meomayo: imágenes del mes

Las Fotos!!

hmmm. I guess I meant to upload these in the opposite order, start from the bottom and work your way up! I have some pictures from my birthday thanks to some friends I handed my camera off to (and for some reason everyone thought I wanted pictures of myself, so I´m in most of them)..some are a bit blurry but I like them.



funny picture of me with my friend Cory, she´s in baile y ritmo with me and often comes to cook in my apartment after class. we´re eating the brownie I made, which had a gooey center, with manjar
oh hey Nico, that´s my new roommate from Berkeley..the night he found out there was an available room in the apartment. not sure what he´s doing here


she´s throwing her head back in laughter because I was cleaning some manjar off the table with my finger
song time. sitting with some of my favorite santa cruz kids Scott and Sara. that´s the cake I made, covered in my manjar, almond and walnut creation
oh thats sarah, she made the quiche. I´m busy eating as you can see
a yummy quiche one of my friends made
my two lovely lady Norwegian friends

May 2: birthday fun


there were soo many carabineros (armed policemen/..and women? not sure). I didn´t stay for that long but apparently they always come and end up provoking the demonstrators, then they used their trucks to end the protests with tear gas and water hoses...

this was too cute


May 1: International Workers´ Day

oooooh my favorite, the crashed airplane
you can´t see that well, but these were flowerboxes

April 30: Exhibition titled ¨Encaja tus dias¨ outside of a the Museum of Contemporary Art in a neighborhood called Quinta Normal (Mac) that I went to see with Manu. the sculptures were made out of Chilean cardboard postal boxes! Unfortunately we couldn´t enter the museum because it´s still closed due to earthquake damage..

meomayo: amigos

Now for an explanation of a few of my favorite people I have met so far here in Chile (I hope they don´t mind):

One of the first people I met when I moved into my building was an upper middle-aged man who works at the desk downstairs named Marco, which I later found out means frame in spanish. He´s a pretty average sized Chilean man (whatever that means), wears round metal framed glasses, is missing a few crucial lower teeth (not sure how that works out for him), delights in asking all my gringo friends for their Chilean identity cards and recently shaved off the small amount of hair that served no purpose on his head. I am convinced that Marco is friends with everyone who lives in my large apartment complex, he greets every single person that walks by, regardless of their age, and is usually chatting with someone. He decided from day one that he would take on the responsibility of teaching me Castellano (Spanish) and makes sure that I don´t sneak by his enclosed desk (it´s kind of like those parking lot kiosk desk box structures where you pay as you leave) without at least saying hello.

Additionally, he´s usually the one to give me any mail or packages I receive. Here´s how that goes down: 1) I greet him hello and ask how he´s doing as usual 2)he fails to give his usual response 3)he gives me a sly look and beckons me forth with the careful motion of his index finger 4)he pulls out the letter or package and asks me for my full name, as if he doesn´t know 5) I respond and receive the delivery, walk away excited and distracted by my north american correspondence.

Like most Chileans I´ve encountered, he is always concerned when I walk around the city in my Rainbow sandals. He additionally makes sure I bring a jacket with me, just like a true..grandparent I guess. Marco believes it´s his responsibility to make sure I´m prepared for the weather and that I´m healthy (after I had food poisoning awhile ago). I appreciate his consistent concern for my wellbeing and value the time I spend talking to him.



I can actually say that I have one real Chilean friend (someone who I don´t just talk to in class and isn´t one of my apartmentmates). This is desirable for every wandering exchange student. His name is Manu, which is short for Manuel, and he´s my partner in this language exchange program that he started with a friend a few years ago. They´re a group of English Literature students that partner exchange students with Chileans from the University of Chile English Literature department to facilitate the practice of speaking both English (for the Chileans) and Spanish (for the exchange students), they call it ¨Programa Tandem: intercambio de idiomas.¨ These Chilean students take all of their classes here in English, and are actually taught British English rather than American...which often adds extra entertainment to the conversations. This is helping me to slowly improve my Spanish and actually learn more about British English. Basically, we meet up once a week to hang out and try to speak Spanish for one half of the time and English the other. We typically both get hungry and end up finding a place to eat. One of the most exciting things for me to find out was that he is also vegetarian, more uncommon here than at home, and knows how to cook everything! We have yet to have a dull conversation…and he will probably read this eventually (hola Manu, que estés bien)



I should explain that I found out about this tandem program via another exchange student, originally from northern California, named Katrina. She was hosted by my Chilean family before me, returned to the US after last semester and then decided to come back to study in Chile for another six months. One morning (months ago, while I was living with my host family) I sat down at the kitchen table to eat my typical oatmeal breakfast and noticed an unfamiliar girl around my age rocking the baby (Coco) in her arms. I was confused because she definitely did not look like a Chilean family member but I was also tired and continued eating my oatmeal without questioning her presence. After passing the baby on to someone else, she came to the table and introduced herself. We soon found out that we share a lot more than our name. From extremely similar majors and life interests to family parallels, we sat in awe and decided there is a unique twin like connection between us. Not only did she inform me of the program at this time, but later wisely paired me with my partner.

