Mindless Thoughts

Hello, friend.

I haven't posted in a while, I apologize. But the truth is, not a whole has been going on. I don't remember where I left off last time, so I'll just pick up with what seems like the most pertinent information within the past week or so.

First, I more or less nailed my first class assignment which was a speech/presentation over Chile's 10th region, Los Lagos. It's a beautiful pocket of God's Green Earth with a ton of rich history, culture, and tons of things to see. I really want to spend a lot of time down there this summer before second semester starts. Speaking of traveling, a few of us have kind of set some plans for the summer. They include Peru, Bolivia, (Ecuador??), Paraguay, Uruguay and all of Chile. They're really ambitious plans, and if I can see half of those countries I'd be pretty pumped. But that's a long way off... and first I have to finish a semester's worth of classes.

The language program I'm in right now isn't that difficult, but it's kind of intense. Three and a half hours a day worth of culture and grammar. I love it! But I always get super hungry and tired in class so to keep from eating my pencil or falling asleep, I normally eat all of my lunch before the class is over. It's a good thing my mama here packs me a lot... usually a huge tupperware full of leftovers from the night before. This has included lentils and rice, chicken and rice, spaghetti, and normally a lot of random, cooked vegetables. I eat really balanced meals here. Their meals seem to always represent each of the food groups, which I like a lot. Anyways- the language program- it ends this Friday with a test, I think. I'm pretty sure it's a placement test to determine which grammar class we enter once classes start.

I'll start taking classes on August 3rd, but I won't be enrolled in them until two weeks after that. For the international students, that period of time is called "Shopping Week," and it's designed for students to be able to sit in on classes and make sure they like them before they register. My program requires me to take a Chilean Culture class and a grammar class, and then we can take two full classes of our choice and an additional one-unit course. I'm hoping to take a journalism class, a literature class and then a sports class. I was thinking ultimate frisbee, tai chi, or a salsa class. Who knows.

Wednesday last week we took a field trip to Cerro Santa Lucia. It's basically a hill with a castle built into/on top of it, but it's crazy cool looking. The architecture is very European and it's gorgeous. I'll post pictures at the bottom of the entry. We made it to the top of the castle to catch the sunset, but there were too many clouds to make it a perfect sunset. Two days later on Friday we went to two museums, the first one was the Museum of Arte Precolumbino.... basically art before European influence, all by the indigenous peoples of Central and South America. It was very interesting. The second one was the Museum of Bellas Artes, which was also very interesting, but a large majority of the paintings and sculptures were, from what I saw, made from the 1970s or later.

On Saturday, a group of people from the program went up to the mountains to go snowboarding. A few friends and I stayed closer to town to go check out the National Reserve, Rio Clarillo. We took a bus to Pirque about 30 minutes outside of Santiago. From there we passed through the town and got dropped off at the last bus stop, which, unfortunately, was about 5km. before the entrance to the park. We walked about 2km. before a truck came up behind us and pulled over to give us a ride. The back of the truck wasn't too comfy, but it was fun, and it gave us a good way to see the park before we started hiking. The day, before we left, couldn't have been better. It was really mild and clear and out in the park, there wasn't any smog, which was a nice relief. It clouded over and cooled down on our way out, but "asi es Chile." We got a student discount at the gate to the park so it only cost us 700 pesos (less than $1.50) to get in. The river Clarillo is pretty shallow, at least right now, but it's beautiful and there was some snow cover from the storm that passed a few days before. The hike was definitely a ton of fun and we want to go back to conquer the Chile trail which takes about 6 hours to do round trip.

I got home and took an awesome nap yesterday, ate dinner, and then went over to a friend's apartment with the intention of pregaming before heading out for the night. We ended up sitting on the floor until 4 in the morning talking and drinking boxed wine. It was awesome.

I think that's all the news right now. My Spanish is definitely improving, I can understand my family a lot better and I can talk better, I think. Plus it's a lot less awkward around the house, which is always good.

I'm shaking.
And I don't know if it's from the cold (no central heating). So it's probably from the cold, but it also might be the nerves or the excitement from being in my new family's home for the first night.
In all seriousness, I think it's just because the room is really, really cold.

