Parque Bicentinario

Last night I subbed a class for a fellow teacher. In the U.S. it would've been terrible to teach a class at 7pm but here it's not even dinner time. The student lives in a super swanky apartment across the street from Parque Bicentinario. The neighborhood is essentially the Beverly Hills of Santiago. I arrived really early in an effort to avoid the insane rush hour traffic so I decided to poke around the park. It was getting dark but between the fog and the weird light the park had this awesome creepy look going on.

Palm trees always look odd when it's overcast.

A swanky municipal building.

These lights reminded me of jellyfish. 

Black and white.

Sky/trees.

This restaurant looks really cool and swanky... I'm want to try it out when the weather is nice. They have a huge patio.

More palm trees and the park.

It's an awesome park. I recommend a visit to anyone who's in the area. I will definitely head back when the weather perks up. It was beautiful for a week and then this week it's been super cold. Very bi-polar, mother nature. I took some cool pics today in Barrio Brasil which I'll be sure to share soon!

XX

A

Popaico Part 2

Hi World,

Excuse my radio silence. I've been insanely busy running around Santiago the last two weeks. I've finally started teaching at the Polpaico plant. Little did I know, the plant is actually owned by a huge global company. This means that each of my classes only have one Chilean student. I also have a student form Venezuela, 2 Argentines (Argentinians?), and one Brazilian. It's so cool to learn about other parts of South America! But I digress. The real reason I've decided to share any information about Polpaico is because I wanted to show you guys my classroom. Maybe you won't agree, but this room feels like a '70's board room to me. I imagine that the room is usually stuffed with a bunch of old guys smoking cigars and making important decisions. But when I'm there it's a classroom in which we play games about articles of clothing... such is the life of an expat ESL teacher. Ha!  Anyways I thought I'd share some [awkward] pics I snapped while I waited for my students.

A snap out the car window on the way to the plant. It was a very smoggy day but you can kind of see the mountains in the distance (they're very faint).

I panicked as I took this picture because I thought someone was about to walk in and catch me creepily taking pictures of this seemingly uninteresting board room, so the composition is not the best. You can, however, see the 70's-esque interior and the old-man-cigar-ness of the place.

As I've mentioned before, Polpaico makes cement. They have all of these jars of pebbles and stuff in the "old-man-cigar-room"... which really contributes to the old man-ness.

See... they're all different!

So now you've seen the weir old-timey baord room I spend 6 hours each week in. Good times! I have another post coming up soon! In the mean time enjoy your Saturday :)

XX

A

Food and Random Ramblings

Hello World,

I've had a much more relaxed day than yesterday. I went to Lo Prado this morning where I teach English to low-income children. It's fun but totally exhausting. It's like my high school if everyone was actually 9 (instead of just acting like they're 9). My day was pretty boring... lots of cleaning, organizing, and errands. Boring. I did, however, take some kind of random snaps on my various outings so I thought I'd slap this post together (I hope it doesn't seem hasty!).

I took this pic on my walk home form the metro. I got off a few stops early to enjoy the WARM (read 85F) weather. It was a really smoggy day, but I managed to take a picture that looked somewhat clear.

I spent the majority of my walk behind this annoyingly slow couple. It was agonizing. I decided that because they were walking slowly I could take a picture of them... I was also curious/excited/amused/interested in the extreme height difference. It seemed very applicable to my life here where I tower over everyone. Also fun fact: the restaurant on the side is called "Dalai Lomo" (lomo is pork sandwich meat).

Later I decided to make stir fry. I made a similar version a few weeks ago but I decided to actually take pictures this time. It's pretty simple... Bell peppers, zucchini, garlic, rice, chicken, egg, and my secret sauce (sunflower seed oil, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and honey). *Poor picture quality thanks to horrific florescent lighting in my kitchen... when I have my own place there will be absolutely NO florescent lighting.*

My cooking process... Clearly I'm a neat chef (as evidenced by the scene on the right).

My finished product. 

Vanity shot of the fried rice... it's a glamorous beast of a meal.

So that was my day in a nutshell. Nothing wild, but super productive. And hopefully my food has at least been yummy to look at ;)

In other news...
-I recently read (OK I listened to the audio version) of Miranda Hart's autobiography (I guess it's more of a memoir). If you're a Miranda fan I recommend it. Such fun.
-I bought a new dress which I hope to break out this weekend... maybe I'll do an outfit post?
-I've become obsessed with candles. I get them at this awesome store.
-I'm thinking about making this recipe soon. I have a lot of bananas that are brown and ready.
-Planning a trip to Mendoza, Argentina soon... keep an eye out for that :)

OK I'll stop babbling now. Hope everyone out there is cyberspace is well. Just remember it's Wednesday night... the work week is halfway through!

