First Visit to a Colegio

On Friday I got to do my first bit of research for one the professors I am working with. It is something I have been waiting to do ever since I started working with her and finding out about the project and going to the meetings, but it has taken a while to get everything coordinated so I could go. They didn't want to send me by myself the first because a) my Spanish isn't perfect and they wanted to make sure someone could do the tests with me the first time and b) I don't know the area where the colegio is/they think I will get lost if they send me on my own ;) Anyways, it was definitely worth the wait because it was a lot of fun.

I went with another one of the girls who works the professor-she is working on her master's in developmental psychology and will be using some of this research for her thesis. We met up at the metro station near my house at 9 in morning and took the metro allllllll the way down the blue line (on the way south-west end of Santiago). Fernanda (the girl who I went with) showed me the "tests" we would be giving the kids and we practiced during the metro ride. As Fernanda said, according to Katy (the professor) this school is the most flaite (aka ghetto) school we are working with. When we got off the metro, we had to ask about 4 people for directions to find the school. However, we eventually made it there. When we arrived, it reminded me a lot of the schools in Guatemala. We had to be let in because the whole school was surrounded by a big, yellow fence. Once we went in, we got shown to a room where we would be working with the kids. Then, the first kid came.

Fernanda administered the first test, and I observed, following along with an additional copy. There were 6 parts-the first 5 consisted of reading stories to the kids and showing them images and then asking them questions about what we had read. They all had to do with memory and being able to see things from someone else's point of perspective. For example, one story is about Ana and Sophia. Ana has a ball, which she puts in her basket; then she leaves and goes outside to play. Sophia takes the ball out of Ana's basket and puts it in her box. Then Sophia goes out side to play. Ana comes back inside. Then we ask: Where will Ana look for her ball? Where is Ana's ball in reality? Where was Ana's ball to begin with?

It was really interesting to see how the kids responded. We got a couple of really interesting answers, including "in the plaza"...okay...where did that come from? The last test was a little different from the first ones. (Well, they're all different, obviously, but the first few are fairly similar). In this one, we have a list of words and each word corresponds with a picture. For each word, we show the kids 4 different pictures and ask them to pick the picture that best represents the word. The was definitely the test (or "game" as we called them) that they enjoyed the least...by the middle of the test most of the kids looked bored out of their mind. I can't say I blame, it does get a little old after 20 words...

Anyways, all the kids were really cute. One of the girls corrected me when I was asking her one of the questions...I asked her "show me which one is the kangaroo," she looked at me and said "you mean "Can-goo-ru"" pronouncing it correctly. I was like "oh, yes, sorry" and she was like "okay, I just didn't understand what you asked me". It was really cute and funny. And, a major accomplishment for me...I understood what all the kids were saying apart from when one girl answered one of the questions (she had a little bit of a different accent, and was stuffy, and she used a word I didn't know...all things that complicated my understanding her), but apart from that I felt pretty good. (Katy had been concerned that I would have a lot of trouble understanding the kids, because they would't take pity on me and realized that I'm a gringa who doesn't speak perfect Spanish, they just talk how they talk.)

Anyways, it was a really great experience and I really enjoyed working with the kids. I hope that I did well enough that Katy will let me go again!

As Fernanda and I were walking back to the metro we started talking about the school system in Chile. She told me that the colegio where we had just been was the reality of most colegios in Santiago, not the colgeios that I'm used to seeing in Providencia (where I live, a nicer area). Then she was explaining to me that there are basically three levels of school: public, semi-public and private. The public and semi-public ones tend not to be very good; the only difference with the semi-public is that the parents pay a small amount of money for their kids to attend. But, the quality of education is not much better (if any better). However, just paying for your education in Chile gives you status, even the school is not any better. I was like "well that seems silly," and Fernanda was like, "yep, but that's how it works here." I shared a little about the education system in the US, but as I told her "I have a bit of a warped view because I grew up in a middle class town where the public schools were excellent." Anyways, it was interesting.

