A Map!

I realized, after talking to Dad today, that most of you probably have no clue where the places I'm talking about are, I woudn't even if I weren't here. So, I made you a little map! If it doesn't show up well, just click it to get the full size version. The green star is where I am right now; the purple is Mendoza, Argentina, where I'm going next weekend; the blue is Pucon, where I'm going with ISA the next weekend for the volcano-climbing; and then the red is where I'm going in December (notice how close it is to Antarctica!).

oops

I forgot! One of the mooooosssst annoying things ever: PDA. PDA (Public Displays of Affection) is perfectly acceptable here. You have to be careful of sitting behind couples on a bus if you don't want a show. Bus stops and stores are fine for plenty of kissing. Beaches, parks, any random bench is fair game for making out. It drives me crazy.

Also, the US-ism really bothers me. The Chilean culture is soooo infiltrated by US culture, in TV shows (MTV, TV movies, sitcoms, you name it), movies, brands and products, language (email, for example, means email), etc. etc. etc. I go from being annoyed at not being able to see the real Chilean culture, to frustrated that they can't come up with their own stuff (lol), to sad that we're corrupting them, etc.

But anyway. I don't spend most of my time thinking of what I am annoyed about, honest I don't. This has just been a bit of a frustrating week, although better since the weather has been great (probably in the 80s) the past couple days. In any case, the next few weeks should fly by and then I'll be wishing I had a few more months here.

Why will they fly by? First, because I have a few trips. First, we don't have school on Thursday- all Saints' day- yay for Catholic school!- so I leave on Thursday to go to Mendoza, Argentina for a few days. Its about 32 dollars for a bus taking you through the Andes mountains, and then I'll be staying at a hostel for about 7 dollars/night. Awesome! I'm going with my friend Maria, and we haven't made definite plans yet, but we're thinking about a horse-back-riding tour in the foothills of the Andes for a few hours on Saturday. Then the next weekend is Pucon! Its an ISA trip, meaning the transportation, hotel, and breakfasts are free. What does that leave? CLIMBING A VOLCANO! Yes, thats right, if the weather is agreeable, I'll be paying about 70 dollars to climb a volcano on Saturday the 10th. That is pretty awesome. Secondly, there are only 4 more weeks of classes left! So in the next four weeks, I have at least 4 tests, 2 final projects, one take-home essay test, and the second half of don Quijote to read. Should be fun...

So, in summary, I should get back to reading El Burlador de Sevilla... (and watching football scores on ESPN.com's game cast)

Love, Katie

Day 100

Today is day 100! To celebrate, I made a list of all the things I will most definitely NOT miss about Chile. haha. But don't worry, I balanced it out with a list of all the things I will miss. I had longer lists before, but I can't find them. Oh well.

Things I will not miss:
1. Stray dogs
2. Fleas- I only had one problem, but I'm always paranoid.
3. Sticking out- sometimes its cool or at least ok, sometimes it bugs me that everyone is staring at me...
4. Buses with no schedule
5. Paying for transportation- yay for Pitt student IDs and PAT buses!
6. Cloudy days- because cloudy=cold. And rain is cool, but it never rains, its just cloudy!
7. Host mom- To be completely honest, she's nice, but I won't miss her all that much. At first I thought she was very absent-minded and thats why she never remembered ANYTHING I told her, but now it just seems like she doesn't try. And she asks me dumb questions. "What?! You were tired after the caminata?" "Well, yeah, it was 27 km"... *sigh* Among other things.
8. Communication. I'm tired of waiting for emails from people I see almost every day in Pittsburgh, and of my family not being able to call me.
9. Chilean time. Sometimes its nice that I can be late to everything, sometimes it annoys me that everything starts late.
10. Windows without screens. Its a nice day. Do I leave the window closed? Or open it and let half a billion flies in my bedroom?
11. Bakeries on every corner. Oh the temptation.
12. They put tons of oil and salt on their food. Umm, you don't need to cook noodles with soooooo much salt! Along the same lines, I don't need so much food! My host mom gives me (and everyone, except herself and Alejandra because Ale complains) enormous serving sizes, and usually I'm not hungry anymore after just the soup.


