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

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.

Another Break

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

Winding down...

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.