Country Hopping

Ok, first an apology.  It's been over a month.  Ouch.  I'm going to split the time up into two posts with lots of pictures and less text; the second post will explain why I've been so busy and haven't posted.  But first, my trip over September Break!

It had been in the plans to go to Buenos Aires for quite some time, but it just so happened our Chemistry teacher Alejandra was headed to Uruguay for the week so I tagged along with her the first weekend.

After landing in Buenos Aires, we took the Buquebus ferry to the sleepy town of Colonia.  It was like stepping back in time.  Cobblestone streets, stone buildings, and an old fort characterize the city.

I felt like I was in Boston.

Beautiful lighthouse attached to some of the old fort.  Apparently the Spanish used Colonia to smuggle goods into Buenos Aires since it was the closest city across the river.

After our night in Colonia we hopped a bus to Montevideo to catch up with my friend Kelly who has been living there 2 years now.  She visited us in Santiago before winter break.

Kelly took me to a meat market that looked a lot like Mercado Central in Santiago but instead of fish it was all beef.  Tons of it.  There must have been 100 of these little parilla (par-ee-sha with the Uruguayan accent) spots and everything smelled unbelievable.

Melted provalone cheese in a red pepper with oregano.  Crazy good.

Sunday evening I took the ferry back to Buenos Aires.  After a cab driver tried to scam me into a $20 cab ride to our hotel, I decided to walk the 25 or so blocks.  I was glad I did.  I got to see some beautifully lit buildings, like the "Casa Rosada" (pink house) where the president lives and works.

Monday was very rainy so after my travel companions arrived from Florida we had a lazy day at the indoor pool and hot tub followed by a huge steak with a Malbec wine, a famous Argentinian combination.  That cow says "I'm Juicy".  The meat temperatures are different in Spanish, from least to most done: inglese, apunto, jugoso, tres cuartos, bien cocido which translate to English, at the point, juicy, three quarters, and well cooked.

This is Mike.  Mike and I taught together at St. Pete Catholic in Florida for a year.  He was a great travel buddy.  Each night after dinner we found a different scene to have a few beers.

Monday night was "Puerta Roja".  No sign, just a red door.  Fun spot, we played some pool and had Argentinian craft beer.

Tuesday brought much better weather so we went walking around the city.  We saw the Cathedral, Casa Rosada, Obelisk, and a number of government buildings.  Here's that Pink House again.  Just over Mike's shoulder is where Evita gave her famous speech.

Buenos AIres is famous for their ritzy cafes.  They're quite extravagant and serve good lunch food.

Here's the obelisk.  It was built to celebrate the city's 400 year anniversary.  Apparently the public wasn't crazy about it but by the time they mustered any support for a change it had become iconic to Buenos Aires.  It was most recently made famous in the final scenes of the Dexter series finale (which, in my opinion, could have been better).

I was struck by its location.  It's just plopped in the middle of the street!  Nothing like the Washington monument surrounded by all that green space.  I like this though, it's easily accessible and viewable from all over the city since it's a major intersection with several streets running to it.

Evita Perón's grave in La Recoletta cemetery.  The mausoleum next door is open if anyone wants to rest eternally next to her.  $250,000.

Memorial to the soldiers killed in the battle for the Falkland Islands (Las Malvinas to the Argentines).  This is still a very sore subject.  There are signs all over Argentina that say "Las Malvinas fueron, son, y siempre serán Argentinos".  The Falklands were, are, and will always be Argentinian.

Tuesday night we went to see a tango show.  Pictures were tough since no flash was allowed, but it was fantastic.  Incredible style and acrobatic dancing, a great band, and good food to boot.

Probably my favorite couple.  They were adorable and prove that dancing is a lifelong sport!

El Caminito in the Boca neighborhood is probably the most recognizable part of Buenos Aires.  Bold pastel colors and tango music course through the streets.  It's a little on the touristy side but it sure is beautiful.

Lunch plus tango at El Caminito.  The guitar players were phenomenal.

I couldn't get enough of the colors.  These buildings ran right to the water (Rio de la Plata, the world's widest river for those keeping score).

We figured we'd walk by the Boca Juniors stadium (probably the most famous soccer club in Argentina) as long as we were in Boca and we were lucky enough to get a tour.  What a beautiful stadium.

We learned all kinds of cool secrets about the stadium, its team and its fans.  It was a great stroke of luck!

Cafe Tortoni, the most famous cafe in Buenos Aires.  They're known for snooty waiters and good desserts.  I can account for both.

At dinner one night (delicious Italian food) I looked up and couldn't believe that the Tamba Bay Rays game was on.  Perfect for the Florida company!

After the Italian food Mike and I went to this awesome old mansion that was converted into a bar.

It felt like a huge house party that everyone in Buenos Aires was invited to.  Very cool atmosphere.

My travel companions hadn't been to Colonia so on Thursday we took the ferry across the river again.  I was glad we did, the weather was way better.  We rented a car and drove along the coast of the river.  Beautiful beaches.  I wanted to swim but lacked a towel so I settled for wading.

I also found some Uruguayan trees to climb.

