So after being stood up for an advising appointment, after calling about a thousand numbers to try and take advantage of doing a few more interviews and visiting a health center that apparently doesn't seem to exist, and after carting around a banana nut bread in my backpack all day for my advisor, and after turning my outline from a half page to a 5 page monster of a document, I have decided to momentarily stop working, stop trying to academically take advantage of the moment, and recount some moments.
In my last post I wrote about my day during the protests (last thursday?), and now I will explain to you all my night. During the day things were pretty crazy, but were settling down a bit. However, at night people got riled up again, going out to a new march around 6:30pm. A bunch of friends were supposed to come over to have dinner, but with all the craziness during the day we decided to change the location to someone else's house out of the center of the city. As we left to go take the metro, I wanted to take a look at what was going on in el centro. Walking to the metro I could feel the tear gas still in the air, although the bombs hadn't been thrown recently. There were tons of students milling around in the streets and sidewalks, and tons of tanks were stationed around the street in case things started to get out of hand. To get into the metro we had to ask the guards to unlock the padlock from the gates...they were letting people out one at a time and relocking the gate between groups of people. Once we entered the metro the after effects of the tear gas really hit; I had to put more money on my metro card, and I really wished that I had done it earlier, because standing to wait for the quick transaction meant more time spent with eyes burning and prickling. The people working in the metro all wore masks and blinked away tears as they quickly helped customers.
I spent a lovely evening with friends eating machas con parmesana, baked clams with cheese, and while I'm not much of a seafood fan, I'll have to admit that those guys were pretty delicious. (However be warned, to clean those suckers you have to pull squishy, gross clam muck out of its shell...let's just say I entertained everyone with my plethora of noise effects during this cleaning process.) While preparing the machas, at 9pm, we heard as everywhere in Santiago (and all across Chile) people stepped outside of their houses to protest peacefully in the form of a cacerolazo. Basically this is a form of peaceful protest where everyone goes outside and bangs on pots and pans. (The cacerolazos happened a lot during the dictatorship.) Once we were done with the machas, Pauli and Pato offered to drive us home. Instead of stopping at the apartment, we had to stop a few blocks before because about 10 firetrucks were blocking the street. As we walked down a side street we passed La Universidad de Chile, and saw students and policemen still in action around midnight. While we stood there a student appeared out of the fog of the tear gas to throw something back at the police, and then disappeared once again. Walking towards the firetrucks we saw that a huge department store building had been burned completely down. I've seen destruction before--when a tree falls in our neighborhood and crashes through a house, or a car crash in the street--but it was so incredibly powerful and disturbing to see such distruction caused intentionally out of hatered or rage or anarchy or whatever. (The company, La Polar, has been in the news a lot recently for corruption I think, although I'm not entirely sure.) It was so shocking seeing the entire building burning down, especially because it stands less than a block away from my apartment, and I pass it every time I go to the grocery store, right across the street. It has been absolutely incredible to be in Chile during such a historic time when the students are fighting for their rights for education, but before seeing this building charred and in flames, I didn't really realize the amount of hatred that existed or how quickly protests can turn violent. During the day tons of students were taken prisoner, civilians were hurt, police officers were hurt, tons of tear gas was thrown, and millions of dollars of public property was destroyed.
Here are some videos showing the fire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwvJxT6JMB4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqgEuOHKrlQ
And here are some of the protests:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgbAJo6-8bs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AC1GsRbUQI
For that last one if you look at minutes 00:36, 00:55, and 1:14 they all take place about 4 blocks from my apartment.
Well that's this past week's excitement in protests! This past weekend I went to the beach and it was beautiful! Now I'm spending this week trying to take advantage of doing some last studying, meeting up with friends, and enjoying my time in this wonderful city! Love to all.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Protestas!
Remember all that talk about the students protesting the shitty education system here? Well today I woke up, came downstairs to use the internet, and while in the lobby heard tons of police and emergency vehicles, sirens wailing, pulling up outside my building. I was going to go meet a friend for lunch, and when I went outside there were about 15 police cars, guanacos (giant tanks that spray water hoses at roudy people), and ambulances. As I walked towards the metro, I could feel tear gas in the air as it scratched at my eyes and throat. Once Mauri and I found each other in the chaos, we walked up the street and watched as a giant cloud of smoke, from tear gas and other fires, wafted up in front of the main building of la Universidad de Chile. Today there was a march in the morning, and it ended up turning violent (like many of them do), but this one continued through the day. Protests, authorized and unauthorized, are ocurring today throughout the country: in Santiago, Valparaíso, Concepción, Copiapó. Violence has continued throughout the day, and from what I've been reading, the police have not been acting appropriately, and many people have been injured and imprisoned for their actions. One websited says that around 1pm today, a police officer dropped a tear gas bomb in the metro, making it hard for people to breathe. As my apartment is sandwiched between the la Moneda Palace (house of government) and la universidad de Chile's main campus, Mauri and I were forced to walk into the neighborhood, away from the drama. After eating, we walked back towards the main road, right across from La U de Chile. We were on the other side from where most of the drama tends to take place, but as we were walking, students started to run towards us, away from the advancing guanaco. I don't know why they started moving the guanaco towards the students (it didn't seem like they were actually doing anything) but all of a sudden we were in the middle of running students and an advancing tank. Mauri and I ran in the opposite direction, out of the reach of the hoses just before they started spraying water violently at the students. Being in the middle of this has been amazing and sort of horrifying. It's crazy that the government has been acting this way, and resorting to such extreme messures to deal with education reform. Today president Piñera's rating fell to only 26%. (Check out this website: http://www.elciudadano.cl/2011/08/04/santiago-amanecio-con-barricadas-y-el-centro-esta-sitiado/ ) It's been amazing, however, to see the students organize together and fight for their rights to a just education. Needless to say, today I did not follow my plans of going out to the university to study after lunch.
Friday, July 29, 2011
SIPSIPSIPSIPSIPSIPSIPSIPSIPSIPSIPSIP!
Aaaaah blog! Shoot, I forgot to write here and then a million weeks went by...how did that even happen?
Okay, so here's what's been going on...
SIP! Sometime after being here for about a month, things went from studying in the library, to actually meeting up with people, interviewing, sharing stories and food, and baaaam, SIPing turned much more interesting!
First, I contacted a woman who lives in a neighborhood called Cerro Navia, where there is a Mapuche ruka (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruka) as part of a mapuche community center. I spent a long time walking around with her, looking at the center: The community fought for their right to create a center and gain this piece of land, which is situated between the trickle of a river, Mapocho, and nestled within a neighborhood of little resources. As we walked around, she pointed up and showed me how buzzing, hulking electric wires twist their way above the field where the ruka is situated. She explained that the community of course was given the piece of land that no one else wanted, because no construction can be done there. We were standing in the field next to an altar that religious figures climb up during ceremonies, one of the most sacred experiences that happens because this person is attempting to get closer to god. All I could think about was how the power lines must take a lot away from this experience, especially for a people who hold nature in the highest regard. After walking around the land, my contact and I went to her friends house. We walked through a neighborhood that is starkely different from any other area that I know in Santiago. "Do you see this extreme poverty where you live? I don't think so," she told me. The houses there are made out of thin boards, with tin roofes to cover them from the elements. Giant gates guard each house, showing the protections that people take against violence in the area. We went to her friends house, and there I spent hours talking with the two women about their experiences fighting for their rights as women, as Mapuche. I was amazed at how open they were with my, how they shared their food, their stories, and how passionately they have been fighting their entire lives for the rights of their people. I feel so lucky to have met these incredible women, and to have had this experience. Coming to Chile the first time, I had been told about the inequality that exists in the country and in Santiago, but until the day that I spent in Cerro Navia, I did not truly understand the huge disparities that exist within this country nor within the city that I've spent cumulatively 8 months living in.
Last week I went to a workshop in San Antonio, a small town on the coast about an hour and half away. The worksop was at the Health Center in San Antonio, and was about the Mapuche Cosmovision. There I got to talk to a few people, which lead to interviews later in the week! Win!
Ok, I have more stories but my fingers are freezing off!
Basically, I've been having a great time seeing the Kalamazoo kids here in Santiago, meeting up with friends here, going to see the Andes mountains after the rain, which leaves them clean and beautiful from the normal smog, traveling constantly to the coast to meet people and do interviews, dodging the ocassional tear gas and police water hoses, joining in protests, going dancing, seeing my host family, and generally enjoying my time here.
Love to all, I'll post again when I can feel my fingers!
Okay, so here's what's been going on...
SIP! Sometime after being here for about a month, things went from studying in the library, to actually meeting up with people, interviewing, sharing stories and food, and baaaam, SIPing turned much more interesting!
First, I contacted a woman who lives in a neighborhood called Cerro Navia, where there is a Mapuche ruka (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruka) as part of a mapuche community center. I spent a long time walking around with her, looking at the center: The community fought for their right to create a center and gain this piece of land, which is situated between the trickle of a river, Mapocho, and nestled within a neighborhood of little resources. As we walked around, she pointed up and showed me how buzzing, hulking electric wires twist their way above the field where the ruka is situated. She explained that the community of course was given the piece of land that no one else wanted, because no construction can be done there. We were standing in the field next to an altar that religious figures climb up during ceremonies, one of the most sacred experiences that happens because this person is attempting to get closer to god. All I could think about was how the power lines must take a lot away from this experience, especially for a people who hold nature in the highest regard. After walking around the land, my contact and I went to her friends house. We walked through a neighborhood that is starkely different from any other area that I know in Santiago. "Do you see this extreme poverty where you live? I don't think so," she told me. The houses there are made out of thin boards, with tin roofes to cover them from the elements. Giant gates guard each house, showing the protections that people take against violence in the area. We went to her friends house, and there I spent hours talking with the two women about their experiences fighting for their rights as women, as Mapuche. I was amazed at how open they were with my, how they shared their food, their stories, and how passionately they have been fighting their entire lives for the rights of their people. I feel so lucky to have met these incredible women, and to have had this experience. Coming to Chile the first time, I had been told about the inequality that exists in the country and in Santiago, but until the day that I spent in Cerro Navia, I did not truly understand the huge disparities that exist within this country nor within the city that I've spent cumulatively 8 months living in.
