left to right: Marjorie, Dayanna and Roxan. Here we are at the mall enjoying some pizza. With all the great food here I don't miss pizza as much as I would have thought, but it is still great to have on occasion.
This picture was taken a couple hours after I got kicked out of the cabaña. Roxana, Me, Marjorie and Dayanne. In this picture we are walking from the University to Majorie's house.
Me with all my stuff at once. They were helping me with everything, but thought it would be funny to get a picture of me with everything.
This is Marjorie and Fran. I took this picture in the main plaza in Purranque.
Marjorie's mom, Fran and Me walking to the saturday market in Purranque.
Fran being adorable. Naturally this was a posed shot. Shortly after this she ran off screeching after a pigeon.
Marji and Me behind the bar at the Pub/Restaurant that her parents own.
So those are some pictures from my current life. Hope you enjoy. Hasta luego.
From left to right: Marjorie, Dayanna and Roxan. Here we are at the mall enjoying some pizza. With all the great food here I don't miss pizza as much as I would have thought, but it is still great to have on occasion.
This picture was taken a couple hours after I got kicked out of the cabaña. Roxana, Me, Marjorie and Dayanne. In this picture we are walking from the University to Majorie's house.
Me with all my stuff at once. They were helping me with everything, but thought it would be funny to get a picture of me with everything.
This is Marjorie and Fran. I took this picture in the main plaza in Purranque.
Marjorie's mom, Fran and Me walking to the saturday market in Purranque.
Fran being adorable. Naturally this was a posed shot. Shortly after this she ran off screeching after a pigeon.
Marji and Me behind the bar at the Pub/Restaurant that her parents own.
So those are some pictures from my current life. Hope you enjoy. Hasta luego.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Purranque
Last night I got back from my visit to Purranque with Marjorie and Fran. Let me start by saying that this was a hell of an experience. From the time we left the house until the time we got back. It started last thursday at around 5:45 pm. Marji (Marjorie) had told me to be back at the house by 5:45 so we could get ready to go. She told me that she would go and buy bus tickets for us and that we would be leaving at around 7:30. I got to the house at 5:50, which is still early by Chilean time. They tend to show up 15 to 20 minutes later than the time time they tell you. Marji wasn't there yet so I called her and she told me she was almost there. When she showed up she was in a rush. Evidently 7:30 was not the time the bus left, it left at 6:30. I hadn't packed anything yet, thinking I would have an hour or so to do it, so I had to rush. All my stuff was still in my big backpack from when I left the cabaña. So I had to pull everything out and then repack my things into my smaller bag. Marji has to go get Fran, so while she did that I finished packing. Then we called a tax which got to the house at 6:15. The taxi halled ass and got us to the bus station at 6:29. Just in time. In fact, since time in Southern Chile is a more lax concept, we had another ten minutes before we had to go. So we bought some snacks for the ride, then loaded up onto the bus.
An hour and a half bus ride with a two year old is an interesting experience. Especially when she doesn't want to be on the bus, and when she hasn't had a nap. So while Marji and I tried to relax and enjoy the bus ride, Fran was jumping around, kicking things, screeching, and just generally doing all she could to drive her mother insane. I feel sorry for the poor woman sitting in front of us. Fran, in a fit of rage, decided to kick the back of the seat continuously for ten minutes at one point. To say the least I was incredibly entertained. After an hour and half bus ride we made it to Osorno. Here we had to change buses. But first, for the sake of good manners, we went to the store so I could by some gifts for the family. Chocolate for her mom, wine for her dad, and a bottle of rum for her fiancee. I also bought a cake for Marjorie as a way of saying thank you for everything. At this she got a bit emotional. Going to school full time while raising a daughter on your own doesn't allow for much wiggle room in the way of money. In a town full of broke college kids, and coming from a family in a small town, money isn't treated lightly. So me spending money on her family, then her, meant a lot. She tried to protest, but after everything it was really the least I could do. And I intend to do more over the next month if opportunity presents itself, as I'm sure it will.
After we went to the store we waited for the next bus that would take us to Purranque. The was another experience alltogether. The problem is that Fran has no fear of anything. So, she will periodically run off into a crowd of people, laughing, while her mother chases after her with a terrified look on her face. This happened no less than three times while we waited for the bus. The bus showed up around 9 and we got in and left. Purranque is about 30 minutes south of Osorno, so the whole journey was about 2 hours by bus. It wasn't until we were about 15 minutes from Purranque that Fran finally fell asleep. When we got to the bus stop Marji's fiancee, Mauricio, was there to meet us. We shook hands and exchanged greetings then walked to the house.
Marji's parents own a Hospidaje/Restaurante/Pub. So the downstairs front of the house is the restaurant/pub. The rest of the bottom floor is their house, and the upstairs has rooms they rent out to people who need a cheap place to stay. The establishment is called Estrella (Star). When we got there the pub was nice and loud. The first thing we did was say hello to her parents. I greeted them, shook hands with her dad, Don Pancho, exchanged a kiss on the cheek with her mom, Señora Maria, as is the custom. Then I gave them their gifts. Her mom dug right in, and Mauricio opened the rum and gave me a nice tall glass of it. Damn good people, I liked them right away. We talked for a bit at first, me trying my hardest to understand what they were all saying. Purranque is a very small town. Most of the people never leave it, and most are from el campo, the country side. So they talk fast and they slur their words together. It was pretty difficult, but I held my own... I think. After we talked we had some food. Lots of soup and bread. Then we relaxed with a cup of coffee.
Sidenote: In the states I never drank coffee, I have never liked the taste of it. Here is a different story alltogether. If you don't drink coffee or tea you are a freak and should be shunned, or so it would seem. Every time I told people that I didn't drink either coffee or tea they would look at me like I was from another planet. They would usually then ask, well, then what do you drink. I would say, water, juice. To which they would reply, no, what do you drink that is hot? Nothing, I don't like hot drinks. This would them be met with confused and shocked faces, then they would go and share this strange fact with anyone who would listen. So I quickly learned that I should drink coffee if I wanted to be normal. I expiremented at first, and after various trials and errors with different combinations of ingredients, I have found that the only coffee that is in any way palatable for me plain, dark, black coffee. No sugar, no cream, the stonger the better.
After we had some food, and Fran was asleep, we went into the pub. It had quieted down some, but there were still maybe ten people there. All regulars, ranging from 30 to 70 years old. Marji quickly busted into the beer, which comes in big liter bottles. So we started having some beer, then Mauricio wanted to do some shots of the rum I bought him, so we did some shots. Thirty minutes later I was feeling pretty good about myself. This continued for the next several hours. We kept opening more beers and eventually broke into the kitchen for some food. From what I could tell there are two people who actually work in the pub. Mauricio, who handles all the money and other such matters, and a woman named Macarena. Macarena, aside from having a name that made me do a double take, is also a redhead, something strange for these parts. She waits on the tables, cleans up, and gets drunk. That's her job, take care of the patrons and and keep them company. This usually involves plenty of booze. On top of it all, she informed me that that night was her birthday. She was sloshed and kept trying to get me to dance with her. For those of you who have seen me dance, you can understand my protests. No way in hell I was going to go dance in a bar full of local, drunk, Chilean men. I was strange enough, being the only gringo they had seen in what I'm sure was a long time. I didn't need to add my akward lack of rythm to the mix. So I sat and talked and drank beer and ate completos (hotdogs) until, all of a sudden, it was 5:30AM. At that point I decided that sleep was in order and took off to bed. They had made up one of the rooms upstairs for me.
I awoke, feeling less than optimum, around 11:30. I was pretty tired but I didn't want to seem too lazy. So I got up, got dressed, and then made my way downstairs. I must have looked pretty aweful, because Marji kept telling me that I could go back to sleep if I wanted. I didn't want to be the lazy gringo, so I stuck around and had some food. Then Marji had to take her mom to the doctor. I declined the invitation to go, and went back upstairs to my room, to prepare a lesson, and promptly passed out for two hours. When I woke up I decided to start reading 'On the Road'. I read for about an hour before Marji got back. Then I went downstairs and had some food. This proved to be another interesting experience. I am really not sure what animal they came from, cow, calf, pig, but what we were eating whatever it was' legs. I won't lie and say that it was delicious. I was wierd, and I'm still not convinced that it was cooked, but I ate it with a smile on my face dammit. I also did what I could to fill up on bread dipped in Aji. After we ate it was again time to go into the pub. But this time we practiced good old fashioned moderation. This time I was spotted by a couple of old drunks who decided to talk to me. They hadn't seen many gringos so they enjoyed it. I can't rightly say what all they talked to me about, as I couldn't understand half of it. But I know it involved differences in the world, English, God, 9/11, War, and the end of the world in 2012. Wierd. I only had two beers, and it was off to bed by 1am. Of course, off to bed meant off to bed to read until 3am.
The next day was saturday. I got up at 10:00 and got ready to go. I enjoyed a nice cold shower, which is strting to grow on me... very refreshing, wakes you right up... then we went to the saturday market. Every saturday in Purranque the locals gather on the street near the town square, and have a kind of farmer's market. We enjoyed a nice mote con heusillo, which is a rehydrated pear in pear juice mixed with some kind of grain, then we had something else, but I can't remember the name. It was basically a little cake made of potatoe, dough and meat all mixed together then deep fried. Amazing. If I can find more somewhere in Valdivia I will. We bought a few other things, including a stuffed animal dog for Fran, some cheese, and some meat. Then we went back to the house. I went upstairs to read for a bit while Marji made lunch. She kept asking me if I was bored, and I had to explain to her that, no, I wasn't bored, no, I don't get bored very easily, and that if I disapeared for awhile upstairs it was just because I wanted to relax, and that sometimes I just like to be alone for a bit. She was concerned that I was bored and didn't like her family. I asured her that this was not the case, but that after listening to so much Spanish my brain just needed the occasional break.
The rest of the afternoon passed by rather quickly, I read some, ate some, talked some, relaxed some. At one point I helped Marji clean the windows of the restaurant. At around 7:30 Marji took me downtown with Fran so I could see a bit more of the city, not that there was much to see. Then, as usual, we went to the pub and had some beers and ate some empanadas. Macarena was nice and drunk by the time we went in. This would turn out to be the most interesting night in Purranque. As we sat behind the counter two things of note happened. First, a drunk came in and started yelling at everyone, then tried to pick a fight with another patron until Mauricio finally kicked him out. Then a deaf guy came in and tried to buy beer without having enough money. What followed was a series of interesting hand gestures as he and Mauricio tried to negotiate, finally deciding that he would just get whatever he could afford with the money he had.
After that ended Marji and I had to go and try to buy Vodka and Orange juice for the bar. This proved to be a challenge. It was 11:30 at night and all the stores were closed. Also, as it turns out, it is illegal for store owners to sell alcohol after 10:30pm. Add to that the fact that Purranque is a dangerous city at night, with lots of gangs, and the fact that I, as a gringo, stick out like a soar thumb most of the time. So it was an interesting experience. We had to take a cab to a store that was run out of a man's house. But he wouldn't sell us the Vodka because there was a police car parked down the block. So we had to find another store, this one had the Vodka, but not the orange juice. So we had to go back to the first store, but this time there were a bunch of people standing around and Marji wouldn't let me get out of the car with her. Finally, we made it back to the pub and went in. Macarena tried to get Marji to let her have some Vodka, but she said not unless someone bought it for her. So She begged me to buy her a drink, which I did. This may have been a mistake, as what followed was a series of stories involving her sexual excapades as a waitress in Santiago, and what I'm pretty sure was a propostion to me. All this was starting to get a little on the bizarre side, so I decided to call it a night and snuck off to my room to go to bed, where I read more, until about 3am.
