Sometimes It Takes A Year

Massive chicken asado at the Charlie's for his veterinary school graduation.
The irony of the animal doctor having so much meat just dawned on me.

   Hey, everybody.  Matt here.  How've you been?  It's been a while since we posted last and we've definitely been on the receiving end of good news.  Enough chitter-chatter, let's get to talking about me (and a little about Sara too).

A Super Hog from Hogs.
Super delicious & super messy.

   First of all, I finally got myself a good job.  I'm not guiding, modeling (though that was great), or tutoring English anymore.  I'm a full-on teacher at Nido de Aguilas, one of the best schools in Latin America (from what I've heard/read).  A teacher there became quite sick mid-year and they needed an immediate replacement for US and global history; I can do that!  My classroom is at the highest point in the school and has a great view of the mountains.  I also came into the school year in time for their "Week W/o Walls" program, which had me rock-climbing with the kids all this week - very cool.  Many thanks to all those who provided recommendations/support during the application process (especially Phil, Brandon, and Eric).

Palestras del Manzano in Cajon del Maipo

   I've also been working on my own rock climbing skills.  I've been hitting the rock gym nearby at least 1-2 times a week and also got out to the rock with a gringo-friend I'm making.  I led my first 5.8 sport pitch the other day, also very cool.
   I'm still making PB, especially now that I'm working at the heart of the gringo community in Chile.  A lot of the people I've met at the school's first question was "Are you the peanut butter guy?"  Demand is up and I'm now able to afford a bottle of wine a week from PB sales instead of a sip of cheap beer.

Maida, Marita, & Sara on Teacher
Appreciation Day

   Another very nice surprise, one year into our time here in Chile, was receiving a large check from the NYCDOE.  Not going to question that one too closely as it arrived just as my final bits of US money were departing from my bank account.
   Sara has been doing what she does and doing it well.  She whips her 3rd graders into shape and has them producing great stuff.  She also got to take trip to Maitencillo (a beach town) for the long Dia de la Raza weekend.  Dia de la Raza is celebrated the week after Columbus Day in honor of the creation of Latino peoples.  I couldn't go as I had to work my final weekend at La Bicicleta Verde and was sick.  It seemed like she had a great time.

"Cheers in heaven!" - Ina @ Vero's B-Day

   We've also been having good times with friends.  We celebrated Charlie's 30th birthday/graduation from veterinary school, had roof top beer-tasting/asado, learned to make beer (very interesting, possible new hobby), and general shenanigans.
   We have a 3 day week next week for All Saints Day and are likely heading out for day trips to BBQs and Oktoberfest; oh how I love meat and beer.  We hope that all is well with you, wherever you are, and that you let us know how you are and what you're doing soon.  Don't forget to vote!

Maitencillo, Chile

Anniversaries Old & New

About 5:30AM at the Pichilemu fonda, no sign of stopping

Don't worry, she got some meat and then
peed on Sara.

   Hey, everybody.  Matt here.  Spring has officially sprung here in the southern hemisphere.  This means it's starting to get into the 80s and we likely won't see more than a couple of light rain showers until April or so.  With the arrival of Spring has come plenty of other good news and events.
   First of all, we are just a few days shy of celebrating our 1-year anniversary here in Chile.  It has really flown by and we've learned a lot.  Luckily, we have both received our (pending) renewed visas, so we will be here at least one more year.  There is still plenty more to discover and do.

Choripan at the Santiago fonda, cueca in the background

Lobo en route to Pichilemu, all is well

Gettin' fish-eyed/faced to start a long night with Fernando

Post-cops & flood depression for horse-man

   The 18th of September (Dieciocho) was another important anniversary here in Chile: the 202nd year of independence.  The holiday lived up to all the hype that gringos and Chileans had been giving it.  The holiday is already 3 days long, and as it fell on a Monday-Wednesday that added an extra 2 days for the weekend.  Most Chileans were looking down the barrel at at least a 5-day party.  I haven't partied like that since college.  The celebration kicked off marvelously on Friday: we went to 2 BBQs, Sara got peed on by a dog, the cops came, I saved a house from flooding (with science!), and we listened/danced to some great music (Many thanks to Fauna and GreenLibros for hosting).

The Pichilemu backyard replete with cacti and kitties

One of several multi-kilo cuts of meat, uhn.

