There's ketchup in my potato chips...

Yes, you read that right. I opened a bag of lays "corte americano" (american style potato chips) and found a packet of ketchup in it. Now...I thought to myself, why? Why is there ketchup in my chips? Then I thought, estamos en Chile (we are in chile, that's why...) It's not so weird actually. I mean, I got a free packet of ketchup (which by the way could have been mustard or mayo so said the front of the bag w/ the fancy colored streamer)

This is kind of how I feel about Chile sometimes. It's not sooo weird nor is it always quite logical. It's just.....Chile. I can't quite put my finger on it. There are things that are totally normal and actually, quite efficient. Then there are other things that are...like the ketchup in my potato chips. Kind of weird, haha.

I can't believe it has been this long since I've posted and that shame on me, I still don't have time to put up more pics. After my trip to peru and bolivia next month, I'll be sure to put a whole mess of things.

We're now coming upon 4 months that I've lived here. I can say that I try (when I'm not frustrated) to eat, breathe, and sleep Spanish (really I should say "Chilean"). I listen to "radio cooperativa" constantly, try to read the newspaper (haven't decided between tercera and mercurio...learning towards mercurio for the sunday edition), and when I get home, if I have enough ganas, I'll even read a book in Spanish. But sometimes when I'm just too dang tired and craving English, I'll watch free US tv online or even (gasp) listen to music in English, hehe.

The whole process of speaking Spanish is at times, daunting. Daunting because my goal is not just to speak and communicate in Spanish. My goal is to be completely fluent and to be able to speak about almost any topic with decent fluidity and vocab. It's for that reason that I'm so anal about spanish at almost all times (sometimes even with gringo friends). I'm realizing that the most useful (and cheapest way haha) to learn spanish is to have Chilean friends. Not only does it help w/ the language, but it makes me feel like I'm getting the real cultural experience I wanted to have...one of the important reasons for coming here.

My Chilean friends are to say the least, absolutely awesome. We hang out all the time and I really just feel so lucky to know them...more than the cultural exchange, I really enjoy their friendship and company...

anyways...on to more interesting things...??? People keep asking me, how are you liking Chile, what's it like? I definitely love my life here (a big part due to me moving to my own apartment...) Yes, that's right. I moved AGAIN, haha... I now live in downtown Santiago. There are definitely shady characters at night, but the convenience of the metro and the location (since I can get to anywhere in a short time) and the cheap rent (although my apt is pretty new and very nice!) all make it totally worth it...the invitation is open for anyone to come! (free rent!)

last thing...the students...i think now i'm finally understanding the difficulties of being a teacher...the kids are slowly driving me crazy...i-n-s-a-n-e :P i'm very much looking forward to the end of the semester (july 9, haha)...I'm counting down the days...don't get me wrong...i love all my kids...but they are driving me crazy!!! "profe profe" "but miss miss...puleeeeeez...i go my book come back"

so...what's next...a little bit of travel and slowly decorating my apt...living alone is...AWESOME haha...yes sometimes it's lonely but w/ my teaching job, I really don't need more ppl when i get home to bother me, haha jk...no, i do get lonely sometimes but that just means i go out more to socialize...the other night i found out about a sports bar that shows american sports...whenever i get homesick, I know where to go (too bad about the lakers but i still love Kobe!)

ya chiquillos...mi post, fome un poco...tengo que poner fotos...cuidense, chau chau!

A Long Time Comin'...

Hey everyone! This is the first time I've tried out this blogging thing so bear with me...I really just want this to be an opportunity to keep you posted and to share my cultural experiences with you while being here in Chile...

where to begin! no me imagino! Chile is everything and NOTHING like I thought it would be...
It's super modern with wifi available everyone...the metro is clean and many parts of the city really look quite anti-climactic (in the oh i thought this was going to be a third world country sense...) in fact, some parts really do look like california (case in point, las condes where the super super duper rich people live...almost feels like laguna niguel w/out the laguna :)...if you go to some suburban areas, you might see a blockbuster, pizza hut, KFC, and mcdonalds all within a 1 min walk (welcome to capitalism eh?)...Chile is, well, Chile...wifi in the metro but hardly any air conditioning...the perception of efficiency and organization among latin american countries until it takes you 3 tickets just to purchase your ice cream...

it's hard for me to comprehend that it has been only 4 weeks...it has gone fast, but at the same time so much has happened, por ejemplo...i'm sitting in my room right now in the new place i just moved into yesterday...we all had been living in the griengo casa in downtown santiago since it was prepaid by the university...it was super good fun (don't you love my English?!) getting to know everyone and of course, getting on each other's nerves...every night was a party, a broken glass, a "eww, who's rotting cheese is this?" --the fridge was a memorable disaster resembling a leaning tower of cheeses, hams, and juice cartons, i kid you not...)

my fondest memories are of the 2 chileans, marcos (pronounced marco, darn those chilean S's) and andrea (she's a cultural and social activist and marcos is, well, marcos...always teaching me chilenismos and probably bad words, lol)...they ran the hostel and are definitely close friends of ours now...(suerte que tienen buena honda y q me ayudan siempre)

now i'm going to skip the part about how i had to go to the doctor's like every other day for my back and how i was super stressed out when i arrived...things are much better now not living in a hostel sharing a bathroom with 7 people and being able to differentiate between clean and dirty clothes...

highlights you might be interested in: how weird is this...my sister was in santiago 12 years ago and got a mosquito bite on her eye....so did I!!!!! yes sirree, you heard me right...i got one on my eye and lo and behold it was on the day I was supposed to take a photo for my chilean national identity card...i'm showing NO ONE my card since it looks like a case of domestic violence...(the oil on my skin and strands of hair on the sides don't help either, lol)

after posing for my photo at the registro civil (which by the way took 3+ hours standing in line for...) i went looking for a bathroom in the restaurants since apparently the civil office doesn't have one?!!! i didn't have my contacts on because of the whole bug bite eye thing (my eye was sooo swollen) so i couldn't see that i was walking into a CAFE CON PIERNAS (literally coffee with legs but really it's a strip joint that serves coffee)...my chilean teacher mentioned about it but he said they were just dressed in short skirts, etc...this was definitely a strip joint...imagine their surprise to see this weird asian girl w/ a huge swollen eye asking, in spanish, can i use your bathroom in your stripper club? but actually, this being chile, they were pretty cool about it...

what other interesting tidbits....again, impossible to get it all down on this blog but something that occurred and yet didn't fully occur to me was how COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CHILEAN SPANISH IS, cachai? i'm talking whole completely different words, vocab only used in chile...si po, no po, tienes un pololo (novio), quieres comer porotos (beans), etc...la guagua (bebe)...the list goes on...i'm reminded that it's the mapuche influence, but nonetheless, it's like learning a whole different language...forget the spanish i thought i knew and spoke relatively decently...add the chilenismos, drop the "s", speak 100x faster and voila, welcome to chile...
i think i'm barely just catching on...

well i have to end with my favorite: food...not much to say really in terms of cuisine but the freshness of produce, meats, and seafood is awesome... Chile never ceases to amaze me and it seems to grow on me cada dia....

last but not least...wow...my job, ok....so i'm a profesora de ingles (english professor) and how cute is it that the kids call me "profe"!!!! i guess i'll have to continue this blog on the next posting but let's just say they kiss me on the cheek and say ciao (as is the chilean custom)...and how lucky am i, of all people, to have kids studying gastronomy (foooooooood!) and tourism?!!! it just doesn't get better than this...

-abrazos, sandra

(pics from our weekend trip to valparaiso...)