Thank you for, well, YOU!

It's bizarre to live Thanksgiving in a country where Thanksgiving doesn't exist. Today in the English class I am teaching to women in the neighboring city of Valparaiso, we told them about the Thankgiving tradition, the story of the pilgrims and indians, the turkey, and went over the words for every member of the family. One of the things I am most thankful for on this Thanksgiving day are YOU, all of my family. Whether friends, relatives, mentors, neighbors, or strangers (creepin' on my blog), you are all a part of my family, and we are all a part of the Human Family. The last four months I have been blessed with the opportunity to get to know a different part of this Human Family and a little less than a month remains in that continuing adventure. Tomorrow night we will celebrate the turkey feast with all the St. Ben's-St. John's group, our host families, and professors. Lots of love to the Schumacher and Fourre crews, I'm missing the food today!! My tummy's ready for a Christmas feast with all of you :D

I want to wish a great big thanks to all of you near and far who are supporting me so much in this adventure and in my life's journey in general. I am deeply blessed to have such a loving family and group of friends who remain my grounding and foundation (even from thousands of miles away). I am also especially thankful for all of the wonderful teachers and professors who have supported my passion for learning throughout the years. I realize how blessed I am to recieve such an amazing education.

Love to all and wishes for a very Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours around the world.

Stinky Bird Sh**, Good Luck, and Laughing

According to the old woman in "Under the Tuscan Sun", getting crapped on by a bird is good luck. Well, I must be a lucky girl because, while walking home from a study session today, a rather large sea bird decided to empty its bowels directly above me. This little incident was the perfect addition to a week of homesickness and high stress. As I face the last month of my study abroad experience there is so much that is out of my control, so much I'm not ready to give up, and so much to get done, in so little time. I, like most humans, am not good at dealing with things which are out of my control. But I've realized that in moments in life like these (or when you get crapped on by a bird), all you can do is laugh. Surround yourself with people who care about you and LAUGH.

Cinco Dias Seguidos de Carrete (Partying 5 days in a row)

Tuesday: Karaoke at Tutix

Wednesday: Partido clasificatorio Chile v. Argentina @ Estadio Nacional, Santiago

Chile beat Argentina 1-0 for points in a World Cup qualifying match for the first time in HISTORY!!! I love football (soccer)!!!

My host brother, Felipe, came with us.

There were fireworks and flares coming from the stands....it was nuts!!

Thursday: Dancing at El Huevo, a gigantic club in Valparaiso with 4 floors and 5 different musical environments.

Friday: Asado (barbeque), then 5 Dptos! Three of the European students organized a party where we went to 4 different apartments and had food and drinks from Spain, Chile, Belgium, Germany, France, and Brazil!!

Saturday: Cumple de Rodrigo (Rodrigo's Birthday Party) in Limache!! Lots of food, lots of drinks, a pool, soccer and volleyball, and the best people ever!!
Me and the birthday boy (Laura had to tickle him to get him to smile)

The view from Rodrigo's backyard!! Heaven is in Chile :D

Needless to say, I am exhausted after so much fun!! This week means lots of studying for me. This weekend I'm going to Santiago with my friend Javiera to hang out with the girls. I'm also starting to plan my post-semester travels: Machu Picchu, Argentina, Uruguay. We shall see!

Santiago Excursion Part 2

Saturday, September 13:

Cementerio General- My favorite part of our tour to Santiago was our visit to the national cemetary, a huge expanse of land in the middle of this large busy city. Such large cementaries are must-see destinations in most large Latin-American cities. Here families are entombed together in mausoleums and family tombs, arranged like little houses along the streets of the cementary, giving it the feel of a city within a city. There are notable socio-economic divisions in this ornate city--paved streets where the tombs of wealthy families stand in rows, aisles of one or two story mausoleums and, on the outskirts, fields of simple iron crosses marking plots covered in flowers, toys, decorations, and signs.


It was impossible to capture the majesty and tranquility of the cementary on film. For an architecture nerd like me, it was fascinating to meander the streets and see the the varying tomb styles which included everything from flying buttresses to a sleek Arabian style in white stone. Walking through this cementary, you see the cultural and ethnic mix that makes up Chile. The names on the tombs and crosses are as varied as their architectural styles. The tombs carry last names of Spanish, German, English, French, Italian, Basque, Croatian, Chinese, and Arabic origen (among many others). Here are a few pictures.

