What's wrong with this picture?

Just because we weren't out cutting down Christmas trees this weekend doesn't mean there wasn't decorating to be done. Yesterday Ita called me into the house to look at the tree she had just put up and I immediately started laughing. I wasn't laughing at the size of the tree, merely at its placement. I had to explain to her that where I come from this would be a huge fire hazard and that the fire is necessary for sitting around drinking hot drinks, playing cards, opening gifts, etc.
I apologize if I already sound like a broken record (ok Heather, we GET it, it's hot in Chile for the holidays!) but don't judge me until you have experienced it for yourself. I hope you all had a great weekend doing some decorating of your own!

Thank you, technology

In spirit of the holiday season, I wanted to express my gratitude for all of the free technology that's available these days. I miss everyone a lot, but thanks to technology I don't feel nearly as isolated down here in the Southern Hemisphere. Many of my teen students can´t comprehend a world without Skype, but having spent my younger years without it, I truly appreciate how much easier my experience in Chile has been because of how easy it is to maintain my strong connections with the people at home.

One of my favorite options has been the "Text free" app that I have on my Itouch. It assigned me a number in my¨"home" area code so as long as I'm connected to wi-fi I can send and receive texts at no extra cost to anyone at home. This is great for sending birthday or congratulatory messages, coordinating Skype dates, or in general being able to send "can you believe this just happened!?!" texts to my friends at home.

If you sometimes get annoyed with the quirkiness of Skype, or if it's difficult to get both parties to the computer and you don't have a cool smart phone that forwards your Skype calls like I don't, you can currently use Google to call land lines and cell phones in the US for free until the end of the year. You have to download something first, but then you just load up your Gmail account and use the "call phones" option. One more month of free talking!!!

Happy Turkey Day

This will be the second year in a row that I've celebrated a "non-Thanksgiving-ey" Thanksgiving. Last year I went to my friend J's house and we ate delicious paella and grilled asparagus. (she's an excellent cook by the way...) This year I think the closest I'll get to Thanksgiving will be pumpkin pie, zucchini bread, mashed potatoes and wine. (all of those things put together make a meal, don't they?) It's difficult to find the all of the ingredients that you need around here, so you make the most of it and have whatever kind of gringo celebration that you can put together.

Friends have already chimed in to say that warm weather makes you less nostalgic for your typical holidays and it's absolutely true. The weather is a consistent 84 degrees now and I have to work a regular week so it's business as usual here in Chile. I find it strange to open the Amazon.com page and see the Black Friday specials advertised. I hate shopping on Black Friday, so all the more reason to be here enjoying the end of November. I do get a little nostalgic about silly things, like I miss going to Borders this time of year, just milling around sipping a coffee and looking at books in the evening after leaving the gym. It always seemed like a logical thing to do when it was suddenly dark outside at 4:30 pm and it always put me into the holiday spirit.

I wish everyone safe travels and hope that the weather cooperates with your journeys. Have a very safe, happy and healthy Thanksgiving!

Superstore No More

When I first got to Santiago I really missed my weekly stock up trips to Super Target or Super Walmart. It was all part of the routine, Sunday morning yoga, grabbing a coffee at Panera or Einstein Brothers, and then swinging by the superstore to take advantage of the fact that everyone else was either still asleep or at church. Usually my trips resulted in 3 or 4 "green" shopping bags with supplies for the week, and maybe some little extra things that I found on end caps along the way. It´s not so much that Santiago doesn't have superstores to shop at because I definitely take advantage of Jumbo, and there´s also Hiperlider, the place co-owned by Walmart, so if you pop in there the Great Value products definitely don´t make you feel like you are too far from home.

The biggest change in my shopping habits is most definitely due to my lack of car and the availability of the ferias to buy beautiful fresh fruits and veggies, eggs, cheese, nuts, etc. and the fact that you can find one just about any day of the week for prices much lower than the supermarkets. The experience itself is worth the trip. I have been serenaded while they are weighing my apples, teased about the basket on my bike, talked to in the best and worst English, and had just as much fun teasing them right back.
At home the farmers markets are a growing phenomenon, but often those are only one day a week, and if you live in a colder place like I do, often both the selection and schedule are very limited and seasonal. In fact, many of you will begin eating a lot of fruits and veggies from Chile very soon, so keep your eye on those fruit stickers and think of me.

