When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Pisco Sour

Ser famoso

2012-08-19T20:44:00.001-07:00

Buenos dias.

Okay. I have no idea what has happened throughout the whole month that I haven't written here. How did I used to do it every day? My life really isn't that exciting. So, the highlights.

Out and About is now officially a success. We have yet to turn a profit, but we haven't cancelled in a month. This is largely due to the help of Iguales. We have a group that comes back every week. I don't know what we'll do when they run out of money! But it means a little boost in income for me, and a whole lot of fun.
Two weeks ago I found out that a friend and co-worker passed away from Leukemia. She was not nearly old enough to pass, and left behind some young children. Thus began depression for Adam. I started to feel like I'm missing out on a lot of things by being away. Some friends are pregnant, some are dying, I have (obviously) failed to keep in touch with a lot of people, etc. BUT, then I got to thinking that I have made such strong connections with people here that I would just feel the same, in reverse, if I returned to Seattle. So. I'm going to sit on it for a while.
I have something on my finger. Perhaps a pinched nerve. There is a slightly darker spot and a small bump underneath. When I touch it, it sends a strange sensation through my finger. If I bump it, my finger goes numb... Gonna keep an eye on it.
About 2 or 3 weeks ago I got a new roommate. From Liverpool. I understand little of what he says. He's 20. On one of his first nights here, I was a good roommate and took him on a tour of Bellavista. We ended at my favorite bar, Burdel. We drank a couple of daiquiris and then I decided he needed a welcome shot. Something I'm rather notorious for taking at this particular bar. A cucaracha. Tequila, coffee liquor and something else. A little while later Bernie and her friend Byron came and sat with us. Byron asked Jordan, my roommate, where he was from. He replied "England" and then proceeded to throw up on the table... He spent a while in the bathroom. I happen to be friends with or know everyone that works at the bar. Jaime came over and started to clean the table, thinking that it was a spilled drink. Bernie exclaimed "Cuidado!! Es vomito!" Jaime wasn't impressed. I thought it was a crack.
My Xbox arrived (thanks parents) and that is probably the #1 reason why I haven't been on here.
It's still cold, but last week was very rainy and Seattle-like. It made me not miss Seattle. Today was warm, in the 70's and now it's probably 40.
Friday and Saturday night I was awake until 6 AM... Never thought I'd see the day.
I seem to have found a reliable source of Reese's... o sea, Wal Mart brand Reese's. Bad news for my diet.
I am still teaching an awful lot. Somewhere around 30 hours per week (if they don't cancel). It's nice or something. It's exhausting! I am not permitted to really have too much of a social life Monday - Friday. I even have a class on Saturdays because I think I may have been drugged when I agreed to doing that.
The biggest news, maybe, is that I am saving money to go to Thailand and Viet Nam. Y'see, Barbara is planning on going on a world tour - starting in Europe, then India and SE Asia. I'll take 2-3 weeks and meet her in Thailand. The flight is balls expensive, but food, accommodation, and everything else is cheap cheap cheap. Strangely, about 75% of the people I've told have already been there. I've heard nothing but good things. This will be next May or June. When is tsunami season? ...
Last week I took Monday and Tuesday off work, and Wednesday was a holiday. Barbara and I were originally going to go to the beach, but it became complicated. And it was rainy. We did, however, go to the zoo. Video here:

Ah, yes. How I am famous. Two reasons. Barbara and I came up with a "word". It is "madre foca" which literally means 'mother seal'... but sounds a lot like Motha F*&#er. Now, all of our friends say it. People I have never met say it. It's a sensation. And the other way. Because I am always promoting our Pub Crawl, visiting bars, and making connections - random people will come up and introduce themselves. I was at a club with two friends and I was greeted by the administrator, her sister, and then a producer. My friend said "you know everybody!" It's almost true.
I was nearly robbed on the Metro. I felt some flaite's hand in my pocket while I was listening to music and playing a game on my phone. I proceeded to karate chop his wrist. He proceeded to flee the other direction. Darn tootin' I'm a ninja!
Some other sad news is that Bea has left Chile. She is currently in the Philippines before she heads back to Germany. It's a tough blow for all of us. But, it's the life of an ex-pat. There are very few non-Chileans that are still here that I met a year ago. Luckily, I made friends with a lot of Chileans from the beginning. It's something that I think some of the gringos are jealous about haha.
Also, Andrea and Philipp got married! They are wonderful together and have that tornado child Octavia. They handle her well. It's great!
Two gems from a couple of students:

Student A: "How you say 'pulpo' in English?" Student B: "Octopussy" Me: ".... ...... yes."
While practicing making introductions: Student A: "I'm Justin Bieber, nice to meet you." Student B: "I LOVE YOU!!!! ... Nice to meet you, I'm Batman." Student C: "I like your girlfriend, Hannah Montana! I'm David Beckham".

I think that's about it. Here are some fotos (yes... that is how I write that word now... I'm becoming really bad at English. GOOD THING I TEACH IT!
OH, one last thing. Shut up and stop complaining. Come and visit me. Now. I will protect you. I will be your tour guide. Or Barbara will. Or Adrian. Or any number of people. Santiago is so different than the States. It is also very comfortable. The plane ticket is expensive, and the city is not CHEAP. But you all make more money than I do and I'm going to Thailand. So there. AND I already visited all y'all!

Verano

2012-07-22T14:31:00.000-07:00

Hello smalltown peeps.

There's not really any news to report, honestly. For about a week it was colder than an Antarctic summer in Chile. Then, this past week has been in the 70's and low 80's. People seem to think winter is over, even though it only started a month ago. I'm fine with that, as long as summer doesn't get here in October.

One week I taught only 7 classes. Normally I teach 26. It's winter vacation here, so all the parents and students go on vacation. Therefore, I will be poor in August.

Our little Pub Crawl venture is still going slowly, but we have made contact with Iguales - one of two huge equality non-profits in Chile. They have 9,000+ members and will help promote us. In turn, we will give them 15% of the profits for one event per month. This should give us a huge and must-needed boost. And it's a really good cause.

Barbara is planning to go on a round-the-world trip next year and is trying to convince me to go to Thailand with her. I'm going to try to save money and go. I've always wanted to go and it would be pretty cool to go with Bobbie.

Yesterday I found my new favorite place - Metro Los Leones - where I was able to replace my lost Wii sensor. Needless to say, I was ecstatic. I also have a phone plan through one of my institutes, which makes me more Chileno than I have ever been. Weird.

Other than that, I've just been working a lot and in my little routine. I hope that everyone is well and comes down and visits me soon.

Finally - a few gems that my students have said:

"Wait... I have a blood clot moving through my brain" - while learning grammar

"I like to shred some rabbit on my salad... Carrot! I mean carrot!"

"My favorite food is sauce. Everything else is just a transport for sauce"

Bajo de cero

2012-07-07T11:09:00.001-07:00

Ok so it's been a month.

Most of that month was sort of miserable for several reasons:

It has been freezing cold for about 2 weeks, and before that it was torrential downpour. The smog is also gross. But, today the sun is out and it is about 70 degrees. Yesterday it was about 30. Go figure.
I spent about a week thinking that my aunt was dead, then thinking that my dad was quite ill. Only to find out that my mother is mental and my aunt and dad are doing better.
I am working too much - essentially 8 AM - 9 PM 5 days per week. It's not straight classes, but with the time "off" I spend staring into computers or, mostly, planning classes.
Nobody has been coming to Out and About, which is frustrating - though not entirely unexpected. It's low season, our sample size is lower, and we just aren't promoting it properly.
All of my gringo friends are either gone or leaving
I miss my dogs.

So that's out of the way. Here's what's been going on.

I went to the Pride march about 2 weeks ago. It was at first sort of exciting, but when Chileans march, they move at the speed of an intoxicated manatee. It took us 3.5 hours to go what would take me... 20 minutes. I got pretty bored.

I have a lot of classes, which is part good and part bad. It's good because assuming that not too many classes cancel, I'll be a millionaire (in pesos). Which means that I will be making more money here than I was in the States. It's bad, because I have no time for fun. Or eating. I haven't been to Santiago Pub Crawl in weeks because I'm so wiped out.

Every Wednesday I go with Barbara to Burdel to have a few drinks, and unwind. We have decided to get married exactly one year from today. July 7th, 2013. She wants a green card. I am not entirely sure what is in it for me.

I have declared war on Entel, the cell phone company. After their whole giving me a robbed chip mishap and making me change my number, my phone is now practically useless. It doesn't have 3G (fine), but also 4 days after charging it with $20 (which should last about a month) it was out of saldo. I thought it strange, but charged it again anyway. In less than 24 hours it was back down to 0. Impossible. Barbara and I went to the store and yelled at them only so that they could say they couldn't do anything in the store, that I'd have to go to the main office in Centro. I have since asked my boss if I can be on their plan. She's looking into it.

Grace has left for Seattle, Joe, Lebo, Hugo, and Aya are leaving next week, Clare and Lola the week after. Bea is leaving next week as well - but to travel - she'll be back for a few days in August before she goes home to Germany. Things with Bea, however, have been weird. Ever since going out with her lower than pond scum boyfriend, she has been different. She also knows that we all hate him, hate what he says to her, and how he treats her - and so she has decided to take this out on me. She now takes every single thing I say personally and negatively. We talked about it. I told her that that was her problem. She said it was my problem. And that was that.

The freezing cold is unlike the freezing cold in Seattle. It's a dry, straight to the bone, freezing which can't be alleviated by going inside. Inside is as cold or colder than outside. The only respite is going into your bed. Which is where I now reside. This is also why I haven't blogged. Putting my hands outside of my covers for any extended period of time just leads to pain and suffering. It's supposed to be nice this weekend so I am going to go outside and... probably not do too much.

Anyway, things are on the mend, looking brighter, and September (my favorite month) is almost here. Come on down.

Adam

Video

2012-06-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

So last Saturday we made a video. To promote Out and About and SPC.

This is what happened...

Call me... maybe.

ANIVERSARIO

2012-06-17T13:13:00.000-07:00

So. I recovered from my death flu. I took a lot of drugs. AKA ibuprofen and something called Trioval. And then I slept. Unfortunately, I also took Immodium, which made me constipated for about 4 days. My stomach was in great pain. I cured that by eating Burger King. TMI.

Yeah ok. Our Pub Crawl is off to a slow start. This is due to it being low season, a lazy staff of mine who is not the best at promoting, and torrential rain which falls on our event days. We squeaked by on week 2 (when I was dying), I worked for free last week, and we cancelled yesterday. Puta la weà.

My 8 and 10 year old students are a handfull and are providing to be a new challenge. But they are a lot of fun. I also have a 15 year old. He is super motivated and very nice. He wants to study in Vancouver for a year. He made the mistake (?) of saying 'I mated my girlfriend' when we were talking about the Simple Past. I have a feeling he meant 'met'... but he said mated. And then I moved on to Future tense.

I am a pretty darn good teacher. My students love me, and I have a million hours. Grants is mad at me because they want me to teach classes, but I can't because they took 3 months to have any to offer and my schedule is filled at English Interactive. I am now up to 29.5 hours per week. Doesn't seem like full time, but considering that I have to plan each of those classes, travel up to an hour to get to a class, and generally work 8 AM to 9 PM every day, it is pretty much more than full time. In fact, I have spent about 3 hours in the office on a Sunday preparing classes for the week.

Last Wednesday was my 1 year anniversary as a resident of Santiago. Which just blows my mind. It was, without any shadow of doubt, the best year of my life. I have met dozens of really amazing people, some of the best friends I have ever had, and had a blast. Which surprises me. I set out to stay 3 months, then a year... and now I have no idea when my end date may be. I am loving just about every day here. Even the torrential downpours, the endless smog, idiotic walking zombie Chileans, packed to the gills Metro system, and salty mayonnaise covered food. I don't really remember what life is like without all of it. It just seems so familiar now.

