miscellany

Since I didn't post really at all last week, here are a few things to catch up on: 

I tagged along to my friend's host brother's birthday party.  When was the last time you were at a 13th birthday party? Do you remember how awkward those gatherings are? My friend Dan and I were enjoying ourselves just people-watching the youngins, and then we made the mistake of joining in on a soccer game in the yard.  One of my shots on goal clocked a fifth-grader square in the face.  He was ok though!  Just in the way.  Afterwards Dan's host dad told me, in all sincerity, that I play really well for a girl.  There are so many things I wanted to object to, but he meant it as a compliment and I didn't feel like trying to protest in Spanish.  Instead Dan and I dazzled (?) the crowd with our Gangnam style dance, a weekly event at that house.  Pretty sure all the 13-year-olds hated us.

Also I went to the hospital yesterday!  It's not as serious as it sounds.  There are no clinics here, so if you want medical attention but don't have an appointment at your own doctor's office (so if it's urgent, or the weekend), you just go to the ER.  I've had a cold hanging on for a few weeks, and on my birthday I was feeling a little funky, and then I woke up in the middle of the night freaking out because I thought they had turned the furnace on and transported me downstairs without waking me up (but really I was just in my own bed, and delirious). The next morning when I told my host parents that they immediately wanted to take me to the hospital, so we went.  Turns out it's just a virus, and I have meds now! But the doctor thought that it might be pneumonia and wanted to take xrays, and then let me keep them!  Look at my beautiful lungs! 

And then, today, I finally got my Chilean ID card!  One the one hand, I am very glad to have it because getting it was a long and tedious process, but on the other hand... it is by FAR the worst in my long history of horrible ID photos.  I mean, it's bad.  For some reason I thought you weren't allowed to smile at all.  Let's attribute it to the language barrier, shall we? I don't even want to show it, it's just embarrassing. 

But I will! (embarrassment has never held me back) 

Don't I look like I just murdered someone for making fun of my wonky eye?  On the plus side, no one will mess with me now.  I'd like to see them try!  Last week on our family trip there came a moment when we needed to reprimand someone who had cut us in line, and I offered to start yelling obscenities in English (to confuse him, you know, and maybe intimidate him a little with my foreign rage), and the guy in question may or may not have overheard my rehearsal, because our problem was solved! So now the host family always jokes that they'll just send me in cursing up a gringo storm when need be.  Glad to be of service!   

The Birthday Post

I'm 22! Now I can finally--wait...  

So it turns out I had to work on my birthday, even though I work at a school and my birthday was on a Saturday.  I guess the school is taking a whole week off for Chilean Independence Day in September (BFD down here) so they're making up the days on various Saturdays.  No one could tell me why they don't just add another week onto the school year.  

But it was actually kind of fun to be at school on my birthday, because my students made a bigger deal about it than anyone has ever before in my life.  It was so sweet! I lost count of how many happy birthday songs I got, and they surprised me with presents and cards and treats all day.  A big group of mostly freshmen and sophomores surprised me at the bottom of the stairs during a passing period, with a big "Happy Birthday Maddie! I love you!" sign (they toss around "I love you" like it's their job, with no regard for conjugation/grammar--but who really cares about grammar in moments like these?), and balloons, and a tasty pastry with a birthday candle in it.  Then of course I had to saludar (cheek kiss) everyone, which took like 5 min.  I wish I had a picture!  I DO have a picture of one of my favorite classes, who decorated their whiteboard top-to-bottom for me and hid under their desks to jump out and sing for me when I walked in. Ladies and gentlemen, class 1B: 

And then in the teachers' room they had a big kuchen for me, which is a delicious German tart-like thing that's popular down here, and everyone sang for me and I gorged myself on kuchen. 

Thennnn I got to come home and relax all day.  My host family decorated for my birthday with balloons and streamers and a feliz cumpleaños sign!  And they gave me some sweet slippers and a striped sweater that I will wear all the time when it gets cold! And that night some cousins came over and we had a nice big meal (tacos!) and cake : )  We took pictures, but on my host family's camera, so I will post those once I get my hands on them. 

