A story or two

Ok, last weekend I went with Juan Pablo and his wife to visit his Grandparent's home about an hour and half south of Santiago. On the way we checked out a house Juan Pablo is helping to build for a friend of his dad. The house is huge and may be done by June. House warming party? Old School style?
Then we made it to the casa, which was basically set up for huge parties and barbecues. They had a huge stone grill set up, and a big table under a canopy of grapevines. There is a little stream nearby, and it is clear, quiet and relaxing. For lunch(served around 3:00) we had chicken, pork, a lettuce based salad, tomato and onion salad, tomato, potato, bread, and a homemade salsa, some wine and coke. It was great. I found myself lost in conversation when the family was having table talk. Giving each other a hard time, making fun, telling stories etc. I mean, that's what I think they were saying. Every once in a while someone would turn to me and ask, "¿entiendas?"(do you understand?) to which I liked to answer, "un poco"(a little) so they will continue to talk and not solely focus on me. Seated with me at the table was JP's Grandma, and Grandpa, Gpa's friend and his wife, and another friend of Gpa, Juan Pablo, his wife Stephanie, and JP's cousin, oh and me. Here's the family, with me. I'm the guy in the back. But after lunch and dessert of freshly picked grapes from above, I talked with some of the old guys. For those one on one conversations, I was able to understand and explain myself. For one they involved simple vocabulary, and the other I've been answering those type of questions for the last three weeks. So after some nescafé we left back to the big city. On the way back we bought some pan(bread) from some street vendors for dinner. The street vendors have huge earthen, fire stoves, and the bread is extremely cheap, and tasty.

Let's see. One week of teaching under my belt. It's a blast. Some classes are more fun than others, but every class has some huge disparates in ability. Some students can't make introductions in my intermediate classes, and some students in my basic classes are able to have conversations with me after classes. Some funny stuff: When asked for their favorite musicians, I got a wide variety, ranging from Phil Collins, Snoop, Reggaeton, to Staind. Also, I brought my ipod player in and played, "It's not unusual" and in each class everyone started snapping fingers and singing along. I couldn't help but laugh, and in one class I was motivated to do the Carton Dance when someone else asked if this was from the Fresh Prince. Well, it wasn't quite like Carlton's.
The coast was beautiful, like expected. My Vinnie and I had sore legs from the hills. I swear all of my friends who work on the coast will have rock solid legs by the end of the year. We visited two of my friends' homes, and both have excellent views of the ocean. The majority of our time was spent relaxing on the beach and sharing stories from week one of teaching. I'll be going back again sometime soon.
Tonight, there was a classical concert outside my house at the municipalidad, so I watched that while the weather is still awesome. I've been here almost a month and it's rained one night. Not too shabby. I'm going to enjoy it because I hear winter is a different story.
This week I only have two days of teaching. We are currently coming up with some travel plans.

Pictures of my new home

Below are some pictures of my new place. My first week of teaching is almost over. I have three, back to back to back classes of 1.5 hours this afternoon. It's going well, and is pretty intense to come up with lesson plans basically all on my own. The students don't have text books for my basic class, and my intermediate, no one has text books. Neither have arrived yet, which is normal here, I guess. This weekend Vinnie(a friend from CIEE) and I are going to the coast to visit Steve(another guy from CIEE) and see the sights of Valparaíso and Viña del Mar.


^Here's one view of my room, as you walk through the door.


^And my closet, which is on the right when you walk in. Notice how clothes are neatly organized, a spectacle not to be repeated anytime soon.



^And the view of my wall which is on the left as you walk into my room. I think the last person who lived here, or a friend of Elizabeth's son painted that. Sometimes I just nod my head when I don't completely understand things, and it's not important. If I ever have guests I'll probably tell them I painted the wall.



^The living room. Like most living rooms, it is usually empty. We also hang out in the kitchen even though it is tiny. No matter what culture, people also congregate in kitchens.




^From the window's to the wall.. Here's the whole apartment. From the end of the kitchen and the window of my room in the background

Some Maps!

It will help to click on the pictures so they enlarge, but they're some decent pictures taken from Google Earth.



