BBQ Time

Oh hello there,

I'm back and attempting to post more regularly! Woop! We'll see how it goes. Last weekend I went to a BBQ at a friend's house. It was a great time with fun people! My friend's building was super nice (with a mini teeny tiny pool) and a great BBQ area. We cooked TONS of meat and basically ate and drank for hours! I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Sam's awesome fruit salad! 

Seriously so much food!

This was a cute house across the street... it kind of reminded me of home. 

So much choripan! Confession: I ate one with the bread. It was the first blatant gluten I've eaten in weeks. I did not feel any side effects from eating the gluten... although it was delicious so I suppose I've risked ending my gluten-free lifestyle! 

Everyone hanging out and eat-eat-eating.

That's all for now folks! I've got a busy afternoon followed by a work social hour. It should be fun, but it'll be a long day! Talk to ya soon!

XX

A

Catch Up

Hello world!

It's HOT out today. I'm currently huddled in my dark cave-like room trying to avoid the heat. I thought it was time I update you all on my life recently. These are pics I've taken over the last few weeks, and they're pretty random. I have a more thorough post for you guys soon (think ASADO... aka BBQ), but I'm afraid you'll have to wait a day or two. Anyhoo... here's my life over the last few weeks:

Sam and Kerry (2 awesome ladies) and I made a cauliflower-crust pizza. It turned out OK... and we now know how to attempt to make it in the future. Very interesting recipe/concept. I can't wait to try it with an actual food processor!

This procession went past my window on All Saints Day. It was pretty cool, but also a little freaky.

Nuns from the procession.

PUPPIES!

FREE PUPPIES!

Guys, I seriously almost took one! It took all of my strength not to! THEY WERE SO CUTE!

So that's all for now. Short and sweet I'm afraid! Talk to ya soon!

XX

A

Chi-Chi-Chi Le-Le-Le

Hello world!

How are you all?

A slight change of plans... you see I was going to write about Valpo day 2, but Chile just qualified for the world cup for the first time in 15 years or something.

I'm currently sitting in my room and outside there's a symphony of car horns. People are FREAKING out! Everyone is going to Plaza Italia (a few blocks away from my house) and I can hear the vuvuzelas and screaming from my room. As I mentioned, I was going to write a post about Valpo, but it seems so much more pertinent to show you what I've viewed from my apartment!

The reaction is what I would expect from a country that had won the world cup--not from a country that qualified to be in the world cup! It's been about an hour and the honking has not stopped, and more and more people are pouring out of their houses to make their way to Plaza Italia. I snapped some (not very good) pics from my phone (my camera was dead... I charged it a bit and got some OK videos). Hopefully you can see at least a snippet of some of the excitment!

They have yet to stop... so we'll see if I get to sleep tonight!

In other news tomorrow actually happens to be my birthday (10/16) so I'll do a Valpo post as a gift to myself? Ha... I guess!  Goodnight world!

XX

A

Valpo Day 1

Hello!

This weekend was lovely. Neither my roommate nor I had ever been to Valparaiso. We decided to bite the bullet and instead of waiting for the friends we had intended to go with (each of us with a different set of friends) we decided to go together. We both wanted to see the city, get away from Santiago, and relax. It was totally worth it! People are always telling me that Valpo is the best and coolest. I definitely see what they mean. It reminded me of home (Berkeley+San Francisco) and the people were much more relaxed than here in Santiago. I still like Santiago (I think it's underrated), but I get why everyone oohs and ahhs over Valpo.

Our first day we walked to our hostel from the bus station (AKA hiked up a huge hill in incredible heat and inappropriate footwear). Once we settled into our (AWESOME) hostel we set out for lunch. We were starving! The guy who runs the hostel, Poroto (Chilean Spanish for bean), told us a good fish place we should try. This entailed us walking down the hill, taking a crazy old funicular/tram type of thing and walking through a pretty stinky fish market. I think, however, that it was worth it. The food was AWESOME!

After finally eating something we went down to the waterfront to take a boat tour of the harbor. Valpo is a port town and there's actually a lot to see from the water. The boat we took was very Chilean, AKA little safety provisions/looked like it would break apart while we were all on it. There was a very funny (flaite-esque (flaite in the Chilean term for white trash)) guy who sat on the edge of the boat (we were certain he would fall off) and explained the harbor to us (in Spanish, obviously). He was very nice, but he had the longest scariest fingernails in the world (clearly you all need to know that).

I've got to run and get ready but I'll leave you with some pictures from the day! There more to come, so get ready internet!

