Lost in Translation...Some mistakes can turn out GREAT!

Last Thursday my 6th grade student, Leo, came up to me and explained that he told his family about his new English teacher from the United States and that they now wanted to meet me and take me on a tour of the campo.  Flattered that one of my students actually liked me enough to go home and tell his family about me, I said yes and asked when they would like to give me the tour.  His face immediately lit up when I said yes and he told me we would go tomorrow.
Tomorrow (Friday) rolls around and I get to school around 12 to meet with all of the teachers to watch a movie about the need for education reform in Latin America (La educación prohibida--- if you speak spanish, you should DEFINITELY watch it).  It was then that my teacher informed me that she had spoken to Leo's mom earlier that day and they were all very excited for me to come spend the weekend at their house in the campo, they had a bed prepared for me and everything!! HUH?! When did I sign up for THIS?

Guess I miss understood him a tad bit...story of my life.

If nothing else, living in Latin America teaches you to just go with the flow.  In fact, the number one qualification for this English Opens Doors program is FLEXIBILITY.  We didn't go one day throughout orientation week without them drilling it into our heads at least 3 times.
SO in light of this "Just go with it" mentality, I said, why not? Let's do it.

So I called up my friends, cancelled my weekend plans and quickly ran back to my house and packed my bag for the weekend.  I didn't give myself much time to think about exactly what I was doing, which is probably for the better.  This was honestly the most spontaneous, scary, leap of faith decision I had made thus far in Chile and looking back on it now, I'm glad I didn't give myself the time to over think it and back out.

So off I went into the campo and off to the home of Leo Peñailillo.  I was greeted by him waiting at the front gate to his country home waving with a big smile spread across his face. His mother, Natia, was in the doorway and gave me a huge hug upon meeting me.  Natia showed me inside and to the bedroom of one of her older children that had moved out.  It's mine for the weekend she told me. I have my own bedroom?!

I spent some time settling in and talking to Natia and Leo as Natia prepared Once.  Once Daniel, her husband and Leo's father (also whom greeted me with a big smile and hug), got home from work we sat down at the table to have a HUGE Once/dinner.  There was homemade bread with her homemade raspberry marmelade, honey, cheese, these sweet bananas she sauteed in a pan with butter and sugar (INCREDIBLE), pancakes, longanisa (chilean chorizo-sausage), and pork.
They were so nice and welcoming to me, the true epitome of "Southern Hospitality".  They told me all about their 4 older children all of which had moved out of the house, showed me a million family photos, asked me a bunch of questions about myself and my family and did everything in their power to make sure I felt comfortable and at home.  We talked for the majority of the night drinking jota (red wine and coke) and beer (no Mom, I did NOT get drunk).
This was all followed by some maté in the evening while Leo tried to teach me how to play Poker.....Then chess.  As if these games weren't hard ENOUGH to learn in English... try learning it in Spanish.... by an 11 year old.  But Kutos to me!! Eventually I got the hang of it!! After Leo crushed me in chess three times in a row, of course.  I never won, but at least I was able to save face by the last game.
Laying down in my cozy bed that night, in my own room with TWO uateros (hot water bottles and/or pouches that you fill with hot water and snuggle with to keep warm at night--amazing by the way) I felt SOOO much at home.  It was a great feeling.

That next morning I was woken up at 7:53 am by one of their roosters cocka-doodle-doing outside right below my window.  Natia served me an amazing breakfast of eggs, longanisa and bread with all of the fixings of the night before.  Then we all piled into Daniel's truck (he's a truck driver and delivers wood to all different parts of the country) and wen't to the next town over so that they could buy a bunch of seafood and shellfish to prepare a special Chilean lunch for me.... yeppp you guessed it, more Mariscal--WINNING!!
On the drive back I sat up front and talked to Daniel about his past.  He was in the Chilean army during the Pinochet dictatorship and actually told me I could ask him WHATEVER I wanted--- needless to say, I was like a kid in a candy store.  (For those of your that don't know, a. I'm a MAJOR history dork b. It's veryyyy difficult to get Chileans to talk about the dictatorship and c. I've never met someone who was actually IN the army at the time!!)
As Natia prepared lunch, Leo gave me the grand tour and lowdown of his house:

