adios

Chao, Chile. My three months of pan and pisco have come to an end. What better way to roll out of Chile than in style? Or more specifically, in a taxi with a driver practicing driving hands free on the freeway in rush hour (he made it for thirty seconds once, prompting me to attempt to say my final prayers in español) and singing along to Chilean music with passion. Vive Chile!

adios

Chao, Chile. My three months of pan and pisco have come to an end. What better way to roll out of Chile than in style? Or more specifically, in a taxi with a driver practicing driving hands free on the freeway in rush hour (he made it for thirty seconds once, prompting me to attempt to say my final prayers in español) and singing along to Chilean music with passion. Vive Chile!

no hot water, no beds, no materials, no coffee, no problem

Oh, the double entendres of ESL. My dearest campers now know East Coast and West Coast slang and gang signs, how to say “Oh no you DID ENT!” and a number of other token Queen’s English sayings. Yesterday we bused it to Santiago to go to the MNE Museum – a hands on science museum that is the Chilean replica of the Exploratorium, complete with the same exhibits and same explanation cards, albeit in Spanish. Unfortunately, there was no cow’s eye dissection.

Today a news crew from TVN came to camp for a “live, realistic segment” which highlighted the amply equipped camp and docile students by filming the clip in front of the one fire that I spend my entire day tending in usually vain hopes of feeling my toes and telling the students to pretend to talk in English. If you look closely, you can see some Crips signs being thrown up. LINK.

Winter Camp 2010, amenity glitches aside, was quite a success. I got to pretend like I spoke Spanish and marvel that the children actually do speak remarkable English! Back to good ole Ang tonight for my last bit of Chilean time.

jiff versus skippy, LA style

Mantequilla de mani is an elusive “sabor” – one which I happily shared today with my students. Peanut butter is obviously a staple in American life and my bulk purchases were $20 well spent. This week, we are learning all about the US of A, from popular music (Michael Jackson is King), to typical food (entailing my painstakingly produced Powerpoint of the ABCs of American food with precise descriptions of what exactly is in everything), and basic facts (even the little kids can already name the President!).

starstruck

Justin Bieber made an appearance in Lautaro, Araucania, Chile today. Or at least his signature did.

All the Araucania volunteers gathered in Temuco this morning for “a cultural exchange with an integrated Mapuche school”. The students performed a traditional dance for the twenty gringos, and then we ate their food. I brought box brownies made by host mom. After the ceremony and gluttony, the students shyly brought out notebooks and pens. They asked the gringoiest of the gringos to sign. As I was signing, I noticed several “Hannah Montana” and “Justin Bieber” firmas – to be fair, there is a Hannah from Montana, but Parker Villapando is no JB.

just another manic monday

It was a manic Monday today at JEB. Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade were left to their own cheering during the partido today. For once, I didn’t have to listen to the whistle thingys blarred both over the TV from South Africa and by the students, but the teachers’ absence also resulted in a massive broken window. Have a nice lunch in an even colder cafeteria!

so you think you can dance?

Yes, if you are a second grade girl, you sure can! Shakira’s got nothing on the chiquitas of JEB. They’ve truly perfected Waka Waka. We’ve spend the week learning about the World Cup in English, from the names of the participating countries, to soccer terms, to the lyrics to the English version of Waka Waka. The kids’ enthusiasm for the Mundial is literally fanatical. The entire country rallies together to support the Red – even CNN revolves around their every action. Go Chile!

a very special happy birthday from chile

Feliz Cumpleanos, Mom!

I used you as an example this morning as I talked about the future tense. I said that in ten years, on your birthday, I would make you a cake. Unfortunately for your future cake, I forgot the Spanish slang for cake and needed my students to spell it for me. The Spanish alphabet is pronounced quite differently than English alphabet… in attempting to spell what I heard the students say, I wrote “caca” on the board. Yes, caca is the same word in Spanish and English. I wrote “Next year, I will make my mom a caca for her birthday.” Exclamation point.

