Hola a todos! Been awhile since the last update, I know I know.
The thing is (or rather my excuse is) that things here are becoming more normal to me and so quirky differences are a part of life now and it's hard to think of what I should write, what would stand out if I still had fresh eyes? If there's anything in particular you are curious about don't hesitate to leave me a comment....unless it's about my love life. In that case dream on kids.
The last couple of weeks I've been firmly settled in Vina and going to school. It's about midterm right now so the first set of tests/pruebas/controls/examenes/whatever you call 'ems is upon us.
My first control which is like a small quiz was not so hot. Granted, it's in a business management class (don't ask my why I'm in it I have NO idea) and the TA grades them. She is not the friendliest of people and I have a hunch that she is slightly elitest and maybe a bit anti-exchange student. Who knows. Anyway, after chatting with the professor he told her that we were allowed to do our quizzes in English! Normally I would not take them up on that, I'm in class mostly to learn Spanish, but in the spirit of passing school I busted out the English on the next one. I used the most ridiculously over-worded, crowded, run on sentence-filled, Elizabethan English that you will every read. I also tried to state all of the same in Spanish just to show some effort. Hopefully the snotty TA takes it as pure genius. It remains to be seen as the grades aren't back yet.
My first big test though was in my History of Cinematography class and that went really well. I got about the equivalent of a C on it but I think here the A's a little harder to come by than they are in the States. Here C is actually average. Anyway, my friends in the class gave me a round of applause when I got it so that's a good sign!
The OTHER big test I had this week (I told you they were upon us!) was in my Modern Chilean Literature class. It was an essay test in which I had to describe the birth of the national chilean identity after the independence of the country based on the readings of two novels and various essays. Also I had to explain what I thought two particular authors' goals were in terms of chilean literature in general. These are authors from the 1800's remember. Good Lord. But I actually feel like the test went well, it's the most interesting class as far as I'm concerned so I actually enjoy mulling over questions like how a country forms it's own identity amongst it's people after a revolution. Call me crazy.
So that's school, in a rather large nutshell. There really isn't much other news so since I'm Minnesotan here's a weather update. It was really foggy and cold here last week and that was a huge bummer. Makes it really hard to get motivated in the morning when you can't even see out your window. However today and yesterday everything has brightened up and it's back in the mid 60's-70's again. We had a big thunderstorm last night too which was really fun! I've been warned that there are a lot of earthquakes here and that I will surely feel a few before I leave but that hasn't happened yet.
Also, this last week my friend Dan from Montana came to visit. No, he didn't come all the way from MT, he's actually studying in Concepcion for this year to finish college. We had a good time and discovered that we have more in common that just UM, we're both also avid fans of the ColoColo soccer team! I think secretly he wishes he had gone to school here in Vina del Mar/Valparaiso now that he's seen that they are just about the coolest places in Chile to be a student ;)
Tomorrow I'm off to Cordoba, Argentina to visit Ian Holmen, another gringo from Cook County. He's been there since August so his Spanish should kick my butt and also make him an excellent tour guide. I'll let you know how it goes!
Besos-
Clare
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Stay Left!
Hey everybody! Do I ever have an update for you....
Several posts ago I did a bit of foreshadowing by mentioning some upcoming 'adventures'. Well, by that I meant "I just bought a ticket to Anguilla but it's a secret!!!"
That's right, about 2 weeks ago my grandpa 'Keck' emailed and asked if I'd like to redeem my graduation present of one trip to Anguilla and surprise my mom on her vacation there. There are two things in this life that I will never turn down: ice cream and Anguilla. So on April 9 I packed up my sarongs and bikini and hopped a plane to the Carribean.
When I got there, Nana and Keck picked me up off the ferry from St. Maarten and rushed me to the villa. I promptly hid while Keck told my mom that he had me lined up on a video conference call on the computer. She came hurrying up stairs to 'chat' with me. Keck told her she needed to say my name really loudly to 'voice activate' the program. (Really Mom, who is that gullible?) So she started shouting my name at the screen when lo and behold, I jumped up behind her! Her reaction was priceless and very Cindy Lou like. There was a moment of totally disbelief followed by "What the HELL are you doing HERE??" Followed by much laughter on everyone's part. We spent the next few days lounging on the beach and brushing up on our mini golf skills with my Auntie Sherrie, cousins Anna (the waterbug) and Will (Mr. Hole-In-One) and of course Nana and Keck.
