I have a serious problem when it comes to navigating classes. Ok, today's adventure was not really my fault, but still, problem. I was psyched for my traditional Chilean dance class but when I arrived there was no dance class to be found in gimnasio Casa Central. Another student was very nice, took pity, and helped me through this whole process, which involved several office visits in CC and next door, much communication confusion, asking random people where to go, and a search through three separate buildings. Darn them for changing the class location! The poor Chilean boy endured 45 minutes of this but was very nice, and was impressed that I knew what 'flaite' meant. Finally, 50 minutes after class started, I walked in on some awesome cuerca, the traditional dance of Chile, and greatly enjoyed the remainder of the class.
Today was the coldest, most penetrating rain I feel like I have enter encountered. When I returned to class after lunch, my host mom made sure I was ready. Off I went, armed with umbrella, trench coat (my rain jacket was soaked through somehow) and newspaper-lined shoes. I absolutely love my language and culture class; every time we are all confused, it turns into a hugely amusing discussion involving the translation of ridiculous dichos (Chilenismos) into English, which never make sense but for that reason all the better for discussion, and funny role-playing.
And on to the main event: artichokes. Yes, artichokes. It was one of those evenings that you expect to be nothing but instead turns out to be a great time, like most good times, unplanned. Funny how it always works that way. German Thomas (G Thomas for short) was supposed to visit to discuss travel plans. An hour and a half later I thought, I will knock on his door, just because proximity allows. And because he didn’t call, the evening turns out to be much more interesting than sitting in my room, ironic, yes. I ended up meeting his roommate, Josethomas, and Josethomas’s girlfriend Soledad. They fall under the category of people that you are extremely happy to see together because they are so insanely nice- they create an aura of contentment in a room. And they were great to practice Spanish with, for both clarity and patience, just easy to get along with in general, all three really.
To the part where I actually talk about artichokes… we then ate artichokes. My first impression of the things was that they had been burned and rained on, sort of wet and gray, once beautiful and edible but now dead and hideous. And then I ate it. Here I will appropriately use the phrase “party in my mouth” to describe the flavor of the artichoke. First off, a big part of this is the process; it is an art form. You have to peel off the leaves individually and then dip them into a sauce of olive oil, lemon, mayonnaise, and salt. Only dip the bottom end in, because that is the part soft enough to eat. Then you clench the leaf between your teeth pull the excess leave away, so that you eat only the soft bottom part of the left. I’m sorry, there is no better way to describe it, really, that is exactly what you do. Then after eating all of the leaves you have the core left. First the stringy part is to be removed with a fork. You must break the core in half, remove the top layer because it has spines in it, and then you can eat around the rest of that half. The rest is edible, so you break it into smaller pieces, place these in your sauce cup, mix, and eat with a fork. This is the entire process, and it is well worth it. The rich flavor of it is complemented by the sweet fatty bitterness of the sauce. It is the best food I have had in Chile. Why don’t people do this in the US? Has it not been discovered yet? I want to let everyone in on the secret of artichokes- it’s a life-altering experience.
After this very late snack, we beatboxed while trying to learn German from G Thomas. Apparently the exercises used to learn the trickier language sounds are exactly like beatboxing. Then we moved on to tongue twisters. Not only are they fun in English, but apparently they are also in Spanish and German. Ejemplo:
Erre con erre cigarro
Erre con erre barril
Rápido corren los carros
Por la lína de ferrocarril
Try saying that if you can’t roll your ‘r’s…
This was particularly exciting because before Josethomas finished it, I had completed the last line for him. Thank you for requiring the memorization of this verse, Mr. Nobile, Spanish 1… 7 years ago.
Ahh the little green book, How to Survive in the Chilean Jungle… both useful and hilarious. I am never gonna get to read it, as everyone finds it extremely entertaining. I have literally seen Chileans cry from laughing so hard at it. I think Thomas is going to copy the whole thing (which is not really illegal here, texts for school are photocopied, not bought.) It is an entire book of idioms that Chileans use, because they use an insane number of them. They speak Chilean, not Spanish, making it that much harder/more interesting/more fun to learn.
This place is so much more than ocean and hills and pretty colored houses and Spanish. It is people, awesome people, you just have to live it. The culture, the friendships, you seek them out, but often they seek you out too. When something does not work out, it seems to be for a reason. For example, I was bummed at the idea of sitting around this evening and not visit anyone else, friends that I have not seen in two weeks. But, because no one answered my calls, ironically, I somehow ended up meeting new people, experiencing Chile and friendship in a way that was spontaneous and unexpected, like most good things, occurring by chance when you expect a different outcome. I met G Thomas on the university bus on the ride back from the tour of the ocean studies building, week 1, for about 45 seconds, really. I kept running into him, we became travel buddies, he moved into my building completely by accident, and here we are. Another example, I met A (Australian) Thomas and Jono crew through another person who I did not enjoy being around at all, and they just happened to have met this person too, the night before, and sort of saved me really. They only came to meet me, not even to see the other person. Weird how all of this works. Where I put forth the most effort, I gain less, so to speak. The learning, language, people, experience, culture, comes to you spontaneously, unplanned, trial-by-fire, not from a textbook. Maybe the best things in life are the accidental ones, the coincidences, the things you don’t expect, the not so fun that becomes fun, the hard that becomes the most important thing you learn, the fun that becomes not fun but makes a great story.
Getting lost and found (several times), learning cuerca, eating artichokes, beatboxing in German, role-playing chilenismos, running around in a trenchcoat, and fighting your way onto the metro at rush hour. All in a day’s work.
No comments:
Post a Comment