Get me (anywhere but) outta here

It's here. My last night in Santiago. Yesterday and today have been great and filled with family time. In Chile there is a national holiday for the Feast day of Sts. Peter and Paul which is tomorrow and because this year it falls on a Tuesday they celebrate the no work part on Monday so as to not cut the week in a weird place. Ergo, more time with Mamita and Carlitos.

Although I've got quite a bit of studying and exam writing to do before tomorrow, I felt the need to write to all of you first, expressing my feelings, emotions, and blah blah.

Yesterday my extended family came over for lunch and it was by far the best yet. Not only in terms of food but in regards to the company. There weren't very many of us but it made me happy to eat our pulpo or rather, octopus, in a nice, tranquil environment. After all three courses (soup, salad, dessert) it was my turn to take the stage. At family dinners they usually ask me a couple of questions in the beginning and then just continue to talk amongst themselves as I listen on. Well I had just so happened to prepare a little poem for my family, namely Mamá, and when I found a break in the conversation I grabbed the opportunity. I pulled out my sheet and read it for her as she looked at me through teary eyes with love that a mother truly has for a daughter (believe me, I know that look!). I wanted to get her something before I left and I knew that buying her something would not do justice to "pay her back" for all she has done for me these past five months, so I decided to be creative. After I read it for her in front of the family I got a compliment from Alicia! She has a hard time hearing in general, but on more than a few occasions as I have been talking to her she has made it known to me that I am not a native speaker. So to receive a compliment from her made me extra happy. I would write the poem for all of you to read but 1) it's ultra-cheesy and 2) it's full of inside jokes that you just wouldn't understand. Oh, and did I mention it's in Spanish? That could create some problems. I sat at the table with them all day until it came time for once around 7 pm. The only time I got up from the table was to get a jacket and then I came back to continue conversing with Alicia and Enrique. I had planned ahead and knew I was going to be reading at mass that night so I also practiced my reading for them to save myself a little bit of embarrassment (and sweat!) in front of everyone in church. And for those interested the reading went really well! Much better than the first time and I never imagined myself reading in Spanish in front of a large group of people! Who knew?It was a really great day and it made me love each and every one of them even more. Today Carlos was at home due to the holiday so the four of us (Mamá, Carlitos, Alicia y Kelsey) all ate lunch together for the absolute last time (I don't like the sound of that). Mama bought Tomás Moro empanadas especially for me and I truly enjoyed my last lunch with her. I then had to pack my suitcase and take it to Casa Suecia where my friend Andrea is generously guarding it while I travel. What an angel. It was wierd saying goodbye to people! In fact, I don't like it very much. But as they say here, así es la vida.In exactly 24 hours I will be boarding a bus and (hopefully) leaving all of my schoolwork behind! I can't believe the travel plans I have coming up, God has been so good to me!

You stay classy, Santiago.

Love,
Kelsey Marie

Chile vencido

As many of you may already know Chile played España yesterday and lost. That did not change the mood too much around here, although I have a feeling that had they won, the festivities would've been a little more celebratory with good reason rather than just becoming inebriated for the sake of it. Here's a brief record of my descriptions yesterday:

SANTIAGO, CHILE "Being the responsible student she is, Kelsey Kaufman, a third-year international studies major at UW-Madison, was taking a test for her class, Asia, una Megarregión Emergente in the San Joaquin campus of la Universidad Católica de Chile at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, July 25th. She was excited yet nervous because she had heard rumors that people literally go crazy when Chile plays in the world cup, even more so when they play big-name teams such as Spain. That just so happened to be the case this very day.

She finished up her test and noticed the different vibe that was present on campus. Everybody was a little more relaxed, albeit during a period of exams and stress for many students. She was the last to finish her exam and as she exited the classroom she was greeted by a group of young gentlemen kicking a soccer ball back and forth and people running around with chelas, face paint and just buen ánimo, as they say in Chile.