The view form the roof of our hostel.

Fish in a delicious sauce.

The Chilean understanding of Salad... AKA a few vegetables with iceberg lettuce.

The harbor (crazy colorful)

Me being a dork in a life coat... only now realizing how awful this picture is. Oh well!

Sea Lion hanging out in the harbor. 

A view of Valpo from the water.

Various shipping things... like a more colorful version of Oakland!

One of the main plazas in the city (don't know why I took this picture, but now you can see a piece of the city... woohoo)

As I said, much more is on the way. In the mean time, have a great Monday (I don't know that that's possible... but good luck trying!).

XX

A

Recently

Hello, Internet.

It's the middle of another CRAY-ZAY week. It never ends! I'm, as usual, totally busy and a little bit overwhelmed by everything I have to do, but it's Wednesday. I have one more crazy day and then it's essentially the weekend! Anyways... here are some random pics form the last few days (excuse horrific pic quality... all pics taken on my phone):

My breakfast the other day... I edited this photo on an app on my phone called Aviary... looking for a similar app for my computer but can't find anything that lets me do all of the things my phone app does! Any suggestions?

I finally finished my visa process this week! Despite arriving CRAZY early I was number 73!!

The many papers and machines involved when I was finally called up to finish my visa process... 3 hours later!!!

I made SUPER YUMMY burritos a few days before I started my no-gluten diet. Mmm. Despite how yummy this was, I actually don't miss eating bread/pasta at all #win.

This sign pissed me off. You see in Chile you have to throw toilet paper into the trash (never in the toilet). This obviously applies to female hygienic products. In some businesses, there is a special trash can for hygienic products. I was annoyed when this special hygiene trashcan had a sign that read "maintain the secret." As though the use of feminine products is some huge secret... like hello, it's just another annoying piece of life... My point is the sign struck me as another piece of South American sexism. I'm not feeling particularly articulate, but maybe someone out there will understand my annoyance. If not, then enjoy this random (and not good) picture of critical bathroom instructions.

That's all for now folks! Talk to ya soon!

XX

A

A Note About Food

Food. I talk about it a lot on my blog and I'm afraid you, lovely reader, are in for another post about food. I recently read Wheat Belly, a book about how modern wheat affects the digestive system. Full disclosure: I have IBS (such a fun cute disorder!) and the book goes into great detail about how gluten and wheat can impact your digestive system--especially for those with IBS and more serious disorders. Over the last week I've decided to cut out as much gluten as possible. This basically means no pasta, bread, pastries, and EMPANADAS. EEK! You'd think it would be hard to do... especially in Chile. It actually hasn't been that hard. I eat out so infrequently here so it's really a matter of being careful about what I purchase at the grocery store.

Over this last week I've been relatively successful. I've avoided most obvious forms of gluten/wheat, but I've definitely had some accidental gluten. Yikes. Most of my diet has consisted of vegetables, meat, rice, oatmeal, and dairy. And this week, because I had hardly any time to go to the store, I mostly ate oatmeal. Ha! Anyhoo today I finally made it to the feria. I was able to buy everything I need for the week (and then some) for about $20 USD. I've done a post on the feria before, but this time I went to a different, bigger one. It's always more crowded on the weekend, but there's more to choose from. I got...

-Bananas
-Walnuts
-Flax Seed powder
-Toasted honey quinoa (it's like cereal!)
-Zucchini
-Asparagus
-Honey
-Potatoes
-Avocados
-Tomatoes
-Carrots
-Mushrooms
-Strawberries (super sweet!)
-Cauliflower

I'm pretty sure I'm missing something... but that's the bulk of it! I'm pretty excited about my haul... I have some good recipes I'm thinking of making so I'll keep you guys updated!

In the mean time, here are some pics from the feria and one random meal I ate this week.

I made this pretty yummy concoction the other day... I made my yummy stir fry sauce (honey+soy sauce+ginger+garlic+oil+pepper) with chicken, mushrooms, zucchini, and onion. Then I put is in huge cabbage leaves. Mmmm. Tasty. 

The feria (vintage filters... cause I'm cool like that)

Mmmmm... strawberries (another vintage filter).

A crazy stall at the feria with weird toys. Very odd.

Well that's all for now, folks. I hope you are well and I'll be back soon!

