The Ups and Downs of Life in Chile (Part 1)

Over the last few weeks, my life in Chile has been turned upside down.

Lets start at the beginning. First, there was a woman from the organization that provided the funding for the food and the cook Tía that came by the Jardín for a visit. She was not very understanding of the conditions and lack of resources, and upset the Tías visibly on this day. Some of her complaints were about the bathroom not being handicap accessible and not having an emergency evacuation plan (if you saw the Jardín, you would realize how silly this is). While technically these criticisms have nothing to do with her job and why she was there that day, she had enough influence on the foundation that funded the Tías salaries and the government.

Then everything started to crumble around the Jardín. Around New Years I found out that the foundation that funded the Jardín was finally following up on their warning that they would be discontinuing their funding. Within a matter of days, the Tías were pooling their resources (everyone who has ever helped the Jardín through donations of any kind) to figure out a way to at least temporarily keep the Tías getting paid and therefore keeping the Jardín open. While it was a very stressful time, I think that there was some relief in knowing that they had enough donors that could help them pull through in the short-term.

Just when things were starting to look up, the municipality announced that they would be knocking down the Jardín during the summer. It was absolutely devastating news. While the initial shock definitely left the parents upset and the Tías in tears, they quickly pulled through and came together in an incredible way. They made posters asking for the Jardín to not be knocked down, they protested in front of the government building, and most surprising to me, all of the mothers came together to speak with the woman who I mentioned at the beginning of this post. While I was mostly helping to watch the kids during the meeting, I tried to listen in on what I could. These woman were so passionate and so honest with this woman. What really hit me hard was one mother saying that she could not afford to feed her kids everyday like the Jardín does and that they need the Jardín.

Eventually, the Tías were able to meet with the woman in charge of all the Jardíns in the area, and they came to an agreement that will allow the Jardín to function similarly. Essentially, the Jardín has to become a more legitimate and legal space for the children. Therefore, the Tías need to find a space that is outside the toma, and one of the Tías may not be able to work there until she receives her high school degree. All in all, I believe that these changes could be for the best and it will be interesting to see how things go over the next few months (or at least hear as I leave in less than 2 weeks).

A week ago I returned to Santiago from a vacation in Patagonia to find out that some major structural changes were going to be shortly made at the Jardin. Apparently, while I was gone there was a lot that had been removed in preparation for the Jardín to be knocked down and the other volunteers that I now work with were told that the floor could be missing any day. When we walked into the toma on Wednesday morning, not only was the floor gone, but the entire Jardin had been completely taken down within only a little over a day. One of the Tías was there talking with a few of the moms who were incredibly upset and shocked. It took me a bit of time to process what was happening, I just could not believe that this place that I had spent the past five months working in, the place where I have spent the majority of my time in Chile in, and the place in Chile where most of my memories have been made, was demolished.

I was quickly forced to return to reality when one of the other volunteers had to go digging through the rubble trying to find a binder that we had left inside (they did not do a very thorough job getting everything out before tearing it down). Then we had to come up with an alternative plan for where we were going to run our summer reading workshop with the kids (there was a park nearby).  It was a very interesting day to say the least but in the end turned out pretty well. On Wednesday, we are going to see the new location for the Jardín with one of the Tías, which is very exciting, and the workshops in the park have been going wonderfully. It’s been really nice to spend time with some of the older kids in a quieter, small group setting and especially during the summer when otherwise they would just be sitting around their houses.

Now, just five days after the demolishment of the Jardín, there is so much to reflect upon. So much of my perspective has changed over the last two months and it has been made especially clearer to me the societal obstacles in Santiago. While there will always be people who will be there to support those in need, as I saw over the holidays when there were countless donations rolling in, I have also seen just how much some people don’t understand. From the woman that initially criticized the Jardín, to being told that I shouldn’t go to the meeting with the woman from the government because it would lead to a ruined reputation for VE, to something that a police officer said today, it has really been an eye opening journey and I will leave Chile with an incredibly different view than that when I arrived.