You may be wondering what StayLeft! is all about. Well in Anguilla, they drive on the 'wrong', that is to say left, side of the road. Sounds easy enough until you are on a tiny little gravel road with a huge truck coming at you. That is when every instinct in your body tells you to sharply swerve right, which would be bad. So came the tradition of the entire car yelling "Stay Left!" at every intersection and roundabout and stoplight and you get the idea. Anguilla's motto is in fact not "Stay Left!" but rather "Tranquility Wrapped In Blue" which I thought was particularly fitting on my last morning as I sat on the deck in my blue sarong and drank my (real) coffee while looking out at the ocean and St. Maarten. All in all, a fabulous vacation.
Now I'm back in Vina trying once again to settle in. I had my first little twinge of my version of homesickness today. Several factors all sort of ganged up at once and took me out at the knees. One being that I am no longer in Anguilla. The others were a compilation of sleep deprivation, the first Sawbill crewmember arriving at home (though I don't envy him the Mason Ordering he'll be doing), and the fact that I had my first huge test today. Carl had told me before I left home that he used to brush his teeth in Norway to ward off the bad days so I tried it out. My teeth felt great, but that test was still at 3:45 and it was still worth 33% of my grade and I still didn't speak/write fluent Spanish.
But I geared up anyway and headed out on my walk to school. Halfway there none other than Bob Marley popped up on my I-pod shuffle. 'Three Little Birds' was the song and I suddenly realized that this one test was not the end all be all of my academic career. Of course every little thing was gonna be alright! Sometimes I'm such a hippy I can hardly stand it. But, regardless, I have discovered what turns my mood around, exercise and a little Bob Marley!
Thankfully, I think the test went okay and the profe is pretty nice. He even cracked a joke at the beginning of the test saying that there was a new rule...you had to write your answers in Spanish. Everybody else laughed and I whipped out my 50 pound dictionary.
That's all the news for now, this weekend is shaping up to be a good one with birthday parties and BBQ's galore so more posts to come!
Paz y Amor desde Chile~
Clare
oh ps- pictures of Anguilla are posted on Photobucket. Just go to http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg297/ClareHansen/?special_track=nav_tab_album
The album is called Wrapped In Blue and the link is on the left-hand side of the page...you know the drill!
Several posts ago I did a bit of foreshadowing by mentioning some upcoming 'adventures'. Well, by that I meant "I just bought a ticket to Anguilla but it's a secret!!!"
That's right, about 2 weeks ago my grandpa 'Keck' emailed and asked if I'd like to redeem my graduation present of one trip to Anguilla and surprise my mom on her vacation there. There are two things in this life that I will never turn down: ice cream and Anguilla. So on April 9 I packed up my sarongs and bikini and hopped a plane to the Carribean.
When I got there, Nana and Keck picked me up off the ferry from St. Maarten and rushed me to the villa. I promptly hid while Keck told my mom that he had me lined up on a video conference call on the computer. She came hurrying up stairs to 'chat' with me. Keck told her she needed to say my name really loudly to 'voice activate' the program. (Really Mom, who is that gullible?) So she started shouting my name at the screen when lo and behold, I jumped up behind her! Her reaction was priceless and very Cindy Lou like. There was a moment of totally disbelief followed by "What the HELL are you doing HERE??" Followed by much laughter on everyone's part. We spent the next few days lounging on the beach and brushing up on our mini golf skills with my Auntie Sherrie, cousins Anna (the waterbug) and Will (Mr. Hole-In-One) and of course Nana and Keck.
You may be wondering what StayLeft! is all about. Well in Anguilla, they drive on the 'wrong', that is to say left, side of the road. Sounds easy enough until you are on a tiny little gravel road with a huge truck coming at you. That is when every instinct in your body tells you to sharply swerve right, which would be bad. So came the tradition of the entire car yelling "Stay Left!" at every intersection and roundabout and stoplight and you get the idea. Anguilla's motto is in fact not "Stay Left!" but rather "Tranquility Wrapped In Blue" which I thought was particularly fitting on my last morning as I sat on the deck in my blue sarong and drank my (real) coffee while looking out at the ocean and St. Maarten. All in all, a fabulous vacation.
Now I'm back in Vina trying once again to settle in. I had my first little twinge of my version of homesickness today. Several factors all sort of ganged up at once and took me out at the knees. One being that I am no longer in Anguilla. The others were a compilation of sleep deprivation, the first Sawbill crewmember arriving at home (though I don't envy him the Mason Ordering he'll be doing), and the fact that I had my first huge test today. Carl had told me before I left home that he used to brush his teeth in Norway to ward off the bad days so I tried it out. My teeth felt great, but that test was still at 3:45 and it was still worth 33% of my grade and I still didn't speak/write fluent Spanish.
