Los perritos de la calle, "The Glacier of my Heart," and a blind man that meows...

How-do-ya-do?

I'm fantastic. A little bloated, but fantastic. The people in my program are amazing, I sometimes don't stop laughing for hours it seems. Thanks to everyone who comments on my posts, I love seeing that people are actually reading my blog! I am in a week long orientation program which is so incredibly bo-ring! They are re-teaching the TEFL course I just completed and I can't help but think that I could be using this time to explore the various Santiago neighborhoods and buy miscellaneous crap instead of beng cooped up in a conference room. I keep on nodding off in orientation and even woke up today with an imprint of my jacket's zipper on my face! Ooops! I never did learn well in warm rooms packed full of people.

Fortunately, there is a lunch break and we have these coupons/vouchers for 2500CLP ($5USD) that can buy you a very decent meal. After I had lunch yesterday with my new hilarious friend Angela, we were walking the streets checking things out when a blind man popped up out of nowhere, grabbed my arm, and in the creepiest voice possible said, "Meeeeeooooooowwwww." (Think alley cats in heat). I firmly told him "NO!" and then ran away. I can't say that has ever happened before....and I hope it never does again. Becca, you would have cried/laughed/peed your pantaloons!

One of the things that really kind of bothers me about Santiago/Chile are the 1,000s of street dogs. It is NOT that warm outside and these poor babies have nowhere to get warm and curl up. It absolutely breaks my heart. I have been trying to smuggle them into my hostel with no success. And to make matters worse, these castaway dogs have been driven into madness from years of rejection. They actually play with MOVING CARS. They'll chase cars in traffic, bitting at the tires and mud flaps. Can you believe that? On my way back to the hostel Sunday night, I was followed by an adorable dog baby I named 'Terrance.' He trotted happily along by my side, stopping to chase cars and motorcycles along the way. He was so sweet and only wanted to be loved. Luckily I had my friend Sara run up to our room to grab the leftover steak from lunch I made my friends save so I could feed the dogs. Terrance and his new dog novia (they met outside my hostel it was pretty much love at first sight) had the best meal of their little doggie lives! The bright side about the street dogs is that they are really well fed, Sasha would be pretty envious of some of the meals they get to eat. There are also many doggies fleeces that people buy and put on some of the dogs. So the people of Santiago basically feed and dress the street dogs but they don't take them in.....WTF? I may be bringing Sasha back a doggie brother or sister....It's better than bringing home a baby!

So far, I have had two BRILLIANT ideas. We're talking genius concepts here.

1. I have decided to write an epically romantic movie about finding love in the Patagonian wilderness entitled, "The Glacier of My Heart." I am not completely sold on the title and some other options include "Of Glaciers and Patagonians/Men," and "Gone with the Glaciers." Let me know if you have any ideas and/or suggestions. My friend Angela will be writing the accompanying rap/theme song to the movie and some possible lyrics include: "The Glacier of my heart/it happened from the start.." Any friends and family members wanting to be in the movie have to come visit me or it's NO DICE BABY!

2. My birthday is on the 24th of September and my friend Megan's birthday is September 9th. Since we'll both be in Magallanes, we have decided to do a birthday booze cruise to ANTARTICA. Angela has agreed to reveal/perform the rap song to "The Glacier of My Heart," (I will de doing the accompanying interpretive dance, of course) and we are going to try to find electric snow suits.

Tomorrow I will be meeting up with my dear friend Peter and we will be going out with a couple of Chileans, I can't wait. Apparently there is an on-going party every Wednesday night in this castle, which sounds like a lot of fun! It's now midnight here, so I'm gonna have to wind things down. I have a walking date at 7am so I can work off some more of the meat and potatoes I can't stop eating (I have thrown ice cream into the mix)! I am also looking into buying a gym membership so I can maintain my músculos/throw down if necessary. I don't think I have shown off my 'guns' since I have been here!

I love and miss you all!

¡Besos y abrazos!

Keeley : )

Partial Weekend Re-cap/I don't feel like putting it all into one post

¡Hola!

Well my first weekend in Chile has been a 'whirlwind' experience. So many things happen in the span of an hour, let alone one day! I thought my program was going to be small and that everyone would be in Patagonia. Turns out, English Opens Doors/Inglés Abre Puertas is a program throughout Chile. People have placements in the North, in Valparaíso, and in Santiago......and I'm in Patagonia???? I definitely should have done more research. All of the participants in the EOD program are staying in the same hostel in Santiago, so there are plenty of new friends to explore the city with. I am on the fourth/top floor of the hostel and had to haul my suitcase up 4 flights of stairs....luckily I did not get a hernia or pass out. I am staying in a small, 6 person room with bunk-beds. Not only am I on the top bunk but my luggage locker is high off the ground, so taking out items to wear or even grabbing my freaking toothbrush is quite a process for my 5'4" self. One of my new friends knew someone in the city and he (Roberto) has been taking us on daily expeditions to various neighborhoods and on several hikes. Roberto is a photographer and has been showing us very beautiful parts of town. I'm so glad we have been hanging out with him because until then I had only seen pretty hideous sections of town that made me seriously doubt coming down here. I will hopefully figure out how to post pictures on this blog/facebook/snapfish.