Later on, once my internet is functioning and I am not in a freezing cold office, I will write about the 10 best things and moments in Santiago thus far. But, for now, I am going to go. I hope that you can all visit me soon. LAN is having a pretty good sale right now... check it out, I think it ends soon. I am off to fight the Metro, the rain, and then go grocery shopping. Excellent. The good news: I have planned all of my classes.

Also, I need Captain Crunch.

Flu

2012-06-05T14:52:00.000-07:00

Last Monday I had my first class with the kids. I had planned to base it on colors, using superheroes. But this is Chile. I should have known that Spider-man here is named Leonel Messi. They didn't want to talk about superheroes. So. We talked about soccer teams. It was a wild 45 minutes, but it was pretty fun.

Half of my classes cancelled last week - and half of those were cancelled too late, so I get paid anyway. It's still annoying though.

My diet is still going along swimmingly.

It's getting colder here. This past week, at least, wasn't rainy. On Wednesday, Humpday, Grace and I went out to Burdel for a drink. We had the daiquiris and talked about students, and Seattle, and life. It was a good little chat.

On Saturday I was awoken from my sleep by someone repairing a window in my apartment. I also thought that I had a fever. By noon, it was pretty evident that this was the case. But, I met Callie, Henderson, Rogier and Barbara for lunch at Galindo anyway. After choking down some dayquil. I had the pollo asado and papas fritas and a glass of juice. We sat and talked for a while. Barbara made me take some ibuprofen and paracetamol. The plan was to go shopping afterward, but I decided it best to go home and nap before Out and About.

I woke up at 6:30 and felt much better. The fever had broken and I headed to Language Roulette. I hung out with Callie until my staff arrived at 9:30. We had our meeting, and Barbara left around 10:50. The pizza was late, so our small pub crawl of 6 was late. We would have cancelled normally, but I think it better to lose some money than to cancel our second event.

By the third bar, Lyrics, I was starting to feel a little under the weather. My fever was coming back with a fury. I was starting to freeze. I took Bea's pullover. We got to Burdel and I asked Valentín if he could take the group to the club, that I should go home. This is after they all tried to get rid of me sooner and I refused. So, about half an hour in, I said good bye and hopped in a taxi.

I went straight to bed and awoke the next day in a horrible state of sweaty, clammy, sore, hot, feverish shit. I had the flu. No doubt. I stayed in bed all day on Sunday with the exception of dragging myself through the grocery store and to the pharmacy to buy Trioval (which helps fevers supposedly).

I was miserable and I cancelled all of my classes for Monday. On Monday, I felt a little better, but my head still was pounding and I was dizzy. I couldn't walk in a straight line. I also had the added feature of having my back and legs hurt, I think because I had been on my back in bed for so long. This I remember from being in the hospital. However, then, I had something 4 times stronger than morphine. I slept all day.

I didn't sleep much last night because I was in so much pain. I finally fell asleep at 5 and woke up because my stupid alarm went off at 7:30. I cancelled my classes. My fever was gone, but I was still dizzy, could barely stand and my head was pounding. At least I could see. Before, opening my eyes hurt.

Mid-day today, I decided to get ibuprofen. Bobbie said that I needed to take it. So I went outside for the first time in 3 days. I was listening to the new Brandi Carlile album, thinking positive thoughts, smiling at the sun, and then I started walking up the 3 stairs that lead into Lider. I hit the first stair wrong, landed on a knee, crunching it, then while flailing and trying to grab for the handlebar, my shoulder smashed into the rail, and I went headfirst into the top stair. The homeless man thought that it was pretty funny. I would have, too. Except that I already had a headache. So, I bought Cheetos, two bags of Skittles, ibuprofen, Diet Coke and left.

I accidentally took two of the ibuprofens. They are 600 mg... that's a lot, I think. I might have a heart attack and die. So far, it's just made me feel a million times better. I can stay awake for more than 15 minutes. It's magic.

And, I am sending an e-mail to get health insurance. Lord knows I could've gotten flesh-eating bacteria from the railing at Lider.

Here's to a better next 4 days. One week and it'll be a year. Scary.

Out & About

2012-05-27T21:49:00.002-07:00

Ok. Three weeks. I have 16 minutes before my brain battery runs out and I go into hibernation. So, bullet points!

I had a cold for about 2 weeks (normal - send Nyquil)
I will start a class tomorrow teaching a 10 and 12 year old. Yikes.
I bought a smart phone and it is driving me crazy because it beeps or honks every 2 minutes.
I'm now poor.
I have a new favorite 'local bar'. It's called 'Burdel' and it's wonderful.
I have lost weight. This new attempt at dieting is working magically.
It rained the entire weekend and the Andes are shining now.
Tomorrow will smell like paradise because the smog will be cleared at least for 2 hours.
I've met a lot of new people. Most are pretty awesome.
In about 2 weeks I'll have been here for a year. Crazy.
Cata and Jeremy came back from NZ. Also, they're engaged.

Most importantly, Out and About Pub Crawl started last night. Barbara and I have been working on it since November and it came together almost seamlessly. We did the 'beta' about 2 weeks ago and wanted to start last week, but couldn't quite pull everything together.

Last night we pulled it together. Diego, Carla, Valentín and Bea are my staff (as I'm the General Manager). We had a brief staff meeting and at 10 PM people started coming. About 85 had RSVP'd, but as this is Santiago, when it rains people stay inside. We had a group of 27 - which was actually our goal.

I made the speech around 11 PM and we headed out into the storm. We went to three bars. At each bar it was my job to make sure that our group was happy and entertained. This was done via games and merriment. My nerves were gone and we all had a wonderful time. I was trained very well these past months by Barbara and Adrián.

The night was a success, with only a few hitches. and Barbara and I are very proud. We've put a lot of work, heart, and soul into this project. It's not about the money (for either of us, I think) - but we are trying to make a statement. So far, it's working.

Time is up. My eyes are closing.

Talk soon.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

2012-05-07T18:52:00.001-07:00

Contrary to popular belief, Chileans don't give a rip about Cinco de Mayo. In fact, Mexicans don't give two shits about Cinco de Mayo. That would just be Gringos. But really, who needs an excuse to eat nachos, wear mustaches and sombreros, yell "aye aye aye" and drink tequila. Not us, that's for sure.

But, let's not get ahead of ourselves. There were a few days between the last time I was on this godforsaken thing and the holiday of 5 mayonnaises. Let's see. My other institute, Grant's, has pretty much cast me away because I've taken classes at the other institute. Classes, which, by the way I love. I run out of time because I'm having too much fun teaching. It's truly a more effective way of teaching interactively. Those magic white boards are amazing. Whatever.

By the way, if I forgot to mention it before, I am now teaching two students and getting them prepared to take the TOEFL... The... Test of English as a Foreign Language (or something like that). One of them has already taken it and got a 100/120 - which is good enough to get into Oxford. I don't know why she's here. The other one wants to take the test in July... rushing it a bit. BUT, I am terrified because, literally, her dreams are partially in my hand. At this point, I can tell that she is not ready and I urged her to wait... she's stubborn though. Must be a Taurus.

In other news, I love my apartment. It's quiet and everything that my old one wasn't. I have been partially been taking Spanish classes from Valentín, and am slowly getting better. Or at least recognizing my errors. Sometimes.

Out and About Pub Crawl is nearing its Inauguration. This Saturday we have our beta. I'm nervous as I have to make a speech and lead people around, but I'm also excited. This will definitely force me outside of whatever box I have left. We have our logos ready and our fliers and posters. We'll hit the march this Saturday to promote the Hell out of it and then next Saturday we're a go.

That brings us back to Cinco de Mayo. Barbara and I went to Jumbo to find pillows. I bought two for $6. SIX DOLLARS. And then we ate some crappy food and headed to Language Roulette. Nobody showed up, so we just ended up drinking daiquiris and talking with Valentín, Feña, Gastón and Callie. Then Barbara and I headed to Lyrics to decorate. I was wearing a huge sombrero and a stick-on moustache. Looking quite ridiculous as I waltzed through a mob of Chileans on the street. I heard many an "Orale!"

We decorated the place and as people arrived, Barbara bought the staff and friends a shot of tequila. My first. It was terrible and it burned. But it worked.

The rest of the night was a blur of dancing and ridiculous fun celebrating Camy's birthday.

On Sunday, I lay in bed all day only venturing out to go to the supermarket. I've been dieting to some success... I am eating a lot of salad.

And that pretty much brings y'all up to speed!

I want candy. And peanut butter. Captain Crunch. Reese's Pieces. That wasn't directed at anyone in particular. I'm not picky...

Cumpleaños

2012-04-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

So Monday was my birthday, in case somehow you were unaware.

However, the best birthday present came the Friday before when I moved into my new apartment. It's in a wonderful location, it's quiet, and it's splendid. It's cheaper than my old place, and the best part is I actually have a bed as opposed to the mattress I had on the floor. So, there's that.

Also: money, presents, candy, and extra crunchy peanut butter can be sent to the following address:

Francisco Bilbao 348 Depto D
Providencia
Santiago de Chile

On Monday, about 12 of us went to Ciudad Vieja. It's one of my new favorite restaurants, ever. It features a wide array of sandwiches - and not the traditional Chilean lomitos, churrascos, and barros lucos. It had about 20 different varieties. I ordered the teriyaki chicken sandwich, which was quite scrumptious and quite large. And fairly cheap. It ran about $3.500. We got there around 8 PM and stayed until 11 or so. Afterward, a couple of us went to a dirty bar and drank beer. I went home around 1 and slept in the next day.

I have a newfound love of teaching as I have added the new institute to my repertoire. I think I mentioned that we use these awesome interactive white boards. If not... we use these awesome interactive whiteboards. It makes the classes more exciting, engaging, and interactive. I actually find myself running out of time because I'm having fun teaching. And they pay a little more.

The downside is that my other institute has thrown a hissy fit and is now stripping classes from me. Very professional. They will give me classes and then take them away later. It's stupid. Whatever.

Last week was a week of torrential rainfall. It was very Seattle-esque. In fact, on Friday I heard the loudest thunder and saw the boltiest lightning I've seen. It was a downpour. The streets were flooded and the Metro was horribly crowded. My mood, in reflection was rather damp. The nice thing about that is that the smog is temporarily gone and the Andes are covered with snow.

Last night we officially celebrated my birthday in the obvious manner of Pub Crawl. I found myself being shouted at every 5 minutes. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Chileans, Australians, Germans, Gringos, Brits, people I know and people I'd never seen before. It was great - but they often were accompanied by a drink. By the time we got to Urban Club, I was a bit out of sorts. And took my sorts to the bathroom to flush them down the toilet.

In other news, I have finished Game of Thrones, which is quite long. About 800 pages. It was pretty durn good and now I'm on to the second book. Some 950 pages. Great.

Eso. I'm not sure that there is any other news to report. Chileans are all terrified that an enormous earthquake is eminent. Adrian believes that there is another country that is causing the earthquakes.

Terremoto

2012-04-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

Hello.

Yes. We had an earthquake last night. 6.5 off the coast of Valparaíso, about an hour and a half away. Wait. The news just downgraded it to 6.3. Anyway, it was very shallow which made it feel much stronger. Here's what happened:

I went to sleep around 12:30. The earthquake happened right before 1 AM. I woke up and heard Barbara saying "Chicos... chicooos..." in a very non-panicked voice. I also heard the earth shaking. Louder than I've ever heard and earthquake before. The ground was making noise.

I groggily got up and stumbled around as the whole building was rattling and shaking. We all gathered in the doorway and looked for the cat, Tomas - who had hidden under the table.

The earthquake lasted for nearly a minute. The coast was evacuated. Afterward, we all watched the news and I didn't fall asleep until about 2 AM.

Everyone agreed that the earthquake felt very strong. It's "low" magnitude was deceiving. Technically, we wouldn't even call it an earthquake, but a 'temblor.' It was different than previous ones because it was a more jagged, shaking quake rather than the usual rolling variety.

