Olin in Chile

Man vs. Fish: The salmon industry's push into Chilean Patagonia

2009-03-23T23:53:00.003-04:00

Incredible that I visited this very town that the video is showing footage of. So beautiful. The global fishing industry needs regulation, but regions where it is harvested on a mass scale such as Chile as hit the hardest by the ever-increasing demand and the lack of supply. This effects the pescaderos artesenales, or independent fisherman who depend on this for a living. Obviously the excessive use of hormones and the effects of bacteria are incredibly detrimental to the industry as well, not to mention the Chilean economy as a whole. This all can be tied into environmental impact, but the situation has economic and social impacts too.

Mark Scheffler March 4, 2009

Pinochet gets his own Museum of Memory

2009-03-23T11:25:00.004-04:00

Not sure how I feel about this.

Defending the Dictator: History gets a rewrite at the Pinochet Museum

"Do we feel responsible for it? Yes. Do we feel guilt? No."

"For every young man we recover we will have one less communist" Dios mio...

Argentina, Brazil, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year

2009-01-13T13:20:00.016-03:00

Well this is now my final entry to this blog. The constant chaos and transition back to life in the U.S. has really kept me preoccupied from writing in this blog. But I have found myself a free block of time to finally finish this thing and we'll see how it goes with my memory. (I took short daily notes)

The last time I wrote in this blog, I was leaving Chile for Buenos Aires (12/21/08) to meet up with my real family, my grandparents on my father's side (my grandfather was born in Ecuador, while my grandmother grew up in La Plata, Argentina), my Dad's sister (my aunt), husband and their two kids who are from near Washington, D.C. I had been away from the United States and my family for so long. Our last time together had been with when I left from Hawaii on vacation directly to Santiago. Now I was meeting up with them as well as other members of my extended family after 6 long months of host-family lifestyle.

I took a LAN flight the same afternoon that my family arrived was due to arrive in Argentina, yet I arrived a bit later than them. After checking in at the front desk for my room keys, I bumped into my mother in one of the hotel elevators. Our hotel was located right in the San Martin Plaza in downtown Buenos Aires, with the statue of liberator San Martin on horseback in the plaza. And every fun spot is almost walkable. After finally connecting the rest of my family, we go to eat out together for dinner to catch up.

December 22nd: My grandparents arrived in the early morning to Buenos Aires, and since I was not thrown off as hard by the time-change/jet lag since Santiago is just an hour earlier than Buenos Aires, I was able to meet my grandmother for breakfast.
The rest of my family woke up a little bit later in the afternoon, and we took a tour of Puerto Madero(above) for lunch and scope out potential restaurants for Christmas eve. I decide to take my siblings back on a walk from Puerto Madero to our hotel by walking past the Casa Rosada(below, and the equivalent of the White House for the Argentine government) and the many other government buildings nearby, and then to the hotel.
Upon returning to the hotel, we discover that my aunt, uncle, and two cousins had been stuck overnight in Toronto due to a number of technical difficulties and weather conditions. They would eventually arrive in the middle of the night/early morning the next day.

12/23: We together as a family go on a walk down Florida(below).
My aunt, uncle, and one of my cousins were able to take part as well, but they were just coming off an inconceivable number of hours of traveling. After our walk, we come to realize the championship match between the two best club teams in Argentina was the night of the 23rd and that we should try and get tickets. We end up organizing a van service, guide, and tickets to the club finals of the clausura between Boca Juniors and Tigre.

The game was quite an experience. My dad, uncle, both of my cousins, and all my siblings attended the match and we all left with similar impressions. We have tickets in the Tigre section and were told not to wear yellow or blue since those of the colors of Boca and we didn't want to start any trouble with the Argentine fans.

I was secretly cheering for Boca, but just watching also as a casual observer unlike the rest of the fans in the stadiums with their fireworks, flares, smoke, constant singing before, all during, and after the match. The stadium (that of the club 'Racing') literally shook during peak moments of the match. Just to enter the match, the bustling streets with Choripan stands and Tigre fans (BBQ sausage sandwich) created and anxious environment. We preceded to pass through 3 "checkpoints," where we were patted down. One of the checkpoints didn't allow people everyone to pass all at the same time, so they let people through in waves while a riot police member blasted shotgun shells in the air to keep in the people back. There were not many women who attended the match, but there were some, much more than many years ago where women either simply weren't allowed to go or it just wasn't safe. The match was very exciting, ending in a 1-0 win for Tigre, but because of the aggregate goals rule in Argentine playoff futbol, Boca Juniors were declared champions of the league since they had scored more overall goals. Tigre fans were still passionate even after the match was over, especially since they had beat Boca.

12/24: I go on a walking tour with my brothers and father of the Botanical Gardens (which I have earlier described in this blog here), and the they were just as I had remembered them: tons of cats lounging all over the grounds and are fed by someone working for the gardens, many species of plants from all around the world, and some classic sculptures, ponds, greenhouses, etc.

Afterward we headed to Parque Palermo, which felt very quiet considering it was the afternoon on Christmas eve and everyone was either at home or heading home to be with their families. I was still able to find an open Choripan stand with some awesome Chimichurri sauce. The park was followed up by an odd cafe stop in barrio Recoleta since there were about 3 m80 fireworks that went off in a 45 minute time span. That night we ate at a great Italian restaurant called Bice in Puerto Madero. They had prepared a nice multi-course meal and holiday program for all guests eating at the restaurant that night.

Christmas day was spent taking a short airline flight to the region Iguazu in Northern Argentina, on the border with Brasil and a bit of Paraguay. The weather was significantly hotter and more humid, and the views, vegetation, and life in this area are spectacular.

There is a reason that it is being considered as one of 7 most important/amazing/beautiful 'natural' wonders of the world (vote now here). We stayed at a very nice old hotel located inside the park of Iguazu on the Brazilian side with a view of the waterfalls from the front entrance.

I have visited this exact region of Argentina once before, but I was much younger and it was just my parents and one of my younger brothers. I do not remember much from the trip since it was so long ago, but I do remember some vague images of the park, butterflies, and feeding small, friendly jungle mammals.

12/26: I went on a walk through the dense part of the jungle with my brothers and one of my cousins to see what we could find. We followed along a path that had been cleared by some telephone lines but ran straight through the forest. We got scared by what are known as coatis, which turned out to be those small, friendly animals that I vaguely remember from last time.
We also saw many types of giant spiders, grasshoppers, butterflies, and all sorts of bugs. There were many sounds that were never identified, but probably just birds or bugs.

Later in the afternoon, everyone but my grandparents went on a boat ride up the Iguazu river to get an up-close look at the falls and get wet. We also got a brief jungle tour during the jeep ride to the boats, as well as a DVD copy of the boat ride.

12/27: My family and cousins take a tour of the Argentine side of Iguazu, which had some great views as well. We unfortunately weren't able to tour the whole park since we entered close to closing time. Still got some good pictures.

12/28: My grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins fly back from Iguazu to Buenos Aires, but my family had planned to spend a couple days in the southern part of Argentina known as Bariloche. Once again, when I was younger, I traveled to this city as well. It is very similar to the High Sierras, but in the southern hemisphere. The town offers a lot of adventure sports, tours, and a nice downtown. We rented an apartment that overlooked the Nahuel Huapi Lake.

12/29: My dad and I take a walk downtown early in the morning to try and put together some rough plans for the next couples days. We decide it might be a good idea to take a boat ride later that afternoon to Victoria Island (Isla Victoria). We also try and find a good fishing trip deal offered by one of the sport stores downtown. My entire family ends up taking a wild public bus down to the boat where we were to board a boat for a island tour.

Once we get on the boat, we spend about 10 minutes waiting for the final passengers to board and decide that the trip would probably not be worth it considering how the trip was setup and how many people were on the boat as well. So we change our plans and spend the afternoon at the Llao Llao hotel. This place is over the top and incredibly expensive, but it is fun to pretend like you are staying there and soak in the great views it has from the property.

After coming back into downtown Bariloche, my dad finalizes a fishing trip the next morning early and practically all day. We eat dinner downtown and get to bed early for our long day.

12/30: Two pickup trucks, one towing a boat, 3 guides, and my entire family leave town early in the morning for a lake far outside the city limits of Bariloche.
The landscapes were incredible, and we took many beaten trails, roads, and mud ditches to get to this pristine trout lake. We ended up taking two motor boats, coolers full of lunch supplies, and fishing rods out for the afternoon. It was awesome.

12/31: Our final morning in Bariloche consisted of checking out of our apartment and doing some last minute shopping. We head to the airport for a flight back to Buenos Aires to meet up for New Year's with the rest of the family. We all had dinner that night at the same restaurant that we attended for Christmas eve, and this time they had a DJ and singer performing during dinner leading up to the countdown.

1/1/09: After a slow morning of hanging out by the pool at the hotel, I discover that there is a sports bar within walking distance from where we were staying: The Alamo, Shoeless Joe's. It is essentially the equivalent of the bar I worked at in Santiago, but much larger with a different layout. They had cable feed showing college football games and other sports. Had to try and catch SC whoop on Penn State in the Rose Bowl. The family met up for pizza that night, and then I went back to the Alamo bar for the rest of the nightcap. We thought there was a chance that my grandparents were going to leave this day, but they were able to hang out until about 8p.m., and then had to go to the airport for a red-eye.

1/2: My aunt, uncle, cousins, and my direct family all took a train ride the next early afternoon to the city of La Plata, where my father, grandmother, and grandfather all grew up more of less. We were able to explore the neighborhood where the lived.

The house was located across the street from a social club and we were even able to let the owners of the house give us a tour considering we were the relatives of former owners long ago. We later took a train from La Plata back to Buenos Aires, where we did a walking tour of the barrio, or neighborhood La Boca. This is the part of the town where Boca Juniors is from and where the stadium is located. There are a lot of tourist shops, port traditions, tango, and other fun stuff to do there.

After returning back to the hotel, my dad, mother, and brother went to a late night Tango show at a place that had been doing nightly shows since the 80s. We had some tasty wine and enjoyed an entertaining performance.

1/3: This was our final day in South America. We spent the early part of the afternoon shopping on the street La Florida, looking for souvenirs and gifts. Afterward, we walked around the neighborhood of San Telmo, which has a lot of antique shops and traditional gifts. That night we left for the airport to fly home.

It was such a great experience to have my entire family on the Latin American side of my family come visit one of the origins of the family heritage for the holiday season. Christmas and New Years dinners together were both great opportunities for us to get together. There was not a more perfect way for me to end my travels in South America, and I can't wait to come back one day. I just can't get enough of the language, culture, attractions, food, memories that both Chile, Argentina, and many other countries down south.

This concludes my blog on my over 6 month adventure in Chile and many other parts of South America. I hope you enjoyed reading about my travels and hopefully this serves as a good tool for anyone who wants a personal account of how living life in Santiago, Chile on a study abroad for 6 months.

Since I was in Chile for a semester, I should be graduating this quarter. I took 24 units over the course of the summer and what would have been my fall quarter had I been in Santa Cruz. So that gave me a bit of a units boost, and I will be able to fulfill all my requirements as a Global Economics major with an emphasis on Latin America. I will still wait to walk with the rest of my class in the Spring because there is an actual ceremony if I wait and I don't want to have to walk on my own in March. Should be a challenging but exciting final quarter for me and I can't wait to see where this path takes me.

I will try and continue a personal blog from here on out. However, finding time to write and update about my activities requires chunks of free time. Hopefully I can keep it going. I will post the the URL here when it is created.

Patagonia and Despedida

2008-12-24T08:50:00.014-03:00

I know I know, it's been now multiple weeks since my last entry, but with good reason. I was down south at the Strait of Magellan and its surrounding areas for the last two weeks, followed by my two final days and Chile, and then a hop over to Buenos Aires to meet my family. I have had such a great, relaxing time recently and things have just been getting better now that my family and I have reunited.

So my journey began way back on Saturday December 6th. That day I had had to say goodbye to my host mother Lucrecia since she was traveling to Switzerland to visit her daughter and new born grandson for 3 months. That was very sad to have to say goodbye so early, but I have her email address of course as well as her Skype account so we can easily keep in touch. Anyways, my program buddy Finn and I had bought our tickets the month or so before to Punta Arenas, which is the largest city in the southern tip of Chile that you can fly to essentially and access the surrounding areas. Before we got on the plane, Finn's host family had organized an asado (giant tasty BBQ) to fill us up nicely before heading into the wilderness. We left from the lunch directly to airport, where I had to say my goodbyes to another program buddy, Dan, since he was going to be out of town (Santiago) when I got back because his family was coming down to visit and tour Chile for the holidays. I will see him back in the states for sure since he is from San Francisco.

That afternoon, we got on a 3 hour plane ride to Punta Arenas, where we stayed the night in a hostel with the plan of touring the town and picking up supplies over the course of two days before taking a bus to the city of Puerto Natales, the 'base-camp' town to the National Park of Torres del Paine. Strangely, we were able to pick-up our food for camping, last minute supplies, and tour the entire city in less than one day, so we decided to change our bus tickets to that afternoon rather than stay another night in Punta Arenas and leave the next morning. In terms of exploring the town, we visited a museum on the history of the region that was conveniently located across the street from where we were staying, walked through town and visited the central Plaza with a giant statue of Ferdinand Magellan, and visited the Strait of Magellan.

After a 3 hour bus ride to Puerto Natales, we took refuge in one of the three hostels all under the same name of "Erratic Rock." This hostel is a well run ship, with a great system and awesome owners. They are two friends from Oregon who decided to move to Puetro Natales and open their own hostel after visiting the national park, and now they are part of a co'op under the same name which has 3 hostels in Puerto Natales and one in Punta Arenas, all with the same system and feel. One in particular in Puerto Natales is a multi-function hostel, rental equipment provider, and information source for any questions about the park and the surrounding area. Each day at 3 p.m. they have an info-session for all backpackers. So we stopped by the hostel to talk to the owners about our plan to do the "W" trail in the park and how to arrange for bus to take us to the park. The next morning we left at 7 a.m.

Each leg of our journey is marked in a different color, with START and END labeled.

The bus ride to the National Park of Torres del Paine is about 2 and half hours with multiple stops depending on where you want to be dropped off. Normally foreigners have to pay $30 to enter the park, but since my buddy and I had Chilean identity cards, we only had to pay 8 dollars. Too bad the $22 dollars we saved went directly to buying tickets to ride a boat across Lake Pehoe(yellow line). The boat dropped us off at the base of the left side of the "W" trail and upon arrival we embarked on our hike up to "Glacier Grey." (light blue line)

The entire trail is 70 km, so our hikes from campsite to campsite were anywhere between 12-22 km. The initial hikes up to Glacier Gray was rough since we had all of our food, meaning backpacks were their heaviest, and our hiking legs we not yet up to speed. We decided to walk about an hour past the "Refugio Grey," which is a pay-campsite with a view of the glacier from a distance, to go to a free CONAF campsite (Chilean National Forestry Association), "Las Guardas" which had a view overlooking the glacier from above.

