Study abroad term? Done. Internship? Done. Next stop: Easter Island!

It’s been a busy last few weeks finishing up my internship at Acción Emprendedora and exploring the last remaining unexplored parts of Valparaíso and Santiago. I’m pretty sure that by now I know Valparaíso better than most of its residents, and the brightly-colored, graffiti-painted, hilly neighborhoods of Valpo have become quite commonplace. I’ve begun memorizing the Santiago metro and know all of its touristy areas, historic buildings and artisan markets front and back. As far as language goes, it’s no longer much of a challenge for me to get around, ask questions and converse with people. All of the things that gave me trouble back in March when I arrived here have become routine, and I feel very little like a tourist and very much like a resident of Chile. I guess that’s what nearly 5 months in a country does to you. With that being said, I plan to spend the next week being as much of a tourist as I can as I venture off to Easter Island with Joanna for the next 5 days, and then come back to spend my last 2 days in Chile before flying back home.

When I haven’t been working the past few weeks, I’ve been trying my hardest to leave no more parts of Santiago and Valpo unexplored. I spent a day a few weeks ago simply walking all over Santiago and going every place I ever had any desire to go to—the Brazilian neighborhood, two of Santiago’s biggest parks, a few of the universities, Cerro Santa Lucia, and some more artisan markets. I was actually in pain at the end of that day after spending at least 7 hours walking around the city in poor shoes, and couldn’t wait for the 120 km ride back to Valpo. In Valpo I explored the Naval Museum, the area near the port, all parts of downtown, dozens of markets, and miles and miles of hilly streets. I think I’m very much to the point where I’m ready to see some new sights, but I’m glad I really got the chance to get to know 2 cities extremely well. I think it’s a lot more rewarding getting to know a few places well than many places at a superficial level, so I’m so glad I’ve had the opportunity of learning nearly everything you can learn about a city in 4 and a half months. But I think I’m finally to the point where I’m bored here, which is a good thing. I’ve gotten to know the cities, I’ve gotten to know the language, I’ve caught up on all of my sleep debt and gotten rid of all of my stress. But now, happy that I’ve had my time in Chile to relax and explore, I’m ready to get back to being busy all of the time.

My project at AE turned out very well, I think. We were really happy with the amount of entrepreneurs we were able to talk to and gathered a lot of great information from them. We’ve supplied the AE staff with about a 30 page write-up of our study (in Spanish, of course), and we really think our project could make a big impact on AE’s future. I won’t bore you too much with the details of our study, but we successfully interviewed about 40 micro-entrepreneurs across 3 of Valparaíso’s cerros, and studied the micro-economic potential of each in order to understand better the ways in which AE could get involved. In our write up we came up with not only ways in which AE could change, improve, and target their courses to the kinds of entrepreneurs we found, but gave them policy ideas on how to distribute micro-finance loans (for once that part of AE is built up) and new ways AE could get involved in Valparaíso in order to maximize our impact. It turned out to be a really amazing project. I mean, how many people can say that their summer internship meant walking through a beautiful south American city and talking to entrepreneurs? We presented our findings to our team at the AE Valpo office, the AE central office, and the rest of the gringo interns, and they were really well received. Everyone seemed impressed with what we were able to accomplish through our project, and jealous that we got to spend our summer in such a unique, active and fulfilling way. I really will miss the people I’ve met at AE—the 9 other people who work at the Valpo office (3 Chilean full-time staff members, 4 Chilean interns and 2 gringo interns) made it a great place to work, and I truly enjoyed the time I spent with them working on projects, eating lunch, and hanging out with.

There are so many things that I’m going to miss about Chile, yet so many things I’m happy to leave, so I think I’ll give you guys a bit more information on Chilean culture by continuing on my last blog post of things I will and won’t miss when I leave.

Will miss: empanadas. It’s hard to believe that I’m not tired of them yet, seeing as I probably average at least one per day. But I find them so delicious and cheap that it’s hard to resist them, and I’m going to have to find a restaurant back in California that can make them for me, or better yet, learn to make them myself. To think of the amount of cheese empanadas I’ve eaten in the last few months? At least 100. And the number of veggie empanadas that I’ve eaten in the last 2 weeks at my new favorite empanadium? At least 10. I mean, I’m sure my body will be happy to escape the huge amounts of fried dough and cheese, but I don’t know when I’ll be able to find such a cheap lunch ever again.

Won’t miss: Chilean bus drivers. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a fan of the Chilean public transit system in general. I’ve never waited more than a few minutes to catch a bus here in Valpo, no matter what time of day nor what part of the city I’m headed to. But I surely won’t miss Chilean bus drivers. They are paid on commission, so they’ll do anything to get an extra person on the bus. Which means that they’ll stop anywhere to pick someone up—bus stop or not—leading to a drive that turns into lurching and stopping every few meters for them to pick someone up or at least try to. And since they’re paid on commission, they’re not afraid to wait at a crowded intersection for a while until the bus is absolutely filled. Joanna and I waited at least 10 minutes last night sitting in a bus at an intersection while the bus driver tried to persuade people to enter the bus, and that’s not the first time such an event has happened. Oh yeah, and since they’re paid on commission, the faster they go the more people they can pick up during their shift, meaning they drive incredibly fast. And by incredibly fast I mean at least 1.5 times the speed limit. On busy streets. Stopping every so often very quickly to pick up passengers. Doesn’t turn in to the most enjoyable/relaxing bus ride.

Tomorrow morning Joanna and I are off to Easter Island, home to ancient maoi statues, tropical beaches, volcanoes and an incredibly interesting mysterious culture. Everything I’ve heard about it makes it seem like one of the absolute coolest places to go in the world, so I’m beyond excited. Although it’s technically a part of Chile (and actually technically part of the city of Valparaíso) it’s the most isolated place on earth—it is the inhabited place that is farthest away from any other inhabited place in the world! It’s a 5 hour flight from Santiago (one of the 2 airports that have flights there), and it should be an incredible 5 days out there. We’re really excited for the adventure that awaits us!

It’s hard to believe that in just over a week I’ll be boarding a flight back to the United States, and in less than 3 weeks I’ll be back at Stanford! But I’m ready to go home, ready to get back and see my family and friends, and to enjoy some time in summer weather, shorts, and t-shirts. Well, I’ll be ready to go home after Easter Island. But for the next 5 days I’ll be spending my days hanging out with megaliths, climbing up volcanoes, and exploring the mysteries of the most isolated place on Earth!

