Dia (Semana) de Profesoras

Pusha (dang). I always say that I am going to get better at this blogging thing, and then here I am, a month later, finally with an update. Time is certainly flying here, and I'm sorry that you blog readers out there are losing out on your little taste of Katie. Well, this month we had another celebration. Shocking, I know. It seems like all of my blogs come with some sort of celebration attached. Well, welcome to Chile.

This month was Dia de Profesoras. The actual date of the event was October 17, but in true Chilean form, the celebration lasted over a week. Now my host mom had told me that we would probably not have some school because of Teacher's day, but I was not expecting what I got in turn. You think I would have learned by now. The week of celebration started with a fancy dinner given at the Liceo, or the high school. All of the schools were represented, and I was introduced to the idea of the competition for "King of the Schools." Each school selects a male teacher, and they compete throughout the week to become King. On this first night, they each performed some sort of solo act. The night had many performances in fact, because each school did three routines. Unfortunately, I could not participate, because I was out sick. But OH MAN, was I in for the shock at these performances. Of course, there was the traditional singing or dancing, but then there were some more questionable pieces, particularly from my school when one of our older 3rd grade teachers was using a rubber penis as a microphone. Some of the younger teachers from other schools did some funny acts like the Village People and a work-out routine. It was very fun, and reminded me a lot of something like "Airbands" at Chapman. I always have to remember that University life here in Chile does not come with these sorts of activities, so this is their chance to get on stage in funny outfits and make fools of themselves. Something I can relate with very well.

After this first opening night, the celebration lasted the whole week afterward. After school each day (or actually after lunch when we would typically have school), there was some sort of competition either at the beach or at one of the schools. There were things from volleyball, to broom ball, baby escobar (yes they usually use a doll as the ball, but thankfully not this time), and there was events that I recognize from greek week: tug of war, food relay, and more things like that. As it always seems to be the case, my school was known for being competative, but we were actually pretty good as well. We won most of the greek week type games, and were almost in the finals for baby escobar until we got kicked off the court for being good sports. Ah yes, I must tell you about the sportsmanship, or lack there-of, of Chileans. I have never encountered a more competative group, and I have seen my fair share of competition. When I first started teaching, I couldn't believe how crazy the kids acted in class when we played a game or something, but then I went to a competition with adults, and saw exactly where they get it from. In more than 2 of the teacher's day competitions (mind you, just a friendly game between schools), the games ended with teams walking off or being kicked off the court. It is quite the wonder to watch, and it was funny because my friend Jackie was the cause of my schools upheaval. All the teachers at my school believed that "that gringa" is some sort of professional hockey player or something back in the States. Oh golly. One of the neatest competitions was very crafty. Each of the schools had to make a dress out of newspaper without using any sort of glue or tape. Don't worry, I took pictures of all the dresses, they are incredible! My school got 2nd place in that event. It was all very fun.

At the end of the week of competitions, we had an act at our school, as always, and then there was a breakfast in town that all the teachers can go to. My favorite part of the act at my school was when about 6 first grade girls did a dance to "Beauty and the Beast" wearing white ballerina costumes. Some of the things that they do are just so random to me, but that is why I love it. Then on Saturday night, there was a big party at what I believe to be the only wedding venue in Tocopilla where there was dancing with a live band, an open bar and the presentation of the Kings. Each of the kings got a sash like Miss America and there were awards for things like "Mas Bakan" which is Most Cool or "Mas Sexi" with an "i". We only have one male teacher at my school, and I think he has to enter this competition every year, so he gets the same award, which now I don't remember. That night was a blast, because every teacher in all of Tocopilla young or old was dancing til they were dripping with sweat, and some of the old ones had a few too many drinks at the open bar (well the young ones too, let's be honest). Because this is when I was under the weather, I was able to sit back and watch this magical night unfold from the sidelines mostly. I did get my chance to impress the women of Gabriela Mistral, however with my Latin dancing moves. They love it.

Since that party that supposedly closes the Teacher's day celebration 2 weeks ago, my school has had 2 more parties. These are just Tea's with sandwiches and cake, but it's all relative to me. I think finally, after this Tuesday's last celebration, I will retire my Teacher's Day hat for now, but it certainly was a lot of fun. I could never imagine such event happening in the states.

As far as my health goes, I have been doing a lot better. Turns out, I was infected with a parasite when I went to Peru back in July. So I have been walking around town with this thing eating at my insides for quite some time. Through many visits to the local hospital and the herbal healing that Chileans all seem to use, we believe the thing is no longer attacking, and I am feeling much better. I am still on a special diet just for precaution, but I am finally able to go out and be normal. This includes an AMAZING trip I took last weekend with Jackie to La Serena where I saw Penguins (!!!) and a trip I am going on this morning to San Pedro de Atacama which is the driest dessert in the world. I am going to publish blogs on these trips together when I get back next week. I PROMISE. There will be lots of pictures and exciting-ness.

Otherwise, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Us gringas threw a big Halloween party at my school last night, and it was a lot of fun for the kids. This included bobbing for apples, I taught the "thriller" dance, we had face painting and crafts, and of course the Halloween tradition of putting your hand in the mysterious bowl to feel the "body parts" which is actually just spaghetti. Halloween is relatively new here in Chile, so these were traditions that haven't made it down here yet. I think the kids enjoyed it, but of course I was too busy running around like a chicken with my head cut off to take any pictures. So unfortunately it will have to stay ingraned in my memory, and not yours.

