free trip to Austria?

Today I attended a qualifier for the world championships for the PAA

That would be the Paper Aircraft Association of course. Yes thats right. Red Bull sponsored the competition in La Santa Maria University. There were about 150 competitors, Pancho being one of them. Each participant had 2 paper airplanes and two chances, going for distance. At the world championships you can also win the category of acrobatics and airtime, but to qualify its straight up distance. The winner of todays competition received, get this, a free trip to the world championships in Salzburg, Austria. Yup. Just launch a simple little paper airplane that will be in the air for about 3 seconds and you get to fly to Austria. One hundred countries are competing and we had the luck of hosting Chile’s qualifier. I guess they picked the nerdy engineering school to have a nerdy competition like this. 

Jill and I went to cheer on Pancho and just to see this all play out. It was sweet. The low points were the rap singers performing at half time and Pancho not winning, but we had a good time. The winner sailed his aircraft almost 35 meters (the world record is more than 60) but it was pretty impressive. We stood towards the back which ended up being a smart choice because about half of the planes zoomed directly into the faces of the audience. I am kicking myself for not taking pictures but I will give you the link for the article written in the university news on the tournament.

http://www.dgc.usm.cl/?p=1903

mis 5 chilenitos

i have mentioned on here that over summer vacation (december-march) i went back to my parents house in michigan and arrived with a full posse of chileans. javier + 4 amigos did a work/travel program and decided that coming to my hometown sounded like the best option. i have job connections, friends, and a house with parents. i was like sure, what the hell. i dont want to be away from javier for 3 months and this could turn out pretty fun/crazy.

well it turns out it was. we had an excellent time with my friends, going out, going on mini trips and everyone found a job as well. the boys worked in a factory, which obviously sucked. but, its not like any of them have had to work much in their lives so far so i didnt feel to bad for them at our house we dont have a maid, and my parents work so the boys were left at times to fend for themselves as far as eating, cleaning up after themselves, driving, doing laundry, waking up, etc. needless to say, it was quite entertaining to watch. i could go on forever about the ridiculous adventures that they had (car towed from walgreens, mistaking the handwashing station for a urinal, a milf incident, getting pulled over in my town of 3000 for acting suspicious, losing the car in NYC etc) but i wanted to talk about another interesting aspect of the situation.

when the plan was first made, javier and i talked about the fact that the two of us would probably be doing a lot of the talking and interpreting for a while. no one in my family speaks any spanish, and none of his friends had really studied english before except classes in colegio. we assumed there would be a lot of awkward pauses and that we would facilitate and lot of the conversations. we were very wrong. basically for the first few days, neither of us could get a word in edgewise. the boys were not afraid to speak at all and used whatever way they could to communicate and get their point across. i was so impressed by their confidence and attitude. they had no problem talking with whoever about whatever, hardly even pausing to ask me or javier a word when they couldnt find another way to explain. this was the way it went pretty much the whole time. my friends loved them, my family adored having them and it was great.

so the question is: why am i not like that in chile?

when speaking i speak carefully to avoid making mistakes. when i do make a mistake im like, damn it, i feel like an idiot. i am not confident and therefore dont talk a lot. but i know my spanish is better than the boys english so what is my problem? how do they go around and have a long conversation with someone without any difficulty but me, whose spanish is pretty decent have such a hard time doing so? it frustrates me how nervous i get and seeing how well the boys did in the US kinda made me realize that i need to get over it and just have more confidence in myself and my abilities. the point is to be understood, not be perfect. and if i can just get that idea through my brain i just might be surprised by the results. maybe this year will be different. it just has to be.

i just dont wanna

looking at my CV you would think that i love teaching and plan to continue forever.  my job history is full of profesora de ingles this and substitute teacher that. for whatever reason, in the US and more obviously in chile, these type of jobs have fallen into my path.  HOWEVER, i loath dislike teaching and it would make me insanely happy to find something else to do with my days.  the problem that i am running into though seems to be the fact that as i stated before my resume is llenisimo with teaching teaching and more teaching. i dont know how to get past it. lots of you bloggers have struck out past the teaching world here in chile and i want to know how you did it! is there something i dont know or am not doing to discover these things? i realize its a lot of right place at the right time or this person knows that person but maybe there is more. Please help! im going crazy over here and i havent even started this semester of classes.

bah. im getting myself worked up. i need to get back to planning my first class for this saturday. ick

Re-entry

So this is technically my 2nd reentry into Chile. I came back in january 2008 and then came back again in march 2009 after 3 months in the states. however, since my first experience here was studying abroad for 3 tiny months, the 11 months working here in 2008 was obviously a totally different experience. i still had tons of new experiences and things to figure out and do last year that wont change as much this year. now, all of that aside i was still a little bit nervous about how i would act and if it coming back to chile would be as weird as it was to go to michigan even though i had lived there for almost 18 years of my life.

