Updates and Opinions!

These past few months have probably been the busiest of my life! I only realized when I noticed that an entire two months have flown by since my last blogpost. Because I have so much to say, I'll get right to it.

To briefly sum up these past two months:

Chile had its big bicentennial birthday, which several of us celebrated by visiting Viña del Mar. It was so beautiful! We spent a lot of our time at the beach, walking around, eating ice cream and visiting museums. Really looking forward to revisiting before I return to the U.S.

We also visited Pucón, a smaller town in the south of Chile. This city is super enchanting, with a beautiful lake backdropped by an icy volcano. Highlights: Visiting thermal waters/hot springs and waterfalls, bike-riding around town, artisanal chocolates and ice cream, zip-linning, bonfire under the stars.

German-owned chocolate & ice cream artisan shop

We also visited La Serena last weekend. La Serena, as its name implies, is a serene beach town with almost all of the colonial architecture preserved and in tact. We did so much while there, like visiting Valle de Elqui, a Pisco factory, Gabriela Mistral's home/museum, and the only archeological museum in the world with a Moai, the mysterious Easter Island statues.

Aside from all of these fun and remarkable experiences, I've been besieged with crazy-making amounts of work. Since my last post, I've taken the GRE, had three exams, seven papers, and two quizzes. Somehow I've kept my sanity... I've also decided not to apply to grad school for fall 2010.  Most of the reason I wanted to apply to grad school was to dodge the recession, but I'm not sure that's enough of a reason. Instead I'm going to focus on applying for fellowships and other domestic and international professional development programs, and ::gulp:: real life, real world jobs (!) and apply to grad school in 2012.

I wanted to mention some of the issues Chile is currently grappling with that, in my opinion, it needs to confront to really be a democratic, egalitarian state.  Disclaimer: these are just my opinions, and are only based on my own impressions of Chilean society.

The Mapuche: Chile's untold story. They are the indigenous people of Chile and part of Argentina. Like many indigenous groups, they are victims of imperialist legacies that have labeled them backward and inconsolably benighted.  Many consider the Mapuche lazy, dirty, drunks (actual words used by people I've shared space with).  So, it's sort of unsurprising that not many people cared about the 38 that participated in a hunger strike for approximately three months in protest of anti-terrorism laws the state was persecuting them with.  These laws, imposed under Pinochet, allow the government to keep prisoners incarcerated for up to two years with no due process. In response, domestic protests arose with international solidarity in support of the Mapuche (even 4 leftist congressmen joined the hunger strike).  Still, Chile has largely been apathetic to their fight. In fact, around 15 days of complete government inaction passed before it finally responded to the strike.  On more than one occasion, I heard people crassly say "hay que dajarlos morir de hambre" (have to let them starve to death).  Fortunately, before it reached that point, the Mapuche came to an agreement with the government, effectively endeding their hunger strike. The government agreed to try them "under the rules of ordinary criminal law."

Why were they accused of acts of terrorism? In recent years, the Mapuche have taken to occupying land,torching vehicles, toll booths, lumber shipments, and other property as a way to call attention to their main causes: equality, autonomy, and land reclamations (the government seized ancestral Mapuche land and sold it to international forestry corporations). They have been thrown in jail for years at a time for crimes like "threat of fire" and "offenses against authority."  However the Mapuche have never harmed Chilean people in their land reclamations. So why exactly did the government charge them as terrorists?  Systematically making their protests appear like violent terrorist acts is unsubstantiated in any logic, and may be a tactic employed by the state to sustain anti-indigenous sentiments and neoliberal motivations.

