Grand Torre Santiago

When I was in Santiago last week serving on a Fulbright selection committee, I took this picture:

I'd seen this building before-well, pretty much you'd be blind to miss it-but was able to get a good picture of it this time. I particularly like the old church in the foreground for a bit of contrast. I found out from Alex Peterson, a Fulbrighter who lives in Santiago this is the tallest building in South America. Notice the sort of fin-like projections at the top? They were put in place Alex said, when it appeared that another building on the continent was going to be taller. I haven't been in the Torre yet, but understand a huge mall is located there. So if the urge to shop in a mall ever hits me (ha!), I'll know where to go.

Our latest little quake in Viña last week was a 4.3, and my 7th floor office swayed rather noticeably. Bet it would be quite interesting to be on the top floor  of the Torre (there are 64 above ground and 6 below ground floors)!

La Serena is indeed, serena!

So, back to La Serena:

La Recova

The day after we arrived, once I had the chance to recover from my late dinner, I was free in the morning so we walked over to La Recova, the touristy market a few blocks from our hostel. The present market was opened in 1981, after an older structure was damaged by fire in the 60s and merchants worked out of a warehouse for 16 years or so. The fire-damaged market was not the original, there have been several over the years, dating all the way back to the 1600s when the town was founded.

At any rate, the current market specializes in touristy stuff on the ground floor, with some restaurants and other shops (hair salons, other specialty stores) up top. I found it to be mostly more of the same old same old that is available in the other tourist-oriented markets I've been to so far. For those of you planing a trip, I did see that lapis is a bit less expensive here, as were some textiles. The really big deal here is all things papaya, except for fresh papaya! Apparently the papaya here is a certain type the does well candied, dried, jarred, juiced and turned into syrup, but isn't good eaten fresh.

In the afternoon, I had lunch with Professora Nidia on campus, and then went and did a presentation in her class that went very well. Afterwards, I met a number of other professors for tea, and we discussed some of the differences between our universities. Great students, lovely school, and warm professors!

Tour of La Serena

On Friday the 11th we had a lovely tour of La Serena, hosted by Julio and Hugo, another Chilean Fulbrigher who spent time in the US. Joel enjoyed some exercise equipment:

I enjoyed the view over to Coquimbo, the port town that is about 10 minutes away from La Serena:

I believe Steve has some pictures on his blog that include both Julio and Hugo, that Joel took, using Steven's camera.

Part of our tour included going up the hill to campus, so that Steve, Joel and Sarah could appreciate the great view from up there. I was intrigued with what a group of students were doing:

Turns out there were 1st year architecture students, displaying their weekly assignment. Each week, they are required to do 50 sketch around town, to help them develop an understanding of perspective, and how drawings of buildings fill space. 

Friday night workshops

Friday evening, I went back to campus to present two more workshops, in Professoras Marian and Claudia's classes. Once again, I really enjoyed working with the students, and was treated so kindly by everyone. There was even a break with coffee, tea, juice and cake served between the two classes. It seems there are always coffee breaks for this Friday evening class, but because I was there, we had cake instead of cookies.

And to continue on the food theme, Marian and Claudia took me out for a late and very yummy dinner after class. We've already started talking about the possibility of me coming back for some more workshops in June, and I'd love to come-I had a great time.

Elqui Valley Tour

I'll let Steve tell you all about the excellent tour we took of the Elqui Valley on April 11th. (Remember, his blog link is on the left). I did get this shot of Steve in a little bakery we went to, in a tiny village. He is adding our info to that of all the other visitors who have stopped there:

The Hostel

A quick word about where we stayed. Our hostel, Terra Diguita, was beautiful, and fairly quiet except for the church bells that rang at about 7:40, 7:50 and 8 a.m. each day (but oddly not on Sunday). I did find the place to be COLD as other visitors reported. And while the garden was beautiful, going down stairs and over uneven surfaces at night to go to the bathroom (no, not in the GARDEN!), was not much fun.

Joel and I did enjoy Unsa, the hostel cat very much:

On the Road Again

And a few picts from the journey home. Since we were in the better section of the bus, we got a meal. Honestly, it was kind of gross:

But we ate it anyway:

Such a nice trip! I hope I do have the chance to go back in June.

Going north to La Serena

A welcome invitation

I was asked to go to La Serena by a Chilean Fulbrighter, Sr. Julio Del Transito Parada Pizarro, about a month ago, to present some workshops in classes there. I was particularly excited by this, not only for the chance to talk with other professors to see how they do things, but also because this was the area I'd wanted to go to visit in Chile. The Coquimbo and Elqui Valleys are known for their beauty, pisco production, star gazing, and as we were to discover, papaya and hippie types.

Steve and Joel, at the beginning of the trip, before we 

all got overheated. Luckily, Tur-Bus does provide 

roadside assistance. We stopped for about 20 minutes

at one point, for a service guy who arrived in his Tur-Bus
van to fix the AC.

