Just added some new pics and rearranged my photo album a bit.
New galleries are Drew’s Farewell Dinner and Hector and Ximena’s wedding.
Drew was a friend of Jake who was visiting for a couple weeks. He had the idea to take some photos in the fashion of the ‘last supper’ as painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. I have one of those photos, and will hopefully post more as I get them.
Hello everyone. How are you doing? I’m doing great, thanks for asking. I’d be doing better, however, if the internet in my apartment was working better. I’ve spent the past couple of days trying to fix our connection to no avail. After two visits from technicians from the cable company, our broad band is still down and unusable.
I feel like I should write a bit about some things. Let’s just list them off for a minute so I don’t forget, shall we? Ok, um, Food poisoning, bands, Margaret, wedding, new apartment. How’s that sound, huh? Like a crazy game of scattergories or something? Ok, here goes:
Food Poisoning: Yeah, that’s right, I got food poisoning about a week ago. Went to a restaurant with Jake and ordered the fish (ever seen Airplane?). Actually Jake ordered the fish too, but I guess I got a bad piece and was put out of action for about two, maybe three days. It wasn’t fun. Ok, the first day was the worst actually. A couple of hours after eating the suspect fish, I couldn’t even walk without stopping every 10 meters, afraid that I’d lose my lunch on the sidewalk. I ended up losing that and a lot more a while later, and couldn’t eat much until the next day when I tried the double italiano burger at Burger King (like a Double Whopper but with Avocado on it). That was almost a mistake, but I managed to hold down the burger luckily. Almost forgot to mention that my friend’s mom gave me some anti-nausea medicine, but it didn’t work so well. Not too sure of the name, but it’s pretty popular over here. Didn’t work for me, so not sure it’s really worth trying to remember anyways.
Bands: I guess you could say I have a little band here in Chile. Ok, so it’s just Jake and I trying to rock out some acoustic songs, but it’s a band nonetheless. We’re working on a set of songs so we can play a gig at our friends bar here in Santiago, called Bar Sepia. Speaking of Bar Sepia, there’s a prize of free draft beer for life if you can get it (Bar Sepia) written up in a guidebook. It’s got great food and should be in guidebooks anyways, and the free draft beer doesn’t hurt either.
Margaret: Aw…Margaret just left. She is a friend of Jake’s from college who was staying with us for a couple of days. She was tons of fun and we’ll both miss her lots. She is now going camping in Argentina with some friends. Lots of luck and hope we’ll see you soon, Margaret.
Wedding: Had my first experience at a Chilean wedding this Saturday. It was quite nice, I’d like to wish Ximena and Hector many felicidades and congratulations from me and my entire family. I actually did dance, and as far as I can tell I didn’t look too out of place on the dancefloor. Ok, so I was about a head taller than most people there and lankier than most people, but I didn’t make too big a fool out of myself. I didn’t drink too much there (thanks for the comment about Phil’s wedding, mom) but had some wierd Listerine tasting mint shot that freaked me out a bit. It was like drinking flouride at the dentist’s office or something, hope it wasn’t a Chilean mouthwash or something. Another funny story that I haven’t told anyone. I took my friend’s sister as my guest to the wedding (long story, no time for that now) and we were waiting outside the church for the wedding to begin at 8 in the evening (another long story why Chilean weddings start so late, no time for that now too). At about 7:45 we turn our heads and see a bride walking into the church, so we run in thinking we’re about to miss the wedding. After sitting in this wedding for 10 minutes, I realize that this isn’t the wedding I’m supposed to be at. The wedding ended up being short, about 15 or 20 minutes, so we had to stick around. I couldn’t leave in the middle of the vows, that wouldn’t be too proper. Anyways, I guess I should have trusted my instinct that nothing in Chile would ever start on time (and definitely not 15 minutes early) and realized that there was another wedding 15 minutes before the one I was supposed to be at (I guess another story altoghether, also). My guest and I had a nice laugh about that.
New Apartment: Everything’s going well with the new apartment. It’s really expensive to move-in to a place, but also definitely worth it. I’m in a nice room now and very comfortable in my new pad. I’m living with Jake and Sandie, who I’m sure you guys will be hearing more about in the future. Our pad is still pretty much empty, but we’re slowly making this place more livable every day.
Speak of the devil. Just as I write about graffiti on churches, 2 Chileans get busted for spray-painting on a historical Inca monument in Cusco, Peru (a UNESCO World heritage site. I believe the wall they painted is over 1000 years old.)
Little did they know, there were security cameras there and they got caught. Now, they face up to 8 years in a Peruvian prison. In case some of you don’t know, the Peruvians don’t necessarily like the Chileans, so their experience is not going to be a pleasant one in prison (but is it ever I ask?) It’s a bit of a big deal here, especially given the animosity between the two countries. As a neutral observer (Ok, partially biased since I live in Chile) I think they guys are dumbasses, but 8 years is a bit much.