^Here is a close up view of where I'll be living, and where I'll be teaching. I'm really excited about living so close to everything, in a quiet neighborhood, and close to the Metro(subway).


^And here is where I am situated, looking at the big picture.

On the move

Great news. I don’t know how, or why, but the cards have really fallen my way in the last week. On Wednesday, Hector, one of the CIEE program coordinators sent out an email asking if anyone who is teaching in Plaza Oeste wanted to switch sites to one in Providencia. The difference between the two are night and day. Plaza Oeste is about an hour and fifteen minute commute from the nice part of town, and the other site, Antonio Varas is in a nice neighborhood, and close to the subway, cafes, and restaurants. Antonio Varas(the campus name) is also where we have been having our orientation, so I kind of know the neighborhood and the area. Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity to switch and hoped my email was sent before everyone else. The next day, I got a confirmation email from Hector saying I was switched! That afternoon I went to three different places and found a place to live, three blocks from campus with a sweet mother and her daughter. Her son just moved out, I think, and her daughter works at a bank in town. My “madre,” Elizabeth has some basic English knowledge, which is basic nouns and verbs. That day was fun because I had to use and comprehend Spanish at all three places, and by the third visit I was able to speak fairy confidently. It also didn’t hurt that by the third visit I could anticipate what questions they would ask me, and I had been corrected two previous times on my pronunciation, and word choice. I felt really comfortable with the mom and the daughter, we were able to joke around a little and they seemed like great people. The daughter, Maria Jose, who I think is about my age, is excited to practice, and learn English. It is such a weight off my shoulders to know that on Monday I’ll have a home to move into, and finally settle in, start cooking, and get situated with a family.
Also, I emailed Juan Pablo to tell him the good news of my site change, and he replied with encouraging things to say about my neighborhood and asked if I wanted to go with him and Stephanie to visit his grandparents about a half hour outside of Santiago. Of course I couldn’t turn that down, so on Sunday I’m going to meet los abuelos (the grandparents). Why not?
And last night I got my teaching schedule, and it is pretty good. I teach Tue/Thur at 4:00-5:30, and 7:00-8:30, and Wed/Fri 4:00-5:30,5:31-7:00, 7:01-8:30. Yeah my Friday runs a little late, but I don’t teach on Monday, and don’t start again on Tuesday until 4:00, which leaves me with a lot of traveling time, especially holidays, when we have a Friday off. Some of my friends teach 8:00am-2:00pm on Saturdays, or until 10:45pm on the weeknights. One girl has one class at 9:30 on Monday, and then the next is Tuesday night. All in all I’m happy with my schedule. I keep forgetting that people go out to eat around 9:00, 10:00, so teaching until 8:30 isn’t that late. And my school is a five-minute walk from my apartment. I think that just about covers this week. We have to go back for one more class this afternoon, then CIEE is taking us out for a “farewell dinner.” Tomorrow the guys who work on the coast, about half of our group take off.
Then on Tuesday I start teaching after our “intensive” four day training period. It should be interesting.

All my pictures

Here's all the pictures I've taken so far here in Chile. Enjoy.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bjcreagh

Today we went to the Cerro San Cristobal, which is where the pictures of the Santiago skyline were taken.

Mi nuevo casa.

This afternoon we moved from our "Rent A Home" condos to our temporary housing(or permanent if we don't want to leave) about five blocks down the road. It is a little more realistic here. In our old place we had two tv's, an AC unit, kitchen, I had my own room and bathroom, my two roommates shared a room and had their own bathroom, and two couches. Writing this at 7:30, it is 83 F in my room. It's like the last week I forgot that it is hot in the summer. Here we have basic accommodations. This afternoon a couple guys and I wen to the grocery store and bought some "easy" foods to eat. We don't have culinary or pots and pans, so we are kind of limited with what we can eat. I plan on moving into a apartment with a furnished kitchen so I'm hesitant to buy pots and pans for the next couple weeks.
Yesterday we went to Pomaire, about 65 kilometers southwest of Santiago and ate some enjoyed another huge lunch of traditional food including, pastel de choclo, and huge empanadas. Pastel de choclo is a typical Chilean dish made of ground fresh corn (choclo) with basil served in a earthen style bown. Then we walked around the town for awhile checking out the shops. It was such a nice town, and I think I just really enjoyed it because it was outside of the city. It will interesting to see how much city life I can take, or if I'll come to love the big city.
Last night the ciee group went out and sampled the Santiago nightlife, again. It was fun to hangout with everyone, and see what the Chileans like to dance to. Dr. Dre really made the dance floor bounce.



