lunes, 26 de julio de 2010

Teaser!

Saturday night I went with some of my roomates to a friends hometown, where the paltas are grown. Interested? You'll have to wait to find out more! But here's a video for now.


and more randoms from the day.


The center of the city. Here's the point from where basically every distance in Chile is measured!



I can't remember anything about either of these sites. They were simply on our way between museums. Like any city it has it's beauty.


The moon is always out during the day. Pretty!

To finish off the day we sat down for some Once, Chile's "tea time". The name comes from a story in the mines up north. When workers wanted to have a drink "once" was code because it had eleven words. That's a really terrible version of the story, I'm sure you could find a better one online.

Museo Bellas Artes

Although there were plenty of fine specimens of art, what struck me more was the architecture of the building!












Damage from the earthquake? Yikes! And super cool staircases!

























Museo Precolombino


This spankin' new museo has a collection from a spread of cultures through America. You can't really read this map, but cool picture right?

This guy here is an example of the ball games they would play with their knees and shoulders. That thing in front? the hoop!


Mumios! Not the nickname given for Los Militares, but the really old dead people. The guide told us that these mummies, found in Arica, Chile (I think?) date further back than those in Egypt and have stirred the debate about the oldest found specimens.



No, these aren't from Easter Island. These are statues of the Mapuche people, the most abundant indigenous population in Chile. An interesting fact? They were a matrimonial society and so the Shamans were women, if a man wanted to be a shaman they dressed like women.




I don't recall the tribe, but here's an example of the native copper, one of Chile's largest exports.
Ok class! One more museum!







Last Group Outing





Los tutores took us out for one last trip to see the center of politics in Santiago, and 2 museos.


Plaza de Armas, with a typical stray. And a group of clowns on my way to meet with the group.


La Moneda, where Pinera works! Also where everything went down on September 11, 1973 with Pinochet's Golpe de Estado. And below, his successory Sr. Allende.








Attempting to refocus myself



Just got home from Spanish class, took a shower and made a nice healthy meal. That's right! All veggies! Although I'm not fully a vegetarian, just not cooking meat for myself. It feels good! The sun is out again today, I'm even wearing short sleeves!

Now I'm not sure whether to organize my life a bit or enjoy the sun, I can do both.


Look! I'm already unfocused. Anywho! Here are a few more quotes to live by. I dove back into Be Here Now the other night.


"By letting it go it all gets done

The world is won by those who let it go.

But when you try and try

The world is then beyond the winning." - Tao Te Ching


"If a person eats with anger, the food turns to poison."


"In India if you are silent everyone immediately says, 'Ah, Mouna' and honors you. In the West people either interpret silence as a sign of your hostility towards them or as a physical illness about which they feel pity."


"What is the necessity of giving up the world altogether. It is enough to give up the attachment to it." - Ramakrishna




jueves, 22 de julio de 2010

2 plays...

una buena, una mala.

Theatre is showing to be a good way to practice my listening skills. This past Sunday I saw an excellent play based on Isabel Allende's first play Casa de los Espiritus. Timely and perfect because the actors had great diction. They also used cool special effects where the actors were videotaped and then projected on the background during the scene. Very effective.

And then last night. Another play with special effects, a great concept, but with terrible results. I can only compare the experience to a 3 hour long videogame style drama. the concept was this, 2 screens with images and lots of video projected on it while the actors stand in between and interact with the virtual images. But what actually resulted was a corny jumble of magic realism where the action changes from an old man obsessed with butterflies, to a knight and his damsel in distress in a castle tower, to the production of a film, to a girl dying in a hospital. All with no clear connection.
Yes, this all sounds fascinating, but in reality, it was incredibly boring. Alas, I'll try again next week I think.

Also, tuesday! We went to La Chascona, one of the Pablo Neruda's houses, which he had built for one of his several wives Matilda Urrutia. This place is so enchanting! (corny I know, but the most appropriate word for it). The moment I walked in I felt this change in the air. It smelled so peaceful and full of creative energy and so many objects and paintings from all over the world. I may be crazy, but I felt as if Neruda still has a presence there.
Sadly, I forgot my camera this day as it's a beauty. Although there are no fotos allowed inside.

Today we took our last group trip to 2 museos. Pics to come soon I think!

sábado, 17 de julio de 2010

5am WOW!

Jeez the club scene is great here! It's not uncommon for people to be out until 5am. But the music they play here is incredible. Good thing it's the weekend, I'm sleeping in late.
Buena noche mis amores.

viernes, 16 de julio de 2010

Listas en espanol!

marmalada
fosforos
papel del bano


Voy al cerro San Cristobal ahora, yo quiero mucho compartir fotos. Muy pronto!

martes, 13 de julio de 2010

Last night... (se llaman Santiaguinos)

I slept for 3.5 hours, but I'd say it was worth it.

