Settling In

Hey Friends!  Hope all of your Octobers are going well.  Many past ChACErs have let their blogs trail off after starting work in Chile.  In an effort to combat this statistic I'm going to try to write at least a short post once a week.  If I'm slacking, get on my case.

I'll start this week with the promised photos in the last post.  Here are all three of my host siblings: Florencia (Flo), Amelia (Ame), and Clemente (Cleme).

Here's Befi the cat, curled up in her usual place on my bed.  She's wonderful, one of the most friendly cats I've met.  My usual routine when I get home from school around 5 is to have "tea" (sandwiches and juice, very European) with the kids, play with the dogs, work out, then work on my computer on the couch or my bed with Befi.  We eat around 8 or 8:30 and though I try to go to sleep at 10 it usually ends up being 11:30 or 12.  The kids are obsessed with Criminal Minds and I get sucked in.

Friday was the last day of classes for the seniors (Quarto Medio, 4th year of high school).  They had a special breakfast then the school lined up to create a tunnel from their class to the exit of the school.  It was very emotional having Pre-K through 11th Grade lined up in order saying goodbye.  Many of the students have younger siblings following in their footsteps.  There were a lot of tears.  I barely know these kids and I even got emotional.  Maybe it was the Kenny G version of "Auld Lang Syne" they had on loop (seriously?).

I think teaching little kids would be quite the challenge for me but I love them in small doses.  They're so adorable.  They all had balloons to send off the seniors.  I've never experienced a school before that has all levels pre-K through 12.  There were 3 students that left who have been at the school for 13 years.  That blows my mind; this place has become such an important part of the fabric of their being.  No wonder it's emotional.

They'll spend the next month studying for the PSU which determines where they go to college, what they study, and what they'll do for a living.  No pressure, kids.

Friday was also Teacher's Day so the school took us all out for lunch.  Here is most of the English department.  We had a great time!  Very traditional Chilean food and drink.  Best Pisco Sour I've had yet for sure.

Some of the teachers have formed a band and they had a surprise performance at the lunch.  I had the pleasure of sitting in on their rehearsal a couple weeks ago.  If I can track down a trombone I'm hoping to join their ranks.  They call themselves "Montes Inc" as a play on the Pixar movie and the founding family of the Diacono schools.

This week 7th grade has been learning words for physical descriptions.  They had to draw themselves and describe their features.  Here's what they came up with for me and their teacher, Miss Catalina.  I hadn't shaved in a couple days so I taught them "scruffy" and "peach fuzz".  They were very interested in hair terms so we went over "frizzy", "bun", and "spiky".

 On Sunday we went to an asado (cook out) hosted by an ex-alumno of St. George.  They call students "alumnos" here.  Seems backwards, but I'm adjusting.  There were lots of graduates there that are still involved with pastoral ministries at St. George and they've been friends with the ChACErs over the years.  Very fun people, we had a great time.

Here we are with some of our new friends at the table.

I had my first experience with taking public transportation back to Chicureo after the asado.  It's not an easy process: a metro ride, a bus and a taxi (or you can hitchhike the last leg which is very common and safe here).  I'll likely find a colleague that can take me to school in the mornings next year.  It's half the cost and half the time.

This is a photo from (I think) last Easter with my cousin Jacquie's daughter Elliana.  She's incredible.  Her husband Nathan posted it on facebook the other day and I wanted to share it because she could make anyone look good in a picture.

I have a very busy week coming up: ChACE Halloween party Saturday, essay due for Notre Dame on Sunday, Octavo Adventura (8th grade trip to the coast!) Monday through Wednesday, then I'm going North to the Atacama Desert where there will hopefully be some sandboarding for the long weekend November 1-4.  Posts to come!

Welcome to Chile!

Greetings from Santiago!  This post is a little bit scattered, but it will bring us all up to speed with my antics over the last two and a half weeks.

We arrived Saturday 9/29 and headed into the city on Sunday to take care of some logistical stuff and tour the city a bit.  We were waiting for our table for lunch and took advantage of the park right outside.  This is Emily, she's in the class above us.  There are 8 here that will finish their ChACE experience in December.

Seem a little steep?

