this is it, i guess

so i'm back in the us of a.
brazil was amazing. i've never been anywhere as hot, as humid, as colorful and vibrant as Brazil. i landed in Rio and stuck around for about 24 hours. we went to the beach at copacabana, visited a working favela (a slum). then we were off to the capital, brasilia.
the city sits in the middle of the savanna, actually locating in the rainforest but you wouldn't be able to tell. it was a completely planned city, built in the shadow of the ussr in the 70s. it's shaped like an airplane. all (or most) buildings were designed by neimeyer, who designed the UN building in new york. people live in superblocks, which are rows and columns of apartment buildings, named only by numbers. we felt like we were living 1984.
our program had set us up at the nicest hotel in brasilia, one who flew the UN flag as high as the Brazilian flag because it hosted so many heads of state and dignitaries. we rolled in at 12 pm with pizza and beer and the concierge rolled their eyes.
anyway, 24 hrs in brasilia was enough and we headed off to salvador de bahia. the city sits 13 degrees south of the equator, and my hair has never been as curly in my life. the influence of afro-brazilian life was fascinating, especially since racism practically does not exist there. everyone wants dark skin, nice hips and to be able to samba. our tour guide told us if you are white in salvador you're either sick or a tourist. we got a lot of time to walk around the old town, go to the beach, the pool, go shopping. on our last day we took a boat tour to two islands, drank caipirinhas (the brazilian national drink) i ate shrimp and we tanned. we were so sad to leave one of the most beautiful countries in the world.

so my last week in santiago was spent writing papers and doing finals. it was sad to say goodbye to our kids in la pintana. our last day in spanish was spent doing oral presentations, which included a song about pinochet and the making of pisco sours and passing out of manjar cake. it was a really great way to leave our universidad diego portales. we went out and partied on friday and saturday night; i reunited with a chilean friend named pablo whom i had met in september. on sunday marie and i went to viña and stayed with my friend char.
on tuesday i went to the concha y toro vineyard with bevin, then i had lunch with pablo in bellavista and we went to the top of cerro san cristobal via furnicular. i got home to la reina, then my mother and brother drove me to the airport. we cried when we said goodbye, and i landed in baltimore on wednesday at 10am.

i miss chile already. here's a despedida video i made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u9zLry8Kjw

all apologies

i had no idea that i hadn't updated in so long. it's probably because between that last birthday party and when my family came to visit, i had either a presentation, test or paper every other day for ten days. the boring side of a gringa abroad. still, i appreciate the interest from everyone and can promise that this entry will be so long that you never want to read this blog again.

to start, my mom landed in chile on the sunday before thanksgiving, and i cried at the airport when i saw her. it had been the longest stretch of time in my whole life that i had not seen her, since i'm the spoiled maryland kid that goes to school in dc. my chilean mother (didn't that get confusing, differentiating between my american mom and my chilean mom, since refer to both as simply mom) took us to the aparthotel, which i guess is when they rent out unsold apartment units as hotels. it was killer, with a pool on the roof and everything. we had lunch at my house in la reina. this is when i found out my whole family speaks english! i knew that my brother does because he went to bilingual school, but my chilean mother understands almost everything if you just say it slowly enough! i've been tricked this whole time!

after a delicious chilean lunch that i'm sure my birthmother enjoyed we went to a little touristy town called pomaire to the southwest of santiago. the industry there is based on a type of terra cotta clay that they make everything out of. i bought a vidrificado necklace-- vidrio means glass-- and mom took advantage of how cheap everything was, buying three purses and necklaces and more. we ate ice cream and the whole time i acted as translator between my mothers, since though patti understands english, she feels more comfortable talking in spanish.
the next day mom found the mercado central in my tourbook that i obviously had not read enough of. it is right next to the river on the yellow line at cal y canto, but i still got us lost a little bit because the market was actually inside of this huge yellow building. but once we got in, oh wow. there were fish stalls and restaurants and stray cats and vegetable stands. mom loved it. we ate apples and peaches that we bought there and then got reeled in by a waiter at the restaurant in the center called la joya del mar-- the jewel of the sea-- who promised us a plate for two of salmon and two sides for about $8. he did not disappoint, either. for $20 the two of us ate parmesean clams and the salmon, with two drinks plus two complimentary pisco sours and digestives.

