The other week was pretty relaxing. Now that the girls are in school, they seem to keep themselves busy when they come back from school. On Monday, a man and a woman came to the hogar to cut all of the girls’ hair. The girls were so cute about it, and very excited to get their hair cute. I also got to help one of the older girls with her math homework. She’s learning how to multiply fractions. I love helping out with math, especially because it’s the same as back home, so I can understand it (compared to other homework where Spanish can become an issue for me). We did one of my art activities this week as well. I had collected tea boxes from other people in the program, and some of the girls decorated the boxes. I told each girl that her box is very special; it is only for her. It’s a place for them to keep their secrets, their memories, and whatever else they would want. They had a fun time decorating them. On Friday a new girl came to the hogar. She’s 5 years old and was so happy all day. It was an exciting day getting a new girl, but it’s sad because of the circumstances.
I forgot to tell ya’ll that I finished American Psycho a while back. It was ok. I was told that it was a pretty graphic book, but thought it would be fine because I normally read books about a murderer; however, this book took it to the next level! It had a lot of disgusting, detailed murder scenes and violent sex scenes. I felt like I was reading a violent porn novel…not really my thing. And the book just kind of stopped at the end…nothing big happened. I wouldn’t really recommend this book, but if you really like over the top graphic and violent kill/sex scenes, this book is for you. I also read The Time Traveler’s Wife. That book was really good! It was a nice read compared to American Psycho ha.
Over the weekend I met up with a Chilean girl, Paulina, and her friend, Daniel, for an intercambio (we speak in Spanish for a while and then switch over to speaking English). It was sooooo much fun! They are both still in school and are 21. We met for a couple hours and just talked about random things. Both of the girls were very sweet. Paulina has been studying English for about four years now, and she really wants to go to the US but wants her English to be way better before she goes there. I told her that her English right now is better than my Spanish was when I first came to South America. She was so surprised, and me telling her that gave her a lot of hope. She told me that my Spanish was really good and that I learn really fast. Man did that make me feel great! Ha. I told her living in South America has helped me out tremendously with my Spanish and I have been working extremely hard these last 6 months. But still her compliment gave me a little confidence boost. I can't wait to meet up with her again!
The following week Jason came to Chile for a week. It was an amazing week, and I’ll write about it later.
Since this post is pretty short, I'm adding my Chile observations thus far. Chile has many similarities and differences compared to Argentina.
Similarities and Differences:
Couples make out in public in Santiago as well. However, there are way more couples out snuggling and what not in the parks here than in BA.
There is dulce de leche here, but it’s called manhar. I personally think Dulce de Leche is better than Manhar.
It's super clean here in Santiago. I always see someone cleaning the streets at all times of the day.
There are a ton of dogs in Santiago as well, but there are more strays here than in BA. All of the dogs are very friendly.
There are Alfajores and Empenadas in Santiago too! However, Argentina has better empenadas, but the ones here in Chile are bigger
Cars actually yield to you in the streets…well sometimes. It's still a big city.
There are a lot of bikers here. Seeing people riding their bikes makes me miss my bike, and also kind of makes me want to get a bike here. I don’t think I’ll do that though. Each week there is a huge group of bikers that bike through the city. They aren’t just the “serious” bikers either, they are people riding road bikes.
Café con piernes, which means cafe with legs, are a popular thing here. They are basically like a Hooters, but for coffee and less clothing. There are two different types of cafe con piernes. One is more like a Hooters, and the other type is the same idea but the women wear less clothing and the windows are blacked out. I have yet to experience these cafes, but maybe one day.
Can’t flush toilet paper down the toilets here either.
When you take a picture with people instead of saying Cheese! you say Whisky! They do this in Argentina as well.
They use the word ‘ya’ as a filler word. I hear it all the time. It’s the same as when we say ‘um,’ but I feel like they say ‘ya’ more than we use ‘um.’ They also say 'ya' at the end of sentences too, again as a filler. I have started doing this and it has transfered over to my English...oops!
They are not shy about using their horns. I get to wake up to horns blowing every morning…lucky me, just like in Buenos Aires.