In closing, as I know this was a long whirlwind of information, I just have one last story. I have been walking into the toma 4 days a week for over 4 months and every day pass the policemen that are stationed right at the entrance. I say hello when I see them but generally have no more interactions with them. Generally, I find them pleasant and they don’t seem ever have an issue with the Jardín. The only issue that I had ever was when I was helping to care for 6 absolutely adorable puppies that we found behind the Jardín, and one of the policemen asked me where I lived (assuming that I lived in the toma) and was clearly annoyed that I was taking care of the puppies. I was angry with the way that I was asked, and disturbed by my first real experience with someone who is clearly judgmental of the people that live in the toma.  Then today, it happened again. When we walked into the toma, the two volunteers and I were standing by what remains of the Jardín discussing our plan for the day before heading off the collect the children from their homes. While we are clearly foreigners (with our flip flops and shorts and the whole English speaking shtick), and many of the people living in the toma know who we are and even some policemen know that we come to volunteer every day, every so often there is someone who assumes that we are Chilean and live there. Today, it was a policeman. First, he came up to us to ask what we were doing and if we were heading to our houses and then when he said something else and we responded ‘what?’ in Spanish he clearly looked confused. He then said something along the lines of ‘you know that this is a toma, right?’ which just flat out floored me. First of all, how lost did he possibly think we were? Second, just the implication that because it was a toma, it was impossible that three foreigners would ever intentionally interact with the families living there made me upset. It may not seem so bad reading this, but it really was just so shocking to me. I quickly responded that we knew, and that I had been working in the toma for five months now. We said that we were going to look for the kids from the Jardín and take them to the park, and he just told us how to get to the park, clearly not understanding that would be intentionally walking around regardless. It was a generally uncomfortable moment for me, and a conversation that has definitely made me a little more consciously aware of the sentiments towards the people living in the toma. I believe that I have been trying to turn a blind eye to these kind of situations and have really been able to solely focus on the good that I see everyday, but I think that its also important to recognize the reality that all the amazing families that I interact with every day have to deal with.

All in all, these ups and downs of the last two months in relation to the Jardín have been quite the way to end my time in Chile. When it is time for me to leave, as long as I am able to say goodbye to some of my favorite kids that I haven’t seen all summer, I think I will be able to leave feeling like I learned a lot and have grown immensely. Hopefully, I will leave remembering all the great times that I have had at the Jardín and be able to keep all these experiences with me for a while. 

