Good bye dinner? why am I getting ready for that

I don't even know where to begin. I don't think I understand my emotions. On one hand, I am really looking forward to going home. On the other, I am not quite ready to leave summer in Chile. My perspective on this changes by the hour. Luckily, I have my adventure in Argentina and Uruguay as a sort of transition point.

I gave my research presentation yesterday. It went well, even though I talked fast in order to fit in all the information. We only had 15 min to speak, and considering how much I have worked on and learned about my topic, I have a lot more than that to say. It's just crazy that I am done now. I felt a little purposeless after the presentations ended. But, I guess it is just a lesson in enjoying myself when I am given the opportunity. And I would definitely say that I have been given the opportunity. I went to the beach all day today and it was wonderful. I rode the waves for a while and took advantage of the possibility of tanning in December. It was all lovely.

I think part of the reason that I feel ready to leave sometimes is because I have been realizing the last few weeks how irresponsibly and sporadic my host mom is. Sometimes it just gets hard to live in the middle of her chaos. Still, she is a great person and I feel so lucky to have lived here.Also, my host brother is currently trying to pass 8th grade for the 3rd time, which is adding some extra stress to the family. I think I am ready for my own family's drama and done with other people's.

Tomorrow, I go to the beach and go on my favorite Valparaiso run one more time while beginning to pack. I leave for Buenos Aires Monday evening, but I need to go to Santiago and such, so I will only have a bit of time to finish packing Monday morning.

It's crazy that this is all coming to an end. I have been dreaming about study abroad since I was like 6 and it has always been something in my future. No longer. I haven't really gotten my head around that. I am really going to miss speaking Spanish and learning so much in every day life. I am also going to miss all of the amazing fruits and veggies that are now in season here. I will also miss the wonderful people I have met here. For example, I have really come to appreciate my program's coordinator, Danko. We have had some really interesting discussions about his life and his incredibly knowledge of Chile. I like to think I will see him again one day.

Love to all.

Abstract in English

Some people have told me that they are bummed that they won't be able to read my research paper because it is Spanish. Luckily, the abstract is in English. So here you go:


Resumen

No matter what other circumstances exist, there cannot be true democracy without the representation of all sectors of society, especially a sector that makes over half of the population. In Chile, women have suffered the consequences of unequal political representation since the creation of the state and unfortunately, this phenomenon continues today. In fact, Chilean women hold only sixteen percent of popularly elected offices. Thus, the agendas of Chilean women continue to be under-prioritised and the lack of women in political office remains unaddressed. Although there are groups of non-governmental organizations, activists, and politicians working to increase women’s political representation in Chile, their efforts are limited by lack of resources and social awareness combined with structural barriers.

This independent research project set out to examine the gap between what would need to be done in order to bring about equitable representation of women in the political realm and the steps that are actually being taken. The paper begins with a presentation of an explanation of the split between autonomous and political feminists and how that divergence affects the situation of today. In order to comprehend the environment in which the battle for increased representation of women is occurring. The essay goes on to discuss the major challenges, both structural and social, and the tendencies of feminine representation since the transition to democracy in Chile. From there, the findings of the report are demonstrated. First, the essay explains the circumstances, reforms, and campaigns necessary in order to make equal representation of women a possibility. In goes on from there to present the various actions that are actually being taken to bring about that goal. Finally, the paper compares the required and in-process actions in order to demonstrate the overarching breach.

The actions necessary to make a substantial change range from widespread social campaigns to reforms in the electoral system; however, these types of large scale steps are not currently under way in Chile. Thus, this investigation concludes that the breach between what would need to be done and what is actually being done is quite substantial and thus Chile is not currently set in the direction of gender equity in politics.

waiting time

I have been doing a lot of waiting recently. Waiting for my research advisor to get back to me with her comments on my paper so that I can take those into consideration and make edits and all that good stuff. Currently, I am choosing to wait by doing some sun bathing on my roof. I have to get some color and appreciate the sun before I go back to winter. It is just so gorgeous here, but it seems like it is always the most beautiful on days that I have to do the most work. This option is perfect because i can appreciate the gorgeous port city I live in while staying close to my computer to see if my advisor has gotten back to me. I am also listening to some Manuel Garcia, which I recommend to everyone. I saw him live a week or so ago and his songs are wonderful.

