DÍA 2/San Pedro

we headed out at 8:30 in the ideal sunshine and fresh breeze for an adventure by bike. armed with sunscreen and my hat (sarah the vineyard vines hat is really pulling its weight here), i set off on a muddy mountain bike with a hardcore system of shock absorbers- little did i know how necessary these would be. we pedaled off down the sand road and within minutes were in the midst of mountaings. we were heading towards la cordillera de la sal, a "mountain range" that is really salt-rock formations the color of clay formed with the help of volcanic gases- because of this the range is filled with fissures, holes, caves, gorges, and gaps of all sorts that we got to explore later along the ride. la cordillera de la sal cuts a very sharp profile into the horizon with its sharp-pointed, quick-in-succession peaks and the dark shadows cutting into them where the gorges run. (i took about 300 pictures over the weekend and not one succeeded in bringing back the breathtaking beauty that surrounded me).


i was just loving life, soaking in the scenery and the sun :) about midway along the ride we had to stop to ford a river with our bikes and shoes hoisted onto our shoulders- it wasn't as extreme as it may sound, the water came up to my knees- but the cold water was the perfect refresher.


what was more extreme was the biking itself- when biking on a sand road one occasionally runs into patches of deeper/looser sand where it is highly likely, no matter how fast or slow you try and go, that you will simply wobble and topple. matt informed me the trick is to "stand through the sand" but even this occasionally failed and i had to just waddle through the sand patch. our first destination point of the ride was an aymara/inca ruin site atop a plateau.


walking through the plazas and peering through gaps in the walls let me imagine the town as it would've been during its prime. everything was built with stones from the river nearby, and their smooth texture and grey-black-brown colors contrasted with the jagged and crusted salt formations around them. our next stopping point, after riding single-file into a gap between two clay-colored rock walls, was to clamber along and explore la cordillera de la sal from close-up.


after climbing up and ducking under rock formations for about an hour we hopped back on our bikes and raced back in just enough time for a jump in the pool before lunch. as nice as our hotel was, the pool was not heated and a ten second dip was about all i could take, but nonetheless it felt amazing and energizing after the morning's exercise.
lunch, courtesy of ciee, was delicious and included salmon and my favorite desert i've had in chile so far- ironically it is a peruvian desert, called suspiro limeño. sergio describes it as 'a la vena' meaning it's so rich and has so much sugar that it goes straight to the vein. SO GOOD, i plan on googling the recipe as soon as possible.
after lunch we visited the archaeological museum in san pedro, which has an insanely large collection of utensils used by indigenous peoples for inhaling hallucinogenic substances. there were also a lot of beautiful gold pieces and clay ceramics to examine.
towards the end of the afternoon we set off with claudio, our tour guide, toward valle de la luna. along the way we took several "japanese breaks" (claudio's term), which means we stop at a place with cool views/rocks/etc., everyone gets off the bus to explore and take pictures, and soon we get back on the bus. in this manner we got to see la valle de las muertes, the rock formations called las tres marias, and a big hole in the ground (another thing created by those crazy volcanic gases). we enjoyed our japanese breaks to the fullest by taking jumping pictures to symbolize the moon-like surface we were on (moon=no gravity, thus the jumping).the end treat at valle de la luna was the sunset. after climbing up the great dune (no small task) we had a great view of not only the valle itself, but la cordillera de la sal and la cordillera de los andes, including licancabur volcano, on the other side. the "crater" of valle de la luna is used by NASA to test their new lunar vehicles because it is supposedly very similar to the terrain of the moon, and it wasn't hard to imagine martian-like beings living there so i can see why.


watching the sunset was beautiful- we were in fact facing away from the sun because the most interesting changes in colors and shadows happen in the east on the slopes of the andes and the salt formations.

