ok, brief rundown of our time in Cabana leading up to now:
*helping out in English classes
*exploring the hidden trails and getting to know all of the various thorny plants(and their fruits!) in the rich valley and steep rocky hills
*the hope of our stomachs shrinking so we would eat less and maybe shed a few Chilean bread pounds has been dashed...peruvian food is delicious and almost always has an enormous base of rice or potatoes.
*bonfire with hotdogs, stagazing, and guitar on a ridge overlooking the valley
*sunrise from the same ridge a few days later
*peruvian cooking lessons. i can now cook pollo estufado
*22 people in a 15 passenger combi from Cabana to Puquio, which took 4 hours but with a lot of time wasted with conversations like:
-hey i paid for my ticket
-well i have a baby
-well i want a window seat
-well i paid my 12 soles
-but i have a baby
-hey i bought htis yesterday and it says seat 3
-well mine says 3 too
-look i´ve got a baby and i need to sit here
-i bought this in Cabana
-they shouldnt have sold yuo that ticket
-well what am i supposed to do, i´ve got this baby
and so on and so forth
*11 hours in the somewhat affectionately named "pee pee bus" which smelled slightly of llama from Puquio to Cusco, arriving this morning
* settled for a nice hostal in the touristy part of town, dspite our usual tendenies to stay as far off the beaten track as possible. but its really cute, relatively cheap, has a kitchen where we can cook, really big really friendly dogs, and lots of Chilean guests(i could tell as soon as i heard them speak!) that we hope to make friend with.right now we´re just a little weirded out by the touristy-ness but understand that its just where we need to be since we have no friends or connections here and venturing awayfrom it could be dangerous...which sucks. but i know there´s a reason we´re here. im not sure what it is yet, but there is someone we´re supposed to meet, some conversation we´re supposed to have, some realization that is to take place and all of these little peices like our red room at the tippy top of the sunny yellow hostal, taxi drivers, camping arrangements and many other things that we can´t possibly forsee. so for now it´s just down to feeling out the "onda" (wavelength, feel) of this new place, living life, finding the life here that made the Incas consider this city the naval of th world. and most importantly, listening.
chau for now!
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
"If you put lime on the octupus, it tastes better"
IM IN PERU!!!!!!!!!!!!
ok. just had to get that out of my system. we flew into Arica (the Chile side of the border) yetsterday and taxied over the border with a super nice man who took care of all the paper work and made sure we knew where we were and what we were doing, and gave us some helpful tips on not getting attacked or stolen from while we´re here. He was Chilean, and one can pretty much draw the conclusion from his opinions that most Chileans are not super fond of the Peruvians, partly because they had a war with them a century ago and some of those old tensions still flare up, but also because the Peruvians are poor and mostly of indigenous blood. if you tell a Chilean this, they will of course deny it, but I have heard entirely too many "I´m not racsit, but those Peruvians....¨comments to not believe that they come from a real place inside them where they believe they are better.
anyway, needless to say we had a bit of aprehension coming into this foreign place from another foreign place where there only say bad things about it. but from what we have seen, Peruvians are the loveliest most helpful people ever. yes, there is obviously a lot more poverty here, it´s dirtier and all that, but it seems as thought the whole country has come together to watch out for us, give us advice, and make sure we know what´s going on. taxi drivers, waiters, possibly shady man who got us a sweet discount on our bus tickets, people on the bus...all very kind and helpful.
anyway, back to events. crossed the border bought our pasajes for Nazca, went to the plaza, ate some kinda crazy good seafood soup(from which came the title of this blog - yes, i ate octopus soup my first afternoon in peru and it was really good!) wandered a little, watched small children play with pigeons and taxied back to the bus terminal. i then had the most AWFUL 20 minutes of my life during which i used more profanities than i have my entire life combined because i thought i had lost my wallet with EVERYTHING in it(except my passport). i was just about to call my dad to cancel the credit cards when my wallet fell out. it just fell. from the heavens. as a gift from the lord. it was actually stuck in between my butt and my backpack and had stayed wedged in there while we walked along a very bust street and through the bus terminal. if it had fallen out any sooner it surely would have been a gonner. luckily it turned out to be a really mean joke form God to teach me to keep up with my crap better. i think it worked. anyway, much laughter and joyful squealing and almost tears ensued. we finally got on a bus to ride for 12 hours to Nasca, our current location. we found a nice hostal which seems to be run by lovely 15-year olds and we will stay there tonight and head out for Puquio and then Cabana (where kim is) in the morning.
all in all, Peru is amazing. I can´t wait to get to know it´s quirks, street foods, heritage, and of course people. more to come soon!
Quick list of fun things:
*people thing we´re Chilean! it´s so fun! i guess its the accent!!! yaaaay! i have succeeded!!!
*the more purple the octopus meat, the less like rubber and therefore more tasty it is
*keep your wallet VERY close at all times!!!
*always note the number on the taxi to make sure it´s a legit taxi, but also in case you get attacked or something, you can say whose taxi you were in
*the customs office for entering Peru by car is actually an hour or so past the border town. kinda weird.
*Peruvians really do speak quite well and clearly and are easy to undrstand. well at least easier than it was to understand Chileans when we first got there.
ok that´s all for now! pray for our safety, and that our hearts will be open to whatever it is Peru has to teach us. BESOS!!!
ok. just had to get that out of my system. we flew into Arica (the Chile side of the border) yetsterday and taxied over the border with a super nice man who took care of all the paper work and made sure we knew where we were and what we were doing, and gave us some helpful tips on not getting attacked or stolen from while we´re here. He was Chilean, and one can pretty much draw the conclusion from his opinions that most Chileans are not super fond of the Peruvians, partly because they had a war with them a century ago and some of those old tensions still flare up, but also because the Peruvians are poor and mostly of indigenous blood. if you tell a Chilean this, they will of course deny it, but I have heard entirely too many "I´m not racsit, but those Peruvians....¨comments to not believe that they come from a real place inside them where they believe they are better.
anyway, needless to say we had a bit of aprehension coming into this foreign place from another foreign place where there only say bad things about it. but from what we have seen, Peruvians are the loveliest most helpful people ever. yes, there is obviously a lot more poverty here, it´s dirtier and all that, but it seems as thought the whole country has come together to watch out for us, give us advice, and make sure we know what´s going on. taxi drivers, waiters, possibly shady man who got us a sweet discount on our bus tickets, people on the bus...all very kind and helpful.
anyway, back to events. crossed the border bought our pasajes for Nazca, went to the plaza, ate some kinda crazy good seafood soup(from which came the title of this blog - yes, i ate octopus soup my first afternoon in peru and it was really good!) wandered a little, watched small children play with pigeons and taxied back to the bus terminal. i then had the most AWFUL 20 minutes of my life during which i used more profanities than i have my entire life combined because i thought i had lost my wallet with EVERYTHING in it(except my passport). i was just about to call my dad to cancel the credit cards when my wallet fell out. it just fell. from the heavens. as a gift from the lord. it was actually stuck in between my butt and my backpack and had stayed wedged in there while we walked along a very bust street and through the bus terminal. if it had fallen out any sooner it surely would have been a gonner. luckily it turned out to be a really mean joke form God to teach me to keep up with my crap better. i think it worked. anyway, much laughter and joyful squealing and almost tears ensued. we finally got on a bus to ride for 12 hours to Nasca, our current location. we found a nice hostal which seems to be run by lovely 15-year olds and we will stay there tonight and head out for Puquio and then Cabana (where kim is) in the morning.
all in all, Peru is amazing. I can´t wait to get to know it´s quirks, street foods, heritage, and of course people. more to come soon!
Quick list of fun things:
*people thing we´re Chilean! it´s so fun! i guess its the accent!!! yaaaay! i have succeeded!!!
*the more purple the octopus meat, the less like rubber and therefore more tasty it is
*keep your wallet VERY close at all times!!!
*always note the number on the taxi to make sure it´s a legit taxi, but also in case you get attacked or something, you can say whose taxi you were in
*the customs office for entering Peru by car is actually an hour or so past the border town. kinda weird.
*Peruvians really do speak quite well and clearly and are easy to undrstand. well at least easier than it was to understand Chileans when we first got there.
ok that´s all for now! pray for our safety, and that our hearts will be open to whatever it is Peru has to teach us. BESOS!!!
Friday, June 26, 2009
al tiro! (to the bullet...point)
* I HAVE FINISHED!!!! no more school work! I completed and emailed my last essay this morning! I am no longer enslaved to poetry, italian, or this stupid computer! i am freeeeeeeeee! well until my mom and sister come on saturday, then i'll be playing tour guide and getting mommy hugs! yaaaay!!!!
*Cold is a lot less bearable when you know there's not a big chance that you're going to be warm soon. they don't have central heat or air here and the use of space heaters is not super common. so it's just damp and cold all the time and there's not usually a whole lot of relief upon going indoors, especially in my room which always seems to be 5 degrees colder than the rest of the house. or rather, I should say my old room. My host family's abuelo(grandpa) is real old and sickly and is coming to live with us for a while. But he can't do stairs, so he's taking my room, I moved into Anita's(little sister) room upstairs and she is sharing with Sandra. So I am currently surrounded by an intense amount of Jonas brothers posters and magazine cutouts, Hannah Montana memorabilia and stuffed animals. AND the keep the awesome propane heater on up here! so i get warm! yeah!
*I wrote that last bullet point a week or so ago and then saved the blog to come back to. I have since moved back into my downstairs shoebox room and abuelo took took the Jonas Bros shrine. BUT I now have a space heater that they got for abuelo that he doesn't need since he's upstairs! yeah!
*There are crap tons of injustices against and violations of the rights of indigenous people in South America. In Peru, the majority of the population is indigenous(by a pretty wide margain) and yet they have NO representation in the government. AND due to the free trade agreement with the US, the government can sell their land without notifying them, US companies can come in and extract whatever we want with out any permission and without paying taxes. It's alllll kinds of messed up. And in Chile, the indigenous population is completely marginalized and discriminated against. They are not even considered citizens technically. So if a member of a Mapuche tribe were to commit some crime like arson they would receive 10 years in prison because it is considered terrorism against the state because they are apparently not Chilean, while a regular citizen would receive only 3 years for the exact same crime.
*shooting stars never stop being exciting. looking at tiny beacons of light that are so far away that even the fastest thing(if you can call light a thing) we know of takes millions of years to get there just never gets old. stargazing never stops inspiring us to wonder, to ask, to end up having deep and beautiful conversations. climbing on sketchy structures in the dark and laying on the tin roof in order to accomplish such things also never looses its awesomeness.
*puppies are always welcome.
*as are LOLcats. yes. you read correctly. i have fallen into the trap pf the LOLcats. sure i'm 2 years late on getting sucked into one of the interweb's most obnoxious fads, but i love them all the same.
* i think i want to move to Valparaiso someday, open up a hostel, let homeless people, backpackers, families, Christians, Buddhists, Atheists, Rastas, Americans, Chileans, Israelis and whomever else stay there for whatever price they are able to pay and chill all day and cook and clean and love and talk about God. it'll be awesome. you can stay there too!
*Ever since I arrived in Chile, all I have heard about is the rain and how when it comes it's terrible and it never stops for like 5 months and it's soooo cold and blahblahblah. So every time it got a little cold or looked like it might rain, I was sure that it was going to be the end of nice lovely days forever! but then the rain never came. and never came. and never came. they say it usually starts around mid April or early May, but we had lovely weather, slightly cool, cloudy at times up until last week! and it's true that when it rains it poors. the streets become rivers and one must stand in a lake to board the bus and avoid the wake of cars as they speed through the mucky ocean...but it has yet to rain two days in a row and the days between the rain are fantastic! like today!!! as a matter of fact, it is time for me to stop living in this stupid screen and get outside!
quick things if you want to pray about something
*my brother Drew is moving to "north africa" (yeah gotta be all secret-y and whatnot) for two years on friday(yes the same day my mom is coming here). please pray that he will have a safe 25 hours of travel and the God will humble him, yet give him strength. that he will learn the language he has to learn and just be an awesome servant to the people he loves there!
*we still have no idea what we're doing after my family leaves and we have our 2ish weeks to travel. we know north. peru/bolivia area...but we're just chillin and waiting for God to give us some more hints. so pray that we will be really in tune with God and what he wants to do with us during that time. and that we won't worry about not knowing what we're doing. and that our parents won't worry about no knowing what we're doing.
ok for reals. i'm going outside. and then i'm going to bake apple pie with Catie!!! yaaaa!
ps. tell me something silly you have done lately! please??!?!
*Cold is a lot less bearable when you know there's not a big chance that you're going to be warm soon. they don't have central heat or air here and the use of space heaters is not super common. so it's just damp and cold all the time and there's not usually a whole lot of relief upon going indoors, especially in my room which always seems to be 5 degrees colder than the rest of the house. or rather, I should say my old room. My host family's abuelo(grandpa) is real old and sickly and is coming to live with us for a while. But he can't do stairs, so he's taking my room, I moved into Anita's(little sister) room upstairs and she is sharing with Sandra. So I am currently surrounded by an intense amount of Jonas brothers posters and magazine cutouts, Hannah Montana memorabilia and stuffed animals. AND the keep the awesome propane heater on up here! so i get warm! yeah!
*I wrote that last bullet point a week or so ago and then saved the blog to come back to. I have since moved back into my downstairs shoebox room and abuelo took took the Jonas Bros shrine. BUT I now have a space heater that they got for abuelo that he doesn't need since he's upstairs! yeah!
*There are crap tons of injustices against and violations of the rights of indigenous people in South America. In Peru, the majority of the population is indigenous(by a pretty wide margain) and yet they have NO representation in the government. AND due to the free trade agreement with the US, the government can sell their land without notifying them, US companies can come in and extract whatever we want with out any permission and without paying taxes. It's alllll kinds of messed up. And in Chile, the indigenous population is completely marginalized and discriminated against. They are not even considered citizens technically. So if a member of a Mapuche tribe were to commit some crime like arson they would receive 10 years in prison because it is considered terrorism against the state because they are apparently not Chilean, while a regular citizen would receive only 3 years for the exact same crime.
*shooting stars never stop being exciting. looking at tiny beacons of light that are so far away that even the fastest thing(if you can call light a thing) we know of takes millions of years to get there just never gets old. stargazing never stops inspiring us to wonder, to ask, to end up having deep and beautiful conversations. climbing on sketchy structures in the dark and laying on the tin roof in order to accomplish such things also never looses its awesomeness.
*puppies are always welcome.
*as are LOLcats. yes. you read correctly. i have fallen into the trap pf the LOLcats. sure i'm 2 years late on getting sucked into one of the interweb's most obnoxious fads, but i love them all the same.
* i think i want to move to Valparaiso someday, open up a hostel, let homeless people, backpackers, families, Christians, Buddhists, Atheists, Rastas, Americans, Chileans, Israelis and whomever else stay there for whatever price they are able to pay and chill all day and cook and clean and love and talk about God. it'll be awesome. you can stay there too!
*Ever since I arrived in Chile, all I have heard about is the rain and how when it comes it's terrible and it never stops for like 5 months and it's soooo cold and blahblahblah. So every time it got a little cold or looked like it might rain, I was sure that it was going to be the end of nice lovely days forever! but then the rain never came. and never came. and never came. they say it usually starts around mid April or early May, but we had lovely weather, slightly cool, cloudy at times up until last week! and it's true that when it rains it poors. the streets become rivers and one must stand in a lake to board the bus and avoid the wake of cars as they speed through the mucky ocean...but it has yet to rain two days in a row and the days between the rain are fantastic! like today!!! as a matter of fact, it is time for me to stop living in this stupid screen and get outside!
quick things if you want to pray about something
*my brother Drew is moving to "north africa" (yeah gotta be all secret-y and whatnot) for two years on friday(yes the same day my mom is coming here). please pray that he will have a safe 25 hours of travel and the God will humble him, yet give him strength. that he will learn the language he has to learn and just be an awesome servant to the people he loves there!
*we still have no idea what we're doing after my family leaves and we have our 2ish weeks to travel. we know north. peru/bolivia area...but we're just chillin and waiting for God to give us some more hints. so pray that we will be really in tune with God and what he wants to do with us during that time. and that we won't worry about not knowing what we're doing. and that our parents won't worry about no knowing what we're doing.
ok for reals. i'm going outside. and then i'm going to bake apple pie with Catie!!! yaaaa!
ps. tell me something silly you have done lately! please??!?!
hey look! it's brown now!
so I am about to do a very dangerous thing that could turn out to be really good or really unfortunate. I am starting a post with no purpose or subject in mind...i just fell the need to post something since it's been a real long time. and i want to show off the new layout and colors! hee hee!
ok. so. I've been living in Chile for about 5 months. I've got about 1 month left.
weird.
I've been dating a lovely boy back home basically as long as I've been here, which i realize some of you might not have known...
weird.
I will have graduated this time next year.
weird.
I've kindof started the whole looking-back-on-the-journey thing, which is fun. and weird.
i'm very much in the process of picking apart what i believe, examining things i always just accepted as truth, questioning, doubting, tearing down, rebuilding and other such growth gerunds.
i've realized that it's good to question the church, but total and complete disillusionment is not good; that just because I don't agree with some things about the church/organized religion doesn't mean it's bad as a whole or condemned to only lie and bring harm. it's time to come back to the church, to accept it for the imperfect entity that it is and work/pray to make the the perfect entity it can be in Christ.