Dulce de Leche flavored Gelato.  So good.

After returning to Argentina we took a nap and headed out on one of Buenos Aires' famous pub crawls.  4 bars and a night club.  It was a great way to see more cool spots and we met some fun Argentines.  A great final night!

All week we had heard how beautiful the opera house was, Teatro Colón.  So Friday morning we took a tour.  Everyone was right.  Here's the incredible foyer with marble imported from 4 different countries.

The artistry and craftsmanship is awesome.  Everywhere you turn yields a breathtaking view.

The Gold Room, added after several years of operation.

We were only in the auditorium a few minutes because there was some staging going on so I didn't get a lot of great pictures, but it was quite impressive.  They have a hole in the dome at the top to do "voice of God"-type scenes.  The acoustics are crazy, I'm sure the effect is perfect.

From the moment I read in my guide book that polo is popular in Argentina I wanted to see a match.  Unfortunately the rain at the beginning of the week made conditions unfavorable so there were no matches.  Something for the bucket list.

Our last afternoon was spent wandering the parks of Palermo.  They are stunning, and HUGE.  I'm always impressed when a city sets apart so much space for public parks.  I could have spend lots more time there but we had a flight to catch.

The Florida-bound flew Delta back stateside so after saying our goodbyes I was treated to this sunset as I walked between terminals.

I had a great week.  Great company, great food, and great memories.  Coming back to work was tough, and I could never have prepared for what I was walking into at San Nicolás.  New post soon telling all about it!

The Longest Time

It's been a while.  Too long.  I'm sorry.  The reality is that I've been so busy I honestly haven't had the time to put together a post.  It's looking like this weekend I'll be able to devote the necessary time to recounting the last month's activities, so until then, here are some pictures to give you an idea of what's been going on.

 Until this weekend!

Showers Sunshine and Sopa

Paula, our awesome preschool teacher, is pregnant!  On Friday we threw her a surprise baby shower.  She was overwhelmed with joy!  We had a great lunch and gave her all kinds of fun baby gifts.  All the best Paula!

Our English team minus me and Rody.  Ciara, on the left, is our newest addition.  A gringa from Colorado, I met her in the grocery store one day and after hanging out a few times she asked if I knew of a job where she could work with kids.  It turned out we needed a teacher for the first unit so it worked out great!  She's heading back to the states in November to finish planning her wedding.

And here are the guys!  Everyone at SND has really made me feel at home.  It's been a great year (one year at the end of September--gosh time has flown).

On Saturday we had the school-wide celebration to celebrate the 18th of September, Chile's biggest national celebration.  While Chilean independence is tough to put a date on (the declaration was signed in 1818, the war ended in 1821, and Spain recognized independence in 1844), the first government meeting was September 18th 1810.

The performances by the students were tied together by a girl asking her grandfather about the history of Chile.  Carlos, our teddy bear of a Biology teacher, played the role perfectly.

Every level in the school performed a different dance.  These were the littlest kids--too cute.

Here are my 8th graders dancing a form of the Cueca typical in the South.  I was very impressed by their organization, I hardly believed they were my students!

Chile's relationship with Easter Island has always been an interesting one.  The natives of the island don't really identify with Chile and have issues with the government.  Still, their culture is a part of Chile, so two of the classes did Pascuense dances.

After the performance was over we all went outside for food, fellowship, and fun.  There were a few live bands and lots more dancing.  It was great to chat with my students and their families outside of the academic setting.

The teachers all got a ton of free food and it was all delicious.  These kabobs are called anticuchos and they're awesome.  There's also half of an empanada here.  We got 2 of those each as well as a choripan and a completo (hot dog with avocado, tomato, ketchup, and mayo).  Mmmm.

They had lots of games set up for the kids around the perimeter.  The only one I got roped into was the potato sack race.  It was me and Ciara along with a couple parents who I think had had a little too much cerveza.  It wasn't much of a race but tons of fun.

I'll be exploring Buenos Aires with some good friends on the 18th itself but this was a great way to get a little taste of the national pride that runs rampant in Chile all of September.

All year we've been preparing a room specifically for teaching English.  The idea is for the kids to associate this room with English.  It's great--it has a projector, sliding white boards, tons of books and resources, and it's purely for English use.  On Monday we had the official inauguration complete with balloons and confetti.  It was a blast!  Each group from 2 year olds up to 2nd grade came for 20 minutes.  We started each session with the typical preschool English routine.

After some head, shoulders, knees, & toes Ciara and I read them a story.  Grandma, what big EYES you have!!

The Itsy Bitsy Spider is probably second favorite behind the wheels on the bus.  The kids love trying to figure out how to put their fingers together to make that pesky spider.  Here's the video I use, it's a winner.  I put on sunglasses for the last "out came the sun", the kids go nuts.

I won't personally be using this room much because I don't teach the little kids very often but it will be a great resource for our Early English program!  Great job, everyone.

On Sunday I went one more time to El Colorado.  The conditions went from pure ice in the morning to slush (sopa, or "soup" as the Chileans call it) in the afternoon.  I met up with some students in the park and we had a great time riding rails.