I hope all is well in the states, and that everyone is VOTING, yep, I'm gonna put in a shameless plug. I voted a few weeks ago! It should be an exciting week. I am impressed daily how informed my students are, because at least one of them asks me about the election every single day. Just goes to show how important this election is....Ok. I'll stop now.

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy, and thanks for checking in. I'll be home in 31 days! AHHH!

Us gringas at the Teacher's day Dinner. They are both dressed up in outfits to perform with their school. Jackie is wearing an actual uniform.

Chileans have an awkward obsession with dressing up as Ronald McDonald.

The wonderful 3rd grade teacher at my school. I couldn't illustrate for you my shock at this image.

Gabriela Mistral dominates Tug of War!

Melissa and I with Angelica. I work with her when Claudia goes out of town. She is GREAT! She studied abroad at University of Oklahoma. Sorry Andi, I'm friends with the enemy.

Gabriela Mistral's baby escobar team.

Baby Escobar in action. This game gets brutal.

We won this game in penalty shots.

These are all of the finished projects of the Newspaper dresses. Remember, no glue or tape was used. These teachers are so crafty! My school is the third girl. We got 2nd place!

Profe Doris making some delicious sandwiches for one of our post-celebration parties. Also, that bread you see is typical Chilean bread.

Chilean cake is so good.

The little girls that danced the "Beauty and the Beast"

This is some of the students of Octavo A with Claudia, Marcela (their old boss teacher), and I on Teacher's day.

Independence Day and More

Well, I’ve decided that the best way to get me in the mood to blog is to take my internet away because it’s been gone and I have been dying to communicate with my friends from the other hemisphere. Hello Hello! Boy do I have so much to tell you all about. In the past however long is has been since I’ve written to you all (I am making this in a Word document since I have no internet…) a lot has happened. I took one of my students to Antofagasta to compete in an English competition and of course, Chilean Independence Day!! Therefore, I have a lot of pictures/videos (which will have to wait a few days for blogger to allow me to post videos again...) for you all to admire until I finally blog again.

So part of the English Opens Doors program is to have your students participate in this English Competition. High School kids have to do a full-on debate. I helped the kids from one of the local high schools and let me tell you, these debates are nothing I could see American High Schoolers doing in Spanish any time soon. All the different rounds of competitions have different subjects in which to debate. The first subject had to do with science and genetics, I’m not really sure. The second was about music and promiscuity. This is the one I helped with and boy do I wish I had a video of me practicing with these kids because I just had to keep repeating the word “dirty” because the “er” sound is very difficult for Chileans to pronounce. So just imagine me in the kitchen with 5 high school kids repeating “dirty” over and over. I couldn’t help but laugh. These situations happen all the time in class when kids pronounce words so that they sound like they are bad. “Chat” always comes out “shat.” Really, it’s just an excuse for me to be immature and laugh, but it makes it so much better that they have no idea why these things are funny.

ANYWAY, now that I have totally gone off-topic, I will tell you about my student Yocelyn. The 8th grade version of the English competition is that they have to speak for 2 minutes about a famous person from an English speaking country or just about an English speaking country in general. So most of the schools chose people like Martin Luther King, Jr. (literally 4 schools spoke about him) or there was a J.K. Rowling (obviously I was a fan), but we decided to let our student choose her own person to speak about. Obviously she chose someone who she knows and likes, Zac Efron. For those of you who don’t know who he is, he is famous for his portrayal in the High School Musical films. I can’t tell you how famous he is here in Chile. Seriously, it’s ridiculous. Well, we worked for months on this speech and Yocelyn did very well! She got 3rd place in the competition, and I have a video of it so you can learn about Mr. Efron. I now know more about him than I ever thought possible, and promised Yocelyn that if I ever met him in California (because according to Chileans, all Americans know famous people), I would tell him about my Chilean student who did a speech about him.

Well, after the excitement from the dialogue competition calmed down, it was time for Chilean Independence Day. What this means, is that I had 2 days off from school, and most of my school days approaching the 18th of September were interrupted by dance practices for the program that would take place the day before the holiday. On Wednesday, September 17, the day before Independence Day, we had a giant party at school. I wore a traditional Cueca dress (Cueca is the national dance of Chile) and students ranging from 6th-8th grades each did some sort of traditional Chilean dance. I shamelessly video taped all of them and will happily share them all with you now. The stupid photographers kept getting in my way, but I think I caught the gist of it for you all. Of course there was another poem read by a 3rd grader, and I slowly but surely fell more in love with my students throughout this entire day. In preparation for this day, I watched most of the practices for these dances (especially the 8th graders) and can do the basics of the dances, which my students love to ask me to do on a daily basis. I have decided that people don’t often like to make a fool of themselves here in Chile because every time I make myself look just a little bit stupid (which is far too often), not only students but adults as well think it’s the funniest thing ever (if ever trying to entertain a child in Chile, no matter what age, just stick out your tongue).

After the wonderful celebration that took place at school, came binge eating for the next few days. Starting on Wednesday, when the party was, I ate pretty much every sort of traditional Chilean food possible. I had Empanadas (which I have been eating my whole life) with meat, eggs and an olive (gooo) inside (that is the traditional Chilean empanada). I had humitas, which is very similar to a Cuban tamale wrapped in the corn husk and everything, but Chileans put sugar on it (obviously). For dessert, a very common food from the South, rice with milk (sweetened condensed milk, dad would love it). The traditional drink is Chicha, it’s kind of a mix between Hornsbees cider and Sangria. I don’t really know if that is a good description, but that’s what they drink straight of the barrel for Independence Day. The grand finale meal that I think capped off my Independence Day experience I ate at Jackie’s house. Anticuchos, which in English would be kebabs. However, these are not the everyday kebabs you and I would envision. These are purely meat with maybe one slice of onion (mmm…grilled onions). On one anticucho you get steak, chicken, hot dog, and chorizo. They are each about two feet long and you are expected to eat at least 3. Buf. So full….but they are indeed tasty.

