home for the holidays

“ Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinions starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around”

-Hugh Grant, intro of Love Actually

---

There are few moments in real life that live up to their respective portrayal in movies. However, the cherished reunion with loved ones is one of those rare times where we mere mortals experience a corny picture-perfect moment come to life. After 9.5 hours on the plane (in an exit row seat, thank goodness!) + 30 minutes in customs + a 20 minute baggage customs security check + a 5 minute train ride to baggage claim + a 30 second escalator ride, I finally emerged from the depths, put on a smile, searched through the crowds for my parents' smiling faces...and there!...they!...weren't....

Okay...so maybe this reunion didn't follow the predictable script. But I never was the predictable type anyway. After walking around for a bit, making sure I didn't miss seeing my parents, I took a seat and watched the other happy reunions. I hope I didn't look too strange or invasive while I was observing (I did acquire a bit of a staring problem in Chile); however, I couldn't help but admire the pure joy on the faces of every couple and family that passed by.

Three minutes later, I glanced to my left and instantly spotted two familiar faces. Abandoning all my bags, I stood up and ran into my dad's arms. Those three extra minutes made the reunion all the better. Man does it feel good to be home. 

So I suppose this means that study abroad is officially over. 

I've been home for three days now. Time enough to collect my thoughts, marvel at American gems, miss Chilean quirks and just generally reflect on supposed reverse culture shock. Fortunately, things have gone better than expected thus far. 

My family is just as goofy and loveable as always. Some of the fears I had for next semester have been eased. Returning to long-lost cuisine like hummus, whole-grain bread, spinach and boneless skinless chicken breast has made my palate happy. And I've rediscovered a closet full of clothes that didn't make the cut for my two suitcases that I've lived with for five months.

In patagonia, I reflected for a while on how to briefly summarize my stint in Chile. Came to the conclusion that it is both impossible and unfair to briefly summarize the entire experience. I'll try my best to give a nice little elevator speech to those who ask for it; however, I'll remain incredibly grateful for those dedicated few of you who have read along as I've longwindedly outlined the numerous twists and turns of this semester.

Thanks for reading. Will update in the future should any reverse culture shock epiphanies/Chilean longings/future travels come about. In the mean time, please keep me updated on any travel adventures of your own! These kinds of memories shape who we are and are best when shared :)

Besitos,

Lindsay

torres del paine

It was as if a glacier national park had been plowed down in the middle of a West Texas prarie. Or the mountains of New Zealand had been dropped into the Australian outback. A lowercase landscape suddenly turned into uppercase ALPS. Some 12 million years ago, deep in the earth, a huge fist of molten magma stuck its fist upward, making peaks out of plains. And today those geological knuckles still pack a punch that can leave you almost breathless (especially if you are climbing). This towering landscape is all the more beautiful for being so unexpected in the middle of low-hilled, lumpy Patagonia.

-Aaron Latham, New York Times

Saturday November 29:

Flew down from Santiago to Punta Arenas with two girls from my program- Erin and Liz. Watching the flight path on the monitors during our 3.5 hour plane ride was incredible-seemed like we were almost going to Antarctica! (maybe some day I'll make it all the way down there...)

The in-flight movie was Mamma Mia. Fortunately, my friend and fellow lover of cheesy lyrics Erin was sitting right next to me, so we quietly sang along to all of ABBA's hits. Good preparation for our sing-a-longs to come during our trek.

Arrived in Punta Arenas and immediately went to get bus tickets to go to Puerto Natales, a town known as the gateway to Torres del Paine National Park. Unfortunately, after wandering around town to three different bus terminals, we discovered that the next available bus didn't leave for another 8 hours. Blah.

Ran into a nice Australian couple who were searching for bus tickets as well. They were in the middle of a 3 month whirlwind tour around South America. Amazing. I actually can't even keep track of the number of Europeans and Australians that we've met who have decided to take 3-12 month off to do some travelling. I still don't understand how they get so much time off from work...though it appears to be much more common in places outside of the US. It's also been intersting just noticing the difference between North American vacationers and European/Australian vacationers. First of all- aside from other study abroad students, I've only run into a handful of US tourists in South America. Perhaps that's partly due to my choice of accomodation when travelling (hostels); however, I think I can safely say that South America is just not a popular travel spot for North Americans. On the other hand, this place is chock full of Australians, Germans and Brits.

More general observations - it seems that while most Americans wait until they're retired to go on long-term vacations, most European/Australians go when they're young (late 20s, early 30s).  Perhaps because of this age difference, it seems like more European/Australians go on adventure vacations while Americans prefer relaxation/luxury vacations. (or maybe Americans are just more stressed out from work and hence crave more relaxation time?)

Sorry for the tangent...okay back to the trip:

Okay so waited for the bus by just wandering aroud Punta Arenas. Tiny little tourist town with funky trees. 

Don't these trees belong in a Nintendo game?

Punta Arenas is also a departure point for Isla de Magdalenas - a penguin colony with like 5,000 of those little critters who swim all the way from South Africa! Talk about stamina. Unfortunately, we didn't make it out there. But we saw the island in the distance!

Lala eventually caught the bus and took a 2.5 hour ride north to Puerto Natales - the entry town into Torres del Paine National Park. There, we met up with Millie, Kristen and Emily - the second half of Team Patagonia - our hardcore 6-girl hiking crew. The three of them arrived the day before and went shopping in Natales for all of our food and other random supplies. They also got some great advice from our hostel - erratic rock - (highly recommended) about how to get the most our of our time in Torres del Paine. Then that night we finalized our plans, stuffed our packs (wrapping EVERYING in layers of plastic bags in case of rain) and enjoyed one last night in the comfort of a mattress.

Millie (right) our fearless leader explaining our trekking route and Kristen (left) showing off her incredible 6 foot 2ness

General info about the park:

Torres del Paine = Blue towers. (Paine = blue in native indigenous language). Named after three granite towers that rose up about 12 million years ago and are the main attraction of the park. Kind of a misnomer because the towers are more grey than blue...but oh well.

Other attractions of the park include glaciers of the Southern Patagonia Ice Fields, brilliantly blue lakes formed by glacial runoff, and beautiful flora. The park is also unique because you can trek through it without having to spend a single night outdoors and without having to cook for yourself -- there are numerous refugios that offer bunk-bed accomodations and hot meals. However, refugio-hopping comes with a high price - about $35 a night per person for a bed + about $16 for dinner. We opted out of the refugios and instead made due with our tents and camp stoves. 