Happy birthday!

empanadas

Empanadas! Jacqueline (or “yacky”) taught me how to make empanadas this morning – empanadas “fritas”, yes, that’s right, deep-fried empanadas. Yesterday we made the filling of ground beef and onions, to which we added hard boiled eggs and olives this morning. The dough is straightforward – just flour and water. We kneaded and kneaded until it was supple, then cut it into circles. We placed the filling in the centre, folded the dough over, and pressed the two sides together. Jacqui boiled oil (I wasn’t allowed near the stove) and fried three empanadas at a time. Luckily, we had dough left over and made sopapillas – yummmmm.

Adios mios, were they good. As my hodad and I watched the news (Shocker! Same stories as yesterday!) because my homom and hobro were in bed, sick, I planned to only eat only three but ended up eating four and sneaking one more later.

It’s been a pretty quiet weekend. I sprained my ankle yesterday but I’m afraid to tell my hofam because they’ll fret over me and they’re already sick. Putting my hears of WEBMD medical training to use, I elected to send the weekend propped up in bed.

just another day

Wednesday’s are my shortest days so after teaching the 8th graders, I had the day free! My host mama is also the art teacher and I got to indulge my inner wannabe artist in her classes today. One of my (favourite, shh!) third graders was sitting next to me. As I was coloring, he told me: “Tia, you’re a gringa.” And promptly went back to coloring. His drawing mysteriously had the same colors and patterns as mine did. I guess being a gringa isn’t too bad!

Additionally, my host brother (aka personal live translation dictionary!) can now add freak to his already lengthy list of descriptors about me. He is probably currently looking at my Internet history. I attempted to switch the language into English so I could delete my viewing history but was unsuccessful. Additionally, the last time I relied on my Spanish “skillz” to just guess at doing complicated computer operations in Spanish, I accidentally clearly my flash drive. Carl was kind enough to remind me how much Cate and I loved reading News of the World last summer, so I spent an embarrassing amount of my precious computer time reliably updating myself on world affairs through the website. So now he probably thinks that in addition to being a moron with pathetic Spanish skills, I am a freak who reads stories such as the headliner about a man who married his former mother-in-law with the full support of his ex-wife (aka her daughter).

bloopers

Today I accidently told the first graders that they were going to get “LA VACUNA” for AH1N1, which caused them all to start crying terribly. It didn’t help that I was motioning the sign for a shot as I was talking.

In other news, my classroom has doubles as a casual snack stop! A student who would be carded at amusement parks and not kicked out of the McDonald’s Playhouse brought in a large backpack full of crummy (in both senses) snacks, his gym shoes, and pomegranates. He sold everything but his shoes in the middle of my class. I was snorting laughing. Then I decided to teach the 8th graders French. After all, I am a “language ambassador” and here on behalf of Canada!

fiesta

There’s no party like a Chilean grammar school teachers’ party! Friday night JEB (Jose Elias Bolivar) had a fiesta for a visiting official. Food and drinks galore! Once the formal dinner was over, the catering staff thoughtfully left behind a huge cake and sodas and rum – the teachers spend half the evening pouring ron into my cup…

Transcript:
Teachers: starting to pour without asking
Me: “Ok pero solo piqueno, por fa!
Teachers: laughing “No! Mas mas mas RONNN!!!!”

And then they would dance the quaka.

My host teacher also pulled me aside to say: “is necessary frequent the bars, Margarita!” Lovely evening – home at 3am!

Saturday night was a movie and boxed wine night with other volunteers in Angol. Today we went for a long hike in the Angolese mountains – my host mom made me eat two huge beef sandwiches for energy and then gave me a plastic bag full of grapes for the journey. Beautiful countryside – looks a lot like Lake Tahoe. We jumped off rocks into 40 degree which probably wasn’t too smart. On the way out, a toothless cow herdsman chased me (with his two cows, so needless to say, it was a slow effort), screaming “te amo!” The life of a gringa!

osorno con amigos

why oh why did i only take french classes?!

Pajamas in public.