¿por qué escogiste chile?

every chilean i meet asks me this question: why did i decide to come to santiago/chile? my answer is generally a vague, i'm-not-really-sure, i-just-decided sort of response, but my trip this weekend reminded me a thousand times why i chose chile: its amazingincredibleunparalleled unique diversity of environments and the adventures to be had exploring them. i spent this past weekend with ciee in san pedro de atacama, in the heart of the desert of northern chile, and had an absolutely incredible time. leaving santiago was a breath of fresh air that came at the perfect time, and i came back reenergized and geared up to travel as much as i possibly can during the next few months.
DAY 1
my alarm goes off at 3:25am so that i'm up in time to catch a shuttle to the airport for our 6:30 flight north. unfortunately, our group is sharing the plane with an even larger group of chilean high school students who do not seem to be aware a) that it is 6:30am, b) that they are sharing the plane with other people and should probably not shout/scream/bark/whoop/etc., c) of any form of airplane etiquette- they were clambering over seats, standing in the aisles at all times, snapping photo flashes in the otherwise dark plane, congregating by the bathrooms, and basically anything else you can think of that most people would consider unacceptable plane behavior. despite our resulting lack of sleep, it was an interesting cultural insight into the social world of the wealthy chilean teenager.
arriving in calama, we head off for a tour of the nearby chuquicamata mine: the largest open-pit copper mine in the world. i have never seen a mine of any sort before, and i was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the operation. some fun facts: the mine employs 100 trucks the size of a small house with wheels taller than i am that cost $25,000 USD each (these are the largest possible mining trucks you can make, because these are the largest possible tires- made by michelin- that can support that largest amount of weight).


out of 100 trucks, there are only 2 female drivers. 20,000 workers toil 8 hour days here every day of the year (with three shifts per day the mine is literally always in operation). there has been no rain in chuquicamata since february 2006. while touring around the mine we got lucky and got to see molten iron being poured onto a hillside deposit, as well as an explosion in the mine itself meant to loosen rock so it can be removed. from afar the mine looks like flat-topped hills built in layers of dusty grey- a contrast to the real hills surrounding it that are red-brown clay and remind me of georgia o'keefe paintings of new mexico with their colors and shadows.
after the mine we made a stop to grab lunch and 5 liter jugs of water (which i did indeed finish by the end of the trip) before hopping on the bus for the 2ish hour drive to san pedro. the landscape in and around san pedro is absolutely awesome- although the region is a desert, it is by no means a boring horizon of flat sand. every turn brings different rich shades of brown, mountains, salt formations, volcanos, and gorges. a secret of the desert i learned: the seemingly random lines of desert shrubs that look like they should be shriveling under the unrelenting sun are alive because they grow on top of a subterranean water flow that comes down from the snow in the andes, through the quebradas (gorges/ravines) that crease the landscape, and eventually underground across the wide open pampa.
the town of san pedro was an immensely welcome change from the always-moving crowds of santiago. despite being an important tourist jumping-point for all the region's activities, san pedro has a calming, relaxed attitude that infects both locals and tourists. none of santiago's too-pushy restaurant callers or shouting vendors; just lazy sandy streets lined with adobe and straw houses where you can stroll along after a full day of adventures. this is the iglesia:


everyone is just happy to be there, from the local niños playing in the plaza and around their parents' shops to the non-locals in their hiking boots and fleeces. the only negative of our trip was not having more time to really explore san pedro itself.
for dinner i grabbed an empanada of tomato, cheese, and basil for about $1.50 USD- it was so delicious i would've paid five times that if they'd asked!
then at around 9:00 we drove out into the desert to see the stars. i learned SO MUCH in the next three hours- if i had more than one life to spend, one would definitely be dedicated to astronomy. another would be as a geologist, the earth formations i saw this weekend were fascinating. but anyway, astonomy- the night was perfectly clear with a beautiful moon and stars and the wide open sky and space around us was perfectly calm. we arrived at the house of alain, a french-born chilean (here to take advantage of the grade A stargazing conditions and work on the upcoming ALMA telescope project here) whose clearly french-accented spanish was a (linguistic) treat in itself. alain explained to us about the point of rotation of the sky, the galactic system, different types of stars and how to name them, how to use astronomy for romantic purposes, and then pointed out various constellations with his oh-so-useful green laser. it was incredibly cool to know that we were seeing things that are never in the sky at home like the cruz del sur and scorpio. we then got to make use of his 8 or 10 telescopes to see cool things like jupiter, a white nebula, a star that was in reality one blue star and one orange star, a butterfly-shaped group of stars, and a close-up of the moon's craters (which he later took a photo of with my camera through the telescope!)


