Michigan in 10 Days!

10 days until I will understand 100% of everything around me, without even trying. My head won't hurt at the end of the day.

10 days until I hug my Mom and Dad, snuggle with the most adorable puppies ever and have lots and lots of clothes to choose from. I'll visit Grandma, check out the lake and take a cruise on the boat. I can already smell Lobdell Lake and hear the boats!

In 10 days I'll sit at a round table in a sunny kitchen dining nook, drink real coffee, understand the news on the TV. YUM. I'll be the one with the insane caffeine kick in Target. Ah, Target!

In 10 days I will see grass, my neighbor's yard and hear kids playing in the street. The dogs and I will run around the yard, the kids from down the street will come and play with Ginger and Macy and I'll catch up neighborhood happenings.

I'll be sitting on the back porch, with the dogs and then get to work in my Mom's garden.

I'll drive the bumpy roads, be freaked out to drive at night with a dark sky and enjoy the pace of small town life. French Laundry - how many amazing meals will I eat at your quirky and adorable tables?

Mom and Dad will leave before the sun comes up to go to work, open my bedroom room and the dogs will snuggle in close, making sure I am uncomfortable and they are perfectly snuggled up in a nook. Ginger will start to eat my clothes and Macy will want to sleep all day; eventually, we'll get up and start our day!

Ah, the joys of being at home with Mom & Dad!

Unexpected Turn of Events...

If you're family, hope you aren't driving. Friends, check your hotel points…. 

I am staying in Santiago, Chile for another year. 

WHAT? You get to read more of my serious, life-changing posts while sipping coffee and procrastinating? I know, I know, how could you survive without my entertaining look at life in Santiago and my photos that make you search Kayak for flights to Chile tomorrow? You're welcome :)

I miss my Denver friends every day. I miss the Colorado mountains, Colorado air, Colorado beer, Colorado parks and running the trails at Green Mountain, in Boulder and Breck. I don't like to think about Vail or else I get too emotional.

Why Stay? 

Pretty cool career opportunity with Astoreca Foundation as a Math Coach for elementary math teachers around Santiago, in public schools. WHY? Public education is not exactly great here. If you've got any money, you pay for a private school. It's a proportionally larger gap between rich and poor education here than in the US and economic status is the main factor in educational opportunity here. There are only 3 schools with worse public education in the OECD (Finland is ranked #1 and the US is right below average).

Since all kids deserve a high-quality education and the chance to choose their career, as opposed to their neighborhood defining them, I choose to work with at-risk students & the teachers that are charged with teaching them. 

Doesn't hurt that I've got a lovely Latino as a boyfriend and we'd like to be together in the same country. Can you believe I have a boyfriend? I know.

And…. I'm liking the pace of life, can't leave without skiing in the Andes a few times, want to try surfing a few more times, need to go back to the most beautiful place in the world, learn to make healthy empanadas, do an adventure trail race, learn to drive stick, dream in Spanish and run a marathon in Chile.

And… a few more friends want to visit. Are you one of them? Get here!

It wasn't an easy decision because I LOVE COLORADO SO MUCH. I miss it every day. But I also live living in Santiago. I'm just starting to feel like I "live" here. But, I know I will always be from Michigan…

Michigan-bound: 16 days! Well, 15 but I get there in 16 days! 

Fruit and Veggies in Chile

Today, I smiled blissfully as I calmly robbed the local fruit and vegetable market. With 6 plastic bags full and my shoulder losing feeling, I started the 10 minute walk home. No one ran after me. Wasn't I robbing them? It sure felt like it! 

My cargo: 

• 4 big yellow onions
• 10 avocados
• 2 mangos
• 2 bunches of fresh cilantro
• 10 limes
• 6 yellow/red peppers
• 2 persimmons
• 3 pears
• 3 monstrous apples
• 12 Roma tomatoes
• A bunch of massive purple grapes
• garlic
• 4 goat's horn peppers

Guess how much I spent?    15.000 pesos = $30 US. Now don't you see how I felt like I was committing a crime? 

How much would that cost you at Whole Foods? At King Sooper's? Definitely more than $30!! 

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo and after 2 years of living in Phoenix (aka Mexico), it's one of my favorite holidays. Refried beans. Tequila. Fajitas. Mole chicken. Taquitos. Churros. The joys of Mexican food! 

I'm going to try my best to represent Cinco de Mayo energy here in Santiago tomorrow. We are having a Mexican-themed Chilean asado with my USofA friends, French friends and Chileans. 

My contribution: the grill and rooftop space, margaritas and fixin's for fajitas

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. 

Chile: A Night with the Milky Way

Stunning, isn't it? 

We were in Palena, Chile working with Patagonia Sur Foundation and made friends with a local guy who happens to be the coolest, nicest Patagonian (along with his friend, Fabian) fly fisherman. Ricardo not only took this photo but he invited me along with Sarah and Heather into his truck for a ride out to see the stars. You may be used to dancing until 5AM at a Santiago disco or going to the movies with your significant other in Anytown. This trumps most music festivals and fine dining nights.