That big brown patch used to be a great off-trail run.  Not so much anymore.

As you can see, the runs have gone a bit patchy in some places.  Those mountains all used to be white!  Oh well, another season comes to a close.  I washed all my gear and was ready to bundle it all up to await transport back to the states but just yesterday I was invited to a freeride competition in Pucon the last weekend in September.  It's further south so it holds good snow through October.  I'll get to ride on a volcano!  Come back for more details on that and to see my pictures from Buenos Aires next week.  Hasta pronto!

Zapatillas de Clavo

Zapatillas de Clavo are literally running shoes but the Chileans use the phrase to mean "ready to go immediately".  Like if you really want to get out of work on a Friday, as in you're in your car with the keys in the ignition at 4:59, you say you put on your zapatillas de clavo.  It feels like everyone is operating that way these days.  They can't wait to leave school, for the weekend, for vacation...and it's contagious.  Here are some of the adventures that have been worth putting on the zapatillas de clavo!

Last weekend, the 23rd-25th, we had a very generous friend lend us his 2 apartments up at Valle Nevado for the weekend (thanks Felipe!).  We had been talking about taking a group trip up to the mountains since May and were thrilled that it all came together.  We drove up the switchbacks in a rented van and found these fantastic fully furnished places.  Above are Ryan and Laura settling in on Friday night.  To the right is Sarah with her surprise cinnamon roll breakfast before the skiers headed out on Saturday morning.  Delicious!

I'm really glad we made it back to Valle Nevado.  They've had a lot more snow which allowed them to open all their lifts on the back side and let me tell you, it's like one big playground.  I did a LOT of hiking over the weekend and every run was worth it.  This one in particular required very little walking, only riding through a "Danger: Unpatrolled" sign (sorry mom) and over a few rocks.  The run itself was in bounds but the access traverse was on the other side of the ridge.  Probably 8 inches of unridden powder ending at a lift.  Awesome.

There are usually a few groups around from the Northern Hemisphere training for something or another but this particular weekend was special.  The US Giant Slalom Olympic Team was training on one of the longer runs at the resort boundary and the Russian Mogul Team pictured here were lapping a course they built.  Needless to say, I saw some very talented skiers.  The Russians especially were fun to watch.

No camera tricks--we had a full-circle rainbow at the top of Tres Puntas on Sunday.  You could actually see the whole thing but I couldn't get to a safe spot to take a picture of it.  The weather was crazy all weekend.  We had snow Friday night, heavy snow Saturday afternoon, and more snow Sunday.  I drove the switchbacks 4 times altogether (we picked Elaine up after a work function on Saturday night) but we never had to use our rented chains--the snow was completely restricted to the resorts.  Excellent.

This is the top of my longest and most rewarding hike.  The back side of Valle Nevado has two valleys.  The Tres Puntas valley is on the left side of this picture, and its lift goes up the left side of the valley.  The Inca Valley is on the right, and the 3 lifts that service it all go up to the right.  That means there is an entire mountain in the middle unserviced by lifts.  After a 30 minute hike you're rewarded with untouched powder on either side.  Count me in.

I dropped in just below the rock band.  The run was probably the best I've had in Chile.  Over a foot of powder with a few cliffs in the mix.  So much fun.

After a week of business as usual Laura and I spent our Saturday morning exploring some areas of Santiago I hadn't yet seen.  Parque O'Higgins is this huge public space with ponds, playgrounds, this skate park, a speed roller blading rink (no joke), a few sports clubs, and some concert spaces.  There is also a theme park with a few coasters that I'll be visiting again.  We just walked around and watched the locals enjoying their weekend.

We then wandered over to La Vega, a giant farmer's market that I ride under on the metro almost every day.  It's an experience just walking through the aisles and seeing all the fresh produce.  This was the first place I've seen sweet corn in Chile.  It has windows!

Cats are all over the place in La Vega and Mercado Central.  This one found a seat on a scale.  Only about $15!

After our morning of exploring we had lunch at Mercado Central (Reineta, my favorite Chilean fish) then headed back to the apartment to watch the Notre Dame game.  Not too much to say about our season opener.  It wasn't especially exciting.  In fact, you can see a descriptive picture on my Facebook wall courtesy of Dan if you like.

Saturday night I went to celebrate Mauricio's birthday (on the right).  He's a good friend that teaches music at San Nicolás.  We had a great time grilling and hanging out.  It's always nice when I get a chance to practice my Spanish on the weekend otherwise Mondays are rough language-wise.

I have a couple tickets left to El Colorado so I went up on Sunday.  I'm not going to lie--the season is coming to a close.  What used to be my favorite runs are now entirely brown.  I spent most of the day in the park hitting rails which was fine because I haven't been there much.  I'm hoping for one more day of riding then packing it all away.  The views of Santiago (thanks to the smog) are incredible so I'll leave you with the sun filtering through the clouds.

Now we all have our zapatillas de clavo on waiting for our one week break to celebrate the 18th of September when the independent Chilean government first met in 1810.  We have the schoolwide celebration this Saturday and it sounds like I'll be dancing some traditional Chilean Cueca.  Watch for pictures!