And then even today at school I was getting more bday treats. There's a 7th grade class that I go to once a week, with a different head teacher, and they surprised me with a birthday party today!  I mean like they decorated the room, had a disco light going, mountains of snacks and treats for everybody, and multiple presents for me!  I was serenaded in both Spanish and English and then they said a class prayer in thanks for me/my birthday.  Too sweet.  So all in all, at school I have received several decorative boxes, a little notepad thing, two sets of chocolates, two bracelets, and this little lion that says "I love you" when you squeeze his tum (from the 7th grade head teacher).  Very unexpected! 

 I'm so lucky to have all these fantastic people around me every day! : ) 

Three Day Weekend

Happy belated Easter!  Semana Santa (Holy Week) is a big deal here, so school ended Thursday at lunchtime and my host family had a trip planned!  We left early Friday morning and drove 3 hours southeast to Pucón, Chile.  It's a major tourist destination in the region because there's a concentration of beautiful natural landscape nearby: several huge lakes, mountains, volcanoes, waterfalls, hot springs, etc.  It was so gorgeous! I don't think any of these pictures capture it well.  But I tried!  

So we got there Friday.  We met up with some cousins and an uncle and the grandparents there, in a little cabin/condo.  Here's the view from the sidewalk: 

Friday afternoon my host siblings and cousin and I played cards/Jenga while the adults got settled (notice that I do not include myself in that group) and, much to our amusement, our Jenga game had to end without a loser because there were no more moves to be made.  I have never seen that before so of course I had to take a picture. 

But then we went to see some waterfalls called the Ojos de Caburgua!  According to wikipedia the water comes from Lake Caburgua (which we also saw, hang on just a sec) via "underground infiltration."  I had to look it up because basically the water just pours out of the earth into the bluest natural pool I've ever seen.  I stubbornly refused to believe the blue was natural, but my host dad explained it's from the rocks at the bottom or something.  You can't see the deep blue that well in these pictures, but it's there... 

It's called "ojos," "eyes," because it's like a face crying

that little guy in the front would be a host cousin, a 10-yo bundle of energy, and in the back is another uncle.  We were all trying very hard not to slip here 

Along the trails around the waterfalls (which were very root-y, as you can see) we found an adorable kitten and my host mom spent about 5 minutes trying to convince the rest of the group that we should take it home with us.  It was pretty damn cute, I'll give her that, but we left him where we found him.  

                                       

Then we went to see Lake Caburgua itself.  Everyone else was dismayed to see that the water level was much lower than the last time they saw it (summer is the dry season here, so it hasn't rained in a while), but I still thought it was pretty!  Look at it, how could you not?

even all the way down here in Chile there are gingers, thank goodness

 Ok, Day 2!  We went to the Volcano Villarrica, which you can see from everywhere in Pucón as well as Villarrica (the neighbor town that obviously got preference when they were naming things.  Or maybe it was there before Pucón, I don't know).  Anyway, it had just rained and the day was cloudy anyway, so up there everything was green and it was so foggy that we could hardly see anything.  Including the volcano peak itself.  But no matter, because the setting was so surreal that I felt like I was on a movie set or something.  We set off along a path to see come craters up close without knowing that the path was 5k, and ended up turning back after about 1.5k.  Ooof it was exhausting.  But tell me this doesn't look like we wandered into some godswood on the set of Game of Thrones!  I loved it. 

Then that afternoon we went to some hot springs!  There are bunches throughout the mountains around Pucón, and it was a beautiful drive.  We finally ended up at one called los Pozones, where there are 5-6 pools (each a different temperature) along a strip next to the river, which you can also go into.  We wanted to try the river (not first, of course) and oh my GOD it was cold but it was fun.  Quite the experience! 

this pool was the hottest, and Francisca and I tried it but quickly decided it was unbearable so switched to another where we could put mud on our faces and relax a bit

Over the trip we ate a lot of seafood.  Even though Pucón is on the Western side of Chile, relatively close to Argentina, there was a lot of fresh seafood everywhere (maybe for the tourists?).  So we ate crab claws and shrimp and a bunch of stuff I couldn't identify.  The shrimp we ate hot, tossed with noodles, but everything else was cold, dipped in various mayo sauces.  Sadly, garlic sauce does not appear to be in the Chilean repertoire.

