Welcome to Paradise

---

Pay attention to the cracked streets
And the broken homes
Some call it the slums
Some call it nice
I want to take you through
a wasteland I like to call
my home
Welcome To Paradise


Ahh Valparaíso.

It's 3:57pm local time and trying to communicate my time here in Valparaíso leaves my mind more twisted than the haphazard streets that surround me as I write. So I begin, Welcome to Paradise, by Green Day. The song seems to fit perfectly. Cracked streets? Got 'em. Broken homes and slums? Although I'm not sure if slums is the correct word, the poverty here is tangible although most people seem to get by well enough. Nevertheless, the garbage that fills the streets as one ascends the hills and the graffiti that can be found nearly everywhere in the city clearly show the city needs some cleaning up. Yet this does not take away the charms of the city called Paradise.

And here I am, living in downtown Valparaíso near the port and near the picturesque Plaza Sotomayor. I'm studying Spanish here and have been doing so for the past three weeks in the Universidad Pontificia Católica de Valparaíso where the ever-cheerful Macarena Moya is the coordinator of international students.

I'm living in a host family right now in an apartment that overlooks the port of Valparaíso. Although my host family seems fairly fluid with all the visitors and guests that always stop by for 'once' (a light meal taken during dinnertime, pronounced own-say), it officially includes only my host mother Jacqueline, her sister Handi, and Handi's daughter Isidora, who is six years old. Jacqueline's son Diego also spends some time at the house, as well as his girlfriend Macarena who lived with us until just recently, but the first three mentioned are the main tenants of our apartment.

This of course bodes well for me. I have two Chilean mothers who are taking such good care of me that I'm afraid I'll be spoiled for the rest of my life. When I get out of the shower in the morning, breakfast is already set for me and the service keeps coming throughout the whole day. My bed is made, my laundry taken care of, and I am constantly badgered to see if there's anything else I'd like. After three or so years of familial independence I'm still not quite used to the mothering but I'm not complaining, I don't think my life could be easier.

Yet all this work doesn't make my mothers a bore. Somehow between keeping the house spotless and cooking for me they both manage to stay quite cheerful and talkative, spending most evenings joking and entertaining the many friends that come to the house to visit. The current diversion is salsa lessons taught by a friend's son who comes over and teaches Jackie how to shake her hips and move to the salsa beat. I've even tried my hand (or foot, feet?) and am pleased to report that I move more like a South American than a gringo which came as a surprise to all. (I attribute all my successes in not being stiff as a board to my amazing friends from Colombia who managed to teach me a few steps while I was in Japan, good job guys!)

Other nights, when the couches are not being pushed aside to make room for dancing, are filled with conversation and laughter and even some card games. When times are slower at the house I watch television in Spanish to practice my listening and have been trying to get in at least two hours a day which is a lot for someone who absolutely never watches TV back in the States. I really think that it's helping my listening though so it seems well worth it.

So that's my routine at home, but there's more. During the day between ten and one I have my Spanish classes. There are two: the first is Spanish Conversation and the second is Spanish Grammer. The classes are very small and have been going well so far, although they are quite a bit more laid back than I'm used to. In the first class we usually watch video clips or listen to music and spend time discussing these and other aspects of Chilean culture, and in the second we spend time doing grammer exercises and chatting with the teacher. I usually ride the bus to school to save time in the mornings, but walk back to enjoy the fresh air after classes. I am only about a twenty minute walk from the school so its fairly nice except on rainy days, but the buses are always there and are so cheap they're practically free so these are always an option.

Passing time with me in Valparaíso are Curtic McArthur and Quinn Bradley, both also from Maryville College. We have the same classes but Curtis and Quinn live in Viña del Mar (Vineyard of the Sea) so there's a twenty minute commute between our houses. Still, all of our families are very friendly and we are all welcome in each others homes so we spend a fair amount of time together, especially in the night-time when we visit the many bars and clubs of Valpo and Viña.

