Voy grande o voy a casa

Oh wow, time truly does fly when you're having fun...and also amazing experiences that run the gamut from just hanging out in bars with friends to visiting La Victoria and La Sebastiana (Pablo Neruda's house in Valpo). I intended to write about food in my next post, but that will have to wait because I want to provide pictures too and I haven't been remembering to snap photos before devouring the culinary goodness that I find here! Next time, no worries.
We finished our seminar series this past week, which is nearly impossible to believe because it is sort of the first tangible marker in the passage of time here. Now we have more free time in the next week and a half or so as we wrap up Spanish classes before half the group (13 students) heads North to Arica and the other half (myself included) heads South to Temuco for our indigenous village study excursions (two weeks). We are also all planning our independent study projects (ISP) which will be conducted from May 5 to June 5. Even though a huge reason for choosing this country and this program for my study abroad experience was my interest in gender studies and women and politics, I have actually decided to explore a different topic for my ISP. During my first couple weeks here I found myself totally fascinated by the issues with political mobilization of Chilean youth and voting patterns, so I have decided to research this for my ISP. More specifically, I want to interview and possibly survey university students about political disillusionment, what political participation means to them, and so forth. I will continue to live with my fabulous, love-them-to-bits host family in Viña and do my research at two nearby universities and possible la Universidad de Chile in Santiago via day trips. It's fun to see the variety of subjects that interest my fellow students here—indigenous rights, public health, women's rights...it's all there. Que bacán.
When we went to La Victoria, we visited the house of André Jarlán, a Catholic priest from France who lived and worked in La Victoria in the 1970s and 80s. After a protest in 1984, he was assassinated via a gunshot through his bedroom window that killed him while he was reading the Bible. To maintain the memory of his life and work, his supporters established La Escuela de La Victoria. In the house, we saw his room where he died and it is truly a moving experience to stand there and see where the bullet hit his armoire, the desk where he was sitting, the bed whose sheets have not been changed since his death, etc.
This past week we studied the dictatorship and its human rights abuses more closely. Given my past study of this era in Chile's history, I was very interested in what the program had planned for us this week—sometimes it was emotionally intense, but all of it is worthwhile. We had our Tuesday seminar with Jose Cademartari, who was the economy minister for President Salvador Allende before being exiled during the dictatorship. To be in the same room with someone who literally worked for Allende and dealt with the golpe estado (coup of September 11, 1973) is indescribable. On Thursday, for our last seminar, we were with a human rights lawyer who patiently answered all of our broad questions about the dictatorship as well as other human rights issues in Chile like sexual health education (i.e. the lack thereof) in schools.
Then Friday (yesterday) we had our last day excursion to Santiago, where we first met with two women who are part of la Agrupación de familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos. One (whose name I unfortunately cannot remember) is the daughter of a desparecido ("disappeared") and subsequently grew up not knowing the whereabouts of her father (or if he was even still alive). The other woman, Gabriela, spoke very openly about her experience as a 21-year old wife whose husband disappeared. At first, these women seem like any other kind and outgoing Chilean that I've met here. Gabriela is 55, smokes (also, like many Chileans that I've met here—but this is another story for another day), and has dyed her hair a shade of pinkish-red that is not natural to any human I've ever met. But when she put on the tag with the photo of her husband that she made all those years ago, it's like you're talking to a 21-year old who just wants to know where the hell the government took her husband. These women are very accustomed to speaking openly about their experiences the history of the era and at times it was easy to momentarily forget that they really did—and do—live this horror every day of their lives.
Our next stop was the cemetery with a memorial to those who "disappeared" during the dictatorship. It's hard to really describe the feeling of sitting there, staring at this huge wall of names, realizing that each one represents a life that probably ended abruptly and painfully. Like seeing the Vietnam memorial wall with all the names, it's hard to take in and hard to describe.
Finally, we went to el Parque por la Paz ex Villa Grimaldi. Villa Grimaldi was one of the torture centers that were used during the dictatorship. Now it is a peace garden and memorial to remember and educate about the egregious abuse of human rights that took place there. We had the honor of being accompanied throughout the day by a survivor of Villa Grimaldi who now works with Proyecto Puerto, one of the community work activities that a group of SIT students do (I'm with T.A.F., a different one). I feel bad—I forget her name too! Lo siento.
I thought that the first two parts of the day were hard, but this was definitely the most emotionally draining and overwhelming. A day later, I still cannot completely believe that I stood next to the swimming pool that they used to fill with snakes and then put los detenidos ("the detained") in to torture them. Most if not all of the buildings were demolished right after the dictatorship ended and in their place there are memorial gardens and artwork. But it was still a completely inexpressible experience to walk on the grounds knowing that we were standing was where our friend and guide was tortured with her fellow detenidos. It was hard just to be there—I honestly don't know where she finds the strength to talk so openly about her experience there and take students like us to the actual location. Incredible. I guess I could say that a theme of the past couple weeks, from La Victoria to yesterday, has been "touching history"--it's amazing to move past books and lectures and really be there.
After such a draining day, I was exhausted and didn't carretear (go out, as in parties/clubs/bars/restaurants/anything else) last night and instead slept for an amazing and totally necessary 11 hours. Last weekend, however, I legitimately left the house on Saturday night around 9 and returned from a series of bars and a club (El Huevo, a.k.a the most gigantic and insane club you will ever see in your entire vida) after 5 on Sunday morning. Holy cow. It was extremely divertido/fun though J
Before I close with a few pictures of last couple weeks, I want to say MUCHAS GRACIAS to some people that totally made my life with some fabulous items received via el correo/the mail. First I received a totally awesome letter from the amazing Judy B. (a.k.a the Jim to my Pam, the cookie dough to my ice cream) complete with a tear-out from an old YM magazine that brought back some serious memories of butterfly hair clips and glitter gel. Then I got my Easter basket box from mi madre and proceeded to share Jelly Belly jellybeans with everyone at Casa SIT and then return home to read every single page of the issue of People with the Oscar coverage. THEN I got my Easter basket box from Aunt Peggy & Uncle Steve with more yummy dulces (I am eating a milk chocolate bunny ear right now, no lie) AND THE NEWEST JODI PICOULT BOOK which I am alternating reading with a contemporary Chilean novel that I bought here. To receive these tokens of home is awesome—love to everyone, everywhere—¡nos vemos!

