"Nerd" is the same word in Spanish. Lesson learned.

iHOLA A TODOS!

Firstly, shout out to all the Vandy kids who are starting classes today.. GOOD LUCK!!!

Not a whole lot going on south of the equator right now . . . it's always surprising to me how quickly something new becomes normal. And it's so helpful now to have a routine (as much as I can say that I have a routine . . . my classes yesterday and this morning were canceled. We shall see what happens tomorrow...).

Where to begin? Oh, I know...



JUEGOS MAPUCHES

Last Thursday, we had our first real Juegos Mapuches class. Well, apparently it was the week before, but all of the gringos thought it was canceled so none of us showed. Bueno!

So we get to class (finally... after having it been moved to a different location across the lake, and after harassing/being harassed by some crazy guys who worked at the stadium), and our profe is holding a huge bundle of sticks that resemble field hockey sticks. We end up playing this game called palin, which really is essentially field hockey, only the "field" is a lot narrower and much, much longer (normally 12 meters wide by 200 long, but we played on a wider and shorter field). Each team has 5 to 15 players, who line up face to face with the other team along the length of the field. And then... craziness ensues.

Our profe thought it would be HILARIOUS if all of the intercambios (exchange students) were on the same team. We had four teams, so ours sat the first game out and watched. But once we took the campo (field).... it was GAME. OVER. It was just a group of about 11 or 12 girls, but I cannot even begin to explain how intense we were! We ended up playing two games in a row (losing the first, dominating the second), and yours truly scored THREE goals! I think I peaked...

Anyway, I've learned that the Mapuche conflict is really something that you don't bring up in casual conversation. Kind of like how in the US you wouldn't randomly start criticizing settlers for the way they treated Natives at the dinner table. But it's different to me, because it's a current event (and it's a new topic to me..). I'm sure I've offended many people with my interests....

More info on the current land dispute: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapuche#Recent_history
More info on current events: http://www.mapuche.nl/english/santiagotimes090812.html
Happy reading!

Worst part of this class? Vandy won't give us credit! The way I'm dealing with it? Pshh.. taking it anyway!


CEDULA DE IDENTIDAD

On Thursday morning, I went with my friend Sarah to get our cédulas de identidad (Chilean ID cards). I had lost my rough draft/paper copy (kind of like how you get a paper permit before a license?), so I was expecting a tough, beaurocratic nightmare where I'd have to start the process all over again... BUT NO! Bless Chile and it's relaxed ways. The lady looked at me, looked at my passport (because nobody understands my name here...) and gave me my card! It's beautiful. And it has my thumbprint on the back. I can't wait until I have to bring my ID somewhere in the US and I can say, "Oh, I'm so sorry! It seems that I only have my Chilean ID with me...."



It's a real plastic ID too. Good job, Chile!



EL CONGRESO NACIONAL

On Friday, CIEE took us en una clase en terreno (field trip) to El Congeso Nacional. Being the history/politics nerd that I am, I was in seventh heaven, even though it was 9 in the morning. It's interesting to me that the Congreso Nacional (which would be like our US Capital Building) is in Valpo even though the Capital is Santiago. But when after Pinochet's coup, he decided to "decentralize," and did so by moving the congress to Valpo. But Valpo is in the same region as Santiago (Chile is divided into 15 regions), and is only about an hour and a half away. So now it seems like it's more of an inconvenience than true decentralization. And I mean, it was a symbolic decentralization anyway.... it's not like the government itself was any less centralized. Go figure. Military dictatorships confuse me.

But Chile has a really interesting political system. It's a presidential representative democratic republic, very similar to the US. The difference lies mainly in the number of political parties and in the power the legislative branch has. Chile has about 12 political parties (six of which are represented in Congress), and most of them are left-leaning. During presidential and other important elections, parties on each side will form alliances in order to nominate one representative. Also, if a law is passed through the Senate, and goes to the president for approval, and she vetoes it, that's the end of that law. It can be re-sent for approval, but only if substantial changes are made. A marked difference from the power that our legislative branch has...