after a couple hours out in the more-than-chilly winter night we went into alain's open-sky living room to drink delicious hot cocoa by candlelight and hear more about the stars. by far the most worthwhile night i have spent in chile thus far.
days 2 and 3 to be added soon...

diferencias

cosas que no he visto en chile:
-autos de prius (o cualquier otro tipo de híbrido)
-personas llevando camisas de mangas cortas o pantalones cortos o sandalias, aunque hoy hacía calor de 76* fahrenheit- todos todavía llevan abrigos, poleras, y bufandas
-pistas para bicicletas

cosas que no he visto en los EEUU:
-fruta barata
-popcorn dulce (=kettle corn) que se vende en el cine
-el guatero (botella de agua caliente que se pone en la cama antes de acostarse para que la cama ya esté calentita cuando se acuesta- me encanta)
-meseros que no te molestan para salir ni te traen la cuenta sin que tu se la pidas

starbucks

ayer recibí mi primera bebida gratis de starbucks en toda mi vida. el barista nos dijo que nuestros lattes de soya (sí, él ya ha memorizado nuestras bebidas preferidas) iban a ser gratis anoche porque 1) había una fila larga (habían tres personas en frente de nosotros) y 2) "ustedes vienen aquí frecuentemente." ... trata de imaginar eso pasando en seattle... absolutamente no, jamás. por uno, siempre hay una fila larga- tres personas es en realidad una fila normal, quince personas es una fila larga. y por otro, todos vienen a starbucks frecuentemente. si el starbucks de seattle diera bebidas gratis por esas razones, las darían a todos los clientes! pues disfruté mucho mi latte de soya, ambos porque fue delicioso y también porque fue posiblemente el único latte de starbucks que voy a recibir gratis en mi vida :)
después, con latte en la mano, fui al teatro para ver 'la negra ester,' una obra de teatro muy famoso en chile- pensé mucho en clara porque es un musical. aunque no podía entender un gran porcentaje del diálogo (especialmente cuando cantaban!), igual fue muy entretenido y me gustó mucho la música en viva. además fue una experiencia única para mi porque todo el diálogo fue en rima- toda la obra es un gran poema chistoso.

veinte

ayer fue la primera vez en mi vida que no he estado en casa para mi cumpleaños, y aunque en realidad fue muy extraño no poder celebrar nuestra 'semana de cumpleaños' con mi mamá, ayer fue un día casi perfecto. pasé la tarde caminando por santiago en la lluvia con analis. encontramos un café con cinco pisos que tiene mesas de madera hechas a mano y el chocolate caliente más rico que he encontrado. entonces caminamos en la dirección de bellas artes y descubrimos unos graffitis intersantes y varias tiendas únicas de diseñadores chilenos. después exploramos las salas del museo de arte contemporáneo de bellas artes. había una exposición de fotografía en una sala completamente oscura que fue muy impactante, una de diseños de textiles con colores y teturas vibrantes, y una de esculptura de metales óxidos. además el edificio mismo del museo es muy lindo, y la sala central está iluminada solamente por luz natural que entra por el techo de vidrio que extende sobre toda la sala. cuando habíamos visto suficiente arte por un día, cruzamos el río para comer sushi (o, como lo pronuncian los chilenos, "su-chi"). el su-chi chileno no se puede comparar con el sushi de seattle, pero es mucho más barato y de todos modos estábamos muy satisfechas por poder comer sushi de no-importa-que calidad. y de postre fue absolutamente visitar a eleonora, nuestra amiga del café 'la signoria' para una torta de chocolate y peras. después pasamos por el barrio patronato, un barrio llena de millones de tiendas de ropa barata, pero en realidad nos sentimos abrumadas por tantas tiendas, y subimos al metro para regresar a casa y una pequeña siesta antes de la fiesta de la noche. más tarde, llegaron como diez de mis amigos a cenar en mi casa. vivi y sergio cocinaron spaghetti bolognese para todos, y lo pasamos muy bien hablando, comiendo, y tomando vino chileno. después de la segunda pedazo de torta del día (una de chocolate y manjar- manjar=dulce de leche, muy muy rico), decidimos salir a un bar cerca de mi casa. a como las tres de la mañana caminamos al macdonalds para probar las empanadas. digamos que sí merecen su buena reputación, porque fueron riquísimas y exactamente lo que queríamos después de una noche larga. en total fue un día llena de buenos amigos y buenas memorías, y no podía haberlo pasado mejor.

