-wiffle balls, T-shirt wrapped in saran wrap, oranges (always fun when one of the oranges gets kicked too hard...), crumpled up paper wrapped in tin foil, squashed up pop cans, plastic bottles, bottle caps, and I´m sure the list will eventually get longer.

After school I felt like running but didn´t have the time because I had to prepare a power-point presentation for the monthly English teachers´meeting tonight. I chose the topic of classroom management, and finished the presentation just a few minutes before I had to leave the house. I shouldn´t have worried, because it turns out no one is EVER on time for these things. Today there were people visiting from the Santiago office and the US embassy. I hadn´t realized I´d be giving my presentation in front of them, but overall it seemed like it went well.

After the meeting I went to the gym that a few people had told me about on the corner of Rancagua con Tadeo Hanke. Let´s just say it was an interesting experience. I walked in and gave the guy my 500 pesos (which is about 1 US dollar) and went to the bathroom to change. The first elliptical I tried to use didn´t work. One of the guys working there came running over to explain that it didn´t work. He asked if I wanted to do cardio or weights. When I told him cardio, he asked if he could show me how to use all the weights. I don´t usually lift but I figured it would be good to lift a little bit, do a different kind of workout than normal. The guy working there, Marcelio, was really nice and explained all of the weights. It was a little bit weird because there was only one other female in the gym besides me, and the guys there kept giving me looks. One of them came up to me and said in really bad English, ¨you...look...cool.¨ I had to try not to laugh. After doing a few circuits of weights (which seemed easier to lift than last time I tried to...which was in college...), I got on the only elliptical there that actually works. I actually liked lifting, which is weird because I always hated it when our track and cross-country coach made us lift at the beginning of practice. I think I might try to come to the gym to lift a few times a week. It´ll help my muscles out and be beneficial to my running. On a different note, I also need to stop procrastinating and find a place where I can sign up for yoga classes.

There were no treadmills, and only one of the four ellipticals actually worked. And the elliptical only had one setting, which wasn´t enough resistance for me. There weren´t locker rooms, just a kind of dirty bathroom in which the floor was partly flooded. The ceiling/roof of the gym was nothing more than a thin tin sheet, and there was part of a tree growing inside of the gym. The walls were falling apart cement blocks with 80´s style posters hanging up everywhere of muscle men and women in aerobics suits and big hair. There was actually space between the top of the walls and the edges of the ceiling where you could see outside. I suppose it made sense because there´s never rain or severe weather in Iquique, but it was still kind of weird. The equipment was rather primitive, but it worked okay. I wish the elliptical had worked better, and that there was a treadmill because I really felt like running last night. I did an hour on the elliptical before the gym closed at 11.

After I changed back into my normal clothes, Marcelio was asking me all these questions- the normal where I´m from, where I work, if I like Iquique, and if I go running a lot and so forth. He said he knew another English teacher from the States and I figured out he was talking about Caroline. He seemed surprised that I knew her.

When I got home I showered and then practiced the guitar for a bit. My host dad was in one of his crabby moods again, and at 12:30 yelled at me for still being awake. I tried to explain that I don´t normally go to sleep until closer to 1 or 2am, and that I don´t need a whole lot of sleep, but them my host dad went shuffling off to their room, so I stopped playing the guitar. Most of the time I think it´s hard to figure him out. One minute he´s really nice and joking about things, and the next minute he´s all grumpy. I like my host family a lot. My brothers are cool, but sometimes I think I´m just not used to living with a family anymore.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I work from 9:15 until 4:30 and after that I have choir until 6:30. But I should head to bed now....even though I´m not really tired...

written by  Sara Florecita on October 4, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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Friday during the day was really productive. I finished writing a paper for my online Spanish course, went on a run along the beaches and to the plaza, finished another drawing, and learned to sing and play two new songs (one of them in Spanish!)