But I geared up anyway and headed out on my walk to school. Halfway there none other than Bob Marley popped up on my I-pod shuffle. 'Three Little Birds' was the song and I suddenly realized that this one test was not the end all be all of my academic career. Of course every little thing was gonna be alright! Sometimes I'm such a hippy I can hardly stand it. But, regardless, I have discovered what turns my mood around, exercise and a little Bob Marley!
Thankfully, I think the test went okay and the profe is pretty nice. He even cracked a joke at the beginning of the test saying that there was a new rule...you had to write your answers in Spanish. Everybody else laughed and I whipped out my 50 pound dictionary.
That's all the news for now, this weekend is shaping up to be a good one with birthday parties and BBQ's galore so more posts to come!
Paz y Amor desde Chile~
Clare
oh ps- pictures of Anguilla are posted on Photobucket. Just go to http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg297/ClareHansen/?special_track=nav_tab_album
The album is called Wrapped In Blue and the link is on the left-hand side of the page...you know the drill!
Monday, April 7, 2008
Mas Vino? Por Favor!
So being that I live in a town literally called "Vineyard by the Sea" it seems only fitting that I explore the local wine scene here in Chile. Luckily for me, Kindra's host brother Felipe and his girlfriend Aranza arrange tours to the vineyards of Casablanca, about a 45 minute drive towards Santiago from Vina.
We left around 10 am and drove first to the church Lo Vasquez. It's a very popular church located directly inbetween Vina and Casablanca and apparently many people will even walk the long distance from Vina to attend Mass here. Since it was Sunday, we sat in on a few minutes of the Mass which was truthfully pretty uneventful but interesting nonetheless.
We continued on to Casablanca and toured two vineyards. Vina Andomida and Vina Mar. The first tour was in English, but the rest of our day unfolded in Spanish. It was really fun to see how the whole process works. Harvest season here is March/April so the grapes were all ripe and delicious and everything was processing and working inside the vineyards. This is truly their busy season with many seasonal employees around since all the grapes are handpicked. Yet somehow, there was an air of simple tranquility that permeated every corner of Casablanca. We would tour the whole vineyard, learn about how they made their special wines, and then we would taste it! It wasn't just one of these 'swirl it in your mouth and spit it out' deals either. We drank 7 or 8 full glasses of wine throughout the day! They would give us the glasses, explain what to look for/taste for/smell for and how to taste it/hold it/swirl it/smell it/drink it properly and then leave us to enjoy the sunshine and the view...and of course the wine.
After these first two tours we went back to Aranza's family's house where Felipe had been busy cooking us lunch. We had a ridiculous amount of bread, homemade salsa, emanadas, and choclo(those tamale type things that are wrapped and cooked in a cornhusk packet...I can't remember what the English name is...). After that we waddled on over to the final vineyard tour.
The last one was easily my favorite, Vina Casas del Bosque. It was much smaller than the others and had a very friendly/relaxed vibe. There were a lot of kids playing and laughing and the tour guide was very personable. Their Merlot was also excellent, how fun to be able to say that!
At this point, we were all quite tuckered out from our hard day of wine, grapes, sunshine and conversation so we hopped in the car and returned to our own Vina del Mar.
I've posted the pictures from this adventure and also from my hike in La Campana on Photobucket. The link below will take you to my main page and if you look on the lefthand side you will see the links to the albums. They are entitled La Campana and Vino en Vina and should have accompanying descriptions under each photo.
http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg297/ClareHansen/
Chao for now-
Clare
We left around 10 am and drove first to the church Lo Vasquez. It's a very popular church located directly inbetween Vina and Casablanca and apparently many people will even walk the long distance from Vina to attend Mass here. Since it was Sunday, we sat in on a few minutes of the Mass which was truthfully pretty uneventful but interesting nonetheless.
We continued on to Casablanca and toured two vineyards. Vina Andomida and Vina Mar. The first tour was in English, but the rest of our day unfolded in Spanish. It was really fun to see how the whole process works. Harvest season here is March/April so the grapes were all ripe and delicious and everything was processing and working inside the vineyards. This is truly their busy season with many seasonal employees around since all the grapes are handpicked. Yet somehow, there was an air of simple tranquility that permeated every corner of Casablanca. We would tour the whole vineyard, learn about how they made their special wines, and then we would taste it! It wasn't just one of these 'swirl it in your mouth and spit it out' deals either. We drank 7 or 8 full glasses of wine throughout the day! They would give us the glasses, explain what to look for/taste for/smell for and how to taste it/hold it/swirl it/smell it/drink it properly and then leave us to enjoy the sunshine and the view...and of course the wine.
