¡ a otras partes!

My post is long overdue! The last two weekends have been really nice--I'll back track to two weeks ago, when Rachael came and visited! So nice to get another night oh-so-close in the same wee bed and remember our rooming days last year. Luckily it was a beautiful weekened, so Rachael got to see Viña in its finest, and Valparaiso the following day in pleasant weather. We met up with Amanda who took us to las dunas--dunes!--in a town nearby called Con Cón! ¡Qué hermosa! The dunes really were incredible. My photos don't quite capture how vast it all was. Or the great feeling of the sand on our feet. But it was a vista of all of Viña and Valparaiso from afar, and it felt great to be exploring the area. Plus, my worlds all collided what with having Amanda and Rachael together with me in Chile!

hey friends!


Maybe you can get an idea of the straight climb up...mm that sand felt good!


You can see the coast line, the new kind of buildings
going up in this area (that white one is not yet open), and me!

This past weekend, I head out of the country to Mendoza! It was fantastic! The total bus ride is about 8 hours, including customs, and it's great because the buses leave right from Viña and come right back. So convenient. And really comfortable! The chairs recline and there's a way to put your legs up--they're called "semi-cama (bed)" buses-- so the ride was really easy. Plus, we pass right through the Andes. Wow, what a site.

This photo doesn't show it, but to get up to this point the bus slowly winds
around switchback after switchback (is that a real car/road term? i wouldn't know).
So it's an incredible ascent. So beautiful!

I travelled to Mendoza with Eli, someone from the Butler group, and we met with others from the group the following day. Once we arrived and settled down we decided to splurge a bit on a parilla--a tasting of all kinds of meat, including intestines and blood sausage and other parts of cow or pig I can't say I know the name of in English let alone Spanish! Mmmm it was all really good. Even the weird stuff. I can honestly say that I have never tasted better meat. Plus, all goes well with some Mendoza Malbec!

Which was a good introduction to the following day where we rented some bikes and toured the bodegas of the mendoza area! So much wine, so delicious! The tours were cool, we learned some interesting things about making wine and all that and had a nice lunch with fresh arugula and local olives/olive oil. Heaven! Aside from an aching toush it was awesome and the weather was just perfect. (They call it winter! It was high 70s, 80s!)

From a more traditional winery


From a more modern winery!


Not harvest season, so not particurlarly lush. I gotta come back in March!
No problem there. :-D

The next day we explored the city. It's such a pretty city, and more recognizable to cities I know as well. Really nice residential areas, shopping areas, a gorgeous plaza. I even encountered political activism by students! And later came across this sign which i thought i'd post. When I first got to Mendoza it was all such bliss--a whole feeling of why aren't i here?! And then I saw that I probably wouldn't prefer Mendoza to Viña/Valpo, but it is definitely a fine vacation spot. Next time I have to hit las termas--the hot springs!!

Language-less

There's this odd thing happening more and more as the time is passing. At times when I'm conversing, sometimes writing, in Spanish I hit a complete blank--not only can i not think of the word in Spanish but I can't for the life of me think of it in English either. Totally bizarre, but interesting. I think its a good sign. My language part of the brain is dealing with the mix, leaving me with moments of languagelessness. I'm also all of a sudden speaking small bits of spanglish. even though i need to keep an eye on it, i think it also probably shows i'm not thinking about what i need to say at all. mixing it all up. hopefully next month i'll be done with the mixing and have moved on to some other weird language phenomenon.

EARTHQUAKE!

I was sitting in bed, writing. And it's been raining all day, so that was going on too. And all of a sudden ¡rumble-rumble! i felt my whole room shake! even my body rumbled a bit! it was brief and could probably compare to something really large upstairs falling. but it was an earthquake! really, it's what they call a tremor. but still, the earth-quaked.

DIRECCIÓN

Per request of joanna, and a good one at that, here's my address!

Cate Flanagan
IFSA-Butler
Av. Brasil 2950 (PIIE)
Valparaiso, Chile

Conocer

Conocer: to know a person or place with familiarity
There are two words for "to know" in spanish: Conocer, and Saber--to know facts.

Today was a beautiful day. And I was awed by Valparaiso--not only am i beginning to know (conocer) the city, but I'm wanting to conocer the city well.

I woke up today to sunshine after a couple rainy, stormy days. I felt bleh--I had eaten right before I went to sleep after a night of some drinking, so I woke up wanting to cleanse the bod! I went on a run--even though there's really just one run to do, I still am finding the vista of the ocean incredible. Came back home to have fajitas made by my sister (her newfound speciality) and left to meet with Ale and Dennise (my Chilean friend) to explore Valpariso.

It was awesome being with Dennise, because it meant we got a personalized tour of great artsy stores and artisan fairs and coffee shops. In one coffee shop, Color Café, some musicians came in to play us the sweetest music--it was mostly an Irish style. The flute was just gorgeous. I was back where the pictures earlier in this blog are. Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepion---there's art EVERYWHERE in these parts of Valparaiso. It seems like down every street are several little restaurants/art shops/cafes/artisan stores. I want to try and get to conocer a little bit of all of them! Really beautiful to spend a day browsing through it all. The colors of the place really do lift spirits.