los echeverría

esta noche fui con vivi y sergio a la casa de los padres de vivi para una cena para celebrar el cumpleaños de mi abuelo chileno. unos detalles sobre la noche...
--mi tía chilena me preguntó, después de conocerme cinco minutos, cuando fue mi cumpleaños? es la pregunta que a los chilenos les encanta más que todas otras. y, cuando uno contesta la pregunta, los chilenos siempre responden con "oh, así que eres un leo". parece que todo el mundo tiene el zodiac memorizado y que es un rasgo de personalidad muy importante aquí.
--mi prima paulina, que tiene quince años y todavía tiene tres años más en el colegio, tiene un pololo (chilenismo que significa 'novio') de dieciocho años. mi abuela chilena le preguntó a paulina si ella quiere casarse con él... lo siento, pero uno no se pregunta a una niña de quince años si quiere casarse con ninguna persona.
--mi abuelo chileno lleva su blackberry todo el tiempo en un 'lanyard' alrededor de su cuello, y lo pone debajo de su suéter- muy chistoso :)
--comimos una ensalada de camarones y palta que me recuerda de un especial de alpenland una vez... si solo tuviéramos pretzel rolls mi vida sería completa
--tomamos vino de la viña Echeverría (el apellido de vivi)- la viña de la familia.
--mi tía chilena me invitó a entrenar con su grupo de triatlon- cada sábado ellos corren el cerro san cristóbal (el cerro muy grande en el centro de santiago que la mayoría de la gente toma el 'funicular' (basicamente un cable car) para subir porque es tan tan alto y empinado). voy a contemplar eso, y probablemente eligir de caminar el cerro en vez de correr :)
--sergio me dijo que muy pronto él va a empezar a llamarme 'marta.' aparentemente él le llama a casi todo el mundo, mujer o hombre, 'marta.' su razón por eso fue que ambos su mamá y su hermana se llaman marta. vamos a ver.
--sigue lloviendo, boooooo

"todo se arreglaría bailando"

