Chilean Bureaucracy, its more fun than you'd think.

A few weeks ago I was granted a work permit and I've been meaning to write about what a downright pleasurable experience Chilean Bureaucracy was.

Let me preface this with some background information about my last job doing casework for newly resettled refugees at the IRC. A large percentage of my position was basically to protect and navigate vulnerable new residents through the world of American Bureaucracy (i capitalized this on accident, but I am going to leave it because it seems fitting). This involved lots of paperwork, inefficiency, unintuitive processes involving fine print requiring an advanced understanding of the English language, and lots of protecting people and advocating for them against bureaucratic agents who had decided that they had hated their jobs and now wanted to make everyone else miserable. (Right now I am thinking mainly about the department of licensing.... aka hell).

Ok, back to the morning of my appointment an the Extanjeria. My boss was going to escort me through this process, basically serving as my caseworker, and I was feeling pretty good about that. Then, 2 hours before my appointment, she called and said that she couldn't come with me. At this point I started panicking, and kind of shaking and twitching a bit. I immediately called Julie and demanded that she let me practice saying "I have an appointment" in Spanish over the phone with her. To make matters worse, I didn't even know where the office was. I set of for Valparaiso nice and early and basically asked security guards of random buildings where the Extanjeria was until I was slowly led to its exact location.

Well, I had to wait awhile, as is to be expected, but the people I dealt with were just lovely. I mean, they didn't even give me dirty looks for my bad Spanish. They were really so nice that I didn't even mind the inefficiency and inconsistent information that followed. I was basically told that my contract was missing "something" and that I needed 34974220 copies of various official documents, passport photos of some randomly tiny size, a blood sample, concession of my first born child, etc. They made another appointment for me the following week. Well, it turns out that my contract actually had the "missing clause" in the first place, but I didn't even care. They were nice to me, and helpful, and that was so amazing.

Sometimes, I feel like a refugee, or a stray dog thats been kicked a few too many times in the face, and I'm not quite sure why I've done this to myself. Other times, I'm exactly sure why I'm here. Today I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

Now, some pictures from a labor day walk on the Beach with Lauren:



Besos,
Allie

Recent Great Chilean Finds

Heyyyyy, so I found this print under my bed. Crazy, huh? I think its my favorite thing in this country. I'm debating trying to smuggle it out of the apartment when I leave...

Ok, so there is a little background story to this next great Chilean find. Last Saturday Julie, Lauren, and I took a day trip to Santiago. Some of Julie's students suggested that we check out Patronado, a little shopping district with cheap clothes. We were in dire need of all things warm, so off we went. Welllll, for me at least, Patronado left something to be desired. Not only were all the clothes from all the vendors basically the same, I also thought that they were overpriced for how obviously cheaply made they were. Also, it was just a lot of work. You constantly had to watch your bag to make sure people weren't trying to steal from you... even more than normally. Everyone also bumps up their prices for the gringas then you have to pretend that you don't want it, then they come after you and offer the real price blah blah... well, all this is a pretty typical experience for a gringa, but I felt like it was worse, or at least more annoying, than normal....but, BUT... I did find this t-shirt. Its a great example of the very common phenomenon of bad English on Chilean clothing. It took me awhile to figure out what it was trying to say... and even now I'm not that sure... It also crossed my mind that it was done on purpose and was some sort of play on “its all in your mind,” but I might be over thinking it... am I? Sooo confused.

Also, the sun is back, which makes me exceedingly happy.

So, right now I am about to plan an hour and a half class on the death metal band Megadeth for a 14 year old student who I am teaching tonight.... I am so excited about this. My aim: to be the coolest ELF teacher on the block. How am I doing?

Besos,
Allie

How did I end up in a country with no central heating?

Chile gets cold. About as cold as Seattle as far as I've surmised, which is colder that I chose to acknowledge when I picked this location and therefore, colder than I chose to pack for. I brought one sweater... what is wrong with me?!?! This is fine. I can buy sweaters.... but..... BUT, most buildings don't have heat... like mine. Let me repeat that: my building has no central heating. (Daddy, will you send me a furnace? {note: Daddy sells furnaces}) I keep telling myself that it will be okay... I will survive... this will build character... and my collection of sweaters, scarves and long underwear. This development also inspired me to do something drastic.... join a gym.

Everyone knows that jumping around keeps you warm, right? That was part of my tactic in Vermont and I survived that no problem. Certainly, I can use this to help me through a winter in much mild milder Chile.

Miss Julie has been an avid gym goer here in Chile since I met her. She has also been trying to talk me into joining her since we met. Two factors (besides wanting to keep warm) eventually put me over the edge.

Factor1: The gym has a class called “Power Jump” in which you are not only allowed to, but are encouraged to jump around on trampolines for 45 minutes at a time.

Factor 2: I had to see “La Maquina. ” La Maquina is Spanish for the machine. It is the title Julie has given to a gorgeous work out instructor who teaches Power Jump as well as other ridiculously titled aerobics classes such as Body Combat and Body Jam. (Yes... all class titles are in English... also strange.)

Power Jump with La Maquina? Staying warm by jumping on trampolines? How could I say no?

Welllllll, I joined the gym... and went to Power Jump. The aerobics room is basically a dance club. Picture a dark room (at 10am) with colored spot lights that pulse and circle the room in time with the music. Also, there is a spot light on La Maquina, which I thought was a nice touch. I can only describe the music as dance remixes of dance songs. Stuff that you would only expect to hear in gay bars full of people on ecstasy. It made me feel extremely under dressed. I kept thinking “I can't believe that I am here in sweat pants! And where did I put my drink?” And then it would come back to me that it was 10:30 in the morning and I was at the gym...

