Money, Going out, Lifting

The Chilean government like ours, has made new dolla bills ya'll! Yea they have made new bills for all their denominations of bills.  They have been doing it for the past year, I finally got all (minus one) of them together to take a picture of them, so you can see them.  They are colorful.  The bills here in chile have many many 0's.  It took me awhile to get it down into how much it exchanges over to the USD or US dollar.  All their bills are shorter and fatter than our USD.

The amounts for example:
The Chileans have a 500 mil peso coin.  This roughly equals $1.(no Photo)
1 mil or 1000 bill that is green(new) or white(old). =  roughly $2
2 mil or 2000 bill that is purple(new) or mostly purple(old). = roughly $4
5 mil or 5000 bill that is red(new), never seen the old ones for this one or the rest, however it roughly I= $10, sorry I didn't have one at the time took this picture...
10 mil or 10,000 bill that is blue. When I go to the ATM, I get majority of these(95%) and they = $20, like our ATMs(cajeros) with our 20's.
20 mil or 20,000 bill that is orange that = $40.  These are the worst and a lot of regular shops, like a liquor store(Botilleria) or the bakery(panaderia) do not have change for you, so you have to somehow break it to buy stuff.  However the good thing is I only receive 20 mil bills when I got paid by the bank/check/government, so its not like I get them often.

All estimates are rough, as the chilean peso right now is 473.6 to 1 USD

Going out.

Well in Santiago we bought a bunch of liters of beers, put them in a backpack went to the middle of the street and drank.(illegal).  Here in Arica most of the nights we go out to someone's house.  pregame there.  We usually have a 5th of rum, which is 5 dollars, and a 3 liter of pepsi/coke which is like 2 dollars.  This is easier to bring around and you don't need bottles for deposits, because with beer, a liter with a deposit is 800 pesos, a little under 2 dollars, but without a deposit it is 1200 pesos or 3 dollars.  Granted this is the cheapest beer, which is like their miller lite/bud light.  They don't have like a national beer that is higher up, well kinda, but it isn't much better.  Their higher beers that are popular here in Arica are Heineken and Stella Artios.  I love stella, but its too expensive to buy all the time.

Off of that tangent, yes we pregame at someone's house, we usually listen to music, but the Chilean's love music videos, not just music.  My host-family has a TV in their car for the little ones and they play music videos for them, They are normally newer songs, we have Shakira - loca, Beyonce - Single ladies.  Stuff similar to that.  However at houses we go to pregame at, people use their laptop's and connect them to flat screens for the videos and stereo systems(the big box with usually a cassette tapes and two large speakers).  After pregaming we usually go to a disco, not often to a bar.  However, we only enter the discos every so often, they have a cover charge of either 6 mil pesos($12) or 4 mil pesos ($8), however with the cover charge you usually get one free drink.  The drinks are super expensive inside about 4 to 5 dollars a drink/beer.  So we usually chill outside the parking lots with about 2 5ths of rum and 2 3liter's of coke.  This is our usual game plan for Friday or Saturday nights, however we sometimes pre-game at the isla(island) or peninsula, well it was an island and is now a peninsula, artificially created..  A lot of young people drive their cars there park on the side and drink.  I haven't done it on a Saturday only week days and maybe a Friday or two.  We do this obviously because the beer is cheaper at the liquor stores than in say a bar/pub.  And I don't think Chileans really like to drink in front of their parents, so this is an easy place to go.

I have been in the discos, just some of our friends are fomè(lame or kinda like 'sucks') and don't like spending the money, which is understandable, I mean we can hang outside the discos, which there are a bunch of other people doing the same thing, and pay 15 dollars for the whole 3 hours for everyone or enter each person pays around the same.  After everyone drives to the beach and again we chill with more rum and cokes, car stereos blasting the beach is probably empty and then at about 3 am it fills up to the max with cars and young mollusks like us.  We usually go downtown(where I live) to get some food if the shops have not closed yet or we just go home.  I get home around 6-8 am in the morning, and I like to sleep, so I sleep all day the next day...

