Santiago and the coast

Hello everybody,

Alleen een bericht in het Engels dit keer, sorry. Just a message in English this time. It takes a lot of time to write a message on my blog, especially if I write in both Dutch and English. I think you understand. A week has passed already and I'm really getting used to the "Chilean way of life". Living with a local family is, I think, the best way to visit a country, since they can show you the real things and not just the touristic ones, even though those can be pretty nice too! I still find it hard to speak Spanish (sorry Milagros!), because I'm kind of a perfectionist, so if I open my mouth, I want to say something that I know is correct. Of course it's better just to talk and let others correct you, you'll learn a lot more, so that's what I'll have to do from now on. Chilean Spanish is also a lot more difficult to understand than for example Peruvian Spanish or Mexican Spanish, besides, they put a lot of their "own" Chilean words in the sentences too. Like cachai, haha. But, if they speak sloooowly and clearly, I understand almost everything. Understanding and writing Spanish is way easier than speaking it yourself, haha.

Well, let's go back in time. I still have a lot to tell you. Last Wednesday, the 24th of June, I went to the school of Maca and Olguita. I just went there for 2 hours, from 10 am to 12 am. I was going to be in Olguita's class, but she had to do a test and I wasn't allowed to be there in the meantime. So Olguita took me to Maca's class, a few of her classmates were doing presentations in the PE hall (sorry, don't know the right word in English). It was a good way to practise my Spanish and the presentations were really nice, although you could see that the children were very nervous. One of the teachers of the class talked to me and she was a really friendly woman. All the people I met at the school were really nice actually, except for Olga's teacher maybe, the one who gave her class the test. Anyway, after this we went to the classroom and the children had Spanish literature. It was great to be able to see how different our ways of teaching are. The class was kind of a chaos, but no, stop, don't think now that the education or the way of teaching was bad, because it really wasn't. All the children were talking, not whispering, and the teacher had to speak very loudly. Some of the kids were eating, some went from their seats to talk to other classmates, etc. Nobody was sitting quietly. But, which is a lot different than in Holland, even though it was a chaos, every single student paid attention to what the teacher said and all of them were very eager in answering her questions. They were so eager that they even walked up to her desk, their fingers in the air as high as possible, desperately wanting to be chosen to say the answer. So you see, the way of teaching was actually great. I liked it a lot and the atmosphere was perfect. The children clearly liked the teacher a lot and she loved them too, which I think is really important. You could really see that the teacher enjoyed teaching the children and she was really close to all of them. In the beginning of the class, she told the students that I was a visitor from Holland and the whole class said "Hola Anouk!" to me, so sweet. The were all looking at me like I came from another planet, haha. One of the little girls made a drawing of me, with details too, she even drew the penguin I had on my scarf. She was too shy to give it to me though, so she gave it to Maca. When I wanted to thank her, she hid behind the teacher, but I got to thank her in the end. When the class finished, one of the boys came to me and said "Que malo (how bad), Holland lost!" (soccer), haha. All in all, I had a fantastic experience. It is really great to see what the education in another country is like, even though this was an international school (a private one), which means the parents pay a lot for the education. Most of the people there are Chilean or at least South American by origin though. There were also quite a lot of Chinese/Korean students who live in Chile for quite a while already. The school has a website, but it's currently under construction: http://www.lintac.cl/

In the afternoon, we went to a touristic place called Pueblito de Artesanos Los Dominicos, which is kind of a fair, where there are little shops that sell typical Chilean products, like things made of leather, clothes, jewelry, etc. http://www.pueblitolosdominicos.com/ It was a really beautiful place, but as I said: touristic. In summer and in the weekends, it's full of people. Now there were only a couple of Chinese/Japanese people, some people from Brasil (I think) and some Spanish speaking ones. It's really nice to see all those typical Chilean products, even though they sell them for tourist prices. There was also a pet shop, which Maca loved, since she desperately wants a little puppy, but I don't think her parents like that too much. I already put some pictures of our visit on this website.

On our way back, we went to special kind of restaurant, well, it's not really a restaurant. It's a place where they sell loooots (and believe me: LOTS!) of different kinds of cakes, cookies and ice creams. Maca and I both got ice creams, it was absolutely delicious. The flavour I had was "white chocolate" (I had never had it before). It was a very big ice cream though, so I was hardly able to eat it all!! The ice creams and sweets here in Chile are a lot sweeter than the ones in Holland by the way, I think they put more sugar in it. And no no, I won't eat too much, haha.

On Thursday I was going to meet Oscar. He would come to "my" house at 2.30 pm, but he didn't show up and we couldn't reach him on his mobile. He turned up at like 4 pm and Faride was a little angry. It is known that Chilean people are always late and never in time, but 1.5 hours later... it's a bit too crazy for Chilean people too, haha. But, it turned out he had lost his way and nobody knew the streetname nor this place. He had been walking for like an hour or so. Poor him. Anyway, we had a really great time together and it was amazing to see him in real life now!! He had a lot of Chilean newspapers for me with pics of Fernando Gonzalez!!!! :D Yes, indeed, I was really happy, haha!! I gave him some presents from Holland in return. The next day, Friday, he came again in the morning, just for a short while, because he had to go to university again in the afternoon. We watched a movie together and it was really nice to see him again. He will visit me again this week.

