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 But the statue wasn’t there (it had been replaced by Saint Vincent!).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.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
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!?!?
Thursday, September 27, 2007 Day 1 of my 4 day weekend: Superhero Teacher Day
Thursday, September 27, 2007 Day 1 of my 4 day weekend: Superhero Teacher Day
I woke up at the butt crack of dawn to head over to Colegio San Lawerence to transform the minds of eager young students. Right…the first two classes went relatively well. Senorita Mabel (I finally figured out her name) asked me to do a small lesson on the plural form in English. Luckily she had a teacher guide with an extensive description, so I followed that. It is way more complicated than I’ve ever thought! (Who’s idea was it to change –y to –ie when an s is added. But the –y doesn’t change when it is preceded by an o, and a, or a u! Boo for English. And I thought learning Spanish was hard!) I think the kids understood, but I’m probably just fooling myself.
The third class, which Mabel always reminds me is the class from hell, really acted like that today. They didn’t listen to anything either of us said. They are basically like what you see at the beginning of a classic superhero teacher movie. Except I don’t feel like one of those amazing teachers that comes in and tames them all and they end up being perfect angels and winning some big time competition in the end. I feel like I want to kill one of them to set an example then super glue their annoying little butts to their seats and their mouths shut. Wow, now let me tell you how I really feel!
I just couldn’t imagine dealing with that every day. I go once a week for 4.5 hours and when I leave and I absolutely exhausted. I think Mabel is about to give up on them and just let them watch movies in English for the rest of the semester. Unfortunately, I’m afraid that might be the best option, mostly for her (and my) sanity.
After dealing with the monsters, I took the metro home. And for the first time since I’ve been here, I sat down on the floor of the metro: There were no seats open but I was so tired I couldn’t image standing all the way home. So I sat down. On the floor. This may seem strange, but it was quite significant for me.
Olga and I had almuerzo then I headed to bed to take a nap. I ended up sleeping till about 4:30, upset that I’d slept that much. I went for a quick run, showered, then worked on some homework till about 6:45. Then Olga and I walked to mass at another church super close by called San Vincente de Paul. Today is his feast day, so we wanted to go there to celebrate! I was thinking of Pappy and all the work he does with Saint Vinny’s in Eureka and was thrilled to be apart of the mass to celebrate the patron saint of the poor. The mass didn’t start till 7:15 but didn’t finish till almost 8:30! It was beautiful with everyone singing and the priest said a great homily. After mass Olga and I walked home quickly because we both had to pee! We had once, then I headed to bed to talk to Trevor, then I worked until I fell asleep.
I woke up at the butt crack of dawn to head over to Colegio San Lawerence to transform the minds of eager young students. Right…the first two classes went relatively well. Senorita Mabel (I finally figured out her name) asked me to do a small lesson on the plural form in English. Luckily she had a teacher guide with an extensive description, so I followed that. It is way more complicated than I’ve ever thought! (Who’s idea was it to change –y to –ie when an s is added. But the –y doesn’t change when it is preceded by an o, and a, or a u! Boo for English. And I thought learning Spanish was hard!) I think the kids understood, but I’m probably just fooling myself.
The third class, which Mabel always reminds me is the class from hell, really acted like that today. They didn’t listen to anything either of us said. They are basically like what you see at the beginning of a classic superhero teacher movie. Except I don’t feel like one of those amazing teachers that comes in and tames them all and they end up being perfect angels and winning some big time competition in the end. I feel like I want to kill one of them to set an example then super glue their annoying little butts to their seats and their mouths shut. Wow, now let me tell you how I really feel!
I just couldn’t imagine dealing with that every day. I go once a week for 4.5 hours and when I leave and I absolutely exhausted. I think Mabel is about to give up on them and just let them watch movies in English for the rest of the semester. Unfortunately, I’m afraid that might be the best option, mostly for her (and my) sanity.
After dealing with the monsters, I took the metro home. And for the first time since I’ve been here, I sat down on the floor of the metro: There were no seats open but I was so tired I couldn’t image standing all the way home. So I sat down. On the floor. This may seem strange, but it was quite significant for me.
Olga and I had almuerzo then I headed to bed to take a nap. I ended up sleeping till about 4:30, upset that I’d slept that much. I went for a quick run, showered, then worked on some homework till about 6:45. Then Olga and I walked to mass at another church super close by called San Vincente de Paul. Today is his feast day, so we wanted to go there to celebrate! I was thinking of Pappy and all the work he does with Saint Vinny’s in Eureka and was thrilled to be apart of the mass to celebrate the patron saint of the poor. The mass didn’t start till 7:15 but didn’t finish till almost 8:30! It was beautiful with everyone singing and the priest said a great homily. After mass Olga and I walked home quickly because we both had to pee! We had once, then I headed to bed to talk to Trevor, then I worked until I fell asleep.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Pretty normal, uneventful, but incredibly long Wednesday: Class, mass, class, lunch, class, break, class. I got done a little after 8:30 pm and walked home since it was a beautiful night out. I was exhausted, but had once with Olga, then headed to my bed to work till I fell asleep. (Are you starting to see a pattern with my nightly habits?)
