After an early lunch I started looking for a place where I could either rent a bike or try sandboarding or sand-skiing. Having hot had a chance to go running all week, I had all this excess energy I needed to release. Unfortunately, all of the sandboarding/skiing tours didn't start until 4pm and wouldn't return to San Pedro until 9pm, and my bus wsa going to depart at 6pm. The guys at the agency were really nice and said I could rent a bike. They gave me a map and suggested some places I could ride. The first bike they got out for me they had to put the seat all the way down and it was still too big...when I tried to get on the bike, I tripped and fell on the ground. We were all laughing and the guy went to find a smaller bike for me.

I rode down the lonely San Pedro streets, through the plaza, and the dusty outskirts of town. I hadn't ridden a bike in ages, so it felt really great to ride again. I was heading down the dirt-and-rock road towards Pukara de Quitor when I saw Marcelo, who I'd met the previous night.

The ride to Pukara de Quitor was only three kilometers, but I instantly regretted not applying sunscreen. The sun was intense, and I was thankful for my hat, sunglasses, and water I'd brought with. The landscape was beautiful--mostly red rocks, sand, red hills, mountains, and volcanoes framing the horizon, and occasional splashes of green from a few hardy trees and sparse grasses.

At Pukara de Quitor I had to carry my bike up a bunch of stairs. I climbed up the rocky surfaces of the hill by the ruins, enjoying the views over the San Pedro Valley. I learned that the ruins were from an Atacameño culture that pre-dated the Incan empire, possibly as early as 1500 BCE. The ruins had rooms used for pretty much everything--bedrooms, food storage, pens for animals, a place to prepare food, community (ayllu) gatherings, etc. The Atacameños were hunter-gatherer types of people. Here the women planted all the crops because working the land (pachamama) was a female aspect of the different gender roles. The earth/land was regarded as a representation of the female divine energy. Also in this culture, men and women were regarded as equally important but each with different gender roles. Before community (ayllu) meetings, the husband and wife w ould discuss their opinions on an issue and decide together, but at the meetings, the men were the ones who were the household spokesperson.

I biked back to San Pedro and ran into Daniel, who I'd met at the horseback riding place. He invited me to a party in the desert that night, but unfortunately I would be returning to Calama before then. I returned my bike and met up with Mario, Marcelo, and Cristian for a while. Cristian, Mario, and I took a walk out to the countryside/ desert. It turns out Cristian will be in Santiago the same week as my marathon, so we exchanged contact information. Then Cristian had to return to town, so Mario and I kept walking and talking about different things. He told me about his life in Uruguay and what it's like there. He showed me the place where he and Cristian work, and where I will probably end up working since there is a huge need for people who can speak English. The pay by US standards isn't much--maybe the equivalent of 600 US dollars per month. However, I was quick to realize I'm not in the States anymore, and living on 600 a month is do-able. The cost of living here is different, and I can definitely support myself on that kind of salary. Here In San Pedro I can rent a flat/pensión for around 80 luca (160 dollars) per month. I won't need a car or any of the expenses that go along with driving--insurance, maintenance, repairs, etc. I won't even need to pay to use a micro or colectivo (there aren't any in San pedro) I'll just need the one- time investment of a bike, which won't be that expensive if I get a used bike. The town is so small that having a bike will be perfect. I can also go biking out in the desert, or go for long walks and enjoy the solitude. I will be able to pay back my student loans and still have plenty of money left for food and travel, and normal living expenses. I can save some money, or spend it on things I'd enjoy--horseback riding, trying sandboarding, etc.

More importantly, I can work in a different field, gain new experiences, and learn more things. I'd actually be using my business degree and would continue to practice Spanish every day. Yes, I will miss working with the at-risk kids back home, but I can look for places to volunteer. I can use my free time to practice the quena or guitar, learn more music, draw, write, and go running. I like the idea that I won't need much. I like the idea of a different kind of independence, of freedom to live the kind of life I want. I'm not scared to step out on a branch and stand close to the edge. I can make it out here on my own.

]]> Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=171389 0 -22.9166667 -68.2166667 Next we stopped briefly in Socaire, where we saw a church and some potato terraces. Here they grow a type of potato that is purple inside. This is the only place where it grows, but unfortunately I didn´t get a chance to try it. In Socaire, the church was made of adobe and had a roof of twigs/sticks because the adobe walls cannot support a heavier roof. Also, this church was unique because its bell tower was a separate building from the church. The reason for this was that back in the days when the church was built, the traditional belief was that the church represented the virgin Mary, and that a bell tower was a phallic symbol and therefore, the two should not be part of the same building.

