Itchy Feet or Homesickness?

It´s been a few weeks since I touched the blog, but tonight I find myself with some time to spare for the first time in a while. It´s been GO, GO, GO for the last while running around (in my only pair of respectable shoes) doing interviews and sitting in (like a big plant) on demonstration English classes and the like. But, at last, I am working - boring the pants off (i.e. teaching English to) executives in various companies around the city. So far, I´m enjoying it even though it´s pretty demanding. It involves a lot of hopping on and off the Metro, preparing classes and writing up reports. Also, I love the students I have. They are really lovable, and I thought I´d explode laughing when one of them gave me a little present of an alarm clock during the week. It was so nice! (and I really DID need an alarm clock...) So, all in all, it´s going well, and the Institute I work for are very pleasant to deal with and very encouraging.

BUT.....

Atfer all that, after happily having made up my mind to settle here for a while, two things have happened.

1) It seems that $100ish a week isnt enough to live off here in Santiago. Iif I stay, the rest of my travel kitty will be gone in a matter of a few short months. If the Institute feel that I dont suck too much at the whole teaching thing, there is always the possibility that I may get more hours...but ´taint a certainty! So...Im faced with a dilemma....Do I love Santiago enough to dwindle all my savings here and simply return home having not seen NZ, Australia, etc.....?

2) I have suddenly become the victim of a SEVERE bout of homesickness. It´s Ennio Morricone´s fault, so I´ve boycotted his music in future. I was wandering around Santiago last Sunday in super form until "that song from the Aer Lingus ad" (Gabriel´s Oboe) came on my MP3 player. As I walked, I thought nostalgically of our national carrier, it´s sad decline into low-faredom, my family´s various employment histories with the company, the beloved members of my family, our faithful dog and cat, my bed at home......(you get the picture). Since then, I have been on a major DOWNER...tearful...checking out airfares....staring for hours on end at pictures of Aer Lingus aircrafts....

However, if it came to actually booking a flight home, I´m pretty sure it´s not something I want to do yet. And so, I started thinking that maybe I just have a dose of itchy feet again. Staying too long in one place causes you to make too many comparisons with your life at home, and maybe the homesickness would be easily cured by just getting back on the road again. I have until August to get to NZ before my working visa becomes null.....and I have yet to see Buenos Aires and Rio de J. before I have completed my SA leg...

What to do......what to do.....I really dont know.

Apparently, getting work in NZ is effortless, and I could earn pretty good money there, which would fund the rest of the trip back home...

HELP!!!!!!!!! Advice/suggestions appreciated........

Confused Ev.

My First Flirt with the Law

Well, it finally happened! After four careful months of watching my back and never leaving my belongings out of my sight, my bag finally was nicked in probably the safest area I have been in yet. On the same day of my last blog entry, as I sat gassing on the phone in a very respectable looking internet cafe surrounded by suits, some fiend managed to manoeuvre it right out from under my leg. That horrible sick feeling came over me when I looked down and slowly realised that it was gone.

Luckily, I had gotten into a habit in Peru and Bolivia of never carrying more than one card with me and usually very little money. So, on this occasion, there was only my Mastercard and about the equivalent of US$3. Unfortunately, by the time I got to cancel the card it had been used in a department store, but thankfully not for a huge amount. Here in Chile, when you offer a credit card as payment you are required to show some form of photo ID, so that probably meant that the thief had trouble racking up sales on it.

There was little in the bag that cannot be replaced. What I am the most upset about is the fact that my camera was in there. Usually, I never have my camera around Santiago (mainly because I live here now and have just stopped taking photos) but this particular day I brought it with me to download the photos from the memory card. Anyway, the camera is covered by insurance, but I have lost all my photos from the last few weeks. Those, i can never get back. So, the thief got almost nothing from taking my bag, while I lost all my personal belongings (he/she will no doubt just toss those somewhere without a care).

