mi fin de

I had a fabulous weekend. Not fabulous in the I´m in Europe and everything is beautiful and historic sense. Fabulous in the I´m in Osorno and life isn´t glamorous but I love it anyway sense.

Friday afternoon I went on a date with a guy named Daniel that I met last weekend. He´s really adorable and we spent a few hours talking about cultural differences, looking at ropa americana (salvation army clothes that somehow end up in Chile for similar prices) eating empanadas and drinking Escudo (chilean beer). He´s adorable and thinks everything I say is facinating. He also tells me over and over that I´m the most beautiful woman in the world and that my spanish is wonderful. Two things, I love to hear even if I don´t beleive them. Then I explained politely that my friends were waiting for me and despite his protests escaped in time to meet up with my friends.

I met up with a girl from the office and some of her adorable friends at the bull in the center of town. After taking a whole series of affectionate pictures with the toro, we headed to a discoteca in town. After a slight scare because I didn´t bring my ID (uhh, I´m 21? duh?) we made it in before midnight which means we don´t have to pay, but the place is completely empty. We gossiped about the office, danced to reggaeton (not until 2am when the dancing starts), and drank more Escudo. Everyone of course picked up a guy (it seems this is the goal of going out) and I successfully ditched several who were too facinated by my foreigness. I made it home at a cool 4am, two hours before Victor (the other student living in the house) would make it to his bed.

After running a few errands on Saturday morning, I spent the whole day hanging out with the family in the house. Eli and I cut up a pair of pants to make a bag (well, mostly Eli) and we all spent the day preparing for the curanto celebration. Curanto is made by cooking clams, mussles, chicken, beef, sausages and potatoes in white wine, onions and cilantro. And yes, you have to eat all of it. It was absoultely as delicious as they had all warned me, and I gulfed down all the ingredients. Javier´s parents, friends and brother came and the whole occasion was delicious and festive.

Of course there was only white wine at the table and after finishing my plate I escaped to the kitchen and gulfed down a huge glass of water. I refilled it and tried to return to my seat. The whole table fell silent and everyone looked at me as if I had entered a synagogue with a ham and cheese sandwhich. WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? They all broke out into a series of warnings about how you absoultely cannot drink water after eating curanto because it will make you sick. I was obviously skeptical, but they were insistent. I poured out my water and returned to my glass of wine. As the conversation turned to a discussion of what other things might make one vomit, I started to panic. Was this beautiful day going to end in disaster? Would I make it to the morning? I called my friend Daniel in search of a second opinion. He only confirmed the chilean belief that I would probably have a very unhappy evening. That was not the news I was looking for. I returned to the table and continued working on my vino tinto until my giggles overcame my worries.

After the meal we spread out into the living room and stayed up drinking and talking. I taught everyone how to play BS and then they taught me the chilean version. I won both games. Turns out I´m a great liar. At around 3:30, Tío ordered that it was time to tell jokes. My "I told you gays know everything" joke went over fabulously. About half the jokes were about Jesus and his apostles. Typical chile. Tío also got a bit too drunk and was giving me an especially hard time all night long. He then got really emotional and told me that he loved me and thought of me as his daughter, which was really adorable. He also kept farting, which I found hysterical but Tía looked a little embarassed/disgusted. The whole night was really fun and we finally went to bed around 5am. By some miracle, or maybe because of the curanto, I was able to sleep in until noon today. I went for a rainy run only to be welcomed back by more curanto. Yummm. This time I drank coke instead of water, and remembered happily that I had survived the deadly curanto-agua combination.

"¡Te queda poco!"

You´ve only got a little bit left! Tío reminds me at least twice at every meal. Te queda poco.

