Well, sorry folks that I have been gone for so long. I know that you are probably shamelessly checking my blog every single day to catch a glimpse of my life down South, but alas, I have actually been busy! This past week, I kind of got my routine going for my life here in Chile, and I love it.
I teach here five days a week ranging from 8am-5:30pm. If I don't go in at 8am, I go in at 11, which is nice because then I get to sleep in and get some work done in the morning at the house by myself. Of course, I have a 2 hour lunch break every single day, as does the rest of Chile, and on some days mine are longer. I am teaching 4th-8th grades. There are two sections of every class and I see each once a week for about an hour. The 7th and 8th graders I see for three hours (but we split each class in half, so I see them for about an hour and a half). My English co-teacher was just made "boss" teacher (homeroom teacher) of one of the 8th grade classes, so I get to spend extra time with them. They want to throw me an asado this weekend for 4th of July.
In the afternoons I have different things that I do. Because I am American, my school figured that I play sports (haha). When one of the teachers left, they sort of unofficially appointed me the assistant volleyball coach. We practice twice a week officially, but I have found that they actually play every day. This has been a great way for me to get to know the students since I see them so little in the classroom, and they love learning phrases like "Go Team." Some of these kids are freaking amazing at volleyball. Seriously, there is a 12 year old girl that jump serves. Although I don't know how much help I am actually being while I'm at practice, but I love getting to play with them, and I can't wait until the season starts in July. One of the other volunteers comes and practices with us, so my students are super excited that they get another gringa at their school. Everyday they ask me if I'm coming to volleyball, but to tell you the truth, I'm not sure who is more excited for me to go, me or them.
I have really found that the children here are very loving. They are so eager to find out about my culture, and in turn, have taught me a lot about the Chilean culture, and of course, some Spanish. I am learning about the different styles in Chile and even catching on to a lot of their slang, poh! I receive gifts every day in class whether it be a piece of candy or a bracelet. I really have no choice on whether I want to take it or not, because they give it to me no matter what.
A short story:
My favorite gift has been from a girl in one of the 7th grade classes. I have that class on Thursdays before and after lunch, so a lot of the kids go home and eat during that time (and so do I). Before lunch she was asking me about food in the states and if I miss it and such. I really didn't think anything of it at the time, but when we got back from lunch, she told me that she had a gift for me. After the earthquake a lot of families were given emergency supplies because a lot of people didn't really have anything at all. I think her family got this after the earthquake, but she wanted to give me some. It was emergency self-heating Chicken Noodle Soup. She told me to eat it if I miss home, and that she has more if I want some. I seriously didn't know what to say when she gave it to me, and it will probably be coming home with me (unless I get desperate for food). The kids here are just that great.
Well, after the volleyball and English club (we meet on Mondays) I go to the gym every night. Now if you know me at all, you know that I have never gone to the gym in my life, but I have found that it is quite fun here in Tocopilla. This is not like a gym with machines and things. It is a step class run by this woman in an empty room at her church. About 30 women go every night, and it is one of the hardest things I have ever done. I have honestly never sweat so much in my life. We step for about an hour non-stop, and then she kills us with stretching and ab work. I may not lose any weight while I'm here (because I eat about a cup of oil every day), but I'm sure gonna be in shape.
This past weekend, I went down to Antofagasta with the two other volunteers that I hang out with a lot and our friend Rodrigo, he is a Teacher at Melissa's (one of the other volunteers from NY...might as well get to know them because I'm going to talk a lot about them) school. Jackie's (the other volunteer from Tempe, AZ) host brother and sister live down in Antofagasta because they go to the University there. We met them when their school was on strike for an entire month, so we got the chance to become friends. We stayed the weekend at Marco and Pamela's house, and explored the big city. We met up with some of the volunteers that work down there, and it was nice to be taken back to the family we made in Santiago during training.
Being in the big city was nice because they have commercial things that simply don't exist in Tocopilla. For example, McDonalds. It has never tasted so good in my life. Nothing like a burger when the hot dogs here are served with tomatoes, mayonnaise, avocado and more. There is a movie theatre there (which we didn't actually go to) and even a mall. Some of the volunteers there live up to an hour outside the main city, and transportation there is more expensive and pretty hard to figure out. The entire time we were there, my friends and I who are working in Tocopilla were so thankful for our placements. For me, I would never be able to adapt into the Chilean culture when nobody recognizes me on the city streets and invites me to their house for tea. The size of my city has proven to be perfect, and knowing that I can get to a bigger place in just 2 and a half hours is just perfect for me.