Surprisingly, I wasnt as upset as I thought I might be in such a situation. Its more of a bother than anything else, havng to go and make a police report, source receipts for insurance claims, etc. Pain in the ass.

Ian, the owner of my hostel, very kindly came with me to the police station downtown to file a report. We were met with a boorish sullen looking tub of a guard who had ZERO sympathy for me or my loss. He looked like he positively loathed his job and sat hammering away on his keyboard, pissed at all of humanity. Ian and I beamed at him continually and in the end, he cracked a smile of sorts as we were leaving. Off we went to drown my sorrows in fits laughing at the state of him.

Today, I am back at said internet cafe with my bag welded to the chair beside me, killing time before my English teacher training begins at 3:30pm. I have 2 hours of training before I hve to give a demonstration class. I am NERVOUS! Wish me luck!

The Job Hunt Begins

Oh, its good to be back to the warmth of Santiago! This time I decided to stay in a different area of the city called Bellavista, and happened upon a great hostel where I may even have a job for the next while. Its run by a very friendly American ex-pat (there seems to be lots of them living here in Chile) who knows everything there is to know about the city and is being very good in helping me to get settled.

This morning I had my interview with The Santiago Times, an English newspaper, and have been offered a position, although after careful consideration I have decided not to take it. Initially, it is not going to pay well and it could be some months before I actually get to do any writing. I was disappointed that the job was not what I thought it might be, but never mind, there are lots of things I can do here.

And so, the job hunt begins in earnest! Tomorrow, i´m hitting the English schools around the city to see if they are looking for teachers, and I also have a few other contacts in the city who have told me to get back to them and they will see what they can find. Hopefully, the hostel job will keep me floating for the time being.

The next thing I have to do is enroll in a Spanish course - this, I am really looking forward to. Having landed in Lima, nearly 4 months ago, with ZERO Spanish, I am now getting quite good at understanding conversations, although cant string much together myself. I hope, after some proper classes, to really improve!

It will take some time and effort before I can settle in, but Im looking forward to spending the next year of my life here.

Al Fin del Mundo

Okay, I´m getting a bit lazy about this blog thing, I know. Ive been pretty busy for the last ten days or so. Once again, I left Santiago and took a bus, this time to Puerto Montt in the lake district. It was cold and grey there and I was glad to be just staying one night. Far from a picturesque place, it looks like what I imagine a small Alaskan fishing town to be. The local people looked a lot different from their fellow countrymen in the North - it seems that the further south you travel here, the whiter people´s skin in and they have longer facial features.

Anyway, before I go off on a tangent about faces, the following morning I was up bright and early to catch the NAVIMAG ferry. In hindsight, this was an excellent decision and well worth the money. Over the course of the three day trip, we passed some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, saw whales, dolphins, otters, shipwrecks and lots more! On the first and third days, the ship was navigating through narrow channels, which meant that the water was quite calm, and so it was pretty pleasant. The second day, however, we were out in open sea and there were lots of green faces and projectile vomiting! On this day, the boat docked at a tiny little town called Puerto Eden, which was interesting because 15 of the 200 inhabitants are pure-blooded Kawesqar people. They look completely different to the CHileans, looking more like Asians. It was a strange little place and seems to be really cut off from civilisation.

Then something completely random and unexpected happened! I was chatting to this aging American hippy called Jeff about matters Irish, when the guy sitting beside us decided to put in his two cents. The minute he opened his mouth, it was obvious he was Irish, so obviously we struck up a conversation. I thought I vaguely recognised him, but couldnt put my finger on where I might have seen him before. Anyway, after about an hour of conversation, he mentioned that he was meeting some friends of his down in Patagonia. Something clicked in my brain because I knew one of Brian´s friends was going down there, so I said to him "Youdont know Dave Nevin, do you?" To cut it short, it turns out that this guy Fergal was in my brothers class in college and they share common friends. Its funny how small the world is really. As I was also heading to Ushuaia, we spent the next few days travelling together and it was great to meet up with Dave.

