Jet-Settling in Santiago

The Grass is Always Greener...

2009-04-19T22:53:00.000-07:00

on the other freaking side, isn't it? I honest-to-God feel like I have so many things going through my head right now that it's ridiculous. Here I am now with almost 2 months' perspective on leaving Chile... so what do I think? Did I make the right decision by breaking up with D? Did I make the right decision in leaving Chile? On the first count, I'd have to say yes. Diego and I aren't right for each other, at least not at this point in time, and God knows the last thing I need right now is a relationship (more on that later). As far as the second question, I'm not so sure. I, like many other people in this world, hate to have regrets. But sometimes it just happens. And now that a little bit of time has passed, and I have more perspective on the situation, I'm questioning my decision to leave Chile. Here's the thing: part of what's making me question it is that my new pololo and I... well... we're not exactly pololos right now, let's just say that. It's a complicated situation, and I don't know what's going to happen. But I do know that I miss Chile like crazy. I guess that's only natural, as is questioning such a huge decision. But honestly, I've felt depressed lately. And it seems that people are noticing, because last weekend I went home to spend Easter with my parents, and on Sunday they sat me down and asked if we could talk. Jeez, that's never good. Anyway, they basically said that they were worried about me, and that I just seemed different lately. One thing they were particularly worried about was that I had started a new relationship so soon after breaking up with D. They did (and do) have a point, but the new relationship just kind of happened, and I just kind of went with the flow. But their point was that I didn't exactly give myself time to recover from the end of such a serious, and at times very hurtful, relationship.

They're right, they're right, my parents are right. Seems to happen a lot. I guess I just feel kind of lost right now. Finding a job hasn't been so easy. I miss Chile so much it hurts sometimes. I miss talking to and hanging out with D (though not the relationship). My parents are worried about me. I feel really depressed sometimes. I'm not entirely sure if grad school for Spanish is what I should go after.

But on the bright side, I'm in the one place in North Carolina that I could actually conceive of living in right now, and I do love it. I have the beach, a beautiful town in general to live in, a great downtown area, etc. And I've found something REALLY cool that I enjoy doing, which is playing guitar and singing at Open Mic night on Mondays at this place downtown. I think that's been my saving grace lately. It's not the biggest deal in the world maybe, but to me it is. Because I LOVE playing guitar and singing. And it's giving me something to work toward each week, having to learn and practice new songs. Anyway, I don't even really know where I'm going with this post, but I guess the point is that I do wonder if I made the right decision in leaving Chile. It's part of me now. And I really miss the group of gringas I made friends with down there (you know who you are!) - wine nights up here just aren't the same. :(

TAR HEELS: 2009 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!!!!

2009-04-07T00:39:00.000-07:00

WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh jeez, where to freaking start.. so I realize not everyone is as big of a college basketball fan as I am, but hopefully everyone at least knew that the national championship game was tonight (well, technically last night since it's now 3:40 in the morning), pitting Michigan St. against the Carolina Tar Heels (my alma mater). I made the drive this afternoon from Wilmington to Chapel Hill to watch the game in the Dean Dome with thousands of other screaming Tar Heel fans, and I'm SO glad I did. I lost my voice. I yelled. I screamed. I yelled some more. I jumped around when they played "Jump Around" at the beginning of the game. I jumped up and down and screamed and laughed in sheer freaking joy as the remaining seconds ticked off the clock, and my Tar Heels were officially announced as the 2009 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS. Then I yelled some more. And I sang the alma mater with my friends. And watched my Heels being awarded the championship trophy. And watched "One Shining Moment", which always brings tears to my eyes. I watched as Tyler Hansbrough, one of the most amazing players ever to play at Carolina, hugged Coach Roy Williams. And then...

I went out to Franklin St. and JUMPED OVER A BONFIRE. That's right, I did. And I'd do it again. Franklin Street is where we Tar Heels go to celebrate after beating dook (Duke) or winning a national championship. We set fires.... climb trees and light poles... occasionally flip over cars. You know, the standard fare. Jeez, was it a blast. So all I have to say is...

TAR HEELS, NATIONAL CHAMPS BABY!!!!! And this makes FIVE for us now - 1957, 1982, 1993, 2005 (my senior year!!!), and now 2009!!!! :) Can you tell I'm just a little bit happy??

What a Small World

2009-03-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend I moved to Wilmington, NC, which is a beautiful little port city located about 5 minutes from Wrightsville Beach, and a few minutes from some other beaches. It has a nice downtown scene, and I've always loved it. Honestly, it was between Wilmington and Wake Forest for where I was thinking of moving, and Wilmington won hands down. I'm so excited about living here, and hopefully going back to school next spring. Anyway, last night I went out with the boy and his brother and a few of their friends to this place called Blue Post, which is a popular little bar downtown. While we were there, J's (the guy I'm dating)brother S got a call from these girls he knows who are studying abroad here at UNC-Wilmington, and they were wanting to hang out with us. Guess where the girls are from? Yep, that's right - CHILE. OHMYGOD I was so excited to hang out with them. We went back to S's house and he picked the girls up and brought them there, and it was like Christmas morning haha, I was just incredibly happy to be with Chileans again, and to be able to talk in Chilean Spanish. The girls were super nice - one was from Santiago and the other from Vina (don't have the tilde on this computer). Unfortunately, they both found Wilmington to be incredibly boring, but I can't really blame them. Coming from Santiago or Vina to a small place like Wilmington would be a big change. Either way, we talked for quite awhile and I was so glad to have met them. I seriously almost cried, I was so happy to be back with Chileans again haha. I miss Chile so much. Anyway, hopefully we can meet up again for lunch or something. Man, it's a small world. :)

Group Post: Why I Came to Chile and Why I Left

2009-03-20T23:37:00.001-07:00

Well, I haven't posted in what, over 3 weeks now? There's a good reason for that, though, which I'll get to at the end of this post. To start off with, to talk about my reason for coming to Chile originally, you have to rewind back to the summer of 2005, after I graduated from Carolina. In May 2005, I thought I had everything figured out (HA!) - I had been accepted to law school at U of Richmond, to start in the fall, and had even gone so far as to score an apartment with 2 other girls at UR Law. I would graduate from Carolina, go to law school, and that was that. Little did I know, things were about to change drastically. I was given the opportunity to spend that summer in Salamanca, Spain, and little time to decide. The decision wasn't too hard, and I decided to do it. I wasn't studying abroad, however. I spent the summer of 2005 interning at a college ministry called En Vivo at the University of Salamanca, and I absolutely loved it. I'd studied Spanish for 3 years in high school, had taken some in college, and had been in love with the language for awhile. Well, I fell in love with Spain. When summer ended and the time came to leave, I cried and cried. And cried again on the plane. And started thinking very seriously about not going to law school, and trying to become a team member with the college ministry instead. This would've taken me back to Spain for at least 2-3 years, maybe longer.

When I got off the plane at RDU, where my family was waiting for me, my mom knew something was bothering me (she can always tell!). Long story short, I ended up telling my family that I didn't want to go to law school, and that I instead wanted to return to Spain. Fast forward a little bit - the organization with which I went to Spain also has college ministries at universities in Santiago, Chile; Tubingen, Germany; Birmingham, England; Puebla, Mexico and Bangkok, Thailand. There was no question in my mind, however, that I wanted to go back to Salamanca. Chile didn't interest me whatsoever. But when it came down to it, the place I was most needed was none other than Santiago, Chile. At first I was disappointed about not being able to go back to Spain, but I quickly began to get excited about the prospect of Chile, and began to read and research more. I first went to Santiago in August 2006, to visit. It was rainy and cold for most of the time that I was there, and to be honest, I didn't really like it that much. I moved to Chile in June of 2007, thinking I'd be there for 2 years. Things didn't go as planned for various reasons (differences with team members), and so I returned to the U.S. in October of 2007. In that time, however, I'd started dating a Chilean (Diego).

Naturally, the whole long-distance relationship idea didn't appeal to me, so I planned to move back to Chile to be with him. He basically was what drew me back to the country. I kind of went back and forth for awhile, and though I can't quite pinpoint the hour and moment that I fell in love with Chile (much like it's virtually impossible to pinpoint the exact moment you fall in love with a person), it happened sometime during the Chilean summer of 2008 (sometime during January to March, which I spent there). Unfortunately, neither D nor I were optimistic about job prospects for me in Santiago, and felt I'd be better off in the U.S. So back I went. I worked my butt off from March to August 2008, and was hoping D could come to the U.S., but it never worked out. At this point, I was seriously missing him and Chile. So I decided to move permanently to Chile in August 2008, and teach English. Luckily, I found a job and started in September, and things were great for quite awhile. I really do love Chile with all my heart, and loved living there (yes, I said "loved" in past tense). The truth is that I recently left Chile.

For many reasons, I broke up with D in February. And I'd thought I was strong enough to make it in Chile without him - actually I think I was, and am. But the decision to come back to the U.S. was influenced by many things - my family being here (especially watching my nephew grow up), an ever-growing desire to go to grad school (I'm now thinking of getting a Masters in Spanish), and an amazing guy who's really showing me what it means to love someone. Yes, that last part might seem crazy, as I'm recently out of a relationship with D, but it's a crazy story that deserves a post all its own. In a nutshell: I had one class with this guy in 9th grade (had a secret crush on him then), never saw him again, and recently reconnected with him after ELEVEN years through the wonders of Facebook. Anyway, kudos to anyone who's actually read through this entire long post, but I had to finally come back from my blogging hiatus and tell everyone that I'm no longer in Chile. Someday soon I'm going to write a post on why I love Chile (although words can't do it justice). But for now, just know that I made the right decision to come back to the U.S. Not saying I'll never live in Chile again, but now is not the right time.

Oh, and the truth is that I haven't blogged for this long because I couldn't bring myself to. I actually stayed away from reading the other Chile bloggers' posts because it was too hard. I really miss Chile right now, so I thought it'd be easier this way, but after this post I'm thinking that writing about what I'm feeling is better for me. Oh yes, and... I'm getting a Chile-related tattoo soon. ;)

Anthony Bourdain in Chile

2009-02-25T18:24:00.000-08:00

My love affair (such as it is) with Anthony Bourdain began last summer when I discovered the wonderful world of hulu.com. Also known as the most amazing website in the world, where you can watch episodes of practically every TV series under the sun, as well as choose from a constantly growing archive of movies. What does this have to do with Anthony Bourdain, you may ask? You also may find yourself asking, "Who the heck is this guy and why am I reading a post about him?" Good question. As for the former, he's a pretty famous chef and author from New York City - you may have seen his show "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel. As for the latter, why you are reading this post right now, it's probably because you're really bored. I can't blame you, so am I.

Anyway, last summer I started watching episodes of the now-defunct "Kitchen Confidential", a show based on the book of the same name, which I am currently reading. Basically, after watching one episode of the show, I found myself wondering why it had ever been cancelled. It was hilarious, and basically details the career of Bourdain, including his many shenanigans involving booze, drugs and women. Oh yeah, and also cooking. The point is that I absolutely loved the show, and am loving the book, and am loving Bourdain. Not in that I-want-to-marry-him kind of way, but he just seems like a pretty kick-a kind of guy. And he's not afraid of playing a practical joke, which I like. One time, in a restaurant he was working in, he and another line cook wrapped one of their co-workers in plastic wrap (he was willing to do it, don't worry), covered him in fake blood, and put him in the deep freeze. Then, they called the General Manager of the restaurant over the intercom, saying that they were really busy and that they needed him to get something out of the deep freeze for them. Well, you can imagine what ensued. The poor guy, upon discovering one of his line cooks in the deep freeze, thought he had been murdered and almost had a heart attack. Bourdain and his friends were laughing all the way home.

So basically, I was pretty excited the other day to hear that Bourdain is coming to Chile. One of my students told me about it, knowing I was reading Kitchen Confidential. Supposedly, he's coming in March to give kind of a seminar that's open to the public. Sadly, I don't think I can afford tickets, but I'd love to go. I bet he'd be entertaining - if he's half as funny as his book, it'd be worth the price of admission for sure.

6 Months in Chile

2009-02-14T12:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday made exactly 6 months since I arrived back in Chile. It´s kind of crazy thinking that I´ve been here for that long now... sometimes it seems like forever, and other times it seems so short. A lot of things have happened in those 6 months, some bad, but most good. As far as how much longer I´ll be here, that´s still up in the air. But for now, I´m just happy to reflect back on the time I´ve spent in this beautiful country. :) Longer post to come later...

Missing Home

2009-02-10T11:41:00.000-08:00

Well, I knew it would happen. Last semester I was loving life in Chile (not without my bad days, but for the most part loving it), but I figured that once I came back from my visit to the U.S. in December, I´d hit a low. And so I have. It´s part of culture shock that everyone goes through, and is magnified a little bit for me just because I´m so very close to my family. But either way, I´ve been feeling quite homesick lately. Not only that, but also kind of directionless... the thing is, I have really enjoyed my teaching job so far, but I know that´s not what I want to do for the rest of my life. The question is, what DO I want to do? I have no idea. I´m also not sure how long I want to be in Chile, although I still really do love the country and people. I´ve really been getting the itch lately to go back to school... my DREAM would be to return to UNC-Chapel Hill, the place where I spent the best 4 years of my life. Of course, it´s pretty hard to get in there, so I don´t know that grad school there could be a reality. Who knows.

Another thing that really made me miss home, and even miss high school (shocking, I know) happened the other day. A guy I´d had one class with in 9th grade (and hadn´t really seen since) messaged me on Facebook, saying, ¨Do I know you?¨ ... he quickly realized I´d been in that class with him, and we started talking. It was seriously great to talk to him, because I realized what a nice person he was. And this is something I had no idea of back in 9th grade. Because in 9th grade, I was incredibly shy. I´m still a pretty quiet person now, but I´ve come out of my shell a lot more. But back then when he was in my class, I was too scared to talk to him. For one, because I was shy, but also because he had this bad boy image that was completely the opposite of the people I hung out with. So basically, I judged him based on his appearance. Looking back, I kick myself for doing that. That´s someone I never want to be, someone who judges on appearances and consequently misses out on some really great friendships. And that´s exactly what happened back in 9th grade - I missed out on knowing a really great person because of my prejudices. Luckily, 11 years later, I have another chance to be his friend, and it´s great. Anyway, this whole episode has just made me miss high school, old friends, and home even more. I miss my parents, my brother and sis-in-law, my nephew, my Boston Terrier dog, North Carolina BBQ and people and weather... the list could go on. But here´s to hoping that I find direction soon!

