Wrapping-up Linares and arriving in Santiago

Yesterday (Monday), we finished up our Linares section of the trip and made the trip back to Santiago. It was sad to leave our Linares families, especially since after a week of living with them I was beginning to really get to know them. A week just seemed like such a short period of time. I would have much preferred to skip at least some of the time living at the Chacahuin retreat center in order to spend a greater portion of our short two weeks in Linares with the family. I will most definitely return to Linares during the semester.

Our last days in Linares were very enjoyable and quite relaxing. We took a day trip to the Panimavida resort, well known for it's hot springs. After arriving early in the morning, we all got into the pools. Even the hottest pool wouldn't be considered "hot," and was quite a bit cooler than a typical hot tub, but it was unique because the heat was all natural. The water also contained a lot of minerals which are supposed to be great for your skin. Whether this is true or not was of little importance to us. The water was thoroughly refreshing and a nice change from the cold-water showers about half of the students were experiencing at their homes (I for one had hot water). After lunch (a $24 buffet, our only option!), some of the group went to the spa while some of the rest of us went exploring in the surrounding area. The resort was fenced in, but we still found some interesting stuff within the grounds. First we explored an old collapsing house. It was very much the stuff of horror movies, with a dark, damp feel to it inside and holes in the floorboards. It was a cool place, but nothing compared to what we found next, what looked like an abandoned spa. The large building was composed of two long and narrow, parallel hallways with probably 30 smaller private spa rooms connected to each hallway. The inside of the building was very dark, and there were broken tiles littered everywhere along the floor. After much urging, we failed to convince the majority of the girls (way to go Katy!) to follow us. But this didn't stop us as we ventured through the ominous hallway. In some of the rooms lay the remains of tile bathtubs. We had a few screams at the expense of the sanity of the girls outside, who were already sufficiently scared. All in all, the old spa reminded me of the scene in Shutter Island where DiCaprio's character is venturing through the poorly lit hallways of the old prison. It gave us all the chills, but was a lot of fun. The day at Panimavida was a mix of relaxation and excitement.

The next day, Doris (instead of Dori as I had accidentally put earlier) and I made a trip to a retreat center in Rabones with the rest of the students and their adopted families. Rabones is a very rural town filled with farms that fill the shadows of the Andes Mountains. We spent the day at the retreat center relaxing in the outdoors, sharing one of our final days with our families, and of course playing soccer, gringos vs. Chileans. We again lost, but the game is under protest for one-sided officiating.

Yesterday I also got a chance to be on Chilean TV! A fellow student of mine, her Linares mom, and one of our professors from Linares were interviewed live on a Linares news program. We were asked to share our experiences from the program and got to give our host families a special thanks over the airwaves. As we were leaving the building, the radio show hosts also asked us to join them on-air to do a similar interview. I didn't think that anyone would have caught us on TV, but when we arrived at the parish to catch the bus to Santiago, my friends and their host families all congratulated me on a job well done. Pretty cool experience! We paid our last thanks, said goodbye to our gracious hosts and headed North.

Once in Santiago, we were greeted by our host families at St. George's School, a Catholic elementary-high school run by C.S.C. priests, the same congregation as Notre Dame. My Santiago mom, Leticia, and one of my sisters, Camila, picked me up. We headed back to their beautiful house where I have been settling in these past two days. The family is composed of Leticia and her husband Leonardo, two sisters Vale (22) and Cami (20), two brothers Luca (10) and Stefano (9), and a big ole dog Dunkel. It is quite an energetic family where I look forward to many great months. Oh, and lest I forget to mention, I have an awesome bedroom with a beautiful view of the mountains!

Today I also visited La Pontificia Universidad Catolica, where I will be taking classes, for the first time. I met with Esteban and Estela, the two professors in charge or coordinating our program. Esteban also teaches one of our required classes, Chilean Politics and Society. I can't say the campus is as beautiful as Notre Dame (this shouldn't really come as a surprise, should it?), but it is still very nice looking and feels removed from the bustle of a major city like Santiago. Today was largely spent going over administrative details of the program, our classes, how to register for classes, how to get around Santiago, etc... It wasn't the most exciting, but very necessary. Tomorrow we have our first official tour of Santiago, given by fellow UC (for Universidad Catolica) students.

