i´m back...

!hola!
it´s been awhile since i´ve had access to a computer, so i have so many stories i´ve saved for you, if i can remember them all.
let´s see...

-there´s that time i took the micro (bus) in the wrong direction and kept hoping it would take me home anyway but finding myself very far indeed from my house, while dying from a full bladder and not able to find a bathroom until i found the grossest possible bathroom at a bar, where i had to crouch for 5 minutes b/c most toilets in santiago public places do not have seats (not to mention toilet paper, or "confort"), and then i walked home, which took about a half hour, and of course i was all alone...

-then last friday a friend of a friend was invited by her chilean friend to a party at a discoteque, which another friend had rented out for his 23rd birthday, in the middle of nowhere, a warehouse district, where all the lolos (hipsers) and punks were dancing like crazy and drunk and singing along to all these chilean and other canciones latinoamericanos, but i was super-cansada (they add "super" to everything here; in this case, i was super-tired) and could hardly move. it was such a huge improvement over the night before (in the icky suecia district)--not a meat market at all, in fact all of these charming chileans were teaching us to dance (you would not believe how well guys can dance here) but not sleazy at all. and i stayed out till 3 in the morning, shocking, huh?

-this weekend, most of my buddies from the eap program went to viña del mar, which is next to valparaiso, where the uss ronald reagan was stationed (why does that man have to appear in my blog again???) and there was prostitution galore with the soldiers hanging out. ick. but alas, i didn´t go because i was busy taking my siesta and feeling a little blue when they all left. they had a great time, in case you were wondering. instead of going there, i got to sleep a whole lot and learned how to play caraoke, which is a chilean card game not unlike a card game gringos play, whose name i can´t remember...very fun: my host mom and her divorceé friend were gossiping and teaching me bad words and playing dress-ups, it was super-cute.

-yesterday we started the intensive language program, and they put me in the toughest class, with all the native speakers! i´m honored, but of course this means that i have to work super-hard, too. it´s "heavy," as they say here. so i go to class five days a week for three weeks, four hours a day! but you should hear how the chileans speak, it´s beautiful to listen to. the accent is kinda italian, and they usually speak with a high pitch, i love it.

-and of course the most exciting thing going on in chile right now is the student strike at the universidad de chile ("la chile"), where i will be going in a few weeks. i don´t know too much about what´s going on right now, but it´s about what is effectively the privatization of the university: raising tuition and lowering financial aid, so that at least 1,500 who were at a recent protest can´t afford to go there next semester. apparently the students go on stike here a lot, but i hope they win so i don´t have to cross the picket lines (of course i hope they win for other reasons, too, i´m just saying...). right now they have a "toma" of one of the towers at the university, which means they´ve occupied it and kicked out all the administration. love it.

-there´s also a hunger strike for the release of political prisoners, which is the longest in chilean history. i don´t know the latest about this, but i know it´s killing the participants. if it´s still going on, it´ll be longer than 80 days. for all the news in chile, check out http://chile.indymedia.org

-i´m very worried about the international situation right now. it´s not too cool to be from the u.s. right now, so i´m keeping a lo-pro and hoping to blend in. (hah!) i´ve been in a bit of a bubble here, until i got the mercurio, which is a rather conservative paper, this sunday. all bad news, of course. i miss democracy now (www.democracynow.org) and socialist worker (www.socialistworker.org) for the real scoop on things. by the way, lots of chilean wear kaffeihs (is that even close to the real spelling? sorry!)--usually worn in solidarity with palestine--here, so i follow suit.

-people ask about the machismo here. i haven´t encountered that much, except that i live with that guy, who probably acts like the average chilean male, in the sense that the señora of the house serves him completely, and he does just about nothing in the house except get served. and as for being on the street, let´s just say i´m glad i´m not a blonde here. i actually haven´t gotten as much creepy attention here as i expcted--it´s been about as bad as in the bay area. we´ll see how things develop here though...

-i still didn´t get a cell phone, so it´s been hard to use the phone here: i keep buying calling cards...so that´s why i haven´t called! soon though.

-in case i don´t get to a computer again in the next few days, i have to say FELICIDADES to crystal and scott, who are getting married on this tumultuous upcoming weekend. i wish i could be there! best to you!

-i think i have another long weekend again, so hopefully i´ll get out of santiago to see a bit more of this beautiful country.

