This morning while walking to the Stanford Center along Avenida Providencia, I came across a big group of Santiaguinos clustered in front of the Ministry of Tourism. Being the tourist that I am, I naturally crossed the street to see what the hubbub was about. And lo and behold I came across a performance of Cueca, Chile's national dance!
It's very different from anything I saw in Peru, more country western in style and attitude. It involves a group of couples dancing around with white hankerchiefs. The men wear black sombreros, guacho ponchos, chaps, and spurs. The women wear frilly dresses with poofy shoulders. It's a lot of stamping and looking coy at one's partner. The majority of the time, the men and women take turns waving their hankerchiefs in their partner's face, then suddenly take it away, in a sort of classic, goofy flirtation: "¿Tu quieres my pañuelo?-- ¡No, no puedes tenerlo! ¡Ja!" (You want my hankerchief? No, you can't have lo! Ha!"). Good fun.
After los bailadores de cueca finished a group of Rapinui dancers came up. Rapinui is the indiginous group of Easter Island. Their dance is similiar to Hawaiian dances I've seen, with grass and feather skirts, women hip undulating and men chest thumping. Very good times.
I've had really good luck with stumbling upon performances of traditional dances.
Excuse the posting from yesterday. Perhaps a little too cynical. A free trip to the opera is a trip to the opera, let's not look a gift caballo in the boca. Also, Chile has a large German immigrant population, so a trip to a German language opera is actually kind of appropriate. Also, I just found out about a website with information about all sorts of cultural events in Santiago. I think I'll definitely be able to see some Chilean theater, and it looks like there's a lot there.
Some other things of note:
- This is the last day of Orientation week, and I'm going to shop one more class today, and then I should figure out my schedule.
- We just had a travel info session, looks like after November 1 you need to get a visa to go to Bolivia. Mierda. I'm kicking myself for not crossing Titicaca before heading to Santiago. But:Donde hay ganas, hay una manera.
- Host family relations continues to be good. We watch a lot of TV together. Everyone in the house loves scary movies. Bond over "The Simpsons" with my host brother. Last night, we watched the premier of a new show Chilean show called "Lola." It's about a man who magically wakes up in the body of a woman. A bit of a scandal for Chile that doesn't have such a good history with gays and transgenders, etc...
- Yesterday went to La Moneda and Plaza de Armas with a few kids from Stanford. Government Center=good times.
-Playing futbol this afternoon with a Stanford and Chilean crowd. Going to Chile v. Peru at the National Stadium in October.
All for now. Hope you all are well.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
El Bubble
At the edge of a big continent bursting with complex histories and juntas, and dense jungles and wide deserts, at the edge of chock full of culture, public parks and schizophrenic political identies, in a modern office building on quiet street, on the second hides a secret, fortified bubble flying the banner of CARDENAL RED tried and true. Go Stanford! Go.
Excuse the momentary cynicism.
So far, I'm thoroughly enjoying my time here. I love my host family. I'm really liking Santiago and feel that there's load of potential waiting to be tapped. I've even met some cool Stanford kids..... However, I have the sneaking suspicion that the well insulated and highly secure Stanford Center (in which I'm currently typing) isn't the best place to immerse myself in Chilean culture. Especially when everyone is speaking English around me all the time.
After travelling alone for three weeks, I have gotten accostumed to going out and having adventures and mishaps, making conversation with strangers with my bad spanish and their relative patience. So it's a little weird to all of a sudden find myself in Flannery's Irish Pub with a group of twenty Americans all asking for "MASe CerveSa" and talking with a JAP from Brookline about her family's house in Costa Rica. I had to excuse myself early to go have an adventure with public transportation at night.
I'm being incredibly unfair and acting a little superior. I've only traveled for three weeks, that doesn't make me el gran explorador. It's just going to be a bit of a challenge balancing my desire to make new friends with my desire to have a more immersive experience. For any Bing Overseaers former or current who are reading this, I'd love some pointers about how to avoid being the anti-social a-hole but also how to escape EL BUBBLE!
I'll try to keep the updates coming, my schedule's a little different these days and I don't quiet have a computer at my house, but I'll report when I can. More fun anecdotes about the family Castro Monsalve, impressions of Santiago, and further travel plans.
