Chaucito a Chilito

We started off our time here marking off every Wednesday. I arrived Wednesday, February 17, and after that every Wednesday someone would usually take note and say, "Hey, we've been here __ weeks." The first week I remember thinking I had learned more in a week than in a month at home. I remember thinking how much had changed in just a short week. We stopped keeping track after about a month, and then time took off running and now I find myself attending goodbye dinners and taking final exams. It's been something like 18 or 19 weeks, but we stopped keeping track long ago. I have 16 days left in South America and only 9 in Santiago. The picture below is the view I see of the mountains every morning when I step out of my front door-breathtaking! How could I leave?!



The combination of finals week stress and the emotional stress of leaving my home is wiping me out (although-surprise, Chilean school has finals for two weeks!). I cry at the drop of a hat, and have spent a lot of time trying to put my finger on what it is that makes leaving so emotional. I knew this day would come didn't I? And how could I have made such strong relationships in five fast months?

The truth is that studying in a foreign country changes you. It changes the way you see the world, but even more profound than that, it changes the way you see yourself. I told my friend Meagan today that I think I'm having an identity crisis. I have learned, grown, and changed so much over the last five months. I am sad to leave Santiago because it is my home! I have created a life for myself here: I go to school, have a house, a family, a boyfriend, friends, a routine, etc. Switching schools is hard, or leaving friends is hard, but I am leaving my whole life. Granted, it is a new life, but my life all the same.

Also, I am going back to a life that is familiar but foreign. I have realized that the reason the frienships I have made here are so strong is because we went through a really tough and intense experience together, and that has bonded us so closely faster than I can believe. I am going back to you guys, to friends and family that know me very well, and on one level I am excited. At the same time though, I feel like I am going back to friends and family that have an incomplete understanding of who I am. My heart has a little Chilean part to it now, and it makes me scared to think that no one will understand that part of me.

Te quiero Chilito: The Chilean flag waving proudly as we crossed the border back into Chile from Argentina.



Bueno, maybe this all sounds dramatic. A few years ago, I realized the following: You are alone in your head your whole life. That is not supposed to be as depressing as it sounds. I'm not sure what caused it to dawn on me, but at some point I saw this so clearly. I think when I was little I used to think I would meet my future husband, and he would know just everything about me. He would always understand what I was feeling, and there would be no part of me that he wouldn't know. I think as people we all really yearn for that--to be truly and deeply known (something that makes being truly known by God so rich, no?). Anyway, I realize now that even my closest family and friends will never be able to completely know and understand every part of who I am. So I guess it's like that for everyone in some dimension, my emotions are just heightened because Chile is a part of me that rushed into my life all at once and will end all at once too.

Anyway, I will be wrapping up this chapter of my life pretty quickly here. I am now done with going to classes, and have to write 2 papers for Wednesday and then I am DONE! I can see the end of the tunnel now, and as far as classes go that feels good! We joke here that taking classes in English next fall is going to be super easy compared to the experience of the last semester. My friend Justin said something along the lines of "I can't imagine walking out of class and having understood everything the prof said, or getting a syllabus and not having to translate parts of it!" Bascially its going to be awesome.

After I hand in those papers on Wednesday (one has to be 15 pages single spaced, and the other 5--all in Spanish of course!), I am heading to PERU early Thursday morning to see Machu Picchu and make sure I come home completely broke instad of just almost broke. After returning from Peru on July 8, I have just six short days to soak as much Santiago into my skin before flying home. I want you all to know I love you (even if you will never fully understand my Santiaguino side), and hope this blog hasn't left anybody doubting my love for the good 'ole US of A. I've just gotta lotta conflicting emotions bopping around in myself!