I do miss going out at 9-10 at night, going to a BAR(not screaming to have a conversation) then going home at 2/3 and sleeping in a somewhat normal sleeping schedule....

Among others

They don't have nachos here in Chile. Instead they have papa fritas, which is the same word/phrase for potato chips or french fries.  The put everything you could image on them, well except jalapenos, but yea, meat, cheese, mustard, ketchup, and they eat it like nachos(think appetizer). Or something everyone can share as people drink at the pubs.

They don't have mountain dew. I am craving it, nothing like a nice cold can of mountain dew. Just writing that makes me thirsty/crave for one.  I miss my v8 fusion/acai juice too. They have OJ here, but it's not the same. I don't know if the chilean's do the same with the juices as they do with coffee (open a packet of something and pour it in water) but it isn't the same and I think my body is not recovering from me overdosing my body with Vitamin C everyday back in the states...

Lifting weights

Finally found a decent place to lift without paying an arm and a leg.  Since I only lift once or twice a week, I don't need to pay the 60 dollars for three months or the 15 dollars per week, but it might come down to that.  I have been to two other places, one was super super nice, but it was super super expensive. Like 8 dollars a day or like 80 dollars for 3 months.  I don't have 80 dollars to blow on going lifting in a nice gym.  The other gym that I go to now is only 3 dollars a day and is a bit worse off, however all of them have the machines I use, and the nicer place still has white rope for the machines.  They don't have like steel cables with rubber/plastic surrounding it, they just have white rope. It's kinda funny, and when I do lift everyone stares at me.  Not only because I obviously look different, but I am lifting a lot of weight and running around like a mollusk head banging to music.  I super set(do a set of lifts on one muscle/group and then don't rest and continue to do another lift on a different muscle group) everything and when I lift, I do a lot in a short time.  Doing some hand-cleans people were staring at me with a very confused look on their faces.  It was quite comical.  The best story I have at the gym is, at the super nice place there wasn't many people in there and their benches that hold the weight up are not as wide as the ones in the states.  Almost all of their weights are in kgs, but all 3 weight rooms I have been to, have plates, 45 lbs and 25 lbs, no 35 plates though.The difference is the size of teh bar where the wiehgts go, the Lbs are much wider, and the kgs are much skinner.  Anyway to continue, I use the plates with lbs not kg, because I am used to them(know exactly how much weight I am using).  And since their benches are not as wide, I was removing a plate while one was still on the other side and the bar flipped up and made a huge bang.  Haha, Yes I was getting starred at because I am a gringo, and they probably think im taking steriods(all the running around/non-stop lifting), and because I don't stop lifting for about 2 hours and then I flip a bar with 45 pounds on it.  So I look like a newbie. Haha well at least I thought it was funny.

Also, the gym across the street from my house has about 3 machines and no free lifts, basically none of what I use.  They do have spinning classes(on a bike), dance/exercise or um jazzercise classes, like karate/tae wan do/dance classes, all types of stuff for girls, but I see some guys in there as well. The nicer place I went to does the same thing and even the one I go to now has a wood floor and a  bunch of spinning bikes. Apparently it is very popular here, but it doesn't show in the everyday people you see, they are like people in the US and many don't exercise often.

I think lifting one or twice a week is enough, as I do walk to school everyday for about a mile, so walking 2 miles a day is good. Also taking salsa lessons helps.  I think that is helping me in my fight against the heavy doses of bread Chileans eat to retain my weight and not gain a lot.  However I believe I have actually lost weight, because I don't eat fast food here, or snacks really...

Last but not least was at a pub the other night with some Chileans I met, and Will Smith's Gettin Jiggy with it came on, They all loved it. Funny.  They love love American music, but have no idea what the significance/meaning of the words are.  They always say 'me gusta/encanta el ritmo' or I like/love the rhythm.

Strike 1, Strike 2, Strrrrrr....