We then went to two lakes in the altiplano, Laguna Miscanti and Meñiques. The water there was so blue and beautiful. We walked along a path by Laguna Miscanti. I enjoyed the scenery even though it was a bit chilly because of the altitude. After that we went back to Socaire for a traditional lunch of vegetable soup (which hit the spot!), rice, quinoa, and tomatoes. After lunch we went to the town of Toconao, which is the only town in the surrounding area with a clean water source. I saw the inside of the church which had a staircase and doors made out of cactus wood. There was also a beautiful cactus garden outside of the church.

When I got back to San Pedro I ate an early dinner at an organic, natural place called Tierra, where I enjoyed champiniones al pil-pil, a vegetable empanada, and fresh juice. I arranged my tour for the following day to the El Tatio geysers, and went back to the hostel. When I got back, there was a group of people there from all parts of the world (Chile, Ireland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Germany...) who invited me out for a few drinks and live music. First we went to a place called Café Export, where we ordered the ´specialty´drink of San Pedro, which was called San Pedro en Llamas (pisco, orange juice, and grenadine). After there we went to Adobe, where we ordered wine and listened to a traditional Andean band. A few people were dancing, which was entertaining, especially since one of them was wearing a green mask. I met a guy from Antofagasta, and he was really interesting to talk to. The rest of the group wanted to go out for more drinks, but since I had to get up early to go to El Tatio, I went back to the hostel to get a good night´s sleep.]]> Sat, 23 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=162243 0 -22.9166667 -68.2166667 When I got to San Pedro, I was slightly surprised by how small it is. Prior to coming, I´d read that it´s a small town in the desert, but I thought it would be slightly bigger. Right away I realized I liked the calm, quiet atmosphere and the hot sun. Usually it´s much busier, but I´m here during the off-season, which means fewer tourists and a more ´real´experience. I walked down Caracoles, the main street, where I talked to a few different tour operators to get information about Valle de la Luna, El Tatio, and the lagunas. While looking for a hostel I found a place advertising horseback riding tours in the desert. I´d been wanting to ride again and really missed it, so I jumped at the chance. I stopped by there and talked to Daniel, the guy working there. As it turns out he used to live in Iquique. He told me to come back at around 12:30 to arrange the details for my horseback riding trip.

I found a hostel called La Ruca on Toconao, and it seemed a pretty reasonable price. The lady working there let me store my backpack until my room was ready later that evening. I walked to the main plaza and visited the church, which was made of adobe and the ceiling was made from a bunch of sticks. By then I was pretty hungry so I went to a restaurant called Adobe which offered pumpkin/squash/pecan soup.

At 12:30 I returned to the place and found out that today they were going to offer a five-hour long trip on horseback to Pukara de Quitor, Catarpe, Paseo del Toro, Valle de la Muerte, and Valle de la Luna. At first I wasn´t sure. I´d never ridden more than a few hours before, but five? I decided I was up for it and agreed to go. Since I had a few more hours to spend before riding, I looked in some of the shops, bought a few postcards, some (more) earrings, and found a pair of purple, orange, yellow, and red striped pants that I liked. The pants were originally supposed to cost 18 luca but I talked the guy down to 10 luca because I knew a little bit about how to salsa dance and agreed to dance the salsa in the store!! It was actually pretty fun, and the guy working there could dance really well.

We met up to go to the stable around 4pm. My horse was a paint named Trueno, which means ´lightning´in Spanish. At first he was very calm and easy to ride. In our group, it was just me, the guide, and a French couple who spoke just enough Spanish for us all to communicate. We rode along the dirt roads past Pukara de Quitor, ruins of a pre-Incan culture. Then we went to Catarpe and rode along the San Pedro River. Trueno kept trying to stop and eat whenever we´d pass by patches of grass, so I had to pay attention. Although I was alert and aware of details, riding through here was in many ways a very meditative, relaxing experienc, and I felt very connected to nature. I love spending time outside, but I really hadn´t enjoyed the outdoors this much in a long time. It was completely gorgeous riding through here. We ascended a mountain and went to Valle de la Muerte which had sort of rocky surfaces. Halfway up, we dismounted and drank some water, had some coca, and rested for a bit. The views of the mountains were so beautiful, and the sun was just starting to set. The pictures I took could not do this place justice. From here we had views of Licancabur, which is actually on the Bolivian side of the border, and other mountains in colors of sand, tangerine, and violet, thanks to the setting sun. Our break was for about fifteen minutes and then we got back on our horses and continued up the steep terrain. At the top it was a bit windy so I was glad I´d brought a sweatshirt and my jacket. When our tour guide told us we´d be descending the mountain in the sand, I started laughing, but then I realized he was serious. However, I was already up there, and it was too late to turn back. Plus, the adventurous side of me wasn´t scared. I followed the group down the mountain, down this enormous and kind of steep sand dune. It was a lot of fun, but Trueno kept wanting to go faster, so I had to keep a tight hold on the reins to make sure we didn´t go tumbling down the hill. At the bottom of the mountain Trueno decided to take off at a dead gallop. I wasn´t prepared for this and both of my feet came out of the stirrups. I hung on with my legs for dear life, but Trueno would not listen when I tried to get him to slow down. It was both exhilirating and scary at the same time, and for a flicker of a moment I saw parts of my life flashing before my eyes, certain that I was going to fall off. But I didn´t, and eventually Trueno did slow down to a more manageable pace. Then we rode to Valle de la Luna, which was spectacular because the full moon was just starting to rise. I enjoyed the quiet and solitude of the desert as we rode along. I´d never seen anything like this before. We rode through some flat desert back to the stable.

