Chile, July 2011 - #5 (Pinochet is Everywhere)

Well this has been another jam-packed week! In fact, I was making a list of what we did every day, which I will post separately, and I have to say I was kind of impressed with myself! This week was a crash course on Chile under Pinochet. Almost everyday I learned something new about life under the dictatorship and how present the period is in the collective Chilean memory.

The week began with a visit to the National cemetery. The cemetery was much bigger than I expected, and so were the mausoleums and tombs that line the main and side streets running through it. All major families in Chile have mausoleums here I think, some are more modest and others are ornate and have stained glass or statues. There were so many different kinds, and some beautiful tombstones and statues too, many by important Chilean artists. At the edge of the cemetery is Salvador Allende's tomb and a large monument honoring all of the murdered or "disappeared" from the reign of the military dictatorship. Although somewhat eerie, the visit was really interesting and I could have spent a whole day wandering around and exploring the expansive grounds. Linda didn't think that sounded like fun, but it's ideal for a girl who loves to make up other people's stories and imagine other times!

On Tuesday, Linda and I ventured into a part of the city we hadn't seen yet to visit El Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende. This is a museum that Allende started as the first Contemporary Art Museum in Santiago (and maybe in Chile) to honor the relationship between freedom, democracy and the arts. He solicited donations from well known artists around the world, and the museum has an interesting collection. It includes paintings from artists like Miro and Picasso, as well as an entire floor dedicated to Italian artists who were apparently particularly receptive to Allende's request for art. It also houses contemporary art from working artists today that was neat. There were some cool installations and interesting sculptures. Maybe most interesting was the small exhibit of the Allende's affects from the day of the military coup on September 11, 1973. His wife's suit is hung in a glass case, along with a letter she wrote to her daughter (I think) while the events were occurring. It was chilling to read. They also have some of Allende's things, like his membership to the Socialist Party and a wallet among other artifacts. What I think is most important, and what I think would make Allende happy, is that Santiago has grown into a city devoted to art, with a huge number of galleries, art exhibits, art museums, and contemporary artists. This commitment to visual art and the honor and respect Allende started for it with his museum has really become part of the culture. From graffiti (like the murals done by art students in Valparaiso) to the sheer number of galleries, art plays an important role in public expression and public discussion here.

Wednesday was all about Fashion! Our school trip was a visit to El Museo de la Moda, and the current exhibit was fashion from the 80s!

I'm not a huge fan of fashion from the 80s, but after my visit I have to say I have a lot more respect for it! We walked in to a Back to the Future exhibit with a replica of the time-traveling car and the jacket Michael J. Fox wore in Back to the Future 2. All proceeds from that exhibit (or something like that) go to the Michael J. Fox foundation apparently. It was pretty cool, and they were playing clips from the movies on screens behind the car.

We had an excellent tour through the exhibit which really discussed fashion as an extension of the culture of the 80s and it's imperative to break fashion rules and ignore the restrictions of "good taste." It was interesting to see the different designers collections from the decade, and the incredible impact the importance of physical fitness and health had on fashion design. Perhaps the most interesting part about the museum was how it tied global fashion into Chile's experience in the 80s, at which time they were still under the military dictatorship. There was limited material and resources to create clothes that were up to par in the 80s, but Chileans got creative and many were able to follow the trends. However, fashion was generally more muted here because information and exposure to what was happening in the rest of the world was limited and Chile was very conservative. The contrast between the role of fashion to Chileans living under dictatorial rule and the role of fashion in the rest of the world was a fascinating way to learn more about living under the dictatorship.

Thursday was shopping at Los Dominicos, an artisan market, and then cooking for all the people in my apartment which I will write about in another post.  Friday was another jam packed day as I tried to fit everything into my last few days here! I had class early in the morning and was done by 10:30, so I went to see the rest of the things on my list. Most importantly, I went and saw the Supreme Court which is beautiful inside! It's a big colonial building with lots of sun and yellow walls, with lawyers and all kinds of people scurrying through the halls or studying cases on benches outside different court rooms.

I wandered around for a while, and then went looking for the Supreme Court library which was supposed to house some really old books. It did! In the basement, I slipped through the door and walked by a couple of confused librarians like I knew where I was going. I made my way to the back of the library where I saw some incredibly old law books on civil law, Spanish law, French law, old Chilean laws, everything! It was so cool! I couldn't take them out to look at them (they were in a glass case) but it was neat to read the titles and to think that some of them had been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. It was really cool!

