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.

beach weekend take two

it's springtime in santiago, and my new favorite beach, Viña del Mar, is a short busride away. we (all girls--amy, julie, jessica, jennifer and bethany) piled into the bus shortly after class on friday and made the trip out. we stayed in a hotel that was a converted mansion, although with the confusion we sustained over booking fees and deposits i wouldn't highly recomment it. however, it included breakfast and was a short four minute walk to the beach. friday night we passed with an awesome dinner at an italian restaurant, followed by trying to get in to the local casino. they charge an entrance fee, and it's more than $6! we weren't going to pay to go in and lose money, so we skipped a block north to hit up happy hour at a bar called margaritas. they marched us gringas to the third floor where we enjoyed huge and perfect margaritas and watched the live entertainment on a television screen-- they were playing downstairs.

we woke up yesterday and did the required tourist shopping. i considered buying an ashtray for my friend andrew who grew up there, but opted for a shot glass (for myself) instead. we saw the main plaza and the quinta vergara, both featuring the old palacios from colonial times. as the heat grew we appeased ourselves with ice cream, bought big bottles of water and headed to the beach. we ended up spending five hours there, sitting in a circle and checking out everyone as much as they were checking us out. a bunch of skimboarders entertained us for most of the afternoon, and i made eyes with one in particular who to me, only got cuter as the day progressed. the best part of the afternoon with the very loud and open sex talk that transpired, only made more entertaining by the fact that no one around us understood what we were saying.

after dinner at a chinese buffet (in spanish they are called tenedor libre-- free fork), we headed up the coast to meet up with a friend from AU. her apartment was on the 20th floor of an ocean front building, and we passed the night with piscolas and merriment. we got home around 3, woke up this morning and caught the bus home. they run every 15 minutes. it was one of the best weekends of the trip.

ingles abre puertas

today was our first real taste of helping teach english in a chilean school. the trip only takes about and hour, and we (jennifer and i) end up at liceo victor jara in la pintana. the english teacher is young, and she speaks to us in spanish. jennifer's parents are colombian so she understands everything, i understand most of it, and everything goes along pretty smoothly. she asked us how the school compares to american schools (igual, mejor o peor?), and jennifer told her that it's hard to compare them. this school is the largest in the neighborhood and it's an art school, so theatre, dance and music are an important part of the curriculum. the classes are packed with 35+ kids and they all talk at once, climbing over desks to get to their seats and shouting across the room. the teacher, aracelly, never loses her patience and rarely raises her voice, and the activities get done. she teaches 3rd through 8th grade, and today we got to see a 3rd grade class and a 6th grade class.

the third graders were ecstatic to see us. i tried to pretend that i didn't speak spanish, but that only lasted for about 3 minutes. they wanted to know everything--where i am from, how i know spanish, how to say all of their names in english, how to say things like perro and gato in ingles. they were working on learning clothing, and had a lot of trouble differentiating between shirt and skirt. hey asked for our autographs and one boy (9 years old!) whipped out a camera phone and took my picture.

the 6th graders were a lot different, sitting gender segregated and asking us more questions about boyfriends and guns and roses and if i had ever played zelda. when i told them i had an N64 they almost lost it, and when i said that my sister had a wii they asked how old she was. i told them 23, and they replied, don't you have any younger sisters? the girls made us paper flowers on which they had sprayed cheap perfume, and again they asked us how to say their names in english. we had so much more fun than we anticipated.

and my favorite part was that we realized the bus takes us straight back to my metro station, making the return journey closer to 40 minutes.

hurrah!

