Valpo Voyager

Student Stories from Around the World

Category: Chile (page 4 of 4)

Starting Goodbyes (What?!) and New Beginnings

July 12, 2011 / / 0 Comments
 

 

Abrazo del grupo! (Group hug!) Attacked with love 🙂

My 5th grade music class! Check out the video of them singing on Facebook!

My 3rd graders holding up their finished assignments from my lesson!

DISCLAIMER: I couldn’t post due to site updates, so this post is a bit out-dated…if you are my friend on Facebook, I already posted this as a note, if not, enjoy!

 

Wow. It’s been way too long since I last posted, and I apologize for that! Now I understand why other travelers say that when you have the most to do and talk about, you have the least time to do so! But I’m going to be super-blogger now to make up for it, so watch out!

And part of the reason that I can be super-blogger is that one of my programs is ending! Weird! The colegio (The Chilean education system is divided into colegio (pre-school-8th grade), secundaria (9th-12th grade, but they call it 1-4) and Universidad (college)) that I work at is going on winter vacation (haha!) this Friday for 2 weeks. They start back up with school on the 24th of July, but my internship ends on July 22…so after tomorrow I’m not going to see my kiddies again 🙁

I have absolutely loved working at the colegio with my 3rd and 5th graders, despite its challenges. As I said, this is a school for kids who have some kind of troubled home, whether it be financial troubles, abuse, neglect, alcohol, etc. I spend 3 days a week in the 3rd grade classroom and it has been such a wonderful opportunity to really develop relationships with these kids and get to know their personalities and needs. But it is also difficult, because you can start to see where these kids are suffering in their lives. Quite a few of them are very, very clingy and attention seeking…which from being a camp counselor last year, I know just happens with kids, but it’s to a level where I wonder how much attention, hugs and love these kids are receiving at home. Many of them jump to violence over small conflicts and seem to find it quite normal to smack someone or hit their head when upset. And overall trying to keep control and teach them to raise their hand and not yell or act out can be pretty exhausting.

But in spite of that, there are really great days too. When they all do well on the quiz, or are actually working quietly. When you can see how excited they are about learning and how they’re almost jumping up and down to be picked and say the answer so you can see how smart they are. Plus, they’re just kids! And they want to have fun and be loved. So that’s why I made my lessons focus on getting them to sing and dance and do artwork and practice English, so that they could have a break from being told to be quiet 🙂

It’s a blessing to me to walk into the school yard and be attacked with my students who want to hug me, help me carry me things, start singing the latest song we learned at me or giving me sweets. It’s difficult to only be in these kids lives for such a short time, but I’ve just tried to give as many hugs, smiles and “good jobs” as I can, answer as many questions about English as possible (haha) and give them some fun songs, dances and projects to remember. ( I’ll post videos of them singing if I can!). And yesterday I came into the class only to be greeted with huge shouts of “Te quiero Tia Anna” (I love you Miss Anna!) and gifts of goodbye cards that they had asked their teacher if they could make in art class.I had made little gifts and cards for them too, each with a small gift from Holland, or Valpo (like mini wooden shoes post cards, lanyards) and I was able to talk the the class and tell them how much they meant to me and how much I loved my time with them (and expressing emotional things is really hard to do in another language!) and I was so proud when I was done that I’d said what I’d wanted to and hadn’t cried…and then the teacher asked if the kids had anything to say to me…and they all started jumping up and down and raising their hands. So one by one, my kiddies stood up and shyly told me that they loved me and what activities of mine they loved the most and that they were going to miss me and then walked up to give me a hug and kiss. I was surviving until little Constanza told me that her one wish is that I was a Chilean so that I could stay with her forever…let the waterworks begin! But it was a wonderful mix of happy and sad tears, I’m so grateful for the experience, but don’t want it to end!

But even with sad goodbyes come new beginnings. I recently found a lovely little Lutheran church (yeah Valpo, you converted me, congrats) in Vina del Mar, the next town over, and they do a caminata (walk) to bring the homeless soup, coffee and sandwiches on Tuesday nights. I went for the first time last night and am so glad that I did. Being a part of a Christian community that is intent on living out their faith and serving others as Jesus served is another blessing for me. I love my church at home, and to feel a part of another church community is something that has really anchored me here and given me peace. We met at 7 pm at the church to prepare the food, had a lovely devotional and time to sing together and then donned some awesome neon yellow coats that have our churches name and the back and headed out to walk the streets! Part of what I’m really grateful for in this internship is that I’m not just a tourist here who sees the touristy, luxurious parts of a country. I get to live right in the center of the city, not in luxurious conditions, but right in the center of restaurants, office buildings, bars, concert halls, be a bus ride away from very rich and orderly Vina del Mar, and then work in really poor communities and see another side of Valparaiso and life in Chile. On this walk I met a woman who was 7 months pregnant but still addicted to drugs and alcohol, a mute man sitting outside a bread store, two old men who were out on street corners playing homemade instruments and many others. It’s really hard for me to be able to talk with these people because of their accents. Accents don’t differ by region in Chile, like in the U.S. Instead, they differ based on class. But I can smile, control and get rid of my own pride by letting the homeless men to kiss me on the cheek to say hello and goodbye and sit with them as they eat, nodding and smiling as the Chileans talk with them J.

Another new beginning is getting my travel plans set for my last 2 weeks here! The Y gives us the last week as a vacation week, so we are done July 22 and Levi and Erica are leaving July 28. Luke and I elected to stay longer because we want to travel and Luke has a friend in Bolivia who was an exchange student at his high school that he wants to visit. So we’ve all been talking and the plan is to head up to Santiago for a weekend, then Luke and I will leave for Buenos Aires (AH!!!! I’M SO EXCITED!) by bus, spend about 5 days there and then fly up to La Paz, Bolivia for my last week! It’s going to be very weird to say goodbye to my life and friends here and then have more than 2 weeks left in South America, but feel so incredibly lucky to have the chance to visit these places…even typing it I can’t believe that it’s actually going to happen!!

I’ll write again soon, hopefully on the blog site! Off to watch the Copa America now, Chile vs. Uruguay…CHI CHI CHI! LE LE LE! VIVA CHILE!!!!