Last week I went to a workshop in San Antonio, a small town on the coast about an hour and half away. The worksop was at the Health Center in San Antonio, and was about the Mapuche Cosmovision. There I got to talk to a few people, which lead to interviews later in the week! Win!
Ok, I have more stories but my fingers are freezing off!
Basically, I've been having a great time seeing the Kalamazoo kids here in Santiago, meeting up with friends here, going to see the Andes mountains after the rain, which leaves them clean and beautiful from the normal smog, traveling constantly to the coast to meet people and do interviews, dodging the ocassional tear gas and police water hoses, joining in protests, going dancing, seeing my host family, and generally enjoying my time here.
Love to all, I'll post again when I can feel my fingers!
Friday, July 15, 2011
Fotitooooos
I remembered to upload pictures! Wahoo!
In San Antonio, exploring before the Wetripantu ceremony started. Beeeeach :)
Gay rights march outside of La Moneda...I keep forgetting to bring my camera to the student protest marches, but they are pretty impressive, not only for the number of participants, but also because each universidad and colegio carries their own giant banners, and there are usually tons of people dancing, playing drums, and singing.
At the Wetripantu
Cute.
Beautiful, beautiful Santiago.
Celebrating Renato's 3rd birthday and Leonor's 1st birthday. Mega tot bash!
In San Antonio, exploring before the Wetripantu ceremony started. Beeeeach :)
Gay rights march outside of La Moneda...I keep forgetting to bring my camera to the student protest marches, but they are pretty impressive, not only for the number of participants, but also because each universidad and colegio carries their own giant banners, and there are usually tons of people dancing, playing drums, and singing.
At the Wetripantu 
Cute.
Beautiful, beautiful Santiago.
Celebrating Renato's 3rd birthday and Leonor's 1st birthday. Mega tot bash!Thursday, July 14, 2011
PROCRASTINATIOOON
WOW I do not want to work on my SIP. I will, it'll happen, but wowwww this week has been a struggle. I have seven websites to read through today, and at the moment they're just sitting prettily in their own separate tabs on my screen. Something about being in the library for 2.5 hours has just completely shut my brain off.
In other news, the other day I went out to watch Chile play Peru in the Copa America. The two countries have been rivals for a looong time (in everything, not just soccer), so this was an important game. My friends and I went out to Paseo Ahumada, a street shut off to traffic, to watch the game as it was played on a huge screen over the street. There were a million billion people in the street, lots and lots of flaites, all rowdy and excited for the game. We pushed our way through the crowd (I was with a group of half gringos, half chileans), and being on of two blonds in the middle of all that hubub, got a lot of attention. While the shouts and stares annoyed me a lot when I first got here, I'm pretty much used to it now, and can take it all with a grain of salt; When people shout out "Hey, where are you from!" I say, "Where do YOU think I'm from?". For some reason it really throws people off when the gringa talks back, and I get to be the one laughing as I walk away. They yell back, "You're from Germany! Brazil!", and I get to yell back, "Uh huh, I'm from BOTH of those places". Clearly puro weando and not making any sense, but I sure get a kick out of it. (The other blond girl who was with us had only been in the country for 3 weeks, and I think she took a lot more offense to it than I did.) Anyway, we watched the game jam packed with all the bajillions of others in the street. The teams had been tied 0-0 for the entire game, but when Chile made the winning goal within the last 4 minutes, the entire street erupted...everyone started jumping up and down all at once, firecrackers and flares went off, and people started honking horns. The jumping thing was fun for a bit, until it became a sea of jumping and pushing, and hoping that you didn't fall over and get trampled in the middle of everyone. Definitely, going out into the street to watch the game was a great, great idea.
Today there was another student march for education reform (I keep running into these guys), and I had a nice time walking with the march for about a half hour before getting to the library. Needless to say, I forgot my camera again. Oops.
Well now that I have procrastinated and run my computer's battery dangerously low, it seems that the SIP is calling. Poop.
In other news, the other day I went out to watch Chile play Peru in the Copa America. The two countries have been rivals for a looong time (in everything, not just soccer), so this was an important game. My friends and I went out to Paseo Ahumada, a street shut off to traffic, to watch the game as it was played on a huge screen over the street. There were a million billion people in the street, lots and lots of flaites, all rowdy and excited for the game. We pushed our way through the crowd (I was with a group of half gringos, half chileans), and being on of two blonds in the middle of all that hubub, got a lot of attention. While the shouts and stares annoyed me a lot when I first got here, I'm pretty much used to it now, and can take it all with a grain of salt; When people shout out "Hey, where are you from!" I say, "Where do YOU think I'm from?". For some reason it really throws people off when the gringa talks back, and I get to be the one laughing as I walk away. They yell back, "You're from Germany! Brazil!", and I get to yell back, "Uh huh, I'm from BOTH of those places". Clearly puro weando and not making any sense, but I sure get a kick out of it. (The other blond girl who was with us had only been in the country for 3 weeks, and I think she took a lot more offense to it than I did.) Anyway, we watched the game jam packed with all the bajillions of others in the street. The teams had been tied 0-0 for the entire game, but when Chile made the winning goal within the last 4 minutes, the entire street erupted...everyone started jumping up and down all at once, firecrackers and flares went off, and people started honking horns. The jumping thing was fun for a bit, until it became a sea of jumping and pushing, and hoping that you didn't fall over and get trampled in the middle of everyone. Definitely, going out into the street to watch the game was a great, great idea.
Today there was another student march for education reform (I keep running into these guys), and I had a nice time walking with the march for about a half hour before getting to the library. Needless to say, I forgot my camera again. Oops.
Well now that I have procrastinated and run my computer's battery dangerously low, it seems that the SIP is calling. Poop.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Wetripantu, tear gas, and baby parties
It appears that this is the start of my fourth week in Chile, and true to my habits I seem to have let the blog fall to the wayside. So here goes! Mega post for the win. Here are some quick updates of what I've been up to:
- The first weekend I was here I went to a celebration for the Mapuche new year, which falls on the winter solstice. I got up early on saturday, and Seba and I took a bus to San Antonio, a small town about an hour and a half outside of Santiago, located on the coast. Since I tend to have absolutely horrible luck with buses (see: New Years in Valparaíso; Puerto Natales, Chile; Arequipa to Cuzco, Peru; and February bus-meets-blizzard from NYC) I decided to leave us ample time. We arrived about an hour and a half early, to a blustery, freezing cold morning on the sea. While I get many stares for being a gringa in Santiago, I turn even more heads in the tiny towns. Seba and I walked through someone's backyard (whoops), behind some cow pastures, a dirt tennis court, and through some giant mounds of dirt, in order to reach the ocean. While I'm not much of a morning person, it was really amazing to be standing at the side of the ocean with a crisp, winter sun shining overhead. The beach was uninhabitted by tourists or condos; only a few early risers were walking along, enjoying the beauty of the early morning as we were. After tromping around through the hills of sand, we turned back into the village to head towards the Wetripantu (Mapuche new year, in "mapudungun"). I really enjoyed being able to participate in the celebration with the group of people there. About 15-20 people from a Mapuche community in Valparaiso had come for the day, dressed in traditional Mapuche clothes, to share their traditions for celebrating the Wetripantu. The celebration, like most other new years celebrations, welcomes in the new year. We initially started by just watching the celebration, but after only a few minutes were invited to join in. We followed behind the community members, mimicking the dance/steps that they were doing. I didn't really know what to expect from this event, but it was so nice to be included in their celebration, and be able to share this tradition with the people there. We shared in a delicious lunch (at these sorts of gatherings one never goes hungry), and had a fun time talking with other visitors around the lunch table. While in San Antonio, I got to know 2 of the CIEE kids from this past semester, one of whom had stayed in my host family's friend's house. Such a small world! All in all, it was an amazing event to go to, and at the end of the day the lonko (leader of the community) was handing out pamphlets about Intercultural Health; just perfect for my SIP topic!
- I keep running into protests! I live RIGHT outside of La Moneda, and just a few blocks from the main campus of La Chile (where they have been having 24 hours of music blasting through the streets), so I keep accidentally running into all these events. One day we walked out onto Alameda, the main street, and bumped straight into the annual gay rights parade. People were spilling out from the street, onto the side walks, waving rainbow flags, and just being generally happy. Instead of skirting around the crowd to get to the metro, we decided to walk the 10 or 12 blocks to our destination, joining along. The other day I stepped out of my appartment, intending to put some quality hours in at the library (hah) and ran smack dab into another huge protest, this one about the education system. (Pretty much all highschools and universities have been on strike for the past month or so, and are demanding education reform from the government. Newspapers have reported that Chile hasn't seen this many people demonstrating since the end of the dictatorship in the late 1980s...should be interesting to see what happens!)