So below is a slideshow of about nine pictures. I definitely forgot my camera that day, so I stole the prettiest ones I could find of other peoples. :) ALSO! On the slideshow itself, in the lower left hand corner, the second button to the right is a small callout/dialogue box. If you click that, it will display all the comments that I've put on my pictures! Hopefully that will explain some of these things a bit better




LAS DUNAS


Saturday, I went with three friends to las dunas (sand dunes) in Concon. But do not be fooled by the word "dune." A much better description would be sand MOUNTAIN. Honestly, these are the coolest structures in the world. From the top, you can see the tip of Valparaiso, the shores of Vina and Renaca, all the way around to the tip of Concon on the other side of the bay. Absolutely breathtaking, and once again, my pictures do it no justice. Again, pictures with comments are below! (And seriously, read the comments on these. It explains my clumsiness...)





Yesterday, I met with someone at CIEE about working with 13-15 year olds in an English program... not sure if the schedules will match, but I'm crossing my fingers and really hoping it works out!! And also, I went with one friend to a CODEFF meeting. CODEFF is a nonprofit that works to preserve Chile's biodiversity. Think about how long Chile is... the driest desert in the north, the lush middle, and then the icy south. It's the most biodiverse country in the world (from what I've heard...), so it makes sense that it needs protecting. BONUS: Volunteering with this nonprofit ensures fun field trips! And in general, it's really interesting to me to see how nonprofits function in other countries. All of the nonprofits I've worked with (I'm thinking mostly CASTLES here, not gonna lie) are so lucky in comparison. It's striking to me that a 40 year old organization with ample legislative power is still struggling so much to make ends meet.

My posts are always so long. Many apologizes!

Love,
C

Un mes: una reflexión

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

I cannot believe that, as of yesterday, I've been in Viña for a month. Time is flying by so quickly....

Disclaimer: This is going to be a selfish, boring blog post. I want to have a way to track my thoughts and "progress" while I'm here. So I'm mostly just going to be making of list of what I've learned thus far, and what I have left to accomplish.





Why Chile Still Confuses Me

Chile is a land of contradictions. The people here are liberal yet conservative; the country is religious, but secular. I guess it could be argued that it's similar to the US in this manner. But the thing is... it's different. I wish I could explain better. It's almost as if each person is a bit of both, yet claims to be neither. It's this funny combination of advanced and industrialized, and third-world. People have houses of plywood and cardboard, but with satellite TV reception. The first female president was elected in 2006, two years after a law was passed that legalized divorce. I'm also analyzing all of this from an extremely limited viewpoint, something that I'll readily acknowledge. Regardless, Chile me confunde de vez en cuando.

Another example:

Tobacco kills. If you want to live, quit smoking.
Minister of Health, Government of Chile

Just another example! Compare this cigarette carton to the ones that are in the US, with their small warnings that aren't worded quite so strongly as this. And yet, more people smoke here than I thought was possible... Passing the high schools when they get out, all these incredibly young kids; it never ceases to amaze me! But it shouldn't. It's just part of their culture here.

Example numero dos: Soap and Swine flu. Everyone here is SO SCARED of getting sick. God save you if you happen to cough or sniffle on a crowded bus, because the looks that those old ladies are giving you could honestly kill. There are signs everywhere on what you can do to prevent it. YET! None of the bathrooms have soap (or even soap dispensers). Soap is not a big thing here . . . Ohh, Chile

That's really all that still confuses me. But it's their normal, so I'll have to accept it. Especially when considering the relativity of normality.

Oh, right. And there's that whole language thing, too. But I think it's getting better! I'm able to speak a lot faster in Spanish, and with less thought. I can understand nearly everything that my family says to me (most of the time). I definitely need to speak more. I'm entirely content to just sit at a table and let everyone around me talk. Even if I'm comprehending, I'm not practicing - - which isn't helpful.
Mission: Less English, more Spanish.
(Another quick thing... the way I speak in English is changing, too. I phrase sentences differently and my vowel sounds aren't the same as they used to be. My brain is so confused right now)



I'm frustrated with the US, too. Why in the world is it necessary to use the imperial system instead of the metric? (And isn't it ironic that it's called the imperial system and we're essentially the only country that uses it?!) I'm getting better at converting things in my head (but not height/length...), but it's frustrating that it's even necessary.

Dear United States,
Please adopt the metric system. It'd be easier if we all thought in degrees Celsius, kilometers per hour, and the like.
Love,
Many people.


Okay. It's been a weak reflection, but helpful nonetheless. Hopefully this weekend will be filled with fun adventures and day trips so I can post more pictures!


Ciaaaooo!
-Colleen

Rain, rain.. go away. Flood the roads some other day...