^my amigo pablo's idea for world peace, and also an accurate description of our night yesterday. epic.
since i don't think i can accurately describe our experience at bunker last night even in english, i'm not going to dare try and do it in spanish. greatest misfortune of my trip to chile thus far is definitely the fact that cameras are prohibited in bunker, so no images of the craziness exist.
but, let's start from the beginning. last night the rain stopped just in time for analís, victor (su hermano chileno), and i to walk to meet pablo and tamara. on the way we grabbed some coffee for late-night stamina, and analís brought along some cheesecake, just for kicks :), and after finding our two amigos and a quick stop at the unimarc for some ron (still not sure what type of alcohol this is, typical) and coke we all headed to javi's house for a previa (pregame en español). we spent an enjoyable three or four hours just hanging out, listening to music from duffy to elvis, talking about reality tv, and learning some key dance moves in preparation for the night's festivities. around 2am we made the trek to bunker (the club where sergio works), where the night's theme was fiesta electronica. after gaining free entrance by mentioning that i was "la invitada de sergio-uhh i mean petra", we ducked through the bunker-like door to find the fiesta already in full swing. and this is when i reeeeeally wish the camera had been in use- this was a scene like none i have ever encountered. huge room, bar scene in the back and stage in front with the dance floor in between. raging electronic beats made more electric by the rows of psychadelic-patterned plasma screens, laser lights from all corners, and 8 glittering disco balls as central decor (one of which was as tall as me). on the front stage the two djs and anywhere from one to ten dancers/performers/drag queens at a time, all dressed to impress, complemented by five smaller stages with metal chains/cagelike construction around the edges of the dance floor that were sometimes occupied by more drag queens, sometimes by adventurous audience members (including at one point pablo and analís haha). population approximately 85% men and 95% gay (ourselves as the main exception to this), all dancing and enjoying the show. petra (sergio) in all her glory, quite the sight to behold haha. all in all a crazy and so so fun night, with the 5am treat of a free ride home from sergio instead of a $12 taxi. does life get any better than this?

cositas

--ha sido lloviendo por las últimas 19 horas (y lloviendo muy fuertemente!). hoy por la mañana cuando vivi y yo fuimos a la feria tuve que llevar mis zapatos de montanismo para no destruir mis zapatos normales con la lluvia y el lodo. (vamos a la feria cada fin de semana para comprar todas las frutas y verduras para la semana- casi nadie en chile suele comprar esas cosas en el supermercado porque la feria es mucho mejor y tiene cosas frescas)

--volví a un café que nos mostró alexandra, se llama 'la signoria' (es italiano), y creo que voy a seguir volviendo. tienen los pasteles más ricos en todo el mundo (ya he probado tres tipos diferentes jaja), y también jugos naturales buenísimos. además la chica que trabaja allá, se llama eleonora, es muy simpática. en vez de estudiar, hablamos un rato y descubrí que ella está escribiendo su tésis para la facultad de arte de la chile sobre los textiles de los peruanos indígenas, y su investigación me parecía muy interesante porque le permite viajar a perú!

--el jueves fui a jugar básquetbol con el "equipo" (nada muy serio) de la facultad de gobierno de La Chile- todavía me duelen todos los músculos! digamos que hace mucho tiempo que he corrido 'suicidios' (sí se llaman el mismo en inglés). pero fue muy muy entrete (aún marqué unos puntos :) ) y me encantó hacer ejercicio verdadero (algo que necesito hacer más aquí). creo que voy a seguir asistiendo a los entrenamientos, ambos para el ejercicio y porque la entrenadora y los chicos/chicas del equipo son de muy buena onda. pero fue un poco difícil de irnos el jueves porque dejamos a todos los amigos en el patio de la escuela tomando cervezas- aparentemente eso es una práctica común acá :)

