this should be good.

Today I ventured into Teletón ten minutes early to chat with the director about researching there. The walls were all neon green, there were adorable little kids everywhere and the royal wedding was on tv in the waiting room. Good vibes. I ended up waiting an hour to talk to the director- she's a pretty busy lady.

Teletón: my office for the next week

In the meantime, I started chatting with the woman sitting next to me in the waiting room who happened to be holding the most beautiful little baby in the world- longest eyelashes you've ever seen. She also had the tiniest little casts on her legs and braces on her arms... so sad. She is seven months old and has been coming to Teletón for treatment twice a week since she was six days old.

Although I love the Muscular Dystrophy Association and everything it does in the states, I have to say, I already think Teletón is pretty great. Ya, they help kids with muscular dystrophy but they also help kids with every other neuro-muscular-skeletal disease you've ever heard of. And man was that a cute group of kids in the waiting room. It is also great because it isn't only summer camp, it's a place these kids can go to all year round. I made appointments to go back Monday and Tuesday of next week to volunteer and get a feel for the programs. And then I was out of there by 1:00 in the afternoon.

So what does a girl like me do when she is all done for the weekend at 1:00 on a Friday... 

PARTYYYYYY!!!

Not... I baked. Duh. Brownies with chocolate chip cookies plopped right in there. 

Yup. I was too lazy to take a picture and upload it.
This pic is straight off google. But I promise mine look identical.

It is a Friday night so I'm going to go throw some cute clothes on and venture out with friends. I miss you all tons and want to know how you're doing too so send me an e-mail every now and then!

woosah

I didn't leave the house today. Barely left my bedroom really. I sent e-mails from bed to professors back in the states about classes next year and getting all these credits counted. Why? Tomorrow I start working in Teletón for my final research project which is both super exciting and terrifying so today was my last day to get the to-do list done.

I do have a side story though that has been developing slowly but surely over the last couple of months and I just haven't found the time to share it. Near the beginning of the program, I was chatting with my friend Kristen about how I wasn't really sure what I want to do with my life. I love working with non-profits. I also love baking. Her revolutionary idea... why not do both?!

So after what has felt like a million e-mails back and forth between University of Oregon staff and myself, they decided to let me write my senior thesis as a proposal for a non-profit bakery. Sounds crazy right?! I am an International Studies major after all but pish posh. I think this is where that non-profit management focus comes in. The idea of the bakery is to hire employees with physical and/or mental disabilities to give them work experience and prove they are totally capable workers. I'm unsure of the details but two things that I know will be daily regulars:

pumpkin apple muffins (my fav)

little edge-of-mug cookies (how cute are they?)

Anyway, I would love ideas for bakery names! Send them my way if you have them :)

And we're back.

It sure has been a while and I don't even know where to start! The trip to the south was AMAZING! Amazing amazing amazing amazing. 

Everything I want to say is super all over the place so I'm splitting it into sections.

Intro:

We flew from Santiago down to Temuco and we all thought we were spending the first night in a hotel before we dove into our homestays. We were wrong. We drove to our little community outside of Temuco and had our first meeting in a ruka (the traditional Mapuche grass house). We met all of our moms and went straight home with them. The other Jill and I both lived with Gabriela (which was ridiculous because we have the same name and it is quite hard to say in Spanish). Our family was Gabriela, her husband, their son, his wife and their three year old daughter. Our Mapuche dad is the director of the K-8 school so our house was right next door to the school. And no, we did not live in rukas. We lived in a very cute three bedroom house with tv, warm showers and internet. I would have posted on the blog but it was more in case of emergency/ for work internet than for fun internet.

Not all of the families had the same living conditions though. Out of six houses, we were definitely the only one with internet and possibly the only one with heated water. Two of the six houses had outhouses instead of indoor bathrooms but all of the families were so so so so nice. 

Coolest classes ever:

Everyday we had about a 30 minute walk to and from class... usually in the pouring rain. Sometimes, our professor tried to be nice and drive us home but I think that was actually worse. 

trying to smile while getting pelted with rain in the back of a truck...