The paper is going well. A very close to finished draft is due tomorrow. I feeling good about it. And i am definitely not worried about the academic standards of my program. I have decided that my new standard is to be confident enough in my final product to send it to my favorite professor at Oxy and the women I have interviewed here in Chile. A bunch of them has asked to see my final product and they definitely deserve to, considering they have offered me their time and expertise. I feel really lucky to have been able to spend time with the group of women I interviewed. They are incredibly smart and dedicated to improving the lives of Chilean Women. I guess they were glad to see that a young woman was so interested in their work and what they have to say because tehy were incredibly generous with their time.

María de los Ángeles, a boss of a woman that I had the honor to interview, was super duper amazing and actually got me invited to the annual presentation of the National Service of Women at the Presidential Palace. We went together yesterday and it was really cool. The Minister quoted Mar´â while I was sitting next to her so I was obviously sitting with the right crowd. Once the presentation was over, María and I waited for the Minister and she came over the say hi. María told her taht I was here researching political representation of women in Chile. The Minister told me to come back to Chile and run for political office here. That might be pushing a whole other level of imperialism. It was overall just a funny experience.

My friend Emie is coming on Thursday night and I am super stoked. It is really out of the blew, we decided the whole thing on Saturday, but now it's happening it it will be great. I am looking forward to showing someone around this city that I love so much. I currently have exactly 2 weeks left in Chile. Which is absolutely crazy, but I want to make sure and take advantage of my last days here. Once i turn in my project, I will really feel free to live the Valpo life.

My advisor just sent me an update so I am going to go up to my friend Rose's house to do some writing. She lives close and has a good space to work in. Plus, I get to look over the whole city and ocean as I wor, which is pretty awesome.

Love from Chile!

So much time with my tape recorder...

Actually, that is what I should be doing right now. Basically, I should always be transcribing. But that will end soon. I have my last interview tomorrow. I shouldn't complain because it's only because I have had so many successful interviews that I have to spend so much time transcribing. One interview was an hour and a half long. This is all in Spanish remember. Transcribing takes forever and it's all really interesting and all, but it can also get tedious.

I have also been able to attend some really cool events related to my topic. On Friday I went to a Chilean Senate briefing on women in politics women's rights. It was super cool and I got to use my US House of Reps pen (that can write in outer spacer) to take notes at a Chilean congressional event.

I am going back to Valpo to do a bunch of writing and see friendly faces either Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning. I am still figuring that out. Santiago has been good to me but I am looking forward to being with the other students again in such a cool city that is so much easier to get around. Santiago is just so much bigger and although my house and host family are great, our house is a bit detached. Anyway, going back will be good but there will also be more distractions. But at the same time, we will all need to be writing a lot.

I am gonna go back to transcribing now.

Research, research, research

I am pretty sure that is all I do these days. I read a lot and write a good amount (that amount is on the uprise) and interview people after writing a bunch of interview questions. This is by far the hardest I have worked during this semester. The first 2 months were pretty low on the work level, but that has all changed. I also think that living in Santiago has made me really focus on my project but sometimes I feel like I am making up work for myself, but I am learning a lot so who cares. I have read everything that I can get my hands on that has to do with the political participation or representation of women in Chile. Both in English and Spanish. I have actually begun to learn to skim in Spanish, a new feat.

Speaking of new feats, I TALK IN MY SLEEP IN SPANISH NOW!!! The most recent time apparently I sounded like I was conducting an interview in Spanish. I guess that shows what is on my mind. It was Lauren Wemple who told me about this particular incidence since she spent Friday night here. We had a very lovely time together considering that we can talk for hours and hours and still find things to converse about and analyze. I needed that so it was much appreciated. It's also really exciting because we are both so excited about our research projects, but at the same time I think that made our days off together that much more needed. We had a failed attempt on hiking on Saturday but we still ended up climbing a mountain so it worked out. We both agree that my host parents in Santiago are incredibly generous, welcoming, and wonderful. They fed us well and think of anything we could possibly need. Ceci, mi mama, took us on the failed attempt to go hiking on Saturday and wasted 2 hours in the car with us looking for the national reserve and was trying to cheer us up. She even found us the other park to go hiking in! We just chatted the whole time and she was so incredibly positive and happy!