I have a much broader idea of what it means to pray, to worship, to experience God, to BE with him, of salvation. I have had times of intense communion with the father, where every breath was a prayer and every event was a direct action from his hand. i've had times where i was so lacking in any spiritual motivation or hope or joy that i didn't want to get out of bed and just reading the news headlines made me want to straight up leave this world. i've had sweet, brisk, cool breezes of clarity where for a brief moment everything made sense and foggy, ugly hazes of doubt that encompassed everything so that i could barely function in any capacity.
I went though a time of hating everything about myself and the way i experience life and God. all i wanted was to see God the way Catie does or see life the way so and so does. i was comparing myself constantly and basing all of my worth in other imperfect humans. it was awful.
but little by little, through the breaking of my spirit and the cleansing of unbelief from inside of me and rediscovery of joy and the blessed Holy Spirit that lives inside me, God lead me out of that. he showed me my sins of idolatry and pride, and reminded me that I am new and clean and forgiven in him, that those sins are no longer a part of me but Satan tricks me into thinking they are ingrained in me by showing me a warped image of myself in a faulty mirror. so i am slowly letting go if the idea that i am defined by my tendency to idolize people and relationships(and other sins) and finding my identity as a saint, guiltless and free with the liberty of Christ.
I've also picked up on the fact that there is a time to be ok with wondering and never knowing, and there is a time to actively seek answers. and i've been in wondering and stay on the fence stage for too long. time to dig in, pray, read, ask, think, listen. listen. that's a big one. just shuttup and listen to what the Lord is telling me. how he speaks to me though scripture, music, nature, church, friends...through life.
if you also happen to be a reader of Catie's blog, you may notice that our revelations and even some growth patterns seem to be very parallel...that's because they are. God totally gave us to each other to grow with, to experience life with. it's quite ridiculous really. plus we sat in a coffee shop last(while she drank a coffee called "amor perfecto" and i drank something called "romance" which involved hearts made out of raspberry syrup in the foam on top - awesome) taking about our souls and asking questions and such.
so there's a big fat soul update...sweet.
LOVELOVELOVE from the frigid southern hemisphere. any warm cozy thoughts and vibes are greatly appreciated. as are warm fuzzy comments.
ok. so. I've been living in Chile for about 5 months. I've got about 1 month left.
weird.
I've been dating a lovely boy back home basically as long as I've been here, which i realize some of you might not have known...
weird.
I will have graduated this time next year.
weird.
I've kindof started the whole looking-back-on-the-journey thing, which is fun. and weird.
i'm very much in the process of picking apart what i believe, examining things i always just accepted as truth, questioning, doubting, tearing down, rebuilding and other such growth gerunds.
i've realized that it's good to question the church, but total and complete disillusionment is not good; that just because I don't agree with some things about the church/organized religion doesn't mean it's bad as a whole or condemned to only lie and bring harm. it's time to come back to the church, to accept it for the imperfect entity that it is and work/pray to make the the perfect entity it can be in Christ.
I have a much broader idea of what it means to pray, to worship, to experience God, to BE with him, of salvation. I have had times of intense communion with the father, where every breath was a prayer and every event was a direct action from his hand. i've had times where i was so lacking in any spiritual motivation or hope or joy that i didn't want to get out of bed and just reading the news headlines made me want to straight up leave this world. i've had sweet, brisk, cool breezes of clarity where for a brief moment everything made sense and foggy, ugly hazes of doubt that encompassed everything so that i could barely function in any capacity.
I went though a time of hating everything about myself and the way i experience life and God. all i wanted was to see God the way Catie does or see life the way so and so does. i was comparing myself constantly and basing all of my worth in other imperfect humans. it was awful.
but little by little, through the breaking of my spirit and the cleansing of unbelief from inside of me and rediscovery of joy and the blessed Holy Spirit that lives inside me, God lead me out of that. he showed me my sins of idolatry and pride, and reminded me that I am new and clean and forgiven in him, that those sins are no longer a part of me but Satan tricks me into thinking they are ingrained in me by showing me a warped image of myself in a faulty mirror. so i am slowly letting go if the idea that i am defined by my tendency to idolize people and relationships(and other sins) and finding my identity as a saint, guiltless and free with the liberty of Christ.
I've also picked up on the fact that there is a time to be ok with wondering and never knowing, and there is a time to actively seek answers. and i've been in wondering and stay on the fence stage for too long. time to dig in, pray, read, ask, think, listen. listen. that's a big one. just shuttup and listen to what the Lord is telling me. how he speaks to me though scripture, music, nature, church, friends...through life.
if you also happen to be a reader of Catie's blog, you may notice that our revelations and even some growth patterns seem to be very parallel...that's because they are. God totally gave us to each other to grow with, to experience life with. it's quite ridiculous really. plus we sat in a coffee shop last(while she drank a coffee called "amor perfecto" and i drank something called "romance" which involved hearts made out of raspberry syrup in the foam on top - awesome) taking about our souls and asking questions and such.
so there's a big fat soul update...sweet.
LOVELOVELOVE from the frigid southern hemisphere. any warm cozy thoughts and vibes are greatly appreciated. as are warm fuzzy comments.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
that they might know Love
the leaves have mostly fallen
making a mulchy carpet for the garden city
but the few that cling to their branches by night
cast only eerie shadows
the streetlamps' attempts at golden light
are thwarted by this shroud
and made to look like distant haloed beacons
of a morning that might never come.
not for him
he does not know Love
his breath is tainted with wine and whiskey
but it comes out grey and fades into the fog
the fog that characterizes not only the air
but his heart, his mind, his spirit
his eyes
there is no joy in them
for he does not know Love
"love," he says, "is only bad.
It only brings bad. It is hurt.
It is pain. It is bitter.
Don't listen to it.
I see it in your eyes, but don't listen to it!
it will put you in the street like me!"
But he does not know Love
he has many years of laughter
making tracks on his face
but those deep cracks in the corners
are now only channels for tears
he will sleep here in the dirt tonight
sleep off the drink and start again tomorrow
and he will still not know Love
there are countless others
mangled reflections of men
all over this manicured city
they sleep in shopping carts
outside the department stores
where "normal people" pass every day
confusing them with the dogs that keep them warm
and none of them know Love
nor have I told them.
This is a poem for the homeless in Vina del Mar, Chile. Please join me in praying that the Lord will reveal his Truth and Love to them, that I will become a pure vessel for the Spirit to them, and yet praising God that when I fail, He will find another way to reveal Himself.
making a mulchy carpet for the garden city
but the few that cling to their branches by night
cast only eerie shadows
the streetlamps' attempts at golden light
are thwarted by this shroud
and made to look like distant haloed beacons
of a morning that might never come.
not for him
he does not know Love
his breath is tainted with wine and whiskey
but it comes out grey and fades into the fog
the fog that characterizes not only the air
but his heart, his mind, his spirit
his eyes
there is no joy in them
for he does not know Love
"love," he says, "is only bad.
It only brings bad. It is hurt.
It is pain. It is bitter.
Don't listen to it.
I see it in your eyes, but don't listen to it!
it will put you in the street like me!"
But he does not know Love
he has many years of laughter
making tracks on his face
but those deep cracks in the corners
are now only channels for tears
he will sleep here in the dirt tonight
sleep off the drink and start again tomorrow
and he will still not know Love
there are countless others
mangled reflections of men
all over this manicured city
they sleep in shopping carts
outside the department stores
where "normal people" pass every day
confusing them with the dogs that keep them warm
and none of them know Love
nor have I told them.
This is a poem for the homeless in Vina del Mar, Chile. Please join me in praying that the Lord will reveal his Truth and Love to them, that I will become a pure vessel for the Spirit to them, and yet praising God that when I fail, He will find another way to reveal Himself.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
an attempt at roping the last few weeks into something coherent...
I've discovered that bullet points are the way to go when there's entirely too much to express and entirely too much time to cover. so:
* I like church. Union Cristiana is a lovely fellowship of believers that I have been going to on Sundays and they have a youth/college worship/Bible study thing on Friday nights as well. I spent the first half of my time here running away from the church, most of the time without even realizing it. but I was. And I think part of me needed to do that. I learned a lot during that time. I learned how to see God in everything, not just in words on a screen. I learned how to be alone. I learned how God seeks me. But now that I am actively in the Body again, I am learning too. I had forgotten how wonderfully sweet it is to be surrounded by people who love Jesus, how it feels when the whole room swells in unison when everybody's favorite part in the praise song comes, how beautiful it is to be taught, how precious new sisters can be. and it is good.
* I only have about 2 months left...and I'm kinda not ok with it. I feel like there's so much I want to do, people I wish I had been building relationships with, places I want to travel to, beautiful days I wasted...but I know when the time comes, I will be ready. I will be ready for Texas August heat, my Pandora stations, dogs that I can pet and love on without getting funny looks,
and MY family, not a pretend one that mostly just gives me food.
* I am going to miss speaking Spanish...weird.
* That post I made about Joy still rings true. I haven't lost her yet and I don't plan on it. and it's making life so much fuller.
* I have a cold again. Even though I don't believe what all the Chileans say about not wearing shoes or socks and having wet hair and going outside without a scarf and their direct corellation to colds, I think maybe the virus has started to believe it and function as such. "When in Rome" I suppose...
* I am in love with The Weepies
* Catie and I are looking for somewhere to go serve(not be tourists) the last half of July after my family leaves and before we come home. I emailed a Canadian missionary family in Bolivia that has an awesome ministry digging wells in super rural areas and other development things to see if we could come chill with them and see their life and help with some of their well projects. But if that doesn't work we might go to Peru and maybe meet up with our friend Kim who will be in the Andes somewhere with her team from IMB(International Mission Board) for a bit...basically we have no idea, we just know that we need to take advantage of that time to go somewhere and do something of worth. so we're just praying in faith that God in his goodness and wisdom will take us somewhere awesome. you can join us in that prayer if you like. also pray for our dear Kim as she just arrived in Peru yesterday and will be there for the next 10 weeks hanging out and talking about Jesus in rural villages.
* One of the first Chileanisms that I learned was the term "pololo" which means boyfriend(Polola for girlfriend), but which translates literally to bumblebee. The gerund form for dating, "pololeando," means to be bumblebeeing. adorable, right? well I learned the history of this lovely idiom the other day from some new firefighter friends: In the first fire house in Santiago way back when, the firemen had all these pins and medals and stuff on their uniforms, one of which was a little bee. When the firemen whould go away to Europe to study law or medicine, as was the custom, they would leave their girlfriends with this "pololo" pin so that she and everyone would know she was off limits and was dating a fireman. kinda the same concept as "getting pinned" in the 50's in the sates. fun, right?
* all firefighters in Chile are volunteers except the drivers of the firetruck. crazy.
* I can't seem to think af anything else at the moment and this is long enough, but hopefully I will be posting slightly more regularly and with more substance...
* I like church. Union Cristiana is a lovely fellowship of believers that I have been going to on Sundays and they have a youth/college worship/Bible study thing on Friday nights as well. I spent the first half of my time here running away from the church, most of the time without even realizing it. but I was. And I think part of me needed to do that. I learned a lot during that time. I learned how to see God in everything, not just in words on a screen. I learned how to be alone. I learned how God seeks me. But now that I am actively in the Body again, I am learning too. I had forgotten how wonderfully sweet it is to be surrounded by people who love Jesus, how it feels when the whole room swells in unison when everybody's favorite part in the praise song comes, how beautiful it is to be taught, how precious new sisters can be. and it is good.
* I only have about 2 months left...and I'm kinda not ok with it. I feel like there's so much I want to do, people I wish I had been building relationships with, places I want to travel to, beautiful days I wasted...but I know when the time comes, I will be ready. I will be ready for Texas August heat, my Pandora stations, dogs that I can pet and love on without getting funny looks,
and MY family, not a pretend one that mostly just gives me food.
* I am going to miss speaking Spanish...weird.
* That post I made about Joy still rings true. I haven't lost her yet and I don't plan on it. and it's making life so much fuller.
* I have a cold again. Even though I don't believe what all the Chileans say about not wearing shoes or socks and having wet hair and going outside without a scarf and their direct corellation to colds, I think maybe the virus has started to believe it and function as such. "When in Rome" I suppose...
* I am in love with The Weepies
* Catie and I are looking for somewhere to go serve(not be tourists) the last half of July after my family leaves and before we come home. I emailed a Canadian missionary family in Bolivia that has an awesome ministry digging wells in super rural areas and other development things to see if we could come chill with them and see their life and help with some of their well projects. But if that doesn't work we might go to Peru and maybe meet up with our friend Kim who will be in the Andes somewhere with her team from IMB(International Mission Board) for a bit...basically we have no idea, we just know that we need to take advantage of that time to go somewhere and do something of worth. so we're just praying in faith that God in his goodness and wisdom will take us somewhere awesome. you can join us in that prayer if you like. also pray for our dear Kim as she just arrived in Peru yesterday and will be there for the next 10 weeks hanging out and talking about Jesus in rural villages.
* One of the first Chileanisms that I learned was the term "pololo" which means boyfriend(Polola for girlfriend), but which translates literally to bumblebee. The gerund form for dating, "pololeando," means to be bumblebeeing. adorable, right? well I learned the history of this lovely idiom the other day from some new firefighter friends: In the first fire house in Santiago way back when, the firemen had all these pins and medals and stuff on their uniforms, one of which was a little bee. When the firemen whould go away to Europe to study law or medicine, as was the custom, they would leave their girlfriends with this "pololo" pin so that she and everyone would know she was off limits and was dating a fireman. kinda the same concept as "getting pinned" in the 50's in the sates. fun, right?
* all firefighters in Chile are volunteers except the drivers of the firetruck. crazy.
* I can't seem to think af anything else at the moment and this is long enough, but hopefully I will be posting slightly more regularly and with more substance...
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Gift
I went to put the sun to bed tonight
I walked down to the edge of the Earth
to tuck her into her watery cradle
though I went to serve her she gave me a gift
The gift of every shape that exists
and some that don't
of the richest hues eyes can comprehend
and some they can't
words dance through my mind
like the colors reflected in the waves
like the pigtailed girl who runs and squeals
at the seafoam lapping at her tiny toes
A lilac litany of lavender limericks
the color that fresh blackberries leave on your fingers
crimson knots outlined by a child
with a vivid tangerine crayola
gemstones appear in every cloud
too precious to be caged around someone's neck
the distant city scintillates like a thousand flames
the hills roll like the curves of a Chilean mother
a rainbow hoodied traveler joins me in silence
he too has come to kiss the sun goodnight
she drifts lower into her indigo velvet home
the horizon fades from a line to a monochromatic abyss
the sea and the sky become one rich mystery
taunting those here on the edge of the Earth to venture out
to find the sun, sleeping soundly
amid her folds and ruffles and cushions of night
but the waves keep pounding
the sea is always changing
and the sky will never look the same
as it did tonight when the sun gave me a gift
I walked down to the edge of the Earth
to tuck her into her watery cradle
though I went to serve her she gave me a gift
The gift of every shape that exists
and some that don't
of the richest hues eyes can comprehend
and some they can't
words dance through my mind
like the colors reflected in the waves
like the pigtailed girl who runs and squeals
at the seafoam lapping at her tiny toes
A lilac litany of lavender limericks
the color that fresh blackberries leave on your fingers
crimson knots outlined by a child
with a vivid tangerine crayola
gemstones appear in every cloud
too precious to be caged around someone's neck
the distant city scintillates like a thousand flames
the hills roll like the curves of a Chilean mother
a rainbow hoodied traveler joins me in silence
he too has come to kiss the sun goodnight
she drifts lower into her indigo velvet home
the horizon fades from a line to a monochromatic abyss
the sea and the sky become one rich mystery
taunting those here on the edge of the Earth to venture out
to find the sun, sleeping soundly
amid her folds and ruffles and cushions of night
but the waves keep pounding
the sea is always changing
and the sky will never look the same
as it did tonight when the sun gave me a gift
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
JOY
I have always had a thing for Joy. Like some kind of raucous romantic relationship where I chase it, lose it, understand it, become confounded by it, desire it with all of my being, and carelessly toss it aside in order to wallow in whatever version of selflessness appeals to me more.
There's just something so pure and lovely and un-human about Joy.
It's not an emotion. It's different from happiness. It's more than a state of mind or heart, it's a state of spirit, which are of course the hardest kind to understand. that is until you let the One who lives in your spirit explain it to you.
I learned a lot about Joy when I was in Nepal from my dear friend Meera, whose incredible story taught me of unfathomable faithfulness to God, of wisdom far above my level of comprehension, of pure and selfless service. But Meera really just exudes Joy in her faithfulness, in her wisdom, in her service, even in the way she speaks of her horrific past. She is Joy personified. More than anyone I have ever seen and maybe will ever see.
And that impacted me. greatly.
Joy became even more inportant to me after seeing it in its pure form in Meera, and I sort of claimed it as mine, as my word, my thing. I wanted to be known for Joy, to learn how to truly have it at all times, how to not confuse it with emotions, for my life as a whole to be marked by Joy in the Truth, Love, and Freedom of Christ.