A family tomb constructed in an indigenous Mexican style.

Barely visible in the distance is the tomb of late former president Salvador Allende.

Flying buttresses!

La Chascona (Casa de Pablo Neruda)- One of the Poet's three houses in Chile, La Chascona was the house from which Neruda conducted his political affairs and entertained his fellow artists, writers, and left-wing politicians. I didn't know until coming to Chile that Pablo Neruda was, in fact, a senator in the Chilean parliament. A staunch member of the Chilean Communist Party, one of Neruda's known works is the "Ode to Stalin" written after the death of the Russian communist leader. I will write a separate blog entry about Neruda's houses.

Barrio Bellavista- We culminated our trip with a visit to this bohemian neighborhood where Neruda's house is located. I enjoyed the laid back vibe and the friendly people we met there, as well as the delicious crossaint sandwich sandwich I had for lunch (with lox and the ever abundant avocado) and a glass of wine, of course.

Santiago is a large and very busy city with a lot of pollution, not my favorite. By the afternoon on Saturday we were all ready to head back to our homes in Viña. Eyes stinging (Santiago smog), we boarded our tour bus and headed back to the coast.

I miss "Minnesota Nice" or An Ode to Fall

I realize I still have to update my blog with the events of the last few weeks, but today I need to write about the things I am missing from home. As spring begins here (no complaints) that means that fall in Minnesota is turning the leaves on Summit Avenue, the banks of the Mississippi, the trees on Lake Sag, and the sugar maples on Wheeler. Here we are pulling off the layers and I am missing sweater season, my favorite cuddly time of the year in Minnesota. I miss the cool northern lake breezes. I miss the way the light turns golden before dusk on fall nights. I miss cafés, a concept and culture lacking from the Chilean landscape.
Most of all, however, I miss smiles. It is not a wise practice to make eye contact with, smile, or nod at every person you pass on the street (as is our habit in Minnesota). I have realized that my favorite activity, walking (which, in Minnesota, is a very social activity even if you are walking alone), is a solitary experience here. I find myself walking around with my head down and brow furrowed. It is hard to manifest positive energy during walks when you cannot smile at everyone who walks by. The whole smile and nod culture which is, for some, a selling point for CSB-SJU and equally acceptable in St. Paul, is a part of who I am, a nourishing part of my daily life. Now it's something I have to surpress. It's depressing.
So here's my plan. I want all of you back in Minnesota (or places that favor our smile and nod culture) to smile extra big for me back home. Knowing you are all smiling at strangers back home will warm my heart. While you're at it, bundle yourself in a sweater and scarf, walk down Summit Avenue to the monument and watch the leaves change on the banks of the Mississippi, walk down to Lake Sag and drink in the fall air, drink a chai tea at Starbuck's or a vienna from Brewberry's. Share a hookah, order Dairy Queen until the last day possible, step on the crunchy leaves when they start to fall, watch out for falling acorns. Make eye contact, smile, nod...embrace the simple human interaction that you get every day.
Maybe that's what gets us through the winters...

Santiago Excursion Part I

The guards outside La Moneda. These guards are special carabineros (police) whose job it is to protect the presidential palace.
Plaza in front of La Moneda. The giant Chilean flag was hanging up in anticipation of the national holiday to be celebrated in the coming week. The colors of the Chilean flag blue, white, and red represent the blue of the sky and the ocean, the white of the snow-capped Andes, and the red blood spilled fighting for independence. There is one star on the flag to represent the fact that Chile is a single state (unlike our 50 federated states).
The room where the Chilean president welcomes other heads of state. Our tour guide told us he hopes one day some one in our group would return to Chile and be welcomed in this room as an ambassador or head of state. I told him not to worry, I'll be back.

One of the plazas inside La Moneda (there were orange trees and many gorgeous sculptures!)

Our excursion to Santiago was what I would call "un viaje muy largo en poco tiempo" (a long trip in a short time). Both days included visits to many different sites and organizations in our journey to discover more about what it means to be Chilean and the navigate the complicated arena of Chilean politics (and you thought the U.S. had a left-right split?).

