I was on Chilean TV! Yes…the news is true. Yours truly…Kristen Dawn Mascarenas…was on CHILEAN TELEVISION! Unreal. A dream.
Where the heck am I? That’s the question that continually runs through my mind. Is this real? Am I really in Chile? Do I really live in Iquique? Am I really being interviewed for Chilean television? What is happening?
This past week has been surreal to say the least.
Now, I’m sitting in a hotel in Iquique called Bella Vista. It’s 11:30 PM. I have to be up and ready by 9. But I’m staying up extra late to download pictures and write about my amazing day. I want to get it down “on paper” before it escapes my mind…
So, we (7 volunteers including me) arrived in Iquique yesterday. We were picked up at the tiny Iquique airport by our regional director, Juan, who is about 60 years old, his daughter Pamela, and her son (we call him “Chucky”…long story). Juan took us to our hotel, and informed us that we were going to be staying at the hotel until Tuesday afternoon. On Monday and part of Tuesday, we’d go through some orientation type meetings in Iquique and get to know the city a little beter. Well, there was more to it than just “orientation type meetings.”
Today, we started the morning by meeting Juan’s boss in the office of Education in Iquique. She seemed very professional and respected. She was a big shot in the office. Just when we thought that our meetings with the big dogs were over, we walked over to the regional government building (right next to the ocean, by the way). We marched up the second floor of this building, and sat in a waiting room for 20 minutes to meet this random lady (well, at the time we didn’t really exactly know who we were meeting…we were just being led around the city like sheep…we had really no idea what was going on…and this wasn’t because of any language barrier. I could completely communicate with Juan…Juan just didn’t really inform us well about everything we were doing…silly Juanito). So, after waiting in the office for 20 minutes, we’re told that we can enter this woman’s office. And boy, was it fancy! Fancy chairs. Fancy carpet. Big windows with views of the ocean. And this woman just seemed regal. Elegant. Poised. I had no idea who she was, but the air about her seemed important. I soon found out that she was like the governor type person of the Iquique region, and we were meeting with her so she could welcome us to Iquique! It was crazy. This man was documenting the meeting by taking pictures of all of us…we were sitting at this conference table in her office. And someone was taking video of our meeting. And her assistant man went and got us all drinks. It was quite fancy.
At the end of the meeting, we all got up and took a group picture with her! And then Juan told her that we were going to be on TV later that day. And all 7 of us looked around at each other like, “What the heck??? TV?” And Juan wasn’t lying. Later that meeting, crew showed up with cameras, microphones, and a man to interview us and Juan. We were standing in front of the education building. And the man interviewed Juan…and then Juan pointed at me (because I speak Spanish). So the interviewer man came over and interviewed me for TV!!! He asked me in Spanish why I wanted to come to Chile and teach English. And then he asked me what I studied in college. It was absolutely unreal. Hilarious.
Well, long story short…our interview was going to be on TV at 9:30. But then it wasn’t…so we kept watching…and then asked a local for what time the program usually comes on, and she said 10:30…so I turned the TV on at exactly 10:30, and I caught the last 3 seconds of the segment!!! GRRRRR! I was SO bummed! My roommate in the hotel, Kristen, has a video camera, and she was planning to record the segment…but we missed it! I can’t believe we missed in by only a few minutes! We were so bummed that we really didn’t talk much after that. We were sad for a while. L But the important thing is that it happened, and now I have some amazing memories.
To switch gears a little…my crew here with me in Iquique from the US (the other volunteers) are so great! Their names are Kristen (from Atlanta, my roommate here), Bree, Annie, MacKenzie, Andy, and Collin. They’re all hilarious. I already love them all.
Well, I better go to bed now. It’s almost midnight and I still want to upload some pix.
Goodnight and God bless!
Besos…
Kristen
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