Ciao Suramérica

San Pedro: FANTASTIC.
Jaimie: 30!
Homeward bound: T-9 hours.

I'll see you in the tundra!

Ole

Here, as promised, is visual proof that I have been living in Chile for the past few months.

But first, Peru, the final final chapter:
Can we talk about this breakfast for a minute?

World's best billboard:

Chile! It's okay to be jealous.

Easter Island moai (what's the singular of moai, I wonder?). Yes, I do get "Easter Island Head" stuck in my head whenever I pass this. (Really, it's a problem. I pass this almost every day.)

Jaimie and lil Eleanor:

Eleanor dressed herself this day:

A few of my babies and Tia Caroline (we were learning about clothes):

Christine!

Valparaiso!

Acensor (funicular) in Valpo:

Pablo Neruda's house on the left:

Park of the Poets (I love this city):

Sandboarding in Concon:

This is what it's supposed to look like. (Sorry for the obnoxious music.)
This is what it looked like when we tried:

And finally, Dad, this one's for you:

And now, bed. Off to San Pedro de Atacama in the morning!

1. I tried to steal Christine's pictures. It wouldn't let me post them. I will assess the situation and try again.

2. Happy to say that I am 100% recovered from last week's stomach episode.

3. Chilean Thanksgiving was a huge success! Especially Jaimie's deep dish apple pie (the deep dish part was kind of because we didn't have a pie pan and used a casserole dish instead). No kuchen de manzana for us. (The kuchen always looks so good, and then you realize that it's mostly bread.)

4. Recent triumphs in language:
a. Successfully buying a tapestry needle. This involved miming and repetition of the word grande.
b. Having a somewhat clever comeback to an obnoxious menu-pusher (not clever enough to bother repeating here, but clever enough to make me grin like an idiot as I walked away).
c. Using the past tense (incorrectly, I'm sure) in conversation!
d. Comfortably giving instructions to the little ones in class.
e. The following conversation, held yesterday, roughly translated:

Me: Hello, please. I'm sorry. Excuse me.
Girl at bus stop: (Gives encouraging face.)
Me: I want to go to the port in Valparaiso. Do you know what bus number I need?
Girl: Where exactly?
Me: It doesn't matter. I want to be close to the metro station? I don't know.
Girl: (Slightly less encouraging face.)
Me: My Spanish is terrible.
Girl: Get on that bus.
Me: This bus?
Girl: No, that bus.
Me: That bus?
Girl: Yes.
Me: That bus. My Spanish is terrible. Thank you.

5. Tomorrow's challenge in language: haircut. Yikes. I've been thinking lately about how weird it will be to come home and be able to take communication for granted. A huge percentage of my mental space right now is occupied by properly translating things I've said poorly and imagining how to say things that I might need to say in any given situation (example: haircut). I'm going to miss that, I think. I will also miss the almost daily ridiculous things that I inadvertently say in class. Recent gems include "Put your eyes on the table" (eyes are ojos; leaves (which we were working with) are hojas) and "Look! Look! Look at the dessert!" (I had a poster. They call posters laminados. Dessert, however, is postre.)

Not that I don't say ridiculous things in English, though.

6. I am leaving this Thursday to spend the weekend in San Pedro de Atacama in the north of Chile. Check out these random Flickr photos if you want to see what I'm in for. I am super excited.

I'll write again (and post pictures if I can find my camera cable) post-adventure, but otherwise... that's pretty much the news. One more day and then one more week of lil Chilean babies, one 30th birthday party, and then I'm home. Less than two weeks. I would say something sad and melodramatic here except that I'm so excited to see you all and be home for Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Christine's visit was lovely. We explored Valparaiso, hung out at the beach, and went sand boarding in Concon. Pictures from all of these adventures are currently trapped on my camera. Boo.

Also, I realize that I've been in Chile for almost 3 months and haven't shared any pictures at all. Sorry! I'm a mess.

I hope you all had/are having a wonderful Thanksgiving, and ate approximately 2983472947283 calories worth of delicious holiday food. While I did not get to do this, I observed the holiday tradition in a very sedate way, by sitting in bed and keeping down solid food. Not too exciting, perhaps, but a huge improvement over yesterday, so I am, in fact, very grateful.

Plus, Jaimie and I were planning our Thanksgiving dinner for Saturday anyway. I fully intend to be functional and gorge-ready by then.

Only 2.5 more weeks here! Ridiculous. Warm MN up for me a little, will you?

Okay Okay Okay

Real update to come after Christine's visit. Promise. I'll have more pictures then anyway.

However, I am posting on here without being hassled once! You can be impressed if you want.

