a great thing about being in other countries is enjoying the live music that can still find its way into random cities. Last week, Bela fleck and the flecktones graced Santiago with their presence.
Even though I´ve known about the concert for 3 months, I´ve procrastinated a bit in buying tickets. When I bought them a week before the show I was somewhat weery that tickets may be scarce. I opted for stage right (which I confused and thought was stage left...on Víc´s side..) got a confirmation, and was told to pick up my tickets at willcall the night of the show. Jon and I hopped on the 90 minute bus and arrived into a city that is nothing like Valparaìso. We were back in a REAL legit city, where I can´t jaywalk across 20 lanes of traffic, and the sidewalks are lined with people.
We got to the show to find we had FRONT row seats, on the end. WOW. talk about kick-ass. The view was phenomenal, and the flecktones rocked out with their combining melodies of the sax, electric drum, banjo, and of course...victor wooten (i dont think i spelled that right). He is just a freak of nature...a machine. Totally mesmerizing watching his hands, his creativity, his invention of a total new way to use the bass as an instrument. wowzers. At one point when they were doing introductions, in English (I think they said buenos noches, and thats as far as the spanish got) they spoke ofbeing from NY so I scream out in the front row, and they all look at me and smile...haha. Nothing like making myself more of the gringa than I already am when in other countries.. Awesome pictures, soon to be posted.
As for my other activities, I had this totally intense Salsa class last night with difficult spinning and counting steps in my head. I´m not made for these things- I have something called A Lack of Coordination. However, its fun, and we change partners every 2 minutes so you get different styles of guys to dance with.
I´m back to Santiago tomorrow to see Il Divo perform- I can´t wait. I´m so lucky to have a next room neighbor (jon), who appreciates musicals and operatic singing as much as I do, because we spend MANY evenings singing Les Mis, Rent, Celtic Women, and many other great songs. Why can´t my life be a musical? That would be fun. and entertaining.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Friday, March 16, 2007
plentiful pennies
since the only people who read this are my parents and sister (I think), its more of a family email... SO, i will take this time to express my frustration with the Chilean Coin system.
To begin, everything is is millions. Now, just when I thought I was comfortable with numbers in spanish, i´m dealing with tens of millions of pesos at once, and it can get slightly overwhelming at times.
However, I´ve conquered my number woes, and have moved onto much deeper things that frustrate me when using the local currency, such as...small change.
It is very rare to receive change in denominations below 50 pesos. Occasionally, they´ll hand you 10 pesos, equivelant of the dime. Now, I should stress that the dime is totally useless, and occasionally I will gather all my loose dimes up and pay for my busfare (which is about 250 pesos). The driver always gives me a dirty look, and I just want to yell YOU GAVE ME THE DIME ON MY LAST RIDE!
However, the real issue pending here, the underlying problem where all my anger and frustration is rooted at lies with the Chilean Penny. One Peso. It resembles a piece of sturdy tinfoil, that with slight energy can be broken into two pieces. It is also worth .002 of a US Penny. Thats right, 2, ten-thousanths of a penny. I am fairly confident it takes more money with energy, man power, and distribution to create and produce this chilean penny, than it is actually worth. This could result in devestating losses for the government of Chile. Do they realize this? If I was more confident in spanish (and more conversational, which I´m not), I would write a letter of concern to the Treasury department of Chile, informing them of my queries. However, several things come to mind when I contemplate this. 1) I don´t know if they HAVE a treasury department in Chile 2) I could risk deportation, although I don´t actually live here, and am managing to ¨live¨ on a tourist Visa which must be renewed every 90 days. 3) I must assume that no one cares, because there MUST have been SOME person in the past who agreed with me and mentioned this...yet nothing was done
Inflation does terrible things to foreigners who have to use the local currency. I think its a decoy because its really easy to get confused and overpay- which COULD explain why Chile has the most stable economy in all of South America. This looks like a conspiracy to me
To begin, everything is is millions. Now, just when I thought I was comfortable with numbers in spanish, i´m dealing with tens of millions of pesos at once, and it can get slightly overwhelming at times.
However, I´ve conquered my number woes, and have moved onto much deeper things that frustrate me when using the local currency, such as...small change.
It is very rare to receive change in denominations below 50 pesos. Occasionally, they´ll hand you 10 pesos, equivelant of the dime. Now, I should stress that the dime is totally useless, and occasionally I will gather all my loose dimes up and pay for my busfare (which is about 250 pesos). The driver always gives me a dirty look, and I just want to yell YOU GAVE ME THE DIME ON MY LAST RIDE!
However, the real issue pending here, the underlying problem where all my anger and frustration is rooted at lies with the Chilean Penny. One Peso. It resembles a piece of sturdy tinfoil, that with slight energy can be broken into two pieces. It is also worth .002 of a US Penny. Thats right, 2, ten-thousanths of a penny. I am fairly confident it takes more money with energy, man power, and distribution to create and produce this chilean penny, than it is actually worth. This could result in devestating losses for the government of Chile. Do they realize this? If I was more confident in spanish (and more conversational, which I´m not), I would write a letter of concern to the Treasury department of Chile, informing them of my queries. However, several things come to mind when I contemplate this. 1) I don´t know if they HAVE a treasury department in Chile 2) I could risk deportation, although I don´t actually live here, and am managing to ¨live¨ on a tourist Visa which must be renewed every 90 days. 3) I must assume that no one cares, because there MUST have been SOME person in the past who agreed with me and mentioned this...yet nothing was done
Inflation does terrible things to foreigners who have to use the local currency. I think its a decoy because its really easy to get confused and overpay- which COULD explain why Chile has the most stable economy in all of South America. This looks like a conspiracy to me
Monday, March 5, 2007
YMCA...my life
They call me the ¨gringa Chilena¨
I´ve really become a true YMCAér... My life revolves around this place. Not only do I sleep shower and exercise here, but I also eat, work, and and go to functions FOR the ymca. Its taken over my life. This past week, I joined my fellow Y peeps to attend an International Conference that was taking place at our sleepaway camp in the mountains, about 2 hours from Valpo. We had about 35 people total, 15 being our local chapter- and others from lower south-america-including Peru, Brasil, Argentina, Uruguay, and of course, myself and another girl living in Uruguay represented the US.
I felt like I was in JCY all over again, except the ages varied from 17-30 this time, instead of being in Highschool. However, everyone had the same spirit and similar attitiude that we had in JCY when I was younger. During the days, we had lecturers on the Services, Mission, Progams, etc for the YMCA´s at a local, and international level. However, during our free time, we played the same games that we play iwth the 8 year olds at camp, and truly, had just as much fun as the kids do.
At night, we had campfires and group activities, that were so stupid and silly, but just made us laugh for hours. Its great when adults (well, I don´t consider myself an adult...so SEMIadults) can still play like children, and enjoy simple things in life.
The entire lectures were (obviously) in spanish. I understood the main concepts, although some specifics were a little fuzzy for me. I had to give a ¨presentaion¨on international night, when each country presented something about their culture. Hmm, the US? Well, we don´t exactly have a SPECIFIC culture, or dance... but it was my first time having to speak spanish in front of a large group bymyself...I did OK!
The entire lectures were (obviously) in spanish. I understood the main concepts, although some specifics were a little fuzzy for me. I had to give a ¨presentaion¨on international night, when each country presented something about their culture. Hmm, the US? Well, we don´t exactly have a SPECIFIC culture, or dance... but it was my first time having to speak spanish in front of a large group bymyself...I did OK!
After 4 days of no sleep, I am back in Valparaiso preparing for school! First day is tomorrow, which means I will be teaching classes real soon. oooh. New things keep coming my way.
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