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Published: October 12th 2010
“Well helloooooo everybody! It’s time for another “Alex Leal’s Shenanigans Update”— Also known as my travel blog.
Since I just posted my last blog on what, Wednesday of last week, there’s not a huge amount of things to fill you all in on. But there are some, so here we go! ^_^
Thursday and Friday nights were the Jazz Festival that my class put on. It was actually a pretty big deal, and there were five jazz groups invited from around the region to come play. Only four showed up, though, because one of them got in a car accident on the way to the festival—no worries though, everyone was okay. Thursday during the day I got out of class early to help set up for Jazz Fest after second hour. A group of about seven of us walked to “Casa Blanca,” a fancy place that is rented out for events. Partway there, the girls in the group decided to take the micro (city bus) instead of walking, so us guys continued on foot. Casa Blanca is across town from school, and in order to get there we had to pass near my house. We made a short detour
Supersoakers? Laaaaame.
These firefighters REALLy know how to have a proper water gun fight.there so I could drop off my backpack (we wouldn’t be done decorating and setting up until around 5—long after school finished), and then continued on our way. On—”
Ho-ly MACKEREL, it’s been a LONG time since I posted my last blog!!! I just got back inside from climbing a tree in our back yard to pick an avocado for our lunch, and thought “I haven’t written for a while…hmm maybe I should do that.”
I wrote that paragraph in quotes up above on the Sunday after my last blog, which was about a month ago—sheesh, I’ve really gotta get on top of this thing. However, I’ve had fairly good reason for not writing though: as per the usual, I’ve gotten myself WAY too involved with things here. It’s a good thing though :D Okay, so, I’ve gotta go over the past month…? This should be a doozy of a blog, folks, so polish your reading glasses, sit back in your chair, and get ready because it’s been jam-packed with adventures!
(continuing where I left off up above) -the way there we had to pass by the La Ligua museum. At first glance it’s a fairly small,
Dulces
Don't they look GOOD? single room with a large model of the Petorca province in the middle, along with some old movie projectors (which is interesting, because the modern-day La Ligua doesn’t have a movie theater) and several large displays on the walls giving information about various parts of La Ligua’s history—industries, historical events, notable people, groups (including Rotary), and natural disasters. The most recent natural disaster—and the most devastating—was in 1985. During that year there was a massive earthquake that completely leveled the city. We’re talking like 100% destruction, people. Today you’d never know that such a tragedy happened, but everyone who experienced it knows exactly what you’re talking about when you ask about the “La Ligua terremoto.” One interesting thing that I found out just last night, actually, is that the state of Wisconsin isn’t entirely unknown to people here, because there’s a street named “Wisconsin” on the south end of town. Why? It turns out that our state donated money to rebuild that neighborhood after the earthquake! I was pretty proud to be a cheesehead when I found that out :D Anyway, so the museum appears, at first glance, to be prettysmall. However, as you move toward the back wall of
displays another room seems to appear out of nowhere, and inside is completely dedicated to La Ligua’s largest industry: textiles, especially wool sweaters. This second room is a veritable shrine to La Ligua’s biggest claim to international fame: a Guiness Record for the world’s largest sweater. I’m not kidding, this thing was HUGE. It’s since been dismantled, but there are pictures of it—it covers most of the city hall, and its arms span nearly a block! That’s a LOT of sheep. Anyway, as it turned out, the museum was actually a warren of five or six well put-together rooms. Two of the others were of archaeological nature, and included information on the indigenous peoples of Chile, and even had several real human skeletons. I was really impressed by my friends—the seemed to know about just about everything in the museum with surprising detail. After exhausting our curiosity, we finally left the museum to help the girls set up.
The Jazz Festival was supposed to be a formal affair, so I dressed in my suit and headed out, intending to get to Casa Blanca about half an hour before the event actually started to help out with any last-minute preparations.
Guasos Guapos
My friend Neno and I in traditional cueca attire--the clothing of the "guasos." Upon my arrival, I found that I was nearly the only person there (Chileans are always “late,” rememeber?). So…I waited around for about an an hour and a half, met the bands that were going to play, and listened to their warm ups. It turns out that Jazz Music here is…well, not quite what I was expecting. It was the really soft, really repetitive sort of jazz that reminds me strikingly of elevator music—excellent for providing a comfortable ambience in which to socialize, but rather dull for just listening (I had been hoping for actual songs—Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Michael Bublé, etc.). Luckily, I was able to do just that. There was a bar that wasn’t in use in an adjoining room, as well as a wraparound deck on which us young’uns gathered and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves both nights.