Beach towns, A Chilean Fourth of July, and making friends with stray dogs

Turns out that I’m very lazy when I don’t have much to do. Not to say that I’m not loving having some relaxing days—taking walks, going to the beach to read, running every other day, and watching a bunch of Friends episodes in Spanish. And catching up on all the hundreds of hours of my Stanford sleep debt is great too! But when I’m not busy, it’s very hard for me to not be lazy—hence, me not updating my blog in 3 weeks. Well, it’s been long enough and here I am.

The last 3 weeks have been, as I said, incredibly relaxing. I spend my days at work, my nights running, eating, watching TV, reading, and going to bed early. If I get out of work early I’ll head to the beach and read for a few hours as the waves crash against the rocks beside me. And the weekends are much the same—lots of walking around the surrounding neighborhoods, more reading at the beach, exploring the trails at nearby Quinta Vergara or Parque Sausalito. But it’s been extremely enjoyable and it’s so nice to, for once, have a moment to relax, think, and sleep.

My host mom's birthday

A few weekends ago I took the bus up north to the towns of Zapallar and Cachagua. My host mom told me there was a penguin island/reserve up in Cachagua, and a few of the housemates told me that Zapallar was a beautiful area, so I decide to take a day trip to visit those two towns. You can take one of the local buses about 3 hours north to Zapallar, a very ‘cuico’ (rich and snobby) town on the water’s edge, with a beautiful beach to relax on. I spent a few hours there just hanging out, looking for some inexpensive food (but it turns out the only inexpensive stuff there is a cheese empanada), and exploring the rocks that went out in the ocean. It was definitely an extremely beautiful beach, and you could look behind you and see hillsides lined with mansions of Chile’s elite. But other than the gazing at the beautiful sight and climbing some rocks for a few hours, I hopped on another bus that brought me about 5 miles south to the tiny town of Cachagua.

Zapallar Beach

So after getting dropped off the bus somewhere in town and spending about half an hour trying to find my way to the beach I found the reserve (I mean, it wasn’t really hard to find the reserve once I found the entrance to the beach…the town is so small that there’s only one beach), but I was a bit disappointed in the lack of penguin-watching that could be done. On clear days there are boats you can take around the island to get closer to the penguins, but it was a windy day so there were no boats in the water. But I did manage to see one! Although it was a bit far away from me, but I definitely saw a penguin, which I am very proud to say. And I have the pictures to prove it. But it was a beautiful beach and day nonetheless, and I really enjoyed the beaches of those two towns.

The next weekend was Fourth of July—my second Fourth of July in a row that I’m spending abroad. I mean…I’m not complaining one bit about “having” to be abroad two summers in a row…but I do miss the fireworks and patriotism a bit…But a few of us gringos from Acción went out to dinner (at a restaurant called Africa, actually), and then headed off to the birthday party of my boss, Diego at his house in Valparaíso, which was a lot of fun (including Michael Jackson playing on a projector screen for a lot of the night…). So…last year I spent my 4^th at an American Diner in Chennai, India with a bunch of French people. This year it was at a restaurant called Africa, in Chile…I wonder where I’ll be for it next year…

Work has been going extremely well, too. I’m really enjoying my internship here, and have gotten to see a lot of the city of Valparaíso while working as well. Our main project for the summer is to do an in-depth study of 3 cerros (hill communities) of Valparaíso to understand the micro-economies of each in order to understand the ways in which Acción can develop associations and programs to improve the lives of the micro-entrepreneurs who work and live in those cerros. Our 3 cerros are split into one with potential, one with medium potential, and one with very little obvious potential and very little economic activity. So, after spending a week or so doing a lot of background research on the history/facts of Valparaíso, and learning more about the situation of micro-entrepreneurs here, we set out to decide which cerros were best for studying—aka spending a few days walking around cerros that interested us and talking to entrepreneurs to get a better feel for the community, and to see if it would be worth studying. And once we chose our 3 cerros, we spent the last week exploring those more in-depth—going pretty much door to door speaking with the store-owners in the area, and asking them about their businesses, community, struggles, associations with other businesses, and assistance they get. It’s surprising just how much assistance Chile has for micro-entrepreneurs—many of the people we talked to had been helped financially with micro-grants and loans, training, or even just micro-entrepreneur social groups put together by the government. Chile is truly a country supported by its micro-entrepreneurs (there are vendors and tiny stores popping up everywhere, very different from the US system where everything is very formal and most of the businesses seem to be large companies). But here, grocery shopping is done at a variety of stores instead of one supermarket—one goes to the corner bread-bakery, the vegetable market, the mini-market down the street. There are an incredible amount of small-business owners and entrepreneurs here as well as a great deal of government and non-governmental assistance to help them along the way. For the next 2.5 we’re going to keep doing a great deal of work around the city, and to really spend the entire day talking with entrepreneurs in our 3 cerros. Hopefully, by the end of the process, we’ll have some great ideas for programs Acción will be able to implement in Valparaíso, as well as a deep knowledge of the city—both in its touristy parts but also the more residential, true communities. A few more Chilean interns have arrived at Acción as well, and they’ve been really nice so far. It’s been really great talking with them so far, and I’m really glad I’m having the chance to meet so many Chileans while I’m down here.

I can’t believe I’ve been in Chile for almost 4 months now. I wouldn’t say it’s starting to feel like home to me, but it has stopped feeling foreign. Although I’m not sure I would characterize myself as fluent, talking to people has stopped being such a challenge. And I’ve gotten used to the ins and outs of the food, the culture, the bus system, the street signs, the stores, and it’s starting to become more second nature to me. I’ve started jotting down a list of things I’m going to miss, as well as things I’m not going to miss when I leave here (in less than a month!), so here are few things I’ve thought of so far.

I’m definitely going to miss the street performers. Especially in rush-hour Santiago traffic, at almost every intersection there would be some kind of performer—incredible jugglers, dancers in front of the cars, musicians, singers and rappers in the buses. Some are doing it for their job. Some are doing it for charity. Some are doing it just for fun or to make a few extra pesos with their friends. Everywhere you go you’ll find these performers—at the intersection by my house last week there were teenage girls going a dance routine together. In the plaza where I eat lunch by work there have been one-man bands. It brightens my day every time a musician walks into one of my buses. And I was so amazed with the juggling skills I would see in the Santiago intersections every day! It’s something that I’ve really loved about Chile, and I’m really going to miss how mundane the streets in the US are going to be.