Friday, September 12:

Vicaria de la Solidaridad- We began our tour of Santiago at the Vicariate of Solidarity, an office of the archbishop of Santiago which has created and stored an archive of tens of thousands of testimonies from Chilean citizens during the Pinochet dictatorship. These archives have been used by documentary film makers and judges in showing and trying the events of those years.

Villa Grimaldi- Secondly, we toured the park at Villa Grimaldi, once the headquarters of DINA, Pinochet's intelligence agency and secret police, and a detention and torture center. The grounds have been turned into a peace park with tile markers denoting the previous location of the mens' and womens' cells, torture chambers, and latrines.

Plaza de Armas y El Palacio de la Moneda- During the third stop of the day we met with our history professor, Rodrigo Moreno, who gave us a quick explanation of the statues and plaques in the Plaza de Armas near the Catedral de Santiago before we had to rush off to our guided tour of the Palacio de La Moneda, which is Chile's version of the White House. There we saw the changing of the guard and were guided through the presidential palace (a gorgeous and premier example of neo-classical architecture, for all of you architecture nerds like me). Unlike the White House, La Moneda does not act as a residence, but only as an office for the head of state. It was incredible how accesible this building is to the public. It stands in the center of Santiago and is surrounded by buildings on all sides with an expansive plaza in the front. During our tour we even ran into the Minister of Defense! The building is called the Palacio de la Moneda because it was originally built as a factory to make "las monedas", or coins, of the republic.

Fundacion Presidente Augusto Pinochet- Perhaps the most interesting and revealing stop of our excursion was our visit to the Foundation Pinochet, an organization founded in honor of the late general. We were welcomed by the director of the foundation (a retired general) who showed us a video and talked to us about his relationship with his general answered our questions about the dictatorship and Chilean politics today. To this day there has been little to no public discussion in Chile about the coup of 1973 and the following dictatorship. Chile remains a country harshly divided between left and right, Allende and Pinochet. While I do not understand more clearly the political divisions of Chile today, our visit to Fundacion Pinochet allowed me to more clearly understand the position of the Chilean military in the coup of 1973. It should be noted that the director of the foundation, and Pinochet supporters in general, do not consider the events of September 11, 1973 to be a "golpe de estado" or coup d'etat. Rather, they consider it a "pronunciamiento", a pronouncement, a justified pronouncement of the Armed Forces' allegiance to the constitution.

Chile's 9/11

On September 11, 1973 Chile's Presidential Palace was bombed and overtaken by the right-wing Junta government of Pinochet which would rule until 1980. In the days after the coup, Allende supporters and leftist activists were taken to the Estadio Nacional (national soccer stadium) which was temporarily converted into a detention and torture center. Men and women were tortured, raped and killed in the same stadium where, last night, the Chilean soccer team defeated Colombia 4-0 in a world cup qualifying match. Abandoning political and religious divisions Chilean soccer fans poured into the bleachers en masse and filled the stadium with chants of nationalist fervor and pride. During the game, Chileans were everything but divided. But Chile's history is a complicated one, as are its present day manifestations.

The meaning of September 11 and the memory of the coup is different for every Chilean. For some, it is a day of mourning and remembrance of the leftist popular movement and those disappeared, tortured and murdered during the Pinochet dictatorship. Many Chileans believe the coup "put right" the Chile which had been torn apart by the socialist economic policies of Allende's government and saved the country from civil war. Still others feel that everyone should get over what happened during those years--that every war, every movement, has its share of torture, death, and the oppression of innocent people. That happened thirty-five years ago, let's stop the fuss.

I have no grasp of what today feels like for the average Chilean. It's odd for me to be outside of my country as we mark the seventh anniversary of our own September 11. It is hard for me to draw comparisons between the two dates. Chile's 9/11 was an attack of the Chilean military against the Chilean government: Chileans vs. Chileans. On September 11, 2001 and outside force attacked the United States. The strongest comparison can be made in the fallout of each day. Both dates left their countries shaken, scarred, and polarized. Chile is still deeply divided politically.

Today raises many powerful questions. Who owns the memory of September 11? What does that day mean for our nation or to you and I as individual citizens? These questions hold true for both Chileans and U.S. citizens alike.