- I experienced my first encounter with tear gas! Like I said, I live in a pretty central location, and one day as I was getting off of the bus to walk the few bus home, I stepped out into the streets and immediately felt my eyes start stinging. People everywhere were walking with their scarves up over their mouth and nose, and store owners were rapidly pulling the metal shutters closed in front of their property. Some stores had kept the shutters open half way, so that potential customers could duck under and into their stores. As I walked home, eyes and face prickling from the gas, I looked over as a commotion started on the other side of the street. About 50 young people seemed to have gotten riled up and carried away after the days' protests, and had proceeded to tear down the protective metal railings that the police had put up for the protesters. I crossed the street, and saw that they were dragging large pieces of trash and paper into the street, and suddenly a large blaze jumped up out of the concrete. Seconds later, the police who had already been milling around, started moving in. Police cars (which look like someone smushed 4 giant hummers together with walls about 7 feet thick) arrived at the scene shortly thereafter. As much as I love sticking around to see what is going on in the street, I decided that that was a good time to head home (you can stop worrying now, mom :D ). Just another normal day in the city.
- For the 4th of July I decided to make a good ole american dinner. Some friends came over and we ate cheesburgers, corn on the cob, roasted veggies, and brownies with creamcheese topping, yummm. Right now the Copa America (soccerrr) is going on, and that night Chile played, and won. So it was sort of an American/Chilean celebration night. Unfortunately, being an idiot, I decided that night to cook my hamburger nice and raw, while I made all the others cooked all the way through. While that might seem like a delicious idea, which it was at the time, the next morning I realized how horrible of a decision that was. Sparing you the details, let me just say that my digestive system and I were very unhappy for the next 2 days.
- This past Saturday was the doble fiesta for Renato and Leonor's birthdays! Renatito turned 3 and Leo 1, and my family had a giant baby bash for them. Anna visited for the carrete, so she, Seba, and I showed up to celebrate with the tots. I spent the first chunk of time in the kitchen, helping Héctor make anticucho, a meat shiskabob thing; these had beef, chicken, and sausage, cooked on the grill. So good! Then we spent the rest of the night playing with the kids, and acting like 5 year olds. Anna and I spent most of our time sitting on the floor, wrapped in streamers, wearing children's party hats (none of the kids wanted to wear them), and playing with the tots. Most of the adults just sort of started at us with the "what the hell is that gringa doing?" look on their faces. Great great night.
- Regarding my SIP, I have mostly been doing research via the internet/in libraries here. Today I met with my advisor for the first time, which was really helpful. I had sort of been feeling like the library work I was doing wouldn't actually end up being that useful, but today talking with my profe, I realized that I've gained a lot of knowledge doing all of these research. I still have a long way to go, but it was nice to realize that I have actually advance. It was also really helpful to meet with her, because I was able to talk through the thesis and start to focus it a little better on what I'm really going to talk about. No suprise, but my SIP has sort of taken a 180 degree turn from where I thought it would be going in the first place. It's sort of fun to see where SIP will end up, it's almost as if it has a life of its own (wooOOoooOoooOOooo...).
- Harry Potter comes out here on July 14th, what nowwwww USA.
That's it for now! Maybe I will be better at updating this with more frecuency (hah), but for now enjoy this monster of a post. Pictures to come soon!
- The first weekend I was here I went to a celebration for the Mapuche new year, which falls on the winter solstice. I got up early on saturday, and Seba and I took a bus to San Antonio, a small town about an hour and a half outside of Santiago, located on the coast. Since I tend to have absolutely horrible luck with buses (see: New Years in Valparaíso; Puerto Natales, Chile; Arequipa to Cuzco, Peru; and February bus-meets-blizzard from NYC) I decided to leave us ample time. We arrived about an hour and a half early, to a blustery, freezing cold morning on the sea. While I get many stares for being a gringa in Santiago, I turn even more heads in the tiny towns. Seba and I walked through someone's backyard (whoops), behind some cow pastures, a dirt tennis court, and through some giant mounds of dirt, in order to reach the ocean. While I'm not much of a morning person, it was really amazing to be standing at the side of the ocean with a crisp, winter sun shining overhead. The beach was uninhabitted by tourists or condos; only a few early risers were walking along, enjoying the beauty of the early morning as we were. After tromping around through the hills of sand, we turned back into the village to head towards the Wetripantu (Mapuche new year, in "mapudungun"). I really enjoyed being able to participate in the celebration with the group of people there. About 15-20 people from a Mapuche community in Valparaiso had come for the day, dressed in traditional Mapuche clothes, to share their traditions for celebrating the Wetripantu. The celebration, like most other new years celebrations, welcomes in the new year. We initially started by just watching the celebration, but after only a few minutes were invited to join in. We followed behind the community members, mimicking the dance/steps that they were doing. I didn't really know what to expect from this event, but it was so nice to be included in their celebration, and be able to share this tradition with the people there. We shared in a delicious lunch (at these sorts of gatherings one never goes hungry), and had a fun time talking with other visitors around the lunch table. While in San Antonio, I got to know 2 of the CIEE kids from this past semester, one of whom had stayed in my host family's friend's house. Such a small world! All in all, it was an amazing event to go to, and at the end of the day the lonko (leader of the community) was handing out pamphlets about Intercultural Health; just perfect for my SIP topic!
- I keep running into protests! I live RIGHT outside of La Moneda, and just a few blocks from the main campus of La Chile (where they have been having 24 hours of music blasting through the streets), so I keep accidentally running into all these events. One day we walked out onto Alameda, the main street, and bumped straight into the annual gay rights parade. People were spilling out from the street, onto the side walks, waving rainbow flags, and just being generally happy. Instead of skirting around the crowd to get to the metro, we decided to walk the 10 or 12 blocks to our destination, joining along. The other day I stepped out of my appartment, intending to put some quality hours in at the library (hah) and ran smack dab into another huge protest, this one about the education system. (Pretty much all highschools and universities have been on strike for the past month or so, and are demanding education reform from the government. Newspapers have reported that Chile hasn't seen this many people demonstrating since the end of the dictatorship in the late 1980s...should be interesting to see what happens!)
- I experienced my first encounter with tear gas! Like I said, I live in a pretty central location, and one day as I was getting off of the bus to walk the few bus home, I stepped out into the streets and immediately felt my eyes start stinging. People everywhere were walking with their scarves up over their mouth and nose, and store owners were rapidly pulling the metal shutters closed in front of their property. Some stores had kept the shutters open half way, so that potential customers could duck under and into their stores. As I walked home, eyes and face prickling from the gas, I looked over as a commotion started on the other side of the street. About 50 young people seemed to have gotten riled up and carried away after the days' protests, and had proceeded to tear down the protective metal railings that the police had put up for the protesters. I crossed the street, and saw that they were dragging large pieces of trash and paper into the street, and suddenly a large blaze jumped up out of the concrete. Seconds later, the police who had already been milling around, started moving in. Police cars (which look like someone smushed 4 giant hummers together with walls about 7 feet thick) arrived at the scene shortly thereafter. As much as I love sticking around to see what is going on in the street, I decided that that was a good time to head home (you can stop worrying now, mom :D ). Just another normal day in the city.
- For the 4th of July I decided to make a good ole american dinner. Some friends came over and we ate cheesburgers, corn on the cob, roasted veggies, and brownies with creamcheese topping, yummm. Right now the Copa America (soccerrr) is going on, and that night Chile played, and won. So it was sort of an American/Chilean celebration night. Unfortunately, being an idiot, I decided that night to cook my hamburger nice and raw, while I made all the others cooked all the way through. While that might seem like a delicious idea, which it was at the time, the next morning I realized how horrible of a decision that was. Sparing you the details, let me just say that my digestive system and I were very unhappy for the next 2 days.
- This past Saturday was the doble fiesta for Renato and Leonor's birthdays! Renatito turned 3 and Leo 1, and my family had a giant baby bash for them. Anna visited for the carrete, so she, Seba, and I showed up to celebrate with the tots. I spent the first chunk of time in the kitchen, helping Héctor make anticucho, a meat shiskabob thing; these had beef, chicken, and sausage, cooked on the grill. So good! Then we spent the rest of the night playing with the kids, and acting like 5 year olds. Anna and I spent most of our time sitting on the floor, wrapped in streamers, wearing children's party hats (none of the kids wanted to wear them), and playing with the tots. Most of the adults just sort of started at us with the "what the hell is that gringa doing?" look on their faces. Great great night.
- Regarding my SIP, I have mostly been doing research via the internet/in libraries here. Today I met with my advisor for the first time, which was really helpful. I had sort of been feeling like the library work I was doing wouldn't actually end up being that useful, but today talking with my profe, I realized that I've gained a lot of knowledge doing all of these research. I still have a long way to go, but it was nice to realize that I have actually advance. It was also really helpful to meet with her, because I was able to talk through the thesis and start to focus it a little better on what I'm really going to talk about. No suprise, but my SIP has sort of taken a 180 degree turn from where I thought it would be going in the first place. It's sort of fun to see where SIP will end up, it's almost as if it has a life of its own (wooOOoooOoooOOooo...).
- Harry Potter comes out here on July 14th, what nowwwww USA.
That's it for now! Maybe I will be better at updating this with more frecuency (hah), but for now enjoy this monster of a post. Pictures to come soon!
