shmeducation

So, after two weeks of all-American mini classes, I finally get to start real school next week! As excited as I am, I’m also a bit overwhelmed, since I have the option of taking classes at either La Universidad de Chile and/or La Pontificia Universidad Catolica. Both are incredibly prestigious schools, although very different and ideally I’d like to take a few classes at each. However, each school has over 400 classes easily, divided into different Facultades, or departments, with their own schedules, campuses and rules for add/drop. Can you see where it gets overwhelming?
Plus, as many of you know, I’m interested in a whole lot of things, and so I often find myself wanting to take dozens of classes each semester, although obviously I would explode if I actually took that many, and thus begins the process of whittling down my choices. To make it worse(although its sort of a wonderful idea) in Chile its common for students to go “vitrineando”, or window shopping, the first few weeks of class. This means you visit as many classes as you want, decide which you like best, and then a few weeks into the semester, officially register for your classes. So conceivably, I could visit all 25 of the classes that sound good, then whittle it down to the final four that I end up registering for.
Anyway, here are my favorites so far (BTW, “ambiente” or “Medio Ambiente” means the environment) don’t laugh!! :

At La Universidad de Chile:
*TALLER ECOLOGIA ECOLOGISTAS Y MOVIMIENTOS SOCIALES
*POLITICAS AMBIENTALES
*PROTECCION DE LOS RECURSOS NATURALES
*LEGISLACION FORESTAL
*Gestión Ambiental y Responsabilidad Social
* POLITICA FORESTAL
*ANALISIS DE CONFLICTOS INTERNACIONALES ACTUALES
*ESTADO Y DESARROLLO SUSTENTABLE
*Ecodiseño: Innovación Tecnológica Sostenible

At La Universidad Catolica:
*DERECHO DE AGUAS
*ECOLOGIA AGROPECUARIA
*GÉNERO Y CIUDAD
*EVALUACION Y GESTION AMBIENTALES
* CONSERVACION Y MANEJO DE RECURSOS
* SALMONICULTURA
* DESARROLLO POLITICO DE CHILE
* ORGANIZACION POLITICA DE CHILE
* ESCULTURA EN CERAMICA
* SUSTENTABILIDAD URBANA BARTON
* CULTURA URBANA Y CONSUMO
*LEGISLACION AMBIENTAL
*TALLER GESTION AMBIENTAL: ESTUDIO
*POLITICA FORESTAL OLAVE FERNANDO

See how many amazing classes there are ?! Oy. I don’t know how I’m going to pick.

SGI-Chile

I'm pretty sure everyone knows this, but fyi: I'm a buddhist!(Still not really sure who all reads this blog...)
Obviously I chant and study buddhism wherever I go, but I find it so valuable to meet up with other buddhists at buddhist activities, hear people's experiences, encourage each other, and even just chant together. Chanting by yourself for weeks to a little omomori gohonzon can get boring/difficult; there's just something about chanting loudly in unison with a roomful of people that is so energizing.
Anyway, so whenever I travel I try to find the nearest Buddhist community center and meet with members/attend a meeting. I've done this in Spain, Italy, and Brazil and had wonderful experiences each time. I found online that the one SGI community center is located in Santiago, and had my host sister help me plot a course there from my house. 2 crosstown buses and 45 minutes later, I found it! I went on Saturday at around 5:30pm when the young guy I spoke with on the phone said there would be activities. It turned out they were showing President Ikeda's video at 6pm, so I spent a while chanting as loudly as I wanted in an empty gohonzon room. Since I still chant pretty quietly in my room to not disturb/freak out my family- although I'm sure they wouldn't care, its more that I'm not quite ready to call that much attention to myself yet-having the room to myself was a plus. Afterwards I watched PI's video which was of course very encouraging, though I'd already seen it. However, since it was a video I didn't really get to meet anyone, and my naturally shy nature took over and I couldn't bring myself to just start talking with people after the video. As I was leaving though, I did reintroduce myself to the guy at the front desk, Paolo, and ask if there were other meetings soon. He said there was a youth meeting the next day, so I responded "Great! I'll be there" (except in spanish...)