Be well,
Amy

P.S. Who scheduled the World Cup for finals week(s)?!?! I LOVE living in a country where people care about soccer. It's been so fun and I'm really getting into it. Unfortunately the USA was disqualified, but tomorrow CHILE plays Brasil. Its going to be rough...but all of Santiago comes even more alive and takes to the streets when Chile plays, so I'll be face-painted and rioting with the best of 'em. Here are a few pics from the last game. There are huge screens set up all over the city, and people stand and watch together. The energy in the crowd is amazing!

Watching in front of the "White House" of Chile, La Moneda:



Gringos show their Roja pride:

MRI Update

As some of you already know...I got the MRI results back and they are completely normal! This doesn't necessarily mean that there are no problems (my Mom's Multiple Sclerosis went undetected on MRIs for about 12 years) but for now the doctor here thinks we have no reason to worry. I will follow up with more doctors appts once back in the States, but for now I'm just going to focus on enjoying the rest of my time here in Chile. That starts this weekend--I'm going to Mendoza, Argentina for a few days with a few friends. Besides the excitement of adding another stamp to my passport, I am excited about the drive. We are taking a bus and to cross the border we will drive through the Andes (the mountain range creates the natural border between Chile and Argentina). Especially with all the recent snow on the mountains, it should prove to be a beautiful drive. Also the exchange rate in Argentina is a lot more forgiving than it is in Chile, gracias a Dios! Anyway, for now I'm just relieved the MRI was okay. Now just waiting for the feeling to come back in my leg...ha. Thank you all for your throughts, concerns, and prayers!
Love from South America,
Amy

Enamorada de Chile

Its been a crazy past couple of weeks. On May 16, my Mom, her sister Janet, and our family friend Natalie arrived to visit for a week. We had an awesome time, and I was hugely blessed to be able to share with them this place that is now my home, this place I have come to love so much. It is really true that I have come to love Chile. The other day I was talking to my friend Justin from my program, and he was saying that he did not love Santiago right away, that it was more of a process of Santiago generally growing on him. I agreed that I felt the same. In my first weeks and months I was certainly having an awesome time, and loving the experience of being here, but I cant say that I loved the city from the very beginning. But while I did not walk off the plane in love with Chile, a general love of Chile and of Santiago has slowly sunk into me, leaving me standing here today wondering at what point my perspective changed and how it can be that this is now my home.

While showing my Mom and the girls around the city, it was at first really shocking to me when they didn't "get" Chile. They kept seeing cultural differences and responding like, "Yes, but if you did it this way..." After the first few days with them I had to change my perspective. I had had over 3 months to get used to the differences, but to them everything had changed all at once. I think I got a little too excited for their visit, because before they came I planned an intinerary for each of the days they would be here so that we could be sure to fit in everything they needed to see. This kind of stressed them out, as I set an inhuman pace and kept yelling back at them that if they didn't hurry up we would not have time for __________ (insert interesting Santiaguino experience here). I dragged them, wheezing, up hills with sights of the city, and made sure they didn't linger too long at museum exhibits. Needless to say, we returned exhausted every night to the hotel, and I think they came to loathe the itinerary. What can I say? I've got Goldsmith blood in me, and we always say that in our family we don't "enjoy" vacation, we "accomplish" vacation. And accomplish we did.

I spend the weekend on the coast in Valparaíso with my Mom, Janet, and Natalie, and they left on Sunday morning. Last week I had much less homework since I had just finished like 1,000 exams, presentations, and papers (not to be dramatic or anything). I enjoyed the week and also really enjoyed being in the city all weekend. I hadn't been home for a weekend in about a month, since the two weekends before were with my mom, the one before that in San Pedro de Atacama, and the one before that doing Techo para Chile. I am now really feeling successful in my Spanish. I can now listen to two people talk at once and catch most of it, and can write notes in my classes while still listening to the prof say something different. I dream in Spanish, and it is now such a part of me that I'm convinced I will be infinitely depressed when I get back to the States. I never want my time here to end!

