La Serena and the ensuing week

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

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.