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.
 

 

Amor en el País de las Maravillas

Well hello there.  Long time, no blog (per usual).  I guess I should start with the most exciting news...Jeff (pictured above) finally made it to Chile, yay!  He got here on May 27th and just passed his one-month-a-versary in Iquique a few days ago.  Since he arrived, he's been keeping busy learning Spanish, meeting new people, surfing and eating all the churros in Iquique.

He got his first chance to see Arica a few weeks ago when we bussed up with our two roommates and a couple other friends.  The original idea was to do a border hop so I could renew my visa but Jeff really liked Arica and we didn't want to rush things so we just opted to spend some extra time there and do another trip in a couple of weeks.  We checked out a few bars on Saturday night, and went to the Maui and Sons World Star Tour at El Gringo (although we woke up late and really only caught the last few waves and the award ceremony) on Sunday.  The runner-up ended up being a 16-year-old kid from the North Shore, which was pretty cool.  We ended the trip with one of Schopdog's famous beer rockets and hopped back on the bus around 9:30 pm for a 2:30 am arrival in Iquique. 

Back on the home-front, Iquique life hasn't changed all that much.  Kate and I are still working nights at the same English Institute (although she'll be gone for the whole month of July...wahhhh!).  Ruby just got an awesome new job this month so she's been pretty busy as of late.  The three of us have a few private students, which is great (although it can be a little unreliable at times).

So far no more news on future travel plans or when this Chilean adventure is coming to an end but I will definitely have a better idea of both of those things by the end of July (details to come).  In the meantime, hope all is well with all of you lovely friends and family members that care enough to keep tabs on my little blog. Que estén bien.  ¡Cuídate! ¡Chaoooooooo!

Feliz Día de la Madre!

Just wanted to jot a quick little blog post to wish a very Feliz Día de la Madre to all the fabulous mothers in my life.  A big shout out to my Mama Girl who inspired my curiosity in other cultures from a young age and sparked my love for travel.  Without her I probably wouldn't be here (Chile...and also, earth).  I love you so much Mama.  Thank you so much for everything you've done for me!

  I'm also thinking about my sister today.  Katie Bear, you're such an amazing mommy.  Thanks for popping out two of my favorite little rug rats and nurturing them into the wonderful little people they are.   

I'm also so grateful for my adopted moms in the US and in Sweden and Brazil.   Thank you for taking me in and treating me as your own.  I love you all and appreciate everything that you've done for me.  Moms are rad.

Happy Mother's Day

 Feliz Dia das Mães

Lycklig Moders Dag 

(although technically speaking that one doesn't happen for 2 weeks) 

& Feliz Día de la Madres

A few thoughts on why I love Iquique and hate butterflies

In an attempt to end the cycle of beginning each blog with an apology for not blogging enough, I will start this post in a different fashion; with a tirade about butterflies.  "Butterflies?", you might wonder.  One of only two likable insects known to man?  Yes, beautiful butterflies; the anomaly of the insect world...those butterflies. 

Allow me to explain.  As stated in my last blog, my two roommates and I recently moved out of the hostel and into a new apartment.  The apartment has a fabulous location and a gorgeous view of the ocean.  There's not much to complain about...except pretty much everything about the apartment itself.  The woman who lived here before was....how do I put this delicately?  A dirty, filthy bitch (sorry Mom).  

The carpet is stained within an inch of its life, everything is a heinous shade of pink and there is enough dog hair under the futon to form a German Shepard (or two).  Most things are either falling apart or have already done so and everything (and I mean everything) is covered in, you guessed it...butterflies.  Butterflies on the doorknobs, butterflies on the closet doors and yes, even butterflies hanging from the ceilings.  There is also a myriad of other old, dirty and otherwise hideous decorations around the house including wooden cats and gold plastic poinsettias. After about three weeks of damage control, we've finally managed to make a dent in the butterfly population of our apartment.  We're still working on the jungle of ugly house plants but sacrifices must be made for a view like this.