 

Long Weekend! Carnaval de San Pedro

June 27, 2011 / / 0 Comments

 

 

Gringo family (minus one member) at the dunes!!

Las Dunas!! Why are there so many beautiful places here?! 🙂

Carnaval de San Pedro! These are the dancers we followed 🙂

Hola choros!

 

I’m working on a couple longer posts, but I wanted to give a quick update on the Festival de San Pedro that happened this weekend! There are always surprises in Chile, especially because people don’t like to tell you about upcoming events in advance! So on Friday we learned that there was going to be a festival and parades and boat display on Sunday and a vacation day with no school or work on Monday, que bakan! (awesome!)

And the celebration on Sunday was SO cool, I had no idea what to expect, but we went to the main harbor and there were tons of people there….but nothing happening…but all the boats were decorated with flowers and little flags, so that was pretty to see…and just as we were getting bored and thinking of going to a restaurant, this loud marching band music starts up and a huge parade comes our way! And this was no Tulip Time parade, this was a Chilean parade for sure, because it was all music and dancing! There were tons of different dancing groups, each wearing the traditional clothing for the type of dance that they were performing, and personal little marching bands to follow each group of dancers. Mixed in were banners and images and mini floats of the Virgin Mary, San Pedro and other saints. San Pedro is the patron saint of fisherman, therefore since Valparaiso is the most important port city in Chile and a has a huge shipping and fishing industry, Valparaiso throws one heck of a party on this day 🙂

The best part was that once the parade was finished and passed us, we started walking after the dancers down the parade route, trying to mimic there dance moves, and once we had them down started dancing behind the last marching band with the same moves that the real dancers were doing, in the parade route, baha!! People started laughing and taking pictures of us along with the dancers and yelling “gringas miren aca! Aca!” (White girls, look over here!”…I was with two of my friends who are from France and a Chilena 🙂 ). It was hilarious, we were dancing like that for a good 20 minutes until the real dancers finally ended, and then on our way back to the harbor, another parade started up! More dancing!

Then today we had a lovely free day to sleep in and then headed out to the sand dunes at Con Con, a city close to Vina del Mar, very touristy (you can tell because there was a McDonalds, Starbucks and Burger King and huge condo buildings along the beach 😀 ). The dunes were so beautiful! So I spent my afternoon hiking, eating our picnic lunch of bananas, turkey and cheese sandwiches, peach juice (I’m addicted to juice because of Chile, they have every possible flavor and stands all over that squeeze it for you fresh, SO GOOD!), and our dessert of oreos and peanut butter, and finally watching the puesta del sol (sunset) over the ocean…life is good!

Ships decorated for San Pedro!

So there’s my holiday update! I return to work tomorrow, but this upcoming weekend we’re going to celebrate the 4th of July with our Chilean friends by having a good ol’ American cookout! Too bad fireworks are illegal here… 🙁

 

Chao amigos! Besitos!

 

La Cultura Chilena (Getting used to some cultural differences!)

June 24, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Alrighty, I know I said in my last post that I was going to write about night-life and I had a post almost finished and then my computer got stolen…yeah…awesome. So I don’t really feel like writing it all over again and getting mad remembering about the computer-stealing fiasco! Therefore, I’m gonna write about Chilean culture…it won’t be a textbook promise 🙂 After living here for a month I’m certainly not an expert, but there are some really obvious cultural differences here, and most of them are pretty funny! So here we go:

 

  1. Greetings (Saludos)

In the U.S. if you’re going to say hi to someone or a group, you wave at everyone as you walk by, handshake if it’s more formal or hug if you’re friends, right? Well here, to say hello you say “Hola” and then press your cheek to the other person’s cheek and kiss the air (or if you’re a teenage boy, you not so discreetly plant a kiss right on my cheek…nice). This happens between men and women and between women, men just shake hands, and you add a hug into the mix if you’re good friends. To say goodbye is the same thing, but you say “Chao” and kind of feel like you’re Italian. (They look at you funny if you say “Adios” too!) The thing that cracks me up is that you MUST greet and say goodbye to every single person individually. My favorite example of this is in youth group, when I enter the room and have to go around and kiss 50 Chileans on the cheek…and if I miss one they point it out and I’m automatically super rude! I’m really bad with remembering this when I say goodbye to groups of people, I’ll just say “Chao!” wave and start to walk off, and then realize how rude I’m being!

2. Chilenismos!

Chileans love to joke that they don’t speak Spanish, they speak Chilean. I didn’t know this before I came here, but it turns out that Chile has a reputation for REALLY difficult to understand Spanish…and I can now verify that reputation whole-heartedly!  The first thing that makes speaking “Chilean” so difficult is that they speak incredibly fast! Native Spanish-speakers in general seem to speak really quickly to me, but Chileans talk fast even for native speakers, it’s insane! Chileans also love to use slang, so they have tons of words that don’t make sense anywhere but Chile. Here’s a few of my favorites:

Poh: Chileans add the sound “poh” onto any word they please. It’s most common with “si”, so a lot of times Chileans respond with “sipo!” to questions. I’ve found that in conversations between friends or with some kind of passionate topic/emotion, they start slipping poh into at least one word every sentence, it can make things really hard to follow at first! But I love trying to use it now, and it cracks them up when I do, they love that I’m becoming a chilena J

Bakán: this is kind of like “awesome”, they use it to describe anything that was cool or fun or interesting, que bakán, no?!

Pololo/polola: this means novio/novia (boyfriend/girlfriend), but it also signifies that the relationship is quite serious, if I’m understanding correctly. Try saying it, it’s such a funny word! Oh, and “pololear” means “to date”.

Fume: BORING!

Cachai/cache: Cachai is used in place of “entiendes?” (you understand?). I need to take a video of someone saying it, it’s a word with bounce and force, I love it! And if you understand you respond with “cache!”. Chileans slip “cachai” on the end of tons of sentences, speeches are littered with it! Cachai?

