Monday, December 3rd, 2007 Cusco and off to Aguas Calientes
We woke up around 10:30 am, while I was brushing my teeth I overheard Natalie talking to two guys in the room next two us. She asked them where they are from and when they said St. Louis, MO, I came rushing out of the bathroom. They both went to LaDue High School, where Sara is a Young Life leader and where in Peru for three months teaching English. We went to lunch with them and had a great time laughing at their crazy stories.
After lunch we headed out to check out Cusco. It is chalk full of amazing churches, great museums and art galleries. We went to the Cathedral where we got a private, 1 hour long tour from a woman and learned more about it than I thought possible. Next we went to the Jesuit church on the other side of the corner but skipped the tour b/c of time. We snuck up into the bell tower and got some awesome pictures.
Then to an Incan history museum, then a famous convent. Both full of artifacts and beautiful artwork. Then we went to a Popular Art Museum, with comical and disturbing figurines. By now it was time to meet up with our tour guide to get our car to Ollantaytambo, where we were to catch the train to Aguas Calientes. Our guide met us at the hostel with all the tickets we would need for the rest of the trip and sent us on our way with the driver.
The ride to Ollantaytambo was beautiful through the Peruvian countryside with glacier capped mountains in the distance. When we got to Ollantaytambo we ate dinner in a cute café by the railroad station then boarded the train.
We got into Aguas Calientes around 10 pm and headed to our pre-paid hostel. We settled in, bought lunch to bring to Machu Picchu the next day, then our tour guide for Machu Picchu met up with us to give us details for the next morning. Worst part: wake up call at 5 am. With that news we headed to bed, super excited for our big day tomorrow.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 Day Tour of Sacred Valley and night out in Peru
Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 Day Tour of Sacred Valley and night out in Peru
We got into Cusco at 4 am and our guide brought us to a hostel. We slept for a few hours and woke up at 8 to go on our tour of the Sacred Valley. We had various stops:
First market place, ran into gringo friends from Washington University in St. Louis on same tour with different group, bought dad and Christian their alpaca sweaters
Market place- bought corn on the cob off the street= amazing! Peru shot glass
Pisac- ancient ruins, built in shape of a condor (big white bird, very important in Incan culture)
Ollantaytambo- ancient ruins built in shape of llama
Buffet lunch= yummy
Chinchero- colonial church, nick played soccer with the little kids, Natalie got pwned aka convinced by a group of kids to buy postcards
Fun ride back to Cusco, met up with group from Wash U for dinner
Found a deal for all 10 of us for a 3 course dinner with pisco sours for about $3 a piece
After dinner Nick, Chris, Natalie and I went to the Uptown, a bar advertising a free drink and salsa dancing, met Cliff, 6’3’’ guy from Fulton, MO and friend Jeremy. Chris and Natalie got sick of hearing about Missouri and decided to head back early but Nick and I hung out with our new friends. Had great conversation, danced, and after Nick and Cliff both got offered cocaine and Nick got solicited sex by a prostitute we decided to head back. It ended up being 5 am!
We got into Cusco at 4 am and our guide brought us to a hostel. We slept for a few hours and woke up at 8 to go on our tour of the Sacred Valley. We had various stops:
First market place, ran into gringo friends from Washington University in St. Louis on same tour with different group, bought dad and Christian their alpaca sweaters
Market place- bought corn on the cob off the street= amazing! Peru shot glass
Pisac- ancient ruins, built in shape of a condor (big white bird, very important in Incan culture)
Ollantaytambo- ancient ruins built in shape of llama
Buffet lunch= yummy
Chinchero- colonial church, nick played soccer with the little kids, Natalie got pwned aka convinced by a group of kids to buy postcards
Fun ride back to Cusco, met up with group from Wash U for dinner
Found a deal for all 10 of us for a 3 course dinner with pisco sours for about $3 a piece
After dinner Nick, Chris, Natalie and I went to the Uptown, a bar advertising a free drink and salsa dancing, met Cliff, 6’3’’ guy from Fulton, MO and friend Jeremy. Chris and Natalie got sick of hearing about Missouri and decided to head back early but Nick and I hung out with our new friends. Had great conversation, danced, and after Nick and Cliff both got offered cocaine and Nick got solicited sex by a prostitute we decided to head back. It ended up being 5 am!
Saturday, December 1st, 2007 Day Tour of Lake Titicaca, Peruvian wedding and off to Cusco
Saturday, December 1st, 2007 Day Tour of Lake Titicaca, Peruvian wedding and off to Cusco
We woke up super early to catch the bus to the boat tour. We drove to the port and every piled onto the boat to begin our day long trip on Lake Titicaca. Our first stop was the Islands of the Uros, a series of 39 man made floating islands. They are built out of a reed and mud from the bottom of the lake mixture with layered reeds on top to form the ground. A group of about 3 families live on each island in small houses made out of reeds. The community form about 600 years ago to escape the wars on the land surrounding the lake and survived by fishing and gardening on the island. But now they survive mostly on tourism. It was sad to see how dependent they were, but at the same time it was an incredibly interesting way of life.
Next we had a 2 hour boat ride to another natural island on the Lake, Island . This island has about 500 residents and they survive on agriculture and selling their woven goods. We ate lunch on the island overlooking the lake covered by a white blanket for shade. It seemed just like on Survivor!
After this stop I slept on the 3 hour ride back to Puno. By the time we arrived it was about 6 pm. Everyone else went to get dinner but I wasn’t hungry so I went to the cathedral to go to mass. But when I got there and sat down, a man came out and announced that the Cathedral as being closed to the public because there was going to be an ordination! So I headed out and went to find my friends at dinner but as I was walking out I overheard a Peruvian woman talking to her young son about how they were going to walk to the other church to go to mass. I turned around and asked her if there was another mass and if I could join them. So I walked with them a couple blocks to another church. When we walked in we saw that instead of mass, it was a Peruvian wedding! It was especially the same as the Chilean wedding but with really cheesy music (i.e. My Heart Will Go On from Titanic etc.). In the hopes that there would also be a mass, I decided to stick around but in the end they only had communion for the bride and groom. So I didn’t get to go to mass, but I got to see another South American wedding!!
After the wedding I started walking back to the hostel when I ran into an awesome parade marching through the pedestrian street. It was the closest parade I’ve seen to a Mardi Gras parade minus the huge floats. Back at the hostel, we asked the woman working if she knew about any hostels in Cusco that were good and a few minutes later she came back with a man who started talking to us about our trip to Cusco and Machu Picchu. Come to find out, he is a tourism agent and after talking to us about our plans, he offered us a deal for the rest of our trip. It included: a day tour of the Sacred Valley, the car/train ride to Aguas Calientes, the bus to Machu Picchu, the $40 entrance fee into Machu Picchu, two nights in a hostel in Aguas Calientes including breakfast both days and the bus ride from Cusco back to Tacna, all for only $136 a person! It was such a good deal and he seemed legitimate, so when he told us that we could pay half up front and that he was going to go with us to Cusco to organize everything, we decided to go with it! So we went to the bus station with our guide and got on the bus at 9 pm to Cusco!
Friday, November 30th, 2007 Speed tour of La Paz and escape to Peru
Friday, November 30th, 2007 Speed tour of La Paz and escape to Peru
We woke up early at 8 pm to aprovechar (to take advantage) of our little time in La Paz
First we walk ½ a block to the main square in La Paz with the Cathedral, Capital building, Supreme Court building. Full of police b/c of potential for protests. Looked like a bunch of ninja turtles hanging out. We were standing out side the capital building when a long line of cars and motorcycles pulled up with the lights flashing. A bunch of men in dark suits with sunglasses were standing outside talking into walkie talkies when 4 men came out of the capital and got into the BMW. Nick asked a random Bolivian man and found out that it was Eva Morales, the controversial Bolivian president. That was probably one of the most exciting, random events, even thought I didn’t even recognize Morales.
Next we walked to the Coca Museum, which is well known as a great museum about the evolution of cocaine. We got there at what we thought was 9:45 and decided to wait till 10 am when it opened. A woman outside the museum was selling jewelry and while waiting we found earrings made out of coca leaves. One side shows the leaf and the other side is colored weaving. We all bought a couple pairs since they were so cheap. By 10:30 the museum still wasn’t open so we walked over to the famous Witches Market, where they sell tons of Incan figurines, herbs, and other religious artifacts and most notably, dead baby llama fetuses. Chris decided to buy a fetus to give to his 13 year old host brother. So for the rest of the trip, we had an extra travel buddy who we lovingly named Eugene Fredrick Cummings, shortened to EF.
We headed back to the museum, which was finally open. We spent almost an hour walking through the small museum reading all the info while we learned about the evolution of the ancient practice of chewing coca leaves to the current day war on drugs focused in South America. I learned a lot and it reinforced a reoccurring theme I’ve noticed throughout of South America: the ancient practices were healthy, effective and appropriate for the culture. Then white man came, stole the practices, abused it and turned it into something harmful and destructive. Then they turn around and blame the indigenous culture for the harmful effects of the previously harmless product. Two highlights of the museum:
1. The statue of the cokehead sniffing coke:
2. The motivational sign to warn against the dangers of drugs:
The successes in life are the sources of constant pleasure that permit us and orient us towards a constructive and pleasant life.
A well adapted individual is capable of feeling pleasure to achieve healthy and fruitful interpersonal relationships, succeed in studies, obtain good work, make a stable and caring family, raise healthy children, maintain enjoyable sexual relationships, obtain social prestige and economic stability. The pleasure is the ? Example that directs el path to a healthy life.
We spent the rest of the day walking around La Paz. Bolivian women have a very typical dress which includes a long, full pleated skirt, a blouse, a brightly colored blanket wrapped around a bundle of whatever they are carrying on their bag, all topped off with a black bowler hat covering their 2 very long, thick black braids.
We walked through a huge market selling all types of food and fruit, then to the famous Church of San Francisco. We first walked to the wrong church which was small and closed but eventually we found the right church. Of course, it was beautiful and full of alters and saints statues. After completing everything we’d wanted to see in La Paz, we headed back to the hotel, ate for lunch what we bought for breakfast the day before while we watched a horrible US movie that happened to be on the TV. We got all our stuff and took a taxi to the bus station to catch our 2 pm bus and waited outside the gate. When 2 pm arrived and no one else was there I walked over to the ticket counter to find out if we were at the right gate. The lady said we were correct and that we would start boarding in 30 minutes. I didn’t understand because we were supposed to leave at 2 and she told me that it was only 1 pm!! So apparently there is a one hour time change between Chile and Bolivia and we didn’t know it! We’d been hanging out this whole time thinking it was an hour later!
Since we had an extra hour we took a walk around the bus station and had a photo shoot with EF, the baby llama. Finally we got on the bus at the correct 2 pm and spent the rest of the day driving to Peru. At the border we got off the bus and exited Bolivia after we were warned that if we had left the next day, we would need a Visitors Visa. Good thing we left when we did!! Then we walked across a bridge and entered Peru. I couldn’t believe how chaotic it was and we could have easily entered Peru without passing through customs. The rest of the evening was a tumultuous bus ride while I attempted to sleep.
We arrived in Puno late in the evening and first arranged to take a boat tour of Lake Titicaca the next morning. Then we went out to check out Puno and decided that we wanted to try the famous Peruvian delicacy Cuy. Aka Guinea Pig. So we found a nice looking restaurant and ordered one for all of us to share. To our surprise, it came out as an entire guinea pig, buck teeth and all. It was disgusting to look at and not too much better to eat. It tasted like chicken but with a lot less meat. After dinner we headed back to the hostel where the 4 of us were sharing a room. We kept trying to go to sleep but with all of us together we couldn’t stop laughing, especially at Chris’s absurd insults and Nick’s obliviousness at the female anatomy.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007 Going to Bolivia!
Thursday, November 29, 2007 Going to Bolivia!
Got into Arica at 3 am, found a taxi to take us into town to find a hostel.
Had no plan, no idea what to do except we knew we wanted to go to La Paz asap (despite warnings not to go from our program director b/c of protests in Sucre over silver mining and the fact that US citizens need a visa to enter Bolivia starting Dec. 1. So are plan was to go the 29th and leave for Peru the 30th before we needed the visa!)
On the way into the city, pass a bus headed for La Paz, taxi driver turns around, waves it down. Nick talks to drive, 3 seats left but 4 of us. We nearly got on a random bus to La Paz at 3:30 in the morning!
Went to hostel, slept for 4 hours. At 9 same taxi driver brought us to bus station, get on bus to La Paz.
Bus to La Paz, 7 hours
Delcious lunch with wine
Meet Chilean rapper traveling with wife and son to La Paz then Lima to do concerts
Chile/Bolivia Border- nearly leave Natalie and Chris
Lots of crappy movies, really load
Make book list
Beautiful scenery, two huge volcanos,
can obviously feel increase in altitiude.
Get to La Paz around 7 pm, incredibly city in a valley shaped like a bowl, nearly overflowing. But this bowl is above (way way above sea level, so no worries about flooding!)
Buy ticket to Puno, Peru for the next day at 2 pm.
Ask taxi driver to take us to a hostel near the center of town. Brings us to hotel, pay 3 dollars each for the night.
Walk to art museum, awesome
p.s. with all the walking, the altitude is very obvious. I felt winded and my toes and fingers tingled like they were asleep. And we were all a little giddy. We decided to skip wine at dinner.
Walk to dinner to restaurant called Bella Vista (Beautiful View) on top of Hotel Presidente, with 360 view of city, recommended as best restaurant in La Paz in Frommers
Ate delicious, huge trout from Lake Titicaca, salad bar, water and dessert for about 10 USD$. Boys had huge steak for same price.
Walked back to hotel (slowly) and went to bed exhausted but happy
Got into Arica at 3 am, found a taxi to take us into town to find a hostel.
Had no plan, no idea what to do except we knew we wanted to go to La Paz asap (despite warnings not to go from our program director b/c of protests in Sucre over silver mining and the fact that US citizens need a visa to enter Bolivia starting Dec. 1. So are plan was to go the 29th and leave for Peru the 30th before we needed the visa!)
On the way into the city, pass a bus headed for La Paz, taxi driver turns around, waves it down. Nick talks to drive, 3 seats left but 4 of us. We nearly got on a random bus to La Paz at 3:30 in the morning!
Went to hostel, slept for 4 hours. At 9 same taxi driver brought us to bus station, get on bus to La Paz.
Bus to La Paz, 7 hours
Delcious lunch with wine
Meet Chilean rapper traveling with wife and son to La Paz then Lima to do concerts
Chile/Bolivia Border- nearly leave Natalie and Chris
Lots of crappy movies, really load
Make book list
Beautiful scenery, two huge volcanos,
can obviously feel increase in altitiude.
Get to La Paz around 7 pm, incredibly city in a valley shaped like a bowl, nearly overflowing. But this bowl is above (way way above sea level, so no worries about flooding!)
Buy ticket to Puno, Peru for the next day at 2 pm.
Ask taxi driver to take us to a hostel near the center of town. Brings us to hotel, pay 3 dollars each for the night.
Walk to art museum, awesome
p.s. with all the walking, the altitude is very obvious. I felt winded and my toes and fingers tingled like they were asleep. And we were all a little giddy. We decided to skip wine at dinner.
Walk to dinner to restaurant called Bella Vista (Beautiful View) on top of Hotel Presidente, with 360 view of city, recommended as best restaurant in La Paz in Frommers
Ate delicious, huge trout from Lake Titicaca, salad bar, water and dessert for about 10 USD$. Boys had huge steak for same price.
Walked back to hotel (slowly) and went to bed exhausted but happy
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 The adventure begins!!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 The adventure begins!!
Getting a cold sore from stress
Finish the paper (sort of), Olga bought me Diet Coke to celebrate!
Interview for senior staff position at Tulane residence life
Almost found a house for Emilio and his friends in NOLA
Talk with Trevor=intense
Hurriedly pack
Meet Natalie, Nick and Chris in metro, take bus to airport
Take altitude pills on the way, looks like drugs
Get through airport without showing a single ID
Waiting for plane, meet couple from San Francisco traveling all of Chile
Randomly sit next to the San Francisco couple, talk with the woman the entire flight about life after college, marriage (they just recently got engaged), changing your goals/dreams, expectations etc.
Had a beer on the plane b/c they encouraged me to!
Getting a cold sore from stress
Finish the paper (sort of), Olga bought me Diet Coke to celebrate!
Interview for senior staff position at Tulane residence life
Almost found a house for Emilio and his friends in NOLA
Talk with Trevor=intense
Hurriedly pack
Meet Natalie, Nick and Chris in metro, take bus to airport
Take altitude pills on the way, looks like drugs
Get through airport without showing a single ID
Waiting for plane, meet couple from San Francisco traveling all of Chile
Randomly sit next to the San Francisco couple, talk with the woman the entire flight about life after college, marriage (they just recently got engaged), changing your goals/dreams, expectations etc.
Had a beer on the plane b/c they encouraged me to!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007 Almost done!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007 Almost done!
Again I spent almost all day working on my paper. I went to mass and had to say goodbye to my new friends since they were heading home the next day. I worked until about 8 pm, then met up in the swanky part of Santiago to have a beer and relax with some friends. It started out just being Courtney, Hannah, Matt and I but by 10 pm there are well over 20 of our gringo friends!
When Nick finally showed up he told us his funny story about getting robbed in the park by a man with a 12 inch kitchen knife. Luckily no one got hurt and he only lost $30 bucks, so we all had a good laugh. Everyone else was staying out all night but seeing as I still had to write about 8 pages, I headed in early.