Men pee in public all the time! I have seen way too many men peeing in our ally way next to our apartment and in the park. I had brought this up to my Spanish teacher a few weeks ago, and she didn't seem to think that it was that big of a deal. Gross! Ha
Going to a ‘pharmacy’ to get thinks like nail polish remover, sunscreen, q-tips, things that you can buy at Walgreens or CVS is very different. Everything is behind the counter. You have to grab a number when you get there and wait for your number to be called. Once your number is called you tell them what you want. It sucks though because you can't really see everything up close like you can back home, so it's a little challenging. I try and avoid going there if I can.
When everyone is a baby down here they get some massive shot on their left arm. The shot ends up leaving a big scar on their arms. Everyone has it and the scar is about the size of a dime.
Flash cards are really hard to find. I know where to go to get them now, but they don't have a packet of them, they sell them individually. If I had known that, I would have stalked up in BA.
I had thought that the hair do's on guys in BA were pretty ridiculous, but oh no, the ones here in Chile are way way worse. They really get creative here. There are a lot of rat tails, guys will have three really long dred-locks and then the rest of their hair will be very short, I've seen some guys with shaved heads with just a patch of long hair in the back, and so many other strange styles.
A lot of older people have braces. I feel like I have seen more braces on adults than on kids.
Fanny packs are super popular for guys down here. Every time I see a man wearing a fanny pack, I can't help but giggle.
Well those are all the observations I have made these past 3 months. It's crazy that I have have been in Chile for 3 months already (and that it has been 6 months since I've been in South America), I only have 3 and a half months left till I come home. CRAZY!
Until Next Time,
Liz
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Changing Things Up a Bit
Last week the girls all started school. Since they are in school during the mornings, our hours have changed. I now work from 2:00-7:00. At first I was kind of apprehensive about working so late everyday, but I really LOVE it. When I started work in the mornings, I didn’t have time to do anything before work, and by the time I got home from work I would be absolutely exhausted so couldn’t really do a whole lot (like go for a run, study Spanish, and what not). However now that I don’t start till later in the day I can get a lot done before work. My days feel so much more productive now! I’ve been waking up around 8:30 and will either do some yoga or work out and then go for a run. With the rest of my time I’ll do whatever I need to get done, whether it’s something for work, studying Spanish, or bloggin’. I have never worked out first thing in the morning before; it’s incredible! I have this incredible level of energy that lasts all day long. There hasn’t been a day of work yet where I have been super tired; whereas, normally I have almost always been exhausted. It’s kind of addicting having that kind of energy and just feeling really good through out the day. So working late has been a blessing in disguise, and made me discover something new that I love doing.
One struggle that I have been having while being in South America is that the milk and yogurt products are not that great. I had finally found some milk that I actually like, but yogurt was another story. Every yogurt I have tried has been really liquidy and taste sour to me. I was so upset because I love yogurt. BUT I finally found some yogurt that is absolutely delicious! It’s Greek yogurt (which we have back home, but I have never tried it), and the coconut flavor is so good, it’s like a dessert. I’ve never tried Greek yogurt before because I was told that it’s really thick, and I’m not the biggest fan of thick yogurt. However, I think whatever they do to yogurt down here that makes it so runny turned Greek yogurt into the perfect consistency for me. Any who, that was just something very exciting that happened last week…oh how the little things can make one so happy.
I was really craving guacamole during the week, but hadn’t been able to buy avocados at the market last Sunday, so I decided to buy some from the guy who sells fruits and veggies right outside my apartment. His avocados have been the best avocados I have ever had! They were so fresh and just so perfect. I think I’m going to buy my avocados from him from now on, even though they are a little more expensive; it’s totally worth it.
The entire week I had been asking the girls if they wanted to perform the Miley Cyrus dance I taught them for this art festival VE throws in April. So far all of the girls had been saying no, and that they wanted to dance to other songs. I was a little bummed about it, and tried to explain to them that there was more to the song than just the chorus part and that they would be able to make up their own dance moves to the rest of the song, but they still wanted nothing to do with it.
