August 2: Los Que Madruga, Dios Te Bendiga

Word(s) of the day
smallpox- viruela
cranberry-arándano

The title of this post roughly translates to "Those who get up early, God will bless." Today was the first day of classes for the majority of the facultades (schools) at the University of Chile and God blessed my early rising with a definitive sign that I should not take an 8:30am architecture class.
I left my house late, but managed by a miracle of public transportation to make it to Santiago Centro on time for "Urbanismo 1." I wasn't entirely sure what the class was about, other than that it was obviously about cities and sounded vaguely interesting. By another stroke of luck, I managed to find the class room for the course. I went in and a bunch of people were huddled around the back, so I assumed class hadn't started yet. I really needed to wash my hands since I had fallen up the stairs on the way out of the grungy metro so I ran quickly to find a bathroom. On my return, everyone was still gathered around the back. Then I realized, this WAS the class. It must have started the week before...I stayed for another minute before realizing that they had already created some sort of project, had obviously used software that I didn't have the faintest idea how to operate (nevermind in Spanish) and clearly all had some sort of background in city planning that I lacked. I decided it would be a good idea to leave as soon as physically possible. Luckily, not too many people saw me, I don't think. Secondarly, I feel like Chileans pretty much expect to the gringos to do stupid things like go into a class twice and then leave. Still think this might go on my top 10 most awkward moments.

So now, it was 8:30 in the morning and I had nothing to do. I decided to explore a bit- I went down Londres/Paris streets- beautiful old cobblestone areas with interesting architecture. Then, I climbed Cerro Santa Lucía again, the big hill park in the center of the city, where the Spanish first had a fort to keep an eye out for Indians. I was the 3rd person there, other than the extensive cleaning crew and it was gorgeous. So much green and flowers, textured stones and bricks, statues and rays of sunlight. Unfortunately, even though it rained yesterday, it was still so smoggy I could hardly see the mountains.

Around 12, I had my first real experience inside a Chilean university. I went to the Philosophy and Humanities campus for a history class about Chile's independence with Leonardo León, an awesome professor we had heard from during Orientation. I'm pretty sure the class wasn't entirely typical. At the very least, it was ridiculously informal. Half the students showed up late, talked to the professor like he was an equal and jokes were being made back and forth. Which meant that I understood about half of what went on during a 1.5 hour block...Once he started talking about the actually subject, I understood perfectly, but apart from this...Non content related parts of the class included stories about how he was one of the last people in Chile to have smallpox, something indecipherable about geishas and stories about Salvador Allende's lover. Content related parts made me seriously contemplate the meaning of history and the way we tend to always construct them from a top down institutional perspective, rather than from the perspective of those who actually live it. I'm seriously considering taking the class now- anyone who can make 17th and 18th histories of Latin American independence interesting and relevant while giving wise life advice probably is worth sticking around. But now I'm conflicted! There are far too many courses I want to take.

The afternoon was great fun. After class, I went to Bellavista, a "hip" area of town where most of the nightlife is concentrated, with fellow Tufts in Chile friend Molly and Ingrid, a Spanish house buddy from last year. Ingrid showed us all these great places to go and another delicious ice cream place, expanding my horizons beyond Emporio La Rosa. I got cranberry ice cream which was super interesting. Definitely worth another trip :) Then, she also introduced us to Sanhe-Nuss, a DELICIOUS chocolate with almonds. Thank god I climbed a hill in the morning.

I did a bit more exploring in the late afternoon, wandering around Universidad Cátolica, which has been described as the Harvard of Santiago- wicked expensive, beautiful but also prestigious. It was quite peaceful. I checked out the center of Ñuñoa, the communa where I live, for a bit and then walked home with the sun setting on the mountains, which were once again visible.

Today's take away image, however, was not the mountains, but a family I encountered on my walk home. A mother and her 2 children poorly dressed were rooting through the garbage of the wealthy residents of Ñuñoa, presumably for something to sell or eat. Even in the tranquility and relative luxury of upper class Santiago, the injustices of unequal distribution cannot be kept entirely invisible forever.