A little store, somewhere on the trip...A 7 hour trip, by the way. 

But our extra special "cama" (bed) seats were great. They did not

recline all the way into a bed position, but there were quite nice, and at

three across in the downstairs of our double decker bus, very roomy.

                                                      A rather suggestive underwear shop. Adds and posters are just as sexually charged here as they are in the US.              

The views during the trip were just spectacular. I really enjoyed it, and didn't find things to be particularly tiresome. Poor Joel did, and I think it got to Steve too, after a while. When I wasn't busy looking out the window,  I had my knitting, kindle, and papers to grade. 

Steve and I agreed that much of the scenery reminded us of the southwest. There were places that looked very much like New Mexico, Arizona and west Texas.

When we arrived, Sr. Julio was at the bus station to take us to our hostel. That evening, Sra. Sandra, and her husband, Sr. Elvis arrived to take me out to a wonderful dinner, at a very elegant hotel. 9 p.m. is VERY late for me to eat, and I was tired from the trip, and actually felt a little ill, so I did not eat much. I did take a doggy bag back to the hostel. And NO, I did not feed that wonderful swordfish to a street dog-Steve and Joel got to eat it the next day.

Back to work

Since we are off of school all week here at PUCV, I´m working to catch up but plan on going to Santiago tomorrow for a couple of days with Sarah, my teacher/artist friend I met here. More on La Serena later, but I must get back to work!

Fire Update

As to the fire, ONEMI reported last night 12,500 are homeless, 2,900 homes destroyed, with 1,200 people in shelters. The police and navy are removing debris, the army is coordinating supplies and other logistics, and the air force is in charge of shelters (I think I have that right). I heard from one of my students, who had to evacuate, that she, her family and home are all safe, but that they went to Santiago to stay with a cousin. The woman who has the cafeteria contract at Joel´s school is ok, but her parents lost their house. 

!Fuerza Valpo!

Fabulous Fulbright Functions

Hello, everyone! I just returned from 3 days in Santiago. Fulbright Chile always hosts new Fulbright Scholars and Students after they've settled in for about a month. The Scholars gathered on Thursday morning to present their projects and take questions.

After the presentations, which were over around lunchtime, I went to lunch with Alex (another English teacher), Jim (doing very interesting research on the effects of new infrastructure on society) and MJ (an expert in academic writing and supporting multilingual scholars). MJ and I corresponded quite a bit while she was settling in in Santiago, and I met her a couple of weeks ago in Viña. I also have a link to her blog on my page, so you can check out what she's doing. She was kind enough to host me two nights, as Fulbright only paid for one night of my stay.
View from my bedroom at MJ's:

We had a nice wine and cheese event Thursday night, then Friday we all went to the just re-opened PreColumbian Art Museum, which was wonderful! Sadly, the batteries in my camera didn't hold their charge, so no pictures there. After a delicious lunch with everyone, including Fulbright staff, the people who have helped us so much here, MJ and I went to Los Dominicos, a great artisan center. Take a look at the Wikipedia entry for some details of the history of the place: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Dominicos_Village
I bought an alpaca/cotton shawl for 19,000 CLP, or about 35 dollars. I had wanted something to keep in my office, because I'm always cold there. (Well, I'm pretty much always cold here in general).
It was nice to see the sun, and enjoy some warmth in Santiago-It is warmer in Santiago than Viña, at least for now. When winter is here, it will be the reverse, warmer here (but not warm ) than in Santiago.
The church:

MJ admiring some antique wooden stirrups:


I have to take Joel here, he'd love the cats:

When we were ready to leave, it was a little after 6 p.m. so we both had our first taste of the legendary rush hour crowds on the Santiago metro. While there are no employees who help pack people into the trains, as I've heard happens in Tokyo, the passengers themselves were more than willing to pack themselves. Oh, and it was hot, because few of the cars have AC. Getting off was the really difficult thing, as you have to push and squeeze your way out before the doors close, and people either can't, or won't move out of the way.

Back at MJ's place, after a yummy salmon dinner (I'd brought the fish from home) I slept well, then took the bus back to Viña this morning. All in all, a nice break from all the planning, teaching and grading I've been doing.

A great start

Yesterday was my second day in the office on campus. I don't have any pictures to share yet, as I thought it would have been a little silly of me to show up and start taking pictures like a tourist! Offices are shared here, and my office mate is the charming Millaray, who was so welcoming and helpful. We found out we are both avid readers, prefer tea to coffee (she has a lot of tea in the office to share!), and that we both like cacti. She has several in the office, which is nice for me-especially since I don't think we'll be able to have plants in our apartment due to the eastern exposure and tall buildings around us.

I will be teaching Advanced English I and will be working from a new syllabus. This was a bit of a shock, as I begin teaching Monday. But the other profs are in the same boat, apparently. It seems a new curriculum was created, and the syllabi are just becoming available. This new one is actually quite a bit better than the old, so I'm looking forward to the class, and have more direction as to what I need to do.

