...and 10 more to go. It's weird that it's getting so close. I'm at that point where I know it's real but I don't quite feel it hitting home just yet. You know, like you've been planning something for so long and doesn't seem like it's going to happen until that day arrives. But all the plans to come back are in full swing.
I've finally eaten the best ice cream in the city...so yummy! I made it Fuente Alemana, a restaurant that everyone has told me was a must since the beginning. They're know for their completos (hot dogs topped with sauer kraut, mayo, avocado, pickles, tomatoes, ketchup and hot sauce), and wow was I in heaven. I know what I'm ordering on my next dog at Happy Dog in C-town!! On Monday the people from my University here had a farewell dinner for me at a restaurant called Don Quijote. I knew that they had invited my classmates but I had no idea that my professors would be there as well! It was a little awkward but a nice gesture and the food was good...and free ;) I'm spending as much time as possible with my closest of friends, Susana (god I'm gonna miss that girl), Salvador, Ryan, Jorge & Ximena. I was planning on going to Rangcagua this weekend but work offered me a few shifts to cover for another teacher and I could really use the money on my final check, so I'm putting that trip on hold until I return in December! Not much else on my to-do list before I leave the city. I just want to enjoy my students, friends and the final days of the life I built here.
Final grades have started rolling in for my classes. I got an 85% in Operations Management, it's a B but a high B so I guess it'll do. There is a final group presentation being done Saturday morning in Management Models that I will not be participating in, but my participation is not necessary because I contributed to the research in the project. I'm pretty sure that I'm getting an A in that class because I got A's on both of my solo presentations (the most recent grade I received yesterday, 6.8 out of 7) and I got an A on my exam. Spanish class, well who knows. Still haven't heard anything from that professor! But I think CSU will be proud of their first representative of the university to go to Concepcion and hopefully I can help encourage other students to study here as well.
So the next week will involve my last couple of classes at work (my last day is Wednesday), spending time with my Chilean families (both of them), doing some souvenir shopping for my loves back home (which I started doing today) and then begin packing and cleaning my room. Saturday is my big going away party with all my co-workers and friends. Susana and her family have offered to host my party at their home which is beyond awesome! We're going to have karaoke, drinks and chat...and I'm sure someone is going to make me cry! Then Sunday my flight leaves at 4pm. This may be my last blog before I leave, so those that are reading, I will be in touch when I get to Columbus. My phone will be active again at midnight on the 22nd but I won't be in Columbus until 9am. Until then...
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Not ready for it to end...
I can't believe my time here is almost over. The closer it gets the more saddening it becomes. Funny when you settle into a new life in a new place how comfortable you get without even realizing it. You get so caught up in the day-to-day routine of working, studying and spending time with the people who have become part of your new life that before you know it, 5 months have almost passed you by. Thinking back on previous travels...when I left for Spain in 2007 it was exciting and new. I was going to learn a new language and culture, 3 months seemed like a fair amount of time. I liked my life there and the country is one of my favorite places in the world but I was happy to return to the U.S...no regrets and I had the time of my life seeing part of the world. Fast forward to 2009 when I started planning my trip to Chile. I was filled with all the same excitement but also a bit of fear. This time I was much older, the duration of my stay was going to be longer and I was really not sure what to expect...not to mention the huge earthquake! Even once I arrived here I was a little unsure. I didn't know many people, didn't have a lot of money to spend and the dialect was super hard to catch onto, depending on the person. But then I got comfortable in my classes, found an amazing job and grew attached to some of the most caring people...a few of which will be life-long friends without a doubt. And now the time to leave is growing near and it's truly going to break my heart to leave this place. I've noticed how I look around the city and how I have become aware of my surroundings again...like it's all new and wonderful, feeling that appreciation for being here. Weird how you forget to do that, appreciate things, when you're wrapped up in your own world. I have a feeling it's going to be a hard adjustment for me to come back to the states this time. I mean sure, the routine will be the same and I will be absolutely thrilled to see my friends and family again, but I will miss my life here. Actually, I'm already planning to come back and visit. I would like to try and come on my winter break after Christmas. Get to see a little bit more of the country, and this time see it in the summer! Already started looking at plane tickets today...and this time I know how to travel cheap ;)
Now that I've gotten out the sappy 'this is how I feel' part of the blog, here's the life update as of today. Classes are officially finished. I had my final exam on Friday and my final presentation on Saturday. I probably won't know grades for a couple of weeks and won't get my official transcripts until the 1st or 2nd week of September. But I feel pretty confident that I did well. As far as school goes in the states, I'm registered for the fall semester and ready to roll. As some of you know, I work as a graduate assistant in the business college 10hrs a week to receive a tuition waiver to pay for my degree. A few weeks ago I received an email from my boss there saying that they had finished the budget for the fiscal year and unfortunately they could not offer me the position. But being the wonderful people they are, and especially since I worked for them for a year, they said they would do their best to find me a position elsewhere. Well as luck would have it, I received an email from my boss today saying they have decided that they CAN offer me the position again this semester. I may be working in a different office with a different boss and maybe a few different responsibilities but hey, I'll take it! So they're drawing up a contract and will have it ready for me to sign when I return!
My work and social life here moving right along as well. Now that I don't have any classes to study for I have officially made myself the 'on-call' girl to pick-up classes whenever someone wants a day off! Gotta put in the those last few hours where I can. I'm still trying to contact the Berlitz in Cleveland about teaching when I return. I got an email address for them and wrote an email but haven't gotten a response yet. Figuring I'll write a follow-up email tomorrow. Now it's time to try and do all the things I can before I go! Today Susana and I went to visit the cathedral here in the city. It had been closed due to damages from the quake and they're still working on the inside, but it was open to the public. I took some photos but they were with my phone and not the greatest quality...but you can get the gist. Next weekend I'm planning on going out of town to visit an old friend. It's a guy that used to live above La Tortilla when we were open. He left and moved back to Chile right before we closed. I've stayed in touch and already know quite a few members of his family so when I arrived I sent an email with the hopes to going to visit. He wrote back right away, saying their house had been destroyed in the quake but a new one was being built and when it was read
y he would contact me. Well I never heard anything, so last week I sent another email letting him know I was leaving soon. He said the house is not quite finished yet but they'd love for me to come visit. So I started looking at bus tickets today. It's really inexpensive and the it's about a 6-7 hour ride to the north, heading towards Santiago in a little town called Rancagua. It's near vineyards and mountains so I'm game!! Think I'm going to buy my ticket and confirm with him tomorrow!
Well today is officially 20 days and counting till I step on that plane. I can't wait to see you all again soon...but I can't wait to come back here and visit again either. Oh, and don't forget to click on the picture for more photos!!
Now that I've gotten out the sappy 'this is how I feel' part of the blog, here's the life update as of today. Classes are officially finished. I had my final exam on Friday and my final presentation on Saturday. I probably won't know grades for a couple of weeks and won't get my official transcripts until the 1st or 2nd week of September. But I feel pretty confident that I did well. As far as school goes in the states, I'm registered for the fall semester and ready to roll. As some of you know, I work as a graduate assistant in the business college 10hrs a week to receive a tuition waiver to pay for my degree. A few weeks ago I received an email from my boss there saying that they had finished the budget for the fiscal year and unfortunately they could not offer me the position. But being the wonderful people they are, and especially since I worked for them for a year, they said they would do their best to find me a position elsewhere. Well as luck would have it, I received an email from my boss today saying they have decided that they CAN offer me the position again this semester. I may be working in a different office with a different boss and maybe a few different responsibilities but hey, I'll take it! So they're drawing up a contract and will have it ready for me to sign when I return!
My work and social life here moving right along as well. Now that I don't have any classes to study for I have officially made myself the 'on-call' girl to pick-up classes whenever someone wants a day off! Gotta put in the those last few hours where I can. I'm still trying to contact the Berlitz in Cleveland about teaching when I return. I got an email address for them and wrote an email but haven't gotten a response yet. Figuring I'll write a follow-up email tomorrow. Now it's time to try and do all the things I can before I go! Today Susana and I went to visit the cathedral here in the city. It had been closed due to damages from the quake and they're still working on the inside, but it was open to the public. I took some photos but they were with my phone and not the greatest quality...but you can get the gist. Next weekend I'm planning on going out of town to visit an old friend. It's a guy that used to live above La Tortilla when we were open. He left and moved back to Chile right before we closed. I've stayed in touch and already know quite a few members of his family so when I arrived I sent an email with the hopes to going to visit. He wrote back right away, saying their house had been destroyed in the quake but a new one was being built and when it was read
y he would contact me. Well I never heard anything, so last week I sent another email letting him know I was leaving soon. He said the house is not quite finished yet but they'd love for me to come visit. So I started looking at bus tickets today. It's really inexpensive and the it's about a 6-7 hour ride to the north, heading towards Santiago in a little town called Rancagua. It's near vineyards and mountains so I'm game!! Think I'm going to buy my ticket and confirm with him tomorrow!Well today is officially 20 days and counting till I step on that plane. I can't wait to see you all again soon...but I can't wait to come back here and visit again either. Oh, and don't forget to click on the picture for more photos!!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
The Downslope
So it's official...this Monday will mark 1 month and 1 week until my return to the good ol' U.S. of A.! Time flies as they say :)
School is going well and classes will be ending in just a couple of weeks. I thought they would extend the length of the semester since it began later, but I guess I thought wrong. I have my last exam on July 30th and I will be finished!! Grades are doing fairly well so far. I have no idea what I'm receiving in my Spanish class, or what happened to the class in general. I've shown up for the past 2 weeks but no one else has, including the professor. So it's my assumption that the class has ended! Operations management is the class I have an exam in on the 30th. I got an 88% on the 1st one (which is an A-) and an 82% on the 2nd one, so I should be averaging a B to B+, depending on my final exam. Management models is going very well. We don't have a final for the class, but I do have one 5 minute presentation to do next weekend, which should be a breeze. We just received grades back from our last presentation and exam: I got a 6.8 outta 7 on my presentation and a 6.2 on my exam. Not too shabby! It's always nice to know that you can still do well in classes even when they're taught in another language ;)
So since classes will be done sooner than my flight home, I will spend the 1st few weeks of August just working and hanging out with friends! I have a couple new students that I started teaching last week. One is the manager of Transelec which is an electric company here in Conce and the other works at Moly-cop where they manufacture steel balls that are used in the mining process. Both students require that I travel to their work to teach them, which is a-okay with me since Berlitz pays an extra unit for each class for travel time! I'm working on trying to contact the Berlitz in Cleveland, which is really close to my house, and ask about their need for teachers. My boss here has already agreed to give me a letter of recommendation and I would love to begin teaching again as soon as I return!
Not really a whole lot of exciting events to report. I still go out with the English class friends on Thursday nights. Someone mentioned karaoke tonight which instantly means I'll just be sitting back and watching! Sindy has been sick off and on lately and traveled to Santiago last week to see a specialist. They're still unsure of what the exact problem is but she seems to be feeling a little better this week. My friend Nicolas and I got to catch up a couple of weeks ago and talk about his recent travels through Europe. I now officially have 2 adopted families here; my host family and Susana's family. Susana and her family took me out this past Sunday to a restaurant called Rincón Campensino where they serve that down-home typical Chilean food. It was great! And they had me try this weird herb tea called Mote that supposedly has this loopy effect on foreigners because they're not accustomed
to drinking it. I
didn't experience the loopy effect but that's probably because I'm not a fan of hot tea-like drinks and wasn't a fan of the taste, therefore I didn't drink much of it. Here's a couple pics of the food and mote. Oh yea, and when the server found out I was from the US, he brought out this glass with a Chilean flag and an American flag. lol kinda funny but also it's like pointing a finger and saying 'hey, fresh american meat over here!'. Super yum food and over all a great experience!
Susana also recently took me to a birthday party with her for her very best friend Marcelo. I've met him and his friends before and they are all super nice peo
ple. So we went to his house to hang out for a bit and then we all went dancing. Here's a few pics from the party.
That's all I've got for now! Time to get back to some studying and homework. Can't wait to see you all next month!!
