Born in the U.S.A.

Natalie at the Mercado Central
I miss this already!
In the Andes!
The photographer in action
The crew at the markets

Everyone just left a couple of days ago and my life here in Santiago finally seems to be in full swing. I am teaching 4 classes and slowly speaking more and more Spanish. Having everyone together in Santiago was an absolute blast. Together we learned valuable life lessons such as there is such thing as too much of a good thing (if that good thing happens to be white bread or Kookies), and Born in the USA is NOT an appropriate song to karaokee. I’d like to draw attention to the second lesson…because honestly…who knew?!? We learned this harsh lesson at Chilean gay biker karaokee bar at around 4:00 Friday night. In case it wasn’t already obvious by our loud voices and midwest accents, we thought it would be best to let the entire bar know just exactly where we were born via song. The Boss was a natural choice. It wasn’t until we were halfway through the song that we realized…this song has NOTHING to do with being born in the USA and everything to do with the Vietnam war. Not exactly the fun loving song we were looking for. Never the less, the show must go on. It wasn’t until we got to lyrics such as “and they put a rifle in his hands, sent me off to Vietnam to kill the yellow man” that things went south. After taking a second to listen to the crickets in the audience, we all just looked at each other with what I think was the exact same thought…if we just sing the chorus really loud no one will realize what a terrible song we chose. So sing the chorus we did. But lesson learned…next time I want to karaokee my American pride…I’m sticking to “Party in the USA” or "Sweet Home Chicago."

In other news, teaching English has been great so far if only for the fact that I get to watch other people make the same ridiculous mistakes that I make in Spanish. One of my personal favorites happened earlier today. Our lesson was about travel and the question was “where have you traveled and why did you choose to travel there?” This class is full of high intermediate adults and the one female student responded that she went to Brazil because of the “hot bitches.” She meant hot beaches. I about died. The only thing that kept me from laughing out loud was a flashback to this weekend when I innocently tried to tell someone that I'm scared of heights. In Spanish the literal translation would be they give me fear...."me dan miedo." I said "me dan mierda"....which roughly translates to they give me the shits.

Chicago is My Kind of People

Wall in Valparaiso
Family breakfast
Valparaiso is famous for its beautiful graffiti
More Valparaiso
Ziplining in Cajon de Maipo -- notice the tire break system

Having everyone here has been awesome! It’s been great to be able to get out of the city for a little bit and relax. On Thursday Natalie, Amanda, Allison, and I all went to Cajon de Maipo. It’s a short metro ride away from Santiago but it seems like a different area entirely. Well except for the excessive amount of stray dogs. What is wrong with this country?! We stayed in an adorable cabin in the middle of mountains and waterfalls, hiked, drank wine, made a delicious dinner, went ziplining and got massages! On Friday, Kristen and Jenny arrived and the 7 of us went to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. Before we left for Valparaiso, Amanda, Natalie, Allison, and I went out to lunch. I’m glad we did because they really got to see Santiago at its finest. By the time we had taken two bites of food, we had been hit up for money by not 1 but 5 homeless people. Ordinarily I wouldn’t mind, but one man in particular was quite persistent. On our table we had a plate of carrots and a plate of tomatoes. In an attempt to get him to leave, Allison graciously offered him the rest of our carrots. He left for about 30 seconds...came back and mumbled that he prefers tomatoes, and proceeded to drop a spoon from his mouth onto our manjar dessert (sidenote: manjar is like caramel only maybe even better.) As if he hadn’t done enough…he then walked about 5 feet to our left, squatted down and made the most heinous noise I have ever heard. Are you ready for this? ……He was POOPING! Well at least I’m pretty sure he was and we were not willing to stick around to find out. I love this city. The Valpo/Vina trip was complete with lots of walking, a wine crawl, Jota Cruz, sopapillas galore (I could do a whole blog entry on sopapillas alone but for now all you need to know is they are little fried pieces of heaven that you can buy on the street for about 20 cents), lunch at the beach, and too many desserts. Que rico!

