longest hiatus ever

SORRY!

i haven't even been that busy so i have no excuse this time. i am sorry. i will tell you what's been going on though.

i had planned on going to Mendoza to renew my tourist visa in Chile. unfortunately when i got to the airport, they told me that i couldn't leave the country. my visa had expired on august 3rd and it was august 12th. sonofabitch. i couldn't change or cancel my flight so i lost the $76 i spent on that. so i didn't end up going to Mendoza that weekend. instead i had a fun filled exciting weekend at the immigration office in downtown Santiago. this consisted of getting up at the crack of dawn and waiting outside said office in the cold. upon entering the office i took a number and waited for an hour only to have them tell me i needed to go to the bank and fill out another form before i went to immigration. HOW LOVELY. luckily after my little song and dance at the bank, i didn't have to wait in line again at immigration. they just let me through and gave me my paperwork and now i'm all set until like, the end of October. since i'm going to Peru in October with my family, i can come back, get stamped again and never have to worry about this stupid crap ever again. huzzah!

speaking of families, alice's parents and sister were here for a week. they got to do touristy things like Santa Lucia, Cerro San Cristobal and i even joined them for walks to Bellas Artes, The Zoo and the awesome Peruvian restaurant on Manuel Montt. we also ate at a new restaurant in downtown Santiago called Confeteria Torres. it was super fancy and had Chilean cuisine. good atmosphere. i really liked that place. so yeah, it was nice having people i sort of knew (and in Rachel's case, knew) stop by and say hello. but it only got me really REALLY excited to see my parents in October. since they shortened their stay, we now have no choice but to cram a ton of awesome things into 4 days (as opposed to stretching out those awesome things to a week). it will be exhausting but oh so worth it. i can't wait til they get here. they are going to have a blast.

what else? teaching English ROCKS now. i am teaching 3 classes with Polyglot-Mitford and privately tutoring 2 classes on my own. when i privately tutor, i make double to triple what i make with Polyglot. so i'm actually working less hours and getting paid more. it's kind of ridiculously sweet. also, some of my private students feed me when i come over to teach them! it's a good deal all around. i wish ALL my classes were private tutoring. now that'd be amazing.

one of my favorite bands (The Prodigy) is coming to Chile. they are a band that i have been into since around 1997 and i have never seen them live in over 10 years. every time they come around i miss my chance. earlier this year they came to Boston while i was in Chile and i secretly died a little inside. i was like "UGHHH THAT WAS MY CHANCE!". after about a month of griping i was like "it's cool it's cool. it's just not meant to be." even though i was continuing to die inside. however, about 3 weeks ago i checked the prodigy website just for funsies and lo and behold, they are playing at the Movistar arena in Santiago, Chile in late October!! of course the next chance i had, i rushed to the ticketmaster outlet in Providencia and purchased my ticket. finally, after over a decade of waiting and enjoying their music, i get to see them live. AND IN ANOTHER COUNTRY. and also... I HAVE GENERAL ADMISSION SEATS! translation: i will be as close to the stage as i can get and i will be flipping out 900% of the time. so excited.

this past weekend i went to an area of Santiago i have never been before with Alice called La Florida. we went to the Museo de Interactivo in Mirador (or MIM as they call it). it's basically the children's museum but it doesn't smell like diapers. we had fun. it was a good way to kill an afternoon. not to mention there was a kind of cool aquarium next to it. we saw it all and then had lunch in the giant mall nearby. it still amazes me that mcdonalds in south america is actually the best tasting fast food chain.

i think i've got cooking fries down. since i can't use our oven because the door doesn't close all the way and our temperature knob doesn't display degrees, i put the cold fries in a very small bowl on the stove. then i fill the bowl a quarter of the way with olive oil and let that boil for a while. it's costly but it gets the job done quickly and they taste absolutely delicious. i know it's fries and it's simple but it's always been a mystery to me. i also made my first successful quesadilla burger. that was really damn delicious. i think when my rents get here i'm going to make them burritos one night. ideally i'd like to go to la vega that day with them and buy the veggies there so they can get the full experience of what it's like to cook food here but we'll see.

alice and i have been watching a lot of downloaded tv. i'm showing her Lost and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. she's showing me Scrubs and the British version of The Office. we're also watching Dexter together (phenomenal show).

i really miss my friends and my Nintendo Wii. i think when i come home in january i'm going to require playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl with like 4 or 5 other people for hours and hours. same goes for Mario Party and Wario Ware and stuff. also, i can't wait to get back into Wii Fit. i've been getting into a lot of new music down here. not like, Chilean music or anything but new music in general. and usually i have a bunch of people to play it for and be like "THIS IS AMAZING! LISTEN TO IT!" which is good because i can share the joy. but since no one is here it's tough to do that. i'm going crazy finding a bunch of new stuff and not being able to share said joy. ah well. i'll just explode when i see people in january. also when i get back, i definitely want to take a trip to Western Mass. I've also thought about maybe doing a tour DJing at various places in New England, maybe even down to Philadelphia and in NYC. we'll see how it goes. it'd be cool to be "on tour".

I'm saving up some serious money for December trying to go to the South of Chile before i head out of this country. ideally, i'd like to go to Pucon, Valdivia, Puerto Varas, Chiloe and parts of Patagonia. whether or not all of those places will happen is still a mystery. but dammit, i'm gonna try. of course this means i have to sacrifice weekend trips to certain places (was going to go to Cajon De Maipo for a weekend in September but decided it's too costly), but it'll be worth it when i take a giant voyage in a few months. oh well. at least i have New Year's Eve to actually look forward to. i'm spending it in Valparaiso where there are supposed to be fireworks and parties galore. it will be one of the last things i do in this country and i think that's pretty damn fitting.

and that's all i got for now. not much has been happening but those are the notables. i'll see you next time. again, sorry about the hiatus. i feel like a broken record saying that but i'll try to update more often. CCFN. chau chau for now.

"Welcome... to the desert." - Morpheus

Well i finally have something worthwhile to write about. i apologize for the frequent hiatuses but it's because one needs to save money in order to do exciting things. this past week i took a vacation to Northern Chile to San Pedro in the Atacama desert. even though it's a desert, it still has equally insane climates all over the place much like the rest of Chile.

but before i went there, i had a week with Alice where we celebrated our one year anniversary. it gets pretty cold in the winter in Santiago so we haven't been doing as much walking around or exploring lately. but that week we realized that we really missed doing that. so we bundled up and explored like crazy. on the tuesday of that week, we walked all around Las Condes which is a suburban (and pretty Americanized) part of Santiago that's close to Providencia. We got pretty lost doing that but we found a cool park that we want to explore during the daylight. later that week we got some really warm weather and decided to explore downtown Santiago a bit more. We saw this awesome building called the Palacio Cousino. it has crazy hours on the weekend (closing at 1:30pm? wtf?) but it's awesome. it's basically like walking into Mr. Burns's mansion and seeing different furniture and architecture from all around the world. apparently the family that lived there were gazillionaires. after that, we went back to La Moneda (which is a building in Santiago where the president of Chile lives) and explored the surrounding area. We saw a giant church that's only open for one hour per day. i want to go to there. Santiago is a really beautiful city in certain areas. you just have to give it a chance and be willing to walk around. all in all, it was a really nice way to say farewell before our trip.