El Techo

2009-02-05T12:13:00.000-08:00

Has anyone else noticed that in the metro station Pedro de Valdivia, down where the metro actually is (not up near the boleterìa or anything), the ceiling is filled with what looks like scattered pieces of stained glass? Either they just put that in, or I´m REALLY not observant (I´m betting on the latter) - but either way, I love it. It looks like a planetarium ceiling almost, except with stained glass tiles instead of stars. I love noticing little things like that around the city, things with character. Even things as boring as the metro can surprise you sometimes. :)

All Over the Place

2009-02-04T11:37:00.000-08:00

Let´s see, I´ve been in ... 4 different comunas today. I honestly feel like I´ve been running all over Santiago since 8:30 this morning. I started out the morning in Ñuñoa, where I live. From there I took the micro and then metro to La Florida, specifically Mirador station, for a class. Then at 12:00 I took the metro to La Moneda to go pick up some mess I needed for another class. Then at 1:00 I took the metro to Tobalaba, technically Las Condes, for another class. Then at 3:00 I took the metro and then micro again to get back home to Ñuñoa. Maybe it won´t be so bad in the fall, but running around like this right now, in the heat of the Santiago summer = craziness. I´m now exhausted.

25 Things

2009-02-02T12:15:00.000-08:00

I know you´re all just dying to know 25 random things about me (note the sarcasm), so I won´t keep you in suspense any longer. I´m sure you´ve seen this floating around on the internet, so here´s my own contribution:

1. I used to HATE my middle name (it´s a family name), but now I absolutely love it because I think it´s unique.

2. I started working when I was 14 years old (I did babysit before that, but I´m not counting that) at the concert pavilion in Raleigh, as a parking attendant. My favorite question posed to me by drunk people at the end of the night, ¨Can you tell me what parking lot my car is in?¨ ... (then, after asking them to describe it some more, location, etc.), ¨Ummm, it was in a big parking lot with gravel.¨ That was when I just started shaking my head.

3. I (like Abby) saved up money all on my own to buy my own horse. I even had a name picked out (Sierra), but when it came down to it, my parents said I could get a car or a horse, but not both. It was a tough decision, seriously, but I opted for the car.

4. I took English riding lessons for 5 years, and tap lessons for 5.

5. I took piano lessons for 10 years - my best moment was when one of my piano teachers told my dad he´d only had one other student like me, and that student was now at Juilliard. (did I make it to Juilliard? no way haha)

6. When I was a sophomore in high school, I saw The Silence of the Lambs for the 1st time and wanted to be an FBI Special Agent after that. Seriously.

7. For 2 years in college, I worked as a volunteer at John Umstead Psychiatric Hospital, working with schizophrenic patients. Amazing experience that I truly miss.

8. I took 2 semesters of German in college, but hardly remember anything now.

9. My secret (or not-so-secret now) dream right now is to learn Portugese.

10. When I was 10 years old, I chipped my tooth on the side of a swimming pool, and then later that same day, broke my arm falling off a horse. A day hereafter referred to as ¨Black Wednesday.¨

11. My favorite food is macaroni and cheese, and I think I could eat it every day.

12. After graduating college, I spent a summer in Salamanca, Spain.

13. That summer changed my life - before I went, I was enrolled in law school and had an apartment lease and everything. After I came back, I decided I didn´t want to go to law school anymore.

14. The one country I´ve really really wanted to visit for as long as I can remember is Italy. Specifically, Tuscany.

15. My dream job would be to write for Rolling Stone magazine.

16. I once dated a guy who was 11 years older than me. For like, 2 months.

17. I´ve also dated a couple of my brother´s best friends. Not a good idea.

18. My favorite flavor of ice cream is strawberry.

19. I have a Boston Terrier named Maggie, the sweetest dog on earth. Before that, I had a BT named Buster, also the sweetest dog ever.

20. I only have one living grandparent left, and she is unbelievably crazy and mean, unfortunately.

21. The first time I went anywhere with D (just me and him) was to buy strings for my guitar. That was over a year and a half ago!

22. I´ve always been very close to my parents and my brother - when we were in college, we used to go on road trips together to Tar Heels basketball games.

23. While at UNC, I met Ben Stein one night when he came to give a speech, and he told me I was pretty (probably told ALL the girls that!) ;)

24. While I can be flexible on many issues, one I won´t ever compromise on is abortion. I think it is absolutely wrong.

25. I really do love reading comments left on my blog, I can just be incredibly lazy when it comes to responding to them. But keep leaving them, I love em!

¨Squealing Teenagers¨ or ¨Hot Teacher Mania¨

2009-01-20T11:05:00.000-08:00

As it happens, there is a certain teacher at my institute who shall remain nameless, from a certain Southern state that shall also remain nameless. Said teacher and I currently share a class. This means that he teaches the class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I teach the class on the other days of the week. I was a bit apprehensive about this arrangement at first, but as it turns out, it´s not such a big deal after all. Anyway, because of sharing the class, we often talk a lot when we see each other at the institute. We kind of did before, too, just because he´s actually pretty fun to talk to. Not my cup of tea, but good to have as a friend. Well, I also happen to have a 2nd class (that I don´t share with him) that is composed of 6 teenagers - 5 girls and 1 boy. They range in age from 13 to 16, and they are indeed typical teenage girls. One other detail I might mention - the teacher from the Southern state that shall still remain nameless just happens to be pretty good-looking.

...You might be able to see where I´m going with this. Teenage girls + hot older teacher = trouble. I almost lost my patience today. They seriously SQUEAL whenever they see him. And somehow, they think I have the inside track just because I talk to him a lot. Today when we were in the cafeteria during our 15-minute break from class, they demanded that I introduce them to him. With a look on my face like ¨I just ran over a puppy¨, I turned to him and said under my breath, ¨I´m soooooo sorry about them... but they want me to introduce them to you.¨ Poor guy. But he took it all in stride. I´m thinking he´s probably used to this by now, teenage girls fawning all over him. And honestly, I´m trying to rein in my impatience because the thing is, I remember what it was like to be a teenage girl. I remember what it was like to have crushes on cute older guys. I remember what it was like to feel my heartbeat speed up when I saw that guy, and to turn to my girlfriends and excitedly whisper, ¨There he is!¨. God love ´em. I really do love this class - which is saying something, because before the summer term started, I was praying that I could avoid classes with teenagers. Now, I love them. I´m not saying it´s always wonderful, but I really am grateful to have been challenged with this group of students. Now if I could only get them to stop screaming when they see this one teacher...

Pink-Haired Punks (and other things)

2009-01-14T07:07:00.000-08:00

Here I am on the metro, minding my own business, enjoying the extreme greatness that is the red line (or something like that). Out of the corner of my eye, I see a splash of color. Turning my head slightly to investigate further, I am greeted by the sight of 3 teenage girls walking right behind the linea amarilla (they are outside of the metro car, I am inside). ALL THREE have pink hair. All three appear to be friends. I ask myself, what could possibly motivate all three of them to dye their hair pink? Don´t most people do that thinking that they´re being non-conformist, swimming against the current if you will? So why dye your hair the same color as your other two friends? Magically, all of these thoughts must have infused themselves into my gaze, because the next thing I know, one of the girls is giving me the finger. I narrow my eyes, resist the urge to lower myself to her level, and silently stew, thinking to myself, ¨Those little punks! Why I oughta...¨ Am I getting old or something? Will my next thoughts be, ¨These kids with their loud music... why, back in my day...¨ Anyway, then I find myself thinking that perhaps I shouldn´t get so mad. They´re just being punk kids, after all. So I smooth my hand over my own hair as my mouth turns up at the corners, and relax for the rest of the ride.

Edit: I´m mostly calling them ¨punks¨because of their behavior (i.e. giving me the finger), not so much because of their style. Although maybe that´s how they´d describe their style, who knows.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

And now, for something completely different... yesterday morning before class, I was in the bathroom downstairs at the Institute. What was I doing, you might ask? Using the bathroom, fixing my hair, checking to make sure I hadn´t mysteriously gotten dirt on my black pants? Ohhhhhhhhh no. I was washing a plastic hamburger. Yes, that´s right. Don´t judge, lest you find yourself in the same position some day. Actually, it was just a prop I was going to use for one of my classes, but it appeared quite strange to the girl who walked into the bathroom just then. She didn´t really even say anything, but I could read it all in her gaze... I knew she was thinking something like, ¨Isn´t there a screening process for people to work here at the Institute? Shouldn´t we make sure they´re not complete weirdos before hiring them?¨ My face turning a bit red, I muttered, ¨It´s for my class¨, and continued on with my task of cleaning the plastic hamburger. Next time, I don´t think I´ll explain myself. Maybe it´s more fun just to let people invent their own explanations. ;)

New Year´s Resolutions

2009-01-05T14:40:00.000-08:00

Well, better late than never, right? I don´t usually make New Year´s resolutions, mainly because when I have in the past, I´ve, well... FAILED. But this year (and I don´t really know why), I had an urge to make some. It´s just that there are a few changes I want to make in my life, so why not start with the new year? I may add to these over time, but these are the main ones I´ve been thinking of:

1. SAVE MONEY. This is one of the more important ones, especially now that I´ve found out that my parents have more debt than I thought. I knew they had some (like most Americans), but I didn´t know how much. I also have a bit, and I´d like to get out of it, as well as try to actually save some money. And if there is any way I can, I´d like to try to help my parents a bit (yeah, probably not on my English teacher´s salary, but at some point down the line).

2. Quit spending so much money on puras weas. This goes along with # 1 - my thinking is that if I can stop spending so much money on stupid (or maybe it would be better to say ¨unnecessary¨) things, I can actually save some money, right? And when I think about puras weas, the first thing that comes to mind is Coca-Cola. Sweet nectar of the gods it is. And 600 pesos doesn´t seem like that much when I´m spending it on a Coke, but when I add it all up and realize how much money I spend in a month on Coke, I shudder. That, and real coffee. I´m sorry, but having a Starbucks just a few short blocks from where I work is ridiculously tempting. Although I have to say, I haven´t been there that much lately (go me!). Still, good grief... it´s like the Chilean universe is conspiring against me and my budget.

3. Stop taking the easy way out when speaking Spanish. Or, in other words, stop being lazy. The thing is, when I´m talking to D (who understands almost 100% of what I say in English), it´s so tempting to just finish a sentence in English that I start in Spanish, if I can´t think of the right words to say. This is fine as far as his comprehension goes. But NOT fine as far as me getting over that hurdle and becoming fluent in Spanish. My Spanish is pretty good, and I do know a lot of chilenismos, but I´m not quite fluent yet, and I want to get there. So one thing I need to do is quit being lazy, and force myself to complete the thought in Spanish, no matter how challenging.

4. EXERCISE. If there existed a Top Ten list of New Year´s resolutions that Americans make, this one would probably top the list. That, or quitting smoking. It´s almost cliche, it´s so common. But I don´t care - call me cliche if you will, I really do need to start exercising. No one´s said I look fat or anything, but I just FEEL a lot better when I exercise, physically and mentally. I long for the days when I ran on my high school´s cross country team. That was the best shape I´ve been in in my life, and I want at least a semblance of that back.

5. Read as much as I can. I love reading, and it really helps me with writing, and even gives me ideas for my English classes sometimes. I´m stoked because I got 2 Barnes & Noble gift cards for Christmas, so I brought back a nice stash of books with me to Chile (I am indeed a nerd, have I mentioned that on this blog already?).

6. Travel to the south of Chile. I´ve wanted to do this for so long, and have never really had the opportunity or the money. I want to make it happen sometime in 2009 - if not in February, maybe in September during the week of dieciocho, when I´ll actually have some vacation time.

That´s it for now... I think 6 is plenty. Now all I need is someone to help me stick with these resolutions!

"Soberano"

2008-12-30T21:56:00.000-08:00

Manos que fueron clavadas por mi
Heridas que hablan de tu inmenso amor
Por eso te llamo mi Cristo
Por eso te canto

Díos del universo
Salvador eterno
Rey de toda la creación
Redentor divino
Díos a ti me rindo
Gloria te doy

Santo Díos plan soberano es
El enviar tu hijo por la humanidad
Por eso te llamo mi Cristo
Por eso te canto
Díos del universo
Salvador eterno
Rey de toda la creación
Redentor divino
Díos a ti me rindo
Gloria te doy

Santo Santo Santo Díos
Santo Santo Santo Díos

Manos que se entregaron por amor
Lo que soy siempre te daré Señor
Por eso te llamo mi Cristo
Por eso te canto...

* This is one of my favorite songs by a group called Hillsong... the original song is called "Sovereign Hands", and this (obviously) is the Spanish version of it, "Soberano."

Thoughts

2008-12-27T20:59:00.000-08:00

it's been three years since i've seen you
and really seven years since we've talked
and i find myself thinking you're one of the kindest guys i've ever met
and why weren't we better friends in high school
and why didn't we talk more
and you listen as i tell you about my adventures in Chile
and you ask about my boyfriend and if he has a cute accent
and i want to tell you how nice you are
and how refreshing it is to be in the company of someone like you
someone who is genuine
and genuinely kind
but i feel awkward so i hold back
and you remember my brother's name!
maybe you had a class together once
my thoughts come in a rush
i'm so glad i came tonight
to this impromptu class reunion
people i haven't seen in seven years
and you're the nicest person in the room
i drift away toward another group
thinking i should mingle more with others
it's like a slow waltz, the dance i do
gliding across the room
pirouetting around tables
(as if i had the grace for that)
and what do i find myself coming back to
but you
and not because of any romantic notions
i have a boyfriend, i told you about him right?
but because you're like a breath of fresh air
like breathing in cold, crisp, autumn air
in the midst of a smog-choked city
fresh air in the form of kindness
even if you wanted to hide it, you couldn't
it's permanently etched into your face
permanently illuminated in your eyes

I Love...

2008-12-22T21:13:00.000-08:00

- The smell of pancakes and coffee when I wake in the morning
- A fire in the fireplace on a wintry day
- Babies. Everything about them. Everyone should be made to spend some time with a baby, or maybe just my nephew, who is the sweetest thing God has made in awhile
- Flannel sheets with snowmen on them, and electric blankets
- My family... 5 people who love me and care about me no matter how much or how badly I mess up. I can always come home
- Reading and writing. Or just words in general
- Spanish
- Music. What would I do without music? My life would be dull, I think.
- The mountains, the ocean, summertime, the sun, palm trees
- Finding beauty in the little things
The list goes on, and on, and on...

I Made A Mistake

2008-12-22T20:58:00.000-08:00

They say first impressions are everything, but they're wrong. I have proof. I recently met someone who I grossly misjudged. And the worst part is, it was all based on 2 minutes of conversation. Think about it. Out of 20 some odd years, what percentage of a life is 2 minutes? How representative can it really be? And to write someone off based on that... I must be a horrible person.

Especially now because I realize my error. I discovered that not only does this person have a blog, but they write BEAUTIFULLY. In fact, they seem like an amazing person, and I feel about 2 inches tall right now. Every once in awhile I discover a writer who seems to articulate the beauty in this world in a form that I find breathtaking, and who describes things in such a way that they seem right there, tangible, for the taking. This girl is one of those people. For hours I've been trying desperately to think of who she reminds me of, and it finally comes to me: another blog writer I found last year, and then promptly lost when she stopped blogging. But I tucked away one of her descriptions, and I still remember the night I read it for the first time, and trying to tell D about it later. She was talking about a beautiful night spent with friends, and she wrote that she wanted to "take this night and break it into little tiny pieces and give one to everyone I know." Something about that just struck me... maybe because I've had nights like that, many of them in Chile, when I wish I could just infuse the indescribable beauty into everyone I meet. Either way, The Girl I Misjudged is much like Blog Writer Number One.

