The Earthquake

Hi everyone,

Although I'm way overdue for an entry, especially now that I have puppy pictures (!), I am writing a paper that I have to turn in tomorrow. I just wanted to write a quick note to let you know about the Earthquake (a couple of people have sent me worried emails). As you can read if you click on the link, The 7.7 Earthquake hit mainly in a town called Tocopilla, Chile, which is way--way north of Concepcion.

Keep your thoughts with the folks in the North of Chile. So far they have found two dead. Hopefully, that number won't rise. Sorry I don't have time to write more.

Miss you all,
Mere

Ode

"Federico,
you see the world, the streets,
the vinegar,
the farewells in the stations
when the smoke lifts its decisive wheels
toward where there is nothing but some
separations, stones, railroad tracks" (This is from Residencia en la tierra. My favorite Neruda book and the most critically acclaimed. this is only one stanza from the poem "Ode to Federico Garcia Lorca" The footnote says "Neruda and Lorca became very close friends when Neruda was Chilean consul to the Spanish Republic. This ode, like much of Lorca's poetry, has premonitions of death. The poem was published in 1935; Lorca was executed by the Nationalists in 1936."

(warning the first several paragraphs are not necessarily cheerful or breezy. . . don't even get me started. but life isn't always cheerful. for lighter reading skip down to change of subject)

I'm in a weird place now. It's the poets. They are beginning to haunt me. I feel oddly disconnected from things. maybe it's because I'm too busy. maybe it's because I have to many undone things to be doing that keep muttering to me. Maybe because I feel a little lost, a little unsure, a little unsettled. I miss my family and my friends. and not that it's bad or that I'm unhappy-because I'm not. I'm also just feeling very ignorant. and lazy. I think one of the difficult things with trying to learn new things is that I feel overwhelmed and weighed down by all that I do not know, all the experiences I can't understand, the sounds I cannot make.

I keep thinking about that image: the sounds I cannot make. I can't do the double rr sound in spanish. I don't quite get the u vowel sound right either because I trying englishize it. but what impacts me the most is that Nico will try to make both sounds--the one I make that is incorrect and the correct one. . . and sometimes I really can not hear a difference. And I've just been thinking about this idea. . . that there is so much that we do not sense. I generalize difference so easily, cultural differences--and all kinds of differences-- without ever stopping to think that I may not even really understand or hear the ways we are different. I always babble these dreams about seeing how we are all connected, and I think we are, but we have got to learn to respect and accept that there are some things we can never understand or empathize with because of the eyes through which we see.

In Blanchot's book El espacio literario he talks about this idea that a writer always "busca salvar su relacion con el mundo a traves de la obra" looks to save his or her relationship with the world through their work. but the writer always fails because once the work exists it ceases to be "a piece" of the writer or "a possession" or even an expression of identity, because it becomes its own entity. . . theorists have argued that maybe it doesn't even begin to exist until it is read by a reader. Blanchot believes that a writer can never "read" his own work. There's a sort of blindness in the midst of the ravaging intimacy between creation and creator.

This is a shitty comparison, but I feel like in a sense we are so intimate with our existences that we can't ever step back and truly "read" them. I bet none of this makes sense. It doesnt make sense in my head either. It's not just the poets-it's the theorists and philosophers too. Blanchot, de Saussure, Lyotard, Lacan, Derrida, Foucault, Baudrillard. . .I mean what am I suppose to take from the poststructuralists?? a way to read? a way to not read? a way to see that I can not read? and why am I doing all this reading in spanish??

Enrique Lihn, a chilean poet from the generacion 50, believed that poetry and/or words can never capture reality, the symbols themselves, the signifiers (thank you de Saussure) are always trapped in their abstractness. This seems even more apparent to me thinking and studying in two languages. Why do we use the word "tree" (signifier) to represent the object(signified), why not parfl or lotupk?? what kind of emotional response to you have to the word "tree" ? what image does it give you? what assumptions do you make about that which it refers to? and in poetry. . . how do the signified and signifier which make up "tree" affect all english poetry. the vowel sounds, one syllable--all of these things together come together to influence the poet to use the word tree and not another. . . I mean how different from tree is "arbol"??? It's pretty different. two syllables. different vowels, and yet in spanish it is the signifier for "tree". We can't escape our own systems, especially of language. Like in my second to last sentence, I couldn't not say "tree" cuz its all I have to represent tree in english.