PS: The title of this post is the result of some very entertaining conversations with my compañeros about "what if we tried to say current English phrases in Spanish"—hence, voy grande o voy a casa (I go big or go home!).

Sunset at Reñaca At La Sebastiana, l-r: Juliane, Erika, Brooke, Angela, me.


View of Valpo from Pablo Neruda's bedroom. With mi amiga Emily at the restaurant at the end of our excursion yesterday. You can sort of see the pitcher (on the right) that held an interesting beverage that apparently was beer with ice cream mixed in--I tried it and lived to tell the tale. The tale is that I won't be trying it again, but many others liked it!

Estoy lista para hacer una lista

"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!

Fotos fotos fotos!

Vista from our hotel (orientation) in Vina--blurry but still lovely.

My new room! This is when I was moving in last Saturday.


Sunset view from out apartment's balcony--made even more interesting by all the smoke in the air from a wildfire that's been going on.



Statue of Arturo Prats, historical Chilean icon. (and Virna, one of our Spanish profesoras)


Ascensores! Very steep but way less terrifying than I expected. This is how we reached Cerro Alegre in Valpo yesterday.

Gorgeous view of Valpo from high up in Cerro Alegre.


Examples of the amazing street art in Valpo. I took pictures of so many beautiful murals--hard to pick just a couple to show here! The second photo is of two of my classmates snapping photos of a mural of people sitting on a stoop--we seriously thought they were real people at first. This is not a mentira (lie).

Calle en Cerro Alegre.