I’m also going to miss all of the stray dogs. I mean, it’s obviously not fun seeing a lot of sick, dirty and hungry dogs everywhere. But a lot of them look strangely well-fed, clean and healthy. And they, like dogs do, provide a good sense of companionship even when you’re just walking around. For the past few days, when I’ve gone to the beach to read, the same dog has come up to me and laid down about 5 feet away to nap. I guess he lives at or near the beach, because he came up to me 2 days in a row, but I’m hoping when I go back soon he’ll be there again! It’s nice seeing the same faces around, and I’m beginning to recognize some of the other neighbor dogs as well. On a run I took a few days ago, a dog followed me for over two miles, seeming so happy to be able to go out and run with someone. He followed me up steep hills, sometimes getting so close to me that I’d accidentally kick him when he came up behind my feet. But he kept right with me and followed me as I explored the trails in Quinta Vergara—even crossing a creek with me and climbing over logs. I stopped and petted him for a few minutes as I did my stretches about a mile into the run, and he seemed to love it, and kept following me even more closely after that—that is, until we passed a few other dogs on the way, when he decided to play with them instead of me…I can’t say I wasn’t a bit sad when we separated.

Well, I think that’s pretty much my life right now. Some mundane experiences like being followed by a dog on a run, watching street performers, and getting full nights of sleep. I don’t remember the last time I’ve been this relaxed, and I don’t know if I’ve ever had this much time on my hands to read for pleasure, take walks, and hang out at the beach. It’s been very enjoyable so far! But I can’t wait until I can go back to an overly-busy schedule back at school. In less than a month I’ll be back in the US (29 days…not that I’m counting). But until then, there are 3 more weeks of work, many entrepreneurs to talk to, a few day trips to Santiago, and a trip to Easter Island with Joanna! There’s quite a lot of work to do still for our project, so I’m sure the next 3 weeks will not be quite as relaxing as the last 5 have been, but I’m sure they’ll be just as enjoyable. Chau, amigos!

A tranquil and relaxing start to winter in Valparaíso and Viña del Mar

Once again, it’s been a while since I last updated this blog, so I have a lot to talk about. I’ll try to make it as to-the-point as I can, but, well, you know how things go, so I apologize in advance for what will surely be a long post. I’m currently sitting in my room in Viña del Mar, the city I’ve been in for the past two weeks. I have somewhat of a view of downtown Viña del Mar, and I’ve moved my room around so that I can see that view from my bed, so I’m currently half writing this blog and half looking out at the Viña lights, high rise apartments, and billboards mostly filled with political campaign advertisements (the Chilean elections are coming up later this year). I have a single room in a ‘residencia’, which is basically a long term hostel geared toward university students, so there are 5 Chilean and 2 Colombian university students living here as well, along with the owner of the house, Juanita. There’s no heating here, and the winter nights and mornings get incredibly chilly in the house, and the “hot” water doesn’t really go above mildly warm, and the internet signal goes in and out. But other than those small details it’s been a great place to live so far, and I’m getting a lot of Spanish practice with Juanita and the other students here. She’s been an awesome host mom so far, an incredibly nice lady, and she’s always around and interested in what we’re up to, how we’re doing. Running this residencia is her full-time job, and she puts a lot of effort into getting to know all the residents and making them all feel at home. And she’s been really good with making me feel comfortable in the house as well—putting out extra food for me at mealtimes (Chileans really don’t eat enough for me) and giving me snacks to take to work for the day. Even though the 8 of us students filter in and out throughout the day and eat at different times, she makes time to sit down with all of us each day. I’ve watched “Friends” with her, she’s given me great travel tips, and is just a great mother to the house and is really making it an enjoyable place to live for me.

I’ve even had the chance to talk a lot about micro-entrepreneurship and micro-business in Chile with her, which is what my summer here is focusing on. For the past year or so she’s been participating in a micro-entrepreneur class similar to those we put on at Acción Emprendedora, and has gotten a lot of support in building her residencia business—grants so that she could buy a computer and improved hot water for the house, help with building a web site, advertising help, and other training that goes along with her business. Since that’s basically what we do at Acción, it’s been really interesting talking to her about her experiences thus far with her micro-business training, and it’s been great to hear all of the good things that have come to her from the training classes—it has given me true testament to the helpfulness of organizations like Acción.

So on to my work at Acción Emprendedora. The purpose of Acción is to help Chile’s micro-entrepreneurs with extra support. The micro-business sector is huge in Chile, and comprises well over three-quarters of the work force. We provide them support and training through classes on marketing, production, legalities, accounting, computer skills (word, excel, e-mail, internet) and have a large group of Chilean college students who act as “tutors” for our entrepreneurs and work one-on-one with them to help them develop their business. It’s basically free for them (a bit less than $10) for a 3 month course. We aim not for the poorest of the poor, but for the second-lowest quintile, those who we believe not only have the capacity and means to help themselves and their business, but also the ability to hire more and more employees with a successful business, thus helping not only themselves but those below them in society. Because of that, we measure our success with the percentage of our students who, after our class, build up their businesses to a point where they are able to hire more employees, and I believe that percentage right now is around 40%--relatively high, but with lots of room for improvement. One thing I really like about Acción and similar organizations is that we don’t give out “handouts” of money here, but rather education and opportunity so that our entrepreneurs can provide for themselves a sustainable future. We’re not any sort of “welfare” program, but rather believe in giving opportunity and education.