And maybe I did for a while.
And then that raucous romance kicked in and Joy and I weren't really speaking for a while.
I spoke to God some, loved Jesus some, listened to the Spirit some.
but I forgot about Joy.
I realized last night that I missed praying. I hadn't stopped praying entrely, but I had forgotten how to live prayer. There have been times that there weren't times of prayer and not prayer, but my life was a prayer, my every breath was communication with God. And I was longing for that. And I was longing for Joy.
So I wrote God a letter. Just talked to him like my big brother or my boyfriend or the mysterious Thing within me. And they all talked too.
And I remebered how deeply and perfectly he loves me and how inconsistant and childish I am.
He showed me his goodness again. In Spanish, you would say "de nuevo." I really like that. of new. It's not like he isn't always showing me his goodness, but he did of "of new".
And JOY. of new.
more than an emotion or a feeling or a tear or a smile. the good kind. the kind that blossoms like a precious lily after a rain storm and fills the air with that sweet sweet aura and gets that crazy orange pollen all over everything. the kind that is like an uncontrollable and beautiful dance made even more beautiful by the toes stubbed from clumsiness and the ungraceful turns that result in falling into a laughing heap on the ground.
And now I want to chase it, hold it, and learn it more than ever. I still want my life to be marked by Joy. and it can be because I am first marked by the Blood.
So if you are reading this, pray. Write a letter. Breathe. Ask God to show you a glimpse of Joy. I want to share her with you. and then tell me about your Joy. She'll be different from mine, but I want to hear about her in your life. Leave a comment, facebook, email, or skype me and tell me about Joy in your life.
with Love and Joy of new,
Molly
There's just something so pure and lovely and un-human about Joy.
It's not an emotion. It's different from happiness. It's more than a state of mind or heart, it's a state of spirit, which are of course the hardest kind to understand. that is until you let the One who lives in your spirit explain it to you.
I learned a lot about Joy when I was in Nepal from my dear friend Meera, whose incredible story taught me of unfathomable faithfulness to God, of wisdom far above my level of comprehension, of pure and selfless service. But Meera really just exudes Joy in her faithfulness, in her wisdom, in her service, even in the way she speaks of her horrific past. She is Joy personified. More than anyone I have ever seen and maybe will ever see.
And that impacted me. greatly.
Joy became even more inportant to me after seeing it in its pure form in Meera, and I sort of claimed it as mine, as my word, my thing. I wanted to be known for Joy, to learn how to truly have it at all times, how to not confuse it with emotions, for my life as a whole to be marked by Joy in the Truth, Love, and Freedom of Christ.
And maybe I did for a while.
And then that raucous romance kicked in and Joy and I weren't really speaking for a while.
I spoke to God some, loved Jesus some, listened to the Spirit some.
but I forgot about Joy.
I realized last night that I missed praying. I hadn't stopped praying entrely, but I had forgotten how to live prayer. There have been times that there weren't times of prayer and not prayer, but my life was a prayer, my every breath was communication with God. And I was longing for that. And I was longing for Joy.
So I wrote God a letter. Just talked to him like my big brother or my boyfriend or the mysterious Thing within me. And they all talked too.
And I remebered how deeply and perfectly he loves me and how inconsistant and childish I am.
He showed me his goodness again. In Spanish, you would say "de nuevo." I really like that. of new. It's not like he isn't always showing me his goodness, but he did of "of new".
And JOY. of new.
more than an emotion or a feeling or a tear or a smile. the good kind. the kind that blossoms like a precious lily after a rain storm and fills the air with that sweet sweet aura and gets that crazy orange pollen all over everything. the kind that is like an uncontrollable and beautiful dance made even more beautiful by the toes stubbed from clumsiness and the ungraceful turns that result in falling into a laughing heap on the ground.
And now I want to chase it, hold it, and learn it more than ever. I still want my life to be marked by Joy. and it can be because I am first marked by the Blood.
So if you are reading this, pray. Write a letter. Breathe. Ask God to show you a glimpse of Joy. I want to share her with you. and then tell me about your Joy. She'll be different from mine, but I want to hear about her in your life. Leave a comment, facebook, email, or skype me and tell me about Joy in your life.
with Love and Joy of new,
Molly
Sunday, April 5, 2009
lots of poetry and sunshine
The sky was blue, the air cool, the sunshine warm, the breeze playful, and the day perfect. perfect for Neruda.
Pablo Neruda was one of the best Latin American poets ever and one of my favorites. I got to go to his house on Saturday. It might seem silly, but it really is a big deal. Catie and I dressed especially for the occasion. I even wore a flower in my hair in order to be more poetic. We boarded a bus as we have done so many times before while searching for adventure, and found it when we stumbled into the adventure of Neruda's world and his words. He was a very quirky man, a collector of strange things like figure heads from old ships, sea shells, bottles, ships in bottles, masks, and many other oddities. But mostly, he was a collector of words. An arranger of words. an artist. he had a way of making words more than words. something higher, bigger, more beautiful, something from the soul.
He of course had several houses throughout Chile in his life, one of which is actually here in Valparaiso, but I haven't had a chance to go there yet. This particular house we visited in in Isla Negra, a small coastal town about an hour and a half from here. It was his last house, the one in which he spent his final days and the one in which the culmination of all his artistry and quirkiness culminates. He built it room by room, adding on as he saw fit. there's a whole room just for his mascarones(ship figureheads) which range from nude mermaids to saintly figures. He built a room specially to house a giant paper machet horse, a cherished artifact from his childhood, and had a huge party to welcome it and make it feel at home. The concrete of the floor has smooth round seashells in it because he liked the way they massaged his feet. The forest was his first love, but he was also fascinated with the sea. Despite his love for the sea, he was also quite afraid of it and settled for sailing in a small boat in his garden rather than ever actually sailing. The house is built on a cliff over looking the Pacific where the turquoise waves constantly crash and spew diamond-like seafoam against the great boulders, worn smooth with the passing of so much time and water. Catie and I sat on those rocks and felt the sea spray on our dusty lips and marveled at the milky mermaids in the seafoam. It was all just a little too much magic for one place.
So we came home and ate a mountain of gelato while sitting on some different rocks by the ocean, watched as the sun sank into the sea like a great tomato into a bed of velvet and shuddered with delight as the evening tide brought enormous waves up against the sea wall where we unknowingly picked the one spot where the water couldn't touch us...most of the time. The moon came out in all her glory to shed her luminous silver garment on the sea and created a living watercolor on its surface as she mingled with the last colors of the day that hung in the dusky sky.
So there's my Neruda day. now go read some! here is the first one i ever read and one of my favorites: http://www.soupsong.com/ftomato2.html
he actually has a whole series of Odes to simple things like socks, wine, a spoon, a book, and even to the city of Valparaiso. You should google him and just read any of those...
* * *
Pablo Neruda was one of the best Latin American poets ever and one of my favorites. I got to go to his house on Saturday. It might seem silly, but it really is a big deal. Catie and I dressed especially for the occasion. I even wore a flower in my hair in order to be more poetic. We boarded a bus as we have done so many times before while searching for adventure, and found it when we stumbled into the adventure of Neruda's world and his words. He was a very quirky man, a collector of strange things like figure heads from old ships, sea shells, bottles, ships in bottles, masks, and many other oddities. But mostly, he was a collector of words. An arranger of words. an artist. he had a way of making words more than words. something higher, bigger, more beautiful, something from the soul.
He of course had several houses throughout Chile in his life, one of which is actually here in Valparaiso, but I haven't had a chance to go there yet. This particular house we visited in in Isla Negra, a small coastal town about an hour and a half from here. It was his last house, the one in which he spent his final days and the one in which the culmination of all his artistry and quirkiness culminates. He built it room by room, adding on as he saw fit. there's a whole room just for his mascarones(ship figureheads) which range from nude mermaids to saintly figures. He built a room specially to house a giant paper machet horse, a cherished artifact from his childhood, and had a huge party to welcome it and make it feel at home. The concrete of the floor has smooth round seashells in it because he liked the way they massaged his feet. The forest was his first love, but he was also fascinated with the sea. Despite his love for the sea, he was also quite afraid of it and settled for sailing in a small boat in his garden rather than ever actually sailing. The house is built on a cliff over looking the Pacific where the turquoise waves constantly crash and spew diamond-like seafoam against the great boulders, worn smooth with the passing of so much time and water. Catie and I sat on those rocks and felt the sea spray on our dusty lips and marveled at the milky mermaids in the seafoam. It was all just a little too much magic for one place.
So we came home and ate a mountain of gelato while sitting on some different rocks by the ocean, watched as the sun sank into the sea like a great tomato into a bed of velvet and shuddered with delight as the evening tide brought enormous waves up against the sea wall where we unknowingly picked the one spot where the water couldn't touch us...most of the time. The moon came out in all her glory to shed her luminous silver garment on the sea and created a living watercolor on its surface as she mingled with the last colors of the day that hung in the dusky sky.
So there's my Neruda day. now go read some! here is the first one i ever read and one of my favorites: http://www.soupsong.com/ftomato2.html
he actually has a whole series of Odes to simple things like socks, wine, a spoon, a book, and even to the city of Valparaiso. You should google him and just read any of those...
* * *
On Sunday I went with my host family to Palm Sunday mass on the beach. I was initially really excited about the idea of church on the beach, but it didn't turn out to be as awesome as i had hoped. We were facing away from the ocean and directly into the sun. I'm not sure if it's jsut because I'm not used to Catholic mass yet or what, but it was just off. Everyone, including my family, bought these funny little woven palm things with leaves and rosemary in them from vendors on the sidewalk to wave around while we sang some fun songs. I will say that is the first time I have really seen joy in mass. But other than that, it all just seems so arbitrary. I couldn't help but think that the beautiful 5 year old girl who was exploring the properties of sand, burying her moms feet, laying in it, making pillows out of it, just loving the grainy golden heat of it, was experiencing god more than everyone else there with their solemn prayers and nasty communion wafers. Then at the end the preist walked, or rather waded, through the throngs of people who were crowding around him, sprinkling the little palm things with holy water, blessing them so people can hang them in their houses for the rest of the year. weird.
anyway, after church i ate too much for lunch and went with catie to the beach closest to our houses to bask in the afternoon light that seemed to be dripping from every tree and rooftop, letting it soak into my already pink skin, thoroughly heating me all the way down to my soul and the tips of my toes.
at night after a particularly lovely once(eveining meal) catie and i hung out some more, as usual, and ended up having yet another existential-meaning-of-life-and-purpose-and-god talk/freak out and decided we want to go to Bolivia to do some kind of volunteer program in july before we come home. then i embarked on the arduous journey of figuring out classes for next semester. While navagating the complicated sea of credit hours, spread sheets and course numbers, i realized that if i don't get a second major in Spanish, i can very likely graduate in a year. So i think i'm gonna do that. which means that none of the Spansh I'm taking here really counts for anything, which means that academically I came here for no reason, which I am totally ok with! Somehow it kind of adds a little more validity to my life here. Catie and i always said that we aren't really here for school, but school is just an excuse to live here. and now that's even more true. PLUS this also means that I dont have to take that painfully difficult spanish literature class that made gazillions of pages of impossibly long and incomprehensibly old spanish hang over my head all the time.
instead i'm taking Italian Language and Culture(basically Italian I) with Catie and a Latin American poetry class with all gringos which should be pretty lovely.
so there's that.
things i've learned:
*there is a reason you are supposed to see your advisor before you leave the country. it's so you don't have to try to figure out all this crazy credit and graduation stuff through email...suuuuuuuck
*despite what most chileans(including my host family) apparently believe, you cannot get a cold from not wearing enough clothes, from being in the house without shoes or slippers, from leaving your window open, from not blow-drying your hair, etc. the common cold is a virus in the air and has nothing to do with the weather. except that cold weather can dry out your nasal passages and make you more succeptible to the virus. but it still has nothing to do with sleeping or going outside with wet hair. nor am i going to get an ulcer because i use three scoops of nescafe.
*narwhals have an oversized tooth/tusk that grows through their lip and can be up to 3 meters in length. there is no practical use for the tusk, and it's not even symmetrical(they only grow it on one side of their face!). Pablo Neruda has one in his house and catie was all kinds of confused because she didn't realize that they weren't just mythical creature, hence the google-fest that brought about this fountain of knowledge...also, queen elizabeth once payed the amount of money it would take to build a castle for a cup made of a narwhal tusk.
*NEVER make plans with chileans. they will always fall through. or if you do make them, just get ready to be either disappointed, frustrated, confused or any combination of the three.
*art projects are the best.
*the indigenous people of Easter Island(which politically belongs to Chile) are actaully descendants of ancient India/Pakistan. my professor for my history of modern india class discovered this when Chle hired him to do a study proving that Chile had a rightful claim to the island(he didn't do a very good job of that). but he figured it out because there were something like 100,000 "linguistic coincidences" between their language and ancient sanskrit. and according to him there are no "linguistic coincidences" because language is the DNA of culture. if two languages share something or have common words, it is because they came from the same place or converged somewhere. sooooo interesting! i really like nerding out in that class...
* being without a camera sucks. catie's got stolen last weekend(go read her blog!) and i think mine has sand in it or something, or at least the motor can't work. either way, it can focus on anything and makes lots of scary sounds.
*i am discovering that i am silmultaneously a lot more ready to be grown up and petrified of it than i thought...funny how that works
*i miss clothes fresh out of the dryer
*this isn't really anything a learned, but just a fun tidbit - my host dad brought home another pet turtle(we already have one, his name is Alex) for my little host sister and she let me name it! I chose Bartolomeo. i wanted Beatriz, but then she told me it was a boy...
*mine and catie's sameness of mind and soul is getting creepier every day. and yet we are growing in such different ways.
*the Chilean mail system is a lot more trustworthy than i previously gave it credit for.
ok that's enough.
PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE leave comments. even if you don't really have anything to say. they really do make my day.
besitos!
anyway, after church i ate too much for lunch and went with catie to the beach closest to our houses to bask in the afternoon light that seemed to be dripping from every tree and rooftop, letting it soak into my already pink skin, thoroughly heating me all the way down to my soul and the tips of my toes.
at night after a particularly lovely once(eveining meal) catie and i hung out some more, as usual, and ended up having yet another existential-meaning-of-life-and-purpose-and-god talk/freak out and decided we want to go to Bolivia to do some kind of volunteer program in july before we come home. then i embarked on the arduous journey of figuring out classes for next semester. While navagating the complicated sea of credit hours, spread sheets and course numbers, i realized that if i don't get a second major in Spanish, i can very likely graduate in a year. So i think i'm gonna do that. which means that none of the Spansh I'm taking here really counts for anything, which means that academically I came here for no reason, which I am totally ok with! Somehow it kind of adds a little more validity to my life here. Catie and i always said that we aren't really here for school, but school is just an excuse to live here. and now that's even more true. PLUS this also means that I dont have to take that painfully difficult spanish literature class that made gazillions of pages of impossibly long and incomprehensibly old spanish hang over my head all the time.
instead i'm taking Italian Language and Culture(basically Italian I) with Catie and a Latin American poetry class with all gringos which should be pretty lovely.
so there's that.
things i've learned:
*there is a reason you are supposed to see your advisor before you leave the country. it's so you don't have to try to figure out all this crazy credit and graduation stuff through email...suuuuuuuck
*despite what most chileans(including my host family) apparently believe, you cannot get a cold from not wearing enough clothes, from being in the house without shoes or slippers, from leaving your window open, from not blow-drying your hair, etc. the common cold is a virus in the air and has nothing to do with the weather. except that cold weather can dry out your nasal passages and make you more succeptible to the virus. but it still has nothing to do with sleeping or going outside with wet hair. nor am i going to get an ulcer because i use three scoops of nescafe.
*narwhals have an oversized tooth/tusk that grows through their lip and can be up to 3 meters in length. there is no practical use for the tusk, and it's not even symmetrical(they only grow it on one side of their face!). Pablo Neruda has one in his house and catie was all kinds of confused because she didn't realize that they weren't just mythical creature, hence the google-fest that brought about this fountain of knowledge...also, queen elizabeth once payed the amount of money it would take to build a castle for a cup made of a narwhal tusk.
*NEVER make plans with chileans. they will always fall through. or if you do make them, just get ready to be either disappointed, frustrated, confused or any combination of the three.
*art projects are the best.
*the indigenous people of Easter Island(which politically belongs to Chile) are actaully descendants of ancient India/Pakistan. my professor for my history of modern india class discovered this when Chle hired him to do a study proving that Chile had a rightful claim to the island(he didn't do a very good job of that). but he figured it out because there were something like 100,000 "linguistic coincidences" between their language and ancient sanskrit. and according to him there are no "linguistic coincidences" because language is the DNA of culture. if two languages share something or have common words, it is because they came from the same place or converged somewhere. sooooo interesting! i really like nerding out in that class...
* being without a camera sucks. catie's got stolen last weekend(go read her blog!) and i think mine has sand in it or something, or at least the motor can't work. either way, it can focus on anything and makes lots of scary sounds.
