¡¡¡COLO COLO!!!

¡CHI-CHI-CHI LE-LE-LE! ¡COLO COLO ES CHILE!

That's one of the chants I heard about a thousand times this weekend when I went to my first Chilean soccer game. For the most part Chileans are timid people who can't show up on time for anything to save their lives...except when soccer is involved! Not only were the fans two hours early to the game, they were the rowdiest fans I have ever seen! If you think you've seen crazy fans at US sporting events, you haven't seen anything!

We found out on Saturday that a friend of mine and her roommate had plans to go to the game on Sunday. Her roommate is Chilean, and has been a fan of the team Colo-Colo for his whole life. I should explain Chilean soccer a little. There are three teams that represent Chile: Colo-Colo, U Chile and U Católica, and while two of the teams share names with universities they are not affiliated with them. U Católica is the team for the "cuicos" (the rich people) and they have the nicest stadium. U Chile is for the middle class, and they have the second nicest stadium. Colo-Colo is the team of the people, and they have the most fun stadium! They also consistently have the best record of the three.

As soon as we heard about the game between Colo-Colo and U Chile, the biggest game of the year, we knew we had to go so we went to buy the tickets. Our Chilean friend demanded that we buy the more expensive tickets as it can get downright dangerous to sit in the cheap seats. He wasn't kidding. The cheap seats are surrounded by twenty-feet tall chain link fences topped with barbed wire and surrounded by thirty police officers in full riot gear. During the game fights erupted everywhere, but luckily we were in the good seats. We also drove in his car as he assured us it would not be safe for us to take the metro and walk into the stadium. This sentiment was echoed by every single Chilean we told about the game. We would say "Vamos a Colo-Colo mañana!" and they're first response would always be "Tengan cuidado, gringas."

The game itself was incredibly exciting. The amount of skill and control the players had was incredible. I've never seen a live professional soccer game before and now I have the feeling that I'll never be able to get enough. It was fast, and brutal and totally awesome! The crowd, which included everyone from little kids to senior citizens, roared with "CONCHA TU MADRE!" (a very offensive Chilean expletive) every time the ref made a call, or someone missed a goal, or really any time anything happened at all. All the time the most dedicated fans were cheering and singing songs that everyone in the audience knew but us. They flipped off the other team constantly. It was so much fun.

In the end, our team won! The stadium went nuts and we got the heck out of there before it could get too insane. This was one of my absolute favorite experiences here so far. Anyone who has a chance to watch a live soccer game in Latin America should take it, it's beyond anything you will ever experience in the states. Sadly I have no pictures of the event, because I wasn't sure it would be wise to bring my camera, but the seats we sat in were perfectly safe so I'll definitely get some pictures of the madness next time. ¡VIVA CHILE!

Salida del Terreno

For our class about Chilean culture we had a mandatory field trip this past weekend. We visited Isla Negra and one of Pablo Neruda's houses, Las Cruces and Pomaire. It was a very full day and at first I was not excited about it at all, but by the end of the day I had completely changed my attitude and had enjoyed every minute of it.

Our first stop was Isla Negra, an adorable beach town about two hours from Santiago. There we visited the poet Pablo Neruda's house which was turned into a museum after he died. The house is right on the beach and is built to resemble a ship. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I got a few of the outside. Quite picturesque. This is the cafe next to the museum.

This was Pablo Neruda's dining room. My dad would absolutely love this house.
This is me with some friends by Pablo Neruda's tomb. It was such a beautiful day!
After the museum tour we began a three hour walk along a gorgeous beach to reach our next destination, Las Cruces. We paused for an hour to eat lunch and take a few pictures, like this one in which I am imitating Ariel from The Little Mermaid.
This is a picture of me and my friend Michaela about halfway through with our walk.
Here is a picture of the beach. I wish the photos captured the extent of how beautiful it was, but they really don't. The water was an incredibly brilliant and clear blue. It really reminded me of Northern California beaches.
This is me standing at Las Cruces, which is basically just a gorgeous vista point.

The view from another side, incredible.

Our next stop was the little town of Pomaire known specially for a specific kind of pottery. This is the oven where they do the firing. If you zoom in on the picture you can see that the oven is made out of mud and straw.
These are some of the beautiful finished products! It's such a simple craft, but it's very rustic and attractive, I think. Also very durable! Each one of these weighs far more than you would think.
This is Patricio, a friend of the professor's who did a demonstration for us. He made three bottles, a lamp and a piggie bank all in about ten minutes. He said that he learned just by watching, and that's how most people learn the craft.
This is a picture of the candleholder that the sculptor gave me. I thought it was a nice gesture, but according to the Chileans it's a little more than that...When I told my host family about it they said "Ahh, se enamoró!" Which means "He fell in love!"
I want to go back to Pomaire to get a pair for my candlestick holder, and maybe some presents for some people back home!

First Day on the Job

Well, I can't exactly call it a job since it's on a volunteer basis, but "First Day on the Internship" didn't sound as good to me.

I've become involved in an internship in which for five hours each week I act as a teacher's aide in English classes in a Chilean school. My school, Liceo San Gerónimo, has all age ranges from kindergarten to seniors in high school. I am working with two teachers in three classes, one class of seniors, one class of juniors and one of third-graders. Today was the first day I'd spent at the school. What an experience.

