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
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
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.
Sunday, October 21, 2007 Chilean Futbol: A once in a life time experience
Sunday, October 21, 2007 Chilean Futbol: A once in a life time experience
I was awake enough last night/this morning to remember to set my alarm so I could wake up in time for church. I went to mass at the Jesuit church a few blocks away. There were 2 priests taking confessions and I decided to take advantage of it and worked up enough courage to do my first confession in Spanish. I told the priest it was my first confession in Spanish and to tell me if he couldn’t understand. He chuckled and told me not to worry.
After mass I had almuerzo with Olga and did a little work before heading out to meet up with everyone to go to the Colo Colo vs. La Chile soccer game. Before I left for the game I asked Olga which team I should cheer for since I didn’t really have a preference. She told me to wait and see what section I was sitting in and cheer for that team!!
Background: The Chilean soccer league consists of about 20 teams throughout the country. Santiago has 3 big teams that are huge rivals with each other: Colo Colo, Universidad de Chile, and Universidad Católica (they have absolutely no affiliation with the Universities, they just have those names. I don’t know why and yes, it was very confusing trying to figure all this out). And the Colo Colo vs. La Chile is probably the biggest rival and most watched game. For clarification, this league is separate from the national team, just like the State’s MLS is separate from the World Cup team. But Chilean soccer isn’t very good compared to the other Latin American countries and even compared to the MLS.
Somehow my friend Will was able to get tickets ($22 each) and in the supposedly safer part of the stadium, which was the Colo Colo Stadium. So a group of decided to take advantage of the opportunity to participate in one of the most exciting events in the world of Chilean Futbol.
We all met up in the metro and ended up waiting 30 minutes for our two Latin friends from our program. (Its true that stereotypes come from somewhere!) After running (literally) around the stadium to get in our side, and passing through lots of security (I got patted down), we made it a few minutes before the game was supposed to start. The place was already packed and full of crazy screaming, many intoxicated fans. We were in the Colo Colo section which made up more than ¾ of the stadium. The La Chile fans were all together in one end of the field separated from the rest by huge fences with barbed wire on top and police men in so much armor that they looked like Ninja Turtles. I didn’t think anything of it and since the tickets get you into a section, not a specific seat, we slid in on the side closer to the La Chile fans because there was a lot of space. We later found out why there was a lot of space!
Right at 4:00 (game time) the entire stadium erupted into a cheer “Saleeoooo, Saleooo…” which basically means “Come out!! Come out!!” and the Colo Colo team rushed on to the field. Right when the got out onto the field we started hearing people shouting “Cuidate!” or “Be Careful”. We looked and saw rocks flying at us from the La Chile section. A guy about 2 feet in front of us got hit in the head with a rock and it was bleeding so bad he had to leave. When everyone realized they weren’t going to stop, the crowd started to push away from them to get out of the range of the rocks. For the second time in Santiago, I was actually a bit scared.
Eventually the rocks stopped flying and the La Chile fans started cheering “Saleeoo” while the La Chile players rushed the field. Not surprisingly, the rocks recently projected at us were now returned to their rightful owners. The game began like any other soccer game I’ve ever been to but we had to keep an eye out for rocks flying at us. It was a wonderful event and I realized how much I miss huge sporting events! The fans had more cheers than I thought possible, most of them including foul language and creative insults. My favorite was when thousands of people started screaming, “Puta, chuta tu madre”. I’m not going to translate it but you can probably figure out the general idea.
La Chile scored first which initiated another round of flying rocks. A while later Colo Colo returned the favor and the rocks. Colo Colo scored again in the middle of the second half but it was called back for off sides. After that the place started getting a little insane and the Police/Ninja Turtles were charging the crowd in the La Chile section to try and control them. People were hitting and pushing the police and it was general chaos for a while. Colo Colo scored again and with only 3 minutes left in the game and Colo Colo up 2-1 the stadium was nuts. Then La Chile scored out of no where. So the game ended in a tie 2-2, which I think I realized that is probably the best outcome there could be for our safety.
We tried to leave as soon as the game got over but the gates out where locked with police guards. After about 15 minutes they finally let us out and the crowd filed out in between lines of armored policed men. We had to walk about 45 minutes before we got to a metro that was open and on the way I made a friend. He was a 14 year old Chilean that was obviously listening to us speaking English so I figured he’d been learning some in school. He was really friendly and explained the chants we didn’t understand, why the fans are so crazy (he told us just because they love soccer!), where they get the rocks (the break the concrete steps), etc. He also explained why we couldn’t get on the metros (they close them at least an hour after big games otherwise it is really dangerous. Just image everyone in the stadium trying to get one at one station!) He said he goes to every Colo Colo game with his friends and his dad and he told us that he is a Colo Colo fan because they are “The people’s team”. Ironically that is what all the La Chile fans say.
Once we finally got on a metro, Courtney and I went our gringa friend Sara’s house to have once for her birthday. Since we got there so late we just had the delicious chocolate cake she’d made with amazing chocolate milk. Natalie came a while later and the four of us had a great time discussing religion and Chile. We took a bus home around 10 and I finally started my homework for the next day. I was going to take a shower but I fell asleep early (disgusting right?)
I was awake enough last night/this morning to remember to set my alarm so I could wake up in time for church. I went to mass at the Jesuit church a few blocks away. There were 2 priests taking confessions and I decided to take advantage of it and worked up enough courage to do my first confession in Spanish. I told the priest it was my first confession in Spanish and to tell me if he couldn’t understand. He chuckled and told me not to worry.
After mass I had almuerzo with Olga and did a little work before heading out to meet up with everyone to go to the Colo Colo vs. La Chile soccer game. Before I left for the game I asked Olga which team I should cheer for since I didn’t really have a preference. She told me to wait and see what section I was sitting in and cheer for that team!!
Background: The Chilean soccer league consists of about 20 teams throughout the country. Santiago has 3 big teams that are huge rivals with each other: Colo Colo, Universidad de Chile, and Universidad Católica (they have absolutely no affiliation with the Universities, they just have those names. I don’t know why and yes, it was very confusing trying to figure all this out). And the Colo Colo vs. La Chile is probably the biggest rival and most watched game. For clarification, this league is separate from the national team, just like the State’s MLS is separate from the World Cup team. But Chilean soccer isn’t very good compared to the other Latin American countries and even compared to the MLS.
Somehow my friend Will was able to get tickets ($22 each) and in the supposedly safer part of the stadium, which was the Colo Colo Stadium. So a group of decided to take advantage of the opportunity to participate in one of the most exciting events in the world of Chilean Futbol.
We all met up in the metro and ended up waiting 30 minutes for our two Latin friends from our program. (Its true that stereotypes come from somewhere!) After running (literally) around the stadium to get in our side, and passing through lots of security (I got patted down), we made it a few minutes before the game was supposed to start. The place was already packed and full of crazy screaming, many intoxicated fans. We were in the Colo Colo section which made up more than ¾ of the stadium. The La Chile fans were all together in one end of the field separated from the rest by huge fences with barbed wire on top and police men in so much armor that they looked like Ninja Turtles. I didn’t think anything of it and since the tickets get you into a section, not a specific seat, we slid in on the side closer to the La Chile fans because there was a lot of space. We later found out why there was a lot of space!
Right at 4:00 (game time) the entire stadium erupted into a cheer “Saleeoooo, Saleooo…” which basically means “Come out!! Come out!!” and the Colo Colo team rushed on to the field. Right when the got out onto the field we started hearing people shouting “Cuidate!” or “Be Careful”. We looked and saw rocks flying at us from the La Chile section. A guy about 2 feet in front of us got hit in the head with a rock and it was bleeding so bad he had to leave. When everyone realized they weren’t going to stop, the crowd started to push away from them to get out of the range of the rocks. For the second time in Santiago, I was actually a bit scared.
Eventually the rocks stopped flying and the La Chile fans started cheering “Saleeoo” while the La Chile players rushed the field. Not surprisingly, the rocks recently projected at us were now returned to their rightful owners. The game began like any other soccer game I’ve ever been to but we had to keep an eye out for rocks flying at us. It was a wonderful event and I realized how much I miss huge sporting events! The fans had more cheers than I thought possible, most of them including foul language and creative insults. My favorite was when thousands of people started screaming, “Puta, chuta tu madre”. I’m not going to translate it but you can probably figure out the general idea.
La Chile scored first which initiated another round of flying rocks. A while later Colo Colo returned the favor and the rocks. Colo Colo scored again in the middle of the second half but it was called back for off sides. After that the place started getting a little insane and the Police/Ninja Turtles were charging the crowd in the La Chile section to try and control them. People were hitting and pushing the police and it was general chaos for a while. Colo Colo scored again and with only 3 minutes left in the game and Colo Colo up 2-1 the stadium was nuts. Then La Chile scored out of no where. So the game ended in a tie 2-2, which I think I realized that is probably the best outcome there could be for our safety.
We tried to leave as soon as the game got over but the gates out where locked with police guards. After about 15 minutes they finally let us out and the crowd filed out in between lines of armored policed men. We had to walk about 45 minutes before we got to a metro that was open and on the way I made a friend. He was a 14 year old Chilean that was obviously listening to us speaking English so I figured he’d been learning some in school. He was really friendly and explained the chants we didn’t understand, why the fans are so crazy (he told us just because they love soccer!), where they get the rocks (the break the concrete steps), etc. He also explained why we couldn’t get on the metros (they close them at least an hour after big games otherwise it is really dangerous. Just image everyone in the stadium trying to get one at one station!) He said he goes to every Colo Colo game with his friends and his dad and he told us that he is a Colo Colo fan because they are “The people’s team”. Ironically that is what all the La Chile fans say.
Once we finally got on a metro, Courtney and I went our gringa friend Sara’s house to have once for her birthday. Since we got there so late we just had the delicious chocolate cake she’d made with amazing chocolate milk. Natalie came a while later and the four of us had a great time discussing religion and Chile. We took a bus home around 10 and I finally started my homework for the next day. I was going to take a shower but I fell asleep early (disgusting right?)
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007 NOTHING AGAIN + Chilean Birthday Parties
Saturday, October 20, 2007 NOTHING AGAIN + Chilean Birthday Parties
Despite the fact that I didn’t go to sleep till 6:30 this morning, I woke up around noon. I intended to get some work done today, but like yesterday, I somehow managed to really not do anything. I got so lazy today that I didn’t even go running. But I did a few push ups and sit ups before I took a shower to not feel so pathetic. In reality I spent a long time catching up on this very blog, which I guess is something.
As you can imagine, it takes me a long time and since I’m so far behind it feels like I don’t get anywhere. For those of you highly dedicated Blog readers, I’ve now written over 106 pages single spaced with one inch margins on Word. That does include a few pics, but not too much. So basically I’ve written a short novel. Unfortunately for you it doesn’t have the typically story line but rather random rantings of my random adventures. But while I’m on the subject, I want to thank each of you for reading my blog. And especially thanks to those of you who make comments. Each one makes me feel loved and remembered, which is important for me. It’s good to know that you take time out of your busy day to read about my silly life. So thank you. If I ever got this published, I’d dedicate it to all those who faithfully read my blog.
I digress. Background for the evening: Calli’s host sister Nayadeth turned 18 and apparently in Chilean fashion, decided to throw a huge formal birthday bash. Calli got to invite some friends so she wouldn’t be the only gringa and those of us who know her family and her sister got invited. We’ve known for over a month and Kristen came over at 7:30 to get ready and Natalie came by around 8. Olga knew that they would have dinner at the party but not till really late (it didn’t start officially till 9:30 pm) so she bought us cookies and made us coffee to have before hand. We all got ready and Olga helped us pick out jewelry and then gossiped while we drank our coffee and ate our cookies.
Time flew and before we knew it was passed 9:30! We called a taxi and by the time we got there it was almost 10:30. But we obviously hadn’t missed anything because people were just hanging out drinking a tasty alcoholic punch. Nayadeth looked adorable in her pink princess dress with everyone else in black dresses and suits. We hung out mostly in our gringo blob which consisted of me, Natalie, Kristen, Sam(antha), CJ (Calli’s brother) and Calli, but managed to talk to random relatives and a few of Nayadeth’s friends.
Around 11:30 we ate dinner and after dinner the dancing began. Like last night, the time passed filled with dancing, singing, and goofing off. Everyone hour or so they stopped the dancing for a “show”. The first was a belly dancing performance by an aunt. Next was a Michael Jackson impersonation by an uncle (the one married to the belly dancer!). A while later the brought out tables, salt, lemons and shot glasses and almost everyone took a shot of tequila! The gringas went first with Nayadeth, which I guess was quite an honor! We sang Happy Birthday and had cake around 4 am and the party ended around 5 am. By that point most of the relatives were good and drunk. Luckily all the gringas except one had stopped drinking early.
We then began the epic journey of trying to get home (like every time we go out). We called a radio taxi like the one we’d taken here and again Natalie, Kristen and I shared the cab home. I didn’t get back till well after 6 and once again crawled into bed half asleep.
Despite the fact that I didn’t go to sleep till 6:30 this morning, I woke up around noon. I intended to get some work done today, but like yesterday, I somehow managed to really not do anything. I got so lazy today that I didn’t even go running. But I did a few push ups and sit ups before I took a shower to not feel so pathetic. In reality I spent a long time catching up on this very blog, which I guess is something.
As you can imagine, it takes me a long time and since I’m so far behind it feels like I don’t get anywhere. For those of you highly dedicated Blog readers, I’ve now written over 106 pages single spaced with one inch margins on Word. That does include a few pics, but not too much. So basically I’ve written a short novel. Unfortunately for you it doesn’t have the typically story line but rather random rantings of my random adventures. But while I’m on the subject, I want to thank each of you for reading my blog. And especially thanks to those of you who make comments. Each one makes me feel loved and remembered, which is important for me. It’s good to know that you take time out of your busy day to read about my silly life. So thank you. If I ever got this published, I’d dedicate it to all those who faithfully read my blog.
I digress. Background for the evening: Calli’s host sister Nayadeth turned 18 and apparently in Chilean fashion, decided to throw a huge formal birthday bash. Calli got to invite some friends so she wouldn’t be the only gringa and those of us who know her family and her sister got invited. We’ve known for over a month and Kristen came over at 7:30 to get ready and Natalie came by around 8. Olga knew that they would have dinner at the party but not till really late (it didn’t start officially till 9:30 pm) so she bought us cookies and made us coffee to have before hand. We all got ready and Olga helped us pick out jewelry and then gossiped while we drank our coffee and ate our cookies.
