Still a little over a week behind in posts, but nothing much has happened this week, so I should be getting caught up.
The weekend after all the trips in the last post, I went with Eduardo, Paola, and Eduardo's parents to Yumbel, which is a very small town about an hour outside of Concepción. Diane and I met Eduardo's parents the night before when we ate at a Peruvian restaurant called Fina Estampa. I love that place. Ají de gallina is amazing (chicken in some kind of tasty yellow sauce).
Eduardo´s Uncle Mario lives on a farm in Yumbel. We met him in the plaza, and then we went to the fall festival. There were stands in which people sold artesan foods, jellies, wines, beer, leather goods, woven goods, ceramics, woodwork...you get the idea. I bought some homemade manjar, which is kind of a mix between dulce de leche and caramel. Very tasty. I also bought some random other things, including a bottle of wine and, from another vendor, a little outfit for a wine bottle that is a Chilean poncho and a little cowboy hat! It is at once cheesey and cute. There were some wines from the vinyards started by the Jesuits ages ago, and they sold wine bottle covers that look like Jesuit robes (a white or black robe with a rope tie and a hood). To my gringo eyes, they looked like mini-Grim Reapers and Klansmen. I did not buy one of those.
At the festival was also a huge tent in which restaurants from the town set up kitchens around the sides and served food. Unfortunately, we went into town to eat lunch. It was still good, and we got to eat sopaipillas and empanadas under the tent later.
We also visited Tío Mario´s house in the country after lunch. When we arrived, we were greeted by a litter of black and yellow lab puppies! My heart melted. I held a yellow one for a while. The black ones were a little skiddish, and they didn't let me get close enough to touch them. I so wanted to take one home with me.
We went back to the festival for a while that evening and then returned to Concepción. Once again, I felt like I was getting to see a totally different side of Chile than that of Concepción. I got to see the Decatur County of Chile, I guess!
The next weekend (which was this past weekend), Eduardo´s cousin and the cousin´s girlfriend came to visit from Chillán. Saturday night we went to a karaoke bar, and since we were practically the only ones there for about an hour, our group got a lot of time at the mike. We still sang a lot of songs when the place was full. Their selection of songs in English was not the greatest, but I found enough to sing. I knew some of the Shakira songs in Spanish, but I didn't try those....
This week has been a little slow. Last night I went (along with my gender class) to a ceremony paying homage to the professor who created the first women's studies program in Chile, which was at the Universidad de Concepción, in 1982. The speakers were a bit long-winded, but it was interesting to see so many people in one room that valued the fact that this woman managed to start a women's studies program in a sexist country that was under a military dictatorship.
Tomorrow, I am having dinner with Diane and her parents, who are visiting right now. Saturday and Sunday we will be at the Rotary district conference in Los Angeles (Chile, not California). There is a panel about the Mapuche that looks interesting, but the rest of it looks a little boring. Diane and I are each going to do a five-minute speech on Sunday. Alas, we have still not been able to meet with the president of our club (or rather, she has not been able to meet with us due to illness) to get the projects with the rural school off the ground. I did apply for a program with the Chilean government, though, in which native English-speakers who are studying in Chile serve as teaching assistants for teachers in schools in low-income areas in or near the city and help the kids with learning English. I want to do that and work with the school Rotary sponsors, so I am not signing up for a lot of hours with the government program. Still, it sounds like fun, and maybe it will help me feel like I am actually doing something finally!
jueves 24 de abril de 2008
miércoles 16 de abril de 2008
More Excursions Outside Conce
I am shamefully behind in my posts, but I am going to try to sum up the past few excursions I have had since Chillán. I have begun to like Chile even more since I have had more opportunities to get outside the city and into the small towns. Living in Conce is great because there is a lot to do and it has all the conveniences of a major city, but the true soul of Chile seems to be in the rural areas.
The weekend of April 5th and 6th, I went to Cabrero and Talcahuano. A Rotary group exchange from Texas was in town, and the Conce Rotary clubs had planned a trip to a rodeo in Cabrero, which is about an hour outside of Conce. The Texans are four young professionals from the Dalls-Forth Worth area, and their leader is an older Rotarian named Guillermo, who originally hails from Colombia. He is such a cute, sweet little man.
Paola rear-ended someone in the Plaza de Perú before we left, so she and Eduardo had to stay behind and deal with the damages. They are both fine, but the car is in the shop for a while. The club president couldn´t find a babysitter, so she could not go, either. Rosana, who has a doctorate in English, and I were the only reps from the Rayen club. She practiced her English with me on the way. She spent a year as an exchange student in the U.S. when she was 15...in North Dakota. Fun. On the way, just outside Conce, she pointed out the school that the club helps with. When Eduardo had mentioned it to me, I had not thought it would be like this: it was in an old, poorly-built, small building, and Rosana said that many of the kids walk two or more kilometers to get to school. It made me feel very motivated to work with the school.