After a night at "Las Guardas," we packed up our gear and headed to the middle section of the "W," to a campsite called "Italiano" (green line). Along the way we managed to run into a couple of friends from our Education Aboard Program since the trails are essentially fixed meaning your bound to run into people. At times, it becomes a big of a nuisance because there are so many people visiting the park (200,000 a year) with the park only open less than 6 months, so we saw a lot of people: many Germans, Brits, Americans, Israelis, French, and few Chileans. Once we arrived at camp Italiano, we setup our tent in the crowded campsite, only afterward discovering that there was a much better location right next to the river that flows by and with no views of other campers. So we moved our gear to this prime location and realized there was no rush to leave the next day, so we hung around for 3 days. You can drink water straight out of the rivers since it's all glacier melt, some of the best water in the world. It was definitely the best campsite we stayed at (below).

The next day we took a day hike up to a lookout of "Los Cuernos" mountains about 2 hours up "Valle Frances," which represents the middle part of the "W" (pink line) After lunch at the lookout with many of campers, we decided to follow a not-so-often-walked trail up to higher elevation for a better view of the valley and to get away from the other campers. We walked through snow which was fun and the view was spectacular.

The rest of the time at Camp Italiano, Finn and I just hung out, read, and explored the nearby parts. Now 1t day 6 into our trip, we hiked out to the right side of the "W" to see the famous Torres del Paine that the park is named after (dark blue line). They are three rock towers that have glaciers melting just below them, forming dozens of waterfalls that in turn form a aquamarine lake that feeds into a river down the valley. It was essentially observing the entire water cycle in one view.

We had camped less than 45 minutes below the Torres at another free campsite(Campamiento Torres), spent 2 nights there, and on the third day left down the right side of the "W" to leave the park (orange line). The "W" takes most people only 3-4 days to complete, but we decided to take our time since we had enough to food to stay longer and we wanted to enjoy our time in the park. The experience was incredible, breathtaking, probably some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life. We would have stayed longer had we brought more food, but there was just not enough space. So we left to park back to Puerto Natales.

We headed back to Erratic Rock to talk with the Oregon owners about another place nearby that we could camp since we had about 4 days until our flight back to Santiago from Punta Arenas. They recommended a Lake called Laguna Sofia, which is essentially a lake with the land surrounding it divided in half since it is owned by Cow ranchers. However, we were told it would not be a problem camping on private property and we would not see anybody while we were there, which seemed very appealing. So we got on the same bus that took us to the National Park, but told the driver to drop us off at an entrance to a private road about a half hour into the drive, where we would walk 7 km to the base of the lake, and then about another 5 km to the other side of the lake to camp.

During our walk, a 80's Mercedes drives up behind us and offers us a ride to the Lake. It turns out to be one of the two owners of the land, an Italian immigrant, who had no problem with us camping there and was very friendly. After being dropped off at the base of the lake, we walked to the other side and found a small bay with a bit of grass perfect for camping. We would stay there for two nights and leave on the third day.

The water of the lake was not too cold, so I decided to go for a swim.

On the walk back, we did not have any run-ins with any cars, so we had to walk to the entire trail back to the highway, where they we hitch-hiked with a truck driver back to Puerto Natales. We spent the afternoon to take a shower and have lunch in Puerto Natales, and then took an early evening bus to Punta Arenas. Once we got to Punta Arenas, we took refuge in the Erratic Rock for two days and planned to visit one of the Penguin Colonies and pickup souvenirs before leaving back to Santiago.

Seno Otway (Otway Sound), is a Penguin Colony of supposedly 8,000 Magellan Penguins, but it seemed like there were a bit less than that. Antarctic researchers who were on our small tour hypothesized that the tourist aspect of the colony might have scared away part of the population, but it was not clear since penguins always come back to the same place every year to breed before returning to the ocean once again. There were still plenty of penguins to see.

We also saw a couple Ñandús, which are the Chilean version of an ostrich. Weird creatures. They are endangered since they have been hunted for their feathers and their tasty meat.

We spent the night there, and had a flight the next morning around noon on the 19th. The entire 13 day experience in Patagonia, Chile was most certainly the most scenic trip I have ever taken. It is a unique part of the world with difficult weather (luckily there was hardly any rain during our entire trip), stunning views of nature and wildlife. Visiting the Strait of Magellan is probably to closest I'll get to Antarctica, and I hope one day I can come back and check out the Argentinian side of Patagonia as well.

It would be two quick days in Santiago to pack, pickup gifts, say goodbye to my friends, teachers, co-workers, and host dad, before I got on a plane for Buenos Aires. 6 months flew bye so fast, and if it were not for the fact that I have the graduate after this coming, I could have easily extended my stay another six months. I could also easily come back down to Latin America to work one day, but we'll have to wait and see. It was so tough saying goodbye to my host parents, they because part of my family and I became part of their's. We will keep in touch digitally, but I hope to one day see them again, either in the United States, Chile, or Europe where their daughters live.

So that ends my trip to Chile. I couldn't have expected a better experience, with all that learned in terms of the Spanish language(even though Chilean Spanish is full of so much slang and their owns words it is sometimes hard to talk with other Spanish speakers, but at the very least it is very easy for me to listen and understand others because Chilean talk to fast), all the history of Chile and Latin America that have given me a fuller perspective of the region and my own family history, the experience of being so culturally immersed in a new country while going to school working a job. There are so many similarities Chile has with California, but obviously very different in many ways as well. It is going to be a bit crazy coming back and adjusting to life in the United States, especially since I only have 3 months left of school before I hit to the real world. Pretty crazy. One thing I know for certain, I will definitely be coming back one day.

PS: I will continue this blog until I leave South America on the 4th of January. After that, I think I will create a new blog on my life going forward. It will have a new address and I will post a link here when I create site. But until then, I will have one or two most entries here on this blog. Cheers.

"El niño que no juega no es niño, pero el hombre que no juega perdió para siempre al niño que vivía en él y que le hará mucha falta."
English: “A child who does not play is not a child, but the man who doesn't play has lost forever the child who lived in him and who he will miss terribly.”
-Pablo Neruda

Chi-Chi-Chi...Le-Le-Le...Viva Chile.

Mendoza

2008-12-02T12:22:00.006-03:00

So it looks like this will be my second to last blog entry from Santiago Chile. I have only one more week left, two tests, before I travel down south to Punta Arenas between the 6th-19th of December, then just barely two days in Santiago and then off to Buenos Aires.

Last Thursday I had my final exam for Social History of Latin America, which went surprisingly well. I also turned in a final essay for my contemporary history of Chile class. All that is left is my two Economics tests this week and I am free. After class, I went to pickup some gifts for my host parents since it was my host-father's birthday and my host-mother is leaving for Switzerland for 3 months the day after I go to Punta Arenas. Along the way I realized that I had misplaced my ATM card (probably left it in a ATM machine earlier in the week, forgetting to respond 'NO' at the end of my transaction if I wanted to make another transaction or have the machine spit out the card). That was a slight damper for my Thanksgiving, but the disappointment didn't last long since I was leaving for Mendoza that afternoon to visit family friends who live there for the weekend.

Thanksgiving lunch was very nice. My family and I shared the the things we were thankful for and discussed the final days of my stay in Chile. Very emotional, but a great holiday considering that no country outside of the United States celebrates Thanksgiving, obviously, and the day exceeded my expectations.

After lunch, I headed off the the airport. While waiting in line to check in, I noticed a familiar person in line, but wasn't sure of his identity until a airport worker came up to him asking for an autograph for his kids. Then my thoughts were confirmed that it was the Argentinian futbol player, Lucas Barrios (first photo below), striker for the Chilean club futbol team Colo-Colo. He was traveling to Buenos Aires for the weekend with a fellow player, Daud Gazela(second photo below), and after he finished checking in, I went up and asked them both for autographs. Not having any paper available, I had them sign my passport on the day that I arrived to Chile. It felt a bit strange since Colo-Colo is the rival club to my team, University of Chile, but Lucas Barrios can probably be considered the best player in the Chilean league and has recently been offered multimillion dollar contracts by various
European club teams. Not sure if he will leave.

After chatting with the futbol players, I checked into my flight, only to realize that my Visa had expired a week before. After 15 minutes of complete panic thinking that I was not going to be able to leave, I realized that all I needed to do was show them my Chilean identification card and I was on my way. The flight was less than 45 minutes long.

I arrived in Mendoza and met up with Carlos Rodriguez, who went to engineering school with my grandfather in the city of La Plata in Argentina. We sat down for a cup of coffee in the airport to introduce ourselves, share our stories, and then left for his house where I met his wife Teresa. Carlos was once the Minister of Economy as well as the Minister of the 'Hacienda,' for Argentina during the presidency of Carlos Menem, while Teresa was a doctor for many years with a specialization in blood and related diseases, and later was a social worker for the youth. They are such wonderful people, intelligent, very hospitable, and showed me a great time in Mendoza. That night we went out to dinner at a restaurant in which they knew the owners and had eaten there before with my grandparents years earlier.

My entire weekend was completely programmed. Carlos set me up with excursions to various parts of Mendoza and it's exterior. He had initially planned to join me on the trips, but he suffered an accident on a construction site a week before I arrived, breaking a couple ribs and lacerating his hand. Nevertheless, we had a great time.

The first excursion was to nearby vineyards and bodegas, as well as a olive oil producing farm. Mendoza is primarily known for its wine since about 90% of the wine produced in Argentina comes out of Mendoza. The temperature, climate, and available land for cultivation make it a perfect environment. I returned to the house for dinner and went to bed early since the following morning my excursion left at 7:30 a.m. Below La Bodega Baurdon, one that we visited.

Excursion #2 took a group of people to the northern part of Mendoza along the International highway that connects Chile with Argentina. Our stops consisted of the original bridge that San Martin used crossing the cordillera to Chile to aide in the Chilean independence with Bernanrdo O'Higgins(Puente Picheuta),

the town of Penitentes which is were I went skiing earlier in the year with my buddy Finn but this time there was no snow,

the Bridge of the Inca which is a natural bridge formed from water erosion of a nearby river with leftover sediment from retreated glaciers, and iron found in spring water. A Spa Hotel was created in 1925 for famous individuals that provided each room with a natural bath from the river, which apparently contained many cleansing and anti-stress elements. Following an avalanche in 1965, the entire community was destroyed except for a small chapel.

The last stop we made was the entrance to the Park of the Aconcagua mountain. We couldn't enter the park because you need to buy a permit, but the view was spectacular. After traveling all the way to the border, our excursion turned around and headed back to Mendoza.

Excursion #3: San Rafael. This city is about 3 hour south of Mendoza, and is considered the 3rd most important city in Argentina after Buenos Aires and Mendoza. It is famous for it's Canyon, Atuel, which is the Argentinian version of the Grand Canyon essentially. There is a river that flows in between, as well as a road that allows you to drive all the way up to Lake Nihuil. The river has a series of hydroelectric dams that are used to supply a significant amount of energy to Argentina's citizens. The excursion took the entire day, from 7 in the morning until about 10 in the evening.

On my final day in Mendoza, I traveled with Teresa to take a tour of downtown Mendoza and visit the Fundational Museum, which unfortunately was closed due to construction. It's plaza is gorgeous, and beneath there is a series of tunnels that explore the archeological discoveries from the time of the foundation of the city.

We returned to have lunch at the house, and then afterward Carlos and I took a tour of the Park of San Martin, absolutely amazing.

The park is much larger than Central Park in New York, or even Palermo Park in Buenos Aires. There is an artificial lake, dozens of giants lawns, restaurants, a Rotary club, sporting facilities, an amphitheater that holds an annual festival that 100,000 people attend as well as some concerts, one of the World Cup stadiums that was used in 1978 (the year which Argentina won. Carlos helped in the construction of the stadium from 1975-1978), and el Cerro de La Gloria which has an amazing statue dedicated to South American liberator San Martin and his Andean army.

After completing a driving tour of the entire park, it was time for me to catch my flight. I bid farewell to Teresa and Carlos for their warmth and hospitality. They made my short stay in Mendoza amazing. I was so happy to meet and spend time with them. I even met one of their daughters and her family, who were incredibly nice and whose kids loved to ask me questions about the life in the United States and my stay down here in Latin America. They also at times could not understand me because they said I spoke like a Chilean. What a compliment...I guess.

Only a week remains for me in Santiago essentially, and I can't wait to visit Patagonia. My next entry should be around the 19th/20th of December after I get back from the south. Ciao.

Chile offers striking workers a 9.5 percent raise

2008-11-20T22:08:00.004-03:00

The government of Chile has offered nearly half a million striking municipal workers a 9.5 percent wage increase and the Congress is expected to vote on it Thursday, officials said.

The 450,000 workers, who have been on strike since Monday, are asking for a 14.5 percent pay increase. The government had initially offered a 6.5 percent increase.

A 9.5 percent increase would be the highest since the 9.9 percent accorded in 1997, El Mercurio newspaper reported.

Striking workers have taken to the streets this week, marching in most of the nation's major cities.

The nation was paralyzed for two days last week when the workers went on strike. The public employees have not set an end date for the strike.

Because of the strike, garbage is piling up on streets, tax and fee collection has stopped and public health and education are practically paralyzed. Even weddings and autopsies are not being performed.

source
---

There is a lot to say about the current strike. This article does not state that the reason for the demand for a raise in salary is because of the cost of living has gone up 10% from last year, nor that their first offer was a measly 4.5%. People are going to be very disappointed if the raise is not at least double-digits and it's not like the government does not have the fund. Also, the government is stubborn to make a quick, drastic decision because of the fear that if they grant the 14.5% request, soon the private sector will be asking for a similar changes, and many members of the government obviously have ties to these companies that will be affected. Also, the discussion is difficult because a simple raise to every public worker doesn't make sense...should executives of these public companies receive the same salary increase as a lower-class, less specialized worker? The same thinking applies to those who aren't very good workers, why should they be rewarded for their bad performance? I had a class canceled for a day because of this strike, and there is so much horrible stress placed on the country of Chile economically and socially. The host mother of my buddy Finn had a heart attack (thankfully she is o.k.) because she is one of the few working in her sector of the government and is a workaholic, so while others are striking she is working twice as hard and the extra stress was the cause.

Update: Thankfully the Congress approved a 10% raise in municipal salaries late Thursday afternoon and the strikes will stop. The readjustment also includes two bonds: one of $200,000 mil and one of $100,000 according to the salary tranche.

Two weeks...

2008-11-20T21:16:00.005-03:00

These last few weeks are going to be a grind, but there are so many things I am looking forward to doing both here in Chile as well as obviously afterward. I have been unfaithful to my blog as of late, and will do my best to stay dedicated for these finals days because their going to be jam-packed. I have my final exams coming the final week of November as well as the first week of December. I also have only three more days of work at Basic Bar (22nd, 23rd, 24th of Nov).

I saw James Bond a week back with my host parents. Chile received an early screening of the film (before the United States, but obviously after the initial release in England), since about 40 minutes of the film is in the Northern deserts of Chile. Funny however, the scenes are supposed to be from Bolivia according the the story of the film and apparently the government of Bolivia and it's citizens were not to pleased about it due to the delicate history between Chile and Bolivia. The area in which the crew filmed used to be Bolivia, as well as their only access to the ocean, but after the War of the Pacific, Chile took this land from them as well as some territory from Peru. Also, according to the film's plot, a dictator is in control in Bolivia making shady environmental deals with the villain, which obviously didn't go over well either.