Time flew and before we knew it was passed 9:30! We called a taxi and by the time we got there it was almost 10:30. But we obviously hadn’t missed anything because people were just hanging out drinking a tasty alcoholic punch. Nayadeth looked adorable in her pink princess dress with everyone else in black dresses and suits. We hung out mostly in our gringo blob which consisted of me, Natalie, Kristen, Sam(antha), CJ (Calli’s brother) and Calli, but managed to talk to random relatives and a few of Nayadeth’s friends.
Around 11:30 we ate dinner and after dinner the dancing began. Like last night, the time passed filled with dancing, singing, and goofing off. Everyone hour or so they stopped the dancing for a “show”. The first was a belly dancing performance by an aunt. Next was a Michael Jackson impersonation by an uncle (the one married to the belly dancer!). A while later the brought out tables, salt, lemons and shot glasses and almost everyone took a shot of tequila! The gringas went first with Nayadeth, which I guess was quite an honor! We sang Happy Birthday and had cake around 4 am and the party ended around 5 am. By that point most of the relatives were good and drunk. Luckily all the gringas except one had stopped drinking early.
We then began the epic journey of trying to get home (like every time we go out). We called a radio taxi like the one we’d taken here and again Natalie, Kristen and I shared the cab home. I didn’t get back till well after 6 and once again crawled into bed half asleep.
Friday, October 19, 2007 NOTHING + Chilean Concerts
Friday, October 19, 2007 NOTHING + Chilean Concerts
I slept in since I literally had NOTHING that I had to do today. Of course I had a nice list of readings and such that I should do for the next week, but nothing too pressing. After breakfast I laid in bed updating my blog, downloading my pics, checking my email and facebook, just basically wasting time. Olga went to run errands etc. and when she got back to eat lunch she gave me hard time for not moving since she’d left. After lunch I went for a nice long run, showered, then climbed back into bed to do more “work”.
Around 5 Courtney called me and invited me to go with her to a concert tonight with the University of Chile. The concert was right outside Parque O’Higgins by my house and I’d actually seen them setting up the stage when I was running. So I met up with Courtney around 8 and we bought tickets for the concert. She came back to my apartment and had once with us and Olga was absolutely thrilled to have her. We were supposed to meet up with some of Courtney’s Chileans classmates, the ones who actually invited her to go, around 10:30, but in usual Chilean style, they didn’t get to the concert till almost midnight. While we waited we got some ice cream to share and chuckled at the fact that while most people were getting drunk before the concert, we were enjoying dessert!
By the time we got through all the security to get into the concert (or rather into the gates around the concert) it was past midnight. The place was completely packed with University of Chile students and a few random gringos like Courtney and I. We spent the next 4 + hours dancing, singing, and screaming anti-Pinochet chants at the top of our lungs. We heard three famous Chilean bands play: Chico Trujillo, a cumbia/ska group, then Sol y Lluvia, a well know leftist/antiPinochet group, then finally Tommy Rey, a dearly loved latin style brass band (think Ricky Ricardo). Courtney’s classmates were really really friendly and an absolute blast and before I knew it they were shutting down the concert around 4:30 am. ( I guess now its Saturday but it felt like Friday, so it’s staying here!)
We decided that Courtney would hang out at my house until the metro opened at 6 am then begin her hour + journey back to her house. So we walked home together, got a little snack in the kitchen, and then helped keep each other awake until 6. I walked her half way to the metro (like we used to do at night in the neighborhood), then half asleep crawled in to my bed back home.
Thursday, October 18, 2007 EVERYTHING
Thursday, October 18, 2007 EVERYTHING
I woke up super early to get to the high school for my volunteer job. I helped the kids pronounce the irregular verbs in the past tense, which was fun for me to hear them try to pronounce stuff. But I don’t think they really learned anything. After a while Ms. Mabel gave up and handed out a worksheet (that they didn’t do) but I didn’t mind because I could study. For the second class we reviewed the verbs then had them play charades to act them out. They had fun with it and behaved themselves relatively well.
I left after the second class to get to campus on time for the test. On my way to the classroom I ran into Christian and Manuel so instead of last minute studying I chatted with them. I went to take the test and it ended up going a lot better than I’d thought. The question was really opened ended, like any good essay test so I could basically regurgitate everything I’d memorized. I made an outline then speed wrote for over one hour. By the time I finished my brain hurt, so I just turned it in without rereading or reviewing it. I hope the professor understands!
I’d made plans to meet up with Calli and CJ to go to the Concho y Toro winery, the biggest winery in all of Chile (which is saying something). I’d thought I’d have enough time to go home and eat there before heading out but since the test took longer than I’d thought I ended up staying on campus and eating there. I ate with Christian and some of this classmates and after I few minutes I gave up trying to understand them.
At 2ish I met CJ and Calli in the metro and we took it to the end of the line then got on a bus to make it to the winery. We had a tour in English at 3 which lasted about one hour and included 3 glasses of wine. Plus we got to keep the fancy wine glass. Besides the wine and the glass, I wasn’t too impressed with the tour. We didn’t really see anything and I didn’t really learn anything. I guess compared to the other tour we did it was really touristy and superficial (actually a lot like the tour of the Pisco factory in La Serena).
I got home from the tour around 6ish and relaxed for a while. At 10 a big group of us met up at the movie theaters to see Superbad (or Supercool), the new movie with the kid from Arrested Development. Despite being horribly inappropriate, it was hilarious (plus it was in English). I hadn’t laughed out loud like that in a movie in quite a while. After the movie we all took the bus to Plaza Nuñoa and got drinks. I shared a Malta con huevo (a malt beer with a raw egg and lots of sugar) with Hanna. It’s a popular drink in Chile and we’d seen the movie called Malta con Huevo, so when we saw they had it we really wanted to try it. It was actually not that bad, almost like a beer milkshake. But it was really rich and strong and we couldn’t even finish it between the two of us! The bar closed and kicked us out of our relaxing patio seats at one and we all took buses home.
p.s. The litre is pretty much completely gone. I’ve got a few patches of dry skin and one little spot on the side of my lip but it just looks like I broke out. With some makeup you can’t tell at all!
I woke up super early to get to the high school for my volunteer job. I helped the kids pronounce the irregular verbs in the past tense, which was fun for me to hear them try to pronounce stuff. But I don’t think they really learned anything. After a while Ms. Mabel gave up and handed out a worksheet (that they didn’t do) but I didn’t mind because I could study. For the second class we reviewed the verbs then had them play charades to act them out. They had fun with it and behaved themselves relatively well.
I left after the second class to get to campus on time for the test. On my way to the classroom I ran into Christian and Manuel so instead of last minute studying I chatted with them. I went to take the test and it ended up going a lot better than I’d thought. The question was really opened ended, like any good essay test so I could basically regurgitate everything I’d memorized. I made an outline then speed wrote for over one hour. By the time I finished my brain hurt, so I just turned it in without rereading or reviewing it. I hope the professor understands!
I’d made plans to meet up with Calli and CJ to go to the Concho y Toro winery, the biggest winery in all of Chile (which is saying something). I’d thought I’d have enough time to go home and eat there before heading out but since the test took longer than I’d thought I ended up staying on campus and eating there. I ate with Christian and some of this classmates and after I few minutes I gave up trying to understand them.
At 2ish I met CJ and Calli in the metro and we took it to the end of the line then got on a bus to make it to the winery. We had a tour in English at 3 which lasted about one hour and included 3 glasses of wine. Plus we got to keep the fancy wine glass. Besides the wine and the glass, I wasn’t too impressed with the tour. We didn’t really see anything and I didn’t really learn anything. I guess compared to the other tour we did it was really touristy and superficial (actually a lot like the tour of the Pisco factory in La Serena).
I got home from the tour around 6ish and relaxed for a while. At 10 a big group of us met up at the movie theaters to see Superbad (or Supercool), the new movie with the kid from Arrested Development. Despite being horribly inappropriate, it was hilarious (plus it was in English). I hadn’t laughed out loud like that in a movie in quite a while. After the movie we all took the bus to Plaza Nuñoa and got drinks. I shared a Malta con huevo (a malt beer with a raw egg and lots of sugar) with Hanna. It’s a popular drink in Chile and we’d seen the movie called Malta con Huevo, so when we saw they had it we really wanted to try it. It was actually not that bad, almost like a beer milkshake. But it was really rich and strong and we couldn’t even finish it between the two of us! The bar closed and kicked us out of our relaxing patio seats at one and we all took buses home.
p.s. The litre is pretty much completely gone. I’ve got a few patches of dry skin and one little spot on the side of my lip but it just looks like I broke out. With some makeup you can’t tell at all!
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 A good balance of work and play
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 A good balance of work and play
I woke up early to finish my essay. Luckily I decided to take my Doctrina Social test on Thursday instead of Wednesday (today) so I had extra time to finish the essay. My Doctrina Social professor lets us take the test in either section he has. Amazingly I got the essay done before I needed to head to class. I headed to campus, printed off the essay (not corrected by a Chilean, therefore FULL of grammar errors) and went to mass. After mass I had my Education class, then ate lunch with my gringo friend Nick.
I headed to my Biblia class, ready to turn in my essay. In between class I went to get a coffee at the market in the metro station and on the way out I tripped up the stairs. It was really embarrassing and I spilled half my coffee, some of it on myself. And worst was that I scrapped my elbow and it was bleeding a tiny bit. Now that I write it out it sounds a lot worse than it was, but I was quite embarrassed. After Pobreza a bunch of us went to a bar/café across the street to watch the last 20 minutes of the Chile vs. Peru soccer game. The place was totally full and from our seats outside we could barely see the TV inside. But Chile was up 2-0 so it was more about the environment. We shared a couple of pitchers of beer and after the game ended we stayed another 30 minutes or so discussing religion and God. It was great to have a real conversation about a real topic. The whole time I kept thinking about the fact that I had a test tomorrow but I wasn’t really worried about it. When it comes to class here I am definitely a different person than I am at Tulane and I love it! Maybe that is just the life of a liberal arts major! (Note the sarcasm to those of my friends who study the wonderful and priceless liberal arts!)
I took the metro home, ate a quick once with Olga and headed to my room to study. For some reason my internet wasn’t working so I couldn’t talk to Trevor, which was probably for the better so I could study! I feel asleep reading through my notes.
I woke up early to finish my essay. Luckily I decided to take my Doctrina Social test on Thursday instead of Wednesday (today) so I had extra time to finish the essay. My Doctrina Social professor lets us take the test in either section he has. Amazingly I got the essay done before I needed to head to class. I headed to campus, printed off the essay (not corrected by a Chilean, therefore FULL of grammar errors) and went to mass. After mass I had my Education class, then ate lunch with my gringo friend Nick.
I headed to my Biblia class, ready to turn in my essay. In between class I went to get a coffee at the market in the metro station and on the way out I tripped up the stairs. It was really embarrassing and I spilled half my coffee, some of it on myself. And worst was that I scrapped my elbow and it was bleeding a tiny bit. Now that I write it out it sounds a lot worse than it was, but I was quite embarrassed. After Pobreza a bunch of us went to a bar/café across the street to watch the last 20 minutes of the Chile vs. Peru soccer game. The place was totally full and from our seats outside we could barely see the TV inside. But Chile was up 2-0 so it was more about the environment. We shared a couple of pitchers of beer and after the game ended we stayed another 30 minutes or so discussing religion and God. It was great to have a real conversation about a real topic. The whole time I kept thinking about the fact that I had a test tomorrow but I wasn’t really worried about it. When it comes to class here I am definitely a different person than I am at Tulane and I love it! Maybe that is just the life of a liberal arts major! (Note the sarcasm to those of my friends who study the wonderful and priceless liberal arts!)
I took the metro home, ate a quick once with Olga and headed to my room to study. For some reason my internet wasn’t working so I couldn’t talk to Trevor, which was probably for the better so I could study! I feel asleep reading through my notes.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007 Back to the hussel and the bussel
Tuesday, October 16, 2007 Back to the hussel and the bussel
I woke up on the bus and spent the next 12 hours reading and sleeping and watching the TV on the bus. They played the movie Déjà Vu (dubbed in Spanish), with Denzel Washington that takes place in New Orleans, so that was pretty exciting. But it made me miss it! I finished reading the book, notes and highlighting included, so that was a relief. As you can imagine, not much happened otherwise. We got in a 7ish and I headed home, ready to be back. I took a shower and had once with Olga while I recapped my adventures. She loved the gift I got her and how it’s hanging up on the wall by the door. It actually looks really good, so that was a relief.
Side note: More wisdom by Olga: I explained to her my anxiety about giving people gifts because I’m afraid they won’t like them. She told me that it was only my insecurity and that I shouldn’t care if they like the gift or not because the fact that I got them something is what is important.
I had to do an essay for my Biblia class for tomorrow which required watching the movie Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio about the diamond trade in Africa. Nothing like waiting till the last minute, but luckily Calli’s family had a pirated copy, so I went to her house and CJ and Calli and I watched it together. It didn’t finish till after 1 am so I took a cab home (it only cost about $2). I worked as late as I could before I crashed and was able to get a good outline done.
I woke up on the bus and spent the next 12 hours reading and sleeping and watching the TV on the bus. They played the movie Déjà Vu (dubbed in Spanish), with Denzel Washington that takes place in New Orleans, so that was pretty exciting. But it made me miss it! I finished reading the book, notes and highlighting included, so that was a relief. As you can imagine, not much happened otherwise. We got in a 7ish and I headed home, ready to be back. I took a shower and had once with Olga while I recapped my adventures. She loved the gift I got her and how it’s hanging up on the wall by the door. It actually looks really good, so that was a relief.
Side note: More wisdom by Olga: I explained to her my anxiety about giving people gifts because I’m afraid they won’t like them. She told me that it was only my insecurity and that I shouldn’t care if they like the gift or not because the fact that I got them something is what is important.
