Today in Plaza de Armas there was a street comedian who grabbed us out of the crowd and started joking with us (we were the ONLY gringas there and Katie is taller than anyone here, so we stick out). He tried to teach us his version of the Chilean greeting of kisses, which was a kiss per cheek and then one on the lips. We refused. haha. We figured we helped disfuse the stereotype of easy American women... We were the subjects of his act for at least ten minutes. It´s strange to stick out so clearly.
Santiago is a beautiful, charming city. I am falling for it.
Monday, January 29, 2007
F#!%
Yesterday I tried to say ¨to choose¨which is ESCOGER but I said COGER. Coger means to ¨f···¨
Oops.
Yali got an ¨ataque de la risa¨and quickly corrected me...
Oops.
Yali got an ¨ataque de la risa¨and quickly corrected me...
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Viña, lost luggage, and THE DOLL.
This morning Katie, Mariclaire and I went to La Víña, a church much like the one I go to in Evanston but here in Santiago. The pastor is the father of a friend, and it was so fun to be in a place I´ve heard of so much. I understood everything and was able to worship God in another language, which was wonderful!
What I didn´t tell you yesterday was that Katie´s luggage was taken as we left the airport, but after many phone calls, it was found! This morning, Yali answered the phone and started yelling in Spanish, ¨Katie!! La encontro su maleta!!¨ There are many wealthy Americans who come to Chile for cruises and vacations with a vacation company, and the company grabbed Katie´s suitcase thinking it was part of the cruise... But it was found. Yay.
Yesterday we walked through the city for 4-5 hours... we were going to Santa Lucia, but on our way, we walked into a ¨mar humano¨ (sea of people) who were waiting to see ¨la muneca¨ (the doll) which is a three-story wooden puppet from France. It has only visited France, London, Belgium and the last stop is Santiago... The sight is incredible!! It takes seven people to control it and dances, walks, winks, changes clothes, showers and pulls a live band behind it! We waited in a crowd of thousands of people in the streets to see it ¨wake up.¨ I held a random little boy on my shoulders so he could get a glimpse of her. I think my whiteness and broken Spanish terrified him.
Things that please me much about Santiago: There are no screens on the windows and the temperature is perfect! Kisses on the cheek when meeting people. If I look toward any edge of the city, I see mountains -- they´re brown and dry-looking but still beautiful. All the streets are lined with trees; Chicago should take note. There are chocopandos (mullets) everywhere on men AND women. Everyone is outside here - in parks, walking the streets... The metro is super clean! I like manjar - not as much as peanut butter (pipe) but it´s good! It´s like dulce de leche and we had it on crackers for breakfast. Onces. I love onces. I want onces every night. Onces is dinner here, but it´s not dinner - it´s onces. Lunch is the big meal, and then around eight, we sit down for onces = bread with tons of different toppings. Last night it was chicken, cheese, ham, fresh guacamole, pollo picante spread, vegetables, marmalade, salsa picante... mmm... and then sweet bread for dessert!
Part of me didn´t believe that men would like us just because we´re gringas. It´s true. Yesterday we were walking through the park and four men were playing soccer. Katie and I joked about how we could beat them as we walked past. Suddenly, we heard applause and ¨bravo!¨ We figured one team had scored but turned around to find that they had stopped their game to stand and cheer for us. We laughed incredulously and continued on our way. Soccer is everywhere -- also in the park was this stud three year old who was attempting a rainbow.
Last night we were too exhausted to go dancing, but tonight Yali is throwing our first ¨carrete¨. In a few hours, a handful of her friends are coming to meet us. We´ll have food and dancing and music and much conversation... Yali calls herself ¨el leon del circo¨ (the lion of the circus) because everyone comes to see her. She´s out-of-control sweet and fun. At lunch, she asked if she was ridiculous. Yes. She said, ¨Bueno!¨
Words of the day: anhelar. to yearn for. choclo. corn.
What I didn´t tell you yesterday was that Katie´s luggage was taken as we left the airport, but after many phone calls, it was found! This morning, Yali answered the phone and started yelling in Spanish, ¨Katie!! La encontro su maleta!!¨ There are many wealthy Americans who come to Chile for cruises and vacations with a vacation company, and the company grabbed Katie´s suitcase thinking it was part of the cruise... But it was found. Yay.
Yesterday we walked through the city for 4-5 hours... we were going to Santa Lucia, but on our way, we walked into a ¨mar humano¨ (sea of people) who were waiting to see ¨la muneca¨ (the doll) which is a three-story wooden puppet from France. It has only visited France, London, Belgium and the last stop is Santiago... The sight is incredible!! It takes seven people to control it and dances, walks, winks, changes clothes, showers and pulls a live band behind it! We waited in a crowd of thousands of people in the streets to see it ¨wake up.¨ I held a random little boy on my shoulders so he could get a glimpse of her. I think my whiteness and broken Spanish terrified him.
Things that please me much about Santiago: There are no screens on the windows and the temperature is perfect! Kisses on the cheek when meeting people. If I look toward any edge of the city, I see mountains -- they´re brown and dry-looking but still beautiful. All the streets are lined with trees; Chicago should take note. There are chocopandos (mullets) everywhere on men AND women. Everyone is outside here - in parks, walking the streets... The metro is super clean! I like manjar - not as much as peanut butter (pipe) but it´s good! It´s like dulce de leche and we had it on crackers for breakfast. Onces. I love onces. I want onces every night. Onces is dinner here, but it´s not dinner - it´s onces. Lunch is the big meal, and then around eight, we sit down for onces = bread with tons of different toppings. Last night it was chicken, cheese, ham, fresh guacamole, pollo picante spread, vegetables, marmalade, salsa picante... mmm... and then sweet bread for dessert!