*i am discovering that i am silmultaneously a lot more ready to be grown up and petrified of it than i thought...funny how that works
*i miss clothes fresh out of the dryer
*this isn't really anything a learned, but just a fun tidbit - my host dad brought home another pet turtle(we already have one, his name is Alex) for my little host sister and she let me name it! I chose Bartolomeo. i wanted Beatriz, but then she told me it was a boy...
*mine and catie's sameness of mind and soul is getting creepier every day. and yet we are growing in such different ways.
*the Chilean mail system is a lot more trustworthy than i previously gave it credit for.
ok that's enough.
PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE leave comments. even if you don't really have anything to say. they really do make my day.
besitos!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
there's blood on my hands
I hate all your show and pretense
The hypocrisy of your praise
The hypocrisy of your festivals
I hate all your show
Away with your noisy worship
Away with your noisy hymns
I stop up my ears when you're singing 'em
I hate all your show
Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show
Your eyes are closed when you're praying
You sing right along with the band
You shine up your shoes for services
There's blood on your hands
You turned your back on the homeless
And the ones that don't fit in your plan
Quit playing religion games
There's blood on your hands
Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show
I hate all your show
Let's argue this out
If your sins are blood red
Let's argue this out
You'll be one of the clouds
Let's argue this out
Quit fooling around
Give love to the ones who can't love at all
Give hope to the ones who got no hope at all
Stand up for the ones who can't stand at all, all
I hate all your show
I hate all your show
I hate all your show
I hate all your show
Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show
I hate all your show
-Jon Foreman
I've been thinking a lot about liberty and justice lately. and not in the patriotic or political sense, but in a social and spiritual sense. I long for liberty for the "invisible children" of Northeast Africa and justice for their oppressors. I desire liberty for the sex slaves of Asia and justice for their pimps. I wish for liberty for the poor and homeless from their poverty and despair and justice for those who turn a blind eye. I want liberty for both my Chilean and American friends from this endless and unsatisfying cycle of partying and justice for whoever told them it was good. I crave liberty for myself from materialism and pride and also justice for myself because i believe the very lies i try to combat with scripture. i deserve justice because i forget the invisible children, the abused women, the orphans and the widows, and the millions enslaved to false gods of all kinds, be it krishna, money, beauty, allah, or the worst of all the god of self.
i sat on the beach today, spent some time alone with god for the first time in a while. and i realized, yet again, that my idea of liberty and justice are not the same as his. as much as i want to just wrap up every child soldier in loving arms and throw the men who abuse them into a pit forever, god's liberty is better. more complete. his liberty is true. and i also have to remind myself that before he condemns, he offers mercy first. the mercy that he grants me every time i believe a lie or put something as my idol above him or am ashamed of his mark on me is the same mercy he offers to the warlords, druglords, and medialords. after the mercy is offered and rejected, he judges and brings them what it owed. and his justice and his wrath will be intense. but he loves them first.
so basically i want to have hope that god can and will make even the most evil of things right and remember that it won't always look like we want it to. and i want to stop being just like those that i criticize and actually act. love the poor and the widows and the orphans and i want to to what luke 6:27-36 says:
if you havent already(and even if you have) go here :
http://www.invisiblechildren.com/marchhouseparty/index.php?id=1993739679&utm_sou
and find out how to fight for the physical liberty of child soldiers. do it for me since they aren't doing this in chile.
The hypocrisy of your praise
The hypocrisy of your festivals
I hate all your show
Away with your noisy worship
Away with your noisy hymns
I stop up my ears when you're singing 'em
I hate all your show
Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show
Your eyes are closed when you're praying
You sing right along with the band
You shine up your shoes for services
There's blood on your hands
You turned your back on the homeless
And the ones that don't fit in your plan
Quit playing religion games
There's blood on your hands
Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show
I hate all your show
Let's argue this out
If your sins are blood red
Let's argue this out
You'll be one of the clouds
Let's argue this out
Quit fooling around
Give love to the ones who can't love at all
Give hope to the ones who got no hope at all
Stand up for the ones who can't stand at all, all
I hate all your show
I hate all your show
I hate all your show
I hate all your show
Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show
I hate all your show
-Jon Foreman
I've been thinking a lot about liberty and justice lately. and not in the patriotic or political sense, but in a social and spiritual sense. I long for liberty for the "invisible children" of Northeast Africa and justice for their oppressors. I desire liberty for the sex slaves of Asia and justice for their pimps. I wish for liberty for the poor and homeless from their poverty and despair and justice for those who turn a blind eye. I want liberty for both my Chilean and American friends from this endless and unsatisfying cycle of partying and justice for whoever told them it was good. I crave liberty for myself from materialism and pride and also justice for myself because i believe the very lies i try to combat with scripture. i deserve justice because i forget the invisible children, the abused women, the orphans and the widows, and the millions enslaved to false gods of all kinds, be it krishna, money, beauty, allah, or the worst of all the god of self.
i sat on the beach today, spent some time alone with god for the first time in a while. and i realized, yet again, that my idea of liberty and justice are not the same as his. as much as i want to just wrap up every child soldier in loving arms and throw the men who abuse them into a pit forever, god's liberty is better. more complete. his liberty is true. and i also have to remind myself that before he condemns, he offers mercy first. the mercy that he grants me every time i believe a lie or put something as my idol above him or am ashamed of his mark on me is the same mercy he offers to the warlords, druglords, and medialords. after the mercy is offered and rejected, he judges and brings them what it owed. and his justice and his wrath will be intense. but he loves them first.
so basically i want to have hope that god can and will make even the most evil of things right and remember that it won't always look like we want it to. and i want to stop being just like those that i criticize and actually act. love the poor and the widows and the orphans and i want to to what luke 6:27-36 says:
27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. 35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
and i want these convictions to be actions. to yield fruit. i'm afraid my fruit doesn't match all the things i say a believe. i'm afraid i might be all show. but god is good. he is merciful and strong and he likes to teach me. so i'm going to let him...if you havent already(and even if you have) go here :
http://www.invisiblechildren.com/marchhouseparty/index.php?id=1993739679&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=march-party-email
and find out how to fight for the physical liberty of child soldiers. do it for me since they aren't doing this in chile.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
lovely
so it's been a week or so...not a whole lot of actually blog worthy things have happened. went to class, learned some grammar, learned about ancient Pakistan, learned that I hate old literature from Spain...you know, schooly stuff.
tuesday was Catie's birthday so we had a little fiesta at her house with friends and a few drinks and homemade salsa and conversation and brownies and music. and it was lovely.
wednesday we watercolored over some sketches that Catie got out of the trash outside the art building. also lovely.
thursday we decided to try our hand at going out by ourselves(without boy-chaperones). we went to this cafe/bar place and I had a chocolate martini which was delicious. then we headed over to Valpo on the micro to find somewhere to dance, but ended up going to a different bar with some new friends because i forgot my ID so we couldnt get into any of the clubs. We're invited to their asado(bar b que) on monday. lovely.
I had a lovely day yesterday, too. I woke up late and spent a long time emailing and facebooking and such and then went down to the beach to read and take in some very end of summer sun. autumn is whispering its arrival in the breeze, but summer is still holding onto the late afternoons. as i sat in the grass emersed in Allende, this strange old gypsy woman came up and asked for some monedas(change) so I gave her some. but then she was trying to give some little seed for good luck and pulled out one of my hairs and wanted me to take out a large bill and something about the babyin her stomach(which was not really there). i was getting more and more uncomfortable and when it became obvious she was not going to leave me alone, I just got up and left. I was sad to leave the beach, and my heart was burdened for that strange sad woman. but I walked over to this cute cafe that I've been wanting to go to since I got here and got some actually delicious coffee and resisted the deep urge to get apple kuchen. Catie joined me and we decided to go to this free concert we heard about.
it turned out to be an orchestra from a university in Germany and the jazz band from our university playing together in an outdoor amphitheatre! there was such an interesting atmosphere. the orchestra was playing some modern stuff, but mostly Beethoven and the like. so the air was full of the sweet intensity of live classical music as well as smoke from the fog machines and the voices of vendors selling popcorn and churros. The purple stage lights gleaming from the polished surfaces of the cellos and the drum kit made for quite an interesting dichotomy. there's something so awesome about watching an orchestra play a symphony, to see the music being created and felt by the musicians. watching the bows of the violins bob frantically, carrying energy from the heart of the violinist, through the instrument itself and out into the eager ears of the public. watching the tympany player put all of himself into every strike to the massive drum and move his head with the beat that he himself is creating. watching the conductor pour his soul all over the stage, leading this ridiculus conglomeration of wood and metal controlled by flesh and blood, bringing them together into the ebb and flow of the music, creating something beautiful.
needless to say, the concert was lovely.
then we walked the 15 or so blocks back in the evening chill, had some once and got gussied up to go out. we met up with our friend David, a friend and fellow scout of the chicos we met down south, and his friend Benjamin to go to a discotheque 2 blocks from my house and danced the night away...
and then this morning i was surprised with breakfast in bed - crepes, each filled with different jams, and pancito(little bread) and coffee. yeah, lovely.
things I've learned:
* There's pretty much no way to avoid eating dessert after lunch. like today, i was way full of cheese empanadas and rice and hamburger patties, but I still got suckered into eating ice cream...such a terrible dilemma.
* Skype really is the best thing ever. if you are reading this and you don't have it, download it. now. it's so super easy and then I can talk to you. and if you do already have skype, add me! i'm mollyyoung1
* naps are also the best thing ever, for various reasons. of course there's the whole catching up on sleep thing, but when I nap I can usually remember my dreams! it's a big deal! plus sometimes, just as I'm falling asleep, God tells me things. like this last week I was really worried about something and had been for a few days and right as I was on the edge of sleep that afternoon, I just felt extremely comforted and calm and clear. It was like a burst of cold air through my brain, clearing out all the junk I had been dwelling on.
* it is apparently quite common to talk with/hang out with someone for long periods of time without knowing their name. it seems to keep happening
* I am so so glad I am not a college freshman here. they are called "mechonas" and have to go through the most terrible hazing! the upper classmen paint them and draw on them, pour milk and eggs or fish oil and all kinds of nastiness on their heads, cut their clothes, steal their shoes, and send them out into the street to ask for money. it's the most pathetic thing ever! but this next week is called semana novata and most classes are cancelled because there are huge parties all week in honor of the freshman. so this past week was awful for them, but next week is party week. (and also awesome for me because we get to go to the parties and not have class!)
* there seems to be repetoire of songs that all chileans know by heart. we plan to learn them.
* ciao is actually the italian spelling of my favorite goodbye word. so i've been spelling it wrong...
until next time,
chau!!! (the right way)
tuesday was Catie's birthday so we had a little fiesta at her house with friends and a few drinks and homemade salsa and conversation and brownies and music. and it was lovely.
wednesday we watercolored over some sketches that Catie got out of the trash outside the art building. also lovely.
thursday we decided to try our hand at going out by ourselves(without boy-chaperones). we went to this cafe/bar place and I had a chocolate martini which was delicious. then we headed over to Valpo on the micro to find somewhere to dance, but ended up going to a different bar with some new friends because i forgot my ID so we couldnt get into any of the clubs. We're invited to their asado(bar b que) on monday. lovely.
I had a lovely day yesterday, too. I woke up late and spent a long time emailing and facebooking and such and then went down to the beach to read and take in some very end of summer sun. autumn is whispering its arrival in the breeze, but summer is still holding onto the late afternoons. as i sat in the grass emersed in Allende, this strange old gypsy woman came up and asked for some monedas(change) so I gave her some. but then she was trying to give some little seed for good luck and pulled out one of my hairs and wanted me to take out a large bill and something about the babyin her stomach(which was not really there). i was getting more and more uncomfortable and when it became obvious she was not going to leave me alone, I just got up and left. I was sad to leave the beach, and my heart was burdened for that strange sad woman. but I walked over to this cute cafe that I've been wanting to go to since I got here and got some actually delicious coffee and resisted the deep urge to get apple kuchen. Catie joined me and we decided to go to this free concert we heard about.
it turned out to be an orchestra from a university in Germany and the jazz band from our university playing together in an outdoor amphitheatre! there was such an interesting atmosphere. the orchestra was playing some modern stuff, but mostly Beethoven and the like. so the air was full of the sweet intensity of live classical music as well as smoke from the fog machines and the voices of vendors selling popcorn and churros. The purple stage lights gleaming from the polished surfaces of the cellos and the drum kit made for quite an interesting dichotomy. there's something so awesome about watching an orchestra play a symphony, to see the music being created and felt by the musicians. watching the bows of the violins bob frantically, carrying energy from the heart of the violinist, through the instrument itself and out into the eager ears of the public. watching the tympany player put all of himself into every strike to the massive drum and move his head with the beat that he himself is creating. watching the conductor pour his soul all over the stage, leading this ridiculus conglomeration of wood and metal controlled by flesh and blood, bringing them together into the ebb and flow of the music, creating something beautiful.
needless to say, the concert was lovely.
then we walked the 15 or so blocks back in the evening chill, had some once and got gussied up to go out. we met up with our friend David, a friend and fellow scout of the chicos we met down south, and his friend Benjamin to go to a discotheque 2 blocks from my house and danced the night away...
and then this morning i was surprised with breakfast in bed - crepes, each filled with different jams, and pancito(little bread) and coffee. yeah, lovely.
things I've learned:
* There's pretty much no way to avoid eating dessert after lunch. like today, i was way full of cheese empanadas and rice and hamburger patties, but I still got suckered into eating ice cream...such a terrible dilemma.
* Skype really is the best thing ever. if you are reading this and you don't have it, download it. now. it's so super easy and then I can talk to you. and if you do already have skype, add me! i'm mollyyoung1
* naps are also the best thing ever, for various reasons. of course there's the whole catching up on sleep thing, but when I nap I can usually remember my dreams! it's a big deal! plus sometimes, just as I'm falling asleep, God tells me things. like this last week I was really worried about something and had been for a few days and right as I was on the edge of sleep that afternoon, I just felt extremely comforted and calm and clear. It was like a burst of cold air through my brain, clearing out all the junk I had been dwelling on.
* it is apparently quite common to talk with/hang out with someone for long periods of time without knowing their name. it seems to keep happening
* I am so so glad I am not a college freshman here. they are called "mechonas" and have to go through the most terrible hazing! the upper classmen paint them and draw on them, pour milk and eggs or fish oil and all kinds of nastiness on their heads, cut their clothes, steal their shoes, and send them out into the street to ask for money. it's the most pathetic thing ever! but this next week is called semana novata and most classes are cancelled because there are huge parties all week in honor of the freshman. so this past week was awful for them, but next week is party week. (and also awesome for me because we get to go to the parties and not have class!)
* there seems to be repetoire of songs that all chileans know by heart. we plan to learn them.
* ciao is actually the italian spelling of my favorite goodbye word. so i've been spelling it wrong...
until next time,
chau!!! (the right way)
Thursday, March 12, 2009
naufrago y misericordia
Hoy siento como un naufrago, ahogando en un mar de espanol que no entiendo, un mar de concreto gris y cielo mas gris, un mar de gente que no reconozco con cigarillos y hielo.
Today I fell like a castaway, drowning in a sea of spnaish i don't understand, a sea of grey concrete and greyer skies, a sea of people i don't recognize with cigarettes and ice.
just kidding, it's not really that bad, i just felt like being melo-dramatic and i really like the word for castaway/ship-wrecked person - "naufrago" - and wanted an excuse to use it.
the past few days have been frustrating though.
this morning i had spanish literature for the second time and by the end of the hour and 20 minute period, i wanted to cry. or at least let my head explode. i'm not really sure why i was so frustrated. i followed the notes about the problems of categorizing literature, that trying to make it all fit into a neat timeline with names like "neoclasicismo" and "pre-romanticismo" isn't really effective or accurate. yeah i missed some word here and there, and there was some pretty intense zoning out, but i got the gist. but then we started talking about the novela we're going to read and had to read this prologue off the projector which i of course didn't read fast enough to keep up. and then another was assigned, but i'm not really sure what book we're even starting or how to find this other prologue. and there's no textbook, you just have to already know the system of libraries, photocopying, and the internet; none of which i understand in the least, even in english.
after calss i did the only things i could think of to make me feel less pitiful: called catie and told her to find me and give me hug before her class, opened the dark chocolate bar with orange flavor that i bought yesterday to have change for the bus, and opened my bible. i turned to the last page of 2 Corinthians which, i noticed the other day, is all in black type except for one line. cahpter 9, verse 12 says: "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
thanks, god.
i have been increasing in weakness the past few days. little by little. missing people, dwelling on worries, stressing about things that aren't really mine to carry, and now this frustration over such a silly thing as not understanding instructions in class. but then i realized why i was so upset by it. i think it was a blow to my ego that i couldnt just understand everything, not to mention a blow to the facade of control over my life i've been trying to create.
no, molly, you don't know what you're supposed to be doing in class and it's ok.
no, molly, you're not as good at Spanish as you thought or you want to be and it's ok.
yes, molly, you are scared of making friends and talking about me, but it's ok.
yes, molly, you miss him and don't know what's going to happen, but it's ok.
no, molly, you don't have control of your life and it's ok. because I do. and I will teach you how to listen to me.
so even in this crazy sea of concrete and foregin frustrations, there is still chocolate, best friend hugs, and messages of "misericordia"(compassion) from god. even my favorite fairy flowers grow here in the middle of the city, like little winged beacons of hope for when i forget the magic.