I've been catching some flack lately for not updating. . . but it's only been a week, and honestly, not much has happened.

WHOAH! I just realized that I've been here almost a month! Craziness.

Regardless, it's been a pretty uneventful week. Mostly just getting into a routine (as much as you can here...) and starting classes. But I DID go see Harry Potter y el principe mestizo en español last weekend. It was nice because I'd already seen the movie in English, and reread the book recently, so it was pretty easy to understand what was going on. That's my favorite

[Sidenote to anyone who has seen the movie: You know the part where Aragog dies and Hagrid is throwing him a funeral? And Harry had taken the Felix Felicis and was walking with Slughorn down to Hagrid's and Slughorn gives the eulogy?! Okay, so the translation into Spanish was "HASTA LA VISTA, ARAGOG" which made the entire group of gringas start laughing. Nobody else thought it was funny. I'm laughing now, just typing it...]

On Friday, a bunch of us got together at my friend Emily's house to make banana panqueques. We were craving rich, sweet, American panqueques instead the crepe-like things they have here. And the "panqueques" here are usually filled with vegetables. Which is great, but somtimes you just need the syrup!

Sarah, Emily and me cooking!
They both go to Vanderbilt, too :)

Also, last Sunday was Día de los niños, or Kid's day. So there were funky festivals and packed malls and kids with painted and balloons in the sky. But you know that every time there's a balloon in the sky, it's kid counterpart is crying on the ground :( . Que triste.

Anyways, it was fun to just sit around and watch all the little kids run around the parques and plazas. Sunday made me miss home a little bit... my host siblings were at their dad's house, and I just wanted to be around kids. I don't know. Sundays, I'm used to drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. I guess I'll have to bring that tradition here!!

And as I said, this week was really when my classes rolled into full gear (is that even a saying? I have no idea). My 20th century politics class was cancelled because not enough people enrolled, so that was a huge bummer. And even more frustrating because then I had to go back through the whole course catalog and choose something else that fit in my schedule. It's hard here, because the university buildings are all over the place. So you can't always take two classes back to back unless they're in the same building or really really close to each other. It could easily take you forty-five minutes to get from one city to the other. That doesn't work when you have ten minutes between blocks...

But enough complaining! It all worked out very well, and I'm super happy with my classes so far.

OH! But back to school inevitably means back to school shopping, right? Apparently in Chile, they only make graph paper notebooks.... WHAT?! You only need graph paper when making graphs. All who know me know that I NEVER ever make graphs. Nor do anything math related... so that was bizarre. On a happier note: Color coding is SO normal here!! In my classes, all the girls use two or three different colored pens to make notes. I think Chile might be heaven...

Classes are definitely a lot different here. It's really common for the Chileno students to talk all during class, and it's no big deal to the professor. In the US, any student talking (especially in these smaller classes of 35 or 40) would definitely get called out! Bizarre.


I also made a new friend!!! He's in the picture below

Paco is my favorite stray dog. Seriously, I see this pup EVERYwhere.

I also found out about this sweet non-profit that I'm going to start volunteering with. I'll be working in a public school as an assistant to an English language teacher! I'm really excited; it's a nonprofit with a lot of international recognition (English Opens Doors), and I've heard of it before when I was doing research on Teach for America. I'm so glad I get to donate time here like this. I love doing volunteer work, but I feel like I work a decent amount during the school year, which kind of inhibits my ability to do fun things like this.

Which brings me to... TRIP PLANNING! This is something else that has really consumed my week. We're working on a trip to the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world, the second weekend in September. Also to come (hopefully): Puntas Arenas (really really south in Chile); Mendoza, Argentina; more trips to Santiago; La Serena and the Humboldt Penguin Reservation; and MOOORE! Traveling is so easy (and cheap) here. Fantastic. But it's also igniting a desire to see everything in the world that I didn't know existed. I even can't wait to go back to the US and see what can be done there.


Okay. My posts are always so long. But I always have so much to say! And today, I went to a birthday party for my host mother's niece. We were there for about eight hours. SO TIRING. And even though I could understand most of what they were saying, I didn't contribute much. So now I have all these pent up words. That you get to read! Yay for you all!