Things I will miss:
1. Fruit! Its so cheap here! And they have every kind, almost all the time!
2. Pan (bread)- also really cheap, and I'm getting used to eating lots of Chilean bread fresh from the bakery every day!
3. Flowers. There were plenty of flowers even in wintertime. And now its spring!
4. el Mar (ocean)
5. Summer. Its going to be cold and gray when I get home.
6. Easy-access transportation. Step 1: Walk out front door. If I'm going to Vina, Step 2: cross the street.
7. Prices. While there are some things that cost a ton (like a regular bottle of sunscreen for 11 dollars), most things are really cheap.
8. My host niece, Amanda. I'll never see her first step, first word, etc.
9. Free time. Although I have busy weeks, in general I have a LOT more free time than at home. And this sometimes gets boring, but seriously, who would not miss having so much free time?
10. Mountains.
11. Bakeries on every corner.
12. Chile is gorgeous. They say that God created the world, and then took all the leftover parts and put them in Chile. Its probably true. It has the driest desert in the world, the highest mountain range outside of Asia, 4000 miles of coastline, glaciers, etc. etc.
13. My ISA friends!

Caminata!

Well, to get a better description of the walk and my general feelings on Catholicism in Chile, see Alli's blog (link is in the next post down). She sums it up well. For a quick description, on Saturday I left home at 3:30am to go with about 40 other college students from the area, including Alli and our other friend Ann and my group Pastoral, to bus to Chacabuco to walk a 27km (17 mile, the first half all up-hill) pilgrimage with 70,000 Chileans to the shrine of St. Teresa (where I went the week before). It was AMAZING.

As many times I have said this since arriving in Chile, the view on our way up was the most incredible thing I have ever seen in my life. And I really mean it this time. Because not only could we see miles of Chilean country-side--hills, cliffs, vineyards in the valley, and the Andes mountains to the left--but we could see miles of other pilgrims behind us and ahead of us, winding around the dirt road that we had passed hours before, or that we still would not get to for a couple hours. And perhaps the most amazing thing was that these were, in the vast majority, teenagers. High school and college students from all over Chile, and while it was clear that some were just there for a fun trip with their friends, I cannot imagine that they were not all touched in some way by our caminata from St. Teresa's childhood home to her tomb at the shrine.

St. Teresa is one of my new favorite saints. She was soooo holy, and she never even reached her 20th birthday! What a great inspiration for anyone, but especially those of us who are so young! And she has really united Chile... they have SO much pride in their first saint (and one of only 2 so far). You literally cannot go anywhere without seeing a picture of her!



(click this one, you'll be able to see the people winding all over the hills below us)


Ann and Alli


Me with Jorge and Mary Carmen, our group leaders (hence the 3 over Jorge), and Lorenzo


Reaching the summit


We made it!


For the second album, click here.

la Caminata!... to start with

Well, I need to get going for class, but I have one album for the Caminata done so far. I plan to make the other and post pictures here when I get back and after dinner, so it probably will be around 8 or 9 your time.

http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2149383&l=c29da&id=14218621

Also, I plan to just make a few comments, you can get details of the walk and a lot of how I felt about it from Alli's blog (click here). She summed up a lot of what I felt and I don't see a need to be super-repetitive.

Quintay

Last Monday (I know, I'm getting more and more behind!) I went to Quintay with my friends Lauren, Jen, and Maria. Its a quiet little fishing town about 45 minutes from here. We explored an old whaling port (I don't know what you would call it exactly...) (the boat below is one they would use to bring in blue whales a loooooong time ago! wow!), ate seafood and empanadas (and probably drove the waitress crazy... we were the only ones in the restaurant, so she kept waiting for us while we couldn't make up our minds. Plus, they didn't have a lot of things on the menu, so she kept having to clarify), played on a playground, and explored some paths on a hill going down to a rocky beach on the other side of the town. It was a beautiful day!
I took well over a hundred pictures, so when I finally put them on Facebook I'll let you know :-)

Santuario de Sta. Teresa

Edit: Pictures!! http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2146927&l=0bbbd&id=14218621

The Church

Inside


St. Teresa's tomb

One of the stations on the Way of the Cross up a hill behind the church


(click on this one to see it bigger!!!)