Friday afternoon.. oh wait, let me tell you something else. Right now, they're playing on trumpets outside. Remember I told you that this house is in a military place? Well, the military school is quite close and each morning you can hear them saying things, like "Stop! Walk" , but in Spanish of course and they march too. I guess the music I just heard was also from the school.

Well, we were supposed to leave to Viña del Mar at 5 pm or so, but a cousin of the girls was in the hospital and they had to visit him first. One of their uncles, Alejandro, came to our house, because he would stay here while we were in Viña. He's like 30 years old and a really funny and happy guy. Well, in the end, we left at like 9 PM and we arrived in the military hotel in Viña at like 11 pm, I think. I shared the room with Olguita and Maca. The hotel was really nice and very close to the city centre. Maca was really happy we had TV and she watched children movies until 2 AM, I think! :o

The next morning we didn't get up really early, but it didn't matter. We left the hotel and went into the city!! Maca's toe is infected, so she can't really walk. Faride, Olguita and I left the car and went walking to the famous flower clock of Viña. It is a really wonderful city and in summer there are a lot of people, who come there for the beautiful beaches. There are lots of palm trees and a lot of big hotels. Unfortunately there was a lot of fog, so we couldn't see a lot of the view you have from the road next to the beach, but it was still beautiful. The flower clock was really impressive, I think they made it for the world cup soccer in 196... something. Yes, I did my homework. ;) Not so well, apparently, haha. Anyway, we got into the car again after that and went to Valparaíso, which is very close to Viña. Valparaíso is famous for its construction and the colours of the houses. If you look it up at google, you will see it yourself. I will post some pics later. It's really a pictoresque place! The houses are built upon the mountains and there are elevators that take you up the mountain, so you don't have to walk, because that's almost impossible. It's way too steap. Valparaíso has the biggest harbour of Chile. It became a little less important when the Suez canal was opened. 

Well,  Leo took us to the place where he had worked years ago. In front of the building, there's a "ghost house", an old abandoned building which looks like it will collapse anytime. Leo told us a scary story about the building, about English immigrants who had lived there and whose children had disappeared. It was a lot of fun, especially when suddenly a dog showed up from the house and started barking loudly! There are lots of street dogs and cats here, by the way. It's really sad.

In the afternoon we had lunch in a beautiful restaurant very close to the ocean. It was all decorated with marine stuff (the naval army schools are based here) and the food (seafood) was delicious. It was really great. In the evening we drove to a city a little bit more in the north, Reñaca, where we ate a Chilean sandwich, with a special kind of meat on it. Delicious!

On Sunday, yesterday, the weather was a lot better, which was great, because there was hardly any fog and the view was fantastic!! It was really hot, even though it was winter and the sun shone brightly. In the morning we went to the place in Viña were a huge festival takes place every year. Lots of famous national and international artists come to perform there and there's also a song contest. The winners of the contest get goblets (?! don't know the right word) with the symbol of Viña on them, the seagull. The festival is one of the most important ones, if not the most important one, of Latin America. The amphitheater is situated in a beautiful place. You walk on a road surrounded by beautiful trees and statues and the air smells really fresh there. There's also a palace which belongs to rich Chilean people, there's a museum in it where you can see the furniture of the palace. The amphitheater was really beautiful and very modern compared to the palace! It was really nice!

Later we drove to Reñaca again to have lunch in the most famous Empanada restaurant of those cities. I tasted a seafood Empanada and another one, don't remember what was in it.. cheese and something, haha. It was really nice and the place was very beautiful. After eating an ice cream, we drove back and stopped near the sea, to walk a little bit. You could see the symbol of Viña, the seagull, on one of the hills, all made of flowers. Beautiful! There were a lot of people on the road, not just because it was Sunday, but also because it was San Pedro's day and there was a celebration for the fishermen. There were a lot of colourful flags and people walked on the streets with pictures of San Pedro andwith  crosses. They had been to church earlier that day. It was great to see. There were a lot of stands with Chilean products, lots of colours and there were also a lot of artists for the children.

It was really great. On our way back to Santiago in the evening, we also saw some hills where they ski on the sand, really funny! We stopped at a little restaurant next to the road, where they sold special Chilean cookies and cakes and I had to try a couple of little ones. It was nice! I will post some more photos and videos later, I'll need the other computer again. I'm back in Santiago now and we'll leave for the north on the 4th of July, this Friday.

This morning I was able to watch a little bit of Wimbledon, finally! I saw the 3rd set of Roger vs. Lleyton, which was really cool. Oh, I can't believe how fantastic Roger was playing. The trophy is his, again, I'm sure. Allez Roger!!

Hope you all have a good week and "see" you soon! Thanks for all your lovely messages!!

Anouk xxx