some pictures of el mar pacífico

sismo!!

Not FIFTEEN minutes after I finished explaining to a friend that earthquakes terrify me because there's no way to predict them, and that it sucks that the two cities I call home in the states are practically plagued by them, not FIFTEEN minutes after this conversation, I'm sitting at my desk, minding my own business and I experience my 5th earthquake in my life and my first Chilean one. It was very minor, and there are no injuries or damage done in the area. But STILL!! Earthquakes follow me!

VmasV

Internship update!

Besides the handful of articles I write everyday for the website from news I aggregate from other sites, I have written two articles for print in the VmasV paper.

The first one was about tribute bands in the Quinta Región of Chile, where Viña del Mar is located. Tribute bands are really huge here, for a lot of reasons...it's a way to pay homage to favorite "gringo" bands, like Pink Floyd, Metallica, Nirvana, etc etc...but, according to some the people I interviewed, it's the most surefire way to make money playing music. Here are some pictures of one of the interviews.


The other article was about the Viña del Mar women's soccer club, which just returned from their first international tournament in Brazil, where all the number one women's clubs from all the South American countries went to play. The Viña team, Evertons, came in 4th place...not bad for a team that's only a couple of years old! I was interested to do this article because women's soccer is sooooo under appreciated compared to the celebrity-status of all men's leagues...here is an image of the soccer players from a video I took...the video is too large to load to the blog.

Both articles proved extremely challenging to write...I found myself understanding all the interviews, but when it came to transcribing the recordings and formulate my thoughts from Spanish to English back to Spanish..it was super hard! Needless to say, the editors did their work and edited my articles, but what you see is the outline of what I wrote. If I were staying here longer (wish I were!!) I think I could get better at the whole thing. But it's been a great experience!

Here are the two articles:
Everton
Tribute Bands

ALSO, today marks HALFWAY through my trip!! I can't believe it. Time certainly flies.

a weekend with flower people

This weekend Lauren and I visited La Serena, a town seven hours north of Viña where everyone has recommended we go. It was a short trip, but we made the most of it by taking overnight buses both way...good ideas for saving time, but bad ideas on Monday morning at work. Oh well, worth it!!
The town of La Serena is on the beach, so we poked around there a bit, but for the most of the time we took the bus into the interior to Elqui Valley, a lovely lovely valley surrounded by the Andes. It was much warmer there and beeeautiful. It was nice to see some of Chile's interior regions!

On Saturday we visited a pisqueria, a Pisco distillery. Pisco is Chile (and Perú's) signature drink...it's a strong grape brandy that is either drunk alone, or put in cocktails to make the famously delicious pisco sours, a drink I am waaaaay to familiar with after being in Chile for a month (and Perú earlier this year). Both countries argue over who actually can claim pisco as the national drink...it's pretty much common knowledge it was founded in Perú, but it's drunk way much more in Chile, so Chileans have claimed it as their own. But anyway, after having been familiar with wineries, it was cool to see a pisco distillery! And drink some. Maybe too much. Oh well, worth it!!

On Sunday we went to Pisco Elqui (a tiny pueblito named so to pretend they are the home to Pisco, which they're not, as I mentioned). It's this super tranquil, relaxed tiny town that's famous for being super new-agey, selling organic hair products, boasting UFO sightings, special geo-magnetic forces and yoga lessons. Actually, Lauren joined in on a meditative session in the main plaza as we waited for our bus! A poorly-translated guidebook of Piso Elqui called the town "a great place to see flower people," referring to its airy, new agey habitants, which I think is my new favorite nickname for everyone in San Francisco. Flower people.

That was the weekend! Saturday night also consisted of going out to an awesome salsa club with a talkative French girl and a hilarious Venezuelan. We also caught a public showing of Cueca, Chile's national dance, which was awesome! I want to learn.

the difference one year makes

I think we allll can agree (or at least, anyone that I know that would be reading this blog) that we are all EXTREMELY happy with how the 2008 Presidential Elections turned out. We were glad to say SEEE YAAA to Dubya, and were ecstatic, relieved and touched that Barack Obama became our next prez.

And now, what's better, we're seeing the rest of the world sharing in that sentiment. So maaaaybe the Nobel Peace Prize bestowed upon Obama was premature (okay, it DEFINITELY was premature). But oh my gosh, isn't it nice to know that the world SEES him that way, that he is such a change from Bush, that the fact that his calm calls to diplomacy are enough for people worldwide to embrace him? That the guy that leads our country is LOVED??!

