What will I miss...

I am back in the US and I actually have been for home for almost two months now. Sometimes it feels as if being in Chile again was a dream. I have been meaning to write a capper to my blog if anyone out there is still reading. While my blog wasn't as active this year as I would have liked and many of my posts never made it past the draft stage, it always felt good to write about my experience in Chile. I am still not entirely sure what to think of it. However there are a lot of things about Chile that I will miss:

1. Bravissimo and other bountiful sources of gelato all over Chile.
2. Manjar! Spreading carmel over bread never tasted so good.
3. Meals consisting of palta(avocado) and not much else. Most of the avocado we can get in California is from Chile anyways, and it is a lot cheaper in Chile.
4. The micros and readily available public transport. They might not have been the cleanest things on wheels and I might have feared for my life when riding them, but it was nice to be able to catch a bus almost anywhere in Concepcion for under 2 dollars.
5. Along those lines, the intercity transport in Chile is stellar. It is comfortable, they show movies, the overnight buses recline all the way back, and you can get almost anywhere in Chile. We were in some pretty remote places in Chile and no matter where we went, we always seemed to run into a bus going somewhere. Plus, you can go most places for under 25 dollars.
6. Given the title of my blog, i have to say I miss a good completo. Domino served some mean completos and I liked to sample new kinds in every city we went to.
7. Teaching English and my classes. Despite the many headaches teaching at DUOC gave me on a regular basis, I really do miss teaching. Also, I had some wonderful students who made classes fun.
8. Chorillanas. Chorillanas are piles of french fries, covered in chorizo, fried egg, onions, among other things. Food is becoming a theme on this list despite the fact that I was underwhelmed by the food in Chile in general.
9. I genuinely miss speaking Spanish on a daily basis. It was a lot of fun speaking Spanish with people and trying to adopt the Chilean accent. Plus, I learned a lot of Chilean slang that I will never be able to use with anyone outside of Chile.
10. Almost as soon as we got back home, I wanted to go out and see some more of the world. There is so much I still want to see even in South America. Plus I really want to visit Asia and parts of Europe. Too much to see!
11. I miss hearing Spanish music everywhere that I go. It was always nice to be traveling on a bus or to go into a mall and hear some good/bad/great/awful Spanish music. I even started liking Reggaetone.
12. The everyday randomness of Chile and South America in general always amazed me. People would get on the buses and sell knives, tube socks, band aids, and people would buy them. People ran every business imaginable out of their homes: barber shops, clothing stores, wedding gown shops, restaurants, etc. There was a spirit of entrepreneurship that I haven't seen many other places. Want to dress up like Shrek and go juggle on stilts in an intersection for money? Go for It! Want to tell bad jokes in the central plaza? People will pay to hear them. People washed windowns, were one man bands, sold fake hair, hawked ice cream, sold plastic toys, moved debris off the road and stopped traffic for donations, etc. Those crazy Chileans would do anything to make a buck.
13. If you have never had Mote con Huesillo, you need to. It is a dried peach that is cooked in sugar and other yumminess, then cooled and served ice cold with some barley like grains in a glass. It is delicious.

This isn't everything, but it is a taste of my year in Chile. Of course, everything was not always positive, but I'd rather end this blog on a happy note. Next year I will be going to graduate school in public policy and will move on with my life, but living and teaching in Chile will always stick with me.

I don't care!

One of my on-going frustrations this year has been with lines. I am a pretty patient guy and I do not generally get visibly angry. However, get me in a group of Chileans pushing and shoving to get into a micro/pushing and shoving to buy something/pushing and shoving to get in an entrance and my blood begins to boil. Perhaps this is one of those cultural issues that I must adjust to, but to me it just comes down to a matter of respect.

I have mostly patiently lasted all year while Chileans of all shapes and sizes push past me in lines like I do not exist. This includes my students! They must not value their grades....

