History, Birthdays and Good Chilean Fun

This past week was short and full of excitement.  Monday evening, Erin and I went to the conversation club Spanglish at a local bar and practiced our Spanish. It is always great to meet people who want to learn a new language like us. Tuesday was a National holiday, so there was no classes. To celebrate the day off, Erin, Emy and I went to the Museo de Memoria-The Museum of Memory. This museum was all about human rights and the events of the coup de'etat on September 11th, 1973 here in Chile.  Long story short, Pinochet who was the military leader at the time, took over the government and made himself dictator because the president at the time Allende was leaning towards turning Chile into a communist country.  On that day, Allende committed suicide to avoid being tortured and killed by Pinochet's men. During Pinochet's rule, thousands of people were tortured and killed because of the communism scare. The museum had a lot of pictures, artifacts, videos, and testimonies from the people who were tortured. The dictatorship only just ended in the 90's. So twenty years ago, I definitely would not be coming to Chile. But, what was interesting was that we didn't learn about how Pinochet turned the economy around, helped a lot of people, and built new highways and safe neighborhoods. Still today many people support Pinochet, while many people despise him. I've talked to several of my students about the topic and have been learning a lot of history. It's been very enlightening. Here is a link for some more information about the events of September 11th, 1973. (Obviously September 11th isn't a good day for the U.S. either...)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d'état  The cross street that we live on is called "11 de Septiembre" and was just recently voted to be changed last week to a new name because of the sensitivity of the date.

After the museum, we hiked up Cerro San Cristobal to the statue of the Virgin Mary. (Kind of looks like the mini-mini version of the one in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.) It was a hard one hour-long hike to the top, but the sunset was amazing. We could see the whole city and had a great view of the pink-tipped Andes.

Wednesday was Erin's 22nd birthday. I blew up about twenty balloons and decorated the apartment and Emy baked a cake. We also bought her some warm slippers and chocolate. We had a few friends over for cake and homemade Pisco Sours to celebrate as well.

Friday night, Erin and I went to a local bar for Salsa and Bachata lessons. It was a blast! Every couple minutes you would switch partners, and a Chinese man was was teaching the lessons- he was a great teacher and very entertaining. We will definitely be going back to keep learning.
Saturday the girls and I had our Spanish lesson which was more about us asking her a million questions about Chilean slang. That night we went to California Cantina for their delicious nachos. We met the American owner of the bar/club who was really nice and told us about some events he had coming up. The bar is putting on some big charity events, for example, a fundraiser in October for Breast Cancer awareness, and another event in December for fighting childhood diseases. He said he needed help with event-coordinating and would think about hiring. I sent him my resume right away so hopefully I am able to work with him. Later, we spent the night dancing away at California Cantina and listening to fun DJ's and a live Chilean band. And (almost) like true Chileans, we stayed out until almost 4 a.m.! I couldn't believe it. I can check that off my list of things to do in Chile now, as I don't want to do that ever again.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, cooking, and prepping for this weeks classes. Today was the coldest day of the year, at a low of 28 degrees, so all you in Colorado, send some hot weather this way! Miss you all, soak up some sun for me.

Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar

July 14th, 2013

This past week went by very fast! Classes went well as usual during the week. Tuesday Erin, Emy and I went to a conversation club at a bar close to our house. We found out about it from a Facebook group called Spanglish.  There were a lot of people there-many Chileans wanting to practice their English and many other foreigners wanting to practice there Spanish. It was a lot of fun and I got the chance to speak a lot of Spanish!

Saturday morning, Erin, another teacher friend Dave and I took the bus to visit Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar.  We took the metro to the bus station, and for around $15 bucks we bought a round-trip bus ticket. The bus was very nice and we even watched the American movie "Grownups" on the way. Valparaiso is a port city right on the ocean. It is about two hours North-east of Santiago.  Vina Del  Mar is right next to Valparaiso, just on the other side of the bay.

When we arrived, the differences between Santiago were immediately noticeable. The streets were jagged and winding, all the houses and buildings were bright colors, and there was more "culture." After finally finding our hostel, and half-dragging my little suitcase a long the jagged sidewalks, we met up with Dave's friend Mariana. Dave knew Mariana from the last time he studied abroad in Chile. She gave us an amazing tour of Valparaiso.  We walked all over the city. We took acsenors, or little elevators to different "levels" of the city. The little elevators were like box cars and ran on tracks and took you up steep hills. When you got to the top you were in a new neighborhood to explore! We took several different ones and there were great views from the top. We also went to Pablo Neruda's house for a tour. He is a very famous Chilean poet and is well known for his three, grand and beautiful houses throughout Chile. Here is one of his famous poems (translated to English of course) and a little more information about him on the link:
Always
I am not jealous
of what came before me.