In between the stuffing of my face during Independence Day weekend I actually had some pretty awesome Chilean experiences. On the 18th, which is actual Independence Day, I went fishing with Jackie’s host family. I have gotten to know Jackie’s family pretty well. They are a lot of fun, and have two kids that are college-aged that we hang out with when they are on breaks from school, so like every other week. Fishing was quite the day. We went to this beach that is like 30 minutes North of Tocopilla. 12 people took 2 cars that only seat 5 people, very normal. We didn’t have actual fishing poles, just fishing wire, and I was the only gringa that didn’t catch a fish ☹ unless you count Jackie because I accidentally hooked her (and no mom and dad, I didn’t cry this time afraid for Jackie’s life). When Jackie’s family goes fishing, half of them have wire and are going for fish, the other half is climbing on the rocks getting the sea urchins off so they can crack them open and eat the bright orange tongues that are inside. On the day we went, they filled a bag about the size of a freezer zip-loc full of these tongues that are bright orange and made me eat one right out of the urchin while at the beach. It really wasn’t that bad, just tasted like salt, which I have gotten used to by now. When we got back to their house, they made a sort of salsa out of it all, but I didn’t really eat very much of it…The next day with her family, after we ate thousands of anticuchos and Jackie and I cooked them s’mores that Jackie’s mom sent from the states (mmmm), we watched this DVD of a famous Chilean singer for literally the entire afternoon. There was singing, dancing and both moms and daughters swooning over this guy. It was incredible to see this, because the moms were acting just as 14 year-old girls do for the Jonas Brothers, but then again, so were the daughters. It was very interesting to see this, because I really couldn’t imagine jumping up and down on the bed singing, dancing and swooning over the same person as my mom (no offense mom). It’s these little parts of Chilean culture that I catch that make this experience so interesting to me.

Most recently, I have been a little under the weather. I had my first stint at the Tocopilla hospital yesterday, because my stomach has been queezy well for quite a while now. No need to worry, I will be fine, but it was an interesting experience. The good news is that because I am here sponsored by the government, they are not making me pay for anything. So far, I have been poked by 2 needles and I never screamed, so those of you who know me at all should be impressed. The people at the hospital are especially nice because I am most of their childrens' teacher, so they all call me "Miss Katie" just like their kids. As of now, we think I have a bacteria or infection in my stomach, and it is all being taken care of, so please don't worry.

As my trip is winding down (I leave Chile two months from tomorrow!), I feel like I slowly becoming more and more Chilean. I want to get as much as I can out of these next two months because who knows if and when I’ll ever to return to Chile. It makes me so sad to have to tell my students that no I’m not going to be here next year. It breaks my heart to have to tell the third graders who thought I was going to be their teacher finally next year that they will not get that opportunity, so I just talk to them as much as possible. I have been exchanging e-mails and even facebooks with my students so we can communicate. It’s been quite fun. I am slowly but surely learning Chilean internet slang. It’s not easy. I find myself using a lot of Chilean slang, finally, and even using the same groan as my students. I am finally becoming acclimated to the food (well, my stomach isn’t), and generally just trying to live up my life in Chile. I hope that this has been an entertaining update for those of you back home and will try to get better about this. But then again, I’ll be back home before you know it….crazy. Miss you all!

Here are some pictures to enjoy, the videos will hopefully be added this week!

The gringas hitting up a Chilean costume party. We wore togas (with tights under because it was cold) and I had to pose with the flag of course.

Jackie's host family digging up song orange tongues to eat...yummm.

THIS is Anticuchos. Kebabs. Pure meat.

So tasty

Jackie's host mom, Monica enjoying some anticuchos as well.

All of us gringas dressed up to go to the costume party.

I did a three-legged race at the gym for the Independence day party. I never actually ran with this woman, but we were indeed tied together at one point.

Melissa and I with Jackie's host family for the 18th!

Enjoying Monica's cooking, and of course Heineken from a can, luke warm of course. It's the Chilean way.

I'm eating one of those orange tongues that are in a picture up above.

We found a crab skeleton on the rocks. Don't worry, I didn't really eat it...

This is Claudia and I at the first feast of the Independence Day celebration at school with all of the teachers. There was another one about 2 hours later. We are wearing traditional Cueca dresses.

These are humitas. Like I said, just like Cuban tamales.

These are all pictures of students in their costumes for the act. The shiny more ridiculous costumes are for the Saya, which was put on by 8th grade.

Melissa came to the act at my school as well, and we felt it necessary to take a picture in front of the giant Chilean flag.

I really think it's necessary that you see the back of these outfits....

Ah yes, back to the feast with the teachers. There was private chef that came and made all the food. It was delicious.

This is one of my 8th graders and me in our traditional outfits.

4th grade dressed in Cueca outfits although they were not dancing, but then again, neither was I...

More 8th grade boys in Saya outfits. I just think these outfits are outrageous so I took as many pictures as possible. I wish I had gotten more of the girls. If you will notice, the boys have bells on their boots. Most of their parents made these outfits just for this one day.

The principles secretary insisted in taking a picture of me in my Cueca dress in front of the Chilean flag.

These are girl versions of Saya outfits. Wonderful.