we hired a van to pick us up and bring us to the airport. our plane landed in Calama which is a town that is a little over an hour from San Pedro. from there, we called a shuttle to drive us to San Pedro. we were given this advice as an alternative to taking a cab into Calama and buying a bus ticket to San Pedro. our shuttle was about $18 per person versus about $50 per person total for the cab and bus ride. totally saved some money as a result of taking Alessandro's advice. once we arrived in San Pedro it was well into the night. you couldn't see a thing outside the van besides what was lit by the street lights. we checked into our hostel and there was a slight problem. we had booked a private room but the people staying in the private room before us had an emergency and had to stay an extra night. as a result, we ended up staying in a 6 bedroom mixed dorm together for one evening. it wasn't that bad though and again, we ended up saving money at the end of the trip. the next morning we were eager to get up and check out the area surrounding our hostel. the sky was crystal clear and beautifully outlined the surrounding mountains and volcanoes.

the first full day we were in San Pedro we decided to relax and see the town. San Pedro is incredibly small and in the middle of nowhere. it's maybe about 7 or 8 blocks total. they have a "common" much like Burlington but it's about 1/30th the size of the Burlington common. There's also a church and some shops. it's verrrry touristic. while we were there i heard French, English, Spanish (duh), German, and more. the grocery stores sell food at incredibly high prices as a result of this. i think while i was in San Pedro, the money i spent on food was about equal to the amount of money i spent on excursions. oh and i also bought some totally sweet llama wool glittens and a llama wool hat for about $10 total.

oh the excursions. we chose our first relaxed day to check out the many many excursions on "the strip" of the town. we went to a lot of different companies but in the end, Atacama Connection gave us the best deal. We were going to be in San Pedro for 8 days and once we told them that they offered us a package of 4 tours for about $140 including entrance fees. this is a HUGE deal compared to buying them individually anywhere else as it would equal about $200. we took the deal and planned the rest of our vacation that day. we felt pretty damn good after that.

even though we bought food we decided to eat at this place that was kind of like a restaurant attached to a bike rental office. in this town, most every shop has something about an excursion attached to it. i'm telling you. even though it's small, there's PLENTY to do. at any rate the place had really good food. i had a steak sandwich with palta. we liked it so much that the next morning we went back there for breakfast. Alice had pancakes with manjar in them. have i talked about manjar here yet? let me explain.

manjar is kind of like if caramel and nutella had a baby. it's this awesome flavor added to most sweet things in Chile. i will miss it greatly when i leave. it's one of the most delicious things ever.

after we went to this restaurant, we headed back to our hostel. Iquisa Hostel is not that bad a place. the woman who runs it is there all the time. there are about 5 or 6 cats roaming around and they're pretty adorable. the ground is rustic and covered in rocks. the kitchen is small but efficient. our private room was incredibly warm during the cold nights in San Pedro. if you stay here, you definitely do not need to worry about freezing your butt off at night when you're trying to sleep COUGHCOUGHSANTIAGOCOUGHCOUGH.

the next day we went on our first excursion to several valleys. our guide (who looked a lot like Asa Clemenzi) first took us to the Valle de la Luna. this was an amazing first thing to see in San Pedro. the rock formations are like straight out of the grand canyon. we got to go to the edge of the cliffs and see down into the valley. we got some cool shots. the next valley we saw was the Valle de la Muerte. the rock formations looked a lot like teeth. the different layers of erosion in them made it look a little bit like cake as well. we saw people sandboarding there. it was incredibly windy. next stop was to the valley of the three sisters. it is so named because there is a specific rock formation there that looks like three points sticking up. this was our first glimpse at the salt in these valleys. it was pretty white. lastly, we went to this valle where we saw a rock structure called the "Ampitheatre" which looked a lot like a giant bowl. we hiked up to the top of a dune to watch the sun set. unfortunately it was a significantly cloudy day and we didn't really see much. but the experience was awesome. it was a great tour for our first day there.

that night we were preparing ourselves to go to bed early because we had to get up early (6am) to go to the Lagunas Altiplanicas the next day. however, we got a phone call saying that it had snowed a lot (yup. it snows in this desert) up in the mountains and that the roads were closed. so we had our tour switched.

the next morning we saw the Lagunas Cejas in the desert. of all of our trips, this one had the bumpiest ride through the desert. the buses they take you in for these tours must be like ATVs or something because it was bumpy as hell and we never tipped over or anything. people who have motions sickness should be cautious of this tour. at any rate, we went to three lakes in the middle of the desert. the first one looked a lot like a beach. people were allowed to swim in it if they wanted but the weather was freezing so not many did. the ones that did swim though, you are seriously adventurous. not for me though. next we saw two lakes that were about 7 or 8 feet underground. translation: you can't really swim in these. they looked like giant footprints in the desert. lastly, we went to see this laguna that was cool because it was surrounded by insane looking rocks that were incredibly hard to balance on. we got our complimentary food and snacks before we left. i can't believe they offer people pisco sour before the ride back on the bus. it's like "sure. let's get slightly tipsy before the bumpiest ride in a car ever. sounds like a great idea." and this isn't the only place i've seen this happen either! they also offered pisco sour before the van ride back from the observatory in la Serena and we all remember how horrendous that was for me (if you don't, read the La Serena blog entry). the ride home was in the dark. not only was it bumpy but it was windy. and when it's windy in the desert, sand tends to blow in your face a lot. this was happening like crazy outside. there were times when so much sand would blow our way that you just couldn't see anything in any direction from inside the bus. but we made it home. huzzah.

so that night we prepared (again) to get up at 6am for the Lagunas Altiplanicas (again). but sure enough, the tour company called us again and said that the roads were still closed. so our tour got switched again. only this time the next day we were seeing the Geysers. this meant that instead of getting up at 6am the next day, we were going to be getting up at 3am. we got this phone call in the middle of making dinner at 9pm. so we basically inhaled our food and fell asleep as quickly as possible.

let me pause for a moment to acknowledge something here. so... it snowed in the mountains for about 3 or 4 days while we were in San Pedro, right? well, our original plan was to not do any tours in San Pedro and just do a 4 day excursion where alice, me a tour guide and a chef would take a 4 by 4 into the mountains to see several sights while crossing over into Bolivia to see the salt flats that are supposedly even more blindingly beautiful than in Chile. this involves driving through the mountains for 2 days to get to Bolivia, staying there for a night and driving back for 2 days. so... if it snowed for 3 or 4 days while we were in San Pedro, if we had gone on this massive trip to Bolivia, we would have:

a) been stuck in the freezing cold in a van in the mountains.
b) been stuck in some town in the freezing cold in the middle of nowhere Bolivia

or

c) both

i was a little sad that i didn't get to go to Bolivia during this trip but after i heard about the snow i felt a lot better that i didn't do it. it would have been a lot of money, uncomfortable and probably the worst experience of my life. i think staying in town and seeing the sights of San Pedro was a significantly better choice. at any rate, back to my trip.