sergio

sergio, mi papá chileno, es posiblemente la persona más interesante/extraño/cómico que he conocido aquí en chile. y él es aún más interesante porque a primera vista el parece completamente normal, pero después de conocerle un rato uno se va descubriendo sus pequeñas curiosidades que le hace el hombre singular que es. primero: su trabajo. cuando le pregunté sobre eso durante la primera hora que le conocía, estaba muy sorprendida de escuchar su respuesta muy matter-of-fact: "soy un actor transformista" (yo: "que?") sergio: "como un drag queen" (yo: ohhh). sí, sergio trabaja en un club gay que se llama 'bunker' (es muy popular, aún aparece en mi guía lonelyplanet). ha sido actor transformista por doce años, y todo este tiempo ha tenido su mismo carácter, que se llama petra. sergio le llama a petra 'su lado artístico,' y suele hablar de ella en la tercera persona. a veces va de compras solamente para joyas o varias cosas para petra. por eso, nuestro ático está completamente dedicada a ser el armario/camerino de petra- hay ropa, vestidos, zapatos, lentes, pelucas, maquillaje, joyas, música, todo. es una operación muy compleja ser una persona diferente, claro. pues sergio/petra trabaja solamente viernes y sábado por la noche, así que sergio tiene la mayoría de su tiempo libre. en realidad, no sé que hace con todo ese tiempo, es uno de los muchos misterios de sergio. pero las siguientes son unas de sus actividades favoritas: 1. cocinar- sergio es un chef fabuloso, él siempre está encargado de la cena y siempre cocina platos muy ricos. 2. jugar con su celular- sergio acaba de comprar un nuevo celular que es rosada y tiene tecnología touch. su ringtone actual es "say my name" por destiny's child, y su tono de alarma es "moulin rouge." (no, no estoy bromeando.) 3. bailar salsa- sergio era enseñador de salsa, baila muy muy bien. también sergio era peluquero- él no puede entender porque yo no uso la secadora para mi pelo. 4. la teresa- a sergio le encanta la teresa. otro talento que tiene sergio es que él es muy cómico. anoche nos contaba a analís y yo sobre su inglés: en realidad, sergio no habla inglés para nada, pero cuando está trabajando en bunker y un cliente americano le pregunta algo en inglés, a sergio le gusta contestarle en su propio inglés, que en realidad es nada más que sergio babbling sílabas incomprensibles en un acento gringo. pero los clientes en bunker siempre piensan que ellos mismos están emborrachados y que es su culpa no poder entender, así que simplemente siguen hablando como nada haya pasado. creo que leer eso aquí no parece muy cómico, pero la historia en vivo sí lo fue.
pues eso es sergio, básicamente. aúnque es muy singular, él me cae muy muy bien y estoy muy feliz que sea mi papá chileno. este sábado tengo planes para ir a verle en bunker... debe ser muyyy interesante :)

la palta

en nuestro primer día de estar en chile, ciee nos mandó en grupos pequeños para hacer un 'scavenger hunt' con el propósito de conocer cosas típicas de chile. abajo hay una foto de mi grupo con unas paltas (el chilenismo para 'avocado')


pues al fin fue muy bueno que ciee nos contó sobre las paltas, porque los chilenos comen palta con TODO. por ejemplo, cuando fuimos a esquiar, yo pedí una hamburguesa para el almuerzo. el menú dijo 'hamburguesa,' nada más, es que fue la cosa más barata en el menú y por eso la pedí. pero cuando pasé por la parrilla para recoger mi hamburguesa, recibí eso: el pancito con el carne, claro, pero además una rodaja de palta, y una de tomate. en los estados unidos, nunca se encontraría palta en una hamburguesa, nunca. en realidad aquí las paltas son como la mayonesa o algo; simplemente son otro condimento común. y son muy muy baratos y se venden por todas partes. así que hoy mi familia comió para la once (que es la versión chilena de tea-time, pero con más comida) unos sándwiches de jamón y palta- muy ricos :)

el amor en los tiempos del gripe porcina

pues he decidido que debo escribir en español, porque en realidad no vine aquí para mejorar mi ingles...

hoy vino nico a almorzar en la casa con nosotros. nico es un viejo amigo de vivi y sergio, un gallo de treinta-y-algo que trabaja como psicólogo y a quien le interesa el feng shui. nico acaba de volver de buenos aires, donde fue para encontrar el amor. había conocido a ramiro (nico es gay) en el internet hace tres meses, y después de hablar por correo todo ese tiempo, decidieron conocerse en vivo. así que nico se puso en un avión y fui a buenos aires con mucha esperanza y, claro, un poco de miedo. pues, mientras comíamos nuestros platos riquísimos de guiso de carne y verduras con ensalada de tomates y ají, nico nos contaba sobre su linda semana con ramiro. ellos dos piensan que han encontrado el amor de su vida; su otro alma o otro 'yo.' me alegró escuchar un cuento romántico tan amoroso- como una película en viva.