Friday, July 1, 2011
Librarayy
6/30/11
Well, it seems as though I have somehow managed to unknowingly reactivate my student status at La Universidad Catolica, and now have the superpower of being able to sneak through the library security gates. Yesterday I came to meet up with my friend, Mauri, and after catching up for a little bit, we decided to head down to the library to do some work. I told him, no way no how is my student ID going to work to let me through the library’s (absurd) security turnstiles. After scoffing at how silly he was being, thinking that I could actually get back in, I swiped the card, ready to give him a triumphant “told ya so” look, and watched as the little green light showed and the turnstiles unlocked to let me in. Hah. So I spent a nice few hours reading through materials, taking notes, and watching as freezing bullets of rain pounded on the glass ceiling above, happy to be tucked away inside a warm library. However, a few hours later my growling stomach would not let me continue working, so I decided to take a quick break to get some lunch. On the way out, my magic student ID card failed me. The befuzzled security guard let me out through a side gate, and I continued on my way, knowing that going back through to gather my books and meet back up with Mauri would be a challenge. Sure enough, magic student ID card failed me. The guard insisted that I come over and that he could help me out. At this point I didn’t really know which route to take. The options were, “Of course I’m a student here this semester”, in very broken Spanish with “dumb gringa” written across my face; or, “Hahahah, well see I went here last year”, smileee. I went with option number two, and either the man didn’t understand the situation or me, but it seems as though he reactivated my card. SIP research is about to be a whole lot easier. Yet again, pushing the rules and playing the gringa card have gone in my favor.
Well, it seems as though I have somehow managed to unknowingly reactivate my student status at La Universidad Catolica, and now have the superpower of being able to sneak through the library security gates. Yesterday I came to meet up with my friend, Mauri, and after catching up for a little bit, we decided to head down to the library to do some work. I told him, no way no how is my student ID going to work to let me through the library’s (absurd) security turnstiles. After scoffing at how silly he was being, thinking that I could actually get back in, I swiped the card, ready to give him a triumphant “told ya so” look, and watched as the little green light showed and the turnstiles unlocked to let me in. Hah. So I spent a nice few hours reading through materials, taking notes, and watching as freezing bullets of rain pounded on the glass ceiling above, happy to be tucked away inside a warm library. However, a few hours later my growling stomach would not let me continue working, so I decided to take a quick break to get some lunch. On the way out, my magic student ID card failed me. The befuzzled security guard let me out through a side gate, and I continued on my way, knowing that going back through to gather my books and meet back up with Mauri would be a challenge. Sure enough, magic student ID card failed me. The guard insisted that I come over and that he could help me out. At this point I didn’t really know which route to take. The options were, “Of course I’m a student here this semester”, in very broken Spanish with “dumb gringa” written across my face; or, “Hahahah, well see I went here last year”, smileee. I went with option number two, and either the man didn’t understand the situation or me, but it seems as though he reactivated my card. SIP research is about to be a whole lot easier. Yet again, pushing the rules and playing the gringa card have gone in my favor.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Musings
Things that I had forgotten about Chile:
1) The stray dogs wear sweaters.
2) Having daily protests is pretty regular.
3) It appears that I am, in fact, blond.
1) The stray dogs wear sweaters.
2) Having daily protests is pretty regular.
3) It appears that I am, in fact, blond.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Day two. In which I write in my blog probably more than I ever did on study abroad.
Writing in my blog two days in a row...who am I?
I spent much of today walking around Santiago, visiting some favorite old places and discovering new parts of a city that I thought I already new well. Today was one of those days with ups and downs. The downs started out because, well mostly because starting a huge research project is a little daunting and not exactly what I want to be doing right this second, especially after finishing classes only about two weeks ago. But cest la vie. This morning I spent a good 2.5 hours in the library pulling up article after website after book that I should probably at some point read just to start with my investigations. After spending all this time skimming through pages, reloading my email a million times, and minimizing all of my new info (to make the computer look pretty, of course), I decided that that was enough studying for the day. The outdoors and city was awaiting.
Now, here I want to interject with a little piece of advice, or just some thoughts that I have acquired from my experiences abroad. Go on study abroad if you can and are at all interested. Do it, really. Because, living in a city by oneself is nothing at all like the experience you get abroad through a program. Now this is of course a) my biased opinion, and b) not necessarily a bad thing. I find that now being in Santiago on my own is fun and a much more independent experience than before, but also has its moments of being a bit lonely. (Today I sort of accosted a group of gringos and talked with them for a long time, making them walk with me by luring them to the greatest ice cream shop in the city...what can I say, 4 days without speaking a word of english maybe has gotten to me.) On study abroad there is a program that organizes activities, other kids on the program to make friends with, and a set class schedule. However, none of this is to say that I'm not having a good time now. What I do want to stress is how thankful I am to have already made the connections to this city that I have; I have a loving family, friends, and favorite places to visit. I now have a much better appreciation for how hard it must be to move to a new city where you know very few people, and can only imagine how hard it would be to move where you know no one and nothing about the place.
Anywhooo, after having a feeling sorry for myself moment (too much studying probably turned my brains to mush), I was walking through beautiful, bustling Santiago just going to head home, when a woman stopped me on the street AND ASKED FOR DIRECTIONS. If you want to know the secret to feeling amazing, it's this: look as gringa as I do and be mistaken for someone who would know directions, and then...wait for....know the directions! YEAH. So there, world. Good good moment.
After a long day of minimal study and walking, I decided to wander around the neighorhood where I live. I found out:
a) I live near an alarming amount of gun stores. It just seems counterintuitive that someonw would open a bunch of gun stores right across from the government, right?
b) I live a block away from a beautiful, long road that is closed to traffic. Pedestrians stroll along between giant fountains. Two cops on horseback stopped as kids petted the horses, and a street musician played his saxophone nearby. Walking back, the view reminded me a bit of North Capital street at home, where you head straight towards the impressive capitol building.
c) There is an AWESOME park and old church about 8 blocks away from my apartment building. Score.
OH, other cool thing is that I get to listen to good music again; I'm constantly surrounded by cumbia, reggaeton, and salsa beats. All in all, life is good.
I spent much of today walking around Santiago, visiting some favorite old places and discovering new parts of a city that I thought I already new well. Today was one of those days with ups and downs. The downs started out because, well mostly because starting a huge research project is a little daunting and not exactly what I want to be doing right this second, especially after finishing classes only about two weeks ago. But cest la vie. This morning I spent a good 2.5 hours in the library pulling up article after website after book that I should probably at some point read just to start with my investigations. After spending all this time skimming through pages, reloading my email a million times, and minimizing all of my new info (to make the computer look pretty, of course), I decided that that was enough studying for the day. The outdoors and city was awaiting.
Now, here I want to interject with a little piece of advice, or just some thoughts that I have acquired from my experiences abroad. Go on study abroad if you can and are at all interested. Do it, really. Because, living in a city by oneself is nothing at all like the experience you get abroad through a program. Now this is of course a) my biased opinion, and b) not necessarily a bad thing. I find that now being in Santiago on my own is fun and a much more independent experience than before, but also has its moments of being a bit lonely. (Today I sort of accosted a group of gringos and talked with them for a long time, making them walk with me by luring them to the greatest ice cream shop in the city...what can I say, 4 days without speaking a word of english maybe has gotten to me.) On study abroad there is a program that organizes activities, other kids on the program to make friends with, and a set class schedule. However, none of this is to say that I'm not having a good time now. What I do want to stress is how thankful I am to have already made the connections to this city that I have; I have a loving family, friends, and favorite places to visit. I now have a much better appreciation for how hard it must be to move to a new city where you know very few people, and can only imagine how hard it would be to move where you know no one and nothing about the place.
Anywhooo, after having a feeling sorry for myself moment (too much studying probably turned my brains to mush), I was walking through beautiful, bustling Santiago just going to head home, when a woman stopped me on the street AND ASKED FOR DIRECTIONS. If you want to know the secret to feeling amazing, it's this: look as gringa as I do and be mistaken for someone who would know directions, and then...wait for....know the directions! YEAH. So there, world. Good good moment.
After a long day of minimal study and walking, I decided to wander around the neighorhood where I live. I found out:
a) I live near an alarming amount of gun stores. It just seems counterintuitive that someonw would open a bunch of gun stores right across from the government, right?
b) I live a block away from a beautiful, long road that is closed to traffic. Pedestrians stroll along between giant fountains. Two cops on horseback stopped as kids petted the horses, and a street musician played his saxophone nearby. Walking back, the view reminded me a bit of North Capital street at home, where you head straight towards the impressive capitol building.
c) There is an AWESOME park and old church about 8 blocks away from my apartment building. Score.
OH, other cool thing is that I get to listen to good music again; I'm constantly surrounded by cumbia, reggaeton, and salsa beats. All in all, life is good.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Chile part two: winter again!
Hello world!
I have heard your requests and have decided to continue my blog while I'm in Chile for the summer (or rather, winter), writing my SIP (Kalamazoo's senior thesis-like project).
First off, I am finding out rather quickly that living in Santiago post-study abroad is a very different experience than my first six months here. I'm going to be researching indigenous women and their health rights (healthcare accessibility, conventional versus traditional health practices, etc.), and as my chilean advisor has not gotten in contact with me yet, today was rather free. So my day consisted of walking to the CIEE office to pop in and say hello to the lovely staff; run to Cafe Literario and take advantage of their free internet; take out way more cash than anyone should ever walk around with, and then deposit way more cash than anyone should ever display in public in a foreign country...these are the joys of renting an appartment in another country. Then I wandered around my favorite part of downtown, Bellavista and Lastarria, and ate my first italiano of the trip! I cannot even begin to say how much I have missed street food, especially the kind that is smothered in delicious mounds of avocado. From there I went to a cafe and sat for a good 2 or 3 hours, reading about the Mapuche (yeah that's right, I said working). I braved the grocery store (I've been washing dishes with shampoo for three days) and then fought my way through the pre rush hour crowds with bulky shopping bags bouncing in either hand. While it's not the most comfortable thing to carry a week's worth of groceries with you in the metro and then through the streets, there's something exciting and liberating about not being at all dependent on a car for transportation. Hello awesome public transportation! (USA, get your shit together.) After all that, I trundled back to my apartment just as it was starting to get a bit dark (at 5pm, womp womppp).