But now to the city itself. Valparaíso. Va a la Paraíso. Go to Paradise. Also known as the Jewel of the Pacific, Valparaíso is a city that has captured the hearts of many over the years although the city has gone through some rough times and is not quite what it used to be. The city is a port city that is constructed on a series of close to forty hills that surround the downtown and port area. In this it is unique. To the best of my knowledge and according to everyone that lives here there is no other city in the world like this, with so many homes built literally on the faces of the hills. The architecture is uniquely fitted to this purpose and the hills are all bright and colorful as one gazes over the innumerable houses, a scene particularly stunning at night when the hills shine with the lights from the homes.

As mentioned above, however, the city is not quite what it used to be. While I understand that it's going through somewhat of a revival I have to say that it is most impressive from a distance when one is looking over the city as a whole from Viña or from one of the cerros (hills). From this perspective, the panarama of the city is gorgous, yet when one gets closer it is not quite as charming as the streets are dirty and the traffic is loud and all over the road. Stray dogs are everywhere and everything seems like it's just waiting for something to happen but I can't put my finger on what that something is. Maybe summer, but the city needs something more than that. The potential of this place drives me insane when I see the burned out buildings and dirtied monuments; it seems like the city is just a tiny step away from being the gorgous place it should be but is for some reason held back. It's like the location and the history are perfect but there's one important ingredient missing. Oh well, maybe more time here will solve this or maybe I just need to travel more so I can have a better sense about things like this.

As an added note, this is not to say that the city is not attractive up close. Getting lost in the streets and alleys that crawl through the hills of Valparaíso is a beautiful experience filled with colorful houses and incredible views of the port. The city center is filled with antiquated buildings left over from the city's hayday that remain beautiful after these many years. They stand as a reminder of the influence of the English, Germans, and Italians that is still present in the city today. Meanwhile, the various plazas, especially plazas Victoria and Sotomayor, add pleasant diversity to a walk through the city, ruggedly beautiful despite its flaws. A day or afternoon spent walking through the hills is definitely time well spent and the sunsets over the water are simply spectacular.

Moving on though, something else I'd like to address briefly is the weather. It's cold. Not too cold, but colder than the guidebooks said it would be. This is been problematic mostly because I packed for the weather I expected to get and it's just a little bit off, leaving me a little bit cold all the time. The lack of insulation and heating inside basically every Chilean home doesn't help this because it means there's no respite except under my covers. My body adjusting to this has meant that I've been a little sick ever since I got here but I'm taking medicine, drinking lots of juice, and really its not too bad. There have been interesting social implications of this, however, and that is because this is the coldest winter anyone here remembers (let me clarify, not that cold, low forties to fifties, occasionally below freezing at night). Six people have frozen to death in Santiago (where it is a bit colder) which has stirred up the people around here, at least on the news. No one has ever heard of something like that happening. I'm not sure what the implications of this are for the homeless community but there are a lot of aid organizations working to get blankets and hot food out now so it seems to have had a positive effect, despite the unfortunate occurances. At the same time 200 people freeze to death/year in Osaka if I remember correctly and there the safety nets simply do not exist so there's an interesting contrast. Here safety nets are larger and there are more social programs so I'm not yet sure what causes some people to slip through the cracks.

In other news, the Copa America is in full swing, Chile beat Ecuador 3-2 and I got showered in cerveza for being right in the middle of the bar when the the final minute ticked by. Next is Chile vs. Brazil on July 1st so I'll be looking forward to that although I'm not sure how well Chile will do. Brazil did lose its first game though, against Mexico, so who knows. Mexico's pretty good too and they're the other team we play, on the 4th. Also, I'm not sure how much attention this is getting back home but the U.S. is also playing in the tournament, we lost to Argentina 4-1 yesterday and face Paraguay on July 2nd and Colombia on the 5th. Good luck to all!

So... I hope this gives a good general outline of my life here. I should be able to move on to specific stories from here, like horseback riding last week or the visit to Isla Negra that I'll be taking tomorrow. I do have to unfortunately report that I left my cable for my camera back home so I can't upload any pictures. I'm still working on remedying this but for now we'll be working with text.

Best wishes to all!

Brian

---

Comments

[Marisol]

Disfruta tu tiempo en Chile
Espero que a pesar de los perros, la basura y todas aquellas cosas que hacen ver feo a Valparaíso, disfrutes de esta ciudad que a quienes hemos vivido por tantos años en ella nos ha conquistado