May 30, 2006

Santiago, Chile:

This link talks about the student strikes taking place in Chile right now.

Basically, this all began two Thursdays ago at the school [near] my house. The school is one of the main public schools leading the strike. The student's goals are to get free bus access and the government to pay for their college entrance exam. Today pretty much all the schools and universities participated in the strike. The Thursday it all started I was on the metro and everybody was sneezing, and I later realized it was from the tear gas the police used to evacuate the students.

They have been protesting by form of marching and lock ins. So as not to lose their credibility, the students are not allowing any alcohol, drugs, or relations w. boyfrineds/girlfriends.

My bedroom looks right out to the school, so I will hear their chants for their protest at about midnight. Walking past the school you'll see students protesting both inside and out. Its been quite an experience watching all of this happen.

I hope you are all having a good summer.

I still have classes, my semester ends July fifth, and then Emily and I are traveling South America untill August 17th. It should be the experience of a lifetime.

God Bless,
Stevie

April 16, 2006

Santiago, Chile:

Queridos Amigos y Familia,
I hope all of you had a blessed Easter today. I went to an Easter service here, in Chile, and it was very interesting. The church was very small, about 75 members or so in attendance, and everybody knew each other. Obviously, my three friends and I stood out like sore thumbs, so the preacher had us introduce ourselves (during the service). It didnt strike me untill sitting in this service how much emphasis in the states is put on appearances, even in church. For instance, at home, our church is always well decorated for Easter with flowers, etc. Here, it was a very simple service, nothing extravagant. They are really good here about not being wasteful or using things in excess, this holds true in many aspects here. I don´t really know what I was expecting, but I was surprised by how different the celebration of Easter is in this Catholic country. The whole city has been pretty shut down and slow this weekend, because many people are out traveling around on vacations.

On another note, last weekend I worked at the Chileno Habitat for Humanity (which started here in 2001 or something around there) in the town of ¨los andes¨, which is a developing community about an hour outside of the city of Santiago. I've worked with Habitat many times before, but this time was very different for a number of reasons, the main one being the resources available and the methods for construction used here. After constantly being surrounded by a better way of life in Chile, seeing this way of life in this poor town was a very eye opening experience. There is a huge gap in this country among those with money and those without money; that is to say the poor are very poor, and the class distinctions are more obvious.

Some friends and I took a day trip to a Viña in Santiago a few weeks ago, and it was very beautiful and interesting.

Classes are pretty demanding; most of my time has been spent in the library. There are virtually no books in it; there are a few magazines, a few books, maybe two hundred in all, but most people use the library for its silence as strictly a place to study, to check out books one goes elsewhere.

Espero que les vaya bien,
los extraño mucho
Chao y besos,
God bless,
Stevie

April 2, 2006

Santiago, Chile:

Yesterday we went to a local vineyard just a little bit outside of the city. The town was what I imagine stereotypical Latin American towns to be like, red rooftop houses (all with the exact same architecture) one with the mountains and the nature surrounding it. (I can tell you after living here for six weeks, and all my travels through latin american countries, that stereotype is exactly that, just a stereotype, and from my experience, the big cities (Buenos Aires, San Jose, Mexico City, Santiago) are HUGE contrasts from that). The vineyard we went to grows, makes, and sells only its own products (which are also imported to Britain and the US among other countries). It has been in the family for six generations, and started as a hobby for the family. The wine was as I imagined Chileno wine to be, wonderful. (Before coming here I read that Chile has some of the best wine due to its "trinity" for production, the right climate, soil, and weather, and I can't argue with the truth to that, although Argentina has pretty good wine as well).

As I mentioned in my last email, we visited Isla Negra. I had my doubts about it, before going there, thinking it would just be another tourist spot with no real life to it. But, it has been one of the highlights of my stay here. (As an anthropology student, things of that nature are my fancy). Neruda designed the house so that it would resemble a boat, so that he could always feel at one with the sea behind him. He traveled a lot, and had many rich bureaucrats for friends, so his house was filled with all sorts of trinkets from all around the world. In almost every room there was a wooden or marble angel over looking the room. There is a hallway to his workroom that is filled with boat models inside bottles, and masks from all around the world, among other things. He had a room with aquariums and seashells inside of it that he had painted blue so that the fish could "still feel one with the sea"

He had a globe inside of his workroom from the early 1900s, before Texas became part of the US!