 

In other news, Kate and I are now teaching at the same language institute where we drink copious amounts of coffee together, sing in the hallways and occasionally even teach English classes.  Our silliness gets so out of control at work sometimes that we've adopted the mantra "teacher, not creature".  As you may have guessed, creature still prevails most of the time.

Ruby, Kate and I are still working on our own private tutoring company, Cachai English.  We're hoping to get some private students ASAP since the institute isn't paying us much and the work visa situation isn't looking so good.

For now, we'll just have to hop over the border and renew our tourist visas every 90 days and get paid through someone else, in cash, from the institute.  Ruby read that Chile is the hardest place to get a work visa in South America.  Who knew?

The border hopping life isn't so bad though.  A few weeks ago, we went back to to Arica for the night and then crossed over to Tacna, Peru for the day.  Kate and I only have one day off of work a week which kind of puts a damper on travel plans but luckily we're relatively close to the borders of Peru and Bolivia.  Tacna was not spectacular but it's always cool to see a new place.  I'm definitely anxious to explore more of Peru.  I'm hoping for a trip to Arequipa in September and maybe Machu Picchu in October.

When we got back to Iquique, we had a big housewarming party which was a lot of fun (except cleaning up in the morning).  Day-to-day life includes jogging on the beach, laying out, chilling with friends and working every night from 6-10.  During the week I work with adults and Saturday mornings I have a class of 8 kids which I really enjoy.  I'm still liking my job quite a bit and loving life in Iquique overall. I can't believe that it's already May!  My time in Chile is speeding by so much faster than I could have ever imagined.  I'm excited for what this new month with bring: more beach time, fun adventures and, last but not least, Jeff!  

La Vida Iquiqueña

I can't believe that almost a month has passed since I last updated my blog. Sorry, kind of fell off the map there. Ruby, Kate and I have now been living in Iquique for about three weeks. We were living in a hostel up until last night when we finally moved into our new apartment. There were definite pros and cons to living in the hostel and it was bittersweet leaving. We met so many great people there but it will be nice to finally have our own space and not have to worry about people stealing all of our food anymore. Our apartment is super close to the hostel so we can always go back to visit our friends and make new ones, which is awesome. We're really getting the best of both worlds.

Jobs are plentiful in Iquique but the visa process still befuddles me a bit. I've been working at an English Institute for a little over a week now but I can't officially sign my contract until I have a work visa. When I researched the process of obtaining said work visa, all of the info that I found says that I need to have at least a one-year contract before I can get it. So right now I'm basically caught in a catch 22, just waiting for more information so I can figure out what my next move will be.

I was also offered a position at a colegio teaching pre-kinder and kinder (4 and 5 year olds) for 4 hours on Wednesday mornings in Alto Hospicio (about an hour from Iquique by bus). I went to the school on Monday and Tuesday and I'm really excited about the prospect of working with kids again. I spent some time observing in their class and I had a blast. Again, the issue is the visa. I need to have my work visa situation figured out before I can sign a contract and start working there.

In the meantime, I've been having a blast in Iquique; partying, laying out, jogging on the beach, swimming in the ocean, playing ping pong, eating sushi, chilling in the hostel and making lots of trips to the Piña (our favorite juice place on the beach, which is shaped like a giant pineapple). My current work schedule is kind of crappy (6 pm-10 pm Monday-Friday and 9 am-1 pm on Saturdays) but my co-workers are cool and I'm really enjoying teaching. Overall, I can't really complain. La Vida Iquiqueña is pretty sweet.

Como un Piedra Rodante

Since my last blog entry, I have traveled over 2,000 miles (3218.88 kilometres) up and down the cost of Chile, exploring the northern parts of the country and searching for a place to call home.

The Thursday after our IDELT program was finished, three friends and I began the trip that I have talked about in so many blog posts before (yes, the one that seemingly changed routes pretty much every day). Our plan at the time of departure was to hit up La Serena for a few days, spend some time in Viña/Valpo and then come back to Santiago to grab our stuff and move back to one of those two spots. We took an overnight bus to La Serena (which is about a six hour trip) and got there on Friday. We arrived pretty early in the morning and wandered around the dirty streets near the bus station, in the fog, trying to find our hostel (not the best first impression but what can you do?) The place we ended up staying was called Aji Verde Hostel and we absolutely loved it; awesome staff, buena onda and a bedroom named "Puta Madre". What more could you ask for in a hostel?