Friday night I was feeling in a pretty social mood and wanted to go out, but at first everyone I talked to felt like staying in. I was beginning to feel like a bit of a social loser when I got a message from Caroline saying that she and Elisabeth were going to Siddhartha Lounge, a bar in the Mall de las Américas. I took a colectivo there, and on the way there talked to the driver and other passenger, who were about my age. Hanging out at the bar with Caroline and Elisabeth was fun. We had a chance to catch up, even though we had to pretty much yell at each other across the table in order to hear what we were saying. Then Elisabeth started dancing, even though no one else there was. She can dance really well. Part of me wishes I was Latin-American because I haven´t met a latinoamericano who can´t dance well. There were three Chileans and a British guy at the table next to ours and one of them got up to dance with Elisabeth. A little while later she convinced me to dance too, so I did. We had a few more drinks and talked to them, but then Elisabeth and Caroline decided to go home. I went to Cabala, another place near my school with the four guys for a while, where they introduced me to more of their friends.

When I left Cabala it was light outside. It seemed like the night had flown by so quickly. I took a colectivo back to my house but wasn´t able to sleep, so I stayed up for a while killing time on the computer. I tried to sleep but just tossed and turned. At 10am I went to Víctor´s house for my tattoo appointment. We walked around outside enjoying the sun and met Ernesto by Playa Cavancha.

My tattoo turned out really nice. I´m in the process of getting a half-sleeve on my left arm, but am getting it done in sections since doing it in one sitting would be too painful and long. Today I got a lotus flower right above my elbow. It´s mostly in shades of purples with a little bit of pink, and the water is light blue. The lotus is a traditional symbol of hope and purity, of making it through hard times and then blossoming above the murkiness. It also represents spring, peace, and tranquility. It took about three hours to have it done, and fortunately it didn´t hurt too badly. Only parts of it were kind of painful. I was relieved that it didn´t feel worse because for some reason the turtle I got last week hurt a lot more.

When I left Víctor´s, it was sunny and gorgeous outside, so I went on a walk down to the Centro. I feel like I´m getting to know my way around Iquique much better. When I got back home I showered, practiced the two new songs I´m learning (´Story´by Brandi Carlile and ´Cuando los sapos bailen flamenco´by Ella Baila Sola). I hadn´t planned on going out again, but Ernesto invited me to hang out with him and Víctor and their group of friends, so I headed back to the centro. I met five of their friends and they all seemed really cool. In many ways it feels like I´ve known them a lot longer than just one day. We all got along really well and they were asking me a lot of questions (the usual, why am I here, what do I do, where am I from, what is Chicago like? ...etc). A few of them can speak a little bit of English, so they were talking in English as well. I had a really good time and for the second day in a row, the sun was coming up from behind the sand dunes when I finally got back to my house.

I slept in until 4 in the afternoon, but felt refreshed when I got up. I woke up just in time for almuerzo (lunch). One thing that´s kind of weird is that my host family eats lunch between 3 and 4pm. We always eat lunch together on Sundays because my host mom doesn´t have to work, and the rest of us aren´t at school. She made rice and corn, a plate of broccoli, asparagus, tomatoes, and avocados, and homemade french fries (the rest of them also had chicken). A few weeks ago my host mom decided to become a vegetarian of sorts because she wanted to lose weight (I explained to her that I was thin before I became vegetarian, but she still wanted to try it for a while). She won´t eat any chicken, beef, pork, etc during the week, but on Sundays she´ll eat meat. However, I´ve still noticed her eating cakes and other desserts, so I´m not quite sure if she really thinks she can lose weight by just not eating meat but not eating healthily. Of course, when she asked the family if she looked different, all three of my host brothers and host dad nodded their heads and told her she looks much thinner (I didn´t notice a significant difference, and I´m pretty sure they didn´t want to hurt her feelings). After almuerzo I worked on making another poster for my class. This one says my name in giant letters. I finally decided to make a sign with my name to put in the front of my classroom because I´m getting tired of the students repeatedly asking me what my name is. I´ll tell them and write it on the board, and the next day, someone else asks me, ´Miss, what is your name?´So problem fixed...now I can just point to the sign. On a side note, most of them can pronounce my last name. When I first got to Colegio Inglés, they struggled with the ´th´sound. I´ve been making them practice that, and now they can say my name correctly:)