My apartment search continues. I'm determined to find something by Friday. I'm stressed.

Bienvenido a Chile!

2012-04-13T14:43:00.002-07:00

Hello.

I'm truly sorry this time that it has been so long. Much has transpired.

I'm going to skip all the Seattle stuff - Pretty much every day consisted of eating lunch and dinner. It was amazing seeing everyone and I miss y'all already. But, I'm very happy to be here, even though I'm in a pretty crummy place.

I landed in Santiago at 9 AM on Saturday the 31st of March. I gathered my baggage after going through immigration and headed to the taxis. I took the TransVIP to Bea's apartment, rang her bell and hauled my stuff up to her place. We embraced, and although I was exhausted after 20 hours of traveling, we ended up spending quite a long time talking.

Barbara met us around 2 and we, along with everyone in Bea's apartment, went to eat Peruvian food. It was delicious and I was in 7th Heaven soaking in the 90 degree heat. I could feel my blood flowing again after such a long 5 weeks in some of the coldest places I'd been.

We vegged for the rest of the afternoon before I headed out to meet Camy and Vanessa for empanadas. We ate and talked before going to Pub Crawl where I was greeted by my friends in droves. Adrián, Pachi, Cristian, Bruno, Matías, Conti, Valentín, Gaston, Francisca, Fernanda, Nacho, Rodrigo, Mely, Nicole, Romina, Dagui, Clare, Lola and more I'm sure. It was incredible to see everyone again. Even though Bea and I spent the end of our evenings in separate bathrooms bonding with the toilets.

I got an e-mail from Sandra saying that she had found an apartment for us, so I went into work on Monday morning to get my paycheck as well as some documents to give to the landlord. We got the place! Fantastic!!

Then the rest of my story turns to shit. We started to move into the apartment the Wednesday after. I got a text message from Sandra saying not to stay there, that it was dirty, the hot water and gas didn't work, nor did one of the bathrooms, and worst of all - the owner owed $1.200.000 on the apartment in past due utilities.

Disaster.

We had already signed the contract. I had already given them most of my paycheck. I had borrowed $600 from Sandra's dad. I had no money and nowhere to live. This is still my situation.

I stayed with Bea for about a week and a half and am now with Barbara. We may have to go through a lawyer to get our money returned to us, and I don't have time to wait. So I'm using my last trick. My trick that I was planning to use in case of a "pull me out of Chile now" emergency. I will now have no way back.

However, not everything has been bad. All in all, I'm still happier here. It's like my life is back in stereo. I am back teaching, although I have few classes. I have a class teaching the HR Director for one of the biggest publishing companies in Chile - Copesa. It's an important client for my institute as it's a new client that could mean more business for us. I also have an incredibly boring banker. I asked him where he would go if I gave him enough money to go ANYWHERE in the world. He told me "I want to go camping in the north of Chile." ... Really?

In addition, Becky referred me to her institute where I might be able to find more classes. It's called English Interactive and I went in last week for an interview. I made quite an impression and they wanted me immediately. (In fact Becky told me that her boss told her "You know when there's a person that you REALLY want, but you want to make sure you have classes right away for them? That's what this is"). That makes me feel pretty good.

I was very apprehensive in going to talk to another institute, as I want to be loyal to Grant's (and I'm a senior teacher and need to set an example), but on the other hand I need money. But, what really tipped it for me is that they use an incredible method to teach. They have interactive, digital white boards which connect to the computer and allow you to use digital pens to write on the board. It then saves corrections and notes to the computer and you can send the entire thing to the student via a pdf file. It would be a crying shame not to take advantage of this sort of professional development. And so I have 3 classes with them now, paying me $20 per hour. Not too shabby.

I also have a few private classes, although one cancelled today and I cancelled another...

Last Friday I went to Pub Crawl, but deviated as Pachi, Rocio, Bea and I went to a bar and got happy hour Frambuesa Coladas... strong ones. Bea didn't drink hers, so I finished off two within 10 minutes. Then I left to meet Diego. We went to Santeria, where there was a fiesta including an open bar which we were in time for the last 10 minutes of. So we got a free drink.

By now we were... or at least I was buzzing. Diego and I stayed there for a while before heading to Illuminati. We danced for a while, until I became otherwise occupied...

In other other news, I had a meeting with Barbara and the brains of the company that owns the Pub Crawl. I am to be the General Manager of the Santiago Out and About gay pub crawl. It means that I'm in charge when Bobbie isn't and even while she is, somewhat. I will lead the tour. We are starting for my birthday in two weeks. It's quite exciting, because we've been working on it since December.

On a related note. About a month and a half ago a young man of 24 years, named Daniel Zamudio was attacked. He was brutally beaten, his ear cut off, cigarettes burned into him, and swastikas cut into his chest. He was gay and was attacked by 4 presumed neo-nazis. He was taken to the hospital, put into a medically induced coma and a few days later, the doctors said that his life-threatening injuries had passed. And then he went into cardiac arrest, had a few strokes, and was declared brain dead. He passed away on March 27th.

The only good that comes out of this is that Chile has now passed an anti-discrimination law that includes the LGBT community here. More information here. Daniel Zamudio's death sent a wave of outrage through the country, and all of Latin America. The most shocking part, for me, is that it occurred across the street from my own apartment in a relatively safe part of town. It was, however, in a park. This is why you never walk home alone.

So. That's what's new in Chile. I am furiously looking for an apartment and slowly putting my life back together. Interesting how this second time around has been harder than the first. It's a test. And I intend to pass.

Puta la weá

2012-03-14T06:22:00.004-07:00

Hello. I have many a time thought about scribbling something down here, but I have been too busy doing absolutely nothing.

The thought occurred to me that 5 weeks is far too long of a vacation.

I miss Chile.

Anyway. The second day in Berlin, Veronica and I went exploring some more. First we headed to the center. We decided to go to Museum Island. When we got there, we decided that it was probably a good idea that I get a Berlin Welcome card, which would allow me discounted entrance to all museums, free transportation, etc. Then we set off on a mission to find a place to buy the thing. Not easy.

We ended up at the Bahn station and had to decide which card was best. The 17 Euro one would allow free transportation and discounted stuff, but the 34 Euro one would allow free entrance to all of the museums on Museum Island. We bought the 34 Euro one and then went to lunch. We had Turkish food - aka döner and kebap. I had schawarma and Veronica had the falafel. Very tasty.

After, we met Gregor for coffee and walked back to the museum island. Along the way, we stopped at the Anne Frank mini-museum (the original being in Amsterdam). It was cheap and not really worth going to. It had a lot of replicas of things, and some information. It's a truly inspiring and sad story, which I think I shall read once more.

We headed to the Pergamon museum. It cost 18 Euro for Veronica, so she waited in the café while I entered for free. Inside were reassembled ruins of Pergamon (from Greece) with many facades of old dead guy statues. There were also a lot of Roman, Muslim, and Babylonian sculptures and statues. I wish I was more awake to appreciate it. And I also wish that I could read German, because most everything was in the ugly language.

I spent about an hour here, then we walked to the next museum. It was called the Bode museum, I think. It was full of Renaissance and Baroque art from Italy, France, Spain, and Germany. I hate Renaissance art. Or maybe it's Baroque. I like Baroque music. Anyway it me da lata rather quickly and I left in half an hour. There was also some classical opera singer which turned out to be a man. A very-high-pitched singing man. This also caused me discomfort as I hate opera. The place was not my gig.

After, we decided to go to the main shopping district of Berlin. Full of the richies. We stopped at a McDonald's that looked more like a 3-star restaurant than a Ronald's house. I ate a happy meal. The chick had the nerve to ASK if I wanted a toy. Why would I order a happy meal if I didn't want a damn toy? They gave me the girl toy. Not the lightsaber. I hate McDonalds.

We wandered around some more before heading to the train station to head to the tower. First, I had a currywurst. It's a hotdog, chopped up and then covered with spicy (scharf) curry and jalapeños. It was quite tasty. We took the train to the world clock, which shows the current time around the world. Seattle wasn't present, but Santiago de Chile was. We then paid to go up the Tower. At the top, it was a little disappointing. The glass was slanted in a way that all you could really see was the reflection of the lights behind you. It would have been a magnificent view otherwise. Still, it was cool to see the huge city (the largest in Europe) at night from above.

After the tower, we took the metro to what is left of the Berlin Wall. We walked along it for a while looking at the art that covers each panel. Each piece of artwork was done by someone from a different country - including, of course, Chile.

By now we were exhausted, and had to wake up at 5 AM. So, we headed back to Veronica's apartment, skyped with Bea, and then slept.

In the morning we groggily got going to the train station, had Dunkin' Donuts and then got the train to Bremen.

In Bremen, we were supposed to meet Portcia, Bea's friend, at 10 AM. She was nowhere to be found, so we got coffee. Portcia contacted us and said to meet her in a restaurant in half an hour. We made our way to the restaurant and I ordered yogurt and fruit. It was quite tasty. However, an hour later, Portcia hadn't showed up. Veronica was irritated and I was exhausted. We took the train to Veronica and Bea's house.

A half an hour train ride brought us to a neighborhood, where we were greeted by Bea's mother, Daisy. We went inside and I shared stories of Beatrice's insanity. Veronica's daughter, Lucienne was also there. She's 4. We all talked and a while later Portcia and her boyfriend, Pawel came. We sat down and Daisy served us chicken adobo and a salad. It was very delicious. After eating, Veronica and I took a power nap and we skyped with Bea, who flipped out.

Around 5, we headed into town. Portcia and Veronica gave me a tour of Bremen. It lasted about an hour and included a statue of a donkey, dog, cat, and rooster - homage to the brothers Grimm. It was pouring rain and dark so we decided to eat dinner. We went to a place called Bar Celona and I ordered the tapas plate. It was pretty good. After, we walked around some more, sharing stories, and then we headed to the train station. I had to catch my train at 9. We had another coffee, said our good byes, and I was off.

I took the train to Herford where Philipp picked me up. It was 11:30 and I was 100% drained. We got back to the house and I went to sleep instantly.

The next day, I found out that Philipp and Andrea wouldn't be able to go to Amsterdam and Brussels with me. I checked prices to Amsterdam, and they were pretty steep. Philipp did some research and found some cheaper fares, but I was starting to feel sick. As the day progressed, my temperature rose, the pain in my throat worsened, and my head started to pound. I decided to rest.

In fact, I have been resting since last Thursday. On Thursday, we went to a Chinese food buffet and gorged ourselves with some of Andrea's classmates. On Friday, we went to one of Philipp's friends' house and played Wii, cards, and ate Spaetzle, which is a cheesy pasta. I was still sick and we stayed up until 3. The next day I lay dying the entire day.

On Sunday, we went to Philipp's father and brother's blueberry farm in Hannover. It is huge and gorgeous. We were also celebrating Johann's (Philipp's brother) girlfriend, Nora's birthday. We stayed until about 4 and we were all exhausted and left.

Since then, I have rewatched all of Game of Thrones.

Tomorrow evening at 8, I will take the train to Frankfurt where I will wait for my plane on Friday at noon. Yes. 12 hours in the airport. I might just die. Good news is that I'm feeling much better.

Bad news is that I think my travelling spirit is dead. I didn't and don't have the desire to go to Amsterdam... Even though I have the time and money. I think it is a strange situation when you have moved to a foreign country and then go on vacation. There hasn't been a day that has passed that I haven't thought about Chile. I miss it and want to go back now. I loved Sweden. I like Germany. But I've been done since Berlin. Strange.

See you in 2 days, Seattle. First stop Red Robin. Second stop Target. Third stop Sounders.

Välkommen

2012-03-05T14:02:00.000-08:00

Ok. So. No internet for 4 days. No way to blog. In Germany, Alemania lost to Francia 2-1 in an upset. That night Philipp, Andrea, and I drank to mourn the loss. Philipp and I drank hefeweizen, which is a huge, strong beer. Then we drank piscolas. I got drunk. Surprisingly drunk. I went to bed after watching The River. I didn't fall asleep until 3 AM.