• They have 7 dogs, 5 of which are newly born PUPPIES!!! (pictures above)
• 4 Cats
• 3 Goose (geese but I don't like to say that cause I think it sounds funny)
• Roosters
• Really friggin happy chickens (which they get all of their eggs from!!!)
• 3 BEE COLONIES where Natia harvests all of her own honey!! ---By the way, I tried this honey and it is absolutely INCREDIBLE.  I've never been able to eat honey by the spoonful... until now.  And she went on to tell me how each year it tastes slightly different based on the type of plants that grow in the area and where the bees collect the nectar.  Apparently last years honey had a slightly minty taste from the Eucalyptus trees in the backyard
• They use 4 different types of eggs in their house: goose eggs (from their own geese), their chicken's eggs (brown), a different type of chicken egg which I never quite got (white), and then Mapuche chicken eggs from the neighbor's house (BLUE!)

Lunch consisted of amazing mariscal filled with muscles, clams, Cochayuyo (a seeweed that grows only in Chile and Southern New Zealand), Piure (some sort of red shellfish thing), erizo (sea urchin!!) and potato.  SOOO yummy!

Joining us for lunch was Natia's brother who came to visit for the weekend as well and their neighbor, an older woman who lives alone... and oh yeah, she's Mapuche!

I barely had time to digest my lunch when Natia started cooking sopaipillas.  And if there is anything the last 3 weeks in Chile have taught me, is that I can NEVER say no to sopaipillas!!  So we all snacked on fried dough dipped in her home harvested honey--heaven-- while Natia and Daniel cooked up a nice big asado and boiled some potatoes.  

To the right, you see the dinner being cooked, there was longanisa, beef, vacuno (baby cow), pork, chicken onions and white wine all roasting on this HUGE, well, I don't know exactly what it was, but Daniel was explaining to me that he welded it himself.  I don't really care what you call it, all thats important is that the meat came out SOOOOOOOO good!!

What a wonderful family they were.  They don't have much, but they certainly don't mind sharing what they DO have, so spending it in order to enjoy life.  A beautiful philosophy in my opinion.

Throughout the course of the weekend, they invited me to spend christmas with them, invited me to their beach house, tried to convince me to dump Preston and marry one of their sons instead, and oh yeah, they told me I was welcome back to their house whenever and as often as I could.  "So, you're going to stay with us every weekend, right?" Daniel repeatedly asked me.  It felt SOOO good to hear that they were enjoying my company as much as I was enjoying theirs.

The next morning was followed by another huge breakfast, but this time, Natia made crepes!! Ahhhh I ate sooooo good that weekend.  The only time I eat so much is at holidays..... but god it was soooo goood! hahaha

Who could have imagined that a weekend at my student's house would turn out so good!  I'm sad to say, that had i fully understood what Leo was inviting me to on Thursday, I probably would have let my "fria gringa" side get the best of me and thought of some dumb excuse not to come.  ---FYI Chileans have an impression that gringos are "fria" or "cold" which very odd behavior to the average chileno (but they're not far off)--- Instead, I'm ever so thankful for the confusion, it was honestly one of the best miscommunications I've ever had!! (And trust me, there's been many!)  It really is true, the best experiences in life are the unexpected, those you don't have time to plan.  They just sort of "happen".  What an incredible family and what a beautiful experience.  I can't wait to go back and see my (second) familia chileana!!!  

Oh, and did I mention they sent me home with 2 jars of honey and a REAL rabbits foot?! (They actually caught the rabbit themselves in their yard hehe)

Winging it in Bío Bío!

Let me tell you a story of what happens when a lonely gringa ventures out into the unknown, with no plan, no bus tickets, and no place to stay.  Just an adventurous spirit and a burning desire for some good 'ol english conversation with people her own age.

