Chillin' in Chillan

Hola amigos!

Last weekend we headed south to Chillan with our friends Ian and Lissa. We couldn't make the whole 400 km on Friday night, so we stopped and camped along the way. The site was right along a river, so one of the first things we did while it was still light out was take a quick swim. Because it's Chile, there was a dog hanging out at the site that followed us around (even into the water):


The campsite had a cat too, and Claire was pretty delighted at its moustache (the complete opposite reaction, in fact, that she had to my Top Gun moustache in October):


We found marshmallows at a store a couple of months ago and were excited to roast them around the campfire, but it is HOT here these days and by the time we pulled the bag out of the car it had become one giant marshmallow. We were undeterred.


We also made the most out of the campfire by using a long-exposure to write a message in fire to everyone at home...


On Saturday morning we made it to Chillan, a city about 6 hours south of Santiago and surrounded by a chain of volcanoes. We stayed further into the mountains, but on Saturday we stopped in Chillan to check out their market. Lots of stuff (fruits, vegetables, alpaca sweaters, zubaz/hippie pants that tons of people wear around here, and a muppets "Animal and the Electric Mayhem Band" t-shirt that fits Claire perfectly).


The Plaza de Armas in Chillan also has what I'm pretty sure is a statue to fist-pounding (which, by the looks of this guy's hat and sideburns, people have been doing here for a couple of hundred years):


We stayed at what ended up to be a pretty great hostel in the mountains. Here's the view we had from our bedroom:


The landscape was really incredible - the town was in a valley that looked like it had been carved out by a glacier, and on both sides there were volcanoes with very visible lava flows. On Saturday we hiked a mountain one side of the valley. In the background you can see the mountain range that we hiked the next day.


When we got back to the hostel we took advantage of their pool (and wood-powered hot tub!). The days are getting long here in Santiago, and they were even longer in Chillan. It's probably around 8:45pm in this picture, and you can see how bright out it still is.


Sunday morning we got up and headed to the other side of the valley for another hike. This one took us right along a lava flow from about thirty years ago. It was like being on another planet or something - everything was black lava rock, and there weren't any plants anywhere near us.


The lava rock was incredibly porous and so even big rocks were really light (the one below is probably only about 2,000 pounds).


Eventually we parked the car and hiked the rest of the way.


The flow stopped really abruptly right at an old, abandoned ski lodge.


There was another family hiking around the lodge and the son was particularly proud of a catch he had just made:


We started up a climb that ended up being about 1,500 meters in elevation gain. Chileans don't seem to be big fans of switchbacks on paths, so a lot of the climb was pretty steep.


Lots of really great views along the way up:


A pretty cool lagoon at the top of the mountain:


Finally, to the very top...


Right near the peak we found a really weird-looking grasshopper/scorpion/thing that probably only a biology nerd would find cool (I thought it was awesome):


The way back down:


We had Monday off for a Catholic holiday, and so we had time to investigate some waterfalls we had spotted on Saturday's hike. Here they are:


Then... back to work on Tuesday.

You'll notice that I am NOT including a mullet shot in this blog installment. This was done intentionally to build up anticipation for the next mullet. It will possibly be the best one yet: the mullet I will have after school gets out this Friday.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Happy Holidays!

Hi everyone! I am sorry that it has been a while. It is all my fault. It was my turn and I've been delinquent. We are about to embark on another long weekend trip. We are headed south to Chillan for some camping, hiking, and hopefully sitting in thermal springs of a scalding temperature.

Justin last wrote when I was off on the Week Without Walls trip to surf camp. There were goods and bads on this trip. The bads: bratty-ness, being a chaperone, 18 year olds making shockingly stupid decisions, surf guides acting like surfers...a lot of stuff that wasn't at all surprising. I was hoping that I would find the students very endearing after this trip. The reality? Not so much. It is hard to like kids to whom it doesn't occur that no one is going to put their bags on the bus for them or cry when they don't like their room assignments. The goods: surfing, some kids who are wonderful and fun and helpful, some excellent new friends in the other chaperones, surfing, finding out that when a wetsuit fits it actually does keep you warm, feeling sufficiently beat up by surfing but having no significant damage to my face (like last time...many of you remember my attractive chin at Stasi and Bob's wedding).