I woke up with my first hangover ever at 6:30. My brain felt like it was looking for a way out. Violently. We ate breakfast, I showered, and by 7:30 we were out the door and I was on my way to Sweden.

I arrived at the train station around 8:30, and got the train to Bremen. In a stroke of idioticness, I withdrew all of my money in Euros. Sweden uses the crown. Then in a stroke of intelligence, I went to the money changing station and got crowns. I got to the airport really early, so I ate a döner, and sat around. I boarded the plane and ended up in front of a baby that kicked me every 2 minutes. No sleeping for me.

The flight over the frozen Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea was incredible. Sheets of ice covered the salty waters. I landed around 4 and found my way to the Flybussgarna terminal to try to get to Stockholm. My card had no money on it as it was all in my other account. And I had no way of getting to a computer to transfer it over. A moment of panic took over and I wandered the airport til I found the actual person. I said hello and the woman replied in perfect English. I bought my ticket to the city for 129 SEK. I arrived at T-Centralen around 6:30. I was meeting Alejandro, my couch surfing host and friend of Valentin at 8:30, giving me about two hours to wander. I found myelf hopelessly lost, without money, and no way to get it.

I spent my last crowns on 30 minutes at a computer. I transferred money, looked at a map, and went outside. It was freezing, I was still lost, but at least I had money. Desperation nearly set in and I almost took a taxi to Rådhuset. But then I remembered that the Swedes speak perfect English. I walked to the train station and asked a guy how to get to the other station. Surprisingly, he didn't tell me to buy a ticket, but told me how to walk there. I thanked him with 'Tack' and went on my way.

I was exhausted, frozen, hungover, and lost. And hungry. I wandered around trying to find an affordable restaurant. I couldn't find one so I settled for a place called O'Leary's. It was an American restaurant. I sat down and they brought me popcorn! I ordered the Fish and Chips and a Coke. It came out and I scarfed it down while watching ice hockey. Fome. The total: 189 SEK... or about $30. Ridiculous. But my hangover was cured, I was warm, I was next to the station, and I was no longer starving.

For about an hour I wandered around frozen. I met Alejandro, who is from Venezuela at Rådhuset at the agreed upon time. We talked and he walked with me through parts of Stockholm. He told me that the city is composed of 14 islands. He knew a lot about the city and was very friendly. We walked through town for about an hour and a half, which was tough for me as I was exhausted. But, I didn't come to Europe to sleep. I passed a Chilean restaurant and was quite excited. We ended up meeting his friend Nicolas, also from Venezuela, with his couch surfers - Marchan (or something) and Dominika from Poland. We all went to a bar and ordered a beer and talked. It was a lot of fun, but by 11:30 we were all tired and decided to head home. I slept at Alejandro's dorm-like apartment and pretty much passed out after showering.

The next morning we awoke at 8:30. I went with Alejandro to his work, Spotify, where he is completing his internship. I had 9 hours to explore before we'd meet again. I decided to hit up Gamla Stan, old city, first. I walked, lost, through Stockholm to the city and was amayed at the tiny roads, old buildings, and genuinely old-feeling. I perused the stores, ate an authentic cinnamon roll (which were invented in Sweden) and encountered a royal guard with a bayonette. Most of the museums were closed on the island as it was early, so I wasn't able to get in.

After Gamla stan, I walked to another small island next to the old city. On it was a castle. I went through the small area and ended up finding the castle. It was tiny and hardly impressive compared to the castles of Germany or Scotland.

I found myself lost once again trying to find my way to the very large park island which housed the Vasamuseet. I found it and made my way to the museum which houses a raised sunken ship from the 1600's. The ship, Vasa, sunk in Stockholm harbor in 1638 (I believe) on its maiden voyage during the time when Sweden was at constant war with its neighbors. It was the pride of the fleet and sank not far from its launch. It remained there until the mid 1960's when it was found and brought back to the surface. I watched the film in Spanish and at first was disgruntled that I wasn't able to get the English version, then I remembered that I understand Spanish.

The museum was very impressive. It was one of my favorites that I have ever been to. After exploring, I headed to the restaurant. I bought Swedish meatballs for 100 SEK. They were delicious. Far superior to IKEA. I ate them Swedish style, dipping them in lingonberry sauce.

I then found an aquarium. I excitedly paid the 90 SEK and entered. I was sorely disappointed. Though the tanks were impressive, the aquarium itself was tiny. Only 3 or 4 rooms. I spent half an hour there and left. Then I wandered Stockholm trying to find an internet cafe to no avail. I ended up going back to the posh area where Alejandro works and drinking coffee, eating a wrap and waiting until 6:30.

At 6:30 I met him and we went into his office. He was going to a concert that night so I was to meet Nicolas and the Polish people. I got on the Tunnelbaun and headed to Harkerängen or something. I arrived at 8 and waited outside the station in the bitter cold of -2 C. I couldn't find Nicolas and headed to the other side. Still no luck. I encountered an older man who started to talk to me. He didn't know English, but after a while I figured out that he was trying to convert me to being a Jehovas' witness. He didn't have an English brochure but he asked if I spoke Spanish. I said yes. He had a Spanish brochure. Perfect. At 8:30 I was getting worried and entered the platform about ready to give up, head to the center, and figure out what I was going to do without knowing how to get in touch with Alejandro. Luckily, I spotted Nicolas coming my way.

We headed to his apartment, and met the Pols. We drank a few beers, continued to talk and compare travel stories, cultural differences - and similiarities (there are shockingly similar superstitions) and have a good time. Ask me about Nelson from Albania. Alejandro was still away, so Nicolas offered to host me as well. I accepted. We went to bed around 1 and were to wake up at 5... Great.

On Saturday morning we woke up at 5:30. I didn't need to get dressed as all of my clothes were on my person - the rest being at Alejandro's apartment. We met Alejandro and his French neighbor Emmanuel at a metro station at 6:30 and headed to the port. We boared a cruise ship/ferry called the Isabella. The cruise, which cost an astoundingly low 20 SEK ($3) would take us to Alland - a small island in the Baltic between Sweden and Finland. We boarded the boat in exhaustion and found our way to the deck. We watched as we set sail and Stockholm grew more distant. The ride to Alland was roughly 4 and a half hours.

During the trip, we talked a lot, spent time freezing on the deck and looking at the frozen sea, and drinking coffee. We played the cardgame Bullshit and talked some more. We arrived in Alland around 1 and didn't even have time to set foot on Finnish soil before we disembarked on the Amarella back to Stockholm. Finnish people, by the way, are much more savage and viking-like than the very polite Swedes. Their language is also more barbaric.

During the trip back we headed to the buffet and filled up on meatballs, fish, potatoes au gratin, and more. I also ate a marzipan cake. It was all pretty delicious. During part of the journey, we ended up watching the Finns and Swedes sing karaoke. They were not very good, save one girl. We also watched a dance party of old folks. We also took time to go to the duty free shop on board. I found a Riesling from Chateau Ste. Michelle winery from my hometown of Woodinville. Talk about a mindtrip. The voyage was amazing and we talked the entire time, no shortage of stories.

Once arriving in Stockholm, we went to Nicolas' apartment. We drank the Riesling, as well as some strange shots that were lit aflame, and learned merengue courtesy of the Venezuelans. The Pols showed us some of their traditional dances. Once it was my turn I had to explain that I didn't know how to square dance, nor do the Electric Slide. I am now determined to learn the latter.

We headed out around 11 and went back to Rådhuset. We met Alejandro's Iranian-born Swedish friend, whose name I can't remember - Sepande or something. She was a hoot. She was a female version of Adrian. Incredibly outgoing. We were to join her at the Cuban embassy's party below. We headed down and were greeted by the familiar sound of merengue, salsa, and Latin-music. It felt like home. We danced and talked with people and after about an hour and a half we left to go to a club. We got to the club around 12:30, but it was closing at 1 and was 50 SEK to enter. We decided against it. I convinced Sepande to come to Chile and work at Pub Crawl. She had to leave, but Nicolas, Marchan, Dominika and I followed Alejandro to the southern island to find a bar that was open. It proved difficult.

Alejandro remembered a viking bar on Gamla stan and we walked there. Once entering, we were transported to a different world of candles, underground tunnels, men in armor and tunics, antlers, chandeliers, and loud Swedes. We found a large table and ordered our Mjöd (mead) - made from honey. We drank our drink and listened as loud viking drinking songs were sung around us. It was incredible. We stayed there til about 3 and said good bye to the Polish folks who were leaving the next day. Alejandro and I trekked back to his apartment and passed out.

Yesterday we woke up at 11 AM. We showered, made pancakes (good pancakes!) and decided to go for a walk. We walked through the forest to the beach. The beach was entirely frozen over and as it had snowed the night before, the trees were lightly dusted with white. On the Baltic, people were standing. Standing on the Baltic Sea. We decided we had to join. We walked about 100 feet out onto the sea and watched 4 men ice skate by. We headed back to shore and saw two girls who were pondering venturing out. We assured them that it was safe but they didn't bite.

We talked to them for a while. Annika was from Hannover, Germany and Alexandra was from Romania. We walked with them through the forest, the field and ended up going to coffee with them. I ate a Semla (a pastry filled with marzipan and cream) and a latte. They were a lot of fun and very interesting to talk to. We parted ways. Alejandro and I made hot dogs, ate, and headed out once more. I had my stuff and we headed to Gamla stan. We walked around a little and met his Dutch friend... whose name I cannot recall. I had wanted to go to the Ice Bar - a bar that is entirely made of ice, but it was 120 SEK just to go inside. We decided against it and went out for coffee. We talked some more and after, Alejandro and I headed to Nicolas'.

We went to the market and got stuff to make salmon and mashed potatoes. We prepared the salmon wrapped in prosciutto and invented a new type of mashed potatoes - with a cut up banana mashed in with it. It was all delicious. We watched 50/50 and by midnight, we bid farewell to Nicolas. Alejandro and I rode the metro back toward T-Centralen. The stop before was Alejandro's and I thanked him for his hospitality, knowledge and friendship and we parted ways. I arrived at 12:30 and began to search for the bus terminal. It was closed. My bus to the airport was at 3:30. What was I going to do for 3 hours in the middle of the night. More importantly - where was I going to go to stay warm?

Thank goodness for McDonalds. I found one that was open until 2 AM. I ordered Chicken McNuggets and ate them until 1:30 at which point the people around me annoyed me and I figured the cold air would keep me awake better anyway. I also had to figure out how to get to the bus now that the station was closed and wouldn't open until 5 AM. I wandered lost in the middle of the night in -5 C temperature until I found the station. I sat outside and listened to music til my butt froze to the bench and I decided that I had to find an indoors. I found 7-11. I ordered a coffee and stayed there for half an hour til my feet hurt. I walked some more and at 3:15 AM, boarded the bus to the airport. I slept the entire ride.

At the airport, I sat in a daze until 6 when I was let on the plane where I slept for an hour and a half. In Berlin, I headed to the restaurant, ate a sandwich and orange juice and waited for Veronica - Bea's sister. She found me at 9:30 and we finally met! We headed to her apartment where we talked a bit and then napped. At 2, we headed out after I showered. Before we left, we also skyped with Bea and Adrian. So weird to see them on the other side and me in Germany. We went to Angry Chicken per Bea's request. It was Korean chicken wings. Very good.

We wandered Berlin and I saw the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, and parts of the Berlin wall. I bought a few pieces of the wall. We drank Starbucks, walked around more, and passed through the Holocaust memorial. We ate dinner at Vapiano, also per Bea's orders. I had the carbonara.

After this we got in trouble. We entered the metro without paying, right after Veronica told me that I shouldn't worry as nobody ever checks. As soon as we sat down, these people came over and asked to see our tickets... instead, we got tickets. However, as I don't have an address in Santiago (the truth) Veronica gave them hers. She has to pay €7, but I have to pay €40... We are going to think about what might happen if I don't pay. What will they do? Not much, methinks... But I will probably pay the stupid thing.

