McCain and Mullets
Before we left for Chile on our ten week trip, I told a few people that if Obama didn’t win, and McCain was elected, we weren’t coming home. It may not have been 100% true, but I thought it was kind of funny and there was part of me that would start looking into Canada as an option should Obama not get the White House. However, the day before the election took place, as I walked around nervously, I realized that I really needed a hair cut.
Now, you have to understand that the Chilean Mullet is alive and well here in Santiago. It’s not quite the same as the American Mullet, which clearly has many incarnations. I would have to say that the Chilean Mullet is somewhat similar to the Baseball Mullet of the early 80s, it starts high on the back of the head, and is only slightly longer than the sides and top of the rest of the head. It’s a calmer, subtler mullet, but a mullet just the same.
With the haircut I had at the time, I was pretty sure there was no way I was walking out of that hair salon with anything but the Chilean Mullet, and decided going into it that I was fine with that. When you consider the fact that I can’t speak Spanish, and the guy cutting my hair couldn’t speak English, coupled with the fact that I hate telling people to alter the haircut they’re giving me if I see it going the wrong way, I left the salon with the only result possible, a Chilean Mullet.
Now, a big part of the reason I didn’t mind was that I figured this was my McCain Insurance Plan. That if McCain won the election, I would already be on my way to fitting into the Chilean lifestyle for the long term, haircut and all. As it turned out, my efforts were in vain, and Obama won the election. Now, I can return to the United States on December 12 as planned, and receive the laughs and jokes of my friends due to my ridiculous haircut. However, when I weigh in the options, I’ll take a bad haircut and being made fun of to four years avoiding the United States, and I’ll take Obama and my chant of Hope, even if it means I’m a goofy looking bastard. Call me a patriot if you must, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
Congratulations
So, it’s been pretty insightful to be in another country talking to people from all over the world during our election.
This morning an older French woman came running up to Jason and I, “Congratulations!” she doted.
Now, don’t get me wrong, we are aware of what day it was, and Steve and Sarilyn have satellite TV so we watched the results come in. But we were a little taken aback, “I’m sorry, for what?”
“Your new president.”
“Oh…yeah, thanks, yes, yeah of course.”
It’s not a surprise that people from Chile, France, England, and Germany are excited about Obama. I just didn’t expect it to come out quite like that.
In any case, it is a historic day, and those from other countries are very proud of “us”.
soft and sweet
So, we’re in our second month here. We’ve done some intense analysis of our routines and we have made an important discovery:
We’ve been washing our clothes with fabric softener instead of detergent.
Like I said, we usually have an IDEA of what’s going on.
Holly
Glaspeys went over the mountain
So, our school has a lot of “extracurricular activities” for us to participate in, and they’re actually really cool. The first week we did this wine tasting class, all in Spanish…wow, I was clueless the WHOLE time, really. But the wine was good, and by the 3rd variety I didn’t much care what they were saying anyway.
Last weekend, the activity was a horse-back riding up in the Andes. Now, unless it is REALLY critical, everyone who works at the school and all information at the school is in Spanish (you would be surprised what they do not consider critical, and also what these people can do with their hands). Anyway, what this comes down to is that Jason and I usually have an IDEA of what is going on, but not exactly the whole story. So, we knew if we wanted to go, we needed to meet at the school at 9 am. No problem, we were there.
We checked with a couple other people in the van to make sure everyone thought we were going horse-riding, and that’s what they thought too. When we arrived at the farm, our program director asked something about caballos, which I was able to recognize as, “does anyone know how to ride a horse?” There were about 15 of us. No hands went up. But, we were a little distracted by our surroundings: a couple house-sized shacks with a sheet spread from the roof of one to the roof of the other creating a shaded patio, a barn-sized shack with some horses, all saddled up, tied to the 4 posts and a strand of barb wire. 2 of the 4 posts were adorned with goat skulls. We really wanted to bring the fresher one back for Juany, but we were in no position to negotiate.
Jason tried to explain that he could make their horse farm rank first of all horse-farms listed, but they didn’t seem to have much use for this idea. That’s when the goats came back down from pasture (or wherever they were) about 40 of them, big ones, little ones, black ones, white ones–in such a hurry they got the sheep all fired up and almost trampled the chickens. They went straight for the bathtub that was next to the horse corral, where the hose was constantly running.
Ok, everything was on the up and up at this point and we were ready to ride. So, this guy who looked a lot like Juan Valdez started pointing at people and pointing at horses. I haven’t been on a horse since I was about 7, and lifetime horse riding experience is under 5 hours, so I was a little uneasy on top of this live animal. I felt a lot better after our program director explained with lots of hand motions: when climbing steeply, lean forward, when coming down, lean back. “Tú estas el jefe,” she said (you are the boss). Right, left, stop. VAMOS.
