Asado, Politics, and Climbing La Campana
Trip Start
Jul 13, 2005
1
10
32
Trip End
Mar 02, 2006
Valparaíso,
Chile
Monday, September 26, 2005
Hope the past week treated you all well, I feel like it has been a while since I last spammed your inboxes from down south. Everything here is going fairly well, actually really well. The only drawback is that I am experiencing some rather nasty pains in my knee which has been limiting me more than I've ever been used to. I'm going to a Chilean doc (recommended through the program) tomorrow to hopefully find out whats going wrong and how to fix it up! Perhaps I am just getting old.
Lets see, last weekend I left off with having an Asado with a bunch of my chilean friends. That night we got together and went to a Ramada which is like a big fiesta with lots of meat, and dancing the cueca (traditional chilean dance). We actually never went inside though, as they had a whole bunch of fun stuff set up outside that was free to browse through, as opposed to paying to enter. Got home at 5 or so. For sunday my host family had some extended family over (my mom's sister and some cousins and stuff) for a big almuerzo (lunch). It was really nice to meet some of the extended family and hang out with them around the table ect. I talked to my hostmom's sister for quite a while, and she ended up offering me a place to stay anytime i wanted to come to Santiago. Very cool. While we were talking about the fiestas patrias my hostmom brought up the fact that I didnt come home friday night, and then stayed out really late again sunday with an asado in between and said how chilean i was becoming. Yay. but also very tiring haha.
The weeks are starting to turn into a routine that just sort of happens. Lots of lecturing, taking notes, and generally not knowing whats going on.( yes i have become accustomed to that) The education here is just kind of a free for all, but at least that does teach how to be flexible and patient. I got one of my first tests back and did pretty poorly ( i misread the directions...grr) but im not too worried. For my drawing class all the foreigners thought we were supposed to meet at the beach to draw (like the previous week) but instead they had class in the art building (who knew?) The week before the chileans didnt even come to class, so ive never actually been to a real class for that subject.
I got an email from a member of the jazz band back at kzoo, talking about the first day of jazz. Got a little bit sentimental for playing the sax, being with my friends at K, and all that stuff. I have those moments from time to time, but usually they pass rather quickly. Theres no time to get too homesick, or youll miss your stop on the bus!
My flute playing seems to be progressing little by little, but i find that its a little weird to practice because i dont want to bother everyone thats in the house with my nasty noise making. I try to wait for an opportunity when the house is empty (not too frequent) or tomas is playing his guitar. My flute teacher is really nice though, and shes patient with me trying to figure things out. Shes also a real jokster (shes not that old or anything) and the other day i had to stop playing to cough and shes like do you smoke...and i responded no. Then she laughed and said, any type of smoking? Its always really funny to get a joke in spanish, because as ive said a million times, humor is about the hardest thing.
While walking in the streets of vina this week i ran into my first protest type of thing. It was a large march for a labor union accompanied by carabineros and lots of shouting blowing horns, chanting, ect. As the rally was approaching me, I remembered reading that we are supposed to avoid political marches and stuff, but it was peaceful, so i stayed and watched them pass by. The presidential elections here are coming up in December, and so I expect to see a lot more rallys and stuff, which interests me a lot.
For those that want a little information about politics in Chile...read this: The system here is that a candidate has to recieve over 50% of the votes. If that doesnt happen then there is a second election. Chile has like 8 political parties, and those parties get together and make alliances to put forth a stronger candidate that represents a broader sector. Right now its looking like Chile will elect Michele Bachelet (yes a woman!) who is a leftist (but that doesnt really mean anything in terms of what we are used to) but the two more right wing candidates may end up combining, and that will make the race really close. Another interesting tidbit, is that just like the U.S., the young people dont really vote. However, here they have good reason not too. If you register to vote in chile, you are required to vote in every subsequent election for the rest of your life!! They expect this law to change in the next few years, but its rather archaic. Imagine if in order to vote for president in the states you had to also vote for EVERY school board election, mayoral election, ect. The other thing is that no one talks about politics publicly here. You never hear anyone mention politics on the micros, on the streets or anything. Only in private is the subject ever discussed. This has its roots in the oppression of ideas and opinions of the dictatorship, and the lack of interest of the young. In the run up to an election, it is nearly impossible to go a day in the US without hearing some mention of candidates, scandals, policies, ect.
Camping was this weekend, so on wednesday we got a big list of things we needed to have for the weekend, so we had to form groups and go shopping. I ended up spending a little birthday money to get a tent and stuff (things that i should have anyway) We went shopping for food to cook and planned out meals and everything. Friday night we had mountain sports class as usual, and because of my huge pack, my mom drove me to class. We had a little class about 'no deje rastros' (leave no trace) and then we headed out to olmhue. We camped in the backyard of some girl's house, so it was a little odd, but we still cooked on our little camping stoves, and had our tents set up. We had a little class sessions throughout the weekend.
Saturday morning we got up with the sun, made some oatmeal, and then head out for la campana. My knee was feeling pretty good for the walk to the park and everything, but when the groups split up to climp the mountain, i elected the 'slow' group. It turned out to be really cool. Our group was really international: made up of this cool older professor (the class has two profs) and a couple guys from mexico, a couple chileans, a girl from barcelona, a couple of americans, and a guy from holland. Very fun, lots of different spanish accents (gosh its so much easier to understand mexicans and spainards). The girl from spain was telling me about how hard it was to understand chileans when she first got here, which made me feel a lot better! Its fun to think about making networks of people around the world.
When we got about 2/3 of the way up, my knee really started bumming out. I didnt want to risk doing some kind of permanent damage, so i told the prof, and we decided that i would stay put in this certain area while they went up to the top. One of the professors and this girl came down a little early because they had to go do something in town later on. I went down with them, and surprisingly my knee held up a lot better doing down. They left me at the entrance to the park at the ranger station to wait for the rest of the group to come down. It was a lovely afternoon and so i sat next to the roaring river there and thought about stuff and kind of meditated. Then it started getting dark, so i went and sat nearer to the ranger station. When it had become much later than the time that I was expecting to see my classmates the ranger and i were talking, and he was concerned. We called the physical education office and got the prof's cellular number up top. turns out one of my friends sprained her ankle pretty good, and so that had delayed them and they were taking the looong route down (its for cars) The ranger went up to meet this smaller group of people and the rest came down by flashlight on the trail. I had to wait for like an hour in the cold darkness. It really sucked, and since i was cold i went and stood in the bathrooms, until this HUGE tarantula type spider came into view, and made me a little nervous. When they finally arrived at the bottom i was really excited to see people. After getting back to camp, all tired (me emotionally from spending the day waiting, and them physically from summiting, we made some yummy dinner, and then had a class for reflections on the day and things. People said a lot of interesting cool stuff about lessons learned, ect from the day.
I slept like a guagua! (baby).
In the morning we had a class about how to best pack a bag. It was very informational, and i learned that the pack i have is a very good one with lots of features and everything necessary. After packing according to my new knowledge, my pack felt great coming home. I hadnt camped in a long time, and although it felt a little bit like camping in the backyard back in wooster days, it was also great to sleep outside and cook on a little camp stove, ect. I cant wait to go do it again (we have a longer trip coming up in december...not to mention my longer trip after the program that will involve some camping)
So, after another week of chile, things are still challenging, fun, and i am going to go now and actually do some school work! The workloads here are a bit different, and its certainly nothing like kalamazoo!!
I hope that everyone is doing well. I have updated my photo album recently, so if you have time give it a look see. As always feel free to drop me an email anytime! Take care everyone, and enjoy the fall! ( I know i am enjoying the spring!)
Abrazos!
