I think I win the award for most negligent blogger.
Here is a salvaged post I rescued from my "drafts" box.
Just to fill in some spaces.
It should be immediately followed by another entry briefly highlighting the end of the program. But who knows: things in Chile often don't go as planned.
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...I have been planning to set aside some time for a well-thought-out post, but as that time may never come in the midst of final month in Chile craziness, I'm going to write what I can and hope that whoever reads will pardon any lack of organization, detail or cohesiveness.
Here is a salvaged post I rescued from my "drafts" box.
Just to fill in some spaces.
It should be immediately followed by another entry briefly highlighting the end of the program. But who knows: things in Chile often don't go as planned.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...I have been planning to set aside some time for a well-thought-out post, but as that time may never come in the midst of final month in Chile craziness, I'm going to write what I can and hope that whoever reads will pardon any lack of organization, detail or cohesiveness.
Sunday evening (40 or so days ago....) marked the end of a mostly pleasant long-weekend getaway to a more southern region of Chile, following on the heels of my mostly pleasant trip down to Santiago the weekend before. I've mentioned before that Chile is divided into 13 or 14 "regions." We live in Region II, Antofagasta--which is the second northernmost region. South of us is Region III, below that Region IV, etc... I was at first hesitant to go on the trip: there is quite a bit to do between now and November 25th when we ship out for debriefing and closing ceremonies in Santiago. We have an English Festival on the 14th of November, for which I have foolishly committed-with my very limited musical knowledge-to prepare a girls choir to sing "With or Without You" and possibly "Can't Take my Eyes off You." Then there's an essay project with the 4th level kids (h.s. seniors), applying to graduate school and my normal teaching and tutoring schedule. Then there are of course financial issues and just plain laziness that doesn't want to do anything extra.
However, in the end my buddy Bryce convinced me, so Wednesday night off we were to La Serena in Region IV of Chile. Why Wednesday night you ask? Maybe I should explain. You see, here in Chile it is the custom that for the municipal elections (mayors and councilpersons) the army occupies a couple of schools as voting centers. In places like the capital, Santiago, this means the army comes in Friday or Saturday, the vote takes place on Sunday, and the school starts up again Monday or Tuesday. For my school, on the other hand, voting means we had no classes Thursday through Tuesday: that's four school days plus a weekend.
Awesome.
At least for spontaneous vacationing purposes. For educational purposes it's kind of terrible, especially since such extended pauses are par for the course. The volunteers here have actually started to plan their traveling around such sporadic breaks in the academic schedule. Recently someone suggested a short trip to Iquique--a city to the north, but wasn't sure when we might be able to go. The response from someone else in the group was: "Well, if we just wait a few weeks, I'm sure some kind of holiday or vacation will come up." Sure enough, last week we had Friday off for "Día del Profesor" (teacher's day), where all the teachers spend the day at the beach. This week, as mentioned, two of our schools were off for the voting proceedings, and this Friday some folks are taking advantage of "Protestant Day" (Día de los evangelicos) to make their own little trip to the South.
Our own trip, as I said, began Wednesday night and was a mostly very pleasant experience...
(At this point begins heavily abbreviated version composed a month and a half later)
...mostly pleasant because it involved a fair amount of mareado (nausea) near the end there, along with unbearable periods of not passing vehicles moving at 15-20 kilometers (10-15 miles) per hour. Our driver was a rather over-cautious small town fellow under the strong impression that highways involving steady inclines are a thing not only to be handled with kid gloves, but also obstacles which justify the addition of various hours to travel-time estimates. Bryce and I had a hard time understanding why automobile travel should thus be concieved like bicycle travel, but since out encouragements that he dale! dale! (go! go!) when there were wide vehicle-passing opportunites were met with less than pleasant reception, we succummed (sp?) to putting on the headphones and checking into our own personal backseat universes.
Other than that though, things were pretty amazing. It was great to get into that green, man. The Great North, as previously mentioned, is only made attractive for human habitation due to very lucrative copper mining. The region of La Serena, on the other hand, boasts giant grape-laden valleys, beaches and attractive cities. Bryce and I were also happy to see attractive women: older than 18 and younger than 35 (a demographic rather scarce in Taltal). We were also recieved quite hositably by a teacher of Bryce's and regaled with asados, tesitos and the local sights--including an in-laws valley resort and petting zoo.
Awesome.
