Introductions

Absorbing, absorbing, absorbing. I have been absorbing my surroundings for four days, swallowing flavorful names, faces, words, places into part of my consciousness without the time or much less mental energy to completely process it all.

******                                                   

Katie drops me off at the airport. Goodbye with a big hug and promise from each of us -- her to get better and me to visit her in Pennsylvania when I get back. Wham! A gust of thought blows across me as a swing open the door to DIA. You are all alone, now, it says. And then another, not as sensational. Well that was dramatic, let's go.

******

"Señora, señora!" one of the many taxi drivers awaiting arriving travelers at the Santiago airport points at the ATM. I have just turned away from my debit card which is now sticking its tongue out from the machine at me as if to say, stupid gringa. Ok, I grab the card and show the taxista the address of my hostel. I'm resigning myself to an overpriced ride, but at least to someone who seems trustworthy. 

******

"Are you SITers?" Four students tentatively approach each other at the Andes Hostel but quickly launch themselves into talkative budding friendships. We wander into a park, across the river, into a plaza, down muraled streets. By sundown four has become eight and we are enjoying Santiago from the terrace above the hostel. We're asking the obvious, where are you from, what school do you go to?, sharing anecdotes, and contemplating the next day when we'll meet the rest of our group and start our orientation.

Now I'm in Valparaiso's little sister Viña del Mar. The two are separated only, it seems, by a slight ridge on one of the many hills that slide into the Pacific, the younger one possessing beaches while the older holds the port. Orientation is taking place in a Hotel Cerro Castillo, where we eat, sleep, and get the low-down on all our program entails in Spanish. Not only does everyone in the group seem like genuinely nice people, our directors could not be sweeter. This first week has a familiarly freshman feel to it, what with the communal living, the excitement of an experience, and the meeting, meeting, meeting. 

I have been introduced to Valparaiso......

yesterday we got a panoramic view from a boat in the port and today we had a "drop-off" activity where you and a partner have to find a landmark and ask locals about it. Mine was an ascensor, a lift typical to Valparaiso that climbs a steep hill. The first woman my partner and I asked in our deliberate Spanish replied, "Sorry, I'm a tourist too,"but thankfully added, "But my cousin's from here." The cousin was a very helpful history teacher, and we learned more about this ascensor than we would ever need to know. And interestingly the tourist was hardly a tourist. She was visiting from South Dakota, where her family's lived ever since they went into exile in the 70's when her father became a desaparecido after the coup. 

.........But even though I know Valparaiso's name (and her nickname, Valpo) and have seen a glimpse of her, her personality is still as unknown to me as my host family is until Sunday. Today I realized that during the time I am becoming acquainted with new people and a new language, I will also be getting to know a new city. And she seems pretty darn cool!

Addicted to Documentaries

With the discovery of our Netflix online and some free time, I've been watching a lot of documentaries. My family and some friends in Steamboat can attest to this, being the victims of my rants on newfound topics of interest. I wish I was better at relaying information that I'm passionate about, but usually I just start throwing out random butchered facts and resort to, "it's just important" if my loved ones don't follow my line of thought as avidly as hoped. I won't spare anyone my documentary addiction, so here's a few that are just important. Somebody watch them and enable me with impassioned conversation!


All of Us



Why I like it: The movie addresses a population that I am not a part of -- black females, and more specifically poor black women in the South Bronx with HIV. The fact that black women constitute ~ 60% of the HIV/AIDS cases in the US but only a little more than 6% of the population is enough to captivate me and ask why that is. But the movie also broadens the concern from HIV to the power a woman does/doesn't feel her relationships, which is something I think all women and men should think and talk about.

Oh, and the young, inspirational doctor is pretty hot!

Dr.  Mehret Mandefro

The Business of Being Born

Why I like it: No, don't worry, I'm not pregnant. But I do think women should know more about their options when it comes to giving birth, and while we're looking at the health care system we might as well look at how births fit into that discussion.