An interesting twist in the story is that one of the Chileans is studying to be a lawyer, the other works for a city government. The case is still developing. I haven’t seen anything about it in English-language news outlets, so you’ll have to check Spanish-language outlets like El Mercurio if you’re interested in following it.
Here are some pictures:
the damage:
Other graffiti that resembles this, but there were no cameras at this location, so they can’t prove it.
The accused:
Just a funny little story here about a language barrier problem I experienced when I first came here. As some of you very well know, I’ve spent a lot of time in other countries. As happens in other countries, they speak languages other than English. I’ve never mastered a foreign language I’d say, so I’ve always run into some kind of language problems whever I’ve lived.
At the grocery store, whenever I was paying for my goods, the cashier would always ask me a question that I had no idea what he/she was saying. I developed varied methods for answering this question with an assortment of nods, grunts, ‘no’s’, or some other half-hearted muddled response that I use when I don’t understand what someone’s saying but also don’t feel like engaging them in any attempt to find out either (it’s always better to ask for clarification but when people are waiting in line behind you they don’t want some gringo taking up time trying to get a Spanish lesson).
One day eventually, the cashier pointed up to the cashier screen where is said ‘Hogar de Christo’, and while this gave me a little more information about what they were talking about, it still didn’t help me because I had no idea what ‘Hogar de Christo’ was anyways. Finally, I got around to asking what ‘Hogar de Christo’ was and a friend of mine told me it was a charity. I assumed the charity was using the grocery store as a collection point (similar to what we have in the U.S.) and I felt that if I was ever feeling generous I could give a small donation at the grocery store, but I also don’t like to feel pressured into giving donations (kinda takes away from the whole ‘goodness of the heart’ aspect, don’t you think).
Still, now that I knew what they were talking about, I could say ‘no’ to the cashier with a little bit more confidence. I imagined they were saying (I still couldn’t really understand them, because they speak so fast here in Chile), “Sir, would you like to donate any money to Hogar de Christo today?” And I’d reply with a “No, Thanks.”
About a month of this goes by, and I’ve seen other people give an unenthusiastic ‘yes’ or grunt to answer this question in the positive. The cashier doesn’t ask them for an amount, but I notice that they type in something, as if they know how much even though the customer didn’t say anything about how much to give. I was a bit confused.
Finally one day, I actually understood what they lady asked me. She said, “Sir, would you like to donate 3 pesos to Hogar de Christo?” Because my bill came out to some odd number like 4,357 pesos, (about 560 pesos to the dollar now) and say perhaps I paid with 4,500 pesos, my change would be 143 pesos. All along, the cashiers were just asking me for the small change because it really has no value and it’s just a hassle to deal with. 3 pesos are worth about half a penny. Homeless people won’t accept anything less than a 100 pesos, and here I was requesting my 3 pesos in change for the first couple of months I was in Santiago. I guess that didn’t leave too good an impression on the cashiers and people in line seeing this gringo (who people think are rich anyways) demanding the 3 pesos instead of donating it to one of the largest charities in Chile.
Since this has happened, I’ve run into other stores that do the same thing. Sometimes the charity is for kids with cancer, other times I don’t even understand what they’re saying, but I know what they mean. And now I always answer with a heartfelt (overly emphatic at times, depending on my mood) YES. Because even though someone’s asking you to do something, it can still be a good deed if your heart’s in it.
For me, this blog is a way to share my thoughts and experiences with those who I hold dear yet am unfortunate enough not to be close to. Holding true to this idea, I’d like to share an interesting thought that came to me the other day.
Some time ago, I was walking by a church in Santiago (of which there’s about one on every street corner), and I saw an old man of about 80 years old walking in front of the church with a cane. He was walking quite slowly in front of the church, hobbling along as best as he could.
The church, like almost every other building in the center of Santiago, had a bit of graffiti on it, either someone’s indescipherible name or some other scribbling that I hope made more sense to the person who created it than it meant to me. I tried to imagine what kind of person would write this kind of meaningless graffiti on this church and tried to imagine their feelings as they did such a thing.
I mean, was it a bunch of kids out on a rambuncious rampage, or someone with a huge grudge against the church? I guess I kind of settled on the idea that it was just someone who lost the respect for the church ‘as a building,’ or as an institution as it were. To them, the church seemed non-representative of anything holy, even though Chile is a very outwardly Catholic country (I’m imagining the graffiti ‘artist’ to be a Catholic for hypothetical analysis). In other words, the person who wrote the graffiti, I assumed, just had total disregard for this buildings symbolism or respect for the property in general (All hypothesis remind you).