XX
A

LONG Day

Hi Guys,

Just a quick post this morning. Yesterday was outrageously long. Now I know plenty of people leave the house around 8am and don't return until 8pm. I'm not complaining about being out for 12 hours (although it is exhausting), I'm more complaining about the progression of my day. It was ROUGH. I woke up a tad too late to shower (ew/oops) so all day I looked like a homeless freak with insane hair. NOT good. I also wore a very blah outfit which, as you may know, is not helpful when you are having a rough hair day. I thought I would return home from teaching around 3, but before my 1pm class my lovely boss (that is not sarcasm... I legitimately love my boss) informed me that we would be going to the Polpaico plant to begin teaching. My boss is incredibly busy and she thought she'd told me but she hadn't (again I totally understand... these things happen). This did mean, however, that my sad hobo-esque appearance would see me through meeting a batch of new students as well as two hours in a car.

The other things that made yesterday insanely long...
-Taking the bus to Renca (not nice neighborhood, very far)
-Take the bus/metro from Renca all the way to Las Condes (very nice neighborhood, very far)
-Endless car time to/from plant.

Anyways I did manage to snap some not-very-good pics with my new camera. I was terrified to take it out because I really don't want it to get stolen (slash make me look even more like a gringa than I already do). But hopefully I'll have some cool pics with the new camera soon!

I have to walk up A LOT of stairs to get to my apartment... cherry on top of my never-ending day.

I indulged in another fresh squeezed orange juice. DEL-OI-CIOUS.

I hastily snapped this picture (and the next one) as we drove out of the Polpaico plant. The sun was setting and it was actually pretty beautiful. I personally like the moving effect, but I suppose it looks like I'm just terrible at taking pictures.

This is a blurry (arty?) picture of the plant itself. I have no idea what this tower functions as, but I thought the lights looked cool. Ha!

OK guys... I guess this wasn't exactly "a quick" post. Today is much more relaxed so I'll recuperate (tomorrow is the exact same as yesterday... eek!). Talk to you soon!

XX

A

New Camera... and (ironically) Photobooth

Hello Internet!

I did it! I bought a camera! I'm so excited to actually use it! I have taken a few test shots (not very exciting shots, I'm afraid) as well as some awkward selfies of me and my new love (the camera). I decided to go with the Samsung WB150F. Certainly not the fanciest camera but after doing quite a bit of research I'm really excited with this decision. As you can see from the pictures I decided to go for white. Perhaps not everyone's first choice, but I love it!

Did I mention I'm the most awkward dork EVER?

I don't know what this face is... but I think it's kind of funny (albeit in a tragic way). *I'm also holding the camera upside down. Fail.*

My face here is inexplicable. Apologies. The point of this pic, however, is to see the lovely zoom! Yay!

It's nasty and smoggy out, but this is by far the best picture I've taken out of my window since arriving in Santiago. Thanks, camera :)

The Park!

Me taking a picture of me taking a picture. Also, if you look closely, you can see the many distorted selfies I took last night in an ugly contest with M and K. I laughed a lot.

So that's the new camera. I'm so excited to get out and use it and show you guys more cool stuff around Santiago/Chile. I'll post again soon!

XX

A

P.S. I decided to go for a new blog design. Do you guys like it?

P.P.S. I've noticed there are some new readers today? Particularly from Canada... welcome! Poke around, see what you like! 

Empanadas

I'm insanely tired today (*read: hungover/stayed out until 5am... yikes*) but thanks to M and K, I rallied and made my way to Barrio Italia (very close to my apartment) for an empanada. I've had lots of empanadas since I've been in Chile but this was my favorite so far. The crust was a delicious buttery wonderland and the filling was steaming hot and actually substantial (some empanadas come with a single disappointing slice of ham inside... tragic). The empanadas plus the beautiful weather made my physical state much more bearable. Ha! Anyhoooooo I thought I'd share some pics of my dangerously delicious lunch...

Look how cute the packaging was! 

The (mostly) full empanada in all of it's buttery glory... I couldn't restrain myself and took a bite before I took a picture (slash I didn't even think to take a picture until after my first bite... foolish, I know).

Just LOOK at that filling! I went for the simple jamon y queso and it was awesome.

That's all for now. I'm going to an asado (BBQ) later but I'm going to attempt to sleep a little beforehand. I'll let you all know what I get up to tonight/tomorrow!

XX

A

Friday Night Dinnahhh

Hello world!

