Clear Up, Santiago!

Check out this view from the apartment. Mountains. Clear, blue skies and the air is clean from the first winter rains yesterday. Lovely.  The rain cleans out the smog (hooray!) and the cigarette smoke (DOUBLE hooray!) to show us the gorgeous mountains with sprinkles of snow.

Sorry to my faithful followers…I've been quite busy lately. Doing what?

• Went to a Colo-Colo soccer match @ their home stadium with 2 Colorado friends (shout out Mike & Travis!) + Pablo. He told me, "Wear your ugliest clothes, don't bring anything. No jewelry."  What a boyfriend! We saw a guy with a bloody face, a horse cop run through a group of fans to break up a fight outside the stadium. Oh, the crazy fans sit in a fenced-in area of the stadium. And bring homemade mini-bombs to set off. Cops in full-on protest protection gear stand ready to stop fights between the two teams' fans. At the end of the game, Colo-Colo fans leave first. They kept the opposing team there for an extra 30 -60 minutes to try to prevent mass fights. WHAT. 

• Teaching English to crazy 9th and 10th grade Santiago HS students. I get the teaching nerves when I plan… we did Mother's Day words & phrases yesterday. They wanted to learn how to say "You're the Mom that everyone wants." They are also little **** because they do things like try sending text messages during class. I took 3 cell phones yesterday. And they sneak gum - but they don't know my superpower is to see & smell gum better than any drug dog can find cocaine. I'm that good. 
• Teaching English to lawyers. One bought me breakfast the other day - he was thinking of me as he walked to the office. These awesome people sell homemade sandwiches at the metro from 6AM to about 10AM. About $1.50US and  you've got homemade breakfast. Plus, his office makes us coffee for our English class. Coffee + sandwich and make some money? Lovely! 
• TFA. I work for Teach for America's online platform for current CMs and alumni. Helping close the achievement gap in 2 countries in one week. 

• Chilean kids' birthday parties. Eat empanadas, hot dog kebabs (yuck) and throw candy to kids. There's one every week…. Great people, awesome conversation and loads of new Spanish words that one day I'll remember…
• Celebrating my own birthday! We had the most amazing dinner EVER in Santiago at a new restaurant in Bellavista called Peumayen - the chef is from Argentina and the theme is Mapuche ingredients and inspiration from North to South of Chile. There is flavor in the food. 

Santiago shuts down for May 1 so we spend the afternoon in Parque Bicentario.
The park has a sailboat pond, flamingos, a dog park, animal grass-sculptures, picnic space, a koi pond and a pretty restaurant. It's like a compilation of parks from American movies from the last 30 years in one place.