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

Firsts of my trip abroad :-)

Everyone has been asking me to blog about my trip instead of occasionally posting random statuses on Facebook (especially those that don't have Facebook), so here I am! Disclaimer: I am recycling this blog address from a Journalism class I took a few semesters ago (hid all the old posts), so if any past peers receive unwanted e-mail notifications after I post a blog, feel free to unfollow me! I will not take offense :-)

Because I got here almost a month ago, my memory of every day on the trip is kind of rusty. So here is a rough chronology of my life in South America so far:

July 13th (the only day I'll be particular about, so please stick through the blog!): The flight from Miami to Santiago was perfect, even though I couldn't sleep for reasons I am attributing to a hyperactive mix of meds. The food was actually edible, and every seat had a touch screen TV that played dozens of movies, TV series, all kinds of music, games, etc. I mean a pebble would have been entertained on the flight. 

When we arrived to the airport in Santiago, Mirian and I bumped into all of the other students that are in the program and had spent the previous month in Ecuador. We didn't do the Ecuador portion of the program because we are fluent in Spanish (the month was supposed to be a language immersion kind of thing) and we both had commitments for that month, and I think we were both pretty nervous about feeling unaccepted because everyone had a full month of bonding, but thank God that has not been the case at all! Anyway, we start looking for our luggages at the carousel and they don't arrive! Turns out the luggages stayed in Miami (what the hell they were doing off our aircraft is beyond me) and we had to wait a couple of days for them to arrive. I literally had nothing but my purse, as I had to check in my really fat carry on because it wouldn't fit in the overhead compartment (note to self: learn to pack light). When we finally exit the airport and meet our coordinators, we are met with what felt like the bitterest cold the earth has ever given. Luckily, I carried my coat with me! Unluckily, I had sandals on and no luggage. 

For the first couple of nights in Santiago, we stayed at a hotel, so when we arrived, Courtney lent me some socks and a pair of sneakers for the day. And oh man, this day BLEW. We arrived at the hotel and were told by one of our coordinators to drop our things off (in my case I had nothing to drop off, so this part was fairly easy) and be in the lobby in 5 minutes. Only those of us who had already applied for our student visas had to endure this crappy day, which Mauricio, our coordinator, called an advantage. So, anyway, to make this as short and sweet as possible, about 5 of us were taken all over the frigid city, with no hours of sleep since we flew in that very morning, to take care of some things for our student visas. We were running around with Fabiola, our very patient guide for the day, for about 4-5 hours. This doesn't sound as horrible as I would like, but believe me, it was horrible.  At one point, while in line at the Registro Civil applying for Chilean IDs, several of us were falling asleep while standing. We were then taken to lunch at a pretty nice place, and while our other groupmates were rested, we were feeling/looking crappy and just wanted to leave.  We had meetings for a few hours after that and were not able to rest til that night (even though I practically took a nap during the meetings we had). Mirian and I had to run to Falabella (imagine Sears) that night to get some clothes, pajamas, underwear and toothbrushes for the next day. It was really confusing to buy things that first night, not just because I was tired as hell, but because I had to try and convert all of the prices in my head and consider whether the price was worth the quality, and because Chileans speak Spanish very differently from what I'm used to. So, for example, when I went to pay for my things, the cashier asked "¿Como vai a cancelar? ¿En efectivo o credito?" and what I wanted to respond was "why are you making this day more annoying for me?" but instead I stared at her and tried to figure out what she meant by "cancelar." I figured the only thing she could have possibly meant was how I wanted to pay (she was obviously not asking me how I liked my steak, I thought later on, after realizing I probably stared at her for a little too long) so I told her "en efectivo". Of course, I didn't exchange enough money so I had to borrow some from Mirian, which really pissed me off because how dare Chile make my first day so unbearable? I got back to the hotel and skyped my mom and cried (slightly overdramatic, I know) about how annoyed I was about the entire day. Luckily, my frustration translated to "please fix this or I will be miserable til further notice" and my mom got our luggages to arrive the following afternoon. LOL.

