Noticias, El Año Nuevo, y Otras Cosas

- About a month ago, I was invited to a cocktail soiree that my institute has annually for one of our best clients, Ernst & Young. I had a class at Ernst & Young, thus the reasoning behind my invite. One of my students was also invited, but I wasn't sure why she was invited and none my other students were. At the soiree, they started giving awards to the students, and it turns out my student was awarded for her attendance and most improved. Pretty cool! This happened to be the same night that I had planned to got out with some of my students. My student, Elizabeth, and I stayed at the party for a little and then met with the other students. We went to a place called Jota Cruz where I finally had chorrillana (big pile of fries topped with eggs, steak, and onion). We had a nice time together and I tried my best to keep up my end of the conversation with my Spanish. I have some pictures posted above

- On Christmas, I had a little potluck over at my place. Nothing too special. I made mashed potatoes and vegetarian chili, while my friend, Dustin, made a salmon and vegetable casserole. My friends Andrew and Jordan, along with Jordan's girlfriend, Camila, all came over for dinner. THEN, around ten or twelve more people arrived after dinner was over for drinks. I guess they didn't catch the whole "potluck" part. Turned into a nice little get together.



- For New Year's Eve, I went to Valparaiso with my friends Adam, Stephen, and his girlfriend Belen. We didn't bother getting a hostel or some place to stay because prices were as much as 7x the amount they usually were for that weekend. This is because Valparaiso has the biggest firework display in Latin America. After a cheap seafood lunch, we took a funicular to the top of a hill. That particular hill, although it had a great view, was more family-oriented and we were looking for something with a younger crowd. We ended up on this open area on a hill with TONS of young people. As soon as the clock struck midnight, people went crazy throwing confetti, spraying tons of champagne, and making out everywhere. The fireworks started at midnight and they were marvelous. They seemed to last forever (or maybe that was just the pisco I was drinking, hah!). As we came down the hill after the fireworks, there was a humongous crowd in the central plaza all partying and dancing to a concert that was going on. We stayed in Valparaiso until about 3:00 a.m., and then our sober friend, Boris, drove us back to Santiago. It was quite a night! I have some pictures posted above, but didn't get very many good shots of the fireworks. I am going to go back to Valparaiso for a proper weekend probably at the beginning of February.



WARNING: This is a big, long, pseudo-intellectual rant:

Being an English Literature major, I have a recreational interest in Linguistics. More specifically, I have an interest in Semantics, which is the study of meaning in words, phrases, sentences, etc.

For those that don't know, every noun in Spanish is designated as feminine or masculine. For example, "the table" is "la mesa" ("la" being the feminine definite article) and "the dish/plate" is "el plato" ("el" being the masculine definite article). I've known this since I first started learning Spanish, and it's probably the most basic thing you can possibly know about the Spanish language. As an English speaker, it's difficult to think of inanimate objects as having gender. I mean, who's to say that a floor is masculine and a chair is feminine!? Even things that one would expect to be masculine or feminine are actually just the opposite. For example, "war" is feminine (la guerra) and "womb" is masculine (el útero). I actually asked one of my students who determines gender when a new noun comes into the Spanish language. According to her, there is a language academy/committee similar to the French L'Académie française who determines whether a noun is considered feminine or masculine.

At some point, I started thinking about how the language of a people informs the culture and vice versa. Specifically, what does it mean for the cultural perception of gender if EVERYTHING in the language inherently has gender. What I think it means is that gender here is viewed through an essentialist lens. Meaning that men and women are viewed as having fixed traits rather than socially constructed ways of "performing" gender.

Maybe it's not solely or directly as a result of the language, but I think it's a contributing factor to the fact that there are still concretely defined roles for women and men in Chile. Of course, there are in the United States too, but I think to a lesser extent.

Eh, I'm going to go ahead and just stop here.

What originally got me thinking about this is that at my institute, our folders (that contain work schedules, etc.) are separated by gender. I guess our Australian head teacher once asked the secretaries why we couldn't just put them altogether, and they told him, "Absolutely not. This is how it should be done."


