Caza de tesoro

You’ll all be very proud to know that my borderline obsessive birthday party planning antics reached new heights yesterday. After my friends finally got home from Chiloé yesterday, Maddie and I managed to pull off a Valparaíso-wide treasure hunt for Sarah’s 21st birthday. Oh yes. We spent the afternoon penning witty clues (in perfect poetic meter…in Spanish), dotting the city with bright pink and green index cards stuck to benches and ledges and signs with mounting tape, making friends with a host of ice cream parlor workers and street vendors and ascensor operators who were really excited to hand off clues, and blowing up balloons with the entire staff of the Color Café. Sarah being our resident gymnast, a handstand photo was required at every stop. Not to mention a “shot” of manjar-filled chocolate.

When we finally got to Color Café, a festive table was waiting for us. The two folk singers sang “Féliz Cumpleanos” in harmony, accompanied by the rhythm of an acoustic guitar. The gruff chef with the eye patch and the fisherman’s cap handed Sarah a hand-painted glass ashtray as a birthday present. The quirky waitress, Angélica, who lives with a friend in the apartment right above the café, sat down and chatted with us for most of the night. And as we sipped our kiwi-apple, chirimolla-orange, and banana-lemon SuperJugos, we looked around at the walls covered with kites and keys and postcards and maps and crepe paper and puppets and necklaces and records and candy wrappers and tea bags and playing cards.

That just might be my favorite place in Valparaíso. And it just might have been my favorite night here.

Trozos

So, when I first saw the Dunkin Donuts in the mall of Viña del Mar, I was pretty mad. I mean, come on, a city with a funky bohemian café on every corner does not need to be polluted by American fast food chains. But then I saw that they offered the flavor “Suspiro Limeño” (“Sigh of Lima”), which is a powdered doughnut filled with manjar. So I praised glocalization and bought one.

In other news, I am now friends with the nun in my dance class. She’s from Mexico, and she’s been in Chile for four years as part of a mission that helps orphans. And her name is Laura, "el nombre más hermoso del mundo." And if the nun said it, it must be right ;)

What else? Drawing is wonderful and addictive, Sebastian said his friends at the party thought I was cool, I’m getting a haircut tomorrow, I know too much about Chilean colonial economics, and my room has just been restocked with Calipso cookies and apricot juice. Awesome.

Song and dance, color and light :)

So I’ve got myself a routine, and so now maybe I can be a little less neglectful about this blog :)

My classes are finally all settled, and I really like them all. Choosing them, however, was one big whirlwind of panic. The international students luckily had a month-long grace period to test out classes, but I got a late start since the history classes started two weeks later than all the others. Scrambling to collect the required 12 credits, I kept ending up in really intimidating classrooms with distant, mumbly professors and *gulp* oral exams. But after a couple weeks of uncertainty, I ended up with six classes that I like: three history – Colonization of Chile, Formation of the Hispanoamerican Culture, and Urban History/History of Valparaíso – and three music – Choral Practical, Fundamentals of Ethnomusicology, and Traditional Dances of Chile. AND I’ve got my student ID card now, so trips in the micro buses only cost me 150 pesos (around 30 cents) instead of 400 (around 80 cents), not to mention my super sweet Chilean ID card, which allows me to legally walk the streets. Awesome.

So far, the workload hasn’t been terrible. I’ve read no less than three full books on the economics of colonial Chile…in Spanish…but the readings for the other history classes have been more manageable, and work outside of the classroom is rare for any of the music classes. The trickiest part is the technical stuff – things like finding out when classes are canceled so I don’t show up to an empty classroom and getting photocopies of all the readings when there’s only one copy of the book in the library – but asking lots of questions has allowed me to get closer to the professors and also to the Chilean students in the class (I actually ended up spending an afternoon with two kids named Nicolas and Sebastian after asking them for help with the photocopier). I’ve got a bunch of tests coming up this week and next, which I’m only angry about since all of the other universities have a week off for Fiesta de la Patria (and even more time off because of a slew of student strikes). Which means Sarah, Maddie and Hannah are off traveling in Patagonia and Chiloé while I’m studying in my room. Not cool. Also, sort of scary, since I’m used to having partner-in-crime in my Chilean adventures, and so this weekend I’m pulling off a solo gringa act at all the birthday parties and concerts I’m going to. Yikes!