Things I've learned
* sometimes when a hangout is supposed to be 4 or 5 people it turns out to be 20 gringas(white girls) piling into an already ful micro(mini-bus) to go to a jazz club...this happened last night. we took over everything, like a big obnoxious cloud of gringa. catie and i ended up separating from the heard and sitting with some chileans after a while, though.
* "padrinos" are very strong
* i am chartreuse, deep purple and a little orangey red. a few days ago, inspired by something from that book The Shack, i was musing about what color i am. i posted the question as my facebook profile, and then proceeded to think about how much i love chartreuse, purple and red together. then throughout the day, that's what other people told me i am. really random people too. an old friend from high school, an old bible study leader/mentor, and a new american friend i've made here added the part about the color of an ember...thanks god.
anyway, i then decided to christen my new paints and canvases by creating this:
so the colors aren't really right, but i'm not well versed in color theory and therefore do not actually know how to make chartruese... but use your imagination. also, use your imagination to picture me sitting in the garden outside catie's apartment complex here, eating Kuchen and laughing so hard i couldn't breath WHILE painting this. it was a good time.
* i really like doors. i've actually started collecting them. well, photographing them at least.
* even my host sister gets frustrated and shakes her head and says in an exasperated tone similar to my own, "chile!" while shaking her fist at the nation as a whole...
until next time, my dears!
ciao!
Today I fell like a castaway, drowning in a sea of spnaish i don't understand, a sea of grey concrete and greyer skies, a sea of people i don't recognize with cigarettes and ice.
just kidding, it's not really that bad, i just felt like being melo-dramatic and i really like the word for castaway/ship-wrecked person - "naufrago" - and wanted an excuse to use it.
the past few days have been frustrating though.
this morning i had spanish literature for the second time and by the end of the hour and 20 minute period, i wanted to cry. or at least let my head explode. i'm not really sure why i was so frustrated. i followed the notes about the problems of categorizing literature, that trying to make it all fit into a neat timeline with names like "neoclasicismo" and "pre-romanticismo" isn't really effective or accurate. yeah i missed some word here and there, and there was some pretty intense zoning out, but i got the gist. but then we started talking about the novela we're going to read and had to read this prologue off the projector which i of course didn't read fast enough to keep up. and then another was assigned, but i'm not really sure what book we're even starting or how to find this other prologue. and there's no textbook, you just have to already know the system of libraries, photocopying, and the internet; none of which i understand in the least, even in english.
after calss i did the only things i could think of to make me feel less pitiful: called catie and told her to find me and give me hug before her class, opened the dark chocolate bar with orange flavor that i bought yesterday to have change for the bus, and opened my bible. i turned to the last page of 2 Corinthians which, i noticed the other day, is all in black type except for one line. cahpter 9, verse 12 says: "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
thanks, god.
i have been increasing in weakness the past few days. little by little. missing people, dwelling on worries, stressing about things that aren't really mine to carry, and now this frustration over such a silly thing as not understanding instructions in class. but then i realized why i was so upset by it. i think it was a blow to my ego that i couldnt just understand everything, not to mention a blow to the facade of control over my life i've been trying to create.
no, molly, you don't know what you're supposed to be doing in class and it's ok.
no, molly, you're not as good at Spanish as you thought or you want to be and it's ok.
yes, molly, you are scared of making friends and talking about me, but it's ok.
yes, molly, you miss him and don't know what's going to happen, but it's ok.
no, molly, you don't have control of your life and it's ok. because I do. and I will teach you how to listen to me.
so even in this crazy sea of concrete and foregin frustrations, there is still chocolate, best friend hugs, and messages of "misericordia"(compassion) from god. even my favorite fairy flowers grow here in the middle of the city, like little winged beacons of hope for when i forget the magic.
Things I've learned
* sometimes when a hangout is supposed to be 4 or 5 people it turns out to be 20 gringas(white girls) piling into an already ful micro(mini-bus) to go to a jazz club...this happened last night. we took over everything, like a big obnoxious cloud of gringa. catie and i ended up separating from the heard and sitting with some chileans after a while, though.
* "padrinos" are very strong
* i am chartreuse, deep purple and a little orangey red. a few days ago, inspired by something from that book The Shack, i was musing about what color i am. i posted the question as my facebook profile, and then proceeded to think about how much i love chartreuse, purple and red together. then throughout the day, that's what other people told me i am. really random people too. an old friend from high school, an old bible study leader/mentor, and a new american friend i've made here added the part about the color of an ember...thanks god.
anyway, i then decided to christen my new paints and canvases by creating this:
so the colors aren't really right, but i'm not well versed in color theory and therefore do not actually know how to make chartruese... but use your imagination. also, use your imagination to picture me sitting in the garden outside catie's apartment complex here, eating Kuchen and laughing so hard i couldn't breath WHILE painting this. it was a good time.
* i really like doors. i've actually started collecting them. well, photographing them at least.
* even my host sister gets frustrated and shakes her head and says in an exasperated tone similar to my own, "chile!" while shaking her fist at the nation as a whole...
until next time, my dears!
ciao!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
really? REALLY??? really.
so yesterday was a disaster and i found myself saying that a lot.
without going through all the gory details, i had a lot of bus problems, metro problems, finding classroom problems, secretaries being gone for tea problems, classroom changing without my knowledge problems, ending up with someone else's planner problems, writing down my schedule wrong problems, and being out of cereal when i got home problems.
needless to say, i actually only made it to one of my three classes yesterday. well i guess i only had two, but due to afore mentioned writing down my schedule wrong problem i though i had three. anyway, the one class i did go to was my history of modern india class and it is going to be awesome. right now it's like 7 american exchange students and one chilean guy, but hopefully more students will join next week(chilean students are still in the signing up process). but the professor is great! a cute old Chilean man who actually looks a little Indian. he's super animated and nice and funny and knowledgeable without being pretentious and i'm pretty sure he invited us all to come to his house my the beach and have a beer anytime we want. anyway, i'm really excited about it, but a little sad that it's only once week.
today i'm going to Spanish composition(instead of the history in film class. i didnt realize they were at the same time, so im just going to drop that one) at 3 something this afternoon. im pretty sure i know which class its in and which bus to take, but we'll see.
last night Catie and I went out with our new chilean friend David(a friend of the boyscouts) and one of his friends with a crazy name i can't remember to some resaurant and had a drink and chatted about politics and education and food and such. i am on a quest to find out what drinks i actually like by ordering something different everytime we go out and last night i had a primavera, which was pink, fruity and entirely too sweet. it seemed a lot like a daquiri, although i have no idea of the ingredients of either. i guess when the waiter asked me if i wanted it virgin or with alcohol should have tipped me off that it would be lame. anyway, now i know. next up on my list: ammaretto sour. anyone know what that actually is?
things i learned:
* there is a word for sketchy!!! it's "flaete" (prounounced kinda like "flighty" in english). so useful.
* waffles are not as good here. my mom made them last night on her new waffle iron grill thing and while they were good, something was just off.
* the orange 602 bus does NOT in fact take you to the history building
* the green 615 bus takes the suuuuuper long and traffic-y way home
* the book The Shack is actually really good and you should think sbout reading it. i'm usually anti-books-with-a-lot-of-hype, but this one is legit...
* when people in Chile want something, they protest. a few years ago, there was a huge protest of all the high school students and they protested every day for a month and a half and didnt have class until they got what they wanted. i dont actually remember what it was, but they accomplished it! and then we told them that in the states you have to write a letter or pay somebody. ha.
* running out of minutes on your prepaid phone is annoying.
* emails with sound clips attatched are the best.
* hugs are also a deeply coveted commodity. but i have found that sometimes Jesus gives the best hugs.
hopefully school will go better today and i will have some time to break out my new art supplies and paint something, probably mt planner that the university gave everyone so i wont keep getting mine mixed up with everyone elses! plus it's ugly and plain and black...but soon to be green with purple squiggles!
without going through all the gory details, i had a lot of bus problems, metro problems, finding classroom problems, secretaries being gone for tea problems, classroom changing without my knowledge problems, ending up with someone else's planner problems, writing down my schedule wrong problems, and being out of cereal when i got home problems.
needless to say, i actually only made it to one of my three classes yesterday. well i guess i only had two, but due to afore mentioned writing down my schedule wrong problem i though i had three. anyway, the one class i did go to was my history of modern india class and it is going to be awesome. right now it's like 7 american exchange students and one chilean guy, but hopefully more students will join next week(chilean students are still in the signing up process). but the professor is great! a cute old Chilean man who actually looks a little Indian. he's super animated and nice and funny and knowledgeable without being pretentious and i'm pretty sure he invited us all to come to his house my the beach and have a beer anytime we want. anyway, i'm really excited about it, but a little sad that it's only once week.
today i'm going to Spanish composition(instead of the history in film class. i didnt realize they were at the same time, so im just going to drop that one) at 3 something this afternoon. im pretty sure i know which class its in and which bus to take, but we'll see.
last night Catie and I went out with our new chilean friend David(a friend of the boyscouts) and one of his friends with a crazy name i can't remember to some resaurant and had a drink and chatted about politics and education and food and such. i am on a quest to find out what drinks i actually like by ordering something different everytime we go out and last night i had a primavera, which was pink, fruity and entirely too sweet. it seemed a lot like a daquiri, although i have no idea of the ingredients of either. i guess when the waiter asked me if i wanted it virgin or with alcohol should have tipped me off that it would be lame. anyway, now i know. next up on my list: ammaretto sour. anyone know what that actually is?
things i learned:
* there is a word for sketchy!!! it's "flaete" (prounounced kinda like "flighty" in english). so useful.
* waffles are not as good here. my mom made them last night on her new waffle iron grill thing and while they were good, something was just off.
* the orange 602 bus does NOT in fact take you to the history building
* the green 615 bus takes the suuuuuper long and traffic-y way home
* the book The Shack is actually really good and you should think sbout reading it. i'm usually anti-books-with-a-lot-of-hype, but this one is legit...
* when people in Chile want something, they protest. a few years ago, there was a huge protest of all the high school students and they protested every day for a month and a half and didnt have class until they got what they wanted. i dont actually remember what it was, but they accomplished it! and then we told them that in the states you have to write a letter or pay somebody. ha.
* running out of minutes on your prepaid phone is annoying.
* emails with sound clips attatched are the best.
* hugs are also a deeply coveted commodity. but i have found that sometimes Jesus gives the best hugs.
hopefully school will go better today and i will have some time to break out my new art supplies and paint something, probably mt planner that the university gave everyone so i wont keep getting mine mixed up with everyone elses! plus it's ugly and plain and black...but soon to be green with purple squiggles!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Lists
Things I Like About Chile:
*"mi amor" - a term of endearment used by anyone and everyone, but especially my lovely host mom
*"ciao!" - a friendly goodbye, used for bus drivers, good friends, someone you said more than three words to. sometimes doubled for the ever entertaining "ciao ciao!" i would also like to add that i never like ciao before because it seemed like something stuck up european women say. but here, it's just lovely and friendly.
*besitos - little kisses on the cheek exchanged between men and women, strangers and best friends alike, whether coming or going. its actually weird or even rude if you don't greet everyone in the room with besitos upon entering and do the same when
you leave. you just gotta go down the line showering everyone with besitos and ciao's! its greatness!
* the bus system - from the micros here in town to the charter buses that criscross the ridiculous length of the country like enormous caterpillars, the bus network is aweosme and pretty afordable. see, look at that big green bus! caterpillar!
* hospedajes y hostales - the best thing ever to happen to aimless travelers. hospedajes tend to be more like a house with spare rooms and a sweet old lady who will cook for you and hostales are more like a place with a lot of rooms and a kitchen where you can cook and hang out. they are super cheap and an excellent way to experience a culture. and the best ones are the on
es with no name or sign...like this one we stayed in in Quemchi! ok well it does have that little hospedaje sign in the window. this was the one with the Psalms with beautiful pictures of nature upstairs, but it turned out they we Jehovah's Witnesses...there are a lot of those spreading their tracks around.
* Chilean Families - specifically mine! Mom is adorable, constantly tossing around pet names like "reina de mi crazon"(queen of my heart, for her youngest daughter), "mamita"(little mommy for her oldest daugher) and "pollito" (little chicken for her husband). she is so sweet and helpful and even though I can't always understand her, she is always explaining stuff to me. Dad, Miguel, is tall and silly, always joking and smiling and poking fun. he is so sweet and loving with his wife, including tapping her on the rear and leaving his hand there ofr a bit when he comes home for lunch and such...haha! and tonight he was teaching Anita, the 10 year old daughter, how to do that cat's cradle string game thing. it was awesome. Anita is lovely and sweet and she makes me laugh a little when she talks to me super slow to make sure i understand. and Sandra, my 20 year ols host sister is really cool. she is super helpful and kind and even speaks a little english which is helpful if i really get stuck. i've also noticed that Chilean families are really caring and lovey in general - kids always riding on dad's shoulders, mom kissing kids all over the face, children cuddling like crazy. quite lovely.
* everyone is always eating ice cream. from little kids with chocolate smeared all over their little faces to grown men in business suits. we're hoping they do the same thing in the winter but with hot chocolate
* they celebrate International Women's Day! it was today actually. its like mother's day(which they also celebrate) but to honor all women, including me!
Things I don't like about Chile
* the system they use for saying what time a class is. rather than just say the class is from 8:15-9:45 they say it is in hora 1-2. 10:05-11:35 is hora 3-4. i guess its the same as periods in high school but it seems much more confusing and annoying, especially when trying to figure out which bus to take and decipher the code of abbreviations for the various buildings of the universtiy which are scattered accross both Valparaiso and Vina del Mar.
* afore mentioned awkwardly placed bathroom windows
* when you are hanging out with people who speak ridiculously rapid chilean Spanish to where the only thing you can understand is when they point at you and laugh saying "no entienden" (they don't understand) and then act really condescending as they explain whatever dirty joke was being made. this happened with some of Sandra's(my host sister) friends last night. Sandra is really nice and not condescending and I really like her a lot and most of her friends, for that matter. but there were definitely a couple that i would be ok with not hanging out with, at least not until my Spanish improves greatly. anyway, here's me and catie zoning because we couldnt engage in conversation...
* having to pay for public bathrooms. i know this is a common practice in pretty much everywhere outside of the US and i have encountered it before, but never when I actually had to live somewhere. although i will say, i think it probably bothers Catie more than me because she apparently has a significantly smaller bladder.
* still don't know how to order coffee, and while my love for Nescafe grows with every cup, nothing will ever replace the goodness of freshly brewed real coffee with vanilla chai spice creamer.
*summer is a lie. yesterday was the first time it was legitimately hot and it felt beautiful. but today i don't think it got above 70.
* I can't listen to my pandora stations nor watch the office online, although I'm working on the latter.
* this is more a complaint against the Spanish language, but there is no word for akward. it's such a useful word with so may connotations and there have been so many times that it perfectly describes our lives here, but it just doesnt exist. this has not stopped us from teaching it to our chilean friends, along with the word "sketchy."
Things I've learned
*Gollum is very hard to understand when dubbed in Spanish
*church in Spanish is awesome. We went to mass once when we were in Puerto Varas and even though I couldn't understand very much, it was really nice. But today I went to church with Catie and her host mom to a little church called Family with Purpose. It was truly lovely. its a vrey new church, they dont have their own building and there were only about 20 people there. but they prayed and sang and worshipped with such beautiful fervor. and i actually understood most of what was going on which i acredit more to God answering my prayer that he open my ears than to my Spanish skills. anyway, it was aweome. plus my host mom was saying that they have mass(my host family is catholic) on the beach sometimes this time of year because the weather is still nice but all the tourists are gone. maybe next week, i'll go with them.
* hanging out with other Americans while in Chile is not usually ideal
* clubbing is not usually ideal
* clubbing with other Americans in Chile is definitely not ideal
* Psalm 19 is awesome
* it's quite confusing for my brain to watch a movie that is in Hindi and Englsih with English and Spanish subtitles and then have a son gin Spanish play during the credits. this was the case when we finally saw Slumdog Millionaire the other night, which i highly reccommend! an excellent movie!
well, that's all I've got for now. I start classes tomorrow. I have Modern India(yeah, i'm taking a history class about India in Spanish while in Chile...sweet!), then Advanced Spanish composition, then Advanced Spanish grammar, both of which are with other exchange students. I'm also taking Contemporary Spanish Literature and History and Film: War and Peace which are both regular university classes with regular Chilean students and will probably be pretty hard. so as you all gear up for spring break, remember me as I start a difficult semester of crazy.
ciao ciao!!!
*"mi amor" - a term of endearment used by anyone and everyone, but especially my lovely host mom
*"ciao!" - a friendly goodbye, used for bus drivers, good friends, someone you said more than three words to. sometimes doubled for the ever entertaining "ciao ciao!" i would also like to add that i never like ciao before because it seemed like something stuck up european women say. but here, it's just lovely and friendly.