Field Trip to the Movies

Today I had the pleasure of taking 4 of my kids and one of the Tias to the movie theater here. Through one of the VE programs, Festival de Arte, we won 6 passes to the movie theater for our children. I was really excited to get the opportunity to do this for many reasons. For one, the kids don't get out of the toma very often, and when they do with the jardin it is usually a very chaotic and overwhelming experience for them. Two, because I was only taking a few kids, they would be able to receive the undivided attention from both the tia and I for a few hours, something that they don't usually get both at the Jardin and at home. It was a chance to experience something new outside of their day to day lives and as it turns out a day for me to revisit the realization that these kids are growing up in such a different manner from how I grew up. The more days that I spend making my daily commute, going through the motions and becoming incredibly comfortable in my environment (its been almost 4 months already!), the more times I have to remind myself of the reasons that I came here and the reasons that I need to continue to motivate myself to really make a change in the lives of the amazing children that I work with. Times like today, taking my kids completely out of their comfort zones and watching their faces constantly change between happiness and awe, just brings so much joy to my heart. And then there are times like when my family visited, or this past monday when I had 3 fellow volunteers from the most organized, well run, and calm institutions that VE works with come by, that just are so overwhelmed and amazed by so much of what I do, who I work with and the environment that we are in, that make me remember that it is such an extraordinary opportunity that I have been given.
For the movies today, we left with the four kids planning on catching a 2:30 movie. As we rushed through the street to catch the bus (since we were obviously running late as its Chile), I held on tight to the hand of the four year old boy, I am going to call him Oscar (we can't use real names so just bare with me through my name game). Now, I know that the kids don't leave the toma much, especially the kids that I work with because they don't even leave to go to school. However, I don't think I recognized just how fascinating it must be for a four year old to be walking down the street on his way to the unknown world around him. I literally ended up trying to drag him along, as his mouth was agape and his eyes wide taking in everything. Keep in mind that we are still on the street that the toma is on. The other three girls that we took are three sisters who I have gotten to take to Liga (VE's monthly sports program) before. I remember being in the car with them (we were driven there rather than take public transportation) and hearing them in the backseat tittering with excitement and pointing out all the things they saw on the way. But for Oscar, I don't know what he's really seen in his short four years. When we got on the bus, the tia quickly trapped all the kids in a section so that they couldn't run around the bus. But truthfully, I don't think that was necessary. They were all so entranced by everything going on around them they couldn't even think about misbehaving. The funniest moment of this bus ride, when it really hit me that this was a novelty for them, was when the bus went down this one steep 2 second part of the road, not far from where we had gotten on. I looked over at Oscar, who was already preoccupied and slightly terrified by the movement and constant jerking of the bus, and his face just dropped. He looked like a kid on his first roller coaster, a feeling that I had actually probably experienced at that same age in Disneyworld. It really was just a crazy realization. Next we took the metro, an experience that I still find overwhelming at times. To get down all the way, we needed to go down a pretty daunting flight of stairs. It took us a while. At the top, Oscar took his first step down and almost toppled over. I think this was a combination of two things- not using steps very often and the fact that he had an operation on his foot when he was younger and he still can't walk completely properly. But regardless, the other girls flew down the steps and we took each one at a time. Once again, another reality check given to me about the little things that I take for granted. On the metro, the tia and I got a good chuckle out of the kids reactions to the train moving and the shocked appearances of the kids. However, the best and funniest part of this entire adventure was on our way out of the metro station. This is going to sound really cold and awful, but keep in mind that it truly was just funny and no one got even remotely hurt. We took an escalator up, and the tia was at the front, I was in the back. We all stepped on and before we knew it, the three sisters lost their footing (they were standing on the in between steps part of the escalator) and tumbled down to where I was, laughing the whole way down. The tia and I, after making sure that they were ok, cracked up. In hindsight, we recognize that instructions for getting on the escalator was probably important, but it seems like such a simple action for us.
When we got to the movie theater, the kids were in awe of this massive building. As we walked inside, I even heard Oscar utter "que gigante!" I mean, this is an incredibly nice, modern movie theater, that would intimidate any child. The kids hung around and ran in circles with the tia as I sorted out the tickets and movie times (we ended up going to a later movie, Happy Feet 2!!). The lobby of the movie theater was about 8-10 times the size of the entire jardin so they were really excited. Since we had time to waste, we went outside and hung out in the shade for a while, running around and playing games. It was lovely. Then we headed inside to use the bathroom (for the first time of many). We got a very good laugh at the amusement at the automatic dryer, the fact that the water turned off on its own, the way that I splashed water in one of the girls eyes when she accidentally spritzed hand sanitizer into it (apparently a bunch of 4-7 year olds find throwing water in a 5 year olds face funny). Every time that we headed to the bathroom, they would play around before sprinting back to the theater, so excited at the chance to run further than they ever get the chance to on a daily basis. It made me so incredibly happy to see just how happy this trip made them. We all got drinks and popcorn and cookies (the popcorn was sweet and strange, but the kids loved it) and aside from the bathroom breaks and loud chatter from time to time, the movie held their attention and they behaved incredibly well throughout the whole thing. It was so sad to have it come to an end.
On our way home, I was talking to the tia about how tired we both were. She was telling me how she has been taking care of her 16 year old, 6 month pregnant daughter who is currently sick and crying a lot. It made me so happy that we were able to give her this chance to relax for just a few hours before she goes back to her chaotic home. She was so appreciative of it and you could just tell how truly happy she was the entire afternoon and more than any of the kids I am so grateful that we were able to do this for her. As we walked for the final five minutes of this wonderful afternoon, Oscar saw a dog in one of the big homes that we passed by, startled as his head was consistently tilted upwards once again looking at everything. The dog barked and he jumped and we all laughed. I was really confused, because there is no shortage of big scary dogs where he lives. I asked the tia why he was so scared of so much today, and she responded that its because he never leaves. So by the end of the day, what I had assumed was confirmed.
I think that this day is one that will stay with me for a long time. It was easily the best day that I have had in Chile in the whole 4 months and really such an incredible adventure to have gone on with the children who I think deserve it most in the world. I love all the kids to death and saying goodbye to them in just a few short weeks will be incredibly difficult. For now, I am hoping to take advantage of every last day that I have here, and hopefully be able to have many more days like today and brighten the days of many more of the kids and the tias. 

