Continent-trotting

OK, time for what's becoming the bi-monthly update of this blog, which is surely losing readers faster than I can think of a witty comparison. In any case, a lot's been going on with me, and as a service to you kind few who have kept the faith and persisted in checking this blog, I'll fill you in.

I've become very familiar with the Santiago airport and bus station over the past weeks because of the slightly ridiculous amount of travelling I've been doing. Over the Easter weekend, I went with 5 of my friends from the program to Mendoza, Argentina, a 6 hour bus ride away from Santiago. The bus ride is gorgeous- the road snakes up the Chilean side of the Andes until it hits a wall of mountains, when it goes into a two mile long tunnel that drops you off on the other side of the continental divide in Argentina with a view of the pampas streching out as far as you can see. In Mendoza, we spent one day doing a bike tour of the local wineries, which counds like a great idea until you realize that at every winery you get a free sample of wine, which combined with the free bottle of wine at lunch and heavy bags full of 'souveniers' makes for a very dangerous trip back to the bike rental place. Still, if you happen to find yourself in Mendoza, it's a great way to know the area- just be sure to pace yourself and go with a group that drinks all the wine their given instead of giving it to you.

The view going back down the Andes into Argentina.

One of the shocking things about being in Argentina is realizing how cheap everything is there. Clothes are ridiculously inexpensive- we found Cristian Dior ties for $50, when the exact same ties would have cost five times as much back home. One of the best dinners I've ever had, with 3 courses and wine for siz people, came out to be $90. Total. And I felt increbily guilty being charged $1.50 for a 20 minutes crosstown taxi ride. The scars of the financial crisis of 2001 aren't just present in the prices of things, but also in the stories of the Argentines who were affected. We stayed with a woman in her house- a very nice building with space to sleep 10 people- who had a high paying job before the crash, but after was reduced to renting out rooms to backpackers and travellers.

After Mendoza, I spent 36 hours in Santiago before embarking on another journey, this time to Patagonia and Torres del Paine National Park. Patagonia was every bit as incredible as I'd heard it would be- barren rolling plains, trees growing sideways, freezing persistent winds. And then you get to Torres del Paine, and everything changes. There's no adequate way to describe the Paine Massif in words- they look more like an illustration out of a fantasy novel than anyhting in the real world (one park employeee told us that Chilean call the park Mordor). Twisted spires of rock, razor-thin ridges, hanging valleys with glaciers sitting in them- it's all so surreal. At least, when the weather's nice and you can see them. For most of our four day backpacking trip, it was cloudy, rainy, windy, and snowy, but the few times when the sun came out made it all worth it. Our hike was also fun because of the people we met doing it- for the last few days we hiked with a Canadian and a Dutchman who were spending a few months backpacking separatly around South America. Because of all this, even though we were wet, grumpy, and tired after getting back in Santiago on Monday morning for class, the trip was totally worth it.

Los Cuernos del Paine, in Torres del Paine National Park

Finally, last weekend our program took us to La Serena, a seven hour bus ride to the north, for a little R&R. We went to a Pisco distillery (Chile's national liquor, like a fruity, much smoother vodka, though that description doesn't really do it justice. All I know for sure is that International sells it in NYC, and I will be buying lots of it come fall.), a Gabriela Mistral Museum, and an observatory (Cerro Tololo, the largest in the southern hemisphere), though it was too cloudy to see any stars.

It's suffice to say that classes have taken a backseat the past three weeks (though thank god for pass/fail!). I have a couple midterms coming up in the next couple weeks, and then nothing really until finals time which is in... July. But classes aren't going to put a stop to travelling- I'm aprovechando of the 4 day weekend and heading off to Rio de Janeiro, followed in a couple more weeks by Buenos Aires (hopefully). I'll try to report back more often, but if not I'll be sure to do a picture dump sometime soon. And if anyone has any tips on travelling to Rio, shot me an email!

Chilean reaction to Virginia Tech events

There's really not much I can say about what happened on Monday that hasn't already been said. Shocking, tragic, appauling, etc, etc. It's really scary to think that this kind of tragedy can happen anywhere at anytime, to anyone. You think that school is a safe place to spend your formative years, a shelter from all the bad things that happen in the world, but then these things happen and it just hits you that even on campus (even at Columbia, with its gates and guards and sense of impenetrability), you're just as vulnerable as anywhere else.

Being in Chile has let me compare the US to the rest of the world, and the one thing that I keep realizing is how messed up and different (in the mad sense) we are from everyone else. Here, students protest all the time, but never with the intention of hurting anyone- disturbances are political in nature, just to make a point. In the US, you hardly see the level of political protests that there are here; instead, it seems that students just jump from feeling upset with something to grabbing a weapon. It's like we're missing some rational impulse, something that makes up stop and reflect on what we're about to do.

It's not like US and Chilean students are that different- almost all of the risk factors that US "experts" point to as causing gun violence are just as present here as they are back home. My host brother plays violent video games all the time. The same rap music with violent lyrics is played in the clubs and on the radio. Chileans have one of the highest rates of depression on the world. But instead of resorting to violence, Chileans debate, throw small rocks at armored police cars, or just internalize their feelings.

About the only thing that's different here is gun use, and that's the one cultural difference that Chileans can't wrap their head around. When my history professor today mentioned that the NRA said that the VT massacre could have been prevent if students and teachers were allowed to carry guns, there was an audible gasp in the classroom. In Chile, the only people who carry guns are the armed forces (ARMED forces, as in firearms, as in what makes their force special and distinct is that they carry them), and they only raise them against Chileans during a coup. Here, it's impossible for a prvate citizen to get a gun. My host family couldn't beleive that all you needed to get a gun in the US was an ID and money.

I'm not saying that all the US needs to do to prevent these kinds of things from happening is to ban guns. Surely, we need a massive dose of national psychoanalysis and lessons in anger management. But it's so freaking obvious that these kinds of things would never happen if guns were harder to get. It's the same argument as preventing suicide- if you put a fence in front of a bridge, people will think twice about jumping, because they'll have the time to think twice. Murder, like suicide, is an impulsive thing, and given the chance, most people are rational enough to think it over and calm down. Maybe stricter gun control won't prevent all events like this from occurring, but even if it stops only a few, its a step in the right direction.