Last week I also went with my host parents to the 28nd annual international book fair, Feria Internacional del Libro de Santiago. My goal was to find two cheap books, one on Francisco de Miranda after hearing a bit about him in my social history class and a recommendation to research deeper on his life from my host dad, as well as a copy of the Argentine epic poem, Martín Fierro, and I succeeded in doing both. Coincidentally while I was looking for one of the books I came across a book, Las Catilinarias, that was written by one of the Ecuadorian ancestors, Juan Montalvo, a famous political writer. It was a joy to show that to my parents and the man selling the book. The price was a bit high and the book quiet large, so instead I took note of the title and one day will try and pick-up a copy.

I received word from the grandmother that I need to obtain a visa for Brazil, so this was a multi-day process to organize all the materials necessary for applying and eventually receiving one. The cost was $200 dollars, which apparently is a response by the government of Brazil for all the strict requirements and equally steep price that a Brazilian has to pay if one wants a tourist visa for the United States. I should be able to pick it up on the 24th.

I successfully bought two plane tickets for my travels in the coming weeks. The first is one to Mendoza do visit a family friend of mine for the weekend. I had been trying to get in contact with him since the moment I arrived, but there was a series of delays and before I knew it, it was two weeks until I was done with my program so I decided I needed to take advantage of being so close to his home and visit him.

I also bought my ticket to Punta Arenas with my friend Finn from Santa Cruz to spend 13 days in Patagonia, Chile. We will be roughing it up down there while visiting the national park Torres del Paine and Tierra del Fuego. The experience is going to be amazing and I can't wait. It will probably be the closest I get to Antarctica and if I find a way to technically set foot there, I will have been to all seven continents! I am so lucky to have the opportunities to travel and seeing the world gives me a great perspective and keeps me well grounded. I leave on the 6th of December and come back on the 19th, a day before I leave for Buenos Aires to meet up with my family.

So those are my recent and upcoming events that I have planned for the final weeks. Today I setup a meeting with an American economics professor from the Universidad de Chile, who studied at Columbia University and gave a lecture during my Chilean Culture and Politics class. I hope to use this time to ask him all my questions that I have regarding the current state of affairs and the future.

Yesterday the Chilean National futbol team played against Spain, currently #1 in the world, in Spain and lost 3-0. Though the entire team was not participating in the match, it was still rough, especially since the women's under-20 world cup started last night as well with Chile as the host country of the tournament they fell as well to England 2-0. Argentina played its first game with new head coach Diego Maradona and defeated Scotland in an ugly match 1-0. At least Lionel Messi wasn't playing, but they still look like a struggling squad.

That is all. Check out the story above on the current National Public Workers Strike going on Chile. I will try and write a post before I take off for Mendoza next Thursday.

Home stretch

2008-11-10T00:35:00.005-03:00

Well it's now November and I can't believe it. Time flew by so fast, and now I am just trying to rush in the last bits and pieces to my trip and my experience down here. Hopefully I will have enough time. I am been so overloaded with school and work lately. I am know just trying to make sure my calender is all lined up before I jettison.

Tuesday the 28th of October was an interesting evening for me because I went to the Clasico Universitario futbol match between Universidad de Chile and Universidad de Catholica. The national stadium was totally packed and the match excellent. For some strange reason they decided to switch the usual entrances for fans and I headed to the Catholica entrance with jersey, hat and face-paint on, and was randomly martial-arts, high-kicked to the face by an opposing fan in front of a cop, who then escorted me to the appropriate entrance. Stupid. Luckily I got the last laugh since La Chile won 2-1 and essentially clinched the regular season #1 position.

That Wednesday was a sad day because my neighbor and her two kids moved down the Pucon. It was really sad to see them go, but I was able to spend a good deal of time with them before they left. So sad that such a random tragedy can instantly change the life of the entire family so drastically. Luckily I set the older son up with a skype account with a webcam so I can keep in touch with them as long as there is an internet connection (which they probably won;t have in house, but there are tons of cyber cafes)

It is interesting to be able to see my three classes beginning to converge. Granted they are two history classes and an economy class as related to Chile, but the same topics are starting to come up, and it allows me to draws parallels between subjects as well as discover more marco themes.

Friday was Halloween, which is not too heavily celebrated in Chile but this year the government declared the 31st a religious holiday (no school, optional work) and in turn the younger crowd is starting to practice the goofy American tradition of trick-or-treating and partying. Basic Bar threw a party with a DJ, which was pretty fun except for that fact that I was working rather than enjoying myself. It was entertaining though cause it gives you a different perspective when working behind the bar. Staying 'till 4:30 a.m., not as much fun. I worked on Sunday and Monday was well.

Tuesday was the big election night, with practically every eye on the planet focused on the outcome. I personal takeaways from the night: 1. I wasn't surprised by the outcome except for how close the popular vote was 2. Expectations are high, but Mr. Obama deliver. From the sounds of it, results are only going to take place in the long term, and it might take multiple terms. Not good. Hope he is the next reincarnation of Lincoln/Roosevelt for the sake of of the overly optimistic American public.

I had two tests this past week, one for Social History on Latin America on the industrialization period of Latin America, and one for Economics on Friday on Monetary policy and the current financial/global economic crisis. Both went well, but it took a lot of energy out of me with all the studying and stress that I had this past week.

Saturday I took ym host parents to see the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. I thought it would be a good idea considering that 40 minutes of the film is from northern Chile. Unfortunately credit was only given to the country and the end of the credits since in the plot, the area is considered Bolivia since they have to incorporate a fictional dictator and I am not sure that would work so well with Chile. I had work that evening and the following day (today).

I have a final essay to turn in for my Gringo 101 class on Tuesday and then I am essentially work free until the last week of November in which I have another Social History of Latin America test and an essay for Contemporary History of Chile. I am trying to visit a family friend of mine who lives in Mendoza the last weekend of November, then take some final exams that week, head down to Patagonia for two weeks, coming back on the 20th to spend one final day in Santiago before going to Buenos Aires. Flight prices are dropping everyday, so there is no big rush. My last day of work at Bar Basic on the 24th. It's going to be a tough final month, but I am always up for the challenge.

Chile's right-wing gains electoral ground

2008-10-30T16:53:00.005-03:00

link
By Gideon Long
BBC News, Santiago

The last time the political right won a general election in Chile, the country's current president Michelle Bachelet was six years old.

Bachelet (r) is constitutionally barred from seeking another term

The year was 1958. Since then, the only right-wing leader Chile has known is General Augusto Pinochet, who seized power by force in 1973 and ruled for 17 years.

But now the right appears to be gaining ground again.

It made advances in local elections here on Sunday, and hopes to translate them into success in next year's presidential poll.

For the first time, the right now has more mayors in office than Ms Bachelet's ruling coalition. It also closed the gap slightly in terms of its overall percentage of votes.

If it does win next year, it will mark the end of an era for Chile - the end of nearly two decades of moderate left-wing rule in which the country has emerged from the Pinochet years, healed some of the wounds of its dark past and re-established its democratic credentials.

"There is a feeling of political change in the country, without a doubt," says Guillermo Holzmann, professor of political science at the University of Chile in Santiago.

"There's a feeling that the ruling coalition has been in power for a long time and that maybe inefficiency and corruption is increasing as a result."

When Gen Pinochet stepped down in 1990, the leftist coalition known as the Concertacion took power in Chile and has served four successive terms under four different presidents. But its seeming invincibility is under threat.

Leadership battle

Sunday's local polls were a major test of the changing sentiment. The right wing Alianza (Alliance for Chile) won mayoral contests in a number of key cities while the Concertacion's overall share of the vote fell by around two percentage points.

Sebastian Pinera (left), Santiago's mayor-elect Pablo Zalaquett (centre) and Joaquin Lavin (right) celebrate election success. Sebastian Pinera (left) will be hoping to build on Sunday's success

The Concertacion remains the largest bloc in Chilean politics, but it has no obvious candidate to stand as president.

Under the constitution, President Bachelet is barred from seeking a second successive term, and her coalition faces a potentially damaging leadership battle over the coming year.

In contrast, the right-wing opposition has largely united behind billionaire businessman Sebastian Pinera, who narrowly lost to Ms Bachelet in 2006.

The 58-year-old, who has been likened to Italy's Silvio Berlusconi for his wealth and media interests, is now widely viewed as the front-runner to be Chile's next president.

As they went to the municipal polls on Sunday, Chileans were divided about the Bachelet government's record.

"I think it's been good for Chile to have a woman in charge. It's changed the culture of the country," shop worker Lorena Villalon said as she cast her vote in a suburb of Santiago.

"But her government hasn't achieved as much as I'd hoped it would. There's been too much squabbling between the parties in government, too much politics."

Part of the problem is that the Concertacion was put together to challenge Gen Pinochet in the late 1980s. Now that he is dead and democracy is re-established, the Concertacion has slightly lost its raison d'etre.

Ms Bachelet's personal approval ratings have remained fairly high - 42% according to the most recent survey published by Adimark, a leading Chilean polling company.

She has a warm, easy touch with ordinary people and has worked hard on social issues like schooling and childcare.

But the same Adimark poll put her government's approval rating at just 26.4%, with a disapproval rating of 59.1%.

Boom no more

Crime and corruption have emerged as major issues, and in the capital Santiago - home to over one-third of the electorate - voters are still fuming over the disastrous implementation of a new transport system, which made life miserable for thousands of commuters.

Economically, Chile has enjoyed two and a half years of brisk growth under President Bachelet, thanks largely to a boom in the price of its chief export, copper, which accounts for over half of its export revenue.

But the price of copper has halved in the space of four months amid the global financial crisis. Banks are cutting back on credit and the value of Chilean pensions has been hit hard by the fall in world stock markets.

Ironically though, an economic downturn could help Ms Bachelet's coalition cling to power next year, persuading voters to stick with what they know rather than opting for change.

"This is an extremely conservative country and I'm not sure it will want a handover of political power in the middle of a major crisis," said Marta Lagos, managing director of pollsters Mori in Chile.

In assessing the results of Sunday's municipal polls, President Bachelet acknowledged the need for her coalition to rejuvenate itself before next year's polls, and to end the bickering between its constituent parties.

"It has to renew itself, listen to the voice from the street, to update its message and bring new dynamism to its policies … It's clear that what it needs is more unity, more unity, more unity," she said.

For his part, Mr Pinera hailed the local results as a "great triumph" for his coalition and evidence that Chileans are ready for a change.

Only when Chileans go to the polls again in December 2009 will it become clear if he is right or not.

Elections in Chile Complete. Coming Up Next, the United States

2008-10-29T10:41:00.009-03:00

Another week in the books, with tons of stuff to talk about. None of that too mind boggling, but still worth noting. Not sure if I will remember each item in chronological order or what day it took place, but I'll do my best.

Last week marked the final week of my Gringo 101 class with the rest of the program. Nothing incredibly exciting about the class other than the fact that it is over. Now I don't have to head out to downtown Santiago 30 minutes before rush hour just so I can get to class on time and have to stay until 9 p.m. at night. I still do have a final paper that is 5 pages and do sometime in the middle of November, but it's a free topic and not a problem.

The family whom tragedy struck a couple months back with the horrible auto accident that resulted in the death of the father are moving today to Pucón down south. It's such an unfortunate situation and I hate to see them go. To make sure I can stay in touch with them, I went out to buy a web-cam, microphone, and setup a Skype account for one of the sons. I explained how the program, essentially a free telephone for him as long as he has internet access. I also gave him my email address. Hopefully he will have time to bring his laptop over a to cyber-cafe every once in a while because it doesn't look like he'll have in-house internet, but he will at his parent's house that is supposedly close by. Regardless, I just want to be able to keep in touch with the family after all that has happened since my arrival.

Speaking of Southern Chile, I have been working with a couple of my buddies on organizing a rough itinerary for traveling to extreme southern portion of Chile, Patagonia, for the two week I have in between in the end of school and when I fly out to Buenos Aires in mid December. I probably won't have another chance in my life to visit this part of the world, so I figure I should take advantage of the fact that I am currently just a plane ride away. Flights aren't incredibly expensive and I have heard the sites and activities are simply amazing: glaciers that won't exist in less than 10 years, stunning landscapes, even a potential access of Antarctica (not the main part, but an island that is considered part of the continent). I can't wait.

Working at Bar Basic has been a good time. I enjoy practicing my Spanish with co-workers and customers, while essentially doing the same thing that I would normally doing if I wasn't working: watching football, eating, and drinking. Last Thursday was one of the owners' birthdays, so he hired a live band to play Chilean covers and invited a bunch of his buddies. I wasn't supposed to work that night, but I volunteered considering it was his birthday and they could use the help. Fun times either way.

Last Friday I went to a symphony performance at the University of Chile theater downtown. The show was a George Gershwin tribute, playing Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris as well as many others. Symphonies are an amazing network of musicans working together on one piece, with solos and necessary harmonies while under the control of one man, the conductor. I am not a classical music critic, and Gershwin's music is difficult to perform, sometimes it felt that some of the musicians were having trouble with some of the songs. I enjoyed it very much nonetheless.

Saturday was an interesting day for a silly reason. I headed over to the local grocery store to try and buy some medicine for a wart that I have on my pinkie toe as a result of the rubbing against the inside of my shoe. I left for the in-store pharmacy without knowing the Spanish work for wart, assuming I could just show them my toe as well former medication (in English). Solo attempt, fail. Aid from three Chilean women also in line who also did not understand what is was but thought they knew, fail. European woman randomly walks up to offer help, whips out her cellphone and types the word in English into her phone and with her simply Nokia she manages to looks up the term using her Spanish-English dictionary. She found a website that has a bunch of programs that can be stored to the on-board memory of her simple cellphone, any cellphone. What a technological world this is becoming? I thought about the incident all during my walk back, while thinking about the future. Imagine when everyone has internet-connected cellphones with key pads. Language barriers will be essentially non-existent; voice translators? The possibilities are endless. There is a part of me that is anti-technology when it comes to interacting, so I feel a bit uneasy about the extensive connectedness to 'the network.' I'd rather be without my computer, PDA, cell phone, a connection and be spending time in person with people than being attached to a network in which information is sent constantly, instantaneously, endlessly. Too bad it is becoming more and more popular by the day with the newer generations and there is almost not feasible to give it up.

On Sunday, Chile had their municipal elections and the entire country was rumbling with political enthusiasm, so much so that no one was allowed to sell alcohol. This made work for me on particularly boring that day since all we could sell was food and sodas, water, juice. Sunday is usually a busy day with all the gringos coming in to watch American football, but it was obviously quite slow. While many municipalities, including Valparaiso, de mi amor, changed from 'left' municipalities to 'right' ones with the election of 'right' mayors, overall the country of Chile say more people voting for the 'left.' This was unusually surprising considering that Sebastián Piñera was the current favorite for President with the election over a year away. Thing are now much more unclear, with the 'right' parties securing only 35% of the population based on municipal elections, with the 'left' parties won over 46%. There was also a small portion of the populace that voted for Communist and other extreme 'leftist' candidates, who when the time comes for presidential elections, they are obviously more likely to put their support behind a 'leftist' candidate than one from the 'right.'The only problem with this scenario is that the Concertación, or the group of 'leftist' political parties, currently does not have a presidential candidate in place. For a while Ricardo Lagos, former President, was the favorite to represent the left, but that has since changed since he insists that he does not want to have to go through the inner-party political process of electing a candidate. If he ran for president, he would want to be able to be the outright candidate since he has so much experience rather than take part in the process. We'll see how things shape up in the next few months. It is not far from the date in which parties are required to have their candidate selected.

