Lost/Outdated Blog

July 10, 2008
(I wrote this, forgot about it, found it and figure I might as well post it-outdated and all. . .)
The first semester is technically finished, with the exception of a few loose strings and details to be managed. However, I said goodbye to the beloved students almost two weeks ago and it was as sad as I thought it was going to be. Unfortunately, I was PMS-ing when bidding farewell to my very favorite class and actually teared up in front of all of them while giving the “I had a great semester with you guys” spiel. They broke into some sad, sappy song and were rocking back and forth- half mocking, half- I don’t know. The funniest part was that later in the same evening, after they’d finished their final and I’d returned all my paperwork to the offices and was ready to head out to meet some favorites for a drink. I was walking toward the main exit (where, I might add, about 60 students were still lingering) when I heard some faux sobbing noises. Turns out it was a group of my students from class, mocking me, pretending to rub their eyes and bawling, ”boo-hoo”. Now you might understand why they’re my favorites! I finally made it out for beers with some of those students and had a great time. I’ve been anxious for them to finish all there finals so I can go out and play with them again- very fun, sarcastic group.
I feel really grateful for the groups that I had last semester and am thinking there’s no way I’ll have the same luck twice . . . but I’m hoping. I totally understand the teacher’s pet issues now, because my favorite students made ALL the difference to me. Cross your fingers for me please.

There is still about a month left before the next semester. My first week off was spent being really lazy and not inputting grades like I should have. I did spend one evening at Duoc doing makeup finals with students, but other than that, last week was lazy lazy lazy. I watched a couple movies, started to read a book in Spanish and am aiming to study some Spanish, specifically more grammar so I might return next semester with better speaking ability- not that it matters since I force English on my most basics of Basic (and Intermediate). I did make it out of town to visit a teacher friend of mine (Angie), who lives in Milipilla- a small town about an hour outside of Santiago. Since you know how much I love the air in this city, you know getting out of town is always nice, but especially to a completely new place, and better yet a small town where I have a tour guide. I had good pizza for the second time in five months there, took a walking tour and actually felt like I was in South America. We went out for drinks (which were notably cheaper than in Santiago), ran into some of her amigos and continued the night with them. We had been determined to go salsa dancing that night, but the only men willing and available at the bar, were TERRIBLE partners. Our hopes were up for a minute because they had the DJ cancel the regaeton and throw on some salsa, acting like twinkle toes, but when it came down to it, none of them had an ounce of rhythm. . . just some eager old pervs trying to get close to a couple of gringas. We had the music changed back and danced until we couldn’t keep them away anymore, then just practiced our Spanish over multiple rounds of piscolas.

Long Time, No Write

The end of the first semster is DONE. I cannot believe it, but month five is approaching- - rapidemente. In the beginning, I thought a lot about how the hell I was going to make it so many months without seeing my favorite little buddies and meeting the new buddies, whose births were expected after my departure, but with time flying so quickly,I'm now bogged by the thought that I only have 6 more months. Susan and mom are helping to ease the issue, reminding me that new babies won't be talking or walking by January, and the others won't be too different, nor will they have forgotten their favorite auntie Doods (sorry kathy).

Life is great here, for the most part, but it's just as mundane at times, as anywhere else might be. HOWEVER, I love my job here, which is a completely new experience for me. Aside from tending to the old folk's entertainment needs in San Francisco, I can't say i've ever really liked my jobs in the past. Hooray for me! Seriously, my students this semester were phenomenol and played a huge role in my decision to stay (I just hope I have such luck next semester). What stresses me out more is not knowing what i'm going back to. I totally sympathize with Mr. Benny and know exactly why he doesn't want to leave Korea. Unfortunately, I'm too easily distracted and can't follow a plan so well. A straight and narrow is hard to follow when you have ADD.