So, I came back the next day, and it turned out the youth meeting, which was packed btw-at least 50youth division- was actually a talk about Buddhism and the Environment! Seriously. It turns out they have talks once a month about Buddhism and some non-religious topic, similar to how Los Angeles has the Peace talks once a month. Of course I really enjoyed hearing them talk about science, global warming, the oneness of self and environment, and our responsibilities towards the earth. Plus of the two presenters, one was the student division leader and the other was a 23 year old marine biology student! They were both very smart, well-spoken and confident in their knowledge of Buddhism and it really was a pleasure to hear their presentation-plus their power point was amazing, I've seen so many terrible powerpoints...
Anyway, so afterwards I determined to talk to at least a few people, and I ended up talking with the Student Division leader, who was sooo nice and once he learned I was a Buddhist from the US gave me a huge hug and took my contact info, so now I'm officially on a list!!! HURRAY!! Then I also approached the marine bio student to congratulate her on the talk and asked her about enviro orgs in Chile dealing with ocean conservation. She was super nice too and we exchanged email info. After that I was sort of schmoozed-out and couldn't bring myself to go up to anyone else, but I left very satisfied and walked to the bus stop flanked by the most gorgeous hotpink and orange sunset.

Put faces with names!

The famous Toffee



Katie, Jessie and I at dinner

social lubricants: who needs alcohol when you have shopping and food?!

Can't quite figure out my fav. posting format, so we'll go back to normal story-telling.
Right now I smell like smoke from going out to clubs both nights this weekend, which was a lot of fun, except now my tia patti is going to have to wash a lot of clothing...
My host brother "Nacho", aka Ignacio, is playing God of War in the living room. He's adorable, very sweet and talkative, and I'm so glad we get along. I love my host sister but she has her own life and boyfriend so she's not always that interested in talking with me.
Last week I looked up vintage shopping in Santiago and a bunch of us girls went exploring. It was so much fun to take a break from classes, get to know each other better and, as much as I hate to say it, shopping really does bring (some) girls/guys together. Anyway, since we mostly did thrift store/vintage stores, at least my anti-consumerist beliefs weren't totally compromised. Or at least thats what I told myself...
For lunch we walked to the Mercado Central, which I thought would be like a huge farmers market, but was much more like Pike's Place Fish Market in Seattle. Anything and everything that swims in the sea was for sale;there were rows and rows of huge trout, glistening eel, crazy white furry meat things, and even sea urchins! After being harrassed(verbally) by every restaurant owner to dine in their establishment, we opted for a tiny empanada stand just on the outskirts of the market, and it was definitely the right choice. For just about $2 US, I got a huge, mouth-watering shrimp and cheese empanada, a sopaipilla, and a soda.

Then later we went to a real mall with department sores, which was interesting, although nothing called out to me. However, since I love foreign countries' food courts, we did explore the food options and I found a place mom would love. It was a food place dedicated to, and called, Frutos! which sold only fruit-based products.

On the counter were dozens of fresh fruits waiting to be blended into delicious drinks, so I ordered a Cherimoya juice. Cherimoya is one of chile's most famous fruits, its often translated into "custard apple" but it basically looks like a green mango from the outside. Inside its a creamy white color and when blended it makes the creamiest juice. I was with Jessie and Katie, and they each got raspberry and kiwi juice, respectively.

In an effort to be concise, I'm going to try posting in bullet-points:

*Embarrassing moment of the week: finding someone else's underwear in my room, and having to explain to my "Tia Patti"(housekeeper) which underwear was mine and which was my host sister's...

*Last night I went to see Harry Potter with some friends and because of a timing mix-up we couldn't see the movie until 10:30pm, and since Harry Potter is almost three hours long, I didn't get home until 1am....(un)surprisingly I missed my 10am class, but the program directors didn't care and apparently it was the most boring lecture we've had so far, so at least I have good timing.

*For dinner tonight I had this crazy stew/souffle thing made of bread crumbs cooked with garlic and seasoning, then soaked in milk and cooked with egg, cheese and Italian squash. It looked sort of like beige vomit, but it tasted like a cross between thanksgiving stuffing and a cheese souffle, but with the consistency of mashed potatoes. Despite that description, it really was delicious.

*At the Museo Historico Nacional, which houses all sorts of posters, trunks, sofas, dioramas, paintings and weapons from throughout Chile's history, the coolest thing I saw was by far, half of President Allende's glasses. The remaining piece was found a week or so after the coup, sitting in his still bloody, smoking, rubble-filled office. Some woman was able to charm the soldier's guarding La Moneda into letting her see Allende's office and while inside, she recognized the fragmented glasses as Allende's, and somehow without attracting the soldier's attention, saved them. Years later, she donate them to the Museum and now they're quite iconic.