Speaking of elections, the United States presidential elections are coming up in less than a week. I already was able to cast in my vote since a member of the U.S. embassy was in Bar Basic all last week handing out forms that will be sent in via the embassy to whichever county one represents. Earlier this week, I came across an interesting article in this week's Economist about U.S. elections and Latin America. I didn't know John McCain was born in Panama? But I guess it doesn't surprise me because he was probably born in a military base down there. Here is a snippet from the article...

"Preliminary data from the latest Latinobarómetro poll, taken in 18 countries over the past month and published exclusively by The Economist, show that 29% of respondents think an Obama victory would be better for their country, against only 8% favouring Mr McCain. Perhaps surprisingly, 30% say that it makes no difference who wins, while 31% claim ignorance. Enthusiasm for Mr Obama is particularly high in the Dominican Republic (52%), Costa Rica, Uruguay and Brazil (41%). In Brazil, six candidates in this month’s municipal elections changed their names to include “Barack Obama” in them.

The poll suggests that support for Mr Obama is greater among better-educated Latin Americans. Marta Lagos, Latinobarómetro’s director, says the relatively widespread indifference shows the extent to which the United States has lost influence in the region in recent years."

I would tend to agree.

La Serena, Valle de Elqui, Pisco de Elqui Photos

2008-10-21T13:51:00.004-03:00

La Serena and the ensuing week

2008-10-18T17:00:00.009-03:00

I took off on a four and half hour drive to La Serena. My buddy Finn and his parents had already arrived the night before to get a lay of the land. Upon arriving, we all got together for a quality seafood dinner on the beach-front and went to bed early to prepare for the following day.

After a solid breakfast of bread, fruit, and coffee, our two-car crew headed inland for the day. On the way we stopped at a beautiful reservoir, Embalse Puclaro, for a photo op, then continued on to the town of Vicuña. Once in town, we took a tour of the Gabriela Mistral museum, which inside was relatively boring, but it had an amazing garden in it's back lot that was incredibly peaceful. Following a slow walk through the town, we got back in the cars and continued our drive out to the Valle de Elqui.

This valley has to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It is covered with miles upon miles of grape vines, sadly not dedicated to the production of wine, but of pisco. While it is tough to find pisco in the United States, and even if you do it is quite expensive, it is certainly the liquor of choice in Chile. There are numerous brands and strengths...I think of it as the Chilean equivalent of Mexican tequila, but you can mix it with coke (piscola) or combine with sweet and sour (pisco sour) or papaya juice as we discovered later in the day to make a "Serena Sour." The vistas were simply incredibly as we drove along the windy road through the valley.

We eventually got deep into the valley to the town of Pisco Elqui, where we stopped to have a classic Chilean lunch followed by a tour of the Mistral pisco factory. The tour guide did not have the best voice for tours, but the factory had amazing architecture and it was interesting to learn about the whole process. Following the tour, we drove back out the valley which was twice as pretty as when we entered, with the sun going down, shining on the hillsides.

On our way back to La Serena, we stopped at a family friend's house of the host brother of Finn, Alejandro Ramirez, whose cousin is Norma Ramirez, an incredibly talented artist. She is married to a Mexican artist, Luis Gastélum, and we were very lucky to stop by their place for drinks, snacks, and a chat. Their house is amazing, walls and floors made of mosaic, and their located right next to a river that you can hear from the inside of the house. Norma helped a group of artists design many of the projects that are in the Parque de Paz in Villa Grimaldi and is currently doing various exhibitions here in Chile.

The following morning, I left early with Finn and his parents on a drive back to Santiago. This drive was gorgeous as well. It reminded me a lot of Southern California with the coastal vegetation, but also very different since there are views of the Andes mountains in site as well. The area is also much less populated, but every so often there are small resort resort communities near the beach. At one point on the way back, Finn's mother decided that she wanted to show Finn and I this town that her and her and her husband had discovered earlier in the week while looking for a place they could play tennis. The town, Zapallar.

This place was remarkable. Green and lush, Zapallar is a small bay inhabited by upper-class Chileans and used as a weekend getaway destination. With very little roads, the town is made of mostly of walking trails. On one end of the bay, there is a rock mountain with a single tree situated on top, quite picturesque. We walked through the entire town in fifteen minutes, and then sat down for seafood appetizers as a quick break in between our ride home. Too bad Zapallar isn't enjoyed by everyone in Chile, only the privileged, but I guess I can understand why with it's size and limited housing. Still, quite a magical place.

Once back in Santiago, I stopped by Bar Basic to find out the situation with my new job. The owners said they wanted me to come in the next day for some training. What I did not realize was that this training was as a bartender; I thought I was going to be a server. Well, turns out I am happier as a bartender since it is something I haven't done before and I get to practice my Spanish with the Chilean servers as they request drinks. I'll be working there 2 days a week, Sundays and Mondays, which works out great cause I am usually in there every Sunday anyways and now I get to get paid. The salary is 2 dollars an hour, but I get all the tips from people who sit at the bar, as well as 30% of the tips from the regular tables. Comes out to a decent rate, especially by Chilean standards.

Wednesday was the date of the big game, Argentina v Chile. Since two of Argentina's best players, Juan Román Riquelme, Carlos Tevez, were both suspended after receiving red cards in their previous match against Uruguay, the match up was more favorable than it could have been, but most Chileans still figured Argentina and their infinite supply of futbol talent would be able to pull off the win. This is especially true since Chile has not beaten Argentina in any sort of futbol match in 30 years, and never in a FIFA-official match. This all changed on Wednesday night, as Chile won 1-0, with a fantastic goal by a 22 year old striker, Fabian Orellana with only 7 national game appearances. After the match was over, 3,000 people got together in celebration downtown. In addition, Argentina's coach, Alfio Basile, quit following the loss. Chile is now tied with Argentina for 3rd in the South America group in qualifying for World Cup 2010 in South Africa, and does not play another qualifying match until March of 2009.

On Thursday of this past week, I turned in an essay for my Gringo 101 class, the second of three essays and once again it had a free topic based on what we had learned over the past couple weeks. I chose to write mine on how a social democracy is the best system for Chile when compared to the political-economic systems of the past 30 years. Eh.

Not too much else is going on in my world down here. I got work tonight and tomorrow, and municipal elections are coming up here in Chile. These are a big deal for the country since depending how each municipality votes, it will determine which candidate "La Concertacion" or the group of leftists parties, will select to run against conservative Sebastián Piñera. There are posters covering every street corner, while political aides hand out flyers to passer-byers.

I am currently looking up some options for a weekend fishing trip somewhere down south for the second week of November, but prices are looking a bit steep at the moment. It is so strange to think that it is practically the end of October already. The countdown till the end of the program has begun, but I don't want it to end. Wish I had the time to do so much more, but I also understand I am here to study. I don't need to lament, I am sure I'll be back.

->I'll be posting more pictures from the weekend within the next couple days. I am waiting on my buddies to give me copies.

Too long without a post

2008-10-10T12:38:00.004-04:00

I know, I know. Haven't been faithful recently to my blog, my diary to let people know what's going on down here in the land of Chile. Lot has been going on is what the problem is, and just haven't had enough free time to sit down and handle it. But now I have some time before I take off for the weekend to the beach. I am going to a beach town down south about 4-5 hours by car to a city called La Serena. The parents of my buddy Finn are already there, including Finn, and his host family has a house down there that we are going to stay at. Should be a nice relaxing weekend. But, as for what's been going on in the past two weeks practically.

The Saturday before last I had a mandatory field trip from my contemporary history of Chile class to head out to the former mining town, Cajón del Maipo. The purpose of our trip was to visually comprehend and experience the effects that the former industry has had on this rural area. Mining is a very dirty process, especially back in the day, and as a result of the intensive exploration of the valley, the environment, water supply, society has been negatively effected to the point that there are only 30 people living in the town (used to be around 2,000), the water supply is tainted from the harsh chemicals used for copper, and the hillside forest and thick vegetation looks now more like a desert. It was a fun day long trip with a hike to the top of a mountain where we entered a closed down mine shaft and spent almost 2 hours in pure darkness discussing the history of the place.

Last Tuesday I had my first test in a Chilean University, Economia II. The test, first of three for the course, was on macroeconomics and had a strange structure. Since the grading scale down here is out of seven instead of letter grades, the tests was 5 medium answer questions, the first three worth one point each and the last two worth two points, adding to seven. It was pretty difficult, but I felt everybody was feeling the same way. Unfortunately there is no such thing as a curve in this country, but I'll be alright.

I heard a good joke from President Michelle Bachelet last week. She asked during a speech, "Why is it that there are no golpe de estado (coup) in the Unites States? Because there is no such thing as a U.S. embassy."

Last Friday I did my last ski trip for the season here is Chile. I headed up with Finn and his parents and got some good last runs in. The season ended that Sunday, so we felt lucky we had decided to put the trip together since we didn't know when the season ended. Luckily, when I come back the ski season will just be starting in California, so I'll get two ski seasons this year. At point during the trip, my ski's simply popped off while speeding over some flat snow because the bindings were too large for my boots (which I had a feeling were before I started, but I figured I would wing it). I learned from that mistake; I took a nasty fall injuring my shoulder pretty bad, but didn't really feel the extent of it until the next day. As of right now, the should is fine, just a little sore if I move it in specific ways. Thought for a second I might have broken my collar bone just like my dad. That would not have been good.

Last Saturday the Education Abroad program had a mandatory trip to Villa Grimaldi (the torture camp now turned into a Park of Peace and memory), as well as the national cemetery. Our guide was a victim in the torture camps of Villa Grimaldi and very informative. He cried probably 5 times during the day, but it was totally understandable. Those were the worst times in the history of this country and he was a direct victim. Some of the things he described simply took my breath away. The national cemetery was interesting, especially since I had not been there before, but we saw the graves of Orlando Letelier, Salvador Allende, and Victor Jara, as well as all the unidentified graves of bodies fond during the coup and a large memorial with the names of those known to have died as a result.

Sunday I went to the Super Clasico for arguably the most anticipated fuitbol match of the year between the rivals Universidad de Chile (Chi-Chi-Chi..le-le-le, Universidad dde Chile!), and the team of the pueblo and most all-time championships, Colo-Colo. The match took palace n Colo-Colo's stadium, the Monumental, and because of this I had to wear neutral colors to avoid getting stabbed. My seat was in a non-rowdy section and actually very close to the fenced-off La Chile fans who walked in mass (probably 2,000) from my house 15 blocks down the Colo-Colo stadium that day. La Chile had not won in the Monumental in 7 years, and now the streak is 8 after a 2-0 loss. It was a great experience.

This past week I had an in class essay, the first of three, for my Social History of Latin America class. The test could have been a lot worse, but we had a choice between two general questions that related to the colonial conquest and independence of Latin America so it was relatively painless. I really enjoy this class since the teacher is incredibly knowledgeable and with Latin America, you also get an indirect history of Europe and a lot of the reason why things today are as they are can be tied back to this time period.

That night I had what we call Gringo 101, the 7-9 p.m. class for all the exchange student in my program, which is normally pretty painful, but to my luck the speaker was an American economics professor from Colombia who is now teaching at the University of Chile. I could barely keep up with all the information he gave and enjoyed every second of the lecture. After class I had a quick chat with him and got his business card for future reference. I am going to try and setup a sit-down with him just to see more about what economics is about here in Chile and what he thinks of what is going on in the world.

Wednesday I had an interesting experience. I was heading to an ATM to take the rest of the rent money for this month when I got on a bus with two musicians about my age. These two guys were 'bus musicians' who rode the bus 3-9 p.m. 5 days a week to make some money and were incredibly talented. They said they made around 30 dollars a day from their abilities. They played two instrumentals and the third song was a famous tune of a clandestine band during the coup called Sol Y Lluvia, and the track "Para Que en Chile Nunca Mas;" a revolutionary song suggesting that time like during the coup should never happen again. I have to say, they sang/played so well, with most of the people on the bus either mouthing the words or tapping their fingers to the song. Quite surreal. I got their names and hopefully we'll be able to hang out with them some point in the future.

That night was the birthday of my good friend Dan Nemiroff. We hung out at his new apartment that is now much closer to me and then went out to our favorite club for Wednesday nights, Grand Central, for the rest of the evening.

Well, I am packing a weekend bag for my trip to La Serena for the weekend. Once last thing of note, I got a job at the American Sports Bar. They have been getting more and more packed every week due to recent reviews in local newspapers and magazines. I jokingly went up the the owner one busy night saying that it looked like they needed another server. He wanted my number by the end of the night, and now I will work every Sunday from now until December. I can take a week off as long as I let them know in advance, and I am usually in there every Sunday anyways. Sounds like a good deal to me. I am also looking to doing some free-lance-esque writing for this new online nightlife magazine targeted towards foreigners called the Revolver. I have a buddy already working there, and it sounds like they could use some more help and the position is very low-stress and low-key. We shall see.

Chile's Military

2008-09-28T10:43:00.006-04:00

From this week's issues of the Economist:

Chile's Army seeks to bury its murky past

Thanks to record prices for copper, Chile’s main export, and an odd arrangement (predating Mr Pinochet) under which Codelco, the state copper producer, transfers 10% of its export revenues (amounting to $1.4 billion last year) to the armed forces for capital expenditure, there has been money to spend. The finance ministry has the last word, but the army has been able to shop extensively, with acquisitions including German tanks and better electronics. Today, Chile’s is the most modern and best-equipped army in Latin America, says Armen Kouyoumdjian, an adviser to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Photos from Viña

2008-09-24T09:25:00.002-04:00

Nani sneaks up to front row during performances at the Ñuñoa festivities to get a picture with the mayor of the municipality, Pedro Sabat. Nice!

Parque O'Higgins Dieciocho festivities with friends

Us with Lucky and Ivan at the Viña house

Us with the Patricio and his wife Fatima at their house in Viña at sunset

Ciao Abuela

2008-09-23T16:11:00.005-04:00

Has to be some of the best days I've since coming to Chile when my grandmother was here. The weather was great, the food excellent, and it was so great to see family again.

Last I left off we were having a family lunch to celebrate the 18th. A family friend of my host parents, Patricio, who they met in Switzerland and now lives in the beach town of Viña del Mar also ate with us. During the lunch, he invited my grandmother and I to a barbecue at his house the following day and there was no way we wouldn't say no.

That afternoon we headed over to Parque O'Higgins for a large fiesta that was being held for the community. There were so many families, food stands, vendors, kite flyers, empanadas, anticuchos (kabobs), cueca (nacional dance); it was chaotic. We coincidentally met up with a handful of friends from my program and spent the early evening sharing stories from the past week. My grandmother and I had to take off early top meet my host dad Ivan for dinner. Unfortunately we couldn't go to one of my favorite restaurants (Liguria) because it was closed due to holiday. Instead we had went to a simple place downtown.