This morning the students at my school went on strike.  Apparently the students tried to take over last night and the police were called and the students ran.  However, this morning the principle had a conversation with the students and let them in the school on the grounds that after our 'buenos dias' they would all sit down and have a conversation about this.  Well about 50 students, all high school aged, took over the courtyard. As I walked in to school they, and yes almost all of them are my students except the seniors. Had blocked off the door entering the courtyard.  A few maintenance people were protecting the door so no more students joined their cause.  However, I had no idea what was going on. I thought that our school was strict enough to where this wouldn't happen.  So some of my students were yelling at me 'toma', which means take.  Yes they took over the school. Took some pictures.  After an hour or two, the Carabineros came to get the students out. The students had barricaded the doors and tied the front doors down with plastic ties(i call them panduit).  Glad I brought my camera today.

Students locking arms holding down the fort.

Barricaded the door in front the teacher's lounge out to the rest of the school/courtyard.

Yes, they will probably stay overnight at the school, many brought sleeping bags and blankets.

Speech, probably telling the mob, that they are here for peaceful reasons and they shouldn't mess too much up.  In fact they did have a speech ready for the teachers in the teacher's lounge about being pacifistic and not wanting to do damage and what not.

Main door the students go through to get into the school aka courtyard(patio).

Reads: Si contaramos con todo su apoyo esto no sucederia. Meaning: If we had all of your support this would not happen. Obviously they are talking about the administration/teachers.  They don't believe the administration supports their side.

On my last post I wrote I little bit about why there is a national strike.  I asked again today. This time I got a somewhat decent answer.  The students want to lower the price of the university and/or the loans dealing with them.  It was explained to me that you pay around 1 million pesos for an education, by the time you finish your education it is near 100 million pesos.  Those numbers are hearsay, coming from a teacher, but they are protesting the government loans and the huge interest rates on them.

I did tell them that in the US, many people don't finish paying off their student loans until they are very old.  In fact, a friend of my parents is a lawyer, I think he said he finished paying off his student loans at 45.  So it cannot be much different. But in latin america if they don't like something they protest it.

A point to back that up or another protest, whichever you perfer... Have you heard about HidroAysen?

They(gobierno) play ads(commerials) on the TV on every channel I have watched since I have been here, about HidroAysen.  And this is the first time I have seen a government pay for ads on TV.

HidroAysen, Chile con energia. (with energy). As you can see the video has 1 star.

I have mixed feelings about this. However to explain, HidroAysen is going to be a huge dam in the south of Chile(near Aysen), apparently dams in general change the entire environment/habitat around the river/dam.  I guess the damn will flood a huge amount of land.  Anyway, this is what all the Chileans have been protesting. They are very 'green' in this aspect.  I see a different protest about HidroAysen every week on the news here on TV.  The other side of the story, with a dam, they can use it for renewable energy, clean energy and it can power a major portion of Chile. I have mixed feeling about this, because, yes power is good, but also we must fight to keep our nature preserved.

Another video, its in Spanish, but bear with me, it does have some video of the protests/march(marcha) against 

HidroAysen.  It is really being massively protested.

  Yes Chileans are green on the aspect of energy and nature, but perhaps they are, because they get earthquakes every other week, why would you build a dam?  On the other hand they are not green at all when it comes to plastic bags and littering.  Chileans have a huge problem with littering, they don't understand that no one will pick it up.  Granted they have government employees walking around with grippers and a huge garbage can, but there are so many stray dogs, and they don't use garbage cans for their garbage on the street.  So the stray dogs tear into the garbage and thus create more litter... 