As we explored La Serena more, we found that there was a lot to love there (neat architecture, pretty beaches, big central market and a cool little surf school where I had my first surf lesson). However, there were also things that we didn't care for. Overall, it was hard for me to put a finger on what it was, but something was definitely amiss. Though I could imagine myself living there, I hadn't fallen in love with it in quite the same way that I had imagined/hoped that I would. Ruby and Kate were seemingly even more disenchanted with the place than I was so we reverted back to one of our earlier plans (God knows which version at this point) and bought a last minute ticket to Arica. We parted ways with Alex on Monday and started off on the next leg of our trip.



After over twenty hours in a bus, we finally reached Arica. Maybe it had to the do with the fact that we were greeted with sunshine instead of fog, or that we had the good sense to hop into a taxi instead of ambling aimlessly around the streets for so long, but our first impression of Arica was significantly better than La Serena. We spent the day exploring and we really liked what we found. The hostel we stayed in was great and we actually started talking to them about a possible work/stay exchange in the event that we did end up moving to Arica. We swam in the ocean both days and on the second day, we climbed the morro and got a good view of the city. After our two nights there, we decided that we could be happy living there but we still kept our minds open to Iquique which we had also bought a ticket for.


We got to Iquique (five hours south of Arica) on Thursday afternoon and left Friday morning for Santiago. Although we spent such a short time there, it was just enough for us to fall head over heals in love. As we were planning our fact-finding mission to the North, the three of us had a number of discussions about what we needed in a place where we were going to live. There were lots of ideas thrown out: a good intermediate wave to surf, cultural activities to attend, people our age, proximity to other countries for easy traveling etc etc.

It's easy to generate these kinds of lists and I'm not trying to say that they aren't a useful and important part of the process. However, at the end of the day, I knew that the determining factor in whether or not I would be drawn to a specific locale, wouldn't be any kind of hard statistic with regard to the percentage of my list's criteria that it met. I knew, that at the core of my decision, would be a feeling; the "this is it" feeling. I wish there was a more logical, or even poetic way to describe it but what I've found seems to the be the most succinct. The last time I had this feeling I was seventeen and very confused about my search for the perfect college. I had all the facts in front of me but there didn't seem to be a overwhelming pull to one place or another. When I got to Chico, I just knew. That was it.

That instinct brought me to the place that I called home for the next five and a half years. It brought me to life-changing opportunities, beautiful friends and amazing memories. Once again, this feeling has pulled me north, this time to Iquique. Who am I to question it?

Capítulo Dos

Why hello there everybody. As you may have noticed, blog entries are getting fewer and further between. However, I AM still tryyyiinnnggg to keep you all updated with what's going on with me in Chile. Tomorrow (well, I guess TODAY since it's almost one in the morning) is my last official day of my IDELT certification course. After that, begins capítulo dos of my Chilean adventure; finding a job and a place where I want to live here. My plans have changed a little since my last entry and my friends and I are cutting our trip to the North down to just La Serena and the surrounding areas. We will be taking off (hopefully sometime before noon) on Thursday. Our trip to the Valpo/Viña area will be moved to the end of our trip (probably somewhere around the 12th, 13th and 14th) and then back to Santiago for a few days to pack/clean up my friend's house before her lease is up and (if we like it, of course) get ourselves situated to move to La Serena. We're also toying with the idea of going to Bariloche to visit and renew our 90 day tourist visas but we'll see how that ends up working out. We're all a little anxious to get things situated in our new home (wherever that might be) and figure out the housing and job situations before we make any serious travel plans. A lot is still up in the air but I'm really excited for the challenge and adventure. In the meantime, time to celebrate graduation. Parrrr-tayyyy!