That's all folks...

The day has come everyone, it is time for me to go home.

Since my last post, the university continued in Paro and Toma and are still fighting for their education rights today. Luckly, I was able to still complete all of my classes, with a few on the fly meetings with my teachers to wrap up the semester. I'll have you know that I passed all of my classes here and have been able to receive a good amount of credit towards my degree at CU. So that's it... I'm done.

Just to fill you in with the last few weeks of my Chilean life....

One night the guys of the program got together to hang out and make some empanadas. (out of about people in the program, there are only 10 guys.)

I also went off traveling solo a bit north of here to La Serena and the Elqui Valley. I had about 3 nights of travel, 4 fun days. This area of the country has some of the clearest skies in the world and is known as the Astronomical North. In one night I saw more shooting starts than I had in my entire life. It was absolutely beautiful. I tried to do some long term exposures with my camera, but I am not quite set up for that so my photos didnt turn out well. But that is alright, I have the memories :)

I had originally planned to travel this whole past week, but while in the Elqui Valley I realized that I wanted to spend my last few days in Chile in the city I have come to love. So I hopped on one of Chile's thousands of buses and got myself back to Valparaíso.
Since I got back I have been taking advantage of my time and getting around to walk though the hills and take some last pictures of the murals and houses perched through the city.

Last night was my host mom's 50th birthday. We had a huge party for her that also doubled as my going away party. It was a ton of fun to be together with everyone and chat away for hours and hours late into the night. (the old folks even out lasted me... I turned in at 4am, while they kept going with the music and dancing!)

My time here in Chile has been remarkable. In just 5 short months I have learned so much. Some of that learning was done in the classroom, yes, but the great majority of it was out interacting in the Chilean world. I have also stepped out side of my comfort zone quite a few times and have had one amazing experience after another. Through this process I have actively seen myself growing both physically (manjar and empanadas...), and personally. While I couldn't possibly go into the detail of where I have grown and what I have learned I can share one of the most important points with you. Before coming here I had a tendency to allow myself too much stress, becoming worried about minor details. I have learned to let that go and know that all will be ok and that the stress is just that; stress. No one wants it, No one needs it. I have done well to reduce it. In this sense I learned that I don't necessarily need a plan to have a great time. Some of my best days and nights in the country have happened without ever knowing what was coming in the next hour. I love that feeling and I plan to embrace it when I return back home.
Above all I have met some incredible people here and have certainly made life long friends.

I leave Chile tonight around 9pm. I can't believe that this day has actually come. It was so long in preparation for this adventure, so much time and effort in getting here that I never really thought about the end. And all of a sudden here it is. Being here has been of amazing importance to me and it is an experience I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

Thank you so much to all of the people that helped me get here. You know who you are and you laid the foundation for me to have a wonderful experience studying abroad in Chile.

Take care everyone,

Matt

Marcha por la Educación

Hey everyone!

Rather than providing you with a general update of what I have been up to since my last post, I am going to share 1 epic day I had this previous Thursday, June 16.

So in my last update I mentioned that the students of my university went into strike and took the buildings into their own control. They are doing this to make a statement about changes in the education laws that may be happening soon. While there are many, many different parts of this controversy, essentially they want public education to remain public and in so, it should be a free service. 

Well this is a lot bigger than I thought.

A friend shared this image the other day:

Every blue marker shows a University here that is on Paro (strike). 

Anyway, this previous Thursday was the National Education Strike, so there were supposed to be huge protests in Santiago as well as across the country. And when there is a huge protest in Santiago, there must be one in Valparaíso too.

My intentions for the day aside, I ended up in the streets of Valpo with a fully charged camera battery, an empty memory card and an alert sense of everyone around me.

To start the day I went to the Congress building; the end point of all Valpo protests. While I was there, the police started building barricades in the surrounding intersections (essentially trapping me in), so I knew something had to be coming. And by the looks of things, it was going to be big. 