And my apartment! It's in an absolutely amazing location, only 3 blocks from La Moneda (White House equivalent). I live catty corner to a police station and a military unit on the other side, and got woken up Sunday morning to the sound of some sort of military parade going below my window. Walking to the apartment you cut through a beautiful road, wide and full of small restaurants and people bustling by.
Let's see, yesterday I got to spend the whole day with my host family, which was especially fun since it was Father's Day and the day after Héctor's birthday. I feel so thankful to have such a wonderful second family here in Santiago, and it was amazing to see them again after all this time. We spent the day having a delicious lunch, then just hanging out (I played cars with Renato, who is now TALKING, whaaaat!), and then had cake to celebrate Héctor's birthday. Some friends of his and Seba joined us for cake, and we all ended the evening watching the Chilean soccer team beat Estonia (4-0, yeaaah). Quite a lovely way to spend the day.
The only place in the apartment that has wifi is the lobby, and I've been sitting here on the steps right by the door sort of freezing my fingers off, so I think I'll call this done. I'll try and keep up the posts more regularly than on study abroad (although don't hold me to that 100%).
Happy summer-winter!
Besotes
I have heard your requests and have decided to continue my blog while I'm in Chile for the summer (or rather, winter), writing my SIP (Kalamazoo's senior thesis-like project).
First off, I am finding out rather quickly that living in Santiago post-study abroad is a very different experience than my first six months here. I'm going to be researching indigenous women and their health rights (healthcare accessibility, conventional versus traditional health practices, etc.), and as my chilean advisor has not gotten in contact with me yet, today was rather free. So my day consisted of walking to the CIEE office to pop in and say hello to the lovely staff; run to Cafe Literario and take advantage of their free internet; take out way more cash than anyone should ever walk around with, and then deposit way more cash than anyone should ever display in public in a foreign country...these are the joys of renting an appartment in another country. Then I wandered around my favorite part of downtown, Bellavista and Lastarria, and ate my first italiano of the trip! I cannot even begin to say how much I have missed street food, especially the kind that is smothered in delicious mounds of avocado. From there I went to a cafe and sat for a good 2 or 3 hours, reading about the Mapuche (yeah that's right, I said working). I braved the grocery store (I've been washing dishes with shampoo for three days) and then fought my way through the pre rush hour crowds with bulky shopping bags bouncing in either hand. While it's not the most comfortable thing to carry a week's worth of groceries with you in the metro and then through the streets, there's something exciting and liberating about not being at all dependent on a car for transportation. Hello awesome public transportation! (USA, get your shit together.) After all that, I trundled back to my apartment just as it was starting to get a bit dark (at 5pm, womp womppp).
And my apartment! It's in an absolutely amazing location, only 3 blocks from La Moneda (White House equivalent). I live catty corner to a police station and a military unit on the other side, and got woken up Sunday morning to the sound of some sort of military parade going below my window. Walking to the apartment you cut through a beautiful road, wide and full of small restaurants and people bustling by.
Let's see, yesterday I got to spend the whole day with my host family, which was especially fun since it was Father's Day and the day after Héctor's birthday. I feel so thankful to have such a wonderful second family here in Santiago, and it was amazing to see them again after all this time. We spent the day having a delicious lunch, then just hanging out (I played cars with Renato, who is now TALKING, whaaaat!), and then had cake to celebrate Héctor's birthday. Some friends of his and Seba joined us for cake, and we all ended the evening watching the Chilean soccer team beat Estonia (4-0, yeaaah). Quite a lovely way to spend the day.
The only place in the apartment that has wifi is the lobby, and I've been sitting here on the steps right by the door sort of freezing my fingers off, so I think I'll call this done. I'll try and keep up the posts more regularly than on study abroad (although don't hold me to that 100%).
Happy summer-winter!
Besotes
Monday, November 29, 2010
The adventures of Alison and Allyson
This post should really be the length of a novel, but seeing as it's almost midnight and I need to get up early to do some work, it's going to be short for now. Mostly I just wanted to show off what has become a rather lengthy album (well 3 pictures) of Alison and I eating ridiculous food in ridiculous places.
Exhibit A: Eating whole veggies on the mountain. (I believe this one has already made its debut on the blog).
Exhibit B: Eating kiwis on a different section of the Andes. As Alison puts it, "what goes down when you don't have any utensils to cut the kiwis". I would argue that, utensils or not, this was bound to happen.
Exhibit C: Eating bread and cheese/salami at the beach (we are so chilean, oh my goodness). This is what happens when you sleep through your hostel's complimentary breakfast. P.S. Please note the awesome chilean sunglasses.
Exhibit A: Eating whole veggies on the mountain. (I believe this one has already made its debut on the blog).
Exhibit B: Eating kiwis on a different section of the Andes. As Alison puts it, "what goes down when you don't have any utensils to cut the kiwis". I would argue that, utensils or not, this was bound to happen.
Exhibit C: Eating bread and cheese/salami at the beach (we are so chilean, oh my goodness). This is what happens when you sleep through your hostel's complimentary breakfast. P.S. Please note the awesome chilean sunglasses.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Rando
That's right, I'm writing ANOTHER blog post and 500 years haven't even passed. Who am I? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvbcLzFtM6I) hahaha it couldn't be helped.
I don't really have ganas to write one of those long blog posts, but here are some snapshots of here there and everywhere:
This is what all of the packages of cigarettes have on them. Basically saying YOU AND YO BABY GONNA DIE FOOL, DO YOU KNOW WHAT CIGARETTES DO TO YOU? My interpretation. But close enough.
In my human rights class (I officially had the last class yesterday, whoaaa!) I wrote an essay on el estadio Víctor Jara. Jara was a folk musician during the time of the dictator, and was one of the first people to be killed, just a few days after the coup. I went to the stadium where he was assassinated--which happens to be only about 10 blocks from my house--and walked around it a bit. It's really fascinating, because many of the spaces dedicated to the memory of those tortures/desaparecido/killed during the dictatorship, are so hard to distinguish from normal buildings/monuments. One reason, I believe, why it's still so hard to talk about what happened during the years of the dictadura--everything is still so hidden.
One weekend we went with CIEE on a 15 mile (oh yes) bike tour of literally ALL of santiago. Bikes for short people + 7 hours andando en bici=one sore poto the next day.
I forgot to write about this one time when I went to Argentina for the weekend. hahhh. Three friends and I decided to take the bus to Mendoza, Argentina, famous for wine tours, a beautiful little city, and paragliding (we did not partake in this however). Also, Christine and I needed to get out of the country for a hot second before our visas expired and we were deported back to the US. Woops. Here's a picture of us at one of the vineyards, having a wine tasting.
We rented bikes for only about $3 a day, and headed out through the beautiful, sunny Argentinian countryside, stopping every now and then at a wine bodega. Quite a wonderful way to pass the day. Sun, bikes, wine, and good friends.
Love them.
Oh, and then our bus broke down on the way home....
....While stranded in the middle of no where Chile, we decided to have the world's best picnic.
But good thing that no matter where you are in Chile--even if stranded--you tend to be in the middle of the most beautiful scenery. Not to bad of a night all in all.
Back in Santiago:
Alison and I go trekking at Yerba Loca!
Everyone thinks the gringas are loca because we eat veggies like this. Maybe we are a little crazy, quien sabeee.
The other weekend I went with my Indigenous Rights class to Valparaíso to visit a Mapuche community. Alison and I asked our profe to leave us in Valpo, and we spent the night hanging out with Anna, and then bummed around Valpo the next day!
Gosh we're the coolest.
Last night I went with Christine and my host dad to see Harry Potter 7! SOOO GOOD. Also it came out a day earlier than in the US so whaaaaatttt. I guess Chile's just cool like that. This morning I woke up late (we got home around 2am), and took a nice swim in the building's outdoor pool! Aaah spring is lovely. Now, off to meet friends, and tomorrow we're going on another trekking (or hike as one might say in english).
Lots of love,
Allo (pronounced "ah-joo". Names from 2 year olds are the best, yo.)
I don't really have ganas to write one of those long blog posts, but here are some snapshots of here there and everywhere:
This is what all of the packages of cigarettes have on them. Basically saying YOU AND YO BABY GONNA DIE FOOL, DO YOU KNOW WHAT CIGARETTES DO TO YOU? My interpretation. But close enough.
In my human rights class (I officially had the last class yesterday, whoaaa!) I wrote an essay on el estadio Víctor Jara. Jara was a folk musician during the time of the dictator, and was one of the first people to be killed, just a few days after the coup. I went to the stadium where he was assassinated--which happens to be only about 10 blocks from my house--and walked around it a bit. It's really fascinating, because many of the spaces dedicated to the memory of those tortures/desaparecido/killed during the dictatorship, are so hard to distinguish from normal buildings/monuments. One reason, I believe, why it's still so hard to talk about what happened during the years of the dictadura--everything is still so hidden.
One weekend we went with CIEE on a 15 mile (oh yes) bike tour of literally ALL of santiago. Bikes for short people + 7 hours andando en bici=one sore poto the next day.