School is going well and classes will be ending in just a couple of weeks. I thought they would extend the length of the semester since it began later, but I guess I thought wrong. I have my last exam on July 30th and I will be finished!! Grades are doing fairly well so far. I have no idea what I'm receiving in my Spanish class, or what happened to the class in general. I've shown up for the past 2 weeks but no one else has, including the professor. So it's my assumption that the class has ended! Operations management is the class I have an exam in on the 30th. I got an 88% on the 1st one (which is an A-) and an 82% on the 2nd one, so I should be averaging a B to B+, depending on my final exam. Management models is going very well. We don't have a final for the class, but I do have one 5 minute presentation to do next weekend, which should be a breeze. We just received grades back from our last presentation and exam: I got a 6.8 outta 7 on my presentation and a 6.2 on my exam. Not too shabby! It's always nice to know that you can still do well in classes even when they're taught in another language ;)
So since classes will be done sooner than my flight home, I will spend the 1st few weeks of August just working and hanging out with friends! I have a couple new students that I started teaching last week. One is the manager of Transelec which is an electric company here in Conce and the other works at Moly-cop where they manufacture steel balls that are used in the mining process. Both students require that I travel to their work to teach them, which is a-okay with me since Berlitz pays an extra unit for each class for travel time! I'm working on trying to contact the Berlitz in Cleveland, which is really close to my house, and ask about their need for teachers. My boss here has already agreed to give me a letter of recommendation and I would love to begin teaching again as soon as I return!
Not really a whole lot of exciting events to report. I still go out with the English class friends on Thursday nights. Someone mentioned karaoke tonight which instantly means I'll just be sitting back and watching! Sindy has been sick off and on lately and traveled to Santiago last week to see a specialist. They're still unsure of what the exact problem is but she seems to be feeling a little better this week. My friend Nicolas and I got to catch up a couple of weeks ago and talk about his recent travels through Europe. I now officially have 2 adopted families here; my host family and Susana's family. Susana and her family took me out this past Sunday to a restaurant called Rincón Campensino where they serve that down-home typical Chilean food. It was great! And they had me try this weird herb tea called Mote that supposedly has this loopy effect on foreigners because they're not accustomed
to drinking it. I
didn't experience the loopy effect but that's probably because I'm not a fan of hot tea-like drinks and wasn't a fan of the taste, therefore I didn't drink much of it. Here's a couple pics of the food and mote. Oh yea, and when the server found out I was from the US, he brought out this glass with a Chilean flag and an American flag. lol kinda funny but also it's like pointing a finger and saying 'hey, fresh american meat over here!'. Super yum food and over all a great experience!
Susana also recently took me to a birthday party with her for her very best friend Marcelo. I've met him and his friends before and they are all super nice peo
ple. So we went to his house to hang out for a bit and then we all went dancing. Here's a few pics from the party.That's all I've got for now! Time to get back to some studying and homework. Can't wait to see you all next month!!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
A short report!
I've got lots of homework to finish up over the next few days but I wanted to write a quick update!
New stuff to report...hmmm. Well lets start with school. I just finished my 2nd exam in operations management and I'm so happy to not be studying for that anymore, whew! I have a presentation due in management models next Saturday...I should probably finish reading the chapter so I can write my presentation! hah! And I'm currently working on some writing assignments for my Spanish class. In general, classes are going well. I think I did fairly well on my exam and I'll be much happier after the next 2 weeks of crazy studying, presentations and assignments pass by!
Work as usual is going great and my students are still pretty amazing. I've been getting a lot of hours in lately, which is awesome! I received my first evaluation last week from the bosses. They taped one of our classes a few weeks back, watch the video and then give you feedback on how things are going. My overall evaluation was a 'job well done'! Always nice to hear that you're doing your job well ;)
We did have a bit of craziness happen at work a couple of weeks ago. Susana, Ryan & myself almost always teach until about 9:30pm during the week and usually wait for each other to finish, walk and take the bus together. Well one Tuesday night Susana was helping me with some Spanish homework while we were waiting on Ryan. He finished and stepped out front to have a cigarette while we were finishing my homework. A few minutes later he came running through the door holding his forehead with blood pouring down his face muttering 'mugged, mugged'! Apparently he pulled out his cell phone to answer a text message and a group of teenagers grabbed is phone and then started hitting him and trying to get into his pockets. As he tried to fight them off and run across the street to get away, they tackled him down to the ground and smashed him over the head with a liquor bottle! There was so much blood and Berlitz looked like a murder scene. But in the end he is doing just fine. He ended up with 40 stitches and some bruising but is healing up quite quickly. Susana's mom now comes to Berlitz every night to pick she & I up and take us home. Definitely makes me feel a little safer!
Life in Concepcion is going well. I pretty much feel like a full active member of society and have adapted to my life here easily. I have a great group of friends and am constantly meeting new people. My friend Juan Pablo has introduced me to his whole English class from the university and a few of us have made a Thursday night tradition of meeting after classes at a little pub near the university for some fun language exchange time!! Sindy & I finally made some time this week to get together...although it was just a study date for the exam. Ximena & I are going out together tonight for a girls only night, which we haven't done in a very long time. I do miss everyone back home, and I'm really missing summer right now, but it's going to be hard to leave this place in 2 months now that I've met such amazing people!
New stuff to report...hmmm. Well lets start with school. I just finished my 2nd exam in operations management and I'm so happy to not be studying for that anymore, whew! I have a presentation due in management models next Saturday...I should probably finish reading the chapter so I can write my presentation! hah! And I'm currently working on some writing assignments for my Spanish class. In general, classes are going well. I think I did fairly well on my exam and I'll be much happier after the next 2 weeks of crazy studying, presentations and assignments pass by!
Work as usual is going great and my students are still pretty amazing. I've been getting a lot of hours in lately, which is awesome! I received my first evaluation last week from the bosses. They taped one of our classes a few weeks back, watch the video and then give you feedback on how things are going. My overall evaluation was a 'job well done'! Always nice to hear that you're doing your job well ;)
We did have a bit of craziness happen at work a couple of weeks ago. Susana, Ryan & myself almost always teach until about 9:30pm during the week and usually wait for each other to finish, walk and take the bus together. Well one Tuesday night Susana was helping me with some Spanish homework while we were waiting on Ryan. He finished and stepped out front to have a cigarette while we were finishing my homework. A few minutes later he came running through the door holding his forehead with blood pouring down his face muttering 'mugged, mugged'! Apparently he pulled out his cell phone to answer a text message and a group of teenagers grabbed is phone and then started hitting him and trying to get into his pockets. As he tried to fight them off and run across the street to get away, they tackled him down to the ground and smashed him over the head with a liquor bottle! There was so much blood and Berlitz looked like a murder scene. But in the end he is doing just fine. He ended up with 40 stitches and some bruising but is healing up quite quickly. Susana's mom now comes to Berlitz every night to pick she & I up and take us home. Definitely makes me feel a little safer!
Life in Concepcion is going well. I pretty much feel like a full active member of society and have adapted to my life here easily. I have a great group of friends and am constantly meeting new people. My friend Juan Pablo has introduced me to his whole English class from the university and a few of us have made a Thursday night tradition of meeting after classes at a little pub near the university for some fun language exchange time!! Sindy & I finally made some time this week to get together...although it was just a study date for the exam. Ximena & I are going out together tonight for a girls only night, which we haven't done in a very long time. I do miss everyone back home, and I'm really missing summer right now, but it's going to be hard to leave this place in 2 months now that I've met such amazing people!
Monday, May 31, 2010
2 months down...
...with 3 more to go!!
Sorry for the long delay between blogs but life here has really taken over and I'm way beyond busy these days...not that, that is any different than when I'm living in the states! My life has finally settled into somewhat of a routine and I'm so accustomed to living here that I feel as if I've been here for a year or more.
School is going well. Spanish class is moving along slowly but nicely...with the help of some of my native speaking friends. Business classes are good as well. I got a B+ on my first operations management exam and have another exam coming up in just a couple of weeks. Management models is by far the most boring class I have here. The problem is that the material is so easy and presented in such a simplistic manner that I can't stay interested in it. I have to give a presentation for the class in 1 month. Guess that means I should probably start reading the material! I definitely put the 'pro' in procrastination! lol
Work is going better than I could have ever imagined. I've become very close with one of the girls there, Susana. I go to her house once or twice a week to hang out and chat and spend some time with her family. She's a native from Concepcion but went to Australia and learned English
. She's studying to be a translator and teaching English with me. We're also good friends with Ryan & Salvador who are our co-workers as well. Ryan and I trained together and have remained friends ever since. He's from TN and moved to Ecuador to start a business to help clean up the city. Now he moved here for a few months while his company is developing. Salvador is Chilean by descent but grew up near Vancouver Canada. He's been in Chile for 5 years and teaches English at Berlitz and in Coronel. We're a pretty close group and recently had a couple of bbq's at Salvadors' house (which is where Ryan is living too), with some of our students...always a good time!!
I'm teaching a lot these days. I have a regular class Mon-Fri 8am-9:30am with 2 students from a biz called Price-Waterhouse where they work in the audit department. They are beginners and some days are a real struggle to get things across to them. But I welcome the challenge and have to say it's the most rewarding feeling to watch them learn and grow with a new language! I have another class Mon & Wed nights from 7:15-9:30 with 3 students, all guys (Felipe, Raul & Carlos). They are level 4 and a lot of fun! Felipe & Raul are thru a government program here called 'sense' where the gov't pays for their lessons. Carlos is a university student studying IT. They are very creative and do such a great job with role plays and make me laugh all the time!! And my other class is the one I've had from the beginning, the husband and wife couple (Marcela & Gabriel). I recently learned that they are both doctors (psychology & gynecology). They are still a blast and I have such a great time with them!!
This job has actually put a new career idea in my head!! This happens when I travel abroad...when I moved to Spain it made me realize I wanted a masters degree. Now I'm debating on getting my doctorate!! lol I've really been trying to weigh my options. When I return home I will only have 7 classes to take to graduate...that's just about a year left. At that point I can either find a job with a company and move out of Ohio while trying to start my design firm; I can start looking for grant money for small businesses when I return and try and build a client base by the time I graduate; or I can pursue a doctorate and work on getting a position teaching
in a university while working on my design business!! Oh the decisions I will have to make!
So that is basically it for this update! I have no complaints and am loving life as usual. The weather is getting colder but we've been lucky because there hasn't been a whole lot of rain yet...although I hear it's coming soon. The aftershocks have been plentiful over the last couple of weeks but they've been small, so no worries. Ximena & my host family is still spoiling me as usual!! Being an English teacher has opened a lot doors to some new friends through Ximena and I'm actually helping one of her clients, Juan Pablo, practice his English. We got to hang out and meet a bunch of his friends on Saturday night and then we all went salsa dancing together at a club called Bonita...I forgot how much fun that was!! Sindy (my classmate) and I still try and get together once a week for a dinner or lunch but it's hard sometimes with our schedules.
I'm dropping in a few albums in this blog. The one above is of a bbq at Salvadors house and then some pics of the pizza I made for Sindy & her roomie a couple weeks ago. The next album is some old photos from my trip to Pucon and Parque Rio with Ximena. These were the photos from her camera. And lastly is an album of pics from just this past Friday. It was a beautiful sunny day out and I called Ryan to do some museum hopping with me. The museum of Natural History is super close to my house, complete with an outdoor dinosaur park. So we did it 'American tourist' style and took some silly photos there and then headed to the university & a small art museum!
Sorry for the long delay between blogs but life here has really taken over and I'm way beyond busy these days...not that, that is any different than when I'm living in the states! My life has finally settled into somewhat of a routine and I'm so accustomed to living here that I feel as if I've been here for a year or more.