I also saw another antiquated treasure - the library had a card catalog!

After my trip through the center of Santiago, I made my way back to school for our last school excursion to Quinta Normal, a "park" of sorts that houses many museums and exhibits. To our disapointment, the natural history museum was closed, but we did go see an art museum for kids in a building that had been built for a worlds' fair in the 1800s and a train park filled with old-fashioned locomotives. We ended our visit with el Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, a relatively new museum built to honor the people killed or "disappeared" during the military dictatorship and to inform the public about the atrocities that occurred during the regime in order to continue discussion about how to prevent future human rights tragedies. The museum was a sobering look at the prevalence of human rights abuses all over the world and still occurring today. It explained the history of the military coup and dictatorship, and exhibited photographs by artists living through it. Our guide was on of the teachers from the school and he explained his own experiences and what he knew about that period with such eloquence. He told me stories of different towns and how they lived under the dictatorship, including the first town to discover a mass grave of 15 people who had been killed and buried in an abandoned mining pit. This discovery was the first actual proof of the government's abuses and the first step towards taking action against them. They also showed needlework done by village women throughout the military dictatorship that portrayed the small town experience of the oppressive regime. The craft was a way to speak out and talk about what was happening, especially among a semi-literate and only partially educated population. They were eerie and touching, showing the discovery of mass graves, a funeral for a beloved priest killed by the military, communities coming together to help each other - they were all different and very much the same.

At one point, our guide asked us what we thought about the museum. He then told us a story of his own, when he traveled to Germany in the early 80s. He went to visit Dachau, and was struck by a statue of a man with the words "So it will never happen again" inscribed on it. He remembered thinking, "But it is happening again, right now." He was living under a repressive regime full of human rights abuses including torture, detention and murder of political prisoners who were mostly just students who belonged to political parties that did not support Pinochet. But they were taken without warning from their homes, their work, or the street and many never returned. He talked about how twenty years later that period is still fresh in Chile's memory, and how each abduction is not only a trauma for the person and his/her family but for the entire community. He said that Chile is still dealing with this trauma today. When he said that, I got chills. Even today, with so many reasons to remember past abuses and prevent violence against humanity from happening again, people still live in fear and repression.

I'll leave it at that for now, but the next post will be about lighter subjects (and may be after I get back...hooray!)

Chile, July 2011 - #4 (Finding my inner poet in the streets of Santiago, con't)

And we're back for part 2 of this incredible week! I left off with el Parque por la Paz, which was intense, and beautiful and terribly sad. A short picnic with Deepti to digest not just our meal but what we had seen, and I was off to the apartment to change and get ready for the opera! Mauri, the other man who shares the penthouse with Nell, had mentioned that he wanted to go, and Nell worked his magic to get the tickets for free because he has a friend at the theatre, of course. Nell got all of us tickets in the orchestra of the opera at the Teatro Municipal, and each of us dressed "muy elegantes" we walked to the opera at 4:30 for the 5 p.m. show. The opera was Boris Gudunov by Modest Mussorgsky, in Russian with Spanish translation projected over the stage. Luckily I read the synopsis before going, so I had an idea of what was going on and could get more details from the translation without needing it to fully understand what they were saying. The Teatro Municipal is the nicest theatre in Santiago and the best opera in Chile. The scenery was gorgeous and the actors had beautiful voices and were great! The opera was 4 hours long, but it was so beautifully done I hardly noticed the time go by. The costumes were beautiful period outfits, big beautiful dresses and flowing capes for the men with intricate designs on them. The set was made of several different pieces, two of which had 3 spinning panels each with brick on one side and a mosaic of silver and mirrors on the other. They used the spinning panels both to change the location from the street outside to the inside of the palace, and to signify the tzar's dream state/hallucinations by spinning them for the length of his hallucination aria. The lights reflecting off the set made the whole show literally sparkle. It was beautiful!

Me and three of the other students staying at the apartment, in front of the auditorium. 