Other observations:

- Chileans seem to lack all sense of direction and I just can't explain why. My friend brought up an interesting point about this. He thought it might be because Chileans are more conservative and don't venture off too far from their homes and communities. Therefore, they are not familiar with the geography outside of their area. I'm not sure if I agree entirely with his point though. In any case, I am regularly asked for directions on the street. Not only this, but many times the directions I'm asked for are absurd. For instance, I was once asked how to get to a particular Los Leones street. I said (in Spanish), "We're on Los Leones right now...". I have driven in cars with Chileans who have lived in Santiago their entire lives, and they still "mix up" extremely well-known and busy streets.

What makes this even more ridiculous is that people are awful at GIVING directions here. When my ex-roommate and I were trying to find the Pre-Colombian Art Museum, we asked for directions from at least 3 or 4 different people and we got 3 or 4 different answers. So, in this case, either people have no sense of direction, or there is some cultural norm or attitude where it is better to give "a" direction rather to give "no" direction at all.


- I found that Chilean men really objectify women, which of course, happens in the United States, but to a lesser extent, I think. I think it's generally less public in the United States (excluding advertising, etc.). For example, men here will stare at women as they walk by and whistle at them. A couple of my female friends here have even been stopped by men who have either said everything from the really cheesy, "I think I just saw an angel" to the very lewd. The trade-off, from what I understand, is that Chilean women demand a whole helluva lot from their Chilean men in relationships. Of course, that is still no excuse for their behavior. I often wonder how that sort of objectification of women has contributed to the sort of cultural psyche of women here.



Can't think of too much else to report. I'm planning on traveling to the South at the end of February and beginning of March. Tentatively, I am planning on hitting Pucón, Valdivia, and then Patagonia (but I have to figure out where exactly in Patagonia).

Algun Weon De Los Estados Unidos Me Visito!

The title of this post translates to "Some Jerk From The United States Visited Me". Except replace jerk with a little more obscene of a name, and you get the picture. One of my best friends from my undergraduate years at Drake University, Mikey, came down to South America to pay me a visit. Mikey and I lived next to each other freshman year. Upon seeing me (long hair, long beard, and all) for the first time, his mother exclaimed, "Who the hell is that?!" We've been great friends ever since!

The day that Mikey arrived, I took him to La Vega, which is a huge feria libre (literally translates to "free fair" but more akin to "farmer's market"). Let me just tell you a little about La Vega. There are probably 50 different stands, all selling fresh fruit and vegetables. I can usually manage to get a kilo of each: apples, oranges, avocados, bananas, strawberries, then 5 huge zucchinis and 4 large cucumbers, all for under $10. Mind you, a kilo is about 2.2 pounds. This is one way I save money in Santiago!

Later in the evening, Mikey and I met some of my friends at a famous bar called La Piojera. This rowdy joint serves the famous drink, Terremoto (earthquake), which is a mix of half fermented wine (called Pipeno), Fernet (a woody, bitter liqueur), and pineapple ice cream. It's a great summer drink, but goes to your head fast! After that we made our way to Bella Vista, which is a more bohemian area in Central Santiago that offers bar after bar of fun.

The next day, I took Mikey to Cerro San Cristobal, which is a gigantic hill (I think we call them mountains in Kansas, hah) in the middle of the city that always offers a stunning view...except on those smoggy days. We had a quick bite to eat at my apartment and then went to my friends', Luke and Franny's, apartment to eat homemade ceviche (a dip made with fresh, raw fish) and have some drinks. Afterwards, I took Mikey to a Cumbia show in Bella Vista. In true Chilean fashion, the band didn't go on until 2:00 a.m., so while we were waiting, Mikey and I were able to indulge in some more Terremotos! We only ended up staying there until 3:00 a.m.

On that Sunday, I took him to Cerro Santa Lucia which is a much smaller hill, but it used to be a fortress. It has a lot of stairs and is kind of shaped oddly, like an M.C. Escher print. After that, I made dinner for us, and we drank some Carmenere wine (the grape that Chile is world-renowned for!) before shoving off to bed early for our early departure to Buenos Aires!

Mikey has a real, "big boy" job, so he was nice enough to purchase plane tickets for the both of us. Our hostel in Buenos Aires was awesome. It was called Terrazas Estoril. Far better than almost every hostel I stayed in while I was traveling around in China and SE Asia. The staff was incredibly helpful and nice, the hostel itself was immaculately clean, and we got free breakfast and internet. Additionally, we had a rooftop from which to gaze down at one of the busiest and most famous streets in Buenos Aires.

