The culmination of my time here.....

So it appears I have not sent a fresh update in over a month. This is exactly how long it took me to put together this next little number. I have been filming my students for the past month, dancing, screaming, playing soccer and running around. They have been so amped about the world cup it seemed like the right activity to do with them and we had an amazing time together. Thanks to my fantastic new camera (it is awesome Dad) I have been able to compile this wonderful montage of my chiquillos. Enjoy!

My 2nd trip to the mines......Thaaaaat's right, I went back for more.

Before I get into the mines, here is a short video I took today of my students pretending to be me. Do I really sound like this?

So, remember how I said I would NEVER go into a mine again? Well, I went back. I was much more confident with this trip though because it was an "open pit" mine, meaning not a shred of it was INSIDE a mountain. My host father works at Minera Escondida and it was a family day so 2 of the daughters and I loaded up very early Saturday morning for the 2 hour trip to the mine. Much like a Chilean classroom or Chilean game show, there was a lot of standing in lines, waiting for instruction, discussion about nothing and more standing around. While the mine itself was very impressive in its massiveness, I was not able to catch it adequately with photos because of the wind and blaring sun. I am also not sure I have captured the absolute massiveness of the trucks they use to carry the material. I got to sit in the cockpit of one and have no idea how you could sit in there for the first time and think, "Sure, I can totally drive this."

Friday night at the party for Ely's 16th birthday.
Not a birthday without a face in the cake, or is it a cake in the face?
At the top of the mine.
I am not sure this illustrates just how big these things are...
This should give you a better idea.

I can see for aisles and aisles.....

Soooooo, you know how I was saying that the giant supermarkets here seem to be stocked with just 4 items? Well, I finally finished my visual expose this afternoon in the HiperLider.
I am not trying to make fun of Chilean ways of life by any means, I love this country; this is just an exploration of the things I find interesting about this country.

Footnote:
I will have you know that I was almost kicked out of the store for taking these pictures. Security was alerted of a suspicious gringa, wandering the aisles and making photographic evidence of this shopping phenomenon. While the events in this story are true, some names have been changed to protect the innocent.

I started in the Double Yogurt Aisle because it was 10am and I hadn't eaten breakfast yet.
The ever popular Vegetable Oil Aisle.
I ran into "Peter" in the Ketchup and Mayonnaise Aisle. It's a little blurry but he had clearly just visited the Vegetable Oil Aisle.
I think I counted 12 bottles in his basket.
A panoramic shot of the Double Pasta Aisle.
The Boxed Milk Aisle was strangely quiet today.
My least favorite, the Canned Tuna Aisle.
For dessert, let's head over to the Canned Peach Aisle!
And last but certainly not least, everyone's favorite, the White Rice Aisle.

Oh, and while we are here, I am going to include a photo of the second play I saw this weekend. While not as amazing as the one I saw a few weeks ago, it was still excellent. Though at first it may sound smug to say I understood the entire thing, I would be remiss in not telling you there was not a single word spoken throughout. Disfruta!
Se llama Atacama.

Is this thing on?

Sooooo, I finally went to the play in the shipping container and it was actually the best play I have ever seen. Here's the deal, Antofagasta has a lot of shipping containers as it is a large port. So this theater company put two containers together, threw in 24 chairs and put on an amazing performance. Having no idea how they could successfully perform in such a small space, I was pleasantly surprised that it was very 3-dimensional. The sound, the set, the actors were absolutely brilliant. It obviously should also not go unnoticed that I understood most of it despite the fact it was all in Spanish. Woohoo!

Poster for the play.
I know it's dark but trying to show the perspective.
The last scene was like a painting.

Reflections.....and smoke.

Soooo I don't have a picture of this story but was reminded of it just recently. While I was violently ill in Argentina, we happened to visit the big cemetery in Buenos Aires which is quite spectacular and very popular. Honni ventured out on her own because some of us were having trouble trolling through the rows of tombs. So she hops back to us at one point with a sinister look on her face (as always) and says she has something to show us. I am not taking the bait on this one because we are in a cemetery and I don't really enjoy stories that start like that in places like this. She keeps on us, that it is strange but she still thinks we will like it. After about 10 minutes of this, we decided to follow her. She turns left down a narrow aisle and from a distance I can sense something is off. As we draw closer I see it, smoke coming from one of the house-like tombs. At this point, my steps grow smaller as I fall to the back of the crowd. I am not interested in being the first one to discover the reason for the smoke. Without understanding, I am suddenly craving a plate piled high with ribs and roasted chicken. We pass by slowly and see that the door is propped open to reveal 4 men, sitting around a tomb, smoking up some hot dogs and carne asada and enjoying a nice little feast. Apparently this is a custom in latin america. Discuss amongst yaselves....

Got no words....

But I do have a couple of pictures....

If you get real close, you can see by the look on the man's face behind him, that this man's songs about his eggrolls can put you in a trance. No joke. It's some sort of magic.
Sort of funny how these pictures came to be but for now, let's just hush and enjoy the view.

Friday and all is right.

Not much to report here. My family is still great. It is still 80 something and sunny every day. I am still going out a lot and exploring the city. It still smells like trash. But I am really enjoying the students. We are having such a good time and so many of them are so enthusiastic that it makes it all worth it. There was a large scale earthquake apparently predicted to happen at 8pm last night here by some ancient prophet which was big news all over town. I was thankful said prophet was totally wrong. Hope all is well stateside and would love to hear from all my gringos!

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with Antofgasta but I realized I hadn't posted it before and love it.

Family and lasagna.....

So had a great weekend here in Antofagasta. Still observing at my schoool and my new teacher is great. I think we are going to work well together. Went out with a friend on Thursday night since we didn't have work on Friday. Then the girl who was staying with my family last year in the program came in to spend the long weekend with them. Turns out her name is Jennifer and she is from Seattle. Small world. We had a great time this weekend comparing stories and talking about this great city. Going back to school this afternoon and start teaching on Wednesday officially.
I have included a photo of the fam, minus Eugenia (the mom), and a pic of the ingredients I was given when I told them I would be happy to make the lasagna for lunch today. I have included the sunglasses in the pic so you can have the correct perspective on the cheese and sauce portion. Did I mention this is for 6 people....Buen provecho!

Lasagna for 6? No problem. Here is the cheese, the noodles, and the sauce. There is a bowl of meat in the fridge.
Jen, Betty, Ely, Leonel and Vero.

In a nutshell....

So, where were we?
I pretty much feel like I left off after the earthquake. Spent some time with the other volunteers in a hostel in the center of Santiago. Was supposed to have wifi there but that never really happened. It was good to be able to hang out with the rest of the group though and bond a little more. We had some very brief but good training from the program and were then sent respectively to our areas. Our 18 hour drive to Antofagasta really drove home the fact that we are in the middle of the driest desert in the world. It might rain here ONCE a year and even then, they say for only a minute or two. Nothing for hours, save the coast at times. I can tell you that you have a different view of the ocean when you see everyone sitting outside their cars on the side of the road waiting for a tsunami. We pulled into Anto and were met cheerfully by Rio, our regional coordinator. She has been a saving grace ever since and a valuable link in our program. We stayed in a hostel the first night right across from the beach. I stayed up half the night wandering about the tsunami warning and trying to gauge the waves. The next day, after some orientation about the city, we were introduced to our new families and sent on our way.

My family was very sweet and welcoming. There were 6 people in the house aside from me. I am not going to lie that panic set in upon entering the house to learn that there was only one bathroom for the 7 of us and no internet. (Insert foreshadowing here). I am having a hard time now remembering the difference in the following 14 days because at this point, it all seems a blur of crazy students, tired teachers, stomach viruses, no internet, ringing bells, yelling, choas, stolen supplies and waiting for the bathroom. Needless to say, my school was an absolute mess. My classroom was equipped with computers, however, not a single person in the school had a password for even one of them so they were unusable. There was no room to teach them anywhere else. The English teacher was new this year and had no idea how to manage a volunteer. She tried to do her best but the students were getting the best of her and I was not able to acclimate to this environment. The program was very understanding and set about finding my a new school and host family. So yesterday I was moved to a new family and started in my new school this morning. My host family consists of a mom, dad, and three girls. They are all wonderful and live high on the hill overlooking the sea (must be noted that also well above tsunami "safe" line). So I have a little bedroom on the 4th floor with my own view. The sweetest words I have heard in 3 weeks are "3 bathrooms" and "we have wifi".

I met my new host teacher this morning and she is a seasoned veteran in the program and I think we will get along great. It is a hike to my new school but I will gladly sweat through that with a smile on my face.

I have also been fortunate enough to be introduced to a Chilean friend and he has been showing me the best of Anto for the last week. He is in a band here and seems to know everyone. We are going to a play in a shipping container on the docks tomorrow night. Right up my alley...

Here are a few photos from the first weeks.

The plaza in the center. One of the few photos of Antofagasta that should be used in brochures...
My new bedroom, complete with painted sun and moon and flowers!
View from my bedroom.
La Portada just a few miles outside of the city.
Gringas at La Portada...
Quiltro family photo at Juan Lopez beach. (Quiltro = street dogs)

Change is good....

So I fully intended on recapping the last 4 or 5 weeks tonight but now it is 11pm and I have to be up at 6.30 to get ready for my second "first" day of classes in my new school. For those who are unaware, I arrived in Antofagasta about 2.5 weeks ago and had a bit of a rough start, including no internet connection. I am only working a half day tomorrow so I will post a full update then. But for now, here is an abbreviated version of the birthday video that I had promised to post.... Disfruta! (Enjoy)

Aftershocks....

So I know it's been a while since I have been here but as most of you are aware, it has been a busy week in Chile. Last Saturday morning around 3.30am there was one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded here in Chile. Although the epicenter was closer to Concepcion in the south, it was strong enough to have a deep impact here in Santiago. Having never experienced an earthquake, I suppose it was best at the time for me not to know that they are not normally that strong. I was shaken out of bed and instructed by my host mom to stand in the doorway of my bedroom. I tried as hard as I could but the house was so unstable that I could barely stand up. I just remember there being yelling and crying and trying to focus on looking out my bedroom window and seeing everything outside swaying back and forth. It truly felt like being in a boat during a bad storm. It lasted about 2-3 minutes but felt like much longer. After it was over, my family pulled all of the mattresses down into the living room and begun looking for flashlights, candles, radios and anything else to help comfort. No sleep came and I spent the better part of Saturday wandering around my neighborhood looking for a phone or internet so that I could call my parents and tell them I was ok before they saw it on the news. My host family was extremely supportive and understanding and I am very thankful to have them.

So as one can imagine, this has delayed everything in our program at this point. The offices of our program have been considerably damaged and the roads to most of our placements have been destroyed as well. We are all staying in a hostel in the city center right now, waiting for news of advancement with no avail. There was hope that the 6 people going to Antofagasta would still be leaving on time as there was no damage up there, but lo and behold, a small earthquake struck there while we were packing and now that is uncertain as well. We are all hopeful that the delay is just that and that we will be back on track soon but have not received any news this weekend.

We have been attending many asados (bbqs) and playing card games and trying to keep ourselves entertained in the hostel. We are also all very thankful that Santiago is so resilient and we all are safe.

Here are some pictures from the last week....

Not unlike the endless piles of snow in Chicago, the rubble from the toppled buildings in Santiago.
A little birthday celebration prepared by my family. My face was shoved in to the top. Video exists.
Asado hijinks.

Eso Es.......Identity!!!!!

You may be wondering how I got myself in the audience of a Chilean gameshow this afternoon.....
I have been wondering the same thing.

This one is for Lindsay since I know how much she has always wanted to punch a pigeon.

Mi familia!

In my haste to get all the photos up from the trip, I forgot the most important one. I took this photo right before I left. I do have to say that it in no way reflects the true personalities of my family here. They are always laughing and joking but seem so serious when the camera comes out.

From left to right is Jorge with Lulu, Jorge, Diego, me, Marcela with Pascuala and Felipe.

Argentina, in a few brief words....

So I have been putting off posting anything about my trip because the task seems so huge. How do you sum up 2 weeks in another country? So I have decided to resort to a picture montage with some clever footnotes. If you have curiosity beyond said photos, please inquire within....

First stop: Hostel Lao in Mendoza, Argentina. I strongly suggest staying there if you are ever in the area.
Astor, the keeper of Hostel Lao. These two scraps on his giant paws are the only remainder of one sad leaf he carried around for 3 days in hopes that someone would play with him.
Bikes and Wines: sounds like a good idea until you are 3 glasses in and have to bike uphill in gravel.
Next stop, Cafayate, Argentina. Lovely little town.
Great view, I suppose, if you are into the whole gorgeous landscape thing.
And I assume everyone is aware, that ain't coffee in those cups.
And so begins my true fascination with the llama.
Why did the llama cross the road? I don't know, he didn't say.
Salt flat trickery...
My little familia de llamas.
La Boca in Buenos Aires. Tourists' paradise. It is a tango amusement park.
Things I can't eat while violently ill on holiday.
I guess I am just lucky they had puree of pumpkin on the menu.
Could not have dreamed up a lovelier birthday morning. Gifts from Honni and Luke PLUS flowers and songs from the entire hostel staff.
Sickness put on hold for a most delicious birthday dinner of meat, meat, meat!
Insert envy here _______.

Obviously not my best vegetarian smile.
Sinister meat eater.
The dessert you see before me is the Argentinian version of Straberries Briand. Heaven.
Older, yet somehow, still immature.
And finally back to Chile and a day trip to Valparaiso with Luke. This little gem has been visited by Anthony Bourdain himself.
How about a little clam appy with a pisco sour? Hmmmm?
Full of seafood and happy.
My family finally returned from their trip, of course with a new pet in tow.
I have been teaching her how to bite Felipe.