Well despite the fact that he´s annoying, he´s correct. I´m wrapping up at all ends. I´ve finished all of my work at the office and now spending the rest of my time bothering my colegas and taking advantage of free internet to plan my voyage. The past week hasn´t been filled with too much work anyway. I´ve recently assumed the role of party planner for the office. Monday I spent the afternoon buying and preparing completos (uber decked out hot dogs, a chilean delicacy) for a goodbye celebration for my friend Koni. Then Wednesday I spent all afternoon decorating and preparing for a surprise birthday celebration for my jefecito. My officemates have discovered the convience of my disposable labor. Little did they know that organizing social events is my expertise. Fortunately, the celebrations continue on this week. Last night was Javier´s birthday and we sang and ate torta together and we are going to celebrate on Saturday by making a curanto (a dish that includes various kinds of seafood and carne that you cook in white wine). Tonight, I´m going out to the disotecas with the girls in the office to celebrate my departure. And next Friday they´ll have a despedida celebration for me in the office. All of this includes an incredible amount of cerveza, torta, dancing, facebook pictures and energy. But what a way to go out, right?

Tuesday will technically be my last day in the office and in the afternoon I plan on shipping out to Argentina. Unfortuantely I kept pushing back my trip to Bariloche and now its going to be soaked in rain. But I have no choice because I need to update my visa. I´m not sure how much the place has to offer in the rain, so I´ll try and find a really cozy hostel. At least I´m getting out of here before the rainy season. It would really suck to be here without any sunshine. Anyway I´m going to get back to my other tasks. I plan on writing a whole slew of mushy notes to my friends in the office and making some sort of gift for the family. I´m planning on making my boss cry, and hoping that Tía doesn´t cry too much. Sometimes it seems like my life is just one big series of goodbyes. But as always, its nice to leave a place knowing your presence mattered and you will be remembered and missed.

Cara de sueño

Hellooo friends. So I learned this week that the chilean equivalent of "aww you look tired" is "you have a sleepy face." And its an equally as irritating thing to hear. Especially when you don´t feel that great. For some reason all week I´ve been feeling kind of lazy and tired, despite the fact that I´ve been sleeping a solid 8 hours a night or more. And allll week everyone has been telling me I´ve got a cara de sueño. Sigh. Despire feeling a bit sick, I´ve had a nice week. A bunch of things happened that made me feel like I´ve gotten somewhere after all this time here.

On Monday morning I gave my office their first sociology class. After struggling to gather together all the different componentes into one room, I talked for a half hour about the definition of sociology, neoliberal policies and how they are fucking up Latin America, and how we can design better ones. This obviously presented a challenge for many reasons. My officemates have little to no experience talking about sociology or any social science, I am still learning spanish, I don´t know allll that much about the subject, and I´m obviously the youngest one in the office. Somehow, it all turned out okay. My presentation was full of pictures, and jokes and diagrams and everyone seemed to be interested. The class ended with a quiz which not only produced laughter (ex: True or false: sociology is fun!), but inspired an interesting discussion (can we ever escape the evils of neoliberalism?). Everyone enjoyed it, including my boss and I´m in the process of preparing another presentation for next Monday. Woo hoo!

Yesterday I went to a meeting in a community with the forestales. I wanted to try and advance the idea of founding a library in this community. I had already befriended and talked to the President and was hoping that she would talk to me a little more. Unfortunately she couldnt make it to the meeting and hadn´t talked to anyone about the idea yet. One of the women informed me that she was planning on bringing up the topic that day. I was mildly paniced that the president wasn´t there to guide me, but I moved on with my plan anyway. After Renato finished talking about his tema, I interrupted and said I had something to talk about. I explained to the whole group what I had been doing with Comapu el Solar (where we founded the first library) and that I wanted to know if they were interested in the same sort of project. In the middle of my speech, Renato and Ricardo (the guys from my office) burst out laughing because I used a classic "chilenismo" that they found HYSTERICAL. But the group listened intently and liked my idea. They are going to try and build a bookshelf and we are going to bring them some books!

Also, someone stopped me on the street earlier in the week to ask for directions. My first reaction was to tell them I was a gringa and I would be unable to help. When they asked where the bus station was, I realized with pride that I could indeed give them directions. I calmly explained with my gringa accent where it was, and they thanked me. I guess I´m not as useless as I thought....

