Birthday and Abroad!!....

I'm glad to report that I had an absolutely awesome 22nd birthday in Santiago!! The night before, some of the voluteers that I made friends with came out with me to a bar around the street to celebrate.  They ordered me a Terremoto, which in Spanish means "Earthquake", so that should tell you right off the bat what we're dealing with here.....  It's a traditional drink of Chile and contains Pisco (THE liquor of Chile) rum, vodka, red wine, grenadine, topped with a scoop of pineapple ice cream and whipped cream.  Think of the Chilean version of a Long Island ice tea, but WAYY better and WAYY stronger.
................................Let's just say I was feeling the effects of its aftershock all morning the following day.  (sorry Mom, just think of it as a cultural experience)

The actual day of my birthday was a blast as well!! It turns out that I had to leave for my town that night at 10:30 (which is why we celebrated the night before) so I woke up super early to pack, get all of my stuff together and check out before the last day of training at the ministry.  The last training day was in my perspective, the best. We heard a bunch of stories from old volunteers about their experiences and I finally started to realize the perks of living in such a small town.  By the time I walked out of the ministry that day, I was FINALLY excited about my location and all charged up and ready to go!

It was an absolutely beautiful day so for lunch my friend Lucy and I got sandwich materials and sat out on the lawn in front of the Palacio de la Moneda (the Chilean version of the white house) and had a nice picnic in the sun. 

Oh, and by the way, avocados or "paltas" are SUPER popular here in Chile and are pretty much everywhere you look.  They are sold from every stand on the side of the street and are all perfectly ripe and ready to eat.  So needless to say, avocados are a key ingredient in the Chilean diet.  --Preston, you would love it!

At night, we had a cocktail send off with my program at the hostel before heading out on the bus which was also a blast.  Some of my friends bought some pastries at a local bakery and put some candles in them and all 80 volunteers sang me happy birthday!! Between that and the never ending Pisco Sours (also another very important Chilean drink) it was a great way to say goodbye and good luck to all of the friends I had made and to celebrate my birthday.

Luckily, the majority of the friends I made there are in the south as well, so I'll have plenty of people to travel with!!

So by 12am my bus was pulling out of the station and I was on my way to my new home in Perquenco, Araucanía.  It was an overnight bus so as soon as we got on we were given a blanket and a pillow and the bus driver turned off the light.  7 hours of sleeping later I was being dumped off at the side of the road in the pitch dark (remember its still winter so the days are short) to my host dad waiting for me in the rain. 

We drove past a few wide open fields and A LOT of open space and ended up at this cute yellow house in this little country town where my host mom was waiting at the door to give me a big hug upon my arrival.  They took me in and showed me to my room (which is awesome by the way... I have a nice full size--and very comfy--bed loaded up with a million sheets and plenty of space for me and my stuff) and fed me instantaneously.

From what I have gathered, my host family has had other host kids before (3 I think) all from the English Opens Doors Program as well.  They love learning about other cultures and hosting kids from new places so that's awesome!! They encourage their own kids to get out and see the world and so they have foods and pictures all over their kitchen from their kid's adventures.  Speaking of, they have 3 kids, a 25 year old who is living in the north of Chile, a 22 year old who goes to school in Santiago, and a 14 year old who is still in the house and attending highschool.

They are veryyyyyy open to having me in their home and they have told me repeatedly that I should make myself at home.  The only rule that they have for me is that if I'm going somewhere, they know where I am at all times, so that I'm safe.  They stressed that I don't have a curfew, they just want me to be safe and know if I won't be home till late. --So rest easy Mom.

The town of Perquenco is VERYYYYY small.  It's the epitome of a little country town.  I'll remind you once again, population 6,450 people.  But it's absolutely BEAUTIFUL.  The air is crisp and clean (as opposed to the disgusting smog of the capital) there are animals everywhere, and everything moves very quiet and slow.  I am currently writing this blog with a background sound of roosters cocka-doodle-doing :)

I went for a run yesterday to explore and after running down the dirt road in front of my house and passing the chickens walking around in the middle of the street, I turned once and ran down a long country road that appeared to go on forever.  I passed countless farms, cows, horses, stray dogs, sheep and pigs!!!  Oh yeah, and a total of 5 cars hahaha.  But needless to say, the landscapes were absolutely beautiful.

My host family eats a breakfast of bread and coffee, a HUGE lunch and then something called "Once" around 7 or 8.  Once is sort of like a snack-time between lunch and dinner.  However our family has such a large lunch, all you need is a small snack at night to be satisfied.  Works for me!!

At night, I sat around with the family talking and watching television-- Chileans are very family-centered so they spend a lot of the time in the kitchen with each other-- and later, I played UNO and drank Pisco and Sprite with my 22 year-old host brother named Sebastian and his friends who were all home on their winter break from school.

