...gratitude...

I'm continuously finding that when the little things in life never cease to amaze, there is a lot to marvel at and be grateful for.

I found a quote today by Denis Waitley that sums it all up:

"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude."

Couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks Denis.

Today was a special day at work - for the simple fact that I stayed an extra hour to sing songs and listen to my talented students jam on their guitars. I feel so blessed and grateful to be alive right now just beause of experiences like that where words aren't necessary - only goodwill and music.

The picture to the left is from yesterday, Tuesday, when IOM (my school) celebrated Día del Libro with music, dance and literature. This band was put together by the music teacher, Javier (on the far left) with some of the more musically talented seniors. Marcos, a junior, then stunned the crowd with his heart-wrenching violin solo.

These are some of my sixth grade students being VERY successful at making creepy faces. Haha, they never cease to amuse me.

My class at the institute also went really well this week. The two laughter-filled hours flew by and concluded with plans for one of the upcoming weeks to go out for sushi after class.

How blessed I am.

This weekend I am headed to La Serena, a coastal town about five hours north of Santiago. La Serena is the third oldest city in Chile after Santiago and Arica and boasts many buildings constructed from wood brought over from non other than Oregon state. The wood was used to counterweight the ships coming from the US before they were loaded with copper and other minerals in Coquimbo (a nearby port city).

I'm going with my two Kiwi friends who live downstairs. These New Zealanders are so much fun .. don't know if all are but man, these girls have a wicked sense of humor. Kristina's student, Gonzalo is leaving the country for awhile to work abroad and coincidentally, one of his friends also has a birthday right about now ... which calls for a big fiesta in La Serena. Ok by me!

This picture is from an asado (BBQ) at Gonzalo's house on Satuday night. Some of the same crew will be going to La Serena. Kristina is the one front and center clutching her wine glass and Gonzalo is the second from the left with the green shirt on.

Last Sunday, we rode a funicular up Cerro San Cristobal, which is a must see for any visitors to Santiago. Cerro San Cristobal boasts Santiago's largest public park, a 22 m statue of the Virgin Mary donated from France in the 1920's, the city's best mote con huesillo (a national drink) and spectacular views of the entire bustling valley. Many diehards ride their bicycles up the 5.2 km (about 3 miles) road so that they can cruise down at break-neck speeds. Kathryn and I are interested ... I promise I'll wear a helmet, Dad!

An upcoming post will be about my culinary experiences and adventures in Chile... get excited.

From Riches to Rags

My Hollywood stardom at Instituto O'higgins de Maipú has gone sour.

Did you know that the difference between 'I fell' and 'I pooped my pants' in Spanish is almost nonexistent?

Well, I didn't.

And I commited a very grave error in explaining the story behind the remnants of my battle wounds from our hiking adventure on Sunday.

This is what I thought I said, "Me caí."

And this is what those little devils heard, "Me cagué." (The 'g' is silent in Spanish)

That was on Monday and today ... five days later!... one of the English teachers told me she heard about my accident and that the students "me reiron demasiado"... meaning they laughed about it ... A LOT. And are still laughing.

Well, what can ya do?

I suppose at some point, a language blunder was bound to happen. And while now I may not be known as the movie star, at least they will remember me for something... *laughs nervously*, right?

Hahaha, no, in reality ... I actually think it's quite amusing and a bit hilarious. Thank goodness I am able to laugh at myself. The kids know I'm still working on my Spanish and they know (God, I hope they do...) that I didn't actually poop my pants and as a result, receive a spiderweb of cuts up and down my arm.

Dolly Parton, being the wise lady that she was, once said, "As I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."

... as reported from an American celebrity downgraded to the girl that pooped her pants.


In other news, I am now working at that institute I wrote about a while ago. I teach adult conversation classes for two hours every Tuesday night. The three students; Guillermo, Pía and Mauricio, all speak near perfectly and are taking the class solely so they don't lose their fluidez. They are all around my age, love the outdoors and have many tales of their extreme sporting accidents.

Mauricio, for example, was in a coma for two weeks after he found out what happens when a snowboarder hangs onto a snowmobile over large jump. He said that being in a coma was like being in a half-awake dream-like state. He remembers who stood by his side while he was in the hospital and what they said. The turning point for him waking up was his friend studying out loud and reciting his law school notes over and over to Mauricio. Apparently Mauricio had enough of the law school mumbo jumbo and wanted his friend to shut it ... enough so to rouse him from the coma!

Amazing.

It´s not Spanish ... es Castellano!

