There is more to life than being alive.

Hey.

Man...what a weekend. I took a bus with a German buddy of mine up north. First we went to this little town on the coast called La Serena. We found a place to crash, threw our things down and headed straight for the casino. Lady luck was with me and I won 300 bucks playing Poker!

Off to a good start.



The next day we took a bus three hours inland to Valle de Elki and stayed in this little mountain town of Pisco de Elki. Its where they grow the grapes for their national drink, Pisco. Man I wish I could have taken you all there. It was like nothing you have ever seen.


First we enter this little town way up in the mountains. We are looking for a place to stay and a lady comes over and tells us how she rents the rooms of her house to tourists and that it will be way more comfortable than staying in a hotel or a hostel. We reluctantly jump in the back of her truck and head up the side of the valley. We go to her place and quickly discover that its a mini paradise. She lives on a large piece of land that is scattered with fruit trees and hammocks to chill in the sun. She also had three friendly big dogs.





The stars up in this canyon are like nothing I've ever seen. They were seriously so bright it seemed like you could reach out and touch them. Unreal.

One of the days we rented mountain bikes and the paid the lady to take us an hour away up another canyon. We road down in half the time it took to make it up. We couldn't have asked for better weather or a better time. It was nice to get out of Santiago and see the countryside of Chile.





On the way home we stopped in a town called Coqimbo. It has this giant cross that towers over a poor town.

Man its COLD down here!

Not too much has happened this month. I've been working a lot and saving money to travel and see South America. Below are a couple pictures of my students and a going away dinner that we made for some friends that left.

The first picture is of a lady named Francisca. When we started class she was getting married and moving to Brazil in three weeks. She wanted to brush up on her already fluent English because she was going to be forced to speak Portuguese in Brazil. She hired me through an institute to give her lessons 3 hours every morning (I had to get up at 6AM to go out to her office outside of the city) for three weeks! I want to see you try to plan a three hour class for a person who can already speak English just fine. So I taught her for two weeks until she decided that she was "too busy" to have class.



The second group of students are from Carrier, the multinational air conditioning company. They are forced to speak English with their counterparts in other countries and the owner hired me to teach the whole office English. I teach the beginners Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The intermediate and advanced (pictured) classes I teach on Tuesday and Thursday at lunch and after office hours. It has been fun because I have gotten to know everyone in the office.



I am well acquainted with the Santiago public transportation, to say the least, and I have made it a habit to bring a book with me everywhere I go. I read on the subway, on the bus and when I'm waiting for my students to show up. I just finished a book called A Sever Mercy. It wouldn't have been my first choice of a read but it was sent to me from my friend Heather in L.A. and I actually enjoyed it a lot. I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a book that will spark some deep thinking.



I just started a book by C.S. Lewis called The Screwtape letters.



Here is a picture of the Andes mountains that border Santiago. I have a perfect view of the reflection of the sunset against the mountains on my way to my evening classes.



It has been getting colder and colder down here. A few weeks back we had a week and a half of straight rain. After it stopped the moisture brought a bunch of bright green moss all over the city.



The last few pictures are of a dinner we prepared as a going away party for two of the staff leaving for Sweden. Johan and Ursula are a Swedish and Peruvian couple who have been working with us for the last month. Ursula made this super good Peruvian meal for us all.

The full experience

My South American experience wouldn't have been complete without a football match. Right? We were told before the game that Chileans and South Americans were football fanatics but I think we underestimated them. We showed up an hour early to the stadium and left before the game was over because we were told multiple times that it was dangerous going in and out. The video above was taken while the players came out of the locker room and onto the field.

The police were in full riot gear and lined the metro stops before the game and were waiting in full force after the game outside of the stadium. They wouldn't let us take pictures and it would have been stupid of us to pull out an expensive camera while we were out so we had to sneak some pictures. Click on them and check out the militant Chilean police.

I'll update more offten....I swear.

Hey everyone out there. Who is reading this? Am I updating this blog for anyone? Sorry its taken me so long to update. Heres whats been going on. I've been teaching English at Carrier, an American owned air conditioning company every day of the week. On top of that I have classes at an accounting firm and a private class that I'm teaching.

*NOTE* I have a new phone number! Its a local Colorado number and the calls are forwarded to my cell phone here in Santiago. I dont want to post the phone nubmer on the internet but email me and I'll send it your way. xJAMESAx@gmail.com

My camera has bit the dust and I'm looking at my options to replace it. The country of Chile taxes electronics so much that the same camera would cost 150% more here than it would in the U.S of A. I did, however, manage to grab the last bit of pictures that I took off of my computer.




I just found out that any picture on the blog can be clicked on to view it full size. The first picture is of a street dog here in the city. Click on it and look past the dog at the cool architecture in the city center. The next three pictures are of the same street looking in other directions.


The big white building is "La Moneda" or the Presidential palace here in Santiago. Pretty heavy security huh?



This is a mirror image of the Entel tour. Its a cell phone broadcasting tour but its used here in town as a landmark to give directions.



The last picture is taken "Uptown" which is also called "Sanhattan" or the Manhattan of Santiago. It has some of the coolest architecture that I've ever seen.

I have to jump on a bus and head to the closest bus outside of the country to renew my visa. So on April 30th I'll be going to Mendoza, Argentina, right across the Andy Mountains. If I have a camera by that time I'll post up pictures.