Over all, it was a moderately enjoyable experience and it definitely beat sitting on the couch, shivering over a cup of tea.

Besos,

Allie

New home, goodbye to Eoin, and a crazy rainy Sunday

The first order of business is that I have moved into a new apartment. I'm now living with Miss Julie (also referred to on this blog as "only friend" and "the Irish girl"). The new place is quite nice, but what most excites me is that I now have full access to a kitchen. Unfortunately, we don't have internet, so my blog posts will be less frequent and my responses to e-mails even slower.

I've had some requests for the new address, but I've forgotten from who. Please e-mail me if you want it.

Picture of the view from our balcony:


(Please note: this picture was taken when it was sunny and wonderful. Now, in the mornings it is so foggy that you can't see to the ocean. Its basically Seattle winter weather.... and its too sad to talk about, so I'll stop... for now.)


The second order of business is that Mr. Eoin, Julie's travel companion, left this morning to head back to Ireland. We will miss him dearly.

In honor of Eoin and insatiable appetite for learning, life, and all things edible:



Lastly, yesterday was really rainy and gross. By 3:00 pm I had already grocery shopped, talk to Mom and Dad, cleaned the bathroom, baked apple bread and I was bored out of my mind. Julie and Eoin were in the same state. After about a half hour of talking about the feasibility of folding a piece of paper until it reaches the sun (don't ask), we decided that we needed something else to do. Julie came up with the wonderful idea of making clothing from the phone book (only the white pages, she insisted), which resulted in the creation of "Once upon a Sunday," an unprecedented work of artistic mastery. Follow the link below and click through the sideshow with the captions. You will be amazed... and you might even shed a tear... of pity.

Once Upon a Sunday

Besos,
Allie

llamas

Thats right, llamas. A few weeks ago the crew and I took a day trip to Lago Penuelas. It doesn't come highly recommended, but we did see some wild llamas and the ground was all crazy and dried up like.

Besos,
Allie

I'm falling in love with Paul Krugman

Read this article. It's a good one.

The subsidized conversion of crops into fuel was supposed to promote energy independence and help limit global warming. But this promise was, as Time magazine bluntly put it, a “scam.”

Ughh... I've been saying this since I was in high school. When are the policy makers going to start listening to ME?

Much love,
Allie

Allie is finally doing stuff.... (aka an epically long and random post)

A few days ago I was walking to work at 7:45am on one of our first cold mornings and I found myself wondering where my mittens were. I decided that they must either be in my room, in Nelly's parent's basement outside of Seattle, or in my car that was shipped back to Mom and Dad in NY. Then, I started laughing. My belongings are scattered over so many thousands of miles and so am I. Somehow, it all works out. I have a job, friends, and a really great place to live. I'm working in a city which I have decided must be one of the most fabulous places in the world. My Spanish is slowly improving. I'm no longer a hopeless mess.

Still, I don't know why I came here... a large reason is because its been something that I said I would do and therefore have been meaning to do. Maybe I'm searching for enlightenment in my own little way. I just want to know more about everything. I want to learn through observing things quietly and unnoticed. This is proving to be easy because my language ability doesn't allow me to say much of interest...

My life feels a lot more full than it actually is. This is because the reality of teaching English in a foreign country is that you are teaching an extracurricular activity, which means that you have to fit classes nicely into everyone's schedule but yours. This results in having days that on average look like this:

class 8-9am (plastics salesman before he goes to work)
Spanish class 12:30-2:30
class 3-4pm (7 and 10 year old girls)
class that i have to take the bus to Valparaiso for 6-7:30pm (head of grant writing for one of the best universities in Chile, in his office after work)

So, this means that I leave for work at 7:30am and am finished and back in my home sometime after 8:00pm. All that time spent running around and planning classes for three very different types of students and I only get paid for 3 1/2 hours of work. Such is my life. Although, I knew teaching English here would be this way and I do like to be busy, so I'll stop complaining now.

I go back and forth between loving my job and thinking that it is not close to worth what I am being paid. Overall, its fun and I think I'm pretty good at it, but I wish that out of the 11 classes I now have per week, more than 2 of them consisted of more than one student. Group classes are so much more fun and are so much less work to plan. I also wish that 11 classes totaled more than 18 hours or occurred in less than 6 days per week. And I alllllssssoooooo wish that my class of teenagers would just fall off the planet.... or at least just 3 or 4 of the students (please god please). Right... I was going to stop complaining....

Job=good.

Allie=doing stuff in Chile=completed a goal=happy.

In other news, I went to the feria last week, which is basically a big farmer's market in a strange dusty chunk of land that runs through the city where there used to be a river. I must research the history of this more.. Anyway, it was just like Seattle's farmer's market in the U-District, but with shabbier tents, much lower prices, and avocados, bananas, tuna, kiwi, etc. People also yell more and there are no quirky street musicians. After the market I cooked up some freshly shelled beans for the first time and it was a huge success.... I want more.... right now..... Is this becoming a food blog?!?

Ok, now a photo story:

This is new friend Lauren. She also went to UVM and she also teaches English here in Chile. Wow!

One day we went to Valparaiso...
on a search for good coffee....
and we found a creepy old earthquake damaged cemetery!





Wow!

Besos,
Allie