So now I am here in a new week. I start teaching on my own tomorrow, and this week and next will pretty much be flying solo. My co-teacher has gotten the chance to go to Spain through some sort of ministry of science, and is leaving this Thursday and will be gone until I leave for Peru. They are bringing in a substitute teacher for her, but I will have all the kids while I am in class. I am excited, because they all are quite eager to have me on my own, and I am excited as well to really get them to interact with me in the classroom. They want to learn some sort of "American dance" (? I don't know...) this week in celebration of the 4th of July, so we have agreed upon the Electric Slide. Can't freaking wait.
I may have landed upon a new extra-curricular activity as well. Today while at the office of the International Police (I have to go there to register as a person living in the city), my friend Melissa and I were approached about teaching English to some of the officers. It would be pretty sweet. We would work with them probably once or twice a week for a few hours over at Melissa's school, and they want to pay us! I figure we'd probably get some good asados out of it too (and I LOVE asados), and hang out with these hilarious police officers. They said they were going to call me this week to set it up, so I'm looking forward to it.
Well, that's my life in a nutshell pretty much. I will try to post pictures of my friends and host family this week. I am not really taking very many pictures myself, but instead stealing them from other people, so I have to wait for them to post them. You may even get a video of the karaoke experience I had in Antofagasta. So far, we have sang "Hotel California" and "New York, New York" at karaoke bars. These seem to be the only songs they have in English, but luckily they have landed upon a Californian and a New Yorker. Aren't they lucky.
I know this was kind of a random post, but I hope you enjoyed it, and I want you all to know that I am thoroughly enjoying my experience here. In Tocopilla, the colectivo drivers (kind of like taxis) know me at "Katti," my other friend as "Yaki" (that's Jackie), and Melissa is "la nina rubio" (the only blonde in Tocopilla). I am becoming a part of this community and finding fun new things every day. I miss you all, and hope you are enjoying your warm weather. I am in Winter...but it's not that cold.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Some Pictures and Other News
Santiago, Chile (to view the pictures larger, just click on them)
You can see the Andes over the skyline in the city. It didn't rain that day, but it sure looked like it would. This is the coldest place I've been in the country. It was in the 40s, and I could NOT handle it.
My friends and I really want to ride llamas, so we take pictures of them whenever possible. So far, I've only had one opportunity.
These are other volunteers. We had a chance to go out on the town in Chile and it was a lot of fun. I made friends with these two women who were lawyers, but they never facebooked me like they said they would. Dang. We had a lot of fun getting to know each other for the first week, and were sad to say goodbye on the last day to a few. There are now 17 of us in the Antofagasta region, and only 4 in Tocopilla.
Antofagasta, Chile
We spent one day in Antofagasta which is the larger city about 3 hours south of here. It is a pretty beach town and has a McDonalds if I ever get desperate...
Tocopilla, Chile
These wooden houses are the disaster relief houses that the government has given to families who were effected badly by the earthquake. These are whole communities with no running water and minimal electricity. In some cases, there are multiple families living in just one of these houses.
The beach in Tocopilla is very pretty. The whole city is on the coast so you can basically see it wherever you go. However, the further south you go, the prettier it gets. This is southern, obviously. There is even a man-made beach and a sort of community ocean pool that gets very crowded during the summer time. The boy is my friend Nick. During the strikes, the people from Antofagasta came up north to see us here in Tocopilla. It was great to see some familiar faces and get the chance to show them around our city.
There are murals all over Tocopilla. This is one of my favorites, Andre 3000, and of course, I had to do the "Hey Ya" dance in front of it...
This is a very famous rock in Tocopilla. It is supposed to be a camel, although my friends and I think it looks more like a Turtle. What do you think???
My favorite foods of Chile...of course, Ceviche!! Let me tell you, this put Gabbi's Ceviche to shame. And if you know me and Gabbi's ceviche, you know how good this was. I hope to be eating this A LOT. CHORRIPAN. This is a favorite at Asados, and I am in love with it. I eat Chorripan every weekend it seems, and I would be okay with that trend sticking. The last sundae looking thing is when I thought I ordered two scoops of coffee ice cream. I guess not...