As she made her way to the subway, cars were flying by on Avenida Vicuña McKenna honking their horns, waving Chilean flags out the windows and stirring up general pandemonium among fellow fans. The vendors that normally station themselves outside the metro station at San Joaquin were all packing up shop early, getting ready to go watch the game. She passed by groups of students helping one another add more paint to their faces, practice using their vuvuzelas and starting some of Chile's national songs and cheers. Not only that, but she also took note of all of the pengüinos, which are the uniformed school children, who had all gotten the rest of the day off.

"I was shocked!" Kaufman commented. "I have never seen a country react this way for a sporting event. It was like a national holiday seeing all the schools getting let out and everyone getting off work early. We don't even do that for the Super Bowl!"

She approached the metro, not knowing what volume of people to expect on the coming train. Being 1:30 on a Friday afternoon, the metro is usually pretty empty but she had a feeling that today would be a different story. She was right. The train came, the doors opened and there was hardly any room at all. She managed to squeeze on between some excited fans and decided to keep a low profile being the stereotypical gringa that she is. With each station, more people continued boarding the train, even though space was tight. Within only a few minutes she began to hear the popular cheer, "C-H-I, CHI, L-E , LE, CHI, CHI, CHI, LE, LE, LE, VIVA CHILE!" taking place on the car directly behind hers, as well as at every station as more fans began to recognize one another.

She somehow made it to metro stop Baquedano to switch to the red line and witnessed even more commotion. The level of excitement was high and she was starting to get excited for the quickly approaching kick-off. She eventually made it to Mosai Cafe and met her friend Ellie Thomas, a third-year sociology major at UW-Madison, and the two had to get creative to find some seats. Luckily a nice couple offered to move so they could sit together, so the two girls took advantage of being there with such an atmosphere and ordered a couple of Stella Artois' to go along with the game. The "cafe" was more of a bar and the waiters were running around like chickens with their heads cut off. The middle- to upper-class crowd that was present was ordering food, beer, drinks, coffee and making those waiters earn their 10% tip.

The game started off and people hadn't had very much to drink yet, so there was still a pretty good air in the atmosphere, minus the heavy cloud of cigarette smoke. After Spain scored the first goal that many would consider a big mistake, the table of middle-aged muchachos in front of the two girls ordered another round of piscolas, with a much higher quantity of pisco than cola. They finished those off in no time and ordered another and then another, until Kelsey realized that she should re-focus on the game.

The game eventually ended and rather than finding a bunch of very upset Chileans, the crowd still cheered because the result of the Honduras game allowed for Chile to qualify to the next round. The two girls were confused yet surprised to hear people cheering, "Honduras, Honduras!" instead of "Chile, Chile!" They left the bar and walked home and after splitting ways Kelsey continued hearing the cheers and general chaos in her neighborhood all day long and even well into the evening hours. When she left the house at close to midnight to meet another friend she saw many people still celebrating, walking along with champagne and beer bottles, and trying to stumble their way onto buses without success.

All in all it was a great experience for Kelsey to be in Santiago when Chile played Honduras, Switzerland and now Spain, and she hopes that they can pull out a win in the next round!

I'm just gonna take the dog for a.... drive?

Let me relate three funny things that happened to me tonight within the span of about two hours.

First, I cracked a joke at once tonight with Mama. I would relate the whole dialogue here, but if you aren't from Santiago it wouldn't be nearly as funny. Let's just say it has to do with a certain slogan of a certain grocery store. If you'd like to know just ask me about it, even if you don't laugh I will!

Second, when I was leaving for the gym a HUGE husky dog ran by right after I opened my gate. I almost fell over from a heart attack. And then after him comes barrelling another one, even bigger yet! Luckily they kept trotting down the street crossing over from side to side, showing off to all of the dogs stuck inside their fences that they were as free as.. well, stray dogs. The next thing I know I see a car driving super slow down the street and it appeared to be following them. Yep, it was the owner. It had rained today but at the time of this incident it was clear, yet "said" owner still decided it would be just much more productive to drive behind their huge wolf-like pets, scaring the bejeebies out of young girls, than putting those bad boys on leashes.

