One Third Reflection

Hello Folks!
October wins the award for the fastest month here! Seriously,where did it go?Wednesday, the 24th officially marked 4 months in Chile.One third of my experience is done!Fittingly,this was also the day I finally received my student BIP(bus and metro) card.Only the foreign students who stay here for a year get them,because the whole process takes 3-4 months to get one. The Transantiago system, nor the international student program would be helping themselves going through the process with semester students, if they only use the card for less than 2 months. I have the benefit of using it eight more months, hooray! Basically with the BIP card, one "swipe" gets you a bus+metro+bus ride or other similar combinations  as long as you're heading in the same direction within a two hour window. So I swipe onto the bus in the morning, take it to the metro and swipe into the metro, and it doesn't charge me for both. Before it cost 560 to 670 pesos(about $1.20-$1.30), depending on whether it is "Bajo,Punto,o Valle"(Low,Normal, or Rush Hour). Now, it's only 190 pesos,less than 50 cents, all the time! This is a huge relief,because transportation costs can really add up quickly here. Plus, this is just another reaffirmation that I am truly in Chile. My friends who are staying for the semester are talking are counting down the days and I can't help thinking I could not imagine leaving at this point. I am sure that I will need this year to be here, to really focus on improving my spanish and just, well...living here! The new has worn off for me, but not the shininess. I don't think it ever will. Maybe I'm easily amused by everyday life. Sure there are frustrating days when  tengo ganas de dar una patada a algo(I really want to kick something!). But there is something special about starting to go through day-to-day life here,if I open my eyes to my surroundings a bit. I see the same singers on my morning and afternoon commutes to and from school.Right as I type this I can hear the man that always comes down my street in his cart bike blowing his little,musical whistle. I can trace certain bus routes in my sleep. Heck I've been even been asked for a directions, and gotten it right more times than not. (Do I look...no not look,maybe seem Chilean enough to know my way around here? Or maybe, people just figure you don't have to be Chilean to know the lay of the land. Either way it's somewhat of a compliment.)
Then of course there are out of the everyday life events that make me appreciate being here,knowing some experiences are location specific. I went to a Fulbright scholarship info session hosted by my program, and one of the Chilean Fulbrighters I met  is doing her dissertation here on migration to Chile. After chatting a bit,she told me about a Peruvian celebration that was happening that Saturday, called Señor de los Milagros(Lord of Miracles). I had never heard anything about this celebration,so naturally I went!Turns out it's a pretty neat story.In the 18th century Lima, Peru suffered a massive earthquake, and it was said the only thing left standing was a mural of Jesus Christ. So now they decorate an elaborate altar and march through the streets with this mural after the celebratory mass. The biggest celebration of this holy day is obviously in Lima,but Santiago's large Peruvian population makes it quite a big deal here too.My EAP buddy Emmanuel tagged along and, wow, we were in for a surprise! The mass, which was in the giant church in Plaza de Armas, was packed,so we stood the whole time. They sang the Chilean and Peruvian national anthems. Afterwards, we met up with Megan(the Fulbright student) and joined in on the procession through Santiago, where they carried basically a giant altar decorated with flowers. I didn't realize it would be so long, but two hours later we were still marching along. The best part was when people standing on a bridge above the procession released tons of balloons and glitter upon the crowds.

The video wasn't working :( Imagine sounds of drums,popping balloons, and singing!

So a week before this,did I know I would be spending my Saturday afternoon this way? Nope! But do I like the unexpected places life takes me here? Absolutely! So amigos, let's see where I'm heading for the next 8 months. Here's to the next 2/3 of the adventure! Chao for now!

