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Published: April 7th 2006
Beach Party 2
Meagan, Adrienne, Emily and KathyI'm not sure how much time has to pass before a blog is officially "defunct", but I'm sure I'm pushing the limits here. Things were busy for a while: teaching classes, helping professors, and tutoring a high school English teacher mainly . . . but I know, no excuse. But this week is "semana mechona", or, literally, "lock of hair week" where the freshmen are welcomed/hazed and the guys all get this horrible haircut that involves a razor and results in a rat tail and, since this is a "college town", an entire demographic group which appears to have the mange. A serious challenge to the stray dogs over who looks more pathetic. So there are no classes, and I am spending the week wandering around to the beaches.
The last weekend in April I went on my first trip in Chile, a 26 hour bus ride to Concepcion (south of Santiago) to hang out with other Fulbrighters and celebrate some birthdays. No one could believe that I was willingly taking a 52 hour round trip bus ride for what would amount to almost less time in Concepcion, but it came down to saving money. The buses in Chile are actually
quite nice, too, and they have beds and serve food and there are even stewards like in airplanes. Fancy. Except that once I got comfortable, things got out of control. On the return trip, after narrowly making the bus from Concepcion, I thought I had it made. I was riding on TurBus, a national bus company that goes pretty much everywhere in Chile. Kind of like Grey Hound. Except that this bus kept pulling over and stopping to let guys on to try to pawn melty ice cream and peanuts, juice, etc. and to pick up other passengers. These passengers dont pay though, they were technically non-existent. It is a total under the radar black market of picking up passengers who just give the driver a few bucks. Which is fine with me until the stopping takes precedence over the going and suddenly we are running 1.5 hours late. I knew I was going to miss my connection and I started again to get anxious and mumble in english because it was 10 o'clock at night and getting later, and I didnt want to be stranded in a city I didnt know at a bus station in a weird part
Same party, different tent
as youll see, this dance move works in both directions of town that was not opened all night. The nice, helpful guy next to me kept telling me to relax (i think the only english word he knew) and that we'd be there in 5 minutes. He said that 11 times though, so by the time we got there, we were almost 2 hours late, and of course I had missed my connection leaving Santiago to Antofagasta. Luckily, after I got my baggage and screamed at about 3 agents who had no clue what my problem was, nice guy helped me explain the situation, and I got to pay twice as much and leave 2 hours later, but at least I made the last bus out and didnt have to spend the night alone in a scary closed bus station. I think this most recent bus incident is somewhat allegorical to my life here in general; mainly, a constant flux between feeling that I can finally relax and feel comfotable/in control, quickly followed by the sharp realization that everything is different and I have v. limited control over what goes on. Keeps me on my toes I guess. I have a feeling this blog will proceed in bursts and fits,
so look for another to follow quickly and then dont be surprised if it dies off for a while . . .
Btw, photos are of Concepcion, reportedly either the 4th or 2nd largest city in Chile, and appear here thanks to Adrienne, as I forgot to charge my camera battery before I left.
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Dad
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Thanks Emily. I love hearing about what you're doing but its even better to see you in the pictures. Be good, have fun.