Our first day there we walked around Buenos Aires' San Telmo district which is like walking through a photograph of Buenos Aires taken 50 years ago. The streets are still paved with stone and many of the buildings remain untouched, on both the inside and outside. It was extremely cool area, and I wish we would have had more time to spend there.

Later that night we went to La Bomba del Tiempo ("The Pump of Time") which is a percussion group that plays every Monday night in a large, open courtyard in the middle of BA (Buenos Aires). There were walls on every side with gigantic, colorful murals. There were about 15-20 percussionists playing different groups of instruments. The members would take turns conducting the group while simultaneously getting the crowd riled up. They played for two hours while there were around 500 people there drinking, dancing, and having a great time. Without a doubt, the highlight of our trip, and probably the time that I have most like I was actually in South America!

One other highlight from our trip was visiting the La Boca community. This area is famous for a couple of reasons. First, it has the Boca Juniors soccer stadium where some very famous soccer players have played. Second of all, this is another area that retains the spirit of old BA. Except, compared with San Telmo, La Boca is way more art-oriented and bohemian. There were cartoonish statues hailing us from balconies, a woman dressed in tango attire who grabbed me and insisted we take a picture together, and extremely bright-colored buildings.

Ultimately, there is not too much to tell other than pictures. Mikey and I spent almost all of our time wandering around BA, trying to get a sense of the city. Our last meal in BA consisted of going to an all-you-can-eat BBQ buffet at a place called La Vaca. Included in our meal was a complimentary bottle of wine, dessert, a really amazing salad bar, and as much meat (pork, sausage, chicken, beef, etc.) that we could stuff down our throats...all for about $20 or $25 per person. Not a bad deal if you ask me. I don't think I ate another full meal after that for another 36 hours. It was amazing.

Two and a half hours before our taxi was supposed to come, Mikey and I noticed a gathering crowd on the street below our hostel. Then came the chanting and the drumming, the flags, the signs...a protest. It seemed to be a coalition protest as groups sporting different colors and banners continued to join the massive gaggle. I became a bit worried as time crept close for our taxi to arrive, but by the time it came, the protest had finally organized and moved on down the street. Apparently, they were protesting the doubling of their utility bills, as a result of the loss of some government subsidies. Hell, I would be marching too!

We got back from BA late Wednesday night and on Thursday, to celebrate Thanksgiving, we invited 30-40 people over to our apartment for a potluck. I made leek and potato soup as well as a chicken stew. My roommate, Liz, prepared about 30 baked chicken breasts. On top of that, people made and/or brought pumpkin pie bars, apple crisp, about 10 different potato dishes (garlic potatoes, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, etc.), zucchini bread, and much more. There was also a lot of wine...a lot. Our Thanksgiving eventually turned into a dance party, which was obviously initiated by my roommate, Liz. It was a great Thanksgiving and unlike any one that I have had before.

I know that Mikey enjoyed himself immensely during the trip and I was so happy to have a great friend from home visiting. I hope more friends are able to come down here, because I will show them an equally as good of time!

I'll write another post relatively soon for other news as well as some commentary!

Noticias de Santiago de Chile

Well, it's been a little while since my last post. As I'm sure that there will be many things to write about at the end of this month (my friend, Mikey, coming to visit; our going to Buenos Aires; and a tentative Thanksgiving at our place), I'll write some updates here.

This weekend (October 28th-November 1st) we had a four day weekend as Monday was Reformation Day and today is All Saint's Day. Man, Chileans sure love their holidays. It seems like we get a three day weekend (or more) once every few weeks! I was talking to a South Korean couple last night, and they were bemoaning the fact that they only get two or three holidays per year in their native country.

In the most uncustomary Halloween fashion, I went to a BBQ on Thursday night, went to the beach, and didn't wear a costume. I guess that's what happens on the other side of the equator! It's the first time I haven't worn a costume in a very long time. I just wasn't feeling it! I was thinking about going as Angus Young from AC/DC, but ultimately decided against it.