That's all for now, but I'll keep you updated as I begin to know Santiago better.

Food, Family, and Getting used to Chilean Spanish

Whew! I’ve got a lot of updating to do.

First of all, I heard from Philip today that he is living in Alumni next year! He’d sent me a message online a couple of days prior, but I hadn’t had an opportunity to use the internet until today. Needless to say I am extremely excited to hear this news and can’t wait to hear stories from his first semester. Enjoy it Philip and I look forward to spending the following 3 semesters with you in the DAWG-House. But is Philip really reading this blog? Doubtful. Also, thanks for the nice card hidden in my luggage Mom, Dad, and Philip. I only just found it yesterday.

Next, my bank returned my $300 from my ATM fiasco. It’s a little confusing because they now have no record of ever withdrawing the money, but I have my money back and that’s all that matters.

On to more exciting things. I have moved in with an amazing family here in Linares, in the neighborhood of El Huapi (pretty cool name, huh?). My “Madre Chilena” is named Dori. She is incredibly friendly, a great cook, and a great person to be around. She works in a shelter for young girls who have been abandoned by their families or previously lived with abusive, alcoholic, or unstable parents. She is married to Pascual, a very laid back man (with a sweet ponytail!) who works as a lumberjack. He left yesterday for the next week to travel to the forests. Before he left we shared one of his favorite drinks, vino con arina (wine with wheat flour) over a meal. It’s a very interesting drink that requires constant stirring or else the flour settles to the bottom. The family also has three sons, Carlos, Marcos, and Alejandro. Carlos, the oldest, lives in Santiago with his girlfriend Kelsey (a fellow gringo who graduated from Marquette and attended the same program I am currently on two years ago). I spent Saturday and Sunday with the two of them and Camila, Carlos’ 12 year old daughter, before they headed back to Santiago. Marcos lives in a house a couple of blocks away with his girlfriend Pamela. I see the two of them nightly as they always eat dinner (or onces as it is known here) at Dori’s house. Alejandro is 20 years old and lives at home while taking classes to prepare himself for the college entrance exam. Like Pamela, his girlfriend Paulina always eats onces here. They’ve been a great family to spend time with, are extremely, and I mean EXTREMELY hospitable, and I will miss them when I head off to Santiago. I will however be able to meet up with Carlos and Kelsey in Santiago.

I also had my first experience with professional Chilean soccer. When we watch the news after dinner, none of us pay a lot of attention as we are talking about other things half the time. That is until the soccer highlights turn on and everyone turns silent for a good 20-30 minutes. Yes, they really have soccer highlights for 20 whole minutes here! Whereas in the U.S. all of the World Cup highlights might make up only 10 minutes on SportsCenter, the Chilean soccer league (a small league by all international standards) easily takes up twice that much time on local news programs. Soccer is such an integral part of the culture here that is doesn’t even make sense to ask any young boy what sports he plays because his answer will always be soccer. Also, in Linares, the favorite team is clearly Colo Colo, a team that has traditionally identified with the poorer and more rural areas of Chile. The other two major teams are Universidad Catolica (where I will be studying), and Universidad de Chile. Despite carrying the names of universities, these last two teams are professional teams, not collegiate teams. Their names come from the fact that these universities helped found the teams (I think…).

I’ve come to get a good feel for Chilean food in the past week and a half. I’ve enjoyed some of the favorites including sopaipillas (basically deep-fried bread, but not sweet like a donut), completos (hot-dogs overflowing with everything from tomatoes and onions to avocado and mayo-they eat a TON of mayo), and cebollas escabeches. This last selection is the one food I can honestly say I haven’t enjoyed here. They are whole onions soaked in old wine that’s gone bad and turned into vinegar. Something good to try once, but I won’t be seeking it out in the future. As a whole, Chilean food is not spicy like most other Latin-American food, and contains a lot of salt and bread. Tea and coffee is also drunk here in quantities bordering on excessive.