XOXO

A

Gum on the Floor

It's been WAY too long since I've posted and for that I apologize. I'm writing this as I sit in my student's swanky lounge. I got here insanely early. On Tuesday I left my house at 9:05 and did not arrive at my class (the one I'm currently waiting for) until 10:08. The class starts at 10… so not ideal. In order to avoid this trauma I left my house today at 8:55. I figure, leave 10 minutes earlier, arrive 10 minutes earlier. False. I arrived at 9:30! Half an hour early for class and 40 minutes earlier than I arrived last time. Santiago, you and your bizarre traffic patterns never cease to confuse me!

My absence can be attributed to a multitude of tasks and annoying activities. I've been working on some things for next year which has taken up a lot of my time. By next week most of my planning for next year will have calmed down (I hope!). I've also been in overdrive since my student gave me his soul-crushing (albeit accurate) comments about my class. I've done everything I can to address the situation, but that's meant planning classes to a tee and not blogging.

I don't have much time at the moment to write a proper post but I will hopefully get back to posting more regularly soon. I will, however, leave you with this anecdote about gum in Chilean classrooms…

Before I came to Chile I read this weird book about Chilean culture. Pieces of the book are incredibly accurate, but other pieces of the book are clearly written for wealthy expats moving to Chile for important business reasons… certainly not for teachers going into poor neighborhoods to teach children. According to this book, gum is not accepted in formal environments in Chile. I assumed, therefore, that gum would be outlawed in classrooms (so to speak). 

This brings us to yesterday (Wednesday). I was teaching a class of fourth graders. They are sweet kids, but totally insane. The school even warned us that this class has behavioral issues and they didn't know what to do with them. Anyways, we were teaching a class and I look over and see a kid pull a long string-rubber thing out of his mouth and squish it into the table. At first I genuinely thought it was rubber. He then coiled it back up and popped it into his mouth. At this point I stopped class and broke into fluent English (something along the lines of "Oh my god, that is so nasty!"). My co-teachers looked over and they too were horrified. The kids, however, were totally confused because their English doesn't span past numbers, colors, and a few simple phrases. They did catch on to the fact that we were talking about the gum.

Then things took a turn. The boy with the gum took the gum out of his mouth, rolled it into a ball and threw it at another student. This student proceeded to put the gum into his mouth! At this point my co-workers and I were laughing as well as disgusted… it was all a bit crazy. Then the gum dropped out of the second boy's mouth. He dove to the ground to put it back into his mouth(!!!). I, however, could not handle the grotesque notion of the gum's recent germ contact (who knows where the gum started--> boy 1--> table--> boy 1 (+his hands)--> boy 2--> floor) and I also dove to the floor. I got the the gum first and threw it away. This caused a stir amongst the kids who felt wronged that their (horrifying) piece of gum had been thrown out. I felt a little bad, but in the end I stand by my decision.

So there's my teaching anecdote for the day. Please excuse lack of pictures, as I said proper posts will come back soon!

Have a nice THURSDAY (TGIT)!

XX
A 

La Playa

As promised... here's my post on my recent beach trip! Woop! It was QUITE the experience. On Thursday morning M and I randomly decided that we absolutely needed to get out of Santiago. We decided we would go to the beach. As we were getting ready to leave C saw us and asked where we were going. Soon enough we were all going to the beach. We got to the bus station and we randomly decided to go to El Quisco, a beach that's about an hour and a half west of Santiago. The coach bus was SUPER nice. Coach buses seem to be the chosen mode of transportation here and I see why. They are great! I digress. Once we arrived at the beach town we got some delicious sea food. I got a huge steaming pile of basically every type of shellfish imaginable, which was great. M went for steak, and C went for a crab dish.

While we were eating we realized we needed to figure out where would stay (as I said, this was a very impromptu trip). We asked our waiter and he brought us a the information for a cabaña that we could stay in. We called the number and were told we could rent a cottage with a kitchen, bathroom, and sleeping space for 3 for $36 (USD). It sounded pretty great so we set off to find our beach abode. Little did we know we would basically have to climb Mount Everest to get there... and when we finally did get there we were met with an interesting little structure. When I say interesting I mean scary. The ceiling in the bedroom was made of styrofoam and there were ominous holes in the ceilings. Being total gringos, M and I were weary of this lodging option but C, a true Chilean, said it was fine. We trusted her judgement and took the cottage for the night.