Barricading the street, with me on the inside.

Water cannon trucks, ready on standby. 

After asking politely if I could please be let out of the barricade, I headed down the road in the opposite direction of Congress. 

Then, just blocks away, the march was coming. They were yielding banners and flags with an intention to be heard.

I needed to get out of the way, and conveniently there was a structure to my left that already had some photographers ready to get some good shots of the protest. So I slipped right up there and found myself a nice spot right at the top, out of harms way but with an excellent view of the action.

Good elevated view, out of the way :-)

As the marchers approached, some lady over a loud speaker system was welcoming the crowd and encouraging them to stop to unite themselves before continuing down to congress. Then I looked around a little bit more, and realized that I was on the stage of the protest leaders... oops. But I wasn't the only person up there and I just blended in with the other photographers.

Stage of the protest leaders, crowed gathered in front. 

And what is a good rally point without a band?

Protest Band!

So there I was, in the protest, with an excellent view, and out of harms way. So as the protesters united and continued to Congress, I proceeded to take pictures. Tons of them. 

SEAMOS REALISTAS, HAGAMOS LO IMPOSIBLE
Lets be realistic, lets do the impossible!

Continuing down Pedro Montt towards Congress

One of my personal favorite photos of the day...

Tons of different universities and majors united in the streets

News reports claimed that there were over 15,000 people in attendance at this march. I believe it.

So after the last bit of the march passed me, I climbed off the stage and decided to follow a little bit more and get some more pictures.

Then, realizing just how slow protest marches actually move, I found myself back at the barricade. This time on the other side at the front line of the march. 

Front line of the protests...

Yeah, that is not where I want to be if I want to keep myself safe, dry and fee of tear gas. But, I still wanted to see some more of the awesome event, so I double backed and around a block to the same intersection. Now I was just at a simple barricade with some other on lookers. No one on this side had intent of getting violent, so there was minimal danger there. 

Raising their hands to show that they mean no violence

From here I could see a good amount of the police activity, and just a little of the protesters. 

Heavily armored vehicles, ready to go.

Then someone broke through the barricade. Reporters swarmed in, and the frenzy started

Here it comes...

And the first water cannon of the day was fired

I found myself in an amazing spot here, like being at some sort of show. I saw everything, but was always out of harms way.

Things did start to get violent though. Some of the protesters would throw glass bottles full of paint at the armored vehicles and the riot police. Not really sure how that is helping their education reform, but they did it anyway.

Then, some of the riot cops had enough, they were only getting pummled with crap so they turned into our little part of the intersection to face us as if we were next to start some trouble.

Coming at us

After taking a beating of paint bottles

The toughness factor really decreases when speckled with paint.

Things continued to escalate as more water cannons were fired and some protesters began to through more bottles and rocks at the cops. The cops here are notoriously trigger happy with tear gas, but this time may have been warranted. 

The release of tear gas catches everyone's attention.

The gas spreads quickly to disperse the crowd. Were I was it wasn't as strong, but I could still feel it.

The rocks, water and tear gas went back and fourth for a while longer and I decided to head out. On my way back to the bus to head home, I passed by the university. Many of the (peaceful) protesters brought their banners back to the buildings to hang them up and celebrate the success of the march. 

Signs hung up on a building in Toma (sit-in)

If you look closely  you can see that the streets are all wet and some of the students are soaked. When I got there they were still having a great time even though the group had been broken up just shortly before. The air here was still lingering with gas.

I started to take more pictures of this event, but unfortunately my battery died so I wasn't able to get more photos. Though what I saw here was awfully disgusting.
There were already armored cars on the block, but without warning or anyone provoking them, the water cannons went off directly into the crowd. I even watched someone fall down in the madness and, horribly, the water cannon followed him to the ground and continued to blast water into him and roll him over the cement. Terrible.

