Aurora: June 2007

"Let what I am, then, be,"

The week before last my dear friend Kristin left to go back to Canada. But before she left we all went out together to say good bye. We had dinner at a lovely restaurant.

Me, Nicole, and Sally

Kristin, sally, and Me

again

Kristin is a Huge Karaoke fan. So after dinner, we headed to a little Karaoke bar. She was pleading with each of us to sing before she left, but I wasn't really up for it. . . little did I know, I wouldn't really have a choice.

Imagine me: a semi-giant in this country standing over a table of friends in a Chilean Karaoke lounge, when the Karaoke GUY yells into the microphone,

"Hey you,
yeah you, in the red,
come sing!"

Uhhh me?? Then he puts on the song Black Velvet, and I am like

OK I will sing Karaoke in front of my fifteen friends (We are always the international table, respectfully representing Chile, USA, England, Scotland, Canada, and Japan)and then of course I drag Sally up there with me. and as soon as we´re up on the stage the Karaoke Guy puts on a Grease Medley. So, I began the night and my official farewell to Kristin with "I got chills they're multiplyin and I'm losin control cuz the power you're suplyin. . . its electrifyin. . .

Check out these pics: Be afraid:

It's Electrifyin!!!

You better shape up. . . Cuz I need a man. . .

Met a boy, cute as can be

Go Grease lightening. . .

What were those words again?

And my heart is set on you.

clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap

Are we really doing this??? WE must really Love Kristin.

We'll miss you Kristin

Ok. so since I'm thinking about food as usual. (I think I've gained 10 pounds at least) First, I have to tell you about a revolutionary cookie or biscuit as Sally would call it. It's covered in chocolate. so good.

on the negative side. PIZZA! I miss pepperoni : ((( soooo much and tomato sauce.

All the condiments in this country come in bags. Most of which aren't resealable. It is possibly the most ridiculous way to package condiments I have ever seen. I'm only bringing this up because we have mustard all over the inside of our fridge because of this poor packaging. Ahhh, the life of bachelorettes--rigochoc and mustard.

Last weekend, two british girls who are in Chile on the same scholarship as Sally came to visit us, Harriet and Daisy. They were absolutely amazing. Our French friend who is a professor at our Uni invited us all to her apartment for "her first dinner" on her new table. It was amazing!!!! We had such a lovely time:

Then, we headed to see Sally and I's new favorite chilean band. They sing Coldplay!
and had some laughs:

me, our new favorite band in the background, and crazy bald man

This is my "Please stop talking to me crazy bald man. I could be your daughter, and No, I'm not looking at you. You're in the way of the band" face.

The next morning we hiked up a hill in the park and got a great view of the city:

Then, we took a bus about thirty minutes away to a lovely little beach town called Tome:

and the girls ate some fresh seafood:

They were absolutely lovely, and I am so glad I had the chance to meet them. I love British people.

Also, I think I forgot to tell you, but I got interviewed recently by a Chilean newspaper, and now my picture is on the internet. I know, crazy huh? My hair, although it may appear so in this photo, is Not red. Check out this link. Click here.

In other news, we are on strike. Well, not me exactly, but the students in my classes are on strike. So, we haven't had class for more than a week. They are protesting several things: the administration for letting of a beloved professor who they believe was fired for sketchy reasons, they still haven't received their bus passes, and they don't have enough scholarship money. It's interesting. It seems that the students strike every year. It is apart of the system. In order to get what they want--they strike, and. . .it works. Unfortunately, sometimes they spend more time on strike than in class. The education majors spend the most time on strike. One of my lit. classes meets in the Education building, and I went on friday to see if we were going to have class, and the Education students had taken over the building. . .

This is a beautiful shot of the campus. I looked up as I was sitting on the bench and was struck by how beautiful everything looked.

Here's the education building:

So. . . still no class. Sad. I miss my professors.

This past weekend has been Rotariffic. Friday night I attended a Spaghetti fundraiser, which was really fun. But man--it started at 8pm and we didn't leave until 1:30 am!!! There was Karaoke and a raffle. I also had a chance to meet some professors from the university from several different areas.