the next few days we spent with me in school and my mom showing herself around santiago, which actually paid off since on the day that i was in school taking two final exams she was by the gubernatorial palace, la moneda, watching la presidenta michele bachelet. i tried to teach her how to say it in spanish, which usually ended in her saying "yo vi michele goulet".

on thanksgiving she made mashed potatoes and we went to my program director's house to eat. we got to call my aunt on a vonage phone. she didnt answer ar first, but she called right back. i told her, "aunt tina, this might be a really expensive call for you."
"why?" she asked.
"well, cause we're in chile" i replied.
"oh shit. call me back" she said and the phone clicked.
we hadn't planned on calling the family, but once i heard everyone on the other side i was glad that we did.
bonny landed that night, so we were off to the airport again. she found us and we headed out to the car. patti asked me why i was being so cold to her, i guess because we didn't hug and i didn't cry upon her arrival. it was kindof funny because that's how it usually goes when we see each other, plus mom was too busy hugging her.
on friday we went to viña del mar and valparaiso, and had a really nice family time. we rode the bus where they sold us fanta, but i soon realized that it was the only bus in chile i had ever taken that did not have a bathroom. what an anomaly. they saw the ocean and rode an ascensor in valpo, and i gave them a mini tour modeled off the one i had taken a few weeks earlier. in both santiago and valpo we missed pablo neruda's house because of time.
on saturday we went to the market across from the cerro santa lucia, where santiago was founded. bonny didn't feel that great, which wasn't a good combination with the heat. we went to my house for a delicious lunch, then andrea drove us to the teleferico, or cable cars and we rode to the top of cerro san cristobal. it was really beautiful to see the whole city, we ate cotton candy and then we rode down to Bellavista in the funicular on the other side of the hill. We walked around the barrio until it was time to go home, where we stopped for an ice cream once (once is like a smaller version of dinner) and bonny got coffee. we slept, and on sunday i led the mad rush back to la reina so i could hurry off to rio de janeiro, brasil.

their trip was too short and so was our goodbye. we left them at the metro station, i told mom i'd see her in 3 weeks and i looked at bons and said i didnt know when i'd see her. then we got in the car and patti drove 100 feet to the gas station, where i could still see them. i figured by the time i walked over to them the elevator they were waiting for would have come, so i sat in the car and i cried.

pictures to come, give me a few hours and i'll write all about brazil.

in a phrase

we celebreated julie's birthday last night at a club that my brother described as "muy top".
let's just say that our group of (mostly) girls was matched by a group of air force boys from argentina. a solid 30 of them.

hallelujah!

they talk weird

my chilean mother has been wanting to go to mendoza, argentina for a while, and of course i've wanted to go with. she came into my room on tuesday to say that she was leaving on wednesday, and could i go? que lastima, i had a presentation in class that day, not to mention a 5 page paper to write, a spanish class on friday that i skipped the week before to go to buenos aires, and a guided tour of valparaiso on saturday. so obviously, i didn't go. i did, however, ask her if i could throw a halloween party for the gringos, and she said claro.

halloween is a weird imported american holiday here, and the children love it like any smart child should, but adults generally turn up their noses at it. we've done ok jobs of assimilating, but you can't be a 20 year old american and not want to dress up and be silly, so i invited all the kids over (and a few chileans, who never showed). i didn't realized that the kids in our little townhouse development were going trick or treating, but i was happy that for the first time in my life i was on the other side of "dulces o travesuras", handing out the candy. it made me feel like an adult. however, i gave away too many and soon we were only left with cookies covered in nutella to give to the kiddies.

one little girl approached our door with her father and i explained to her, in spanish, that we didn't have candy but we had cookies. she was very cautious, picked one up and put it down, asking her dad what it was. we explained they were just chocolate cookies, and she backed away from us and stared at her father, asking, "papi, they talk funny!"
hahah!
i told her that it was because we werent from chile, but she wasn't having it. she looked thoroughly freaked out, and the dad looked thoroughly entertained by the crazy gringos still celebrating halloween.

a weekend in between

wow, do i have a lot to recount.
last time i left off i was in cusco, peru doing to touristy thing. the next day we headed to the infamous machu picchu. it took a two hour bus ride plus a rather pleasant two hour train ride to reach the town at the bottom of the mountain-- Aguas Calientes. Our globalization professor had explained to us the proximity of Machu Picchu to the rainforest, calling it the "ceja de la selva", which literally means the eyebrow of the jungle. we noticed the difference in flora right away, all the green was lush and full and the air a bit more humid although we were in the mountains. they don't exactly know for what reason the site existed, but there's a good chance that it was chosen because it looks down on surrounding valleys but cannot be seen from below. it was untouched by the spanish conquistadors and "discovered" in the early half of the twentieth century by hiram bingham. and the llamas still roam there today.

