A Day In the Life

            I am sitting here on a damp Tuesday evening listening to the rain fall onto the tin roof of our house along with the faint sound of my host mother humming along with crackling Chilean music coming from the radio in the kitchen. I believe she is preparing empanadas (a traditional Chilean treat), or at least I hope she is. This past weekend was another relaxing weekend at home. The rain limits the possibility of outdoor activities, but I am more than happy spending my time here at the house with the family.

            After looking back at my previous posts, I realized that I haven’t told you much about my “daily life” here in Chile. Most of what I have written about has been the big events and some of my travels. So here is a post on the things I encounter on an every day basis.

 

Welcome To English

            My classroom has become a second home for me here in Chile. The room was just recently furnished and there is still hint of the fresh mint green paint on the wall. The school really went all out for my arrival; all new windows, new chairs, a brand new teachers desk, new white board, and newly wired electricity. In the school there only 4 heaters/stoves: one in the front entryway, one in the library, one in the teachers lounge and one in my classroom. My heater is propane fueled and all the others are wood burning.

            The rest of the rooms are frigged cold for the majority of the day and it is certain that there is a group of students or teachers huddled around one of the heaters every minute of the day. With that being said… I try to keep my room open for students to stay warm while I don’t have class, which is often my favorite time of the day. This time often leads to spontaneous English lessons with students I don’t have in class, games of hacky sack, me practicing my Spanish with the students, and students asking; “Will you play music by Michael Jackson or Eminem for us?”

            All of my classes are only in English. I do not use a single word of Spanish, and my students essentially have no English knowledge, which adds a pretty interesting element to my classes. I do a lot of acting things out, and miming and I have a good time making a fool out of myself! Haha. Every class period I start with the date and “slang” of the day. So far my students know “What’s up?”, “Peace out”, “See ya”, “Yo”, “Dude”, “Buddy”, and “Awesome” amongst a few others. It is always fun to hear “What’s up Mr. Matt?” when walking down the hallway.

            The students seem to be enjoying class, and most show a lot of enthusiasm when in class. But as usual in any high school, there are a handful of students that are just way too cool for school. Karyn (the other volunteer) and I have also started an English club which many of my students have attended which allows for a more fun and informal time with the students.

 

Desayuno, Almuerzo, and Onces

            Most every morning I enjoy my breakfast (desayuno) by myself in silence while the rest of the family is still sound asleep. I cherish this time as it allows me to mentally prepare myself for each day that follows.

            Everyday, I walk home for lunch (almuerzo), which is a time that I have come to love. Most of the family comes home to warm up with a nice hot bowl of soup and a cup of coffee or tea. It is always difficult to get myself to return to work after filling my tummy plump, but this is nothing that a nice cup of instant Nescafe cant cure.

            Onces (dinner) is possibly my favorite time of the day. Onces always consists of homemade bread and coffee/tea as well as a solid conversation. It is a time for everyone to reflect on their day with the people that they enjoy most in life. Onces always starts out quiet because everyone is famished and is busy eating, but after a good 5-10 minutes the conversation starts to snowball and usually lasts for a good 1 ½ - 2 hours.

 

Cold Showers and Toilet Paperless Bathrooms

            Every day starts with the battle of getting out of my warm and toasty bed, and entering the teeth chattering air that fills the room. Kevin (the other volunteer that I share a room with) and I are fortunate enough to have our own bathroom, but there are two conditions that I have had to adjust to. The first condition is the almost guaranteed cold shower. The showers in our house are electric, and don’t generate much warm water which has lead to my mastery of the one minute shower.

            The second condition… no toilet paper in the bathrooms and you cannot flush the toilet paper. I have yet to find a bathroom in the past 1 ½ months that has its own toilet paper, so I always have a roll in my back pack. Also, the plumbing in most bathrooms is not very strong, so you are not allowed to flush your toilet paper as it often leads to clogs. In most every bathroom there is a garbage can next to the toilet for your “dirties” once your deed is done. As you can imagine, it isn’t always the prettiest sight.

 

The Lost Dogs of Chile

            For every 3 blocks you walk in Los Alamos, there is sure to be at least 2-3, what seam to be, stray dogs. I have yet to wrap my head around the whole “calle perros” (street dogs) issue, but I have come to accept them. You can walk by most without receiving any gruff, but every once in a while I’ll come along a dog that just isn’t having a good day and needs someone to take it out on. It isn’t common to be bit, but they sure do like to bark.