Well, I´m headed off now to meet Eric and hopefully figure out some ideas for the presentation I´m supposed to give at the English teachers´ meeting tomorrow night.

written by  Sara Florecita on October 3, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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My classroom is finally starting to look like an actual classroom. Most of the students brought the signs I asked them to make. A few of them look super cool, thanks to the really artistic kids in my class. One of my sixth graders made me this picture of Cristiano Ronaldo to hang up in the class. He was all excited when he gave it to me because he´d heard me say that I like watching football matches. I didn´t have the heart to tell him I can´t stand Ronaldo, so now I have this picture of him hanging up in my class. A few of my students started making barfing noises when the kid brought me the picture...I kind of wanted to give those kids extra credit, but part of being a volunteer in the program is that I´m not actually allowed to give out grades. I also hung up pictures of my family and Kyle in my classroom, so it feels a lot nicer in there now. I´m planning on making more signs/ decorations for my class this weekend.

Thursdays are my long lunch break days. I don´t have any classes between 1:30 and 3:45, so yesterday I walked along the boardwalk, found a nice bench in the sun, and sat down to draw for a while. Then I walked to the Centro for some maní confitado (candied peanuts) which are sold along Tarapacá by street vendors. They tell you not to eat the street food due to questionable health codes, but the street food here is some of the best stuff I´ve tried. Maní confitado is quickly becoming my new obsession...at least they are WAY cheaper than Starbucks, Cool Beanz, or Theo´s.

After school was the English department meeting, which not only is boring as hell, but it cuts into my choir rehearsal time. The choir rehearses from 4:30 until 6:30, and I´m required to attend English meetings from 4:30 until 5:30. Generally they are a waste of time. Last week Jorge, another teacher, had brought his computer and was making a powerpoint for his class. During the meeting he and I kept goofing around on the computer. Today, we were told that the sixth graders have to put on a fashion show at the next Cultural Night, which will be at the end of October, so we wrote the script for that. I still need to choose the kids to do this. I was also told that I should choose the kids with the worst grades and give them extra credit for it. We shall see how this turns out. Maybe it´ll be fun. I´m more excited about the fifth graders´presentation I get to plan for Cultural Night. I am going to have them dress up in baseball uniforms and teach them to sing ´Take me out to the ball game.´ The object of the fifth grade presentation is to share some aspect of American culture with the teachers and parents who will be attending.

After the meeting got out, I went to choir rehearsal. On the down side, only one of the boys in the choir showed up, but on the plus side, the altos are improving a lot! I´m really excited that they can hold their parts without me having to sing the alto part with them.

Then I wandered around town before going to El Tercer Ojito. I feel like I´m definitely getting more familiar with knowing my directions and way around Iquique, which was really confusing at first. The whole restaurant is in the garden/courtyard area with exotic plants growing there. It is a super nice, classy restaurant and has a good mix of different ethnic dishes (everything from curry to pad thai to tacos, to gnocchi, lasagna, pastas, to sushi, to south american dishes and seafood). I had vegetarian curry, which was awesome. They also give you a basket of bread with butter (which i didn't eat) and olive pesto stuff. I ordered a drink called Coco Tropic, which has rum, banana flavored vodka, orange, mango, and banana, and it is blended up like a margarita. The waiters were also super nice so I left a good tip. After eating there and writing for a bit I went home for the night.

I´m currently working on some drawings. For me, drawing, writing, and music have always come in waves of creativity, and you never know when you´re going to feel inspired to do something expressive and creative. Since coming to Chile, I haven´t been in much of a creative-writing mood (fiction or poetry), I have been writing a lot of emails and keeping my blog updated. I´ve only written two poems since coming to Chile, but that´s okay. I feel strongly that if I´m not deeply moved to write (or draw or play music, for that matter) then I shouldn´t. If I´m not really involved and really feeling it then whatever I create isn´t going to feel right. I´ve felt like singing on and off here, but need to learn som new music in Spanish. Fortunately, I´ve been feeling a lot more like drawing lately, which is a good way to unwind after a busy day. So now I am going to draw more and then go to sleep. Yay for sleeping in tomorrow!

written by  Sara Florecita on September 30, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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After lunch, the fifth graders had to take a test. I was sent to the library with one girl who had broken her arm and couldn´t write. She was supposed to tell me what to write or how to answer the questions, but every time she said an answer, she would ask me if it was right, or she would ask me to translate it into Spanish. I kept having to repeat that this is a test, and I can´t help her or translate for her.