Working for the Weekend

Bellavista...close to where I take Spanish lessons
Still not used to having mountains around me all the time!
At Mercado Central...Santiago's fish market
At La Vega...Santiago's biggest fruit and vegetable market

This week I moved into a new apartment and started training for my new job. My new apartment is great! I live with 2 Chilean girls and an American girl. It’s in a great location and more importantly there is always hot water when I shower. In related news, either the weather is starting to get a bit better or I have finally adapted to the cold. Twice this week when I was in my apartment I went sans winter jacket. How Chilean am I?!? Most of my week, however, was spent in full winter gear training for my new job. I think this job is going to be great for me. I will be working with adults at all different levels. It seems like the company is pretty supportive and organized but still allows you the freedom to modify lessons. Many of the training sessions were taught by Dave who is far and away one of the craziest SOBs I’ve met in Chile thus far. Dave is what would happen if Steve Irwin and Harry Carey had a 70 year old son. Some of Dave’s favorite activities include switching subjects at random, swearing, and talking about swearing. Dave is a huge fan of hands on learning. We literally spent 40 minutes one day learning and demonstrating how to play and then pause DVDs. Apparently this is CRUCIAL to being a good English teacher. According to my extensive notes on this subject it is helpful to look at the remote to locate the buttons BEFORE pressing them. Who would’ve thought?! So now, if nothing else, I will leave Chile just a little bit better at watching movies. In all seriousness, most of the training was very helpful and I am looking forward to my first class this Monday! I am also beyond excited because next week Chicago is invading Chile. Natalie, Amanda, Allison, Jenny, and Kristen will all be in Santiago for 2 weeks!! I hope Santiago can handle us.

Vegetarians Gone Wild

Andrea and Suzana at Cerro Santa Lucia (downtown Santiago)
Cerro Santa Lucia
Josh, Andrea, Anna, Alejandro, and Pedro
Dancing with the man of the hour, Igor!
View from Cerro Santa Lucia

After being in Santiago for almost a month, one thing is clear. These people love meat. Can’t get enough of it. In light of this, I have decided to start eating meat once a month. I don’t want to feel like I am missing out on any part of the culture. About a week ago I had my very fist “meating” (see what I did with that?!). One of my good friends here, Igor, went back to Brazil last week. In honor of Igor, we had ourselves a pretty solid going away party. The night started out with piscos (traditional Chilean drink) at one of our new Chilean friend’s house (that’s right…I have Chilean friends now). At Igor’s request, we went to what we thought was one of the best gay clubs in town. Turns out it's only a gay club on Thursdays. (Oops. Sorry Igor!) Any who, we continued to party until the club closed and as you can imagine after a late night such as this we needed McDonalds. We needed it bad. We get to the McDonalds and I order a large fry. The cashier informs us that the ONLY thing that they have are cheeseburgers. At first I thought I was in some sort of nightmare. No late night food?!?!? What am I going to do?!?! But then it dawned on me…… This would never happen in America... therefore…this is a part of Chilean culture. If I truly want to be immersed in Chilean culture I HAD to eat a cheeseburger! I had no choice!!!! So there it is. The first meat I have eaten in well over a year was not 1 but 4 (some claim 5) McDonalds cheeseburgers.

In other news, Spanish is still difficult. I feel like I am doing well, but there is still so much to learn. One of the things that bothers me the most is that when I speak in Spanish my personality does not come through at all. So in an attempt to fix this and to make my parents proud, I took it upon myself to learn some essential “Stephanie-isms.” So now, even though I have a lot of trouble telling my cab driver directions, I can tell people to “suck it” (chupa lo), and can even say “son of a bitch” (hijo de puta) with the ease and fluency of someone who was born here. I can also turn anything anyone says to me around on them. For example:

Joe Smoe) You are learning Spanish.

Me) No YOU are learning Spanish.

I know what you are thinking…with my good looks and killer personality (that I can now express en espanol) how do I not have a boyfriend down here?! The thing about Santiago is that it is not a place that values being single. This is probably one of the biggest culture shocks for me. Everyone is dependent on whoever they are dating and whether or not you have a boyfriend ALWAYS comes up in a matter of minutes after meeting someone. Someone asked me the other day if I had a pelolo (boyfriend in Chile.) I told him no. And he says “Oh so you are alone?” Clearly I responded with a “No, YOU are alone.” Psh...owned him!!!

It's really cold here!

