The Sea of Sheep

We passed by these sheep recently as we were traveling through some remote towns. I thought it fitting to represent how things have been going over the last couple weeks. By no means negative, all that we´ve done has been very exciting, rich and fun..... but definitely feeling a bit "hearded", thus no blogging.
That being said, allow me to catch up a bit. So over the last 3 days alone we went to a vineyard for a tour, drove to the coast for the day and spent some time touring Pablo Nerudas house (now a museum), toured the largest underground copper mine in the world, toured a farm that trains a breed of horse from Holland for the Chilean rodeo, toured a chincilla farm, and got to spend a few hours in a spa that had a natural hot spring fed pool.....very nice!
All the days have been full since we´ve arrived but all filled with interesting and fun activity. They are all also broken up with a very large 2 hour or longer lunch that usually consists of bread with Pebre (tomato, olive oil, onion, cilantro and lemon....... which i think we are all now addicted to) soup, salad, some kind of meat and rice or potato, then dessert and coffee. No complaints on my part since i love to eat so much, but i think we have all definitely gained a few pounds.
Our nights have been spent either at Rotary meetings eating another very large meal and giving our presentation or with our host families. A couple of the nights we got a the chance to see some of the night life in Chile. They have a pool game here that is very different than anything i´ve seen in the states. I love pool, so learning something new has been a blast, looking forward to bringing it back home! The nights staying with the families have been good too. For the most part i have stayed by myself in the home of one of our hosts, with the exception of last week in Talca where Mike (another one on the team) and i stayed with the same family. All the families have been very different with some to learn from each. They have all been very kind and excited to teach us about Chilean costumes, phrases and history. The language part has been one of the most challenging pieces as well as the most interesting. Chilean Spanish has so many particularities and made up phrases that it has been tough to follow at times, but i am loving the challenge and the education.
As far as the team goes, there is definitely some sadness as we near the end of our experience. One of my favorite aspects of this trip has been seeing how close we have all become. We all have been a huge support to each other and have so much fun together. I think our dynamic has made the trip even more of an amazing experience. I am going to be sad to see them go this coming Friday, and am also excited about the next half of the trip. I think i´ll be traveling to the northern part of Chile. As i dont know how much computer access i´ll have on the second half of the trip i may or may not keep up with the blog. Feel free to email though for an update and i´ll try and post some more within the next couple weeks.

A Weekend in the Woods

1st steps in the Pacific Ocean















District Conference

Siete Tazas

5-2-09

I am currently sitting in a window sill at our cabin in the woods (in Sierra de Bella Vista) that Rotary has rented out, to give us a weekend hiatus from our extremely busy schedule. The cabin is a small 3 bedroom seasonal feeling place, tucked away in a small little community that we heard people compare to Little Switzerland. Our cabin is owned by an older, year round resident who has this place along with two other rentals in addition to her own home, all in a little compound. We have had access to the pool where we spent much of our weekend, the weather has been perfect. Other than soaking in the sun we’ve been enjoying each other’s company and have had a blast sharing stories, cooking for each other and sipping wonderful Chilean wine and Pisco Sours; the country’s mascot drink.

The last 10 days have been very busy with little rest time. Every day has been an exciting adventure though and over the last week we have gotten the chance to see some of the country side outside of Santiago. We have been to San Bernardo, a small community outside of Santiago, where we met a woman who owns a snail farm and got a tour of how the farm works….very interesting. In Iloca, a small beach community, which is booming with tourists in the summer time but a ghost town this time of year, we spent the day eating on a deck on the overlooking the beach and hiking around. It was the first dark sand beach I have ever seen, full of rock formations and funny sea creatures. At one point as we were walking along the water one of the waiters from the restaurant came out to the water and grabbed a couple of hard round shells that looked like rocks which he told us were edible and nutritious. I think because of our excited faces he decided to share his harvest with us, which did not look appetizing after he cracked open the hard exterior. However, we each got the chance to try something new, and it actually was pretty tasty with enough lemon. I can’t remember the name of this creature but it was some kind of mussel and was very bright red.

Another day we had the chance to hike around in another remote location called Siete Tazas which was a series of 7 waterfalls in a state park. It was another rich day with beautiful weather, many pictures, tasty food and very kind hosts. Really, every host we have had so far has been very generous and welcomed us with open arms. We have been fed like royalty and constantly are being pampered…..I’m loving the food!

The work we have been doing with Rotary is less intense than I think we all guessed it would be, and it seems that each presentation we give gets better and smoother. We are about at the point now where we can go through all of our presentation with little help from our note cards. We are very well received at each meeting as well, and I think all the Rotarians down here really enjoy hearing about our lives and about our region of the country. Last weekend we gave our large presentation at the district conference in Santiago in an auditorium for about 200 people. I think people get the most entertainment about the fact that each person in our group talks about their cats…..apparently a less popular pet to have down here. However, we seem to be a hit anyway at every place we present to.

Tomorrow we head to Santa Cruz where we’ll be doing some touring of the town, hopefully go the beach and I think visit their casino.

A few pictures from the first week in Santiago

<----The team

<------My first Barnicle...a strange sea creature that tastes like a cross between lobster and crab....with a much softer texture. Delicious!

One of the many homeless dogs in Santiago...

<'-----A small part of the giant city of Santiago

Que Lindo!!

<----- The pool outside my bedroom door.

Well we made it in...tired, hungry and very excited from a 15 hour long journey, which was surprisingly very comfortable. When we arrived we each left with our host families to be taken for a day of mostly just relaxation and conversation with our new hosts. I am staying with a family of 2 boys..well men really (24 and 27) and their parents. Their third boy who´s room i have is in New Zealand for awhile. It seems that people tend to stay with their families longer here, which i think is why the 2 guys are still here with their parents. They are all fantastic and have been so welcoming and kind....as well as patient with my lacking Spanish skills. The language here is very difficult to understand because of their speed and thick accents but it has been a great learning experience, and my Spanish seems to be coming back to me day by day. The mother of the family I am staying with has one of the thicker accents i have heard and she is constantly joking with me that i don´t understand a word she is saying, all in good fun. All the people i have met thus far seem to all have great senses of humor. The father of the family here especially is constantly going on about something, he cracks me up.....i think he gets a kick out of my antics too. I havent laughed and smiled this much in a long time....

During the days we have been doing a lot of touring of the city (Santiago), eating, professinoal tours, walking and conversing. At night we have attended one Rotary meeting where we gave our first presentation, have gone out with our families, spent some time with each other, and yesterday went to a mansion in the mountains to spend the day with our counterparts who are now on their way to North Carolina.

It has been a rich week thus far full of cultural education, great food-wine-drinks, laughs and constant photo opportunities. I am so greatful for this trip and am excited for all that is ahead!!

Vamos!

So, here we are, the 2009 Chile GSE team. Left to right- Erin, Adair, Mike, Stan (team leader), Melinda and myself. Every meeting thus far just keeps building the excitement for the trip. I've really enjoyed getting know our team and think we have a great mix of personality, intellect and humor to make for a wonderful month in Chile. I am still working out the details but plan on staying in Chile and traveling around for a few weeks after the rest of our team departs back to the US on May 15th. Not sure what my itinerary will be after the rest of the team goes back but I think it should be an adventure, more to come on that. We will be leaving on April 14th for Santiago....I can't wait!!