We wandered some more, visiting a cool house filled with art and graffiti. On one of the floors, there are a bunch of South American artists where I definitely heard Chilean Spanish.

Now it is bedtime as I think I have had roughly 25 hours of sleep over the past 6 days. Need to rest. Tomorrow we'll go to a few museums and in the evening head to Beatrice's city of Bremen.

Wilkommen

2012-02-28T07:13:00.000-08:00

I'm in Germany!

So. The time in Dallas was spent eating as much American food as I could find. I ate an Egg McMuffin, after the Einstein's bagel, and before the chicken tenders. I also ate a lot of candy. I also read a lot of The Hunger Games, which surprisingly passed the long 9 hour layover quite well.

At 2:30, my plane boarded. I was seated next to some angry-looking German. I kept reading. The German... stared. The plane took off. I continued reading. The German stared. Dinner was served. Beef. I ate. The German ate. And stared. I finished my book. The German continued to stare... at the TV... without headphones. I tried to sleep. I woke up. The German was staring. This continued for the 10 hours that the flight lasted. I know he was alive because he ate and he went to the bathroom twice.

I landed at 8 AM. I went through customs, got my luggage, and proceeded to look for the train. Bahn. I found one booth and tried to navigate it but couldn't find Bielefeld on the weá, so I went to 'information.' The surly man greeted or gruffled at me and I asked him how to get to my destination. He muttered something in German and pointed upstairs to the "long distance trains." I went upstairs to a huge train station and went to the Bahn office. I asked if the woman spoke English. She said "a little." Lies. She spoke very well. I told her I needed to get to Bielefeld. She told me it cost 106 Euro. What?! I said "Anything cheaper?" and she said "98 Euro for 10 minutes later"... I said "... anything... cheaper...?" "78 Euro for 9:58". Fine. It was supposed to be 40 Euro. I went and bought some snacks and waited in the freezing cold for the train. It came. I got on board and sat in the luxurious interior.

After travelling for 30 hours, the only thing on my mind was sleep. And possibly food. But I couldn't sleep because the ticket man came by every hour to stamp my ticket. And I was worried I would miss my stop and end up in the Black Forest. I stayed awake. A girl in the booth next to me had an enormous bag of McDonald's which she greedily ate in front of me. She ate a Big Mac, a large thing of fries, a McChicken, and a Coke. I had to smell it all.

I arrived in Dortmund at... I dunno... 3 hours later. I waited 20 minutes for my connecting train to Bielefeld. I wanted food. I couldn't read anything though and didn't want to risk eating bloodwurst and sauerkraut. So. I starved. I arrived in Bielefeld famished, exhausted, and three days dirty. I went searching for Andrea and Philipp but couldn't find them. So. I was panicky. There was a hotel across from the train station, in case I had to stay there. So I calmed down. I went to the Internet Café and wrote them. I stayed there for 7 minutes, paid 50 cents and then went to McDonalds. I had the McChicken menu... It was 7 Euro. $10. Maldita sea. I scarfed down the crappy food and then went searching again. I sat outside hiding from the Germans and the Turkish and then I heard "ADAM!". Philipp found me and we went to find Andrea. We met, hugged, got in the car and were off.

We talked along the way and arrived in Philipp's town of 900 - Bavenhausen. We drank beer. Real beer. Not Escudo. And then I napped. I napped for a few hours and then woke up. Philipp had gone to a friend's birthday party, so I sat with Andrea and Octavia and talked and watched German TV. I went to bed again around 11.

On Sunday I woke up around noon. We ate breakfast and then headed out to explore the pueblo. It's beautiful countryside. The sun was shining and everyone was out and about. We walked through the forest, the hills, and through the town. It isn't so different from Woodinville. Only there are no Targets.
We ate these potato pancakes for lunch (like German sopaipillas) and rested the rest of the day. In the evening, we ate soup made from kohlrabi and then went to McDonalds. Three days out of Chile, three days at McDonalds. Great. That night, Andrea and I tried to stay awake to watch the Oscars, which started at 2 AM here. We realized that we hadn't seen any of the movies, decided we didn't care, and went to bed.

Yesterday, Philipp and I went to Lemgo, the city near Beilefeld. It has a population of around 300,000. We walked through the main shopping street - all of the old buildings. And went to a Schloß - or castle. It's not one of those war castles, but rather a castle that a duke might live at. It was closed, but I got to see the exterior. Still quite impressive. We walked around and talked about football. We then went to another city to search for pisco. We found it. It was 10 Euro... much more than the $2.000 CLP that I'm used to. We bought three bottles and then went to an enormous supermarket in Lemgo to have coffee.

After that, we picked up Andrea from the gym and returned to the supermarket to shop. I have never seen so much Haribo in my life. I bought a couple of bags of gummies, and we bought stuff to make empanadas. The rest of the evening, we relaxed. I went to bed around 11. Jet lag. I have no idea what time I'm used to right now.

This morning I woke up rather early - around 8:30. Philipp and I had breakfast, then relaxed and talked. Philipp went to get Andrea, and I watched TV. When they came back, we started to make empanadas. We made the dough, relaxed some more, and then made the filling. We prepared them, and Andrea and Philipp went to get Octavia from kindergarten. Now they are out on a playdate for Octavia, and I am relaxing. I need this relaxation time before the insanity of the next few days. Tomorrow, we are going to help Philipp's friend move and then we'll watch Germany vs. France. It's a pity we hadn't known about it sooner, as it's being played in a city, Bremen, not far from us. We would have bought tickets, but now they are 80 Euro for the cheapest.

On Thursday I will go in the morning to Bremen to get a plane to Stockholm. There I will find my way to the city, and meet one of Valentín's friends from Venezuela who lives there now. He will let me stay with him (via couch surfing) and I'll have four days to explore before heading to Berlin, Bremen, Belgium, Holland, and then who knows.

Interestingly, I find myself speaking Spanish to the Germans. Partly because I speak it with Andrea. Partly because I think in Spanish about half the time now, so if I hear something non-English, I automatically convert to Spanish. Also. I convert all prices to pesos, then to dollars. Also, Octavia is speaking German and it's weirding me out. She has picked up on it very well and it went from "es mia" to "ist meins" (it's mine!).

Gringolandia, Culture Shock

2012-02-24T05:54:00.000-08:00

Briefly.

I forgot about two strange things that occurred last week. 1. There was some mountain eagle that was trapped in a store next to my apartment. Enter the news, the cops, the crowd. It was there for two days before they somehow extracted it. Poor thing. 2. I witnessed the result of an attempted bank robbery. In other words, someone roped an ATM to their truck, and tried to drive away. They got about ten feet. The ATM was on its side, there was broken glass, and there was a mob of cops and people. According to one of my students, it's a new "sport". Ha.

Last Monday I spent the evening at Pachi's apartment celebrating Rocio's birthday. Bea and I headed there around 9:30 and stayed until about 11:30. It was nice to see everyone and (not) celebrate a birthday. It's bad luck to celebrate early, dontchaknow?

On Tuesday after teaching my classes, I went to Subway with Barbara. I had the marisco and cangrejo sub (shellfish and crab - though probably Krab). It was good. Definitely can't find it in Seattle. A little later into the evening (around 10:30), Diego and I went to Malas Artes - the restaurant which Bea is banned from due to her tendency to throw things such as chopsticks and chairs - for daiquiris. It was happy hour and, as the daiquiris are strong, happy it was. I said farewell to Diego and went to sleep.

On Wednesday evening, I had my final dinner in Santiago. Barbara, Pachi, Adrián, Matías, Conti, Cristian, Meli, and I went to my favorite restaurant Galindo. Most of us ordered Pastel de choclo, my favorite food. I consumed the entire thing. We stayed there for a few hours and then Pachi helped me move the remainder of my stuff to Barbara's house for storage. I spent the night at Barbara's because my apartment was empty and sad. We watched The River, which has officially convinced me never to go to the Amazon River. Too bad, it was a dream of mine.

I woke up woefully early yesterday to teach classes. Unfortunately one of my classes cancelled all week, which hurt the wallet. It's a $80 loss. Money that I would have gotten immediately as it was a private class. Filo. After my classes, I brought Andrea's bicycle to Bea's house - she's going to use it while I'm away. Bea was feeling ill, so I brought her an alfajor. We ate them and talked for an hour before I said my farewell to her.

I went to Barbara's and we bs'd for a while before going to Los Heroes. We got some ice cream at Doggies and then I got on the Centropuerto bus to head to the airport. I hugged Barbara and was on my way. Suddenly, my world was filled with gringos. More English than I'd heard in quite some time. And they were almost all loud and rude. Someone would ask them if they spoke Spanish (in Spanish) and they would yell: "No. English." very slowly and very loudly. As if louder and slower might somehow convey the fact that they are somehow less idiotic. Anyway, I helped a guy who was struggling at Security. The passenger didn't speak Spanish, and the security guy didn't speak English. I translated. Apparently the guy had jewels in his bag that security wanted to check out. And, of course, I was behind a bunch of Koreans in line at check-in. They immediately started talking to me in Korean. You ask me why I won't go teach in Korea?

I walked through Duty-Free and decided that I didn't care, then I bought some tiny little souvenirs for two people. Then I went to dinner. I ate at... somewhere. I ordered the Churrasco. $5.000 for the thing. It's $1.200 on the street. It was also not very good, and a mayonnaise packet exploded on my crotch. I chowed the thing down and then went to Dunkin' Donuts and bought a smoothie. My gringo world was so loud. The lady in front of my tried the same method of yelling slowly to the lady at Dunkin' Donuts who politely smiled and nodded. When we were boarding the plane, we had to go through another security checkpoint. They simply patted down our carry-ons. Several people were angry and complaining that they felt it was unnecessary. If they had shut up and put their stupid bags on the table, they would have been through sooner. Gringos: angry, loud, rude.

In the flight, they served food. I had the chicken. I was fortunate enough to have nobody next to me so I sprawled out. I was also the only person that I heard say 'thank you' to anything. Or 'please' for that matter. I exaggerate not. When I asked for a Heinecken, the stewardess brought me two and said "helps you sleep better." I drank them pretty quickly, became a little inebriated, and passed out. Perfect. It was the first flight in my life that I slept. I fell asleep around midnight and when I woke up and looked at my watch, it was 7 AM. Incredible!!

Now I'm at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport. I have already been yelled at or scolded by four security people. I miss Chile. At baggage claim, I went to ask someone a question and before I finished "excuse me" he pointed to the other side of the room and said "over there!". I tried to say "I just have a question" and he repeated his bellow. I went over there. I asked a guy my question, whether I had to get my baggage or if it was going straight through. He gave me no eye contact, didn't even look at my boarding pass and said "over there." I went to the next person who told me that "it goes through." Fine. I went through security, where they body scanned me. Violated. They yelled at me because I put my bags in the stupid tray. They said "The tray is for small things only!". Fine.

I went to Einstein bagels and had a bagel. It was my first bagel in quite some time. It was fantastic, but now I have gas. TMI. I then sat down and tried to get on the internet in the "FREE INTERNET" zone. Apparently when they say "free," they mean "free when you pay $7.99 for internet zone". Fine.

Now I'm here, I've bought a book The Hunger Games, a double caffeine Rockstar, and some Skittles. I don't know what time it is here, I don't know where my gate is, and I know that I have about 7 hours before my flight leaves. Perfect. Next stop: Germany - where I will have to figure out how to get from Frankfurt to somewhere else. Adventure: commence!

Despedida

2012-02-19T17:07:00.000-08:00

Buenas.

It is far too complicated to keep track of the days to give you a recount for each of them. So. The highlights.