y, además me alegró por encontrar poultry seasoning en el supermercado hoy- mañana/martes voy a cocinar cima chicken para mi familia chilena :)

la chascona

...paz para los crepúsculos que vienen,
paz para el puente, paz para el vino,
paz para las letras que me buscan
y que en mi sangre suben enredando
el viejo canto con tierra y amores...
("que despierte el leñador," canto general)


^graffiti across from la chascona, showing parts of neruda's poetry and the incredible chilean landscape that inspired him^

pablo neruda has always been my favorite poet, and today i came to love him even more. becky and i enjoyed a spring-like saturday afternoon walk in bellavista, with la chascona as our main destination. la chascona is the name of neruda's santiago house, built as a secret retreat for he and his then mistress, matilde, who was called 'la chascona' for her wild curly hair. the house was absolutely in every way reflective of neruda. nestled into the side of cerro san cristóbal on the edge of funky barrio bellavista, la chascona's various different buildings are connected by crooked staircases and hidden patios. neruda brought his love for the sea to urban santiago, building his home around a small spring so he could always hear the sound of water, and finding old ship furniture, wood, and windows to fill the rooms. la sala del capitán overlooks the front street to see what's ahead, the study's walls are covered with old nautical maps, the living room is circular with full-length windows like a lighthouse, and the dining room's too-low ceiling makes you feel like you really are out to sea. the creaky wood-floored rooms are filled with paintings gifted to neruda from his artsy circle of friends and an eclectic hodge-podge of objects from his world travels, that somehow inspire creativity rather than clutter. in short, a house so unique it could only belong to a poet. seeing la chascona just makes me even more anxious to visit isla negra, neruda's most favorite and most beautiful house.

other things:
--today i encountered the first and only sign of recycling that i've seen here thus far:

on the one hand, i'm glad to have found any hint of effort, but on the other hand i can't believe this is all i've found.

--yesterday i discovered that it only takes about 30 minutes to walk from my house to the metro, so now i plan to swap walking for the bus whenever time and weather permit. with not a lot of free daylight time/lung capacity for running, my hour's worth of walk today felt wonderful.

--also not a far walk from my house, there is a starbucks that is bigger than any i've ever seen, which is saying a lot. analis' and my new amigo chris the barista informed us that it also boasts free wi-fi, so i think i'll be spending a lot of my study hours there :)

--yesterday i got to know a new part of santiago, courtesy of my chilean amiga alexandra who invited analis and i to her house to cook almuerzo and charlar de la vida. with the lovely music of violeta para in the background we had a really interesting conversation about education/social classes/politics in chile, then headed to a previa (pregame) at her friend's apartment, and then off to a fiesta cubana put on by la chile. unlike cultural events at georgetown, huge amounts of people came out for the $500 peso ($1 USD) mojitos, live cuban salsa band, and after-hours reggaeton dj. all in all a great night of dancing and meeting new chilean amigos, all de muy buena onda and incredibly welcoming. only bad part: my voice today is literally raw from the amount of second-hand smoke i inhaled. cigarettes are very much socially acceptable in chile- no, more than acceptable, extremely common. i guess chileans haven't yet gotten the memo about how smoking kills you, hmmm. but even among people my age, the vast majority smoke, so i'm trying to find the happy medium between not breathing and dying of lung cancer. we'll see how that goes. i feel very very lucky that my host parents don't smoke, and that i have a smoke-free house to come home to where i can immediately chuck all cigarette-smelling clothes into the laundry basket and shampoo the smoke out of my hair (even if it may be 4:30a.m.) before getting into bed.