Luchetti was the sponsor. Check out the bibs.

new friends

Last night, Herbert (Gunther's son) invited me to his daughter's baptism. On the hour and a half drive there we discussed politics and cultural exchange. One of those conversations you can't really begin to summarize, like so many moments of my days here, I felt connected, excited, lucky, and with a peace that I am exactly where I should be in my life. The baptism was wonderful, and I feel so honored that they invited me. They had it in their home, with around 40 friends and family, and after the ceremony (Carolina is two and was soooo cute) they had like an eight course sit-down dinner. I was able to sit at the family table with Gunther and his four children--Herbert(his daughter's baptism and his house), Andrea and her husband, Eduardo, and Ricardo.
We started with little bread appetizers that had different toppings.

Then, a type of pate on toast.

Then cheese empanadas.

Then, fresh oysters.

Then. . .the main course--beef, pork, turkey, rice, potatoes, and salad.

THEN (and I wonder why I'm gaining weight), desert. Three types.

Then. . . breath. . .adjust the pants. . . Cake, and

then. . . after dinner chocolates and drinks.

We also had champagne, pisco sours, wine, and cocktails. whew.

goodness what a lovely night of food and company. i laughed and talked, made many new friends, and we arrived back into Concepcion at about 3am. I tell you what. . .chileans don't do many things half way.

I also recently completed my first rotary report. It has some recycled blog moments, but is a good beginning reflection on my time here. Mom asked me to put it on the blog. . . if it begins to bore you. . . .skip it:

1. Provide information about your study program, including your adaptation and progress with your studies.
In my Classic works in Hispanic-American Literature class I just read and took a test on a book titled Respiración Artificial by Ricardo Piglia (absolutely amazing book), and it opens with a T. S. Eliot quotation:

“We had the experience but missed the meaning,
an approach to the meaning restores the experience.”

I love this quotation, and I think it has come to represent my learning experiences so far in Chile. As my first semester begins to close I am overwhelmed with the amount of information and experiences I have taken in so far. I’m taking five classes: three undergraduate literature courses (Classic Works in Hispanic-American Literature, Classic Works in Chilean Literature, and Forms of Discourse) one Spanish course (Español para extranjeros), and one Masters class (Gender and “the nation” in latin-american novels in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries). My undergraduate courses have been enlightening, and I have had the chance to read A LOT which is continually helping my Spanish and introducing me to the complex and diverse world that is Latin America and its literature. I have been able to keep up quite well and am averaging almost perfect scores (7s) in all my classes. I find myself continually going back to the themes we are discussing in my Masters class (there are only three people in the class: Me, a thirty-something grad student, and the professor so I have definitely been putting my Spanish conversation-about-literary theory- and literature analysis-to the test) which as you can guess from the title are gender and the nation—but also the basic triad: race, gender, and class and how they play a part in the configuration of “nation”. Thought-provoking questions about how “we” as people begin to self-identify, how we construct our ideas of self and society through all forms of discourse, but especially in literature are constantly in my thoughts as I adjust and incorporate myself into this new community.

And I take T.S.E’s quotation to heart in the sense that the literature I am reading has framed and continues to frame my experience here by providing windows into the historical, cultural, and ideological perspectives that are “America,” and more specifically South-America and Chile. Riding on the micro, random conversations with intrigued taxi drivers, people watching while eating empanadas on the sidewalk, hiking volcanoes, surfing sand dunes, having discussions about Education, literary tradition, and political history at a Chilean friends Birthday party, learning what it means to be “a minority”----all of these experiences and SO many more are deepened with constant reflections in relation to the books and pages I find myself entranced with.

2. Describe what steps you and your sponsor Rotarians took to prepare for your experience abroad. How did this preparation help you to meet the challenges of living and studying in your host country?