On the completely other side of the spectrum, while Chile has advanced a lot from its time of a machismo ruled country, as is most if not all of Latin America, it is still extremely prevalent all over. We've had many discussions about women's rights in the workplace and their rights in relationships and such, and the stereotypes and research behind the mentalities of both women and men, and from everything I've gathered in class and such, it seems like the mind set regarding women here is stuck in the 1950s, when women should be tied to cleaning the house and watching their children. Its not looked down on, to the contrary is rather common, for the man to leave his wife or the mother of his child (according to recent statistics 58% of children in Chile are born out of wedlock because divorce was only legalized less than two years ago). It's reassuring to see other young ladies faces in my classes at the university here, because it gives me hope that someday soon the mentality will be more open to women in the work force, and women outside of the traditional roles. I'm taking a sociology class on the family here, and we spent all class on thursday discussing the different roles and characteristics of women and men, and while I thought the professors would refute them as stereotypes, it seemed like she reiterated that was how it was here.

March 31, 2006:

I [have] been in Santiago, Chile, for the last five weeks. I'm going to classes at La Catolica, and the classes there are pretty demanding. My classes are all taught in Spanish, and they are American Anthropology, La Familia: ¿Para Que?, Medios II (Radio), Spanish, and Sociology. Next week I will begin working with a friend of mine at a local radio station in Santiago. [W]e are hoping to do a segment including a mix of regaton, English lessons, and country music (at my begging).

Living in Santiago thus far has been quite an eye opening experience. As similar as it is at times to New York City, or other big American cities, its just as different. For instance, "Machismo" still persists and is prevalent today. The chileno accent is arguably the most difficult spanish accent to understand, because they don't use proper grammar, they don't typically pronounce the "s", all the words are slurred together, and there are hundreds of "chileneismos", words unique to Chile. Learning Spanish here is comparable to learning English in Australia. The family I live with is really nice; I live with a mom, her 26 year old daughter, who leaves Sunday to study in Buenos Aires, the mom's sister, and the mom's 18 year old niece, and their dog Rufo who's half blind and deaf. The apartment is in a nice, safe neighborhood in Santiago.

Some of you may have seen Michele Bachelet's inauguration on the news. It was quite an emotional event for all the families over here. I unfortunately did not watch the inauguration because I was enjoying the countryside outside of Santiago on a lemon farm (Once I figure out how to upload photos, I will set up a website with them and you all will be able to see how amazing it is here). The following day, however, there was a celebration in honor of Michele's inauguration in the town center. I went with a few friends, and we were probably the only North Americans at the celebration, and it was quite the extravaganza. Everyone was happy, singing along to the different musicians, and cheering for Bachelet. What struck me as interesting was that Michele was sitting on stage with the rest of the crowd, without any guards or anything on her sides protecting her. The economy is very stable here, and there is an apparent dislike of North American politics here, which I feel has been expressed or implied in almost every class I'm taking here.

The first weekend here we took a trip down to the south with the program I am here with. We went down to Torres del Paine, which is basically the southern most tip of Chile, and saw the Patagonian Glaciers. We also traveled to Punta Arenas and saw penguins in their natural habitat. The next weekend we went to Valparaiso on the western coast of Chile to the beach. It is a beautiful, very touristy city. We also visited Isla Negra, where we saw one of the three houses of Pablo Neruda, the one he had constructed for his third wife. The architecture and the harmony of the house and the water was pretty interesting.

Last weekend a few of us traveled to Lake Rapel, which is a HUGE man made lake, made for energy purposes, surrounded by desert.

The weather is just now starting to cool down, which is a nice change from the summer months when we arrived here.

The people I've met here are, for the most part, very nice. A bit shy at first (which is characteristic of Chilenos, apparently).

I feel as though there have not been very many dull moments here. It's a busy city, there's always something to do, something to see, something to experience. A few weekends ago we hiked up "Cerro San Cristobal", which has a giant statue of Saint Christopher overlooking Santiago. Once at the top, we had a breathtaking view of all of Santiago.

As a random aside, there is a very large Mormon population here, and on my walk home from school everyday I pass a very large Mormon Church. The other day, when walking home, this elderly couple was standing at the stoplight with me and asked "Ud es de aca" (Are you from here), (If it's not obvious, I kinda stick out like a sore thumb in this country). And we began to talk. It turns out they're from Ohio and have been living many years in South America in different places, including Uruguay, Argentina, and now Chile. It was very interesting to hear their points of view on the different places they have lived and worked.

