Too much homework, lots of dancing, and one giant doll.

Hello my dear family and friends!

How are you? I feel like I don’t ask that enough. Please know that any email/comment/Facebook message you send me is warmly received. I love hearing about how you’re all doing and what you’re up to. I hope, as always, this message finds you well. You’re all very present in my prayers here!

This past week flew by! I last wrote on Wednesday, I believe (my dad’s birthday), and now it’s Sunday night and tomorrow begins the final week of our Intensive Spanish class here. I feel like January has flown by, and yet I feel like I’ve been away for much longer than a couple of weeks. It’s an odd feeling that I’m sure you’ve all experienced. I’ll fill you in on the week.

On Wednesday, after class, I went right to the pool with Caitlin, and we met up with a few other people. Because UAH has some sort of affiliation with San Ignacio high school here, we get in free during the summer, which we’ve been taking advantage of fairly regularly. The pool closes at 6:30 but we had planned to meet up with some other friends for a hike up Santiago’s biggest hill, Cerro San Cristobol. Unfortunately, I had a presentation to do for Thursday and realized that I would not be able to prepare for that and do the hike, considering I hadn’t even read the story I would be presenting yet (it was “El Sur,” or “The South” by Jorge Luis Borges, if you’re interested). So, like a good little student, I reluctantly returned to the house to read the story, which is all about abstract themes like time and reality and such. If you’ve ever read Borges, it won’t surprise you that I was really confused at first. But I figured it out after reading it over a few more times and looking up about 5,000 words in my Spanish-English dictionary. Stefani came over at 9 so we could work on coming up with questions and intelligent insights to present to our class the next day. As it turns out, our presentation went really well, so that was a relief. And, I'll definitely climb the hill over the course of the next several months, so I think I made the right choice.

Speaking of presentations, I have a lot to do for class this week. Tomorrow, I have to act out a scene (with Stefani and Liz) about some experience we’ve had in Chile. We chose to reenact a scene from Liz’s life, which took place at a restaurant on her first or second night here. We incorporated a little humor and some serious elements. First, she must try to place her order but does not know two very important things, namely, that most water in Chile is carbonated (agua con gas) and to get water without carbonation (sin gas), she must specify; and, that the Chilean version of a “hot dog” (which she won’t eat because she’s a vegetarian) is known as the completo and is usually served with avocado, mustard, mayonnaise, tomatoes, onions, and other things that just don’t belong on hot dogs. Secondly, she must survive a rather intense conversation with her Peruvian waiter. Since the war (I’ll avoid the history lesson for now and just say “the war”), Peru and Chile don’t get along very well. Like most wars, it was a battle about land, and Chile ended up winning the disputed territory. Relations are still strained, and in many situations, I’ve heard Chileans reference Peru and Peruvians with a tone that clearly conveys animosity; for example, foreigners in Chile are frequently told to “go back to Peru” (even if they’re not from Peru). The Peruvians do the same. Liz was actually asked by this waiter why she chose to study in Santiago when Peru is clearly much prettier. The waiter then proceeded to tell Liz that Chile robbed Peru of its resources and money and he’s only in Chile because he needs a job and needs money. This is all based on Liz’s real experience, and I think we’ve made a decent scene out of it, which will show how taken aback and confused she was (and we all were) that first day. I just hope we remember our lines!

For Wednesday, I need to cook some sort of Chilean dish (with Caitlin) and then do a presentation in class about how to make it. Suffice it to say that I’m not thrilled about this assignment. My host mom doesn’t enjoy cooking; she often throws something together that takes little effort, and while I don’t usually mind, she won’t be much of a help for this. Caitlin’s host mom is very young and I don’t think she cooks too much either. So, I have no clue what we’re making or where we’re making it or how we’re making it. Should be interesting.

On Thursday, I need to do another presentation in my Poesía and Gramática class about a poem which "moves" me personally and which also ties into some sort of theme we’ve discussed in class. This is also a partner project, though I don’t know who I’m working with or what poem I’m working on. We also have a quiz that day.

On Friday, I have to do a presentation in my Expresión Cultural class about something of my choosing. Needless to say, I haven’t chosen anything yet. I also have a quiz in my Cuentos Latinoamericanos class, so I’ll need to review all of the stories we’ve read for that course in order to prepare for that. We’ll finish the day on Friday by retaking the pre-test we took three weeks before, which will hopefully indicate that we’ve all improved. It’s going to be a busy week, to say the least.

