Training is Intense!

Well, I'm halfway through my orientation and teacher training. It's really intense and I need some more time to myself, but I think that when I live with my homestay family I'll have ample time to unwind and relax a little more. It's definitely a grueling schedule but I'm learning a lot. I had my first actual teaching experience at the Instituto Chileno de Norteamericano teaching two nights in the same class for about an hour. It was really fun and I have a lot of good ideas about how I can teach in my own classroom. At first the students were hesitant to get involved in the activities we had planned but they really got into it after a few minutes.

I lost my credit card and driver's license somewhere. I think it's in my luggage but whatever. I blocked my credit card so hopefully nothing bad happens. It's definitely a good thing that I copied my credit card numbers down.

I've been to a lot of places around Santiago now and checked out the city from Cerro San Cristobal, which is where Santiago was founded. The view was spectacular and I rode the gondola and went down on this railroad type thing called a funicular. It's amazing how sprawling and massive the city is and dramatically the ambience changes from comuna to comuna. I was in the south side of the city and it was much more slow paced, no high rises, and had a definite small town feel to it, minus the metro line. It felt like a dusty town in Mexico rather than an urban area. Most of the skyscrapers are located in the northeast comunas of Vitacura and Providencia, and the area is nicknamed Sanhattan, the Manhattan of Santiago.

I'm pretty tired but I'm still enjoying just being here. Having a cell phone is really handy and it's nice to be able to call my friends down here as well as receive phonecalls from home for free. I need to watch my pennies because I'm a volunteer living like a rock star, which isn't wise. It'll be nice to have a family to cook for me so I don't have to eat out all the time. Until next time, ciao!

Photos: Gondola ride to the top of Cerro San Cristobal, a small portion of Santiago, statue of the Virgin Mary on top of Cerro San Cristobal, another view of some more of Santiago, tower designed as a cell phone.

Getting Used to Santiago

Well, I´ve finally started getting accustomed to Santiago. I´ve figured out the metro system and have no problem cruising all over the city. If there´s a spot that the metro can´t take me to I can just find the right bus which all have numbers and their destinations posted on the front. Santiago is a pretty modern city, but it´s divided by class and the north eastern part of Santiago is much wealthier and looks like a completely different city from the much power southwest side.

Teenagers define themselves by their style of dress and haircuts, and there are different names for the different kinds of haircuts like: Pokemon, which is usually dyed and spiky, peloleis, which is blond straight hair, and probably like six or seven other kinds that I can´t remember. Punk clothing and death metal are extremely popular, and it´s not uncommon to see some serious makeup going on with both men and women. And speaking of, the ladies are rather attractive. Still lookin for my first polola, or Chilean girlfriend. It´s a little like fishin´.

The food is all right, but there´s not a lot of variety, although you can pay more for pretty tasty stuff. I had sushi with a bunch of friends and it was pretty cheap, although the cuts of nigiri were a bit thinner than in the U.S. Haven´t eaten a lot of mayo although hot dogs are extremely popular and pretty tasty.

I learned about the national dance, the cueca, and had an opportunity to try it out. It´s pretty difficult. I definitely need some practice. This weekend is one of my friends birthday so were going out to some clubs that are pretty nice. Polola town, here I come! I don´t have any pictures that you haven´t really seen already so I´ll post some more when I do something interesting. Talk to everyone later!

Airports Suck, but the City is Nice

I made it to Santiago after spending something like nineteen or twenty hours at airports in Miami, Costa Rica, Peru, and Santiago. Airports suck and I spent a lot of money on beer at the airport lounge, so my initial funds were dwindling when we got to the hostel at four in the morning, deliriously tired yet wide awake.

I wasn't able to get a good impression of the city at night but the next day was able to do some exploring and have seen a fair part of Santiago Centro. Santiago is divided into comunas, or communities, like New York has burroughs. The center of the city is filled with pickpockets because it has a lot of tourists, so you need to watch yourself, The thieves tend to work in gangs too, and hopefully I won't have to deal with any. I've done a lot of walking around and shopping in the open markets, and was able to cook for all my groupmates.

My spanish is definitely improving by the the minute and I've really gotten into using it everwhere. I'm sure I'll be 99% fluent by the time I leave.

Everything is cheap and I've been sweating a lot. It looks like I'll be wearing dirty clothes for a while, or at least clothes that smell like a dirty towel and crotch sweat. We've spent a lot of time sitting around and tomorrow start our teacher training. The hostel is all right but there is some crazy people living in this place and I'll be glad to get situated with my family. Although if I recall, when I lived in Costa Rica I was pretty crazy, so I've been pretty accepting of some serious weird-ass behavior. Ah, people.

You wouldn't believe the crazy hair styles and punk clothing almost every teenager wears and I'll definitely spend my next blog hunting down some shots of the styles and explaining a little bit of the culture.

There are stray dogs everywhere and they're all quite friendly. There's also two types of deadly poisonous spiders, killer bees, and earthquakes. I should be in for some fun. Check out my initial photos, and goodbye for now. I think I'll take a trip to the adult film theater down the street...

The photos are: the Andes, graffiti, view of the Andes from behind a park sculpture at Cerro Santa Lucia, sculpture of a horse in front of the National Museum, me and Caira and Andy, shots of Santiago from the top of Cerro Santa Lucia, fountain at Cerro Santa Lucia, the back of the capitol building La Moneda and then me at the front, Plaza de Armas, Rio Mapocho graffiti.

Pre-departure Plannings

After a lengthy day of moving a bunch of crap around the house (mostly mom's idea), I settled down to a delicious Iowa-style home-cooked family meal. Joining me were my Grandmother, Aunt Deb, and Uncle Bob. My Mother and Father were there as well and my sister in California and her boyfriend Brian called to say hello on their way to Lake Tahoe and Reno, so Brian could gamble. This is the first blog posting I have created, with the help of my Aunt and Uncle. There will be many more in the months to come, as I find my way in the labyrinth of Santiago, Chile. I am excited to have the opportunity to teach English and a little apprehensive at the whole experience ahead of me. Hopefully, I will have many successful forays into the world of teaching and a minimum of trouble spots. Through this blog I will let everyone know how I'm doing and where my travels have taken me. The next posting I write will find me several thousands miles south of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.