So there are basically two main treks that people travel on when they go to Torres del Paine. One is called the circuit and is a big circle that goes all around the park and takes at least 7 days. The other is called the W (due to the shape of the route) and takes you through the highlights of the park in 4-5 days. You can also choose to do the W trek clockwise or counterclockwise - either starting with the Torres or ending with the Torres. Due to our time restrictions and recommendations of friends, we decided to do an expanded version of the W trek, going in the counterclockwise direction to save the Torres for last. Along with the normal route, we added on an extra day to hike on Glacier Grey (best decision of the trip) and we also added an extra half-day so that we could see the Torres at sunrise.

The W (shown in black)

Day 1: 

Woke up at 6AM to freshly baked bread waiting for us in the hostel kitchen. Deeelish. Caught an 8am bus from Puerto Natales heading into the park. Got off the bus at the last stop -  the furthest south we could get. Registered with CONAF - the national park service - and paid our 4,000 peso (~$6USD) chilean resident entry fee while the rest of the tourists paid 15,000 pesos (~$23 USD). Thank you student visa!

Then began a leisurely stroll into the park. Ran into a nice mountain man ending his trek who gave us an extra half a can of gas for our stove. Very generous.

Only hiked about 2 hours the first day because our first campsite (Las Carretas) was really close. You're only allowed to camp in designated areas within the park, which is kind of annoying but helps preserve the park I suppose. Also, every campsite was equipped with a flushing outhouse, which meant we saved a lot of time by not having to dig holes...

Once we got to camp we chilled by the water, sunbathed and cooked dinner. Also enjoyed our first chance to drink water straight from a stream! (We learned at the hostel that all moving water in the park is safe to drink...so unfortunately I didn't get to put Danny's water filter to use)

Erin and I had a lovely reflective talk by the water

Team Patagonia! 

Emily (Syracuse), Erin (Pacific Lutheran U), Kristen (Syracuse), Liz (Indiana), Millie (Wash U)

Day 2:

Woke up bright and early and went on our merry way. Hiked through a wide open field for awhile, ran into a herd of horses. Marveled at wild orchids and the most incredible blue skies and lakes I have ever seen.

Gotta love the hiking boots and shorts style. It's all the rage.

Hiked about 3 hours to Refugio Pehoe, ate lunch, then continued on about 4 hours to Campamiento Grey. Hiked along some cliffs, battled against the trecherously strong winds and enjoyed the fabulous company of my friends. When we got close to Camp, we saw Glacier Grey in the distance - which gave us a great morale boost to keep up our energy knowing that the next day we'd be hiking ON that glacier!

Camp Grey was way more popular than Las Carretas - had about 20 tents of people while Las Carretas had only 4. Camp Grey was also right next door to Refugio Grey, which meant that we had shower access, so a few of us jumped at the opportunity to was off some of the funk that we'd already aquired. Then some of us did "laundry" by soaking off our clothes in the FREEZING glacial-melt lake in front of our camp. Had some reflection time while watching little icebergs melt away throughout the afternoon.

Day 3:

Stayed at Camp Grey and had an easy morning just hanging out and talking with people. Then in the afternoon, we went on a guided glacier trek of Glacier Grey!

Took a boat over to the glacier, strapped on our crampons, picked up our piolets (YES!) and then followed our guide all around the glacier. Watched bubbles of air pop in the water, releasing air pockets trapped underground from thousands and thousands of years ago and drank the most utterly delicious water I've ever tasted. (I've already got the patent on glacier water-- don't try to steal it).

Liz examining her cramposn (with piolet in the background)

Later I just laid on the ground and slurped up the water like a dog. I think I lost all shame in Chile.

Ern and some beautiful blues!

Oh yeah! We also made some nice friends on our glacier tour, all three of whom we ended up seeing every day on the trail and even back in town after we finished the trek! First was a lesbian German couple who had been travelling around South America for a few months. They were nice but didn't speak much English or Spanish. Then there was Stefan, a Swiss photographer aspiring to get his pictures in National Geographic! Stefan was really adorable with his broken English and seemed kinda lonely (after travelling 6 months all throughout the US and New Zealand). He was really weighed down with all of his heavy camera equipment, so we tried to help him out by sharing food with him and just making light conversation whenever we saw him (and we pretty much passed by each other every 3 hours or so).  Stefan's photo gallery captures Torres del Paine way better than my pictures can-- check out some of his pictureshere. 

We found Stefan on the streets of Puerto Natales after our trek!

Day 4:

Had to backtrack back down to Refugio Pehoe, where we lunched again. Then continued on over the mountain and through the woods until we got to a raging river and camp Italiano. There we ran into another group of gringa girls who were studying abroad in Santiago, one of whom I'd met before. 

Italiano was really noisy - it was right next to a big whitewater river + we kept hearing what we thought was thunder. We did our little rain dances which we thought prevented the storms from coming. But then we realized that the "thunder" was actually just the rumbling of snow melting off the cliffs (see the waterfall-looking mini-avalanche below).

BLISTERS

So by Day 4 (if not before) our feet were pretty torn up and worn out. Luckily my feet just got small blisters that quickly calloused up. Unfortunately, Kristen and Liz suffered from far worse injuried. Kristen basically had a series of blisters that extended the entire length of her heel and Liz had a blister shaped like South America (truly amazing - see below). We had been using duct tape to cover up our blister spots for most of the trip, but then our wonderful German friends shared some of their magical blister bandaids (also shown in picture below) that helped the wounds heal up. Learned that "all Germans carry these things"...sofrom then on we were extra nice to any potential Germans who crossed our path.

Day 5:

Went for a morning day hike up Valle Frances. From the very end of this valley, you're supposed to be able to see the best view of the Torres (apparently a cooler view than being right up in front of them). Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the end of the valley due to blister injuries and time restrictions.

Went back to camp, then continued on our merry way to get to Camp Los Cuernos. Sang Christmas songs and dreamed about American food awaiting us. Hiked along a gorgeous blue lake and once again fought some monsoon-force winds. The worst part about the winds was that our tall backpacks practically acted like sails that would catch the wind and pull us down with them! Also had to ford a few intense rivers...no fun getting wet feet when the blisters are already a problem. But alas, our hard work paid off-- when we arrived at camp we were greeted with a lovely surprise:

Day 6:

We had been warned beforehand that this would be our hardest day of the hike...so all week we were anxious about the terrain that we'd encounter. Fortunately, we began the hike in good spirits with loud singing and endless movie and celebrity-naming games to keep our minds so occupied that we barely noticed the hills we were climbing until we descended them the following day!