Thursday was the best day ever! Since I’ve been working in Chile anyways…It started out with yoga, then I bought this really awesome, inexpensive, portable speaker. Brought it into work, and played the whole Miley Cyrus, Hoedown Throwdown, song for the girls and a lot of them wanted to perform it for Festival de Artes! They loved making up their own moves to the rest of the song. Ha I think the dance is going to end up with all the girls doing their own dance moves during the whole song, and then they will dance the same way to the part that I taught them. It’s a little challenging to get the girls to follow each other’s instructions, so they just end up doing their own thing. That could be really cute, we’ll see how it goes. So there was a lot of dancing this day, and when the girls weren’t dancing they were making shadow boxes. The girls were pretty well behaved all day (I’m pretty sure that that was the first time we didn’t have any trouble with any of the girls). For Once that day, I had the pleasure of trying my first completo. A completo is a hot dog with avocado, tomatoes, mayo, and mustard and ketchup if you want. It sounds and looks kind of gross, but it was actually pretty tasty. After work I had a late Spanish class, but everything finally started to click and I learned some more uses of the subjunctive. I learned how to express phrases like: If I had known it was going to be so hot today, I would have worn shorts. And: I have never eaten food this good before. Both of these type of phrases I had been wanting to say in various situations but couldn’t, so I’m pretty excited now that I know how to express them!
This past weekend we went on a retreat, called Jornada, with all of the volunteers and the people who work in the office. It was such a fun weekend! We were in the mountains, which were beautiful and so quiet. It was so strange being away from the loud city, but I loved it! We played a bunch of group games, did fun activities, and had a lot of really good talks. We meditated, did some yoga, ate some delicious food, and had a lot of laughs. There was a nice pool and there was a rope swing! Oh man that rope swing was so much fun. You could get really high up there, and it reminded me of my childhood (oh good times…). That was really neat, and it was really great to get closer to everyone. There were a couple cute dogs out there too, and a puppy! Life is always fun when there’s a puppy around ☺ I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, but it was really great to get out of the city for the weekend and just relax.
Until Next Time,
Liz
One struggle that I have been having while being in South America is that the milk and yogurt products are not that great. I had finally found some milk that I actually like, but yogurt was another story. Every yogurt I have tried has been really liquidy and taste sour to me. I was so upset because I love yogurt. BUT I finally found some yogurt that is absolutely delicious! It’s Greek yogurt (which we have back home, but I have never tried it), and the coconut flavor is so good, it’s like a dessert. I’ve never tried Greek yogurt before because I was told that it’s really thick, and I’m not the biggest fan of thick yogurt. However, I think whatever they do to yogurt down here that makes it so runny turned Greek yogurt into the perfect consistency for me. Any who, that was just something very exciting that happened last week…oh how the little things can make one so happy.
I was really craving guacamole during the week, but hadn’t been able to buy avocados at the market last Sunday, so I decided to buy some from the guy who sells fruits and veggies right outside my apartment. His avocados have been the best avocados I have ever had! They were so fresh and just so perfect. I think I’m going to buy my avocados from him from now on, even though they are a little more expensive; it’s totally worth it.
The entire week I had been asking the girls if they wanted to perform the Miley Cyrus dance I taught them for this art festival VE throws in April. So far all of the girls had been saying no, and that they wanted to dance to other songs. I was a little bummed about it, and tried to explain to them that there was more to the song than just the chorus part and that they would be able to make up their own dance moves to the rest of the song, but they still wanted nothing to do with it.