I hiked up two different mountains yesterday and got quite the workout! The second mountain, San Cristobal, was a nice 40 min hike UPHILL that made any entry point to Chataqua/Mt. Sanitas seem like a joke! I would have totally taken the tram to the top but other people in my program decided to walk, and since I have been on a straight meat and carb diet since I arrived I thought it would be good for me. By the time I got to the top I decided that I would rather be fat and bloated than hike that ever again.

The food here is...well...interesting. Italianos are everywhere, but since I am not a fan of mayonaise, I can't get down with hot dogs smothered in both avocado and mayonaise....at least not every day. My favorite meal so far is called 'Biffe a la Pobre'--a huge piece of steak next to a huge pile of french fries topped with two eggs and fried onions--it's delicious! I ate it yesterday for lunch at a restaurant called 'Las Vacas Gordas' (the fat cows)...Now you see why I felt I had to go on that arduous hike!

I was going to get a phone my first day here, but other people in my program advised me to wait until I get down to my region so making calls to other people in my region/my host family wouldn't be as expensive. I have a skype account, but it's not letting me sign in. I may have to restart my computer.......just tried doing that and no luck. I guess I'm going to have to be nice so someone will want to help me...lame! (just kidding!)

More to come either tonight or tomorrow, there's just too much to put in one post! Hopefully my pic of Santiago will show up in this post!

¡Besos y abrazos!

Keeley : )

3.5 horas en Santiago

Flying to Santiago last night was a surreal experience. Every time I travel to/live in a new place the first thing I notice is the sky. The closer the plane crept to South America, the more exotic the night sky appeared as I looked out the plane window. We flew over Panama, parts of Colombia and Ecuador and right before the sun rose this morning the full moon changed from an iridescent white (more like a buttercream frosting color, similar to the hue of Anika's wedding dress) to a bright, fiery orange. Have you ever really looked at the moon? The dark markings are almost a mirror image of North America's progression into Central and finally South America.....I made this profound discovery in a somewhat delirious state around 4 am after a couple of 'adult bevys.' Tomorrow I could be convinced that the dark markings in the moon are the spitting image of Ross Perot shaking his fist in a dilusional fit of rage! Flying over Chile and descending into Santiago the clouds took on a serious stratus shape that I had never seen before and there were bushes and snow scattered in foreign patterns over mountaintops. I arrived in Santiago this morning at 8:30am! I have met up with 4 other people in my program (English Opens Doors) and after eating italianos (hot dogs with whipped avocado and mayonaise piled on top) for breakfast we are waiting to check into our hostel in its lounge. And yes, it IS chilly in Chile! I'm so glad I brought numerous pairs of tights!!!!!! If I'm cold in Santiago, I'm going to freeze my culito off in Northern Patagonia!

Hey-ohh---now there are 10 more people in my program at my hostel....gotta go!

¡Besos y abrazos!

Keeley

Dubious Delta and adventures in the HOTlanta airport

I had expected my first post to be from some romantic/cool café in Santiago but I'm going to have to settle for the International terminal in the ATL airport. Here goes:

My Chilean adventure began with a minor anxiety attack after waiting in line for an hour to check my bag and get my boarding pass yesterday. After hearing that my flight out of Denver was delayed TWICE and that I had 10 minutes to make my connecting flight to Santiago, all attempts to be mature went out the window. My flight ended up leaving two hours behind schedule and all I could do was cross my enraged fingers and hope that my Santiago flight would be delayed as well. When I had landed in HOTlanta the kind gentleman next to me helped me find out the status of my next flight.....it was still boarding! A wave of hope rushed over me and when we parked at the gate I attempted the impossible: pushing 21 rows of angry, slow geriatric passengers out of my way so I could run to my gate. I had made it all the way to row 7 when a "lovely" man and his sloth-like wife informed me that they had a connecting flight to catch as well and fully blocked my way......15 minutes later I got off the plane only to find out that my plane had left 10 minutes earlier. Then came the embarrassing part.....all of the people I had pushed out of my way walked by as I waited in line at the Delta counter, casting me murderous glances and viciously whispering to their traveling companions. I would like to apologize to the passengers of flight 2016 Denver to Atlanta, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

The good news is I have made several new airport friends, including Ray and Tuck, two Australian businessmen who very graciously tried to buy me a gas station barley soda only to find out that you can't buy liquor after midnight in the ATL. Today I had to check out of my hotel by 12:00 (the latest checkout time) and since their were no shuttles back to the airport, the GM of the hotel drove me back here in his BMW convertible (not too shabby) . He advised me that everyone should google any possible recalls on their vehicles because it can end up saving a car-owner mucho dinero (Frankie-I immediately thought of you when I heard this, it's your kind of tip!). And now I'm here, halfway through my 10 hour wait to fly out this evening at 10. At least I figured out how to make my blog! I have two meal vouchers left and in about 2-2.5 hours I will find out if they can be used on liquor.

The saddest part about missing that flight last night is that I could have spent part of today in Boulder, wishing the sweetest most beautiful dog in the world a happy third birthday. Sasha Siracha Cestare aka 'Haru,' is now three years old, which means that in human years she turns 21. Since she doesn't like beer, hopefully someone will give her a strawberry starburst (her favorite candy).

Well, that's all for now, if there's another flight delay I advise anyone who is opposed to 'strong language' not to read past the title of my next post (you'll know).

¡Besos y abrazos! (Kisses and hugs!)

Keeley