Final Destination: Bío Bío (The region just north of Araucanía)

We'll start our quest Friday morning (as this gringa was tactical enough to schedule all of her classes Monday-Thursday leaving Friday-Sunday for aventures). The brisk morning air quickly woke her up as she headed out of the house, backpack and all, on a short walk to the Perquenco bus station, with each step forward, hoping and praying that a. the bus she intended to take did, indeed, exist and b. that said bus would actually come.  As it turns out, it doesn't matter if there is a bus or not, if you're not waiting in the right place for it.  Apparently the idea that a bus would actually pull into the bus station is farrr too radical. But no worries! Crisis averted at the last possible minute when a local yelled over to the poor lost gringa sitting alone by herself at the station that the bus was arriving around the corner.

........3 buses and 5 bus stations later (no, the math is NOT supposed to work out)............

Stop 1:  El Salto del Laja
In Chilean Spanish (yes, they speak a very "particular" type of spanish here-- but that's for another day) Salto means waterfall.

Luckily the people working at the salto were much for receptive to the wandering gringa than those in the various bus stations.  She made friends with a parking attendant, an older, cheerful man who had worked there pretty much his entire life, spending more time chatting it up with travelers than he spent doing his actual job.  He was the type of man you'd want to be your grandfather, HUGE smile, and willing to talk about just about anything.  A great way to pass the time while waiting for a fellow volunteer to meet her at the Salto.  

Once he arrived, the exploration began.  There were trails all around the salto so you could see it at every single angle, from far away, or up close and personal.    It was there that this now team of gringos decided it would be a good plan to get as close to the bottom of the salto as possible and take shelter behind a giant boulder.  One of the gringos came fully prepared, dressed in waterproof clothing from head to toe.  One of them was not as fortunate, walking around for the rest of he day soaked and chilled to the bone.  You can imagine which one THAT was.  But the wet and cold is a small price to pay for the picture (to the right) that resulted from this rash decision.

By a stoke of luck, just as the gringos were headed out with no a clue what to do with themselves or how to do it, the friendly parking attended decided to introduce them to his friend in the tourist information booth...  Boy did they luck out meeting him! It was a match made in heaven.  They, having not a clue in the world where they were headed and him with a look on his face as if he were a 10-year-old on Easter morning.  It was as if the man had worked in that booth his entire lives, and these two gringos were the first that dared to walk in.  A stack of brochures 2 inches thick on every single region in Chile (there are 15 by the way) and three sets of hugs and kisses later, the gringos were off, and finally with a plan.    

Stop 2: Yumbel
Upon the far too anxious tour guide's recommendation they took a local bus to a small cozy town called Yumbel.
Population: 20,000 people.
Main attraction: The Church of San Sebastian.
The church is apparently a main hub of religious tourism, which the gringos are not.  So after a quick walk through the church they passed the rest of their time wandering the beautiful, peaceful streets and taking photographs along their way.  And of course a pit stop to unload their backpacks and snack on some cake and coffee while looking over the mountain of tourist pamphlets they had just recently accumulated.  Not a bad way to pass a Friday afternoon.

Stop 3: Concepción

The two gringos eventually left the calm little town, and arrived in the big bustling city of Concepción, the capital of Bío Bío.  They were soon met by two more friends, both of whom were also desperate for gringo contact.

--There's strength in numbers.

After trekking up and down the city in a very failed attempt to find a halfway decent hostel to stay in, they decided to suck it up and split a hotel room.. SOOO WORTH IT. 

After dropping their stuff off they set out for a night on the town.  For these gringos, it had been their first time eating out at a restaurant, their first time conversing with people their own age, and their first night out past 9 since they've arrived at their placements.  Dinner, above, consisted of a typical Chilean plate called "Bife a lo Pobre" (translation: beef to the poor) aka french fries topped with beef, fried egg, and onion dipped in a delicious aji sauce, and of course accompanied by the Chilean drink of choice, Pisco and coke. Needless to say, the 4 of them made up a rather slaphappy crowd, making a scene and living up to each and every obnoxious gringo stereotype there is.  Oh well, they would do it all again if they had the chance. 