Well, there's my trip from yesterday, the pictures really speak for themselves. I'll just add that it was a beautiful day (except, notice those clouds covering the Andes in the last pic, they were pretty much there all day), very nice and quiet and peaceful even though there were lots of people around- there were plenty of buildings and trees to muffle noise... I also met some priests from the US, they were there as a last stop on a one or two week tour that included talks in Brazil and Argentina, as part of the GK Chesterton Institute, which sounds really cool. Anyway, it was neat getting to talk to them for a little while (only I realized half an hour later I should have asked for confession since I'm wary of doing that in Spanish... oh well). Thanks for the prayers, I had a wonderful day!!

Love, Katie

Random

Dear everyone,
I see the ocean several times every day. Sometimes it is really hard to remember that I'm not just on extended vacation... I mean really, wouldn't you rather go walk along the beach in the waves on a warm spring day than do homework? Boo homework.

Tomorrow I'm going to the shrine of St. Teresa de los Andes. A personal mini-retreat. I'm excited. Its also my way of making up for missing the barn dance with the Newman Club in Pittsburgh tomorrow- my favorite event of the year. So say a prayer for me tomorrow! :-)

Fuzzy purple flowers!!

Monday is basically Chile's Columbus day. That means no school! My homework for that class is just due later in the week though...

I think the time changes here this weekend. We're springing forward!

I warned you this was random :-)

Love,
Katie

Catching up

Well, I finally have a short homework break, so here's three new posts!

First of all, on Thursday, I finally tried a completo. A completo is a hot dog, Chilean-style. That means, a hot dog with tomatoes, avocado, and mayonaisse (adding ketchup and/or mustard is optional). A lot of people like them, so I figured I shouldn't leave Chile without giving it a try. At first taste, it actually wasn't too bad. Well, by about 2/3 of the way through, I was getting a gag reflex so I tossed the rest in the trash. I think it had to do with the tomatoes, because I was sick to my stomach the rest of the day (I ate it at about 1:30pm) and felt like throwing up everytime I smelled something that reminded me of tomatoes. Yuuuucccckkkkkkkkk. Never again. Interesting, though, last week when I told a tia who was visiting that I had never had a completo before, she was shocked. "Don't they have hot dogs in the United States?" "Well, yes but not with all that on them... just with ketchup, or mustard" And she got this look on her face like that was really disgusting. Hello?!? Have you looked at a completo recently? Besides, if you're going to call it "hot dog" like an American (yes, the Chilean Spanish for hot dog is hot dog), then we should be the ones who get to say whats normal or not.


Anyway, going back a little farther... I have the best parents ever:Yes, that is a heath cake. They sent me the ingredients for a heath cake. Plus a really cute skirt and top. They are awesome.


Love, Katie

Playas del Norte- Oct. 6

The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, and if you want longer captions, the album is here. Plus there are a lot more gorgeous pics as well.

First we went to Reñaca, just a few minutes stop. Then on to Concón, where we rode horses. My horse's name was Lausha, and I was one of the last people to get a horse. There is a reason that Lausha is one of the last horses they send out. First of all, she and Brittany's horse kept going towards grass. And when they found a patch of green they would stop suddenly to eat. Now, I would not have gone horseback riding if they had been the bone-thin horses you see at some beaches, but seriously, these horses must have been hungry! Second of all, Lausha apparently was afraid of the water. We would start getting close and she would start running in the other direction, no matter how hard I tried to calm her down and turn around. (ok, probably trotting quickly, but for someone who has never ridden a horse before it was a bit too fast) So, we went back after about a 15 minute ride, and I still had to pay the half hour :-/

Next stop, Horcón, famous for their queso (cheese) y camarones (shrimp) empanadas. They were quite good, although not any better than just a plain cheese empanada in my opinion. It was a really neat beach, with lots of moss and barnacle covered rocks and tide pools and sand full of tiny seashells and sea glass. You really ought to check out that Facebook album when you have time ;-) Finally, we went to Zapallar, which is clearly a very very rich area. Huge houses on the side of a hill with gardens sloping down to the rocky beach. Gorgeous.

Horcón




Zapallar

Santiago- History trip- Sept. 28

Click here for the Facebook album (39 pics). If you're going to look at that, you might as well skip this, because I'll probably just copy and paste captions and descriptions.

