May 21 every year is literally designated Protest Everything You Hate About Chile day. I’m not kidding. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the biggest difference between Chile and say, Peru, is that attitude that pulses through the entire country. From my experience, Peruvians are awefully proud to be Peruvian. They will make sure you know that fact at every opportunity, and you’d better not contradict them. Especially in the poor areas in the south where I was, the country sometimes feels like it marches to the beat of it’s fists pounding it’s own chest. Chileans, in stark contrast, are quiet and dismissive and will take the opportunity to tell you why Chile sucks. They’re sarcastic, more cynical than is healthy, and generally much more my style. You can really taste the difference by spending any amount of time in both countries.
In any case, the police aren’t taking any crap today, so I’m stuck here for a bit. This post is a partial follow-up on the Wednesday Afternoon Rant, plus some other stuff going through my head and an excuse to catch up on picture posting.
Fact of the Day #1: In a recent informal but highly scientific poll, 8/9 other gringos in ISA agree with me in strongly wanting to go back to normal college life instead of continuing here, given the option.
My housemate Blake was the only exception, taking a very carefree stance. The most commonly cited reasons? 1. UAI is high school, and 2. I’m wasting a whole lot of time. The typical expat complaint list (miss your friends, your family, sick of spanish, etc.) consistently gets beat out by those two.
Conclusion #1: I’m not crazy.
Everything has been happening in reverse here in Chile with this group. From the outset, ISA tries to warn you about pity parties that gringos like to throw in the first few weeks where they just sit around and complain about the new culture and wish they were home rather than integrating as best as possible. For the first three months, almost none of that happened. Now all of the sudden, people are sick of the place. It’s not your typical definition of reverse culture shock, but it’s happening.
In response, we’re trying to be proactive about it. I started two new facebook groups – gringo eats! and Kick the Bucket (dammit). I should have done this a long time ago. gringo eats! is a place to organize restaurant trips and asados; Kick the Bucket (dammit) is an open ended bucket list of easy-but-very-worth-it things to do before leaving. I created a bucket list for myself before, but aimed a little too high (things like ‘go to cuba’ got stuck on there after a friend found the airline mistake fare of US$289 round trip santiago-havana. unfortunately, we never made it).
I also scored a gig along with a few other gringos as a general contributer to the English tourist site Eye on Vina. The founder moved on and left the site in control of a Colorado girl named Kayla, and she desperately needs help with it all. One of my friends does similar work with other, larger media outlets in print and online, and it looks like fun to me. I know I can write well enough to do it when I try. The website is flat broke (part of my job, along with Blake, is to run effective marketing on zero budget) so instead of getting paid, she promised a glowing recommendation. If I can use that to leg-up to a paying outlet later on, that would be beyond prime.
I wish this had all happened a little earlier, but so be it. I have a final note on wasting time that is going to wander a bit, but I need to write this down.
Fact of the Day #2: A recent informal but highly scientific study found that 91.61% of my time-killing activity takes place on my laptop. Of that, approximately 42.77% is spent playing FreeCell, Hearts or Tetris while listening to music; the remaining 57.23% is spent surfing news outlets (ESPN, various political sites, AlJazeera) or blogs (too many to list).
Fact of the Day #3: A recent informal but highly scientific study found that playing FreeCell, Hearts or Tetris for more than about 20 minutes a day is patently ridiculous, and spending more than 15 seconds per week on news outlets or blogs makes you angry and depressed.
Why? Because politics flat out sucks. Because industrialized food is poisoning you in more ways than you can count. Because misplaced corporate interests rule the world. Because dictators, disease and despair kill people. Because regardless of what you think about specific topics (global warming, nuclear energy, etc), there’s no doubt that our world craps on the planet on a daily basis in ways we all agree on (like dumping PCBs into rivers, burning rainforests or whatever else happens to be happening all the time). Because it just seems like the challenges are too big and too deep for us to solve.
But mostly, because there’s basically nothing I can do about it all.
I don’t like my solution, but it’s the only solution I’ve got right now.
Conclusion #2: Ignorance is bliss, or at very least, ignorance is better than prozac.
I’m turning it all off. Unplugging. Shutting down. For the sake of my happiness and sanity. For the sake of not letting ‘angry republican’ or ‘guilty liberal’ consume any more of my personality (I get both sometimes). I’m checking my email, my facebook, Matador Network and ESPN. When there’s more time to kill, I’ll start chugging through my Lord of the Rings books in Spanish and actually learn something. Or go for a run, or try to find a quiet spot in this house to meditate for a bit. If something important enough happens, I’ll find out about it somehow.
Comments? Do you have a better solution? How long do you think I'll last?
Finally, some (really old) picture zen for today, from my trip to the north back in March
A: Bizarre desert-worn quartz formations
B: the strikingly beautiful Valley of the Moon
C: I actually had a long layover in Japan on my way up
D: What's up dude? gotta love the Andes
E: Putre, one of my favorite towns in Chile. Good to be back on the altiplano
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