Anyways, I'm writing this second paragraph the day after I wrote the first, so the references to days might be a bit messed up. At any rate, yesterday I moved in with my familia nueva. They're super cool and super nice. They live in ñuñoa which is a large area... kind of like a neighborhood. I guess the equivalent would be to say that University Place is in Tacoma= ñuñoa is in Santiago. I live with mi mama whose name is Evelyn, her oldest son Alexander (19, Engineering Major), Andrea (18) and Anibal (16). They're all super bacan (cool) and nice. In all honesty it's still a bit awkward at home because I don't know them really well, yet. It should pass within a week or two, fingers crossed. I get my own room here, which is really big. Mom and Dad, if you're reading this... my room is really, really big here. It actually has space in it. It's not a few pieces of furniture interspersed by carpet.

Yesterday, my siblings went to eat lunch and spend the afternoon with their dad (the parents are separated), so mi mama and I went to her friend's house. She coincidentally hosts a bunch of exchange students. Joshua is from North Carolina and he just finished his semester last week and will leave next week. Matt arrived yesterday a few hours before we got there and he's from Illinois, but goes to school in Wisconsin. "Lunch," as it's called, starts around 1 or 2, and is the principal meal of the day. But yesterday we had lunch for about 5 hours. Not all of it was spent eating, but it's the equivalent of going to someone's house for dinner. I was spent, but I kept my game face on and tried to keep in the conversation. Matt, on the other hand, who probably spent close to 24 hours traveling before sitting down to eat, practically fell asleep at the table. Been there, done that... last week.

There was a ton of food and I got uncomfortably full which I hadn't felt for about a week. There is hardly any obesity here in the city and I’m not sure if it’s because of all the walking and commuting that the locals do or if it’s their diet or both. The interesting thing about their meals is that they don’t look very big, but they fill you up just perfectly. I feel a little hungry after eating a meal, but if I wait for 5 or 10 minutes, I feel completely satisfied. It’s awesome.

After lunch, we hung around at home and talked for a while. Chileans here in Santiago call themselves "penguins" because they stand around their huge space heaters and talk, it's really funny, but I of course found myself doing the same. The days here are really mild and almost warm. I could be in a t-shirt and shorts without a problem during most of the days. But in the mornings and after the sun sets, it's muy, muy cold. The other day it was so warm that I fell asleep on a park bench in a pair of shorts and a “tuition relief now!” t-shirt while everyone else in the park was bundled up in their big coats and scarves. Que raro!

Also, today Anibal and I went running. No, that’s very inaccurate. I went running, Anibal rode his bike next to me weaving through pedestrians on the sidewalk. It was fun, it was a short run though, but it was good to get out and do something.


So it’s a new day today… by that I mean it’s two days since I started writing this post, which should give you an idea of how busy I am. I have class everyday besides weekends and holidays starting at 9 a.m. and going to 12:30 p.m. This is just the intensive preparatory language program, actual classes start in early August. But I’m still super busy running around trying to get the country to recognize my physical presence in Santiago and also checking out local places like the Concha y Toro vineyard. We went there today after class, and it was a good experience. I’ve never been to a vineyard, and I guess it wasn’t that exciting, but it was kind of cool to see the dungeon where they keep some special kind of wine called “Casillero del Diablo.” Apparently you can get it at Trader Joes. If you go buy a bottle, 2007 is supposed to be a good year ;). I was talking to my host mom about wine and the vineyard and I had to explain to her what a “Wine-O” was and how there’s a whole Wine-O-feminist culture back in the states.

Oh- something else interesting that you might like to hear about is how I get to school. My commute to school takes anywhere from 30-40 minutes or so. I walk a few blocks down the street, get on a bus for 10-15 minutes, and then take the subway (which they call the Metro) for the rest of the way; it stops right in front of the main campus. The whole concept of using public transportation is new to me, but I totally think it’s a great idea. Right now, I pay 400 pesos to go one way (you can change methods of transportation for free as long as it’s within 2 hours of getting on the first time). That’s about 80-90 cents I think. And then I have to pay to get back. But once I get my student I.D. card I’ll pay 130 pesos, which, for all intensive purposes, is about 25 cents. Awesome, right?!

Now that I’m writing this a day later, I’m very happy to say that things are much less awkward at home. I had a great conversation over dinner with mi mama and my younger brother. My sister was organizing some school event and my other brother was with his girlfriend… three years of dating and they’re still a long ways away from marriage. Here in Chile, and in South America I would imagine, long-term relationships between young people are common. It’s not like you date for a few months and break up and that’s it. I’m sure that happens here, but it’s not rare or extraordinary for 16-year-olds to date the same person for a few years at a time.