Stopped at Camp Chileno to try to buy food for dinner b/c we had only packed 5 nights worth of dinners, assuming that we'd be able to pick one up along the way. Unfortunately, Chileno had no dinner goods for sale in their minimarket..so we had to go into the kitchen and beg a woman to sell us anything she had. Walked away with a dry packet to make corn soup, a bag of ramen and a mac cheese mix all for about $3USD. Ended up being our most tasty night of dinner!

Restocked, we continued on and along the way I ran into my friends Paula and Petey -- who were doing the trek in the opposite direction! Then later in the day we ran into a group of 4 girls from our program who were staying in refugios the whole time. 

Petey, Paula and me

The sign said "1 minute to camp las torres" - our last campsite! This is our victory dance for making it through our long day!

Day 7:

W0ke up at 3:30 AM so that we could watch the sunrise as it shined over the Torres. A little scary climbing across boulders in the dark, but fortunately there was sufficient light to see at least a few feet ahead. However, at the foot of the hill we were supposed to descend, we saw an old trail marker and somehow veered off onto the wrong path, which led us up a steep, loose-gravel ridden ascent. After 15 minutes of slipping and sliding, we realized that we were definitely going the wrong way (despite the prevalant boot prints indicating that other people had taken the same path before). We were kind of up a creek without a paddle though-- we either had to horizontally get across the gravel slip and slide or slide down the gravel slip and slide and then reascend the next incline over. Decided to go with option number one...and though it was scary, we all took our time and made it safe and sound...and even in time for sunrise:

Liz reenacting our ascent (this time in daylight)

After enjoying the torres, we headed back to camp, packed up and made the descent down down down. Sped down the hills like pros, whizzing by all the day hikers climbing up in the opposite direction. One lady, sighing as we passed by, commented "oh to be under 25 again" as she watched us speed along. This comment kind of freaked me out, as I realized that I only have 4 years and one month until I am 25....so does that mean that I'm going to start slowing down then?? I started making a mental list of things that I want to do before I'm 25, but then I looked up and realized that I was freaking out over nothing -- this park was chock-full of50-70 year olds trekking along! Some of them were buff and tough backpackers (see below), while others just took the boat ride into the park and lived the refugio life. Nonetheless, they were all still active and they all inspired me to be a trekking grandma some day. 

2 hours later we were done with the W :(

Crashed outside Hosteria Las Torres to wait for our bus, on which Liz and I were seated in front of two mid twenty year old boys comparing the physical attributes of female celebrities for 2.5 hours (gag). Went back to erratic rock hostel and made delicious veggie stir fry then raided the hostel's movie collection and vegged out for a good 24 hours. Also discovered an amazing vegetarian restaurant in town and scouted out the incredibly overpriced souveneirs.

Overall- a challenging, breathtaking, inspiring trip. Definitely saw the hands of God in the pristine setting. The pictures don't even come close to doing it justice...this is a trip of a lifetime - highly recommended for any outdoor enthusiast.

dirty girl

we survived the W trek!!!

got back yesterday afternoon from a 7 day adventure camping through the W trek of Torres del Paine National Park.

it was incredible. we had perfect weather. trekked on a glacier. saw the torres at sunrise. still scraping dirt out of my scalp.

got back to erratic rock hostel last night and made some much needed veggie stir fry (yummm) and watched zoolander. today we're hanging around the little town of puerto natales and then tomorrow night erin and i head back to santiago. will write more later.

patagonia

Today I am going to Patagonia for a big end-of-the-world adventure. We'll be hiking in Torres del Paine National Park (along the W trail) for 5 days then we'll be going to Calafate, Argentina for a few days. Will return on December 9th with lots of fun stories to share. In the mean time, please keep me and the other 5 girls I'll be travelling with in your prayers! I'm a bit nervous about the cold during the night and the thin ozone layer during the day down there...but I'm trusting that God will keep us safe!

Talk to you soon!

Lindsay

it's a small world after all

It amazes me that in a city of 15 million people, few days pass by where I don't run into someone I know on the street/on the metro/in the bathroom. Despite everyone's unique comings and goings, we all seem to collide at some point or another.

I also love that after 5 months of being here, I acquired a quasi-routine in the goings about of my week. Thus, I routinely ran into a few crazy characters who brought a little extra excitement to my life. Though I do not know the names of these people, I've seen them so often that I've pieced together bits of knowledge about their lives and I've come up with little backstories for each of them. 

Character 1: Angry lady

Every night around 7PM, this young woman stands in front of a particular Cruz Verde pharmacy near my house and starts screaming at a poster advertising Garnier Fructisse shampoo. I never stare long enough to figure out what she is saying; however, I imagine that she is yelling at the models in the advertisement for creating such impossibly high standards of beauty. For example, this woman might yell: "Lady, you're hair looks perfect in that picture, but I bought Garnier Fructisse last week and my hair still looks like a rat's nest! I'm suing you for false advertising!"  

Character 2: Chilean Jon Krasinski:

Every Tuesday and Thursday after class, my two friends and I would eat at this Chilean restaurant near our campus. The restaurant was tiny - had maybe 5 tables or so- but it was ALWAYS packed with local businessmen and women who ate there on a daily basis. One of these men was honest to goodness the exact image of Jon Krasinski (Jim Halpert in the Office), but a chilean version. He always wore an adorable short sleeve button up shirt and a cute tie and precious navy pants. He'd walk in just as we were getting our check and I always spent those precious minutes just drooling from afar as my friends tried to snap me out of lala land so we could pay and leave. My backstory for him is that he works in a dull 9-5 job, perhaps as an accountant; but his true excitement in life is going to eat at this restaurant so he can get a glimpse of a cute american exchange student. But alas, no more :( Perhaps he'll transfer offices to Scranton, PA?

Character 3: Parking lot Einstein

In front of my apartment building are a few parking spaces. Along the sidewalk, there is a chair where Parking lot Einstein mostly sits and then ocassionally gets up to direct cars into spaces. When I first saw the guy, I thought he just a crazy man (I think he might have some sort of mental illness) hanging out in the parking lot. But now I just think he's a sweet old man trying to earn a living in a land of few jobs and crappy salaries. His amazing Albert Einstein hair made me smile every time I walked home. My theory is that he grows out his hair to protect his neck and shoulders from the sun while he sits in the hot parking lot all day.

