Cafecito

Andrés and I love going to cafés together. Not necessarily because I'm addicted to coffee (because I'm not) and not even because he likes coffee (because he really doesn't), but because we love the atmosphere and spending time together in this way. When we were apart, I really missed being able to do this with him. In Concón where we live, there aren't many cafés and so we always end up going to Valparaíso to indulge in this treat. Valparaíso is a big, colorful, port city it's  called the patrimonio cultural de la humanidad- meaning cultural patrimony of humanity. Basically, it has a LOT of Chilean culture. At one café we received a map that listed a bunch of others and our plan is to visit each one and cross them off on the map as we go.


Last week after work on Friday, Andrés came and picked me up and we went back to the first café we had ever gone to together. Two years ago we went with our friends John and Kayla when we had a free day from Spanish classes. The café is called el Desayunador which I translate into "the  Breakfaster," but they call it "Permanent Breakfast." I like my translation better. We ate once (pronounced own-say) there and it was super rico (really good). The only thing I didn´t like was there were so many gringos there! Seriously, the Chileans were really outnumbered. Most times, unless I´m homesick, I like to go to be one of the only gringos so I'm more immersed in Chileanness... or at least that's what I tell myself the reason is. 


Here are the photos of our lovely afternoon together. In case you ever visit, I ordered the Once Chilena and Andrés got the Once Tradicional.

When we were with John and Kayla, we sat at the table behind Andrés

This mural of Valparaíso takes up one whole wall

Just our coffees and desserts- yum!

Andrés' cafe con leche

This traditional dessert is called mote con huesillos. It´s a rehydrated peach in juice with wheat kernels.

I actually ended up only getting hot chocolate.

Andrés' meal- homemade!

My dessert was manzana asada. An apple cooked in wine with vanilla ice cream.

My once, also homemade.

And through the window we got to watch workers building a new cobblestone street. Very interesting.

Ending on a funny note, the worker bent over had a plumber's butt tan line! It was pretty funny, but also I can imagine why so many construction workers have bad backs and knees.

Mira, flores!

Hello lovely readers! I know I've been gone for awhile a month(!) and I'd like to get back to blogging soon. It's just that I got sick at the end of October and I'm not even totally over it yet. Plus I have two new classes to teach (yippee!). So until I come back with some more words and stories for you, I figured I could at least leave you with some beautiful pictures. These are from Valle Alegre, a countryside about 40 minutes from Concón where Andrés' family has purchased some land and are planning on building a house there in the next couple of years. Right now they're just building the important stuff- a bbq pit, a cabin that is really just a kitchen with a large firepit for cooking, a pool, etc. Oh yeah. I like the way they think. Anywho, these are pictures from the beautiful wildflowers currently populating the land there. Enjoy.

Did you notice the person in this one? hehe

Anyone know, is this a type of lily? I think so.

Love these ones. Barreness mixed with beauty.

Say What?!

As an English-speaker in Chile, I sometimes see things here that make me do a double take but wouldn´t turn the head of a Chilean. I´d like to share the funniest ones so far with you.

Nutritious PLACENTA conditioner for your hair

Ass beef, yum.

I think I´ll stick to my piña coladas

An Inside Peek

My dad has been asking me for weeks to put up pictures of what the house and neighborhood I live in are like. Well I haven´t quite gotten all the pictures of that yet, but I thought I could give a sneak peek with what my bedroom looks like. I have to say that Andrés´ family has been amazing. I am the tenth person living in this house and I´m one of the only ones that has a bedroom to herself. I am very grateful for everything the family´s done for me and to welcome me into their home- including preparing this room for me! Andrés´ brother M gave up this room and moved in with him so I could have it, and then pretty much everyone in the family helped Andrés get it re-painted and fixed up before I got here. So here it is!

This is the pretty bedspread Andrés surprised me with

This is the outside of the closet that Andrés designed and then we built it together. It´s nice having an engineer for a boyfriend.

This is the inside, with all of my stuff

This is the view from my bed. This is the first time I´ve ever had a TV in my room. And almost the first time I´ve ever had cable (I had it for nine months in college). I feel spoiled.

And this is my desk. Tricked you! We actually switched this desk for the one Andrés´ room tonight (because it had a better bookshelf) and so my desk no longer looks like this. But you get the picture anyways.