I had to do an essay for my Biblia class for tomorrow which required watching the movie Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio about the diamond trade in Africa. Nothing like waiting till the last minute, but luckily Calli’s family had a pirated copy, so I went to her house and CJ and Calli and I watched it together. It didn’t finish till after 1 am so I took a cab home (it only cost about $2). I worked as late as I could before I crashed and was able to get a good outline done.
Monday, October 15, 2007 More San Pedro
Monday, October 15, 2007 More San Pedro
Will, CJ and I woke up early and went on another tour with Juan to Lagunas Cejar (in case we haven’t seen enough lagunas right?). But Lagunas Cejar are famous for being the only Free Floating bodies of water in all of the Americas (North and South). There is so much salt and other minerals in the water that your body natural floats on top, like in the Dead Sea. Plus the first 4 top feet of the water is ground water that is FREZZEING cold but after the water is burning hot. The heat is produced by a chemical reaction between the water and the salt crystals 30 feet below. And the two layers don’t mix because of the difference in density.
We sloshed our way through a marshy field then across a salt flat to get to the first Laguna. Juan told all of us to get in the water and warn us how to avoid the shard salt crystals along the edge. But when we stepped into the water and realized how cold it was, we started to question whether or not it was worth it. After a few minutes of gaining courage, I slowly lowered my body into the water and floated out. Except that it was so cold that I could barely breath. My whole body froze up and every inch of me was covered in goose bumps. But I toughed it out and put my feet down and felt the crazy hot layer. It was bizarre. The guys wimped out and never got in the water but the other girl on the tour with me joined me for a couple minutes. Eventually I realized that I wasn’t going to get use to the cold water; it was just that cold) and the thrill of the crazy phenomenon faded so I climbed out. I my venture to say it was the coldest I’ve been in my entire life. But luckily the sun was out and I started to dry pretty quickly.
Next we crossed back over the salt/marsh land and then drove to another nearby Laguna called Los gemelos (The Twins). This Laguna had the same different water temperature phenomenon and you floated but this Laguna was the most incredible color I’ve seen in two perfectly circular holes side by side. The pools formed when the salt formations collapsed underneath and form inverted conical holes 90 feet deep.
This Laguna was a little bit warmer (that or my body was still numb) so Will toughed it out and got in this time. CJ jumped in for about 3 seconds and got out as fast as he could. We swam around in the pool as long as our bodies allowed us and when I pulled myself out my muscles were so cold I could barely move. We drove back to the hostel, the entire time shaking and shivering despite the fact that I was completely dry.
I took a shower to warm up and finally clean myself, and then we headed into town to grab lunch. After lunch we got ice cream and walked about 1.3 miles to Las Ruinas de Pukara, “The Ruins of Pukara, which are the remains of an indigenous fort. It was a beautiful walk and climb up the fort and from the top you can see the entire town of San Pedro de Atacama. We hung out at the top enjoying the incredible view and soaking in the immensity surrounding us. Later we climbed down and walked to a huge hotel we’d seen from the top to check it out. The security guard stopped us but explained that it was under construction but it already had guests. There was a cute little plaza and next to it Will found the entrance to a cave. CJ and I went spelunking (cave exploring; its super popular in Missouri) for a while and you could go surprisingly far because there were breaks in the rocks above letting in light.
We then walked back to town and bought some last minute souvenirs in the market, including a pretty hand woven wall hanging for Olga. We had to catch our bus to Calama at 7, so we hurried back to the hostel; got our stuff together and Roberto the hostel owner drove us to the stop. We said a sad goodbye to Roberto and when I told him he was the best hostel owner ever, seriously, he just smiled and shrugged his shoulders as if it were nothing!
We piled into a crowded bus heading to Calama, the next biggest town about 1.5 hours west of San Pedro. When we arrived we had to walk a good mile to the Tur Bus bus station with all our stuff (that’s cheap college students for you right, won’t even get a taxi!). Since we had an hour before we got our bus to Santiago, we ate dinner at a delicious, cheap, but really nice Chinese restaurant across the street from the bus station. It made me miss Shanghi Boy!!
At 10 we piled onto the next bus and began the long trek back to Santiago. At the beginning of the trip Will told us a cute story about his first girlfriend in 8th grade and when I mentioned that Trevor and I “dated” in junior high they asked me to tell them the story. I warned them, but they agreed that since we had a 23 hour bus right, a long story wouldn’t be too bad. So I recounted our now 8 year history in about 25 minutes. For two guys, they seemed to enjoy the story and even asked questions! It was quite endearing. After the recounting of the epic love story, I read more of the book for my Doctrina Social test on Wednesday then fell asleep.
Will, CJ and I woke up early and went on another tour with Juan to Lagunas Cejar (in case we haven’t seen enough lagunas right?). But Lagunas Cejar are famous for being the only Free Floating bodies of water in all of the Americas (North and South). There is so much salt and other minerals in the water that your body natural floats on top, like in the Dead Sea. Plus the first 4 top feet of the water is ground water that is FREZZEING cold but after the water is burning hot. The heat is produced by a chemical reaction between the water and the salt crystals 30 feet below. And the two layers don’t mix because of the difference in density.
We sloshed our way through a marshy field then across a salt flat to get to the first Laguna. Juan told all of us to get in the water and warn us how to avoid the shard salt crystals along the edge. But when we stepped into the water and realized how cold it was, we started to question whether or not it was worth it. After a few minutes of gaining courage, I slowly lowered my body into the water and floated out. Except that it was so cold that I could barely breath. My whole body froze up and every inch of me was covered in goose bumps. But I toughed it out and put my feet down and felt the crazy hot layer. It was bizarre. The guys wimped out and never got in the water but the other girl on the tour with me joined me for a couple minutes. Eventually I realized that I wasn’t going to get use to the cold water; it was just that cold) and the thrill of the crazy phenomenon faded so I climbed out. I my venture to say it was the coldest I’ve been in my entire life. But luckily the sun was out and I started to dry pretty quickly.
Next we crossed back over the salt/marsh land and then drove to another nearby Laguna called Los gemelos (The Twins). This Laguna had the same different water temperature phenomenon and you floated but this Laguna was the most incredible color I’ve seen in two perfectly circular holes side by side. The pools formed when the salt formations collapsed underneath and form inverted conical holes 90 feet deep.
This Laguna was a little bit warmer (that or my body was still numb) so Will toughed it out and got in this time. CJ jumped in for about 3 seconds and got out as fast as he could. We swam around in the pool as long as our bodies allowed us and when I pulled myself out my muscles were so cold I could barely move. We drove back to the hostel, the entire time shaking and shivering despite the fact that I was completely dry.
I took a shower to warm up and finally clean myself, and then we headed into town to grab lunch. After lunch we got ice cream and walked about 1.3 miles to Las Ruinas de Pukara, “The Ruins of Pukara, which are the remains of an indigenous fort. It was a beautiful walk and climb up the fort and from the top you can see the entire town of San Pedro de Atacama. We hung out at the top enjoying the incredible view and soaking in the immensity surrounding us. Later we climbed down and walked to a huge hotel we’d seen from the top to check it out. The security guard stopped us but explained that it was under construction but it already had guests. There was a cute little plaza and next to it Will found the entrance to a cave. CJ and I went spelunking (cave exploring; its super popular in Missouri) for a while and you could go surprisingly far because there were breaks in the rocks above letting in light.
We then walked back to town and bought some last minute souvenirs in the market, including a pretty hand woven wall hanging for Olga. We had to catch our bus to Calama at 7, so we hurried back to the hostel; got our stuff together and Roberto the hostel owner drove us to the stop. We said a sad goodbye to Roberto and when I told him he was the best hostel owner ever, seriously, he just smiled and shrugged his shoulders as if it were nothing!
We piled into a crowded bus heading to Calama, the next biggest town about 1.5 hours west of San Pedro. When we arrived we had to walk a good mile to the Tur Bus bus station with all our stuff (that’s cheap college students for you right, won’t even get a taxi!). Since we had an hour before we got our bus to Santiago, we ate dinner at a delicious, cheap, but really nice Chinese restaurant across the street from the bus station. It made me miss Shanghi Boy!!
At 10 we piled onto the next bus and began the long trek back to Santiago. At the beginning of the trip Will told us a cute story about his first girlfriend in 8th grade and when I mentioned that Trevor and I “dated” in junior high they asked me to tell them the story. I warned them, but they agreed that since we had a 23 hour bus right, a long story wouldn’t be too bad. So I recounted our now 8 year history in about 25 minutes. For two guys, they seemed to enjoy the story and even asked questions! It was quite endearing. After the recounting of the epic love story, I read more of the book for my Doctrina Social test on Wednesday then fell asleep.
Sunday, October 14, 2007 Sandboarding in San Pedro
Sunday, October 14, 2007 Sandboarding
I slept in till 10:00 am and Natalie and Sam and I headed into town to go to church which we thought started at 11:00 am. But it didn’t start till noon, so we spent the hour trying to buy our bus tickets back to Santiago. The tickets for Sunday were all sold out, which meant the 3 of us who hadn’t bought tickets home had to stay an extra day. But I didn’t have class on Tuesday and had been hoping to stay, so I didn’t mind at all! We also watched a German movie being filmed in the plaza! For a town of only 4,000 people we were amazed to see the big production. We found out later that it is called Honeymoon in Chile (but in German) and I really hope I get to see it! We went to mass at noon and the church was absolutely packed, about half of us obviously tourists.
After mass there was a Mexican dancing group that performed in the plaza. We watched for a while then headed back to the hostel to get ready for our Sand boarding trip! Only 4 of us ended up going since Courtney was still feeling a little ill and now Calli was throwing up. But Sam, CJ, Will and I spent the afternoon climbing up a huge sand dune, waxing up our sand boards, then sliding/falling/embarrassing ourselves all the way down the hill! The sand board is basically a smaller, little thinner snowboard and the idea is to go down basically like snowboarding. But its a lot harder because the sand breaks you instead of snow which accelerates you. So you have to stay lean really far back on the board and try and turn, which is nearly impossible. After about an hour we figured it out enough to go down the hill in a single diagonal instead of zigzagging like you are supposed to. I definitely wasn’t very good at it but descent enough to enjoy myself. It was a great workout and I’m glad we tried it. Plus it was a good step for me to “get back on the horse” after breaking my wrist snowboarding. I was really nervous at first but felt more comfortable by the end.
When we got back from snowboarding I took a well needed shower then said goodbye to all the girls that were leaving. They had class Tuesday so needed all day tomorrow (which is a holiday) to get back to Santiago. So I was left with CJ, Calli’s brother, and Will, another friend in my program. They are great guys and we had fun hanging out and it was only a little weird being the only girl. For dinner we met up with Andy and Taylor and again afterwards came back to the hostel and hung out. Andy and Taylor went back around midnight because they hadn’t slept at all the night before (hanging out with us than going to the geysers) and they had to catch a flight early in the morning.
I slept in till 10:00 am and Natalie and Sam and I headed into town to go to church which we thought started at 11:00 am. But it didn’t start till noon, so we spent the hour trying to buy our bus tickets back to Santiago. The tickets for Sunday were all sold out, which meant the 3 of us who hadn’t bought tickets home had to stay an extra day. But I didn’t have class on Tuesday and had been hoping to stay, so I didn’t mind at all! We also watched a German movie being filmed in the plaza! For a town of only 4,000 people we were amazed to see the big production. We found out later that it is called Honeymoon in Chile (but in German) and I really hope I get to see it! We went to mass at noon and the church was absolutely packed, about half of us obviously tourists.
After mass there was a Mexican dancing group that performed in the plaza. We watched for a while then headed back to the hostel to get ready for our Sand boarding trip! Only 4 of us ended up going since Courtney was still feeling a little ill and now Calli was throwing up. But Sam, CJ, Will and I spent the afternoon climbing up a huge sand dune, waxing up our sand boards, then sliding/falling/embarrassing ourselves all the way down the hill! The sand board is basically a smaller, little thinner snowboard and the idea is to go down basically like snowboarding. But its a lot harder because the sand breaks you instead of snow which accelerates you. So you have to stay lean really far back on the board and try and turn, which is nearly impossible. After about an hour we figured it out enough to go down the hill in a single diagonal instead of zigzagging like you are supposed to. I definitely wasn’t very good at it but descent enough to enjoy myself. It was a great workout and I’m glad we tried it. Plus it was a good step for me to “get back on the horse” after breaking my wrist snowboarding. I was really nervous at first but felt more comfortable by the end.
When we got back from snowboarding I took a well needed shower then said goodbye to all the girls that were leaving. They had class Tuesday so needed all day tomorrow (which is a holiday) to get back to Santiago. So I was left with CJ, Calli’s brother, and Will, another friend in my program. They are great guys and we had fun hanging out and it was only a little weird being the only girl. For dinner we met up with Andy and Taylor and again afterwards came back to the hostel and hung out. Andy and Taylor went back around midnight because they hadn’t slept at all the night before (hanging out with us than going to the geysers) and they had to catch a flight early in the morning.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007 Bolivia!! Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!
Saturday, October 13, 2007 Bolivia!! Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Thanks for many great years!
I woke up at 7 and made sure the rest of the Bolivia group was up and ready to go. Courtney still wasn’t feeling 100%, but she’d paid (a lot) and was determined to go. We met up at the agency and climbed on the bus, where we met a group of Mexican girls who are studying in Santiago as well and two gringos from the states. We ended up making friends with all of the, especially the gringos, Andy and Taylor. They are both in the Naval Academy in Maryland and are the first Naval students to Study Abroad in Chile. They are at the Chilean Naval Academy in Valparaiso, Chile which is the port town about 1 hour from Santiago. We all got along really well and hung out all day.
I woke up at 7 and made sure the rest of the Bolivia group was up and ready to go. Courtney still wasn’t feeling 100%, but she’d paid (a lot) and was determined to go. We met up at the agency and climbed on the bus, where we met a group of Mexican girls who are studying in Santiago as well and two gringos from the states. We ended up making friends with all of the, especially the gringos, Andy and Taylor. They are both in the Naval Academy in Maryland and are the first Naval students to Study Abroad in Chile. They are at the Chilean Naval Academy in Valparaiso, Chile which is the port town about 1 hour from Santiago. We all got along really well and hung out all day.