It's going to be strange not running into these characters anymore, but I suppose it's time to establish a new routine and start observing some new faces.

question of the day

In preparation for my return home, I've been trying to think of how to summarize my chilean experience in a few simple sentences. Still working on that..it's been tougher than I thought.

I've also been trying to figure out how to respond to common questions that I'm probably going to hear. I've already gotten a little practice by talking to family and friends online. Most questions have been simple/harmless enough. However, I got one question today that just made me laugh:

"So have you met any natives down there?"

The person who asked this didn't mean anything bad by it...but the way that the question was phrased made me pause a second to figure out exactly what he was asking. When I hear "native", I think indigenous tribe culture groups...but he simply wanted to know if I'd met any chileans. 

Maybe my perspective is just skewed because I'm used to associating the word "native" with "Native American" or native tribes. Nonetheless, it's going to be hard to have patience with trying to explain that Chile is in fact in South America, not Africa, that Chile is no longer under a socialist government or a dictatorship and that Chileans have internet and watch High School Musical and even have their own version of MTV's Next (unfortunately). But patience is a virtue that I must learn some day. I've acquired a little bit of it down here...hopefully I'll be able to maintain it at home as well. 

gracias

Feliz (belated) dia de accion de gracias!!!

So  all day Wednesday and Thursday morning I was pretty sad. Probably the most homesick I've been all semester. It wasn't just because I was missing turkey. And cranberry sauce. And sweet potato casserole. And pie. (Don't get me wrong...I am DEFINITELY missing those things). 

However, I was/am mostly just missing my wonderful family and friends. 

So although I could go through and list about a million and a half things I am thankful for this year, instead I'm going to stick with just one: I'm thankful that I missed a family holiday. Why? Because it only makes me realize how much family time means to me and it's reminded me to prioritize those special holidays in the future.

Besitos,

Lindsay

dale y dale y dale bulla dale!

Sunday I went to my first South American futbol game. It was madness.

The teams:

We went to see a game between la Universidad de Chile (la U) vs. Cobrecoa (some team from far away). Clarification - the "University of Chile" team is not like a college team. They are just a club team that bears the university name (weird yes, but that is how it is done). So most of the clubs represent different regions of the country, but Santiago is so big that it has three teams:

1) La Universidad de Chile (La U)

La U is a competitive team. Not as good as Colo-Colo, but better than La Catolica. Their mascot (?) is an owl, or a "buho," and their fans are referred to as "el leon" (the lion - for the roaring noise they make) or "la bulla" (the ruckus).

2) La Universidad Catolica

Not many people care about La Catolica. They aren't as good as the other two teams and their jerseys aren't as fun. But they still deserve some love.

3) Colo-Colo (los indios)

Colo-Colo apparently has the best players. They are called "los indios" (the indians) apparently because that is their mascot. However, down here they sometimes call darker-skinned people "indios" so I think that has something to do with it too. They also have the crazy flaite (gangster) fans, who I was really hoping to hang out with for an afternoon; but alas, my time is running out down here and I had scheduling conflicts with the Colo-Colo games that remain. Tragic.

Whenever any of those three teams play each other, the neighborhood surrounding Estadio Nacional basically shuts down in preparation for an afternoon of all-out gang fights. Would have liked to have seen that. But I also value my life and my well-being...so it's probably better that I missed those games.

The game:

We walk in and got patted down by the police. The 5 or so girls who were at the stadium were directed to female police officers - probably a smart way to avoid sexual harassment claims. 

Then we were greated by more police (el paco). AKA - the G.I. Joes all geared out and carrying shields (not shown in this pic). The police know what to expect and these games and they come prepared. They have a team in the stadium on foot, a team surrounding the stadium on horseback and a team on the streets driving a tank called a "guanaco" (name for a llama-like animal) that spits "spicy" water at rowdy crowds. I don't know what spicy water means, but I don't think I want to find out.

Then we went to our seats. We sat in the lame family section with all the kids and such because our overprotective chilean friends didn't want us to get hurt or get stuff stolen in the crowds. So instead, we just watched the crowds from far away (see in the distance).

Being far away had its perks. We could actually hear each other speak, so Daniel and Felipe educated us about all things futbol, including the millions of cheers and chants, such as "dale y dale y dale bulla dale" (which I think means something like "make lots of noise, crowd" or "let's get ready to rumble" or something of the sort.)

 We also had a direct view of all of the signs and such that the crowd held up, such as this sweet jersey:

And these awesome fire torches (which were ocassionally thrown on the track, aiming for the policemen)

All in all, an adrenaline-filled event. Maybe one day I'll make it into the bulla. But I definitely won't go in there without a male companion.

Reverse culture shock

Last week, my program offered a workshop on "reverse culture shock" to prepare us for our transition back to the United States. Earlier in the semester, they had offered a workshop on culture shock, which I opted out of because, having been to South and Central America before, I wasn't feeling very shocked by anything. I wasn't planning to go to the reverse culture shock workshop either; however, my afternoon ended up being free so I decided just to go so that I could hang out with some of my program friends and enjoy the rare occassion of hearing one of our program directors speak in English (she's from Minnesota but ALWAYS talks in Spanish to encourage us to do the same).

Ulitmately, I'm very glad that I went to the workshop. I wasn't very surprised by the advice that we were given -- I'd felt most of the emotions before after coming home from college and after coming home from other experiences like Outward Bound and my trip to Argentina. 

Basically, they told us to prepare for the following:

• Reverse culture shock will be harder than culture shock. Why? Well, we expect life to be so much easier back in a land where we understand what people are saying, where we can communicate without struggling, where we can feed our gastronomical/cultural/intellectual cravings. However, setting high expectations makes it more likely for us to be disappointed and/or frustrated with the land we return to. We might have idealized certain aspects of home and we might return with eyes that can only see flaws and room for improvement.

• People change over 6 months' time. Thinking back to orientation week down here is an incredbly fuzzy memory. Thus, thinking back to friends and family back home is even fuzzier, and it will almost feel like a time warp going back to them. However, it won't be a time warp because they have changed and I have changed and we have to figure out a way to play catch-up on 6 months of life. But it's hard to explain the things that have changed about you emotionally and intellectually.  Returning home might lead to feelings of loneliness since few people can truly understand or appreciate the country or culture that we lived in and thus they might not understand why our world outlook has changed. And it's hard to come home to people who have changed in ways that you don't understand. 