Hope you all are well.
Danny
One more point of criticism: Mama and Papa Bing are paying for all us kids to go see The Magic Flute as our Chilean night of Culture. How terribly culturally appropriate. It's Mozart
for f@#ck's sake!
Excuse the momentary cynicism.
So far, I'm thoroughly enjoying my time here. I love my host family. I'm really liking Santiago and feel that there's load of potential waiting to be tapped. I've even met some cool Stanford kids..... However, I have the sneaking suspicion that the well insulated and highly secure Stanford Center (in which I'm currently typing) isn't the best place to immerse myself in Chilean culture. Especially when everyone is speaking English around me all the time.
After travelling alone for three weeks, I have gotten accostumed to going out and having adventures and mishaps, making conversation with strangers with my bad spanish and their relative patience. So it's a little weird to all of a sudden find myself in Flannery's Irish Pub with a group of twenty Americans all asking for "MASe CerveSa" and talking with a JAP from Brookline about her family's house in Costa Rica. I had to excuse myself early to go have an adventure with public transportation at night.
I'm being incredibly unfair and acting a little superior. I've only traveled for three weeks, that doesn't make me el gran explorador. It's just going to be a bit of a challenge balancing my desire to make new friends with my desire to have a more immersive experience. For any Bing Overseaers former or current who are reading this, I'd love some pointers about how to avoid being the anti-social a-hole but also how to escape EL BUBBLE!
I'll try to keep the updates coming, my schedule's a little different these days and I don't quiet have a computer at my house, but I'll report when I can. More fun anecdotes about the family Castro Monsalve, impressions of Santiago, and further travel plans.
Hope you all are well.
Danny
One more point of criticism: Mama and Papa Bing are paying for all us kids to go see The Magic Flute as our Chilean night of Culture. How terribly culturally appropriate. It's Mozart
for f@#ck's sake!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
La Familia Castro Monsalve
I´m using my host brother´s computer right now and don´t want to hog it, so this will be brief...
But life in the Chilean household is great. It´s almost exactly how I imagined it.
The dominant force in the house is my hostmother Gloria. She´s everywhere in everyone´s business, doing a million things at once, and incredibly lively and warm. My hostfather, everyone calls him Nano, is a bit of a goofy old man (and what´s there not to love?), but also very friendly and kind. They have three children Alejandra (27), Claudio (25), and Rodrigo (20). Also, very nice, but I have a much harder time understanding them, Chilean youth speak pretty fast. Claudio had a bunch of friends over lastnight and they partied loudly until around 6 in the morning. I joined them for a bit, but was mostly in the dark when it came to the conversation. At one point in the night, I woke up to the sound of drunken Chileans singing Karaoke "I Will Survive" in heavily accented English. It was a great moment of cultural exchange.
They eat around four meals a day here, so my stomach is taking a bit of beating getting used to the new diet (and all steaks at 2 in the afternoon). But all in all things are very good, learning all sorts of new Chilean slang.
Hasta Luego,
Hope you all are well.
Daniel Hiiiiirsch (how Chilean´s call me)
But life in the Chilean household is great. It´s almost exactly how I imagined it.
The dominant force in the house is my hostmother Gloria. She´s everywhere in everyone´s business, doing a million things at once, and incredibly lively and warm. My hostfather, everyone calls him Nano, is a bit of a goofy old man (and what´s there not to love?), but also very friendly and kind. They have three children Alejandra (27), Claudio (25), and Rodrigo (20). Also, very nice, but I have a much harder time understanding them, Chilean youth speak pretty fast. Claudio had a bunch of friends over lastnight and they partied loudly until around 6 in the morning. I joined them for a bit, but was mostly in the dark when it came to the conversation. At one point in the night, I woke up to the sound of drunken Chileans singing Karaoke "I Will Survive" in heavily accented English. It was a great moment of cultural exchange.
They eat around four meals a day here, so my stomach is taking a bit of beating getting used to the new diet (and all steaks at 2 in the afternoon). But all in all things are very good, learning all sorts of new Chilean slang.
Hasta Luego,
Hope you all are well.
Daniel Hiiiiirsch (how Chilean´s call me)
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