Hello and Happy Monday to ya!  This time next week, I will only have FIVE DAYS LEFT!  And in two days, it will be the official hump of this long trip.  If you can’t tell, I am still very much not loving Santiago.  The program itself is fine, and the kids are great and I think they are having a great experience, but Santiago is, (like I’ve said), (mostly) ugly and with little to do.  Actually yesterday, my coworker and I met a fellow American in a restaurant where we had lunch and he had only been her for 3 days and he said, “the strangest thing about this city is that there is…nothing to do here!  it’s been really boring!!!!”.  GREAT!  I don’t mind having work and I actually enjoy the time with the students, but the off time and the lack of brain stimulation is really bringing me DOOOWN DOWN DOWN.  You should see my planner – it says things like shower (check), class (check), make lunch (check), dinner (check), write blog (check).  I am trying to give myself things to do to stimulate my mind since I feel so blah otherwise.  I have tried to do “Tamara things”, like go for walks, write on my blog, update my Google Excels, plan for Bruja’s Bakery, but even the long walks are exploring I find to be depressing- grey and smoggy and litter everywhere.  Anyway, last night I was thinking that this experience, even in a really exciting city, also has the possibility of being quite lonely because being anywhere for 3 or 4 weeks at a time, when it’s not “your place” and you’re not with “your people”, it means you are on someone elses times and schedule and have to be with people that you wouldn’t necessarily be friends with otherwise.  Like I said, my work is good and the people are nice, but the lack of stimulation during my off time is really hard.  For example, we have every other morning off and I usually just wander in a certain direction and walk, looking for interesting things and not finding them.  OK!  That’s enough complaining for one post.  Here is an update on the last few days!

Friday

Friday was my off morning, so I left around 10 am and walked allllll over Santiago, covering almost 10,000 steps.  

I walked along the river, then visited an area called Bellavista which my coworker and I had visited earlier last week (and had some yummy pisco sours).  It’s a party street, so things were pretty quiet in the morning.  

In the afternoon, we spent some time at the Bellavista Patio which is this cool, modern outdoor restaurant space.  This is the most modern place I have seen while here, which I don’t know if it’s a good thing or bad thing.  I was actually feeling pretty ‘blah’ about this entire experience while I was there but I tried to snap myself out of it.  Ice cream helped!  And it was good, too.

Friday night, we were home by 6:30 pm and the down feelings were back…. I don’t remember the last time I was “home” by 6:30 on a Friday and don’t get me wrong, I love a good night with Netflix, but night after night, being home at 6:30 and it’s dark and cold starts to get to me.

Saturday

We had to be home early though because we were up at 6:30 am to head to Valparaiso, which is a coastal town on the Pacific Ocean.  Have you ever seen the Pacific? 

I was actually really really looking forward to this because it meant we could get out of Santiago for the day!  Prior to the trip, when I told people that we would visit Valpo for a day, their reaction was mostly that “it’s nice for a day, I guess”, but I really liked Valpo!! 

It looked more how I imagined Chile in general, colorful, vibrant, art fairs, street art, winding streets.  We had a walking tour that was interesting and informative- we got to see the main town square and learn about how the water edge used to be much higher when Valpo was established, which is why we could see very very short blocks near the water- it’s because each century they added a new block as the water level has gone down. 

We also saw a new building that was inside of an old building (hard to describe, I wish I took a picture), but the reason is because Valpo is a protected heritage city, so they can’t destroy old buildings.  They left the facade of an old one and just built a new one inside of it.

We also learned about the street art, which is relatively new in Valpo (only 30 years) and is there because they wanted to create a way for people to express themselves without doing graffiti all over the place. 

I loved this hanging garden!  Dad, i think this would look really nice at home- those plants are potted in old soda bottles.

We learned about the religious power in Valpo and how the German presence brought other religions, which is why there is now a ‘non Catholic’ cementary, when it used to just be that if you weren’t Catholic, your body was thrown off a cliff (nice!).  Lastly, we learned a bit about the interested architecture and how everything is built to withstand earthquakes.

My only complaint was that I was FREEZING!

I just couldn’t get warm the whole day, but that was my fault.  I think many of the students shared my feelings and really enjoyed Valpo as much as I did.

By the end of our tour, I was completely ravenous so I was thrilled to see these huge sandwiches we had for lunch.

After lunch, we got back in the van and headed to the beach where I was still freezing, but it was ok.  The students actually put their feet in the water!

And again, we were home by 7 pm.  Womp womp.

Sunday

Sunday was our day off and actually our only day off for the entire trip.  After yesterday dragging on FOREVER, I can actually say that makes me happy.  I have a lot more photos to share that are on my camera, so I will come back and update this post later.  For now, here is what we did:

We were up by 9 am (we slept in! we probably have been sleeping about 10-11 hours a night here in Santiago).  I had a lazy breakfast and added more things to my ‘to do’ list.

Then my coworker and I walked 20 ish minutes to the Central Market, which is the largest food market in the city.  We saw lots of fresh fish being sold and it was interesting to see, but also looked completely unsanitary!  I saw a guy selling dead chickens out of a trash bag.

Then we went to Mercado de Tirso de Molina to see the fruit stalls where they were selling lots of varieties of fruits and vegetables that I have never seen, which was interesting.  

All of that market fun killed about an hour (so… it was 11 am haha) so we walked about 30 minutes down the beautiful river to the Bellavista neighborhood to look for a place to have lunch.  The markets have restaurants in them, but the people there are so aggressive that we decided not to stay.  In Bellavista, we went to Galindo, which I found recommended on a blog by a girl who lives here.  When we arrived, we were the only ones, but by the time we left, there was a line out the door.  I ordered the Pastel de Choclo which is a mix of beef and chicken, hardboiled eggs and some vegetables with a thick layer of smashed sweet corn.  It was REALLY good!  We also had a big beer.

This is where we met the American guy who said there is nothing to do here (haha) and he recommended a few places for us to check out (most of which we have been to).  He recommended a “cool, hipster” neighborhood so we decided to check it out after lunch, only to realize this is the neighborhood where our school is and we are there every day!  Haha….. 

I only ate half of my pastel so I had it wrapped up and we also took the chicken from my coworkers soup to give to one of the stray dogs that lives on the street (there are many!).  We found this puppy outside the restaurant and he was so sweet!

He was picky- he didn’t want the corn!  He is obviously fed well.  

After lunch, we walked back towards another art market to check out the souvenirs, and then slowly made our way home and we were back by 3:00… again, sad.  In Madrid, it’s usually 3:00 before I feel like I’ve done anything interesting and I am always willing time to slow down!  I joked to Luis that there are 48 hours in a day in Santiago… that’s how it feels sometimes.

The rest of the afternoon included chatting with Luis, then another 45 minute walk outside, then dinner, Netflix for 3 hours, and bed time at the respectable hour of 9:30 pm.

Here’s to a lightning fast week!!!!!!!!!