Plastic bags, are mas or less worse, they do reuse the plastic bags for everything, for garbage, like the bathroom, but also for like sandwiches and really anything you can think of...  A quote from a fellow volunteer's blog about plastic bags:

The first time I  bought food at a grocery store in Chile it took me more or less then  30 seconds to dig through the plastic bags to find the three things I bought. After doing some heavy calculation and consulting via Skype with a few friends who are math professors, I came to this conclusion. This is still only an estimate so don't hold me to it. Two bags for every individual item. A bag for for Items that had been bagged and finally another bag to carry all the bags. I am sure they have some reasoning behind this. Maybe they don't want the bag that's carrying the bag that's bagging the bag to touch the bag of the avocado? Quantum bagging? After my first experience it might of got worse.  "You sure you don't want to triple bag that bag?" "Take some bags for the road" Every grocery store I entered I instantly had baggage! Eventually I created a game out of it. Who Could Leave The Grocery Store With The Least Bags. " I got 15 bags, how many you got?" " "16 bags, man……… they always get me with the hidden liner bag". You have to watch out for the liner bag. The liner bag is the bag they sometimes lay at the bottom of your plethora of bags to protect your bag, you know……, if something spilled it could potentially ruin your plastic bag. -Danny Lynch

I hope he doesn't mind that I posted that. But yes he explains it in a the perfect way. So they are gaining ground and losing some as well, in regards to being 'green'.

Relating this all back to the strikes, The students are supporting something they believe it, awesome! They should stand up and fight it(just like HidroAysen). However, their youth has been out of school, in the public schools for almost 3 weeks. Yes, I support the students, and I understand this is a great way to get attention for your cause, but your falling behind. You will all be at least 3 weeks late, and in respect to my school, only 2 days(I hope, today and tomorrow).  But still, that messes with all of our schedules relating to teaching material for the tests(we only get 4 hours per week with each class and that is 2, two hour class periods). So just like HidroAysen, weChile areis gaining ground and losing some, perhaps gaining a bit more on the student side, because they must make up all those hours, but who wants to go to school on Saturday?

Danny Lynch's blog:  It is pretty entertaining, I know most of you guys check this blog out at work, its another way to kill time, but his photos are absolutely beautiful, and I think is doing a great job of capturing Chile in pictures.

temblores, salsa lessons, national strikes

National Strike

So there is a student strike here in Chile at the moment. The students are protesting and striking all across the country.  However, since my school is semi-private, our students are not on strike. I do pass a public school everyday when I walk to school and they are on strike.

From the left: Education is a privilege, An education of quality not the amount. Large poster in the back, A better education.

So the students want a better quality education in their public school system. I was speaking with my host parents about this, they were saying that about 25-30 years ago Universities were free.  I have a problem with this.  I don't really think that College/University is for everyone, I learned this from my first college course at my university.  College has changed in the US from being a school/place of higher education for everyone, to a place where it pays better to have a degree. Granted I understand that it is harder to get a 'professional' job without a degree,, but not everyone should be a professional and in my opinion has dumbed down our higher education/universities.  People only want to get a higher paying job and don't really care for learning.  We do need cooks, mechanics, plumbers, electricians... Most of these kinds of people should be going to technical schools, granted most do, but some choose to go to college as well.  And I believe our system of higher education has turned into a 'technical' school/education.  This is the reason why I am very glad I chose to go to a liberal arts school, where you just don't take classes of your major, but of a broad selection of humanistic classes...

In the high school level the public school system in the US is pretty good. But there is a HUGE debate on whether a private/catholic school is worth the money(especially with teachers in the public school system).  In Chicagoland area there are many catholic high schools. I did go to one and firm believer in them.  In my experience, my high school was a college preparatory, yet having a high grading scale is not why I think it is the better option.  I believe having theology/a basis for faith is a very important part in the catholic schools.. I think it relates back to a liberal arts university. I don't think learning just the basics in high school and college is enough for a 'higher' education.  Receiving a education with a wide base of humanistic learning is far superior, because you can take different ways/methods of thinking to solve problems.

Off that tangent, here in Chile, the public school system is not even near the public school system in the US. Which is easily understandable, Chile isn't a third world country by any means, however it is expensive and their average salary is quite low to live like a way close to the US.  At least their public school system isn't close to the suburbs of Chicago.  It is closer to the CPS or Chicago Public School, spectrum(not exactly, but closer). And I can understand why the students would want a better education.  However, in my opinion, a better education is something you must pay for. I am behind the students here in Chile, but I don't think they will accomplish much.