And, a note about Santiago, I know that cities are divided by social class in the US and schools are better in some areas than others-but take that and amplify the problem by ten and that is how it is in Santiago. Where I live, Providencia, and the surrounding areas (Las Condes, Vitacura, etc) are very nice. They are where the people who are more well-off live, the schools are good (although most kids attend private schools anyways, because, as I said earlier paying for your education gives you status), but as you go farther away from city center, east, south, especially, it's a completely different Santiago. It's like Santiago has split-personality-disorder, it's one city, but with many, many different sides. I guess that's inevitable in a city of 9 million (15 million, aka half the population of the country, literally, in the metropolitan area), but it's amazing how drastic the change is when you take a 30 minute metro ride. And I know that I haven't even been to some of the most impoverished areas of the city, I've been the lower-middle-class parts, which remind me a lot of places like Guatemala actually. Just the style of the architecture, the way everything is set up. It really hit home how little of the city I know and understand when I was out with one of my friends a few weeks ago. We were in a neighborhood called Quinta Normal which is the museum district of the city. I had only be near that area to Estación Central to buy tickets to go on the bus. I was asking him to explain where everything was in the city so I could orient myself (I couldn't see the mountains that day). He did his best to explain to me, but at one point he pointed to Providencia/Las Condes and he said "that's where you live. That's where your life in Santiago is. Everything you know is over there." And, I realized, that's really true. This city is huge. And I only know a tiny portion of it.

Life Outside the Classroom

Well, in my last post I rambled on about my classes and what not--so what have I been doing outside of my classes? Well, I do spend a lot of time doing stuff for my classes (especially the last few weeks, because it's midterms/essays due/presentations to be given time)...but I do have a life outside of that too!

I'm working with two professors on their research--both work in developmental psychology and I'm the only undergraduate who regularly works with either of them. Right now "working" with them consists mainly of going to meets although for both projects I'm supposed to start helping with the actually conducting of research soon. One project is focused around technology--we use iPads and iPods to evaluate kids. Basically we find games that require different kinds of skills, then we have kids play them and evaluate them based on different variables. The eventual hope is that with the games they will be able to diagnose different things: like ADD, dyslexia, etc. It's a project that's in the trial stage, so it's interesting to see how projects develop. The other project evaluates kids learning in school--it's a longitudinal study that just started this year. There are 5 different tests that are administered (although not all kids get all 5 tests)...for the most part the tests are focused on language and memory. It's administered in (I think) 8 or 10 different public schools from around the city.

Finding out how to get in touch with professors was a bit of an adventure when I first got here. It's not at all like Berkeley where all the undergraduates want to work with professors and there's a whole system set up to find Research Assistants and what not. During the first week or so of classes I went to the Psychology departments main office and told the secretary I was an exchange student who was interested in working with professors in Developmental Psychology on their research. She gave the names and emails of a few of the professors in the department. I emailed them explaining who I was and a little bit about the work I had done in the states, everyone I emailed was super friendly and either offered to meet with me or referred me to another professor who they thought I would be better suited working with. In the end, I chose the two professors I'm working with because their projects sounded the most interesting and most like what I could potentially be interested in doing in the future. I'm the only undergraduate who works with either of them (although with the project that's in the schools I met one other undergraduate who goes to the schools and helps evaluate the kids), but other than that it's me, a few graduate students and a few faculty members. It's been a really great experience because all of the professors are really friendly and open, and interested in me and the projects I do the states, how I'm feeling in Chile, etc, which is cool. And, the fact that they let me tag along with their research is awesome since it's not something common for undergraduates here.

My other main activity outside of class is soccer. It took a while to find, but I eventually found the girls soccer team for La Catolica. We have practice twice a week in the evening (luckily on the days where I have class later too). Although I can't play in the regular games this season (because it's the middle of the year for them, and they have to have their team ready at the beginning of the year...or something like that) I get to practice with them and I'll get to play in some of the end of the season tournaments with them. The coach is really nice and so are all the girls...and it's nice to get out and exercise a couple times a week (the smog is still awful, so I haven't been going running).

Other than that I hang out with friends, wander around the city, do my homework...

Oh yeah! And my culinary abilities have expanded while I've been here too. I can now make rice on the stove and refried beans from dried beans. I was very excited when I successfully made beans, because they are a staple in my diet in Berkeley and I had been missing them (they have canned refried beans here, but they cost $4 per can)...and it was totally worth the 3 hours it took them to cook on the stove.