Are you bored? I bet you are. Don't worry the blog will get funnier when I stop thinking so hard.

So, the question for Lihn, is. . . Why write? maybe because we express ourselves the way we can, to capture a moment, an object-To Share An Idea. My idea can't get from me to you without the bridge of language. IS my idea mutated and changed and a little lost in the translation from object to symbol? (assuming that I don't think in language, which I do). Bad example.

I don't know. All this fuzziness in my head is swimming about because I'm reading all this stuff in spanish and thinking about it in english and then trying to communicate my unclear thoughts in spanish. . . and its not just that my spanish isn't good enough. . . it's that somehow along the way I detached my brain from my walking around self. I get up, I worry about not eating too many carbs or calories, I go to work or class. In class I think really hard and worry about all the things I haven't read, or need to read, or wish I had read, and then I'm out the door and gone thinking about how to make the verb structure Past Continuous or Imperfect fun for my adult students. and then I'm eating again, and trying to read the news, trying to keep up on the candidates, trying to figure out when high school shootings will stop, trying to read Chilean news (most of our city will be without water over the weekend), and Nico calls "Where are you?" "when will I see you?" and it's either his day or my day to miss the other person more than they are missing me or him. . . and then I work more or study more and then finally I get on the micro and watch the streets go by and try to remember their order and watch the people walking with broken umbrellas, and then I get off and walk home. I look down, not because I'm afraid of making eye contact with people, but because I'm too tired to make any fleeting connections at this time of night. I change. eat. go to the Y. . . and try to follow along and not look to much at my reflection in the front mirrored wall. I laugh at myself. I walk home and think about how I should blog or read. . . but just turn on the television or sleep.

How can I be one of those people who squeezes the juice out of life? If I smile more will I feel better? Why I am I so disorganized??? Nico keeps asking me, and the "it's genetic" answer isn't working. ha. I told him to talk to you mom, but seeing as he and I are still on basic english lessons, it might go like:

Nico: Is she always dirty?
Mom: Yes
Nico:She is just lazy?
Mom:that too.

I haven't blogged in a while and I forgot how cleansing it feels to write. And now that I'm thinking about all that I've written I think I should probably delete a lot of it because you all don't want to read my ramblings about life, you would probably just rather hear about the weather. but it rained today for the first time in a week or so. . .and I just can't delete these thoughts now that I've typed them out.

OK. CHANGE OF SUBJECT:

As some of you know I've had a rough couple of months in terms of my health. It seems like I'm just allergic to Chile. Starting with food poisoning,I got the severe case of sinusitis that I had for like two months and after lots of antibiotics I'm still sniffling, and then I had a couple of different infections all in the same week. But luckily I have just started feeling better (famous last words). I have been wanting to sign up at the YMCA for a while now(its only two blocks from my apartment!), but I had to wait until I got over my sinusitis because the ear, nose, and throat doctor told me I couldn't exercise until I was better . . . ANYWAYS, so I went on Wednesday and signed up and showed up for my very first class on Thursday. I was stoked. They have all these different classes that start with the word Guay (which I don't know what it means) followed by mostly different english words. For example, some of the options are:

Guay Aerostep
Guay Power
Guay Harmony
Guay Jump

creative. huh? well, I decided to attend guay power. I mean, why not get things off to a good start, right? and I was super nervous because I thought I might not understand the directions or something. I could just picture myself, the big bumbling gringa running into people and screaming "sorry" and then "uhh disculpa". I watched nervously from the side as the other class ended. and then, suddenly everyone started scrambling. running to get things. . . steps and weights and mats. and i thought. oh shit.

i better do that too.

So, I run around behind them and get all the stuff and clumsily find a space on the floor. and this tall skinny guy is up the stage and his shorts are way, way too short and I'm thinking I hope you will be careful with those shorts buddy.