On top of all of this school business, we need to get our February plans solidified. It’s a daunting task trying to plan a trip to the South when we don’t know anything. I’ve gotten some good advice from Ali and I’ve read plenty in the guidebooks, and most other people have also been channeling their resources in order to start creating a vision for their travels. I’m planning to travel with Liz, Caitlin, and Laura for sure (there are two Lauras, and this one is Laura B.), and we had our first “meeting” last night at a restaurant over a couple glasses of wine. We were quite the sight, with our guide books and my massive map (thank you, Katharine and Mrs. Fehr!) spread out over the table. I had the task of drawing our potential route on the map and looking for stop-off points. The others looked up information about each potential place to visit so that we could decide where we’d stop and what we’d skip over. We have a rough idea of what we’ll be doing for the first two weeks (we’ll spend one week getting to Patagonia and another enjoying the very southern part of Chile, if all goes well). We’ll have to be a bit creative because Liz’s mom is going to be coming to visit, at which point we’ll probably lose Liz. We’ll have two more weeks for traveling, and we want to spend the last one relaxing on a beach somewhere and staying in one place for the most part. That leaves our third week open, and we’re considering a trip to Argentina (though we could also do that at some point during the semester) or more time in Chile, which we all really want to see very thoroughly. Needless to say, we need another meeting and we need to start booking buses and hostels and maybe flights. I know we’ll get it all figured out, but it’s a little overwhelming.

Friday was a busy day. We had class until 3 and then I had my meeting with Isabel, the director of the program, to discuss classes for the semester. I will for sure be taking her six-credit Poverty and Development course, which is part of Loyola’s program and incorporates an outside service element one day each week. This will hopefully count as two classes toward my Social Welfare and Justice major at Marquette. In addition, I’m for sure enrolled in the Poesía y Sociedad class that Marcelo (my Poesía y Gramática professor now) will be teaching. He is such an excellent teacher, and I love reading poetry and connecting it to our world, so I’m more than excited for that class. I know I’ll have to work hard though because he expects a lot and is pretty tough on us sometimes. That one will count towards my Spanish minor, which I’ll finish, if all goes well, by taking my last literature class here. I got a class (called Siglo de Oro) approved before I left school, and Isabel thinks she can get me into it, along with two other students in our program, so that would be excellent. That puts me at 12 credits, which is far less than I’ve ever taken at Marquette, where I usually have 6 classes to worry about each semester. I know that doing work in Spanish will take me at least twice as long as my normal work takes me though, so I think it will be best if I can focus on just a few classes and not have to spend every free minute doing schoolwork. As it stands, assuming I get into the Siglo de Oro class, which will be my “immersion” class with Chilean students, I’ll have Mondays and Fridays off, which would be excellent for weekend traveling.

After my meeting with Isabel, I ran to the store to buy a few things and to recharge my cell phone. Here, you have to buy minutes as you go, which I think is obnoxious. My phone will spontaneously run out of minutes, leaving me unable to make any outgoing calls. It’s annoying, but it’s how things work here. I returned home to do some homework and decided, at about 8 when it starts to “cool off” here, to go for a run. I run along the main street (the Alameda), which gets pretty crowded during this time because people are getting out of work. But, I feel safe amidst the crowd and I know where I’m going because I run past Metro stops. I ran to Santa Lucía hill, jogged through the park there, and then came back. I stopped to walk the last stretch, from the corner of the Alameda to my house, which is only about 50 yards.

Five young boys were walking towards me, and my first thought was that they looked suspicious. I felt bad for thinking that, though, and I didn’t think I had anything to worry about, as I had no purse or anything to guard. My iPod was inside its protective case and attached to my arm with a Velcro band, and the only other thing on my person were my house keys. I pushed my judgmental thought aside and looked straight ahead as I walked past them. Three of the boys walked on one side of me and two walked on the other, and nothing seemed wrong as I passed through them. Until, that is, I felt a strong tug on my arm, right where my iPod was attached. Everything happened so fast—I reached for my arm, using my opposite hand, and I heard my iPod hit the ground. I bent down to pick it up, and when I stood up and turned around, the boy who had grabbed my arm was already several strides away, fleeing the scene and not looking back. For some reason, I felt the need to yell (in English) after him, which got the attention of the other four boys, who all turned and looked at me as if they had no idea what had just happened. It seems to me that they were working together, though, flanking him while he tried to snatch the iPod. My heart was racing and I was rattled, but more than that, I was mad that I hadn’t followed my instincts. I joke a lot about having ESP, but I honestly think I do get a lot of “hunches” about what’s going to happen, and I had one about those boys, though I couldn’t figure out why. The way they split and walked on either side of me, in retrospect, was awfully suspicious, and so was the way they looked at me, though I mistook their glances to be the same I receive almost everyday as a tall, white girl. A woman standing nearby, who apparently saw the action, shook her head as I put the iPod back in its case and walked past her to my apartment building, only a few steps away.

