Bomba Lacrimogena

So the paro continues, for lets see... what is about the third week, I guess. Oh and today the students took over several of the buildings, which means we can't even enter them. Now that just blows my mind, haha. Also we have a long weekend this weekend... Thursday is a federal holiday and Friday most departments cancel classes, also. Ok out of the four sentences I have written so far I have almost used a Spanish word in place of another word about four times. I guess that's a good sign.

[Above (sorry for the misplaced caption)]One of the many signs announcing the paro that students have posted through the Casa Central. "Te Desafío," it says. "I defy you."

Anyways, as I was walking to class today at about 2, traffic was stopped as students were protesting in the street. I was already late to class so I hurried past. I got out at about 3:30 and hung around outside. At this point there was still action but not as much. I went inside to check my email, then headed back out and inhaled a bunch of tear gas. The funny thing was that it smelled more like the remains of tear gas... And I
definitely wasn't smelling it five minutes before. Maybe it was
sprayed far away and finally made it's way over to the Casa Central, but shoot. My eyes watered and my nose ran and I still have a headache.

More signs all through the Casa Central showing different departments protesting together, etc. >>>

Anyways... this guy in my journalism class told me today that he thinks I'm pretty much fluent. HA! ok... IF that's what he thinks, haha.... I'm good with that. He says he always understands what I say and that he thinks I usually understand what he says. Which is true, for some reason I can understand this guy almost perfectly. No exaggeration. I still don't understand why home is so different. Home is almost hardcore Spanish. I almost always understand the majority of what Marcela tells me, but like her kids are sometimes harder to understand. maybe it's because they speak with more Chileanismos. So I hung out with this guy today after one of my classes and we walked around Cerro Concepción. I just can't get over the beauty of that neighborhood. I wish everyone could see it. The murals, the different colored buildings. The whole neighborhood is like a community art project. Actually, it's safe to say all of Valpo is a community art project. I want so badly to live in an apartment in that cerro and to always be able to walk around, discovering new murals, hidden cafés, daily drinking in the view of the ocean, and wandering through colorful alleyways. I could live there forever if it wasn't so dang far away.

He told me how if a muralist wants to paint in a general area, he'll check with the neighbors. Knocking on door to door asking if the proposed mural would be to their liking. After getting the neighbors' approval... the muralist paints all day for several days, just painting and tomando cerveza. He alsowalked me past steps that he had painted as a kid with his uncle. I don't know. It just seems so cool to be able to say, oh I contributed to the uniqueness of this place.

Well, I am super excited because I'm going to the Isla de Chiloé this weekend. I hear it's just a completely different part of Chile, about a 15-hour bus ride South of Valpo/Viña, and then we'll have to take a ferry over to the island. I'll take several pictures of course. One thing I've heard is that this place is like stepping back in time. And the people, so I've heard, invite you into their homes for lunch, to stay, to tomar once, after just knowing you for a few minutes. "Sin exageración," I've been told.

Oh, I guess I can also share that we went to Pablo Neruda's third house in Chile and his favorite, Isla Negra, on Saturday. It's on the water, absolutely beautiful. Oh and he had some insane collections of insects, sea shells, pipes (of all things, haha.... and he had TONS), sculptures from all over the world, oh and hm... I can't even remember the word, but they are the figures that are in front of ships, usually female figures. Anyways, Pablo had a ton of those. I don't have a ton of pictures... but there are some on my facebook...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2232147&l=d20c9&id=27415785

I miss everyone so much. Now I'm off to reading and falling asleep to the rain. Besos.

que entretenido

verbs that for some reason i still have a problem with mostly in conversation: ugh,

oir:
oigo
oyes
oye
oímos
oyen

(preterito)
oí
oíste
oyó
oímos
oyeron


reirse:
me río
te ríes
se ríe
nos reímos
se reín

me reí
te reíste
se río
nos reímos
se rieron


those are hard verbs for me. and trust me, it's not like those are the only ones. but those are a bit tricky yo.

entonces, exploramos

,

Alright, well I realize that I've not written in awhile, but things have changed here in Viña/Valpo since arriving. Now it's cold. Cold and foggy. I really wouldn't mind the cold if only the fog would lift so I could see the water as I ride to class every day.