I woke up the next morning at noon. I went downstairs and had some food, talked with everyone for a bit, had some coffee, then Mauricio's brother showed up with his wife and daughter. So while they all caught up, I snuck upstairs and took a shower. Then I relaxed and read until it was time for us to go. We were of course late again. We got to the bus stop just in time to catch the bus to Osorno. And we got to Osorno with only 5 minutes to spare before our bus to Valdivia left. It was a very rushed affair, but luckily, this time Fran was passed out, and made things go much smoother.
We got to Valdivia around 8pm. It felt like coming home. I was very happy. I feel much safer in Valdivia than I did in Purranque. I know Valdivia has its dangers too, but I don't stand out quite so much here. When we got back to the house I went to the market and bought some bread, meat and cheese for dinner. Marji and I talked over dinner and decided that it would be best if I just stayed with her for the next month. She likes the company, and it is much easier for me. We haven't decided on a price yet, and she hasn't asked for money, but I will pay her for the time I'm there. Overall I have to say that it has been a great experience so far. Purranque was a very interesting look into another side of Chile. While I can't foresee going back, I am certainly happy I had the experience.
If there is one thing I have learned so far by being here, it's that I never know what's going to happen. Who knows what's in store for us. The only way to make it through life is by being flexible and accepting what comes your way, then making the best of it. I have been very lucky here so far, but it could have been different if I hadn't been open to change. I don't know what will happen next, and I don't know where I'm going, but I can't wait till I get there. Hasta luego.
An hour and a half bus ride with a two year old is an interesting experience. Especially when she doesn't want to be on the bus, and when she hasn't had a nap. So while Marji and I tried to relax and enjoy the bus ride, Fran was jumping around, kicking things, screeching, and just generally doing all she could to drive her mother insane. I feel sorry for the poor woman sitting in front of us. Fran, in a fit of rage, decided to kick the back of the seat continuously for ten minutes at one point. To say the least I was incredibly entertained. After an hour and half bus ride we made it to Osorno. Here we had to change buses. But first, for the sake of good manners, we went to the store so I could by some gifts for the family. Chocolate for her mom, wine for her dad, and a bottle of rum for her fiancee. I also bought a cake for Marjorie as a way of saying thank you for everything. At this she got a bit emotional. Going to school full time while raising a daughter on your own doesn't allow for much wiggle room in the way of money. In a town full of broke college kids, and coming from a family in a small town, money isn't treated lightly. So me spending money on her family, then her, meant a lot. She tried to protest, but after everything it was really the least I could do. And I intend to do more over the next month if opportunity presents itself, as I'm sure it will.
After we went to the store we waited for the next bus that would take us to Purranque. The was another experience alltogether. The problem is that Fran has no fear of anything. So, she will periodically run off into a crowd of people, laughing, while her mother chases after her with a terrified look on her face. This happened no less than three times while we waited for the bus. The bus showed up around 9 and we got in and left. Purranque is about 30 minutes south of Osorno, so the whole journey was about 2 hours by bus. It wasn't until we were about 15 minutes from Purranque that Fran finally fell asleep. When we got to the bus stop Marji's fiancee, Mauricio, was there to meet us. We shook hands and exchanged greetings then walked to the house.
Marji's parents own a Hospidaje/Restaurante/Pub. So the downstairs front of the house is the restaurant/pub. The rest of the bottom floor is their house, and the upstairs has rooms they rent out to people who need a cheap place to stay. The establishment is called Estrella (Star). When we got there the pub was nice and loud. The first thing we did was say hello to her parents. I greeted them, shook hands with her dad, Don Pancho, exchanged a kiss on the cheek with her mom, Señora Maria, as is the custom. Then I gave them their gifts. Her mom dug right in, and Mauricio opened the rum and gave me a nice tall glass of it. Damn good people, I liked them right away. We talked for a bit at first, me trying my hardest to understand what they were all saying. Purranque is a very small town. Most of the people never leave it, and most are from el campo, the country side. So they talk fast and they slur their words together. It was pretty difficult, but I held my own... I think. After we talked we had some food. Lots of soup and bread. Then we relaxed with a cup of coffee.
Sidenote: In the states I never drank coffee, I have never liked the taste of it. Here is a different story alltogether. If you don't drink coffee or tea you are a freak and should be shunned, or so it would seem. Every time I told people that I didn't drink either coffee or tea they would look at me like I was from another planet. They would usually then ask, well, then what do you drink. I would say, water, juice. To which they would reply, no, what do you drink that is hot? Nothing, I don't like hot drinks. This would them be met with confused and shocked faces, then they would go and share this strange fact with anyone who would listen. So I quickly learned that I should drink coffee if I wanted to be normal. I expiremented at first, and after various trials and errors with different combinations of ingredients, I have found that the only coffee that is in any way palatable for me plain, dark, black coffee. No sugar, no cream, the stonger the better.
After we had some food, and Fran was asleep, we went into the pub. It had quieted down some, but there were still maybe ten people there. All regulars, ranging from 30 to 70 years old. Marji quickly busted into the beer, which comes in big liter bottles. So we started having some beer, then Mauricio wanted to do some shots of the rum I bought him, so we did some shots. Thirty minutes later I was feeling pretty good about myself. This continued for the next several hours. We kept opening more beers and eventually broke into the kitchen for some food. From what I could tell there are two people who actually work in the pub. Mauricio, who handles all the money and other such matters, and a woman named Macarena. Macarena, aside from having a name that made me do a double take, is also a redhead, something strange for these parts. She waits on the tables, cleans up, and gets drunk. That's her job, take care of the patrons and and keep them company. This usually involves plenty of booze. On top of it all, she informed me that that night was her birthday. She was sloshed and kept trying to get me to dance with her. For those of you who have seen me dance, you can understand my protests. No way in hell I was going to go dance in a bar full of local, drunk, Chilean men. I was strange enough, being the only gringo they had seen in what I'm sure was a long time. I didn't need to add my akward lack of rythm to the mix. So I sat and talked and drank beer and ate completos (hotdogs) until, all of a sudden, it was 5:30AM. At that point I decided that sleep was in order and took off to bed. They had made up one of the rooms upstairs for me.
I awoke, feeling less than optimum, around 11:30. I was pretty tired but I didn't want to seem too lazy. So I got up, got dressed, and then made my way downstairs. I must have looked pretty aweful, because Marji kept telling me that I could go back to sleep if I wanted. I didn't want to be the lazy gringo, so I stuck around and had some food. Then Marji had to take her mom to the doctor. I declined the invitation to go, and went back upstairs to my room, to prepare a lesson, and promptly passed out for two hours. When I woke up I decided to start reading 'On the Road'. I read for about an hour before Marji got back. Then I went downstairs and had some food. This proved to be another interesting experience. I am really not sure what animal they came from, cow, calf, pig, but what we were eating whatever it was' legs. I won't lie and say that it was delicious. I was wierd, and I'm still not convinced that it was cooked, but I ate it with a smile on my face dammit. I also did what I could to fill up on bread dipped in Aji. After we ate it was again time to go into the pub. But this time we practiced good old fashioned moderation. This time I was spotted by a couple of old drunks who decided to talk to me. They hadn't seen many gringos so they enjoyed it. I can't rightly say what all they talked to me about, as I couldn't understand half of it. But I know it involved differences in the world, English, God, 9/11, War, and the end of the world in 2012. Wierd. I only had two beers, and it was off to bed by 1am. Of course, off to bed meant off to bed to read until 3am.
The next day was saturday. I got up at 10:00 and got ready to go. I enjoyed a nice cold shower, which is strting to grow on me... very refreshing, wakes you right up... then we went to the saturday market. Every saturday in Purranque the locals gather on the street near the town square, and have a kind of farmer's market. We enjoyed a nice mote con heusillo, which is a rehydrated pear in pear juice mixed with some kind of grain, then we had something else, but I can't remember the name. It was basically a little cake made of potatoe, dough and meat all mixed together then deep fried. Amazing. If I can find more somewhere in Valdivia I will. We bought a few other things, including a stuffed animal dog for Fran, some cheese, and some meat. Then we went back to the house. I went upstairs to read for a bit while Marji made lunch. She kept asking me if I was bored, and I had to explain to her that, no, I wasn't bored, no, I don't get bored very easily, and that if I disapeared for awhile upstairs it was just because I wanted to relax, and that sometimes I just like to be alone for a bit. She was concerned that I was bored and didn't like her family. I asured her that this was not the case, but that after listening to so much Spanish my brain just needed the occasional break.
The rest of the afternoon passed by rather quickly, I read some, ate some, talked some, relaxed some. At one point I helped Marji clean the windows of the restaurant. At around 7:30 Marji took me downtown with Fran so I could see a bit more of the city, not that there was much to see. Then, as usual, we went to the pub and had some beers and ate some empanadas. Macarena was nice and drunk by the time we went in. This would turn out to be the most interesting night in Purranque. As we sat behind the counter two things of note happened. First, a drunk came in and started yelling at everyone, then tried to pick a fight with another patron until Mauricio finally kicked him out. Then a deaf guy came in and tried to buy beer without having enough money. What followed was a series of interesting hand gestures as he and Mauricio tried to negotiate, finally deciding that he would just get whatever he could afford with the money he had.
After that ended Marji and I had to go and try to buy Vodka and Orange juice for the bar. This proved to be a challenge. It was 11:30 at night and all the stores were closed. Also, as it turns out, it is illegal for store owners to sell alcohol after 10:30pm. Add to that the fact that Purranque is a dangerous city at night, with lots of gangs, and the fact that I, as a gringo, stick out like a soar thumb most of the time. So it was an interesting experience. We had to take a cab to a store that was run out of a man's house. But he wouldn't sell us the Vodka because there was a police car parked down the block. So we had to find another store, this one had the Vodka, but not the orange juice. So we had to go back to the first store, but this time there were a bunch of people standing around and Marji wouldn't let me get out of the car with her. Finally, we made it back to the pub and went in. Macarena tried to get Marji to let her have some Vodka, but she said not unless someone bought it for her. So She begged me to buy her a drink, which I did. This may have been a mistake, as what followed was a series of stories involving her sexual excapades as a waitress in Santiago, and what I'm pretty sure was a propostion to me. All this was starting to get a little on the bizarre side, so I decided to call it a night and snuck off to my room to go to bed, where I read more, until about 3am.
I woke up the next morning at noon. I went downstairs and had some food, talked with everyone for a bit, had some coffee, then Mauricio's brother showed up with his wife and daughter. So while they all caught up, I snuck upstairs and took a shower. Then I relaxed and read until it was time for us to go. We were of course late again. We got to the bus stop just in time to catch the bus to Osorno. And we got to Osorno with only 5 minutes to spare before our bus to Valdivia left. It was a very rushed affair, but luckily, this time Fran was passed out, and made things go much smoother.