Stop 4: Talcahuano
They set out early the next morning for the tour guide's 2nd recommendation; a peninsula to the west of the city called Talcahuano.
Talcahuano is named after an Araucanían chief of the indigenous Mapuche and translates to "Cielo Tronador" or "Thundering Sky".  It marks the mouth of the BioBío River.
It's a HUGE fishing port, so you can find seafood just about anywhere.  To the right is one of the local fish markets along the water that the gringos were bold enough to venture into.  Needless to say, the locals were not accustomed to seeing gringo tourists. (Chilean tourists, yes, but gringos not in the slightest).  However they were delightfully receptive, posing for their pictures and offering them free samples of today's catch.

The group stopped in one of the markets to refuel, anxious to get their hands on some fresh mariscos (shellfish), as many of them live in the campo where the protein of choice is always meat.
To the right, is a typical chilean dish as well called "Mariscal".  It can be served hot or cold, however this gringa was wayyy too scared to try the cold uncooked version.  It includes an assortment of all types of shellfish, octopus, eel and other unidentified sea food topped with cilantro.  The dish comes out sizzling in a hot cazuela where at the very last minute, an egg is cracked across the top and cooks as the dish is being served to the table.


After a more than filling lunch, the gringos continued on where they ran into some men offering to take them around the peninsula on a boat tour.  After some tactical bargaining by yours truly, we boarded the boat and began our tour.  Besides the beautiful view of the harbor and shore, we passed a Chilean Naval base with a ship docked in the harbor left over from the War of the Pacific, along with many shipwrecks that have accumulated from the various earthquakes and tsunamis that strike the region.

Oh yeah, have I mentioned that the entire port is swarming with lobos (sea lions)??  One lonely lion, looking for love in all the wrong places, managed to shimmy himself all the way up to the fish market!! It was a rather startling site as the gringos leaving the market were blocked by an unexpected buddy just hanging out right in the doorway.

Aside from the coast, the entire town is built along rolling hills **Tsunami rule of thumb: head for the hills** (but really, it's written on signs along the entire city)

To conclude their wonderful day, the english speaking pack decided to make their way up the highest hill to get a view from the top.  They were pleasantly greeted by a fully equipped playground at the peak of the cerro, which of course being gringos, they had no choice but to help themselves to.

Another fun night on the town in Concepción followed this lovely day, but this time, the gringos found themselves some Chileans to befriend who took them under their wing and took them out to a huge club smack dab in the middle of suburbia.  

Stop 5: Lota

Needless to say, the next morning started out slow, but it started none the less.  The gringos had to gather their stuff, check out of the hotel, and lug all of their belongings with them to their 5th and final destination, Lota, an old mining town with so many hidden wonders.

Lota is another costal town, located an hour an a half south of Concepcion by bus.  Another town with rolling hills and lined with different colored houses.  It sounds like all of the rest, but Lota is absolutely breathtaking.  Another place where gringos clearly don't belong, but the people of Lota were happy to have us none the less.
First stop, lunch at another market, but this was an even bigger hit!! To start out, Sopapillas with aji (fried dough, my guilty chilean pleasure) with "ponche de mariscos" (a fisherman's drink containing alcohol, shellfish juice and an egg-I still shutter thinking about it, but it's a cultural experience I suppose).  Followed by another serving of Mariscal, and topped off with the most amazing empanada this gringa has ever had in her entire life.  Empanada de jaiva y queso, translation: crabmeat and cheese fried empanada. Amazing.

After lunch the pack set out to explore the city, backpacks and all.  One lesson that was learned rather quickly about Lota: Sunday Funday.  Every local they ran into that day was borracho (drunk), anxious to talk to them and play the 20 questions game, and then personally escort them to where ever they were looking to go. In the particular situation you see to your right, while the gringos were taking cover from the pouring rain they managed to get stuck in, they were invaded by a pack of crazy dogs in heat.  3 males, 1 female quickly turned into more of a gang rape.  Just moments after this photo was taken, they were accompanied by yet another guest; a drunk old man with missing teeth that waltzed up to them pointing and laughing saying "¡Estan mojandose!" Translation: You're all getting yourselves soaked! As if they hadn't already noticed.