After the opera, we went out to eat at an excellent Peruvian Japanese fusion restaurant. I must say that I have generally been underwhelmed by the food in Santiago, but this restaurant was truly delicious! We got lots of sushi to share, and then Janika (another student at the house) and I got two meals to share because we both couldn't decide between them. Both were incredible! Mine was a Chilean fish (La Reina?) with grilled shrimp and a delicious sauce over slices of baked potato, and Janika got a dish that was similar to chicken fried rice, but different and much more tasty. Of course there was plenty of wine to go around, and lots of very fast Chilean Spanish that I tried my best to follow after reading 4 hours of opera translation and drinking more than a glass of wine. It was all in all a wonderful evening out on the town! I feel so lucky to have been placed here in Nell's apartment, because although I don't have to really deal with the hassles of living with a host family, I get all the benefits of having an incredibly generous and welcoming host, without whom I would not have seen half the things I've seen here in Santiago! 

On Sunday, after sleeping in to make up for our jam-packed Saturday night, Linda, Deepti, Dani (another student here) and I went to Isla Negra to see Neruda's third and last home. I didn't know when I came here that this trip would turn into a Neruda frenzy, but it has and each house has been worth it! Now I actually have to read some Neruda! His third house is on the beach in the small town of Isla Negra, about an hour and half away from Santiago (without traffic, which was not the case for us...) It's called Isla Negra because the beach has giant black rock formations and black seaweed growing all along the shore. It is an absolutely stunning location - Neruda really knew his real estate! 

 The beach directly outside of Neruda's Isla Negra house

The house in Isla Negra is the house with the most of his collections, and where he and Matilde (his wife) are buried. You can only see it by taking a tour, which we did. The tour guide was kind of blasé about everything, but I asked questions the whole time that revealed some really interesting anecdotes about Neruda and Matilde. He was certainly a character! In each house we've been told about his insistence on drinking only out of colored glasses, because wine tasted better that way. In the Isla Negra house, there is a huge collection of figure heads that he bought all around the world, including a Native American figure head from a whaling ship in Boston. The house also holds most of his collections from his travels and work as consulate to various countries, including Indonesia and Peru. Another thing Neruda loved to collect were over-sized articles that were used to advertise merchandise in stores in the early 20th century. He has more than one pair of giant shoes from in front of shoe stores, a giant clock, and the cream of the crop is the giant paper maché horse he bought from a saddle shop in the town where he grew up. He loved it so much he built a "barn" onto the house for it and had a party when he bought it. It was really fun to see all the things he collected exactly as he displayed them. I really got a sense of his personality and incredibly playful spirit, in addition to his seriousness as a poet and need to create inspirational spaces in which to work. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the house, but his obsession with sailing (although he never did go sailing by himself because he was too afraid of it) and collecting is evident outside the house as well! Staring at the ocean with all of the cool collections peeking out of the windows of the house, I could imagine writing some pretty great poetry myself.

With that I'll leave you with a fish kiss from the three of us! Neruda's symbol was a fish (I assume it has something to do with his love of the sea and sailing) and all of his houses have fish symbols everywhere. In Isla Negra, there is a large fish sculpture in the courtyard, and we couldn't resist!

Chile, July 2011 - #3 (Finding my inner poet in the streets of Santiago)

This week was about wandering around Santiago, living the high life with Nell, my host, and learning more than I ever thought I would know about Pablo Neruda. Let's start at the very beginning.

My week was much improved from the last one. No more stolen goods or police visits, plus I learned a second form of the past tense AND the future tense! It was a very big week. On Monday, I struck out on my own after taking a long hard look at a map of Santiago, and went to Estacion Mapocho, another Santiago cultural center, to see some free exhibits and to admire the architecture. On the map, it looked very close to my apartment, so I planned to just walk home afterwards instead of taking the round-about metro route. My plan failed in every way. First I got to the cultural center to find that I had overlooked the fact that the exhibits were closed on Monday. Well, that was ok, because what I really wanted to see was the building which is supposed to be beautiful, like a giant turn of the century train station. However, to my dismay, "Animal Planet," the current exhibit set up for kids on winter break, took up most of the inside of the space with big black tents. Still, after sneaking around all the kids and their parents, I found a side entrance where I could go in and look at the building. It was really pretty, and reminded me of Musee d'Orsay in Paris. Some pictures and staring and I was on my way, ready to find my way back to the apartment. Unfortunately, I proved my terrible sense of direction by walking in exactly the opposite direction for about an hour, wondering why I wasn't seeing any street names that I recognized. I figured it was farther than I thought, and was enjoying the walk, so it wasn't until I had walked well out of the way that I stopped to ask somebody. Along the way, though, I saw a giant flower market of pre-made flower designs (hearts, etc. on flat board) and the fabric neighborhood of Santiago where old ladies were checking out different rolls of mostly hideous fabric and sewing materials. I was clearly wandering where no tourist usually goes, and when I finally stopped to ask someone, I was informed that I was incredibly far away and would need to take transportation to get back to where I wanted to be. Suffice it to say that two bus rides and lots of directions later, I was back at my apartment which was literally two blocks from the cultural center but in the other direction. I had a similar experience Tuesday when I wandered to the Supreme Court and Ministry of Justice to find that the court closes at 2 to visitors and the way back was once again in a different direction than I chose to walk. Still, the days were beautiful for wandering, and I got to see where the National Theatre was and the millions of glasses stores farther down my street with women outside each one urging me to get glasses whether I needed them or not.