We started our trip by first officially leaving Chile, so I got another Chilean stamp in my passport. Interestingly enough, we left Chile around 8:45 but didn’t get to the Bolivian border till almost 10:30. We still don’t know if that means we were in Chile or Bolivia, but it was a long ride through the desert. When we got to the Bolivian border we saw a tiny cinder block building, a Bolivian flag, tons of Land Rovers and lots of people wearing long pants and winter coats. Most of us had on shorts and a sweatshirt since it was so hot in San Pedro and we got a little worried but figured it wouldn’t be that cold outside.
At the border the tour guide told us to wait on the bus and ran inside. A few minutes later he jumped back on a under his breath said something about, “Let’s go, we’ll just enter and leave and the same time afterwards”!! So apparently we basically snuck our way in to Bolivia!
IMMIGRATION BOLIVIA: NATIONAL SECURITY IS OBVIOUSLY OF THE UPMOST CONCERN
Our first stop was Laguna Verde (Green Laguna), a beautiful light bluish green lake in the middle of the desert. We piled out of the van and realized why everyone was so bundled up. We had gone so high up that it was absolutely freezing!! We were almost 14,000 feet above sea level and you could feel it. We ate breakfast inside, then all piled into Land Rovers. The 7 gringos all packed into one together even though there was space in the others and our driver sped off through the desert, telling us “I always win!”. We drove to the other side of the Laguna, took more pictures, then drove to Laguna Blanca (White Laguna), another incredible lake. This
time our driver drove almost literally into the lake, I think just to show off the SUV! Around the shore of the lake was a thick layer of frothy suds and the water was incredibly clear. We went to a couple other spots around the Laguna to take more pictures, then headed to the next stop, the thermals. 
LAGUNA VERDE
The thermals are natural hot springs that are like hot tubs in the middle of the freezing cold desert. Despite the cold, we stripped down and jumped in. The water felt so good and we relaxed over half an hour. I talked to the Mexican girls about the craziness of Chile, Chileans and the Chilean language. They told me they have a really hard time understanding Chileans and the Chileans have a hard time understanding them! Even more, they agreed with me when I said sometimes I feel like a complete idiot because I have no idea what anyone is saying!! Then one of them told me that I have a very pretty Argetinian type accent. So basically after that conversation I felt much better!
After the hot springs we stopped by a place called Desert de Dali, after Salvador Dali, the famous Spanish artist. It was a big sand field/dune filled with tall dark rocks sticky up randomly but in a very beautiful, artsy kind of way. Then we headed to Laguna Colorada (Red Laguna). (Do you like all the creative names?) Its called the Red Laguna because the water is a deep orangey-red color because of the bacteria in the water. I’m not sure, but I think it’s a photosynthetic bacterium that captures light from the sun and produces that crazy color. The only other animal life in the laguan is the flamingos that turn pink because of the bacteria! Apparently the area of Bolivia we were in has 3 of the 4 species of flamingos in the world!
LAGUNA COLORADA
At the Laguna Colorada we ate lunch and hung out with the pet llama they had. While we were eating it came inside and when CJ tried to get it to leave, it spit on his face! We died laughing but he didn’t seem to think it was that funny.
After lunch we drove around Laguna Colorada which ended up being about 3 times bigger than we originally thought. We went to on spot full of bright pink flamingos and course had to get the “pretending we are flamingo photo”.
Our last stop planned of our epic Bolivian adventure was another crazy geyser field. These geysers were really different than the Geysers del Tatio. Instead of water, it was a crazy thick gray mud/magma liquid. It was in huge pits that boiled and steam and reeked of sulfur. It was amazing to see and kind of like watching a fire: mesmerizing because its always changing but never really changes. But at the same time I think those kind of images inspired many people’s visions of hell: boiling liquid, sulfur smell, etc.
GEYSERS=el infierno?
After the geysers we were supposed to head back to the border to enter/leave Bolivia, but on the way our Land Rover broke down. To make a long story short, we sat in the car in the middle of the freezing cold desert for almost an hour while all the drivers tinkered away. It was actually a blast because I forgot to mention: since Bolivia is at such a high altitude, the lack of oxygen really gets to you eventually. I wouldn’t know, but some one on the trip said it kind of felt like being high. Basically we were all very relaxed, happy, a little giddy and absolutely ridiculous. I don’t want to make it sound like I’m exaggerating, but it was seriously strange. And at the same time feeling happy and relaxed, my chest started to feel really tight (due to the lack of oxygen) like when I get REALLY stressed out. It was a strange dichotomy. The entire day we joked around, sang Disney songs, and acted like 8 year olds and by the end of it, we decided our quote for the day would be, “We didn’t get high but we went to Bolivia”.
They eventually fixed the car and we finally made it to the border. There wasn’t a line anymore so at “Customs” (which was a guy sitting behind a desk in a little building), the man took our $3 entrance tax and stamped our passports for entering and leaving! We said goodbye to our driver and got back on the big van that took us back to Chile. We got back 1.5 hours late and at the Chilean border/re-entry point we had to go through a long line at customs and they really anazlized our passports. The best part: we had to step onto an “anti-bacterial pad” to apparently remove Bolivia from our shoes. Ignore the part that we were absolutely covered in Bolivian sand and soil. After the Chilean hassle (p.s. I snuck back in an apple that I had in my bag. Oh no!) we headed back to the hostel, cleaned up and reunited with the rest of the group. Then we met back up with Andy and Taylor, our Navy friends and we all had dinner together. After dinner a few of us got a bottle of pisco and we all went back to our hostel to hang out. The other half of the group went to sleep in their various stages of sickness. Seriously, everyone was sick in some form or another. Luckily my Litre was fading away and I felt much better.
At 3:00 am Courtney and Lorin left for the Geyser tour because they hadn’t gotten to go earlier. Coincidentally Andy and Taylor were on the same tour but they had stayed at our hostel until 2:45 am and just stayed up all night! Once everyone left, I crashed in bed ready for a good nights sleep.
Friday, October 12, 2007 Go big or go home: San Pedro Extreme
Friday, October 12, 2007 Go big or go home: San Pedro Extreme
After my little 3 hour nap, my alarm went off at 3:15 am and I woke everyone up to get ready to go to the geysers. In usual Chilean style, the tour guide picked us up around 4:15, only 45 minutes late. Unfortunately when we woke up Courtney was feeling really sick. When we found out she could go another day without paying the $20 again, she decided it wouldn’t be a good idea for her to go. She’d felt nauseous before we’d gone to bed and had apparently gotten sick a few times already.
The beginning of the tour consisted of us sleeping in the big tour van for almost 2 hours before we got to the geysers. When we were almost there the sun started to rise over the mountains. Incredible. We got to the geysers, paid the park entrance fee, and realized how stinking cold it actually was outside. A park ranger told us it was -9°C, or about 15°F. We ran to the bathrooms then ran to get back in the van.
Our tour guide, Henri drove us into the park and we got out basically in the middle of the steaming geysers. The sun was barely peaking over the mountains and the whole valley was filled with a soft light filtering through the steam. Before telling us about the geysers, Henri took out the cartoons of milk from the cooler and placed them inside of the small boiling geysers. After a bit of an explanation of how the geysers work and how the valley is in danger of being destroyed by a power company who wants to harness the energy from the steam, we ate breakfast, including the now warm chocolate milk in coffee. It was delicious! It was so cold that we couldn’t stand being outside so all the girls climbed in the van to eat. When CJ climbed in, I started scooting over so he could sit and I accidentally spilled my delicious chocolate coffee all over my leg. My fingers were so cold I couldn’t hold on to the cup so my leg was soaking wet.
By the time we finished eating and cleaning up the spill, the sun had come up and it was already about 10 degrees warmer. Within 15 minutes it was about 40 degrees and we were
about to start taking off layers! We had time to take pictures and play around the geysers, being sure to keep a safe distance when one of them started going off.
After my little 3 hour nap, my alarm went off at 3:15 am and I woke everyone up to get ready to go to the geysers. In usual Chilean style, the tour guide picked us up around 4:15, only 45 minutes late. Unfortunately when we woke up Courtney was feeling really sick. When we found out she could go another day without paying the $20 again, she decided it wouldn’t be a good idea for her to go. She’d felt nauseous before we’d gone to bed and had apparently gotten sick a few times already.
The beginning of the tour consisted of us sleeping in the big tour van for almost 2 hours before we got to the geysers. When we were almost there the sun started to rise over the mountains. Incredible. We got to the geysers, paid the park entrance fee, and realized how stinking cold it actually was outside. A park ranger told us it was -9°C, or about 15°F. We ran to the bathrooms then ran to get back in the van.
Our tour guide, Henri drove us into the park and we got out basically in the middle of the steaming geysers. The sun was barely peaking over the mountains and the whole valley was filled with a soft light filtering through the steam. Before telling us about the geysers, Henri took out the cartoons of milk from the cooler and placed them inside of the small boiling geysers. After a bit of an explanation of how the geysers work and how the valley is in danger of being destroyed by a power company who wants to harness the energy from the steam, we ate breakfast, including the now warm chocolate milk in coffee. It was delicious! It was so cold that we couldn’t stand being outside so all the girls climbed in the van to eat. When CJ climbed in, I started scooting over so he could sit and I accidentally spilled my delicious chocolate coffee all over my leg. My fingers were so cold I couldn’t hold on to the cup so my leg was soaking wet.
By the time we finished eating and cleaning up the spill, the sun had come up and it was already about 10 degrees warmer. Within 15 minutes it was about 40 degrees and we were
about to start taking off layers! We had time to take pictures and play around the geysers, being sure to keep a safe distance when one of them started going off.
GEYSERS DE TATIO
After about 30 minutes the sun had gotten so warm the steam evaporated almost immediately and the geysers essentially stopped. The amount of change in the environment in such short time was amazing. So we piled back in the van and drove to a pool filled with the warm geyser water. Sam, Natalie and CJ and I toughed it out and got in since we’d worn our swim suits underneath our clothes. Our tour guide claimed that he almost never gets in, but for some reason today decided to swim. We think the number of cute young girls changed his mind. After we’d gotten used to the warm water we started getting really cold, so we did a quick dry off and jump back in the van before heading to the last stop.
GEYSERS POOL
At the end of the tour we stopped in a tiny (i.e. about 20 houses but only 3 families currently live there) village. I’m still not exactly sure why we went there other than for a touristy thing, because the only thing there was a beautiful white adobe church up on the hill and people selling anticachos (meat kabobs) with llama meat and sopapillas and empanadas. But we hung out for a while then drove the hour plus ride back to San Pedro.
We got back to the hostel around noon and most people went to take a nap. But Sam, Natalie, Calli, CJ and I walked into town to pay for our observatory tour later that night and to figure out our tours for the next day. I knew I wanted to go to Bolivia and about 4 others had brought they passports, so I went from agency to agency asking about their one day tours to Bolivia. Most of the tours are 3 or 4 days but I finally found an agency that had space for a one day tour on Saturday. I went back to the hostel and got everyone’s money that wanted to go to Bolivia ($60 for the day!) then walked back and reserved our spots.
At 3 we started our next tour of Valle de la Muerte y Valle de la Luna (Valley of Death and Valley of the Moon). We did this tour with Juan, the brother of our hostel owner. It was great because it was just our group with Juan driving us around explaining stuff, so a lot less touristy than the other tours. First we went to the Valley of Death, which is basically a huge desert valley in the middle of the desert. (Alright, so that description doesn’t do it much justice). But it was beautiful and looked like something out of a movie.
Next we went stopped at what seemed like the middle of the highway and followed Juan to what seemed like no where until we came to a huge cave 150 feet into the ground. There is an urban legend that a meteor fell and created the cave because it the walls down into the cave look like something fell straight down and sheered it away. Juan said it probably wasn’t a meteor because that would have caused a crater type hole, but it was still impressive.
VALLEY DE LA MUERTE
Next we went to a look out over one side of Valley de la Luna. I don’t know what the Grand Canyon looks like in person, but this is kind of what I would imagine. While we were at the look out I had to pee really bad (its so dry so we’ve been drinking water like its going out of style) but there was no where to go so I ducked behind a rock. Everyone had a good laugh, but with the amount of traveling we’ve all done together, we’ve gotten really close. The whole bodily function subject is completely open with all of us and we have a great time with it.
VALLE DE LA LUNA
Next we went to Las Tres Marias, a rock formation in the middle of the desert. Over thousands of years the wind blew away all the soft rock, leaving three vertical rocks that look like three women praying, hence the name “The Three Marys”. There was also a rock that looked like a T-Rex head, so we took a picture in front of it looking like dinosaurs.
Finally we made it to Valley de la Luna and hike up the sand dune with hundreds of other tourists. Everyone sits along the ridge and watches the sun set. Juan took us to the very end so we ended up being quite secluded and just before the sun went down he passed out Pisco Sours for everyone!
SUNSET AT VALLE DE LA LUNAAfter the sun set we ran down the back of the dune (awesome!) then got back in the van and drove back to the hostel. We had a few hours before tour number 3 for the day started, so we cleaned up then got dinner at great restaurant in town (amazingly San Pedro has a lot of great restaurants since it is so touristy. But much better cuisine then Santiago).
At 10 we got on the bus for our next tour called Space Orbs. We drove about 30 out of the city into the middle of the desert and for the next two hours stood outside freezing but learning all about the stars from a very funny and entertaining French man. He and his wife are both astronomers and moved to San Pedro about 10 years ago since it is one of the clearest night skies in the southern hemisphere. They had some amazing telescopes and now I see why most little kids what telescopes growing up. I still can’t believe the things we saw. Star bursts, star clusters, a galaxy 48 billion light years away (it was a tight dull dot in the middle of their most powerful telescope) and all kinds of other celestial phenomenon that I can’t remember. They pointed out some easy to spot Southern constellations and taught us how to find the southern pole. Unlike in the north, there is not southern star to guide you, so you have to use other stars to find it.
After the tour they gave us hot chocolate, some of the best I’ve ever had in my life. Then we drove back into town. By the time we got back it was almost 2 and after waking up at 3:15 am we were exhausted! But I set my alarm for 7 am so we go get up and go to Bolivia in the morning!!
Thursday, October 11, 2007 All day on a bus. Literally. All Day.
Thursday, October 11, 2007 All day on a bus. Literally. All Day.