There is not much for me to complain about here, life is good. Although I do still get homesick at times, when I´m not running around the city, so I appreciate communication from..wherever you may be reading this:)
 



note: Obviously, I´m not all about the consistent blogging. If this bothers any of my dear readers then leave me threatening comments and that may or may not increase my frequency of publishing entries.



besos y abrazos fuertes!

meomayo

Halo, halo, halo. I will acknowledge that my plan for more than one entry in the same week after my last was not realized, but about a month later here´s a bunch of news that made my cut:

I am officially 21 years and some odd days old. I have restarted my vegan (with the exception of the use of manjar-dulce de leche) baking craze, forcing those around me to take care of the remnants of my creations. I have my first set of curtains to replace my non-functional blinds on my window, green like a good three fourths of my room. It often takes me days to remember how to say some words in English, this is sometimes embarrassing but kind of exciting. Santiago finally looks more like the pictures they put on their postcards, a big bustling city surrounded by gorgeous snow covered mountains (when it´s not too smoggy to see them). For the next three months another student from my program (UCEAP) is occupying the fourth room of my apartment; his name is Nick and he likes to dance salsa, maintain spanish speaking with me even when there are no Chileans in the apartment, and eat sweets- obviously that means we get along well. My dslr camera has finally gotten a glimpse into chilean life. I´ve become one of those people who always brings their pencil pouch to class and likes to keep it on their desk at all times (and now I can´t figure out why I always thought they were unnecessary). I finally brought all my plastic bottles to the only recycling bins I´ve seen in my part of the city, and feel much better. On Mondays and Wednesdays I have an internship with an assosiation, more like a union, of indigenous (Mapuche, Aymara, and others as well) women that works to improve the lives of indigenous and rural women throughout Chile!!!


Some elaboration:

Birthday celebration? Yes. I invited some friends (mostly kids from my program and the few Chileans I know) to have a vegetarian potluck at the giant park that is walking distance from my apartment called Parque O´Higgins (in case you want to check it out on google earth or pretend like you know where I live). I asked everyone to make their favorite dish and baked myself a vegan birthday cake and brownies…with homemade manjar and chopped almonds and walnuts (I highly recommend making manjar, you just boil sweetened condensed milk and it´s heavenly). The day was a bit gray but ended perfectly with some live music in my apartment (I had asked friends to bring guitars if they had them). Though, I have to admit to having been a bit flustered in the morning, mainly because baking and cooking in my kitchen is always an adventure due to the fact that 1)we have very little space as you can see in those pictures of my apartment 2)we have very few things to use for any endeavor..utensils, pans, bowls, measuring cups…you name it and it probably doesn´t exist in my kitchen 3) the oven has no marks or numbers to help me gauge the temperature 4) the oven has to be lit by hand (along with the stoves) and on special occasions it likes to breathe fire like a dragon, meaning that lighting it causes a harmless but startling explosion. I will write more about cooking in another entry. Anyway, I was very pleased with my birthday this year, which is never a simple feat.


Internship? Yes, and my excitement about this seriously merits three exclamation marks. The organization is called ANAMURI (Asociación Nacional de Mujeres Rurales e Indigenas) and works for the advancement of indigenous women´s rights in Chile. The reason for my excitement being that the organization is a combination of my passions. Not only are they feminists, but indigenous women fighting for a better present and future for their communities throughout the country. This means their campaigns range from youth outreach educational programs to pushing for better conditions for the women who work in agriculture (which includes the condemnation of the use of pesticides, and promotion of sustainable agricultural practices;)).

The office environment is definitely relaxed which allows for more conversation time. They have a kitchen and typically prepare lunch everyday. The woman I mainly work with, Mafalda, likes to have lunch before I leave so I get fed (it´s so sweet). Different women work in the office on different days because they don´t all live in the city, but whoever is working that day as well as any extra visitors usually sit down with us to eat at this big rectangular table. Oh, the location of the office is another perk. I got lucky because it takes me about 15-20 mintues to walk to the office, which is actually the first two floors of this old house..and one of my american friends lives on the second two floors with other students. Nearby is also a university for music and I typically linger outside their windows on my way home, listening to either piano or a jazz ensemble.

I am impressed with the amount of new things I have gained awareness of by simply talking to the women in the office throughout the day. So far, I made a powerpoint presentation about CEDAW- Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, and was just given a new Project that will eventually be another powerpoint, based on these workbooks I need to read, educating women on their rights. Obviously I am learning about these things as I do them, and I think it´s working out well. Both presentations will be used in a series of educational workshops throughout the year in different parts of the country hosted by ANAMURI.



My weekly schedule has now changed due to my internship, which I decided to work at for 10 hours per week. Unfortunately, in order to make time for this I dropped my amazing yoga class because it produced awkward time spacing that made it difficult for me to get anything done or have an internship. I am happy with this decision because 1) there are plently of other places I can take yoga 2) my MTV yoga dvd made its way to Santiago 3) I love the organization I am working with. That means my work/school weekly life sounds a bit like this:



lunes (Monday)
-intern 10am to 3pm, Latin American art history class (more or less) 4:15 to 5:45



martes (Tuesday)
-Neruda y Mistral poetry class 10am to 11:45, baile y ritmo class 12:00 to 13:30 (1:30pm)



miércoles (Wednesday)
-intern 10am to 3pm, Latin American art history class



jueves (Thursday)
-Neruda y Mistral poetry class 10am to 11:45, baile y ritmo class 12:00 to 13:30



viernes (Friday)
-no school or work!! ...but hopefully guitar lessons very soon, more info when it happens!



To respond to A2: I have recently been wearing all the jackets and warm clothes that I own because the weather quickly turned cold, very cold for a native southern California dweller. I typically wear my boots, tights, socks, a long dress, sweaters, and will be using my pea coat more often. And yes, the weather change is slightly confusing considering the seasons are opposite. Especially because I´ve seen colorful lights hanging and today I saw a crepe christmas tree decoration strewn across above the cash register in a small market. Don´t ask me why, I don´t have the answer to this one.

if you´re curious, or just want to see pretty pictures, this is where I´m workin
http://www.anamuri.cl/