Then a smaller armored car revved up and powered though the crowed dispersing them from in front of the main building. After most of them ran down a side street, they immediately came running back out followed by a huge plume of noxious gas. At this point it was just an obnoxious display by the cops of power and intimidation. If all this weren't enough, one of the water cannons pulled up in front of a building (in Toma) and proceeded to bast water though the gates. I'm pretty sure that isn't allowed. Although I didn't have my camera, I was able to locate a video that one of the student took from inside the building as the cops blew water at them. 

The gas was too strong to handle and I was getting worried about the cops on a power high, so I decided to wrap up my day and head out of there.  

Tear gas sucks. It stays in the air for hours, or even days and sticks to the skin just to make a point. When I got home I had to shower to get it off of me and stop the burning. 

I heard some of my friends went to the march as well, and one of them even got a picture of me on my perch on the stage of the protest leaders!

Upper right side of the crowd.

Thank you for reading, everyone. It was a very interesting day and certainly one that I wont forget. I am safe and sound, no more burning gas and I still have all of my possessions! Success.

Until next time,

Matt

Paro, toma, volcanoes, ¡oh my!

Hello blog readers!
So before I get started on this entry, I have to make a few shout outs. First of all, Blogger lets me see cool things like how many people visit my blog, what entries are visited the most, and even what country you readers are coming from! So with this information, I noticed an interesting increase in readers from the Dominican Republic and from Mexico. Great! Bienvenidos :)

Anyway, lets get back to Chile.

After Nathan left last week I was determined to check back into the school mindset. I realized I only had about a month left of classes and a few tests before thing would be wrapping up. So I needed to work. But, of course things can't ever be that simple. Last Wednesday, June 1st, my university here went into Paro. Which essentially means 'strike'. The students have various demands about how their education should be treated and are expressing their emotions and opinions about proposals to change the public education system. There are quite a few reasons why the students are doing this, but what is really came down to that day was No School. Great.
To make things even more interesting, the students from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso decided that a Paro wasn't making a large enough statement, so they continued into a Toma. Spanish lesson: tomar= to take. So a Toma is where they literally take the university buildings into their control. They fill the building and basically have a good old fashioned sit-in. And there they stay until the matter is resolved. This has happened before and has been known to be drawn out for months. Should be interesting to observe here as my stay in Valpo continues.

Here is the main building of the university, La Casa Central. It is covered with signs and banners about  the  Toma

As far as my classes go, 3 of the 5 continue as normal, since they are part of the foreign exchange program and aren't involved with the other student's actions. The other 2? Well they are just up in the air right now. Hostly, at this point, I am not sure what will happen with them. Either way, my semester ends mid July, so it has to be sorted out by then, even if it is just on my own individual level. I'll be sure to keep you guys updated on that situation.

Here is another building, Gimpert, under Toma...

Did I mention that my semester ends mid July? Like, next month. My time here in Chile is wrapping up and before I know it I will be back in Colorado summer getting ready for an intense semester at CU. But, bet not to think too much about that, and really take advantage of what I have here. For example, this morning I got myself up early and went down to the local farmers market to check out the goods :)

On the non academic front of things, this seismic country is active again. Down south, a Volcano in Puyehue has erupted, spewing ash and smoke high into the air. While I have not been directly affected where I am, some 400 miles away, lots of airports and border crossings with Argentina have been closed. It is interesting to hear of the news going on down there since I actually know where it is and have seen that range of volcanoes and mountains.

Like I said, I still have some classes to attend and the end of the semester is nearing, so that means it is time to get some papers written!
Wish me luck.

With love,
Matt

Nathan in Chile

Well I promised for more frequent updates, so here we are again!
The reason I had a three week hiatus of blog updates was due to some minor distraction in my life between traveling to Easter Island (view that blog here) and Nathan coming to visit me right afterwards.
I returned to Santiago on a Tuesday night and Nathan arrived Wednesday morning, so the fun never stopped!