As I was walking by the old man, I saw him stop. At first I assumed he was stopping for a rest. I passed him by a couple of meters and turned my head to see what was happening. As he was crossing the stairs leading up to the church, he noticed some debris and began to swipe at it with his cane. It took him a couple of tries to clear the garbage off of the stairs, but finally he managed to clear it into the gutter of the street. After this, he continued on as if nothing happened, as if this was just another occurence in his daily life, doing his civic duty. He didn’t look around to make sure someone else saw him clean the garbage off the stairs, he wasn’t looking for brownie points, he was simply doing what he wanted to do, and I happened to see him do it.
While both of these incidences may seem small, and I feel that I’m doing a horrible job at relaying this story, they brought a couple of thoughts to my mind. The first was trying to figure out my place in this situation. I mean, I’m not the kind of person who’s going to write crude graffiti on the church, or any religious building whatsoever, just out of the respect for the value that it means to other people. But why didn’t I clean off the small wrappers in front of the church? Would it really have taken me so long? Just a couple of sweeps with my foot would have done the job, and maybe the old man would be writing in his blog about me instead.
If you really care to think deeper, there are more questions that a situation like that could raise about life, but I’ll have to save that for future blogs. The image that came to mind was the polarity and difference that exists in our society today. I really feel that we don’t understand each other as human beings. I mean, how can someone who’s going to write graffiti on a church and someone who respects the building enough to clean garbage off it as he’s passing by coexist in the same society? Perhaps I’m being age-discriminatory here, but I assume the person who did the graffiti was at least younger than 30. Is this where we’re going as a people?
But what I imagined most was what would happen if these two people met each other. Of course, if they’re passing each other on the street, perhaps there would be just a cordial greeting, a ‘buenos tardes,’ or something of the sorts. But what if you sat them in a room together and had them explain to each other their ideas, thoughts, and inspirations for why they act the way they act. What would happen then?
Ok, well, I’m babbling and you’ve all probably stopped reading by now, but I just want to ask everyone to imagine their opposite, the person they consider their arch-enemy. Perhaps for some, this is that religious fanatic who lives down the street from you, for others it’s your crazy liberal colleague at work, for others, it’s that extreme congressman who you think is driving this country to hell.
If you’re the old man at the church, imagine that young whipper-snapper painting graffiti on the church and imagine what you’d say to him. If you’re the whipper-snapper, imagine the old man who respects what you don’t and think of how you’d explain your actions to him.
What can you learn from those who are opposed to you? We live in divided times now, and we have a lot more to learn from those different from us than those similar to us. wow, all this from a man cleaning garbage off the steps of a church…….who knows what would happen if I saw something a little more newsworthy. Anyways, hope someone out there could grasp a hundreth of what I’m getting at. Better go before I say anything else. As they say in Santiago, Chao. (Yes, that’s how it’s spelled here).
With the magic of a USB flash drive allowing me to transport text files from my home to my office computer with an internet connection, I now find myself writing this blog laying on the wood floor of my new apartment.
It is almost completely empty, save for the couple of suitcases worth of posessions I have here in Santiago. There is also a stove here, but that’s about it. Tonight will be the second night I’ve slept on my nice, hard wood floor. I have a sheet that I use to keep from getting dirty, but it’s not thick enough to provide any soft comfort.
Still, life’s good, and I can’t complain. I like my apartment more and more each day. I promise I will have pictures of it soon (they’re up now, check www.whereisdavid.com/4images ), even though I always find myself promising pictures. If everyone writes me an e-mail demanding pictures, I’ll know that people actually want them. so write me, you all should know my e-mail address.
I guess I haven’t written much about the people I’ll be living with, nor about any of my friends in Santiago. Well, for starters, there’s Jake, who people say looks like Brandon Fraiser (spelling?), from Arizona, went to college at Santa Clara, down here in Santiago out of college, working as a financial analyst at a company called Rasa (spelling?).
Secondly, there’s Sandie, the french girl who seems to remind people of a Japanese anime character (unknown to her, but don’t think she reads this so it’ll stay that way). Sandie will be staying with us til July.
Other characters in my life here are Karina, a German girl staying at the apartment of Bessie, the girl who works for Contact Chile, also Anna Laura, the Chilean I used to live with up until January 2nd, 2005, Mariona, my other roommate until that time (She’s from Spain).
More friends are Anthony, Mike, Rafe, Eric, etc. etc. etc. Just want to prepare you people for when you actually will see pictures.
Also, I’ve gotten a couple of e-mails asking if I knew people affected by the tsunami (since I used to live in Thailand if anyone didn’t know this). My answer is that I haven’t heard of anything, and obviously I hope I didn’t know anyone affected by this. Seeing those photos of places I’ve been is difficult, especially because one of them (Phi Phi island, or Ko Phi Phi) is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, and probably the nicest beach.