The geysers. holy crap. we got up at 3am. got picked up at around 4:45am. we were supposed to get picked up at 4am but they ended up being late. it was like 12 degrees celsius below zero at the Geysers themselves. we were exhausted and freezing.

but you know what? this was the best excursion i went on.

When we got there, it looked (as aunt louie accurately described) like something out of the x-files. there was a huge field of areas that had smoke coming up from the ground. the first geyser we saw actually ended up erupting while we were there. i got a video of it for my camera. when it was finished erupting the guide asked us all to quickly huddle over the hole in the ground. the steam rising from the ground was incredibly warm. it smelled like sulfur. i'm not really sure how geysers work. i think it has something to do with lava being underground deep beneath us mixed with the extreme cold of the early morning and the result is an eruption. there were some hot springs there. some really insane people decided to swim in them. you have to be out of your mind to do this. once again, i give these people props.

the second portion of this tour involved seeing a lot of wildlife on the bus ride back. i have no idea why these animals choose early morning as the best time to go hang out but we ended up seeing llamas, vicunas, quails and even a wombat. i also figured out the main difference between llamas and vicunas. llamas are fatter. that's basically it. but yeah it was awesome. vicunas were like 7 feet from the bus just hanging out and feeding. we were sitting right next to the door of the bus so whenever the bus driver opened the door for pictures i got amazing shots. after this wildlife we saw a very small village nestled in the mountains of Chile. it wasn't that exciting there but there WAS some incredibly tasty food there. empanads, sopapillas... but best of all, there were llama kabobs. and i had one! llama meat is damn tasty. after the village, we saw soem cacti (not that exciting. cacti are everywhere) and got home around noon. crazy hours but definitely my favorite thing i did in San Pedro.

after that tour we understandably chose to sleep and relax not only that afternoon but for the next day as well. we were exhausted. we got a lot of Lost in though. Alice and I ended up finishing the first season while we were there. also, Alice's friend Kate arrived at the hostel we were staying at to begin their stay in San Pedro so that was cool. Kate's friend Elizabeth was also there. we took them to Atacama Connection and they signed up to do the Lagunas Altiplanicas with us the next day so that would be something the four of us would do together.

we also checked out a museo in town that had interesting cultural stuff from northern chile tribes of indians and the like. also, there was a really spooky gigantic graveyard near out hostel so we chose sunset as a time to check it out. the graves there were kind of above ground. there was still sand there covering the coffins but it's like they were hills instead of in the ground. it was cool but as it turned to dusk we quickly got out of there because we were pretty creeped out. we headed back to the hostel to get some rest so we could get up early and finally see the tour that had been canceled all week due to snow: the Lagunas Altiplanicas.

it was an all day event beginning at 7am with a trip to an oasis in the middle of the desert. on our way there we saw rock climbers practicing... well rock climbing i guess in the canyons we passed by. the Chilean army also comes to this area in order to train at times. at any rate, the oasis was a lot like the oases you see in cartoons. green trees. a flowing river. there were fig trees too. although, the thing that makes this oasis unique was that ancient indian tribes used to live in these areas in small caves that we actually ended up checking out. also, there was a pile of bones near the caves. apparently excavators come to this area every now and then to dig up stuff and whenever they find bones, they put it in this pile. a little strange but kind of cool.

the next stop was the famous Laguna Chaxas. this was simultaneously a wildlife reserve for about 7 different species of Flamingos as well as being a totally sweet lake that reflects the sky in an insanely awesome way. we saw black flamingos, pink ones, white ones... and when you looked out over this lake... i can't even do it justice with a description. it really just feels like the edge of the universe. it was really awesome.

after that we went to another laguna deep within the snowy mountains of northern chile. this was the portion of the tour that kept getting canceled due to snow being on the roads and i could see why. snow on a dirt road is incredibly difficult to drive through. and as amazing as those potentially ATV buses were in that weather, it just couldn't make it. but it wasn't too bad. we just ended up walking the last 3 or 4 miles of the road to get to the laguna. although, i would not recommend walking uphill in this weather at this altitude if you have just arrived in San Pedro. the altitude sickness is in full effect. it was hard to breathe walking up that hill. be careful if you have to do this. at any rate, the laguna itself was pretty cool. whereas we've only seen ones that are in a sandy environment, it was cool to see one with snow. the snow itself was also really pure. i ate some of it and it wasn't dirty or anything.

after that we went to a small village and ate what was probably the best included lunch on any of the tours we went on. it started with a salad. oh and by the way, a chilean version of a salad isn't like leaves and vegetables. a salad is basically a small mixture of 3 or 4 different kinds of food. it can really be ANY food. ours was potatoes, couscous and beans. then we got to eat this awesome soup that had beef, carrots and other goodies. it has a specific name and it's a traditional chilean dish. and for desert? jell-o! easily the best meal on our tours. our last stop on the tour was another small village where Alice caved in and finally bought chilean popcorn which is like the popcorn in the U.S.A. except it's way bigger and much sweeter.

the sunset was beautiful that night. i had a craving for pizza so we headed downtown and found this pizza place. we met up with more people from Alice's program and i had an absolutely positively delicious 4 cheese individual pizza. i'm sorry i'm wasting time with this but you gotta understand: i wanted pizza. and not just any pizza. i wanted a specific flavor, consistency and cheese. i knew there was no way i could get all of those things and was prepared to face that. but this pizza was perfect. satisfied my craving in every way possible. absolutely delicious.

the next day we got up for our last excursion that we chose to do at the last minute. we took a van to another oasis and bathed in some hot springs in Puritamas. the van ride itself was a little scary because at one point we were driving on a cliff on some rocky roads and i really feared the thing was going to tip over. thankfully, it didn't. once we got there we quickly hopped in the water as the weather was as cold as it had been lately. it was like being in a jacuzzi with no bubbles. there was basically a small river that opened up into 6 or 7 different springs that people could swim in. there were even these cool waterfalls that you could stick your head under and it would feel totally amazing. the trip was a little pricy but definitely worth it.

the last day of our trip was another relaxing one. we hopped the insanely cheap van from San Pedro to Calama and then took our flight back to Santiago. i've been back at work this week and really missing the warmer weather in San Pedro (especially since our portable space heater ran out of gas). i really don't know how Chileans live in these conditions. makes me glad i'm only spending one winter here. but overall, i'm really glad i went to San Pedro and I'm already planning my journey to the beautifully forested south of Chile in December. but i won't be going anywhere for a while. San Pedro, while being really cool, was a pretty big dent on my wallet. but i don't regret any of the things i did for a second.

and that's it! check back in... well probably a long time for another entry. ttfn. ta ta for now.

boring update

i know i know. i haven't updated in a while. in fact, i haven't really updated since May. sorry. but to be really honest, not a whole lot of exciting stuff is going on. let me try to think of some cool things.

i've been playing the super nintendo a lot lately. between Star Fox, Street Fighter, Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Country 2, i already had a lot on my plate. but then i just received Super Mario World, Vegas Stakes, Clayfighter and Final Fantasy 2 in the mail from my 'rents (ff2 is the one i've been playing the most). so yeah. call me a dork but it feels good to be doing that periodically.

my room mate, Ari decided to quit his job and go on a "world tour" for 2 months. he's hitting up a lot of different countries. too many to name. while he's gone, his brother Igal is living here. my other room mate, Alessandro, has decided that he's going to leave in mid July to go back to the states and work on his education. but not before taking a trip to northern Chile and Bolivia.

