"The rarest of successes—a book about one family and one country that is a book about the world and becomes the world in a book."
This is one of the quotations (from Cosmopolitan, no less) on the back of my copy of Isabel Allende's The House of Spirits, which I've been reading off and on since being here. The book is just as fantastic as this quotation implies, but I used it to begin this entry because it also relates to how I feel about my adopted country right now. Although I am still learning the ropes of getting around and feeling more comfortable here, it is amazing how easy it is to connect with people I never would have thought I'd even meet. Whether it's interviewing an encanadora (woman who handles fishing line) at Caleta Portales (on of Valpo's most famous ports for artisan fishing) for class or getting to know a compañero's host brother (his name is Ulysses, he had to be awesome), I am amazed by how quickly a conversation progresses. Obviously there are language barriers and I'm not saying it is this way for every extranjero with every single Chilean, but I think that what strikes me most during my first few weeks here is the general openness that Chileans have about talking and being helpful to a slightly-confused gringa. Thus begins Elizabeth's Official List of Top Ten Memorable Moments with Chilean People (so far):
1) Night number one. I was not doing so well with the climate and food change (not to mention umpteen hours in a plane, airports, and a bus) and one of the ADs came to see me. While waiting in the lobby of the hotel, the owner surprised me with a cup of tea and some stories that I somewhat understood about other foreigners that he's seen have health problems with climate and food. Not a great way to start my trip, but a great memory of a stranger's kindness.
2) Alam the artist invited me, Brooke, and basically all 26 program participants to his birthday bash. See earlier post for details but rest assured that it was pretty cool.
3) My host parents helped me get the best/cheapest cell phone and phone card on our first day together. Without their help with a certain Entel employee who tried to sell me something unnecessarily expensive, I would be way too many pesos lighter.
4) My host brother/cousin taught me the frequently used Chilenismo "Buena onda." It means cool, good, really good, etc. You can say that something or somewhere is "buena onda," or if someone asks how you are and things are peachy, "Buena onda" would also be appropriate response. Very versatile and kind of him to teach it to me. Love it.
5) While taking my first solo colectivo (fixed route taxi) trip en route way to meet up with everyone at El Boliviarano (popular bar in Valpo), the driver taught me that "luca" is a commonly used term for a mil peso bill. So instead of saying "Tengo dos mil" ("I have two mil"), which essentially says "HELLO I AM BLATANTLY NOT FROM HERE AND PROBABLY AMERICAN," I can say "Tengo dos luca" and have a better chance of blending in. Buena onda.
6) Okay, this next moment is not really mine, but I did meet the person so it counts. On our way back from El Bolivariano, I shared a colectivo with Celeste and our friend/classmate Brooke. The driver was also very friendly and told us that he's been to San Francisco and Los Angeles. The next day, Brooke (last one to be dropped off at home) told us that the driver gave her his card and then told her that he wouldn't drive away until she had gotten inside the house (by this time it was close to 3 am). Nice. But then when Brooke was clearly having problems with the key, the driver got out of the car and offered to help! He explained that he knew that a lot of older houses have tricky locks or something like that. Brooke got inside safe and sound AND added a seriously nice anecdote to the unofficial Why Colectivo Drivers Are Way Cool list.
7) Okay, basically my family is fabulous and everything with them is list-worthy. So this is a general composite that includes but is not limited to: all of my conversations with Cecilia about pretty much everything/anything, receiving an open-ended invite from another cousin (Claudia, 23 años) to go out with her and her friends sometime, being told by my sister-in-law that I speak Spanish better than I think I do, being told by cousin Clemente that I can visit him anytime when he moves in with Winnie-the-Pooh (Clemente is 4, btw), and going on a long stroll around central Viña with my host dad, Hector, so I could improve my know-how of the area in a calm and collected manner. Me encanta mi familia chilena (I love my Chilean family).
8) Last night I needed a certain micro to get to my destination. When I asked the micro driver if was passing a specific point, he said yes and then after I'd paid he told me that actually he was going to drop me off at the bottom of the hill and then I'd have to take another micro! So I'd might as well have just waited for another one. At this point you are probably why this is in a list of good memories. Well, as we bounced our way down Agua Santa, two other passengers started giving me advice on which micro to look for and which ones to wait for in the future. One of them even got off the micro with me for a minute and pointed to an example of the right micro! I may have ended up paying for two micro rides when I only needed one, but I learned more calle smarts and had another Chileans-are-generally-super-friendly-experience.
9) So last night a group of us hit Ritual, a bar in Cerro Alegre that is known for its amazing art (mosaic floor, handpainted tables, local artists' work on the walls, etc). Around 2 am we split and about half the group wanted to head home while others wanted to keep going to another bar. I was the only one from my area that was ready to go home (still not used to the Chilean style of weekend socializing, which can frequently involve leaving at 11 and not getting home until 8 the next morning!) and expressed concern to a friend (the fantastic Sarah Arvey, also of Oxy orange-ness) that I wasn't ready to navigate my way home by myself. ¡Presto! Turns out Ulysses lives pretty near me and he was also tired, so he took charge of which colectivo we needed to take but explained what he was doing so that I could learn for next time. Que simpático (how nice).
10) As I write this, I have come down with the cold/sore throat that's been going around our group this week. Not only did Cecilia call in for me that I wouldn't be able to come to a meeting today (4 other students were also to sick to go, eek), she made me a classic all-natural sore throat remedy (honey with lemon and water) AND brought my lunch to me on a tray so I didn't even have to get out of bed. Also, as I write this, she came in to show me the photos she just had printed, which include one of me with her and Hector and several of the lovely Julieta. Cecilia is totally cut out for the grandmother job and this is especially apparent by how well she's taking care of me with my cold ;) . So rest assured Mother and Daddy—I will be returned to you in one piece!
This post is already insanely long, so I'm going to end it here even though there is so much more to share. To close, here are a couple photos from yesterday's excursion to Caleta Portales...and Celeste (another Oxy amiga) with her new BFF, the completo—tune in next time for details on what this is as well as other Chilean comida!