We got to Valdivia around 8pm. It felt like coming home. I was very happy. I feel much safer in Valdivia than I did in Purranque. I know Valdivia has its dangers too, but I don't stand out quite so much here. When we got back to the house I went to the market and bought some bread, meat and cheese for dinner. Marji and I talked over dinner and decided that it would be best if I just stayed with her for the next month. She likes the company, and it is much easier for me. We haven't decided on a price yet, and she hasn't asked for money, but I will pay her for the time I'm there. Overall I have to say that it has been a great experience so far. Purranque was a very interesting look into another side of Chile. While I can't foresee going back, I am certainly happy I had the experience.
If there is one thing I have learned so far by being here, it's that I never know what's going to happen. Who knows what's in store for us. The only way to make it through life is by being flexible and accepting what comes your way, then making the best of it. I have been very lucky here so far, but it could have been different if I hadn't been open to change. I don't know what will happen next, and I don't know where I'm going, but I can't wait till I get there. Hasta luego.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Last time I wrote I had just been kicked out of the cabaña and was staying with my friend Marjorie. As of today I am still there. Finding housing for less than a month at the end of the college semester is proving to be dificult. I really don't know where I'll be for the next four weeks. But, I'm not terribly worried about it. Marjorie has informed me that my being there is no problem and that she likes the company. So I'm happy about that. We also discussed money, since if I'm going to stay there for any length of time I don't want a repeat of my previous experience. She told me that all she would ask for is that I split the cost of food. I told her that of course I would do that, but also that it wasn't enough. She told me that it wasn't important for me to pay if I stayed there. But I told her that it was important to me. She said that if wanted to pay I could, but that she wouldn't ask me for anything. So, I will wait to see how long I'll be staying there and then pay her accordingly.
The last few days have been pretty great. Yesterday was Roxan's birthday, so we had a small get together for her at Marjorie's house around lunch time. It was pretty cool because we all pitched in some money and bought stuff to make lasagna. Dayanne made the lasagna and I have to say that it was great. The guy is a damn fine cool.
Marjorie expressed some concern to me about the lack of accomidations at the house. Like I said in my last post, there is no heating other than a wood stove, there is no internet, and there is no hot water. I assured her that none of this was a problem for me and that I was just gratefull to her for letting me stay. The lack of heat and internet really isn't a problem for me at all. Nor is the small size of the house. My only issue is the lack of hot water. This is only an issue because I usually only have time to shower at night. In one of my first posts I talked about the cold showers I was taking in the cabaña. Well compared to what I have now that water was hot. Imagine going outside when it's 50 degrees and bathing with a hose. That is essentially the situation. Pretty damn cold, though I have discovered just how good the body is at producing heat. Please don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about this. I am fine with it. I am just happy to have somewhere to stay. I am just writing this to provide you with a nice glimpse into one of the more interesting facets of my current life.
As I mentioned before, Marjorie has a baby daughter and she is engaged. However, her fiancee doesn't live in Valdivia. He lives two hours south in a town called Purranque. This weekend Marjorie is going there to visit him and her family, who also live there. As it turns out, her fiancee wants to meet me. This is understandable, as I am living with his soon to be wife and daughter. I would want to meet me too. So I have been invited to go with her this weekend. We are taking the bus tonight and will be there until Sunday. I really have no idea what to expect, but I'm pretty excited for the new experience.
Everything at the University is going very well also. I have been getting more resposibilities and teaching more and more. Today I did a guest lecture in a class. It was pretty cool to teach an entire class. I had been teaching mini-lessons up to this point, but this was the first time I taught the entire class by myself. I really liked it. I got good responces from the students, so I was very happy.
Also, in regards to teaching, Marjorie told me something very nice yesterday. Having me living in her house has presented her with ample opportunity to practice her English. Yesterday we were talking and she told me that she feels much more confident about her speaking now. I was very very happy to hear this. When we had all first started hanging out outside of class she had been very timid about speaking English. Now, when she is talking to me, it is almost all in English. She is improving rapidly and I am very excited.
So that's about it for now. I don't think I'll have internet again until next monday. But when I get back I will post a new blog about my adventure this weekend. Until then, adios.
The last few days have been pretty great. Yesterday was Roxan's birthday, so we had a small get together for her at Marjorie's house around lunch time. It was pretty cool because we all pitched in some money and bought stuff to make lasagna. Dayanne made the lasagna and I have to say that it was great. The guy is a damn fine cool.
Marjorie expressed some concern to me about the lack of accomidations at the house. Like I said in my last post, there is no heating other than a wood stove, there is no internet, and there is no hot water. I assured her that none of this was a problem for me and that I was just gratefull to her for letting me stay. The lack of heat and internet really isn't a problem for me at all. Nor is the small size of the house. My only issue is the lack of hot water. This is only an issue because I usually only have time to shower at night. In one of my first posts I talked about the cold showers I was taking in the cabaña. Well compared to what I have now that water was hot. Imagine going outside when it's 50 degrees and bathing with a hose. That is essentially the situation. Pretty damn cold, though I have discovered just how good the body is at producing heat. Please don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about this. I am fine with it. I am just happy to have somewhere to stay. I am just writing this to provide you with a nice glimpse into one of the more interesting facets of my current life.
As I mentioned before, Marjorie has a baby daughter and she is engaged. However, her fiancee doesn't live in Valdivia. He lives two hours south in a town called Purranque. This weekend Marjorie is going there to visit him and her family, who also live there. As it turns out, her fiancee wants to meet me. This is understandable, as I am living with his soon to be wife and daughter. I would want to meet me too. So I have been invited to go with her this weekend. We are taking the bus tonight and will be there until Sunday. I really have no idea what to expect, but I'm pretty excited for the new experience.
Everything at the University is going very well also. I have been getting more resposibilities and teaching more and more. Today I did a guest lecture in a class. It was pretty cool to teach an entire class. I had been teaching mini-lessons up to this point, but this was the first time I taught the entire class by myself. I really liked it. I got good responces from the students, so I was very happy.
Also, in regards to teaching, Marjorie told me something very nice yesterday. Having me living in her house has presented her with ample opportunity to practice her English. Yesterday we were talking and she told me that she feels much more confident about her speaking now. I was very very happy to hear this. When we had all first started hanging out outside of class she had been very timid about speaking English. Now, when she is talking to me, it is almost all in English. She is improving rapidly and I am very excited.
So that's about it for now. I don't think I'll have internet again until next monday. But when I get back I will post a new blog about my adventure this weekend. Until then, adios.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Mi Vida Extraña (My Strange Life)
So life has taken an interesting turn here in Chile. A bump in the road so to speak. Yesterday I woke up with a place to live, and went to bed in a new place, not knowing where I would be the next day. As I write this now I just want to pause for a moment to reflect on how strange life can be sometimes. You never know what strange thing is going to happen or how you will meet it when it does.
I woke up yesterday morning, business as usual. Shaved, took a shower, got dressed and readied myself to go to school. It was just as I was finishing that Estela came to the door. I opened it and she told me she needed to talk to me.
Now, a bit of back story. Because of my own lack of foresight and banks being a pain in the ass I am currently broke. I’ve been waiting for the bank to transfer money into my account for several days now. Since I have had no money I haven’t been able to pay Estela my rent money. I didn’t know this was a problem until yesterday. She had mentioned it in passing a couple of times. Something to the effect of, Do you have money in the bank yet? I would reply that I didn’t, but was expecting it anytime now. That was it. I thought that these questions were out of concern for my well being. It turns out they weren’t. Instead they were questions more to the tune of, where’s my money. While I was unaware that this was an issue, she was apparently harboring some resentment.
So when she came to the door and said that we had to talk I didn’t realize the gravity of the situation. Then she told me that she wanted me to give her my keys and that she wanted me out of the cabana by the end of the afternoon. I was, to say the least, surprised by this. In fact, I was completely blind sided. I didn’t expect this and I really didn’t see it coming. She then went on to tell me that she didn’t want to talk about it because I already knew the reason. Since, in fact, I didn’t know the reason I asked her why. She told me it was because I hadn’t paid her and that this was a problem and she wanted me out. So I apologized, and told her that I would go to class, then come back after and pack my things. I didn’t know where I would go, but I knew I couldn’t, and didn’t want to be there anymore.
I left and went to the campus for my class. Then I was very fortunate. On my way to class I ran into Marjorie. We talked for a moment and then I told her about my situation. She told me that she had some extra space at her house and that if I needed to I could stay there for a couple days while I figured everything out. So we made plans to meet later that day and we both went to our respective classes.
After class I went back to my office to try and figure things out. I wrote Estela a letter explaining things. I figured that as long as I’m here I might as well so my best to keep things civil. Then I went back to the cabana and started packing. It took me about an hour to get everything put together. I had no idea how I was going to get all my things to the campus. I was pretty sure that no colectivo would stop for me with all of my stuff, especially during the lunch hour rush. But Fortunately Estela decided to be civil and offered to take my things to campus for me. So I caught a colectivo and went downtown. While I was walking to campus I happened to run into Victor and Rocio. I told them about my new situation and not only did they offer me a place to stay, but they also offered to help me find a new place. I told them that I already had another offer, but that if that didn’t work out I would call them. I left them with my faith in Chileans restored.
I got to my office and tried to do some lesson planning, but I found it rather difficult to concentrate. Marjorie called me and told me that she, Dayanne and Roxan would come to my office at 5:30. Of course, in typical Chilean fashion, they were thirty minutes late. If someone from Chile tells you a certain meeting time, always add at least fifteen minutes, thirty is more common though. They showed up at my office at 6 and we talked about what had happened. It was agreed upon that Marjorie’s house was the best/only option, and that I could stay there provided I 1. Didn’t mind kids (she has a two year old) 2. Didn’t mind not having internet, and 3. Could live without hot water. I explained that 1. That sounded great. And 2. My only other option was sleeping under a bridge. This of course got a lot of laughs as they imagined me under a bridge. Thank God for friends.
It turns out that Marjorie lives a very close fifteen minute walk from campus, on Isla Teja. This was good because I had all of my stuff in my backpack, and it was pretty damn heavy. On the way we stopped and had a lady take some pictures of us. Then we went to Marjorie’s. Marjorie lives in, what they described as, the poor part of the island. I certainly wouldn’t call it modern, or well kempt, but this part of town certainly has some character to it. Naturally I loved it immediately. After I got my stuff into the house Marjorie showed me where I would be sleeping. Way nicer than what I had hoped for. I actually had a bed in a private room. I had expected a nice slab of floor. So this was going to be good living. After I got settled in Dayanne and Roxan left. Then Marjorie went to get her daughter Fran.
As it turns out Fran is ridiculously cute, and she has a ton of energy. So as soon as she got home she started running around, and basically doing everything possible to drive her mother crazy. The best part of it all, though, is that she calls me ‘Tio’. For those of you who don’t know Spanish, Tio means uncle. So picture an adorable little Chilean girl running around the house, terrorizing her mother, screaming ‘tio, tio, tio’ and laughing hysterically.
