freezing my butt off in the great outdoors

The weather was great this weekend, sunny and 70s, so I spent as much time as possible outside!  On Saturday we trekked out to the canteras (quarries) south of town, for a picnic and a swim.  We knew the water was going to be ungodly frigid, but we were hoping that with the sun and our long hike we might feel like jumping in once we got there.  It was me, two other volunteers, one of their host brothers, and the host brother's girlfriend.  What would have been just an hour-long walk ended up being two hours, because we tried to take an alternative route (through the woods!), got very lost, and ended up back at the exact same spot on our original path an hour later.  An adventure!  Once we got there we had some sandwiches and the boys jumped in.  It took a lot of convincing, but I was finally persuaded to jump in too. 'You can't feel the cold! your body gets used to it,' they said.  Lies and manipulation tactics. To be fair, by the time I scrambled frantically out of the water, I could no longer feel the cold, but that was more because my body was numb.  Could be worse, I guess... But then we hiked through this creek to a cool waterfall among the quarry rocks! By the time we got home much later, I was absolutely exhausted--a sign of a good day! 

our meeting point: the site of an old burned-down church on the edge of town

...the haunted forest...

fields covered in bright orange wildflowers

And then Sunday I had another dose of beautiful picnic adventure.  My host family, along with my host aunt, uncle, and cousins, drove about an hour into the hills north of town, to a little riverbend that has apparently been their family camping/cookout/picnic spot for years.  It's not a park or anything, just a little path off the main road leading to a clearing next to a big swimming hole and sandy riverbanks.  We had a big lunch and stretched out on the sand to read or take naps or play cards, and in the afternoon we went for a dip.  Based on my experience from the day before, I was hesitant, but this water was not quite as cold, so I agreed to try it out.  I ended up, with my host sister and her cousin, relaxing in natural massage beds among the rocks in the waterfall. Yet again, by the end of the day I was blissfully worn out.  

our sandy headquarters

queens on their thrones

So that was my sunny weekend.  This week we have only three days of classes, so there are some plans to to go the beach over our long weekend! I have been warned that the ocean water will be even colder than either the canteras or the river, so I am already bracing myself... 

teaching & fútbol

The teaching and the fútbol are not related, necessarily, I just have some updates! 

The teacher I work with at school hurt her back the weekend before last, and had to rest for a full week, so I filled in for her in all her classes last week.  I was happy to do it, but it was a challenge! It helps knowing all the students well, but regardless it's going to be difficult to keep a room of 35-40 kids under control by yourself.  I had to go in with guns blazing in order to get them to realize that we were still having a real class, but for the most part it went well!  I did have a few freshman complain that I was being mañosa--a word that doesn't translate well, but would be some combination of "vicious" and "obstinate"--but frankly, that just made me proud.  My regional program respresentative swung by in the middle of the week, for one of his routine classroom observations, and was not happy to find me handling classes on my own. He very adamantly insisted that I was going beyond my responsibilities, and that the school should be sending someone to help me with the classes.  Not long after that, a window was broken on my watch (it was an accident!), so that really reinforced his point... but my teacher is back now, so all is well!

And wouldn't you know, in the course of that riveting class week, I was inadvertently part of a teacher's strike!  On Friday there was a national strike, and though the teachers at my school are not allowed to strike (part of their contract with the semi-private school administration), they held a mini-strike to show solidarity. I arrived to school during the first passing period to find crowds of students cheering in the patio instead of getting to class, and finally saw the sign up on the teachers' door: "PROFES ADHERIDOS AL PARO NAC" ("teachers following national strike").  I had to squeeze my way inside, past the little trashcan-barricade they had set up at the door.  It was a pretty festive atmosphere in there; they seemed very pleased with themselves! Sadly, it only lasted about 20 minutes, and then everybody grudgingly drifted off to start class.  The students were devastated.