We had class in a ruka which I loved! Nothing is better than sitting around a fire while listening to lectures. It was a really funny juxtaposition of technology because while our grass ruka had a fire in the middle, it also had electric lights and a screen for power points.

the outside of our classroom

our academic director adding a little wood to the fire during class

Our class subjects included everything from Mapuche sports, religion, music, traditional medicine and even dipped into Mapuche migration to the city and the affects of neoliberalism of the Mapuche.

Fiona and Emma's host mom Jimena

in her traditional Mapuche clothes for our music lesson

music class!

and this is what the classroom looks like when

learning about Mapuche medicine

palín: Mapuche field hockey

my favorite class ever:

we went to Lake Budi to learn about Mapuche religion

because the spirits are stronger there and it was beautiful!

Best Food in Chile:

The food was so delicious. The Mapuche people tend to eat a little bit more of a dinner than the rest of Chile so I would get a little chicken and rice with my tea at night which was wonderful. My mom also always put aji on the table which is a sauce made of of pureed hot peppers. I don't really know what it was but it was delicious. I missed spicy food. They are also big into sopaipillas (fried dough) but my Mapuche mom was a medical technician and worked in the Mapuche pharmacy and she knew lots about health so we only had them a little because she said they would make our stomach hurt. It was interesting though because unlike Mexican sopaipillas (which are usually served as dessert with honey) Chilean sopaipillas are served as an appetizer with pebre (onion, tomato, cilantro). 

Medicine and Beliefs:

My mom was full of medical info which was a riot too. Instead of the US mantra "Put your jacket on or you'll catch a cold," she would always tell me, "Bundle up or you'll get a stomach ache." She also thought tomatoes make your stomach hurt and people should only drink room temperature water when they're sick. She was just so matter of fact about it all that you just had to believe her.

While we were there, we were all having crazy dreams the whole time and swapping dream stories in the mornings. I usually don't remember my dreams in the States but I had very vivid dreams every night. When one of my friends mentioned to her host mom our crazy dreams, she just simply said "Of course you are having vivid dreams, the spirits of the land are stronger here." I told that to my Mapuche mom and her reaction was, "Obviously."

How cool are they?!

My favorite fun fact about my fam: They own sheep which my Mapuche dad shears once a year. My Mapuche mom then spins her own wool, dyes it with different plants from her garden and then makes hats, scarves, sweaters, leg warmers, really anything. She would literally cook the yarn on the stove with different plants to dye it. Orange yarn was dyed with carrots, yellow with onion, green with peach leaves and brown with chestnut tree bark. She is just so cool! And I love her extra because she was always going a million miles an hour: cooking while watching her granddaughter while spinning yarn and cleaning the house and serving me lunch and gardening. So cute.

Payin' rent:

While we were living in Temuco, we worked one day to clear land to build a ruka and another day clearing land to build a greenhouse. The ruka is actually going to be a hostel because there is a new movement in the tourism industry to create cultural travel experiences for people. The group that is there for fall term is actually going to build the ruka and the greenhouse.

walking to work with my tool

Adios Temuco:

After living with our host families for 11 days, we had to say goodbye and go to Pucon for a couple of days. While we were there, we went to a woman's weaving shop, a Mapuche museum and we spent one morning cooking a big group lunch. Pucon is a super touristy because it has a gorgeous lake and a snow covered volcano. Unfortunately for us, it poured the whole time we were there. We had to expect that going in mud season but someday I want to return either for summer (rafting season) or winter (ski season). As we got into the bus to go to the airport to return to Viña, the clouds cleared and we got to see the beauty that was so close the whole time. We stopped the bus to take a million pictures in five minutes but then had to be on our way. 

peeling pine nuts for pine nut soup

the whole group

learning to weave

Almost there:

Overall, I LOVED my time in the south. My family was soooo welcoming and loving. They were just so darn cute. One night, we were eating dessert and there was only one plate left on the table. The other Jill offered her plate and my mom but my mom said that she and her husband are two doves who want to eat together. My dad also always said really cute things like "Un millón de gracias, mi amor" (A million thank yous, my love) when my mom served him tea and toast. Gosh I will miss them. 

Extra Ruka Pics:

my professor jammin in the ruka during lunch

Taylor and I during out daily tea break

Adios for now

Monday morning I'm headed south! We are going to live with Mapuche families in a community outside of Temuco. I am really really really excited for this. Mountains, rain, simplicity.