Feel free to leave comments with questions or whatever; these posts aren't always super informative. Or email me at Colleen.A.Cummings@vanderbilt.edu


Paz y amor,
Colleen

I Miss Efficiency

For some reason, the past few days have been incredibly frustrating. I don't know if it's just delayed culture shock finally hitting me full-force (because I definitely thought that we dealt with that a few weeks ago...) or me just not putting enough effort into this experience, but the past few days were just bizarre. But not entirely bad, either. Just not entirely good. I think this post will require a list...

Las cosas buenas



Isla Negra

Another one of Pablo Neruda's house. This one is about an hour and a half south of Viña y Valpo, and is definitely way prettier than La Sebastiana. This house overlooks the ocean, with an incredible view (I feel like I'm always saying that), and the house was designed by Pablo to look like a boat, with curved ceilings and narrow doorways. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but below are some of the pictures of the rocks outside (the best ones I've climbed on in a long time) and the house itself. 'Twas a good day.



Also, in the town of Isla Negra, me and four other girls were waiting for a bus back and some guy pulled over and asked us if we were from there. Looking for directions maybe?

. . . . Have you seen me? Or heard me speak? Of course I'm not from here. But it was nice to be asked anyways. Even though we could barely tell him "no" in Spanish.


Earthquakes

No, no; don't flip out, parents. But we had an earthquake seminar a few weeks ago on what to do. And then the other night, I was talking to my host family about it and they were saying that tremors are really common here.

I'm SO DOWN with that. I think that'd be pretty sweet! Provided that it's not bad and all that jazz. . . I'm just a fan of extreme weather!


Desserts/ Food in general

These Chilenos know how to do it. I'm constantly eating FANTASTIC foods.

• Aflojores: Chocolatey covered cookie goodness. It's like two cookie/cakes stuck together with caramel type thing then dipped in chocolate. It also goes by the name of "heaven" and "delightful."
• Empanadas: Grilled cheese spruced up to the max. It's a light shell of bread dough that's filled with whatever you want (my favorites have cheese, corn, tomatoes, onion, and oregano), then they're either baked or fried. I honestly can't explain it - - it sounds so simple, but it's so so delicious.
• Tortilla de espinaca: Spinach quiche - type thing. A thick egg omelet that's baked with whatever you want in it (my favorite has spinach)
  
• Anything the nanny cooks. Even her rice just tastes fantastic. But they don't boil rice here; it's cooked in a pan? I'm trying to figure out the science behind that.

Now time for list two . . .

Las cosas malas.

• Not being able to understand and communicate effectively. I honestly didn't expect this part to be easy, but I feel so bad making everyone repeat things twice... thrice.. fourteen times before I finally might understand what they're saying. And then even though I understand, I don't always know what to say. It's also hard because I love to tell stories about things that happened to me during the day, but I can't always do that. And it's so hard to communicate humor in Spanish. That's the worst. I can't wait until I can get to the point where I'm telling jokes and being more like me, but just in another language.
  
• Standing out. It was kind of funny at first, but now I'm sick of getting pegged as an extranjero. I know there's no way to cover it up . . . I have light brown hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. Sometimes I wish it just wasn't so obvious. For example: Yesterday, I had to go get notebooks. And a mother honestly came up to me and asked me if her son (about five or six years old) could just look at my eyes. He hadn't seen ojos claros before, and she wanted him to. WHAAAT?!
  
• Speaking in English. I mean, it's such a comfort to be able to talk to my friends and stuff in English. But it's infuriating when we go to a store or a restaraunt and ask a question IN SPANISH, and the people look at each other, and run to get someone who speaks English. I may not speak Spanish well, but I can communicate with you to a point.... if I'm asking if you have hot chocolate, there's no need to run and get someone to translate. And if I talk to you in Spanish, answer me in Spanish!
  
• Mullets. I do not understand who came to Chile and told everyone that mullets are in right now. But they need to go. NOW.
• Not knowing when classes are cancelled. They told us during orientation that it would happen. That our classes would be cancelled, and we would have no idea. BUT I DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD HAPPEN THE FIRST DAY. So energetic and ready-to-learn Colleen shows up to adolescent psych and there's nobody there, except two other extranjeras who clearly also didn't get the memo. Since we have no university emails or anything, we never know. BUENO! (All my classes this week are cancelled, by the way. Guess I start on Monday??!)
• I want to carry my coffee again. It's still bizarre to me that there's not really anywhere I can go to get a cup of coffee to take with me somewhere. It's just a culture thing. Americans are always so hopped up on caffeine and eager to take on the next task. Chilenos are more likely to stop in a cafe, chat over an espresso. This is not how I work. I'll have to adapt! Caffeinate at home...
• Being conflicted over US rules and Chilean rules. My entire ASB experience, when I worked with the homeless and all that jazz, most definitely made me more sympathetic to the plight of most homeless people. Even when I got back to Nashville, I was more likely to talk to someone on the street, at least smile and say hi. And I can't decide what I'm supposed to do here. My common sense side says stay away; it's a different country, you don't want to get hurt. My other side (and I think my nonsensicaly side tends to win) says that certain things don't have geographic limits, and I should still be nice to people. I just don't know.
  
