"El futuro es espacio,
espacio color de tierra,
color de nube,
color de agua, de aire,
espacio negro para muchos sueños,
espacio blanco para toda la nieve,
para toda la música."

I have a friend!! (mis padres chilenos are my friends, but I have another friend my age!)

I have been hoping to have a chance to speak more with Claudia, their daughter, because she is my age. And last night and today she and I spent a lot of time talking, and we are pretty much thick as theives now. She is a lovely person and speaks some english because Pancho and Berti sent all their children to a private English school. All their classes were in English from first to eighth grade. Can you imagine what that would be like in another language?? So, many times when we talk she tries to only speak in English and I only speak in English. It's quite helpful but also pretty entertaining. Claudia is very outgoing and fun loving but also very intelligent and strong. She speaks her mind strongly and is very caring with her family. We've talked a lot about politics, music, family, and of course, boys. She reminds me so much of my close girl friends at home. We laugh a lot.





I'm very thankful that she has been so kind to me, and guess what???? I introduced her to Grey's Anatomy tonight, and of course. . . she loves it!!! I knew I would be good at the good will ambassador thing, just kidding : ).

And, I made the family, my gram's homemade chocolate chip cookies. I had to improvise a bit and make my own chocolate chips, but they turned out great and everyone loves them. Que rica! -they always say when they like something a lot. They said it a lot during the cookie eating. I would confess that they were just being nice, but the cookies actually turned out surprising similar, especially considering that i used something that I "thought" was shortening, and I didn't really have any measuring cups, and the oven degrees were in celcius. : )

Oh and I went with Berti to this open air vegetable and fruit market. It was the neatest experience. There were so many people and the produce was amazing and cheap. ahhh fresh plums everyday. seriously. this is the life.

This morning Pancho and I left the house, and at the time he told me we were going to find Berti (who was riding her bike) in the park. I was excited and dressed in black capris, a short sleeved shirt, and my flip flops. Well, it turns out that this park, San Cristobal is amazingly beautiful, but. . .

it is a very large mountain.












So, we hiked. . . and hiked. . . and hiked. . .for two hours up to the top with Bikers wizzing past us as we looked for Berti. But, an applause for my flip flops because they were warriors, and we made it all the way up and back and they are still in tact. It was a pretty intense hike. We reached the top where a beautiful Virgen statue is located and got to take some scenic pictures, but still no Berti.





























































We went home. She was at home.

It was great though. The hike really got my blood pumping, it was an amazing view, and I got to bond some more with Pancho, we spoke politics. . . pretty intense convo, especially on my end. You have no idea how hard it is to talk about politics when you get so flustered because you can't remember if democrats translate to democratas o democraticas o democratadas. . . you get my point. (ah. o is or in spanish) Anyways, I also learned the words for steep, bumpy, arrow, and crack (cracks on the road. no. . . not that kind mom. . . I know it kills)[this is a random inside family joke--sorry to include but I couldn't help it).

ANYways, my point is our conversation was prettied varied and always is. I mean when you're talking about Iraq one moment and crack the next. . . ha. . . sorry, mom you better be laughing.
_________

After we returned we had a barbecue, and Berti's brother, his wife, two children, and Berti's parents came. We have spending a lot of time with Berti's parents, which is a hoot because her dad loves to practice his english, so he will only speak to me in English and I HAVE to reply in english. It's great.

It was a lovely afternoon. I ate every crumb off my plate (grilled chicken, cabbage, grean beans and another type of beans, corn, and bread). We all relaxed and chatted-a great family gathering. See pictures:












The boy is Claus and that's his dad, Berti's brother. And the lady is Claus's mom with him on the swing. Then, of course is gorgeous Claudia. Did I tell you that she calls me her amiggi now??? It's like a more endearing way of calling someone your amiga or friend. I'm an amiggi! Don't you like that word?? I do. Try it out. come on gramps. You know you want to call grams your amiggi instead of. . . well, you know all the other sweet names you call her!!! I love you guys!!
That's Berti and her brother and Pancho in the background. and then just Berti. Claudia got really excited about my camera and was trying out the different settings. This is color tinting or something like that.








Then is a picture of claus and his mom. Then these are pictures of me that I didn't realize until the second one were being taken.




































Ok, so this Berti's mom, and as you can see, she is asleep. This was so hilarious because she always says that she Never takes naps, but she had a little too much wine AND pisco sour and she actually fell asleep on the table and then they moved her to the couch. They kept taking pictures of her because they said that she always wakes up and swears she wasn't asleep. Isn't this funny? The girl is francisca, Claus's sister. and of course. . . mi amiggi who could be a model-Claudia. she's so nice.




