It's true that Piñera entered office on a hot year, especially considering the earthquake and its aftermath. But even in terms of disaster relief, the Mapuche were neglected.  Most of the Mapuche live under the poverty line and were deeply affected by the earthquake, but they weren't even in the government's periphery for disaster relief.  It's difficult to imagine the struggles indigenous people encounter daily while fighting to survive and preserve their culture in a world hellbent on assimilation, but even more unfathomable is having those struggles exacerbated by a natural disaster (and then abandoned by your govt).  The Mapuche (like all indigenous peoples) have been so exploited and oppressed that, in my opinion, it is going to take aggressive, concerted effort to undo damage. This challenge will only be compounded by Chile's careless attitude toward the Mapuche.  In general, younger Chileans and Izquierdistas support the Mapuche and their evolving land reclamation fight.  But because so much of Chile's populace is politically conservative, many express either apathy or contempt to their experience.  Unless some serious conciliation sweeps over the country, I think this will prove to be a ongoing point of conflict for Chile.

I'll only talk about this particular issue in this post because I don't want to make it seem as if I am entirely bashing Chile!  I think that it truly is an incredible country, but at the same time I think that it is polarized in ways that affect many in the country.

I obviously need to also mention the miners! What an amazing time. To see the country in such jubilation was deeply moving. I think the miners being rescued was, in some ways, a step toward unification. While it is a polarized country, it is so in an almost exclusively political way. The problem is that Chile has such a complicated political history that this chasm can transcend to the social realm, too. But everyone, regardless of social class or political stance, was rooting for the miners. This gave the country some common ground, and I think it demonstrated that we are all capable of collectively experiencing empathy and compassion - both principles that have the ability to unite.

Mirelis Gonzalez, Pet Murderer.

In my last post I mentioned how Chilean students are excellent, consistent protesters. While it's great to not have classes every once in a while and the students are admirably protesting for important reasons, it's also a little annoying. Mostly because I never know in advance that the classes are not in session and I only find out when I arrive and am the only person there! One of my classes has been canceled since last week and will be canceled until the 22nd of this month (although next week doesn't count - almost all schools (K-12 and higher education) will be on vacation for at least half of the week) and the school where my law class is unexpectedly canceled all classes because the students are also in protest. The power university students hold in this country is fascinating and inspiring. There's also been some controversy surrounding those officials that entered the campus and began tear gassing and arresting protestors, because that is not allowed here (and shouldn't be anywhere...). Students are free to peacefully protest on university grounds, and police are not allowed to enter and intimidate/try to control the situation.

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The sign outside of the Law School, informing students
that the school is protesting and classes are not in session.

Sign inside the Law School, roughly translated, it reads
"UChile is not for sale!! Her children will defend her!!"

In other news: I accidentally killed my 11-year-old host brother's crab last week. How, you ask? Well. Somehow the thing escaped from the tank (this means that, one way or another, it climbed the wet walls of the tank?), came down from the countertop, and made its way across the very large kitchen, where I accidentally stepped on it en route to the fridge. I heard and felt its brutal death, but for some reason I thought it was a small, abnormally shaped red pepper or onion. I was rushing and decided I'd leave it there and let my host family decide what it was, and off to class I went.

That night at dinner, my host mom tells Vicente (host brother) to tell my host dad what they found dead on the kitchen floor, and Vicente tells him they found the crab, squashed, all the way by the island. I immediately shoot up and, in Spanish, say what would probably translate to: "oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! That was what it was?! It was me! I am so, so sorry! How the heck did it make it all the way over here anyway?! I thought it was a dry vegetable or a roach!" My sincere, guilty panic attack was received by a roar of laughter, claps, the works. They all said it didn't matter and that it wasn't the first time an aquatic pet escaped from the tank (?!).  I felt terrible for days and ultimately bought Vicente a new crab two days ago, which he was noticeable happy to receive. He's still really getting a kick out of calling me an assassin, though.

Birthday updates: Yesterday, my host sister Javiera turned 13 and we celebrated with lots of delicious sandwiches and Chilenitos* and a strawberry shortcake kinda thing. I wanted to get her the latest Justin Beiber CD (she is seriously in love with this little guy) but it is sold out everywhere! Instead I bought her a cute shirt and a Justin Beiber poster. We'll also be celebrating more birthdays this weekend, as yesterday and today are the birthdays of two students in the program (Feliz Cumple a la weona* Ali y al weon* Dave!).