Again I spent almost all day working on my paper. I went to mass and had to say goodbye to my new friends since they were heading home the next day. I worked until about 8 pm, then met up in the swanky part of Santiago to have a beer and relax with some friends. It started out just being Courtney, Hannah, Matt and I but by 10 pm there are well over 20 of our gringo friends!
When Nick finally showed up he told us his funny story about getting robbed in the park by a man with a 12 inch kitchen knife. Luckily no one got hurt and he only lost $30 bucks, so we all had a good laugh. Everyone else was staying out all night but seeing as I still had to write about 8 pages, I headed in early.
Monday, November 26, 2007 Just a little bit more work, you can do it!
Monday, November 26, 2007 Just a little bit more work, you can do it!
Today was a dull but important day. I worked all day frantically working on my Poverty Paper. The only breaks I took were to go to mass at noon, where I saw my two new friends and to eat. Took a little break to meet up with some of my girlfriends to get ice cream and say goodbye to my friend Sara who is going home early. But other than that, it was work work work. I got a lot done but still have a lot to go!
Today was a dull but important day. I worked all day frantically working on my Poverty Paper. The only breaks I took were to go to mass at noon, where I saw my two new friends and to eat. Took a little break to meet up with some of my girlfriends to get ice cream and say goodbye to my friend Sara who is going home early. But other than that, it was work work work. I got a lot done but still have a lot to go!
Sunday, November 25, 2007 I’m supposed to be doing my paper, but I’m having too much fun!
Sunday, November 25, 2007 I’m supposed to be doing my paper, but I’m having too much fun!
I woke up and went on a quick run, then went to the Museum Palacio Cousino a few blocks from my house. I’d heard great things about the museum and knew that since time was running short, if I didn’t go now I’d never go. The Palacio (Palace) is a huge house built by an old Chilean family that owned copper mines and wineries. Inside it absolutely beautiful and filled with all kinds of extravagances: 19 types of Italian marble on the staircase, a 2 ton crystal chandelier, tons of priceless artwork, gold trimmed everything, etc. Now the house is owned by the City Government and they use it to host big parties.
Afterwards I came home and had lunch with Olga then spent the afternoon working on homework. That evening Olga and I went to her church because they were having the confirmations. With this sacrament, I was able to see all 7 sacraments of the Catholic Church in Chile! An amazing and amazingly old Cardinal presided and during the homily made a funny comment about parejas, the Chilean word for an unmarried couple who lives like a married couple. He said, “Parejas? Me carga la palabra pareja!” (Couple? I hate the word “couple”!”) Then he went on to say that only animals live “en parejas” (as an unmarried couple). He basically was denouncing the decline in rates of marriages and commenting on how it is leading to the decay of the family and therefore the society. Ok, so I guess you had to be there, but it really was funny!
After mass Olga and I headed home and about a block away we suddenly hear mariachi singers. We turned around and realized that a man was serenading from the street to a woman (his girlfriend I assume) about 7 stories up. When they finished the song the small crowd that had gathered started cheering and she invited him up, a sign of a successful serenade! When we got home I spent the evening working on my 17 page paper, like I should have been doing all day!
I woke up and went on a quick run, then went to the Museum Palacio Cousino a few blocks from my house. I’d heard great things about the museum and knew that since time was running short, if I didn’t go now I’d never go. The Palacio (Palace) is a huge house built by an old Chilean family that owned copper mines and wineries. Inside it absolutely beautiful and filled with all kinds of extravagances: 19 types of Italian marble on the staircase, a 2 ton crystal chandelier, tons of priceless artwork, gold trimmed everything, etc. Now the house is owned by the City Government and they use it to host big parties.
Afterwards I came home and had lunch with Olga then spent the afternoon working on homework. That evening Olga and I went to her church because they were having the confirmations. With this sacrament, I was able to see all 7 sacraments of the Catholic Church in Chile! An amazing and amazingly old Cardinal presided and during the homily made a funny comment about parejas, the Chilean word for an unmarried couple who lives like a married couple. He said, “Parejas? Me carga la palabra pareja!” (Couple? I hate the word “couple”!”) Then he went on to say that only animals live “en parejas” (as an unmarried couple). He basically was denouncing the decline in rates of marriages and commenting on how it is leading to the decay of the family and therefore the society. Ok, so I guess you had to be there, but it really was funny!
After mass Olga and I headed home and about a block away we suddenly hear mariachi singers. We turned around and realized that a man was serenading from the street to a woman (his girlfriend I assume) about 7 stories up. When they finished the song the small crowd that had gathered started cheering and she invited him up, a sign of a successful serenade! When we got home I spent the evening working on my 17 page paper, like I should have been doing all day!
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Saturday, November 24, 2007 Family and Friends, the best way to spend a Saturday
Saturday, November 24, 2007 Family and Friends, the best way to spend a Saturday
5 am, place closes come outside expecting everyone to be gone, friends sitting outside drinking coronas chatting! Decide to tough it out and wait till the metro opens at 6:30 instead of taking cabs home. Only place open is McDonalds. Everyone gets food, no ice cream, so I just got water.
McDonalds closes at 6 am! Wait half an hour outside the metro
Said goodbye to Nici, she is leaving for San Pedro de Atacama then trip up to Columbia today!
Metro home, Olga laughs and told me she wasn’t worried at all!
Slept for 3 hours, woke up at 10:30 to go to Miguels soccer game
Found out Olga and Mario missed winning the lottery by 1 number out of 6! Instead of 40,000 USD, they get $16!
Soccer game, adorable
Tie 0-0, go to shoot out. Miguel goes first, makes his goal. His team ends up losing
Party afterwards, ice cream
Everyone comes over for almuerzo, talk about how they are all going to drive me to the airport on Dec. 12, which is also Miguel’s birthday. But Miguel has never been to the airport so will be excited to go!
Go to get ice cream with Sara, Courtney, Lorin and Alea in Providencia, sat in park chatting
Came home, slept
Decided to stay in, caught up on blog instead of doing homework!!
5 am, place closes come outside expecting everyone to be gone, friends sitting outside drinking coronas chatting! Decide to tough it out and wait till the metro opens at 6:30 instead of taking cabs home. Only place open is McDonalds. Everyone gets food, no ice cream, so I just got water.
McDonalds closes at 6 am! Wait half an hour outside the metro
Said goodbye to Nici, she is leaving for San Pedro de Atacama then trip up to Columbia today!
Metro home, Olga laughs and told me she wasn’t worried at all!
Slept for 3 hours, woke up at 10:30 to go to Miguels soccer game
Found out Olga and Mario missed winning the lottery by 1 number out of 6! Instead of 40,000 USD, they get $16!
Soccer game, adorable
Tie 0-0, go to shoot out. Miguel goes first, makes his goal. His team ends up losing
Party afterwards, ice cream
Everyone comes over for almuerzo, talk about how they are all going to drive me to the airport on Dec. 12, which is also Miguel’s birthday. But Miguel has never been to the airport so will be excited to go!
Go to get ice cream with Sara, Courtney, Lorin and Alea in Providencia, sat in park chatting
Came home, slept
Decided to stay in, caught up on blog instead of doing homework!!
Friday, November 23, 2007 Fiesta de Despedida- Goodbye Party! Already?
Friday, November 23, 2007 Fiesta de Despedida- Goodbye Party! Already?
Work, Mass
Made friends after mass- 2 brothers, studying Engineering, from the south. Told me I’m a good Catholic (b/c I go to mass) and that my Spanish is really good! Gave them my messenger name.
Almuerzo, to Nuestra Casa to do interviews- really nervous
Went really well. Learned a lot, got good stuff for my investigation. Felt good to know they trusted me, many opened up and told me a lot about their lives. 3 guys have lived on the street all their lives. Incredible.
Rushed home, showered, dressed, Olga convinced me to wear my black flats instead of heels, told Olga not to worry, I might be out late with my gringo friends!
Went to CIEE office for the “Returning Home” workshop
Really helpful to learn about “re-entry” syndrome, reflect about how we’ve changed, what concerns we have about going back, what 3 things we’ve learned
How I’ve Changed:
Concerns I have about going back:
3 things I’ve learned:
1. The importance of language
2. JUST DO IT
3. Importance of my family in my life.
Most important thing I’ve learned while in Chile:
It’s not about what you have
It’s not about what you are doing
It’s not about where you are
It’s all about who you are with
After workshop, to Fiesta de Despedida, Goodbye party
Pisco sours, frutti drinks, wine
Delicious dinner
“graduation” ceremony, gave cards to program coordinators, said goodbye
I got up and asked people, esp the boys, to bring clothes/shoes to CIEE office so I can bring it to Nuestra Casa
Dessert, open bar, pictures, socializing, dancing
Left after midnight, walked to Avaneda Suecia, went to small club, danced the night away!
Nick and I danced with 3 chileans until place closed at 5 am!
Work, Mass
Made friends after mass- 2 brothers, studying Engineering, from the south. Told me I’m a good Catholic (b/c I go to mass) and that my Spanish is really good! Gave them my messenger name.
Almuerzo, to Nuestra Casa to do interviews- really nervous
Went really well. Learned a lot, got good stuff for my investigation. Felt good to know they trusted me, many opened up and told me a lot about their lives. 3 guys have lived on the street all their lives. Incredible.
Rushed home, showered, dressed, Olga convinced me to wear my black flats instead of heels, told Olga not to worry, I might be out late with my gringo friends!
Went to CIEE office for the “Returning Home” workshop
Really helpful to learn about “re-entry” syndrome, reflect about how we’ve changed, what concerns we have about going back, what 3 things we’ve learned
How I’ve Changed:
Concerns I have about going back:
3 things I’ve learned:
1. The importance of language
2. JUST DO IT
3. Importance of my family in my life.
Most important thing I’ve learned while in Chile:
It’s not about what you have
It’s not about what you are doing
It’s not about where you are
It’s all about who you are with
After workshop, to Fiesta de Despedida, Goodbye party
Pisco sours, frutti drinks, wine
Delicious dinner
“graduation” ceremony, gave cards to program coordinators, said goodbye
I got up and asked people, esp the boys, to bring clothes/shoes to CIEE office so I can bring it to Nuestra Casa
Dessert, open bar, pictures, socializing, dancing
Left after midnight, walked to Avaneda Suecia, went to small club, danced the night away!
Nick and I danced with 3 chileans until place closed at 5 am!
Thursday, November 22, 2007 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Chilean Education. Oh yeah, and its Thanksgiving. I forgot.
Thursday, November 22, 2007 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Chilean Education. Oh yeah, and its Thanksgiving. I forgot.
Today began and ended with the two extremes of education.
I started out my day volunteering at the high school.
The teacher Mabel didn’t show up, so I tried to teach them the numbers. Wanted to kill them. Instead ended up talking about Trevor, showed them photo of us.
Left early (i.e. gave up?), went to mass, almuerzo after mass. Had carrot omelet and refused to talk/think about turkey.
After lunch called Trevor, talked to Taylor for a while
Then called the family in California, had a break down. I’m a goose flying alone.
Talked to everyone. Never been so homesick. Wish I was there, know its worth it that I stayed, but can’t help second guessing my decision. Nice to know they are thinking of me and I love the pictures.
In the evening, went to Miguel’s “guitar concert” which ended up being a 3 hour display of every musical group and theater group in the high school. Long, but well worth it. Gave me hope that there is quality education in Chile. Then I realized this type of education is only for those that can afford it. Oh the vicious cycle.
A few interesting points during the concert
1. there choir director is Cuban and at one point he made a side comment that thanks to God here in Chile he is free and can say what he wants. Ironically it wasn’t long ago that Chile wasn’t free. But it was powerful.
2. They sang Amazing Grace, in English. The teacher made a comment that it was ironic that it was in English!
Enjoyed the evening with my Chilean family. I’ve got so much to be thankful for!
Starving by the end of the concert, Evan had cake, ate some on the bus home!!
Olga made me steak, ate at 11 at night! To celebrate Thanksgiving, I ate the rest of my cake with ice cream! A Delicious Chilean Thanksgiving feast!
Today began and ended with the two extremes of education.
I started out my day volunteering at the high school.
The teacher Mabel didn’t show up, so I tried to teach them the numbers. Wanted to kill them. Instead ended up talking about Trevor, showed them photo of us.
Left early (i.e. gave up?), went to mass, almuerzo after mass. Had carrot omelet and refused to talk/think about turkey.
After lunch called Trevor, talked to Taylor for a while
Then called the family in California, had a break down. I’m a goose flying alone.
Talked to everyone. Never been so homesick. Wish I was there, know its worth it that I stayed, but can’t help second guessing my decision. Nice to know they are thinking of me and I love the pictures.
In the evening, went to Miguel’s “guitar concert” which ended up being a 3 hour display of every musical group and theater group in the high school. Long, but well worth it. Gave me hope that there is quality education in Chile. Then I realized this type of education is only for those that can afford it. Oh the vicious cycle.
A few interesting points during the concert
1. there choir director is Cuban and at one point he made a side comment that thanks to God here in Chile he is free and can say what he wants. Ironically it wasn’t long ago that Chile wasn’t free. But it was powerful.
2. They sang Amazing Grace, in English. The teacher made a comment that it was ironic that it was in English!
Enjoyed the evening with my Chilean family. I’ve got so much to be thankful for!
Starving by the end of the concert, Evan had cake, ate some on the bus home!!
Olga made me steak, ate at 11 at night! To celebrate Thanksgiving, I ate the rest of my cake with ice cream! A Delicious Chilean Thanksgiving feast!
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 Many lasts and the beginning of my reflections of my time abroad
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 Many lasts and the beginning of my reflections of my time abroad
I went to campus early to meet with Jaclyn and two of her classmates in her Latin American studies class to do an interview. They are doing a project on the perspectives of exchange students on Chilean culture and Jaclyn asked me to be one of the interviews. They asked me:
· Why I chose to come to Santiago: I wanted to go to Latin America; my options were Buenos Aires, Valparaiso, or Santiago. I wanted to live in a big city, and without friends from school (14 Tulane students went to Buenos Aires) and I was told Santiago had great universities. Basically, I wanted something unique (not Spain, not Argentina). I’d never met anyone from Chile or anyone who’d been to Chile and I didn’t know anything about it, so why not!
· What I liked about Chilean culture: close knit families, strong Catholic community, like to dance Salsa and merenguie
· What I didn’t like: that they are timid/not very outgoing, that they don’t speak Spanish, but rather Chilean and many don’t have patience with foreign speakers, PDA (Public Display of Affection) every where, chauvism (sp?), the fact that kids live with their parents until they get married and never have time to develop their individual identity (That is a very USA perspective on individual identity and I acknowledged that. Its hard to say I like that the families are close then turn around and say I don’t like that they are so close, but its two sides of the same coin. As I’ve definitely learned, not everything is black and white. There are pros and cons to every aspect of society.)
· What I like about Chile as a country: the diversity of the landscape, that everywhere is beautiful yet incredibly different
· If I would ever come back to Chile: I said only for vacation, not to live. But if I were going to live in Chile I’d want to live in the south.
· Why I wouldn’t live in Santiago: I told them it was more of a reflection of the fact that I realized I never want to live in such a huge city. I don’t like the smog, the noise, the constant closeness to millions of people, lack of free space to run around, etc.
· If I regretted coming to Chile: At first that was a tough question. I told them that after going to Buenos Aires and Mendoza in Argentina, part of me wished I’d studied there. It would have been easier to learn Spanish because I can actually understand them and they can understand me, but also that it is more diverse, better food, more culture, and really really cheap. But I’m glad I can to Chile for the challenges it provided me. If I can speak Chilean Spanish, I can speak any kind of Spanish. I can survive in a big city. I can be ok with being really (and very obviously) different. Plus the friendships I’ve formed (with my friends in the program, with my Chilean friends and with Olga) are absolutely priceless and I wouldn’t change them for anything.
· I concluded the interview by saying that overall, I’ve realized the biggest struggle for me has been the language barrier. I said it’s really hard to fully understand a culture, really get to know people and really express your true personally if you can’t handle the language perfectly. It becomes a huge barrier in everything and makes everything 1. more challenging and 2. less clear. I’ve realized that some of the things I don’t like about Chile may be because I don’t fully understand them. I’ve realized the absolute importance of language as a way to view the world and to define who you are and how you interact with others. Communication is a struggle with in monolingual relationships (of all types, not just romantic relationships) so image how difficult it would be to truly communicate if you don’t perfectly speak the same language. I lose a lot of my personality in Spanish and for that, I often find myself frustrated. But it’s not a reflection of Chile, nor Santiago, nor Chilean people, but upon myself and the universal challenge of communication.
As you can see, the interview probably helped me more that it helped them. I realized how important it is for me to truly reflect on my experiences over the last 4.5 months. I’m going home soon and I don’t want to show up with a false view of what I’ve experienced. I’m not going to say neither that Chile has been absolutely amazing nor that I didn’t like it. Its definitely somewhere in the middle. But more importantly, I’m leaving Chile with a completely different view of myself, the world, my relationships, etc. I am a completely different person and most of the changes I haven’t even realized yet.
Wow, that was deep. Back to my day, which was much less profound than it seems! After the interview I went to my last Doctrina Social class. Then I went to my last mass at the chapel on campus. Then I went to my last Education class, where I may have failed the test. It was a lot harder than I’d thought it would be, mostly just because it was really really long. Oh well, I know I passed the class, so that is all that matters!
After the test I ate lunch with Christian for the last time. We ate just the two of us like before and before I headed out I signed the two posters I’d given him for his birthday (back in September!). I made him leave so I could write him the note. But he wanted me to write in English, so I had to think really hard!
