Pictures!

My flatmates: Laurie (Canada!), Naomi (Arkansas), Melissa (NY), Me!, Calla (Mass.), and Pam (Scotland!) laying across.

Pablo Neruda's house/museum in Bellavista.

Ok I was going to load more pics but the internet is being a bitch. More to come!

Bienvenidos a Santiago!

Hola mis amigos! I am Starbucks (you can not escape their evil empire) because they have free wireless and the wireless we scam off on in our apartment is crappy and kicks me off every five minutes. Phew this has been a very busy and draining week! After traveling for 24 hours (LAX to DC to Buenos Aires to Santiago), I was met by the lovely volunteer Annie who immediately started speaking to me in Spanish, which was very overwhelming since I still couldn't believe I was in SOUTH America and in the Southern Hemisphere...craziness! Annie drove me to the hostel, La Case Roja, in Barrio Brasil, where I met most of the other new volunteers (17 in total), most of whom were in the big dorm room I lived in for a week. There was a lot more drama than I expected (ie people missing home, people getting into sticky emotional situations etc.) but all in all we had a good time during the week getting to know the old volunteers, visiting the different institutions, learning the rules and how VE works, getting English teaching training etc. It was a very hectic and draining week with very little down time which is why I have not written earlier. On top of all that I didn't have a place to live after we checked out of the hostel so my new buddy Pam (she's from Scotland! We reminisce constantly) and I were also looking for a place to live. We ended up finding a great apartments, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms in Providencia (the "rich" part of town) which is literally on top of a metro station and grocery store.

Yesterday was my first day working in my hogar (orphanage), Residencia EntreTodas). The girls are around 9 to 21 years old and many of them are in school during the time I am there (2:00-6:30pm). VE wants me to start an English class there so if anyone has any suggestions for games etc for teaching English or just filling up time during the day that would be very much appreciated. The girls so far have been very polite and nice but there is an undercurrent of anger that is palpable and very sad. I felt a bit useless my first day because they literally have nothing to do after they come home from school besides doing homework or watching TV. I racking my brain trying to think of games etc. that we could do to stimulate them and to get them off their butts. I am bringing the game UNO today and I am going to try to teach them the colors and numbers in English. Among my other duties outside of EntreTodas, I will be helping with the VE newsletter and in charge of editing the VE intranet (help Andrew!!!).

There is so much more to describe about this amazing country but time is running short and I have to leave soon for my hogar. I will leave you though with some interesting things I have learned about Chile and Chilean culture so far:
1. Food- They are obessessed with hot dogs (cumpletos) and avocados (palta). There is an enormous section of every grocery store that is filled with all types of hot dogs and sausages. Also they put avocado on everything. Everything. I love avocados but I think I might get tired of them pretty soon. Oh and if you want say some jam or mayo or ketchup good luck because it comes in a bag! and is difficult to store after you use it the first time.
2. Transportation- I am officially in love with the metro here! It is the cleanest, most efficient, prettiest metro system I have ever seen. They have flat screen TVs everywhere showing music videos, news etc. They have artwork of all shapes and sizes decorating the metro. And best of all it is easy to use, on time, and rarely breaks down. The micros (buses) on the other hand, are another story. Usually, they are operated by crazy men that drive and dispense tickets and change at the same time, hit stop signs on sharp turns, ride the horn, and stop so hard and quickly that poor little old men topple over. They also sometimes lie about where they stop in order to get your business. Pretty shady.
3. Spanish errr Castellano- Chilean is pretty much a whole other language. It sounds different and they have complete set of their vocabulary. More to come on this later.

Off to work! Miss you all!