• The art of the elevator speech. Entreprenuers are told to prepare an elevator speech about their business proposals - a quick summary of their idea and it's potential that will be over before the listener's attention span wears out (30 seconds or so). The same goes for study abroad summaries -- people will politely ask "So how was your trip?" -- which might seem like an invitation to divulge the dozens and dozens of stories that you've accumulated in your time away; however, they honestly don't care that much. Thus, the returnee should think of some way to summarize the semester in a short and sweet way. If the listener then asks follow-up questions, then the returnee has the liberty to start going through some of his/her favorite anecdotes.  
  
  
•  Avoiding the one-up game. This is primarily a concern for conversations between two people who just returned from different study abroad programs. Often, people come home super excited about their experiences and incredibly proud of their new "identity" and that excitement can often come off as competitive bragging. So when, say, a person who studied abroad in South Africa talks to someone who studied in Australia, the conversation might just start with sharing fun stories, but eventually it might turn into an all-out brawl between going on safari vs. SCUBA diving in the Great Barrier Reef. Quite a worthless argument considering both are amazing experiences and both have immense value to the people who experienced them. 

Although I understood most of these things already, it was good to have some time to think about the transition and it was comfroting to know that 47 other kids are going to be going through the same process as we go into next semester.

the real city that never sleeps

I'm not a party animal but I've tried to enjoy the Santiago nightlife as much as possible since I've been down here. These past few weekends have been especially busy with birthday parties (it seems like everyone was born in November!) and asados and goodbye dinners and such.

Now before coming down here, I considered myself quite a night owl. My normal bedtime is around 2AM and my peak energy hits around midnight or so. However, I am an considered early bird down here, wher people start going out to clubs around midnight and come home around 5 or so. Then, they often go back to a friend's house to talk before heading home to start the day (without sleeping!). I also learned that chilean wedding ceremonies don't start til 9PM , with the reception starting around midnight! I couldn't imagine my grandparents (or parents for that matter) making it through a night like that.

This weekend, I tried my hand at the chilean life. Friday night I went to our CIEE program goodbye dinner, which started at 8:30 and was held outside at a restaurant at the base of Cerro San Cristobal. The weather was perfect for an outdoor meal and the company was even more perfect :) Sad to say goodbye to my fellow CIEE classmates, but I'm sure that we will run into one another sometime in the future. After dinner was over, we watched a slideshow of pictures throughout the semester and then hit the dance floor to show off our cueca and salsa moves that we'd learned over the past few months.

Erin, me and Caitlin at the goodbye dinner :(

Left the goodbye dinner a bit early (12:30) to go to a birthday party at Rockola - a club in Barrio Bellavista. When we were entering, Marni's boyfriend got pulled aside for wearing white tennis shoes (apparently, those shoes are "flaite" - a style of attire that is not permitted at this club) Luckily he had an extra pair of shoes in his car so after waiting for him a few minutes we were good to go. Rocked, danced and sang the night away, pausing halfway through the night to watch a "dance" competition of single guys and girls in the club. I use the word "dance" lightly, because the performances were more focused on sexy stripteases and booty bouncings rather than artistic body movements. After the intermission, we proceeded to dance...enjoying the increased volume of salsa music in the later portion of the evening. By 4AM, we were pooped.

Oh dear...

Rodrigo (my friend) and Felipe (Marni's boyfriend)

Headed home, smelling of smoke and sweat, but happy as a clam. Collapsed into bed for a few precious hours, thennnn woke up for another party!

At noon, we headed to Pirque (about 45 minutes outside the city-- winery country) to go to my friend Paula's house for an asado (all day grill out). Her yard is absolutely amazing and will be elaborated on in later posts. However, one cool thing about it is that it used to be owned by a family from Indonesia, so they have Hindi sculptures all around, like this one of Ganesh:

Enjoyed a yummy lunch of meat and salads, went for a dip in the pool, chilled with Paula's zoo of pets (including adorable little baby kittens!) and chatted with some amazing people, such as the chicky below-->

Me and Camila, in our opposites attract outfits :)

The asado ended around 7 PM, when people headed home to shower and get ready for one of our mutual friends' birthday parties. Unfortunately, I proved my gringaness by wimping out and heading home to relax. As much as I love a good party, I haven't quite built up the stamina for 3 in a row yet.

i want to live in America

The other night at my friend's birthday party, we got into a lively debate about "America." Chileans get pretty ticked off when gringos call themselves "Americans" to refer to the "United States of America" because South America is still part of America the dual-continent, but not part of the USA. Thus, chileans think it is arrogant for estadounidenses (people from the United States) to use the title "American" under the assumption that others will understand they are talking about the US.

In Spanish, it's easy to say "I'm a United States-ian" with the word "Estadounidense." In English, it's easier to just say "I'm American;" however, it's not much more difficult to say "I'm from the United States." However, even the latter presents challenges: my friend pointed out that there is also a United Mexican States that most people are unaware of; thus, we should clarify between the United States of America vs. the United States of Mexico. 

When you get down to the nitty gritty of it all, the argument seems kind of silly and it's hard to arrive at a good conclusion. But my curiousity led me on an investigation into which continent is the true America. Found some interesting tidbits to add to the confusion:

1) Say my name, say my name

Okay don't know about you, but I always learned that America was named after mapmakerAmerigo Vespucci who explored South America from 1499-1502. This is still a common consensus. However, BBC.com has informed me about another potential candidate for the "name that country" contest.  Apparently, some guy named Richard Amerike, a merchant who funded John Cabot's expedition to North America in 1497, might deserve the true claim to fame. It's argued that Amerike is the more likely namesake of the country because places were usually named after people's last names rather than their first names. (Hence, naming us after Amerigo would make our country Vespuccia or Vespucci Land or something like that).

2) Identity crisis

However, regardless of who we're named after, the North and South American continents probably shouldn't be named America at all. If our plan was to name our country after the first European explorer to arrive, we should probably be named Columba or something, since in fourteen-hundred ninety-two, it was in fact Columbus who sailed the ocean blue. 

If we decide that the true America is the place that was discovered first by Europeans, (presuming that Columbus was the first to arrive) then the place to receive that title of the "first" America would be not be mainland North OR South America; rather, the prize would go to the Bahamas - right smack dab in the middle of the two giant landmasses. According to wikipedia, the Bahamas are part of North America, so one could argue that Columbus landed in North America first. However, he then hit mainland South America before reaching mainland North America, so perhaps South America is the more American continent.