I feel ashamed, and I honestly hope she hasn't read my blog. If you do read this, just know that I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions. And also thank you, for inspiring me and providing me with some of the best reading I've had in a long time. It makes me think of Donald Miller, and I like to think we are kindred souls, he and I. To my fellow bloggers, if you haven't read "Blue Like Jazz", you are severely missing out.

I Don't Really Know What to Call This...

2008-12-21T18:16:00.000-08:00

This blog entry, that is. But here I am back in North Carolina, and while the overwhelming part of me is very happy, there is also a part of me that already misses Chile, and most importantly, D. (I know, I'm only going to be gone for 2 weeks, but still). But what I want to write about right now is the former...

It seems I have developed a love affair with Chile. Only, now that I type that, I think it's not quite an adequate term. Because most love "affairs" are short-lived, it seems, and I certainly don't want mine to be so. I don't know what it is, but each day as my feet hit the blazing-hot pavement, I gaze up at the blue sky and palm trees (I have ALWAYS loved and wanted to live in a place with palm trees), and look around at the flowers and fruit stands and think, "wow, I love living here." Even that sentence doesn't even begin to capture it. In fact, the more I try to capture my feeling, the more futile it seems. Now, lest you think I am still in the "honeymoon" stage of culture shock, I have spent time in Chile before. And yes, I've spent an entire winter here. I know the realities of life without central heating. It sucks. But it seems a small sacrifice to pay to be able to be part of a beautiful culture.

The other day I went to barrio Concha y Toro by myself, and just wandered through the streets, admiring the architecture and stopping at the little fountain for a rest. It feels like a different world there. I went to what is quite possibly one of the coolest cafes in Santiago, and couldn't concentrate on the book I had brought to read, because my mind was flooded with thoughts of "I am so blessed to be in this place." I don't know if it was that day or another that I had the thought, "I could stay here for quite awhile." And by stay, I mean live, in Chile. How long is quite awhile? I don't know... I used to be scared by the idea of living in Chile for a number of years, but now I begin to think I could. Again, I'm aware I still haven't been here for a very long time, but each day renews my love for this place, and that is something I'm not going to argue with.

Why I Love My University...

2008-12-11T06:20:00.000-08:00

Cuz we´ve got spirit! And we´re occasionally pretty crazy, as evidenced by the video I´m about to link (actually I´m not sure how to link, so I´ll just copy the URL).

¨On Dec. 9th, 2008 in order to break up the stresses of fall semester exam week, UNC-Chapel Hill students flash raved their Undergraduate Library. Without warning to those that were unaware, hundreds of students packed the library lobby and brought it hardcore for over 8 minutes.¨

Indeed. Final exam week has been known to bring out the craziest in college students everywhere, and students at my alma mater, Carolina, are no exception. Impromptu rave parties in the UL? Rock on. You don´t have to watch all 4 minutes, but fast forward to the end where the students show some Tar Heel spirit in the form of our alma mater and favorite game-day chant:

Hark the sound of Tar Heel voices
Ringing clear and true
Singing Carolina´s praises
Shouting NCU (N C U!)
Hail to the brightest star of all
Clear its radiance shine
Carolina, priceless gem
Receive all praises thine

And the chant...

I´m a Tar Heel born
I´m a Tar Heel bred
And when I die
I´m a Tar Heel dead
So it´s rah rah, Carolina-lina
Rah rah, Carolina-lina
Rah rah, Carolina-lina
GO TO HELL DUKE!

Can you tell I´m feeling just a little nostalgic at the moment? ;) Here´s the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruEMaDZWRcs

Shameless Plug Time

2008-12-09T12:08:00.000-08:00

That´s right, I´m not above a little shameless plugging every now and then. Especially right now, since it concerns my lovely pololo. As it happens, D is the singer for a rock band here in Santiago. Aaaaand I´m betting you haven´t heard of them... BUT I hope a lot of people will soon, because (and I´m biased, but still) they´re pretty darn talented. Seriously, I really do think it would be hard to find many people more talented at guitar then D´s brother Felipe. Anyway, on to the point... if you have Thursday night free (yes, THIS Thursday, as in December 11), you should come to their concert!! Oh yeah, his band is called Los Hermanos Sì. They´re on Facebook and Myspace if you feel like looking them up. The concert is at Club Mist, which is conveniently located on Avda. Suecia 152, in Providencia. :) There are 4 bands total that will be playing, and the concert starts at 9:00, but Los Hermanos Sì will probably be playing around 11:00... but get there earlier just in case! I´m pretty sure it´s free to enter if you get there before 11:00. So... PLEASE come and support D´s band if you can! They are working very hard and I´m excited to see where they´ll go...

Carnet! And Other Assorted Randomness

2008-12-05T08:31:00.000-08:00

After running around the lovely city of Santiago, I am now DONE with all my tramites, thank the Lord. The adventure started on Wednesday, when I had to go to El Centro to get my visa stamped into my passport. Miraculously, I only had to wait 45 minutes and it was done. Score. Yesterday, I went to the Policìa Internacional, conveniently located (note the sarcasm) on Calle Borgoño. I´m sorry, what? Where is this street I have never heard of? Luckily, I got D to go with me, so that made it a lot better. It was actually kind of a fun day, because we took some time to walk around the markets over there (near metro Puente Cal y Canto), and walked through the Mercado Central. We didn´t stop and eat lunch at one of the many restaurants, but we did swing by and get an empanada with queso y camarones. Yummy! At the Policìa Internacional, I only had to wait 2 hours to get my Certificado de Registro. Aaaaaand the final step today, I went to the Registro Civil (I think that´s it, I´ve been to so many places lately I´ve lost count) to get my Carnet. The good thing about this step is that the Registro Civil has many different locations, so I was able to go to one in Ñuñoa that is only about 10 minutes from my house. Again, I only had to wait about 45 minutes! The guy who helped me was super nice, too... he put all of my information into the computer, which assigned me a R.U.T. (finally!), took my picture (I think it turned out pretty well, miraculously!), and then put a crap ton of ink on every single finger. I mean, is that really necessary? But whatever, he gave me some lotion afterward to clean it off so it wasn´t really that bad. And now I´m done! So I just have to wait about 2 weeks and I can go pick up my Carnet. Let me tell you, it´s such a relief to have all this mess done. And.. knock on wood... this whole process has been incredibly smooth, which is surprising. :)

In other news, I met a teacher at the Institute the other day, and one of the first things she asked me was, ¨Where are you from?¨ Now, up until this point, she had been really friendly, so I wasn´t prepared for what was coming. I replied, ¨North Carolina¨, and she responded by smiling and saying, ¨Awww, that´s cute ... I´m from Chicago.¨ Hold on just a minute now... CUTE? The fact that I´m from North Carolina is cute? You may think I´m exaggerating or reading too much into things, but believe me, the way she said it (and the words themselves) were a bit condescending. It was as if she was saying, ¨Ohhhh, North Carolina... well fancy that, what´s a little country girl like you doing in a big city like this? I´m from CHICAGO.¨ I mean, give me a break. Sorry if I´m a little sensitive about this subject, but that´s one of my pet peeves. I can´t STAND it when people think they´re better than me just because they´re from a big city.

Alright, enough ranting. Have a good weekend everybody!

Decisions, Decisions

2008-11-28T14:53:00.000-08:00

So much crazy stuff has happened recently and unfortunately, I have to be vague about it on here. But let´s just say I have some very important decisions coming up... some very HARD decisions, that could change life drastically. I feel a huge knot in my stomach right now... more like butterflies actually, that I am utterly incapable of controlling. My thoughts are tumbling through my head at a million miles an hour. Pros and cons wage war against each other, and I´m left only with a confused, empty feeling. Strangely enough, though, throughout all of this, there is one thought that permeates everything: I love Chile, with every fiber of my being. Yes, some days I feel angry and frustrated, just wanting to leave and never come back. But those days are few in comparison with the days when I look around and know with conviction that a piece of my heart will always remain in Chile. That with each day that passes, my existence is woven more and more intricately with the strands of this country. I honestly thank God for the opportunity to spend even a small portion of my life here. More on that soon, when I have a chance to collect my thoughts a little more...

Good News!

2008-11-25T12:06:00.000-08:00

Well, my week just got infinitely better. Yesterday, I found out that the Institute has approved my nearly 2-week vacation, meaning I´m leaving on December 20th to go home for Christmas!!! I mean, I would´ve gone anyway, but I feel better now knowing that I have ¨official¨ approval and all that... because the truth is, this is a fairly good-paying job for Chile, and I´m getting a visa through it and all that jazz. So I didn´t really wanna rock the boat, if you know what I mean.

The other piece of good news is that I checked the status of my visa online today, and it has been officially approved! So now I just wait for the 2nd letter telling me about this official approval, and then I have to take a bunch of papers to El Centro and all that, etc etc. But point being, my visa is approved! And not the temporary one either, the real deal. So right now, I´m feelin pretty good... I think I´ll start making a list of all the things I want to eat and all the places I want to go when I get home in December. :)

Stop Blushing!

2008-11-21T14:03:00.001-08:00

Memo to my cheeks: it´s not necessary to get THAT red, really. Especially over the most random things. Seriously, let´s stop this now before it gets more out of control, ok? Thanks.

I´m not kidding, people. I don´t know what my deal has been lately, but I seem to blush at the stupidest things. And I´m talking resembling-a-tomato red. It´s quite embarrassing, really. Case in point: yesterday I was at the Institute, sitting in the cafeteria and basically just killing time before my next class. Up walks a fellow newbie teacher, of the southern U.S. male variety. Good-looking, yes, but I´m taken and that´s really beside the point anyway. So he sits down at my table, we´re talking about our classes, and he asks me about how the final oral exam is supposed to work. The conversation goes a little something like this, as best I remember:

Southern US Male: So what´s the deal with the Final Oral Exam, anyway?

Me: Well, I had to do that the other day, and we´re supposed to switch teachers for it. I actually got really lucky with mine.

SUSM: How so?

Me: The class I had to take over was ridiculously small, so I only had to give the oral for one dude.

Me: (realizing what I just said) That didn´t sound right, did it?

Me again: (starting to blush really hard) Crap. I didn´t mean it like that. I swear I don´t have a dirty mind.

SUSM: Bwahahahahaha, you bad girl, you. Man, you´re blushing really hard.

Me: I know. Crap. I don´t know what my deal is.

Note: I swear people, my mind really isn´t in the gutter. It´s not like that.

I´m Lazy

2008-11-18T06:26:00.000-08:00

That´s just all there is to it. I´ve been thinking about why I haven´t written a post in like, a million years, and have been trying to convince myself that I´ve been too busy. You know, because I have SO many classes to teach right now (insert sarcastic eye-rolling here). But nope, it´s just that I´m lazy. That, and I´ve had no inspiration as of late. As much as I love Santiago (and I do), sometimes I feel like the city and the insufferable heat is sucking out my soul. I desperately need an escape to Viña or La Serena, or somewhere that isn´t Santiago. Luckily, I do get an escape to cold weather in about a month from now. I think that´ll do a lot of good for me. To see my family again, play with my little 5-month-old nephew, drink REAL coffee again, go to Barnes and Noble, etc etc. O sea, all the stuff I´ve been missing for the past 3 months. Anyway, I´ll write a more substantial post later, but I wanted to at least write SOMETHING for now, if for nothing else than to reassure myself that I can still put together a cogent thought. Although maybe the jury´s still out on that one, you tell me.

Group Post: Spanish, English or Spanglish?

2008-11-07T11:17:00.000-08:00

I happened to see this on Emily´s blog, so it looks like this time around, Fned is organizing a group post. Rock on, I say. ;)

This is a very interesting topic to me, and one that I am involved with on a daily basis, as I communicate with D. When we first started hanging out (as friends) in July 2007, my Spanish was definitely iffy... especially my listening skills. He would call me up to see if I wanted to do something, and the conversation would usually go something like this:

D: Quieres hacer algo esta noche?
Me: Ummmmm... (pause while I try to translate what I want to say in my head)... sì. (Real complex response there, Jessica.)
D: Yapo, estoy en la casa ahora, dònde estàs tù?
Me: Estoy en el departamento.
D: Ok, te puedo buscar en como 20 minutos, te tinca?
Me: Como?? (thinking, what the heck does ¨te tinca¨mean?)
D: Te puedo buscar en tu departamento, ya?
Me: ...... Ok.
D: Nos vemos en un rato entonces.
Me: Como?
D: Nos .. vemos.. en .. un rato.
Me: Ahhhhhhh ok, sì, nos vemos!

... Good grief, thinking back on our cell phone conversations pains me. It was so hard for me to understand him! Things were easier in person, but still. And now? Over a year later, I am glad to say that my Spanish is much improved, especially my listening skills. I now understand basically 100% of what D says in Spanish, and what I don´t understand is a great learning opportunity for me. The vast majority of the time that we are together is spent speaking in Spanish. For me, this is great, because I´m still not quite fluent, but I feel like I´m on the road to being so. I do try to encourage D to speak to me in English sometimes, because he´s definitely not fluent and needs to practice much more. His main problem though is that he´s shy when it comes to speaking English, especially in front of his family (which I don´t quite understand, because he´s the one that knows the most English as far as his family goes). But the boy is SMART, and whenever he does speak in English, it´s almost always correct!

As far as Spanglish goes, we definitely speak our fair share of that, especially me. Sometimes I´ll start a sentence in Spanish and then switch to English if I get frustrated. I know that´s not good to do often though, if I want to be fluent! A big part of becoming fluent is struggling through those times when it would just be easier to switch to your native tongue. But let´s face it, sometimes Spanglish is just easier, and can definitely make for some funny situations. ;)

Election Dayyyyyy

2008-11-04T06:16:00.000-08:00

Alright, my blog has always been pretty politics-free, and I´d like to keep it that way for the most part. In fact, I don´t think I´ve even mentioned if I´m for Obama or McCain. But in the spirit of election day, I might as well come out with it: I didn´t vote for either one. I think I may be the only expat in Chile on our little blog network here that didn´t vote for Obama, but I´m perfectly OK with that. The truth is, I grew up in a very politically conservative, Christian family (and when I say Christian, I do mean Christian... my parents were and are good Christ-like examples for me). Growing up, I always adopted the stances of my parents, as children are wont to do. When I got to Carolina, a pretty liberal university, some of my views on things changed a bit. I am also a Christian (although I definitely mess up a lot), and that has influenced me politically as well. I won´t go into my stance on all of the issues, but one of the issues I have always been and will always be extremely passionate about is that of abortion. I am very much against abortion, and that, along with a few other issues, made me not vote for Obama. As far as McCain, I´m a bit fearful of him continuing on the road paved by Bush. I really wish there was a 3rd party candidate with a fighting chance, but so goes politics in the U.S. Anyway, feel free to comment if you´d like. Happy Election Day everybody!