We're getting used to using the peso here.  One thousand pesos, written 1.000, is called a "luca" and is equal to about US $2.00.  So 2 ice cream cones are 500 pesos or about a dollar.

The empanadas here are quite different than those of Ecuador.  They're made with a flour-based dough and have savory fillings, like the most common "pino" variety which has beef, hard boiled egg, onion, and olive.  Very tasty!

No more Pilsener!  We have choices now!

I loved the first "Taken" movie so a group of us went to see the sequel.  It was good, very predictable, but as action-packed as the first and Liam Neeson didn't disappoint.

The Chilean ID card is called the "Carnet" and it's a bit of a process to get it.  We went in to have our pictures taken and fill out an application then a week and a half later we had to go back to the city to pick it up.  The document center was right outside this beautiful church built by the Dominicans.  There is a large artesenal market just to the right that I explored with my host mom and sister after I got my Carnet.

My host family has three pets.  The dogs here are Olivia on the left and Ofelia on the right.  I love them.  They were a little wary at first but now I run around with them in the yard every day to warm up for my workout.  They have so much energy!  The third pet is Befi the cat.  She likes to cuddle while I do work.  Pictures to come.

My birthday was only 2 days after I met my host family, but they really went out of their way to make me feel at home.  This was breakfast.  Cake?  Why not!

We had a celebration at school too!  This is Alicia, the head of the English department.

Note the sticker.  At this point I was shadowing Jenny (current ChACEr at my school) so we were always with little kids.  They were so wonderful, cheerful, and excited that it was my birthday!

Here's the English crew!  Jenny, Pamela, Alicia, and Cata.  The smocks are standard wear for elementary teachers in the Diacono schools.

After school my host sister Flo (19, in the middle) and host brother Clemente (16, on the right) asked if I wanted to go to the Lagoon for a snack with their friend Flori (on the left, in school with Flo).  It's this stunning lake set against the mountains where people can sail and wind surf.

Whenever the smog decides to take a break the sky is really incredible here.  This is the view towards the valley, away from the mountains.

For dinner we went back to the lagoon for sushi.  It was so good.  Lots of avocado, which I'm learning is quite the staple in Chile.  I'm not complaining, I love the stuff.

I've just realized that I don't have a picture of my youngest host sister Amelia (13).  I'll be sure to put one in the next post!

Ok, shifting to my experience thus far with my school, San Nicolás Diacono.  The three Diacono schools were founded by the Montes family with whom we work closely at a mediator with Notre Dame.  San Nicolás is the newest addition in 2000 and it's beautiful.  I love the faculty, the students, the campus, everything.  I'm so excited to be there!

After shadowing Jenny for most of the first week I got a schedule that has me rotating through lots of different classes.  It's pretty much decided that I'll be teaching high school and I'll definitely be teaching English, but I've enjoyed rotating through the math and science classes as well.  On this particular day the students were testing their hot air balloons.  They used hair dryers to send them off.  Good fun!

Last Wednesday was the feast of St. Francis (at least in Chile, I still haven't figured out the liturgical calendar here) and it was the 4th graders' turn to have mass so they got to bring in their pets to be blessed.  It was a blast.  It was the first daily mass I've gotten to attend thus far and I just soaked it in.  Two of the pastoral staff came and played music and it was really wonderful.  There is a mass every Wednesday and I plan on attending whenever I can.

Here's Miss Jenny!  She's playing "Turtle" with the 3rd graders (a politically correct version of hang man).  Even though I don't think I could handle teaching the youngsters I did enjoy my time with them, especially this class.  I'll visit often!

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week in Chile and "Segundo Medio" (second year of high school, so our 10th grade) had a lunch for all their teachers.  It was a lot of fun!  These students have so much personality.  Sometimes they have difficulty expressing it, so classroom management can be a nightmare, but they're really wonderful.

I have to keep reminding myself that the year is starting to wind down for the students here.  It seems so weird because it's October, but the seniors end in early November so they can study for the PSU which pretty much determines the rest of their educational and professional careers.  Anyway, this morning they had a ceremony where the seniors put ties on the juniors.  It was nice to see the tradition.  Here's my host brother Clemente with his new tie.  The girl on the right, Laura, sang a song at the ceremony called "La de la Mala Suerte" by Jessie y Joy.  It's one of my favorite Spanish songs and she did a great job!