and then we just start doing bicep curls and we never stop. . .ha

I mean seriously we did them for like ten minutes. and there was a little variation we did them fast and slow. two fast one slow. and I was trucking along with everybody and then all of a sudden, without even asking my permission, my left arm sorta died. It didn't go up anymore and I kinda laughed because I couldn't make it move no matter how hard I stared at it. and then i thought, well, this is sure embarrassing, but I just kept going with the right arm and the left arm in my mind was doing the same thing but in real life it was just wiggling a little bit still well below my waist. i dropped both weights and went on in imaginary weight world, where they may not be any pride but at least both arms were moving. the class continued. it was hard, but I enjoyed it. and when we finished I could barely walk down the stairs I felt like a sober drunk person. I called Nico to come and walk me home because I was afraid I couldn't do it. and then I think I think I cried a little bit on the way home (I'm laughing now thinking about it) because I just felt so pathetic. the next day, I went to Guay Harmony, where the teacher called me out as the new girl, asked my name eight times before she asked me to approach the stage and spell it for her (nightmare) and then she got excited and called the class international. This class is a mixture of Tai Chi, Pilates, and yoga. and i loved it and felt fine afterwards. I even felt fine when I went to sleep, but sometime in the wee hours I awoke with pain. the next day (saturday) I couldn't straighten out either of my arms past a 90 degree angle, they both hurt a lot when I tried, and the left one was worse, AND i thought they were beginning to swell. That day I also had some allergic reaction around my eye, so Nico took one look at me with my bent arms and red bubbly eye and we both started laughing so hard we were crying because I was soo pathetic. he was like what the ___ happened to you????

On sunday we went to this festival in a town called Tome with Nico's mom. It's about an hour's bus ride and I was still pretty pathetic. My arms had both swollen to the size that I barely recognized them as my own. I almost didnt fit in my jacket and Nico had to take it on and off for me. It was, to say the least, a sad but comical site. By Monday I could almost straighten them again. Nico and I took a bus over to San Pedro (on the outskirts of Concepcion) and where he lives and we walked around, down to a small lake, and we bought a two dollar superman kite which we flew like experts next to all these people who had heavy duty super duper kites with tails and lights and that almost sang, but we were still cool and it was reallllllyyy fun.


I have returned to the Y this week without any major injuries. I swear Nico is right, weird crap is always happening to me. I promise I'm not a hypochondriac. my washing machine needs an exorcism and shakes violently when its on spin cycle, so much so that I usually run and try to sit on it, and pray that the neighbor below doesn't complain. My toilet still doesn't flush. . . something about the water pressure so I still have to dump a bowl of water down the drain when I flush. (my apartment really is nice, I promise).

My camera is supposedly finished now, and I have deposited the money. . .so they should be mailing it to me. and when I get it. . . get ready because I'm going to take a billion pictures. . . of the apartment, the streets, the Ymca.

I have decided I want a pet, specifically a dog. I know what your thinking. Nico said it. You don't even clean after yourself. . . how are you going to clean after a dog. WEll, I will darnet. Since there are about a billion roaming dogs in Chile, we took to the streets the other night to look for one (I want a puppy, one that won't grow too big since my apartment is pretty small). I see on average twenty dogs in the streets a day. but Nico and I walked around for two hours and only saw ONE!! the luck. and the one we saw was funny but a little deranged, so I vetoed him. By the way, if we do adopt a street dog, we will take him directly to the vet first (don't panic family) to get him checked out and give him the necessary shots.

I'm hoping that I might get a birthday puppy. I can say that because Nico doesn't read my blog. Pups could hang out with Nico during the day when I'm working and then keep me company in the afternoons and evenings and Nico would take care of pups while I'm in the states (two and half months and counting folks).

alright, well I've spent way too much time on this blog instead of studying! ha! My big interview is on the 31st, so I will be way less stressed after that.

miss you guys.

hope you and yours are happy and safe,

una aurora,
Mere

I'm too tired to type the whole poem (so look it up), but here's another of the stanzas:

When you fly dressed as a peach tree,
when you laugh with a laugh of hurricaned rice,
when to sing you shake arteries and teeth,
throat and fingers,
I could die for how sweet you are,
I could die for the red lakes
where in the midst of autumn you live
with a fallen steed and a bloodied god,
I could die for the cemeteries
that pass like ash-gray rivers
with water and tombs,
at night, among drowned bells:
rivers as thick as wards
of sick soldiers, that suddenly grow
toward death in rivers with marble numbers
and rotted crowns, and funeral oils:
I could die to see you at night
watching the sunken crosses go by,
standing and weeping,
because before death's river you weep
forlornly, woundedly,
you weep weeping, your eyes filled
with tears, with tears, with tears.

