Playing for the special kids was interesting. A few of them were dancing around, clapping, and rocking during it. Others just kind of sat there with emotionless expressions on their faces. It brought back memories of when I worked at the Arc, which I don´t miss at all, but am glad I worked there because it changed my outlook on life. I could never work in a special school like that, but I really respect those who do. After we sang / played, we waited around for what seemed like an excessively long time before the bus came to pick us up to go to the Interscolar.

The Interscolar was at Universad Andrés Bello in a huge room which is really the gymnasium. Our performance went well. Out of twenty schools who had come from all areas of Chile, our school was ranked within the top three! Tomorrow we have to go back to compete against more schools to see where we´ll be ranked. I was kind of surprised we were in the top three because our choir is small and not evenly balanced (3 tenors, many sopranos and altos). We had some nice harmony parts in a really bluesy arrangement of ´Amazing Grace´ (which I am getting tired of from having to hear and practice it so many times). The kids are getting really good at pronouncing the words in English.

After the conference a local TV station interviewed the director and a few students, so our school choir also got to be on local TV. The kids were very excited about this. We also sang a celebratory encore on the streets, complete with a few upturned hats to collect pesos.

Then we went to the mall (the kids wanted to go so we went). Everyone else ate at a chicken/ burger place, but we found a Subway (!!) where I ordered a vegan sub. Subways in Chile don´t have spinach, but they do have acodos, corn, and ají, a spicy type of pepper. Then I found a Starbucks! Although I quit drinking coffee before I came to Chile in order to avoid caffeine withdrawals (coffee is rare in Chile, and strangely I don´t miss it a whole lot). Plus, it´s better for my health and for my wallet. I couldn´t resist the Starbucks, so I ordered a vanilla-hazelnut soy lattee. It was cold and rainy that day, so Starbucks was wonderful! My students have never heard of Starbucks, but when I went there, a lot of them were also ordering lattes or cappuccinos. Some of them took pictures of them in the Starbucks. It was kind of cool because Iquique doesn´t have a Starbucks (or any coffee shops for that matter), and my students and fellow directors asked me lots of questions about Starbucks and the coffee house scene in the US. I was able to share some aspects about that part of US culture with them. For them, coffee shops with live music is a completely new idea. Now many of my students want to visit the US to experience what an ´open mic night´is like. Strangely, I felt homesick for Theo´s and Cool Beanz back in Rock Island.

The other thing that was sort of funny but memorable is the experience my students had with the rain today. To understand this, remember that Iquique is in the desert and it never rains there. Many of my students had never seen or felt rain in their lives. Santiago is different, like Illinois climate but without snow. In Santiago it probably rains once or twice a week. As soon as it started raining my students got excited. When we got off the bus, the kids--all of whom are in high school--started dancing in the rain, jumping in puddles, and taking pictures. They asked why I wasn´t excited about the rain so I explained about the weather in the US.

On the way back to the campamento we listened to Bob Marley and the Beatles on the bus, and I wrote for a while. It has been an awesome day!!!

written by  Sara Florecita on September 2, 2010 from Santiago, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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Today I got to sleep in until 10am, and for once, the sun was already up and shining brightly before I got out of bed. We had tea and then took the micro to the centro of El Tabo to walk around for a little bit. It was kind of funny having to fit the entire group of students on the micro, but not a big deal. Honestly, the centro was within walking distance of the campamento, but then again I guess I walk a lot more than most people. The centro is picturesque, right on the ocean, and windy. There were hardly any people walking around, and most places were closed, including the feria artesanal. I was disappointed, but it was nice to walk around for a bit. Unfortunately there were lots of mangy and gross looking wild dogs on the streets. I´ve never been a dog person, but it was sad how people have all these dogs and then never take care of them. We stopped in La Casa Cultural to watch a group of middle-aged and elderly people dancing the cueca and then continued walking. Combine a ghost town with a windy, cold beach town, add a little bit of forest, and that´s pretty much El Tabo.

The whole time I was wishing I could go running out here, but a few of the girls´moms who are chaperones won´t give me ´permission´to leave the campamento to go running by myself or with two other students who also like to run. I really wish people would stop infringing upon my freedom. It´s only the fifth day of the trip, but I am getting super annoyed with the way I can´t live my life exactly as I want, and that I haven´t been running in six days now.

