Observations from my 6-Day Culture Jump

I had been expecting a bit of culture shock--I'd been in Chile for 7 months!  But you never know what's going to stick out to you.  I gotta say, walking through Chicago after living in Angol was very strange.  I kept thinking about how my host family or my students would feel if they were there, seeing everything I was seeing.  I wanted to take pictures of every little thing so that I could show it to them when I got back!  And I kind of did that, to show them American wedding traditions, and the windmills on the drive home through Indiana, and all the foliage in my neighborhood and what we had for dinner.  But anyway, these were some of my thoughts:

- first time I thought to myself "woah, that's different," was turning on the faucet and washing my face with hot water.  The second time was my mom putting on 'Blurred Lines' for us in the car.

- Chicago felt almost sterile or something, like we were on a movie set.  I found myself wondering if someone went around every day to clean the sidewalks and manicure the flower beds.  It seemed more like a nice place built for visitors than a place where people actually live (I realize that this is probably true for many parts of downtown Chicago). It was cool, but it made me feel like another visitor in some sort of giant visitor's center. 

- prices are high! I didn't think things seemed that much cheaper here when I first arrived, but going back there seemed to be a huge difference. Maybe it was the fact that I was browsing touristy things in Chicago, but, still.  I realized I was just planning to find some booth vendors on the sidewalk to get the same things, but extra cheap, and they were, of course, nowhere to be seen. 

- wow, we drive all over the place! And everything is so far apart! I spent an entire morning driving around to different parts of the northside of the city, to different stores, my old high school, a bagel shop (oh yes), and a friend's house. It's very different from just walking into the town center and finding everything you need within a few blocks of each other, and enjoying the leisurely walk back, and maybe grabbing an ice cream on the way. On a larger scale, the idea of everybody getting in their own cars to drive to another town or city seems so wasteful compared to the vast network of (good, cheap) bus systems here.  Why don't we have something like that in the U.S.?  On the other hand, I do looove car-singing...

- I was struck by the sheer quantity of things.  I mean both in stores and at home.  We went to a two-story Walgreens, with an entire aisle of cough & cold medicine varieties, and an entire aisle of chip selections, and an entire long wall of cold drink options.  As I type this, I am remembering that that's actually completely normal in most convenience stores in the U.S....but I'm going to carry on. Are they really all so different that you stock every single one of those?  I couldn't tell if I liked that there were so many options or if I was offended by it. It was overwhelming! And at home, in my own room, I was looking around at all my stuff.  The vast majority of it had not crossed my mind in 7 months, but it was all stuff that I had held onto for some reason. I got the urge to do a massive purging of my room, but that will have to wait till December! 

- it was a change for me to be surrounded by a society that speaks my language.  Or I guess I should say it was a change for me to be in my native language society. I don't often run into trouble communicating here anymore, but I am still in the habit of doing a quick review in my head of possible follow-up questions or related phrases before I approach a sales attendant, for example. I found myself still doing that in Indianapolis, and had to snap myself out of it.  Kind of weird to have to give yourself the "Maddie, this is your native language, there is [almost] nothing they say will that you won't understand" pep talk.  

- and finally, it was a delightfully wonderful shock to me to actually be in the presence of my friends and family.  To be sitting next to them instead of skyping or messaging them.  You don't even have to say anything, you can just sit there next to them, because people who are actually in each other's presence can just enjoy each other's presence without keeping up an internet-enabled conversation! That was nice : ) 

My Lovely Weekend *UNITED STATES EDITION*

Alriiiight there's so much to report from my 6 days back in the states! First, I had a wonderful wonderful wonderful time.  It was so very nice to see so many people I love all back-to-back like that! I felt like I was on some celebrity tour, but in a very lucky way. 

The journey back to Chicago was tiresome, literally.  After taking a bus overnight, I had to spend the day in the Santiago airport and then catch my overnight flight, finally getting to Chicago at about 6am Friday (over 32 hours after leaving the house here in Angol).  Oh, and my luggage was lost, had never even been registered in my connecting city of São Paulo. BUT I was reunited with my mom, so I couldn't be mad! And, as weary as my flights were, I did get some amazing views crossing over the Andes, and then of both São Paulo and Chicago at night.

a glittering São Paulo

still São Paulo. I gotta go there someday!

outskirts of Chicago. look at the difference in the layouts of the two cities!