Alice and I will see him the last day he's in Northern Chile in a town called San Pedro. for a little over a week in july, Alice and I will be in San Pedro going on various excursions and seeing hopefully a lot of cool stuff. the terrain is more of a desert which means hot days and cold nights. i don't even care about cold nights as long as we get hot days. there's supposed to be a flamingo wildlife reserve and the infamous salt flats. we'll see what happens in that area.

it's been raining a lot lately. rain in Santiago SUCKS. all the streets flood and it's really hard to walk around. also, it's really cold.

per usual, i've been having a lot of students cancel classes on me. but the good news is i've actually got it in their mind now that it's best if they try to make up the class that got canceled before the end of the month so i can still get paid for them. also, i gave an evaluation test to some new students recently and i think i'm going to be able to pick up a new class as a result. that would bring my total to 5. in all honesty, 4 classes would be fine. it's just that with all these cancelations, a 5th class is the solution to even things out. also, i think some of these classes i have now are ending soon so i need new ones for when they're up. some more good news is that i think my check for June should be pretty gigantic. if it's not, i'm not sure what the hell i'm gonna do for my trip to San Pedro. oh well... i'll cross that bridge if i find it.

i saw Terminator: Salvation. i was entertained by it but i wouldn't say it was spectacular or anything. Star Trek is still the best movie of the summer by far.

if I don't make my way into Bolivia when i go to Northern Chile (which honestly probably won't happen), i need to find a way to renew my visa by the end of July or the beginning of August. i'm thinking of either flying to Mendoza or Buenos Aires and chilling there for a very short amount of time. i still haven't decided where.

let's see, what else? i've been to La Vega a few times to get fruits, veggies and imitation fruit loops. i ate at a T.G.I. Fridays recently and had their version of "buffalo wings" that only had barbeque sauce on it and not buffalo sauce. i was let down but i guess that's how south america rolls with their wings. i'm continuing to cook things like chicken and burritos.

i dunno. Alice's friend Kate said it best: i think we're all kind of in this period of "zen" relaxation right now. it's winter. it's cold (not as cold as New England but hey, we have NO HEAT). there's not really a desire to go outside because it's so gross. we're waiting for the nice weather to come back and during that time we're all kind of ok with doing nothing. because hey, it may be unexciting... but we're in another country. so what if it's boring once in a while? we're still getting a cool experience. besides, i'm broke as a joke and am ok with not spending as much money this month.

i guess that's it. sorry. not too exciting but an update was asked for and you guys got it.

oh and i completely fell on my ass yesterday on the metro in front of a ton of people. i did one of those "get up and pretend nothing happened" things and it was hilarious.

and now i can't think of anything else.

oh well.

until next time, hasta.

well... it's 21 days later. exactly three weeks. wow. first of all let me say that it's kind of a fluke that i am able to actually update now because i was supposed to be giving an English Assessment Test today to some new students but it got canceled. so now i have the whole afternoon free to do whatever i want. what have i chosen to do? why, update my blog, of course! i'll be honest, the further into the past we go, the hazier my memory is but i will do my best. let's get into it, shall we?

approximately 3 weekends ago, a friend of mine from camp named Aaron stayed with me. in exchange for letting him crash at my place, he and his friend Nate paid for various food items which was much appreciated. they were coming from mendoza and on their way to another part of Chile so they stopped by for a few days.

Friday night we all went to Subterraneo, which is a discoteca in Providencia that apparently everyone in pro-diggety has been to but Alice and I. we went with my room mate and the 2 previously mentioned folks. Subterraneo reminded me a lot of clubs in the U.S. because there was a lot of mainstream hip hop and dance played that you'd typically hear in the states. it was kind of lame but at the same time i got to shake my booty to great songs like "SexyBack" and "Kiss" so in the end it was a little refreshing in that sense. it was somewhat of a late night but not too late. overall i'd give Subterraneo a C+.

on the Saturday of that weekend, the same crew minus my room mate went to a flea market in Bio Bio. it happens every weekend and there are TONS of things you can buy ranging from furniture to clothing to video games. that's right. video games. and old school systems too! sega genesis, super nintendo, n64... and i think i also saw a gamecube there. at any rate, while we were there, we ended up playing with some puppies that were being sold literally in a box in the middle of the street. oh and Alice bought a desk. totally productive day.

on that Sunday Alice and I went to the Museo De Arte Procolumbino. it had a lot of pottery and statues and even some mummies. in fact, the mummies in this museum predate egyptian mummies. so WHAT NOW, OTHER MUSEUMS? ahem. at any rate, that was pretty cool. and once again, free :).

by the end of that weekend Aaron and Nate left. it's really interesting to see how people from the United States interact in a Chilean environment. Chileans are really relaxed and quiet. they're funny but they're usually pretty chill. people from the U.S. are kind of... well... not haha. so it was kind of interesting to see that after not seeing it for a few months and i was also surprised by it a little bit. i guess i'm just getting used to being in Chile.

the next weekend i ended up seeing Star Trek with Eric. i liked it a lot. the general thing i've been hearing about this movie is that you will enjoy it even if you've never seen Star Trek before, and that's totally true. still pretty sci fi though. if you're not a fan of the sci fi, then steer clear. but like i said, i really enjoyed it. quite entertaining.

the Sunday of THAT weekend I went to Isla Negra with Alice and 2 people from her program. mainly I went there to see Pablo neruda's third house. i've heard it's supposed to be the best house. it was a cloudy day but hey, that's how Chile rolls in the winter. slightly colder and way more cloudy. i'd take that weather over New England winter weather any day. but any way, PN's house was cool. he collected a lot of different pieces of boats and had a barn for a fake horse. also, it was by the beach. it was way cooler than any of the other houses we'd seen previously of his. unfortunately, Isla Negra doesn't really have much else to offer besides this attraction so we all pretty much vamoosed after seeing it. oh well. now i can say i've done the Pablo Neruda house hat trick. woohooo!

this past weekend was extra long because Chileans had a national holiday last Thursday called "Navy Day". as a result, a lot of people didn't have work on that Friday and what not. Alice and I took this opportunity to visit La Serena. this is a beach town that attracts a lot of tourists and is located about six hours north of Santiago. we ended up bringing our own food because we didn't want to spend too much money there. all we really did while we were there was walk around. we saw a few cool cathedrals and plazas. also, i had a churro for the first time ever while in la Serena. it's kind of like this stick of dough that tastes a little bit like cinnamon and is filled with manjar (which is like a creamier version of caramel). it was delicious to say the least. Also, we ended up going to a Japanese Garden in la Serena. it was kind of cool but you could definitely tell that it was way better looking in the Summer season when everything is in bloom. but still. they had some cool structures and stuff. Near the beach, we saw this gigantic lighthouse that is supposedly iconic in La Serena. we couldn't go inside but it was pretty cool regardless.