This is the set for the act. The kids danced in front of this.

These next few are just students in the stands that dressed up for fun. They are great.

For the day, there was artwork decorating the whole school. It is all done by the students and is Chilean themed.

A little bit about Tocopilla

Well, life has started to slow down here, since vacation is over and I haven't gone away for any weekends. In the past three weeks since I last posted (oops), I did celebrate the 6th Anniversary of Collegio Gabriela Mistral (my school) and I feel like I have finally gotten used enough to this town that I have started observing more. I am past the point of taking every single thing in as a new experience, I have been able to really take a step back and observe the culture.

The Anniversary.
Well, what an experience. I can't remember celebrating any anniversaries of any of my schools growing up. I think Salem had like a 10 year or something when I was young, and that may have had some sort of party, but nothing compares to the yearly three week long celebration that takes place at any school with a birthday here.

It all started on a Thursday night when I was told I needed to be at school at 10pm for a dinner, and bring a bottle of wine. I really didn't expect much from this dinner. Most of the teachers at my school are older and not very crazy, so I thought. There was probably a 2:1 ratio of people to bottles of wine. Since I ate tesito (tea) at home with my host mom (don't really know why we ate), I wasn't very hungry, but I still indulged in some of the great home cooked entrees some of the teachers brought to share. We drank wine, ate and were generally merry for two hours until our Director (principal) stood up to make the anniversary toast at midnight. At this point, he told us all to go outside where we found a 25 person marching band playing "Happy Birthday" to Collegio Gabriel Mistral. The band then played about 5 more traditional Chilean songs and we danced the night away. The Director took me in the middle of the circle to test out my Chilean dance moves, and I'd like to think I kept up. After the band left, we went back inside and popped countless bottles of champagne! One of the second grade teachers, who like to make fun of me a lot, decided my cup should never be empty and took care of me for the rest of the evening. This is when I enjoyed my first of many cakes to be eaten over the course of the anniversary celebration and I finally made it home at around 2am, only to be up to teach the next morning at 8. Not only was this a lot of fun, but it helped me get to know a lot of the teachers at the school in a different setting. I think they like me a lot better now, and we joke around a lot more at school.

The next couple of weeks were broken into a variety of different activities. Every school day ended at least an hour early because of some sort of event going on. The Friday after the dinnertime celebration was a sort of "field day" for the kids. I never thought all my time spent at greek week would come in handy, but low and behold I was wrong. I was, of course, a great supporter in the crowd, and was able to give a few pointers on events like Tug-of-War (let's just say my class won it all). There was even the egg on the spoon run and jump rope. Really, the only thing I was missing was the super-hero underpants on my head. That day was a lot of fun, but no cake.

The next week we had soccer and volleyball tournaments everyday after school (I mean, but of course school ended early). All the classes played against each other, boys playing soccer and girls playing volleyball. Once again my class dominated, and on Friday of that week, we had more cake to celebrate "Day of the Kids" (like mother's day or father's day in Chile, but instead, just for kids). Now, I mention cake so much because cake in Chile is much better than cake in the states. If you know me at all, you know that my favorite cake is Tres Leches. I love that cake because of how moist it is. Store bought cakes in the states are usually dry and the frosting coats your mouth. It's just really not a good experience. Well, that is not the case here. Every cake has the sort of moist-ness that you get with Tres Leches. Whether is Dulce de Leche flavored (which it almost always is), or just a white cake. Sometimes there is fruit in it, sometimes just manjar (their version of dulce de leche). It is always good, and the frosting is just right. Basically, I love Chilean cake. That's all there is to it.

Throughout the school days of the entire three-week party there were different events such as poetry readings by the students and we even had a mass. Mind you, I teach at a public school, so I was very surprised to have a mass in the middle of the school day. And boy, were the kids disrespectful. Now, I used to throw my fair share of ju-ju-bees during chapel at good old Orange Lutheran, but that was just the beginning of what these kids were doing. The poor priest...

The last week of the anniversary was very interesting. The first two weeks was all about the kids, but the third week was actually all about the parents. After school everyday there was a volleyball tournament between the moms! Big surprise, my class won. Yay Octavo A (8th grade, A)! And one night, there was a parent talent show. This was ridiculous. Because women have kids much younger here than in the states, a lot of the mothers of 1st and 2nd grade weren't much older than me if not my age. So, some of the dances were not dances you would see mothers do in the states, for example wearing the kids' school uniforms (think, Brittany Spears "Hit Me Baby..."). It was all very entertaining though.

The final event of the anniversary celebration is the presentation of the kings and queens. Every class elects a king and queen and pays money to get them gifts. Then on this final night, they get dressed up in formal wear, the queens all wearing white dresses, and they are crowned. This was one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen. Like a quinsinera for 18 different girls all thrown into one. The parents, of course, love it. It is this big production and leaves all the girls that weren't chosen as queen jealous of the girl that was. But low and behold, they can always be queen next year when they do this whole crazy celebration all over again.

I'm really glad that I got to be part of this big party, because it seems to be a big part of Chilean culture. I was just informed this afternoon that Jackie's school's celebration starts this Monday night with the midnight toast, so I am excited to hear the differences between her school and mine and maybe even go with her to celebrate a little (and maybe eat some cake).