Me and the chicas from the oficina had a nice get together on Thursday night. We ate pizza (with ham, obviously) and drank bebidas (soda, obviously) and gossiped about our colegas. We also watched my favorite novela which also happens to be the favorite novela of everyone in Chile. We took a few pictures, laughed a lot, and Ximena even gave me a bookmark that had a note on the back telling me I was always welcome to come back to my home in Osorno. It was fun, I followed most things that happened and I realized that I had indeed made friends who knew me and understood me despite the cultural and linguistic barriers.

I also realized I´m obsessed with chilean spanish. Its so adorable and ridiculous. I´m practicing using the word huevón (idiot/friend/testicle/every other word out of every man´s mouth) as much as possible. I bought myself a diccionario de chilenismos and every free second, I study up. Last weekend when I went to Chiloé, another foriegner told me I talk like a chilena. I´m a little afraid that no one in the US will understand me, but my colegas are proud of what they´ve taught me.

And finally, I bought myself a new wallet (a long overdue purchase) that says Osorno, Chile on it. Its awesome. I also bought a bunch of Osorno and Chile postcards. These purchases made me realized that despite the fact that everyone continues to remind me how ugly Osorno is, I kind of love it.

Día de castigo

So yesterday I was determined to nail down some details for my remaining time in Chile. I marched in to my bosses office first thing in the morning and told him that I was thinking about leaving a bit earlier so I could have time to travel. Plus, I´m not doing much anyway, right? Absoultely wrong. Pedro panicked. He started his usual strange routine where he mumbles a lot and I can´t quite distinguish when he´s making a joke, and when he´s serious. He kept assuring me that there were "hartas pegas" (TONS of work) for me in the oficina and that I had to fulfil my full time here (which by the way was never establish. not fair, Pedro). Anyway in the middle of the panic he started joking around about punishing me instead of giving me a goodbye party and then demanded that I go out to terreno (the field) with the agriculture boys. This wasnt much of a punishment to me since the agriculture component is undoubtedly my favorite and days out in the campo are always fun. Ruben informed me we wouldnt be coming back until very late, but I shrugged it off. And off we went....

The first leg of the trip included a charla (chat or workshop) about compost in a community that I had visited once before. This was exciting because I looove talking about compost. Ruben is a great teacher and his workshop was really fun. He made me introduce myself in the beginning and the group was obviously excited to have a giggly gringa in their presence. I became sort of the comic relief and Ruben made constant references to me teaching the class, and whatever else came to mind. I even was able to help (mostly reinforcing what the packet already said) and asked a few questions. Then, came lunch. I was served a big piece of meat and a cup of Nescafé (instant coffee, the only kind of coffee in chile) without being asked if I like either of those things (obviously I donçt, but in Chile Ï pretend to). I valiently ate both along with freshly baked bread with home grown honey, as we entered into the ultimate intercultural exchange. They drilled me with the usual awray of gringa subjects (how did I learn spanish, how long is the flight, dont you miss your family) and then branched off into some more interesting ones. My favorite part was when la presidenta assured me that I shouldnt feel lonely because I was indeed with family: we all come from the same Padre. Super adorable. They were all obviously excited to have me there, and asking if I would remember this when I went back to New York. They insisted that when I go home, I tell my friend about sipping maté with the Mapuche. They are very proud of being Mapuche. One woman told me about encountering a lion alone in the words and another many explained his honey business to me. I was given a small cup perfect for maté by the presidenta, and we agreed to see each other soon. After a few hours, we decided it was probably time to move on.

