6 meses en 16 fotos y 600 palabras

In celebration of my 6-month-a-versary here in Chile, I bring you a collection of 16 of my favorite photos from Chile so far.  I can’t believe how fast the time has gone.   I know I always say that but seriously…it really blows my mind that I’ve been here for half a year already.  I could spend this whole blog entry waxing poetic about my time in Chile but I guess I should conserve my 600 words and let you all in on some recent updates in my Chilean adventure. 

First of all, as of last Thursday, I am 100% E. Coli freeeeeeee which is pretty exciting.  Tomorrow morning I’m going surfing for the first time in over a month.  It’s been such a bummer not being allowed to get in the water so I’m pretty stoked to be back.  Hopefully I haven’t forgotten everything I’ve learned so far, we’ll see I guess. 

The second bit of news is that I recently got a new job working at a different language institute in Iquique (the same one where Ruby works).  I’m bummed about leaving my co-workers at my old job but really excited about this new opportunity.  I’ll be making considerably more money which will help take the financial stress out of my life finally (whoot whoot) and I will also be teaching in a completely different environment.  At my old job, all of our lessons were pre-prepared with corresponding powerpoint presentations.  It was nice because it required little to no lesson prep but it didn’t leave much room for teacher creativity.  After teaching each lesson a number of times, it starts to get a little super boring.  I’m excited for the chance to have more control over my classroom and mix it up.  It’s also nice to have the same students in each class because I can tailor my class around their specific needs and weaknesses.       

I started the job on the 17^th and so far everything is going great.  I haven’t met that many of my co-workers because I teach most of my classes in the office building where the majority of my students work.  It is a mining company that is pretty close to my old work (about a 30 minute walk from my house).  The past few weeks, I’ve spent a considerable portion of my day there; teaching, lesson planning, paper working and trying out all of the flavors in the Nescafe “Alegria” machine (sorry Dad, Nestle owns this country…what’s a girl to do?”)

My plan (as of now) is to stay at this new job from July to July so I can have a full year at the same place on my resume.  I’m really enjoying it so I don’t think that should be a problem and they also allow me to take free language lessons there as a perk of the job.  It seems like the process of getting that off the ground might be a little tricky but I’m excited to get that started.  I am also allowed to take vacation there any time I want which is great.  I’m definitely okay with keeping Iquique as my main hub if I am able to launch off and travel from here.

Jeff also got a job (at a different language school) and will be starting this week!  That will probably allow him to extend his ticket and stay out here with me for longer, although we haven’t solidified any plans yet.  About the only thing that we know for sure is that we will be back at least for a visit in August 2013 for Mallory’s WEDDING!  Beyond that I’m not sure about any plans to visit home although I suspect I might be back sooner to see all of your lovely faces.  Stay tuned for updates.

    

Cerro San Cristóbal in Santiago

 

"Spanglish" Language Intercambio

 

Graduation from Bridge TEFL with our IDELT certifications

 

Sunset in La Serena

Viña del Mar

First dinner in Iquique

Hostel living

 

New job!

 

Iquique Love Fest with Danillo and the girls

 

Surfing in Cavancha

 

Jeff in Chile!

 

After an English lesson with Alvaro and Eduardo

 

El Morro de Arica

 

Fiesta de La Tirana

My adorable students

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My beautiful home

Adventuras en La Tirana

Last weekend, Jeff, Ruby and I made a 50 mile trip inland, by taxi, to the small village of La Tirana.  I've heard a variety of estimates regarding the day-to-day population of La Tirana, ranging from...well...zero...to about 800 but, during Fiesta de La Tirana, the town reaches full capacity at around two-hundred to two-hundred and fifty THOUSAND.  Each year in mid-July, the masses gather to ask for blessings from the Virgin of Mt. Carmel, dance and demonstrate their devotion or just to observe the remarkable spectacle that has become Chile's most celebrated festival.