I’ve been working full-time for 2 weeks so far, and it’s been great. The three other people in the Valparaíso office—Diego, Jessica, and Macarena—are great to work with, and I’ve enjoyed my first 2 weeks. They treated me to a great lunch my first day of work, have taken me on a few mini-tours of the parts of Valparaíso close to the office, and are always offering me cookies, chocolate and other pastries—many of which are made by our micro-entrepreneurs! Although they, like most other Chileans speak incredibly fast and use SO MUCH Chilean slang (Diego, for instance, uses “cachai?”, a Chilean phrase for “you understand” almost every other word when he’s explaining something. Seriously), it’s a great office to work in. I started off just doing background research to build up my knowledge of the micro and small business sector in Chile—their role in the economy, the help they get from the government, what is being done by organizations like Acción, the problems they face, the people who make them up, etc. After I finished up my background research I started on one of my projects for the summer—building them a website forum so that their students and professors could more easily communicate with each other, and so that those of us who work at Acción could follow their questions and better tailor our classes and training around what we see as the main concerns. So I spent a few days putting together a website forum for them (in Spanish), organized by our different courses and professors. And since many of our students have very limited knowledge of how to use a computer, let alone a website forum, I spent the next few days writing 2 manuals (in Spanish)—one for our students and one for the administrators, on how to use the forum and do all the basic tasks they’ll need to know. I also attended one of our classes this past week because I think one of the most fulfilling things I can do this summer is to meet the entrepreneurs that we’re helping, and I was pleased to see my manual being handed out to them! It was a great feeling seeing my work actually making some kind of difference in the organization, especially after only a week or so. For the rest of my 6 weeks here I’ll mostly be focusing on a bigger project that is basically research into the Valparaíso market. The city of Valparaíso is split up into many different ‘cerros’, or hills, each with its own culture, church, center of commerce, and niches that need filling. Some, like Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepción, are geared to tourism, and their industry is built around that. Some tailor themselves to the port, some to the local universities, etc. Although I’m still not 100% clear on the project (mostly a result of them explaining it to me in very fast Spanish), the other 2 interns and I will be working to study a number of these cerros, the micro-economy of each, and to develop ways that our micro-entrepreneurs can capitalize on the specific niches and develop successful businesses there. It looks like an incredibly interesting project, and it will be especially great because I won’t be spending all day in front of a computer screen, but rather going out into Valparaíso and studying the cerros firsthand—by going to them, talking to the people in them, meeting with store-owners and maybe some government officials. It should turn out to be a rewarding and interesting project!

The change of pace and scenery has been great. I’m really enjoying living somewhere new, and Valparaíso and Viña del Mar are wonderful cities to live and work in. The metro I take to and from work is an above-ground one, and takes me right along the ocean for a beautiful view every day. And it’s been great escaping the Santiago smog—I’ve been able to run a lot here, something I couldn’t do in Santiago because the smog was just too unhealthy for you. But finally being able to run again is something I love, and I’ve had some enjoyable runs in the past two weeks (plus, after a run the shower in my house doesn’t feel quite as cold). There’s a beautiful park just down the street from my house called Quinta Vergara that extends for miles and miles with eucalyptus groves, dirt trails, and amazing views of the city and ocean. It, more than anything, makes me feel like I’m right back in Santa Barbara, and I plan on running there as much as I can and to try and explore as many of those trails as I can in my remaining time here.

It’s weird to think that exactly a year ago I was in India, just getting over culture shock and my initial fears of the country. It’s also very weird to think about how different the two countries and cultures are—India’s colorful and vibrant culture versus the still hard-to-define and at times a bit dull Chilean culture—not to mention the fact that I’ve gone from the absolute hottest summer of my life in India to the coldest winter of my life here. I can’t believe I’m not even 20 years old and I’ve already had these 2 amazing experiences!

Well, that’s where I’ll leave off for today. I’ve now been in Chile for 3 months (to the day, actually), and have about 7 weeks left. I feel like I have so much left to see and do, so much more Spanish to learn, so much more work for my internship, and many more experiences to be had. Hopefully I’ll have many more good stories to tell you by the time I next write this blog!

Vamos, Vamos chilenos, esta noche tenemos que ganar!

Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve updated. The good news is that I’m done with my finals! So long, sophomore year. It’s been great, but now I have to enter the years of upperclassmen-ness, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. These past two years have flown by too quickly, and I don’t want to think about that fact that I will, unless I go to grad school immediately, have to enter the real world two years from now. And the fact that I’ll come back to Stanford in the fall and be an upperclassmen, be the person looked up to and asked for help, is just a weird thought. But, since the past two weeks have been riddled by finals (a presentation on Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, a presentation on the Nueva Canción Chilena, a 15-minute Spanish skit, an in-class final, a take home final, and a 15 page research paper (written in Spanish) about the history and inequality of the Chilean education system), I haven’t updated my blog at all, so I 1) apologize for keeping everyone out of the loop on my life and 2) have a lot to talk about.

My quarter abroad is officially over. The rest of the Stanford students have left to their respective summer destinations, I’ve moved out of my host family’s apartment, and I’m now laying in my new bed in my house in Viña del Mar, very close to where I’ll be working this summer in Valparaíso. I’m living this summer in a residencia, which is basically a hostel where people stay in for long periods of time. It’s owned and run by a very nice lady, who lives here with her 2 kids about my age. And there are 7 college students who are living here with me—5 Chileans and 2 Colombians. I’ve met most of the housemates and they all seem really cool, and I think I’m really going to love living here. It’s going to be a very social environment, everyone eats meals together, there’s a living room to watch TV, so I’m really happy about that. I’m going to get to speak a lot of Spanish these next few months, which I’m also really happy about. With the Stanford students here, it was really easy to revert to speaking English because it’s so much more comfortable. But this summer, I’ll be speaking Spanish all day at my internship and all night at my house, where I’m going to push myself to be extra social so that I’m always talking. I want to completely and utterly immerse myself in the language this summer. My Spanish has improved since I’ve arrived in Chile, but not nearly enough to a point that I’m happy with. I mean, I can converse, I can understand mostly everything (when people speak clearly) and I can, most of the time, get my point across. I’ve even dreamt in Spanish a few times. But I really want to leave here comfortable and fluent, and I know this summer is going to do wonders for that.

It’s crazy to think how much I’ve done in the last 11 weeks in Chile. I’ve swam in the ocean, hiked in the Andes, river rafted through the Andes, climbed a volcano in the south, surfed the sand dunes in the north, watched a tango show in Buenos Aires, took a 17 hour bus ride through the south, explored the ins and outs of Santiago, spent relaxing weekends with my host family…the list goes on. I truly have not spent an entire weekend in Santiago yet. Not even my first weekend—there’s always been at least one day that I’ve spent in a different city. It’s a bit sad, and a bit relieving, to know that this summer will be completely the opposite. I’m almost completely out of money, so I will be living a very relaxing and quiet life. But I’m completely excited for that—not traveling every weekend will give me the chance to spend more time at the house speaking Spanish, to read books that I’ve been meaning to read for a while, and to just plain relax before the craziness of next year begins. And living a more regular lifestyle will help me live more like a true Chilean, as opposed to a gringo tourist, so that will be good as well.