Well, until next time...

Thinking outside the box...

...is apparently not an idea that really exists in the university here. I feel that my university here is a lot more similar to high school than to college. The whole atmosphere, the way the classes are structured, the way the tests are...it's kind of weird...

Anyways, in regards to my above statement-I mean that in the sense that the professors have an idea about something (in the novel, etc) and that is the ONLY correct response. Which is rather frustrating coming from Berkeley where professors regularly encourage you to come up with your own ideas...just make sure you have evidence to back up what your saying. Not so much the case here; like I said it's more like high school where the professors "spoon feed" you the answers and then expect you to regurgitate them on the test--not exactly the kind of test that I enjoy taking, but so be it.

It's really interesting to me that the classroom is structured that way here because OBVIOUSLY the students are more than capable of thinking on their own and taking control--just look at all the political protests that are happening right now (I think they're finally getting some coverage in the States...?) I guess in some ways Chile can be more "conformist" than the US--in the sense that they have more a collectivistic culture...but in some ways the US is WAAAAYYY more conformist than Chile. Again, look at the student protests. As university fees in California rise and rise and rise we make half-assed attempts at protest that are only supported by a minimal amount of the general public and have very little force (comparatively) from the student body and last one, two days maximum and then are broken up and it's "life as normal" in the university. In Chile, there has been NO SCHOOL since at least May for many universities and high school because the students (and about 80% of the general population, according to polls) want to change the way the education system works here and are actually willing to put the time and effort necessary in to make that happen and make their voice heard.

Aside from being frustrated from that standpoint about classes I am enjoying my classes and life in general. We have been in school for two whole months now which is really hard to believe. I don't know where the last two months have gone (hence, the lack of updating my blog...though to my credit I do THINK about updating it on a regular basis, it just always gets pushed to the back of my priority list.)

Anyways, I am taking 4 classes: Ensayo Chileno e Hispanamericano, Vargas Llosa, Novelista, Literatura Brasileña, y Cultura y Sociedad Latinoamericana...3 literature classes and 1 psych class. They're all interesting and it's fun to learn about things from a different standpoint (I feel like being politically correct is not as much of an issue here...) example from my Brazilian Lit class. We were reading literature from the colonial period of Brazil...letters from the Portuguese who are in Brazil writing back to Portugal...so of course what do they write about? What appears strange and different them (I think that's true about anyone when you travel, it's always the "different" that stands out), including the funeral rituals of the indigenous people. So, we start talking about funerals in Brazil, and Chile, and Latin America in general where when someone dies it's a big deal and they tend to have very elaborate funerals including parades through the cemetary, honoring the deceased, etc. I'm sure everyone knows about Day of the Dead...death is not as much of "the end of your life" in Latin America as the "beginning of the spiritual life." So, we're talking about all these rituals and ceremonies that they have, and my professors goes, "yeah, they don't do that in Europe or the United States, it's much more taboo when someone dies, and they don't honor the body as much." One of my classmates turns around, looks at me with wide eyes and says (not in these exact words, but basically with this tone) "You just dump the body in the ground?!" I'm pretty sure I laughed when he said that, but I was just like "No, we have a funeral and reception and things, it's just that the ceremony isn't as elaborate and we don't have like a specific day (like Día de los Muertos) to go visit the graves." Anyways, it was kind of funny, but also kind of shocking to think what kind of views people have about my culture.

What else...I have a lot of anecdotes and stories, but it would take all day to write them all. Another thing about being here is that I feel like I"m in a constant state of learning. Every day I learn something new (and not in the sense of in my classes, or like it is Berkeley, where obviously I'm constantly learning too), but in the sense I'm always discovering new things about the culture, language, city, people, whatever. It's really exhilarating and makes feel like I'm a kid again sometimes (like where everything is just new and wonderful), but it can be exhausting and the same time. And I'm not just talking about the language, because that's a given. But on that note, I feel like my Spanish is improving (I would hope so seeing as I've been living in Spanish speaking places for 4 months now...) but I still can't think of how to say things sometimes or how to express myself correctly which can be extremely frustrating--but it also means that I'm constantly learning new words and phrases.

