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!