Wena choro/pollo!: This is a greeting between friends, choro is a chilenismo for “amigo” (friend). Pollo literally means “chicken”, but calling someone a pollo is like calling them stupid. But Chileans love insulting their friends, it’s honestly like you’re real friends once you start trading insults all the time, I almost feel good once I’m in insult battles b/c I know I’m in, ha! But don’t say “wena pollo” to someone who isn’t a friend, they’ll get mad! But between friends it’ll always get a laugh 🙂

3. PDA!

WOW. This was definitely the most evident cultural difference right away. CHILEANS LOVE PDA! SO MUCH! My first night in Chile we went to a restaurant and I looked over at the table next to me, only to find a couple making-out (and it was riding the PG/PG-13 line)! I let out a little gasp and my friend Susana looked over to ask what was wrong, so I nodded my head over at the couple…and she looked so confused! I tried to explain that this level of PDA was not normal in the U.S., especially not in a nice restaurant, and she couldn’t understand it! In her words, “Anna, love is beautiful, why hide it?!”…so there you have it, the Chilean belief that fuels their PDA J But be warned, if you’re walking around Valparaíso, you will find couples making out on almost every park bench, at the traffic light waiting to cross the street, in front of you in line, everywhere! They even do it when out with other people! Just last night I was out with some friends at a bar, two of whom are dating, and they just started kissing, during a conversation, with people sitting on either side of them…and everyone continues on as if nothing is happening! They might tease them a bit, but no one is uncomfortable! Except me! I’ll admit, I’m not surprised at the PDA because Chileans are so comfortable with touch in general. Friends hug and touch all the time here, personal bubbles are very small or non-existent! Oh, PDA, gotta love it 😉

4. Super Talkative and Friendly!

Chileans are very, very friendly, which I love, it’s really helpful when you’re a stranger in a foreign country! Living in the YMCA there are always tons of people around and it’s quite normal for a stranger to strike up a conversation with me while I’m on my laptop, walking up the stairs, sitting in the kitchen or even when I’m getting dressed in the locker room or taking a shower (still not used to that whole stranger shower conversation thing…)! I think this may happen more often because I’m a gringa, and this tends to fascinate people (also, I so easily stick out, I’m so white, ah! I need to be home and able to tan!), but I’ve also seen this happen a lot between Chileans, as a whole they’re just much more comfortable and laid back with touch and meeting new people. Chileans keep the conversation going for a long time too, when you sit down for a meal I’ve learned that you need to be prepared to sit for a good hour once everyone is done eating in order to just sit and talk and laugh. I love that, it works well for a talkative extrovert like me

5. Aggressively Kind

This is a term that Erica and I decided on to describe how Chileans treat us, and each other. Chileans are hospitable almost to a fault. When you’re invited over to someone’s house they will ask you what you want to drink and if you want more or something they don’t have at least 10 times and keep insisting that you eat more and won’t let you help prepare or serve or clean anything at all! It’s very sweet, you feel like a queen J It’s hard to explain the aggressive part, but the best way I can think to describe it is that Chileans are very sure that they know what is best for you and will not take no for an answer! So if they think it’s too cold outside and you need more clothes, nothing is happening until you put more clothes on! With food, I get second helpings or they at the least look very confused and disappointed if I repeatedly refuse something…or just give me another drink anyways J When I was sick and they decided I needed bedrest, then there was NO leaving the Y, no matter what I said! And if you say “no” to anything, they rarely take it seriously, I think they think you’re kidding…ah, I hope this makes sense, it can be both really wonderful (the kindness) and really frustrating (the aggressive-ness)!

 

Ok, there’s lots more to say, but this is really long already, so I’ll have Chilean culture part 2 later! As for life here, things are good! I love teaching my classes, singing with the kids and getting cooking lessons in the soup kitchen , and I never run out of places to explore here…life is good 🙂 I taught the third graders for an hour and a half all by myself today (that was one of the most obvious indicators I’ve had at how much my Spanish is improving, YAY!) and it was so much fun! I taught them “This is the Day” in Spanish and English and motions to go along with it, and then we made clay models of the beautiful things that the Lord has made, like we were singing about…so much fun 🙂 I have some pictures, I’ll put them in soon! Off to a concert now, besos!

 

Mi Trabajo! Starting the actual internship part of my life here :)

June 12, 2011 / / 1 Comment

Colegio Jorge Williams!

The amazing quiche we made!

Mid-day assembly, the kids get in line and have a routine of “arms up! to the side! in front! at your sides!” to end up standing straight like ladies and gentlemen 🙂

Taller de Cocina (Cooking Class) at Rukantu…Rodrigo is an amazing cook!

Oh hey, it’s been awhile! I have so much to tell! I finally got to start working this week and I absolutely loved my first week in the programs. It was definitely a week of introductions and planning, so this next week is when I really dig into things, but I’ll give you an introduction to what I’m doing and was up to this past week! My time is divided between 5 programs. I really love all the variety in my work schedule, every day is different! (I will add photos ASAP!)

 

On Monday, Tuesday and Friday I work from 9am-1pm in Colegio de Jorge Williams, a school for preschool-8th grade that is sponsored by the YMCA. The YMCA started this school to create a place for kids from troubled homes, whether that is from abuse, lack of money, alcohol abuse or other reasons. They provide free breakfast and lunch to provide more economic help for the families and the staff is really great, all people who have a passion to help these kids create the foundation for a positive future. On Tuesdays I work with the music teacher in his classes for 5th and 7th graders, and on Mondays and Fridays I’m with the third graders. I love the Colegio so far, especially the 3rd graders. I was mostly observing in the music classes, I’ll be teaching part of the class next Tuesday, but there was tons to do with the 3rd graders. One of the difficulties in this school is that discipline is really difficult. Often the kids don’t have a very controlled environment in their homes, and it’s obvious that many of them don’t get enough attention. So the kids want your attention all the time and speak out of turn and interrupt a lot, it can be really hard to get things done. But the 3rd grade teacher is really great with the kids, they obviously adore her, and I’m glad that I can be there to help her keep control and attend to everyone; I don’t know how she does it every day! Helping the kids with their assignments was hilarious, I’ve found that the pattern is this:

1. “Tia Anna, Tia Anna, necesito ayuda, ahora, ahora!!” – “Ms. Anna, Ms. Anna, I need your help, now, now!”

2. Help with question, try to leave and help other student, but get pulled back and asked:

3. “Tia Anna, Tia Anna, como se dice [insert Spanish word] en ingles?!” – “Ms. Anna, Ms. Anna, how do you say [Spanish word] in English?”