I can tell you, since being in South America, that's definitely the sense I've gotten from people. Almost everytime I strike up a conversation with a Chilean, the conversation goes there. We talk about politics, we talk about Bush and we talk about Obama. And everyone is relieved that someone represents the United States who ISN'T a warring, fear-mongering cowboy, and that now Americans call someone President who's humble, intelligent, calm, and that concerns himself with real people, with service to others and international diplomacy.

What a different a year makes. In 2008 when I studied in Argentina, the conversations about the U.S. were LEAGUES different. People hounded me. People would ask me disgustedly how someone like Bush could be elected twice. And I think anyone that traveled abroad between the years 2000 and 2008 can agree, we had to APOLOGIZE for our country. I would have to say, I'm from the U.S, but I hate Bush! or I'm voting for Obama!! I'm from the U.S. but I'm from Seattle!! A liberal city!!

So, needless to say, I definitely feel a change now that I'm abroad in 2009. I'm actually proud to say I'm an American, especially when I can say I voted, volunteered and cheered for Obama. The Ecuadorians and Chileans I've met during this past month and a half, are glad to share their newfound respect of Americans. They get it. They get that Obama won conservative states--that even the most stubborn of all rural voters changed their minds after 8 years of crap. They get that there is more than the America that Bush represented.

What a relief.

And seriously Obama. You got the Peace Prize, now do something with it. Thanks.

chillin' in chile (thanks for the title idea, lucio)

I continue to keep enjoying my time very much at VmasV as I better my professional, written Spanish, keep up to speed on news around the world, and see how Latin American outlets tend to report on international news.

One of the most interesting stories I came across in the last couple days (and wrote about) is the Reporters Without Borders' recent release of the Press Freedom Index. This organization, dedicated to defending press freedom globally, releases this index anually, calculating how countries around the world rank in terms of access to information and safety of reporters. Finland and Denmark top the list (gotta love Scandinavia), and Eritrea, North Korea and Iran occupy the bottom. Cuba and Venezuela are down there too. The interesting news this year is that the U.S. leapt from place 36 to number 20 in just one year, which RSF outrightly attributes to "The Obama Effect." Suck it, Bush. RSF is concerned about the nations that continue to slip every year, including Spain, France and Italy, but are encouraged by new democracies like Ghana and Mali inching up in the rankings. Latin American countries are moving up...Chile, Argentina and Paraguay all moved up signifcantly from last year, while Costa Rica and Urugay (my new favorite country) are in the top 30. So anyway, I thought this was all super interesting.

Referring back to my Uruguay statement, DAMN, Uruguay, you are rockin' it. Seriously. It seems every news article I'm writing recently concerning Latin America involves Uruguay being awesome and distancing itself more and more from its conservative past. As I mentioned before, the country recently legalized civil unions, gay adoptions and legalization of changing one's name and sex...it also is the first country in the world to distribute laptops to every public school student. And earlier this week,the Uruguayan congress declared it illegal for previous military dicators to have any amnesty under national law. Just like basically every other South American country, Uruguay suffered a brutal military dictatorship in the '70s and '80s (thanks to idealogical and monetary support from the good ol' U.S.A) and now the country has declared that the amnesty that these horrible people have lived with for the last 20 years is unconstitutional. BAM. Go Uruguay. (Also, I should mention, Argentina passed this similar law in 2006, and a handful of former rulers have been tried or are in the process of being tried. Finally).

quit playing barbie!

Earlier this year I started blogging with the San Francisco-based organization About-Face. About-Face strives to equip young women and girls with the tools to understand and resist harmful media images that effect self esteem and body image. I really, really, really, really love this organization and want you all to know how awesome it is. Also, my latest blog post is up. Click here to read it.

Back in August, I also helped film the organization's "Take Action" day, and you can see that video here: http://about-face.org/mc/actions/dressingroom.shtml.

Anyway, definitely worth a look around the site! It's awesome.

valparaíso

Yesterday was the best. Jonathan, a graphic designer from VmasV, invited me on a tour of Valparaíso, the all-agreed cultural capital of Chile, a famously bohemian, rugged, colorful port city bubbling over with character. It was so great to see the city through the eyes of someone who knows it. We walked up and down the famous hills and looked at all the colorful graffiti and homes stacked on top of on one another.




Valparaíso also has a number of ascensores--lifts that transport people up the hills. Some have been around for well over 100 years. And while crazily rickety, they still work just fine. Super cool.