Many of you have probably heard that I have been having some medical problems recently. Sunday morning around 4a.m. my left thigh went to sleep and never woke up. Obviously it really freaked me out that I couldn't feel part of my leg, so finally Sunday night I went to the emergency room after my leg being all "pins and needles-ey" for more than 12 hours. The doctors said normally something like this would be attributed to a pinched nerve, but the numbness I am experiencing is in such a large area that it would have to be 5 or 6 pinched nerves, which is very unlikely. The pattern of my numbness does not follow a specific nerve or nerves. This leads them to think that there might be more serious issues, such as Multiple Sclerosis or other spinal/cerebral legions or demilanization. I am going in for an MRI today and hoping that if there are spinal or cerebral problems, they are hugely visible to the doctors, because as many of you probably know issues like MS can go undetected for years. Anyway, I'm in pretty good spirits and trying not to freak out prematurely. We should get the MRI results about 48 hours after the exam, so I will let you all know later this week what I hear. I would really appreciate your prayers.

Anyway, I guess that's all the latest news. I keep trying to put new pictures up on facebook and the program never works, so I'm not really sure what to do about that. I hope you are all well there in the States, and enjoying the warm weather! I am definitely jealous since Chile is now moving into winter. Bendiciones!

Amy

San Pedro de Atacama

Well, I just got back from San Pedro de Atacama for the weekend, and I have to say it was one of the most unique parts of Chile I have visited so far. Located waaaay up north close to the border of Bolivia, San Pedro is pure desert. Instead of a landscape characterized by mountains in the background, San Pedro de Atacama is surrounded by volcanoes. It is home to one of the most important astronomical observatories in the world—apparently SPA is one of the best places to see the southern hemisphere’s night sky. The area is also rich in minerals, housing the world’s largest copper mine, Chuquicamata. On top of all this, there are also large salt flats, a flamingo reserve, and the famous Valle de la Luna. We visited all of these!

We started our trip by leaving Santiago at 3 a.m. Friday morning. I stupidly decided that since I probably wouldn’t fall asleep until midnight anyway, and had to leave for the airport at 2 a.m., it wasn’t worth going to sleep. So Thursday night was spent watching a movie with friends, and we went straight from their house to the airport. I was so so tired! After arriving at the airport in Calama around 7:30 and quickly downing insanely unhealthy amounts of caffeine, we set off for Chuquicamata. I have to say, I was not particularly stoked to visit a giant copper mine, but then I found out we got to wear hard hats and I jumped on board. Chuquicamata was interesting for a number of reasons. For one, copper is basically the key to Chile’s riches. The copper industry has been nationalized since the early 1970’s, and this nationalization actually seems to really be working for the country. Chile produces around 35% percent of the world’s copper (if I remember correctly) and Chuquicamata mines about 50% of the copper en Chile. Pretty amazing, huh? The first picture below is of our group in front of one of the trucks they use to haul the copper. One of those trucks costs 4 million dollars, and they last about 10 years.



The next picture is of one of the giant holes from which they mine. There is probably more technical language for this...anyway, it was HUGE, and there are like 5 of these from which they are currently digging.



Friday night part of the group went on an astrological tour. San Pedro is so far away from any semblance of civilization, that the stars are incredibly bright. I had never seen anything like it before. The star tour cost about $24 so since my bank account is so sad these days I decided not to go. However, our group’s guide ended up knowing a lot about the stars and constellations, so we did our own unofficial tour, and he pointed out the constellations that are the biggest deal in the Southern Hemisphere like the Southern Cross and the Tres Marias.