Ok, last theme of the post.  This past weekend we went to Santo Domingo, a tranquil little town on the ocean.  The whole weekend was great, very relaxing.  My host dad, Juan Pablo, has a brother named Manuel that just moved there permanently.  They used to live in Southern Chile but the climate didn't suit them so they dismantled their house and used the wood to build a completely new design (how cool is that?).  There is wood everywhere in this house.  If you look closely you can see old notches in the support pillar here.

Juan Pablo bought a house in Santo Domingo about six years ago.  They love to get away from the city.  No phones, no internet, just family.  On Saturday we had an "asado", or Chilean cookout.  Here's Manuel with my host mom Lorena cooking up some sausage and pork.

The three on the left are Manuel's wife and two youngest children.  Manuel is an avid movie fan.  He owns over 10,000 of them, has seen them all, and watches 2 or 3 movies a day.  His room is incredible, completely set up for watching movies and listening to music.  He also collects lots of other things like vintage radios.  He's a very interesting guy.

Others at the table: Flo, Clemente, Flo's friend Vale and my host dad Juan Pablo.  Check out the ocean in the background.

Juan Pablo.  What a character.  I love this picture because it captures his spirit so well.  He's always always smiling and he has such a positive attitude.

This coastal region of Chile is known for their strawberries.  I can vouch for that.  They were delicious.  Powdered sugar in the middle and milk chocolate in between the berries.  Yum.

String games and Rubik's Cube fit in very will with the lifestyle at the beach.  A little Franske influence in Chile.

After the cookout we hit the beach.  The water is always very cold in Chile thanks to the currents coming from the South, and it really isn't warm enough to swim yet anyway, so we just enjoyed sitting on the rocks and talking.  We had some delicious Chilean beach treats (pan de huevo, palmera and chuchufli).  Check out my new shirt my host fam gave me for my birthday!

The sky was incredible.  Here's my host sister Flo at the beach.

The sunset from the upstairs window in the house.  What a great view!  I feel so blessed to be in such a beautiful place.

Sunday we slept late, went to mass, ate some lunch and came back to Santiago.  Monday was a day off and I slept until 1 p.m.  It was lovely.  Such a great weekend.  I'm looking forward to more time at the beach over the next couple years!

Heading to Santiago tomorrow for a Notre Dame gathering; Father Scully, our program's founder, is coming to town!  Having another asado on Sunday as well.  Watch for another post soon!

That's a Wrap!

Hey folks!  We arrived in Chile safely on the 29^th, and there will be posts to come about my school, family, and all that jazz, but I want to wrap up my Ecuador experience by taking you through my past two months in terms of food and a few other Ecuadorian facts.  Enjoy!

Here I am with my host mom Rosa during our last week of classes.  We decided a picture was necessary because we dressed almost the same.

The first week I was in Ecuador Rosa showed me that she was drinking hot chocolate with something in it that looked like a marshmallow.  Nope, it was cheese.  The cheese of Ecuador is called Queso Fresco and they use it with everything.  It’s very mild, kind of like a mozzarella.

One night I was very surprised to sit down and see what I’ve always known as Schuam.  The offician name is kaiserschmarrn.  It’s an austrian dish kind of like broken up, doughy pancakes.  You put something sweet on it like Karo syrup or this amazing vanilla sauce that my host sister Diana and her boyfriend Peter (from Germany) made.

While in Ecuador I made the three things I make best: meatloaf, puppy chow, and no-bake cookies.  Here is our attempt at Puppy Chow.  We had to use Special K because Chex don’t exist down here, but it was still delicious!

There are pig heads everywhere in Ecuador.  The markets, the streets, shop windows…and all the pork smells delicious.

Lunch every day was pretty much the same for me.  I would sit down, order the “Almuerzo Tipical” which means typical lunch, and eat whatever they brought.  There was always soup and juice, rice, either beef or chicken, some sort of salad with a combination of lettuce, tomato, avocado or beets, and either beans or potatoes or bananas.  Never paid more than $4.

Those who have been following diligently will have recognized that I didn’t hike Cotopaxi.  The timing just didn’t work out.  So now my reasons to return to Ecuador are to hike Cotopaxi, to see the Galapagos, and to visit my host family.