On the language:

Chile is the first country I´ve been to that insists they don´t speak español. Disculpa, they speak castellano. Which essentially is Spanish; just with a different title.

Castellano, which is Castilian in English, is preferred in Chile due to the association with español and the somewhat bitter reference to Spain (stemming from the days of conquistadors). Castellano is derived from the Castile region of Spain and is distinct from Galician, Basque and Catalan; the other languages spoken in Spain.

Spanish speakers in Latin America prefer castellano because it doesn´t have any geological or political links. It's similar to us English speakers calling the language Spanish.

The 1978 Spanish Constitution goes as far as defining castellano as the official and preferred language of the Spanish state.

When I say I speak español here in Chile, people say very definitively, "We don´t speak español. We speak castellano."

Chile photo credit: http://www.chilecontact.com/jpgs/fotos/indice/chile_conozca.jpg

On Obama:

The other day, Obama made the front page of the free daily newspaper here in Santiago, La Hora.

...because Bo, his new Portuguese Water Dog wasn't adopted from an animal shelter.

As my mom pointed out, could you see Bachelet (the female president of Chile) making the front page of a newspaper in the United States? If something pivitol happened that affected the U.S. or the world ... yes. But for her choice of a man's best friend ... no.

Onto personal matters:

We went out with the doctors we met at the castle on Friday night. They took us to a nice bar up in Las Condes (the wealthiest neighorhood in Santiago). We spent the night telling stories about travel adventures and funny experiences. Considering they are both doctors, at some point in the night, we all ended up sharing our enfermedades with each other.

Translated to another language, the enfermedades always come out a bit differently. For example, Gustavo began by saying in English, "I have yellow skin." Kathryn followed by stating in Spanish, "I go blind when I take steriods." The doctors then came up with fancy words for the condition, ending in lots of -itis´s. Anyone that´s Dad is a doctor or knows a doctor personally can attest to them always diagnosing people with conditions. Hahahah, love you Dad!

On Saturday, we went to a Salsa show ... or so we thought it was going to be.

One of my good friends here, Kristina, had her mother visit over the weekend from New Zealand. We thought it would be nice to take her to a salsa show and figured that asking our landlords (who are professional dancers) where the best show is would be a good idea.

We forgot that they have very flamboyant taste.

The show was more something out of Moulin Rouge ... minus the glitz, glamour and class. It was a burlesque cabaret complete with male and female thongs and lots of winding and grinding. We definitely got an eyefull. It began with a male dressed as a female strutting out on stage to serenade us with belting Cuban ballad. If that gives you any idea of what it was like. Perhaps these pictures can clarify ...


On Sunday, we went hiking ... ahem, I mean mountain climbing with the doctors. There were moments when we were literally clasping onto boulders for dear life. We left for the hike too late in the day and ended up having to climb down in the dark. I returned home to be bandaged up by our landlords. Nothing serious ... more what I would refer to as ´battle wounds´.

The view at the top, however, was worth whatever trouble we ran into getting up and down. The front view was of the entire Santiago valley nestled into the rocky hillsides that embrace the city. Behind, the glistening snowcapped mountains twinkled in the afternoon sun, where los estaciónes de esquí are located.

All in all, it was quite the weekend.

I feel more tired today than I did when the weekend started. I suppose that´s what the week is all about ... resting up for whatever adventures lie ahead on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

With that, I leave you to rest up ... because we have quite a weekend ahead of us.

Pascua y I´m famous!!

The extent of our Easter in Chile was going to the grocery store at 8 p.m. on Sunday and buying chocolate eggs at 30% off then spending the next three hours with girlfriends gabbing about the weekend.



While Chile is largely a Catholic country, the proceedings seemed far more under-stated than in Spain. More than anything, this weekend seemed to be about la gente escaping the city for the last sun-filled weekend of late summer/early fall. Walking around the streets of Santiago on Friday, Saturday and Sunday was eery, as everything was closed and the normally bustling streets were desolate.



It would probably be different if I lived with a Chilean family. Our landlords are gay and go against the grain of anything traditional. Easter to them was just another day of the week. We exchanged Easter grab-bags on Wednesday evening and they said it was the first time they´d ¨celebrated¨Pascua.



On another note, today in Paula´s 8th grade class, we were working on too many (used for things that can be counted) vs. too much (used for uncountable things) and enough. We were describing our cities using these words so I gave a short presentation on where I´m from and what my life is like in the United States.

