Well, for the last few days, we´ve been signing up for classes (i´m going to apologize now for typos...i´m in an internet cafe with a crazy chilean keyboard). University of Chile is a very large spread out school. It has multiple campuses all over the city. We went to the Campus Macul, the largest, and it was very interesting. The walls were covered in pictures of Che Guevara (the guy that helped Fidel Castro take over Cuba), Marx quotes, anarchy symbols, etc. We were told that students stage demonstrations every year on Sept. 11 in response to the anniversary of the coup in 1973, complete with police retaliation and tear gas (don´t worry, we were shown the escape route and I´m going to try not to be in class that day). La Catolica is completely different. Very clean and tidy, with crosses and icons in the classroom. Much more my style. Haha.
Anyway, it looks like I´ll know my schedule by the end of the week, so I´ll be sure to let everyone know what that is.
This last weekend was a lot of fun. Saturday I got to sleep in (yay), and that afternoon I went to see Batman with my host sister, Paula (the one my age). Afterwards, we got to do a little shopping and I bought a pair of dress pants for $8!!!!
Sunday, I manage to get to church by myself (yayayay). After church, I met a lady who is a catechumen and we talked together for a while. I also met the choir director (who is originally from Pittsburgh and married a chilean man) and the president and secretary of the youth group. I´m going to try to make it to the meeting this Friday.
After church, I went over to Fr. Francisco and Lorena´s house (which happens to be two doors down from the President´s house). We had a wonderful time talking about church stuff and school stuff, looking over pictures, and just hanging out with the kids. Sunday night, I got to relax a little bit and recover from a cold I caught, which is thankfully just about over thanks to some awesome foreign meds.
Other than that, I have a paper due on the 14 (yuck, homework already) and have learned the pharmaceutical system almost as well as the transportation system. I will write more later with updates, but I hope everyone is doing well and I hope to hear from you soon! (hint hint...email is always great, as is facebook). Bye for now!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Photos!! 3 - Bellavista and La Chascona
Mountains!!
Mountains!!
More mountains!! This time with my friend Holly :)
Plaza de Italia
Can you tell I like mountains?
As if there was any doubt...
The courtyard of La Chascona (Pablo Neruda's 2nd house)
Beautiful White/Pink rose looking flowers (I think called Camillas)
Close up
The outside of the top level of La Chascona
Windows with the symbols of La Chascona: One with Pablo Neruda and Matilde's initials on it and the other with the symbol of La Chascona - the girl with wild hair
Aloe Vera - cool, huh?
Close up
More La Chascona (turn your head to one side)
A garden next to La Chascona
Mosaic
Pathway to the bar (Pablo Neruda's bar...not one we actually drank at)
Yes...more mountains
Haha...yes, mountains
Pathway to La Chascona
Courtyard
Rooftops
Birds :)Saturday, July 26, 2008
Week 2!!!!
So, I can't believe I've only been here a week...it seems like it's been so much longer. Lots to tell, so get ready for a long one:
Yesterday (Friday), we attended lectures on Chilean cinema and music. The cinema was...interesting. Up until very recently, Chile did not have a lot of it's own movies. Most were imported from the U.S. However, the movies they do have nowadays are relatively cheap (often 1 million USD or less), but fantastic given the amazing talent of the people working in the developing Chilean movie industry. Movies of note: Machuca, el Chacotero Sentimental (which I would not recommend for family viewing, but it makes a very strong statement on social sexual taboos and has a very romantic ending).
