Word(s) of the day:
el eje= axis, core, central theme
magenta= magenta
Today I was wandering around, feeling kind of lonely when I heard this old Beck song on the radio, which seemed also too perfectly matched to my day actually be happening...
I went back to the campus where the majority of the facultades are located for another round of trying on classes for size but today I spent a lot more time away from people from our Tufts in Chile group. The second day of classes wasn't any more organized than the first, not by a long stretch. Honestly, being at the University of Chile has been my biggest culture shock so far. The level of disorganization and lack of concern about it are definitely going to take some getting used to, as is the Chilean habit of arriving at least 5 minutes late to class. On a physical level, trying to not to stand out from Chilean students is pretty impossible, at least with my current wardrobe, which is far too preppy by comparison to the numerous slightly edgy sub- cultures. Everyone seems to constantly be in groups- either large groups of friends that they've known for years or with a pololo/a (significant other) at the very least. And politically, students are WAY more radical. At Tufts, tons of people have certainly constructed their identities around "saving the world," but for most of us that usually doesn't fundamentally mean abandoning the principles of free market economics. But a lot of the students here, at least the politically active ones responsible for painting murals during the "tomas", take overs of university buildings, have embraced more "revolutionary" symbols and ideologies- Allende, Che, communist sickles, etc. I'm really interested in the contrast between radical student politics and the rampant consumerism/individualism that seems to be becoming the norm in Chile, but I'll get to that in another post.
Trying to find classes today was quite the challenge. I couldn't find one that I really wanted to take, "Film, memory, gender and human rights" and it was frustrating because I had no way to know if it was even being offered or not. In the morning, I went to a history class on Contemporary Chilean History with one of Chile's premier social historians, Gabriel Salazar. Unfortunately, although it seemed extremely interesting, I don't think I'm going to end up taking his class. Part of the problem with choosing classes is that the only classes we end up being able to take are often filled with tons of other foreign students. Salazar was not pleased with this, understandably, because it wouldn't be fair for him to change his class to accommodate large numbers of us, likely disadvantaging Chilean students in the process. Not only do we lack years of training in Chilean history, but the style of teaching is different. It's kind of subtle and hard to explain, but the Chilean style of teaching history is far more focused on finding answers to "problems" of history, while the American method places more emphasis on general themes of history. While I might have sat through a class for nothing, at least it provided a bit of reflection on the nature of history, something that I personally take for granted far too often as a monolithic, objective narrative.
In other news, in a visit to the gigantic market at Estacion Central, I managed to buy 2 balls of yarn and knitting needles without knowing the words for magenta, ball of yarn or knitting needles. Gotta love pointing, it's pretty effective.
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