The rodeo was...interesting, I guess. A Chilean rodeo consists of two men on horseback who corner a young cow (not a calf, but not a full-grown cow, either) and get points based on which part of the cow´s body their horses hit. It wasn´t that fun to watch. I concentrated on the colorful ponchos of the riders instead.
Shortly, we ate lunch. There was a restaurant at the rodeo site, and we ate a nice, meaty alumerzo. After lunch, I petted the horses with the women from the group exchange, and Rosana and I left a little later.
That night, in spite of the car issues, Paola, Eduardo, Diane, Diane's friend Mauricio, and I, as well as a Rotary scholar from Valparaíso named Susan, went to a restaurant called La Tijuana. We ate some good Mexican food, and then we danced to regaaeton and disco in the dance club area. Although we were all exhausted from our trips that day (Susan and Diane had gone to a famous mine about 2 hours away with a group of Diane's friends), we had a good time dancing.
The next day, the six of us went to Talcahuano (about 30 minutes away) to see the Huascar, which was a Peruvian ship that the Chileans overtook in the War of the Pacific in 18-something. I figured out why most towns and cities have a street named Prat--he was a captain who died in combat on the ship. While the history lesson was nice, the sea lions were the highlight of the day for me. On the beach outside a line of restaurants were sea lions bathing in the sun. Chileans (and maybe all Spanish-speakers, not sure) call them ''lobos del mar'' or ''lobos marinos'', which both mean ''sea wolves.'' I thought that was pretty cool. We had our pictures taken near the sea lions (or wolves), but we couldn´t get too close wihthout one of them roaring at us. As we ate lunch, we saw a huge sea lion chasing a man across a parking lot, roaring at him. I do not know what this guy did to piss those sea lions off so badly! The most interesting part of the chase occurred when the man ran across the parking lot away from the sea lion and the animal stopped halfway and hid behind a truck. When the man passed the truck as he was walking back, the sea lion jumped out and roared at him! Slippery thing, that sea lion.
That night, Pablo (Diane´s friend, Mr. Rotaract of the Conce area) had an asado (barbecue) at his house. It was a little chilly, but we had fun anyway. I had my first experience with a pinochetista, though. (A pinochetista is someone who supported/admires Augusto Pinochet, who was essentially a military dictator from 1973-1990. The opinion about him is still pretty mixed, even though he tortured and killed a lot of people, exiled perceived political enemies, and made many young men disappear. His supporters think of him as the savior of the Chilean economy, but they either don´t realize or turn a blind eye to the fact that his ''economic miracle'' fell on the backs of the poor). The pinochetista was, in fact, Pablo. It realy surprised me, because he seemed pretty open-minded before. Still, his family is obviously wealthy and probably benefitted from the regime. I felt disturbed when I found out, and I wondered if I should associate with people who supported human rights abuses. After talking with Scott, I felt better. He said to just treat them like young people in the U.S. who support George Bush. Sorry for those of you who like Bush....
The next trip took place the next day (Monday) when Diane and I went to Penco to visit a rural school. We had no idea how rural it would be--it was a few miles into the woods. The president of the Penco Rotary Club is the principal of the school and invited us to see the children's program celebrating Gabriela Mistral and rural education. A few kids from the school recited some of Mistral's poems, complete with hand gestures, and kids from other schools performed traditional dances of different countries and cultures. I could not stop smiling! During the principal's speech, he talked about how proud he was of the school and of all the services they were able to provide for the kids. These are things we take for granted in the U.S.: transportation to and from school, breakfast and lunch, a nice building, a library, etc. There is a big difference in Chile between rural schools, public city schools, and private city schools. The private schoolchildren receive a higher-quality education, and all of the children, no matter where they went to school, have to take a national test (sort of like the ACT) to get into college. This is the only measurement, and inevitably the children from middle-class or upper-class backgrounds get into college and the poor kids get left behind. It made me sad to look at the kids and wonder how many of them would end up as servants in someone's house or in some other low-paying job. Hopefully with the education reforms that are being implemented to help these kinds of schools the gap will begin to close.