School is going well. Spanish class is moving along slowly but nicely...with the help of some of my native speaking friends. Business classes are good as well. I got a B+ on my first operations management exam and have another exam coming up in just a couple of weeks. Management models is by far the most boring class I have here. The problem is that the material is so easy and presented in such a simplistic manner that I can't stay interested in it. I have to give a presentation for the class in 1 month. Guess that means I should probably start reading the material! I definitely put the 'pro' in procrastination! lol
Work is going better than I could have ever imagined. I've become very close with one of the girls there, Susana. I go to her house once or twice a week to hang out and chat and spend some time with her family. She's a native from Concepcion but went to Australia and learned English
. She's studying to be a translator and teaching English with me. We're also good friends with Ryan & Salvador who are our co-workers as well. Ryan and I trained together and have remained friends ever since. He's from TN and moved to Ecuador to start a business to help clean up the city. Now he moved here for a few months while his company is developing. Salvador is Chilean by descent but grew up near Vancouver Canada. He's been in Chile for 5 years and teaches English at Berlitz and in Coronel. We're a pretty close group and recently had a couple of bbq's at Salvadors' house (which is where Ryan is living too), with some of our students...always a good time!!I'm teaching a lot these days. I have a regular class Mon-Fri 8am-9:30am with 2 students from a biz called Price-Waterhouse where they work in the audit department. They are beginners and some days are a real struggle to get things across to them. But I welcome the challenge and have to say it's the most rewarding feeling to watch them learn and grow with a new language! I have another class Mon & Wed nights from 7:15-9:30 with 3 students, all guys (Felipe, Raul & Carlos). They are level 4 and a lot of fun! Felipe & Raul are thru a government program here called 'sense' where the gov't pays for their lessons. Carlos is a university student studying IT. They are very creative and do such a great job with role plays and make me laugh all the time!! And my other class is the one I've had from the beginning, the husband and wife couple (Marcela & Gabriel). I recently learned that they are both doctors (psychology & gynecology). They are still a blast and I have such a great time with them!!
This job has actually put a new career idea in my head!! This happens when I travel abroad...when I moved to Spain it made me realize I wanted a masters degree. Now I'm debating on getting my doctorate!! lol I've really been trying to weigh my options. When I return home I will only have 7 classes to take to graduate...that's just about a year left. At that point I can either find a job with a company and move out of Ohio while trying to start my design firm; I can start looking for grant money for small businesses when I return and try and build a client base by the time I graduate; or I can pursue a doctorate and work on getting a position teaching
in a university while working on my design business!! Oh the decisions I will have to make!So that is basically it for this update! I have no complaints and am loving life as usual. The weather is getting colder but we've been lucky because there hasn't been a whole lot of rain yet...although I hear it's coming soon. The aftershocks have been plentiful over the last couple of weeks but they've been small, so no worries. Ximena & my host family is still spoiling me as usual!! Being an English teacher has opened a lot doors to some new friends through Ximena and I'm actually helping one of her clients, Juan Pablo, practice his English. We got to hang out and meet a bunch of his friends on Saturday night and then we all went salsa dancing together at a club called Bonita...I forgot how much fun that was!! Sindy (my classmate) and I still try and get together once a week for a dinner or lunch but it's hard sometimes with our schedules.
I'm dropping in a few albums in this blog. The one above is of a bbq at Salvadors house and then some pics of the pizza I made for Sindy & her roomie a couple weeks ago. The next album is some old photos from my trip to Pucon and Parque Rio with Ximena. These were the photos from her camera. And lastly is an album of pics from just this past Friday. It was a beautiful sunny day out and I called Ryan to do some museum hopping with me. The museum of Natural History is super close to my house, complete with an outdoor dinosaur park. So we did it 'American tourist' style and took some silly photos there and then headed to the university & a small art museum!
Monday, May 10, 2010
Time is moving fast!
It's been a couple weeks now which means I'm down to just 3 1/2 months left...time really is flying but it feels like I've lived here so much longer than that!
Updating from the last blog:
I officially have my Chilean id...yay for being legal!! Now I don't have to worry about carrying around a copy of my passport all the time. Also on an odd note, I have to use my id whenever I use my credit card. Here, not only do they require your signature but they also require you to write your RUN number on the receipt. Think of it like a drivers license number!
Things with Berlitz are finally moving along and I have officially begun working. I finished up 3 double training shifts last Tuesday, then got called in to cover another teacher and give my first class on Wednesday evening. A lot of you know that I really don't like standing up in front of people and presenting. I mean I've trained many a staffs in restaurants and spoken at wine tastings but it's just not the same as presenting in a classroom. I'm that person that runs out of breath and says "ummm" a lot. I have to say that the thought of me teaching was a little hard to grasp but since I've been down here it seems I just keep challenging one fear after another, so why not add this one to the list?! During training I had to teach my boss a few times and the other new teacher that was hired along with me. I was nervous at first but my boss is pretty awesome so after the first time I was really comfortable. My first class was only 2 students, a husband and wife couple named Marcela & Gabriel. Things started a little slow but within 10 mins I had them giggling and having fun with the material. The class was 2 hr and 15 mins and it really flew by. They were so much fun and eager to learn. I let them get creative with their dialogue and just have fun with it and they loved it. After the class Marcela told me that she really liked my class. I went downstairs to return the lesson book and fill in the ped card (it's the attendance/comment card we fill out after each session) and my boss came in just smiling with a weird look on her face. She asked how my class was and I replied that I thought it went well but with that look on her face, I wasn't so sure. She started laughing and asked how I felt about taking the same class again next Tuesday and of course I said I'd love to. I asked why the funny look and she informed that Marcela approached her and said that she really enjoyed my class a lot. She also requested that I be their teacher because they like me better than the other one! Haha, I couldn't help but laugh from excitement. Of course I don't want to step on anyones toes but my boss said she was proud and not to worry about it. She said way to go for stealing a class from someone on my first day! Now that was a great ending to a long day!!!
So tomorrow I will be teaching Marcela & Gabriel again. I also got a call and should be teaching a private student right after them as well as a couple more days this week! On top of that, we have a client that is a business sending their employees to us for a morning class. They are a level 1 (aka know no english) and I will have 1 of their groups Mon-Fri at 8am for a little over an hour each day. I was so worried I'd never have enough hours to make this job worth while and now I'm finding myself to be the dependable one they call when they're in a jam. I love it!! Before I leave I'm going to talk to my boss and see how difficult it would be for me to try and pick up some classes to teach back home. I think it'd be a great way to make some extra money and it's something I like doing. I never thought I'd say that I enjoy being a teacher!!
My coworkers are great. Last Saturday the owner, Cristian, threw a BBQ at his house for the new teachers, there are 5 of us in total. It was a holiday here, Labor Day. We had tons of food, karaoke and dancing. It was so much fun to be around such great people!!
Classes at the university seem to be going well. I had my first exam in operations management week before last. I was only 4 questions but all essay writing. Wow am I glad I asked to write it in english. I took me every bit of the 2 hour time limit just to write in English, I would have never finished it in time if I had to translate to Spanish!! As for how I did on it, well that's still unknown. I felt pretty good about most of it. I really studied and felt prepared with the material it covered. But we had class last week and no tests were given back. I'm going to ask a friend of mine about it tomorrow...maybe they do things different here and don't hand back exams...who knows!! My other 2 classes are moving right along. I actually need to do some homework tonight for my spanish class.
As promised, this blog is much shorter than previous ones. This is the last part, I promise ;) Yesterday was Mother's Day and I went on a field trip with my host family (they now claim me as their adopted daughter lol). We started up north and stopped in a coastal town called Tome which by some miracle was missed by the tsunami that followed the quake. We had some lunch overlooking the pacific ocean. I had mariscal caliente, it's a seafood soup with a white wine and stock broth with a bunch of different seafood in it topped with an egg. It was super yum!! Here are some pics of Tome!! (click the pic)
The point of this trip was to travel further north to a town called Dichato. This town unfortunately was not missed by the tsunami but rather destroyed by it. The people
were warned to run for the hills right after the quake. But after a half hour the gov't said no worries, nothing happened and you can come back down now. Then the city got rocked by 4 huge waves! The place was demolished. Businesses, homes, people, cars, plant life...everything just gone. The pictures don't do justice to the devastation that you feel by seeing it in person. You can't help but to cry for them. The pics don't have captions on them but you can see where roads just washed away, bridges fell, boats washed up on land, and homes fell apart. I know this isn't the happiest way to leave a blog but the one thing we went to do was honor those who were lost and those who lost so much. In some the final pics you will see a statue of the virgin Mary. It is surrounded by nothing but dirt and slabs of what used to be homes, but yet the statue itself looks untouched. This has become a sign of hope and prayer to the city. Click on my photo to look at the pictures. Remember this is what it looks like after 2 months of clean-up. Click this link to see what it was like before cleaning began: http://media.ft.com/cms/e4cd2ebe-287a-11df-a0b1-00144feabdc0.jpg
And here are a couple links to show you what it was like when it was a live and thriving city: http://image02.webshots.com/2/4/42/34/111944234GQCiEn_fs.jpg
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/33452214.jpg
Love and miss you all!!!
Updating from the last blog:
I officially have my Chilean id...yay for being legal!! Now I don't have to worry about carrying around a copy of my passport all the time. Also on an odd note, I have to use my id whenever I use my credit card. Here, not only do they require your signature but they also require you to write your RUN number on the receipt. Think of it like a drivers license number!
Things with Berlitz are finally moving along and I have officially begun working. I finished up 3 double training shifts last Tuesday, then got called in to cover another teacher and give my first class on Wednesday evening. A lot of you know that I really don't like standing up in front of people and presenting. I mean I've trained many a staffs in restaurants and spoken at wine tastings but it's just not the same as presenting in a classroom. I'm that person that runs out of breath and says "ummm" a lot. I have to say that the thought of me teaching was a little hard to grasp but since I've been down here it seems I just keep challenging one fear after another, so why not add this one to the list?! During training I had to teach my boss a few times and the other new teacher that was hired along with me. I was nervous at first but my boss is pretty awesome so after the first time I was really comfortable. My first class was only 2 students, a husband and wife couple named Marcela & Gabriel. Things started a little slow but within 10 mins I had them giggling and having fun with the material. The class was 2 hr and 15 mins and it really flew by. They were so much fun and eager to learn. I let them get creative with their dialogue and just have fun with it and they loved it. After the class Marcela told me that she really liked my class. I went downstairs to return the lesson book and fill in the ped card (it's the attendance/comment card we fill out after each session) and my boss came in just smiling with a weird look on her face. She asked how my class was and I replied that I thought it went well but with that look on her face, I wasn't so sure. She started laughing and asked how I felt about taking the same class again next Tuesday and of course I said I'd love to. I asked why the funny look and she informed that Marcela approached her and said that she really enjoyed my class a lot. She also requested that I be their teacher because they like me better than the other one! Haha, I couldn't help but laugh from excitement. Of course I don't want to step on anyones toes but my boss said she was proud and not to worry about it. She said way to go for stealing a class from someone on my first day! Now that was a great ending to a long day!!!
So tomorrow I will be teaching Marcela & Gabriel again. I also got a call and should be teaching a private student right after them as well as a couple more days this week! On top of that, we have a client that is a business sending their employees to us for a morning class. They are a level 1 (aka know no english) and I will have 1 of their groups Mon-Fri at 8am for a little over an hour each day. I was so worried I'd never have enough hours to make this job worth while and now I'm finding myself to be the dependable one they call when they're in a jam. I love it!! Before I leave I'm going to talk to my boss and see how difficult it would be for me to try and pick up some classes to teach back home. I think it'd be a great way to make some extra money and it's something I like doing. I never thought I'd say that I enjoy being a teacher!!
My coworkers are great. Last Saturday the owner, Cristian, threw a BBQ at his house for the new teachers, there are 5 of us in total. It was a holiday here, Labor Day. We had tons of food, karaoke and dancing. It was so much fun to be around such great people!!
Classes at the university seem to be going well. I had my first exam in operations management week before last. I was only 4 questions but all essay writing. Wow am I glad I asked to write it in english. I took me every bit of the 2 hour time limit just to write in English, I would have never finished it in time if I had to translate to Spanish!! As for how I did on it, well that's still unknown. I felt pretty good about most of it. I really studied and felt prepared with the material it covered. But we had class last week and no tests were given back. I'm going to ask a friend of mine about it tomorrow...maybe they do things different here and don't hand back exams...who knows!! My other 2 classes are moving right along. I actually need to do some homework tonight for my spanish class.
