cabin, snow, etc.

Vacation time! School ended on happy notes; I didn't teach any classes, just caught up with any remaining kids who hadn't taken my test.

WorldTeach has a non-optional Mid-Service Conference, but we're happily ensconced in a cabin near Termas de Chillan. I'm currently watching the World Cup final (Spain vs. Netherlands; no score yet, but Spain is dominating the game) in between munching raisins and peanuts and reading The Devil In the White City, a pretty good research narrative about all the crazy stuff that went down around the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. I recommend it, although there's a serial killer involved, so there's a few short grisly bits.

Termas de Chillan is the actual resort, and we're about 8km away. I'd made some motions toward going up the mountain, to check out the hot springs, but once you get a 25-minute walk from the cabin, you reach a sort of staging area, little shops with equipment rentals and snacks and hats and everything. From there, if you don't have a car, you hitchhike the remaining 7km, up a slow mud road. As I stood there in the sun, watching a couple cars not stop for me (including one that stopped for Brandy and Heather 30ft farther down the road, although it could be they just wanted to stop once? I dunno), I thought harder about what I really wanted to do with my day, and discovered that (a) I don't really like hot springs that much, and (b) it was going to take me all day to get there and back. And I was hungry.

Instead, I bought some homemade yerba mate, walked back to the house, ate sandwiches, and parked myself on the couch. It was lovely.