Spring Is in the Air

…and so, therefore is love (or lust, if you will).

This past weekend, I used the “Columbus Day/Día de la Raza/Indigenous People’s Day” holiday to chill the hell out. Friday night was the fabulous dinner party you missed. So to take a huge detour from what I was going to talk about, I have to tell you what was on the menu. I made it all, save the last two items, and it was all new to me (check out www.drweil.com for recipes):

-Eggplant-Walnut Paté
-Broccoli and Cauliflower with Soy-Lemon Dressing
-Turkish Spinach Salad with Yogurt Dressing
-Beets in Mustard Vinaigrette
-Tofu with Cilantro Sauce
-Curried Beet Greens with Potatoes
-Vegetarian Kung Pao (with Tofu, not Seitan) with Asparagus and Peanuts (HUGE hit!!!)
-Potato-Rosemary Crusted Fish Fillets (trulla, but I have no idea what kind of fish that is)
-My Famous Coconut-Curry Rice
-Katie and Samantha’s Potato Dish
-Renato’s Orange Mousse Cake

Oh, and there was plenty of wine this time, plus the requisite Pisco.

Anyway, sorry, but I always have to geek out about food. You have to know how good it all was. And it was a special night, because all of my housemates were there: for reals, that was the first time we’ve all hung out, and it was super fun. The party was about half-Chilean and half-gringo, so I’d say things are improving on the social scene. It helps that about half of the gringas have Chilean pololos (boyfriends; “novio/novia” means fiancé in Chile) that they bring with them everywhere (fitting, since “pololo” means bug originally).

So I continue to work on that oral presentation for my lit seminar: we’re on Latin time, and it keeps getting pushed back (me cuesta mucho to get used to things not happening when they’re scheduled, but that’s life here). So what do you know, probably the only project of my academic career for which I have not procrastinated, and I won’t have to give the report until Tuesday (originally scheduled for Tuesday of last week). Anyway, I was busy with that all weekend, and then I hung out at the playground at this huge park near my house Sunday night, which was good times, kid times.

And now I come to the theme of the oozing (hetero-)sexuality in Santiago.

Monday (thank you, holiday in celebration of imperial conquest), I had nothing to do but get out of my house for some air and exercise, so I walked to the Bellas Artes neighborhood (about an hour away on foot) and caught the latest Chilean film at the first theater I came to. (That would be Cachimba, and you should see it when it comes out there: it’s based on a story by José Donoso, and thought it’s super-machista, it’s brilliant.) Then I wanted to discover more of the city, so I climbed Cerro Santa Lucía, which is a gorgeous municipal park on a pretty good-sized hill near Bellas Artes (the museum).

I don’t know—I really like to have days like that: alone in the city—going to movies and museums and for walks and all that good stuff. But I have to say I was made uncomfortable by the aforementioned visual evidence of heterosexual coupling all around me. For reals, I felt like a freaking voyeur just by being there—not to mention, alone and therefore not making out with anybody. It was like one of those ridiculous comedies in which some pathetic and heartbroken individual can only see happy couples all around him after a breakup. They were EVERYWHERE. Hey, that’s all good. Though I’m single, I can’t say I have a problem seeing everyone else helping ensure the future of the species in that way.

But come on! These people are shameless! And it’s nothing new for me in this city: it’s one of the first cultural differences I noticed when I got to Santiago. They’re just way more into PDA here, at bus stops, walking down the street, whatever. But combine that with the spring weather and the amorous park (which I now find out everyone frequents to pololear/make out with their pololo/a), and you’ve got one big potential porn film.

So this has got me thinking. Why the prevalence of PDA? Because we’re not just talking about holding hands and whispering in the ear and cuddling—this is serious foreplay in plain view of all the other couples doing the same thing (and, well, me). Do they need the attention, the witnesses to their sexual conquest? Does it do something for them to know that they’re not alone in getting it on?