Thursday was the best day ever! Since I’ve been working in Chile anyways…It started out with yoga, then I bought this really awesome, inexpensive, portable speaker. Brought it into work, and played the whole Miley Cyrus, Hoedown Throwdown, song for the girls and a lot of them wanted to perform it for Festival de Artes! They loved making up their own moves to the rest of the song. Ha I think the dance is going to end up with all the girls doing their own dance moves during the whole song, and then they will dance the same way to the part that I taught them. It’s a little challenging to get the girls to follow each other’s instructions, so they just end up doing their own thing. That could be really cute, we’ll see how it goes. So there was a lot of dancing this day, and when the girls weren’t dancing they were making shadow boxes. The girls were pretty well behaved all day (I’m pretty sure that that was the first time we didn’t have any trouble with any of the girls). For Once that day, I had the pleasure of trying my first completo. A completo is a hot dog with avocado, tomatoes, mayo, and mustard and ketchup if you want. It sounds and looks kind of gross, but it was actually pretty tasty. After work I had a late Spanish class, but everything finally started to click and I learned some more uses of the subjunctive. I learned how to express phrases like: If I had known it was going to be so hot today, I would have worn shorts. And: I have never eaten food this good before. Both of these type of phrases I had been wanting to say in various situations but couldn’t, so I’m pretty excited now that I know how to express them!
Until Next Time,
Liz
Friday, March 9, 2012
Just What I Needed - Beach Weekend
It was such a beautiful day at the beach. I love it when the cliffs meet the beach; makes things seem more secluded. However, our walk down the side of the cliff was pretty steep, and had some awkward, angled steps. But we only had to go up and down it a few times, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. That night we made a nice little stir-fry with rice and veggies. It was a little healthy for my taste, but still good ☺
After dinner we went to go watch the sun set while drinking wine. It was a fun and relaxing night.
The next day we went to the beach again. It was a pretty nice day again (for the most part). But then all of a sudden this really thick fog rolled in. It was kind of creepy and cool at the same time.
The sun is so strong here. I wore 50 sunscreen the whole weekend and still got a pretty good tan. Over all, this weekend at the beach was exactly what I needed to relieve all my stress that had been building up. And it was also really nice to be able to hang out with Sophie and Hilary, since I usually only see them about once a week. It's always nice to get out of the city and get away from everything for a weekend.
Until Next Time,
Liz
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Week of Violence
This past week I had a lot of new experiences with witnessing different types of violence. On Tuesday, there was a protest happening across the street from my apartment. The Communist party was protesting about what is going on in Aysen. Aysen is a town in Southern Chile, and is essentially the gateway into Patagonia. Patagonia brings in a TON of money for the country due to tourism, so the whole area focuses purely on tourism. The protesting is about the lack of resources in that area for the people who live there (there are no schools that are close, no hospitals, etc.). The community feels like they are doing a lot for the country, but they feel that the country is doing nothing for them. Anyways, the protest had a lot of people gathering around, and there were a bunch of police everywhere making sure nothing got out of hand. Well, things got out of hand, and the protest turned into a mini-riot. The police brought in a big tank that sprayed water at the crowd.
That was so crazy to see! The police also had tear gas. I had the pleasure of smelling tear gas for the first time – man does it sting! The crowd had some tricks up their sleeves as well. A lot of people had gas masks or scarves to cover their faces; they came prepared for the gas. Some people had molotov cocktails (glass bottle with white cloth coming out of it – a homemade bomb). I’ve only seen those on TV, so that was pretty surreal to see them in person. I have no idea what set the whole thing off, but the whole situation was super entertaining to watch.
Later in the week a fight broke out right in front of my apartment. I have never seen a fight in action, but I did get to see the aftermath of this fight. The fight was happening between these two random guys and with one of the shops we live above. We came into the fight, when one of the random guys was yelling at a few of the guys who work in the shop (there were about four guys from the shop and they were holding a billy club, a metal hook, a big beer bottle, and a long metal stick). The guy ended up walking away, but then his friend came over, took his shirt off and showed all the guys from the store his bloody hand. He was bleeding pretty badly from the back of his head, so obviously one of the guys from the shop hit him pretty hard. They were all shouting in Spanish, when all of a sudden the first guy came back and threw a huge rock at the shop’s window. They ran away and the shop guys stood guard in front of the store for a while. We have no idea what the fight was about, but we don’t think they tried stealing something because normally if you steal something, you don’t go back to the shop, especially if you have been caught in the act. Someone could have gotten offended over something or this group of people could have had some sort of history we don’t know about. Yet again, we got front row seats to something entertaining.