Not a bad first day if you ask me!!!

Halfway though Orientation

Well, I'm halfway there!

So far we've just been going to training every day at the Ministry of Education and exploring the city when we get out early and/or on runs.  I actually think I am liking Santiago as an actual city a lot better than the last time.  And I'm taking a LOT of notes for all of the things I'm gonna make Preston do with me when he comes ;)

I got my final assignment today regarding where I will be located and teaching for the duration of the 5 months here.  It's a little city called Perquenco in Araucanía. Population: 6,450 residents... yeahhh. Well, I guess I'll be really involved in the local community and by the time I leave my spanish will be AWESOME.. butt it's still going to be hard being in such a small community.  Keep your fingers crossed!! It's a completely different environment than I originally expected... so I'm trying to readjust.   It's in the south, it supposedly rains all of the time and is very very cold.  (Remember, in South America, the farther south, the colder it will be--we are currently in winter right now).
To see some pictures of the town I'll be living in... click on the pictures on this link (its the webpage of the town): http://www.perquenco.cl/web/perquenco/index.php/turismo

Well, Not much more to report as of now... I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I'll be in a city of only 6,450 people... I hope there's a reliable internet source to skype.

Till my next post, enjoy some pictures I took today while climbing Cerro San Cristóbal! It's a smaller mountain in Santiago and the view from the top is absolutely beautiful!...

Day 1 & 2 of Santiago de Chile!

Here begins one of many adventuras chilenos.....
After a relatively painless flight, and many minor panic attacks triggered by that little voice in my head screaming "What the hell are you doing?!" I arrived at my hostel in Santiago de Chile at 8:30 this morning. 
It turns out that there are 70 volunteers in my session who all happen to be staying at the hostel at the same time, so we have virtually taken this place over.
To give you all a visual, Santiago is smack dab in the center of the long country that is Chile.  The temperature is warm during the day (60-70 degrees) and gets pretty cold at night (low 50s/high 40s).  But with the lack of central heat in the hostel (and for all of the buildings for that matter) it's feeling MUCH colder as I'm sitting here writing this.

Anyways, I show up at the hostel at 8:30am with just enough time to put my suitcases in my room and grab a coffee before I left and was on the move for my first big adventure in Chile.  I met 5 other volunteers during my morning coffee who invited me to come with them to Valpariso for the day, so before I even had time to process the fact that I was in Santiago, I was on a 1 1/2 hour bus ride out of the city and headed toward the coast.

But boy was it worth it!! Valpariso is an absolutely drop dead gorgeous city, filled with beautiful historical buildings that are all painted with an assortment of every color you can think of.  No wall in the city is left without either a bright color or a creative wall mural and/or graffiti works of art.  The entire city is build on mountains so you're constantly either walking up or down alongside buildings and houses that are literally build into the rolling hills.  Oh, and did I mention it was right on the coast and has an absolutely beautiful harbor?! Mom- you would have LOVEDDDDD it!

We were only there a couple of hours, but I could have spent months there!! (aka Preston, be prepared, cause we're going back!!)

Needless to say, I passed out as soon as I got back to the hostel and woke up at 7:30 am for orientation.

The Ministry of Education building (where orientation was held) is a nice 30 min walk from the hostel... but please just imagine 70 foreigners walking down the street amongst all of the busy chilenos on their way to work.  HILARIOUS.

Oh, and pretty much all of the people in charge of the volunteer program are young past volunteers that loved it so much they stayed year after year until being offered an official job with the Ministry or MINEDUC.  So its kind of cool... they all know exactly what we're going through, which is incredibly relieving. 


Its amazing the type of people I'm meeting here that are ALSO volunteering with the program.  Everyone is so unique, of all different ages (22+) and are from all different countries.  We have everywhere in the EU represented, the US (obviously), Colombia, India, Indonesia, South Africa and New Zealand!!!  All of whom speak English fluently.  Its so cool to hear everyone's stories and the different circumstances as to what brought them here.  I've met so many individuals in their mid-late 20s who up and left their real-person job to come down here and try something new. SO inspiring. There are a BUNCH of people here just out of college like me who graduated but are not ready to go to grad school or get a job yet.  Like me, they want to travel, volunteer and have a new and exciting cultural experience.  So ultimately I'm surrounded by people who completely understand me and don't look at my like I have 5 heads when I tell them my situation.  How refreshing.

On one final note, I went on a great run today after orientation got out and I got the opportunity to finally begin exploring Santiago.  However, I still have SOOOO much more to see so stay tuned!

Some final pictures of Valpariso to leave you all with...

I'll try to write back in a day or two with more news from Santiago de Chile!