Later in the afternoon we went to Isla Negra, one of Pablo Neruda´s three houses. It was very beautiful. He was a very eccentric man, and like La Chascona, this house reflects this. It is right on the Pacific with beautiful views. His boat is outside the house, and he´s buried behind it too. There are lots of random collections of everything from New Zealand art to beetles, shells, Venetian glass, pipes, miniature guitars, and so forth. I bought two books of his poetry in Spanish and so far am understanding most of what I read. My students have been very supportive of me trying to learn Spanish. They have taught me new words and chilenismos. One of my students is also a vegan, so we´ve been buying soy protein, fresh fruit, and vegetables each day since everyone else eats the same thi ng, which is some sort of meat. The other directors and some of the students are always joking around and trying to get me to eat meat or eggs.

After we got back to the campamento we were doing breathing / energy exercises with the music students. It´s difficult to explain but I´ll try. The point was to get everyone breathing and singing together to help with the sound of the choir. The other director learned it when he studied in Argentina. It´s sort of like music therapy with movement, meditation, and breathing exercises in a circle. While doing this, his instructions were in Spanish and we listened. Because the nature of the activity was very relaxing and meditative, I completely forgot he was speaking in Spanish. I could understand everything without needing to translate in my head or think too much about it. With the music we could express everything and language was no longer an issue. It was special beause although I feel like my Spanish has been improving, I´d never felt this comfortable with it. This group of music students and the directors have become sort of like a music family here and it´s amazing. The kids are great--so much different than the kids I´m used to working with back in the States. They want to learn, are respectful, and put forth a lot of effort. Leaving here will be so difficult because I love my job. I´m really fortunate the other directors wanted my help with the music program and asked me to come on the trip. Both of them have been really supportive of me.

Although I do wish we could be staying in the city of Santiago and doing more sightseeing, I am enjoying my time here.

written by  Sara Florecita on August 31, 2010 from El Tabo, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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This morning we had to get up early to drive into Santiago to play / sing at the Methodist Church. Overall it went pretty well, but the church service was really long and boring and I felt like falling asleep during it. The people there seemed nice though, and it was a beautiful, warm day with the sun shining. We stopped at Lider, which is like the Chilean version of WalMart (they actually own it) on the way back. I was kind of disappointed that we didn´t get to spend more time in Santiago actually seeing things. Hopefully tomorrow we will get to see more of the city I love.

written by  Sara Florecita on August 29, 2010 from El Tabo, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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I read for a little bit and then started working on my Spanish homework for my online class through EOD. My Spanish course is going well. This week I had to read a newspaper in Spanish, choose any article, and write a one page summary. I chose an article about the Mapuche people in Chile and the current hunger strike. They feel they are discriminated against by the government and not treated fairly because the government arrested 31 people for nonviolent protesting. My students saw me working on it and offered to help. When I was done writing, I let them proofread what I´d written. They were really good about correcting the mistakes I made and explaining the correct way to say things. It´s funny in some ways because I´m the English teacher and am helping them improve their English. Most are eager to learn English but lacked confidence to speak to me at first, but once they realized I won´t laugh at them for trying, they have been speaking English a lot more. They don´t realize that they´re teaching me a lot too. As a teacher, I´ve found that it helps a lot if the students know you can laugh at y our own mistakes and that I know I don´t know everything.

After I finished my Spanish homework I read more of ¨The House of Spirits,¨ which I am definitely enjoying. Then I talked to some of my students and got to know them better, and I talked to a choir student´s mom who had come with to chaperone. I moved to the back of the bus where Cristián, Juan, and some of the freshmen / sophomore students were playing the guitar and singing. They wanted to hear me sing something, but it was really hard to sing on the bus because it was pretty bumpy. It was fun anyway. After that I talked to some more students but then people started falling asleep. I was the last one up and read until about 2am before trying to sleep on the bus. I slept pretty well but woke up feeling a little sore because of sleeping in weird angles.