But the classes, as much as I only intended them to be a small part of my adventure, have really shaped my experience here. A few weeks back, the music department of La Católica hosted an international music festival, and my chorus class participated in a week-long choral workshop directed by a visiting conductor from Poland. This was awesome, since the conductor spoke some English but no Spanish, so for once, I was the one who knew what was going on! We met for a series of rehearsals all week, and put on a concert that Saturday. And check it out: we made it onto the music institute's website! http://www.revistamusical.ucv.cl/fdv/fotos/019.act01.jpg and http://www.revistamusical.ucv.cl/noticias/ago13.31/info.html

But the best part of that workshop, really, was that I ended up spending a lot of time with some realty great kids – and all music dorks! The day after the concert, I went to school’s orchestra concert with Francisco (who, you’ll remember, is the guitarist from PANIKO ROCK FEST), Diego, Fabian, Sarah, Maddie, and Mary Ellen (another American in the chorus). We headed to Café Journal afterwards, and in the middle of one of the toasts, Diego broke out into “To Life!” from Fiddler on the Roof, following that up with some “Tradition” and “If I Were a Rich Man.” I sort of stared at him for a second, then hugged him, and declared him my best friend. That was a fantastic night (ignore the fact that my cell phone was stolen that night, which was a saga in itself), and a real turning point for me. The rest of the week, the group of us exchanged mp3s, went music-festival hopping, and sang both choral epitaphs to Don Quixote and 90s hits by Weezer. Tonight, in fact, Diego and I are hanging out in Viña and then going to see Francisco’s band play in Valparaíso. My theory holds: the best way to make friends is to sing with them. Which is why, um, I joined another student chorus, too :) And the Cuban cha cha chas and Peruvian folk pieces we sing are even more fun.

My dance class has also been a treat. Three professors, ten American students, fifty Chilean students and one nun (awesome, I know) all get together in the auditorium of a church to play Mapuche games and to do Aymara dances. Right now, we’re learning cueca, the national dance of Chile. (Sebastian: “What’s the national dance of the US?” me: “Uhh…I don’t think we have one…”) It’s a partner dance which is supposed to imitate the courtship of a rooster and a hen – the two dancers step evasively back and forth in semi-circles and S-shaped patterns until they finally end up arm in arm at the end. It also involves a lot of handkerchief and skirt twirling. All the American kids are still pretty lost, and there’s actually a quiz coming up, but fortunately so is Fiesta de la Patria. I hear the streets explode with flags, ramadas, empanadas, and cueca, so I should have plenty of opportunities to practice.

It probably seems like I’m busy all the time, but that’s not really true – most of my classes meet just once a week, and I don’t spend too much time with friends during the weekdays. Because of this, I end up having plenty of time to reflect, which has been invaluable. I’ve always wanted to be the kind of person who walks around with a notebook, and suddenly I am. I always carry a backpack full of journals and stationery, which I scribble in anytime I’m alone in plazas and cafés. I also bought myself a sketchbook and some colored pencils, which has been an adventure in itself since I know nothing about drawing, but has helped me put on paper some of the images and especially the colors that have stuck with me.

So, what did I forget? The weather is getting warmer and the Spanish is getting easier every day, Sarah and I discovered that the Chilean film Sexo con amor is way too much fun, and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to come back to the States and not have a constant supply of avocadoes, kiwi and manjar (sort of like dulce de leche). I’m actually thinking about applying to be an RA at the Spanish House at Middlebury senior year, just so I can keep pretending I’m in Chile and organize onces and movie nights and cueca parties.

Thanks for reading, and double thanks to everyone who has written letters! I’m in the middle of a letter writing spree, so expect to hear back as soon as the Chilean post decides to deliver them! ¡Chao, que les vaya bien!