And we were off. We went slow and the horse was obviously very familiar with the trail. It was steep though, and I was for payin’ attention. A few times I tried to pet my horse and let him know he was doin’ a good job. I mean, I’ve seen Horse Whisperer.
Then a few other times I tried to remind myself to look around at the incredible view and stop thinking about what will happen if the horse 2 inches in front of my horse falls down.
Whenever we stopped, both Jason’s horse and my horse liked to lay down. “Honestly,” I told my horse, “look around buddy, you got the lightest load here, what are you whining about?” The guides were even less subtle, with their swift kick to the horse’s stomach. But, we made it. And now we can always say we rode through the Chilean Andes on horseback. We even had a decent encounter with a condor while we were stopped at one of the vistas. The mountains really were incredible, layers and layers of them. Craggaly ones with lots of snow, and rocky ones with trees around the next bend.
I was grateful and relieved when we made it back to the goats and the director warmed the empanadas on the grill for our lunch. Yeah, now this is the life…
Our Civic Duty
Today Holly and I went to the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, Chile to turn in our election ballots. It was a very satisfying experience to get to vote even though we aren’t at home. And, I have to admit, I’ve always wanted an excuse to go to the U.S. Embassy while in another country, and until today, have never needed to.
Walking up to the building, I was reminded of all of the movies, where the Americans are running from the bad guys, just trying to seek safe haven within the gates of the embassy, bad guys hot on their tales trying to do anything they can to prevent them from reaching their asylum.
Well, when we got there, it wasn’t anything like the movies.
It was very interesting though, and I was surprised to realize that everyone there seemed to be a native spanish speaker/Chilean resident, versus having Americans working the door/windows. However, everyone was very nice and very helpful.
In the end, it was definitely the most exciting election I’ve participated in, for the importance it means for our country, as well as the manner in which my vote was cast. I guess I should also mention that while filling out the ballot on Sunday evening, Steve and I tried some Chilean Cognac made nearby at Concho y Toro vineyard, and also had a cigar. Not bad voting experience if you ask me, and I hope the 2012 elections are just as fun.
Nuggets from Santiago
Holly wrote a post! here it is – enjoy!
1) We live on the 25th floor of our building. I’ve only ridden the elevator one time in 3 weeks where the other people did not say “hola” upon entering and “ciao” upon leaving. Friendly folk down here.
2) They do not eat Mexican food here. Chileans don’t like spicy foods at all. It is all about the SALT. I saw a woman at a bus stop eating an apple like we would eat an avocado or a tomato–salt, then bite; salt then bite.
3) Speaking of avocados…they call them palta down here and they are ubiquitous. They really like to smash up at least 2 for each hot dog. That’s what they call an Italian style hot dog–a crapload of smashed avocados, some tomatoes, and a whole bunch of everyone’s favorite…mayonaise.
4) There are no tortilla chips for these delicious avocados. Ask a Chilean about tortilla chips and they go, “yeah, Doritoes, yo conoczo doritoes.”
5) It’s all about the power suit. There are more woman than men in Chile: 60/40, and all the working women wear black, TIGHT power suits. Pinstripes are very in, and monster clevage is essential. We live in a business district and between 2 and 3 (lunchtime for them) I love watching all the fancy suits eat their afternoon ice cream bar.
6) We splurged yesterday and spent $6 for a nice bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.
7) Back to clothes for a minute…outside of the business atire (which, I didn’t mention that the men all wear really nice, always black, suits with pinstripes and super wide ties in bright colors–I think we should take the hint) I’m suprised at how similar the clothing is here to Portland, really. We always see t-shirts with english sayings on them, and as long as I don’t open my mouth, I can blend in pretty well here. Different story for my blonde amiga–but the cat calls have been harmless and seem to me more polite than in the states.
They call rush hour taco hora, which of course, we love, as long as we’re not trying to ride the subway.
Rinse and Repeat
it’s funny. One of the things I didn’t want to happen when I came to Santiago was to end up in just the same routine I had in Portland, but here. I didn’t want to spend the majority of my day on my computer, going out occasionally, and really not “experiencing” the city. I didn’t want to fill a vast and open space of time each day with little productivity. I wanted to actually accomplish things I would never be able to accomplish while working a full-time job. Like write a movie. Create a killer website. Learn a new city. Learn a new language.
Now that I’m here, I find that it’s pretty hard to do what you need to do to feel content. In some ways, I feel the pull of gravity to do the things I’m comfortable doing. Surfing the web, accomplishing small projects, but not really moving forward with anything GRAND. I find myself completely paralyzed by the options I have at my disposal, and as a result, tend to do less.