And finalmente, my adorable host primo (cousin), Octavio. This is a photo of him scooting backwards on the floor in our apartment, which he really enjoys doing. Besides the fact that I already love babies/children, it's different to be around a little guy learning to talk in SPANISH. He waves and says a muffled "hola!" when he sees everyone. Tomorrow is his joint birthday party with his brother Clemente (who is turning 4 and Octavio just turned 1)--I am very excited to meet more of my extended family! Best wishes to everyone--may you all be able to scoot backwards and forwards on the floor of life if you so please. Something tells me that phrase is not going to catch on...

Mi casa es su casa

Hola! When this gets posted (written over a few days in Word), it will be my fourth full day living in Viña del Mar with my amazing new host family. I live in a lovely apartment with a fabulous view of the water (pictures to come) with my host parents, Cecilia and Hector Barrera. They are two of the kindest people I have ever met; Cecilia is very attentive and eager to help me get adjusted and Hector is also very warm and well-tempered. They have a grown son, Cristián, who I have yet to meet, but I have met his wife, Priscilla, and my "host sobrina" (niece) who is just one month old. Her name is Julieta de la Luz and she is absolutely linda (cute)! Don't worry Jake, you're still número uno.

I also have an official host brother named Michel. Technically he is my cousin (his mother is Hector's sister) but he introduced himself as my host brother and that works for me too. He was the one that I met on Friday when we were all taken to a bar in Valpo to hang out with Chileans our age (Michel is 24). Muy divertido (very fun).

Anyway, I am slowly but surely learning how to get around town and also how to handle Chilean pesos. For some reason, I find it ridiculously difficult to switch to a different money system and I constantly need to consult with Cecilia before paying because I never understand the numbers right away. Yesterday I almost tried to pay for my micro (local bus) ticket with a diez mil peso bill, which I think is akin to attempting to shove a fifty-dollar bill into a pay phone. Oops.

My second misstep thus far (and there will be muchos...) was today when I took the micro home from Casa SIT. I was so focused on not missing my stop that I got off a stop too early and had no idea where I was! I called Cecilia and she couldn't tell from what I told her where I was, so she just told me to stay put and wait for the next appropriate micro. I did just that and it turned out I was right around the corner from the correct street and didn't know it. So I basically paid twice for my micro ride, but está bien because now I know. Also, today is one week since we arrived in Chile and I have not been robbed or attacked by one of the many stray dogs wandering in the streets. I consider this a huge triumph.

Today (Tuesday) Cecilia took me to the first lecture in a series that will continue for most of the semester on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each time will be a different professor discussing a different topic (that we've read about in an assigned academic article). Today was "Chile in context" and it was pretty interesting although extremely information-dense. I most enjoyed seeing the university that these classes will be in—la Universidad Federico Santa Maria. It is so beautiful! I can't wait to take photos of the buildings and share them here because they are just exquisite with fantastic stonework and stairs that are dramatic though arduous to climb.

Figuring out a new city in a new country is a slow process that can be frustrating at times, but I am optimistic that after a couple more days of micro-riding I will feel more comfortable. An amiga from Oxy, Celeste, lives near me and I think after I get the hang of micro-ing I will walk to Casa SIT with her some days. We are also going to try taking the metro (which is above ground) to the university for our class there on Thursday. After a couple years of dealing with L.A.'s lack of public transportation, we are gobbling up all that this area has to offer!

Just met my abuelita Rosa, Cecilia's mother, who lives here but spends stretches of time with her other children. She seems very sweet but I had a hard time understanding her Spanish...ojalá que vaya a mejorar la mía para hablar con ella también/I hope that I improve mine so I can talk with her too!

PS: I can receive mail via Casa SIT, see address below. Gracias!
my name
c/o Casa SIT
Bellavista #1263, Recreo
Casilla Postal 8009 Vina 2
Vina del Mar, Chile

Primer post from Chile

Oh my goodness, my first post from Chile...! It's Thursday night here, which is hard to believe because a) arriving here on Tuesday feels like a week ago, so it definitely does not feel like barely 48 hours have gone by and b) the sun does not start to set until around 9 here, thus making it hard to believe that it's actually 9:45 p.m. as I write this.