I spent today writing my introduction and the intro-context to my paper along with my methodology. So far so good. Tomorrow I have 2 more interviews at Corporación Humanas, the main organization I am working with. Things are rolling along quite nicely but sometimes research is just intense, especially in my second language in a foreign city/country. I go back and forth from incredible highs to lows, but overall, I feel so lucky to be here living with such a welcoming family and spending all of my days learning about what I want to learn about.

This whole research thing

This personal research thing in such a short period of time is quite something. I don't really know how to approach it, but I am doing my best. Which, usually means that I spend most of my day reading whatever I can get my hands on (in English or Spanish) that has anything to do with the political participation of women in Chile. I have now found two Oxy professors in the bibliographies of my secondary research, Jaquette and Heldman. It's nice to know that I have such awesome people around me at Oxy that care about a subject I currently have so much passion for.

Scheduling things in this time frame is one of the largest challenges, especially because I am trying to talk to some very busy women. Obviously, they are busy with very interesting things, which is why I want to interview them. Still, I feel lucky to have any contact with them. I visited Humanas for the first time today (it is not easy to find) and talked with the women who basically runs the political participation project. She invited me to an event on Thursday and we are going to have a more-formal interview in the near future.

I have hope and I am so excited to be literally studying what I want all day every day, but at the same time it is sort of intense. Mostly, it is just far out of my comfort zone, but that is a good thing. And this research is a large part of the reason that I choose this program.

It helps a lot that my Santiago host family is really wonderful. I just finished a conversation with my host mom about women in politics and it was really interesting to hear her perspective. I told her about Michelle Bachman and how sad it is that she is the type of women we have trying to get to the top levels of government. Apparently my host mom's father was a mayor for a while and her mom and sister have both run for political positions as well. In the 70s, she was very active in MIR, the leftist revolutionary movement that worked to bring about the "proletariat of the workers." I can't believe these are the things I get to hear about on a daily basis. It's like living in a library.

Night night!

Check In

I have arrived in Santiago safe and sound and I am feeling much more confident than I was before. Danko, the coordinator of my program came with me to Santiago and not only did he show me much of the logistical/necessary things, we also had some lovely conversation and he reminded me of how well I am taken care of here. During on our conversation on the bus, he told me how he was kicked out of law school because he was a communist during the dictatorship. He was in the best school in the country, getting the best grades, but never finished his career because they expelled him and then changed his records to say that he was not allowed to attend any public university in Chile.

He took me to my new home, where I met my host dad and 12-year-old sister; took me to the office of my advisor; and showed me around Santiago some. Although I did not meet my advisor today, being in her office reminded me so much of my internship this summer. There is just a certain environment in political offices. Also, both offices are currently suffering the same problem where they work in a system controlled by a different party, in both cases, parties way to the right of them.

So far, I am loving this family. They are super easy to talk with and they remind me so much of my own family. My sister is incredibly well-informed for a 12-year-old and so opinionated and sounds a lot like me when I was her age. Within the first hour I was in the house, she told her dad that he was not allowed to smoke cigarettes, which reminded me of how I told me dad that he wasn't allowed to chew tobacco anymore at the exact same age. She makes fun of the right-wing government and reads political cartoons. It is hilarious to see her interact with her parents because so much of what she does reminds me of myself. The family is quite similar to my real family in other ways too. For example, my host dad is super attached and protective of his daughter (and I am not saying that is a bad things). I am really looking forward to getting to know the family more and discussing all kinds of things with them. I am becoming less sure of how often I will visit Valpo, not that I will even have the time to do so. I really need to get to work on a whole other level than I have been. Tomorrow's meeting with my advisor will help.