This is the main street of Tocopilla, 21 de Mayo. Basically everything to do in the city has to do with this road. My host dad owns a shop there too, so I will spend some of my weekends there selling stuff throughout my time here.
My home... This is the bakery that we share our building with. Our door is the one on the left sort of in the back. The landlord also live in the back, but the balcony is actually ours.
This is our living room. We eat all of our meals on that table. It is nice.
This is my room. :) There is another mattress under my bed for friends if they want to stay over. My host parents are so nice!
This is our kitchen where I am becoming a culinary genius (HA!) I have learned how to light both the oven and stove without burning off my eyebrows....
And finally, my classroom! It doesn't have decorations yet, but it will!
Lastly, are these two pictures of the city. I am kind of confused as to how to organize pictures on here, so bear with me. This electricity plant gives power to all of the Antofagasta region. It is South of my house. The picture next to it is the black sand beach. I haven't actually been there yet, but it's supposed to be pretty nice. I am interested to see how the sand feels. It kind of looks like coal to me...
And in other news:
We had our first tremor the other night. I guess it was at 5am, but I did not feel it. There is a big alarm that goes off daily on the main road. It seriously bursts my eardrums a little bit every time I hear it. Word on the street (I mean the streets of Tocopilla) is that if there is another huge earthquake, there will probably be a tsunami. This is something I hear about on a daily basis from my students, and I am told to just run up the hill. So, if you hear about an earthquake in Northern Chile, look for me on the hill.
I miss you all, and thanks for checking in!
You can see the Andes over the skyline in the city. It didn't rain that day, but it sure looked like it would. This is the coldest place I've been in the country. It was in the 40s, and I could NOT handle it.
My friends and I really want to ride llamas, so we take pictures of them whenever possible. So far, I've only had one opportunity.
These are other volunteers. We had a chance to go out on the town in Chile and it was a lot of fun. I made friends with these two women who were lawyers, but they never facebooked me like they said they would. Dang. We had a lot of fun getting to know each other for the first week, and were sad to say goodbye on the last day to a few. There are now 17 of us in the Antofagasta region, and only 4 in Tocopilla.
Antofagasta, Chile
We spent one day in Antofagasta which is the larger city about 3 hours south of here. It is a pretty beach town and has a McDonalds if I ever get desperate...
Tocopilla, Chile
These wooden houses are the disaster relief houses that the government has given to families who were effected badly by the earthquake. These are whole communities with no running water and minimal electricity. In some cases, there are multiple families living in just one of these houses.
The beach in Tocopilla is very pretty. The whole city is on the coast so you can basically see it wherever you go. However, the further south you go, the prettier it gets. This is southern, obviously. There is even a man-made beach and a sort of community ocean pool that gets very crowded during the summer time. The boy is my friend Nick. During the strikes, the people from Antofagasta came up north to see us here in Tocopilla. It was great to see some familiar faces and get the chance to show them around our city.
There are murals all over Tocopilla. This is one of my favorites, Andre 3000, and of course, I had to do the "Hey Ya" dance in front of it...
This is a very famous rock in Tocopilla. It is supposed to be a camel, although my friends and I think it looks more like a Turtle. What do you think???
My favorite foods of Chile...of course, Ceviche!! Let me tell you, this put Gabbi's Ceviche to shame. And if you know me and Gabbi's ceviche, you know how good this was. I hope to be eating this A LOT. CHORRIPAN. This is a favorite at Asados, and I am in love with it. I eat Chorripan every weekend it seems, and I would be okay with that trend sticking. The last sundae looking thing is when I thought I ordered two scoops of coffee ice cream. I guess not...
This is the main street of Tocopilla, 21 de Mayo. Basically everything to do in the city has to do with this road. My host dad owns a shop there too, so I will spend some of my weekends there selling stuff throughout my time here.
My home... This is the bakery that we share our building with. Our door is the one on the left sort of in the back. The landlord also live in the back, but the balcony is actually ours.
This is our living room. We eat all of our meals on that table. It is nice.
This is my room. :) There is another mattress under my bed for friends if they want to stay over. My host parents are so nice!
This is our kitchen where I am becoming a culinary genius (HA!) I have learned how to light both the oven and stove without burning off my eyebrows....
And finally, my classroom! It doesn't have decorations yet, but it will!
