chile ambiente

what i do for my internship a lack of what i do for my internship

what: an environmental organization called Chile Ambiente. i'm supposed to be doing an assessment of  a threatened wetland that is crucial for many migratory birds in a small town on the coast of Chile called El Tabo. the wetland is called Laguna El Peral, and i'm supposed to make observations on flora and fauna, analyze some aspect of the water, and PUBLISH my research. i'm not qualified for this job.
where: principe de galas, la reina, santiago
who: me. and my boss, who is MIA the majority of the time and doesn't seem to actually want to meet with me
when: basically never, except this friday i actually am going to Laguna El Peral for the first time to meet with some guy who works at the municipality and is supposed to introduce me to the mayor?
why? i keep asking myself this very question.

here is my usual routine:

- take the approximately one hour metro/walking journey to La Reina



*side note: i just discovered recently that i used to live in La Reina when i was at my FIRST host family (i found my real address in a contact book for my program and was the only one in the neighborhood of La Reina). i foolishly assumed that i lived in the old but safeish neighbohrhood of Ñuñoa, but La Reina is another walk in the park. it's not the worst area, but some parts can be pretty flaite, hence why i assumed i lived in the bordering neighborhood of Ñuñoa where everybody else in my program lived. well i was wrong. good thing i listened to my instincts!


- walk past a few sketch groups of construction workers that i can feel are cat calling me ("piropos") but i always have my headphones in so i can casually keep a straight face and pretend i don't notice. sometimes, i get to walk by the same group TWICE since it's not a rare occurence that i forget which exit i took out of the metro station and therefore which street i'm on and have to walk back the other direction

creepy construction workers in the distance

i usually think there is an earthquake, until i remember that this sidewalk is directly above the metro.

some of the things i see on my walk to the office:

way too many chinese food restaurants and endless auto repair shops. and pizza hut.

once i get to my internship, i usually have to turn right around and walk back to the metro because my boss has once again forgotten that we had an appointment. this particular time i took advantage of his absence and took plenty of pictures of where i should work, but don't actually

                                                                           

at least he had me penciled in

the worst part about my internship is that i actually need a substantial amount of information to write a 15 page report in order to receive the 6 units of credit that i requested. considering that my internship was supposed to start in march, and it's already may and i virtually have done zero work, this is going to be a painful task to complete. hopefully i get some good information when i visit the site this friday, and if not, well. filo.