¡Viva Chile, Viva USA!

I left the summer and 90 degree weather to come home to a serious winter storm, this is after a lot of the snow melted too

I am home now, and it is interesting looking back on the last 3 months. It is always easy to look back and wish that maybe you did something different, but that also goes along with my goal of always trying to improve myself and what I come in contact with. Still, I am happy with what I learned, experienced and accomplished in Santiago. I showed up expecting a pretty solid plan to follow, but it was pretty open both at work and the school. It can be difficult, but also an opportunity as it is fun to have a clean palate to work from. This is where I grew the most as it was up to me to decide what to do, and we were able to do some good things. I do think the blog and internet could be a big step for the school, not only is English useful for them, but as the internet is becoming a more and more important tool it is good for the teachers and students to learn it now. Otherwise, it was a good cultural exchange as I just had a good time telling kids about my life and being a good solid example for them. I could have been busier in the office, but it was still a very good experience to witness what this multinational company does and how it works. Well, that was fun, now I am pondering my next step, and in the meantime, les deseo un prospero Año Nuevo!

Schools out for Summer!

Oh yea, it is summer down here... well almost, the school year is almost over and the kids are very anxious to be done. The days are long, the weather is hot, and the kids get a little bit crazier with every piece of candy they eat, ah yes I remember that similar buzz in the air of being free for the summer. This is new for me though, as I am not used to the "Viejito Pascuero" or Santa, being all over the place in summer time. The kids are drawing sweet little cards wishing me a feliz navidad and saying they will miss me. We still have another week left though, so there is a lot more homework they need to do!

Historia Chilena

Okay, so maybe you have heard the news that Pinochet, former dictator of Chile has died. He is most famous for overthrowing a government that was moving towards Marxism, but also for questionable rule where thousands of members of the opposition "disappeared." He still has supporters and opponents, and the opponents celebrated in dramatic fashion yesterday. Even with a police force that is very trusted and respected here, there is still a mentality of people going crazy and destroying things for every big event or major soccer victory (stay tuned for what happens after their soccer team Colo-Colo plays for the South American championship on Wed.)
Anyways, I ran into the celebration zone last night on my way back from the weekend. I had not heard the news about Pinochet until I was on a very crowded bus that went through downtown and we noticed things were a bit "desordenado" and there was something in the air burning our throats more than the usual Santiago smog. I was surprised by the amount of damage that was able to occur as the police do not hesitate to use watercannons and tear gas to control crowds. Streets signs, trash, and confetti were all over the streets, and fires were still burning late into the night. So, people celebrated this historic moment in Chile by showing how happy they are, but by also making a mess in the streets. However, the guys who sweep the streets are very efficient and had already made impressive progress in cleaning it up by this morning.

I took this first photo in Plaza Italia around 11pm, my leg touched the sidewalk and it was still hot, I realized why when I saw some of the photos in the paper today

Chile Facts

So maybe it is a little late for an introduction to the country, but here are just a few things you may not know about Chile:

You can drink the water here, you can trust the police here, they have been ruled by dictators before, they currently have a female president, the average Chilean will receive the same amount of solar radiation by age 18 as an average European in their whole life, Chile is about as long as the US is wide, when you buy laundry detergent they often include a free bottle of wine, and other interesting things I will add later...

Con Todo el Corazon

Chile has an annual event called the "Teletón." This years theme was, "Con Todo el Corazon," and I was very impressed by the heart that the whole country showed. This telethon has been hyped for months, and it is to raise money for the disabled. Everyone came together to raise money on December 1 & 2 with many large events, and many small events too. I was taking a bus on Saturday, and there were people collecting money out on the highway where I didn´t think anybody lived, there was a performance in the small beach town I went to, and there was a huge celebration in Santiago that I saw on TV. They are very proud of their event, and it is nice to see something that really unites the country. They raised over 11 trillion pesos, or around 21 million dollars

Spanish lesson

I just wanted to share some of my favorite sounding words with you

Favorite Spanish words:
zanahoria - carrot
fogata - bonfire
burbuja - bubble

Chinchinero - (see above) guys who play drums in the street
pato - duck

Favorite Chileno words:
mina - chica
arriba de la pelota - "above the ball" to express when you have had a couple drinks - imagine yourself on top of a ball

fome - boring

Bloggy blog blog

Wahooo for blogs, or at least that´s what me and the other teachers here think. So me and Luis went ahead and made a blog for the special English workshop at school, you can see some of what we have been up to at http://inglesenerasmoescala.blogspot.com/. This has the opportunity to be very useful for the students, and the teachers as they are all learning more about the internet and the resources it offers.

Las Olimpiadas

The Alianza Azul "Dream Team"

The olympics we had for employees of ING were a lot of fun. Although I was pretty upset when we lost in basketball, especially because I missed two free throws that could have won it. But now it is time for the excuse... it was dark, and the other team was better. We hold these types of events to improve the ´calidad de vida´ here in the company, but I knew our team was in a little bit of trouble when after our first meeting everyone stopped to have a cigarrette. In the end I got over the loss as we all enjoyed the experience and did some good bonding.

