Just Living the Dream...

I’M BACK to the good ol’ US of A!!! Just living the American Dream, or so I tell myself. Two weeks back and I’m still trying to throw my toilet paper in the bin, and enthusiastically kiss every person I meet on the cheek (but feel awkward when I am not received in the same manner). Looking at it, we are really cold people with our formal handshakes… Anyhow, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do next…and let me tell you it’s not easy! It’s a tough job market, and when I think about how easy it is to find a job teaching my native language, in an exciting foreign country, I wonder why I would ever leave such a wonderful place to come home to such circumstances.

Well, it’s called the “real world.” But what exactly is the “real world?” Is our world in the US more real than say Buenos Aires, Argentina? I went out into the “real world,” yet somehow it doesn’t count. Was it because I wasn’t making a substantial living? Was it because I wouldn’t be able to settle and raise a family if I’m constantly moving about? All tough questions, but maybe it’s something to ponder over your morning coffee.

It’s pretty obvious I’m still trying to hang on by a thread to my former life in South America. I’m reading Che Guevara’s Motorcycle Diaries and watching foreign films like the Buena Vista Social Club and El Sectreto de Sus Ojos. (The Secret in their Eyes) But I’m sure this will pass. I’ll readjust to what I know best, especially when I get home to Naperville and can start up the life I left before South America.

So I’m not sure what I’ll do. Most definitely take a job, because let’s face it; I can’t live like I did in South America. To be poor in South America is fine; you can at least feed yourself and enjoy a new place! But to be poor in America downright sucks! You are pretty much stuck where you are because you can’t afford to put gas in your car, and you need your car because public transportation is pretty much non-existent in the burbs. So you’re pretty much on house arrest until you start making them dollas. But this is what everyone wants me to do!! Contribute to that greatly diminishing Social Security that the aging baby boomers are gonna need to draw from. Trust me I do want to work, but only if it’s something I deem worthwhile, and now’s not the time to be picky. I know this, so I will probably end up taking the first thing that comes to me instead of hanging out for a better opportunity.

But is that really that bad? I don’t think so. We are simple creatures motivated by what we think will make us happy, and for most that’s a fat paycheck! Hell, I don’t even need the fat paycheck, any paycheck will be make me happy. I’ve been used to living simply and I know I could stretch any paycheck pretty damn FAR. Really, it will be a means to an end. And as of right now the end is looking like graduate school. I’ve got less than two years to use this post 9-11 GI Bill benefit from my dad for higher education. I’ve always known I want to continue my education I just figured I’d do it later.

And here is the point where I bring in my ulterior motive. Yes, hate to admit it, but I’ve fallen in Love (notice the capital “L”). Gahhhh. Well the “Mr.” in question happens to live across the pond in this far away land where Scots reside. Get this! The men wear these funny skirts and blow into these weird looking pipes. Sound gay? To add to that, they speak what might as well be called a foreign language. GAY-lick I think… :P Well it turns out each of our countries aren’t very friendly toward each other, they don’t like to let just anyone work in their country (cause too many people want to immigrate anyway)! But the loophole lies in the form of higher education. If I go over to the UK, I can get a Master’s in HALF the time it takes to do it here and I wouldn’t be paying much more either. Which arguably so, if I’m back in the work force a year earlier I can be paying off my loans a whole year quicker. And after I graduate, instead of chucking me out the country, (like we do here) I’d be graciously given two more years to work in said country.

Well that’s the plan anyhow….but plans can change. I always like to have many options in order to keep my options open.

Homecoming

I’m coming home! I finally booked my flight home to Chicago in March, in order to get home in time for my cousin’s wedding. It’s gonna be quite the journey. I’m planning on staying in Buenos Aires roughly for the month of January and February with some travel inbetween (hopefully). Well, looking at tickets home in March from Buenos Aires was a little rediculous, over a grand! When I paied half that to get down here! I heard Lima was the cheapest place to fly out of in South America, and lucky enough, after three tries, I got a flight to Chicago for about $425. Now, here’s the part that complicates things a litte... naw just makes for more of an adventure! Can any body tell me why flights from Buenos Aires to Lima are over $600?? Because LAN has f**king monopoly over the South American air travel. So instead, what I think is going to happen, is that I will need to book a bus from Buenos Aires to Lima, a bus that will take three days...The bus ticket is about $150, but that still comes out to a trip total of less than $600. $600 vs $1000, I think I can deal with three days on a bus for $400. I’m poor you must remember. I’ve been working full time at a school for the last five months for free basically. But’s it’s been the experience of a life time! I wouldn’t trade it for anything, my time in Chile has become a defining moment in my life. It is now a part of who I am and I will never forget it.

