Buenos Aires

The adventures of the weekend began on Friday evening when Alice and Martin slept at my house because we had to leave at 4am the next morning for the airport. At about 9:30pm, I told my host mom we were going to bed because we needed to get up so early. She insisted that we stay up for a little while longer because she was going to the market to buy stuff to make empanadas. When I told her this was not necessary because we were going to bed, she said, don't worry you can go to bed and I'll bring them to the three of you. I'm not too sure what I thought would happen, but sure enough, at about 10:30 when we were all asleep, she came into my room and put the plates of empanadas by our heads. The next morning we laughed about the ridiculousness of the situation.

When we arrived in Buenos Aires, Alice's friend Rosa met us at the airport. She is studying in Buenos Aires for the semester so she knows a lot about the city. We spent the day with her walking around the city, and she pointed out all the important historical sites and buildings. It was like having a tour guide! Just a few of the places

we visited were the Plaza de Mayo, el congreso, and the

bookstore theatre. Rosa is studying at the University of Buenos Aires, so she took us to see a part of the campus. They have not had classes for a few weeks because the students are protesting the safety of the buildings. Recently, a glass window shattered and could have hurt students had it occurred during the day. She explained that

they don't have fire extinguishers, enough emergency exits, etc. It was interesting to see all the political signs and paintings that cover the indoor walls of the buildings. In the evening, we headed back to our hostel where we were staying in a room for 10 people. We talked with 2 guys who had just graduated from the University of Oregon and 2 people from England that drive tour

busses.

On Sunday we walked around the outdoor artisinal market in San Telmo which is probably 10 blocks long. We then met up with Rosa, Ben (Alice's other friend from Pomona that is travelling ar

ound South America), and Rosa's parents at the Recoleta Cemetary. This is a famous cemetary that is almost like a museum because the crypts are so large and elaborate.

The most famous one was the crypt for Eva Peron. Alice, Ben, Martin, and I spent the afternoon walking around Palermo and in the evening we went to a milonga, which is where people go to dance tango. It was very impressive since this is a dance that you have to be good at when you go to dance. It is not something that can be learned in the moment!

On Monday Alice, Martin, and I visited the major sports st

adium and then walked around the tourist areas. We saw restaurants that have stages for tango dancing that the tourists can watch while they eat! It was a

very lively area, with live bands that walk as they play, colorful buildings, and people following us to ask if we wanted to get drunk in their restaurants. In the evening, Alice went to eat with her friends. Two new British guys had just moved into our hostel room and they asked Martin and I if we wanted to join them for a

steak dinner. Martin was very

excited, as he had been waiting to have this famous Argentinian steak dinner the entire trip. Of course, I was not as excited as the three guys, but I was happy to find that the restaurant had an entree of grilled vegetables that I could enjoy while they all enjoyed their 17oz steaks! It was fun to get to know these two guys, one which is trying to be an actor (appropriately named Harry!) and the other that works in an IT department. They spoke no Spanish so they made us feel very confident about our level of Spanish!

On Tuesday morning, we headed to the airport in the madrugada (earliest part of the morning that it's really not morning yet), bought our last alfajores, and made it back to Santiago just in time to head to classes!

Here are some amazing pictures from flying over the Andes: the mountains and the blanket of clouds beneath the plane!

El rescate: Vive los 33 mineros!

Just minutes ago, I watched the 33rd miner as he was rescued from la mina San José. These past 24 hours have been absolutely amazing--watching the news and being able to see as each miner arose to the surface. The operation began very late last night at about 11pm. I woke up this morning, turned on the tv, and watched miners 12, 13, 14, and 15 be rescued. Today I went to classes, and when I got home, I was able to watch the last 4 miners escape. It took about 15 minutes for each miner to make the journey inside the Phoenix capsule up the shaft, which was 624m (2,047ft) long.

The 33 men were discoverd alive on August 22, 17 days after the mine collapsed. Those 17 days were full of stress, not only for the families of the miners, but for the country and the world. The uncertainty was unbearable. When we found out they were alive, the country sighed in relief, but prayed for an imminent rescue. The miners were in the mine for 69 days, the longest period of time ever to have stayed in a mine. Watching the miners arrive on earth's surface has been utterly amazing and emotional. President Piñera was at the top of the shaft to greet each miner upon their arrival, and then

gave a speach when they were all rescued. He is hoping people will think of this successful rescue instead of human rights violations and natural disasters when they hear "Chile." Seeing the miners hug their wives, children, and loved ones is something so wonderful that truly cannot be described with words.

What a happy day for Chile!

Peculiaridades de estar enferma

In these last two weeks, I’ve discovered all the challenges that being sick here presents. First of all, it is nearly impossible to stay home and do nothing. There is always so much going on and some many new things to go see and do that I’ve been an epic failure at staying home to rest. I was doing fine until this weekend when I lost my voice and had no energy. So yesterday I stayed in bed all day and the funny thing is that I’m feeling so much better! The other challenging aspect is their logic for why people get sick. In the past week, I think five people have told me that I caught a cold because I don’t wear a scarf. I think people here are really confused because it has been about 65 degrees outside every day! My host mom has come into my room about every half our to ask if she can give me mentolatum (whatever that is!) to put on my nose, weird medications to take, and lemons to eat (because they have tons of vitamin c…but apparently disregarding the fact that they erode your teeth). She’s also been ridiculously angry for the fact that I don’t have socks on and I don’t blow-dry my hair after the shower. My host mom’s other theory is that everyone is getting sick now because everyone is taking their jackets off and putting them on so much because of the change in weather. When I told my actual mom that theory, she said they are more likely to hurt themselves than get sick!

Being sick yesterday turned out to be okay because I had to finish my 15 page essay due today for my human rights class, so I literally worked on that all day yesterday while in bed. The assignment was to pick a monument in Santiago that is a memorial for human rights violations during the dictatorship. We had to go visit the site and then write a research paper about its purpose and function. The monument I chose is called “Mujeres en la Memoria,”which is a glass wall in a plaza that is dedicated to the disappeared women. It turned out to be a very interesting project because online, the site looks beautiful and glamorous. When I went to take pictures of it, it was covered in graffiti. I then learned that this is a important theme: that most young people do not understand the importance of memorials and the seriousness of what happened here 30 years ago because teachers are not willing to teach it in their classes.

Here you can see the difference when the monument has been cleaned and the picture I took where it has been vandalized.

On Friday, my human rights class had a field trip. There are only four of us so it makes it pretty easy to go do things in Santiago. We went with our professor to visit a place called Agrupación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos. It is an organization that is composed of various women who have family members that were detained and/or disappeared during the military dictatorship. The organization is a support system, but they also work together to find information about their disappeared family and friends. Two members of the organization talked to us about their experiences, which was very powerful and much more interesting that reading about it in books.

In the evening, I went with some friends to the Banff Mountain Film Festival. It was great because everyone there was outdoorsy. It consisted of many different short films with extreme outdoor adventure sports. The most impressive was this guy that rock climbs with no ropes. His biggest climb was to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite!

On Saturday, CIEE had programmed a biking tour around Santiago for us. It was absolutely amazing how much we could see on bikes! We went to so many different parts of Santiago and we were able to see different communities, monuments, parks, cafes, buildings, etc. We mostly stayed on sidewalks, so it was pretty hard to get on and off of the curbs. It was also pretty challenging to do with a group of about 30 people.

Here are some more pictures from my trip to the south:

Snow at the base of the volcano
Cueca dancing in Castro, Chiloé

Penguins!