As promised, this blog is much shorter than previous ones. This is the last part, I promise ;) Yesterday was Mother's Day and I went on a field trip with my host family (they now claim me as their adopted daughter lol). We started up north and stopped in a coastal town called Tome which by some miracle was missed by the tsunami that followed the quake. We had some lunch overlooking the pacific ocean. I had mariscal caliente, it's a seafood soup with a white wine and stock broth with a bunch of different seafood in it topped with an egg. It was super yum!! Here are some pics of Tome!! (click the pic)
The point of this trip was to travel further north to a town called Dichato. This town unfortunately was not missed by the tsunami but rather destroyed by it. The people
were warned to run for the hills right after the quake. But after a half hour the gov't said no worries, nothing happened and you can come back down now. Then the city got rocked by 4 huge waves! The place was demolished. Businesses, homes, people, cars, plant life...everything just gone. The pictures don't do justice to the devastation that you feel by seeing it in person. You can't help but to cry for them. The pics don't have captions on them but you can see where roads just washed away, bridges fell, boats washed up on land, and homes fell apart. I know this isn't the happiest way to leave a blog but the one thing we went to do was honor those who were lost and those who lost so much. In some the final pics you will see a statue of the virgin Mary. It is surrounded by nothing but dirt and slabs of what used to be homes, but yet the statue itself looks untouched. This has become a sign of hope and prayer to the city. Click on my photo to look at the pictures. Remember this is what it looks like after 2 months of clean-up. Click this link to see what it was like before cleaning began: http://media.ft.com/cms/e4And here are a couple links to show you what it was like when it was a live and thriving city: http://image02.webshots.co
http://static.panoramio.co
Love and miss you all!!!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
1 month, come and gone
Can you believe it?! Tomorrow will mark 1 month exactly since I've been gone. Oh how the time flies!!
Life in Chile is good and not so much different than being in the states. I still love living with Ximena and her family. It's funny, both times when traveling abroad I've always said, "ehh, I really don't want to live with a family. I mean I'm well into my 20's (now fast approaching 30), and it would just be weird to have parents around. I don't want to offend anyone or for things to be weird...I'd rather live in an apartment with other people my age". Let me tell you, that school of thought has totally reversed! I couldn't imagine living with nicer people. They cook me food, try and make conversation, joke with me, make sure I'm safe, wish me safe travels when I leave the house...heck, her mom even brings me fresh baked bread in bed sometimes!! They are genuinely good people and I couldn't imagine living anywhere else during this stay. And of course like living with anyone, parents or whatnot, we have our 'chores' so to speak. We all take turn doing dishes after meals. If I'm running out to head to class, her mom tells me not to worry about mine and takes care of it for me. Once a week we clean the house...her mom cleans the downstairs and Ximena and I take care of our upstairs area. I help her mom iron because out of all the household chores, that's the one she hates the most! The whole situation just works! Oh and I've finally gotten this whole Chilean diet thing down! Their main staples are tomatoes, chicken, avacado, ham and bread. Ximena and I decided to go on a diet together to motivate each other. We started last week and made her mom understand that we don't want a bunch of sweets, I don't want bread all the time and cook with very little oil! I've lost a little over a kilo so far!!
On a funny side note for those who did not hear about this, I did lock myself out of the house once already! Our house is completely gated/fenced and when someone rings the doorbell, they're at the gate. We have a little phone by the door with a camera to see who's there. Her mom always tells me when she leaves to not open the door for anyone and I'm happy to oblige! Well just a little over a week ago I was waiting for my new debit card to come from the states. I was home alone and the doorbell rang. I went to the camera to see if it was the mailman. Now I have no idea if they wear uniforms or whatnot and I saw the man had a bag on his shoulder. I still was scared to open the door so I waited until he walked a couple houses down and then went out to peek outside the gate, leaving the house door open behind me. Next thing I know, the wind catches the door and slams it shut! My keys and cell phone were both inside the house and no one ever informed me of a spare key. Walked all around the house, hoping by some miracle something would be open, but I knew better. This place is locked down like Ft. Knox when her mom leaves, complete with bars over
the downstairs sliding doors and windows. Then I remembered that the window above the stairs was open and plenty big enough for me to crawl through. So I drug the trash can over next to the garage and climbed up the wall in this photo...
Then I carefully slide along the outside edge of the top of the garage because the roof of the garage is tin. The
n I made my way over to the window on the far right in this picture...then lowered myself inside on to the landing between the stairs. I was so happy and proud of myself at this point and there was no way I was going to say a word to anybody! Just like a little kid, I thought I had gotten away with something...until the next morning. I wasn't paying attention that I had left dirty footprints on the wall under the window as I was sliding in. That morning her mom had noticed them, asking if they were from me. I couldn't help but laugh and told her what happened. She started laughing and then showed me where the hidden spare key is outside the house...just in case it happens again hahaha!!
Life is good and I would say that I'm pretty much accustomed to the daily life and getting where I need to go. I love taking walks and learning the city...I always have my city map with me just in case. Unfortunately I don't walk as much as I would like these days because I seemed to have developed a case of tendonitis on the outer side of my right foot. I bought some anti-inflammatory cream and I try to ice it after I walk for long periods of time but I pretty much had to cut out the walking to campus thing. How can it get better?...they say to cut out any activity that irritates it, like walking on uneven surfaces!! Do you know how hard that is to do when you live in a city that was rocked by a quake?! So I've come to rely on public transportation quite a bit these days. It's actually really efficient and inexpensive. I take either the bus or colectivo (shared taxi), just depends on which one comes by first. What I really love is that you can hail either one no matter where you are...no bus stop needed. It's basically like NYC, you just hold your arm out, index finger extended and they stop! I like the buses but boy are they crazy drivers. When you get on, make sure you grab the pole by the driver immediately because they don't take your money until they're already on the move again. Bus is only $350 pesos during the week and $370 on Sundays (that's less than $1 US). The colectivo is just a regular sedan style car and you better be ready to scoot over because they always put 3 people in the back and 1 in the passenger seat. They're usually quicker at getting thru the city and only cost $100 pesos more than the bus. And I don't know why I mentioned that just the bus drivers are crazy, pretty much all the drivers here are nuts. Careful walking across the street because people drive fast, don't stay in the lanes and are always zipping around and cutting each other off!
The aftershocks are still happening and the frequency of them varies. My 3rd week we had a lot of them but nothing over the top, crazy strong. There was one earlier this week at about 6am, a pretty strong one, 6.1 I think. Guess who slept through that one?! lol Getting used to them? Maybe. Sleeps like a rock? Most likely.
Social life is going well. The people in my classes tend to be pretty nice and we've since gained 2 more girls in our classes. Sindy and I hang out quite a bit since we're both foreigners and
exchange students. I even cooked us dinner at her place last weekend. I've missed doing that so 
much!! (click on the picture)! Then the next day we took a bus with her friend David to Laguna Grande (Big Lake) in San Pedro. We spent the afternoon walking around and taking pics and relaxing...it was a perfect day! Click the pic! Nicolas and Daniel have been pretty busy lately, but Nicolas and I are trying to get together sometime soon. He's going to introduce me to some of his friends! I'm still pretty timid when it comes to speaking spanish here. They speak so fast and fluid and I know I sound awkward so I tend to stay pretty quiet. Understanding isn't the issue, it's having my brain translate the words I want to speak quick enough. But I have faith, I'll get better ;)
I have my first exam in operations management coming up this Thursday. It's a written exam and I've already asked the professor if it's ok for me to write some of my answers in english. I'd hate to know the right response and then put the wrong word and get it wrong. He is really nice and said that it was fine. My other class, management models, is ok. The subject matter is pretty easy but the professor is a bit odd. Nice but odd. It's a lot of reading and our grades are based on 2 in class presentations, 1 exam and 1 group project. My first presentation is at the end of June and has to be about 30 mins!! Not only do I hate speaking in front of people, but my longest presentation has only been about 13 mins. I'll survive but I'm not happy about it ;) I did ask the professor if I was allowed to do mine in english because again, when speaking about business, the last thing I want to do is look like a fool in front of 15 people when trying to talk about something I could easily convey in english...which most of them understand anyways! This professor didn't seem too happy about it, but he agreed. Who knows, 2 months from now I may be ready to present in spanish...I hope!! Speaking of spanish, that is my other class I have as well. I have it on Wednesday mornings and this week will be my 3rd class. The first class consisted of 3 people, myself, another girl from the US (PA), and another girl from Australia. The class actually exists because of me...it's called Spanish for Foreigners in Industrial Engineering (that's the masters program here that I'm taking my classes in). The 2nd class had 3 more people, a girl from France, a woman from Japan and a guy from Germany. I am literally the only real 'student' there in that program! The women, all except the girl from France, are there because they married Chileans and want to learn Spanish. The girl from France and the guy from Germany are exchange students but not in the engineering program. I feel special ;) But the professor is super nice and I'm excited to learn from him!!
I know I sent you all an email about getting hired at the Berlitz School, teaching english. They were supposed to call me last Thursday or Friday to give me log-in info for the website to start my online training but I haven't heard from them yet. I'm not worried, I know I'm hired. Everything here runs much slower than in the states. It's the latin way!
In reference to the latin way, I've been dealing with the Chilean government here for the past couple of weeks. I had to register my visa & passport with the police within the first 30 days of being here. Then they give you this paper and you take that to another government office to apply for your Chilean id card. The police were really nice, the id people, not so much. But I filled out my application and was set to pick it up last Wednesday. Except on Tuesday I got a call from them saying my application had been denied because the copy of my passport wasn't clear for them to read my sex and that the visa expiration date the police had put in the system was wrong. So I had to go back to the police and then back to the id place on Wednesday and redo everything. As long as all is well, I'll have my id on the 3rd!
So I know this has been a super long blog and thanks for reading it all!! The ones from here on out shouldn't be too bad once school gets in full swing! I'll leave you with one last album of photos. These were taken yesterday at Parque Pedro del Rio. It's one of Ximenas' favorite spots that she wanted to share with me. It's where the river meets the sea and wait until you see the photos...breathtaking!!
Life in Chile is good and not so much different than being in the states. I still love living with Ximena and her family. It's funny, both times when traveling abroad I've always said, "ehh, I really don't want to live with a family. I mean I'm well into my 20's (now fast approaching 30), and it would just be weird to have parents around. I don't want to offend anyone or for things to be weird...I'd rather live in an apartment with other people my age". Let me tell you, that school of thought has totally reversed! I couldn't imagine living with nicer people. They cook me food, try and make conversation, joke with me, make sure I'm safe, wish me safe travels when I leave the house...heck, her mom even brings me fresh baked bread in bed sometimes!! They are genuinely good people and I couldn't imagine living anywhere else during this stay. And of course like living with anyone, parents or whatnot, we have our 'chores' so to speak. We all take turn doing dishes after meals. If I'm running out to head to class, her mom tells me not to worry about mine and takes care of it for me. Once a week we clean the house...her mom cleans the downstairs and Ximena and I take care of our upstairs area. I help her mom iron because out of all the household chores, that's the one she hates the most! The whole situation just works! Oh and I've finally gotten this whole Chilean diet thing down! Their main staples are tomatoes, chicken, avacado, ham and bread. Ximena and I decided to go on a diet together to motivate each other. We started last week and made her mom understand that we don't want a bunch of sweets, I don't want bread all the time and cook with very little oil! I've lost a little over a kilo so far!!