I left off a few weeks ago about to leave for Chiloe, an island in the south of Chile, so I’ll start off this time recounting my Chilote adventures. Chiloe is South America’s second largest island (after Tierra del Fuego), and lies about halfway between Santiago and the southern tip of Chile on the northern end of the Patagonia region. We took an early morning plane to Puerto Montt, the closest big city on the mainland, and then a 4 hour bus and ferry, to Castro, the biggest city on the island. The relative seclusion of Chiloe has enabled it to stick to more traditional roots—I felt a bit like I had walked back a few dozen years in time. Chilote people still believe, somewhat heavily, in mythology, and the myths of the island somewhat dominate a lot of their culture. And the climate there—constantly raining or cloudy, gives it a bit of a mysterious and mystical feel. Thanks to the rain, the land is completely green, and there are hills, farms and beaches everywhere. The island is split up into quite a few small, spread out fishing villages and wooden rowboats dominate the coastline. It’s a somewhat different culture and lifestyle than mainland Chile—as I said, it’s about 50 years back in time, the houses are extremely colorful, there are beautiful wooden churches spread throughout the island, and a very coastal feel. The cuisine is dominated by seafood (seafood empanadas, seafood soup, etc.) Many of the houses on the waterfront are put up on stilts that make them a very beautiful (and picturesque) sight to see. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. We spent the first day walking around Castro, admiring the stilted houses and the colorful wooden boats, and getting to know the city. The next day we set out to some local artisans markets, explored some of the beaches, had breakfast at a local market and took a ferry to some of the smaller islands that make up Chiloe. The rest of the group left that night to go to the national park on the western side of the island, but I headed back early to Santiago to get ready for finals and to give a presentation in one of my classes. It’s a long story, but I ended up taking a 17 hour bus ride back to Santiago instead of flying, so that was fun. I mean, how many people can say they’ve taken a 17 hour bus ride through southern Chile? Alone? But it really wasn’t that exciting. Thankfully, my bus didn’t break down (it would have been the 3^rd time), and I slept most of the way there.

For the past 2 weeks since then I’ve mostly been working, working, working. Don’t get me wrong—it hasn’t been nearly as stressful or work-heavy as a normal school quarter, but it’s been a lot of work nonetheless. Other than spending last Saturday in Valparaíso and Viña del Mar searching out a place to live for the summer, I’ve just stayed in Santiago and worked on finals, just finishing last Friday.

Oh, except for going to the Chile vs. Bolivia World Cup qualifying game last Wednesday! That was definitely one of my favorite experiences so far in Chile. From buying cheap Chilean flags and futbol jerseys outside the stadium to chanting “Vamos, Vamos chilenos, esta noche tenemos que ganar!” with 70000 Chileans, to seeing the Chilean team win 4-0 and pretty much guarantee themselves a spot in the World Cup, it was an amazing night. And quite an eye into Chilean culture as well. For one, it reminded me of how intolerant Chileans are. For example, one of their cheers went like this (in Spanish, of course): the Chileans were all jumping up and down (all 70000 of them) and started saying, “anyone who isn’t jumping is a Bolivian maricón”. Maricón is a very negative term for homosexual, so it was basically a group of 70000 Chileans calling the Bolivians maricónes. Oh, if that happened in the US…They did the jumping chant again other times, and one time changed it to something like “Jump if you have an ocean”, making fun of the fact that Bolivia lost all of its coastline to Chile in the War of the Pacific over a hundred years ago, a loss that continues to plague Bolivia’s economy. So other than making fun of Bolivian maricónes and lack of coastline, watching the game was an incredible and exciting sight. I’ll try to put up some pictures of the game in a few days. After watching that game, I really feel a lot more Chilean and a lot less gringo. I mean, I was cheering for Chile with everyone else, mostly singing and cheering along with the Chileans for the whole night and celebrated when Chile won. It made me feel quite a bit like I was really a part of the Chilean culture, and not just a tourist. It was an incredible experience and I’m hoping to go to another game by the time I leave on August 16^th.

Okay, well that’s where I’ll leave it for today, I think that’s enough for you guys to read. After a 2 day break from finals, I’m starting my internship tomorrow at 9AM, which I’m really excited about. Still not sure exactly what to expect or what I’ll be doing, but I’m positive it will be a great experience! I’ll not only get to meet the people I’m working with, but a lot of the micro-business owners we work with, and get a very different glimpse into Chile that way. I’ll update in the next few days with more info on my first few days in my new home and work, so stay tuned!

A trip to the driest place on Earth

Winter is starting to set in down here in the Southern hemisphere—the sky is gray, the rains have started, the mountains have snow and I’ve begun to layer. I even bought my first ever scarf today! We’ve been lucky that the winter set in especially late this year—April was completely sunny and it only rained for the first time 2 weeks ago. And I was preparing myself for a lot harsher season, but I now think it will be more like a California winter. Especially when I move to Vaplaraiso in a few weeks, a coastal city, I’m pretty sure the winter will be identical to that of Santa Barbara. But it’s a scary thought, the winter setting in and me staying for the summer—I realized that when spring sets in next year it will have been 2 years since my last spring. Which means, starting last September, my seasons go like this: Fall, Winter, Fall, Winter, Fall, Winter. I will be so ready for Spring when it comes in 2010!

                I spent last weekend in San Pedro de Atacama in the northern limits of Chile. San Pedro is a tiny, rural town in the middle of the driest desert in the world (it hasn’t rained since Chile was still a Spanish colony). The electricity in the town didn’t work the first 3 days we were there, and there wasn’t a constant flow of water (meaning I didn’t take a shower in my 5 days there…). It takes about 5 minutes to walk from one side of the city to another, and most of the buildings are made from adobe. It’s a completely different world up there—everything around the city is sand. There are volcanoes, mountains, plateaus, but everything is desert. The people there are also completely different than those in Santiago—it’s a very indigenous population, and was a part of Bolivia until the War of the Pacific in the late 19^th century. One of our tour guides, Christian, told us that many of the people there, and the culture in general, still identify as Bolivian. The people there looked like, well, what you’d imagine South American people to look like, not the mixed or European look of the Santiaguinos or the Porteños of Buenos Aires. The music played from the stores and restaurants there played a different tune than those I’m used to hearing—the used some different instruments, and the radio played a lot of more indigenous and Bolivian-sounding songs.