Speaking of paths, my immediate one is taking me on an exciting journey to the north of Chile and then to Machu Picchu. I'm going with two teacher friends, Megan and Renee at the crack of dawn on Friday morning. We're flying up north to Calama, then going to San Pedro de Atacama for four days, where I cannot wait to experience a nighttime desert sky. Among the few things I miss about Lancaster, the night sky tops my list, so it'll be a rare treat. When Shannon was visiting, we went with Rafael out to the country for the weekend, where his aunt and uncle (Anita y Lauta) have a place. They took us on a little drive out to the middle of nowhere to see the southern cross and the sky was AMAZING, but Lauta insisted it wasn't anything compared to San Pedro. We'll see. There's an observatory that I want to check out, if the prices are reasonable. On top of stargazing, I'll head to Valle de la Luna (Valley of the moon), which is meant to be viewed at sunset to maximize the light display on the rocks. It's all supposed to be incredible. . .

On Monday we head out on our EPIC bus journey to Cusco. . . this I CAN wait for. I will say that in my other trips, the bus journey proved to be really rewarding when scenery was nice- even the hellish 13 hour trip to Mendoza that should've taken 8. We'll leave from Calama to Arica, the northernmost city in Chile. From there, we'll take a colectivo (taxi) across the border to avoid time constraints with a busload of people at the border. In Peru, we'll take a bus from Tacna to Arequipa, then transfer again to get to Cusco. I have no idea how long these trips are going to take and kind of dont want to. It is a oncce in a lifetime opportunity, so I'm thinking posetively. I know my butt will be sore and crying, not thinking in those terms, but for now I'm excited. Once we get to Cusco (I hope by Tuesday) we'll do some 'sploring there and on Friday we take the train to Machu Picchu. I know, I know, I talked a lot of smack about train riders, but 1: all permits for hiking were sold out until September and 2: it's beneficial for the trails. . . . We'll spend the night at a hostel just below the ruins on Friday, where I hope we'll enjoy an evening of natural hot tubbing while celebrating Megan's 30th birthday. On Saturday morning, we get to actually see the ruins, then head back to bus tour hell (or heaven, who knows). Please cross your fingers that none of us suffer from altitude sickness while traveling- if you pray, ask for our protection =).

I hope this finds you all well. To the Seattleites, I'm damn happy for your sunshine. . . FINALLY!

I Heart Chile (sort of)

I recently talked to my mom for a while and was informed that she "thoroughly enjoys reading my blogs". I told her that she and my friend Renee seem to be the only ones who read it, and she reminded me that it's a great personal journal source and I should just write for myself, regardless if anyone else reads it. So in the spirit of remembering things 10 years from now, I wrote down some stuff that I'm totally missing in Seattle and totally loving here in Santiago. Hopefully,by December, my list of "things i'm going to miss" about Chile will have grown a bit. Here goes. . .

Things I love here: My roommates; the view from my apartment; my students; my boss; my new gringa friends; cheap wine; being able to use the preterit-FINALLY; being ogled by hot, 20-something year old Duoc students; ogling hot, 20-something year old Duoc students; Spanglish; speaking loudly about inappropriate subjects on the metro and NO ONE HAVING A CLUE!; my students; the very talented musicians on the Micros; the availability of ice cream; SOPAIPILLAS; deep fried hot dogs; terremotos; churrasco italianos; the price of produce; cookies; having the door opened for me every time I leave the building and come back home; being called “MEEZ!”; instant parties (parties start faster here than at Steve and Jaylene’s); empanadas

Things I hate: starers on the bus and everywhere else; line-cutters; being in a language bubble; impossibility of finding shoes in double digits (thanks mom. . . or dad??); five-step purchases (see previous blogs); never being able to split a freakin check at restaurants

Things I miss: Real coffee; real beer; my nieces and nephews; my potty-humor-enjoying friends; clean air; clean air; clean air; being assertive (well, not sounding retarded while being assertive); !!!!MEXICAN FOOD!!!; going out to breakfast; dim sum; walking Greenlake with Susan and Lily; telling stories to Ethan on my walk home from work; chatting with my mom on the way to work; having a lot of cell minutes to make such calls; being able to stop at Susan’s on my way home from work; only having a 15 minute walk to get to work. . . definitely don’t miss the work, though=); Tillamook extra sharp, aged white cheddar; goat cheese; string cheese (am I five?); Nancy’s plain yogurt; bulk bins at the Greenwood Market; last minute beers with Shannon; tennis and beers with Shannon; lazy Sunday mornings with cable TV at Bo and Mike’s; evenings around the fire pit at Bo and Mike’s or Amy and Rosy’s; (brace yourself). . . my cat, believe it or not!; aerobics with Shannon (believe it or not)