On a funny side note for those who did not hear about this, I did lock myself out of the house once already! Our house is completely gated/fenced and when someone rings the doorbell, they're at the gate. We have a little phone by the door with a camera to see who's there. Her mom always tells me when she leaves to not open the door for anyone and I'm happy to oblige! Well just a little over a week ago I was waiting for my new debit card to come from the states. I was home alone and the doorbell rang. I went to the camera to see if it was the mailman. Now I have no idea if they wear uniforms or whatnot and I saw the man had a bag on his shoulder. I still was scared to open the door so I waited until he walked a couple houses down and then went out to peek outside the gate, leaving the house door open behind me. Next thing I know, the wind catches the door and slams it shut! My keys and cell phone were both inside the house and no one ever informed me of a spare key. Walked all around the house, hoping by some miracle something would be open, but I knew better. This place is locked down like Ft. Knox when her mom leaves, complete with bars over
the downstairs sliding doors and windows. Then I remembered that the window above the stairs was open and plenty big enough for me to crawl through. So I drug the trash can over next to the garage and climbed up the wall in this photo...Then I carefully slide along the outside edge of the top of the garage because the roof of the garage is tin. The
n I made my way over to the window on the far right in this picture...then lowered myself inside on to the landing between the stairs. I was so happy and proud of myself at this point and there was no way I was going to say a word to anybody! Just like a little kid, I thought I had gotten away with something...until the next morning. I wasn't paying attention that I had left dirty footprints on the wall under the window as I was sliding in. That morning her mom had noticed them, asking if they were from me. I couldn't help but laugh and told her what happened. She started laughing and then showed me where the hidden spare key is outside the house...just in case it happens again hahaha!!Life is good and I would say that I'm pretty much accustomed to the daily life and getting where I need to go. I love taking walks and learning the city...I always have my city map with me just in case. Unfortunately I don't walk as much as I would like these days because I seemed to have developed a case of tendonitis on the outer side of my right foot. I bought some anti-inflammatory cream and I try to ice it after I walk for long periods of time but I pretty much had to cut out the walking to campus thing. How can it get better?...they say to cut out any activity that irritates it, like walking on uneven surfaces!! Do you know how hard that is to do when you live in a city that was rocked by a quake?! So I've come to rely on public transportation quite a bit these days. It's actually really efficient and inexpensive. I take either the bus or colectivo (shared taxi), just depends on which one comes by first. What I really love is that you can hail either one no matter where you are...no bus stop needed. It's basically like NYC, you just hold your arm out, index finger extended and they stop! I like the buses but boy are they crazy drivers. When you get on, make sure you grab the pole by the driver immediately because they don't take your money until they're already on the move again. Bus is only $350 pesos during the week and $370 on Sundays (that's less than $1 US). The colectivo is just a regular sedan style car and you better be ready to scoot over because they always put 3 people in the back and 1 in the passenger seat. They're usually quicker at getting thru the city and only cost $100 pesos more than the bus. And I don't know why I mentioned that just the bus drivers are crazy, pretty much all the drivers here are nuts. Careful walking across the street because people drive fast, don't stay in the lanes and are always zipping around and cutting each other off!
The aftershocks are still happening and the frequency of them varies. My 3rd week we had a lot of them but nothing over the top, crazy strong. There was one earlier this week at about 6am, a pretty strong one, 6.1 I think. Guess who slept through that one?! lol Getting used to them? Maybe. Sleeps like a rock? Most likely.
Social life is going well. The people in my classes tend to be pretty nice and we've since gained 2 more girls in our classes. Sindy and I hang out quite a bit since we're both foreigners and
exchange students. I even cooked us dinner at her place last weekend. I've missed doing that so much!! (click on the picture)! Then the next day we took a bus with her friend David to Laguna Grande (Big Lake) in San Pedro. We spent the afternoon walking around and taking pics and relaxing...it was a perfect day! Click the pic! Nicolas and Daniel have been pretty busy lately, but Nicolas and I are trying to get together sometime soon. He's going to introduce me to some of his friends! I'm still pretty timid when it comes to speaking spanish here. They speak so fast and fluid and I know I sound awkward so I tend to stay pretty quiet. Understanding isn't the issue, it's having my brain translate the words I want to speak quick enough. But I have faith, I'll get better ;)I have my first exam in operations management coming up this Thursday. It's a written exam and I've already asked the professor if it's ok for me to write some of my answers in english. I'd hate to know the right response and then put the wrong word and get it wrong. He is really nice and said that it was fine. My other class, management models, is ok. The subject matter is pretty easy but the professor is a bit odd. Nice but odd. It's a lot of reading and our grades are based on 2 in class presentations, 1 exam and 1 group project. My first presentation is at the end of June and has to be about 30 mins!! Not only do I hate speaking in front of people, but my longest presentation has only been about 13 mins. I'll survive but I'm not happy about it ;) I did ask the professor if I was allowed to do mine in english because again, when speaking about business, the last thing I want to do is look like a fool in front of 15 people when trying to talk about something I could easily convey in english...which most of them understand anyways! This professor didn't seem too happy about it, but he agreed. Who knows, 2 months from now I may be ready to present in spanish...I hope!! Speaking of spanish, that is my other class I have as well. I have it on Wednesday mornings and this week will be my 3rd class. The first class consisted of 3 people, myself, another girl from the US (PA), and another girl from Australia. The class actually exists because of me...it's called Spanish for Foreigners in Industrial Engineering (that's the masters program here that I'm taking my classes in). The 2nd class had 3 more people, a girl from France, a woman from Japan and a guy from Germany. I am literally the only real 'student' there in that program! The women, all except the girl from France, are there because they married Chileans and want to learn Spanish. The girl from France and the guy from Germany are exchange students but not in the engineering program. I feel special ;) But the professor is super nice and I'm excited to learn from him!!
I know I sent you all an email about getting hired at the Berlitz School, teaching english. They were supposed to call me last Thursday or Friday to give me log-in info for the website to start my online training but I haven't heard from them yet. I'm not worried, I know I'm hired. Everything here runs much slower than in the states. It's the latin way!
In reference to the latin way, I've been dealing with the Chilean government here for the past couple of weeks. I had to register my visa & passport with the police within the first 30 days of being here. Then they give you this paper and you take that to another government office to apply for your Chilean id card. The police were really nice, the id people, not so much. But I filled out my application and was set to pick it up last Wednesday. Except on Tuesday I got a call from them saying my application had been denied because the copy of my passport wasn't clear for them to read my sex and that the visa expiration date the police had put in the system was wrong. So I had to go back to the police and then back to the id place on Wednesday and redo everything. As long as all is well, I'll have my id on the 3rd!
So I know this has been a super long blog and thanks for reading it all!! The ones from here on out shouldn't be too bad once school gets in full swing! I'll leave you with one last album of photos. These were taken yesterday at Parque Pedro del Rio. It's one of Ximenas' favorite spots that she wanted to share with me. It's where the river meets the sea and wait until you see the photos...breathtaking!!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Settling into a schedule
My tourist week is over and I'm finally beginning to get into the swing of things here in my new life. The Thursday after Pucón was my first class. I have Operations Management and it's my only evening class this semester. I only know one other person in my class, Sindy, who is from Guatemala and is here for 2 years to complete the industrial engineering program. She's been really helpful in showing me where our classrooms were, introducing me to other classmates, etc. She even went with me last week to the city center to register my visa with the police and then to go apply for my Chilean id card (I have to go pick that up on the 21st!).
So new classes, new professors, new country and everything taught to you in Spanish...a little daunting at first and I have to say I was a little afraid of the unknown. Not to mention when we walked into class, Sindy and I are the only 2 females in the program! She warned me of this from her other classes where she is the sole female. The class is 3 hours long, as most master courses are, and once it got going, I was fine. We had copies of the slides and of the first couple chapters of the textbook. I was surprised at how easy it was to understand most of the business spanish terms and lecture. Now don't get me wrong, I still have to look up a lot of words, but I bought myself a little notebook that I keep in my purse to write all the new words I've learned so I can study them. The text doesn't seem to be hard to follow and the subject matter is relatively easy to learn and as with most coursework, crosses over into other classes and subjects I've taken thus far. As of this week I've had my 2nd class and still seem to be following along ok. I might just do alright afterall!!
My 2nd class is Managaement Models and this lovely class takes place on Saturday mornings starting at 11am...talk about putting a damper on your weekend! But as with the last class (and all the same classmates) it was easy to follow, the professor was nice and just seems like it's going to be a lot of reading and we have to do a couple of class presentations, those I will have to practice, for sure! After class last Saturday, Ximena and her parents invited me to a BBQ with them at the house...and as you know, I never turn down food!! It was awesome. Her parents cooked for us, although I offered up my help, they politely declined. We popped open a couple bottles of wine and sat on the back patio enjoying th
e sun and all the amazing food they cooked (which was enough to feed about 10 people, no joke!). We had sausage, chicken, pork, beef, a salad of tomatoes & cilantro, boiled potatoes, bread and a bottle of Cab & a bottle of Merlot. After dinner her mom did a little cleaning in the kitchen and took a nap. Ximena, her father and I continued sitting outside chatting it up about life. He was full of questions about my family, why I chose Chile, how I was taking care of school, and once he found out, making sure to let me know how blessed I am to have opportunities such as these. It was a really great night!
Sunday I got to participate in my first volunteer project with a group called Techo para Chile (a roof for Chile). I met up with Daniel & Sindy that morning and we took a bus over to Coronel. It's a small city about 20 mins outside on Concepción on the water. They are a very poor town and most of their homes resemble that of shacks even before the quake. Now a lot of those homes are destroye
d leaving many residents living in tents with winter fast approaching. So Techo began this project on Friday and we helped finish it on Sunday. We helped build a simple wooden home, 1 of 15 that were completed, to provide better protection from the wind and rain. It was a whole new experience for me...a lot of hard work and sweat but in the end and seeing the looks of gratitude on their faces was worth it! We had a great group of people working on our home and we just had fun with it. Our poor house had so many problems, from uneven walls, split boards, nails not in the right places...but we just kept laughing and fixing it as we went a long. It was every bit a 9 hour day of work. They fed us some rice and eggs while we were there and we kept working until the dark no longer allowed it. I was covered in dirt and exhausted but soooo happy I had the opportunity to help. I'm really hoping to do it again soon!
I have a little more to tell but I'm going to let that roll over into my next blog! Time to do some homework and studying. Then I think I'm going to cook some dinner for me and Sindy tonight!!...how I've missed cooking for my friends!
So new classes, new professors, new country and everything taught to you in Spanish...a little daunting at first and I have to say I was a little afraid of the unknown. Not to mention when we walked into class, Sindy and I are the only 2 females in the program! She warned me of this from her other classes where she is the sole female. The class is 3 hours long, as most master courses are, and once it got going, I was fine. We had copies of the slides and of the first couple chapters of the textbook. I was surprised at how easy it was to understand most of the business spanish terms and lecture. Now don't get me wrong, I still have to look up a lot of words, but I bought myself a little notebook that I keep in my purse to write all the new words I've learned so I can study them. The text doesn't seem to be hard to follow and the subject matter is relatively easy to learn and as with most coursework, crosses over into other classes and subjects I've taken thus far. As of this week I've had my 2nd class and still seem to be following along ok. I might just do alright afterall!!
My 2nd class is Managaement Models and this lovely class takes place on Saturday mornings starting at 11am...talk about putting a damper on your weekend! But as with the last class (and all the same classmates) it was easy to follow, the professor was nice and just seems like it's going to be a lot of reading and we have to do a couple of class presentations, those I will have to practice, for sure! After class last Saturday, Ximena and her parents invited me to a BBQ with them at the house...and as you know, I never turn down food!! It was awesome. Her parents cooked for us, although I offered up my help, they politely declined. We popped open a couple bottles of wine and sat on the back patio enjoying th
e sun and all the amazing food they cooked (which was enough to feed about 10 people, no joke!). We had sausage, chicken, pork, beef, a salad of tomatoes & cilantro, boiled potatoes, bread and a bottle of Cab & a bottle of Merlot. After dinner her mom did a little cleaning in the kitchen and took a nap. Ximena, her father and I continued sitting outside chatting it up about life. He was full of questions about my family, why I chose Chile, how I was taking care of school, and once he found out, making sure to let me know how blessed I am to have opportunities such as these. It was a really great night!Sunday I got to participate in my first volunteer project with a group called Techo para Chile (a roof for Chile). I met up with Daniel & Sindy that morning and we took a bus over to Coronel. It's a small city about 20 mins outside on Concepción on the water. They are a very poor town and most of their homes resemble that of shacks even before the quake. Now a lot of those homes are destroye
d leaving many residents living in tents with winter fast approaching. So Techo began this project on Friday and we helped finish it on Sunday. We helped build a simple wooden home, 1 of 15 that were completed, to provide better protection from the wind and rain. It was a whole new experience for me...a lot of hard work and sweat but in the end and seeing the looks of gratitude on their faces was worth it! We had a great group of people working on our home and we just had fun with it. Our poor house had so many problems, from uneven walls, split boards, nails not in the right places...but we just kept laughing and fixing it as we went a long. It was every bit a 9 hour day of work. They fed us some rice and eggs while we were there and we kept working until the dark no longer allowed it. I was covered in dirt and exhausted but soooo happy I had the opportunity to help. I'm really hoping to do it again soon!I have a little more to tell but I'm going to let that roll over into my next blog! Time to do some homework and studying. Then I think I'm going to cook some dinner for me and Sindy tonight!!...how I've missed cooking for my friends!