But really...Columbus wasn't the first guy to discover the Americas. There was a whole heap of indigenous tribe that beat him to that. So if we call those people "indians," perhaps we should really be named the Western Indies?

 

3) X marks the spot

However, if we are going to stick with the name America and just try to figure out where our name first started being used, we should look no farther than the Waldseemuller map (1507) --the earliest existing map using the label "America." The word is placed on South America, above present-day Chile and Argentina. So does this mean that South America is the "true"/"original"/"first" America?

Ay what a mess. Where to go from here? This guy proposes we change our name to the United States of North America. I say we just all try to proceed with caution about how we portray ourselves and how we interact with the rest of the world and we all just live as one big happy misnamed American family. Or we come up with some acronym using the first letters of all fifty states. 

the gringa card

In conversations with other American friends, one conclusion we've all come to is that we are going to miss using what we call "the gringa card." 

Although this magic "get out of jail free" pass can be used by gringos as well, it is most exploited by the ladies.

Here are some situations where the gringa card is used:

• Class: some professors help out foreign exchange students by grading them easier or being more lenient with assignments and such. Unfortunately, I wasn't a recipient of this benefit.
• Talking: if i say something out of place (which i often do in english), i can just blame it on the foreign language. and if i don't know how to say something correctly, I can just try to make it sound as cute as possible. just like adults admire and cheer when a baby speaks its first words, chileans gawk over gringas who try to imitate chilean accents or slang.Example: I always try to add "po" to the end of words because that's what the chileans do. However, everytime I do this, people comment on how cute I sound. I admit, I'm going to miss people thinking I'm adorable all the time.
• Clubs/parties: just like girls usually get a free/discounted cover in the states, girls are also treated like royalty at clubs down here. Gringas get extra special treatment. This applies to just social events in general too...I've felt more social than ever before just because everyone wants to practice their english with me.
• Mistakes: whenever I mess something up, I just alude to the fact that I'm a foreigner and generally all blame disappears.

school's out for the summer!

I'm freeee!! Wahoooo....

Thursday I finished with all of my exams and papers for the semester. Yay! Such a great change to be finished with the semester before Thanksgiving.

Although I enjoyed the content of most of my university classes and I am now a much faster reader and writer in spanish, I think I would have preferred to have spent all my time just working on my verbal skills instead. But such is life and such are college graduation requirements. Let's just hope that Penn accepts the credits that they said they would.

These next few posts are going to be a lot of count-downs/summaries. Here is the first:

Top 3 things I'm going to miss about school in Chile:

1) Cheap books

Much to my wallet's delight, I didn't purchase one single textbook this semester. Down here, books are absurdly overpriced. Thus, I textbooks are practially luxury items. Solution? Professors leave the texts on reserve in the library and then students go make photocopies of those texts. I'm not sure how legal this system is. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's about as legal as pirated movies and cds...however, that is the system and the money I saved on textbooks helped me rationalize the money I spent on trips and such throughout the semester. 

2) Always on time

Although I generally made it to my classes about 5-10 minutes after their official start time, I was never late. Professors generally stroll in about 10 minutes late. Chilean students come in 5 minutes later. Students who walk in late are never condemned by the professer and, in fact, are barely even noticed. This time lapse was quite a lifesaver, especially on those days when I woke up at 8AM for an 8:30 class (at a campus about 45 minutes from my house). 

3) Distance makes the heart grow fonder

All universities down here are commuter campuses. Therefore, when the school day is over, you actually leave campus and go home. While the endless hours of commuting to class were definitely exhausting, they were also a much needed blessing of time. I made sure to save my metro rides to and from school a sacred "me time" where I could read, relax to the sounds of my ipod or simply stare out the window and reflect. These metro rides separated my school life from my personal life...a nice change from living on a campus where it's hard to separate yourself from homework or people talking about their heaps homework or people stresing about talking about their homwork.

 

Top 4 things I'm not going to miss about school in Chile:

1) Public grades

Oh yes, privacy is just not something that Latin Americans pride themselves on. So why should they change their ways to keep a silly little number private? I think the purpose of publishing grades is to incentivize competition and encourage students to take personal pride in their work. Definitely a helpful tool down here, but I sure am glad we have privacy of our grades back at Penn...there's enough competition and obsession with grades up their as it is.

2) The library is now closing (but it's still light outside!!)

Since all students are commuters, the campuses actually shut down at night time! This means no 24 hour libraries. Boy did I miss Van Pelt this semester.

3) Callete huevon (hush ya'll!)

It's definitely not uncommon for students to talk during class. And not just whisper talk-- like have a lively loud conversation. Quite frustrating when I can barely understand the professor to begin with.

4) Madness

Return to my posts about class registration from the beginning of the semester for memories of this madness. Much different than the beautiful Penn InTouch registration system with all its organized majesty. Also, things have been a little inconvenient the past week or so because the maintenance workers throughout the university went on a salary strike. Nobody was there to work the printers or the library, so we had to made due with out them. Annoying, but it surprisingly unphased me this time...it's definitely going to be weird going back and not running into a weekly strike.

first goodbye

Although I should be studying away to cram in the modern political history of all of Latin America and to read about 200 pages on sustainable development, I need to celebrate making it through my religion class. I´m also done with mountaineering too. No more classes at Pontificia Universidad Catolica :( With about three weeks left before my flight home, this is my first in a long series of goodbyes I will have to say to all things Chile.

Today I took a final exam for my "Lo Femenino en Dios y el Ser Humano" class. We basically had to summarize the the entire semester´s worth of material into a three-page long essay. It was tough, but I felt prepared so hopefully it turned out okay. I´m sad that class is over because I really enjoyed the reading material and the professor-- even though she teaches at a fairly conservative Catholic university in a fairly conservative country, she has some pretty progressive views. And a surprising number of the Chilean students in the class have either an apathetic or a atheist view towards religion. It will be interesting to see how Chile´s religious leanings change as the years go on.

In other news, Chile was recently featured in the New York Times with yet another positive portrait of the country. Apparently, the public health system failed to notify about 2,000 carriers of H.I.V. that they were had the virus. The problem was due to disorganization and miscommunication between different partner organizations...can´t say that´s an uncommon problem down here. It´s just too bad that this mishap might cost a couple thousand lives.