Once school was out I went on a walk, but by then the sky was turning gray and cloudy. Go figure...it´s a beautiful day while I´m cooped up in school, but as soon as I get out it turns drab and gray. The whole day while in school I kept thinking about all the things I wish I could be doing...taking a walk, going on a run, taking a surf lesson, sitting at a street cafe or the boardwalk sipping on fresh fruit juice while people watching... But no. It wouldn´t have been a big deal if my kids had been well-behaved, or if there were the normal amount of students in the class.

Sometimes I feel like the school switches back and forth between not caring that I´m there at all, and taking advantage of me being there. Like today, I had to sub for another teacher´s class instead of teaching my own. It wasn´t a huge deal, but still, it´s in my contract that I don´t have to sub unless I want to. The whole day I didn´t teach any of my own classes. Yesterday I took a sick day from school (had to go back to the doctor) but when I came back, no one had even noticed I wasn´t there.

On the plus side, when I do teach my own class, I really like the students I have. The kids in my class are very eager to learn English and seem to like practicing their English with me. Sometimes we get a little bit off-topic, but I don´t really mind as long as they are speaking in English.

After school I went home with the intentions of going on a run, but by the time the bus pulled up to my corner, I felt dead tired and had no energy for running, so I curled up with a book and read, and after that I took a siesta for about an hour and a half. When I woke up I felt refreshed and a lot more energized. I met up with Eric to get a few drinks at a place called Papá Gallo, and then walked to the ocean to watch the waves come rolling in. There is definitely a calming, relaxing effect to going to the beach at night. I like how the water and sky are the same shade of dark blue, and you can´t see where the ocean ends and the sky begins, but you see the white foam of these powerful waves crashing on the shore. At night you see less, so you can pay more attention to the song the ocean is singing to you, and you notice the salty sea air more. During the day you can see clearly and have spectacular views of the ocean, but often rush through life not noticing anything relating to the other senses.

Sometimes I feel like I can´t decide whether I like Iquique or not. My host family is really caring and generous, my students are mostly great, and the coast is beautiful. But Iquique is also really dirty and polluted, and the stray dogs are really bothersome. Yesterday night at 3am the dogs in our street were keeping me awake with their shrill, high pitched, yappy barking, going on and on and making it difficult to sleep. I wish I lived closer to the Centro, and that I didn´t have to take a bus or colectivo to get anywhere more interesting. But I love the moonlight filtering in through my balcony window at night, and I love the energy of the ocean after dark.

Sometimes I feel like I rush through life, and I need to slow down and enjoy the small things, live more in the present moment, and be thankful for all the beauty that surrounds us.

Right then, as I sat in the sand by Playa Brava I decided that yes, I do like Iquique. At least for this moment. But yes, Iquique is beautiful and special in its own way, and there were reasons I was sent here. To learn, to change, to grow. And I feel like many of the reasons I don´t know yet, but that´s okay. My journey is far from over.

written by  Sara Florecita on September 29, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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Then I took a colectivo to Víctor, my tattoo artist´s house. It´s weird how sometimes the colectivo drivers are nice, but other times they don´t even talk. The guy yesterday was very friendly and asked a lot of questions about why I was here and what the States are like. It was a mostly sunny day and warm compared to the cloudy days we´ve been having here. When I got to Víctor´s place we walked to the downtown area of town to make copies of the design, and I met a few of his friends, who seemed pretty nice.