As you can imagine, things are done differently at PUCV then they are at Bradley. For instance, while there is an online course management system like at BU, I can't get on it yet and may not be able to do so for several weeks. This is where my class list is, and would also be where I could post assignments, electronic documents and things of this nature. Also, students may not be registered yet, and won't be for 2 or 3 weeks more, as they are still in the process of paying for their classes. So as of now, I don't know how many students will be attending either class!

Millaray also let me know that this year is supposed to be a VERY active year for student strikes, due to the new president, Bachelet who will be sworn in on March 11. She served a term before: in Chile presidents can serve more the once, but not consecutively. I've been told that while she talks a lot about education, she didn't come through in the past, and also that she did not get votes from young people this time around so students are not at all happy.

What all this boils down to is I may be doing very little teaching this semester. This would be a shame, as I'm really excited about the classes I've been assigned. If classes were cancelled due to student strikes, I would then have more time for developing workshops for inservice teachers, and perhaps be able to visit other campuses in the country as well.

Just to let you know, we are moving today and are not sure about when we'll have internet installed in the new place. I do have access at work, so I can check email, but I most likely won't be blogging from work!

On being patient

One of the things that I learned once I found out about my grant, is that I needed to be patient (I'm still working on this!) When I found out in February of 2013 I'd be going to Chile I thought I'd be able to get so much done ahead of time, particularly in the summer, when I wasn't teaching at Bradley. Well, things didn't work out that way. Despite my interest and enthusiasm in getting a jump on the various things that needed to be done before leaving, this didn't mean I could get things done when I wanted to.
Fulbright Chile needed to concentrate on working with the folks arriving in August, not those who would start the following year. Many things are time sensitive: visas and other documents, plane tickets, shipping using the diplomatic pouch. I couldn't start planning my classes, since PUCV hadn't decided what level I'd teach, none of the realtors I'd contacted were interested in discussing apartments until after the Chilean summer...So even though I have known for a year where and when I'd go, I couldn't do anything until a few months ago. Despite feeling rushed at times, almost everything is done, except for finding an apartment-but I wouldn't have been able to finalize that until I arrive, as I don't want to rent something without seeing it first.

So if you are just finding out about your Fulbright grant, know that you'll get things done, don't worry! I ended up spending a lot of time exploring Valpo and Viña online, and "walking" around town via Googlemaps, reading about Chile, and trying to learn a few Chilenismos. Check out this online Chilenismos glosary: http://cachandochile.wordpress.com/glossary-glosario-chilenismos on Margaret Snook's excellent blog.

Packing

Ah, the joys of packing! I tend to be a minimalist when packing-it is sort of like solving a puzzle for me, figuring out how to take as little as possible. This trip is a little different though, since I have to get ready for 3 seasons, and make sure I have professional attire. Still, my first efforts are promising. It looks like I'll be able to have one carry on for my computer, other electronics and a couple of changes of clothes, and one medium sized checked bag. My goal is to have just what I an handle on my own with ease.

I'm cheating a little though, because when Steve and Joel follow me, they'll be bringing the suitcase of books I need for teaching my children's literature class. It is small, but it weighs 30 pounds! These are the materials I couldn't trust to the diplomatic pouch, which seems to have issues with delivery (see my last post).

For excellent packing tips, check out onebag.com  Even if you don't want to be this fanatical, the way the blog author packs a bag is worth learning about.

The Diplomatic Pouch

It is great that (at this writing, things may change), Fulbrighters to Chile are able to ship books via the pouch. Of course, the two people I know who had a grant (one in Ukraine, one in Chile) did not have good luck with their shipments. The person in Ukraine shipped 4 boxes, and received 2. My friend in Chile shipped 2, and got ZERO. He told me that Fulbright told him there was nothing they could do without a tracking number.

So I shipped two boxes today, via media mail to the State Department, with everything labeled as requested, and got a tracking number. I was very careful to tape things up with, well, gusto. I think one of the problems with this type of shipping is the very rough handling it gets (there is even a caution about this on the shipping directions). So the boxes I sent were almost more tape than cardboard. And while I do want the contents, I did not include any books that I absolutely had to have for teaching. Those, I'm including in my luggage-I will have two suitcases of books as a result, since I'm teaching a children's lit class, and I have to bring all the materials.

We'll see if and when those boxes make it-keep your fingers crossed for me!

About this blog

In February of 2013 I was awarded a teaching Fulbright at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile. Naturally, as soon as I stopped shrieking and jumping up and down I started searching online for information-and I really had to dig. There is lots of information about Valparaíso and Viña del Mar, but it tends to be more about tourism. So I thought "Hey, maybe I should try to write about my experiences." Not only would I have a journal to look back on, and a way for my family and friends to keep up with me, but the next Fulbrighter to Valpo and Viña will have just a little more information.

I would also like to include a disclaimer here: what I write here are my own views and experiences, and do not represent the Fulbright Program or the Department of State in any official capacity.