as opposed to the somewhat traumatizing reverse culture shock i experienced going to michigan i almost feel as though i never left chile in the first place. after my connecting flight from detroit to atlanta i walked to my gate to wait for the long haul to santiago. as i was walking towards the gate i hear “oye huevon, me comprai un chicle?” shouted down the terminal. i was immediately surrounded by chilenos   the sweet part was for whatever reason they thought i was one of them. a college student who was doing a work/travel program like javier in the US asked me “donde trabajaste este verano?” and was surprised by my response that while yes i was working in the US, i am 100% gringa and not coming back from my summer vaca there.

anyway, the same was true for coming back to valpo. my brain remembers which buses to take, where people live, what i like to buy at jumbo etc. we had people over on saturday night and i felt way more chilena than the very gringa gringas (hey, i was there once too) that came. jill may disagree with me because as soon as i walked into the apartment she was like “i just knew you would come back so GRINGA!” and laughed at me for my polished nails and new clothes from old navy and american eagle. but really though, that stuff aside, its like being back home. piropos, perros and those damn gypsies that flock by the beach in vina can bring it on.

and then i threw up.

so i guess and hope that this is the first and only time this happens to me. im in santa isabel with javier and my suegra just getting some groceries. i start to feel a little dizzy and pale and tell javier i think im going to get some air. my suegra gets worried and tells javier to stay with the groceries and she takes my arm and pulls me outside. i get about a 30 second warning, sprint across the street- gracias a dios that there werent any cars and proceed to vomit all over the side of a tree in the plaza. awesome.

**edit. so apparently i jinxed myself because i woke up this morning throwing up and have spent the entire day between bed and the baño. i dont know what i ate, but it definitely didnt agree with me. the problem is these are a few of the options: completo, empanada con camarones, papapleto, taco, papas fritas, vino and ron. hmm looks like somebody should have stopped me from all that.

mixed feelings

Javier, Marcos and Pablo left this morning. That means I leave for Ann Arbor tomorrow morning and will be in Chile Friday am. it doesnt really feel any different since people are coming and going all the time but…it iS different. the summer/winter is over and we will all be going back to our previous lives. i think im glad about this. if there was a social scale i guess i would barely tip the scale towards anti-social. i love being with friends and around people, but it is just as fine with me to be alone, and go about my business without brushing shoulders with a bunch of other people to deal with. there have been between 5-10 people in the house since december and im kinda over it. im ready to go back to pretty much just having to be accountable for myself, and well javier too  

the other side is the chile part. i love being around my friends, especially the ones who have been around since elementary school. its so nice to be with people that know me so well and always have somebody calling me to do something or go somewhere and just feel included and loved like that. in chile i dont really have that. as many others have posted about, i dont care what chileans say, its HARD to make chilean girlfriends. i have a select few and for the most part they are people to hang out with, not necessarily close friends. also, when i am not here, i miss this life. i missed the things that happen in the lives of the people who are most important to me. my best friend just found out she is pregnant and i will miss her entire pregnancy. i wont be there to throw a baby shower, to help decorate the baby’s room and take care of my first ‘niece’. i hate this part! and every tries to tell me that those outside events are just that, outside events and i have to life my life according to my path. but its hard! 

*sigh* but here i am moving forward. i am making decisions as best i can and following my heart the best way i know. although i have mixed emotions on how this will all play out i cant just sit around twiddling my thumbs waiting for things to happen. see you in chile.

Group Post: Why Chile?

Well this is my first group post and I think it is a good one to start with! Heres my Why.

What made you come to Chile in the first place?
Well let’s see….I was a Spanish major in college and really wanted to study abroad. At that point I didnt want to miss out on any part of my time on campus so i looked at summer programs. my school only did trips to spain so that made it not as appealing to me. i went the ISA route and they had programs to mexico, argentina, peru, chile, costa rica and maybe 2 other countries. BUT chile was the only country that you could do a back-to-back program to stay for 2 summer sessions. bam done. i thought 11 weeks was long enough to make a plane ticket worth it and i could get a semester worth of credits. reason 2 was that i knew a chilean family through my university and the way they described chile i thought it sounded right up my alley. nice people, beach, no snow, etc. thats about it. nothing big. oh wait. i just realized i only explained why i studied abroad in Valpo, not why i came back. i had a fabulous time that summer but *big surprise* eleven weeks wasnt nearly as long as i thought it was before. i only had one semester before graduation so i decided it was the perfect time to head off to chile. i finished up school and moved down here. it was a completely different experience than my study abroad had been but it was great. i met a great roommate and a great chileno i returned to the US for summer vacation but my time isnt up yet.