We also stayed in an internado, a girl's boarding school that lets out certain rooms to guests. I think we paid 5 dollars a night. Rediculous. Although it came at the cost of a little East wing-abandoned-corner-of-the-old-orphanage-maybe-there-are-spooky-things-here feeling. Bryce said it would be perfect for an Anniesque movie, or a horror movie involving foreign travelers, among other things. The awesomeness of the trip was compounded exponentially for me by the fact that we hit up a go-cart track in La Serena. One of the dudes who ran the place demolished me, but I otherwise held my own. Hugging the curves and letting rip on the stretches. Fun fun. Go-carts aren't that popular down in Chile, so they charge more, but it's made up for by the fact that you ride for about 15 minutes.
Alright peeps. Time's up. Looks like that entry concerning the last weeks will have to wait a few days, or until the next time we share a brew together. Suffice it to say that life in Chile is very pleasant, very exciting, but very relaxed right now. I just spent 2 days at Viña del Mar with some of my favorite people from the program, went to my first real casino and behaved very moderately, spent this afternoon basking on the beach (mid-summer down here now), ate some great mexican food, had a gelatto, and came back to the hostel. Tomorrow I head down towards the city-centre to spend the next two weeks working for the MC's with disabled kids (and spending as little cash as possible). Looking forward to the work, rubbing elbows with some MC's and mooning about the national library and other locales here in the capital.
My best to all. I hope you are well wherever you are.
Much Love,
Billy
(At this point begins heavily abbreviated version composed a month and a half later)
...mostly pleasant because it involved a fair amount of mareado (nausea) near the end there, along with unbearable periods of not passing vehicles moving at 15-20 kilometers (10-15 miles) per hour. Our driver was a rather over-cautious small town fellow under the strong impression that highways involving steady inclines are a thing not only to be handled with kid gloves, but also obstacles which justify the addition of various hours to travel-time estimates. Bryce and I had a hard time understanding why automobile travel should thus be concieved like bicycle travel, but since out encouragements that he dale! dale! (go! go!) when there were wide vehicle-passing opportunites were met with less than pleasant reception, we succummed (sp?) to putting on the headphones and checking into our own personal backseat universes.
Other than that though, things were pretty amazing. It was great to get into that green, man. The Great North, as previously mentioned, is only made attractive for human habitation due to very lucrative copper mining. The region of La Serena, on the other hand, boasts giant grape-laden valleys, beaches and attractive cities. Bryce and I were also happy to see attractive women: older than 18 and younger than 35 (a demographic rather scarce in Taltal). We were also recieved quite hositably by a teacher of Bryce's and regaled with asados, tesitos and the local sights--including an in-laws valley resort and petting zoo.
Awesome.
We also stayed in an internado, a girl's boarding school that lets out certain rooms to guests. I think we paid 5 dollars a night. Rediculous. Although it came at the cost of a little East wing-abandoned-corner-of-the-old-orphanage-maybe-there-are-spooky-things-here feeling. Bryce said it would be perfect for an Anniesque movie, or a horror movie involving foreign travelers, among other things. The awesomeness of the trip was compounded exponentially for me by the fact that we hit up a go-cart track in La Serena. One of the dudes who ran the place demolished me, but I otherwise held my own. Hugging the curves and letting rip on the stretches. Fun fun. Go-carts aren't that popular down in Chile, so they charge more, but it's made up for by the fact that you ride for about 15 minutes.
Alright peeps. Time's up. Looks like that entry concerning the last weeks will have to wait a few days, or until the next time we share a brew together. Suffice it to say that life in Chile is very pleasant, very exciting, but very relaxed right now. I just spent 2 days at Viña del Mar with some of my favorite people from the program, went to my first real casino and behaved very moderately, spent this afternoon basking on the beach (mid-summer down here now), ate some great mexican food, had a gelatto, and came back to the hostel. Tomorrow I head down towards the city-centre to spend the next two weeks working for the MC's with disabled kids (and spending as little cash as possible). Looking forward to the work, rubbing elbows with some MC's and mooning about the national library and other locales here in the capital.
My best to all. I hope you are well wherever you are.
Much Love,
Billy
1 comment:
So good to read a new post. Sounds like you had a great trip. Love the part about the go carts. Remember how we would always seem to stumble upon go cart tracks while we were on vacation, and then proceed to spend almost all the money we had saved for vacation at the track? What thrills!
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