Anyway, back at the end of March I received an email from Nathan informing me that he found a great deal on a plane ticket to Chile and that he couldn't pass it up, so just like that he was coming to visit me! His trip came at an interesting time for him right after graduating and shortly before moving out of the States to pursue some awesome dreams of his.

Nathan's visit also came at a rather interesting time for me too. Somehow for the solid week that he was here, all of my classes had some sort of out-of-the-norm thing going on. So I was running between classes and meetings and quizes while he wandered around the city and enjoyed some of Valparaíso.

Aside from the craziness of my school schedule, we were able to spend some well needed time together and explore a small piece of this skinny country.

We went to La Campana National Park, which is somewhere between Valpo and Santiago. This park has some really pretty hiking trails and is a nice place for getting away from the busy cities.

One day we took a half day trip to a town further down the coast called Isla Negra to visit Pablo Neruda's house there. (Now I have seen all three!)

I even introduced Nathan to the joy that is Empanadas. We liked them so much that we started to make our own and get creative with different fillings.

Fillings include: mushroom-vegie-cheese, manjar banana, manjar cheese...

Of course we went to do some touristy Valparaíso things, like ride an ascensor and visit Paseo 21 de Mayo.

Before arriving, Nathan realized that we have a shortage of good photos of us together. So I asked my friend Natalie if she would be willing to take some pictures of us so we could share them with friends and family. She was beyond thrilled. Her photos are awesome

Photo Credit: Natalie Christian

Photo Credit: Natalie Christian

Natalie has an excellent eye for photography, check out her blog here.

After a week and a half flew by here in the port city, it was time to make our way back to Santiago for Nathan's return to the states. But before he left we went to an awesome vineyard complete with tastings. I found a cool one here that is totally organic and produces fantastic wine, so off we went to support the cause.

Delicious Wine from Emiliana

When we arrived in Santiago, we walked right into a huge protest happening in the city. The main point of the protest was against a large hydroelectric dam project that has been proposed in Patagonia, but there were other groups piggybacking on this movement as well...

The one full day we had in Santiago happened to be the one day of the year when all important buildings of the city were open to the pubic, completely free! So we were able to check out some neat museums and such without paying a single peso.

It was so wonderful to have Nathan here in Chile with me. I have had such an amazing experience in this country and I was so glad to be able to share it with him and show him what my life really is like down here. Now he understands more about what my daily life is like and knows who the people are that I spend my time with.
When he arrived we were expecting it to be the last time we would see each other for at least a year since he had plans to go to China at the end of June. But, another opportunity arose and he will now be going to Hungary in September to pursue a masters degree. So while it was sad to see him go on Monday, we knew that it wasn't a "wont see you for a year"goodbye, but a "see you in a few months!"goodbye. Hope that made sense...

So with Nathan's departure that means I have to check back into the reality of school (again) after 3 weeks or so of putting everything on the back burner. Things are going to happen quickly here though. I only have about a month left of actual classes and then a few final exams and I will be headed out of Chilean winter and into Colorado Summer! Should be a fun!

Thanks for reading everyone,
Be well.
Matt

Photo Credit: Natalie Christian

Easter Island!

Well hey everybody! Long time no post... Sorry about that! It has been a crazy few weeks here in the land of Chile. I would have posted this blog a lot sooner, but I was rather distracted with Nathan's visit to come see me (next blog post...)

Ok, enough excuses. Lets talk about EASTER ISLAND!

Every single one of these photos is my own and unedited. Those of you close to me may see prints of these in the future.

This blog is mildly educational and packed with photos. Enjoy :-)

I had wanted to go to this amazing island for years and years, after hearing about it on some arbitrary news show when I was a kid. Something about it fascinated me and called my attention, but always just sat on the back of my mind. But, when I started planning to come to Chile for this study abroad program, I realized that this tiny island is actually part of this crazy country. Some shallow research into getting there showed that it is flat out expensive, but worth every penny. I didn't really see a feasible way of going without really dipping into my funds... but what the hell? I'd rather spend my money on experiences rather than things, so off to Easter Island I went with my friend Isabelle and her parents :-)

Lost? Here are some directions.