When we returned to San Pedro I felt pretty sore, but in a good kind of way. I was also starving by this point so I found a restaurant on Caracoles called El Restaurante Esquina. Inside there was a bonfire and the atmosphere was very relaxed. I ordered a vegan pizza and an amaretto sour. The pizza was fresh out of the oven and tasted delicious. On the way back to the hostel I saw a few of the people who were working at the horse/sandboard/bike agency, and they invited me for a few drinks at a place on Tocopillo (another street). However, I was tired and was planning to go on a tour the following day, so by midnight I went back to the hostel for a good night´s sleep.]]> Fri, 22 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=161549 0 -22.9166667 -68.2166667 Calama, which is an hour or so outside of San Pedro, where I planned on spending the weekend. I was actually pretty excited to be getting there a day earlier than planned.

I managed to find my bus ticket without any problems. The departure time wasn´t until 3:45 so I figured I´d have enough time to go home, take a hot shower, pack some stuff into my backpack, and grab a bite to eat before leaving. However, when I got home, the water wasn´t working at all. It made me pretty mad because this was the second time since being here that my House didn´t have any water. Sometimes it´s pretty inconvenient and things such as lights and water don´t work like they´re supposed to. My host brother said that our whole neighborhood didn´t have any water and he had no idea when it was going to be fixed. At this point I would have gladly welcomed even a cold shower, just so I could rinse off and not feel slimey, but oh well. I packed my bag and got on the number 4 bus downtown where I had pizza before boarding the bus to Calama. I worked on my Spanish homework and tried to read a little bit on the bus. Six hours later I arrived in Calama.

In Calama I met Mary, another English teacher/volunteer whom I´d met on the program´s website. We got fries and beer at a Mexican pub that was Mexican in decor but not much else. It was a kind of dark, smokey place blasting heavy metal and serving food such as fries, pizzas, and hamburgers...I guess the owners hadn´t ever been to Mexico... Anyway, the fries were good and Mary and I got to hang out for a while which was nice. Around 1am I found a hostel (with 24/7 hot water!) and decided to call it a night.

Tomorrow off to San Pedro de Atacama!!!]]> Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=161548 0 -22.4666667 -68.9333333 While there, I read some of my guide book and pretty much decided that there are SO many things I want to see in La Paz (well, in Bolivia in general), and that sadly, I won´t be able to squeeze it all into one long-ish weekend. So...I´m coming back at the end of October, when I have another long weekend. At first I wasn´t sure how I should feel about this because usually when I travel, I like to go to different places than the ones I´ve already been, but due to things such as rain, I didn´t get to visit Tiwanaku OR go mountain biking to Oroico, so that made the decision easy.

Plus, it would be cool to spend more time here listening to live music and meeting people. I´ve met so many interesting people here in La Paz, and that´s one of the things I love about travelling. However, it can be a double-edged sword because although I´m constantly meeting new people, I´m also saying a lot of good-byes. I end up having lots of extremely interesting conversations and connecting with people on different levels, but then those conversations become just memories, and friendships are difficult to maintain because of factors such as long-distance. Some of the people I´ve met while travelling have given me different ideas to think about or made me see things from a different light. Sometimes it´s hard to imagine where I´d be or how different I´d be had I not had one short but meaningful conversation with someone.

For example, in Prague I spent two night sharing a room in a hostel with this girl who was biking across Europe, and she and I had very different perspectives on things such as work and postgraduate education. It was not until our paths crossed that I even started THINKING about wanting a masters´degree. Back home where I waitressed in a Mexican restaurant, one of my former co-workers taught me that it´s never too late to change, to open my mind, or to have new experiences, and that I should take time to enjoy the small things, like a beautiful night sky in the midst of an otherwise hectic shift. In Santiago I randomly met this guy in my hostel, and the lesson learned from him was to seize the day, live adventurously, and try new things. In Cusco I met an Australian who taught me that everyone has a place in this world, regardless of how different their lives are from mine, and to love and accept those people as they are. And here, in La Paz, I met an artist/musician from whom I realized that my roots are important---that I can travel the world, live abroad, and immerse myself in different cultures, but never to forget where I came from, because that is also a strong part of my identity.

