Fiestas Patrias

September 18th is Chile’s independence day, they call it Fiestas Patrias. And it’s a big deal here, arguably bigger than Christmas. They usually get a whole week off for it, but we only got two days this year since it fell on a Saturday. We were also really lucky because we got to celebrate their 200 year bicentennial as well! It was actually the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been here and it was a bit depressing to have to go back to teaching the next week...I think we all got a little bite from the travel bug. I took the Thursday off and hopped on a 12 hour bus to Santiago Wednesday night w/ two lads Rob and Marc who are also teaching here in Copiapo. Our bus put us in Santiago at 7:00am on Thursday morning. To kill time we climbed Cerro San Cristobal (a rather large hill, I’d call it a mountain, with a statue of the Virgin Mary at the top) and were escorted the entire way by these faithful street dogs.

Later on that afternoon after we were finally able to check into our hostel, Marc took us on an excursion accross town to find this artsy part of town, where we found a great brewery and a great steak dinner for about $7.50. I was very happy with this find. That night we met up with Marc’s friend Ariel who lives in Santiago, but is originally from Vina del Mar. He invited us over for an asado (bbq) at his apartment and we all ended up going to a fonda (traditianal thing you do during fiestas patrias) in Parque O’Higgins after. But before that I watched a really cool light show on tv showcasing Chile’s history over the last 200 years. It was put on at “la moneda“ or “the money“ which looks like our version of the white house. It functions more like our mint though. The fonda was a bunch of fun! It’s just a bunch of tents set up in this big open area, kinda like ribfest where you can go to different tents sit, enjoy live music, dance cueca, and of course drink! Your supposed to drink chicha, but I’m not the biggest fan, it’s super sweet. Chileans and their sweet alcoholic drinks, not nice on the stomache. There’s this drink called the ‘terremoto‘ or earthquake, and it’s got like 5 different alcohols, sugar, and it’s topped with ice cream! They love them, but I can’t take that much sugar in my drinks.
The next day we took a bus to Vina del Mar which is known as the top vacation spot for the well off Santiagoans who all have summer homes there. I’d been to Vina twice already and it was my favorite place so I was pumped that I might be able to enjoy the beach in a t-shirt now that it’s sping. That night, Ariel picked us up to take us to watch fireworks in the neighboring town of Valparaiso. That’s what I love about Chileans, they are so hospitable. Ariel basically took us in this weekend inviting us to family gatherings and taking us around so that we could experience fiestas patrias Chilean style. We watched a pretty awesome fireworks show from atop one of the many hills in Valpo. I was happy I got to partake in a independence day celebration with proper fireworks since I missed the 4th in the States.

The next day (the 18th) we were back in Valparaiso for a proper tour of the city. From the beginning, even when we were walking through the more shabby parts of town something about that place made me feel at home and comfortable. Valparaiso isn’t as well kept as Vina del Mar, but it’s beautiful! Colorful houses cover the 15 or so hills that make up the city. We probably explored 7 or so different cerros, got some great photos and a great workout. I loved that day! It was also the day Alan Partridge got on into full swing. Alan Partidge is this show from like the 90s I wanna say? Anyway, he’s the biggest dick to everyone he meets, and people find it funny. You put Marc and Rob together and they just quote the entire show. It got to the point where they weren’t even quoting the show, they had become Alan and used his voice in “normal“ everyday conversation. Regardless, it will never gets old (to them), and I will forever be labled “Lynn,“ his poor assistant. That night was the 18th, so we had to do it up proper w/ some empanadas, chicha, and a fonda. We met up with another one of Marc’s friends who was volunteering in the area, a fellow yank from Boston! The fonda was in Vina del Mar and it was pretty sweet.

The next day, our last day, was spent outside in the park/beach dreading the fact that we would have to get on a bus that evening... Ariel picked us up and took us to his home in Vina del Mar for an asado. His family was so nice and friendly, they had a girl from Texas on exchange there so it was nice to talk to her. And I got a decent amount of Spanish practice in since I’d been speaking English most of the weekend. It’s surprising how quickly you can get rusty, and then pick it back up just as fast. But at last our vacation had to come to an end, and it was time to get on a bus back to Copiapo. I really love it in Copiapo, but I don’t know if I could live here longer than 5 months. I love the small town feel, but I’m not so sure I love the small town mentality. We all noticed a difference as soon as we got to Santiago. There was more diversity and people just seemed more educated as well. Well I guess, “es lo que hay.“

Perros Callejeros

I realized I never wrote about the street dogs! They are EVERYWHERE! And they’re not all scruffy with long shaggy fir either, some of them are really cute. I kind of have a feeling if people have dogs as pets they just took one in off the street. The street dogs here are cool tho. I’m not even a dog person and I don’t mind them at all, they’re so chill. They pretty much just lay around all day and dig through the trash for food. They rarely bark when you walk by and I‘ve only seen one major dog fight since I’ve been here, so they are pretty well behaved in my view. The only problem is, like I noticed in Rome, there is shit everywhere. So you always need to be watchful of where you step and kind of come to expect being overtaken by an aweful smell every so often when you are walking around outside.

I must admit though, the callejeros have been growing on me, and I’m really not a dog person. I feel bad for them sometimes, they just lay around all defeated like, probably dying of thirst. I have noticed when people are watering their dirt they feed the dogs with their hose. They water their dirt because sometimes some grass might sprout. But I think the main reason is that if they don’t, it gets really dusty and the wind would blow dust everywhere. But back to the street dogs. They’re harmless! Sometimes they will join me for a run, but rarely. They are much more content laying around all day, ahhh the life!