Okay so that’s enough about Jazz Fest. What’s next…
Oh! Friday night several of my friends and I left the Jazz Festival a little bit early (around 11:00PM) to go to my host mom’s school—Colegio de Santa Maria—for the “Aniversario,” their equivalent of homecoming. When we got there, there was a huge crowd dancing in the courtyard of
Dance Dance...
My friend Camila and I dancing cueca the school, and a stage and light show set up—you could hear the music from half a dozen blocks away or mose. As I mentioned in the last blog, I think, I was nominated to be the escort for one of the nominees for Queen, which is why I was going in the first place. As it turned out, the girl I was accompanying won and was crowned, which means I automatically became king, haha. Sooo I’ve been homecoming king twice in my life—not bad :p ANYway, moving on to the next event…
Oh! I know! On September eleventh I made an apple pie 100% from scratch!!!! I’ve never made one before and oh man it was SO good! I had no idea that there’s so much butter and lard in the crust! It makes me look at pie from a whole new perspective…and it’s a sad perspective. One teeny slice of good, old-fashioned apple pie probably about thirty million calories. *sigh* Ah well. It was delicious, anyway, and I was really proud it turned out so well. Moving on.
Quick Interjection: Man, I am going to get WAY too into this blog and am going to have to
finish it tomorrow—quick update on what’s actually going on as I sit at my computer typing this: It’s about 4:10PM right now on Saturday, October 2nd, and in about an hour I am supposed to meet Kirsa, Olivia, and our friend Roberto in the plaza. We’re going to take a bus to Quillota to watch Roberto play in a volleyball tournament. Then tomorrow I’m going to spend some quality time with my host brother, Totti (not his real name. His real name is Francisco)—we’re climbing Pulmahue again! :D :D :D I’m SO excited! I’ve bought a bag of special trail mix and everything! Note on the trail mix: it’s the best EVER. It’s got dried papaya, raisins, cranberries, apricots, pineapple, kiwi, coconut chunks, whole dried and candied wild strawberries, fresh walnut halves, almonds, and peanuts. I could live on this stuff! Diverging away from the food topic, I’ll try to finish tomorrow after coming back down the mountain, unless the Vallehermosa festival is still going on (there’s a big religious festival in a sector of La Ligua that’s supposed to be going on tomorrow. I hope we get back from the mountain in time to go see it). If it
Rotary
First Rotary meeting on September 16th. is, I’ll try to write after that. Anyway, continuing…
OH!!! Cueca, right. Sooo… I mentioned in the last blog that I was going to compete in a cueca competition, and I did. And not only did I compete in the competition, my partner Camila and I were in the top four pairs of the first round, and so also competed in—hold on, I’m getting ahead of myself. The Wednesday before the Bicentennial (the Bicentennial is September 18th, which was a Saturday) our school, el Colegio Domingo Ortiz de Rozas (DOR), puts on a big traditional Chilean festival starting around 11:00AM. There are stands selling traditional Chilean foods and drinks and stuff—
I suppose I oughta tell you a about said foods and drinks, so here we go:
Leche Asado: Literally “grilled milk.” I don’t know what all that process entails, or how they coax the milk into not flowing between the holes in the grate on the grill, but that’s what it’s called. It’s a sort of sweet, almost vanilla-y custard.
Empanadas de Pino: The most Chilean thing you can find, I think. I believe I’ve described them before, so I’ll save you the description again.
Antecucho: A
You Are Here
Petorca Province. shish-kebab Chile-style; hotdog sections, chicken, onion, pork sausage
Sopapilla: a weird mix between a pancake and a French fry. Flat, circular, deep-fried dough eaten with ketchup, mustard, mayo, or a mix.
Choripan: I believe I have also previously described this one…
Rompe Calzones: similar to small pieces of a funnel cake. The name implies that if you eat too many of them you’ll rip your undergarments, haha :D
Monte con Huesillo: very common, traditional Chilean dessert/drink. It has corn kernels and a sort of rehydrated peach (or similar fruit) in a carmel-colored, sweet liquid. I honestly can’t describe the taste, but it brought haying season to mind.
Dulces: the general term for La Ligua’s famous pastries. Excellent.
Anyway, so there was the festival. The day BEFORE there was a cueca competition (cueca is the national dance, rememeber?), with judges and everything. Pairs of dancers from each grade competed in the competition, from 1st grade to seniors in high school. From each grade the top four qualified to dance during the festival. I entered the competition because my gym teacher said that I was actually pretty good for having learned in what was then two weeks. So…I asked one of
Oh My Guinness...