Sometimes it´s sad to have all these great conversations and then realistically, never see these people or hear from them again. I guess everything happens for a reason and people are like leaves in the wind...you can´t control where it goes or when something will come blowing back again, but you can still enjoy it while it lasts and remember the beauty of it. And if our paths are meant to cross again, they will. That is how I feel about travelling and meeting new people. Plus, having the chance to meet different people is way better than the alternative which is not going anywhere and not diving into new experiences (which for me, is also not an option).

So I´m pretty excited that I´ll be returning to La Paz soon. There are so many neat places in Bolivia I´d like to visit...Potosí, Salar de Uyuni, Santa Cruz, Lake Titicaca, just to name a few.

After lunch I walked around the northern part of the city because I hadn´t really seen much of it yet. The sun was shining and it was a gorgeous day outside. I stopped for fresh juice and then visited the Museo de Etnografía y Folklore. It was really interesting. There were displays of different textiles made by different groups of indigenous people. The exhibit showed how the patterns, colors, and styles changed depending on their location, available materials/dyes, and specific use (practical vs. ritualistic). There were also exhibits showing different masks, which were used in the precolonial times as well as afterwards. The mask room was dark with just a few floor lights to illuminate these giant masks, which were also displayed on mannequins wearing the clothing that would have been worn with the mask. Some of them were representations of different animals or gods, and some of them were actually pretty creepy. After the Spaniards came, all sorts of theatrical festivals originated in Bolivia to commemorate different saints or biblical stories, so many of the costumes and masks were of the Devil. At one point, I got really freaked out because the lights stopped working and the room became entirely pitch black (there were no windows in the room, probably so light wouldn´t affect the masks and costumes). I had no idea where I was in the room, and no one else was in there. I really didn´t want to accidentally walk into anything and break it. Also, it was kind of eerie being in there where I knew there were all these creepy looking masks. After trying to wait for my eyes to adjust to the dark (which they didn´t), I finally got out my camera. Although you´re not allowed to take pictures inside the museum, my camera was the only thing I had that could produce a light in order for me to see where I was going to get out of the room. I was definitely relieved when I got out of there. The rest of the museum had different featherwork used by the Bolivian people, and a whole room of ceramics/pottery. Again, the styles of the featherwork and pottery varied depending on the group of people who made them, their purpose, their geographic region, and social status. I learned a lot in the museum and with the exception of the lights blacking out, I enjoyed it.

Then I walked back to the neighborhood near my hostel where I got an hour-long massage for a really good price. It was super relaxing and I felt much more calm afterwards. I still cannot believe how inexpensive massages are here. I paid about US $7 for my massage.

Then I met up with some other travellers (from parts of the States and Australia) for some empanadas. I actually found some empanadas that were vegan and that I could eat. They were spinach samosas, and they were hot out of the oven and tasted wonderful. For the first time in a while this trip I had a longer conversation in English as my fellow travellers and I exchanged stories and experiences. I enjoyed some vegan / tofu sushi before meeting up with Julio, who I randomly passed on the street. I decided to head back to the hostel rather early (11pm) since today I had to get on the bus to head back to Iquique.

Today I slept until 9:30 even though I´d been planning on getting up a little earlier in order to visit one last museum before catching a taxi back to the bus station. I hadn´t counted on my stomach feeling mildly queasy, but fortunately I´d brought some over the counter meds with me, and soon was feeling much better. I packed up my things, found a painting to give to my host family, found a soccer jersey for Kyle, and got headed on my way. On the bus I read for a while, wrote, and did a lot of staring out the window, enjoying the landscapes of the altiplano. I tried to get some sleep but it was impossible.

At the border when we crossed back into Chile at Tambo Quemado, I got really worried because when I gave them my passport, they asked for a copy of the paper I´d filled out when I left Chile. Although I thought I´d saved it, couldn´t find it anywhere. The security guy called me into his office, asked me a few questions (where I´m from, how long was I in Bolivia, etc). I showed him all of my Chilean visa paperwork and he pretended like he wasn´t going to let me back into Chile, but he did. I had to declare some of the souvenirs I´d bought (a few necklaces made out of seeds), and was asked about that too. He and the other security guy were kind of laughing about it and joking around that they needed my phone number to verify something. I´m glad that I didn´t have any serious problems because of that stupid little piece of paper, but oh well. Then after I left the office, another guy searched my bag, and again, I got asked a lot of questions about where I live, where I work, why am I in Chile, etc. Sometimes I think I should dye my hair and get brown-tinted contacts so I won´t have to answer the same questions over and over again, but then again, in some ways it´s kind of nice that people here are interested and friendly to foreigners. The guy told me that I should go to Bolivia again so I can cross through the border again.

