City and Country

This week I finally left the comfort of home and explored my first meetings and libraries, as well as subjecting myself to excercise-shock-treatment with a 25 km bike ride.
During one of these excursions I visited the historical neighborhood of Bellavista, today a mix of tourist trap, dive bars, and chic restaurants. The neighborhood entrance is guarded by one of Santiago's first bridges across the Mapocho River and the square below, where 4 students were killed in the 1950s during some political mobilizations. My Santiaguina adolescence was spent buying lots of cheap jewlery and incense at this square, today dominated by the massive building you see in the photo. That building belongs to the University San Sebastian, a private for-profit university dominated by the Opus Dei and ex-Pinochet government leaders. They want to replace the trees you see with a 12 meter statue of Pope John Paul II (http://www.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=estauta+juan+pablo+II+bellavista&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1187&bih=577)
Neighbors and architects thankfully dissuaded the Santiago authorities, but its incredible to read about other municipalities begging to have the statue placed in their area (http://www.molivision.cl/content/view/662896/La-comuna-de-San-Clemente-solicito-estatua-gigante-de-Juan-Pablo-II-rechazada-en-Santiago.html). The statue cost about US$4 million to build; who knows if students' tuition fees helped finance part of that. Opposite the massive building of San Sebastian University in the photo is another massive building of another private, for-profit university, Andres Bello U., the object of my paper on the inequity effects of privatizing higher education some of you may have heard me speak of.

Future resting home of 12 meters of Pope John Paul II ?? 

The next photo gives you a glimpse of what is soon to be South America's tallest building, the Titanium Tower, with the snowy Andes behind it. Construction was interrupted two years ago when the developer ran out of money, and again after the earthquake until fear of tall buildings receded (that took about a month). No one knows what will fill the tower.
Lest you think all Chile is steel and copper I've added some images from our bike ride around the Laguna Aculeo, 40 km south of Santiago. Beautiful!!

Titanium tower. Please admire the Andes in the background!

With my friend Rosario on our biking trip in Aculeo.

Chilean countryside at Aculeo, the snowy Andes in the background. 

Sunday to Sunday

You asked me last week what I would do today. At the time today seemed so far away and the move so dramatic it was impossible for me to imagine. I was completely wrong, as today passed with the most bland normality imaginable. This was a deceptively fast week. The good news is that my original accent is only getting stronger; that is about the only thing going on as planned. If you have any ideas about how to create productive stress, please tell me!

Because you asked, I will tell you what I did today:
I made my own granola and I'm determined to become good at it. If all else fails, I'll set up the competition within the family and open a health food store across the street!

I then became friends with Atlas.ti. This is work so I won't bore you with the details except to say that qualitative software is GREAT. This means too that my office is all set up! A friend lent me her desk and I got a fairly cheap nice leather chair (with all the money I saved from the desk). Now I can work... starting tomorrow.

I had a fruit and custard pie for lunch. Photos will follow one day (I'm practicing). For now you can admire the professional ones: http://www.sabordebuenosaires.com/tortas.html. And then I took my little nephew to the park. He's an angel.

I still feel like I'm on holiday because the only hard thing so far is getting used to the high-pitch voices of women here. It was a beautiful day today and all the young families were out at the parks, using the new excercise equipment (like the ones in China), playing with their kids. I took some photos for you. It reminded me of Germany because its so crowded yet so quiet... all you need to add to the photo is a warm breeze, the feel of the sun and the smell of jasmine flowers.

Diego y su papa

The quiet plaza

Don Tito's Birthday: he gave a very nice speech about the bakery, trust, comraderie.

Spring

I arrived on Tuesday and today, Friday, I'm still settling in. This involves catching up with everyone, buying a desk and chair, and renewing all my ID cards and passports (these were all expired! I had to enter as a foreigner!). I also want to email everyone and maybe this will make that task easier.

It is spring here and the weather is beautiful, flowers everywhere. But the pollution and dust make me sneeze and my environmental sensitivities are hurt: water is wasted, very little recycling, organic is super expensive and scarce, everything super packaged, cyclists and drivers are at war, etc.

Crin is a typical local craft. You may have seen it in my house. It reminds me of my childhood and I just love it, it is so simple, colorful, intricate, just like the country. You can see some examples here: http://rarichile.blogspot.com/. Desubicado means disoriented.

Today we are celebrating the 80th birthday of one of our star employees, Don Tito. Don Tito drives the van between the two bakeries and will retire in 3 months; he'll continue working with his kids in their event planning business. He hasn't stopped working since World War II, and these are some of conclusions he has reached (not as well phrased as the original):

"I love the [rescued] miners. Every time I go to the bank or admin office now and they say 'Oh no we can't do that; you need a signature, a form, then go there, stamp here, and next week I'll do it', I just say: what do you mean, we can rescue miners from 700 meters underground but you can't process some forms? Are you rebeling against the new 'Chilean way' of doing things?"
[the President has actually said - abroad - that this represents a new Chilean way of doing things: the right way]

"If I was your age, I'd be over at Las Dalias (our main bakery site, where all the girls work) everyday and make sure to not leave one of those girls 'unruffled'"

"Old people give good advice because it is too late for them to set a good example"

I will take photos soon. I promise!