I got back at 7:30 on Saturday night and went straight to the open mic. Below is a picture of the all-woman bluegrass band I played with. Yes, that is me playing the bass and it wasn't half bad! And I kinda liked it! It was really fun to play with the girls. Having had some experience being the only girl playing at the show, it was fun to not be.


I wish I had pictures of Justin and my set (or a recording for that matter). We were quite happy with our performance and if I do say so, we were a big-time crowd pleaser. Our song selection worked out really well and we got lots of positive feedback. We were even complemented on our "showmanship." Those of you who know us as "artists" know that we consider this a much bigger compliment than "you sounded good." But I think we did that too. All in a all it was a successful night. Justin sang leads for the first time on the Avett Brothers' song "The Fall" and kicked some major butt. He also provided high pitched harmonies on "Paradise City" and "Don't Stop Believing" and sang during "Take On Me." I also did my first public falsetto (those of you that know "Take On Me," it was during "..in a day or TWOOOOOOOOOOOOO"). The night on the whole was really fun and we work with lots of talented people.

The weekend following was pretty uneventful. Thanksgiving here was a 150 person potluck hosted by my gracious principal. It was pretty amazing and very delicious. We only got a half day off of school. That, combined with the weather, really didn't make it feel like Thanksgiving. I'm pretty grateful for this fact. With Christmas decorations in stores having gone up in October, I completely ignore them now. As sad as it sounds, I'm glad I don't know that it is Christmas because it would make me very sad and miss people, sounds, smells and the rest of it an unbearable amount. As a person that annually experiences intense Christmas nostalgia even as Christmas is going on, I would be a homesick mess. Things like the first "Christmas Happy Fun Day" in DC in 2001, rule-laden Chicago gift exchanges, all Finn-Lee family Christmas Eves...I need to stop now.

Last weekend on Sunday we went on a mission to find a good swimming spot. Our friends Ian and Lissa, our usual accomplices, joined us. Through a bizarre twist of events we ended up at a ski resort 10k from the Argentina border. Justin was determined to swim, however. The picture below is of Justin swimming in a lake that was absolutely GLACIAL. And because we were so high up it wasn't warm at all. I am a friend of cold water, but this was ridiculous. Justin later told us that as he was swimming back he would have liked to yell something to us but he physically couldn't do it because he couldn't really breathe.
There were lots of beautiful waterfalls on this drive from all of the snow melt. The scenery never fails to blow us away.
The day ended where it began as we jumped, resignedly, into the pool at our apartment building. Only 300k and 6 hours later. Not a bad way to kill a Sunday. We are about 2 weeks from the end of school and are anxiously awaiting our summer break. I can't believe we have been here for 5 months! Meg arrives in a week and a half and the rest of the Finn clan about a week later. We can't wait!

We miss you all and send lots of love! There will be many more pictures of mountains (are you sick of them yet? we aren't) from this weekend's trip. Besos!

The Return of El Presidente

Hi everybody!

Yesterday we went on a hike in Yerba Loca, a nature preserve about a 25 minute drive east of our apartment. Right as we pulled in there was an ENORMOUS tarantula crossing the dirt road (so big that we almost stopped the car to let it cross in front of us), and I'm pretty disappointed I didn't get a good picture of it - we've heard from a few of our friends who live outside the city that they see big ones around their houses sometimes, but this was the first that we've seen. Sorry, no tarantula picture. But here's the beginning of our hike...

...the middle...


...and the end:


Last weekend our school had an annual festival called Kermess, where international students and their families set up booths to sell traditional food from their country. About thirty-five countries were represented - some favorites were falafel (Israel), capirinias (Brazil), crepes (France), sushi (Japan), and waffles (Sweden). Plus Canada had really good rice krispie treats. Argentina's booth gives a pretty good idea of what things were like:

There were some cultural demonstrations as well - here's a pretty great picture from a group that was representing Easter Island. A lot of similarities to the Maori (although maybe Maori guys wear less revealing outfits):


Way back during our spring break trip we took a picture of a newspaper cover that had a dude with ridiculous blond hair who was rumored to be running for president. Well... that guy was at Kermess last weekend. I would like to take this opportunity to resurrect, in all of its glory... EL MULLET DEL PRESIDENTE!


Awesome.

And here's a parting shot of a hilarious rock band of 10 year olds that oddly "opened" for the Easter Island demonstration. Hopefully when we play at the fund-raiser next weekend Claire and I can manage to match their performance.