                On our first day there, four of us rented some bikes and took them out a few kilometers out of town. We unexpectedly found a huge stone gate marking the start of a trail, and decided to explore for a little while. This involved some rock climbing on some steep inclines, and took us to some pretty good views of the surrounding Andes and also the two nearby valleys—la Valle de la Muerte (Valley of Death) and la Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon). When we got to our second or third peak we came to a cross that had been built with the Biblical line, “My god, my god, why have you abandoned me?” written in four languages on each of its sides—in Spanish, Portuguese, and 2 indigenous languages. The Cross looked out on all sides into the Atacama desert, and it was an awesome experience. We climbed down the mountain just as the sun set and turned all of the surrounding mountains purple and the overlying clouds a deep yellow.

                17 of us in all from the Stanford program headed up to Atacama for the long weekend, and 14 of us stayed in the same hostel, taking over the entire place. The 14 of us headed out the next day, Thursday, to the Valle de la Muerte to go sand-boarding. We rented bikes again and headed out about 30 minutes outside of town into the Valley, and a few kilometers in came to sand dunes about 500 feet high, smoothly carved from the valley’s winds. We spent about 5 hours there surfing, or trying our best to surf and mostly just falling, down the dunes and exploring the overlying plateaus. In the afternoon we climbed up hundreds of meters of sand (not fun…you take one step up and 2 steps back trying to climb up steep hills of sand) to go to the top of the plateau that looked over the Valle de la Muerte. It was an amazing view and we could see on all sides of us for dozens of miles. It’s amazing how many volcanoes, mountains, cool rock formations and desert sand dunes surrounded us.

                We woke up the next morning at 3:30 AM to travel to the El Tatio geyser field—technically, the highest geyser field in the world in terms of altitude. After waiting for our bus (which was 30 minutes late) we headed down on a bumpy, desert, unpaved road for 2 hours. We finally got there, 12000 feet in altitude and about 10 miles away from Bolivia, as the sun was rising and the geysers were in full force. But, wow, I have never been so cold in my life. -12 degrees celcius and I do not go well together. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed in the geysers—I was expecting full on bursts of water like I’ve seen in videos of Old Faithful, but what we saw were more like pillars of mist rising from the ground with the occasional fountain of water. It was really cool to see, especially since I’d never seen a geyser before, and it’s awesome to be able to say that I was 10 miles away from Bolivia (something about Bolivia just seems so far away and different to me), but I was expecting a bit more from it…and to be a bit warmer while doing so. But the bus stopped on the way back at hot springs close to the geysers, and I got to swim in my first ever hot springs. It took me about 20 minutes of hot-springs to get full feeling back in my toes, and it felt great (although burned a bit at times). After that we stopped at a tiny town called Machuca for a few minutes. There were vicuñas (kind of like llamas) there, a really cool church and llama empanadas (nope, didn’t try them).The ride back, however, wasn’t as pleasant. The ride back, however, wasn’t as pleasant. The altitude had given me a bit of a headache, and the 2 hour extremely bumpy road back to San Pedro didn’t really help that get better.

                Atacama was a great experience. We spent the next day visiting the Reserva Nacional los Flamingos (a nearby flamingo reserve in the middle of salt flats), walking around the salt flats, going to 2 beautiful lakes about 12000 feet up in elevation surrounded by mountains and more vicuñas, had lunch in a podunk town called Socaire, picked up a indigenous woman hitch hiker (our tour guide picked her up, not me) and visited a few other small towns. We spend the night star-gazing—because there’s barely any light pollution and no humidity in the air, Atacama is one of the best places in the world to look at the southern night sky. Shooting stars passed every few minutes, the milky way was as clear as…I don’t know…milk, and it was really cool to be able to look at a completely different set of constellations than we can see in the US.

                I spent the last day there relaxing. I honestly don’t remember the last day I ever had to relax. I’m always buying books to read in leisure time, but have never found that time in the hustle, bustle, stress and sleep-deprivation of Stanford. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to sit and do nothing. But I spent Sunday doing nothing but sitting in the main plaza of San Pedro de Atacama and reading a book for leisure. It was a wonderful, peaceful, relaxing feeling that I hadn’t felt in a very long time. Hopefully I’ll have some more of those great moments this summer, when I’m living in Valparaíso. I won’t be traveling on weekends, I won’t have homework during the nights, and I hope it will be a very relaxing summer when I can run a lot without the smog of Santiago and read without any homework creeping up on me. So all in all, it was a great week/weekend in Atacama, and I felt like I was in a completely different world up there, without water, electricity, smog or stress. Up next, tomorrow at 4 AM I’m off to the Island of Chiloe, about halfway between Santiago and the southern tip of Chile. It’s supposed to be an area of Chile with a culture unlike the mainland—with witchcraft, mythology, art, and architecture different from the mainland and caught in the past. I’ll be there for a few days, and then the finals grind officially begins!

A lot to catch up on

A lot has happened since I last wrote. It’s been a crazy hectic few weeks filled with traveling, midterms exams, exploring Santiago, meeting more Chileans, and stressing over summer plans. But all is well over here in Santiago—I’m getting to know the city in and out, getting to know more Chileans, and I’ve firmed up my summer plans—I’ll be working for Acción Emprendedora, a Chilean entrepreneurship and microfinance NGO for 8 weeks in Valparaíso, which I’m really excited about. It’ll give me the chance to stay in Chile to practice my Spanish and immerse myself in the culture, and I’ll get to explore subjects that really interest me, so I’m incredibly excited for the summer! I should get back to the United States sometime in mid-August, stay there for 2 weeks, and then it’s back up to Stanford for RA training on August 27th!