I forgot to write about this one time when I went to Argentina for the weekend. hahhh. Three friends and I decided to take the bus to Mendoza, Argentina, famous for wine tours, a beautiful little city, and paragliding (we did not partake in this however). Also, Christine and I needed to get out of the country for a hot second before our visas expired and we were deported back to the US. Woops. Here's a picture of us at one of the vineyards, having a wine tasting.
We rented bikes for only about $3 a day, and headed out through the beautiful, sunny Argentinian countryside, stopping every now and then at a wine bodega. Quite a wonderful way to pass the day. Sun, bikes, wine, and good friends.
Love them.
Oh, and then our bus broke down on the way home....
....While stranded in the middle of no where Chile, we decided to have the world's best picnic.
But good thing that no matter where you are in Chile--even if stranded--you tend to be in the middle of the most beautiful scenery. Not to bad of a night all in all.
Back in Santiago:
Alison and I go trekking at Yerba Loca!
Everyone thinks the gringas are loca because we eat veggies like this. Maybe we are a little crazy, quien sabeee.The other weekend I went with my Indigenous Rights class to Valparaíso to visit a Mapuche community. Alison and I asked our profe to leave us in Valpo, and we spent the night hanging out with Anna, and then bummed around Valpo the next day!
Gosh we're the coolest.Last night I went with Christine and my host dad to see Harry Potter 7! SOOO GOOD. Also it came out a day earlier than in the US so whaaaaatttt. I guess Chile's just cool like that. This morning I woke up late (we got home around 2am), and took a nice swim in the building's outdoor pool! Aaah spring is lovely. Now, off to meet friends, and tomorrow we're going on another trekking (or hike as one might say in english).
Lots of love,
Allo (pronounced "ah-joo". Names from 2 year olds are the best, yo.)
Saturday, November 13, 2010
pizza personal por 990 pesos? claaaro que sí.
Today after lunch with my family I set off to meet many a CIEEer working in the Starbucks in La Reina. I tend to make it a general rule that I don't like to go to Starbucks and haven't really done so before, but today I needed to be able to sit in a cafe for hours without having to buy lots of coffee/food the entire time. I set out towards La Reina, one of Santiago's many comunas, which happens to be lightyears away from my house. However, the sun was out, I had my trusty flipflops, shorts on (!!!helloooo summer), sun glasses, and my wonderful cellphone/ghetto radio. I got off of the metro at the world's most confusing intersection and started towards the cafe. It was hot hot hottt, but I was walking through a beautiful park, with small houses on one side and a little creek running on the other. After about twenty minutes I decided that, yes I was probably lost, and decided to ask a friendly jogger to point me in the right direction (less of a jogger, and more of a walker bouncing along, with grandma running arms. Adorable.). Obvio, I had walked in the wrong direction. As I turned back, slightly frustrated to have taken up so much time with my mistake, I spun and took in the view in front of me. In the center you don't really see the mountains unless you're in the right place on the street, but here the Andes loomed up over me, a majestic view to stumble upon. I love living so centrally to everything, but it was also incredible to be out in the burbs and see the cordillera so close.
After finally arriving at Starbucks Alison and I caught up on life, laughed really hard (I would like to appologize to all my fellow patrons--those guffaws were my fault), and shared good music. (ohhh yes, you know you like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E46BhMIRujI). We worked hard for two hours and then called it quits. On the walk back to the metro we stopped at telepizza, and got delicious $2 personal sized pizzas. We walked back to the metro, swapping stories and eating pizza out of the box. So often while I'm here the big trips and the crazy sightseeing is what sticks out in my mind as something remarkable to share with the world. There was nothing particularly exciting or "chilean" that happened today, but often the laidback, guffaw-filled days are the ones worth remembering as well.
After finally arriving at Starbucks Alison and I caught up on life, laughed really hard (I would like to appologize to all my fellow patrons--those guffaws were my fault), and shared good music. (ohhh yes, you know you like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E46BhMIRujI). We worked hard for two hours and then called it quits. On the walk back to the metro we stopped at telepizza, and got delicious $2 personal sized pizzas. We walked back to the metro, swapping stories and eating pizza out of the box. So often while I'm here the big trips and the crazy sightseeing is what sticks out in my mind as something remarkable to share with the world. There was nothing particularly exciting or "chilean" that happened today, but often the laidback, guffaw-filled days are the ones worth remembering as well.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
Oh and p.s. it is spring/sometimes feels like summer now and I am LOVIN it. Helloooo flip-flops errryday.
Friday, September 17, 2010
September in Santiago: Iquique, fietas patrias, y amigosss
Hello world, sorry I fail at writing blog posts. Ready to read a novel? Ok great.
Just for some context, here's what i've been up to the past few weeks:
(I'll leave you with another song, so you can dance while reading! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfoc4S1cFGs)
Part 1: Into the desert!
I'll start with the trip that I took a few weeks ago to northern Chile. My program, CIEE, took us to Iquique and Pica the weekend of the 3rd-5th. We started by getting to the airport at 6am (heyyyy 4am wake up call), and promptly ended up on the plane at 7am. Oh yeah, except for that tiny little snafu, when our pr
ogram director and two students missed the flight. So, instead of setting off on our scheduled tour we had coffee/nap time. It helped a lot that this took place in a gorgeous hotel overlooking the Pacific ocean; crashing waves on one side, the driest desert in the world on the other. It doesn't get much more incredible than that. We spent Friday touring around Iquique (I'm sure I could tell you much more about the history of the city if I had been paying better attention to the tour guide. But hey, three hours of sleep plus quiet spanish speaking guide=seriously hard para prestar atencion.) I really enjoyed visiting Iquique though--it's a beautiful little town, with really interesting architecture (huge influence from the English, who were really involved in the economy....seeee I did listen a little). There were awesome murals painted all over the buildings, and as we were walking at one point we ran into a huuuge group of kids dancing la cueca (Chile's national dance). That evening we went out to dinner and ate the most delicious seafood; of course only after pestering the waiter to explain/translate every single fish for us...we left a good tip.
The group! (apparently we fail at centering ourselves...)
After visiting these areas, we drove further into the desert to Pica, which is a little town nestled into an oasis. We drove across a salt flat; the bus tires spun over dry, cracked earth, and mirages of water arose in the distance. As we drove off of the salt flat, all of a sudden the landscape changed. We rose up a little, and saw that orange trees began to pop up out of the dusty, brown earth. We went swiftly from sun scorching desert, to a small, quaint town, sustained by the underground water keeping it alive and thriving. In Pica we visited a small, natural hotspring, and wandered around through a small art fair, the sun slowly setting behind groves of orange, lemon, and grapefruit trees. Once back to our gorgeous hotel (props to CIEE, we dined and lived in style) we managed to catch the tail end of the desert sunset, which was made especially spectacular by the purple and red glow that appeared on the mountains to the east.
Hungry after a long day, we walked 40 minutes back into "downtown" Pica (oh heyyy one main road), in search of some dinner. Everything seemed to be either closed, or just a small hole in the wall restaurant serving completos or empanadas. Our large group of about 16 gringos walked around, until a car pulled up to us; the man inside explained that he owned a restaurant and was out looking for people to come eat there, that we should go! So of course, we decided to see what it was like. Wandering into a back alley, we entered into a dimly lit hallway, which opened up into the most adorable restaurant. One side was full of tables and a small bar; the other side had a big fire pit with lots of benches surrounding the pit, the cieling open to the starry sky. We ordered food, and then spent a lovely long evening eating, sitting at the table talking, and every now and then heading to the fire to warm up and enjoy the crackle of the flames. Heading home that night, I spent more time looking up than in front of me; the desert stars are incredibly clear and bright, and just absolutely breathtaking.
Part 2: Anna visits and we do some Santiago exploring
The next weekend Anna came to visit me from Valpo! I met up with her on Friday night, and after some searching for her friend (failsauce) we ended up right outside of La Catolica for a nice dinner. (Haha and by nice dinner I mean "grilled cheese" with tomato and avocado...but seriously delicious). We adventured off to the other side of town to go to Alexandra's house. When we got there the table was full of delicious food made by her wonderful mom; guacamole, chips, mini choripanes, olives, and locos (Chilean shellfish). We spent a long time there, hanging out and meeting her friends (a lot of them I have class with at La Chile!) and then headed out to a club. The next day, we went off on a long transportation adventure (metro to metro to micro aaah!) and met up with my friend for an asado--basically a barbecue with sausages in bread, piscola, reggaeton, and friends. Very fun to get to know more chileans and visit Las Condes, a part of Santiago that I never go to, and therefore don't know very well.
That night Anna and I stayed in because a) we were exhausted, and b) it was September 11th, which meant some potential unrest in the streets. In the U.S. September 11th has its own significance obviously, but it is extremely significant in Chile as well, as it was the day of the coup that overthrew Allende and placed Pinochet in power for the next 17 years. We watched the news that night, and there were many violent protests and rioting in the streets in reaction to what happened during the dictatorship. It was really interesting to get to talk to my host family about la dictadura and get a better understanding of the still very polemic divide of politics in Chile.
The next morning Anna and I got up bright and early to go trekking! Unbeknownest to us, while weather.com bragged about temperatures in the mid 70s and sunny skies, we walked out into a cold, rainy day. And unfortunately for us, we both decided to wear shorts and no raincoats. Hahhhh. Either way, we met up with my friends and spent a fun albeit cold morning hiking up a cerro in the foothills of the Andes. It was actually quite beautiful to see the cordillera covered with clouds, and then to climb up into those clouds (wet, but awesome).