I was able to visit my sponsor Rotary club several times in the year before I left for Chile. I feel that attending regularly helped me to get know the members and hearing all the presenters helped me to get a clearer sense about the issues that my sponsor club cared about and the multitude of ways they make a difference in my community. My sponsor counselor, Chris Hoyt, was extremely helpful. He met with me several times and helped give me clearer sense of the values and ideals of my sponsor club and rotary in general, including giving me information about and pictures of the many service activities that the Sunrise Rotary Club participates in. I gave a formal presentation in mid-January before I left and was able to tell the club a little more about Chile, why I was going, what I was going to be doing there, and handed out my cards with my contact information, including my blog address which is an online journal for my family, friends, and Rotarians with overly detailed ramblings about my experience in Chile: http://meredithsaurora.blogspot.com. Another Rotarian and past president of my club, Norman Jetmundsen, was really helpful in my preparation. He introduced me to and scheduled a lunch with a Chilean doctor in town, and I had a wonderful time meeting his and asking him lots of questions.
I attended the regional conference in December ’05 which was great because I learned all about Rotary, but also extremely important because I met Marian Schlotterbeck the Rotary Scholar that in Concepción in 2006. As you can imagine, having her as a contact as been crucial. She has patiently and faithfully answered all of my questions and constantly been there to give me advice and encouragement. I wish that I had had the opportunity to attend the conference again in December ’06 closer to my departure, but the first conference was very helpful in my preparation.

3. How have you been involved in Rotary since you arrived in your host country? Please describe the ambassadorial activities in which you have participated.

When I arrived into Concepción on March 1st I was greeted my host mom and two Rotarians who have come to mean more to me than just sponsors and acquaintances, they seem much more like family—Domke Gunther Schultz (my host club’s president and my sponsor) and Nelson Olate (my club’s secretary and all around club entertainer) who presented me with lovely flowers. From that point on I have had nothing but positive experiences with Club Concepción. On Tuesday March 6th I was formally introduced to my host club, gave a brief presentation, and exchanged banners. Unlike my sponsor club which meets at 7:00 am, my host club meets at 8:30 pm, has dinner and lasts for a few hours. I have had such an amazing time getting to know these gentlemen. I have attended pretty regularly, usually about every other week. On April 17th I gave a larger formal presentation to the club on Alabama, the civil rights movement, and southern writers, and my sponsor club. They asked wonderful questions and seemed to really enjoy the presentation and the discussion that followed. The following weekend I was able to attend the district conference with Domke Gunther and his wife and some other Rotarians from my host club. (an excerpt from my blog) “Once again I was immensely proud to be associated with Rotary International, and extremely thankful that I have had the opportunity to meet so many amazing, thoughtful Rotarians.   The conference was more than informative: it was charged, passionate, invigorating, enlightening, thought-provoking, and inspirational. And I am not trying to brown nose. The Rotarians I met care deeply for each other. It was almost like being at a family reunion. Although they were always composed and formal, they embraced each other upon meeting, seemed continually thankful to be a part of such an amazing network.  Like the Rotarians in Birmingham, these Rotarians mean business. They take their roles in the community very seriously and amid all the laughter and memories, they were there to talk about serious issues. I have to admit that I was a little worried that I might be a little snoozy in some of the sessions, but it was quite the contrary. I was extremely impressed by All the speakers. I learned about things like the Chilean Education system and possible reforms, the Chilean Family structure and its implications, the Chilean navy, and much more. And I was continually impressed by the eloquence of the Rotarians who spoke-the representative of Rotary International's President-a past district governor from Argentina made several speeches which were thoughtful and impressive, summarizing the role of Rotary, its interconnected nature, and the places it is going.  In short, I was moved by the weekend. Moved by the relationships I saw-the projects that are happening--and the people that are involved. "Señalamos el Rumbo" (We) Lead the way. an appropriate slogan for an international group that has touched the lives of so many people, and continues to break down new barriers and internationally cooperate to make change.” I was able to make some great contacts and am in the process of trying to schedule dates to go and visit clubs during the university’s winter break in July. I am very excited to be able to visit these clubs and share. Luckily, I have also been able to volunteer at a local school (about a ten minute bus ride) helping to teach English, which has been an amazingly enriching experience. My club has helped and continues to help me integrate myself into this community.