Ale and Dennise!

We finished off by having in dinner in a beautiful restaurant-bar. Mosaics everywhere! There's a picture below. I can't remember what its called, though! It was a vegetarian place, and we had a veggie pizza that was so delicious. And needed, because I was just saying to them earlier how I don't eat enough veggies here! Tomorrow starts what feels like my first REAL week of school--even though I still have this week to work out the lingering qualms about my classes. First class at 9am tomorrow--black and white photo! good thing my camara arrived from mom in the mail!

unrelated to chile! i thought this was a great article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/weekinreview/16lyall.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

La Pieza (my room!)

Here's an intro to my room--all these blank spaces will hopefully at some point be filled a bit!


Bed! And a little Pablo Neruda poster above it.

Bed with bathroom door view. My own bathroom yessss


Ta da, the curtains! Aren't they lovely? My mamá here thinks its funny I like them so much.
I dont know why, I guess they helped me adjust to the room quickly!

Here's a more panoramic view, a little bit of everything.
Yes, that is a very odd photo holder with a feather attached to it.
I didn't know it was supposed to hold photos for a few days, ja.
--I just thought it was some weird art piece!

"Oh, well then you're Catholic"

Two weeks have passed---I feel like I'm settling in. Amanda arrived and we finally got to hang out--in her chic apartment that overlooks the sea, on a terrace!

I'm slowly bringing my room together--I bought a new blanket with a floral design. I'm hoping to compliment these wonderful curtains (I think I've mentioned them, if not more than once). Last weekend I got to see Ben and Rachael in Santiago--it was nice to see them. I also grabbed a Botero painting from Rachael's book of Boteros. The one i took is called, "The Collector." I put it on one of the empty walls in my room--I thought maybe, since the painting has its own collection of artwork in the background, I could decieve the blank wall it's on ;-). There are other strange things in the room, but i like them--some funny character! (the next time i get some nice light in here, i'll put up pictures!)

Deceived?

I've gone to a few more classes. My literature class is with other people from the Butler program, and even though the professor is just great and i really liked what we've read and talked about so far, the rest of the class sits there like dummies! I think Ale and I are at a higher speaking level than most in the class, but I know they're more capable than what they're showing now. To any question you get a, "no sé"--I dont know. If it were easier to change the course, I would--but other literature classes at thes school clash with courses i'm already taking. Hopefully people in my class with gain a little more confidence and speak up! And say some thoughtful stuff at that.

Yesterday I went to a History of the Mexican Revolution class, but on top of the class being FILLED with gringos (majority), most of the classes are dedicated to listening to each other's presentations on a particular theme. Knowing some of the gringos in my class, and from my experience of presentations and group work, I could learn a lot more elsewhere. It would have been cool to focus on and study something in particular related to the Revolution, but I feel like I did that a bunch (on other topics) last year.

Some espresso in Santiago with those old buds of mine!

So I went to a Biblical studies class--it's called Biblical Initation. I don't really know what that means, honestly. But the course syllabus and agenda says the class is more or less to have a historical and critical understanding of the bible and its significance. I've always wanted to take a class on the bible, but its odd here because classes are all part of "carreras"--everyone is working towards their particular profession. So we also are looking at how to teach the bible. I didn't have the bible today, but I understood everything and it seems managable. ahh!

To say the least, i think the class will be hard! I'm wondering if too hard? But I think I'm gonna try it out. At least language in the bible is more or less simple, and it would be interesting to take the class in such a religious society.

After class I introduced myself to the other students (they all know each other well because the "carreras" can be pretty small and they're all in the same year). Right away one student asked me if i'm Catholic. Of course, I didn't even understand what he had asked at first. I ended up answering, "I'm from New York" because I thought he was asking me about our SCHOOL, Catolica. When I read all those "oh she didn't get that" looks I realized and said no, i dont have a religion. I ended up going with agnostic, not athiest. That was quite a group to announce that to, ha. And an older woman in the class (oddly old, actually) said, "well, here and now you can get baptized!" To which i said, oh well i've been baptized. I noted that she rolled her eyes a bit when she said, "Oh, well then you're Catholic." The student next to me understood what I meant, though. And he said that its very common here to be Catholic, but that bit by bit it's disappearing.

