A blog for all my travels!! It began as a 15 month trip to South America to teach English and backpack for 6 months. Took a 10 day trip to Hawaii in January, and now am off to Guatemala for my first solo backpacking and volunteering trip!
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.
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!
Just in case any one is wondering exactly what we're up to here in Santiago, a brief summary of the life of an English as a foreign language teacher:
It's extremely easy to travel the world teaching English. You just have to decide to go, buy a plane ticket, and get certified as a TEFL teacher. The last one is optional, but does make things a lot easier. I wanted to get certified in the States, so we would have to spend time or money getting certified in Santiago. But Jesse found a TEFL course in Santiago online, and convinced me it would be cheaper and easier. We applied and paid our deposit and bought one-way tickets to Santiago. Suddenly, we were going! It was that easy. Sorting through all your belongings and packing up your life and driving it to a storage unit is not so easy. The cheapest unit we could find was in Fremont, so we had to keep driving my small car full of stuff out there. Then there were the other bank, insurance, etc. issues of moving to another country to sort through. You try and try to think of what other strings you need to sort out and what you'll need, but inevitably, it's impossible to remember everything.
So we got to Santiago and started our course. It was four weeks long and there was one other couple in the class with us who were from Atlanta. It was a really tough course, and our practice teaching classes were graded a bit harshly and really stressed us all out. Then, graduation, then job-hunting. Because we had our TEFL, we didn't have any problems finding people who wanted to hire us. Being a native speaker and having a TEFL is pretty valuable in foreign countries.
We quickly filled up our week with classes. All of mine are one-on-one classes and Jesse has two classes of 5 students. We spend our days going from class to class on the Metro and bus. The traveling around all day on public transit is rather tedious and annoying and tiring, but the students are all really great. Of course, the beginners and intermediates say the funniest things. My beginner, Jorge, was trying to look up "crab" on google because we were talking about seafood, but Spanish speakers have issues with hard vowel sounds, so what he heard was "crap" and he typed that in instead. Sometimes I just can't help but laugh, and luckily my beginner students are all cool enough to laugh with me. My intermediate student, Gabriela is always saying funny things, like how she had to go to a "Shopwork" this week so can't have class and how she wears "panties" when it's cold outside (by which she means panty hose). Nelson, my super super beginner answered the question "How are you?" with "I am Nelson" for the first 3 weeks. I had to tell everyone I know because it was just so funny.
The best is when Spanish speakers say "sheet" and "beach". They come out "shit" and "bitch". "Cheater" and "cheat" also come out as "shit". Gabriella told me her son was a "shitter", which may be true at times, but she meant to say "cheater." The best moment regarding these words was when Gabriella was trying to tell me that in school she used to make "cheat sheets." She was pretending to write on her arm and said "How do you call this in English?"
I wish I could record or video the classes because the things they say and the way things unfold are just so hilarious, but I can't remember the details and I can't share in the hilarity with an English speaking person, and it just seems so criminal! It's honestly like a movie, the level of comedy that goes on. There is definitely a bond with the student, because it's a relationship unlike any other you've had in your life, teaching someone who doesn't speak your language. It of course requires a lot of patience, but it makes you feel soft and supportive of this student, because you see them trying and hoping, top executives stumbling over words and saying sentences without verbs or struggling to pronounce something like "vacation" because of the v sound. The language barrier makes you see further into this person as a person. You have to read their expressions, their energy, their body language. So you come to know and like them, even when they are beginners and you can't have an actual conversation. And of course, you strive for and celebrate their smile, because that means they are having fun, and the frustrations of learning another language aren't as bad when they are being taught by you.
Wow!!! San Pedro de Atacama is truly unbelievable! It's simply incomprehensible how beautiful the earth can be sometimes. The beauty stretches further then the eye can see, and it's overwhelming and addictive.
We left Santiago by plane on Wednesday late afternoon and arrived in the town of Calama after two hours. We spent the night in a hostel in Calama, and then took off for San Pedro about 1pm the next day. It was only a one hour bus ride. We checked into our hostel in San Pedro, then joined the hostel owners for an asado (bbq) and homemade wine from the south of Chile. They were celebrating their one year anniversary of owning a hostel! It was a great little place, very clean and cute. Except for the hordes of young travelers in hostels, they are really great places if you can find a good one. I think a great idea would be a hostel for 28 and older travelers! We were constantly awoken by loud drunk kids coming back late. The hostel also had 7 cats living there. It was so funny to see cats lounging everywhere when you came back.