As for the language, I continue to improve. My family still talks to me noticeable slower and more clearly pronunciated than they do to eachother, but I do understand almost everything they say to eachother. That is until they start to talk using expressions. Chilean Spanish has more expressions than any other language I have ever encountered and although I’m doing my best to learn them, it is difficult. Life was also simplified once I began to understand the meaning, or rather lack thereof, of the word po they add to the end of nearly every sentence and often in the middle of sentences. It is a meaningless word added in informal conversations to fill space. Kind of like teenage girls usage of “like” in the United States. I’ve come to learn, and have been told many times, that Chileans speak terrible Spanish. They shorten words left and right, create what seems like hundreds of their own sayings and expressions, and tend to enunciate poorly and eat whole syllables of words.

A couple more things before I leave. A bottle of contact solution cost me $14! It might be cheaper in Santiago but I needed it now. Also, on Saturday I had my first true Chilean night out. That is I went out to a bar when there were actually other Chileans there as opposed to our obscenely early (on Chilean time) nights out last week, at about 10:00 to 12:00. Saturday we left the bar close to 5:00 AM! I tasted the local favorite, the piscola. It is a combination of Coca-Cola and pisco, the most popular Chilean liquor, made from grapes. Not bad for a mixed drink, but I still prefer my beer. We went to Bar Ganja, were I hung out behind the DJ booth all night. My host brother was really good friends with them. In addition to the very Hispanic music that was played, they also impressed me with their taste in old-school rap, including 2pac, B.I.G., Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, and Public Enemy, all remixed to more modern beats. Great taste in my eyes!

The next entry might not come for a while as I don’t have internet access and it has been hard to find time to use the internet at the church where we are taking classes.

Schools, Travel, and unfortunately.....classes

We've been so busy recently that I haven't been able to keep you updated. The last several days have been filled with more trips to schools and universities, classes, and a trip west from Linares to the towns of Nirivillo and Constitucion. I can safely say that this blog is the most English I've spoken/written since my last entry. I am doing everything I can to speak and think in Spanish. It's certainly not perfect yet but it is getting substantially easier.

On Tuesday we visited another school near Linares, El Colegio Leonardo Da Vinci. It was similar to the school we visited earlier in the week in that the students were incredibly excited we were visiting. We were greeted early in the morning by the teachers for coffee and tea. Even just a week into our trip I can tell this is an extremely common pastime. The highlight of the visit was a highly-watched soccer game between us gringos (Chileans call all white foreigners gringos) and a group of students from the school. From the start the odds were stacked in our favor. Our 5 man team wore jeans and hiking boots, while the Chileans wore track suits and soccer flats. Yet we held our own and the game ended 3-2 in favor of Chile. If I were a betting man, I'd pick us in a rematch with proper equipment.

Wednesday we drove up to Talca, the capital of the Maule region in which we are staying. There we spent the day at La Universidad Autonoma, a university of about 3500 students. We met with students who were studying to be Spanish and English teachers. Their English skills were for the most part very good, so long as we made sure to speak slowly and enunciate very clearly... so pretty much exactly what we require of Chileans when they speak. We helped the students in the English class with their presentation of Romeo & Juliet and were lucky enough to see them present several scenes. All I have to say is that the combination of strongly-accented English and Shakespeare makes for incredible entertainment.

It has also been very interesting to hear the Chileans' opinions on learning English. I have always been told and believed that Spanish is much easier to learn than English because Spanish follows grammatical rules much more religiously than English, which seems to have rules but never really follow them. Yet without exception, every single student and teacher here has said that English is easier to learn. I guess they do have a point because in Spanish all nouns have genders and verb conjugations are more complex, but I'm still not completely convinced.

Oh, and Chileans are obsessed with facebook. Every student we meet wants to have our name so they can friend us online (which means add us to their list of friends for you older folk who are not acquainted with the lingo of social networking). I think I've gotten 40 friend requests in the past 4 days and I can't remember speaking to all but 3 or 4 of them. I think they all want to have a gringo friend online to show their friends and family.

On Wednesday we also experienced our first Chilean carrete, or party. After we got back from our tour of the university, we ate dinner and walked into town. We visited a couple of bars and sampled the local beers. So far, Cristal is my favorite Chilean beer but I'll keep you posted. We sang some karaoke (Billie Jean is surprising hard to sing and Michael Jackson is currently rolling over in his grave) and returned to Chacahuin.

