Way South of the Border

Documentary on the Protests Going on in Santiago

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 09:26:14 -0400

Documentary on the Protests Going on in Santiago

Animal Preserve in Cuzco, Peru

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 01:31:00 -0400

Animal Preserve in Cuzco, Peru

My Thoughts on La Paz

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 01:56:00 -0400

Having had some time to reflect now on my weekend trip to La Paz, Bolivia, I’m still as fascinated and in love with the city as I initially was. I think what I liked so much about it in comparison to other cities was that I really felt like the traditional Bolivian lifestyle was embraced and there wasn’t this push to be “just like the US/Insert Developed Country Here”. Part of this may be because compared to the other cities of Latin America that I’m familiar with, La Paz is much smaller; less than 1 million people compared to Buenos Aires’ 12.8 million and Santiago’s 5.5 million.

There is also a huge difference in the economic situations of Chile and Argentina compared to Bolivia. I remember when I was initially telling people I was studying abroad in Chile they were all excited for me that I would get to do cheap shopping and save money on good food, etc. False. My friends and I found that while certain items varied due to their availability in different locations, in general prices tended to be relatively the same in Chile compared to the US. In Argentina, things were a little bit cheaper, but nothing mind-blowing. (Except for The Most Amazing Dining Experience of My Life) However. La Paz was a different story. We got three course meals with drinks for 4 bolivianos, approximately 57 cents. We got a bag of 6 loaves of fresh baked bread for 2 bolivianos, or 28 cents. What?!?!? Kevin and I were mind blown.

It’s also a cool city because they literally built it in the middle of the mountains. The streets are made up of some crazy hills, a few of which we conquered in our quest to find this hidden “lookout spot” or mirador that we had heard rumor of. Finding it was an adventure, but so worth it. Some fews from the top:

I tried to capture in my pictures how the city is just in a little bowl of mountains, hopefully that comes across. The elevation of the city ranges from 9,000 ft to 13,000 ft. Interestingly, but not necessarily surprisingly, the upper classes occupy the lower altitude regions of the city and the lower classes can only afford to live in the higher altitude locations.

Check out the beautiful snow capped mountain in this next picture!

Today in my US History class a group gave a presentation on...

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:47:18 -0400

Today in my US History class a group gave a presentation on Bruce Springsteen`s “Born in the USA”. Made me homesick!!

Also, I`ll admit that it wasn`t so long ago that I didn`t understand the real meaning of this song. Regardless of it`s intention though, it just makes me want to smile.

Schools En Paro

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:56:00 -0400

For the past few weeks, high schools and universities across Santiago have been taken over by the students. Essentially, when there is a “toma” the students arrive at school really early and lock the teachers out. The idea is to demand better education and resources by preventing the schools from being able to open.

For the high school students, these protests to my understanding are almost an annual thing, and they’re pretty effective. Public schools in Santiago are extremely under funded, but I’ve heard stories of students in the past petitioning for things like whiteboards and having the government cave in to the demands and provide them. It may not seem like anything huge, but imagine high schools across the country all doing it at the same time.

However, for the college students, among a number of demands, their largest and most important demand is that public higher education be free. Wait…what?? My initial reaction to hearing this demand was along the lines of “Who the hell do they think they are?!” Being accustomed to the United States higher education system leads one to question what makes them think they have the right to go to college for free, everyone knows college costs an arm and a leg.

After some consideration, I’m still not sure I’m completely in agreement, but I understand their point. In Chile, as I imagine it is in any developing country, the differences in social classes are very large. While in the US your background definitely affects the opportunities available to you for higher education, Chile lacks the scholarship culture that we have. It’s just not something they really do. Which means that if you’re poor, you can work as hard as you want through high school, but it’s not really going to get you anywhere. For comparison purposes, the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina is free to anyone from any country.

In addition to the schools being shut down there have been protests all over the city. I have some friends who are teaching English in public schools and they have all been off work for the past few weeks. There have been some signs hung up around my university and people have been passing out fliers but since we are a private institution we haven’t actually been en paro. Well, all except for the school of history and social sciences. Nobody is really quite sure why they’re en paro.

La Paz, Bolivia

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 20:50:00 -0400

Last week was a whirlwind of projects, tests, and other assorted assignments, but my reward for getting through it was a trip to Bolivia this weekend. We left yesterday morning, and despite a number of hiccups along the way it was an extremely enjoyable trip. We flew from Santiago to Iquique, Chile and then stayed on the same plane to continue through to La Paz.