The visit to the school really affected me and made me even more eager to start working on a project or projects with the rural school the Rayen club sponsors. Diane and I will be meeting with the club president next week to discuss some options and arrange a visit to the school. Eduardo suggested tht we teach English, and I would really like to do that. I just worry about what will happen when we leave in December. Some more permanent projects that Diane suggested would be augmenting their library and/or providing sports and recreation equipment. Whatever we do, I can´t wait to get started.
The weekend of April 5th and 6th, I went to Cabrero and Talcahuano. A Rotary group exchange from Texas was in town, and the Conce Rotary clubs had planned a trip to a rodeo in Cabrero, which is about an hour outside of Conce. The Texans are four young professionals from the Dalls-Forth Worth area, and their leader is an older Rotarian named Guillermo, who originally hails from Colombia. He is such a cute, sweet little man.
Paola rear-ended someone in the Plaza de Perú before we left, so she and Eduardo had to stay behind and deal with the damages. They are both fine, but the car is in the shop for a while. The club president couldn´t find a babysitter, so she could not go, either. Rosana, who has a doctorate in English, and I were the only reps from the Rayen club. She practiced her English with me on the way. She spent a year as an exchange student in the U.S. when she was 15...in North Dakota. Fun. On the way, just outside Conce, she pointed out the school that the club helps with. When Eduardo had mentioned it to me, I had not thought it would be like this: it was in an old, poorly-built, small building, and Rosana said that many of the kids walk two or more kilometers to get to school. It made me feel very motivated to work with the school.
The rodeo was...interesting, I guess. A Chilean rodeo consists of two men on horseback who corner a young cow (not a calf, but not a full-grown cow, either) and get points based on which part of the cow´s body their horses hit. It wasn´t that fun to watch. I concentrated on the colorful ponchos of the riders instead.
Shortly, we ate lunch. There was a restaurant at the rodeo site, and we ate a nice, meaty alumerzo. After lunch, I petted the horses with the women from the group exchange, and Rosana and I left a little later.
That night, in spite of the car issues, Paola, Eduardo, Diane, Diane's friend Mauricio, and I, as well as a Rotary scholar from Valparaíso named Susan, went to a restaurant called La Tijuana. We ate some good Mexican food, and then we danced to regaaeton and disco in the dance club area. Although we were all exhausted from our trips that day (Susan and Diane had gone to a famous mine about 2 hours away with a group of Diane's friends), we had a good time dancing.
The next day, the six of us went to Talcahuano (about 30 minutes away) to see the Huascar, which was a Peruvian ship that the Chileans overtook in the War of the Pacific in 18-something. I figured out why most towns and cities have a street named Prat--he was a captain who died in combat on the ship. While the history lesson was nice, the sea lions were the highlight of the day for me. On the beach outside a line of restaurants were sea lions bathing in the sun. Chileans (and maybe all Spanish-speakers, not sure) call them ''lobos del mar'' or ''lobos marinos'', which both mean ''sea wolves.'' I thought that was pretty cool. We had our pictures taken near the sea lions (or wolves), but we couldn´t get too close wihthout one of them roaring at us. As we ate lunch, we saw a huge sea lion chasing a man across a parking lot, roaring at him. I do not know what this guy did to piss those sea lions off so badly! The most interesting part of the chase occurred when the man ran across the parking lot away from the sea lion and the animal stopped halfway and hid behind a truck. When the man passed the truck as he was walking back, the sea lion jumped out and roared at him! Slippery thing, that sea lion.
That night, Pablo (Diane´s friend, Mr. Rotaract of the Conce area) had an asado (barbecue) at his house. It was a little chilly, but we had fun anyway. I had my first experience with a pinochetista, though. (A pinochetista is someone who supported/admires Augusto Pinochet, who was essentially a military dictator from 1973-1990. The opinion about him is still pretty mixed, even though he tortured and killed a lot of people, exiled perceived political enemies, and made many young men disappear. His supporters think of him as the savior of the Chilean economy, but they either don´t realize or turn a blind eye to the fact that his ''economic miracle'' fell on the backs of the poor). The pinochetista was, in fact, Pablo. It realy surprised me, because he seemed pretty open-minded before. Still, his family is obviously wealthy and probably benefitted from the regime. I felt disturbed when I found out, and I wondered if I should associate with people who supported human rights abuses. After talking with Scott, I felt better. He said to just treat them like young people in the U.S. who support George Bush. Sorry for those of you who like Bush....