We piled into a truck at the Fondation house and took wine and fancy cameras to check out God's brilliance. Poor beyond-pregnant Esmeralda the house cat was left behind with a wood burning stove. Patagonia late summer nights are chilly: I had on 2 pairs of pants, socks, 3 top layers and a hat and on the way out there we laughed and sang, without any idea of how marvelous and stunning of a night sky we were about to see.

Just a few minutes out of town and we were surrounded by clean, pure air and the silhouette of jet black mountains. Staring into one slice of the sky was like having God turn a kaleidoscope for me; more and more stars appeared.

Heather captured the Milky Way on her camera & uploaded it to Instagram

Within minutes shooting stars shot across the curved sky and the Milky Way loomed overhead, the brightest and most incredible rainbow of stars. There is just no way I can describe how amazing this night was - to see so many stars, no lights and be surrounded in all directions by mountains.

Song lyrics streamed through my mind… "You placed the stars in the sky and you know them by name." Indescribable. There isn't anything like seeing such a luminous, unfiltered and curvaceous Milky Way, feeling like it I could walk across its arch or I could reach up and polk a star.

Blue and red, bright and clear. Sarah, Ricardo and Heather each had fancy cameras; I've got an iPhone.  They had a holiday shooting and we had a blast setting some fun photos!

And had an encounter with the local police. Of course. Drinking in public in Chile? Not okay. Shoot! Once the gentlemen found out we were with Ricardo and just taking photos, they left us in peace. Ricardo mentioned that their department has an outstanding balance at his store; so, Ricardo is the boss of the police right now! Good man to have around!

I felt like I was wrapped in a blanket of twinkling stars, protected by the strength of the mountains and that all 4 of us were filled with a magical energy from the far away heat of Blue Supergiants and White Dwarfs. We danced, we strained our necks and we soaked in the millions and millions of white, blue and red stars that danced above us.

Teaching English in a Santiago High School

Yikes. I'm back in the classroom after a 10 month hiatus and it feels good to be around wild and wacky teenagers that bounce a basketball in the classroom and pass notes and try to get away with chewing gum. CHEWING GUM.

42 hormonal and energetic 9th grade students in 1 classroom for an hour and a half. In the US, a lot is 28 students. I'm at an at-risk high school in a barrio called Renca, Santiago. It's about 1 hour 20 minutes from my house, by metro + bus.

Bringing the TFA "we will close the gap or die trying" mentality to this job? Will I be sacrificing personal life to plan, grade and plan some more? No way. But I will be using Teach for America resources (thanks English Language Learner online community!) to plan games, get ideas for ways to facilitate 42 kids talking and listening.

Twice a week for 3 hours: 1.5 with 9th grade and 1.5 with 10th grade. Plus, I can keep my private lessons going. Hooray!

First mistake? Expectation: 100% English. 

Try 60% Spanish and 40% English. But, we'll get there! These kids barely know "What's your name?" and only a few know "What time is it?"

Today was Day #2 and a lot better than Class #1, that's for sure.

Kids wear uniforms, all have dark brown and black hair and brown eyes. They all looked the same. Alonso is really good at English. Yerko is very competitive. Fernanda doesn't want to be wrong; and it usually correct. Catalina is the 'pretty girl.' Sam is the wanna-be tough kid. Andy loves positive reinforcement and is a good teacher's helper. Francisca is funny. Alan is bright.

I'm already falling for this kids. Why do I love Latino kids so much? Or is the vulnerable, at-risk students that I love? One thing is sure - I felt that "teacher tiredness after a day in the classroom" today.

Did I mention I'm teaching kids that don't speak English? Love it.

Teaching English in Chile

Took a gig teaching an English taller for Colegio San Joaquin in Renca, Santiago. Familiar with Santiago? It's FAR. The mountain at the edge of the city that says, "Renca, la lleva" is where I am heading Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:30 - 5:30PM.

My Commute starts at A and ends at B. 

9th grade has 42 kids in ONE classroom. WHAT? And people in the US say 30 is too many in a class. 42 kids in the same uniform all with dark brown hair. Talk about disrespect. Talking. Bringing out a basketball (where did you have that!?), chewing gum, doing art homework in English class and not looking at the teacher when I talk. Is that what public school is like in the US, too?

First day and we had a heart to heart. Rule #1? If I am talking, you are silent. Silent is not equal to quiet.

First question I asked, "If you like Colo-Colo, stand up." WOW. So, they do understand a bit...

It made me miss DSST: Stapleton. For 90 minutes. 

Next? Off to 28 much calmer 10th grade students. We had FUN: playing Simon Says, interviewing each other in English, asking me questions to learn about me and then I'd give silly commands like, "If you understand me, touch your nose." or "If you understand me, put your head on the desk." They think head is hand. Guess they do sound the same.

Did I mention I already took a cell phone today? Some kid was texting in class.

Is this going to be work the 1 hour 20 minute commute?

But, it is fun because… they are crazy teenagers.