Well, we were on the 45 min. plane ride to La Paz from Iquique when all of a sudden we noticed on the screen that tracks the plane’s progress that we were turning in a circle. We didn’t really think much of it until the pilot came on and said that we were going back to Iquique because of an “operational error”.

They wouldnt tell us much more than that but once we landed they explained that because of the high altitude in La Paz, the airplane hadn’t been equipped to handle the pressure. Or something like that. The point was that apparently the oxygen masks were about to fall and we could have had a serious problem. It ended up working out great though because Iquique was one of the places in Chile I really wanted to see, but didn’t have the time for. The airline drove us about an hour from the airport into Iquique and took us to dinner at a nice hotel. Iquique is a beach town so we ate right on the water, gorgeous. Then they drove us back and we were ready to go.

The only unfortunate part was that we got into La Paz pretty late, but we took a cheap taxi to the hostal, checked in, and went to sleep. This morning we got up still exhausted but enjoyed a free pancake breakfast at the hostal. Our main adventure of the day was going to the Tijuanacu ruins about 2 hours outside of La Paz. The travel to and from the ruins was an adventure in itself.

This reminded me of the time when I was either 9 or 10 years old and my mom took me to Stonehenge in England with our neighbors, the Fosters. There is a very unfortunate video recording of this day with me proclaiming that I dont understand what the big deal is, theyre just a bunch of rocks. I was thinking about this today as I realized some of the extremes Ive gone to in order to see other sites that in essence, are just a bunch of rocks. Between Easter Island (which I owe you all a post on), Tijuanaca, Machu Picchu coming up in July - I think it would be fair to say that my mindset has changed substantially from when I was 10 years old. Despite thinking I was the smartest cookie in the box back then, I think I just couldnt grasp the significance of Stonehenge back then.

More to come!

My Poor Tumblr

Mon, 30 May 2011 18:17:10 -0400

It has been so neglected. Between being sick all of last week and recently spilling a glass of water on my Macbook, I haven´t had an opportunity to post. Right now I´m using the computer lab to get my homework done, but if I`ve got some time after I`ll post a real update.

Chilean vs. Spanish

Fri, 20 May 2011 20:16:00 -0400

Lauren: (mumbling Spanish words trying to communicate something)
Christopher: Ah, ok
Lauren: How do I say that correctly?
Christopher: In Chilean or Spanish?

Truly, they are worlds different. I feel like my Spanish is improving a lot, and that I can communicate with just about anyone these days, but hanging out in a group when people are speaking "Chilean" is still pretty hard. I usually have an idea what the topic is, and can follow the general idea of the conversation, but I tend to not say much since I'm working so hard to process what's going on.

It's about time I played some soccer

Fri, 20 May 2011 18:23:32 -0400

I just finished my first soccer game here in Chile. Brief backstory, yesterday I met a new friend, Tamy, through a friend from my field hockey team, Dani. Tamy invited me to play in a soccer game with her today, and after explaining that I haven’t actually played in quite some time, and her assuring me that didn’t matter, I said ok!

Oh my goodness.

I. Am. A. Natural.

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t the best one out there or anything, but I certainly fit right in. Given that I haven’t really played since the 8th grade…some 7 years ago or so, I felt great. Also, on that note, why couldn’t I have been such a natural in 8th grade? That would’ve been ideal.

And it was so much fun. Afterwards Tamy asked me if I could play with them every week, and of course I agreed, but we’ve got two weeks off before the next game.

If you want to piss off a Chilean...

Thu, 19 May 2011 16:03:47 -0400

Either tell them the pisco is better in Peru or that the wine is better in Argentina. Guaranteed to work.

Don’t bother making fun of how they talk, they’re proud of how hard they are to understand.

Happy Birthday to my pololo Christopher! (He’s the one in...

Mon, 16 May 2011 00:00:06 -0400

Happy Birthday to my pololo Christopher! (He’s the one in the middle with the goofy “peace” sign. On the left is his brother Dorian. Despite their names I swear they are Chilean.)

Chilean CHISTES!! (Jokes)

Sun, 15 May 2011 21:01:00 -0400

Translated:

So there are 300 people on a plane, 299 Argentinians and 1 Chilean. The pilot comes over the loudspeaker and says “Allright, I’ve got some bad news. Unfortunately we’re overweight and if we don’t lose some weight we’re not going to make it. So we’re currently throwing the luggage overboard. We’ll keep you updated.”

