Friday, October 15, 2010

Trip to Temuco

Welllll I was clearly not born to be a blogger. But really, how has more than a month passed by since I last wrote!? Quien sabe.

A quick side note before I start off on the whirlwind that has been this last month: Maybe this will help to explain a bit why I forget to write in ye olde blogge (yeah I don't know, it's been a long day). I've tried to explain this to a few of you devoted readers from home; while I'm in Chile yes I certainly think about home and about everyone I love, but I don't miss you actively. People and places, images of the Takoma field at sunset, the K reading room (hahhh nerdy), dinner with family, spending time with friends; all of these things do flit through my mind and I think about them fondly, but I don't yearn for any of them. When chilean friends or acquantainces ask if I miss my home, friends, family, they always look slightly taken aback when I respond, no. Mi mente está acá, mi vida ahora está acá--no puedo vivir siempre pensando en otro lugar. Eso no es manera de vivir. My mind is always here because my life is here right now. I'm making my own way, figuring out how to find friends, becoming part of another family, learning the joys of a whole wide city. I'm not replacing any of the people or places that I love at home, I'm mearly not willing to spend all of my time missing home while I'm living such a rich life here. I'm learning more and more that "home" will never be just one place for me, and honestly I wouldn't want it to be, whether it be Silver Spring, Kalamazoo, Santiago, or some other unknown future city.

(It should be noted that I wrote this about 2 weeks ago and have just been too busy/lazy to post it....)
Side note part two. On the note of being very immersed in life here, I got to thinking a lot about how awesome it would be to stay here for another semester. Mom and Dad, before you freak out, I already talked to the kalamazoo study abroad people and they told me that it wasn't possible to stay for the next semester. For a few days I was seriously thinking about what it would mean to stay for six more months, and was extremely tempted. When you set off for study abroad, six months away from home sounds like an eternity! But having lived through almost four months, I would say that it almost seems necessary to stay even longer to truly immerse yourself in a community, family, and group of friends. I mean think about it--at college in the states you live with your peers and are therefore around them ALL the time. Here, you only see peers when you are in class or hanging out at the university, which all in all is not a lot of time comparatively. I've found this to have positive and negative sides--on the negative side, it's super hard to make friends with someone because you don't really spend lots of time together. On the positive side, this teaches you to be extremely forward and persistent if you want to make friends. There is no waiting around for someone to contact you--this is no place for middle school fears of who to sit with at lunch; you pick someone and sit with them sin miedo po. And if you get the oh so chilean response of "te llamo" (I'll call you), go ahead and ignore that, because you will NEVER be getting that call--best just to go ahead and call them yourself. Anyway, the point of all this is that it takes time to make friends, to finally learn how to meet people and actually continue a friendship, and therefore I can see how staying on study abroad for a whole year would be awesome. Plus, helloooo Santiago rocks. No question. (Jumping back to the present, now that I've had some time to warm up to the idea of actually returning January 24th--which I've realized isn't that soon--I'm letting myself look forward to all the things I love about home, which is better than freaking out about the short amount of time I have left here. All in all, love you people at home.)

On that note, after Kalamazoo shot down my idea of prolonging my stay (jerks.), they suggested that I think about applying for a grant to come back here next summer to work on my SIP (aka pull an Allie Sachnoff whatuppp....hi allie XD). When I mentioned all of this to my host family, they immediately said, hmmm well I don't think we'll have a student here then, so you'll be staying with us? Sin pausa para pensar. GAhhh they're the best. Seriously couldn't have asked for a better family. (Renato is learning more and more words...he recently learned how to say "te amo", I love you, and I die everytime he says it in his jolly, jolting two year old speech.) Anyway, am still mulling over ideas for SIP research.

There is so so much to catch up on, but I think I'll start with the weekend of October 21-24 and then devote another post to the past month (uuuy dios mio). That weekend we went with CIEE to Temuco, which is in the south of Chile.

(See Iquique way at the top? That's where we went about a month ago. Temuco is a little further south than Concepción...so cool to see the huge difference between the north and south!)




On Wednesday I had a bunch of papers due and a debate in Enfrentando la pobreza (ooooh ese curso...), and slept not a lot the night before (hah. obvio po). We successfully (or at least semi-successfully) debated financial decentralization v. centralization in Chile, related to urban vs. rural living spaces. En español. Oh yeahhhh, fun times at la U. After all of that sillyness was over, I basically crashed at home, woke up late from my nap, and stumbled into my next class a half hour late (sooo chilean). After a nice once (remember? that time where we eat bread and jam/ham/avocado and drink teaaaa) with the fam, I met a friend for a movie at this great little indie theatre that shows Chilean movies. On wednesdays it only costs about $3!

The next day I got to sleep in a bit, but had to run to la U for a bit, before running back home, eating, showering, packing, and then rushing off to the airport. Found out that there's this great bus that drives you the half hour to the airport for only about 2 dollars! (Alison and I have taken to eating raw vegetables here as snacks--pretty standard at home, right--but here people look at you like you're eating a small baby. Needless to say Alison pulled out some celery on the bus. Just how we do.)

On Thursday we pretty much just got to the hotel, had dinner and an orientation, and then crashed. Friday morning we got up early and walked around an outdoor market, which was so great! So many colors and smells of fresh mariscos (mmm shellfish! jaja), ripe frutilla (strawberries), and picante ají! It was pretty interesting being in a smaller city, because even though Temuco is one of the biggest cities in Chile (this is not saying a lot when the majority of the population lives in Santiago, and the rest is spread throughout Chile), it was extremely different from the metropolis that is Santiago. Walking around the market there was much more friendly small talk between vendors and customers, that often gets lost in the bustle of the big city.