Last Friday was Santiago Pub Crawl's Cupid is Stupid party. So, for all of us solteros (there are a lot of us), it was a chance to say F U to that mutant baby angel. Everyone that I knew was there. Bea, Talo, Bobbie, Adrián, Jeza, Pachi, Joe, Keno, Cristian, Jose, Valentín, Panchi, Gastón, Sandra, Clare, Lola, and Matías were in attendance. We all drank daiquiris. Strong daiquiris. I stayed with a few of them until 5 in the morning. It was one of the best times that I have ever had.

Last Sunday we were supposed to all go to Fantasilandia for my "despedida part 1" (aka an excuse to go to Fantasilandia). But, I got there at noon and nobody came. Barbara got there around 1:30, Bea called and said she was stuck at work, Valentín slept in, Adrián was dead to the world, etc. Barbara and I decided to go eat and hang out at her apartment. We went to a Thai restaurant near her house. It was fantastic. It was actually cooked by a Thai person and it was spicy. Too spicy. I ate a chili without knowing it and started to cry. After eating, we went to her apartment and... fell asleep. We went for ice cream, talked, and then around 9:30 I headed home.

I spent the evening looking for ways to watch the Grammy's on the internet. With Valentín's help, I found a site and watched Adele destroy all of the competition. I slept.

On Monday Pachi helped me move some big stuff to Bea's apartment. Afterwards, we went to Hookah Troopa - a bar/ restaurant/ hookah bar. We ordered the manzana hookah. It was pretty good. We all talked and had a delightful time together.

Tuesday was Valentine's day. I went on a hot date with myself to Istanbul and ate a salad. I was the only one in the restaurant. After, I headed to Bobbie's and met Pachi. We talked and we drank the leftover Jell-o shots. At midnight, after surviving Single's Awareness Day, I went home.

On Wednesday I went back to the government building and picked up my carnet, or Chilean ID. Finally, I am Chilean - or about as close as you can get. It was a major victory.

I've been finishing classes, and my schedule has been lightening up - which is good, because I have to start to think about my vacation. Which is actually just stressing me out and making me miss Chile before I've even left. Is this what vacations are supposed to feel like? I don't know how I'm going to have more fun than I am having here.

This past Thursday I went to Pub Crawl for a little while and left when Barbara was quite inebriated. It was hilarious. New words were invented.

On Friday morning, I taught my class and then met Barbara at about 10:30 for breakfast. We went to my favorite coffee shop and had coffee and medialunas. Barbara was hungover and crabby with our server. It was also hilarious. We then hopped on the Metro and got on the bus for Viña. I wanted to go to the beach one last time before I am submerged into the harsh winter of northern Europe. We arrived in Viña del Mar around 2 PM and were famished. We searched frantically for food and found a Chilean sandwich restaurant called Fuente Bávara. We waited for a table outside and ate completos. But completos with BACON on top. Gross, but so good.

We hopped on the micro and arrived in Reñaca where we met her brother, his girlfriend and a friend. Barbara and I were still hungry so we went and ate crappy cheese empanadas. We later joined them at the beach, which was overflowing with tourists. It was far too hot for Bobbie and we sat under the umbrellas fanning ourselves. We walked to the water where it was much cooler. Around 6, we left and I decided it best to head back home. I wanted to get back in time to do something that evening and I didn't bring clothes to go to Viña Pub Crawl. I got on the micro back to Viña around 7 and arrived at the terminal at 7:45. The next bus wasn't until 9:30.

Great. So, I bought food and ate junk food until 9:30... but the bus didn't arrive until 9:50. The Santiago Metro closes at 11:33... The bus ride is around an hour and a half... I was worried. I fell asleep on the bus and woke up when we arrived in Santiago. The Metro station that we passed was Ecuador... which is past Pajaritos... which is where they usually stop... I was worried. It was 11:25. We stopped at Universidad de Santiago at 11:30. I ran out of the bus and down the stairs to the Metro, where the man shut the gate in front of me. I pleaded to no avail. I ran to a taxi. I had $1.350, which would at least get me out of the dangerous area that I was in. I told him to take me as far as he could with the money that I had and he kicked me out. I pleaded. No avail. I was in a panicked state. My bus card had $500 on it and that wasn't enough to get a bus. I decided to try anyway. I got on the first bus that I saw, not knowing where it was going, but certain that it was better than where I was. Luckily the Bip! system has an emergency use thing so it allowed me to go $10 over. I was relieved, but the bus was full of flaites. Luckily, the bus stopped right in front of my house and finally at midnight I was home. I slept.

Yesterday was my despedida (or farewell party). Like I said, it's only five weeks, but it feels like 5 years. I went to the supermarket and bought chorizos, bread, chips, and beer. I met Barbara and Marisel at Baquedano at 4. Diego arrived around 4:30. Matías shortly after. Rodrigo and Bruno a little later. We walked to Cerro San Cristobal, which was the very first place that I visited upon my arrival in 2010. We met Bea and Talo there. We saw the line for the funicular and it was huge, so we took a taxi to the camping/picnic area. We got the barbecue ready and an hour later (other) Matías and Constanza arrived. At about 6, Adrián made it there. We found some puppies which we cuddled for a good hour. We all had a fantastic time. It was the perfect day and I think that if everyone in the world could have a day like that, world peace would not be an unreachable goal.

At 8:30 Matías and Constanza took Adrián, Bruno and Marisel back down the hill in their truck. The rest of us walked. The views from the hill were breath-taking and I'm not sure if I have ever been more in love with this city. We talked the entire way and when we reached the bottom, everyone went to Pub Crawl. I went home first and changed - and arrived a little later. I stayed at Pub Crawl with my friends until about 3 AM when I was exhausted and returned home.

Today I started packing my stuff. My room looks like a disaster and I don't know how to pack for moving and for travelling - especially when the travelling part involves two different climates (frigid cold, and damp).

I am excited to travel - next Thursday, but I am equally sad to leave this wonderful place. I beg all of you to come visit. I don't think it is possible to not love it here. The friends I have made are some of the best friend's I have ever had, and the things I have seen some of the most beautiful. The times are memories that I will keep forever. I can not wait to return. In fact, yesterday Rodrigo asked me where I was going and I replied "I'm going to Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, Seattle, and then home."

2012-02-15T08:54:00.002-08:00

I will come home when I have seen all of this. And even then, probably not.

Visa

2012-02-03T11:25:00.000-08:00

My daily blog has become a twice-per-week blog. (Present Perfect Simple). Sorry about that, but not really.

So, starting from where we left off. My new classes are pretty good. One of them is a nerdy little guy that is a very high elementary or low pre-intermediate. He's a good student. The other is definitely an advanced student who wants to practice presentations. He has a very interesting work history, as well. He started as a professor at Universidad de Chile and then worked for the current Minister of something. Cool.

My favorite class ended. I miss them already. Those classes were always hilarious and they were good students. They all passed their finals with ease, even Fabián who didn't study for the test and whined and asked if he could take it the next day. He got the second highest score.

The first class that I ever had also finished yesterday. They were too busy for actual class and just sat with me for 15 minutes, signed their attendance, and went back to work. Sad.

In the world of private classes (particulares - Chileans laugh if you say "private" classes. So mature). Valeska, my first private student is doing great and it gets me an extra $50 per week. On top of that, I will take over for Grace's students next week which will bring in an extra $40 per week. I had agreed (stupidly) to do a class on Sunday mornings way outside of Santiago Centro (not really that far, but far enough at 10 AM). I went there last Saturday and called him, and his phone was dead. I waited half an hour and then went home angry. He never called back or e-mailed. Rude. However, one of my old students referred me to his friend who was looking for classes. I had his first class today. Hernán. I charge him $10.000 and we met at Starbucks. It was a good class and he wants to work on business terms. He's a pretty good speaker and in a month he'll go to Boston to study for a month. About half-way through class he asked if he could have class more than once per week. I said sure. He asked if he could have class 5 times per week. I said sure. That is an extra $50.000 per week! ($100 USD). This means that if he continues after he comes back (and I do, too), I will be able to travel! Hello Brazil!

On the funner side of my life, things are swell. I have continued to go to Pub Crawl and have been having a blast. Last Thursday Bea got in a big fight and broke up with her boy friend of 1 day. She proceeded to drink in her house alone. She arrived to Pub Crawl completely trashed. It was the most hilarious thing that I've ever witnessed. She ran around and said "hola" to every person she saw and followed it up with "you're hot!" which was then followed by "oh... no you aren't" at times. She was convinced that the homeless man was the hottest person she'd ever seen. She hit on the bartender. She walked home at 6 AM drunk, alone, and without any money. Very dangerous. She didn't remember so much on Friday.

Barbara had bad news, as well. Her mom had been coming back from the bank with all the money for the staff of her daycare. While she was driving back to her work, she noticed a car full of guys following her. She stopped at a stop light when three guys got out of the car. A man with a gun walked up to her door. A man with a rock started trying to break her windows. And a man with a knife slashed her tires. She began screaming and honking her horn and the car in front of her moved out of the way. Her mom sped off and stopped at her brother's house, where all the neighbors had come out to see what the noise was. The three men came running down the street, saw the crowd, and took off. Nobody was harmed, but obviously Barbara's mom is more than a little shocked.

Friday. Friday was my turn. I had organized a get-together type thing with some friends. We were going to go to Pub Crawl and then leave and dance at a club. I was also set on having some drinks. Mission: Accomplished. When we arrived at Galpón 9, I bought 5 piscolas. 2 of which I gave to Diego. 2 of which I drank as a "submarino". Imagine drinking a drink like a shot... I'll teach you. Valentín, Gastón, Barbara, Bea, Panchi, and everyone else at Pub Crawl got to see me at my best. Barbara and Bea left early - which I don't remember. Gastón, Diego, Valentín and I went to Illuminati where I had one final drink. We danced all night and Diego walked me back to my apartment around... sometime in the morning... 4:30 I think.

On Saturday, my inability to be hungover proved itself once again. I woke up at noon and spent the day not doing anything. I went to Pub Crawl with Bea and we met them at MiLounge. It turns out that Adrián had hurt himself earlier in the day playing football. He was carried in by another guy. Poor Adrián was sunburnt, hobbling and miserable looking. A few nurses had told him that he probably had a fractured leg. Bea and I went with him to the next bar, and after that got in a taxi and took him to Bea's. He refused to go to the doctor.

Sunday was a nothing day. I spent the day in bed watching movies and TV.

On Monday I went to Bea's house and we cooked food and talked. Diego was supposed to join us, but had fallen asleep.

On Wednesday afternoon I met Katie for lunch. We went to a small café on Mosqueto and ordered salads. For $3500 we got HUGE salads. Mine was filled with avocados, chicken, and assorted greens. This is extremely rare in Chile, where a 'salad' is usually sliced tomatoes, corn, OR onions. It was delicious.

On Wednesday evening Valentín came over and we went to sushi. He told me all about Sweden and his plans to go back to Europe. He hates Chile. He also hates the States. Actually, he hates a lot of things. But, we spent two hours talking and it was good to catch up after his 5 months away.

This week has been sleepless for me causing me to be in a generally crabby mood. My roommate had people over Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 3, 4, and 5 in the morning. On Wednesday some girl was singing loudly (and horribly) and prohibited me from sleeping - even with my window closed on a warm summer night. I have not been happy. Last night I went to sleep at 10 PM, which I haven't done since... I have no idea when.

On Monday my visa letter arrived. I was hoping for the best, however, I was denied. I have to redo all of the paper-work and submit it. Inconvenient timing as I am fleeing the country in 3 weeks. Also, I'm currently illegal as my tourist visa has expired. I don't know what I'm going to do.

Bazinga! My letter did arrive, however, it was accepted. On Wednesday at 9:30 AM after my class I headed to the first government building to get my temporary resident visa. I waited in line for two hours (horrible as I had forgotten my iPod) and got my passport stamped. Step 1 complete.