When I got back on the bus, the Bolivian lady sitting next to me was freaking out because she couldn´t find her carnet (identity card). Bolivians and Chileans can cross into each other´s countries without a passport as long as they have their carnet with their RUT numbers. The Chilean police were not going to let her into the country without it, so our whole bus had to wait while she searched through all her things. Fortunately she found it.

The rest of the bus ride was long, boring, cold, and uncomfortable, but it was definitely worth it because I really enjoyed Bolivia. I can´t wait to go back! But now...off to another week at school. I´m thinking of going to San Pedro de Atacama either this weekend or the next...

More adventures to come:)]]> Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=159616 0 -16.5019326360668 -68.1605529785156 A good majority of the kids in my new school are immigrants from Perú and Bolivia, which are really poor countries. The kids there have a lot of problems. Some of their parents are split up, some have a parent in prison, and some of them live in a place for kids who have both parents in jail or whose parents have abused them. Many of them have parents or older siblings who use drugs, are in gangs, or have experienced a lot of domestic violence. Part of me is reminded of my job in the US where I used to work, and I´m super excited to have the chance to be a part of these kids´lives.

I really like it here so far. The other teachers in my school are super nice and they are glad I´m there. They don´t care what I look like...in fact, they told me NOT to dress up, because these kids are from poor families and the school wants teachers to wear normal clothes (aka t-shirts and jeans) because if the teachers dress up too nicely it makes the kids feel bad and ashamed. They said I can leave all my earrings in, and they don´t care about the tattoos, because they want the kids to know that appearance doesn´t make a person successful or moral, and these kids need to learn that people can be themselves and still respect that.

My new host teacher is sooo nice. Her name is Patricia, and her husband is from India, and they have two daughters. She said if I want to take a few days off work now and then to travel, she doesn´t mind, and that I should enjoy my time here. Patricia also respects the fact that I´m vegan because she is used to cooking vegetarian meals for her husband. She even said she would prepare my lunches and bring them to school with her! I could not have asked for a nicer host teacher.

I will miss the choir program a lot, but there is a choir here too. The choir director is named Omar and he´s glad I´m here because Republica Croacia´s funds are low, and he has to teach band, choir, AND all the PE classes.

At first I thought it was kind of weird to be switching schools again, especially since I only have slightly more than a month left. However, after I came to República Croacia today for the first time, I was once again reminded of the fact that everything happens for a reason. The kids I met today seemed super excited to have me here, and although they do seem rowdy, overall they seem like a good group of kids. I can´t wait to get to know them and work with them more. It´s going to be a fun month.]]> Thu, 14 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=159551 0 -20.2166667 -70.1666667 I went to La Paz´s famous Mercado de Brujas (witches market) where people sell traditional herbs and healing remedies. I talked to a guy working there who explained about the culture and what people traditionally believe. They believe the sun represents the male god and the earth represents the female god. They believe in something similar to karma, and they are very nature-based and respect all of the earth. They also believe that when people die, their bodies return to the earth but their spirit is carried to the sky. First the person´s spirit is put inside of a llama´s nose and all of the earthly things the person needs for the spirit world are packed on the llama´s back. Eventually the spirit is released out of the llama´s nose and carried into the sky by a condor. They don´t really believe this anymore, but it is a legend with symbolic meaning, and so today in society these beliefs are still respected.

After that I met another artist in the market named Fernando. We got to talking and he also told me about the Bolivian/ Quechua culture. It was really interesting, but then it started raining again so we went inside this coffee shop place to get some tea and talk where it wasn´t raining. It turns out he plays the quena (traditional wood flute) in this group, and they were playing at this place called Blue Note that night, so I decided to go with and listen. The conversation was so interesting and I learned more about the culture and a few Quechua words. Before we went back to Blue Note I went to this Arabic restaurant to eat falafel for dinner. The music was really good and I enjoyed listening to it. Their group consists of the quena, a guitar, drums, and a charango (a really small type of guitar like instrument). Listening to the music was really a lot of fun.

After the live music, Fernando, Will, and I went to a club where we went salsa dancing, which I enjoyed even though I feel like I have two left feet sometimes. I definitely want to keep learning the salsa though.

