It's a small world after all...

A Chilean couple watching the soccer game

I guess Disney got it right, the world seems insurmountable sometimes, but then you have those small world moments that make you feel right at home. One of the many I had recently was during my second 4th of July asado when I was sitting next to an American who looked vaguely familiar. He turned and said to me 'This is going to sound so weird, but did we meet on a plane in Peru?' I totally freaked out, because we had! Back in January on our flight from Cusco to Lima we met a kid named Ryan who was heading to Vina del Mar to study that semester. He's from Connecticut and goes to Columbia, and I was so excited to meet someone who was headed to place I am so fond of. Lo and behold five months later I find myself eating choripan, celebrating America's birthday with the same kid, completely unaware. We all ended up going to a bar afterward to watch the Chile vs. Mexico game. Chile won (as previously mentioned) so of course the whole city Danika, Breann, Pablo and Diane at the asado (please note paper flags)
Pablo learning how to throw a softball

exploded. The next day I went to another asado with my friend Diane. We brought an American football and a softball and gloves so that it was a 'true American experience'. Diane kindly taught me how to throw a football and her boyfriend Pablo how to throw a softball, over all another great celebration. Although, after three asados and two days of eating sopaipillas in between meals I was about ready to swear off food for a little while.
So you might be wondering how's the SIP going? Well, slowly. I'm too busy enjoying everything else for the moment, but am plugging away reading articles and translating documents. I have also found myself surrounded by helpful people who also work in psychology and social work and have put me in contact with people to interview as well as search engines for articles. I quite literally hugged all of them out of sheer joy. As with all research projects everything is changing every time I read something, but it is slowly coming together. My plan today was to start calling people to set up interviews, and was scolded by my housemate Jorge for not doing so. Frankly, I'm terrified of the phone, so tomorrow I'll hit the streets instead to track down people.
This past weekend I had the best time being reunited with friends and not sleeping, and eating more, and more, and more...Friday night I met up with some Chilean friends I made literally the night before I was leaving for Torres del Paine. It was so great to see them, catch up, watch the game and hang out. Per usual I probably only understood 70% of everything that was going on since we were a group of about ten in a bar with live music, nonetheless I had the best time. I assured my friend Allan that the face he interpreted as boredom was my 'concentration face'.

Saturday morning with a herculean effort I got myself on a bus to Santiago to meet up with Allyson to During one of my 'I must leave the house today' walks

go to her host sibling's joint birthday party. Renato just turned 3 and Leonore is now 1. Per usual Allyson and I made a spectacle of ourselves covered in streamers and party hats that nobody else was using, not even the kids. And her abuela guilted me into eating more than my stomach could possibly ever handle. Afterward we headed out to meet up with Rachel! She was here last semester with me staying with my host aunt's family. Her pololo's birthday had been the past week, so we went out to the bar for a grown up birthday party. Not that I'm complaining about the children's birthday party, I got party favors and everything. Sunday I headed back to Valpo and had a most interesting bus ride. When we were about twenty minutes outside of Valpo this guy who was sitting across the aisle from me leaned over and said 'Hablas espanol? Do you speak Spanish?' and I of course said 'Si. Yes.' He then immediately started in on me about how the USA pretty much caused the golpe militar in 1973, as well as interfering a lot in other Latin American countries. And after lecturing me (and moving into the seat next to me) asked me 'How do you sleep at night knowing this stuff?' First of all, I was so floored by all of these events I didn't really answer with as much grace as I wish I had. I was so caught off guard, I've never had this happen to me before. Secondly, I was really annoyed that this stranger was treating me like an idiot, as if I had no idea about the US history in Latin America. I started off by saying 'Mira, no soy mi pais. Look, I'm not my country. Y no siempre apoyo a esas cosas. And I don't always support these things. y esa intervencion en Latina America era ante de mi epoca. An the US intervention in Latin America was before my time.' And he said 'Well these things are still going on, what do you have to say about that?' Fortunately at this point the bus had arrived and I simply got up and left. Let me explain that he wasn't being overly aggressive, I did not feel threatened, mostly just upset. When I got home, after dinner with Lorena's parents which was SO GOOD, I asked Jorge and Monse what they really, truly thought about the United States (Jorge is from Chile and Monse is from Mexico). I could see from both of their reactions that they had a lot to say, but felt nervous because I am Norte Americana. However, with some cajoling I got them to be really honest with me, and it was as enlightening for me as I think it was for them. Basically, they don't think highly of the United States, and with our history with their countries it's not hard to see why. However, a lot of the information that they have access to about US politics is pretty skewed and focuses on conspiracy theories. I'm not discounting what they're saying entirely, because on a lot of accounts they are right, we, as Americans, have a lot of work to do to better ourselves and international relations. However, some things After much wondering about how to take the garbage out I discovered that you simply hang it from a lamp post outside my window...

like the Twin Towers being a government conspiracy to declare war on Iraq I found to be a little ridiculous. So we ended up talking for 4 hours about the US and what I thought, what they thought and at the end of it Jorge told me he was really glad we had talked about things since I had (somehow) managed to clarify some things for him and curb his anger towards the United States a little. In a way that was the most gratifying thing anyone has ever told me. I mean, learning about other people's countries and cultures is the point of going abroad, right? It also felt awesome to be able to for the most part carry on an intelligent conversation in Spanish for so long. Beginning of a lot of future conversations.
Protests are continuing here in Chile, but CIEE students are still coming. It was really hard to explain why a student movement against tuition costs in the States wouldn't work to a group of students in Chile who protest all the time. However, it got me thinking, well why not? Could we as students achieve lower tuition if we tried? Something to think about. As you can imagine with all of the conversations about education going on right now my SIP is starting to focus more on that area of child welfare.
Sending love overseas.

Pretty self explanatory