Café….well Nescafé

I’ve officially cured my coffee addiction. No longer do I need that cup of coffee in the morning to start my day, or one in the evening after dinner. Why you ask? Well, they just don’t seem to drink it here. If they do it’s an instant version, usually Nescafé, which is a barley substitute to coffee. So I’ve been drinking a lot more té! The only time I drink “real“ coffee is when I meet a friend at a cafe, but even then you have to be careful to make sure they have an actual espresso machine as certain places will say the serve café, but it’s really just Nescafé. It took me a while to figure out why, with Colombia so close, there wasn’t a bigger coffee culture here. I’ve found out, just like wine, all the “good stuff“ gets exported. Behind France, Italy, and the US, Chile is the 4th largest exporter of wine, so I was expecting a huge wine culture when I got down here. Not the case. It’s more about Pisco here. All the really nice wines are exported, and people don’t seem to drink it that often. Don’t get me wrong there are really nice wines here that are dirt cheap, but pisco is just as cheap and so much more potent. Honestly, there just isn’t a very big drinking culture here. And they seem to prefer tea to coffee. You know what they say, “When in Chile!“

British English vs. American English

Copiapó has 5 other native English speakers that we know of. So naturally, we found each other pretty early on, four of us are American, and the other two are British and Scottish. Gringos tearing up this town…but that’s another story. Anyhoo, whenever there is a “language barrier” between the two, a long standing joke between fellow volunteers is “We invented it!” (the Brits) “Well we perfected it!” (Americans).

I don’t know, I choose to stay out of this argument, because each has slight nuances that seem to be equally as effective. I look at it like adding new words to my vocab, if you will. I’ve compiled a list so in case you ever come across some British lads you’ll know what they are talking about…

Here are some of my favorites (favourites):

Wee: (adj.) a tiny amount. Example: “wee bit.” “Wee bear” refers to one’s self and “wee brother” refers to a little brother.

Lad: one of the guys, can be classified as “good lad” or “shit lad” see “truelad.com” for further information

Predrinking: Pregaming

Lash: to drink copious amounts

Chat: as in “What’s the Chat?” which means what’s the plan, or what have you been talking about doing. Another use could be “Sorry for the bad chat ” or sorry about the drunken blubbering.

X: kiss. Every text must be signed with an “x” or two just to be nice. I’m not sure, but I think guys even sign off with “x” when sending each other text messages. Hahah, well…I wouldn’t be surprised if this were true, differences in sexuality don’t seem to matter as much, or seem to be as big of a deal. x x x

Petal: the equivalent to “you poor thing!” or “pobrecito/a.” May have sarcastic undertones or may be a term of endearment.

Boot: trunk

Rubber: eraser

Fancy dress: costume

Pants: underwear

Slip: underwear

Zed: the letter Z

Crisps: chips

Chips: fries

Ok, that’s all I can think of for now, hopefully this will bridge some of the “communication gap” between the two “dialects”  x x x

Fire Drill, I mean Earthquake drill....wait Gas???

Today was a bit out of the ordinary. Around 10:30am a constant bell rang, it sounded like a fire alarm. All the students seemed to know what to do so I followed them out into the “gymnasium.” Gymnasium is in quotes because it’s really just an open space outdoors where they practice sports. It’s pretty common here, an open (but covered) rectangular space in the middle of the school where the classrooms border along the outside. I lead the poor kids all over the place because I don’t really know fire drill procedures (wish they could have warned me). I find my co teacher and have them line up together. The chat is that it’s an earthquake drill. Silly me, earthquakes are obviously more prominent than fires.

They have the students assemble and shut up to make an announcement (quieting them down alone takes 15 minutes). All the while a faint smell of gas ensues. The announcement verifies that there is some sort of gas leak and that the carabineros (police) and bomberos (fire fighters) are on their way to check it out. Depending on how bad it is they may evacuate us to the street. So we wait for a good 15 minutes or so for the bomberos to show up, my head starts to hurt. I couldn’t tell if it was because of the screaming children (apparently they don’t seem to be too worried) or the fumes I’m continuing to inhale.

Well finally, a strong wave of gas ensues and they finally evacuate us to the street. At this point, people are starting to get sick and a few niños had to seek medical attention in the ambulances parked outside. I’m now a little lightheaded and wondering why the hell they haven’t sent us home yet. I end up waiting around for another hour or so not really sure what was going on. But apparently I could have left sooner rather than later. I should have because I was not a happy camper; my head was killing me (me duele la cabeza), I was worried about the severity of the situation, and I couldn’t deal with the constant high pitched Spanish being shot at me from all directions.

On the way home I start to feel a little better, but then it starts to rain! En serio?? Really? This is just not my day. I never would have thought I’d get caught in the rain here. The thing about the whole situation that I don’t understand is that, as soon as it rains for more than 5 minutes school is suspended and all the parents are there to pick up their kids instantly. When there’s a gas leak, it takes longer. Well anyway, tomorrow school has been suspended, not because of the gas, but because of the rain tonight that temporarily flooded all the roads. Who knows what’s going on with the gas, obviously the rain is so much more interesting! Hey, can't really complain about another 3 day weekend!