However, today, I just could not take it anymore. Christine and I were waiting patiently to get on the bus to go home in what was, for Concepcion, a relatively line-like formation. However, this did not stop a young couple from pushing their way past us. It was not as if they did not see us or everyone else waiting to get on the bus. They basically had to brush up against the bus to get around us. This act was, as they say, in broad daylight, and was incredibly blatant. I am not sure exactly what caused my outburst. I generally am not confrontational, but I had been teaching for 6 hours where I was in a position of relative authority. I set the rules in my classroom and the theory is that my students are supposed to listen to them. Maybe I was just anxious to get home, but the words came out my mouth before I knew it.

Me: Excuse me, there is a line and we were here before you.
Chilean woman: Really? I don't care!
Me (in flustered Spanish): That is not respectful.
Chilean woman: That is how....(I didn't understand the rest).
Chilean man: What did he say?
Chilean woman: He said that there is a line and that they were here first (scoff).

Many less than pleasant comebacks entered my mind, but I did not say anything. This particular couple, on second glance, dripped with flaiteness both in dress and speech, a word in Chile which is kind of similar to white trash in the US. In Chile, it often is used for anything low class, cheap, or stupid. I have come to take it as a lack of self-awareness or respect for others that has become my main problem with many Chileans. I do not think that this couple's relative flaiteness made them more prone to cut in line for the bus, but it probably made their response more volatile.

However, they did give me one answer as to why people cut lines in Chile. Apparently, they just don't care.

Happy Teacher's Day

October 16, 2008 is the day of the professor in Chile. In honor of this, here is another version of, "Things my Students do That Make me Laugh." (warning, not everything is PG-13) Also, check out Marisa's post about her students:

• My students think ointment is the funniest word ever invented. They repeat it 5 times every time I say it. Oint Oint!
  
• One if my students wrote on the first quiz that his best friend "has short back hair," and then on the midterm wrote that the girl in the picture "has long back hair." I am guessing me meant black hair.
  
• In one class, the sentence "He is taller than his brother," became, "He is Tyler than his brother!"
  
• Before the midterm, I asked my students to turn off their cell phones. Here is the ensuing dialogue I had with a student:

Him: But what if I get a call?
Me: It can wait.
Him: But what if it is my mother?

• He genuinely meant this. A 21 year old man wondering if his mother might call him during the test. HA!

UPDATE: Just the other day, I asked my students to write something in their notebooks, and one student pulled a napkin from his bad. He then proceeded to write his notes on a napkin. A napkin is better than nothing. He is just lucky there weren't that many notes in that days class.

Moving Entertainment

Some people can tune out their surroundings. Be it a crowded bus, bustling downtown, rowdy class, etc., some people can put in their headphones and enter another world or shut everything out and go to sleep. I am not one of those people. I often try and sleep or read on buses and planes, but as soon as the person sitting next to me starts yelling into their cell phone or the in flight entertainment comes on, my attention is officially shot.

I am not sure when I became an easily distracted traveler or how/if this coincides with my love for traveling. I'm not just talking about "being there," the moment you magically arrive where you want to be, but the act of getting there itself. Maybe because I grew up in a small town where we didn't eat out much (a few times a year) and not much happened, I loved getting out on the open road. From getting to eat out at restaurants (yes, even counting fast food), listening to new radio stations, driving through new places, staying at hotels, buying sugary snacks for the trip that I wasn't allowed to eat otherwise (which then gave me a stomachache); I really enjoy(ed) all of it.

I am one of the few people you know (although now you may be second guessing that) who actually gets excited for airplane food. Not because it is good, I know it is probably going to disappoint me, but because of the anticipation. What will it be? Are they going to go with the cookie or the chocolate? The fruit or the salad? If there is in flight/en route/in seat/in hotel entertainment then you can bet I am probably watching whatever crappy movie or tv show they decide to show.