Lastly, are these two pictures of the city. I am kind of confused as to how to organize pictures on here, so bear with me. This electricity plant gives power to all of the Antofagasta region. It is South of my house. The picture next to it is the black sand beach. I haven't actually been there yet, but it's supposed to be pretty nice. I am interested to see how the sand feels. It kind of looks like coal to me...
And in other news:
We had our first tremor the other night. I guess it was at 5am, but I did not feel it. There is a big alarm that goes off daily on the main road. It seriously bursts my eardrums a little bit every time I hear it. Word on the street (I mean the streets of Tocopilla) is that if there is another huge earthquake, there will probably be a tsunami. This is something I hear about on a daily basis from my students, and I am told to just run up the hill. So, if you hear about an earthquake in Northern Chile, look for me on the hill.
I miss you all, and thanks for checking in!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Finally Blogging...
Well, it's been two weeks and I have yet to post the blog I told everyone that I would. I have, however, been working on it very much. I just haven't been happy with the results. Rather than give you all a day by day account of my time in Chile, I would rather talk about all of the things I have been learning. Through this, you will gain (I think) a better perspective of what my life is like here.
For those of you who don't know, I moved to Chile two weeks ago (May 31) to teach English for 6 months. I am here through the Chilean Ministry of Education with a program called "English Opens Doors." There are 39 volunteers from all over the states as well as Australia, New Zealand and England. Our first week here was spent in Santiago for training, then we were all dispersed throughout the country to our respective placements. I am in Northern Chile in a small town called Tocopilla. There are four volunteers here and we are all at different schools. My school is called Gabriela Minstral and I will be teaching from 4th-8th grade. I will talk more about the kids and the schooling in later posts, as I am just observing now and don't start actually teaching until next week.
I apologize for the length of this first post, but I really have learned a lot in the short time that I have been here. Please feel free to comment, because I want to hear from everyone! I miss you all! So, on to my trip...
The biggest struggle I have faced so far (besides the obvious language barrier) is water. Here in Chile drinking water is not something that is very popular. In Santiago it was easy to run to the market and just by a bottle, or a gallon jug as us volunteers ended up doing, but in Tocopilla it is not as accessible. People here just don't live on water. I have no idea how. My first night with my host family, I asked for a glass of water with once (we don't eat dinner, just have tea) and my host mom asked me if I was on a diet. I have accidentally bought carbonated water from the store (oops) with much disappointment. So, although I am facing dehydration, I have learned to cope, and have started buying bottled water (sin gas) in bulk.
Food here is either salty or sugary. There is really no in between. Chileans are very aware of this and take pride. They never eat just vegetables. You get vegetables with oil and about a cup of salt on top. Other food items, they will just add sugar. Juice here, is like Kool-aid. Just flavored sugar and water, and you drink that for lunch everyday, or Coca Cola. Today we had fresh juice for the first time since I've been here. I watched my host mom actually blend the fruit, then add water of course. Then right when I was super excited to enjoy this great creation, she added about a cup of sugar. Oh well.
I really have enjoyed some of the food I've eaten here. For example, Chorripan. This is a very popular Chilean dish typically enjoyed at asados (or bbqs). It's like a spicy hot dog sort of thing with salsa on top. Oh man, I could eat it forever. But you must save room, because after Chorripan and probably one other appetizer meat, then you sit down for Carne and salad. Salads here are simply a sliced vegetable (with oil and salt). Usually at my house, we have tomatoes (that I peel, because they don't eat the skin). But today, we just had lettuce. There you go, a Chilean salad.
Chilean slang. I love Chilean slang. It is crazy. Most of the Spanish they speak isn't actual Spanish, but Chilenismo. My favorites include: "Buf!" It's sort of just an exclamation. I have quickly learned that this is just a Santiago thing, but I still use it in Tocopilla anyway. I think it's funny. Also "Poh!" This word is added to everything. I mean, EVERYTHING. When you want to emphasize something, you say "Poh!" For example, if someone were to ask me if I were hungry, and I was really hungry, I would reply with, "Si, poh!" I don't know if that's a good example, but it's awesome.
