i'm still alive

So since my last post, I've decided to truly embrace my study abroad experience and immerse myself in Chilean youth culture by joining an urban tribe. Initiation took place over the weekend. The events were covered by the New York Times --- check out the story here. Obviously, during the initiation process I changed my name to Francisca Durán to sound more Chilean and to save my reputation back in the states.

If you were too lazy to actually move your mouse and click that link (yes, I know you too well), the basic jist of the article is about the rampant sexual revolution of early-teenaged Santiagans. The article only shows the grim side of Santiago youth -- makes me feel kinda bad for the good kids out there who actually deserve to be featured in the NYTimes.

lalala

Obviously I haven't spent the last week in a sexual rebellion. So what have I been doing? Hm that's a loaded question. Aside from the normal routine, I've been doing a heck of a lot of thinking. It was kind of a strange week emotionally -- I was feeling pretty frustrated with being an outsider. Tired of having to repeat words that I know I'm pronouncing perfectly clearly, tired of being laughed at for no good reason, tired of the lack of healthy food, tired of not being able to just make friendly conversation with people on the metro...everything was getting under my skin. 

To make matters worse, I got a bad haircut last week, so I was just not feeling comfortable in my own skin. Thus, the usual stares that I'd started to ignore were once again bothering me because I was so paranoid about my stupid bangs and felt like everyone was laughing at them. Later in the week I decided to get another haircut, hoping that it would cure my woes. Cut my hair fairly short so as to offset the bluntness of the bangs. I feel a bit better now, but still self conscious. Gahh I hate spending so much time and worry on such silly silly matters.

Anyways, I've discovered that running is my new therapy. Whenever I'm feeling frustrated or lazy or upset, now I just stick in my ipod and head out onto the streets of Las Condes. If I'm strapped for time or it's close to dusk, I run around the park or stay close the the apartment. But whenever I can, I just play einey-miney-mo and pick a street that looks interesting and I learn my way around a new part of the city. It's been a great way to keep my mind focused on a task rather than lingering in lala land. Thanks to my random running routes, I've also discovered some fun new places, I've oriented myself with major streets in the city and I come back the apartment refreshed and reenergized. Like most things in my life, I generally only enjoy running when it doesn't feel repetitive. I can't stand running around a track and I don't enjoy running along the same path every day. It's a nice perk when you can find a new view of the snow-capped Andes in the distance with every route. 

Run-down of the week:

Last Thursday was September 11. As I've mentioned before, September 11, 1973 was the day when La Moneda was bombed and Salvador Allende died. Thus, the 35 September 11ths since then have brought back bad memories of the military dictatorship and have sparked countless riots and protests. Afternoon classes were cancelled that day so that we could travel home and remain safe and sound indoors while the protests took place at night. It was interesting talking to people about "their" (Chilean) September 11 and "my" (American) September 11. A surprising number of people questioned me the majority of Americans think the attacks on the Twin Towers were terrorist attacks or in fact a conspiracy by the government. That caught me off guard a bit...

Friday I wandered around Bellavista to go shopping for lapiz lazuli jewelry. Chile's apparently known for this pretty blue stone. I found a cute necklace and my friends found some good deals as well.

While we were shopping, I got a call from a friend of mine from my mountaineering class. She had just received an email telling her that all of our mountaineering excursions were cancelled for the semester due to a pending lawsuit from the family of the mountaineering student who recently passed away. That kinda changed my plans for the weekend, considering I was supposed to spend all of Sunday on a mountaineering trek. Bummer.

Never got a call or email from the television series with which I thought I was going to serve as an extra. So that emptied out my plans for Saturday.

Friday night went over to a friend's house to make brownies and chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately, they didn't turn out too well -- I'm blaming it on the lack of measuring spoons down here. But we still had a great time goofing off in the kitchen. One of my friends is a chem major and kept using science analogies as we baked. (i.e. - "I love separating the cookies when they spread out and get stuck together-- it reminds me of mitosis!") She reminded me of Ms. Leila Glass (i misssssss you!).

Saturday night went to a friend's birthday party. We danced the night away at this fun danceclub. The music started out with pure Madonna, then changed into pure reggaeton. The latter wasn't my favorite, but the company was great so I thoroughly enjoyed myself until we left at 3:30 or so.