Amazingly I slept on the bus till about 8 am, and 8 hours of sleep on a bus is amazing! Unfortunately I woke up again to ridiculously swollen eyes. I spent the morning with the handkerchief over my eyes, partly to help the itching partly so that no one would see me. So the rest of the day I try to work a little ( I read about 50 pages of the book I had to read for my test on Wednesday) but really just slept and hung out. The TVs weren’t working on the bus, so no movies. Between the 7 girls and CJ we kept ourselves entertained and well fed. Every hour or some someone decided they were hungry and shared whatever goodies they’d packed. And we stopped every few hours and were able to get off.
So the hours passed one by one and the sun rose then began to set we finally made it to San Pedro around 7:30 pm. To be honest, the trip wasn’t that bad and I enjoyed being forced to relax. It was dark when we got off the bus but Roberto, our hostel (Hostel Iquisa) owner was there waiting to pick us up with a big van. We piled in and when we got to the hostel we asked Roberto about doing the Geyser del Tatio tour the next day. The tour leaves at 4 am and we figured since we’d spent all day on a bus we might as well go to bed early and wake up early the next morning for the tour. Roberto made a few calls and told us we were go to go. We just needed to be ready at 3:30 am! So we spend the evening settling in and everyone was in bed pretty early. Courtney and I had to write our journal entries that we have to do for our Poverty class, so we were up late trying to send them over the ridiculously slow computer. I got to bed a little before midnight, which at that point I was thinking of just staying up!
Amazingly I slept on the bus till about 8 am, and 8 hours of sleep on a bus is amazing! Unfortunately I woke up again to ridiculously swollen eyes. I spent the morning with the handkerchief over my eyes, partly to help the itching partly so that no one would see me. So the rest of the day I try to work a little ( I read about 50 pages of the book I had to read for my test on Wednesday) but really just slept and hung out. The TVs weren’t working on the bus, so no movies. Between the 7 girls and CJ we kept ourselves entertained and well fed. Every hour or some someone decided they were hungry and shared whatever goodies they’d packed. And we stopped every few hours and were able to get off.
So the hours passed one by one and the sun rose then began to set we finally made it to San Pedro around 7:30 pm. To be honest, the trip wasn’t that bad and I enjoyed being forced to relax. It was dark when we got off the bus but Roberto, our hostel (Hostel Iquisa) owner was there waiting to pick us up with a big van. We piled in and when we got to the hostel we asked Roberto about doing the Geyser del Tatio tour the next day. The tour leaves at 4 am and we figured since we’d spent all day on a bus we might as well go to bed early and wake up early the next morning for the tour. Roberto made a few calls and told us we were go to go. We just needed to be ready at 3:30 am! So we spend the evening settling in and everyone was in bed pretty early. Courtney and I had to write our journal entries that we have to do for our Poverty class, so we were up late trying to send them over the ridiculously slow computer. I got to bed a little before midnight, which at that point I was thinking of just staying up!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Off to San Pedro!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Off to San Pedro!
I woke up early to study, finish my paper, and completely pack up for my trip to San Pedro. The bus was leaving at 10 pm and I had class until 8:30 so I didn’t have much time in between. Unfortunately when I looked in the mirror, my eyes were completely swollen again! I was really upset because I’d expected them to be back to normal but when I think I know why they got bad again. My theory is that the cortisone shot I’d had Monday morning had basically run its course and I didn’t have any more in my system to keep the swelling down. When Olga saw me she sent me to bed and brought me warm tea bags to place on my eyes. That didn’t really help so then she brought me cotton balls soaked in milk that had been in the freezer for a few minutes. That felt great so for the next hour or so I studied and she brought me frozen milk cotton balls to place on my eyes. I don’t know if it really helped the swelling, but it stopped itching a little. Luckily my face wasn’t as red and I put on a little makeup to try to hide it, even though I doubt it did anything. So once again I went to class attempting to hide away from the world with my big sunglasses and hair covering my face.
My Education test went pretty well. It was actually exactly the same as one of the review guides the professor had posted online, so I finished pretty quickly and felt confident that I’d done better than last time.
Side note: while the professor was passing out the tests, I took off my sunglasses and when she saw my face, she gasped and asked me what had happened. I told her it was litre and she asked me if I felt alright. I was honest and said I didn’t feel great and she offered to let me take the test later. But I knew I just needed to get it over with, so I thanked her and said no. Afterwards when I turned in the test she wished me the best of luck and gave me a concerned smile.
After Education I had lunch with Christian and once again he didn’t do much to make me feel better. I know it wasn’t on purpose, but I’ve realized that sometimes complete honesty isn’t always what people want/need to hear! I went to my Biblia class and found out that despite the fact that the professor had given me an extension on my essay, everyone got an extension because the TA hadn’t given back the last one yet. And I thought I was special.
Finally I went to my Poverty class and we had a discussion session about our essays and our experiences volunteering up till now. It was great hearing everyone else’s frustrations, joys etc. and we all agreed on many things:
1. Its hard to start volunteering in an organization if they don’t give you explicit things to do.
2. The biggest challenge is the language barrier. ARGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH….
3. A lot of times we feel worthless.
4. Despite 1-3, its been a great experience so far.
After class I rushed home, where Olga was waiting for me with dinner hot on the table and my stuff piled and ready to go. She was great help and I got all pack and headed out with plenty of time. She had bought me snacks for the bus and a new handkerchief that I could put water on and lay over my eyes to help the pain.
We all met at the bus station a little before 10:00 and we finally got to meet Calli’s brother CJ who’d come to visit. There were 8 of us and we kind of took over the bus noise wise, but we had fun. I tried to get a little work done before I went to sleep and around midnight I turned off the light and joined the rest of the bus trying to get some sleep on this wonderful 23 hour bus ride!! Luckily I had my anti-histamines which made me really tired, so I was out in a few minutes.
I woke up early to study, finish my paper, and completely pack up for my trip to San Pedro. The bus was leaving at 10 pm and I had class until 8:30 so I didn’t have much time in between. Unfortunately when I looked in the mirror, my eyes were completely swollen again! I was really upset because I’d expected them to be back to normal but when I think I know why they got bad again. My theory is that the cortisone shot I’d had Monday morning had basically run its course and I didn’t have any more in my system to keep the swelling down. When Olga saw me she sent me to bed and brought me warm tea bags to place on my eyes. That didn’t really help so then she brought me cotton balls soaked in milk that had been in the freezer for a few minutes. That felt great so for the next hour or so I studied and she brought me frozen milk cotton balls to place on my eyes. I don’t know if it really helped the swelling, but it stopped itching a little. Luckily my face wasn’t as red and I put on a little makeup to try to hide it, even though I doubt it did anything. So once again I went to class attempting to hide away from the world with my big sunglasses and hair covering my face.
My Education test went pretty well. It was actually exactly the same as one of the review guides the professor had posted online, so I finished pretty quickly and felt confident that I’d done better than last time.
Side note: while the professor was passing out the tests, I took off my sunglasses and when she saw my face, she gasped and asked me what had happened. I told her it was litre and she asked me if I felt alright. I was honest and said I didn’t feel great and she offered to let me take the test later. But I knew I just needed to get it over with, so I thanked her and said no. Afterwards when I turned in the test she wished me the best of luck and gave me a concerned smile.
After Education I had lunch with Christian and once again he didn’t do much to make me feel better. I know it wasn’t on purpose, but I’ve realized that sometimes complete honesty isn’t always what people want/need to hear! I went to my Biblia class and found out that despite the fact that the professor had given me an extension on my essay, everyone got an extension because the TA hadn’t given back the last one yet. And I thought I was special.
Finally I went to my Poverty class and we had a discussion session about our essays and our experiences volunteering up till now. It was great hearing everyone else’s frustrations, joys etc. and we all agreed on many things:
1. Its hard to start volunteering in an organization if they don’t give you explicit things to do.
2. The biggest challenge is the language barrier. ARGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH….
3. A lot of times we feel worthless.
4. Despite 1-3, its been a great experience so far.
After class I rushed home, where Olga was waiting for me with dinner hot on the table and my stuff piled and ready to go. She was great help and I got all pack and headed out with plenty of time. She had bought me snacks for the bus and a new handkerchief that I could put water on and lay over my eyes to help the pain.
We all met at the bus station a little before 10:00 and we finally got to meet Calli’s brother CJ who’d come to visit. There were 8 of us and we kind of took over the bus noise wise, but we had fun. I tried to get a little work done before I went to sleep and around midnight I turned off the light and joined the rest of the bus trying to get some sleep on this wonderful 23 hour bus ride!! Luckily I had my anti-histamines which made me really tired, so I was out in a few minutes.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007 Recovering Slowly
Tuesday, October 9, 2007 Recovering Slowly
I woke up this morning and my eyes were practically not swollen. My face was still slightly red and dry but I felt much better. Since I didn’t have class today I used all morning to study and write my paper. After almuerzo I headed to Nuestra Casa to “volunteer” /hang out for a few hours. I had a good time explaining what had happened to my face and all the men told me that I got litre because I didn’t greet it! The urban legend is that if you say “Hola Señor Litre, dejame pasar porfavor” (“Hello Mr. Litre, please let me pass”) or something along those lines that I wouldn’t have gotten litre! I told them I’d wish I’d known before but I’ve definitely learned my lesson.
Around 7 Lorin (the other volunteer from my program) and I walked back. My friend Nick came over to the apartment to study for our Education test tomorrow and Olga was pleased to play hostess. We studied for a few hours, which basically consisted of him explaining all the theories and ideologies about education to me. Luckily he understood it all and could break it down for me; otherwise I would have been completely lost. Olga made us once and Nick was thrilled to have so many vegetables and kept saying how great Olga is.
Nick left a little before 11 to catch the metro home and I studied a few more hours before going to sleep. My face had slowly gotten more red and swollen throughout the day and by the time I went to sleep I looked pretty bad. But I figured it’d be better in the morning and that it was only worse because I’d been up and around all day long.
I woke up this morning and my eyes were practically not swollen. My face was still slightly red and dry but I felt much better. Since I didn’t have class today I used all morning to study and write my paper. After almuerzo I headed to Nuestra Casa to “volunteer” /hang out for a few hours. I had a good time explaining what had happened to my face and all the men told me that I got litre because I didn’t greet it! The urban legend is that if you say “Hola Señor Litre, dejame pasar porfavor” (“Hello Mr. Litre, please let me pass”) or something along those lines that I wouldn’t have gotten litre! I told them I’d wish I’d known before but I’ve definitely learned my lesson.
Around 7 Lorin (the other volunteer from my program) and I walked back. My friend Nick came over to the apartment to study for our Education test tomorrow and Olga was pleased to play hostess. We studied for a few hours, which basically consisted of him explaining all the theories and ideologies about education to me. Luckily he understood it all and could break it down for me; otherwise I would have been completely lost. Olga made us once and Nick was thrilled to have so many vegetables and kept saying how great Olga is.
Nick left a little before 11 to catch the metro home and I studied a few more hours before going to sleep. My face had slowly gotten more red and swollen throughout the day and by the time I went to sleep I looked pretty bad. But I figured it’d be better in the morning and that it was only worse because I’d been up and around all day long.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Monday, October 8, 2007 Attack of the Litre!!
Monday, October 8, 2007 Attack of the Litre!!
I woke up around 6:30 am and couldn’t fall back asleep. My face felt uncomfortable and my eyes felt really weird. I got out of bed to check how I looked in the mirror and my stomach sang when I saw myself. My entire face was bright red, bumpy and swollen and my eyes were practically swollen shut. I looked like a bright red tomato with Troll eyes:
I woke up around 6:30 am and couldn’t fall back asleep. My face felt uncomfortable and my eyes felt really weird. I got out of bed to check how I looked in the mirror and my stomach sang when I saw myself. My entire face was bright red, bumpy and swollen and my eyes were practically swollen shut. I looked like a bright red tomato with Troll eyes:
I immediately recognized the rash-type redness and itches as a poison ivy type reaction, because goodness knows I’ve had enough experience with all that! I got on the internet to look up if they had poison ivy in Chile but all I found on Chile’s Google when I typed in Hiedra Venenosa (Poison Ivy) was stuff about the Batman character!! At that point I figured they didn’t have poison ivy in Chile or at least called it something else but I also realized that I needed to do something about my face and fast.
Around 7 I woke up Olga and as soon as she saw my face I realized how bad it was. Later she told me that I really scared her! She jumped out of bed, threw on some clothes and immediately told me she was talking me to the hospital. She called her husband to let him know and it was really funny to hear her talking to him about my face. “Sus ojos muy hinchados, toda la cara roja. Es horrible pobrecita!!” (“Her eyes are really swollen and her entire face is red. It’s horrible poor little thing!”)
I put on the huge sunglasses that Olga had given me (because my broke and she insisted that I wear hers. One of many gifts!) and pulled my hair in front of my face as well as I could and we took the ridiculously full metro to the hospital. Amazingly we got there right after 8:00 am, when normal (cheap) hours start and the place was practically empty. Olga gave them the little information they asked for and when they realized I was North American they didn’t ask much. We waited about 5 minutes until they called my name. A really sweet nurse brought me to my own room and took my vitals. She chuckled when I took off my glasses and told me not to worry and that they would take care if it! A few minutes later a really good looking young (no older than 26) doctor walked in. He asked me where I’d been and if it hurt etc. Olga did most of the talking for me and when he offered to speak in English I told him not to worry about it so Olga could understand. He didn’t seem to know exactly what caused the reaction, only that it was an allergic reaction and told me that with a shot of cortisone and some antihistamines it should be better within a few days. Before he left he smiled, told me my Spanish was really good and that he hopes I have a great time in Chile.
He left and came back with what I realized was his attending and the older doctor gave his approval. He also gave me a “don’t worry, you’ll be fine, but you do look kind of funny” smile. Then another nurse came in and gave me the cortisone shot. She asked me what had happened and when I explained that it was some type of allergic reaction and that I’d got it while camping, she immediately proclaimed, “Well that is Litre!!” Olga laughed and said she’d been trying to remember the name of that plant and the two of them started chatting away about other Litre experiences they’d had! Luckily the nurse knew what it was and I felt much better having a more solid diagnosis. She told me it would go away in about 4 or 5 days and that with the shot and the anti histamines I’d be fine. She injected the cortisone really slowly, over about one minute and by the time she finished my eyes were already less swollen. She left and I immediately felt really sleepy. We had to wait about 20 minutes because they wanted to see how I reacted to the cortisone and I slept the whole time. Doctor McDreamy came back, said I already looked better, gave us the prescription and sent us on our way.