Thursday was a big day for us. We left at 7:00 a.m. and jumped on the road to Nirivillo (7:00 was not to our liking after a night on the town). Nirivillo is an old colonial town that was badly damaged by the February earthquake. The town had an eerie calm to it as many houses had collapsed and many others were abandoned due to risk of future collapse. It was especially moving for our guides because they were accustomed to the usual upbeat feel to the town. Notre Dame students on this program have always visited a wine-maker in past years and eaten lunch at his house, but sadly his house was absolutely leveled by the earthquake. In typical Chilean hospitality, he found a way to still serve us a delicious meal typical of rural Chile in his neighbors home, complete with homemade wine that had survived the destruction. Fortunately, we still got to visit the home of a wood sculptor named Alejandro based out of Nirivillo. He's been sculpting for nearly 50 years and has some amazing artwork around his home. He built his home from wood and clay and it is thoroughly decorated with hand-sculpted furniture and carvings of everything from his daughter to mermaids. He's done some quite remarkable work and has achieved substantial fame within the region and outside. Although his home was largely undamaged (although not completely), it's been quite shocking to see the destruction and hear peoples' stories of how their lives have changed. Stories from during the quake are truly terrifying. Firsthand accounts tell of 40-60 seconds of intense shaking and screaming.

On the theme of earthquakes, I've survived several. The interesting part is that I haven't noticed any of them. The strongest was a 6.0 magnitude aftershock in the adjacent region (Chile is divided into about a dozen regions by the way) that occurred a couple of nights ago. None of us students noticed it. There was also a much gentler temblor during dinner yesterday. Once again, none of us felt it. We rely on on the Chileans to inform us on the shocks because we are not accustomed to what they feel like.

After Nirivillo we traveled to the coastal city of Constitucion. The city, especially the main beach,

Playa de los Gringos (Gringo's beach), was completely devastated. None of the beach side restaurants survived and the beach has receded hundreds of feet into the sea. It it still a gorgeous place (aside from the remaining rubble), but is also a little too quiet. We climbed the rock outcrops and enjoyed the great views of the cliffs and ocean. The most moving part of the visit was a quick stop-over we made at a neighborhood of temporary houses constructed by a Jesuit church. They were built to provide homes for some of the victims of the earthquake/tsunami, but are remarkably basic and only provide for a minority of the victims. None of the wood and tarp homes have bathrooms and the sad reality is that they will probably end up being a little more permanent than originally planned. One of the residents told us that he had no plans to move as he was older and had no money to build a new house.

We have also started taking our Spanish language classes. We have three teachers who have been focusing on improving our pronunciation and speaking ability. Ricardo, Julia, and Angela teach at surrounding high schools and universities. The classes remain informal and have been enjoyable. The classes are currently being held at Chacahuin, but will move to a nearby church when we move in with our host families here in Linares tomorrow. I'll keep you updated.

First Days cont.

One more thing that is worth mentioning. Today I tried to take money out of a Chilean ATM for the first time. And after really focusing on the Spanish menus and figuring everything out, the ATM ate my card and wouldn't give it back. There were a few frantic moments were I pictured myself stranded in Chile, penniless and abandoned, followed by some more logical thinking. I called over one of the more official looking employees of the store, explained my situation and looked for her help. I communicated my situation well, but was told that there was nothing she could do (which I thought was fairly realistic, for various security reasons). Thankfully I decided to talk to another store employee, and with the help of Cecilia Espinoza, got her to call the bank which operated the machine. I left a description of my debit card (How many Notre Dame Federal Credit Union cards really appear in Linares?) and a phone number at which I could be contacted. After dinner, we received a call, quickly drove to the store and was amazingly returned my debit card. I can't imagine that this could have happened in the US, but because we explained that I was a student studying abroad in Chile who for all extents and purposes really needed money during his stay, I got incredibly lucky. I returned to our living center, quickly checked my account to see if anything strange had been charged to my account (nothing had been) and breathed a sigh of relief. My bank account had been debited for the approximately $300 I had withdrawn although not given my the ATM, but that is a problem I will deal with in the morning.

Buenas noches

First Days

Bienvenidos a mi Blog.

