Lack of sleep

Well it has been a little while since I updated this. To be fair, I have sort of been holding it ransom in the hope that my Mother might send me an email, but seeing as it is nearly the weekend again I thought I had better get around to doing it (though I am still without said email...)

Last week was a standard teaching week without any major dramas. I was late to a couple of classes because there were some crazy protests going on in town and the metro station I needed was closed so I had to walk. And I managed to walk INTO the protest instead of away from it... But they were clearing it from the other end of the plaza so while all the people were heading towards me, the water canon and the riot police and horses were still a wee way off. And there was no tear gas so it wasn't too much of a problem. It was very noisy though, with lots of whistles and sirens and yelling and things... Anyway, that is all pretty normal now. And there seemed to be a bomb scare or something near the office another day and they closed the main street and I had to do a massive detour to get to class. Again, lots of police and plenty of rubber-neckers, but not a lot of action from what I could see as I scampered past.

Thursday night was Cueca dancing (see a previous post on Cueca). There was quite a large group of us as one of the girls from the office came with her friends, Shawn brought a couple of gringas who are staying with her, and there was the usual suspects there too (my Chilean friends). Every time I go I improve, and other people apart from those at our table are starting to ask me to dance which means that maybe I look like I half know what I am doing! Was a fun night as always, and I got home very late, and had to struggle out of bed for my 9am class..... Though I shouldn't complain as Naty is a teacher and she doesn't teach in town. Her classes start at 8am in Maipu, so I am guessing she probably had to be on the metro at 7am, which probably means a maximum of 3hrs sleep....

I had class all day and then we left for Pichilemu straight after my last class. We arrived at a reasonable hour, and after doing the shopping other people started turning up. We had asado (BBQ) and quite a party. Shawn brought her two girlfriends with her on the bus, and they actually speak less Spanish than me (one of them none), so I could see just how much I have learned. About 5am in the morning we decided to go to the beach. Everyone will be pleased to know that I managed to remain fully clothed and (mostly) out of the water. My pants got a bit wet.... Probably for the best because I had a ridiculous cold that meant that I had had next to no voice all week. I don't imagine the cold air and water (think Dunedin styles) would have helped it too much... I think we went to bed about 7am, and I was up again at 9.30am because the kids wanted to play with me. I tried unsuccessfuly all day to have a nap, but could not sleep. It was annoying. We went to town and had some fresh ceviche by the sea. It is a peruvian dish which is very popular here in Chile, made from fish and lemon mushed up together with a dash of Chilli (if you are really lucky - Chileans don't eat hot food). This ceviche was clearly really fresh and quite delicious. We went to the feria and bought a whole lot of veges to make an enormous pot of soup to feed everyone, always fun shopping with the chileans. Everything is so disorganised and it takes about half an hour even to make the most simple decisions. Seriously, its like working on island time. Lucky I don't have a problem with island time!!

Saturday night was another grande fiesta. We had Churipan (chorizo sausage and delicious maraqueta bread) with pebre (garlic, chilli, tomato and onion pureed and it actually is spicy) just for me. It was my special request, and I had about 3 or 4.... We had navegado, a type of mulled wine, with orange in it heated on the BBQ. LOTS of people turned up, I think there were probably about 30 people, and it started to rain. I don't really know what happened then because I went to bed (around 3.30) as the lack of sleep and naps totally caught up with me and I found myself no longer able to comprehend either Spanish or English. I believe the party wound up about 7am again... When I got up there was mud everywhere and they were using a tractor to pull the cars out. Reminded me of a one-day event we had up a Quigley's actually... So I felt right at home wading through the mud to take my bag out to the car! The car driver was a bit tired so I had to talk to him all the way home, in Spanish, with no voice (my voice had disappeared again by this stage). It was amusing for him I think. It took me until Thursday to catch up on sleep... everytime I sat down I fell asleep. I was late to my class on Monday morning because I slept through my alarm (but my students were later so it didn't matter), and late to my evening class because I fell asleep on my bed and didn't wake up...

Seriously, I don't know how these Chileans manage it. Take Nataly for example. She was out dancing Cueca with us on Thursday night - around 3hrs sleep. Friday night she went out in Santiago and danced all night then her and two friends got in the car at 6am (without going to bed) and drove 3hrs south to Pichilemu, pitched a tent and had a couple of hours sleep. She was up again at 11am though - 2hrs sleep. She managed to party much longer than me on Saturday night, and was heading to bed around 6am, but was up again at 9am when everyone started to leave - 3hrs sleep. Then she had to work on Monday at 8am in Maipu, which means leaving her house at 7am, which I assume means getting up at 6.30.... And they wouldn't have gotten back to Santiago any earlier than 10pm on Sunday night.... I do not know how they do it!!!

Anyway, talking to the others last night it seems I wasn't the only one struggling to stay awake this week so at least I know these people are human! Last night was Cueca again, and it was the most fun I have had yet. I am actually getting the hang of it, and I danced with lots of different people. It helped that our table actually had an even number of males and females rather than being female heavy as it usually is. We danced until the place closed (around 3.30am), and I hardly sat down all night. I am finally understanding something in this crazy country! For so long I have been useless at everything - the language, the dancing, the customs... but it is beginning to become clearer to me, though I still wouldn't say I dance well!

Anyway, I have to go to class. There is a whole lot of other stuff I want to put in here, but I don't have time right now. And the photos will ahve to wait until the next post too because I don't want to be late to class, and it is pouring with rain so I have to find my jacket etc.

Mas pronto,
KiwiKaz