Jo Jo Jo

Although Jeff and I had a hell of a time getting down to Central Chile (more on that later), we finally made it and we had a lovely Christmas in the Viña/Valpo area.  We stayed at a B&B called  Casa Kultour in Valparaíso for X-mas eve and X-mas night which ended up being a great choice.  The owner was super friendly and helpful and our little room was perfect.  How could we not have been happy in a place called cerro alegre (happy hill)?

On Christmas day, we woke up around 10 for a nice breakfast at the hostel and made a few Christmas phone calls.  Thanks to the time difference, that meant a 6 am wake-up call for my dad (oops).  My nephews lucked out though, since they'd been up since 5 waiting for him to get his lazy butt out of bed so they could open presents.  I got to watch them run around like crazy and unwrap some of their gifts via skype which was rad. Yay for Christmas spirit and way too much sugar.

Jeff and I headed out around noon and spent the majority of the day walking all around and exploring the two neighboring cities.  We had wonderful, sunny weather all day and then, when we started to head back to the hostel, it got super windy.  We made it back to our room just before it started to rain and crawled under the covers with a couple of mugs of cola de mono and some mint chocolate Christmas cookies.  After about nine months in Iquique, we were thankful for the rain and it was especially nice to have some wintery weather on Christmas (even though it's summer here).

We got nice and cozy and watched Love Actually (my favorite Christmas movie).  Jeff was reluctant because it's kind of a chick flick but he actually ended up liking it too (sorry for outing you on the internet).  We passed out pretty early from a combination of the cocktails and a full day of walking around in the sun. 

I knew it would be strange spending my first Christmas away from family but it turned out to be a really good one.  Although I was definitely still a little homesick and my low-key day was a far cry from the madness of a Briscoe Christmas, I am super grateful that Jeff and I got to spend our first Christmas together here in Chile. 

21.12.12

All of this recent talk about self-driving cars has got me thinking, why on earth has no one invented self-packing suitcases yet?  Driving a car is really not an inconvenience.  Moving is a nightmare.  Since I left home at 17, I have gone through the process of moving all of my earthly possessions an innumerable amount of times.

Ok, maybe not so innumerable.  I have done the official count (using almost of my fingers and some of my toes) and the grand total is fourteen.  FOURTEEN times!  I've moved fourteen times in the past seven years.  Tonight, for the fifteenth time, I find myself slipping into the old routine.  It goes something like this:

Step One: Wait until the last possible moment.
Step Two: Drink an ungodly amount of caffeine
Step Three: Find any smaller and seemingly more manageable task to distract yourself from the actual task at hand
Step Four:  Organize and pack every item possible before your heavy eyelids refuse to tolerate any more resistance and you are forced to submit to sleep
Step Five: Push all remaining clutter off of the organizational epicenter (aka, bed)*
Step Six: Crawl in
Step Seven: Pass out

*If exhaustion is too strong and you are unable to clear off the bed, just push the junk over and make a little space for yourself to sleep in.  Finish packing in the morning.

Although, like most, I consider the process of moving a special kind of hell, there's also something undeniably therapeutic about it.  While rifling through old keepsakes, we are reminded of so many good times and good people.  Moving also gives us an opportunity to take a good hard look at the objects we are lugging around and determine whether or not their essential in our lives.  If not, we (hopefully) chuck them out, simplifying our lives (and making room for new junk).

The last night in any apartment always feels a little surreal and tonight is no exception.  Tomorrow evening, Jeff and I will head down to Santiago on an extremely long bus ride through the Atacama desert.  We will spend about a week and half bouncing back between Valparaíso, Viña del Mar and Santiago.  On the third of January, Jeff will sadly head back to the USA and I will...well, as usual, I don't know what I will do.

I've become accustomed to dealing with a certain amount of uncertainty in my life as of late and, although it is a bit overwhelming at times, I'm trying to roll with the punches.  I'm still waiting to hear from the academy about my possible contract up in the mine.  In the meantime, I'm keeping my options open and considering either coming back to Iquique to teach Summer school kids' classes or heading South to explore (and possibly find work there).  As usual, I'll keep ya'll posted as plans progress.

As for now, I'm just glad to say that we all officially made it through another apocalypse.  This may be the end of another chapter, but it's certainly not the end of the word.

