Bienvenidos a Santiago

Wine Tasting. Garrett is incapable of acting normal in pictures.

I work here

I live here

Today marks one week in Santiago and I feel as if so much has happened in one short week. My one- week assessment is that the city is absolutely beautiful and the people are some of the most friendly and warm I have ever met. Here goes it:

The Host Family

After arriving on Sunday and receiving a warm welcome from the current ChACErs, we spent Monday running errands such as getting metro cards and temporary resident IDs. That night, the ChACErs hosted an “Once” (Chilean cocktails/appetizers) for all of us and our host families came to meet us and take us to our new homes. My host mom and brother were the first to arrive, which meant I got to be the first one to jump into the laborious task of trying to speak Chilean. I say speak Chilean because Chilean Spanish is a breed of its own. “S” no longer exists in the Spanish alphabet and there are several new phrases that are thrown into sentences frequently, such as “wea,” “oye,” and others. I’d been warned several times about the Chilean accent, and honestly it is not nearly as bad as I expected. My oral comprehension is still pretty high, so I am relieved.

My host mom and brother took me back to my new casa, which is beautiful. My host mom, Vivi, is Chilean (obviously) and a neurologist. She met my host dad, Mariano, when they were in Medical School here. Mariano is from Spain but has lived here ever since they met. This means that not only are they both brains, but I have the good fortune of eating both Chilean and Spanish food! My host siblings are: Elisa (16), Mariano Junior (12), Vivana Junior (10), and Alejandro (4). They all seem pretty great. Alejandro was afraid of me and always hid when he saw me for the first few days, but I am currently writing this with him snuggled right next to me playing a video game on the couch, so we are buddies now! The girls do synchronized swimming and compete internationally, which I think is pretty sweet. The family is clearly doing very well for themselves, because they have two maids—one who lives here Monday through Friday, and the other who only comes on the weekends. It feels a little uncomfortable to have this live-in-help that does everything, including things such as putting sugar in my coffee, that I am perfectly capable of doing, but this is part of the culture here. It will take some getting used to for sure!

St. George’s

St. George’s has lived up to the hype. It is unlike any school I have ever been in. For one, it has TONS of land. For those of you from Long Island, Chaminade’s Jericho Turnpike buy-out seems like nothing compared to St. George’s. In addition, you can see beautiful snow-capped mountains to the East, and the green coastal mountains to the West from the school. The place pulsates with a unique energy and feels almost like a mini college campus. The students at St. George’s have a unique energy, which I am sure will prove to be a challenge in the classroom, but which I am choosing to embrace right now. “Georgians,” as they call themselves, are known for their open-mindedness. The kids are said to often have more control than the teachers and administrators, and everything at the school is apparently very student-directed. Every single teacher and faculty member I have met so far has been more than nice. I have lost count of how many times I heard, “Cualquiera cosa necesitas, digame,” which means, “Whatever you need, tell me.” Additionally, two different teachers from the school have already given me rides home and I have already found a running partner in one of the other teachers. I absolutely love the Chilean hospitality. As a side note, everyone kisses everyone on the cheek here to say hello and I really feels that it instantly makes you feel more comfortable and at ease. A great custom!

Traditionally, the ChACErs spend these last two months of the school year trailing other teachers, observing, and helping out in any capacity needed. I, however, have the “good fortune” of starting teaching tomorrow! One of the sixth grade English teachers is on maternity leave, which means I am being thrown into the bulls tomorrow. Though it would be nice to not have as many responsibilities, I think my assignment is a blessing. I really miss being in the classroom and I am excited to have the opportunity to gain more experience before the start of the next school year. In case you’re confused, the school year will end the first week in December, which is Chilean summertime, and the new school year will commence in March.

My First Weekend Festivities

To start getting to know Chliean night life, we went to a wine tasting on Friday night, which was fantastic. All of the wines were delicious, as were the abundant appetizers and desserts. I could really get used to the fact that wine tasting are frequent occurrences here in Santiago.