At the hogar that I work at, the way the girls are taught not to hit is that if a girl hits you, you are allowed to hit her back. The philosophy behind this is that the hit back is suppose to show the girl that hitting hurts others, so she shouldn’t hit in the first place. Also that if you hit the world, the world is always going to hit you back harder. Isabelle and I do not agree with this method of teaching, but it’s not really our place to step in and tell the Tias that that method does not work. However, this Friday, one of the older girls (who is 16 years old) was repeatedly hitting the youngest girl (who is 2 years old). The 16 year old was really hitting the young girl; it would have hurt me if she hit me as hard as she was hitting the girl. Isabelle tried intervening with the hitting, telling the girl that she can’t hit that hard or use that type of violence on a baby, but then another 16 year old chimed in telling us that that is what the Tias tell them to do. Since there is nothing we can really do while at work, I reported this incident to VE. The issue (along with many other things) was brought up at a meeting the following week to the professionals (social workers, psychologists, ect.). I was very pleased to hear that all the professionals were appalled by this behavior. Hopefully that means things will start to change.
On some happier notes…
This week at work we started implementing a good behavior chart. Each time a girl does something very helpful or very nice we give her a sticker. However, if the girl asks for a sticker after doing something nice, she does not get one. Each Friday, we will be giving the girls a piece of candy for however many stickers she has by her name. For the most part, each girl has around 2 stickers. Over all, the girls were pretty well behaved last week, so the chart seems to be working. Isabelle did a great job making it:
One of the girls had just gotten a curly iron, and she had been curly people’s hair all week. She asked me if she could curl my hair and I said yes. When she was done with me, I looked like Shirley Temple ha. As the day went on the curls fell out a little, and it ended up looking not too bad. This is what my hair looked like after work:
Spanish class has been going pretty well so far. We only have a few more classes left with this professor before she leaves for Bolivia. She has been trying to make sure she can get all the different tenses of the subjunctive crammed in before she leaves, so she has been moving a little quickly. Class has been super overwhelming for me because the pace is way too fast for me, and this past Thursday I was super stressed out. Lately work has been keeping me really busy and I haven’t really had any time to do anything else but stuff for work…so no extra studying of Spanish for me. I haven’t really had time to study the subjunctive on my own and everything is starting to jumble together in my head, confusing me even more. Free time is really precious to me down here, and I haven’t had too much of it lately, and have been unable to do the million things I want to do each day. Every now and then I get super stressed out about everything that is going on in my life. The stress just lasts for a night, and then the next day I am better. I know that I don’t need to be stressing out about everything that I stress out about, but every now and then I get a little overwhelmed. I need to remind myself to step back, take a deep breath, just relax and calm down about everything.
Friday night one of my friends had people over for Once, and she had prepared everything for us to have S’mores. That was sooo great! Plus it was a great taste of home. Everyone brought other small dishes, and my roommate, Ben, had prepared a little fruit dish with melted chocolate for dipping. It was delicious!
It was so great to spend some time with the other volunteers here. I really like everyone in my class, so it’s great to see them whenever we all get together. This past Friday was also my grandma’s 90th birthday, so I skyped with her and the rest of my family for a little bit that night. I was a little sad that I missed the party, but it was so great to see and talk to everyone.
Until Next Time,
Liz
That was so crazy to see! The police also had tear gas. I had the pleasure of smelling tear gas for the first time – man does it sting! The crowd had some tricks up their sleeves as well. A lot of people had gas masks or scarves to cover their faces; they came prepared for the gas. Some people had molotov cocktails (glass bottle with white cloth coming out of it – a homemade bomb). I’ve only seen those on TV, so that was pretty surreal to see them in person. I have no idea what set the whole thing off, but the whole situation was super entertaining to watch.