After lunch I took the metro to my last Biblia class. Ironically, I understood the professor better today than any other day all semester. It was kind of encouraging to see that I’d improved so much that I could actually understand him and I only wish I’d caught on earlier. I realized that even with the amount I learned and grew because of that class, it could have been much more if I’d understood 100% and had been able to participate more fully (i.e. talk) in class discussions. At the end of class I had to say goodbye to the friends I’d made in the class, which was the first goodbyes I’d said. While we were talking, I had my first natural “Si, po”, which is a huge sign that I’m picking up the language. (“po” is natural filler that all Chileans use. It sounds very strange if you aren’t used to it, but they say it naturally and in all types of conversations. So it was a big deal for me to use it without thinking. I got really excited and they all laughed and congratulated me! Anyway, it was sad to say goodbye and to think I will most likely never see them again.
Finally, I went to my last Poverty class. Today was our second “Round Table” discussion about our essays. We just sat around and chatted about the different things we’d observed and experienced in our respective volunteer jobs. We talked about the complexity of poverty and why it is so difficult of change the system. After class, the 8 gringos and our professor Hector (also our program director) took cabs to a restaurant called “Rincon de las Canallas” or “Scumbags Corner” (loosely translated). This was a bar/restaurant that during the dictatorship and curfew was illegally open every night. It became the meeting place for many socialists (i.e. the scumbags) who were hiding from the military police. The restaurant had (and still has) a big metal door with a peep whole and to enter you needed (and still “need”) the password. Only the owner opens the door and greets you with a huge smile and big handshake. Inside looks just like many of the restaurants in New Orleans. The walls are covered with notes from clients, signed photos of famous people, news paper clippings, subversive posters and signs, etc. I felt more “at home” in this restaurant then I had in any other place in Chile!! It was like being right back in NOLA!! During dinner the owner came and told us the well rehearsed history of the restaurant and you could tell that despite his age, he was full of energy and love for the place. It had been burnt down twice, closed by the military once, they’d all been sent to jail numerous times for “illegal selling of alcohol” and being out passed curfew. And all in the name of breaking the rules! I mean: All in the name of freedom!
We spent the evening eating, drinking, reminiscing, and occasionally watching Chile lose to Paraguay in soccer in the background. Hector bought all the drinks, which are specialties of the house. One was borbogoñia, a sweet wine mix with chiramoya (a sweet, white fruit). The other was the infamous Terremotto (earthquake in Spanish). A Terremotto is white wine with ferrnet (a bitter Argentinean liquor), strawberries (or pineapple), and pineapple ice cream on top. The combination is incredibly sweet and delicious and deceiving dangerous. Every Chilean has a hilarious story about “a friend” who got smashed off of terrremottos because you don’t realize home much you are drinking. Luckily there were a lot of us and we were there for over 3 hours. Plus we ordered a dinner for 4 which fed all nine of us. (That tells you something). It was a HUGE, delicious platter of all kinds of meat and the perfect meal to accompany the evening.
When Chile lost 3-0, all the drinks were gone, then finally after-dinner aperativos on the house, we all realized that it was a Wednesday night, we headed out. We walked to Alameda (the main avenue that runs right by the apartment) and since we were only about 4 blocks away, I walked home. Olga laughed when I told her where we’d been but said she was sure we’d had a good time. I immediately went to bed since I had to wake up at 6:30 am to go volunteer at the high school for the last time.
I went to campus early to meet with Jaclyn and two of her classmates in her Latin American studies class to do an interview. They are doing a project on the perspectives of exchange students on Chilean culture and Jaclyn asked me to be one of the interviews. They asked me:
· Why I chose to come to Santiago: I wanted to go to Latin America; my options were Buenos Aires, Valparaiso, or Santiago. I wanted to live in a big city, and without friends from school (14 Tulane students went to Buenos Aires) and I was told Santiago had great universities. Basically, I wanted something unique (not Spain, not Argentina). I’d never met anyone from Chile or anyone who’d been to Chile and I didn’t know anything about it, so why not!
· What I liked about Chilean culture: close knit families, strong Catholic community, like to dance Salsa and merenguie
· What I didn’t like: that they are timid/not very outgoing, that they don’t speak Spanish, but rather Chilean and many don’t have patience with foreign speakers, PDA (Public Display of Affection) every where, chauvism (sp?), the fact that kids live with their parents until they get married and never have time to develop their individual identity (That is a very USA perspective on individual identity and I acknowledged that. Its hard to say I like that the families are close then turn around and say I don’t like that they are so close, but its two sides of the same coin. As I’ve definitely learned, not everything is black and white. There are pros and cons to every aspect of society.)
· What I like about Chile as a country: the diversity of the landscape, that everywhere is beautiful yet incredibly different
· If I would ever come back to Chile: I said only for vacation, not to live. But if I were going to live in Chile I’d want to live in the south.
· Why I wouldn’t live in Santiago: I told them it was more of a reflection of the fact that I realized I never want to live in such a huge city. I don’t like the smog, the noise, the constant closeness to millions of people, lack of free space to run around, etc.
· If I regretted coming to Chile: At first that was a tough question. I told them that after going to Buenos Aires and Mendoza in Argentina, part of me wished I’d studied there. It would have been easier to learn Spanish because I can actually understand them and they can understand me, but also that it is more diverse, better food, more culture, and really really cheap. But I’m glad I can to Chile for the challenges it provided me. If I can speak Chilean Spanish, I can speak any kind of Spanish. I can survive in a big city. I can be ok with being really (and very obviously) different. Plus the friendships I’ve formed (with my friends in the program, with my Chilean friends and with Olga) are absolutely priceless and I wouldn’t change them for anything.
· I concluded the interview by saying that overall, I’ve realized the biggest struggle for me has been the language barrier. I said it’s really hard to fully understand a culture, really get to know people and really express your true personally if you can’t handle the language perfectly. It becomes a huge barrier in everything and makes everything 1. more challenging and 2. less clear. I’ve realized that some of the things I don’t like about Chile may be because I don’t fully understand them. I’ve realized the absolute importance of language as a way to view the world and to define who you are and how you interact with others. Communication is a struggle with in monolingual relationships (of all types, not just romantic relationships) so image how difficult it would be to truly communicate if you don’t perfectly speak the same language. I lose a lot of my personality in Spanish and for that, I often find myself frustrated. But it’s not a reflection of Chile, nor Santiago, nor Chilean people, but upon myself and the universal challenge of communication.
As you can see, the interview probably helped me more that it helped them. I realized how important it is for me to truly reflect on my experiences over the last 4.5 months. I’m going home soon and I don’t want to show up with a false view of what I’ve experienced. I’m not going to say neither that Chile has been absolutely amazing nor that I didn’t like it. Its definitely somewhere in the middle. But more importantly, I’m leaving Chile with a completely different view of myself, the world, my relationships, etc. I am a completely different person and most of the changes I haven’t even realized yet.
Wow, that was deep. Back to my day, which was much less profound than it seems! After the interview I went to my last Doctrina Social class. Then I went to my last mass at the chapel on campus. Then I went to my last Education class, where I may have failed the test. It was a lot harder than I’d thought it would be, mostly just because it was really really long. Oh well, I know I passed the class, so that is all that matters!
After the test I ate lunch with Christian for the last time. We ate just the two of us like before and before I headed out I signed the two posters I’d given him for his birthday (back in September!). I made him leave so I could write him the note. But he wanted me to write in English, so I had to think really hard!
After lunch I took the metro to my last Biblia class. Ironically, I understood the professor better today than any other day all semester. It was kind of encouraging to see that I’d improved so much that I could actually understand him and I only wish I’d caught on earlier. I realized that even with the amount I learned and grew because of that class, it could have been much more if I’d understood 100% and had been able to participate more fully (i.e. talk) in class discussions. At the end of class I had to say goodbye to the friends I’d made in the class, which was the first goodbyes I’d said. While we were talking, I had my first natural “Si, po”, which is a huge sign that I’m picking up the language. (“po” is natural filler that all Chileans use. It sounds very strange if you aren’t used to it, but they say it naturally and in all types of conversations. So it was a big deal for me to use it without thinking. I got really excited and they all laughed and congratulated me! Anyway, it was sad to say goodbye and to think I will most likely never see them again.
Finally, I went to my last Poverty class. Today was our second “Round Table” discussion about our essays. We just sat around and chatted about the different things we’d observed and experienced in our respective volunteer jobs. We talked about the complexity of poverty and why it is so difficult of change the system. After class, the 8 gringos and our professor Hector (also our program director) took cabs to a restaurant called “Rincon de las Canallas” or “Scumbags Corner” (loosely translated). This was a bar/restaurant that during the dictatorship and curfew was illegally open every night. It became the meeting place for many socialists (i.e. the scumbags) who were hiding from the military police. The restaurant had (and still has) a big metal door with a peep whole and to enter you needed (and still “need”) the password. Only the owner opens the door and greets you with a huge smile and big handshake. Inside looks just like many of the restaurants in New Orleans. The walls are covered with notes from clients, signed photos of famous people, news paper clippings, subversive posters and signs, etc. I felt more “at home” in this restaurant then I had in any other place in Chile!! It was like being right back in NOLA!! During dinner the owner came and told us the well rehearsed history of the restaurant and you could tell that despite his age, he was full of energy and love for the place. It had been burnt down twice, closed by the military once, they’d all been sent to jail numerous times for “illegal selling of alcohol” and being out passed curfew. And all in the name of breaking the rules! I mean: All in the name of freedom!
We spent the evening eating, drinking, reminiscing, and occasionally watching Chile lose to Paraguay in soccer in the background. Hector bought all the drinks, which are specialties of the house. One was borbogoñia, a sweet wine mix with chiramoya (a sweet, white fruit). The other was the infamous Terremotto (earthquake in Spanish). A Terremotto is white wine with ferrnet (a bitter Argentinean liquor), strawberries (or pineapple), and pineapple ice cream on top. The combination is incredibly sweet and delicious and deceiving dangerous. Every Chilean has a hilarious story about “a friend” who got smashed off of terrremottos because you don’t realize home much you are drinking. Luckily there were a lot of us and we were there for over 3 hours. Plus we ordered a dinner for 4 which fed all nine of us. (That tells you something). It was a HUGE, delicious platter of all kinds of meat and the perfect meal to accompany the evening.
When Chile lost 3-0, all the drinks were gone, then finally after-dinner aperativos on the house, we all realized that it was a Wednesday night, we headed out. We walked to Alameda (the main avenue that runs right by the apartment) and since we were only about 4 blocks away, I walked home. Olga laughed when I told her where we’d been but said she was sure we’d had a good time. I immediately went to bed since I had to wake up at 6:30 am to go volunteer at the high school for the last time.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007 I’m here in Chile and not at the family reunion for a reason. I just need to keep reminding myself that.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007 I’m here in Chile and not at the family reunion for a reason. I just need to keep reminding myself that.
I slept in till about 10:30 and spent the morning working on my paper. I went to mass at noon at the Jesuit church nearby and had almuerzo with Olga after. At 3 I walked to Nuestra Casa, where Patricio, Alejandro, Nicole and Angelica were all outside working on two mosaics outside the door. One side is says Nuestra Casa with the logo and the other side says “Community Center Trampoline”. They invited me to help and I ended up finishing the “Community Center” with blue letters and a white background. Victor, a 28 year old goof ball, helped me by holding the tile pieces while asking me about my family etc. When I told him I have an older sister that studies nursing and that we look a lot alike, he decided he was going to move to the US and marry Sara. He was spent the rest of the afternoon talking about my sister the nurse and how she can teach him English and take care of her. It was actually hilarious and everyone got a kick out of it.
Around five I cleaned the cement of my pruny hands and we did the drugs and alcohol presentation. More people came than ever before (I think there were about 7, plus Lorin and another volunteer). During the presentation I realized they know more than I do about the subject (obviously) and I felt like it was kind of a flop. But at the end Nivaldo, who is only 21 years old, started talking about his therapy that he is in with Hogar de Cristo (the huge Catholic service organization started by Saint Alberto Hurtado in the 70s). Talked about how he started drinking when he became homeless when he was 16 because the older men he lived/worked with encouraged him to drink. He was an alcoholic for 4 years and 4 months ago started the therapy. It’s once a week and he says he hasn’t drank since. All the money he used to spend on alcohol he now uses to buy food and take care of himself. I realized that even if they didn’t get anything out of the presentation, at least it opened up a little bit of dialogue about the possibility of therapy and rehabilitation and maybe planted a seed to encourage some of them to quit or seek help.
After the presentation Lorin did her little English class. She taught them how to say the basic conversational things: what’s your name, where are you from, how old are you, what do you like to do, my name is…, I’m from… , I am …years old, I like to… It was fun to hear them pronounce it all and even though they probably don’t remember anything, they definitely enjoyed it. Afterwards we hung out for a while then walked back.
Tuesday night Jaclyn and Nick, my two gringo friends in my Education class came over to study for our test the next day. I literally hadn’t studied at all because I’m taking the class pass fail and I’d gotten better grades than I’d expected before hand. So they got to the apartment around 9:30 and Olga made food for all of us (of course a mini-feast) and we chatted and ate until almost 11! Jaclyn has been in Chile a whole year and has been dating a Chilean almost the whole time and they are in love. So she was telling us about how he is trying to get a tourist visa to come visit her over their summer (from Dec. to March). But apparently it is almost impossible to get a tourist visa for young men without resources because they assume you are going to stay illegally and work. But they are both strong Christians and decided that if he gets the visa and can travel, they will stay together. If not, they are taking it as a sign from God that they aren’t supposed to be together and they are going to end it. It was sad to hear Jaclyn talk about it because it’s obvious they really love each other, but she seems to have a good perspective on it. On the other hand Nick has been dating a 30 year old Chilean (yes, 10 years his elder) the past 4 months but he has no intention of staying with her when he leaves. Olga had lots of advice for the both of them and all four of us spent the time cracking up. She really is hilarious and all my friends love her.
So at 11 we finally started studying but it was really more of a conversation about the quality of the class. Our teacher is super Catholic and she can tend to be a little preachy in class, which Nick doesn’t really like. We talked about her Sexual Education theory (obviously, abstinence only, but more controversially her strong opinions on gender roles and the distinct roles of a mother vs. a father in raising their children). Anyway, they left around 12:30 to take a bus home and I went to finish my poverty paper. So in all, I studied about 2 hours of the test. Oh well!
I slept in till about 10:30 and spent the morning working on my paper. I went to mass at noon at the Jesuit church nearby and had almuerzo with Olga after. At 3 I walked to Nuestra Casa, where Patricio, Alejandro, Nicole and Angelica were all outside working on two mosaics outside the door. One side is says Nuestra Casa with the logo and the other side says “Community Center Trampoline”. They invited me to help and I ended up finishing the “Community Center” with blue letters and a white background. Victor, a 28 year old goof ball, helped me by holding the tile pieces while asking me about my family etc. When I told him I have an older sister that studies nursing and that we look a lot alike, he decided he was going to move to the US and marry Sara. He was spent the rest of the afternoon talking about my sister the nurse and how she can teach him English and take care of her. It was actually hilarious and everyone got a kick out of it.
Around five I cleaned the cement of my pruny hands and we did the drugs and alcohol presentation. More people came than ever before (I think there were about 7, plus Lorin and another volunteer). During the presentation I realized they know more than I do about the subject (obviously) and I felt like it was kind of a flop. But at the end Nivaldo, who is only 21 years old, started talking about his therapy that he is in with Hogar de Cristo (the huge Catholic service organization started by Saint Alberto Hurtado in the 70s). Talked about how he started drinking when he became homeless when he was 16 because the older men he lived/worked with encouraged him to drink. He was an alcoholic for 4 years and 4 months ago started the therapy. It’s once a week and he says he hasn’t drank since. All the money he used to spend on alcohol he now uses to buy food and take care of himself. I realized that even if they didn’t get anything out of the presentation, at least it opened up a little bit of dialogue about the possibility of therapy and rehabilitation and maybe planted a seed to encourage some of them to quit or seek help.
After the presentation Lorin did her little English class. She taught them how to say the basic conversational things: what’s your name, where are you from, how old are you, what do you like to do, my name is…, I’m from… , I am …years old, I like to… It was fun to hear them pronounce it all and even though they probably don’t remember anything, they definitely enjoyed it. Afterwards we hung out for a while then walked back.
Tuesday night Jaclyn and Nick, my two gringo friends in my Education class came over to study for our test the next day. I literally hadn’t studied at all because I’m taking the class pass fail and I’d gotten better grades than I’d expected before hand. So they got to the apartment around 9:30 and Olga made food for all of us (of course a mini-feast) and we chatted and ate until almost 11! Jaclyn has been in Chile a whole year and has been dating a Chilean almost the whole time and they are in love. So she was telling us about how he is trying to get a tourist visa to come visit her over their summer (from Dec. to March). But apparently it is almost impossible to get a tourist visa for young men without resources because they assume you are going to stay illegally and work. But they are both strong Christians and decided that if he gets the visa and can travel, they will stay together. If not, they are taking it as a sign from God that they aren’t supposed to be together and they are going to end it. It was sad to hear Jaclyn talk about it because it’s obvious they really love each other, but she seems to have a good perspective on it. On the other hand Nick has been dating a 30 year old Chilean (yes, 10 years his elder) the past 4 months but he has no intention of staying with her when he leaves. Olga had lots of advice for the both of them and all four of us spent the time cracking up. She really is hilarious and all my friends love her.
So at 11 we finally started studying but it was really more of a conversation about the quality of the class. Our teacher is super Catholic and she can tend to be a little preachy in class, which Nick doesn’t really like. We talked about her Sexual Education theory (obviously, abstinence only, but more controversially her strong opinions on gender roles and the distinct roles of a mother vs. a father in raising their children). Anyway, they left around 12:30 to take a bus home and I went to finish my poverty paper. So in all, I studied about 2 hours of the test. Oh well!
