The Art of Not Getting Murdered

I'm done volunteering. I'll meet my family in Santiago tomorrow morning. I survived this trip.
The only thing left to do now is to have a huge barbeque. Tonight!

TODAY WAS NUTS, though.
I went to Olmue, which is a small town outside Viña del Mar, and I hopped in a collective cab to get somewhere. I ended up making friends with the driver, and here is what happened:
- He decided to show me what Chilean scenery was all about. I went with it.
- We went to his dad's farm in town so I could take pictures, meet his dad, and pick up food.
- He took me to eat typical Chilean food with him and his pregnant girlfriend.
- We went to a mechanic shop/farm to hang out with some of his friends.
- He took me to his friend's tiny house in the mountains, which was the most scenic and calm place in the world.
- We spoke spanish all day!

Anyway, he basically gave me an all day tour of the mountains and countryside. I was semi-worried all day that he was going to murder me, but he never did. At the end of the day, I offered him some money (since he didn't pick anyone else up all day and drove around with the whole time), and he DIDN'T ACCEPT. That's right folks, he did it all out of the kindness of his heart. Awesome.

How was your trip? Chilly, but grape.

Here's the cabbie, Christian, and one of his mechanic friends.

One of the times I thought I might get murdered.

Thanks for checking up on my trip. You've been great.

One Phat Phil

Tomorrow is my LAST DAY OF VOLUNTEERING. After three months of working for free (unless you count the good feeling of saving the world as payment) (just kidding) (kinda) (can altruism really exist?), I will finally end the thing.

Anyway, I've been teaching English at a university here in Viña del Mar, and it's been crazy fun. The students (who are mostly all older than me), gave me a billion recommendations on food, drink, and things to see here. One of the things they said I HAD to do was to eat a "completo." See below for a belly-ache-inspiring picture. It's also been refreshing being able to have real conversations with adults about interesting topics rather than discussing the Jonas Brothers and politely asking kids not to put dirt in my hair.

My family is coming to Santiago on Saturday morning and I am beyond excited. I'll never speak Spanish againnnnnnnnn!
Just kidding, I will. But I could use a descanso.

******The MS Walk is coming up, and my good friend Brian is raising money for it. If you can spare some dough, http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?px=3170865&pg=personal&fr_id=10510 for a good cause.

You were right about the stars, each one is a _______ ___.

Sunset, south pacific, edge of the world, Earth

This is a Completo. What you're looking at is mayo, guac, tomatoes, over a hotdog. I ate about a third of it, then stopped for fear of another just-mayo bite.

In the dog house (or) Letting the cat out the bag (or) Then and now

Comparison: Cusco (a) vs Valparaiso (b)
(a) Get attacked by dogs
(b) Get stared at by cats
Both these pictures are from markets, but one is in Cusco and the other is in this coastal town in Chile. It's like comparing cats to dogs, you know?

This is from Cusco.

Caaaaaaats! in Valpo.

Nice to Meat You (or) BBQ at Sundown

We had a huge asado last night, and everyone was there. You could hear greater than or equal to three languages being spoken at any given moment. Sweet!

My roommate, Kyle, BBQing up a storm. Or is it a volcano?

We had a "war of the grilled meats," but it was inconclusive.

Maggie, my host mom, with my two roommates and me at the bbq.

"Señor Phil"

Today was my last day at this public school, and it was bizarre/hilarious/otherwords.

I ran this one 8th grade class (one of many), and at the end, I asked if I could take a picture.

These are with my point and shoot again, so please excuse the quality. I'll try to get back to posting obscure shots that don't tell you anything about my trip again soon.

Here's the whole class, with Mary Cruz, the teacher. Also notice the cameo in the bottom right of the picture. You might have to look closely.

The teacher then asked "Does anyone want a picture of HIM?" I was swiftly surrounded by kids with cellphone cameras, all screaming my name. This was undoubtedly the closest I'll ever get to being a celebrity, and it was the weirdest. To get them to stop, I told them that if they all sat down and were quiet, I'd speak Spanish (I assumed this would never work, because they were freaking out). Within seconds, there was complete silence. "Well, that backfired," I said out loud and to myself, since no one understood.

They insisted on taking a picture with me in it. And so the mountain of kids reformed.

My (english) accent is perfect!

On Monday, I started working at a public school here in Santiago. It's verrrry different from everything else I've done on this trip, which is exciting. I'm assisting/teaching english classes for grades 3 through 8. You should hear the regular english teachers speak english... it's embarrassing...ly bad.

All of the classes have at least 40 kids in them, if not 50. I've been left alone to teach the 8th grade a couple times, which was fun. Today I tried to teach 50 8th graders how to say "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers," explaining that if they could say this, they could say ANYTHING in english.

They couldn't say it.

Not even close.

But it was fun, and they laughed.

Also, the teachers keep referring to me as a "native speaker" and it makes me sound the most exotic. When the kids don't understand me, I use spanish, and each time I do, the class bursts out laughing at my horrid accent. Really guys, don't hold back.

Sidenote: this is my 2nd to last week of volunteering. I will be home on April 4th.

List of Dogs That Are Domesticated

Sparky, Snoopy, Air Bud.

What I Do

I thought I'd throw a few photos of my current work up.

I've been volunteering for three weeks at a woman's crisis center, where I take care of children who come from violent households. The kids are great... if you like kids. ............

Anyway, for the sake of my camera not breaking, I brought my point-and-shoot today. The photos are noticeably lower quality, but you don't mind too much, do you?

I spent four days digging a trench in the rock-like ground to bury these tires you'll see. I got some serious blisters, but I'm also pretty proud of how it came out. When you get so used to just giving your time, it's nice to leave something behind that's a little more permanent.

I made this.

Every time I sit down, this happens. Every time I walk, there are kids wrapped around my feet. I'm a walking, talking, breathing jungle gym (uf). Ma, how do I say "You're choking me, I can't breath" in Spanish?

Please, call me Pablo

A brief history of famous poets, Chapter twelve.
Pablo Neruda was a famous Nobel prize-winning, Chilean (also communist) poet. He wrote such hits as... well...

Anyway, I went to his house today in the artsy neighborhood of Santiago, called Bellavista. Complete with trap doors, hidden objects, original paintings from Diego Rivera, and a crazy set up, Neruda's pad was stacked. He was an senator for the Communist party, and he used to have "boring government people" to his home for meetings, and he did some interesting things to SPICE them up. Por ejemplo, he had salt and pepper shakers labeled "Marijuana" and "Morphine", just to SHAKE up his company.

Here are three shots from outside his house, and also two random Santiago pichas.

Also, I made it easier to leave comments. Just choose Anonymous, if you want.

One of old Pablo's poems.

One of the walls.

Caaaaaaaaats!

Statue on the top of the local mountain.

Cool architecture, eh folks?

Viña with an Ñ

I visited Viña del Mar today, which is a small town on the coast. And yes, I walked along the beach with my feet in the chilly waters of the south pacific.

Anyway, Viña is right next to Valpo (which is short for Valparaiso [I'm really cool]).

Look at the pictures
with your eyes.

I call this one.... something clever

"Wish you were here"

Pow! Wham! Splat!

Volunteer firemen in Valpo. Also 147 madness.

I definitely did NOT take this picture for the "HSM". I'm too embarrassed to say what that stands for, so if you know, you know (Hopkins); if you don't, you're better off.