The tradition in Ecuador on your birthday is to smash your face into your cake.  Here is Diana on her birthday after we ate sushi (which was delicious!).  We had a cake at our house before I left as an early birthday celebration for me and thankfully I was spared.

Humitas.  Another reason to come back to Ecuador.  Ground corn, butter, egg, and cheese all steamed in the corn husk.  These things are incredible.  $1 for 3.

All the appliances and the hot water in our house ran on these gas tanks.  Trucks deliver and retrieve them, $2 a piece.  They last maybe 2 weeks.

I’ve used this picture before, but I have to say a few things about the cars in Ecuador.  They’re all manual transmissions, and I had a little practice with Rosa’s car.  I didn’t kill anyone but I could use some more practice.  Honks here are very different than in the states.  A honk here means “I’m not stopping, so don’t enter the street” whether you’re a pedestrian or another car.  It’s almost just an FYI that they’ll run you over.  Lastly, the orange license plate.  If a taxi has a plate of a different color, or doesn’t have numbers on the top, don’t get in.  It isn’t a registered cab and they’ll likely overcharge you or rob you.

Dan will be quick to tell you that “Ecuador doesn’t know how to do cookies and sandwiches,” and I would have to agree.  The sandwiches often lack filling and the bread is no good, and the cookies are all very dry and therefore crumbly.  It might have something to do with the lack of brown sugar in South America.  I was lucky to find a chocolate chip cookie though so I went for it.

I’ve talked about Pilsener before, but a food post wouldn’t be complete without it.  This stuff is everywhere.  On every ad, sponsoring all the sports teams, and on every menu in every restaurant.  I would say it’s the Budweiser of Ecuador, but that would be assuming there are other options.  This is really the only beer in Ecuador besides Club Verde which I think is just Pilsener in a different bottle.

The Tuesday before we went to the jungle I went to La Floresta with Mateo and Rosa to eat some typical Ecuadorian street food.  I loved it.  Rosa is holding Tripas, or cow intestine, and Mateo has Guatitas, or cow stomach.  We also had choclo (corn with cheese and butter) and haba (large kidney beans) and a desert-like thing that had sweet rice and banana.

And empanadas!  The empanadas of Ecuador are either made of a sweet dough with cheese inside dusted with sugar (seen here), which typically go with morocho, a sweet drink made with corn, or made of a corn dough and sometimes have a little bit of meat inside.  Delicious.

Another fantastic German treat that Peter made were fried apples.  He coated them in a pancake-like batter, fried them in oil, and covered them in sugar.  So good.

Here are my no-bake cookies!  I was thrilled with the result.  I made another batch for our final barbeque at the school.

Canelazo (on the right, next to my Pilsener, of course) is a hot drink native to Ecuador.  It’s a fruit juice called Naranjilla with cinnamon (canela) and caña, liquor distilled from sugar cane.  Great for chilly nights.

All the best food in Ecuador.  I accompanied Rosa when she was picking up humitas and tomales for a reunion at the school.  Of course we got a couple extra to eat at home.

On Tuesday of our last week we went to Café Mosaico for dinner.  It’s in Guapulo so it has a great view of the city.  The food was amazing.  Mateo and I had typical Ecuadorian food.  This is llapingachos (the double “L” is pronounced like a “y”), tortillas made from potatoes.  They come with meat, a fried egg, and salad.

I got churracso which has a better cut of meat and comes with fries instead of the tortillas.  So good.

On Wednesday we cooked our own llapingachos along with eggs and salad and sausage.  We did a pretty good job!  If only I liked potatoes...

On Thursday as our final project for school we gave presentations about the regions of Ecuador.  I was assigned Imbabura where Otavalo is located.  We all dressed according to the indigenous people of our region.  It was a lot of fun.

On Friday night we went out on the town one last time.  Our flight left at 6:50 the next morning so some of us just stayed out all night.  After dancing the night away we stopped for kabobs on the street.  $1, and so delicious.

I have enjoyed every minute in Ecuador, and I’m hoping to return.  I’m excited for my new adventure in Chile as well.  Stay tuned for news about my new home!