There’s a whole great big world out there. It seems daunting and scary at first, but once you venture out, you’ll find it’s not so big at all. If you are sitting at home reading this, and feeling restless with your life, my advice to you is this; get out! Go to a new place, meet new people who are different than you, try new food, and do something that is completely foreign to you! Anyone can do it, not just the young (although it is a lot easier with less responsibility).

So yah. I made a mistake booking my flight home, I meant to get in a day later because it turns out my mom is flying into the other Chicago airport two hours later from China that day. Any volunteers who wanna come pick us up at 10:30 at night?? You would be my first taste of USA in over 8 months!!!! And you would get a special prize!!!

To end in the words of Kanye West (no wait, it’s actually Chris Martin singing this part), “Do you think about me now and then? Do you think about me now and then? ‘Cause I’m coming home again. Baby do you remember when, fireworks at Lake Michigan, now I’m coming home again….If you don’t know by now, I’m talking ‘bout Chi Town!”

La Serena

Last weekend was a long weekend because we had the first of November off for All Saints Day. I’m not sure if they call it “dia de los muertos“ or not, but the idea behind the Mexican holiday is the same. I asked Gloria and she said they go visit the graves of their family members on this day. Regardless, I decided to take advantage of the four day weekend by traveling to La Serena, which is about five hours south of here.

La Serena is a really nice town. It had been awhile since I’d been out of the desert and I forgot how nice grass was! The town itself is just so pleasant because it’s a strolling town. It reminded me of downtown Naperville because on a nice day you’ll see so many people out taking advantage of the weather and going for leisurly strolls and windowshoping. I liked it! It even had a mall! Anyone who knows me know I love love love ice cream; of all varieties and flavors. Ice cream, soft serve, gelato, frozen yogurt, yumm they are all delightful, just spare me the sorbet. There was this cool frozen yogurt shop in the mall where you could pick your choice of fruit and then they had blocks of different flavored frozen yogurt, and you had the option to add a block of sugar as well. They throw it all into a bowl where this machine mixes it all up and viola! You’ve got frozen yogurt! It was cool and yummy.

Marc was super happy to find a few items we’d been scouring Copiapó. One, a plain gray jumper (hoodie) and two, a squash ball. We´ve made multiple trips to our ¨mall¨ and never had luck finding either, but La Serena had both! He was a happy bear.

We had met up with a few other volunteers Friday night and went out in Coquimbo, the town right next to La Serena. I regrete not having enough time to explore Coquimbo during the day, but maybe next time because the following night we went to Vicuña. There we booked a tour of an observatory where we saw some stars, glaxies and jupiter through a moderately sized telescope. It was a midnight, and it ended around 3 so we were all exhausted by the end. But this town had sooo many stars because it´s rarely every cloudy. If you´ve ever been in the middle of the ocean at night and looked up, you could serriously see just as many stars in this town! You could see three different glaxisies with the naked eye! The milky way and two others that were just forming. Thanks to the tour, I also finally realized why you can´t see the big dipper or the north star...I´d been searching. Also, the Orien I´d been seeing is actually flipped upside down. I never noticed because I´ve always just picked out the seven stars which just so happened to be symetrical.

I think our hostel owner in Vicuña is worth mentioning because he gets a coolest guy award. So we already hasseled him before meeting him by changing our reservation maybe 3 times. But he was so nice about it. Originally from Buenos Aires, his parents were Spanish. And upon meeting me, he immediately tells me I am beautiful and that Marc should be careful because they will steal me away in Buenos Aires. He later makes comments on wanting to kidnap Marc as well, after lovingly kissing him hello and goodbye. Usually, a handshake is the norm between men, but close friends and relatives will kiss on the cheek. El era un buen onda! Also, he wins best hostle award. The beds were so comfortable with actual sheets and comfortors, and the breakfast was the best hostle breakfast I´ve ever had! Real coffee, natural juice, eggs prepaired by request, fruit, cereal, and of course pan, but with a choice of three different jams! Unheard of! And all for about $20 a night, which is a bit pricey for hostles, but this wasn´t your typical hostle.