4. Tell them the English word.

5. They say “en serio?” (really??!), try and pronounce it and start cracking up and telling all their friends.

6. Receive huge hug!

7. Repeat starting at Step 1 🙂

Haha, I love these kids, I’m pumped to have 2 more months with them! On Wednesday I work at the center in Las Cañas (all the hills have different names). Las Cañas has a soup kitchen and then runs different programs for the community, such as literacy workshops, english classes, bible studies, lifeskills etc… Wednesdays I go to help the soup kitchen cook, I’m definitely getting some good cooking lessons for my apartment next year! About 30-50 people come each day and I help to serve them, sit and eat with them and then clean everything up afterwards. I love interacting with the staff there and the people who come to eat, they are all really excited about the english class that I’m going to be teaching on Mondays (tomorrow, I’m nervous!). This Wednesday I went to the Bible study after lunch and made lesson plans and signs to put in the community for my english class, I’m excited to get started tomorrow! We’re having one for the adults at the center who come for lunch and one for kids and any community member who wants to come.

Thursdays I’m supposed to go to the center in Placeres, eat at the soup kitchen with the community members and afterwards help with two workshops: theatre and women’s empowerment ….perfect fit for me, right?!?!?! The center was closed this Thursday, but I’ll start next week!

Friday afternoons I go to Rukantu, a rehabilitation center for teenage boys who have been arrested for drug usage and/or a minor violent crime. The first time I visited Rukantu I was a bit nervous, but I really enjoy working at this center, the guys are really fun to hang out with and they LOVE having gringas visit, it’s kind of hilarious. Erica and I are going to teach an English class here (The director told us that if he tells the boys that two American girls (gringas) are coming to teach a class, everyone will come for sure, all you need to say is gringa….easy advertising! Haha). After the class they have a cooking class, this week we made pizza and it was DELICIOUS! Rukantu is much more chill, it’s nice to have a different working pace where I’m just talking with the boys and social workers in the center while we cook and eat, and then watching them show off and play ping-pong later…perfect ending to the week! I even got my palm read by one of the guys this Friday, it was hilarious, he told me that I’m going to have 3 children and that they will have a mix of gringa and chileno blood…so I have to stay in Chile to find my true love…smooth, haha 🙂

Finally, I’m involved in the YMCA Leaders program. It’s kind of like a youth group, they hold a Bible study Friday evenings and program Saturday afternoons. There are 2 program levels and you can graduate to become a Leader, but the first level is open to anyone and is a mix of a mini Bible lesson, games, some kind of topic/message to help the youth (for example, this Saturday they were talking about confidence and speaking in front of other people and had lots of activities to practice). The YMCA Leaders are such a fun group of people, they’re the ones that I see at the Y all the time and hang out with and I love the program too, all the teenagers are really friendly and it’s pretty easy to make friends as a gringa, everyone wants to talk to you!

So that’s my work schedule! I’m feeling more and more like a Chilena now, walking around the city on my own, going to work, taking the bus and taxis, having favorite restaurants and foods…I really like having some more independence with my days!! I’m off to work on my lesson plans right now for my 1st English classes tomorrow, wish me luck, I’m a bit nervous! Now that you know about work, my next post will be about night life in Chile, baila, baila, baila!! Besos choros!

Bronquitis! :(

June 3, 2011 / / Comments Off on Bronquitis! :(

Hey all,

So let me tell you what it’s like to be sick in a foreign country. NOT FUN. Turns out, even Chile can’t make having bronchitis any less sucky, but if I’m gonna blog about my experiences here, I guess I should tell about the good and the bad, plus you can learn from my mistakes!

Last Saturday I started having a sore, scratchy throat, which is a BAD sign with me. This usually means that I’m getting a cold, but it’s frustrating because I don’t really feel sick, so it’s very hard for me to rest! I usually end up still going out and going about my life busy as ever, and then pay for it when 2 or 3 days later I wake up during the night with a stuffed nose, cough and full head……..and was it any different this time? NOPE. Smart one Anna….but who can rest when there’s so much to do and explore here?!?!

Anyhoo, Tuesday night was awful, I could tell I definitely had a cold, and it was supposed to be our first day of work Wednesday morning! You may be thinking, “Lucky you, you get out of work!” but I was really excited to finally get started. Don’t get me wrong, these last two weeks have been awesome, I feel like I’m on vacation and am loving my time here! But I’m also really ready to have some purpose to my days. And the Chilenos are oh so chill about us getting started. That part of the culture here has been difficult to adjust to. I’m a planner and I like to be busy. The Chilean pace of life is much more relaxed (they aren’t lazy, I don’t like that stereotype, it’s just a different pace/mentality to things…honestly probably healthier than the breakneck American pace!) and they are very go-with-the-flow. I learned quickly that if I asked what we were going to be doing in the future I was told “tranquila, calma, espera, no sé!” (chill out, calm down, wait and see, I don’t know!). Valparaíso is beautiful and there are always new places to explore, but the whole group is getting a little weary of walking around day after day, and is feeling ready to have a more independent schedule and accomplish something. So it was very disappointing to me that I had to get sick at this time (though to be honest, being sick anytime during this trip would be disappointing!)

On Wednesday Erica got up early, I told her I felt awful and really hot and according to her, my forehead was feeling pretty feverish. So I spent my first day of work in bed, not teaching and playing with kiddies, que triste L But I was hopeful that with lots of Dayquil and rest, I would be good to go for Thursday! However, Wednesday night it was clear that my body was not listening to my plans, and was still quite sick. So Thursday turned into the second day of rest. And I was feeling better! So I did what Anna Wiersma does best: leap up and start doing things as soon as I have the energy…….I’m really terrible at resting, it’s a problem. So I went grocery shopping. And was absolutely exhausted afterwards. So I rested (good job, me!). But then a friend came by and surprised me, so I convinced myself that walking a block for empanadas wouldn’t kill me. But afterwards, I felt AWFUL. I had been so hungry, which was good because I hadn’t had much of an appetite the past few days, but now I felt like I was gonna throw-up. I went back to my room and was freezing, but 5 minutes later I’d be burning up. At the same time I’d be ravenous, start eating something, and then feel naseous….and all the while my chest was feeling very heavy and it was hard work to take deep breaths…..it was scary! Erica came back up to the room after the meeting I was supposed to be at was finished, took one look at me and told me I looked like a ghost. Cue the tears.