In class we generally teach about how in Spanish speaking countries it's a lot more common to go to many different stores for many different things, and now living it first hand in a large city I can really understand why. There is a pharmacy on practically every corner, and not like how there are a lot of CVS or Walgreen's, I mean literally on every corner.

It's easier to grab a couple of things at a time since there are so many smaller stores that I pass by, and the less I have to carry, the better.Yesterday I needed some black pens for my roll books, so I headed into the libreria to buy pens and a notebook.

There is also no shortage of ice cream here in Santiago, even McDonald's has their own special little stands.

I still miss my 4 wheels every so often, but then I jump on the Mean Green Machine and head out to fill up the basket with fresh strawberries and cherries and realize that I've made a pretty good trade for now!

Seasonal Reverse Disorder

Please don't take this post as a complaint. I'm a summer lover, so the fact that I get to enjoy two summers in the same year is absolutely fantastic, but it's kind of like taking a vacation to Mexico in December and seeing a Santa Claus by the pool, something just doesn't seem right.
I love the weather here right now, even though it means I'm a sweaty mess after taking the Metro and it's not even summer yet. It's so much easier to cool down than it is to warm up, and it's true what everyone says about Chile, it doesn't matter if you're from Alaska, it really is cold here in the winter.
I think the hardest thing to get over is the associating certain special days or holidays with the time of year. For instance, H, the student in the house will celebrate her 21st birthday this weekend. When I asked her if she was excited about it, she said that she couldn't get ready for it because it was too warm outside. I imagine the same will be true next week when Thanksgiving rolls around I have to work a normal week and wear short sleeves and not eat turkey.
I haven't quite wrapped my brain around the whole concept of Christmas yet either. I ride up to Starbucks, park my bike, select a table outside, walk in and order an iced soy mocha? in a Christmas cup while being serenaded by Christmas music? Seasonal merchandise at Jumbo means I have my choice of Christmas towels, beach towels, beach chairs, and coolers? Maybe after several years here it'd be something that one grows accustomed to, but I imagine that the association might always remain.
Hm, I wonder what it'll be like to celebrate my birthday in the winter this year?

3 Months

It's hard to believe that I've been here for 3 months already. Back when I was trying to piece together my time in Chile, I had to choose between leaving for only a semester or for a full year. Now that it's already mid-November, I can't imagine planning to leave at the end of December. Some of my fellow counterparts from Teaching Chile are in the midst of making their travel plans for the summer months, as many of them are on a university-like schedule, where they finish the third week of December and then they use the summer months here to travel around South America.

I plan to take the month of February as unpaid vacation and I've just begun to piece together some travel plans for February. The summer months are really slow when you do institute work, so I plan to work during January and entertain my guests that will begin to arrive here in Santiago at the end of December.
Meg and Javier (two of my bff's) December 22-January 1st.
My mom and Jim (January 8th to 15th)
My aunt and uncle (January 14th to February 3rd) They will spend a couple of days here in Santiago and then will set off to see the rest of Chile, and I'll meet them in the south at the end of the month!

Speaking of Teaching Chile, every semester they host a mid-semester reunion, so here are some photos that I took from the rooftop. I don't live in a high-rise apartment, so it's nice to have these views once in awhile and take some new photos. However, the best part of this event might have been all of the delicious food and Chilean beer and wine.

homemade grilled arepas, corn patty which is a traditional food in both Colombia and Venezuela. Delicious and gluten-free and the sauces were excellent!

Now for those city views...