fotocopias y fútbol

today possibly the largest difference between georgetown and pontificia universidad católica de chile became apparent: the fact that i just bought all the reading material for my history class for $10 USD, instead of $100 USD. chilean universities operate mainly on a system of fotocopiadoras rather than bookstores. instead of instructing students to purchase a list full of books of which they will only be assigned 3 chapters, chilean professors leave a fotocopia of just those 3 chapters at the fotocopiadora (a.k.a. broom closet converted into a bursting-at-the-seams room full of papers) of their department, where the students then go to request/purchase/collect their reading materials. if it sounds slightly messy, complicated, and confusing, it is- there are an average of 15 students in a mangled line at the fotocopiadora window at all times, and it's a genuine mosh pit during the ten-minute breaks between classes. there's a few-hours-minimum delay period between request and receipt of materials, and the sheer inefficiency of the whole set-up leaves me itching to barge in there, take charge and organize things. but hey, it sure is cheap!
unfortunately, the fotocopiadora system is not motivated by the pure urge to save some trees. books are exorbitantly expensive in chile, due to both a high import tax on each book, and the absurd ability of publishers to maintain high prices in order to maximize their own gains. how such limited access to literature exists today in a highly-developed country is beyond me, but i guess i shouldn't be too surprised- chilean society remains very class-divided, and the education system reinforces rather than counters that trend. but there are some working to improve access to books, like the BiblioMetro program that gives subway riders an affordable and handy way to ease the boredom of their commute.
on a lighter note, last night i went to my first chilean partido de fútbol: La U (universidad de chile) vs. some colombian team- La U, of course, won 2-1. unfortunately we arrived too late to sit in the rowdy section of "los de abajo," the crazy official fan club of La U, where everyone keeps up a game-long stream of singing, drum-beating, jumping, flag-waving, and flare-burning. but now we know for next time: come early, and memorize song lyrics beforehand so that we won't be the only ones not singing :) chi-chi-chi-le-le-le!

la meghan

esta es la teresa. when i was first introduced to her, i thought, "oh, interesting, people here call their pets la/el ___." then, after living a couple days with my new familia, i heard multiple phone conversations where vivi (mi madre) or sergio (mi padre) would be telling their friends, "pues estoy en casa con la meghan" or "hoy yo y la meghan fuimos a la feria". i eventually asked a chilean amiga what the deal is with putting el/la in front of people's names, and learned that putting the article in front implies that you know the person you're talking about, that it's not just some random meghan that you're referring to.
anyway, teresa and i are now muy amigas because of our mutual affinity for manzanas- i eat the manzana, she eats the core :)

la cordillera y el smog

so i've been here for almost three weeks now, and i still stop and stare whenever i see the andes. they are so absolutely awe-inspiring, i'm not sure i'll ever stop gawking. skiing this weekend was surreal, i was constantly torn between stopping to take in the breathtaking views or getting in as many runs as possible in the great snow.



unfortunately el colorado also boasted great views of santiago's smog... i took a lot of deep breaths while i could, and tried not to think about what i was heading for on the way down. our guest lecturer on chile's environment informed us that kids in LA (similar smog conditions to Santiago) who play sports have 20-30% less lung capacity than regular kids. i am contemplating making my runs minimal until september when the smog supposedly subsides for the spring/summer. this is santiago's one real negative point, and thinking about what is filling my lungs every day really bothers me, so i just try to avoid the thought. la cordillera is actually one of the main reasons the smog is so bad, because the air can't move and dissipate the bad stuff- so what would i sacrifice, my breathing capacity or the gorgeous view from my window? :) i want to look into what santiago is doing to try and alleviate the problem- their public transportation is already phenomenal, and crowded enough at all hours to make it feel like literally everyone uses it, so what's the next step?

blogging

so after much internal debate, i've decided to start a blog. i wasn't going to keep one- when i write i write for me, for my own memory, and for a sort of release and clarity when something's on my mind, and the idea of keeping a travel blog at first seemed to me more for the benefit of others than for me. but after being here a couple weeks, i've realized that i want to keep a blog. the time here is flying by and i want a place to write down all of the everythings and anythings of my days, both so i can look back on it later and so i take the time to reflect and really soak things in as i go. and after reading a bit of quentin's india blog (www.quentinorem.tumblr.com), i realized how much i enjoyed being able to see what he's up to and share in little pieces of his adventure. so, my blog will be for all to share, but as for frequency/detail level/spanish vs. english/etc., no promises :) like i said, i write for me.