All in all, it has been an awesome day, even though I didn´t get to see the ruins of Tiwanaku. Funny how sometimes plans fall through but then something better happens.]]> Sat, 09 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=158951 0 -16.5019326360668 -68.1605529785156 An hour later, we walked back to the prison. Getting in wasn´t too difficult. Carmelo introduced me to a friend, who brought me through the prison gates, where one of the police wrote a number on my arm, searched my bag, and asked me a few questions. Inside, I met my ´tour guide,´a guy named Juan Carlos who was arrested for being an accomplice in a drug deal. He could speak English and Spanish, so the tour alternated between different languages. He showed me all parts of hte prison and explained the prison society, introduced me to other prisoners, etc. Inside, there are only male prisoners, but many of their wives and children live in their cells with them. The cells are more like dorm rooms (complete with stereos, cell phones, microwaves, furniture, etc) than cells. The family unit in Bolivia is more ´traditional´than in the US. If the dad gets arrested, he is still expected to be a father to his children and take care of them. The whole family will live in a cell (the wife and kids can leave the prison whenever they want) because there is so much poverty in Bolivia and it´s hard for a woman to find work and provide for her kids. I talked to a few of the wives and watched the kids play soccer in the plaza of the prison.

There are also restaurants inside, where I ordered a vegan fruit smoothie for less than $1. The cops also never enter the prison. The prisoners have to do everything themselves...cook, clean (well not always, parts of it are kinda dirty), work (in restaurants, making crafts, maintenance, and security). At first I saw a bunch of guys wearing black uniforms that said ´SEGURIDAD´(security) and carrying batons, so I was relieved...then Juan Carlos told me that the security inside are also prisoners, but ones who don´t have a record of violence (they have drug offenses), and who have good reports of prison behavior. There are also cocaine labs inside the prison. It is made cheaply in the prison and it costs less to buy a gram of coke than it does to buy a bottled water. Almost all of the prisoners use coke, and many also use pasta basé (crack) which is a big problem in the prison. However, the guards don´t care as long as everybody is peaceful and not violently causing problems. Because the prison is so different than others, and the guards do not go inside, the prisoners almost always behave, because if they don´t they´ll get sent to a worse prison or they´ll lose the ´freedom´they have inside, compared to other prisons. Juan Carlos introduced me to some of his fellow-prisoners who are his friends (Pablo, Jose, and I forget the third guy´s name). I met a lot of prisoners and they were kind of stand-offish at first, but when they realized I can speak Spanish, suddenly became really friendly and nice (Bolivians don´t generally like Americans, because our government persuaded their government to crack down on drug laws, which severely hurt their economy and contributed to more poverty and broken families. It also was corrupt bc the money the US gave to Bolivia to help with the drug enforcement program was embezzled by some of the higher-ups in the Bolivian government, so the foreign aid never actually was used to help the people. And the police are severely underpaid so they will arrest as many people as possible in order to earn more money to support their own families...it just goes in circles).

I heard MANY different perspectives from the prisoners about their lives, offenses, life inside and outside the prison, the justice system (which operates along lines of bribery), their attitudes, views on cocaine/crack/drugs, etc, gangs (some of them are in prison gangs in LaPaz, some are ex-gang members who want to change), and Christianity. There are 5 churches in the prison (ecclesiastical, catholic, orthodox, protestant, and jehovah´s witness). Some believe, some don´t, and some have found God. One guy told me that prison wasn´t completely bad because it was there he learned about God and learned that he still can have hope to change his life. It was really interesting, and it was difficult leaving, mostly for the same reasons it was hard leaving my job in the US. I felt like most of the prisoners weren´t that different than the kids I used to work with, except these are adults and speak a different language. Many seemed very kind, intelligent, and creative. Juan Carlos did not introduce me to the ´crazy´ ones. Part of me wants to get a joint masters in social work and criminal justice and work as a prison social worker. In some ways it was a shame I was there for such a short time instead of getting the chance to actually help these people like the kids I used to work with.

I also felt like I want to spend more time (quasi-permanently) in La Paz and figure out a way to volunteer /work inside this place with the kids who have to live there. Prison is no environment for kids to grow up (especially since the prisoners do drugs inside--I watched people doing coke and was talking to a guy while he was smoking crack), they face much discrimination when they leave the prison walls, and grow up too quickly, not having the innocence and happy childhood they should have. They only learn how to ´survive´ as opposed to live, and miss out on many opportunities normal kids have. Even if I didn´t get paid I really want to figure out a way to do some sort of thing to work with these kids and teach them about choices and that they DO have a future. Many of the current prisoners have parents who were also prisoners and that kind of life is all they know and it{s hard to get out of a life of crime. The circle just keeps coming around, and I want to look into organizations in order to help break that circle somehow. All the prisoners are adults, but in many ways reminded me of the kids I worked with back home. Just now are they (well not all of them) learning the consequences of their actions, responsibility, and the power of their mind to make choices that affect their lives. Working with adults in the prison population would also be really good...even though they´re older, it isn´t ever too late for someone to change their life. Often the adult prison population is ignored and lacks the appropriate counseling/social work programs/ skills programs etc in order to support them with their struggles and efforts, and I also would like to do something about this... for these reasons it´ll be incredibly difficult wanting to come back to the US. There is a lot more need for social workers down here and finding a job would not be hard. No one here wants to work in prisons or youth detention centers because they are just regarded as ´screwups´by the rest of society, especially in Bolivia which is the poorest and possibly most corrupt South American country.