Well, that's a brief update of my life. I've now had the chance to visit Mendoza, Argentina, Pomaire (pottery town), Sewell (mining town), and Valparaíso (ocean town)...all of which have been really fun and different from on another.

Oh yes, one more brief thing. Fiestas Patrias was weekend before last and it was SO FUN. Fiestas Patrias is like Chile's 4th of July (the 18 of September is their independence day) but it's a WAY bigger deal here. The whole country goes all out...everything is red, white and blue, there are flags EVERYWHERE (apparently there's a law that you have to hang a flag for the 18), but if even taxis and cars have little car flags. It's basically 4 days of partying, eating, drinking, going to fondas (very similar to county fairs), hanging out with friends and family. The famous drink of the weekend is called Chicha and it's a really sweet drink...basically everyone drinks it because it's "the drink" of Fiestas Patrias...I"m not really sure how to describe the taste of it, I guess kind of like really sweet wine. Food includes...meat, meat and more meat...empanadas, kabobs, choripan all made on the barbecue... It's really yummy, but not so healthy (it's basically like their Thanksgiving and everyone ends up gaining like 10 pounds). The fondas remind me a lot of county fairs...the best ones are on the outskirts of the city or out in the country. They have lots of carnival games and rides (like Ferris Wheels!) and of course dancing (cueca...the national dance of Chile) and food and drinks. One other thing that the weekend is famous for is flying kites. But they're kites made out of crepe paper, so the tear really easily, and you have to use some special technique to keep them up in the sky. It's not just run with it behind you and hope it catches the wind like I did when I was a kid. No, theres a whole, pull the string in this direction when the tip of the kite is pointing in that direction...it's actually kind of hard, but it was fun :) And there's just open filed full of hundreds of people flying kites. Apparently some people try to have competitions where they try and cut the string of other peoples kites (kind of like in Kite Runner), but others just go just to enjoy flying the kite.

Well, I will try and post pictures on Facebook soon to accompany all the things that have been happening...and I will TRY and keep updated more often (although no absolute promises ;)

"Mañana es feriado"

Here's a post that I forgot to post a while ago about my trip to Mendoza:

So, I swear I have heard that phrase a million times since coming to Chile..."mañana es feriado" aka "tomorrow is a holiday!" I don't know how they have so many holidays, but it seems that about every other week there is a holiday celebrating something or another, which will be nice now that I'm in school and won't have to go to school when it's feriado, but, it can be a little frustrating when everything is closed. Especially because a lot of times feriados are on Mondays, and already on Sundays 75% of stores are closed, so then it's two days in a row of everything being closed. This happened when we were in Mendoza, we got there on Saturday night, Sunday everything was closed, then Monday even more things were closed. It ended up working out though, because most of the things we did were just out doorsy and we were still able to do everything because it didn't depend on things being open.

We had a week break between when ILP ended and when real classes started, I decided to go to Mendoza, Argentina with a few friends during the break, just to get out of the city and do some things outside. Saturday morning my friend Carolyn and I showed up at the bus station and bought our tickets for Mendoza. The bus was pretty nice; we had to get the semi-cama seats because they were the only ones that they had. But, they gave us food and everything on the way over. The bus ride itself was about 6 hours including clearing customs and everything. It's a really pretty ride though, because we had to cross over the Andes and drive through the countryside and everything. At one point during the ride, Carolyn and I weren't sure if we were in Argentina or Chile (because we had no idea what kind of customs control they had), but we later figured out there is a real customs check point, so you can definitely tell when you cross from one country into the other. Customs is literally on top of the mountains, meaning it's really cold when you have to get out and stand in line to get your passport stamped and then have them check your luggage. But, overall, the bus ride wasn't too bad.

Saturday afternoon and night we just hung out around our hostel, which was right near the main plaza in town. We wandered around Plaza Independencia (the main one in town); there was a market so we checked that out, got some cotton candy which was delicious, people watched...Then we went and found a restaurant that had choripan (a sandwich type of food that is famous in Argentina and Chile). When we went into the restaurant it was only us and one other family--who kept staring at us! However, by the time we left, the restaurant was packed with people. Apparently we went to eat too early (at 9pm).