On that note, they decided rain, or no rain, it was time for a change of scenery.  Out they went, in search of the beach and a view of the ocean.

This is just a small peak at just how out of place our gringos looked at the moment...

The gringos finally arrived at their destination, atop a gigantic rock formation jetting out into the ocean.  It was here that they posted up to admire the view and reflect on their trip for the remainder of their time in Lota. (That's your'se truly down below!)

And truly what an incredible view it was!

Because all gringos love cliques, it is appropriate to end here stating that they clearly saved the best for last....

Good 'ol Southern Hospitality- Getting to know Perquenco

Hello again everyone!!

So unfortunately my first week of classes (observation week) was pushed back an entire week, so I don't actually start in the classroom until Monday.  In the meantime, the director of the Perquenco Education System, Hans, took it upon himself to show me around and give me the grand tour of the commune.

Some background info:
Perquenco is a commune in Araucanía (for those of you who STILL haven't taken the time to look it up on the map, I've done all of the work for you: to the right is Araucanía in relation to the rest of the country and below is Perquenco in relation to Araucanía).
The whole commune spans across 330.7 km² and has 6,500 people.  3,500 of those people live in el campo (the countryside) and the rest, 3,000--one of those being me--live in the main town.
In the center of town, there are two pre-schools, one escuela primera (grades k-6) and one escuela secundaria (grades 7-12).  Then there's the campo, which consists mainly of Mapuche inhabitants.  There are three main surrounding Mapuche communities which make up the majority of the campo.  Each of these communities have their own pre-k school and escuela primera.

Mapuche:
The history of the Mapuche is pretty cool.  They are a group of indigenous people whose culture and population have endured and successfully resisted many attempts by the Incan Empire to subjugate them AND the Spanish Conquest.  So ultimately they have survived for centuries and still exist today in the south of Chile (almost all of them residing in Araucanía).  They now make up 4% of the Chilean population and there are 3 communities in Perquenco!!

For years and still to this day, there exists a lot of discrimination against the indigenous people in Chile, and specifically in this region, against the Mapuche.  --Take a minute to think of the racial slurs we have in the US.... in Chile, the racial slur is "Indio", translating to Indian in English--
The Mapuche are in a constant struggle to gain back the land that was taken from them by the Spanish and their people are torn between the Chilean and Mapuche culture.  I've asked a couple of the residents in Perquenco about this and all of them have told me the same thing, that the Mapuche are always asking for more land, because they have very little, but what they do have, they're too lazy to do anything with it.  Because of the generations of bad blood between them and the Chileans, many of them are ashamed of their heritage and refuse to speak their language or practice their traditions. 

Back to my day....

Hans decided that as apart of my Perquenco tour, he would bring me out to the Mapuche communities and visit the schools!! So off we went into the campo to drive through the Mapuche communities and visit all of the schools in action so that I could get a well rounded view of all of the people of Perquenco and the realities of my students. 
Everyone has told me that Perquenco is an impovershed town, but I have to say, it is nothing like the campo.  That's where the real poverty is.  There's lots of farms, pigs, horses, cows and chickens everywhere!! All of the roads are dirt and it takes quite some driving off the beaten path to get to some of these communities.  But like I said before, the view and the landscapes along the way are breathtaking!

So we visited the school and spoke with the teachers and I learned that in each of the schools there is a very steady balance between Chilean and Mapuche culture that the teachers and administrators strive to enforce.  The children learn songs in their native Mapuche tong and practice traditions such as traditional dance, dress and celebrate holidays so that they can grow up and be proud of their culture rather than be ashamed of it.  To the right for example you see two members of the community building a "ruca".  This is the traditional Mapuche housing structure that the community is trying to re-create for the children on the school grounds. 

All the while the children continue to learn Spanish and learn of Chilean culture and history as well.  I think this is absolutely wonderful!! It was so inspiring to see the children getting the same lesson that other Chileans receive but in a classroom draped with Mapuche flags, art, instruments and costumes along the walls.

It was hilarious to see their wide eyes and listen to their "ohh's" and "awww's" when Hans told them that I was a "special visitor all the way from the United States", Hahahaha!!  They were so cute!!!!