on that Saturday, Alice and I decided we would go on one of the excursions that our hostel offered. it was a van ride to an observatory in Vicuna. the actual van ride was about 50 miles per hour uphill through a mountain that had extremely curvy dirt roads. it was incredibly unpleasant. the observatory itself though was awesome. our guide had a laser pointer that points for like 3 miles or something and he kept pointing to constellations in the sky with it. there were soooo many stars. you could actually see the milky way. we saw Saturn, too. it's a view of the sky that i hadn't seen since coming here as a result of being in the city, so that was cool. then we had an equally, if not more excruciating, van ride back to our hostel. lots of curves and bumps. i legit thought i was going to throw up. i haven't felt that way in a while. despite that van ride though, the actual observatory was pretty cool.

we continued the Sunday Museo ritual that weekend in La Serena at their own Precolumbino museo. this one could NOT hold a candle to the one in Santiago. sure it had all the same stuff: mummies, statues, pottery and weapons. but it had way less of it. we did the entire museo in about 10 minutes. it was kind of lame. the one cool thing they had there though was one of those gigantic head statue things from Easter Island. other than that it was meh-tastic.

this past Monday, Alice and i went to another market called La Vega. this one mainly had food such as fruits, vegetables, cereal, meats, dog/cat food etc... for INCREDIBLY cheap. i bought a kilo of apples, a red pepper, a green pepper and a quarter kilo of black olives for about 1,500 pesos which is about 3 U.S. dollars. score. oh and yeah i like green and red peppers now. who would have ever thought? but yeah. totally buying all fruit and veggies there from now on.

yesterday was my birthday. i had a class and my student took me out to lunch. i had a completo italiano (standard hot dog for Chile). it was delicious. after that, i came home and opened 2 packages i received from my mom, dad, sister and aunts. i got quite an awesome array of things, including:

-a banner that says "happy 21st birthday" even though i'm 26.
-a birthday card with a 10 second sped up version of "happy birthday" in Polish sung by my mom, dad and sister. so awesome.
-a cook book with 365 easy recipies.
-A CRIBBAGE BOARD!!!
-a gigantic bag of Doritos
-a huge thing of the little coffee dunker cookie things from Trader Joe's
-a t-shirt
-2 mix cds from my aunts
-and more.

it was really awesome getting all of those things on my birthday. after that i decided that i immediately wanted to go to Alice's and open her gift to me. and guess what it was...


A SUPER NINTENDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

that's right. Alice was a ninja and secretly went back to Bio Bio one weekend to buy me a Super Nintendo, 2 controllers, and Donkey Kong Country. apparently she also sat with the woman for a while to get a combination of all cords and controllers so the whole thing would actually work. the funny thing is that i was kind of secretly hoping that she would get me this for my birthday (even though i never said i wanted that specific thing) and she ended up doing it. i was smiling for a long time after i opened that present. it was great. i am so going back to Bio Bio probably this weekend to pick up some games for it. i am stoked.

after that, i began my birthday evening. Alice and I went to Tiramisu in Las Condes for an absolutely delicious pizza dinner. we had a pretty standard pizza with mozerella, fresh tomatoes, garlic oil and basil. it was totally delicious. after Tiramisu we went back to my apartment and fired up the SNES (of course) to play some Donkey Kong Country. everything works fine. once Alessandro and Ari got home, we all went back to Las Condes to go cosmic bowling. but unfortunately on Tuesdays the bowling alley closes for a tournament. sooooo we didn't end up going cosmic bowling. i was pretty dissappointed but whatever. i think there is talk of having bowling happen this coming weekend or something. also, i was promised a return trip to Club Miel (the best discoteca i've been to so far) so as long as one or both of those things happen with some peeps, i'd be cool with it. after getting rejected from bowling we talked about going to a few places afterward but ultimately ended up back at the apartment. Ari joined Alice and I for some cribbage which was awesome to play for the first time in a few months. All in all, i had a pretty awesome birthday that will be even more awesome if bowling and clubbing happen soon.

May was a short month. this combined with the fact that i've had like 6 cancelled classes in May means i will be getting a smaller check. boo. but on the upside, i got some money for my birthday that i think will be sufficient enough to allow me to travel to Buenos Aires in 2 months. so THAT'S pretty awesome. all i need is for someone to go with me since Alice will be busy chilling with her parents and traveling around during her month long break she gets from her job. another upside is that i picked up another class which brings my total to 4. i also opened up three of my mornings. hopefully i will be making more money soon. we shall see.

that's all from South America for now. phew. sorry for the hiatus. i'll try to update this thing more regularly. although because of money, i'm not traveling anywhere for the month of June so it may not be as exciting. but i'll try to make it exciting. until next time, hasta!

MENDOZZAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

Well it's a week later. have i done exciting things? to put it simply, yes.

last wednesday was my friend Jordan's birthday. we decided to go out for some drinks and then to a discoteca in Parque Bustamante called "Club Miel" ("Miel" means "Honey"). i met two of Jordan's friends. one of which was his girlfriend. they were extremely friendly and funny and just generally cool people. this was the type of crew i wanted for a late night. it was great.

now, so far i have gone to three discotecas while here. let's review the stats quickly, shall we?

1. Jammin' - this is a reggaeton discoteca that has all the qualities it should. tons of sweaty, smelly gross people dancing to music that shares those same qualities. it was a fun experience but i dunno if i'd want to go back there unless i have a bigger group.

2. Amnesia - this discoteca was 2 floors and was basically a bar with dancing space. if i jumped, i could probably touch the ceiling. as for the music, it was reggaeton for the first half hour i was there, then switched to jock jams type techno for about a half hour, then chilean pop punk (which they loved) for another half hour, and right before i left the last two songs i heard were "sweet chile o' mine" and "man i feel like a woman". it gets some serious points from me for the diversity of the music there. kind of cramped though.

and now #3... Club Miel.

This is the discoteca experience i've been wanting since i left the united states. this place was HUGE. it was kind of like a giant dance hall. it had projectors and tons of lights and it even had dancers at one point. everyone was really spread out. at that discoteca, i heard a wide range of stuff from techno to reggaeton to pop music. not so much rock but everything had a beat so it was all good. one of my favorite moments of the night was freaking out like a madman to "One More Time" by Daft Punk. we ended up staying there until the place closed at 4am. it was so cold outside that you could see the steam rising from people's bodies. it was understandable for me since i ended up dancing for about 3 hours straight, which is a huge deal for me. i usually don't like going to clubs or dancing a lot or anything. but there's something about the selection of music in Chile both in discotecas and on the radio. it's like they have no concept of recent music and they just shuffle between random songs from the 90s and today. example: on the radio you will hear things like "love fool" by the cardigans and in discotecas you will hear things like Jock Jams. it's like the 90s never died here. i love it. and Club Miel can definitely attest to that. the next day i told my room mate ari that i went out to that discoteca and he was just like "oh yeah. that's a really gay area", which i thought was funny. but who the fuck cares? so far Miel is the best discoteca i've been to here and i'm definitely making my way back there.