When Marjorie had taken care of Fran we all went to the store to buy some food for ‘once’. I tried to pay but Marjorie refused, telling me that I could buy the food tonight. I reluctantly agreed and we made our way home to eat. After we ate we hung out for a bit until Dayanne came back to visit. While Marjorie put Fran to bed, Dayanne and I went to the store and bought some beer. When we got back we sat around, drank some beer, and they practiced their English while I tried to explain English grammar in Spanish. I think Dayanne came over around 10:30, and didn’t leave until 2am. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed being able to speak with them in our nice mixture of Spanish and English. More importantly, I have already noticed a marked improvement in their speaking and listening skills. So I couldn’t be happier about that.
All in all it was a very interesting day. However, I’m actually kind of happy it has all worked out this way. The cabana was starting to get a little boring anyway. And this way I get to see another side of Chile. While finding a new place is going to be a pain in the ass, overall I am perfectly happy. I have to go now because Roxan’s birthday is tomorrow so we are going to go buy some things for her party. I will update the blog tomorrow. Hasta luego.
I woke up yesterday morning, business as usual. Shaved, took a shower, got dressed and readied myself to go to school. It was just as I was finishing that Estela came to the door. I opened it and she told me she needed to talk to me.
Now, a bit of back story. Because of my own lack of foresight and banks being a pain in the ass I am currently broke. I’ve been waiting for the bank to transfer money into my account for several days now. Since I have had no money I haven’t been able to pay Estela my rent money. I didn’t know this was a problem until yesterday. She had mentioned it in passing a couple of times. Something to the effect of, Do you have money in the bank yet? I would reply that I didn’t, but was expecting it anytime now. That was it. I thought that these questions were out of concern for my well being. It turns out they weren’t. Instead they were questions more to the tune of, where’s my money. While I was unaware that this was an issue, she was apparently harboring some resentment.
So when she came to the door and said that we had to talk I didn’t realize the gravity of the situation. Then she told me that she wanted me to give her my keys and that she wanted me out of the cabana by the end of the afternoon. I was, to say the least, surprised by this. In fact, I was completely blind sided. I didn’t expect this and I really didn’t see it coming. She then went on to tell me that she didn’t want to talk about it because I already knew the reason. Since, in fact, I didn’t know the reason I asked her why. She told me it was because I hadn’t paid her and that this was a problem and she wanted me out. So I apologized, and told her that I would go to class, then come back after and pack my things. I didn’t know where I would go, but I knew I couldn’t, and didn’t want to be there anymore.
I left and went to the campus for my class. Then I was very fortunate. On my way to class I ran into Marjorie. We talked for a moment and then I told her about my situation. She told me that she had some extra space at her house and that if I needed to I could stay there for a couple days while I figured everything out. So we made plans to meet later that day and we both went to our respective classes.
After class I went back to my office to try and figure things out. I wrote Estela a letter explaining things. I figured that as long as I’m here I might as well so my best to keep things civil. Then I went back to the cabana and started packing. It took me about an hour to get everything put together. I had no idea how I was going to get all my things to the campus. I was pretty sure that no colectivo would stop for me with all of my stuff, especially during the lunch hour rush. But Fortunately Estela decided to be civil and offered to take my things to campus for me. So I caught a colectivo and went downtown. While I was walking to campus I happened to run into Victor and Rocio. I told them about my new situation and not only did they offer me a place to stay, but they also offered to help me find a new place. I told them that I already had another offer, but that if that didn’t work out I would call them. I left them with my faith in Chileans restored.
I got to my office and tried to do some lesson planning, but I found it rather difficult to concentrate. Marjorie called me and told me that she, Dayanne and Roxan would come to my office at 5:30. Of course, in typical Chilean fashion, they were thirty minutes late. If someone from Chile tells you a certain meeting time, always add at least fifteen minutes, thirty is more common though. They showed up at my office at 6 and we talked about what had happened. It was agreed upon that Marjorie’s house was the best/only option, and that I could stay there provided I 1. Didn’t mind kids (she has a two year old) 2. Didn’t mind not having internet, and 3. Could live without hot water. I explained that 1. That sounded great. And 2. My only other option was sleeping under a bridge. This of course got a lot of laughs as they imagined me under a bridge. Thank God for friends.
It turns out that Marjorie lives a very close fifteen minute walk from campus, on Isla Teja. This was good because I had all of my stuff in my backpack, and it was pretty damn heavy. On the way we stopped and had a lady take some pictures of us. Then we went to Marjorie’s. Marjorie lives in, what they described as, the poor part of the island. I certainly wouldn’t call it modern, or well kempt, but this part of town certainly has some character to it. Naturally I loved it immediately. After I got my stuff into the house Marjorie showed me where I would be sleeping. Way nicer than what I had hoped for. I actually had a bed in a private room. I had expected a nice slab of floor. So this was going to be good living. After I got settled in Dayanne and Roxan left. Then Marjorie went to get her daughter Fran.
As it turns out Fran is ridiculously cute, and she has a ton of energy. So as soon as she got home she started running around, and basically doing everything possible to drive her mother crazy. The best part of it all, though, is that she calls me ‘Tio’. For those of you who don’t know Spanish, Tio means uncle. So picture an adorable little Chilean girl running around the house, terrorizing her mother, screaming ‘tio, tio, tio’ and laughing hysterically.
When Marjorie had taken care of Fran we all went to the store to buy some food for ‘once’. I tried to pay but Marjorie refused, telling me that I could buy the food tonight. I reluctantly agreed and we made our way home to eat. After we ate we hung out for a bit until Dayanne came back to visit. While Marjorie put Fran to bed, Dayanne and I went to the store and bought some beer. When we got back we sat around, drank some beer, and they practiced their English while I tried to explain English grammar in Spanish. I think Dayanne came over around 10:30, and didn’t leave until 2am. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed being able to speak with them in our nice mixture of Spanish and English. More importantly, I have already noticed a marked improvement in their speaking and listening skills. So I couldn’t be happier about that.
All in all it was a very interesting day. However, I’m actually kind of happy it has all worked out this way. The cabana was starting to get a little boring anyway. And this way I get to see another side of Chile. While finding a new place is going to be a pain in the ass, overall I am perfectly happy. I have to go now because Roxan’s birthday is tomorrow so we are going to go buy some things for her party. I will update the blog tomorrow. Hasta luego.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Why my Chilean Friends are Awesome
So two days ago Victor finally got fed up with his inability to contact me whenever he wanted. Apparently my like of a phone number wasn't acceptable. Up to this point the only way we had been able to communicate had been email, or if I called him using skype. So on Wednesday Victor and Rocio came to my office and told me that they had a present for me. Apparently Victor had found an old cellphone that no one was using and decided to let me borrow it for the rest of the time that I'm here. All I would have to do is buy a prepaid simcard for it, then recharge it whenever necessary. So we went to a store and bought one, and now I have a phone. Awesome. This will simplify my life somewhat. It has been difficult trying to get together with people. You don't realize how dependent you are on your cellphone until you are standing outside of McDonalds at midnight hoping that your friends are actually on their way, with no way to contact them to make sure.
After that I had to go and work with Marcos, so we made plans to meet up in front of McDonalds (it's always our meeting spot) at 7:30. Not only were they nice enough to get a phone for me, but they also wanted to have me over for dinner/to help them study for a quiz they had on Thursday. So I met up with Victor t 7:30, Rocio was working till 10, then we got on a bus to go to Rocio's house. On the way there Victor asked me if I wanted to see his house and meet his family. Naturally I said yes, so we went to his house where I met his two younger brothers, 10 and 4, his grandmother, and his mom. It was great. Very friendly people, welcomed me into their home without hesitation. I talked to his mom for a bit, then we walked over to Rocio's house to wait for her to get off work. We talked for awhile and studied some English, then when Rocio got home we had some food. Really good bread with mashed avocado (I've been assured that this is different from guacamole because there are no other ingredients), Aji (hot chilly peppers), ham and cheese. Incredibly good. While we ate I helped them study. I ended up staying until 1:30am. It was a lot of fun. I am continually impressed by how nice, warm and welcoming chileans are. Very friendly and always willing to offer help when and where needed.
The next day they came to my office again, and with another present. This time it was a book of chilean slang. Under each others tutelage I am starting to get a hang of chilenismo, and Victor is becoming quite proficient in swearing in English. He has all the basics down now, it's pretty hillarious.
Victor and Rocio have been great. they took me out for my birthday, took me out for halloween, gave me a cellphone, introduced me to family, had me over for dinner, and they gave me book to help me understand their language better. Talk about friends. I can already tell that I will be staying in contact with them for a long time after I leave Chile.
After that I had to go and work with Marcos, so we made plans to meet up in front of McDonalds (it's always our meeting spot) at 7:30. Not only were they nice enough to get a phone for me, but they also wanted to have me over for dinner/to help them study for a quiz they had on Thursday. So I met up with Victor t 7:30, Rocio was working till 10, then we got on a bus to go to Rocio's house. On the way there Victor asked me if I wanted to see his house and meet his family. Naturally I said yes, so we went to his house where I met his two younger brothers, 10 and 4, his grandmother, and his mom. It was great. Very friendly people, welcomed me into their home without hesitation. I talked to his mom for a bit, then we walked over to Rocio's house to wait for her to get off work. We talked for awhile and studied some English, then when Rocio got home we had some food. Really good bread with mashed avocado (I've been assured that this is different from guacamole because there are no other ingredients), Aji (hot chilly peppers), ham and cheese. Incredibly good. While we ate I helped them study. I ended up staying until 1:30am. It was a lot of fun. I am continually impressed by how nice, warm and welcoming chileans are. Very friendly and always willing to offer help when and where needed.
The next day they came to my office again, and with another present. This time it was a book of chilean slang. Under each others tutelage I am starting to get a hang of chilenismo, and Victor is becoming quite proficient in swearing in English. He has all the basics down now, it's pretty hillarious.
Victor and Rocio have been great. they took me out for my birthday, took me out for halloween, gave me a cellphone, introduced me to family, had me over for dinner, and they gave me book to help me understand their language better. Talk about friends. I can already tell that I will be staying in contact with them for a long time after I leave Chile.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Graffiti and Halloween
This past weekend was a good one, full of friends and beer, all the things you really need in a weekend. It all started on Friday when I decided I was bored, and that if I spent another Friday in my Cabaña by myself I would go crazy. So I decided to give Victor a call. Victor's the guy who took me out on my birthday, gave me a tour of the city, then took me to a party where I proceeded to drink an unpleasant mixture of beer and pisco, which led directly to one of the more massive hangovers I've had in recent memory. So he's a good guy, and him, his girlfriend Rocio, and myself are becoming friends. So I put to use the wonderful creation that is Skype and gave him a call. That's how I found out that talking on the phone in another language sucks. I can understand someone just fine when we are talking face to face, but over the phone... not so much. Through some trial and error we were able to decide that he and Rocio would come by my office later that afternoon. 