The next trip took place the next day (Monday) when Diane and I went to Penco to visit a rural school. We had no idea how rural it would be--it was a few miles into the woods. The president of the Penco Rotary Club is the principal of the school and invited us to see the children's program celebrating Gabriela Mistral and rural education. A few kids from the school recited some of Mistral's poems, complete with hand gestures, and kids from other schools performed traditional dances of different countries and cultures. I could not stop smiling! During the principal's speech, he talked about how proud he was of the school and of all the services they were able to provide for the kids. These are things we take for granted in the U.S.: transportation to and from school, breakfast and lunch, a nice building, a library, etc. There is a big difference in Chile between rural schools, public city schools, and private city schools. The private schoolchildren receive a higher-quality education, and all of the children, no matter where they went to school, have to take a national test (sort of like the ACT) to get into college. This is the only measurement, and inevitably the children from middle-class or upper-class backgrounds get into college and the poor kids get left behind. It made me sad to look at the kids and wonder how many of them would end up as servants in someone's house or in some other low-paying job. Hopefully with the education reforms that are being implemented to help these kinds of schools the gap will begin to close.
The visit to the school really affected me and made me even more eager to start working on a project or projects with the rural school the Rayen club sponsors. Diane and I will be meeting with the club president next week to discuss some options and arrange a visit to the school. Eduardo suggested tht we teach English, and I would really like to do that. I just worry about what will happen when we leave in December. Some more permanent projects that Diane suggested would be augmenting their library and/or providing sports and recreation equipment. Whatever we do, I can´t wait to get started.
miércoles 9 de abril de 2008
Chillán
I have been doing a lot of travelling over the past couple of weeks. The last weekend in March, Diane and I went with Eduardo, Paola, and another Rotarian named Alex to Chillán. It was supposed to be a big Rotary club retreat, but people kept dropping out for various reasons. The five of us stayed comfortably in a cabin that could have held six or eight. Chillán is about two hours away from Concepción, and the Termas are in the mountains (or maybe they are the mountains…not sure). It is a big place to go skiing in Chile, but since it is the end of summer/beginning of fall in Chile, it is low season, and there was no snow. The mountains are still beautiful, though.
There is also a casino in the Termas, and we went there Saturday night. I didn´t really know what I was doing, so I played a few rounds on the slot machine and quit. I came out pretty much even, maybe winning one or two dollars! In the casino restaurant, a band was playing American songs from the late seventies and early eighties, so that was fun, and it became more fun with each glass of wine. After the bottle from our table was gone, Diane and I ordered another glass of wine apiece. The waiter, who must have liked us, decided to get the biggest wine glasses they had and fill then almost to the top! By the end of the night, we were all dancing, and Alex videotaped us, which is quite embarrassing. I wasn´t exactly dancing my best.
We left Sunday morning and stopped to visit Alex´s newly-purchased land in the Termas on the way home. He plans to move out there next year, and he will certainly be out in the middle of nowhere! We ate at a mom-and-pop restaurant called La Cocina de Eva (Eva´s Kitchen). I had a very traditional and delicious dish that was a bean soup with longariza (a type of sausage very akin to chorizo). It is a sausage very typical of Chillán.
Chillán is very beautiful, and I can only imagine how amazing it will be in the wintertime. Diane and I have been talking about returning in July or August when it will be nice and snowy. I might take ski lessons. Still, visiting Chillán only in the low season is like going to Salt Lake City or Denver or some other skiing place in the summertime. I will be pretty much missing summer this year, but hopefully things like a trip to Chillán will make a second winter worthwhile.
There is also a casino in the Termas, and we went there Saturday night. I didn´t really know what I was doing, so I played a few rounds on the slot machine and quit. I came out pretty much even, maybe winning one or two dollars! In the casino restaurant, a band was playing American songs from the late seventies and early eighties, so that was fun, and it became more fun with each glass of wine. After the bottle from our table was gone, Diane and I ordered another glass of wine apiece. The waiter, who must have liked us, decided to get the biggest wine glasses they had and fill then almost to the top! By the end of the night, we were all dancing, and Alex videotaped us, which is quite embarrassing. I wasn´t exactly dancing my best.
We left Sunday morning and stopped to visit Alex´s newly-purchased land in the Termas on the way home. He plans to move out there next year, and he will certainly be out in the middle of nowhere! We ate at a mom-and-pop restaurant called La Cocina de Eva (Eva´s Kitchen). I had a very traditional and delicious dish that was a bean soup with longariza (a type of sausage very akin to chorizo). It is a sausage very typical of Chillán.
Chillán is very beautiful, and I can only imagine how amazing it will be in the wintertime. Diane and I have been talking about returning in July or August when it will be nice and snowy. I might take ski lessons. Still, visiting Chillán only in the low season is like going to Salt Lake City or Denver or some other skiing place in the summertime. I will be pretty much missing summer this year, but hopefully things like a trip to Chillán will make a second winter worthwhile.
