A little bit of this, a little of that, and a surprise!

Congratulations to my brother Ben! He has completed his career as a high school students and will be moving on to bigger and better things at Missoula, Montana (Ben you can thank me for answering that question before you were asked 1.3 million times by all my blog followers). I am sure we will all be reading about him in the future because that kid is going places. Also, happy birthday to my sister, she is turning the big 3-0, I am so lucky to have such great siblings (including Caleb, obviously).
I am sick again, the same dizziness, etc. I went to the doctor on Thursday night, I had an appointment for 9 p.m, but didn't actually see the doctor until 12. I guess that is Chile. He was very nice and must have been exhausted, I sure was. I watched two episodes of "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" Chilean style and realized I am definitely not. On the upside, I understood everything that he told me. He took special note that I was an American, I think he automatically knew I was from a family of attorneys because he was thorough. He put me on some medicine, made an appointment for ten days, forbid me from working for 10 days, and wished me the best. I think I will be feeling like new in no time. I will be productive throughout this time, I have already planned my lessons, whoa! I hope they actually work considering I planned them in less than stellar condition.
Now, for the surprise, this is what I saw on my walk today(I know, I know, bed rest, but I was going crazy). It was the size of my hand ( I have small hands, but even still, you can imagine this was huge). I am so glad I do not suffer from arachnophobia or else I would have nightmares for days, I would also like to thank my mother for not allowing me to see the film Arachnophobia, she saved me from years of living in fear in our basement.

.

Turn your attention this way, please.

My little brother is a superstar, even though he is anything but little. I am so proud of him!

http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/education/article_5e63f8d6-6951-11df-903c-001cc4c03286.html

Since I gave up scrapbooking before I started I put it on my blog.

This montage of beauty is from Puerto Varas, enjoy!

Photos taken by Kelsea Anderson, the great.

Driving, Swimming, and Eating

Chileans really love driving and Jorge is no exception. This has greatly been to my benefit considering that I have seen some truly beautiful things since I have been living with la familia Flores. This weekend I went to some thermal hot springs, on a tomato hunt, and to little Italy.
Friday was a national holiday (Glorias Navales) because according to my host father, Arturo Pratt (who liberated Chile and won the northern town of Iquique) fell off a boat. I am not convinced that is the whole story, but it was confirmed by my students as well, so who knows. It does seem like the Chileans love to celebrate anything, I am submitting a day for me. Anyway, because of this we decided to take advantage of the day off and relax in some thermal hot springs. I was fully expecting to drive to some remote little area, hike a bit and indulge in mother nature's treat, but instead found myself at one of Chile's finest resorts. It was glorious, we relaxed, lunched, and relaxed some more. I even made a friend who invited me to her home next weekend, which proves that Chileans are among the most hospitable in the world. The drive was beautiful, the time delightful, and the water was a dream. I did get stared at quite a bit due to my pale nature, and little kids were really into trying to touch my skin, it was hilarious.
Chile is full of little surprises: hot springs, earthquakes, Puerto Varas, pigs that live on the street and little immigrant communities. Today I visited a little Italian community, Capitan Pastene, about an hour from Angol and that boasts the best Italian in Chile. Once inside the restaurant you would have no idea you were in a country that worships hot dogs. It is seriously delicious. I didn't really believe my family when they were talking about it, I was like, "Yeah, yeah, you think my cooking is delicious, I'm not really going in with high hopes." I was pleasantly surprised. The ambience of the restaurant was absolutely delightful and the noodles and sauces are made right in front of you. We happened to run into a priest that they know so we broke bread (literally) with a priest while talking about the Vatican, it was so Italian. It was absolutely delicious and the women were very anxious to serve me (just like Italian mothers in films, it was so cliche).

The Resort

Pasta Factory

Another view

The Plaza and the earthquake (Lorna was very nervous about us posing on this).

La Iglesia (and the earthquake damage).

