This apartment was just a few blocks from Bastian's university campus and the student bar area, both of which I got to see. Just in case you would like to put things in perspective, he and his roommates each pay the equivalent of about $300/month! (and that is considered very expensive, but worth it for the location). So... everything's relative...
We met up with our other camp coworker, Gary, and a group of us took a bus out to one of the beach areas outside the city to have a nice seafood lunch. Both of their friends that came with us also spoke English fluently, which I found so impressive! They all speak English better, I would say, than I speak Spanish, and they have never been to an English-speaking county. Made me feel a bit inadequate, if we're being honest. Doesn't matter though, it was a delicious lunch! It was raining all day, BUT, on the plus side, that made this killer whale statue kind of look like a real killer whale... It's got a nice realistic sheen to it, don't you think? Just humor me, please.
We took advantage of the rainy weather to go see a movie in the mall downtown, and decided on "Wolverine: Immortal." I was not even aware that this was the second Wolverine movie; maybe if I had seen the first one it would have filled some of the plot holes for me...but I will say this: it was entertaining, and Hugh Jackman is some sort of superhuman beast man! My goodness. As a special treat I got to take my picture with the One Direction poster in front of the ticket counter... think my students will believe I actually met them??
It was finally nice and sunny the next day, so I got a lovely campus tour of the University of Concepción. It's one of the big public universities in Conce, and has about 20,000 students. In the art building there is a huge mural, painted by a Mexican painter almost 50 years ago. Partly due to its size, and partly its subject matter, (the history and brotherhood of Latin America), it is quite famous--I heard about it a while ago and so I specifically asked Bastian if I could finally see it. It's beautiful! It's painted on stucco so it has a really cool, almost watercolor-like quality to it. Here's a panorama, and also a photo of me in front of it so you can get a better idea of the scale.
There was an explanation of all the things in the mural, but, as you can see, that would be a lot to remember. Basically, it's a timeline (from right to left) of Latin America and its riches (both natural and cultural), the arrival of the Spaniards and the mixing of cultures, the solidarity of different countries/cultures in Latin America, and at the far right a nice little gesture from the artist: copihues (the Chilean national flower) entwined around/growing on a cactus (the national symbol of Mexico).
We continued through other parts of campus and I was really surprised by how campus-y it felt. Universities here are very different from universities in the U.S. For one thing, the concept of a liberal arts degree does not exist here. Students graduate high school and then apply directly to the professional/grad program of their choice. English pedagogy is 9 semesters, whereas medicine is 7 years, etc. But there are no dorms, or fraternities, or other elements of campus student life as we would think of them. I kind of assumed that meant the campuses wouldn't feel campus-y, the way we think of college campuses, but this one was! It has a beautiful big belltower and a little duck lake, and a big central forum area for student activities. There were lots of pretty graffiti murals--this was my favorite tidbit:
While we were walking past the forum they were doing a community art/awareness event in commemoration of the coup that installed Pinochet's regime. This year marks the 40th anniversary of that military overthrow (which resulted in the death of the socialist then-president, Allende), and with Chile's Fiestas Patrias (Independence Day Festivals) coming up there are lots of looking-back-at-our-national-history things popping up everywhere. It has been very interesting observing Chile's current relationship with its recent history. As you may know, Pinochet finally left office by a democratic vote in 1990, but it was only a narrow victory for his opponents. Almost half of Chileans still supported his government at the time of that election, and it was only 23 years ago, so many people still have fond memories of Pinochet's Chile! I had been warned before arriving here not to engage in political debates, because you can't assume anything about a Chilean's political beliefs and could very easily be talking to someone who supported/still supports that dictatorship. I have indeed met several people who have argued in Pinochet's favor (it was a very prosperous time for Chile, and very stable relative to other Latin American dictatorships). So it's always interesting to me to see how the public handles discussions of the dictatorship. It most often appears in the form of human rights violation issues: honoring the memory of activists who were tortured, exiled, or killed, etc. At this event people were making a huge floor map of Conce and its surrounding coast towns, titled "Geography of a Dictatorship," marking all the places that something happened (murders, kidnappings, etc.).
So far I've seen a different side of Concepción every time I've gone, and it keeps impressing me! Very cool city. And of course it was great to see my friends there : )
*this heading in honor of Seth Myers' (SNL Weekend Update writer/host) recent wedding!
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