this city is a madhouse. you can't walk two feet without running into throngs of people dancing at lively concert, laughing at a rowdy street performance, or just falling over themselves drunk. all of valparaiso seems to have converted itself to one big roaming party. yesterday, el and i stumbled across a wild parade, complete with stilt walkers and painted dancers, which traversed the entire city. as the evening closed, we were packed into parque italia, amongst a sea of humanity dancing to live cumbia music. i have never seen so many people partying in my life...it looked like all of valparaiso had emptied itself out onto the streets. and that was just the day before new year's. i can hardly fathom what it's going to be like tonight, when everyone else arrives for the real new year's eve festivities...
el and i have moved on to valparaiso, where i am writing in a hostel right now. valpo is chile's nightlife capital, and is gearing up for its new year's festivities (which attract hundreds of thousands of partygoers from the region) with street performances at every corner, crowds of tipsy barhoppers roaming the streets, and lights strung around the plazas. last night, we befriended a sad clown named rodrigo, who led us to a concert of a formerly exiled rock/folk band in the city's main plaza, which was packed with carousing chileans.
earlier in the day, we visited the eccentric house of pablo neruda in the seaside town of isla negra, then spent a few hours watching the ocean waves crash against the coast. we thought our three-quarter length sleeves and pants were sufficient protection against the sun, but ended up paying for our folly with curiously shaped patches of sunburn on our arms, legs, and faces. they look pretty ridiculous.
elgrey arrived in chile yesterday! since then, we've been walking the city up and down. we've scaled the key lookout points, sampled its signature drinks and foods, navigated the chaotic central markets, inspected pre-columbian indigenous art, and were serenaded in the city's favorite chicha bar. according to el, santiago smells like flowers and fried food (her two favorite smells), the bus rides are like roller coasters, and the restaurant vendors approach you like drug dealers.
i bought a bag of fresh strawberries in the morning and proceeded to pound it into a daquiri during the course of the day. too much walking. in the end, i had to dispose of it mournfully in a streetside trash bin. i was mollified by the fact that i must have left a vivid red trail of strawberry juice throughout the entire city, as a little record of our scenic and meandering path.
my first x-mas away from my family, and a peaceful one at that. my roommate, his girlfriend, her parents, and i held a small but festive dinner on their patio, amongst their flowers, cats, and a steady string of carols on casette. the moon was full, the breeze was gentle, and the company cheerful and caring. merry christmas to all, and to all, a good night.
so christmas is fast approaching, yet i'm still having trouble remembering it's december. i'm too accustomed to the in-your-face commercialization of the holidays we have come to expect in the states. in the absence of all the garish advertising and extravagant decorations, christmas is the last thing to cross my mind. of course, it doesn't help that temperatures here are in the eighties, something which prompted me to take my first trip to the beach last weekend. i spent most of the time marveling at the rocky pacific coast and getting sunburned. being a chicago girl, these are hardly activities i associate with the holiday season.
the weather does make some imported christmas customs all the more funny and out-of-place, however. despite the fact that it is high summer here, some people decorate their windows with fake snow and icicles, while sweat-drenched santas in thick beards and coats greet customers in the malls. the coca-cola version of christmas has taken over, and the chileans know it. even though they completely recognize the incongruity of it all, they're still pretty much resigned to it. as if it were inevitable, and resistance completely useless. in the same way, everyone grumbles about how halloween makes absolutely no sense, particularly in chile, where there's no precedent whatsoever...yet they go out and buy costumes for their kids and candy for trick-or-treaters nonetheless. ahhh the power of commerce.
post-argentina, santiago feels a little different. now that i have its cousin to compare it to, it's like i'm seeing the city with new eyes. in buenos aires, i gained another south american reference point to work off of, and with it, i'm noticing elements of santiago that never really stood out before: spontaneous details about how people dress or behave, the way business is conducted, unassuming sights and sounds of streetlife that slipped my attention before...
ironically, i think being in buenos aires has helped me to grasp a little bit more what it is to be santiaguino. and that's kinda cool.
