the grass ain't greener anywhere else

Okay, now that I'm over my near-death viral experience, I can return to my cheerful What's-Not-To-Be-Happy-About attitude.  Hear me out.

My new volunteer job (starting week two!) is awesome.  Essentially, it's my life dream.  Rachael and I are volunteering at a public school called Colegio Santo Domingo in Playa Ancha, which is actually about a forty minute bus ride from home, thirty minutes from the university, about a $0.75 ride to the "hood" as our culture professor calls it.  But it's not hood at all.  It's darling.

We work with three levels of students.  All three are in their teen years, but they're not angsty at all.  Some of them sit with their guitars on their laps in class, some of them come up and ask if my hair is real and proceed to pet it, some of them kiss us good-bye at the end of class (can you imagine what WC's education department would say about "Professional Distance" ???? GASP!)

Anyway, we're teaching them English.  The kids are peaches.  All of them.  Some of them are quite eager to learn and actually like English.  They're all rather friendly.  I have struck up a particular fondness for the oldest class called Cuarto Medio, which is chock-full of seventeen-year-olds of all different characters.  My favorites are Pablo, the suave Don-Juan of a ladies' man, and Felipe, the introverted, intelligent soft-spoken fellow who wants to study engineering.

Anyway, Rachael and I are planning on taking over ASAP with lesson plans and conducting class activities and whatnot.  Spoiler alert: we're going to be teaching THE HUNGER GAMES!  How awesome is that?  I'll keep you posted on that further on.  I'll also be taking pictures, because we want to present all our fun educational experiences at the Undergraduate Research presentation at WC in the spring. YES.


If that's not fun enough, here are some adorable pics of puppies.

Also, Mina cleaned the mold out of my shower (after I tried to pronounce its translation in Spanish - moho - imposible), so I can go ahead and shower myself again whenever I'm good and ready.

Have a great week!! Learn something new and love what's around you!! BESOS XX

Don't worry everyone - I'M ALIVE

Well, I suppose I should update my MILLIONS of followers on my current state of being, because they are either concerned about my latest state of poor welfare, unaware of my recent illness, or the thought hasn't even crossed their minds.

Great, well here we go.

On Friday night, I went to a bar with Rachael and our Chilean pal, Cesar.  We were hangin' out and I had drank 2 beers, which is weak in comparison to the rest of humanity but impressive for me because I hate beer and usually can't even choke it down.  I got up to use the lil' girls' room, and when I got back to the table I was so overcome by complete nausea, and the aroma of tortilla chock-full of sausage and chunks of onion that had just arrived didn't help.  So, instead of waiting for the sensation to pass, I bid my buddies farewell and took a colectivo taxi home.  My intuition must have known about the madness that was about to ensue, and I'm so glad I wasn't stuck at a bar downtown for this.

Less than an hour later, I was vomiting.  What the heck?! I had only had 2 beers!  (I later told Tony, THIS is why I don't drink beer.)  Well, let's skip past the yummy details and I'll summarize for you:  from 12:30 until around 6, maybe 7 AM, I threw up eight times total.  That's madness.

So around 7 in the morning on Saturday, I'm laying in bed, dehydrated as heck, and I was too weak to stagger toward the kitchen for water.  No one was awake, so I couldn't call for assistance.  So I laid in my bed in a delirious misery for another hour before I couldn't take it anymore.  I wobbled to the kitchen, filled up a glass of water, and upon my return to my room, I blacked out (but managed to land the glass on the nightstand without spilling it on my laptop) and hallucinated a ringing sound growing in my ears.  Turns out this illness is called Rota Virus (or something along those lines), and hey - I SURVIVED IT.

Well, that's as interesting as it gets.  My weekend was consumed by my viral exorcism and the subsequent rehabilitation of my poor little bod.  My host family was wonderful, and Rachael was a peach too.  They made sure I had everything I needed and provided me with various sick-people foods:  soggy apple slices, agua crackers, celery, and a stein of limonada salt-remedy water.  DELICIOUS.  Shout out to Rach for keeping me company but also letting me fall asleep while she was talking, and being a good pal in general.