In relating this to the private/public debate in chicago, better facilities doesn't always mean a better education.  I have found it deals with the teachers and students ability to want to teach/learn.  And in my experience my high school's facilities were not even near the facilities of the near public school I could have gone to. But relating this to sports, because I think it is a good analogy, my high school won multiple state championships in different sports, yet our weight room was a good 10 years behind. Again, it is not the place, but the attitude and want of the coaches/teachers/students/players.  Here in Chile the students don't have any outlets for sports, there are soccer teams, and a band.  But overall the lessons learned from being an athlete are far more important life lessons than just going to school.  Here in chile they are absent of this.  In sports you learn that sometimes your not the best, and you must work harder.  You learn that winning isn't always everything, but something your always striving for, but that hard work is more important and some even learn never to quit... You learn that without good coaching/hard work talent is meaningless.  I think that hits a big point here in Chile.  The students may have the ability/intellegence/talent to learn a great deal, but it's the want to do it, and this want is shown through their strike.

I don't know if that makes well enough sense, and I am sorry for kind  of 'preaching', but it is what I believe.

Salsa lessons

Going to salsa lessons every Tuesday and Thursday night for the next month, and may continue for the next couple of months. It is quite fun, especially learning in spanish. We really aren't taught the steps at first, just watch and copy.  I go dancing with the other two girl volunteers here and one of their co-teachers.  Us gringos don't have that latin flare, and even with my background of a few ballroom dancing clases, salsa is completely different.  Shaking hips, short steps, a big difference from ballroom.(or in my case, my 'recollection' of ballroom dancing)

Temblores

I think that translates to aftershocks. There have been about 4 or 5 here in Arica.  All around 2's on the ritcher scale.  There have been a few earthquakes in central chile(reason we receive the temblores), and those have been around 5 or 6's on the ritcher scale. I am quite upset, because I have yet to feel a temblor yet. Although I am kinda happy about that as well. I am somewhat scared of earthquakes/temblores because we don't have any in Chicago.

Chilly in Chile_Running around South America

Iquique

Haha, and no I have never seen a sticker like this in Arica, only in Iquique.

So I went to Iquique las weekend, we(Juan and Kevin and I) took a 5 hour bus trip there.  We met  up with some friends.  They have two very big malls in Iquique, they are very much like the malls in the US.  They sell everything, except for things that I want, like... dip.  However, they sell a lot of electronics, but the electronics are about 50-150 dollars overpriced.  This is because(IMO) Chile's population is not big enough for China to sell the electronics at the same price as they do to the US.  I mean we have near 300 million, while chile has around 17 million.  Anyway we met up with some other friends from Arica, they bought shirts and candy and some things.  I don't enjoy shopping, in fact I really don't like the mall. But it was something to do. 

Close to the malls in the US.

Also in the market, this is 100% FDA approved shark.

On Friday, I went out with all the Aricians(Ariqueños) went to a bar then disco then back to the bar.  Met a man who had a store in the centro or center of iquique, he was from Miami, but was Chilean.  He said he only lived in the Chile for two years while he was a baby, before moving to the states.  Anyway, we had the after party at his store, was pretty fun.

The next day is where we went another mall, and I left the Ariqueños to meet up with some of the volunteers from the program that teach in Iquique.  We met up kinda late(in US terms), went to a bar after meeting some acquintances just walking in the street, and went to the disco.  We danced all night until about 4:30 am.  Fun.  Before we went to the beach area, where there are a lot of tourist places, I didn't bring my camera with me at that time so I do not have photos...

By the way, we took a bus, like a charter/grey hound bus.  These are very popular in South America and are usually the cheapest way to travel.  They don't really have trains here(for commuting purposes). So all in all the bus tickets were around 20 dollars(roundtrip).