            Our family has two dogs of our own. Good ol’ Max and Kitty. The two of them are our guard dogs and so far they have done a good job. Apparently it usually takes them a long time to adjust to new people, but since day two or three here in Los Alamos Max and Kitty have taken a liking to me. My host parents are continuously impressed when I can just go up to both of them and start playing around with them without either of them barking or snipping at my hands.

 

So there it is... my daily life. Although I have a "regular" schedule, there are always daily surprises. I've got to get going, but I hope this post finds all of you well. Until next time… Choa! 

Below is a little birthday video for my sis Mary Beth. She turns 21 today! If you haven't wished her a happy birthday today, post a birthday message for her here. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MB!!!

How Time Flies!!!

My time here is starting to fly by!  I am really starting to feel comfortable here, and I feel that I have gotten into a rhythm. I feel like last week just started and now it is the beginning of a new week.

I am someone who really enjoys the beauty of the small things in life like a glass of arinado (wine mixed with wheat) with my host father while hanging out in the garage, or my 10 minute walk to and from school through uniquely Chilean neighborhoods, or the 1 ½ hour I have for lunch at home with my host family, or the time after dinner when we sit around the table and watch the nightly news (which I do not understand at all).

 I have also found beauty in some big things as well. Just last weekend, myself and a few of the other volunteers took a bus north to a town named Lota which is a hilly coastal town that was once the center of Chile’s coal industry. The mines closed in 1997, and as a result the town has been hit pretty hard by poverty. According to some people in Chile, Lota has some of the worst shantytowns in the country, but I found the town to be an incredible place. As a way to help improve the economy of Lota, the government has begun to train former miners to be guides for tourists in the mines. Myself and 4 other volunteers took a guided tour of one of the mines which took us 50 meters underground in a rickety old elevator. I have a great amount of respect for the people that make a living by mining. The hours are ridiculous and the work takes a hit on your body. The miners in this area have a saying that has really stuck with me: “Tengo las manos asperas, pero hay pan en la mesa” (I have hands that are rough, but there is still bread on the table).

 Thursday and Friday were pretty crazy around Los Alamos and the high school I am teaching at. Last week was the anniversary of Politecnico Caupolican #55 (the school I teach at) so we only had regular classes Monday through Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday were filled with a ridiculous amount of insane events. Imagine a high school homecoming pep-fest that lasts for 11 hours each day for two days! I think I have a permanent headache from all the screaming but it was all worth it. The days were filled with really loud music, screaming, drumming and ridiculous events like 3-legged soccer, musical chairs, singing and dancing competitions, body painting, etc. There was even a Mr. and Miss competition in which the teachers were judges of the students with the best butt, legs, abs, biceps, etc. It was a competition that I never imagined I would see at a school sponsored event. I would also like to say that I was a vital part of one of the competitions.

Through out the two days of events, there were four teams that consisted of kids from all grades. For one of the competitions, each team had to dress up a teacher. The teacher that was dressed the craziest, won the competition. Needless to say, my clown costume and bright pink wig led one of the teams to victory!

This weekend I just relaxed around Los Alamos with the family. I invited a fellow teacher friend over Friday night named Moises and we taught him and the rest of the family the card game “UNO” which they absolutely loved. Sunday was a great day. The entire family took a trip to el campo (the countryside) and all the men went crawdad/crayfish fishing. It was a ton of fun. We spent about 2 hours walking around a field searching for crawdads. They use a contraption called a “bombo” that essentially suctions the crawdad right out of the ground. It was a good Chilean male bonding experience.

            It has been raining here nearly every day for the past 10 days or so. I am in the heart of the winter in the southern hemisphere, but it isn’t really all that bad, or at least when compared to Minnesota winters. The only rough part is the lack of central heating which I will surely blog about at another time. Until then, take care and I love you all. If you have any questions for me about anything, or you would like to see a blog post about a specific topic, please let me know. Be looking for my write-ups on the crazy toilet paperless bathrooms and the cold showers. 