Olga paid the bill which only ended up being about $50 ($46 for the hospital visit and $6 for the shot!). On the way back to the metro we stopped by the pharmacy and picked up the antihistamine prescription. I was exhausted and didn’t want anyone to see me and was glad to get back to the apartment. I had breakfast and felt better but Olga didn’t want me to go to class. I needed to go since I had tests coming up, so I headed back out around 10:45. I tried hiding my face as best as I could, but when I got to campus I ran into Christian and in typical Chilean fashion, he didn’t hide his shock. He kind of laughed and was glad to know I had gone to the hospital but didn’t do much to make me feel better! I went to Doctrina Social class and my two gringo friends Mike and Christine told me not to worry about it and that it really wasn’t that bad (despite the fact that their faces said otherwise!). I had the same reaction with my other gringo friends but the Chileans in my class were more honest. It was an interesting observation.
After my education class I was exhausted and didn’t want to face another class, so I decided to skip my Bible class. I sent my professor an email letting him know about the Litre and I asked him for an extension on the essay that is due Wednesday since I have the Education test AND another essay due the same day. Olga wasn’t home but I studied and worked on my paper.
Despite the fact that I had so much work to do and my face still looked like a tomato, left around 6 pm to go to Courtney’s house for once (if you don’t remember, that is what they call their evening meal. Its usually smaller, more like our lunch). Today is her birthday and I’d promised her I’d have once with her and a few other friends then go see the new Chilean movie Radio Corazon. I was looking much better and my eyes weren’t nearly as swollen and I used the “I’ve had a rough day, I need to have fun” to justify not being a good student. Once was a ton of fun and I finally got to meet Courtney’s amazing little brother. They are hilarious and her family is incredibly loving. I didn’t want to leave! Afterwards her dad drove us to the metro and we headed to the movie theater. A few more friends met up with us and everyone really enjoyed the movie. It was in Chilean Spanish and the entire time I kept thinking how amazing it was how well I could understand. I definitely wouldn’t have understood anything 3 months ago! I definitely didn’t get it all but lucking I sat next to Victor, the Chilean/American in our program and he explained stuffed that I’d missed. After the movie I took a bus home, took another anti-histamine and crashed.
Sunday, October 7, 2007 Camping in Las Campanas Day 3
Sunday, October 7, 2007 Camping in Las Campanas Day 3
Sunday morning was really relaxing. We ate breakfast and then a small group of us went on another little hike and Tomás brought his guitar again. We sat in a clearing on the hill singing the choruses and what little of the verses we could remember of all the greatest classics. At some point on the hill, I noticed that my right ear itched a little and I was getting a little red bump on the right side right under my mouth. It itched but I figured I’d just eaten something and had a little allergic reaction or something.
While we all sat around singing, my friend Tom Harker, (the friend that came and ate dinner at with Olga and I way back in August) went on an epic hike up the hill next to us. We didn’t think he’d be able to make it to the top, but after almost an hour he conquered it! We waited for him to climb down because we didn’t want to leave him alone and we all went to lunch together.
After lunch everyone packed up and got ready to leave. Around 2ish we all piled on to the bus, smelly, filthy and ready to take showers. By the time we got on the bus, the little red bump had grown and around my entire mouth itched. I asked a few of my girlfriends and they gave me the typical: don’t worry about it, you can barely notice it, I’m sure it will go away really soon. So I ignored it.
We got back into Santiago around 5, just enough time to get home, take a quick shower and get to mass at 7. I went to church with Natalie, my only friend that lives downtown with me. After mass Natalie and I were walking back and I was getting a little stressed because I realized how much work I had to do. I still had to write a paper for my Bible class and another for my Poverty class and I hadn’t studied at all for my Education test on Wednesday. On top of it all, my face was now almost entirely red with the beginning of a rash and itched pretty bad. My eyes were even starting to get a little swollen. Natalie was surprised to see how bad it had gotten since the afternoon but told me not to worry.
When I got home I asked Olga about my face and she immediately had some remedies that she swore would help “Al tiro!” (Right Away!!). I told her I think I was having an allergic reaction to something I ate (although that has never happened to me before) and she was convinced that it was because I’d eaten Peanut Butter. I tried to tell her that I’ve eaten peanut butter all my life, but she said that it is too strong for me and that I’m just not accostumed to it! But she made a herbal water and I used cotton to put it all over my face and it did help the itching. After trying to finish my paper, I was able to go to sleep, convinced that I’d wake up in the morning perfectly fine. I just needed the food allergy to get out of my system.
Sunday morning was really relaxing. We ate breakfast and then a small group of us went on another little hike and Tomás brought his guitar again. We sat in a clearing on the hill singing the choruses and what little of the verses we could remember of all the greatest classics. At some point on the hill, I noticed that my right ear itched a little and I was getting a little red bump on the right side right under my mouth. It itched but I figured I’d just eaten something and had a little allergic reaction or something.
While we all sat around singing, my friend Tom Harker, (the friend that came and ate dinner at with Olga and I way back in August) went on an epic hike up the hill next to us. We didn’t think he’d be able to make it to the top, but after almost an hour he conquered it! We waited for him to climb down because we didn’t want to leave him alone and we all went to lunch together.
After lunch everyone packed up and got ready to leave. Around 2ish we all piled on to the bus, smelly, filthy and ready to take showers. By the time we got on the bus, the little red bump had grown and around my entire mouth itched. I asked a few of my girlfriends and they gave me the typical: don’t worry about it, you can barely notice it, I’m sure it will go away really soon. So I ignored it.
We got back into Santiago around 5, just enough time to get home, take a quick shower and get to mass at 7. I went to church with Natalie, my only friend that lives downtown with me. After mass Natalie and I were walking back and I was getting a little stressed because I realized how much work I had to do. I still had to write a paper for my Bible class and another for my Poverty class and I hadn’t studied at all for my Education test on Wednesday. On top of it all, my face was now almost entirely red with the beginning of a rash and itched pretty bad. My eyes were even starting to get a little swollen. Natalie was surprised to see how bad it had gotten since the afternoon but told me not to worry.
When I got home I asked Olga about my face and she immediately had some remedies that she swore would help “Al tiro!” (Right Away!!). I told her I think I was having an allergic reaction to something I ate (although that has never happened to me before) and she was convinced that it was because I’d eaten Peanut Butter. I tried to tell her that I’ve eaten peanut butter all my life, but she said that it is too strong for me and that I’m just not accostumed to it! But she made a herbal water and I used cotton to put it all over my face and it did help the itching. After trying to finish my paper, I was able to go to sleep, convinced that I’d wake up in the morning perfectly fine. I just needed the food allergy to get out of my system.
Saturday, October 6, 2007 Camping in Las Campanas Day 2
Saturday, October 6, 2007 Camping in Las Campanas Day 2
We woke up early (around 9 am), had breakfast, and then headed out with Hector (our program director and the professor for my Poverty class) for our all day hike. We hike up a mountain 3 miles in almost 2 hours which is a quick pace. A group of us (most of whom had stayed sober last night) stuck with Hector at the front and every half hour or so we stopped to let the rest (guess who) catch up. While walking, Hector told me all about his Peace Corps experience in Guatemala and ended up telling us basically his life story.
We made it to the top around noon and ate the sandwiches we’d packed for lunch. The climb was worth it because at the top was a beautiful view of the entire park and a gorgeous waterfall down a huge rock wall. Hector gave us about an hour at the top to explore and rest for those who needed it. After hanging out we started heading back down, after refilling our water bottles from the stream, which Hector assured us was alright to do. After about 20 minutes of trying to walk down hill slowly, Julia from NYC and Alea and I decided to just run down hill. Hector gave us his blessing and the three of us ended up running all the way down in about 30 more minutes! We beat the rest of the group back by about 15 minutes, which meant we got to shower and clean up first!
The rest of the afternoon/evening we relaxed and hung out. Everyone in our program gets along really well and I honestly haven’t laughed that hard in so long. I know we are a very self-selected group because we are the type of kids that study abroad, especially in Chile. But none the less, I am constantly amazed by the quality of people I have met and friends I have made. Right before dinner Brandon, Matt and I tried to hike to the top of one of the hills near the camp site. As we’ve noticed before, they always look more manageable from farther away and the higher we got the more difficult it began. It wasn’t too steep but the vegetation was thick and the ground was rocky. We made it about 94% up when we were stopped by a wall of bushes, thorns and trees. So we turned back and basically slid down the hill back to the campsite where everyone had gathered to eat dinner. P.S. I did the whole climb and decent in flip-flops and only fell once!
As the sun set, I started feeling a little déjà vu from last night. i.e. camp fire, s’mores, lots of drinking etc. Once most were good and happy, we all hiked about half way up the huge hill we’d climbed earlier and sat around watching the stars. My friend Tomás brought his guitar and entertained everyone with his hilarious songs and improv. I was freezing (obviously I hadn’t drank as much as everyone else) and after almost an entire glass of Piscola got spilled on my sleeping bag, I headed back to the tent and went to sleep.
We woke up early (around 9 am), had breakfast, and then headed out with Hector (our program director and the professor for my Poverty class) for our all day hike. We hike up a mountain 3 miles in almost 2 hours which is a quick pace. A group of us (most of whom had stayed sober last night) stuck with Hector at the front and every half hour or so we stopped to let the rest (guess who) catch up. While walking, Hector told me all about his Peace Corps experience in Guatemala and ended up telling us basically his life story.
We made it to the top around noon and ate the sandwiches we’d packed for lunch. The climb was worth it because at the top was a beautiful view of the entire park and a gorgeous waterfall down a huge rock wall. Hector gave us about an hour at the top to explore and rest for those who needed it. After hanging out we started heading back down, after refilling our water bottles from the stream, which Hector assured us was alright to do. After about 20 minutes of trying to walk down hill slowly, Julia from NYC and Alea and I decided to just run down hill. Hector gave us his blessing and the three of us ended up running all the way down in about 30 more minutes! We beat the rest of the group back by about 15 minutes, which meant we got to shower and clean up first!
The rest of the afternoon/evening we relaxed and hung out. Everyone in our program gets along really well and I honestly haven’t laughed that hard in so long. I know we are a very self-selected group because we are the type of kids that study abroad, especially in Chile. But none the less, I am constantly amazed by the quality of people I have met and friends I have made. Right before dinner Brandon, Matt and I tried to hike to the top of one of the hills near the camp site. As we’ve noticed before, they always look more manageable from farther away and the higher we got the more difficult it began. It wasn’t too steep but the vegetation was thick and the ground was rocky. We made it about 94% up when we were stopped by a wall of bushes, thorns and trees. So we turned back and basically slid down the hill back to the campsite where everyone had gathered to eat dinner. P.S. I did the whole climb and decent in flip-flops and only fell once!
As the sun set, I started feeling a little déjà vu from last night. i.e. camp fire, s’mores, lots of drinking etc. Once most were good and happy, we all hiked about half way up the huge hill we’d climbed earlier and sat around watching the stars. My friend Tomás brought his guitar and entertained everyone with his hilarious songs and improv. I was freezing (obviously I hadn’t drank as much as everyone else) and after almost an entire glass of Piscola got spilled on my sleeping bag, I headed back to the tent and went to sleep.
Friday, October 5, 2007 Camping in Las Campanas Day 1
Friday, October 5, 2007 Camping in Las Campanas Day 1
I woke up early to get all my crap for camping and I took the metro to the CIEE office overloaded with bags, most of which was food that Olga made for me to bring. I had my Poverty class from 10:30 to 12:30 then afterwards we got ready to leave. Courtney and I went to the grocery store and bought goodies to make Banana Boats (i.e. Chocolate and marshmallows in a banana wrapped in foil for the camp fire). We loaded on the bus and headed out around 2 pm (only one hour later than we’d planned!).
The bus ride was supposed to be about 2 hours but we got a flat tire about half way there and were stuck on the side of the highway for about 45 minutes. The driver couldn’t fix it so we drove to the closest town and by the time we were fixed and finally made it to the park it was almost 6 pm. The park rangers almost didn’t let us in because technically you have to be there before 5:30 pm, but since Mauricio, the other program director was inside waiting for us they let us in.
I shared a tent with Courtney Wilson, Hanna and Julia and we had it set up and perfect in about 15 minutes (I couldn’t help thinking of the 2 hour tent setting up marathons from the camping trips when we were kids!). Once everyone was settled we began the 3 hour dinner BBQ. We stuffed ourselves on the delicious salads everyone had brought and the incredible meat Mauricio had been cooking all afternoon long. The steak was practically still mooing, but no one complained!
After dinner the boys made an impressive fire and out of no where appeared more alcohol than I thought possible. Apparently others had planned ahead and they spent all night enjoying the camp fire and pisco. I had absolutely no desire to drink but I had a great time laughing at everyone else with the other sober kids. Around 1:30 the non-drunkies snuck off to stargaze. The sky was incredibly clear and we all laid on the ground huddled together to keep warm and counting the shooting stars. I feel asleep and since I was a little sniffley started snoring, which made everyone laugh. We headed back to the tents and went to bed while the rest slowly trickled back in various states of soberness.
I woke up early to get all my crap for camping and I took the metro to the CIEE office overloaded with bags, most of which was food that Olga made for me to bring. I had my Poverty class from 10:30 to 12:30 then afterwards we got ready to leave. Courtney and I went to the grocery store and bought goodies to make Banana Boats (i.e. Chocolate and marshmallows in a banana wrapped in foil for the camp fire). We loaded on the bus and headed out around 2 pm (only one hour later than we’d planned!).
The bus ride was supposed to be about 2 hours but we got a flat tire about half way there and were stuck on the side of the highway for about 45 minutes. The driver couldn’t fix it so we drove to the closest town and by the time we were fixed and finally made it to the park it was almost 6 pm. The park rangers almost didn’t let us in because technically you have to be there before 5:30 pm, but since Mauricio, the other program director was inside waiting for us they let us in.