If I was home, I don’t think this would have been so scary. But being in a foreign country you can’t help but wonder: what if I got a parasite or something? What if I’m really sick? What’s happening to me?! And there isn’t anyone familiar there who really knows you, so you feel even more alone in all of this! Therefore, when Juanma and Susana wanted to take me to the ER to see a doctor that night, I was all for it. I just wanted to know what the heck was wrong with me! And navigating a hospital in Spanish, phew, that’s a whole other adventure. Thank goodness Susana and Juanma were with me, trying to comprehend Spanish while you are feverish is no piece of cake. But it was just me and Erica in the examination room, and it took me about 2 minutes to figure out that the doctor was asking me to cough for him, that was a lovely game of charades we played 😉 But he did offer to write me a note to get out of school and/or work at the end, so that made up for it, ha. And I have (drumroll please….) BRONCHITIS! Yay! (sarcasm, lots of it)

It feels good to know what’s going on. And to have 3 strong medications working for me, I do feel a lot better today. I’m just SO tired. All the time. And that’s difficult for me. My time here is already going so quickly and it kills me to have to spend a precious weekend in Chile sitting in my room, resting! But I’ve been given very strict bedrest orders, Juanma says he’ll have the security guard tattle on me if I try to escape the Y (I think they’re getting that I suck at resting, ha ;D). And it’s hard to be away from my family while I’m sick. I don’t even like being sick while I’m away at college, you just want your mom to make you soup and baby you a little, right?! But I’ve been very blessed by the care that I’ve received here. Erica is wonderful. It’s crazy to think that I barely spoke to her in Valpo, and that last night she was making me tea, sitting with me while I cried, insisted on going with me to the hospital and is always checking in to see how I’m doing. Juanma has a family, but never complained about coming at 9:30 to take me the the ER and kept me laughing during our long wait. Susana let me cry and then turned around and kept me laughing the whole night, with lots of hugs thrown in for good measure, and again never complained that her night was spent in the ER. Jorge came by to bring me movies to keep me entertained during my bedrest sentence and the staff at the Y keeps checking in on me and asking if they can make me anything. I feel so blessed by all of these things, and am trying to focus on them when I get really angry and crabby at my situation!

So my advice would be this, if you ever go abroad

  1. If you feel run-down or like you might be getting sick, REST! Try to prevent it! Everyone has told me it’s pretty common to get sick the second week or so, your body is adjusting to a lot of new things, plus the switch to winter weather has been a bit rough! It was really nice weather at first, but Tues-Thurs was really cold all of a sudden, and you don’t get a break from it, because none of the buildings we’re working in, or the Y, have heat! So my body has to work hard to keep me warm all day.
  2. That brings me to my second piece of advice: bring LAYERS! Being warm is better than looking good! I’m just wearing my black fleece and a new scarf with it each day so I don’t look so drab, ha J
  3. Make an account of your symptoms in the days leading up to your doctor visit before you go. Erica did that for me, and it was really helpful, because we could look up the words we didn’t know before we had to try and explain things to the doctor! Kudos Erica J

Keep your fingers crossed for me that I get better soon, I want to be able to work on Monday!! I’ll be teaching my first english class (fingers crossed!) Besos!

Patagonia sin Represas! Educacion Publica! Protestas!

June 1, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Wena choros! (Chilean way to say “What’s up my friend?”…loosely translated, ha ;D)

Alright, now that you have an idea of where I’m living, I’m going to get into what’s actually going on during my days here! I start my work schedule tomorrow (supposed to be today, but I am sick with one nasty cold, ugh!), so then my days will have more of a regular rhythm. Luckily, I’ve experienced enough in these last 2 weeks to keep me blogging for a LONG time! Sorry that I won’t be necessarily reporting on things as they happen, but there’s just a lot to tell! And one of the really interesting experiences I’ve had is being right in the middle of some BIG protests! The first one took place on only my 4th day in Valparaíso. We left so quickly for Chile because our study abroad director told us that May 21 was a holiday in Chile, Navy Day, it celebrates a victory the Chilean navy had over Peru and there is a huge parade of the armed forces in the streets of Valparaíso to celebrate. Plus, the President of Chile was coming to Valparaíso for the holiday and to speak to Congress, so we thought it would be really cool to be there for this! Therefore, I was really surprised when the Chileans at the Y just shrugged their shoulders at my mentioning of this holiday and the parade and President’s visit and said they weren’t too interested. Turns out, LOTS of people in Chile are really angry at the President right now, for many reasons, but tensions have heightened regarding a situation in Patagonia. Patagonia is an area in southern Chile where the nature has really been preserved and the beauty of this area is a source of pride for many Chileans. The President recently approved a plan to construct a huge dam in Patagonia so that Chile can produce more of its own energy and not depend on other countries as much, and do so in a clean way. However, this dam is going to ruin a huge amount of land and communities, making many Chileans VERY upset.

The Army organized in its new route, perfect for viewing from the Y!

My group was warned not to leave the Y before 1 or 2 in the afternoon due to the protests, and I didn’t think too much of it because I couldn’t hear anything going on in the morning. When I heard the sounds of the parade I went out with Erica and our German friend Max to watch and it was really cool to see! I’ve never experienced anything like it in the U.S., because it was just a parade of the armed forces; the parades in my town will have little sections of war veterans, but it’s mostly floats, and bands and community groups, so this parade was much more serious and a bit eery! Maybe it’s just me, and other people don’t get as freaked out to see thousands of people marching with guns and such, but I’ve watched too many movies of Latin America during the Cold War to not feel a little chill when I see this. But you could also definitely feel a sense of national pride. Things got interesting when all of a sudden a section of soldiers started running in sync and policemen starting running down the street on their horses. People in the street started moving away, running, some were yelling and I was SO confused as to what was happening! Turns out a protest had sprung up farther down the parade route, and the police were coming to inform the soldiers to change the route. So they turned down this side street and took the parade onto one of the major streets in Valparaíso, right in front of the Y! And it was chaos for a while as things were changing, cars and taxis and buses honking, people running, one guy even came up to me wearing a gas mask and babbling that the armed forces were going to turn on us and the world was going to end (maybe my Spanish is bad, but I swear, that’s what he was saying!) Things calmed down once the new route was established, but we decided to watch the rest of the parade from the safety of the Y’s balcony!