the next day we went to a weaving center where we learned the entire process from shearing to finished tapestry. the women wore traditional dress which we assumed was just for the gringos' entertainment, but as we drove around outside of the city we noticed more and more people dressed in this fashion. it felt good to get farther away from the tourism, and we were lucky enough to get to visit a rural school near the valle sagrado. it sat in the middle of a dry field, and the children greeted us with smiles and excitement. 24 gringos and just as many peruvian children, their cheeks permanently burned and dried from the intense sun and lack of sufficient water. we sang songs with them, talked, played futbol, duck duck goose, gave them candy and lots of hugs. when the teacher told us the school had no water-- NO water-- we gathered out water bottles and passed them around. one boy tried to take a whole bottle from me and i told him "estamos tomando o pasando, son para compartir" (we are drinking or passing, these are for sharing), and he replied, "ella tiene dos en su mochilla" (she has two in her bags). what could we do? the children were so poor that they stole the water for themselves, a kind of desperation that no child should have to experience. it was the best part of the trip.

we hit up a salt mine after that, headed back to cusco and bargained our way through a feria artesenal. i bought a baby alpaca blanket for $18, it's softer than the butt of a baby human.
the next day we got up to fly to lima, the capital. it was overcast and dirtier than cusco, but i liked it because it seemed more genuine. we toured a cathedral and a small museum, then ate lunch and were given the options of going back to the museum or going to el monesterio de san francisco- the monestary of saint francis. this was my choice, because underneath the beautiful church are CATACOMBS! i consider myself an aficionado; it was one of my favorite parts of my visit to Paris last spring. i convinced enough gringos, and they bone filled basement did not dissappoint! skulls, femurs, hip bones... creepy and awesome. we wrapped up our day in the city driving to the coast, an area called Miraflores. they took us to el parque del amor, the love park, which was beautiful if not rather tacky. then it was off to the airport again, back to santiago.

peru, peruuuu

hola de cusco, peru.
we arrived in the afternoon after several hours of traveling to what is one of my new favorite cities. peru is so much different than chile, in such a vibrant and interesting way. the altitude here is a lot-- 11000 feet maybe? sorry, but anything above sea level to me is high. we have been feeling the altitude for sure, yawning and breathing deeply and wanting to go to sleep. we toured the catedral in the plaza de armas, and learned so much cool stuff about how the incan slaves who built it slipped lots of little superfluous details into the arcitecture, a kind of eff you to the conquistadors. for instance, the carved mary in the shape of a trianle, like a mountain, which symbolized the god they worshipped--the earth. i also learned that the pelican is the symbol of christ because it is the only bird that will peck open its own stomach (thus killing itself) to feed its babies.
we ate dinner at an awesome cafe catering to tourists. i had a hommous appetizer, a ceasar dinner salad and and iced tea (my first one in south america!) for $8, including tip.

now we are off to bed, because we depart for machu picchu at 7 am tomorrow. but really, peru is awesome!

pensando en el poder

ive been thinking about empowerment lately. women´s empowerment especially. theres this one girl in my program who uses what seems like every possible event to talk about it. she always wants to bring up abortion issues, how women have real power and just generally has this air of the really loud neo-feminist doctrine. additionally, we went to a forum on environmental sustainability in chile, and they gave us fridge magnets that said, ¨mujer-- mejor contigo¨. Translation - Woman, it gets better with you.
Woman? Why just woman?
Someone explained that women are targeted here as an emerging social group. in fact, any group that isn´t the white male group is an emerging social group. women here seem to exist in a social status equivalent to women in 1959 America; they sort of sit on the cusp of being equal with men, and in many ways they are, but in general they still walk just a few steps behind.

overall women´s empowerment is important, but i find its place in my life to be omniscient. ive decided that truly empowered women hardly talk about being it, they just act empowered. i told someone once that i never had to learn about Girl Power, because when i was growing up the person providing for me, the most empowered person in my life was a woman--my mom. ive never considered that i might be less capable because of my gender, and i think to even address that discrepancy is to give it too much credit.

im a chick, so what. i still do what i want.