Since the anniversary is over, school has gone back to normal, and I actually just had my very first week with all of my classes. I don't know if that will really ever happen again because September brings Chilean Independence day as well as the anniversary of Tocopilla, all very good reasons to miss school. I am now at the point where I have come into a routine with my students, and I know what more to expect, although they all have their own ways of surprising me. The latest trick for my 5th graders is to lock themselves in the cabinets in my room. I also have a 7th grader that brought a steak knife to school last week, so she could cut her lemon in class. During the same class, it started raining glitter half way through, and another one of my classes what put on hold last week because there was a stray dog in my class who was not willing to leave. These are all very normal things to happen at school here, and I enjoy taking them all in and having a good laugh. My students are still very caring and buy me my very favorite hand-made bread at recess sometimes. If not, then this new mint chocolate candy I am quickly becoming a fan of.

Other than school, I am noticing Tocopilla rebuilding itself more. A lot of the houses in my area are finally being renovated since the earthquake last November. It is a big thing to watch a house being demolished that typically draws quite the crowd. The futbol stadium is supposed to re-open in September and there will be another large party for that, and I am crossing my fingers to meet the famous soccer player that is from here in Tocopilla.

I have been a little sick for the past couple of weeks, and experienced my first trip to the hospital in South America. Now, no need to worry, I am fine, but it's just another interesting experience I can take home with me. The hospital is run out of portable buildings here since it was demolished in the earthquake, so it was not quite the same as a trip to the doctor in the states, and of course the fact that he didn't speak a word of English. The good news is that he gave me meds, and I should be on the road to recovery.

Well, that's about all I have for now, and I hope this fulfilled your Chile update cravings for the time-being. Sweater dog still is not wearing a sweater, and we are still having earthquakes on a frequent basis. I will try to blog more often so as not to keep you on the edge of your seat all the time, since that's where I know you are. As your Summer comes to an end, my Spring is just beginning with the possibility of not one but two asados this afternoon to start! I hope all is well in the US of A! Chao!

Team Snickers

Well, well, well. I know it has been FOREVER, and I have been getting a lot of requests for more blog. I am finally here to tell you about my winter vacation. Wow was it crazy. I also have had some exciting experiences since I have been back in Chile. So brace yourself, this ones gonna be long...

As I mentioned before, for my winter vacation, I traveled with 4 other volunteers to Machu Picchu, Peru. Before we left, we really had no plans except that, and our trip really became so much more. Because of the unorganized bus system here in Chile, it is impossible to find out the schedule of buses in other cities and book things in advance, really. All we knew when we left Tocopilla was that we were meeting up with two of our friend in the Northern most city, Arica, and then somehow getting to Peru. I have never been on such a spontaneous trip. I really didn't know what was in store for me, and I was pleasantly surprised with the trip of a lifetime.

Jackie, Melissa and I decided to leave for Arica a day early so we could see the city before we met up with the boys to cross the border. The city was nice. Bigger than Tocopilla for sure, and with more money. The world surfing finals were in Arica last year, so of course the beach is beautiful and they cater to tourism more than any other city in Chile I have been to. Of course we ate at McDonalds, because we are dying for a good burger (how sad), and even met up with some other volunteers that happened to be there on their way up North. The really stand-out thing about my experience in Arica was our hostel. After my experience last summer in Europe, I have become pretty savvy at hostelworld.com. I tend to know what to look for when booking hostels, and this one seemed fun, I guess, and of course, it was cheap most importantly. The people who worked at the hostel were young Europeans who were obviously crashing for a few months in Arica. One of them strolled in from the beach when we arrived and the other we had obviously woken up. They didn't wear shoes, there was beer bottles scattered throughout the common area, and a painting had fallen on the floor. There was no sign of any other people staying there, so needless to say, I think these people are enjoying their lives. The man that ran the hostel was the icing on the cake. He had some sort of crazy accent and LOVED to say "mother fucker." Sorry for the profanity, but it really helps describe his character. It pretty much seems like he just invites all his friends over every night and they just drink and be merry. He was very hung-over the day we were there, because he said Sundays were for resting. He was quite the character, and actually ended up giving us some very useful tips on our journey north. Never would I have thought that a Brazilian with long hair who permanently smelled like alcohol could have been such a treat in my life, but I don't think I'll be forgetting him or that night anytime soon.

We only stayed one night in Arica and arose very early to meet our friends at the bus station and start our international travel. Roberto (our hostel man) and many other people told us that taking a bus over the border is not worth it because it is more expensive and takes much longer than simply taking a taxi. Oh, and by taxi he means a 1970-something Buick. Much reminiscent of Jeffrey Harris's old beauty. So we squeezed 5 people into this car with all of our backpacks and at one point had to give the driver our passports (very nerve-wrecking experience) while he filled out our paperwork to cross. It only takes about an hour to cross both the Peru and Chilean borders for most people. We, of course, are different. Because of the Visa's that are in our passports, we are technically Chilean citizens for the next year. In order to leave the country we need two things: our passports and our Chilean carnets. No one ever told us anything about this, of course, and Jackie didn't have her carnet with her. Needless to say, we had to leave Jackie at the border and she met us a day later in Arequipa.

If you are traveling through Peru at any point in your life, and you are taking a bus, I highly recommend the company "Cruz Del Sur." Throughout our trip, we had some VERY interesting bus experiences. We were ripped off at some points by companies, and given the biggest culture shock of our lives on one of our bus rides. We always had a pleasant experience with Cruz del Sur, even playing a game of "Bingo" on one of our longer voyages. That was one of the greatest surprises of the whole trip. My friend Andrew almost won, but was beat by some European folk, dang. I have gotten used to having an attendant on bus trips. At first it was very odd, but now I appreciate the fact that they bring be juice and blankets.