*besitos - little kisses on the cheek exchanged between men and women, strangers and best friends alike, whether coming or going. its actually weird or even rude if you don't greet everyone in the room with besitos upon entering and do the same when
you leave. you just gotta go down the line showering everyone with besitos and ciao's! its greatness!* the bus system - from the micros here in town to the charter buses that criscross the ridiculous length of the country like enormous caterpillars, the bus network is aweosme and pretty afordable. see, look at that big green bus! caterpillar!
* hospedajes y hostales - the best thing ever to happen to aimless travelers. hospedajes tend to be more like a house with spare rooms and a sweet old lady who will cook for you and hostales are more like a place with a lot of rooms and a kitchen where you can cook and hang out. they are super cheap and an excellent way to experience a culture. and the best ones are the on
es with no name or sign...like this one we stayed in in Quemchi! ok well it does have that little hospedaje sign in the window. this was the one with the Psalms with beautiful pictures of nature upstairs, but it turned out they we Jehovah's Witnesses...there are a lot of those spreading their tracks around.* Chilean Families - specifically mine! Mom is adorable, constantly tossing around pet names like "reina de mi crazon"(queen of my heart, for her youngest daughter), "mamita"(little mommy for her oldest daugher) and "pollito" (little chicken for her husband). she is so sweet and helpful and even though I can't always understand her, she is always explaining stuff to me. Dad, Miguel, is tall and silly, always joking and smiling and poking fun. he is so sweet and loving with his wife, including tapping her on the rear and leaving his hand there ofr a bit when he comes home for lunch and such...haha! and tonight he was teaching Anita, the 10 year old daughter, how to do that cat's cradle string game thing. it was awesome. Anita is lovely and sweet and she makes me laugh a little when she talks to me super slow to make sure i understand. and Sandra, my 20 year ols host sister is really cool. she is super helpful and kind and even speaks a little english which is helpful if i really get stuck. i've also noticed that Chilean families are really caring and lovey in general - kids always riding on dad's shoulders, mom kissing kids all over the face, children cuddling like crazy. quite lovely.
* everyone is always eating ice cream. from little kids with chocolate smeared all over their little faces to grown men in business suits. we're hoping they do the same thing in the winter but with hot chocolate
* they celebrate International Women's Day! it was today actually. its like mother's day(which they also celebrate) but to honor all women, including me!
Things I don't like about Chile
* the system they use for saying what time a class is. rather than just say the class is from 8:15-9:45 they say it is in hora 1-2. 10:05-11:35 is hora 3-4. i guess its the same as periods in high school but it seems much more confusing and annoying, especially when trying to figure out which bus to take and decipher the code of abbreviations for the various buildings of the universtiy which are scattered accross both Valparaiso and Vina del Mar.
* afore mentioned awkwardly placed bathroom windows
* when you are hanging out with people who speak ridiculously rapid chilean Spanish to where the only thing you can understand is when they point at you and laugh saying "no entienden" (they don't understand) and then act really condescending as they explain whatever dirty joke was being made. this happened with some of Sandra's(my host sister) friends last night. Sandra is really nice and not condescending and I really like her a lot and most of her friends, for that matter. but there were definitely a couple that i would be ok with not hanging out with, at least not until my Spanish improves greatly. anyway, here's me and catie zoning because we couldnt engage in conversation...
* having to pay for public bathrooms. i know this is a common practice in pretty much everywhere outside of the US and i have encountered it before, but never when I actually had to live somewhere. although i will say, i think it probably bothers Catie more than me because she apparently has a significantly smaller bladder.
* still don't know how to order coffee, and while my love for Nescafe grows with every cup, nothing will ever replace the goodness of freshly brewed real coffee with vanilla chai spice creamer.
*summer is a lie. yesterday was the first time it was legitimately hot and it felt beautiful. but today i don't think it got above 70.
* I can't listen to my pandora stations nor watch the office online, although I'm working on the latter.
* this is more a complaint against the Spanish language, but there is no word for akward. it's such a useful word with so may connotations and there have been so many times that it perfectly describes our lives here, but it just doesnt exist. this has not stopped us from teaching it to our chilean friends, along with the word "sketchy."
Things I've learned
*Gollum is very hard to understand when dubbed in Spanish
*church in Spanish is awesome. We went to mass once when we were in Puerto Varas and even though I couldn't understand very much, it was really nice. But today I went to church with Catie and her host mom to a little church called Family with Purpose. It was truly lovely. its a vrey new church, they dont have their own building and there were only about 20 people there. but they prayed and sang and worshipped with such beautiful fervor. and i actually understood most of what was going on which i acredit more to God answering my prayer that he open my ears than to my Spanish skills. anyway, it was aweome. plus my host mom was saying that they have mass(my host family is catholic) on the beach sometimes this time of year because the weather is still nice but all the tourists are gone. maybe next week, i'll go with them.
* hanging out with other Americans while in Chile is not usually ideal
* clubbing is not usually ideal
* clubbing with other Americans in Chile is definitely not ideal
* Psalm 19 is awesome
* it's quite confusing for my brain to watch a movie that is in Hindi and Englsih with English and Spanish subtitles and then have a son gin Spanish play during the credits. this was the case when we finally saw Slumdog Millionaire the other night, which i highly reccommend! an excellent movie!
well, that's all I've got for now. I start classes tomorrow. I have Modern India(yeah, i'm taking a history class about India in Spanish while in Chile...sweet!), then Advanced Spanish composition, then Advanced Spanish grammar, both of which are with other exchange students. I'm also taking Contemporary Spanish Literature and History and Film: War and Peace which are both regular university classes with regular Chilean students and will probably be pretty hard. so as you all gear up for spring break, remember me as I start a difficult semester of crazy.
ciao ciao!!!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
the much anticipated story of the men in tights and a really long list...but try to make it to the end!
it's been far too long and i honestly don't know if i can possible delve back so far as to truly relay the story of the men in tights...but i shall try
so after my final adventure of chiloe and riding on a bus for 2 hours in wet, sandy clothes, then more bussing, we spent a night in Puerto Montt, an ugly port city which seems to be encompassed in shady. it was the first time i have felt unsafe since i've been here, so needless to say we left pretty quickly for Valdivia which surprised us with it's size and lovliness. but we were determined to camp a little more or at least see something of the indigenous culture, so we rode through the sleepy rolling countryside the the drowsy town of Futrono on the banks of Lago Ranco. After entirely too much time wandering around the same street, a beautiful sunset, some toffee liquor, and many failed attempts to get to the stupid island with the Mapuche tribe stuff, we returned to Valdivia on friday and decided to go ahead and by overnight bus tickets for home.
however, while waiting for our bus in the plaza central, catie mentioned that maybe we still had friends in Vladivia.
and friends we did! not even 5 minutes later, 3 men in tights and medeival costumes with instruments (and one in normal dress)! we looked at eachother with glee, both hoping they would burst out in song or at least lend themselves to conversation. lucky for us, they took a seat next to us and we were invited to share a pitcher of cerveza in no time, of which i of course did not partake because beer is like a mix of acid and urine for me. we found out that they were part of some group from the University of Concepcion that dates back to the 1500s (hence the medeival dress) and they travel around playing and singing in the street and in resaurants for change to have money to pay for room and board because there aren't scholarships for that. Conversation flowed nicely and it did not take long for us to decide to just ditch our plan and our bus tickets and stay another night in Valdivia with our new oddly dressed friends. we followed them around as they played in restaurants for the rest of the night, went to the store, and finally returned to the hospedaje where they were staying and got a room. then one of the guys made dinner, at 2:30 am mind you, spaghetti with tomato sauce with apples in it and a cream sauce with tuna...neither of which seemed particularly appealing. however neither of them turned out to be terrible but that might have been because we hadn't eaten for like 13 or 14 hours. then we stayed up sharing music and playing the guitar and chatting. we slept in real late and catie made pancakes and eggs, the boys donned their "panties" (tights in spanish) and we set out for another day of seemingly aimless wandering through this cafe and that, all the while their tambourines clanging and strings strumming. we ended up in a little mountain town outside Valdivia called Niebla, which literally translates to "fog." Fog indeed. the whole town was enveloped in a cold misty cloud that made the summer-ish heat and sun of Valdivia seem a hundred years away. ***Drew! do you remember that episode of Freakazoid where there was some evil glowing cloud in the mountains? i kept thinking of that all day, but had no one to share it with!***we walked around, went to yet another cultural fest complete with preteens performing traditional folklorico dances in constume and i was reminded of coutless ballet recitals and childhoon performances. we finally returned to Valdivia, gathered our now heavy laden backpacks and went to the store to get stuff to make sandwiches for dinner and snacks for our long ride home. We also proceeded to buy an entire Kuchen, something we had been looking for an excuse to do since we discovered Kuchen back in Frutillar. another man in tights had joined the quartet and we sat in the grass near the plaza, eating a meal of cheap bread, sketchy lunchmeat and Kuchen de frambueza in the dim light of "crepusculo" (dusk in spanish and another favorite word). the boys then serenaded us one last time and we rushed in a taxi to the bus station to have a sleepless and very uncomfortable night on a Linea Azul bus(which i do not reccommend). aside from that, it was the perfect way to end a month of crazy-awesome.
* * * * *
now i am back in Vina, just trying to digest the last month of free-spirited wandering while trying to feel out this whole living in a big city with a new family and going to a new school with a foreign system and being surrounded by Americans(other exchange students). Since our return to "real life" Catie and I have found all our new friends on Facebook, the international symbol of friendship, and hung out with "The Chicos" (the guys we met hitch hiking in chiloe) who continue to exhibit their scouts honor and un-sketchiness. classes start next week although both of us are having some extreme issues(probably not that extreme, but it feels like a big deal) with our classes and credits and all that jazz, which may have to do with the fact that everything is in spanish. but, soon it will figure itself out(thanks God, in advance) and we will settle into patterns, friendships, and the micro-system(public transportation between valpo and vina on mini-buses) and our minds will stop wanting to explode after thinking in Spanish for more than an hour. we will know the good beaches, the good clubs, how to order coffee and chinese food, how not to set off the alarm in my house, and maybe, just maybe, how to not look like a foreigner. for now i will end this blog with my usual list of newly gained knowledge and go with Catie and our new friend Pippa (yes, she's American) to the beach to chat and zone to the sound of the Pacific, the ever present neighbor to our new home.
Things I've learned:
*It is almost impossible to get to the island of Huapi. it is very possibly a figment of catie's lonely planet book's imagination or a cruel joke they like to play on tourists.
* a lot of times when you try to make plans, God changes them for you. and sometimes when you try to change your plans, God changes them back. it's quite an interesting process.
* you can win any argument with men who are wearing tights by saying, "yeah? well you're wearing panties!"
* it is a common practice to charge gringas more to travel in buses or taxis. it is a good idea to have some chileans, preferable in renaissance attire, close at hand to negociate prices.
* it is NOT a common practice to purchase four mochaccinos from the same kiosk within a ten minute period, even if it is the best coffee you've had in a month.
* really bad kung fu movies are very popular among Chilean bus lines. and by bad, i mean incredibly entertaining.
* panqueques(pancakes) are really crepes. gorditos are pancakes as we know them.
* a guy whose claim to fame was being chosen by the chilean version of The Bachelorette and then dumped overdosed and was found this morning, still alive. i know this because every news channel was showing the same photos and 5 second clip of him in the hospital this morning. chileans love their reality tv.
* it is illegal to consume alcohol on the beach. also transvestites like to hang out in vina at night (we just learned both of these things about 20 seconds ago from my host sister).
* ISEP is lame...
* every bathroom in Chile must have an awkwardly placed window, either right behind the toilet and at butt-level, in the shower at chest-level, or any combination of other inopportune places for windows. this includes bus bathrooms. it seems that my bathroom here in vina is the only exception to this rule, which is nice.
* "pasta de loco" does not in fact mean "crazy paste." loco can also be mollusks. why any one would want to eat mollusk paste is beyond me, but a confusing experience with this item on a menu has lead to a nice long running joke where we often say "so and so has been eating crazy paste!" or "did you have crazy paste for breakfast?" and even, "they are on a steady diet of crazy paste" and so on and so forth.
* someday, i will have a purple house.
* i should never be allowed to be the one making plans in english. this is doubly true in spanish.
* just because a bus you need is pulling away does not mean you should run after it screaming and beating on the window. they might just be parking, in which case, you will look like a fool when you have to wait 30 more minutes before it actually leaves.
* it s very important to achieve the perfect mani to pasa ratio (referring to peanuts and raisins)
* cereal with cold milk is still always welcome treat.
* floating by the seat of your pants, or in out case God's pants, is sometimes much easier and more enjoyable than knowing what's going on, or in our case pretending to know what's going on.
* trusting God is easier when you stop trying to make plans altogether. and is much harder when you feel obligated to understand life and all it's happenings.
* being home, whether one you have always known or w new one in a foreign land, is always nice and makes traveling that much better.
* apparently i've learned a lot of things.
i still appreciate comments!
ciao!
so after my final adventure of chiloe and riding on a bus for 2 hours in wet, sandy clothes, then more bussing, we spent a night in Puerto Montt, an ugly port city which seems to be encompassed in shady. it was the first time i have felt unsafe since i've been here, so needless to say we left pretty quickly for Valdivia which surprised us with it's size and lovliness. but we were determined to camp a little more or at least see something of the indigenous culture, so we rode through the sleepy rolling countryside the the drowsy town of Futrono on the banks of Lago Ranco. After entirely too much time wandering around the same street, a beautiful sunset, some toffee liquor, and many failed attempts to get to the stupid island with the Mapuche tribe stuff, we returned to Valdivia on friday and decided to go ahead and by overnight bus tickets for home.
however, while waiting for our bus in the plaza central, catie mentioned that maybe we still had friends in Vladivia.
and friends we did! not even 5 minutes later, 3 men in tights and medeival costumes with instruments (and one in normal dress)! we looked at eachother with glee, both hoping they would burst out in song or at least lend themselves to conversation. lucky for us, they took a seat next to us and we were invited to share a pitcher of cerveza in no time, of which i of course did not partake because beer is like a mix of acid and urine for me. we found out that they were part of some group from the University of Concepcion that dates back to the 1500s (hence the medeival dress) and they travel around playing and singing in the street and in resaurants for change to have money to pay for room and board because there aren't scholarships for that. Conversation flowed nicely and it did not take long for us to decide to just ditch our plan and our bus tickets and stay another night in Valdivia with our new oddly dressed friends. we followed them around as they played in restaurants for the rest of the night, went to the store, and finally returned to the hospedaje where they were staying and got a room. then one of the guys made dinner, at 2:30 am mind you, spaghetti with tomato sauce with apples in it and a cream sauce with tuna...neither of which seemed particularly appealing. however neither of them turned out to be terrible but that might have been because we hadn't eaten for like 13 or 14 hours. then we stayed up sharing music and playing the guitar and chatting. we slept in real late and catie made pancakes and eggs, the boys donned their "panties" (tights in spanish) and we set out for another day of seemingly aimless wandering through this cafe and that, all the while their tambourines clanging and strings strumming. we ended up in a little mountain town outside Valdivia called Niebla, which literally translates to "fog." Fog indeed. the whole town was enveloped in a cold misty cloud that made the summer-ish heat and sun of Valdivia seem a hundred years away. ***Drew! do you remember that episode of Freakazoid where there was some evil glowing cloud in the mountains? i kept thinking of that all day, but had no one to share it with!***we walked around, went to yet another cultural fest complete with preteens performing traditional folklorico dances in constume and i was reminded of coutless ballet recitals and childhoon performances. we finally returned to Valdivia, gathered our now heavy laden backpacks and went to the store to get stuff to make sandwiches for dinner and snacks for our long ride home. We also proceeded to buy an entire Kuchen, something we had been looking for an excuse to do since we discovered Kuchen back in Frutillar. another man in tights had joined the quartet and we sat in the grass near the plaza, eating a meal of cheap bread, sketchy lunchmeat and Kuchen de frambueza in the dim light of "crepusculo" (dusk in spanish and another favorite word). the boys then serenaded us one last time and we rushed in a taxi to the bus station to have a sleepless and very uncomfortable night on a Linea Azul bus(which i do not reccommend). aside from that, it was the perfect way to end a month of crazy-awesome.
* * * * *
now i am back in Vina, just trying to digest the last month of free-spirited wandering while trying to feel out this whole living in a big city with a new family and going to a new school with a foreign system and being surrounded by Americans(other exchange students). Since our return to "real life" Catie and I have found all our new friends on Facebook, the international symbol of friendship, and hung out with "The Chicos" (the guys we met hitch hiking in chiloe) who continue to exhibit their scouts honor and un-sketchiness. classes start next week although both of us are having some extreme issues(probably not that extreme, but it feels like a big deal) with our classes and credits and all that jazz, which may have to do with the fact that everything is in spanish. but, soon it will figure itself out(thanks God, in advance) and we will settle into patterns, friendships, and the micro-system(public transportation between valpo and vina on mini-buses) and our minds will stop wanting to explode after thinking in Spanish for more than an hour. we will know the good beaches, the good clubs, how to order coffee and chinese food, how not to set off the alarm in my house, and maybe, just maybe, how to not look like a foreigner. for now i will end this blog with my usual list of newly gained knowledge and go with Catie and our new friend Pippa (yes, she's American) to the beach to chat and zone to the sound of the Pacific, the ever present neighbor to our new home.