After our welcome dinner where I was served a pisco sour (yummy!) and the largest glass of vino i've ever had, we went to Bellavista for Stephanie's (a girl from the group) 21st. Bellavista is the "bohemian" neighborhood that could be most compared to The Mission in SF. You may not be suprised, but turning 21 isn't a big deal here nor is Monday a big night for bars/clubs. There's also the fact that it was only around 11pm and nothing really gets started til 1am at the soonest.
So we stop in a microbrewery, great beer! And we're about to leave but Ramon from the group finds two Santiaguinos (natives of Santiago). They're upstairs both very drunk and one guy is playing su guitarra and singing folklorico, de Mapuche (the indigenous population in Chile), and other latino songs. This guy was hilarious, not only could he sing, but he was just want in general, "Say my name!" he kept saying!
Anyways, we have fun with them and close the bar down, like I said it was Monday. We walk a ways and say goodbyes. So many chileans are like this! Just super friendly, down to talk to you and patient with your spanish, and just fun people in general.

So it's about 2am and we're looking forward to bed soon, but this doesn't happen because as I'm headed back home with 2 girls Patty & Casie to walk them home we encounter 2 Santiaguinos mas, drunk also, but la mujer version. They had a bottle of wine in hand and proceded to follow us all the way to the girls' house because they didn't want to walk alone. The girls, having only been to their house once, weren't clear about where they lived. You can imagine, it's cold, they're drunk, we're less so. They find their place and Chiru and I (he doesn't havce a place yet so he stayed with me) head home with these drunk girls.
Then it's "Tengo hambre" and "I need to pee!" so I thought I'd be nice and let them come in for a bit, and of course they eat all my food! Good times though!
Oh! And as we head in, a stray dog, that had also followed us forever tries to come in as well, so as safely as I could I grabbed it by the neck and kicked it out.
Ay Chile! You're so much fun! But let me relax a little; especially with these 9am language classes every day!

So tonight that's where I am, in bed, to watch a movie and chilll a bit. I even said no to my roomies who are going out tonight, mostly likely til past 4am.

domingo, 11 de julio de 2010

Feel free to comment!

Who knows if anyone is watching, I'll probably continue anyhow, but if you feel the need, you can comment. Just click on that link that says "0 comentarios" :D

An emerging side of Evan

You may not know, but I've entered a typical stage in life for a person of my age. The early 20's are a time for self exploration and many of us westerners are pulled to the ways of the east.

I've been looking at my year here in Chile as the perfect time to make some time to really focus on myself. So with more time on my hands I've already started two activities that I have been wanting to pay more attention to and they are helping each other out quite a bit.
One is meditation, I started out with yoga, then I went to see a guru, and now I'm here with myself. There's time for more learning from others, but I've looked to my other longing for reading books! and I've come to the realization that all this talk that religions have about their "bible" or their "scriptures"----these are simply special writings that have helped people in some way.
A bible is just a books that helps you.

So for me, I've looked to a few books that I've wanted to read for a long time. Be here now has given me insight into the drug culture, but more so I have taken from it a helpful practice for meditation. I used a process of breathing it taught me for a little routine I am putting together for myself. My own religion you could say.
What else? Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, I wrote down a few quotes that really spoke to me and just sat with them for a bit.

So for now these are my bibles, I thought I would share these 2 passages from Ishmael that I wrote down,

The first especially fits my current place,

"Was it possible, I wondered, that changing my location had somehow changed me?"

"I was trying to puzzle out why life should be divided in this way, half of it interesting and pleasant and half of it boring and unpleasant. I had no concept of myself asa a captive; it didn't occur to me that anyone was preventing me from having an interesting and pleasant life."

Homework

Blahhhhhhhhhhh, why is it the easiest and shortest assignments can be so hard?

sábado, 10 de julio de 2010

I live in a house of students, but we're not that strict

I just discovered that I'm living with un hombre de Inglaterra that will be teaching at my University in March, hahaha. I love this place.

My dinner was a success!

I wish I had taken a picture of it, but here are some other pictures! I'm thinking manana I will do a virtual tour of mi casa? If there's an interest ;)

Firstly, the view!





























Mi cuarto! Just after I got my bags, yes they were lost at the airport for 2 days. It already looks more homey so there will be more pictures.





























El puerto to my bathroom! Claudio is in the process of finishing it. And my view and the balcony that I share with 2 girls from California.




The terrace! My favorite place, we eat, we drink, we hang, others smoke. Mis amigos Irene y Sami de Finland y Hannah de Australia.
More to come! I'm drinking this wine and it's delicious, I guess it's true. and the best part? This bottle was like $3.