The third funny thing that happened to me was at the gym. Tonight was my last opportunity to go to Spinning with Pablo (he teaches class at 9:10 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays and out of the three teachers is by far my fave), so of course I showed up. For the past couple of weeks he has always been offering me his towel as I wipe my pitchers of sweat (yes, I sweat like a pig at these classes, and it's not pretty) from my face, out of my eyes onto my already drenched t-shirt sleeve. Tonight he offered a couple more times and for his (and his towel's!) sake I said no yet again, and then just as class was finishing up a piece of paper hanging on one of the beams in the room caught my eye:

"El uso de toalla es obligatorio"
The use of a towel is obligatory

Let's just say I felt pretty silly and turned even more red than I already was from the workout. I mentioned something to Pablo and he just laughed. Oh man I miss him already!

That's all for now! Off to listen to the sound of rain on the tin roof outside my room. Can't wait for tomorrow's view of the cordillera!

Con cariño,
Kelsey Marie

The best things in life are... $20?

I know, I know, that is supposed to end with the word "free" but I decided that yesterday was definitely one of the best times I have had in my life and I paid $20 to do it. So sue me.

I'll get back to that later, but the past week and a half have been kind of a blur, similar to the past 4 1/2 months I suppose. To do a little summary, I've been trying to stay on top of schoolwork, however I'm not doing the best job. I will send out a disclaimer to any future study abroader: If you want to have a successful semester I suggest you start working hard from the beginning, and prevent any natural disasters (i.e. earthquakes) which could lead to cancelled classes and confusion. Keeping these things in mind you should have a successful semester. Also, I advise you to keep a blog, but perhaps don't become too attached to it. Don't worry, you will be the only one updating it, therefore if you check it more often than you write in it you may be in trouble.

Alright, back to my life, which I am sure you're all dying to know about...This week it actually rained a pretty substantial amount, which means two things: 1) you'll need an umbrella and 2) the next day there will be an absolutely breath-taking view of the Andes. I don't honestly know the last time I have gotten excited for rain, but let's just say that the views of the cordillera were pretty stellar. I took a few photos near my house but the best ones were at campus and on the metro ride on the way home. The first is the church at San Joaquin accompanied by an Andean backdrop. It's hard to imagine not being able to see these bad boys, seeing as they are ENORMOUS and look so close, but on any other day the smog is covering them and all you can see is, well, air pollution.

More currently and as some may already know, Chile won their first game in the 2010 World Cup, beating Honduras 1-0! For those of you who haven't been following or perhaps aren't soccer fans, the world cup is a once every four years occurrence where 32 qualifying teams compete for the gold. According to Wikipedia, the world's most reliable source, it is "the most widely viewed sporting event in the world", (yes, more viewers than our beloved Super Bowl or NBA championships) therefore I'm sure you are all staying home from work and school to watch the games, especially those of you in Wisconsin.

I got up early and watched the game but unfortunately don't have much to tell. It was funny to see everything just stop for a few hours on a Wednesday morning and then see the passengers (and drivers) sticking their heads out their car windows and honking their horns going slightly over the speed limit after the win. The vuvuzelas are also pretty popular not only in South Africa but also in Santiago and after the game they were making their presence known.

In other news, last week I read at mass here at Nuestra Señora de Las Nieves! The week prior Josefina (a young woman who kindly befriended me when she saw me coming to mass alone) had asked me if I would be interested in reading for the evening mass and after trying to convince her why I shouldn't she convinced me why I should. It was a good experience and it might happen again for my last mass here next weekend (I can't believe I'm saying that!).

As in things of note Laura and I have been trying to take advantage of every and I mean EVERY little Santiago thing/treat/experience. There is still a lot left to experience but I am happy knowing that we are having a good time! One of these includes eating empanadas simply because they are amazing and probably the food I will miss the most.

