Sorry for the lack of updates….
What’s been happening since the start of school?
I am getting better at teaching little by little. I am learning how to keep my composure when my students come to class completely unprepared. No textbook, no notebook, no pen, and they have figurative tape over their mouth.
I went to La Serena, which is about 6 or so hours north of Santiago with my friend Marisa. We took an overnight bus to the town - think the red eye, but not as nice. Sadly, I didn’t pack enough sleeping pills so I didn’t get enough sleep as planned. However, I survived. The first day we drove to Punto Curros which was this super tiny town surrounded by the desert. I think they realized how neutral their surroundings are because all of the homes were painted in very bright colors. From there, we took a speedboat around Isla Damas and another island. There were 2 dozen dolphins swimming around the boat in groups of 3 to 5. It was incredible. We also saw Humboldt penguins, sea otters, sea lions, pelicans, oh my! (See attached pictures). When we returned to shore we had the first of my many mariscos empanadas. I am having major seafood withdrawal. I know… isn’t the entire west side of the country adjacent to the PACIFIC OCEAN? Why yes, it is. But, Chileans make more money by exporting seafood to the states. They don’t keep much of it around here. You damn Americans. Plus, unless their food is shaped in a hot dog, they aren’t really interested. I don’t think seafood could hold that shape well. Ew, gross…. Seafood isn’t really part of the Chilean diet so unless you are in a coastal town, you wont see much seafood around. Its quite sad for a girl like me.
Back to La Serena….we have dinner, have a drink in Coquimbo the neighboring town to La Serena and head to bed. On Sunday, we headed out to Valle de Elqui. VE as it shall be known, is quite beautiful. In the last 7 years or so, they built a dam to help with the water supplies (as dams are usually used for) and the view from the dam was spectacular. We made a whole bunch of stops on the way to the end, including a stop in Vicuna, the hometown of famous poet, Gabriela Mistral. We had lunch in the town of Villaseca, population 200. They are famous for the restaurant that only uses solar panel ovens. Our journey continued through tons of pisco and wine vineyards to Pisco Elqui, another cute little town. Pisco Elqui is where all pisco is bottled. We did a little tasting, had a nice tour of the distillery and headed to Monte Grande where Gabriela Mistral went to school.
Back to La Serena for my 3rd and final marisco empanada in 2 days. It might be fried, but it’s delicious. We went to the beach, missed the sunset by seconds but we were both still happy to be able to check out the beach. Definitely will go back up there in the spring. Sadly, it was a Sunday night so all the bars were closed. So, we had a nice dinner watched some Chilean futbol and called it a night. Dinner by the way, was reineta, a delicious type of fish, covered in a cream sauce topped with shrimp and muscles…..DELICIOUS!!! What could be better than that?
Since La Serena, I have not done too much traveling. I’ve mostly stayed in Santiago, meeting people and making this city feel like a home. I joined a running group that is organized by Adidas, occasionally, I go to synagogue, and I hang out with my gringo and Chilean friends after classes and on the weekends.
I actually starting writing this blog and took a very long time to post… so now I am approaching the end of the semester. Finals are at the end of next week and then I have lots of free time! I plan on traveling for a bit with my friend, doing some skiing in los Andes, which is supposed to be spectacular and then meeting up with Dad and Margot in Lima, Peru, then Mom and Earle in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
I watched the qualifiers for the World Cup. Chile beat Venezuela last week. Viva Chile! I feel like that’s part of the cultural assimilation… watching soccer.
Abrazos and besitos! (hugs and kisses)
Lauren
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