The next day we explored Vicuña a bit and checked out the Gabriella Mistral Musieum. Gabriella Mistral was the other Nobel prize winning poet from Chile. She was also a teacher in Vicuña, so we saw her tiny little house. Next stop, PISCO ELQUI! Pisco, Chile´s national liqure is like a brandy but made from specific grapes called pisco. Elqui valley is where pretty much all the country´s pisco is grown and produced. So it was only fitting to visit the king of Pisco´s distillery, Mistral. I can´t tell you much about the tour because I was feeling under the weather and not able to concentrate on Spanish that day, but from what I gathered growing the grapes is pretty much the same process as any vineyard, and the distilling process is pretty much the same as any whisky distillation.

We had one more night (Halloween) which was spent pretty laid back in la Serena and the next day we had to catch our bus back to Copiapó. It was really weird to think that it was my last weekend traveling in Chile. I only had three weeks left in Copiapó, then what?

Well, I have travel plans pretty much planned out until January. My program ends November 24th, from there I have 2 weeks to travel the south of Chile with a fellow Chicagoland chica from the program. From there we fly to Lima and meet Marc and his friend to do some hiking! Machu Pichu and Colca canyon. From there we´re flying back to Santiago, spending Christmas with a friend of Mallory´s (my cousin) and then I think I´m going to try and make it to Buenos Aires for NYE and try and find something to do there to stay a little longer. If I can get the visa situation figured out, I may be able to add a trip to Brazil with Marc, but that´s still an if. We´ll see what happens, I´m going to be drifting for awhile, but I think I´m ready for that!

San Pedro de Atacama

A couple of weekends ago I traveled to San Pedro de Atacama with Marc and Erin where we met up with more six month volunteers from Marc’s program. In total there were eight of us, seven girls and Marc. Oh! And super crazy small world story, one of the girls was from Fort Wayne! She went to Cantebury and knows the Muttons. She graduated a year before me from Indiana. Aint that a small world? Imagine meeting someone from your small hometown in the middle of the driest desert in the world...yep I did!

Anyhoo, San Pedro, it’s super cool! It was a little expensive, but cool non-the-less! So I live in Copiapo, it’s on the southern outskirts of the Atacama Desert. San Pedro de Atacama is smack dab in the middle of the desert, and it took us 10 hours by bus to get there. Mostly because there is no direct road straight into the desert, we had to go out of our way a little to get there. San Pedro is what I was expecting when they told me I was going to the desert, completely desolate, with just sand and mountains for miles. I don’t think anyone actually lives in San Pedro and it exist solely for tourist perposes. The bus station was basically a curb with some benches and the town itself existed of a few hostels and one main road that contained restaurants, tourist shops and tourist agencies. There were so many tourist agencies! I don’t know how they all survive with all the competition.

The first day we were in town, we decided to take tour to see some flamingos that lived in the middle of this huge salt flat! It was called Salar de Atacama. The flamingos were pretty cool, we also saw llamas and donkeys! We watched the sunset in ¬¬the Los Flamencos National Reserve and headed back into town for an early night because we decided to do an early morning tour to see the geysers of Tatio, which was about an hour away. The tour started at 4 am and the reason you have to get up so early is because the morning is the best time to see the geysers. It was sooo cold in the moring, there was one point where I thought my toes might freeze off, but within an hour or two, as soon as the sun rose, it started warming up immensly. The geyser tour I think was the best tour we took all weekend, it was well organized, in English and in Spanish, and lasted close to eight hours! You could swim in these hot springs, if you wanted, and then they took us to various other small towns along the way home.

