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!