January, 2005

Argentina (and a weeee bit of Uruguay):

Having lived in Buenos Aires for only a month, I can't claim to know everything there is to know about the city, but in those four weeks I did learn a good amount about it. Many people claim Buenos Aires to be the "Paris of South America." Having never been to Paris myself, I can't agree or refute that claim. Buenos Aires does, however, have a very "European" aura to it. The strong Italian influence is visible in its food, culture, and the people. For instance, a common salutation instead of "adios" is "chao". The best pizza I ever ate I ate at a small hole in the wall restaurant in Buenos Aires. On every corner there is an empanaderia, with all different types of empanadas, from tuna fish casserole to tomato cheese and basil, to chicken cordon bleu, to meat to dulce de leche filled. And, thanks to the economic plunge of the early 2000s, most everything is considerably cheaper than in the states. One dollar=3 pesos. Some might describe the attitude of the people in Buenos Aires to be snobby and uptight. I thought the majority of them to be very friendly and helpful. They are very highly concerned with fashion and all that is "de la moda" (fashionable). As a result of the strong European influence, I, as a tall blonde haired Texan, never really felt I stuck out, unlike every other Latin American country I've visited. In fact, a few times I actually got mistaken for an Argentine! The Argentina accent is very distinct, and to me sounds very Italian. They use the "yeismo" and the "voseo." When I first arrived in Buenos Aires I had no clue about either of those, and when my host mother first spoke to me, she said something including both of those things, and I just looked at her thinking to myself, "I've studied this language for twelve years, and I don't have ANY clue whatsoever what she just said to me." Well, the next day in Spanish class, I learned that "vos" means "tu", and that in Argentina they use a unique conjugation, formed by just dropping the "r" in the verb and adding an s and putting an emphasis on the last syllable. So, instead of "tienes" you have "tenés", etc. And as for the "ll" and "y" sounds, they sound more like "ch". For instance, llave = chave, calle = cache, etc.

We visited the Casa Rosada on a Tuesday, when the "Marcha de la Resistencia" was taking place. We visited numbers of ports while staying there. We took a day trip to the delta of the Tigre River, which was wonderful and relaxing. The surrounding area was completely touristy. The river was brown and looked like sewage water, but that is just how the dirt in that river is that makes it that color. It is not due to the pollution. We took a weekend trip to La Colonia, Uruguay, which is just a little over two hours away by BUQUEBUS! (A ferry-bus that goes over the tigre river to Uruguay). The city of La Colonia is a small retirement village mostly, so we rented some Motos and rode around the city and to the beach. The immense spread of the water made us think we were navigating the Pacific Ocean, but the brown coloration of the water reminded us that we were still in the Tigre River, right where it begins to meet the ocean. The next weekend we took a trip to Iguazu falls on the border of Argentina and Brazil. Over four miles of waterfalls is quite a site for sore eyes. It was absolutely spectacular. We went to the corner of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil. They were just a short swim away from each other from where we were!

The final weekend in Argentina, we took a trip down south to Tierra del Fuego and Calafate. I can't pick a favorite because they were all so spectacular, but Iguazu, Calafate, and the glaciers at Tierra del Fuego are among the most beautiful places I've ever seen, and I think in my twenty years I've been lucky to see a plethora of amazing places in nature. In calafate, as we walked around this beautiful pond while the sunset behind us, we tried calafate berries, which are the local berries of that region. The legend has it, that if a tourist tries a calafate berry, they're bound to return to Calafate. The berries were delicious, and what was even better was that we could pick them directly off of the trees and eat them!

I can't put into words how breathtaking the glaciers were. You could hear the ice breaking and watch it fall. The laws are very strict as to where you can throw things away and such, in order to keep the water clean, that you could bend over and drink the water straight from the glacier lakes. We spent one day hiking around the glaciers, hiking through the hills next to the water to get different views of the glaciers. The next day we spent hiking the Andes Mountains, which was absolutely wonderful. We were trying to get to the base of this glacier, but something didn't agree between the maps and the trails, and my friend and I ended up getting hopelessly lost, we had left our group four hours into our hike because the rest wanted to go back, so we left them in search of the base of the glacier, but then got sooooo close we could feel it, but the trails weren't well marked at all, so we wandered around lost for another four hours until we figured our friends back at the hostel would probably be worrying where we were and we gave up and went home. The mountains overlooked a beautiful glacier lake, by which we filled up our water bottles. (probably the best water I've ever had). The next day a small group of us went on a guided hike ON TOP of the glaciers. That was a unique experience altogether. On the top of the glacier, the tour guides gave us some pick axes and we climbed up that way a bit more, then they carved out some ice directly from the glacier, put it in some cups, and served us Tia Maria while atop the glacier.

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