For dinner Jonathan introduced me to chorillana, which is the craziest excuse for a meal I've ever seen, but it was soooo good. Chorillana is french fries covered in cheese, onions, meat and mayonnaise. (And served with one leaf of lettuce, naturally.) I'm not sure why food like this hasn't made it to the notoriously unhealthy United States yet, but don't let it!! Dangerous!!!

The onda (which means "vibe," by the way, but I find myself way more into using "onda"...it just sounds better!) of Valpo reminded me a lot of San Francisco...very artsy and literary and down-to-earthy.

Great day. Gracias, Jonathan!

um, this decade is almost over...?

Did anyone else realize that?

I'm a sucker for nostalgia. Especially innapropriately early nostalgia. That's why I enjoy VH1's shows, "Best Day Ever," and "Best Week Ever" because they reflect back on the recently completed day and week like they were historical periods in our lifetime. So I've been thinking, what will we remember as quintissential "thousands" moments, culture, fashion and songs of the new millennium? How will we define this decade? (By the way, WHAT are we going to call this decade? The Aughts? The Double Ohs? I'm gonna go ahead with The Thousands for now). Basically, I'm thinking about this now so that in the year 2011 (clearly enough distance) I can plan a Typical Thousands party where we all dress up and listen to music that was SOOOO Thousands....(I hope you can detect my sarcasm. And I also hope you understand that I'm actually planning this party.)

I'm also known for for recapping the week's moments with my friends, where we share our best and worst moements of the week. My family has been known to do the same at the end of the year. So naaaaturally I've been keeping a little list of my best moments of the decade. This actually has turned out to be a list of all the best moments of my conscience, adult life, seeing as the years 2000-2009 incorporate all of high school and college. But it's fun, nonetheless, to recap the last 10 years and try to remember all the good moments. I recommend you do it too--it makes you feel kinda good.

Oh, and for the record, we are all gonna look back on Kelly Clarkson's music as SOOOO thousands....

soy periodista!

I guess I should keep you all up to speed on how my internship is going!

It's hard to believe I've only been here a week, and I've had my fair share of published web stories. (And in Spanish!) I feel very fortunate and excited about everything here. What I do daily is aggregate info from other sites (from all over the world) regarding Latin American stories and stories about technology and write them up concisely and in my own words for the VmasV website. Then I have one of the editors go over my grammar and word choice, then I add a photo, and upload it to the site. I'm glad I already possess the experience in how to construct a news story, so the challenge now is converting that into Spanish, finding the right words and synonyms and making it all flow nicely.

Not only is my Spanish getting a boost, but I'm also browsing through dozens of Latin American news stories daily. As you all know, I'm fascinated by history and culture and everything about Latin America, so it's great to learn more about this region. Some recent things I've written about include how Uruguay has made it legal for transexuals to change their name and sex (Uruguay also allows civil unions and gay adoptions!!). I've also written about Cuban bloggers pushing the limits of free speech as internet becomes more widely available. I just love browsing through news articles about Latin America. So much left wing changes are happening in South America. Did you know the Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, is not just a woman, but an aethiest, socialist, single mother? This is in a Catholic country where abortion is still illegal! This kind of social dichtonomy is so fascinatig.

Also, the Chilean news sites I'm accostomed to searching through (www.emol.com, www.laterca.com, among others) certainly don't have a lack of international news. If only American news outlets had an equally healthy amount of international news like these Chilean sites do, we'd be much more well-read on news around the world.

Anyway, that's my schpiel. Here are some fun links. If you read Spanish, enjoy! (The first two are the articles about Cuban bloggers and the new Uruguay law. The third one is about how a fugitive was captured because he stupidly updated his Facebook profile with all the necessary info after friending a worker at the Department of Justice).
http://vmasv.cl/9580-blogueros-cubanos-prueban-los-limites.html
http://vmasv.cl/9608-en-uruguay-sera-legal-cambiar-de-sexo.html
http://vmasv.cl/9609-se-uso-facebook-para-capturar-a-un-fugitivo.html

snoqualmie, chile. seriously.

I just returned from a lovely long weekend in Pucón, Chile, a popular tourist destination for Chileans and foreigners thanks to the amazing nature that surrounds the town--stunning lakes and massive volcanoes and national parks. It rained the entire weekend except for, basically, the 4 hours when we hiked in the Huerquehue National Park, but it was still awesome. We (Lauren and I) stayed at the most homey, comfortable hostel with numerous fireplaces and the sweetest dog, Negra!