Wednesday was a big day! On Wednesday, we went with the school to see Neruda's first house in Santiago, La Chascona. It was once again full of collections of random objects that reflected the poet's inner child and inner hoarder. The Santiago house is built in three parts so that the large terraces and gardens become part of the house itself.  When we commented that this didn't make a lot of sense because you had to go outside to get to the living room/bedroom/study and it gets pretty chilly in Santiago in the winter, the guide said we can never look for reason in the actions of an artist. The house is named after Neruda's third and last wife, Matilde, for her crazy red hair. The sun-like symbol that is all over this and his other houses represents her hair all around her face. It was a lovely visit!

On our way home, Linda and I decided to go see Harry Potter that night and made our way to the closest movie theatre which was jam-packed with kids on winter break. The only movies out this past week were Harry Potter, Transformers, Cars, and Kung Fu Panda, all aimed at the school children who had the week off. Harry Potter was really good, and the whole theatre had such cute reactions! It was subtitled, so it was mostly adults, and when Ginny walked in to see Harry at Hogwarts, the whole audience let out a lovelorn "awwwww!" It was adorable! Walking home from the movie I thought it was the end of my night, and I got into my pjs and set up my computer on my bed for a little pre-sleep putzing around. About 15 minutes later, Nell throws open my door and says, "Hurry up! We're going!" I asked where we were going and he simply said a restaurant close to the apartment, which is what he always said and which has never been actually close to the apartment. "Hurry! Throw on some clothes and let's go!" I don't know why I was up for it, but I did throw on some clothes and head out with him and a couple other people living in the apartment upstairs. We hopped in a cab (because as I said - close is never that close) and pulled up in front of what looked like someone's garage on a residential street. I was wary, but everyone was going in and the large fence-like door was being held open by someone so we could enter. First we walked in through a door to find a set of curtains, through the curtains to find an entry way with Thai sculptures in it, and through a final set of curtains that opened up onto an incredible secret Thai restaurant! It was so cool!

After cosmos and chicken satay, we hung out at the bar for a little and then, exhausted (me anyway), headed back home where I collapsed in bed, happy that I had thrown on some clothes :).

Thursday we went to see the MAVI, a museum of contemporary art, and I absolutely loved the main exhibit of the ceramic artist Ruth Krauskopf. She is a Chilean artist and the exhibit was a retrospective of her past work. She has studied and worked all over for the past 30 years, and her sculptures were beautiful. They kept the feeling of the earth and clay while creating a beautiful movement and intrigue with a few gestural details.

The main event of the week, a trip to the National Opera, was preceded by a visit to Parque por la Paz, a former villa turned detention center turned memorial and museum for the atrocities that occurred during the Pinochet dictatorship. I went with my friend Deepti, who treked out there with me on two different metro lines and a bus. The park is eerie, located on the beautiful grounds of a 19th century villa with stunning mountains in the background, but marked with mosaic signs throughout the garden with the different areas and their uses during the villa's time as a detention and torture center.

We had audioguides, and walked around the park learning about the repressive practices of the dictatorship. Most of the murdered or "disappeared" were members of opposition political parties, and in honor of that there are statues for each political party in Chile on one side of the park. It was a chilling visit, especially because it was so recent. The regime was in power as recently as 1989. Particularly touching was the rose garden with plaques naming women that had been killed or "disappeared" at Villa Grimaldi, with a fountain in the center painted with the words of Gabriela Mistral, "We were to be queens."

This post is getting long, so I'll end here and write another one this afternoon about my incredible weekend seeing an opera and visiting Neruda's third and last house in Isla Negra. More pictures will be up on facebook at some point - this is just a taste of my Santiago adventures. Now off to school to study more verbs!