Bugs!

After writing my last post half asleep and being about to go to sleep I felt like I needed to address one more thing that pretty much everyone that I talked to beforehand brought up- BUGS. More specifically, spiders.
Since I got here in winter and the string of warm days have been broken up by freezing cold days like today I haven't really encountered many insect issues. However, one of my first days here I was playing outside with the children at the Jardin and one of the kids shrieked and ran away from a really creepy looking spider (it had pinchers and was a bunch of different colors). I tried not to panic, since it was the first bug I had seen and didn't want to scare the kids. So I went and got the spanish-english dictionary that was my lifesaver for the first week and asked one of the tias if there were a lot of poisonous insects, especially spiders, in Chile. I was told yes, many, especially in the poorer areas like where I am volunteering. There is one especially poisonous one. So I bring her to where the spider was and she took a little step back at first, telling me that yes, it was the most poisonous spider and went to kill it immediately. goody! I truly had a few hours where I was considering never returning once summer really kicked into gear and there would be more spiders. Also, bees are going to be everywhere here. These are the important questions that I should have asked about beforehand- not housing and my placement and the other volunteers. As of this writing, I have only discovered one spider in my room- on my bed- one of the first nights here. It didn't look too dangerous, and  I managed to kill it on a sheet which i then proceeded to take off and shove in a corner until the cleaning lady came and changed the sheets so that I am once again using spiderless sheets. But suffice to say, I look around my room with my freakishly good at spotting spiders/bugs eyes before going to sleep every night. I would like to point out though, that at this bug discovery I didn't immediately hop on a plane home- so HAH to all you doubters to my ability to live among terrifying bugs...

My Apologies

This post took about 2 hours to write and as I discuss towards the end I don't get a ton of sleep and am exhausted. This was written way past my bedtime so just keep that in mind as I start to ramble at the end...
My blogging since arriving in Chile has, clearly, been basically non existent. Within the first two weeks here I had begun to write up a blog, with a ton of detail, humor and fun facts about my time in Chile thus far. I got about halfway through, however, and then forgot about it. When I went back to it a few days later it already seemed to far in the past to bother completing and I didn't know where to start with a new blog post. It's not so much that I am extremely busy, which I am (in comparison to my wake up at noon, go to class for an hour, take a 2 hour hap, watch 6 hours of tv, go out with my friends life that I spoiled myself with during the last year of college), or that I have absolutely nothing to write about (I am living in Chile), but every time I go to start a new blog post I can't seem to figure out how to convey my experiences thus far in writing. Whenever I talk to my friends and family at home they ask excitedly "Hows chile?!" and I feel like I should have some amazing response to make them feel awful about their real world jobs or grad school or being a mom or dad (this refers to my parents themselves, not my friends, I think) but all I seem to be able to come up with are empty, generic adjectives with an added exclamation point for emphasis that I am at least happy here (examples: "good!" "fun!"). So herein lies my attempt to sum up some of what I have been failing to pass on to my two curious blog followers (thanks mom and dad!):

The beginning-
When I arrived in Chile, we spent the first two weeks living in a hostel conveniently close to the VE office where we had daily trainings for 10 days or so. The trainings focused on a variety of topics ranging from the inner workings of VE to Chile's history to our institutions that we would be working in (including a visit to them). It was definitely a helpful week, and a lot of the things we learned were beneficial but I think the most important part of it was giving us the chance to get to know each other and bond as a volunteer class. What I have learned in the weeks since is that having other volunteers to talk to at the end of a hard day or to just joke around with is extremely, extremely necessary for everyones mental health. Being a volunteer anywhere is stressful, but especially in a new country where you speak a language different from your first language and are running into obstacles that you don't know how to handle without overstepping cultural boundaries.

