La Vida Real

It’s kind of weird to say but life has been the usual here the past week. Life as usual? Living in Chile? Alright!

Saturday night there was a blackout that affected some 10 million people in Chile (some issue with some grid). It wouldn’t have been that big of a deal except for the fact that I was home alone, minus the tweed man who was really sick, doctors had been in the house all day. So when the lights went out he was convinced I had just shut all of them off. The eeriness was only increased by the talk of the NASA satellite that was supposed to come out of orbit and land on Chile (but apparently landed in the ocean near Canada?). Then there were the stories of the giant earthquake that was supposed to strike when the planets aligned last Tuesday. And to top it off I had been watching the Day After Tomorrow (a movie about the end of the world) when everything went black. Cell phones were only working sporadically since I’m sure that everyone was trying to use theirs. And if you knew my Chilean family you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that I couldn’t find a single candle in the whole house (though there were plenty of cigarettes and matches). Luckily, my friend Molly showed up to rescue me. We ended up finding a lone flashlight and trekking back to her house where we lit candles in the kitchen and ate brownies out of the pan and drank Mango sours, it was pretty darling. The lights came back on before bed and all was fine but I still think it’s a good story.

I ended the weekend on the beach with some girlies watching the sunset and eating churros (sooo delicious!) I seriously don’t think I’ll ever get over how beautiful the sunsets are.

Monday was a pretty great day. My littlest sister Natalie had gone in for a check-up at the oncologist. She was diagnosed with leukemia over 7 years ago when she was not even 3 years old. She’s been in remission for almost 5 years now and after her appointment on Monday my mom sent me an e-mail saying that her doctor said she is officially cured. I read the e-mail at least 10 times to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding. I haven’t been homesick at all recently but boy did I want to be home to give her a huge hug that afternoon. So here’s a shout out to you buddah, I’m so proud and so happy for you and promise we’ll celebrate big when I get home!

I love you to the moon and back, short stack! 

Wednesday we took the day off from class to take a little trip to Algarrobo, a lovely beach town about an hour and a half south. This town also happens to be the home to the World’s Largest Pool, which we will be returning to in November to celebrate mine and Anna’s 21^st birthdays! Anyway, we had lunch on the beach and had a couple hours to wander and take lots of pictures and of course get some ice cream. So serene and the weather could not have been better. We then took a tour of Pablo Neruda’s house, Isla Negra. He built it to resemble a boat so all of the doorways and staircases were super short and skinny. There were tons of seashells (my mom would’ve been in heaven), ships in a bottle, and creepy bug collections. Neruda also collected figureheads, the statues of women and mermaids found on the front of ships, they were so beautiful and unique. My favorite area of the house was where he would invite guests to sit and interview him (little bit of an ego?). The walls from floor to ceiling were like a mosaic of sea rock including quartz, lapizlazuli (Chile’s national stone) and some gorgeous black stone but of course they wouldn’t let us take pictures. The final room had a 7-foot narwhal tusk, no big deal. We capped off the afternoon with a little shopping at the typical locals and headed home.

Pablo Neruda's symbol for Isla Negra.

Taking in the beauty of Algarrobo. 

The rest of my week was full of realizing deadlines for final projects (November is going to be busy) but balanced out by booking my flights for traveling after my program! I’ll be traveling through Peru and Bolivia for about 10 days! Oh and I’m headed to Mendoza, Argentina next weekend for a long weekend. Yeah, life is pretty good J I hope all if well in your corner of the world as well!

Cariñas,

Mackenzie

Santiago y Fiestas Patrias

First things first, thanks to my wonderful parents who sent a new camera to me I can now share some snapshots of this beautiful place. But I’ve got to be honest, it’s a lot of pressure and quite the task to try to capture the majesty of the snow capped Andes or the sunset on the beach but I’m sure as heck gonna try.

So my camera arrived just in time for our group excursion to Santiago. We spent two nights there and did a lot! We left Viña bright and early Monday morning and got started pretty much as soon as we got to Santiago. A graduate student from our university showed us around the Plaza de Armas, which was surrounded by gorgeous old buildings in stark contrast to the giant skyscrapers of glass rising from the neighboring streets. On the plaza was the National Cathedral, quite stoic in the middle of the bustling city and inside was so peaceful. The shrines and altars were magnificent. You could tell it was built by the Europeans as they developed Santiago but there are distinct elements of Latin American culture like in Mary’s chapel where they hold hourly mass. I love the churches here.

Inside the National Cathedral with the beautiful organ tower.

My favorite chapel in the Cathedral, the chapel of Illumination. 