People come to La Tirana from all over Chile, as well as Peru and Bolivia.  There are innumerable dancing groups that dance and sleep in shifts so that the celebration of the virgin can continue all day and all night for an entire week.  A co-worker of my good friend, Kenita, has a house near the plaza so we were able to use that as a main hub for the weekend.  Because La Tirana is essentially a ghost town for the vast majority of the year, the houses are very crudely assembled.  Many of them (including the one we stayed at) have dirt floors and cardboard-lined walls.  

The house itself was packed since all the whole family had gathered there for the festivities so we slept (very uncomfortably) in their truck for the night.  Since La Tirana is in the middle of the desert, it is very hot during the day and very cold at night.  It was the first time I've been able/needed to wear my winter clothes (gloves, hat, wool socks etc) in Chile.  

The next day, we did some more exploring of the town, watched more groups of dancers and bought some souvenirs.  We also tried some of La Tirana's delicious street food including churros filled with manjar, sliced up pineapples filled with icecream and sopapillas the size of dinner plates.  We even made it on the Iquique News.  First they interviewed me and then they asked me to have Jeff say something about the festival and translate it into Spanish.  It was pretty cool, but also kind of embarrassing (hope I didn't make TOO many mistakes).

Jeff and Ruby headed home with some other friends around 9:30 on Sunday night but Kenita and I wanted to wait until the main celebration which happens at midnight and includes a huge show and fireworks display.  The plaza was so packed we could hardly move but the body heat was much appreciated in the cold night.  Around two AM on Monday morning, we packed up and headed home by bus which arrived in Iquique at about four.  

It was such a cool event and I'm really thankful that I had a chance to witness it.  Jeff was bummed that he didn't get to try the traditional llamo (llama meat) but hey, there's always next year. 

Diga Ahhhhh

After 5 months of (almost) perfect health in Chile, I can now officially say that I have been sick in a foreign country; navigated my way through Chilean laboratories, a lime-green doctor's office and a crappy 24-hour clinic;  been pricked by Chilean needles and peed in Chilean cups (well ok, just one of those).  Although none of these things were necessarily on my South America bucket list, I have crossed them all off nonetheless and come out on the other side, relatively  unscathed.

It all started about three weeks ago when I suddenly felt nauseous and lightheaded in the middle of one of my classes and had to leave work early.  When I got home, I promptly went to bed and knocked out for 16 hours.  In the morning I felt a little out of it, but overall okay.  For the most part I was functioning alright at that point although I had a few more weird dizzy spells over the next few days. Then on Saturday, when I was walking home from work, I started to get a pain in my right side that felt like a cramp from running.  After a few hours, it went away and I forgot about it until it came back with a vengeance Tuesday morning at 4 am.  I woke up freezing with an extremely intense pain on my right side.  I spent almost the whole next day in bed and finally caved and went to urgent care the day after that.  A few hours and 20 thousand pesos later, I had a prescription for pain medication and an appointment for an echogram a week later.

Luckily my boss was not too stoked about the idea of me waiting a week to know what was going on and immediately made me an appointment with his doctor.  I went the next day and was recommended for 8 diagnostic tests.  48 hours later I had the results to all of them (drum roll please).  Turns out it was salmonella, e. coli AND a kidney infection.  The dynamic trio had me completely out of commission for about a week total but now I'm pretty much back in action.  I finished up with my cocktail of antibiotics and alphabet soup (pictured above) on Monday and tomorrow I'll retake the e. coli test.  Once I'm sure all of the bacteria is gone, I can finally get back in the water after 3 weeks of not surfing. 

The recovery process has been kind of lengthy but after a few days of antibiotics, pain killers and fever reducers, I started to feel much better and went back to work.  In the midst of my recovery, Jeff and I made a quick trip up to Arica/Tacna to renew our tourist visas last weekend.  Like I've said before, Tacna is nothing to write home about but Jeff was excited to get his first taste of Peru (in the form of fast food pizza and tocino del cielo no less) and spend some more time in Arica.  We had a nice time but I'm hoping my next border hopping mission will be something new and a little more exciting.