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)
Saturday, March 21, 2009
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
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