Street Cleaning

Since I arrived, I have noticed a phenomenon on the streets of Santiago. Finally, I have inconspicuously caught said phenomenon on camera.

Look there. There in the background. There is a man sweeping the sidewalk. With a house broom. He is making sure that every last little leaf is cleared away. Evidence of the thoroughness of his task is the clean sidewalk in the foreground. I can assure you that before he swept the sidewalk was not covered with big orange maple leaves like Upstate New York in the fall. No, it just looked like a normal sidewalk on a tree-lined street, with some fallen baby summer leaves and grass clippings.

 

People like their sidewalks CLEAN here. I remarked about this to my Spanish profe and she said, "What do you do in the U.S?" and then she quickly answered herself with a knowing smiling, "Ah, you must use a machine." No, we just let the sidewalk be the sidewalk, right?

 

I snapped the photo while walking from my apartment to a language exchange at a bar. I hadn´t walked for a minute more before I came upon another man sweeping. I think he was the building´s concierge. He stepped back inside for a momento and I got a shot of his tools resting against one of the trees whose leaves he sweeps.  

 

 

Perspective

I love looking up at the sky through leaves. It is a strange thing to like, no? But I like seeing bits of sky and sunshine and the different colors of the shaded, and not, leaves. I remember one time, while I was living in D.C., walking under a flowering tree with a friend. I tipped my neck back as we passed and said, "Pause while I glorify myself." So dramatic, but I mean it. That´s me.

A change perspective makes things magical for me, like this living green drape.

Braids

Yesterday I went to an expat potluck. I took the bus, called a micro here, and it flew down the quiet New Year´s day streets. A lot of people stay out until 7 or 8 a.m. on New Year´s Eve, so the city is very quiet on New Year´s Day.

 

Anyway I got off the micro a stop later than I had intended to, in the Bellas Artes neighborhood, but that´s ok because I came across this mural. I don´t know how the artist made it look so realistic, especially with a wall as her canvas. I love the braids and the overt mysteriousness.

 

Who was she? Who is she? Who will she be?

 

Who will I be in the new year?

Happy New Year´s!

I have never been a big one for New Year´s Eve. Too much pressure and hype for my taste. But I do take time to think about how things were for me at this time last year. This time last year was not a good time for me. When I was home for Christmas last year I decided to take action on two things that would help me change my life: getting certified to teach English and yoga.

 

Here I am a year later living in a foreign country and doing both. And I am happy. I am proud of myself.

 

I celebrated last night at a friend of a friend´s house. There were six Cubans, three Chileans, and me. I love Cuban food, especially yucca.

After eating we danced to Cuban YouTube videos. They wanted me to choose a song, so I put on Clean Bandit - Rather Be with subtitles. We sang along and danced.

 

I have two goals for this year. One is to cause myself less suffering by accepting things as they are. The other is to live the present.

Oh, The Weather Outside wasn´t Frightful

Two of my coworkers came over to my apartment for Christmas Eve dinner. They are both Americans and expat travelers, like me. We cheese and champagne with peach juice for appetizers.

Over dinner we told each other our stories. We have all lived in Spain for a time. Anna actually lived in Barcelona for two years. Vanessa has lived in England and Austrailia too.

We had chicken fajitas for dinner, which isn´t Chilean at all, nor it is like anything I normally eat for Christmas Eve.  This was the first time time in my life I didn´t go to my grandpa Shea´s house for Christmas Eve. I called before my friends came over and my family passed the phone around. It was good to hear everyone´s voices.

After dinner we watched Home Alone. It´s just so American. I love that movie. So classic.

On Christmas Day, I slept late and then taught an early afternoon yoga class. I was really happy to see my students on Christmas. Though here Christmas Eve is the bigger celebration, which involves a family dinner and kids opening their presents. It was strange to see people doing normal things on Christmas, like going skate-boarding and bringing kids to the park. To me, Christmas day has always been such a departure from the normal routine, the normal things.

One of my English students gave me a box of gourmet chocolates. There are some unique flavors mixed in, like papaya. It is too hard to choose, so I close my eyes to pick one to eat.

Merry Christmas

My friend Leti and I made Christmas cookies! It was a marathon, as always. We baked for hours and blared Christmas tunes.

Let is so creative so I stepped up my game with the decorating. Eventually we ran of Christmas-y ideas for decorations. And started using purple icing.

Leti made this Chilean flag cookie. Our first Chirstmas in Chile.



Last Class

I had my last class with one of groups of students. We played Taboo, which is always a good time. They were befuddled by words like ´´broom´´ and ´´penguin,´´ but ´´Micheal Jackson´´ they got right away. At the end of class, they gave me this box of chocolate and thanked me. I love teaching.