• People don't laugh as much as I do. I mean, I laugh a lot. And why not? Life is far far too short to take things seriously (funny - - this seems to contradict with this entire post?!). But I don't think Chilenos laugh as much as I do. I guess it's another American thing. So. If I want to fit in, I need to stop laughing and stop being nice. Problem solved.
  

Okay, that list ended up being a lot longer than I had wanted it to be. Regardless of the frustrations and the troubles that I've been having, I'm still enjoying myself immensely; you couldn't pay me enough to go back to the US right now. Not with my Spanish still the way it is!

I guess I just wasn't expecting culture shock to actually bother me. I feel like I'm prety adaptable, but I've also never really traveled anywhere before. And I know it's give and take. I just wish Chile would give a bit more :)


Every now and then I have these moments where suddenly I think "I am south of the equator. I am in Chile right now." And it's just a moment of awe, when I realize where I am. And that seems to excuse some of my struggles at the moment.

Moral of the story? I wouldn't change my situation for the world. I'm just going to have to adapt!

Love to all!
C

A Weekend of Adventures

So, I know it's only been a few days since the last time I posted, but this was definitely a jam-packed weekend. It is our last weekend before classes start (they start on Wednesday), so I feel like we're all trying to get too much done before we get busier.

La Sebastiana

On Saturday morning, CIEE arranged a field trip for us to La Sebastiana, which is one of Pablo Neruda's houses. He has two others in Chile, but this one is atop one of the cerros of Valparaiso. It was nice to be able to explore one of our cities a bit more. The views from his house were astounding. But that's one of the things about Valparaiso and Vina that I love - - no matter where you are, you always have a view of something.

Below are some of my pictures from La Sebastiana, as well as those of Valparaiso. It's such a beautiful city!



Quintay

On Saturday afternoon, I went with my friend Allison and her host family to a small town south of the cities called Quintay. It used to be an old whaling port, which is honestly hard to believe. A few of the pictures show just how small this town is. It's hard to imagine huge boats coming in with 25 ton whales.... There was a cool little museum, though, that kind of taught you about the history of the city and of the whaling industry in general. And being the history geek that I am, I totally loved that part. I'm not ashamed to admit it.

Quintay is probably one of the most gorgeous places I've ever seen. It's nested between mountains, which suddenly become cliffs and drop off into the ocean. Again, there are pictures below, but there's no way that they can do it justice!



Con Con

Yesterday, we went to another nearby coastal city. After our debacle on Friday with the bus system, I was scared of being stuck on the bus for too long and getting lost (again) in the middle of nowhere. Instead, we got off the bus about four miles too early and ended up walking for an hour or so to get to our destination. It was chilly and cloudy, and not an overall amazing day. HOWEVER. A potentially miserable excursion was salvaged by horses! For roughly $4USD, we were able to take horses on the beach for about a half an hour. Drawback? Neither I nor the other two girls that I went with have really any horseback riding experience. And it was hard to understand what the men were telling us. Honestly, I was kind of amazed that they let us just wander around freely when it was so blatantly obvious that we had no idea what we were doing. At one point, we were trying to turn around to go back to the makeshift stable when all of our horses just stopped moving. We tried yelling at them in English and in Spanish, doing crazy things with the reins... Finally, one of us kind of smacked our horse out of frustration and he started moving again. I wish they had told us what to do about that . . . . .





And today, we're working on our paper that the CIEE office assigned to us... How fantastic. I'm just eager to start classes and have real work that actually counts for something. At least my paper is on the Mapuches.

I'm pretty sure the Mapuches are going to end up being my Chilean obsession, FYI. I cannot stop reading things about them. And they're always on the news, with another rebellion or setting another bus on fire.... I cannot wait for Juegos mapuches and my history classes to learn more!

That's all for now...
Ciao!