My hands were shaking a bit as I unlocked the double gates, and my heart was still racing when I sat down in the courtyard inside to do my post-run stretches. I am obviously very lucky that, despite his strong tug—enough to pop the iPod out of its case and send it flying onto the sidewalk—the boy was not successful. But I still felt as if I had been violated somehow. Someone had tried to take my things. Part of me feels terrible: he is a boy, probably a boy who can never purchase an iPod for himself, and he clearly thinks that stealing is the only way he’ll ever get anything in life. When I got inside and told Carolina and her boyfriend about the incident, they both used the word “thief” to talk about the boy, and although I know he was trying to steal from me and although I realize that I have to come up with a safer way to guard my iPod when I run (or walk), I still didn’t like that they were calling him that. Petty crime here is very common, and there’s a certain nonchalance about it and about those who feel the need to use it as a way to obtain things. I’m not so idealistic as to think that I am not a target—clearly, I am. I guard my things very closely and will take extra-extra-precautions now. However, as I stretched in the courtyard, a scene ran through my mind. I pictured a different result to the incident, one in which I reacted quickly enough to grab the boy’s arm as he tried to steal from me. Then, in my mind, I asked him (in Spanish), why he wanted things that were not his, and we had a rational conversation about how to rightfully obtain things—and he vowed to stop stealing, having realized that he owes it to himself to do better than that, no matter his circumstances or his need for cash or the injustice of a world that allows me to have plenty of things worth guarding whereas he has nearly nothing.

On to something slightly more light-hearted: my first night out dancing in Santiago! To celebrate Caitlin’s 21^st birthday (which is officially Monday), almost everyone from our class had some drinks and snacks at a place in Providencia called Break House (formerly Oveja Negra, I think). Caitlin’s host brother, Nicolas, knows pretty much everyone in town, so we all got 2-for-1 drinks at the restaurant in addition to getting in free at the club afterwards. The club was in the fun, Bohemian quarter of Santiago, Bellavista, so we all had to take cabs there, and we arrived around midnight, ready to dance. The place was pretty full and the music was—finally!—mostly in Spanish (though the DJ played the obligatory “Like a Virgin” because Madonna basically rules Chile). We danced until 5 in the morning, which I’ve never in my life done. I never sat down, and I didn’t even realize how much time was passing. I just kept dancing! And in Chile, people actually dance. There are legitimate steps, and people know them— and thanks to a program that Arellys did last semester about Mexican dances, I know basic steps to a few dances (merengue, salsa, bachata, and cumbia) and didn’t look like a total fool. I danced with several Chilean guys (Nicolas and his friends), and it was so much fun because they all actually know how to dance and were patient enough to teach me several things. I also danced around with everyone from our program, and it was so much fun to see everybody enjoying themselves. In short, we had a blast, and I took a taxi home, arriving at 5:30a.m., at which point my first thought was “Molly Henry would be proud.”

Yesterday, I had a more relaxing day. I spent it around the house, sleeping in late (obviously), getting some homework done, having lunch with my family, and watching a movie (from England from 2004) called “Millions.” We watched it in Spanish with Spanish subtitles (it’s easier for me to read than to listen, though I tried to do both), and I actually understood everything that was happening. Very exciting. Afterwards, I had the planning meeting with Laura, Liz, and Caitlin, and we went out for a few drinks. I called it an early night and took a taxi home, which I hate doing but must do because the Metro shuts down at 11.