Our first major city that we went to was Arequipa. This is where both Melissa and I did the bulk of our Peruvian souvenier purchasing. I am now the proud owner of an orange-peruvian fanny pack, a sweater made out of llama fur with llamas on it (warmest thing I've ever put on in my life) and a very bright hand made hat (earflaps were very necessary in the cold).

I am not the typical traveler in Peru. I don't have REI gear dripping from head to toe, and I don't own a North Face fleece. Me and my True Religion Jeans, American Apparel Hoodie and brown slip-on Vans became quite the outdoorsman during this adventure, and I must say, they held up pretty well. The only REI thing that came in definite help was my backpack. Poor Melissa had a rolly-suitcase that was not her friend by the end of our trip. There are no elevators in South America.

Anyway, Arequipa. This city is very pretty. It's the first definite sign in Peru of the tourism industry. It was really crazy to see that since I have been living so far from that culture for quite a while now. Our first night there, we ate in the main plaza ("Plaza de Armas," the same name for every big plaza in South America) on the very top on the roof of a building. This was awesome. Our server was so excited to have Americans at his restaurant and even gave us Ponchos when it got cold. A great welcome into Peru. Peruvian people are very very nice. For example, the people at our hostel accidentally booked our room before we came into Arequipa, and instead of telling us we were SOL when we got there, they gave us rooms that were brand-new (literally they were putting in the light sockets when we checked in) and would normally cost 5 times what we paid, and they even gave us a discount from our original price. It seemed like Peruvians really go out of their way to make people feel welcome, and let me say, it does indeed work.

The coolest thing that we did in Arequipa, however, was horseback riding through Incan Terrace farms. These farms were over 500 years old and still today, no modern-day equipment was used to keep them running. Being on horseback really gave us the chance to see these farms up close and how they actually work. It was really incredible.

We only stayed in Arequipa one night, and by this point we had Jackie again, phew. Then we took a night bus up to Cusco. Coldest experience of my life. Thank god for the llama sweater, that's all I really have to say about that. Cusco is a cool city. Very crowded and full of tourism, but that makes it easy to find things to do. The altitude finally started affecting me there, and I had an extreme case of the sniffles, nothing much worse than that though. This is where the Snickers comes in. There are many remedies to deal with altitude sickness. We were all very scared to get too sick. I was definitely after seeing the state my dad came home in last April, so we took all the necessary precautions in order to keep well. This included a lot of coco-leaf tea, coco candies and massive amounts of chocolate. Chocolate later translated into Snickers bars, and Snickers bars later translated into breakfast or lunch. I was really excited when I could find ones with almond.

There was about 15 volunteers from English Opens Doors in Cusco at the same time as us. It was awesome because Melissa actually spotted them when we were eating dinner at the coolest restaurant ever one night. Our Chilean phones didn't work in Peru, so there was no way of getting in contact besides the awkward facebook messages that we were sending each other in an effort to meet up, and who knew when we would have internet access. Anyway, this restaurant we found in Nick's rusty trusty Frommers book (if your traveling peru get the Frommer's book. It's very helpful). It was the first real restaurant I had really been to since Santiago. They took our drink orders separate from our food orders and everything. There we ate alpaca, and it was very yummy, and I had chicken-skewers with peanut sauce. Boy do I miss peanuts (mostly peanut butter). The food in Cusco was generally pretty good. I think this had a large part to do with tourism, but that was fine by me. I got to have flavors that I have not had since I was in the states, and that was nice.

We stayed in Cusco for a few nights before we went to Machu Picchu. The week we went was the start of the high-season, so we could not book a trip right away. We visited the ruins, Saqsaywaman (sexy woman, that's not what it actually means, but how it's pronounced instead), and I lost my breath every 10 steps because of the altitude, what a wimp. Booking tour in Peru is a very interesting experience. Throughout our trip, we realized that people book tours and take your money but don't actually put any of the work into it until the day you plan on traveling, ie: bus/train tickets, hostels, things like that. This means that even though someone may have told you that you are taking this bus at this time and visiting these things, they really have no idea and you will most likely be taking a different trip because when they finally get around to getting bus or train tickets, they are already sold out. I'm not sure if that exactly made sense, but that's what happened to us, and to several other people that we met. Everything turned out alright though, and soon enough, we headed to Aguas Calientes as a one-night stop before catching the sunrise at Machu Picchu.

Aguas Calientes is a smaller town. It's only purpose is a place for people to stay during their travels to the lost city, at least that's what it seemed like. Throughout our travels, our little group came to a realization that the boys like to walk a lot more than us girls did. So midday, the three Tocopillans went to the marcado to go souvenier shopping, and the boys went on a three hour hike to a waterfall or something. Then Melissa, Jackie and I went to some hotsprings and met up with the boys for dinner. It was nice that we had people that liked to do the same things as each other, because we were all able to get what we wanted out of the trip.

