4 weeks

The sounds of Havana floud my room upon my recent return from tonight's asado. It's a disco across the street; no worries, I have not fled to Cuba. By day seagulls caw overhead, by night music blares from within.

It is 2:42 am and I sit here on my bed realizing I have now been in Conce four weeks...that's a month. I don't understand where time goes, but one short month from now I'll be boarding that plane...

Meat and wine settle in my stomach. It was my first asado in Conce, which I find rare given the normal frequency of Chilean bbqs. Wednesday I taught my first class with the new English institute I'll be working for this next month. Those students planned tonight to welcome me and I'm thankful we seem to get along since we'll be spending 9 hours a week together over the next month!

In seven hours I'll be teaching once again. At 11 am I have a class of high school boys that I must admit, I enjoy quite a bit. The other day one of them asked if he could ask me something bad. I said, "sure" of course. He asked the difference between "f* it" and "f* you". I can only dream of what they'll ask me tomorrow!

Que duerman con los angelitos

History Lesson of the Day

Raul is my oldest student; probably upper sixties. He's a dedicated member of my 8:00 conversation class and I believe talking to be one of his greatest hobbies. We began discussing childhood memories and how past sibling discrepancies can affect adulthood in a less than positive way.

"This conversation takes me back," he stated, and then in his less-than-perfect English, he recounted the following:

It was December 15, 1973 and my brother had invited me over for dinner. Before long the military patrol was at our doorstep arresting my brother and me. They took us to the stadium where I was held until December 23. My brother, however, was imprisoned for eleven months. He was ironically moved to my mother's hometown in a city up north near Antofagasta. They eventually had to let him go because they couldn't prove his allegiance to the government.

Before moving to Chile, my Lonely Planet book had enlightened me to the tumultuous past of this country. Even still, history has never been my forte and I would have never guessed the number of times the topic would come up in conversation. One of my co-workers in Santiago had recently moved back to Chile after his family was exiled during the rule of Pinochet. He grew up in Australia, which was one of a handful of countries that welcomed Chileans with open arms during the dictatorship.

I recalled another co-worker's mention of this time as I lay on my stomach soaking up ultraviolet rays at the beach today. The front cover of my recently purchased copy of El plan infinito lay open in front of me. As I gazed upon the photo of Isabel Allende, I remembered Chris, my co-worker, describing the many times he and his cousin Isabel would go to the beach together in Venezuela. "She had an ass this big," he commented as he reached his hands out to the side, "and she would wear a thong this big," he showed me with his fingers. The reason the two Chilean natives were in Venezuela was indeed because of the military dictatorship.

Raul continued his story with further background information:

The leftist party had the radical idea of dissolving the economy. They increased our salaries dramatically and I was suddenly able to afford anything I wanted. My brother and I were university students at the time and I remember lines growing long everywhere you went to purchase something.

Of course, the wealthy were displeased with the changes and this led to the formation of the coup who proceeded to overthrow the government September 11, 1973. Anyone with suspected allegiance to the socialist party was at great risk. My brother was a leader at our university and it was a mere three months after September 11 that they found us.

It's events such as these that grant me a bit more understanding as to why this culture is so pillo (takes advantage of any lack of attentiveness).

Life Update

New Year.

Peru and back.

Change of cities.

Whole new life.

If you need to find me, I´m here:

Barras Arana 1375, depto. 301

Concepción, Chile