09-30-08

Apuntes
September has flown by me, and I have come to the conclusion that, for better or worse, I will never get bored in my life. I thought I might find myself down here, in what my guidebook described as "a barren and inhospitable landscape" with tons of time on my hands to read and draw, but that has not been the case. Puerto Natales is a small town, and yes, there are only so may places to have a coffee or get a beer, but school, family, and other misadventures wind up making this lovely little city a fairly bustling place sometimes. Here are a few things I have been up to lately.

• Fiestas Patrias - Chile celebrated its independence September 18th, so there was lots of cueca dancing in and outside of school. Casey and I celebrated with my host family at a party at Colegio Natales--mostly slightly older folks and not too many in attendence in the darkened school gym, but we had a great time dancing cueca and cumbia with just about everyone at our table. Earlier that day, I told Nino I would help out with some of the games that the Club de Leónes was hosting for the town. (Nino is presidente.) I didn't realize that my volunteering would result in a marathon six-hour shift at Leónes HQ. I was running a game called "payasos," which involved shooting three tennis balls into three distinct clown mouths on a painted plywood board. Nobody won all day! The closest I got was a guy who made two of the three clowns. The grand prize was only a bottle of coke or a tin can of strawberries, but still I felt the game was too hard. Halfway through the day, one of the leónes asked me if anyone had won a prize. When I told her no, she was delighted!
• Sabores - The tastes I miss most from Chicago are those imported from abroad--curry, sushi, burritos, and yes, margaritas. This past week, in addition to enjoying some wonderful comida típica de Chile, I have been able to satisfy many of my cravings because I have finally had the chance to do some cooking. The Friday before last, Casey and I made a vegetable curry for ten people at our friend Ricardo's house, and the next week, another friend made some fabulous sushi, served in three boats--the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. We got together at my house this past Friday to watch the presidential debates and feast on homemade burritos and margaritas. Sure, they weren't as good as El Cid, especially since there are never any limes in Puerto Natales (you would need to go to Punta Arenas for that), but greenish lemons sufficed. I also made a banana cake for Paola's birthday and a large batch of "salsa de garbanzos" aka hummous, which she really loved! Kate made some excellent lemon blueberry scones as well...so it has been a month of great eating in Puerto Natales! (Not to mention we discovered two of the more
• Excursiones - Last Thursday, I had the chance to travel to Torres del Paine for the day with my alumnos. We had a great time, but it was a very long day of riding on the bus, having snacks, and using the bathroom facilities at the park--I think we only walked for about ten minutes all day. Luckily, we were able to listen to reggatone music for most of the bus ride (oh no!!!) since someone had the brilliant idea of holding up a cellphone/mp3 player up to the microphone on the bus, so it was especially tinny and horrible sounding! And right as we passed the Paine massif, most of the students were so fascinated playing with the curtains that unfortunately, we could not see anything! It was a pretty funny school trip in the end, and we did have a chance to talk to a very interesting couple who have lived in the park for ten years, researching huemules, which look quite a bit like deer. G4 has had the good fortune of being selected to participate in a speical envirionmental program with an organization called Explora--which gives the school funding to take trips like these and even sent a large group of our alumnos to Puerto Edén on the Navimag. This weekend, I am going back to the park with alumnos from the tourism program Polytechnic school to camp and hike part of the W. My host mom is going too, as well as Charlie, a very nice volunteer from Milwaukee. (I just noticed that on Ruta 9 toward the park, there is still quite a bit of countryside filled with mines from a war with Argentina in the 70s or 80s...will have to find out more about this soon.) All of us volunteers, except Kate who was working on grad school stuff, scaled Cerro Dorotea this past Sunday. Doretea his a large hill, with one very steep face, but the climb was well worth it and offered a beautiful view of Natales.