Valparaíso!

Hola,

I can't believe it has been a whole week since my last post, I have lots to update everyone on!

This weekend (Friday-Sunday) I went to Valparaíso with the program to observe some schools and explore the city of Valpo and Vina del Mar. We left Santiago early Friday morning and went straight to an all-girls technical high school. There were over 1,000 girls attending this school where during their first 2 years the girls study all subjects and during their last 2 years they prepare specifically to either work in textiles, computer graphics, cooking, or work with kids. Most of the girls that graduate do not go on to college because this school prepares them to graduate and start working right away. There were roughly 150 girls who were either pregnant or already had children. We were given the opportunity to sit and talk to a class of girls for about an hour and it was fascinating to hear how different their lives are. Here is a picture of me with some of the students that I met:

After visiting the school we went to a famous restaurant in Valpo where we ate the most disgusting but DELICOUS meal! See picture below:

This plate consists of really really greasy french fries, grilled onions with melted cheese and then pieces of the tastiest steak ever! It was literally the best thing I have ever eaten!

Friday afternoon we met with the director of a teachers union in Valpo and they talked to us about education and how it has changed over the past thirty years.

On Saturday we headed outside of Valpo to a rural town to visit a small school. The school had about 4 classrooms and was for 56 kids, because it was a Saturday we didn't get to see the school in action but a few kids came in nice and early to help the director show us around. The school had their own gardens that each kid tends too, it was so quaint and wonderful.

Saturday afternoon we were free and the whole group went out to an incredible seafood restaurant right on the water, we stuffed ourselves with delicous food and then by foot explored a little bit of Valparaíso. Later that night we headed to a four floor discotheque to dance the night away!

Here is a picture of the beach:

Last week I had lots of class and finally started visiting a school that I will visit for the next few weeks. I observed a language and composition class and was able to talk with the teacher and the students. The school is a rather large public school where most of the children come from struggling families...and the biggest problem that they have is the disorganization and the problem with discipline. It was very different than how I remember elementary school.

This week is lots more class and more school visiting! Only two more weeks of spanish so I just have to keep plugging, although the work is really starting to pile up!

Muchos besos!

FOOD FOOD FOOD AND MORE FOOD!

There is lots to update you on but it also occurred to me that I have hardly spoken about the all the delicious foods I have been eating since I arrived here (practically a month ago??!?!?)...so I am going to share, get ready to drool.

First, possibly the most popular chilean food (besides meat) are empanadas, there is no way to explain an empanada to someone and do it justice...the taste of it is like a party in your mouth...a really good party with lots of people and dancing. Empanadas are either baked or fried (both are delicious) and could have just about anything in them, the most popular in Chile are Pino (some sort of mixture of meat and onions, this is the chilean empanada), cheese, mushrooms and cheese, and just plain meat. And if the empanada wasn't good enough it is like a little surprise every time you eat one because they shove a little green olive in each one and you always know it is coming but you never now when :)!

Next, MEAT, if you are a vegitarian and are visiting this country or living in the this country I feel so bad for you because the meat here is INCREDIBLE, it's another party in your mouth for sure. I have tried all kinds and most of the time I am not even sure what type I am eating but it all just tastes so good. In fact I had my first or second piece of chicken since I have been here because all the meat they serve here is red! And this weekend for the first time in my life I ate raw meat, now I am not just saying I tried it, or it was a small bite, no, I mean I had a whole bowl of red meat. It is a very common meal here and the name is slipping my mind but it is doused in lemons and onions and the lemons are supposed to make the raw meat safe to eat (i don't get it but maybe someone who is science savvy can help me out). When I ate it all I could really taste were the lemons so I tried to pretend I was just eating cooked meat, I think that I have been told my whole life that eating raw meat was bad so it was hard to overcome my fear. A while back I also tried something even more interesting. Again, I wasn't quite sure what I was eating but my mom's boyfriend assured me it was tasty, I should have said no because of the look on my moms face but I thought I had nothing to lose. Afterwards I found out that I had just eaten horse...now I clearly have no problem eating certain animals but horses is where I draw the line. Although it tasted yummy (sort of like beef jerky) I told my moms boyfriend that one taste of it was good enough for me.