La Vida Cotidiana Parte II
For those of you who have been reading regularly, I am sorry for not having updated lately. I have been pretty busy over the past couple of weeks, and have been putting off writing for my blog. Sorry!
Anyway, I want to add a couple of daily-life observations. One is the nana. Her name is Carmen, and she is the maid, cook, door-answerer, etc. It is common for middle-to-upper-class families to have a servant or servants, but it still gets to me a little bit. I feel bad for her having to clean everyone´s rooms, make lunch for at least 10-12 people every day, do the laundry, etc. I don´t see how she does it. I have been trying to make my bed every morning when I get up so that she doesn´t have to. I know she probably thinks nothing of it; it´s part of her job. It makes me feel like I am being lazy and ungrateful, though. I feel embarrassed when I am in a hurry and leave the bed messed up and she makes it. She always finds something to organize in my room though (she doesn´t have to look too hard). I don´t mean to say that Chileans with servants are spoiled or morally inferior; I just mean that it is hard for me to grow accustomed to having someone clean up after me. Only my mama has done that! Now that I am older, I feel bad when my mom makes my bed, too. Just because I leave it messed up doesn´t mean that I expect someone else to make it…..
Another interesting part of daily life is catching on to the chilenismos, or phrases and words that only Chileans use. I am getting used to their dropping the endings off of words and their rapid speech, which even my Honduran housemate finds difficult to comprehend at times. The chilenismos are something else, though. Here is a list I have been composing in my head for a while:
Chilenismo = Spanish = English
Po´ (said after a word, to give emphasis. Ex.: sí, po’)= pues= well, vocal filler
¿Cachai? = ¿Entiendes? = Get it? Or You know?
¿Cómo estai? = ¿Cómo estás? = How are you? (informal)
Polera = camiseta = t-shirt
Micro = autobús = city bus
Huevón = hombre, guey = man, dude (but it can also be vulgar. I am not exactly sure when!)
Hueonear = the verb of huevón
Che = argentine/a = Argentine
Copete = cóctel = cocktail, or could also mean any kind of drink
Arrender = alquilar = to rent
La pieza = la habitación, el dormitorio = bedroom
Choclo = maíz = corn, but a Little more sour than our kind of corn
Cartera = bolso = purse
Carrete = fiesta = party
Mechón = college freshman
That is all I can think of right now, but I am sure I will add more to the list.
Anyway, I want to add a couple of daily-life observations. One is the nana. Her name is Carmen, and she is the maid, cook, door-answerer, etc. It is common for middle-to-upper-class families to have a servant or servants, but it still gets to me a little bit. I feel bad for her having to clean everyone´s rooms, make lunch for at least 10-12 people every day, do the laundry, etc. I don´t see how she does it. I have been trying to make my bed every morning when I get up so that she doesn´t have to. I know she probably thinks nothing of it; it´s part of her job. It makes me feel like I am being lazy and ungrateful, though. I feel embarrassed when I am in a hurry and leave the bed messed up and she makes it. She always finds something to organize in my room though (she doesn´t have to look too hard). I don´t mean to say that Chileans with servants are spoiled or morally inferior; I just mean that it is hard for me to grow accustomed to having someone clean up after me. Only my mama has done that! Now that I am older, I feel bad when my mom makes my bed, too. Just because I leave it messed up doesn´t mean that I expect someone else to make it…..
Another interesting part of daily life is catching on to the chilenismos, or phrases and words that only Chileans use. I am getting used to their dropping the endings off of words and their rapid speech, which even my Honduran housemate finds difficult to comprehend at times. The chilenismos are something else, though. Here is a list I have been composing in my head for a while:
Chilenismo = Spanish = English
Po´ (said after a word, to give emphasis. Ex.: sí, po’)= pues= well, vocal filler
¿Cachai? = ¿Entiendes? = Get it? Or You know?
¿Cómo estai? = ¿Cómo estás? = How are you? (informal)
Polera = camiseta = t-shirt
Micro = autobús = city bus
Huevón = hombre, guey = man, dude (but it can also be vulgar. I am not exactly sure when!)
Hueonear = the verb of huevón
Che = argentine/a = Argentine
Copete = cóctel = cocktail, or could also mean any kind of drink
Arrender = alquilar = to rent
La pieza = la habitación, el dormitorio = bedroom
Choclo = maíz = corn, but a Little more sour than our kind of corn
Cartera = bolso = purse
Carrete = fiesta = party
Mechón = college freshman
That is all I can think of right now, but I am sure I will add more to the list.
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