Lo Siento

Ooooooh man. I am not doing so well with this blogging thing this time. But as I return home a month from tomorrow (I haven't even mentioned that here yet, have I? But I'm sure all of you know anyway), and as I've received a little flak about this (hello, Mom and Melissa!), I'm breaking my internet silence.

Hello! I am still alive. Viña is lovely, of course. I work in a series of kindergartens and nurseries (sala cunas) in Viña, Reñaca, and Valparaíso, where I sing to babies and teach English to "big kids"--aged 3-5. My Spanish is improving dramatically, but much of the vocabulary I'm learning is child-related (moquito, for example, is the diminuitive of snot, as in, "Eleanor, let's get some paper for your moquito"). Living with Jaimie and family is wonderful and I am very grateful to them for taking care of me!

I've been doing a lot of wandering around Valparaíso during my free afternoons. Last weekend we made it to Concon up the coast to visit the sand dunes. Christine from Peru (well, from D.C., but you know) is coming to visit next week, so I'll get in a lot of touristy things then. Still hoping to make it to the north of Chile for a weekend trip. And that's a two-paragraph summary of my last 1.5 months. Photos and more satisfying narrations to come, I promise!

Ay caramba

As I begin my third week in Chile, I am finally, finally getting around to updating this thing. In my defense, the photos from my last weeks in Peru have been locked up on a dead computer since I last posted, and it didn't seem to make much sense to update this without catching up on Machu Picchu, Puno, Lake Titicaca, and Arequipa.

SO. Here we go.

Out of concern that you did not get the full cuy experience...

Splitting one three ways was definitely the way to go. And to be honest, I let Patrick and Christine carry the bulk of the burden. We softened the experience with a plate of alpaca (delicious).

 But it was still fairly gruesome all around.

Almost everyone goes to Machu Picchu via train. Christine and I decided to go the cheaper and more adventurous route of "by car" (meaning by creepy uncomfortable white van). We failed to foresee the difficulties of a 9 hour car ride through winding mountain roads, and how this might affect fellow passengers with weak stomachs. Oh well; we made it to Aguas Calientes in the end, and woke up at 3:45 AM the next morning to get in line to take the bus up the mountain.

 The morning started out foggy and chilly, but cleared and warmed up later on in the day.

 The money shot. The mountain behind the city is Wayna Picchu and the reason we woke up so early--only the first 400 people in the gate each morning get to climb it. I only made it halfway up before we had to head back to our sad little van, but it was beautiful all the same.

 Goals for next time, if I am so lucky: (1) Take the train, and (2) summit the mountain.

Five of us from the TEFL program hopped a night bus down to Puno to see Lake Titicaca. Here we are at the beginning of our adventure: Christine, me, Keith, Patrick, and Katharine.

 First stop were the floating islands of Uro, man-made islands formed from something like peat covered with reeds. Apparently once a storm blew the islands into Bolivia, which caused all kinds of problems because the inhabitants didn't have visas. The islands are anchored now, however.

Our boat in between islands:

 After Uro, we hopped back on our (normal) boat and headed to Amantani Island, where we stayed the night with a host family. According to everything I'd heard, we were to expect freezing, freezing cold, no running water, and no electricity. Much of that was true, but we had an electric light in our bedroom. That felt like cheating. The danger that no one else seems to have reported lies in the cuisine on the island. After a month in Peru, we were all pretty tired of two things: rice and potatos. What did we have for lunch on the island but a slice of fried cheese (delicious) and a plate of potatos. At this distance it looks delicious again, but it was a tough meal for everyone involved.

 Ladies knitting and spinning wool. I would do fairly well here, I think.

 We climbed to the highest point of Amantani (an Incan temple to Pacha Tata, Father Earth) for the sunset.

 The next morning, we went to Taquile (note: not Tequila) Island for a delicious lunch of lake trout. Here I am with my new best friend.

 And then we headed back to Puno. There must have been some huge celebration--this street dance/procession/parade/whatever lasted the entire 6 hours we were in town that evening, with no sign of stopping as we caught our 10 PM bus to Arequipa.

 Arequipa is beautiful. It is overlooked by three volcanoes and is much more European-feeling than Cusco. Everyone goes to Arequipa to see Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world, but this was impractical for our two days in the town (this is also on the 'next time' list), so we just wandered around, went to many museums and restaurants, and enjoyed the wonderful weather.

 Arequipa's Plaza de Armas:

We also found Christine a job in Arequipa--she is a for-real TEFL teacher!

Catching up on Chile will have to wait for later, but there you have it. So long, Peru! Nos vemos.