Saturday I started the day by giving thanks to God for a full night’s sleep (haha), and then headed out to do a bike tour of Incan ruins in the area. Since San Pedro de Atacama is so much farther north (read: closer to the equator) than Santiago, it was really warm during the days, and so it was really nice to be out in the sun riding along the beautiful desert landscape. Below is a picture from our bike ride (we had to carry our bikes across that river!):



Later that same day, we went to La Valle de La Luna (The Valley of the Moon) and watched an incredible sunset play out over the peaks and craters of the valley. As you might have guessed, it is called La Valle de La Luna because it looks like the surface of the moon. Yesterday morning, we were up and at ‘em by 8 a.m. to see the Salar de Atacama—the largest salt deposit in Chile, and home to three different species of flamingos. The landscape of the salt surrounded by volcanoes was incredible, but with flamingoes added it was even more beautiful. The flamingoes were not as pink as they are at the zoo. We learned that this is because in zoos they feed flamingoes huge amounts of beta carotene to make them that color. Usually in nature they are not actually that bright pink—interesting huh? Anyway, here is a picture from Valle de la Luna:



I think the thing that impacted me the most this weekend was the realization that this is a living and breathing earth we live on. The impact of realizing how small I am in comparison to the stars was the beginning Friday night, and the rest of the weekend continued with information on and visits to natural and geological processes and places. We visited a huge deposit of copper and other minerals, learned that the crazy red hills we saw on our bike tour were created by pressure and plates pushing up against each other, visited a valley with craters like the surface of the moon, saw smoke coming out of an active volcano, drove through miles and miles of desert without any plant or animal life, saw Saturn without the aid of a telescope, and visited the most expansive salt flats in Chile. I was struck by how ALIVE the earth is—it is constantly changing, and it is so diverse! This is especially evident in a long, skinny country like Chile, which is made up of desert in the north, ocean to the west, the Andes Mountains to the east, and the forested, unique landscapes of Patagonia to the south.

I am truly blessed to be in a country so vibrant and unique not only in its landscape, but also in its language, culture, and history. Next adventure? Finishing this 20-page boar of a paper I’ve been whining about for the last two weeks. That's due on Wednesday, and then I have a midterm on Friday worth 50% of my Conflicto Armado grade (no pressure). However, if I make it through this next week I get a big reward at the end—my Mom, Aunt, and close family friend Natalie are all arriving Sunday! I can’t wait to show them all around my new home.

Until next time,
Amy

Un Techo para Chile (A Roof for Chile)!

This weekend proved to be one of the most rewarding for me since I've been here in Chile. For a while the CIEE kids have been clamoring to help with earthquake reconstruction, but with our busy schedules and so much going on in Chile post-earthquake its been near impossible to organize. This weekend we finally got our chance to pitch in a little bit, by volunteering for an organization called Un Techo para Chile (A roof for Chile). Techo para Chile existed before the earthquake, and many other South and Central American countries have now copied their business plan.

The houses that they build are called "media aquas" and they come prefabricated so that volunteer teams can set them up over a weekend. Our CIEE team of 35 was split into 7 teams of 5 to build 7 houses in a little rural city close to Talca called Las Cabras. It was so awesome for me to get out of Santiago not to another big city or a tourist hotspot, but to the campesinos of Chile. It was an opportunity to see how most Chileans live--outside of the city, and it was a beautiful experience. It felt like the DR again a little bit--riding in the back of pickups, getting dirty, working hard, all while surrounded by beautiful mountains, lakes, and sunsets out in God's country.

The family my team worked with (a young couple that had been married 5 years) did not lose their home to the earthquake, but to fire. On friday morning their house had burned to the ground after a chimney fire got out of control. It was devastating to see how such hardworking people could lose absolutely everything in such a flash. There is a picture of their home below.


Saturday was a frustrating day. Since our family had just applied for a temporary Techo para Chile house the day before, we weren't able to actually get to the site and start building until about 3pm. The others in my team were really upset about this, and bad attitudes and negative spirits started us off. I had kind of expected that to heppen because 1. Chile runs on tiki-time. When someone says 9am, read 11. and 2. Because without fail, that's how volunteer work runs! I knew that we would get the house done, but after working until about 9pm (most of that time working by candlelight) we had not even finished getting in the pilotes (pieces of wood that would make the foundation of the house, pronounced pee-loh-tays). Here is a picture of the beginning of our work, getting the pilotes in.