Well, I definitely don't live in Orange County anymore. The city I lived in faced a huge tragedy last year. There was a 7.7 earthquake that effected Tocopilla the most in the country. Much of the city was ruined, and people are definitely still feeling the consequences. The government housing that is provided for those who were hit the hardest (think FEMA housing for Katrina), are these plywood houses. Literally three pieces of plywood with a roof. They have little shanti towns where electricity runs from hut to hut. There is no running water, and they wash dishes and clothes outside in plastic bins. There are blue houses in the communities that the bathrooms are housed in. One of these communities is right on the beach so it is freezing at night. It is really quite crazy to see.
Thankfully, none of us volunteers are placed in this sort of housing, but my lifestyle has definitely changed, to say the least. I live with a young married couple. She is 25, and the English teacher at my school. He is 28 and owns a shop on the main street of town. One of the requirements of hosting a volunteer is that they have their own room, so that is really nice. I am lucky because I have wireless Internet. Not many other volunteers can say the same. We share this building with a bakery with fresh bread (it smells really good) and the landlord. Whenever we want to take a shower, we call the landlord and he turns on the water heater so we can have hot water. We have a quaint kitchen where I am learning to cook, and we eat all our meals in front of the tv in the living room downstairs. I am learning how to hang-dry laundry, not put toilet paper in the toilet and basically become a housewife. Claudia (my host mom) cooks every single meal from scratch. I am helping her. My main chore is the dishes. I never knew how lucky I was to have a double sink.
Because I really have not much else to do, I am getting in shape (surprising I know). Tocopilla is a very small town. No, we do not have a stop light, and yes, I can walk everywhere. A colectivo (a taxi) costs 350 pesos at most to get across town. That's about 75 cents. Things in Chile are pretty cheap to say the least. Anyway, there is no movie theatre or much to do at night. Unless I wanted to go to the same bar or disco (we have one in town) every single night, I need to pick up a hobby. I know that when I start teaching and have students to show me the ropes of the city I will be more busy, but for now, I started running (ha!) and playing tennis. One of the other volunteer's host brother is home from school (I'll explain in the next paragraph), and he is very good at tennis, so he takes us to one of the schools with one of his friends, and they are very patient with us. So hopefully, when I return I will be awesome and can keep up with my dad.
The strikes. There are a lot of strikes in Chile. Now, since I have been here, there is a large one, but people have told me that whenever there are unions here, there are always strikes. Right now there is a student strike. Students from high school up to University are striking against the ministry of education. They don't like where funds are being allocated, and feel like they are missing out on education opportunities. Universities have been out of school for up to a month because of the strike (hence my friend's host brother being home from school). While in Santiago, we saw high school students marching and chanting. It was really crazy.
Now, the teachers are striking as well, because of their pay. This means that I don't have to work this week, and I am marching tomorrow. Yessss. There was also a bus strike last week, so my 20 hour bus ride up north was bumped to earlier than we thought. And on our drive from Antofagasta (the large city 3 hours south of me), we faced many road blocks because of the bus strike. They have stopped lots of construction. So, as you can see, lots of strikes.
Now, I'm going to touch on schools a little bit. Before I came here, I heard that students were not well-behaved in Chile. I heard that there was not much discipline in the classroom. In training, we heard that students were very disrespectful and went as far as making out in class. Since I have been to school, I have noticed the blatant lack of respect for the teachers, but not necessarily to the extent that I had been told, but definitely different than the states. Students walk around in class, and interrupt the teacher a lot. They listen to their mp3 players in class, and blast the music so as to not even hide the fact that they aren't paying attention. They will move to their friends' desk just to talk and it's really just utter chaos inside. A lot of this is that teachers really don't fight back to the students. It will be tough to keep my students in line, but I think I just have to show them my serious side for a while.
Here in Tocopilla, the students call teachers "tia," like aunt. It's funny. Or there is "miss" and of course, "profi." Here I am a celebrity. All of us Americans are. People stare at us wherever we go, and my desk quickly gets surrounded by students asking me questions about my favorite animal or color (because those are the only words they know in English). I receive multiple pieces of candy at school each day, and a few marriage proposals. They don't wear sandals here of any kind, and shorts are not something you really ever see. I definitely stick out, but not as much as my friend with blonde hair. Everyone here is a brunette.
The last fun fact I would like to leave you with is that not just America hates George Bush. The entire world does. Now, I knew this before, but I have actually experienced it here. I cannot count on my fingers how many times I have been asked who I voted for, and how I personally allowed him to be elected in the first place. It's really quite funny. They love Obama, so they like me.