We have Thursday and Friday off from school- Thursday is a holiday and schools here actually have common sense so they take Friday off, as well. There’s a possibility that some of us might go explore the area outside the city- I think it’d be really fun, but who knows what will happen. All I know is that I want a little bit of rest and then a lot of fun and exploration of Chile. Cross your giners for this one- we might go see Harry Potter tomorrow after class! I just hope that A) there are tickets, and if there are, that B) the movie is in English with Spanish subtitles and not the other way around. I’d die.

I also sent an e-mail to the guy on campus in the Physical Education department who deals with Cross Country. La Catolica has a program- but it might be a class, or a club, or a team, I’m completely unsure. I think it would be awesome to get involved with running here. It would expand my social network, which is lacking, and, at the same time, necessary. But it would be interesting to hang out with people my age involved in the same sport since I have this feeling that distance runners, on a universal level, are somewhat similar.

I’m probably forgetting hella stuff. Let me know if there are things you want to hear about. I take requests.

Derek.

Hello Friend,

The latest drama in Chile, of which there is a lot, is housing. There's turmoil surrounding where I will live (especially as it pertains to the proximity to the school), who I will live with and how I will pay for it.

I came here originally thinking I wanted to do a home stay with a Chilean family. It was a very romantic idea and it involved a lot of naive ideas about what families are like here. I imagined big houses sitting on hillsides with huge glass windows and lots of white furniture and white carpet. And they'd have a dog and a cat and maybe some kids and we'd play cards after dinner and they'd love me forever. And then I heard the horror stories. I heard about students living in laundry rooms or I heard about students flat-out disliking their new family's personality. So I thought that maybe an apartment with students might be better, and cheaper, and less risky.

So in a rage of mental indecision, I went to work out. I thought I'd do some drills, but then I got bored and went running. I thought maybe 20 minutes would be great, but I ended up running to the top of a mountain just before sunset. At the top was a huge statue of the Virgin Mary with arms outstretched, cradling her city just like the Andes did tonight, the mountains painted pink and green like terrible cotton candy. I stopped at the top and wondered what I should do for housing. And then I realized, with La Virgen welcoming me into her arms, into her life, into peace, that I wanted a family to do the same for me.

So for now, I've decided to live with a family for a few months. I don't know who they are or where they live, but I should know by early next week.

Cross your fingers.

Derek.

P.S. I didn't take this picture, but hopefully I'll get some of the same spot sometime soon.

Impressions

It’s been a whirlwind. I hate that term, but it’s the only thing I can think to say that can tell you what the first 36 hours have been like here in Santiago. This city is so alive- everywhere, all the time.

We got into the airport yesterday morning around 8:30 and it was pretty easy getting through customs and security. I was lucky enough to meet up with a bunch of people from my program at the Mexico City Airport so I didn’t have to be alone waiting for 6 hours. After we landed we got a taxi to take us to the hotel. It’s a small place in the Providencia neighborhood. It’s really antique-ish and quaint, but the staff is awesome and really friendly. They gave us the scoop on some bars in Bella Vista and told us that we should come back to the hotel before their shift ended so we could go dancing. They were joking, but still it was really funny.

The food has been an experience. My first meal was surprisingly disappointing, kind of. It started with a salad which was two slices of tomatoes with sliced string beans- at least that’s what I thought they were. But the beans had a very fishy taste, which was big turn off. The meal itself wasn’t that bad, it was pot roast with rice. Nothing fancy, but tasty. Dessert, however, was half of a canned peach. It was quite the shock. But one of the Chilean beers Escudo was very good. I didn’t really eat dinner, but we went out and had drinks. A “Pisco Sour” which is their version of whiskey and then the sour part is fruit mixed in. I nibbled on someone’s empanada which was also delicious.

Before that I went for a run down Providencia in the “Parque Forestal Piniente.” It was my first run in a long, long time, but it was awesome. I’m sure a lot of it had to do with adrenaline from being in a new place and the fact that everything right now is really stimulating, but at any rate, it was a really good run. They have tons of statues and fountains and big toys in the park, even though it’s surrounded by highway. There’s a lot of PDA here. Which isn’t a bad thing at all. It’s just very interesting to come from a culture which normally sends public displays of affection within closed doors.