The weekend before last the program went to Buenos Aires, and had a wonderful 3 day weekend exploring the city non-stop. We arrived on Friday afternoon and spent the rest of the day walking around the city—to the commercial district, the ports, the main streets (one of which is 18 lanes wide!) and some of the better-known neighborhoods. Friday night was great—we went to a tango show that chronicled the change in tango from its advent until now. The first parts started out slow and traditional, with the women wearing parasols and the men with tall hats. Toward the end, the show moved faster and faster, the dances got more and more risqué, and I began to try harder and harder to understand how legs could move that fast. It was awesome, and definitely a great cultural experience. On Saturday we spent the morning at the house of Jorge Luis Borges, one of the most famous Latin American writers in history. The Stanford in Santiago director, Don Ivan, is good friends with his widow, who arranged for us to have a special visit to the house. We read one of his stories, learned about his life, and had tea at the Borges Foundation building. It was a really great thing to see, and it was one of those moments that I was really happy I’m at Stanford. I mean, to have 25 students in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, inside discussing Latin American literature and having a philosophical discussion about knowledge and memory—it was a great moment. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was walking around the Buenos Aires cemetery. I was expecting it to be a regular cemetery--green lawns, plaques on the ground, a few statues. Instead, it was more like a city of tombs than anything else—each family there owns a tomb, and it is a resting place for generations and generations. Many of the coffins were visible from the naked eye, many windows were broken, and the lack of 6 feet of earth between you and the coffin made you feel all-too-close to the bodies. It was a very eerie feeling walking through what seemed like a city of tombs…but it was a really special experience and nothing like I imagined it would be. We spent the next day or so exploring the city—we went to markets where tango dancers and antique stalls lined the streets, historic parts of the city with government buildings, the national cathedral, and basically explored the city.

Argentina actually wasn’t as different from Chile as I thought. The two cultures are very similar—both are Latin American countries that aspire to be European, though I think Argentina did a better job at it. I was really surprised at how white and European the city was—I didn’t feel as out of place as I do in Santiago, I didn’t get stared at as much. The city’s buildings had a very European flair to them, and like Chile, many of their customs are taken from Europe. The arts scene was a lot more happening in Buenos Aires—dancers would line the streets of markets, there were colors and music everywhere, and the city really never sleeps. I really enjoyed the city and know I’ll be back someday, and it was a nice break from Chile, although not as different as I expected. Although Chile is often in the shadow of Argentina, the cultures are very similar, and Chile can boast a much more stable government and economy (many people in certain regions of Argentina have resulted to make ends meet because there simply isn’t any money left in the banks.) All in all, it was a wonderful trip, great because of the vibrant and colorful culture, the wealth of events to do and parts of the city to see, and the other side of a country to explore. Oh yeah, and the fact that it was all paid for by Stanford.

This past week Helen Bing (of the BING Overseas Studies Program, Bing Library, etc.) came to visit Santiago. Because of a recent Dengue outbreak she wasn’t able to visit Buenos Aires with us (it’s much more debilitating to senior citizens), but we were able to explore Santiago with her all of last week. She’s extremely interested in the arts, and so all of our arts-related activities for the quarter were squeezed into her week (thus giving me even less time to blog). On Monday we had a class on Chilean music with Chilean students, and spent about an hour singing Latin songs with them. We followed that with a visit to a nearby pub where Blake, one of the Stanford students, was playing bagpipes with his local band. He’s been here for 2 quarters and has joined a bagpipe band called the ‘Andes Highlanders’, and they were performing that night, so the 30 Stanford students, 30 Chilean students, and our professors, administrators and Señora Bing went to watch. It was great, and even though I had a bunch of homework to do, I spent a few hours there talking with the Chilean students. On Friday we went to visit 2 local art museums, and spent evening at the opera-La Traviata. It was my first ever opera, and I must say that I actually really enjoyed it, especially the orchestra. The music was definitely my favorite part, and I have never heard such a good orchestra, it truly blew my mind.  

There’s a scene in the opera where a ballet dancer provides entertainment for an elite party. In the rendition of the opera, the director took a bit of leeway in the scene, and was made very sexual and dramatic. The entire dance was a metaphor of a bull fight—the ballet dancer was the bull, and the men at the party were the ones taunting, chasing, and hurting the bull. It was…very strange, but I didn’t really think too much of it. The rest of the audience, however, was not pleased, and boo-ed it! I couldn’t believe it! I would have never expected that to happen, especially in a venue as tame as an opera. I’m pretty sure it was the conservative Chilean culture, especially among the elites of society, that opposed the unconventional and risqué take on the scene, but I was still blown away when, even during the final bows, the audience boo-ed both the dancer and the director incessantly. I guess even the elite can get a little rowdy sometimes.

On Sunday a group of us spent the day in Valparaíso, a coastal town about 2 hours away from Santiago. It’s an easy day trip, and a beautiful city with tons of color, murals, graffiti, hills and ports to wind around and explore. We visited one of the houses of Pablo Neruda, trekked up the steep city streets and gazed out at the ocean and colorful buildings. It’s a truly unique city, and I really enjoy it. There’s a much more tangible culture there than in Santiago, and although it’s not nearly as clean and a lot poorer, I really enjoy it. We ended up going on the day of one of their biggest festivals, and it seemed like the entire city was out parading through the streets.

 Thousands of school students were suited up and in marching bands, and literally marched around the entire city for the whole day. We started hearing them at 1PM, and they hadn’t stopped by the time we left 8PM. Everywhere we turned we would run into them, and we really couldn’t escape the parade no matter where we went (it was kind of creepy how many places they were). There was a big celebration with naval bands at the town center that was really interesting to watch. Valparaíso is also the town I’ll be living in this summer for 8 weeks while I work for Acción Emprendedora. I’ll be moving to Valparaíso after the academic term ends in 4 weeks, and living in a homestay that the organization sets up for me. I couldn’t be more excited about the summer (well, let’s not talk about money…) and I’m really excited to get to know another city and the language better. I really think I’ll fly out of Chile in mid-August fluent in Spanish, and I know this summer will help me immensely in that.

Well, I think that’s enough of an update for now. Sorry it’s so long (again), but I’ve been really busy the past few weeks traveling and trying to do well on midterms. In less than 4 hours I’ll be waking up to catch a bus to the airport because I’m spending the next 5 days in the north of Chile in San Pedro de Atacama, which is the adventure capital of the desert. It’s supposed to feel like an incredibly different world up there—it’s technically the driest place on earth (hasn’t rained since Chile was a Spanish colony), and there are salt flats, sand dunes to surf on, volcanoes, flamingos, archaeological sites, and much more. I’m really excited, but I should be getting to bed considering it’s almost midnight and I need to be up at 3:30 AM.
Miss all you guys, and I hope you all have an amazing week!

Never refusing an invitation...