   We followed up the first night with a trip to a fonda (public fair) here in Santiago.  They had lots more BBQ, crafts, and entertainment.  It was a nice relaxing way to recover from the previous night and prepare for the coming week, which took us to the surf town of Pichilemu.  Our friends, Ale (short for Alexandra) and Fernando, and their dog, Lobo, helped us to celebrate the Fiestas Patrias.  We were supposed to stay at a house on a hill overlooking the Pacific for the whole week.  It was a nice house with a great backyard and porch, but unfortunately lacked running water, so we moved into a hostel on the beach for the last few days.  

I think Lobo wanted something

   In Pichi the serious Dieciocho-ing began: BBQ everyday for hours, lack of running water led to increased beer drinking (Medieval Times!), and staying up late to party.  One night, we stayed out at the fonda in Pichi until about 6 in the morning, and it was PACKED at that time.  It was almost impossible to move around under the tent, but that didn't stop people from getting very strong piscolas and dancing.  Sara & I took it a lot easier after that night, but continued to eat a lot of meat (a few kilos BBQed per day).  Overall, it was a very fun and relaxing time at the beach.  We closed out the week back in Santiago with a small brunch at our friends, Beth and Allen's, house which was very stress-free way to end the non-stop festivities.

Fun 25-part kite from China, thanks Mom & Dad.

Sara & Ale watching the surfers at Punta de Lobos with churros

   So now it's back to work for Sara and back to bike tours, tutoring, and PB for me, ho hum.  Oh, and a big CONGRATULATIONS! to our friends Josh and Drew on their marriage, we wish we could have been there (there's a package coming to Josh's parents' house).  We hope that all is well with everyone at home and abroad and that we hear from you soon.  Please post pictures of yourselves and what you're doing; we're out of the loop.  On the note of being out of the loop, I just saw Gangnam Style for the first time....wow.    

"Wish you were here!"

Dieciocho Approaches

At a hip-hop show, not the red-light district

Tried to climb this, park entrance closed because of too
much snow.  BS!  Wish I knew this before hitchhiking
5 hours to get here.  The red chopper is for the mines.

Hey, everybody; Matt here.  What's up?  So we've been here for almost 1 full year, and this time we'll catch the Dieciocho (18) celebrations.  The Chilean independence day is a 3 day holiday called Fiestas Patrias.  The flags have been going up and we're seeing many people dressed in traditional costume and dancing the cueca.  These things mean we're all one step closer to the big celebrations; here comes the asado (BBQ).

Santiago "winter."  Flowers blooming behind Sara on
the path up Cerro San Cristobal

Damn.

   It's been warming up rapidly here even though winter doesn't officially end until later this month.  With it warming up, we've been trying to get outside a bit more.  We took a visit to the Concha y Toro winery just outside of Santiago the other weekend. It was a perfect day to go tour a large Chilean estate, take in a cheesy video about the Casillero del Diablo (Devil's Cellar), and drink wine in the sun.  It's also recently been perfect weather to head to Bellavista, summit Cerro San Cristobal, and end with a nice meal.  We saw wealthy Santiago on parade last weekend at the Chile Lindo (Pretty Chile) festival in Parque Bicentenario, the city's newest/nicest park.  It's in a luxe part of town - Vitacura - so all the beautiful people were out enjoying the weather, culture, and overpaying for concessions.  Sara saw a lot of cute puppies, natch.

Massive asado in Parque Bicentenario.

   Many thanks to the Boyoraks for sending Sara a new camera.  It's been getting plenty of use as the winter hibernation ends.  I especially enjoy the "fisheye" function; it reminds me of that fun period in the late 90's when rappers used it. 

Concha y Toro vineyard.  Cool Araucaria pine
tree in the background.

   In other news, that Quilmes commercial is now online.  You can see it here (it's the "Quilmes for Export" clip).  Now to get paid!  The brief piece I'm in provided me with a free, all-expenses paid trip to Buenos Aires and (soon) a sweet paycheck.  Glory to International Male Modeling.
   We changed our plans for the coming holidays; instead of San Pedro de Atacama (hella expensive now) we're heading to Pichilemu, a surf town a little south of Santiago, with some friends.  It should be a nice vacation and a good escape from the city.
   That's about it for news from us.  We hope that you had a great Labor Day; wish we could have been there with you.  Good luck to all our teacher friends as the new school year begins.  Please send us email, regular mail, skype, photos, etc., we want to know how you are doing.

BYE-BYE!

Cumples and Kittens

Birthday boos.

Greetings all- Sara here.  The last few weeks have been fairly normal for us down here in sudamerica.  We have been working and spending time with friends.
Last weekend, I celebrated my 28th birthday with parties, cakes and lots of chocolate.  First thing in the morning my wonderful friends and carpool buddies, Maida and Marita, picked me up with a car full of celebration- they had sweet treats with candles, presents and lots of singing.  It was a great way to start the day.