(amazing that this was written just one year before his death. to you, federico, an Ode)

BACK

FRIENDS!!! I´m back online, plugged into the world again, and in touch with humanity. Well. . . that´s how I feel at least because I FINALLY have internet in my apartment!! Yay!! Things are good. I mean it really is crazy how different life is when you can point and click.

For starters, I can blog again regularly.

I don´t get rained on as much because I can look up the weather easily on the internet.

I can feel semi-connected to mainstream american culture because I can download season four of Greys anatomy!!!! (thank god)

I don´t have to freeze my face and fingers sitting outside on my balcony on a stool leaning dangerously over the edge in order to "borrow" internet.

I watch WAY less television, which I guess is good and bad, because the animal planet in spanish is very educational and helping my species vocabulary.

I think I´m generally more content person. I can call people on skype from the comfort of my own home. I can talk to my mom for hours in English and laugh really loudly at her jokes ( and because I´m not in an internet cafe, the weird unibrow man at the computer next to me will not laugh at me, give me mean looks, or grunt words he hears me say in english). ahh, privacy.

Plus, I can study, look up fun facts, and listen to music.

In short, what did I ever do without the internet???

Oh right, I read and cleaned and had a life. ha.

Ok, I have to run to teach a class, but I can´t wait to blog this afternoon/evening about my first Chilean workout!!! You won´t want to miss this!

una aurora,
Mere

still no internet. . .

This internet thing is getting rediculous. I´ve almost been in my apartment for two months now and still nada. I mean the worse part is that they just keep saying that they are coming and then don´t show up. AHHHHHHHH and the internet connection i was "borrowing" by leaning out over my balcony with a kung fu grip on my laptop now has a password. great. I´m stressed right now because I´m trying to prepare for this big and scary interview for the masters program I have on Oct. 31st (so birthday fun will have to be postponed). I´m pretty terrified about it, but I just keep telling myself that I should breathe because no matter what word I conjugate incorrectly or whichever poet whose name I butcher, I´m here because I want to learn. . . and that´s what matters right????

Went to the movies last night with Nico and his mom. we saw the evan almighty movie. hilarious, even dubbed. alright. gotta go to class.

miss you guys.

happy birthday Mac yesterday.

una aurora,
mere

alive

I know I have disappeared for a while, but I'm still waiting to get internet in my apartment. Currently I can only access the internet on the edge of my balcony (where I am now), but they tell me I should have wireless on Monday or Tuesday. And then I promise to write a really long update. The summary is we were on ind. day vacation for a week, I was sick for a week, and I even had a cat scan. . . just wait-you'll see.

my new address is:

Barros Arana 653 Dept. 901 B
Concepcion
CHILE

so. . . I am alive, and i promise juicy updates soon.

Primavera here we come!!!

It looks like spring. The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, the breeze is blowing (it could change at any minute to dark menacing skies), and things are good.

I´m finally out of the other apartment and into a new, amazing (cozy or tiny)apartment with a tiny balcony and a view that looks over the city. It has a kitning room-basically one large living room type space with a kitchen separated by a bar. It was almost fully furnished which helped. It has a small bedroom and a nice sized bath. I don´t have to share the kitchen with ANYONE, and I especially don´t have to share the bathroom. Yippeeee. things are good folks. i even bought a futon. I love futons- two purposes in one. makes me miss america. ha. anyways. I dont have much time or any pictures (the camera is in the fixing process). So, I promise there will be pictures soon, or as soon as possible. I have two lovely neighbors! there an older couple who have made it their job to take care of me. Raul and Nicole got married!!!Congratulations to them. we are all super excited. and Carl and Sierra are back. We´re not sure for how long, but I´m just glad to have the chance to hang out with Sierra again. Nico and I are good. I randomly (kinda) met his mom last night (without him because he had to work). He got tickets to the opera last minute and invited me and his mom but couldnt go because he had to work. so she and I (we´d never seen eachother before) met in front of the theater, and then promptly realized that our tickets weren´t valid because they had to be turned in earlier (or something), so I invited her back up to my apartment for tea and we had a lovely chat for about two hours. She´s absolutely adorable. As you can imagine, I was pretty nervous. I mean:
1. meeting the boyfriend´s mom
2.without the boyfriend
3.in spanish

but she repeatedly told me how impressed she was by my spanish and that she thought I was going to speak like a five year old. . . (thanks Nico). Anyways, she is lovely. I may invite her to dinner sometime this week. I dont really have a table so that might be complicated, but I´ll figure it out.