Come with a man
on your shoulders,
come with a hundred men in your hair,
come with a thousand men between your breasts and your feet,
come like a river
full of drowned men
which flows down to the wild sea,
to the eternal surf, to Time!

Bring them all
to where I am waiting for you;
we shall always be alone,
we shall always be you and I
alone on earth,
to start our life!
( http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/279)

For dinner, we road an acsensor right near our hostel to the top of a little neighborhood called Cerro Concepcion and ate dinner at the restaurant called Fauna. The food was good and a reasonable price, but the view of the city at night and the ocean was breathtaking!  That night, we met up with Mariana again with some of her Chilean friends and went out in Valparaiso. We talked at a small local bar, and around 1:00am, Mariana announced it was time to go dancing! Erin, Dave, and I were exhausted, we "boring" Americans went home to bed. It is very typical in Chile for people to drink until 1-2:00 am and then go to the Discotecs until five or six in the morning!

After a good night sleep in the hostel, Erin and I headed to explore Vina Del Mar. Vina Del Mar is right around the other side of the bay from Valparaiso and a fifteen minute bus ride. The atmosphere in Vina Del Mar was very different from Valparaiso. It had a Miami-ish feel and was more modern. The beach was gorgeous and the weather was perfect. We were actually a bit hot...I was very happy and soaked up all the sun and fresh air I could get. It was really nice being away from the smoke and pollution of Santiago. (Side-note, Santiago is bigger than any city in the U.S. except New York. There are 6 million people here, 8 million in New York)   Erin and I explored and walked by the coast. Since it is still winter, there wasn't anyone really swimming (a few brave people though!) but there was many people enjoying the 60 degree, sunny weather. After stopping for gelato, and exploring the little markets by the beach,we headed back to Valparaiso to catch our bus back to Santiago.

All in all, I had a much better week, and a much needed mini-vacation. This week will be great as well, Tuesday is a national holiday, so hopefully we will do something fun to relax.

 Love and miss you all!

Red, White, and Blue!

July 7th, 2014



Happy Independence Day to all! The first part of the week was more of the daily grind.  On the fourth, my room mates Erin, Emy and a few teaching friends went to a bar called California Cantina for a big Fourth of July celebration.We dressed up in our red, white and blue outfits, (we even painted our nails!) and celebrated with a lot of other Gringos there. (*Fun fact-Chile's country colors are also red, white and blue!) There was a live Chilean band that played fun music-a mix or rock, blues, and jazz. Everyone was dancing and having a great time. We met and talked to lots of different people, a lot of people from the U.S. and many Chileans as well.
Saturday, we had our first Spanish lesson at Bridge. It was nice to get back into the "learning mode." After, we went to our American friends' house for an Asada, or a Chilean BBQ. We cooked chorizo on the grill, ate chips and pembre, which is like pico de gallo, but more Chilean, and made home-made Pisco Sours.  A Pisco Sour is a typical Chilean drink made from fresh squeezed lemons (we really did juice them!) powdered sugar, or a syrupy sugar, and Pisco, which is a special type of alcohol that you can only buy in South America. We blended an egg-white to the mix for a nice frothy top. It was a great experience!
That night, we went to a festival near our house called the Festival of Colors. The city of Providencia was celebrating a new part of town that was opening. There were many cute little bars and restaurants, and people with tents and stands selling a variety of arts and crafts, lotions, clothes, all hand made. There were big blow-up star decorations that changed colors and live music. There were many Chilean couples dancing to the music, it was fun to watch! I noticed that almost everyone dances and sings a long when there is a performer. When the singer or band is done, it is typical for the people to yell "OTRA, OTRA!" meaning "Another, another!" The singer or band almost always plays another song. I guess it is similar to an encore in the U.S.
After exploring the festival, we were invited to a bar to celebrate an American friends birthday. We google map everything, and the bar seemed pretty far away. But, it is kind of fun to explore new parts of the city, so off we went! We got on a bus (more like a roller coaster ride) and road about forty minutes east towards the Andes. We got off a stop late, but managed to find the little bar called Chihuahua. It ended up being a Karaoke bar! I learned that in Chile, Karaoke is taken very seriously. If you are not really good, you don't sing...otherwise you are boo'd off stage! We watched a few people sing, even a Maroon 5 song in there! It took us an hour and a half to get home, the busses aren't the most reliable and we ended up waiting quite awhile and the bus was very crowded!

