YouTube videos from the Hogar

So, I was thinking about it, and if you want to see the videos on YouTube, I think you´d be better off searching jkhouri87 and then selecting the videos...otherwise, you get a bunch of other stuff that has nothing to do with the Hogar. Just a helpful hint :)

Chau!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

So I thought I´d take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

While this amazing American holiday hasn't quite made it to the Southern Hemisphere, I have been getting very warm wishes from my Chilean friends, including a Charlie Brown video on Facebook (which made me smile).

I also thought I'd catch you all up on my activities the last week or so.

On Monday, I took my last History exam (actually, my last exam PERIOD!) and feel I did pretty well...at least, a great deal better than I did on my Education exam a few weeks prior (going to see the grade tomorrow...keep your fingers crossed). Tuesday I finished my poetry project and started my group project in Education. We got about half way through, and should be finishing up on Saturday. I have also started my Education paper which this blog is helping me procrastinate for (haha), but as the topic is really interesting, I feel I should be motivated to finish it some time in the next few days.

Last night, I attended the Hogar del Nino Sirio y Palestino end of the year show. All the girls performed, some by reciting poetry, almost all Arabic dancing as well as some other dancing, and singing. Macarena, the graduating senior, gave a very touching speech on the occasion of her graduation as well (she graduated from a technical high school with a degree in auto-repair, something she greatly enjoys).

The night was full of good food, good entertainment, and good fellowship and it was the greatest feeling watching the girls I've grown so close to perform dances they've been working hard on all year. I think leaving the Hogar is going the be the most difficult part of coming home, and each of the girls has found a way into my heart. (Editor's Advisory: all family and friends be prepared for very long picture/story sessions about each of the girls at the Hogar probably in way more detail than you really want to know...LOL).

For those of you who would like to see a little bit of the show last night, the dances and songs have been posted to YouTube...if you search for "Hogar del Niño, Fin del Año", they should be like the first four or five videos (you will know it's them because it will say "Posted by jkhouri87" - that's me).

Anyway, I wish you all God's blessings on this day, and hope each of you have a marvelous celebration :)

Haha, forgot something

Haha, so I forgot the best news of all!! For those of you who don't know, I've been having serious issues both with my senior thesis (my advising professor left the university) and with my ESL endorsement (one class short, not offered again for another whole year). Yesterday, I received an email from another professor who has agreed to advise my thesis and refund any books I purchase here in Chile specifically for research, and today I received an email from the assistant Dean of Education agreeing to approve me for student teaching and offering me various ways out of my class dilemma. So thank you for all your prayers! These emails have reduced my stress load by like 1000x.

Chao for now!

Updates!!

As the semester is coming to a close, I have been extremely busy with final projects and exams, hence the lack of writing lately. However, I would like to take a few minutes to give you all a quick update on how things have been going these last couple of weeks.

As I said, school is keeping me really busy. I think I have something like 8 evaluations (tests or papers) within the next two weeks...on top of reading. So that'll be keeping me pretty homebound at least until Thanksgiving (which, unfortunately, I think I will be missing this year :( ).

On the church front, Fr. Francisco has asked our choir to record a CD with various church songs in Spanish for the parish to listen to during Christmas Lent. We have been having extra practices, which has been a lot of fun for me to help out with as well, and we are planning to record on Friday (place your orders now if you're interested!).

Also, today I went to the opening of a Russian Cinema Festival, which was unfortunately composed of very strange avante guarde type movies that I don't really understand (we left early); on the upside, I made away with a bunch of free DVD's, including a documentary on a monastery in Russia, so I'm excited to watch those! I'm not sure what language it's in and/or what subtitles are available, but should be fun anyway :)

Teaching is getting a little better, but still very difficult as the nice weather makes students restless. I'm using more English in the classroom (that's a good thing, since it's English class), but it's still very difficult because the students still don't understand very much. Only two or three more weeks of that, however.

The weather has been gorgeous (80s), so I've really been enjoying that, and am not happy about coming home to snow...brrrrrr. Just trying to take as much advantage of the weather as possible.

I think that about covers it for now. Haven't been taking many more pictures, because I haven't really gone anywhere, but please let me know if there's something you want pictures of (I know Frank likes Ferreterías), just let me know.

I love you all and hope to hear from some of you soon!

Besitos a todos!!

Arica Photos

So, here's the link to the photos I took from Arica. As my camera petered out (again) part way through, I am going to try to bum some photos from my friends as well, and will add those as I get them. Hope you like them!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jkhouri87/AricaIquique#

Trip to Arica and Iquique - Day 4/5

Sunday morning, we took a taxi to the bus station where we caught the first bus to Iquique. 5 hours on a bus is not fun, and we were all very grateful we had flown from Santiago instead of the possibly cheaper option of taking the 28 hour bus ride (that would have been aweful!). We got to Iquique about lunch time, enjoyed the cities specialty (seafood!!), and then went grocery shopping for some home cooked dinner.

We were staying at the Backpacker's Hostel, which is a chain of hostels specifically designed for (go figure) backpackers. We had access to the kitchen, and the atmosphere was a lot of fun. After shopping, my friends took a trip paragliding and as I am not quite so brave, I contented myself to reading on the beach and walking through waves - which was plenty of fun for me :)

We all ended up back at the hostel in time to start dinner. In the process, we met a lot of fellow traveler's from around the world, including the US, England, and France. It was fun sharing experiences, as we had all definitely been in Chile longer than most of them, and could share some very helpful tips. For dinner, we cooked some improv Indian food (yay for my friend travelling with Marsala mix) and then made a dessert of chocolate dipped fruit - a big hit with everyone in the hostel!

We spent the evening hanging out and talking, and got to bed late, but happy overall with our trip.

Monday morning, we headed to the airport for our flight back to Santiago. As I didn't get home in time for class that day, I spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping, which was well needed after our trip.

Anyway, that's the Arica trip. Pictures will be in the next post, so I hope you enjoy them.

Trip to Arica and Iquique - Day 3

Saturday morning, we ate a very yummy breakfast of qunoa and hot milk (like a cream of wheat type thing), coca tea, and bread/butter. We then continued our trip up to the precordillera. We stopped on various occasions for pictures of the llamas, vacuñas, and alpacas, as well as in a couple smaller towns for a glimpse of atacameñan culture. About late morning, we reached Lake Chungara and the Parinacota volcano. Absolutely gorgeous (pictures coming soon)! Situated at 20, 413 feet, it was DEFINITELY high up! walking from the van to the edge of the lake (about 50 feet) was enough to leave us all breathless and dizzy - but totally worth it! After having our fill of picture taking, we stopped for a leisurely lunch nearby, where we also had a chance to buy various handicrafts made from alpaca wool, and then began the 5 hour descent back to Arica. As we quickly learned, the trip down is definitely harder than the trip up...all of us (including our driver) almost fell asleep on various occasions due to the altitude change. But, we made it safe and sound, bought our bus tickets for Iquique the next day, went out to dinner, and got to go clothes shopping in one of the cheapest cities in Chile for clothes (knock-off skirts for less than $4, for example). As we checked in to our hostel that night (the same as the first night), we were given a significant upgrade in rooms, which definitely made the stay a great deal more enjoyable.

Trip to Arica and Iquique - Day 2

Friday morning, we met our tour guide, Freddie, to begin our tour to Lake Chungara - the highest lake in the world. We started our tour with a trip to the "supermarket" - a huge warehouse like complex where families set up fruit and vegetable stands. After buying supplies for our trip, we continued out to the desert where we saw hieroglyphs - the ancient atacameños would create images on the hills using bits of rock, retelling stories from their history for future generations. After that, we went to Arica's museum and saw a detailed accounting of the development of the indigenous people in northern Chile, complete with mummies! From there, we started the looong drive UP: 5500 feet in one day. We drove through a good portion of the desert, stopping at a Hari Krishna monastery for a vegetarian lunch, and also for a hike along the Inka Trail (about an hour or so, during which time my friend got to get up close and personal with some guanaco). We ended the day in Putre, a tiny altiplano town 7000 feet above sea level, and were treated to a typical andean dinner of meat, vegetables, quinoa (a type of cereal that when cooked is kinda like couscous), and coca tea, supposedly really good for the altitude (worked for me, at least!). Then to sleep for an early morning the rest of the way to Lake Chungara.

Trip to Arica and Iquique - Day 1

For those of you who didn't know, I spent this last weekend with some friends from my study abroad program visiting the cities of Arica and Iquique in the northernmost region of Chile. Overall, the trip was really worth it, as we got to see a lot of great scenery and...LLAMAS!! Yes, llamas, as well as alpaca, guanaco, and vicuna - other members of the cameloid family to which llamas belong :)

Thursday morning (as in prior to sunrise), the three of us took a cab to the airport and flew to Iquique, a quiet city on the coast. Geologically, it's a very interesting place, because if you stand in the city and look east, all you can see is desert, and if you look west, all you can see is ocean. Pretty crazy! From there, we took a lovely 5 hour bus ride (haha) to Arica. Due to the change in altitude, I managed to get a little lightheaded, but survied. ***Editor's note: I just learned that Santiago is located at an elevation of 1562 feet and Arica at 1503 feet; therefore, all elevation-related illness (at this point at least) was entirely psychological or related to the airplane/bus trip*** We arrived in time for a late lunch, followed by a little shopping and a nighttime exploration of the city. We stumbled upon a political rally geared towards the upcoming mayoral elections (they actually were just completed on Sunday), complete with cotton candy, music, and an Elvis impersonator (we think he was trying to sing in English, but aren't exactly sure). We then returned for a decent night's sleep in our hostel, which was not the nicest/cleanest/most travel friendly, but served its purpose.

Sorry to keep it so short for tonight, but will continue tomorrow with more details on Friday-Monday.

Photos!! - Pucon

Here are my pictures from Pucon. Just a heads up...lots of landscape! Hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/jkhouri87/Pucon#

Long time no write + Pucon

I apologize for not having written in so long. Things have been crraaazzzyyy.

I have had three projects these last two weeks. Chilean professors have this horrible habit of not giving you your paper topic until two weeks before the paper is due, and not giving you your study guide until the class before the test. While I do have procrastinating tendencies, even this was a little much for me. The good news is that all three papers (two of which were group projects) are done and the test has been taken. I also got a grade back from a paper a few weeks ago and pulled off a 6.1 - a solid A-.

Brief vent about group projects in Chile:
Chileans are all procrastinators. My group for my Education paper decided that the Friday before the paper was due was the day to write the whole thing - 5 pages + bibliography. As if that wasn´t bad enough, all the information (a summary of the educational sociological theory of a British sociologist) was in English...which none of them speak well. Hence, I spent the five hours of our paper writing scanning articles and translating what I hoped were the most important parts of them. Hopefully I should be hearing more about this paper in the next couple of weeks. My other group project was a poetry paper. My partner also decided that the Sunday before the paper was due (aka two days after spending five hours translating British sociological theory) was the perfect time to write this paper, especially since she failed to show up to our get together on Thursday. Unfortunately, this plan also had serious flaws as we spent four hours going back and forth between each others houses (separtely, not together) due to misunderstandings as to whose house we were meeting at. Loooooong day. I do not have really high hopes for that paper, but ya never know.

Ok, enough school stuff.

This weekend, I had the amazing opportunity to go with my program to Pucon, a resort town in the south of Chile. For those of you familiar with California, it is a lot like Three Rivers. We drove down all night Thursday and got in early Friday morning. After a shower (yay) and breakfast (double yay) we took a tour of the area, seeing volcanic lakes, rivers, and waterfalls. Everything was absolutely gorgeous. Pictures will be coming in the next couple of days, but warning: they are not anywhere close to what these things looked like in person.

The place where we´re staying is a resort composed of different cabins. But these are not your run of the mill camping cabins...these are like cabins on steroids! Kitchens, TV, radio, whirlpool, etc., it´s really luxurious (now that´s one way to go camping!).

Saturday, I got together with some girls in the program and we did a canopi tour. Basically, we climbed a tree and zip-lined through the forest for an hour and a half. For someone who has never really like heights, it was definitely a step out of my comfort zone, but totally worth it. The forest was beautiful, and we got to zip over a big river, which was really cool! Following lunch, this same group of girls and I decided to go on cabalgatas, which is a horse-back riding tour. While at first it was kinda nerve wracking (they didn´t give us any instructions for riding...thank goodness I´ve done this before at Camp St. George), the trip was beautiful. Our guides took us up the mountain where we dismounted and hiked to a fantasticly out of this world waterfall (took a video of this one). It was so surreal, I didn´t want to leave. But, we had to, so we hiked back up to the horses (a lot harder since it had rained and the trail up the hill was completely muddy and slippery) and then rode back down the mountain. One of the girls´ horses slipped, which was really scary, but she held her own and everything turned out all right...no injuries to either horse or person.

Today, we learned that Daylight Savings has started in Chile. I am now two hours a head of Central Time Zone time (instead of one), so that´s good to know. I took a little trip to town and had fun taking nature pictures (Dad, can´t wait to show you). Also did a little shopping (Mom, I have a surprise for you :)) and bought some chocolate, which is REALLY good. Right now, I´m just kinda bumming around until our bus gets here to take us back to Santiago. We should be getting in early tomorrow morning, then I will go to class and then coffee/tea/lunch with Lorena, before studying for a test this Thursday.

That´s kind of it for now. Definitely going to be looking in to different nature-lover things to do for when I get back to Iowa, because it is really so much fun. I hope all is well with everyone, and please shoot me an email if you get a chance, or if too much time has gone by and my pictures still aren´t up (I have a tendency to put them on my computer, but forget to upload them).

Love you all!

Pictures from Frank's visit

So, I realized I never put a link for the pictures from Frank's visit. Here it is, and I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as we enjoyed taking them:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jkhouri87/FrankInChile#

The Beach!!!

On Saturday, the Iconography class at church took an outing to El Tabo beach. Even though I'm not in the class, I got invited to go by the other college students who are in the class. I'm really glad I did, too, because I had a great time.
We left Santiago early in the morning and got to the beach around 12:00. We had "breakfast" of hard boiled eggs, bread/butter, cake, and tea, and then took some time to walk around the beach and neighboring pueblo. I mostly hung out with my friend Marjorie, but also with Patricio and Natalia, two other choir friends. We got to play being 5 years old and splashing in the waves (even though it was only like 65 degrees), and then checked out some artesania in the pueblo. There were cool chimes and things made from sea shells and different statues and stuff all with beach themes.
After that, we had a late lunch (around 3) of chicken, a variety of salads, French fries, and rice, all topped off with ice cream and tea for desert. From there, more walking and picture taking along the beach until sunset (which I do have pictures of this time), when we headed back for the bus for the two hour ride home. All in all, it was very tranquilo as they say here, but a great way to get to know people better, relax, and just have fun.

Pictures are up and running here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jkhouri87/TallerDeIconografiaEnLaPlaya#

Frank's Visit - Day 5

Sadly, we have come to the last day :( Monday morning, I picked up Frank and we checked out of the hostel. From there, we traveled to the center of Santiago to see La Moneda, the presidential palace. As luck would have it, we caught a military parade and learned that in an hour, the president of Hungary would be visiting and we would get to see the president of Chile as well. To kill time, we visited an exhibit about Arica (a town in northern Chile that I will be visiting in October), which was very informative and cool. After we finished that, we ran back to the palace just in time to see La Presidenta greet the president of Hungary and walk into La Moneda. Very cool! I don't think I've even seen the US president in person, so I was pretty excited. After that, we went to Domino's one last time for lunch. It was wonderful, as usual.
After lunch, we visited Cerro Santa Lucia, the place where the city of Santiago was founded by Pedro de Valdivia. It was my first time there as well, and it was very beautiful. It was just nice to walk around, and we found a tour guide in one of the stray dogs who literally led us around the park (there's a picture coming). From there, we picked up Frank's luggage and headed to the airport. It was a sad parting, but we had great memories from this weekend and are happy that we are half way done!

Frank's Visit - Day 4

Sunday was a beautiful sunny day, and I picked Frank up to go to church at 10:45 (he also thought sleeping in on Sundays was a cool idea). We got to church, and Frank got to meet Fr. Francisco. We had matins at 11, and about half way through, Christine, the choir director, thought Frank's singing was so good, she recruited him to sing the rest of the service in the choir. Considering it was all in Spanish, Frank did a great job. Liturgy was beautiful as well, and at the end Fr. Francisco gave a very warm welcome to Frank and congratulated us on our upcoming wedding. Following Liturgy, we spent a little bit of time talking afterward, and then headed to lunch at Gatsby's, a nice restaurant near the church, and had buffet. After lunch, we went to the National History Museum and learned about the history of Chile from pre-Hispanic indigenous peoples to the coup of 1973. All in all, it was a very informative trip.
After that, we took a short detour to my house to charge my phone and discovered that restaurants do not usually open for dinner on Sundays (who'd a thought, right?). We did manage to find a restaurant open next to Frank's hostel, and we were very pleased with our choice. That was pretty much our day on Sunday, and we were both exhausted at that point, so we went home to bed.

Frank's Visit - Day 3

Saturday, we got to sleep in a little bit. I went to pick up Frank around 8:30, and we headed to Cerro San Cristobal, a large and beautiful park in Santiago. As the teleferico (cable car thingy) didn't open until 10, we took our time exploring the Japanese garden and talking. My camera decided to work again, so we have pictures of that. We then bought our tickets to the teleferico, and took our first ride up the hill. About half way, we stopped and got off to explore Jardin Gabriela Mistral, which is like a huge playground. We walked around that for a while, and then continued up the hill. We stopped for a quick snack of ensalada de palta (avocado!!) and drinks, and then hiked up the last leg of the hill to see the statue of the Virgin Mary of Santiago. From the top, we could see all of Santiago, which was breathtaking. We then headed to the artisan fair and bought souvenirs :) Took the teleferico back down the hill to the bottom, and set off walking to the metro, which we took back to Providencia for lunch. We decided to try Domino, a famous hot dog place. After Frank's first vienessa Dinamica (a hot dog smothered in avocado, mayonnaise, tomatoes, green salsa, and Americana [which we're still not 100% sure what it is, but it has something to do with carrots]), he was in love and had to have another one, a desire which was shortly granted. We also enjoyed two large glasses of pineapple juice, which consists solely of juiced pineapple - amazing! After lunch, back to the Santiago version of Bravissimo for ice cream (just a chocolate cone this time), and then to the grocery store for party snacks. We headed over to church where the iconography class was throwing a Fiestas Patrias party, so we brought our snacks to that. Frank got a chance to meet a few of my friends there, and we had a good time talking and watching some of the students dance cueca (I even got a chance to try!). Then it was dinner time!! For nostalgia's sake, we opted for sushi (pronounced "suchi" here) and headed to this place one of the lady's at church recommended - great idea! The restaurant had just opened, so we were the only one's there, and the food was to die for. The best sushi we had ever had! And plenty of it! Then it was back to bed to rest up before church on Sunday.

Fiestas Patrias and Frank's visit - Day 2

Soooo....
Friday morning, Frank was a great sport and got up to meet me at 7:30am! Unfortunately, what we didn't realize was that the metro didn't open until 8:00. Oops. So, we caught a cab to the bus depot where we caught the 8:30 bus to Vina del Mar, a beautiful Chilean coastal city. After the two hour bus ride, we narrowly managed to dodge salesmen selling tours and decided that walking at our own pace was more what we wanted for the day. So, we headed out to a museum on Easter Island; unfortunately, due to the national holiday (Armed Forces Day), it was closed :( However, we did get some cool pictures in front of the moai statue - the big heads from Easter Island. From there, we walked around the city, getting to see some cool castles and a bay where the river and the ocean meet - I thought that was really cool! Took some pictures, and then headed downtown for lunch. We stopped at this great Chilean bistro and got to try some of Vina's famous shellfish plus empanadas, palta (avocado), and sopaipillas. Afterwards, headed to Bravissimo for ice cream and split a HUGE chocolate sundae. After enjoying our dessert, we took a leisurely stroll to the beach :) The weather was cool (like 75), but I changed into my swim suit anyway after managing to soak my jeans from a stray wave that was a lot bigger than it looked while trying to wet my feet. Took turns sun basking and walking in the water, and then just relaxed and watched the little kids flying kites on the beach (note to self: will learn to do that one day). We then got to watch some people make sand sculptures, which was pretty impressive, and then changed clothes. Must make a note here: Frank was the hero of the day and went back to the dressing room, by himself, to ask the changing room attendant, in Spanish, to let him in and find my sunglasses...what a brave guy! From the beach, we went to dinner at a restaurant that advertised "More than 40 flavors of empanadas" which we thought was really funny, because when we counted how many flavors they had, they had 41. From there, we started heading back to the bus depot via the beach and got a chance to watch the sun set over the ocean. Truly a gorgeous site that I will never forget. Unfortunately, no pictures because my camera had decided to fizzle out by this point. So, back to the bus depot and the 2 hour ride back. Then, I dropped Frank off at the hostel and headed home to sleep and get ready for Saturday.

Fiestas Patrias and Frank's visit - Day 1

From September 18-21, Chile celebrates its day of independence, when the first meeting of patriots met to plan their separation from Spain in 1810. I had the great blessing (and it truly was a blessing) to spend my first Fiestas Patrias with my fiance, Frank, who came to visit me for this weekend. Since he was only here for five days, we tried hard to accomplish many things in a very short period of time. Thus, there is lots to write (and lots to read). As it is getting late (12:30 already) I will limit this post just to our first day. Pictures will also be coming soon (naturally).

Thursday, my host sister Sandy and I got up early and drove to the airport to pick up Frank. After a little scurrying around, we finally found him. It was so great to see each other after so many months. We left the airport and drove Frank to the hostel where he would be staying the next couple of days. The hostel is run by Don Ignacio and attended to by my host mom, Veronica. It is a small, but comfortable converted house in the comuna of Providencia, one metro stop away from the church and about a half an hour bus ride from my house (in other words, really convenient). After unpacking and resting for a bit, I took Frank to my host family's house where we had a huge lunch to celebrate 18 (dieciocho). We had steak, rice, potato salad, a variety of other salads, and dessert of fruit and cream, all washed down with Gato Negro red wine (it comes in a box, but is actually very good). After a post-lunch nap, Frank and I headed to the Providencia Fonda, which is basically a huge fair set up to celebrate dieciocho. There were different stands with traditional Chilean games, such as climbing a greased pole, something similar to bocci, and kite flying; a zoo with native Chilean animals, including llamas; clowns and a circus; exhibits from different parts of Chile showing traditional housing and artifacts; live music and dancing, including a cueca competition (cueca is the national dance of Chile and is supposed to simulate the rooster chasing the hen; it is actually very pretty to watch, but very difficult to do); and, of course, food. We tried the traditional Chilean combo of chica and empanadas, and then spent the evening browsing the artesan tables and looking at hand made jewerly, clothing figurines, etc. After that, it was back to the hostel for a good night's sleep for Frank, and back home for me to get ready for Friday - a trip to Vina del Mar!

New Picture Links

So, I did hear some complaints about the previous snapfish links for my Chile pictures (I didn't realize you had to have an account to see them). So, I uploaded the pictures to Google Picasa, which (hopefully) should be easier to use. Here are the links to those albums:

Parish Feast Day: http://picasaweb.google.com/jkhouri87/FiestaPatronalYAniversario#

San Pedro de Atacama: http://picasaweb.google.com/jkhouri87/SanPedroDeAtacama#

Museo de Bellas Artes: http://picasaweb.google.com/jkhouri87/BellasArtes#

Cerro San Cristobal: http://picasaweb.google.com/jkhouri87/CerroSanCristobal#

Teatro Municipal: http://picasaweb.google.com/jkhouri87/TeatroMunicipal#

Enjoy!

Church pictures

Here's the link to some pictures from last Sunday. Enjoy!

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=243100835/a=30405193_30405193/t_=30405193

Church goings on

So, I'm realizing that a large chunk of my time here in Chile (especially on the weekends) has been spent in church, so I thought I'd dedicate this post to some of the activities I participate in and some of the people I have met at La parroquia de la Santisima Virgen Maria (parish of the Holy Virgin Mary).
Fr. Francisco and Lorena have been extremely wonderful. They always greet me warmly every time I come, and I've been over their house a few times just to visit as well. It's really nice to have them so close.
Last Friday night, I went out for a carrete (party) with the youth group/iconography class at church. We went to a disco close to the church and spent the night (yes, the whole night...1am) dancing (don't worry, no alcoholic drinks were involved...just good clean fun). After that, we went over one of the girls' apartments, sang Chilean folk music, and talked about church, religion, high school (that was funny), etc. until about 5am. Then we all went home.
On Saturday night, I sang with the choir for a wedding. The bride was actually Catholic, so there were a few Catholicisms evident, but all in all it was very nice. The music came out beautifully, I feel, and I even got to help sing Rimsky-Korsakov's "Our Father" in parts (yeah, Russian music with Spanish words is truly a multi-cultural experience).
Sunday was the parish's anniversary/feast day celebration. Bishop Sergio of Chile celebrated liturgy with Fr. Francisco and Fr. ?? (the other priest whose name I can never remember), and that also came out very nice. I videotaped parts of it, and hopefully I will be able to put all the pieces together and upload it for those of you who are interested. Afterwards, we had an "agape" which consisted of lots and lots of Arabic food and sweets :) Yum!
Wednesday, I went to liturgy again, and got to read the Epistle (again). I enjoy reading, but lets just say that some of them are more difficult than others...yeah, Wednesday's was one of those. But, I was told it all came out well, even though I think I only understood about 75% of what I was reading (not my favorite way to do things, but sometimes you got to do what you got to do). It was also funny, because prior to the service, Christine (the choir director from Pittsburgh) and I were talking (in Spanish) about different things and Fr. Francisco walked in and was like, "You guys talk in Spanish to each other?" and when we said yes, he shook his head and said (in English) "Lord have mercy". Not sure what that necessarily means, but I thought it was funny.
So, a run down of the people I hang out with at church:

Marjorie - history major that goes to my University and is getting chrismated tomorrow (yay!!)
Patricio - law student who sings in the choir and rides my bus home with me on Sundays (and makes sure I get off at the right stop, because I have a tendency to pass it)
Roberto - guy who sings in the choir and helps out all the time around church
Christine - choir director and wife of the iconography teacher, Geronimo

There are other people too, but these are the main ones.

On another note:

So, I got my poetry test back and I got a 5.9, which is about a B+, so I'm pretty happy about it (it was a tough test). Still waiting for the anthro test. Starting to work on an essay for history and education, and hoping that all works out.

I also visited the Museum of Pre-colombian Art, which was wonderful! I'm totally going back and buying souvenirs. It was an ex-anthro major's dream come true :)

Anyway, that's about it from here. I miss you all, and love receiving emails, facebook posts, etc. I sent out one batch of postcards, and others will be coming soon. Love you all!

Long time no post / San Pedro Part 2

Hey everyone!! Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Things here have started getting really busy!!
Ok, so let's continue the San Pedro story...
Saturday, we woke up, ate breakfast, and headed out to the Salar de Atacama, which is this big salt flat. After learning about the ecology behind the salar, its biodiversity, and some geological facts, we got a chance to wander around and shoot pictures of the awesome scenery and, yes...flamingos!!! Who'd a thought that there would be flamingos in one of the world's driest deserts? But there are!
After that, we made a pit stop in Tocanao, a pueblo that is heavily influenced by its primarily aymara residents. We got to see artisan shops, a llama, and a church that showed a very interesting fusion of Catholic and indigenous practices.
We ate lunch back in San Pedro, and then headed back out into the desert for a trip to Death Valley and Valle de la Luna (valley of the moon). The scenery was breathtaking (see below for link to pictures)!! We climbed la Luna (a big sand dune) just in time to watch the sun set...and for things to get REALLY cold!
After that, we headed back to San Pedro for dinner and sleep.

The plan for Sunday was to wake up at 4:00am and travel to some really famous geysers. Unfortunately, at 4:00am on Sunday, I woke up with a 102 fever. Needless to say, I spent that day sleeping and trying to recover for our 3:00pm flight back to Santiago. Hence, no pictures. Good news is everyone I talked to who did go said it was incredibly freezing and not all that exciting, so I didn't miss to much. Better news is I got better and made it home to Santiago in one piece :)

Classes have been going well...won't bore you with the day by day details. I took a test in Poesia Chilena and another one in Antropologia. I feel pretty good about them, but will have to wait to find out my grades. This last week, I went to a seminar with my education class on the current state of Chile's educational system. It was incredibly interesting and I learned a great deal.

I have started volunteering with the church's youth group at a local girls' shelter - el Hogar de Ninas. It's a lovely set up, and the girls are incredibly loving. I spend time playing with different girls and helping them with homework. This last Thursday, the directors of the Hogar put on a party for the girls complete with clown (payasita) and games. The girls all had a great time, topped off by completos (hot dogs loaded with ketchup, mustard, mayo, guacamole, and tomatoes).

On Thursday night I also went to a cueca class. Cueca (not salsa, unfortunately) is the national dance of Chile, and our whole exchange group got a chance to learn the various steps involved. It's a lot harder than salsa...bummer! All in all, we had a good time, and finished it up with empanadas and strawberry wine (yum!)

Tonight, I'm hoping to get together with some of the college students from church to go out for drinks and fellowship. I'm starting to make good friends with one of the girls there who also happens to go to my school. We've gotten to hang out a few times already. Tomorrow night I get to sing with the choir for a wedding, which I'm really looking forward to. And to top the weekend off, Sunday is the parish's anniversary/patronal feast day, celebrating 30 years. The bishop will be serving, and I'm hoping to videotape the service (for those of you who are interested).

I think that catches me up, and I hope to be better this week about writing. As promised, here's the link to the San Pedro pictures:

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=242897504/a=30405193_30405193/t_=30405193

San Pedro part 1

At last! The story from the weekend!

So...

Friday, I woke up and went food shopping for my trip to San Pedro. At 11:00, I took a metro to the bus station, and then the bus to the airport. I was super early, so I was really excited to see some other people from my trip in the lobby-thingy waiting. So we all waited together. Finally, it was time to check in. I thought I had been really good by bringing two carry-ons so I wouldn't have to check any luggage. What I failed to realize is that domestic flights in Chile don't allow a carry-on of more than 5 kg (roughly 11lbs). Yeah, well, my back pack was like 9 (roughly 20lbs). So, had to check that. Anyway, the flight was great. 3 hours, and we were there! It felt like a completely different world from Santiago.



After we all landed and got our luggage (no lost luggage!!), we took a bus for about an hour to the town of San Pedro. The scenery was gorgeous, and our guide, Claudio, was very knowledgeable about the history of the area, the geography, etc. which was awesome for me! Calama (where the airport was) used to be two towns: Calama and a town with an indigenous name I can't remember. Well, this other town was a mining town. Recently, with the big push towards environmentalism in Chile (and yes, it's bigger here than in the US...way bigger), they decided to close the mine (too much pollution). Well, this caused a problem for the town. The government determined that it would be more expensive to make the town environmentally friendly than to just build a whole new town farther away from the mine. So they moved the whole town farther away from the mine.



Anyway, upon arriving in San Pedro, we took a walking tour through the town. It was nighttime, and the stars were the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I really wish I had pictures to show you, but cameras don't work too well in the dark (not even with flash). Anyway, everything was gorgeous at night. From there, we ate dinner (at 10 o'clock, which will be important to note for the continuation of this story) and went to bed.

Here are a few more pictures of the scenery we saw. The full album will be on Facebook and Snapfish (link coming soon). The story will also have to continue tomorrow, as it's already 11:30 and somebody has a test tomorrow (yikes!! not already!!)



Anyway, until next time!

Photos!! - Bellas Artes

So, I know there's TONS to catch up on, but we'll start with some photos. Since I didn't hear any complaints, I'm going to continue to post photos on Snapfish (link below). They are from my trip to Bellas Artes, Santiago's famous art museum, before I left for the weekend. In my next post, you'll get all the details of my trip, along with LOTS of photos.

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=242873141/a=30405193/t_=30405193

So much news, so little time

Wow, so it's been like a whole week since I last wrote. Really sorry about that. Things here have been crazy busy!!

Let's start from the beginning:

So, Friday, I was unable to go to church for Dormition because all the parishes decided to go to Vina del Mar to celebrate the parish's patronal feast day there. Bummer. So instead, my friends Jessica and Suguna decided to join up and go visit a bunch of museums all around Santiago. And, since it's torentially raining, we figure it's a good idea to stay indoors. Well, since the 15 is a national holiday (Assumption), of course all the museums are closed - which we don't realize until we drag ourselves around to two of them (on opposite ends of town...in the rain). So after we managed to soak ourselves, we spent a very leisurely tea time eating empanadas at the Plaza de Armas (the very center of Santiago) and talking about travel plans for the rest of the semester (lots of fun opportunities!!). After this, we decide to head to the mall - which thankfully is still open. We hunt for hiking boots for Suguna and just kinda browse other things. Have a nice onces at the food court, and head home.

Saturday, I sleep in (yessss) and then work on homework. All day. It turns out that when I switched poetry sections, the professors use different readings (go figure) so now I have to catch up on the reading for my new section. Fun fun. That's pretty much the extent of Saturday.

Sunday, I go to Matins, where I got to read a lot (I'm getting better)!! Liturgy was beautiful, and I got to talk with different people at coffee hour (which, by the way, consists of just that...coffee). Afterwards, I call Jessica to see if she's up for seeing the Museo de Bellas Artes (the biggest art museum in Santiago), but it turns out she caught a cold running around in the rain. Bummer. When I get home and share my failed attempt to be sociable, my host sister Sandy decides that it's been years since she's seen Bellas Artes and that we should go together that afternoon. Yes!!! So we go. Bellas Artes has a lot of modern art, we discovered (which she really likes, but which doesn't really do anything for me). Thankfully, there was enough classical art to salvage the museum for me (pictures coming soon!). I love marble statues and I love paintings...and there were both! Afterwards, we stopped by the Modern Art Museum, which we both agreed was a complete bust (nothing there). So, we left and went and got ice cream at this really famous ice cream store behind the museum. It must have been really famous, because we had to wait in line for 40 minutes before we got served! Crazy!! But it was really good ice cream, so I guess it was worth it :)

Monday - photocopies, class, more photocopies, and now printing! The story here is that it's free to print, but you have to bring your own paper. The printers are empty. Haha.

Tuesday, classes, which included a visit to a history of Chile class that I decided to take. My schedule is now complete!!!! It is as follows:

Monday/Wednesday: 1:30-2:50 - Education, Culture, and Society
Tuesday/Thursday: 11:30-12:50 - Anthropology of Chile
1:30-2:50 - Chilean Poetry
3:00-4:20 - History of America and Chile, 20th century (meaning Latin America, but trust me, the US comes up a lot)

Wednesday was really busy: I started out going to the Registro Civil and standing in line for an hour to get my Chilean ID (which I now, thankfully, have). I then went across town to the Central office of La Catolica and turned in my request for a student bus pass, which charges like 1/3 of what I've been paying (can't wait to get that!). I turned in my schedule to the CIEE office, and then tried on some shoes (my black ones have decided to break on me). I happily found out I can wear a size 40 (not a 43, like I originally thought), which really opens up the market for me. Then class, followed by training for English Opens Doors, a program I'm volunteering with to teach English to public school students here in Santiago. I have my school assignment, and it's like down the street. I will be spending 4 hours on Monday mornings in the high school. Totally pumped and can't wait to start! I then went to choir rehearsal, and Liturgy. I really like weekday liturgies here, because Fr. Francisco does things a little bit differently than Sunday Liturgy in regards to music and liturgics, because the crowd is very different. He has catechism class following Liturgy, so all of the catechumens are there, while on Sunday, the majority of the crowd is the Arab contingent, so things are more standard Antiochian practice. Oooo and I got to read the Epistle! Which was really cool!!

Today, I went to class all day. I then went shopping (for 3 hours!!! Christina where are you???) for black boots. Talk about torture. First of all, if I actually found a pair I liked, they either didn't come in my size, or cost like $80.00+. Since the pair I tried on yesterday cost me like $20, I wasn't really planning to spend too much more than that. So, I looked through every shoe store in the mall (2 hours), before giving up and heading back home. On my way, I stopped at Macul, which is this plaza about 8 blocks from home. Along the street, there are like 5 shoe stores right next to each other, so I decided to give them a try. After three failed attempts, I FINALLY found a pair of black boots, waterproof, semi-fashionable, that fit fairly well if I'm wearing tights. That's about as good as I could do, and since they only cost about $28 (probably a little less with the current exchange rate), I figured they will get me through the rest of my stay here, and probably through most of the northern hemisphere's upcoming winter. After I tried them on with the different outfits I was planning on wearing them with, I have to say that overall, I'm satisfied.

Tomorrow I head out to San Pedro Atacama, the driest desert on earth. I will take plenty of pictures, and hopefully have info up late on Monday or Tuesday with all the details.

Hope all is well with everyone. Until next time!!

Entering the world of "fotocopias"

Well, for those of us who have ever complained about the rip-off involved in buying textbooks, there is something to be said for the peace of mind that comes with knowing you are able to complete your reading for the next class at your own leisure. And that it's legible. And usually in color. Here in Chile, to avoid the extreme import tax involved with buying books, universities have discovered a unique way to combat the attack on students' wallets - make photocopies! Of everything. To be honest, it sounds like a great idea. Buy one book, have students make all the photocopies they want - it's a heck of a lot cheaper for both sides. The problem is, of course, that there is now only one book...and 40 students. So, we fill out a request form, stand in line for 10-40 minutes (depending on time of day), turn in our request, come back in 1-3 hours, stand in line again for 10-40 minutes, pay for our copies, and pick up our papers. To make this process even better, you have to fill out a separate request for each reading selection. For example:

The professor says, "Read Chapters 1 and 4 of book X, and article Y". So, you have to fill out a request for Chapter 1, Chapter 4, and article Y (yes, three requests). That's day 1. Day 2, he says, "Now read article Z and Chapter 2 of book A". Now you get to do the process all over again with article Z and Chapter 2.

Let's just say I'm learning to do homework in line.

Anyway, enough venting. In all fairness, things have been going pretty well. I decided to drop my class at the University of Chile (see story below) and take an additional class at La Catolica (still to be decided). Hopefully, by Friday, I will have a finalized schedule.

Ok, so long story about Tuesday. So, theoretically, I had a class at 8:30am on Tuesday morning at the University of Chile in room 32. While the campus is like 15 blocks from my house, there is no micro (bus) that takes me straight there. You have to do this funny U-thing. So, I leave the house at 7:30 and start the process: take the micro West, get off, supposed to take the micro South, realize it's a one-way street and the micro doesn't go South, walk four blocks West to the next micro stop on a street that does go South, take the micro South, start walking East, realize it's too far to walk, watch micro pass by because I didn't get to the stop fast enough, wait for the next micro traveling East, start walking toward campus and - FINALLY, arrive at campus. It is now 8:35am. I'm late. So, I walk around kinda disoriented because it's been like 2 weeks since we toured this campus, ask someone for directions to the Social Science building, finally find the building, finally find the room...and it's empty. I check the schedule on the door, and sure enough, the class is not even listed. What I found out later is that UChile is notorious for changing classrooms, times, and even days of their classes at the last minute without informing anybody. At this point (8:45), I'm tired, I'm sore from walking, and I'm completely at my whits end. So, I decide that this is totally not worth the effort, get back on the micro (North), take it to the metro, and head to the campus that I actually know how to get to. While the class I was theoretically going to take at UChile seemed kinda interesting (Cultures of Tierra del Fuego), it was not interesting enough to make that trip twice a week at rush hour. In addition, the Che Guevarra-Communist Flag-anarchist symbol ridden walls started getting to me after a while, as well as the rumors of protests later this semester. So I think this was probably for the best. It looks like I will be taking a history of Chile and South America class instead at 3:00 in the afternoon (a lot better for me, considering my family doesn't go to sleep till like 1:00am, and I don't run well on 6 or fewer hours of sleep).

Anyway, that was Tuesday. I managed to make it through the rest of my day ok, and spent the evening working on my final paper for Contemporary Chile.

Wednesday, I got to have lunch with Marjorie, a catechumin at St. Mary's (the Orthodox Church here). She's a history major looking into pedagogy following her graduation (teaching). We had a good time eating and comparing professors (got some good tips on which classes not to take), and will hopefully get to spend more time together throughout the semester. My Mon-Wed Education class is AWESOME! as it's all about Chilean education from a sociological perspective. We actually get to visit different schools around Santiago for our final project - a little nerve-wracking, as it involves a lot of group work, but I got together with some fellow international students (including one from Tahiti - cool!) and I think we're going to help each other get through this stuff. Later that evening, I went to choir rehearsal at church, met a girl from Brasil, and stayed for their weekly Liturgy. It was beautiful, and I got to meet a lot more young people. I really enjoy going, and everyone is very nice. The choir director is working to replace some of the less-desirable Liturgy music with St. Vlad's stuff, and Wednesday night Liturgy is like the springboard for using these melodies in Sunday Liturgy. I must say it's really cool how everyone works together to keep the parish growing.

Today, I turned in my final paper (yeah, printing is a whole other story...I'll save that for a different post), had my anthro class and poetry class, both of which are going well, and met a girl from Chicago. We spent an hour or so talking and comparing experiences here in Chile (in English...we both needed a language break).

And now, I'm home. Tomorrow is a national holiday for the Assumption, but unfortunately I won't get to go to church because everyone is going to the parish in Vina del Mar for their patronal feast day (bummer). The upside is that I will go here for Sept. 8, because it is the patronal feast day of the parish here, so that's some consolation. Tomorrow I will be playing tourist with another friend from the program and visiting some museaums here in Santiago. I will make sure and post pictures.

Anyway, for those of you going to church tomorrow, please say a prayer for me. All of you are in my thoughts and prayers as well. Chao!

Photos!! 5 - Cerro San Cristobal

So, hopefully this works...here is a link to an online photo album to see the photos from Cerro San Cristobal. Please let me know if it works/is easy to use (it was a lot easier for me to upload pictures there than right here, so if it works, I'll know I can use it again).

Love you all!

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=234698603/a=30405193/t_=30405193

Stuff

So, it turns out that Chile has decided to broadcast the Olympic games live...which means, with the time difference between here and Beijing, I could watch the Olympics at 2am, if I wanted to. YouTube, here I come!! Seriously, we did get a chance to watch Chile beat China in tennis (the favorite sport here) and lose to France or something in fencing (it was a really close match, though). I also got to see part of the opening ceremony, which was really cool.

Saturday was a sleeping day :) followed by a trip to Cerro San Cristobal. This is a hill/park that has a beautiful Japanese garden (curtesy of the Japanese government), walking trails, a playground for children, a teleférico (you get to ride up the huge hill in little cars on pulleys...I know they have them at like disney land and stuff, but I can´t think of the English name...pictures will be coming soon, and you´ll know what I´m talking about), and culminated by a gigantic statue of the Virgin Mary, the protectress of Santiago. As I said, pictures will be coming. All in all, it was a lot of fun and I got to cross yet another goal off my list of places to see while I´m here.

Sunday I went to church and got to sing/chant for Matins and Liturgy. I got such a kick out of that, because I had never chanted in Spanish before, and it was so cool. I do have a lot more sympathy for people who are chanting in their second language, and really realize the importance of practicing before hand. Following that, I talked to Marjorie, one of the college students there, who invited me to come with her next Sunday to help with Sunday school :) I´m liking this parish!!

Well, right now I´m on campus waiting for my 1:30 class (it´s 12:30). I came early (11) to try to sign up for the poetry class I really wanted. Unfortunately, I was second in line - the person in front of me took the last spot. Talk about frustrating! Whatever, I ended up in the same class with a different professor, hunted around for his secretary to make me a copy of the syllabus, and put my order in for photocopies (they´ll be ready by 2:00). It looks like a relatively similar syllabus. Less group work (which I actually like better), but it completely skips anything prior to the XIX century, which is a little bit of a bummer. Oh well, as they say here in Chile, Así son las cosas. Such is life.

When I get home tonight, I will upload pictures from San Cristobal. There´re like 100 of them, so I actually may be uploading them to a different website and putting the link here...to make it a little easier to read. Hope all is well. Thanks for the emails!! I love them :) Until next time!!

Updates

So, I know it's been quite a while since my last written post. Things here have really been busy (not to mention that fact that people around here have a habit of not going to bed until like 1 or 2 in the morning).

Let's begin at the beginning...

As I mentioned before, classes started on Monday. I had the interesting experience of showing up to class with only two other people and realizing that the professor was not showing up. After wandering around the Facultad de Educacion a while, we finally found somebody who could tell us what was up. It turns out that the professor had canceled class for the day. He had sent an email to all of the registered students informing them of this, and put a note up on the class website. Since we exchange students are not actually registered for classes yet, we unfortunately did not receive said email. Semi-disappointed for having drug myself all the way to campus for nothing, I returned home and spent the afternoon in the company of my host sisters watching TV and tidying up around here.

Tuesday was a little more productive. The first class I went to (Anthropology) was also canceled, but at least the TA's were there to explain to the whole class that the professor was ill and to give us the dates for the exams this semester. This class had quite a few more Americans in it than my Ed class, which was nice since I knew some people, but also frustrating as most of the Americans I knew have this aversion to speaking Spanish amongst ourselves (really weird, I think, since that is why we came here). But, I did meet a girl from another program who is facing similar frustrations and we have had a great time speaking Spanish together. Afterwards, I went to my Chilean Poetry class...what an experience! First of all, 25 Americans show up like 15 minutes before class starts (again, since nobody is registered, everyone is just kinda attending whichever classes they want) and fill up the room. Between 5 minutes before and 5 minutes after class starts, about 25 Chilean students filter in and realize there are no more desks to sit at. So, they fill up the floor. The professor, bless her heart, is at this point really trying to hold things together. She warmly welcomes all of the international students (us), but says she only has enough syllabi for about 40 people. Hence, quite a few Americans are now without one. All in all, the class went really well and while many of my compatriots have decided not to take the class ("too many Americans"...kinda ironic), there are still quite a few of us left, mainly interested in the awesome professor (to be continued when I talk about Thursday)...

Throughout this time, I have also been working on my final paper for my Contemporary Chile class. I have decided to do something on Violeta Parra, a renowned folk artist. I'm also getting lessons on Chilean essay writing from my host sister, Sandy. Apparently, Chileans are a great deal more long-winded in their essays than Americans are...hey, no complaints here. I can write 7 pages of nothing quite easily, I've determined. Haha.

Wednesday, I showed up for my Ed class again, not really expecting much, but went just in case. Again, no professor, and we determined with some other Chilean students that he must be starting class on Monday...we'll see. Otherwise, I'll have to find another class, which will kinda be a pain since we're already a week into classes. Whatever, it'll work out. It all turned out for the best since I had time to make some photocopies for my poetry class. The process is very different. Each class has a folder with all of the readings for the semester. You fill out a little slip saying which reading from which folder (unfortunately, it is quite difficult to photocopy the entire folder at once), stand in line for like 1/2 hour (because everyone is making photocopies), hand the slip to the photocopy guy, pay him, and then he gives you an estimated time for pick up. In my case, it was two hours later. And, of course, I have no homework since I haven't had any other class yet. So...I manage to get into the library, but have not access to the computers (since I don't have my ID card yet either), so I just kinda wander around a bit. Found a funny little pamphlet on Anthropology which was kinda like a cartoon strip about two boys who find an arrowhead and take it to an Anthropologist who goes on to explain what early life was in pre-historical Chile. Kinda cool, I thought. I will have to see if I can get a copy to take home.

Wednesday night, I went to church for the Feast of the Transfiguration. I was invited by Fr. Francisco's wife, Lorena, to sing in the choir, which was a lot of fun. There were about 30 people at Liturgy and everything was very beautiful. Afterwards, we had some snacks in the hall and I met Marjorie, a history major at La Catolica. She and I are going to get together on Monday for lunch, and hopefully get a chance to hang out during the school day. Following this, Fr. Francisco had a class on the Feast and I went home to celebrate Sandy's birthday. We had dinner and a very delicious cake, followed by watching "Who deserves to be a millionaire" - the Chilean version, which by the way I like a lot better. It takes smart famous people onto the show who then sponsor someone they feel should be a millionaire (for example, there was a single mom with four children, three of whom had severe mental disabilities). If they win, the money goes to the person they sponsor. Pretty cool, I thought, and much healthier than the American version.

Thursday, we got stood up in our anthro class, but at least we were all in it together. I met Fabiona, a Chilean student in my class, and we talked a little bit afterwards before I went to read my poetry homework. The weather was very nice, 18C/63ishF, so I ate my lunch outside while I did my homework. Poetry class was full again, but not quite as much as Tuesday, and more Chileans had seats this time. We found out that this particular professor only has about 10 spots left for foreign students. Since we can't register until Monday, I am planning an early day to run and get my spot. While I could take the same class with one of two other professors, this particular professor is very animated and obviously loves what she teaches. I would much rather take it with her, if I can. Please pray that this works out.

Thursday afternoon, I went to a meeting for volunteer work at the CIEE office. I learned about a program through the Chilean Department of Education called "Ingles abre puertas": English opens doors. Native English speakers (me) spend 4-16 hours a week (4 is looking really good) in a public school helping Chilean teachers teach English. I'm really interested in doing this, and am going to sign up this week. I think it would be a great experience to take home with me as an ESL teacher, and will also probably help me get my EFL (English as a Foreign Language) certificate later on.

Well, I think that brings us to today (Friday). Thanks to wonderful scheduling (thank you, thank you *bows*), I have NO CLASSES on Fridays :) I got to sleep in late and have been working on homework while planning to watch the Olympics later on. Tonight, I am planning on going to church again for the youth group meeting. I'm really looking forward to it! I think they generally do a Bible study and then talk about their activities for the week. I will let you know how that goes.

That's all from this end of the world (haha). I'd love to hear how everyone else is doing as well, so please pass this on to friends and family and send an email if you get a chance. Love you all!

Photos!! 4 - Daily living

So, here are some more pictures...sorry they are kinda out of order. Classes have started and it's getting late. I just wanted to send a few more pictures before it was too late into the week. I'm hoping to write more soon. Until then!

Munich Youth Symphony Orchestra

Alfredo Perl - one of Chile's famous pianists - not to mention Sandy's favorite!!