My classes are good, but I know this all the calm before the storm becuase my masters classes start this week(two), and the classes I teach start this week. So I will be in the classroom a lot more. I havent started the Y yet because I´m still trying to get a medical certificate (the plan is to try to go friday). Im still not sure if I´m going to buy a car or not. it changes daily.

what else. I have a practice interview with the director of the masters program. Im looking for a job for just the month of february. . .and I guess thats all for now.

una aurora,
Mere

Noticias Aleatorias (Rainy cold sunday)

I've been writing and reading a lot of emails lately. and i just want to say. It's really wonderful to hear from you guys. I miss you and really like knowing what's going on with you.

It's raining here. and it's cold. really cold. and I'm poised to begin the week with all sorts of thoughts churning in my head.

culture. I may have already written this, but "cultural perspective" takes on a whole new-multi-faceted and overly complicated meaning when you're in a inter-cultural relationship. oh we see the world in so many ways the same. oh we see the world in so many ways different. and yet- it's not super easy, but so rewarding--I don't even like that word "rewarding" in this context-i really mean that its lovely. and I'm learning and reevaluating my thinking all the time. trying to not automatically privilege my perspective, trying to take lots of deep breaths when I speak in spanish about complicated "feelings" and such. HA.

I should wash my hands more often. I'm just saying. I should. I'm sick too often. oh, maybe thats because I dont have heat! ha-

It's freezing here. Windy, Wet, and Cold. I don't dislike it though, the rain is comforting.

I neatly turned in my paper on friday. well, really I just emailed it. and I'm super proud of it. I procrastinated as usual, but a 12 page research paper in spanish where I only had to look up three words in the dictionary means something people. it means progress! and not the machine, technology way.

I went to see the Director of the Postgrad lit programs last week, and I was soooo nervous, but I just did it. I mean, the thing is, when I get my nervous. . . my spanish just sucks. and I. . . needed to touch base with him and make sure it was still ok for me to be taking masters classes this semester, but I also wanted to talk to him more about me wanting to stay to do the masters here. . .so i just took a deep breath. and he was AMAZINGLY COOL. and extremely excited that I want to stay. . . he even told me he would help look for scholarships for me! and now i just have to prepare for the application and the entrance exam, which is an oral interview with all the faculty (YIKES!), but I'll be ready. . . and I'll figure out some way to calm the nerves. anyways, so that's nothing but good news.

My job is a little crazy right now because due to some rather sad and unfortunate circumstances my lovely and wonderful "big sis" Sierra, had to go back to the states, and we're not sure when or if she will come back.

so, that left me to coordinate all the native speaking professors in my program. which was at the time just me!!!!!! and by coordinate i mean like figuring out what days and times all the conversation classes will be this semester (39 classes, over 400 students), and figuring out whose going to teach them (I was slightly panicking for a few days because we still didnt have more teachers). Luckily, Barret flew in Friday. I dont really know anything about him except that he's from the states and will be working full time (thank god!). so, I feel a little less stressed. It's still a lot of work, but there are perks. Like for example, I got offered this side job to teach english to the university faculty and staff (who are soooooo coool) for 30 dollars an hour (15 mil pesos)!!!!! I know, seriously right!!!!???

so that's, ridiculously cool and hopefully i will be able to save some money. . . and maybe even buy a car (I'm looking around).

I'll fill you all in more about my classes I'm taking and teaching as they unfold.

I still miss Sally and Sierra. and I'm thinking about you Sierra.

I don't have any pictures this week. As we speak my lovely boy friend (I really like the word lovely now adays. it was sally. she rubbed the word off on me) is on his way to santiago with his brother and he's going to drop off my camera at the camera shop there. he gets major points for that.

I'm thinking a lot about culture and gender right now (well, I always am), but specifically about how the two interact and how I think that a person becomes very aware of their own identity and identity struggles when they live in another culture. I am constantly over-aware of who I am here, sometimes in good ways and sometimes not.

this entry isnt funny at all. sorry. I did flood the bathroom yesterday. but it totally wasnt my fault that the sink was clogged and the washing machine water drain was in the sink. I mean, how was i supposed to know it was clogged? we did a lot of water scooping into a dust pan.