I arrived in Santiago airport yesterday (Sunday) morning after flying all night from Dallas. 15 other Notre Dame students accompanied me on this flight and we met up with four students from Marquette at the Santiago airport as well as our host for the Linares section of our trip, Cecilia Espinoza. She is a wonderful Chilean woman who currently lives in New York but has worked with the Maryknoll Lay Missioners for many years. The flight was uneventful bus the view during the decent into Santiago was incredible. The Andes mountains stretch on forever. However my travelling wasn't over as I immediately jumped on a four hour bus that took me South to the town of Linares. The bus ride was pretty calm as most people got at least some sleep after a full day of travel beforehand. It took forever to get out of what I can only imagine was still Santiago. The city sprawls out for miles and miles. Once we got outside of the urban area, the landscape changed drastically. Everything is green (which came as a surprise because it is currently the middle of winter here in Chile) and mountains dominate the horizon at all times. We passed through plenty of sizeable cities as well as long stretches of rural areas. The vast majority of fields were planted with grape vines for the vineyards. They were of course not currently bearing fruit because of the season but were still impressive. As an aside, the vineyards in Chile are located in the central part of the country as the north is very dry and the south is rougher terrain.

Eventually we arrived at Linares. We are staying at a retreat center that has a connection to the diocese of Linares. It's called Chacahuin and is a very pleasant place. A husband (Juanito) and wife (Jessica) operate the place and provide us with three hot meals a day. Linares is located about an hour and a half east of Constitucion, a coastal town that was one of the main casualties of the recent earthquake and resulting tsunami. On a more pleasant note, we did arrive in Linares (much to my joy) just in time to catch the second half of the World Cup Final and see Spain rightfully win their first World Cup (success!). I also landed a free beer out of the game as I made a bet with my good friend and roommate Shu, but that's of no interest to any of you, right? After the game we settled into our space and headed to mass at the Cathedral of Linares. It's a beautiful old building that thankfully withstood the recent earthquake but not without damage. They are currently in the process of trying to raise 200,000,000 Chilean pesos (about $400,000) to pay for the repairs. We listened to a very traditional mass that included the renewal of wedding vows of a couple on their 25th anniversary. We returned to Chacahuin, ate a late dinner and spent the night catching up with eachother, family, and playing a game of Mafia (a great group card game), in Spanish of course. We then huddled into our sleeping bags for a somewhat chilly night of sleep. Thank goodness for mummy bags!

Today we woke up and after breakfast went to a nearby school. The school, Nuestra Senora del Rosario, included the equivalent of high school, middle school and some elementary school kids. The students were overjoyed to see us and even treated us like celebrities, asking for our autographs and the lot, even as we insisted that we were not famous. We shared conversations about sports, music, lifestyles, girls and anything else that happened to be of interest. Several students also demonstrated the cueca, the national dance of Chile, in a very well-prepared presentation.

We left the school after a very enjoyable and informative morning and walked around Linares. It is a very calm city of about 70,000 with a nice warm feel to it (not literally of course, as it is winter). Later today we also purchased cell phones. After the earthquake, Notre Dame now requires that we buy them for emergency use, and gives us an additional $50 of stipend. Surprisingly that money went quite far as I bought a prepaid phone with about 150 minutes for only 9,900 pesos, or about $20.

Lastly, I should fill you in on the weather, as I am living in the opposite season from all of you. It is currently winter here in Chile. July is the rainy month (Can you really call it winter if it's raining and not snowing?), and August is the coldest month. After that they tell me that springtime is beautiful and the summer is amazing. We'll wait and see. As for winter, it's been about 45*-50* here, warmer in the sun and colder at night. There was excitement this morning when it actually got cold enough to leave frost on the grass! Even though I will never come to admit that this weather is cold (Minnesota would probably disown me), Chile is unique in that there is no central heating in all but the ritziest of places. That means that you never really escape the "cold." As a result, we are all wearing many layers and are often seen in jackets, hats and gloves, even inside. It has also been a damp cold which has brought about some shivering (but it's still not cold, I'm staying stubborn).

Oh, and I've adopted the nickname of Pato here in Chile. It's a nickname for Patricio, the Spanish version of Patrick, but also literally means duck. Not half bad I guess. At least it brings about a few laughs and rolls off the tongue nicely.

That's all for now, I'll keep you posted as we continue to explore central rural Chile in the coming weeks. Hasta luego.