The next morning we got a bus ticket to his Viña, only and hour and a half, arriving around noon. Patricio picked us up and took us to his house on the hillside that overlooked the entire city. It was an eighteen person outdoor lunch with many family members and friends. Their hospitality was amazing and it was the perfect way to spend the day. We headed back around 8.

Saturday I headed over to my grandmother's hotel to take advantage of the delicious (and free) breakfast they offer there. Afterward headed off to downtown to pickup some gifts for some of my grandmother's friends and met up with my buddy Dan Nemiroff for the afternoon. We tried to go to Cerro San Cristobal to ride the funicular, but because it was a Saturday with great weather on a holiday weekend, there were tons of people, especially kids, so we decided to hang out at the hotel pool and have lunch instead.

That night we had a great dinner with just my host parents and my grandmother at a nice Italian restaurant near the hotel. It was a great way for us to finish up my grandmother's trip. She left the next morning early, but her five days here were very well spent. She and I both are looking forward to getting together with the entire family in Argentina and I'm already counting down the days.

I spent my Sunday in usual fashion heading out to Basic Bar for my daily dose of football. It's a weekly tradition at this point.

On Monday it was farewell to my good friend John 'Lefrog' Holder who left Chile that evening. We had a nice afternoon tribute for him and went to the airport to send him off. It's going to be tough losing a key member of the extreme team. I'll see you again soon John.

Class started back up today, yet one of my classes was oddly canceled for no apparent reason. No complaints. Exams begin next Thursday for me, and an in-class essay the following Tuesday. Not looking forward to those, but I have plenty of time to prepare. Gah!

Abuela

2008-09-18T11:58:00.004-04:00

My grandmother has finally arrived. I am so happy to have her here and show her life in Santiago. My host parents were very excited to meet her and love the extra company. I will just recap my activities in the past week leading up to the arrival of my abuela.

Last Wednesday was the all important Chile vs. Colombia World Cup qualifier match, but something more important happened earlier in the morning that I had not expected. I woke up to a rare early morning phone call on the main house line and it turned out to be a family relative sending the news that my host parents had become grandparents following the birth of their first grandson. While it was known that on of their daughter's was pregnant, she was expected later in September. Regardless, Elias was born the morning of Sept 10th fully healthy and the family is overjoyed. It appeared to be a good omen.

With painted faces again, I went to the stadium with incredible nervousness and anticipation: Chile loses, kiss the World Cup 2010 dream goodbye. Stadium completely sold out once again with flags waving everywhere and chants of Chi-Chi-Chi...le, le, le...Viva Chile every 30 seconds or so, Chile jumped out to an early 2-0 in the first half, and ended the match with a 4-0 wipeout. The other teams in the South American group all tied their opponents that night, putting Chile near the top of the group for qualifying.

Thursday was the other 11th of September, the anniversary of Pinochet's march on La Moneda to begin his coup in Chile. Usually there are riots and protests all day, but the heavy mount of police all around the city and the fact that a violence plot had been discovered the night before which involved about 500 people, the day was much more low key than expected. Early that evening I said goodbye to my Santa Cruz friend Lydia and wished her good luck and good times for her program in Concepcion in a more southern part of Chile. While there was not much during the day, I specifically tried not to be out late that night and with good reason. I heard gunshots, bottle breaking, and much more as I went to sleep that night. The power to our complex flickered often, while my parents expected it to be entirely cut by activists at some point.

The power luckily stayed on, but other barrios weren't so lucky. 15 police were injured, and numerous activists detained for the violence that night. Luckily, they're weren't too many deaths if any at all. It seemed pretty hypocritical that Chileans protests the terrorism of the state that took place back in '73 by inciting more violence, but I am not one to judge a cultural phenomenon I guess. Friday morning I traveled to the nearby farmer's market (feria) near my house with my mother to pickup fruits, vegetables, and checkout the scene. There are loads of vendors, everyone calling my mother reina (queen) when she passed by the booth to encourage business. It is very convenient for my mother to walk a couple blocks to pickup cooking supplies that are fresh, cheap, and straight from the farms. In the afternoon, my host parents got to video Skype with their daughter and son-in-law with the new baby Elias: they were very happy.

Saturday was the annual cleaning day in our house, with every inch of the condominium cleaned. This took most of the day to take care of, and at night my host parents and I went out to the movies to see a Chilean film called Tony Manero, which is a disturbing story that takes place during the coup about a older man obsessed with the character Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever and dreams of dancing on a television program in the same way. There is tons of symbolism and shows the desperation the protagonist in achieving his Americanized fantasy while portraying the unlivable times of the coup.

Football Sunday I went back to my favorite bar in Santiago to catch all the games that day. I have made good friends with most of the people there, just wish there would be some Chileans who like American football that would come in, but that might be asking too much. It is a new bar, so we shall see. I did however run into an Economist/Political officer of the U.S. Embassy here in Santiago. I had unsuccessfully tried to explore the embassy last week, but with no luck due to specific hours and lack of action in part of the national holidays and fiestas going on. Hopefully I can checkout the the scene at the embassy a bit more with the help of this new contact.

Following the extensive violence that is going on in Bolivia over president Evo Morales's attempt to distribute privately owned natural gas amongst all citizens of the country, an emergency conference was called on behalf of Chilean President and current head of UnaSur, a young organization of all the Latin American countries to work together during times of problems. The meeting took place at La Moneda on Monday afternoon, with presidents of Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, Paraguay, and Colombia in attendance (Peru declined to participate because of the tense relations with Bolivia). After 5 hours, a Declaration of La Moneda was created to be used as a guide for resolving the crisis, but I am not sure how much can be changed without the participation of the opposition in international discussions. Following the meeting, Bolivia arrested a mayor of the one of the rich territories controlling the natural gas in Bolivia and for now the violence has subsided but the resolution has not been achieved. More will become clear once Evo Morales's newly constructed constitution is voted upon in a referendum scheduled to take place in December.

I spent my Tuesday planning my surprise visit to the airport to see my grandmother as she arrived. She expected to meet me at the hotel for dinner that night, but I bought a bouquet of flowers and arranged for a transport to take me on a one-way route to the airport. The plan worked perfectly and she was so happy to see me right away. We had a late dinner at an Italian restaurant near her hotel that night.

I came back to her Hotel the next morning for breakfast. Afterward we went on a full tour of the city to see all the sight and had outdoor lunch in downtown. She picked up some gifts for her secretaries at the office from an artisan market as well as a beautiful watercolor of the Aconcagua for my grandfather. After returning to her hotel to take care of some work and give a call back home to checkup on my grandfather, and a nap for me, we went to my house to introduce her to my host parents. For transportation, we took a bus, which she said was the first she had used other than one briefly in New York, in 40 years back in Argentina. My host parents had a nice chat with her over tea, and after we went to the National Stadium for a early celebration for the Chilean independence holiday. We watched traditional cueca dancing and music with the mayor of the community in attendance. My grandmother confidently went over to the mayor and got a picture with him. I'll be sure to post it next time.

We are about to sit down for an Independence day lunch at my place and I am not even presentable. I'll post sometime on Sunday night after my grandmother heads home from her vacation to visit me. Cheers and Happy Dieciocherra!

Another Break

2008-09-09T18:23:00.009-04:00

I can't get enough of how loose studies have been here in Chile this semester. Just as I am getting accustomed to my schedule and routine, essentially all my classes take a two week break for 11th of Sept (The Anniversary of the first day of Pinochet's coup), and then the 18th is the beginning of the Independence weekend that essentially last an entire week. Not that I have any problems with any of this, especially since my Grandmother is coming for 5 days next week. I just feel like total number of classes is quite limited by the political fervor...

Speaking of, last Thursday I had my full day's schedule until about 3:30 p.m. (right in the middle of my last class at the University of Chile campus), when class was canceled due to an on campus riot brewing right outside the classroom door. The teacher refused to halt class after two recommendations from passer-byres outside the classroom, but once the tear gas started seeping in creating tremendous discomfort to half the class, it was time to leave. Apparently is was 'Combatant Day' because a few years back a student was killed by police during a protest. In turn, a couple dozen students on campus covered their faces with cloth to protect themselves from the gas as well as their identities while constructing Molotov cocktails and throwing rocks at riot police just outside the campus walls. After fifteen minutes or so, large riot vehicles with water cannons mounted on top rolled in to blast anyone in range. Police also launched tear gas capsules over a good portion of the campus. Definitely one of the most horrible feelings of my life after breathing that stuff in. A couple students were able to get direct shots with their Molotovs on the vehicles, but eventually I assumed they were subdued; I didn't stick around to find out.

On Friday I went out to lunch with my host-father; always entertaining. He loves to talk about anything (sports and politics are most common between us) and always has interesting stories and great jokes. Afterward, I went to a part supply store to pickup some face-paint for the Chile futbol match that coming Sunday. That evening I went to go see a Chilean documentary about the most prestigious futbol club in Chile (Colo-Colo), which explained the reasoning behind the devout passion for the team while following the head of a faction who had recently been paralyzed after a fight between fellow fans. I found it amusing that before the film started, a person representing the film stood up to warn the audience not to riot in the theater or brak anything since the night before two movie theaters had just that happen. the film was obviously a bit biased, but did hint at the gang-like structure of these groups of fans (drugs, mob-like hits on opposing fans or even fellow fans).

All day Saturday was spent at a mining town called Sewell, the mine: el Teniente. This high altitude mine is the deepest in the world in terms of below the surface depth rather than true elevation, and was once a massive community of Chilean workers run by primarily by American industrialists. Now it is controlled by the Chilean company Codelco and remains an important part of the national economy. We got a thorough underground tour as well as a guide-led walk through the snow-covered city.

Sunday I went with my host-father and two buddies to the enormous Bio Bio market in the Franklin barrio. This part of the town is the oldest in the city of Santiago, and is packed with street vendors for blocks. My host-father joked that if you were looking for an elephant, I am sure you could find someone who was selling it. I was in search of a Chilean national team futbol jersey, but ended up buying a Universidad de Chile jersey instead. I'll have more chances to get a jersey, and with more selection. Surprisingly there weren't many jerseys, but then again most of the stuff for sale is second hand or stolen so I can't complain. The afternoon I spent at a Gringo bar called Bar Basico to watch the opening weekend of American football. The owner of the bar is from Bakersfield and started the restaurant since there is no place in the city where you can get a quality burrito nor Cheeseburger. They also have a premium satellite package to get all the football games. I'll be back many a weekends for sure.

That evening was the Chile vs. Brazil futbol match that I had long been awaiting. Too bad Brazil took care of business winning 3-0. Chile played sloppily, took no advantage of their scoring opportunities, and lost one of their best players for the next two games because of red card (cleats up tackle). The stadium was totally packed and the game was such a disappointment. Not that I expected Chile to win, but certainly a better showing for the home crowd. The experience was unlike any sporting event I had been to and hopefully I can see a win on Wednesday when they take on Colombia. This match is the deciding game whether Chile or Brazil qualify for the World Cup in 2010. Each have the same number of point in the South American group, and the loser will almost certainly be out of contention. Below my very quick and rough Photoshop job of the field.

Monday was a light day of reading for class, watching the tennis finals of the U.S. open, and the late Monday Night football games. It's fun to watch sports in Spanish since the positions, rules, plays all have different names/words that you would expect and the primarily Argentinian announcer commentary is priceless. Trying to clearly explain all of the American football facets to my host father is even more difficult.

With a partial day of class today, there wasn't too much news from today other than a couple of my class test dates have been decided and that there is essentially no school for the next two weeks other than a single class next Tuesday. I am getting more and more anxious for my Grandmother to come: we are going to have so much fun. I had one of the program director's email me a list of holiday activities going on throughout the city that I will combine with my own personal itinerary of stuff to do as well. Hopefully the weather picks up a little bit; it's been overcast.smoggy the past few days following some excellent early-spring sun and warm weather.

Chile has got to win tomorrow...Chi, chi, chi...le, le, le...viva Chile! Vamos...vamos Chilenos...esta noche...tenemos que ganar!!!!

Above myself, Daniel Nemrioff and Finn Telles

Week Two and then some

2008-09-03T10:49:00.006-04:00

My routine has been established, and now it's a lot easier.

Early last week I decided that I was not too sold on taking the New Rurality class due to the three mandatory field trips (terrenos), in which I would have to miss my other classes. I have two friends from the program who will continue to take the class despite this obstacle. The subject interests them a bit more I guess. The course seems like a great group of kids, who are all pretty tight knit and hang-out a lot outside of class, so I do regret having to walk away from that. I instead switched into course on the Contemporary History of Chile, which has a change in professor and theme every two weeks. It takes place Tues/Thurs 2:30-4 p.m., so I have just enough time to go home for lunch. Also, now all of my classes are Tues/Thurs...four day weekends every week. Woohoo!

There was a brief moment were I was worried I couldn't make the change because of a bit of bureaucracy with the University of Chile. The 'shopping' period for classes this semester was only a week long due to the strikes and historically it is impossible to make changes once that period passes. However, myself and a couple other foreign students were asking for a reconsideration of this precedent since the organization this quarter was horrific (courses lacking syllabi, strikes, etc.), and luckily they granted out changes. To be honest, I was a bit worried for a second.

Last Wednesday I headed back to my favorite Jazz Club to checkout the Blues lineup they had scheduled that evening. While the music was not that impressive, I did enjoy my night because I asked the lady who works as the door-woman/ticket collector at the club if she wanted to have dinner with me sometime. She gladly accepted, and I learned to discover that she is a student at the University of Chile as well, but in the architecture faculty located downtown (definitely the prettiest campus of them all).

Last Thursday after a full day's load of class, I had the opportunity of watching the Democratic National Convention, specifically Barak Obama's speech. There was a lot of buzz about it down here in Chile since a majority of the citizens are pulling for Obama. I, however, remain undecided and relatively unimpressed with all that I have heard so far. While Obama is a gifted public speaker and through this skill alone can inspire some Americans, I have my doubts about his ability to fix our nation. While I do have more doubts when it comes to John McCain, especially after his Vice Presidential nomination of Sarah Palin (just awful); at this point I would vote for Ron Paul as a write-in than either primary candidate. Luckily there is plenty of time before November 4th, and the all important debates have yet to take place.

On Friday, I headed up to Valle Nevado to go skiing with some buddies. It is definitely the best mountain out of all the few in the outskirts of Santiago. A couple of buddies and I got a ride from our friend Hernan, who is a talented soccer player and used to dedicate all his time to that sport. He had never been to the snow, and after a recent first visit, he became hooked and now he goes up practically everyday and gets tons of benefits from knowing all the people working at the slopes. I finally got a clear day to ski since the two times before had been complete whiteouts and difficult to ski. The weather was amazing and I had a blast.

This past weekend was relatively relaxing for me. I spent most of my time working on an essay due this week for Chilean Culture and Politics class that is mandatory for the entire program. It's an open theme, and I chose to write on the economic implications of the Hacienda system used in Chile up until the late 1960's and the agrarian revolution. Since many of the lectures of my classes overlap, I was able to quote a couple of my professors and had plenty of in-class notes to draw from. When I was not working on my paper, I've been following the tennis U.S. Open tournament that's been going on the past couple weeks. The worldwide competition seems to be getting so much more talented every year, rather than having a pro circuit that is dominated by just one or two players. I myself am cheering for 19 year-old Argentinian Juan Martin del Portro, who currently holds a 23 consecutive match win streak (he's going for his 24th which I am watching his 24th right now as I write), as well as American Andy Roddick who I hope can get over his mental lapse he has had the past few years.