^Here's looking into my massive room. To the right is my closet, one of the coolest parts of my room.



^And the other view of my room. This view is looking towards the door. As you can see, it's pretty basic, but I don't need anything much more expansive than this.



^Here's the view from the street of Pomaire. It's wild that in Santiago, you rarely can see the Andes because of the smog but out here it is a lot more clear.



^Willy the potter was able to made a bowl, vase, candle holder, piggy band, you name it and he can make it, and in under two minutes. It was amazing watching him take a clump of clay and make a piece of art.



^Those crazy Chilean kids, what are they going to come up with next? The street is meant to read, "Roto Chileno" which translates to broken Chilean, but it now reads, "Poto Chileno." Poto is slang for ass, or butt, so it is proven that the entire world is still laughing at potty jokes.



^Here's a view of the sunset from my third floor room.

Cuando en Roma

Another day, another adventure. So I met a couple on the airplane when I flew down here, Juan Pablo y Stephania, and Juan Pablo told me to call him when I get a chance. I was going to email him yesterday, and woke up to an email from him, so I emailed him back in Spanish (then wrote out what I meant in English underneath) and sent him a text message saying, "I'm done for the day, want to meet up for a drink, coffee, or dinner?" We were done with CIEE activities for the day around 3:00 and I got a little bored so I walked around the city, got lost for probably 20 minutes, then found my way back to the hotel. On my stroll I bought some peaches and an orange for what I thought would be my dinner. After I got back, around 7:30ish I get a phone call from Juan Pablo, who wanted to know if I wanted a ride to his place because he was having some friends over for drinks. I said sure, ¿Por qué no? (Why not?) Ends up he bought some supplies for his friend when in the USA at PetCo and was giving the ferret food to him last night. We went grocery shopping and picked up supplies for pizzas, and pisco. We get to his house and sat down to make some pizzas and mixed some drinks. Mind you I'm basically Chilean when it comes to meals so putting a home-made pizza in the oven a little after 10:00 didn't bother me. Juan Pablo's best friend from college Rodrigo and his wife were the other guests at his house besides me. I mainly talked with Juan Pablo about 70% Spanish and could accurately describe to the others when they asked me pointed questions, like, "How many other people are in your program, where is everyone teaching, do you like pisco and coke, or pisco and ginger ale better, and why, and some other questions that I don't really remember. Juan Pablo was concerned that I might get ripped off when I go house shopping and he said he'd go with me some afternoon or Saturday to look at places I find. All of us at "dinner" had a good time making fun of US stereotypes and other US things. One funny story Juan Pablo and Rodrigo told was that in Chile, when you're hungry, you eat a pizza becuase that is about the right serving size. The two of them were in the US visiting Juan Pablo's mama and got hungry. They both ordered a pizza. But the pizza was like the size of a pizza from Ian's, or Pizza DeRoma, or where you normally buy one slice. They said they sat down in the pizza shop and each ate the entire pizza. It took them over an hour, and they felt sick afterwards, but they didn't really know what else to do. At the end of the night, I felt a little better with my Spanish, but still I don't feel comfortable because when I was at the grocery store the clerk asked me a question, then repeated, then asked me a question I understood. She asked me if I understand, and that I could reply with a confident, "no, I don't understand you"
The other guys in our group are fun. I think I'll visit them on the weekends because they both have hook-ups with housing on the coast. They're both living in Valpo. The nightlife is different here. People meet up and sit down for dinner around 10:00-11:00 at night. It seems like people sit down and have dinner instead of sitting around and just drinking. I'm not quite sure yet. Also I haven't figured out the meal schedule. Apparently you're suppose to have a light breakfast, a big lunch and a light dinner. But every meal I've had has been large and good. Oh well, I'm still getting it.
This afternoon we start our Chilean Spanish lessons. Should be interesante.