Last Saturday we went to Valparaiso, a UNESCO-declared World Heritage site reminiscent of San Francisco, except more old-fashioned, historical and colorful. I honestly cannot adequately describe Valparaiso's amazingness in neither words (if you couldn't tell by my elementary use of "amazingness") nor photos, but here are some pictures anyway:

View from Pablo Neruda's house

I must also mention that I took the hardest exam of my life on Monday. The exam was for my Chilean Art 1950-2000 class, and the professor announced that we had an exam but did not provide any information about what would be on it. All he told us was that we had to visit a museum, find two traditional paintings and two paintings that break away from traditional art. If I hadn't asked him if there would be anything else on the exam, I would've assumed that was it. He recommended I study from a book covering late-19th century and 20th century art, and so I did. For well over 20 hours. So when Monday arrived, I thought I was well prepared. Except that part of the exam was on random, relatively insignificant paintings from both centuries and somehow you had to know who the painters were. I won't bore you with the rest of the really, really difficult exam, but my coordinator thinks that the professor is just trying to frighten the Chilean students who are not art-majors and take the class for fun, but don't show up. Where the heck does that leave me?! Hopefully he'll have some mercy on the non-art, non-Chilean students!

FYI (and completely unrelated): City buses here are ridiculous. People board the buses without paying like it's nobodies business, and bus drivers never say anything. This is especially true for students, who get on the bus and say something like "Permiso, tío*!" or "excuse me, uncle!" with deceptively innocent smiles on their faces. There's also the issue of poor service on the driver's part. I've had to wait 30 minutes to get on a bus, even though they pass approximately every 5 minutes, because many drivers have the penchant of driving right past bus stops if they aren't on the lane by the sidewalk or if they feel like catching the light. This happens extremely often.  It's definitely a vicious cycle, though: customers don't pay, so drivers don't feel like they have to deliver quality service, creating a generally informal and poor public transportation system, which doesn't give customers the incentive to want to pay, and repeat.

Below is a picture of a very popular hairstyle Chilean guys like to sport. It is absolutely hideous, but I've realized that I've gotten so used to it that I hardly notice it anymore. So before I become completely desensitized to this phenomenon and forget its absurdity, here it is:

It's blurry because I took it in creep-mode, but, no, your eyes do not
deceive you. That is ONE single dreadlock you're seeing. They wear their
hair short all around, except for one dreadlock all the way at the bottom.

Here is Vicente playing the drums at a gig he had a couple of weeks ago. He is so cute and so into it!

And these little stand are incredibly popular here. I thought they were just a New York City thing!

*Weona- derivative of huevona, slightly vulgar but very regularly used. It's something like "f*cker." Chileans refer to each other as weonas and weons as frequently as Americans refer to each other as "dude" or something of the like that.
*Weon- same as weona, but masculine.
*Chilenitos- are a mouth-watering Chilean dessert which are essentially manjar (dulce de leche) and cracker sandwiches with coconut shreds on the edges of the cracker.
*Tio - Chilean children refer to everyone as tío and tía, or uncle and aunt. It's confusing.

P.S. Chill the eff out, Floridian pastor!

Over and out!
Mirelis

Protests, Miners and Farmville

I realize I said I'd post with more frequency, and instead I let two weeks pass without a single post! In my defense it's been a fairly busy two weeks. What with acclimating to taking classes in another country and beginning my internship, blogging was placed in the back burner. But I'm back!


Anyway, Chilean students are possibly the most politically active people I have ever come across. Universidad de Chile students have been protesting for weeks now for several reasons, one of the most important being the government’s attempt at privatizing the university. So, Universidad de Chile students begin protesting so frequently and in such great numbers that classes are canceled without notice. The first time class was canceled or "huvo un paro" I showed up to class and sat there wondering "why is everyone so late?" for about 15 minutes, til one student came in and told me they were protesting so classes were canceled. The following week we had class, but students were protesting right outside my classroom while drumming and singing. They even bring whatever stray dogs tag along as they protest outdoors (Chilean stray dogs love following herds of people--they'll only cross large streets/avenues when there are people crossing). 


