Bomb Threats and Beer Fests

So, last week was just a normal week in Valdivia, except Katherine’s mom and grandma came to visit. We went to cerveseria Kuntsmann one night and then to the Casino another night and it was good to get to meet them and they were super sweet. The week was riddled with bomb threats throughout the city (several on campus and then one in the casino where we were eating). And those bomb threats carried over into the beginning of this week where there was one yesterday, one today, and classes have been cancelled for tomorrow. Spectacular. Well, at least the weather is getting warmer so I think we are going to head out on a day trip to Curinanco and Parque Oncol, so we will see where we end up.

Anyways, I’ll get to that in a minute. But, the interesting thing about Friday was, aside from fake bombs, the fact that it was dia de Profe, or Teacher’s day. Yes. This was cool. So Teacher’s day here is not exactly like ‘teacher appreciation week’ in the US. Do let me explain: so I arrive at Colegio Domus Mater bright and early only to be informed that we are only going to be having one class today because all other classes had been cancelled….um? another bomb threat? Nooo silly! Teacher’s day! I was greeted by enthusiastic  hugs and kisses from students and faculty alike, thanking me and sincerely wishing me a happy day! It was incredible! Mainly because I’m not a teacher! But I guess I kind of am in their eyes…anyways, so on Teacher Day, classes are cancelled and the students hold a luncheon/brunch for the teachers where they all bring in homemade cakes, cookies, chocolate out the wazoo. It was delish. And not only that, the teachers were brought presents and gifts and the students from each grade gave a performance of some type- singing, dancing, musical what not…all in honor of the teachers. I have never seen such a spectacle. Which brings me to lots and lots of thoughts on the way teachers are viewed in terms of respect in the United States…but another day…So, with my purse full of chocolate and little presents, I headed home, thinking about how gratifying it must be to be a teacher if this is how the students view you. 

And no, I’m still not inspired. I will never be a teacher mom. Take solace in that!

So, quick review of this weekend, we attended the Artesanal festival de cervesa (or the Artisan Beer Festival). Valdivia is pretty much known for having the best beer in the region due to all the German influence in the area. So we went, watched a live band play ‘Smoke on the Water’,  saw some drunken kids storm the stage for a purely mediocre performance, pushed our way through hordes of people wearing paper German hats, tried an artisan beer (still convinced that it isn’t that good…), bought a manjar filled churro, and walked home. At least we can say that we went to the mini-beer fest. Because Valdivia apparently has a HUGE beerfest in the summer time with parades and all get up.

The international Cine Fest was also this weekend…but I failed and didn’t make it to any screening. Ah well. But, on the bright side, Saturday I was supposed to go but they re-routed the micros for the beer fest so I missed the movie. I decided that it was a beautiful day outside and that I was instead going to go juggle or shoot on the field on campus. Of course when I got there, both fields were occupied, but one of the fields was occupied with a WOMEN’S MATCH. Mind blown. Cue series of events and conversations and guess who is now going to be playing for the UACh Women’s soccer team!?!? Well, I can’t say that its going to be nearly as intense as wolfpack soccer (I’m pretty sure the girls were toe-ing the ball instead of passing it…)…but it should be more fun! The girls were really excited to meet me and we are supposed to have practice on Wednesday….bomb threat permitting. So fingers crossed I’ll be playing soccer and meeting new friends real soon! I cannot wait!

Cue Monday, another day at colegio, another bomb threat, and a random trip to el centro. Last night I was watching the professional Chilean soccer league coverage on the news, and I asked Rodolfo and Marisol who Colo Colo was. You see, there is a pro soccer team here called Colo Colo. Anyways, I remember learning in class that he was a Mapuche but I couldn’t remember the details. So I asked and Marisol said “oh he’s a Mapuche” and I followed up “yes, but what did he do?” Rodolfo chimes in “I don’t know but he must have been really good at futbol”….bahahaha I died. Rodolfo never fails to crack me up. Turns out Colo Colo was some type of valiant fighter or something and was a war chief of sorts. So I asked Marisol if the Mapuche have an issue with the soccer team using their name, essentially…and she said “No, I imagine that all of the Mapuche are Colo Colinos (Colo Colo fans)” ….oh dear. This family. Just like my own I swear. She continued to tell me this story about her nephew who, when he was younger, asked why they (Catholics) couldn’t eat meat on Friday. So his mom (Marisol’s sister) tried to explain about the Friday meat thing….Jorge Andres, not understanding, said “But mom, that doesn’t apply to us. We aren’t Catholics, we are Colo-Colinos!” ahahaha! It was too funny. Gotta love little kids, and little soccer fanatics at that.