Things I’m going to miss: see above, under “things I love”

Two More Weeks

The end of the semester is now only two weeks away and while I'm really going to miss my students I am glad to get a break. WE've only had short ones since we arrived, so it will be nice to have that vacation mentality again- although, I can't complain. My hours allow for me to spend late nights shooting the shit with Rafael and a bottle of wine (or two, sometimes three), and meeting people for late dinners after classes. Definitely nothing like my endless hours at the Fokin' office in Greenwood =).

On top of prepping for finals and getting all the grades and make up quizes taken care of, I'm totally slammed trying to get ahead for next week. SHANNON'S COMING IN TWO DAYS!!!! Como se dice "Hallelujah!"? I was really excited, but I lack the ability to envision, so it wasnt until a couple days ago that it actually hit. I can't wait to hang out with her and laugh my ass off. . . as is always guaranteed in her presence. I feel lucky because my friends here are pretty understanding of my crazy sense of humor and I was really appreciating that about them recently (during a PMS-y/hallmark-y moment). So, fortunately I've not been deprived of great laughs in Santiago. Actually, I can say that laughing with my gringas has been my medicine, because there were certainly times when I wanted to go right back home.

Since she couldnt come after I was done with school, we're going to take a trip to the coast- Vina del Mar and Valparaiso (maybe go to the fancy casino in Vina, on the beach). Then, with our next two-day stretch we'll head to some smaller towns for a more "south american", small town feel. One, in particular, is called Pomaire and is supposed to be great for shopping- she can get it all out of her system in one day (i hope) and also for good traditional chilean food. Rafael's uncle has property outside of Santiago that I hear is really cool- we'll see about convincing him to take a couple a' gringas out of town.

I told Rafael about the fart machine that Shannon and I have so much fun with, and we're planning all kinds of schemes for after she gets here. I'm pretty excited to watch Flito-tito (rafael) flirt with someone on the metro as he cues me or Shannon to make the machine fart. We're also going to plant it under a couch cushion and let it rip when his fart-despising friend Patricio is sitting down. I have a feeling that Shannon, Flito and I are going to be the only ones laughing. Apparently farting is particularly gross here. ??? ha ha ha

It should be good times. I'll keep things posted. we should have some funny pictures and/or stories. These Chilenos won't know what hit them.

Reformed Chanchita

Many of you might not believe it unless you saw it, but I am a reformed slob. More so, I’m a borderline neat freak. Thanks to my roommate, I’m disgusted by clutter and dirty dishes. I was tolerant of his chanchito ways during the time he was employed, but now that he has no early morning wakeup calls and long hours at the office, I accept no excuses for the constant messes left in his wake. Strewn piles of dishes and newspapers, snack wrappers and empty beer/wine bottles have practically turned me into my sister Christine. I say practically because I at least wait until after eating my meals to clean up, but (unlike my old, living-alone self) I do clean up immediately. No dishes soaking in the sink for even an hour. No counter left unwiped. I used to make fun of Kathy for having a personal soundtrack of a swishing broom sound but now the noise applies to me, as well. It’s painful but I do try to hold out from cleaning up after him, and can usually last up to three or four days while crusty dishes accumulate in the sink. Elsa warned me not to give in because she’s desperately concerned about Rafael becoming accustomed to being a kept man, living with two tidy women. However, I am a cooker and there come times when I NEED the dirty dishes that sit in his pile so at times I break down. I was having people for Chinese dinner on Saturday and had three dishes to prepare, so I needed a lot of kitchen/sink space. Without thinking, I went ahead and cleared out the sink so the kitchen would be presentable when people showed, but since remembered a GIANT Rubbermaid container that Elsa sometimes uses to consolidate his disaster zones and hides in the laundry room. . . NOT E TO SELF, CAROL. Yes, next time, I will pull a Joan Willis/Elsa move and contain the wreckage. Elsa usually goes off on him about it, much like a bossy big sister, but she works long hours and isn’t around as much as I am. What I need is to learn some pestering phrases in Spanish so I can nag, nag, nag. But, when did nagging a man ever get me anywhere??