South of the Border

Why I like it: Ok, this one might be the most relevant to me right now. Even though the movie doesn't include Chile, I think it's probably a good idea to look at South America away from the lens of the United States' media in general. One of my favorite parts is right at the beginning in a clip where a Fox News reporter confuses cocoa and coca and indignantly accuses Hugo Chavez of "apparently, allegedly" chewing chocolate leaves and paste that he gets from the Bolivian dictator, president, dictator ("is he a dictator too?").  

Warning: this documentary contains a bunch o' socialist, commie bastards. Just Kidding!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Waxing Half Moon

The Moon in Taurus grounds us.

I love my planner. Mostly because it tells me things like, The Moon in Taurus grounds us. My lovely friend Lilli introduced me to the We'moon. A planner that is oh so much more than a place to scribble plans, this "astrological moon datebook and daily guide to natural rhythms for womyn" oozes inspiration daily and follows the cycle of the Moon as closely as a woman's body in nature (but provides lunar details that go unnoticed to those of us not so in tune).

Tonight the waxing moon moved into Taurus.

It slows us down and wakes our sensual nature and stubbornness.


Oooh, I am feeling stubborn. We'll see how that manifests. And indeed, I need to slow down and collect myself before I head off to my next adventure. Could I also ask Taurus to slow time down too, for packing purposes?

The Moon in Taurus helps us dig deeper roots. Time to: garden, cultivate seeds, relationships and ideas, make love, nurture, take a stand, embody.


I feel resistant to this. Some stubbornness of mine is saying, "I'm leaving, why would I dig in now?"

Leaving is a perfect reason, though, to ground myself, remind myself of the powerful, loving roots I have at home. And although any pipe dream of gardening in Steamboat has been frosted over with a brisk -40 and covered in 4 new feet of snow, I will metaphorically till the seeds of my existing friendship and love so that I feel nurtured as I begin to cultivate new relationships and ideas on my next adventure.

Ah, We'Moon (and my moon) make me so sentimental.

Blog Bandwagon

I’m jumping on the bandwagon. The blog bandwagon.  Katie (sister), always composing her experiences so well, is of course my first and foremost inspiration. After following her to the Puget Sound, I failed to follow her updating footsteps since being in school.  However, I’m back on track (stay tuned for a future farming internship in about three years).  Some friends from school have also motivated me with their beautiful posts about their fresh adventures in South America that have made me think maybe I should write about my trip too. If not for anyone else, myself, I suppose. At least, that’s what some blogs I’ve come across have claimed to do for their authors, provide a venue for self-realization. Sign me up! I’ll take a serving of that -- perhaps with a side of enlightenment, if possible.

Actually, looking back, the blog inside me began to stir three years ago when Google searches of ‘bus conversions’ consumed my time and I came across The Enchanted Gypsy, a complete stranger who I quickly felt I knew (http://enchantedgypsy.blogspot.com). Still, Pixie (yes, her name is Pixie) and her husband were embarking on a “life-long adventure,” a radical way of life --- converting a school bus to live in and run on veggie oil, traveling around the country, starting a family on said bus --- but of course she had something interesting to write about. 

It wasn’t until I recently stumbled across another hippie mama (http://www.cagefreefamily.com) that the blog within got louder. It has become a phenomenon similar to the one in which everything you do can be expressed as a one-line Facebook status in your mind. (ex. Liza Darlington is sitting in her robe, rambling about blogs), and I’ve started visualizing my words flowing onto cyber pages. Although the cute cage-free family has an equally note-worthy alternative lifestyle to that of the Enchanted Gypsy, I’ve begun to realize that it is the daily details, the not-so-epic anecdotes that are charming and somewhat captivating. And whether they are valuable only to the author as a reflection, to a select few who need to check up on their adventuring loved one, or an unexpected, vast audience made up of strangers who feel like they know you (actually, you could say I know Pixie ‘cause I saw her at the Faerie Ball in Eugene ;) --- blogs are fun. So I’m jumping on the bandwagon.