I shared a tent with Courtney Wilson, Hanna and Julia and we had it set up and perfect in about 15 minutes (I couldn’t help thinking of the 2 hour tent setting up marathons from the camping trips when we were kids!). Once everyone was settled we began the 3 hour dinner BBQ. We stuffed ourselves on the delicious salads everyone had brought and the incredible meat Mauricio had been cooking all afternoon long. The steak was practically still mooing, but no one complained!
After dinner the boys made an impressive fire and out of no where appeared more alcohol than I thought possible. Apparently others had planned ahead and they spent all night enjoying the camp fire and pisco. I had absolutely no desire to drink but I had a great time laughing at everyone else with the other sober kids. Around 1:30 the non-drunkies snuck off to stargaze. The sky was incredibly clear and we all laid on the ground huddled together to keep warm and counting the shooting stars. I feel asleep and since I was a little sniffley started snoring, which made everyone laugh. We headed back to the tents and went to bed while the rest slowly trickled back in various states of soberness.
Thursday, October 4, 2007 Saints Feasts and Birthday Feasts. Man am I spoiled!
Thursday, October 4, 2007 Feasts and Feasts
Volunteering this morning actually went amazingly well. Courtney’s idea to play Pictionary worked like a charm and I for once feel like I taught them something!! By the third class came around, we had figured out what works and what doesn’t. That class which is usually the worst behaved actually sat quickly and played civilly without yelling. I think they had fun and I felt great when I went home. It’s amazing how much energized and happy I feel after a successful class as opposed to the last few weeks when I left exhausted and grumpy. I finally understand why teachers like good students.
After volunteering I came home and had lunch with Olga. Then I met up with Calli, Sarah Benheke and Will Boyd at the bus station to buy tickets to San Pedro de Atacama over the Oct. 15 Feriado. The tickets were $50 a piece for a 23 hour bus ride, but everyone we’ve talked to has said it’s worth it. I’m excited about seeing another important part of Chile. Afterwards I headed back home to work and try to knock out some of the homework I had before our camping trip.
At 7:30 Olga and I met up with Courtney at San Francisco, the beautiful old church at the center of town to go to mass. Today is Saint Francis of Asis’s feast day, so Olga and I along time ago had decided to go there to celebrate. We got to mass right at 7:30 and the place was absolutely packed. And it’s a big church to begin with. The next hour and a half was one of the most beautiful, longest masses I’ve ever been to. They pulled out all the stops including incense, a presentation with the story of Saint Francis’s life, and three First Communions! After mass there was a procession but Courtney and I left early because we were already really late to meet up with Christian to celebrate his birthday with his family.
So Courtney and I took the metro to meet up with Christian and got there an hour after we said we would. They had been waiting for us to do cake and sing, so as soon as we got there we ate Completos (yummy Chilean style hot dogs) then Christian’s mom brought out two cakes, one for Christian and one for Manuel. We sang, ate cake, drank coffee and sat and talked till late in the night. It was only Christian, Manuel, their parents, Courtney, me, and the big surprise: my religion professor/priest Rodrigo!! Christian had told me he’d invited Rodrigo, but I didn’t fathom he’d come, so I was pleasantly surprised. It was great to hang out with him again outside of class (and outside of the bar after class!). He is just as funny and just as hard to understand, but he told me that I should talk more in class because he knows I’m paying attention and really enjoying it. I told him I’m embarrassed and don’t want to break the flow with my broken conversation. He also asked me about why I’d written GW Bush in my notebook. I have no idea how he saw it, but I laughed and explained. At the end of class yesterday he was talking about the 10 Commandments and said that taking the Lord’s name in vain is more than just saying his name like a cuss word. It is actually more about using God’s name to justify actions that aren’t from God. Hence my writing "GW Bush". He got a good laugh from it.
It was getting late so Christian and his dad drove Courtney home first, then me. On the way we had a nice chat about the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism. I kind of pulled some Baby Alien Spanish (read the article) and just agreed when I really just couldn’t figure out how to put together my argument. Anyway, before going to bed I packed up my stuff for the camping trip and scrambled together the bits of homework I wanted to bring.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Sorry for the delay and a pre-apology for the next delay!
I want to apologize for again getting extremely behind on my blog. And I also want to ask your patience once again. I’ve had a crazy/wonderful week (camping this weekend) and tomorrow evening I am leaving for San Pedro de Atacama, a 23 hour bus ride north of Santiago (we are hoping to spend a day in Bolivia which would be amazing!). But before I leave I have a test, and an essay to turn in. So I’ve been a little distracted lately and my blogging has taken a back seat. But I promise to update as soon as I finish my other test and 2 more essays I have to do the day after I get back from Atacama!! Basically, October 2007 might go down as the craziest month of my life!
The only thing really exicting that I want to fill you in on is LITRE. Its is the Chilean version of Poison Ivy and is equally horrible. I assume I came in contact with it while I was camping and for some reason it decided to attack my face. Apperently it is much more common to have litre on your face, which makes me feel a little better. But I woke up Monday morning with my eyes practically swollen shut and my entire face red, bumpy and burning. Olga took me to the hospital where I immediately received a cortisone shot and antihistamine pills. I am already doing better but my face is still a little red and it still itches a lot. For those who are interested, here is a webpage about Litre:
http://www.chileflora.com/Florachilena/FloraSpanish/HighResPages/SH0003.htm
Alright, I’m going to go finish studying for my Education test tomorrow. Much love and I’ll be back in about a week!!
The only thing really exicting that I want to fill you in on is LITRE. Its is the Chilean version of Poison Ivy and is equally horrible. I assume I came in contact with it while I was camping and for some reason it decided to attack my face. Apperently it is much more common to have litre on your face, which makes me feel a little better. But I woke up Monday morning with my eyes practically swollen shut and my entire face red, bumpy and burning. Olga took me to the hospital where I immediately received a cortisone shot and antihistamine pills. I am already doing better but my face is still a little red and it still itches a lot. For those who are interested, here is a webpage about Litre:
http://www.chileflora.com/Florachilena/FloraSpanish/HighResPages/SH0003.htm
Alright, I’m going to go finish studying for my Education test tomorrow. Much love and I’ll be back in about a week!!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Yet another usual Wednesday. Class, mass, class, lunch, class, fun event, class, walk home. The one fun event was that between my Biblia class and my pobreza class, we went and had a beer with our professor again. It was only my three friends and I, like the first time, but we had fun laughing and relaxing. I unfortunately couldn’t stay long because I had my next class, but I did get the chance to ask my professor/the priest about something I’d been wondering about but too shy to ask in class. During our current unit about evil and sin, he said something along the lines of “Justice is immortal”. So I told him my theory that no one goes to hell unless they want to and asked him what he thought. He responded, “well obviously!” So that was a very welcomed surprise! He went on to explain that people only go to hell against the will of God because God wants all salvation for all people. We are all still saved by Christ, but just because someone doesn’t understand or truly appreciate that fact while alive on earth doesn’t mean they are going to burn in hell for all eternity. And he also said that people who reject Christ or simply remain ‘neutral’ on the subject are rejecting a false image of Christ (or rather, a false image of the Truth) which has been falsely perpetuated by Christians. Interesting.
After my pobreza class I walked home and arrived to a very excited Miguel and smiling Olga. Rino and Evan had another meeting so Miguel had hung out at our apartment all evening and was thrilled to see me. We had once together and afterwards Miguel played games on my computer while I tried to read but really ended up playing/helping him play. Rino and Evan came back and had once themselves and then left around 11. After that I finally started working on my Animals in English lesson for the high school kids tomorrow. Luckily Courtney suggested I play Pictionary with them to hopefully keep them interested. We’ll see how it goes. Now it’s almost 1 am and I am waking up at 6ish to go hang out with the monsters. So now that I’m all caught up on my bloggy blog, I’m going to bed!
Yet another usual Wednesday. Class, mass, class, lunch, class, fun event, class, walk home. The one fun event was that between my Biblia class and my pobreza class, we went and had a beer with our professor again. It was only my three friends and I, like the first time, but we had fun laughing and relaxing. I unfortunately couldn’t stay long because I had my next class, but I did get the chance to ask my professor/the priest about something I’d been wondering about but too shy to ask in class. During our current unit about evil and sin, he said something along the lines of “Justice is immortal”. So I told him my theory that no one goes to hell unless they want to and asked him what he thought. He responded, “well obviously!” So that was a very welcomed surprise! He went on to explain that people only go to hell against the will of God because God wants all salvation for all people. We are all still saved by Christ, but just because someone doesn’t understand or truly appreciate that fact while alive on earth doesn’t mean they are going to burn in hell for all eternity. And he also said that people who reject Christ or simply remain ‘neutral’ on the subject are rejecting a false image of Christ (or rather, a false image of the Truth) which has been falsely perpetuated by Christians. Interesting.
After my pobreza class I walked home and arrived to a very excited Miguel and smiling Olga. Rino and Evan had another meeting so Miguel had hung out at our apartment all evening and was thrilled to see me. We had once together and afterwards Miguel played games on my computer while I tried to read but really ended up playing/helping him play. Rino and Evan came back and had once themselves and then left around 11. After that I finally started working on my Animals in English lesson for the high school kids tomorrow. Luckily Courtney suggested I play Pictionary with them to hopefully keep them interested. We’ll see how it goes. Now it’s almost 1 am and I am waking up at 6ish to go hang out with the monsters. So now that I’m all caught up on my bloggy blog, I’m going to bed!
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
I woke up, ate breakfast, did homework till one, went running, showered, ate almuerzo with Olga, and then did homework till 5. Then I walked to meet up with Lorin who is also volunteering at Nuestra Casa for a meeting with Javiera, the volunteer coordinator about the workshops we are going to do. Javiera ended up not being able to make it, but we met with Patricio, the coordinator of Trampolin. He seemed to like my proposal for the Health Workshop and we decided we will be doing it Tuesdays at 5:30 starting the 23rd, for 4 Tuesdays in a row. Lorin is going to help me for now and hopefully later on we’ll be able to do an English workshop.
After the meeting I stayed and hung out. I talked with many of the people then we all watched part of a movie. We started ¼ of the way in and had to leave with about ¼ left. It was called Sangre por Sangre in the Spanish dubbed version, but in English, “Blood In Blood Out”. I think it was from the late 80s, about a gang and all the members later in life. Despite the humorous Spanish dubbing and horrible 80s outfits, I enjoyed it. At 8 when Trampolin shuts down, I walked back to the main street with Maluco and his basically wife, but I can’t remember her name. They are a very cute couple and have been at Trampolin every time I’ve gone. While we were walking, they told me they have 2 children together, a 7 year old and an 8 month old. The 8 month old is in a home where they take care of her and I could tell it was hard for them to talk about it. I’m not sure where the 7 year old is, but I don’t think she lives with them either.
I walked home, had once with Olga (again telling her she keeps giving me too much food), then did homework till I fell asleep exhausted.
I woke up, ate breakfast, did homework till one, went running, showered, ate almuerzo with Olga, and then did homework till 5. Then I walked to meet up with Lorin who is also volunteering at Nuestra Casa for a meeting with Javiera, the volunteer coordinator about the workshops we are going to do. Javiera ended up not being able to make it, but we met with Patricio, the coordinator of Trampolin. He seemed to like my proposal for the Health Workshop and we decided we will be doing it Tuesdays at 5:30 starting the 23rd, for 4 Tuesdays in a row. Lorin is going to help me for now and hopefully later on we’ll be able to do an English workshop.
After the meeting I stayed and hung out. I talked with many of the people then we all watched part of a movie. We started ¼ of the way in and had to leave with about ¼ left. It was called Sangre por Sangre in the Spanish dubbed version, but in English, “Blood In Blood Out”. I think it was from the late 80s, about a gang and all the members later in life. Despite the humorous Spanish dubbing and horrible 80s outfits, I enjoyed it. At 8 when Trampolin shuts down, I walked back to the main street with Maluco and his basically wife, but I can’t remember her name. They are a very cute couple and have been at Trampolin every time I’ve gone. While we were walking, they told me they have 2 children together, a 7 year old and an 8 month old. The 8 month old is in a home where they take care of her and I could tell it was hard for them to talk about it. I’m not sure where the 7 year old is, but I don’t think she lives with them either.
I walked home, had once with Olga (again telling her she keeps giving me too much food), then did homework till I fell asleep exhausted.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Monday, October 1, 2007 Feast of Saint Therese of Liseaux/the little child Jesus/the little Flower!!
Monday, October 1, 2007 Feast of Saint Therese of Liseaux/the little child Jesus/the little Flower!!
When I woke up, Olga immediately knew I had been crying last night. She said she’d heard me a little but could also tell because I had “teary eyes”. She reassured me, “Falta poco. Falta poco”, basically “Little remains, it’s almost over”. I think she felt a little relief knowing I’d finally showed some emotion!
Since I’d slept so well last night and had such a productive weekend (please note the sarcasm), I skipped my first class of the day and read the readings for my Biblia class instead. Ironic right? But I haven’t skipped any classes and it was my Doctrina Social class, which I can get notes from my other gringo friends Christine and Mike. I went to mass at 1:00 on campus to celebrate the feast of Saint Therese, who is my patron saint. So in some cultures, today would be another birthday for me! After mass I had class, and then ate lunch with Christian. Then Biblia class, then I ran some errands: recharged my phone minutes, made a copy of the book I have to read for my Doctrina class, and bought soap. Funny story: I asked for “Sopa de Dove” which means “Dove soup”. When the lady gave me a really weird look I realized what I’d said. So I apologized and asked for “Jabon de Dove” which is actually “Dove soap”. She chuckled, handed me the soap, and I left the store quite embarrassed.
Walking home from class I bought a $.40 soft serve ice cream cone that I’ve been tempted to try everyday I walk home from class. I figured it was a good way to celebrate my Saint’s Feast Day!! I stopped by Saint Vincent’s church because they had a statue of St. Therese and I wanted to pray a bit. But the statue wasn’t there (it had been replaced by Saint Vincent!). I was there for about 5 minutes and mass started and I ended up staying for the whole thing! So what I great way to celebrate my Saint’s Feast Day: two masses AND ice cream!
After mass I hustled to meet Tom for our final meeting with Nuestra Casa. We were late, but everyone else was later so it didn’t really matter. The closing was very similar to the induction and now we are officially volunteers at Nuestra Casa. Good thing because I need to start getting more hours in! Afterwards we walked back to the metro and I took it one stop to Los Heroes, my stop and walked home. I had a little once with Olga, this time literally at once (eleven o’clock). Then headed to bed to talk to Trevor and again try to get a little work done.