I am learning a new language, and spend 4 hours a day in class. I also try and spend a little time studying and doing homework each night. This is great, but it tends to sort of introduce a schedule into your life that feels very similar to a job. You’re paying to go, so you feel an obligation to be there, and you know you’ll never have another opportunity like this in the future, so you better take advantage and really learn spanish. But with that, it takes a good portion of your day, and then you start to get stingy with the rest of your time, afraid you’ll waste it.
Another issue comes from the fact that the expectations are so big, you get a little scared of doing something. With all of this time, I feel that I better really ACCOMPLISH something, but then that pressure makes the pull of inaction even greater. Fear of failure.
Now that I’ve been here three weeks, I find that I’m able to exercise with a bit of frequency, and that’s good. We’re cooking and hanging out with Steve and Sarilyn pretty much every night, which is awesome. We’re spending 2-3 hours a day at most on the computer, which is also awesome. We’re trying to travel or do something exciting on the weekends, which has been rewarding and entertaining. We’re focusing on our spanish as much as we can, which I think is paying off. I also have been working on my movie a little bit. I’ve spent a few afternoons setting up scenes and developing the characters. I have a lot left to do, but I think I’m moving forward fairly well.
In the end, I’m pretty happy with our trip so far, but I know that I need to be purposeful about our time here, and at the same time, be relaxed enough to enjoy it instead of worrying about what I think the trip should produce. I really feel that this is a special time in my life when I get to leave my job and country and experience another country. I’m not sure if I’ll get this chance again, and I’m petrified of having regrets. However, the biggest regret would probably be looking back at a nervous and worrisome attitude the whole time, instead of drinking the wine and loving life… which I do have a tendency to do… so I’m guessing it won’t be a problem.
Habitat for Humanity in Casablanca, Chile
I posted last week about our Habitat build and I finally got a chance to post the photos. I hope you enjoy.
A big day walking to the mall
So, being that Holly is a graphic designer, and I’m a web geek with way too much love for hardware, we decided to bring an extra monitor down to Chile. Trust me when I say that I’m not sure that was a great idea, but we got it down just the same. However, not long after we got here we realized that Holly didn’t have the adapter she needed to use the monitor. Sweeeeeeeet. So, we set out to find one here in Santiago. The only problem is that there isn’t exactly a Mac store just around the corner (and when we did find an Apple dealer, they didn’t have it in stock). But, we went to the mall to see if we could find one.
On the way back from the mall, we were walking through a park when we found one of those “exercise circuit” things with stations every hundred yards or so. Holly and I, being the athletic and sporty people we are, decided to take some photos. Here are a few that turned out. As I think you’ll be able to tell, I had to teach Holly a few things about fitness.
Foundations and Futbol
So, the last few days have been way more active than our normal days in Portland. On Saturday, we went to Casablanca, which is about an hour or so outside of Santiago to the West. 15 of us went and built/dug a foundation for two small additions to small houses. We split up into two groups, going to two sites. There, we each dug out a 20″ deep trench stretching about 60 feet in diameter. It certainly wasn’t easy work, but it was also somewhat fun. Afterwards, we filled the trench with cement we made in a cement mixer, then brought in using wheel barrows. All-in, we worked hard for about 7 hours, and at the end, left something that didn’t exist before. At both sites, to call the existing houses modest would be generous, and it’s kind of cool that we’re able to leave something permanent in our wake that will help families here. However, it’s also somewhat vain to consider ourselves “helpers” of the community, knowing we only helped build a small part of what will become a small impact on the lives of those drastically different than ours. As wealthy Americans, visiting a different country, to somehow imagine that we’ve “done our duty” just because we volunteered for a few hours is worse than ignorant. Yet, I am glad that we engaged with the community rather than simply exploited it. We’ll have photos in a day or so.
Jump ahead to today, and Holly and I played futbol for about two hours with people from our school. There were people there from all over the world: Chileans, Swiss, Germans, Canadians, Americans, and Brits. Needless to say, those from other countries than the U.S. definitely did the dominating, although there were a few Yanks that held there own. After 2 hours, I was spent. But it was a great way to meet people and we had a really good time. Did I mention, it was Holly’s FIRST soccer match! She did great, although, definitely didn’t catch the full scope of where to be and what to do from the beginning. She did have some great passes and was getting a bit more aggressive at the end of the match. Unfortunately, we don’t have any photos of the game, but I’ll try and get some next week if we play again.
Keep coming back folks, as there will be more soon, and lots more photos when I have time to go through all that we’ve taken.