From the campo to the big city

Hello all! It has been a while since I last wrote and I have so much to say so I hope I can cover the basics. I got back on Monday from the south of Chile (Temuco and Pucon). I stayed in the Campo for a week with a Mapuche host family and then lived at a hostel in Pucon for the rest of my time. I was with 11 other students and we studied various facets of the Mapuche way of life and the challenges they face in today's modernized world.

I absolutely loved my host family. I had a mother, who went to the city everyday to work as a cook: a father, who was the community's leader and worked in the fields during the day; a 19-year old brother, who works as a chauffeur in the city and helps his dad around the farm; and a 7-year-old sister, who attends the local school. I also lived with Susan, another student on my program. Our host parents were really easy to talk to and were able to have some really quality time with them. We played so much soccer with our sister and the other local kids. We also made empanadas and sopapillas with our mom.

This is our house and piece of land:

Our family also had other fields for their potatoes, beans, and horse.

This is our family with empanadas:

This was our extremely adorable little sister:

We lived in an absolutely gorgeous community that had one road running through it. All of the gringos lived in houses along that road so walking between our houses was quite easy. We took walks with our host siblings almost every day and taught chilean kids how to appreciate a long walk in the country.

The one main road:

I had some really interesting conversations with both my host family and other students on the trip during our time in the campo. I had a long talk with my host mom about relationships and family dynamics. It was fascinating to hear her perspective and it made me realize, in conjunction with other experiences I had during my time in the south, that we are really all the same. The average person is trying to make a living while making time for other important things in life, usually family. The challenges that my host family faces really aren't that different from families all over the world. Susan and I also talked with our brother about the leadership position that our dad holds. He is the Lonko of the community, which means that he is consulted on pretty much anything that happens among the community. Students need his permission to leave the community to go to school and ceremonies require him to start them. The position of Lonko is supposed to be passed through the family line, but following that line in today's modern world seems to be quite difficult. Our brother told us that he would unlikely take on the role because he will most likely have to move into the city for work, which leaves Nelly, our 7-year-old sister who likes to draw, play Go Fish, and spells my name Llesi. He said that there would be no problem with her being a girl, but I would be very interested to see how that works out. Overall the reality of less kids and urbanization, among with others, are obviously changing how these traditions with continue. I also had some lovely talks with Susan about all sorts of things and I felt lucky to have her with me to process and appreciate our experience there.

Academically, we studied a wide variety of things in the south that all related to the historical, current, and future realities and challenges that the Mapuche people face. Particularly, we had lectures on the role of women in the society, the history of the indigenous rights movement in Chile, the relation between the Pueblo Mapuche and the neoliberal economic model, Mapuche music, and Mapuche spirituality. Overall the lectures were interesting but sometimes were quite repetitive. One of my favorite parts was visiting a intercultural school where the students learn normal chilean curriculum with a very large emphasis on Mapuche roots and traditions. All students are required to learn Mapudungun and all the tracks available to students have a deep connection to the Mapuche culture. We talked to administrators, professors, and students at the school and they all had interesting things to say. All of the students we talked to had aspirations of going to university and them returning to their respective communities to give back. It was all so incredible to see. Unfortunately,it is the only school of its kind in the nation.

While in Pucon, I CLIMBED A HUGE, ACTIVE, SNOW-COVERED VOLCANO! It's name is Villarrica and it was so incredibly awesome. I went with 3 other girls and we were with a group with 2 guides, a brazilian, and 2 british women. We need ice picks, spiked clamp-ons for our boots, and sledding dippers to do it, but it was awesome! We loved our guides and had an amazing day as we hiked above the clouds!!!

Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the very top due to toxic gasses. We would have made it considering our pace and how much time/energy we had. We were a little bummed, but the fun of sledding down a volcano made us forget our sadness quite quickly.