I thought that was as crazy as things got, so I was very surprised when I was watching the news later that night. I was at a dinner party at the house of one of the women who works with the youth programs at the Y and everyone was very interested in watching the news that night, and it only took me a couple seconds to see why. Valparaíso was headlining national news! And my little chaotic experience was nothing! Turns out that in the morning there were HUGE protests as the President was traveling in to his house in Vina del Mar (the city next to Valparaíso) and the Congress building in Valparaíso. People were lighting garbage cans on fire, throwing rocks at the President’s car and his guard, there was even a man who ran through the streets nude holding a sign that said “PATAGONIA SIN REPRESAS” (Patagonia without Dams!)- the slogan of the protests! Things got really violent, the police were spraying tear gas at the protestors and arrested hundreds and policemen and protestors alike were being beaten with clubs. It was really shocking for me to watch, I’m used to peaceful protests and not to violence from the police against protestors. But when I saw how violent the protestors were being, it was hard for me to fault the police for reacting, I don’t think it should have been to the violent degree that it was, but it was definitely a difficult situation. I was remarking on the violence, and one person at the party told me that this is still way better than things a few decades ago under Pinochet, because at least the police don’t fire directly into the protestors. Yikes! The right to organize and protest is definitely being utilized in Chile, and that’s cool to see after the dictatorship, but the violence was hard for me to swallow. It was an awesome experience for me to talk Chilean politics though (which I’m sure doesn’t surprise you if you know me, ha :D). There was a great mix of opinions at the party, to me it seemed that most weren’t too happy with the President, but some recognized that this was a difficult decision and the best option, even though they weren’t excited about it, while others were adamantly opposed. It made for some really interesting, heated conversation! And they loved explaining things to the gringa, for which I am highly grateful 🙂

And then, while I was writing this (really, how cool is that?!) another protest started up outside the kitchen window were I was eating breakfast (or drinking breakfast as they say here, the most important part of breakfast is your tea/coffee :D). This protest was about the education system and was all students. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten about it, my friend Juan was taking part in it and had invited me to join, but it’s very dangerous for me to get involved in anything like that, I could get booted out of the country fast! Most everything is privatized in Chile, including education. There are public schools, but according to my Chilean friends, they are of very poor quality and going to one almost ensures that your future will not be bright, as it’s very difficult to get a good education and the test scores you need to enter a good university. This traps a lot of people in poor areas, as they can’t afford a private education and can’t get a good enough education to move out of their poverty. Most everyone I’ve met has gone to a private school because of thi

s, but the problem is that these are not cheap, and the government has recently raised costs for students. So there have been waves of student protests for the past 2 weeks, calling for a reduction in private school costs and for improvements in the quality and accessibility of the public education system. But there hasn’t been anything as big as today: it was a HUGE parade of students from all the local private universities marching for public education, which I found really touching and inspiring. They were all grouped by their major in college with signs to marks each group, such as “GEOGRAFIA, PRESENTA!” (Geography, present!), like attendance was being taken in school. Each group had a different chant, and they took over the huge main street right in front of the Y, didn’t matter that tons of cars and buses were honking like crazy! This protest is still going on outside my window, so we’ll see how it turns out! So far it’s just a peaceful march, and the police are just watching, so keep your fingers crossed that it stays this way! As for me, looks like I’ll be staying inside the Y for awhile, even though I’m a bit tempted to run out and march! (Don’t worry familia, that’s a broma (joke :D))

I just had to end with another shot of the beauty of Valparaiso. I took this on our walk to tour the cerro where Pablo Neruda lived!

Lately, Chile is heaven for a political nerd like me! Besitos!

Welcome to the OTHER Valparaiso!

May 30, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Here you see the beautiful mix of Valpairso: sea, big city and the house-covered hills!



Alright, here is the mini tour of Valparaiso!

Wish you could actually be touring with me! (Riding one of the acensors)

First of all the main city is like any other big, busy city, with an emphasis on CHAOS! The layout of the streets isn’t as ordered as New York or Chicago, which is quite problematic for a directionally-challenged person like me trying to find her way around. But it has everything: huge apartment complexes, a big supermarket only 2 minutes from the Y, museums, government buildings, parks, restaurants, bars and clubs, and there are cars and taxis and huge buses just whizzing by every second of the day and night! But there are definitely things that make it distinct from any other big American city.

One of those things is that there are lots of little outdoor and indoor local marketplaces with vendors that sell their goods in little stalls. One of these is right next to the supermarket that I previously mentioned, and I love exploring it. Lots of stalls sell the scarves that are so popular in the U.S. and I flipped out when I did my money conversion math and realized they were selling them for only $3 each. WHAT?! They’d be $10-$20 in the U.S. I’m seriously gonna need another suitcase, this is highly problematic. They also sell jewelry,delicious pastries and candies, books, clothes, fresh juice and smoothies and tons of little touristy things. My favorite snack to buy so far is fresh fruit covered in chocolate and put on a stick, or a sopapilla, a fried little patty of sweet dough that you can put sugar or ketchup and mustard on…I prefer sugar 🙂  Besides the Americanized supermarket, there is also a HUGE outdoor market that sells all sorts of fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, freshly baked bread and other yummy things. I’ve only been able to explore it once, as it’s farther away from the Y in a kinda shady part of the city, but I want to go back, I’m craving fresh fruit and veggies! There are also venders with blankets spread out on the sidewalk in front of almost every store. It’s like the vendors in the parks in New York, but to a way higher degree, they are everywhere! Susana told me that it’s legal, but lots of the store owners hate it because the vendors sell things so cheap. I haven’t bought from any of them yet, I don’t really trust the food, but they do have some cheap touristy things! Also, the stores aren’t like the big, glossy stores on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago, more like a compilation of little stores that focus in on one type of object, mixed in with little cafes, restaurants and bars.

The outdoor marketplace right by the Y, my brochera spot!

Plaza de Victoria, que hermosa no?