So of course there’s a lot of chatter throughout the cabin and people start to panic about what they’re going to do about their luggage. Then the pilot comes on again and says “Allright, we’ve gotten rid of everything we can, including the meals we were going to serve you [I’m embellishing here to make it less stupid] but we still aren’t gonna make it. We’re going to have to lose the floor, so if you’ll notice there are some handles above your heads. Please grab on to those now.”

So they lose the floor and everybody is holding on to the handles when the pilot comes on again and says “Well, unfortunately, we’re still not going to make it. We’re really close though, if we just lose one person, we’ll be ok.” So of course, all of the Argentinians look at the one Chilean and he says “Ok, ok. I’ll sacrifice myself, but if you could all just do me one thing first, just applaud for me as a thank you.” So they’re glad this guy is willing to do it and figure sure why not… and all start clapping.

In case you didn’t get it, when they let go of the roof to clap, they died. The Chilean wins.

Ok next joke:

A zorro (Spanish for fox) and perro (Spanish for dog) are running along and as they cross the street run into each other. Being a gringo, the zorro responds “I’m sorry” and the perro says “I’m perry”.

This might make more sense aloud.

Chileans Have a Very Different Sense of Humor

Fri, 13 May 2011 20:14:18 -0400

Chileans Have a Very Different Sense of Humor:

This page is all the rage here in Chile. Warning, it’s a little inappropriate.

Made it onto a Chilean Sports Website!!!!

Tue, 10 May 2011 11:54:00 -0400

Made it onto a Chilean Sports Website!!!!:

Click above to see a picture of me at my hockey game last Thursday.

HidroAysén Protests

Mon, 09 May 2011 01:03:00 -0400

This evening I went to a protest in Plaza Italia against a Hydroelectric Project that is to be built in southern Chile (specifically in a region of Patagonia named Aysén). The project was passed almost unanimously by the Chilean government (10 votes in favor and one abstaining.)

Quick facts about HidroAysén:

- The project includes 5 separate damns that would be constructed on two different rivers

- The damns are estimated to flood almost 6000 hectacres of natural forest

- The damns are being built because Chile is anticipating an energy crisis in the next decade

- The energy generated by the damns will go to mining efforts…

- There was strong public sentiment against HidroAysén yet the goverment made a decision in favor of it anyway

I´m actually doing a presentation on HidroAysén for one of my classes which was the main reason I went to the protest in the first place. I truly expected there to be 30 people, maybe 45 at the most at this protest. It wasn´t something my host family, my hockey friends, my boyfriend and his friends, or anybody but my environmental studies professor had mentioned my entire time here. In fact, when I brought it up a few times it was dismissed as no big deal.

WELL.

I was shocked when I arrived. I got there a little late because of a tremendous amount of traffic (I had taken the bus from the other side of the city) and had been afraid that it was going to be over already. Well I immediately realized why my bus had been in such horrible traffic for so long. The roads were blocked off and there was a mass of people up ahead. This seemed like more or less what I was looking for.

I made my way over there intending to snap a few pictures, cross the street and get on a bus home. (In Santiago once you board the bus you have two hours of free transfer from bus to bus. I was aiming to get away without paying the extra $1.50 or so.) As I`m walking I notice a funny smell, but for some reason my first thought was that the gathered groups I was passing were doing some sort of weird drug.

That sounds ridiculous in retrospect, but in the context of the night I was hurrying over to this event that I was afraid I had missed, I wasn´t paying much attention to the people I was passing. And then all of a sudden before I realize what´s happening I start having trouble breathing. I´m using my scarf as a barrier but it´s doing nothing. For an extremely brief second, I thought I was going to die. That sounds even more ridiculous, but give me a break. I was alone, it was dark, now the street I had been walking up is packed, I don´t know which way is which, or how to leave, and I have no idea why I can´t breathe!

At first it was just the breathing, which gradually got worse and worse, but then all of a sudden my eyes start burning, much less gradually. (In my research since this occured, I believe that my contact lenses might be the reason for this. For a short time they provided a thin layer of protection, but once the gas got under the lenses it got trapped which is apparently why you´re never supposed to wear contacts in a tear gas environment.)