back from the beach

so, i bought a ticket on tuesday to pichilemu, which is a 3 hr bus ride to the southwest of santiago. my guide book told me it had a charming victorian feel and hosted the first casino in chile. it failed to mention that the only victorian building is the casino, which is currently being restored. there are about a million little cabins and hotels to stay in once you get there, and i had researched cabañas hecmar, which were about six blocks out of town. the best thing about it was, though, no matter where you walked you weren't more than 3 blocks away from the beach. and what a beach! the sand was dark which kept my feet warm during the cloudy weather, and the swells were some of the biggest ive ever seen. apparently it's the surf capital of the sixth region, and i understand why.
i met my friend gina in pucón. she's from chicago and is studying in concepción. i messaged her to see if she was interested, and we met up in pichilemu on friday. we mostly walked around the town, sat on the beach, took a few pictures and went grocery shopping. the cabin was awesome because it had cable and a full service kitchen, so we spent the nights making dinner and watching american movies with spanish subtitles. had the clouds gone away it would have been a perfect beach weekend, but oh well, we still had a great time. after she boarded her bus back home i made a quick (and cheap 80 cents) lunch and watched arrested development, which hasnt gone into syndication in the states yet. chile knows whats up

my favorite part of the trip was the cost. my bus ticket was $9 down and $8 back. since its still off season, the cabin was $26 dollars a night, so split it was $26 for the weekend. we ate out once, which cost $9, and the rest of the time we ate groceries which totaled about $7. i spent $3 on souvenirs, so all together it came to$62. not bad for a weekend.

let's talk

ive been reading my friends blogs and realized that they do a way better job of logging their experiences abroad. ive lately been using this site as a cop out to post pictures, thinking that they express what's really happening right now. i have so many small experiences that, in addition to the bigger experiences, make this whole thing pretty amazing.

to start, today on the way home this woman asked me in spanish if i knew the bible. she didn't really seem to believe when i told her yes, and she kept asking me if i understood it, because its very hard to understand. i told her yes again, and she asked me where i was from. we exchanged a little in english, she said she had been in new york for three months and when i asked her if she liked it she said "not to live. i prefer my own country". i understood completely. she ended up giving me a religious track, in spanish, talking about how difficult the bible is to understand.

being away last week made me realize that i need to travel as much as i can. i bought a bus ticket to a small beach town called Pichilemu. it set me back about 4.500 pesos ($9). when we were in Pucón we met these two girls from Chicago who are studying in Concepción. one was Gina, and she's meeting me in Pichilemu this friday to pass a calm and hopefully dull weekend out of the city.

Pucón was as beautiful as everyone told me it would be. a friend of a friend, jack, studied there (or in the general area) when he was in high school, and without knowing that we already had plans to go there, he recommended it to us. the first day we did a 40km bike ride, all the way to these waterfalls called ojos de caburga. we didn't know it was going to be that long (it converts to 25 miles, más o menos) but it was definitely an experience. the next few days were spent being generally lazy, since the holiday took up a whole day. we took a rowboat out on lake villaricca for about 30 minutes, we ate lunch, we lounged around our hostel, we drank chicha. chicha is a traditional sparkling alcohol made from grapes, but it's not the same as pisco. i guess its traditional because we've only heard about it around fiestas patrias, and we haven't seen it since.

one of the best choices on the trip was to take a day excursion to Valdivia, which is my new favorite place that i've been so far. the day started off like shit-- we thought the gate was locked; the three other girls jumped the wall and amy skinned her knee. i woke up the owner of the hostel to let me out, because the only bus available by the time we bought the tickets was at 6:05 and i thought i was going to miss it. weve learned that buses in chile dont generally run on schedule, and at about 7 we finally boarded the bus. it only took about 2 hours to get there, but since it was the morning after independence day everything was closed and people were still drunk. luckily we found a kitch-tastic seafood restaurant to eat breakfast, which really was like eating lunch at 930 am. luckily fish markets never sleep, and we hit that up, staring at the pelicans, sea lions and rows of every kind of seafood, including purple crabs! we also found a really cheap artisan market and bought souvenirs to our hearts content.