Next Ruben and I went to another community to pick up a man named Victor Catalán. Basically we had been roped in to being a farefree taxi service for the day which sounded like a castigo, or punishment, but we both loved it. Along the way we picked up a series of old women waiting by the side of the road (cars are far and few between in these parts). The last woman we picked up happened to live in the community we were going to, and we got along really well. She only had one tooth and I could honestly barely understand her, but we clicked anyway. She explained to us where we had to go and invited us up her driveway. We got distracted and sat down and she told me her lifestory. She kept telling me that since I was young, I should take advantage of every minute. We joked about my castigo and searched for berries and flowers. We shared a few platanos and nectarinas, and wasted away the hours that we had until Victor was ready to be picked up. We finally decided it was time to go, but she somehow convinced us to come see her house. She showed off her high school diploma, her artesanía, and her adorable house. We took a few pictures and she informed me I was invited to come back anytime.

Finally we met up with Victor and set off to take him back to his town, which just so happened to be at the end of the fucking world. He told me about a mysterious ghost called a Trauco which was kind of like a fantom boyfriend that wouldnt go away. I informed him I was interested in taking this fantom back to New York with me. We finally arrived at his house just as the sun was setting. He lives at the top of a hill and has a fabulous view of the entire valley that we had just driven across. It was beautiful. We refused his offer for more Nescafé and decided to get on the road. A short woman dressed in bright colors that he called Tía (not necessarily his aunt) came out of the house with two big buckets of berries and hopped in the car. She informed us she was going to Osorno and we laughed at our good luck. The ride back (about two hours long) was dark and we were sleepy. We ate smushed cheese and bread and sang along to the radio to keep overselves awake). When we finally arrived in Osorno, we had to schlep the big buckets of berries wayyyy to far and halfway through I lost myself in laughter: this was the punishment intended for me all alone. After a slight scare that we would never rid of this woman and her berries, her friend let her into her house. I made it back to my house at 10:30 and thanked Ruben for the best punishment I could have imagined. Of course, Tía was waiting for me with sopa and pancito.

fototitos

Castro, Chiloé

my dream house....

Murder attempt #23. I´m sure it was meant with cariño....

Noah: king of the jungle.

on top of volcano Villarica.

oh the magic of chiloe.....

the whole family: Victor from france, Victor from carolina del norte, Mark from London, me, and la gringita from Boston. Our cheap oh-so-delicious bottle of wine and our delicious rice and chili dinner.

¡Chile!

¿Sientes la magía?

So I finally made my mother happy and spent a weekend traveling with other gringos. Unfortunately it makes for a less exciting blog entry. Still, I had a great time. I met up with Victor, my friend from wes who just arrived to study in Valdivia, and Aeron, the other gringa living in Osorno. We went to Chiloe-- an island a few hours south of Osorno. There has been a lot of build up for Chiloe. Chileans LOVE Chiloe. But when you ask why, you undoubtedly always get the same answer-- its full of magic. We accordingly spent the whole weekend searching for such magic. I didn`t see any miracles, but it is a very lovely place. Its famous for its old churches, cute shingled houses, seafood, and beautiful countryside. We spent a lot of time on buses and ferries, just watching it all go by. Luckily there was beautiful weather the entire weekend. It was great to have people to discuss all the craziness of chile with, and review grammer tenses together. It was strange to finally be stared at like a gringa, because of my ostentacious laughter surrounded by english conversation. Pero vale la pena de estar con amigos.

We met a typical array of strange travelers from all corners of the earth. On Saturday night we stayed a hostal by the beach all the way in the south of the island run by a crazy Canadian man named Carl. After we finally escaped his history and politics lesson ("Im an important man in this town" he told us), we immidately met the other two travelers staying next door. There was Mark, the middle-aged man from London. And Victor, an 18 year old from France. They had both been dumped by a girlfriend and best friend respectively, and accidently got stuck traveling alone. Not surprisingly, they were happy for some company. We collaborated on ingredients and made ourselves a delicious meal of-- yup you guessed it-- Rice and Chili. It was vegetarian and delicious. We all talked in Spanish (though none of us native spanish speakers) because Victor could not for the life of him understand my tipsy, excited, giggle-filled english. We talked about learning languages, the frustrating life of vegetarians in chile, and shared other traveling stories. It was good to be with other wanderers for a while, but I´m glad to be back in Osorno with the family.