Monday evening I met up with my friends Carolyn and Beth from high school who are both spending the semester studying in Santiago. Actually, as it turns out, there are 6 Raiders in various parts of Chile this semester, yeah, we’re pretty awesome. Anyway, Carolyn and Beth showed a few friends from my program and I around different parts of Santiago and we ended up in the adorable neighborhood called Bellavista for dinner. It was so cool to me to be sitting at a sidewalk café in Chile catching up with friends from home. As we were paying our bill we spotted Michael Cera as he passed by! Two girls from my program ran into him earlier in August in Viña. I guess he’s studying Spanish in Santiago right now and he just so happened to walk past our café! We tried, quite unsuccessfully, to stalk him until we were totally busted and ran away. But I swear it was him! After the Michael Cera incident we tried 4 different ice cream shops and they were all closed at 9, totally unheard of in Chile. So we ended up going to a crepe stand where we met a girl who went to Moundsview high school in MN! Is that destiny or what!?

Raider reunion in Santiago!

The highlight of Tuesday for me was the Museo Colonial. It’s a museum filled with religious colonial art from Ecuador, Peru and Chile brought here by Europeans to evangelize to the indigenous people. The museum is housed in an old Franciscan convent attached to the first Catholic church of Santiago. Again, magnificent. So serene. While the tour got a little long (pushing 2 ½  hours), I learned a lot. I stopped in the church on our way out, trying my best not to disturb mass. The frescos in the dome of the church were awesome. Tuesday just so happened to be the 7^th anniversary of Natalie’s diagnosis of leukemia so I lit a candle for her and walked out with an overwhelming feeling of peace and gratitude. I’m living in Chile. Wow.

View from San Cristobal hill; a palm tree and the snow-capped Andes.
Welcome to Chile!

Wednesday, on our way home to Viña we stopped at a traditional Chilean restaurant and then at a gorgeous vineyard in the Casa Blanca region called Casas del Bosque. It was a chilly overcast day in the Casa Blanca valley but the vineyard was lovely and I’m not much of a wine person but the Sauvignon Blanc we tasted was delicious!

Mi amiga Bre and I at the wine tasting. Fancy pants.

So we got back to Viña, had one morning of classes and then Fiestas Patrias began! Fiestas Patrias is the Independence Celebration here. Take our 4^th of July plus St. Patrick’s Day times New Years and throw in a couple birthday parties and you’ve got a fraction of Fiestas Patrias. Here are the necessities: an asado which is basically a marathon of eating. Start off with sugared peanuts and some vino de chirimoya (chunky but delicious) then an empanada warm off the parailla soon followed by churipan (upgrade of a brat). By now you’re probably drinking Fanchop (beer and orange Fanta) or some kind of pisco, my new favorite is Mango Sour. Alright, time to move inside for the meal: ribs, steak, chicken, lettuce, corn, tomatoes, potatoes and of course lots and lots of pan. Fiestas Patrias will also include reggaeton, cueca (Chile’s national dance) and also a trip to the Ramdas, similar to a town fair. The one in Viña had rows and rows of restaurants all serving the same things: empanadas, anticuchos (kabobs), chicha (super sweet alcohol with grenadine) and terremotos (the “earthquake” drink, deadly).

I also had the pleasure of joining my friend Bre and her host family in the small beach town of Maitencillo about an hour north of Viña for a night during Patrias. It was so picturesque and relaxing and the shopping was great..my wallet was way lighter when I got home last night. I ate enough to last me a month, literally, learned a new card game and quite a few new Spanish words from my slightly intoxicated hosts. It was a joy.

The view from the cabin in Maitencillo, I could get used to this. 

Well needless to say it’s been a busy week! I hope all is well with you and yours!

Cariñas,

Mackenzie 

Sanitorio Marítimo

As a part of the requirements for our study abroad seminar class here we each selected a volunteer site to visit regularly during our semester in Chile. I chose the Sanitorio Marítimo de San Juan de Dios. The Sanitorio is a live-in hospital for children and young adults (ages 2-27) with multi-deficit physical and mental disabilities. It is the only institution of it’s kind in all of Chile. It was established in Viña in 1929 and was booted out of its downtown location about 3 years ago to make room for some swanky hotel. It now sets up in the hills of outer Viña, the view is pretty spectacular out of the sala on the fourth floor, especially while the sun is setting.

My volunteer project for my senior seminar class at CDH was working with the Special Education class at an inner-city Minneapolis middle school. I really enjoyed my time at Anwatin and learned an incredible amount about different mental and physical disabilities as well as developing a greater comfort in interacting with people who were different than me. The teacher I worked with at Anwatin would often remind me that even if the students couldn’t verbally communicate with me and even if I had never been in a wheelchair or experienced the unimaginable frustration of not being able to tell people exactly how I feel I could still relate to the disabled students. They needed companionship just as much as any other student.