that day (sept 19) was the military celebration day, and we watched the parade with much enthusiasm. at one point we spent about an hour just watching the rows of young chilean men pass, trying to wink at them. our favorite part was that their army has a special ski department to rescue people in the mountains.
the next part of the day was spent taking a boat tour down the river to see two spanish forts from the 17th century. i cant even describe the views, but the best way is to say that i felt like i was in a decemberists song. a strong colonial european air was left about the island (isla mancera and isla corral), something really beautiful and interesting. we were on the boat for about 6 hours. we ate lunch and had a small dessert with tea, and the whole thing was $24. i highly recommend it next to youre down there.

other than that, i guess i've got no much else to report. i promise to try to be better about updating with funny anecdotes and whatnot. until then, take care of the us for me.

my mom asked me to post these

pictures of pucon and valdivia

dissent is patriotic

im finally starting to pick up on the more subtle nuances of the culture here, and im finally starting to understand why people dont hate pinochet as much as we think they should. at first i thought it was just because he straightened out the economy and made goods and services available again, and that's part of it, but it goes deeper than that. pinochet truly did run a police state, as someone explained to me last night. the streets were safe at any time of night, and crime didnt happen because the punishments were so severe. i tried to counter that security like that is valuable but not as valuable as political freedom, but my friend didnt want to hear it. i suppose it all stems back to maslow's hierarchy of needs, where intellectual needs can only be met once basic biological needs are filled-food, medicine, etc. the chileans miss the rightist dictator because although they forsook their liberties they were provided for. the exchange was worth it.

perhaps im just too american or maybe i really dont understand the situation as well as i think i do, but i cant imagine living like this. i get upset when i think the us government can check my library records, but i here i have an ID card with my right thumb print on it. i value my ability to disagree much more than the security of knowing i wont be robbed. its almost like the ability to make the wrong decision is more important than actually making it. it's the freedom of choice, the liberty to exist as one wishes, and to not forsake this for lesser ideals.

pucón

im in pucón right now, and yesterday the casino burned down! i have pictures that i´ll post when i get home to santiago, but for now here´s a link. sorry it´s in spanish, but there is a picture.

fiestas patrias

chilean independence day is september 18th, and this week it falls on a tuesday. this means that the chilenos get monday off too, making the long weekend start today and end on thursday. university students get the whole week off. so, in order to celebrate this together the university closed and a party started in the common area at about 1230 today. cerveza was 400 pesetas (about 80 cents), piscola was 500ps (an even buck). we learned some tipical chilean dances and met a lot of new chilean friends before we had to dash off to watch a movie about the overthrow of salvador allende (as one classmate put it, kindof a buzzkill. i mean, we each had a few piscolas).
all im saying is the us needs to step it up come fourth of july. it needs to be a week long thing, at least, and it needs to make us as proud as the chilenos are. or at least as drunk.

mariscos

so my chilean mom, patricia, was really craving some locos, which as far as they could explain to me is seafood. like a shrimp, but not, is what david added. so they decided to go out for lunch (the first time in three weeks that i've eaten out with them) and we ended up across the city at a seafood restaurant called ocean pacific's. i knew i'd feel at home at any seafood restaurant, but i couldn't have imagined the greatness of this one-- it was like souvenir city in restaurant form! we walked in and everything- the walls, floors, ceilings, tables- was covered in tacky shells, fake fish, mermaids and pirates. and to top it all off, everything was for sale. seashell crusted mirrors, hanging shell lamps, mounted fish (i didn't even attempt explaining a white marlin or the tournament). patricia got her locos, which was really similar to eating conch (so, not exactly shrimp like after all). i ate calamari, and we listened to what could only be described as a mix of music from disneyworld and the best of the 60s and 70s. the whole time i was enchanted that my favorite store had been turned into the kitch-iest restaurant ever.
que rico!

this one's all about me

so, i stole these from all my friends' pictures. since i never get tired of looking at myself i thought everyone else might enjoy these too.