Now I am back in Valparaiso after an awesome 2 weeks. However, I leave tomorrow for Santiago where I will be doing my month-long research project. I have had a couple of really nice days back in Valpo to see people and hang out a bit while doing the basics to start my project. I love this city, but I need to venture to the capital to carry out my project. I have talked to my advisor, who is female, communist-party, politician and we have a meeting set for Friday so I will see how that goes. It looks like I will also be living with very far-left-leaning family so I cannot claim to be embarking on an unbiased academic adventure. I am a little nervous about leaving Valpo, a city I love and know with lots of friends, but I know my project and a new adventure is worth it. Plus, Santiago holds almost half the population of Chile so to understand the country, I feel like I need to understand the city. It is just another adventure that will push me beyond my comfort zone, and that is the whole point of study abroad so HERE I GO!

Point of Transition

We have officially ended our first, and largest, section of the semester. Well, I suppose I still have a test to send into my professor, but for all intensive purposed, we are done. No more Spanish classes at Casa SIT (where we have our classes) or seminars at Santa Maria University. Our six solid weeks of this routine has come to a close and we leave on Monday for our excursion in the north or south of Chile. I have chosen to go south to live with and study the Mapuche, Chile's most significant indigenous population that like many other indigenous groups around the world, has suffered incredible discrimination and strife. We have learned some basics about the Mapuches and the challenges they face here in Valparaiso, but after two weeks in the south, I will know so much more. It is a bit odd to be leaving Valpo, especially considering I will be spending most of November in Santiago. Right when I have come to know and love this city, I am leaving. But, I know I will be back.

To finish off our Spanish classes right, our professors spiced up classes this week. We have had many classes in cafes and such (which has been amazing), but this week included a graffiti walk of Valparaiso and it was AWESOME! Valparaiso is the second graffiti capital of South America and incredible murals and graffiti line the streets. Although I have passed by plenty on my own, our teacher showed us new spots and told us all about the artists.

Keep in mind this is just a normal loading dock.

To make the graffiti walk that much more amazing, there were wonderful views of the ocean and town the entire time.

Yesterday,I traveled up the coast to Horcon, a hippie beach town with absolutely amazing seafood empenadas. The bus ride was longer than we expected but the vistas made up for it. Surprisingly enough, the chilean hillsides are covered with "california" poppies. We spent our day eating shrimp, crab, and scallop empenadas at various seafood shacks, laying on the beach, buying sweaters from trift stores, and eating more seafood. All in all, a great day.

Now I am in the mindset of getting things done before I leave for my excursion. I will not be bringing my computer and thus, I need to make sure that all my technological duties are up to date. I need to pack lots of warm sweaters (some of which from the Horcon hole-in-the-wall of a thrift store, patch one of my two pairs of jeans, buy fresh jam for my Mapuche host family, and soak in the amazing life that is Valparaiso.

Love to all!!!

Películas, Películas, Películas

I am going to try and keep this on topic (movies), but first I have a few quick notes.

First of all, I just talked a Swedish guy in the streets because he thought I was Swedish. Just another reminder of how much I stick out here. Sweden would have been one of the few places I could have studied abroad and had a chance of blending in.

Second, I just got back from an awesome free concert. It included a very wide variety of music and there was no telling when it was going to end, but overall, very happy with it. At one point, this very old man sang his little heart out on stage and it was one of the most amazing things I have ever witnessed.

Third, I have to come to a point of more clarity about my personal research project that is creeping up on me. It looks like I will be doing a case study of an organization in Santiago, that among other things, works to encourage and increase women's participation in Chilean politics.

Fourth, the rest of this post is going to make it sound like I have not-stop good luck with movies, but that would be wrong. Although I have seen a couple of awesome movies over the last week, I have also had some troubles with movies. Last night, a group of us tried to go see Midnight in Paris for real cheap but it was completely sold out because of its cheapness. Then today, our program went to go watch the new movie on Violeta Parra, the first fold singer of Chile, but there were technical issues so we ended up watching another movie instead. The replacement movie was also worth seeing though. It was about the music of Valparaiso and had some wonderful history and vistas of my current home. You can watch the entire movie on YouTube and I would recommend it for a taste of this wonderful city.

Okay, here we go:

Recently, I have been watching some awesome movies on Chile and every time I see one I think about how I want to share them with people back home. A couple of weeks ago, I watched the Shock Doctrine for class and it was fascinating. You can find it on YouTube. It does a very unique job of connecting many points of history and weaving them together to tell the story of the implementation of neoliberalism. Chile was the first case where Milton Friedman's free market, neoliberal model was put into place. Basically, it was the test tube baby that countries like the US and England used as their playground. Chile still lives in this model today and I see the consequences all day long. Here's the trailer.