Today, Emy went to go find a climbing gym with a friend and Erin and I relaxed and I cooked a lot to get ready for next week. Next weekend, Erin and I are planning to go to Valpariso. This is a port city-right by the ocean and is suppose to be beautiful.

Until next time! Miss you all and soak up some sun for me.

Climbing The Andes

June 30, 2013-Starting of Week 3

-Climbing the Andes-

This week was a whirlwind of of ups and downs! I came out of the "Honeymoon" phase of living abroad very quickly. (I attached a quick article about the phases of living abroad: http://twenty-somethingtravel.com/2010/10/stages-living/) and find myself currently in the "Rage/Depression" stage. I keep telling myself, "Ciara, this is NOT a vacation, what did you expect?"
 This week was tough for several reasons...not only do I miss my family and friends, but the comfort of living...like being warm for example. Due to no central heating, our apartment is freezing, especially my room, where I can see my breath a few nights a week when it is really cold. I feel like I just can't get warm, and I officially banned myself from looking at Facebook at night when I look at peoples' summer pictures by the lake in bikinis because I get into that "Rage/Depression" stage. The other hard part is that I am actually working and struggling to pay rent. (Wow, like a grown-up!)  I came to the blunt realization, that I have been fortunate enough in my life to never have truly struggled with anything financially.  Being in a new country, where the language is almost impossible to understand because it is so fast and there is so much slang, and working at all hours of the day (basically 6am-8pm with a few short breaks in-between) and barely making enough money to pay for rent and food, sent me into a panic and into depression-mode. I kept thinking, "Am I just here to work my butt off in a new country? This is NOT fun! What the heck?" Thankfully, I got some awesome pep-talks by friends, family, and my wonderful, supportive fiancé. All the struggle so far, has only made me realize how lucky I am to have the life I have, with people that love and support me at home.  I am here to broaden my horizons and experiences. I know that at times I'll want to quit, give up, and go home-because that would be the easy thing to do. But, I know when I look back at this short  time in my life, (seems reeeeallly long right now) I know I will appreciate the life lessons and struggles I had while living abroad. They will make me a better person. I already feel incredibly lucky to have so many people cheering me on and supporting me in so many ways.

Besides teaching, this week did have some positives and some interesting things happen. For one, there was a huge student protest on Wednesday in downtown Santiago.  Check out the article in the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/world/americas/helmeted-volunteers-monitor-student-protests-in-chile.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Also, here is the first part of an email from my teaching company:
Dear teachers,

There is a massive student protest happening today, affecting essentially the downtown area, but it may also affect buses and access to particular metro stations (particularly Bacquedano).

Below is a message from the US Embassy on the matter.  Please exercise caution and avoid the downtown area if possible!

Security Message for U.S. Citizens
U.S. Diplomatic Mission to Chile
chile.usembassy.gov
June 26, 2013

The U.S. Embassy in Santiago advises U.S. citizens living in or visiting Santiago that there will be several large protests involving students and workers’ unions across the city on Wednesday, June 26. There are reports that unannounced protests are beginning this morning across the city. Protesters are burning tires in several intersections, and some schools have been taken over by protestors.

Protests are also scheduled to begin at 13:00 at Universidad de Chile (Metro Estacion Central) and end at Plaza Los Heroes (Metro Los Heroes).  A second protest will begin at Metro Franklin and end at Plaza los Heroes. A third group will also be protesting in the area, but their route is currently unknown. In addition, another protest may occur around 19:00, beginning in Plaza Italia.  Traffic throughout the downtown area will be disrupted throughout the day due to police barricades. Please avoid the downtown area completely if at all possible, as protest routes are subject to change without notice.

Luckily, I live in Providencia (a suburb of Santiago) so my roommates and I were not directly affected.

After a long week, Erin and I had a fun-filled Saturday. We explored a little more of Santiago and went to Plaza De Armas and Mercado Central. There was lots of shopping, street performers including clowns, comedians and a rock band! In Mercado Central there was a lot of little shops and authentic Chilean food. Later at the super market, called Jumbo, Erin and I heard some people speaking English. We were drawn to them of course and got to chatting with them. They have been here since last October and they invited us to their house for a Fourth of July American party! It was a blast. Erin and I brought "homemade" (from the package) American cookies.  Their apartment was decorated with American flags and pictures of famous Americans. We had hot dogs and hamburgers and listened to the National Anthem a million times. It was fun to get to know some people who know a lot about Chile.

After a fun and relaxing weekend, I am looking forward to what this week will bring. I know that there will be ups and downs, but I will look at each "down" as a challenge to overcome and a lesson to learn.