I have come to various conclusions about this problem, but not without consulting my Chilean friends. Here are some possible explanations for this sociological phenomenon:

1) Puritans did not settle Latin America. The morality of sexuality here is so vastly different in many ways: both words developed similar brands of sexual oppression, but they’re just not so repressed in this manner here.

2) The question of young people making out in public. In the States, it seems that kids find a way to get some privacy for their sexual adventures, or maybe they just repress their desires better. From what Chileans have told me, however, the chance of young kids getting some time alone at home for making out is much more slim. And their parents might be happier to see them getting hot on the street than at home. Plus, they’re kids, so who cares?

3) But then there’s “big people” to consider: people who should “know better,” people with kids (possibly present, to boot), for example. How do you explain parents’ expression of sexuality in front of children? I am sure some of that is inappropriate and confusing for the kids (and there is obviously a different morality of child rearing in the States, for the most part). But there’s something else to it, too. When you have people making out in public, it lessens the shame around sexuality. Passion is normal, and we all have it (some of us luckier than others, and more able to show it off in public). So PDA is a way of normalizing sexuality and taking some of the mystery out of peoples’ personal lives. Do with that what you will: this openness obviously makes many people uncomfortable (estadounidenses and chilenos alike), but it might help others relax their uptightness around their own sexuality.

4) One of the ways the dictatorship sought control of the public was harassing young lovers. PDA was forbidden. So now, they say, PDA is an expression of freedom, a show that Chile is just as liberated as any other country. Of course there are other ways to express freedom, but since we all have sexual desires and are often in the position to share that with another while we are in public, why the hell not make out in front of the rest of the world?

Then there’s the question of other species getting it on in the streets. I’ve already told you about the tragedy of the city being over-run by dogs. Well, it would be a huge and expensive project to get them all neutered, sent off for adoption, treated for diseases, etc., but I guess there are not sufficient resources. It seems like a pretty big public health problem, too, but maybe one day it’ll get so bad that they can’t ignore it any more. And it’s worse in so many other places.

But come on. It’s spring, and all those damn dogs are humping. There’s no shame in that, but it’s just a reminder that there will be that many more little puppy dogs roaming the streets hungry and diseased in a few months (or however long dog pregnancies last).

You already knew I was a nerd, right?

On to new stuff, then. I decided not to go to Vialemana this weekend. But tonight I’m going to see the opening of a theater festival in my neighborhood: a friend as a play he wrote debuting, and my housemate has a small role in another work. Tomorrow we have out last EAP excursion: we’re going to the copper mines at El Teniente, so I’ll tell you all about that soon enough. And then there’s a concert tomorrow night my housemates are taking me to, some kind of fusion thing (yeah, sounds scary), but they have excellent music taste, so it should be good. And I don’t know. Maybe I’ll get out of my house even more than that and do something social. Radical, I know.

Oh, did you know that daylight savings ended for us down South? So we jumped forward an hour last weekend, and when you all gain your hour up North on Halloween (right?), we lose another one, or at least, the time difference gets worse. Instead of one hour time difference (as of a week ago), now my Mom’s three hours earlier; from two to four hours’ difference between me and my Dad; and three to five hours’ difference to talk to the West Coast (you know, when the whole coast gets together to say how much it misses me). Damn the man.

But did I tell you that my Mom, Fred, and my Grandma are coming to visit me in a month? I’ve probably already mentioned this a million times, but I just keep saying it because it gives me something to look forward to. Yeah, they’ll be here the week leading up to Thanksgiving, including Turkey Day itself, and we’re going to take lots of little trips within Chile, as well as travel to the amazing (I hear) city of Buenos Aires. Marvelous.

And even better (almost) is that by the time they leave, all of my classes will be over, so I get about 6 weeks to explore the South (which is green, green, green, lush and gorgeous) on bike (!) and hopefully see Mendoza and Cordobá, Argentina, the Iguazú Falls (at the border of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brasil) and the beaches in South Brasil.

That is, if I find a traveling companion. Do you want to join me? (And this is not a casual offer; I need you!--and of course we could plan a different itinerary, if you like.)