Hay Pan

I am currently sitting in my room right now waiting for fresh bread from the bakery next door. There is a line out the door, but I know that the bread maker will save some fresh slices specially just for me. :) That is what I have learned since being here alone. Both of my host parents have gone out of town, and I am leaving this Saturday for my trek up to Macchu Pichu (yay!). My host mom is in Spain for a science conference of some sort, and my host dad has made his way up to "La Tirana" which is a large celebration up in Arica (the most Northern city in Chile). We will be hitting that for a day or so on our journey to Peru.

It has been a good week. Since Claudia has been gone, I have been working with another English teacher. Her name is Angelica and she just finished school about a year ago. She doesn't have a teaching job yet, so she just works as a sub when all of the other English teachers in Tocopilla go on vacation or something. She is great, and we have had a really good time working with the kids. Since the semester ends this week, there is really no point starting new topics with the kids right before their 2 week vacation. So we have gotten the chance to play games with the kids in English and I personally have gotten to know them a lot better.

Chilean kids love "Heads up 7up" and "Telephone." They really want to learn about American culture, so I get to talk about home a lot. They love Disney Channel (High School Musical, Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers), but unfortunately I don't know anything about that. I am quickly learning. Chilean kids don't know very many English words. However, they use the ones they do know in excess. I have been told how beautiful I am more times here than I could have dreamed of in my entire lifetime. 7th grade boys really like that one.

I have gotten to know the actual city of Tocopilla a lot better. I will often just walk around to see the sights. My friend Melissa and I were walking last Sunday and found this neat little swap meet type thing. Then we found my host dad that was working it, and it was a very random experience. Apparently it happens about twice a month. Who knew? I am learning who hangs out where, and which dogs frequent which corners. (I must tell you later about "sweater-dog." It's our new photo journal. I'll tell you about him when I actually have photos)

On the weekends we typically go to the Disco on Friday nights. That is the night when more young people are there (even one of my 7th graders last weekend, hmmm...) Usually, we try to find ourselves an asado to go to before, and go to the disco after. That is basically what my 4th of July was, and it was great. My host dad threw an asado at the house where he made pebre (it's GREAT salsa), chorripan (my FAVORITE), and of course carne. I was too full by the time the carne came out, and actually already gone for the disco seeing as it was about 2am. Ya, the nights start LATE. I thought they started late when I lived in Spain, but here, if you go somewhere before midnight it will be a ghost town. People don't really start showing up places until about 1am or later. I guess this makes sense since the young people really don't do anything during the day when they are not at school, but at the same time, they are just sitting at home waiting to go out for all those hours before. It really baffles me.

We've had 2 earthquakes in the past 2 days. I didn't feel the first one, but it was pretty big in Peru (in the exact city where I am traveling to next week, oops). The second one I was at school for. My entire desk started shaking and we evacuated the school. This is the first time that I have been actually scared by the thought of an earthquake. People are rumoring that these little ones might lead to a big one, but I'm just living optimistically. Eeek.

So anyway, life hasn't been anything really out of the ordinary. I finally got my Chilean ID card, so I'm legit now. We had a birthday party for the gym teacher the other night which included more food then I could really stomach. I want a pet dog, but I settle for the cats that play on my balcony every night. I'm getting hooked to Chilean Novelas, they are terrible. I found the chip section (still without tortilla chips) and where to find water in the grocery store. This is good. People are telling me that I speak better Spanish, which means I can communicate with my landlord to ask him for hot water (phew). I'm really enjoying my life here, and am eager to meet up with volunteers from all over the country this next week for a Peruvian adventure.

Now for some pictures...
Some real Chilean Chili's! These went in our pebre on the 4th. It was very yummy.

This is Che Cho, my host dad (although we have agreed to call each other host friends) cooking the chorripan (!!!) and pan. YUM!

These are three of us volunteers (Jackie in purple and la nina rubia Melissa) with my host mom, Claudia (the one with the glasses) at the pizzeria that my landlord owns as well.

Melissa and I with the boys. These are the people we used to hang out with before the strike ended and they went back to school in Antofagasta. But it is okay because we can stay at their houses in Anto and they come home very often as well. Very nice guys. One of them taught himself English by playing Playstation. He is actually pretty good!

This is who we hung out with on the 4th! Melissa and I at the disco with Che cho (who's real name is Sergio I have learned) and his friends.

These are some new friends that we made last weekend. Rodrigo (the guy in the black shirt with Melissa) is a teacher at Melissa's school and one of our favorite Chileans, and he introduced us to some of his old friends. They were fantastic, and they don't speak any English, so I am forced to get buy with my espanol. jaja (that is haha in Spanish)

The video: This is my 8th grade class doing the electric slide. I taught it to them today because they wanted to learn a "traditional" American dance. They are really nervous about being on camera, but most of them picked it up. They are good kids.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the post for today! Life in Chile is great, and I am looking forward to going to Peru. Now, I must enjoy my once with the freshest bread ever that I just got. Yay!

Chao! (how Chileans say Ciao)