I love the amount of parks and plazas as well. There is a plaza right by the Y that has lots of benches and open space, but it’s all stone, so my favorite is the Plaza de Victoria a little ways from the Y. It has a gorgeous fountain, playground for kids (and for me and Erica, we like the swings ;D), benches and lots of pretty green grass, which is lovely to see in the middle of a city! My favorite part is that there is a whole section of foosball tables outdoors and little arcade games – I think parks in America should try this out!

Yeah, I live here 🙂 Simply gorgeous

Valparaíso is also an important port town. Its right on the ocean and TPS is a huge shipping company here. There is another big plaza right by one of the main docks, and it’s really cool to see the humongous ships coming in and all the tiny boats in the docks. Plus, there are tons of beautiful roads and walking paths that go right next to the sea, and humongous rocks to climb and sit on and watch the sea – it’s seriously heaven for a beach-lover like me! 🙂

And finally, the most distinct part of Valparaíso, THE HILLS! They are called “cerros” and there are 45 different ones in Valparaísom all with different names, it’s crazy! The hills are like the suburbs of the city and they are absolutely JAM-PACKED with houses! The roads are very narrow and steep, it freaks me out to see cars driving on them. But a lot of people here don’t have cars both because they are expensive and because buses are quite cheap and easy to take most anywhere. Climbing up the stairs in the cerros is not a fun time, good work-out, but I certainly prefer the “acensors”. They’re elevators built into the hills to take you up on down! Not every hill has one, I think there are only a few, but we’ve seen 3 so far. The coolest one had a big tunnel that you had to walk through to get to the acensor – it felt like a horror movie! And the view from the acensor is just breath-taking, I really wish I could capture it better with my camera. There is tons of grafitti on the walls and streets in the cerros. A lot of it is legal and done by actual artists, but some is by gangs and angsty teenagers as well :/

Oh hey dogs, you're everywhere...not a fan

One example of the 45 huge hills covered with brightly-covered casas!

My least favorite part of the city and cerros is that there are wild dogs roaming the streets EVERYWHERE! It really freaked me out at first, but if you avoid touching them, they don’t bother you at all. I just hate going around corners and almost stepping on a dog that’s fast asleep! The Chileans are so used to them that they think it’s funny how nervous I get around them, but I’m not sure I’ll ever really get used to it!

Un acensor!

But my favorite thing about the cerros would have to be the bright colors of the houses. Every possible color, in its most brilliant form possible, covers the cerros, it’s so cool! And they love to change the color of their houses as well! I was talking with Susana about this and she found it extremely odd that most houses are brick or white/beige/tan or some other pale color in the U.S. and that we don’t change the color of our houses very often. “Muy aburrido! Tu casa necesita personalidad!” (How boring, your house needs personality!) was her comment about that. And I agree! So what do you say Mom, I’m think a bright purple would be perfect for our house…..homecoming present for me?! Besos!

I love this orange house 🙂

Life is Good 🙂

Welcome to the YMCA!

May 23, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Hola!

My home, the YMCA!

Wow, I have so much to tell! It’s been a jam-packed past few days, and I’m finding it really difficult to put my experiences into words, it’s definitely been a whirlwind and I wish I could tell about every little thing that I’ve experienced! But I was thinking that I should probably give some background to the YMCA and the actual city of Valparaíso before I start telling all my stories! I know that I didn’t know that much about this city before I came here, and I only know about Chile because a big part of my major is studying the culture and history of Latin American countries! So here is my mini introduction.

Before I came, I just thought it was funny that Valpo would have an exchange program with a city in Chile with the same name, and that was really all that I knew about Valparaíso besides that it was by the sea. But this is a main city in Chile, the third largest actually! I was really surprised on the plane when I was reading the guidebook that I’d bought (and saved for the plane, because I was too busy to read it beforehand, ha) listed Valparaíso as a place that you MUST visit in Chile and one of the most beautiful cities in Chile. Que buena suerte para mi! (What good luck!)

La playa 🙂 Simply gorgeous

And the guidebook certainly wasn’t exaggerating. WOW. Valparaíso for me is kind like the Chilean version of Chicago because it has a main, crazy busy city surrounded by hills that are filled with houses, like the suburbs of Chicago. The actual city of Valparaíso certainly isn’t as big as Chicago, but its big! The YMCA is right in the heart of the city. Looking at pictures of groups in years past, for some reason I thought that the YMCA was really small and that social programs were its main focus, but I was greatly mistaken! This place is huge, and has a million different things going on at every moment! One of the things I really enjoy about Valparaíso is that there’s an interesting mix of very modern things and very old-fashioned, and the YMCA is a great example of that. The first floor is like the lobby of any business in the U.S., and it has great wi-fi which makes me very happy! The 2nd-4th floors are filled with gyms, and classrooms for all the different classes that go on here: spinning, aerobics, dancing, and I swear that every single class has BLARING techno music that goes with it, especially in the afternoons! (This was not a grand beginning to my stay here, we were exhausted after the flights and tried to take a nap in the afternoon with this music blaring…not highly successful. I felt like the music was describing how I was feeling at the moment, my head spinning with lack of sleep and all the new things that I was experiencing, yikes!). There is also a youth gathering room for all the youth programs that go on here.

The main city, and in the distance you can see the hills that surround everything. It's so beautiful!

I live on the fifth floor, and there are at least 10 rooms up there that people can rent out to live in. Erica and I share a room, but there are 6 bunk beds in the room, so we have lots of space to spread out J The only sad thing is that our room is directly above the basketball gym, and people like to play until 11 when the Y closes and right when the Y opens…also, our neighbors are obsessed with watching movies until 1 in the morning…I’m becoming an expert at sleeping through anything! Oh, and also, I got all set up on my bunkbed only to find out that  I choose the one that squeaks and wobbles when you move..but I’m to lazy to move all my stuff! We have a kitchen that all the residents of the Y share, and cooked for the first time yesterday. The kitchen is not very modern, no dishwasher or microwave and using a gas stove and oven was quite the experience, I’m still not very used to it! Also, probably burned my finger lighting the stove. Points for me 😉 We use the women’s locker room for our bathrooms, and the best part about that is COMMUNAL SHOWERS, woo! I’ve been really lucky so far, the Y is much more packed during the afternoon and night than the early morning, so its only been me and Erica braving the experience. But it’s only a matter of time…yikes. We also have a little laundry room, which Erica and I tried out yesterday. Disaster. First disaster was a display of my lack of what I like to call “life smarts”. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me where to put the detergent. Did I do it right? Probably not. Then, trying to figure out how to program that thing in Spanish was another good 10 minutes. Did I do it right? Eh, it started spinning and filling with water, so that was good by me. I thought that everything was fine when I started the dryer, but I came back an hour later to find my clothes still soaking. 2 hours later? Wet. 2 hours later? THROWN ON THE LAUNDRY ROOM FLOOR IN A PILE! AND STILL WET! Poor Erica’s clothes were thrown out of the washer and soaking, pobrecita! (poor thing!). So our room has clothes hanging from every possible spot….and they are not drying fast, let me tell you.