The apartment-
Stay tuned for a blog post specifically on my apartment- with photos and all!

The placement-
I am volunteering at a place that we refer to just as the Jardin but which has a longer name that I actually am now realizing I have no idea what it means. Anyway, the Jardin is a day care in a Toma (an illegal settlement) that cares for on average 20 children from ages 1 to 7 during the day while their parents are at work (the number of kids changes on a hourly basis). It is a tiny place with a room that can be divided in two by using a removable wooden fence structure, a smaller room that is used for storage, napping and changing the babies diapers, and a kitchen. The bathroom has four toilets and four sinks in a row (with no divider) which has led to some pretty hilarious experiences (like the first time I walked in there to just find two boys sitting, chatting, hanging out... and pooping, while about 6 or 7 kids were just washing their hands not paying much attention to the five year old behind them wiping his butt). Bathroom activities are definitely not something kept private with these kids. For anyone wondering, the Tias (staff) have a separate bathroom that is more private. The outside area, referred to as the patio, has a bunch of play structures and beat up toys that the kids love playing with. There isn't a ton of space to run around, as it is all fenced in, but they make it work.
We had a VE-wide meeting this morning where we were talking about our institutions and I made a comment about the Jardin that someone responded to with "you just love the Jardin!" And it is true, I do. I had a rough time in my second week there, which I will get to eventually, but overall I love it as an institution. I think that when I consider the resources they have available to them (which isn't much), the unknown future of the toma and therefore the jardin (everyone can be kicked out of the toma by the government in a minutes notice), and the poverty that these children live in I am just so impressed. Most of all though, I am amazed by the Tias and what they do every day. These Tias have been working there for an extremely long time- it is not an easy job, it is not a great job, and it requires incredible amounts of patience, motivation and most of all love. And every single day, I see just how much love these Tias have for the children at the Jardin. They really are incredible with them and it is easy to see just how much the children love the Tias back and respect them.
The Jardin has some basic structure in terms of a general schedule (when the kids are inside, when they are outside, when they eat lunch, when they drink milk, etc.) but for the most part, every day brings a new surprise for me in just how unstructured it actually is. The one saving grace for the older kids, who will be starting school already behind, is an educador, who is a student doing her practicum at the Jardin so that she can complete her teaching degree. Every day, she thanks me for my help and puts a smile on my face by reminding me of why what I am doing does matter, but really, I think that she is one of the best things for the Jardin. She does daily educational activities with the kids, provides another role model for the kids, and is always, always cleaning and organizing the seemingly never clean rooms.

The children-
I haven't been to the other institutions but I can already confidently state that the kids at the Jardin are the CUTEST. I was in shock the first week with just how adorable and sweet and affectionate these children are. One of the biggest things that I was really curious about when I started volunteering was how different children's environment affects them in a different culture. Everything that I learned at Wisconsin about children's development and families could be completely, entirely useless in Chile. And shocked I was. I have worked with kids living in poverty before, kids whose families couldn't provide for them in many different ways, and especially kids who come out of those situations with social, emotional and behavioral problems. I am not saying that these issues don't exist entirely at the Jardin, but these children are incredibly resilient and have so much love to give. I think that one of the most important cultural differences that I have found, based on my very, very basic knowledge and insight into Chilean culture and life in the Toma, is that being affectionate isn't something that is stigmatized. Everyone here greets each other with a kiss on the cheek- even people you are meeting for the first time. When I arrive at the Jardin and when I leave, I give all the Tias and the kids hugs and kisses. Throughout the day, hugs and kisses are completely normal and welcomed. Calling the children cute and pretty and other names along those lines isn't weird or inappropriate. While I understand some of the legal reasons for school and camp programs that I have worked with not wanting to allow much physical contact between the children and the staff, it can be so important for a child's emotional development. I have found here so far that there is just such a higher emotional capacity than in the US. Of course, this is just based on my experience at the Jardin. I know from the other volunteers that the kids at the hogares (homes) definitely have a lot of emotional and behavioral issues. Back to the kids at the Jardin- they are so cute. I really am not exaggerating. I will put up some pictures soon.