Today I got a turtle on the inside of my left arm right above my elbow. By next Saturday I will have a half-sleeve, but I´m getting it done in a few different sessions. It hurt a bit worse than the other tattoos I´ve gotten, but I was really happy with how it turned out. The colors are really bright and I definitely like it. I´m currently working on drawings for the rest of the design, which will include a lotus (to represent spring), a hazel leaf (summer) and a holly leaf (winter), the sun, the moon, and a butterfly, as well a wind design to connect everything and a water/wave design to connect the turtle and lotus.

After getting the tattoo we went back to the store where Ernesto works to hang out for a bit, and then I went home. On the way home, the colectivo broke down, and the driver had to give me my 550 pesos back so I could take another colectivo the rest of the way back home. The colectivo system here is super efficient, and part of me wonders why nowhere in the US has adopted such a system.

When I got home, my host family was eating cake, so I joined them at the table, even though I didn´t eat the cake (it had eggs and milk products in it). After that we were all singing karaoke in the living room until super late. After their aunt, uncle, and their children went to bed, I had a few beers with my host brother and cousin. I didn´t go to bed until pretty late, but then again, I had no reason to wake up early today.

Today I also got to sleep in, which was nice. At about 11 I got up and checked my email, worked on my Spanish assignment, and tried to motivate myself to go running. I love running, but sometimes I get really bored running in Iquique. The beach is pretty much the only good place to go running here, and it isn´t quite big enough for the longer distances I prefer, so I usually have to turn around a few times or run in giant circles, which gets kind of boring. Today was also kind of gray and dull outside, which didn´t motivate me that much. Finally I stopped being lazy and started running. I enjoyed the run I took, and was out for almost two hours. I really need to be more motivated with running, especially since the marathon is in a little over two months from now. I´ve never had much of a problem being motivated to run every day, but even though the beach is nice, I´m tired of only running along the beaches. That is one thing I really miss about Santiago as well as Rock Island. Both places had good places to enjoy a nice long run.

After running I took (another) cold shower and headed downstairs to eat. More of the family was over, and they were cooking food on the grill. I enjoyed grilled zucchini, squash, carrots, red peppers, and onions. However, even after lunch I still felt chilly thanks to the cold shower. My host mom said that a guy will be coming to the house tomorrow to fix it. Hopefully that´ll be the case. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. I drew a lot, which was nice because I haven´t had much time to just sit and draw lately.

I´m not tired, but I should be going to bed soon. Unfortunately tomorrow is Monday and I have to get up early for work.

written by  Sara Florecita on September 26, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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However, sometimes we spend our whole lives trying to get far away from where we first started, only to end up in the same exact place after all. While not physically in the same place, the mind starts to draw parallels and see connections, and you realize that some things remain constant no matter what. I realized no matter where I am, I will always have the overwhelming desire to travel, and I will always feel slightly saddened by the idea that even if you spend your whole life travelling, it´s impossible to see the entire world. I´m restless by nature and don´t like staying in one place too long, but maybe it´s relative. Since I came back from Perú I have tried to slow down and truly enjoy the present moment, because perhaps that´s all we´ll ever have. Maybe they were right, that the present moment is all that exists and the past is just an illusion, a far-behind memory that only exists thanks to the lingering memories we hold onto.

Part of me wishes I could relax and enjoy Iquique (where I am right now) without always seeming to wonder ´what next?´or making up plans for the future. I already have a long list of places I want to go and things I want to do. I don´t know why I can´t just be happy to be here right now because the present moment is a miracle, without my mind filling itself up with thoughts of future adventures.

Travelling is contagious. Once you go to just one place, it opens up doors. You learn about other places you never knew existed. You want to try new things and experience the most you can. You meet people who change your life in various ways--some are subtle and others are so important that you can barely conceive of your life had you not met those people, even if the time you spent with them was brief.

I also feel homesick after my experiences in Perú because while I was there, I felt like the only real thing in life is love, and I´m 5,000 some miles away from the guy I love and who loves me. Sure, I am surrounded by things I love, such as the beauty of the ocean, the splendid rays of sunlight, being able to run, write, sing, etc. But the one person I know I´m meant to be with is back in Illinois and at the end of the day I often feel lonely because no one here understands me and gets me the way Kyle does. Today is his birthday so I especially missed him, but it was good hearing his voice again on the phone.

