Thanksgiving and the End of Responsibilities

Well Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I celebrated Thanksgiving here with a handful of good friends and one friend's mom and brother who were visiting from the US. And even though we're thousands of miles away from the US, we still threw ourselves an awesome Thanksgiving dinner, complete with mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, salads, homemade pecan and apple pies, and chicken (A pre-cooked rotisserie chicken was easier to find and prepare than a full turkey). It was delicious, and to be honest, I can't take any credit for the preparation. The best part was probably trying to explain the concept of forcing yourself to eat way more than you want to to the Chileans and German who were eating with us. It's pretty hard to convince someone that even though it hurts to eat more, you have to push on through and continue eating. Good ole US holidays!

As for other things, I finished my last class and turned in my last essay yesterday. So I literally have no more academic responsibilities in Chile and can be free to do what I really want to do, travel extensively. All in all, the semester wasn't too bad. My classes were purposely much easier than those at ND, and I purposely was less dedicated to my schoolwork than I am back home. All in all, I think this was a great choice, seeing as there is so much more for me to learn down here in Chile outside of the classroom than in it. That's not to say that I didn't have some very interesting classes in which I learned a lot, but only that I'm proud to say that I really believe I used my time wisely by not studying all the time.

As for a little glimpse into university life here in Chile, it's quite different than back home. La Católica has no student housing on-campus, and seeing as most students come from Santiago, they live with their families. This is largely for money reasons, as most Chileans could never justify renting a student apartment that doesn't get you much closer to the campus. I think a large part is also for cultural reasons, as Chileans are much more likely to continue living at home with their families after the graduate. This can be for a couple of years or more, often lasting until they move in with a significant other or get married. As much as I love my MN home, it's hard to imagine college without the dorm atmosphere. I've also found the classes here tend to be much less organized. An organized syllabus with set test and assignment dates simply doesn't exist in Chilean classes. Attendance is also often pretty low, at least in the basic intro classes I was taking. Furthermore, my tests and essays have not been graded to the same degree of difficulty as the Chilean students. This is probably a good thing, but gives me a pretty strong feeling of wimping out. But lets be honest, there's no way I understood those Latin American short stories well enough to get a 6.8 (out of a perfect 7.0) when the average Chilean pulled a less than a 6.0.

The end of the semester also means that my service project at the high school Colegio José Antonio Lecaros has finished. This past Monday we got to say our thanks to the students for their patience in working with us and making the job so enjoyable. In return, they gave us a huge round of applause. It was wonderful and really made me feel glad for having chosen this service site. The experience taught me a lot. First of all, it made me thankful for the kind of school I grew up in, as much of Chilean schools are underfunded, not very serious academically, and have much less discipline than what I am used to in the US. But it also showed me first hand the difficulties of teaching, especially younger children. It is no easy job! I found it really easy to be distracted and frustrated when a couple of students were goofing off in the back of the class or a lot of students left their books at home. It made me once again realize how lucky I was with my teachers growing up, how much I owe them for where I'm currently at academically, and how I probably didn't always pay my teachers the respect they due either. All in all, it was a fantastic experience and really put a nice touch on my semester, giving me a deeper perspective of what life is like in Chile.

A couple more things in closing. First of all, the grocery stores here have a really cool program to donate to the major charities in the country. Since about 480 Chilean pesos right now, 1, 2, 3, or even 9 pesos isn't really worth anything. Because of this, anytime your change comes in at less than 10 pesos, the cashier will ask you if you would like to donate this small change to one of the major Chilean charities such as Un Techo para Chile, which is dedicated to building homes for homeless Chileans, or Hogar de Cristo, which is a massive organization founded by the beloved Chilean Jesuit saint Alberto Hurtado and works with the country's poor in a multitude of ways. This is an awesome program put on by each of the major grocery stores, who each have their charity of choice. I'm sure the money adds up quickly, and it eliminates the hassle of carrying small, meaningless, and useless small change. In reality, I don't know why the US couldn't do a similar program with all change less than a dime.

Lastly, some of you may know the Notre Dame commercials that are shown during halftime of the football games. The theme for the few years has been "Notre Dame, fighting for...(some worthwhile cause)." It's a really cool campaign that highlights Notre Dame's commitment to international development. The themes have ranged from Fighting for Peace in Colombia to Fighting for the Advancement of Medicine. So just this past week, our program director here in Chile told us about one of the videos that highlighted Chile. The theme was Fighting for Democracy, and focused on Notre Dame's commitment to helping Chile return to a healthy democracy after the military coup in 1973 that lead to a 18 year dictatorship. And guess who was the main star (And it wasn't even the beloved Notre Dame president of 35 years Fr. Ted Hesburgh)? Esteban Montes, our program director! In typical modest Esteban fashion, he never brought it up until one of the students told him that they'd heard about the clip. It's an awesome clip, well worth the 2 minutes it takes to watch it. Check it out here.

My next post might not be for a while, as I am taking off tomorrow for the South and won't really have consistent internet access for at least a month. Can't wait!