Then Easter!  The sun finally came out on Sunday, and we went to see the lake on which sits Pucón.  It's called Lake Villarrica (surprise) and Villarrica also sits on the same lake, but down a ways.  It's huge.  And beautiful.  And, unfortunately for our plans, freezing cold.

the volcano! finally I can see it

I couldn't get both sides in one picture.  Told you it was big

this volcano is such a tease

this was as far in as we made it...

much to everyone's amusement, I keep finding myself friends with street dogs such as these

And then we came back home to Angol and ate papas fritas (homemade french fries) because none of the 7 places we looked had empanadas!  I'll find them someday.  It was still a fantastic weekend even though there were no empanadas : ) 

Host family

So in addition to going to the waterfall with other volunteers this weekend, I also joined my host family for an aunt's bday and lamb at their grandparent's house.  Lots of delicious food!  I made an effort to take more pictures of it but realized that all my photos are more of food in the preparation stage rather than the at-the-table stage.  But that's more interesting anyway, right??  


 Ok we'll jump right in with the lamb.  I'd never had it before!  This was for a 7-person meal, and it was pretty tasty.  Apparently you have to turn it over the coals like this for a full hour, but it comes out really flavorful.  I have come full circle from my 2-something vegetarian years, but it was delicious! 

my host dad taking over lamb-roasting duty from his mom

 Then, turns out that the host grandparents have a little garden where they grow all kinds of stuff, including these picture-perfect grapes.  We ate them off the vine and took some for home and oh my god they were so good. LOOK AT THEM. 

Franco and Francisca laughing at me being so excited about the grapes

AND. Have you ever seen an avocado tree?  It had never occurred to me to even think about how avocados grow, but now I know!  

Also figs. I'd never eaten a fig but I tried one off the tree.  Not bad! 

Then the best part: my family makes homemade gnocchi and they served it up yesterday.  Oh my goddddddd so yummyyyyyyyyy

I lucked out!  Love the food and love them!  : ) 

Los Saltos del Laja

Did another Saturday excursion this week, to a waterfall a little north of here.  We had to take a bus to the bigger city nearby, Los Angeles (where we had time to kill so wandered around a bit), and then another bus to the falls.  But it was worth it!  We made friends with an awesome German backpacker and went on a motor boat tour of the river, which was gorgeous.  A very fun day, even if we were completely exhausted from having been up till 5am the night before singing karaoke with the family of one of the volunteers here (no regrets, it was fantastic). 

So first, in Los Angeles we walked through the market and saw piles and piles of the biggest, most beautiful and perfect-looking produce I've ever seen: 

Then we made it to Saltos del Laja, which usually has more water than this but was still beautiful

And we met/befriended this awesome German kid.  Here I am with Nadeem and Caroline (two other volunteers) and Mauritz, the wise-beyond-his-years German

let's just pretend that at least one of us is looking at the camera

And then the sun started to come out and it got even more beautiful! 

Decided to do a boat tour, which was cool

  

living. the. dream.

Then we bid adieu to our new friend (I know that's French) and, back in Los Angeles, killed some time by stopping into a pet shop.  Where they sold chickens (Emma Cudahy, I wish you had been there).  Here, this fine lady is selecting which chicken she would like to purchase...

yep, this one looks good apparently

We were really confused about Chileans keeping chickens as pets, but later my host family explained that the chickens are just for raising (and killing and eating) and this must just have been a store where they sold pets and also animals for eating.  Seems like there might be some gray area there...

oh look! it's my nightmare! 

Ja. 'Twas a good day!