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.