Beach in Cuquimbo
View from this cross on a mountain in Cuquimbo
"Downtown" La Serena
Angry that it took us ~ 3 hours to track down llamas so we could eat next to them
Team La Serena from left to right: Josh, Andrea, Anna, ME!!!, Fro, and Igor

I can’t believe I’ve already been in Santiago for almost 3 weeks! A lot has happened this past week. I have a group of friends from school, which is really great: Anna from Holland, Andrea from Germany, Igor from Brazil, and Josh from Cincinatti. I found an apartment with 2 Chilean girls and another roommate who I know nothing about and I move in at the end of the month. It’s in a great area close to work and I will be close to some friends from school. Can’t wait! As for Spanish…it’s been an interesting week. Some things that have left my mouth include: “I have 24 buttholes” (Instead of 'I am 24 years old') and “I farted” ('Instead of I fell'.) Awkward. I’m hoping that in the next couple of weeks I will be able to express myself with out a) hitting on people or b) giving them way too much information about my butt. This past weekend I went to La Serena/Cuquimbo (beach towns about 6 hours north of Santiago) with Fro and friends from school. It was really beautiful and Fro and I managed to do as little sight seeing as possible. We did however eat lunch with llamas, see some seals, eat super cheap seafood, and gaze at some stars. Success. Since we were north, it was also a little warmer, which was awesome. I think I may have even not been cold for a couple of hours. Santiago is FREEZING this time of year. As I write this, I am wearing 2 layers, my winter jacket, a scarf, and a hat, ….and I am indoors.

Sex and the City

Escuela Bellavista ladies
My first night out in Santiago with Fro and Marielle!!
How pretty is this city?!
Lucas (2 yrs) using my toothbrush
Just on a little hike by my house..no big deal.

My first impressions of the city are great. I started school this week and have met a lot of great people. I love Escuela Bellavista because so many different countries are represented. One of the nights this week I was in a room where 5 languages were being spoken simultaneously. I almost whipped out some sign language to make it 6 but I refrained. For better or for worse, English usually prevails since it’s the one language everyone knows. Spanish has been a struggle but I am learning. I am definitely making some rookie mistakes though. For example, in an attempt to tell my Brazilian roommates that I was excited to go out with them I told them that I wanted to have sex with them. I guess in Chile the verb “chupar” means to go out and in Brazil and pretty much everywhere else…well it does not. Also “excited” was not the best choice of words. Thank god one of the girls knows a bit of English and was able to figure out what I meant….otherwise that could have been awkward. Speaking of sex, my only complaint so far is the PDA. It’s constant. They will. not. quit. Its like nothing I’ve ever seen. There is PDA everywhere….and it is shameless. Also for every act of PDA in this city there is an equal amount of stray dogs. (Didn’t Chileanos grow up watching the Price is Right?! Get your pets neutered! ) The good news is they are trained to use the stoplights. It’s really something. I have had a better taste of the nightlife since my last post and its crazy. Things don’t even seem to get started before 2 am.

Adventures of a Lost-aholic

Me and Jaquin (5 yrs) hanging out
Beautiful Plaza del Armas
Me with Igor (my right) and my Columbian dancing partner
Home sweet home
Cerro San Cristobal

I made it to Chile safe and sound. The flight went off without a hitch and I slept through most of it. My first days here have been great. I knew I would love Chile the minute I stepped off the plane. I shared a cab to my house with a mom and her daughter who lived in Santiago for 20 years but now live in Seattle. They told me to watch out because the area that I’m staying in is middle class and the families here have a huge tendency to overfeed you (please lady, I’ve been training for this my whole life!). We exchanged information which officially makes them …..my first Chilean friends!!!!!!! How exciting! I am staying with Los Bravas. They have 4 boys ages 2, 5, 11, and 16. They are all adorable and so curious about me. The 11 year old, Martin, loves music and MarioKart so I feel like we have a special bond. I beat him in MarioKart the other night and I think I really impressed him with my ability to gloat without knowing any Spanish. I have also been lost a total of 3 times (which by the way is only 1 less than the amount of times I have walked around by myself). One of these times I was stuck between a junkyard, a prison, and some stray dogs with no exit. I still don’t know I got myself into that one. Another time I had to guard someone’s bike for ~20 minutes while he “map-quested” my way home. You’ll all be happy to know that I got myself a good map and have not been lost since. Last night I went to a Salsatecha with Fro. Turns out I’m still an incredibly bad dancer.