Sick as a Dog

2008-10-29T13:37:00.000-07:00

That was me on Monday night and part of Tuesday. I think I had the same thing that D had a couple of weeks ago, but man was it rough. I had a class at 1:30 on Monday and was fine then. But afterward, I had a class from 5:30 to 7:30 and actually had to end a few minutes early because I had started feeling pretty bad during the class. So I left and got on the metro, where I had to go 8 stops to get to the Institute. About 4 stops into the ride, I started thinking... crap, I´m not going to make it. I got off at U Catolica and sat down for a few minutes, hoping that would help. Yeahhhh, not so much. I got back on and made it to the Institute, thankfully... but barely made it to the bathroom before I lost it. Vomitando ALL over the place. Poor janitors. I was supposed to have a class at 8:20 that night, but I had to cancel that, because I knew there was no way I´d make it through an hour and a half of class. And it´s a good thing I cancelled too, because I ended up throwing up 5 more times that night and into Tuesday morning. Wonderful. Thankfully, I am feeling better now, but I´m still sick as a dog of something else...

NOT being told important things by the Institute. I know I´ve opined on the lack of organization here, but SERIOUSLY, this is ridiculous. It´s not like these are things you could intuit, things that should be obvious to any new employee at any random company. No no... these are things nobody would know unless they were told. And I haven´t been told jack squat. And I´m tired of it. What also sucks is the suckiness (lovely writing, I know) of the Institute reflecting poorly on me. Case in point, the class I had to cancel on Monday night... when I took over this class, they had already had 2 professors, just temporary teachers until the Institute finally found someone (me) willing to take the class. So the students were already fed up with the Institute constantly switching professors on them. So today while at the Institute, I talk to one of the ladies in charge of these classes and she tells me that the students were very ¨molestados¨ by having to have a substitute teacher on Monday night. She said that they understood the situation, that I was sick and everything, but they are still upset with having had so many different teachers for this course. So, to the Institute, I would just like to say a big, sarcastic THANK YOU. Thank you for screwing me over. Now I am actually dreading going to this class tonight and having to face my students. Hopefully they won´t be too pissed off... but seriously, I was throwing up like once every hour, what was I supposed to do?

A Brief Explanation...

2008-10-24T09:07:00.000-07:00

Here I go again with 2 posts in one day. But I finally came up with a new title for my blog, so I wanted to explain just a bit... ¨Jet¨ is my nickname. Actually, I don´t think any of my new gringa friends here know that yet, so... now you do. It´s what all of my Chilean friends call me, and even D´s parents. I got that nickname about 2 and a half years ago. Sometime I´ll explain more. Anyway, I´m sort of the ¨jet-setter¨ of my family, since I´m the only one who really travels much. But now I feel more like I´m settling in Santiago, at least for a couple of years. Hence ¨jet-settling.¨ I actually felt proud of myself for about a half-second, thinking I was being innovative... then I did a Google search and realized I´m not as creative as I thought. Turns out someone had already coined the term ¨jet-settler¨, probably a long time ago. Oh well, whatever. So, welcome to my newly named blog!

Ain´t Too Proud to Beg

2008-10-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

I suspect that what I´m about to say is probably a characteristic of the majority of people around the world...

I HATE to ask anyone for money. In general, I just hate to feel in debt to anyone. But this particularly applies to asking strangers for money, something that I actually can´t recall ever doing... until last night, that is. And now, to reveal the very unfortunate side of having a somewhat lopsided weekly class schedule. Here´s the thing... on MWF, I have 3 classes, so I lug around my huge bookbag those days, to fit all of my books, papers, and various other ¨necessities.¨ However, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I only have one class, so I switch the books for that class from my insanely large bookbag to my much more comfortable messenger bag. In the process, I also have to switch things like pens, markers, my BIP card, etc etc... and my wallet. Well, wouldn´t you know it... in my hurry to get out the door yesterday, I neglected to take my wallet from my bookbag and put it in my other bag.

Awesome. Particularly awesome because I only had enough money on my BIP card to get TO work, not home again. I was planning on charging it in the metro after class, with the money that was in my WALLET. Obviously, it´s kind of hard to use money from a wallet that you don´t have. Righto. So here I am after class, scrounging for change in my bag. I find 620 pesos, and carry this to the BIP counter, trying to pick the most sympathetic looking cashier I can, praying they´ll have mercy on me and forego the 800 peso minimum. No dice. Even after I explain that I literally have NO more than 620 pesos, I still get a bored look and a declaration that ¨You can´t put this amount on your card.¨ Greeeeeat. So now I have no way to get on the metro, I´m not about to get on the micro that would take me to a sketchy micro stop, and I have no money on my cell phone. What to do, what to do... I really wanted to find ANY other way to get myself out of this situation, because I knew the last resort would be to use a pay phone and call D to come pick me up. Where I work isn´t exactly the closest place to his house, so I didn´t want him to have to do that. So, I humbled myself and did what I was dreading the most... I asked a stranger for money.

It was hard, I admit. I stood there for at least 5 minutes in the metro, letting people pass me by, scrutinizing each one in a pathetic attempt to determine if they looked like they would help me out. Finally, I looked at my watch and decided I was tired of standing there, and just wanted to get home. I saw a pleasant looking man in a suit coming toward me, and thought, ¨here´s my chance.¨ I stopped him and politely asked if he had 200 pesos he might be willing to give me, explaining that I only had 600 and that this wasn´t enough to charge my BIP. He looked at me with a friendly glance, and pulled 200 pesos out of his pocket, saying, ¨200 pesos? No problem, here you go.¨ I thanked him profusely, and went on my way. When I finally got home and told the story to D, he looked surprised that I´d asked a stranger for money, but thought it was cool that I had. And my suegra´s reaction? ¨That was a very Chilean thing to do!¨

One Step Down...

2008-10-20T12:18:00.001-07:00

Half a million more to go. BUT, the good news is, I sent in my visa papers a week and a half ago and got the lovely brown envelope in the mail! So now I´ve got my ¨temporary¨ work visa type thing... and now I wait for another lovely envelope, which I have to take to Policia Internacional, and 5 million years later I finally get my carnet! So what does it mean at this point? It means that I don´t have to deal with going to Mendoza every 3 months. I mean, I really do like Mendoza and everything, but I don´t have the money to be leaving every 3 months.

And, not to count my chickens before they hatch, but it seems the Institute is going to approve my vacation request. Which is great news, because I really didnt want to have to quit. AND, even better, they are willing to give me a few extra days. So if everything works out, I will be leaving here on Saturday, December 20 and not coming back until January 4. :) Thank the Lord for some good news!!

Time for a Change

2008-10-17T06:53:00.001-07:00

2 posts in one day, I know, I know. It´s actually not annoying to me, though, when someone else posts more than once in a day. I enjoy reading everyone´s blogs, so 2 posts in a day just means more for me to read. :)

Anyway, I was inspired by Abby´s change in color scheme on her blog, and I was getting sick of my own. I decided a change was in order, and this is what I came up with. I like it, it´s brighter and sunnier, and since we´re in springtime now, I think it fits. Now I just need to change the title - after all, I started this blog when I was in the States, but now I´m back in Santiago, and so is my heart (insert cheesy ¨awww¨sound here). So, any ideas? I need some inspiration, people!

Oh, Gmail

2008-10-17T06:27:00.001-07:00

If you have Gmail like I do, you´ve probably noticed the slightly-creepy tendency of this email program to take words from your emails and try to read your mind, offering you ¨related¨links. I put related in quotation marks because, really, 9 times out of 10 the links have nothing to do with your original thoughts. I mean, thanks Gmail, but no thanks. I don´t really need you pulling random words from the subject line or content of my emails and attempting to dazzle me with some amazing link.

Case in point: today, after checking my Inbox, I decided to click on the ¨Spam¨folder and delete all of its contents (what reaches that folder could be a whole post in itself). After doing so, the oh-so-helpful ¨related¨link caught my eye. But did it have to do with a random word from one of the spam messages? The subject line from one of said messages? Oh, no. It had to do with the word ¨spam¨itself. The link? A recipe for none other than ¨Spam Veggie Pita Pockets.¨ Mmmmmmm, nothing says delicious lunch quite like Spam. Heck, if it had just said ¨Veggie Pita Pockets¨, I may have been tempted to click on the link. But they had to go and ruin a perfectly good recipe with Spam. Figures.

The point of this post? It´s the small things in life that entertain me, folks.

If You´re the Praying Type...

2008-10-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

Please pray that the Institute will approve my request for vacation days to go home for Christmas. I love Chile and everything, but I have never spent a Christmas away from my family, and I don´t want to start now. ESPECIALLY as this will be my nephew´s first Christmas. He´ll be 6 months old... I don´t even have enough time or space here to tell you how much he and the rest of my family mean to me. It kills me that I´m missing watching him grow up. I just went to the personnel lady´s office to turn in my vacation time request, and she told me to wait a few minutes as she talked to the director. During that time, I just about teared up even thinking of the possibility of them telling me no. When she came back, she told me to return again on Monday and she would have an answer for me. So if you´re the praying type like me, please pray that I´ll be able to spend Christmas at home with my family. If not, well wishes or positive thoughts would also be appreciated!

Group Blog: Hardest Custom to Adjust to in Chile

2008-10-13T11:24:00.001-07:00

There are actually several customs that I have found a bit difficult to adjust to, but I´ll just focus on one: SOCCER. That is, the custom of watching soccer until your eyes bleed.

Good grief, even my pololo pointed this out to me last night after watching Chile lose once again in soccer, this time to Ecuador. He asked me a rhetorical question, and quite a good one at that: Why, in a country with such bad soccer teams, is soccer such an incredibly popular sport?

The answer? Heck if I know. I mean, we have Colo Colo, la U, Catolica, the national team, etc etc... and which team is actually good? Sorry if it sounds like I´m completely trashing Chile´s soccer program, but I happen to be having one of those everything-about-living-here-sucks days, so I´m feeling a little edgier than usual. Now, the real problem for me is not that the teams are so bad. That´s not the reason I detest watching soccer. The real reason is that I find it incredibly boring. Fact numero 1 about me: I am a HUGE sports fan. But that does not include soccer. The sports I really really love watching with a passion are college basketball, college and NFL football, and the NHL. Short story about my obsession with college basketball: I graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill (hereafter referred to as Carolina). At Carolina, basketball isn´t just another sport, it´s a passion. People eat, sleep, dream basketball. And not just the players, but the students too, myself included. So in March of my senior year at Carolina (2005), we were set to play dook (Duke) as usual, as the last game of the regular season. If you´ve ever even heard the words college basketball, you´ve heard of the Carolina-Duke rivalry. It´s always a huge game, and it´s always an amazingly fun time (unless we lose). So my senior year, I had the fortune of getting riser tickets for the game - risers are the platforms right beneath the basket where students with those tickets stand. Those are the most coveted tickets, because they´re literally right on the court. The thing is, if you´re in the back rows, it´s pretty hard to see. So, to make sure I was in one of the front rows, I camped out (along with a ton of other students) at the Dean Dome for 3 days before the game. Believe me, I would have camped out longer if I´d needed to. It worked out too - I got on the second row, and watched us beat Duke in thrilling fashion. :) Carolina went on to win the championship, my senior year!

Ok sorry, I got nostalgic for a moment. But seriously, I LOVE sports. This is why it´s frustrating for me to live in a country where I can´t just turn on ESPN or WRAL (local channel in Raleigh) and watch a Carolina basketball or football game. I´m resigned to watching soccer. And bad soccer at that. You might say, but Jessica, nobody is FORCING you to watch a soccer game. Sort of true. But where I´m living right now, my boyfriend´s brother watches literally EVERY soccer game that´s ever shown on tv. It could be Señora Rodriguez`s cuarto basico class vs. Señor Bravo´s class and he´d watch it. So it´s hard to escape.

Anyway, it seems my choices are limited here - either cultivate a love of soccer (not looking likely), or buy a slingbox so I can still watch Carolina games. I love Chile, but man... I need my college sports!

An Open Letter to the Lady at the Notaria

2008-10-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

Dear Lady Who Cut in Front of Me in Line,

I had been waiting for 20 minutes for the Notaria to open so that I could finally sign this contract for work. Oh, and by the way, those heels I was wearing? NOT very comfortable. In other words, I was excited to be 2nd in line, so that I could get the heck out of there and into more comfortable shoes. Meanwhile, here you come... you wait 5 minutes, compared to my 20, and then you proceed to cut in front of me when the Notaria finally opens. Thanks for ignoring my attempts to bring this to your attention. Also, thanks for wasting my time by discussing your personal hygiene habits as they related to fingernails as I waited in line. Clearly, that´s a good idea when there are 70 million people waiting in line behind you. You know, to make small talk with the Notaria worker about which nail polish color is currently in fashion. After all, it´s not like I had anywhere else to be. Wait, that´s right... I DID have somewhere else to be. Silly me. I hadn´t had time to eat lunch yet, so I was starving, and I also had to drop off this contract and get to my next class. But let´s forget about that... because after all, this is your world and we´re all just living in it, right?

Sincerely,
Chata de personas asì

Changing Lives for the Better

2008-10-07T08:19:00.000-07:00

I´m betting if you´re reading this right now, you are also an avid reader of Kyle´s blog, Just Married Chilean Style. And if not, there´s never been a better time to start reading, because Kyle and her husband are doing something that will literally change someone´s life for the better. It actually makes me look at myself and wonder - what have I done lately to change someone´s life? Anyway, here´s the deal: Kyle and her husband, S., are good friends with a young man named Marcelo who works in construction. M. busts his butt everyday at his job and is quite talented at it. The only problem is, his level of education is holding him back from earning a more decent living and being able to adequately provide for a family. This is where Kyle and S. come in - they have pledged to pay for Marcelo to attend a great technical school and earn his degree, so that he DOES have the opportunity to earn a decent living. I honestly can´t think of many ideas that are better than that. Now for the part where YOU (and I) come in - Kyle is quite a talented photographer, and all of the proceeds from her photography business will go to paying for Marcelo´s education. I´m putting the link below to her blog post explaining all of this, but just know - every little bit you can give, every print you can buy, is contributing to the education of a young man that many people believe in.

http://ohquepasa.blogspot.com/2008/10/art-for-good.html

I May Rise, But I Refuse to Shine

2008-10-03T07:34:00.000-07:00

That was the saying printed on a pajama top I used to have a long time ago - it rung true then and it still does today, sometimes. I have not ever been a morning person, and I´m not sure I ever will be. So this morning, I groaned when my alarm went off at 6:45 - knowing that I had to get up for an early morning class in Providencia. I had tried to go to bed early-ish last night, because of my class this morning and because I´d had a headache practically all day yesterday (side note: I had a great time at Basic last night watching the debates! I finally got to meet Sara, and hung out with Isabel and Shannon whom I already knew - wish I could´ve stayed longer!).