Today has been a lot of ups and downs, but at least it ended on a good note and I´m feeling pretty happy now. The government still hasn´t sorted out our visa situations. They have my passport and I´m supposed to get it back, as well as receive my visa, on Monday. As long as I get it back before I go to Bolivia in a week and a half, and as long as they don´t lose it, I´m okay with it...but knowing the Chilean government, you never know. The only unpleasant thing was having to wait around the regional government building for a few hours.

After that I ate lunch at my regional coordinator´s house and met her husband and mother-in-law from Argentina. We talked for a while and then I had to go to the post office to send Kyle´s birthday present home. That was an interesting experience. I had to get everything inspected by the customs people and the whole thing took almost an hour. One of the guys working there was super nice, but the other one treated me so rudely I almost felt like crying. It was worse because the whole conversation was in Spanish which was slightly frustrating. Although my Spanish is improving, there are still moments when I feel like I don´t understand anything at all, which is really upsetting since I´ve tried so hard to learn. Anyway, they said that anything that is made from a tree cannot be sent through the mail, so I wasn´t able to send any of the artwork (which was made of wood) in the mail. Part of me felt like asking why they allowed me to leave all the things made of paper in the box, and why I could send it all in a cardboard box since those are made from a tree too, but I didn´t think being a smart ass would get me anywhere, and I really didn´t want them to confiscate anything.

I wandered around part of the centro I hadn´t been to before and found a few interesting little markets and shops. When I got back home, the electricity was out, so that wasn´t much fun, especially since I was planning on doing my Spanish homework online.

At 7:30 I was supposed to meet some co-workers at a Chinese restaurant. The school was going to treat everyone to dinner, but when I got there I was informed that they had either changed the time to 9:30 or accidentally told me the wrong time. I ended up not eating at the Chinese restaurant because I had plans to meet a friend and I wanted to call Kyle since today was his birthday. After meeting up with Víctor to go over ideas for the tattoo I´m getting tomorrow (I´m going to get a half-sleeve on my left arm, but in three different sessions), I found a cheap call center I could call from. It was good hearing his voice again and getting to talk for a bit, and by the time I got home I was in a pretty good mood.

written by  Sara Florecita on September 24, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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Today I finally got to teach the kids in my own classroom. The fifth graders have a test on Monday, so I reviewed vocab words (parts of the body) with them. It was pretty fun. The sixth graders were working on verbs in the past simple tense, so we did guided conversations. We finished early with that so we gathered in a circle on the floor to take turns reading.

After school I went to Santa Isabel, a supermarket, where I bought ingredients to make tacos and guacamole. Finding the ingredients in the store was interesting. Where they put things doesn´t make much sense, and they didn´t have any taco chips. I figured we could just put the guacamole in the tacos though. When I was checking out, the guy was talking to me. ´So you´re having Mexican night? Who´s bringing the tequila?´and so forth. I felt like a bit of an idiot getting on the bus to go home because I was awkwardly trying to carry my grocery bags as well as a somewhat big cardboard box one of the librarians had given me earlier today. I needed the box in order to send Kyle´s birthday present home to him (his birthday is tomorrow...I was busy all week and hadn´t meant to procrastinate, but I figured better late than never). When I was getting up to get off the bus, the bus jerked to a stop and I went flying into another passenger with all my stuff.

At home I made tacos and guacamole and Eric, another volunteer, came over to eat. Caroline was sick so she didn´t come, and Elisabeth backed out on the plans last minute. The soy protein here is different than in the States, so it was a bit of an experiment preparing it, but I think it turned out mostly well. I got Eric to try the soy protein and I think he liked it. Then we went on a walk, and then Eric went home. It was kind of nice hanging out with another volunteer. At times I feel kind of lonely here, even though I have met a lot of people and generally like Iquique. At the same time, I don´t have any close friends down here, and a lot of times when I get home from school, there´s really nothing to do besides running, studying Spanish, writing, or reading. My host brothers are studying, and my host mom works until midnight every day except Sundays. Sometimes I feel like things get a little boring, especially since I live so far away from the downtown area where there are actually more things to do.