Okay back to work.

un abrazo,

Lindsay

business as usual

Every day on my way to school, I pass by a sushi restaurant advertising that their entire menu has a 50% discount every day. The chalkboard outside the restaurant advertises absurdly high markups and then crosses those prices out, showing the "discounted" (read: still overpriced) values.

While this seems like an absolutely ridiculous sales strategy to me, the restaurant is always crowded and I´ve heard people talk about it as a good deal.

I suppose a "good deal" is always relative. For example, it costs half the money to buy an iPod in the states than it does to buy one in Chile. But isn´t it deceptive to use relative price comparison when comparing with completely artificial numbers? Is this business strategy a deceptive manipulation of human psychology?

el archipelago de Chiloe

Nerd alert:

There are many learning moments in elementary school that clearly stick out in my brain. I remember reading my first book- Each Peach Pear Plum (though, considering I can still recite the first few pages, I think I just memorized the words after listening to my parents read it with me so often). I remember loving spelling quizzes. (Though now I have them to blame for my bad habit of last-minute test cramming.) I also remember loving to memorize the glossary words from any subject area. One of those glossary words that I loved was "archipelago". It amused me that such a sophisticated word was used to describe such a simple concept-- it`s just a big group of islands! However, I imagined that the word originated from the age of exploration, when people had to make their adventures sound interesting and rather than saying "well first we went to another island, then we sailed through more water," they hyped up their tales, enlightening their friends about straits and channels and canals and capes and archipelagoes.

Fortunately, I was able to hear the lovely ring of "archipelago" this past weekend when I went down to the group of islands known as Chiloe. Yes, I was in Chiloe, Chile (Chee-low-way, Chee-lay). Confusing I know. It´s located on the Pacific Coast of the lakes region of the country, about halfway between Santiago and the bottom tip of the country.

Chiloe is apparently known for it`s unique mythological religious culture, established in the mid-1500s after the legends of local Chono and Huilliches tribes met with the Catholic Spanish conquistadors. The archipelago was also visited by Jesuit missionaries who built beautiful wooden churches on each island, trying to bring Christianity to a pagan culture. However, rather than having a foreign religion and culture invade and establish itself as the end-all, be-all, wiping wiping out the indiginous culture, Chiloe experienced a process of syncretism, by which the two cultures fused and established a new set of myths and legends. And due to Chiloe`s separation from the mainland, this culture remained on the island for centuries.

I was really intrigued by the Chilote culture and really excited to visit a place where local traditions were actually preserved and celebrated, but not exploited or turned into a Disney theme park.

I suppose I set wrong expectations for the region, because the weekend turned out to be a bit of a dissappointment. 

Lowlights:

The wheels on the bus go round and round

• The island was a lot bigger than we'd anticipated and it took awhile to travel from place to place by bus. When we finally got to our destinations, explored and then wanted to get back to Castro, it was always a struggle to figure out the bus departure point (never the same as the bus drop-off point). We also ended up not going to the National Park (one of the main sights on the island) because we didn't feel like taking another 2 hour bus ride in there. 

Preserved culture?

• We saw remnants of the indigenous culture (occasional posters showing pictures of the mythological characters, chilotean words scattered throughout shop names in the area); however, the museums did a poor job of explaining this history and the history is based on oral tradition so there weren't many books or anything sharing it either. Most of the preserved indigenous culture has been replaced by apartment buildings and Chilean chains like CruzVerde pharmacies and Fashion's Park [sic] clothes retailers. 
  

Highlights:

Churches

• The beautiful wooden churches, especially San Francisco in Castro, were quite a treat. I've seen many a church in my day, but being inside of a wooden church was really unique and a cool representation of the syncretization of the Jesuit and indigenous cultures - building elaborate temples of worship, yet using rustic resources of the land. Many of the churches have been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites and are receiving funding to undergo renovations, so it will be cool for visitors in a few years when those renovations are complete.
  

Ferry Rides!

• Due to Chiloe's archipelagoness and lack of bridge network, it is necessary to take ferries to travel from one island to another. This was quite exciting for me, seeing as how I had never ridden on a ferry before. Luckily, my travel buddy Alex, goes to school in the Pacific Northwest and has had her fair share of ferry experiences, so she prepared me for the ride. Now that I think of it, "ferry" is another one of those funny vocabulary words that I never thought I'd actually use in real life. Anyways, the ferry experience was pretty smooth and uneventful. The most interesting part of it was that we rode on the ferry via our ginormous coach bus! Pretty exciting.

Monsoon

• This time of year is rainy season in the lakes region of Chile, so we were definitely experience to encounter some precipitation. We didn't expect a torrential downpour. But that is sure what we got! All day Friday, the sky just dumped and dumped and dumped water. And then the wind spewed that water in every which way. Definitely made our trek around the town of Ancud quite a challenge. Fortunately we had our super duper rain jackets (best investment ever) which also served as a pouch in which I stuck my purse (and looked like a pregnant lady all day). 

Artesania

• I have a love/hate relationship with the word "artesanal." It is probably the most overused, misused word in South America. On every corner, someone is selling artesanal ice cream, artesanal chocolates, artesanal alfajores, or artesanal crafts. Most of the time, the artisans are located halfway around the world in Chinese factories and the same "local" goods are seen all in mass replica throughout diverse regions of the country. However, when the word is used correctly, it is an X-marks-the-spot for cool, cheap presents, fun shopping experiences and a quality opportunity to appreciate and support the local culture. We found a few quaint, true artesanal markets in which we found some great presents for our friends and families.

SEAFOOD

• Oh me oh my this weekend I ate some of the most delicious seafood of my life. For three meals, I just had salmon, but they were the biggest, freshest pieces of salmon I'd ever tasted! And the best salmon was served to me as I waited for my flight in the Puerto Montt airport!!
• In Ancud, we ate a local dish called curanto,  which was simply a family-sized platter of mussels, clams, pork and native potato dumplings, served with a spicy broth. 
• In Dalcahue, we ate at the Mercado Municipal, a hub where local ladies set up little kitchen stands (think small-scale Reading Terminal market) and serve cheap, delicious seafood. One day I had this seafood stew chock-full of mussels, clams and salmon for $4! It was absolutely scrumptious.