When will you leave and why?

however, as great a time (times 2) that i have had in chile, the longer i am there the more sure i am that i dont want to stay forever. chileans work long hours, for not very much money. you wait in long lines (or clumps with numbers) for everything and the biggest thing is that i will never completely fit it. no matter how good my spanish is, no matter how long i live there or how many people i know. i will walk down the street and be a gringa. and while i can put up with that for a while, someday i just want to be normal where and when i choose to build a home. so im content now, love what im doing and where i live. i also love how for right now everything takes a little bit more effort and so i feel more accomplished when things go right. but even being in the US the last couple months makes me think that when im working and living somewhere more permanent i want it to be a little bit easier. i dont consider this all a little trip right now, its definitely my life. but its not my forever life.

por fin

well, 3 months later, and an 1100 dollar hole in my pocket i have just a short week until I will leave to go back to Chile. its been an interesting trip and enjoyable, but i’m getting more and more excited to volver. although i havent totally been sure about my decision, i think im doing the right thing. this blog knows nothing about my time in michigan and maybe a story or two will come out here and there but really, i lived at *** E. Superior, *******, Michigan for 17.5 years so not a lot has changed. i worked at hallmark, hung out with my very best friends and fam, and oh yeah, entertained 5 chileans. that was the different part. my boyfriend and four of his friends have been staying with the brewer clan during their summer vacation from the U. its so funny watching them and helping them and i think they are getting a better understanding of what its like for me in a foreign country. there will be a future post about that. so NOW, im packing up stuff, buying a gallon of hidden valley ranch, and doing last minute fun things with javier (who knows the next time he will be in MI). 

i have been religiously reading tons of other gringa in chile blogs and have been living vicariously through all of you although most of you dont know me. i really want to participate more and maybe meet some of you! 

well im off to bed. the boys tried to convince me to go out tonight for st. patricks day, and because its their last day of work but i keep yawning and know that tomorrow work will not be fun if i go have a few pints of green beer. they promised me that we will be home by one am but these are chileans. that statement is almost laughable.

i am awkward

i made the trek from Valparaiso-Santiago-Atlanta-Detroit-Ann Arbor yesterday/today and wow, im still reeling. my feelings leaving chile yesterday afternoon were mostly those of excitement: seeing my family and friends, being at home, DRIVING, knowing what to expect on my plate at restaurants, etc. after being away for a year. saying goodbye to javier was ok because he will be coming to join me in 10 days. saying goodbye to everyone else was fine because i will be back in march. now it feels more like i live in chile and i am taking a trip to the US and not the other way around so im excited for a little vacay.  this is strange. it was very different leaving this time, knowing i will be back, unlike when i studied abroad, not knowing if i would ever be back again.  i knew things would be different when i transitioned back to the states blah blah reverse culture shock blah blah, but i think i may have underestimated the effects this would have on me.

the second i walked into the Santiago airport i was overwhelmed by a group of senior citizen gringos flying back to the US after a 3 week cruise through central and south america. i couldnt stop staring and gawking and just mainly in awe of the number of them i was seeing in one place. i exchanged a few words with two chilean university students on the way to do a work/travel program but other than that i just hugged javier close and had him protect me from the scary foreigners. he thought my reaction was quite amusing…he wasnt the first to see the effects this phenomena would have on me.

from that point on i was really awkward: stuttering, not knowing when to speak spanish or english and who to speak each language to. i talked to the gringa flight attendant in spanish and couldnt form complete sentences when the woman next to me asked questions about my time in chile. i wanted to talk to the chilean guys again or help them when i saw that they were a little confused going through US customs but i didnt want to offend them by speaking to them in spanish (like i get offended when chileans speak english to me in chile) or confuse them since i talked to them in spanish in the santiago airport. what the hell difference does it make? i dont know. but these are the things that were going through my head.

arriving in the US i got a frightened puppy look plastered on my face. all these people speaking english and wearing ropa gringa and doing gringo things. i attempted to order a coffee but kept stumbling over my words and looking like an idiot. so apparently i will be awkward in cualquier parte del mundo from now on. i was hoping to keep that to a minimum….that in my native country in my native language  i would always be ok and normal. not quite. the day went along like that. the over-zealous waitress frightened me (i gave her a blank stare when she seated us and couldnt order my food). most of this deer in the headlights will pass quickly but it should be interesting to see how different it is to interact with people now. more on this next time, along with a horrid story from javier on his journey back from coming with me to the airport yesterday. its really unbelievable.

on a side note: part of me feels like chile is just a surreal dream that never really happened. (that would be the part that still remembers how to function as a normal human being)

giving thanks

today jill and i prepared our first thanksgiving flying solo and even though its not over yet i have to say i am proud of us. there is more to come but we are ready and working hard. the turkey is in the oven and im crossing my fingers that it will turn out ok. now, i dont like making direct and generalized comparisons between the united-statesians (god forbid i use the term Americans) and chileans but a conversation occurred that i have heard more than once and i must bring it up.

jill was explaining to a student that we were making a big dinner to celebrate thanksgiving since we cant be there with our families in the US. he began to talk about how he thinks it is wasteful to prepare a big meal for ourselves instead of sharing with those in need. she told him that giving to others is an important part of the holiday as well, to share with others in the community but he added: well, what about the rest of the world? and on it went….you get the picture.

now, i feel that it is very important to share what you have when you can and that the government and the world should do it’s best for others as well. HOWEVER, it is also important to appreciate what you yourself, and your family and your country have. being with family and friends and enjoying each others company is so special and no one should feel guilty about doing that one time per year. thanksgiving is about spending time with one another, love, and all the rest of the things that connect us. so im going to check on the turkey and mash some potatoes to prepare for a meal cooked with love to celebrate the fact that we can and want to spend time together, eat together and are very very blessed.

happy thanksgiving everyone