July 14-15: On these days, we toured some of Santiago and I noticed what an incredible city it is. I mean, the entire city is hugged by the andes mountains. They are inescapable and utterly breathtaking! On the 15th, each of us met our host families. They came and picked us up at our hotel for a few hours and we were supposed to just have dinner with them, but my host mom took me all over the city with her to run errands and pick up her kids. Vicente (11) was apparently at one end of the city, and Javiera (12) was at the other. It definitely gave me a chance to get to know her, though, and I kind of liked that they seemed to be fast paced and busy. We got to the house after all of the running around and I was really happy with it! It's pretty big, two-stories, great decor. My room is simple, but attractive. Very feminine (my host family only ever accepts girls). I was really happy with my host family because they are really kind, funny, and welcoming. I immediately felt like part of the family. I was also very happy with the dinner! They made onion soup, grilled chicken, potatoes and diced celery. I actually thought the onion soup was the dinner, so I was pleasantly surprised when the tray of grilled chicken was brought out. I almost had a heart attack when my host mom tried to put a scoop of mayo on my potatoes, though. Chileans use mayo excessively! It's insane. I'll also spare you guys the story of the time I thought there was mayo in my sandwich and made a huge fuss about it, only to have my host mom tell me it was cream cheese. 

July 16-20: Our flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina was delayed by like 3 or 4 hours, but luckily we got free drinks at the Fridays by our gate! We were in Buenos Aires for 3 nights and had an amazing time! The architecture is beautiful, but even more Parisian than I expected. We visited clandestine torture sites (unspeakably heart wrenching), incredible art museums, libraries, Plaza de Mayo. Did a bunch of cultural things for our traveling seminar. Mirian, Courtney and I went to Siga la Vaca, a restaurant that was something like a buffet but only had a salad bar and a meat station. But Oh. My. God. The meat! Divine. For the equivalent of $21, you got either a pitcher of beer, a bottle of wine, or a pitcher of water, endless meat and endless salad. And the cabs are so cheap! Far cheaper than Santiago and let's not even compare NYC. I had the best daiquiri of my life at Le Bar in Buenos Aires.

I should also mention that Harrison, one of the students on the trip, was robbed while we were in Buenos Aires. So there's that!

July 20-22: We took a ferry to Montevideo, Uruguay from buenos Aires and it was amazing! I slept through most of the ride, but it was so comfy! The boat was nicer than any plane I've ever been on and the ride, needless to say, was beautiful. Montevideo is much less extravagant than Buenos Aires, but the people are much, much more enjoyable and humble. And the city is just so cute! We visited MERCOSUR, plazas, museums, the beach, ate chivo, and overall had a good time. It is more low key than both Santiago and Buenos Aires, which was kind of nice, but I certainly could not live there and was kind of glad we were only there for two nights. One of our guides was a school teacher who spoke excellent English, and she explained to us that people make very little money in Montevideo, and she herself only made $1,000/month. Riddle me that!

July 22-today!: We flew back to Santiago on the 22nd, and, just for the sake of mentioning, Montevideo's airport is beautiful! We stayed at another hotel on the night of the 22nd. Courtney, Ali and I (roommates all throughout the trip) were on the 17th floor and had an incredible view of the city. Two rooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living room and dining area. I did not want to leave! But, the next day, I did, and came to live with my family. 

I've had an amazing time so far and have not been homesick once! My host family treats me like part of their family, which is such a relief and it makes this trip so amazing. I've only been with them for three weeks, but here is a short list of things we've done together and stand out in my mind:

-Visited their hometown, Rancagua, which is about 1.5 south of Santiago. My host mom ran into an ex-boyfriend there and man was she giddy!

-Visited a family whose house was destroyed in the earthquake and delivered groceries. We prayed with them and they asked me to say a prayer in English, which for some reason made me really happy

-Went to a family party from noon to 1:30 AM! They roasted a baby big and a baby sheep, among many other foods, and had 4 cakes. I didn't have either of the baby animals, but def had cake! The party was for 5 family members whose birthdays are in August. The house (belonged to my host father's sister's and her husband) was beautiful! Swimming pool, playground, gym, sauna...

It is also rreallyyy freaking cold here at night! It is ridiculous! There is no central heating so I sleep with about 5 quilts, sweats, two socks, long sleeved shirt and a sweater. There is one little heater ("estufa") that they keep in the hallway and everyone sleeps with their door open to try and get the heat. LOL.

The clubs and bars here are generally really fun and I've had a great time at them! People here smoke all the time and everywhere (had a cab driver smoking while bringing me home one night), so every time I come home after a night out I reek of cigarettes! And it is impossible to get the smell out of my hair! Speaking of hair, I got a haircut here that pissed me off, so we won't speak of that anymore. 

Courtney and 
me in Bellavista, a "barrio" of clubs and bars

I tried to upload about 10 pictures, but only that one uploaded! Next time! 

Alright, that's enough for tonight! I definitely went overboard with this blog. Thank you for making it this far into it :-)

Mirelis