Scale model of the worlds largest sweater. WHOO! the girls in my class to enter with me. We practiced a couple of times before the competition, but she hadn’t danced cueca for the competition before either, so we just thought we’d enter and it didn’t matter how it went. But when the day of the competition came…we qualified for the festival!!! We couldn’t believe it, and my gym teacher called me the “Cueca-Dancing Gringo.” It was pretty funny. The next day then, the day of the festival, we re-entered, but I was extremely nervous (this time the competition was public, and people from all of La Ligua were watching—including the mayor!). We didn’t move on to the final round, but hey! I got to participate, and even advanced, so I’m happy. As it turned out, beyond the competition at my school, I’ve gotten to be something of a minor celebrity in La Ligua due to dancing cueca—I’ve even been mentioned on the radio!
The day after the festival was the last day of school that week. We were supposed to have the first class of the day but…there wasn’t any. Instead we hung out in the school courtyard and played pingpong and volleyball and talked and just basically
Buds
Me and some friends at Jazz Fest hung out. Then at 11:00 each curso brought all the desks and chairs from their classroom to the dirt soccer field outside the school and had and asado. It was SO much fun! There were water fights and guitars and singing and…it was awesome. The only thing is that it was wickedly hot, and a lot of people got sunburned (though I managed to escape that without using sunscreen somehow). It was definitely a good day :D
Jumping forward a couple of days to the 18th—the big day! HAPPY BICENTENNIAL EVERYBODY!!!! WHOOO!!!
Kirsa, Olivia and I were supposed to help the Rotarians with an annual rally race at 10:00 in the morning. Unfortunately, I accidentally set my alarm clock for 7:30 PM instead of AM so…I woke up at about 9:56 AM. I looked at the clock when I woke up and calmly performed the usual panicked-sprint-to-the-bathroom-to-take-a-30-second-shower routine, only ricocheting off the doorframe twice before successfully entering the bathroom.
When I got to the plaza I found Kirsa and Olivia sitting on a bench facing the Municipalidad (City Hall),waiting for me. “Hey guys,” I panted, sitting down next to them.
“Hi Alex! You didn’t have to rush. We’ve been
waiting for like half an hour and no one’s shown up yet.”
“Um…isn’t that them over there?” I said, pointing straight ahead across the street, “The guys on the steps of the Municipalidad with the trophies and big speaker system and the sign that says ‘Rotary?’”
“Oh…”
(That conversation ACTUALLY happened, by the way)
We walked over to the group together and greeted all the Rotarians that had arrived and helped with the few things we were able to help with (setting up signs, etc). When the race was finally ready to begin, I found out that my advisor, Luis, was a participant in the race. When the race started, I rode with him, and acted the part of navigator. It was a good time. We didn’t place, but it was still fun. Afterwards Luis invited the girls and I to his house, where his family was having an asado. As always with asados, the food was excellent.
After coming home from Luis’s, I went with some friends to Papudo, because there was a fireworks show, along with several musical presentations on the beach. Unfortunately, due to the sheer number of people I didn’t get a chance to see
Your Highness
The 2010 King and Queen of Colegio Santa Maria the presentations, but the fireworks were spectacular, and sunsets on the ocean are indescribably breathtaking (I took one of my best pictures ever that day).
After coming back from Papudo, my friends and I elected to go to “la Ramada.” It’s basically a large tent that people go to to eat and drink, but primarily to dance. (Funfact: The word “rama” means “branch,” and the original “ramadas” weren’t canvas tents, but wooden frameworks covered in eucalyptus branches for a roof) There were live bands of cumbia, cueca, and another genre of music that I don’t know the name of, but it was a sort of rural cumbia. I had no idea how to dance, but my friends were more than willing to show me even though they themselves admitted that they weren’t very good either. It was a LOT of fun. Everyone would stream onto the dance floor and dance for a song, then stampede off to sit down or grab a quick drink while the singer was introducing the next song, and then everyone would rush back on the floor. It was incredibly disorganized and irrational and FUN! :D After the ramada, I finally went home to sleep.
Rotary Race
Both the start and the finish. Of COURSE I had to close my eyes. I the next day I went with my grandmother and mother and aunt and uncle to a cultural fair in a city not far from La Ligua. There we saw a rodeo (I guess it's the national sport!) and a lot of traditional Chilean crafts--weaving, carving, leatherwork, etc. It was cool. When we got back from the fair, I helped my uncle make an asado--probably the best so far. The secret--oregano. Awesome :D
Aaaand that was how I spent my Chilean Independence Day and Bicentennial. DEFINITELY a good, cultural experience. And now my loyal readers, I must leave you and hopefully write more soon. Though…the last time I said “soon” it took me a month to write. Ah well. Take care everyone! ^)^
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susan
non-member comment
buenas fotos
Me encantan las fotos. Voy a mostrarlas a los alumnos. sue alice