Andy

From: www.andyjcollins.com - go here for photos

Chileans Love Mullets

I don’t know what it is, but young Chileans love mullets.  I thought they went out in the 80’s, but they are fresh down here.  Everywhere you look, a person is sporting one, including our Spanish teacher.  I wish I could sneak pics of all of them and just make a post about mullets, but it hasn’t happened yet.

The first week in Chile went a little slow for both Rachel and I as we adjusted to our new lives here.  The city is always bustling and we can’t even escape from the noise in our room.  Buses are constantly passing by and the bar next door blasts Reggaetone (A popular type of music in Latin America). Right now the song Ride ‘til I Die by rap artist DMX is shaking the walls.

But we are adjusting and getting in the swing of things.  We are now in our third and final week of Spanish courses and we both started our jobs last week.  I am working at Catholic University in Valparaiso and Rachel is working at a British English School in Vina del Mar.  I like the work so far and am challenged everyday to effectively communicate with Fernando, the university’s main computer guy.  Rachel is a visiting teacher that rotates to a different class every morning to mainly converse with students in English. In the afternoons she will start to co-teach in an adult class and will take over for the teacher next month.

The weekend before last we made like Chileans and stayed out to the wee hours of the morning, almost late enough to see the sun rise.  We went to Valpo to check out a popular band called Chico Trujillo with other students from our Spanish school.  Of course, we couldn’t find the bar.  So we asked people where the Aduana Bar was, but in return they would give us these crazy looks.  Turns out, we were saying it too clearly for them.  Once Rachel mumbled the name, they knew right where to send us.  Fortunately, everything starts late here so we made it to the bar by 2:00am to see the band go on by 2:30 even though we were told 12:00.  Anyway, we danced to some Latin Ska with a packed house in a dimly lit, smoked filled bar.  Rachel danced with a couple of guys, who were of course sporting mullets.  One guy’s mullet even had dread locks and was died orange.  It was great!

This last weekend we decided to ditch the city and head for the hills.  We attempted to climb La Campana Hill in a nearby national park.  This was some hill though; the trail was only 4.2 miles long and it had an elevation gain of 4,000 feet.  Plus, I mixed up the buses and we ended up walking an additional 5K just to get to the park entrance.  Along the way we ran out of water, but thought we were close to the top and continued on.  Soon thereafter we ran in to some people coming down and learned we were at least 45 minutes away.  It was very hot and since I had recently gone through a dehydration bout last summer we decided it was best to turn around.  On the return we met a nice couple from Denver; it was pleasant to hear someone without an accent.  Then on Sunday we took it easy and witnessed Chile elect their new president, Sebastián Piñera, and attended a celebration in the main plaza of Vina.  Our host parents are beside themselves since they were going for the opposition leader Eduardo Frei.

Other than that, we have watched the Santiago orchestra perform classical music in an outdoor theatre and have taken a tour of Valparaiso with the school, where we took a boat out in to the harbor, road a funicular up one of their many hills and found places decorated with ‘graffiti art’ which it is known for.  We have also visited the beach in Con Con and got thoroughly sunburned, which makes it the second time for us.  It’s nasty; we have skin flakes coming off everywhere. =P

Catch ya next time,

Andy