Since about the first two or three days here I've realized that I do so much more of what I want to do when I don’t have unlimited access to a computer. It's as though I live under a myth that a computer will help me do what I want to do, when really all I do is check many different networking and communication websites and end up switching between them so much that I trick myself into thinking I’m doing much more than I actually am.
With out having my computer here with me, I have been able to:
• Read Future Grace by John Piper, a book I’ve been meaning to read for a while.
• Read Romans and it's study notes.
• Write in a journal almost every day. Sometimes recording just the day’s events, other times including details, and things I've learned here.
• Started several lists:
o Characteristics I want my future home to serve.
o What I look for in a girlfriend/wife.
o A list of what I think my gifts are. Romans: 12: 3, 6-8
o A list of life goals/bucket list. I have 54 so far, and writing it is a blast, I highly recommend it. Nothing quite gets you excited for life like writing it does.
I'm planning on remembering this when I go back home and back to school in the fall. I'm definitely going to use my computer less, and not have it on as much. I've really been enjoying reading and getting to know myself more.
More than a week has past! I can't believe it.
We've found out that we don't start working at the primary school until this Monday, which is a little dissapointing, but we're just rolling with what's dealt to us.
We have very limited time to use the computers so I'm just going to share a few photos:
Meeting at Jorge Williams to get to know the school, see all the kids, and give the school a bunch of supplies we brought.
The sand dunes. About 40 minutes north of Valparaiso. I wish these were the dunes that are south of Lake Michigan where we go to school!
At the water on the other side of the dunes. Behind us is a memorial for Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean writer.
An amazing "Puesta de sol" from the sidewalk which winds along the bay of Valparaiso.
I finally made it here after a few problems. First, my plane from Boston to Miami was delayed (by fog of all things) by over an hour so I missed my 11:25PM to Chile. The next flight wasnt (its really hard to find the apostrophe key here) until the next day at the same time. The redemption was the hotel
and $35 in food vouchers I received. There was also another guy, Sasu, who missed the flight so I had someone to have at least a few meals with. He was going to Antofagasta (a city in northern Chile) to teach english for seven months (with a small stipend). After walking to a pharmacy for an international calling card I got to sleep around 3 and woke up at 6, 7 and 9 to call the Y in Chile, but no one answered. Luckily they called me back later and we made arrangements. Thats not all, once I got to Chile and putting my bags through customs and waiting for an hour, I was fined $200 for an apple I forgot I had, and thus forgot to claim! I tried to plead a little, explaining I was teaching english, not going on a vacation, and thus could use that money for good things, but to no avail. The only good thing about that catastrophe is that I have a nickname: Juan Manzana (apple in Spanish), and that any apples we see are an instant source of laughing.
Differences in Chile:
1. Meals are at very differnt times than in the U.S. Right now our meals are at 9AM, 2PM, and 8PM.
2. The 24 hr clock is very common here.
3. Unless you make an effort to pay someone back for something, they will not ask you to.
4. On the highway, people actually only use the left lane for passing, wish it could be like that in the states!
5. Very little food is imported, mostly just red meat. Staples like rice, tomatoes, lettuce, avocados, potatoes, chicken, is from Chile. Ive never liked avocado more!
6. Bus drivers are pretty crazy (but pretty fun, next best to a roller coaster), although maybe thats not really a new thing, hahaha.
Ì think thats all for now, more to come!
Its absolutely amazing here, a lot like San francisco, and very much like a latin american New Orleans where the wide streets and plazas are.