Falling in Love

Some love develops over time and some love happens so quickly it's as if you have only blinked your eyes and there you are, deep in that I CAN'T-BELIEVE-THIS-IS-REAL type of love. This is the love I have for Puerto Varas. Leaving there was the hardest thing I have done in 2010, I am only being semi-dramatic. I am convinced that all the stars aligned and rewarded me for something I did in a past life because the weekend was incredible. I just wish futuristic email had existed then so I knew what it was and could repeat the cycle.
We (being my friends Kelsea, Honni and I) started our journey a bit tired because we stayed out dancing all night the night before but we had plenty of time for napping because the bus ride was about 5 hours. We are still unsure of why the bus couldn't drop us off in the actual town, so we started the journey on the side of the highway but were soon hitchhiking/walking ourselves into what we hoped was the right direction. Chileans keep proving to me that they are genuinely kind people because we were soon picked up by a really sweet music teacher who dropped us off in the town plaza. The stars aligned again because the hostel that had been recommended to us just happened to be sitting there waiting for our weary selves to walk right in and take over. We dropped our stuff off and began our grand adventure.
Puerto Varas is a lovely little German establishment that is right on a gorgeous lake with a view of two large volcanoes. We awed and oohed over the view for quite a while and then decided to try our hands at being voyeurs and checked out the neighborhoods. The architecture was unbelievable. It was straight out of a fairy tale, what I picture Hansel and Gretel to be like (before the witches and cooking of children, etc) and there were various houses offering freshly made kuchen, pies, and cakes. It may be heaven on earth.
We stumbled upon this ridiculous looking home turned into a museum(Pablo Fierro Museum). It looked like a Tim Burton creation, but it said it was free and who am I to pass up a free museum? We walked into the most bizarre world of trinkets, antiques, paintings, and drawings. We were completely clueless about who this eccentric genius could be and dumbly asked, "Who is Pablo Fierro?" We were expecting him to be some dead guy, but alas he was the living breathing man in front of us. He led us around, told us about his vision, and let us wander around his world. He was so incredibly kind and had the most gentle eyes. We wandered around and I picked out some decorations for my future home (which leads me to a far more loaded question, what should I do after this adventure? I am open to most suggestions, I can't believe I just asked that on my blog, my mom is going crazy trying to gather all her suggestions).
We ended our near perfect day (the only blunder being we were nearly attacked by a gang of stray dogs) by dancing our hearts out and relishing in the beauty of Chile.
We spent Saturday wandering around Puerto Varas and falling victim to the many handicrafts, I can't resist handmade sweaters for my nieces, especially not when the women are telling me that it will look so cute on them. I know they have no idea what she looks like, but I also know that my nieces are darling in anything, clearly I am still justifying my actions.
We also went on a beautiful walk along the river to the next town over. We also stopped along the way to admire the houses and were offered a tour of one of the houses. It was gorgeous and made us all wish we worked for House and Home so we could tour gorgeous lake houses all the time.
I know this is a bit lengthy, but I am clearly in deep love and cannot stop myself.
Unfortunately I was completely absentminded and forgot to buy batteries so I have very few pictures, but check out pablofierro.cl and enjoy the few photos I have.

At the Pablo Fierro Museum.

I fell in love with this home (that is a volcano in the background).

This church is awesome and made out of corrugated tin, I'm sure the priest loves giving his homily during the rain (and yes, it does rain a lot).

Bedbugs

There are not just a cute little saying like I thought, they really do bite and cause terrible itchiness. I don't know what Chilean bugs have against me, but I would like to call a truce. Now. I am not terribly upset by these buggers yet though because I am still on cloud nine love from my weekend in Puerto Varas. I will write more about that later, but until then, I hope you all are well, sleep tight, and DON'T let the bedbugs bite!
Kathy, thanks for the sweet letter, it arrived today and made my whole day! 17 days is not bad for the South American continent, I'm impressed considering it takes 2 hours to buy meat.
More later, until then, ciao!

Me voy me voy me voy!

There is a song here that says, "te vas, te vas, te vas" which means you go, you go, you go! I love it and always change the words for my students, they are not so keen on it, but I get a real kick out of it so there! If you ask really nicely sometime I may sing it for you.
I am headed south to the land of chilly weather tonight and will spend a few days touring a German settlement named Puerto Varas so I will be incommunicado for a few days. I hope you all survive without me. You can call me drama queen.
I am going by bus so I may make another star friend!

Feliz dia de los alumnos

Chile has a day for everything, a day for the police, for the teachers, for mothers, fathers, saints, and even students. They love to party.
I was very unclear about what exactly was going to happen and was thoroughly entertained by the result. School started a bit late and the students were served completos for breakfast, I think this picture speaks for itself as to why Chileans are the picture of health.


Then they spent a few hours doing activities, which really means they were dancing to reggaeton very dirtily on school property. I think that speaks to why so many of my students are with child.
The funniest part of the day was the show that the teachers put on for the students. They went all out, there were hilarious costumes, funny skits, dances, and even a circus. I participated in a hip hop/country line dance and it was pretty funny to be dancing for over 1000 high school students. It was very strange because afterwards people were saying congratulations to me like I had accomplished something, when really all I did was do what I love and pretend it was for the students. That's like eating a blizzard for the calcium, I tried that joke out here but no one knew what a blizzard was. It's okay if you feel sorry for them too.