this past weekend i went to Mendoza, Argentina. but before i get into that, lemmie talk a little about the bus ride. the first half of this ride consists of a quite curvy and equally beautiful venture through the Andes mountains. this journey is not for the easily motion sick. we took a double decker bus on the way there and sat on the top (natch). the mountains were absolutely gorgeous. i ended up taking about 70 pictures of them total (because i'm a maniac with my camera when i go to another country). also, for part of the ride we were entertained by a pretty mediocre movie if i do say so myself (Marley & Me). halfway through our trip, we stopped at this little station in the mountains to go through Argentina customs. it took about an hour to get two stamps on my passport (one saying i'm leaving Chile and one saying i'm entering Argentina) and have everyone's bags searched. then we were on our way to the second half of the bus ride. we saw a little bit more of the mountains and some giant lakes/rivers making our way to the super flat terrain on our last 2 hour leg of the journey. totally awesome bus ride. 6 hours seems so much shorter when the area is beautiful.

once we arrived in mendoza, we checked into our hostel. Chimbas Hostel is really nice. our private room was basically a hotel room. the common areas like the kitchen and such were also excellent and homely. loved it there. staying there again if i go back to Mendoza. at any rate, after much discussion, alice and i decided to leave a deposit to go paragliding the next morning. it was pretty late but we were hungry so we hit the main strip of Mendoza to get some food. after some searching, we ended up at a pizza place and got a pizza with spinach, pesto and eggs on it. man was it good. unfortunately, the restaurant did not accept debit/credit cards and because we left a deposit for the paragliding, we didn't have any cash on us to pay for the meal. alice ended up staying at the restaurant while i went to a nearby ATM to withdraw enough cash to pay for the meal.

it turns out that only a few places in Mendoza take credit/debit cards. so to all travelers out there heading this way, make sure you have CASH. we did not know this. most of my cash was gone and Alice only had her credit card because her debit card is M.I.A.. so i ended up having to withdraw money all weekend to cover our expenses and she paid me back in the end. so yeah, BRING CASH or else you will be screwed in Mendoza.

that aside, we ended up getting up early on Saturday to go paragliding. a jeep picked us up from our hostel and drove us out of Mendoza and up one of the super rocky roaded mountains there. the drive was on a dirt road. at one point, we saw four dogs in the field and one had (legit) a leg in its mouth. probably from a dead deer or something. it was one of the more graphic things i'd seen in my life. part of me was also like "that is so metal". but anyways, back to paragliding (what this paragraph is REALLY about). once we got to the top of the mountain, we suited up and prepared for takeoff. we were extremely nervous and excited and ready.... annnnnnd then we waited. and waited. and waited and waited and waited. seriously. we waited forever before taking off. it turns out that while paragliding, it doesn't matter what the wind is like. but for takeoff, you have to wait for a specific kind of wind. we ended up parawaiting for about an hour. at one point, Alice was getting ready to takeoff so i decided to try filming it. she took off and i pressed record. suddenly my guide was like "ok let's go now!" and i was like "what??!?" frantically putting away my camera so i could focus on properly taking off and not dying and then suddenly i was jerked into the air by the wind.

paragliding is one of the coolest experiences i've ever had. i mean, how could it not be, really? you're as high up as one of the mountains just floating in the quiet breeze overlooking a beautiful area (that's me to the left there in that photo). at one point, my guide said "mind if we do some tricks?" and i was like "go for it!" he tilted the thing sideways back and forth. it was awesome. i thought we were going to be upside down at one point. we were pretty damn close. there was some motion sickness throughout so if you're prone to that, then watch out. also, alice can attest to this, but the landing was one of the most hilarious parts of this whole experience. you see, i was supposed to just keep walking and ended up sort of flailing my arms like a muppet when i walked on the ground. the video alice has of it is very funny. maybe it'll end up on facebook or youtube or something. but yeah. if you end up in Mendoza, i highly (get it?) recommend paragliding. not only is it awesome, it's cheap if you have U.S. currency.

in fact, most of the stuff in Argentina is cheap if you have U.S. currency. that night, Alice and I went out to eat some steak which we heard was really delicious in Argentina. oh my god. seriously. you guys don't understand. you really don't understand. this was...


THE. BEST. STEAK. I'VE. EVER. HAD. IN. MY. LIFE.

perfect seasoning and melt-in-your-mouth-god-like consistency. also, not only did we get the two best steaks ever, we got fries to split between us and 2 sodas. guess how much this meal cost? 20 dollars. the steaks were 6 dollars a piece. and this was a kind of nice place! we sat down and were waited on, we ate outside, the napkins were fancy cloth... 20 dollars. also, our pizza the night before with 2 sodas? 10 dollars. also a fancy restaurant. i'm telling you, if you want to feel like a king, come to Mendoza with U.S. dollars. you won't be sorry. we took advantage of this by shopping a little. i bought some sunglasses and Alice got a shawl. both necessities for us.

the next day we got up early and had our 3rd night in a row with 6 hours of sleep. we were exhausted but desperately wanted to walk around the town more. Mendoza is pretty small. you could probably walk around the entire periphery in about 3 or 4 hours. lots of parks though. with awesome esculturas and fountains. we kept our sunday tradition and went to a Museo in Mendoza for free (score). it was full of crazy contemporary artwork. lots of abstract stuff. very cool.

then it was time for us to head back to Santiago. for the bus ride back, we took what we thought was a cheaper bus but was actually the same price and not as nice. i guess from now on i'm taking the double decker bus. the bus ride back was pretty much the same thing in reverse. the only difference was that the customs going from Argentina to Chile were a lot faster and more on top of their stuff. we were outta there in like a half hour. perfecto.

overall, i LOVED Mendoza and can't wait to go back there to get my gringo tourist visa restamped for another 3 months. although, in July/August i may have a problem because i heard the roads get very cold and they close the bus lines if it snows and gets icy on the mountains. but whatever. i guess i'll just have to fly to another country or maybe the same one (Buenos Aires?). we shall see.

in terms of money and the job sitch. i'm doing okay. not ideal but ok. right now i can afford to pay my rent each month but i can't afford food. if i pick up two more classes, i should be all set financially. i'm going to start feverishly pushing for this. there's a chance i may pick up a few more classes through polyglot but i won't know about it for another week or so... :\ i may have to pick up another job. we'll see how it goes.

on the upside, i received some winter clothes in the mail today from my folks. THANK GOD. nobody told me Santiago would get almost as cold as New England during the winter. also, for some reason nobody has central heat in their apartments in Chile so you just kind of have to use thousands of covers and dress in some serious layers. but now that i have my red coat, 5 hoodies and my fleece pants, i'm gonna be all set here forever. so SUCK IT, winter!

and that has been my week in a long-winded nutshell. life is good for now and i will touch base here once more next week maybe. until then, hasta muchachos.

all right. okay. all right. all right. okay. okay. all right. okay. i'll update my blog!

man how long as it been? 2 weeks since i wrote in this? wow. i have no concept of chronology but i'm going to attempt to do my best here.