Midterms(?) and Ruca Mapuche

Wow, for some reason it has felt like a long time since an update. Since my last post, I've been flooded with in class exams and take home exams, leaving me little time for much else. I guess I could call them midterms,but I feel like each class has a different structure to when they give tests. Some of my friends had exams within the first few weeks or month,while I didn't have anything until 2 months after the semester!It's so weird,because I'm used to the incredibly fast paced quarter system. The midterm for my Political Processes in Latin America was definitely the toughest. It basically ended up being 12 pages of analyzing the six political regimes of South/Central America. Writing it made me excited about how much I had learned,but at the same time it completely frustrated me. The professor, who is not from the U.S. like I thought before but from Canada,gave the option of writing it in English.He even said "I know you all came here determined to learn and practice Spanish,but this test is not the place to do it."That comment kind of annoyed me,but at the same time I understand how the T.A.s here want to do context checks instead of grammar checks.My class is full of foreigners,so I'm sure they've had this issue in past semesters.Even so, I opted for Spanish,because in our program our grades go through the program director,who has the final say. He'll take into account the fact that you wrote something in Spanish even when there was an English option. So it seemed worth it to me to suck it up and write in Spanish, not only for the challenge but  also for the possible grade boost. But anyway enough about studying and more about abroading...

Every couple of weekends my program offers all-inclusive day excursions to the first X number of people to reply to the email for the activity, depending on each one's capacity. So last Saturday my program brought a handful of us to a Mapuche house, or "ruca."  

For a quick lesson, the Mapuche are the biggest indigenous group in Chile.Their  name means "people of the earth," because mapu=earth and che=people. The majority of them in Chile are based farther south, with a population in Argentina as well. Luckily, this ruca is only about an hour outside of Santiago set up especilly for cultural presentations.I guess there are usually outdoor activities,but due to the crazy downpour, we were inside the whole day. I didn`t mind,because we had a warm fire and plenty of tea,coffee,and food the whole time. I had second breakfast there,which consisted of fresh fruit,rolls,and the best homemade sopaipillas in the world! Usually they are more hollow, fried circles of dough,about the size of the circle your hands would make touching your pointer fingers and thumbs together. But these ones were denser and had less of a greasy taste.Needless to say everyone went back for seconds,thirds, and ok maybe fourths.After breakfast we had a presentation on Mapuche history, which reminds me a bit of the Native American situation in the U.S. a.k.a. getting a very bad end of the deal on land and rights thanks to invaders and government. That`s not to say the Mapuche`s didn`t fight back. They had a few heroes of their own, like Toki Lautoro below. This epic photo was displayed in the ruca.

More recently there have been serious issues with the government developing on Mapuche`s land. The man giving the presentation was obviosuly very passionate about the issue,so I was getting a biased,but still very informative perspective. After that we learned more about Mapuche medicinal practices. What I found interesting was that they even have their own psychologists, for emotional support. They also showed us the Mapuche flag and described the meaning of each color and symbol on it. After that, even though I was still pretty full from breakfast, they laid out an amazing lunch for us. There was salad,some kind of pork, a bean stew, and  more sopaipillas...it was the perfect food for a rainy day! 

Inside the Ruca. This type of floor is not typical

Delicious lunch!

Our day finished with dancing,my favorite! We separted into two lines facing each other. Then they started playing these cool instruments and banging drums. We danced(actually it was more of a rhytmic hopping)towards each other, chanted, separated, then repeated that for about 5 minutes.We probably looked a little silly, because we weren't given much instruction. In the real dance(not our gringo version) they told us it can last up to 2 hours! 

This visit made me realize how little I know about the Native American culture within the U.S. Sure there was the basic info from history classes, but the actual historical and cultural distinction between the tribes is honestly a blur to me. I feel a need to look into that more, partly out of curiosity and partly out of not wanting to be put on the spot without a clue. That has happened more than once. An example: my host mom asked me if the jail sentence is longer for people who smuggle drugs or smuggle people across the border. Yeah sure that's a pretty specific question, but it  still makes me consider that there may be information on the U.S. that I don't ever consider, but people here would expect to be common knowledge. Now I know it's true that studying abroad in another country is actually one of the best ways to learn about your own country! So go abroad mi amigos! Chao for now!

p.s. This is kind of unrelated to this post, but I just wanted to share a picture of an awesome dessert my host mom helped me make for a dessert party a couple EAP friends hosted. It was peanut butter,dulce de leche, manjar( the product of boiled dulce de leche), cocoa powder, and a splash of pisco all rolled into a cake and topped with more dulce de leche,chocolate syrup, and chocolate chips. Honestly this tasty creation took about 10 minutes to make and it was probably gone in about the same amount of time. 