Monday, November 19, 2007 My last Monday of class in 2007 and San Expedito
Monday, November 19, 2007 My last Monday of class in 2007 and San Expedito
CIEE office to do evaluations
Turn in Doc Soc paper
Print
Education class- last lecture
Lunch with Christian in the grass- asked to eat just the two of us like before but we sat with a girl in his class. Told me about applying for reality show and interview and call back. Says he is worry about being too famous afterwards. Lol
Biblia class
Took metro home quickly dropped off stuff, had a cup of coffee, checked email, went to catch bus to go to mass at Olga’s church for the mass of San Expedito, the 19th of every month.
San Expedito is the patron saint of urgent cases (expedite). The church was full, literally hundreds of people, on a Monday night. After the homily people came up and told a little story about how Saint Expedito helped them with an illness, find a job etc. Others asked for prayers for their sick loved one etc. It was very beautiful and was a powerful testament to the faith of the people. Obviously it’s not everyone in Chile or Santiago, but the Catholic culture here is strong and many people’s individual faith is powerful.
At the end of the mass they passed out white carnations and everyone walked to the front of the church and placed the flowers in vases at the feet of the statue of the Virgin Mary while singing “Come and we’ll go together with flowers for Mary, our mother”. Then as Olga and I were leaving the church I saw a statue of Saint Teresa of Liseaux, my patron saint. And right next to it was a statute of Saint Joseph with the baby Jesus.
After mass we walked to Olga’s other house and had once with Mario. Olga made churrassco, a very Chilean food. It’s a thin cut of steak grilled with garlic on a big bun with tomato, lettuce, mayo and mustard. It’s basically just a really good burger. I enjoyed being in Olga’s “other world” and they laughed when I said that. Olga said she didn’t want to bring me to the other house because it’s so ugly but I like it. It isn’t the prettiest place. It’s basically the little store out front, a living/dining room, and then a strange hallway/lobby type room with the other rooms attached. Everything is really old and not at all fixed up. It’s strange because it is such a huge contrast to the apartment. But I guess Mario likes it there and it’s kind of his bachelor pad!
We took the bus home a little before 11 pm and I spent a few hours working on my paper for my Poverty class due on Wednesday.
CIEE office to do evaluations
Turn in Doc Soc paper
Education class- last lecture
Lunch with Christian in the grass- asked to eat just the two of us like before but we sat with a girl in his class. Told me about applying for reality show and interview and call back. Says he is worry about being too famous afterwards. Lol
Biblia class
Took metro home quickly dropped off stuff, had a cup of coffee, checked email, went to catch bus to go to mass at Olga’s church for the mass of San Expedito, the 19th of every month.
San Expedito is the patron saint of urgent cases (expedite). The church was full, literally hundreds of people, on a Monday night. After the homily people came up and told a little story about how Saint Expedito helped them with an illness, find a job etc. Others asked for prayers for their sick loved one etc. It was very beautiful and was a powerful testament to the faith of the people. Obviously it’s not everyone in Chile or Santiago, but the Catholic culture here is strong and many people’s individual faith is powerful.
At the end of the mass they passed out white carnations and everyone walked to the front of the church and placed the flowers in vases at the feet of the statue of the Virgin Mary while singing “Come and we’ll go together with flowers for Mary, our mother”. Then as Olga and I were leaving the church I saw a statue of Saint Teresa of Liseaux, my patron saint. And right next to it was a statute of Saint Joseph with the baby Jesus.
After mass we walked to Olga’s other house and had once with Mario. Olga made churrassco, a very Chilean food. It’s a thin cut of steak grilled with garlic on a big bun with tomato, lettuce, mayo and mustard. It’s basically just a really good burger. I enjoyed being in Olga’s “other world” and they laughed when I said that. Olga said she didn’t want to bring me to the other house because it’s so ugly but I like it. It isn’t the prettiest place. It’s basically the little store out front, a living/dining room, and then a strange hallway/lobby type room with the other rooms attached. Everything is really old and not at all fixed up. It’s strange because it is such a huge contrast to the apartment. But I guess Mario likes it there and it’s kind of his bachelor pad!
We took the bus home a little before 11 pm and I spent a few hours working on my paper for my Poverty class due on Wednesday.
Sunday, November 18, 2007 No really, do some homework.
Sunday, November 18, 2007 No really, do some homework.
Despite going to bed relatively early last night (1:30 on a Saturday!), I still managed to sleep until 11:40 this morning. It’s a good thing I woke up because I was planning on going to mass at noon. So I quickly got dressed and walked to church. After mass I showed Olga how to cook Corn on the Cob in the oven (with butter, salt and garlic!) which she had never done it before. They turned out delicious and swore that from now on this is the only way she will cook Corn on the Cob!
After lunch I work for about 20 minutes before Natalie came over and we walked together to Parque O’Higgins (where I go running). Her host mom and told her there was a huge concert going on in the park and she really wanted to check it out. But when we got there it was just a normal day in Parque O’Higgins: tons of families, picnics, paddle boats, kites, vendors, and everything else that makes parks lovely. But Courtney had just gotten on a bus to meet up with us to go to the concert (whoops), so we meandered around the park while waiting for Courtney. When she got there we walked around Republica, the University neighborhood right outside the park (and where Natalie lives).
It was really really hot and like all good Chileans, we decided we needed ice cream. So we ended up going to Fillippos, the place I had ice cream at last night with Sara! But honestly, it’s just that good. Courtney and I couldn’t decide between two flavors so we each got one and switched cones half way through. That is a sign of true friendship!! After ice cream we went to Natalie’s house to say hello to her host mom Nora. After a short visit I walked Courtney back to the bus stop then I walked home. Olga just laughed when I told her we’d gotten ice cream (again).
I spent the evening “starting” my essay for my Poverty class but still managing to spend a lot of my time avoiding my homework. Around 8 pm I got a phone call from a random guy who from in my Education class that I hadn’t seen or talked to since the very beginning of the semester. We did an in class project together and I guess I gave him my number. In any case, he waited over 3 months to call me to invite me to a party at his house tonight. (Yes, a Sunday night). I graciously declined, telling him I had a lot of work to do and reminded him about our big project due tomorrow. He had no idea it was due and said he’d get right on it. Seriously, Chilean men…
Despite going to bed relatively early last night (1:30 on a Saturday!), I still managed to sleep until 11:40 this morning. It’s a good thing I woke up because I was planning on going to mass at noon. So I quickly got dressed and walked to church. After mass I showed Olga how to cook Corn on the Cob in the oven (with butter, salt and garlic!) which she had never done it before. They turned out delicious and swore that from now on this is the only way she will cook Corn on the Cob!
After lunch I work for about 20 minutes before Natalie came over and we walked together to Parque O’Higgins (where I go running). Her host mom and told her there was a huge concert going on in the park and she really wanted to check it out. But when we got there it was just a normal day in Parque O’Higgins: tons of families, picnics, paddle boats, kites, vendors, and everything else that makes parks lovely. But Courtney had just gotten on a bus to meet up with us to go to the concert (whoops), so we meandered around the park while waiting for Courtney. When she got there we walked around Republica, the University neighborhood right outside the park (and where Natalie lives).
It was really really hot and like all good Chileans, we decided we needed ice cream. So we ended up going to Fillippos, the place I had ice cream at last night with Sara! But honestly, it’s just that good. Courtney and I couldn’t decide between two flavors so we each got one and switched cones half way through. That is a sign of true friendship!! After ice cream we went to Natalie’s house to say hello to her host mom Nora. After a short visit I walked Courtney back to the bus stop then I walked home. Olga just laughed when I told her we’d gotten ice cream (again).
I spent the evening “starting” my essay for my Poverty class but still managing to spend a lot of my time avoiding my homework. Around 8 pm I got a phone call from a random guy who from in my Education class that I hadn’t seen or talked to since the very beginning of the semester. We did an in class project together and I guess I gave him my number. In any case, he waited over 3 months to call me to invite me to a party at his house tonight. (Yes, a Sunday night). I graciously declined, telling him I had a lot of work to do and reminded him about our big project due tomorrow. He had no idea it was due and said he’d get right on it. Seriously, Chilean men…
Saturday, November 17, 2007 Seriously, please do some stinking homework!! Or just go to the Ballet.
Saturday, November 17, 2007 Seriously, please do some stinking homework!! Or just go to the Ballet.
Mario called while I was on the metro to see where I was because Olga was worried! Told him I’d be home soon!
Got home around 7 am, apologized profusely to Olga. She just laughed and told me not to worry at all, she just wanted to know and her phone wouldn’t work. Told me to just call next time I’d be out that late!
Went to sleep until around 11:30
Spent all day doing homework, talked to Sara (my sister) for a long time!
Turned down invite to go to my Chilean friend’s birthday party. Knew it would be another long, crazy night, decided I needed some down time to catch up on sleep and get some work done. Instead at 7 I met up with Sara at the theater to see the Ballet. Very modern, with a live orchestra. Not what I’d expected, but beautiful. It’s amazing what they can do with their bodies.
Got ice cream with Sara afterwards, sat and talked in the “park” in the median of the Alameda until right before the metro closed. She is Mormon but we have very similar perspectives on religion (it’s the faith that is more important, people shouldn’t hide behind the religion, can be dangerous if people never leave their safe community of faith to think/understand/experience, etc.) It was great to talk with her and sad because she is leaving early.
Went home early (11 pm) and spent the night working on my essays and fell asleep early.
Mario called while I was on the metro to see where I was because Olga was worried! Told him I’d be home soon!
Got home around 7 am, apologized profusely to Olga. She just laughed and told me not to worry at all, she just wanted to know and her phone wouldn’t work. Told me to just call next time I’d be out that late!
Went to sleep until around 11:30
Spent all day doing homework, talked to Sara (my sister) for a long time!
Turned down invite to go to my Chilean friend’s birthday party. Knew it would be another long, crazy night, decided I needed some down time to catch up on sleep and get some work done. Instead at 7 I met up with Sara at the theater to see the Ballet. Very modern, with a live orchestra. Not what I’d expected, but beautiful. It’s amazing what they can do with their bodies.
Got ice cream with Sara afterwards, sat and talked in the “park” in the median of the Alameda until right before the metro closed. She is Mormon but we have very similar perspectives on religion (it’s the faith that is more important, people shouldn’t hide behind the religion, can be dangerous if people never leave their safe community of faith to think/understand/experience, etc.) It was great to talk with her and sad because she is leaving early.
Went home early (11 pm) and spent the night working on my essays and fell asleep early.
Friday, November 16, 2007 Revenge of the Gringos: the epic battle
Friday, November 16, 2007 Revenge of the Gringos: the epic battle
During the day, more homework. Boo…
In the afternoon went to campus to play soccer again. We only had 6 to start, so Christian played on our team against his brother Emilio and all his friends. It was the same friends we’d hung out with last Friday after the game, so it was fun.
We played well (me not included in that we) and after playing one hour straight without subs we finally stopped. It was tied 5-5, so after a little rest decided to end it with a shoot out. 5 each team, we ended up loosing 4-2. But considering we had 3 girls and no subs, I’ll take it.
After the game we bought drinks and hung out outside. Then we went to a party in the Mathematics building. (Every facultad (major) has a huge party each semester and people from every facultad go). Danced salsa and mereguine (sp?) until they shut it down around 1.
A bunch of us took the bus back to Christian’s house and ended up hanging out until the metro opened again at 6:30 am!!
During the day, more homework. Boo…
In the afternoon went to campus to play soccer again. We only had 6 to start, so Christian played on our team against his brother Emilio and all his friends. It was the same friends we’d hung out with last Friday after the game, so it was fun.
We played well (me not included in that we) and after playing one hour straight without subs we finally stopped. It was tied 5-5, so after a little rest decided to end it with a shoot out. 5 each team, we ended up loosing 4-2. But considering we had 3 girls and no subs, I’ll take it.
After the game we bought drinks and hung out outside. Then we went to a party in the Mathematics building. (Every facultad (major) has a huge party each semester and people from every facultad go). Danced salsa and mereguine (sp?) until they shut it down around 1.
A bunch of us took the bus back to Christian’s house and ended up hanging out until the metro opened again at 6:30 am!!
Thursday, November 15, 2007 Nuestra Casa Avant Premiere
Thursday, November 15, 2007 Nuestra Casa Avant Premiere
Skipped Volunteering (woohoo!)
Worked on Biblia essay and finished Doc Soc essay
Running, almuerzo, work
Nuestra Casa premier- sold all 10 tickets!
Went early with Lorin to Quicolandia (snobville) in the super rich part of town, felt like I was back in the states. The mall was decked out in Christmas decorations (CRAZY!) and looked just like every other US mall.
At the theater in the mall, I “greeted” the guests, who were all obviously from a different social class than I’ve been working with at Nuestra Casa. Well dress, some pretty snobby
In the lobby were photos of the organization, I was in the background of one of the biggest ones!
Before the movie, presentation by Francisco (executive director of Nuestra Casa) and Alejandro
Passed out papers for people to sign up and become “socios”, or partners of the organization. i.e. give money every month. People gave a lot, pretty exciting
Movie- The Passion of Beethoven- in English with Spanish subtitles! I loved it. Cheesy dialogue at times, but the cinematography and the music was amazing (obviously, it’s Beethoven!). I think it deserves some academy awards.
After the movies, found out that my girlfriends all hated it! (Except of Courtney, who also loved it!) Oh well, their loss!
All the gringas took the bus home together. Being safe in the big city!
Skipped Volunteering (woohoo!)
Worked on Biblia essay and finished Doc Soc essay
Running, almuerzo, work
Nuestra Casa premier- sold all 10 tickets!
Went early with Lorin to Quicolandia (snobville) in the super rich part of town, felt like I was back in the states. The mall was decked out in Christmas decorations (CRAZY!) and looked just like every other US mall.
At the theater in the mall, I “greeted” the guests, who were all obviously from a different social class than I’ve been working with at Nuestra Casa. Well dress, some pretty snobby
In the lobby were photos of the organization, I was in the background of one of the biggest ones!
Before the movie, presentation by Francisco (executive director of Nuestra Casa) and Alejandro
Passed out papers for people to sign up and become “socios”, or partners of the organization. i.e. give money every month. People gave a lot, pretty exciting
Movie- The Passion of Beethoven- in English with Spanish subtitles! I loved it. Cheesy dialogue at times, but the cinematography and the music was amazing (obviously, it’s Beethoven!). I think it deserves some academy awards.
After the movies, found out that my girlfriends all hated it! (Except of Courtney, who also loved it!) Oh well, their loss!
All the gringas took the bus home together. Being safe in the big city!
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 The sorrows and beauties of public transportation
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 The sorrows and beauties of public transportation
Today started out like any other normal Wednesday: Class (found out that when our professor told us a 10 page group paper, which is nothing, he meant single space, which is something. But oh well, it’s a group paper and it replaces the fina1), mass, Education class, and then lunch with Christian, his brother Emilio, Sam and Niki. Christian took pictures because he keeps talking about how little time we have left and gets all sappy on us. After lunch we all headed to the metro to go our respective ways but while we were inside the shut it down and kicked everyone out. I had no idea why (it’s really hard to understand what’s going on in big crowds) but we eventually found out that they shut down the entire Line 5 for at least one hour. This is still not confirmed, but I heard rumors that someone committed suicide by jumping in front of a train about 3 stations in front of us.
We waited around at the bus stop (which was really just a crowd of well over a hundred people) for a while and when we realized that 1. a bus still had not passed and 2. that even when one does pass, there are so many people we are never going to get on, we decided to skip whatever we each were supposed to do and go hang out a at bar/restaurant across from campus. So the 5 of us headed over and shared a couple pitchers of beer until about 6 pm when we knew the metro would finally be open. Look at me: skipping class to drinking beer with my friends on a Wednesday afternoon!! It sounds horrible when you put it that way. But hey, relying on public transportation, what are you going to do?
When I got home I told Olga what had happened with the metro being shut down and she said that unfortunately it’s actually quite common. But when I told her what we did instead, she laughed and said “Me parece bien!” “Sounds good to me!”. I know it sounds a little harsh that i spend the afternoon taking advantage of a tragedy and in all honestly I felt bad all afternoon. I hate to think about all the people suffering while i am relaxing and having fun. Please know that I prayed for the famliy and friends of the victim and that I would have much rather have gone to class and been boring if the tragedy could have been avoided.
I spent the evening working and talking with Trevor. I found out that I was offered an RA job in the honors dorm back at Tulane for the spring semester, which is good news. And I also decided that I would apply for a senior staff position called Housing and Services Coordinator, which is basically like the Desk and Building Manager. If I get the job, I will be taking my good friend Ben’s place in Wall, the building I lived in my freshman year.
I have a lot of homework for the coming week and wanted to get a jump start on it, so I decided to skip my volunteer job in the morning. I emailed the principle letting her know and joyfully turned off my alarm. Olga seemed pleased as well when I told her I wouldn’t be waking up at 6:15!
Today started out like any other normal Wednesday: Class (found out that when our professor told us a 10 page group paper, which is nothing, he meant single space, which is something. But oh well, it’s a group paper and it replaces the fina1), mass, Education class, and then lunch with Christian, his brother Emilio, Sam and Niki. Christian took pictures because he keeps talking about how little time we have left and gets all sappy on us. After lunch we all headed to the metro to go our respective ways but while we were inside the shut it down and kicked everyone out. I had no idea why (it’s really hard to understand what’s going on in big crowds) but we eventually found out that they shut down the entire Line 5 for at least one hour. This is still not confirmed, but I heard rumors that someone committed suicide by jumping in front of a train about 3 stations in front of us.