In regards to music, Chile spent most of the last century listening to Elvis Presley and other American rock bands, with some Chilean folklore sprinkled in between. There were actually two strains of Chilean music that developed independently. One was the folklore, called Nueva Cancion (New Song). This was mainly simple guitarr-vocal music with political and social themes (think Peter, Paul, and Mary). Very nice, and very moving. The other was Chilean Rock. As I said, it started out being American rock sung in English by Chilean singers, but soon evolved into rock with Spanish lyrics, and finally with Chilean themes. The rock styles were about a decade off from the American ones (so, the 70s music in Chile sounds a lot like the 60s music in the US, the 80s music sounds like the 70s, etc.). Musicians of note:
Violetta Parra
Victor Jarra
Los Jaiva
After that, we went to a Chilean restaurant, El Peyo (don't know what that means) and sampled traditional Chilean food (shellfish, fish, rice, sopaipillas (like fried dough)) while listening to some examples of the folklore we learned about earlier in the day. I have a great video of our program director doing a kareoke for one of the songs. Apparently, all Chileans sing and they all know all the words to these songs. Way to go for oral-literature based culture!!
Other things we did this week...
I got to watch Bridget Jones' Diary II (in Spanish) with my host family. If that movie could get any better, it would be to watch it in Spanish. It was, as usual, awesome. Tonight, Paula and I went out to watch Batman - also awesome. Umm...and I took a trip to Bellavista some time earlier this week and window shopped the artesania (artisans). It's also very good for the street vendors...great deals :)
Anyway, pictures and videos coming soon. Love you all!!
Yesterday (Friday), we attended lectures on Chilean cinema and music. The cinema was...interesting. Up until very recently, Chile did not have a lot of it's own movies. Most were imported from the U.S. However, the movies they do have nowadays are relatively cheap (often 1 million USD or less), but fantastic given the amazing talent of the people working in the developing Chilean movie industry. Movies of note: Machuca, el Chacotero Sentimental (which I would not recommend for family viewing, but it makes a very strong statement on social sexual taboos and has a very romantic ending).
In regards to music, Chile spent most of the last century listening to Elvis Presley and other American rock bands, with some Chilean folklore sprinkled in between. There were actually two strains of Chilean music that developed independently. One was the folklore, called Nueva Cancion (New Song). This was mainly simple guitarr-vocal music with political and social themes (think Peter, Paul, and Mary). Very nice, and very moving. The other was Chilean Rock. As I said, it started out being American rock sung in English by Chilean singers, but soon evolved into rock with Spanish lyrics, and finally with Chilean themes. The rock styles were about a decade off from the American ones (so, the 70s music in Chile sounds a lot like the 60s music in the US, the 80s music sounds like the 70s, etc.). Musicians of note:
Violetta Parra
Victor Jarra
Los Jaiva
After that, we went to a Chilean restaurant, El Peyo (don't know what that means) and sampled traditional Chilean food (shellfish, fish, rice, sopaipillas (like fried dough)) while listening to some examples of the folklore we learned about earlier in the day. I have a great video of our program director doing a kareoke for one of the songs. Apparently, all Chileans sing and they all know all the words to these songs. Way to go for oral-literature based culture!!
Other things we did this week...
I got to watch Bridget Jones' Diary II (in Spanish) with my host family. If that movie could get any better, it would be to watch it in Spanish. It was, as usual, awesome. Tonight, Paula and I went out to watch Batman - also awesome. Umm...and I took a trip to Bellavista some time earlier this week and window shopped the artesania (artisans). It's also very good for the street vendors...great deals :)
Anyway, pictures and videos coming soon. Love you all!!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Another day...
So, today was another day of class and FIELD TRIP!!!!!!
First, we talked about Chilean art and literature. While a potentially interesting topic, our speaker decided not to talk about the authors and artists that are most famous in Chile (Neruda, Allende, Mistral, etc.) but about politically marginalized artists who, while semi interesting, are not even known by most Chileans and thus did not provide much insight into popular culture. Oh well...
Afterwards, we took a trip to La Chascona in Bellavista, Santiago. This is one of Pablo Neruda's three houses. It was very nice. Built like a boat (Neruda loved the sea, but was often seasick, so he built his house in such a way that he could be a sailor of terra firma), the house showed an eclectic collection of maritime objects, French literature, Russian matryoshkas (gifts from the Comunist party), and paintings of his lover-turned-wife, Mathilde - La Chascona (meaning Medussa, because of her crazy hair).