last time you heard from me, it was good friday. well it turns out that Santiago turns into a GHOST TOWN on a long weekend. i'm talking like, everyone leaves and all stores close either entirely or for 90% of the day. so food was scarce and there wasn't a whole lot to do. but Alice and I managed to venture up Cerro San Cristobal once again. only this time we walked down. it was a long journey but pretty beautiful. there were a lot of places that had amazing views and also a lot of areas where the walkway would go from walking on the road to taking a more rustic path into the woods. i was a huge fan of the latter. there was also a small japanese garden at one point. after about 2 hours of walking, we finally made it to the bottom. hooraaaay. overall it was cool but next time i definitely want more nature trails.

alice and i also ventured towards Las Condes which is the area of Santiago to the West of Providencia. I really like Las Condes. it's more suburban and has lots of shops and malls and stuff. it also just seems friendlier. i can't describe it. i just think the further west you go in Santiago, the more it gets like this. at any rate, during this ghost town weekend we had, we went to a MALL in Las Condes. not a shopping center. not some kiosk. not a mini-mall. a MALL. i'm talking like, it had 4 floors, a food court, a movie theater and many many many many places to eat that you would typically find in the states such as KFC, Benihanas, McDonald's and amazingly... even Taco Bell. that's right. I found a Taco Bell. i think the main reason i liked going to the mall so much was because it was like a small piece of the states that i was familiar with and felt somewhat at home. i haven't felt that way since i've been here.. granted i've felt a lot of other amazing emotions that you only feel when you travel to another country but still... it was cool. i am so going back there when i'm in need of Taco Bell. while we were there, alice and I went halfsies on a Spanish version of Monopoly. the cards are made of like, laminated paper or something instead of cardboard. it's the crappiest monopoly set ever but it has properties like "Santiago" which makes it awesome.

at some point on the ghost town weekend, Alice, Alessandro and I went and saw Milk. i really liked it a lot. personally, i don't think any movie will ever be able to tell an audience how it feels to be gay in society but that one did a pretty good job. also, i can't believe it's a true story. we all liked it.

on monday everything opened again and the city was bustling like crazy. i lost one of my classes. but the good news is, it was the class that was only once a week for one hour. apparently that hour didn't work for them so there was no way it would have worked at all. oh well. Polyglot-Mitford told me that more classes would open up in Mayo so i'm going to pester them like crazy starting May 1st. classes continue to go swell. my students struggle with some concepts but who doesn't? english is tough any ways so godspeed to them for trying.

during that week, Alessandro and I went to "Tiramisu", which actually didn't have Tiramisu at all. it was a really upscale pizza place in Las Condes. while there, i got a 4 cheese pizza. it was gigantic and delicious. apparently that place is pretty poppin during the day. as we were leaving there was a line out the door.

the following weekend, Alice and I went to Valparaiso. we've been to Valpo before but when we went before we only saw it in passing as we were really visiting Vina Del Mar. This time we devoted a whole day to Valpo. we ended up doing several things.

first we took an ascensor up the hill of valparaiso. see, this town has an area on the hill and an area in the valley much like rowe. on the hill, we walked around the neighborhoods and quickly became exhausted. but we ended up finding one of Pablo Neruda's houses called "La Sebastiana" and we did a small tour of it. man. it had a nice view but it's really cramped. i kind of hate that. this house is pretty small and honestly kind of unexciting. overall, i liked La Chascona better. but i can't wait to see the one at Isle Negra. it's supposed to be the best one. it's happening some time. any ways, after our visit there, we went to a small park and took some fotos with some more esculturas while we were in silly poses. we kind of love doing that. we also ran into two people in Alice's program and they gave us advice on things to check out. we chatted for about 15 minutes. it was fun.

since we took the ascensor up the hill, we decided to walk down. on our way, we found a lot of artwork on the sides of people's houses in graffiti. it was really cool. we also found a lot of dog poop. it was really not cool. once we made our way to the bottom, we hit a main road and decided to go left. we were on our way to a specific part of Valparaiso but we ended up randomly seeing this reggae concert. it turns out it was a celebration of the 76th anniversary of the socialist party. how random and awesome. by then it was getting dark and cold so we decided to venture in the opposite direction we were walking toward the bus station. and that's when we found J Cruz.

my god. J Cruz has to be one of the coolest little restaurants ever. that is if you're in the mood for their main dish, the Chorillana. This thing is a beast. it's basically just fries with eggs, onions and chopped up pork on top. but DAMN is it tasty! it happens to be the signature dish of Valparaiso and this place is the best place to get it. it's also gigantic. too big for one but just enough for two. delicious. the way we found J Cruz was that it was down this very tiny alleyway. once you walked inside there were TONS of little trinkets everywhere. this place puts Applebees and Chilis to shame with its random crap on the walls. it's like they spare no empty space with their small glass sculptures and intricate looking silverware. it's like looking at a where's waldo book except all the people are replaced by random objects and they're everywhere you look. also, once we started eating, this guy came out and started playing guitar for everyone there! he had a big grin on his face and he was singing about Valparaiso. while in this restaurant, I got an incredibly good vibe. i felt totally comfortable and happy. maybe it was the pile of grease i had just shoved into my digestive track, but I loved J Cruz. loved it loved it loved it.

after that we took a small detour to a carnival. we didn't go in because most of the activities were for kids (even though that didn't stop us at the museo de sciencia y technologica! but more on that in a second). we just sat by the carnival and chatted using incredibly vulgar language while Spanish children were happily playing about 10 feet from us. whatever though. they don't speak English. we kept laughing every time we sweared though. it was great.

so then we took a very dark bus ride back to Santiago and thus ended our day in Valpo. overall, i like Valparaiso. but nowhere near enough to live in it. there are way too many hills for me there. also, the artwork is cool but there's just not much to do there. i think i like Vina more. call me a spring break college frat boy for it or whatever you want but Vina is just more my area.

the following day, we went to the Museo De Sciencia y Technologica. that was cool. they had a lot of little sciencey things you could interact with there like a room with tons of infinite mirrors and that thing where the metal balls hang from strings and you pull one and it hits all the other ones and it makes the ball on the other end bounce back and it goes on forever. y'know. stuff like that. it felt like it was meant for little kids but it was also fun at the same time. Since this Museo happened to be in Quinta Normal, Alice and I decided to try (emphasis on "try") to take out one of the little boats they had into the pond. dude, ROWING BOATS IS HARD. i don't care what you say but rowing a boat solo without crashing into things is difficult. i distinctly remember our boat slowly careening towards another family's boat and i heard one of the kids scream "no crashio!". unfortunately, we did crashio... but there was no damage to either boat. so yeah. it's hard to be romantic while 99% of your brain is focusing on controlling the boat but... like i said... we tried.