Chile, July 2011 - #2 (My Week of Caparaahhhhhs!)

Hola!

Here goes update number 2! This week was definitely eventful, though in a much different way. To explain the subject of this email, I will explain the word capara, which I don't think I spelled correctly as I've only heard it and never seen it. *A capara has become a very important thing in my family. Originally an animal sacrifice to the gods (specifically a goat) replacing a human sacrifice, for us it has come to mean something lost that prevents a worser fate. A sacrifice to the gods of sorts, of anything from sunglasses to a stolen purse, that replaces any harm from coming to people. Well, I'm sorry to say, my week was full of them.

The beginning of the week went just fine, with a wonderful day on Sunday visiting Santiago. We started in the fish market where we saw all kinds of sea creatures, alive and dead, and walked through the slimy stalls with lots of fishmongers urging us to buy their fish that looked exactly like the fish in the stall next door. They were very nice, and actually posed for pictures when they saw we had cameras. One side of the market is all fish and seafood, while the other side is full of seafood restaurants. We went during a non-meal time on purpose but even so, all of the restaurants hire people to stand in front of their doors or areas and get people to sit down and eat. After a lengthy stroll through the market, a Hatian man working for one of the restaurants struck up a conversation with us that included Spanish, English, and French. It was actually really fun, and I think he just wanted to chat. We talked about traveling, Chile, Hatian politics...you name it! In the middle of our conversation he threw in a shout out for the restaurant he was working for, out of obligation I think, before launching into what he thinks about Wycliff running for President in Haiti.

After a while we extracted ourselves and continued on to the Plaza de Armas, the center square of Santiago with beautiful buildings on all four sides. It was sunny,bright, and warm. After walking around and checking out the cathedral, one of the oldest buildings in Santiago, we went back outside and tried to take a picture in front of it. A very nice older Chilean man offered to take our picture together, which he did, and then our second long conversation with a stranger started. This man also just wanted to chat, and talked our ear off for about 20 minutes before finally letting us go, with his phone number written on the back of a receipt so we could all go out for a beer sometime. He was dressed in a tweed jacket with a pageboy cap, a sweater vest, and glasses - very academic looking. When I asked him what he did, he said a little bit of everything, from teaching English and Spanish to selling food on the street. He then described how he made a sweet syrup out of sweet potatoes to make a kind of candy/dessert that he sold in places like Plaza de Armas. From there, we stopped at our apartment for a quick lunch and then headed out to meet a friend to climb up Cerro St. Cristobal again because it was so nice out. We had a great time and afterwards the three of us went out to dinner in Barrio Lastarria which is a bunch of small cobblestone streets near our neighborhood that Linda and I have come to love.

At the top of Cerro St. Cristobal

Monday would have ended just fine if I had not tried to upload my pictures with another girl's computer since I couldn't find the cord for my camera. In the process of moving the pictures to a thumb drive, all the pictures from my first week here were erased. Although she took the memory card and computer in to work with her on Monday, the pictures could not be recovered. Capara #1. So sorry - no pictures for the moment, but hopefully I will be able to post some soon! I wasn't too worried though - Linda has been voraciously taking pictures and offered to let me take some of hers off of her computer.

Tuesday is when the real trouble began. After class Linda, another American student and I had grand plans to visit the Centro Gabriela Mistral, or GAM to see the two free exhibits they have up right now. Before going, we went to a restaurant called "Oh! Salad" (that is pronounced exactly as written, because it actually is incredibly surprising to find a salad place in Santiago.) We got our salads and ate on the second level in the corner. When we got up to leave, Linda's bag was gone. We looked all over and asked the table next to us, but they had not seen it. When we went downstairs to ask the cashiers, they gave us a knowing look, asked how long ago it had happened, and immediately pulled up the tapes from the four security cameras in the restaurant. With a little searching, we actually identified on the tape the two women who stole the bag, and even saw them doing it! They were incredibly sneaky, and we didn't even notice that they had been there! Linda's bag was next to her on the ground, and the women came upstairs, sat down, put their coats over there chairs and proceeded to pull at the strap with a foot to slide the bag over to their table. Then, putting the bag under her coat, the woman who had pulled it over put on her coat and the both of them left with the bag and unnoticed. It was incredible! Linda was very upset because she lost all of her Chilean cash which she had been carrying with her, a credit card, her camera, headphones, and most importantly her Spanish homework for the next day! After calling the credit card company we went on a trek first to scope out the McDonalds where the theives apparently went to make good use of the credit card with $9.00 worth of greasy sandwiches, and with no luck finding the bag discarded, went to try our hands at making an official police report.

