What I Wish I Brought More Of (A.K.A., The Contents of My First Care Package)

Tampons. Tampons. Tampons. I don't think CIEE puts enough emphasis on just how hard it is to find tampons here (when you do find them, you get 8 for about $16 U.S. dollars), so I thought I'd just make it extra clear that you should dedicate one of your two suitcases to this necessary toiletry.

Magazines and Art Supplies. Surprise of surprises, Duoc has a lot less equipment to use in the classroom than I had expected (read: no audiovisual, sound, or internet resources exist in the English classrooms at my campus). So I've been turning to doing some easy and quick art projects to liven the mood a bit. But like any country, art supplies (especially paper here) are really expensive. Anything you can find that is cheap and reusable (markers, paper, paint, paper, brushes, paper paper paper) is incredibly helpful. Especially when Duoc surprises you and tells you that you will be teaching a Graphic Design course.

Julia Child. I set the oven on fire in my hometown's YMCA trying to bake a chocolate cake when I was six. We had to evacuate to the parking lot. It was the middle of winter. This experience adequantly summarizes my culinary skills. As Americans, we get so used to having things premade or cooking supplies prepackaged. Although prepackaged stuff does exist in Chile, it does not exist in the quantity, quality, or economically friendly way that it does back in the good ol' U.S. of A. So perhaps I would have brushed up on how to bake brownies from scratch (the mix I found here made brownies that were the consistency of rubber chocolate - I would have done better to bounce them across the floor than put them in my mouth), cook a mean pasta-and-fresh-vegetable dish, or learned how to make some sauces. The internet is a great resource for these things, and with YouTube and some help from the culinary gods, I've had some successes.

Any knowledge whatsoever of metric conversions. I couldn't even tell you what I weigh or how tall I am. Also, cooking becomes increasingly difficult when you cannot convert Fahreinheit to Celsius (and becomes downright impossible when your gas oven comes equipped with two settings: "On" and "Off").

Other good items to bring?
Razors
Shaving Cream
Lots of Medications (Tylenol, Immodium to be sure)
A coat (it DOES get cold down here)
A duplicate pair of your favorite shoes (you walk everywhere)
A library of books in English, if you like to read as much as I do. Books here are very expensive - usually $16-$40 U.S. for a paperback in English.