Saturday night we had a giant CIEE sleepover in the gym of the local school :D I especially enjoyed getting to spend all this time with my gringos this weekend because it is dawning on me that after Chile, we will never all be together again! I have gotten close to so many in my group, and can't believe we have so little time left here together. Anyway, despite the lack of beds I slept like an angel Saturday night, and we were up and at 'em Sunday morning by 8.

Sunday was hard, but our team got into a groove and finished the house! We worked a 10 hour day, and had to put the roof, windows, and door on in the dark, but it all got done. We didn't get back to Santiago last night until about 1am, but it was totally worth it. I am a girl with sore muscles and a happy heart! It is so rewarding to start and finish a project like this with little experience and little time. This weekend was also awesome for my Spanish. Because we had Patricio (our program director) in our group of 5 and the husband whose house had burned down worked with us quite a bit, we spoke only in Spanish the whole time we worked. Language barriers can make things more frustrating when trying to do technical things like raise a wall, but I can now say that I feel very comfortable with both construction words and frustration words. I learned a lot of Spanish swear words! Here is a picture of our group with the finished house:


Anyway, the work was hard but the reward was great. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to volunteer this weekend. It was so nice to get out of the city, see the countryside, and get away from the constant stress of homework! BUT...now I've got to get back to the nitty gritty school stuff. I have a paper and a presentation this week so it will be busy, but I leave Friday morning at 3am for San Pedro de Atacama. Gracias a Dios, another break is not far off!

Differences in the Details: Chilean Culture 101

Sunday is the halfway mark of my timre in Chile. While I desperately want a Shawn's blueberry bagel, upon my return I know that my stomach's satisfaction will not be worth the mental pain of leaving Chile. Clearly when spending time in another country, you're going to come across some funny little cultural details that make you turn your head up and say, "Wait, what?!" In honor of my halfway mark, here are some little Chilean oddities that either really frustrate me, or that I've come to know and love.

1. Nescafé: Chileans do not drink coffee in "ground bean" form like we do. In fact, most of them do not own nor know how to use a coffee maker. Instead, it is completely customary (both at home and at restaurants) to just heat up some water and put some "coffee powder" in it. This creates a liquid that, as you might of guessed, takes very little like real coffee and instead, like coffee flavored water. ick. ALSO: Even Chilean coffee cafés don't brew coffee. You may have a cappuchino, mocha, expresso shots, or latte, but coffee shops don't brew coffee. An americano is the closest thing I've come.

2. Libraries: The library at my university does not allow you to bring backpacks inside. The second week of school I rolled into the library to do some homework on my two hour break between classes, and the man at the reference desk curtly told me that there are no backpacks in the library. I stared at him dumbfounded and said, "But all my homework is in here!" He pointed to lockers along the wall, where I joined the other students in simply taking everything that was previously in my backpack out and carrying it in my hands. This is not just a U. Católica rule, even at the Govt-run National Library and others in the city, no backpacks are allowed.

3. White bread: Chileans only eat white bread. Wheat is sold in the stores, and finally now my host mom will occasionally buy it for me on special request, but as a general rule, no wheat bread ever passes Chilean lips. The bad part about this? Pancito (a roll of bread) is served with every meal except breakfast.

4. No central heat/AC: The entire country of Chile lives without either air conditioning or central heating. Not in businesses, not at school, not in restaurants, not at home. The story I've been told is that it's too expensive, which I suppose makes sense. However, it gets down to the 30's at night in the winter. Since its now fall leading into winter here, I've been finding it very hard to sit at my desk and write papers with blue, freezing hands. This means I usually end up doing homework in bed, but you know where that leads...

5. Stray dogs/General love of dogs: Chile has a dog problem. There are hundreds of thousands of stray dogs living on the street here. Think of it this way, dogs are to Chile what cows are to India. Also, Chileans in general LOVE dogs. Most families have at least one, and to say you don't like dogs would be super strange, because for the most part, everybody just flat out adores their dogs (stray and domesticated).