So around 5 they showed up at my office and we went downtown to the mall where they both work. On the way they showed me the street where all the good bars are. As it turned out, that night a local band called Graffiti was playing at one of the bars. They decided that we should go, so I agreed, then we went to the mall. They both had to work at 6:30, so we got to hang and talk for a bit. Then they had to work so I went back home. The plan was that I would call Victor around 11 when he got off work so we could make plans. So I went home and hung out, ate some food, took a shower, all that good stuff. Then at 11 I called Victor and we agreed to meet in front of the mall at 11:30. So I went out and caught a colectivo downtown then walked over to the mall and met them.
Then we walked down the street to the bar. It was everything you could want in a bar. Chill atmosphere, smoky, lots of tables, and good old fashion calssic rock coming out of the speakers. I was pretty damn happy. And randomly enough, the asian exchange students I had previously gone on a tour with were there too. That's when they told me that Graffiti is a band of older gentlemen who cover classic rock songs. As soon as they started playing I knew I was going to be happy. The beatles got the most play, but there were also classics like Piano Man, Rolling on the River, and House of the Rising Sun. It was awesome. And the guys were great performers. They got the whole bar in to it. Picture a bar full of Chileans, four asian exchange students, and me, the lone American, all singing the chorus to Hey Jude. Amazing. So much fun. Then, during an intermission, the lead singer came over to our table and to talk with us. As it turned out he didn't just sing songs in English, but also spoke English very well. So we had a nice conversation during which he told me all about how they had started, and why they played at that particular bar. It was pretty cool. So we hung out there until around 3am, listening to good music and talking. Then, Rocio was hungry, so we went and got completos, which are basically big hot dogs with all kinds of crazy stuff on them. After that it was time to head home to get some sleep.
Then we walked down the street to the bar. It was everything you could want in a bar. Chill atmosphere, smoky, lots of tables, and good old fashion calssic rock coming out of the speakers. I was pretty damn happy. And randomly enough, the asian exchange students I had previously gone on a tour with were there too. That's when they told me that Graffiti is a band of older gentlemen who cover classic rock songs. As soon as they started playing I knew I was going to be happy. The beatles got the most play, but there were also classics like Piano Man, Rolling on the River, and House of the Rising Sun. It was awesome. And the guys were great performers. They got the whole bar in to it. Picture a bar full of Chileans, four asian exchange students, and me, the lone American, all singing the chorus to Hey Jude. Amazing. So much fun. Then, during an intermission, the lead singer came over to our table and to talk with us. As it turned out he didn't just sing songs in English, but also spoke English very well. So we had a nice conversation during which he told me all about how they had started, and why they played at that particular bar. It was pretty cool. So we hung out there until around 3am, listening to good music and talking. Then, Rocio was hungry, so we went and got completos, which are basically big hot dogs with all kinds of crazy stuff on them. After that it was time to head home to get some sleep.
Victor and Rocio
Me
Graffiti
Me and the Lead Singer
Singing and Dancing on a Table, now that's a good time.
Saturday was Halloween. Victor had to work again that night, but he got done at 9:30, so we made plans to go grab some beers. I went downtown and met up with him around 10. While we were walking to a bar we ran into his best friend Claudio, so we changed our plans and went with Claudio to a different bar. I can't remember its name, but it was really chill and relaxed, even more so than the one the night before. The beer was cheap, so we drank a lot of it. It was a lot of fun. They started teaching me Chilean slang, of which there is a lot, and of which I can't repeat here due to its inapprorpiate nature. Chilean Spanish is its own thing all together. They have so much slang, and such wierd pronunciation that I have a hard time keeping up a lot of the time. So hanging out with Victor and others has been great. I'm finally starting to get to the point where I can actually understand what they are saying most of the time. But it's still really hard and takes a lot of concentration on my part.
Despite the large quantity of beer I drank the night before, I woke up Sunday feeling pretty damn good. I had thankfully avoided pisco during the course of the weekend, and so I was feeling well. Sunday afternoon I went and met up with Dayanne and Roxan. I had hung out with them the weekend before and we'd had a good time. So I was pretty happy to get to hang out again. Unfortunatly Marjorie was out of town, so she wasn't with us. We went to the botanical garden on campus and sat in the sun for a couple hours and talked. It was a very nice, rare, sunny day, so we took advantage. I really enjoy talking with them, it's a great way to learn the language and the culture. And we all seem to get along really well. Aslo we went and got pizza. Anyone who knows me know how happy that made me. That was pretty much all I did on Sunday, but it was a good day.
Now, ten things I have come to realize about food since coming here. 1. My new favorite apatizer is half an avacado, filled with diced hard boiled egg where the pit used to be. 2. My new favorite dessert is a sliced up banana in yogurt. 3. Pizza is even better after you haven't had it in three weeks. 4. Empanadas are amazing, no matter what they are filled with. 5. Pisco kills. 6. While you would think it was gross, Cochoyuyo (seaweed/kelp something), is actually really good. 7. Maybe I don't hate fruit and vegetables as much I previously thought. 9. Aji makes everything better. 10. Chilean wine is incredibe.
So that's it for now. Things are continuing to go great, but the time is going way to fast. I only have a little over a month left here, and I'm pretty sad about that. I really hope I can come back someday. Amazing country. Hasta luego.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Why I'm Awesome
First off I just want to say that I am awesome and I deserve nothing short of everyones undying love, affection and admiration from this point on. That being said, allow me to tell you about my last couple of days, and in so doing explain the reasons behind my apparent greatness.
First off, I am now having students come to my office for help. Two days ago one of my students came to ask for help translating an article from English to Spanish. It was really cool, and we ended up working on it for about an hour, all the while speaking Spanish. Having the students coming to me for help is great, and I really enjoy being able to help them.
Yesterday was a crazy and wonderful day. I started by sleeping through my alarm for about the third time since I´ve been here. This time it all kind of worked out though, because apparently Estela had trouble getting up that morning also. We both had class at 9:50am and didn't leave the house untill 9:30am. So I was a little worried about being late, since it takes 15 minutes to get from the house the university on a good day. We managed to get there at 9:45 and I had her drop me off at the building where my class is. The day before we had had to cancel class because Ximena was sick, so I wasn't 100% sure if we were actually going to have class that day. As it turned out, Ximena was still sick, and class was cancelled. However, some of the students still wanted to have some sort of class. So I told them that if they wanted to, we could have a mini class. Four of the students decided that they wanted to practice, so we went to the classroom and sat around and talked in English for about 40 minutes. After that, as a treat, I let them speak Spanish with me for the last 20 minutes. I was really happy about all this for two reasons. First, because I wanted to do something other than go back to my office and figure out my fantasy football team. Second, because the students were actively trying to learn. This is a big step in the right direction for a group of students that are behind where they should be. I wish a few more had decided to stay, but I can hardly blame them. If one of my classes was canelled, there would be no way I would stay.
After that class I went to my next class. The first 40 minutes of this class were supposed to me telling the students about the history of halloween, and how it is celebrated in the United States, followed by a discussion of how/if it is celbrated in Chile. After that we were going to do book work. So I stood in front of the class and gave my presentation. Then when it was time for the discussion I was met with silence. No one really wanted to talk, so I tried asking more specific questions and started getting some answers, but only a few students were talking. So Raquel told everyone to take out their books to start doing exercises. There were general groans throughout the class to which Raquel responded 'Well, noone was talking. If you aren't going to talk, then we will do book work.' This seemed to light a fire under their asses, becaus suddenly there were plenty of questions. We started talking about Halloween, which quickly turned into a discussion about parties and drinking. Which led to drinking laws in the US. Which led to drug laws in the US. So my presentation started with the history of Halloween's origin, and ended with me trying to describe what meth was. God I love this country.
When that classes ended it was 1pm. This is the time when I usually meet with Estela to go home and get lunch. However, today she was nowhere to be found. As it turns out, she had to leave the school early that day and had forgotten to tell me. So I just kind of stood around for awhile not knowing what to do. At first I was waiting, but after 20 minutes I figured out that she was gone. So I considered going downtown and taking a colectivo back to the house. But that seemed like a lot of work. Instead, I ended up talking to one of the students from the previous class for about two hours. She had forgotten something in the classroom, but now it was locked, and noone was going to be back until 3. So, we started talking and continued talking until 3:30 when Estela showed back up. It was a very nice conversation, and a wonderful way for me to practice my Spanish. So I was quite content.
I went back to my office and hung out until 5:30. Then it was time to go. Yesterday Estela and I were going start tutoring one of her collegues who wanted to improve his English. Estela had asked me if I would be willing to help last week, and had jumed at the opportunity. All I knew was that he worked at the University. What I didn't know was that he was the director of continuing education at the University. So needless to say, the guy is important. So we leave the University, because the department of continuing studies is on the other side of the river, and next thing I know I'm sitting in this beautiful office, with huge windows looking out onto the river, drinking coffee and eating cookies while I tutor this very important individual in English. This man, Marcos, is sitting there, wearing an impecible suit, very dignified, struggeling through English sentences while I try to provide him with assistance. Pretty intimidating situation. So we continue for the hour that we had set aside for these lessons. When the time was up, he didn't want to stop. But since I hadn't eaten anything so far, Estela said that we had to go get me some food. To this he replied that he wanted to take us out to dinner. So here I am, this lowly students from the States, going out to dinner with Estela, who used to be the director of the language department at the University, and Marcos, the current director of continuing studies. WTF. Two very important people in the university, and me. Wow.
So we go to a restaurant on the other side of the city. First things first, pisco sours. Pisco is the national drink of Chile. It's a liquor made from grapes, tastes a bit like rum, but sweeter. And it's really strong, a fact that was not helped by the half a shot of cognac they added to it after I'd taken a few sips. Then they bring the food. First off is a kind of pastry. I can't remember the name in Spanish, but it is essentially flour and water, deep fried into what I can only describe as a savory doghnut type thing. Amazing, especially with a little aji, minced hot peppers. Then the main course, a giant bowl full of broth, and an entire chicken cut up into sections, and french fries. Once again, I love this country. This was all paired very nicely with a nice bottle of expensive Chilean wine. Estela and Marcos start talking about old friends and such, in Spanish I can barely keep up with, so I give up and go to town on the food. To say I gorged myself would be an understatement. Everything was delicious, and after my pisco sour and a couple classes of wine, I was feeling pretty damn good. And that's when I had a wonderful epiphany. I am sitting down to dinner with two very important people, from one of the most important universities, one of whom I am already very close with, and the other with whom I will be working a lot over the next month, eating delicious food, drinking amazing wine... in Chile. Wow again.
Throughout the course of yesterday evening I became aware that Marcos is very passionate about education and helping children with disabilities. When I told him about my own families interest in this subject he got excited and invited me to come with him to one of the schools in Valdivia today. I accepted the offer, so earlier today I went to his office and we went to a school for developmentally disabled children. From this experience I have learned two important things. One, Chilean children are adorable. Two, autistic children are cute everywhere in the world. The first group of children we went to see had autism and other developmental problems. There were six of them, all around 5 or 6 years old, and they were all adorable. One of the boys was hopping around the room on his knees (he has trouble standing) while throwing a stuffed animal into the air. Another was pushing a toy car around on the floor, then the wall, then just making it fly through the air. The cutest though, was a little girl, maybe 5 years old. When we first got there she walked up to me, grabbed my finger, shook it, and then ran back to the teacher and hid her face against the teachers leg. It was among the cutest things I have ever seen. After that we visited a group of children who had problems with producing sounds, speach imediments and such. Let me tell you, there isn't much in the world that is cuter than little chilean children singing songs. It was an amazing experience, and I'm very thankfull that Marcos was kind enough to take me.