When we finally found the police station, and a policeman finally asked us why we were there, I tried to explain with my recently learned past tense that a bag had been stolen but the restaurant had videos of the theft and could identify the women who did it. I thought I was doing ok, but the policeman seemed confused and on the verge of giving up. Luckily, there was a Chilean man in the booth next to us who spoke very good English, and although he was mostly finished getting his declaration for his car insurance company, he stayed well after he finished to help us get through the declaration and fill out all of the forms it required. He was incredibly helpful and kind to do that! In order to relax after our harrowing adventure, we went to a really great restaurant and had an absolutely delicious meal, some much needed glasses of wine, and even got to see Chile's winning goal against Peru in the American Cup game they were playing that night.

Exhausted on Wednesday, I was glad the ordeal was over and tried my best to enjoy our outing to Cerro Sainta Lucia, which was really great. The teacher who took us told us a lot of Chilean history and a lot about the "hill" including the now defunct ritual of shooting a cannon every day at 12 p.m. They don't do it anymore because it was so loud that it would set off all the car alarms in the neighborhood and a lot of people complained. Now you can just walk up to the top and see a beautiful 360 degree view of Santiago and the mountains surrounding the city. Exhausted after our outing, I went home, made some dinner, and promptly went to bed.

But the week went from bad to worse. Yesterday, Thursday, we decided to try GAM again, this time without any petty theft. We made our way over to the center, but stopped to have lunch first in the cute little streets of Barrio Lastarria. After deciding on a cafe, we sat down, all very concious of our bags. I clipped my bag to the chair with the clips provided in many restaurants. We were sitting against the wall and I could see my bag right next to me. I had it clasped closed and checked on it frequently throughout the meal. Once when I looked down to check on it, I noticed the clasp farthest from me was undone, but I thought that maybe I had left it open and simply reclasped it and went back to eating my lunch. However, as we finished up, there was commotion when the two old men behind us got up. The waiter yelled at me to make sure I had my purse, which I did, and I didn't understand what all the fuss was about. He then said check in your purse, and when I did, I found out that my wallet was gone. (I found this out as I saw the waiter run after the taxi that had come to pick up the men, and slam his tray down on top of the cab to try to get it to stop.) I couldn't believe it! The man behind me had very subtly unclasped my purse, rustled around in my bag, and gotten my wallet out of the velcroed pocket that I had put it in. I was shocked! Luckily my iPhone was next to me on the table, my camera was in my pocket, and my Chilean cell phone was in a different front pocket of my bag, so i only lost a credit card and some money. But I was appalled that they were so good at picking pockets (or in my case, bags!). Determined not to let it ruin my day, and after the other American student, generously paid for my lunch, we went to my apartment where I canceled my card (which 30 minutes after the theft had a $100 gas charge already), and went to see the exhibits at the GAM. The main exhibit of a Chilean photographer's portraits was really wonderful. Not only were the portraits beautiful and captured the essence of each subject, they were a "Who's Who" of Latin American cultural history, with photographs of Pablo Neruda, Salvador Allende, and other Latin American politicians, writers, painters, poets, and artists. The beautiful exhibit did lighten my mood, and I was really glad we went.

Later, when we got home, Nelson, my host, took us out to dinner at a really nice Italian restuarant because he was so upset about both of us getting robbed, and Mauricio, his partner (I think) gave me a cd of yoga music "because now I needed it." :) I have been doing yoga here in the living room, and they think it's funny/cute so I thought it was a really sweet gesture. A good end to a less good day.

When we went into class this morning, I found out that another student had had her wallet stolen at McDonalds, and someone had tried to steal a second student's bag. It seems to be a bad week for gringos in Santiago! Today we went on another excursion with the school which was wonderful, to the Pre-Columbian Art Museam, and had an excellent guided tour. Afterwards, the teacher that was taking us showed us another cultural center near where Linda and I are living that has more exhibits and lots of artisan crafts for sale. You can even go during the day and learn how to do a craft - July is copper work and people were banging away at little tables making rings and bracelets - it looked fun! I will definitely go back and give it a try. Afterwards we came home to relax and get ready for our weekend trip to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, two cities an hour and a half away from Santiago. But to top off this week of mishaps, during our evening yoga session in the living room, we experienced a little earthquake. (A tremor I was later informed.) Here's hoping we've had enough caparas to last us a while.