After a long hotel nap, and the arrival of the rest of the family (which made me very happy!), the rehearsal dinner was upon us. It was at a cool old Italian restaurant in Chicago (Orso).  We were all out on the patio, which had a beautiful terrace roof all stemming from the same huge grapevine.  We took a lot of obnoxious family pictures, as if we hadn't all been together in 7 months or something...

together at last!

so pretty

The next morning we met my aunt and uncle for breakfast! I realized that breakfast foods were what I had missed most, and it was very hard for me to pick just one thing on the menu.  The strawberry waffle that I devoured in about 60 seconds (and my side bagel) did not let me down! So distracted was I by my breakfast revelation that I didn't get a picture with my aunt and uncle! Next time : ) 

We had some time to kill the afternoon, which of course meant shopping/wandering.  I had several requests from students for Chicago Bulls paraphernalia, so I spent a while chasing that down, only to find that I had forgotten how expensive things can be in the U.S. So that was a dead end.  But after lunch it was wedding time!!! The ceremony was in this beautiful church right downtown, and everything was perfect! My cousin Andrew and his beautiful bride Sally were stunning, and so deliriously happy throughout the whole day that I felt like we were all the large cast in their rom-com. We could all tell they're going to be very happy together! Congratulations to Andrew and Sally! Ok so, commence the photos:

Chicago Temple

look how excited they are!

look at that handsome Boots bunch

awww

Then we had a reception, and then dinner at the City Winery.  It was a very fancy venue, if I may say so, and all the cousins were seated at a table together so we had a damn good time.  The food was delicious, but, more importantly, there were fake moustaches for each table and an open bar all night.  Oh yeah, that's right. Plus the wedding band was amazing, and they played the whole night so we all danced the whole night. We had a blast! 

claaassic Hen

she might kill me for putting this on here...

mothereffin' gentlemen

Fantastic evening.  Also, I finally got my suitcase!  The following morning we had a big family brunch (hello, America, nice to see you again) and headed back to good ol' Indy.  I only had 3 days so I crammed in a lot of visits. Got to spend an afternoon in Bloomington to see my IU ladies, and have a good family friend over for dinner, and see a friend's new house, and have two more lovely family dinners, and meet my best friend's baby nephew, and help celebrate a special birthday! 

reunion with the Lucymeister

good luck in Italy, Abby!!

and, of course, one of a zillion photos Lily snapped of us

what a big little man!

 Also spent an afternoon picking out some gifts to bring back for my host family.  It was an odd sensation to walk around the mall looking for the most American things available that they couldn't get here.  I settled on some tee shirts and ranch dressing. AMURICA. Don't worry, I got them more than that, but, ya know, that just sounded funnier. In that whole process I stopped by my old stomping grounds at NCHS and got to pay some more fun visits! (and bring my sister Steak n' Shake. Three cheers for Steak n' Shake!)

I had to leave Thursday to come back to Chile, and thank goodness the trip was not as strenuous this time.  But I left completely thrilled with all my time at home! As strange as it was for me to jump from a small town in Chile to Chicago, and then home, and then back, I'm incredibly glad that I did it.  It was so gratifying to spend even that small amount of time with all the people I love back home! And now I'll be seeing them again in December, which will be here before we know it : )   I will leave you with this: 

Anniversary Week

Buckle up, this is gonna be a long, photo-filled post.  The week before last was the anniversary of the founding of the school where I work, and here in Chile that merits lots of celebration. We're 124! 

the cutest nuns you'll ever see

Every year they have special activities all week, including a full day of contests instead of classes, and it all culminates in a "gala" at the end of the week (a school dance, but lasting until 2:30am--which a student complained to me was "early"--because we're in Chile).  Before we jump into the activities, let's start with mass. It's a Catholic school, after all!  Monday morning we all gathered in the gym for a special mass commemorating the anniversary and the coming national independence holiday.  A group of elementary students put on a little cueca performance (the traditional national dance) for everyone, and it was adorable! 

Before we move on from mass, I would like to draw your attention to the larger-than-life-size portraits that were in the corner of the stage all week.  Here we have San Francisco himself and the nun who founded the school (whose name I should maybe know but I do not).  I am told that a student(s) painted these a while ago and they trot them out each year.  They give me chills, and not in a good awe-inspiring way. I will admit that this is impressive work for your average high school art class, but ohhhh man are they terrifying...

Ok moving on.  Mass accomplished, the students could switch into competition mode.  As I may have mentioned, there are two classes in each grade, so there are 8 high school classes total.  Each one has a color, that stays with them through all four years, that is their team color come competition time. They get class shirts, make banners, pick a mascot, etc. and all compete in various activities to earn points for their team.  At the gala at the end of the week they announce which class won, but the prize is only bragging rights!  That being said, their competitive spirit lit up the school all week.  I have never seen these students get so excited about anything all year!  Bragging rights seem to go a long way...

First of all, the teams had been assigned the week prior to a music video, and they had to turn in on Monday their team parody of that video.  Some of them were a lot more exact than others, but they were all entertaining--even though I hadn't seen the original videos, I laughed my ass off watching these with my head teacher Karen! The winner was to be determined by the highest number of facebook likes, so they were all uploaded and shared a million times. You can watch them all at this public facebook page!