We waited around at the bus stop (which was really just a crowd of well over a hundred people) for a while and when we realized that 1. a bus still had not passed and 2. that even when one does pass, there are so many people we are never going to get on, we decided to skip whatever we each were supposed to do and go hang out a at bar/restaurant across from campus. So the 5 of us headed over and shared a couple pitchers of beer until about 6 pm when we knew the metro would finally be open. Look at me: skipping class to drinking beer with my friends on a Wednesday afternoon!! It sounds horrible when you put it that way. But hey, relying on public transportation, what are you going to do?
When I got home I told Olga what had happened with the metro being shut down and she said that unfortunately it’s actually quite common. But when I told her what we did instead, she laughed and said “Me parece bien!” “Sounds good to me!”. I know it sounds a little harsh that i spend the afternoon taking advantage of a tragedy and in all honestly I felt bad all afternoon. I hate to think about all the people suffering while i am relaxing and having fun. Please know that I prayed for the famliy and friends of the victim and that I would have much rather have gone to class and been boring if the tragedy could have been avoided.
I spent the evening working and talking with Trevor. I found out that I was offered an RA job in the honors dorm back at Tulane for the spring semester, which is good news. And I also decided that I would apply for a senior staff position called Housing and Services Coordinator, which is basically like the Desk and Building Manager. If I get the job, I will be taking my good friend Ben’s place in Wall, the building I lived in my freshman year.
I have a lot of homework for the coming week and wanted to get a jump start on it, so I decided to skip my volunteer job in the morning. I emailed the principle letting her know and joyfully turned off my alarm. Olga seemed pleased as well when I told her I wouldn’t be waking up at 6:15!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007 4 Months down, one month to go!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007 4 Months down, one month to go!
I slept in later than I’d expected so I had to spend all morning finishing the Drugs and Alcohol workshop/presentation I was supposed to give at Nuestra Casa this afternoon. Preparing these presentations has made me realize how difficult it must be to be a good teacher. It’s so much prep work! I met up with Tamara, my volunteer friend from Nuestra Casa at 1:30 to have lunch. We’d been talking about doing it all semester so when she called me yesterday to see if I’d want to go today, I was excited. We ate at a little salad bar place in Providencia, one of the “your basically back in the states” parts of down town. I think I’ve realized that she just loves being able to speak English with me and I don’t mind because she is really interesting to talk to. After lunch we took the metro and walked to Nuestra Casa together. When I got there and finally had to start speaking Spanish, I realized that it just wasn’t working today. I had a really hard time speaking to the people and quickly felt discouraged, which doesn’t help at all. But Tamara helped me edit my presentation again and told me it looked good then I talked with Alejandro about how he broke up with his girlfriend (of 11 years off and on) that is married to another man. He was obviously still emotional about it but kept saying that it was the right thing to do and that he couldn’t live like that. He never ceases to surprise nor amaze me. Plus I can understand him and doesn’t expect me to speak back, so it’s perfect!
The rest of the afternoon I just worthlessly sat around Nuestra Casa. I wanted to do the Drugs and Alcohol workshop but no one seemed interested (it’s a tough topic since much of them are alcoholics and drug addicts) plus the guys had a soccer game at 7 and where obviously distracted. So we decided to skip the workshop for today and do it next week. I ended up watching a pirated Spanish dubbed version of Ratatouille and we left early, around 6:30 when most everyone else left for the soccer game.
I decided to go to mass at 7:30 and instead of walking home then turning right back around I went and sat on a bench in a park and read for my Education class. Looking back, it really was a beautiful moment. The park was full of kids screaming and playing, moms and dads sitting on benches watching, old women walking to the grocery store on the corner. Just lovely. I think I just people watched more than I actually read. At 7:15 I walked to the church and found Olga sitting in the 2nd row where she always sits. She was thrilled to see me and I saw her smiling next to me while we prayed before mass. From November 8th to December 8th (The Assumption of the Virgin Mary) is Mes de Maria or “Mary Month” in Chile. There is an opening and closing prayer about Mary at every mass and at San Lazaro (where I was) says a rosary at the end of every mass. So instead of the usual 40 minute mass, it was well over an hour. But I didn’t have too much homework and enjoyed the time to think and pray. When I told Olga I didn’t have my rosary with me, immediately handed me hers and told me not to worry because she really didn’t need it. After mass they handed out little sown bags filled with flower seeds and told us to plant them and give the plant to someone who needs it. There were extras, so I got two! I’m going to wait till I get home to plant them so I don’t have to worry about transporting them! After mass we had once then I headed to my room to work until I fell asleep.
I slept in later than I’d expected so I had to spend all morning finishing the Drugs and Alcohol workshop/presentation I was supposed to give at Nuestra Casa this afternoon. Preparing these presentations has made me realize how difficult it must be to be a good teacher. It’s so much prep work! I met up with Tamara, my volunteer friend from Nuestra Casa at 1:30 to have lunch. We’d been talking about doing it all semester so when she called me yesterday to see if I’d want to go today, I was excited. We ate at a little salad bar place in Providencia, one of the “your basically back in the states” parts of down town. I think I’ve realized that she just loves being able to speak English with me and I don’t mind because she is really interesting to talk to. After lunch we took the metro and walked to Nuestra Casa together. When I got there and finally had to start speaking Spanish, I realized that it just wasn’t working today. I had a really hard time speaking to the people and quickly felt discouraged, which doesn’t help at all. But Tamara helped me edit my presentation again and told me it looked good then I talked with Alejandro about how he broke up with his girlfriend (of 11 years off and on) that is married to another man. He was obviously still emotional about it but kept saying that it was the right thing to do and that he couldn’t live like that. He never ceases to surprise nor amaze me. Plus I can understand him and doesn’t expect me to speak back, so it’s perfect!
The rest of the afternoon I just worthlessly sat around Nuestra Casa. I wanted to do the Drugs and Alcohol workshop but no one seemed interested (it’s a tough topic since much of them are alcoholics and drug addicts) plus the guys had a soccer game at 7 and where obviously distracted. So we decided to skip the workshop for today and do it next week. I ended up watching a pirated Spanish dubbed version of Ratatouille and we left early, around 6:30 when most everyone else left for the soccer game.
I decided to go to mass at 7:30 and instead of walking home then turning right back around I went and sat on a bench in a park and read for my Education class. Looking back, it really was a beautiful moment. The park was full of kids screaming and playing, moms and dads sitting on benches watching, old women walking to the grocery store on the corner. Just lovely. I think I just people watched more than I actually read. At 7:15 I walked to the church and found Olga sitting in the 2nd row where she always sits. She was thrilled to see me and I saw her smiling next to me while we prayed before mass. From November 8th to December 8th (The Assumption of the Virgin Mary) is Mes de Maria or “Mary Month” in Chile. There is an opening and closing prayer about Mary at every mass and at San Lazaro (where I was) says a rosary at the end of every mass. So instead of the usual 40 minute mass, it was well over an hour. But I didn’t have too much homework and enjoyed the time to think and pray. When I told Olga I didn’t have my rosary with me, immediately handed me hers and told me not to worry because she really didn’t need it. After mass they handed out little sown bags filled with flower seeds and told us to plant them and give the plant to someone who needs it. There were extras, so I got two! I’m going to wait till I get home to plant them so I don’t have to worry about transporting them! After mass we had once then I headed to my room to work until I fell asleep.
Monday, November 12, 2007 Work, work, work
Monday, November 12, 2007 Work, work, work
It was a normal Monday today. I woke up early to talk with Trevor (who woke up even earlier i.e. 6:30) before class since we hadn’t been able to talk in a long time. Then I headed to my normal day on campus: Class, mass, class, lunch with Christian and a bunch of my gringo friends, then class, then home. It was really hot so I wore the sundress I’d worn to church yesterday and I was still sweating all day long. After class I took a bus home and Rino, Evon and Miguel came over for once. Miguel had been sick and stayed home from school, which is why they were able to come into town. He didn’t want to eat much or drink his tea and the funniest part of the evening was when Olga got up and started spooning the tea into his mouth so he would drink it. It made me realize how many Chilean mothers and grandmothers do for their children. It’s a little scary sometimes.
Miguel played games on my computer after eating and we “adults” sat around and talked. I can actually understand most of what Rino says now, so I know I’ve definitely improved my understanding. They headed out and I told Olga I wanted to do the dishes. She gave me the, “aww, how cute, she has no idea what she is doing but wants to help” laugh and said go ahead, but stayed in the kitchen and talked with me the whole time. I’ve just realized that it’s really hard for her to let other people do things because it takes away her job as mother/caregiver.
After I did the dishes (it felt great), I started on my homework. I went to bed relatively early and got a good night sleep.
It was a normal Monday today. I woke up early to talk with Trevor (who woke up even earlier i.e. 6:30) before class since we hadn’t been able to talk in a long time. Then I headed to my normal day on campus: Class, mass, class, lunch with Christian and a bunch of my gringo friends, then class, then home. It was really hot so I wore the sundress I’d worn to church yesterday and I was still sweating all day long. After class I took a bus home and Rino, Evon and Miguel came over for once. Miguel had been sick and stayed home from school, which is why they were able to come into town. He didn’t want to eat much or drink his tea and the funniest part of the evening was when Olga got up and started spooning the tea into his mouth so he would drink it. It made me realize how many Chilean mothers and grandmothers do for their children. It’s a little scary sometimes.
Miguel played games on my computer after eating and we “adults” sat around and talked. I can actually understand most of what Rino says now, so I know I’ve definitely improved my understanding. They headed out and I told Olga I wanted to do the dishes. She gave me the, “aww, how cute, she has no idea what she is doing but wants to help” laugh and said go ahead, but stayed in the kitchen and talked with me the whole time. I’ve just realized that it’s really hard for her to let other people do things because it takes away her job as mother/caregiver.
After I did the dishes (it felt great), I started on my homework. I went to bed relatively early and got a good night sleep.
Sunday, November 11, 2007 A day out on the town
Sunday, November 11, 2007 A day out on the town
I slept in late and had another piece of pie Olga had left me for breakfast (Why did she make so much pie?!?). I went to mass at the Jesuit church nearby at noon and wore a cute sundress to celebrate the beautiful weather. After mass I came home and changed clothes because I realized the sundress was just a bit too cute to wear walking around in the street. I met Tom and Courtney at 2 pm to have lunch in Mercado Central, the famous Seafood Market down town. (Side note: Amazingly, Courtney and I ran into each other in the metro station on the way!) They had both had a birthday in the last month and for their gift I promised them a delicious seafood lunch at the market. Of course, they were thrilled.
Before eating we wondered around the market a bit to check out the millions of fish, octopus, shell fish, everything. I am still amazed at seafood markets because there is always something that looks incredibly disgusting yet ends up being the most expensive meal on the menu. We ate at the restaurant Olga had recommended called Joya del Pacifico. I had swordfish which I decided is like the steak of fish. It was thick and meaty and I enjoyed it but I don’t think I’d order it again.
After our lovely meal we wondered around the market then meandered our way to the Plaza de Armas. Since it was a Sunday the place was packed with vendors and performers and there were workers building the huge Christmas tree in the center of the plaza. We kept walking and eventually gave into the temptation and all split a scoop of chocolate ice cream (literally, about 50% of the people walking around were eating ice cream. Welcome to Chile in the summer). There was a random puppet show on the corner and we stopped and watched a while before Tom got on the metro to head home.
Courtney and I walked another 30 minutes or so to Plaza Italia and she caught her bus home. I met up with a Chilean friend of mine to hang out at the park and speak English so he can practice, and afterwards walked home around 8 pm. Olga made me once and we chatted for a while before I headed to my room to finally do some homework for the week.
I slept in late and had another piece of pie Olga had left me for breakfast (Why did she make so much pie?!?). I went to mass at the Jesuit church nearby at noon and wore a cute sundress to celebrate the beautiful weather. After mass I came home and changed clothes because I realized the sundress was just a bit too cute to wear walking around in the street. I met Tom and Courtney at 2 pm to have lunch in Mercado Central, the famous Seafood Market down town. (Side note: Amazingly, Courtney and I ran into each other in the metro station on the way!) They had both had a birthday in the last month and for their gift I promised them a delicious seafood lunch at the market. Of course, they were thrilled.
Before eating we wondered around the market a bit to check out the millions of fish, octopus, shell fish, everything. I am still amazed at seafood markets because there is always something that looks incredibly disgusting yet ends up being the most expensive meal on the menu. We ate at the restaurant Olga had recommended called Joya del Pacifico. I had swordfish which I decided is like the steak of fish. It was thick and meaty and I enjoyed it but I don’t think I’d order it again.
After our lovely meal we wondered around the market then meandered our way to the Plaza de Armas. Since it was a Sunday the place was packed with vendors and performers and there were workers building the huge Christmas tree in the center of the plaza. We kept walking and eventually gave into the temptation and all split a scoop of chocolate ice cream (literally, about 50% of the people walking around were eating ice cream. Welcome to Chile in the summer). There was a random puppet show on the corner and we stopped and watched a while before Tom got on the metro to head home.
Courtney and I walked another 30 minutes or so to Plaza Italia and she caught her bus home. I met up with a Chilean friend of mine to hang out at the park and speak English so he can practice, and afterwards walked home around 8 pm. Olga made me once and we chatted for a while before I headed to my room to finally do some homework for the week.
Saturday, November 10th, 2007 Fiesta de las Frutillas!
Saturday, November 10th, 2007 Fiesta de las Frutillas!
I spent all day working on homework and relaxing. When I woke up Olga brought me coffee and a piece of the lemon cream meringue pie she had made for the party. Later I went on a run and helped Olga a little bit preparing for our Fiesta de las Frutillas. She bought a HUGE carton of strawberries from the market. I couldn’t believe how many nor how incredible they were! So red they were nearly black and all huge and not a single one bad. Around 6 pm the fiesta started in the metro where I met up with Courtney, Sara, Lorin and Natalie at the metro and we all walked to my house together. When we got there Olga was cooking away in the kitchen but stopped to give each of them a huge hug and smile. I can tell Olga loves having people over and I honestly believe she couldn’t have been happier!
The girls chatted and hung out while Olga finished up cooking. Sara had brought a bag of chocolate chips (which Olga had never seen before!) and we melted them on the stove to make chocolate dip (also which Olga had never seen!). Courtney and I set the table and once everything was ready, Olga brought out the huge tray of the best strawberries, the chocolate dip and home made cream and we immediately began stuffing ourselves with the most delicious strawberries I’ve ever eaten. Olga was absolutely thrilled with the chocolate dip and kept saying how much she loved it. I’ve been really good here in Chile about eating healthy, but I’ll admit, I was a bit glutton with the strawberries and cream and chocolate. But we all were and we loved it!
After we ate all the strawberries we could (there were still a lot left!), Olga brought out the little baked cheese sandwiches, avocado, lemon meringue pie and coffee or tea. We couldn’t believe there was more, but it was so yummy we kept eating! My four friends, Olga and I sat around laughing, chatting and occasionally snacking on another strawberry until quarter till 11 when they all headed out to take the metro home. Courtney had to take a bus to her house so I walked with her to the bus stop and we ended up having a heart to heart until almost midnight. I called Olga while I was walking back to the apartment and she laughed and said she knew the two of us would be chatting away! When I got back everything was picked up and put away and I apologized for not helping. But of course Olga wouldn’t have let me do much anyway! I went to bed early, looking forward to a good night’s sleep and dreams of strawberries.
I spent all day working on homework and relaxing. When I woke up Olga brought me coffee and a piece of the lemon cream meringue pie she had made for the party. Later I went on a run and helped Olga a little bit preparing for our Fiesta de las Frutillas. She bought a HUGE carton of strawberries from the market. I couldn’t believe how many nor how incredible they were! So red they were nearly black and all huge and not a single one bad. Around 6 pm the fiesta started in the metro where I met up with Courtney, Sara, Lorin and Natalie at the metro and we all walked to my house together. When we got there Olga was cooking away in the kitchen but stopped to give each of them a huge hug and smile. I can tell Olga loves having people over and I honestly believe she couldn’t have been happier!
The girls chatted and hung out while Olga finished up cooking. Sara had brought a bag of chocolate chips (which Olga had never seen before!) and we melted them on the stove to make chocolate dip (also which Olga had never seen!). Courtney and I set the table and once everything was ready, Olga brought out the huge tray of the best strawberries, the chocolate dip and home made cream and we immediately began stuffing ourselves with the most delicious strawberries I’ve ever eaten. Olga was absolutely thrilled with the chocolate dip and kept saying how much she loved it. I’ve been really good here in Chile about eating healthy, but I’ll admit, I was a bit glutton with the strawberries and cream and chocolate. But we all were and we loved it!
After we ate all the strawberries we could (there were still a lot left!), Olga brought out the little baked cheese sandwiches, avocado, lemon meringue pie and coffee or tea. We couldn’t believe there was more, but it was so yummy we kept eating! My four friends, Olga and I sat around laughing, chatting and occasionally snacking on another strawberry until quarter till 11 when they all headed out to take the metro home. Courtney had to take a bus to her house so I walked with her to the bus stop and we ended up having a heart to heart until almost midnight. I called Olga while I was walking back to the apartment and she laughed and said she knew the two of us would be chatting away! When I got back everything was picked up and put away and I apologized for not helping. But of course Olga wouldn’t have let me do much anyway! I went to bed early, looking forward to a good night’s sleep and dreams of strawberries.