Which, roundaboutedly, brings me to the movies I have seen on Chilean buses. Chilean buses are great. They are comfortable, fast and play movies. However, the quality of these movies varies significantly. You never know what you are going to get. Oscar contenders: check. Big budget action flicks: check. Horrible bottom of the barrel crappers: check. This only adds to the excitement and anticipation. I never know what I will get or when they will show it(sometimes no movies are shown at all). Here are the movies we have seen, in no particular order:

Vantage Point

The last eight minutes of Eight Below

McGyver

The Bucket List

White Chicks

Lassie, the movie (who knew Peter O'Toole would do a lassie movie?)

Cinderella Man

The Dark Knight (dubbed in Spanish and obviously pirated because of people walking down the aisle in the middle of the movie.)

The Mummy: Tomb of the Emperor Dragon (also pirated with people's shadows, also way worse than the first two)

You Don't Mess with the Zohan (also pirated)

In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (The worst movie I have ever seen)

Daredevil

Chilean Comedy: Vina Festival
Some crazy Argentinean flick about a man in the Dominican Republic who leaves his wife
A Mexican mariachi movie blasted at full volume
A mix of 80s music

Fortunately or unfortunately, I watched at least a portion of all of them. My love for travel? My distracted nature? Who knows, but lets hope I get some good movies the next time around.

The Agony of Defeat

The tick of the clock as time winds down. The anticipation that a miracle might happen. The realization that your side just lost. How many people are going to come to this painful realization in November when there desired candidate did not make it into the White House? More importantly, how many people go through this agony after each defeat their team of choice suffers?

Today I watched as my team squandered a lead and gave away another football game. Thanks to my Dad, I have been able to follow my team, the 49ers, this NFL season. Sometimes I wonder if the pain that following a losing team inflicts is worth the time spent watching...and then they win a game to pique my interest for a few more losing weeks.

I am also an avid Golden State Warriors fan and general fan of the San Francisco Giants. Any California Bay Area Sports fan will tell you that it has not been a great few years for these once hallowed (or at least decent) franchises or their fans. In fact, the agony of defeat has become a familiar feeling for Niners, Warriors and Giants fans.


49ers fans have suffered through the mishandling of the Alex Smith era.

Lets pay some guy 126 million to not help our team, how does that sound?

You can see the choke marks. Way to go Sprewell.

Check it out:

• The 49ers record since the end of 2002 (last season they made the playoffs): 27-58 (32% wins)
  
• The Giants record since 2003 (last season they made the playoffs): 385-424 (48% wins)
• The Warriors record during their 12 year playoff drought; 1994-95 to 2005-2006: 332-620 (35% wins)

That is a lot of losing to stomache. I don't blame my dad for getting me interested in the 49ers and Warriors. I got to see the 49ers at their best in the late 80s and early 90s and the Warriors have worked their way back into respectability. I even saw the Giants get to the World Series in 2002. Just looking at those records, on the other hand, shows that there have been a lot of head shaking days.

Sure, I wasn't on the edge of my seat for every one of those game, but I do regularly follow these teams. I check blogs, read scouting reports, follow off season moves and watch games when I can. Despite all of this losing, and much to Christine's chagrin, I always wake up the next day believing that my team might win again tomorrow, next week, next season....

By no means am I the only one to go through this periodic ritual of wins and losses, this yin and yang of agony and elation (while the advertisers and all others getting rich laugh at the fans). Whenever my team loses someone else's wins and vice versa. How many people out there are on this see-saw?

In February 2008, about 97.5 million people in the US watched the Patriots lose their bid for perfect season to the New York Giants. This made it the most widely watched Super Bowl ever. Most were not supporting "their" team in the game, but still tuned in. In contrast, about 162 million people voted in the 2004 presidential election, or about 64% of those who could vote.

Do you think the Patriot fans who woke up hungover and heartbroken or the Giants fans who were on top of the world felt more deeply than the average voter will when McCain or Obama takes over?



