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.