Trying to dry my clothes after the laundry fiasco :/

Ok, well I guess this turned into more of a tour of the Y instead of Valpo, but I’ll do that next, it’s gonna need a few posts, because we’ve toured a lot of places already! But I did put my pictures on Picasa and Facebook as well, so you should check those out! Besides the fitness programs, the Y sponsors a lot of social programs and youth programs and that is what I am going to be working in. We tour all of the programs tomorrow and Wednesday and then start working on Thursday, so I’ll tell you about those later in the week! Chao! Besos! (Kisses! A common way to say goodbye between friends in Chile :D)

International Flights…¿Qué Divertido, no?

May 19, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Estoy in Chile!!! It’s crazy to think that I’ve already been here 2 days! It feels both very short and much longer than that at the same time 🙂

Viajadores a Chile!

But I’m gonna focus on the adventure of getting to Chile for this blog post, because let me tell you, it was quite the adventure. We took a pretty crazy flight because we were able to get it SUPER cheap…but part of the reason for that was that it had 2 layovers in foreign countries and arrived in Santiago at 2:35 in the morning…yikes. We left O’Hare at 10am, arrived in San Salvador, El Salvador at 1:30, had to wait for 2 hours, took a 4 hour flight to Lima, Peru, had to wait for 2 more hours and then took another 4 hour flight to Santiago! Once in Santiago we had to wait until 8 am to get picked up by the people from the Y and then had a 2 hour drive from Santiago to Valparaíso.

So here’s what I learned from this international traveling experience:

ANNA WIERSMA’S DO AND DON’TS OF INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL:

DO talk to the people next to you on the plane, you’ll be amazed by people’s stories!

  • I was a little bit worried about sitting alone (didn’t want to get stuck by a fat man snoring, ya know?) but I actually had really interesting people by me every time! First I had two male dentists who were going to Honduras for a week to volunteer in a dental clinic, second a couple going on their honeymoon to Macchu Picchu and third two Chilean women who I started to call my “mamas chilenas”. My “mamas chilenas” were my favorite becasue they were both my mom’s age with 20 year old daughters and started fussing over me immediately, it was adorable 🙂 They needed to know everything about my life at college and my travels to Chile and gave me as much advice as they could cram into our conversation! I’m very used to the American culture of public transportation where you sit as far away from strangersas possible and don’t talk, but everyone was very kind and eager to tell their story and hear mine, it was a great start to the trip. But you could definitely see the cultural shift with my “Chilean mamas”. Instead of onlytalking for 15-30 minutes, we talked for at least a good hour, in Spanish! It definitely calmed some of my nerves to actually hold an hour long conversation, plus they said my Spanish was really fluid already, so that was encouraging! When they heard that I had to wait in the airport for 5 hours to get picked up they were all worried about me and saying that they wish they knew me beforehand so I could stay and sleep at their house…and I’m finding that this is pretty typical Chilean hospitality, it’s grand 🙂

    Pobrecitas! 🙁 Our makeshift beds in the airport

DON’T choose a flight where you arrive at 2 am and have to wait to get picked up…

  • The only scary/bad part was when we had to wait from 2:30-8:00 in themorning I suck at sleeping on planes…it’s bad. I tried so hard for the last flight, but I can never get comfortable enough, no matter how tired I am!  I probably only really slept for an hour. So my advice would be, don’t bank on getting any sleep in a plane, unless you have a long flight and Tylenol PM! For our wait in the airportwe set up camp on some benches and tried to sleep, but it wasn’t very comfortable and the airport was FREEZING for some reason! Plus, we looked so pathetic, I felt homeless, and it was just odd trying to sleep in public. Again I only really slept for about 2 hours, because we were trading watches over all of our luggage! And THEN, in typical Chilean fashion, they didn’t show up until 8:30! I was freaking out that we were at the wrong gate, because we could only find 1 and not 1a like they had told us, and the telephone number we had for the Y wasn’t working and I was getting SO worried, until all of a sudden these 3 Chileans descended on us and started hugging and kissing and saying “Bienvenidos!”! Phew!

DO fork out the cash to get yourself some real food in the airport!

Estoy in Chile! We found a playground in the Santiago airport...Levi and Erica were very excited 🙂

  • TACA airlines, thank for feeding me on every single flight. Really, that was super nice of you. But already by the second time around, your limp pasta noodles were not making my stomach too happy, sorry to say. Ordering from Subway in San Salvador however, was a lifesaver! Plus, it was hilarious. I had no idea how to ask for oil and vinegar, I had done well up until then, so I apologized and asked for “the salsa rojo y la salsa amarillo” and they started cracking up, but they understood. And then they told me I had done a great job for an American and even clapped for me once I paid successfully in pesos. I took a little bow, which got them laughing all over again, “tontos americanos” (stupid Americans ;D)

Ok, I think that’s all I’m gonna say for the trip. I have some pictures to share of our travels and my past two days have been jam-packed with touring Valparaíso, meeting new people, going out to try Chilean food and speaking in Spanish todo el día!! Valparaíso is an absolutely gorgeous city. I’m right in the center of the city at the Y, but there are humongous hills surrounding the whole city that are stuffed with brightly colored houses as far as the eye can see and I’m also a 5-10 minute walk from the ocean. I’ll describe more in my next post, I’ve already taken so many pictures!!!

As they say in Chile, “Chao!”

A little taste of Valparaíso 🙂

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