the first one, with my sunglasses, that one's pretty cool because you can see the mountains in the reflection. you can also see the photographer, jess. next is me pointing in the middle of some valley. they stopped the tour buses on the hotsprings to show us this weird moss (which isnt pictured) that the miners burned as fuel. now it's endangered. i had to pee and was being ornery, so i stood on a rock and kelly took a picture. you can just barely see the moon in the sky. it was about 8 am.

next is me in the streets of san pedro wearing this face mask that i lifted from a pizza shop. im currently working on how to incorporate it into my halloween costume. fourth is me trying to sandboard; no surprise that after about 7 feet or 10 mph i would fall over. you can just barely see that i was wearing my handkerchief over my mouth, swearing it made me go faster. also, our teacher, eduardo, is standing at the top of the hill in the orange board shorts totally checking me out. he drove me there in his truck (it was actually called the valley of death) and he kept turning around asking, "estas bien?" it's safe to say he was my first real chilean crush.

finally there's me at the crest of the hill/mountain in the valley of the moon watching the sunset. it really was one of the best trips i have ever experienced.

this one's for my mom

so the last time i talked to my moms on the phone she asked if there were any animals here. there are about a zillion stray dogs in the city, but not much more. since i just got back from the desert, i thought i'd display the wide range of animals i saw. you can guess what most of them are; little llamas and a fox. there are flamingos in one picture and the other bird is called a giant cot. click here for the rest of the pictures from the trip.

here's me in front a shrine to the virgin mary in la catdral in the plaza de armas. i only took this picture because i saw chileans do it first.


tomorrow there are major labor practice demonstrations planned in the streets of santiago. in addition, the allegedly terrible transantiago bus system is also a greivance worth quejando (complaining) about. this means transit is shot (supposedly) and there may be no way to get to school tomorrow. above and beyond that, going out downtown may be dangerous. when the crowds get too big huge police trucks come out and spray water on people and also sometimes teargas. we learned the best foil to this is eating a lemon, so that's a common joke now amongst us. our program director told us "i don't want you going there" and we all replied, "it's ok, we'll just bring lemons!". anyway, the judgement will come in the form of a phone call tonight after the 9pm evening news, so we all sit, like kids waiting for the weather report the night before a snowday, and we just keeping asking ourselves will it stick?

and mom don't worry, i won't mess with the riot.

emily's hostmother wrote a children's book and we were invited to the release party. i pictured it like a chic nyc book release party, only on the top floor of a high rise in downtown santiago. it was actually in the cultural center of la reina. we entered through a hallway with very graphic portraits of various bare body parts; there was even a picture of a barbie doll with her legs spread. whatever, it's art. but then we enter a room with children's music playing, tables set up with cookies and cakes and a stage with a whimsical backdrop. kids are filing in, i guess through the porno hallway, and some are dressed in halloween costumes. shortly, a lady comes out and plays us a song on the guitar, and then enter a few kids and an older man in a costume who sit down to be the audience. emily's mom, teresa, had come in with them and she sat down to read the story. but, she only read selected parts. carl and issell bought the book later, and it was a solid 40-50 pages. a children's book. they sang another song, then there was some dancing and then they gave out candy, and as we sat eating it we noticed the costumed man get up and hug the guitar player, then kiss her, then they made out just a little. pda is very common in santiago, but for teenagers on the street who can't makeout in their houses. not in front of kids on sugarhighs. a few minutes later we noticed these adults plus a few more had moved into the courtyard to smoke cigarettes.
cultural adjustment.