I've noticed something very interesting (and maybe unsurprising), though: the political activity of the university isn't stretched through every campus or school. For instance, as I mentioned in one of my facebook statuses sometime last week, I am convinced one of my campuses is warped in the 70s. Students walk around dressed like hippies of the era and have been fearlessly protesting almost everyday for about two weeks. This campus, Juan Gomez Millas, is the campus for the School of  Humanities and Philosophy (where the more leftist radical, earth/people/peace-oriented minds seem to be).  But, at another one of my campuses, where the School of Economics and Business is (where the money/businessey minds seem to be), students apparently do not protest. In fact, students from Juan Gomez Millas went en masse to the School of Economics and Business to protest there. This is obviously representative of the sort of students that are in each school, but still interesting to observe the distinct political behaviors of the students. Another very interesting thing I noticed is that while the students protest at JGM, university administration and other authorities do not harass or try to subdue them.  It is so uniform that other students and faculty of the school don't seem at all bothered, nor are they ever controlled or arrested by officials. However, when these students took to the School of Economics and Business, members of the school circled around the protesters and watched perplexed and in shock. When they took to the streets, officials arrived with tear gas and water hoses. It was fascinating to watch this contrast and learn from the complete prowess with which Chilean students handle political issues. 


Also fascinating in recent Chilean activity is the news of the trapped miners. It was remarkable to experience the joy Chileans felt when they found out that all 33 miners are alive. Can you imagine? 33 miners, ranging from 19-63 years of age, trapped for 17 days approximately 2,000 feet below ground, and then the country finds out they're alive? For Chile--a country that doesn't exactly have a strong history of wins--this is a huge, meaningful victory. There were massive crowds of people celebrating all over Santiago (and imaginably the rest of the country) as news of their touching note, "estamos bien en el refugio los 33," spread.  I've even seen huge signs with those very words hanging from windows. My host grandfather, who was also a miner, cried the night the news came out. Finding the miners gave Chile a large dose of hope, something that many Chileans lost after February's earthquake.  It's just an amazing time to be part of Chilean society - not to mention the weather is finally getting consistently nicer! 


My classes are all going fairly routinely. I enjoy all of them, but I'm still unsure of the grading system. I also feel the need to mention that while professors hand out syllabi, they are pretty useless. All they say is what a student should expect out of the class. What I want it to tell me is when exams are, what readings I should be doing, etc. But alas. For the sake of my sanity and my GPA (which there is no concept of here), hopefully I'll catch the drift of things sooner than later! 


On a quick, brighter note, I learned to dance Cueca, which is Chile's national dance (even though most Chileans don't know how to dance it). It is a very structured, difficult dance to learn, but I really enjoyed it, as it's very different from what I'm used to dancing. They mostly dance it in the month of September (Chile's big celebratory month), so I learned it at quite the opportune time :-) 


And lastly - my host family's obsession with Farmville. For those readers that are not familiar with Farmville: it is an incredibly annoying (and apparently equally addictive) game on facebook, where, from my understanding, you create your own farm and harvest your own crop. Well, all these people seem to do on the computer is play Farmville. Vehemently. Last Thursday was my host dad's birthday, so we had a small dinner party at my house with about 15 people. At one point during the night, the entire table was discussing Farmville. And I don't mean "how are those berries harvesting?" The conversation went on for so long I legitimately excused myself. 


I'll post recent pictures some time today or tomorrow!


Mirelis

Birthdays, classes, and fickle weather!

Apparently it really is true that one is more likely to conceive in the winter, because MAN have there been birthday celebrations in the last two weeks! Just since the beginning of August, I've celebrated 9 birthdays! It has definitely been a fun month :-)

Here is a picture of a "cordero" (lamb) roasting from the day 

my host family celebrated 5 birthdays:

and here is a picture of a piglet they baked and loved:

I did not partake in the gobbling of either of these baby animals (except for the tiny bite of baby piglet my host grandfather practically forced down my throat).