Pretty normal, uneventful, but incredibly long Wednesday: Class, mass, class, lunch, class, break, class. I got done a little after 8:30 pm and walked home since it was a beautiful night out. I was exhausted, but had once with Olga, then headed to my bed to work till I fell asleep. (Are you starting to see a pattern with my nightly habits?)
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
I began my day without class with a nice long, slow run around Parque O’Higgins. It was definitely a different place since the last time I was there for the Fonda on the 18th. There were men still cleaning up, over a week later, but the whole park looked good. I ran home, showered, and had almuerzo with Olga, then worked until around 4:30, when I met up with Tom to go to back to Nuestra Casa. This time we went to Trampoline, the house that is open for anyone to come and hang out, cook, etc. There wasn’t much going on, so I ended up watching V for Vendetta (again!) with the men in the TV room until we all at once together. During once I talked with a well dressed (i.e. he didn’t look homeless man) in English. He’d learned English a long time ago from his sister I think and was thrilled to have someone to practice with. He told me that he was diagnosed with depression and neurosis and that his doctors told him he needed more social interaction, so that is why he comes to Trampoline. Apparently he’s been coming for over a year. Yet another interesting and thought provoking experience.
After once I realized I could get back to the apartment in time for olga and I to walk to mass together if I hurried. So I said a quick goodbye and rushed home. We hustled the 15 minute walk through the heart of the city to go to mass at San Francisco, one of the oldest structures in all of Santiago, literally right down town. It’s a beautiful old stone church that has survived many earthquakes and is a beautiful monument in the midst of the modernity of the city. Every Tuesday they do a mass for San Antonio, patron saint of lost causes. At the end of mass we were able to kiss a medal of San Antonio’s, which was probably a 2nd class relic. The most interesting part was when after mass when we went to kiss the relic, they handed everyone bread. I had no idea why, but I kindly took my piece. Olga just giggled, knowing I had no idea what was going on. While we walked home, she explained that every morning bakeries and other people bring bread to the church, which the church hands out to homeless and other hungry people. But the people bring so much bread that if there is any left over, they give it to the people after mass. Olga was quite pleased with our sack full of bread, but laughed at the fact that I wouldn’t eat any! ( I guess I haven’t written about this, but beginning this week, I’m not eating any more bread! We are eating much healthier: lots of veggies, no oil on the salads, smaller portions, scrabbled instead of fried eggs, and most of all: NO BREAD! Olga still eats a little, but I just cut it out.) After mass we had once then I headed to my bed to work till I fell asleep.
I began my day without class with a nice long, slow run around Parque O’Higgins. It was definitely a different place since the last time I was there for the Fonda on the 18th. There were men still cleaning up, over a week later, but the whole park looked good. I ran home, showered, and had almuerzo with Olga, then worked until around 4:30, when I met up with Tom to go to back to Nuestra Casa. This time we went to Trampoline, the house that is open for anyone to come and hang out, cook, etc. There wasn’t much going on, so I ended up watching V for Vendetta (again!) with the men in the TV room until we all at once together. During once I talked with a well dressed (i.e. he didn’t look homeless man) in English. He’d learned English a long time ago from his sister I think and was thrilled to have someone to practice with. He told me that he was diagnosed with depression and neurosis and that his doctors told him he needed more social interaction, so that is why he comes to Trampoline. Apparently he’s been coming for over a year. Yet another interesting and thought provoking experience.
After once I realized I could get back to the apartment in time for olga and I to walk to mass together if I hurried. So I said a quick goodbye and rushed home. We hustled the 15 minute walk through the heart of the city to go to mass at San Francisco, one of the oldest structures in all of Santiago, literally right down town. It’s a beautiful old stone church that has survived many earthquakes and is a beautiful monument in the midst of the modernity of the city. Every Tuesday they do a mass for San Antonio, patron saint of lost causes. At the end of mass we were able to kiss a medal of San Antonio’s, which was probably a 2nd class relic. The most interesting part was when after mass when we went to kiss the relic, they handed everyone bread. I had no idea why, but I kindly took my piece. Olga just giggled, knowing I had no idea what was going on. While we walked home, she explained that every morning bakeries and other people bring bread to the church, which the church hands out to homeless and other hungry people. But the people bring so much bread that if there is any left over, they give it to the people after mass. Olga was quite pleased with our sack full of bread, but laughed at the fact that I wouldn’t eat any! ( I guess I haven’t written about this, but beginning this week, I’m not eating any more bread! We are eating much healthier: lots of veggies, no oil on the salads, smaller portions, scrabbled instead of fried eggs, and most of all: NO BREAD! Olga still eats a little, but I just cut it out.) After mass we had once then I headed to my bed to work till I fell asleep.
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