Part of me wishes that I had continued on to the bigger group of people I had seen in the distance chanting (around me it was just chaos) but what I actually did was fight my way through the crowds and once I broke out just flat out ran to the next metro stop down. On that note, my hopes of taking the bus home had been flattened when I realized that all of the buses going towards my house were lined up on the closed off road filling with tear gas, with people in them.

I was extremely distraught about my brief experience with tear gas. I think part of the reason it was so awful was because I had absolutely no idea it was going to be used that night. And in fact, when I got home I put the news on right away because I was so sure something had gone terribly wrong at the protest. When my host mom came home I told her what had happened, and her response was essentially “Well yea, that´s why you`re supposed to bring lemons to a protest.” (Lemons help with the tear gas.) Thank you host mom for mentioning that earlier during lunch when I told you I was going to the protest. I received similar responses from every other Chilean I mentioned the protest to.

Apparently general rule of thumb is if the protest is at night, or without a permit, there will be tear gas. On that note, I´m still confused about whether they had a permit for the protest Monday. I´ve heard conflicting stories. The most plausible to me is that they initially had the permit but the morning of it was revoked and they had the protest anyway.

Impressively, as I watched the protests on the news that night, there are people that kept on protesting despite the tear gas and fire hoses well into the night. Way to be Chileans, way to be. I´m surprised, yet extremely encouraged to know that this project did not go as unnoticed as I initially conceived.

For an account of the events from someone who saw more of the action check out Eileen`s Blog. She`s an expat who`s been living in Santiago for some time now, and I love her blog.

Rapa Nui / Isla de Pascua / Easter Island

Tue, 03 May 2011 02:05:00 -0300

Rapa Nui / Isla de Pascua / Easter Island

Other B.A. Highlights

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 01:58:00 -0300

The club we went to Saturday night had some deal with our hostal that got us into the VIP section, where, get this, there was FREE FACE PAINT!!! Of course we took advantage. The women doing it was truly an artist. The funnier part was really when we left and continued wearing our facepaint back at the hostal. Emma even wore hers to breakfast the next day.

La Boca, Buenos Aires:

One of the most dangerous parts of BA if you stray from the touristy area, El Caminito. You get off the bus, take your picture, and get back on. Here’s my picture.

The San Telmo Feria:

Emma selected a piece of leather for a belt and the guy custom made it by hand, right in front of us! That’s craftsmanship.

We got lunch at a popular restuarant, El Desnivel right in the middle of the Feria. It was on my short list of BA things to do, and I’m glad I got to visit it. We ordered the famed Bife de Chorizo, which I found out is apparently just a really good steak. I have not eaten steak in a long, long time. Emma loved it. I have to say, I really love the flavor of steak, but it takes forever to chew! I’ve already been struggling with my incorporation of chicken into my diet. Previously the majority of my food had a rather soft, mush like consistency, and knives were only used for spreading peanut butter (which I want to reiterate is super expensive here, should you wish to send me some.)

Incredibly amazing performance art:

We just happened to walk past this guy performing in the street on our way home from the Feria and he was incredible!

We met people from all over the world at our hostal!

Pictured below is Emma with Ben, Mark, and Scott from Alabama; three friends on a trip with approximately 4 Spanish phrases in their pocket. They made it work though.

The view from the hostal patio at sunrise.

Malba:

The museum of contemporary art, check out this bench.

The Giant Buenos Aires Flower:

Potentially overrated, but cool enough. Supposedly it closes at night and opens during the day but it looked the same to us during the day as it did when we drove by at night.

Most Amazing Dining Experience of My Entire Life:

This story is worth telling in entirety. So Monday morning got off to a slow start. First we took taxis with Ben, Mark, and Scott (mentioned above) to a museum that was closed on Mondays, walked to an ice cream store and then discovered nobody in the group even wanted ice cream, etc. Finally we made it to Malba, mentioned above, but afterwards it was already about 2pm and we were hungry. We headed to a Peruvian place we had heard good things about, but turns out it was closed. (FYI, if you travel to BA, everything is closed on Mondays.) So we’re hungry and pretty much willing to eat anything, so we go up to the first restuarant we see.

The door is closed and there are no windows to see inside. There’s a sign with a price for ceviche though-we like ceviche, the price is reasonable. We knock on the door.

The restaurant is empty save for one man feasting by himself. The walls are covered in pictures, and its a little dark inside. We’re seated and our drink order is taken, a few beers, some bottled water. A generous helping of a few different kinds of bread is brought to the table, along with a spread. Then a plate of cheese and olives is brought to the table. Slightly strange since we didn’t order it, and mind you our order still hasn’t been taken. Then a plate of tortilla española, essentially, an omelette arrives.