So walking into my first day at the Sanitorio it made me feel better that I had had a similar (or at lease I thought) experience in the past but as with any new experience it’s never what you expect or exactly like a previous experience. The psychologist, Veronica, showed us around, introduced us to a few patients and staff members and then brought us down to the Occupational Therapy room. We met Paulina, one of the occupational therapists, and a handful of patients and we attempted to jump right in. As with everything here in Chile, experiences are further enriched but sometimes complicated by the language. I was sitting with Rosita who was coloring in a magazine. She kept asking for something in broken Spanish and I felt bad that I couldn’t understand what she wanted. Luckily, Paulina is incredible and knows the patients so well that she was quick to assist all of us when we would get stuck or confused. Her connection with the patients is truly awe-inspiring. There were quite a few non-verbal patients in the room with us and she would ask them a question and be able to understand their answer through their grunts and head movements. She is so kind and patient. I am really looking forward to working with and learning from her.

Paulina explained to us that some patients at the Sanitorio are there because their families could not provide for their medical needs but a greater percentage were removed from their homes by the courts because they were being neglected or maltreated. She also said that of the parents that could visit only about 15% of them ever do. Some parents will drop off their young children and never be seen again. For these reasons (as well as their affiliation with the order of San Juan de Dios) there is a great emphasis on the dignity of every person. Benedictine Values anyone? J When Paulina was teaching us the proper method of feeding the patients at dinner she also requested that we talk with the patients. She said mealtime is meant to be social for everyone. I’m a huge fan of family dinners at home so I this concept really struck a chord with me. I sat with Rosa as she gobbled down her somewhat unidentifiable dinner and talked to her about things I had done in Chile so far and about my family back home. I was sitting as close to her as I possible could but she just kept saying “Tía tía ven ven. Tía ven” meaning come here, come here. She was quite charming.

Rosa also pointed out the birthmark on my elbow, something I honestly forget I have sometimes because I don’t really see it unless I look in the mirror. She was so concerned that I was dirty and kept insisting that I go wash it off. It made me smile and I was eventually able to change the subject to the broken crayons on the table. Something else I sometimes forget I have is the VP shunt in my head. I’m reminded of it when I go to a new hair stylist and they get freaked out when they feel the dinosaur hump on the back of my head or when I turn my head just so and someone asks me if I have an over-active vein popping out of my neck--nope, it’s just my shunt. I had it placed when I was 15 months old to correct hydrocephalus, a neurological condition that leads to a build-up of cerebrospinal fluid around the brain. If left uncorrected it almost definitely leads to severe mental disability. I have gone 20 years without needing a single revision, which is basically unheard of. I count myself truly blessed to have been diagnosed as early as I was, to have had the incredible surgeon that I did and parents with the resources and faith to see me through the whole thing. I think on some level I have a passion to interact with disabled individuals because that very well could have been the hand I was dealt and I know I would’ve wanted that companionship. 

I know that volunteering at the Sanitorio will be very challenging at times but I am really looking forward to building relationships with the patients and staff and learning as much as I can.

I have an exciting few days ahead of me here. On Monday we’re heading to Santiago, the capital, on a group excursion for a couple days during which I’ll get to see a couple girls I went to CDH with who are also studying abroad here which I’m really excited for! Then when we get back we have a 4-day weekend to celebrate Fiestas Patrias (Chile’s Independence Day); asados, Pisco, carretes, extended family and friends, can’t wait!

Cariñas,

Mackenzie

Que extraño

It’s expected that when living in a new culture there will be differences from what you’re used to. These differences are sometimes emphasized when you can’t understand the explanation of why something is the way it is. I thought I’d take a couple minutes to share some of my favorite cultural encounters in Chile thus far.

Okay, let’s start with the food. They eat mayo on everything, literally everything. They put it on pasta, rice, potatoes, salad (which is shredded lettuce with lemon juice). For once which is the evening snack meal here my host mom will take a soda cracker and put butter and mayo on it and chow down, she loves it. She doesn’t like to eat pan batita, similar to French bread in the US, because she thinks it will make her fat, where do you think all that mayo goes? The other weekend we were out and about and she pulled out my little brother’s baby bottle, filled it with water and then took out the mayo jar...I just about died until I realized they keep formula in the old mayo jars but I wouldn’t have put it past them to feed the baby mayo milk.

They also love hotdogs here, in all different ways. A typical food here in Chile is the completo, a hotdog with diced tomato, mayonnaise (of course) and guacamole or avocado. I went to my first asado with my host family last weekend; it’s the Chilean version of a BBQ. Some of the best food I’ve had here so far, including some fantastic hotdog/sausage served as an appetizer because it took hours to cook the meat for lunch, we ate almuerzo at 5. At my house they dice up hotdogs and serve them with rice, corn and peas for Sunday lunch. The other day my host mom sent one to school with me for lunch and when I opened the tupperware I literally thought it was a carrot, nope it was some kind of hotdog in a red-orange casing but the meat was gray…I bought a muffin.