finally a good story

so, we had lunch the other day at some restaurant called "los heroes: restauran, bar y mas" there were six of us so they took us to the basement where we were the only ones. seis gringos. the placemats had sudoku and on tv there was this weird 80s channel and each successive song was better than the last. we ate a full meal, even postres (dessert) and two pitchers of beer and the whole lunch cost $8 each. it's our new favorite spot.
so then we walked around downtown and ended up at la plaza de armas (seen above). we found a street performer with a large crowd of about 100 people, and right away he singled us out. "Gringos! Where are you from? Come a-here! United States y Chile, Washington, y Chile!" He brought us into the center of the circle, made fun of us, made fun of the crowd, asked the boys if they were gay, sang a little Donna Summers, and even had some interactive play acting where we each picked up Emily while saying, "Tranquilo, bebe, yo te salvare!" (Calm down, babe, I'll save you). This was about a 30 minute experience, and he was almost done with us but he needed a final stunt. He excused all of us but Carl who insists he was feeling the cerveza and asked Carl to promise him something. He spit on his hand and Carl did the same and they shook, much to the entertainment of the crowd. Then he explained, "the Gringo promised that if I got 40 tips, he would kiss me". The crowd started passing out their coins, and before we knew it the guy had 40 tips. He chased Carl around the circle for a good 2 minutes, and finally he laid a big wet one on him. Asqueroso! Carl tried to laugh it off but we were all a bit traumatized. Oh, Santiago. And weird street performers who smell.

i'm here

i made it!
here's the view from my bedroom window.

tomorrow we are going to the supermercado!

one week left

i took the 930 am N4 bus that picks up right across from the berkshire apartments and rode it down massachusetts avenue. at the cathedral stop my friend garreth got on the bus, but i didn't stop him for his attention. garreth is so cute and happened to have done the same program in santiago last year. i was excited just to be on the same bus as him.
so i got off at the first dupont circle stop and i started walking, and as the bus passed me i was spotted. he got off the bus at the stop near the krispy kreme and approached me directly. it was great; he walked me to the consulate and we talked about the summer and the neighborhood where i'll be staying, which is where he lived as well. i just love how no matter where i go in dc, i see someone i know.

so i got to my appointment on time, and as i waited for my stamps and seals i watched the chilean news station they were playing. last night it snowed in santiago for the first time in 8 years. it was the coldest day in the last 10 years. and in dc? the hottest day in 10 years. funny. funny how i will go from 100 degrees farenheit to about 0 to -5 celsius in one 9 hour flight.

but the visa is out of the way, permanently stamped in my passport.
now it's a one week countdown.

una ciudad pequena

last night i dreamed that i landed in santiago and from the plane i could see the whole city. there was a large monument that i recognized as the center of the city, and i could also see my house. there were no mountains, and i remarked, "wow, it's a small city." then a strong feeling of shock came over me, and i realized i was really in south america, embarking on this once in a lifetime adventure.

the dream came back to me today at lunch and i laughed at the way my brain had depicted it. it made me want to look up real pictures of the city, to buy maps and brush up on my vocab; but, it also made me realize what i really will feel like when i get there, and now the first pangs of anxiety are beginning.

august 9th, 10 am
i will have a visa.
(hopefully).

my passport is in there

$25 later (on mom's credit card) my visa application is on its way to the consulate via federal express.

the federal government and my attempts at negotiating it

after several weeks of emailing the fbi asking for my background check i uncovered a west virginia number that i could call to check on the progress. the woman told me there was a four month backlog of work and that they would do their best to get it to me on time.
a week passed and this morning i called senator cardin's office to get a little help. the lady on the other end, joyce, took my information and assured me they would look into it.
an hour later i get a phone call from my mom,
"what does your fbi thing look like? because there's this thing here with your fingerprints and on the back there's a stamp that says, 'no criminal record'."

i had to call joyce back and leave her a voicemail telling her to call off the investigation. when i return home next week i will collect my things and head to the chilean consulate in dc to apply in person for my visa.

one step closer to santiago.

pre-departure

chile looms on the horizon almost like a mirage, it doesn't seem to get closer.
right now i've concerned myself mainly with gathering my things for a visa, which requires proof that i have no fbi record, that i don't have hiv, and that i have $100. most of these things are simple, but waiting on the government seems to be what stands in my way.

i'm trying not to worry.
other than that i've been told to bring sunscreen and peanut butter because the latter is hard to find and both are expensive.
dually noted.