After a rocky adjustment health-wise to the difference in food/water/climate, I am feeling almost 100% and thoroughly enjoying getting to know my new classmates and surroundings. The water is safe to drink here but most people do need a few days to let their bodies adjust, so we are advised to stick to bottled water for the first week. By the way, the program staff here (Mark and Rosanna = Academic Co-directors, Danko = Program Assistant, Karina = Homestay Coordinator, Choqui = Spanish education coordinator, Andrea = community work coordinator) are MUY FABULOSOS and I feel very lucky to have such wonderful people running the show here. They are very accessible and friendly and each has a unique background to bring to table.

So right now we are staying at a hotel in Viña del Mar, which is the "twin city" of Valparaiso. They are so close that people who live here can't exactly pinpoint where one ends and the other begins. Yesterday we had a walking tour of Viña during which I was able to buy my adapter--¡muy importante! It will take many more walks (with amigos, of course) to get a better sense of the city, but one of the beaches is a two-minute walk from the hotel and there is a super cool outdoor clock made of flowers that serves as a good point of reference. I haven't taken my own photo of it yet, but here's the first one that I found on Google: http://www.physics.ucdavis.edu/~dwittman/david.wittman.com/reloj.jpg .

Anyway, orientation has basically consisted of activities and presentations about safety, the academic program, homestay know-how, our independent study project (ISP) at the end of the semester, etc. Yesterday we were put in pairs for something called the "drop off" in which each pair had a destination, two slang words to find out about, and a food to eat or at least find out about as well. Mi compañera Brooke and I set off on la micro (the bus) to find La Plaza de Aníbal Pinto (an early Chilean president) in Valpo. It wasn't hard at all to hope on la micro and then ask for directions to the plaza, which was only about 5 blocks from where we got off the bus. The plaza was small but charming and in an area with many shops including heladerias (ice cream shops, mmm) y librerias (bookstores). Brooke and I already knew how to describe an empanada and it was getting pretty warm and sunny outside, so we decided to do a little comida substitution and got our first authentic Chilean ice cream cones instead J . We also talked with Alam, an artist who paints street images and sells them right there in the plaza. Just as everyone had told us about typical Chileans, he was very friendly and eager to talk with us about Valpo and his life there. He showed us that, in a nearby bookstore, they have photos of the plaza through the years starting in 1850! Then it turned out that it was his birthday and he invited us to his birthday party tonight at his house near the plaza. When we told him that we were actually here with a big group of students he said (more or less, in Spanish) "That's okay, bring them too!" Hehehe. Apparently this is not a rare occurrence for gringos in Chile. Obviously we are not heading off to the fiesta, but it was nice of him to be so open and willing to talk with us. I would love to go back and watch him paint and maybe buy one of his smaller sketches as a memento at the end of my time here.

Pues, it's about time to head back for more orientation activities—we meet someone from our host families tonight and I am MUY EMOCIONADA (very excited) for this! Hope all is well with everyone everywhere! Hasta luego!

Counting down...

A week from tomorrow, los padres and I head down to Miami to hit some clubs and hang out with Will Smith. Can you believe it?!?
Actually, we're going to Miami because that's where my flight to Santiago leaves from bright 'n early the next morning (call time inside the airport: 4 a.m.). After all these months of applying and waiting and filling out paperwork and getting shots and waiting some more...it's finally time to actually put things in suitcases and get ready to go! The flight will be long and the nightmares on the eve of departure will be scary (kidding) but I am so excited to finally get the semester started. After a few days of orientation, I'll move in with my host family and start seven weeks of classes at the SIT building. Then I'll have an excursion in either Temuco or Aymara and then the time (a month, I believe) to do my independent research project.
I should be able to update this blog fairly regularly and I hope that I can also use it to keep in touch with people studying in other countries/programs, at Occidental, and at home.
If there's one thing I love more than words, it's photos (maybe's it's a tie) and I definitely want to share many photos on this blog as well. To start, here's a photo from my recent trip to Washington, D.C. (funded by an Anderson Grant from Oxy) during which I had the fantastic opportunity to interview Ambassador Mariano Fernandez from Chile:


Hasta luego!

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