Let’s just say that the next morning, I woke up and realized perhaps I had had one too many tastes of wine. My host fam was going to the “estadio” where my host sisters practice synchronized swimming and asked me if I wanted to go. Even though I wasn’t feeling too hot, I of course said yes. I thought that “estadio” meant gym, or something like that, so I threw on a T-shirt and shorts to maybe run and brought my bathing suit with me in case I wanted to do laps. When I arrived, I quickly realized that estadio actually means country club and that I looked like an absolute scrub. The place is gorgeous, complete with an indoor and outdoor pool, tennis courts, soccer fields, golf area, gardens, and a restaurant. My host sisters walked me to the locker room and then I asked them what time I should meet them. They said 1:30, which was in THREE HOURS. Realizing that I would not swim for three hours, I decided to lie on a bench and soak up the sun for the first hour and a half. I then enjoyed a great swim, rid the wine from my body, and had an awesome lunch with my host family. My host family is in the process of getting me a temporary membership there, and I’m excited to start spending some Saturdays at this beautiful place. I feel extremely blessed.

Last night, I met up with the other ChACErs at California Cantina, the only bar in Santiago that broadcasts college football games. It’s crazy how you meet ND fans everywhere! When I walked into the bar, I saw a girl who had lived in my dorm at ND and recently moved to Santiago. In addition, there is another Holy Cross service program here so we hung out with some other gringo volunteers. Don’t worry, there were also some gringo-loving Chileans who are friends with the older group of ChACErs, so I took full advantage of the opportunity to get to know them and practice my Spanish. After the ND game was over, we went to another bar. I was pretty wiped out, and decided to go home. Sebastian, another teacher at St. George’s, dropped Aislinn, Phil, and I off at our respective host casas. I went into my room, put on my pajamas, and was getting ready for bed when my 16- year old host sister, who had friends over, came into my room and asked if I wanted to go out dancing. This was at about 2:30 in the morning, by the way. The eager look on her face was my sign that this was an invitation I should not decline. So I got dressed again, only this time with her advice. She told me I needed to find something more “sexy” (yes, this is a 16-year old telling me what to wear), helped me pick out an outfit, and lent me her leather jacket. At this moment, I wasn’t quite sure if I was making one of my better life decisions, but figured I should just go for it. If I want to really acculturate myself here, I have to grasp on to opportunities like this one. So I held my breath and got into the car of one of her friends, who thankfully is at least 20, so I didn’t feel like a total freak going out with STUDENTS who attend the school where I now teach (something I would NEVER in my LIFE do in the United States).

It wasn’t until we arrived at the string of bars that I realized that there actually is a drinking age in Chile and my host sister and her friend are still underage. So after reliving my last year of high school and first few years of college by watching these kids try to get into bars with fake IDs and get rejected, we ended up at a bar that did not ID. Lo and behold, who happened to be in there but all of the ChACErs/friends of ChACE who I had left earlier that night, including Sebastian, who had driven me home about an hour before. You can imagine that they were a little confused when I showed up in a new outfit with a bunch of people who were at least 4 years younger than me. After explaining, I ended up really enjoying myself and enjoying some real bonding with my host sister. I had to abandon any ideas I have about what is appropriate for high school students and just watch as my host sister smoked cigarettes like a natural.

When it was FINALLY time to leave, at 5 in the morning, I was exhausted. My host sister was ignoring calls from our host parents, despite my advice that she pick up the phone. I was reminded of a time in high school when I had accidentally left my phone on silent and missed about 10 calls from my parents, only to come home and nearly be assassinated, because they thought I was dead on the side of a road. I was a little nervous that our return was going to be SUPER awkward and I was going to get off to a really bad start as a HORRIBLE role model. However, when we arrived home, the host parents were not downstairs freaking out as I’m sure Jan and Jimbo would have been. No choice words were exchanged, and this morning I was chuckling about the whole thing with my host parents, who seemed to really have no problem with the whole situation. I guess I can get used to this Chilean attitude!

Finally, today I went to mass with my host fam in the morning and then they had their cousins over for a barbeque. Sunday barbeques are pretty traditional here and I don’t think I have ever eaten so much meat in my life. It was all DELICIOUS and I’m pretty excited about the fact that I’ll get to do this almost every Sunday. That’s about all for now, everyone, but I hope to write soon!

Also, for those of you who are interested, here is the St. George’s website: http://www.saintgeorge.cl/

My address here is:

1056 Camino Otoñal

Las Condes

Santiago, Chile

(I enjoy receiving mail, wink, wink!)