Finally our order is taken, and we find out there’s no menus. It’s ok though because there are only two options: Ceviche, and Paella. The waiter decides he’s just going to bring a bowl of each for the table.

The food comes out and its full of delicious fresh seafood. Of course we have no idea how much this is going to cost so we decide to just enjoy it and worry about that later, but we’re expecting it to be a lot.

So we finish and there’s still a lot of food left but we just can’t eat any more, and we finally ask for the check. The waiter, potentially owner, goes over to the cash register and comes back in 5 minutes and just tells us the price. It’s 290 pesos. That’s essentially $72..which split between 6 people breaks down to $12 each. For an incredible meal!!! We’re fairly certain he just made up a price, but that was perfectly okay with us as we drank our complimentary champagne that was brought out after the meal.

Everything's Bigger in Buenos Aires

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:22:00 -0300

Finally starting to recover from the whirlwind of a trip that Buenos Aires was. I returned to my house in Santiago around 11:30 last night, but I had to get up at 8 this morning to make it to my 9:40 class (which on a related note, was cancelled for some reason..)

I hardly know where to start, but first it’s worth noting that Buenos Aires grew on me the more time we spent there. At first, it was a little intimidating. Everything really is bigger, as everyone told us before we got there. It’s not a perfect analogy, but I can’t help thinking New York is to Washington, DC what Buenos Aires is to Santiago. The imperfection in that is that Buenos Aires is really much more like a European city than New York.

Cementaria de Recoleta:

When people list cemetaries as places to visit in a city, I usually check them out, but without a significant amount of enthusiasm. This cementary completely surpassed my expectations, as every single grave was actually a beautifully ornate mausoleum.

And of course, Evita is buried there. Though to be honest, her grave wasn’t anything special compared to the others.

Subte:

Although it later redeemed itself to an extent, my first impression of the Buenos Aires subte (read: metro) was absolutely horrific. Truly it was so bad that we couldn’t do anything but laugh at how ridiculous it was. We waited for about 15 minutes for a train, which when it finally came was so crowded that it put the Santiago metro’s level of crowdedness to shame. (One day I’ll be brave enough to take a picture of the Santiago metro during rush hour, which puts DC’s metro during the Obama inauguration to shame, for comparison’s sake.) So we squeeze our way on and there are babies crying, people coughing, and then.. this is where it gets good, a women 2 feet away from us starts vomiting. Please picture this on a train with no footroom to spare. People are literally walking through her vomit as though it’s no big deal. Anyway, we made it out of there, truly laughing, because we didn’t know what else to do.

Graffitti Tour:

This brings us to Saturday around 2:30. Following this we took a tour of the graffitti of Palermo, a neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It was awesome combination of history, art, personality, and comedy.

This painting made me laugh. To provide some context, this is right next to a playground that some artists graffitied with cute animals/creatures, and became rather famous in BA. So, another artist, jealous of their fame painted monsters eating the creatures right next to the playground. It worked, they did in fact become more well known for that. They even include their name and gmail in the corner of the painting.

The graffitti below takes advantage of a sealed window with bars remaining outside. Clever, clever.

And… Tango Show!

After some delicious Buenos Aires pizza and a better time with the metro, we went to a tango show!! We ended up choosing a super touristy place, figuring, well, we are in fact tourists. It was very fun, though not exactly what we had expected. One of the highlights was the British traveler seated at our table who asked us if we would do us the favor of sharing a bottle of wine with him since all the half bottles are crap… My lovely friend Emma’s response: “I mean we’re college students, anything will be better than what we drink, sure!”

I struggled to get a good picture of the show, I was busy enjoying it.

Pictured below: Emma and third group member Kevin

"The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The..."

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 20:45:00 -0300

“The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes “sight-seeing.””

- Daniel J. Boorstin

All I have to say is traveling is exhausting…I need to take a nap before the tango show we´re going to tonight. SO EXCITED, and great day so far.

I’m at Casa Rosada (Balcarce 50, Hipolito Yrigoyen, Buenos Aires) w/ 2 others...

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 06:52:00 -0300

I’m at Casa Rosada (Balcarce 50, Hipolito Yrigoyen, Buenos Aires) w/ 2 others http://4sq.com/hQwXDM