So as you can see, I have learned a lot already. I'm learning so much about who I am and really discovering a new culture in a way I have never done before. I am becoming part of a community in this tiny town where seriously, everyone knows your name. This will not be the easiest 6 months of my life, but I think I will learn more than I have ever before. I will keep posting (not all as long as this one), and add pictures probably tomorrow (since I am on strike). Please ask me what you want to hear about, because I am afraid that this is terribly boring. For now, I am going to update and refresh my Internet to watch the Lakers hopefully not be a complete embarrassment, we'll see.
Thanks for reading, I hope it's not too long and boring.
For those of you who don't know, I moved to Chile two weeks ago (May 31) to teach English for 6 months. I am here through the Chilean Ministry of Education with a program called "English Opens Doors." There are 39 volunteers from all over the states as well as Australia, New Zealand and England. Our first week here was spent in Santiago for training, then we were all dispersed throughout the country to our respective placements. I am in Northern Chile in a small town called Tocopilla. There are four volunteers here and we are all at different schools. My school is called Gabriela Minstral and I will be teaching from 4th-8th grade. I will talk more about the kids and the schooling in later posts, as I am just observing now and don't start actually teaching until next week.
I apologize for the length of this first post, but I really have learned a lot in the short time that I have been here. Please feel free to comment, because I want to hear from everyone! I miss you all! So, on to my trip...
The biggest struggle I have faced so far (besides the obvious language barrier) is water. Here in Chile drinking water is not something that is very popular. In Santiago it was easy to run to the market and just by a bottle, or a gallon jug as us volunteers ended up doing, but in Tocopilla it is not as accessible. People here just don't live on water. I have no idea how. My first night with my host family, I asked for a glass of water with once (we don't eat dinner, just have tea) and my host mom asked me if I was on a diet. I have accidentally bought carbonated water from the store (oops) with much disappointment. So, although I am facing dehydration, I have learned to cope, and have started buying bottled water (sin gas) in bulk.
Food here is either salty or sugary. There is really no in between. Chileans are very aware of this and take pride. They never eat just vegetables. You get vegetables with oil and about a cup of salt on top. Other food items, they will just add sugar. Juice here, is like Kool-aid. Just flavored sugar and water, and you drink that for lunch everyday, or Coca Cola. Today we had fresh juice for the first time since I've been here. I watched my host mom actually blend the fruit, then add water of course. Then right when I was super excited to enjoy this great creation, she added about a cup of sugar. Oh well.
I really have enjoyed some of the food I've eaten here. For example, Chorripan. This is a very popular Chilean dish typically enjoyed at asados (or bbqs). It's like a spicy hot dog sort of thing with salsa on top. Oh man, I could eat it forever. But you must save room, because after Chorripan and probably one other appetizer meat, then you sit down for Carne and salad. Salads here are simply a sliced vegetable (with oil and salt). Usually at my house, we have tomatoes (that I peel, because they don't eat the skin). But today, we just had lettuce. There you go, a Chilean salad.
Chilean slang. I love Chilean slang. It is crazy. Most of the Spanish they speak isn't actual Spanish, but Chilenismo. My favorites include: "Buf!" It's sort of just an exclamation. I have quickly learned that this is just a Santiago thing, but I still use it in Tocopilla anyway. I think it's funny. Also "Poh!" This word is added to everything. I mean, EVERYTHING. When you want to emphasize something, you say "Poh!" For example, if someone were to ask me if I were hungry, and I was really hungry, I would reply with, "Si, poh!" I don't know if that's a good example, but it's awesome.
Well, I definitely don't live in Orange County anymore. The city I lived in faced a huge tragedy last year. There was a 7.7 earthquake that effected Tocopilla the most in the country. Much of the city was ruined, and people are definitely still feeling the consequences. The government housing that is provided for those who were hit the hardest (think FEMA housing for Katrina), are these plywood houses. Literally three pieces of plywood with a roof. They have little shanti towns where electricity runs from hut to hut. There is no running water, and they wash dishes and clothes outside in plastic bins. There are blue houses in the communities that the bathrooms are housed in. One of these communities is right on the beach so it is freezing at night. It is really quite crazy to see.