To wrap up the wonderful weekend, Anna and I decided to go get a cafecito before she headed out of town. Of course since it was Sunday everyyything was closed, but we stumbled upon some weird restaurant/pub/biker hangout. Kind of the perfect way to end a great weekend: drinking a mediocre cup of coffee, listening to a medley of 80s rock, ocassionally having to ignore the jotes attempting to speak to us in english from the next table, and planning future South America adventures with a good friend.
To wrap up a wonderful weekend, we celebrated mi abuela's birthday on Sunday! For lunch she made tons of delicious homemade empanadas, and then for once we had homemade bread and alfajores. Some family and friends came over, and we spent a relaxed evening chatting and eating. At the end, once almost everyone had left, we had the great chance to talk with Daniel, the student who lived here last semester! He called via Skype and we all got to talk to him--like he was back at the table with us all again. All in all, a very special birthday.
Part 3: Chi-Chi-Chi Le-Le-Le Viva Chile!!
How to describe the bicentenario? First of all scratch any ideas you've ever had of a typical 4th of July Independence day. Not nearly the same at all. (When I describe our Independence day to chileans they just laugh really hard and reply, "que fome!"...how boring!) Here the party starts Wednesday night...most people don't go to school on Thursday or Friday, and generally professors cancel classes anyway. Saturday was the actual bicentenario, and then today, Monday is a national holiday. My host parents explained to me how some people save money for months in preperation for el 18 de septiembre, while others make the most money they will all year over these four or five days.
To start off the celebrations, CIEE had a workshop to teach us all cueca, the national dance. It's kind of a mix between morris dancing and some latin dance. Lots of stomping and dancing in circles (that makes it sound really unattractive, it's actually really pretty). It's supposed to look sort of like a flirtatious dance between a chicken and a rooster, and when you dance you wave around a pañuelo, or handkerchief. We all looked pretty silly doing it, but it was a lot of fun to learn (and came in useful to know how to do).
On Thursday night the official bicentenario celebrations really got kicked off. Christine and I met up to go watch a lights show in front of La Moneda. I walked from my house to meet her, and when I passed by La Moneda 2 hours before it started, the lawn was already packed. When we walked back to go to the show, essentially every single resident of Santiago seemed to be on la calle Alameda with us. We tried to get close enough to see, but spent about a half hour squashed between hundreds of people, almost falling, being shoved violently from side to side. There was so little room that at one point a bunch of guys started pushing and about 50 of us swayed in unison, panic and shouts arising from where we were. We decided that living was better than being able to see (hahhh, but really), so we peaced out of there as fast as we could (which wasn't very quickly) to go to a less crowded area. Couldn't see very well, but at least we weren't afraid of falling and being trampled by todos los santiaguinos. Here's a video of the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtRCjtw46To. Fortunately I had seen the "ensayo" (preview) two nights before, so I didn't mind not being able to see.
Friday I went out in the afternoon to the fonda in Parque Ohiggins with a handful of friends. Fondas are where basically everyone goes to celebrate el 18; basically they take place in all of the big parks all over Santiago and are FULL of people eating, dancing, and drinking. Sort of like a state fair, but minus all the animals and rides. And then on some serious steroids. There are people everywhere eating anticucho (kebabs with meat/onions), choripanes (sausage sandwich), mote de huesillo (google that one, it'll take too long to explain), and drinking chicha (a type of wine). Smoke from all of the grills fills the air, and from all over there is a dull roar of voices and music. The different fondas are huge tents that have been constructed, where you can buy and eat all the aforementioned food/drink (plus pisco and cerveza and the famous terremoto...pineapple ice cream, white wine, and maybe rum). The fondas are packed, and inside people dance to cumbia, cueca, and reggaeton all night long...and then come back the next 3 days to do it again. Such a fun/sensory overload experience. Yet again, I'd just like to reiterate how much I love where I live. Not only do I have the best family in the world, but we live super close to everything. Parque Ohiggins is a 10 minute walk from our house, and is one of the most famous fondas in Santiago (mostly because it is so crazy--there's no cover charge to get into the park--but also there's a tradition that some of the politicians go there to dance the cueca to start off the celebrations).
Anticucho!
Saturday, the 18th was the actual Independence Day. After waking up my abuela taught me how to make empanadas from scratch! (I wrote down the recipe and will be having an empanada and pisco party when I come home.) We made 40 empanadas (yeah baby) and have been eating them ever since. Renatito and Leo dressed up in adorable little outfits to celebrate the day. That evening Hector and I wandered back to the fondas at Parque Ohiggins to buy chicha and eat an anticucho; to say the least, the fonda was completely more llena than before. As we walked around we looked at all of the people who had already passed out on the ground from a long day (perhaps weekend) of partying. From there I went to meet friends (of course showing up an hour late, chilean style) and we spent a wonderful night talking en español and dancing, closing the club down at ungodly o'clock.
Sunday aft
er sleeping in late (and getting teased about carreteando harto) we had a late lunch and then went to mass at mi abuela's church. I'm not generally one for Catholic services, but I had a really good time with them. We got there late (so seems to be the way with two small children) and stayed for about an hour. Since it was a special bicentenario mass, everyone in the chorus was dressed in traditional cueca/huaso clothes, and they played/danced the cueca. I had a really good time because hanging out with my family is always great: my parents and abuela just have such good senses of humor and are always laughing and joking. When we walked back from the metro we ran right into the military parade that was going through downtown Santiago (once again, such a prime place to live). I didn't notice, but apparently when one of the soldiers on horseback was going by he stared at me the entire time (I'm blond in a country where approximately 8 blondes live...what can I say). My parents thought it was the most hilarious thing, and as we walked back to the house they made plans about how I need to marry him (I think I'll pass). As we continued our walk back, just one block after passing through the parada militar we ran into a brigade of cars, which was apparently all of the politicians, including President Piñera, leaving Parque Ohiggins. Pretty cool!
Woooo, so that is my life at the moment! I'm a bit beat, we got back from a relative's birthday party; apparently small chat is harder in spanish--I should have known this before going. Tomorrow I have class for the first time in forever, and then tomorrow night is another relative's birthday party; mas carrrrrete ayy. Loving life in Chile, hope you are all doing well! Suerte to those who have just started back up in school and those who are now off on study abroad. Sending love to K as the year starts up again! And happy birthday, Dad!
Chau y besitosss
Just for some context, here's what i've been up to the past few weeks:
- September 3-5th: Trip to Northern Chile with CIEE
- September 10-12th: Anna visits Santiago!
- September 15-20th: Chile celebrates its bicentenario; 200 years of independence!
(I'll leave you with another song, so you can dance while reading! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfoc4S1cFGs)
See Iquique waaaay at the Northern end of Chile? Almost in Peru!
Part 1: Into the desert!
I'll start with the trip that I took a few weeks ago to northern Chile. My program, CIEE, took us to Iquique and Pica the weekend of the 3rd-5th. We started by getting to the airport at 6am (heyyyy 4am wake up call), and promptly ended up on the plane at 7am. Oh yeah, except for that tiny little snafu, when our pr
ogram director and two students missed the flight. So, instead of setting off on our scheduled tour we had coffee/nap time. It helped a lot that this took place in a gorgeous hotel overlooking the Pacific ocean; crashing waves on one side, the driest desert in the world on the other. It doesn't get much more incredible than that. We spent Friday touring around Iquique (I'm sure I could tell you much more about the history of the city if I had been paying better attention to the tour guide. But hey, three hours of sleep plus quiet spanish speaking guide=seriously hard para prestar atencion.) I really enjoyed visiting Iquique though--it's a beautiful little town, with really interesting architecture (huge influence from the English, who were really involved in the economy....seeee I did listen a little). There were awesome murals painted all over the buildings, and as we were walking at one point we ran into a huuuge group of kids dancing la cueca (Chile's national dance). That evening we went out to dinner and ate the most delicious seafood; of course only after pestering the waiter to explain/translate every single fish for us...we left a good tip.
Iquique
The next day we got up bright and early (this was not a trip to catch up on sleep) and drove over the cordillera on the coast, and arrive
d in the heart of the desert. It was absolutely like nothing I've ever seen before. Everywhere you looked it was brown and dusty, with the sun beating down on everything. In some places the most rain they get is mist in the morning every now and then. While driving through the desert, we stopped to tour an old salitrera, or saltpetre/nitrate mine. Next we went to a ghost town nearby, where the miners lived before abandoning it in the 70s. The best part of this for me was the strong dessert sun and temperatures in the 90s! After going through Santiago's coldest winter in 98 years, we were all ready for some warmth. From there, we drove off of the main highway, onto a twisty bumpy road, to go see ancient painted rocks on the side of a mountain. These are remains from long ago, preserved in the dry desert climate.
d in the heart of the desert. It was absolutely like nothing I've ever seen before. Everywhere you looked it was brown and dusty, with the sun beating down on everything. In some places the most rain they get is mist in the morning every now and then. While driving through the desert, we stopped to tour an old salitrera, or saltpetre/nitrate mine. Next we went to a ghost town nearby, where the miners lived before abandoning it in the 70s. The best part of this for me was the strong dessert sun and temperatures in the 90s! After going through Santiago's coldest winter in 98 years, we were all ready for some warmth. From there, we drove off of the main highway, onto a twisty bumpy road, to go see ancient painted rocks on the side of a mountain. These are remains from long ago, preserved in the dry desert climate.
The group! (apparently we fail at centering ourselves...)