Our activities included biking around town, relaxing in natural hot springs at midnight (aaaaahhhhhhh), and hiking in the nearby national park. I also walked around the town on my own a lot, checking out the beaches that, come summer, draw lots and lots of tourists. Pucón is beautiful, and while hiking and biking, I was stunned by how much it reminded me of the Pacific Northwest. It was like I could have been in Snoqualmie!

Lago Villarrica


Biking around Pucón...me, Lauren and our new friend Wes from--where else--Seattle.

Huerquehue National Park....or the Cascades??!?

viva chile! sudafrica nos espera!

Last night, La Selcción Chilena (the national Chilean soccer team) qualified for the World Cup in 2010, beating Colombia 4-2 on Colombia's home turf. I watched the game go down at a hip, crowded bar in Pucón, Chile, where Lauren and I are spending our three-day weekend. It was such a phenomenal game, made way cooler by being around lots of Chileans. The real excitement came after the game, though, as hundreds of Chileans, for HOURS, drove up and down the main drag in Pucón honking and waving the Chilean flag...it was such a funny, uplifting sight. The celebration went on for hours. We're staying at a really great hostel and had a blast hanging out with people after the win.

Pictures to follow from the weekend and the celebration! It's been rainy here in Pucón, a destination town known for awesome outdoor activities. We're trying to see if the rain will let up and allow us a nice hike later this afternoon.

Also, here are some more articles of mine from VmasV!
About Bolivian president paying tribute to Che Guevara on the anniversary of the iconic figure's murder
About a video of clip of Anne Frank a year before she went into hiding that her foundation uploaded to YouTube
About how Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez should "stay at home" more and not travel so much, according to a Separtment of State spokesperson.

¿cachai?

I had my first day at the newspaper and wrote my first article!

Check it out!

VmasV is a small publication; it's mostly online, however on Fridays and Saturdays, it releases a free print copy. So I'll be working on the web site, aggregating news from all different Chilean and international agencies and putting that news up in my own words. It will be such a challenge and great practice to put all these things en mis propias palabras. Good practice on picking the right word that reflects journalistic standards and the right connotation of the situation.

The people at the newspaper are so wonderfully nice and laid back. They were really helpful with this first article. The editor said I had written really well, just had some syntax and word-choice things to work on. Can't wait to master that stuff.

I have also had some Spanish classes this week. It's definitely been good to learn some chilenismos (Chilean slang) like "cachai?" ("understand?"). I probably won't continue with the classes beyond next week, though, since I want to get the most out of this internship, and quite frankly, I think in the past 8 years, I have exhausted the whole taking-Spanish-classes thang. But enjoying it nonetheless!

Just bought tickets to go South for the weekend! Hasta luego.

"i put the fun in fun"

Sunday was great!

In the morning, Lauren and I first went to the Museo Fonck right down the street, a really cool museum about Chilean's natural history that focuses on the Rapanui people of Easter Island. Easter Island is way off the coast of Chile and you may know it from statues like this, that mysteriously are all over the island...no one knows really how they all were erected on the island.

Then we took a bus a couple of kilometers up the coast to the town of Reñaca, a fancy shmancy suburb of Viña del Mar right on the beach. Really lovely, and the weather was perfect in my standards....bright and sunny but cool. Loved it. Check out some of these apartment complexes!!

Then later that night, I met my other roommate, Jon from L.A. who goes to school in Monterrey. The three of us, determined to find a fun time on a Sunday night, went out to this awesome club that was empty when we got there, but thanks to us beginning the dance party (randomly to the song "California Love," no less!), the dance floor got more hopping as the night went on. (And they played some Latin tunes, thankfully.) Sundays are Ladies Night AND Karaoke night, so I was able to get a free drink or two from being a girl AND for singing a couple of Spanish-language tunes. I belted out a Los Fabulosos Cadillacs song and a Juanes tune (that was famously played in high school Spanish classes over and over). A bunch of the Chilean clientele were impressed by my knowledge of the songs, so I'm proud to say I may have changed a couple of opinions about Americans that night! Hahaha, I'd like to think.

Also, here are pics of the neighborhood and our apartment.