"Kit for a Lazy Day" from Charlie and Vale

Once I got to school the celebration continued- the kids were VERY excited about my birthday.  They could not wait for the party to give me my presents, so all gifts were given by 8am.  I received so many lovely things- chocolate was the overwhelming winner.  One child gave me a mug with her picture printed on it.  That officially made me feel like a teacher.  After the fury of gift-giving I had a meeting with the other third grade teachers with a delicious cake (for breakfast!)

After the meeting, I knew something fishy was going on in my classroom since all the lights were off and the children were screaming- it was a surprise party!  The kids completely organized the party themselves with costumes, snacks, decorations, music, the works.  The parents told me that the kids didn't want their help and that they wanted to do everything for the party themselves.  They did an amazing job with everything and really made me feel special.  Though 27 8-year olds hyped up on cake, chips and soda made for an interesting rest of the day.  They seemed surprised when they starting getting headaches and tummyaches- lesson learned, maybe.

Why so sad bread?

Looking forward, Matt and I are planning a trip to San Pedro de Atacama (the desert up north) for my September vacation.  We'll probably spend five days there adventuring and exploring.
We miss you all and hope you are enjoying the summer.  Please keep us updated with your going-ons via email, skype or snail mail.

Matt drinks Espressotinis like a boss.

Vacationing

See Argentine Congress, make dumb face

We danced!

   Hey, everyone; Matt here.  I meant to update last week, but hey, life happens.  We just got back from a vacation to Argentina and Uruguay for Sara's winter vacation from school; it was a ton of fun.  It was also nice to finally get to see the Andes from a plane; the range is huge!

That's a lot of sausage

Plaza UN's GIANT Flower

  We spent 7 days in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  From the apartment we rented, we made daily excursions to the city's many parks, cafes, museums, bars, restaurants, and neighborhoods.  Buenos Aires reminded both of us of NYC in many ways (big-city feel).  The Evita museum was really cool: intimate, lively, informative.  Of course, we also had the requisite massive meat-meal.  The dinner took over 2 hours to get through and we were dining the whole time.  Needless to say, I loved it.  Going to Teatro Colon to see the symphony was cool as well.  We had super-nosebleed, standing room tickets, but we had a perfect view and the acoustics in there were stellar.  Going out for delicious Argentine pizza after was definitely the right call.  One night we took some dancing lessons at a really cool space.  Sara's friend, Marita, was in Buenos Aires so we met up with her and went to a late-night disco.  When we were leaving at 4am on a Wednesday, people were still lining up to get in.

Not touristy in the least

Post-Symphony Pizzas

   From Buenos Aires we took a ferry across the Rio de la Plata to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay.  That was much nicer than bus/plane travel.  Colonia is a small place that used to be a Portuguese fort town.  We were able to adequately explore it in 1 day.  We did get to see a beautiful sunset over the Rio de la Plata though.  Sara was elated that there was a dirty sea dog there to watch the sunset with us.

Old and young ladies dancing at Bar Fun-Fun

One of the larger dog-walking groups we saw

   The next day we took the bus in to Montevideo.  It was their Constitution Day, which is a national holiday.  We were hoping for parades/fireworks/etc., but found a ghost town.  That was OK as I had accumulated a substantial stink by this point and needed to do laundry.  The hostel we were at (which was great!) didn't have a dryer, so we got to spend our first night drying socks and such by the stove (romantic!).  We spent the next two days in Montevideo seeing the sights and experiencing the life.  We had an awesome meal one night called chivito, which is a steak covered in a ham, covered in bacon, covered in eggs, covered in cheese, and served with french fries.  After taking the night to sleep that off, we rented bikes and toured the coastline boardwalk/beaches/parks.  At the Bar Fun-Fun (pronounced foon-foon) we saw a great band and had a bunch of grappamiel (honey and grappa), the national beverage.

Angry-Sexy Montevideo

    Since then it's been back to Santiago and working, ho hum.  It's Sara's birthday this Friday (the 3rd), so we're having a party.  I suppose after that there will be more to tell.  Maybe I'll just have to make something up.  Until then, we hope all is well with you and look forward to hearing from you or seeing you soon (whichever comes first).

Ah, memories.

On Music, Models, and M-Words

Peruvian hamburgers & expensive Bud, AMERICA(s)!