FISH! Fish is also all over the place here and I LOVE IT! This weekend I had raw fish with onions and lemon (the same as the meat dish above but with fish instead). That was delicious and I had less of a problem eating a bowl of raw fish because I love sushi so much. I had less of a problem until we found a little red worm floating around in the leftovers. We tried to kill the worm with different types of alcohol, because if it died from a certain type we all said we would take a swig of that alcohol to ensure that the worm wasn't alive inside our stomachs. It didn't die until we cut it in half. No problems with my stomach yet (keep your fingers crossed please)

Bread, the amount of bread that is eaten here is redic, I guess it is no more than what I remember in Spain, but it is just so much. They eat bread for breakfast and bread for dinner. In Chile most families eat a small breakfast and a small dinner which they call once, that usually consists of bread and avocado, and then they eat a fairly large lunch. Thank goodness my mom and boyfriend eat a big dinner because I love food to much to just have bread for dinner.

Fruits and vegetables: I know I told many of you who are reading that I would be unable to eat most fruits and veggies, but I was wrong, it turns out the water here in Santiago is much better than the rest of Chile and other places in South America so we can eat all the fruits and vegetables we want. I have been eating tons of bananas and apples because they are so cheap and SO much avocado. Fresh salads consists of cut up iceberg lettuce with lemon and oil, although they are somewhat tasty I am missing the delicious salads I am so accustomed to at home.

Obviously I am eating lots more types of food than listed above but those are some of the favorites.

Since this weekend was Independence weekend and I was at the beach with my family we had many bbq's (or asado). My mom and her boyfriend rented a house about 5 minutes from the beach and about an hour and a half away from Santiago in the town where I had orientation back in August. It was nice to revisit the same place and feel like something was familiar. We spent lots of time relaxing in the house and lots of time walking along the beach. Unfortunately it was too cold to even touch the water but I founds lots of beautiful seashells that I had never seen before (i found purple ones!).

This week will be a busy one, with seminars and visiting the schools that we will spend about 7 sessions with. I am very excited to spend some consistent time in a classroom and get to some students as well as the teacher. This weekend I will be heading to Valparaiso with the program to explore! I am so excited! Here are a few pictures and I swear this is the week I will get more pictures up on snapfish ( I think there are about 500 more to put up, get excited!).

Beach that I walked around on Saturday and Sunday!

The house that my mom and her boyfriend rented for Independence weekend at the beach!

I had to put a picture of this because those strange line of buildings in the back of the picture is the hotel that has the biggest pool in the WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD (mom and dad can we please go there).

MUCHOS BESOS!

Skiing and Birthdays

Two very important things have happened since I last posted...first, I went skiing in the Andes and second, I turned 21!

Skiing in the Andes was by far the best thing I have done here thus far. It was painful to leave the mountains and head back to smoggy Santiago. The day began bright and early where I met up with 6 other people from my group to get on a van that would take us up the mountain. The drive to the mountain was about an hour and a half and over an hour of it was spent going up a very steep mountain on switchbacks, we were lucky none of us puked. Even though we were all getting pretty car sick we were too excited to think much of and the view wasn't too bad either. Once we finally got up to the mountain we spent about an hour renting gear and buying lift tickets before we hit up the mountain! The mountain was small but had some of the most incredible views I have ever seen. I took tons of photos and need to get them up on the snapfish account so you all can enjoy them as much as I am. I hope these two suffice for now.

We happened to go skiing on the most gorgeous day that we have had here and I skied in leggings, a t-shirt, and a raincoat. The sun was shining all day which made an already perfect day even better. The other 6 people that I went skiing with hadn't skied or snowboarded in a few years so for the most part we took it pretty easy, the mountain was pretty intermediate so no one had too many problems. The last run of the day was the most incredible one we had, we took a run that circled the top most peak so we were able to see a 360 degree view of the Andes mountains. It was SO hard to leave, I was seriously considered staying in a hotel for the night and skiing on Sunday too!

Monday night I went to a sports bar with some of my friends and we watched the Patriots game, it was fun to do something American for a change.

