VACATION!!!!!

It´s been awhile since the last post, and I feel like I´ve been around the world and back since then.

The week before our vacation Pedro Leon Gallo had a celebration on Friday for the 18th (the Chilean Independence Day). LOTS of students danced the Cueca, there was a dramatic performance, etc.

The bus to San Pedro de Atacama was about 12 hours, and though it was overnight I did not sleep very well at all. We arrived in San Pedro around 10am and after some scrambling to check alternatives we ended up at our originally-booked hostel, Samaj-Jallpa. The hostel was actually pretty awesome for a hostel. It´s part of a set of Swiss hostels here in Chile, it was very clean, had a full kitchen, a pool table, nice bathroom, and was only $14 a night.

The first tour we did in San Pedro was on Sunday afternoon...we headed out by bus to a huge salt lake in the middle of the desert. It was 75% salt which meant you could float in it with absolutely no effort. The water was actually freezing at the top, but as it got deeper it became warmer, and if you let your feet sink down it actually felt like they were burning. On the same tour we got to go to Los Ojos de Salar...these random twin lakes in the middle of the desert that look like eyes, and then to one of the lakes with Flamingoes to watch the sunset, the moon rise, (both of which were absolutely breathtaking) and to drink some Pisco.

On Monday we slept in, headed into town and rented bikes for the morning. At $2 an hour for the rentals, we rode out to check out these cool rock formations about 7 miles away. It was a pretty spectacular thing...it felt like you could ride through the rocks for miles and miles, although at times the path was so narrow we had to either walk through or hoist our bikes up through narrow openings. Monday afternoon we headed out on another organized tour, this time to Valle del Muerte and Valle de la Luna, with a few other stops along the way. Everything was very cool, and we got some awesome pictures. Everyone was hyped up for Valle de la Luna...it's supposed to be a great place to watch the sunset and the moon rise. It was beautiful, but I think in comparison to that of the previous day I was a little let down).

Tuesday morning the 5 of us awoke early..at 3:30am. At 4am our private chauffer came to pick us up, and we headed on a 1.5 hour trip up some very narrow and dangerous dirt roads in the dark, to the Tatio Geysers. The Tatio Geysers are the world's highest geyser field, and we definitely felt the altitude as soon as we stepped out of the van. It was also absolutely FREEZING. Despite several, several layers of clothing, it was cold. In fact, Joy, Heinz, and Ben actually spent the better part of the early morning inside the van being warm. The geysers were just starting to get bigger as we got there and there seemed to be hundreds and hundreds of them all around.

After awhile we headed over to another part of the park where we saw a huge geyser...and the hot water that burned a French guy alive 2 years ago when he got too close while trying to get a picture...and fell in. We also got to bathe in the thermal bath that is right there. Luckily the sun was coming up at this point so when we stripped down to our bathing suits it was probably ALMOST a balmy 40 degrees :-). After the thermal baths we got back in the van with our driver Pedro for the rest of our excursion. We stopped in a few TINY villages, another random huge lake in the middle of the desert, and in the village of Chiu-Chiu where we saw the oldest church in Chile. We went to lunch at a restaurant together and then got dropped off at the bus station in Calama for our 15 hour busride down to La Serena.

I actually slept great on this bus...probably due to the extreme exhaustion from the day at the geysers! But nevertheless, we arrived at 5:30am in La Serena, and having left Ben in Copiapo, were joined by Donte and Terryl for the rest of the vacation. My host mom, SO very nicely, offered us the apartment she just bought in Serena to use for the week. (She'll be renting it out as tourist season starts soon). It was very cute with 2 bedrooms, a full kitchen, living room, dining area, and bathroom. AND a free place to stay, which is always amazing, and very rare. On Wednesday we went to the movies, because none of us have a movie theater within 3 hours of our homes here in Chile. Sadly, the movie we picked turned out pretty badly, but it was still a treat to see one on a big screen.

Thursday was September 18th, which is the Chilean Independence Day. Aka - day of craziness. Again, due to the amazingness of my host family, all 6 of us gringos got invited to my host mom's family's asado (amazing bbq) for the day. We went and got to meet the whole family, and got to eat. A LOT. They brought us out empanadas and choripan (yummmmm) first. After being almost full from these, we then sat down to about 5 different types of meat, including steak, chicken, and some unidentified ones, rice, and several salads. There was one dark-colored sausage that looked slightly sketchy. I took a bite and the texture was very soft and kind of disconnected. A few minutes later I found out from my host mom that it's actually dried blood that they cook up with some meat remnants to make the blood sausage. I tried to keep the food I had eaten down, and decided the rest of the blood sausage would stay on my plate. We were at the asado until 8pm, and then the 6 of us headed over to La Pampilla...the HUGE festival that happens every year in Coquimbo for the week of the 18th.