Por fin.

Ay! My sincerest apologies. After my umpteenth complaint I decided to finally buck up and blog (enjoy your birthday present, Danimal!). Once its been too long its harder to write because so muc has happened. I´ll make a list, because that usually makes me calmer. Whenever I get overwhelmed here I make to do lists. I have nearly a whole notebook full of them.

- Tema uno: the greenstein´s kicked chile´s ass. We had a faaabulous week that included climbing a volcano, a whole series of waterfalls, lots of seafood, empanadas de carne, and wine (for Noah too, a full adult in Chile), natural hot springs, ten hours on horseback (ouch, but worth the pain), lots of scary dirty roads, and tonnnns of translating. The lastbit of our trip was especially ridiculous. A gringo couple who lived 11 years in south africa took us 5 hours into the wilderness on horses (who had never gotten on a horse until 7 months beforehand) with a crazy old german couple and an adorable girl from new zealand who hadn`t been home in 4 years. We landed at an amazing spot called la junta in time for a beautiful hike, a great waterslide, and a lamb asado (freshly killed). It was fabulous.
- Tema dos: another ridiculous weekend with Renato. My friend from the office (the same one who took me to Futrono about a month ago) invited me to come to his house for his 30th birthday asado. In case you are wondering-- much to everyone´s surprise and disapointment, we remain to be only friends. The town he lives in is absolutely beautiful and his parents librería is awesome and mostly devoid of book. All of his 30 year old friends from high school came from all over the country for the grandest asado Ive ever seen (both lamb, and cow and tons of Pisco). They were equally as amused by my age as on the last trip, and even more gracious and friendly. It was a great weekend and I´m exhausted (yes, two nights staying up till 6am). Luckily, we´re having another asado tonight with the office.
- Tema tres: la oficina. I feel like I havent talked about work in a while. My job has turned out to me being Pedro`s apprentice. The director of the project is also a sociologist (I`ve given up, I now identify as a sociologist) and we`ve develoed a lovely little relationship. I finally understan all of his mumblings and most of his jokes. He gives me sociology readings about the end of capitalism, the camesino economy, and goals for rural development. Then we chat about it and I write him summaries. Im also still working on the whole book thing, and now Im making a flyer about taking care of the environment to put up in community centers. I also spend lots of time hanging out, writing emails, and day dreaming. Which is fine by me.
- Tema cuatro: friendship. I´ve befriended the only other gringa living in Osorno. Obviously that demographic is enough to bring us together. She´s been having some troubles ajusting an I miss taking care of everyone so its a good combination. We go for walks in the afternoons and we buy her chocolate (her family is on a diet, not like mine). She isnt accoustomed to doing much by herself and hasnt traveled yet. I plan on changing her ways. We`re going to Chiloe on Friday and we are both very excited about it. In other news, Victor arrived in Valdivia. He might join us. The impending doom of the winter is biting at all of our heels, so we´re all going to try and travel before the rain hits us.
- Ultimo tema: loose ends. What else? I have to decided how much longer to stay in Osorno (at the most, one more month) and then what I´ll do next. I generally have a bunch of ideas of places I want to go (santiago, patagonia, atacama, BA) and friends I want to see (I´ve been collecting facebook friends at an alarming rate). Next week I should probably work on it, esecially if I want to make it down to the end of the eart before it gets too cold. Somedays I feel like I can finally speak a bit of spanish, but some days its still very frustrating. I have a profound apreciation for anyone who has learned to speak a new language fluently. It is so difficult. My family is great. Eli got a job and Sofi starts kindergarden tomorrow. Tío still sleeps all day. They all still call me la gringa fresca. I´m also starting to be a peace with my short hair. Somedays I miss home, but fortunately I´ve become really good at using skye. Anyway all is well. My trip is half over, which is scary. But I feel good. And I think I will be ready to come home in May.

Thanks for reading....