So, to some everything up, my students are great, I'm making great connections with important people here, and I got to see some of the cutest children in the world. Pretty good last couple of days. Add to that the fact that today Ximena informed that if I ever decided that I wanted to move back to Valdivia, and work in the University, the application process would be a mere formality. Wow again. Apparently I'm making a good impression. So now I just have to get my masters and apparently I could have a job teaching at a University in Chile. Needless to say, life is pretty damn good.
First off, I am now having students come to my office for help. Two days ago one of my students came to ask for help translating an article from English to Spanish. It was really cool, and we ended up working on it for about an hour, all the while speaking Spanish. Having the students coming to me for help is great, and I really enjoy being able to help them.
Yesterday was a crazy and wonderful day. I started by sleeping through my alarm for about the third time since I´ve been here. This time it all kind of worked out though, because apparently Estela had trouble getting up that morning also. We both had class at 9:50am and didn't leave the house untill 9:30am. So I was a little worried about being late, since it takes 15 minutes to get from the house the university on a good day. We managed to get there at 9:45 and I had her drop me off at the building where my class is. The day before we had had to cancel class because Ximena was sick, so I wasn't 100% sure if we were actually going to have class that day. As it turned out, Ximena was still sick, and class was cancelled. However, some of the students still wanted to have some sort of class. So I told them that if they wanted to, we could have a mini class. Four of the students decided that they wanted to practice, so we went to the classroom and sat around and talked in English for about 40 minutes. After that, as a treat, I let them speak Spanish with me for the last 20 minutes. I was really happy about all this for two reasons. First, because I wanted to do something other than go back to my office and figure out my fantasy football team. Second, because the students were actively trying to learn. This is a big step in the right direction for a group of students that are behind where they should be. I wish a few more had decided to stay, but I can hardly blame them. If one of my classes was canelled, there would be no way I would stay.
After that class I went to my next class. The first 40 minutes of this class were supposed to me telling the students about the history of halloween, and how it is celebrated in the United States, followed by a discussion of how/if it is celbrated in Chile. After that we were going to do book work. So I stood in front of the class and gave my presentation. Then when it was time for the discussion I was met with silence. No one really wanted to talk, so I tried asking more specific questions and started getting some answers, but only a few students were talking. So Raquel told everyone to take out their books to start doing exercises. There were general groans throughout the class to which Raquel responded 'Well, noone was talking. If you aren't going to talk, then we will do book work.' This seemed to light a fire under their asses, becaus suddenly there were plenty of questions. We started talking about Halloween, which quickly turned into a discussion about parties and drinking. Which led to drinking laws in the US. Which led to drug laws in the US. So my presentation started with the history of Halloween's origin, and ended with me trying to describe what meth was. God I love this country.
When that classes ended it was 1pm. This is the time when I usually meet with Estela to go home and get lunch. However, today she was nowhere to be found. As it turns out, she had to leave the school early that day and had forgotten to tell me. So I just kind of stood around for awhile not knowing what to do. At first I was waiting, but after 20 minutes I figured out that she was gone. So I considered going downtown and taking a colectivo back to the house. But that seemed like a lot of work. Instead, I ended up talking to one of the students from the previous class for about two hours. She had forgotten something in the classroom, but now it was locked, and noone was going to be back until 3. So, we started talking and continued talking until 3:30 when Estela showed back up. It was a very nice conversation, and a wonderful way for me to practice my Spanish. So I was quite content.
I went back to my office and hung out until 5:30. Then it was time to go. Yesterday Estela and I were going start tutoring one of her collegues who wanted to improve his English. Estela had asked me if I would be willing to help last week, and had jumed at the opportunity. All I knew was that he worked at the University. What I didn't know was that he was the director of continuing education at the University. So needless to say, the guy is important. So we leave the University, because the department of continuing studies is on the other side of the river, and next thing I know I'm sitting in this beautiful office, with huge windows looking out onto the river, drinking coffee and eating cookies while I tutor this very important individual in English. This man, Marcos, is sitting there, wearing an impecible suit, very dignified, struggeling through English sentences while I try to provide him with assistance. Pretty intimidating situation. So we continue for the hour that we had set aside for these lessons. When the time was up, he didn't want to stop. But since I hadn't eaten anything so far, Estela said that we had to go get me some food. To this he replied that he wanted to take us out to dinner. So here I am, this lowly students from the States, going out to dinner with Estela, who used to be the director of the language department at the University, and Marcos, the current director of continuing studies. WTF. Two very important people in the university, and me. Wow.
So we go to a restaurant on the other side of the city. First things first, pisco sours. Pisco is the national drink of Chile. It's a liquor made from grapes, tastes a bit like rum, but sweeter. And it's really strong, a fact that was not helped by the half a shot of cognac they added to it after I'd taken a few sips. Then they bring the food. First off is a kind of pastry. I can't remember the name in Spanish, but it is essentially flour and water, deep fried into what I can only describe as a savory doghnut type thing. Amazing, especially with a little aji, minced hot peppers. Then the main course, a giant bowl full of broth, and an entire chicken cut up into sections, and french fries. Once again, I love this country. This was all paired very nicely with a nice bottle of expensive Chilean wine. Estela and Marcos start talking about old friends and such, in Spanish I can barely keep up with, so I give up and go to town on the food. To say I gorged myself would be an understatement. Everything was delicious, and after my pisco sour and a couple classes of wine, I was feeling pretty damn good. And that's when I had a wonderful epiphany. I am sitting down to dinner with two very important people, from one of the most important universities, one of whom I am already very close with, and the other with whom I will be working a lot over the next month, eating delicious food, drinking amazing wine... in Chile. Wow again.
Throughout the course of yesterday evening I became aware that Marcos is very passionate about education and helping children with disabilities. When I told him about my own families interest in this subject he got excited and invited me to come with him to one of the schools in Valdivia today. I accepted the offer, so earlier today I went to his office and we went to a school for developmentally disabled children. From this experience I have learned two important things. One, Chilean children are adorable. Two, autistic children are cute everywhere in the world. The first group of children we went to see had autism and other developmental problems. There were six of them, all around 5 or 6 years old, and they were all adorable. One of the boys was hopping around the room on his knees (he has trouble standing) while throwing a stuffed animal into the air. Another was pushing a toy car around on the floor, then the wall, then just making it fly through the air. The cutest though, was a little girl, maybe 5 years old. When we first got there she walked up to me, grabbed my finger, shook it, and then ran back to the teacher and hid her face against the teachers leg. It was among the cutest things I have ever seen. After that we visited a group of children who had problems with producing sounds, speach imediments and such. Let me tell you, there isn't much in the world that is cuter than little chilean children singing songs. It was an amazing experience, and I'm very thankfull that Marcos was kind enough to take me.
So, to some everything up, my students are great, I'm making great connections with important people here, and I got to see some of the cutest children in the world. Pretty good last couple of days. Add to that the fact that today Ximena informed that if I ever decided that I wanted to move back to Valdivia, and work in the University, the application process would be a mere formality. Wow again. Apparently I'm making a good impression. So now I just have to get my masters and apparently I could have a job teaching at a University in Chile. Needless to say, life is pretty damn good.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Progress
There have been some very fun and interesting developments here over the past week. Things are going very well and I am very happy. I am starting to get more responsibilities, and I'm starting to do more. This past weekend was very fun, and there was a lot less being hung over, so I'm happy about that. On saturday I got together with the three students who approached me about hanging out and being friends. It was a great, and I had a new experience with my own language learning.
On saturday I went to campus to meet up with the students around 2. The three that I hung out with are named Dayanne (the guy), Marjorie, and Roxana. The three of them are classmates studying accounting. Dayanne and Marjorie are in my English class with Ximena. Roxana is in a more advanced class because she chose to start studying English in her first year rather than her second when it is required. So I met up with them around two and then we took a bus downtown. Usually I just walk downtown because it's just across the bridge from campus, but it was raining and they wanted to take the bus. This was the first time that I'd taken a bus in Valdivia. The buses here are about half the size of the buses in the states and about 30 years older.
When we got downtown we went to a restaurant near La Feria. Since Valdivia is at the junction of the rivers, and only 20 minutes from the pacific, seafood is the staple. And the seafood is very fresh. We started with some empenadas mariscos, empenadas full of shellfish. I don't know what kind of shellfish was in them, but they were really, really good. Extremely fresh and just out of the fryer. These were just the apatizers though, and for the main course I had fried salmon. It was delicious. I ate just about everything, which is saying something because I'd just had lunch with Estela before I left. We stayed at the restaurant for a couple of hours and talked. We spoke a nice mixture of English and Spanish, but mostly Spanish. I tried to get them to speak English, and that would go well until there was a difficult word or concept, then it was back to Spanish. After an hour and half or so Marjorie had to leave, so Dayanne, Roxana and I started walking around the city and talking. We ended up in the mall, where we found a nice place to sit in the food court, and talked for a couple of hours.
This is where things started getting interesting for me. We'd been speaking some English, and a lot of Spanish. My Spanish is better than their English, so Spanish was the fall back language. When we first started hanging out that day they were nice enough to speak slowly for me. But as the day progressed, and I became more comfortable with listening to their Spanish, they started speaking faster. By this point my brain was starting to get tired. Listening to another language for such a long time requires a lot of concentration. So I was feeling a bit worn out. And then it happened, I started asking a question in English. I had to speak very slowly so they could understand me. And all of a sudden I realized that speaking English was way more work than speaking Spanish. Speaking Spanish with them was easier than speaking English. This was the first time that speaking another language was easier than speaking English for me. So it was pretty damn cool. After spending four and half hours with them I got to the point where I was speaking without thinking. There was no translating in my head, no hesitation while I tried to put a sentence together. I was very happy, to say the least.
After we hung out in the mall and talked for a few hours we decided to call it a night. It was about 7:30pm, and my brain was fried. So we made plans to hang out again next sunday and went our seperate ways. The whole experience was great for me, and I really felt like I'd made some progress with my Spanish.
Sunday I stayed in and did school work and checked my fantasy football scores religously. It was a very nice, relaxing day. Yesterday I had one class in the morning. Then in the afternoon I had a meeting with Ximena. She told me she wanted me to plan part of the lesson for today. Through my observations I noticed a common problem in all the classes and levels. The students here seem to be having trouble with the indefinate article, a/an. They don't seem to understand when to use it and when not to use it. For example, you don't use a/an with plural or noncount nouns. It is only used with countable, singular nouns. So I frequently hear things like, I have a long hair, instead of, I have long hair. So I made a nice lesson plan about this that I was going to present to the class, but, unfortunately, Ximena was sick today, so class was cancelled. But I'm hoping to teach the lesson tomorrow, if she is feeling better.
I am really excited to start actually teaching lessons. Up to this point my main use has been to provide the students with the sound of my native english speaker accent. This is all well and good, but I want to do more. I enjoy teaching, and I'd like to actually do it. Tomorrow should be a good day for it though. Hopefully Ximena will feel better so I'll be able to teach my grammar lesson. Then in my other class, I am going to be teaching a mini lesson on halloween. Apparently Chileans have started celebrating halloween in the recent past, so Raquel wants me to talk about its history and how we celebrate in the US.