After I went to the prison I went to the markets and tried api, which is a traditional hot juice drink made out of corn. I ordered a kind called mexclado (mixed) because it uses purple and yellow corn. It is really sweet. Then I walked down Calle Jaén, which is one of the historic cobblestone streets. I went to bed early, planning on going to the ruins of Tiwanaku the following day.]]> Sat, 09 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=158913 0 -16.5019326360668 -68.1605529785156
Then I went to the Coca Museum, which was very enlightening in both a cultural and political sense. Coca leaves have been traditionally used by the native people and are sacred. They are called the Mama Coca and are used in rituals, as well as turned into natural teas. The people also chew coca leaves. The leaves help relieve stomachaches, headaches, altitude sickness, help wake you up, and sharpen the senses. Coca crops are important to the people here, both for economic and traditional purposes. Coca leaves are also the plant that cocaine comes from. Chewing coca leaves, drinking coca tea, or eating coca candy will not get you high, because they have to be processed and mixed with other stuff before it has those effects. However, drinking coca tea (which is legal) will cause you to fail a drug test. The juice can be squeezed out of them and processed into cocaine or crack. Because of this, the government has taken away rights from cocaleros (coca crop farmers), even though MANY of them are growing the leaves for traditional, legal purposes. The US and FELCN (anti-drug act) have adversely affected the Bolivian people by restricting what they can/can´t grow, and this has in many ways hurt the Bolivian economy, which has already been doing poorly. For this reason, there are a lot of Bolivian people who are really Anti-American, because they were doing nothing illegal in the first place. I also learned in the museum how Sigmund Freud was one of the first cocaine users, and he studied it for medical/ psychological purposes. I found it kind of weird that so much of modern psychology is based on his research, and that what he contributed to the psychology field is accepted, even though he was an addict!! The exhibits also showed the affects that drugs such as cocaine and crack have on the body, It was really interesting, and cost 10 bolivianos, which is about 1 US dollar. Upstairs they had a Coca Cafe, where you can order anything from coca tea to coca cheesecake...I just stuck with the tea.

After that I wandered around the markets a lot and found some souvenirs for people back home. I met a few artists who were selling jewelry on the streets. One of them, Julio, has a friend who had just gotten out of San Pedro Prison (I read a book about this called ´Marching Powder´ and the social worker part of me wanted to learn more about it). Julio arranged for us to meet up with his friend the following morning for a tour of the prison. After that, Julio and Manuel showed me around the city. We walked up to Mirador Laikakota, where there are beautiful views of the city.

It was still early when we went to this underground reggae bar called TTKOS, where we drank capairinhas and enjoyed the interesting ambience. There were signs up that said ´no smoking,´but everyone in there was smoking anyway. There were dimly colored lights and signs up that said ´love,´as well as this full-size statue in army gear hanging up in the corner. Almost blending into one wall was a bunch of large twisted metal strands that read ´Viva Bolivia.´ The whole feel of the place was really laid-back. There were normal tables and chairs, but there was also a section of the bar that had mats on the floor and shorter tables right on the floor, sort of like the kind Japanese people use. I felt kind of bad because I got tired earlier than normal and went back to Hostal Cactus for a good night´s sleep.]]> Fri, 08 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=158910 0 -16.5019326360668 -68.1605529785156 When I got back to school, all of my 5th and 6th grade classes were combined with the classes of another teacher who had called in sick. Basically I felt like I was baby-sitting the class instead of teaching them since there were at least 40 kids in each section. It was pretty funny because two of the boys in 6th grade were pretending to fight, and one boy actually grabbed the other kid´s arm and hit himself with it and then said, ´Did you see what he just did?´ It was hard to not laugh at this. A lot of times I feel like a bad teacher in some ways because the kids do or say things that are actually pretty funny, and we´re not supposed to laugh at them.

After school I went running and then tried to plan a little bit of my trip to Bolivia.

This morning I had to meet up with the regional coordinator and other volunteers to go to the International Police to get my visa papers. I got my photo taken for my Chilean visa and carnet, and then we went to the Registro Civil where they took more mug shots and fingerprints. By the time all of that was over, there was no point in going back to school because I only had one of my classes left that day, and by the time I got back to school it would be half over. I walked around the Centro with Liz and Eric for a while and then hung out at Eric´s apartment. After that I walked along the beach and took some pictures. I met up with Ernesto and we went to get my bus ticket to La Paz. When I got home I hardly had any time to take a shower, get everything packed into my backpack, and go back to the bus station.

Now off to La Paz for the weekend....!]]> Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=158782 0 -20.2166667 -70.1666667 -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...

]]> Mon, 04 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=156212 0 -20.2166667 -70.1666667 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. ]]> Sun, 03 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=156024 0 -20.2166667 -70.1666667 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!
]]> Thu, 30 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=155698 0 -20.2166667 -70.1666667 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.]]> Wed, 29 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=155463 0 -20.2166667 -70.1666667 House doing nothing in particular. Somehow, I´ve been lacking motivation and plan on making things for my class or being productive and studying Spanish, but then I get distracted by something else. I went to bed early, feeling tired but good after my run.

Today I had a meeting with other English teachers at 8:30. Wednesdays are supposed to be my ´late´day. My first class isn´t until 10:15 on Wednesdays, so I wasn´t too thrilled about getting up early. When I arrived at school, the meeting was kind of pointless and just a repetition of things people had already told me. After school I walked down to La Cioccolata to visit my host mom. I ordered maracuyá Alegre (maracuya juice with orange juice) and sat inside where I drew for a while. Then I walked back to school for their Cultural Night, where students were putting on a performance of traditional Chilean music and dancing. It was pretty interesting but dragged on after a while. I went home and started packing for my trip to Perú.

I need to get going now and continue working on my Spanish homework...]]> Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=155238 0 -20.2166667 -70.1666667 Fortunately, Mariangeli sympathized with my whole situation, and agreed to have me work with different host teachers. She said it wasn´t worth it arguing with Lilia because Lilia was being stubborn and inflexible anyway. At one point they asked if I wanted to change schools. A huge part of me did (I liked the idea of going to a school where I could wear jeans everyday and not have to take out my piercings or have people judge me based on my appearance), but in the end I decided to stay here because I really liked working with the choir and jazz band, and I felt I´d miss it too much if I left. It´s funny how the choir and jazz band are the only things I really like about my school. I really liked my high school seniors, but I hated working with Lilia. I´m not too sure how I feel about teaching fifth and sixth grade. I´ve never really liked little kids, and sometimes my seventh graders drove me nuts. I hope that once I work with a different teacher, things will get better, and I´m hoping that I´ll like my new students and that they´ll behave.

School got out early today because it´s National Unity Day, the start of Fiestas Patrias. By the time I got home, I had time to go on a short run and take a hurried shower before taking a colectivo to Eduardo Llanos (a public school in Iquique) for our monthly English teachers´meeting. While there I realized that I wish I´d been placed in a public school instead of a subconvencionado (semi-private) school. The meeting was pretty interesting, and I met some other English teachers from the area.

After that I saw Inception (here it´s called Origen) in English with Spanish subtitles. It was really good, and made me think a lot about dreams, reality, and so forth. I hardly ever watch movies, but this one was good, and it was a nice change of pace. However, it really made me miss the times Kyle and I would go to the movies at the theater in Davenport. ]]> Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=155231 0 -20.2166667 -70.1666667 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...]]> Thu, 23 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=155227 0 -20.2166667 -70.1666667 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...
]]> Tue, 21 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=155197 0 -20.2166667 -70.1666667 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.]]> Sun, 26 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=154437 0 -20.2166667 -70.1666667 After the presentation was over, we got back on the bus to head straight back to Iquique. The bus ride wasn´t bad, but it seemed really long since I´d already finished both of the books I´d brought with. I slept a lot on the bus and read a little bit of Neruda´s poetry.

This afternoon we finally got back to Iquique, and by then I was badly in need of running since I hadn´t had the chance to run at all the past week, and I had all this excess energy I needed to get rid of. As soon as Patricia dropped me off at my House, I changed clothes and took off on a long run. Runner´s high settled in almost immediately and I enjoyed the run. After running I had to type up my Spanish homework and email it to my tutor. I met up with a co-worker to plan out parts of the trip to Perú, where we´re going next week during vacations. Then I ate vegan sushi and wandered around the beach for a while before going home for the night. It´s definitely good to be back in Iquique. The choir trip was fun and I´ll never forget the experiences I had this past week.]]> Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=15653 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=154332 0 -20.2166667 -70.1666667