Anyway, I took the micro on Pedro de Valdivia and actually ended up getting to the company about 10 minutes early. Luckily, I had a good book with me (one I borrowed from Shannon, actually), so I sat and waited.

8:00 - I say hi to the front-desk receptionist. Me cae bien, he greets all the guys who come in to work there as ¨caballero¨, and always has a smile for everyone.

8:05 - My student is always late, so I decide to look over today´s lesson one more time.

8:17 - No more of that, I want to read my book.

8:25 - Some woman who works at the company comes in, looks at me in amusement and says, ´You´re still here, in the same spot as last night!¨.... yes, that´s true, but I did actually go home to sleep before coming back this morning, thanks.

8:30 - Receptionist: Do you want to walk around the office and see if your student is here somewhere? The cafeteria is right around there.
Me: Sure, why the heck not.
(I know you´re on the edge of your seat... I´ll give you one guess as to whether I found my student or not)

8:40 - Receptionist: Do you want to keep waiting?
Me (bleary-eyed, sans morning coffee): Eh, I might as well... not like I have anywhere else to be right now.

8:55 - The receptionist tries to call my student´s cell phone. No answer. This is about the 4th time he´s tried to reach him by now. By this time, me and the receptionist are good pals. He pulls out a camera and tells me to smile, saying he´ll show this as proof to my student that I was actually here this morning.

8:57 - I leave, kind of feeling like a loser when My Friend the Receptionist gives me a sympathetic smile and shrug.

9:00 - I get back on the same bus and head home to relax before my 1:30 class.

And, ladies and gentlemen, such is the life of an English teacher in Chile.

All I'm Askin is for a Little Organization

2008-09-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

That's it. I really don't think it's too much to ask, but I could be wrong. Last week, the Institute called to offer me another class - MWF from 8:20 to 9:50 at night. Rock on, I'll take it. So I'm told to come pick up my books/materials for the class, which should include a roll book, etc. I go last Friday and am told the roll book isn't quite ready yet (what? the class starts Monday) - so I must come back on Monday. Oooook fine. Oh, by the way... turns out this class has technically already started. There have been 2 class sessions already, taught by 2 different fill-in professors while they were trying to find someone permanent. So in addition to coming to pick up the roll book on Monday, I am also expecting them to hand me a list of what has already been done the first 2 classes. Here's pretty much how that went when I went to the Institute on Monday:

Me: Hi, I'm here to pick up the roll book and list of material already covered for this class (handing the secretary a piece of paper).

Secretary (frowning): Hmmmm, yeahhhhh... see, the thing is, we have to track down the first 2 professors and ask them what they've already covered. You'll have to come back later.

Me: But this class starts tonight. What am I supposed to do with them?

Secretary: Yeahhhhhh umm.. I think they probably covered the first 2 pages last time.

Me: [silence]

*** crickets ***

Secretary: Hmmm, let me try to call someone.... (I wait). Oops, they didn't answer their phone. You'll just have to ask the students what they did last class.

Good grief, people. Honestly? Is it really that hard to get your crap together and organize a class? I ended up going to the class and trying to get the students to tell me what they did before. And then there's the old reliable "2 Truths and a Lie", which we played for a few rounds. About 20 minutes into the class, one of the secretaries knocks on the door and hands me a piece of paper - on it was the God-awful handwriting of someone who I suppose was the previous teacher for the class, attempting to communicate to me in one horribly written sentence what had been covered last time. I glanced at it, decided there was no way I was going to decipher it, and continued with my own thing.

After class was over and I was walking to the metro, a pigeon flew over my head, and for a brief second I almost hoped it would poop on my head - and that something equally as cool as what happened to Kyle would happen to me. Then I realized I really didn't feel like cleaning poop off my head. I would still like something good and unexpected to happen to me, though. :)

Might Be a Quarter Life Crisis...

2008-09-26T08:58:00.000-07:00

I turned 25 years old today. Wow, that looks old when I see it typed out... does anyone else think that´s old? I´m not complaining, though... as my dad always says,¨beats the alternative¨(the alternative being dying, not growing younger haha). Today started out... well, in a way. I was supposed to have a class at 8:00 this morning, and I got to the company only to wait..and wait..and wait some more. Finally at 8:45, some woman came and told me, ¨sorry, your student had a problem and won´t be able to come today - he sends his apologies.¨ My first 2 thoughts: 1) Problem = couldn´t get out of bed in time? and 2) You´re telling me this at 8:45 WHY? ... But in the end, I figured, what the heck. It´s my birthday, and this is my first birthday present. Because I still get paid even though I didn´t have class. So I took myself to Starbucks and got a Grande coffee to wake up. And as I was sitting there, I thought.. I´ve been living for 25 years - have I even accomplished anything of merit in all that time? Then I looked at my watch and realized it was way too early in the morning for such deep thoughts. Better to leave that one until at least... noon.

A Haiku

2008-09-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

Communication
Is severely lacking here
Oh Chile - why, why?

Show Me the Money

2008-09-16T15:42:00.000-07:00

...Yeah right, I wish. BUT at least I do have a job now, which makes me very happy. So far, I have 2 classes. Not much, but they seem to keep adding more on, so that helps. One of my classes is a conversation class with 5 students, on MWF from 1:30 to 3:00. The other class has only one student (yay!), and is Monday through Friday from 5:30 to 7:00 pm. I'm thinking of trying to do private classes too, to supplement what I'll be making at the Institute. And yes, it will always be referred to as the "Institute", after reading about the Big Brother-like activities of another institute that shall remain nameless . Anyway, I'm actually excited about my classes, so we'll see what happens!

In other news, I think I annoyed the crap out of the guy working at the little Kodak store in Lider the other day. I needed to get 4 photos taken, Carnet size, with my passport number on them. So he took the photos, and was editing them to include my passport number when he asked if I wanted to include my name too. I thought, "hmmmm, maybe I should, just in case." So I spelled out my whole name for him, he typed it in, etc etc. He was just about to print the pictures when he asked me if I was sure everything was fine with the pictures. I hesitated, and was thinking, "the director at the Institute just told me to put my passport number, not my name... I don't want to screw this up and have to come back AGAIN." So I asked him to erase my name and just leave the number. It was at this point that he informed me he was going to have me sent back to the U.S. Then he thought about it and decided he'd rather send me to Venezuela and let Chavez deal with me. I assured him there was a tip in it for him if he printed the pictures for me with just my passport number. It was tense for a second... I felt like I was on the hot seat on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", with the Chilean version of Regis Philbin asking me, "Is that your final answer?".. yes, it's my final answer, please print the pictures this way. Poor guy.

Did I Mention I Love Spontaneity?

2008-09-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

Because I do (did I spell spontaneity right?). And that´s why, this weekend, I will be going to Mendoza with Chabelita in Chile (why oh why can´t I find the button to create a link to her blog right now?!). I´m excited, being that I´ve never been anywhere in Sudamerica outside of Chile. Granted, Mendoza may not be a booming metropolis, but I´ve heard it´s pretty fun. And let´s face it, I´m always up for anything. Have a great weekend everybody!

Random Musings

2008-09-11T15:04:00.000-07:00

1. You know those posters in the metro that say "En el metro siempre nace nuestro lado amable¨? To that, I only have one thing to say: Wishful thinking, party of one.

2. I almost offered some of my ¨Nuts for Nuts¨ to el tipo that makes sure people stay behind the yellow line in the metro stations. I don´t really know why... come to think of it, he didn´t even look particularly buena onda.

3. Yesterday was ridiculous. I left the Instituto at 5:30 (could I have picked a worse time?) and of course, it was pouring down raining. I waited for 3 trains to pass before I finally managed to squeeze onto the metro at Baquedano. But while waiting, I felt like I was being violated by the lady pressed up against my back. I was also about to have to fight her because she was about to push me onto the tracks. Hey, I don´t particularly want to be electrocuted today, thanks anyway.

4. My thought process today while in Paris, Ripley, and Falabella looking for some pants suitable for work - ¨Hmmm, that looks cute... [searching through the sizes]... ok, nevermind." Two minutes later... ¨Oooooh, I really like these! [pull them out and hold them up to me]... yeahhhhhh, these are going to be way too long.¨ And so it continues. Seems like the chances of me finding a pair of dress pants here that fit me are about as good as the chances of Chile winning the World Cup. O sea, not good.

5. Choripan + whatever flavor of Cristal we had last night = win. I´m normally not a fan of Cristal, but D picked a good flavor last night.

6. While sitting at Starbucks today (I know, I know), I realized my cell phone was still in my bag and I should probably take it out in case anyone calls. Upon opening it, I am told I have 11 missed calls. ELEVEN. And the best part is, I think they were all from the Instituto, wanting to offer me more classes to teach (thankfully, I finally got to my phone in time when they called, and now I have more hours! Woohoooooo!).

More to come later...

Help a Gringa Out, Part II

2008-09-10T08:09:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the comments and advice yesterday, everybody! I appreciate it :) Now if I could bother everybody for one more question - what is the cheapest online TEFL course you have found? Recommendations for which one to do? I´ve been told at the institute where I´ll be working that I have to complete my TEFL certificate online, so I´m wondering the best route to go for that. Thanks!!

Help a Gringa Out...

2008-09-08T14:38:00.000-07:00

I know there´s a completely easy answer to this that I´m overlooking right now, but quite frankly I´m too lazy at the moment to think of it. So, fellow gringa bloggers working here in Santiago as English teachers (or, as whatever, really) - how do you get the money that your employers pay you into your U.S. bank accounts?

Sopa Para Uno, Warmy, and Advanced Screenings

2008-09-05T13:49:00.000-07:00

Man am I bored. I´ve been sitting at home all day (home right now = D´s house), because a) when I got out of bed this morning it was so frickin cold that it didnt give me ganas to do anything, and b) i´ve been hoping the English institute I went to yesterday would call me like they said they would. So, what have I been doing all day? A whole lot of not much, basically. I keep coming upon gringa-in-Chile blogs, and I find them terribly interesting as I am a fellow gringa in Chile, so I´ve been doing a lot of reading of those today. I pulled the little estufa, cleverly named ¨Warmy¨(I didn´t name it that, it says it on the space heater, I swear), out of D´s parents´room, and have been bundled up next to that reading blogs and eating Sopa Para Uno. I went downstairs earlier to get some, and was searching through the cabinets, wondering what delightful flavor I might encounter. I kept pulling out packet after packet of jugo, until I finally found 2 packs of soup... ¨well, looks like my choices are Choclo, or... Choclo.¨I´ll let you guess which one I chose.

Switching gears, last night was a ton of fun. D´s dad works for an advertising agency, and one of their accounts is CineMark. As such, from time to time he gets free movie passes. When D told me yesterday that his dad had movie passes for all of us that night, I thought, "oh, cool." But, oh no... MORE than cool. I was getting ready to go when I saw D pulling out a black tie from his closet. ¨What the...¨ I thought. I asked him what the deal was. Apparently we were supposed to dress up a bit, because this was an advanced screening of some movie, complete with a cocktail beforehand. So I put on a little makeup, the only pair of nice-looking boots I have, and pulled my hair back. Off we went to some mall in Las Condes (not Parque Arauco, another one I can´t remember the name of). I was starving because there wasn´t time to eat dinner before we went... and as luck would have it, the good Lord shined his face on us and there were waiters circulating with vino tinto, vino blanco (my favorite), some kind of raspberry drink, jugo natural, and Coke. And then there were little sandwiches, crackers, about 5 different kinds of cheese, and then to round it all out, chocolates. D´s brother made my day by telling me I looked like Julia Roberts. HA. The funniest thing was all the ¨pelo lice¨staring at him - D´s brother is really tall, cute, and looks kind of rock star-ish. Then it was on to the movie itself. The movie was a Mexican film, called La Misma Luna. I actually enjoyed it a lot, and was glad I understood most of the Spanish parts. I was surprisingly exhausted when we got home, and thankful that I didn´t have to get up early today. A very nice evening, overall. :)

Mapocho Urbano Limpio

2008-09-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

the caps lock key on this keyboard isn´t currently working... awesome. i had to copy and paste the title of this blog, so just keep that in mind as you read and i don´t capitalize anything. :)

today as d. and i were driving in providencia, near estacion baquedano, we saw a sign for the project Mapocho Urbano Limpio. d explained some of the components to me, and i did a little research online, and it sounds pretty exciting. basically, anyone who´s walked across the bridge to get to bellavista has smelled that oh-so-wonderful odor that is the rio mapocho. it is, in a word, disgusting. but luckily, there are finally plans to clean it up! that´s what this new project (which is slated to begin soon and be finished by the end of 2009) is all about - cleaning up and giving new life to the river - and by extension, the city. as it is now, the river is extremely contaminated and has an adverse effect on the health of the citizens here. but se supone that this project will help diminish the risk of contracting diseases such as hepatitis currently present in the river´s water.

i´m very excited about the implications for improved public health that this project will provide, but i´m also excited about what this may do for the economy of santiago. i know it´s only one project, but it could prove to be a huge step... in addition to cleaning up the river, there is talk of making it a source of nautical recreation. imagine, the mapocho - navigable. i think there has also been mention of constructing more cafes, restaurants, who knows what, al lado del rio. basically, think of chile´s version of venice ;) maybe not quite so cool, but who knows. the project has an estimated cost of 57 mil millones de pesos and will provide jobs to approximately 2,000 people. overall, i think it sounds very promising... a clean river, hopefully a boost for the economy.. viva mapocho!

Estadio Nacional: Maintain or Reconstruct?

2008-08-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

This is a topic I´ve been marinating on for several days now (gotta love the word ¨marinate¨), ever since I walked past the Estadio Nacional last week with D and his brother. I´ve been there several times before, but this day was somewhat different. We went to drop off D´s sister at her atletismo class, and after doing so, decided to walk through the ¨farm¨right beside it. As we walked down the pathway, suddenly the Estadio loomed ahead, and I looked up to see this piece of architecture that was stained with dirt and grime, and so much history. "You know,¨D´s brother said to me, ¨this was the site of so many executions in 1973... it was like Chile´s holocaust.¨ As if I wasn´t chilled enough already by the cold air and fine mist that was falling, those words chilled me even more. I knew about what happened in 1973, of course, but somehow I´d forgotten that a lot of it took place at the Estadio. I don´t really believe in ghosts or anything like that, but I did get a bad feeling walking by the Estadio. It´s hard to even explain, really. I guess just knowing the weight of what took place there so many years ago made me reluctant to look at it for very long. It´s better inside, but outside it´s just ugly. I´m sorry, but it is. It´s old, it´s grimy and dirty, it´s stained. But the thing is, so much history is enveloped by that building that currently, no one is allowed to tear it down and start over.