Los Charros de Hannah

The teachers were the students. I nearly wet my pants during this, too much information, sorry.

I got a Feliz dia de Mama present...

Don't stress, I am not going to be a Mom, scared you though, huh? I got a rose for Mother's day from my host father because someday I will be a mom. He is so sweet. He told me, it better not be too soon, I want to meet your husband before you have any kids, but someday you will be a mom. Jorge cracks me up.
Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers that read my blog. You truly do deserve a day to celebrate yourselves. I hope you sufficiently celebrate all that you are and all that you do for your children. Shout out to my mom, I love you Mom.
I think Jorge got me the rose because I was acting so domestic this weekend. I baked some cakes for various birthdays and one for my host mother for Mother's day and today I cooked a Mother's day feast for our family. I love cooking for them because they always tell me that my cooking is divine, hint, if you want me to cook or bake you anything just tell me you like it, give me a few compliments and I'll cook for you anytime.
Tidbits from my days:
I also went out to celebrate a birthday last night to a nightclub named Tequila, which oddly has no tequila.
Today I stood in a line to buy meat and had to wait for 39 other people to purchase theirs before me. I don't know who needs to come down here and show them how to be efficient, but they cannot come soon enough, I could feel myself getting older in the line. And it was normal here, how can they be so patient? I guess maybe I should thank the grocery stores though because perhaps they contribute to the patience of the people when I am speaking Spanish, they are used to things moving slowly and not quite making sense.
Have a great week!

The Tequila, sin tequila but with plenty of dancing!
I posted this mostly to prove I have some Chilean friends.

Some highlights!

Highlights from the week:
My students now understand the word complaining and that I don't like it. I am my mother's daughter.
I went to spinning again last night and was the only student so there was a lot of yelling, "dale Hannah Montana, dale, va va va, eso es" (Give it Hannah Montana, give it, go, go, go, that's it). I thought I was going to die, but alas, here I am to tell the tale and now Alex and I are great friends. He has some pretty elaborate plans for my life, so it should be an interesting friendship. He also told me that I am the only student that understands the lyrics to the songs he chooses so he wants me to translate. That seems to be the thing people want from me here, translation of songs and anything from the US that I may have.
The season is changing and Angol is absolutely gorgeous.
Cata (my ten year old host sister) and I have been creating smoothies and using their juicer like it is our job. We have created some delicious creations.
I threw a Cinco de Mayo party for my host family. They love Mexican food like I do. It's a perfect relationship.
I taught the electric slide to my students yesterday and that was an absolute hit. They love dancing and I love doing anything that keeps their attention.
Happy Graduation to Zach, Samantha, and all of the class of 2010, way to go! I will be celebrating your accomplishment tomorrow by baking lots of cakes, going to an asado (barbecue) and dancing.

Autumn in Angol

Life is pretty good.

Spinning in Chile

I decided to take my Spanish to the next level and attempt an aerobic class here, well actually not an aerobic class, a Spinning class. Clearly I feel lost not working in a gym and needed to revisit that chapter of my life, unfortunately they don't sell protein shakes at this gym so I am having a rough time getting sufficient amounts of powdered protein, dang.
The class was hilarious, the instructor had no idea what to do with a gringa (the polite term used to describe English speakers here) and so he just kept coming right up to me and yelling in my face. I laughed pretty hard, sweated, remembered why I like group fitness classes, and sang my heart out to Cher. I was the only one in the room who understood the lyrics and yes I do believe in life after love, thank you very much Cher.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself and believe that during those classes will be the only times I am warm in this city since they do not believe in central heating.
Also, does anyone know what a widget is? I feel left out of the 21st century because it baffles me.

Bussing it through Chile

may be my new favorite past time. I met the kindest clown on there today. He was full of interesting facts and we had the best conspiracy theory conversation I have ever had. He believes that the men in black really do exist, there are aliens living amongst us (and I may be one for all he knows), that Area 51 has more secrets than even the president knows, and he wants to come to Montana. I think we may be best friends. He made the 8 hour ride much more entertaining and we appreciated the beauty of the drive together. All the leaves are changing, it is incredibly gorgeous here and I can't believe I forgot my camera. Yikes. I am seriously failing on this blog. My apologies. The drive also allowed me to see more destruction which included entire bridges collapsed in rivers, it was insane and made me grateful once again that I am alive and well.
I hope you are all doing well.

I didn't take this picture, but I did pass by this road. This is one of many, I can only imagine how scary it would have been to be on the road during it, yikes!