I’m just going to put it out there: Madison, you suck at protesting. There, I said it. While eating lunch today, I saw video footage of the protests about education here in Chile, and they look awesome. Imagine thousands of students dressed in costume, dancing in tandem. It’s a flash mob with a message, and it is amazing. Today was Dragon Ball Z themed, so they passed a giant ball throughout the Plaza de Armas. When I say giant I mean, freaking huge, like able to fit 20 beach balls within it. We also witnessed a guy with a flag jogging laps around La Moneda as part of a month of non-stop running to send a message to the government. As a runner, I thought it was a very cool and powerful sign. Sort of like Relay for Life except way longer and when it isn’t your turn to run, you actually get to sleep. I seriously wish we could participate in protests here, because I would be all over protesting like this, but unfortunately, CIEE doesn’t allow it, on behalf of our safety. However, I am enjoying learning about the protests and seeing the ways the Chilean students can be peaceful and creative but still get their point across.
In any event, watching protests wasn’t all we did today. When I finally showed up to school at 3 pm (I slept in late in the morning and had a leisurely lunch in order to ensure that I would heal up), I came in directly in the middle of a lecture from a professor from the University of Diego Portales. From what I could gather, he was lecturing about Chilean politics. I was able to learn a bit more about the current Chilean political environment, and I actually found it quite interesting. It’s funny, I enjoy watching the news and learning about history more here than I ever did in the United States. Chile is fascinating to me because it is a country with such potential for growth, and their democracy is so new that change actually seems to happen here on a fairly regular basis. Not to mention, in less than 20 years of democracy they were able to do what the United States still hasn’t done: elect a woman as president. This is not to say that I don’t miss the U.S. a lot or that I don’t have pride in my country, simply that learning about the Chilean political climate is refreshing even if it is still plagued with many of the issues we are dealing with in the United States. After our lecture, we got together with our tutors and were given a walking tour of the historical area of downtown Santiago such as El Palacio de la Moneda, Cerro Santa Lucia, and the heart of the Universidad de Chile’s campus. The main campus building was covered in signs from the protest, which I found particularly interesting. I feel like even in as liberal a climate as Madison, it would be frowned upon to graffiti Abe Lincoln and put signs all over Bascom Hall. But maybe that’s just me. As we walked around, our tutor explained the history of each of the buildings and how they relate to the current political situation. She did give everything a distinctly liberal tint, which I didn’t necessarily mind, but which apparently bothered a man standing near our group who started yelling at us that it was all lies. Anyway, political bias aside it was crazy to stand in front of the sight of a major coup d’état and hear about how the ex-president committed suicide there when he found out that Pinochet had decided to take over the country. It was especially interesting because today in Chile, it was finally confirmed and announced that it was suicide and not assassination, because up until this point there had been speculation of the contrary. After this historical and political journey, we went to a café to have sandwiches and pisco sours before heading home to our families. Tonight as I was watching the news (if you couldn’t tell by now, I watch the news A LOT here), I saw the professor who had given us a lecture today on CNN Chile talking about the change of cabinet here. I thought that was pretty much the coolest thing ever, since even in Madison it is rare to see one of your professors on national news.
Other than my new political fervor, I am feeling a lot better which makes me very happy. I hope to be back to 100 percent health tomorrow. We also have to take a diagnostic test of our Spanish abilities tomorrow, which makes me kind of nervous. I feel like my Spanish may be worsening as time goes on as opposed to getting better. But maybe I am just paranoid. I am also going basically vegetarian here, which is kind of interesting. My host mom feeds me well, but we haven’t eaten meat in the last few days. I kind of miss it. I also miss sweets, so I am secretly stashing peanut M&Ms in my desk. Yes, this is what my life has come to. Well, I should sleep I suppose. I actually have to wake up for class tomorrow. Ciao for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment