Birthday and Deiciocho

Somehow I am 32 years old.  It's amazing so much time has passed. Sometimes it feels like ages, sometimes it feels like no time. It doesn't seem that long ago I was driving across the country in my little Chevy Metro with all my stuff, heading for the unknown, and missing the past life of living in London.  During that week I became addicted to the feeling of journeying to somewhere new, with no plans or agenda.  San Francisco  was still the US, and my bigger dream was to live outside the US.  I didn't know exactly how to do this: Peace Corp, volunteering, teaching English, etc.  I didn't know any resources I could ask: How's the best way to get out of the country?  Also, like all obedient Americans, I thought I had to work, and a lot of money was required to do anything.
I knew I wanted to leave the country permanently, as well, so I didn't consider any short term opportunities.  However, now I'm teaching English, it's not so bad.  Yes, I have to go back to the States, but I know of so many other ways to keep getting out now.  Which leads me to another reflection lately, in the midst of turning 32: I wish I could stay young and travel for ten more years.  I have only just found this sense of freedom and courage to take opportunity, that I want more time to enjoy it.  There are such amazing volunteer programs, there are other places to teach English, and there are things like running hostels, or other tourism related businesses.
But after our months traveling, we are heading back to the States.  Jesse wants to get a Masters in History, and I want to apply myself to something academic as well, either a teaching certificate, or a Masters in Literature.  A PhD. in the future? I'm not sure. We'll see how the Masters goes.
The dream is still to live outside the States, and if I get desperate, I know of some quicker options now.

On my birthday Jesse and I went with our friend Boz to watch Chile play Italy in the Davis Cup.  It was great fun, the Chilean fans were so loud, banging drums, blowing horns.  Italy won the first match by a hair, and in the second match the Chilean player hurt himself and forfeited.  I can't remember watching live professional tennis, and it was tons of fun! Then we went to our favorite lunch spot, Cafe del Opera, and had soup and sandwiches and ice cream.  That evening, we just watched a movie because it was going to be a long weekend!

September 18th is the independence day in Chile.  It's when the leaders in the area first met to discuss creating a republic and breaking away from Spain in 1817.  And they celebrate it like crazy here!  All day and night there are "fondas" (kind of like fairs) in the major public parks.  The focus at the fondas is on meat.  Tons of meat on sticks, sausages, ribs, chicken.  It's astonishing!  Then there are the Chilean drinks called Terremoto and chicha - mixtures of wine, juice, ice cream.  We went on Saturday and Monday. On Sunday, we went to our friend David's parents house.  His wife Leslie's parents and sister were also there. It was much like a July 4th celebration, and was really fun.  At one point they all sang the national anthem!  My Spanish was very much put to the test and I spent a lot of the afternoon with no idea what was being said. 

Meat at the fonda

2 Months

September 1st marks the 2 months left mark!  It feels like it will only be a week.  It's sad, yet exciting at the same time.  We are sad to leave Santiago and the friends we've made here. But we are excited to start traveling and seeing South America, which is what we've been saving our money for for the last two years.  I am also tired of living downtown, which so noisy, and the days are just a constant inundation of honking.  The nights are composed of garbage truck noise, car alarms going off, and dogs barking hysterically at each other or while chasing cars.  The apartment is tiny (maybe 420 square feet) and  I didn't pack many clothes or shoes, and am so tired of wearing the same thing all the time!!!

Not too much has been going on these past weeks.  We have been hanging out with friends, eating around town, walking around town.  We saw Planet of the Apes this past Saturday.  I watched San Francisco get taken over by the apes. It was pretty cool.  The American movies here are all left in their original English and have Spanish subtitles. Which is extremely awesome, since I can't watch TV.  The weekend before we went to see Midnight in Paris, a Woody Allen movie.  I love Woody Allen, and this movie proved again why. Really cool, interesting insight into life and living. 

Yesterday we went with our friends Leslie and David to a very popular restaurant here in Santiago.  It's called Las Vacas Gordas (The Fat Cows).  It's a great parilla (grill) and very decently priced.  The first time we went we got fillet medallions wrapped in bacon, a shish kebab of pork, chicken, and shrimp.  It was amazing. This time we started with Pisco Sours, and Jesse and I got a steak wrapped in pancheta this time, as well as another shish kebab (bruchetta).  We spent over two hours eating, drinking, chatting.  Since it was a sunny (yet chilly) spring day, after lunch we walked up the Cerro Santa Lucia , which is downtown, very near where we all live.  It began in the first days of colonialism as a Spanish fort to look out for invaders, and has changed functions several times, but still remains very fort-looking, which is cool. 

On Saturday we had a crepe party in our place with our friends Carrie and Ethan and their two visitors, Alex and Naoki.  Carrie and Ethan were teaching English in Japan and met and came to Santiago together.  Carrie is from New Zealand and Ethan is from Cleveland.  They all went out and got filling for the crepes like crab, shrimp, avacado, cream cheese, three types of sauces, ham and mushroom.  We also had chocolate, banana, kiwi and lemon and sugar for some sweet crepes  (which of course I ate more of).   It was really really tasty, and a welcome break from cooking at home our typical recipes (chicken, pasta, vegetables). 


On Friday night we went to our British friends', Becky and Daniel, house and played Pictionary with them and our Spanish teacher, Romina and her partner.  It was fun.  Jesse and I were doing really poorly, way behind everyone, and kept rolling a one on the dice.  But we caught up and ended up winning!  The winning picture was "neighborhood".   I had had "ragged". I have no idea how anyone could draw ragged.  After Pictionary we played that game where you write a famous person on a piece of paper and then pass it to the person on your left and they put it on their forehead, and then everyone has to ask questions to guess who they are.  Jesse wrote Ernest Hemingway for me and I wrote King Arthur for Daniel.  I never got mine, as they told me he was involved in politics but had never held office. It really threw me off!  Jesse had Leonard da Vinci but he couldn't get his either.  Probably mostly due to the amount of beer he'd consumed!

And now it's Monday again and we have another week of riding around on the Metro and bus all day teaching English.   Hope you're enjoying the start of Fall! It's the start of Spring here, thank goodness!