And as for my yesterday, which was spectacular, we went canopying (a.k.a. ziplining)! It was a lot of fun and so worthwhile. A group of us had actually gone in hopes of doing parapente, hang-gliding, but due to the lack of wind we would have only been able to be in the air for about 3-4 minutes, when it normally lasts about 10-15 (and it's expensive either way, so might as well get every peso's worth!). We went to a place called Geoaventura which is a company that specializes in all sorts of outdoors activities including hang-gliding, ziplining, bungee-jumping, ropes courses, etc. After being disappointed by not being able to do parapente we decided to see what else there was and found canopying! It was so much fun, and although I had done it once in Ecuador 2 years ago, this was way cooler! We had come in a group of 7 (2 men, 5 women) and while the men waited all five of us women headed for the hills in a rickety old pick-up truck! We got our gear on and after being told I looked hands-down the most foolish (unfortunately you can't erase the "gomer" gene from your DNA) I got even more excited. The ride up was.. interesting to say the least. It was extremely steep on a dirt path. We all almost fell out the back numerous times but surely it would have been worth it. We got to the top and made it down all five of the cables, stopping at a platform between each one. The whole adventure occupied the majority of the afternoon and the day was absolutely perfect. Sunshine, snow-capped mountains in clear sight and bellies full on empanadas that we dined on before going to Geoaventura. The company was also spectacular and we had a lot of good laughs and made some great memories. The best part was that I was once again able to go back to Cajón del Maipo and see a different part! The region is so big I could go every weekend and see something new!Last night was Alyssa Offutt's 21st birthday so her friend threw a little party for her at his apartment and a lot of people from our program came. It may have been one of the last times we're all together so it was nice to just enjoy the company and head home rather "early" (2:30 am).

Today Loreto and Enrique (Mama's sister and brother-in-law) came over for lunch and I had a nice time conversing with the family and listening to Carlitos crack jokes. Each time I eat a meal with Mama and Carlos I am reminded that they were the absolute perfect fit for a host family for me, it's almost ridiculous. We have such similar senses of humor and thank goodness for that! Trying to convince Carlos why Wisconsin in the winter is so great was hard, but let's just say he got a kick out of hunting and ice-fishing.

Well that's all I have for now, back to the paper writing!

CHI CHI CHI, LE LE LE, VIVA CHILE!

Love,
Kelsey Marie

Señor lector:

I have officially begun to put most of my pictures in albums on Picasa, so if you have read my adventures and would like to see some more of my pictures, here is a link to my albums.

Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/kelsey.kaufman2

Chile 1, Honduras 0

Chile ganó su primer partido en el mundial en Sudáfrica el miércoles, 16 de junio 2010!

¡¡¡¡ Viva Chile !!!!

Dear Diary,

Wow it's been some time since I've written in you, in fact my last journal entry was during my Asia class last Tuesday! I have to warn you that I'm watching the mundial (World Cup) right now, so I'm not able to write as much as I'd like. Things with me have been going pretty well; classes are getting a little more intense with the ending of the semester so that has left me with papers and projects that I don't really want to do.

Last weekend on Sunday Laura and I went to Cajón del Maipo yet again. This time we braved the public transportation to get there and it proved to be successful! We just had to take Line 4 of the metro (which is by far the best) to its end and hop a bus down to San Jose de Maipo, which is a super cute town with not a whole lot going on. There is a plaza in the center that has a mini artisan fair on Saturdays and Sundays so we poked around there a bit and then decided we should decide what to do after each buying a cutesy pair of earrings for less than $1 each. Not bad. We wanted to do a little trekking (or hiking as some may call it) but we had no idea what to do. Luckily we found a tiny, one-desk tourist information spot that was OPEN and for a Sunday here that can be hard to come across! We told the guy that we wanted to do some trekking (for free) and he directed us to a little 17 km hike just down the road. At the end of the 17 km sits Las Lagunillas, which is a little area of ski resorts, an expensive hotel and a cute family-style restaurant with what may have been the world's greatest service.