Arte de la Calle

 

 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I hope you liked my 6,000 word introduction.  Now on to the main essay (14,000 words) on some of the strange, beautiful and interesting street art I've found across Chile.  

Enjoy :)

 

1. Iquique 2. Valpo 3. Arica 4. Valpo 5. Santiago 6. Valpo 7. Iquique 8. Iquique 9. Iquique 10. Iquique (obviously)
 11. Iquique again 12. Iquique... 13. Arica 14. Yup, Iquique again 15. Santiago 16. Santiago 17. Santiago 18. Santiago 19. Iquique 20. Santiago

Found in Translation

When learning (or teaching) another language, you realize that some words and expressions simply don't translate.  However, I have been surprised several times to find things that translate quite perfectly into Spanish.  Here's what I mean...

Old school : Vieja escuela 

Flea market : Feria de pulgas

Honeymoon : Luna de miel

Curiosity killed the cat: La curiosidad mató al gato

Like a baby's butt : Como potito guagua

Then there are the things that, though not exact translations, make perfect sense.  The literal words used are like hints that help you figure out the translation on your own.  For example, walnuts are known as la nuez mariposa; the butterfly nut.  A crosswalk is a paso de cebra; zebra passing. 

Then you have the para-somethings which means for-well...whatever it's for.  You've got your parabrisas for breeze (windshields), your paracaídas for falls (parachutes) and your parachoques for crashes (bumpers).  I love these super convenient compound words.  My only request is to change the word paraguas (for water) to parallovizna (for drizzle).  Sadly it looks like Snoop Dog jokes are one thing that is still lost in translation.

On Lewis Carroll and being a libra

"Alice laughed, 'There's no use trying,' she said 

'one can't believe impossible things.' 

'I dare say you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 

 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. 

Why, sometimes I've believed as many as 

six impossible things before breakfast."

 In case you didn't know, the Spanish translation for Alice in Wonderland is Alicia en el País de las Maravillas.  Since moving to Chile, I've been forced to accept the fact that people here will always wholeheartedly believe that my name is actually Alice and that I'm just trying to "Chilean it up" by introducing myself as Alicia.  Lots of my Chilean friends call me Alice; some because they genuinely think that's my real name and others just to tease me.  Needless to say, I hear an "Alicia en el País de las Maravillas" reference almost daily. Recently, this inspired me to re-watch the old Disney moviewhich got me thinking about a couple of things...  

First, hot damn Lewis Carroll did a lot of drugs.   

A. Lot. Of. Drugs...

Secondly, the story about the walrus manipulating the cute little baby oysters, devouring them and then getting chased by a redneck with a hammer is much more twisted than I remember.  Third of all (yes, here's where we get to the point of this post), the movie got me thinking about the idea of imagining "impossible" things.  I suppose, that unlike Alice (well, the other Alice) and the queen, I'm less concerned with the impossible as I find myself consumed with deciding between the seemingly endless stream of the very possible possibilities before me.

On a 40 minute walk between home and work, my life plan might change 3 or 4 times.  Now consider the fact that I do that walk between 2 and 4 times a day and things start to get complicated.  In the course of 24 hours, we're talking about a dozen different versions of the few years of my life.  I'm constantly tossing new ideas around in my head and adding new cities and countries into the mix.

Currently, I'm pretty settled on staying in Chile until next July when I will return to Cali to fulfill my bridesmaid's duties at the Bawk-stamijam wedding.  However, the details of the next seven months until then are not quite hammered out yet.  The idea that was rolling around in my head for quite a while involved moving to the south of Chile for a month or two and then going back to Santiago from March to July.

  Although this is still a possibility, my boss is now pushing for me to stay in Iquique and work up in the copper mine (teaching, not mining).  The schedule would either be 4 days in the mine, 3 days in Iquique or (for half the salary) 2 days in the mine and 5 days in Iquique.  Each plan has its pros and cons but, though I'm kind of getting ready to move on from Iquique, the idea of saving up a little bit of money (finally) and having the opportunity to travel more within South America seems particularly alluring at the moment.  As far as I know, the contract would be for 4 months.  I won't know the start date or any details until mid-December and then it's decision-making time. 

Until then, I'm trying not to think about it too hard.  The queen of hearts might be able to imagine 6 impossible things before breakfast but leave it to me to dream up 6 lifetimes worth of plans before las once.