Other funny things Rodolfo has said recently:

-          Rodolfo: “Why isn’t Cathy coming to lunch?”

-          Me: “I dunno…she just called me and told me she wasn’t”

-          Rodolfo: “Oh! That’s right, I remember, she told me she would be setting off bombs at the university this afternoon”

-          Me: “BAHAHAHHA tell her to STOP!!”

Rodolfo on the salmon we had at lunch that was served with tomatoes:

-          Rodolfo: “Would you like a ‘tomate marino’”

-          Vale: “uhh what?”

-          Me: “AHAHAHA a marine tomato! Because it’s with the fishes!”

-          Vale: “uyyyy you two….ridiculous”

I know that I encourage him, but he really is funny. 

Anyways, that’s the weekly update. I sent some emails to my professors to see if I can finish classes a week earlier than planned. And I also received a box full of cookies and brownies from the Kaplan House crew back in Raleigh! Shout out to y’all!!

Alright that’s it.

Chao, besos, nos vemos!

So easy a GRINGA can do it.

Things we did this weekend: 
1. Bussed to Frutillar Bajo
2. Experienced old-time Germanic-ally influenced Chile
3. Explored a German settlement and bought horseshoes from an old Chilean man who promised us good luck
4. Broke into a forestry reserve
5. Screwed around on the shores of Llanquihue
6. Ate at a tavern and had a sandwich situation
7. Ate delicious kuchen #1
8. Woke up and ate delicious kuchen #2 after spending the night in a mini-market
9. Missed a bus to Puerto Octay
10. Converted a Colectivo driver into a personal chauffer
11. Had an octogonal building to ourselves on a farm in the middle of nowhere.
12. hitchhiked to Las Cascadas
13. Hiked to a waterfall and through Jurassic Park
14. Hitchhiked back to the farm
15. Erin lost some valuables
16. Ate dinner and delicious kuchen #3
17. Woke up and went kayaking for dirt cheap all morning
18. Had valuables remarkably returned
19. had unexpected layover in Osorno with nothing to do but eat
20. Bought the most expensive bus tickets because they were literally the last seats left
21. Got back to Valdivia and plopped down in bed

Overall- our little weekender adventure was fun. Too much quality time, but we lived to tell the tale. We definitely took the road less traveled on this one by hitting up small towns that see a tourist once a year. I'm going to upload pics and videos in the near future and maybe even a map or something. Really- it was cool and traveling through Chile is so easy, even a gringa can do it.

Loving Chile, life, and long blog entries (Sorry mom!)

Hooray to being not sick anymore!! I’m all healed up and should play catch up now on the blog I suppose.

Welp. Sunday, there was a new development. And the only reason I am relaying this information is because it becomes critical in the near future. The dryer broke. Yep. The ancient clothes dryer that would only work if you strategically placed an old broom handle just so on the door that it was held shut. Yep. That sucker broke. So Marisol made a family announcement that we would be air-drying clothes until they got a new one. And ‘soon’ she assured us. But we all know the time sensitivity of things here in Chile.

I guess I’ll jump around for a second. Well I spent pretty much a week and a half, a little more. Coughly and sickly and grossly lying in bed. Boring. Aka I didn’t do anything worth bloggage. I went to Domus Mater and got to meet the 5^th grade class, which was fun because they were all kinds of excited about my being there and as such, they bombarded me with questions. One little boy, Pablo, grilled me about my soccer knowledge- which, to be honest, astonished him that I knew the difference between Barcelona and Man U. Let’s just say I’m Pablo’s new hero, and maybe I’ll even bring him one of the player cards mom sent me down with…anyways. The other kids quizzed me about my pop culture knowledge “Who is your favorite band?” (my response: haa what genre says the music buff) “Do you know Michael Jackson?” (personally? Yesh. No, I’m joking, MJ is dead. Sorry kids) “Do you like the Jonas Brothers?” Now, this last one was a critical question in establishing myself with the class. Do I like the Jonas Brothers? No, I can’t say that I do. 