A Little Update

Things here in Chile are great. Each and every day is a mystery to me. Every morning when I wake up I think I have an idea of what is going to happen that day, but things never seem to go as expected. That is the beauty of living and working abroad and experiencing a completely new culture. I love it! Here is one big highlight and a few small highlights that are becoming pretty common in the life of “Mr. Matt”:

• The word “el campo” translates to “the countryside”. About a week and a half ago I hopped in a car and went out into el campo in search of a cow. My host family was helping to plan for a wedding the following weekend and they wanted to do it right, so a nice big cow for the meal was necessary. We started by stopping at a farm of some people that my host father knew, but we were soon told that they didn’t have a cow that we could buy. For the next 3-4 hours we stopped by farm after farm looking for a cow to buy and we kept hearing; “Sorry, but we don’t have one right now.” Although none of them had one for sale, they all had a “friend” down the road that they thought would probably have one for sale. None of these “friends” worked out. After our days hard work, we ended up going home empty handed. But the experience was great! It was nice to get out and see the countryside. I had a great time meeting the “country folk” and walking around the fields. It was refreshing to get out of the city. Let me tell you… the fresh milk straight from the cow is pretty good too. Warm… but delicious! (See photo above) 

• Was awoken at 5:30 am by our two fierce dogs Max and Kitty barking for hours on end right next to my bedroom window.

• Taught a lesson on “Introductions”.

• Struggled through 100 different conversations in Spanish throughout the day but still managed to communicate. I am becoming a master at miming. Haha.

• Taught a lesson on “Likes/Dislikes”

• Gave my camera to a 5 year old boy named Bastion that is always at our house. Some of the photos to the right are a result. I love giving my camera to children. The pictures are always the most memorable.

• Attended church with my host mother (Tia Iris).

• Was selected to be a judge for an English debate competition in a town on the coast named Lebu.

• Played table tennis against a student named Hector. It was a heated battle but he beat me by two points in the third game. After the game, he offered to buy me a juice from the concessions stand at school and he shared his goals and dreams for his future.

• Taught a lesson on the phrase “How are you?”

• Attended a wedding in which we stayed up to 6 am dancing.

• Attended a “Cueca” competition. The cueca is Chile’s national dance. It was incredible!

• Hitchhiked a ride to the river near town to hike around for a bit.

Life is great! 

Ummmmm ummm good!!!

As promised, here is my post about Chilean food and the crazy “completos”. When I think of fast food in the U.S., McDonalds, Burger King and Subway come to mind. In Chile, “Doggies” is unavoidable. I cant imagine a healthier meal than an enormous hotdog covered in a ton of mayo, guacamole, and tomatoes. In Chile, this is called a “completo”. Although it may not sound very good, I have to be honest, they really aren’t that bad. When I come back, I promise to make you a true Chilean completo. It will be an experience you will never forget.
In Chile, a small breakfast, a large lunch in which the whole family comes home from work, and then a small dinner also known as an “once” are very common. For breakfast, white bread and Nescafe, or as I call it “Nes-CRAP-e” are a must. Everyday, I have a 90 minute lunch break from school so that I can go home for lunch. Beans, beef, potatoes, rice, fruit, some sort of vegetable and white bread are common foods for lunch. In the U.S., we are accustomed to having large dinners. Here in Chile, a small “once” is common, which consists of white bread and tea. Notice the “white bread” theme. I think I have eaten more white bread in the last week and a half than I have in my entire 22 years of life combined!
Due to the fact that Los Alamos is pretty close to the ocean, a lot of sea food is consumed in this region. “Mariscal” is a delicious soup of sea food which consists of clams, oysters and a mixture of other sea food. I have also had the pleasure of walking around a few fresh fish markets that have creatures that I have never seen before. Let me tell you… there are some really crazy looking sea animals out there. I will attached some photos of the fresh fish markets at a later date.
A little side story… I am currently sitting in the teachers lounge writing this blog post. In order to spell “mariscal” correctly, I asked one of the other teachers. The rest of the teachers proceeded to inform me that mariscal is an aphrodisiac, and the rest of the male teachers then pointed to their “man areas” and then pointed upwards! As if telling me that mariscal is an aphrodisiac was not weird enough! Haha. I couldn’t help but put that little side story in this blog, but crazy things that catch me off guard are starting to become a norm for me here in Chile.
All in all, Chile has been treating me very well. The Chilean people have been incredible warm and welcoming. I could not ask for a better host city, host school and host family. That is all for now… tonight I will be attending a “cueca” competition for the entire community of Los Alamos. “Cueca” is the national dance of Chile so it should be great to experience a truly traditional Chilean activity.