Part of me didn´t believe that men would like us just because we´re gringas. It´s true. Yesterday we were walking through the park and four men were playing soccer. Katie and I joked about how we could beat them as we walked past. Suddenly, we heard applause and ¨bravo!¨ We figured one team had scored but turned around to find that they had stopped their game to stand and cheer for us. We laughed incredulously and continued on our way. Soccer is everywhere -- also in the park was this stud three year old who was attempting a rainbow.
Last night we were too exhausted to go dancing, but tonight Yali is throwing our first ¨carrete¨. In a few hours, a handful of her friends are coming to meet us. We´ll have food and dancing and music and much conversation... Yali calls herself ¨el leon del circo¨ (the lion of the circus) because everyone comes to see her. She´s out-of-control sweet and fun. At lunch, she asked if she was ridiculous. Yes. She said, ¨Bueno!¨
Words of the day: anhelar. to yearn for. choclo. corn.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Planes, go-go boots, and Yali.
¡Estamos en Santiago! Katie and I got into the airport this morning at 930am (630am CST). It´s absolutely beautiful outside ' its the type of day where you want to nap by an open window and let the breeze sing lullabies to you... we´re going to go and walk around soon and perhaps go dancing tonight... !
Highlights from the flights:
From Chicago to Atlanta, both flight attendents wore go-go boots and had funny names like ¨Jo W.¨ I wanted to introduce myself as Meg B. Also, 17 of George Bush´s ¨additional 20'000 troops¨were on the plane. The sun was a fiery red as it set. And, true to my nature, I looked like I had everything together, but didn´t realize I had an assigned seat, so when the true holder of my chosen seat came on board, everyone knew I didn´t really have anything together and had to walk to the back of the plane... haha.
I met Katie in Atlanta. We flew out at 10.00pm. At 1130, they served us dinner, and with white wine, we toasted the idealism of Che and enjoyed our five minutes of communism as we flew over Cuba. We also made a toast to ¨freedom and adventure¨but we made it quietly so we wouldn´t look too silly. We giggled and got really excited about everything, and the man next to us kept looking at us with a smile -- he knew we were new to Chile. We woke early to watch the sunrise and oo´d and ah´d as we flew over the coast and Andes mountains into Santiago.
Mariclaire´s (student from Loyola we met in Santiago) host mom Yali is incredible. She sent her friend Arturo with Mariclaire to the airport to meet us. We received our first Chilean greeting (aka kiss on the cheek) from him, and he drove us to meet Yali. She made us an excellent lunch, taught us our first Chilean words (she said the first word we MUST know is ¨carrete¨, which means party, because ¨chile is full of parties¨) and gives us a lot of hugs. Katie and I have already started praying that our host families in Buenos Aires are as fun as Yali, but I don´t know if it´s possible.
More to come...
Highlights from the flights:
From Chicago to Atlanta, both flight attendents wore go-go boots and had funny names like ¨Jo W.¨ I wanted to introduce myself as Meg B. Also, 17 of George Bush´s ¨additional 20'000 troops¨were on the plane. The sun was a fiery red as it set. And, true to my nature, I looked like I had everything together, but didn´t realize I had an assigned seat, so when the true holder of my chosen seat came on board, everyone knew I didn´t really have anything together and had to walk to the back of the plane... haha.
I met Katie in Atlanta. We flew out at 10.00pm. At 1130, they served us dinner, and with white wine, we toasted the idealism of Che and enjoyed our five minutes of communism as we flew over Cuba. We also made a toast to ¨freedom and adventure¨but we made it quietly so we wouldn´t look too silly. We giggled and got really excited about everything, and the man next to us kept looking at us with a smile -- he knew we were new to Chile. We woke early to watch the sunrise and oo´d and ah´d as we flew over the coast and Andes mountains into Santiago.
Mariclaire´s (student from Loyola we met in Santiago) host mom Yali is incredible. She sent her friend Arturo with Mariclaire to the airport to meet us. We received our first Chilean greeting (aka kiss on the cheek) from him, and he drove us to meet Yali. She made us an excellent lunch, taught us our first Chilean words (she said the first word we MUST know is ¨carrete¨, which means party, because ¨chile is full of parties¨) and gives us a lot of hugs. Katie and I have already started praying that our host families in Buenos Aires are as fun as Yali, but I don´t know if it´s possible.
More to come...
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
An Introduction
For me, many conflicts in life birth in the space, the tension between passion and reason... and I love Gibran... and viola.
What to expect here:
In the next sixth months, many posts will be updates on my explorations of South America, and life in Buenos Aires; however, I'm more excited to express and process my worldview that will be shattered as soon as I arrive. Sometimes, I'll post in Spanish as best I can -- a veces, in Spanglish -- but I'll give translations too for those of you who hate that...
Mostly, I am excited to prompt thoughtfulness, share stories, spark discourse, and [hopefully] to inspire living to the fullest...
What to expect here:
In the next sixth months, many posts will be updates on my explorations of South America, and life in Buenos Aires; however, I'm more excited to express and process my worldview that will be shattered as soon as I arrive. Sometimes, I'll post in Spanish as best I can -- a veces, in Spanglish -- but I'll give translations too for those of you who hate that...
Mostly, I am excited to prompt thoughtfulness, share stories, spark discourse, and [hopefully] to inspire living to the fullest...
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