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!
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