I'm such a bad friend and haven't mailed a bday present yet that i have had for a month. I'm doing it tomorrow. seriously.

and I'm also signing up for the gym tomorrow. 7:30 aerobics here i come. no more potona around here. don't ask. somebody called me that (i think in a good way), but I'm pretty sure it means fat a**. curvy girls just can't get a break. Katherine Heigl I love you-go girl.

speaking of my favorite grey's anatomy character. great greys quote:

"Hey. I ate everything out of the fridge last night-everything-including the tub of butter. There's no judgement here."-Izzie

This quotation. is my life.

I'm not really obsessed with the show, I just watched some of the old episodes while I was procrastinating and not writing my paper.

it's raining hard. and I think I will go to sleep now. it's like 1 am or something crazy and I have signing up for aerobics to do. I promise there will be blogging about the exercising. i cant wait to learn exercise commands in spanish or be that crazy giant gringa going the wrong way because she can't understand the directions.

that was funny. maybe. a little.? love you mom. miss you and love you family.

email me people!

hoping you and yours are happy and safe,
una aurora,
Mere

To brighten up your day. . . or night

If you haven't seen this. . . check it out. It's hilarious. I don't know who this guy is, but I love him. Make sure you check out the long entry I posted below. Have a great day!!!

cortando el tiempo en mitades inaccesibles

"cutting time/ into inaccessible halves"

a new dawn and the same skies. una aurora y los mismos cielos. new skies. new skies. blue skies and dark skies- and there is always morning. . . a new day.

. . .you know-

you think-

living abroad-

what an adventure-

and it is. It is wonderful. But it is also sad.

People (non-chileans) arrive and they stay for a semester-or a year-or more-and then they leave. They arrive just like I did and leave (like I will) and there are all these exciting new friendships, new memories and moments, new connections. . .

sunny afternoons with coffee

wanna-be jog-walks in pretty parks

eggs (fried, scrambled, sandwiched)

Singing english songs in loud karaoke pubs

bus rides

pizza (or the chilean version of it)

MOMENTS people. that is what I'm talking about. and you start out being people sharing the experience of struggling to adjust to a new culture and life and all of a sudden. . .

You're friends.

I haven't written for a while because things have been happening. Big things. Great things. Sad things. Things that can't be summarized into blog entries. Things that make me realize I am more than visiting here people. I'm living here. crazy.

So. happy things first.

There's a boy in my life. In "chilean" I would call him my pololo. Nicolás. We're still dating. He's lovely. I mean seriously. Look at him. and funny. and smart.

makes me laugh a lot. We saw Ratatouille today-in spanish. It was awesome. We tried to see it last week, but I got the time wrong and we ended up seeing Transformers.

Sad news.

Sally is gone. and things will NEVER be the same without her. I miss her. a lot. all the time. No more random bursts of Sound of the Music songs-
no more pant-annihilating splits
no more 5am eggs-parmesan-oregano-
no more forest gump in british accent-
no more fun slang swapping-
no more great adventure walks-
no more "hello lovely" notes-

I miss you Sal. You know that. But I'm so thankful that I was lucky enough to hang out with you for a while. I'm not going to get any mushier than that. You got my friend love letter. MISS YOU SO MUCH.

Sally Paula Dodge-light of our lives-has gone away. Here some of our last days together:






Sally's Despedida:
Pre-party. me being lazy
These were supposed to be brownies from scratch. not the dry cake-like blob you see inthe photo. I am not happy here. not happy.
the leg. always with the leg. ha
that's right we're eating. we're always eating. check out the dry cake blob in the back ground. i tried to make it better with powdered sugar. the chileans were the only ones that liked it. and they loved it. go figure
sally and nick-check out the festive eye wear

haha

Sally and isabel
aww look at us. this is in our apartment by the way

Pierre (my roomie) me, Akshai, Jano, and Rose

I MISS SALLY!