While the details of Pablo Neruda's life are very interesting (like the fact that his name is really Naftali Reyes and Neruda was the name of a Cezch poet), I will avoid exhausting the issue and just say that it's a story worth looking into.
Pictures from this lovely trip (and indeed, they are lovely), are coming tomorrow, as I haven't had a chance to upload them to my computer yet. They will hopefully be accompanied by photos of the changing of the guard at La Moneda, which is scheduled to occur tomorrow morning around 10:00 (hopefully I will get there in time). Until then, CHAO!!
First, we talked about Chilean art and literature. While a potentially interesting topic, our speaker decided not to talk about the authors and artists that are most famous in Chile (Neruda, Allende, Mistral, etc.) but about politically marginalized artists who, while semi interesting, are not even known by most Chileans and thus did not provide much insight into popular culture. Oh well...
Afterwards, we took a trip to La Chascona in Bellavista, Santiago. This is one of Pablo Neruda's three houses. It was very nice. Built like a boat (Neruda loved the sea, but was often seasick, so he built his house in such a way that he could be a sailor of terra firma), the house showed an eclectic collection of maritime objects, French literature, Russian matryoshkas (gifts from the Comunist party), and paintings of his lover-turned-wife, Mathilde - La Chascona (meaning Medussa, because of her crazy hair).
While the details of Pablo Neruda's life are very interesting (like the fact that his name is really Naftali Reyes and Neruda was the name of a Cezch poet), I will avoid exhausting the issue and just say that it's a story worth looking into.
Pictures from this lovely trip (and indeed, they are lovely), are coming tomorrow, as I haven't had a chance to upload them to my computer yet. They will hopefully be accompanied by photos of the changing of the guard at La Moneda, which is scheduled to occur tomorrow morning around 10:00 (hopefully I will get there in time). Until then, CHAO!!
Photos!! 2 - La Moneda
As promised, here are pictures from our trip to La Moneda (to clarify, the descriptions of the photos are underneath the corresponding photo; sometimes it is unclear):
This is a picture of the back of La Moneda, with a newly erected Star that represents something...
Here is a statue of Bernardo O'Higgins, the liberator of Chile from the Spanish Crown
Same guy, though with head shots of some of our group members (that's our tutor on the right)
A tower that I think has something to do with the Department of Education...
A gift from the Colombian delegation in front of Bernardo O'Higgins statue
Manuel Bulnes...some other famous guy (I think he worked with O'Higgins)
A fountain in front of La Moneda
The front of La Moneda, complete with carabineros (presidential police)
Salvador Allende, the democratically elected socialist president who was overthrown by the Augusto Pinochet and the military in the Coup of 1973. Apparently, there was a lot of controversy as to where to place this statue. It is currently off to the side of the front plaza.
I liked the fountains in this one (I don't know who the statue is of)
This is a cool water effect on the walls leading down to the cultural center
Translation: La Moneda Palace Cultural Center
Huge poster dedicated to Salvador Allende, the current focus of the center's changing exhibits
Folk art!!!
More folk art...
Another shot of the poster to Allende
Pretty picture of Lituania (none of us could figure out what it was doing there)
In case you didn't catch it the first two times...folk art!!
Haha...yes, more folk art (at least a different medium this time)
Some guy in a boat in the south of Chile
No one is really sure what this is, but it looked neat (we're guessing Japanese WWII, but have no idea what it's doing there)
The presidential seal
Hmmm...not sure, but it looks impressive!That's all for now, more coming tomorrow!!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Day to Day Activities
So, lots to say!! Monday, Paula (my host sister) took me on the metro to meet my group at the police station. There, we waited for two hours to register our visas. Actually, the first hour we all waited because their computers weren't working, and the second hour we all ran in by turns to get the registration. From there, we went to a building near La Moneda, the presidential palace, where we had our first class on the history of Chile - specifically the government of Salvador Allende and the "golpe de estado" (coup d'etat) of Augusto Pinochet.