Well everyone, I hope you all had a better weekend than I did.  Maybe my next post won't be depressing!  Chaooo

una onda

Mira, como el viento afecta a las aguas

como tranquilas estaban

photo props to Rachael

y como suave desarrollan las olitas...

sin saber que ha pasa'o

pero ahora muy diferentes se sienten esas aguas

y luego cuando se tranquilen

parecen pacíficas

pero han cambiado

y jamás estarán así

Buen Provecho III

I don't know what week it is anymore.

We had this quick store-bought soup that was a chicken broth base and with baby little shell noodles in it but it just tasted like crappy chicken noodle soup from home and it was completely perfect in that way.

Then we had fried up spinach ("espinacas," which is super fun to say) with baked coins of potato, a hard boiled egg, "ensalada" (aka chopped up lettuce) with lemon juice as a dressing, and tea. Despite the little bit of fried-ness, it was way healthy and made me feel happy.

Maybe it doesn't look so appetizing.... Well, I know it doesn't, but it was great.  I gobbled it up so fast it was half-gone before I realized I had to take a picture.

Marchas estudiantiles

Student protests for free quality education are all the rage in Chile.  Last year, students took over the university I now attend (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso - or PUCV).  They locked themselves inside and classes stopped for five months.  This year, the government just ain't havin' it.

This morning, after my class ended at 11, my classmates and I left the building to find hundreds of students in the street with giant banners and signs, ready to march for this cause.  And these demonstrations can get very dangerous, as you can see in the video.  Vandalism, violence, beatings, tear gas, high-powered water jets, fires, and arrests aren't uncommon during these demonstrations.

These students march for educational freedom.  Education (just like in the States) is expensive.  There are very few institutions that are completely free, and they are low quality.  Only the richer people can afford to go to school here, because those under a certain income have to take out loans and graduate with lots of debt (sounds familiar, huh?).

This inequality basically shows that the rich can go to school no problem, for $X, while the less wealthy end up paying $5X or so.  Doesn't seem right.  These Chileans march to change things.  These protests for social justice beg the question...

Is quality education a right, or a privilege?

"Regresé de mis viajes. Navagé construyendo la alegría."

Saturday was one of the monthly ISA-sponsored excursions.  It's included in the program, so who wouldn't go?  We went to Pomaire, a small artisan town that appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, about an hour from Valpo; and we also visited Isla Negra, which isn't actually an island as the name may indicate, where Pablo Neruda's third and final home is located.

Only now as I upload my pictures from the weekend, did I realize that I took not a single photo of Pomaire.  Well, that's okay.  For one, I can simply describe it to you:  it's like an enormous maze of little open-aire shops, with a flea-market vibe.  But I also plan to return again, because this place will be my Christmas-shopping hot spot.  So many pottery items and for unbelievably low prices!

 Pablo Neruda had not only three wives, but also three houses:  La Chascona (in Santiago), La Sebastian (in Valparaíso), and this third house, Isla Negra.  The house at Isla Negra had a super nautical vibe and a beautiful view of the waves, despite his great fear of the sea.

= I returned from my travels.  I went building happiness.

inspired to write

Yesterday, in my culture class, we discussed poetry. We also watched this video which is an extremely powerful poem.  I don't even think I can describe it.  Just watch it.

Anyway, that video inspired me to write a poem.  Ingrid Michaelson (my favorite singer) also influenced the feel of this poem in her song "Keep Breathing," and the particular line that swayed me is this: "I want to change the world.  Instead, I sleep."

Maybe click those two little links I provided for ya.  Listen to these two poems if you want to feel a little lost and helpless too.  Listen to them if you want to be slapped in the face with how blessed you are, and how obligated you should be to help.  Just listen.

[Untitled]

end

Does it always justify the means?

People are starving, infected, freezing

I know there are so many problems

So many issues to face, to fix

But here, I’m stuck in the

middle

I try not to worry myself with superficial things

There are bigger problems

But what do I do to help?

With all the turmoil in this beautiful, messed up world,

Where on earth do I even

begin