Earlier today we woke up and stopped in Vallenar at a truck stop to freshen up, change clothes, and buy snacks for the bus. The bathrooms at the truck stop had freezing cold water, but I was able to deal with it long enough to wash my face and wash my hair in the sink. Vallenar seemed like a pleasant enough town, nestled in-between green hills and a clear sky. Originally EOD had thought I´d be in either Caldera, Copiapó, or Vallenar. Although I only got a glimpse of the town as the bus drove past, I really feel like I could have been happy there as well. However I like Iquique and I´m here for a reason, and am definitely enjoying it.

The landscapes were gorgeous as we drove along. Near the Vallenar area, the landscape started getting more green as the Panamericana wove in and out of hills. Closer to Coquimbo, I was able to enjoy sparkling views of the Pacific. We drove through La Serena where I somehow managed to take some scenic pictures through the windows of the bus.

We arrived in Coquimbo, which is very hilly and reminded me in some ways of San Francisco, with its steep streets and views of the Pacific. The houses there are all bright colors, and there is a cheerful ambience to the town. The very center of Coquimbo is the peak of the hill, where a large cross is built.

As we drove towards the Methodist school where we were going to perform, the bus hit a car as it tried to make a right turn. That was kind of a hassle because the bus drivers had to get out and exchange information with the owner of the parked car it hit. Fortunately there was no damage to the bus and only a small scrape on the car. Our bus was huge and I can only imagine how difficult it must be trying to drive it.

We arrived at the Methodist school where we unloaded the instruments and set up for the concert. The school only had about 50 students of all ages. During the jazz band part of the program, the principal was dancing around which was entertaining to watch. The kids seemed to enjoy the music. The choir didn´t sing its best today, but we have lots of time to rehearse before the interscolar presentations later this week. Plus, everyone was tired and hadn´t slept especially well on the bus.

We ate lunch in the cafeteria (for me this consisted of rice and an orange). After that we took some pictures on the stairs of the college, loaded everything back onto the bus, and continued driving towards where we would stay at the campamento in El Tabo, which is an hour and a half south-east of the city.

We were all tired when we finally arrived in El Tabo around midnight. It reminded me a lot of church camp when I was in middle school. The campamento was in the middle of the woods, and there were different cabins with different rooms with bunk beds. I ended up in a room with three sophomore girls, all of whom are very nice. The bathrooms and showers were in a different building, and apparently it only has hot water in the mornings. I´d been craving a hot shower upon arriving since I´d spent two days on the bus, but I was thankful enough to collapse into bed, pull the warm covers over my head, and fall fast asleep.

written by  Sara Florecita on August 27, 2010 from Coquimbo, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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I returned to my house in a fantastic mood, both relaxed and energized. Completely in love with life. Even though school hadn´t been fun today for several reasons (mainly my host teacher), I felt like life is great and I am thoroughly enjoying my experience here. There is so much to be not just happy, but thrilled about. I don´t know what I´d do if I wasn´t a runner. It is completely meditative for me and allows me to stay positive and energized about everything. Even when I´m dead tired and go running, it puts things in perspective for me.

Compared to the awesomeness of my run, there really wasn´t anything worthwhile about Monday to write...same old story today as any other school day. Although my seventh graders were doing their oral presentations today about their favorite famous person. One kid is a piano player and chose Beethoven. During his oral presentation he accidentally said, ¨Beethoven was a computer from the seventeenth century.¨ I started laughing but then realized he´d meant to say ´composer,´but it was still pretty funny.

Yesterday I struggled to stay awake during all of my classes, which consisted of the students finishing their presentations. After school I helped out with the choir for a while. Today was sectionals so I worked just with the girls in the choir. It turns out there is one alto who cannot for the life of her sing in tune. She can´t match pitches and will sing a note a fifth below all the other altos and she can´t tell whether she´s too low or too high. Her voice is very nasally and she moves her shoulders every time she breathes. When I first heard the dissonant pitches I thought there was some sort of fire alarm going off somewhere in the school. The other director and I tried to work with her but I´m not sure if she´s slow or just not musically inclined, but it didn´t get better at all. We aren´t allowed to kick kids out of choir (it´s a Christian school and anyone who wants to participate can). I am not sure what to do with her because she sounds awful, and without her, the rest of the choir is very talented. Her being there is causing an otherwise talented choir to sound horrible. I try not to cringe, but it seems like she always ends up a tritone off from the pitch she´s supposed to be singing. The girl is also really nice which makes it hard, and she is enthusiastic about choir. The other kids have tried to help her but that isn´t working, and they are becoming frustrated. One of them blurted out, ´is she coming with on the trip too?´Unfortunately, she is. Besides that, choir was fun.