So my question is: should we? I say "we", but I really mean Chile. I´m a gringa, and as such, I figure I don´t really have much right to say that it should or shouldn´t be torn down. Anyway, it must be noted that of the history of the Estadio Nacional, there is both good and bad. I think this quote by Augusto Gongora sums it up pretty well:

"It is impossible not to ponder the history of the National Stadium: it was a refuge for Europeans fleeing Nazism in the Second World War; it was a joyous site of celebration when Chile won third place in the 1962 World Cup; it was made into a camp for the imprisoned, tortured and executed in 1973; it received the simple kiss of reparation from Pope John Paul II on soil that knew too much sorrow; it danced the "cueca" alone on March 12, 1990 in the days of “the fair and good homeland,” when Aylwin assumed power; it vibrated with music and human rights during the Amnesty International concert at the beginning of this decade. The National Stadium has more history than meets the eye."

The other day when I was thinking about it, I tried to think about it from the perspective of the families of those murdered in the Estadio. Wouldn´t leaving it as is be a constant reminder for them of what happened? Why not just tear it down and rebuild a new stadium, assuming money is not an issue? But then I thought... if they rebuild on the same piece of land, is it really going to help alleviate the concerns of those family members? And actually.. even if they tore this stadium down and built a new one in a different location, the memories are still there. The memories will persist, always, no matter what buildings are razed or constructed. So in the end, what is the point? Is there one?

Chilean Men: Friendship

2008-08-22T10:36:00.000-07:00

Alright, I´m going to give this group blogging a try, because I think it´s a pretty cool idea. As far as the first topic though, I´m kind of struggling... I guess I´ve known my fair share of Chilean guys (and am currently dating one), but I´m not sure which aspect to focus on for this blog. I have to admit that I cheated and read ahead, looking at the posts of some others who have already written on the topic. I found myself nodding at many points, and even saying aloud, "Yes, so true!¨ :) So as far as my own post, I wasn´t really sure which direction to take. But then I started thinking about things I´ve learned during the various months I´ve spent in Chile (about a total of 7.5 months over the past 2 years), and one of the big lessons I learned from my pololo and his friends was about friendship itself. I guess this post is mainly about Chilean men and their relationship with other guys than anything else :)

I suppose it´s a function of living in a city with such an extensive public transportation system (say what you will about Transantiago, but it beats the heck out of Raleigh, NC´s transportation system), but it seems that get-togethers are so much more frequent here than back where I´m from. Not only that, but it´s not uncommon to be at a party until 2, 3, 4 or later and decide just to sleep over (your options for transportation are pretty limited the later it gets). And nobody minds! Not only that, but my boyfriend and his friends borrow each other´s clothes, DVDs, money, everything. I know it´s not uncommon for girls to borrow each other´s clothes, but I honestly don´t know many guys in the U.S. who do that ;) And I happen to think it´s pretty cool, how there seems to be such an emphasis on sharing here. Maybe it goes along with the whole chivalry idea, but I see it even in guy-to-guy friendships, just the aspect of making sure everyone is taken care of. Sure, on the outside they may try to maintain that macho facade, calling each other weon every other sentence, etc etc. But the friendships I´ve seen between my boyfriend and his friends go a lot deeper than many I´ve seen in the U.S. They get together ALL the time, whether to share a beer, catch La U´s latest soccer game, or jugar Playstation (ha). And not only that, but they make an effort to be at each other´s events, big or small. For example, when my boyfriend had his final concert upon graduation from la U, all of his friends made sure to be there. Some even helped him with aspects of the concert, such as lights and a PowerPoint presentation. D is also in a band, as are several of his friends, and no matter how often they play, his friends come to just about every one. Last week, one of D´s friends had an event that his church was putting on, that lasted from 8pm until about 1am... D, his brother and I went (although we got there a bit late!), as he´d promised he would. That´s a big deal to me - friends who are ALWAYS there for each other, at big events in life or small.

This is something I took back with me when I went back home in March. I told myself I´d get together with friends more often, invite them over to cook, just watch a movie, anything. I mean, come on, I had a car! Sure, I may have lived 20 minutes from most of my friends, but I didn´t want to get lazy and not hang out with them just because I didn´t feel like driving a little bit. I also told myself I´d be more open as far as sharing material things. Did I succeed? Not to the extent I wanted to, but I definitely think I learned something about friendship here, and for that I´m pretty grateful.

Esperando

2008-08-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

That´s pretty much the stage I find myself in right now. From something so small as waiting for D to get back from running an errand right now, to waiting on my interview (and finding a job in general), to waiting on finding an apartment. Sometimes I think my personality is a bit ironic, because I get so impatient when sitting in a traffic jam... yet I find I have patience for the bigger, more important things in life such as waiting on a job or an apartment. Either way, this is the period of my life right now. It´s been almost a week since I´ve arrived back in Santiago, so I´ve been through the whole excitement of seeing D´s family and friends I haven´t seen in awhile.. and most importantly D himself, who I hadn´t seen in 5 months! Talk about waiting! Anyway, I just really want some stability in my life - a job, a place to live that is my own space, and a routine. Don´t get me wrong, I like to have my routine interrupted a veces for an impromptu party or trip to the beach or what have you, but for the most part I like stability and structure. So, here´s to me finding a job soon! Oh, and thank you to Shannon and Ro for hosting me and D at their house! We had such a great time we´re already planning on doing it again this coming weekend. :)

I Made It

2008-08-13T10:29:00.000-07:00

Just a short post to say I made it to Santiago this morning... didn´t get ANY sleep on the plane, which sucks.. so now I´m gonna try to catch a little nap while D goes to band rehearsal. I´d forgotten how much it sucks not to have central heating. Bah. Oh well, I´m here and that´s what counts - let me know if you want to hang out.

Blue Heaven

2008-08-11T22:15:00.000-07:00

Some places just possess a certain magic that is impossible to adequately put into words. There are a few places like that on earth for me, and one of them is Chapel Hill. When I was a senior in high school, I only applied to one university - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I've been a Tar Heel fan for as long as I can remember, and I never really wanted to go anywhere else. My brother was a sophomore at UNC at the time, and that was one more reason for me to want to go there. So I applied for early admission, and thanks be to God, I got in. The next 4 years were the absolute BEST 4 years of my life. It's frustrating to even try to put into words my experience at Carolina, but the best way to describe it is this: Carolina is a family. That's why on the day I graduated, in May 2005, I cried my eyes out because I knew how much I'd miss that place. Sounds cheesy, sure... but it's true. Carolina simply is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

It's hard to beat the beauty of the Old Well in the springtime, with the azaleas blooming around it. Or cool, crisp fall days watching football at Kenan. Or getting up at 5:00 a.m. on a Saturday to stand out in the freezing January morning at the Dean Dome to score basketball tickets. Or laying out in the sunshine on the quad, just as warm days were arriving. During timeouts at basketball games, they used to show a commercial for Carolina that featured Charles Kuralt, former CBS journalist and UNC alum. It featured part of a speech Kuralt had given during the celebration of UNC's bicentennial, in 1993, and I always used to love this particular part:

"What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. Or the crisp October nights or the memory of dogwoods blooming. Our loyalty is not only to William Richardson Davie, though we are proud of what he did 200 years ago today. Nor even to Dean Smith, though we are proud of what he did last March. No, our love for this place is based on the fact that it is, as it was meant to be, the University of the people."

That, and this passage that Thomas Wolfe wrote for the UNC yearbook in 1920 captivate a little piece of what I feel about this place:

"But sometimes when the springtime comes,
And the sifting moonlight falls
They'll think again of this night here
And of these old brown walls,
Of white old well, and of old South
With bell's deep booming tone,
They'll think again of Chapel Hill and --
Thinking -- come back home."

I guess I'm getting all nostalgic since I'm leaving for Chile tomorrow, but I can't help it. I went back to Chapel Hill with my mom one day last week, and I had such a great time just walking around campus and looking at all the places I used to go. I also bought a children's book for my new nephew called "Hello, Rameses!"... there's a special story behind it for me. Rameses is the UNC mascot, and during the NCAA basketball tournament in 2007, one of the students who dresses up in the Rameses costume for all the games was hit by a car and killed. His name was Jason, and he was a wonderful guy, and it was a really sad time for UNC in general. Shortly after that happened, I was in the student bookstore at UNC and saw the book "Hello Rameses." It's a really cute kids' book, and each page features someone different seeing and saying hi to Rameses on campus. Well, the very last page is Rameses going to sleep at the end of the day and it says, "Goodnight, Rameses." I was standing in the middle of the student bookstore reading it, and when I got to that page, I froze. I felt tears stinging my eyes as I remembered what had happened to Jason, and that simple phrase, "Goodnight Rameses" seemed to so profoundly refer to him. After that, I always wanted to buy that book whenever I had a niece or nephew, and now I do. :)

Anyway, there is so much more I could write about Carolina and what it means to me, but for now I'll just leave you with a few pictures of campus. Which... apparently Blogger wants to add to the top of my post, so whatever. I'm too tired to figure out how to change that right now. ;)

Queda Poquisimo!!

2008-08-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

Uuuuuuuuy quedan como 3 días y estoy tan emocionada! Y esta noche el Diego me dijo las palabras mágicas: "queda poco invierno"!

Wow, I can't believe I'm flying back to Santiago on Tuesday... it seems like just yesterday that it was April and I was thinking that this day would never come! But the time flew by (well, at some points), and here we are. I also can't believe I haven't written a blog entry in almost a month.. shame on me. But in my defense, I've been busy. Haven't we all, though? Anyway, here's something really cool: D's dad likes to paint, and several of his paintings are hanging in D's house... they're really abstract, but I like them. I'm absolutely in love with the colors in this one that he painted. But anyway, tonight D told me that his dad had painted one especially for me, to put in my apartment in Santiago (assuming I can find one!). I thought that was really, really sweet. Allow me to get cheesy for a moment and say that I feel incredibly blessed. I have a wonderful, supportive family here in the States (and a beautiful new nephew that I'm really sad to leave), and I also have a great Chilean family. D's parents really are pretty awesome. They NEVER let me sleep on the couch when I'm staying with them... even when I insist, "hey, seriously it's ok.. I'll be comfy on the couch", they still make me take one of their beds. :) Sweet, sweet people. So anyway, I'm really grateful for them because they always make me feel at home when I'm in Santiago.

I really want to write another entry about one of my favorite places on earth: Chapel Hill, North Carolina (aka "Blue Heaven"), but that's going to have to wait until tomorrow. For now, I think I'm going to try to sleep and not freak out about the fact that I haven't really packed yet.

Tengo Entrevista!!

2008-07-20T19:21:00.000-07:00

Yayyyyyyyyy I have an interview lined up for a job in Santiago! Diego has a good friend at one of the institutes in Santiago that teach English, and he sent him my resume, which then was sent to his supervisor(s). That was a couple of weeks ago, and D let me know tonight that they want me to come in for an interview when I get to Chile... which, by the way, is in exactly 3 weeks from Wednesday!! I'm so excited :) Hopefully I'll get the job, cross your fingers! Either way, I'm stoked about finally getting back to Chile y mi amor, por fin!

Madly...

2008-07-19T20:12:00.000-07:00

I'm crazy about music. It's one of my passions in life, so I love it when I come across a song that really makes me feel something - whether it's how the instruments combine, or the poetry of the lyrics, or both. One of those songs is "Madly In Love With You" by Sean McConnell - here are the lyrics... it seems to be speaking about God, and I really love the haunting melody of this song as well as Sean McConnell's voice:

I see you down there everyday
Trying to find a different way
To build some kind of ladder to the sky
You're trying to find some way to see
The secrets of eternity, and they don’t come all at once
And you don’t know why
Well how do you think it feels to hear you screaming out my name
While all the while I’m trying to open up your heart
I see you when you cry yourself to sleep
It’s tearing me apart

I know you wish you could see me
That’s the way it has to be
Someday you will understand,
But don’t you lose your faith in me
I know you wish you could hear me
Sometimes it’s so hard to do
But every morning sunrise says
I’m madly in love with you
Yes I’m madly in love with you
Yes I’m madly in love with you
Yes I’m madly in love with you

I know that you’re waiting for,
A chance to come in from the war
If only a moment, if only a day
A place where you feel safe and warm
A sanctuary from the storm
Until all of these questions fade away
But I cannot count all of the signs
You’ve passed away as mere coincidence
And I'm running out of ways to break through
But like a lonely lover waiting by the ocean
I'll never give up on you

I know you wish you could see me
That’s the way it has to be
Someday you will understand,
But don’t you lose your faith in me
I know you wish you could hear me
Sometimes it’s so hard to do
But every morning sunrise says
I’m madly in love with you
Yes I’m madly in love with you
Yes I’m madly in love with you
Yes I’m madly in love with you

Oh, cuán lejos llegarás!

2008-07-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

That's how the book "Oh, The Places You'll Go!" is translated in Spanish :) Actually, that literally means "Oh, How Far You'll Go!", but whatever. I saw it at Barnes & Noble a couple of weekends ago; it's one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books, and it was cool to see the Spanish version of it. Anyway, tonight I was thinking of the places I've been in Santiago and in Chile, and the places I still want to go. I haven't really been outside of Santiago that much - I've been to Viña, Valpo, El Tabo, a retreat/camp place called Pintué (GORGEOUS countryside), Portillo (ski resort), and Chillán (que fome). Now, where I'd LIKE to go, is a completely different story. Maybe I should just make a list:

- Algarrobo: beach town just a little bit south of Valpo. I absolutely love the beach, and I've heard that Algarrobo is gorgeous, and really nice, so I'd like to visit.
- San Pedro de Atacama: wayyyyy up north... geyser fields, old salt mines, Valle de la Luna... what's not to love? ;)
- Torres del Paine: wayyyyy down south... breathtaking views and great hiking.
- Valdivia: something about it just intrigues me... it has a big German influence, in the architecture, food and overall culture, which I think is really cool. And it just looks beautiful. ;)
- Isla de Chiloé: a completely distinct culture, a different dialect of Spanish, rich history of song and dance.

There are a lot more, but that's a bit of a start! Sadly, I don't know when I'll have the money to actually travel to all of these places... it cost me enough just for the ticket back to Santiago in August! But maybe someday...

For now, I'll just be in Santiago. And here is my list of favorite places in the city:

- Bellavista: awesome by day, PELIGROSO by night. Seriously. I went to a Chilean friend's birthday party at a club called Rockola one night, and was told to get a taxi literally right when I stepped out the door. I was warned NOT to walk down the street any farther than I had to. It's so crazy because Bellavista by day is one of my favorite places to be, I love the Bohemian vibe of it.

- San Cristobal: I think part of the reason I love it so much is that one of the best days I spent in Santiago was when Diego took me on a picnic here. It was really cute actually, he had gotten up extra early to go to Lider and buy everything necessary for the picnic... he had bought this really amazing bread, jamon y queso, drinks, and chocolate pudding for dessert. ;) But besides that, San Cristobal is just a really good place to go for a bike/hike/whatever, with spectacular views at the top.