Mis Alumnos

Just a quick note about my students. I finally remembered to take my camera to school and asked the Basic guys to take a picture and they tried to charge me. I immediately heard moans and groans of irritation about a photo request, but obviously they obliged. Contrastingly, before I even asked to take the picture of my Intermediates, I had two or three students leaning into one another, ready to pose at the sheer sight of my camera case. It was cute. Cuter was the way they fluffed their hair, straightened their coats/scarves and arranged themselves like pros for the perfect picture. Silly silly folks. They are still my favorites though- the class where I was asked about getting ass. I'll be taking more pictures of my other classes soon, so you can see the object of my "Mary Kay Laterno" interest. . .

Dramarama on the Alameda

Right now, I’m enjoying my Nescafe (yes, taste buds can be trained), checking emails and listening to BBC World News. A few minutes ago, it occurred to me that I better send out notification of my livelihood to my folks in the event that they get wind of the student protests that went on yesterday right in front of my campus. With these things, I usually laugh it all off, like when she was concerned about me being ashed on, despite being more than a thousand KM from Chaiten. HOWEVER, yesterday’s protests were literally at the doorstep of my campus in barrio Universitario. I had no idea it was going on, until I stepped out from the metro and was stung with an unknown substance. My sinuses were burning and my lungs were killing me. I’ve been pretty sick, so I thought I might just be sensitive to the poorer air quality in that part of town (ha ha ha, I’m a Providencia snob! My neighborhood has trees, yours has protests!!) , but the closer I got to my building, the stronger it got and I realized something was off. When I rounded the corner to the entrance, the metal grates were pulled closed, with only about 5 feet open to allow Duoc students/faculty to pass through. As I walked inside, I noticed all the students were plugging their noses or holding their scarves over their faces, so it definitely wasn’t my flu-ridden sinuses just being sensitive to El Centro pollution. I got upstairs to the computer lounge and Megan confirmed that it was residual tear gas from some rowdy protests. I’d just missed them as well as the tanks rolling down the Alameda, with police tossing tear gas. GREAT! This brings me to BBC news, from which I got the full details, after the fact. It looked like an ugly scene, but no reports of anything really crazy. All my students are fine and my profe friends are too. Although, if any of you saw it, you might have caught a glimpse of my school and my metro stop- REPUBLICA- or unknowingly, one of my hottie McHottie students. And if that’s not enough dram for you, just hold your horses. I was on campus for a long time yesterday, since I have a three hour break between my classes, so I was hanging out in the teacher’s lounge trying to get ahead on lesson plans. During a potty break, I overheard some Chilenas talking about a “bomba” on campus. AGAIN?? (In case you didn’t hear about it, about a month ago, one of my classes was terminated because of a bomb threat) They continued to apply their eyeliner and fix their hair, so I wasn’t taking it too seriously. When I went back to the lounge, I was told to pack my bags and wait outside until further notice. The Carabineros were already inspecting the building as I walked downstairs and some of my students were coming to my aide to ensure I understood what was going on. They told me “profe, no worry to the bomba! Eeezajoke. Some students look now at the futbol game. They don’t want to make test today in the night.” They are so sweet. Indeed, the theory was a common one, that some students pulled a prank to get out of midterms while they enjoyed the big Colo Colo match. After waiting about 10 minutes, I was just about to follow the suggestion of another english teacher to just go home if I could find one of my 7 O’clock students to pass the word of class being canceled, when a megaphone announcement was made that classes were to resume promptly. DAMN! If ever there’s an excuse to enjoy a sopaipilla when you’re supposed to be back on the wagon. It’s impossible for me to ignore two fry stands within a 40 foot radius, if I’m standing still. The smell gets to me. So, of course I waited the threat out with a sopaipilla and some choppy English with a couple of my star students.