South America is also crazy for its national pastime: soccer. Chilean soccer teams are mediocre by international standards, but fans swarm to the top teams like they were AC Milan. Our host mom is certain that futbol turns grown men into children and, I must say, I don't entirely disagree. Matches between Colo-Colo and U. de Chile can often turn violent and many Chileans do not go out on "super classic" game days. A fellow worldteacher was physically accosted for wearing the wrong jersey to a game.

Do people care more about sports than they do about politics? Is simply picking who will run the country not interesting enough for the average joe? I do think that sports often function as a big distraction, keeping eyes off of what is really going on. However, there can be a balance, and just like all of the other fans out there, I will pick myself up next week and root for another losing cause.

Let's hope that Barack Obama doesn't swing the pendulum down come November. Either way, many people will wake up the next day hoping for a brighter day. Maybe, just maybe, they will be thinking, "at least the (insert favorite team) plays this weekend...."

Election Time! I read it in my local neighborhood wall

I know, I know, I am sure all of you think I am talking about the great McCain/Palin vs. Obama/Biden battle going on right now. It sure has been interesting to read the news online and watch this circus unfold. I don't know what McCain was drinking when he brought Palin on board, but I sure hope the American people don't drink that same kool-aid come election time.

Personal preferences aside, whomever becomes president after Mr. W will be confronted with quite a mess: the financial crisis is looming large on everyone's minds. I mean, are people my age going to be able to buy houses? Will businesses be valued over individuals? But, how about wars on two fronts, no measurable action on climate change, no measurable effort towards renewable energy (Obama will allow offshore drilling, say what???), rising education prices and the shrinking middle class?

I don't envy either of these men in their future job. However, the rest of the world is watching this one for sure. Since primary season, Chileans have often asked me my political opinion. Do I like Hilary? Obama? That other guy? I sure hope that other guy isn't elected.

Even on the streets of Hualpen there is an understanding, misguided or not, that the strength of the world economy hinges on the strength of the US economy. Things are bad in the US. Things aren't so great in Chile. Are they connected? Many of the people here do seem to make that connection. My host mother told me "When the United States sneezes, Chile gets a cold." Would the average US citizen make that connection?

However, I do not want to distract myself from the real election taking place. I am talking about the municipal elections going on all over Chile. I'm sure you saw it on CNN, but I'll rehash the Hualpen race: incumbent Marcelo Rivera is taking on two upstart candidates while pushing for his son Miguel and sister or wife (?) for city counselors. That is only if Patricia Saldias and Elicia Herrera et. al don't fight there way there first. How do I know these tid-bits? Other than my mostly fruitless web searches just now, I get my information from the battles being waged on my neighborhood walls.


Walls are being painted across the city espousing one candidate or another and, I must say, the pretty colors are pretty damn persuasive. Should I vote for Rivera because he has the cool green and yellow letters or Saldias for her snazzy yet sophisticated shade of red. On top of this, incumbent Rivera has placed probably hundreds of canvas looking signs along the major thoroughfare to downtown Conce, so at least I know he is not against wasteful spending :). But I was able to find a Hualpen mayoral candidate debate on Youtube, but I am not sure if it is from 2008 or not. I have even heard hints of Reggaeton and Cumbia campaign songs on the radio to bring out the youth vote, but I digress...

Election wall advocacy is the most widely spread form of wall advocacy in Conce, but by no means the only one. Indigenous movements, political uprisings, national strikes, show promoters, and "flaites" (the Chilean form of white trash or ghetto) take full advantage of walls all over Chile to get their messages across. After a rainy day in Conce the walls often become a melted mess of shredded posters and graffiti. Circus on ice covers images of local bands mixes with calls for national action (If everything in Chile goes up but the salaries, let us have a national uprising!) next to X'ed out swastikas and Snow White with a semi-automatic.

Hualpen bus stops, what exactly is lookism? do they sell scary monsters too?


So, what makes one mural painter a vandalist and the other a mayoral candidate? Is it art or propaganda? Whatever it is, Chileans do it with panache.

