Home, Sweet Home...for a little while

I have been home now since the 7th of July and truly enjoying the summer weather and time with my family and friends. As always, its rather odd returning to "normal life" after an amazing experience abroad. I often tell people that each time I come back I feel like I have to recouperate from the intensity that comes from life abroad and reconcile the new person I've become as a result of my experiences there and then integrate them with my life here. This time is especially unique because of the other changes going on, such as Mom's diagnosis with breast cancer and the fact that I'll be moving to Nancy, France in three short weeks for the next year! People keep asking me about my next trip and so I wanted to let everyone know what its all about, and that I will be updating my blog from there!

I'll be leaving on September 7th for Paris and then heading directly to Nancy, France where I'll be working under professors to teach English classes. I have English majors in first, second and third year, European Studies Master's students in first year, and one year English Diploma students. Right now, the classes seem like the easy part of this endeavour. When I arrive I have to find an apartment, set up a bank account and my paycheck things and basically deal with the pain-in-butt that is the French bureacracy...ahhhh, the joys of travelling...and all of this must be done before I receive my first paycheck at the end of September and hopefully before my classes start.

Here's Nancy's location. "The metropolitan area of Nancy had a population of 410,509 inhabitants at the 1999 census, 103,602 of whom lived in the city of Nancy proper." So, it sounds like a decent sized city but not too big. Below is the center of town called Place Stanislas:

All in all, I'm really looking forward to this experience and I want to invite everyone who wants to take advantage of the fact that I'll have an apartment or a little studio that will have its doors open to you! Please, come and I would love to show you around my new city and if I have time, travel around with you, too!

Oh, the randomness of life in Chile...

Where to start....travelling is one of the most exhilarating and yet weirdest feelings ever. I am struck all the time by the oddity of it all. Maybe I´m not making any sense here...I guess maybe I should show you some of the things I´ve been up to here in Chile and you´ll understand what I mean when I say that you NEVER know what´s going to happen here. Its like adventure finds you wherever you are, even if you don´t want it to...hahaha...c´est la vie...

So, a couple weeks ago, I headed to Isla Negra, a small city south of Viña where there is absolutely nothing to see other than Pablo Neruda´s house. Pablo is the most famous Chilean poet. He won the Nobel Prize and he has houses all over Chile, one is in Valpo and I showed it here on one of my earlier posts. This is the beach in front of his house and its is really beautiful, its no wonder that this was his main house.

He´s the house from the front, and where I´m standing is the location of Pablo and his last and third wife´s grave. All of Pablo´s houses are really excentric. He was an avid traveller and therefore his house kind of resembles a museum. I wish I could have taken photos inside because there are some really interesting things. His living room is full of his collection of those statues that are always on the front of boats, there's a large collection of shells and bugs and china from all over the world and really anything you can think of is there.

This sad looking llama is one of the animals that I saw a week ago in a tiny town about 20 minutes away called Quilpue. He looked so sad, probably because this was a flaite (sketchy) zoo with really poor conditions for the animals and too small of cages. Pobrecito...

I have been getting together with a Chilean, Tomás, every Thursday for the last four or five weeks for "Intercambio de Idiomas". The university sets you up with people to exchange your respective languages so we meet up and talk in Spanish and in English and share lots of cultural insights and in general, just have fun. Well, Tomás is a rock climber and last week he invited me and my friend, Kate, to go to the Isla Oceanica which is a cluster of rocks, shown here:

You can look out over the ocean and then if you climb down in between the rocks above, you'll be where Kate is in the picture above this one. There are tons of climbers there and Tomás let us borrow his stuff to climb a small rock. It was by far, one of my favorite things I have done so far, very exhilarating even though I feel and now have a large cut on my elbow and a bruise the size of a softball on my leg that is now purple and green...kind of pretty, really.

And here is the Isla Oceanica from another view point, and it is now my computer background. I'm constantly amazed by the beautiful views here and will definitely miss the ocean and the beach when I leave. Its truely breathtaking!

So, that's my last couple of weeks in a nutshell, always exciting and always an adventure.

Besitos a todos!

e

Ex-Carcel

Last week I explored the Ex-carcel in Valparaíso. Its an old jail that amazingly just closed down in 1999 and has been "renovated" into a cultural center and park. Basically is is covered in tons of grafitti. It's really quite intriguing. Here is what the entrance looks like:

Various classes and workshops are offered in rooms that they've made out of ex-cells, I'm assuming, and most are based in the arts. They also offer various theater performances. While we were walking around there was a drum circle practicing which added a certain intensity to the experience. You can see them practicing on the right side of the picture. Erin is enthused...

Once you walk farther in, its quite maze-like, but there is one big open area that I'm assuming was the "recreational area" for the inmates and it now serves as canvas for various artists. I think it would make a nice area for frisbee...

Here are some of the interesting pictures covering the walls of this old, creepy prison:

"Preso de mi mismo" - "Prisoner of myself"

Ben enters the circo...

And is eaten on the other side...

Although it doesn't show up well here, this is my favorite...

This artist does lots of work throughout Viña...

Well...hope you enjoyed...un besito!