Thankfully, none of us volunteers are placed in this sort of housing, but my lifestyle has definitely changed, to say the least. I live with a young married couple. She is 25, and the English teacher at my school. He is 28 and owns a shop on the main street of town. One of the requirements of hosting a volunteer is that they have their own room, so that is really nice. I am lucky because I have wireless Internet. Not many other volunteers can say the same. We share this building with a bakery with fresh bread (it smells really good) and the landlord. Whenever we want to take a shower, we call the landlord and he turns on the water heater so we can have hot water. We have a quaint kitchen where I am learning to cook, and we eat all our meals in front of the tv in the living room downstairs. I am learning how to hang-dry laundry, not put toilet paper in the toilet and basically become a housewife. Claudia (my host mom) cooks every single meal from scratch. I am helping her. My main chore is the dishes. I never knew how lucky I was to have a double sink.
Because I really have not much else to do, I am getting in shape (surprising I know). Tocopilla is a very small town. No, we do not have a stop light, and yes, I can walk everywhere. A colectivo (a taxi) costs 350 pesos at most to get across town. That's about 75 cents. Things in Chile are pretty cheap to say the least. Anyway, there is no movie theatre or much to do at night. Unless I wanted to go to the same bar or disco (we have one in town) every single night, I need to pick up a hobby. I know that when I start teaching and have students to show me the ropes of the city I will be more busy, but for now, I started running (ha!) and playing tennis. One of the other volunteer's host brother is home from school (I'll explain in the next paragraph), and he is very good at tennis, so he takes us to one of the schools with one of his friends, and they are very patient with us. So hopefully, when I return I will be awesome and can keep up with my dad.
The strikes. There are a lot of strikes in Chile. Now, since I have been here, there is a large one, but people have told me that whenever there are unions here, there are always strikes. Right now there is a student strike. Students from high school up to University are striking against the ministry of education. They don't like where funds are being allocated, and feel like they are missing out on education opportunities. Universities have been out of school for up to a month because of the strike (hence my friend's host brother being home from school). While in Santiago, we saw high school students marching and chanting. It was really crazy.
Now, the teachers are striking as well, because of their pay. This means that I don't have to work this week, and I am marching tomorrow. Yessss. There was also a bus strike last week, so my 20 hour bus ride up north was bumped to earlier than we thought. And on our drive from Antofagasta (the large city 3 hours south of me), we faced many road blocks because of the bus strike. They have stopped lots of construction. So, as you can see, lots of strikes.
Now, I'm going to touch on schools a little bit. Before I came here, I heard that students were not well-behaved in Chile. I heard that there was not much discipline in the classroom. In training, we heard that students were very disrespectful and went as far as making out in class. Since I have been to school, I have noticed the blatant lack of respect for the teachers, but not necessarily to the extent that I had been told, but definitely different than the states. Students walk around in class, and interrupt the teacher a lot. They listen to their mp3 players in class, and blast the music so as to not even hide the fact that they aren't paying attention. They will move to their friends' desk just to talk and it's really just utter chaos inside. A lot of this is that teachers really don't fight back to the students. It will be tough to keep my students in line, but I think I just have to show them my serious side for a while.
Here in Tocopilla, the students call teachers "tia," like aunt. It's funny. Or there is "miss" and of course, "profi." Here I am a celebrity. All of us Americans are. People stare at us wherever we go, and my desk quickly gets surrounded by students asking me questions about my favorite animal or color (because those are the only words they know in English). I receive multiple pieces of candy at school each day, and a few marriage proposals. They don't wear sandals here of any kind, and shorts are not something you really ever see. I definitely stick out, but not as much as my friend with blonde hair. Everyone here is a brunette.
The last fun fact I would like to leave you with is that not just America hates George Bush. The entire world does. Now, I knew this before, but I have actually experienced it here. I cannot count on my fingers how many times I have been asked who I voted for, and how I personally allowed him to be elected in the first place. It's really quite funny. They love Obama, so they like me.
So as you can see, I have learned a lot already. I'm learning so much about who I am and really discovering a new culture in a way I have never done before. I am becoming part of a community in this tiny town where seriously, everyone knows your name. This will not be the easiest 6 months of my life, but I think I will learn more than I have ever before. I will keep posting (not all as long as this one), and add pictures probably tomorrow (since I am on strike). Please ask me what you want to hear about, because I am afraid that this is terribly boring. For now, I am going to update and refresh my Internet to watch the Lakers hopefully not be a complete embarrassment, we'll see.
Thanks for reading, I hope it's not too long and boring.
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