First we went to the Archivo de la Vicaria dela Soidaridad, which is an organization started by a Catholic cardinal right after the golpe militar (coup) in 1973. It helped people find their loved ones that went missing during the 17 years of dictatorship. Now its mainly a source for historians, with detailed info on all who went missing, thousands of newspaper clippings, etc.

Then we visited the Fundacion Solaridad. They started during the dictator years by giving the prisoners something to do- make art. Now they help poor Chilean artists sell their work in Chile and all over the world at fair prices. These patchworks are their most recognizable products, and often made political statements during the dictatorship and still do now sometimes. However, there is also stonework, woodcarving, greeting cards, jewelry, etc.


Next stop was the Cementario General, the most incredible cementary I've ever seen. Its where most of the rich and famous of Chile are buried- its like walking through a museum. Plus some of the family tombs are basically giant stone buildings with intricate carving and stained glass and such (the album has better pictures- I didn't upload the one I meant to)


This is the "poor"-er area... notice how devoted people are to caring for the graves... mini-gardens, shade tents, stuffed animals, flowers, etc. etc. etc.


Finally, we visited Villa Grimaldi, center of dentenetion, torture and extermination between 1973 and 1979- 4500 tortured and 226 disappeared and executed. Its so sad that so many people still support Pinochet. Yes, he got rid of communism. But I don't think it was necessary to kill and torture thousands of people to do it. Our tour guide here had been tortured, not here but in another center, and some of his stories about what happened in Villa Grimaldi and what happened to him personally made me feel sick.

The Pinochet regime burned everything when this place was discovered, but this is where the prison/torture buildings were. The trees are planted individually in their little enclosures, like prison cells, and they are birch trees to represent the prisoners- on the outside, they're all crooked and the bark is peeling, but inside its one of the most durable kinds of wood.


A replica of a cell. And no, it doesn't extend to the left- the wall is pretty much right where the door closes. 1-6 people would be kept in a cell this size. Imagine, 6 people, no room to breath practically much less sit or lie down, hardly ever going out even to use the bathroom, in the heat of the summertime or the cold of the wintertime...

el motemei

I know, I know, almost two weeks with hardly anything, and now two long entries in a single day... But as I was writing my paper for my Spanish Writing class, I thought people at home might find it interesting as well, because it is about a cultural figure of Valparaiso. And so I translated it into English. (If it sounds funny in some places, its because there was no perfect way to translate what I said in Spanish... also, lets just hope that my actual paper is this gramatically correct too. lol)

quick vocabulary-
motemei=type of food made from corn, eaten a lot in the old days in the winter because it was high in calories
motemelero=person who walks through the streets selling motemei. One of a group of people that doesn't really exist anymore, who would go through the streets calling out their product- motemei, fresh milk, etc., usually in a sort of song unique to what they were selling.

p.s. We watched a documentary about him before the break, and then this past Thursday he came to our class to speak... it was pretty cool...






EL MOTEMEI, Defender of Tradition

The short and thin stature of the last motemelero of Valparaiso does not agree with his dynamic personality, but the other parts of his appearance reveal the truth. His eyebrows, which arch above sparkling eyes, are expressive, showing to everyone all of his happiness, sadness, pensiveness, and determination. His clothes are important as well. His shoes, made from old tire, as well as his poncho, which is 150 years old and was used by almost 4 generations before he inherited it, are signs of the motemelero tradition. His plaid shirt, rolled up pants, and traditional rural belt complete the portrait of this worker from another time.

Carlos Martinez Becerra, also known as “the motemei” because of the food that he sells, was born 56 years ago in a street in Santiago, and his grandfather took him later to the hospital in his motemei basket. Therefore, he says, he has his roots in being a motemei seller. He learned his work from his grandfather, who was a third-generation motemolero, and he still continues the tradition today although he has very few clients. He walks through the streets of the “ciudad porteña” [port city- Valparaiso’s nickname], calling out “Motemeeei, pela’o el meelll-o,” announcing his presence to the world and selling his corn product, made fresh that day. The motemelero, also a poet, wants to rescue tradition in a world constantly changing. And he rescues it well. Although he may not be able to sell much, that doesn’t discourage this good-humored and optimistic man, and so he also works in schools, talking about the history of his job and his own history to the young people of Chile. A very extroverted and dynamic person, Carlos loves to speak of his life as a motemelero as well as of the importance of maintaining tradition.