Sunday afternoon, Victoria's daughter in law and granddaughter were in town, so they came over along with a bunch of other family members (there were like 10 of us in total). Had an absolutely enormous lunch, along with a dessert called Mote con Huesillos (see picture along the side). To make this drink, you take sun-dried peaches (huesillos) and rehydrate them in water for a few hours, then mix in sugar and husked wheat (mote). It looks really gross and it's kind of awkward to eat pecause the peach still has its pit so you have to use your spoon to capture the slimy peach bouncing around in the liquid, then you have to try to chop off a bite-sized bit from the pit...definitely not something to serve at a formal event.

Monday-Wednesday were a little crazy. This was the week of Fiestas Patrias, which some people consider a weeklong vacation and others consider a Thursday-Sunday celebration. So some of my classes were cancelled while others just had minimal attendance. I was a little frustrated that I was a good student and actually went to class because I could have easily gone on a trip and it wouldn't have been a big academic detriment. Ohhh well.

Thursday went over to Marni’s house for an asado (see next post). It was really fun to meet her family and to see Racquel’s old house! Afterwards, Marni came over to my house, where we danced some cueca with Marcela, Rodrigo and Victoria. Then they took us to a fonda (see next post) in Las Condes, where we watched a dance show displaying little vignettes of dance styles from different regions of Chile. They even performed dances from Easter Island! (kinda reminded me of Hawaiian dancing).

 

Friday was Armed Forces day, so Victoria brought me to a military parade, which showed off the army, the navy, the air force and the police force. Each group had a marching band and officials on horses and then rows and rows of cadets marching and kicking their legs high in the air. The parade was amusing at first but then just got long and boring. Victoria was amused the whole time though because her son was the drum major for the air force back in the day.  I kept myself amused by watching the cadets keep a straight face as they had to march and kick their way through horse poop.

Saturday, Marni and I went to Cajon de Maipo to do some trekking. We took a bus as far as it would go, thinking that we were in Banos Morales (a popular destination). So then we just started walking, assuming that we’d run into some cool nature spot eventually. However, it turns out that we were actually a good 20 minute drive away from Banos Morales…so our 2 hour trek got us nowhere and we just had to turn around and trek 2 hours back. Fortunately, we still enjoyed the clean air and the scenery of the snow-capped mountains with melting runoff forming waterfalls and flowing into the river below.

Got back to the bus stop and learned that the next bus back to Santiago wouldn’t be coming for 2 more hours. So we took the advice of some friends and hitchhiked to the next closest town. I was a bit nervous at first, but considering it was the middle of the day and the cars only had one road to travel on, I figured we’d be okay. Just to be safe though, we decided to only get in a car if it had at least one woman in it. (Discrimination, I know….but we had to protect ourselves somehow)

 

So then we naively stuck out our thumbs, assuming we’d get picked up within a few minutes. Apparently, we weren’t as adorable as we thought we were though…after about 20 minute, all we got were a few people pointing and laughing, a few motorcycles whizzing by and a few crammed cars making expressions that told us “sorry! We don’t have room!” However, we kept on trying and eventually wooed over a very nice sedan with a nice man and woman and an empty back seat. Had a lovely conversation with them on the ride to San Jose and learned that they actually live only a few blocks away from me in Las Condes! Small small world. But don’t worry mom- though this hitchhiking experience was a success, it has been checked off my list of “things to do before I die.” I’m not planning on sticking out my thumb again anytime soon.

 

Saturday night, Marni and I went to the fonda (fair) at Estadio Nacional. Went to a rodeo and after 15 minutes we learned that we don’t need to go to another rodeo anytime soon either. Two guys on horses attacking a poor little cow? They really call that a sport? Terrible. Then went to the youth cueca competition, which was absolutely precious. Then wandered around the stadium enjoying the cuisine (we shared a pineapple bowl filled with juice and HUGE hunks of pineapple and ice cream! Heather -  this was your kind of dessert).

 

Sunday went to church and now I have to get into school mode for my crazy busy week of quizzes and papers. Will write again soooooon.

Chau,

Lindsay