Cue uproarious applause and cheering from the 5^th graders. I couldn’t understand why until they all went around and introduced themselves to me in English, telling me a special fact about themselves while they did. Example “Hi I’m Pablo and I play on a soccer team”. Great. Except approximately 90% percent of the introductions were as such: “Hi, I’m Patricia and I like Justin Beiber” “Hi, I’m Paola, and Justin Bieber is my favorite singer” or “Hi I’m Macarena and my favorite movie is ‘Never Say Never’” (Which sidenote, is the same thing as saying your favorite singer is J. Biebs) and the best one: “Hi I’m Juan, and I’m a ‘belieber’”. Well, at least I know where the loyalties lie of the 5^th graders. Jonas Brothers is a dirty word, and non-beliebers are blasphemous. Well, I’m glad we got that settled 5^th grade.

Moving on…So Cathy and the gang were all out of town in Pucon last weekend so I hit the town with my Chilean friend Luz, some of her friends and…brace yourselves…THE Katherine Haddock. Yep that’s right, Katherine agreed to go out dancing with us! I was excited to introduce her to the night life of Valdivia to say the least. So, how this actually went down was that one of Luz’s friends was singing in a Karaoke competition (Is that weird? Well it shouldn’t be because she was reallyyyy good). So we got free tickets and got to get into the casino for free to watch the show. I’ve never seen Karaoke done so well. There is like this closet Karaoke culture that must exist in Chile because this turned out to be a regional competition. Remarkable.

After that, we hit up a disco where us gringas were immediately scoped out by the eagle-eyed hawks that are Chilean college guys. With no class and no worries, its only natural that we are the new ‘project’. So with that being said, a pair of guys came up and asked us to dance, I wasn’t really feeling it (sorry, they weren’t number 16 on the Torreones…)so I glanced back at Luz with desperate eyes and said ‘no entiendo’ (I don’t understand) which in girl language means ‘get me out of this PLEASE’ but she just laughed and pushed us onward. I swear they must get a kick out of our awkward dancing and lack of rhythm…anyways so I danced with this rando guy for a solid 10 minutes or so and had fun because if I’m gonna be dancing with a rando guy, I might as well have fun with it. Anyways, in the process. And this is the point of this whole build up. Homeboy asks me if my boyfriend is good looking, to which I instinctually replied ‘oh I don’t have a boyfriend’ MISTAKE. Dang. I really need to learn to make up a fake macho boyfriend for instances like this. So of course my dancing partner says ‘oh no boyfriend? But you are so beautiful. I can take you out tomorrow night do you have a phone number?’ me: ‘no. no phone’ (lies, I do obvs have a phone) him: okay then what’s your name? I’ll find you on facebook. Me: ‘uhhh Jessica Smith’ (liar liar pants on fire). So I thought I was done with him. But little did I know that when he said he would find me on facebook, he would find me at all costs. And not, I repeat, NOT under my pseudonym of Jessica. Fracken ay. So, now that he is on the blocked list on facebook, I’m just hoping that I don’t run into him on campus or anything….potentially awkward moments.

So on Saturday I went to another Deportes Valdivia game, I think I’m becoming a regular, and my real Chilean love interest #16 scored two equalizing goals from defense…DEFENSE. Yeah, for those of you who know me well enough, you know why my heart was melting and why I am now officially scheming on ways to get a press pass so I can get onto that field and interview him. I already have my questions lined up: ‘Hey ::glances at notepad:: Daniel, good game today. How bout them goals! So do you have a girlfriend?’ follow up question: ‘No, you don’t have a girlfriend…Okay, what are you doing tonight?’ Seriously, somebody hook me up with this kid. I wish he would awkwardly ask me to dance at a discoteca geez!! Hahaaa

So anyways, Monday was another day at Colegio followed by Tuesday where we went to a charity fashion show that benefitted single mothers (shout out to my momma!!). It was fun and Erin’s host mom was a model. We had good cake. And Erin won a raffle prize: a romantic dinner for two. SPECTACULAR. Now she can take her over indulgent fake Peruvian boyfriend to dinner. Perfection. Ha. Wednesday was a pretty sweet day too. I had my first  PE class and after waiting for an HOUR (time sensitivity…mersch mersch…) for the coach to arrive, I was pretty much destroyed by fitness. Thus commenced my first ‘personal training’ session. On the real, I was the ONLY one in class and upon discovering that I was a little on the athletic side, my circuit training only got harder and harder, faster and faster, more and more as the time went on. By the end of the circuit, my muscles were shaking, I was out of breath, and I was sweating in the 50 degree weather that accompanies spring time in Valdivia. But, in consolation, my coach grabbed my by the cheek when we finished and said ‘you did so good today sweetie!’ well, at least that’s positive. But I only imagine that this will get harder. This borderline military type training isn’t exactly the zumba I’ve grown accustomed to here in Chile. As long as he doesn’t utter the words ‘Dena Fartlek’, I know I’ll be okay.