The day was absolutely amazing and full of sunshine so we started the hike sometime around noon. I knew from the get-go that we wouldn't make the 17km in the time that we had allotted for the hike but I was determined to get to those darn Lagunillas anyway. So we hiked for about 7 km or so, wandering through the mountains and wondering all the while just how we got there. We were literally IN the mountains just walking along a road and enjoying God's creation. After we hit 14:00 hrs (2 pm) we decided we should get to the Lagunillas. Fortunately for us, cars had been passing all the while, braving the windy, rocky path up the mountains with their coolers of meat to have asados I'm sure. We threw out the thumbs and after about 5 cars passed we finally got accepted into the back of a nice family's pickup truck. They took us to the top, the children turning around all the while to see these strange gringas in their truck and when we arrived we really had no idea what to do. We ended up finding a cute restaurant and had some great cazuela which is like a Chilean chicken soup. It had zapallo (squash), a segment of corn on the cob, a little bit of rice, a chicken leg, a potato, and some other little veggies stuck in there. That came after some delicious pan amasado (homemade bread) and chilean salad (tomatoes and onions... mmmmm).
We got all that for about $10 each and left with full guatas and big smiles. We walked for a little bit, took some silly pictures (one of my newly-discovered favorite pastimes, seemingly) and then hitched a ride back down with another family. They took us all the way down and we hopped out right in front of the bus that we needed! You could say it all worked out pretty well! We got back home in great time and good spirits. It really was a great day!

I think the coolest thing about our mini trip was that the day before we were there, in the middle of the mountains, we were on the beaches of Viña del Mar! Laura, Ellie, myself and two of our Chilean friends (Pablo and Sebastian) went to Valpo for the night on Friday night to check out a semi-famous discotheque there. It's called El Huevo, the egg, and it is famous for having 4 different environments, or rather, there should be something for everyone. Well I didn't really care for it so much, (especially when I woke up the next morning and my eyes were literally on fire from all of the smoke!...) but it was fun to dance with Laura and practice our Salsa with Pablo. The best part was that Pablo has connections there for lodging so we stayed with his friend Aldo (or maybe it was Arlo? I don't remember) in his realllly nice apartment for the night. The next day the boys went and bought some mariscos at the fish market because Valparaiso is a port city, and prepared some delicious mariscos for us for lunch.
Laura, Ellie and I went to the beach while the boys were cooking and just talked about life; it was a really nice time and was a great way to take advantage (buzz word: aprovechar) of our little time left here. Before getting back on the bus Laura and I went and found some amazing alfajores (my new favorite cookie treat) that Laura had supposedly tried with her friend Amy. She said they were the world's greatest and yes, she was right. I was hoping it would last me longer but unfortunately I finished that baby off before I got home. Mmmmm manjar.. I will miss you.
We finished off our treats and I got home just in time for Mama to offer me more.. oh boy. Overall it was a super weekend and this week I was busy doing tedious things (e.g. studying), getting yellow fever shots and searching for the changing of the guards ceremony at La Moneda--I am determined to see it before I leave Chile!! Oh, and for the yellow fever shots it was quite the process! And let me tell you right now, it pays, LITERALLY, to know Chileans! I knew we had to get Yellow Fever shots before going to Bolivia (which is one of our destinations come July) so I asked Pablo, who has traveled quite a bit himself, if he knew where to get it/how to go about it. He gave me every last detail and helped me take care of all of it. First, to get the shot you need a prescription from a doctor with their special stamp. Of course I know zero Chilean doctors but luckily Pablo knows one! He took us to his office and this nice man had actually spent about 20 years in the U.S. so he was delighted to speak English with us. He happily wrote us the prescriptions for the vaccination for free (this was the equivalent of having an entire check up and physical, we just skipped that part) and the next day Pablo directed Laura and I to the Hospital Salvador which is over 200 years old! The vaccination clinic was extremely chiquitito (a.k.a. super small, as in one tiny hospital room) but the woman who gave us the shots was a sweetheart. It also may have been cheaper to do it here and so far so good! I got the poke yesterday and I'm feeling great today!...minus the fact that I can't feel my left arm. But that goes away, right?