Later that day there was a big soccer game- our national team was playing Colombia to determine who qualifies for the World Cup in Brazil next year.  I only knew the name of one of our players, but I'm trying to learn more! Chile scored 3 goals within the first half an hour, so everybody was just going nuts, 'cuz that's crazy.  But we didn't score again the rest of the game, and Colombia managed to catch up and tie us.  Colombia qualified but then we had to play again this week, against Ecuador.  And we won!  So Chile is going to the World Cup, and all the soccer fans have been yelling about it all week.  That night after we won, I could hear car horns honking in the town center all night. Festive festive festive. In the course of all this recent hype, I have learned some new slang: "vamos Chile mierda!"  I knew that it was just a Go Team! kind of thing, but had never seen "mierda" brought into the mix, so I put it into my translator.  In its defense, I should have known better than to try slang in Google translate.  My result was a straightfaced "we shit Chile." Since then I have been giggling to myself every time I think about that, so finally today a student explained to me that it's just a more emphatic way to say "Come on Chileeeeeee!" But I'm still going to laugh picturing crowds of pumped-up soccer fanatics screaming "we shit Chile!" whenever there's a game.

And to bring us back full circle, tomorrow is Teachers' Day!  There is a special dinner for all the staff at a venue in town tonight, and then tomorrow there is no school! What a great way to celebrate teaching, by not teaching 
: ) 

campo

This past Sunday, my host family and I drove out to a relative's house in the countryside.  Well, in a little villa in the hills called Pichi Pellahuen.  I had been there (and written about it on this blog) before, so I will spare you any redundant details and stick mostly to photos here.  They have a lovely house, but I was looking forward to seeing more of everything outside! The last time I had been there it was freezing cold, but now it's spring, which means that the weather was great and also that there were lots of little animals to see : ) 

kitty in the kitchen

the men doing manly things like target practice

Ok, quick food break. The following two pictures are a fungus that grows only in central and southern Chile, only during a few months of the year.  They're called digueñes ("dee-gwen-yace"), and they are little spongy bubble things about the size of an acorn, white on the outside and orange on the inside.  There are currently people selling digueñes on every street corner in the centro, and there are several ways to eat them. You just kind of break them apart by hand and you can toss them with oil and vinegar as a salad (they don't have much flavor themselves, just a cool spongy texture).  Momma Boots, you would like these! 

some of the tinier ones are still whole, but the rest have been broken into pieces here

For lunch in the campo we had pork, beef, and sausage (and tiny potatoes) that were from their own livestock, and for dinner we had these fish, caught in the river in the nearby town.  Can't get much fresher than that, folks. 

Ok, food break over. To digest, Vlady and Panchi and I wandered around outside.  Well, "wander" is misleading, because there is really just the one street in this little villa, and one tiny little park in the middle of it. So I mean that we walked about 150m to the park benches.

my host fam is quite photogenic

Aaaand back to the house, but I followed around out back as the host-uncle was going about his animal care routine (so: animals ahead). 

he cuts up grass (by hand) from one part of his yard to feed all his critters

grass harvest

oh yeah, we collected an egg! 

Fun story re: this egg, actually.  I was proudly carrying it back to the kitchen to present to lady of the house, but noticed that everybody was outside on the sidewalk.  I walked out there with my egg and was introduced to three new people who had dropped by.  One of them was a politician running for office, and they were greeting constituents and passing out propaganda.  I awkwardly did the traditional greeting kiss, egg in hand, and the politician man jokingly asked if I was the one who had produced that lovely egg.  Cue awkward laughter on my end, and that was that.  I later learned that man is Mario Venegas, the Representative for this district in the National Congress.  Very well known, very recognizable (even if only by his chipmunk cheeks), and currently running for his second reelection (in his 7th year in office). So, there ya go, I had a very odd exchange with a semi-significant Chilean politician.  Now on to the lambs.

There were a few little lambs in this flock, and host great uncle picked up the tiniest one to show us how big they actually are up close.  Check out that lamb! 

SO SOFT

This next picture, you will notice, is taken from pretty close up.  I actually crouched down amongst the sheep until they were no longer scared of me and would eat the grass in my outstretched hand.  I would have appreciated a little more camaraderie, but it's a good start, guys. 

And these last two pictures are included only to show the shakes of a lambkins tail, and me on a horse.  I didn't really ride it anywhere, we just asked a guy in the street if I could get on his horse and he said yes, so I got up there.  Great times in the campo! 

miscellany

This is not going to be as good as the Miscellaneous Room in the Dillman Bullock museum (catch up on this blog if you don't know what I'm talking about), but I have some extra stuff to share.

