The campus for architecture majors is close to Con Con, a place called Ritoque, "la ciudad abierta." It is kind of like a playground for architecture majors, with it's weird half buildings (or building foundations), and odd structures. There is a professor who lives there in this house that looks like an OVNI (flying saucer). Actually, there are lots of them Well on this fine Saturday I went with Cristian and some of his friends to this strange place for el Toreno San Francisco, an annual celebration for something about Saint Francis. Everything about this event defies normal description. Everything. We arrived and walked around the place for a bit, checking out weird architecture things. This campus is located in the country. It was for this reason that I saw a Chilean rabbit. Chilean rabbit!! Por fin! Do you know how long I have been waiting to see a chilean rabbit? Since before I got here. It ran away and I proceeded to chase imaginary rabbits in the dunes without another encounter. Saddened by the subsequent lack of dune rabbits, I joined the others for the festivities.
The festivities for us commenced with a poetic act. At least I think that is what it was. A staircase-ish structure in the distance served as a backdrop of sorts, and in the foreground, two actors wearing this cut up paper things over their clothes. Next was... church. A service was held in the middle of the woods. I was... confused. Kids climbed into the trees. Everyone stood around to watch, no one sat. Except in the trees. I did enjoy how everyone passed the peace, simply said "la paz" and giving each other hugs and kisses. Following this, the crowd moved up towards the dunes for what I thought was more poetry acting something or other. But then, there was a race down the hill to the volantines! Kites! I think part of the reason this is so obscure was because everything was unrelated to the previous thing, so there was no logical order and nothing for me to relate to.
I tried and tried, but there was not much wind to begin with. Lots of Chileans who knew how to fly kites were successful though. Cristian helped me, first by helping me construct the thing (after tying both ends together we realized we had done something wrong...) eventually we tried the dune, with me running down the hill and him throwing up the kite like nobody's business, but sin éxito. It was nevertheless a good time. Onward- we moved as a crowd to the beach, a 15 minute walk. Here the poet guy was in his element, with his rafiki stick- the staff with the paper things they were wearing placed on top. Rafiki said lots of stuff that I did not understand. I turned to my group and was like "I don't understand anything, and it's not for the language!" They said the same. Rafiki went on, something about brother fire. Hermano fuego! I can't even explain what was going on. Then a train passed by on the nearby tracks (Hermano Tren!) Probably the best thing of the entire day was when Rafiki took of his shoes in preparation to enter the water and a dog came by and stole one away. I nearly peed my pants.
Then we went to the beach. I still don't get it. Everyone lined up along the shore, held hands, and ran into the water. When we were done with that, we all gathered around Rafiki and he started yelling stuff with us repeating: "agua!" "agua!" and so forth, with more silly suggestions for ridiculous things to yell following this water chant: "húmedo!" "humedo!" Trinidad, Sebastián, and myself ran in, while Catalina and Cristian watched the whole spectacle, taking pictures and soaking up the craziness of it all, "todos locos!!"
Back at the field where we started, we were served lentils from an olla común. This is quite simply a massive pot used to cook everything together. And I mean this thing was like between 3 and 4 feet across (ok metric fans, .9 to 1.2 meters across... I should really accustom myself to this.) I thought this was so cool, such a "South American" thing to do. I guess I think that because we don't do that in the US. Well actually we do, but not to this scale. Well, we might and I just am not aware of it. Either way, it stuck in my mind because I had heard of the legendary ollas comunes in my culture class.
"Hacer dedo" means to hitchhike. Don't translate it literally. We tried this (both the actual hitchhiking part and the translating) with little success. Never fear, we caught a beloved micro instead, and while the others headed off to Valpo, Cristian and I went to stuff our faces at the mall, with cheese empanadas. mmmm. I think we could both live off of those.
What followed was one of those defining conversations, which from the outside seems ordinary, but really is extraordinary, that which one remembers. I don´t want to live like a tourist. It is one of my biggest fears for my time in Chile. Why am I not a tourist[ideally]? I see the cultural aspects as they are, not for good or bad but for the culture. Chileans are not bad people because they have a massive problem with the stray dog population. I see it así, I observe and think why it is that way, I talk about it and wonder and ask and watch, I note the similarities and differences. Not every exchange student has make it to that point, for which I often am upset. I make every attempt to be a part of this, not to live in a mini-US culture here, that is not why I am here. It would be atrocious to distance myself from this culture that I love so much. Can I please just spend my time in profound conversations with Chileans? I would much prefer that.
What followed was one of those defining conversations, which from the outside seems ordinary, but really is extraordinary, that which one remembers. I don´t want to live like a tourist. It is one of my biggest fears for my time in Chile. Why am I not a tourist[ideally]? I see the cultural aspects as they are, not for good or bad but for the culture. Chileans are not bad people because they have a massive problem with the stray dog population. I see it así, I observe and think why it is that way, I talk about it and wonder and ask and watch, I note the similarities and differences. Not every exchange student has make it to that point, for which I often am upset. I make every attempt to be a part of this, not to live in a mini-US culture here, that is not why I am here. It would be atrocious to distance myself from this culture that I love so much. Can I please just spend my time in profound conversations with Chileans? I would much prefer that.
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