Things I've learned:
*It is almost impossible to get to the island of Huapi. it is very possibly a figment of catie's lonely planet book's imagination or a cruel joke they like to play on tourists.
* a lot of times when you try to make plans, God changes them for you. and sometimes when you try to change your plans, God changes them back. it's quite an interesting process.
* you can win any argument with men who are wearing tights by saying, "yeah? well you're wearing panties!"
* it is a common practice to charge gringas more to travel in buses or taxis. it is a good idea to have some chileans, preferable in renaissance attire, close at hand to negociate prices.
* it is NOT a common practice to purchase four mochaccinos from the same kiosk within a ten minute period, even if it is the best coffee you've had in a month.
* really bad kung fu movies are very popular among Chilean bus lines. and by bad, i mean incredibly entertaining.
* panqueques(pancakes) are really crepes. gorditos are pancakes as we know them.
* a guy whose claim to fame was being chosen by the chilean version of The Bachelorette and then dumped overdosed and was found this morning, still alive. i know this because every news channel was showing the same photos and 5 second clip of him in the hospital this morning. chileans love their reality tv.
* it is illegal to consume alcohol on the beach. also transvestites like to hang out in vina at night (we just learned both of these things about 20 seconds ago from my host sister).
* ISEP is lame...
* every bathroom in Chile must have an awkwardly placed window, either right behind the toilet and at butt-level, in the shower at chest-level, or any combination of other inopportune places for windows. this includes bus bathrooms. it seems that my bathroom here in vina is the only exception to this rule, which is nice.
* "pasta de loco" does not in fact mean "crazy paste." loco can also be mollusks. why any one would want to eat mollusk paste is beyond me, but a confusing experience with this item on a menu has lead to a nice long running joke where we often say "so and so has been eating crazy paste!" or "did you have crazy paste for breakfast?" and even, "they are on a steady diet of crazy paste" and so on and so forth.
* someday, i will have a purple house.
* i should never be allowed to be the one making plans in english. this is doubly true in spanish.
* just because a bus you need is pulling away does not mean you should run after it screaming and beating on the window. they might just be parking, in which case, you will look like a fool when you have to wait 30 more minutes before it actually leaves.
* it s very important to achieve the perfect mani to pasa ratio (referring to peanuts and raisins)
* cereal with cold milk is still always welcome treat.
* floating by the seat of your pants, or in out case God's pants, is sometimes much easier and more enjoyable than knowing what's going on, or in our case pretending to know what's going on.
* trusting God is easier when you stop trying to make plans altogether. and is much harder when you feel obligated to understand life and all it's happenings.
* being home, whether one you have always known or w new one in a foreign land, is always nice and makes traveling that much better.
* apparently i've learned a lot of things.
i still appreciate comments!
ciao!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Pacific
so the last few days have been seriously weird...just weird.
we left kissed our new friends goodbye(literally...on the cheek of course, as in the chilean custom!) and had a beautiful bus ride to the other side of the island to Cucao on the edge of Parque NAcional Chiloé, felt very disoriented about the town and the national park and hostaling or camping and finally settled on camping outside the park in a pricey but safe campsite/restaraunt. i then proceeded to lose my wallet on the way to the market, full of cash and my debit card, had to make the dreaded call to the parents...needless to say i was in a bit of a funk after that. but we sat on the deck and had our customary cup of nescafe to welcome ourselves to a new place, laughed a little and i felt better. we tried VERY unsuccessfully to rowboat(expect a video on facebook eventually) and went for a walk down the only trail we could really go on.
something about the light and the plants and the ponies everywhere and the feeling in our guts just felt off. it was just really weird and odd and strange and we both felt like we were in one of catie´s crazy dreams. at any point i expected a unicorn to jump out from some alien looking bush. anyway, we only did half the trail(about a 20 minute walk) and decided to save the rest for the next day. plus it was just weird. so we went back to strangley nice campsite and sat by the water eating potato chips, which felt strange. the water reflected the candy colored sky like a mirror, but more strange. and when the motorboats went by and the giant ripples would rush to the shore, it felt like i was on some other planet and the ground was going to give out. needless to say, i had a serious case of the weirds...
we cooked our hotdogs on our legal fire(yay!) and then had a nice evening listening to Sufjan while staring at stars and embers, although i guess they are pretty much the same thing on different scales. we made friends with our neighboring campers who invited us to eat lunch with them the next day as well as to stay with them in Santiago if we ever wanted to go skiing...
we slept suuuuuper late, had a delicious lunch with our new friends and decided to walk the rest of the trail to the beach that we had started the day before.
as we came over the ñast sand dune, we were confonted with the strangest beach scene i´ve ever experienced. it was a cloudy day and the sand seemed to be steaming. the Pacific water was a dull green grey and everything was shrouded in a mist. the sea, the sand, and the sky all seemed to run together in a blur of foggy mystery. the unicorn from the day before was going to come over the dune at any second to return a mermaid to the water.
weird.
but the more i stood there, the more i had the urge to join it. i realized that the only reason i hadnt kicked off my shoes yet was that i didnt want to have dirty feet. and then i realized that that was stupid. so i took off my shoes and socks and rolled up my jeans and played and danced and got soaked up past my knees. and the more i played the more i just wanted to get in.
so we went down the bech a ways i took off my clothes and ran. i just ran as hard as i could in my underwear into the cold Pacific. and i played and laughed and smiled and danced. by myself. and it was beautiful.
this isnt the first time ive played in the ocean or the first time ive seen the Pacific. but theres just somethin about it every time i encounter it, the biggest body of water whe know of. if i went swimming in it from that beacj on Chiloé i wouldnt hit anything util indonesia or something. its the most vast thing i can imagine except for maybe God´s love or something. and its ironic because its was named Pacific for its peaceful nature. it doesnt harbor hurricanes and such like the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans. but under the surface, its alive. the Pacific plate is what causes all the seismic activity on the entire western coast of both north and south america. it made the Andes mountains. it causes earthquakes in alaska and tierra del fuego(the southernmost part of south america) alike. it cause the eruption of the volcano Chaiten directly accross the bay from Chiloé. (side note: please pray for the people of Chaiten. i dont know if American news is covering it, but the volcano there erupted a year or so ago and erupted again last week. it has desolated the area and its residents. it is completely evacuated and might not be liveable for another 10 years. the smoke and ash cloud above the mountain are still visible from Chiloé. kindof a scary sight.) it caused the earthquake in Chile in the 60´s that made hundred of cities crumble and sent a tsunami to Japan. Chile lies in between the ocean and the tallest mountain range of the continent and right on top of the edge of the plate. it´s a dangerous place to live, but its all they know.
the Pacific Ocean just amazes me.
that was basically the point of this blog. so if you have chance, do something crazy. be a part of something far to big to be comprehended. do something awesome by yourself.
now we are back on the mainland in a funny little town called Futrono on the banks of Lago Ranco. we have yet to have our welcoming nescafe, but im pretty sure it will contain some yummy toffee coffee licquor business...
things ive learned:
*the fact that firemen are always attractive in universal. Bomberos here are no different :)
*dead end roads are not always as deserted as they seem...haha
*catie and i are basically the same person. the number of times we ahve both thought the exact same thig at the same time it ridiculous. its getting a little creepy
*Chile was the second country in the world(England was the first) to have Scouts(like boy scouts)
*guitars and friends and coffee and dancing in kitchens late at night is just as sweet in other hemispheres
*God answers prayer even when we dont realize we prayed them. we talked about pets one night and found 11 puppies the next day. we reminisced about childhood games and fantasies and wished we could play imaginary games like we used to and the next day God dave us the Fairy Tale island. we talked about wanting to make friends and be open to people and the next day we met Marco, Fransisco and Esteban. he gives us ice cream at just the right second. we cound cereal and cold milk. we found a friend with a guitar. anyway, its aweosme.
*there is a Forrest Lemon in Chile(maya only you will really get this)! he looks just like mayas little brother but a little younger and with dark hair. weird.
*mani con pasas rubias(peanuts with golden raisins) can solce anything
*just because an internet cafe has microphones doesnt mean they worl. in addition, just because a place says its an internet cafe, doesnt mean it is
*backpacks DO get heavier every time you pick them up
*every good thing has to come to an end. like this trip. it is time to get back to viña and have clean clothes and just settle into life. and also like this blog.
please comment so i know im not just writing this for my mom(hi mom!)
¡ciao!
we left kissed our new friends goodbye(literally...on the cheek of course, as in the chilean custom!) and had a beautiful bus ride to the other side of the island to Cucao on the edge of Parque NAcional Chiloé, felt very disoriented about the town and the national park and hostaling or camping and finally settled on camping outside the park in a pricey but safe campsite/restaraunt. i then proceeded to lose my wallet on the way to the market, full of cash and my debit card, had to make the dreaded call to the parents...needless to say i was in a bit of a funk after that. but we sat on the deck and had our customary cup of nescafe to welcome ourselves to a new place, laughed a little and i felt better. we tried VERY unsuccessfully to rowboat(expect a video on facebook eventually) and went for a walk down the only trail we could really go on.
something about the light and the plants and the ponies everywhere and the feeling in our guts just felt off. it was just really weird and odd and strange and we both felt like we were in one of catie´s crazy dreams. at any point i expected a unicorn to jump out from some alien looking bush. anyway, we only did half the trail(about a 20 minute walk) and decided to save the rest for the next day. plus it was just weird. so we went back to strangley nice campsite and sat by the water eating potato chips, which felt strange. the water reflected the candy colored sky like a mirror, but more strange. and when the motorboats went by and the giant ripples would rush to the shore, it felt like i was on some other planet and the ground was going to give out. needless to say, i had a serious case of the weirds...
we cooked our hotdogs on our legal fire(yay!) and then had a nice evening listening to Sufjan while staring at stars and embers, although i guess they are pretty much the same thing on different scales. we made friends with our neighboring campers who invited us to eat lunch with them the next day as well as to stay with them in Santiago if we ever wanted to go skiing...
we slept suuuuuper late, had a delicious lunch with our new friends and decided to walk the rest of the trail to the beach that we had started the day before.
as we came over the ñast sand dune, we were confonted with the strangest beach scene i´ve ever experienced. it was a cloudy day and the sand seemed to be steaming. the Pacific water was a dull green grey and everything was shrouded in a mist. the sea, the sand, and the sky all seemed to run together in a blur of foggy mystery. the unicorn from the day before was going to come over the dune at any second to return a mermaid to the water.
weird.
but the more i stood there, the more i had the urge to join it. i realized that the only reason i hadnt kicked off my shoes yet was that i didnt want to have dirty feet. and then i realized that that was stupid. so i took off my shoes and socks and rolled up my jeans and played and danced and got soaked up past my knees. and the more i played the more i just wanted to get in.
so we went down the bech a ways i took off my clothes and ran. i just ran as hard as i could in my underwear into the cold Pacific. and i played and laughed and smiled and danced. by myself. and it was beautiful.
this isnt the first time ive played in the ocean or the first time ive seen the Pacific. but theres just somethin about it every time i encounter it, the biggest body of water whe know of. if i went swimming in it from that beacj on Chiloé i wouldnt hit anything util indonesia or something. its the most vast thing i can imagine except for maybe God´s love or something. and its ironic because its was named Pacific for its peaceful nature. it doesnt harbor hurricanes and such like the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans. but under the surface, its alive. the Pacific plate is what causes all the seismic activity on the entire western coast of both north and south america. it made the Andes mountains. it causes earthquakes in alaska and tierra del fuego(the southernmost part of south america) alike. it cause the eruption of the volcano Chaiten directly accross the bay from Chiloé. (side note: please pray for the people of Chaiten. i dont know if American news is covering it, but the volcano there erupted a year or so ago and erupted again last week. it has desolated the area and its residents. it is completely evacuated and might not be liveable for another 10 years. the smoke and ash cloud above the mountain are still visible from Chiloé. kindof a scary sight.) it caused the earthquake in Chile in the 60´s that made hundred of cities crumble and sent a tsunami to Japan. Chile lies in between the ocean and the tallest mountain range of the continent and right on top of the edge of the plate. it´s a dangerous place to live, but its all they know.
the Pacific Ocean just amazes me.
that was basically the point of this blog. so if you have chance, do something crazy. be a part of something far to big to be comprehended. do something awesome by yourself.
now we are back on the mainland in a funny little town called Futrono on the banks of Lago Ranco. we have yet to have our welcoming nescafe, but im pretty sure it will contain some yummy toffee coffee licquor business...
things ive learned:
*the fact that firemen are always attractive in universal. Bomberos here are no different :)
*dead end roads are not always as deserted as they seem...haha
*catie and i are basically the same person. the number of times we ahve both thought the exact same thig at the same time it ridiculous. its getting a little creepy
*Chile was the second country in the world(England was the first) to have Scouts(like boy scouts)
*guitars and friends and coffee and dancing in kitchens late at night is just as sweet in other hemispheres
*God answers prayer even when we dont realize we prayed them. we talked about pets one night and found 11 puppies the next day. we reminisced about childhood games and fantasies and wished we could play imaginary games like we used to and the next day God dave us the Fairy Tale island. we talked about wanting to make friends and be open to people and the next day we met Marco, Fransisco and Esteban. he gives us ice cream at just the right second. we cound cereal and cold milk. we found a friend with a guitar. anyway, its aweosme.
*there is a Forrest Lemon in Chile(maya only you will really get this)! he looks just like mayas little brother but a little younger and with dark hair. weird.
*mani con pasas rubias(peanuts with golden raisins) can solce anything
*just because an internet cafe has microphones doesnt mean they worl. in addition, just because a place says its an internet cafe, doesnt mean it is
*backpacks DO get heavier every time you pick them up
*every good thing has to come to an end. like this trip. it is time to get back to viña and have clean clothes and just settle into life. and also like this blog.
please comment so i know im not just writing this for my mom(hi mom!)
¡ciao!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
good things happen when you put out your thumb...
and by good things, i mean you might have the BEST DAY EVER!!!!! well maybe not ever, but at least a really good one!
so the day started off pretty lame. we decided to go to a mirador(lookout point/scenic area) called los flamencos(the flamingos) in hopes of finding some flamingos! but then when we finally got there, it was lame and there were just a bunch of stupid black necked swans...just kidding they are cool i guess, but they are not pink and do not stand on one leg! so we were a little annoyed and we were walking on the highway a little north of Castro hoping to flag down a bus into Dalcahue and go over to a little island for the afternoon, then come back to Castro and head over to the other side of Chiloé to Cucao on the edge of the national park for the next few days. but there were no bises and we were tired of spending money and it just felt like the perfect time to try to hitch hike again, our last experience turned out fine and it just felt right.
so i stuck out my thumb.
and the very first car pulled over!
and then , God gave us the gift of Marco, Fransisco, and Esteban, all wrapped up in a boxy little SUV.
Marco is 29, and sat in the back seat with us and acted very much like a nice older brother, explaining things and asking questions. Fransisco, the driver, is 24 and has a raspy husky voice and almost incomprehensible Spanish, but is very sweet. And Esteban is the youngest of the trio at 23, with a nice dark beard, kind eyes and nimble fingers for guitar picking.
So we rode into Dalcahue, a small toen just north of CAstro, looked around the artesan market at the same bottles of liquor and beautiful sweaters and hippie pants, and decided that we might as well just continue on all together accrss the bay to the little rural island wioth some name that sounds like every other name in Chiloé with an awkward combination of "ch" and "qu" and "v" and one vowel. anyway, we boarded the fairy and proceeded to spend the afternoon driving with the windows down, soaking in the first sunny day we´ve seen since we arrived in Chiloè almost a week ago, stopping in every little town and mirador, conversing in easily flowing Spanish, actually understanding what was going on! it was beautiful! it turns out that the guys are all from Valparaíso, the city where we will be studying and two of them actually still live and study there! They grew up together doing Scouts(yes like boy scouts in the states, but cooler because its in Chile) and now they are all still good friends!
on our way back into Castro, Catie and I simultaneously decided that we would rather stay in Casrto another night and go kayaking with the guys rather than catch a late bus over to Cucao and try to find alojamiento(lodging...also one of my new favorite Spanish words). We told the guys that we accpeted the invitation to join them for kayaking and they offered to take us to their hospedaje which was cheaper than the one we had been staying in, with a LOVELY señora and breakfast! we, of course, accepted this gift for Dad and continued on the quaint little house on a tiny side street to change clothes for kayaking. then we met up with Marcelo, another scout frind, who is in the Navy a the little base by the water. all six of us got into three double kayaks and paddled around the green blue bay for a while, enjoying the late evening sun and cool water. it felt so good to work and be a little tired after our long stint of not doing anything since we arrived in Chiloé. then we returned to the hospedaje to freshen up and piled back into Fransisco´s ever-convenient coche to find some dinner. We eneded up in "el trauco" named after a character in Chilote folklore who is like a leprechan with an insatiable sexual appetite....i did not make this up. talk to the chiloeans! it´s their folklore! anyway, catie and i ordered a curanto to share. curanto is like a signature dish in Chiloé where they cook all types of meat and shellfish in a hole in the ground and there is even a traditional song about it that seems to be constantly floating in the air and getting stuck in people´s heads, including mine. anyway, the oysters or mollusks or whatever were more like aliens to me, so needless to day, i only ate a few. from dinner we went up to the other side of the bay to a look out point to view Castro by night and look at the stars a little and descended the insanely bumpy road back into Castro to shoot some pool. the guys discovered quickly that i have almost no skill at anything that requires coordination and that i have almost no competitive spirit. Catie, of course played quite well and did not make a total fool of herself. haha! anyway, we went back to the house, had a cup of nescafe, and finally convinced esteban to play his guitar even though a string was broken. he played sweetly and sang a song about crying and dying or something that damien rice would sing. and then we taught him to two-step in the kitchen(heck yes!) as well as tango and swing.
all in all, it was a freaking lovely day!
and now we have to catch a bus and i dont have time to tell you what i learned, but the next post will just have extra!
love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ciao!
so the day started off pretty lame. we decided to go to a mirador(lookout point/scenic area) called los flamencos(the flamingos) in hopes of finding some flamingos! but then when we finally got there, it was lame and there were just a bunch of stupid black necked swans...just kidding they are cool i guess, but they are not pink and do not stand on one leg! so we were a little annoyed and we were walking on the highway a little north of Castro hoping to flag down a bus into Dalcahue and go over to a little island for the afternoon, then come back to Castro and head over to the other side of Chiloé to Cucao on the edge of the national park for the next few days. but there were no bises and we were tired of spending money and it just felt like the perfect time to try to hitch hike again, our last experience turned out fine and it just felt right.
so i stuck out my thumb.
and the very first car pulled over!
and then , God gave us the gift of Marco, Fransisco, and Esteban, all wrapped up in a boxy little SUV.