The next day we went biking around the huge park that's at the edge of town. We met a guy from Colombia who was really cool, and the 3 of us went together. We rented bikes from a place near our hostel and headed out. In the park it was like it's own little town--they had a zoo, golf course, soccer stadium, theatre, lake, fountains, etc. We spent most of the day biking around and checking it out and hiking up the hill at the back of the park. The hike up the hill was probably the most fun thing of the day...the view as we were hiking up was incredible. We could see the whole city and country side around it. It's really dry and desert-y, and really pretty scenery. We also saw one of the stadiums where the Copa America was played which was pretty cool; we really wanted to go in but unfortunately it was all gated off, so we didn't get to go in, only see it from afar. After biking around we stopped to get Pancho's for lunch (Argentian hotdogs...aka hotdogs with lots of different types of condiments on top, pretty tasty actually). Then we went to watch the final of the Copa America which was being played in Buenos Aires. However, it was between Uruguay and Paraguay, so there wasn't a whole lot of interest in Argentina.

The next day we went on a trekking, repelling, hot springs trip.

I guess I didn't quite finish...

From the Mountains to the Sea: a little bit of everything

There seems to be a little bit of everything in Chile. I've had the opportunity to go to the beach twice and to the mountains once. My first weekend in Chile I got to go visit Santo Domingo with Barbara's family. It's a really cute community about an hour and a half from Santiago, just south of a major port town called San Antonio. I went over to San Antonio one afternoon with the boys and we bought seafood for the dinner-we got mussels which were AMAZING and sea snails which were interesting. I still can't decide whether I liked them or not-they didn't taste bad, but they had a weird texture and it kind of grossed me out whenever I thought about it. Even though it was winter, the beach was absolutely beautiful. It was a little chilly, but not any colder than the California coast in the winter. And the ocean was beautiful, of course. The next weekend I got to go to a town called Algorrobo with EAP. We had our orientation there, which was cool. Not the orientation, the fact that we got to go to the beach. The orientation was okay, it was a lot of information crammed in to a short amount of time. There wasn't too much going on in Algorrobo because it's the low season right now. They had a few little ferias (outdoor markets) which were fun to look around in. They had lots of cute artisan crafts, I wanted to buy a lot of things, but just kept reminding myself that I'll be here for a year so I have plenty of time to get things, and also I really just don't need more stuff. Also, the worlds biggest pool is in Algorrobo, so that was kind of cool to see. It is pretty big, but it was only half full because the resort isn't open right now. I also don't completely understand why they need a huge pool when the ocean is right there, but I guess it's because the ocean is cold. But, they had kayaks that went in the pool, and floating docks in the middle and a huge water slide.

This last weekend I got to go up skiing in the Andes. It was amazing. The resort I went to is called El Colorado-it's a lot smaller than most of the resorts in Tahoe, but it was still fantastic. It's above the tree line, so there are no trees anywhere, which is kind of weird because I'm used to there being a lot of trees when I go skiing. We got really lucky on the day we went because it had been snowing all day the day before so there was a ton of fresh powder, which was awesome to ski through. The snow is a lot lighter here than in Tahoe, like it's a lot stickier and wetter in Tahoe--I enjoyed the drier snow, especially when I feel into several feet of powder. We also saw a bunny while we were skiing! We were off in the powder and all of the sudden there was a big brown bunny hopping up the hill...I'm surprised it wasn't freezing, or buried in the snow, because it was pretty deep. Anyways, it's pretty easy to get up to the snow because there are several companies that have shuttles that take you up in the morning and back in the afternoon, so we just went with one of those, and they rent you equipment and everything, although I think it was more expensive than at other places, but oh well. The road up to the mountain was a little bit scary because it was only one lane (because it had been snowing) but for two ways; luckily there weren't too many cars coming down as we were going up, so it wasn't too bad. Also, there's no chain control like in Tahoe, people just pull over to the side of the road whenever they feel like they need their chains and put them on. But, the skiing was pretty awesome.

