It rained. Last night the wind was blowing ominously as we discussed how much we would miss the rain and we convinced ourselves that it wouldn’t happen. Not that three-hundred-some days of sunshine a year sounds bad, but there is nothing like sleeping in a rainstorm. For the first time in two weeks, I slept. I mean I really slept, like Rip Van Winkle kind of slept. After I woke up and stared out of the window for a while I made a cup of tea with one of the only two teabags I brought with me- it seemed a fitting occasion. I didn’t think I would miss tea this much and I didn’t think Graham would have the opportunity to miss coffee, but here we are in the land of yerba and nescafé. Several things have been very surprising, of course, but the lack of a single percolator in this forsaken country has been one Graham was not pleased to grapple with. I started drinking yerba mate a few months before I left the states but I have not yet committed to carrying a gourd and a flour-sized bag of leaves around with me yet. Therefore we have been reduced to “expresso” and cheap black tea drinkers; I know, sounds awful… J
Finding good coffee and tea seems to be the least of our worries and the quest is put in the pile with everything else titled “don’t worry, you’ll find everything soon. You’re not even settled yet!” Also in this category: an apartment, enough jobs to pay for an apartment, a pair of black shoes for less than 400pesos, enough jobs to pay for shoe habit, black pepper and a good meal. For the purpose of full disclosure, the quest for a good meal has not been first on the list due to the horrible illness I suffered from since the first night we arrived in Chile, but that’s another story that I will tell you in gruesome detail later. Also, Graham had a good meal: a steak covered in some kind of cream sauce with paprika. The best meal I’ve experienced so far was yesterday at Clementine, an adorable pastry shop on Aristides Villanueve (a really cool street with lots of nice bars, restaurants and expensive shops). Even if the food was terrible (which it wasn’t!) I still would have enjoyed myself because of the buckets of flowers, mosaics and general tea party (like you and your dolls playing dress up, not crazy politicians) feel of the place. Graham and I split a tostado (cheese toastie) and the most delicious buttery limon cupcake. I felt hopeful for the first time since we’ve been here. Is it sad that it only takes a delicious pastry to get me back on track? After our delightful excursion we had to balance it out with yet another horrendous meal at a place called Taco Bar. By the way, if you live in Nashville and you happen to walk by Mas Tacos, please eat at least seven tacos for me and ask Teresa if she would consider opening a new location Down South.
Graham made sure to remind me to say how “we’ve been making great strides” and “the people are great”. Please understand that while I may be a bit sarcastic and complain about my ‘white people problems’ sometimes, things really are quite wonderful here. Some of my favorite things so far: delicious and incredibly inexpensive wine, multiple plazas with beautiful fountains and glorious old trees, sunshine and 60° everyday, kind and generous people, the smell of bread baking at midnight, the ability to walk everywhere, cheap taxis when I don’t want to and jumping into teaching having no idea what’s going on. I will scatter my least favorite things throughout to hopefully make them seem more insignificant.
We are officially two weeks into our journey and I’ve just begun telling stories, so please forgive the lack of chronology in the coming posts. Adventures in teaching begins!