The Ultimate Rivalry!

After all the delicious soups, and bread have been consumed, sitting around the dinner table and chatting all night  is a very typical winter evening for Chilean families. After all, without central heating, why wouldn’t you sit next to the only wood burning stove in the house.

            Monday night started as usual. We got home from school around 7:30 pm, and sat down for a nice warm meal. After filling our bellies until we couldn’t have anymore, someone made the mistake of bringing up professional soccer in Chile. The next 45 minutes were chaos!

             Here in Chile, there are two major professional soccer teams. Colo Colo, and University de Chile and they are arch rivals. The Yankees vs. the Red Sox, Duke vs. UNC or the Packers vs. Chicago Bears rivalries do not even compare. My host father, an U de Chile fan, even stooped low enough to say that all of the fans of Colo Colo are poor bastards and are the lowest of the low in Chile. The chaos was a result of my host father, mother, and brother being U de Chile fans, and my host sister and the other three teenagers in the house being Colo Colo fans.

Both sides were trying to convince us to be fans of “their” team. My host father even pulled out his U de Chile jersey and coffee mug so that I could take a picture with the jersey and mug hoping that this would help me side with his team.

After listening to each sides arguments, which were being screamed at the same time, I made the easy decision… I sided with my host mother and father. After all, they are the ones that put a roof over my head and feed me, so I figured I should get on their good side. So in the end… I am now an U de Chile fan! 

Los Alamos!

             It has already been three weeks since I have arrived here in Chile. Myself and the other volunteers have now finished our orientation and we are all in our host cities. On Saturday, I hopped on a bus to a small city called Los Alamos not knowing who would be waiting to pick me up. When I arrived, my host family and a few of the teachers from my school were waiting for me with a sign saying; “Welcome to Los Alamos!” As soon as I saw the sign, I knew everything would be great.

Myself and two other WorldTeach volunteers are living with the same host family. The family has been incredibly welcoming and have taken great care of us. Our mother, Iris, stays at home and takes care of her granddaughter named Barbarita who is the cutest thing in the world (after Emily Elizabeth Johnson of course). Our host father Luis is an inspector at the school in town, which means that he deals with the discipline issues. We also have a sister named Sandra who is 27 years old and also teaches at the school and a brother named Matias who is 17 years old and is a student at our school. There are also three other teenage students that live at our house during the week and then go home on the weekends through a government funded program.

            Sunday was spent walking around town with our father Louis. The town is small but seems to be a great place to spend the next 4 months. Yesterday, we got to see our school for the first time. It is very nice and the teachers we will be working with are wonderful. They all seem very excited to have us here, and it seems as if they would bend over backwards to help us with anything. I will be teaching secondary students which is the United States equivalent to grades 9-12. I have my own classroom which will allow me to have my own little space at the school. This week I am going to spend my days observing classes and lesson planning which will help me get ahead.

            My Spanish skills are getting better, but very slowly. Come December, my Spanish-English dictionary is going to be pretty worn out. I hope to learn a lot but it is difficult when you start from ground zero. I guess I just have to keep trying.

 

Ciao 

Greetings from Chile! I have now been here in Santiago for nearly two weeks. For those of you that do not know, I am here to volunteer as an English teacher through an organization called WorldTeach. The organization was started by some Harvard graduates and they place volunteer teachers all over the world and Chile is one of their programs.
So… on July 15, myself and 21 other volunteer teachers arrived in Santiago to begin our orientation. Our days have been full of teacher training which has been a great learning experience. I am receiving TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) training which has been pretty difficult but very fun. The other volunteers in our program are great and I have had a ton of fun getting to know them. I will spend one more week in Santiago for orientation, and then off to my host family and host school. I will be located in the Bio-Bio region which is just south of the Santiago region. I am looking forward to meeting my new family and getting started with my teaching position.
Chile is an incredible country with a lot to offer. Although I have not had much time to explore beyond the capital city of Santiago, Chile seems to be an outdoor enthusiasts dream. I cant wait to begin to see the countryside.
I plan to keep this blog updated every so often so please send me your comments. I would love to hear from all of you. Be looking for a blog post about Chileans obsession with hotdogs covered with massive amounts of tomatoes, guacamole and mayonnaise. Mmmm Mmmm Goooood!!!!