4. What are your first impressions of your host country and the people in your community? Please describe culturally significant locations you have visited and opportunities you have had to share your culture.

“We
the wandering
poets
explored
the world,
life received us,
we took part
in the earthly struggle.
What was our victory?
A book,
a book full
of human touches,
of shirts,
a book
without loneliness, with men
and tools,
a book
is victory.” – “Ode to the book (II)” Pablo Neruda

Chile’s chapter in my life, which I and it are writing as we breathe, reads for me themes of newness, differentness, sameness, loneliness, wholeness, and well. . .of course, Ginkgos. As an undergraduate student at Birmingham-Southern College I connected the image of Ginkgo tree with time, with fall and Munger (a building), with change and cycles, with time and the lack of time. The leaves of the Ginkgo turn bright yellow during the fall, imagine a thick yellow blanket of puzzle pieces with silky leaves. I love the Ginkgo—maybe because in fall, the two ginkgo trees outside of Munger are such a staggering sight that they always made me want to sit down on the sidewalk and just look up, maybe because maybe because my very first creative writing class was with Dr. Sandra Sprayberry, and on the first day she made us go down and hug the ginkgo, and then write about it----maybe it's just because to me they seem like a larger-than-life essence. They make me fell small in a good way.  You get my point. On my first walk across La Universidad de Concepción I turned a corner behind a building and just stopped, stood still. Here thousands of miles away from the “time” and culture I know stood large green Ginkgos in pure summer.
I believe that truly immersing oneself in a culture is a process of learning. First a person must come to respect the differences between their culture and the new culture. For example, in Chile, time works in a different way than it does in the states. Appointments are almost always flexible, as well as deadlines. The world moves slower, but not in a bad sense, just in a different sense. People are more laid back, more relaxed. The saying “Don’t put off ‘til tomorrow what could be done today” doesn’t exist and isn’t conceptualized in this country. So, there is less hurry, less pressure, less stress. For someone from the United States, this different concept of time can be difficult to adjust to, but once adjusted, provides a fresh new way to breathe, to see time, and possibly an opportunity to leave unnecessary stress behind.
There are the obvious differences that I encountered when I arrived: language, politics, societal norms. Luckily the language barrier hasn’t been such a big deal for me, thanks to my Spanish minor and my month of language study in Santiago. Politics is a whole another issue that is often unavoidable in Chile. Regardless of how much I might want to be and feel like an individual I am subject to all the stereotypical labels that come with the many general and physical factors that make me me: United States Citizen, female, and white. These, my race, gender, and national identity, which are only three characteristics amongst innumerable others that make me who I am, are enough in and of themselves to categorize and define me here. Extranjera. estadounidense, mujer, blanca. So, it is a daily shared learning process between me and the Chileans in my life (friends, professors, random acquaintances)—I will not see you only as a “Chilean” –if you will not only see me as an “Estadounidense.” You do not represent all of Chilean people, culture, history, and government just like I do not represent in and of myself what it means to be a United States American—there is no such person or thing—Like Chile, the US is a widely diverse country with people from a plethora of different backgrounds and belief systems who are united as a “nation” under a common government, but in that unity, United States Americans have widely varying opinions and level of support for their government. And so I try to perceive as I would want to be perceived, to thoughtfully take in the people and culture, while trying not to make wide-spread stereotypes, which is still not easy.
If I seem as if I am avoiding the heart of this question it is not because I do not have clear images of Chilean culture (the Andes, the sea at sunset in Tome, the desert moon above San Pedro, the ipods and black suits in the metro, pastel de choclo or de papas, melon tuna and cuchen, my professors, hidden mountain trails, roaming dogs, avocados—lots of avocados, chocolate with almonds, carmineré red wine, inti-illimani playing to a packed tiny theater, hot dogs in Café Neruda at 1am, nanas in uniforms, gated houses, and books with security tags, nes café, and pan, lots of pan). But these are my images—words and pages in my book—that do not and can not necessarily accurately represent Chile, just my experience of it.
Back to my process of immersing oneself—after the first step of respecting and acknowledging our cultural differences, I believe we must begin to celebrate our similarities, while maintaining that original respect for our differences. I spent my first month during February with a lovely family in Santiago. Within a week or two, I felt fully integrated into the family. We went on days trips, cooked together, explored the city together. I helped them look for furniture and buy fruits and vegetables in the markets. We laughed and sang together, shared meals and played games together. In so many ways, it was too good to be true as an introduction to Chile, and I was sad to leave them. Luckily, I have been able to visit them regularly and hope to continue to visit them. When I sit in my literature classes, the language is different, the people in the stories sometimes look different and dress different, but the themes are strikingly similar to what I have read before, and not just because they have death, birth, and love stories. These writers struggle with slavery, chauvinism, inequality, civilization vs. barbarity, power, manipulation, indigenous populations, and genocide, to name a few topics. There are moments when I forget which people these stories are writing about. . . because they remind me so much of stories I have read before, with different settings and different characters but with similar plots.
Learning about Chile and being a good will ambassador is about more than just respecting the differences or acknowledging the similarities between cultures- but about taking advantage of the chance to share in and celebrate both, to exchange moments and perspectives with an open heart and open mind. And so, now while time is quickly approaching summer in my land, the Ginkgos here have yellowed with fall and our dropping their leaves. Life has a funny way of reminding you how you are never far from home--that even when you feel as if the world has never been this way before and may never be again--with each new dawn or aurora--you are underneath the same skies (los mismos cielos)--watched over by the same trees, and touched by people and places in the same ways. I imagine that in Birmingham in the next few months, the Ginkgos will be thriving green again, sprouting new leaves, new bright green leaves. Exactly at the same time the Ginkgos here are losing the last clinging yellow leaves with fall as we settle into winter. Once again my year has been marked with a yellow autumn, my pages--book marked with yellow leaves—are waiting to be read and written.