Me and Sandy (the birthday girl)

Me and Paula

The three of us at the Municipal Theater

The Municipal theater

Program

Outside the dining room window

Our back yard (with the mountains in the background)

Auditorium of La Catolica

View of the back of the auditorium of La Catolica

Ditto...

Buying eggs

Eggs!!

Karioke :)

Sooooo...last night I went to a Mass with my host family in memory of their grandfather who passes away last month. It was very interesting, and it was cool to pick out the parts of the service that are similar to the Orthodox church (the prokeimenon, Alleluia verses, anaphora, etc.). Afterwards, we went to their uncle's house for dinner. As I soon found out, "dinner" is not eaten very often - only on special occasions. On these occasions, it is eaten sometime around 9 or 10 o'clock, usually followed by a lot of partying. In this case, the partying consisted of karioke. It was really fun to watch everyone singing various songs. I even attempted twice - once with "All-Star" and once with a Shakira song. It was a great time, and we all got home around 2:30am.

This morning, I went to liturgy, which was a lot easier since it started at 12:00pm (I think the whole sleep cycle of this country runs a lot later than that of most Americans). It was really cool, since the bishop was there. Fr. Fransisco introduced me to him, and I also got to meet a few more of the youth there. It looks like I will be able to go to liturgy Wednesday night for Transfiguration and to the youth group meeting on Friday night. Yay! I think this is the longest I've gone without speaking English to anyone - almost two full days! (I don't count typing...haha).

Tomorrow classes start, so I'll have updates on that coming up soon. Hasta entonces (until then)!

Weekend 3

Ahhhh...Friday at last!

Today, we registered with the Chilean police. I now have my temporary Chilean ID card and will get my official one in a few weeks (another trip to the police station). Well, at least I can feel a little more official now. I'm really living here, not just visiting - crazy!

Another crazy thing was yesterday's orientation at La Catolica. There was a presentation by a student organization for international students. As I was looking at all the pictures from previous events (filled with Americans), it finally dawned on my that I'm the international student. Thinking back on my Cultural Diversity Club days and my "help the exchange student" background, this was really a change of pace for me. But I'm getting used to it. My only frustration is that among Americans, everyone only wants to speak in English. It's extremely disheartening, as I thought the whole purpose of being here was to learn Spanish. I've just made the decision to avoid as many Americans as possible and make Chilean friends...we'll see how that works.

Last night, this international student group (CAUC - don't ask me what it stands for) went "out" to a typical Chilean bar. After tasting the famous terremoto (earthquake) and watching my compatriots getting drunker and drunker, I decided it was not the place for me and, along with a friend of mine and a very nice Chilean guy from CAUC, headed for home. On the way, the three of us took a nice detour to the Plaza de Armas (I don't know if I've mentioned it before or not, but we were there on Tuesday as well). This is literally the center of Santiago. There's even a plaque that says "Kilometro 0" - at least, there is supposedly, as none of us could find it. Raul (the guy from CAUC) showed us some good shopping spots as well and gave us key safety tips:

*Trust the carabineros - they are your friend
*The metro is (crazily enough) one of the safest places in the city, because it's full of carabineros and cameras
*Don't go to Santiago Centro after dark without a Chilean escort...thieves can spot an extranjero a mile away

Anyway, I just wanted to reassure you that no unnecessary risks have been taken thus far. Also, for the record, Santiago is the safest city in South America, due to it's amazing carabineros.

As far as classes go, the current list is as follows:

Culturas fueguenses (Cultures of Tierra del fuego)
Antropologia chilena (Chilean Anthropology)
Educacion, Cultura y Sociedad (Education, Culture, and Society)
Poesia Chilena (Chilean poetry)

The last one may change, as the section of Antropologia chilena that I want to take is at the same time, but there will be another lit-related class for sure.

Classes at La Catolica (that is, the last three classes in the list) start on Monday (blah) and UChile starts next week. Time to start the grind! Realistically, I'm hoping that none of these classes turn out to be too difficult. I confirmed with other Chilean students that they are more or less extranjero-approved (that is, hopefully not too difficult). I opted out of taking a linguistics course because the only interesting ones are levels 4-6...completely doable, but not if I want a life.

Other than that, it looks like a quiet weekend. No youth group meeting tonight (bummer), but hopefully next week. Possibly a trip to Pomaire tomorrow (a cute ceramics town), but not sure of family plans yet. Shopping today (yay...more winter clothes!) and christening of my host mom's niece or something tomorrow night.

That's it for now. Sorry for the lack of pictures. I will try to take some more as I start visiting places in a more touristy-fashion. Hope to talk to you all soon!

Classes

Well, for the last few days, we´ve been signing up for classes (i´m going to apologize now for typos...i´m in an internet cafe with a crazy chilean keyboard). University of Chile is a very large spread out school. It has multiple campuses all over the city. We went to the Campus Macul, the largest, and it was very interesting. The walls were covered in pictures of Che Guevara (the guy that helped Fidel Castro take over Cuba), Marx quotes, anarchy symbols, etc. We were told that students stage demonstrations every year on Sept. 11 in response to the anniversary of the coup in 1973, complete with police retaliation and tear gas (don´t worry, we were shown the escape route and I´m going to try not to be in class that day). La Catolica is completely different. Very clean and tidy, with crosses and icons in the classroom. Much more my style. Haha.

Anyway, it looks like I´ll know my schedule by the end of the week, so I´ll be sure to let everyone know what that is.

This last weekend was a lot of fun. Saturday I got to sleep in (yay), and that afternoon I went to see Batman with my host sister, Paula (the one my age). Afterwards, we got to do a little shopping and I bought a pair of dress pants for $8!!!!

Sunday, I manage to get to church by myself (yayayay). After church, I met a lady who is a catechumen and we talked together for a while. I also met the choir director (who is originally from Pittsburgh and married a chilean man) and the president and secretary of the youth group. I´m going to try to make it to the meeting this Friday.

After church, I went over to Fr. Francisco and Lorena´s house (which happens to be two doors down from the President´s house). We had a wonderful time talking about church stuff and school stuff, looking over pictures, and just hanging out with the kids. Sunday night, I got to relax a little bit and recover from a cold I caught, which is thankfully just about over thanks to some awesome foreign meds.

Other than that, I have a paper due on the 14 (yuck, homework already) and have learned the pharmaceutical system almost as well as the transportation system. I will write more later with updates, but I hope everyone is doing well and I hope to hear from you soon! (hint hint...email is always great, as is facebook). Bye for now!

Photos!! 3 - Bellavista and La Chascona

Mountains!!Mountains!!

More mountains!! This time with my friend Holly :)

Plaza de Italia

Can you tell I like mountains?

As if there was any doubt...The courtyard of La Chascona (Pablo Neruda's 2nd house)Beautiful White/Pink rose looking flowers (I think called Camillas)Close upThe outside of the top level of La ChasconaWindows with the symbols of La Chascona: One with Pablo Neruda and Matilde's initials on it and the other with the symbol of La Chascona - the girl with wild hairAloe Vera - cool, huh?Close upMore La Chascona (turn your head to one side)A garden next to La Chascona
MosaicPathway to the bar (Pablo Neruda's bar...not one we actually drank at)Yes...more mountainsHaha...yes, mountains
Pathway to La ChasconaCourtyardRooftopsBirds :)