Produce passion.

A few days ago, I discovered the best salad in the universe. When you read what it is, you will probably doubt me. Many of you will probably say "But wait, Allie. What about that salad you make with the roasted beets and goat cheese and fresh berries that you've been going on and on about for what seems like a million years." I must say that my beloved beet salad is decisively Pacific Northwest while this baby digs its roots deep into Chilean soil. Maybe someday I'll write a salad cookbook which documents my travels. Anyway, the recipe and a haiku that I was inspired to make up on my walk home from the produce stand are posted below.

Green and Green Salad

about 1 1/2 cups of shredded cabbage
one medium avocado, cubbed
about 1/4 cup shredded carrots
lemon juice
olive oil
salt
pepper
fresh chopped cilantro
a few thick slices of queso fresco, optional (fresh cheese... we don't really have an equivalent to it in the U.S., but feta would be an astounding addition)

Mix veggies together. Add lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and cilantro to taste. Top with queso, if desired. Serves one as a nice lunch or two to three as a side dish.

cabbage crackles, crunch
add ripe, round avocado
green and green and green

I'm such a vegetable nerd...

Besos,
Allie

Time to hit the streets.

So, this morning I was in my room studying Spanish when the consistently strange array of sounds outside my window became even stranger. As the normal sounds of dogs barking and car alarms reached an unprecedented level, I started hearing drum beats, chanting, and sirens in the distance... moving closer. Now, if I was in a war torn country, that would have been time time when I would lock the doors and quietly curl into the fetal position in a room without windows. Fortunately, I'm not in a place where such things are necessary, so I grabbed my camera and ran outside.

A block away from my house on Libertad, Vina's main drag, I found one or two hundred people marching in the street. I could only make out two of the signs that people were holding. Now, I have some experience with marches/protests and I just want to say that not only were these signs horribly constructed, but people weren't even holding them so that they could be read. Furthermore, the two that I manages to read gave me no idea of why they were marching. Sign 1: Where is the money? Sign 2: Think about the children.

To make this display more mysterious, the group was lead by people carrying a black coffin followed by a few folks wearing paper top hats of Dr. Seuss proportions.

Unfortunately, my pictures aren't great. I was trying to take them quickly and unoticed, as I wasn't sure if it would be appreciated or not.
Fat man with a megaphone:

People screaming in the streets, yo.


A coffin? (unfortunately you can't see the people with the silly hats)


Besos,
Allie

Chilean nights (and early mornings)

Last night Julie, Eoin (read: Owen) and I set out on our first "big deal" night out in Valpariaso, the "big deal" spot in the metropolitan area for getting your Latin groove on.

To start the evening in a civilized manner, we first sat down to a proper meal. Eoin made cazuela, a traditional Chilean soup which was strangely reminiscent to everything I ate in Ecuador, but much less mysterious, and therefore better. Julie and I made banana bread and these Irish folks got to experience its magic for the first time. Of course, they loved it and I promised many more batches with accompanying tea parties in the future.

We settled on going out to El Huevo, a massive three floored dance club that we had heard rave reviews about from every Chilean college student we'd met. We arrived at midnight and to my surprise, the place was pretty dead until almost 2:00. For a good while, we had the first floor, which was playing your favorite 80's hits, all to our selves. This led to a frightening display of white people dancing which need not be recounted. Strangely, we attracted an Ecuadorian exchange student who mercifully stopped us from embarrassing ourselves further and took us up to the salsa dancing level on the roof.

David is an incredible teacher and within the time of only a few songs, I was moderately confident that people were no longer pointing and laughing and that I would not sustain major injury. (Read: major accomplishment.)

After dancing until the place closed down the salsa floor at almost 5am, we made our way home. For some reason, there was a surprisingly large amount of traffic (car, bus, pedestrian), an unusual number of stray dogs totally freaking out, and men in business suits eating hot dogs on the street... all in the wee hours of Easter morn in this allegedly super Catholic country. I woke up this morning (fine, early afternoon) to what felt like whiplash and an assortment of Easter candy that some little bunny must have placed on my chair while I was sleeping.

I love it here.

Besos,
Allie

Photos of Santiago

I forgot my camera on my trip to Santiago, but luckily lovely Julie decided that I was worthy of full privileges on her camera and I was able to take a few shots.

Pretty building with a pretty blue sky.


Santiago has many sculptures that are seemingly arbitrarily placed throughout the city. Here is one of a pig-like creature. I was quite pleased by it.


This is in the Cerro Santa Lucia park.


This is in the park too. Please take note of the arbitrarily placed sculpture.

Ms. Julie and I looking as adorable as ever.

Fabulous food at Como Aqua Para Chocolate. This was a spanikopita inspired dish consisting of a slightly more Chilean version of the traditional spinach and cheese filling along with a big chunk of lovely salmon all stuffed into a philo dough pocket. Plus, it had pieces of deep fried spaghetti sticking out of the top, which made it way cool.

Our metal bar compatriots. Don't they look lovely? Julie is about to smack the guy in red, in true metal bar fashion.


Besos,
Allie

one month special

Well, yesterday marked the end of my first month in Chile. Things are really starting to pick up. I have so much to write about from this last week that I don't even know where to start. OK, first, the one month recap/realization part:

• Two positions at Language Institutes have been lined up and I've started classes at one so far, classes at the other start on March 29th (if they don't change their class schedule again). I've figured out that if I work 11 hours per week, I'll be able to cover rent and most of my food. I've got 10 hours/week lined up so far and more to come. Things are looking good.
• I don't mind eating meat anymore, and I'm actually starting to like it (except beef... I still find it kind of gross). That's strange, huh? I've also started eating AT LEAST one avocado per day, and that makes me very happy.
  