Friday, November 9th, 2007 Gringos vs. Chilenos: the epic battle
Friday, November 9th, 2007 Gringos vs. Chilenos: the epic battle
I had my Poverty class this morning at 10:30 and before and I met up with a volunteer from Nuestra Casa in the metro so she could give me tickets to sell for their upcoming fundraiser. Every year they have an Avant Premier, where they premier a movie in Chile and have desserts, coffee etc. They are showing La Pasion de Beethoven (The Passion of Beethoven) with Ed Harris at a really fancy movie theater in the richest part of town. It should be a fun event and I just hope I can sell all of my 10 tickets. They are $12 a piece, so it makes it kind of hard with my poor college friends.
After class I was supposed to meet up with the 3 other gringos in my Doctrina Social class to work on our final group essay. But the 2 boys didn’t show, so Christine, Courtney and I went and got lunch at this cute restaurant down town. The food was really good and it was only $5, including dessert and coffee. Since I never eat out in Santiago, I forget how cheap food is (the only thing that is cheap in Santiago). After lunch Mike finally made it down town to work with us so we went to the library at La Católica and got a good outline for the essay.
At 3:30 I headed to the other La Católica campus to meet up with everyone for our epic Gringos vs. Chileans soccer match. Christian and I organized the whole thing (which really only included making sure each team had enough players) and it worked out perfectly. The Chileans only had guys and they ahd about 12. The Gringos had 9 players, including 4 girls. But we actually kept up really well and it was a great game. All the Chileans were really impressed with how well we girls played because apparently Chilean girls aren’t quite as good. I was the worst girl out of all of them, but it was still really fun. We ended up losing 4-2, but that includes the 2 goals we made on ourselves on accident, one of which was by me. (I know, I know).
After our glorious defeat most of the Gringos and Christian went to a bar across campus and shared a couple pitchers of beer. I felt very college-ish; it was fun. Around 8 pm I headed home, took a quick shower and had dinner with Olga. Then I headed out again to meet up with friends to hang out and celebrate my friend Sam’s birthday. While we were waiting in the metro we ran into Emilio, Christian’s older brother who had also played soccer today. He told us that his friend Juan, who I’ve hung out with a few times before, was having a party at his house later that night and invited us to go. Before we went to Juan’s some of us headed to La Chile’s Fiesta de la Primavera (Spring Party) which had been going all day long. Obviously by the time we got there it was a mess. The closest thing to a Frat party that I’ve seen in Chile, but in the University! While at La Chile we ran into Juan a bunch of other Chileans I’ve met/hung out with before. When the party shut down at 11 we all walked to Juan’s apartment.
Funny side story: The elevator going up to Juan’s apartment got stuck between two floors for about 10 minutes. We were crammed in and a little nervous for a while until we finally got a hold of the security people with the little emergency button. A little while later it lowered us town to the 2nd floor and we took the stairs the rest of the way!!
At Juan’s it was about half gringos, half Chileans and everyone got along great. I realized that 4 months ago I never would have been able to carry on as many conversations as I did tonight. It was really fun and much better then the typical club scene in Santiago. Around 3 am someone put on Salsa music and we all started dancing in his little apartment living room and by 3:30 we were exhausted and shared a cab home.
I had my Poverty class this morning at 10:30 and before and I met up with a volunteer from Nuestra Casa in the metro so she could give me tickets to sell for their upcoming fundraiser. Every year they have an Avant Premier, where they premier a movie in Chile and have desserts, coffee etc. They are showing La Pasion de Beethoven (The Passion of Beethoven) with Ed Harris at a really fancy movie theater in the richest part of town. It should be a fun event and I just hope I can sell all of my 10 tickets. They are $12 a piece, so it makes it kind of hard with my poor college friends.
After class I was supposed to meet up with the 3 other gringos in my Doctrina Social class to work on our final group essay. But the 2 boys didn’t show, so Christine, Courtney and I went and got lunch at this cute restaurant down town. The food was really good and it was only $5, including dessert and coffee. Since I never eat out in Santiago, I forget how cheap food is (the only thing that is cheap in Santiago). After lunch Mike finally made it down town to work with us so we went to the library at La Católica and got a good outline for the essay.
At 3:30 I headed to the other La Católica campus to meet up with everyone for our epic Gringos vs. Chileans soccer match. Christian and I organized the whole thing (which really only included making sure each team had enough players) and it worked out perfectly. The Chileans only had guys and they ahd about 12. The Gringos had 9 players, including 4 girls. But we actually kept up really well and it was a great game. All the Chileans were really impressed with how well we girls played because apparently Chilean girls aren’t quite as good. I was the worst girl out of all of them, but it was still really fun. We ended up losing 4-2, but that includes the 2 goals we made on ourselves on accident, one of which was by me. (I know, I know).
After our glorious defeat most of the Gringos and Christian went to a bar across campus and shared a couple pitchers of beer. I felt very college-ish; it was fun. Around 8 pm I headed home, took a quick shower and had dinner with Olga. Then I headed out again to meet up with friends to hang out and celebrate my friend Sam’s birthday. While we were waiting in the metro we ran into Emilio, Christian’s older brother who had also played soccer today. He told us that his friend Juan, who I’ve hung out with a few times before, was having a party at his house later that night and invited us to go. Before we went to Juan’s some of us headed to La Chile’s Fiesta de la Primavera (Spring Party) which had been going all day long. Obviously by the time we got there it was a mess. The closest thing to a Frat party that I’ve seen in Chile, but in the University! While at La Chile we ran into Juan a bunch of other Chileans I’ve met/hung out with before. When the party shut down at 11 we all walked to Juan’s apartment.
Funny side story: The elevator going up to Juan’s apartment got stuck between two floors for about 10 minutes. We were crammed in and a little nervous for a while until we finally got a hold of the security people with the little emergency button. A little while later it lowered us town to the 2nd floor and we took the stairs the rest of the way!!
At Juan’s it was about half gringos, half Chileans and everyone got along great. I realized that 4 months ago I never would have been able to carry on as many conversations as I did tonight. It was really fun and much better then the typical club scene in Santiago. Around 3 am someone put on Salsa music and we all started dancing in his little apartment living room and by 3:30 we were exhausted and shared a cab home.
Thursday, November 8th, 2007 Soccer game with Nuestra Casa
Thursday, November 8th, 2007 Soccer game with Nuestra Casa
I went to the high school as usual and this morning Miss Mabel had a song in English planned for the kids. It is a great idea in theory but it wasn’t a very good song. It was the 3 Little Pigs hard rock style. I had never even heard it. So the kids didn’t understand anything and were really bored. With about 30 minutes left in each class she just gave up, or rather told me to just give up. Luckily the 3rd class didn’t meet because they were going to watch a play or something, so I came home early.
I’d was planning on going to my friends Natalie and Nick’s Salsa performance for their Salsa class at 12:30 and since I got home at 11 I figured I could go for a quick run, shower, and get there. I actually almost did it and got there at 12:35 figuring it would be in typical Chilean style and start really late. But for once they were on time and I walked in while they were still sweating and breathing hard. I was totally bummed I missed it, but they still appreciated that I tried to make it. We hung out for a while then I took a bus home. Olga and I had lunch then I worked on some homework. Around 4:00 Olga decided to make us coffee which was a good think because I was falling asleep reading and she gave me a little more cake that we’d had the day before. Then I headed to Nuestra Casa at 5:30 to meet up and go to their soccer game.
Nuestra Casa organized a homeless men’s soccer league and tonight was the inaugural match. I thought it would just be a quick 45 minute soccer game against another team but it ended up being a huge event with lots of important people, journalists and cameras. 3 soccer players from La Católica (the professional team, not the University team) were there and stole the show. Plus all the Nuestra Casa employees were there and a lot of the people that hang out at the trampoline. I spent most of the evening with Magdalena, the really quick woman who loves my jewelry. After starting almost an hour late, they had an opening ceremony and we heard some motivational words etc. and finally they started playing around 8. We watched the first 3 games(about 20 minutes each) , then we were so cold Maria Alana and I decided to walk back to the metro together and head home. Two of the guys that had just finished playing, Victor and Sebastian, told us to wait while they changed and they would walk us back. So the 4 of us walked to the metro in the cold, dark Santiago summer night.
I got home much later than expected (around 9:30) and Olga made me dinner. After eating I headed to my room to do some homework and about 20 minutes later Olga brought me a cup of coffee. I spent the rest of the night working on homework until I fell asleep at 3 am.
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
After purposely ignoring my alarm this morning, I woke up late and had to rush through breakfast and my homework before leaving for class. I got there 20 minutes late, but it didn’t matter. After class I went to mass and without realizing it I was in the line to go to Confession. So I just went with it and ended up having a very nice confession with the priest. He listened attentively and when I told him sometimes I say “garabatos” or bad words, he interrupted and questioned, “¿Garabatos Chilenos?” “Chilean bad words?”. This made me chuckle. Afterwards he asked me where I was from and if Chile had been treating me well. It was overall a very nice experience.
After mass I went to my education class where we are learning about the role of family in the education of their children. Basically it’s been, “how to be a good parent, i.e. how to not seriously screw up your kids”. I’ve learned a lot, mostly I’ve realized how wonderful my parents were and are. *tear*.
After class, Nick, Natalie and I reserved our spots on the train from Cusco to Machu Picchu. We are going on December 4th, only for the day. But it should be a wonderful experience and I’m really looking forward to it. One of the coolest parts is that we will be riding on the Orient Express. Except that it is called the Backpackers train, which means no frills (although it still costs $73 round trip!). Afterwards I had lunch with Christian, then headed to the CIEE office to have a meeting about my research paper with our professor/director Hector. After a lot of help from Hector, I think I will be investigating the accessibility of health services for the people at Nuestra Casa (i.e. homeless people in Santiago). Should be interesting, but right now I’m feeling really overwhelmed!
I went to my Biblia class 20 minutes late because my meeting with Hector ran long and they changed class rooms on me so I had to ask a bunch of people before I finally found it. Then of course I had my poverty class, which went as usual. I took the metro home and walked in to the delicious smell of garlic and fresh fish. So my dinner was delicious and afterwards Olga surprised me with a delicious sliver of Black Forest cake she bought from the market. I then spent the rest of the night checking emails and sending out invitations to the soccer game on Friday, the Nuestra Casa Movie Premier fundraiser on next Thursday and Olga and my upcoming Fiesta de las Frutillas that we are having on Saturday. Again, it’s almost midnight and I have yet to start homework…
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Wow, I am really far behind. Again. That is what you get traveling every weekend and spending the weeks catching up on homework!! Anyway, I’m going to stay up to date day to day and catch up the last week and a half when I can. The next three weeks are going to be busy with the end of classes and everything being due and I won’t be traveling, which means boring which means easy to blog!
Anyway, I woke up today after a nice 9.5 hours of sleep still red as a lobster. I had no desire to eat and still felt a little achy, so I’m thinking I had a touch of sun poisoning. From about 11 am to 2 pm I worked on the Tuberculosis presentation I had to give at Nuestra Casa while Olga took care of me. She was convinced I was sick, again, and brought me some fruit for breakfast, then cold towels to place on my stomach, then after advice from her husband, she brought me a slice of tomato to rub on my stomach! She placed a towel underneath me, telling me it had a lot of history. While she rubbed the tomato on my stomach nearly the same color, she told me that the towel is 44 years old that she used it at the beach when she and her husband were dating!
I had some veggies for lunch because I couldn’t stomach anything heavier, despite Olga’s encouragement to eat something more substantial. Around 3:30 I headed out to Nuestra Casa and was again warmly welcomed. Tamara, another volunteer who I’ve written about before, helped me edit my presentation and then I hung out and talked with everyone. Magdalena, Alberto, Maluca and his wife, Maria and everyone else was there as usual. Alejandro and Christian (I think that is his name) showed up later. At 5 I finally did the Tuberculosis workshop. 5 people came, plus Lauren and Tamara to help me out. This one didn’t go quite as well as the AIDS/HIV workshop because no one knows anything about tuberculosis so they couldn’t participate as much. They said they understood me, but I’m not sure how much. At the end they all said they learned a little, so I figure it was some what successful.
Lauren did an English workshop on how to give/get directions (turn right/left, go straight, subway, bus stop, etc.) and had little game to go along with it. I don’t know how much they actually learned but we had fun and joked around. Most of what they asked us was song lyrics that they didn’t understand. One new kid I met name Christian, who is only 22, asked me about song lyrics from ABBA and other 80s music. He laughed and told me that even though he doesn’t understand the words, he loves the songs! Oh Chile and their obsession with the 80s.
When the Trampolín closed I walked back to the metro with Lauren then home. Olga and I had dinner and chatted for a long time. We decided we are going to have our “Fiestas de las Frutillas” (Strawberry Party) on Saturday. I’m going to invite 5 or 6 friends and we are going to have once and strawberries and Olga is really excited! After dinner I started on my homework/catching up on emails. It’s almost midnight and I still haven’t actually started my homework for tomorrow. Boo…
Wow, I am really far behind. Again. That is what you get traveling every weekend and spending the weeks catching up on homework!! Anyway, I’m going to stay up to date day to day and catch up the last week and a half when I can. The next three weeks are going to be busy with the end of classes and everything being due and I won’t be traveling, which means boring which means easy to blog!
Anyway, I woke up today after a nice 9.5 hours of sleep still red as a lobster. I had no desire to eat and still felt a little achy, so I’m thinking I had a touch of sun poisoning. From about 11 am to 2 pm I worked on the Tuberculosis presentation I had to give at Nuestra Casa while Olga took care of me. She was convinced I was sick, again, and brought me some fruit for breakfast, then cold towels to place on my stomach, then after advice from her husband, she brought me a slice of tomato to rub on my stomach! She placed a towel underneath me, telling me it had a lot of history. While she rubbed the tomato on my stomach nearly the same color, she told me that the towel is 44 years old that she used it at the beach when she and her husband were dating!
I had some veggies for lunch because I couldn’t stomach anything heavier, despite Olga’s encouragement to eat something more substantial. Around 3:30 I headed out to Nuestra Casa and was again warmly welcomed. Tamara, another volunteer who I’ve written about before, helped me edit my presentation and then I hung out and talked with everyone. Magdalena, Alberto, Maluca and his wife, Maria and everyone else was there as usual. Alejandro and Christian (I think that is his name) showed up later. At 5 I finally did the Tuberculosis workshop. 5 people came, plus Lauren and Tamara to help me out. This one didn’t go quite as well as the AIDS/HIV workshop because no one knows anything about tuberculosis so they couldn’t participate as much. They said they understood me, but I’m not sure how much. At the end they all said they learned a little, so I figure it was some what successful.
Lauren did an English workshop on how to give/get directions (turn right/left, go straight, subway, bus stop, etc.) and had little game to go along with it. I don’t know how much they actually learned but we had fun and joked around. Most of what they asked us was song lyrics that they didn’t understand. One new kid I met name Christian, who is only 22, asked me about song lyrics from ABBA and other 80s music. He laughed and told me that even though he doesn’t understand the words, he loves the songs! Oh Chile and their obsession with the 80s.
When the Trampolín closed I walked back to the metro with Lauren then home. Olga and I had dinner and chatted for a long time. We decided we are going to have our “Fiestas de las Frutillas” (Strawberry Party) on Saturday. I’m going to invite 5 or 6 friends and we are going to have once and strawberries and Olga is really excited! After dinner I started on my homework/catching up on emails. It’s almost midnight and I still haven’t actually started my homework for tomorrow. Boo…
Monday, November 5, 2007 This is why they tell you to wear sunscreen…
Monday, November 5, 2007 This is why they tell you to wear sunscreen…
Got to Santiago around 7 am. Took metro home, put aloe on my stomach, slept
Class, mass, class felt sick probably b/c of sun poisoning
Skipped my biblia class and went home to eat lunch and work
Worked, ate a little dinner but felt sick, Olga worried about me, went to bed early
Got to Santiago around 7 am. Took metro home, put aloe on my stomach, slept
Class, mass, class felt sick probably b/c of sun poisoning
Skipped my biblia class and went home to eat lunch and work
Worked, ate a little dinner but felt sick, Olga worried about me, went to bed early
Sunday, November 4th, 2007 Hot Springs and way too much sun..
Sunday, November 4th, 2007 Hot Springs and way too much sun..
Bus to Hotsprings, alone and loving it
Laid out, read, a little sunscreen, 45, in thermals about 10 minutes
Realized I was getting dark, went to shade, did some homework
Ate sandwich, back to sun to read a little, planning on getting in thermals then showering and cleaning up
Argentineans start talking to me. Talked about 1.5 hours.
Finally they left, went to take shower, realized I was pretty burned
Bus ride home
Tea and chatting with Peter, hostel owner
Met gringos, had chocolate
Dinner at La Florencia again! With same waiter
To bus stop, on bus next to 49 year old woman studying Spanish, uncomfortable because of my sunburn
At the border for 3 freakin hours, saw Laura again!, back to sleep
Bus to Hotsprings, alone and loving it
Laid out, read, a little sunscreen, 45, in thermals about 10 minutes
Realized I was getting dark, went to shade, did some homework
Ate sandwich, back to sun to read a little, planning on getting in thermals then showering and cleaning up
Argentineans start talking to me. Talked about 1.5 hours.
Finally they left, went to take shower, realized I was pretty burned
Bus ride home
Tea and chatting with Peter, hostel owner
Met gringos, had chocolate
Dinner at La Florencia again! With same waiter
To bus stop, on bus next to 49 year old woman studying Spanish, uncomfortable because of my sunburn
At the border for 3 freakin hours, saw Laura again!, back to sleep
Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 Hanging out in Argentina
Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 Hanging out in Argentina
Slept in, around 11 headed out to check out Mendoza
Spent day walking through town, alfajor and coffee at HAVANNA, various plazas and markets, window shopping, lunch at steak dive
Walked to park tried to get to hill, but getting dark and security guard said dangerous, headed back, walked to other side of lake, sat in rose garden. Read my book, watched the sun go down behind the trees= incredible
Took cab to mass at San Fransisco Basilica
Dinner at Don Pepe = Tenedor Libre but not like in Buenos Aires. Steak not great, but pasta yummy and DESSERT! Pancaques con manjar y helado!