Well, I guess this post is somewhat shorter than my others...
there's always more I could write about, but I'll leave it at this:
today my professor talked about "una sociedad profunda donde las personas viven juntos con los animales y la naturaleza" aka Deep Ecology, which I spent all of last quarter learning about. Thats right, my Chilean professor of art and music is an adherent of Arnie Naess' Deep Ecology movement. Every chance he gets, he talks about the importance of human living in accordance with nature, and not being so anthropocentric. It makes me SOOOO happy.

Bride wars and the first September 11th

So first a mini-rant: I just finished watching Bride Wars (in English with spanish subtitles) w/my host sister and her boyfriend and I'm so disgusted. Chile seems to only get the worst aspects of American culture (and politics:::cough:::Pinochet, anyone?). Anyways, it just reminded me that first, absurdly sexist stereotypes about women abound and continue to be perpetuated all over the place, and second, they continue to make many people rich and famous. You might say that in comparison to things like the global economic crisis and global warming, chick flicks that portray women as shallow, crazy, man-obsessed barbies are pretty low on the scale of importance, but I think they're even more dangerous in a sense because they are so insidious and low profile. The mysogyny doesn't call out on the front pages like terrorism but it frames all of our interactions as humans.

Anyway, rant over. Although, in true blogging tradition, for a beautiful collage of scathing reviews on Bride Wars, go to http://jezebel.com/5127631/could-bride-wars-ruin-anne-hathaway-and-set-feminism-back-20-years

So, onto lighter topics: yesterday we visited La Moneda, the Presidential Palace, where among other things, Allende was assassinated. But let me backtrack a bit.
This week and next week we(American CIEE students)are taking a mandatory course called "Chile Contemporaneo" that basically consists of two lectures a day on topics that range from the history of Chile's constitution, to modern Chilean cinema and the environment. Each class is taught by a professor who specializes in that topic. So far we've had a Historian, sociologist and political scientist. Inevitably each class touches on the 1973 coup in which the military attacked La Moneda, bombed the Presidents office, killed President Allende(though some say he committed suicide)and installed the military junta led by Pinochet that would reign for 17 years and barbarously oppress any/all dissent. The fact that this occurred on September 11th of 1973 seems to especially strike(no pun intended, really, I apologize for the choice of words) Americans. So, after class we all took a field trip to La Moneda, where we were able to get an amazing tour around the entire compound and even enter into the room where Allende died.

Unlike the White House, La Moneda is remarkably accessible. Although we needed our passports to enter and Palace Guards paced around the edges of each building, we were allowed to basically wander around the seat of Chilean government! When our tour led us through gorgeous baroque ball rooms and ornate offices, we could also catch glimpses of caterers and decorators setting up for a Presidential event, mere feet away! Even when we entered the second floor near where Allende's offices were, there were rooms with government workers at their desks with doors open and no sort of fence, or security at all! Compared to the White House, which requires major security clearance, applying at least a year in advance and only allows for very limited tours, this seemed so relaxed. I thought it was especially ironic since (as far as I know...) no American president has ever been attacked/killed inside the White House, whereas this actually happened in La Moneda, and its still easier to get into/explore than the White House.

Anyway, when we finally did arrive at the section that had been bombed in 1973, it looked different than the rest of the beautiful, 200+year old palace. It turns out that after this section was destroyed in the coup, the military government didn't respect the architectural integrity of the building and replaced the windows/walls with austere, modern installations that stick out like sore thumbs. Symbolism, anyone?

Get to the point Allie!: in front of Allende's former office, there is a huge copper coin with his face on the front and then a plaque with the name of those in his administration that also died in the coup. One of our professors noted that the military could easily have surrounded La Moneda, arrested Allende, taken him somewhere far away(as they would later do with over 3,000 Chileans) and murder him quietly. Instead, they opted for a spectacular aerial bombing that left the whole building in flames and dozens dead. Like my professor said, Pinochet knew what he was doing.

Being inside the Allende's actual office was very eerie. Its totally restored; the walls are painted white, a few small paintings/mirrors hang on the wall, and his original desk sits imposingly in the middle of the room, with a large portrait of Allende in very somber greys and yellows hanging behind it. The only indication of the room's bloody past is bullet-ridden bust of some Chilean painter/author standing in the corner.

I have to say, I was expecting more. Although the scale is different, of course, compared with Holocaust museums, or say, the Vietnam memorial, the memorial to Allende and his government was really minimal. I think it speaks to the still taboo nature of the coup and the desire to minimize or ignore that aspect of Chilean history. I'm finding it a bit difficult to maneuver around the coup outside of class because on the one hand, I find it fascinating and integral to Chilean history, but on the other hand, it's a very touchy subject to say the least since so many people were affected and at least 30% still support Pinochet's policies to some extent. Also, I know that Chilean history is made up of many events, only one of which is the coup, and I would hate if people learning about American history only focused for instance on the Trail of Tears, for example, and ignored the rest of our 200+year (laudable?noteworthy?ignominious?...er, fascinating)history.

