Well, a stupid cold and just general exhaustion have me lying in bed under my blankets with my space heater a-goin' on this Friday night. But, one thing that I've found is that I'm just so much go-go-go here that I do think it's good to take a break once in a while and reflect on things and just process it all. The hard thing about taking so much class and learning so much at once is that it feels like it all (the language, the cultural things, etc) all just sort of pile up in my brain and never really sort themselves out.
One thing that I'm finding is that it's becoming harder to figure out what I want to say in English! This poses a problem on several accounts, the main one being that I definitely do not know enough Spanish to be able to carry on a real conversation in Spanish, so if I do want to talk I have to have that English at the ready. What I've been finding is that it's easier to think of the French equivalent of all the grammar things that we're learning because Spanish and French grammar are basically the same, whereas English grammar kind of just does what it wants. So, in thinking so much in Spanish and French, my English is starting to get confused.
Not to get on my political soap box or anything, but all those people out there who are believers in "English Only" education clearly have never tried to learn a new language while immersed in that language. Yes I am learning quickly, but goodness it gets exhausting and frustrating and overwhelming. I cannot tell you how wonderful English sounds at those times when I just cannot figure out what's going on or I cannot find the words that I want in Spanish. As much as it pains me to admit it, sometimes English really does sound heavenly (plenty of times it sounds irritating and everything else that goes with it..) In short, sometimes you need that break and that help in your own language. I could go one about this for ages, and I probably will at a later date - but I have more adventures to tell you all about!
One big accomplishment of mine was taking/mastering the Metro! With my BiP card in hand, we went to the Metro station to put money on our cards. They then scanned their cards and went through the gate-things into the metro. I was unaware we were going anywhere, so this was fairly surprising. For some reason I was fairly nervous to take the Metro, so really I couldn't have asked for a better way to be introduced to it than to just be thrown on to it (almost literally.) Once I saw it, I realized that it's my fear was completely ridiculous as there are only 4 possible lines and it's absurdly easy to navigate. It was crowded and everything else that any Metro system is, but overall it's clean and efficient and a great mode of transportation! As you all know, I'm someone who just needs to DO something in order to get over my fear/nervousness/whathaveyou.
We've used the Metro to go both down town and then more out of town to a mall. Both places (le centro and the mall) were... unimpressive. Le Centro is basically a small NYC - lots of shops, lots of people, lots of visible poverty, lots of street food, and not a lot of personal space. We got some coffee in a bizarre, mirrored coffee shop, walked around some, then just came home. I would like to go back and get some pictures of the government/historic buildings that are done there, and there are some museums that I'd like to see, but overall I don't really feel the need to visit Le Centro again.
The mall was even less impressive, it's hard to be excited about a place that boasts both TGI Fridays and Tony Romas all in one courtyard... Unfortunately a mall is a mall is a mall, no matter what the country. It was fun to do some shopping (window shopping for me...) and to hang out with my classmates, but overall, not the most exciting part of my trip.
Though, there is a certain sense of accomplishment accompanying the completion of any of these trips, no matter how unimpressive the actual results may have been. And regardless, it's a mall (or a part of the city) in Chile, so although it's moderately unimpressive, it's still wonderful and Chilean and an adventure!
Yesterday was a real adventure for me... after class I stopped at a fruitista and got a wonderful pear, banana and some yogurt (this is not the adventure.) After a nice lunch I put on my walkin' shoes and headed to La Plaza Italia and its surrounding neighborhood. My original intent was to go to a cellphone shaped building and see their free, traveling art exhibit. Turned out to be pretty neat - it was all about invisible things in our society such as the internet and cell phones. So it attempted to artistically show how many people are using facebook or twitter or whathaveyou at any given moment in Santiago. It did this using colored tubes with water being pumped through them. There was another part to the exhibit but its meaning was completely lost on me, not necessarily because of the language barrier but moreso because I don't always understand modern art... But, it was a fun little exhibit, and free! So it was well worth it.
Following the museum I got a coffee in a little shop in the parque and caught up on my deportivos - there was a big soccer match last night between the Universidad de Chile y la Universidad Catolica so I was attempting to read up on the match. Some friends and I tried to get tickets to the finals match on Sunday but they sold out in less than 30 minutes.