- Parque Arauco: geez, this mall is nice. I'm fine with just going to Plaza Vespucio or La Florida, but every once in awhile it's nice to go to Parque Arauco... it's like the Beverly Hills of malls in Santiago... or at least to me. ;)

- UVA!!! This place deserves a blog entry to itself. This bar/restaurant we discovered one night by pure accident. I had gone with Diego, his brother, and one of our friends to what we thought was going to be a birthday party at a salsa place... only plans got confused, and the birthday boy didn't show up. So instead of just going back home, we walked up to Plaza Ñuñoa and were just walking on Irarrazaval and saw this place called Uva. Looking in the windows, it didn't seem too crowded, and we were hungry, so we went in... Best.Decision.Ever. We ordered this big plate that had a bunch of different cheeses and sauteed mushrooms - I think it was $6 mil, which wasn't too bad since we split it 4 ways. It was delicious! But besides good food, Uva also has really good amaretto sours, which is my favorite drink. AND a really cool atmosphere, as well as very attentive servers. Overall, one of my favorite places to go out with Diego or some friends and just get a drink and relax. Can't wait to go back in August!

There are more places in Santiago that I like, but that will have to wait for another day because I need my beauty sleep. ;) Chao!

I'm Just Not That Into You

2008-07-09T20:15:00.000-07:00

You know that book "He's Just Not That Into You"? Well, if there's a version out there for men, this guy that works in my building needs to read it. BAD. In general, I consider myself a pretty friendly person. So when I pass someone in the hallway at work, I usually smile at them and say "hi." I didn't realize this would be such a big mistake. Now I've had not one, but two guys drop their phone numbers on my desk while I'm on a call with a customer. Very sneaky, guys. The first guy took the hint after I told him I had a boyfriend. This second guy, though... well, I've got to hand it to him, he's persistent. About 3 or 4 weeks ago, I was on a call with a customer and he did the whole slide-a-piece-of-paper-with-his-number-on-it-on-my-desk routine. This kind of annoyed me from the very beginning, because I couldn't even talk to him when he did it, as I was on the phone. BUT a couple of weeks before this, he had come over to my desk one day and talked to me for a couple of minutes, during which time we discussed the fact that I have a boyfriend, and he even saw the pictures of Diego I have up in my cube!

The thing about guy #2 is that on the paper where he wrote his number, he wrote "just for FRIENDS". Rrrrrrrright. Needless to say, I never called either of the guys. But guy #2 has started to creep me out, and mainly just annoy me because he won't leave me alone. He keeps coming up to me and saying, "you never called me." Then last week, I walked outside to my car to get something and he was standing outside and starts walking beside me. He looks me up and down and says "you're looking really good today." CREEPY, I'm telling you! Then today he comes up to my desk AGAIN when I was really busy with work, and says "I've got a new phone number... I'll have to get that to you by the time you leave today." And I'm thinking, what part of me not ever calling you in the last 4 weeks don't you understand? Can you not take a hint? Most normal guys would have given up LONG before now.

Basically it just frustrates me because I'm tired of having creepy guys hit on me at work. I come to work to WORK, to make money, nothing else (only because I hate this current job, so I just want to work my hours and go home). I have a right to do this, a right to come to work and not get hit on by weird guys, darnit! Oh well, only 17 more days of this job!! I'm definitely counting down the days...

The Time Traveler's Wife

2008-07-05T20:34:00.000-07:00

This is the book I'm reading right now. In case I never mentioned it, I'm a HUGE fan of reading. I minored in English literature in college, and deep down (or maybe not so deep down?) I'm a big nerd, but I'm cool with that. ;) Anyway, my sister-in-law recommended this book to me, and let me borrow it. It took me awhile to get into it, and I started wondering if it was really my cup of tea... but I'm glad I gave it a chance, because now I love it. I'm almost finished with it, and I have to say, I'll be a little sad to see it come to an end - it's that way with every good book I read.

I'm not sure what direction this blog post is going to take. Thinking about this book has led me to think about a lot of things - one of them being how hard it is to find a lot of good books in English in Santiago, and how that's one thing I'll miss when I move back to Chile in August. I'm definitely bringing some books with me from the States, but I don't want to bring too many, because the weight adds up quickly and makes my suitcases ridiculously heavy! So ideally, I'd love to find somewhere in Santiago with a good selection of English literature. But I realize that's going to be practically impossible. The last time I was in the city, from January to mid-March, I found this place with A LOT of tiny bookshops, and a few of them had a little selection of English books. I actually ended up finding a couple of books I'd been wanting to read anyway, for $2 mil I think it was... which was a heck of a lot cheaper than my first venture to the Librería Inglesa, on Pedro de Valdivia. WAY too expensive, let me tell you. This place I found with all the little bookstores was somewhere really close to the metro Manuel Montt (I think - honestly I can't remember exactly where it was). I wandered there one day when I was out looking for some things to buy to make Diego a Valentine's Day present.

In my dream world, I'd open up my own English bookstore in Santiago, and it would be wildly successful, and I'd even have enough money to buy a perfect little apartment with a beautiful view of the Andes. Like I said, in my DREAM world. So in reality... when I get back to Santiago, I guess I'll just have to keep scouring the city for books. But that's just fine with me; I like a challenge. :)

So This is What it Feels Like to be an Aunt!

2008-06-28T20:19:00.001-07:00

I LOVE IT!! That's right, I'm now an aunt ;) My nephew Jonathan Warren (Warren is his middle name, not his last) was born last night at 7:15... a healthy 7 lb, 7 oz. BEAUTIFUL baby! I cried when I saw him :P But I couldn't help it, he's beautiful. Here are a couple of pictures of him, more to come later!

Just For Fun, I Bring You...

2008-06-23T17:19:00.000-07:00

The Top 10 Things I'd Rather Do Than Go to Work at My Current Job (in no particular order):

1. Wake up at 5:30 in the morning in Santiago. Walk to the micro stop in the pouring rain. Wait an hour for a micro. Take 2 micros. Go teach English classes until 7:30 at night. Walk back in the pouring rain to the micro stop. Wait another hour for a micro. Take 2 micros to get back home.

2. Listen to the latest Jessica Simpson album on repeat for a full 24-hour period.

3. In a similar vein as #2, watch a 24-hour marathon of "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila."

4. Watch any basketball game with commentary by Dick Vitale.

5. Clean every bathroom in my house. Clean the kitchen. Wash every window, inside and out. Dust every visible surface. Vacuum every room.

6. Clean up the porch where my dog threw up on it after eating some weird, unidentifiable object.

7. Try to run a marathon without training at all.

8. Read every William Faulkner book without taking any breaks, except to go to the bathroom and eat something.

9. Translate Don Quixote from Spanish to English in its entirety. Then translate it back from English to Spanish. Then back from Spanish to English again one more time, just for good measure.

10. Eat the hottest pepper on earth, without drinking any water afterward.

Chile, Here I Come!!!

2008-06-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhhhhhh I'm so excited!! I finally have a date for when I'm moving back to Santiago, and a flight! I'll be flying out of RDU on August 12 :) That means less than 2 months to wait! Now, the next question is... does anybody know of apartments available?? Or people looking for roommates? If so, please let me know :) Woooooooo estoy tan emocionada!

A Few More Pictures

2008-06-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

The first picture is a few years old, but it's from a photo shoot for Diego's old band - Aqui y Ahora. I just always loved this picture - he looks like such a brooding "rockero" :)

The second picture is of me and Diego at Parque Arauco (a niiiiiiiice mall in Santiago) back in November '07.

My, That's Quite a Large Sense of Entitlement You Have

2008-06-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking lately about starting a completely different blog. I would still keep this one, because I like writing about everyday events, and I want to use it to keep people updated when I move back to Chile. But I would also love to start an entirely separate blog - a new, fresh idea that would keep people coming back to read. The challenging part is coming up with a concept. Well, here's one concept I will NOT be using, but one that would no doubt provide me with endless material (at least for the next 2 months): a blog that would be updated daily, spotlighting a different crazy customer that I have to talk to in my tech support job.

So, humor me, and let's just pretend I am actually launching that blog, and that this is one of the entries (actually I just need an excuse to write about these insane people I talk to at work - it's very cathartic). So, today's spotlight would be on Crazy Customer #1 - we'll just call her CC, for convenience sake. My morning was going so well today, and then the phone rang, and who was it? None other than CC, who had a problem with the cordless phone she had just bought. One of the phones was ok, but the other one had been fully charged up and still only displayed 1 bar of battery power - uh oh. Well, here's the thing. In the past, I would have immediately said, no problem, we can ship you some new batteries. But we received an email from the "higher-ups" in my company last week saying we were sending up too many battery requests (read: tell the customers to go buy their own replacement batteries). So I politely advised CC to simply replace the batteries in that phone, and if she was still having trouble, to give us a call back as we may need to replace the whole phone for her. Well good Lord - you would've thought I had suggested she go bungee-jumping without a cord, from the way she reacted. She was upset at the notion that I even suggested she drive to a drug store and spend a couple of dollars for batteries, when she shouldn't have to. For the record, I completely emphathized with her. If it's not working out of the box, she shouldn't have to spend more money to make it work. But I was just doing what I'd been told.

Well, if the customer insists that they don't want to go buy batteries, we are then allowed to send a battery request to our headquarters. So I politely informed her we could send her some replacement batteries - but when I told her how long it usually takes to ship them out (which really isn't long), she was indignant. She basically DEMANDED that we have a box of brand new batteries on her doorstep tomorrow. Yeah. Right. I don't know how many times I uttered the phrase "I'm doing all that I can, ma'am" to her - but apparently not enough to get it through her thick skull. Refer to my last entry, where I clearly stated that I am a PEON in this company. I'm not a supervisor. I don't have any power. None whatsoever. And this woman has the audacity to demand of me that I get those batteries to her house TOMORROW? That's rich.

The point of this whole post is to ask one simple question: Where does this sense of entitlement come from? Seriously, I've been puzzling over this for awhile now. What makes a customer think that by buying your product, they then have the right to call up customer service and act like a complete tool, demanding completely outrageous things? And expecting a huge company to drop everything and forget about all other customer orders ahead of yours and kiss YOUR butt?

This post isn't at all to say that when someone buys a product, they shouldn't expect superior customer service. I'm just saying it doesn't give you the right to call me up and cuss me out when you're having a problem with it, or to expect me to be able to work miracles. I'm not in the miracle business - sorry to disappoint.

Welcome to the Inferno

2008-06-09T20:39:00.000-07:00

I was going to say "Hell", buuuuut I guess I shouldn't be so harsh on my job (although, Inferno and Hell pretty much carry the same connotation, but "Inferno" sounds a little more...poetic, maybe) - mainly because it's a job, and it pays. And it's in an air-conditioned office, which, given the recent tally of over-100 degree days in NC, is a great thing. But those are about all of its redeeming qualities. So, to all 4 readers of my blog, I present... (drum roll please) the list of things that suck about my job (job, company, etc.):

1. The training. Or, more accurately, lack thereof. I could write an entire blog entry just on this. But suffice it to say, I'm expected to do technical support on products for which the training consists of about 5 minutes in a conference room, with me hastily scribbling notes on a notepad as my supervisor talks a mile a minute.

2. The lack of resources. Once again, I am expected to provide technical support on products for which we have no user manuals... not even a leaflet... not even a product image. Nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada. Null (I'm running out of ways to say NOTHING). Now, one day I made the mistake of actually questioning this, asking one of my supervisors, "I was just wondering, I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything, but... why do we do support for products that we don't even have a user manual on?"... Let's just say I received a less-than-satisfactory answer on this one, as well as a look that basically said, "How dare you question our ridiculous policies?"... YEAH... won't make THAT mistake again.

3. My supervisors. I basically have 3. One is cool, the other two are... well, not. Quite frankly. Look, I understand that their job doesn't revolve around answering my questions 24-7. But answering questions from their employees is certainly PART of their job. And when I ask ONE question in a 5-hour time period, I'm pretty sure I haven't maxed out my quota of questions for the day. But to judge by the looks on their faces when I go to ask them a question - I mean, they look at me as if I've suddenly sprouted 3 heads! This isn't exactly what you'd call encouraging.

4. The customer service policies of the company as a whole SUCK. And I have no control over them. Which for whatever reason, the customers calling in don't understand. "People!", I want to say to them. "I'm a peon in this company! I'm a tech support rep! I have no control over what goes onto the packages for these products! Believe me, if I did, I sure as heck wouldn't put GUARANTEED to work on there, because I KNOW it's not!" But alas, they don't seem to get this. Or maybe, they just need a scapegoat - so they choose me. So I get cussed out because the product they bought doesn't work, or because they're too stupid to read the manual and figure it out. Oh well.

5. I'm sure there's a 5th reason, but I'm kind of tired of typing for now, so I'll leave that for another day ;)

Sorry, fellow bloggers... sometimes it just helps to vent. And to realize that 2 months from now (Lord willing), I'll be back in Chile con mi amor! :)

I Can Finally Roll My R's!!! (And other good news)

2008-06-04T20:15:00.000-07:00

Wow, where to begin. It's been an interesting (read: mostly good) day. Monday was a pretty sub-par day at work, yesterday was better, and today was still better. I'm liking this pattern! But not naive enough to think it will continue, with tomorrow being even better than today. :P Nonetheless, it was good. And yes, I discovered that at long last, I can FINALLY roll my R's!! This is a loooooong time coming, believe me. I'm 24 years old. The first time I remember having Spanish class was in elementary school, in 1st grade. I'm sure I retained little to nothing from that class, haha... but it was fun anyway. All I remember is that my teacher had this policy that when we played games or did activities or whatever, we could earn "Muy Bien" cards. Then, when we'd saved up a certain amount of Muy Bien cards, we could cash them in for a prize. 5 would buy you some candy, 10 something else a little more cool, and if you saved up enough... you could get a REALLY cool prize. But that took self-discipline, something I didn't have a lot of back then (and something I'm still working on to this day). Anyway, that's about all I remember from that class. Then I didn't take Spanish again until high school, and took 3 years of that, then 1 semester in college. Then I spent 2 months in Salamanca, Spain and a total of 7 months in Chile (broken up over a period of about a year and a half). Over that time, I've NEVER been able to roll my r's. Which has always frustrated me so much - and especially now, dating a native Spanish speaker who is BORN being able to roll his r's, it's doubly frustrating. So then today I'm driving home from work, and just practicing in my car (Lord knows why, I must've been bored sitting in traffic). And suddenly, it just HAPPENED. I could do it! Who knows what happened, but it finally just clicked. Anyway, needless to say, I was stoked. D used to tease me and say, "Di Carolina Herrera" and I never could! But now I can :P

In other news, my sister-in-law is due on July 4th, but the baby is still in the breach position, so her doctors went ahead and scheduled her for a C-section... and which day?? June 26, none other than D's birthday!! Haha, he thought that was so cool when I told him the baby would be born on his birthday :) (Assuming he doesn't decide to make an early appearance!).