Last night I was sitting at the computer checking my email when the house started to shake. It was shaking quasi-strongly for about a minute straight. I asked my host brothers what to do, and they just laughed and said to stay in the house, that minor quakes like this happen all the time. They said it wasn´t really an earthquake, but a tremor (temblor in Spanish), although by my standards it was definitely an earthquake!!! Things were falling off the desk and rolling across the room. After about a minute the shaking stopped. My host dad´s response: ``Don´t worry, it was just the earth breathing´´ which I thought was kind of a neat and beautiful way to look at it.

And then the power went out in our entire neighborhood (the south side of Iquique). We felt our way downstairs where the dad went outside to turn on the car´s headlights in order to shine some sort of light into the house. We found some candles and proceeded to sit around the kitchen table. My host dad said that either there would be a small shake (aftershock) or that there would be a worse earthquake. (Sometimes small ones are followed by worse quakes, but usually this is not the case). I guess I looked pretty freaked out because my older brother was laughing at me. He was saying he can´t even count how many earthquakes he´s experienced. My host cousin was sleeping when it happened, rolled over, and went back to sleep. After a minor 3 second, small aftershock, my host dad decided it was safe for him to drive to my host mom´s work to pick her up (it happened right before she was supposed to get off shift). My host brother asked him to get some pop on the way, and asked if I could lend him a few cents. When I went upstairs to get the change, my eyes had adjusted to the dark, but when I came out of my room, my older host brother Santiago was hiding on me and jumped out at me in the dark. After I got done screaming I thought it was kind of funny.

After almost an hour the lights came back on. No worries, I´m fine. We don´t know where exactly the quake started, but now I can say I´ve experienced my first actual earthquake here. I hope none of them are serious, but they say it happens a few times a month, and some are so small no one notices them.

Last night I dreamt where I watched myself die. It was a really powerful dream I haven´t been able to shake off all day. I was somewhere landlocked in Chile, but this enormous blue tidal wave came up and enveloped me. I remember thinking in my dream that I was dying and knew for certain life was over, but I knew it was going to be a peaceful death. Part of me knew it was a dream because I remember thinking that a giant tidal wave couldn´t happen so far from the ocean. As I spun around in this spiral of water, I realized I was breathing through my lungs, and not drowning, but I knew I was dying. I remember feeling frantic that I wouldn´t get to say good-bye to the people I cared about. I heard spirits in the water telling me that this was the end of life on earth, and that the world was ending, and after life all things are the same. I remember spinning around in the water feeling reassured that wherever I went next I wouldn´t be alone, and the spirits were telling me that some people have it so much worse. It was really weird and I´ve been thinking of it all day. I´ve always believed dreams are important and that they usually have some sort of important message.

A few nights ago I had a prophetic dream about something that actually happened later that day (well, things did not happen in the same way as in the dream, but the outcome was the same). Immediately after the dream I felt reassured and not worried, and of course, things were fine. I think part of the reasons I´ve been having these dreams is because I bought a lapis lazuli ring the other day. It is a traditional and ancient stone of Chile, used by shamans for its healing qualities, but it has energies relating to intuitive senses and dreams, and here it is believed to be very powerful. I didn´t know that when I bought it, but I read about it and think there´s a truth to that. It has also changed colors since I´ve been wearing it. It was blue at first with little specks of white, but now it´s more of a bluish-purple color. I really wish I´d brought one of my books about crystals with from back home, but I still have the Internet. The other thing is I´ve been remembering the majority of my dreams lately. I definitely think there is a lot of truth to what the ancient shamans believed, and what many of the indigenous people here still believe, that everything, living or nonliving, carries a certain energy along with it.

And then I woke up to Artemio telling me it was time to wake up for school. I don´t know what´s with him lately...I told him to get me up at 7:30am, but today he started yelling for me to wake up at 7am. Yesterday it was 7:15. I sincerely hope tomorrow he doesn´t get me up earlier. I don´t like where this pattern is going. I just know I never like mornings.