This week is our last week of ILP (the "orientation" class we all have to take before school) which is crazy, it seems like we just started. I'm kind of happy to be finishing up though, it will be nice to have a little break, because 4 straight hours of class every day is a little much, although I have been learning some interesting things about Chile, especially the culture and politics (and slang). After this week we have a week off before we start our real classes.

Last week we got to visit La Moneda which is the presidential palace. It's kind of like the White House I guess except the president doesn't live there (they used to, but not since the 1970s I think), but it's where the government is based and the president goes there every day to work. We got to go in the room where he holds conferences and gets televised and everything. They had one display with a coin for each president Chile has ever had since their independence, but Pinochet didn't have one because he was not democratically elected. Also right outside the main entrance is a statue of Salvador Allende, which I thought was interesting.

We also got to visit a vineyard called Viña de Concha y Toro (literally Vineyard shell and bull). It's the biggest vineyard in Chile and has the most exports of any vineyard in Chile. They make a side variety of wines...my favorite that I've tried so far from there is Casillero de Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon. They make a kind of wine in Chile called Carménère which they don't have in California, or at least they don't make it California and I haven't seen it in the stores. Anyways, the vineyard was really pretty, although most of the vineyard part of it looked kind of dead since it's the middle of winter. But, we got to see a few different rooms where they had barrels of wine sitting and we got to go into the "Devil's locker" (which was more like a dungeon) which is where they keep the wines for Casillero de Diablo. While we were down there, because it's underground, they turned the lights off and played a "scary story" about that wine and how it came to be, then they cast the devil on the wall, it was kind of funny, but creative on their party I guess. Oh, they also had a kind of wine called Amelia! It was one of the more expensive ones and only came in Chardonnay, but it made me smile.

Well, that's a little bit about my adventures so far. I'm still loving Santiago (and Chile in general) and I'm so glad that I'll get to be here for a year because there's so much to see and do. But, I also cannot believe that I have been here for almost a month now! The time has gone by so quickly.

Ya tienes mi corazón, Santiago

Sorry I have been horrible about updating the last few weeks. I don't know where the time has gone. I have been in Chile for 2.5 weeks now...where did it all go?! Not that that's a bad thing, because I am thoroughly enjoying it here. Here are a few anecdotes from my time here so far:

My first encounter with the metro:

On my second day here I went on the metro to go meet someone. Unknowingly, I accidentally went during rush hour. The subway is usually fairly crowded to begin with, during rush hour you can hardly. Luckily, Barbara had shown me the metro station before and where to get a ticket and everything or I would have been completely lost. So, I go up to the counter, tell them I need a ticket to the metro station Pedro de Valdivia. They kind of look at me funny, and ask, what? I tell them again, again, they ask, where? Finally, I show them (because I have it written down), and they say, oh, Pedro de Valdivia (apparently I wasn't pronouncing it quite right), they give me a ticket. What I later realized is that you just ask for a ticket, because it costs the same to go 1 stop or 20 stops on the metro. So I think they just thought I was really weird for asking for a ticket to a particular destination. Anyways, I get my ticket and the nice ticket-counter-man points me in the right direction. I put my ticket into the machine to get into the metro, and it eats my ticket! I was expecting it to come back out, like it does at Bart, because you have to scan your ticket to get OUT of the station (again, still didn't realized that the metro is one-ticket-for-all-destinations). So, after a few seconds of contemplating if I should ask someone I just decide to proceed to the train. The platform is literally packed with people. And, whenever trains pull up, it becomes a mad shoving frenzy. It took me about 4 trains to actually be pushy enough to get on. But, finally, I made it on to the train, and made it successfully to my station. Since that first trip I have learned a lot about the metro--when rush hour is, that you just need to ask for a ticket in general, that you don't need a ticket to get out of the metro. It's not so complicated now that I've got the basics down, pretty much like any other metro system.