Tuesday was my birthday and it was wonderful. During our break at school my director and classmates came in with a birthday cake and card and sang for me. My director also serenaded me with a classic Chilean birthday song, it was very very nice! Then last night my mom was kind enough to invite all the other students in my program (14 others) to our house for empanadas and pisco sours. Besides the fact that my sister was sick it was a lot of fun. We ate another cake and then headed out of the bars so I could celebrate my 21st in style. We had a ton of fun and needless to say were very safe! Although the day was lots of fun it made me miss home and friends a lot!

Tonight I am heading out to my directors house with the rest of our group for food and some good spanish conversation. It should be a blast

This weekend is Independence weekend so I have about an hour of class tomorrow and then we are done until next Monday! I will be leaving for la playa (the beach) tomorrow night and I will be there for the whole weekend with my mom and her two kids and then my mom's boyfriend and two of his kids. It should be interesting. I have a good amount of homework to do and can't wait to relax after this busy week of carrete (partying).

Muchos besos (kisses)

A day to remember...

Hello All,

It has been a while since I last posted but it has been a CRAZY week! Well not that crazy, just really really busy and filled with too much school. So far I am really digging this abroad stuff but not the studying part. This week has been full of seminars on education here in Chile, learning all about Pinochet and the Desparecidos (people who "disappeared" during Pinochet's rule).

Tuesday night I went to my first big family gathering while I have been here and it was for my Mom's boyfriend's birthday! We left the kids at hom

e with a babysitter and went to Osvaldo's (my mom's boyfriend) mom's apartment and ate lots of good food and chatted...well they chatted and I listened. I chimed in few times commenting on the little that I could fully understand. Although it gets frustruting not being able to understand everything I think it is good practice just to hear the spanish being spoken correctly.

On wednesday the whole group went to a shelter type thing for the mothers of the disappeared, a woman talked to us for about an hour and it was very hard to follow. But I think for the most part I got the general idea.

Today, September 11th, is not only a big day of rememberance for us in the United States but it is acutally the day of rememberance for all who disappeared or who were killed during Pinochet's rule. As a group we spent the day observing and learning al

l about the torture that many Chileans had to endure during Pinochet's rule.

The first thing we did this morning was go to a cemetery in Santiago, the biggest cemetary I have ever been to, where they had a huge monument of all the names of those who were excuted or are still missing in the 70's and 80's. We all put flowers by the monument and took some time to pay our respects. I think that saddest part of it all is there are still many families, many mom's, dad's, kids, etc. who have no idea where their loved ones are. There are still many people who are unaccounted for and in the cemetery this was indicated by blank crosses. At the cemetery we were also able to visit the grave site of Victor Jara, who was an incredible musican and social activist here in Chile during Pionchet's reign. He w

as brutally murdered on Sept. 12th 1973. When we went to his grave site there were people leaving flowers and singing his songs, it was very moving.

After the heavy morning we went to an even tougher place to be on this day of remembrance which was La Villa Grimaldi, a grouping of buildings that were used during Pinochet's goverment to tourture and interrogate policital prisoners. The original site was torn down and is now used as a site for remembrance with pretty fountains and flowers but being their was a little haunting. We were able to step inside some of the model tiny chambers where the victims were kept for months, 4 or 5 people to a room no bigger than a small closet. It was sad to even imagine what the victims lives were like while they were kept hostage at this concentration camp type place. Although it was a sad day it is also a day to remember that Pinochet is not longer in rule and the torture no longer exists.

After the long and emotional day I took a quick tour of the national library in Santiago and went on a short but steep walk up a large hill that overlooks Santiago. It was nice the get my mind off all the heavy and sad stuff that filled my morning. When I finally arrived home I was so happy to see my brother and sister and play with them like I was a little kid again! I just spent the last hour throwing them up and down in the air...who needs the gym when you have little kids to throw around!

We were told not to go out tonight because there are large riots but tomorrow morning I will be on my way to the Andes mountains for a day of skiing and tubing! Then on Sunday I will take part in a march for the people who were executed and still missing during Pinochet's rule. It should all be quite eventful and I will be sure to take lots of photos!