Today school has been interesting. I arrived with the intentions of teaching classes. The school system here is a lot more disorganized than in the US, but sometimes like today it turns out more fun that way. The choir director found me and said I wasn´t going to teach today bc the jazz band needed me to play tenor with them because this morning before school a bunch of the jazz band students decided to give concerts in the auditorium all day in order to raise money for the choir/ jazz band trip (most of the kids in the jazz band also sing in the choir). The director got permission from my host teacher (the crabby one) to miss classes all day. In fact, the students have also been missing classes all day. I guess this happens at least once or twice a week of impromptu events. IT has been fun, playing Pantera Rosa (the pink panther), Moonlight Serenade, and Summertime all day. Jazz band is way more fun than teaching classes, even though I enjoy my English classes and students.

At any rate, my planning period is almost over so I´ll write more later:)

written by  Sara Florecita on August 25, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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Today I woke up and the paragliding instructor, Patricio, picked me up to drive me to Alto Hospicio, this town on top of the mountain. He has been a paraglider for 17 years and knows what he´s doing so I wasn´t worried. Paragliding was so much fun! Not in the adrenaline, super crazy fun kind of way, but it was sooo peaceful and relaxing. We just floated around up in the sky, floated through some clouds, and enjoyed the views. I love Iquique so much more seeing it by air...it´s much more beautiful from the sky, with clear views of the Pacific. It was just silence up there, and because of the air currents there was this slow, rocking motion kind of like what it feels like to be on a boat. I felt very relaxed and calm up there, which was different than was expecting (more of an adrenaline rush, excitement, etc). The flight lasted around half an hour to forty minutes. On our descent we flew super close to this really tall apartment building near the beach. I thought it would be so cool to live up there and see paragliders flying right past your windows. We landed on the beach, put all the equipment back into Patricio´s backpack, and his driver came to pick us up to drive me back to my house.

They offer courses so you can get your paragliding licence. I think that would be cool, but it´s kind of expensive, and I´m not quite sure what I´d do with it. I think I definitely want to get my scuba license / certification when I come back to the US. I really enjoyed scuba diving and being here has made me realize I should try harder to be involved with things I care about like Spanish, the saxophone, and scuba diving to name a few. I took some pictures of my paragliding experience.

It was cool because after a light dinner of chips and guacamole, my host brother, cousin, and I drove to this part of the beach where there´s really rough tides and giant rocks everywhere. We listened to some really good music (not sure what it was, but kinda Pink Floyd-ish but with more guitar and a female vocalist) and walked along the ocean. I swear if it was warmer I could fall asleep to the soothing sound of the waves rushing on the shore.

Then we went to this place called Minero´s, which is an Italian style pizza place. We chipped in to get a pizza without cheese ( they didn´t really care if it had cheese or meat, they just wanted pizza lol). It was kinda funny because the Italian style pizza had tomatoes, corn, guacamole, kalamata olives, red pepper, and oregano on it. Here, anything that has oregano is considered `Italian or Mediterranean style.´The sauce on it was great and the crust was absolutely perfect...not quite a thin crust, but crisp and crunchy, and very flavorful. This pizza was way better than the pizza I tried in Santiago (and I liked that one a lot). Who knew vegan pizza would be so good?

I finally am going to sleep around 2am since I have to get up early for classes tomorrow. I´m going to read some poetry and then go to sleep. Buenas noches!

written by  Sara Florecita on August 22, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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After nearly a week of not running I decided I wasn´t up to the marathon I´d wanted to do a week from tomorrow. When I got back to the house I went online and searched for other marathons I could do instead. Fortunately, on December 5th there is Maratón del Pacífico in Viña del Mar, which is only two hours away from Santiago. And conveniently I will be in Santiago during that week for the BULATS test and closing ceremony of the EOD program. Part of the route for this marathon is along the Pacific, and I´m definitely going to sign up for it.

After I got back I accompanied my host parents downtown to drop off my host mom at work. Then my host dad and I walked around downtown, through Plaza Prat and along Avenida Tarapacá. Fortunately we were getting along really well, the sun was shining, and I felt a lot better. I stopped inside one of the seemingly millions of Cruz Verdes (drugstores) in Iquique to buy more contact solution. Cruz Verde is kind of like Starbucks in Chicago...you can find one on almost every street corner of the city. The guy working there was super nice. He told me my Spanish was really good and asked where I was from. Then we walked around some more and I bought some warm, honey-roasted peanuts one of the street vendors was selling.