After 6, the downside to this experience:
I usually leave my apartment at 8:30ish in the morning and return at 6ish at night. I have an hour long commute each way. This was a massive adjustment for me, especially accepting the fact that the alternative would have been having the same or similar hours, but getting paid. I do a lot of reminding myself that I didn't want to apply for real world jobs, I wanted to go and live in a different country and volunteer and have this experience. Of course, I have about a third of the free time that I was somehow stupidly envisioning and when I get home from at 6 every day it seems like a snap of the fingers and its time for bed. So basically, the past month and a half living here have flown by. While I am definitely enjoying being at the Jardin and I think that the experiences there are great, I think that Santiago itself is not a culturally shocking place to live in. I come home at the end of a day at work, go to my nice apartment where I spend some time catching up on tv, talking to my roommates and eating. I have thought about going to salsa classes or intercambio events (meet ups where you speak half in English half in Spanish with people who want to learn English) but I am just too exhausted and worn out. I have the longest days out of anyone (most people either have the morning off or the afternoon off at least once or twice a week) and am also just really, really lazy when it comes down to it. On weekends I am so busy catching up on sleep since I keep getting sick from getting so little during the week and getting in my errands that I wasn't able to do during the week that I feel like I haven't seen much of Santiago or Chile at all. (I did one weekend trip to a popular tourist town and then port city but it ended up being a bit of a bust of a weekend, will blog about that soon). The problem really is that Chile is such a large country and if I am going to be getting on a plane or a VERY long bus ride somewhere I would like more than just 24 hours in that place but thats really all that a weekend allows when you take away travel time. Plus we have VE events (like a sports day with the kids one Saturday a month, and a retreat the last weekend in October, when its a holiday weekend and I could have taken advantage of that and done a four day trip without using up my days off). I am starting to get anxious about how I am spending the little free time I have here but I can't figure out ways to spend it better. Unfortunately, I think its going to affect my overall opinion of my time here and what I am really getting out of moving to Chile. And when it comes down to whether or not to renew my contract for more months in January, I think that my desire to take advantage of this year off and see lots of South America is going to keep me from continuing my time with the organization even though I really do love my time at the Jardin when I am there.

Anyway, enough of this downer stuff, I am overall having a great time and I think that in the end I will be happy with my decision, it is just as I have said a massive adjustment that I do not really think I was prepared for (one of the organizations values repeated many times during our training is positivity, which I love, but I think that our orientation may have set us up with way too high expectations because of the excessive positivity and so its been a battle to readjust my expectations back to what they were pre-arriving in Chile, which was that I didn't really have many aside from just generally being happy.

Well, if you have made it to here and are still reading, congrats!! (and thanks!) I feel like I need to give a shoutout to my entire family (including all of my extended family) who has been incredibly, incredibly supportive and while the last part of this was kind of negative I am so grateful for being able to have this experience and I really appreciate everything that I have been given in life to allow me to get here and be able to do what I am doing. So thanks guys!!

I think that this post just about makes up for my lack of blogs thus far AND may have beat out my ridiculously long Semester at Sea blog novels.

Chao!