Marco is 29, and sat in the back seat with us and acted very much like a nice older brother, explaining things and asking questions. Fransisco, the driver, is 24 and has a raspy husky voice and almost incomprehensible Spanish, but is very sweet. And Esteban is the youngest of the trio at 23, with a nice dark beard, kind eyes and nimble fingers for guitar picking.
So we rode into Dalcahue, a small toen just north of CAstro, looked around the artesan market at the same bottles of liquor and beautiful sweaters and hippie pants, and decided that we might as well just continue on all together accrss the bay to the little rural island wioth some name that sounds like every other name in Chiloé with an awkward combination of "ch" and "qu" and "v" and one vowel. anyway, we boarded the fairy and proceeded to spend the afternoon driving with the windows down, soaking in the first sunny day we´ve seen since we arrived in Chiloè almost a week ago, stopping in every little town and mirador, conversing in easily flowing Spanish, actually understanding what was going on! it was beautiful! it turns out that the guys are all from Valparaíso, the city where we will be studying and two of them actually still live and study there! They grew up together doing Scouts(yes like boy scouts in the states, but cooler because its in Chile) and now they are all still good friends!
on our way back into Castro, Catie and I simultaneously decided that we would rather stay in Casrto another night and go kayaking with the guys rather than catch a late bus over to Cucao and try to find alojamiento(lodging...also one of my new favorite Spanish words). We told the guys that we accpeted the invitation to join them for kayaking and they offered to take us to their hospedaje which was cheaper than the one we had been staying in, with a LOVELY señora and breakfast! we, of course, accepted this gift for Dad and continued on the quaint little house on a tiny side street to change clothes for kayaking. then we met up with Marcelo, another scout frind, who is in the Navy a the little base by the water. all six of us got into three double kayaks and paddled around the green blue bay for a while, enjoying the late evening sun and cool water. it felt so good to work and be a little tired after our long stint of not doing anything since we arrived in Chiloé. then we returned to the hospedaje to freshen up and piled back into Fransisco´s ever-convenient coche to find some dinner. We eneded up in "el trauco" named after a character in Chilote folklore who is like a leprechan with an insatiable sexual appetite....i did not make this up. talk to the chiloeans! it´s their folklore! anyway, catie and i ordered a curanto to share. curanto is like a signature dish in Chiloé where they cook all types of meat and shellfish in a hole in the ground and there is even a traditional song about it that seems to be constantly floating in the air and getting stuck in people´s heads, including mine. anyway, the oysters or mollusks or whatever were more like aliens to me, so needless to day, i only ate a few. from dinner we went up to the other side of the bay to a look out point to view Castro by night and look at the stars a little and descended the insanely bumpy road back into Castro to shoot some pool. the guys discovered quickly that i have almost no skill at anything that requires coordination and that i have almost no competitive spirit. Catie, of course played quite well and did not make a total fool of herself. haha! anyway, we went back to the house, had a cup of nescafe, and finally convinced esteban to play his guitar even though a string was broken. he played sweetly and sang a song about crying and dying or something that damien rice would sing. and then we taught him to two-step in the kitchen(heck yes!) as well as tango and swing.
all in all, it was a freaking lovely day!
and now we have to catch a bus and i dont have time to tell you what i learned, but the next post will just have extra!
love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ciao!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
holy trash it sucks that the internet costs money!
Chiloè: magical land of rain, fairies, puppies, food, livestock, awesome sweaters, bad american music, and simultaneously brightly colored yet faded life.
I`ve been trying to get a feel for Chiloè since we arrived in Ancud almost a week ago and i think i might have it down. you know how people say something "runs like a well oiled machine?" well Chiloè is kind of the opposite. it definitely runs. but it´s more like a really old machine whose gears are all rusty or borrowed, that creaks with every turn, and has a brightly painted exterior that has been weathered and chipped by a few too many Pacific storms and earthquakes. But it`s beautiful at the same time. Like a priceless antique that should be on a shelf being admired but instead is still functioning like it always has. And there is nothing that could take it`s place if it did decide to retire. Nothing can do what Chiloè does. So it keeps going, rain or shine(but mostly rain), creaking out a lovely little song.
So here`s a quick run down of events in breater detail than the last post:
We got to Ancud and couldn´t find the hostal we had reservations with, so we found a random one(and by found, i mean God gave it to us) with a sweet yet crazy señora who thought that it was helpful to scream in our ears whe we couldnt understand her rather than just speak more slowly. We went to Pingüinera Puñihuil(say that 5 times fast!) where we just sat in a motorboat and looked at some penguins on a rock 20 feet away for lie 20 minutes...but the drive there was really beautiful and fun. we made friends with our guide, Franco, who is our age and went out to coffee with him and discussed the idiosynchracies(how does one spell that?) of Spanish and English.
We were a little frustrated with Ancud, so we left for Quemchi, a little fishing village an hour south, found a perfectly lovely hostal(of course) with psalms on the walls and really sweet owners. we heard that there was a little island with a church and a botanical garden that you can only get to by bridge, so we ventured out into the rain to find it. after bussing, walking and yes, hitch-hiking we were crossing a sketchy old bridge into an enchanted land...we then proceeded to revert to our childhoods and make up an awesome fairy tale as we explored the island. the magic cannot possible be described by photos, words, and especially not by a blog. so you´ll just have to read the fairy tale that Catie wrote someday.
after a night there, we used the connections of a family at the hostal to find a farm where we could go stay and do some kind of agro-tourism stuff. we went for a walk on the beach and stumbled upon 11 roly poly lovey dovey puppies! we sat and suggled and played with them for a while, and went on down the beach to some cool moss covered rock formations. we got some delicious cazuela(chilote stew with meat and potatoes and rice and carrots and some kind of squash-ish thing and whatever else they feel like throwing in). while enjoying the steamy goodness, some young chilean men came into the restaurant and struck up a conversation, it was sufficiently awkward, so we left pretty quickly after we payed the tab. but a few minutes later as we waited ofr our bus to the country,the same guys walked by and started chatting again. after a confusing exchange of chilean Spanish and broken gringa Spanish, one ran back to the cafe and brought back two flowers made out of napkins attatched to a note. he had left them there for us in case we went back but then realized we were leaving that town for good. the note said something like "sorry for the late exchange" using a spanish adjective i had never heard and had his name and phone number and "call me, molly!" it was so freakin funny! anyway, we took a quick photo with them before we hopped on the minibus and went on our way to the strangest two days ever.
we were greeted warmly in the road my Ema, the señora of the farm and ushered into the "fogòn," their family restaurant, and then on a rocky path back to the house. the farm is amzing! they grow everything they need including tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, other vegetables, apples, plums, sheep, cows, bees for honey...its basically entirely self sustaining. she Ema even uses the wool from the sheep to make yarm which she dyes using only natural things, and then knits it or uses a loom in her home to make clothes to sell. its aweosme.
so we spent the mext few days eating. thats basically it. we tired to help out and do work, but they wouldnt really let us and then we wouls just sit and wait for the next enormous meal. we did go out to the orchard and pick plums and apples, rode the horse, bought some stuff from Ema´s shop(like the ridiculousy cozy sweater duster that i will probably not take off until next summer). and, the highlight of our time on the farm, we saw a sheep be coralled, caught, tied, wheelbarrowed, bled out, decapitated, skinned, gutted, butchered, skured, cooked over a fire, and then we ate him. it was one of the strangest things i´ve ever seen. not gross or scary, just strange. anyway, as a whole our time on the farm was good i guess, i just wish we could have done more. it was weird to just stand around and watch them work. not to mention the fact that even though they were supposedly speaking spanish, i could only understand about half of what they said, if that.
anyway, we left there saturday afternoon to come to Castro, the capital of Chiloé for the Festival Costumbrista (culrtual fest). its a pretty big deal. there´s a stage where they play traditional Chilote(from chiloé) musica which sounds a lot like tejano and do traditional dances which look a lot like polka. and theres a HUGE area lined with booths from schools and organizations and fire departments with all kinds of traditional chilote food: cazuela, milcao, anticucho, empenadas and a ton of other things that i can´t remember the names of. and then theres another area where artisans sell their wares including hand made sweaters and carvings, liquors, jams and such.
so i´ve oficially been on the internet for entirely too long, so im gonna skip straight to the things ive learned:
*i never knew how much i like meat. however, this has gotten me into trouble becuase i´m pretty sure i got a little food poisining from some sketchy meat at the festival. eek!
*i DO like wine! well certain types and in extreme moderation...
*Chiloè has a culture all its own including food, music, dance, folklore(which you should just google because its super interesting).
*sometimes God can take the form of a cup of coffee or a perfect hostal.
*speaking of perfect hostals, it is pointless for us to pretend like we have a plan or try to do things ahead of time because God already knows what´s going on and has it all ready for our arrival...
*I don´t speak Spanish.
*chilean Spanish is hard enough, but Chilote (form Chiloé) Spanish is another story! (see previous point)
*plug your ears with fairies in order to protect yourself from being enchanted by the song of the phantom pirates of Chiloé
*puppies are the best thing ever. period.
*pupu suave is STILL funny even if you have pupu suave
*Catie is way too excited about her toenail that finally fell off after her super intense blisters...
*i now owe 145o pesos for this time on the internet, so that will have to be it for now!
we, of course dont know where we´re going tomorrow or what we`ll do, so just check back here in a few days after God gives us our next adventure.
and look at the photos catie posted on facebook or on photobucket through the link on her blog.
¡besos!
I`ve been trying to get a feel for Chiloè since we arrived in Ancud almost a week ago and i think i might have it down. you know how people say something "runs like a well oiled machine?" well Chiloè is kind of the opposite. it definitely runs. but it´s more like a really old machine whose gears are all rusty or borrowed, that creaks with every turn, and has a brightly painted exterior that has been weathered and chipped by a few too many Pacific storms and earthquakes. But it`s beautiful at the same time. Like a priceless antique that should be on a shelf being admired but instead is still functioning like it always has. And there is nothing that could take it`s place if it did decide to retire. Nothing can do what Chiloè does. So it keeps going, rain or shine(but mostly rain), creaking out a lovely little song.
So here`s a quick run down of events in breater detail than the last post:
We got to Ancud and couldn´t find the hostal we had reservations with, so we found a random one(and by found, i mean God gave it to us) with a sweet yet crazy señora who thought that it was helpful to scream in our ears whe we couldnt understand her rather than just speak more slowly. We went to Pingüinera Puñihuil(say that 5 times fast!) where we just sat in a motorboat and looked at some penguins on a rock 20 feet away for lie 20 minutes...but the drive there was really beautiful and fun. we made friends with our guide, Franco, who is our age and went out to coffee with him and discussed the idiosynchracies(how does one spell that?) of Spanish and English.
We were a little frustrated with Ancud, so we left for Quemchi, a little fishing village an hour south, found a perfectly lovely hostal(of course) with psalms on the walls and really sweet owners. we heard that there was a little island with a church and a botanical garden that you can only get to by bridge, so we ventured out into the rain to find it. after bussing, walking and yes, hitch-hiking we were crossing a sketchy old bridge into an enchanted land...we then proceeded to revert to our childhoods and make up an awesome fairy tale as we explored the island. the magic cannot possible be described by photos, words, and especially not by a blog. so you´ll just have to read the fairy tale that Catie wrote someday.
after a night there, we used the connections of a family at the hostal to find a farm where we could go stay and do some kind of agro-tourism stuff. we went for a walk on the beach and stumbled upon 11 roly poly lovey dovey puppies! we sat and suggled and played with them for a while, and went on down the beach to some cool moss covered rock formations. we got some delicious cazuela(chilote stew with meat and potatoes and rice and carrots and some kind of squash-ish thing and whatever else they feel like throwing in). while enjoying the steamy goodness, some young chilean men came into the restaurant and struck up a conversation, it was sufficiently awkward, so we left pretty quickly after we payed the tab. but a few minutes later as we waited ofr our bus to the country,the same guys walked by and started chatting again. after a confusing exchange of chilean Spanish and broken gringa Spanish, one ran back to the cafe and brought back two flowers made out of napkins attatched to a note. he had left them there for us in case we went back but then realized we were leaving that town for good. the note said something like "sorry for the late exchange" using a spanish adjective i had never heard and had his name and phone number and "call me, molly!" it was so freakin funny! anyway, we took a quick photo with them before we hopped on the minibus and went on our way to the strangest two days ever.
we were greeted warmly in the road my Ema, the señora of the farm and ushered into the "fogòn," their family restaurant, and then on a rocky path back to the house. the farm is amzing! they grow everything they need including tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, other vegetables, apples, plums, sheep, cows, bees for honey...its basically entirely self sustaining. she Ema even uses the wool from the sheep to make yarm which she dyes using only natural things, and then knits it or uses a loom in her home to make clothes to sell. its aweosme.
so we spent the mext few days eating. thats basically it. we tired to help out and do work, but they wouldnt really let us and then we wouls just sit and wait for the next enormous meal. we did go out to the orchard and pick plums and apples, rode the horse, bought some stuff from Ema´s shop(like the ridiculousy cozy sweater duster that i will probably not take off until next summer). and, the highlight of our time on the farm, we saw a sheep be coralled, caught, tied, wheelbarrowed, bled out, decapitated, skinned, gutted, butchered, skured, cooked over a fire, and then we ate him. it was one of the strangest things i´ve ever seen. not gross or scary, just strange. anyway, as a whole our time on the farm was good i guess, i just wish we could have done more. it was weird to just stand around and watch them work. not to mention the fact that even though they were supposedly speaking spanish, i could only understand about half of what they said, if that.
anyway, we left there saturday afternoon to come to Castro, the capital of Chiloé for the Festival Costumbrista (culrtual fest). its a pretty big deal. there´s a stage where they play traditional Chilote(from chiloé) musica which sounds a lot like tejano and do traditional dances which look a lot like polka. and theres a HUGE area lined with booths from schools and organizations and fire departments with all kinds of traditional chilote food: cazuela, milcao, anticucho, empenadas and a ton of other things that i can´t remember the names of. and then theres another area where artisans sell their wares including hand made sweaters and carvings, liquors, jams and such.
so i´ve oficially been on the internet for entirely too long, so im gonna skip straight to the things ive learned:
*i never knew how much i like meat. however, this has gotten me into trouble becuase i´m pretty sure i got a little food poisining from some sketchy meat at the festival. eek!
*i DO like wine! well certain types and in extreme moderation...
*Chiloè has a culture all its own including food, music, dance, folklore(which you should just google because its super interesting).
*sometimes God can take the form of a cup of coffee or a perfect hostal.
*speaking of perfect hostals, it is pointless for us to pretend like we have a plan or try to do things ahead of time because God already knows what´s going on and has it all ready for our arrival...
*I don´t speak Spanish.
*chilean Spanish is hard enough, but Chilote (form Chiloé) Spanish is another story! (see previous point)
*plug your ears with fairies in order to protect yourself from being enchanted by the song of the phantom pirates of Chiloé
*puppies are the best thing ever. period.
*pupu suave is STILL funny even if you have pupu suave
*Catie is way too excited about her toenail that finally fell off after her super intense blisters...
*i now owe 145o pesos for this time on the internet, so that will have to be it for now!
we, of course dont know where we´re going tomorrow or what we`ll do, so just check back here in a few days after God gives us our next adventure.
and look at the photos catie posted on facebook or on photobucket through the link on her blog.
¡besos!
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