Once at home I read a little more and took a short nap since a few friends and I were planning on going salsa dancing later that night. However, by 10pm everyone but me and Andrew had backed out. Instead of going to the salsoteca, I took a colectivo to Plaza Prat and then walked to Rombos, a bar on Baquedano where we met for happy hour (which they don´t translate at all, so you hear all these words in Spanish with ´happy hour´thrown in there somewhere. It´s kind of funny actually. And here happy hour always means you can buy two drinks for the price of one). It was a lot of fun and we had some interesting conversations / friendly arguments about different cultures, countries, politics, and ethics. We disagreed about a lot of things but I really love talking to people like him who have their own opinions and good reasons for them, and who aren´t closed-minded about everything.

At the end of the night I took a colectivo back to the house. I´m definitely starting to get used to using public transportation here. It´s so cheap compared to in the US, and taking colectivos gives me some good opportunities to practice speaking Spanish. It´s also nice because I´m getting more confident at speaking Spanish, and the drivers haven´t tried to rip me off as much:)

Anyway, it was nice to get out and see more of the town today. Now since I´m feeling a lot better, I´ve started liking it here much more:)

written by  Sara Florecita on August 20, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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When they called me in for my appointment, my host parents insisted on going into the room with me, even though I told them I´d rather see the doctor in private. The whole thing was really uncomfortable. The doctor introduced himself, and I started to tell him what was wrong. Before I could really say anything, my host dad blurted out, ``She doesn´t speak Spanish and you should talk to us instead,`` which made me unbelievably mad, because I could understand everything they were saying, and I have tried so hard to learn Spanish. I hate it when people treat me like I´m stupid or not independent. I told the doctor that I do speak Spanish, but I´m still learning and sometimes I don´t understand every single thing, but overall I can understand. My host parents continued to talk about me in Spanish like I wasn´t even there, telling their version of what they thought was wrong with me. She told the doctor that she doesn´t think I eat enough, and she´s worried because I go running. I haven´t ran at all since Sunday and it´s starting to get on my nerves because I have all this excess energy I need to get rid of.

Anyway, the doctor seemed nice and asked a lot of questions. He didn´t seem to think it´s a big deal that I go running or am vegan. He said it looks like overall I have good health. He took my height and weight and then I had to listen to my host parents go on and on about my weight, when I´ve always been this size, and I didn´t feel it was their business. Again, I felt like them being in there was not respectful of my privacy, especially when they weren´t being very nice. The doctor said there are lots of runners in Iquique, so not to worry about it. He asked about what I´m used to eating, if I eat raw vegetables and fruit in the US, etc. He said it´s fairly normal for Americans who come to northern Chile to develop stomach problems because of the food. He said vegetarians and vegans are more prone to stomach issues, but that I´ll be fine and prescribed some meds. Tomorrow I have to go back for a blood test just to rule out that it´s anything more serious. He thinks it´s just a normal bacterial thing that can be cured with the meds, but he wants to be sure.

Thankfully, the government / program will reimburse me for the appointment, tests, and meds. I have to save all of the paperwork and make copies of it to give to the program in order to get my money back. Hopefully I get it back sooner than later.

I´m starting to wonder if the host family thing is going to work out. I still can´t believe my host dad told the doctor I can´t speak Spanish. I´m not sure whether he just thinks my Spanish is that bad or what, but I am still mad about it. I´m definitely not used to living with parental figures. I´m used to having more freedom than what I have here living with a host family. I know they´re concerned, but I´m not used to having someone worry about me. My host mom worries more than my real mom!!! (I hadn´t thought that was possible, but it is!!), and she has this way of trying to make me feel guilty about things, like if I go running or decide to stay later at school to get things done for class. Today after the doctor´s appointment she started explaining about the reimbursement / medical insurance process, and I stopped to ask her what a word I didn´t know meant. She assumed I didn´t understand ANYTHING of what she said, when in reality it was just that one word. And then she started crying and asked my host dad to explain it to me, which made me feel horrible. Most of the time I like my host family a lot (I have no problems with my host brothers or cousin), but today it was just too much to deal with.

This afternoon, my host brother asked why I was in such a bad mood. He explained that his mother has always worried about them and sometimes isn´t very sensible. In Chile, women are not typically as independent as I am, and most women are dependent on other people (aka men), which is a cultural difference. Here, people´s kids usually don´t live alone until they are 30 years old, and until then they live with their parents, so that´s another cultural thing they aren´t used to. Here, 22 year olds are still generally viewed as ´kids.´ Most people my age have never had a full-time job, had an apartment, owned a car, or know how to drive. It makes me really thankful for the fact that I have done those things on my own. My family seemed shocked when I told them I have a car in the US and can drive. I can´t imagine being my age and still dependent on my parents. My host brother explained to my dad that I am used to fending for myself and how in the US kids ´grow up´ faster and typically move out when they turn 18. My brother also told me that my father probably told the doctor that I don´t speak English so he´d speak more slowly. I´m not quite convinced on that--I think my brother is just trying to play the peace-maker here, but for now I´ll let it go since no one can do anything about what already happened, and I don´t want to be mad about something if I don´t have to be. The rest of my day has been much better, and I´m trying to focus on the good things about here...I´ll only be here for a relatively short period of my life so why waste time and energy being ticked off?

My host brother decided to ´cure´ my bad mood by taking me shopping haha. It was pretty fun. We went to the mall and wandered around downtown Iquique (I found a piercing place, but didn´t get anything pierced, but it was fun walking around there and looking at stuff), and looked through the markets. My host brother had to find a new pair of dress shoes because he has to dress up for exams in school tomorrow. Here (like in England) students are required to wear formal clothing on test days...makes me thankful it wasn´t like that in the US every time we had a test!! I got to go shoe shopping, which was good because I like shoes, but I didn´t buy any because of limited room in my suitcase when I come home:) Sizes here are quirky. Here, my shoe size is a 34, and my pants size is a 36 or 34. I had to try on a lot of things to figure out how sizes convert, but think I get the hang of it. Strangely, shirt sizes are still XS, S, M,and L, even though in Spanish you´d think they´d translate them to XP (extra pequeño), P (pequeño) M (medio) and G(grande), but no. Yet another way American culture has influenced things here...(OH!!! To my horror Iquique has a McDonalds!!! Barffff!!! And the first thing one person told me when I said I was from the US was, ``Oh you have lots of fast food there!`` Pretty sad when foreigners associate the US with fast food:( ).

Then we found an artesan market (I LOVE those kinds of places) where I bought a purple bag (sorta kinda like the green one I got in San Francisco) that was handmade by local artists, and a sweatshirt, made completely of all natural materials and dyed with vegetable dyes (also hand made by a local artist who I talked to for a while). It´s colorful, unique, and no one else in the world has the same one:) I know, I´m a bit of a nerd when it comes to artistic kind of stuff, but to me it´s really interesting, and way better than all the tacky touristy stuff people buy.

After that I met up with a co-worker at the Croatian Plaza, and we walked to the only Indian (Hindú) restaurant in Iquique where I got rice, vegetables, and soy protein. It´s kind of funny that here if you order something spicy, it is only mildly hot. We also found it amusing because we ate up on the 2nd floor of the restaurant and heard some strange howling noises coming from downstairs. It was also entertaining trying to figure out what language the people there were speaking. At first we thought it was Hindi, but it sounded more like Chinese. At any rate, the food there was really good. We decided to go out for a few drinks after that. Fortunately rum has its ways of improving my mood too:) The place we went to had a straw / grass roof and was decorated really neatly. Then I took a colectivo back to the house, and it turns out the colectivo driver is one of my student´s dads. We talked about the school and places in the US the whole time which was nice since most cab drivers here are really unfriendly.

I have to go back to the doctor tomorrow for my blood test but that´s not a big deal because needles don´t bother me at all. At any rate, I need to go to sleep...gotta love 9am doctors´appointments on my day off from work. No sleeping in for me tomorrow:( I´m still not a morning person. I wonder if I´ll ever tame my inner night owl?

written by  Sara Florecita on August 19, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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I actually had to kick a kid out of class today. Then I asked who would like to be next, and suddenly things got quiet. I didn´t have any more problems with that class today. I confiscated all of their cell phones and ipods I caught them using, took away all of their notes they were passing, and drawings that had nothing to do with class. One kid started crying, but right now I don´t really care because there needs to be order in the class, and rules need to be enforced. Hopefully tomorrow they´ll behave better. They behave worse than most of the kids at the residential treatment facility where I used to work. In fact, right now I actually really miss those kids.

In a way it´s kind of funny because yesterday my classes were really well-behaved, and most of them participated pretty well. Yesterday was a great day. After school I had choir rehearsal. I love choir rehearsals here. I really feel more at ease and more at home with the choir group and other music directors than I do as an English teacher. Teaching English can be hard at times. Teaching music comes more naturally to me, and is way more fun. The time goes by much faster and I never really find myself looking at the clock. The choir kids are a fun group of kids. The ones who don´t really seem to care much during English class try really hard and care a lot about music. Yesterday I taught them `Battle Hymn of the Republic`in four-part harmony. They sound really good, but it took a bit of work to get them to sing it in a spirited, strong sort of way. After I started joking around and telling them I was going to fall asleep, they got the message and got into it more. By the end of rehearsal they were able to sing it a capella and didn´t need me to give them their starting pitches where the verse (in unison) splits off into the four-part harmony chorus. The altos (or in Spanish, contraltos) need to sing more confidently. This is the only drawback of the choir. The director has been having me sing the alto part with them while directing so they can hear their parts. I think on Thursday I will stop singing with them so they can prepare for the concerts they´ll be singing in next week in Santiago for the music conference. I also like directing the choir because I get to speak in both English and Spanish. Since it isn´t ´English´class, but rather an English choir, I am allowed to use Spanish to explain things related to the music, the meanings of the lyrics, and so forth.

After choir rehearsal the director asked me to stay around to help with the jazz band. He got me set up with a tenor sax I´ll get to use for the rest of the time I´m here. It´s not a good quality instrument, but that´s okay. It´s really great to play sax again. Our jazz band here at CI is small. It consists of the director playing piano, four students who play drums, guitar, bass, and trumpet, another teacher who plays alto sax, and now myself on tenor. All of the students in the band play super well. We went over Moonlight Serenade, In the Mood, and the Pink Panther. I haven´t played the sax in almost two years, but it didn´t feel like it. In the music I was able to find my soul and really get into the music, and it felt amazing. I even got to improvise a little bit. After rehearsal I took the micro home.

And now I´m wondering how is it that one day is fantastic and the next just isn´t much fun. I wish I could have a good balance at school, but then again I guess the crappy days like today just make me appreciate the good ones that much more.

written by  Sara Florecita on August 18, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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A little before 12 noon I finally got out of bed, feeling slightly guilty about missing school, but mostly a lot more refreshed and well-rested. I sat down at the computer, determined to get some tasks crossed off my list. I was able to finish my online Spanish assignment, finish a poster for my classroom that says `Speak English`in giant blue and yellow letters, finish my last unit of the TEFL course (which involved watching a video of two classes and doing a lot of writing), and start the next Spanish assignment. I was also successful in catching up on some emails to people.

By the time my brothers came back from school I was feeling a lot better, and had been able to eat cereal, potatoes, and chumbeques without getting sick. I mostly just lounged around the house the rest of the afternoon, reading and writing, as well as planning out some of my trip to Peru, where I´m going for ten days next month. I actually felt so much better and was craving a long run along the beaches, but I decided not to go because it would look fishy if students or co-workers saw me out running, yet I hadn´t felt well enough to go to school.

I ended up playing the guitar and singing in my room for a while because my younger brother needed the computer for homework, which was nice because I haven´t had much time to play music either. I´m determined to learn at least a few songs in Spanish while I´m here...not sure which ones yet, but there is one called ´Cuando los sapos bailen el flamenco´that has a pretty melody and doesn´t seem too hard. I also want to learn a few traditional songs, like ´Gracias a la vida´ by Chilean folk singer Violeta Parra.

I hung out with my host brother and cousin for a while and then decided to call it a night. By 1am I was still wide awake but knew I should go to bed because of having to wake up at 7:30am the next day. Oh how I miss being a night owl (and yes, I do occasionally miss my nights working third shift)... But it is totally worth it being here.

written by  Sara Florecita on August 16, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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