Later in the week a fight broke out right in front of my apartment. I have never seen a fight in action, but I did get to see the aftermath of this fight. The fight was happening between these two random guys and with one of the shops we live above. We came into the fight, when one of the random guys was yelling at a few of the guys who work in the shop (there were about four guys from the shop and they were holding a billy club, a metal hook, a big beer bottle, and a long metal stick). The guy ended up walking away, but then his friend came over, took his shirt off and showed all the guys from the store his bloody hand. He was bleeding pretty badly from the back of his head, so obviously one of the guys from the shop hit him pretty hard. They were all shouting in Spanish, when all of a sudden the first guy came back and threw a huge rock at the shop’s window. They ran away and the shop guys stood guard in front of the store for a while. We have no idea what the fight was about, but we don’t think they tried stealing something because normally if you steal something, you don’t go back to the shop, especially if you have been caught in the act. Someone could have gotten offended over something or this group of people could have had some sort of history we don’t know about. Yet again, we got front row seats to something entertaining.
At the hogar that I work at, the way the girls are taught not to hit is that if a girl hits you, you are allowed to hit her back. The philosophy behind this is that the hit back is suppose to show the girl that hitting hurts others, so she shouldn’t hit in the first place. Also that if you hit the world, the world is always going to hit you back harder. Isabelle and I do not agree with this method of teaching, but it’s not really our place to step in and tell the Tias that that method does not work. However, this Friday, one of the older girls (who is 16 years old) was repeatedly hitting the youngest girl (who is 2 years old). The 16 year old was really hitting the young girl; it would have hurt me if she hit me as hard as she was hitting the girl. Isabelle tried intervening with the hitting, telling the girl that she can’t hit that hard or use that type of violence on a baby, but then another 16 year old chimed in telling us that that is what the Tias tell them to do. Since there is nothing we can really do while at work, I reported this incident to VE. The issue (along with many other things) was brought up at a meeting the following week to the professionals (social workers, psychologists, ect.). I was very pleased to hear that all the professionals were appalled by this behavior. Hopefully that means things will start to change.
On some happier notes…
This week at work we started implementing a good behavior chart. Each time a girl does something very helpful or very nice we give her a sticker. However, if the girl asks for a sticker after doing something nice, she does not get one. Each Friday, we will be giving the girls a piece of candy for however many stickers she has by her name. For the most part, each girl has around 2 stickers. Over all, the girls were pretty well behaved last week, so the chart seems to be working. Isabelle did a great job making it:
One of the girls had just gotten a curly iron, and she had been curly people’s hair all week. She asked me if she could curl my hair and I said yes. When she was done with me, I looked like Shirley Temple ha. As the day went on the curls fell out a little, and it ended up looking not too bad. This is what my hair looked like after work:
Spanish class has been going pretty well so far. We only have a few more classes left with this professor before she leaves for Bolivia. She has been trying to make sure she can get all the different tenses of the subjunctive crammed in before she leaves, so she has been moving a little quickly. Class has been super overwhelming for me because the pace is way too fast for me, and this past Thursday I was super stressed out. Lately work has been keeping me really busy and I haven’t really had any time to do anything else but stuff for work…so no extra studying of Spanish for me. I haven’t really had time to study the subjunctive on my own and everything is starting to jumble together in my head, confusing me even more. Free time is really precious to me down here, and I haven’t had too much of it lately, and have been unable to do the million things I want to do each day. Every now and then I get super stressed out about everything that is going on in my life. The stress just lasts for a night, and then the next day I am better. I know that I don’t need to be stressing out about everything that I stress out about, but every now and then I get a little overwhelmed. I need to remind myself to step back, take a deep breath, just relax and calm down about everything.
Friday night one of my friends had people over for Once, and she had prepared everything for us to have S’mores. That was sooo great! Plus it was a great taste of home. Everyone brought other small dishes, and my roommate, Ben, had prepared a little fruit dish with melted chocolate for dipping. It was delicious!
It was so great to spend some time with the other volunteers here. I really like everyone in my class, so it’s great to see them whenever we all get together. This past Friday was also my grandma’s 90th birthday, so I skyped with her and the rest of my family for a little bit that night. I was a little sad that I missed the party, but it was so great to see and talk to everyone.
Until Next Time,
Liz
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