Wedding-Chile Style!

Just when I think life in Chile is settling down, and maybe not every experience is new and shiny this country throws me a curveball. What is it this time? A Chilean wedding of course! My host sister's wedding definitely goes down as not only one of the most fun nights in Chile,but also a giant serving of culture on a copper platter(nope not silver, gotta stick with Chile's big export). I guess I could actually say this was a Chilean-Argentine wedding, since she did marry an Argentinian.On a side note, the story of how they met is actually really cute. They met at a costume party. He was dressed as Zorro and she was a princess. They even included that in the wedding invitation design,with little clip art  drawings of them in the costumes with their heads photoshopped in. Anyways, I'd say I've been to enough weddings in the U.S. to note some differences, one being time.All I can say is everything is later. The ceremony was scheduled to start at 7:00. Well, 7:30 rolled around and people were still mingling outside the church. Finally people took their seats and the ceremony started. Except for the fact that it was in Spanish, it could have been a U.S. wedding, with the ring bearer and vow exchanges. But looking into the audience I was reminded that it wasn't. There were a few extravagant get ups you wouldn't see in the U.S. probably.A woman with a flashy long flowered dress and a little fur coat.  Plus there was what I personally nicknamed the paparazzi crew. It was the guests, not the professional photographer, who were climbing over others and moving around different aisles and areas of the church to get a good shot of the action.I actually sat next to some guests from the U.S. who turned to me and whispered "It's like it's a show!" It was pretty funny to see them moving as a little pack during the opening march.
After the ceremony we headed to the reception at the Hyatt in a really nice area of Santiago called Las Condes. First there was a little cocktail/appetizer hour, and then everyone moved into the dining area. Oh by the way it was 10:30 p.m. or so when we were seated. I sat with the "jovenes" table, which was mostly the 20-something crowd. This is where I'd like to interject some self pride for the progression of my Spanish skills since I've gotten here. I found myself very at ease with the all Spanish conversation. Three months ago I would have been using a lot more energy to follow the conversation and not have any left to talk much. Here I could enjoy the meal(which was great by the way.smoked salmon salad,steak, and a mini dessert platter. yum!), interject in the conversation,and laugh for real at the jokes I actually understood. One of the guys at the table said I didn't have a gringa accent, to which I replied "Wow thank you! I don't believe you..but thank you!"
The meal finally ended at 12a.m. and then came the Argentine flavor in the mix. The couple's first dance was a tango! My host sister and her husband were amazing! Now I know what they meant earlier when they said they needed to practice more.Tango is an intricate dance!
Then came the dancing.I don't think there was one butt in a chair...everyone hit the dance floor! There was a great mix of current American music,reggaeton, and K-Pop...yup they played "Gangnam Style," the viral Korean pop song with the, um, unique dance. It was certainly something seeing the groomsmen all on stage performing it!
Then came some more crazy...sometime around 1 or 2 people on stilts and guys dressed as court jesters doing flips came out of nowhere! They started passing out silly hats and everyone put them on without hesitation. Then the whole dance floor,sporting their funny hats(I got a penguin by the way) formed a congo line which went between the legs of the stilt men!
The rest of the night was chock full of random, but memorable moments.I ditched my too small penguin hat at one point, where it was quickly scooped up by another guest. I said "chao" to my incredibly painful heels,danced on stage with all the gals, sang along to all the songs and English and what I could of the ones in Spanish. Then finally the night ended at 6 a.m. I made it!
I just want to finish this post reflecting on how happy I am that I decided to stay with my host family this semester. It's always a little awkward in the beginning, adjusting to the family's lifestyle and being comfortable around the house,but the cultural and language benefits are priceless. It's going to be different next semester, since I've already decided I'll be living in an apartment,so I can have two kinds of experiences. However, I'm glad I decided to stick it out with my family for this semester. I would encourage anyone who was going to study abroad to go for it and stay with a family,because you will be amazed at the cultural experiences that will come your way! A wedding is a pretty good example, don't ya think?