All in all, we had a fun time despite Chiloe not matching up to our original anticipations. However, if you ever head down there yourself, I'd definitely recommend going to the National Park, skipping the town of Ancud and Achao, and trying to spend some time in Puerto Varas (I didn't make it there but some of my friends stayed a day longer to explore it and had a wonderful time)

The final countdown

Okay now this weekend I am locking myself in my room to cram for finals. So yell at me to get back to work if I start talking to you. The bad news is that all of my end-of-the year stuff falls on November 17-20. The good news is that after I finish that, I'm done for the year and can check off the last few things of my Chilean to-do list!! Woohoo. Will talk to you again when I have a life. 

Besos,

Lindsay

election day round two

Just when you thought the election was over, I'm here to share my memories of 11/4/08. I know you're sick of hearing/talking/reading/thinking about the election, buttt I haven't had time to write about it until now, so just bear with me (or move on to my next post).

Anticipation

So all during class on Tuesday my stomach was in knots. Sitting in Latin American politics, I listed to a lecture about fraudulent elections and guerrilla warfare and general corruption and I envisioned a similar epic tragedy taking place in America. I know it's silly to expect the worst like that, (though I suppose my feeling was not unsubstantiated) but after such a long drawn-out campaign focused on the future, it seemed surreal that election day had finally arrived. It seemed too good to be true that Obama might actually stand a chance at winning this thing.

By being abroad the past few months, it had been hard to gauge the general sentiment of the American public. I'd been getting most of my political news from the "liberal elitist media" and my Obamaniac friends in the states. Whenever I talked about politics with other Americans abroad, I could generally count on the fact that they were also an Obama supporter and their news sources were probably just as biased as mine. The primary forum in which I encountered differing opinions was on Facebook, reading status updates of some of my more conservative friends. Hearing their opinions was particularly interesting the night of the election, when the heat of the moment unleashed their true sentiments about being led by a socialist/communist/marxist/terrorist/Muslim. Sadly, most of these comments came from fellow southerners. I'm glad I wasn't in Georgia for the election season. I don't think I could have put up with the blatant ignorance.

Gringos unite

Though I didn't have any desire to be in Georgia for election night, I also didn't have much desire to sit alone with my computer, refreshing CNN online every minute and crossing my fingers that the video stream would miraculously send a clear feed. So instead, I went to Basic, a bar/restaurant founded by three Californian former exchange students that serves as a mecca for major American holidays (such as Halloween, the World Series, Monday night football, etc). It's also one of few places in Santiago where you can find American television, mexican food, Budweiser and ranch dressing.

Unsurprisingly, when we walked into Basic around 8PM, we were greeted by just about every American in Santiago. Most of the kids in my program were already there, munching on hamburgers and burritos, eyes glued to CNN streaming on the big screen. Looking back, I realize that aside from my table of friends, I was surrounded by a room full of strangers that night. However, given our shared confused sense of national identity, our shared political views and our shared anxiousness, I felt connected to everyone in the room. Together, we counted down the seconds before each round of hourly election results; together, we watched the electoral votes climb higher and higher towards that magic number 270; together, we screamed, jumped and hugged when Obama's headshot flashed onscreen, showing us the 44th addition to our country's composite. Then, when the decibel level in the room came down a bit and the screaming turned to tears and smiles, together, we sang "Born in the USA". I'm not sure if the bar owner meant to play this as a patriotic song (because it's really a rather grim protest song); however, listening to the lyrics made me realize that I can now [hopefully] look ahead to a future with fewer protests, fewer complaints and fewer dissidents. We now have a president-elect who values peaceful resolution, intellectual reasoning and teamwork. Our country, founded on the principles of tolerance and respect for diversity is now one step closer towards truly living up to those principles.

Tuesday night, for the first time in awhile, I felt proud to tell Chileans that I was born in the USA. Tuesday night, for the first time in awhile, I felt excited about returning home.

The speeches

My excitement was further fueled by the candidates' speeches. While John McCain's concession speech was fairly formulaic and there were points where I felt like I was receiving a pep talk by a military commander, I was touched by one part, in which McCain urged both parties to "come together to find ways the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited." Props, Mr. McCain.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Obama's speech was quite moving as well. I have to admit, sometimes, I'm scared at how easily I am manipulated by Obama's eloquence. Looking back on the transcript of the speech, I realize that the message isn't that complex and the wording isn't that sophisticated; however, his delivery is impecible and his message is always perfectly suited for the moment. His speeches often remind me of the Latin American populists, whose charisma and charm made the masses swoon. I suppose I'll just have to keep reminding myself not to let my emotions control my brain.

Anyways, the thing I admired most about the speech was it's emphasis on humility. Regarding post-election Obama's humility, the president-elect established himself as a leader who listens. He reached out "to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn," assuring that "though I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too." He also established himself as not as a leader who simply follows his personal agenda without regard for the will of the public; but rather, a leader who communicates and, "will always be honest with you about the challenges we face, especially when we disagree."

Along with Obama's personal humility, the president-elect also shared his vision for a more humble America. Rather than rallying the troops under a war cry, pursuing victory at all costs, Obama admitted the many challenges that lay ahead and urged Americans to stay patient and united as we work through those challenges. He did not alienate other countries by claiming outright American superiority; however, he remained proud of our country, noting that the "strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope."

The world's reactions:

I've enjoyed seeing how people around the world reacted to the election news. One reaction from a Chilean comedic newspaper can be seen here. Other reactions from around the world can be found below:

"The most important thing that Barack Obama brings to the presidency is his willingness to reason. He won his presidency not as a black American but as a reasoning American who happens to be black." (Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize-winning economist, India)

"Barack Obama's election is a milestone in more than his pigmentation..The second most remarkable thing about his election is that American voters have just picked a president who is an open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual." (Nicholas Kristof, writer for the New York Times)

"Even if you voted for John McCain, be happy. You've got the best of all worlds. Today, you can bask in the realization that there are billions of people around the planet who loathed our country last week but are now in awe of its capacity to rise above historic fears and prejudices, that once again, the United States will have a president the world wants to follow. Then later, when things get screwed up, you can point out that it's not your fault." (Gail Collins, NYTimes)

"Up to 8 out of 10 West Europeans would have voted for Obama, which points to a religious rather than a political phenomenon. The way they see it, George W. Bush is a one-man axis of evil, and Obama the reedeemer." (Josef Joffe, journalist and political scientist, Germany)

[note: this comment bothers me. I like Obama and I support him, but I  but I know that the guy isn't perfect. There's only one guy who can take that claim to fame and he died on a cross 2000 years ago.]