None of us really knew what to expect for La Pampilla, but it was pure craziness. First it was like a HUGE flea market, where they sold everything from clothing, to socks, to knives, to candy....everything. There were rows and rows of restaurants and bars in tents as well. Then to the one side there was this big carnival, with probably about 12-15 different rides. And then in a pit below there was a HUGE stage set up where singers and groups performed all day long and late into the night. We enjoyed a little of everything, including being harassed by a homeless guy during one of the concerts and buying very cheap and delicious Chicha. It was a good night.

On Friday we slept in again, and then went down to explore the beach in La Serena. We walked almost the whole length of it, and saw a bit of the city of La Serena as well. The only sad part was, due to La Pampilla (the fact that everyone and their mother were there), almost NOTHING was open. We found a cheap place to eat, and then headed over to Coquimbo to explore their downtown fora bit (which was, also, quite dead).

On Saturday we decided to make a trek to the grocery store to get lunch and supplies to cook dinner together. It was about a 20/25 minute walk along the highway up to the Deca, and the store was PACKED. Somehow we managed to find our stuff and get back in one piece! After lunch we went to Coquimbo again to explore a bit more. We climbed the hill on which is the huge and famous Millenium Cross. They built it for the millenium, and architecturally it is probably the ugliest cross I have ever seen. But, the view from the top over the city, the bay, and out to the mountains was absolutely beautiful. Afterwards we walked down to enjoy the waterfront and check out the fish market before heading back to cook dinner.

After a great pasta dinner we played more of our favorite game, Bananagrams, and the next morning had our 5 hour bus ride back up north to Copiapo. During this ride I actually finished what is now one of my favorite books of all time, "Through Painted Deserts" by Donald Miller. If you have not read it I highly recommend it.

It´s Raining, It´s Pouring...and everyone is shocked

It rained today in Copiapo. In the early morning, again in the afternoon, and for most of the evening. It only does this once every few years, and apparently NEVER in September (usually only rains mid-winter in July....every few years).

Rumor has it, if it rains too much more tonight they cancel school...Rain Days instead of Snow Days, because they don´t have the ability to manage the flooding in the streets, flooding in the schools, etc. Since it never rains.

The rain was gorgeous though, and hopefully it will mean even PRETTIER flowers in the desert in a few weeks for Desert Florido. Yay :-)

FINALLY!!!!

PEANUT BUTTER M&MS HAVE BEEN FOUND IN CHILE!!!!!!!!

I cannot credit this to myself, but rather Heinz and Ben, who while perusing through the Jumbo here in Copiapo yesterday stumbled across the beloved peanut butter M&Ms, which along with Reeses (or any candy with chocolate and peanut butter together), have thusfar been absent across the country. Joy and Heinz shared a few of these delicious morsels with me, and I realized it had been more than a month since I had eaten any sort of peanut butter.

Afterwards I went to buy at least some peanut butter (the store with the pb m&ms isn´t within walking distance) which, though it is here, is VERY expensive. A normal/small sized jar is actually between $7-8 ...so I won´t be eating it too much. But it was great to know I won´t have to go 3.5 more months without peanut butter m&ms. That being said, they too are also quite pricey here, so if anyone was sending down a care package those are a welcome addition.

The past week has been busy but good. Teaching is still crazy but I feel like the kids are beginning to learn a little bit. Tuesdays are by far the worst day (with the worst-behaved students), but Wed - Fri. are pretty great days. I forgot to add last time some more interesting questions I get from my students:

1. Have you met The Jonas Brothers/Miley Cyrys/Michael Phelps (just got asked about him on Friday) ? I want to lie and say yes but usually let them down easily and say while I know OF them, or like James Blake have actually been within 10 feet of him, I have not actually met them, nor are we close friends.

2. What time is it right now in the US? Some of you may also not know the time difference. It´s actually quite easy, because right now EST in the US is the exact same as Chile.