Ushuaia is absolutely amazing and is exactly what the end of the world should look like! It is surrounded by huge mountainous towers which lend it a very dramatic feel. The town itself is small and very touristy but not in an unpleasant way. We stayed in a great hostel there, one of the best Ive been in so far in South America. Proving yet again, how small the world is, I met an Irish guy who knows a friend of mine quite well and then a girl from Newmarket on Fergus who knows my cousins! There were a lot of Irish in Ushuaia, which was interesting.

Myself and Dave climbed a glaciar and had a great laugh slipping and falling all over the place. Another day, I got on a boat down the Beagle Channel which I hugely enjoyed. We were blessed with good weather for the days we were there. I didnt get to see any penguins, unfortunately, as the feckers have all migrated at this time of the year. Its getting very cold now. I did see lots of sealions and king cormorants though, so that kept me happy. Our guide on the boat was excellent and I found the history of the area fascinating. For example, 6,500 years ago Shamana people used to live in these tiny little huts on the islands of the channel. They didnt wear clothes - can you imagine being naked all the time 1000km from Antartica!! The females of these tribes were the ones who swam searhcing for food (naked) - typical! The men sat in the boats tending fires which were lit on a mound of stones in the middle and waited for the women to swim back with food. The Beagle Channel is divided right down the middle bewteen Chile and Argentina and is bio-oceanic, opening to the Pacific on one side and the Atlantic on the other.

Due to some bad research on my part, Im now stranded in a place called El Calafate. I took a flight up here yesterday, foolishly assuming that I could continue by bus on to Bariloche and then on to Santiago from there. People warned me about the lack of good transport down here at this time of the year (the minute the summer months pass, everything starts shutting down here) but I didnt heed their warnings! This morning, I found out that I cant fly out of here - all flights are full for a few days and I cant even fly on to Buenos Aires! So, the only remaining option is a 36 hr bus journey to Bariloche leaving at 3am. Yuk! Its looking like thats what Im going to have to do.

Normally, none of this would bother me as I have as much time as I want, but during the week I was called for a job interview in Santiago and I promised the guy I would try to be back within the week. He was pretty understanding, given where I was at the time (Ushuaia) but I got the feeling he wouldnt wait forever either! so I need to be back in Santiago by the wknd. Ive made up my mind at this stage to discard my wokring visa for NZ and spend the year in Chile instead. Working in NZ is probably just going to be like working at home really, and here I get to continue perfecting my wobbly Spanish and experiecne a different life. So, Im praying that this job works out.

So, the travels are going to be put on pause for a year, and hopefully I can pick up where I left off after that.

Turning 27

Wel, as most of you already know, it was my birthday a couple of days ago and what a treat it was to be celebrating it here in Chile, although I have to admit I did feel a little homesick as I usually spend it with Brian (my younger brother). His is the day after mine (pause to perform ritual birthday dance for Brian - Happy Birthday!

It turned into a sort of three day celebration - the gang in the hostel were looking for an excuse to party - an i got some pretty thoughful gifts from some of them. I think Ive said this before, but the smallest things mean so much when you{re backpacking. My favourite present was a pair of jeans which fit like a glove! from my German friend Markus. On the afternoon of the 5th we had a great outdoor lunch and splurged on a decent bottle of Chilean wine. It was great to be just lazing around in the sun contmeplating life as a 27year old!

Latera couple of the hostel staff took me out for a birthday beer.

Matt and Sky didnt get back from Mendoza until the following night so we waited until then to go out dancing. One thing I{m really going to miss about South America is dancing -the people here seem to be born with rhythm and its so infectious! There{s no such thing as sitting on a couch for the night in a club nursing your drink.

Anyway, reluctant as I am to leave the warmth of Santiago, tomorrow I{m off to Puerto Montt to catch the ferry to the tip of South America. I{m hugely looking forward to it, although its getting very cold down there now. I have no idea whether I will be back in Santiago again or not. I might just keep going to Argentina and Brazil from there, but I{m finding it hard to let go of this city.