Finally, we made it to Machu Picchu. We took the first bus in the morning and arrived at the bus station at 5am. We had strategically packed our backs so we had stuff for the cold morning, and went as far as having flip flops for the afternoon when it heated up a bit. Machu Picchu is truly a wonder. We were there early enough that it wasn't swarming with people and we could really take it all in. We were there for about an hour before the sun started rising over the ruins so we explored everything outside of the city part before. Then we had to get a good seat to see the sun break over the ruins, and that was definitely worth it. Our obsession with dogs even came in handy while waiting for the sun when we saw a long dog who had walked all the way up to the ruins himself. It is just amazing how the city is literally in the middle of the Andes. How anyone found it is a wonder to me on it's own, and how it was built makes my head hurt. We had a little tour for a few hours with a guide who told us a bunch of interesting facts and showed us optical illusion sort of things in the rocks. He brought us into a room and made us sing into holes in the wall and hear our voices echo, and he told Melissa and I that we were laying on a human sacrificial rock when we had sprawled across it to take a picture. This was not the last time we heard that, because later in the day when the boys were on a hike that was way too long, and the girls decided to take a nap amongst the llamas and ruins, a tour guide walked by saying "these terrace steps are where Incans used to sacrifice llamas and lambs in old times, and today it is where these senoritas nap." It was pretty funny, and I slept so well that I was snoring...of course. We had a good day at Machu Picchu. We were all impressed by the sheer wonder of it, but also how it has been preserved. It doesn't seem like a tourist attraction while you are there, and they have kept up the integrity of the ruins. Before I left, I got to stamp my own passport with the Machu Picchu stamp, and at that point my day was made.

After Machu, our train back to Cusco wasn't until 9pm. Since we went at 5am, we had a lot of time left when we got back into Aguas Calientes. Unfortunately, we had to check out of the hostel before we left in the morning, but we were very exhausted. So what did we do, you ask? Oh, Melissa, Jackie and I slept on benches in the city. Very classy indeed and we were joined by a family all wearing purple a few hours into it. Then we had a tour debacle at the train station when our company was trying to get us on to an earlier train. This included us sitting there for about two hours and meeting some kids from all over South America, one of which who had ripped her pants from her butt to her knee. We finally got back to Cusco at about midnight after we spent the rest of our night in Aguas Calientes at a restaurant where you could watch movies. We watched Harry Potter, and of course, now I am re-reading the books. We didn't stay in Cusco for long, because the next morning at 7am, we headed to the bus station to make our way to Puno and Lake Titicaca.

We had booked our tour for Lake Titicaca in Cusco, so things were pretty much figured out for us when we got there. Our tour of Titicaca was quite the trip. We visited two floating islands and spent the night on an island saying in houses with no electricity or running water. Floating islands are man-made and have straw as the ground. The houses are actually made out of straw as well, and the one we visited had six families living on it. I'm not exactly sure why people choose to live on these islands away from any sort of civilization, but it's really quite crazy. We were shown how they were built by the president of the island, and then taken into their houses and shown around. We then took one of the man-made water taxis (a straw boat), and joined halfway by a little boy who just climbed on from another boat. On one of the floating islands they sold Snickers, so that was convenient, and that would be the last bit of food that wasn't a starchy carb for the next 24 hours.

When we arrived at the island we spent the night at, there was about 25 traditional Peruvian women waiting for us. Peruvian women wear very bright colored skirts, white blouses with colorful embroidery on the front, these black scarf things and usually have a colorful blanket tied to their back that is holding something, most commonly, a baby. Many of the women didn't speak Spanish even, only Kechwa. Our host mom spoke Spanish, but she lived with her parents and her mother didn't. Her six year old daughter spoke Spanish and Ketchwa and was even learning English in school. The mom made us lunch and dinner in her clay stove, while sitting on her knees and washing dishes in buckets. We had potatoes and rice and cheese that squeaked when you chewed it. Although there was a lot of animals on the island, they didn't slaughter them, but just used them for fertalizer, dairy and wool. We ate A LOT, and talked a lot with our host mom as well. She was very nice, and a hard worker. Of 8 kids, she was the only one still living on the island, and that is because she isn't married. At night, they dressed us up in the typical Peruvian outfits and took us to a little party with a band and dancing. This experience was really incredible. Her daughter really loved hanging out with us, and they even gave us their address to write to them in the future. This was something I never thought or knew that I would ever do, and I am so happy that we did. I still can't believe that people still live like these people do today, but they seem very happy and content with their lives on the island.

Our journey back to Puno took about 4 hours by boat. There was a lot of people crammed onto our boat, and we thought that was normal until we were stopped by the Lake Titicaca Coast Guards. We all had to put on life jackets (although there wasn't enough for everybody, hello Titanic) and our driver got fined 90 soles and got his license taken away for having 13 more people on the boat than was allowed. Oh, this is just Peruvian tourism for you. By the time we got back, we were tired and ready to get back to Chile. We arose early the next morning and embarked on what was the most colorful bus ride I have ever been on in my life.

Taking a bus from Puno to Tacna (the border city to Chile, a lot like Tijuana) is not something that a lot of tourists do. We didn't have a bus ticket before we left, so we just went to the bus station in the morning hoping to find something. We found a bus right away very conveniently, but this was not a bus that is meant for tourists. This took us only about 5 minutes into our journey to realize, and we were on this bus for 10 hours. We were the only people on the bus that weren't Peruvian, and by Peruvian I mean carrying a baby on your back with a mini-bowler cap and long braids. The two seats behind Melissa and I were filled by two mothers with two babies. One mother sat in the aisle for most of the trip feeding her baby, and when she was not there, her breasts were exposed while she was breastfeeding, or sometimes they were just out. About three hours into the voyage, a very old woman came on the bus with a walking stick that was actually a stick and decided halfway on her way to her seat that she didn't want to sit that far back, so she planted herself in the middle of the aisle, on my feet. She sat their very content for about 2 hours until Melissa had to get up to go to the bathroom. It took about 4 people to get her up off the floor and she finally made it to her actual assigned seat. There were three people on the bus who stood up and made speeches, basically asking for money. One did magic, he was okay. One evangilized then talked about eating right and gave out books, and the last one sold skin care products and even had a portable microphone. We stopped many times on the bus, and one time everyone had to get off. This was a fruit checkpoint meaning that you aren't supposed to take fruit passed this point. Although everyone was supposed to get off, only about 20 people did, and all the women who did (besides the gringas), lifted up their skirts on the side of the road and went to the bathroom right there, although there was a bathroom in the bus. And, as soon as the bus took off again, the woman in front of me pulled out an orange and started eating away. Good thing there was a fruit check. This bus ride was probably the most culture I experienced my entire time in Peru, and I could not help but laugh then entire 10 hours. Needless to say, there was no Bingo on this bus and they didn't play the movie "Herbie: Fully Loaded" like our others. Although it didn't smell very good and I was forced to keep the back of my seat up the whole time due to the 4 people that were sitting in the 2 seats behind me, I would not trade that experience for anything in the world.