My First Earthquake Experience

note before reading: read this from a more comical perspective, rather than a 'this girl is a freaking psycho' perspective. It's meant to be funny, not sad.
I knew coming to Chile would inevitably bring with it the occurrence of earthquakes. Whether little rumblings or giant building sways, I would feel one, at some point, in some way. But I didn't think that my first earthquake experience would be the one that occurred just a half hour ago. I am currently sitting on the floor of my living room, unable to go back to sleep, jealous of my six other roommates who just did. So, I decided that it is the perfect time for a blog post! Surprisingly, the reason that I can't fall back asleep isn't for fear of another earthquake, or an aftershock, but simply because of the strangest reaction and thoughts that I had as I woke up from the terremoto (or earthquake in spanish). For those of you that know me well (or even those of you that don't) I am absolutely terrified of the dark, mostly due to the fact that it means that I can't see if someone comes into my room for malicious reasons. If I have had a bad dream, it takes me an hour or so to fall back asleep, and definitely requires the lights to be on as I do so. I recognize that this is a completely irrational fear, and that if I have checked every room, behind every door, under every bed there can't actually be a person in my room but a childhood fear of monsters has led way to the monsters becoming real life people. Anyway, this morning I must have been in the middle of a dream in which I thought that someone was in my room. Halfway in a dream state and an awake state, my bed begins to shake and so of course, my way of rationalizing this strange feeling is that there is someone under my bed. So I scream, like I kid you not I have never screamed before, because for as many times that I have had an awful dream with a completely crazy terrifying occurrence, there has never been physical evidence that matches it such as a bed shaking uncontrollably. So I let out a scream (obviously to let the imaginary person know I am aware of its presence) and ran for the door. I was shaking so much that I couldn't get the door opened very easily and when I finally did I stood panting in the doorway to the bathroom, staring at my room, still half waiting for the person to emerge out, but on the other hand incredibly confused. My scream sent one roommate out first, to check if I was ok, and then another, and then someone finally said, "I think that was an earthquake." And finally it all made sense, and I started laughing, although still incredibly shaken up (pun intended). Six out of the seven of us gathered in the living room, all having just had our first earthquake experience. No one was entirely sure if it was actually a big earthquake or if we were just really lame, so when a chilean news site that I follow on twitter finally tweeted about it, we realized that at least we all weren't completely crazy (just me). Of course, there were my two roommates who slept through the whole thing, only woken up by my scream and later the voices of everyone else trying to come to terms with the strange feeling of the bed shaking and building swaying. But in case anyone was wondering, it was a 5.9 on the richter scale, which I think is a pretty big deal. But who am I to say... I am just a crazy person who thought that my first earthquake experience was a psycho killer hiding under my bed. 

Journey to Santiago, Chile

Hello hello! Or hola? Hmmmm, should probably start using that. I arrived in Santiago at about 7 am Saturday morning. The confusion began at the airport right from the start. To all future travelers: going to Chile with a one-way ticket doesn't necessarily work well. The people at the check in desk for delta told me that unless I had a return trip ticket, they might not let me in the country. So I bought a refundable return ticket and headed on my way. I had two huge suitcases, plus my backpacking backpack, a very clear sign of an over packer. On the plane, I sat next to a guy who was flying for the first time. It was so crazy. He was 25 and I don't think that I would ever get on a plane if I hadn't already at that point in my life. But it gave me a drinking buddy and a good conversation for the flight as I was anxiously awaiting arrival in Atlanta and meeting up with three of the other volunteers on my flight. In Atlanta, I was supposed to meet up with the others at the starbucks in the international concourse. However, when I arrived there no one was there that looked like it could be them. As I didn't think I had anyway to get in touch with them (2 from germany with undetermined cell service, and one girl from boston who wouldn't have her phone) I wasn't sure what to do. I walked to the gate, but didn't really see anyone there either so I spent some time pacing. Finally, I got a text from one of the boys that said that he had lost his friend and would be there in a few minutes. Once I met up with him (and the girl who luckily got there at the same time as her flight was delayed and she was supposed to have been there earlier) we went to find his friend, who he had been separated from while going through security. We talked for a bit and then boarded the plane. I the plane I sat next to this really nice guy from California who I talked to for hours before sleeping. This was a first- two flights in a row with people that were interesting to talk to. But for such a long flight it was nice. Landing in Santiago is incredible. You fly over the mountains as the sun is rising and it is a gorgeous view. Once we landed, immigration and customs was pretty much a breeze. Everyone was incredibly friendly and much less intimidating than I had been made to think. However, I of course ran into an issue as I did not receive one of my bags. About 20 or so people also didn't get theres so I had to wait in an incredibly long line to speak to someone and there very quickly informed me that it was still in Atlanta and would arrive the next day. Then I had to wait in an even longer line to get through customs, and was yelled at in Spanish (which by the way, when you are tired and just found out you were missing a bag, really isn't the best way to be integrated into a spanish speaking country). I felt bad because I had all these people waiting for me outside, and I couldn't get my phone to work and it was all around a stressful morning. However, when I finally made it through and met all the fellow volunteers who had just got in I was thrilled. Everyone was so nice and it was such a relief to finally meet people whose names I had been seeing for a few months now. We squished ourselves and all of our luggage into a van and took off towards our hostel. However, a few minutes into the ride we realized that the trunk was open. Luckily, everything was packed in the bag so tightly that nothing fell out but it was a pretty bad discovery (and not the first time it has happened to me). When we arrived at the hostel, I finally felt a little settled and could take in the realization that I had finally made it to Chile!