Sally you are amazing, and we miss you.
_________________________________

I went flying. FLYING above Concepcion with George and his daughter Betsy. It was incredibly cool. George flies gliders and joined a local glider club here in Conce. I had an amazing time and saw some amazing sites. Check these out:
The Hanger!

our friend
George and Betsy
me on my first flight--in the front seat!



and lift off. . .















check out the river bio bio






coming up on the University
check out the clock tower. . .thats the beginning of the quad


There it is up closer (the university). In this photo, above the clock tower is a white building-to the left of that building is the humanities building--where I study. cool huh?
closer
Check this out. The round building-if you draw a line from the round building down to the bottom right corner-you will run right through the crfd building where I teach. It's yellow.
there it is in the bottom right corner of the photo







and back again
hanger again!
before flight two
this is the glider right before take-off
look at that beautiful blue sky. I had such a amazing morning. Sadly, George and Nancy have also returned to their home in the states. They had an amazing Vulture party before they left, which was what we call a secret santa party. Did you know that people in other parts of the U S of A call it something else, not secret santa??? something about an elephant or something. I can't remember. But Nanc and George, being the amazing and gracious folks that they are, had a party to give away all the stuff that they weren't going to take back with them to the states, and we had a blast.

I got number two or something, and Nico (also known as "my team mate") got number three-but luckily our stuff was never stolen. In these photos you can see my sheer excitement at picking the package with tupperware and this awesome apron (which You can see me wearing in the pics above before sally's despedida):

look at me. sad almost. Nico's like-Ha. yes, I am with her.
hanging out this is me, Nico, Akshai, George, and Carl
Nancy, Betsy, and my big sis Sierra
I have no idea what we were laughing at, but I love this picture.

aww look at the group

Nico. you crack me up. Sally. I'm so glad the leg made another appearance.

As you all know who've read along with me, they have been like our second family here. They have taken care of me when I was sick, cooked for me,done my laundry for me, watched over me, encouraged me,. . . and it has been wonderful, wonderful, wonderful to share a bit of this adventure that is Chile with them. I am very sad to see them go and not quite sure what I will do without my american-chilean parents. I love you guys and will miss you A LOT. I feel so lucky to have had the chance to spend time with you both. cliched, but true and heartfelt.

Nico is an artist-an incredible artist. He draws mostly. . . but I guess with this artistic talent comes a great eye. Randomly one day I went to the bathroom, and when I got back he was taking these random photos:
which are
way cooler

than the pictures I normally take.

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My life has been rotarrific lately. I have gave five presentations in two weeks. Rotariffic, I tell you. First, I went to Chillan. I stayed with my host in concepcion's (Gunther) son (Herbert). His family was extremely gracious to host me, and I had a great time. Here are some photos of the Rotarians I met in Chillan:

Club Chillan Oriente brought in these great Cueca dancers to do a little show for me!!! They were amazing.

doing the cueca (the chilean national dance)



This is me, Herbert, and the club president after my presentation exchanging banners.

Me and Rotary Club Chillan Oriente
I also had the chance to go to an opening of a new dental clinic in a school. ( a project sponsored by Rotary club Chillan Oriente)
look at how cute these kids are!! They were singing about the importance of healthy teeth-singing! It reminded me of all the times that my dad used to come to my schools when I was younger to talk about teeth. good memories. love you dad.

Gustavo, me, and Rodrigo (the socios that took me to the opening-super buena onda)

This is Rotary club Marta Colvin (mostly all female), and they rock my socks off. I had a great time at their meeting. These ladies mean business. The woman in the light blue in the middle of the picture is the past district governor, Maria Teresa. She was the first female district governor in Chile.

This is me and the president of the third club I visited in Chillan, club Chillan.

and the club Chillan

The following week, I went to Arauco and Lota to give presentations.
Me and the rotary club Arauco (unexpectedly, I had to stay the night after the meeting (without contact case, solution, or a clean change of clothes or shoes other than the heels I was wearing), and I had to put my contacts in two glasses of water while I slept. The chlorine in the water turned my eyes a shed of red the color of a coke can for about an hour, but by the time I got on the bus back to concepcion I didn't look too scary.

Me at the Rotary club Lota (this is the president to my left). I have to say that these gentlemen asked me some amazing questions, and were really engaging.

the club in Lota

Right after this photo was taking, the man dropped my camera. It's not broken. I'm going to try to take it to Santiago this week to see if they can fix it. Let's cross our fingers. The lovely rotarian lent me his camera in the meantime which was super nice of him.
--------

I'm pretty bummed because Kara should be here right now at my side, but she's not. We were going to travel together for about two weeks, but she had to "POSTPONE"(because she's still coming darnet) her trip because her passport still hasn't arrived. sad. BUT, I'm keeping my chin up because the trip is not canceled just postponed, as i said.