we finished up our trip to buenos aires with an afternoon at the antique flea market in san telmo. it was quite an eclectic and bustling affair, packed with odd trinkets and flamboyant street performers. afterwards, we strolled down the docks in the portside neighborhood of puerto madero before going our separate ways. wei-shuien to the airport, jenny back to the hotel, and i to the bus station. sad, sad. buenos aires is so rich in activities and sights, i feel like i could have stayed there forever.
still, after an exhausting bus ride back (we were held up at customs for three hours in the middle of the mountains), i'm just glad to be back in a place where i can take a shower and lay down. buenas noches, santiago.
since last time: a photo-op trip to the colorful neighborhood of la boca, a personal tour of the elegant colon theatre, a stroll through recoleta's artisan's fair and cemetery (with a stop at evita's tomb), people-watching in swanky palermo, a hunt for the perfect leather jacket, some tourist-trap tango, and, of course, even more fine wine and succulent steak. as long as i'm around, keep the meat coming, i say.
also, UN stuff: a workshop on civil society's potential contribution to climate change protocols, exhibits on EU measures to limit emissions, and a conference on sustainable development policies in brazil, africa, china, and india (courtesy of wri). congrats to wei-shuien, who delivered an impressive presentation!
phew! is this city a feast for the senses. i'm exhausted. still, i've got one day left, and i'll be damned if i don't take advantage of it.
i'm convinced i've been plucked out of south america and dropped in the middle of europe again. buenos aires has a completely different vibe than santiago. it feels much more cosmopolitan and the architecture is more sophisticated. yesterday, i arrived and met up with wei-shuien, a friend who's also down here for COP 10. we saw the casa rosada (famous for evita's balcony speech), where the madres de la plaza de mayo were demonstrating. the plaza was plastered with photos of the disappeared from the military regime. yesterday was also the day of the immaculate conception, so processions were led out of the metropolitan cathedral and bouquets of jasmine were being sold on the streets. after a trip through an antique subway (the station had chandeliers and the subway cars had wooden chairs. wood!!) for a visit to the congreso national, wei-shuien and i retired to a restaurant where i waxed poetic over an exquisite steak (best $4 i ever spent) and got plastered on a bottle of argentinian malbec. i don't remember much after that.
i'm actually writing right now from inside the UNFCC building, after having just attended a session of the delegates on vulnerability and adaption to climate change. it was pretty mindblowing. i sat next to the delegation from saudi arabia. it sent me back to those days at model UN when all of us high school kids huddled around placards in hotel rooms pretending to know what we were doing. except this time, there were translating devices, video screens and cameramen everywhere, and...it was real. i never would have thought back then that i was ever actually going to attend a UN conference of the parties personally. but there you go. you never can tell. ok, i should go because i'm sure someone needs this computer to save the world or something. more later...
leaving today for buenos aires! in the coming weeks, the city is hosting COP 10 (the tenth session of the parties for the UN convention on climate change, famous for the kyoto protocols). amidst the steak, leather, and tango, i'll have to try and keep my mind on greenhouse gas emissions and motorization in the developing world. wish me luck!
the dollar is now at 579 chilean pesos, down from the normal 630. every day, my empanadas are getting more and more expensive. yet there seems to be no end to the downsliding. what are they doing to the economy over there? dollar, why hast thou forsaken me??
former chilean dictator augusto pinochet lost his legal immunity in yet another trial case. he can now be tried for the murder of opposition figurehead general carlos prats. earlier this year, pinochet also lost his immunity in the investigation into operation condor---a joint project by several south american regimes to hunt down and assassinate left-wing opponents. people began to doubt whether pinochet was truly "unfit to stand trial" after a particularly lucid and lengthy interview with a miami news channel. it's a big development...from what i gather, chileans are still severely divided over their support or condemnation of the ex-dictator. still, when i bring up the issue, it seems as if most people are jaded with the long process and have more pressing things on their mind.
the official list of fulbright grantees has finally been posted at the state department website. at first i thought they had left my project out. fortunately, they are smart and i am stupid. turns out i was looking under the illinois heading instead of the district of columbia one. duh.
despite my misgivings, they also spelled my first name right. unlike the slackers from my high school yearbook. and my temporary visa entry form. and my chilean student id. how can a seven-letter word be so hard? foreign policy may not be the state department's strong point, but at least they get kudos on their typemanship.
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