Monday afternoon was the first half of the soccer tournament, and the teams also got their assignments for the Mission Impossible that they had to do the following day.  For the Mission Impossible, they had to partner with another randomly-selected team to recreate a scene in the gym.  They had a set amount of space and a list of things to include in a little skit embodying a circus, a famous Chilean music festival, a fashion show in the future, or a fonda.  A fonda is part of the traditional independence celebrations--essentially a little booth/tent where they serve food and drinks (all the special foods and drinks that are part of Chilean independence festivities) and have music and dance performances.  They had to organize everything for the skits in just one day, and put them together after school on Tuesday.  I got to be one of the judges!  I was incredibly impressed by them all, and I could tell they were just having a blast, so it was very fun.  I unfortunately only have a few pictures of them preparing beforehand, since I was scoring the skits themselves.  

the circus ended up winning the Mission Impossible!

part of the adoring music festival crowd

the spread at the fonda table- we've got empanadas, pajaritos (kind of like sweet rolls)
and ponche (a delicious peachy wine punch drink)

our very elite fashion show attendees

and our runway models straight outta the future

Then Wednesday was the big activity day!  They started at about 9:30 and went until 6 or so, and there was not a dull moment.  The teams were all decked out in their colors, flying their banners, and they had little team sections in the bleachers to function as their headquarters for the day.  First, the soccer tournament!  It was actually "baby fútbol," just 20-minutes games played on the little indoor court in the gym.  I'm sure I don't have to tell you that Chilean high school boys are really good at soccer, but even I had no idea it would be the fastest-paced, most competitive soccer I had ever seen!  There are some seriously fast feet down here; it was very exciting to watch. 

the mascots, including Mr. Ladybug here, had to stay in costume all day-
it was another way to rack up points for their team! 

They had a little snack break, which most of them took as an opportunity to burn off some of their adrenaline goofing around in the gym.

Esteban was reallyyyy gettin' into his job as bannerman

another mascot

perfect example of the little team hubs

Then it was time for the square meter contest.  Literally just taping a square meter on the floor and trying to fit as many people into it as possible.  They did have to be able to hold their position for 3 minutes, so some thought went into their formations!

Can you guess how many people the winning team had in there? Wrong- they had SEVENTEEN. Whaaaaat that's crazy. 

Meanwhile, select members from each team had been backstage preparing contraptions for the egg drop competition (literally backstage- we put them up on the stage and shut the curtains). I mistakenly assumed that they would think an egg drop competition was lame, but no! There's hope out there! They got realllllyyy into it, and the actual drops drew a huge, fiesty crowd.

mid-air, the little egg gets its 15 seconds of fame

There was an argument over technicalities (as seen in the last photo), but only one team even had a crack in their egg! Little geniuses. Then lunch break!  Each team had elected a king and queen, and before lunch each royal pair got their assignment for the kings-and-queens dance.  They had only an hour to prepare a costume and dance according to whatever style they drew out of the bag: disco, colombian cumbia, mexican ranchera, flamenco, rock 'n' roll, sau-sau (from Easter Island), bachata, and salsa.  I got to be a judge again, and our little three-person panel had to take some time to look up all those styles before the competition (I had never even heard of a few of them before!). After lunch they performed them for everybody, and, once again, I was incredibly impressed.  I have no pictures, because I was busy marking down scores, but just believe me: they did an excellent job! 

Next there was a volleyball tournament, giving some of the ladies a chance to show off their skills.  It was the same idea as the soccer games, just 20-minute matches, but unfortunately volleyball is not as fast-paced and the skill level wasn't quite as high (I'm not saying they weren't good, but let's be honest, soccer is always going to be the strength here). Still fun to watch though! 

And finally! The highly anticipated focus of the day: the barra baile, or dance contest.  Each class had to prepare a 6-min dance routine, including at least 90% of their classmates and their head teacher.  The students had been working on these for weeks, staying after school and meeting up on the weekends. I had heard about it long ago, because classes still watch and brag about the routines from years past.  To my great delight, I got to be a judge again! But this time I handed my camera off to some students to take some pictures for me (in between selfies).

the first team to go was one of the freshman classes, and I could tell they were nervous! 

but they kicked it off wonderfully

this was the other freshman class--they got first place!

dance break for da men (the ladies are hiding far in the back)--this group tied for third!

our second-place winners, a sophomore team

And the final team, a senior class who donned masks, gloves, and finger lights! they tied for third

That last team had won the overall anniversary competition all three years running, and they had a very impressive showing and ended up winning the grand total this year as well! A perfect run. They announced the winner at the gala, which was Thursday night.  I missed the gala, though, because I zipped home for a special week with the family! (Related post to come).  Having obviously never experienced anything like anniversary week in my own high school, I was blown away by the whole thing. They poured so much energy into it and had so much fun! You can tell they look forward to this year-round, and I was so glad I got to see it.  The excitement was contagious!