Here is the link to a snapfish account that I just created so that everyone can view the photos I have taken so far. There are not many up yet, but I promise more are to come!

http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2227060014/a=120609666_120609666/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Thinking of everyone at home and sending lots of chilean love,

Ana

ps. not sure why everything is underlined or blue...sorry it is so annoying!

Well lots has happened since I last post, is it sad that when I do exciting and new things I can't wait to post them on the blog so I can share with whomever is reading this? I hope not :)

Anyway, Friday was the first time that we went to visit a school and it was the best experience I have had here so far. We went to a small part of Santiago named Victoria, that is known to be very poor and tends to be a big drug trafficking hub. So of course I was nervous and excited to see what this school had to offer. It was really incredible, for being in such a run down neighborhood I was completely blown away. When we first arrived there were about fifty 6 year olds lined up who greeted us with kisses on the cheeks and big smiles...it was quite welcoming, and it was clear that they were fascinated by all the gringas and one gringo. After a short introduction by the principal of the school we were off to classes. Me and two other girls in my program first went to a 3rd grade classroom. They were amazing, curious, smart, eager, patient, and kind. We talked with them, asked them questions about their schools, their families, they asked us how to say lots of different words in english, and the 45 minutes that we had to spend with them went very quickly. We then went to an 8th grade english class which was very different than what I would have expected. The english teacher could hardly even speak english herself and the kids knew a very minimal amount of it, we tired to talk to them in english but it was easier for all parties involved to speak in spanish. Did I just say it was easier to talk in spanish?

Towards the end of our stay with the 8th graders the rest of the kids on the program joined us and we watched two students dance the Cueca, which was beautiful. The Cueca is a traditonal Chilean dance.

It was sad to leave the school but it also left me excited because I know I will have many more opportunities to visit classes as the semester progresses.

Before we headed back to our part of Santiago we stopped at the house of Andre Jarlan, he was the priest in Victoria back in the 80's. He was incredibly well know as he was said to have saved Victoria from its severe drug abuse and lack of community. Andre Jarlan was murdered on 9/4/1984 during a riot during Pinochet's rule. Pinochet had ordered the policemen to kill everyone that was involved in the riot in Victoria and as Andre was saying a prayer in his room a policeman who misaimed actually shot Andre through his second story window. People say he was assassinated but it is unclear what really happened. We were able to visit his house and an old man and friend of Andre put on a little one man show of what supposedly happened to Andre during his final day. We then got to go to his room and the whole in the window where the bullet went through is still there as well as where it nicked the wall. It was all a bit emotional and felt very real as were standing in the bedroom that he was in when he died, and we visited on 9/4, so it was the 25th anniversary of his death.

I am loving all the additional history I am learning about Chile while I am here, obviously I am learning in-depth about Pinochet, Allende and the old and the new education policies but all the extra stuff is truly fascinating.

Saturday night some of the kids in my group and I went out to a bar to watch the Chile vs. Venezuela game, they ended up tying and were seeded to win so it was a little bit of a bummer but an experience to be in a bar with Chileans during a World Cup qualifying game. During and after the game we met some really cool Americans who are recent graduates of college and are teaching english here in Santiago for the year. It was great to pick their brains and hear all about there experience down here because teaching in South America after graduation has been something I have always wanted to do.

It's getting late here and I have classes tomorrow because the Chileans don't celebrate labor day (duh!). But before I go, everyone must listen to the song Color Esperanza, it is incredible. Here is the youtube link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5WfYEHw62E

SENDING LOTS OF LOVE

Hello again,

So I know I just posted last night but I wanted to get some pictures up! Nothing too exciting happened today except that I tried to join a gym but they were going to charge me $60 for the month...that was a little too much for me. So instead I went for my first run around my neighborhood. I was a little nervous about getting lost and looking like a fool because hardly anybody works out here (maybe it is because of the price of the gyms). But I was able to explore the area around my house and work on my fear of barking dogs. The amount of dogs here is insane and for most of them there is no way to tell if they are owned by someone or stray dogs, every time I ran by one it barked VERY loudly! I also got a lot of strange looks, and they were probably thinking why is that Gringa running in the middle of winter in shorts and a t-shirt. Oh well!

Now for the pictures you have all been waiting for!