Navigating from the metro:

Whenever I am trying to get somewhere once I get out of the metro, I get really disoriented. I never have any idea which direction is which. So, before I go places, I have taken to looking up directions on google maps and writing which streets I SHOULD cross after popping out the station to reach my destination and which I SHOULD NOT cross. It's a pretty good method that works like 90% of the time, the other 10% I just end up wandering... People are really nice when I ask directions, the problem is (and everyone here warns us of this too) that people will point in a direction with complete confidence even if they're not sure if it's the right direction. So, you can think you asked for directions from a local and are headed in the right direction, and end up on the opposite side of town anyways.

Chileno:

Everyone I meet, literally, asks the usual questions--how long are you going to be here, what will you be doing, etc. When I say I came to study Psychology and Spanish they always laugh and say I will learn Chileno, not Español. It's true--they have a very unique way of speaking here and there is a lot of slang, cachai? But, I've adjusted pretty well to the accent and speed I think.

First day of school:

Somehow, I ended up getting super lost on my way to the first day of classes. Luckily, there's another girl from the program who lives right across the hall from me, so I wasn't lost all by myself. My host mom gave me directions on how to get there, and told me it should only be about a 30 minute walk. So, Bonnie and I set out...we had been to the campus the day before, but had been given a ride back to our apartments, and the route driving is different than walking. Anyways, it turns out the street we were supposed to turn on doesn't intersect all the way across the main street. And, of course, we were walking down the wrong side of the street, so we didn't see it. We asked someone for directions a few blocks after our house because my host mom had told me the street was really close by our house. And, of course, the very nice man assuredly pointed us in the wrong direction. Then, we somehow ended up turning in the wrong direction (after walking the opposite direction of where we were supposed to turn). 45 minutes later, we decided to stop and ask for directions. The guy at the store was very nice and pulled out the phone book. We told him where we were going, and he looked up the street in the index and opened to the map. We found the campus, then asked him where we were. He looked at the opposite side of the map and pointed. Oops. We decided to hail a taxi because at this point we were already 15 minutes late to orientation and it was going to take another 15 minutes to drive there. Luckily, we got a nice taxi driver who took us straight there (we've been warned that some taxi drivers will take advantage of foreigners and drive in circles to get more money). Anyways, right as we were pulling up to campus I get a call from my host mom: where are you? how did you get so lost? I gave you directions! But, we made it and everything worked out :) And, now we successfully walk to campus every day.

Let's see, those are some of my funnier stories. Everyone is really nice here, it just amazes me. For example, I brought my big backpack and suitcase on the metro from Barbaras house to my host families house and everyone was holding open doors for me and helping me up the stairs.

My friend Barbara, who lives in Berkeley now but is from Santiago, has been amazing. She has taught me so much about the city and helped me get oriented, helped me get a phone. Everything. I don't know how I"ll every be able to thank her sufficiently.

My favorite things in Chile: guatero--my "hot water bottle" that I sleep with at night to keep warm, pisco sour--a really delicious mixed drink, the view of the Andes no matter where you are, the beach is beautiful

My not so favorite things: there's no central heating--anywhere, the air becomes brown when it doesn't rain, they only drink instant coffee

There's so much more to tell, but I'm sure this is plenty for now :)

Water Filters, Beanie babies and birthdays

The last week in Guatemala was jam packed...why is it that we always seem to run out of time for our projects?! We did finish everything successfully, but we could have easily filled up another month. At the beginning of the week we were checking back up on garden boxes that we had planted at the beginning of our month in Guatemala to see how the were growing and if the families were maintaing them. It was exciting to go back and visit the families and see the vegetables beginning to grow in the gardens. The squash, cucumber and bean plants had especially began to sprout; everything was still really small, but nonetheless it was nice to see that the gardens were growing. A few of the families had even expanded their gardens--making another tablón (raised bed) to plant some more of the seeds we had left with them. When we went back to visit we also brought the beanie babies to distribute to the kids. (For those of you who don’t know, I had kept all the beanie babies from my childhood, and finally decided it was time to part with them, and what better use than to give them to some of the kids we would be working with.) All the kids seemed to be really happy to receive them, so it made me really happy to give them new homes. In one of the communities, Brionne and I made the mistake to give a some to a few kids who saw us giving them to a family. Literally within like 90 seconds of giving those kids beanie babies we were BOMBARDED with people asking for beanie babies. It was absolutely ridiculous. We eventually had to tell Diego to drive away so we would have some for the other communities. It wasn’t a huge deal, because the whole point was to get rid of them, but it turned into a mad rush on beanie babies. It was amazing how quickly word spread that the gringos were handing out stuffed animals. Eventually, once we had met back up with Lorenzo and the other girls and more people showed up asking for toys, we had to make Lorenzo tell them no because none of us had the heart to do so.