Claire left for surf camp this morning in La Serena with a group of students. Hopefully in the time you've taken to read this she has become an expert surfer (although I think she'll be satisfied with just avoiding any bruised chins or black eyes - unlike the last surfing venture in Costa Rica...).

Take care - I hope everyone is doing well!

Hello family and friends (and bored U.Wisconsin students). Chile is getting warmer. We're getting antsy for summer and visitors. I predict the next month is going to fly. At the risk of losing valuable readership, I have to say that we're moved, elated, hopeful, sad we couldn't be in Chicago on Tuesday but thrilled to see our city represent, and really proud about what our country did. I'm also deriving some personal pleasure from watching the Republican Party self-destruct before my very eyes. When Fox News is reporting on how dumb Sarah Palin is..well...just sit back, watch the show, and try to keep your hands away from the mouth of the mother that is eating her young!!

We've had some good adventures in the last two weeks. Again, seeing new stuff around Santiago, getting into nature and this time, getting into the local wine scene as well. Our friends Ian and Lissa live up near school in Lo Barnechea/LoBa (aka "the country") so we like to do city-country exchanges. They came down for the gourmet food fest, so we went up there for a different kind of food fest--a choripan taste test. Choripan is the basic staple of Chilean asados. It is a nubby chorizo sausage in an above average bun (chorizo+pan=choripan). There are approximately 73 brands of choripan. We tried to make a dent by taste-testing 3. We also went for a great hike basically out of Ian and Lissa's backyard. I should note that Ian has built a cornhole set. This is a strictly midwestern game that involves skill and focus (and beer). You throw beanbags in a hole. It is excellent backyard entertainment. I hated it when people played it in our neighborhood at all hours and whenever the temperature broke 40 (thereby obnoxiously blocking the sidewalk). In Chile, I love it.

This afternoon of backyard entertainment was followed by a scrutinizing screening of "Top Gun." This included taking notes and pausing scenes and rewinding them. Why you ask? Because of THIS:

[Above: Viper, Ice Man, Maverick, and Goose--Happy Halloween!]

Last weekend was a long weekend. Why you ask? I again, refer you to the picture above. That's right. Halloween is a holiday in Chile. So we had a long weekend which means lots of time to explore. Again, we teamed up with Ian and Lissa and headed south into wine country. We met up with some other folks once we got down there. An amazing part about Santiago is that you can get out of the city very quickly. We were well within wine country in about an hour. It was beautiful and very cool.
For whatever reason, I love taking tours of wineries. I find it very exciting (kinda like those segments on Sesame Street where they show you how orange crayons are made--it's so cool!). This was the pre-wine tour picnic...

And the tasting!

The next day we went to a beach town called Pichilemu. This is supposedly one of the premier surfing spots in the world. The day we were there there were 8-10 meter waves!! There weren't that many surfers who braved the waves but those that did were pretty amazing. The weather was pretty crappy--totally clouded over. There was one hour where the clouds cleared and our picnic got totally awesome. One of the best parts about going to the winery in the beginning of the weekend was that we had a ready stash of wine at a moment's notice. So even though we didn't have total sunshine, we did have good wine. Picnic pics below...
You might have noticed from the pictures above that, unlike Ian, Justin did not shave his mustache after Halloween. So I got to wake up to that for the rest of the weekend. Kinda like the spooky Halloween trick that keeps on giving (or tricking).

There was another break in the clouds later in the day that provided a new opportunity for wine and a great sunset.
Our night in Pichilemu was lots of fun and included finding our friend Chad's friend's house and bonfire for some sing-a-long, followed by latenight empanadas ricas y fantasicas.

Pichilemu has an interesting Boston connection...
And a bizarre food specialty...look carefully.
We had a beautiful drive home. With fields upon fields like the one's below:
We're feeling really lucky to have some fun, adventurous friends in Ian and Lissa (we stayed in some kinda nasty places and everyone was still in a good mood) and keep loving all of the cool things we see. I will leave you with one final oddity about Pichilemu. They sell these in their local markets...
Used school folders from the 1980s and 1990s featuring various metal bands. Go figure. We might have been too distracted by the pretty stuff to take mullet pictures. Please believe that mullets did abound. We are continuing to work on our setlist for the upcoming acoustic show. We have been given a somewhat featured spot on the lineup which makes us nervous. Who do they think we are? Beardog?

Much love to everyone!

Esta noche, tenemos que ganar!

Hi everybody! A lot has happened in the past week or so - here's a quick run-down...