Well this email of disasters is much longer than I anticipated! And although this week's main events were unpleasant, we did do a lot of really fun things, and saw more beautiful parts of the city. Also, as I often find when something unpleasant happens, each time something was lost, we found an incredibly helpful and generous person because of the situation, from the English speaker at the police station to the waiter who tried to chase down the pickpockets. Not to mention making a new friend in the process (Jen, the other American student) and being reminded to think about people and experiences rather than things.

With that, I'll leave you and go off to start week # 3 in the Southern
Hemisphere!!

Hasta luego!!!

Chile, July 2011 - #1 (La vida loca)

Here is my first email update from Santiago, Chile! I've been here for one week with my friend Linda from Cornell, and it has been wonderful so far. (I'll post pictures on facebook soon!) I arrived just fine, early in the freezing cold winter morning last Saturday. I was thrilled to find that the apartment I'm staying in, assigned through the language school, is absolutely adorable and comes with an incredible host who lives in the penthouse of the building! And I'm not kidding - his apartment truly is a penthouse. He is a designer, and has decked each room out in its own theme and color scheme, and has art all over the walls, ceilings, everywhere! Not only that, but there is a giant and gorgeous patio with a beautiful nearly 360 degree view of the city around us. His apartment is so beautiful that a tv series was filming there yesterday and today! Hahahah! Incredible! Apparently some very famous Chilean actors and actresses were walking in and out of our building all day.

A view from the "penthouse" terrace

Anyway, all the apartment description has hopefully indicated how much of a character my host is. He is truly larger than life. Our first night here, we went out to dinner for giant steaks with his friends and some other girls staying with him, and the invitations to do things have continued every day since! We have gone to a snazzy gallery opening of a contemporary Chilean artist, who's artist booklet for the show was designed by Nel (Nelson, the host) and his company. Another night we went to the opening of the World Press Photo Exhibit that you had to have an invitation to go to, and had some of the most delicious horsd'oeuvres and lots of different juices, cocktails, and wines. The show was great, but I only got to see some of it because Nel informed me we needed to hurry to the front s we didn't miss the food :). I told him he was an art show opening expert, and he agreed. He is super flamboyent and fun, and such a nice guy! So we really lucked out with our student apartment, because we got the best of both worlds! Our own space and no obligations but an incredibly warm and inviting host none the less!

I also started Spanish classes on Monday, and I'm really enjoying them. I was the only student in my level, so my group lesson hours got translated into private lessons and I really liked my lessons last week. Private lessons are great! I can often understand most of what people are saying, which is exciting because Chileans talk incredibly fast. Next week is Week 2, and I'm hoping I learn lots more! Spanish is a really fun language to speak and sounds so pretty when I can understand it :) (and even when I cant!). The school is great, and they offer excursions twice a week. So far we have gone on both last week - one as a walk/hike up Cerro St. Cristobal, one of the "hills" of Santiago with a giant statue of the virgin Mary at the top, and the second was a visit to the Museo Bellas Artes, right near our apartment. There is also a really nice park near our apartment, and in fact, Santiago has lots of really nice green spaces.

View of Santiago from Cerro St. Cristobal

The city itself is beautiful, with modern buildings and old facades mixed together. In some other parts of the city the architecture is much more modern but in our area it's older with smaller streets and little shops and cafes. There is a really big art scene, and a growing design scene I think, which means lots of interesting clothing, shoe, and bag stores to explore! Also, Santiago has tons of stray dogs! But they are incredibly friendly and well fed by the people here, and many of them have little doggie coats put on by Santiagoans for the winter. It's really funny to see all these stray dogs walking around in cute patterned fleece jackets or once-posh quilted ones! Sometimes its hard to tell the difference between the stray dogs and the house dogs. And, incredibly, the streets are clean and the dogs rarely if ever cause problems for people. For more doggie fashions and commentary, check out my facebook pictures!

Today, Linda, Deepti (a friend from high school I discovered was here doing a summer internship), and I went on a bike and wine tour in the Maipo Valley, about an hour out of Santiago. It was absolutely gorgeous! The mountains frame the vineyards so beautifully, and it was really fun riding around the main vineyard we visited. They grow almond trees, raise cows, and plant eucalyptus trees in addition to both wine and table grapes. We tasted some of the grapes and almonds, and finished our tour with tastings at an organic vineyard and a "typical" Chilean lunch at a restaurant near the vineyards. It was a great day!

