Mi Cumpleaños!

Well, I'm 22 now. This was the second time I celebrated my birthday here in Chile. it was great!! I had a party here at my house. Many of my co-workers and friends came- so much fun! We played some drinking games, drank (probably too much), ate some cake, etc.
Here are some pictures!

 I got sung to in English and Spanish :)

You bet I made a wish! Now let's hope it comes true...

Apparently it's a tradition in Chile to put your face in the cake/take a bit of it after you blow out the candles. So needless to say, I did it..

mis mejores amigas

some of my co-workers!

a special someone :) who took many great pictures of the night!

 Birthday celebration part 2 was with Danielle and Max :) We had sushi, Danielle made a delicious cake and we watched a movie. Great time!

Danielle and the yummy sushi!

Me and the cake Danielle made me! :)

Thank you to all those who made my birthday one to remember! :) Here's to being 22!

Pichilemu and the beginning of July

Last weekend, some of the girls and I went to Pichilemu, Chile. Pichilemu is about 130 miles southwest of Santiago, right on the coast. The small town is known for surfing. Even though it is winter here now, there were still surfers out in the water while we were there. We arrived on Saturday evening, had dinner at a small typical restaurant and hung out. On Sunday, we explored the town and went to the beach. Pichilemu is absolutely gorgeous. You can see the mountains in the distance while you're on the beach. We left on Sunday afternoon. We didn't spend much time there, but I will definitely make another trip there in the future....maybe I'll even learn how to surf!

on the beach with Kortnee and Amy

with Kort, Mel, and a good view of the beach

view of part of the town

In other news, today is the 4th of July! I'm kind of bummed that I'm not at home to cook out and watch the fireworks, but those are the types of things I've given up to be here. I did get to celebrate a bit yesterday. Some friends and I went to a restaurant called "California Cantina." The restaurant is owned by two gringos and it serves typical American food....cheeseburgers, fries, nachos, etc. Gringo?? That's a term used for foreigners....but mostly it refers to people from the United States (gringo is for a male, gringa is for a girl). They have events there for all the major "American" holidays like St. Patrick's Day, Cinco de Mayo, etc. Yesterday, they had a baseball game on the TV....it was weird seeing the commercials from home. I had a cheeseburger and some beer, so it was nice to do something and have some gringo food. Today I ate some more gringo food and I think I'll rock out to Bruce Springstein's ¨Born in the USA¨.....or some Miley Cyrus's ¨Party in the USA¨ and watch some fireworks on YouTube. Just kidding...


Today also marks the beginning of vacaction! Last Friday was the last day of classes for my students. They took their final exam on Saturday or today. I have everything graded, so I'm officially on vacation! Woohoo! Classes start again on August 8th, so I have almost a month free. Plans include going to the North of Chile, exploring Santiago a bit more, relaxing, drinking, and maybe a couple short trips to surrounding areas. Oh! and celebrating my birthday :)

being touristy

Time for a history lesson! Last weekend, a few friends and I went to see the biggest church in South America....right here in Santiago. It's located in the comuna ("neighborhood/district/municipality") of Maipú. Maipú is pretty large and on the west side of the city. This Catholic church is called the Santuario Nacional de Maipú (National Shrine of Maipú). The church was completed in 1974, but the area in which it stands is pretty important. The open space in front of the church is where the Battle of Maipú took place (an important battle in Chile's independence from Spain) on April 5, 1818. General Bernardo O'Higgins said that if they won the battle, a church would be built in that place in honor of the Virgen of Carmen (Virgin Carmen). After the battle was won, the ruins you see in the picture were the church that was built soon after. 


I had a great time visiting the church. It was cool to be in a place where something so important happened. Chile is also a very Catholic country and since I was raised Catholic, I could relate. It's great getting to know more about the city I'm living in!

The ruins of the original church

Santuario Nacional de Maipú

inside- La Virgen Carmen

the shrine, the ruins, and a statue of the general

 Thank you to a coworker who taught me all this!
 Photo credits go to Jami Herring! :)

"Fakesgiving" and homesickness

The food

family

This past Sunday, my Santiago family (my American friends) and I had what we called "Fakesgiving." We came up with this idea because right now in Chile it is fall, and it felt right to celebrate Thanksgiving while the season was right. Each of us brought a dish- I brought corn and rolls. We didn't have turkey because it would be too difficult to prepare, but we did have some rotisserie chicken along with mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, corn, pumpkin bread, wine, etc. Delicious! We even mixed a little Chilean culture in there by having terremotos. Terremotos, literally "earthquake" is a drink made up of white wine, pineapple ice cream and fernet. Good day!

Otherwise, there's not too much else new going on. The weather is getting colder (but obviously nothing I can't handle). The days are getting shorter (the sun goes down around 6/6:15- bummer!). We are a little bit more than halfway done with the school semester. Time is just flying by. I've been a little homesick lately, but I'm sure it'll get better. Apparently around the 3 month mark homesickness hits. The newness of living abroad is subsiding and being settled into a routine could be a reason. Missing graduation and all the senior things that come along with it didn't help. I wish I could have been there. I'm missing my friends, missing my family, missing the OB. Oh well. It should pass. Gotta live every day like it's my last!