Other than birthday celebrating, I've been pretty busy with trying to settle down with my classes. By pretty busy I mean practically ripping my hair out at the stress of it all. Because we are taking classes at two Universities - Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile y Universidad de Chile - registering for classes was especially difficult because you have to be mindful of commuting times between classes (campuses are spread out all over the city). And I think it was particularly annoying for me because there are very specific classes I have to take to complete my major and some of my core requirements and successfully graduate in May. BUT the process is finally over and life, as we know it, may resume. Here are the classes I am taking. They are all in Spanish, but here is a translation:

-Chilean Art, 1950-2000 (Instructed by the director of the "Museo Bellas Artes")

-Dictatorships, Human Rights and Historical Memory in Chile and the Southern Cone (Instructed by our coordinator/professor, Mauricio Parades. Brilliant historian!)

-International Law of Human Rights (instructed by Jose Zalaquett, exile of the 80s and subsequent president of Amnesty Intl., London)

-Film, Memory and Human Rights

I only have to take four classes during the semester because of the Contemporary Issues in Chile and Latin America seminar we took (reason we traveled to Argentina and Uruguay) which continues sort of sporadically through October. Definitely relieved that I can take just 12 credits, because I have a feeling it's going to be annoying to keep up with the classes during the semester (first day of my Chilean Art class was at the museum, and we were somehow supposed to assume that; second and third day of Intl. Law class was randomly cancelled for a student-led panel; Film class professor forgot syllabus two weeks in a row. Great classes, just MUCH less organized than US universities). I will also be interning for the International Relations office at the U de Chile twice a week! Very excited :-)

And let's just briefly mention the weather. It was beautifullllll for about 3-4 consecutive days last week, and I thought the cold was finally dwindling. Except NOT. It got cold and gray and yucky immediately after. I tell ya... My host mom is keeping a countdown til early September, when the weather will supposedly become consistently pleasant. I am counting down with her. 

And lastly, I got lost for about 30 minutes today, which I was really happy about because I think it's a great way to learn my way around. For example, I learned I cannot take the 503 or 216 bus home. And, as a result three really great things happened: 

1. A stray dog was on the first [wrong] bus I took, and no one even cared. No one made him get off, no one made a fuss, NOTHING. All I kept thinking was "imagine if this were to happen in NYC?!" I'd bet my marbles it would make local news.

2. When I finally found the right bus, I was able to go in to a pharmacy right behind the bus stop and buy Trix! And yes, that does qualify as a great thing because Chileans are not very big on cereal. Or peanut butter!

3. I was able to witness this incredible sunset! 

Harrison took this great photo, and I stole it from his facebook

                                    

That's it for now - gotta get to some reading for my film class tomorrow. I will try to post with more frequency! I will leave you with some fun Chilenismos, lol:

Fome: boring

¿Cachai?: you following? or catch my drift?

Al tiro: right away, immediately

Ya: ok or gotcha. they use and abuse this word

Poh: Chileans throw this badboy at the end of almost everything they say, much like "ya". In fact, "ya po" is a very common combo, as are "si po"and "no po"

Cheers!

Mirelis

Some photos

Since they didn't post last night:

Random street performances in Buenos Aires

That daiquiri I mentioned in my last post

La Casa Rosada

Barrio La Boca

Av 9 de Julio, widest avenue in the world

Liberal, free education for ya!

Boarding the Ferry to head to Montevideo from Buenos Aires

View of Montevideo from the Ferry

Christine!

LOL, at a a museum dedicated to Montevideo's
40-day carnival. Uncanny, no?

Desaparecidos de la dictadura Uruguaya
Museo de la Memoria, Montevideo

Montevideo, Uruguay

Punta del Este,  Montevideo

From the airport in Montevideo

At a museum here in Santiago.
The man in the gray jacket is Mauricio, and the
woman in the black peacoat is Paula, our coordinators

The Metro here is so much more
attractive and cleaner than NYCs!

The cell phone building 

From a balcony at the U de Chile

From outside my window

Vicente, Leslie (host mom),
random dog that's always sneaking in our yard, Javiera, 

Mountains

Vicente's 11th birthday

Courtmeista

I'll post more recent pictures soon!

Mirelis