The Lyonses & some hungry friends

   Hey, everyone; Matt here.  The OK times are rolling!  We hope everyone had a sunny/explosive 4th of July.  Enough about you, on to me (us)!

Wine & Chocolate tasting; thanks, Emily!

   So Davin and Molly left town at the end of June with Davin's brother, Teague.  It was great to have good friends very close by for so long.  However, visas expire and people land jobs (way to go, Davin!).  We're actually renewing our visas right now to legitimize another year here (living the Chilean dream).

Part Bowie, part B-52s, Of Montreal

   We saw an awesome concert the other night at a small venue in Parque O'Higgins.  Of Montreal was playing with Fredi Michel.  We had front row spots for both shows.  Of Montreal put on a fun, energetic, androgenous, and super-hip show; we'd strongly recommend you see them live if you can.  Fredy Michel was not very good, they attempted to make up for lack of musical creativity by having a semi-attractive frontwoman basically strip-dancing.  She was not a very good dancer.

Filmed in a TGI Fridays, this is stereotypical
American according to Argentines

Some of the other models, the Japanese guys were super
fun.  The Italian woman was clearly popular.

   So I did land that gig as a model for Quilmes in Buenos Aires.  It was incredible.  They flew me out on Sunday night, paid my visa fee ($160), and a man with a sign picked me up.  The company put me up in a swank downtown boutique hotel (+free breakfast!) and gave me a big wad of cash (per diem too?!).  It turned out that they had flown in a bunch of models from LA for the commercial too, so I had plenty of fun/beautiful people to hang out with.  They were all very excited for me and accurately summed up the experience, "Everyone is going to be super nice to you and you won't have to pay for anything."  By Wednesday, when they flew me back, I was exhausted but in a very good way.  The commercial/paycheck should arrive in about 2 months.  I strongly recommend international male modeling to whoever is considering it.

Sara making a serious Aww face at the market

   Sara was a real trooper about not showing how angry she was that I was living like that while she was doing real work here in Santiago.  I have a completely newfound respect for her and all elementary school teachers after having worked as a 5th grade substitute on Friday.  That is a ton of work and those kids need a lot of attention.  

Vale's (late) birthday dinner

   We had a bunch of fun the last two weekends with friends, newer and older, going to dinners, BBQs, and bars.  We've also been preparing ourselves for our vacation to Buenos Aires & Montevideo.  We leave tomorrow, so today has been busy busy busy.  We'll be back on the 21st, so hopefully we'll have pictures and adventures to post then.  Until then, we hope all is well with you and that your summer (or winter for the Chilean readership) is going swimmingly.  As a final note, the video below was taken during a particularly cold night.  We had not seen this here before.

That Sounds Good

Sunrise over Cerro El Plomo

Guerilla knits outside our apartment

   Hey, ya'll.  Matt here.  Just checkin' in to let you know we're still breathing.  We've been doing what we do down here while you've been doing what you do up there.  As you all gear down for summer we're gearing up for winter.  Let's get to the rundown of what's been shaking for us.

A delicious mouthful of Ass (chopped beef and onion).  After
my first piece of ass, I knew I'd want more.

   One of my students cancelled our Monday/Friday classes indefinitely, so now I have a 3.5 day weekend every week (assuming there is no bike tour, which has slowed significantly with winter's arrival).  I used my first Friday off last week to take a trip out to the mountains.  I went to Cerro Manchon in Yerba Loca.  It was fun - stormy, cold, and exposed.

Almost all ridge line to summit

At the German Fountain in Parque Forestal

   Sara has been working at school and making friends.  We went out with some teachers from her school last night.  Like teachers everywhere, they know how to celebrate the weekend.  Sara's Spanish is improving as well.  Our friend Emily sent Sara a bunch of trash mags which were a big hit, especially for Sara when she was sick last week.  When I caught Sara's sickness the magazines did not help.

Girl time, trash mags.

   I got a callback for that beer commercial, so we'll see what happens with that.  The callback was strange.  They were holding a smartphone with Skype up to a computer screen with my live video feed on it.  The people in Argentina on the other end of the phone will decide if I get the job.  It seems like a very unusual way to secure work.  If I land it I'll be in Argentina next week at this time.  Vamos a ver.

Us and Saint Pete in Lastarria.

Saw this on a bike tour, first really nice day in weeks.

   OK.  That's about it for now.  It's a beautiful day here and the mountains look great.  Sara and I are going to Davin and Molly's going away party tonight, luckily held at gringo hours (pre-2AM).  They will be missed.  Hope all is well wherever you are.  Godspeed.