Juan Martin del Potro above, Andy Roddick below...

On Sunday night, I convinced my host parents to go buy a web cam and sign up for Skype so they can visually communicate with their daughters, both of whom live internationally, for free, rather than pay for steep phone calls every Sunday. I also did a bit of 'Skyping' myself with my football buddies back home to take part in an annual fantasy football draft from abroad as well as have a nice chat with a good friend of mine who I met on an airplane who wants me to help him out with a social networking project to aid and inspire my generation to change the world. The project is for the long term, but I am becoming more and more intrigued by dedicating myself to his work.

Monday was a rough day for a good portion of the population here due to a terrible bus accident in the northern part of Chile which resulted in the death of nine high school students traveling for a school field trip. This situations seem to happen every other month due to the poor quality and difficult roads outside of Santiago, combined with bad driving habits, lack enforcement of traffic laws, and obviously drinking and driving. The driver of the bus in this case was simply driving faster than the speed limit around a curve on a hillside. I spent the evening with the girl from the Jazz club. We had a good dinner downtown and I was able to practice my Spanish over the course of the evening. I hope I can keep the relationship going since Chilean are so much more fun to spend time with compared to my gringo buddies. She invited me to the Jazz club's 75th anniversary event in late October and gave me a few tips on things to do around town and with my grandmother when she comes for the Independence days.

Tuesday was just a full day of class followed by late night tennis viewing. I did discover that a Santa Cruz friend of mine arrived early yesterday morning for her Abroad program here in Chile that will be held in the southern part of the country in a little over a week. She wanted to give herself some free time to explore Santiago and get accustomed to the culture, language, and lifestyle.

So all today I gave her a general tour of Santiago, showing her the obvious sites in and around her the area where her hostel is located. I also helped her buy and setup a cellphone, which can be a daunting task for a newcomer. We had some nice lunch downtown at a quaint tea and lunch cafe called Flores Mosqueto. It's satisfying to know I can be a relatively effective tour guide after a little over two months spent here. My host mother left this morning to the southern part of Chile to spend a couple days with her sick mother. That part of Chile is getting pounded with rain, with many houses having to handle flood damage and such. I have to run off to the Jazz club this evening to hopefully listen in on some better blues than the last week, and also to spend time with some friends from the social group I occasionally attend...as well as to see my Chilean friend :)

Should be able to put in an entry sometime next week. I have a field trip with program to a famous mining town and a tour of the mine all Saturday, the Brazil vs. Chile futbol match on Sunday night, and Chile vs. Colombia next Wednesday. Cheers!

P.S. Juan Martin del Potro just lost to Andy Murray in the quarterfinals...shoot, great match though.

Yay school!

2008-08-25T16:14:00.006-04:00

Now I can start getting into a solid routine here with my first week of classes under my belt. Monday I was able to pickup my Chilean identity card, finally. I also went to pickup my course reader (costs $15!) for the mandatory program course so I could take care of the reading due the following evening. Tuesday at 8 a.m. I had my first class, Economia II. I am so happy I actually get to take an Economics class. This one is particularly interesting because it is one, with a sociological perspective as opposed to straight economics, and two, it is essentially three classes wrapped into one. What I mean by that is that I have three professors for the course, each of whom will use a third of the course to teach their topic of instruction and give a test on the material at the end of each part. I begin with macroeconomics, wasn't sure what the second theme was because I couldn't read the teacher's handwriting, and the third part is Economic Development in Chile, which sounds fantastic. I am happily the only foreign student in the class, of about 25 students.

My first impressions of school are as follows. One, my campus is quite liberal and diverse, which I obviously like. This manifests itself as variety of clothing styles, on campus drinking and smoking in social circles between and after class, and tons of on campus graffiti. One that caught my attention: "Bachelet rima con Pinochet" trans-> Bachelet (current president) rhymes with Pinochet (former dictator). The other observation I had about life is that none of the Chileans seriously consider the concept of punctuality. I was two minute early to my first class and the only person in the room was the professor. Most of the class arrived within 10-20 after it should have started. Not that I'm complaining or anything...

My second class, luckily in the same classroom, is a Social History of Latin America. As was the case previously, most of the class showed up late, including the teacher. Sadly this class is filled with foreign students, some from my program other from other abroad programs. We probably represent the majority. This is important to note since the professor of this class has a unique view on the history and development of Latin America and tends to announce his stern points about the United States (most of which are true) directly at a specific foreign student. Cracks me up. From the two classes I have had so far, this class seems very interesting and the teacher tremendously insightful. Just with their weren't so many gringos.

Following the these two back-to-back classes that take place Tuesday/Thursday, I have a nice, long break for lunch. At 7 p.m., the entire program has a dull history class located far from my apartment. I left on Tuesday at 6, and showed up a half hour late because of all the subway traffic. It's a battle down there; I missed 6 straight, packed subways. Strangely when I left at 5:30 on Thursday, transit was a breeze and arrived at 6:10. Bah! The course is a tough time of the day for us to be in class, but I assume they were forced to do this in order to avoid interfering with student's desired schedules of other University courses. Luckily we will have some interesting guest speakers every once in a while to break the trend. For now, its painful.

Wednesday I only had a three hour long class on rural life in Chile and the problems that these agricultural valleys encounter that started at 10:15 a.m. The location of this class was not clear on the first day and the teacher showed up 45 minutes late to his intended classroom. After an hour discussion in a small room about, we had a ten minute break and met back up at another classroom where the course supposedly started. I then realize that the class is two classes blended into one: there are two professors and two classes, one titled anthropology of the new rural life and the other sociology (mine) of the new rural life that together form anthro-sociology of the new rural life. Not sure how that works, but we'll see. The other odd thing about this class was that we spent the last 20 minutes of the classes immediately determining dates for field trips to visit two agricultural valleys in Chile: half the class to the Aconcagua valley and the other half to Cachapoal valley. Apparently, we need to select a topic of debate (water, labor, identity, memory, geography) in which we will be studying over the course of the year and investigating on these field trips. The first trip is 3 days long, the next 5 days, and the third 4 days. The teachers are not sure where we are going to stay, and I'm not sure how we are even getting there. Should be interesting... : / I had a a temporary heart-attack since the first trip is supposedly going to occur on the weekend in which the Chile vs. Brazil World Cup Qualifier is taking place. Thank god I also have a mandatory field trip with the entire Education Abroad program to a mine, "El Teniente" in the town of Sewell. I have to get all this confusion taken care of some time this week, but it shouldn't be a problem.

After a full day of class, and the dreadful evening course, I spent the evening with a buddy at the famous jazz club near my house to checkout a Miles Davis tribute that was absolutely incredible. I also found out the Jazz club is open on Wednesdays for blues nights, which I will most certainly be attending in the near future.

Friday's are free days for almost every student in Chile. That evening I went out to dinner with my buddy, his host family, some friends, and his older brother and wife who had traveled here to visit him. At dinner we had some excellent traditional Chilean dishes as well as some quality Chilean wine. I had not heard of the blend before, but the Carménère down here is excellent.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Carménère grape is a wine grape variety originally planted in the Médoc region of Bordeaux, France, where it was used to produce deep red wines and occasionally used for blending purposes in the same manner as Petit Verdot.

A member of the Cabernet family of grapes, the name "Carménère" originates from the French word for crimson (carmin) which refers to the brilliant crimson colour of the autumn foliage prior to leaf-fall. The grape is also known as Grande Vidure, a historic Bordeaux synonym, although current European Union regulations prohibit Chilean imports under this name into the European Union. Along with Cabernet sauvignon, Cabernet franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit verdot, Carménère is considered part of the original six red grapes of Bordeaux, France.

Now rarely found in France, the world's largest area planted with this variety is in Chile in South America, with more than 4,000 Hectares (2006) cultivated in the Central Valley. As such, Chile produces the vast majority of Carménère wines available today and as the Chilean wine industry grows, more experimentation is being carried out on Carménère's potential as a blending grape, especially with Cabernet Sauvignon.

Carménère is also grown in Italy's Eastern Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions and in smaller quantities in the California and Walla Walla regions of the United States.

Following dinner, we all attending a concert of a Chilean guitarist, Manuel García. He has an excellent voice as well as other members in his band that play great complimentary instruments: violinist, cellist, electric and base guitar, and a no older than 16 year old drummer. In addition to his own music, he plays a lot of Victor Jarra songs, which practically every Chilean knows by heart. The show was sold out and excellent. the clip below is one of his songs titled "El viejo communista->the old communist."

Saturday I watched the finale of the Olympics and the closing ceremony. Congratulations to the U.S.A basketball 'Redeem' team, the American men's volleyball team who overcame tragedy early on in the Olympics, as well as all the athletes that participated. It was a great two weeks of memories and inspiration. On Sunday I headed to the Chilean museum "Bellas Artes" both because my program's class is requiring us to visit and pick a favorite piece of art to write about at the end of our first essay as well as because on Sunday the museum is free. I love the Chilean surrealist Roberto Matta and I need to visit a museum nearby that is dedicated entirely to his work. Below is one of his titled "Jazz Band."

When I got home, I was overwhelmed with the tragic news that I received. I oped the door to my apartment and notice that there are two children inside. One only a year and a half old, the other nine. My host father Ivan was missing, while Luke my host mother was tending to the younger child. I quietly whispered to Luke what had happened and it turned out these kids were the children of a family on the first floor of my apartment building. Their father, training for the army, had been running with two other friends that morning and were tragically struck by the car of a drunk driver. One of the men was killed instantly, the father of the children and the other man were in the hospital. After entertaining the kids for a half-hour or so, Ivan came home from the hospital with the news that the father had died as well. The mother of the family does not work, and their financial situation is not that secure. Now with this taking place, they will probably have to move down south and look for work. My parents have been saints in helping out the window and her family with all of the arrangements necessary following this tragedy. It seems as though I hear stories about this type of situation happening every night on the news. What a terrible situation for this woman and her family.

Today I attempted to go purchase a textbook for my history course only to discover that the publishing company has stopped printing the book, and no new books will be available until September at the earliest. I need to talk to my teacher tomorrow about what to do, but I will probably just have to make photocopies from someone else. Apparently from what the bookstore worker told me, only 5 or six books were sold last Thursday, so not many students have a copy at all. Luckily we haven't been assigned any reading yet, so it shouldn't be a a big deal. I also tracked down my package from my family that contained my driver's license and my birthday present from my sister (board shorts). Thanks Casey! I love 'em.

That's all the news I have for now. Sorry I have been so slow in posting recently. Quite a busy week I had last week. Cheers.

Last free week

2008-08-17T12:50:00.003-04:00

Countdown to class...finally. I start Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m. with an economics class in the social sciences department (my backdoor strategy for taking an economics class since they won't let me through the actual department due to extreme difficulty). I have another class at 10 a.m. on the social history of Latin America, and then a third class with the entire abroad program on Chilean politics and culture at 7 p.m. I also have a class titled 'la nueva ruralidad' - the new rurality, which meets once a week on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. I am so excited that school is finally starting, that's why I came down here right? I was also able to select classes that all take place at the campus 15 minutes away from my house, which is very convenient.

So I did my best to try and take advantage of this final free week the best I could. Monday I attempted to pickup my Chilean identification card, only to be denied once again and told to come back in a week. I also had to head over to the college campus to make sure that my desired classes still existed and the meeting times stayed the same. This was not the case and had to rework my schedule a bit. It's all taken care of now.

On Tuesday I spent the afternoon at the oldest bar (circa 1916) in Santiago, La Piojera. The strange names comes from a story that a former Chilean president Arturo Alessandri was invited by the leader of a workers syndicate to this bar and upon entering he exclaimed, "Have you brought me to a lice-house (piojas->lice...piojera) or what?" Since then the place has taken on the name. They are famous for their chicha (fermented corn, apples, or other fruits) and their 'terremotos(earthquake),' a mix of fermented white wine, pisco (part of the brandy family, made from distilled grapes) and ice cream. The place has a real Chilean atmosphere.

Thursday I went out with some buddies to have a traditional Chilean dish called a Lomito, essentially a gigantic pork sandwich with guacamole and tomato. Solid. Afterward we went next door to a cafe that also doubles as a social group for people who want to practice their English as well as for others, like me, to practice speaking Chilean. The place is open Tuesdays and Thursdays, and sadly attending will begin to conflict with my school schedule. Hopefully I can just scoot over after class from here on out.

Friday, few girls in our program hosted a EAP beer pong tournament at their new apartment on the 11th story of a downtown complex. It turned out being very fun despite being entirely gringo since my fellow Santa Cruz slug friend and I were declared technical champs. I saw technical because the landlords cut the power to the apartment after one warning. Pretty strange, Friday also a Chilean holiday and the electricity is cut to the place before 8 p.m. That's some gringo hate right there.

On Saturday, a couple of friends and I went out to take a visit to a famous concentration/torture camp during the coup called Villa Grimaldi. My friend's host-brother has a relative who redesigned the site as a place of reflection and was able to give us the inside scoop about all the architecture, murals, history, etc. Current president Michelle Bachelet and her mother were even tortured here. It was a powerful experience and I could draw many similarities to my trip to Cambodia. Dictatorships from what I have seen/read are almost have a formula. I can draw so many parallels between Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, Stalin's Russia, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Peron's Arentina, and Pinochet's Chile. Sickening.

I would like to end this entry with a shout out to Michael Phelps. what an Olympian. An inspiration to all athletes and Americans. Too bad for Fernando Gonzalez of Chile. He was the last hope for Chile to get a gold medal this year and got crushed this morning by Rafael Nadal in the tennis finals. I woke up at 5 a.m. to watch the match and had to head back to sleep following the second set. The Chilean have still been able to recognize the success and joke, he is the master of the metals...being the only living tennis player to win a gold, silver, and bronze medal. The American Basketball team (no longer the Dream team but the Redeem team), should be able to bring the gold back to the U.S. They are looking absolutely dominant. There is a big Olympic soccer match on Tuesday: semifinals between Brazil and Argentina. I'll be up at watching at 6 a.m. EST cheering on the baby blue and white.

I just received the travel plans of my grandmother who is due to visit during the national independence weekend. I am so excited and can't wait to see her. It's going to be a lot of fun.

That's all for now, I'm out.

Back from Buenos

2008-08-10T19:44:00.005-04:00

Wow an amazing place. The rest of my trip felt like a whirlwind, constantly cruising throughout the various barrios and other parts of the city. I'll do my best to include all the highlights...so many...

Last I left off we had just finished touring the botanical gardens in Palermo. After popping into an internet cafe so my buddy could chat with his parents and I could put in an on-the-go blog entry, we marched to the MALBA (Museo de Art Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires).