Today after my classes I ran around the city (which is still in the middle of summer - 80 - 90º F heat). I went to the first building a good 20 minute walk away and registered with the International Police. The lady asked me my address, but as I'm moving soon, I gave her my work address. She asked what sort of building it was: house or apartment. I said "work". Then realized that I might be exposed as working illegally. She didn't care. Then I ran back to my office to make photocopies and walked another 20 minutes in the other direction to the last building, which closed in 30 minutes. I got in line and waited an hour before getting to my clerk. She asked me questions and I was finger-printed. I am officially a temporary resident of Chile. I go back on February 15 to pick up my carnet (I.D. card) which I will proudly show you when I see you soon! MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED!

Interesting fact: Chileans (and probably South Americans) don't believe that North and South America are separate continents. They say that there is ONE America. They also argue that the two are connected. Now, I agree that the term "American" is sort of stupid - they have a word "estado unidensan" that they use for "gringos", but there are definitely two continents. It's how it is is. It's like saying that Europe and Asia are one continent, or North and South Korea are one country. Nonsense.

Adrián, Cristian, Talo, Rodrigo, and I making stupid faces.

I am the flip-cup master. Not true. I got two of them.

The future Out and About staff.

Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting.

Pachi and I.

WTF. Where's The Food?

Yapo!

2012-01-22T16:58:00.000-08:00

Flojera - laziness... that is the best word to describe why I haven't been on here in two weeks. Now, I thought about it countless times, but obviously decided against it.

Even now, I just stopped for about 10 minutes after writing those first two sentences.

Ok. Here we go.

EHMMM....

EHMMMMMM...

Right. So as far as classes go, these past two weeks have been pretty slow since three of them have been on vacation. I've gotten really good at Solitaire, if that is possible. However, I've picked up a private class. Her name is Valeska - and she's a little nuts. But, she's paying me $24 per hour twice per week to help her improve her already good English. So that's pretty bacán.

A lot of classes will be ending in the next couple of weeks, however, I've been chosen to substitute for another teacher, so that will bolster the ol' paycheck. I'll also take over Grace's private students in February for an extra $20 per hour twice per week. Nice. I won't starve when I come back. I'm still enjoying teaching, which is a great thing. I don't think anyone should work at a job that they don't like. You shouldn't hate 40 hours of our life every week. Or, in my case, 20 hours.

Other than the usual work, I've started writing the blogs for Santiago Pub Crawl, which I mentioned before. They are not at all about drinking. They are usually an insight into Chile. So, read them! They are short, but I have to do them every other day, so they will be more frequent. Go here.

Social life. Two weeks ago, on Tuesday was Pachi's birthday, but I was busy writing tests and was unable to attend. However, that Saturday, the Pub Crawl celebrated her birthday. Her goal was to become borracha, and to also get me there. So. We drank.

The Thursday before, Barbara and I went to Centro to return an XBOX adaptor that I had bought. Success! Afterwards, we walked around and went to some of the second-hand clothing stores. I bought a few cheap shirts and we went for ice cream. Barbara got this monster of an ice cream covered in chocolate. I got a simple cone. Then we went to Bellavista to try to find food. We went to a new cocktail bar/restaurant and sat down. It was beautiful and we ordered the sandwich platter and a few drinks. I had a berries sour, Barbara a martini. The sandwiches were three. There was a pork and egg one, a fried fish one, and a steak one. All delicious. While sitting there, Barbara thought that it would be a good place to have Language Roulette - which I will start running eventually. We talked to the staff and it looks like it could be a possibility. Awesome!

That Thursday Barbara, Diego, Bea and I decided to go to a club after Pub Crawl. So at 1:30, we left Pub Crawl behind and headed to Illuminati where we danced like absolutely drunken lunatics. Barbara and Bea left early, but Diego and I stayed and continued dancing and drinking. The walk home was teeterish. But entertaining.

Last week there was a fairly strong (5.1) temblor. I was with Bea, eating dinner and the room began to wobble. It's always a little worrying. The Chileans are still on high alert for the big one in Santiago, although the big ones usually happen every twenty years. Barbara recounted her tale of the earthquake to me and it was terrifying. She's going to write her story and I'll put it here. It's pretty amazing.

Last Thursday, one of my favorite classes ended. It's the group of motivated students. We celebrated by eating at a Chilean restaurant where we consumed beer, papas fritas, and enormous churrascos. I hope that they will continue taking classes in April and that I'll be able to teach them again. They're a good group and it's nice having students who WANT to learn.

After that, I headed to Pub Crawl and stayed only part of the time. I was pretty exhausted. Bea and I walked home and stopped for completos along the way. My diet always does well until about 8 PM, when all hell breaks loose. We were supposed to go see Bruno Mars, but never got around to buying tickets and then we were all too poor to buy them later.

On Friday, I spent the day at Barbara's. I arrived at 4 and we bought food and vodka. We coupled the liver-killer with 7-UP and talked for about 5 hours until Matías picked us up for Pub Crawl. Sandra was supposed to meet me at Pub Crawl, but didn't show up. Vanessa bragged about Bruno Mars and Barbara and I told her that we wouldn't talk to her any more. I left Pub Crawl around 1 because I had to wake up early the next day.

Yesterday I woke up at 8:30 and headed to Beatrice's house. We went to Lider and bought a pineapple and bottle of wine. We then took the nasty Metro to Irarrázaval and met Loreto who picked us up. Her mom was there as well. Lore is headed to Buenos Aires for two months working and we were all going to Melipilla for her despedida. It also happened to be the welcome home party for Valentín, who arrived yesterday morning from Sweden. We picked up Lore's brother, Bilbao, and were on our way.

We got to Melipilla around 12 and began to prepare things. The weather, strangely, was cloudy and cool. Seattle-like. I tried peeling tomatoes (which they do here, I don't know why), but discovered that I'm truly horrible at it. Around 1, people started arriving. The entire Nuñez family arrived in droves. 40 or so people. Valentín's family arrived and we all said hello. He was pretty exhausted. Gastón, Fernanda, Nacho, Bea, and I played taca-taca (fussball). Bea and I were terrible and brought down whichever team we were unlucky enough to be on.

Barbara arrived with her family around 2 and we greeted more people.

The sun started to come out and heated up rather quickly. So, we went into the pool. Gastón chased down Bea and threw her into the pool, clothes and all. Bea quickly yelled that she hated us all, which just led to splashing and insanity. Bea yelled that she didn't know how to swim, which just led to more splashing. And insanity.

Around 4, the dinner bell rang and we all sat down and ate an array of salads, carne and pollo asado. It was beyond delicious. We also ate cake in celebration of Valentín's birthday, which is today. We relaxed in the sun and shade the whole afternoon, and Valentín told us about the 14 countries that he visited while on his trip. He showed us pictures, as well. I'm excited for Europe. The plan right now is to visit Stockholm, Sweden, Copenhagen, Denmark, Amsterdam, Holland, and all over Germany. Maybe Brussels, Belgium. How? Tax return. And $10 flights from Germany to Sweden. Also a car.

Later in the evening, around 7, I was convinced to go back into the pool. Valentín and Gastón were in there and I went to dip my feet in. They told me that it wasn't cold and was the best time to swim. Lies. It was balls cold.

Around 9, more food was brought out. The left over meat and chicken was roasted and put onto bread with avocado and pebre. More deliciousness. At 9:30, Lore, Bea, Billy, Lore's mom and I left. Loreto was drunk and we had quite the raucous sing-along the entire hour back to Santiago. I got home around 11 and had promised Barbara that I would go to Pub Crawl. I went, but was exhausted. Dagui, Barbara's brother was there, and kept trying to get me to wake up. But, I was completely out of it. I stayed until 3 and then I left.

Today I spent the entire day in bed after going to the supermarket and standing in line with a crazy lady. Next week is going to be busy as I have new classes and I'm not even sure what my schedule looks like.

I will try to be more frequent, but I can't make any promises.

Also my seven-month anniversary passed and I didn't even notice.

More ramblings

2012-01-16T10:41:00.001-08:00

I am now blogging on the Official Santiago Pub Crawl website. They will be short, random things about Chile. Check it out if you feel the urge:

http://santiagopubcrawl.com/blog/

I'll blog here later.

2012-01-09T19:58:00.001-08:00

If you love me, send me these, NOW. A lot of them.

No estoy muerto

2012-01-08T18:59:00.000-08:00

My sincerest apologies. I had not intended to wait two weeks to blog. I am not dead. I'm alive and well. Though, I did suffer from another (two) colds.

I can't possibly recall everything that happened over the last two weeks, so I'll give you the highlights.

Last Thursday (the 29th of December), I went to Pub Crawl (of course). We were all decked out in cotillon (party things) for the new year. We wore beads and had fake snow spray. We had a helluva lot of fun that night. There were quite a few people at PC, which makes it all the better. Not only that, but the local television was there to do a piece on PC. The cameraman loved Pub Crawl and the interviewer had a lot of fun. I avoided the camera, however.

The following day I met Barbara, Bea and Adrián and we went to Centro to go shopping. Adrián was in search of clothes, I was in search of nothing in particular, and Barbara wanted more cotillon. We went to Bandera and bought a lot of ridiculous sunglasses and beads and silly string. Then we went to the mall and ate Taco Bell which is 10x better here. The papas suprema is like nachos, except they use french fries instead of chips. Buenísimo!

After, we went to the clothes stores. Adrían shops like a girl... "How does this look? How bout this one?" He took about 20 things into the probadores and we spent about an hour at Falabella. Miraculously, I didn't buy anything.

That night we went to the official New Years Pub Crawl, however, most everybody was already in Viña/Valpo, so it was rather small. We still had a lot of fun! We all were adorned with our stupid sunglasses. That night I went home sort of early because I knew that I'd have a loooong and earlyish day the following day.

On New Year's Eve, I woke up at 11 and went to meet Bea. We bought some stuff and headed to Barbara's at 1. We were to all go to Valparaíso together to spend the New Year drinking and watching the world-class fireworks show. Slowly, people arrived. Rocío and Pachi, then Bosco, followed by Cristian, and finally Keno and Adrían with Nikki. We hopped into the cars and started the drive to the beach. We expected a lot of traffic.

There wasn't any. We stopped at a gas station and ate huge completos. Then we trekked to Viña del Mar. We found parking and eventually found a spot in the grass to relax. We began to drink a little. It was about 6 PM. We also found anticuchos and happily ate some. I was supposed to meet Negra, but there was a lot of confusion and we decided to meet her in Valpo. Keno and Pachi were both sick, and Keno took a turn for the worse - he could barely sit up straight.

We drove to Valpo around 9. I thought it was a bad idea as there would likely be a lot of traffic and parking could be an issue. We drove anyway. We found parking after looking for about an hour. The next order of business was finding a baño. Difficult. We eventually found one and afterward we went to Plaza Sotomayor. I found Sandra, and we found Sam. We all tried to find a place to watch the fireworks, but with no luck. So, we ascended the stairs. We climbed the stairs to the top of Cerro Cordillera. Sam tried to take us into his friend's apartment building, but we decided that the view, while good, was too cramped. We went back out into the small plaza and set ourselves up. We had about half an hour.

Everyone but Keno, Nikki, Barbara, Sandra and I climbed a ladder to the precarious top of a roof. We couldn't fit, so we stayed on the stairs. At midnight (or at least the first thought of it), we lit off our confetti tubes and popped the champagne. When we realized it wasn't midnight (apparently), we counted down again. More champagne. More confetti. Still no confetti. A few minutes later the fireworks started. The show was spectacular. 30 minutes of fireworks. The hugest display that I've ever seen. The four or five coastal neighbor cities all participate resulting in fireworks able to be seen from miles away. It was incredible.

After the fireworks, we continued to celebrate. We drank, we hugged, we celebrated. Eventually we went down the stairs back to the plaza. We ate choripan and continued to drink. The entire city was a party. We danced in the streets. Hopefully, you watched the video that I posted last week. If not, here ya go.

At about 2, Negra headed back to Viña and we tried to find a party. We ran into one of somebody's friends and they led us through another PACKED plaza. We lost them. It was about 3:30 or 4. We eventually found them and ended up outside somebody's apartment where I high-fived a cat. We sat on the stairs trying to figure out what to do. At 5, we headed back to the cars. We drove back to Santiago at 5:30. Keno and Pachi, who were sick and didn't drink, drove. We were all exhausted. I passed out. It was the best NYE of my life.