And so as I was leaving the gym to head to Ecology class, my PE coach suggested that I go meet ‘the blacks’ as he nodded to two guys playing basketball on the court who I hadn’t even given a second thought. I was a little taken aback by this because it’s just not something that we call people of color in the States. I always have to remind myself that Chile is not a diverse country at all, so it is something really unusual (hence the lack of racial sensitivity) when two tall black guys walk in and start shooting hoops at the gym. Anyways, so I walk over to the guys and introduce myself and they were…quite ecstatic to meet me. “GIRRRRLLL get OVER HERE. What is YOUR name?? come here give me a hug. That English is music to my ears. GIRL yousa a soccer player aintchoo? Where you from? Etc etc” The guys are professional basketball players from the States and they are here in Chile for some reason or another (Cody said its because of the NBA strike or something) I’m not sure. But they are here and they are more than eager to be bffs with me. They were relieved to meet someone who speaks English, let alone someone who knows the ropes a bit. They loaded me up with questions about food and cell phones and all kinds of things (still…I’m in a rush to get to class). They promised to cook an ‘American breakfast’ for me once they move into their apartment and they threw me around in a hug rotation before finally letting me go to class. I was assured that they would find me on facebook and that they would send me their game schedule. So that’s pretty cool I guess, just friends with the local pro-bballers no big deal.

And today, nothing too exciting. I’m pretty sore from my military grade workout, but at least I haven’t been this sore for a while so I don’t really have much to complain about considering I’ve successfully avoided another painful year of soccer in exchange for this amazing experience. Oh the sacrifices one must make…haha. Best decision I’ve ever made. Anyways, today I went to the centro and ran a bunch of errands only to realize that I forgot that today is ‘protest day!’ yippee! Well, it seems like Thursdays are just the quintessential day of protest here for the students because not only were there protests at the university, but there were protests at the Liceos (public schools) today as well. Let’s just say I was all up in some tear gas today. But at least now I always walk around prepared with my bandana stashed in my backpack. Other than that, I got a postcard to send to Mr. Turner (my high school geography teacher/soccer coach/ sit in father figure who collects postcards from around the world for his classroom display), I picked up some pantuflas for Claire at the artesania, I printed off my ‘Florida is my home’ project for colegio tomorrow, and I got my health insurance card laminated. All very critical things that definitely had to be done…aka it was a beautiful sunny day in Valdivia today and I wanted an excuse to walk around and soak it all in. 

So remember at the beginning of this book...I mean blog entry (sorry yall I know they are long...) when I said to remember that the dryer broke. Welp. Kelly had to do laundry today. And so I hung my clothes up to air dry above the wood burning stove as specifically instructed. Sooner than  I realize Marisol is dashing up the stairs as a smell of burning something or the other fills the house. oh dear. well, what had happened was that somebody had adjusted my clothes to add more to the hangers and my clothes pressed up against the chimney part of the stove...burning them. Yep. charred. but luckily, the house isn't! Marisol felt so bad, but I told her not to worry that they are only clothes!! And the only things that truly got burnt were my pajamas and my new Chilean hoodie (which I tried really hard not to be upset about, because its just a hoodie). I think I successfully concealed my discontent because in reality, a hole didn't even burn through it, its just looks like someone forgot to take the iron off of part of my jacket. haha. I told Marisol that they are battle wounds of living in this house and she told me that I am very silly and that she's so glad I have a sense of humor. Yep. I'm glad too. If only some of those clothes from the fashion show had been pressed up against the Lagos family chimney...on the real. It be good if someone burned some of those outfits. haha.

So, this weekend, I believe it has been decided that we are going to Frutillar, a small town on the shores of Lago Llanquihue (near Puerto Varas). Fingers crossed for a beautiful weekend of kayaking on the lake and eating good empanadas. Cathy and Kaya may join us so that should be fun. Another holiday on Monday will make for another long weekend. Sometimes, I just love that national holidays are Catholic holidays.Which is funny in comparison because Momma just had school off for Rosh Hashanah...gotta love Boca. I can name all the high holy days but  I can't tell you what's going on on Monday. Ah well.

Currently, I’m putting off writing personal statements, internship applications, and next semester’s scheduling in favor of reading poetry by Violeta Parra, googling hostels for this weekend, and chatting with Marisol for hours after once about nothing in particular.

Loving Chile, Loving life.

Chao!