I got up this morning at 11:20 (I guess I needed the sleep), and I quickly got dressed for Mass, which I had remembered was at noon at the church I’d gone to with Andrea the first Sunday I was here. Gladis was making breakfast for me, so I sat down and ate and was about to walk out the door at 11:45 when María José, my host “cousin,” decided she would quickly get dressed and accompany me. I was happy to have someone to go with, but I’d wanted to arrive early in order to snag a copy of the Readings so I could actually follow along. There are no Missalettes or Gather hymnals, so these weekly papers are the only print copies of the Readings available and they help me significantly. But, if I arrive late, the person who hands them out is usually finished doing so, leaving me to struggle with the echoing Spanish in the huge church.

A word about the concept of time in Chile: it’s different. At 12, we left the house. María informed me that we’d be going to Santa Ana, a different parish. She pointed at a steeple off in the distance and we started walking. Mass had been going on for approximately eight minutes when she veered off the sidewalk to purchase the Sunday newspaper from a vendor on the street. We had all sorts of conversation as we walked and walked and walked, and at 12:15, we finally arrived at the cathedral. I signed myself with Holy Water just as the sermon began, so I can’t officially say that we missed the entire first half of the Mass, but it was a close one. For the record, I found a print-out of the readings after Mass and read it then. I’ve decided that, before Mass, I’m going to just look up the Readings online. That way, if we miss the majority of the Liturgy of the Word, I’ll still be able to understand the themes in the homily. A note, though, to all of you Marquette Catholics in the reading audience: you know that song about being fishers of men (the Gospel today, by the way) that we sing in Spanish at school Masses? We sang it today and I knew the words because of that! How wonderful!!

I was feeling kind of icky today after Mass. Something has been bothering my stomach and my head for a few days, actually, and as I’ve said before, I never feel 100% here. It’s quite possible that my body is still adjusting to the climate change, but I also think that Santiago makes me physically ill. The air is so terribly contaminated, and I didn’t realize it would affect me as much as it does. Because the city’s in a valley, the contaminated air can’t escape, and there’s a permanent layer of fog blanketing Santiago. Unfortunately, while I had hoped things would improve when summer ends, it’s going to get worse. The cooler air in winter will push the air down, bringing the polluted air even closer to the center of the city, where I live. I’ll need to be sure to escape weekly or biweekly. My trip last weekend really helped me this week, though by mid-week I was back to feeling the effects of Santiago. I’ve got to figure something out.

I stayed in today and had the pleasure of talking to Bridget, Kelly, and Zak this afternoon, which was wonderful. It’s hard to coordinate schedules, and I so appreciated them taking the time to talk to me. I was able to call Zak’s cell phone with my computer, using Skype as my phone. I purchased Skype credit so I can call landlines and cell phones in the U.S. for only $.02/minute, and I was excited to see that, over all, the connection was pretty good. While it’s always a fine line between missing people and being happy to talk to them, the dominant emotion after having spoken to all of these wonderful people was gratitude. I’ve realized that I’m blessed to have so many people to miss so much, even though missing them is never easy!

Tonight, there was a very special performance in the street right by La Moneda (the capitol building). Thousands of people filled the streets, which were blocked off, and the parks and even the lawn of La Moneda, to watch an “espectáculo” from Barcelona. This was the first time this show has ever come to South America, and Chileans were very excited to see it. It’s hard to explain what sort of extravaganza this was, but it was awesome to be a part of it and I took lots of pictures and videos. There was a huge wheel with acrobats inside, some fire (and fireworks!!), many lights, some music, some crazy light projections, and—the star of the show—a giant doll (muñeca) made of copper. The performance was some sort of creation myth, mixed with a Christ-theme (the doll died and was resurrected), and laced with pride for Santiago, as this performance was part of what has been a summer-long festival of the arts known as Santiago a Mil. Basically, it was awesome to be a part of it. Stefani, Liz, and I, after having spent the evening working on our scene for our class tomorrow, were rejuvenated by the city’s energy and, of course, our Bravisimo ice cream. I’ll be uploading the pictures from the performance soon, as I feel that’s the only way to show you all what sort of event this was.

And, with that, I need to get to bed. This week will be pretty busy, but I’ll definitely be updating at some point so that I can share my travel plans with you all. I’ll be much less available in February, but I’ll hopefully give you an outline of my travels and I’ll check in whenever we come across Internet cafés. I plan to keep a detailed travel log and type it all up when I return home, so you’ll just have to be patient. For now, the plan is to depart from Santiago on February 2^nd and return on March 2^nd, and our classes begin on the 9^th. But, I promise you’ll all get details as soon as I know them.

Have a good Monday!

Amanda