During the week, more classes. more chilling out. more of the same. except on Tuesday. on that day, Alice, Alessandro, Ari, Ari's girlfriend Kat and I all went out to dinner because Kat was leaving Chile soon and we wanted to have a night out together. we ended up going to this place that i forget the name of. it was this old barber shop in centro that had been converted into a restaurant. there were little barber chairs everywhere and a bunch of cool things on the walls like shavers and pictures of random artwork. also, for some reason. no two tables were the same there. every single table was different, which i thought was kind of cool. i ate a crepe with crab meat in it. it was pretty tasty but my stomach tends to hate seafood and i paid for it later. that's all i'm sayin about that. all in all, a fun night.

to continue this "Kat is leaving so let's all have fun" trend, I ate dinner with Ari, Kat and Ari's family on Wednesday night. Kat made chicken and veggies in some kind of sauce. it was delish. Ari's family are the nicest bunch of people. his parents remind me of mine in that they're really respectful, smart and funny. i offered everybody some ice cream that i had bought for myself since Ari and Kat were so kind to feed me and people took some. it was a nice dinner.

and with that, i have successfully updated my blog (cue fanfare). what's coming in the next few weeks? well next weekend is a long weekend and since i don't feel like hanging out in the ghost town that is Santiago, i've decided to go to... (drumrolllll) MENDOZA, ARGENTINA! despite the fact that all i can think of when i hear "mendoza" is McBain screaming, i am also very excited to visit this town. i've heard the carne there is delicious and the bus ride through the mountains is beauuuutiful. alice is going too. we're staying all weekend. also i get paid soon!!! very exciting!!!

and that is all for now. until next time, hasta!

grood friday

AT LAST SOME FREE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

or rather, some time where i'm sitting around doing nothing and i actually have the energy to do a blog update or blupdate. terribly sorry for the lack of updates lately but i've been a busy bee.

when we last left, i was doing pretty good. i am doing slightly better than before. i'm up to four classes per week and 9.5 hours per week. i get paid in pesos which is great. i also get taxed but i have no earthly idea how it works. with these hours currently i should be getting about $524 per month. that's about 262,000 chilean pesos. i definitely need more hours but my current cash flow pays for my rent completely and leaves me with 97,000 pesos for food and stuff which is about $200 american. so i'm well on my way to having a good little life here. i'm not scraping the bottom of the barrel yet by any means. i still have a hefty amount of cash i've saved to sustain me for a while. life is grood.

so yeah, i've started teaching more classes! one is incredibly far away. at first it was a 2 hour commute with public transportation but i spoke with the agency i'm employed with and they agreed to let me take a faster form of public transportation and pay for it. namely, this transportation is a collectivo. it's like a taxi but 4 random people share it, there's a set fee and there are preset destinations for all taxis. so like, for example, a collectivo in boston would be going to nashua, NH by taking 93 and if you need to get to a town that's directly off of 93, it would drop you off on its way. sort of like a mini bus that's slightly more expensive and way faster because it only makes 4 stops. it's great. the only problem is when you're waiting for 4 people to go where you're going or there's a TON of people going to where you're going and there are no collectivos available so you have to wait for them to make their rounds and come back. the class itself is all right. the guy is a basic level english student so there's a lot to teach. on the upside, he gives me a ride home from his work on wednesdays and fridays so instead of a 90 minute to 2 hour commute using public transportation, it only takes about 45 minutes for me to get home when he drives me. so that's GREAT.

the other 2 classes i picked up are really close to me. they're in this CHilean bank's office. one of the classes is just this one guy who's super advanced in english so the class is sort of conversational and we primarily discuss business ethics and stuff like that. but in order to not die of boredom, i try to work other things into the conversation periodically such as favorite bands and movies and stuff. the other class at the bank starts next tuesday. it goes from monday to friday in the evenings but i only teach it one day a week and another guy teaches it 4 times per week. so he basically tells me what to do in that class and i comply. i'm totally fine with that.

in terms of siteseeing, i'm still doing that. alice and I were trying to find a market at one point but we ended up walking in the wrong direction. since we were in the area of Santa Lucia, I decided to show her that. we did a quick one hour trip there walking up and seeing the city from the tower and checking out pathways and stuff. it was fun fun. alice was particularly proud of herself for conquering the very steep steps that were there (pictured).

i took yet another trip to a museo and saw the Chilean Natural History Museum at Quinta Normal (the amazing park that actually had clean water). there were a lot of kids there but it was cool. they had dinosaur bones and chilean artifacts from indian tribes and stuff. oh and speaking of stuff, there were tons of stuffed animals there too. not stuffed like cute and cuddly but stuffed like taxidermy (wow... this paragraph has a lot of stuff in it). but yeah y'know... it was cool... and stuff.

alice's birthday was this past tuesday and we celebrated by doing various things. we got up early and went to Parque De Esculturas (a sculpture park close to where she lives). there were a lot of abstract sculptures there and naturally we brought a camera to do ridiculous poses around them. there was also this indoor exhibit that had like... turtle shells and indian masks. oh and lots of couple were making out there. the park itself was pretty fun though, and not bad at all for free!

then later i treated alice to this peruvian restaurant for dinner and it was SO DELICIOUS. alice got chilean seabass which included shrimp and some sauce. i had a bite and it was pretty tasty. I got steak and rice in this absolutely delicious sauce. it was like, yellow peppers, cream, peanuts and something else i can't remember put all together in liquid form. when i was done with the steak (which was juicy and amazing), i mixed the rice with the sauce and it tasted fantastic.

so after that glorious dinner, alice and i went out with like 10 people from alice's program and my room mate alessandro as well to get drinks. i was rocking the agua, per usual. that ended up being fun. they got her a card and some chocolates. our waitor was hilarious. he didn't talk much but he was just one of those guys that had this subtle humor that worked really well with the group of people there. overall, alice said she had a great birthday.

last night i went to a jewish seder!! my jewish/chilean room mate ari invited alice and i to his parents' house for seder dinner because it was passover. i never thought Chile would be the first place i experience this type of traditional dinner. apparently they skipped a lot of the text but i got to wear one of those little hats (yamacas?) and do the little salt water tears and drop a drop of wine (or in my case grape juice) for each of the plagues and sing a bunch of songs! and it was in english AND spanish because Ari's family speaks both languages! it was so awesome. i felt so cultured afterward. matzoh balls are amazing. there was also delicious salad with olive oil and salt used as dressing (a chilean thing. very good, actually). tasty gelfite fish. tons of other foods that i didn't know the name of but were good. so much food.

oh speaking of food, yesterday at a restaurant in Chile i had a completo (hot dog) with about an inch of guacamole and cut up tomatoes on it. also a Chilean thing. also delicious.

and yeah. it's good friday. which means that this is an extra long weekend which means i don't really have to work and neither does alice. in theory, we could have chosen this weekend to go somewhere exotic for a few days. but a) we don't want to spend a lot of money and b) we have been SO BUSY with classes and sightseeing that we haven't even had time to consider it. so we are choosing this weekend to veg in Santiago while everyone else has decided to take a vacation. a lot of stores are closed but the movie theater is still open and we're all thinking of going and seeing "Milk" which is playing now. also, there's a bowling alley in Santiago and i am making it my business to bowl there. that may or may not happen this weekend. the market may happen soon too. and since we're here, we might just go to another museo for free on sunday. we shall see.

but like i said, i've been a busy bee. i have no idea if i'll be able to still update once a week but i'm gonna try my damndest to do it. until next time, hasta!