I was very happy when our bus was finally pulling into Tocopilla 24 hours after we boarded our bus from Puno (the Peruvian one being only 10 hours of the journey). The three of us were greeted by none other than sweater dog, but no one had changed his sweater. We think his family was on vacation, and as of today, he is no longer wearing a sweater. I am starting to get worried...

Well, that pretty much sums up my trip to Peru in the longest blog post ever. I am going to leave you with that for now, although I must write about my school's anniversary celebration that started last night. But it is going on for three weeks, so I will spare you for now, but get your mind thinking about it by mentioning that last night at midnight there was a full on marching band at my school playing happy birthday for all of the teachers that were there for the anniversary dinner, myself included.

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Here is a link to the pictures from my trip. I didn't put them in the blog because there was too many I wanted to share. I hope you enjoyed this post, because I really did enjoy my trip. Chao!

Flag Day!

Wow! I know I just posted yesterday, but I just came home from the Flag Day celebration in the city square. Every year, one of the schools is in charge of it, and this year it was my school! So basically, I just stood there taking pictures with my mouth wide open the whole time. It was great, and I'd love to share some pictures with you!

This is the students of Gabriela Mistral lining up to walk to the parade!

These are the 3rd Grade girls who were chosen to carry the flag. The one on the left is the one that read the poem later.

A better view of all of the students. This is about half of the school actually, because most kids have already left for "La Tirana"

These are their complete uniforms. Typically students will only wear the sweatpants, but on formal days they must wear this. I'd say kids wear this outfit once a week just normally anyway. Not the gloves though. Love the gloves.

Some of the 8th Grade girls that were flag bearers. I shared with them my flag bearing days...

These are 5th and 6th Grade girls that danced the Cueca. That is the most famous dance in Chile. They are my students!

These are 4th Grade girls that danced another dance...I don't know what it was called.

These girls danced a dance that is very traditional in the south. They are in 2nd and 3rd Grade, so I don't actually have them in class, but they always come visit my classroom during the breaks and give me candy or bread. :)

The whole group of 4th Graders that danced the dance with no name.

The two flag-bearers of Gabriela Minstral. The taller one is in 7th Grade, and the shorter is in 8th and very good at sports.

This is the choir, and they come from all ages from 5th-8th. They are all my students.

Haha. These are two of my 8th Graders. The one on the left is Nico, but I don't know the other one's name...Nico is very nice. :) They were begging for me to take a picture of them.

These boys are in 6th Grade. I've actually only had their class once, because we NEVER have class on Fridays. Today is a perfect example...

Haha. These are bossy 7th Graders. I love them. The one in the middle is the Queen of the Class. I'm still not exactly sure what that means, but I will find out in August. These girls are very funny.

4th Grade boys. They were so excited for pictures!

I think these kids are in 2nd Grade, but I'm not sure because I don't teach that young. They are candy deliverers as well. As well as super cute.

7th and 8th Grade boys sitting on the bench before the celebration started.

Then all of the upper-classmen realized that I was taking pictures, so they ran over to get in on it. It caused quite the scene. Oops.

More of the riot in action. Haha. They are funny kids.

The choir getting set-up for their performance.

The flag bearers from all of the other schools in town. Gabriela Mistral students were the stars of the show though.

When the celebration started, this is what it looked like.

Then they unveiled the flag of flowers. Very fancy.


Now for my very professional footage taken by my camera on video mode...

This first video is a girl from 3rd Grade. This poem is about 6 minutes long, but I just gave you the first few minutes. She is amazing, and I have seen her perform this 3 times this week. It was amazing to see how the whole community was so proud of her.



This next clip is the first dance. Some lady walked in front of me, so it is broken up into two sections, but it's cute none the less. These kids are in 4th Grade. They are the youngest ones I teach.





This dance is a traditional one from the South. The little beanies and turtlenecks that the boys are wearing are even traditional garb, except one of the boys is earing a "Colo-Colo" beanie, and that's just a favorite futbol team around these parts...These kids are in 2nd and 3rd Grade, so I don't teach them, but I have gotten to know a lot of them at recess and such.



This is the last dance, and the most popular in Chile. It is called the Cueca, and supposedly I am going to learn it. The girls dancing it are from 5th and 6th Grades. Their dresses were made by some of the parents, and obviously represent the Chilean flag (because it's Flag Day and all).


This is the Choir singing the song of the flag. Only part of it, of course.



This is the actual parade. The first snapshot is the flag-bearers of Gabriela Mistral, but my camera was running low on battery, so I didn't get all of the other schools. The second snapshot is all of the students from my schools and a lot of the teachers. They were all so nervous!

I hope that you have enjoyed this entry. This is just a short view into Chilean culture. The whole town came out to watch this, and I was excited to be a part of it. Happy Flag Day! I'm off to Peru!