Travels

In the last month or so, I've been a traveling girl. A few weeks ago over Easter weekend, some friends and I went to Pucón, Chile. Pucón is about a 10 hour bus ride south of Santiago, located in the Lakes District. It's a tourist destination but still has the presence of the locals. It's located right between Lake Villarica and Volcano Villarica. We took an overnight bus on a Wednesday and got there on Thursday morning. The weather wasn't very good- it was rainy all weekend. On Thursday, we walked around the town (it's not very big) and relaxed. On Thursday night, there was a big thunderstorm and the power went out, so we ended up cooking and eating dinner by candlelight. 

Lake Villarica with our tour guide in the middle. (Photo credit: Phillip Wong)

the whole gang at Lake Villarica (Photo credit: Phillip Wong)

On Friday, more of the gang arrived and we went on a little tour of the nature in the area. It was so gorgeous! 

the gang exploring nature

On Saturday morning, we got up very early and attempted to climb Volcano Villarica, but did not have much success. We were in a van that was going to take us up to the lift to climb the rest of the way up, but the van couldn't make it very far up the volcano because there was too much snow. Climbing was a no-go, unfortunately. That just means I will have to go back some other time and climb it! We spent the rest of the day exploring the city some more. I left on Saturday night and got home the next day. 

the girls all ready to climb the volcano (Photo credit: Kortnee Byrd)

Last weekend, I not only traveled, but traveled outside of Chile too. We went to Mendoza, Argentina. Mendoza is about a 6 hour bus ride east of Santiago, just on the other side of the Andes mountains. Mendoza is known for the many wineries in the surrounding area, so of course we had to check a couple out. 

at the organic winery (Photo credit: Kortnee Byrd)

Photo credit: Jami Herring

Emma, Mel and I tasting some wine (Photo credit: Jami Herring)

Photo credit: Jami Herring

On Saturday, we went to two wineries- one was an organic winery and the other was an industrial winery. We tasted the wine at both places. it was also interesting to learn how each place makes the wine and to tour the places. 

After the wineries, we went to an oil press and learned how they make their olive oil. I bought some olive oil there- delicious! 

olive trees (Photo credit: Jami Herring)

Finally we went to a place that had some good chocolate and chocolate liqueur, and of course we got to try a few things. 
After our tours, we had to have some meat- something you can't leave Argentina without having! We went to a parrilla (literally-grill), and everyone ordered a steak. I had some great company along with the delicious meal. 

At the chocolate/liqueur place (Photo credit: Jami Herring)

Sunday was a day of exploring the city and lots of walking. Mendoza is a beautiful city- it was great getting to know another part of South America. We'll see what the next travel adventure brings!

Around Mendoza- with my birthday! July 9th (Photo credit: Jami Herring)

2 months in

View of Santiago from my window

Haven't written in a while, so here's an update.

Well, since the last time I wrote, I have moved into an apartment! I’m living with a 39 year old man and his 18 year old daughter. I live in a high rise apartment building on the 15^th floor. So far, so good! I live about a 10 minute walk from the metro station I use to go to work, most of my friends are within a 15 minute walk, there’s plenty to see around here, and there are two grocery stores within a 5 minute walk. Can’t really complain. 

my "sister", May

 Life in Santiago is going pretty well. The first weekend in April was Lollapalooza. So awesome! I saw some great bands....The Killers, Kanye West, Chico Trujillo (Chilean band), Sublime, 311, Ben Harper, etc. 

Lollapalooza

Last weekend, we celebrated Kortnee's 23rd birthday.

L

Birthday girl with her crown

I love my group of friends. Every Sunday, we get together and make "family dinner." We go out. We laugh. It's pretty great.

favorites

favorites part two

Overall, I'm having a great time. Learning a lot, going out and having a lot of fun, loving where I live, loving Santiago, enjoying my job...can't complain. :)

One of our favorite songs right now. :)

I'm a teacher?

Yep, I’m a teacher. I have a big girl job. It’s kind of weird.

I’m teaching four basic English classes and one intermediate class. Next week I’ll have a class of fellow teachers as well.

Classes meet twice a week for an hour and a half each class. One weird thing is that the classes don’t meet at the same time or in the same room for the second class in the week. For example, I have one class that meets on Mondays at 1:45 and Fridays at 8:30 in the morning. I think the way Witt does it is a bit easier.

Three of my basic classes have 18 students each (18 is the maximum students allowed in the class). The other basic class and the intermediate class have only about 7 students each. It’s nice having both bigger classes and smaller classes. It’s easier to do activities with the bigger classes, but I can give more attention to the students in the smaller classes.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my long days. I have a class at 11:30 and another one at 7pm. I don’t go home because my commute is about 25 minutes long and 600 pesos each way, so I just hang out in the teacher’s lounge. It helps there’s a mall right next to the school and a grocery store right there too.

Students are still enrolling so they’re getting their books this week finally. I’ve been making up my own activities and lesson plans for class.  In my basic classes, we’ve covered greetings, basic phrases, the present tense, etc. I think I’ve realized that English makes no sense and it’s not that easy to teach it. There are always exceptions to the rules on our language. Oh well, it’ll be done!

Some of my students have had English before…others know absolutely nothing. I was surprised the first day of teaching because my intermediate class, who have taken a whole year of English, don’t know hardly anything it seems. I’ve spoken mostly in English in class, but sometimes I have to speak a little Spanish. Guess I have to give it time. Most of them seem like that want to learn so hopefully that continues!

I think that's everything about school.....ask me if not!

view of the Andes from the school

view of the courtyard from above

classrooms

one of the classrooms I teach in

teaching my intermediate students "used to." I'm a wonderful artist, I know.

the mall right next to the school