Last week, I watched Machuca with all the other kids in my program. It is a powerful movie that shows the friendship of two young boys, one of upper and one of lower class, before, during, and after the Chilean military coup. There is a couple of weird scenes in this one, but overall an awesome movie. That does not mean that it will leave you smiling. Honestly, I didn't really know what to say after this one. I think of all the movies I will mention, I recommend this one most. Machuca is not a documentary but it is based on real facts so you can learn something while being entertained. Here's the trailer.

I would also highly recommend La Ciudad de los fotógrafos, which is a film about the fearless photographers and photojournalists who documented strikes, demonstrations, and protests during the Chilean military regime of Augusto Pinochet. Their organization and passion moved the transition to democracy along while capturing the truth about the brutality Chileans were facing in public. The combination of images and music in this movie might make you cringe or cry (like it did to me), but it is fabulously done. One of the most remarkable things about this film are the interviews with the photographers themselves, who really aren't that old. It reminds me yet again that the military regime in Chile didn't end that long ago and many of the people I interact with actually lived through it. Here's the trailer.

Lastly, for something a bit lighter and more outdoorsy, I would suggest 180 Degrees South. None of the online descriptions do it justice, so just take my word that its worth watching. It compiles incredible views and history of Chile's magnificent naturaleza. Although I have pretty much no desire to climb horrifically dangerous mountains of ice, it's cool to hear the stories of people on the hunt to do so. Here's the trailer.

All of these movies have something to offer and sure do make me think. I would love to talk about these more with people once they have seen them, but I don't want to ruin their story lines. In general, being here, watching these movies, and thinking back on my life thus far has really made me appreciate my opportunities. I feel so lucky to be doing what I am doing and learning what I am learning. As they say, Gracias a la vida.

Love to all,

American exchange students join in on the Chilean education protests

Today, class included going to a march for more accessible and higher quality education. Considering that we have been studying the Chilean education system and the demands of the student movement, it fit perfectly into our curriculum. The biggest fault in the Chilean education system is that it is highly privatized (in theme with the rest of Chile) and it reflects/strengthens the class structure. Similar to the US, students who are from middle or high class families have the opportunity to attend high performing public schools or private schools while everyone else is left hanging. However, in Chile, public schools have less resources while the federal government takes less responsibility for the performance of the schools. The students here are fed up. They have decided to take over their schools (both universities and high schools) until the government responds. Some student are taking part in hunger strikes to show their passion.

The students, along with the support of professors and other sectors of the country, are asking for universal education through university. Their specific demands include more accountability from the federal government, a new system to train professors, greater financial support, and removal of the credit system many students use to finance their education. In reality, the students have made 21 requests, but many of them are vague in nature.

Here is an article on the protests if you want more information.
This article shows a lot of images of innocent people being tear gassed, but I don't want anyone to worry. I have only felt tear gas from a distance and there are ways to attend protests and avoid the violence that often occurs near the end.

Honestly, watching the events here has made us American students question why the streets of cities in the United States are filled with enraged students. Our system has many of the same problems, along with some of our own, and yet people sit idly by. The California public university systems are charging students more and more every couple of months while directing less resources towards each student. And yet, there is little to no response. Why is the youth of Chile more willing to stand up and fight? They have been arrested and tear gassed and continue to rally in the streets.

Today was an awesome experience. The passion of the students was obvious and they were joined by people of all generations and walks of life. It was incredible to see 12-year-olds fighting for the future of their country. I don't even know if there are many American 12-year-olds willing to dedicate a significant part of their day to a social cause.

I love seeing people like this at student marches. It's not like their education will get cheaper or not, they just realize how crucial education is in a society.

Us gringos showing our support!

The scene:

Some of my favorite signs:

I am one lucky girl. This weekend is fiestas patrias (independence day), which means that I get a four day weekend. I am not complaining and I think I have made very good use of my days off so far.