Also, if you're wondering why this post is entitled as such, we saw that saying on a t-shirt at a store, and thought it was hilarious. But we have now adopted it as our motto: We put the fun in fun!

for those of you who aren't Andrew Elston (and already checked the atlas)

I am here.

phase two: viña del mar

I arrived in Viña del Mar, Chile yesterday morning! (I had a wonderful overnight flight where I had one of those exit row seats with no seat in front of me--I was stretching out my legs so far that my butt was off the seat and I think the couple next to me wanted to kill me). I spent the early morning walking around on my own...Viña is quite lovely....shady, tree-lined avenues, wide streets and wide sidewalks, bike paths and big mansions ...it kind of reminds me of an East Coast city suburb or even parts of D.C. itself. Maybe also because it was chilly (they're just coming out of winter) so people around me were all bundled up, so maybe that's why in clued me in to D.C. Anyway, it's pretty here. And it's right on the beach, so that's a plus.

I spent the morning shopping and buying some nice clothes, because all I brought was travel, backpack-y things and since I'm starting a journalism internship on Tuesday, I thought it would be appropriate to buy some grown-up stuff. I'm very excited for the journalism internship....I don't know much about what I'll be doing, except that the newspaper is called VmasV (www.vmasv.cl) and I believe it's a new, independent publication. So far I haven't seen it being sold anywhere, so it may just be an online deal. We will see!

I also met one of my roommates, her name is Lauren and she's from Santa Rose, CA. The other guy apparently (he was gone this weekend, haven't seen him yet) is from L.A. So we're reppin' California. Lauren's great and we spent the afternoon watching a big football (soccer) game at a bar down the street, drinking pisco sours and chit-chatting. I'm excited to be here!

running out of clever title names

So! I left Puerto Rico, sadly. Saying goodbye to the kids, especially the oldest group in the one school I taught at, was hard. I liked them the most and saw the most potential and passion out of them. For our last class we played a giant game of Bingo of all the words and phrases we've learned (although, they tend to call the game "Gringo" which I thought was hilarious). For instance, some of the squares had phrases like "They are sad" and "he has three short brothers." So we definitely nailed the "to be" and "to have" verbs, which I thought were most important. Anyway, so it was a bummer to leave them. Wish I could work with them longer.

The night before was also my last time helping Denise out with her English class at the hostel. Those were always so fun, filled with funny games and conversations between all the students. Will definitely miss that too!

I also said goodbye to Liz and the wonderful family. Here is them the morning I left:


The bus ride from Puerto Lopez to Quito was....not the most wonderful experience ever. It was hot and windy at parts, and swarmed with people selling things off the street, sometimes getting in your face to buy their sunglasses or their warm pan de yuca. Usually that didn't bother be, but for some reason, 12 hours of that gets to you. A lot of people also come onto the buses to pitch a product or announce that they are sick and need money. Their speech sometimes goes on for 10 minutes. Kind of crazy, and interesting that people spend their whole days riding up and down bus routes to make money. Another time, two guys with guitars got on and played a very good couple of songs, which I enjoyed. However, the one guitarist was literally inches from me and his elbow was about to clock me in the head. But it didn't and I liked the music so I gave him 50 cents.

Anyway, so I arrived to Quito later than expected, but still with enough time to get together with some friends. I took a cab straight to Eduardo's house...I had briefly met up with him in Quito before I went to the coast...he is a friend of my dear friend Tini's, and I met him in San Francisco earlier this year. Super nice, super accomodating...he let me shower and chill at his (reaaally nice) apartment. He even had bought me a hamburger for dinner!! Thanks Eduardo!! Later on, I finally got to meet Tini's sister's boyfriend Andy, who livs in Quito but is moving to the states later this month. Andy met up with us at Eduardo's place and we all chatted for a while. Then Andy took me out to some of his favorite bars in the New Town of Quito. We went to a really cool bar where I met his (amazingly nice) friends and then to a reggae club to hear some really good live music.

Andy also drove me around the windy, cobbly streets of Quito, showing me some beautiful, crazily elaborate churches, ritzy neighborhoods, and the obligatory slums side by side that ritzy neighborhood. We talked about the crazy dichotomy between the rich and poor in Latin America, and if that same extreme exists in the states, which I think it does...just not so blatantly down the block. We also chatted a lot about the history of South America and why it is the way it is...I told him about the book I'd been reading, Open Veins of Latin America, by Eduardo Galeano, who's basically the Howard Zinn of South American history. This is the book Hugo Chavez bestowed upon Obama to read, and Americans were like, ooohh communist propoganda, don't read it! But I think you should all read it. It's really good. South America, you fascinate me.

Now I'm chilling at Andy's parents' beautiful home in the town of Cumbayá (like the song!), a suburb of Quito. Thanks for everything, Andy!

I leave for Chile this afternoon. Can't believe it!!