My friend, Luke, had a BBQ in which we made octopus and chicken shish kabobs which were fantastic. On Saturday a big group of us went to a concert that was made up of cover bands playing music by popular 90s alternative rock bands like Nirvana, The Foo Fighters, and Pearl Jam. It certainly brought me back to my youth! Some of the bands, especially the vocalists, were so good at the impersonation, it made one wonder how much time they had spent in front of the mirror and watching tapes of the bands playing live.

On Sunday, I went to a place on the coast of Chile called Algarroba. It is a couple of hours away by bus and little ways north of Valparaiso. I went with my two friends, Andrew and Adam. Andrew is from New York and has been in Chile for a few years teaching English. Adam has taught English abroad for several years in South Korea, Spain, and now Chile. I am envious of him because that's what I want to do for the next few years (at least), so I've been asking him his advice about such a career path and learning about his travels.

Andrew insisted that we did not need to reserve a place to stay, because one of his students that is from Algarroba told him it wouldn't be a problem. This sounded like a bad idea to me, because I like to plan everything, but I let it slide. Turns out we should have.

When we got there, we spent about three hours walking around trying to find a place to no avail.

While walking around, Andrew created a constantly shifting worst-case scenario for us. At first, the worst-case scenario was, "If we can't find a place, we can stay with my friend in El Quisco." El Quisco being a separate, less affluent town nearly connected to Algarroba. When we couldn't find a place to stay in Algarroba and he couldn't get a hold of his friend, the new worst-case scenario turned to, "If we can't find a place in El Quisco, we might just need to take a bus home." Then, we got a call from Adam who said he had found a place. Our worst-case scenario is that "We have a great time in Algarroba, yeaaa!"

Once we met up with Adam, we saw that he was accompanied by a wild-eyed, squat, middle-aged Chilean man. The man came up to Andrew and I and help a silver key to our eyes. He said, "Look at the lion! It's the key with the lion!" As we caught a whiff of alcohol perfuming his breath, all Andrew and I could do was just helplessly look at each other. I guess the key had been found only after looking through a big bag chalk full of keys.

Our hostess was an elderly woman of around 80 years of age. We suspected that the man who approached Adam about the lodging may have been his son, but we never found out. Adam and the man had been on their way to make a copy of the key, but the key-copying store was closed for the day. No matter. Andrew, Adam, and I were going to be together the entire night anyway.

We went out to a great seafood restaurant and this was maybe the only time I've splurged on a meal here. I ordered a fried fish with rice, split a bottle of white wine, and Adam ordered garlic buttered shrimp and parmesan-covered oysters for us as appetizers. It was a great, filling, reward for us at having found a place. We certainly had worked up an appetite walking around.

After dinner, we grabbed some drinks and played some video games. I know that sounds ridiculous, but there was a huge line of businesses that had nothing but electronic gambling and arcade games. So we just spent a little time doing that. Then we walked around a bit more, enjoying some hot dessert rellenos stuffed with caramel. Then we finally got a hold of Andrew's friend (conveniently enough) and we went to his apartment to hang out until he dropped us back to our place later that evening.

The next day we informed the elderly woman that we would not be staying another night. According to Andrew, she had a deeply disappointed look on her face. At the last minute, though, Adam decided he would stay another night, but Andrew was still going to spend the night at his friend's place. Adam told the elderly lady that he was going to stay there another night and handed her the money in advance for his own stay that night. At that moment, the lady said something like, "You also still need to pay for last night." The thing was Adam had paid for the three of us the night before and we had paid Adam our portions of the lodging. Adam said, "No, ma'am, I paid you yesterday evening. As you requested, I paid you up front and put the money directly in your hand." (of course, this is all in Spanish). Well, things just escalated from there and it ended with the elderly woman calling us liars and questioning how we do things in our country. We felt bad, because the woman truly thought we hadn't paid, but we all knew that we had. Unfortunately, I'm afraid the woman was just too senile to remember that we actually did pay her.

I took the bus back alone because Andrew and Adam wanted to stay another night. Last night for Halloween, I went to my roommate's hostel for a party, where I met a South Korean couple that had been traveling around the world together for almost a year. I asked them about South Korea and their travels. I think there is a good chance that South Korea is my next destination for teaching English!

Other than that, here are some updates:

- I've been hiking around Santiago a couple of times in the last month. One has been a place outside of Santiago called Cajon del Maipo and the other was a park within Santiago's borders called Parque La Mohuida. I have caught some great views. I'll post pictures!