(1) Last weekend there was a gourmet food festival a few blocks from our apartment. Pretty awesome - a few dollars to get in and then tons of 'free' samples of fancy cheese, wine, ice cream, beer, bread, and meat.


(2) Chile vs. Argentina. We had the chance to go to the final home World Cup qualifier of the year, against Argentina (who Chile had NEVER, ever beaten in a competitive match of any kind). Chile is doing very well in the South American standings right now, and they played extremely well. Chile went up 1 - 0 in the first half and then held the score for the rest of the game. It was incredibly exciting, with lots of opportunities for both sides, and the crowd (and entire city) went crazy for the rest of the night. The stadium is miles from our house, but even after we got home we could hear car horns and people screaming for hours.

(3) Parent conferences. This should be prefaced with the following: if we haven't mentioned it yet, the standard way to greet someone in Chile is with a kiss on the cheek (except for when it's two guys, who shake hands). In any case, you can imagine all of the hilarity that goes into being an American and never being sure whether you are supposed to be kissing or not. Well, the kissing custom mixed with Parent-Teacher-Student conferences at school this week heightened all of said hilarity (and oftentimes awkwardness) to a new level. LPHS teachers who might be reading this: think about typical conference days. Now think about kissing all of those parents before (and after) the discussion. Now imagine if students were expected to be present as well, and if the kissing custom were extended to them (because usually it is). (Ex-LPHS students, picture the same thing - kissing all of your teachers on the cheek before they talk to your parents about how you need to focus more in class and study harder for tests and quizzes. Pretty weird.)

(4) We spent yesterday in Cajon de Maipo checking out a valley across the river from where we explored the last time we were there a few weeks ago. It was a perfect day and the hike was great - a larger overall elevation gain than on the other side of the river, but also a much more gradual one. It was a hot day, but we were eventually blocked on the trail because of too much snow, so we're excited to get back and explore further once some of it has melted (although it's called San Francisco glacier, and so I imagine there's a fair amount of snow/ice throughout the summer as well).



This was another hike with TONS of lizards...


We've been trying to keep up with new music, but it's a little difficult being so far away (unless you're into Kylie Minogue or re-mix after re-mix of American pop songs, which they play constantly at our gym). I'm still getting a lot of ideas by listening to podcasts of Sound Opinions, but here's some of the new stuff we've been listening to lately: The Avett Brothers (it's not new at all, but it's still super-awesome), Or, the whale (pretty awesome alt-country stuff from San Francisco), and Benji Hughes (has a new double-cd with some good songs). Plus I've been listening to the songs that Aaron (of the internationally lauded and critically-acclaimed superband Beardog) has been recording - you can check them out at his website: http://www.myspace.com/mymoonyacht. Aaron also just filled me in to the new album by Margot and the Nuclear So and So's, which might be the best of anything I've mentioned so far - check out 'As Tall as Cliffs' and 'Broadripple is Burning' first.

Besides that, we're getting ready to perform some songs together at a fundraiser show next month in November. We're allowed about 20 minutes of time (and there won't be any drums, so it will just be guitars or guitar-and-mandolin). Right now we're planning on the following...

1. American Music (Violent Femmes)
2. Paradise City (Guns n Roses)
3. Strangers (the Kinks)
4. Any Way You Want It (Journey)

...but we're still looking to add a few. Ideas are welcome.

Finally, the mullets of the week! The first is in honor of Chile's liberator, the red-haired Chilean of Irish descent that led Chile to its independence. It is the O'Higgins Mullet:


The second is another in my series of I-know-you're-taking-a-picture-of-me mullets. A lot of teenagers have it, and so we can call it the Angsty Mullet:

I hope everyone is doing well! Talk to you soon...

Two things I don't want to forget to tell you...

1. A student in my class has repeated told me, "Mees, this is a real sideball" or "Mees, this [US history concept, idea, event, etc.] is a real sideball." Finally today the following interaction occurred:

Mees: Ok, today you are making political cartoons about Jacksonian Democracy.

Student: Oh Mees! You are throwing me a real sideball. I can't draw--I'm really terrible.

Mees: Wait...do you mean I'm throwing you a "curveball"?

Student: Yes. Whatever. I like to say sideball.

2. During the same class, one of my Mexican students pointed to the following image and insisted that this cartoon MUST be depicting the Mexican eagle stabbing Jefferson in the heart in outrage over the outcome of the Mexican War. It might be my nerdy US history teacher side, but I thought this was hilarious.

