My Perfect Chilean Cocktail

The Chilean Cocktail:
1/3 Teaching English at Duoc. Make sure it is full of challenges, as well as rewards
1/3 Meeting Chilean people, and feeling part of the culture(best done from a host family)
1/3 Traveling the country. From the north to the south, this country has it all.
Add a steady income to stay afloat, without losing too much money, and enjoy for ten months.

So far I've been able to find the first two ingredients, and come Friday, I'll get to taste the last. This Friday, Vinnie, and I will travel to Viña del Mar to meet up with our other friend Steve. Then, Saturday the three of us will embark on a three week adventure to the north. So far, I can say I am enjoying myself here in Chile, but I'm not going to lie, one of the main reasons to come down here was to travel; and travel I will. We will take a 20 some hour bus ride from Viña del Mar to Calama, and then hop on another bus to San Pedro de Atacama. That will be stop number one. San Pedro has a handful of tours to go on, and we've heard it is very beautiful place. We plan to spend a couple days there, then continue north to either Iquique, or all the way up to Arica(the northern most city in Chile). These places are coastal towns, and I know that at least one of these places will provide me with an opportunity to hit the waves again. I'm sure the water will be freezing, I'll be frustrated, and want to spend the rest of my vacation surfing, but alas, there is more treasure to find on our trip.
From Arica, we'll cross the border, and head into Peru where we plan to spend the bulk of our time. We'll do the whole Machu Picchu thing, Lake Titicaca, and other sights while in Peru. We are lucky to have a decent amount of time to play in Peru. Dylan and Katie, Hannah, and my "sister" and her boyfriend all have done Peru visits, but they all were rushed. This trip will be more relaxed and all the is certain is on August 5th I have a flight back to Santiago from Arica, Chile. From Saturday, July 12th until August 5th, I have Chile, Peru, and maybe Bolivia to explore.
My classes finished up last week, and my students surprised me by passing(or at least the majority of them). This week I have only my private classes, and will administer one oral exam for my basic students. I think for one class, my private students and i will go out for lunch. Life is pretty relaxing this week.
Last weekend was spent shamelessly with gringos as we celebrated the 4th of July. The Fourth started off by getting up early and heading over to the US Embassy for a special flag raising ceremony.


(Marisa and Me being "American" at the US Embassy.)

While cold and foggy, it was still heartwarming to hear people talk about the United States, and I must admit I got a little homesick/proud/nostalgic for home. But distance make the heart grow fonder, and I certainly can't complain about my time here in Chile. After our ceremony we warmed up in a Starbucks(where else in Chile would we go on our country's, and my mom's birthday?). Friday night I went over to the Katie's house, one of my co-workers from my site. She invited me over for a gringo party complete with hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, and beer. The "American" way. Long story short, after going home to change, talking with my "brother" and making the 30 minute trip over to her house I was greeted not by a herd of English speaking gringos preparing hamburgers and hot dogs, but by strange Chilean music coming from the radio, a dark apartment, and Katie's host mom. Now my Spanish has improved a lot, but for about 20 seconds I couldn't get a word out because I didn't know if I was in the right apartment, or what was going on. After starting and stumbling over myself, I composed myself and had a pleasant thirty minute conversation with her about my time here in Chile, where I've been, where I'm going, and where she has been. Finally Katie, and my other co-workers showed up and we had a grand old time culminating with a fire-cracker explosion. Illegal, but set off by a Chilean, so we were in the clear :)
Saturday was spent at my CIEE friend's house where we had hot dogs, rice-crispy treats, peanut butter, and of course Budweiser and Miller Genuine Draft. This day was filled with the red, white and blue, as well as conversations about...baseball and football.
Sunday, my sister and her boyfriend arrived back from a week in Peru and we had a big lunch together and shared stories. Later we went through their pictures and the big night ended with the screening of a boot-legged copy of the "Sex in the City Movie" I tried to watch it, but it just wasn't doing it for me.
I hope to get a few updates in on my blog while I'm traveling, but my internet usage will be a little more limited than now.

smog in Chile? You be the judge

I finally figured out why they sell cough drops like candy here. I realized my throat feels scratchy too. NO, it's not because I have been screaming myself horse yelling at my students, but because I went running outside a couple times. I've checked the contamination levels and they seemed ok, but I guess what they say is good, isn't really that good.

The Santiago system for labeling their smog goes like this:
0-100 good
101-200 regular
201-300 bad
301-400 critical
401-500 dangerous

But in our very own Los Angeles, which is probably the most similar to Santiago has a different scale. Today LA has a level of 54. Their scale(and the rest of the world's) looks like this:
0-50 Good
51-100 Moderate
101-150 Unhealthy for sensitive groups
151-200 Unhealthy
200+ Very Unhealthy

Madison, WI is at 12 today.

Here's a visual display of the difference between a good day and a not so good day. But according to the government levels, this is still far from "Regular."

Both are views from my bedroom window.

(Here's the view from May 29th after a couple days of rain)


(Here we see a view from my window from yesterday, after about two weeks without rain, in winter. It's not cloudy outside, just hazy/smoggy. I heard because of the cold Humbolt Current, the cool air from the ocean keeps the pollution from moving around. Also I heard when Pinochet was in rule they wanted to blow up, or remove a mountain south of the city to allow the pollution to escape the urban area, but the dang environmentalists stopped that)