On Friday we rented bikes and rode them out to Valle de la Luna, which is so called because the terrain is so dry and strange, like the moon. It was about a half hour to get to the entrance of the park, where we had to pay $4 each to get in, and then it was progressively harder uphill cycling to get into the valley. We stopped at the salt caves, about 20 minutes in, to walk through them. They were really astonishing! Rivers had carved deep tunnels through salt rock, and we were able to walk through them. It was super fun. Here's a video:
Then we cycled some serious hills to get further into the valley. There was a very rare storm at the time, and it rained off and on for short spurts of 30 to 60 seconds. And it also hailed at one point! The wind was pretty heavy as well. It actually made for more beautiful scenery, to see the dark storm clouds.
As we cycled, we saw dogs running alongside other people on bikes. I was so shocked there were dogs living out there! There was not another living thing. No tiny birds, no weeds, no bugs. One of them, who we named "Brownita" started to follow us. We felt horrible for her and gave her water and some bread. She kept up with us for about an hour, even as we started heading back. But at one of the down hills she lost us. I was very concerned about her! Until the next day, when I saw her in town, lying on the tile floor, looking content! Isn't that crazy? She took herself on a trip to Valle de la Luna for the day I guess! Did she just wake up that day and think, "I'd like to take a trip today to the valley." ?? :) Here is a pic of her in the valley and in town:
At some point, when the road was still not with an end in sight, I told Jesse I couldn't keep going and would sit and wait for them if they wanted to try and find the end. I was thinking about the return trip, and knew I had to save the small energy I had left. Also, the wind was really bad at this point, and I just couldn't keep fighting it. So we turned back. And boy was I right about the return trip! It almost killed me! About 30 minutes of it was on a slight incline, but because we were so tired, it felt like a huge incline! I had previously learned the concept of bike gears (after almost killing myself on the first hill we got to) and had them on the lowest settings. The wind was bad, my butt was on fire, and I was just repeating to myself "block the pain, mentally block the pain." At one point I was literally blown off my bike!
We FINALLY got back to town and walked around to find a place to eat. It is a bit pricey in San Pedro because it's so touristy, and we couldn't afford to eat in the nicer places. But we found a great place called La Delicias de Carmen: homemade food and it was reallly good. Joe got the cazuela, which is a Chilean soup of chicken, corn, pumpkin, and potato. I got the lentil soup, which was really great. I adore lentil soup. I love soup in general, but lentil is one of my favorites. Jesse got a pizza. It was so awesome to be off the bikes, have a beer, and eat some great food. We were starving!
After that, the boys took off to go watch the Chile vs. Mexico Copa America soccer game. I went back to the hostel in search of a hot shower, but only found a warm one. Then I went and joined them at the only bar in San Pedro, which was, of course packed. The indigenous people of San Pedro do not like all the tourists and noise, so they don't want to have bars, only restaurants where you have to order food. There is somehow a bar there, that's been there for 4 years, and only serves beer. The locals also go there, so it's a great place, breaching two communities. When we were there one night, the owner (a Finn) asked us to edit some text to introduce his petition to the patrons. It was about how the bar is facing political envy and opposition. We both signed the petition, and hopefully the bar will stay open!
Anyway, Chile won the game 1 - 0. Which probably has something to do with the fact that half of the Mexican players were ejected from the Copa due to hiring prostitutes while in Ecuador... yeah.... awesome and hilarious!
On Saturday Jesse and I took a tour on horseback! Which I knew was not going to be good for our butts, but I just love riding horses! It was beautiful and fun. We saw some old Inca ruins on a hill, but didn't get a chance to explore them. Next time! Before we went on the horses, we ate at La Delicias de Carmen again and Jesse got cazuela with llama meat! Poor llama!
After the horses we had to have some beers! lol. It was painful to sit! Then we got an early night because we had to get up at 7am to go on a tour of the salt flats. The tour went to these massive salt flats where flamingos and 6 other species of birds live, feeding on larvae, and these tiny little shrimp organisms. They fed us breakfast and then took us to see the Tropic of Capricorn post, which was not very interesting really lol, and then on to a small oasis village called Tocomao, where we bought a wall tapestry and got to pet a llama! It was adorable! We got back to San Pedro about noon and got on a bus to leave at 1:30 or so. In Calama, we ate, then took a taxi to the airport and got back late to Santiago, as our flight had been delayed. I am still exhausted! We didn't want to come home because there is so much to do in San Pedro that we didn't have time to do. We couldn't do the tour of the gysers because they were closed due to snow, which was really disappointing! So this is why we have to go back to San Pedro! :) And there were other cool things to see and do, like the ancient petroglyphs which have been dated as old as 5,000 years.
This is a pic of the salt flat:
I will post my pictures of the trip soon!