But on the bright side, today was good, and I have the next three days off. Yay for weekends! I´m happy I can actually stay up late tonight since I don´t have class tomorrow...

written by  Sara Florecita on September 23, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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Yesterday morning I´d arrived in Arequipa, from which I took a 5 hour bus ride to Tacna. In Tacna I found a vegetarian restaurant where I had really good vegetable soup and a main course of soy protein, beans, carrots, and potatoes, all for about $1 US dollar! Back at the bus station I found a colectivo to take me back to Arica. Getting through customs was really easy. However, once in Arica, all the bus tickets were sold out, so I took a colectivo back to Iquique, but it was really cheap so I´m not complaining. It was about 9pm when I got back to Iquique.

Today I was supposed to be teaching my own classes and I was excited about this. I´d come up with some interesting lesson plans and created some materials to use in my class. However, upon arriving at school, one of the other teachers informed me that today I´d be observing all day instead of teaching, mainly because the principal forgot to send home notes to the students´parents informing them that their children were going to have a new English teacher from now on. They said that on Thursday I will be teaching my own classes. Part of me is really frustrated with the disorganization in this program, and how little time I´ve actually spent teaching my own classes in comparison to going to meetings and shadowing other teachers. For me, observing other people´s classes is completely boring and pointless. I´ve already spent lots of time observing other teachers here, and I understand what I´m supposed to be doing. I wish that things in the program were a bit different, and that I was actually teaching every time I came to school.

Besides that, lunch was good and I talked in Spanish to a few of the other teachers about vacations and where we went, what we did, and places we want to go. Then after lunch was back to the boringness of observing other teachers. The whole time while in their classes I kept thinking about different ideas of how I would teach the class or activities I could do with the students.

After school I worked with the choir. We are learning a new song, but it is in French (Cristián picked it out). One of the guys who works in the school can speak French, so he came to explain the pronunciation. I helped the altos learn the correct pitches. Some of them are not very good about holding their part, but they are definitely improving. Singing the alto part can be hard sometimes, but I think the song will sound good once we practice it more.

Anyway...now I need to study some Spanish and then go to bed. More later...

written by  Sara Florecita on September 21, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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I walked down to the SAS travel agency which had booked my trip to Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. I was hoping to go mountain biking out to Moray and possibly Maras, but there weren´t any mountain biking trips available that day. I decided to go on a tour with a small group to the ruins of Chinchero and Moray, and to see the salt flats of Maras.

In Chinchero we had great views of the ruins and the terraces where the Incans used to grow potatoes. The town of Chinchero was interesting too. We got to see how the native Quechua people spin wool, make the dyes for it, and dye the alpaca wool. They showed us the difference between alpaca and llama wool, and they explained about different types of plants and how they are used. The lady there passed out mate de muña to try. Muña is a plant used to treat stomachaches, altitude sickness, and to provide more energy.

We then got back on the bus to go to Moray. Moray was really neat, and I´m glad I saw it. No one is sure exactly when or why Moray was built, but they think it was to experiment with agriculture. Moray is a multi-level circular terrace. The farther you go towards the center, the deeper the terraces are. They say there is this lots of energy at the center, so we climbed down to the middle of the terrace. Instead of normal steps, there were slabs of stone stuck diagonally into the terraces, which made climbing down a challenge. In the middle, I laid down in the grass, and definitely felt the energy there. It was a calm type of energy, but refreshing and revitalizing. It was really neat. Then we had to climb back up the terraces to get back on the bus.

I had no idea what Maras was or what it looked like, so I was in for a total shock when we arrived. Looking down the hill there are all these salt pools in bright shades of white. I have never seen anything like it and it´s incredibly difficult to describe. The salt flats are built into the hillside, and they are bright and beautiful.