Filled with countless works of art in all forms of media, the free experience (yes, free on Wednesdays) was unforgetable. Works by Frida Kahlo, Tarsila do Amaral, Diego Rivera, Roberto Matta, Jorge de la Vega, and Xul Solar are just some of the many artists portrayed. Afterward we toured the massive parks around the barrio and ended up at the Evita Museum, which exists in the original Transition Home built by the former Vice President nominee and social worker. Inside holds many of Eva Perón's clothes, portraits, and artistic renderings of her life. It seemed to be very one-sided and girlish exhibit, but its hard to say anything bad about Eva in Argentina after all that she did for the lower class and women, but her legacy is certainly controversial. No need to get into a political debate...

At the end of the day, we returned to our hostel to meet up with two more friend who had agreed to join in on our trip. The following morning we started the day off with some glasses of yerba mate from a cafe like true Argentines...I'm quite fond of the drink, like it even more than coffee to be honest. We then set forth to barrio La Boca to checkout of the futbol stadium of the historic squad Boca Juniors and this unique part of town.
"La Bombanera" is quite a site. We explored the museum on the team's history under the stadium, then went on a full stadium tour (press room, locker rooms) and even sneaked up into the top section to the highest point in the stadium for a view.

We continued on to another part of Buenos Aires called San Telmo for an excursion of touristy areas called El Caminito (below) and Plaza Dorrego that has a lot of artesanal history, but now is just overrun with tourists. We didn't stay long.

That night it was my buddy's 22nd birthday, so we went out to uptown Palermo to a nice meat restaurant, La Cabrera, and I must say it was probably one of the best meals I have ever had and cheap too. Good stuff.

The next day we left our hostel for a tour of other parts of the city, and just outside the front door to our place, a massive walking protest was taking place. The march probably had about 10,000+ people from different political groups and spoke out against the current government of Argentina for their lack of concern regarding inflation levels and standard of living.

We asked a man on the street about the protest, and learned that the majority of these people were unemployed and we actually being paid by the government about once a month to participate in this march. They want legal recognition for their unions and walk down the widest street in the world (17 lanes) in Avenida de Julio towards the government buildings to fight their cause. Very interesting.

After following around the protest for a while, we got back on track and proceeded to barrio Recoleta where the Cementerio Nacional exists. Inside, mausoleums of previous presidents, politicians, and important figures are all held inside this place. We saw the final resting place of Evita Peron in addition to many others. Seems pretty wild that the majority of the well-known figures in Argentinian history are kept in one cemetary. Very different from the U.S. I could not vet over what a perfect place it would be for tag, paint-ball, etc. Bad thoughts...

Practically across the street was the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. What a treat. This 3 story landmark holds paintings from countless artists, and dedicates entire sections to Argentinian art as well as pre-columbian works. Van Gough, Monet, Picasso, Diego Rivera, Kadinsky, Miro, La Trec, Matisse...amazing. You could spend 5 hours in this place.

That night we headed out to a bar to watch some Olympic coverage. I love this time of year and there is a reason only comes every four years (well two if you count the winter Olympics which are awesome too). I hope China can keep a lock down on its country like it normally does, but all eyes are on them and the pressure is intense. They already dropped the ball with the murder of an American tourist related to the coach of the U.S. Men's volleyball team. I just have a bad feeling this type of stuff is not over yet. There is still a week and half left.

Our final day we headed back to Palermo to enjoy our final afternoon in the giant parks. We ran into an spot that rented our sports equipment for free (skates, ping pong, basketball, soccer, etc.). We were told that it was paid for by the government and it seemed as though a good number of people were taking advantage of the service. What a great concept. We also had a couple of classic Choripans (chorizo+pan(bread)) for lunch and our pre-bus ride meal.

Excellent.

Bus ride took quite a while with a one hour stop in Mendoza. But that was perfect because I got to watch the second half of the Olympic futbol match between Argentina and Australia. Argentina barely pulled it out with about 15 minutes left and basically played keep away until the final whistle. The trip was one of the best I have taken and I am once again so glad that I get to return with my entire family. It is going to be a blast. Upon returning hope I discovered that my classes have been delayed yet another week which is just ridiculous. I am heading to campus to talk with my potential professors about the schedule because many of the dates and times of classes aren't official yet and are subject to change. I need exact times. Bah. Hopefully I get this all straightened out by the end of today. I am also going to pickup my Chilean identification card (carnet), which officially makes me a temporary Chilean citizens. Sweet. Should be able to muster up a post near the end of the week. Cheers...Go U.S.A!!

Argentina

2008-08-06T12:08:00.003-04:00

Well since I have another week of until classes started, a buddy of mine decided to take off to Argentina for a weak. Great decision. Exchange rate awesome, country spectacular.

We left for a small ski town called Penitentes just ten minutes beyond the border of Chile/Argentina. We were stuck at border patrol for about 6 horus which was horrible. Its a great place except for the fact there is no bank, atm, and no place takes credit card. We stayed there one night, ski'd all the next day, and then took a collectivo bus to Mendoza in the early evening.

The drive through the Andes is amazing. We spent only an hour at the bus station in Mendoza, and then boarded another bus to Buenos Aires (12 hrs). We are currently staying at a cool Hostel called Millhouse that´s full of Brits, but the atmosphere is nice and its very cheap.

We only have another 3 days in this city so we are cruising around like mad to see as many sites as we can. Museums, botanical gardens, barrios, widest stret in the world, dykes, natural reserves, sreakhouses. We attended a futbol match betweeen two argentinian clubs last night (Estudiantes vs. Independiente). What a great experience. The Argentine soccer fans are the most passionate on the planet hands down. Independiente scored the go ahead goal with a minute left in the match. Great game. Currently we are cruising around a barrio called Palermo which is such a beautiful part of town. Below is the Carlos Thays Botanical Garden, amazing.

We are hoping to stay a couple nights in the house of a cousin of my buddy´s host brother, but our cellphones do not work here so the setup process is currently a bit slow. I must asy, I loev this city so much and I could definitely see myself living here. I can´t wait to come back with my entire family in Deecmber. Sadly, we will have head back to Santiago on Saturday and i´ll post an update of the end of our trip sometime this weekend. Cheers.

Time for School...not

2008-07-30T19:50:00.003-04:00

The beginning of this week has been nice and busy for me so far. I like it. Monday morning was orientation for Universidad de Chile. My program group has now been cut virtually in half since other students are attending La Catholica. However, the entire program has a mandatory class from 7-9 Tuesday/Thursday on Chilean culture with a number of guests speakers and field trips. Should be very interesting, I get 5 UC credits for it, and it satisfies an area studies requirement I need for my major. Excellent.

I arrived at the Business and Economics campus in downtown, one of the many campuses situated all over the city of Santiago that makeup the university, and did not realize that there would be many other Students from around the world attending this orientation through other programs. Tufts, Stanford, France, etc...there were a lot of gringos and foreigners in the house. We all sat through a series of PowerPoint presentations explaining the history of the university, library system, how to register for classes and afterwords were chartered on buses over to the Macul campus which holds a good portion of the faculties...it is TEN MINUTES from my house. Score.

The campus seemed pretty interesting. Rugged, large, lots of classrooms and space, graffiti, diverse student population...I even got offered a swig of some boxed wine being shared amongst some Chilean students as our group passed by (of course I took up the offer). At the end of the tour, we returned to the Econ campus downtown to pickup a book of the courses being offered this semester. I then proceeded to give myself my own tour of the Architecture campus next door, beautiful and active since their classes had started that day. There was a large book sale taking place on the campus; picked up Teddy Roosevelt's "The Rough Riders)" (english) about his 6 month participation in military campaign in Santiago in 1898 as well as Gabirle garcia Marquez's "Relato de un náufrago" ('The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor', obviously in Spanish). After, I headed to a downtown cafe to look through the course catalog, and on the way to downtown I was strangely offered a position to be a model by a Chilean company. I kindly turned them down, lol.

I headed back to the same building the next day to have a one-on-one meeting with a professor of La Chile who has been helping exchange students with class selections for a number of years as well as to pick-up my university I.D. card which is ironically my only form of identification other than passport since I lost my Santa Cruz Id and driver's license. I decided to take a Geography class with an economic emphasis, one on the Chilean copper industry, one themed around middle eastern conflicts with the west, as well as a Chilean history class centered around the indigenous population during the conquest. Classes have been delayed another week and a half because of the strikes, but I received the excellent news that the director of the undergraduate program at La Chile has emailed all professors to request that the international students be allowed to finished the term as scheduled (Dec 6) rather than having to wait out the rest of the semester depending on the specific department. I was worried I would have to be in class potentially all the way up until Dec 20th. Phew. My class schedule is subject to change if I see other classes I like, but for right now I am happy with it. Later that day I tried to pick-up my National Chilean I.D. card, but there was a mix up with my name on an important form. For some reason the registration office put III as my maternal last name. I went back to the office to have that fixed, and the process had a 2 hour wait. I'll head back to the ID card office tomorrow to request my card again, but I will most likely have to wait another week for it to be printed. Drag.

Well that's all for now. I am getting excited for my ski trip this Friday with the program, especially since it is only $24 dollars for lift ticket and transportation to the mountain (group discount). I am thinking about taking a bus to Mendoza, Argentina this weekend to go skiing, but it depends on the whether, price, and my motivation. We shall see. Take care, cheers.

Winding down...

2008-07-27T19:08:00.007-04:00

Phew, what a nice week off. After having school everyday with field trips and meetings and such, it was so nice to be able to relax. But tomorrow the real deal starts. I have my orientation at Universidad de Chile at 10 a.m. to get a tour of the campus, ground rules, etc and then a private meeting with a faculty member from the university as well as a faculty member of the EAP program to receive advice on potential classes to take. I am a bit disappointed that I cannot take economic-intensive classes because the standards for economics department are much higher here in Chile. The EAP staff highly recommends other classes that will not be as difficult. Despite being a 4th-year Global Economics student, my experience level with economics classes does not even compare to the economics students down here. I can however take economics-themed classes in other departments that are accepted towards my final major requirements I have left such as globalization and Chilean specific economy classes. The only problem is that each department starts and ends at different times. Classes in the economics department start tomorrow and finish up Nov 28th, whereas the majority of the other departments have been delayed due to the strikes over the General Education Law and some don't finish up until as late as Dec 20th. I only need to take 3 classes, and a majority of them meet only 2 times a week (Tues/Thurs), which could potentially mean 4 day weekends every week. However, I will not mandate that my schedule is setup so nicely. After browsing through some of the class catalog, I am looking to take classes in history, social sciences, general education, and potentially literature. I want to take a class on the successful mining industry down here as well as a rare opportunity to take a literature class solely on Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral. I can't wait to have a real schedule lined up for the next 5 months and start living the true Chilean college student life.

Last Wednesday I headed back to Valparaiso with a friend of mine who hadn't visited yet, and also checked out the neighboring town of Viña del Mar. The best way to compare the two cities is that Valparaiso is Chile's San Francisco with an artsy-rougher vibe whereas Viña next-door is more like San Diego with cleaner streets and buildings and much more wealth. They even have a lavish Casino!, but I wasn't gusty enough to test my luck playing blackjack in Spanish though I regret not playing at least a couple hands. The trip in total was 3 days, and very fun because this time instead of taking a bus, we rented a car which opened up many new possibilities for exploring. We also got lucky with the weather which makes the whole beach-side experience much better. Below, a Viña sunset...

After returning on Friday absolutely exhausted, I mustered up the energy to go to Santiago's Club de Jazz, the best jazz club in the city(Louis Armstrong once performed there). Friday night they had an interesting jazz-funk trio, but the experience wasn't satisfying enough for me so I came back the following evening, after the Muse show of course.

My long awaited Muse concert at Teatro Caupolican was great. The Brit rock group's first visit was amazing, with the venue entirely packed and fans singing the lyrics in unison despite probably not knowing what any of the words mean. The band members used a bit of Spanish in between songs to address the crowd while waving a Chilean flag about. The crowd loved it, I loved it. Yes that's Galaga in the background below.

Only down side was the venue isn't stellar. The floor seats were 65 dollars and sold out before I even got to Santiago, and the venue's construction made it impossible to sneak about. I paid 30 for upper level, but judging by how packed the entire place was, I was happy with having a good view and 'some' space.

Obviously as a result of the consecutive long days, I have comedown with a bit of the sniffles, but I'm getting better by the minute. I spent the majority of today completing an online traffic school from a silly speeding ticket I received just before leaving. Felt pretty strange taking the course in international waters. But the process was painless considering the circumstances. That's all the news for now from the Southern hemisphere. I have the EAP program ski trip this coming Friday, but not too much else coming up other than initial university stuff. I'll shoot for a next entry Saturday. Cheers and nos vemos.

Video I took during the show below.

Start to Break

2008-07-22T12:00:00.003-04:00

What a coincidence, break began on Friday and Saturday afternoon there was a Chilean futbol match between La Chile (Universidad, but not affiliated with the school, just holds the name), and Union Española. I went to get some tickets on Saturday at the national stadium accompanied by my host father. Interestingly when I asked him to come with me to buy tickets, he misinterpreted that I wanted him to come to the game. He responded by saying that he couldn't go inside the national stadium because of the bad memories is brings him. During the Coup of Pinochet, troops used the national stadium as a torture and mass slaughter site. Famous Chilean musician Victor Jara was killed there, many believing troops chopped off his hands before execution. Shivers...

Anyways, we attended the match and it was a lot of fun. A passionate crowd nothing like anything in the states, and this is just the club league. Offensive songs, fireworks launched from the crowd, flares, the whole nine yards. Thank god La Chile won the match, 4-1 (almost 5-1). Afterward I was able to walk home since my house is less than 2 blocks away.

On Sunday, I went to go buy tickets for the National team futbol matches that will take place later this year. What a steal, Chile vs. Brazil, Colombia, Argentina for $50 US. Can't wait to see how those games play out. The two again Brazil and Colombia are World Cup Qualifiers and they mean a lot since in the Latin American group for the world cup, only the top 4 teams qualify with the 5th place team having to play a wild-card match against the 3 place team from the North American group. Currently Colombia leads the South American group, followed by Argentina, Paraguay, Chile and then BRAZIL. I am sure most of these teams will qualify but there is still a lot on the line.

On Monday night, one of my buddies in the program has a Spanish teacher from UC Davis who has dedicated his life's work to Chile and is an American. Michael Lazzara, PH.D. from Pricneton, is the real deal and recently published his 6th book. "Luz Arce: Después Del Infierno" his most current work is the story of a woman who worked close under Allende during the glory years, and then switched sides and turned on the party. He had a book publishing event last night at the National Library where in the audience was the widow of a former Allende supporter who was killed as a result of the side-switching by this woman.

Following excerpt readings from the book, the event turned into an open forum in which tough questions were posed as well as individuals making tense statements (one 15 minutes long). Chile is such an interesting country considering it was not long ago that the entire state was under a dictatorship and now it is currently seen as a model nation for the rest of Latin America. However, the polarized conditions of the masses cause a lot of angst and emotion when politics are brought up. The rapid transition from out of the horrors under Pinochet to general prosperity is unprecedented and makes discussing the past difficult. Too many people see the situation as black and white, whereas the goal of Mr. Lazzara is to try and change that mindset. A very powerful event, I was very lucky to be able to attend and then have dinner afterward. What an night.

I am going to try and head back to Valparaiso for the next couple days to show some friends around the city who haven't had a chance to visit it. Be back in a few days, cheers.