Lago de Chungarà(highest lake in the world)

For around $40(a piece), Kevin, Nicole and I went on an excursion to the Chungarà lake.  The bus was a little guy, around 13 people went with us, and lunch and breakfast was included.  We left at around 8 am. stopped at this church:

Inglesia de San Jeronimo, In the Valle of Lluta.

After that stop, we drove to the capital of the other province in the region. It is calle Putre. Since I am not that pretty and this photo is good, here is a picture of Nicole and Putre and the valley.

The region(or northern most state) is called Arica and Parinacota.  Parinacota is a tiny tiny town

Outside of the Church and a woman walking past in Parinacota.

To give you a time line of all this occurring, we left Arica at 8 am. We didn't arrive to the lake until around 3 o'clock.  And we didn't stop at each place for more than 10 minutes.  Anyway I have a lot more pictures of the lake, but I don't feel like uploading them, so you'll get to see them when I return home...

I snowboard in colorado the highest I have been is 3,680 meters in Winter Park.  This is another 1000 meters higher or 3280 feet(.6 miles) higher.

Two people in our 'travel group' got altitude sickness and both puked.  An old man and a teenager, the old man was nice enough to step outside the bus and vomit, while the teenager apparently didn't have enough strength to get out.  I almost vomited as well(from hearing it)... Anyway it was high and you couldn't walk more than 10 yards before feeling out of breath.

Me, Kevin, Nicole

The lake was really beautiful and I want to print/frame a picture for my house at home.  The trip was pretty fun and worth the money, I saw a lot of beautiful things.  I got home in Arica at 8:30, it was a long day.

Tacna

Kevin left Arica today, He is going back home.  This was one of the major reasons why I went to Iquique, and Lake chungarà.  Because he was going back to the states we did a lot of traveling/seeing things.  On Friday, we went to Tacna, Peru, which is a border town, like Arica, but obviously in Peru.  I have been hearing that it is super super cheap, and the food in Peru is delicious.  We ate Cerviche(they spelt it cerbiche) as the v and b has the same sound when you say them.  It was good, but nothing out the ordinary.  And I bought two handles of Rum, as I knew this was Kevin's last weekend, and he has been a good drinking buddy.  Anyway the handles were 50 soles together, at around 3(2.72) soles to a USD, that made it around 18 dollars for 2 handles.  Yes very cheap, about half the price in US and (have not seen a handle here in Chile).

Soles.

Willy

We went with our friend Willy, he drove us to Tacna as it is a lot faster than taking a bus.  Arica is seriously a 10 minute drive from the border with Peru.  It took us more time, filling out the 8 forms of paperwork than it took us to drive to the border.  Also, there is like a 300 yard like actual border inbetween the two border checkpoints.  Obviously this is all desert, but it kinda seemed odd to me.  After eating cerviche, we went into a casino and took our change from lunch and spent it on penny slots, we all lost, but it was fun.  There was a casino on every street.  The one we went into wasn't too big, but we got a free glass of pop from it.  After losing like a dollar at the casino we saw the arch and cathedral in Tacna.

St Louis?

Cathedral

After being tourists for a little bit we bought malta y huevos. Which is beer and eggs, with some cinammon sprinkled on top.  I was weary of trying it, but it was actually really good, and it will definitely be something I get again if I end up going to Tacna another time.  Also the Spanish was a little different, they spoke a little slower and use the word coche for car, which is awesome, because thats how I learned it.  Small things like that make me smile, I don't know whether it makes me feel at home or because I can finally understand...  All in all Tacna was not too much different from Arica, I would actually say the main street was pretty nice, but overall it was similar, minus the spanish and Peruvians look a lot different than Chileans.  I think the Chileans have more of the Spanish blood in them rather than the indiginious.