Forgetting how to spell

The last few days my fellow teacher friend A.and I (funny how in Chile I have 3 friends with first initial A) have been talking about our sudden inability to spell in English. We both taught Spanish before coming to Chile and have both been experiencing those moments of...Where am I? What language am I trying to speak? How do I write this word on the white board? I always considered myself to be a decent speller, as evidenced by my success in elementary school spelling bee competitions, of course.
I think these types of episodes normally occur when you are switching back and forth between two languages on a daily basis, but I just started noticing more space out moments where I literally write something on the board, stare at it for a few seconds, and know that it's wrong but don't know how to fix it. It's happening especially with words like "accustomed", where the Spanish equivalent is acostumbrado. The "o's"  and "u's" get all mixed up and then my students just laugh at me and ask if I'm sure I know how to speak English. Yesterday I was teaching a lesson about clothing to 3 very successful business people and I literally couldn't spell the word "pajamas". All I got was the "p" and just couldn't put my finger on what vowel came next! Slightly embarrassing but maybe I'll just take it as a good sign that I've been reading enough Spanish lately to even have this confusion occur.

Bad Weather Karma

If you look at the Weather Channel feed on my blog today and it says rain and 43 degrees Fahrenheit and you think, hmm, that's strange that it's as cold in Chile as it is in Chicago, um well, IT IS STRANGE!. I'm a little confused as to why the Chicago weather of 84 degrees one day and 40 the next had to follow me here. Ok, so I'm being a little dramatic, but this is the second extreme temperature swing that we've had in the last several weeks. When I wheeled my bike around the back to put under the covered patio on Saturday, it was blazing hot and sunny and Ita looked at me like I was crazy for even mentioning the word rain. In fact, I was joking with some friends last weekend that I was starting to get my Fahrenheit and Celsius confused since my Weather Channel feed for Chicago said 26 and it was 27 degrees Celsius here. I rubbed it in that while they were shopping for winter coats, I was sitting at an outdoor patio enjoying a beer. And that my friends, is bad weather karma.

Language Practice Ideas

Today I thought I'd share some general language learning tips. Yes, I speak Spanish, but I'm always working on improving my level of fluency. It's easy to hide out as an English teacher and miss out on the many opportunities that surround me to practice, and I realize that some days can pass and the only Spanish I spoke was to order food or have a brief conversation with one of the secretaries at the institute. I see some of my friends here really putting in such an effort to learn Spanish and it makes me realize how fortunate I am to have come here with such a strong base and it's up to me to really make an effort to further my own learning.

1. Listen
Turn on the TV or radio whenever possible. Become an eavesdropper. I don't have a lot of Spanish speaking friends here in Chile, but I spend a lot of time out in public and on the Metro without headphones on, just tuning in to other people's conversations. I also listen to the news in the morning while I get ready and watch Spanish programming whenever possible. Many of my current students have learned a ton of vocabulary just from watching the English programming that is available to them. Who doesn't enjoy some re-runs of Friends, Two and Half Men, or the New Adventures of Old Christine? To any of my students back home who might be reading this, practice your listening! Even just a few minutes each day really does help.

2. Read
Pick up any free reading material that is offered anywhere and give it a look. I read whatever free newspaper is handed to me on my longer Metro trips, and pick up random free magazines around town when I'm out and about. I also occasionally visit the "magazine man" who sells some of the magazine inserts from older newspapers for 100 or 200 pesos.

3. Find a conversation partner at your level
Here in Santiago there are expat groups and a Spanish/English Meet up group that meet on a weekly basis. Check out this website to find a group in your area. There are also individuals who are always looking for one on one practice. It's helpful to split the time and spend 20-30 minutes speaking one language and then switching to the other. It also helps if your second language abilities are similar so it's more of a conversation rather than a translation fest.

4. Use new vocabulary
I've learned a lot of random Spanish vocabulary from my current students and I've been recording it in my little notebook so I can refer back to it. In addition, I've shared some chilenismos with my colleagues back home. I really make an effort to repeat and reuse these words whenever possible to make them my own.

5. Get out of your comfort zone
Don't be too shy to ask a question or attempt to put a sentence together in your second language. If you're out in a situation where someone needs to approach someone and ask a question, be the one who makes the effort. If someone uses a word that you don't recognize, ask them to explain to you what it means. People are usually happy to meet you halfway if you make the effort.