Truly, my weekend began earlier this week with some preparation. By which I mean, learning the Cuaca! (The national dance of Chile). We had an entire lesson on it on Thursday and it has proven helpful.

Then I really got the weekend going with some Chilean wine tasting on Friday and it was magnificent.

Picture an amazingly beautiful vineyard in the middle of Chilean wine country where everything is cheaper and it's legal for 20-year-olds to drink. Let's just say, it was delightful.

To top it all off, we had some lovely conversation. And Lauren decided she is getting married there, so looks like I'll be able to go back :)

Yesterday, I went exploring the cerros of Valparaiso. Noah, Rory and I decided to hike up to see Pablo Neruda's house and lucky for us the walk up there is a museum in itself.

After climbing the hills of Valparaiso, we went and found yourselves a futbol game in an oceanside stadium. It was complete with military men everywhere, considering that futbol games can get a little out of hand in Latin America. We thought we showed up on time, but during what we thought was half time, everyone started to leave. After a lot of uncertainty, we realized we had gotten there an hour during half time. So, it had felt like the beginning of the game when it was really half way done.

Then, my day continued with a authentic fiestas patrias street festival. I ended up helping mi mama's friend with her food stand. Basically, I had to be on top of my game because people were in great need of there guacamole, mayonnaise, and ketchup covered hot dogs and it was my job to get it to them while getting them the right change. It was quite something. I made friends with these really cute old women too and made time to do some dancing with mi mama.

Today, with no previous knowledge, I ended up going to a family party with mi mama. Obviously my Spanish needs some more work because I thought we were going back to the street fair and then we got on a bus... and it was the same bus that we took to Con Con (a town to the north where her family lives), so I thought we were going there... and then we got off in Vina del Mar and walked for a while. This whole time, I had no idea where we were going and I had told friends that I could meet up with them later so in my head I kept altering what I was planning to tell them. Everything worked out better than fine. We ate and drank delicious meat and Chilean wine for hours. Mi mama's best friend is awesome so we talked for hours.

Here is mi mama and I. You can see Leo, my brother, in the background.

Now, I am off to go meet Maya for some Dieziocho festivities!

Museo de Derechos Humanos

My class visited el Museo de Derechos Humanos (Museum of Human Rights) today in Santiago. It was a very sobering experience that was difficult to reflect on in Spanish. Basically, dictator Pinochet caused chaos and pain throughout his 17 years in power (1973-1990) and his legacy continues to hurt Chile. Despite the extensive number of people killed, disappeared, and tortured, many Chileans continue to pretend the atrocities were meager and justified by Chile's greater evolution. In this way, Pinochet continues to cripple Chile, although he has been dead for almost 5 years. Similarly, Pinochet basically wrote Chile's new constitution and was allowed to become a lifelong Senator of Chile even after Chile's supposed transition to Democracy. Thus, many politically-active Chileans still consider the government one of Pinochet. For this reason, Chile has been blocked from true and significant progress and many Chileans have given up hope. They consider all presidents to be the same, in large part because the work only within the framework of what Pinochet's constitution allows them too.

Although I am still a novice to this topic, I think it is essential that Chileans educate themselves and each other about the terror that occurred. They must understand the faults of the past in order to move on to the promise of the future. At the same time, Americans must also understand the significant role of the US government in supporting the military dictatorship in Chile. We are a large part of why the coup happened in the first place and our promotion of human rights abuses did not stop there. It is our job to keep our government accountable so that suffering is kept at a minimum.

I am looking forward to learning more about the past, present, and future of Chile. So far, I have found the politics intriguing but also depressing.

My View

So my house has an awesome view of the ocean and Valparaiso. Here it is:

Also, I had my Spanish test to see which level I should be in. We begin class tomorrow, but things are still pretty relaxed here.

I am having a bit of a struggle narrowing down my options for independent research at the end of the trip. I don't have to know exactly what I want to study now, but I would like to have a better idea. Originally, I wanted to study the future of women in Chilean politics. That is still a very good option but everywhere I turn there seems to be interesting things to study. For example, the education protests here are really interesting. Basically, the students and teachers are asking for cheeper education and overall reform to make education more accessible. Most of the local universities are shut down for the protests and it's really relevant to current politics and my life as a student. I am still in exploration mode but let me know if you have any ideas. I am new to this research thing.