Once back in Cusco I walked around the markets for a while, visited an internet cafe to check my email, and headed back up to the San Blas area. As I was walking along I saw the girl who´d done my massage on Tuesday, and she offered me a deal to get a manicure for about US $3, so I went with her back to the spa/ massage place. Even though I´m not a big manicure person, every so often it can be nice. Her friend, Ana, did my nails and painted them dark, metallic purple. We spoke in Spanish about different places in Perú and our families the whole time, and it was nice. The part of the building where she did my nails was outside in this courtyard with plants. Downstairs these guys were playing the guitar and flute, which was nice to listen to.

After that I wandered around San Blas and talked to some street vendors selling different types of stones. This one guy had this really pretty pink stone that I´d never seen before. I liked the energy it had. He said it was a pink opal, and it was pink because of the pressure in the volcanic mountains where it was found. Then he asked what my birthday was and I told him June 3. He said since I´m a Gemini, this is one of ´my´stones and that the energy it has should resonate well with me. I asked what kinds of properties the stone had and he explained about it being good for recognizing and balancing your emotions as well as perceiving the emotions of others around you. It was expensive but I couldn´t resist. I ended up talking the price down to about half of what he wanted.

It was just starting to get dark when I wandered into The Muse, a restaurant just around the corner from my hostel. The sign in front said it offers vegetarian food, so I decided to try it. I ordered a mulled wine, Yuquitas (yuca is a type of potato but it´s a little bit sweet) with honey, guacamole, and ají, and vegetarian curry. The yuquitas were delicious, and while the curry wasn´t as good as the curry I´d had at NKo on Thursday night, it still was a great meal. There was another single female traveller eating at The Muse, so we talked for a while before I had to walk down to The Marquesse, the hotel next to the SAS office where they store people´s luggage.

Víctor, guy working at the hotel got my backpack for me and helped me hail a cab. He said some of the taxis in Cusco are not legitimate and can be dangerous or try to rip you off. He stopped three of them before finding a cab that was safe. While waiting for the cab we talked briefly. The Marquesse seemed like a nice hotel, and it made me think of how someday if I ever have a lot more money than I do now, it would be nice to stay there. As I got in the cab, I thought about how much I´d enjoyed Perú.

I bought my ticket for the twelve hour bus ride back to Arequipa. I thought about how fantastic my trip had been, and how most of it was for reasons I hadn´t even thought about before...the spiritual gift of the San Pedro cactus, trying yoga, having been tested by uncomfortable situations but learning from them, meeting new people, self-discovery, healing, and learning about things I never knew even existed.

written by  Sara Florecita on September 19, 2010 from Cusco, Peru
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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After we ate we walked down to Cusco to the San Blas neighborhood where my hostel is. I showered, changed, and walked to Loreto, this long street with Incan walls on either side. I also visited Iglesia Santo Domingo where the courtyard of the monastery has the ruins of Qorikancha where the Quechua people used to worship the stars, Venus, the Milky Way, and the sun and moon. They didn´t believe in constellations, but they saw animals in the sky. The darker parts of the Milky Way were animals, and each animal had its own energy. Then the Spaniards came and colonized Peru and pretty much destroyed all of their beliefs. They built a monastery over their temple, and destroyed parts of the temple. It´s such a shame that many of their spiritual beliefs have been lost or altered because of the colonization.

Then I walked around some more, found a vegan / vegetarian restaurant called El Encuentro where I ordered broccoli, pepper, and tofu stir fry. I bought a few stones / crystals from a street vendor, and then got a massage. Here in Cusco, an hour massage only costs the equivalent of 13 US dollars.

I´m staying tonight in Cusco (same earthy hostel) and I´ll be here all day tomorrow. I think I´ll go see some more ruins and a salt flat. I´m going to take the overnight bus back tomorrow night and arrive in Iquique on Monday. I´ll be very sad to leave Cusco. I really like it and feel like it´s this amazing vortex of spiritual energy. It´s very refreshing and calming, and in many ways feels more like a home than anywhere I´ve actually lived.

written by  Sara Florecita on September 18, 2010 from Cusco, Peru
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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