25-3-07 Sunday
And so ends my first week in Chile! I' still in what they call the "Honeymoon Period" of Culture Shock as everything is wonderfully new and refreshing! The week was packed with orientation outings, meeting more arriving English teachers from various programs, and getting more familiar with the city as a whole. We had scheduled activities between 9am to 10pm each day, so there wasn't much room to catch up on personal time (like writing blogs to family and friends!) We went to a UN auditorium in Santiago and listened to speakers the first morning. We also took a spanish placement test... only the originally intended program wasn't functioning and after almost finishing this test, I was instructed to take the Bridge Linguitech spanish test.
Nevertheless, I'm in the intermediate level where the first three days of class were spent learning such things as moco = booger, dingleberry = heces, doo-doo = mojon, and hairy balls = pendejo. By 5pm when we start class, I'm ready for any break from the ordinary, so for now, I'm following class. We watched Machuca, a sad story about a wealthy Chilean boy and his complicated friendship with a local Mapuche boy, Pedro, during the 1970's. One of the best trips during the week was my visit to Colegio Saint Lawrence in the district of San Joaquin in Santiago. Ten of us drove to the school, which provides for 3000 students grades "K" (basico) up to 12th grade. "Colegio" is actually like prep school and is 9-12th grade equivalent to the States. "Universidad" is more like our colleges/universities. We met with the top students to discuss their experience at school, learning English, and the hopes for the future. The school was split as technical school and food-service school for the older students with a morning schedule and afternoon schedule so that not all 3000 students attended school at the same time. Most students came from poor families with both parents who worked usually blue-collar jobs and were rarely home, so the students were extremely self-motivated. We had an evening bbq at the hostel with local teachers and danced to Latina, salsa-ish music and drank Misiones de Rengos. We listened to the national song that includes the men dancing with kerchiefs to woo the women.
Que interesante! Friday I was ready to go out and celebrate the end of the first week and went to Jammin', a raggae bar in the Bellavista neighborhood of Santiago, supposedly a very hippie part of the city with Ayeisha and Valerie the newfound "sisters" a Californian and Texan.
I met a 26 yr old Chilean, Gari, who told me very honestly about his 6 yr old son whom he sees on the weekend. Saturday we spent the day in Vina Del Mar, the beach town for vacationing Santiaguinos. As we were a group of 20, we rented a couple rooms in Hostal Cristina by the beach and walked over to the main part of town. After a lunch at Telepizza we sat on the beach. Despite the overcast weather, we did a little sun tanning and spoke to "local" students who were spending a semester abroad. Patricio, a Penn State senior, suggested a couple of bars and discoteques to check out that evening. After cleaning up at the hostal, we went to a little Italian restaurant which was suggested by Cristina, the owner of the hostal, and went to Quinto Norte to check out the scene. Sunday, we spent the day walking around town, lunched at the center square where a live band was playing, and at pino empanadas (with ground meat, onions, raisins, and olives). There is so much that has happened this week, it's hard to figure out which details to leave in and which to leave out! I got to know Santiago a little better by running with people in the program. We ran to Parque O'Higgins, where there is an area called Fantalandia (look like Disneyland, but not open). I also did an evening run through the center of the city and on to Santa Lucia. The third day of running was spent down Avenida Brasil (which looks very similar to Palm Drive on Stanford) and onto a huge park called Parque de Los Reyes which sits between a main street and the major highway. Aside from being chased by the groups of stray dogs which cover the city, running in the morning seems fairly safe. I can't get over the manner of the strays! One dog almost nipped my running partner after barking after us on a morning run. They love walking with large groups of people. I guess we become their "pack." And at the beach in Vina Del Mar, a dog walked over Rob's (an Ohioan with slow, Bob Marleyish manner) head. They mostly just sat next to us and waiting to see if we would bring food out for them. Another amazing sight were the Brazilian tai kwon do kids doing back flips on the beach. One boy, who was about 8, did three at a time! The beach was relaxing but it was overcast and it was nice to head back to the hostel in the evening. After pre-partying with wine and piscos, we headed to an Italian restaurant suggested by the hostel owner. She drove us over in her van, which upon opening, James tore off the door handle. He tried putting it in his mouth to conceal the evidence, but being the lovable Aussie that he is, apologized to Christina and we went on our way. After dinner, we tried checking out the bars in the Quinto Norte area. "Patricio," a cutie spending a semester abroad from Penn State, suggested where to go. I didn't mind the traditional Chilean kiss goodbye he gave me before we left the beach! There were 20 of us who headed to Vina Del Mar this past weekend. Daniela, an young woman doing her internship at the Chilean Ministry of Edu. (MINEDUC), helped us find our way there. Aside from Rio and Summer, my two roommates, the adorable married couple, Kyle (who just celebrated his 23rd bday!) and Vanessa came with us; the aforementioned James the Aussie and Rob the Ohioan, Gregg with two g's, Mike another running fellow, Lia the perky Canadian, Jamie from ME, Lauren the bartender from PA, Olivia another volunteer for Antofagasta and a loud Texan, TJ our favorite frat boy, Bethany the comical beauty from Oregon, and Elliot the always entertaining class clown. I felt the need to rush everyone out of the hostel that morning, probably an influence from my dad's impatience, but that's the way it works for large groups. Anyway, it was an unforgettable experience. Sunday was spent at Vina in town, walking around... although we had forgotten everything closes on Sundays by habit. I bought a striped shoulder bag, made of striped red-orange fabric, reminiscent of the indigenous Chilean artwork. We ate empanadas at the park in the center of town and returned home earlier that afternoon.
Now, the second week of orientation is over.
I'm so excited to almost finish orientation as the days are so full of preparation activities for our English classes, spanish review, and information about the program in general. We had to visit a school for observation purposes only and present our findings. My group's school was just down the street on Ricardo Cummings, and municipal (govt. funded) all boys school called Colegio de Aplicacion. The school was more orderly than I imagined (seeing as they told us how discipline is low in Chile), and was over 100 years old. Most of the teachers in Chile are in their late 40s to 60s. The teacher I shadowed worked authoritatively, asking a "volunteer" to write a sentence 9 times using the 9 different English verb tenses and then reciting the sentences in Spanish. The exercise seemed tedious at best, but I was still impressed with their ability as most Americans wouldn't be able to do the same thing in English! I've gotten to know so many great people in the program that I won't see after Saturday night, as we leave for Antofagasta ("Antofa"). Peter with the glasses is a quiet, pensive guy who went hiking this weekend and has done a lot of travelling on his own. Peter the former pro-soccer player is another new acquaintence with a very lax attitude and another runner as well. I also met the others going to Antofa.. Sarah a skinny, friendly girl who was also in my Spanish classes (which are now over, thank god!), Stacey (with the glasses, there were two) who went to Colegio de Aplicacion with me, Cameron the other partier who is 6'3" a knack for winning at ping pong and another sweetheart. There are others maybe worth mentioning later... It's funny how you can have moments with people in such a short time. Peter with the glasses let me listen to his iPod while he was charging it in the hallway of our floor, so we sat leaning against the wall with our eyes closed sharing earphones while listening to Tom Waitts (sp?). Good blues music that's new to me. We went to a Colegio Villa Del Sol and watched the students perform traditional dances from the North, South, and Easter Island as well as listened to their national anthem and were serenaded by two students singing "Everything I do (I Do it for You)" in English and a song by Gabriela Marcelo. After the presentations, we got an opportunity to speak to the students who swarmed around us like the papparazzi. At first, I wasn't being approached by many students and the first question was undoubtedly "Where are you from?" but as we attempted to leave the students and head to the hall for coffee I was trapped by several groups of students. Almost all the students beg for e-mail addresses (mensajes) and we wrote our addresses down like autographs! A group of boys surrounded me and asked what music I liked. I told the everything and they cheered when I agreed I liked reggeton (raggae). They asked if I like Backstreet Boys (upon which I scrunched my face) but they sang "Quit Playing Games with my Heart" and they loved it when I sang with them! There was more Polonesian dancing inside the hall, and we marveled at the fearless students who wore grass skirts and bikini tops in the fall weather! We also went to an all boys school, which previously won the English Debate and did a sample debate for us with a neighboring school. They also sang and danced for us, including Don't Cry by Guns N Roses! The day has worn on me, but tomorrow is our last day of scheduled activities for the program concluding with an asado (bbq). We're planning on performing the Shoop Shoop song (the rap one) for tomorrow's bbq so I have to prepare my thug outfit. =) My next posting should be in Antofagast with my 58 yr old host mom, Fresia Aguirre after the 15 hour bus ride to Region II.
Labels: Honeymoon Period Leaving Santiago for Antofa
Unfortunately, all the gay guys were preoccupied or taken at the bar, so I just danced with my friends and had a good time. I think a group of us are planning to check out Cerro San Cristobal, the famous hill with the huge Virgin Mary that was on my first posting. One of the guys in the program just mentioned a view from a hill near Val'po but the ascent is 7 hours and by
I can't think about leaving everyone behind. I don't want to think of how I might not see these people again! Feeling emotional already! 
I got up at 8am after going to bed at 4am or so. Most people are still in bed, so I thought checking up my email for free one last time before my departure was a good idea. Well, ciao for now and off to teach English!
I can't think about leaving everyone behind. I don't want to think of how I might not see these people again! Feeling emotional already! 
I got up at 8am after going to bed at 4am or so. Most people are still in bed, so I thought checking up my email for free one last time before my departure was a good idea. Well, ciao for now and off to teach English!
.jpg)