Monday, April 12, 2010
Temuco & Pucon
April fools day this year was anything but a joke! Ximena and I decided to take a little weekend adventure and head to one of her favorite cities, Pucon. The only thing I knew about the city before leaving was that it was close to water and it had an active volcano...I was sold!! Our house is only a couple of blocks from the bus station so we figured we'd wing it and just walk over and find some tickets. We discovered that there were no direct routes to Pucon but we could take a bus to Temuco and then find a ticket from there to Pucon, so, we were off!
The tickets are super cheap, probably about $12, and it was THE most comfortable bus I have ever ridden in. It was a double-decker complete with foot rests and almost bed style reclining seats...so of course we both took naps during our 4 hour ride. Once we got to Temuco we began our mission to find a con
nection to Pucon. Of all the different companies there were in this station, not a single one had a ticket. But on a recommendation of one of the people there, we took a colectivo into the city and made our way to Jac Bus...one of the big companies here. They had tickets but not for a little over and hour, so we bought 2 and then Ximena took me to what is considered their famous market. Temuco is not an overly exciting city but the market was pretty cool. There were tons of stands with touristy-novelty items, including lots of cooper items (one of their main exports in Chile), ones with meats, produce and a handful of restaurants with traditional Chilean food. We were hungry so we decided to have lunch. We shared a little 1/2 bottle of white wine and Ximena ordered Curanto (a soup with mussels, clams, pork, sausage, chicken, cilantro, lime juice and potatoes) which was very tasty and I ordered Lomo de lo Pobre, basically steak, eggs, onions and french fries (not adventurous I know but she said it was a traditional dish, and I like tradition!). Here are some scenic pics of the ride and from inside the market!
After lunch we boarded our bus to Pucon and the trip was just around 2-2 1/2 hours. This bus, not quite as comfy as the last. We finally got in town around 8:30 and with my travel guides in hand, we went in search of a hostel. We were so tired from walking and busing all day that we pretty much settled on the 1st halfway decent place we found, The Treehouse. Complete with and an actual treehouse outside, along with hammocks and a cozy wooden interior. Upon entering the room, Ximena found a slug on the floor near her bed and needless-to-say, that was our one and only night in that hostel! haha! That night we went out to this local spot called Mama's & Tapas...exhausted from traveling all day, we didn't stay out late.
The next morning we got up and had breakfast at this oh so cozy restaurant called Cassis on one of the main streets. Raspberry tart, papaya juice, fresh breads, ham, cheese & jams...love Chilean breakfast!! After that we went on the hunt for a new hostel. We found this cute little place called La Tetera (The Teapot) and after seeing the rooms and the price with breakfast included, we were sold! After we moved our stuff we took a walk around the town. It was sunny and warm with a slight breeze and a perfect day for walking. We window shopped through some of the stores on the main drag and through some little stands in the park and then made our way down to the beach. Because of the volcano, the beach we went to was black volcanic sand...it was a surreal experience!! We hung out on the beach for a little while enjoying the sun and played fetch with a random stray dog...there were dogs running around that town everywhere! After the beach we walked over to another lake where there were tons of flowers and boats...I could have sat there for hours. **Mom I threw some pics in for you of a flower stand on the side of the road. The flowers are all carved out of wood. You really can't tell until you pick one up...I didn't believe it and made Ximena walk to the shop with me to prove it! lol
Walking back through town we started making stops at random excursion shops. We really wanted to go to one of the volcanic hot springs and do some ziplining. After pricing different places, we decided on a package that included both...we were to leave the next morning at 11am. Walking made us sleepy so we headed back to the hostel for a quick nap. After that we headed to the casino! My first time in a real casino...it wasn't that big really. We grabbed a drink and headed for the slot machines. After losing $15 I decided to call it quits...gambling was never really my thing, I don't even like the lottery.
Saturday morning we got up early and got ready for our trip to the hot springs!! Ximena and I are so much alike in our packing styles...you would think we were moving there!! lol The drive was only about 20 mins and the tourism place provided the transportation. The first thing we did was ziplining!! They drive us up this crazy twisting road up a steep hill. Here they gave us instructions (in spanish of course), and our first 2 lines were really low to the ground just for practicing. After that
we walked up another steep hill to our first long, super high line. I had previously thought of trying to climb the volcano...a 5 hour hike...but after that hill, I realized I'd never make it! The first line they made us do in pairs...I went with one of the instructors. Now mind you, I'm terrified of heights but I love to challenge my fear. I would zipline again in a heartbeat!! The view, the adrenaline, the air...those guides have a really great job!!
After our lovely adrenaline rush, we changed into our swimsuits and heading to the springs. We were a little disappointed that the water wasn't that hot. It was kinda our own fault for choosing the biggest company in town that cares more about the number of people they book rather than the quality of the place they take you too. But the sun was shining, there were mountains and a volcano in our sites and we were relaxing...no complaints here!! **Don't forget to click on the pic for the photo album!!
Sunday was our last day in Pucon. It was really, really windy, to the point where dirt and dust were blowing into our eyes. It was then that we decided to leave. Our trip home was quite the adventure!! We walked to 4 different bus companies to find a bus to Temuco. Remember it was Easter Sunday, so once in Temuco we couldn't find any tickets back to Concepcion!! So Ximena has an aunt that lives only and hour or so away from where we were. So we took a bus to her city and stayed with them for the night. Just like the rest of her family, they were very welcoming and nice. I got to have my first Chilean style hotdog, complete with aioli, avacado, ketchup and sauerkraut...I hate to say it, but it almost beat Happy Dog!!!
Monday afternoon we finally made it home and spent the rest of the day relaxing from vacation!! lol
The tickets are super cheap, probably about $12, and it was THE most comfortable bus I have ever ridden in. It was a double-decker complete with foot rests and almost bed style reclining seats...so of course we both took naps during our 4 hour ride. Once we got to Temuco we began our mission to find a con
nection to Pucon. Of all the different companies there were in this station, not a single one had a ticket. But on a recommendation of one of the people there, we took a colectivo into the city and made our way to Jac Bus...one of the big companies here. They had tickets but not for a little over and hour, so we bought 2 and then Ximena took me to what is considered their famous market. Temuco is not an overly exciting city but the market was pretty cool. There were tons of stands with touristy-novelty items, including lots of cooper items (one of their main exports in Chile), ones with meats, produce and a handful of restaurants with traditional Chilean food. We were hungry so we decided to have lunch. We shared a little 1/2 bottle of white wine and Ximena ordered Curanto (a soup with mussels, clams, pork, sausage, chicken, cilantro, lime juice and potatoes) which was very tasty and I ordered Lomo de lo Pobre, basically steak, eggs, onions and french fries (not adventurous I know but she said it was a traditional dish, and I like tradition!). Here are some scenic pics of the ride and from inside the market!After lunch we boarded our bus to Pucon and the trip was just around 2-2 1/2 hours. This bus, not quite as comfy as the last. We finally got in town around 8:30 and with my travel guides in hand, we went in search of a hostel. We were so tired from walking and busing all day that we pretty much settled on the 1st halfway decent place we found, The Treehouse. Complete with and an actual treehouse outside, along with hammocks and a cozy wooden interior. Upon entering the room, Ximena found a slug on the floor near her bed and needless-to-say, that was our one and only night in that hostel! haha! That night we went out to this local spot called Mama's & Tapas...exhausted from traveling all day, we didn't stay out late.
The next morning we got up and had breakfast at this oh so cozy restaurant called Cassis on one of the main streets. Raspberry tart, papaya juice, fresh breads, ham, cheese & jams...love Chilean breakfast!! After that we went on the hunt for a new hostel. We found this cute little place called La Tetera (The Teapot) and after seeing the rooms and the price with breakfast included, we were sold! After we moved our stuff we took a walk around the town. It was sunny and warm with a slight breeze and a perfect day for walking. We window shopped through some of the stores on the main drag and through some little stands in the park and then made our way down to the beach. Because of the volcano, the beach we went to was black volcanic sand...it was a surreal experience!! We hung out on the beach for a little while enjoying the sun and played fetch with a random stray dog...there were dogs running around that town everywhere! After the beach we walked over to another lake where there were tons of flowers and boats...I could have sat there for hours. **Mom I threw some pics in for you of a flower stand on the side of the road. The flowers are all carved out of wood. You really can't tell until you pick one up...I didn't believe it and made Ximena walk to the shop with me to prove it! lol
Walking back through town we started making stops at random excursion shops. We really wanted to go to one of the volcanic hot springs and do some ziplining. After pricing different places, we decided on a package that included both...we were to leave the next morning at 11am. Walking made us sleepy so we headed back to the hostel for a quick nap. After that we headed to the casino! My first time in a real casino...it wasn't that big really. We grabbed a drink and headed for the slot machines. After losing $15 I decided to call it quits...gambling was never really my thing, I don't even like the lottery.
Saturday morning we got up early and got ready for our trip to the hot springs!! Ximena and I are so much alike in our packing styles...you would think we were moving there!! lol The drive was only about 20 mins and the tourism place provided the transportation. The first thing we did was ziplining!! They drive us up this crazy twisting road up a steep hill. Here they gave us instructions (in spanish of course), and our first 2 lines were really low to the ground just for practicing. After that
we walked up another steep hill to our first long, super high line. I had previously thought of trying to climb the volcano...a 5 hour hike...but after that hill, I realized I'd never make it! The first line they made us do in pairs...I went with one of the instructors. Now mind you, I'm terrified of heights but I love to challenge my fear. I would zipline again in a heartbeat!! The view, the adrenaline, the air...those guides have a really great job!!After our lovely adrenaline rush, we changed into our swimsuits and heading to the springs. We were a little disappointed that the water wasn't that hot. It was kinda our own fault for choosing the biggest company in town that cares more about the number of people they book rather than the quality of the place they take you too. But the sun was shining, there were mountains and a volcano in our sites and we were relaxing...no complaints here!! **Don't forget to click on the pic for the photo album!!
Sunday was our last day in Pucon. It was really, really windy, to the point where dirt and dust were blowing into our eyes. It was then that we decided to leave. Our trip home was quite the adventure!! We walked to 4 different bus companies to find a bus to Temuco. Remember it was Easter Sunday, so once in Temuco we couldn't find any tickets back to Concepcion!! So Ximena has an aunt that lives only and hour or so away from where we were. So we took a bus to her city and stayed with them for the night. Just like the rest of her family, they were very welcoming and nice. I got to have my first Chilean style hotdog, complete with aioli, avacado, ketchup and sauerkraut...I hate to say it, but it almost beat Happy Dog!!!
Monday afternoon we finally made it home and spent the rest of the day relaxing from vacation!! lol
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The university & my house
Week one is in the books with 19 more to go! I'm working on loading the photos to Kodak slowly but surely. I'll have them up soon, I promise!
So lets start where I left off last time which I believe was last Tuesday. Ximena and I went to the local mall to do some window shopping. Most of the stores were open, along with the theatre and food court, but the bowling alley was still closed and under construction from the quake. And I got to try what they consider the BEST hamburger in Chile from a place called Rich. I have to say, it was pretty tasty!! Although it still doesn't beat a Lolita burger ;)
Tuesday was the first night without a curfew in the city. They had it in place for a month because of people looting during the night and wanted people to be safe. So that night Ximena and I got an invitation to our neighbors house to watch a movie with a couple of friends...we watched "Up" (in english with spanish subtitles), haha. After that we took a drive around the city to look at some of the damage without all the crazy traffic around! There are so many buildings waiting to be demolished, it's insane.