Chi-Chi-Ch-Le-Le-Le, Universidad de Chile!

Free!

2008-07-19T13:11:00.005-04:00

ahhh yes, Intensive Language Program completed. Friday was our last day, which for me consisted of a walk-in-the-park final exam followed by a PowerPoint presentation about my groups adventures to Valparaiso, specifically the problems that exist in the fishing industry between commercial and artisan. We rocked it and in return received many a'compliments afterward. Now begins a 10 day vacation and then student's attending La Chile University have a registration day on July 28th to discuss what classes we plan on taking. I was planning on using this time to travel outside Santiago, and I still might, but I have the Muse concert on the 26th and that in turn hampered my plans. It is alright since I would like to explore more of Santiago and the immediate surroundings before bolting to Machu Pichu, Beunos Aires, etc. I will have plenty of time in the coming months to take care of those trips. A buddy of mine and potentially a few others would like to rent a car and drive an hour of two outside the city, but we have not established firm plans. Seems better to keep stuff flexible.

As for the last week in recap, Tuesday afternoon, half the group got the opportunity to tour the inside of La Moneda (a.k.a Chilean White House) and see many things that normal visitors do not. In addition, President Bachelette was coincidentally in walking through during our tour and I got to see the back of her head...woohoo...as well as the Minister of the Interior. Strange culture down here considering that no tour group would ever be able to be within 50 feet of the president in the U.S., especially these days. I am not even sure if they still do complete tours of the White House anymore, but it wouldn't surprise me.

That evening, a good portion of the program went out to celebrate my birthday, especially since it was a national holiday the next day: Carlos Olin Montalvo III day, j/k. Two holidays, one religious and the other a northern South America deal. Anyways, we had a lot of fun, watched a bit of the all-star game and went late into then night. Too bad that it took so much out of me that I slept through my alarm the next day to go skiing at Valle Nevado, the highest altitude, best skiing around. Shewt. That's alright though, once again I will have many a chances to ski and since it was a holiday, ticket prices were raised to around 60 bucks and it was more crowded than usual. Heard the fellas still had a lot of fun.

Friday evening I was able to see the new Batman film, The Dark Night or El Caballero de la Noche. It was kind of like a learning exercise since the film had Spanish subtitles and I could learn some new vocab like El Guasón or the Joker. I really enjoyed the film from start to finish and Heath Ledger matched Jack Nicholson in his portrayal of the Guasón. Hope he gets the posthumous Oscar he deserves.

That's all for now folks, be back in a couple of days. Cheers.

Valparaiso and more...

2008-07-14T16:01:00.007-04:00

Sorry for the delay on this recent post. My mind as been a complete mess lately with the dual-language issue combined with constant preoccupation It has taken me a while to collect my thoughts to say the least.

Late last week I took an evening to ride a funicular to the top of a hill that overlooked the city. Too bad the pollution inhibited the view tremendously, but it was still beautiful considering it was sunset. You get a sense of how massive of a city Santiago is, with so many different neighborhoods with their own characteristics.

For the weekend, all the students in the program formed groups of 5+ that selected various cities all over Chile to go visit while gathering information to be presented to the rest of the class. My group elected to go to the incredible port town of Valparaiso about an hour north of Santiago and investigate the cannery and fishing industry that exists there.

From wikipedia...

"Valparaíso (literally in Spanish: Paradise Valley and also called "Valpo" locally) is a major city in Chile and one of that country's most important seaports and an increasingly vital cultural center in the hemisphere's Pacific Southwest. The city is located in central Chile, where it is capital of the Region of Valparaíso. Although Santiago is Chile's official capital, Valparaiso houses the National Congress. Built upon dozens of steep hillsides overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Valparaíso boasts a labyrinth of streets and cobblestone alleyways, embodying a rich architectural and cultural legacy. Valparaíso is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is often considered to be one of Latin America’s most intriguing urban areas."

We stayed in an amazing hostel that felt more like our own house with another group in the UC program who was studying the graffiti culture of the town. The weekend meals consisted of massive amount of seafood and simple breakfasts provided by the hostel. The town reminded me a lot of San Francisco with colorful, closely spaced houses across hillsides with narrow streets and a liberal-artsy vibe. They even have cable cars and "acensors" to scale the unique landscape. We also were able to visit one of Pablo Neruda's three houses he has in Chile, "La Sebastiana," coincidentally on his birthday. Amazing spot and definitely my favourite part of the trip. I wish I could be studying there rather than in polluted Santiago, but beggars can't be choosers. I will most certainly return a couple times in the coming months.

Above, Neruda's house. Below, el Membrillo fish cannery

I got a free classical music concert tonight(Bach) and the intial Spanish language class ends this Friday. My 21st birthday is this coming Wednesday, which thank the lord is a national holiday down here. I have planned an all day ski trip since we got some rain for the first time in almost a month. The nightcap will be the premier of the new Batman film and going out with practically the entire program. Should be a blast. No riding in cabs with people I don't know nor any other funny business. I learned my lesson and haven't been alone or outside my group much since. Should be able to get a updated post in by the start of the weekend. Roger, over-and-out.

Whoops...

2008-07-06T09:13:00.002-04:00

Well, well, well...

Things had been on absolute cruise control for the past couple of days. I had class in the early afternoon all of last week. This coming week, class changes to the morning so at least I will have free afternoons and it will be a lot more of a flexible schedule. One evening last week I went to see a Brazilian independent film at the famous La Moneda (The Treasury), which was the site where Salvador Allende barricaded himself in a room and gave his last speech via radio while outside Pinochet and his troops proceeded to bomb the building and force entry. Allende committed suicide following his speech. The film was entertaining and cost not even 2 dollars to enter.

After the film, I went to a going away party for a Chilean student who is the neighbor of one of the American's in my program. He is going to study in Australia in 6 months and invited a bunch of people over to his house. It was very fun and I met a lot of nice locals. Couldn't stand the fact the only music was played was reggaeton, but whatever makes the people dance I guess. It get's old fast, especially after 5 straight hours of it.

On Friday of last week, I spent the morning registering my visa downtown and requesting a identity card. That should arrive in about two weeks. The office is like the DMV, but worse and slower. After, I got a quick haircut and headed to campus to take care of some school work. Class felt slower than usual since everyone was itching to get out and celebrate our day of Independence. A couple of us immediately headed to a Pizza and Suishi place after class, which was pretty fun. I came home to have dinner and drop off some stuff and returned to downtown around 10 to start the fun. ugh....

The night began at Le Petit to meetup with a small group. We headed to the park across the street quickly after arriving to watch a group of people perform a strange type of Brazilian dance, Capoeira, which combines dancing with slow fighting. It looks like slow motion martial arts, but there is no contact and people sing in a circle around the two participators. We then proceeded to place across town called Bar Barsico where pretty much all the students in the program packed the place full. That was fun, but many of us were craving to avoid dancing with just gringos all night. Bouncing around a couple of different places, I ended up at a large dance club with a couple people and had a good time. However, when leaving the place, I got in a taxi, first mistake, let alone a cooperativo (group, cheaper), second mistake, and on the ride home, all four of the people in the cab including the cab driver turned on me, one with a knife, and took my wallet and cell phone. I knew the dangers of this town and I could have avoided this situation easily. Lesson learned I guess. I have spent the majority of this first real weekend recollecting lost items, canceling cards, picking up a money wire at the bus station, etc. At least the things I lost can be replaced and I still have my health.

For the rest of this weekend, I am doing class work, watching Wimbledon finals, and reflecting lots of the past few days. As I said, class starts early on Monday but it makes my daily schedule easier. Hasta luego.

1st Day of School

2008-07-01T10:36:00.002-04:00

Yesterday began my first day of classes, but our program only begins with a mandatory Spanish language class at Universidad La Catholica. It meets everyday for four hours for the next three weeks, but it definitely seems necessary to start off with. My regular schedule of classes at the university of La Chile doesn't begin until late July, but we can begin to sign up for classes a bit sooner than that. I have all the details in a mini-bible for all students, but it's a bit far away to go into extreme detail for now.

I luckily got one of my buddies to pick me up a Muse ticket yesterday for July 26th downtown at Teatro Caupolican which should be a blast. It is their first time to Santiago and the concert will take place on the last weekend of our 2 week vacation following the end of the intensive language classes. There looks like there are a lot of people in EAP that are going to get tickets, so I can't even wait to see the scene. I have been searching and picking up various flyers for other events that are a bit more culturally appealing. In September and October the Chilean national team is playing in two world cup qualifier games against BRAZIL and ARGENTINA, so I am most certainly going to attend one if not both of those games. The national stadium is 3 blocks down the street from my hours. Only the top four teams can qualify with the 5 place team forced to play a playoff with the North, Central America, Caribbean group. Current standings go 1. Paraguay 2. Argentina 3. Colombia 4. Chile 5. Brazil.

After first day of class yesterday, a group of 11 went down to Plaza Nunoa (same place with Le Petit Bar), where we chatted over drinks and french fries, and then made our way over to a very nice Italian restaurant called La Taverna. It was a very nice evening. Few of us continued back to Le Petit bar following, where the discussions continued. It's very nice that a lot of people here seem to be thinking with the same mindset about life and just life in general. I guess it takes a certain type of person to come abroad and we're all similar in that sense. We also met up with a local Chilean who is neighbors of one of EAP students. He spent time in Vail and Aspen so his English was very good, but we switched between languages frequently discussing cultural differences and such. He is having a going away party tomorrow night since he plans to study in Australia for six months. Very interesting guy. The night ended with a random guitar player coming into the bar and playing a series of Beatles tracks that our group all sang too. Too cool.

My camera battery has died since I forgot to bring the power cord. All I have is the transfer usb so I could be out of pictures for a while. Hopefully I can find some cure to this situation at an exclusive electronics shop downtown that has a lot of stuff, but that trip will have to wait until later in the week. I have been able to find the items online, but shipping costs are a joke and I can hold out.
fingers crossed, cause in addition to camera cord need a rare dual usb to mini usb cord for my music hard drive, but once again that can wait. I am enjoying the simple life down here, especially as I scan through the constantly released headlines of news in the states. I am so glad I chose Chile to study considering it appears to provide the best, affordable life-style in Latin America right now. I have some homework to take care of for class at two today as well as a quiz on the subjunctive tense, so I will cut this discussion short. However, I have plenty of time to build upon it. Hasta Manana.

Algarobbo, beach town.

2008-06-29T22:49:00.012-04:00

Wow, way too much to potentially say about the past weekend at the beach. I thought that it was somewhat silly to be going to the beach during the winter, but we definitely lucked out with the weather conditions and I am sure that I speak for everyone of the students that the getaway most certainly exceeded my expectations. The only complaint I had was that the bureaucratic stuff such as signing up for classes, rules, ect, thought important, seemed a bit out of place to be during the limited time we had in Algarobbo. However, getting to to know the fellow student's in the program better and all the other fun activities made up for it for sure.

My quick video of the world's largest pool.

Where to start...we stayed at a very nice hotel (Hotel Pacifico) that was across the street from the beach. We had all our of meals in there as a group and the entire staff was very hospitable. The only extended time I spent in the room was to sleep because I was constantly doing things or stuck in a conference room listening for informational meetings. I got to swim in the world's largest swimming pool, let alone visit it and walk through the super mario tunnel that goes under it, took multiple swims in the ocean despite not having a bathing suit and the water being bitter cold, and it was a national holiday for fisherman the last night we had their so there was a big dance party in town. I could go on for days about the weekend and all my thoughts, but it's not necessary. The good times rolled, and I'm sure they'll keep on rolling.

Settling In

2008-06-27T11:49:00.003-04:00

The last two days haven't been to exciting to discuss. Exploring this gigantic city, orientation at school about the upcoming weeks, buying little necessities for my room, etc. The public transportation here is excellent. I have a "bip!" card that accesses both the buses and them metro that both can take you essentially anywhere very quickly. Connected my cell to the local network and bought some minutes...really easy process. I got introduced to a tutor, Pablo, who is a 4th year architecture student with a good outlook that can help me during my studies at Universidad de Chile, nice guy.

For this weekend, all the students are going to the beach for more orientation stuff. Seems strange to go to the beach because its a bit cold for that. Won't be able to update the site until Sunday night most likely, but I should have some cool stuff from the trip.

The weather hasn't been much different than San Francisco, surprisingly. The real problem is the smog, might even be worse than Los Angeles cause of the surrounding mountains combined with tons of cars. The other students all seem nice. Went to a place called Le Petit Bar last night with ten other people, great place. Very small, had a guy playing Clapton, Floyd, Guns n Roses and taking requests. Fun stuff.

We had a quick oral exam this morning for placement in Spanish classes for next next couple weeks. Very easy. Have to start packing for the trip, be back Sunday night. ciao...oh yea, and i've been eating lots guacamole and avocados : / still rather leave satan's condiment out of my meals.

First Days

2008-06-25T22:31:00.000-04:00

The second day after arriving to Santiago was filled with sleeping...in-and-out for hours. I did manage to go on a walk near the hotel and visited a nearby Mall and park. Found a monument in memory of an important general who died during the Allende craziness. My hotel was a ways from downtown and never gained the energy to take a cab ride over there.

I checked out of my room this morning and took a car to the college campus (campus oriente) where I met-up with a bunch of the fellow exchange students from various UC's before being introduced to my temp-mother. After meeting Lucretia (Lucky, pronounced luke), we grabbed my bags and went to the nearby apartment in
Ñu
Ñoa (city within Santiago). There I met my temp-father (Ivan), got settled in my room, and began talking away. They both do not speak much English, so it will be good practice from here on out.

My room is awesome (internet, view of the mountain range, cute and simple), pretty much everything I could ask for.

After an excellent lunch of salad and traditional Chilean soup, and watching the Euro cup match between Germany and Turkey, Ivan took me to nearby downtown to explain the bus system, how to get around, important locations, how to get to school, etc. I am excited that I will finally get to use public transport and walk to school. The evening ended with hot chocolate, salami, and bread..woohoo! I have to go back to campus tomorrow morning at 9:45 for orientation and to meet the professors of Universidad Catholica.

Here is a great video of these silly people who ride the bus for free just to play music, strange...reminded me a lot of santa cruz

The Eagle Has Landed

2008-06-24T07:16:00.000-04:00

After about 26 hours of straight travel, I have finally arrived. Left Lihue, Kauai a little after 10 p.m. local time, stopped in Honolulu for an unexpected refuel. Then continued on to L.A., then Miami for a 6 hour layover. It is now 7:18 a.m. EST (Chile), so you can do the math.

It was close to freezing when I stepped off the plane, but it is still early in the morning. Took less than 15 minutes to get from the the airport to the hotel thanks to a lack of traffic and a good driver. I have a room for the night at the Grand Hyatt in Santiago [thanks mom : ) ] on the 15th floor with a great view of the city. I am going to try and get a couple hours of sleep, and then do some exploring. Shopping mall across the street...and wow, as I type the sky has gotten lighter over the past few minutes to reveal a beautiful snowy mountainscape that overlooks the city. Sunrise in Santiago must be one of the most beautiful vistas I have seen in a while. Can't seem to find my power cord for my camera...not good. Still able to transfer a photo in.