Cajon de Maipo

Greetings all! Another week in Chile and we are still finding new and cool stuff all around us. School continues to go well. I learned that as part of our school's Week Without Walls program (where students go out on week-long trip aimed to get them outdoors, learning about the environment and/or doing community service), I will be going on the "EcoSurf" trip. That's right. I'm getting paid to go to surf camp. And maybe learn about some marine life. This would be an upside of teaching in a private school. The best part about this is that while I am a chaperone for students, another one of the chaperones is my principal (and incidentally all-around great guy), so the kids will hopefully be scared into behaving by his mere presence. Score!

We're playing basketball every week with a group of teachers and other Americans in Santiago. The group includes some fathers of students (one in particular is here on a Mormon mission but spent the last 25 years coaching and is AWESOME) and marines stationed in Santiago. It has been really fun for us both to get to play again. The games are friendly but a good workout. I'm the only woman (not that shocking), and despite going 1 for 79 the first week shooting, I think I'm actually remembering what it feels like to play. I actually might buy a pair of basketball shoes (right now it's a running shoes with ankle braces set up). If I do, I'll be sure to buy a quality Chilean basketball shoe. Which I'm sure they specialize in...

The past two weekends have been great. We fell behind a little bit last weekend with our blogging, so here goes. We took a salsa dance class on Saturday with a bunch of other teachers. It was much fun and very sweaty. I think we're naturals. No seriously. We're really awesome. Why are you laughing? On Sunday morning we headed to Valparaiso for Justin's half marathon. It was a really gorgeous day and the run was basically down on the port (with one brutal hill thrown in just so the runners didn't forget they were in Valparaiso). If you don't remember Valpa, check out the pics from one of the first blogs. Here is a picture of Justin next to a runner that was slightly below the average height of the other runners.

Yes...she was a wee one. Justin was also hilariously "interviewed" by an enthusiastic man with a video camera that we think was working for the folks who ran the race. We're not sure though. Somewhere some guy has two gringos saying "Bueno!" and giving a corny thumbs-up on camera.

Last week was uneventful at school. A true sign that we are deeply in the flow of things. I have some kids who are getting very excited to see Millencolin (and old American punk band), who is coming to Santiago next week. They pronounce it "Mee-LEN-co-LEEN." We had a good time watching the VP debate on Thursday, as well as the subsequent SNL parody. We love NBC right now for making the latest SNL skits available. Hopefully that won't go away.

Last weekend was absolutely terrific. We took off on Saturday morning and drove for about 2 hours southeast to get to Cajon de Maipo. Below is the German run hostal that we stayed in (called Lo Valdes). Germans are all over the hospitality industry here. If you remember, the folks that ran the last place we stayed were Germans. The owners of Lo Valdes were significantly less entertaining, however. No stories involving sailing from Africa to Australia or about people sticking fingers up other people's butts and pretending that it was gun. However, they had showers, clean beds, and a great breakfast (and cats that hung out in the bathroom with you while you did your business) so we were pretty happy. No electricity after 10, but we were knocked out by then anyway. It was quite lovely.


We went on a great hike immediately when we got there to the banos colinas. They are thermal hot springs. The hike should have been easy except there was snow over lots of the trail and some of us (ahem--Justin) were wearing converse all-stars.

We would have love to have gone in, but we were without towels and it would have been a COLD hike back. Next time!


The next day we did a spectacular scramble up a mountain behind the lodge. I say scramble because you had to pick your way up this steep hill to get to the trail. There was plenty of slip-sliding, especially on the way down, because the footing was basically dirt and loose stones with some low shrubbery. I'd show you the bruise on my butt but that would result in my mother being disappointed in me.


This reminded us of being in Denali in Alaska where there are no trails to speak of. There is a feeling here that you basically go anywhere and do anything you want. After a tough climb the view was the most incredible we've seen since we got here. Can you believe this is real?

Justin found a fossil...

On the way home there were goats...

And empanadas for empanabrahs...

And here we are again. Probably no adventures this coming weekend because of the end of the quarter grading, but we are angling to get back to Cajon de Maipo next next weekend to do a hike we were drooling over from across the canyon. We want to do it before too much of the snow melts. The days just keep getting nicer here. I think I can safely say it is spring.

Hope everyone is doing great. Lots of love, C/J