After the class, we had small group discussions, followed by lunch. My host mom packed me a "palta reina" - avocado w/ mussles and mayonaise. It was amazing!! I am for sure that I had the best lunch of the entire group. After lunch, we went on a field trip to La Moneda. While it is usually open at all times so people can come in and take tours (which I thought was pretty cool given the level of security at our capital building), this day it was closed due to some activities or something going on inside. But, we got to see the outside and the plaza. From there we got to see the Museum, which was actually not very interesting because you had to pay to get in to most of the exhibits, which none of us really wanted to do at that point. But we did get to see some examples of folk art.
After the field trip, we watched a documentary on the "golpe de estado" of Pinochet. It was kinda dry, but still effective in conveying the extent of the violence associated with this coup. It really hit me when I left the building for the day and walked past La Moneda again. I saw a view of the Palace very similar to that in the documentary, and imagining it burning with soldiers bursting in was enough to give me goosebumps and to realize just how far this country has come since then.
Today, (Tuesday), I took the bus (on my own!!!) to class. I got stuck at one of the streets, because it was full of carabineros - the local armed forces. I found out later that they were preparing for the changing of the guard at La Moneda. They do this every two days, so I will be ready next time with my camera. We talked about the structure of Chile's government, the current political parties, and the electoral process...all very interesting!! We had another small group discussion and then a lecture on Chile's demographics (kinda boring actually). We then had lunch. I had a tuna omelet with beets and avocado. MMmmmm. After that, we watched "Machuca" - a very famous Chilean film about the last portion of Allende's presidency. If you can, I would definitely recommend watching it - it comes with English subtitles and really gives you a good glimpse at the context in which things are operating down here. And it would give me a sense of solidarity with everyone, because we will have all watched the move :)
Anyway, pictures of these last couple of days will be coming soon. I love you all!!
After the class, we had small group discussions, followed by lunch. My host mom packed me a "palta reina" - avocado w/ mussles and mayonaise. It was amazing!! I am for sure that I had the best lunch of the entire group. After lunch, we went on a field trip to La Moneda. While it is usually open at all times so people can come in and take tours (which I thought was pretty cool given the level of security at our capital building), this day it was closed due to some activities or something going on inside. But, we got to see the outside and the plaza. From there we got to see the Museum, which was actually not very interesting because you had to pay to get in to most of the exhibits, which none of us really wanted to do at that point. But we did get to see some examples of folk art.
After the field trip, we watched a documentary on the "golpe de estado" of Pinochet. It was kinda dry, but still effective in conveying the extent of the violence associated with this coup. It really hit me when I left the building for the day and walked past La Moneda again. I saw a view of the Palace very similar to that in the documentary, and imagining it burning with soldiers bursting in was enough to give me goosebumps and to realize just how far this country has come since then.
Today, (Tuesday), I took the bus (on my own!!!) to class. I got stuck at one of the streets, because it was full of carabineros - the local armed forces. I found out later that they were preparing for the changing of the guard at La Moneda. They do this every two days, so I will be ready next time with my camera. We talked about the structure of Chile's government, the current political parties, and the electoral process...all very interesting!! We had another small group discussion and then a lecture on Chile's demographics (kinda boring actually). We then had lunch. I had a tuna omelet with beets and avocado. MMmmmm. After that, we watched "Machuca" - a very famous Chilean film about the last portion of Allende's presidency. If you can, I would definitely recommend watching it - it comes with English subtitles and really gives you a good glimpse at the context in which things are operating down here. And it would give me a sense of solidarity with everyone, because we will have all watched the move :)
Anyway, pictures of these last couple of days will be coming soon. I love you all!!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Sunday
Yesterday, Veronica came with me to church at Holy Virgin Mary Orthodox Catholic Church here in Santiago. The service was very nice, and the church was beautiful. I had a chance to talk to Fr. Francisco, and it was so nice to see him again. Afterwards, I enjoyed the rest of my Sunday afternoon reading and napping :)
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