Chasing classes

Despite this being my first week of classes, I'll only have had one! Yesterday I went to Contemporary Chilean Literature. I really enjoyed it--the professor seems engaging and interesting. It was revealing too--you can tell he's religious and more conservative just by the way he talks. We were going around the class quickly stating "what we want most in life" and he got to one girl who was slowly talking (it was a Butler class only, so you get a lot of spanish stuttering) and basically filled in for her--"of course, she wants to get married! and have children and a family!" I know had more of my friends been sitting around, or had we been at Oberlin College, hands would have shot back to say "Hey! You can't assume that's what we want!! I never want to get married!!"(**This quote was directly taken from a few at a table of my closest friends during our vacation weekend in Fire Island in May/June this year. Ha. )

But my first Spanish class was cancelled because the professor has influenza :-(

And this morning I took a nice walk to a Political and Social History of Latin America class at another university, University of Valparaiso, in the Sociology department. It will clash with a history class i want to take at Catolica, but those don't start until Monday, so i thought i'd check this one out. But alas, the attachment of the schools schedule was wrong and i walked all the way there to find it actually meets tomorrow. I'm not sure about it. I didn't want classes on Fridays, and its a 3 hour straight class, bleh! I also got to meet a girl from Belgium while i was there! She was also a bit lost with classes (and spanish!)

So monday hopefully they all go smoothly and actually start!

My walk back from the university was nice though. I came across a museum, this beautiful mansion surrounded by a really nice park. And I went to this perfect little used book store! The man in the shop greeted me right away and i talked to him about how i wanted some simpler novels. I came away with two, spent about 8 bucks (i thought they could have been a BIT cheaper). One i'm really excited about, the other not sure, but he recommended it so i thought i'd go for it. This will give me something to do today, with all this free time!

As of right now, I don't feel like I'm immersed in Spanish enough. Here I am writing away in English! It feels like everywhere i go i'm speaking in english. gah. That's also why i got the books. Hopefully once the semester gets going and i make chilean friends it will be better.

¡Tur de Valparaíso!

It was an early start today. And aside from waking up with plenty of time for my tea and with what i thought was plenty of time for a pretty quick walk, i ended up with having an unexpected morning, long speed walk across close to all of the city of Viña del Mar. At least it kept me warm! I thought the place our bus was meeting was a lot closer, ay. But finally when I asked someone about how many blocks i was going, i found out i had a half an hour of speed walking ahead of me. The whole group was sitting on the bus waiting for me, so once i got there (it was only 15 minutes late jeezeee chileans are all late i couldn't believe i was the last one!) i said perdón, smiled and sat down to catch my breath and cool off. At least i got to know the city a bit better.

I'll start off by quickly saying that I have a new great camara but of course taking it out for the first picture today i found it was outtaa batterryy booo. So the pictures i have here i stole from another girl in the group that posted them on facebook! I know I'll get back to take some photos for myself but this way I can show you what i was up to.

But it was a really nice day. The tourguide was very informative, and Valparaíso is so beautiful!
The first stop was Pablo Neruda's house, La Sebastiana. WOW! So awesome. Of what stands out from the Latin American poetry class i took freshman year, how much i liked pablo neruda's poetry is very memorable. It was awesome to finally get there. There are so many colors, filled with incredible weird stuff, and of course, the finest, brightest views of Valparaiso. The man has a really interesting life--politically especially. Some day soon I'm gonna get myself a biography!
These pictures do the place SOME justice.

The outside of his house. So great looking!

This is a view from one of the windows in his house. The classic hills of colorful houses!

Today I also finally got to see the curvy, romantic old streeets I had heard all about. I can't wait to go back and explore more closely. These areas are in the "cerros" of Valparaíso, which are the highh hills lined with colorful houses the city is known for. To get up to the cerros you can drive, take stairs, or take the famous acensors!

This is the Ascensor Concepción--referring to the Cerro Concepción

This is a pretty good example. I couldn't find great pictures of the streets. But I loved this one! Especially because that peach house with the vine stood out.
Doesn't it remind you of Rapunzel's Hair?! ja

Certain areas are full of artists, so there are walls and walls of really interesting murals. Political, social or purely artistic. Sweet cafes, restaurants, and hotels and hostels are everywhere. It's known for architecture that is a mix of both English and French design--with houses that have French shutters on one floor and English windows on another. The whole city is a mix--not only of colors and shapes and dogs but of people--rich, poor, young, old all live mixed together. That's something unique that Santiago and many cities in Latin America cannot say. Usually they are more divided.

Beautiful murals with tiles...


Large scenic murals like this (i would have captured some cooler ones we saw!)


And this was shocking! Shows how distinct Valparaíso
can be from the rest of its Catholic country
(you might need to click and englarge this to see whats shocking!)

After the cerros we head to almuerzo, lunch---we ate in a simple restaurant at the top of department store. but it was so delicious! i just had some grilled chicken, a nice simple dish--so good. I've had a week of some indulgences with food. One of these days i'm gonna grab a photo and tell you about Italianos Completos ---ahhh killers! We took a boat ride around the port. Which would have been nicer had i not been in the back inhaling fumes eww. I was exhausted when i got home. Took a siesta. And then woke up to have once--not exaclty dinner but often replaces dinner, that is just bread and cheese and meat and some cake, because it was my dad Pepe's birthday! Feliz cumpleaños!