On Books
I´ve been in rapid book-consumption mode recently. I´m trying to take advantage of my metro travel time to get through some reading I´ve been yearning to accomplish for quite some time. Just finished:
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
- Isabel is the first cousin, once removed of former Chilean president Salvador Allende. Her books are of the magic realism genre and often highlight female characters´struggles in Latin American culture. Much like Gabriel Garcia Marquez´s One Hundred Years of Solitude, the novel tells the story of multiple generations of a single family, taking a very interesting look into Chilean culture, including long-standing traditions/attitudes that remain pertinent today.
Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller
- Author of one my all-time favorite books, Blue Like Jazz, this time Donald Miller takes a look at how Christians have mistakenly turned their faith into a formulaic spiritual to-do list rather than cherishing at as an intimate relationship that requires constant communication and effort. This book is filled with great little nuggets of wisdom...will pull out some good quotes when I get a chance.
- So towards the beginning of my trip I bought a Colo-Colo futbol jersey. I wanted to support a local team and Colo-Colo was the most interesting sounding name (versus Universidad de Chile and Universidad Catolica - professional futbol teams not actually associated with the schools). Colo-Colo also had the coolest looking jersey, so I decided that they would be my team. HOWEVER I think I made a bad decision...
- Colo-Colo is also known as the ¨flaite¨/gangster futbol team. I can´t think of an equivalent sports team in the U.S. (let me know if you have suggestions?) but let´s just say that me wearing a Colo-Colo jersey around Santiago would be like me wearing any big long basketball jersey+ baggy pants + a sideways baseball hat + some bling in downtown Atlanta. Basically, I would look absolutely ridiculous and would potentially stand the risk of getting in some trouble by looking like I was mocking someone.
- The first time I wore the jersey, all I really got were weird stares and a few laughs. Then the second time I wore it, my Chilean friends kinda smack talked with me about how their team was better and then finally told me that I should be careful when and where I wear the jersey b/c Colo fans can be a little intense. Therefore, I´ve decided to hold off on wearing the jersey until I get back to the states...better safe than sorry, right?
- Friday morning my two friends and I headed over to MallSport (aka - boy paradise). It is literally a mall made up entirely of sports stores. Plus they have a rock climbing wall, a surf thing, a little lagoon to test drive boats and much more. Crazy crazy. We were looking for supplies for our trip to Torres del Paine (aka Patagonia) for the end of the semester. Fortunately, I was successful and bought a cold weather Marmot sleeping bag for a really good price. Hoooooray!
- Last Wednesday I ran in U. Catolica´s annual road race, called RunningUC. There was a 5k or a 10k option, and I ended up doing the 10K. It was fun and free and a great venue to see my chilean classmates in a new light. Especially when we were doing aerobics warm ups and even the guys were joining in the fun. And also at the beginning of the race when everyone was elbowing their way through to get off to a speedy start before they wimped out and started walking after the 3k mark.
- Last week my friend and I also decided to test out our school´s swimming pool as a beginning-of-spring celebration. The water was a bit murky,but I felt the chlorine, so hopefully we were safe. Noticed that most Chileans didnt feel very comfortable in the water...my friend told me that most people don´t take swimming lessons until they´re older. Maybe I should start giving lessons to earn some extra cash??
gotta go but more to come soon...
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