bling-bling, chicos, and streetsmarts

Please excuse my random thought stream and lack of connectors.

I am getting rather good at the last minute trip planning thing. Yesterday Joakim and I spent about 3 hours searching for a bus online but finally ended up meeting at the terminal because buying online was a pain. Our entire communication process was done via skype, but the catch is that he did not have a microphone or camera, so he typed all of his responses and I talked to my computer without any audio response. This became officially known as Helen-Kellering (please please please don't take offense, I had to write about it, it was amazing) It was even better when I received a phone call from Jono, so I was talking on the phone while Joakim was listening on skype but could only respond with messages.... mass chaos.... then my host mom walked into my room and it was pandemonium, in the best sense. It was an interesting situation to explain in Spanish, but she understood when Joakim sent greetings to "mamacita" via typed message, with my translation.

What is the most multicultural thing I have ever seen? Thomas' (mentiroso) birthday, complete with at least 12 nationalities represented, a piñata containing nunchucks and beaten with a squash racket, an array of attractive intercambios, and assorted hats, including traditional chilean and the glittery cardboard birthday kind. A surprising number of people asked me if I was Chilean, though mostly they asked this before they heard my obvious accent and significant problems with the past tenses; apparently I don't look extremely gringa. I love the Europeans, because they don't always know instantly where I am from. In general though I respond "Pennsylvania" when asked where I am from, because normally the need to explain my American-ness does not exist.

Note: Chileans think spanglish is hilarious. I accidentally said 'cheapo' instead of 'barato,' which was a genuine accident, I do know better than that, but the employee in the supermarket practically rolled on the floor from laughing, it was awesome. Also, we know that embarazada does not mean embarrassed, but bota is boot and bote is boat (barco is ship, which I prefer to use anyway because everyone thinks it's funny), and preservativos are definitely NOT preservatives.

Just when you thought micros couldn't get any better, think again! Apparently if you ride a micro on a Thursday night they turn into party micros, or so I have named them. Also known as "micros bling-bling." The party micros (and some random micros and colectivos as well) have BLING, micros with bling!! Flashing lights at the front and along the side add [blue] color to the micro that is otherwise unlit by normal florescent overhead lights. Then the driver turns up the music, and the place practically becomes a discotec, with a full crowd singing and dancing. Imagine my excitement! I want to spend next Thursday riding the micros for the entire night, just riding around on party micros. Haha, maybe I rode the only one, I have no idea, but I will test it out to see.

You will be glad to know that my street smarts have proven to be up to par on more than one occasion. I was with Dani and Jono a couple of days ago, on our way home as we all live very close, when a Chilean who was walking the same way stopped to converse with us. I immediately made a buffer space when I saw that his hands were in his pockets, because of course he could conceal a weapon there. Turns out that his hands were cold, but I've made my point. Side note learned from this walk, two actually: 1. I learn a huge amount from talking to Chileans outside of class, people who I know and don't know, I learn more than in concentrated force-fed language, and 2. if you ever walk anywhere with Jono, be sure to allow two extra hours for him to play with the dogs on the street. Yes, it took us over two hours for a 20 minute walk. As he made friend with a pack, and in particular, Rufus.

Now for my second example of my handy street knowledge. First, an overview. Chileans say hello and goodbye with a kiss on the cheek. However, some cheeky boys (if you pardon the pun) like to turn their head quickly when a girl says goodbye so that the kiss intended for the cheek lands elsewhere. I was all kinds of ready for this and turned away quickly, so the clever chilean boy was cheated instead of me. My point was made, and all was well. Feel better about my safety yet?

I had my first actual salsa lesson a few evenings ago at Ache Havana in Valpo. Franciska and I joined the class when they were still practicing the basic steps, but they moved on to dancing in pairs waaay to fast and I couldn't apply my new salsa knowledge to the paired dancing to save my life, but somehow dance I did. I luckily had a very patient partner who learned about 8 times as fast as me. I think there is more than one kind of salsa, and that this may be a Cuban version, I need to research it a bit more.

My education classes keep getting canceled. I only have two, one that meets Monday and one that meets Mon-Wed, and all were cancelled this week. Though this is outwardly exciting, it is mildly upsetting at the same time because I have not been to my social responsibility class yet. I added on the very last day of the drop-add period, and the once-a-week class was cancelled twice, and we do not have the class independence day week. I keep showing up confused and spent from my rapid commute from Casa Central, where I have to leave early to make it to this class. Ah well, I have the reading assignment and am good to go for whenever the class starts anyway.

Have you ever had a craving for celery? I have. I did not foresee it, but the celery here has actual flavor, good flavor, as do all of the fruits and vegetables. My epic food adventures of late include the equivalent of about 3/4 of a loaf of bread with smashed avocado and a breakfast of mashed yoghurt and banana, both of which I highly recommend.

In preparation for Chile independence day, there is a boom of Chilean flags: on the micros and colectivos, sold by vendors at every corner, everywhere. Banners and signs for festivities abound, and the city buzzes with excitement and protests. Lucky for you I will be able to report about the independence weekend firsthand as I will live it upon return from San Pedro de Atacama.