"Suchi" and los Conis

So today I slept in, successfully used skype to videochat and then had a guided tour of the metro/micro(public buses) from my host mom. She was so on it! She drew me a map of multiple ways I could travel to school everyday, then took me on the most likely route! We literally took the metro only to point out both possible campuses and then take the metro home!

Then I gave my family their presents and they were super-excited, although I realized my host mom has diabetes and two out of the three gifts I gave them were sugar-based. Oops.

Finally 6 of my host sister's friends came over to hang out. They were all very nice, but the warning that Chileans have very tight-knit circles of friends which foreigners find hard to penetrate is true. These girls spoke a mile-a-minute, used almost exclusively Chilean slang even their parents couldn't understand, and mostly gossiped about people I had never met. Also, they all had nicknames that were impossibly similar, like Coni, Coti, Connie, Conina, and Candella. However, we did eat delicious take-out sushi, aka "suchi" which is all the rage in Santiago, and play very fun drinking games.

While it was sort of isolating sitting in the room just watching these girls chat because I had no idea what 4/5 words they said meant, it was also very entertaining-like my own personal Chilean reality tv show. Even though the words were totally foreign, the topics of conversation-crushes, music, politics and school-were exactly the same.

ps: In chile, the game "never have I ever" is called "nunca nunca" and "truth or dare" is called "verdad o castigo"

My room for the next 6 months!

Pictures of the andes from the hotel

my host family(according to the sheet I got before meeting them)

Third day in more detail/Aviso: I have never been good at writing concisely, so proceed with caution

After some more orientation, which included finally buying a cell phone (Hurray!!!) and an adapter, our host families were scheduled to arrive and take us home!!!
Picture: All 30 American students standing outside the hotel on the curb with their suitcases, while one after another, cars pull up chock-full of expectant kids and grandparents, each with a picture and a name, searching for their respective Gringas. It was one of the most adorable, and nerve-wracking experiences I’ve had in a long time.
My family was one of the last to arrive, but the mom, named Ximena (prounounced Jimena), jumped right out of the car, clad in the aforementioned bright purple knitted sweater. I knew that I had a sister around 16 and a brother around 12, but instead there were two older teenagers. I found out that the girl’s name was Constanza, nicknamed Coti, and the boy was Sebastian, nicknamed Seba. Coti is 17 and Seba is 18. Then the mom told me that they had a younger brother Ignacio, nicknamed Nacho, who was 12 but on vacation. So, I assumed that Seba was just a third brother who’d been left out of the picture I’d received of my family ahead of time. Later, when Seba and Coti started to kiss on the couch, I realized they were dating and Seba was not part of the family!
However, the best part of the welcome was that Ximena and Coti brought Tofy, the 7 month old beagle!!! I immediately told them that I had a huge 60 kilo dog at home and they loved that and were very relieved that I loved dogs. Tofy has already explored my room and taken a nap in my lap, so I know we are going to be close friends.
We had a wonderful conversation on the drive back to their house, and they are incredibly sweet. Coti is very friendly, smiley and talkative and so is Ximena, my host mom. This was a big relief because apparently its really American to smile a lot when you’re nervous, whereas Chileans, no matter how nice they are, would never smile at strangers nervously. Also, because Chile is so isolated-Andes to the East, Pacific Ocean to the West, desert to the North and South Pole to the South- Chileans are known to be timid and distrustful of strangers/foreigners. Thankfully my family is very warm, easy to laugh and grin. They even make faces at each other!
I got to their apartment around 4pm and they showed me my room right away, which I have all to myself, plus a bathroom! It’s very nice, and has a lot of closet space, which I appreciate. Each kid has their own room, and there’s a very nice living room and a sizeable kitchen. The family does have a maid named Tia Pati, or Aunt Pati, who’s worked for them for almost 14 years and is considered part of the family. Because Ximena doesn’t like to cook, Pati does all the cooking and cleaning. We had a pretty long only semi-awk conversation in the living room and then they asked me if I wanted to pack, which was a welcomed suggestion because it’s really quite exhausting speaking in Spanish all day, especially with strangers you’re trying to impress!
At around 6pm we had “onces” which is like afternoon tea, except later. In Chile they have lunch around 12 or 1, then “onces” around 6pm, then dinner around 10pm. Onces is basically tea/coffee, cookies, bread, cheese, fruit and maybe some spreads. We had delicious mashed avocado with salt, bread, tea, cookies and cream cheese. I love onces. During onces we somehow ended up on the topic of religion and they asked me if I was Catholic, I hesitantly said no, since I knew I’d have to tell them eventually that I was Buddhist- since they were going to hear the chanting and see my alter- but I’d seen crosses in a lot of the rooms and Chile is a pretty strongly Catholic country. When I admitted I was actually Buddhist, they were surprised, and but knew a little about it and asked about the whole releasing all attachments to earthly desires. I told them that Buddhism has many sects, mine isn’t quite like that, blah blah blah and that actually I found a community center in Santiago I wanted to visit. It turns out the family isn’t really catholic, and Ximena is open to all religions! Coti even said she was really interested in Buddhism and really dislike Catholicism! When Tia Pati asked me about the fat Buddha, I tried/failed to explain that Nichiren Buddhism teaches all people have the potential to achieve enlightenment and be happy, just like the Buddha, but Coti totally saved me and basically finished my thoughts in much better Spanish! Ximena joked that Coti would probably be stuck to my side if I went to Buddhist meetings, to which I responded “great!”
It’s now 10:30pm, so I think it should be time for dinner soon, but I’m not sure. Coti and Seba went out to a party and probably won’t be back till 2 or 3am, but Ximena’s brother, my “uncle” came over for onces and is still here, so I’m guessing he’s staying for dinner.
As they say in Santiago,
Ciao!