This one guy let me pick up one of the dead crabs that he was selling...lucky me?

I think walking through markets is one of my favorite things to do where ever I go; it tells so much about a place. Markets are one of the few places where you can really utilize all your senses to get to know an area--smell the olor of fish mezclando con fresh fruit; see all the colors of freshly picked veggies; talk to the vendors, listen to the sounds of interactions, people working, dogs running through; and touch (with permision) the different products available.

Different spices sold in the market. Look at those coloressss.




Yes, that would be horse meat. Apparently it's supposed to be pretty good (did NOT probar that shit).


After walking around the market we boarded the bus and set off to a small school set back in the rolling hills in the outskirts of Temuco. I'll try to describe the school, but I know I won't do it justice. We pulled up to the entrance, stopping on the side of a windy dirt road. Waiting outside of the bus was the entire school, including kids ages 7-14. As all the gringos sleepily (or perhaps a bit car sick-ly) walked off the bus, about 20 of the little girls lined up and saludo-ed us; each one kissed us on the cheek, the way that we great one another here. As everyone gathered, they explained that we would be helping to paint the school, and would be there all day to get to know the kids and share some games with them. Only a few classes were supposed to stay outside to help, but when the principal directed the others to go inside, it was obvious that no one wanted to miss out on the fun day of painting with the extranjeros. With barely a pause, the principal immediately said--wellll why not, everyone can help today!--and was immediately met with a roar of cheers from the kids.


The buildings that we were supposed to paint were actually not that huge, and with the 40 gringos plus all of the school kids, there was no way that we were all going to be able to help. I started off helping to sand the chipped paint off of the schoolbuilding to prep before painting (BUILDING BLOCKS THROWBACK OHMYGOODNESSS!...minus our oh so cool methlab drug busting suits). After about ten minutes it was pretty obvious that we were not helping a whole ton, and Alison and I decided that it would be more fun to play some games with the girls that we had been talking with while sanding. We tried to teach them "Down by the banks of the hanky panky where the bullfrogs jump from bank to bank-y". Obviously they were not about to instantly learn the words in english, so we asked them to teach us a song in Spanish to sing while doing the hand slappy part. It was only sort of successful, but lots of fun. Afterwards the girls seemed to be coming out of their shells and were acting less shy around us, and decided to teach us a game of their own. This involved singing a song while standing in a circle, then each person jumped around in their own spot. Afterwards you had to freeze in whichever direction you were facing, regardless of whether or not it was facing into the circle, and try to sing and clap hands again. Needless to say, the girls were way better at this game than Alison and I were. However I still had a lot of fun screaming in spanish (because we all know I can't sing), and jumping and flapping my hands around.

Playing! (See how we're all facing in different directions.)


I really loved being at the school, because it was such a better way to get to know a community than, for example, when we just toured around Iquique en el bus. The school was tucked in between lush, rolling hills, covered in brilliant green grasses, curious piglets, lazy grazing cows, and the random farmhouse.

Before we left for Temuco I had dropped into the CIEE office, as I often do before my Human Rights/Indigenous Rights class, and there Elsa began talking to me about our upcoming trip. She was explaining that the kids there were going to teach us a game, and in return we were going to teach them one. "I was thinking baseball?" she suggested (en español, obvio po). "Baseball???? Tannnn fome! Let's play capture the flag!", was my response. So the day that we visited the school, I found myself infront of 60 small children excited how to learn my new game. Somewhat disjointedly, but successfully, I explained how to play, and off we went into the world's most rediculous partido of Capture the Flag. Imagine letting 60 elementary/middle school kids loose, only sort of knowing how to play, but really just wanting to run around and enjoy, plus about 40 gringos who were trying to help their team win/not step on anyone. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY GREAT! The game was really short, but everyone ended smiling.

After the game, a (partial) group picture:
The next day we visited a Mapuche community! The Mapuches are one of the indigenous groups of people in Chile. Like indigenous peoples all over the world, they are fighting for the rights for their land as the government and big companies continue to take it away from them. (Google Mapuches, and also read up on the hunger strike that they were on recently!). Visiting the community was really amazing to be able to get a better idea of how and where they live. We watched a traditional game, which looks a lot like hockey. Only men play, and they have to take off their shoes to be more connected to the mother earth (Mapuche: "mapu"=earth, "che", like "gente" in spanish=people). The Mapuches have an appreciation and understanding of how important it is to respect the earth (as I'm sure you'll find in many/all indigenous communities).

Later we ate delicious potatoes and fish for lunch, and then went to see the herb garden where a medicine woman explained to us all of the uses for the plants; there were remedies for headaches, stomach aches, high blood pressure, and many many more. Afterwards we went to see where the women weave and make beautiful blankets, scarves, gloves, etc.

B eing a silly tourist, but look at that view! Behind me is a lake, and wayyy in the background is the ocean.

The last day we went on two "hikes" (although I would call them little walks más que naaaa). First we left the little cabins where we were staying and walked up to the tallest point there, to look out over the ocean. I could have stayed there all day, just gazing over the beautiful green hills, and sparkling, clear blue ocean.

Look at that. But really.


Alison and I had fun teaching and learning camp songs with one of the guides on our trip. Here's us doing "Baby Shark". Classic.

Well that's all for now friends. I promise I'll write more to catch up on stories from daily life in Santiago! This weekend I'm going to Valparaíso with my Indigenous Rights class, and then am just going to stay there to hang out with miss Anna Miller! Loveeeee.

Oh and p.s. it is spring/sometimes feels like summer now and I am LOVIN it. Helloooo flip-flops errryday.