I won't have internet access until April 24th but no need to worry about me. My professor said this area isn't affected by earthquakes. We are living two students per family and I honestly have no idea what living conditions are going to be like. We were told that not all of the houses have showers and the ones that do, don't have hot water. The traditional Mapuche home is called a ruka but I'm not sure if we are living in ruka or slightly more modern houses. Either way, our classes are in a ruka which will be cool.

I can't wait to get down there and experience something completely new. Have a great two weeks and I'll be back soon :)

Uniquely Valparaiso

Today my aunt e-mailed me asking me all about my thoughts and experiences here. Knowing I am in love with Costa Rica, she asked me how they compare. This was my response:

Costa Rica is more obviously beautiful and I think Chile takes a little while to learn to appreciate. Chile is beautiful in its grunginess and some people see that from the second they get here and others never get it. There is graffiti everywhere and more stray dogs than you could ever imagine. It took me a while but I now love it and find it so intriguing.

In school, we are learning about Chilean art and all we have to do to experience it is walk outside. So today for Spanish class, my professor walked us through the streets of Valparaiso to admire what makes it so unique. As we were walking, he got so excited about his city he couldn't even help it. He just looked at us and said, "I love this city. I LOVE this city! It's smells bad, there is dog poop everywhere and it's crowded but I love this city."

Today, you all get a little photo shoot of what I think makes Valpo, Valpo.

three of the most famous artists:
Charquipunk, Larobodemadera, Inti

Salvador Allende and a stray dog

"wild style" letters

artist: el odio

classmates being followed by a herd of dogs

planter = bath tub + bottle caps

mosaic + more strays

bottle caps!

graveyard overlooking some homes

Charquipunk's painting of the Inca

window with ribbon

the biggest mural in Chile

that's life

Running away to the other side of the world doesn't really make everything go away. Even all the way down here, I still have to get my classes organized, take finals and plan a thesis. I also get to look for a job, follow up 100 times when really important people (both Chilean and US) don't e-mail me back, panic, take a deep breath, panic some more, change life plans, realize they aren't very good life plans, realize I'm only 20. I have time.

I think I'm going to go look for a time machine, transport back to 1998 before the real world was lurking around the corner and move into the castle in Disneyland. This may just work.

LOLLAPALOOZA (and other adventures)

Traveling back in time: My friends Lizzy and Taylor and I decided to head over to a café after class last week. We wandered around town and I finally remembered my camera so I took a few pics of the street art. We then went into Cerro Florida and found this adorable little café that had brownies which do not exist here. (It turned out they weren't really brownies, they were chocolate muffins but that was close enough). We chatted for hours and it was wonderful...

Coming back to this week, this weekend was my first music festival EVER! It was the first time Lollapalooza ever left Chicago so it was this crazy mix of music from the US and Latin America...

But first: We went to Santiago as a class on Friday to check out Villa Grimaldi which was super super sad. It was a concentration camp but the Chilean military tore it all down to get rid of evidence of what they did so now it's a memorial park. Parts of it have been rebuilt to demonstrate what it was like while it was being used as a torture center. The craziest part was that the woman who organized our community service for us came with us (along with a bunch of other staff members). We figured she was just another chaperone but when we got there, our director introduced her as our guide for the day because she was one of the women that was detained there. Although I'm sure it was so hard for her to go back and talk about it, she said it really helped because the whole point of the memorial is to make sure what happened is never forgotten and by telling us about it, she was contributing to maintaing the memory.

Because we were already in Santiago, we just stayed Friday night and were then ready to Lolla. The weekend did have a hiccup or two considering the will-call line was 3 hours, I missed Edward Sharpe due to technical difficulties and couldn't watch Kayne because I had to jump on the bus home but the weekend was amazing!! Lots of music, sun and friends. 

Throughout all of the shows that were played, my personal line-up consisted of:

Saturday:

Steel Pulse

Anita Tijoux

Cypress Hill

Ben Harper

The National

The Killers

Sunday:

Mala Rodriguez

The Ganjas

311

Chico Trujillo

The Flaming Lips

Sublime with Rome

Thirty Seconds to Mars

Jane's Addiction

Overall, the weekend was amazing. I made it back to Valparaiso safely and I even think I did an ok job on my Chilean gold mining presentation this morning with my four hours of sleep.

Miss you all tons!