This weekend Joe and Jesse are in Valparaiso. Our friends Nico and David are going with them too. Today is really wet and ugly in Santiago, so I hope they at least don't have a torrential downfall of rain all weekend... Jesse doesn't have a raincoat.
I am very excited to be alone for the weekend!! I am having some girlfriends over tonight for wine and cheese! :) And other then that I have no idea what I'll be up to! Some errands, and hopefully shopping, if I can justify spending the money! hmmm... Don't think that will be too difficult. :)
In other news, we have just gotten our temporary resident visas/working visas! Very exciting. Too bad we aren't staying that much longer! It would be so easy to immigrate and live here legally going the route of an English teacher...
We have another friend coming to stay the day Joe leaves! Slightly overwhelming, but we are happy to help him, Jesse's friend Jeremy, who is moving down here to teach English as well. He's from San Francisco too.
We don't have anything planned for traveling until November 22nd as of now, when we go to Punta Arenas at the very south of Chile. San Pedro was slightly expensive, and a lot of our classes have been suspended this month because schools are on winter break and people are going on holidays.
In the last few weeks, things have still been really busy! I have picked up yet another class, but it is only twice a month. It's on Friday evenings, though, which is a bummer! But it's with one of Jesse's students son. He is really really cute, only 8 years old. He's very calm and quiet, not a typical 8 year old boy! His dad is paying me cash, so it's a pretty good deal.
We bought a little electric heater for the apartment last week. It's gotten pretty cold here, in the 30's I'd say. And it's going to get colder! I have a hot water bottle as well, and I sleep with it every night. I love it. I am always cold, all the time, it's not fair. Jesse can be sitting in a tshirt, but I'm freezing.
Biggest news of all: We got internet in the apartment!!!!!!!! I had my Spanish teacher translate a note to my neighbors for me, asking them if we could pay them to share their internet. I got an email from a guy living downstairs who said he could help. Turned out he is a Russian hacker musician! He plays the French horn in the opera orchestra, which is just down the street. He came in and spent about an hour cracking our neighbor's passwords! We have two now. So we went from no internet to free internet! I am SO MUCH happier. I've been able to chat online to friends and use skpe more. It's great. And he gave us free tickets to see an opera, Ariadne on Naxos, which was great!!
We have been trying now for about a month to get our work permits. Each time we go to the notary and sign a work contract, we either found the date was wrong, or went to the Department of Interior, and they told us the amount we are making is not enough. We have been to the notary 4 times and to wait in line in the Department of Interior three times. And it's STILL not over. Right now we only have our 30 day work permit, during which, we need to apply for our temporary residents visa. It's SUCH a pain, considering we only have five more months in the country, but it will help us to save time and money since we won't have to leave the country again, and our boss really wants us to be on a work permit for legal reasons for his company.
Since the beach we haven't done much on the weekends. We went to a new club called Bal de Luc with our friends Leslie and David and Nico, and two other TEFL teachers came too. We went to a museum last Sunday, that was focused on old toys! It was pretty cool. Last weekend I was not feeling great, a bit of a head cold, so pretty much stayed in bed/couch. I did go to our friend Michelle's housewarming party on Saturday evening for a bit, and we met some new gringos, which was nice.
Also, last weekend the water in the whole building was out. There was some type of electrical issue and the water went off. It was off for a bit on Saturday night, then all day on Sunday and half of Monday. The hot water has yet to return fully. It was pretty annoying! We had to go out and buy water, and now live in fear that it's going to happen again. Apparently, some buildings were really affected by the earthquake, and we are thinking this is one, because it may have been built cheaply and quickly.
We are still cooking a lot to save money, and last week Jesse made pupusas, an El Salvadorian dish. They were really good! We are also making things like shepherds pie, fajitas, chicken soup, spaghetti, stir frys.
Next Monday is apparently St. Peter's and Paul Day, so no one has to go to work. Naturally. I am not sure if all my classes with be cancelled, but I'm kind of hoping they are. I am getting so exhausted! It wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't so much walking, Metro and bus riding involved.
Jesse's brother, Joey, arrives next Tuesday to stay for 3 weeks. On his last weekend here all of us will be going up to San Pedro de Atacama, the desert, to visit for 3 nights. I'm very excited! We are flying up to make it easier.
If you have read about the volcano in Chile, it hasn't had any effect on Santiago at all. I didn't even know about it for a day, since I don't read the papers or listen to the news here.
That's it for now! Hope you all are enjoying warmer weather! Lucky! :)
Since the last post, we have been out of town twice. The first to Santa Cruz, a small town about 2 hours south of Santiago, which is in the heart of wine country in Chile, then to Algarrobo, a beach town, last weekend.