The motemelero of Valparaiso, self-proclaimed “defender of our traditions,” has a unique perspective of the world. To him, everything is a poem—the hills of the city, its people, even its stray dogs. Although it makes him sad to realize that the world is changing and losing the sense of tradition, he has hope for the future. His job is to sell motemei, but his part in the world is to preserve history and point out the beauty of society. In this sense he can be compared to the famous don Quijote, not in insanity, but in his goal of remembering the ideas and practices in past ages in a world that is not always changing for the better. In this, the “motemei” of Valparaiso merits admiration.

Salamanca

Well, my test was cancelled this morning, and then we only had half the class, so I figure I have time for an entry... First of all, don Quijote. I read a grand total of about 170 pages this weekend, leaving me 200 pages short of where I was supposed to be for the test today, but I was feeling *ok* about it because I had a good summary and I knew I had read as far as I possibly could. Then about 10 minutes before class I found out the test was cancelled. Boo. That would have saved me a LOT of stress if I knew beforehand. (she put it on the email account that we have access too, but she doesn't use that too much so I didn't think about looking there all weekend). But, on the good side, it pushes everything else back- we were supposed to have a test over some other readings next Monday and then a 20-30 minute small group oral exam over critiques of don Quijote that Wednesday or Thursday... but since we don't have classes the 15th, all that gets pushed back two weeks. *phew* That means I can finish part 1 of don Quijote this week, and have 2 weeks to read all that other stuff.

Anyway. Salamanca. Absolutely amaaaaaaazing. It was a much needed retreat, and sooo relaxing (although, I did do quite a bit of homework there). Salamanca is a relatively small town (15,000)in a valley about 5 hours north of here. The Chilean tenant who lives with my host family is from there, and so we went to visit his family for a few days. First of all, his family is pretty cool. They own a vineyard/orchard (but their house isn't there, its in the town), they have all sorts of fruit trees in their backyard from which we had fresh-squeezed juice every day, and they lived in Denmark 16 years. The town is pretty neat too- although unfortunately due to the nearby mine it is getting more and more modernized and such. But while Alejandro's mom grows all sorts of fruit and olives and avocados in her backyard, the next door neighbor raises chickens- and the yards are smaller and just as closer together than mine at home in the US! Besides that, it was really warm there- I would go outside on the back patio in the mornings and read, sitting on the rocking chair in the sun, after a breakfast of fruit salad (fresh oranges, apples, pears, bananas, kiwi, etc) mixed with yogurt. yummmmm. And the area was just gorgeous. Surrounded by mountains. I always called Pittsburgh mountain-y, coming from NW Ohio area, but now I would call those hills at the most, more like small bumps. Because I thought the mountains surrounding Salamanca were big, but later (on the bus) I saw them in comparison to the cordillera (the Andes). Then they looked small! When we went driving around the area surrounding the town-to the vineyard, to the reservoir, etc.- we saw that horse and bike seem to be just about as common a form of transportation as car.

The first full day we were there, we went climbing for about 3 hours, and though it really wore me out, it was pretty spectacular:


Looks pretty steep from here:


This is at the vineyard. Remember, you can click on the picture to see the full-sized version.

The backyard.


You should definitely look at the Facebook albums, though, if you haven't already and if your computer isn't too slow.... it was gorgeous. Especially the ride home, curving through the mountains- the views were magnificent (although, its harder to get that impression from a little picture) It was sad leaving there knowing I probably would never come back in my entire life. Because even if I come back to Chile someday, I'm pretty sure I won't end up in this little town nestled in a valley, and I definitely wouldn't end up back at the vineyard...

Then we came home to reality- stress and homework. How fun.

This past Friday we went to Santiago for the day- I'll post on that later, maybe when I finish writing my essay for tomorrow.

Sorry if this entry comes across really scattered or doesn't make sense... I kept going back to add more, plus its been over a week, and words can't really describe my trip...

Love, Katie

P.S. Its October now!! Which is usually my favorite month, but thats partly due to it being autumn... so we'll see how it goes haha