-i´m sorry to say i haven´t taken many photos here yet, so that´s why there aren´t any photos up. i also got a camera with regular film instead of a digital one, so it´ll be awhile until there are pictures up and you can have a good idea of where i am and all the beautiful things you are missing out on.

¡chao! ¡cuidate! !besitos!

carreteando con los ´americanos´

so last night yo carretee (chilenismo for ´partied´)at the cheesiest nastiest and most fun place--la suecia, in la providencia: a fake villiage for drunkards. would you believe that i was out til 3:30 in the morning with some crazy kids from california? they give ´ladies´ free drinks, so i gave my drinks to my amigo and learned all the bad music i´ve been missing.
of course the sexist music me molesto, but we did alright. mr tough indie rocker kid protected us.
oh, and we met this caribinero (cop) at this one place, whose schtick is showing ladies his GUN! it was so creepy, he was handing out bullets and stuff. gross. but he thought he was pretty cool.
we also explored la providencia in the afternoon, which is one of the more bourgie neighborhoods, and i found the famous book, how to survive in the chilean jungle: a book of chilean slang, which also talks about all the linguistically fascinating aspects of chilean life. i don´t think i´ll ever be cool enough to speak ´chilean,´ but i´ll do my best.
today, we´re going to get cell phones, and after dinner, we´re going to a discoteque de punk, which is super-underground here, from what i understand. first, a siesta.

mi nueva familia

yesterday i met my new "family"--sonia, la mujer, y su "hijo" cristian, who live in providencia in a house that strangely resembels the house of my father: very clean. sonia is incredibly sweet and accomodating: she took me to jumbo, which is like the costco of chile, where we had to buy all the food for my weird california veggie diet. and i cooked for them last night--spaggheti, which they were not very familiar with. she is always trying to feed me, and crisitian talks way too fast, and he doesn´t look in my eyes (guess where he looks instead, while he talks to me...), so i am feeling incredibly tonta there.
today i met my "tutor," who is going to help me and four others to "conocer" la ciudad.
have to go. i think it´s going to be ok.

por fin!

no tengo mucho tiempo, pero...
ay, as i said, it will be hard to keep this blog en ingles. sigo el ejemplo de gloria anzaldua and use both languages, how´s that?
santiago is beautiful, though they weren´t kidding about the smog. it rained a bit today when i went out walking in the barrio brasil, where i´m staying at the hostelling international: it clears out the air a bit. the weather reminds me of a midwest autumn, not too cold. i am warm enough in a sweater and shawl.
i hope i have more time later to tell you how wonderful the santiaguinos are, and how i surprise myself with my linguistic abilities, and how hungry i am, and how very confused i am getting about the chilean pesos, and how i wish you could all see this beautiful city with me.
tomorrow, i meet the family i´ll be living with during the intensive language program, as well as the other uc students on the program. i hope i like them and they like me. a little home-made strawberry jam should do the trick.
i am sorry i am not back in los estados unidos, argumentando sobre nader y el partido verde, and against the farce of the ´handover´ of power en irak, but for now i have to be content to enjoy where i´m at. it´s rough, i tell ya.
hasta luego, dinner calls.

oooh, the places i'll go!

So I'm in Chicago for about a week, before I leave for Chile. Staying with my family in Wilmette for now, then I'm headed to the city for the Socialism 2004 Conference. (I get to see Amy Goodman tomorrow night, who has to be one of my greatest heroes.) It's super hot and humid and seems like we're about to get one of those bad-ass midwest thunderstorms I miss so much in California. I feel a bit like I'm in a spa here, as I sometimes do. I get to stay in the Mary room (as in, the Mother of Christ), and I read Anne Lamott's *Operating Instructions* on the back porch in my mother's gorgeous garden--both experiences leave me feeling slightly spiritual--good job, Mom.
Other ghosts of Wilmette, besides the weather, haunt me also, and I'm looking forward to moving on.
A week from now, I'll be in Sangiago, meeting the family with whom I'll be staying for about a month. I'm insanely curious about them and hope they enjoy the strawberry jam I custom-made for them! I hope it's not too cold and rainy when I get there and that I'm not all awkward and uncomfortable in the new country and that I don't suddenly forget how to speak Spanish. See, it would be very tempting to keep this blog in Spanish, but I suppose that defeats the purpose of letting all my friends and family read about my adventures, as, alas, most do not speak that language.
I'm a bit melancholy about saying goodbye to Tom, as I tearfully did at the San Francisco Airport yesterday, and it's always hard to say goodbye to my Mother, and I have to say it's been an emotionally draining couple of weeks, as it is, with the packing and just looking forward to the massive transition in my life. The other night I dreampt I was pregnant (not that this is a rarity), and Tom said, so sweetly, that Well, I am about to give birth to a new life after all, and that I shouldn't be afraid. Isn't he wonderful?