Anyways. Following a relaxing coffee in the Santiago fall sunshine, I decided just to wander through this part of the city. I managed to stumble across another small museum (this one cost about 2 us dollars) - the Museo Nacional Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna. It's a small museum, with a LOT of writing that is all in Spanish. I managed to slowly work my way through most of it (though I had a significantly larger headache after the museum than I did going into it...) and I found that I was able to understand most of it! Mackenna was a politician in Santiago who's known for bringing the city into the modern age (more or less) and really bringing to light the plight of the lower classes of Santiago. Really the most interesting part of the museum for me was trying to read in Spanish, then finding that I was actually right! Everything here is a surprise... what will I find at the end of this street, what am I eating, what did I just order... Everyday is a delightful surprise :) Makes life much more fun!
Then the real adventure began. I have this habit of thinking that i know where I'm going when i really don't, so I confidently set off on my way. After about 15 minutes I began to think that I didn't know where i was, but that it was high time to chart some new territory, so I kept on going. I kept wandering, taking pictures and not watching what I was doing. Soon enough I was in a part of town that seemed to be getting... less nice and it was starting to get dark. I stopped and realized that I had NO idea where I was and that I needed to find out quickly. Had it not been getting dark I would have not been quite as nervous. So, I started to really think about where I had been and tried to use a map and make my way back to familiar territory. I managed to walk through a really cute little historic part of town (that I need to go back to) but I couldn't entirely enjoy it as that little voice in my head was saying "get home!" After about 30 minutes of aimful wandering (the opposite of aimless wandering?) I managed to come to some things that I recognized and was then able to make my way back to a main road that I knew and then finally make it home.
Today I was with some friends and I was telling them about my adventure and they were terrified when I told them where I was... apparently I had wandered a little too deeply into a part of town that I should not go back to ever again, even in the day light. Oops! But, I'm here writing now so no harm, no foul, right?? All in all, I'm definitely learning to simply enjoy the adventures- my natural tendency is to get nervous and scared but I'm quickly learning that it all works out ok in the end (if nothing else I can always take a cab home!) and that I might as well enjoy it while I'm here!
Today I had a big day! I passed my first exam! WOO! I'm now in the 2nd book! I hear that I'll get to learn to talk in the past tense, thank goodness! I keep confusing my host family by trying to tell them about what I did during the day, but I have to use the present tense so they think that I'm talking about the future (such as what I'm going to do that night) so everyone ends up really confused in the end. But, the main thing is that I'm actually able to describe a lot of things that I'm doing, so that's a plus! Tonight at dinner we were able to have a discussion about politics in Chile! Peruvians in Chile are looked upon in much the same way that Mexicans are in the US - people have Peruvian house cleaners and its Peruvians who are on the street offering to wash your car. It seems that no matter where you go, you'll find these type of relationships.
I'm glad that I can start contributing to conversations, even if it is just a sentence or two here and there. Last night I was able to play some games with my host mom's granddaughter. It was really fun - we were quizzing one another on synonyms and antonyms (in Spanish and English) because it was what we were both learning in school. She's 8. Awesome. But, it was fun to sit around the kitchen table after dinner and chat and play games - I am so lucky to have this host family, they are so wonderful and patient and funny and did I mention patient?
It's just been so much fun to go out and wander through the streets of Providencia - there are so many beautiful and colorful houses here!
OH Today we took the funicular up the Cerro San Cristobal. We were going to hike it, but then decided to just ride instead. I do plan on going back and walking up, in for nothing else than just to say that I did it! The top of the cerro provided a beautiful panoramic view of Santiago and the mountains. It was a mostly clear day, but you could definitely see the smog in the air. It was neat to get such a full view of the city in order to really appreciate how big it is, but also how beautiful it is (smog aside.) I can't believe that I've almost been here a week already! Which leads me to want to soak in as much as possible because it's already flying by!
Well, those are some highlights for you! I'm sure I'll have tons more to write about as tomorrow we're going to Pomaire! We were going to go to Isla Negra on Sunday with my school, but I might just go on my own as our school trip was cancelled because there weren't enough people who signed up to go. Either way, I'll find something wonderful and adventurous to do!
I'll leave you with one of my favorite Pablo Neruda poems (his favorite sea house is in Isla Negra)
Lost in the Forest
Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig
and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips:
maybe it was the voice of the rain crying,
a cracked bell, or a torn heart.
Something from far off it seemed
deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth,
a shout muffled by huge autumns,
by the moist half-open darkness of the leaves.
Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig
sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance
climbed up through my conscious mind
as if suddenly the roots I had left behind
cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood--
and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent.
I LOVE FUNICULARS.
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