I forgot to mention, Gloria had a nephew, Piere, who worked in a tourist agency in San Pedro. He was hooked us up with all of our tours and was supper great to us! That afternoon we went sandboarding in Valle de Muerte (Vally of death). Yah, like snowboarding, but in the desert! It was a little unorganized, but I had a blast. So much fun! Only problem was, you had to walk up the hill each time. The first time was a killer, don’t forget to factor in the altitude, something like 13,000 feet or so..., but it got easier each time you did it. I totally want to do it again here in Copiapo if I can somehow get my hands on a sandboard. That evening they took us to Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) to watch the sunset which was gorgeous because it throws reds, purples, and blues on the mountains as the sun sets. They even gave us a complementary Escudo (cheapest beer in Chile) to enjoy the sunset with.

By the next day, I’m running low on cash, and it just so happens every single ATM in San Pedro isn’t working....so we all scrape together whatever cash we can and it’s enough for us to all go on one more tour to the hot springs of Puritama. It was a nice and relaxing day, and we got back just in time to catch our bus back to Copiapo. It was such a great weekend, I had so much fun! I would recommend it to anyone traveling through Chile.

Things I Miss the Most

• A legit capaccino. One served in a normal coffee mug without a pound of whipped cream on top. The white stuff on top is supposed to be steamed milk guys...
• Chicago style deep dish pizza
• A command of language. I really wish I didn’t sound like a five year old (actually I think I’m being a bit optimistic with that age) and could express myself better.
• Being able to walk down the street without getting whisled at or worse that kissy noise!
• Sushi. Not palta sushi, actual sushi with fish
• Joy Yee’s Bubble drinks. Taroh root with tappiaca balls... ahh that’s the stuff!
• My dog. Haha jk! I don’t have a dog, plus I could easily adopt one if I wanted.
• My family. My friends
• Jumping in the leaves. I’m sad I’m missing the red, yellow and brown leaves of fall and sweater weather.

Things in Chile I’ll Miss the most
• Copiapo
• My family
• The general hospitality/friendliness
• Cumbia
• Being adored soley for the fact that I’m foreign
• Traveling
• Pan. Haha Just kidding!
• The $1.20 massive ice cream cone from the Oriental ice cream shop
• Speaking spanish
• My fellow gringos in Copiapo
• The mountains (well technically Copiapo only has hills, but coming from the midwest they are mountains to me!)
• Piscola and Kamakazi

El Rescate de los 33

So world media has taken an interest in this human interest story and it just so happens I’m here smack dab in the middle. I thought people might be interested in reading about my thoughts as I witnessed this story from the begining. Well, I must admit I have mixed feelings about how this story has blown up. While it’s super exciting to be in the middle of it all (and I’m desperately trying to get on as many newscasts as possible) I kinda think the media has blown it up way huge, doing what journalists do to get that story. And you know that’s fine, that’s how the media works, but I think what doesn’t sit well with me is the fact that it took 17 days and contact with the miners before any world media took interest. I remember before contact trying to find article in English and usually all I could find were from small newspapers whose facts I wasn't sure I trusted because they seemed to contradict the Spanish news. But now there is a pleathera of articles to choose from such as "how the wives/girlfriends are preparing for romantic reunions with trapped miners."

And Copiapo, a small mining town who never gets any attention is eating it all up. Ok, I’m generalizing, sorry. Really, I feel like it’s the families eating it all up. The’ve been camping out at esperanza for the last two months doing who knows what? Waiting. But why? You’re men are alive and well, what is your waiting around outside in the bitter cold nights/hot days doing? I kinda just think they use this “suffering“ as an excuse not to go to work. Plus, they’re taking the kids out of school which is just kinda silly don’t you think? Marc’s got kids who haven’t been to school for 3 months now, so what are they supposed to do when they go back? No doubt they will just pass them along to the next grade. School ends in December so they probably won’t go back this year. Am I sounding a bit negative? I don’t mean to be. I just feel like there’s a different story here that will never be told.

But hell! It’s still pretty frickin cool to be in the middle of this event. History in the making baby! A bunch of my friends are getting job offers to translate or give quotes. BBC, some Canadian news company, and even a German broadcast contacted one of my friends here. I just wanna get on CNN. Heading to the plaza now, we’ll see what we can do.

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.“