When I woke up, Olga immediately knew I had been crying last night. She said she’d heard me a little but could also tell because I had “teary eyes”. She reassured me, “Falta poco. Falta poco”, basically “Little remains, it’s almost over”. I think she felt a little relief knowing I’d finally showed some emotion!
Since I’d slept so well last night and had such a productive weekend (please note the sarcasm), I skipped my first class of the day and read the readings for my Biblia class instead. Ironic right? But I haven’t skipped any classes and it was my Doctrina Social class, which I can get notes from my other gringo friends Christine and Mike. I went to mass at 1:00 on campus to celebrate the feast of Saint Therese, who is my patron saint. So in some cultures, today would be another birthday for me! After mass I had class, and then ate lunch with Christian. Then Biblia class, then I ran some errands: recharged my phone minutes, made a copy of the book I have to read for my Doctrina class, and bought soap. Funny story: I asked for “Sopa de Dove” which means “Dove soup”. When the lady gave me a really weird look I realized what I’d said. So I apologized and asked for “Jabon de Dove” which is actually “Dove soap”. She chuckled, handed me the soap, and I left the store quite embarrassed.
Walking home from class I bought a $.40 soft serve ice cream cone that I’ve been tempted to try everyday I walk home from class. I figured it was a good way to celebrate my Saint’s Feast Day!! I stopped by Saint Vincent’s church because they had a statue of St. Therese and I wanted to pray a bit. But the statue wasn’t there (it had been replaced by Saint Vincent!). I was there for about 5 minutes and mass started and I ended up staying for the whole thing! So what I great way to celebrate my Saint’s Feast Day: two masses AND ice cream!
After mass I hustled to meet Tom for our final meeting with Nuestra Casa. We were late, but everyone else was later so it didn’t really matter. The closing was very similar to the induction and now we are officially volunteers at Nuestra Casa. Good thing because I need to start getting more hours in! Afterwards we walked back to the metro and I took it one stop to Los Heroes, my stop and walked home. I had a little once with Olga, this time literally at once (eleven o’clock). Then headed to bed to talk to Trevor and again try to get a little work done.
Sunday, September 30, 2007 Day 4 of my 4 day weekend: Procession of the Virgen de Carmen
Sunday, September 30, 2007 Day 4 of my 4 day weekend: Procession of the Virgen de Carmen
Since I went to bed this morning around 4:30 I didn’t mind when I woke up at noon. I convinced Olga I didn’t need breakfast since we would have almuerzo in about an hour, so I worked until 1, and then ate. I worked more until about 3:15 when Olga and I bundled up (it was suddenly a cool day, very much unlike the entire week before) and walked to the Plaza de Armas and the Cathedral for the annual Procession of the Virgen de Carmen. The Virgen de Carmen is the patron of Chile and since September is the Mes de la Patria (Month of the Country, with all the Fiestas Patrias and such), the last Sunday of every September they have a huge procession of the Virgen.
We got there a little before 4 and the Plaza was full of people. And many of the streets surrounding the plaza were different churches, high school groups, etc. already lined up and ready to march. There were two Cardinals and about 10 bishops and from 4 till about 5 the different groups marched past us then the cardinals and the statue of the virgin, the whole time praying the rosary and singing, which was being transmitted through the plaza and the processional route through huge speakers.
After the streets around the plaza emptied, I realized that those people were the beginning of the parade. After they all marched through, the cardinals et. al. went, then the Virgen. Finally they slowly let all the rest (i.e. Olga and I and the thousands of other people) follow behind. We were really luckily and ended following about half a block behind the Virgen. We marched through the heart of downtown about 8 blocks in a big loop and ended up back at the Plaza around 6, which was now set up for a HUGE mass. At 6:25 the Cardinal (who I later found out is a personal secretary for the Pope and worked with JPII for 17 years) began the mass. I’ve never been to a mass with so many people (well over a thousand) and amazingly it was barely over an hour long. But absolutely beautiful.
Olga and I hurried home to meet up with Mario, Rino, Evan and Miguel who were all coming over for once. We were both cold, hungry, and had to pee, so Olga bought us some kettle corn and we joyful scurried back reminiscing on the beautiful day. Mario was at the apartment when we got there and when everyone else arrived we feasted. They stayed until about 11:00 after dragging Miguel off my computer where he’d been playing games for the past hour +. I helped Olga clean up and then headed to bed to finally start my homework, which if you’ve read attentively, you’ll notice that I really didn’t do any all weekend! But of course, I ended up chatting with Jamie online then talking to Trevor until about 2:30! Today marked the 4 month mark that we haven’t seen each other, and I finally had a pretty intense breakdown. Needless to say, I didn’t get much homework accomplished.
Since I went to bed this morning around 4:30 I didn’t mind when I woke up at noon. I convinced Olga I didn’t need breakfast since we would have almuerzo in about an hour, so I worked until 1, and then ate. I worked more until about 3:15 when Olga and I bundled up (it was suddenly a cool day, very much unlike the entire week before) and walked to the Plaza de Armas and the Cathedral for the annual Procession of the Virgen de Carmen. The Virgen de Carmen is the patron of Chile and since September is the Mes de la Patria (Month of the Country, with all the Fiestas Patrias and such), the last Sunday of every September they have a huge procession of the Virgen.
We got there a little before 4 and the Plaza was full of people. And many of the streets surrounding the plaza were different churches, high school groups, etc. already lined up and ready to march. There were two Cardinals and about 10 bishops and from 4 till about 5 the different groups marched past us then the cardinals and the statue of the virgin, the whole time praying the rosary and singing, which was being transmitted through the plaza and the processional route through huge speakers.
After the streets around the plaza emptied, I realized that those people were the beginning of the parade. After they all marched through, the cardinals et. al. went, then the Virgen. Finally they slowly let all the rest (i.e. Olga and I and the thousands of other people) follow behind. We were really luckily and ended following about half a block behind the Virgen. We marched through the heart of downtown about 8 blocks in a big loop and ended up back at the Plaza around 6, which was now set up for a HUGE mass. At 6:25 the Cardinal (who I later found out is a personal secretary for the Pope and worked with JPII for 17 years) began the mass. I’ve never been to a mass with so many people (well over a thousand) and amazingly it was barely over an hour long. But absolutely beautiful.
Olga and I hurried home to meet up with Mario, Rino, Evan and Miguel who were all coming over for once. We were both cold, hungry, and had to pee, so Olga bought us some kettle corn and we joyful scurried back reminiscing on the beautiful day. Mario was at the apartment when we got there and when everyone else arrived we feasted. They stayed until about 11:00 after dragging Miguel off my computer where he’d been playing games for the past hour +. I helped Olga clean up and then headed to bed to finally start my homework, which if you’ve read attentively, you’ll notice that I really didn’t do any all weekend! But of course, I ended up chatting with Jamie online then talking to Trevor until about 2:30! Today marked the 4 month mark that we haven’t seen each other, and I finally had a pretty intense breakdown. Needless to say, I didn’t get much homework accomplished.
Saturday, September 29, 2007 Day 3 of my 4 day weekend: Party, Party, Party
Saturday, September 29, 2007 Day 3 of my 4 day weekend: Party, Party, Party
I slept till about 10:30, did a little exercising, showered and worked until noon when I left to meet up with my girlfriends to go to Matt’s birthday party. Matt (a gringo in our program) lives over an hour away in the super super rich part of town. We took the metro, then a bus to the end of the line, and then walked ten minutes till we finally reached his house. He sometimes complain about the commute, but now that I’ve seen his house, I know its totally worth it. So from about 1:15 on we hung out, swam in his pool, sun bathed, and tried not to think about the horrible class-ism and oppression of the poor in Chile. His family is super nice and not the mean, money hungry rich people I think of when we talk about the class division and I definitely didn’t mind hanging out at their house and eating their food. It was super relaxing and way fun and I realized I never let myself do that during the semester at Tulane.
I left the party early around 4:45 and began the long trek back into the city to meet Olga at her church to go to the baptisms. The ceremony was beautiful and I arrived just in time. It was about an hour long ceremony, basically just like in the states, except that most of the babies were much older; anywhere from 10 months to 3 years old. After the ceremony many of the parents came and thanked Olga and I’ve never seen her so proud! I stayed for mass at her church and I loved seeing her interact with all her friends at the church. After mass Olga walked me to the metro station and then I met up with Courtney and Christian to go to Christian’s (and his twin brother Emmanuel’s) birthday party.
The party was chill and I met a lot of his friends. Courtney and I were the only gringas, but everyone was really nice and welcoming. I found out that their older brother Emilio and his girlfriend Maria Paz are probably going to be working in New Orleans from December till February with a Chilean program called Work and Travel. If it all works out as planned, they will have internships at the Royal Sonesta, a beautiful hotel in the heart of the French Quarter. The are both really excited and I will be thrilled if it works out! Christian challenged me to a rematch in ping pong and unfortunately I beat him again, in front of all his friends. But I just couldn’t let him win! Christian’s cousins 3 came and we ended up hanging out and playing doubles ping pong till four in the morning. I was exhausted and after about 2:30 I didn’t have much left, so my partner (their girl cousin who is really good and is studying medicine) and I lost. They drove me home and I crashed into bed.
I slept till about 10:30, did a little exercising, showered and worked until noon when I left to meet up with my girlfriends to go to Matt’s birthday party. Matt (a gringo in our program) lives over an hour away in the super super rich part of town. We took the metro, then a bus to the end of the line, and then walked ten minutes till we finally reached his house. He sometimes complain about the commute, but now that I’ve seen his house, I know its totally worth it. So from about 1:15 on we hung out, swam in his pool, sun bathed, and tried not to think about the horrible class-ism and oppression of the poor in Chile. His family is super nice and not the mean, money hungry rich people I think of when we talk about the class division and I definitely didn’t mind hanging out at their house and eating their food. It was super relaxing and way fun and I realized I never let myself do that during the semester at Tulane.
I left the party early around 4:45 and began the long trek back into the city to meet Olga at her church to go to the baptisms. The ceremony was beautiful and I arrived just in time. It was about an hour long ceremony, basically just like in the states, except that most of the babies were much older; anywhere from 10 months to 3 years old. After the ceremony many of the parents came and thanked Olga and I’ve never seen her so proud! I stayed for mass at her church and I loved seeing her interact with all her friends at the church. After mass Olga walked me to the metro station and then I met up with Courtney and Christian to go to Christian’s (and his twin brother Emmanuel’s) birthday party.
The party was chill and I met a lot of his friends. Courtney and I were the only gringas, but everyone was really nice and welcoming. I found out that their older brother Emilio and his girlfriend Maria Paz are probably going to be working in New Orleans from December till February with a Chilean program called Work and Travel. If it all works out as planned, they will have internships at the Royal Sonesta, a beautiful hotel in the heart of the French Quarter. The are both really excited and I will be thrilled if it works out! Christian challenged me to a rematch in ping pong and unfortunately I beat him again, in front of all his friends. But I just couldn’t let him win! Christian’s cousins 3 came and we ended up hanging out and playing doubles ping pong till four in the morning. I was exhausted and after about 2:30 I didn’t have much left, so my partner (their girl cousin who is really good and is studying medicine) and I lost. They drove me home and I crashed into bed.
Friday, September 28th, 2007 Day 2 of my 4 day weekend: Culture and Class
I woke up relatively early for a Friday without class because I had to be at the CIEE office at 9:30 for our day trip. About 30 of the 45 students went to a beautiful old colonial house about 1.5 hours north of Santiago. The first half of the day we had a taller or workshop about our cultural experiences and understanding in Chile. We got to speak in English, the first time with the program and one of our directors, Elsa, led the discussion. Elsa is from Minnesota but married a Chilean she met when she was studying abroad and now lives and works here. It was really weird hearing her speak English. Anyway, we began the workshop with a great article called Baby Alien Spanish written by a former exchange student from our program who attended Georgetown. She talks about the difficulty of learning a new language and the challenges we face in our day to day lives due to our inability to communicate properly. It is definitely worth reading, especially if you want a humorous portrayal of how I really feel almost everyday. I may make it mandatory for my family to read it before I come home, just so they realized that I am not, nor will be fluent in Spanish. Here is the article online if you are interested:
http://www.georgetownvoice.com/2002-04-11/voices/baby-alien-spanish
The rest of the workshop was a very productive and helpful way to process some of our observations about Chileans culture and what they really mean. We learned about visual culture (what we observe) versus invisible culture (what our observations really mean). We talked about:
- gender roles: they are very defined here in Chile. The men are men and the women take care of them.
- Familial interaction: the kids live at home until they get married, sometimes 30 and older. And they act like 14 year olds. The moms do everything for them (cook, wash their clothes, make their beds, clean their rooms, everything)
- Making Chilean friends: it is so hard because they have super tight groups of friends, aren’t necessarily outgoing, although they are very nice when you initiate.
- The boyfriend/girlfriend situation: almost everyone over the age of 14 has a pololo or boyfriend/girlfriend. And they spend all their time together and there is no concept of PDA in Chile.
- Chilean concept of time: its very fluid and there is no such thing as time management. They are generally very inefficient with their time in United States terms.
- Food, exercise, and body image: Chileans like there food and a lot of it. Most Chilean women have a bit of meat on their bones and almost never exercise. But this is also very variable on class. The upper class is more US like: skinny women that are overly concerned about their body image.
After the taller we ate the almuerzos we’d brought from home then picked incredible, huge, juicy tangerines from the huge tangerine tree in the back by the vineyard with the Andes in the background. In was one of those, “I can’t believe I’m doing this right now” moments.
Next we went to a small winery called Viña San Esteban. We had a great tour and learned how they make the wine (a very very complicated process) then had a wine tasting. I felt very cultured. We headed back to Santiago around 5:00 and got there at about 7:30 because of the horrible traffic in the city. Courtney, Lorin and I tried to go to a musical at La Católica called La Opera de Asis about the life of Saint Francis of Asís (his feast day is October 4th) but the tickets were all sold out. So instead we got dinner at a restaurant across the street from campus. We split a delicious chicken pizza and I was completely stuffed. So much for giving up bread and eating healthy all week right!?!?
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