Estilo Chileno

At first I did not know what to expect from Santiago. I knew it was a modern city, and sure enough I have seen a professional style in many parts. I have gone to the beach and sure enough there is a surfer style and culture there. I was even ready for lots of 80s music as Latin America seems to love it still, and sure enough it is popular. What surprised me in the city is the large punk rock style. There are kids, and adults, all over modifying their school uniforms and cutting great mullets and mohawks into their hair to be as punk as possible. Piercings and tattoos are popular too. Call me old fashioned, but I never thought I would be the one telling kids to pull their pants up or to quit piercing their faces in strange places. At least the younger kids at school have not gotten into this yet, but they are already asking me what I think of it...

Fotografías

I have been adding more photos to the photo page, so if you have not seen them go look now. There is also a second photo page because there is so much to share with you, find the links for these on the side

Stirring the soul

Here are some funerary wooden carvings from the local Mapuche natives, and me and my friend Josh at the Festival de la Cerveza. Visiting different things like the Precolumbino museum and other fun things in the modern city are just a couple simple examples of everyday life that are very soul stirring experiences...

There is nothing quite like a foreign city to stir the soul. I received this comment from a friend, and I fully agree. The day I arrived I got off a plane after a long night of not sleeping, and the weather matched my mind as everything was hazy. In the coming days and weeks I have quickly toured the city, in almost a similar haze of fighting off colds or tiredness, as I always want to "aprovechar," or take advantage of all that is out there so I keep busy all day and night. It takes a while for some things to become clear when abroad, but when they do it is very fun. I take in so many sights, and make contact with so many people. Talking and working in a foreign language is the biggest difference, but I am also a very visual learner, and even streets I know well appear very different at night and daytime. In much of Latin America I have found that every store front will be covered by a metal gate at nighttime, so again I almost recognize it as another place.
All of a sudden I found myself in Santiago, and I am still growing accustomed to the life here and the pace at which I experience new things everyday, but it is good exercise for the soul.

Pretty Santiago/ Ugly Santiago: Parte dos

As stated before there are pretty parts and ugly parts of Santiago. These generally coincide with the income of the surrounding neighborhoods, but there is one thing consistent throughout the city, and that is stray dogs. It is sad to see as most of these dogs walk with a limp and eat trash all day, but at least they are all nice. It is a problem in the city, although I must say I still can´t hold back a chuckle everytime I see them humping eachother. This group of dogs was also comical as it looked like they were all talking to eachother in the park.
Meanwhile they dedicate resources to other problems they see, like maintaining parts of the city very clean. The other day I saw a guy who was sweeping the grass, with a broom. They create many random jobs like that, for example the people who stand in the street and point out where you should park your car.

cultura chilena in and out of the classroom

I was selected as a native English speaker that could really show the kids at the school where I work the language, but sometimes I wonder if I am really making a difference. I want to teach them as best I can, but that is not the most important part of being here. Sure, they will have a nice base to grow off of, and a teacher who will be an improved speaker. So that is why I should let it go as they may waste a lot of time when I walk in to class and they won´t settle down for several minutes. It feels good to have people be so excited when you arrive, and it feels good that they are happy and excited to learn. Maybe they are really learning from me, but then one of my good buddies doesn´t understand a simple sentence he did last week. Nonetheless, I have had a good time at the school, teaching English, watching the voluntary classes grow, and just hanging out with the kids. Maybe these will be the most important moments as this is when they will remember me, that I care about them, and that others care about them and their school. There is a large gap in the social classes here in Chile, but maybe they will forget about classism for one day, and realize that they also have good opportunities to learn at their public school

:)

I am lucky to be here; I get to be in a cool city, gain work experience with a big company, and see new things all the time. Sometimes I ask myself why I´m here and what difference can I make. ING obviously believed I could accomplish something here in 3 months by sending me here. That is not a enough time to make a complete reform or anything in the school or with ING, but it is enough to make an important impact. After all that I have studied with corporate social responsibility here, it involves more than just giving money or philanthropy, those are nice but it goes beyond that. ING is making a deeper investment in the community with me, it is more than just buying computers for the school, it shows they want to be a part of peoples lives in their community and share with them and to give them other types of opportunities. I would say this is a good social investment as opposed to a social expense.

Comida Chilena

Okay, most consider me a comelón, or someone who eats a lot. But here in Chile I have to say I was a little surprised by the selection of food. I love Mexican food, and figured Chilean food would be similar to its other latin counterparts but it´s not, there are almost no beans and it´s not spicy. There are some good dishes like empanadas and pastel de choclo (corn & meat cake), but for the most part I would say Chilean food is not the best. I don´t think it is the healthiest either, mayonnaise is probably their favorite condiment, not just because they use it on everything, but the amount they use. I expected to be happy eating hundreds of tacos and burritos down here, instead I have been eating "completos" and "italianos," or hot dogs with a bunch of mayonnaise on them. I got sucked in to eating them because people everywhere are enjoying them, and they are really cheap, I don´t think I´ve ever seen just one for sale, they are always 2x1

Good story # 3

One day after class I was messing around on one of the kids bikes, and then one of the other kids wanted to try it. Soon enough after handing the bike over, I realized that this boy didn´t know what he was doing. What has been such a big part of my life for a long time, these boys at 11 years old never really had the opportunity to learn to ride a bike. After a sloppy conversation in Spanish and a few visual tips, Carlos was up and riding for the first time. I won´t forget the smile he had as he made a few shaky turns around the court. This helped give the confidence for Fabian to try as well, and a couple attempts later he was up and riding. I never expected at this point that I would be holding kids up on bikes and letting them pedal away, but it sure is fun.