On New Year's Day, I was hungry. I couldn't find anything as it's a holiday. I eventually found a place and ate a little at Patio Bellavista - for the tourists. That was about all I did that day.

Last Tuesday was Adrián's 21st birthday. We went to Barbara's and had an asado. We ate junk food and choripan. It was chill and there were only a handful of us there. Maybe 10. It was a lot of fun and great to be with good friend's for Adrián's birthday.

On Thursday, I went to Katie's apartment to see her. She had just come back from Texas. It was fantastic to see one of the few teachers that I actually tolerate. Grace was there, too. We ate and talked and gossiped. I told her about all the stupid things that our co-workers said and did. She told me about her plan to teach in Vietnam in May. It also occurred to me that, unlike a lot of the teachers, most of my friends are Chilean. Most of the teachers hang out with each other - gringos. I get along better with the Chilenos. After dinner, I headed to Pub Crawl for a little while. I left after the second bar, as I had a class the next morning.

On Friday evening, it was Adrián's birthday Pub Crawl. I met Barbara for dinner. We ate brochetas and wok and drank the girliest drinks on the planet. Adrián joined us at the end. I left to go to the second bar. We were going to surprise him by decorating the place with balloons. I told him that I had to go help a friend. Sonja and Beatrice arrived and Sonja helped me decorate while Bea went back to the first bar to help Barbara. Diego arrived a little while later and we awaited their arrival.

140 people came to Adrián's birthday party. Incredible. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I was fighting off a cold and was incredibly hot. At the fourth bar, I nearly passed out or vomited. Or both. I was talking to a guy and then I said that I had to go outside. Now. I ran up the stairs and sat outside. I am fairly certain that a few more minutes would have found me on the floor lying in my own vomit.

Diego and I left around 3 AM.

On Saturday (yesterday) I lay in bed all day. I was sick as a dog. I was supposed to meet Cata at the airport at 6 to say goodbye. She is going to New Zealand with Jeremy for six months. However, I couldn't move. I had to tell her that I wouldn't make it. It gutted me. I love Cata. She is one of the nicest people I've ever met and one of the five people I knew from last year. But, I couldn't move.

I slept most of the day and watched movies. Around 9, I started to feel better. I decided to try to make an appearance at Pub Crawl. Rodrigo, Cristian's cousin, is leaving tomorrow and I wanted to be able to say goodbye to at least one person. I met Bea and Jeza at Footsteps and we went to PC.

I ended up feeling a lot better as the night went on and I stayed until about 1:30 in the morning. It's always a lot of fun, and while I hardly drink at Pub Crawl, it is one of the only times I get to see some of my friends. Great times.

This morning I woke up at 11 after a weird dream. Barbara texted me and told me that I needed to get online to talk to Bea. We were planning to go to Fantasilandia at 1:30. However, they decided to go at noon. Bea said that Adrián wasn't ready and asked if I wanted to go with them at 1:30. I wasn't ready, either, so I said OK. Fantasilandia, by the way is an amusement park.

I waited until 2 and they were having problems. I waited until 3 when I told them that I would go without them. They came. Unfortunately, Adrián couldn't come as he had to go home to let his brother into his house. Bea and I went to Fantasilandia. We paid our $8.900 entrance and waited for the group to come out of their rollercoaster.

Barbara, Melissa, Nicol, Cristian, Seba, Talo and Rodrigo all met us and we went to the next ride. Boomerang. It was a rollercoaster. A frickin' terrifying one. We waited in line and eventually got on. Bea was terrified and was screaming before the thing moved. Then it moved. We burst forth and through several loops then up a steep incline. Then we stopped at the top. And did the whole thing again backwards. Bea was screaming. I was screaming. But it was a lot of fun. Very short.

Then we went to a water ride. I avoided getting very wet, but Barbara and Bea got a bit. After, we ate lunch. We went on several more rides. The last one that we went on was called Top Spin. It takes you up to the top, then flips you around, upside down. Then at the end it takes you, head towards the ground to a bunch of water cannons - which drenched us. I am still soaked.

We were there about 6 hours. It was fantastic. We said goodbye and Talo, Rodrigo, Bea and I took the Metro home. We said goodbye to Rodrigo, who will return to Argentina tomorrow.

This week I will have a lot of free time as most of my classes are on vacation. Oh, dear.

ON A SIDE NOTE. Everything happens for a reason. I should have never even come to Chile. I was supposed to go to Buenos Aires, and only Buenos Aires. That's another story. Now I can tell you that I never want to leave Chile. Every month here gets better and better. There is no reason to think that that will continue, but as long as I am happy, I am staying. My "family" here, feels like a very close, very real family. My friends (who happen to also be my family) are very close. I feel like I've known them my whole life, and yet it has only been a handfull of months. Now, the average shelf-life of an ESL teacher here is maybe 9 months - 1 year. I'm in it for the long haul. I am loving life like never before here. Really, there is only one thing that anybody should want in life and that is to be happy with everything that you are doing. I can honestly say that I have found it here. Now, I'm not going to be so naïve as to say that I'm never moving home. I don't pretend to see the future. But, for now, I'm going to take each day as they come.

Also, this is what I did on Christmas.

Año Nuevo 2012

2012-01-04T09:07:00.000-08:00

Until I gather the ánimo to actually write something... chew on this.

New Years Eve was the best of my life.

Viejito Pascuero

2011-12-27T14:03:00.000-08:00

I do believe that my entire week last week was spent moping and waiting for Christmas to pass. However, the holiday season turned out to be quite wonderful, indeed.

The teaching week was pretty standard. One of my students has ended her classes because she is now on maternity leave. Another is going soon. Erm... I was promoted to "senior teacher", which means that I get to train other teachers on all of the paperwork. Fome. But it's pretty cool at the same time.

Last week I honestly don't remember doing much of anything on Monday or Tuesday. On Wednesday I went straight to Footsteps after work and met the Pub Crawl gang. We cooked tacos and sat and talked for a while. I left around 10:30.

On Thursday I went to Pub Crawl in the evening. It was the Christmas Pub Crawl. Everyone was wearing Santa hats. Before the actual Pub Crawl, Barbara and I went out to eat. We went to Istanbul and had kebabs. They were actually pretty delicious, if not a little overpriced. After we ate, we headed to the bar and started drinking beers. It was our goal to become a little bit inebriated that evening. We proceeded to reach our goal. The turnout was pretty good - about 45 people. We went to all of the bars and at 2:30, when we were both exhausted and happy, we left. Bea also left with us.

On Friday I went to Barbara's around 3:30 to help her make Jell-o shots and hang out. We ate empanadas and began drinking Pineapple soda and vodka. We did this and talked and relaxed until about 6 when Loreto arrived. She brought nachos! We chowed down on them as well. Around 8 Tamara arrived, then Bea, then Adrián and Cristián. Barbara's cousin Israel and his friend also came. Bea and I left around 9. I went home and changed. Bea did the same.

We met at Urban Club for the Santiago Pub Crawl Christmas party at 10:30. We began to party. There were a lot of people and it was great to see everyone. Matías, Sonja, Tamara, Marisel, Francisca, Ignacia, Camy, and Vanessa were all there. Loreto, Mely, Nicol, and Paula joined later. We danced and partied until about 3:30 AM. Bea, Pachi and I left at that time.

On Saturday, Adrián called me at noon. He woke me up and told me that he was coming over. He had planned to spend Christmas eve with Bea and I. I tried to fall back asleep but my stupid buzzer rang. I didn't want to answer it. It rang again. I got up and went tot he bathroom. It rang a third time and I finally answered it. The guy asked for "Adam... Fleecher?" The mailman! I ran downstairs and the man in red gave me two boxes. I ran upstairs and ripped them open. Christmas! One was from my parents and the other from Stacy, a volunteer from Hopelink. It was nice to have something to open on Christmas. By the way, Chileans celebrate Christmas on the 24th. Weird.

At 1, Adrián arrived. My parents Skyped and Adrián answered. They talked for a while. Bea came over around 3:30. We called Heather and talked for a while before deciding to go to Parque Arauco. Bea wanted to buy some gifts for her brother and his wife and also say Merry Christmas. We were also starving. We took the Metro there and Adrián got to here the ridiculous recording that they have now. For Christmas, they decided to change the recording of the station announcements to children. So, it goes something like 'Próxima estación Alcantara', except the name of the station is said by a child, 2 octaves higher. I laughed the first 100 times that I heard it. Adrián cracked up as well.

We got to Parque Arauco and I ordered Taco Bell, Adrián had Pizza Hut, and Beatrice had sushi. Christmas dinner. We went shopping and I ended up buying myself a Christmas present. Cologne. We dropped off the stuff for Bea's family and then went to Tottus to try to buy chocolates for Barbara's family. They were closed, but I bought her an elephant keychain. Barbara had told us the day before that we were to come with her and her entire family to Melipilla again and join them for Christmas. It was quite an honor and we couldn't pass it up.

That evening we lounged around until 10:30 before getting up and going to Bea's. We were starving, but there were no restaurants or grocery stores open. We just hung out there for a while. Sonja came over, as well. I left around midnight.

On Christmas morning, I woke up at 9 and headed to Bea's at 10. We bid Adrián farewell and took a taxi to Barbara's house. We met her and waited for her parents to come pick us up. They showed up and we met Barbara's mom, dad and grandparents. They greeted us with open arms. We drove to Melipilla and talked the whole way. When we got there, Francisca (Valentín's sister), and her mom and dad greeted us. They remembered me from before. I also said hi to Boni, the dog. We found Rodrigo, the brother, and proceeded to relax. A little while later more family arrived. Loreto and her family. Then Mely and her and Barbara's brother Dagui. All in all, I think there were 20 or so people.

We relaxed and took in the sun. Around 5, dinner was served. Valentín's mom had prepared home-made Pastel de choclo in their big dirt oven. The 'kids' ate separately in the house. The food was delicious. After dinner we ate dessert. It was chirimoya in manjar and cream. It was so sweet and so good. I shared my Skittles and Red Vines with some people. Red Vines were not popular and were described as tasting like "cinnamon toothpaste". Weird.

After eating, the family did gifts. They have a tradition of doing 'amigo secreto' (Secret Santa) every year. It saves the family money and is fun. They have to guess their amigo secreto, or be thrown in the pool. To my surprise, my name was called. Barbara had bought both Bea and I presents. I have never felt so welcomed by new people in my life. I got a shirt that says "Learn It!". I'm going to use it as my slogan for my classes.

After presents, we relaxed by the pool. I swam for about an hour in the cool water under the sun. We joined the family again to talk. Barbara's dad pulled both Bea and I aside and told us that in Chile he wanted to be our step-dad. If we ever have any problems, call him and tell him. It was an amazingly kind gesture. Later, Valentín's dad told me that, as he is Bobbie's godfather, any friend of hers is a friend of his and that it was a pleasure to have me there. So welcoming.

Around 7:30 we started to pack our things and get ready to head back to Santiago. We bid farewell to the entire family and drove back to Santiago. We said goodbye to Barbara's family and I went home. I could not have asked for a better Christmas. All the pain of being away from Seattle was wiped away. Barbara later wrote me and said: " I know my family can be really crazy and loud sometimes but they sure are great and i don't introduce them just to anyone, they are the most valuable people in my life and you two had become part of it." How I will ever repay Barbara, I do not know.

Yesterday I had dinner with Bea. We watched Love, Actually. It was stupidly hot and also incredibly humid. We were miserable.

Today was also idiotically hot (35º C). My classes were done at 3:30 and I went home and lay in my bed. It's horrible. I'm going to eat sushi with Bea soon. Then I will lay on my bed once again.

2011-12-23T22:47:00.000-08:00

It's time to celebrate Christmas. More on that in a few days.