It turns out that Chilean children are even more prone to staring and astonishment when confronted with a tall blonde than Chilean adults. As I walked through the campus I could feel every pair of eyes on me. One of the first students I met immediately began speaking to me in English and telling me that her parents are from Manhattan. Once inside the class the students were either so shy they didn't want to look at me directly, but just took sideways glances and giggled, or they started bombarding me with a million questions in Spanish. "What is your name? Where are you from? Do you like Chile? How old are you? How tall are you? How do you make your hair look like that?"

For the first class the teacher assigned them into groups of six in which they were to A) go over a dialogue and ask questions about pronunciation, and B) Come up with ten questions to ask me. It became abundantly clear to me that their English, for the most part, was very limited. I almost always had to repeat myself in Spanish. When I read the dialogue aloud for them they admitted that they didn't understand a word I said. Amidst all this I had my hair touched a number of times, was asked if I was married, was asked where I bought my jewelry and was asked for my phone number multiple times. These were the seniors. I had no idea what to expect from my next class, the third-graders.

If you were to ask me to sum up in one word what the class of third-graders was like I would honestly reply: "chaos." As soon as I walked in the room I was confronted with thirty wired, screaming 10-year-olds running back and forth across the room. Running up to me, then running away. Asking me hundreds of questions that I could neither hear nor understand. Holding my hands, hugging my waist, and kissing me on the cheek. Their task was to cut out pictures of school supplies and label them. This group of children seemed entirely impossible to get to stay on task. I answered questions about the same words about fifty times before I just started writing them on the board. Among that were also cries of "Tia! Miss! She pushed me! He's crying! Someone stole my scissors!" The teacher I was working with seemed to be about on her last nerve while I was just completely overwhelmed trying to maintain my sanity and speak Spanish.

After that hour and a half of insanity I had lunch with the two teachers I work with. It was fun sitting and chatting with them, occasionally in English and occasionally in Spanish. They both speak English very well. After lunch was my last class, the juniors. This was another class that I walked into and was immediately greeted by twenty pairs of eyes boring into me. Two boys in the front immediately because asking me questions about myself. The teacher then paired everyone up to come up with more questions to ask me and a dialogue to read aloud to me so I could help with their pronunciation. The thing I like most about this experience so far is their willingness and eagerness to learn. The classes are all rowdy, but they seem aware of the fact that having a native English speaker in their class is a privilege and they really take advantage of it.

By the end of that class one young man asked me to take him back to California with me, to which I replied "Creo que no."

I can't wait for next Tuesday! Even though I am completely exhausted after today.

San Pedro de Atacama

The pictures are small, but if you click on them you can see the full sized image.

This is San Pedro de Atacama! A charming town made of entirely adobe in the north of Chile. I spent this past weekend there with five other girls. We had the time of our lives, it is easily my favorite spot so far in South America. The scenery is incredible, the weather is beautiful and the people are friendly. The picture above is of the "main street" where our hostel was located.
The first full day there we went sandsurfing in Death Valley, picture above. The landscape was so dramatic. The sand dunes were enormous and at first I was completely terrified. We had a very brief instructional session and then we were off! And as you can see below, I was totally successful!
It was such a great time, and a great workout. Every time you made it down you had to hike back up the hill which was already high, and in sand it was no picnic. We did it for about two hours, which was quite enough, and then hopped back in the van to watch the sunset. Below is another picture of the hill.
Below is the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) so named, I believe, because it looks like a moonscape. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before, and once the sun went down the colors became spectacular!
This is a picture of me in the valley. Sunburnt and tired after a day of sandsurfing, but happy to be there.
This is a picture of me in front of Laguna Cejar. This was the coolest thing ever! It's a lake in the middle of nowhere in the desert with seven times the salinity of the ocean. It's as salty as the Dead Sea! As a result, you are completely buoyant and can float without even trying. It's a really strange sensation, but I imagine it feels like being in zero gravity. It's literally hard to keep your feet beneath you in the water, you're that floaty.
Here's a picture of me floating!
This is a picture of me next to one of the Ojos de Salar (there are two.) These are two small bodies of water also in the middle of the desert. Apparently, their origins are unknown, as is their depth. They are literal infinite abysses. We jumped in to wash all the salt off ourselves from the laguna.
This is the other ojo, with a beautiful backdrop. It was an incredible sight!
Next stop was the Atacama Salt Flat, a giant expanse that is a lake half the year, and a giant field of salt the other half once the water has evaporated. It was one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen. At first glance it appears to be an ice covered lake but as soon as you're out on it it's clear that it's something else entirely. It was huge too!
It reached almost all the way to the mountains (volcano in the distance.)
The salt flat at sunset.
The next morning we woke up at 3:30 AM to make the 2.5 hour drive on dirt roads in a van without seat belts (standard Chile) to see the Geiseres del Tatio. It was negative ten degrees celsius and this was another landscape that appeared to be from another world. It almost looked prehistoric. The geysers are most active at dawn, which is why we had to be there so early.
After the geysers we took the long way home and stopped by a river, an active volcano in the background.
And one of the last sights was a herd of llamas drinking and eating along the road! This one looked right at me!

The trip was amazing. I'd love to go back, there's so much more to do! And everything was really cheap, for what you get to do. I am totally exhausted but had so much fun it was entirely worth it. If anyone is ever in South America you must visit San Pedro.