Walked home after midnight beyond stuffed
Slept in, around 11 headed out to check out Mendoza
Spent day walking through town, alfajor and coffee at HAVANNA, various plazas and markets, window shopping, lunch at steak dive
Walked to park tried to get to hill, but getting dark and security guard said dangerous, headed back, walked to other side of lake, sat in rose garden. Read my book, watched the sun go down behind the trees= incredible
Took cab to mass at San Fransisco Basilica
Dinner at Don Pepe = Tenedor Libre but not like in Buenos Aires. Steak not great, but pasta yummy and DESSERT! Pancaques con manjar y helado!
Walked home after midnight beyond stuffed
Friday, November 2nd, 2007 Mendoza, Argentina Day 1, Wine and Bike Tour and Soccer Game. i.e. best day ever.
Friday, November 2nd, 2007 Mendoza, Argentina Day 1, Wine and Bike Tour and Soccer Game. i.e. best day ever.
Got in at 5:30, still dark, my friends at hostel asleep, Laura can’t check into her hotel, so we got breakfast, delicious cappuccinos and croissants at only restaurant open in entire bus terminal. One hour later we finally leave but it only cost 4 bucks for both of us.
Shared cab, got to hotel little after 8, mike and Marissa already up
No spots on Wine and Bike Tour
Met French girls in my hostel room, decided to go with them for the bikes
Finally got on bus, hour later dropped off in random, dusty looking city
Found bikes for the whole day $3
La Rural
Bike broke, switched
Lunch from Gas Station
Lunch, Chocolate Factory
45 minute ride
Carinae
Olive Oil Factory
45 minute ride back with sun slowly going down over the wineries.
Bus back around 7, had fracturas for a snack
Met Swiss girl Stephanie and Gringa Sara, going to Soccer game, last minute decided I wanted to go, invited Mike and Marissa so we all went in taxi
I Convinced them to buy more expensive tickets in safer zone, (after the game in Chile, i didn't want to risk it!) girls ended up being only $3, boys $6
Great game, our section not packed at all, crazy section standing room only, flares, huge signs, banners, flags, drummers, constant jumping and cheering like in Chile but no rocks
GREAT game, great soccer, ended up winning 2-1
Long walk out of park
Marissa saw restaurant and decided she wanted to eat there, money from ATM at Casino
Dinner at midnight at restaurant, they got steak (best they’ve ever had, Mike’s only 8 bucks for 1 pound), I stuck with salad, afterwards had to get ice cream=delicious
Walked back to hostel, got there around 3 am
Got in at 5:30, still dark, my friends at hostel asleep, Laura can’t check into her hotel, so we got breakfast, delicious cappuccinos and croissants at only restaurant open in entire bus terminal. One hour later we finally leave but it only cost 4 bucks for both of us.
Shared cab, got to hotel little after 8, mike and Marissa already up
No spots on Wine and Bike Tour
Met French girls in my hostel room, decided to go with them for the bikes
Finally got on bus, hour later dropped off in random, dusty looking city
Found bikes for the whole day $3
La Rural
Bike broke, switched
Lunch from Gas Station
Lunch, Chocolate Factory
45 minute ride
Carinae
Olive Oil Factory
45 minute ride back with sun slowly going down over the wineries.
Bus back around 7, had fracturas for a snack
Met Swiss girl Stephanie and Gringa Sara, going to Soccer game, last minute decided I wanted to go, invited Mike and Marissa so we all went in taxi
I Convinced them to buy more expensive tickets in safer zone, (after the game in Chile, i didn't want to risk it!) girls ended up being only $3, boys $6
Great game, our section not packed at all, crazy section standing room only, flares, huge signs, banners, flags, drummers, constant jumping and cheering like in Chile but no rocks
GREAT game, great soccer, ended up winning 2-1
Long walk out of park
Marissa saw restaurant and decided she wanted to eat there, money from ATM at Casino
Dinner at midnight at restaurant, they got steak (best they’ve ever had, Mike’s only 8 bucks for 1 pound), I stuck with salad, afterwards had to get ice cream=delicious
Walked back to hostel, got there around 3 am
Thursday, November 1st, 2007 All Saints Day and Federal Holiday in Chile!
Thursday, November 1st, 2007 All Saints Day and Federal Holiday in Chile!
Woke up, delicious breakfast by Courtney’s mom, took bus home around 10:00, and on the way called Mike to see about Mendoza. He was on his way to the bus stop!
While waiting, quick shower then ran to mass
After 4 hours of back and forth, Mike and friend Marissa bought tickets to leave at 5 but he couldn’t buy mine b/c you need documentation to go internationally, I went to the bus station to buy mine but they were sold out. I ended up finding a TurBus (the company we’ve used every other trip) that left at 10:30 pm and I got the second to last ticket.
Home, homework, pack, dinner, head to bus stop
Meet gringos from Minnesota
Sat alone, started talking to lady next to me
Laura, formerly famous TV celebrity, chatted the whole way: http://www.youtube.com/user/djmissfreechile
Border, Sleep
Woke up, delicious breakfast by Courtney’s mom, took bus home around 10:00, and on the way called Mike to see about Mendoza. He was on his way to the bus stop!
While waiting, quick shower then ran to mass
After 4 hours of back and forth, Mike and friend Marissa bought tickets to leave at 5 but he couldn’t buy mine b/c you need documentation to go internationally, I went to the bus station to buy mine but they were sold out. I ended up finding a TurBus (the company we’ve used every other trip) that left at 10:30 pm and I got the second to last ticket.
Home, homework, pack, dinner, head to bus stop
Meet gringos from Minnesota
Sat alone, started talking to lady next to me
Laura, formerly famous TV celebrity, chatted the whole way: http://www.youtube.com/user/djmissfreechile
Border, Sleep
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 Happy Halloween!
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 Happy Halloween!
Kind of accidentally skipping my Doctrina Social class again to finish my Biblia paper, but I went at end to get my test back, Another 7!! Told Mike we weren’t going to Mendoza and he was upset and tried to convince me to go, told him I’d think about it.
Mass, afterwards ran into Christian and Emilio, convinced me to skip Edu class so I could 1. help Emilio translate something for his job at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans from December to March and 2. have Christian edit my Biblia paper.
Went to last 20 minutes of Edu, then hung out with gringo friends (dispute about Rochester NY)
Biblia
Poverty
Home with Courtney, hung out, friend never called but had once, hung with brothers, watched Nightmare Before Christmas but fell asleep before the end.
Kind of accidentally skipping my Doctrina Social class again to finish my Biblia paper, but I went at end to get my test back, Another 7!! Told Mike we weren’t going to Mendoza and he was upset and tried to convince me to go, told him I’d think about it.
Mass, afterwards ran into Christian and Emilio, convinced me to skip Edu class so I could 1. help Emilio translate something for his job at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans from December to March and 2. have Christian edit my Biblia paper.
Went to last 20 minutes of Edu, then hung out with gringo friends (dispute about Rochester NY)
Biblia
Poverty
Home with Courtney, hung out, friend never called but had once, hung with brothers, watched Nightmare Before Christmas but fell asleep before the end.
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 Please don't cry...
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 Please don't cry...
Woke up at 8:30 am
Run, shower, work, almuerzo, Nuestra Casa, decided not to go to Mendoza this weekend b/c I was so tired
HIV/SIDA presentation
Alejandro crying when talking about his son and his polola (girlfriend) who happens to be married to another man
Ran, literally, to mass, made it right on time before the homily!
Dinner with Olga, she cried when started talking about me leaving (that’s two in one day!)
Evening homework
Woke up at 8:30 am
Run, shower, work, almuerzo, Nuestra Casa, decided not to go to Mendoza this weekend b/c I was so tired
HIV/SIDA presentation
Alejandro crying when talking about his son and his polola (girlfriend) who happens to be married to another man
Ran, literally, to mass, made it right on time before the homily!
Dinner with Olga, she cried when started talking about me leaving (that’s two in one day!)
Evening homework
Monday, October 29th, 2007 Back to Reality
Monday, October 29th, 2007 Back to Reality
Arriving at 6:30 am
Writing Inconvenient Truth reflection paper that ended up not being due
Skipping Doc Soc, saw Mike and invited him to Mendoza
Edu
Biblia
Little homework, then Nap at 8 pm
Arriving at 6:30 am
Writing Inconvenient Truth reflection paper that ended up not being due
Skipping Doc Soc, saw Mike and invited him to Mendoza
Edu
Biblia
Little homework, then Nap at 8 pm
Sunday, October 28th, 2007 White Water Rafting in Pucon
Sunday, October 28th, 2007 White Water Rafting in Pucon
Natalie and my attempt to go to mass followed by lovely tour of Pucon and Lago Villarica
Rafting
Hot tub/sauna, chatting with Nick about the beauties of the Missouri life
BBQ
Bus ride home, matt and will and I decided to go to Mendoza
Natalie and my attempt to go to mass followed by lovely tour of Pucon and Lago Villarica
Rafting
Hot tub/sauna, chatting with Nick about the beauties of the Missouri life
BBQ
Bus ride home, matt and will and I decided to go to Mendoza
Saturday, October 27, 2007 Volcan Villarica: There are no words to describe you darn Volcano
Saturday, October 27, 2007 Volcan Villarica: There are no words to describe you darn Volcano
We woke up around 6:00 am to eat breakfast (which was brought to our cabin, including them setting the table (with linen) for us) and get ready. We got on the bus at 6:45 and headed to the tour company. We got everything we’d need for the climb, which includes pants, a coat, boots, crampons (teeth like things you attach to the bottom of your feet to keep you from sliding), an ice pick, a helmet, a face warmer, gloves, and sunglasses. We brought our own water and food, which we put in the huge hiking backpacks that they also gave us.
We climbed on the bus and drove about 30 minutes to the jump off point. There was snow along the road and when we got to the base of the volcano I realized why the hike is 5 hours up and 3 hours down. I also understood why we have so much equipment. We piled out and they passed out ski poles and once everyone had their backpacks on, we started hiking. The first 20 minutes was pretty easy and we talked and laughed as we climbed up. We rested a minute to let the rest catch up and I realized that we still had a long way to go. We started again and the group, about 25 people, slowly started spreading out. I stayed pretty close to the front but after about another 15 minutes it got a lot steeper and I slowed down. There was a group of about 10 in front, then me and one other girl, Chelsea a little further behind, then the rest of the group pretty far back. 45 minutes into the hike the group up front stopped and Chelsea and I caught up. The guide at the front told us that at this point we were going to start breaking into groups and that Chelsea and I should wait for the other group to catch up to form the middle group. I was already pretty tired but I figured I could keep up with them but I really didn’t mind since we were all going to meet up eventually. So we waited for the rest to catch up while the fast group sped on ahead.
But when the slow group finally got there the main guide said that we weren’t going to split up any more and we would stay in only two groups. I was disappointed because I knew that meant we’d have to wait for the slowest people, but again I figured we’d all make it anyway so it wouldn’t matter. Since we were going a lot slower I felt great and wasn’t very tired.
Mike and I wanting to go on, but eventually deciding to turn around
Sliding down, guides turning cool
Hot tub/sauna
Dinner
PARTY!!
We woke up around 6:00 am to eat breakfast (which was brought to our cabin, including them setting the table (with linen) for us) and get ready. We got on the bus at 6:45 and headed to the tour company. We got everything we’d need for the climb, which includes pants, a coat, boots, crampons (teeth like things you attach to the bottom of your feet to keep you from sliding), an ice pick, a helmet, a face warmer, gloves, and sunglasses. We brought our own water and food, which we put in the huge hiking backpacks that they also gave us.
We climbed on the bus and drove about 30 minutes to the jump off point. There was snow along the road and when we got to the base of the volcano I realized why the hike is 5 hours up and 3 hours down. I also understood why we have so much equipment. We piled out and they passed out ski poles and once everyone had their backpacks on, we started hiking. The first 20 minutes was pretty easy and we talked and laughed as we climbed up. We rested a minute to let the rest catch up and I realized that we still had a long way to go. We started again and the group, about 25 people, slowly started spreading out. I stayed pretty close to the front but after about another 15 minutes it got a lot steeper and I slowed down. There was a group of about 10 in front, then me and one other girl, Chelsea a little further behind, then the rest of the group pretty far back. 45 minutes into the hike the group up front stopped and Chelsea and I caught up. The guide at the front told us that at this point we were going to start breaking into groups and that Chelsea and I should wait for the other group to catch up to form the middle group. I was already pretty tired but I figured I could keep up with them but I really didn’t mind since we were all going to meet up eventually. So we waited for the rest to catch up while the fast group sped on ahead.
But when the slow group finally got there the main guide said that we weren’t going to split up any more and we would stay in only two groups. I was disappointed because I knew that meant we’d have to wait for the slowest people, but again I figured we’d all make it anyway so it wouldn’t matter. Since we were going a lot slower I felt great and wasn’t very tired.
Mike and I wanting to go on, but eventually deciding to turn around
Sliding down, guides turning cool
Hot tub/sauna
Dinner
PARTY!!
Friday, October 26, 2007 5 Star Cabins and our tour of Pucon
Friday, October 26, 2007 5 Star Cabins and our tour of Pucon
We got to Pucon around 7 am and the bus took us to our Cabañas, or Cabins. Cabañas are really popular to stay in and usually they are pretty basic. But our Cabañas were seriously 5 Star! The place, called El Dorado, is incredible. It has a pool, hot tub, sauna, steam room, soccer field, play ground, and a Hall that looks like a castle, surrounded by a mote/stream with black necked swans. The cabins were beautiful wood cabins with a full kitchen with tile floors, a huge dining room table, fancy bathrooms, leather furniture and a huge flat screen TV. We had about an hour to get settled then went to the Hall/Castle for breakfast. Of course breakfast was delicious with white linens and juice in wine glasses. After breakfast we had a little introduction to the activities we could do from a good looking guy who works at the tour office Politur. At 11 we left for our tour of Pucon and the surrounding region.
Pucon is a beautiful, lush mountain city that looks ridiculously like it was plucked right out of Colorado. It isn’t very big, I think about 40,000 permant residents, but it is a huge tourist spot because of all the stuff to do. Volcan (Volcano) Villarica is about 20 minutes away and looms over the city like a smoking snow capped giant. It is the most active volcano in all of South America and smoke pours out the top all day long. Unfortunately it is often rainy in Pucon (actually in all of southern Chile) and all day Friday was pretty cloudy.
To be honest I don’t remember many details about the places we went because I was having too much fun hanging out and goofing off with everyone in the group. But I know first we went to a beautiful waterfall where I gave Matt my camera to take artistic pictures. Then we went to a lake that sits next to the volcano. Then we went to another waterfall and hiked up it. There were three different levels and we hiked about 20 minutes to get to the top level. After the hike we had a sack lunch, then headed out to the Thermals, or hot springs. We spent the afternoon lounging in the natural hot spring pools while it sprinkled. The thermals sit along a beautiful fast flowing river and at one point a bunch of us went and jumped in. We only lasted about .2 seconds because it was incredibly freezing and we ran back to the warmth of the hot springs. We also tried making a whirlpool in one of the smaller pools but it didn’t work too well. People kept smacking their feet on the rocks and after a while we gave up.
Once everyone was nice and pruny we had to head back to Pucon. We had a little bit of time to clean up before we left for dinner and we a bunch of us decided to climb the volcano the next day. It cost almost $80 but how often do you get the chance to climb an active snow capped volcano? Plus it comes with one guide every 6 people and all the equipment you would need. I didn’t understand why we needed so much equipment till we got there, but now I understand. Before dinner everyone going on the volcano went and got their boots fitted and all the equipment ready.
We had dinner at a restaurant in Villarica, the city on the other side of the lake. At the end of dinner we had live music by two Chilean men. After they played for a while Hector, our director played then we convinced Courtney to play. Sallyann sang with her and they played a couple well known US songs. I was incredibly impressed and all the gringos loved it. Unfortunately the Chileans didn’t know the songs since they weren’t from the 80s, so they all looked a little bored. After Courtney played the two Chileans started playing again and by that point we were all really tired and ready to get back. We wanted to go to bed early since we had to leave for the volcano at 6:30 am. Finally Hector announced that we had to go and we eagerly got back on the bus.
There were 7 girls staying in our 3 room cabin. I was tired and a little irritable so after Natalie found two huge cockroaches on her bag and flipped the crap out, I couldn’t take it. Luckily Courtney didn’t mind them so she got them out of the cabin but everyone was shrieking and making it into a huge deal. There was just way too much girliness, and as soon as we could, Courtney and I just went to bed.
Thursday, October 25, 2007 Off to Pucon!
Thursday, October 25, 2007 Off to Pucon!
I went and volunteered as usual but today the teacher decided to show a film. Part of me was relieved that I wouldn’t have to deal with the kids but another part of me was a little disappointed because I was pretty much useless. The movie was a 20 minute short film in English made by a famous rock group that I can’t remember now. Maybe the Smashing Pumpkins or something. She told me that they would understand it because it was slow and had good images, so figured it would be a cool video. Come to find out it is about a drug addicted couple who lives on the street. The woman, who is pregnant, narrates the story basically talking about her past, her hopes for the futures, and the vicious cycle of drug addiction. There was no lack of f-bombs, alcohol and drug use, prostitution, violence, and basically all the things that you should NEVER show to a class of high school kids. I couldn’t believe it! The worst part is that the kids didn’t understand anything and just watched the craziness.