I am moved in (Kind of)

I will try to make this post a little more comprehensive. I am currently sitting on my couch in my new house. I will have more pictures of the house soon, but for now, let me just say that this house is awesome. There are so many colors and it has such character. Here is a picture of my super adorable room.

Also, we have an awesome rooftop patio where I can sit on the roof and do basically whatever I want. Mostly, I plan on soaking in some sun, appreciating the wonderful view of the ocean, watching the world go by, and reading up there.

I have already gone of two walks around my new neighborhood with my host mom, Paulina. I live in a super artistic area where there are homemade crafts and street art everywhere. One of these days, I will need to really document the wonderful street art. Mi Mama has a craft store near by our house so she really fits into the scene here. She is friends with a lot of the artists in town, and a bunch of other people too. The second walk we went on was with her friend that has a one-year-old daughter. I also have a 16-year-old host brother named Leo. I think I will probably spend more time with Paulina from what she said but we get along very well so there is nothing wrong with that. I have to admit I was a little nervous to meet my new fam and move into a new place, but I am really happy with the results. No more nervousness, expect maybe about figuring out my way around this town with incredibly curvy streets and a public transportation system I don't understand yet.

Last night I met my host cousin too, Florencia Paz. All the American students met up with a younger member of their new family in a local bar and then we hung out in a huge group for a long time. It was a really fun experience but it was also a little overwhelming. There were so many people and we were all speaking in Spanish over each other. My host cousin speaks pretty good English so she was kind of bummed that I spoke Spanish and wanted to practice it more. She is 21 and studying architecture, which I know plenty about. Basically, we had no lack of things to talk about.

After that, we stayed out and explored a little more. There is a pretty good chance that we stayed out dancing till 3am... Basically, Maya's host brother is a boss and works at one of the most hoppin' clubs in town. Thus, the huge group of us didn't have to wait in the huge line and went straight into to a rockin' party. There is also a small chance that I had a dance-off with a mime on a short stage...

The other thing I want to mention is how beautiful the beach is here. Some of us gringas sat on the beach for a while yesterday in the late afternoon and it was gorgeous. It was only a ten minute walk from our hotel.

Orientation

We have been kept very busy with orientation activities, but I will try to give a quick update. Basically, we have done a lot of going over the rest of our program. In the session we just got out of, they went over our Spanish classes and the volunteer work that we are going to do with some Mapuche, a Chilean indigenous tribe. Although sometimes the overviews of these programs are repetitive, but they get me excited for the rest of the semester too.

We spend a lot of time with our Academic Directors, Choqui, Danko, and Sergio. Danko is really nice but also a big fan of talking for hours and hours. He usually starts out with something relevant and then that somehow leads into something related to communist movements in Latin America. All of the program leaders love their job and have been doing this for a long time, so they know what they are doing.

My program has 24 students and 6 of us are from Oxy, so we are a little overpowering, but I think we have done a good job of integrating. All the people are really passionate and glad to be here. A lot of us have very similar interests because of the program's focus. Still, it is so nice to have some of favorite Oxy people with me. Maya Kumar (Ku Ku Mai Mai)and I went on an awesome walk on the beach yesterday. We really needed to share some summer stories so it was a worthy use of our time.

I need to go eat lunch now, but I will try to add more soon. And some pictures! I think another Oxy person, Lauren Wemple, will have some pictures of our excursion last night at a Karaoke bar.

Delayed Start

It turns out I am still sitting in California. During my morning drive down to the San Francisco Airport, I got a lovely call from Lauren Wemple (a fellow oxy student on my trip who I was planning to fly with) saying "stop the car! Our flight was cancelled." Thus, I am sitting on her couch in Lafayette. We are taking the same flight out tomorrow. Hopefully that one will go smoother.

Leaving tomorrow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DArtWpCU-IE

bye bye USA! See you in December!