Easter Island is the most isolated, inhabited place in the world. It's closest inhabited neighbor is Pitcairn Island, 1400 miles to the west. It is also 2,400 miles away from the coast of Chile; which is just short of the distance from San Francisco, CA to New York, NY. 

So being there provided an interesting experience of solitude. Although, since it is part of Chile, everything chilean was still offered there: Entel phone coverage, empanadas, manjar... We have succeeded in flattening the world.

Aside from the interest of location, Easter Island has also had an interesting history that resulted in some rather remarkable creations. 

Let me introduce you to the Moai.

These statues are iconic of the island. They are huge and carved to resemble a rough human figure. They have large heads, fat torsos, no legs, arms that wrap around to the body, and a distinct facial structure. The Moai were created to serve as a monument and embodiment of ancestors past. There are something like 800 of the statues around the island, though most of them never made it to their final destination. What was their final destination you ask? 

Well...

After carving, these statues were brought to platforms like this, called ahu. Here they stood looking over the land as embodiments of the souls of the ancestors. It is absolutely incredible to think about how these things were carved, moved and stood up onto these platforms in a time well before modern machinery. 

Moai are huge.

Here I am standing in front of one, in absolute awe. (ps, evidence that I was actually there)

You'll notice that this one has those bright white eyes looking forward, which was a symbol that the ancestors soul was alive in the statue. The red rock that sits on its head was actually a later addition to the Moai that they somehow lifted up on top of the thing. Incredible. 

Isabelle with one of the Moai hats.

The history of the island is rich and complex, full of tribal battles and Western destruction. I am no expert about everything that happened here, but I can tell you that this whole Moai thing was just a phase. The people of Easter Island, called Rapa Nui, spent only a part of their history developing these statues. It was apparently a very popular thing to do, since so many were created. Though at some point in the line all of the statue making came to a halt, seemingly abruptly. Historians argue this since the main quarry, or rather, volcano crater, Rano Raraku, contains tons of Moai in various stages of production. 

Each of the odd spots in the green grass are Moai, just hanging around the crater.

Some are stuck to the rock wall, others laying in the grass, missing details. Others were broken and abandoned, some just look forgotten.  

 Additionally, after the time of Moai carving ended, something happened in the Rapa Nui clans and they toppled the ones that were stood up. Every single one. Most of the statues broke, lost their hats, their eyes and the splendor. Most of the ahu have moai laying down face into the earth, eroding in the weather. 

Since all of them were toppled, that means that the ones that are standing up were raised in modern times. They were reerected at various times and in different ways, including help from the Japanese and a large crane lift. And we should be glad that they did so we can see the amazing sight of the Moai standing tall on their platforms. 

Ahu Tongariki

Here is a line of 15 of them, basking in the afternoon sunlight. 

How the Rapa Nui managed to lift these things is beyond comprehension. 

There is still continued research into the history of this crazy island. 

Not really sure what this crap does, but probably good to not touch...

In addition to the whole Moai thing, the Rapa Nui also lived on an absolutely beautiful island. It was formed by volcanic activity, but now is composed of rolling hills and craters filled with lakes. 

And lets not forget beautiful sunsets with purple water.

And white sand beaches... with Moai

The warm pacific water is just out of the frame to the right of this pictures, but you can be sure that I went swimming there!

My trip to Easter Island was absolutely amazing and truly and experience of a lifetime. There is a ton more information about the island and it's people online and in numerous books. If you find yourself interested I would encourage you to go look. And also take a hop, a skip, and a jump on down to the island yourself. 

Just for good measure, to please my family, and also a bit for showing off... here are a few more photos:

Thank you for reading everyone, I do apologize for the delay.
Stay tuned for more (frequent) updates!

With love,
Matt

PS, I found a Mickey-Mouse-Cow...