Empanadas are also very popular in Chile. We’ve decided the idea is similar to a calzone, the outside is a baked dough and you can find pretty much anything on the inside but the most common combination is ground beef with enough onions that you need to brush your teeth at least 5 times to be able to have a conversation with someone less than 4 feet away from you and then half a hard boiled egg and a giant black olive. Haven’t quite experienced why everyone raves about them but definitely don’t buy one off some guy selling them out of an old milk crate on the side of the road, a guy in my program learned that the hard way this week.

In the “world foods” section at the supermarket you’ll find marshmallows, pretzels, nutella, German cookies and if you’re lucky, expensive peanut butter. You will not, however, find chocolate chips. Baking isn’t nearly as much of a pastime here as it is back home so when my friend Anna and I decided to bake monster cookies at my house last weekend it turned out to be quite the adventure. We used some chopped up bars of chocolate for our chips. There were no measuring spoons to be found in my kitchen so we kind of eyeballed everything using a coffee mug. My host family also doesn’t own a mixing bowl so we used what we fondly refer to as the cauldron, it’s an old old old painted ceramic soup pot, I think. Also turns out we don’t have a cookie sheet so we tried to use this weird broiler pan. And to top off the experience my nanny informed me that we never use the oven, it’s more of a storage device but we decided to try anyway. It didn’t go so well since you just light the oven and then have no control over the temperature. The bottom of the cookies burnt almost instantly and then stuck hardcore to the pan. So Anna and I just left the rest of the cookie dough in the fridge when we left for the Chilean orchestra. The dough obviously has oatmeal in it so I guess my host mom took it to be some kind of breakfast food because she served a giant bowl of it to me the next morning for breakfast. I laugh every time I think about it. 

When you hit the streets of Viña there are three things you will see within your first step: stray dogs, micro buses and PDA. There are dogs everywhere. I’ve seen a couple boxers which make me miss Ruby. Some of the stray dogs wear sweaters, others have scarves, others just have matted fur and fleas. There are old ladies that carry around bags of dog food to feed them and then yell at them to get. The micro buses are one of the many forms of public transportation here. They are the craziest drivers, don’t run out in front of one because it will not stop, they’re always on a mission. They are also what we would call coach buses back home. Don’t get me wrong, they’re old, creaky and dirty but they all have those comfy fancy coach seats. I haven’t seen a single “school bus” yet. And people don’t exit the buses in Link fashion like in St. Joe, it’s chaos. And oh the affection of Chilean pololos. It is customary to give a kiss on the cheek as a greeting whether you’re just meeting someone or saying good morning to your parents. It is also customary to be walking behind a couple (whether 15 or 50) and have them stop in the middle of the sidewalk to make-out. The benches in the plaza are full of people getting ready to make babies. When in Chile I guess.  

But perhaps my favorite thing about Chile that I don’t quite understand but amuses me nonetheless is the old man that is sometimes in my kitchen. He is always dressed in a tweed suit and has a very kind, well-aged face. I walked into the kitchen one night to find him sitting at the small table there that is usually used to store groceries, we eat at the table in the family room. He was just sitting there drinking his Nescafe. He looked at me and I said hola and smiled and he just kept looking. My host mom was standing at the kitchen sink but didn’t offer any explanation to who he was. There have been nights when I’ve heard the sound of a TV coming from behind a door in the kitchen, a door I’ve never been through nor been told what lies behind it. He appears at the table every few days with a piece of toast or a bowl of soup but is never anywhere in the house besides the kitchen. I tried to introduce myself a couple days ago but he just looked at me. It’s like I’m living in some kind of bizarre ghost movie or something but I’ve had two friends over that have seen him so I swear I’m not going crazy! The whole situation just makes me laugh.

Our group went to historical Valparaíso this week for a little field trip. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. We took a boat tour around the port, Chile’s most important. We came within reaching distance of a family of sea lions and had a beautiful view of the many hills that Valpo is built upon (45 in all). We walked around the major plazas downtown, took some really touristy pictures and then began our ascent towards Pablo Neruda’s house La Sebastiana. The trek included a ride on one of the famous ascensores, wandering through narrow cobblestone streets full of graffiti and packed with vibrantly colorful houses and a serious calf workout walking up the hills. We had amazing view after view of the ocean, the best of which was from Pablo Neruda’s bedroom in La Sebastiana, breathtaking. I will definitely be returning to Valparaíso soon.

Cariñas,

Mackenzie