After class tomorrow I am also going to start tutoring one of the pedagogy professors with Estela. Apparently he wants to learn English, and Estela asked me if I would be willing to help. I said, of course, so now we will be doing that every wednesday at 6pm. So Weds are going to be very busy for me from now on. Also, I am helping in another class now, but only once a week. Language classes here meet twice a week, but I will be meeting with a business class every thursday for the rest of the time I'm here. So I will be working in two and half classes, tutoring a professor, and helping my own students outside of class. I'm quite happy about all this, and very excited to really get started.
The weather here has been terrible over the last week. Tons of wind and pouring rain, so naturally I feel right at home. I think it's going to start clearing up next week, so I'm happy about that. I want to start enjoying the outside world here at least a little bit before I have to leave. I've been here for three and half weeks now, and it feels like a week and a half. Things are going by way too fast. I am really going to miss this country when I have to leave. It's a beautiful place with amazing people. I really hope I get the opportunity to come back someday. Well, that's it for now, hasta luego.
On saturday I went to campus to meet up with the students around 2. The three that I hung out with are named Dayanne (the guy), Marjorie, and Roxana. The three of them are classmates studying accounting. Dayanne and Marjorie are in my English class with Ximena. Roxana is in a more advanced class because she chose to start studying English in her first year rather than her second when it is required. So I met up with them around two and then we took a bus downtown. Usually I just walk downtown because it's just across the bridge from campus, but it was raining and they wanted to take the bus. This was the first time that I'd taken a bus in Valdivia. The buses here are about half the size of the buses in the states and about 30 years older.
When we got downtown we went to a restaurant near La Feria. Since Valdivia is at the junction of the rivers, and only 20 minutes from the pacific, seafood is the staple. And the seafood is very fresh. We started with some empenadas mariscos, empenadas full of shellfish. I don't know what kind of shellfish was in them, but they were really, really good. Extremely fresh and just out of the fryer. These were just the apatizers though, and for the main course I had fried salmon. It was delicious. I ate just about everything, which is saying something because I'd just had lunch with Estela before I left. We stayed at the restaurant for a couple of hours and talked. We spoke a nice mixture of English and Spanish, but mostly Spanish. I tried to get them to speak English, and that would go well until there was a difficult word or concept, then it was back to Spanish. After an hour and half or so Marjorie had to leave, so Dayanne, Roxana and I started walking around the city and talking. We ended up in the mall, where we found a nice place to sit in the food court, and talked for a couple of hours.
This is where things started getting interesting for me. We'd been speaking some English, and a lot of Spanish. My Spanish is better than their English, so Spanish was the fall back language. When we first started hanging out that day they were nice enough to speak slowly for me. But as the day progressed, and I became more comfortable with listening to their Spanish, they started speaking faster. By this point my brain was starting to get tired. Listening to another language for such a long time requires a lot of concentration. So I was feeling a bit worn out. And then it happened, I started asking a question in English. I had to speak very slowly so they could understand me. And all of a sudden I realized that speaking English was way more work than speaking Spanish. Speaking Spanish with them was easier than speaking English. This was the first time that speaking another language was easier than speaking English for me. So it was pretty damn cool. After spending four and half hours with them I got to the point where I was speaking without thinking. There was no translating in my head, no hesitation while I tried to put a sentence together. I was very happy, to say the least.
After we hung out in the mall and talked for a few hours we decided to call it a night. It was about 7:30pm, and my brain was fried. So we made plans to hang out again next sunday and went our seperate ways. The whole experience was great for me, and I really felt like I'd made some progress with my Spanish.
Sunday I stayed in and did school work and checked my fantasy football scores religously. It was a very nice, relaxing day. Yesterday I had one class in the morning. Then in the afternoon I had a meeting with Ximena. She told me she wanted me to plan part of the lesson for today. Through my observations I noticed a common problem in all the classes and levels. The students here seem to be having trouble with the indefinate article, a/an. They don't seem to understand when to use it and when not to use it. For example, you don't use a/an with plural or noncount nouns. It is only used with countable, singular nouns. So I frequently hear things like, I have a long hair, instead of, I have long hair. So I made a nice lesson plan about this that I was going to present to the class, but, unfortunately, Ximena was sick today, so class was cancelled. But I'm hoping to teach the lesson tomorrow, if she is feeling better.
I am really excited to start actually teaching lessons. Up to this point my main use has been to provide the students with the sound of my native english speaker accent. This is all well and good, but I want to do more. I enjoy teaching, and I'd like to actually do it. Tomorrow should be a good day for it though. Hopefully Ximena will feel better so I'll be able to teach my grammar lesson. Then in my other class, I am going to be teaching a mini lesson on halloween. Apparently Chileans have started celebrating halloween in the recent past, so Raquel wants me to talk about its history and how we celebrate in the US.
After class tomorrow I am also going to start tutoring one of the pedagogy professors with Estela. Apparently he wants to learn English, and Estela asked me if I would be willing to help. I said, of course, so now we will be doing that every wednesday at 6pm. So Weds are going to be very busy for me from now on. Also, I am helping in another class now, but only once a week. Language classes here meet twice a week, but I will be meeting with a business class every thursday for the rest of the time I'm here. So I will be working in two and half classes, tutoring a professor, and helping my own students outside of class. I'm quite happy about all this, and very excited to really get started.
The weather here has been terrible over the last week. Tons of wind and pouring rain, so naturally I feel right at home. I think it's going to start clearing up next week, so I'm happy about that. I want to start enjoying the outside world here at least a little bit before I have to leave. I've been here for three and half weeks now, and it feels like a week and a half. Things are going by way too fast. I am really going to miss this country when I have to leave. It's a beautiful place with amazing people. I really hope I get the opportunity to come back someday. Well, that's it for now, hasta luego.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Pictures
So, I finally figured out how to get pictures on here. I´m not going to post very many for right now, but for those of you without facebook here is a quick preview of my life down here.
This first picture is of the outside of my cabaña. I have some pictures of the interior that I'll try to post late.
This is my office in the Centro de Idiomas on the Isla Teja campus of the Universidad Austral de Chile.
This next picture was taken during my boat tour of the rivers around Valdivia. This is La Feria, the open market on the waterfront. Behind it is downtown Valdivia.
Those are the lobos marinos, sea wolves as they call them, but more commonly known as Sealions in the states. There are a few places along the waterfront where they hang out. This place in the picture and La Feria are the most common places, and you can almost always see them here.
This is Los Saltos del Petrohue. Its about three hours drive from Valdivia. I came here with the intensive Spanish students from Asia.
This picture is of Lagos Todos los Santos. In the background you can see the Andes that make up the border, so the other side of those mountains is Argentina.
This is a picture of Valdivia that I took from the boat on my tour.
This first picture is of the outside of my cabaña. I have some pictures of the interior that I'll try to post late.This is my office in the Centro de Idiomas on the Isla Teja campus of the Universidad Austral de Chile.This next picture was taken during my boat tour of the rivers around Valdivia. This is La Feria, the open market on the waterfront. Behind it is downtown Valdivia.Those are the lobos marinos, sea wolves as they call them, but more commonly known as Sealions in the states. There are a few places along the waterfront where they hang out. This place in the picture and La Feria are the most common places, and you can almost always see them here.
This is Los Saltos del Petrohue. Its about three hours drive from Valdivia. I came here with the intensive Spanish students from Asia.
This picture is of Lagos Todos los Santos. In the background you can see the Andes that make up the border, so the other side of those mountains is Argentina.This is a picture of Valdivia that I took from the boat on my tour.So there it is. I´ll try to put some more pictures on here later, but I think this is a good sart. I hope you enjoy. Hasta luego.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
New Friends, New Schedule and My Birthday
So its been awhile since my last blog and a lot has happened in that time. First of all, things have been going great down here. I am having a great time and I still love being in the classroom. The weather down here has been a bit unpredictable, sometimes is goes from beautiful and sunny in the morning, to cold, rainy and windy in the afternoon, and then back again. So it feels just like home. My Spanish is impoving quite a bit, as I'd hoped, but I still have a lot to learn. Chileans speak very very fast and have a lot of slang that doesn´t exist anywhere else in the world. So talking with students has had its difficulties, but they payoff will be great.
Last week I continued observing classes and I had the opportunity to work with three new teachers. In one of the classes we ended up spending the entire time just talking about where I was from and what I was doing. So that was really cool. As much fun as that was, the really cool part was that after the class I was approached by two students, Victor and Rosio. Victor and Rosio are a couple and they are studying tourism. They came up to me after class and asked if I wanted to hang out some time outside of class. I of course said yes, that I would love to. I had mentioned in class that my birthday was the next day, so they said that they wanted to do something with me. This was great because up until that point my big plans had been to sit in my cabaña and watch TV. So doing anything would be a big improvement.
Most people who go to a new country for school usually go in groups. Or, if they are there to study a language, they have classes with other foreigners. I, on the other hand, came to Chile alone. So my friend base started at nothing. There are other American students here at UACh, but if I wanted to spend my time hanging out with Americans I would have stayed in the states. So this was a great opportunity for me. We made plans to meet up the next afternoon, so hang out and walk around the city.
The next day, my birthday, I met up with Victor in my office. Then we walked downtown and he gave me a tour of the city. He was very good at this, as would be expected from his major. He mostly spoke English while I mostly spoke Spanish. So it worked out pretty well. We walked arounf for a couple hours until lunch, then we made plans to meet up that evening. After that I went back to Estela's and ate.
The thing about Chile is that the nightlife doesn't really start until around midnight, and things don't really get started until 1am. So I spent some time relaxing at home. We planned to meet up in downtown at midnight. So at 11:30 I left the cabaña, found a colectivo (kind of like a taxi, only shared by others) and went downtown. I met up with Victor, then his girlfriend Rosio, and then one of their friends. So the four of us left downtown and went to the Mira Flores campus of UACh. UACh has two campus in Valdivia, the main campus is Teja, where I work, and the other is Mira Flores, for the engineering students. That night at Mira Flores there was a concert. This was kind of a new concept for me, since we don't frequently have concerts on American campus', and never ones that start at midnight. Nor do they usually take place in the gym, nor do they usually sell alcohol or allow smoking indoors. So there was a lot of new things for me. When we got there things hadn't really started yet. There was music, and some people, but not many. The music for the night was reggae and reggaeton, both of which were very enjoyable. We got some beers, which were terrible, and then started talking to people. I met a lot of new people and got a lot of 'happy birthday's'.
Around 1am things started to pick up. I the states that's usually when the party is winding down, but not in Chile. It got very crowded very quickly, and I'm pretty sure I was the only American there. Then another strange thing occurred. Apparently that night they were crowning Miss Campus Mira Flores. So all of a sudden there were girls on the stage, walking a makeshift runway in their bathing suits and answering questions about why they would be the best to represent the campus. A little strange to me, but oh well, when in Rome. After this was finished the music started again. There was much dancing and talking and drinking and that sort of thing. The band didn't start until around 3 or 3:30AM. They played for about a 45 minutes or an hour. I'm a little fuzzy about the timeline, as I didn't have a watch, and it was so late, and I was a little drunk. After the band played, which was great, we went outside to talk some more.
