Nuestra Vida en Santiago de Chile

Hey everyone!!!

This is Jason and this is my personal blog to all of you guys (all the previous blogs have been by my dear little wifey Anna). So, sit back and enjoy my perspective on "Our Life in Santiago de Chile."
Well, as Anna said before this is our hostel here in Santiago. Everyone in the program is staying here too and we all eat meals together. For the most part it is a nice Hostel and the food has been actually very good (no 5 star meal, but not horrible like you normally seem to find). Anna and I chose to pay a little extra each day to have our own room instead of bunking in the dorms that are upstairs. The community or "barrio" is fairly quiet because we are located somewhat away from the Downtown centre.

Here is a picture of our little room at the Hostel. We have a street front room that comes with a T.V., a shower, a sink, and a decent size bed. I am glad we did decide to get our own room because otherwise we would not have a lot of time together (we are always with the other volunteers so having a quiet place is nice). I am really excited about getting our own house or appartment so we can finally un-pack and settle in for the next 8 months. We are not sure right now what kind of place we will be living in (house or apartment), but someone in the program is working it out for us. We were told today that we are leaving this Saturday at around 11:30 pm and taking a bus all the way up to Copiapo'!!!! The bus ride is around 14 hours so that is why we are leaving so late at night. Supposedly the buses are really nice and better than the seats in an airplane. They have bathrooms, comfy plush chairs, food, movies, etc. Yeah!! So please be praying for safe travel and that we will get a nice place in our new home town.

The picture on the left is a banner of the English Opens Doors Program that was at our Opening Ceremony that took place at the United Nations building here in Santiago (above picture). The Ceremony was very cool and took place in an auditorium inside. Several important people from the Ministry of Education spoke and there were a lot of photographers and news people. Supposedly we made the nightly news and the newspaper, but I wasn't able to find them.

Here is a picture of a news reporter interviewing one of the guys who works for the Ministry of Education. This took place after the ceremony when we were all getting coffee and snacks and several of us were interviewed by different reporters. I believe they said that this is the first year that they are trying to market the program to the public at large. All the years before they worked on letting schools know and get the word out internationally.

So, this is a picture of the Instituto Norteamericano where we have been going for Teaching and Language training. The Institute is a great place to meet and the classes have been helping a lot.

Ok, so this is "La Vega." Today we got to go on a Cultural excursion and Anna and I chose to go to the Mercado Central or "Central Market" and "La Vega" which is a produce market. We first went to La Vega with our guide Jim who is from New Zealand. It was like all the other markets I've been to in other countries, but a bit crazier and with WAY more fruits and vegies.

The picture below on the left is of a new fruit Anna and I had today which is called a "Pepino Dulce". For all of you spanish speakers out there "pepino" means cucumber, but this "pepino dulce" is more like a little melon. It is soft and lightly sweet, tasting a bit like a honeydew. Yum!!! Anna and I also bought a pineapple for light 1,000 pesos which is around $1.75 or so! We also got some other funny looking unknown fruit and a little papaya. Fruit and vegies are very cheap there and I really hope that we have a Farmer's Market like this one in Copiapo'. The pic on the right is of course Anna at the market.

Well, it has taken FOREVER to download these pictures so I am going to have to end here. I will post more pics tomorrow of the Mercado Central and tell about our "different" sea food meal :)........