After these first two tours we went back to Aranza's family's house where Felipe had been busy cooking us lunch. We had a ridiculous amount of bread, homemade salsa, emanadas, and choclo(those tamale type things that are wrapped and cooked in a cornhusk packet...I can't remember what the English name is...). After that we waddled on over to the final vineyard tour.
The last one was easily my favorite, Vina Casas del Bosque. It was much smaller than the others and had a very friendly/relaxed vibe. There were a lot of kids playing and laughing and the tour guide was very personable. Their Merlot was also excellent, how fun to be able to say that!
At this point, we were all quite tuckered out from our hard day of wine, grapes, sunshine and conversation so we hopped in the car and returned to our own Vina del Mar.
I've posted the pictures from this adventure and also from my hike in La Campana on Photobucket. The link below will take you to my main page and if you look on the lefthand side you will see the links to the albums. They are entitled La Campana and Vino en Vina and should have accompanying descriptions under each photo.
http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg297/ClareHansen/
Chao for now-
Clare
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Theologians
In a note completely unrelated to anything I must mention that as I write this the only Chilean radio station we get in our house, Las Dunas, is playing Theologians by Wilco. A very welcome little taste of the United States, I much prefer this to the occasional Abba that works it's way into the playlist.
Things in Chile have been falling into a routine, finally. I now have a pretty set school schedule. I've gone to class regularly, though one keeps getting cancelled! This is so very different from school back home. Things here are done so last minute and I've only had each class twice in the last month! I was initially a little bit freaked out by this, in the States we have the same class three times a week! But I've been assured that this is totally normal and not to worry, I will still get the credits.
The weekends are spent exploring little towns near Vina (Valparaiso, ConCon, Renaca, Limache). Each town has it's own very distinct vibe and even the architecture is strikingly different. Mostly though, Chilean buildings don't follow any sort of building code. You can basically build it to look how ever you want! They are also painted all sorts of crazy colors. One house that I walk by on the way to la Universidad is all bright magenta; I'll try to snap a picture of it this week.
Now that I'm a bit more settled here, cultural subtleties are beginning to present themselves. It's really hard to put them into words just now, as I am only starting to comprehend them. As things clear up, I'll write more.
Spanish is going pretty well. I had a break through in my Cine class this week. I actually understood exactly what we were doing for the first time ever in a class! We would watch 10 minutes of an old silent film and then one student would have to comment on the different styles and techniques of cinematography used in the montage. When it came time for me to provide my commentary I actually had a few valid comments to make and I feel like for the first time I was able to contribute something of substance to the class, such a great feeling. I have also discovered my favorite Spanish word: abeja. It's pronounced "ah-bay-ha" and it is super fun to say! It means 'bee'.
That's all the news for now although I have a few adventures coming up in the next 2 weeks which should make for some pretty fun blog entries/pictures.
Until then- hasta luego!
-Clarence
Things in Chile have been falling into a routine, finally. I now have a pretty set school schedule. I've gone to class regularly, though one keeps getting cancelled! This is so very different from school back home. Things here are done so last minute and I've only had each class twice in the last month! I was initially a little bit freaked out by this, in the States we have the same class three times a week! But I've been assured that this is totally normal and not to worry, I will still get the credits.
The weekends are spent exploring little towns near Vina (Valparaiso, ConCon, Renaca, Limache). Each town has it's own very distinct vibe and even the architecture is strikingly different. Mostly though, Chilean buildings don't follow any sort of building code. You can basically build it to look how ever you want! They are also painted all sorts of crazy colors. One house that I walk by on the way to la Universidad is all bright magenta; I'll try to snap a picture of it this week.
Now that I'm a bit more settled here, cultural subtleties are beginning to present themselves. It's really hard to put them into words just now, as I am only starting to comprehend them. As things clear up, I'll write more.
Spanish is going pretty well. I had a break through in my Cine class this week. I actually understood exactly what we were doing for the first time ever in a class! We would watch 10 minutes of an old silent film and then one student would have to comment on the different styles and techniques of cinematography used in the montage. When it came time for me to provide my commentary I actually had a few valid comments to make and I feel like for the first time I was able to contribute something of substance to the class, such a great feeling. I have also discovered my favorite Spanish word: abeja. It's pronounced "ah-bay-ha" and it is super fun to say! It means 'bee'.
That's all the news for now although I have a few adventures coming up in the next 2 weeks which should make for some pretty fun blog entries/pictures.
Until then- hasta luego!
-Clarence
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