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.

3/31/10

Today was an interesting day to say the least. I left my 10:30 AM class today and walked about four blocks to the bus station to take me to the next class. When I reached into my backpack pocket to pull out my Chapstick I felt around and realized that someone had stolen my iPod and cell phone right out from my backpack while I was walking. There wasn't anything I could do about it as it had clearly happened earlier and I just hadn't noticed.

We made it to the other campus a little late for our class and had to leave a little early to make a meeting for an internship (teaching English, super cool) and on our way off campus we saw a crowd. We assumed that it was the freshman hazing that goes on every year at U Chile. We had to walk by them to get to the exit and tried to get a closer look. We saw students throwing what we thought was fish (part of the tradition) at what we thought were freshman. Wrong. They were throwing rocks at a crowd of forty riot police who immediately began tear gassing all of us. My three friends and I joined hundreds of other students and broke into a run to the opposite side of campus. We found an exit toward the back of the school and they thankfully let us out, though they weren't letting anyone in. There were "guanacos," which is the slang for the giant tanks the police use for riot control, everywhere. There were piles of molotov cocktails and we had to walk through a cloud of tear gas to get to the bus we needed. We got out relatively unharmed and with a pretty authentic cultural experience under our belts.

Time for a quiet night, I think.

Fotos de Buenos Aires

Crossing the Andes!
Recoleta Cemetery.
The church at Recoleta.
Argentine caballo.
A day at the races.
Protest in the city center.
The Pink House.
Downtown BA. Looks a bit like San Francisco, doesn't it?
Santiago airport, in tents.

Buenos Aires

Due to the earthquake, and the damage done to various campuses throughout the city, school was postponed yet another week and now we have time to explore the continent a little bit. We made a pretty last-minute decision to travel to Buenos Aires and found a very cheap flight so we booked a hostel for four days and took off on Wednesday.

The Santiago airport is a bit of a disaster, but I was so impressed with how well-run everything appeared to be. Even though the check-in and gates were in tents, everything was running smoothly and we had no problems getting onto our flight. We arrived in Buenos Aires within two hours after a very comfortable ride on the plane. The taxi to our hostel was about a 45 minute ride and we shared it with another American girl we met who lived right next to our hostel. After we settled in and made reservations for dinner we started to explore the city. The girls I was with wanted to do a lot of shopping so I mostly just tagged along and played personal shopper.

That night for dinner we went to a restaurant called La Cabrera upon the recommendation of our friends who have been to BA before, including one girl we were traveling with. It's a good thing we made a reservation because by the time we got there at 8:30 there was already a line out the door, and that is quite early by Argentine standards. When we sat down at the table we were greeted with fresh sourdough bread, roasted garlic and olive tapenade. I felt like I was back in California! We ordered a bottle of wine, two appetizers and two steaks. The appetizers were a baked wheel of cheese with pancetta and peppers (OMG) and a heart of palm, avocado and tomato salad with balsamic vinagrette. The steak I shared was called Churrasquito and it had bacon wrapped around it. It was cooked absolutely perfectly and came with an array of delicious side dishes including pumpkin puree, lentils, more olive tapenade and a bunch of dips and sauces. It was one of the most incredible meals I've ever had, and the really incredible thing is that in California the meal easily would have cost $300-$400, but it was actually less than $100. Argentina is rightly famous for their steak.

The next day we walked around for hours. More shopping, but also checking out the city center. We saw the Madres, who are the mother's of those who disappeared or were tortured and killed during Pinochet's reign. They have been marching in the square for years and there are very few of them left. We also saw the Pink House, which is the Argentine White House. That afternoon we saw Alice and Wonderland in Spanish. It was a great movie! And I was surprised at the amount I was able to understand. That night we had a light dinner so that we could enjoy a fun night out.

Friday was more shopping and exploring but we got a late start because in South America to stay out until 6AM is perfectly normal. We had lunch at a restaurant called Kansas because we were craving some American baked potatoes, then afterward we headed to the races! Argentina is also famous for their horses and we walked to a place called the Hipodromo and watched four horse races. We bet on two, but lost both times. It was a lot of fun and in the last race one of the jockeys got thrown and the horse still finished the race and didn't even come in last. That was a really fun experience and is something I've never knowingly had the opportunity to do in the states so I really enjoyed it.

Saturday was our last day and we were determined to visit La Recoleta, which is a famous cemetery with lots of ornate sculptures and it's also where Evita Peron is buried. Unfortunately, as is often the case with a large group of girls, all day it was nearly impossible to organize ourselves and so by the time we arrived it was closed. We did get to see inside the church, which was beautiful, and explore the Artesan fair next to it so it certainly wasn't a total loss. That night we met up with some of Jen's Argentine friends and got free entrance to a big club. We stayed out until 6AM again, and had to leave for our flight at 8AM. Mistake! We made it on time but boy were we tired, and our cab ride was miserable. For some reason the driver refused to go above 40MPH even on the freeway. But we made it, on time and everything.

I really enjoyed Buenos Aires and I hope to go back again, but it's certainly good to be home in Santiago. School starts in a week, we hope. I signed up for three classes today and I'm very excited about it. Pictures in the next post!

FOTOS DEL TERREMOTO