Yesterday was the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and being as that is the Patron of the University Católica classes were suspended, yet again (not that I have classes on Friday, but I wasn't able to teach either which means Kelsey = sad). There was a special mass at Casa Central (the University's main campus) at 9:30 am so I decided to go to kick off my Friday the right way. I showed up dressed as per normal (jeans and tennis shoes), backpack and all that I'd need to spend the rest of the day studying. I arrived at the mass after combing through all of Casa Central trying to find it and when I found it I instantly started to sweat; it was one of my worst nightmares--I was BY FAR the most underdressed person there, as if being a gringa doesn't stick out enough already. There was a Latin choir and orchestra, a lot of professors dressed to the nines and me. I was mortified to be so underdressed and had I noticed before I got to my seat I wouldn't have paraded down the center aisle and sat one row behind the reserved section right in front. It doesn't matter because the mass was beautiful and it was another great experience at La Católica. Oh, and right after I left I saw my phone and Pablo had sent me a message in Spanish saying, "Kelseyta, don't be scared if you see a lot of people dressed really formally, the students are always invited and never come!" ...would've been nice to know before sweating through a week's worth of antiperspirant.

So I am growing to love Mama more and more every day. I am so lucky to live where I do and would be so content staying here with her, eating lunch together, every day until I leave. I love her and Carlos and the way they tease me all the time. I also love breaking all of their preconceived notions about the young people of the US; I am simply happy. I also had so much fun last night! I went to Jess and Alyssa's for the "cena de inles" so we could have an english dinner with gringa food and our native language.

When I got there I was pleasantly surprised to see more Chileans than gringos so I scoped out the ones that wouldn't insist on speaking english. Found a couple of 'em and "shot the shit" (excuse my language) with them all night, talking everything from tennis to what their dads do to U.S. politics (a favorite of topics down here) to famous celebrities. When they found out I was a Republican and even better yet Catholic their reaction was hilarious. One of them literally could not believe it seeing as most of the gringos that come here are liberal Democrats (not that there is ANY problem with that!). His reaction was priceless, "Ella es como nosotros, weón!" (She's just like us dude!!), as he slaps his friend on the back. But the way in which he said it was by far the best. He was so surprised, it was hilarious. I also threw in a couple "cachai?'s" to win some brownie points after taking up their offer for a piscola (pisco + coke) ;-).

Oh man I should get to my work. I ended up staying in today so I could do exactly that and after discussing Latin and South American geography with Carlos and mama as I ate meat that was practically still bleeding and watching the U.S. tie with England, it's time to hit the books! I'll write again soon seeing as I still have half of you left to fill before I leave Chile!

Love always,
Kelsey Marie

p.s. In case this ever finds its way to my blog I decided to throw in a link to a few vids I just uploaded to YouTube. One is just a little bit of the La Piojera atmosphere and the other is a mini documentary from my day in Cajón with Laura.
Click me! to see La Piojera and Click me! to see my mini documentary (Warning: May be a little shaky!)

Ode to My Brown Fleece

I had the unfortunate happening of losing yet another of my favorite things down here in Chile: my brown fleece. As you can imagine my disappointment was high, but I decided to channel my energy into remembering why I loved that brown zip-up jacket so much by dedicating a poem. Here it goes:

You kept me warm both day and night,
and although I had yet to wash you, you still smelled alright.

Around the world with me you went,
from Argentina to a Patagonian tent.

You kept your softness perfectly in tact,
and although pricy, you were worth it, that´s a fact.

I have enjoyed my days of cuddling up in you,
especially now that it's winter here, these days were not few.

After irresponsibly leaving your black brother behind,
I relied solely on you to heat me up in a bind.

I have known you now for not even a year,
and to be without you is what I most fear.

I'm not sure what I'll do without you
on those days that are freezing cold,
because at times I feel cold-blooded,
or at least that's what I've been told.

Please know, my dear brown fleece
that dearly you will be missed,
I'll have a hard time replacing you,
just the thought makes me clench my fists.

I hope that with your new owner
you can have what we once did,
but know that it will never be the same
because a farwell to thee I must bid.

Farewell dear fleece, you have served me well,
and now to thee I have but one thing left to tell;

Gracias, thank you and danke schön,
if we meet again it will not be to soon.

Forever and always,
Kelsey Marie

I'll miss you brown fleece, we had fun together!