As most of you know, el futbol is muy popular. Last night the University of Chile (“La U”) beat La Union Española, or something along those lines, but the city went nuts afterwards, I think it was the championship game of some huge tournament. Basically, there were people walking the streets, singing, and waving flags the entire time we were having drinks. So after, we went out to the streets and followed them back into Providencia and met at the Plaza Italia where people were running around with their flags, but this time they had lit flares and were climbing on statues. There was a helicopter overhead, but I thought it was for the news. Apparently, it was for the armed forces who showed up in several armored vehicles. They unloaded in their riot gear and I thought they were just there for damage control. So me and another girl from my program August went up into the center of the crowd and took in the experience. Then the police broke out their fire hoses and started spraying the crowd… so we took off. We ran in the opposite direction of our hotel for a while, and everybody else started walking, so we did, too. We turned down some side streets so we wouldn’t have to walk back through the masses. I think everybody had the same idea because there were broken bottles everywhere when we got closer to the hotel, no doubt from people launching them at police cars. To our surprise, there was tear gas in the air, we couldn’t even see it, but when we started crying and coughing and everybody around us had tears streaming from the eyes, we figured we should probably turn back. Anyways, we ended up having to backtrack several times to avoid the tear gas, which was not so awesome, especially when we ended up walking through more of it a second time. We kind of got lost for a few minutes, too, but we found our way soon enough and were very relieved to get back into the hotel… which they had locked down. The news this morning said that officials detained 245 people, caught 30 people looting including two 12-year-olds, and found one person stabbed, but not dead.

Anyways, it was a crazy first night, and intense welcome, and a memorable experience. I’m probably missing a ton of details but I’m really tired from today’s run.

A lot of the students are here now so it’s cool to meet everyone and see what they’re interests are. Most of us are scrambling for housing and it’s very stressful trying to find a place in this city, but I get the feeling that there are a lot of people are age who need people to live with them, so I’m not too worried for them, or even for me if I decide to not do a home-stay.

I don’t even know what else to tell you guys, I’m so tired.

Oh, I got a cell phone. It’s nice. And I met a stray dog last night and we played for a little bit outside of a church, but he lost interest after I gave him some water.

That’s all.

Departure

My stomach hurts. Ok, so it doesn’t hurt, but it’s knotted and twisted and anxious and restless and it’s letting me know it. Until 20 seconds ago, I was worried. I wasn’t worried for my flight or my family, or even the year ahead. I was worried because up until that point, I wasn’t feeling anything. I was worried that an unemotional disposition was a bad omen. I was nervous, I’ll admit that. But I was expecting a huge emotional upheaval to consume me sometime before my flight. That can still happen. That probably will happen. But, at this point, the tears haven’t scorched my eyes, the memories haven’t flooded my mind and the “what if’s” haven’t danced off my tongue.

20 seconds ago I got an e-mail. It wasn’t much. Its Courier New font made it remarkably ordinary. But within its words and spaces was a message of friendship, excitement and possibility. I found out that there might be people from my program on my connecting flight. Finding that out jumpstarted the excitement, and I’m relieved and somewhat excited to feel it.

Of course, with about 5 hours until I leave the house, I’m realizing how much I love this place. I speak generally of “this place,” but take it to mean what you want, because it probably means “wherever you are.” Home is what I’ll miss, and you’re a big part of it. But since I’m leaving during the summer, I’m going to miss these things a lot:

-Hadley
-Picking berries
-Running at odd hours
-Docks
-Bon fires
-Jumping off of things

I’m not going to miss these things at all:

-Working at 5 a.m.
-Sunburns
-Mostly cloudy days
-Flaky people

Getting back to everything, I’ll tell you a story: I left Target last week like I normally do- angry because people don’t know how to use the roundabouts, but as I crossed the overpass and leaned into the second roundabout, I didn’t turn off to hit the freeway, I made a full circle, and I went back up to Target, and I went through two more roundabouts, and then I went through the Harbor. I almost cried. I could tell you that I did, and it would be a better story, but I didn’t. But I wanted to. I wanted the beautiful view to be clouded by tears. It would have made for a very memorable moment, as if the Harbor with its sailboats and their masts weren’t memorable enough. As if every smile and hug and picture from that place weren’t memorable enough.

I’m going to miss both of my homes, Humboldt included. Humboldt is the only college home I’ve known. It was my first step into adulthood, and to know that I get to go back to that place after this journey is over is reassuring and comforting.

Summary: I’m nowhere near being emotionally prepared, but I feel like with these things, there’s not really a solid way to get to that place. So what’s the next step? Wake up. It always is and always will be the next step.


“You don’t need to give up yourself to belong or fit in. Make the world yours… Dare to walk the path that is right for you” – Patty Ley