The result of speaking no Spanish. I was in bed, attempting to lesson plan and figuring out how to email my teacher the lesson plans I was probably supposed to send her earlier this weekend, when my host mama walked in. As usual, I only got about 25% of what she was saying. Thinking I was supposed to go outside and say bye to her son, I started walking out of the room (without shoes, which is a huge problem because everyone wears shoes inside and my refusal/forgetting to wear shoes indoors has been a topic in the teachers’ lounge) but she grabbed shoes and a fleece and put them on me. I was wearing pajama pants. I went out side and Daniel was sitting in the car waiting for me, which is when I realized how little of what she was saying I understood. I got into the car wearing a fleece, pajama pants, and my rainboots. It is not raining. In fact, it was warmer than usual. Daniel, like most people, over estimates my Spanish capabilities. Still extremely confused about what I am doing, I attempt to make conversation in Spanish. Evenutally I figured out we were supposed to run errands as he was giving me a tour of Angol, which is fantastic, except that it meant I had to go into the equivalent of Home Depot and also the grocery in pajamas. Embarrassing, to say the least.

This tour also informed me that the area I had planned to run in tomorrow is the worst part of Angol and is “muy peligrosa.” Our street, however, is “muy tranquilo.”

bus trip!

“Where are you from?” is the token phrase of Chilean men hitting on gringas. Gringas, by the way, is not an offensive term. In Chile, it just denotes foreigners. I learned this when I recently walked into a grocery store and was greeted with “HOLA GRINGA!” Anyways, I left Angol yesterday for Osorno. It’s about a seven-hour bus ride south, into Region X or Los Lagos. Aside from getting stuck sitting too close to the bathrooms, it was a beautiful ride (once I got used to the fragrant bathroom scent stench. We arrived in Osorno and met some of the other volunteers at a hostel. Bar, bar, bar, bar in club, club. Our cover got us free drinks until the last bar turned into a club at 2am. Chileans go out tarde! Lots of token phrase throwing, not lots of cute Chileans. The bus ride back to Angol Saturday was rough.

in the paper!!!!!

mas

press conference room in moneda palace

back to school

Back to school, back to school. Harkening back to my high school days, I woke up at a miserable 6:45am. My school teacher family also has to get up at such an ungodly hour (dios mios!) so we had breakfast and caught up on the morning’s news, thanks to CNNnnnCHIlay. Remembering to avoid a mouthful of powdered milk, I didn’t lick my spoon clean of Nescafe this morning.

I drove the two blocks to school (seriously) with Sylvia who introduced me to the teachers at Simon Escobar (?). Lots of Spanish jokes went right over my head as I continued with my “smile and si” routine. My first class with my teacher, Faviola, was 8A, which has a rowdy reputation. I had to present myself to the class first. I had a PowerPoint prepared to show where I was from, who my family was, etc. The class was dead silent during my presentation, staring at me warily. Obviously my Miley Cyrus jokes did not go over well. The class, in turn, introduced themselves. Every single one of them, apparently, is thirteen and likes reggeton. For the remainder of the class, they got progressively more rambunctious – three had to be sent to the principal who subsequently came into the room. Her furious Spanish overwhelmed me but I think she was saying that if they didn’t behave, their mothers would be called, and they wouldn’t get to work with me, which I’m sure would be devastating to these kids. Joking (or “yoking!”). They left happily, however, and all screamed “BYE!” to me. Hopefully Miss Margarita will be a hit with 8A.

Each class is a didactic hour, so two periods equates an hour and a half. After a break of coffee, cake, and sandwiches, we headed back upstairs to 3A. The third graders were extremely excited to hear about California and Mickey Mouse, when they weren’t busy playing with their toy cars. They sang several songs for me and then worked on coloring.

The third class of the day was 1A. 1A travels with an extra teacher because they are MUY LOCO. The forty first graders cannot sit still for more than two seconds, but they are adorable. They also have perfect pitch and love to sing. It was a tiring day, but I’m excited to go back tomorrow!

la comida

Okay, I have to devote this blog to food. Everyone in Chile is on a diet and they have no idea what a diet is. A diet here consists of substituting the dreaded “azucar” with aspartame. So even though my host mom will eat pan galore, she diets by using fake sugar. Pan is for breakfast with jams and cheese and ham, and for lunch, with soup and salad and the main meat course, and with all the onces or teas with butter and jam, and with dinner in sandwiches. Chile loves bread as much as I do!

new home

My room consists of a king size bed, complete with sheets and seven blankets. This is because indoor heating is an anomaly in Chile, which is as bad as it seems. Suffice it to say that I am justified in wearing rain boots inside. The top cover, currently home to my laptop may have been purchased off Urban Outfitters Home in the “shag rug” section, but it is super warm.