Wednesday I decided to take a walk down to campus...I wanted to see how long it would take me verses paying for a colectivo (shared taxi) every time. The walk wasn't bad, only about 20-25 mins, and although the day started out gloomy, it turned out to be a beautiful and full of sunshine! I met up with Nicolas and Daniel, fellow classmates of mine who gave me a tour of the campus. There are only 2 buildings that had structural damage during the quake. The mai
n one is the chemical engineering building. It caught fire and exploded,not just once, but twice, due to the contents of the building. The building attached to it was damaged as well. The library had no structural damage but is closed off because pretty much every book that used to be on a shelf, is now on the floor! The campus in general is beautiful. The college is famous for the medical arc and for the clock tower(which also happens to be the mascot). There is a superstition at the university too. Under the medical arc the school emblem on created in tile on the ground. As you watch people walk thru, you notice no one evers walks over that emblem. They say that if you do, you will not finish your degree...better safe than sorry I say! Click on the photo. It's a link to pictures of the campus.
In an effort to keep this blog from being ridiculously long I'm going to end it here and will write about my trip to Temuco & Pucon in a day or so. There is one more set of pics to go with this blog. Click the photo to see the rest of the house I'm living in!!
So lets start where I left off last time which I believe was last Tuesday. Ximena and I went to the local mall to do some window shopping. Most of the stores were open, along with the theatre and food court, but the bowling alley was still closed and under construction from the quake. And I got to try what they consider the BEST hamburger in Chile from a place called Rich. I have to say, it was pretty tasty!! Although it still doesn't beat a Lolita burger ;)
Tuesday was the first night without a curfew in the city. They had it in place for a month because of people looting during the night and wanted people to be safe. So that night Ximena and I got an invitation to our neighbors house to watch a movie with a couple of friends...we watched "Up" (in english with spanish subtitles), haha. After that we took a drive around the city to look at some of the damage without all the crazy traffic around! There are so many buildings waiting to be demolished, it's insane.
Wednesday I decided to take a walk down to campus...I wanted to see how long it would take me verses paying for a colectivo (shared taxi) every time. The walk wasn't bad, only about 20-25 mins, and although the day started out gloomy, it turned out to be a beautiful and full of sunshine! I met up with Nicolas and Daniel, fellow classmates of mine who gave me a tour of the campus. There are only 2 buildings that had structural damage during the quake. The mai
n one is the chemical engineering building. It caught fire and exploded,not just once, but twice, due to the contents of the building. The building attached to it was damaged as well. The library had no structural damage but is closed off because pretty much every book that used to be on a shelf, is now on the floor! The campus in general is beautiful. The college is famous for the medical arc and for the clock tower(which also happens to be the mascot). There is a superstition at the university too. Under the medical arc the school emblem on created in tile on the ground. As you watch people walk thru, you notice no one evers walks over that emblem. They say that if you do, you will not finish your degree...better safe than sorry I say! Click on the photo. It's a link to pictures of the campus.In an effort to keep this blog from being ridiculously long I'm going to end it here and will write about my trip to Temuco & Pucon in a day or so. There is one more set of pics to go with this blog. Click the photo to see the rest of the house I'm living in!!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Blog 1 Pics
My next update is in the works and should be up in the next few days! Here is the link to the pics that go with the last blog, just click on the photo!!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
The Trip & Day 1
***My internet connection is in and out constantly so I will send a link to pics as soon as I can!!
Wow, I don't even know where to begin. It's 7:30 Tuesday morning and I have so much to tell you. I guess I'll start from my departure and work my way up from there. I flew from Columbus to Atlanta...nothing too exciting there. My flight from Atlanta departed a little late because, according to the captain, someone decided they didn't want to go and they needed to find their luggage from the cargo area before we could leave. Finally after about 20 minutes we were on our way to Santiago. It was about a 9 hour flight in total and almost 4,000 miles. I ate my wonderful airplane meal of lasagna and a salad, washed down with a glass of cheap red wine, took some melatonin and tried to stretch out and sleep (luckily the seat next to me was empty). I awoke around 6:30am as the sun was rising over South America.
They fed us a small breakfast of fruit and a scary egg-biscuit kinda thing with some juice and before I knew it, we were beginning our final descent into Santiago. The view was amazing because there were mountains everywhere! Once we landed we were bussed to the terminal to go thru customs. I followed the crowd and ended up standing in a line to pay an entry fee that I had already paid with my visa...oops! Then I was in line for about 45 mins waiting to go through customs. From there I had to grab all of my luggage (I packed a lot...sigh...) and have it all x-rayed again and then back to the gate for LAN (the airline I was flying on) to check my bags back in. This took a little while because when I changed my departure dates because of the quake, the Delta rep I re-booked with forgot to delete my old itinerary out of the computer. In the end, all worked out and I was on my way. I had a couple of hours to kill so I sat at a little cafe in the airport and drank a jugo de fresa (strawberry juice). I made my way to the gate and sat waiting to meet my roommate. Now for those of you who don't know, I found Ximena through a classified ad that was forwarded to me by a classmate in Concepcion. Before the quake, she was living in a 2 bedroom apartment 1/2 block from campus and was looking for a graduate student for a roommate. We had been chatting through email for a few weeks and decided that we'd give it a try. But once the quake hit, she gave up her place and decided to move back in with her parents. After talking with her parents, they decided to open up their home to me and offer me their extra bedroom. It would help me save money and help them in a time of crisis, so I accepted. The week before my arrival, Ximena was visiting in Santiago so she stayed till Sunday and booked the same flight as mine to Concepcion. I was a little scared because I haven't spoken spanish in conversation in a couple of years and I also know that Chilean dialect is one of the most difficult to understand because they tend to swallow the end of their words. But after meeting her, I had no problems understanding and we were able to chat a get to know each other a little.
The flight to Concepcion was only about a 40 minute ride. The plane was similar to a bus, in reference to the style of seating, and it was packed, so I was happy it was a short flight. Quick side note about food (sorry but you know food gets me excited!!), they gave us a snackbox on our flight and it had alfajores in it!! I used to eat these all the time because Ricky's mom used to make them. They are little shortbread cookie sandwiches filled caramel and these ones where dipped in chocolate, YUM! At the airport, Ximenas mom was waiting there to pick us up. They live in a house that's about a 5 minute drive from campus. It's very nice and modern for Chilean standards. We took our luggage in, Ximena and I have a little mini-apartment in the upstairs loft with a shared common room, bathroom and we have separate bedrooms.
Her mom made us some lunch, which like in Europe, is the biggest meal of the day. We had roasted chicken, a salad made of tomatoes, green beans, cilantro, olive oil, lime juice, and a little salt (super yum!), and slices of avocado (yay!)...oh and bread! Bread and avocado are 2 things that are served at every sitting. I'm super excited about the avocado, the bread is good but definitely don't want to eat it at every meal! Beverages tend to be either juice, tea, coffee or water. And because I'm not used to the tap water yet, they recommended that I hold off on drinking it until my stomach get used to it...bottled only for me and that's one rule I'm
happy to follow! After lunch we did dishes. I mention this because their hot water system is different than anything I've ever seen. They have this 2 big boxes on the wall in the kitchen (one for the kitchen and the other for the bath. Inside them in the system for heating water, kinda of like a pilot light. You push this little handle on the front of the box to maximum and take a match and light the pilot inside. Then when you turn on the water, a flame starts up, much like you would see on a gas stove top, and viola...hot water! I'll try and take a few pics of it in the near future.
After lunch I did a little unpacking and then Ximena offered to take me for a ride around town so I could familiarize myself a little. We drove over to campus, which I actually think I can actually walk to when it's nice out (I'm going to test that theory this week since I don't have classes yet). Then she showed me around the main center of the city and few places around the outside as well. It was so surreal seeing the damages from the quake in person. The streets are really damaged in a lot of places and not just from the actual quake itself but because of the water lines being broken. There are many, many places in the roads that are dug up so they can go in and repair the damaged pipes. There are whole sections of sidewalks and roads that are just completely blocked off because of damages to buildings that are still standing but could collapse further as the aftershocks continue. We drove over the only functioning bridge between Concepcion and San Pedro and even it was damaged on the end near Concepcion. One of the links had collapsed into the Bio Bio river and they have a metal ramp that goes over the broken section. There are 4 bridges that connect to the city and this is the only one that is functioning.
On our way back into town, Ximena invited me a for a drink. We stopped at a Cerveceria (brewery) called Latitud Sur (Latitude South) accross the street from a park that connects to campus. I had my first Chilean cerveza, which was quite tasty, and we sat and chatted about men for a little while (girly bonding time). After that, we headed back to the house where it was time for 'once' (pronounced ohhn-say, as in the #11 in spanish). It's there version of dinner, which like in Europe, is a very light meal. According to Ximena, only men have an actual meal at this time. It's kinda of a manly-man, head of household thing. This is when I got to meet
Ximenas dad. Very nice guy, just like her mom, just a little more difficult to understand. Both her parents are not quite sure how to act around me because they've never had an exchange student in their home. They keep asking questions to Ximena to ask me and she in-turn tells them to just ask me themselves to help me with my spanish. She tells them to make sure they speak regular spanish though and not Chilean dialect so that I can understand better, haha! So back to the food at 'once'. There was a whole selction of different things for the women. Her mom made she and I some hot dogs, although you do not eat them on buns like we do in the states. There was some mashed avocado with lime juice (of course!), scrambled eggs with cheese, different jams and jellies, rolls and breads, Brazo de Reina (literally means 'The Queens Arm') but is what we call a 'log roll cake' that is filled with caramel (super yum) and typically you drink tea or coffee. Now I'm not a person to drink either, I'm perfectly content with water. Her father shared a glass of Santa Rita cabernet with me which was great. I'm so happy to know my Chilean wines!! Her parents gave me this crazy look when I said I don't drink tea or coffee. I was trying to convey that it's just something I don't like and nothing against them...it's going to be a learning process on all parts! After dinner Ximena and I went to her room and watched some tv, mainly news. FYI, we found out that Ricky Martin has accepted his homosexuality...haha!!! Not surprising but still disappointing for such a cute singer! Around 10pm I called it a night. I was exhausted after 24 hours of traveling!
I did get to experience some after effects of the quake. After 'once' last night, the power went out...only for a couple minutes but you could tell Ximena was worried. Then at about 4:15am, I experienced my first aftershock!! I was already a little restless from sleeping in a new place, so there was no question that it woke me up. It was very short and not super strong but there was no doubt about what it was. It started off slow, like you could feel that little queasy feeling in your stomach, and then everything started vibrating stronger and stronger, and then it just settled back down and within 20 seconds or so, it was over! I was so tired, it didn't
bother me a bit. I was actually glad I got to experience it my first night so I knew what to expect. Ximena rushed into my room checking if I had woken up and asked if I was scared. I assured her that I was fine and I rolled over and went back to sleep! And now, it's Tuesday...a brand new beautiful day!
A lot of things are similar to what we have in the states. Car lots consist of Hyundai, Toyota, BMW, Volkswagon, etc...most of them are manual transmissions. Driving still takes place on the same sides of the roads as the states. People are very friendly and helpful, especially Ximena and her family! They do everything they can to help me feel right at home! The weather is still amazing here, but it's what they consider fall and going into their cold season. After living in Cleveland, it's a heat wave!! I'm in skirts and flip flops again...loving it!! It's been 3 years since my last study trip outside the states and to be completely I was a little afraid of not being able to adjust this time, even though I had no problems last time. I remember thinking as we were landing in Santiago, 'wow, am I really doing this again and am I ready for it?!'. But now that I'm here, I'm falling right back into a routine and I love it! No regrets, at all!