At around 5, Rosio said she was hungry, so we went back downtown to find food. Food turned out to be giant hotdogs covered with salsa and guacamole. By this time there were a lot of drunk people wandering the street. At one a hilarious point, we came across a very drunk Chilean students who could barely stand. When he heard that I was from America he let fly with some of the things he learned from watching American movies. This mostly consisted of various forms of 'what's up mother f&$%er?!'. In my intoxicated state I thought this was the most hilarious thing I had ever heared. At 5:30am we got into a colectivo and headed home. I wasn't in bed until 6am. It had been a hell of a night, and a damn fine birthday experience. I went to bed with the spins, and woke up with a terrible hang over. Gotta love birthdays.
I haven't seen Victor or Rosio since that night/morning, but they are off on a field trip for their major, so I don't expect to hear from them until next week. This week has been great also, so far. This is the first week that I have my actual schedule, so from now on I'll know where I'll be and when each day. I am going to be working in two classes, both of which meet twice a week. So every week I will go to four classes total. I have class monday morning, tuesday afternoon, and two classes on wednesday. One of the classes is fourth semester accounting class that I knew I'd be working in from the start. The other is a fourth semester tourism class. So the students have all had the same ammount of English, but they are at different levels. The students in the Tourism class are much better at English. I think this is because they can actually see the use in knowing English for their careers. The accounting students weren't very excited about English, and some of them really don't like it. But I think that is all starting to change. I think having a native English speaker in their class is going to help them see the advantages of knowing English. I'm very excited to start actually teaching in these classes.
Yesterday, three of the students came to my office after class. Two of them were from my accounting class, and the third was one of their friends from another major. They came to my office with a letter in English that they had prepared. The letter basically said that they wanted to be friends. That they wanted to practice their English with me and that they wanted to help me with my Spanish. They said that they wanted me to think of them as friends and people I could count on for what I needed. It's difficult for me to say this, because they are all my age and one of them was a guy, but it was really cute. That's the only word I can think of to describe it. So we all talked for a bit about what they wanted to do. When I told them yes, I would love to, they were actually excited and relieved. I think they expected me to say no. One of them even said that she had tried to make friends with some of the American exchange students, but that it hadn't worked. Apparently the exchange students are really clicky and like to stay in their little group of Americans. I on the other hand, was hoping to make some contacts among my Chilean students. So I was very happy and excited about this development. We have plans to meet on Saturday, so we'll see how it goes.
Today was crazy. I have been moving non stop all day. First, I slept through my alarm and didn't wake up until Estela was knocking on my door to leave. So I had to run around and get ready very quickly. Then I had the accounting class first thing in the morning. Today was their oral exam, so I took part in listening and grading them. Then, when that finished, I had another class 10 minutes later. So I had to rush across campus to that class. In that class I taught my first mini lesson. By the time that finished it was 1pm. I was getting ready to go back to Estela's for lunch when Ximena reminded me that I'd promised I would teach the last half of one of her classes because she had a meeting. So instead of going home for lunch, I stayed and prepared for that. it would have taken me half an hour to get to Estela's, and half an hour to get back, so there wasn't really any point in leaving. At 2:45 I went to Ximena's class and spent 45 minutes having a conversation about Easter Island, my life, and how I liked Valdivia. At the end of the class one of the students approached me and told me that he was worried about his English. He told me that this was his last semester of English and that he needed to improve before he stopped taking classes. He said that he understood English fine, but he had trouble speaking, and a lot of problems with grammar. Then he asked me if I'd be willing to help him. I, of course, said that I would love to. He told me that we could go get a beer sometime and talk, if I wanted to. At which point I informed him that I love beer and would never pass on an opportunity to have a beer. So he is coming to my office in about 45 minutes to talk about it.
So things are finally starting to pick up around here. I love working with these students and I love being able to help them. My schedule is about to get a lot busier, and I'm really happy about that. The last thing I want is to have too much free time and get bored. So this is all perfect with me. So that more or less covers the last week. I'll try not to wait so long between posts from now. I hope everybody who is reading this is doing well. Hasta luego.
Last week I continued observing classes and I had the opportunity to work with three new teachers. In one of the classes we ended up spending the entire time just talking about where I was from and what I was doing. So that was really cool. As much fun as that was, the really cool part was that after the class I was approached by two students, Victor and Rosio. Victor and Rosio are a couple and they are studying tourism. They came up to me after class and asked if I wanted to hang out some time outside of class. I of course said yes, that I would love to. I had mentioned in class that my birthday was the next day, so they said that they wanted to do something with me. This was great because up until that point my big plans had been to sit in my cabaña and watch TV. So doing anything would be a big improvement.
Most people who go to a new country for school usually go in groups. Or, if they are there to study a language, they have classes with other foreigners. I, on the other hand, came to Chile alone. So my friend base started at nothing. There are other American students here at UACh, but if I wanted to spend my time hanging out with Americans I would have stayed in the states. So this was a great opportunity for me. We made plans to meet up the next afternoon, so hang out and walk around the city.
The next day, my birthday, I met up with Victor in my office. Then we walked downtown and he gave me a tour of the city. He was very good at this, as would be expected from his major. He mostly spoke English while I mostly spoke Spanish. So it worked out pretty well. We walked arounf for a couple hours until lunch, then we made plans to meet up that evening. After that I went back to Estela's and ate.
The thing about Chile is that the nightlife doesn't really start until around midnight, and things don't really get started until 1am. So I spent some time relaxing at home. We planned to meet up in downtown at midnight. So at 11:30 I left the cabaña, found a colectivo (kind of like a taxi, only shared by others) and went downtown. I met up with Victor, then his girlfriend Rosio, and then one of their friends. So the four of us left downtown and went to the Mira Flores campus of UACh. UACh has two campus in Valdivia, the main campus is Teja, where I work, and the other is Mira Flores, for the engineering students. That night at Mira Flores there was a concert. This was kind of a new concept for me, since we don't frequently have concerts on American campus', and never ones that start at midnight. Nor do they usually take place in the gym, nor do they usually sell alcohol or allow smoking indoors. So there was a lot of new things for me. When we got there things hadn't really started yet. There was music, and some people, but not many. The music for the night was reggae and reggaeton, both of which were very enjoyable. We got some beers, which were terrible, and then started talking to people. I met a lot of new people and got a lot of 'happy birthday's'.
Around 1am things started to pick up. I the states that's usually when the party is winding down, but not in Chile. It got very crowded very quickly, and I'm pretty sure I was the only American there. Then another strange thing occurred. Apparently that night they were crowning Miss Campus Mira Flores. So all of a sudden there were girls on the stage, walking a makeshift runway in their bathing suits and answering questions about why they would be the best to represent the campus. A little strange to me, but oh well, when in Rome. After this was finished the music started again. There was much dancing and talking and drinking and that sort of thing. The band didn't start until around 3 or 3:30AM. They played for about a 45 minutes or an hour. I'm a little fuzzy about the timeline, as I didn't have a watch, and it was so late, and I was a little drunk. After the band played, which was great, we went outside to talk some more.
At around 5, Rosio said she was hungry, so we went back downtown to find food. Food turned out to be giant hotdogs covered with salsa and guacamole. By this time there were a lot of drunk people wandering the street. At one a hilarious point, we came across a very drunk Chilean students who could barely stand. When he heard that I was from America he let fly with some of the things he learned from watching American movies. This mostly consisted of various forms of 'what's up mother f&$%er?!'. In my intoxicated state I thought this was the most hilarious thing I had ever heared. At 5:30am we got into a colectivo and headed home. I wasn't in bed until 6am. It had been a hell of a night, and a damn fine birthday experience. I went to bed with the spins, and woke up with a terrible hang over. Gotta love birthdays.
I haven't seen Victor or Rosio since that night/morning, but they are off on a field trip for their major, so I don't expect to hear from them until next week. This week has been great also, so far. This is the first week that I have my actual schedule, so from now on I'll know where I'll be and when each day. I am going to be working in two classes, both of which meet twice a week. So every week I will go to four classes total. I have class monday morning, tuesday afternoon, and two classes on wednesday. One of the classes is fourth semester accounting class that I knew I'd be working in from the start. The other is a fourth semester tourism class. So the students have all had the same ammount of English, but they are at different levels. The students in the Tourism class are much better at English. I think this is because they can actually see the use in knowing English for their careers. The accounting students weren't very excited about English, and some of them really don't like it. But I think that is all starting to change. I think having a native English speaker in their class is going to help them see the advantages of knowing English. I'm very excited to start actually teaching in these classes.
Yesterday, three of the students came to my office after class. Two of them were from my accounting class, and the third was one of their friends from another major. They came to my office with a letter in English that they had prepared. The letter basically said that they wanted to be friends. That they wanted to practice their English with me and that they wanted to help me with my Spanish. They said that they wanted me to think of them as friends and people I could count on for what I needed. It's difficult for me to say this, because they are all my age and one of them was a guy, but it was really cute. That's the only word I can think of to describe it. So we all talked for a bit about what they wanted to do. When I told them yes, I would love to, they were actually excited and relieved. I think they expected me to say no. One of them even said that she had tried to make friends with some of the American exchange students, but that it hadn't worked. Apparently the exchange students are really clicky and like to stay in their little group of Americans. I on the other hand, was hoping to make some contacts among my Chilean students. So I was very happy and excited about this development. We have plans to meet on Saturday, so we'll see how it goes.
Today was crazy. I have been moving non stop all day. First, I slept through my alarm and didn't wake up until Estela was knocking on my door to leave. So I had to run around and get ready very quickly. Then I had the accounting class first thing in the morning. Today was their oral exam, so I took part in listening and grading them. Then, when that finished, I had another class 10 minutes later. So I had to rush across campus to that class. In that class I taught my first mini lesson. By the time that finished it was 1pm. I was getting ready to go back to Estela's for lunch when Ximena reminded me that I'd promised I would teach the last half of one of her classes because she had a meeting. So instead of going home for lunch, I stayed and prepared for that. it would have taken me half an hour to get to Estela's, and half an hour to get back, so there wasn't really any point in leaving. At 2:45 I went to Ximena's class and spent 45 minutes having a conversation about Easter Island, my life, and how I liked Valdivia. At the end of the class one of the students approached me and told me that he was worried about his English. He told me that this was his last semester of English and that he needed to improve before he stopped taking classes. He said that he understood English fine, but he had trouble speaking, and a lot of problems with grammar. Then he asked me if I'd be willing to help him. I, of course, said that I would love to. He told me that we could go get a beer sometime and talk, if I wanted to. At which point I informed him that I love beer and would never pass on an opportunity to have a beer. So he is coming to my office in about 45 minutes to talk about it.
So things are finally starting to pick up around here. I love working with these students and I love being able to help them. My schedule is about to get a lot busier, and I'm really happy about that. The last thing I want is to have too much free time and get bored. So this is all perfect with me. So that more or less covers the last week. I'll try not to wait so long between posts from now. I hope everybody who is reading this is doing well. Hasta luego.
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