PS. shoutout to AMY LEVIN who turns TWENTY-THREE today (today as in the day of the post, not the day of arrival). HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY! MISS YOU

The Life of a Graduate

So, I graduated. Officially done with 16 years of education- no more tests, papers, tedious textbook readings and long lectures for at least two years pending the inevitable graduate school experience. Maybe by then school will be something sort of exciting again. As for now, I am joining the ranks of the unemployed graduates across the country, although I at least am able to say it with a smile as it is entirely by choice. (The one job that I half-heartedly applied to in November I am just not going to count.) But being unemployed by choice doesn't mean that I don't have a plan. My plan is to be a volunteer. As my dad likes to tell his friends, "If Ali could, she would be a volunteer for the rest of her life." And I guess that it's true to some extent. I can't pinpoint if volunteering just seems more selfless and dignified than getting minimum wage for working a job where I do tasks that I don't love. Maybe its that there is less of a responsibility and more flexibility for volunteers. But I also don't think that those are the reasons. After all, I do eventually plan on getting paid for something, and I chose the program that I will be volunteering with starting in September because I liked that they were more professional than other organizations. I guess when I am into my volunteering I can figure it out.
Moving on...  after spending the next two months in Madison, and August traveling to NY, Pennsylvania, and Ohio (definitely) and Utah (possibly), I will be beginning the next chapter of my life. The first weekend of September, I will be taking my one-way plane ticket to Santiago, Chile ready to start the next four months volunteering. The organization that I am volunteering through is VE-Global. From what I can gather at this point it will be great- I will elaborate more on it in a later blog post. Anyway, the current plan of mine is to be in Chile for four months (my contract ends mid-january but I can always extend it) and then at some point making it to Peru. As I continue to read South America travel books and blogs I want to go EVERYWHERE and so if I can figure out logistics and potential companions, I am hoping to spend about 3-4 weeks traveling around (While it doesn't really make geographical sense my plan is to spend time in Venezuela and Colombia). And THEN I will spend until the end of May in Peru volunteering with another volunteer program which I will have to research further or possibly go independently. And to finish off this year of adventure, I am hoping to get a job with a teen tour/community service-esque program that goes to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands (there are quite a few of them that I have found). And that way, I go home the beginning of June, start the application and/or interviewing process for real life jobs and get a dress for my little brothers bar-mitzvah so my mom doesn't have a heart attack. And then get back to South America for a month or so and then back to  the US for good (or not if I can't bear to leave). So, this is my current fairly solid plan that I could be completely changing as soon as a week from now and as far away from now as November. I love that I have such open-ended plans.
Finally, why 1. South America 2. Chile 3. Santiago:
1. Spanish
2. Awesome and under the radar
3. Safe and modern compared to many other cities in South America- makes my parents happy and thats a good enough reason for me. Also a great starting point to be going off alone to.
Bye for now!