"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

I made it!

Well, I made it to Santiago last Sunday, the 20^th. My flights weren’t too bad…got to fly through Canada…fun, eh? I made it to the hostel..got somewhat settled and took a walk and hung out with some fellow teachers. 

Monday, three other teachers and I took a bus to Viña del Mar/Valparaiso. The two cities are very close to each other and right on the Pacific coast. It was cloudy, but we went to the beach to hang out..and I still managed to get a sunburn. We left the beach and after looking up and down the city for an open liquor store, we drank some beer for the rest of the afternoon/night. We were pretty proud of ourselves the following day because we did something educational- we went to Pablo Neruda’s house in Valparaiso, “La Sebastiana.” If you don’t know who Neruda is check out this link: http://www.fundacionneruda.org/en/pablo-neruda/biographic-chronology.html

Wednesday, we took a bus to Con Con, a town a bit north of Valpo, also on the coast. Our mission: eat empanadas at Las Deliciosas. If you’re familiar with Anthony Bourdain’s show on the Travel Channel, No Reservations, then check out his show on Chile. Las Deliciosas was featured on his show.

At Las Deliciosas

The rest of the day was spent at the beach and the evening was spent at a bar and a club in Valpo with some Chileans.

Left- white wine and strawberries, Right- Pisco sour

Empanada that I ate

Thursday, we were lucky enough to receive an invitation to go to the house of a family member of one of the fellow teachers in Algorrobo, another small town on the coast- this time south of Vina. We arrived in the early afternoon and were lucky enough to have a huge typical Chilean lunch- the first course was an empanada  and a pisco sour and a drink of white wine and strawberries. The second course was a soup with a bunch of seafood and onions and tomato. We finished with fruit and a nap followed that. It was such a huge and delicious meal and it was great company with Spanish all around.

We spent the night at their darling house. Friday, we took a long walk on the beach (check the vid), had a smaller lunch this time, and went back to Santiago to find the rest of the teachers that have arrived while we were gone. 

On Saturday morning, we met the TeachingChile coordinators and went over some information. This week is a week of training and classes start the 7^th of March…so soon!

With any hostel, internet connection is hard to get sometimes, so my addiction to Facebook and technology is getting better…I have a cell phone here but I don’t use it too much at all. It’ll be nice when I have a routine when school starts…I’m so used to using my planner and having a schedule. Overall, everything is going well…met some great people and had some great times. We’ve given each other nicknames (apodos) already….Mine is “patita”…little duck in Spanish because I’m usually with 6 foot girls who walk a lot faster than me…I’m always in the back. 

For all of my study abroad amigos- Pio Nono looks the same, I saw the pregnant lady on the Nono, I've visited the school (still the same) but have not walked over the bridge that we walked over many times or visited La Dominica yet. 

That’s about all for now. Feel free to comment! :) Hasta luego!

So this is life after college...

I thought I'd use this rare case of insomnia as a opportunity to write my first blog. 

So this is life after college....sleeping in every day, being a slave at the good old Outback Steakhouse...not all bad. Until I remember that I'm done with college....not going back to Wittenberg like everyone else is next week. Don't know what you got 'til it's gone as that song from the 80s goes. I'm going to miss it. I already do. I can't help think of what I'll be missing out on this semester, what could have happened...

And a huge new chapter in my life will start in less than two months. I'm moving to Santiago, Chile to teach English for a year. Moving. For a year. In an completely different culture, language, and hemisphere. I'm still trying to process all of it. I'm so excited. I bought my plane ticket the other day. I'm leaving on February 19th. Details that you might want to know: I'll be teaching college aged students, I have no idea what level of English they're at, I'm staying in a hostel the first month I'm there and during that time I'll be looking for an apartment to live in (with other teachers most likely) for the remainder of the time. 

And since it is New Year's Eve now, I also can't help but reminisce on 2010. It started out with heartbreak, ended with closing a big chapter in my life by finishing undergraduate and in between were many different things: leading a chapter of sorority women, co-chairing an awesome Relay event, having an incredible study abroad experience, losing my grandfather, gaining friends, losing friends, and learning so much. 2011 has a high bar to reach. 

So, stop on by here if you want to know what kind of culture shock or classroom experiences I'm having in Chile. I'll always appreciate comments. Don't forget to stay in touch. :)