I Work Hard for the Money

I know I told you in the last post, but in this one I can fully rejoice with you- I have officially entered the Chilean working world!!! I have now taught four classes at the Navy and two clases particulares (tutoring). I´ll start with the Navy. I was first told that I would have 11 students, then it went down to 10 and yet only 7 show up every class. One of the three who had never come before finally came last class and after missing only three he´s still quite behind the others. The men are all older than me, I would say between 28 and 55 years-old and they are all officers. They´re all very polite and most are very eager to learn- I would say they are an excellent first class to have. I teach them three days a week for two hours at a time and earn about $10/hour of which 10% will be taken out for taxes. The only slight drawback is that it´s quite a commute. With the micro (bus), it takes me about an hour to get there and then an hour and a half to get home (it takes more time on the return due to rush hour traffic). So if you take that $20 for every class to cover the two hours of teaching, the two and a half hour commute and the hour of lesson planning, it´s not $10/hour anymore. But I´m still thanking the Lord and the institute because I´m very greatful for this work and for something to fill my time. And I´m also praying and hoping that the institute will have some openings for more classes come up.


Now about my clases particulares. These are tutoring sessions and very soon I´m going to start posting flyers and such in public to advertise my mad English skills. But I already have two people I´m tutoring. One is a precious little five-year-old girl named J. J is only in kindergarten but she loves what she´s learned so far of English so her parents want to encourage her in that. She really reminds me of my niece P who is just a year older and who I´ve been told has the same desire to learn Spanish. I´ve had one class with J so far which went well, and there´s just two things I need to remember for next time- don´t expect to cover too much and to add in some more fun activities. Little girls cannot sit still at a table for an hour! I also have started tutoring a man (also with the initial J) who is this girl´s uncle and wants to learn for business purposes. I think we made progress in our first class and I think it will be interesting in the future coming up with his class material. It´ll be a challenge, but a good one I think.


And this brings me to my work visa. Now that I´m working, I have to have a visa. And I got it today! I had to go to the Extranjeria (Foreigner´s Office) twice and had to wait about an hour in line, but it wasn´t that bad. Especially since the visa was FREE! I think when I went to Austria I had to pay a pretty penny for my student visa, so this was a nice surprise. It also feels like an accomplishment because I went to the Extranjeria all by myself! Well, Andrés actually dropped me off, but he didn´t come in with me (he had to go take a final) and I was able to communicate my needs without any help. Whoohoo. Now this does mean that I don´t know what all the paperwork I was given is for, but I do know that I have my work visa that is valid for four months and that is what is most important.

My work visa! (All important and personal information hidden of course)

The other paper they gave me- I´m not quite sure what it´s for. It says something about residency...

After receiving my visa, I decided I wanted to celebrate by going to Starbucks for the first time in Chile. I have to say that it was worth it, but that Starbucks will be a once every three of four month treat- it´s so expensive! I got a grande white mocha, which admitedly is one of the most expensive drinks on the menu, but I did it for my mom. Well not for her, but to remember her and reminisce because it´s her favorite drink. When we´re together we usually share one. So I leave you with photos from my first Starbucks adventure here, a little piece of home. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and my work situation up until now. I REALLY appreciate it and feel free to keep those prayers coming.

Holy cow! 2750 pesos, that´s about $5.50!

Here´s my nonfat white mocha WITH whip cream :)

Here´s my cup with my name in all it´s glory! Many gringas have trouble with the baristas not understanding their names, but thankfully my name translates easily in Spanish- it´s the same!

What a Month!

It´s already October! And not just October 1st, but the 11th. Where has time gone? And why have I not blogged about it? I honestly thought when I got here that I would be writing posts all the time to keep my family and friends updated. It´s not that I´m so busy that I have no time to write, although there have been a few days like that, mostly it´s just that when I do have time I prefer to spend it with Andrés instead of on the computer. I seriously think I´m on the internet less than I´ve ever been in the past 8 years! So here´s an update on what´s been happening here in my corner of Chile in the past month- all the stuff I meant to blog about but never did. :)