Host family! and other highlights from the third day

Highlights of the day:
1)my host mother greeting me in a bright purple knitted sweater coat, which, after being told/witnessing repeatedly that Chileans in Santiago tend to dress in drab colors (thus my bright pink flannel and orange/red scarves are like huge neon signs saying “TOURIST”) was such a pleasant surprise
2) Following closely on the heels of my host mother, literally, was a seven month old beagle named “Tofy” or in English, “Toffee”. We’ve already bonded and I think he might be as cute as Waldo.
3) My host sister is 17, loves music and political science, likes Obama and wants to vote for the leftist president in the upcoming elections. Did I mention that I’ll be in Chile for the Presidential elections?! So cool.
4) My host family has half a dozen American students (all girls) before me so they know exactly what to expect, helped me hook up Skype and expected to speak to me slowly, but were delighted when I could keep up with their fast Spanish. They said I spoke beautifully! The only thing is, I’m a little worried they’ll compare me to past students, because they’ve had so many and loved them all, and the last one only left three days ago!!! Also, as one of my thank you gifts, I brought a picture book of California, but when I was in the living room I noticed they already had one from Boston, Philadelphia, and Rhode Island! I guess I just need to get over the fact that little of what I say/do will be surprising. But that’s not necessarily bad….I mean they obviously love having Americans or they wouldn’t continue to host people, right?

FIRST DAY!

¡I’m here! To recap, quickly, b/c since I don’t have an electrical outlet converter yet my laptop is on its last dredges of battery. After flying to Dallas Tuesday afternoon, I then got on a 10 hour plane-ride for Santiago arrived at 7am on Wednesday. I soon met up with Jessie, my friend from kalamazoo and many other students participating in our program, called CIEE(Council for International and Educational Exchange). All in all there are 30 of us, only 5 of which are male. A surprising number are from California originally or go to school there, but the universities that sent students are as diverse as Georgetown, Claremeont Mckenna, Kalamazoo, Mount Holyoke, Hope College, and teensy Doane University of Nebraska.
The students seem very nice and the administrators of the program are wonderfrul. There are four people representing CIEE, three women and a man. They are incredibly organized, conscientious of our jetlagged-ness and treat us like adults, which is refreshing. We have already run through a lot of basic safety tips, emergency contacts and important Chilean slang, and I’m certain that our orientations will continue to be efficient and most importantly, relevant to our lives in Chile.
Tonight we have a welcome dinner-aka Cena de Bienvenido- and then on Friday the long-awaited host family reunion!!! They still won’t tell us anything about our families, so we are all waiting anxiously.
Until Friday we are staying in a pretty nice hotel with 3-4 people to a room. My roommates are really sweet, one is from Indiana and one is from Los Angeles!
That’s all for now, but espero escribir mas cuando tengo noticias interesantes!
(I hope to write more as soon as I have news of interest to report!)
Con carino,
Allie

test post

so, this is me testing out the whole blogging thing.
I have nothing exciting to report since I haven't even left yet, but hey, at least I'm starting ahead of time. when does that ever happen?!