Today Lisa and I went for our run and found a massive street market. Despite mucho confusion, she got three of the biggest apples I have ever seen for approximately 5¢. We also saw a rabbit being skinned and cut into perfect purchasing pieces! And, most importantly, we ran into some Mormons. Two very cute Mormons, who presumably already have wives, but are missionaries in Chile. Despite lecturing us about their religion for far too long (although at our behest), los Mormones were really sweet and told us to call them if we needed help. Unfortunately, to do so we would have to go to their church. Spent the rest of the day walking around Angol and relaxing!

In other news, CATE, I am currently enjoying a Cadbury bar. Sylvia insisted I get chocolate. How could I resist?

a casual PRIVATE TOUR OF PALACE

This is a double decker blog entry – last night in Santiago and first day in Angol! Last day of training finally over! After our “coc tal” or cocktail, I went to the presidential palace. For a private tour. Seriously. One of my friend’s relatives works for the national police (unlike los Estados Unidos, there’s only one police in Chile and it’s an extension of the government, like the Army or Navy). He is in charge of security for the President and showed us all around the palace and let us take pictures of ourselves in the very room in which Allende shot himself and on the steps right outside the room the President was currently in. Amazing! The differences in security between the White House and Moneda Palace are incredible. First of all, you’re allowed to walk within a mile of the Palace – even right up to the front! This leg of the police seems to have stolen all the tall people from the short-legged country of Chile because all the guards are super tall and formal in their marching and serious suits and high boots. But the three grossly underdressed and giggling American girls got one of them to smile in a photo! After our touro privado con el capitan, we took a final wander around Santiago and got snacks for the bus.

Seriously, a double decker blog entry, like the TurTransfer bus I took last night. Lugging my luggage through the bus terminal was worth it. The bus seats recline all the way, a porter brings you a blanket and a pillow – with a smile, even at 2am! Lisa and I were served a healthy and hearty breakfast of an almond cookie, “Spirm” juice which I can’t drink, and canned peaches. As the sun rose and we noticed how into the countryside we were driving, we arrived in Angol to meet our families!

bienvenido

Welcome to Chile! I have arrived in South America! To summarize the experience so far: indecipherable Spanish, baskets of bread, empanadas, Proyecto Aprender McGill 2010 plus otros americanos, walking tour of Santiago, street dogs (perros de corer), Coca Cola Light, cobblestone streets, smog, semi-comprehendible Spanish, and, of course, pisco sours. Our schedule this week is simple – get up at 8am for a breakfast of bread and butter and powdered coffee. Nescafe all the way! We head over to EOD training til 6pm and then back to the hostel it is. After dinner, which varies from stew to stew to stew and flan, which can be found the next morning at breakfast, too, we get $2 wine from the store and drink in the back of the hostel. After our cheap but high quality wine buzz wares off, we walk as a big, loud American group over to one of the cafes for pisco sours.

adios norteamérica

From May to August 2010, I´ll be living the thinnest country in the world (though I doubt such an adjective will describe me soon)as I participate in “English Opens Doors” or Ingles Abre Puertas. Ingles Abre Puertas composes an integral part of the Chilean Ministry of Education, as a program that brings native English speaks from North America to Chile to inspire school children. I am assigned to the beer capital and breadbasket that is the Araucania Region. Google images make me think Araucania resembles California’s Lake Tahoe. Working as a teaching assistant, I will live with a host family somewhere in this beautiful region. As I practice my keg stands with local beer and cure my massive hangovers by inhaling excessive amounts of bread, just kidding, as I eat a reasonable portion of bread for breakfast and indulge in the occasional sip of beer on Friday evenings, I will be documenting my experience. I’ll be documenting my amusing attempts at learning Spanish and my earnest attempts to teach English – as I attempt to immerse myself into Chilean culture. From empanada tasting to pisco sour filled evenings to family dinners to travels to Argentina to cheering Chilean soccer matches– from the Toronto airport, bottoms up! To Chile!