Hola
familia y amigos,
I would've written sooner, but my schedule has been packed since I
arrived on Thursday morning. For the first four days of our trip, Emily
and I explored the capital city, Santiago. Now I'm in Viña del Mar (or in
English, vineyard of the sea). What to write about first? Everyday
feels so long because so much happens in only one day. For this post, I
will describe my time in Santiago.
Tulsa is not necessarily a small town, but in comparison to
Santiago it seems quite miniscule. To give you an idea of the size of
Santiago has a population of 6.027 million people, which is roughly 35% of its total population of 17,643,916 in an area of 291,930 miles. Tulsa is only 186.8 square miles with the low
population of 393,987. It’s amazing how
every new city I live in makes me appreciate good old T-town more and
more.
During this trip I started writing a diary so when I become
a teacher I can remember my experience and share what I learned here with my
students. To fill you in faster, I will
let you the entry from my first day:
I’m in Chile! It’s such a surreal experience. After the longest flight of my life (9 hours
45 min), Emily and I stepped off the plane and smelled the farm/cow manure
smell of Chile. Today feels like 48
hours crammed into one. It’s only 7:19pm
and technically 6:20pm Tulsa time and it feels like midnight or later. Thanks to college I’m used to staying up late
and getting up early, but sleeping intermittently on a plane and getting up at
5:50 to breakfast and off the plane at 7:40 is not normal for me. After we got off the plane Emily and I
muddled through the crowd to find immigration and customs. I was able to use my
Spanish skills to say that I’m from los Estados Unidos, but I could not
comprehend what else the woman was asking me.
Finally I realized she was asking if I flew in from Miami or
Dallas. So it was Chilean English I didn’t
understand. Next Emily and I wrangled our baggage that had been thoroughly
sniffed by various drug dogs. I have
never seen so many drug dogs in one place in my life. After getting our luggage scanned, we were
greeted by one of the ISA directors, Lizette Arredondo, with a hug and a beso
(kiss). Then we were led to a group of
ISA students. I did not know how small
the Veritas program was, so I assumed that some of these students would be
Veritas, but none of them were. Emily I
and later found out that we were the only Veritas students currently in
Santiago, but our final companion and roommate will be joining us tomorrow.
After showering, we met up with
some other girls on the trip and went to a restaurant called “El mesón de
abajo” or in English the lower inn or old-style restaurant. I had a strange soup, noodles, meat with
pickles and onions and an odd salad. I
love how even the simplest of things have become new and exciting.
After lunch and a quick siesta,
the group headed our for our first tourist adventure. We went to a place called Cerro San
Cristóbol, named after saint that is the protector of travelers. We were able to see the statue of Jesus,
Mary, and go into a catholic church. It is sad to see only gruesome pictures of
Christ dying or dead on the cross. While
the crucifixion should never be overlooked, I do think that focusing on his
life, his ministry, and his victory over death should not be forgotten either. Seeing the gory images of Christ, I was
reminded of a poem I read in my Spanish literature class called La saeta de
Antonio Machado. In this poem the poetic
voice is saying that the Christ of the gypsies always had blood on his hands
and nails coming out of his hands. He
goes on to describe this Jesus of Andaluz, a Spanish town, but ends the poem
with a twist. He reveals that he does
not like to see Jesus in agony, he prefers the Jesus that walked on water (as
do I).
¡Oh, la
saeta, el cantar
al Cristo
de los gitanos,
siempre con
sangre en las manos,
siempre por
desenclavar!
¡Cantar del
pueblo andaluz,
que todas
las primaveras
anda
pidiendo escaleras
para subir
a la cruz!
¡Cantar de
la tierra mía,
que echa
flores
al Jesús de
la agonía,
y es la fe
de mis mayores!
¡Oh, no
eres tú mi cantar!
¡No puedo
cantar, ni quiero
a ese Jesús
del madero,
sino al que
anduvo en el mar!
By the time we were back, Emily
and I were tired and dehydrated, so we went to a grocery store called Santa
Isabel and I bought a TV dinner, cracker, cheese, and apples. Emily tried to buy milk but ended up buying
raspberry yogurt in milk consistency.
As these photos show, living in another country makes everything more exciting and new, even grocery shopping. I can't wait to tell you more about our trip so far, but first I need to do homework. Hasta luego!!
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