¡Hola amigos, espero que estén bien! For all those in Santa Barbara, ¡ojala que su casa y su familia estén seguros y sanos! I’m going to try a new thing this week and not write a novel for a blog post, so bear with me as I try to condense my thoughts. I don’t know if it will work, but I’m going to give it my best shot. At this time tomorrow, I’ll be in Buenos Aires, Argentina in our quarter’s program trip. I’m really looking forward to that—we’ll be exploring the city, going to a tango show, visiting the house of Borges (a famous Argentine writer) and experiencing a bit of the vibrant Argentinean culture for 3 days.

I spent the weekend relaxing in the countryside with my host family. See, I have this promise I made to myself before I came to Chile that I’m never allowed to refuse an invitation to hang out by a Chilean. I’m here to meet Chileans, get to know the culture and speak Spanish, not to hang out with Stanford people, so I’m pushing myself extra hard to do that. So, while my friends were sleeping under the stars and hiking the Andes, I was celebrating my host sister’s 14^th birthday and going to Bingo night in a small, rural Chilean town! But although this weekend was tame and quiet, I had a good time and I think it really helped my Spanish. There was no internet, no computer, no TV, no other gringos, and thus no English for me the entire weekend. I can really feel my Spanish drastically improve after my weekends with the host family, so I’m really glad I spent the weekend with them in Curacaví. It’s a very small rural town about 40 minutes outside of Santiago home to ranchers, our maid Rosita, and a few vacation homes. Saturday was Catalina’s 14^th birthday, and we had family come over to the house to celebrate. I spent most of the afternoon hanging out with the family across the street—they have 11 and 19 year old boys, and they were very friendly, although they spent most of their time making fun of me and calling me “Gringo” nonstop. They live in a very, as my host family would say, ‘humble’ house with horses, about 7 dogs, a pack of turkeys, and it was an incredibly interesting cultural experience. You would never know they’re from the same country as my host family. While my host mom was taking an afternoon nap, they were cooking bread in their outdoor brick oven while the kids played with the dogs and the turkeys and listened to the futbol game on the radio. They were incredibly kind, and I had a great day with them. It was great getting a completely different experience from my taken-care-of life here in Las Condes, and I felt like I was getting a true taste of Chilean culture not stolen by globalization. The family, I’m sure, had never heard the words Facebook, didn’t know what Starbucks was, and had never Googled anything, let alone been on the internet. The whole town felt real and true to the culture, they had true Chilean pride, displayed the cultural characteristics I expected more of Chile, and it was a great change of pace.

On Saturday night the family invited me to go to mass with them, followed by a town bingo night at the local elementary school (which, my host mom took the time to point out, was a school for poor people.) So, even though I had a midterm to work on, I cannot refuse an invitation, so I went. Mass was interesting, although I had a very hard time understanding it—we were sitting in the back, so I could barely hear the priest, so that on top of my Spanish deficiencies didn’t match well with me understanding the service. But it was really interesting to see some more of the traditional lifestyle of Chileans. We walked over to the Bingo night after that, and it seemed like the entire town was out for it. The school cafeteria was filled to the brim with eager families trying to win the grand prize of 100,000 pesos (about $200). It was fun, I did a lot of people-watching, got called “Gringo” about a thousand more times, didn’t win anything, but enjoyed myself and got great practice with my Spanish numbers! I really felt like I got a true sense of Chile this weekend—one untouched by American and European influence, untouched by the English speaking world. I felt like I could really see Chileans and interact with them, and it felt so different from just interacting with my host family. I mean, it’s not like my family isn’t Chilean. They’ve been here for 3 or 4 generations. But, at times, it seems they are so touched by influences of other nations that any sense of Chilean culture gets washed away. I mean, we had pasta for dinner tonight. We live a block away from a McDonalds and Blockbuster and 2 blocks away from Starbucks. My host mom is on Facebook. They don’t identify with what I think of as Chilean a lot of the time because it doesn’t fit in with their social class. But this weekend, I really felt like I was being immersed in the Chilean culture, and although it was a very tame, relaxing and uneventful weekend, it was a weekend when I wasn’t a tourist, didn’t speak English, and learned the culture firsthand.

So on the theme of not refusing invitations, one of our Chilean friends from the language partner program invited us all to his birthday party last night. I headed over to his house after having dinner with my host family last night. It was a lot of fun once the party picked up a little after I got there. I got to talking with a bunch of Chileans, and felt very comfortable with my Spanish and my ability to converse with them. Most of them go to the Universidad de Chile, and an astounding number of them study engineering (I feel like almost every guy I meet here is studying engineering…no joke.) It was great being able to talk with some more Chileans, and I think we’re going to hang out in the future. We’re trying to get the rest of them to come to our Language partner program this Monday, so hopefully we’ll see a few of them there and keep hanging out with them in the future. The birthday party, for the most part, was exactly the same as one you’d see in the US (except for a different version of the Happy Birthday song, which I still need to learn.) But it was great spending the party speaking Spanish and meeting Chileans, and I had a great time!

I’m extremely glad I made myself promise never to refuse the invitation of a Chilean. It can be so easy sometimes to convince yourself you’re too tired, you have too much work, or that you simply don’t want to go. It is so tempting just to stay home, watch some TV, fall asleep early, or whatnot. But it’s so rewarding taking advantage of all of the cultural opportunities here. Of course, there are beautiful places to travel in Chile. And sleep and homework are important sometimes too. But I’m so glad that I can put those on the backburner on my priorities list while I’m here, and focus on spending time with Chileans whenever I have the chance. I mean, I still haven’t met as many Chileans as I was hoping, but all the time I’ve spent with them has been very rewarding, and I’m always glad I spent the time with them speaking Spanish, challenging myself to not make a fool of myself and being called “Gringo” instead of all the other things I could be doing.

Okay, well making this blog post short didn’t really work out. But believe it or not, I actually left out a lot that happened this week (Cinco de Mayo Mexican restaurant, exploring Mercado Central and Plaza de Armas in Santiago Centro, watching Slumdog Millionaire with my grandfather.) It’s been a great week and I’m really looking forward to the weekend in Buenos Aires.

In Chile, when a person sneezes once you say “salud”(health). When they sneeze three times the first sneeze is “salud”, the second is “dinero” (money), and the third sneeze is “amor”(love). I thought that would be a good way to sign off tonight. ¡Chau amigos! ¡Salud, dinero y amor a todos!