1. School: Woke up, went to school, saw a lot of San Mateo students standing by the metro. When I asked one student why he wasn't in school, he said "Toma." I walked to the school and sure enough the school was taken over. There were desk and chair legs sticking out through the bars of every possible entrance to the school. A few students were sitting guard to make sure that intruders did not come in. After searching for the teachers, I found two walking back into a back building behind the parking lot or "car park". I waited there for about an hour just to be told that there will be no school until Monday. Go home. Sure glad I made the trek... couldn't even get good pictures since my camera's battery was dead from the weekend.
The only two pictures I got before my camera died. Chairs and desks shoved up against the fence to show that the school has been taken over.
2. Karen: I had told Karen the day before that I could not eat at Maritas because I had school. Since that turned out to be false, to Maritas we went. I stopped by the hostel to get some ski information since we all have been itching to go. It costs around 70.000 pesos for one person to get ski equipment, lift ticket, transportation, and clothes. We might have to wait til paycheck, who knows. Still pretty pricey. Well then we walked to my place, then Santa Lucia, then Plaza de Armas, where I finally got to use the post office, and then I went back home while Karen went to make lesson plans.
3. More of the unplanned: I went home and then ended up going back to the hostel. Hung out there a bit with the same crew, Kelsey, Piper, Dan, Cori, and Jamie. We all decided not to go skiing, but now I don't have to rent clothes since apparently I can fit into Dan's pants! Good or bad thing? We went to Dalai Lomo and then I peaced out so I could meet up with Jorge for our first lesson. When I got there, he didn't answer the cell or apartment phone, so I just waited in the lobby. In Chile all of the houses are behind fences and to get in an apartment, there is always a doorman/receptionist. If you don't live in the building, you must give your name and apartment number so they can make sure with the tenants that it is okay that you are there. I made my final call to him and was let up... out session started 15 minutes late. We literally just talked in English. He was telling me a lot about some of Chile's history and I would just ask questions, repeat what he was saying so he could hear the correct pronunciation and grammar and fix what he was saying. It was quite interesting and our time was up pretty quick. I had promised to meet some people at 8:30 and I ended our session at 8:30. I guess I am becoming more familiar with Chileans since I was running on Chilean time. Too bad I was meeting gringas.
4. Some of the planned: I met Ronna and Marissa at the metro stop since we were going to some Italian restaurant in Las Condes (the ritzy part of Santiago). It could have possibly been a goodnight dinner to Marissa since she is a student here, but hasn't been able to take classes with all of the University protests. She was in the middle of debating whether she should go back to the states or stay in Chile and ride it out. She decided yesterday to stay in Chile. So much for the goodbye part of the dinner. Well we met up with Lewis in Las Condes, where he lives but has no money, kind of contradictory for that area. The restaurant he wanted to go to had an hour wait... I guess it must have been good. We instead went down the street to a restaurant called Olivia. After we ordered the electricity went out and we were just sitting in the dark for 5 minutes. I hope that's the reason that our food came out over an hour later.
5. Nacho: After dinner, I hopped on the metro, which was closing soon. I really wish the metro was open at least past midnight, its quite ridiculous how early it closes! Well I made it to my stop and since the exit that Nacho told me to use was closed, I used the other exit. I then was disoriented and lost in Las Condes, again. Who am I kidding, I probably would have been lost even if I went out of the correct exit. Nacho being the nice man that he is sent Tomas to come get me. So I sat on a bench in front of Burger King and watched two stray dogs look for food and hump each other. Tomas and JP came and got me from the bench and we walked to Nacho's place for another small birthday get together. I met Tomas at Nacho's asado on Saturday and JP is Antonia's brother and has been best friends with Nacho since they were like five, as well as Diego.
It is interesting that students are with the same classmates for their entire educational career that they become family. It is normal for them to bond for life. This other guy Joaquin, who was at the asado. His mother and Nacho's mother were friends from class. Nacho's dad and Joaquin's dad were also classmates. They each started dating their significant other and now they are married. The women have known each other since Pre-K and same with the men. Their school bonds here are tight, which is pretty normal! Nacho wants to meet my friends here, but the only friend that is a true friend and knows me really well, and not a friendly acquaintance, is Regina. And we have really only been friends for a bit over two years. All of my TeachingChile friends are awesome and I can't wait to bond more, but it realistically has only been 3 weeks. The only friend that I have truly had for that long is Kristin, and we are running on 18 years of friendship!!!
Well back to the night, there were a lot of political talks and it was sweet that JP, Tomas, and Nacho were asking if I could understand the conversation so I could stay afloat. Basically everyone there could understand English better than I can understand Spanish. Man I can't wait til my Spanish is fluent. Diego ended up driving us all home again... what a sweet soul.
Wednesday and Thursday
Literally slept all day and night. and got some laundry done... Even though I've been sick and needed sleep, I still feel like a HUGE bum. These days were also Paro National, national strike day all across Chile for any organization that dealt with the government basically... banks, transportation, schools, etc. That was another reason keeping me indoors. I wasn't affected by it at all but I heard a lot of ruckus and people said nighttime was really bad...Parts of me think Chileans just like to protest.
Things to look forward to:
1. Building houses with Nacho in Puente Alto on Friday and Saturday.
2. Drinks with Renato.
3. TeachingChile Family Dinner on Saturday.
4. Lucian's going away party.
5. Getting paid on Wednesday.
6. Groceries! Being at home so much has helped the funds but not so much the amount of food in the house... Oh man! I just realized that I can't go to the farmer's market by my house tomorrow since I'm building houses. Oh well, gotta cut my losses.
Please be careful at home with Hurricane Irene on the loose!
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