• My Spanish has improved a lot over the past month. All of a sudden, I feel comfortable walking into a bus station by myself or starting up a conversation with someone on the street. Ugh, it feels really nice. I was so worried that I would never be able to function on my own, but it looks like that wont be the case.
  
• I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but the value of the dollar seems to be dropping at an alarming rate. Check out this graph of the value of the US dollar to the Chilean Peso over the past year. Even more importantly, check out the dive it took over the last month! The upside to this is that now I am starting to earn Chilean Pesos, so every time the dollar slips closer to uselessness, my salary has a comparatively higher spending power in the U.S. I guess this only matters if I manage to save any money, but it still feels nice.
  

I started classes last week and so far they are going very well. Teaching business English is something that I never thought I would do/have any interest in/enjoy, but I think I am really going to like it. Its interesting to work in the private sector for a change. In this job I get to work with a mechanical engineer and a plastics salesman and a restaurant entrepreneur, all of whom need English for their jobs. I have a great opportunity to learn so much about such a variety of topics. It's fabulous. On March 29th I start a 4 hour Saturday morning class with teenagers. That might not be so fabulous... or maybe it will.

I went to Santiago this past Friday with only friend, then on Saturday I met up with Jenn, one of my former house mates from Vermont and favorite people in the universe. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so there are no pictures until I get my hands on the ones taken when I stole only friend's camera or until Jenn e-mails me some of hers (hint hint).

Only friend and I had a wonderful time eating in fantastic restaurants (who would have thought that Mexican Mediterranean fusion could be so good?), shopping for second hand clothes, delving into the mysteries of Catholicism, and feeling out of place in a metal bar.

Jenn and I walked around the town, caught an incredible glimpse of the city from atop Cerro Santa Lucia, and got to giggle and eat ice cream with her incredible friend Michaela. Jenn was visiting Santiago with Ms. Michaela and her mother, who often travel across the world from New York to Santiago to provide 11 year old Michaela with the best physical therapy they could find for her cerebral palsy. I felt extremely honored to be included in this trip, and humbled while watching Michaela struggle with her whole body in a speech therapy session just to say the word "I." Its clear that she is a very smart and hardworking girl and I wish her the best of luck. Overall, it was a great trip that I'll always remember.

Besos,
Allie

Cachagua

Only friend and I took a day trip to Cachagua yesterday. Cachagua is definitely not a tourist spot, but we heard it had penguins, so we were excited about taking the trip. We didn't find penguins, but we did find breath takingly beautiful beaches, houses of really rich people (one that had a helicopter and landing pad on site), and about 3 restaurants, only one of which that actually opens when it's sign says it will (or at all). See sign posted below. I think we were there at about 11:30, well within their times of business. There was not a person in sight. The other sign reads stress kills you. Ain't that the truth.


On the up side, we had a great walk on the beach, a nice lunch, and then a strangely cramped nap on the crowded bus home.

We think that this is where the penguins live, but it was too far to see without binoculars.


Not a penguin, but the closest thing we saw.

Pretty pretty beach.

In other news, I start teaching tomorrow! I currently have 4 students who will be taking one on one classes. All of them are business executives, and I'm kind of nervous. For one thing, I'm not used to working with people who are paying for my classes. I'm also not used to working with people who are at an upper intermediate level. When looking through the business English textbook used by this school, I actually had no idea what a bunch of it was talking about. (Hostile takeover... those actually happen? And what the hell are they anyway? How is that different than a merger? Uhhhmm.....) Sadly (this is extremely sad), I had to think back to that episode of Futurama that I made Bob watch like a million times. Something something hostile takeover.... something something need a majority of shareholders... something something my only regret is that I have boneitis....

I'm embarrassed for writing all that, but I'm going to post it anyway because I think that it might make Bob smile. Smile, Bob!!

Wish me luck!

Besos,
Allie

Splotchy Sunburn and a Change of Tactic for Learning the Spanish Language

Check out the results of my bad sunscreen application job. I'm awesome.


So, everyone knows that having a significant other who speaks a language that you are trying to learn is the best way to pick up a foreign language, right? Since I'm on a mission to learn Spanish I figured that it was my duty to pursue this option. Well, last night I determined that operation find a Chilean boyfriend was way too easy to even be considered a goal, and is actually something to be actively avoided.

Realization #1: Having a Chilean boyfriend would unfortunately involve having a boyfriend.
Realization #2: You do not find Chilean boyfriends. Chilean boyfriends find you, whether you want them to or not.
Realization #3: Any guy who can't verbally communicate with you and still wants to be your boyfriend isn't the type of guy that you want as a boyfriend.

Therefore, I've switched my focus to another project: operation go to bars and lead on Chilean want to be boyfriends in order to practice conversation skills and receive free drinks. Speaking of drinks, I had my first pisco sour last night, which is quite a popular Chilean beverage and surprisingly good for a drink that contains egg whites. Its served in a champagne glass and has a color similar to that of a mimosa so it kind of requires a special place in my heart.

To answer Miss Laura's questions, no, there are not many whole foods here and yes I am getting protein. Also, I am well on my way to working legally. Next week I sign my contract and jump head first into the bureaucracy of obtaining a work permit, which should take 3 months in total. Word on the street is that I can pay a fee to obtain a temporary work permit while I am waiting, which I'll probably do.

Besos,
Allie