• During the second week of September Andrés and I went to Santiago to finish getting my degree legalized. You can see how the process started here, and now I´m happy to say that it is all taken care of! I´ve heard about how long lines can be here, so I was planning on possibly having to wait a couple of hours to get a piece of paper stamped, but it took only TWO MINUTES! That´s 90 seconds of standing in line and 30 seconds to have a man stamp and sign my diploma. We had taken the bus to Santiago instead of driving- it saved us about $20 in gas money and it was a fun adventure. But that also meant that we had a lot of free time in Santiago now that the line was so short. We wandered Santiago Central for awhile, found lunch, rested in a plaza and then met up with two friends from college, Kathleen and Phil, for happy hour. It was so nice to see some familiar faces and talk about old times.
• A month ago today was September 11th. That day meant three things for me: the tenth  anniversary of 9/11, also the anniversary of the 1973 coup d´etat here in Chile, and the birthday of Andrés´ best friend Carol. It was a little weird to be here in Chile when it was the tenth anniversary of 9/11 because although I didn´t really hear anybody talking about it in person, it was all over the television. Multiple cable channels had specials on it. I made sure to say some prayers for the victims, families and my country. September 11th is also an infamous day in Chile for their own reason- the coup d´etat. Why do bad things seem to happen on this day? Usually there are riots on this day, but I didn´t hear about much and I definitely didn´t see anything, maybe because it was a Sunday. The really good thing about this day is that it was Carol´s birthday! We went over to her house and celebrated in a typical Chilean way with her friends and family and had a BBQ, drinks and cake.
• I think I briefly mentioned before a prayer request for the son of my host mother. When I came to Chile the first time, I stayed with a wonderful woman named Mónica. She took good care of me and when I arrived I was looking forward to spending lots of time with her. Unfortunately that hasn´t been able to happen yet because she has been at the hospital non-stop visiting her son, David. On August 3rd David had a series of six heart attacks due to a hereditary heart problem and has been in the ICU ever since. He is breathing on his own now, but I believe he is still in a coma and has little brain activity. Please, please, PLEASE pray for him and his family. That if it is God´s will, He will bring David back to his family, and for the family´s suffering. I have been able to visit twice and next time I´ll make sure to tell David of your prayers, thank you.
• Of course during the middle of September we celebrated Fiestas Patrias!
• I finished up my cuecas lessons and proved my cueca skills the first weekend of October. Just like I showed you Andrés´ dancing, I´ll try and post a video later of me. I was a little nervous so I wasn´t as good as I could have been, but I have to say that I did well for a foreigner! Also, I was very touched at how proud both Andrés and my profesor were of me. It made me feel very loved.
• I have gotten the itchies quite badly twice now. They come and I can´t stop scratching for a few days, then they slowly fade and come back a week or two later. And although we´re not positive, our best guess is that they are an allergy to the laundry detergent. So we´re going to try a new brand and see if that fixes it. Hopefully I´ll be getting some health insurance sometime soon and maybe be able to go to the doctor if they don´t stop.
• Also, during this time Andrés has returned to school! After over 100 days of striking, classes are back in action for him. I will write a longer post later, but the gist of things is that the strike is still going on, but so that the students don´t lose their school year classes are also taking place at the same time. Andrés had three weeks to finish up the two months he missed of the first semester. He is in finals right now and is studying like crazy- éxito mi Amor! This semester will end on Saturday (it should have finished in July) and then the second sememster (which would have started in the second week of August) will begin next week.
• Then over the past three weeks we have also been celebrating birthdays. First Andrés´ nephew J turned 6, then Andrés turned 27 and finally his other nephew S turned 8. We´ve been eating a lot of cake and pie. :)
• Finally, some really good personal news. I found work!!! On Thursday, September 27th I got a call from an institute asking if I could take on an English class. I went to an orientation meeting on the 28th and started Monday, October 3rd! It was a whirlwind but a big relief too. So I have one class I teach three days a week for a total of 6 hours each week. I´ll have it until mid-December. And guess who I´m teaching? The navy! I teach 7 naval officers and they are great- very polite and friendly and willing to learn. I hope that the institute will give me more classes and I am also doing some tutoring on the side. Also, this means that I should be getting my work visa very soon. Yay for not having to leave the country due to my tourist visa expiring!

And that is my update. Hope you are all doing great. Family and friends, I would love an update on your life too! 


Chau!

Feliz Cumpleaños Andrés!!!

Happy birthday to the man I love with all of my heart! Andrés, you are an amazing, generous man and I am so in love with you. And I am so happy that I finally get to share your birthday with you and be here in person. God has blessed us so much already, and I pray that He may continue to pour His graces upon you in this new year of your life. 