Wow, I don't even know where to begin. It's 7:30 Tuesday morning and I have so much to tell you. I guess I'll start from my departure and work my way up from there. I flew from Columbus to Atlanta...nothing too exciting there. My flight from Atlanta departed a little late because, according to the captain, someone decided they didn't want to go and they needed to find their luggage from the cargo area before we could leave. Finally after about 20 minutes we were on our way to Santiago. It was about a 9 hour flight in total and almost 4,000 miles. I ate my wonderful airplane meal of lasagna and a salad, washed down with a glass of cheap red wine, took some melatonin and tried to stretch out and sleep (luckily the seat next to me was empty). I awoke around 6:30am as the sun was rising over South America.
They fed us a small breakfast of fruit and a scary egg-biscuit kinda thing with some juice and before I knew it, we were beginning our final descent into Santiago. The view was amazing because there were mountains everywhere! Once we landed we were bussed to the terminal to go thru customs. I followed the crowd and ended up standing in a line to pay an entry fee that I had already paid with my visa...oops! Then I was in line for about 45 mins waiting to go through customs. From there I had to grab all of my luggage (I packed a lot...sigh...) and have it all x-rayed again and then back to the gate for LAN (the airline I was flying on) to check my bags back in. This took a little while because when I changed my departure dates because of the quake, the Delta rep I re-booked with forgot to delete my old itinerary out of the computer. In the end, all worked out and I was on my way. I had a couple of hours to kill so I sat at a little cafe in the airport and drank a jugo de fresa (strawberry juice). I made my way to the gate and sat waiting to meet my roommate. Now for those of you who don't know, I found Ximena through a classified ad that was forwarded to me by a classmate in Concepcion. Before the quake, she was living in a 2 bedroom apartment 1/2 block from campus and was looking for a graduate student for a roommate. We had been chatting through email for a few weeks and decided that we'd give it a try. But once the quake hit, she gave up her place and decided to move back in with her parents. After talking with her parents, they decided to open up their home to me and offer me their extra bedroom. It would help me save money and help them in a time of crisis, so I accepted. The week before my arrival, Ximena was visiting in Santiago so she stayed till Sunday and booked the same flight as mine to Concepcion. I was a little scared because I haven't spoken spanish in conversation in a couple of years and I also know that Chilean dialect is one of the most difficult to understand because they tend to swallow the end of their words. But after meeting her, I had no problems understanding and we were able to chat a get to know each other a little.
The flight to Concepcion was only about a 40 minute ride. The plane was similar to a bus, in reference to the style of seating, and it was packed, so I was happy it was a short flight. Quick side note about food (sorry but you know food gets me excited!!), they gave us a snackbox on our flight and it had alfajores in it!! I used to eat these all the time because Ricky's mom used to make them. They are little shortbread cookie sandwiches filled caramel and these ones where dipped in chocolate, YUM! At the airport, Ximenas mom was waiting there to pick us up. They live in a house that's about a 5 minute drive from campus. It's very nice and modern for Chilean standards. We took our luggage in, Ximena and I have a little mini-apartment in the upstairs loft with a shared common room, bathroom and we have separate bedrooms.
Her mom made us some lunch, which like in Europe, is the biggest meal of the day. We had roasted chicken, a salad made of tomatoes, green beans, cilantro, olive oil, lime juice, and a little salt (super yum!), and slices of avocado (yay!)...oh and bread! Bread and avocado are 2 things that are served at every sitting. I'm super excited about the avocado, the bread is good but definitely don't want to eat it at every meal! Beverages tend to be either juice, tea, coffee or water. And because I'm not used to the tap water yet, they recommended that I hold off on drinking it until my stomach get used to it...bottled only for me and that's one rule I'm
happy to follow! After lunch we did dishes. I mention this because their hot water system is different than anything I've ever seen. They have this 2 big boxes on the wall in the kitchen (one for the kitchen and the other for the bath. Inside them in the system for heating water, kinda of like a pilot light. You push this little handle on the front of the box to maximum and take a match and light the pilot inside. Then when you turn on the water, a flame starts up, much like you would see on a gas stove top, and viola...hot water! I'll try and take a few pics of it in the near future.
After lunch I did a little unpacking and then Ximena offered to take me for a ride around town so I could familiarize myself a little. We drove over to campus, which I actually think I can actually walk to when it's nice out (I'm going to test that theory this week since I don't have classes yet). Then she showed me around the main center of the city and few places around the outside as well. It was so surreal seeing the damages from the quake in person. The streets are really damaged in a lot of places and not just from the actual quake itself but because of the water lines being broken. There are many, many places in the roads that are dug up so they can go in and repair the damaged pipes. There are whole sections of sidewalks and roads that are just completely blocked off because of damages to buildings that are still standing but could collapse further as the aftershocks continue. We drove over the only functioning bridge between Concepcion and San Pedro and even it was damaged on the end near Concepcion. One of the links had collapsed into the Bio Bio river and they have a metal ramp that goes over the broken section. There are 4 bridges that connect to the city and this is the only one that is functioning.
On our way back into town, Ximena invited me a for a drink. We stopped at a Cerveceria (brewery) called Latitud Sur (Latitude South) accross the street from a park that connects to campus. I had my first Chilean cerveza, which was quite tasty, and we sat and chatted about men for a little while (girly bonding time). After that, we headed back to the house where it was time for 'once' (pronounced ohhn-say, as in the #11 in spanish). It's there version of dinner, which like in Europe, is a very light meal. According to Ximena, only men have an actual meal at this time. It's kinda of a manly-man, head of household thing. This is when I got to meet
Ximenas dad. Very nice guy, just like her mom, just a little more difficult to understand. Both her parents are not quite sure how to act around me because they've never had an exchange student in their home. They keep asking questions to Ximena to ask me and she in-turn tells them to just ask me themselves to help me with my spanish. She tells them to make sure they speak regular spanish though and not Chilean dialect so that I can understand better, haha! So back to the food at 'once'. There was a whole selction of different things for the women. Her mom made she and I some hot dogs, although you do not eat them on buns like we do in the states. There was some mashed avocado with lime juice (of course!), scrambled eggs with cheese, different jams and jellies, rolls and breads, Brazo de Reina (literally means 'The Queens Arm') but is what we call a 'log roll cake' that is filled with caramel (super yum) and typically you drink tea or coffee. Now I'm not a person to drink either, I'm perfectly content with water. Her father shared a glass of Santa Rita cabernet with me which was great. I'm so happy to know my Chilean wines!! Her parents gave me this crazy look when I said I don't drink tea or coffee. I was trying to convey that it's just something I don't like and nothing against them...it's going to be a learning process on all parts! After dinner Ximena and I went to her room and watched some tv, mainly news. FYI, we found out that Ricky Martin has accepted his homosexuality...haha!!! Not surprising but still disappointing for such a cute singer! Around 10pm I called it a night. I was exhausted after 24 hours of traveling!
I did get to experience some after effects of the quake. After 'once' last night, the power went out...only for a couple minutes but you could tell Ximena was worried. Then at about 4:15am, I experienced my first aftershock!! I was already a little restless from sleeping in a new place, so there was no question that it woke me up. It was very short and not super strong but there was no doubt about what it was. It started off slow, like you could feel that little queasy feeling in your stomach, and then everything started vibrating stronger and stronger, and then it just settled back down and within 20 seconds or so, it was over! I was so tired, it didn't
bother me a bit. I was actually glad I got to experience it my first night so I knew what to expect. Ximena rushed into my room checking if I had woken up and asked if I was scared. I assured her that I was fine and I rolled over and went back to sleep! And now, it's Tuesday...a brand new beautiful day!
A lot of things are similar to what we have in the states. Car lots consist of Hyundai, Toyota, BMW, Volkswagon, etc...most of them are manual transmissions. Driving still takes place on the same sides of the roads as the states. People are very friendly and helpful, especially Ximena and her family! They do everything they can to help me feel right at home! The weather is still amazing here, but it's what they consider fall and going into their cold season. After living in Cleveland, it's a heat wave!! I'm in skirts and flip flops again...loving it!! It's been 3 years since my last study trip outside the states and to be completely I was a little afraid of not being able to adjust this time, even though I had no problems last time. I remember thinking as we were landing in Santiago, 'wow, am I really doing this again and am I ready for it?!'. But now that I'm here, I'm falling right back into a routine and I love it! No regrets, at all!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Predeparture Jitters!
What an incredible rollercoaster ride the last month and a half have been. I think it started with my trip to Chicago to pick up my visa. Lisa and I decided to make a 3 day trip of it and go see some sites...and explore some awesome food, of course! After our short but fun stint in the big city, I now know it's one of my top cities and I absolutely have to go back!!
The next 2 events were my going away parties. I am so lucky to have an abundance of great friends! First was my dinner party at my house were about 15-20 of my closest and bestest stopped by for one last chance at my tasty food! We had a blast and I'm going to miss cooking and throwing parties and bbqs over the summer. I think that's going to be the first thing on my list when I get back...a big 'I've missed you' party!!
The following weekend was set to be my final weekend at 806 and that Saturday was my going away bash with all my fellow Tremont friends and regulars! So I went to work Friday night, finished up and went to bed, excited for my going away party the next night...or so I thought. I was woken at 9am by a text message telling me that 'now' I definitely was not allowed to go to Chile. Well up to that point I had heard almost every excuse in the book from my friends on why I shouldn't/couldn't go. So after seeing that text, I was thinking 'great, what this time?!'. The response was to tell me there had been a major earthquake in Chile and it hit only 70 miles from where I was moving. Even after reading that, I still thought someone was trying to pull my leg...until I turned on the tv. The longer I watched the more devestated I became, for everyone there and for the fear that my trip was not going to happen. I mean I was set to fly in 8 days and I was still going ahead with my bonvoyage party that night. I stayed glued to CNN and Univision for the rest of the day. That night, I got ready and still partied it up with my friends like nothing had changed, all the while, my heart sinking inside for fear of how the next week would unfold. The next 4 days were brutal. There was no communications, water or gas in Concepcion and all my plans were in limbo. The death toll was slowly rising and nothing was looking promising.I had a friend in Santiago the night the quake hit and was able to hear from her by Monday, but even she said that things were not good. Finally on Thursday I got word from a fellow classmate in Concepcion. He said things were rough, but not nearly as bad as what the news was showing on tv. He advised that I delay my trip till the end of March to give the country a few weeks to recoupe, get utilities turned back on and for the school to get going again. I was so happy to hear that everyone I was in contact with there was alive and well!! The next day I had a meeting with my school advisors to get the final word on whether or not I was going to be allowed to take classes or not. After informing them of my communications with other students and Dean Scherer getting an email from the program director in Concepcion, they agreed that if I felt comfortable going and school was resuming there in April, then I was free to go!
And the new planning began! So much rearranging of plans but it is all totally worth it! My visa is valid for 7 months, so no worries there. I changed my flight and health insurance. Extended my cell phone shutoff date, car insurance and anything else I could think of that needed to be moved. I worked as much as I could the next couple of weeks and was actually kinda thankful that I got to spend some extended time with my friends! Oh how I'm going to miss you all!! Now the count is close, like 2 days away close! My bags are packed and weighed, airport transportation to and from is set and I'm at my parents saying my goodbyes to the family. It's all so surreal that after all the planning, the excitement, jumping through hoops, the disappointment and then the returning excitement...I just can't believe it's happening!
I'm going to miss so much about the states and I don't know what I'll do without seeing and talking to my friends almost everyday. But I cannot wait for the rewarding experience I'm about to have. When I learned of the quake and thought that all was lost for taking classes abroad, I immediately signed up for Habitat for Humanity in hopes of going down to help wherever I could. I am still a member and I am determined to help with whatever and wherever I can! I'm curious to see and experience how economies and communities come together to survive and rebuild. Until next time...
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Preparations!
The year of 2010 thus far has been a whirlwind of traveling, fun, goodbyes and preparations for my biggest trip of the year. Now the count is down to a little less than 3 weeks before 'the big day'!!! Reality is finally sinking in that I'm leaving...you know, that knot in your stomach that's caused by the fear of leaving everything you're comfortable with and everyone you care about, mingled with the excitement of a new life-changing adventure and new friends. I'm looking forward to keeping this blog up-to-date with my experiences!!!
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