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.

__________________________
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?????

______________
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.
_______________

This week Akshai and Nicole have been at a conference in Buenos Aires, and I miss them.
_____________
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.

______________

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.

Happy Independence Day!

I love Chile. Don´t get me wrong.

But it´s the 4th of July, and I woke up this morning at 6:30 am because I had a final at 8am, and it was raining and cold. . .

and the 4th of July. our independence day, and I sighed and thought about all the independence days of my past. . . the images that the day brings to mind:

family
bar b cue
sun
summer
ice cream
lemonade
and most importantly. . .

FIREWORKS!!! and it´s raining here. and cold. and my family is so far. But then I got up and put on my Blue jeans, RED sweater, White scarf, and blue earrings (thank you), and I felt better. Independence day isn´t the bar b Que, it´s the patriotism you carry inside (wow. that´s sounds like a bad infomercial doesnt it???)anyways,

We have been talking a lot about the idea of "nation" and national identity in my lit class, and I think (on a day like today)that national identity is often about simple shared things. feeling connected. It´s not even about national pride.

we got that one under control.

it´s about the security of knowing there are people all over your country celebrating. . . with you. People you will never know. . . who maybe completely different from you in every way imaginable. . . except for the fact that they also call themselves Americans (and yes, I´m allowed to use the term today because it´s Independence day, and I want to.) We are only as lonely as we allow ourselves to be; there are so many things that connect us. Today, I am proud to be an American. Proud to come from a place of diversity, possibility, hope, and the potential for change.

and these (directly below). . . although I am posting them on my blog. They are really more for me then they are for you. Because you will have yours today I imagine. (Somebody better do some sophisticated sparkler-dancing and design making for me. . .by the way.)

Some updates:

Have I told you all that I have been camera-less for something like two months??? Tim and I accidentally exchanged chargers in San Pedro (we have the same brand of camera) and so I haven't been able to charge my battery. Luckily, Sally takes pictures of everything, so I've just been stealing hers.

I´m finishing up with my classes. WE finally resumed classes and ended the strike. Several buildings are still in Toma even after they shot down the school for two days so the police could come in and take back the buildings. The students just took them over again. surprise. but it was Super dramatic. you can imagine.

I took my last final this morning ( I annihilated it.HA-i love using Mortal Kombat vocabulary to describe post-test feelings). ANYways, it went well. Now, I have to finish grading (which i should be doing now). Did I say the United States Independence day isn`t a holiday here? I actually woke up sad. Like, wait a minute, WHAT i have to like pretend like its a normal day?? in the rain???Boo.

But I´m still wearing my Patriotic fashion.

And then I have to do one more large paper for my masters class, but its not due for a few more weeks.

And. Now. my love life.

Because I´m lazy and have been really busy getting ready for finals, I had started this entry like weeks ago (minus the 4th of july thoughts), and so at that point i had written:

I know some of you are curious, but I don't want to say too much about my date (for obvious reasons although he doesn't speak any English). Being the complete OVER-analyzer that I am, am still pondering. . . but, lets just say. . . it was lovely. . . and I hope I see him again soon.

I will say though. . .IMAGINE. . .having one of those first dates where you really think you like the other person and you're talking about all the random, varied stuff you talk about on those first dates when you end up talking like (awkward) you were trying to hand someone an image of yourself as if it were a baseball card (which is impossible). . .and there's jokes, and intense questions. . .

and it's all in another language.

And I thought dating was stressful in English!!!! It was good for me though. . .and my spanish was alright. . .all though he is puro chileno, and I so I got lost in a lot of the modismos. We also were only in loud places (restaurant then bar) so I couldn't really hear him too well. There was lots of hand gestures and drawing (he likes to draw cuz he is an amazing artist), but it was all fun.

Needless, to say, he asked me out again. . . and again. . .so. . .we´re sorta dating. His name is Nicolàs and pictures are coming soon. So. . . he´s great. (smiling)

Anyways. . .I know I've talked about them before, but I'm really thankful to have Sally and Nicole here. You know how you just meet some people and fall into friendships as if you've always known each other and always been friends?? thats what its like with these two. . . lots of laughs. . . lots of singing. . . lots of joy. Here's some photos of our recent adventures.

To see the album in its entirety. . .click here:

Sally, Mere, and Nicole

a Saturday or two ago, George and Nancy, our resident family, hosted all of us over for a wonderful Taco salad party. . . we even had refried beans that they had brought back from the states. Man, I miss refried beans. They were sooooo goood. Sally was quite excited about the whole affair, since she wasn't quite sure what tacos were much less taco salads. I know, hard to imagine right?

It was great fun, and we got to meet two of Akshai's friends from home, Liz and Lauren, who were both lovely. . . a good time had by all.

Sally, Nicole, and I took the train to Hualci. . . good times. . . we brought provisions, ate rigochoc, scared small children, and ran in the rain:





This is pancho man. . . we kind of loved him and wanted to (as sally says)"invite him home for tea." But we didnt, of course.

Sally and Nicole organized an amazing talent show at their university. The acts were actually super impressive.

Me, Chris, and Nick

Ok. I´m obsessed with this song. It`s the portugese version of Damien Rice`s "Blower`s Daughter" and although I LOVE YOU DAMIEN, I think I like this version better. And i dont understand a word of portugese. but it doesnt matter. and YES that is a woman that is singing the first verse even though she sounds like a man. she is cool.

Other than that. I´ve been studying a lot. Nico`s sick. He has a fever. He cooked for me. He´s not machista. He makes me laugh. oK. no mas

I had a rotariffic weekend. I spent both Friday and Saturday with my beloved Rotarians. Friday night we went to Los Angeles and didnt get back until 4am. It was a blast as always. And Saturday they had an event in Conce to introduce a new club, change officers, and accept new members.

I talked with my Masters profesora last night about applying officially to the program and she was completely excited and totally encouraging (about the possibiliity of applying for scholarships as well), so I feel good about all that.

One of the most intense requirements to apply is a fluency in speaking, reading, and writing English. . . and I was like SWEET. . .

1. Yay! for my english being useful for something in Chile
2. check that little bad boy off the qualifications list. . . I do know how to read and write English!! Woo Whoooo

KARA IS COMING!!!! TO VISIT ME !!! and I am sooooooooo excited. She will be ehre from July 24th until August 8th, and we are going to travel around Chile and maybe spend a few days in Argentina too. Her birthday is the 16th, so we will be having a SABB 07 SOUTH AMERICAN BIRTHDAY BLOWOUT 07!!!!

and i cant wait!

I´m going to Chillan next week for four days. I´m going to give two rotary presentations and learn all about Chillan.

Sally leaves next Saturday. I can´t think about it or will get really depressed. really. i don´t know what i will do without her. . .no more duets. .. no more 4am eggs. .. no more pant ripping. . . ballet in the calle. . . it makes me sad. But i know she is excited to travel and see her family, and Nicole have decided we are going to visit her in Beer sometime in the near future. Meanwhile, I am going to pretend that she´s not leaving.

FAMILY: I miss you soo much, and I hope you have an amazing 4th. . . soak up the sun for me. . . wish I could be there

I found this quotation which perfectly depicts what I miss today and why I like being an American:

"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism." ~Erma Bombeck

hope you and yours are happy and safe,

una aurora,

Mere