Santa Cruz was nice, a bit nicer then a typical Chilean town. We went with our neighbors, Mark and Jenny, who are from Boston. It's a small, sleepy town. Our hotel was a house that had been converted, and it was really nice. There weren't any cheap options in the town, so we spent $24,000 (that's 24 thousand pesos – about $50 bucks) on our room. We went to a local football (soccer) game the first evening. It was a 3rd division team, so wasn't very good! Nobody scored. And on Sunday we went to the museum there, which was very good. It is pretty big, and covers a lot of things. There was a room with old cars, which was great. And a Darwin room, since Darwin spent time in Chile. The South American Native Peoples collections were really great as well. We didn't go to any vineyards, which I didn't mind since I've been to Napa a couple times and pretty much know what a vineyard looks like. Plus, we didn't want to pay for the taxi rides out there.
Then we stayed in Santiago for two weekends. The 28th of May was Jesse's birthday, and we had a gathering at one of our favorite local bars. It has a small basement area, and we overtook it, squishing in. Our gringo friends and our Chilean friends came, and it was a really fun night!
Last weekend our friends David and Leslie took us to their parents beach house in Algarrobo, and our friend Nico came too. It's about 2 hours southwest. We left late on Friday evening and arrived about midnight. When we got out of the car three street dogs came up to us. There was one with a broken leg, and another that was so skinny. It was awful! So the guys went out and got dog food and other stuff. There was another little brown dog that would jump from yard to yard. I have no idea how she did it, maybe she used the roofs. She was obviously using the fenced yards to keep safe from other street dogs.
On Saturday morning Jesse cooked pancakes for the Chileans, and they loved them! Breakfast in Chile consists of bread, butter, cheese and maybe a cold cut. Then we took a short walk on the beach, then went further south to Pablo Neruda's house in a place called Isla Negra. Neruda was a Chilean poet, born in a small, poor town in the south of Chile in 1904. He built his house when the coast there was still wild and rugged, and it is still breathtakingly beautiful. It looks very much like the northern California coast, minus the redwoods, of course. Neruda's house is on the cliff overlooking the rocky beach. He stocked his house with items from all over the world, since he served as the foreign minister for Chile. He has many of the statues that were on the front of ships, many gorgeous shells, masks and musical instruments from all over, as well as antique maps, miniature ships in bottles, and African statues. It's an amazing museum and beautiful house.
We drove on, further down the coast for dinner. Then later that night, back at the house, we grilled up some chicken, pork and sausages. It was an amazing day!
On Sunday Jesse made scrambled eggs and bacon, and then we took a trip to two different beaches. The first was a gorgeous small bay. The sun was out and there were even people swimming in the water! We climbed up to a high rock and sat and soaked it in. Then we drove to another beach and walked along it for about an hour. A storm was starting to roll in, and it made the cliffs and sky look amazing. The houses along the cliffs were really impressive.
We had a quick dinner, then headed back to the city, and it almost immediately started raining hard, which of course meant accidents on the freeway, and slow going. It was the first real rain of the Fall, and has been much needed because the rain helps free up the smog. The smog was becoming really disgusting, and the government had implemented “pre-emergency” days, restricting certain older model cars from driving.
Jesse's brother Joey is arriving on the 27th of this month and we'll all be taking a trip up north to San Pedro de Atacama, which is a town right on the desert and salt flats. It's supposed to be stunning, so we are very excited.
I have been working really hard, with always 3 to 5 classes a day. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the travel time. There are always so many people on the sidewalks, on the Metro, on the bus, in the shops. It gets exhausting. And I feel like I walk about 5 miles a day. My legs look good, at least! Not having TV, DVD, a CD ROM or the internet is really frustrating, because all I want to do when I get home is watch a movie or the news or surf the net... I've been very on edge about it lately, and will probably have to buy a DVD player because the internet is not going to happen, and I doubt we can find an antenna big enough to catch a TV signal, which is all in Spanish anyway.... It feels like all work and no play.
Luckily we have received a work contract from one of our bosses, and we now won't have to leave the country every 3 months. We just have to go through a ton of paper work and sitting in lines until we get it approved. But as long as we are in the process of doing it, we don't have to leave the country.
Lately we have been talking and thinking about going to Easter Island in November. The photos I've seen of it are amazing, and everyone we talk to says they loved it. The problem is that flights are incredibly expensive, about $500 - $600 each...
So is it getting warm for you all? Hope it doesn't get too hot this summer! I fear that it's nothing but extremes from now on... pretty scary times. There was a volcano eruption in the south here yesterday, but they knew it was going to happen so were prepared.
Until next time, hasta luego, and thanks for reading!