3. (my favorite) Do you have any kids? (one student even asked how MANY kids I have). I always laugh, and remind them that I´m currently 21, right out of college. But honestly, there are a LOT more people here who have kids at a younger age, so it´s really not a ridiculous question on their part. Still makes me laugh :-)

This past weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday night was another crazy and awesome school event - the Anniversary DINNER for all of the teachers and adminstration at the school. I don´t know if I mentioned it before, but during the past 3 weeks I had been rehearsing a dance to the song ¨One¨ from A Chorus Line with about 10 of the other teachers. We probably spent 12 hours getting ready for this, including planning the elaborate costumes, creating and practicing choreography. It was a lot of fun (although learning the choreography was a little difficult because all the ladies would talk very fast and I couldn´t understand anything until I watched them do it) and we performed it at the beginning of the anniversary dinner. The dinner itself was lovely. At the beginning we had cocktails and appetizers and lit candles for the anniversary. Then we ate a delicious sit-down meal and there was a DJ...who did Karaoke for the music. Like he sang all of the songs, which was a little weird to me at first but he was very talented so it was great. AND after the meal most of us profesoras got up and danced for a good hour or 2 which was also fun. One of the best parts was that I actually RECOGNIZED a few of the songs, which means I´m beginning to know the popular chilean songs! This week in school I actually gave out blank CDs to various students and asked them to burn me some of their favorite/the popular music here since I don´t have ANY on my computer :-). The dinner went from 8pm til midnight and then afterwards about 8 of us went out to the brand new casino here in Copiapo. It was beautiful, although as it ended up I only had enough money with me to get in ($5 to enter the casino). 1 of the profs gave me 1 mil to play with, so I got to play about 20 rounds on the slots.

Saturday I made another trip out to Caldera to see Joy, Heinz, and Ben. This time I got there early enough to have lunch with Joy´s family which was a lot of fun. Her host parents are so sweet and they have three young kids in the house, so it´s pretty crazy. Afterwards the four of us went out to Bahia Inglesa to see the beautiful beach there and hung out for a little while. I had my jaiva con queso empanada for dinner again back in Caldera and got back to Copiapo by 9.

The day after I ran up Cerro de la Cruz last week I got a little lecture from my co-teacher who told me, because it was pretty isolated, was too dangerous to do alone because there are pandillas (sp?)..aka gangs that hang out on the hill. I told her that I hadn´t seen anyone and that while I´d be careful when I go alone, I´m probably not going to stop going. It´s too beautiful at the top, too convenient, and my favorite place here in the city.

That being said, this past weekend on Sunday I got to hike up Cerro de la Cruz again with Terryl and Donte to watch the sunset. Though the guys enjoyed the hike slightly less than I did, the sunset over the mountains was pretty beautiful, and an experience that will happen several more times.

One of the biggest obstacles I´ve been facing recently is learning to turn on the Calefont (water heater) in the house. It doesn´t seem like it should be that complicated...you light a match inside this box, turn on the gas valve, pull out this little handle and turn it to the left. But I still have yet to successfully do it on my own. It has been my goal to conquer since I arrived and hopefully will happen soon.

I´m still living in constant fear of the killer spiders that live here in Copiapo. I think I saw my first of the super deadly ones last week, just strolling along the sidewalk as I was doing my post-run stretches. (obviously it was dead within seconds of my sighting). The second happened the same day, but this time was inside. I was pulling my pajama pants out of my closet to put on, and this HUGE tigre spider was just chilling on top. I screamed and through the pants to the floor. Now, the tigre spiders are actually good (apparently). They eat the little deadly ones. I´m only half sorry to say, the tigre spider that happened upon my pants was also dead within seconds of my sighting. They are just too big to let live in my room...especially if I want to sleep in peace.

This weekend looks to be slightly less eventful than the past several, but that´s okay...from Sept 12th until the 21st we have VACATION!!! (spring break, if you will). More on that later, but it starts in 9 days. Which is awesome.

I don´t think I´ve mentioned it yet in the blog, but one of the fun things I´m trying to do in every class is to teach a little American slang at the beginning. So far the kids have learned:

1. What´s up? - Not much. What´s up with you?
2. I gotta go. - See ya later. - Catch ya later.
3. Cool. Awesome.

I have a list going but let me know if you have any ideas for some cool/somewhat easy slang to teach.

Lastly, today in the 5th/6th grade Academia, I got really excited. I should explain first, that on Wednesdays I get to lead the 5th/6th grade English Academia (english club..aka kids who all want to learn english and chose it as their extra curric), and on Fridays the 7th/8th grade English Academia. Each one is supposed to start preparing a song or poem for the English festival happening here in Copiapo at the end of October. And today, after a lot of pretty competitive brainstorming, argument, and voting, the 5th/6th graders (quintos and sextos) have chosen to learn and perform "Breaking Free" from High School Musical. Not gonna lie, I´m pretty ecstatic.

Well that´s all for now. If you´ve got facebook check out all the new pictures I put up the last few days....I´m trying to get them up on the blog too but don´t know if that can happen anytime soon.

And please keep in touch!!! Email, skype, whatever works. Miss you all!

- Steph -