I'm sorry I haven't posted since friday--it usually takes me a couple of days to put an entry together because it takes so long to put the pictures in, so technically today is Tuesday. The hike and lunch ocurred on Sunday. Yesterday I went to class and met my new other professor, Macarena. She's going to focus on literature with me. We started with a chilean writer named Francisco Coloane, and yesterday and today we have read two short stories. What's cool about this for me--is that even though I learned about fifty new words with these texts because there are a lot of chilean specific terms and just new words for me---even though all of this--I get the stories and the images and the concepts, you know? And although I like grammar (it's helping me a lot and Rodrigo is great and pretty cute) when I get to literature it's almost like I exhale, because the stories, they're my thing, you know? and Macarena is the same way, she gets excited with me. and I can she also excited that I appreciate the stories. Macarena and I have had two really great discussions about each story, and I feel like I fall right back into a 'Southern english class because I get excited about the possibilities of different reading and the strength of the images and the concepts, and my mind starts racing and it's almost easier for me to speak spanish because I get so excited and have so much to say.

Today in grammar class, Rodrigo and I just had a long discussion about differences between the US and Chile ( he of course correcting me every twenty or so seconds. I'm probably giving myself too much credit. more like every ten seconds). So, we talked about Education, taxes, social security, health, minimum wage, etc. Aren't you proud that I know how to talk about those things in Spanish?? no? well, i am. : )

It was cool. I even talked to him a little about the alabama consitution. He's really quick and had a lot of questions. at the end of the convo, I was a little pooped because it was hard work for my brain, and I tried to tell him I needed a pat on the back. and he got up like he thought I was choking. ha. and I just told him that I thought I did a good job and it was an english frase, you know, that I needed a pat on the back. he got it. we got a good laugh out of that. but it was a good convo.

I was telling him how hard it is because I feel like I know all of the grammar rules pretty well, and if you give me enough time I can pretty much conjugate everything correctly in my head, sometimes it just takes a while. And he told me that it's because right now I'm using everything much more quickly and more often than I'm used to and right now all of it is just swirling in my head, but he said that I will reach a point of really intense frustration and then everything will just fall into place and I'll be pretty much fluent.

Let's everyone pause together for a moment and say a prayer that this happens. seriously, no I'm just kidding. it will.

Ok. well, oh and Gianni showed up. He's been working in the south for the past week, but he's back. He's nice and funny. It's nice to have someone else around my age. Yesterday, Claudia, Gianni and I ate lunch together, and we played this game where I read the descriptions from my "How to survive in the chilean jungle" book on chileanismos and they tried to guess which word it was. fun times.

Have I told you my eating schedule??? I eat breakfast every morning at eight and then leave for class. I eat lunch at about 2:30 every afternoon when I get back, and then we usually don't eat dinner until 9:00 or 9:30. Isn't that strange??

I'm getting used it to it.

alright folks, I'm sure I'm forgetting things, but It's getting late. I'm pretty tired because the days are so long. We just got make to the house tonight at 10:15.

love all you guys. drop me an email if you can and let me know how life is. and if you want to write me or anything, I now have a zipcode too! (thanks to mom who found it on the internet)

Meredith Hanson and Berti Gerlah
Los Conquistadores 1962
Providencia 7530098
Santiago, CHILE

I am right now as we speak talking to mom through skype!! It's the coolest thing ever. You can talk to anyone through the internet for free. Check it out at skype.com and call me!!!

I hope you and yours are happy and safe.

"The future is space,
earth-colored space,
cloud-colored,
color of water, air,
black space with room for many dreams,
white space with room for all snow,
for all music."

una aurora,
mere
English and Spanish versions of "El futuro es espacio" below:

The Future Is Space

The future is space,
earth-colored space,
cloud-colored,
color of water, air,
black space with room for many dreams,
white space with room for all snow,
for all music.
Behind lies despairing love
with no room for a kiss.
There’s a place for everyone in forests,
in streets, in houses;
there’s an underground space, a submarine space,
but what joy to find in the end,
rising,
an empty planet,
great stars clear as vodka,
so uninhabited and so transparent
and arrive there with the first telephone
so that so many men can later discuss
all their infirmities.
The important thing is to be scarcely aware of oneself,
to scream from a rough mountain range
and see on another peak
the feet of a woman newly arrived.
Come on, let’s leave
this suffocating river
in which we swim with other fish
from dawn to shifting night
and now in this discovered space
let’s fly to a pure solitude.

El futuro es espacio

El futuro es espacio,
espacio color de tierra,
color de nube,
color de agua, de aire,
espacio negro para muchos sueños,
espacio blanco para toda la nieve,
para toda la música.
Atrás quedó el amor desesperado
que no tenía sitio para un beso,
hay lugar para todos en el bosque,
en la calle, en la casa,
hay sitio subterráneo y submarino,
qué placer es hallar por fin,
subiendo
un planeta vacío,
grandes estrellas claras como el vodka
tan transparentes y deshabitadas,
y allí llegar con el primer teléfono
para que hablen más tarde tantos hombres
de sus enfermedades.
Lo importante as apenas divisarse,
gritar desde una dura cordillera
y ver en la otra punta
los pies de una mujer recién llegada.
Adelante, salgamos
del río sofocante
en que con otros peces navegamos
desde el alba a la noche migratoria
y ahora en este espacio descubierto
volemos a la pura soledad.