First of all, Mr. Llama has been MIA this past week.  Maybe he'll come back with a haircut.  But, en lieu of a llama story, I would like to introduce the newest character in our neighborhood cast: Baby Cow!

The cows everywhere, including in the field right next to the llama, have been giving birth lately, which means precious little calves! I know there are probably multiple calves in this field, but I have never seen more than one at a time, so for the purposes of my storytelling, it's just the one Baby Cow. I have great hopes for him and his antics.

Springtime also means pretty flowers everywhere and fresh produce out the wazoo.  Ainsley and I picked some of these yellow-and-orange flowers that grow along the side of the road, and I have mine in this makeshift vase in my room.  They close their petals up at night, even inside in my vase!  Sidebar: this bottle is kind of stolen...  A lot of the beverages here are sold in glass bottles, at very cheap prices, because you are supposed to take the bottle back (and when the deliverymen bring new shipments of beverages, they take all the bottles back to the factory to be reused, etc.). But I liked this one so much that I refused to take it back to the bodega across the street, which my host family thought was funny.  It's mine now.

It is also asparagus season, and they are everywhere. We had them for dinner last night and lunch today, and there is still a huge crate left.  My host mom Yeny is moving some pretty hefty quantities... 

And speaking of veggies, how many of you have ever eaten an artichoke whole? I mean like there is an entire artichoke just sitting on your plate. I had never tried it until last week, but I liked it! And it was actually fun to eat too, because you pull each leaf off one by one, dip it in sauce, and just eat the end part off (part of the heart). Sorry I don't have any pictures, but you all know what an artichoke looks like, so be creative. 

I do have another fan club photo to share with you. The boys were going for something a little more sensual this time--you be the judge.  

The Heights of Angol

Well well well, I have gotten a new perspective on my lovely little city here recently.  Literally--I went up to two very high points on different sides of town to enjoy the beautiful views. Last week Vlady drove Franco and Francisca and I up to a lookout point on one of the roads that leads west out of town, through the very high hills.  It was a gorgeous afternoon, without a cloud in the sky, so we could see pretty damn far east.  From up there you can see 5 (FIVE!) volcanoes along the horizon! It still amazes me every time how casual all the Chileans here are about their volcanoes--they could only tell me the name of one of them. Oh that thing? Just some volcano, nothing special.  On this last photo, I tried to point out some spots for ya- the other hill I pointed out is that one I climbed this past Saturday with Ainsley and Todd (photos to follow, just be patient). 

You really can see a lot from up there, all the way to some other towns.  Apparently at night it's even prettier.  Vlady told us a story about one of his cousins: his family lived in the country, and when he was little (5 or so), his dad was driving him into Angol for the first time, at night.  This little boy had lived his whole life in the countryside, and had no real concept of what a town would look like.  When they got to the top of this hill and could finally see the lights of Angol over the other side, the little boy got excited and told his dad that must be where the stars slept at night! That has to be one of the cutest stories I've heard; it's going in my sweet anecdote bank (sorry, friends and family, if you have to hear it again at some point in my life). 

Then this past Saturday, as I have mentioned, my friends and I set out to get to the top of another hill that I can always see on my walks home.  At the top is a little shrine to San Sebastián, so that was our reference point as we made our way up the grassy side of the hill. It actually did not take nearly as long as we expected! Once we were up there the wind was pretty strong (which I loved), but the warm sun was blazing so we just took it all in for a while.  Oh, forgot to mention the bonus of using the little wood-and-rope bridge to get there from the back of my neighborhood--that's always way more entertaining than it should be for a 22-year-old person.

not the hill we climbed, but a neighboring one that I plan on also climbing at some point

ahhh just take it in

Ainsley enjoying the breeze

Todd likes this hill

I should also pass along the information that there were three crosses up at the top of this hill, next to San Sebastián's little shrine, and I did get up onto the middle cross and pretend to be Jesus for a minute.  Maddie Boots, still blaspheming all the way down here in Chile.