____________

Nicolas is a really talented artist. -the other night we were at a friend's goodbye party, and I could tell he was bored so I pulled out a little pad I keep and a pen out of my purse, and he drew my eye-in like ten minutes. check this out:(I took this picture with my camera in my comp. so it's a little blurry)how cool is that?????

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Ok-I'm sorry this entry has been a bunch of random stuff crammed together. I think my classes start sometime next week, but I'm not entirely sure. I'm going tomorrow to check out the schedule for the postgrad classes (I still have to write a paper for my masters class from last semester that is due August 10th), and I'm also going to talk to Emerita (my boss) about how many hours I want to teach and when(which will be hard to say since I don't know my class schedule yet).

OH-I almost forgot. I'm famous. That's right. I've now appeared in my second Chilean newspaper. believe it. I will try and scan the giant picture of my face for you all to see-it's hilarious. The article isn't really good. for several reasons. like it says i said stuff I didn't say-like for example the works "sacarse la mugre"-how do i know i didnt say that? because when I read it I had to turn to Nicolas and ask-What does that mean?

anyways-I guess its typical journalism in the sense that there are missing contexts-things I said that weren't mentioned that I wish she had mentioned. Not to mention the fact that the article is written as if she sat and spoke to me.


This is how it really went down.

I was napping and my phone rang. I picked it up sleepily-didn't recognize the number and put it down again, without answering it. Then, it rang again. and again. and again. and again. On the sixth time-I answered it-

"WHATTT?" no, not really. I was nice and said a groggy hello.

it was the journalist. some rotarians had told her that I was super interesting (ha) and that the paper should do a story on me. I was totally confused and kept asking-wait. why do you want to do a story about me again? wait, wait -but why do you want to do a story about me?

we talked for about thirty minutes. she was really nice. ok-BUT the point is that it was a phone interview and in the article she describes me like "she says, her eyes twinkling and with a bright smile" seriously? seriously! you didn't even see me!

then. . . there was a photographer. . . a photographer who came to the university and took about a hundred pictures of me all over the university.

I was telling Nico about the photographer and our convo went a little like this:
(remembered and translated by me into english)
me "yeah this photographer took about a billion pictures of me today all over the university"
nico "why did he take so many?"
me "I don't know. he said he wanted to have lots to choose from. He also told me that he could be a millionaire with my photos."
nico "ha. that's creepy. and you weren't worried?"
me "well, he told me he was going to send me all the pictures. that he was taking so many for me-so I could have them as a souvenir."
nico "ha. and you believed him? You know he probably has all your pictures blown up and all over his walls."
me "great. thanks. that's just great. crazy old chilean men who love me."

The front page of the paper says something like from Alabama to Concepcion following the footsteps of Neruda. my favorite part of the article (not) is a phrase that says-Meredith is known in the classroom for being not only pretty, but also nice! SERIOUSLY-NICE AND PRETTY? IN THE CLASSROOM? NOT SMART? I MEAN IM HERE ON A SCHOLARSHIP PEOPLE!AND I MAKE GOOD GRADES! AHHHHHH

ok. that's all. It really wasn't that bad. thank god I am pretty and nice.
________________
when depressed----watch greys anatomy. It makes everything better. Mere/Der I love you, and I'm rooting for you.
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This week Akshai and Nicole have been at a conference in Buenos Aires, and I miss them.
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so I find myself in the midst of beginnings and endings. and I am living here. and my spanish has good days and bad days. better days with Nico-I'm trying to teach him some english. It is soo cold here, but it is nice to have a warm hand to hold.

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and that's it for now I guess. I promise to write again soon. How are you? Let me know. I love emails.

Hope you and yours happy and safe,

una aurora,
Mere

Slow Lament (from Residencia en La Tierra)

Into the night of the heart
your name drops slowly
and moves in silence and falls
and breaks and spreads its water.

Something wishes for its sligt harm
and its infinite and short esteem,
like the step of a lost one
suddenly heard.

Suddenly, suddenly listened to
and spread in the heart
with sad insistence and increase
lie a cold autumnal dream.

The thick wheel of the earth,
its tire moist with oblivion,
spins, cutting time
into inaccessible halves.

Its hard goblets cover your heart
spilt upon the cold earth
with its poor blue sparks
flying in the voice of the rain.