___________________________________________________
I watched the presidential debates with British and Chilean friends. and. . . I'm worried.

Today, I cleaned my room. Quite an accomplishment, if you know me. and I have been trying to read. The last time my classes met we had two tests scheduled for this friday on four different books. But they're all great, I just need to finish them before friday. I still have a presentation to give that was originally scheduled for May 25 but repeatedly postponed. I'm in the process of trying to schedule all my rotary presentations. Hopefully, I will be able to do several in July while I'm on break.

I'm crossing my fingers that Kara is going to be able to come and visit me the last two weeks in July so that we can travel around Argentina for a little while.
_______________

Ok. Favorite Inti-illimani song of the week. Check it out. The picture isn't great, but it's the song I want you to hear.

________________
I met a boy. The first boy I have met since I've been here.Just kidding.

I met a boy that I like.

He's nice. I don't even really know him that well yet, but for those of you who would care, that's that. and he exists (and is taller than me).

hmm. . . what else in my life summary for this week. . . my room is clean. Some birds pood on my clothes while they were hanging to dry. only me right?

I am happy, and I'm going to eat lentil soup.

This is the view out my window:

Hope you and yours are happy and safe,

una aurora,
Mere

It means Shadows

How silly to think about it, what pure omen,
what a definitive kiss to bury in the heart
to yield in the origins of helplessness and intelligence,
soft and safe upon the eternally troubled waters?

What vital, rapid wings of a new angel of dreams
to lay upon my sleeping shoulders for perpetual safety,
in such a way that the road among the stars of death
shall be a violent flight begun many days and months and
centuries ago?

Perhaps the natural weakness of suspicious and anxious beings
suddenly seeks permanence in time and limits on earth,
perhaps the tediums and the ages implacably accumulated
extend like lunar wave of an ocean newly created
upon shores and lands grievously deserted.

Ah, let what I am go on existing and ceasing to exist,
and let my obedience be ordered with such iron conditions
that the tremor of deaths and of births will not trouble
the deep place that I wish to keep for myself eternally.

Let what I am, then, be, in some place and in every time,
an established and assured and ardent witness,
carefully destroying itself and preserving itself incessantly,
clearly insistent upon its original duty. {p.s. I love this stanza}