This happened on Friday and we returned to Arica in the night, I was freezing, because I was wearing sandals, shorts and a T-shirt.  Willy has been  making fun of me saying that I am never cold when we go to the isla to pre-game or just have a few beers.  Well I was cold and the term Chilly in Chile came about.  Even Chilly in Chile with Willy is even better...  Anyway I had to be back early, because my school was having some sort of party/show.  There was food, drinks(with alcohol, we all had a debate on whether this statement was going to be true or false) and shows.  They have TV shows like 'Mi nombre es' o 'Soy', in English My name is or I am, these TV shows have people dress up like a singer or band, sometimes Michael Jackson or Shakira, and they sing.  Well there were about 6 groups, 3 of them resorted to this tactic.  Men dressed as women, one used a long rubber flesh colored thing, for well, I shoudn't have to explain any further.  My host mom's group dressed in all black tights, painted their faces black and wore like hawaian style skirt and bikini.  They filmed this mind you, and the editing was pretty good.  They did a type of 'jackass' show and ran around Arica, got put into a paddy wagon, got weird reactions from passerby-ers.

The show/party was called Cafe con fe, overall it was funny, but I don't understand some of the humor.  They really like the slapstick type of humor, and or dressing up like someone who is famous...  After the drinkers stayed after to drink and I found out one of the teachers owns a pub.  We went there for after hours. Walked in at 7 am(i'm begining to get used to this).

Side note:

Last week all my students had their English tests, They have one usually once a month.  Anyway, most write in pencil first, and they overlap it in pen and erase the pencil under.  It's quite rediculious and takes a looonnnggg time for them to finish their tests.  Apparently for tests they must only use pens...

I have been in the newspaper for the upcoming Winter Camps here in Arica.  I didn't take a photo of it nor will I, and they spelled my name wrong, which is completely understandable since my name has been spelled wrong and pronounced wrong in my own native country.

Circo China de Pekin, tsunami drill

The Chinese circus of Pekin.

So my host family and I went to the circus last week.  This was my first circus I have ever been to in my life.  My host parents didn't believe me, and my host brother didn't believe me either.  He was equally surprised that I have never been to Disneyworld or Disneyland.  And since I have never been, I do not ever want to go.
 

They did all types of stuff. Climbing up poles, jumping through hoops, and as you can see having about 10 people on a bicycle. They even had one where the girls were spinning bowls on sticks, but I don´t think that was real, these girls had 3 sticks/bowls in each hand and were doing some acrobatic things... Anyway there was a payaso or clown between the sets and he was pretty funny, I think the most entertaining part of the show besides this lady:

Crazy right? I can´t even spin a basketball on my finger and this lady can spin a table on her foot. Overall it was quite fun.

Tsunami/earthquake Drill:

Last wednesday we had a city wide tsunami drill, but I think it dealt mostly with the schools, basically there was a loud alarm, and we all got to higher ground, some people/teacher/students were responsible for the little ones, they were cute. All of them had to tie their hands to one rope fo they didn't get seperated. Wish I brought my camera, but I was moving as soon as the drill started. I have never been in an earthquake, but apparently your supposed to get in/under a doorway.  Depending on how big the earthquake is, depends on how my time you have to get to higher ground for the earthquake. 8-9 on the ritcher scale would give you like 3-10 minutes, littler ones like 10-15 minutes.  That information comes from one of my fellow teachers, so its validity can be closer to word of mouth... Also all the ariqueños(Aricans) are waiting for a large earthquake soon, as they have not had one in awhile, by the way this program for the drills is only 2 years old.

My schol is in the middle of the coast about midway up. My house is near the centro/downtown which is to the right. The blue lines get awful close to both, but doesn't reach it.  This is a map of a larger scale Tsunami, or so I was told.

There was a body boarding competition here awhile ago, didn't make it to it. Rodrigo a son of a good friend of my host dad is big into it.  He was showing me all the different boarders online.  I guess it's like a world type sport, it really popular here in Arica.  I didn't se the competition, but saw the stands and all the stuff set up for it on that friday night.  We went to go drink at the peninsula/artifical island that night...