France, May 2009 - #18

Venice, Nice, and Ardèche...finally!

So as you probably know, I had an action packed vacation in April and am just now getting around to writing about it. But not for lack of material! I spent a week and a half in (and around) Venice on a beautiful bike and boat trip. Then I spent three days in Nice, checking out the Cote d'Azure (it really is Azure!) and finally I spent the weekend in Ardèche with friends celebrating Rémy and Sushi's 4 year anniversary in a country house in the middle of rolling hills and cow pastures (far enough away to make for a pleasant view without the accompanying not so pleasant smell). So I'll start with Venice.


I met up with my parents in Venice after discovering that in fact all the ferries to our B&B closed before I even got there, and so finally I took a nice night ride in a water taxi and was greeted by a sleepy but very happy Daddy. My mom booked an adorable B&B on the island of Murano, where Venetian glass is made and where the masters work, so we spent the next day wandering around the different glass studios and watching demonstrations (A glass horse is not as hard to make as it seems! Not that I could do it...) In the afternoon, we went on an adventure with all of our luggage to find the boat that would take us allong our bike tour. It was kind of like a treasure hunt! The directions were not at all correct, and after crashing a little Italian child's birthday party, Mom saw with her eagle eyes that our boat was several docs over. So we went in search of said dock, and after one or two mishaps, we wandered into a large boat yard at the end of which was our little Dutch cannal boat waiting to greet us. It's name is Vita Punya, which means "Life is a struggle." How apropro.

We were greeted by our incredible tour leader, Hein, who is Dutch and has lived all over the world. Our whole trip was constantly enlightened by his musings on life (always very apt!) and his consistant and goofy smile. He truly made the tour - he was a ball of fire, full of energy and always ready to chat. And if ever something didn't go according to plan, well, we learned that "that's how life is" and we moved on with it.

The bike trip was 8 days between Venice and Mantova, a city to the west of Venice. We followed the Po river delta, and so we saw a lot of water and farms and beautiful poppies everywhere! Dad was all decked out in his gear, including a fancy rear view miror that clipped onto his sunglasses. Mom and I went more for comfort but still looked pretty good with our bike gloves and diaper biking shorts. There were about 20 of us on the trip, from all over the world. Aside from me and another girl who was traveling with her mother (14) most people were between their late 30s and 70s. This made for wonderful stories, charming personalities, and an inspiring trip! I hope that I am doing bike trips when I'm in my 70s! Each day we biked between 45 and 65 km, usually around 50 km. We always stopped at least once, and often twice for coffee and also for lunch, so we had a very relaxing trip. At night we ate delicious Italian food cooked by a girl my age who learned to cook from her mother. Real home cooking!
Highlights of the trip:
- Standing on a wall down the middle of Lado (I think) and seeing the Sea on both sides! That's how narrow the island is! Incredible!
- Seeing flamingos taking off while biking through a private aquaculture
- Watching the re-assembly of the Captain's room of the Vita Punya
- Wandering around the medieval commerce streets with Mom in Ferrara
- Watching a fellow biker (who was using an electric bike because he had had a stroke) zoom ahead of everyone else as they struggled against the head on wind. He turned around and smiled with such endearing pride!
- Hanging out with Mom and Dad in our itty bitty tiny room on the boat. It was so small that only one person at a time could fit between the two beds that were on either side of the room. MMmm cozy.
- A lesson in coffee - aka the millions of ways to order it - in Italy from the Italian somalier that was biking with us for the week (whose wine we drank all week also - it was wonderful)

So those are some of the highlights from the bike, which was all around beautiful, fun, and rewarding, even (or especially) when it rained!

After the bike trip, Mom, Dad, and I spent three days in Venice. Venice is like being in a fairy tale. I loved it!

France, May 2009 - #17

Tansoleil - or something like that

Feast your eyes! I have been taking an African dance class since I got here, and we finally had a performance! It was a Mali Festival and all the classes from the association had different dances that they did for a wonderfully encouraging audience. Here is a video of my class's performance of one of our dances - tansoleil! (Try and catch the move that I can't figure out how to do for about 20 seconds - it's not that hard to pick out! hahaha!)