- I witnessed my first Chilean protest. It was a combination of students, labor unionists, and teachers. It was one of the more civilized protests in recent times. Somehow, word has gotten around to all of my friends that I have been in the middle of riots. Not true, as all the riots have been quite far from me! I'm safe, family!

- A couple of weeks ago, I visited the General Cemeterio, which is an absolutely humongous cemetary where most of Chile's presidents and generals are buried. There are an estimated 2 million people buried there. It was probably the size of 4 square city blocks. It was quite surreal. There were some really cool tombs. I can't imagine walking around there at night and alone. That would be the most frightening experience ever!

That's really all I can think of for now. I'll try to add more as it comes to me!

Dia de la Independencia de Chile

This weekend was the Chilean Independence Day and it was quite a draining weekend, but in a good way! In the week or two leading up to this weekend, I asked my students what I could expect from the festivities and what . Many of my students said I would be seeing Cueca dancing and maybe even dancing it myself (a traditional Latin American dance), that I should be attending fondas (basically county fair-styled block parties), and would probably be eating too much Chilean BBQ (especially choripan, essentially a hot dog with chorizo or longaniza and traditional Chilean bread), and probably be drinking too much Chicha (a juice-like, fermented alcoholic drink). For the most part, they were all right! After asking one of my students (who is probably in his 50s) what his plans were for the weekend, he said he was going to "eat and drink too much" and I found that wasn't too far off the marker.

When I was getting on the subway on Saturday afternoon, there was a guy who chugged a beer and after he was done, he promptly crossed himself several times. At that point I knew that the Chileans take their Independence Day very seriously!

I started off the weekend at the asado (BBQ) for my English institute. After that I just invited a few people back to my apartment to hang out and then to our friend's apartment. On Saturday afternoon, my friend Dustin and I went to a fonda called Yein Fonda (Jane Fonda), and absolutely no one was there. We realized that probably no one shows up to that particular one until night. So we met up with our friend, Franny and went to the fonda in my part of town. We just sat and enjoyed the people watching for an hour or two while there were carnival games and dancing going on. People were also just out with their families, flying kites and just enjoying the beautiful weather.

Afterwards we went back to my apartment as my roommate Liz had invited her friends from work to our place for an asado. A total of twenty or so people showed up and there was dancing, eating, and drinking. Many from the party eventually went to a Cumbia concert but I was just too exhausted to continue.

The next day we went to the biggest fonda in the city in absolutely huge public park called Parque O'Higgins (is it weird they would name a park after someone with the surname O'Higgins? Not so, Bernardo O'Higgins was a leader in their revolution again Spanish rule). Tons of people, fair games, cheap food and drink. We gorged ourselves on empanadas, kababs, and choripans as well as beer, terremotos (it means "earthquake" and it is an ice cream, white wine, and rum mixed drink), and chicha. Also, more kites flying than you could ever imagine! We met up with some friends there and just enjoyed the day by walking around, eating, and drinking. Later in the evening, my friend Dustin invited us to an asado at his apartment building. We went there and it ended up being on his rooftop terrace. It ended up being just a small group of us, and it was a great, relaxing way to spend the last part of the weekend.

Luckily, we also had Monday off from work so I took that opportunity to sleep all day and do my lesson plans.

Other than the Chilean Independence Day, I had the opportunity to go skiing towards the beginning of the month with a group from my English institute. We went to a place called Valle Nevado. We had a group discount through a company and we took a bus up there. On the way up, there were exactly 41 hairpin turns, I kid you not. I never get carsick, but I felt my stomach churn a little bit towards the latter half of the drive. At one point, the bus stopped to let a woman off so she could lose her breakfast in the snow. Skiing for the first time in a few years was great. Although I kept to the easy slopes, I thoroughly enjoyed the serene and almost mystical scenery up in the Andes mountains. Also, I didn't fall once! That was definitely a first. On the way down, our guide gave us chocolate and wine while the bus played a mix of 80s music videos. It was a great time!

Not much else to report! I'm still enjoying my classes and my students. Also, one of my best friends from college, Mikey, just booked tickets to come visit me at the end of November! Excited already.

Fotografia