Birthday Abroad

On July 28th, I entered my second quarter century on the planet and slipped further down the slipperly slope towards being not young. Since then, my wonderful fiancee, awesome parents and great friends have helped make me feel very festive.

and then Christine and the awesome Conce crew planned a great night out of eating, talking and all-around merriment. Good beer (Heineken beats Escudo any day) and yummy cake (manjar sensational) made for a great night.

Carving a Mamut burger.

The Conce crew (Christine taking the photo) minus Perry (aka the Santiago Kid)

wonderful manjar cake

I had a great time with friends. It was exactly what I needed.

The Power of Facebook

For anyone that doesn't know about Facebook (have you been living under a rock?), it is a "social networking" website sweeping the globe. It started in the US in 2004 with a handful of universities and has since spread to incorporate anyone that wants in. Until recently, Chile was new to the Facebook revolution. However, starting earlier this year, the floodgates opened.

Now, I have found the majority of my old classmates and friends from Iquique online. Not to mention that many Chilean adults are on Facebook. It looks like about 2.3 million Chileans have signed on to Facebook in the last 6 months or so and I recently heard a statistic that 2 out of every 3 Chilean is on Facebook. Everyone and their mother, literally are on Facebook.

This also says something about Chilean internet and computer use, which most definitely is on the rise. Chilean youth are connected to their computers just like their American counterparts. In fact, Chilean youth spend so much time chatting on MSN messenger that is has apparently begun to effect their ability to spell everyday words. (Believe me, I have seen some of it from my students.)

A good result of all of this for me is a little blast from the past. Check out some old school photos I found on Facebook:

This was our classroom in Iquique and I am in the bottom picture, having fun in math class.

With some pals from Iquique.

Back in the Saddle Again

Back to school, back to school, teaching again in semester 2. Classes have started, we just finished our mid-service group meeting, and things are feeling more and more like they are speeding towards the end of our year in Chile. However, we are still in the midst of a wicked August cold spell (oh to be on a beach in Santa Barbara...) that constantly reminds us that time isn't moving all that quickly.

Also, a lot has happened over the past couple of months. Christine and I got engaged in June. We are really excited. Check out her blog for more details. We also spent about 3 weeks traveling in Peru and northern Chile. It was great to travel and see more of South America. The people in Peru were really friendly and it is a country filled with natural beauty. Our trip to Chile's desert let us avoid the rain in Conce for a little while longer as well. But back to the rain we are again.
I didn't take the class photos at the end of the semester that you can see on other WorldTeach volunteers' blogs, but I will miss a good number of my first semester classes. I am excited that a lot of my students made their way back to my class for the second semester despite the fact that I am teaching much later hours.


I have been doing a lot of thinking about Chile and the US lately, and in honor of this, part of my first day activities was asking my students' opinions of the USA. I know that they have limited English vocabularies, but I was sincerely interested in what they had to say. The overwhelming majority said that the USA is very good, very big and very beautiful, but here are a few of the more interesting responses:

It is a new empire...
Very rich...
She likes USA because it is cosmopolitan...
I like Bush...
I consider the USA a creative and enterprising country, but at the same time superficial and lacking positive values...
Sometimes they are very crazy...
A country of opportunity...
they think they are the best...
USA is big and technological...
It is a classist country...
The owners of the world...
Indifferent...
too much traffic...

Maybe I will ask their opinion of Chile sometime soon.

July 4th and the day after...

Once in a blue moon two great holidays happen at the same time. This year, July 4th festivities also fell on another type of independence day: the last day of classes in the first semester at DUOC. The gringos in Concepcion and some Chilean friends went to celebrate at the most patriotic place we could think of: TGIF!

Christine and Loreto

Smile!

Isn't she cute?

Where is this sign from and how did it get to TGIF in Chile?

Then, on July 5th, we got up at 6:30 to go to work in the pouring rain and listen to student oral exams. Maybe we celebrated a little too early...