Speaking of classes, students are protesting the raise of the student price for the micro (city buses) so most of my classes are on paro. They're stopped. The only class that is officially meeting is my Conversación y Cultura Chilena class, which meets three times a week for an hour and a half. So I have things to do. I also said meeting "officially" because my Spanish Lit class, which had me way stressed in the beginning, as been sort of meeting. Just a couple gringos and the teacher. This has actually been a really big blessing that I didn't realize until today. We've been having one on one sessions with the teacher and she makes sure we understand absolutely everything before she moves on. I can understand her a lot better in these meetings than in the classroom too. There's something about being in a classroom with Chileans. When I'm not making direct eye contact it's harder for me to understand everything. I never realized just how much I rely on direct eye contact when speaking Spanish. Or also, if someone Chilean asks a question in class, I usually miss the question, and in turn don't understand the answer. But after these little meetings we've had, I feel much better about a lot of the material.

The past couple weekends have been spent exploring Valpo more, which I am very happy about. I live kind far-ish from a lot of the cerros of Valpo, which I guess has prevented me from getting up there and exploring. A couple weekends ago we went to La Sebastiana, which is la casa de Pablo Neruda, with the ISA group, and afterwards went over to El Museo Cielo Abierto, which are streets and ally ways filled with murals.

The view from the top floor of Pablo Neruda's house

This past weekend I went over to the ex-carcél. It used to be a prison but has now been transformed into almost a museum of murals and art and culture. We couldn't actually enter the prison itself, as they are renovating it I guess. However the murals were fabulous. I feel like painting one, not like I'm a real experienced muralist or anything.

One of the walls of murals at the ex-carcél

this wall was covered with a black cloth and somebody made these ojos grandes

I do feel really frustrated about one thing, and that's that I feel my ability to speak hasn't really improved to where I thought I'd be. I can definitely understand muuuch much better. So much better, although I still have problems now and then obviously. But I do lack some confidence speaking. I guess the obvious solution to that is to speak more. So, yeah. I'll be doing that.

I miss everybody. So so so much. I'm enjoying myself, but I feel like things would be perfect if everybody could be here with me.

Also... at the risk of making this super-long (although it might be necessary after failing to write anything in forever) I want to share this. I think it's exactly the words how this place makes me feel. It's not the entire poem, but here is a part of "A Don Asterio Alarcón, cronometrista de Valparaíso" or "To Don Asterio Alarcón, Clocksmith of Valparaíso" by Pablo Neruda

Olor a puerto loco
tiene Valparaíso
olor a sombra, a estrella,
a escama de la luna
y a cola de pescado.
El corazón recibe escalofríos
en las desgarradoras escaleras
de los hirsutos cerros:
allí grave miseria y negros ojos
bailan en la neblina
y cuelgan las banderas
del reino en las ventanas:
las sábanas zurcidas
las viejas camisetas,
los largos calzoncillos,
y el sol del mar saluda los emblemas
mientras la ropa blanca balancea
un pobre adiós a la marinería

Calles del mar, del viento,
del día duro envuelto en aire y ola,
callejones que cantan hacia arriba
en espiral como las caracolas:
la tarde comerical en transparente,
el sol visita las mercaderías,
para vender sonríe el almacén
abriendo escaparate y dentadura,
zapatos y termómetros, botellas
que encierran noche verde,
trajes inalcanzables, ropa de oro
funestos calcetines, suaves quesos

Translation:
Smell of a crazy seaport,
Valparaíso has,
smell of shade, of stars,
a suspicion of the moon
and the tails of fish.
The heart takes to shivering
on the tattered stairways
up the shaggy hills.
There, squalor and black eyes
dance in the sea mist
and hang out the flags
of the kingdom in the windows-
the sheets stitched together,
the ancient undershirts,
the long-legged drawers-
and the sea sun salutes the emblems
while the white laundry waves
a threadbare goodbye to the sailors.

Streets of sea and wind,
of the hard day swaddled in air and waves,
alleyways singing upward
in a winding spiral, like shells-
the market afternoon is shining,
the sun touches the merchandise,
shop fronts smile like salesman
opening windows and dentures,
shoes and thermometers, bottles
enclosing a green darkness,
impossible suits, clothes of gold,
gloomy socks, bland cheeses