6. Toilet Paper Troubles: In a lot of public restrooms there is no TP in the actual stalls. Even at the hoity-toity private catholic university that I attend here, no TP in the stalls. However, there is a giant roll on the wall at the end of the rows of stalls, and you just go and grab your TP and take it into the stall with you. You also use TP to dry your hands after you wash them. This is upsetting because a) If you've got a little more work to do in the bathroom, everyone knows by how much toilet paper you've taken...and b) its just generally hard to anticipate exactly how much TP you're going to need. Awkward.

Alright, well maybe I've blogged about only the things that frustrate me. But these aren't complaints, just little differences that make me understand that some of the things I see as givens in my every day life in the States just--aren't! And that, in a nutshell, is why I love to travel. Living in different countries expands the way I think and helps me to put myself inside the minds of others. But oh for a bagel...

Be well.
Amy

A 21 Year Old Song

Hello all! As many of you know, my 21st birthday was last Wednesday. Leading into my birthday I was feeling a little down about being away from family an friends for the big event--everyone I know here I have known for only 2 months, so how could they care that much? Well although these friends are new, they are friends of gold just the same. They made my 21st birthday very memorable and special.

The actual day of my birthday I got to sleep in, and spent the morning opening cards from home, skypeing with my Mom, and working on homework. I ate lunch and then got a call from the CIEE office that there was a package for me, so I went to pick it up and found myself a box of dark chocolates from my Aunt Janet and her family. After that my Human Rights class met to visit the Museum of Memory and Human Rights here in Santiago, and the class greeted me with a muffin with candles and sang Happy Birthday (picture below)! From there I went straight to an interview for a paper I'm working on.



Thursday night my friends took me out for the "21 part," and we went to a bar and danced and sang karaoke and I had my first 21 year old drink (a raspberry mojito). Perhaps most special of all, my host family threw a party for me Friday night at our house. We had a Chilean "Choripan" (a type of barbeque) and about 20 of my friends came. It was so fun to have everyone there together, and I think people really enjoyed the party. Everyone sang Feliz Cumpleaños to me as I blew out all 21 (can you believe how old I am?) candles on my cake. I am so thankful for the 21 years I have had, and marvel at how blessed I have been in my life. I have a wonderful family, friends who love me, good health, a God who cares for me, and many opportunities to see and experience other parts of the world.

Anyway, now that the birthday is said and done, the real work begins. In the next three weeks I've got two essays to write (one is a 20-page research paper on Human Rights during the Pinochet dictatorship), 2 exams, and 2 presentations. This would stress me out in the States too, but the added difficulty of doing all of this in Spanish makes it harder. Also, all these assignments are worth between 30 and 60 percent of my final grades! Yikes. I think starting this week, time is going to begin to race by and before I know it the end of June will be here, classes will be ending, and I'll be preparing to return home.

I have plans for the next four weekends, so I'm sure it will be hard just to find a time to rest while trying to get everything done. This coming Friday I'm going to Talca, where the epicenter of the earthquake was, to help build homes for Chilean families still living in tents in the wake of the terremoto in February. They really need homes going up as winter is coming! The weekend after that I fly to San Pedro de Atacama with CIEE to see the desert and the highlights of the north of Chile. Then, the weekend after that my Mom, Aunt Janet, and Mom's childhood friend Natalie will all be here visiting. I can't wait! I will spend that whole week with them and then we're going to Viña del Mar/Valparaiso for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of the week they're here. It is going to be a crazy month of May, but I know it will be amazing. I'll try to update at some point, although I'm not sure when that will be.

To those of you in the States who sent cards or facebook greetings for my birthday, thank you so much. Feeling so loved from so far away was one of the most special parts of my birthday.

Love and blessing to you all,
Amy