Once we had a place to leave our things (place=weird cottage) we went back down to the beach with some Chilean beers to watch the sunset. It reminded me of a night on the beach in northern California (like Mendocino). Super beautiful but also freakishly cold. I thought I was going to turn into a popsicle! We then met up with the lovely K for some drinks. K was staying with the family she works for at the next beach over and she was able to get away for the night to hang out with us. We eventually went back to our cabin/cottage/cabaña/house from a scary movie where we began to settle in for bed. It was FREEZING and no one wanted to sleep on the small bed alone for fear of spiders and other potentially scary things that lurked in the dark corners. This mean that we all slept in the queen sized bed. The mattress was curved and the blankets had some stains that were not exactly comforting. K pointed to one stain in particular that she "hoped was baby food." I think you get the idea... Yikes! Despite the scary atmosphere and weird stains we had a blast. We slept like a can of sardines and we were actually quite warm (I even had to take off my sweatshirt in the middle of the night!).

Overall it was a super fun trip. Definitely a bit different, and if I'd walked into a cottage in the states that looked like that there's no way I would've stayed for the night, but when in Rome... or El Quisco... A little adventure never hurt anyone! I'll be back with more posts soon internet... in the mean time enjoy the pics form my trip!

Pullman Bus... super classy transportation! 

My lunch.

My lunch and I... Excuse weird face and wild hair!

The beach!

Kind of blurry pic of me on the beach... and C in the background.

M and C being all cute.

The beach when it got dark and COLD.

Scary hole in ceiling (1 of 2).

Styrofoam ceiling in the bedroom.

M, K, C, and I all slept in the bed with the blue sheets haha! It was a bit tight.

A cute puppy at the bus station.

As a good liberal arts educated girl I would like to put in a small disclaimer... I realize my aversion to our sleeping arrangement may seem incredibly culturally insensitive and frankly rude. I fully acknowledge that K, M, and I were being total gringas about the whole thing (I mean we did sleep in it, but we also complained a bit). I am just trying to be as honest as possible and explain my actual reaction to the situation. I am fully aware that many Chileans live in worse conditions all year round. I am merely unaccustomed to this way of life. We ended up having a blast so clearly our discomfort was unnecessary.

OK well that's all for now internet. Until we meet again!

XX

A

Choppin the Loxxx

Hello World,

How is your Thursday going? Mine has been quite all right. I normally work until 8 or so on Thursdays but today two of my classes were canceled so I've had the afternoon free. I'm pretty much on vacation mode now because next week is the 18th which is Chile's independence day. It's supposed to be a week of partying. I only have one class to teach so I'll hopefully get up to some fun things.

In preparation for these festivities I thought my hair needed a bit of a pick-me-up. I was very apprehensive about getting my hair done in Chile. I have gringa hair by Chilean standards, but by gringa standards I have insane hair. Super thick, super curly, and very fine strands. I've gotten my hair routine down in the states but I was a bit freaked out about the idea of getting my hair cut in a country where women have two distinct layers of hair and men have mullets. I was also terrified that my request (which was a very small trim, just take off the dead ends) would be lost in translation and I'd walk out like one of these guys... ah!

So I bit the bullet and communicated to the best of my abilities that I just wanted a short trim and I think it worked out OK...

In the process... and looking very much like a vampire. Oops. The salon used Moroccan hair oil, which is always a plus in my book! I think you can see the wonderfulness of said hair oil in the shimmery results...

The final product... no more split ends!

And last but not least, a completely unrelated pic of the latte my student made me this morning... DELICIOUS.

So overall it's been a nice day and it's not over yet. I am going to meet M and K for drinks later, which should be fun! Have a nice night, people!

XX

A

P.S. A small update on the happenings of 9/11 in Chile... The only real action I saw was a caravan of 8 carabinero (police) buses with their sirens on. M saw a bunch of desks on fire outside of a school. The real problems, however, were in the outer comunas. I teach a class in Renca (as I've mentioned before Renca is a very bad neighborhood) and my student there (the one who made me the coffee above) said they had some pretty serious problems. The riots there caused power outages which is bad because my student runs a paper recycling plant. Due to the power outages the plant could not process paper over night. This means that tons of loose paper was hanging around and could easily catch on fire. Everything was Ok, but my student was understandably stressed out! So there's the update... ish!

Sunday

Hola!

Between skiing on Saturday and the clocks jumping forward Saturday night Sunday was a super lazy day for me. Oops. Despite doing virtually nothing all day I was pooped. It was a beautiful day out and it finally started to feel like Spring. I'm excited for warm nights... but a little afraid for sweaty subway rides. We shall see. Anyhoo here are some pics form my very lazy day :)

Sun goes down, lights go up.

Pink mountains!

I made a steak salad... mmmmmm.

So that's my Sunday for you. Far less eventful than my Saturday. See you soon, world!

XX
A