This a picture of my host mom (Gloria), her son Bruno (who looks funny because he didn't want his picture taken), and my little sister here Alissia. Aren't they cute??

This is a picture of my room here, it is a little bit cleaner now.

This is a picture of the outside of my house.
And it is totally okay to be jealous of this picture. This is the view from my window here in my room and yes, those are the ANDES MOUNTAINS! Pretty cool, huh?

Tomorrow is the first day that I will be going to a school to observe the education system in Chile. The first school we are going to is in a very poor part of Santiago with lots of drug problems so it should be quite the experience. I will let you know how i goes.

One week mark!

I can't believe that I have not even been in Chile for a full week! I can hardly remember what Farmington looks like. Time seems to be moving so fast but terribly slow at the same time (not necessarily a bad thing).

Anyway the last time I posted I left you all wondering wether or not I survived the drop-off, and since I am posting now, I did! It was great. On Monday my partner and I were dropped off at la Plaza de Armas, it was actually the closest location to school so we were able to walk there and explore huerfanos, which is a main street in Santiago Central. Huerfanos means orphans in spanish...so it's a little weird that the main street is named that. The Plaza de Armas is actually the place where Santiago was founded in 1541...so it was kind of a big deal. My partner and I spent about twenty minutes just observing and then started asking people about the history of the plaza. A man who was quite possibly homeless came up to us and started talking to us in broken english, (it is amazing how everyone here wants to show off their english to the Americans...I guess that is to be expected though) but as my partner and I pulled our bags a little bit closer to our bodies the nice man started to tell us all about the history of the plaza sometimes speaking in English and sometimes in Spanish. After getting lots of information from him we wandered into the first church of Santiago which was GORGEOUS! Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera so I cannot share what we saw but I will be absolutely be going back there. After the drop off we went back to Casa SIT and my mom picked me up from school. Oh I guess I forgot to mention that this was also the first day that I took the transantiago public transportation. My mom and brother (Bruno) came with me in the morning to show me the route, but I was so nervous about school that I sort of forgot to pay attention. Anyway my mom picked me up after school so I didn't have to take the metro and the bus home but I did make plans with some of my friends who live in my area to meet in the metro station the next day.

After school my mom and I went to the Jumbo, it is a GIGANTIC supermarket here in Santiago, and when I say gigantic i mean at least double the size of Costco. It was crazy there! Two levels of parking and walking sidewalks (like the ones in the airport). Nothing I saw was too out of the ordinary except that the milk wasn't refrigerated, and I already don't like milk so that just grossed me out even more.

On Tuesday I caught the bus and met some girls from the group at the metro ALL BY MYSELF...maybe I could be a city girl after all. I used a Toyota and Pizza Hut as landmarks so I knew I was close.

So Tuesday was our first real day of classes. The only exciting thing to report is during the 3 hour spanish class that we have every day of the week but Fridays we have a thirty minute break for "free" breakfast! Thank goodness we get that break because without it I would go insane...3 hours is about how many hours of class I would take in a whole day at UPS. After spanish class we have an hour and a half break for lunch (seems a little bit excessive right?), and then we have our education seminar from 2-4. The day is very long, I need to leave my house at 8:30 to get to school around 9:30 and I don't return home till at least 5. After classes on Tuesday the whole group (minus 1 = 14 americans) went to a restaurant called Vacas Gordas (fat cows) where we all had a round of doble pisco sours, ordered 4 bottles of wine for the group, ate lots of bread, I ordered an incredible piece of steak, and vegtables for 20 dollars!!! And I was home safe and sound by 9 o'clock!

Today was busy with class and it was rainy. I am not sure if I mentioned this before but I am stealing internet because it is to expensive for my mom to buy so I am using someone else's but with the rain the connection has been pretty shady so I am sitting on the floor in my room next to my tiny space heater because it is beyond freezing here hoping that this post goes through!

I was also planning on uploading a picture of my room but the internet is so bad it is just not working. I promise one will come soon...but I also promise there is not much to see!

Things are going well here. I had a nice dinner with my mom and her boyfriend and I can already tell the conversations we are having are getting better and better! My mom's boyfriend said that I spoke very well tonight! That is HUGE!

Will report soon! BESOS!