We got our power back this evening at about 8, I believe, and we've been watching the news ever since. It seems to be a bit more video-based here, with less commentary, and it is heart-wrenching. I've been searching the internet since the power came back to find ways to volunteer and help (because CIEE will only tell us to stay at home), but unfortunately the advice from the Chilean government at the moment is, like CIEE's, to stay at home as much as possible until they are able to fully survey the damage. I really hope that there will be opportunities for us to go down and help people who need it; we are, as a friend of mine recently said, "a very capable demographic." We'll see.
If you want to know how to help or send aid, Huffington post has a pretty extensive list of organizations, which they are continually updating (pardon the source, I know it's biased, blah blah blah, but in this case I hardly think it matters):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/27/chile-earthquake-relief-h_n_479426.html I at least ask that you keep this country (which has been so warm and hospitable to me thus far) in your hearts and, if you pray, in your prayers. I'm sure you've heard no end of it on the news (probably for at least two days longer than I have), but, you know, it bears repeating.
Anyways, let's lighten up the tone a little bit-- I've been watching the news with my host parents for the last couple of hours and it has me all sorts of riled up. We'll look at some pictures (most are mine, but I have taken a few from Facebook because I myself take very few pictures. After such photos I have included the name of the source/the photographer). You can click any of these photos to make them bigger. A ver:
Welcome to Santiago, Chile! It is a wonderful place.
©Heather Goodale(BTW: What up, ANDES.)
This is where I live (the little red "A". Again, click the picture to make it bigger):
Credit: Google Maps (http://maps.google.cl/)
The neighborhood is called "La Reina," and it is very nice indeed. My house is in a little baby gated community (not like the gigantic labyrinths in Scottsdale, but just a little baby community with a gate). Once you pass the gate, you see this:
Cute, right? Also, this was the day after the terremoto, so you can see that things are pretty normal. Except for the wall that is immediately to your right when you walk through the main gate (immediately to your right in the picture above), you would never know anything happened. It was a little wall that separated our little community from an dialysis center (the yellow building), but it fell down during the earthquake:
And a bit closer:
If you keep walking you will get to my house:
Pass through the gate, and you'll get to the front yard, where you can see the wall in the garden that fell:
Not too bad. It's mostly been cleaned up, but again, the damage was very, very mild, as I have said. A few broken dishes, some spilled marmalade, a garden wall... nothing compared to an entire house or anything like that. We were very lucky.
Anyways, here is my host dad Carlos and our dog Danka in the front room (again, day after the earthquake, everyone is looking fine):
What a cutie:
Mira la Danka. ¡Que rica!
Anyways, pass through the house and you get to the backyard:
If you turn around you see this (back o' the house):
Very, very cute. Very nice. I am very lucky to be living in such a nice place with a family that I like so much. I'll get a picture of Kelly up here sooner or later, but at the time that I was taking photos she said she looked "fea" and didn't want her picture taken at the moment (so not the truth, but whatever. I understand; I hate having my picture taken 99% of the time).
Ok, so that's the round-up of the house, I think. Now you can see where I live! A very wonderful place, as I said, with very wonderful people. Javier should be arriving within the next few days; the earthquake, understandably, has delayed his arrival by a couple of days. I will leave you by starting a new section of the blog: " The Chilenismos of the Day". Chileans have many, many modismos (slang), a lot of which are totally unique to the country. As I've been here about a week, I've picked up quite a few, so I'll just pick my favorites. I'll also throw in some other, non-Chile-specific gems, because a lot of them are funny (the section should really be "Vocab of the day", but whatever. Chilenismos sounds better.). A ver:
Chilenismos* of the Day:
*(Not necessarily entirely)
Pololo/a*: Girlfriend/boyfriend. Here, novio/a is really serious. Like, about to be engaged. So for the less serious romantic endeavor, pololo/a is the term of choice (verb= pololear)
Poto*: Bum/bottom. A kinder, more polite version of "culo." As in, el potito de guagua (the baby's little bum)
Guagua*: Baby. Pronouned "wahwah". Kelly is always calling her nieto (grandson) her little guaguita. Onomatopoeia at its finest.
Tirar un peo: To fart (a real gem, in my opinion). ¡Ay, que olor! ¡La Danka tiró un peo!
Carrete*: A party. A carrete can be big or small, but fiesta is only used for big parties, from what I understand. I have already used the verb form of this word in my previous entry (carretear, to go out partying)
Anyways, that should be it. I need to work on shortening these things. Good night! ¡Buenas noches! And as always, que todo les vaya bien.
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