It's finally Friday night!! Woo! I'm not sure what tonight as in store for me... but I anticipate dancing, which, as you may know, requires some fuel. So I thought I'd share what I've cooked for dinner. Two friends are coming over (well they were supposed to get here a while ago, but due to some logistical issues they are woefully late, ha!) so I decided to make a bit of a feast! I went to the Feria today and got a pretty good haul of fruits and veggies to make. I decided to make more fries and"bruschetta" but instead of bread I lightly grilled some Zucchinis to act as the base. I also made some pesto mayo to accompany the fries... take a look!

The fries... even thought they're cooked in the oven they still seem somewhat dangerous. Eek!

Close up of those bad boys.

Pesto Mayo... being emo in the corner, naturally. 

I forgot to mention... the Zucchini is accompanied with goat cheese. A thousand times better.

My bruschetta topping... Tomatoes, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic and salt. So easy and so tasty. 

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll be able generate some cool posts over the weekend (in other words be an interesting person that generates meaningful content to write about). In the mean time I hope everyone enjoys their Friday night! I think my friends are finally almost here so I'm going to pop those fries back in the oven :)

XX

A

Life Lately

Hello world!

My week has been very busy but it's basically done now, which is great! I'm not totally sure what I'll do this weekend. I think I'll probably go to an Asado (BBQ) on Saturday and hopefully I'll get up to some other fun shenanigans. The only other definite plan I have is to cook (and obviously eat). I'll of course keep you updated :) In the mean time I thought I'd share some pictures from this week :)

Me being bored and making faces... Embarrassing but whatever.

I made some homemade oven-baked fries. Mmmmmm. Recipe from here.

A pic as I ran (ergo slanted composition) through Plaza de Armas. I love all of the old and new stuff.

Snack today before class. HUGE fresh squeezed OJ and a whole wheat muffin. Not bad ;)

I went to yoga a few times this week... this is a terrible picture, but it seemed relevant. Ha!

So that's my week in a nutshell. Excuse the particularly bad photo quality. I've really got to sort out my camera situation. Oy vey. I hope everyone has a lovely Friday! :)

XX

A

Metro

The Metro in Santiago is legitimately crazy. I've had to endure rides that are so packed I had to hold my backpack over my head to fit into the car. I've mentioned the metro before on my blog but today I decided to take some pictures on one of my many jaunts across the city. To be honest, it was hard to really capture the essence of the subway without looking like a total freak (it's a bit awkward to take pictures when you're in such close quarters!), but I got some OK shots.

That structure coming out of the ground is the mouth of the subway.

There are crazy stripes that direct you.

I took this picture around 2:30p.m. and it was really crowded!

The trains have rubber tires... WEIRD.

Most of the stations have cool sculptures and designs... this one has a big mural.

So that's the metro! In other news I tried out a yoga class yesterday. Yoga in Spanish is very different. I also made the mistake of going to a a class that was too advanced. It was very difficult, which rendered some horrifically embarrassing situations for me. I think I will go back, but next time I'll go to a less intense level. I'll report back!

Ciao, internet!

XX

A

P.S. Stay tuned for some food posts soon (I hope!).

A Day at the Feria

Yesterday was beautiful yet again. The kind of day where you can wear pants and a cardigan and be totally fine, almost a little warm. I decided to go to the market to get some veggies and fruit. Fruit and veggies in the supermarkets here are really lackluster. The tomatoes have this horrible bland yellow-red color (if that makes any sense) and most of the produce seems to be on its last leg. Basically you're better off going to a feria if you want some good produce. Ferias are street markets. Most neighborhoods have ferias at some point during the week and there are some ferias that are permanent (like La Vega). Yesterday the feria was HOPPING. Between the weather and the holiday it seemed like everyone was out getting food. I prefer going on a less crowded day, but it was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

The colors are awesome and the prices are pretty good too... 3 huge zucchinis for $2USD=not too shabby.

They sell all sorts of stuff at the ferias... electronics, cosmetics, DVDs etc.

Nuts!

My Chilean friend told me the Mapuche word for this but I can't for the life of me remember it (chollulla? something like that). I'm pretty sure it's essentially dried kelp. Apparently people put it into soups and stuff. Doesn't sound too appetizing to me, but I guess it could be interesting to try.

For about $10USD I got:

2 HUGE Zucchinis

1/2 Kilo of Kiwis

5 or so Bananas

A bunch of Asparagus

5 Tomatoes

A mirror

... and definitely some other stuff, but I can't remember/don't feel like checking (que fome). 

Now I just have to decide what to make with all of my food! Mmmmm! I thought I'd make it to the beach this weekend but I don't think that will happen. I will keep you all updated!

XX

A