And each class sang me one of their Mapuche songs in order to thank me for coming out to visit them.  It was SOOOOO great!!!!!!
It got be all the more excited to be here and anxious to learn more about the Mapuche people and their culture!

HACE FRIO...

For those of you that don't know spanish, "Hace Frio" means It's cold...

SO, life is definitely different alright...  If you've spoke to me via facebook or skype already I'm sure I've already told you all about it.. but for those of you who are complaining of the heat up there in summer.....

Climate:
Araucanía is in the south of Chile (reminder, south=cold aka closer to Antarctica)
Currently, of the 5 days I've been here it's rained 4 of them.  And judging by the rain pounding down on the roof right now as if the end of the world is near... it doesn't sound like it'll let up any time soon.  One of the days the wind was so strong that you couldn't even have a conversation--indoors--because it was so loud.  (I'm exaggerating of course, but you get the picture) It started to get borderline violent outside, but when I expressed my concern, my host mom replied--THIS?! Ohhh nooooooo! THIS is nothing.. just wait until next month when the wind REALLY starts---great. Can't wait.

Temperature:
As far as temperature, it's not actually as cold as I initially thought it would be, or every day before I step out of the house for the first time.. it usually varies from 40-50 degrees each day (20-30 at night).  However, its the lack of central heating that really gets ya!!  Every morning I wake up and somehow manage to drag myself out of bed and get dressed. By the time I brush my teeth, use the bathroom and make my way to the kitchen I have already lost feeling in my fingers and toes.  Then finally when I go to leave the house I take a big deep breath, open the door and take a step outside, just to be relieved when I realize its the EXACT SAME TEMPERATURE OUTSIDE.  I never knew something to be so relieving and heartbreaking at the same time. Then again... mornings are the worst... it warms up SOOO much more durring the day, thank god!!

Heating:
Heating is only used at lunch and in the evening when everyone is in the house.  My family has two wooden stoves to warm the house.  (This meaning that first, my host dad must go outside to chop firewood, make a fire in the stove, and then let it burn long enough to begin to finally radiate heat--makes your really appreciate what's keeping you warm) The first, above, is in the doorway of the house and close to three of the bedrooms.  We use this to heat the bedrooms and dry our clothing after it comes out of the washing machine--no dryers, eco-friendly :). The second one, to the right, is the main one located in the kitchen.  This is the one that works the best and radiates the most heat so naturally everyone hangs out in the kitchen at night to get a part of the action.  The big white thing above is what heats the water in the house.  So that in addition to a water heater in the bathroom, must both be lit before taking a shower.
As far as sleeping goes, my room is on the far corner of the house and two of its walls are huge bay windows... so naturally its the coldest room.  BUT I have a system... (created by my host mom of course) One of the windows have a huge wooden board against it meant to keep out the cold air.  In the daytime, I open the long drapes and shades to let the sunlight enter and warm the room.  Then when the sun starts to go down I draw the shades and close the drapes.  *Very important: keep the door closed at all times* Then at night, I shower RIGHT before going to bed so I can regain a bit of my body heat... then I get under about 10 pounds of blankets (literally, I'm so weighed down under these covers, I can't even move, just the way I like it).  The last and possibly most crucial detail of all.... That sexy guy you see me posing with to the left, his name is Wilson.  He has become my best friend here in Perquenco and I curl up nice and close to him every night.  We snuggle, big time-- sorry Preston.
The first word I learned when I got here was "ladrillo".  That's Spanish for "brick".  Apparently the popular way to keep warm at night under your covers is to take a brick that has been heating in the stove all day, wrap it up in linen and curl up around it in bed... so this brings us to Wilson, MY ladrillo. He's the best friend a girl could ever have. 
So that's that. Trust me, there are plenty of other new and interesting tid bits about Chilean life, but I'll save that for another day.  For now, all you get is me crying over the cold.  I'm a baby, I know.  Till next time folks!

Oh yeah, and this is Wilson heating up in the oven... isn't he cute?!

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!