I showed them pictures on the internet of the United States, Seattle and then I googled myself to show them an Education Abroad video I was in for Washington State University and a picture of myself, Chelan and Doris from the Farm to Market Bakery that was in a Seattle newspaper.

This followed with the class class proclaiming excitedly, ¨You´re famous!!!!!¨ They were quite serious. As soon as the Ed Abroad video finished, they stood up and applauded wildly. They now have a reverence for me as if I´m a Hollywood celebrity that starred in a blockbuster film. I was chatting with Paula after class and she said, ¨My cousin is famous in the United States too¨ ... apparently her cousin designs clothes that Michelle Obama has worn.

Famous. Me? No.

Paula´s cousin. Famous? Yes.

Hahahah... I don´t know if I should milk this famous thing for all it´s worth, as I probably won´t ever be called famous again or if I should insist that being featured in a five minute Education Abroad video for WSU is something fairly commonplace and nothing to get excited over.

You know how kids are too. By tomorrow, there´s probably going to be a mad rumor flying around that Instituto Bernardo O´higgins has a movie star hard at work teaching Ingles to the kiddies.


On another ´nother note ... we went to the Castle again for the first time in awhile. Mucho éxito. I met an aspiring orthopaedic surgeon. I might just have to kidnap his handsome self and take him back to the States to work with my Dad. Se llama Tomas. Just in case you see any headlines concerning a kidnapped surgeon named Tomas, you´ll know it was me.

La vida sigue...

I apologize for falling behind on the posting. My aim is to post about twice a week ... and it's definitely been over a week since I last posted.

With the Belles living in the apartment, the pace of life has picked up about ten notches. More so than that, it's like having two muskateers beside me from the second I walk in the door to when I collapse in my bed at night. I'm definitely not complaining; it's nice to feel like part of a team. However, it makes me realize how important it is for me to not get side-tracked and let go of personal matters important to me. I haven't made it to the gym as much as I would have liked and, as you've seen, I've slacked off on posting in my blog.

That's the beauty of a new sun rising everyday ... an ever-present opportunity to learn from the past and do it right this time around.

Here are some pictures of my students:

This class is 6C, one of my favorites. They are full of energy, love, light and happiness.

Last weekend, on April 4, we went to a wine festival and national rodeo in Rancagua, a town about an hour south of Santiago.

Chilean wine is like the underdog who swoops from behind to win first prize. You wouldn't expect it to be so dang good, as France, Spain and Napa Valley seem to be the topic of wine conversation. But oh no - don't be fooled. Chilean wine is just as good, if not better and at a fraction of the price. I bought a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc at the grocery store a few weeks ago for $890 pesos, which is less than $1.50 US. It was something to write home about - which is precisely what I'm doing right now.... hahaha.

We thoroughly enjoyed the wine festival. For $3,000 pesos (about $5.00 US), you get your very own copa and four glasses of wine. At one in the afternoon, with the hot Chilean sun shining down on us, we were doing more than good. The air emanated with smoke from the plethora of grills decorating the tent-fronts of the festival aisles. The skewers, ceviche, tacos, churipan, kuchen, kebabs, empanadas and pastel de choclo were just beckoning to be devoured. We didn't waste any time.

The rodeo was another story. The horses were beautiful, the huasos (cowboys) were decked out in their full garb and the grounds were picturesque. We, however; did not understand the art of chasing a poor bull around the arena and plowing it into the railing until it fell over with pain and broken bones. I was glad I went, as it was a cultural experience but an hour and a half was enough.

On Sunday, we had a personal tour of La Moneda by one of the guards. We were very fortunate to have been inside as many Chileans haven't yet made it in. I can accredit this stroke of luck to the Belles' charming beauty, as they had been two weeks earlier to seduce Pedro (the poor unsuspecting guard) into giving us a tour.

La Moneda is the presidential palace where Bachelet (the FEMALE (!!) president of Chile) does all her work and where all the laws are passed. It's pretty much the White House of Chile, minus the fact that the presidents no longer live there. We were able to go into a room where just earlier that week, Vice President Biden had been in to meet with Bachelet. This stately building was also where Salvador Allende either committed suicide or was murdered (depending on who you hear the story from) at the start of the Pinochet revolution in the 1970's.

It's Easter weekend and we have tomorrow off from school. The majority of people are going away this weekend. I may go away with Kristina, Laura, Julia, Mauriano and Felipe (landlord and friends) to a tranquil beach north of Santiago if it's inexpensive enough. If not, I may stay in the city and enjoy the slendors of city life.

I wish you all a very happy and fulfilling Easter!