After visiting these areas, we drove further into the desert to Pica, which is a little town nestled into an oasis. We drove across a salt flat; the bus tires spun over dry, cracked earth, and mirages of water arose in the distance. As we drove off of the salt flat, all of a sudden the landscape changed. We rose up a little, and saw that orange trees began to pop up out of the dusty, brown earth. We went swiftly from sun scorching desert, to a small, quaint town, sustained by the underground water keeping it alive and thriving. In Pica we visited a small, natural hotspring, and wandered around through a small art fair, the sun slowly setting behind groves of orange, lemon, and grapefruit trees. Once back to our gorgeous hotel (props to CIEE, we dined and lived in style) we managed to catch the tail end of the desert sunset, which was made especially spectacular by the purple and red glow that appeared on the mountains to the east.
Hungry after a long day, we walked 40 minutes back into "downtown" Pica (oh heyyy one main road), in search of some dinner. Everything seemed to be either closed, or just a small hole in the wall restaurant serving completos or empanadas. Our large group of about 16 gringos walked around, until a car pulled up to us; the man inside explained that he owned a restaurant and was out looking for people to come eat there, that we should go! So of course, we decided to see what it was like. Wandering into a back alley, we entered into a dimly lit hallway, which opened up into the most adorable restaurant. One side was full of tables and a small bar; the other side had a big fire pit with lots of benches surrounding the pit, the cieling open to the starry sky. We ordered food, and then spent a lovely long evening eating, sitting at the table talking, and every now and then heading to the fire to warm up and enjoy the crackle of the flames. Heading home that night, I spent more time looking up than in front of me; the desert stars are incredibly clear and bright, and just absolutely breathtaking.
Part 2: Anna visits and we do some Santiago exploring
The next weekend Anna came to visit me from Valpo! I met up with her on Friday night, and after some searching for her friend (failsauce) we ended up right outside of La Catolica for a nice dinner. (Haha and by nice dinner I mean "grilled cheese" with tomato and avocado...but seriously delicious). We adventured off to the other side of town to go to Alexandra's house. When we got there the table was full of delicious food made by her wonderful mom; guacamole, chips, mini choripanes, olives, and locos (Chilean shellfish). We spent a long time there, hanging out and meeting her friends (a lot of them I have class with at La Chile!) and then headed out to a club. The next day, we went off on a long transportation adventure (metro to metro to micro aaah!) and met up with my friend for an asado--basically a barbecue with sausages in bread, piscola, reggaeton, and friends. Very fun to get to know more chileans and visit Las Condes, a part of Santiago that I never go to, and therefore don't know very well.
That night Anna and I stayed in because a) we were exhausted, and b) it was September 11th, which meant some potential unrest in the streets. In the U.S. September 11th has its own significance obviously, but it is extremely significant in Chile as well, as it was the day of the coup that overthrew Allende and placed Pinochet in power for the next 17 years. We watched the news that night, and there were many violent protests and rioting in the streets in reaction to what happened during the dictatorship. It was really interesting to get to talk to my host family about la dictadura and get a better understanding of the still very polemic divide of politics in Chile.
The next morning Anna and I got up bright and early to go trekking! Unbeknownest to us, while weather.com bragged about temperatures in the mid 70s and sunny skies, we walked out into a cold, rainy day. And unfortunately for us, we both decided to wear shorts and no raincoats. Hahhhh. Either way, we met up with my friends and spent a fun albeit cold morning hiking up a cerro in the foothills of the Andes. It was actually quite beautiful to see the cordillera covered with clouds, and then to climb up into those clouds (wet, but awesome).
To wrap up the wonderful weekend, Anna and I decided to go get a cafecito before she headed out of town. Of course since it was Sunday everyyything was closed, but we stumbled upon some weird restaurant/pub/biker hangout. Kind of the perfect way to end a great weekend: drinking a mediocre cup of coffee, listening to a medley of 80s rock, ocassionally having to ignore the jotes attempting to speak to us in english from the next table, and planning future South America adventures with a good friend.
To wrap up a wonderful weekend, we celebrated mi abuela's birthday on Sunday! For lunch she made tons of delicious homemade empanadas, and then for once we had homemade bread and alfajores. Some family and friends came over, and we spent a relaxed evening chatting and eating. At the end, once almost everyone had left, we had the great chance to talk with Daniel, the student who lived here last semester! He called via Skype and we all got to talk to him--like he was back at the table with us all again. All in all, a very special birthday.
Part 3: Chi-Chi-Chi Le-Le-Le Viva Chile!!
How to describe the bicentenario? First of all scratch any ideas you've ever had of a typical 4th of July Independence day. Not nearly the same at all. (When I describe our Independence day to chileans they just laugh really hard and reply, "que fome!"...how boring!) Here the party starts Wednesday night...most people don't go to school on Thursday or Friday, and generally professors cancel classes anyway. Saturday was the actual bicentenario, and then today, Monday is a national holiday. My host parents explained to me how some people save money for months in preperation for el 18 de septiembre, while others make the most money they will all year over these four or five days.
To start off the celebrations, CIEE had a workshop to teach us all cueca, the national dance. It's kind of a mix between morris dancing and some latin dance. Lots of stomping and dancing in circles (that makes it sound really unattractive, it's actually really pretty). It's supposed to look sort of like a flirtatious dance between a chicken and a rooster, and when you dance you wave around a pañuelo, or handkerchief. We all looked pretty silly doing it, but it was a lot of fun to learn (and came in useful to know how to do).
On Thursday night the official bicentenario celebrations really got kicked off. Christine and I met up to go watch a lights show in front of La Moneda. I walked from my house to meet her, and when I passed by La Moneda 2 hours before it started, the lawn was already packed. When we walked back to go to the show, essentially every single resident of Santiago seemed to be on la calle Alameda with us. We tried to get close enough to see, but spent about a half hour squashed between hundreds of people, almost falling, being shoved violently from side to side. There was so little room that at one point a bunch of guys started pushing and about 50 of us swayed in unison, panic and shouts arising from where we were. We decided that living was better than being able to see (hahhh, but really), so we peaced out of there as fast as we could (which wasn't very quickly) to go to a less crowded area. Couldn't see very well, but at least we weren't afraid of falling and being trampled by todos los santiaguinos. Here's a video of the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtRCjtw46To. Fortunately I had seen the "ensayo" (preview) two nights before, so I didn't mind not being able to see.
Friday I went out in the afternoon to the fonda in Parque Ohiggins with a handful of friends. Fondas are where basically everyone goes to celebrate el 18; basically they take place in all of the big parks all over Santiago and are FULL of people eating, dancing, and drinking. Sort of like a state fair, but minus all the animals and rides. And then on some serious steroids. There are people everywhere eating anticucho (kebabs with meat/onions), choripanes (sausage sandwich), mote de huesillo (google that one, it'll take too long to explain), and drinking chicha (a type of wine). Smoke from all of the grills fills the air, and from all over there is a dull roar of voices and music. The different fondas are huge tents that have been constructed, where you can buy and eat all the aforementioned food/drink (plus pisco and cerveza and the famous terremoto...pineapple ice cream, white wine, and maybe rum). The fondas are packed, and inside people dance to cumbia, cueca, and reggaeton all night long...and then come back the next 3 days to do it again. Such a fun/sensory overload experience. Yet again, I'd just like to reiterate how much I love where I live. Not only do I have the best family in the world, but we live super close to everything. Parque Ohiggins is a 10 minute walk from our house, and is one of the most famous fondas in Santiago (mostly because it is so crazy--there's no cover charge to get into the park--but also there's a tradition that some of the politicians go there to dance the cueca to start off the celebrations).
Anticucho!
Saturday, the 18th was the actual Independence Day. After waking up my abuela taught me how to make empanadas from scratch! (I wrote down the recipe and will be having an empanada and pisco party when I come home.) We made 40 empanadas (yeah baby) and have been eating them ever since. Renatito and Leo dressed up in adorable little outfits to celebrate the day. That evening Hector and I wandered back to the fondas at Parque Ohiggins to buy chicha and eat an anticucho; to say the least, the fonda was completely more llena than before. As we walked around we looked at all of the people who had already passed out on the ground from a long day (perhaps weekend) of partying. From there I went to meet friends (of course showing up an hour late, chilean style) and we spent a wonderful night talking en español and dancing, closing the club down at ungodly o'clock.
Making empanadas:
Sunday aft
er sleeping in late (and getting teased about carreteando harto) we had a late lunch and then went to mass at mi abuela's church. I'm not generally one for Catholic services, but I had a really good time with them. We got there late (so seems to be the way with two small children) and stayed for about an hour. Since it was a special bicentenario mass, everyone in the chorus was dressed in traditional cueca/huaso clothes, and they played/danced the cueca. I had a really good time because hanging out with my family is always great: my parents and abuela just have such good senses of humor and are always laughing and joking. When we walked back from the metro we ran right into the military parade that was going through downtown Santiago (once again, such a prime place to live). I didn't notice, but apparently when one of the soldiers on horseback was going by he stared at me the entire time (I'm blond in a country where approximately 8 blondes live...what can I say). My parents thought it was the most hilarious thing, and as we walked back to the house they made plans about how I need to marry him (I think I'll pass). As we continued our walk back, just one block after passing through the parada militar we ran into a brigade of cars, which was apparently all of the politicians, including President Piñera, leaving Parque Ohiggins. Pretty cool!Woooo, so that is my life at the moment! I'm a bit beat, we got back from a relative's birthday party; apparently small chat is harder in spanish--I should have known this before going. Tomorrow I have class for the first time in forever, and then tomorrow night is another relative's birthday party; mas carrrrrete ayy. Loving life in Chile, hope you are all doing well! Suerte to those who have just started back up in school and those who are now off on study abroad. Sending love to K as the year starts up again! And happy birthday, Dad!
Chau y besitosss
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