On Monday and Tuesday afternoon we collaborated with the medical team from Berkeley to do some workshops related to health and hygiene in the afternoons. The first day we went to a school in a town called Buena Vista. Some of the med people did a workshop with adults; the rest of us split up into groups of three (1 spanish speaker, 2 non spanish speakers) and presented to the kids about teeth brushing, hand washing, hygiene in general and nutrition. It was a lot of fun, although a little crazy. The class I taught was little kids--I think they were around 6 and 7 years old. They knew a lot about teeth brushing already--3 times per day after all the meals and make sure you get all your teeth. Once we got to hand washing, though, it was very interesting. Everyone knew that you were supposed to wash your hands before breakfast, lunch and dinner. It took a while before anyone said anything about washing your hands after playing with animals, after playing outside, after touching trash...and nobody ever said that you should wash your hands after going to the bathroom, which I thought was really interesting. One little boy really impressed me though, I was going around to groups of kids and asking them about washing their hands--he informed that you should wash your hands after playing outside because there are microorganisms on your hands that can make you sick...a 7 year old kid! I was like, whoa, that’s a big word and lot of advanced information--needless to say I was very impressed.

The workshops on Tuesday were a little different. The first one was with older kids--like middle school age--but luckily there were few enough classrooms that I didn’t have to present, I got to tag along with Lorenzo and listen to his spiel. He spent most of the time talking about the proper technique for brushing teeth--and he emphasized that you should brush your teeth after eating because you don’t want to go to hang out with your boyfriend or girlfriend and then have them not want to kiss you because you have garlic breath or something. I thought it was really clever how he aimed his talk at the age group, and somehow managed to keep the engaged for most of the time (despite the fact that there was definitely a class clown and some kids who were totally apathetic). In the second school we were with younger kids again and there were more classrooms so I got to present again. This time though, the class was really small so that made it a lot easier. First we went over the food pyramid and I had each kid draw something from the pyramid (tortilla, bread, vegetable, fruit, milk, meat, sweet, etc) and then drew a big pyramid on the board and had them put their drawing where they though it should go on the pyramid. It was very interesting to see how it ended up. Then I explained how the pyramid should actually be (it’s a little hard because I can’t be like you should eat this x number of times per day, because they don’t have that kind of access to food, sadly). Then we sang some songs about brushing teeth and washing hands, and then we had to leave. I hope at least some of what we did sticks with them. Especially washing hands after going to the bathroom...

Wednesday and Thursday were spent installing water filters with families and following up with our women’s groups. Brionne and I were able to get the stories of some of the girls, which we will posting soon, if anyone is interested in reading them. The second meetings went well, although I don’t think we had the same group at any of them, so it was a little interesting to try and do a follow up type of thing, but we made it work. In terms of water filters, we were only able to get 15 because they were expensive, but we installed them in 4 different communities, so we’ll see how effective they are. Basically we would bring the water filter to the family, have them wash it the way they’re supposed to every 3 months, and then set it up with them. Then, they had a sign a contract saying they would maintain the filter, that they would allow Ami San Lucas to do follow up visits, that they would use it for their family consistently and that they would not sell it to other people. Then they had to pay 25 quetzales (US$3)...which is a whole days pay for a lot of families and therefore a good chunk of money. Hopefully next year we’ll be able to figure out a cheaper way to get more filters.

That was basically the end of our time. Friday I went up the mountain with Lorenzo using public transportation (slightly terrifying), to instal one last filter. Friday night I cooked pizza with my host family which was a lot of fun. They love pizza, but they had never known how to cook it before, so we were able to make 3 pizzas which were delicious. Then Saturday morning we returned to Guatemala City. And Sunday afternoon I headed for Chile!