And what’s worse is that the kids convinced her to let them watch it twice so they “could understand more”. So after the 2nd class I asked her if I could just leave because I wasn’t doing anything. I was honestly starting to feel nausea and she didn’t seem to care, so I came home early.
I went for a run, showered, and then had lunch with Olga. In the afternoon I went to pick up a letter of admission to the Universidad Católica so I could get a Student Transportation Pass for the Metro. A friend of mine heard how foreign students could finally get a pass which was a new thing, so I jumped on the band wagon. The student passes are 1/3 the price of the regular passes, so with it I will save almost 70 bucks over the next month and a half. So I got my letter, went to the office, got my pass and came home. About 2 hours after I got back we got an email from our program director saying that the new “program” to allow foreign students to get a Student Pass was actually a loophole in the system and we shouldn’t really be able to get them. But darn, I already got mine!!
I spent the rest of the afternoon doing homework and getting ready to leave for Pucon with our program. We were supposed to meet up at the office at 9 pm but Courtney was going to come by to eat a quick once on her way since she didn’t have time to go home between her volunteer job and getting to the office. But she didn’t get to my house till about 8:30, so we ate super quick and left right at 9 pm. We are apparently slowly becoming Chilean: always late. When we finally got to the office everyone was on the bus and they were waiting for us.
Thursday evening consisted of hanging out with some of the coolest kids I’ve ever met on our way to Pucon. Basically all my favorite people from my program went on the trip so I was super excited. We watched a stupid/funny Adam Sandler movie “I Now Pronounce You Ted and Larry” or something like that. Around 1 am everyone fell asleep, knowing we’d need some rest for tomorrow.
I went and volunteered as usual but today the teacher decided to show a film. Part of me was relieved that I wouldn’t have to deal with the kids but another part of me was a little disappointed because I was pretty much useless. The movie was a 20 minute short film in English made by a famous rock group that I can’t remember now. Maybe the Smashing Pumpkins or something. She told me that they would understand it because it was slow and had good images, so figured it would be a cool video. Come to find out it is about a drug addicted couple who lives on the street. The woman, who is pregnant, narrates the story basically talking about her past, her hopes for the futures, and the vicious cycle of drug addiction. There was no lack of f-bombs, alcohol and drug use, prostitution, violence, and basically all the things that you should NEVER show to a class of high school kids. I couldn’t believe it! The worst part is that the kids didn’t understand anything and just watched the craziness.
And what’s worse is that the kids convinced her to let them watch it twice so they “could understand more”. So after the 2nd class I asked her if I could just leave because I wasn’t doing anything. I was honestly starting to feel nausea and she didn’t seem to care, so I came home early.
I went for a run, showered, and then had lunch with Olga. In the afternoon I went to pick up a letter of admission to the Universidad Católica so I could get a Student Transportation Pass for the Metro. A friend of mine heard how foreign students could finally get a pass which was a new thing, so I jumped on the band wagon. The student passes are 1/3 the price of the regular passes, so with it I will save almost 70 bucks over the next month and a half. So I got my letter, went to the office, got my pass and came home. About 2 hours after I got back we got an email from our program director saying that the new “program” to allow foreign students to get a Student Pass was actually a loophole in the system and we shouldn’t really be able to get them. But darn, I already got mine!!
I spent the rest of the afternoon doing homework and getting ready to leave for Pucon with our program. We were supposed to meet up at the office at 9 pm but Courtney was going to come by to eat a quick once on her way since she didn’t have time to go home between her volunteer job and getting to the office. But she didn’t get to my house till about 8:30, so we ate super quick and left right at 9 pm. We are apparently slowly becoming Chilean: always late. When we finally got to the office everyone was on the bus and they were waiting for us.
Thursday evening consisted of hanging out with some of the coolest kids I’ve ever met on our way to Pucon. Basically all my favorite people from my program went on the trip so I was super excited. We watched a stupid/funny Adam Sandler movie “I Now Pronounce You Ted and Larry” or something like that. Around 1 am everyone fell asleep, knowing we’d need some rest for tomorrow.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
I'm still here, don't worry!
Hey Everyone! It seems like I've been writing this a lot, but i want to let you know that i am doing wonderfully and I'm sorry i haven't updated in a long time. The past few weeks have been crazy and I've got a few more before things calm down. Its the end of the semester rush and although I'd love it, its hard to spend time updating my blog when the homework is piling up behind me. But don't worry, I'll get it all done! In the mean time, i added another photo album with pictures from Pucon, Chile and Mendoza, Argentina and a few other random events. Also included are some pictures of the apartment and my room so you can see where I'm living.
I love you all so much and really miss you like crazy. I'll be home to Lee's Summit in less than one month and i can't believe this adventure is almost over. Thanks for being a part of it with me. You are all in my prayers, Kayla
I love you all so much and really miss you like crazy. I'll be home to Lee's Summit in less than one month and i can't believe this adventure is almost over. Thanks for being a part of it with me. You are all in my prayers, Kayla
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
PHOTOS!!
Alright, so instead of doing my homework or updating my blog, I spent all morning uploading and setting up my photo albums to share with everyone. The albums are a little out of order, so look at the dates but the pictures within the albums should be exact. My next task for my pics will be to steal the pictures from my friends albums to fill in whatever gaps I have. But for now, enjoy all the photos!
http://picasaweb.google.com/kaylabronder
http://picasaweb.google.com/kaylabronder
Monday, October 29, 2007
Monday, October 29th, 2007 Random Update
Monday, October 29th, 2007
I got back from Pucon safe and sound and very tired this morning at 6:30 am. Just wanted to let you all know that I’m doing great and I should have my blog updated by tomorrow afternoon.
While I’m at in, I’ve got a couple things I want to clear up that I apparently haven’t made very clear according to all of your highly anticipated comments:
1. I had nothing to do with the rocks being thrown back at the soccer game. I was terrified and was actually upset that they were throwing them back because I knew that the next time something exciting happened, they would throw them back at us!
2. Once (pronounced like the number 11 in Spanish) is there evening meal. Its smaller than their almuerzo, their mid day meal. Basically its our lunch and dinner but switched. It actually makes a lot more sense.
I also have good news for you. I’ve figured out the beauty of Google’s picture program called Picassa. It organizes all your photos and you can store them online very easily. My photos of Chile are in the process of being uploaded as I write, so you should be able to see them all soon! And I will stop messing with the other program I had which was a pain. Alright, I’m going to take a nap then start some homework. I hope you are all doing wonderfully and I want you to know I miss you like crazy. God bless, Kayla
I got back from Pucon safe and sound and very tired this morning at 6:30 am. Just wanted to let you all know that I’m doing great and I should have my blog updated by tomorrow afternoon.
While I’m at in, I’ve got a couple things I want to clear up that I apparently haven’t made very clear according to all of your highly anticipated comments:
1. I had nothing to do with the rocks being thrown back at the soccer game. I was terrified and was actually upset that they were throwing them back because I knew that the next time something exciting happened, they would throw them back at us!
2. Once (pronounced like the number 11 in Spanish) is there evening meal. Its smaller than their almuerzo, their mid day meal. Basically its our lunch and dinner but switched. It actually makes a lot more sense.
I also have good news for you. I’ve figured out the beauty of Google’s picture program called Picassa. It organizes all your photos and you can store them online very easily. My photos of Chile are in the process of being uploaded as I write, so you should be able to see them all soon! And I will stop messing with the other program I had which was a pain. Alright, I’m going to take a nap then start some homework. I hope you are all doing wonderfully and I want you to know I miss you like crazy. God bless, Kayla
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 "Me dejo marcando el ocupado"
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 "Me dejo marcando el ocupado"
I’d gone to bed at 4:30, but I woke myself up at 9:30 to finish my essay and around 12:30 headed out to campus. I didn’t have a Chilean edit it so it definitely chalk full of mistakes, but I think it had good ideas and ended being 6.5 pages. If I take nothing else from my experience in Chile, it will be that I can write papers much better than before. And just imagine how easy it will be in English!!
I printed off my paper and went to class, which was more than half empty with all the other students that didn’t finish the essay. After class I hung out in our usual gringa blob and Christian came and ate lunch with us. Then I went to Biblia class where I learned something blog worthy. As they say in Chilean,
• “Me dejó marcando el ocupado” It left me marking the busy
• “mueve el piso” or Moved the floor
• “cambia el esquema” Changed the schema
As you can see there aren’t really any good translations, but basically it rocked my world. Are you ready? Read on: Cardinal Ratzinger, before he became Benedict XVI wrote a letter called Libertad Conquistada in which basically said that people can act against the decrees of the church if and only if they act in good conscience which has been thoroughly analyzed and prayerful discerned. Wow. This class has really been reaffirming a lot of things I’ve thought about faith, religion, God, Jesus, etc. and it makes me feel honored to be Catholic and proud to tell others I’m Catholic. Now we just need to get everyone else to understand the church in the way our professor explains/presents it! About the text, I obviously can’t explain it as well as Ratzinger wrote it, but I asked my professor to email the copy of the text so I can post it for all to read. It should be up soon.
After class I had our Pobreza class where we learned about Neoliberalism and how crappy the United States policies are. This class did not make me feel honored nor proud. Nevertheless, it was really interesting to learn. I took the metro home after class sense it was kind of chilly. I had once with Olga then worked on my blog. I talked to Trevor for a while, then finally got to talk to Anamarie, my best friend from home. We’d talked once since I’d been to Chile so it was great to catch up. I went to bed after 1 am, which was late because I knew I had to wake up early to volunteer. Oh well, I can sleep when I dead!!
p.s. Great News: I’m finally caught up on my blog!! Just in time for me to leave on my next trip! We are going to Pucon, the “adventure capital of the world”, which is about 9 hours south of Santiago. This trip is with the program which means 1. we don’t have to do any planning and 2. it’s already paid for so it feels like its free! So once again I won’t be able to blog for a while but I’ll do my best to not get two weeks behind like I did this time!
I’d gone to bed at 4:30, but I woke myself up at 9:30 to finish my essay and around 12:30 headed out to campus. I didn’t have a Chilean edit it so it definitely chalk full of mistakes, but I think it had good ideas and ended being 6.5 pages. If I take nothing else from my experience in Chile, it will be that I can write papers much better than before. And just imagine how easy it will be in English!!
I printed off my paper and went to class, which was more than half empty with all the other students that didn’t finish the essay. After class I hung out in our usual gringa blob and Christian came and ate lunch with us. Then I went to Biblia class where I learned something blog worthy. As they say in Chilean,
• “Me dejó marcando el ocupado” It left me marking the busy
• “mueve el piso” or Moved the floor
• “cambia el esquema” Changed the schema
As you can see there aren’t really any good translations, but basically it rocked my world. Are you ready? Read on: Cardinal Ratzinger, before he became Benedict XVI wrote a letter called Libertad Conquistada in which basically said that people can act against the decrees of the church if and only if they act in good conscience which has been thoroughly analyzed and prayerful discerned. Wow. This class has really been reaffirming a lot of things I’ve thought about faith, religion, God, Jesus, etc. and it makes me feel honored to be Catholic and proud to tell others I’m Catholic. Now we just need to get everyone else to understand the church in the way our professor explains/presents it! About the text, I obviously can’t explain it as well as Ratzinger wrote it, but I asked my professor to email the copy of the text so I can post it for all to read. It should be up soon.
After class I had our Pobreza class where we learned about Neoliberalism and how crappy the United States policies are. This class did not make me feel honored nor proud. Nevertheless, it was really interesting to learn. I took the metro home after class sense it was kind of chilly. I had once with Olga then worked on my blog. I talked to Trevor for a while, then finally got to talk to Anamarie, my best friend from home. We’d talked once since I’d been to Chile so it was great to catch up. I went to bed after 1 am, which was late because I knew I had to wake up early to volunteer. Oh well, I can sleep when I dead!!
p.s. Great News: I’m finally caught up on my blog!! Just in time for me to leave on my next trip! We are going to Pucon, the “adventure capital of the world”, which is about 9 hours south of Santiago. This trip is with the program which means 1. we don’t have to do any planning and 2. it’s already paid for so it feels like its free! So once again I won’t be able to blog for a while but I’ll do my best to not get two weeks behind like I did this time!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 Nuestra Casa and Up ‘Till Dawn
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 Nuestra Casa and Up ‘Till Dawn
I woke up around 10:30, went for a nice run, showered, and then got back to work on my presentation. I needed to get it done at least by 3, so I was working as fast as I could. I had lunch with Olga around noon and around 2 Miguel and Evan came by. I felt bad but I couldn’t really hang out since I needed to finish and at 3:30 I decided it was good enough. I said goodbye to the family and walked to Nuestra Casa.
Another volunteer Tamara (who grow up in the States because her parents were socialists and escaped after the coup d'eta by Pinochet) helped me edit it and make it simpler. She said it was really interesting and even she learned a lot! Since the workshop wasn’t supposed to be until 5:30 I had an hour or so to hang out with everyone. But 5:30 came and went and Patricio, the employee in charge of the house, kept telling we would start soon. By 6:30 we both agreed that no one seemed too excited to do the workshop today since they were working on their leather workshop. So after all that work we didn’t do it, but I was actually kind of relieved. I realized that in theory it’s great to do a Health Workshop for homeless people but they really don’t have much desire to learn it. They would rather make the leather money holders, purses etc. that they can sell to make money. Patricio said he would talk to them later about whether or not they want to do the workshop and we would see. I ended up spending most of the time talking to one woman Maria about her life on the street and the homeless culture in general. She was really open and didn’t mind answering all my questions. She told me that health is obviously an important topic but to them the most important thing would be first aid. She said they would all love having a First Aid kit as well.
After volunteering I walked home, ate dinner with Olga, then set to work on the essay I needed to write for my Education class tomorrow. We’d known about the essay for a while but the professor didn’t give us the prompt until yesterday. And instead of it being an easy review of a couple readings like I’d thought, it was an intense “no more than 10 pages” essay. Apparently no one else in the class started till late Tuesday either because I talk with 3 other classmates (2 gringos, one Chilean) about what exactly the professor wanted. To make a long story short, I ended up staying up till 4:30 in the morning working. I was thinking about just turning it in late and taking the grade cute, but I decided to skip my Doctrina Social class and finish it in the morning.
I woke up around 10:30, went for a nice run, showered, and then got back to work on my presentation. I needed to get it done at least by 3, so I was working as fast as I could. I had lunch with Olga around noon and around 2 Miguel and Evan came by. I felt bad but I couldn’t really hang out since I needed to finish and at 3:30 I decided it was good enough. I said goodbye to the family and walked to Nuestra Casa.
Another volunteer Tamara (who grow up in the States because her parents were socialists and escaped after the coup d'eta by Pinochet) helped me edit it and make it simpler. She said it was really interesting and even she learned a lot! Since the workshop wasn’t supposed to be until 5:30 I had an hour or so to hang out with everyone. But 5:30 came and went and Patricio, the employee in charge of the house, kept telling we would start soon. By 6:30 we both agreed that no one seemed too excited to do the workshop today since they were working on their leather workshop. So after all that work we didn’t do it, but I was actually kind of relieved. I realized that in theory it’s great to do a Health Workshop for homeless people but they really don’t have much desire to learn it. They would rather make the leather money holders, purses etc. that they can sell to make money. Patricio said he would talk to them later about whether or not they want to do the workshop and we would see. I ended up spending most of the time talking to one woman Maria about her life on the street and the homeless culture in general. She was really open and didn’t mind answering all my questions. She told me that health is obviously an important topic but to them the most important thing would be first aid. She said they would all love having a First Aid kit as well.
After volunteering I walked home, ate dinner with Olga, then set to work on the essay I needed to write for my Education class tomorrow. We’d known about the essay for a while but the professor didn’t give us the prompt until yesterday. And instead of it being an easy review of a couple readings like I’d thought, it was an intense “no more than 10 pages” essay. Apparently no one else in the class started till late Tuesday either because I talk with 3 other classmates (2 gringos, one Chilean) about what exactly the professor wanted. To make a long story short, I ended up staying up till 4:30 in the morning working. I was thinking about just turning it in late and taking the grade cute, but I decided to skip my Doctrina Social class and finish it in the morning.
Monday, October 22, 2007 Someone's got a case of the Mundays...
Monday, October 22, 2007 Someone's got a case of the Mundays...
Today was a normal Monday. I slept in till about 10 am since I hadn’t gotten much sleep on the weekend. Then I went to Doctrina Social, hung out with Hannah, the girl we’d met in San Pedro between classes, went to Education, had lunch with Christian, went to Biblia, and finally walked home. Since I didn’t go to mass during the day Olga and I went together at 7:30 then had once. Tonight I worked on the AIDS Workshop I was giving on Tuesday at Nuestra Casa, my volunteer job. I realized that it was going to be difficult to make the presentation informative, interesting, and easy enough for them to understand so I worked really hard. I went to sleep pretty early again trying to catch up.
Today was a normal Monday. I slept in till about 10 am since I hadn’t gotten much sleep on the weekend. Then I went to Doctrina Social, hung out with Hannah, the girl we’d met in San Pedro between classes, went to Education, had lunch with Christian, went to Biblia, and finally walked home. Since I didn’t go to mass during the day Olga and I went together at 7:30 then had once. Tonight I worked on the AIDS Workshop I was giving on Tuesday at Nuestra Casa, my volunteer job. I realized that it was going to be difficult to make the presentation informative, interesting, and easy enough for them to understand so I worked really hard. I went to sleep pretty early again trying to catch up.
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