In other not-so-good news, I just spent 48 minutes on the phone with my credit card company, all because I'm having trouble accessing my account online (I've never had problems with it before, until just recently). I got transferred 3 times and put on hold SEVEN times. At least the guy I talked to was nice... and he apologized profusely for all the trouble I've had, and the delay. Oh well, if the problem gets fixed, those 48 minutes were worth it. I mainly just spent my time on hold watching the Stanley Cup final game and talking to D, anyway. ;) Alright, this blog entry is getting entirely too long, and if anyone has actually read this far - wow. I'm impressed. Good night all!

Algunas Fotitos

2008-05-29T20:05:00.001-07:00

one of me and Diego at a wedding in Santiago back in February, and one of just Diego ;) gotta show him off :P i'll post some more pictures later, but for now i'm off to bed!

The Return of My Sense of Humor

2008-05-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

...or maybe it never actually left. Several posts ago, I wrote about how frustrating it was (is) to try to maintain your sense of humor in another language. It's a kind of "lost in translation" deal a lot of times. Well, buenas noticias... maybe I'm not as "un-funny" as I once thought. At least according to Diego - who, I admit, is probably biased. But still, it made me feel better when in a conversation recently, he told me that his friends did think I was funny. Now, maybe what they really find funny is this gringa trying to speak Spanish and throw some Chilean slang in the mix, but I'd like to think they find my sense of humor funny as well.

Here's another thing: I remember in the beginning of January (I think this is when it was), when I first started watching Club de la Comedia with Diego and his family/friends. If you haven't seen that show, there's a cast of 6 Chileans who do a mix of stand-up routines and regular skits. When I first started watching, I didn't understand a whole lot of it. So, if you want the definition of awkward - that would be me trying to watch that show with a group of Chilean friends and not understanding hardly anything. So naturally, everyone else is cracking up and I have this half-smile plastered to my face the entire time, hanging on every word, desperately trying to seize upon some joke that I might understand - all so that I could laugh too, and be in on the joke! So needless to say, it was really frustrating at the beginning. But I kept watching, and by the time I left Santiago in March, I found that I understood a great deal of the show. And it cracked me up whenever I would laugh at one of the jokes, and D's mom would look at me in surprise and say, "You understood that?!"... yes, I finally did!

My favorite sketches were always "El Cliente Siempre Tiene La Razón" (The customer is always right) and El Encuestador (a guy showing up at people's houses to conduct a survey). Whenever I'm missing Chile a whole lot (which is basically all the time!), I watch some of the sketches online (www.chilevision.cl) and it always makes me laugh. ;)

A Little of This, A Little of That

2008-05-24T17:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been inspired by fellow bloggers to spruce up my own a little bit. I wanted to get a picture of Santiago on here, but I just hadn't taken the time to until now. Heck, I haven't even posted since what... the 13th? Anyway, the picture is one that a friend took of the Plaza de Armas when we were in Santiago in August 2006, which is the first time I ever went to Chile. It's kind of bugging me that the picture isn't really centered on the darker blue background, but I guess I can live with it for now. :) I'm also playing around with different color schemes, so we'll see what comes of that. I'll probably write another post later tonight about the amazing bastion of inefficiency that is the company I work for (FYI, a good part of this long weekend will be spent looking for another job). But for now, I'm taking advantage of the chocolate truffle pie my mom made this weekend! ;)

I Need A Job

2008-05-13T21:09:00.001-07:00

Basically, this post is gonna be pretty short since it's 12:10 and I'm dog-tired. I've mentioned in previous posts that I'm thinking of moving back to Santiago in a few months. Right now I'm looking at moving back probably at the beginning of August, so this means I need a job! I'd be cool with anything pretty much, so I guess I'm hoping some of you girls I've talked to might have some leads/ideas for me, or anyone else who might come across this blog randomly. Please help! It's kind of stressing me out right now, and it's definitely stressing D out, and that's not good! Any ideas or contacts you have would be appreciated, thanks a bunch! :)

A Tale of Six Flaites

2008-05-03T20:15:00.000-07:00

Today's conversation with D starts out with him telling me, "oye, algo malo me pasó anoche..." Cue freakout mode. Not really, but I did think, uh oh... hope it wasn't something TOO bad. Last night, D was supposed to go to a friend's house for an asado. As it turns out, it ended up just being a bunch of guys playing Playstation. Typical. :P Anyway, D lives in Ñuñoa, near the Estadio Nacional, and his friend lives close to the metro station El Parrón, which is basically at one end of the yellow line. Now, I'm not sure exactly where this happened, but at some point when he was on the micro, D was suddenly surrounded by six flaites (not-so-savory characters), all threatening him. Using some common sense, D didn't try to resist or fight them at all (you don't have to be a mathematician to realize that 6-on-1 isn't very good odds). Thankfully, they didn't hurt him at all... but they did take all the money he had on him. Not very much, but still. It's the principle of the thing. A lot of emotions ran through me when I heard what had happened, among them fear and extreme anger. Also relief, that D wasn't hurt at all. But seriously, this just pissed me off. I realize there are criminals and jerks everywhere in the world, but good grief... 6 on 1? This is one of those times when it's REALLY hard to be in the States, away from D. I usually try not to worry too much, and he usually doesn't take the micro late at night by himself, but hearing this story just rattled me. I guess you just never know what can happen.

Has anybody seen my sense of humor?

2008-04-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

I think the easiest way to sum up my particular brand of humor is in two words: The Office. Yep, that show is one of my all-time favorites, and I faithfully tune in each week to see how Michael Scott is going to make an idiot out of himself, what pranks Jim will pull on Dwight, etc. I realize not everyone loves this show as much as I do, but personally I think it's hilarious. My sense of humor tends to be more on the subtle, sarcastic side. And I've come to realize that sarcasm isn't perceived as humorous all across the globe. Oh, and another thing... it's HARD to be funny in another language! Am I the only one who thinks this? I hope not.
Apparently, one of the signs that you're becoming really advanced in another language is that you are able to express your sense of humor in that language (or so I've been told). I don't know how well my sarcasm comes across in Spanish - talk about a challenge. Luckily, Diego has a crazy, off-the-wall sense of humor, so I can pretty much say anything crazy and it works. It's still pretty frustrating at times, though. I'm used to making my brother and sister-in-law laugh, and then I go to Chile and you'd think I'd never even been introduced to the concept of a sense of humor. I understand it when Diego or one of his friends make a joke, but I myself have a hard time being funny in Spanish. Or at least, being funny in the way I like to be funny. That's what frustrates me the most, I think. But, I'm learning new things every day, and talking to D is a great way to do it. He teaches me lots of "Chilenismos"... lots of crazy stuff! But it's fun, and I love it. Maybe my sense of humor in Spanish is slowly making its way in. Que bacan, no?

El Caballero

2008-04-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

The last time I was in Santiago was in March. I had been there since a couple of days before New Years 2008, and for the 2 and a half months or so, I stayed with my boyfriend and his family. Not a huge place, but it was good enough for me! They live in Ñuñoa, pretty near the Estadio Nacional, in a little group of gated apartments. I always felt really safe there, and was very glad it in fact was a gated community, with someone at the gate 24-7. One guy in particular was our favorite. I'm not sure exactly how old he was, but he was getting up there in years. He was the sweetest guy ever, though. Always incredibly polite to us, and he would always open the gate for us and call Diego "caballero." A couple of times he didn't get back to the gate quick enough to open it for us, and he always apologized. Just a genuinely nice guy. Not everyone that worked at the gate was like that - not all of them would even speak to us, let alone with a smile and a kind word. I always told D, "One day I want to make a cake or something for that guy, he's just so nice."
Sadly, I never got to do that... I didn't do it before I left Chile, and now I can't. Last night, when talking to D on the phone, he told me that this guy had apparently been sick for awhile and had passed away yesterday. I have to admit that I was shocked, and saddened, by the news. This guy may not have played a huge role in my life, but he still did make an impact. He reminded me that the world still has room for kind people like him. I find myself wondering if he had family or many friends there. I find myself missing Chile more and more each day, and missing my day-to-day life there that I experienced, that this guy was a part of. I miss simple things like walking to Lider with D to get a snack for that night, or the time we rode ONE bike there, and I thought I might die.
Now I'm kind of off on a tangent of random memories in Chile, but while we're on that, I'll share one more before I head out. To set the stage for this, I have to tell you that in 1996, when I was 13 years old, Hurricane Fran blew through North Carolina. I was living in Wake Forest at the time, and though Fran was NOTHING compared to Hurricane Katrina, it was still frightening to my little 13-year-old self, especially since my dad was out of town on business that week. Hearing trees fall on my house wasn't my ideal way to spend a night. Anyway, one of those trees happened to fall on our shed in the backyard, totally mangling my pink bicycle. That made me sad, as I had spent many happy hours riding that bike up and down the hills in my neighborhood. And for whatever reason, I didn't get another bike after that. In fact, I never rode a bike again.
Until... flash forward to 11 years later. City: Santiago, Chile. Date: February 2008. Yep, that's right. This February was the first time in 11 years that I had ridden a bike. And let me tell you, I was scared out of my wits that I wouldn't remember how to ride one. That I'd fall on my face and make an idiot out of myself, or, worse, break something! But that old saying, "it's like riding a bike..." is true. I got on tentatively, my heart pounding in my chest... I started pedaling... and there was no going back. And miraculously, I didn't fall. It was the greatest feeling in the world, pedaling as hard as I could, with the Andes looming in front of me, the wind in my face, and D pedaling right beside me. So yeah, I miss those moments a lot. But, as my mom says, "Lord willing and the creek don't rise", I'll be back in Santiago soon.

"Learn our language or leave!"

2008-04-24T20:27:00.000-07:00

I live in the South - North Carolina, to be specific. And Hispanics are the fastest-growing population group in this state right now, or so I've heard at least. Personally, I think it's kind of cool - I mean, being in the U.S. right now, I'm not surrounded by Spanish all day long like I was in Chile, so it's neat to be able to meet new friends that are native Spanish speakers, with whom I can practice the language. I talk to Diego almost every day, but unfortunately, a lot of that is done on Windows Messenger, so... I'm able to practice reading and typing Spanish, but speaking it... not so much.

Anyway, being that I live in a fairly small town in N.C., I'm basically in a pocket of conservatism. Which is not a bad thing, in and of itself. But when it comes to the immigration issue, there are a lot of people here who would rather turn away and pretend it's not happening - or even worse. And a lot of the people who are like this are people in my parents' generation. They're used to being around people who look like them, talk like them, etc. So basically, if I had a nickel for every time I've heard, "Learn English or go home!", I could retire to a mansion in Malibu right now. Here's the thing: I understand their gripe, on the surface level. They're citizens of the U.S., they're native English speakers, and they get frustrated when they go to a restaurant or what have you, and can't understand what the person working there is saying. So they proclaim to anyone who'll listen, "They need to learn our language, we speak ENGLISH here in America!"

Ok, point taken. But what they don't bother to do is listen to the other side. Look, a lot of people immigrate to this country looking to provide a better life for their family. And what needs to be understood is that learning another language is not easy. Now, that sounds logical, doesn't it? But to people who have never tried to become fluent in another language, they just don't get it. Here's my personal experience, as a native English speaker trying to learn and become fluent in Spanish. I took 3 years of Spanish in high school. I took one semester in college. I spent 2 months in Spain. I spent a total of 7 months in Chile. Am I fluent, after all this? No. Advanced maybe, but not yet fluent. And that's the thing - the BEST, quickest, most efficient way to become fluent in another language is to be immersed in that language, i.e. spend a significant amount of time in a country that speaks that language. Sound familiar? So yes, I'm sure there are Hispanics who immigrate here and for whatever reason don't care enough to make that effort to learn the language (although I'd argue they are the minority). But there are also a lot of Hispanics who have immigrated here knowing some English, but still working on becoming fluent. And the best way is to be here, in this country, immersed in our language. So to my co-workers: you can't judge these people until you've walked a mile in their shoes, and I bet most of you haven't. You have no way of knowing which of them are people who aren't making the effort to learn, and which are busting their butts to learn this language. Meanwhile, what would you have them do? Remain in their countries, earning a wage below the poverty line, and taking English classes every day for years upon years to try to learn? A lot of them simply don't have that time, and it would be crazy to ask that anyway, when they could come here and immerse themselves in this language and learn it, REALLY learn it.

Alright, I'm going to climb down off my soapbox now. This is actually pretty cathartic, to write about this topic, because it's one I've been thinking about for awhile now. I guess having a boyfriend who speaks a different language than me has made me more sensitive to this topic, but I don't think that's a bad thing. I just get tired sometimes of living where I do, and hearing these comments all the time. What do these people who make those comments want, isolationism? Personally, I think it's great to embrace people of different cultures and languages. Variety is the spice of life, right?

La Subasta

2008-04-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

Alright, this is my first post (obviously) on this new blog, and unfortunately since it's already pretty late I don't have time in this post to go into a lot of background. We'll save that for another day. But long story short, I'm a gringa who's dating a Chilean. Sadly, we're doing the whole long-distance relationship thing right now... which gets really crazy considering the "long distance" in this case is 5000 miles. Yes, we do actually have plans to be on the same continent in the near future. I'm in the U.S. working for several more months, my boyfriend Diego is planning to come visit in July, and then I'm hoping to move back to Chile a couple of months after that. For how long, I'm not sure, but maybe a couple of years, before we both move back to the U.S. Wow, typing that out, it sounds kind of confusing, but trust me, we actually do have a plan! Anyway, I keep coming across blogs by U.S. girls dating or married to Chilean guys, and it's been really interesting reading about their experiences! I've learned a lot, and I think it would be nice to meet some of them when I do move back to Chile, as I'm sure I'll need some good gringa friends for support! :)

Anyway, on to the subject of this post... Diego is being auctioned off tomorrow! That's right, auctioned off. He's part of a college/young adult ministry group in Santiago, and tomorrow they're doing a chicos/chicas date auction ("subasta") to raise money for a mission trip. So, my first reaction upon hearing this tonight from D was.... ummmmm, so you're telling me some girl is going to be bidding for a chance to go out with you? WHAT?! But then I calmed down and realized that a) it's to raise money, b) I trust my boyfriend, c) it's really kind of a joke anyway, and d) he'll be auctioned off with his brother... so, eh, maybe it's not so bad. That's right, it's a package deal ;) He and his brother are in a band, and they're commonly just referred to as Los Hermanos Sí, so one of the things being auctioned off is an outing with LHS... this made me laugh, I have to admit. And D assured me that it probably won't involve much more than a trip to Bravissimo and boom, done. So it's all good. I really do trust my boyfriend, I promise. It's the Chilenas that I don't trust as much. No offense, but the way male/female relationships work in Chile is a lot different from the U.S. Here in the U.S., if a guy tells a girl he has a girlfriend, she'll usually back off (well, ideally). In Chile, telling a girl you are taken means nothing. Basically, you just wasted 3 seconds of your time saying that. So, it doesn't make me really comfortable knowing that some girls are going to be bidding on an outing with my boyfriend, mainly because of that fact. And, in my opinion, he's pretty cute! Anyway, I just thought the whole auction thing was kind of funny. He's supposed to tell me tomorrow night which girl wins. ;)