Pretty Santiago, Ugly Santiago

I find myself working in a large and rapidly developing city. It is in a beautiful setting with enormous mountains very nearby, and on clear days I love staring at them all day. The infrastructure is quite impressive in the city and you can see tons of cranes building something new all over town. However, even with good public transportation, there is still a ton of pollution as there are mountains surrounding the city, so those clear days always have their ugly counterpart. In this little section I am showing a pretty view from one of Santiago´s many nice parks, and a photo of Rio Mapocho. I cross this river everyday, and if I could attach smell to the photo you would know how ugly it really is. You can also make out a faint view of La Cordillera de los Andes in the background through the smog.

Good story #2

I was telling a class about all of my favorite things; my favorite animal is a monkey, favorite color is blue, favorite cereal is Frosted Flakes...
Then one little boy turns to his friend, and says, "wow, I don´t know if I can eat enough Zucaritas (Frosted Flakes) to grow as big as him."

¡Wear Sunscreen!

Okay, so I learned the hard way that you need a lot of sunscreen here. High altitude, lots of snow, and a weak ozone layer here combined to make this gringo stick out even more with a pink face. The lure and excitement of being in the Andes was just too much as we hiked all day through beautiful landscape on a warm spring day after a night of snow. There was over a foot of snow, and most of it melted during the day so we got to see snow capped mountains and springtime colors in one trip.

Good story #1

So I said I was the first person from the US to visit the school I work at and apparently I have been making quite an impression, so here is the text of an email from the teacher there:
Hi Ethan, I wrote your e-mail and I have your phone number. Ethan everybory asks for you, in special the little girls. That is very funny because they are very little. They are about 11, and want to be your girlfriends. Well, It is the life!. I `ll wait you tomorrow morning. If you need something just tell me. see you!

One of these things is not like the other ones...

There are a few simple examples of everyday life that make me realize I am far from home. I can confirm that the toilet does in fact flush counter-clockwise down here, Frosted Flakes are called Zucaritas, I felt my first earthquake, and when I blow my nose you can see pollution in the tissue.

More than just my own experience of being in a new place, Santiago has a lot of variation itself. This big city has it all, and I get to see the contrasts everyday. I live in a house built in the 20´s, work in a big modern office in the city, and then go to a school on the edge of town where there are more auto repair shops than I ever thought necessary for one area.

Kimen

English Workshop

Luis Duran, the teacher I help is a great guy. He teaches during the day, goes to school at night, and works at a restaurant on the weekends. We spend a lot of time together, and our goal is to improve his English more so there is a lasting impact after I leave.
His situation is much like those of the students. They don´t assign much homework at the school because many kids have to work in the evenings and they don´t want to burden them too much, making our classroom experience that much more important. This is one of the schools where lunch is provided for free, and there is a heavier indigenous influence. The school is actually going to change it´s name next year to Kimen, a Mapuche word that means grasping knowledge.

El Colegio

They welcomed me to their school with a bunch of delicious treats!

In the community of Peñalolen here in Santiago, I help at The Centro Educacional Erasmo Escala Arriagada. Three times a week I get to go help a teacher in his classes. I am the first person from the US to come to this school so they are all very interested in learning more about this big gringo and his country. It has been fun sharing more about eachother and our cultures.
ING`s program is called `Chances for Children,` and they recognize English as an advantage they want these kids to have. There is a large gap in the social classes here, and the public schools struggle because they don´t have as many resources. I am here to be the kids friend, and to give them a quality classroom experience.

More Fotos

You can see more photos here: http://colorado.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2090960&id=10200617&l=f52a8
They upload easier here, and I can share more with you, so enjoy

Cachai?

Nope, no I didn't cachai. They are said to speak "Chileno" here as opposed to Spanish. They speak very fast, don't pronounce s' and have many of their own words; like cachai. Which is questioning if you 'caught it,' or understand. It feels good to be speaking Spanish again, and in general it just feels good to be here doing new things in new places, whether I understand everything that is going on around me or not.

I'm in Chile!

Hello everyone, after a couple months of odd jobs and just enjoying Boulder in the summer time with the family, I started looking at internships abroad more seriously as everyone was starting their jobs or went back to school. I wanted to do something different and an internship with ING contacted me immediately, and then I was in Santiago within a week. Here I am now, dealing mostly with corporate responsibility, while they also have me teaching in a local school half the week which is alot of fun. I am off to a great start and have many stories to share with you.