Sociology (Er, More like Propaganda) of Anthropologie

Have you been into Anthropologie lately? I went in there the other day after I picked up my student visa for Chile. Why couldn't I resist the cute 40s/50s cocktail dresses in the windows and all the charmingly feminine displays about making the perfect home--not for The Man, but for fun and pleasure!

I didn't buy anything...Not that I could afford anything or I didn't want anything...But what I saw there both titillated and worried me all day.

Four years into the Bush Administration, with war looming for the rest of our lives, attacks on abortion rights, the reactionary remake of the Stepford Wives, the possibility of gay marriage and its subsequent loss (yay! except for Massachusetts!) the defeat of unemployment insurance in California (thank you, Governator), the loss of civil liberties (um, where was the opposition in Congress with the Patriot Act?)...

But they don't just have to pass laws: they use other fronts, primarily ideological.

So it's hip again to be domestic: Knitting, cooking, eco house-cleaning, child-rearing, gardening.

Not that women (and of course men, too, but this is definitely a femininizing project) shouldn't enjoy such activities (and I'm the first to admit, I do!), but isn't it a bit creepy that DIY used to be rebellion, and now, as with all co-opted subculture phenomena, it's just another way to accommodate conservative policies?

Can't find satisfaction in your life because you're working too much? The real meaning in life comes from being the perfect hostess/gardener/cook, etc.!

See, this is different from mainstream culture co-opting punk, for instance. Punk really was about rebellion, about FUCK THE MAN. It was a repudiation of Reaganomics (hooray for the death of the devil), not an adaptation of it. Granted, any co-opting of a movement is an attempt to sterilize it (hence, Reagan signing to make MLK Day a national holiday), to make it suitable for mass consumption, to remove the sting of the foul language and bad attitude.

So isn't it a little weird that mainstream culture, at least in the instance of Anthropologie, is taking a different approach? It seems that fashion designers see a rightward political trend and are matching it with a regressive fashion trend. See, I would think that now would be the time to draw the line in the sand. There are those that genuinely (and opportunistically) mourn the death of Reagan and respect the actions of the Bush Administration. Now, what's the opposite of that? The future of the earth, of course, depends on a radically different approach to humanity and politics--not a backwards glance to the 1950s! Why isn't culture reflecting that? (I guess if it is, it's too underground.)

Luckily, one store does not get to define hipness, but I believe this serves as a bit of a cultural marker, a troublespot.

Instead of helping young (and wannabe young) women attain the impossible feminine ideal, why don't we make it 'hip' to fight for a world that does not ghettoize women/couples to domestic hell-made-to-look-like-heaven? What if we could do as we please (yes! knitting/cooking/gardening, et al are fun for some!) but actually have lives that do not drive us to retreat to spiritual domesticity for some kind of meaningful existence?

Choosing to either boycott or accept 'their' beauty standards and ideas of what fun is might make us feel better, but why let them take away from us that which we created (i.e. the things that WE made hip--not necessarily intentionally--b/c we actually enjoy them!)? Just because they intend that we take all our energy and transform it into helping oil the capitalist machine (NO! My love is mine: it's not for 'your' wedding industry!), doesn't mean that we shouldn't celebrate it. We have to make life enjoyable somehow, right?

So let's keep politics out of how we run our houses--either to serve or resist 'patriarchy'--and take our energy to the streets, instead. Demand the impossible. Socialize childcare, medicine, housing.

For a better--and prettier--world for all.

the weeks before

just picked up my visa at the consulado general de chile. no problems.
busy programming my new ipod. can't concentrate enough to read, can barely hold a conversation. too distracted by all the upcoming changes.
who will read my blog? who will care? how will i feel when i get to santiago?
now, it just seems like my life is ending and a new one will begin when i arrive. perhaps i will become a new person there. seems unreal, but i guess that's what youth is for. am i up for it?
oh. and good riddance to the bigoted, racist, homophobic, anti-woman, anti-poor, terrorist, murderous, lying 'president' reagan, and shame on all the sentimentalizing bastards 'mourning' his death.