Last year on Andrés´ birthday he went to the U.S. Embassy for his visa interview to be able to come and see me. He was denied and it was a really hard and sad day for both of us. Thankfully he tried again and was approved. This birthday is already way better than last year. I love that this is the third birthday of Andrés´ life that I´ve been able to be a part of, and I look forward to many more to come. Andrés, mi viejito, te amo tanto.

This is the wonderful man that I love and that I can have lots of fun with :)

Andrés, sssshhhhhhhooooooooo te amo

Fiestas Patrias

Tonight I write in blue, one of the colors of Chile´s flag, in honor of Fiestas Patrias. This past weekend we celebrated Chile´s Independence Day. Chile and the US are similar in that our independence days aren´t exactly when we had independence from our mother nations but rather when we declared our independence. And for Chile, that was September 18, 1810.

Photo Credit

I had been warned about Fiestas Patrias. I had been told to expect five days of non-stop asados (BBQs), meat and empanada eating, wine and chicha (kind of like homemade sweet wine) drinking, cueca dancing and staying up until 5am every night. Whoo! Thankfully I only had one day of this- so I got to experience everything but still get my precious sleep the other nights. 


I had my big day of celebrating on dieciocho itself, September 18th. Just so you know, I have been waiting two years for this. The past two dieciochos (18ths) I have heard about Andrés and his family and friends getting together and going out. I have wanted to be here for that so bad- and now I was! The 18th was Domingo, or Sunday, often referred to as "fomingo" or the equivalent of boring Sunday, so I thought that maybe Fiestas Patrias would be a little more low key this year. Maybe they were, but I didn´t notice. We started our dieciocho off with Mass at the parish where we also celebrated the priest´s ordination anniversary so the church was very full. After Mass there was cueca dancing in the courtyard and empanadas and wine! Can life get any better than that? Jesus, dancing and empanadas.

Empanadas- que rica!

After Mass we headed over to Andrés´grandma´s house in Villa Alemana which is about 45 minutes away. Pretty much Andrés´mom´s whole side of the family was there. They had already eaten their asado (BBQ) but thankfully saved us some and heated it up right when we got there. So we went around saying hi to everybody and getting reacquainted and then we sat down to eat. A very common activity to do for Fiestas Patrias is to fly kites so after eating we went to the field next to the abuela´s house to see the kites. Let me just tell you, they can go really high! Andrés´ little cousin got hers to go so high it was just a little speck in the sky, and then the line got cut so it flew away.


We left his grandma´s for a couple of hours to go visit his friend Carlos who also lives in Villa Alemana. Carlos´ family is very inviting and it was nice to be around such friendly people. We basically just sat around and drank chicha and ate empanadas while they talked. I´ve now become more comfortable with my spanish but it is still very hard to follow conversations when they´re talking so fast (at their normal rate)! After that we headed back to the abuela´s house and played a game that is very similar to bingo. I think my mom would be proud of me, I won the first game! Then we left to go home.


We got back to la casa at about 10pm, stopping for a Nescafé coffee for me and a Red Bull for him. We rested and watched tv for two hours and then headed out (at midnight!) to the ramadas.  The word ramada means branch in english and the ramadas are called such because they are usually places constructed totally out of branches where people go to dance and drink and celebrate. The ramada we went to in Concón was huge so it was a regular building and on the inside they had it decorated with branches. They had two different groups that switched playing about every half hour. First a half hour of cueca, then cumbia, then cueca, etc. I was really excited for the cueca because this would be my first time getting to dance it with Andrés outside of lessons and I had been waiting to do this with him for a long time. However, it didn´t go quite as expected. It was so packed that people kept bumping into me and the concrete floor didn´t make moving my feet very easy so that it was hard to concentrate on the music and the steps to the cueca. I ended up getting really frustrated, first with not being able to dance the cueca correctly and then my mind started blowing things out of proportion (I chalk it up to it being really late and I was tired). I was thinking that if I can´t do this, then I´m never going to be able to fit in or fully learn the language, etc, etc. I almost started crying on the dance floor. It was bad. This was my first breakdown here and I´ve heard from other expats that more will come- it can be hard adjusting to a new way of living and feeling out of place a lot of the time. Andrés saw that something was wrong and we stopped dancing but then I felt bad for having ruined things, but I couldn´t explain it to him over the music and my emotions. Thankfully, when cumbia came back on they played some fun songs and things turned around.


We ended dieciocho on a good note by stopping by the beach at 4:30am to watch the ocean and listen to the waves hit the shore. Thank God for an overall good first Fiestas Patrias.