i get called Gringa daily...

It’s true. It’s virtually impossible to walk down the streets of Santiago without eliciting some form of sexist reaction – especially when we (females) travel in packs. On a whole, the people of Chile have been incredibly welcoming, warm and helpful. Their form of Spanish has been coined the fastest in the world, thus making it the most difficult to learn – but I’m doing my best and am a determined student. If you ask them to slow down, they are more than obliging and are encouraged as they perceive this (correctly) as a genuine interest in us wanting to learn their culture and way of life. My biggest complaint concerning the people is in regard to their “sidewalk management” skills. More specifically their (lack of) respect for other people’s personal space, taking up the entire sidewalk and not thinking it’s strange when someone coming at them face on needs to get through the barricade of held hands (families hold hands, like all 6 kids and grandma and dad AND tia maria and tio Julio) and the fact that they will elbow, shove and push to get wherever THEY want to be….they also like PDA…a lot of PDA and VERY PUBLIC PDA –I’m telling you, do not lay down in the grass in these parks – you WILL get pregnant. They’re also short – this is an observation, not a complaint (yet). All this aside, the people are incredible and I’m grateful to be welcome in their homeland.

My first week in Santiago was full of meeting new faces, forging new friendships, trainings, meeting teachers, cutting out random shapes and letters on construction paper, improving my laminating skills and drinking mimosas. Our hostel is packed full of everyone involved in the teachingchile program so it’s rare to find yourself bored or without some form of stimulation. There are 2 sub-sects to the program; only 12 of us were accepted to teach K-12 (we’ve been here alone for the past week or so) and the second group consists of around 60 people and they are teaching adult learners (arriving as I type). The city is completely user friendly – the metro is efficient, clean, on time and way smarta’ than marta. The design is easy to manipulate and the 12 of us are already navigating it seamlessly. Santiago is quite a large city…ok it’s huge. It has numerous different barrios, suburbs, plazas and markets all easily reachable via their kick ass public transportation system. There are hundreds of funky bars and discotecs as well as cafes and eclectic eateries. Empanadas are the national food as well as hot dogs and gelato. Anything sugary is available on every street corner thus explaining the abundance of fat people and the lack of gyms. I am excited to report that my apartment does have a gym – as well as a kick ass terrace, pool and lifesize chess set. I will be living with a fellow teacher from San Diego via Colorado – Rochelle – and we will be moving in our new apt this Friday – some random hot british guy will be our new roomie as well – complete with long blonde hair and tan…yes, I’m excited.

While not having a job has certainly been fun and filled with liters of beers and afternoon mimosas with Rochelle on the hostel patio – I am EAGER (as most of you know I tend to get bored without a purpose or job) to start teaching and get into a routine again (I haven’t seen a gym in weeks, God help me)…however…school will not be starting on 3/1 as originally planned…because well…an Earthquake happened….