6. Imitate pronunciation
Pronunciation is very important. I misunderstand my English students a lot since so many English words sound similar. (sheet, sheep, cheap, cheat...) My ears got really tuned into "gringo" Spanish pronunciation from years of working as a Spanish teacher, but now that I'm teaching my first language I realize how easy it is to misunderstand certain sounds.

7. Use the Internet
There are so many resources available online that offer anything from grammar practice activities to pod casts to online pen pals. Take advantage of whatever free resources you can find.

8. Keep a positive attitude
We are always our own worst critic when it comes to judging our language abilities! Keep practicing and soon you WILL notice an improvement!

New Hairdos

Making the transition from an incredibly humid climate to the opposite dry climate has had some disastrous effects on both my hair and skin. I seem to have figured out the skin issue, but my hair needs some serious help. I desperately need a haircut, but the thought of finding someone here to cut it has made me procrastinate even more. I'm also long overdue on highlights and think it's time to just go back to one color. I know that my brown hair isn't going to make me look much less gringa, but hopefully a reduction of chemicals will give it the extra hydration that it needs.
As suggested by some of the other bloggers and several friends here, I joined Groupon and have been receiving some fabulous offers via email. Fortunately, I just purchased a deal on a cut and color at a salon that seems to be rather reputable, so I'll be calling them sooner rather than later to get this hair situation under control. For those of you at home who aren't familiar with the website, check it out. You might find a great offer for a restaurant you've been wanting to try or just find an excuse to head into the city for a night.
It seems that Otto, the family dog, was also in need of his new summer hairdo. I stumbled upon this makeshift doggie salon when I came home from class today. I think his face tells the whole story!
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Long Weekends

One of the first pieces of information that I perused before arriving here in Chile was a calendar with a list of the public holidays. Some of the days are the same as my days off in the US, but others are new to me so I've had the opportunity to take advantage of days such as Dia del Profesor, which allowed me to sleep in on a Saturday, something I hadn't been able to for several months.
Several weeks ago while you folks at home were celebrating Columbus Day, we also celebrated a public holiday here that's is referred to as Dia de la Raza. This day in some Latin American countries might be seen as a counter to Columbus Day, but in talking to some of the Chilean teachers here they said that they prefer to think of it as neutrally as possible and just celebrate the discovery of the Americas.
For this long weekend I ventured about 6 hours north to La Serena, a popular vacation and beach area that sits adjacent to the beautiful Elqui Valley. I wanted to visit before the tourist season, and although it was very cloudy and a little cold, I managed to spend most of the trip seeing some of the clearest blue skies that I've even seen in my life. The skies here are so clear that this area is home to many international observatories, and although this time I didn't have the opportunity to to take a tour, just star-gazing and identifying constellations myself that I haven't seen for ages made the trip worthwhile.

Vicuna, one of the smaller towns that composes this valley is also the birthplace of the famous Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in literature. We had the chance to visit the tiny museum dedicated to her, and almost missed this opportunity since the time had changed the night before and we didn't realize it. The man kept telling us that the museum was closing at one o'clock, and I kept thinking that this was odd since it appeared to only be 11:45.

We also visited Pisco Mistral in Pisco Elqui, stopped in for a tour and tried some pisco, a liquor distilled from grapes, (you can see the vines pictured below) and most famously present here in Chile in a drink called pisco sours. Delicious!

I was so wiped out from that last long weekend that this time I decided to take the opposite approach and spend my long weekend for Dia de Todos Los Santos right here in Santiago. This Catholic holiday is celebrated on November 1st to honor all of the saints, both known and unknown and is marked by mass visits to the cemetaries. This morning I read in the publimetro newspaper that between Sunday and Monday about 700,000 people visited the Cementario General de Santiago. I asked some of my adults students this morning about how/if they celebrate and some said that they always go to the cemetary, others never do, and some usually go but didn't go yesterday since it was so hot.
I can attest to the heat yesterday, as I was out riding around on my bike quite a bit and at times felt a little light headed. It was a great weekend to get caught up on rest, read, spend some quiet time, and Skype since everyone else here at the house was away at the beach. I plan to relax as much as I can right now on the weekends since I'm working so much during the week and save up my travel time for the upcoming summer months!