Getting Ready to Fiesta

Ryan and I were in the back of a colectivo riding home from the mall the other night, each of us silently watching the tragedy of Calama roll by outside our windows, when Ryan sighed and said,
"It sucks that I'll never be able to fully explain this place to people.  There is just no way they could fully understand."

Since the beginning of September, which is coincidentally our sixth month in country, things have been in high gear in Chile.  I returned home to find a country adorned from every corner with flags and banners in preparation for the Bicentennial celebration during Chile's independence holidays of the 18th and 19th.  The holidays are known as the Fiestas Patrias, and as this is the 200th year that Chile has been (ostensibly) independent from Spain, everyone's national pride is at such high levels I'm afraid that on the 18th people are literally going to explode in fiery balls of patriotism.  I came home from Antofagasta last weekend to find that my own, generally reserved, family had decked out the front of the house in streamers made of miniature flags as well as placed a giant flag--on a pole mind you--in the middle of our patio area.

All week long at the school, the students have been decorating, making costumes, and practicing the national dance known as the cueca, which is inspired by the "mating dance" performed between a rooster and a hen.  It is a terribly silly affair that involves miming a chicken while waving a handkerchief above your head and it is possibly the only traditional Latin American dance where the partners circle away from each other, as opposed to towards.  Children are taught this dance from kindergarten.  I know this because my six year old nephew tried to demonstrate the finer points of cueca to me but ended up looking like a retard trying to stomp ants and wave off flies.  The music that the dance is performed to is a bit like polka with trumpets instead of accordions, and it has been playing out of nearly every speaker in every store, school, and home for the last two weeks.  Since known of my students were particularly focused last week, I spent every class playing card games with them and laughing to myself when they kept pronouncing "ace" as "ass."  I would begin every lesson by showing the cards and asking, "what do we call these in English?" In each class, someone would shout out "poker!"

For our part, Ryan and I are leaving the Norte Grande and spending a week traveling back South to see the remainder of the country north of Santiago that we, as of yet, do not know. This includes the famed Bahía Inglesa (literally English Bay), which is supposedly Chile's nicest beach and where one of Ryan's teachers has a beach home that he graciously has lent out to us. After that, we continue on to Coquimbo and La Serana to meet up with Peter and Alex and experience the Fiestas in a celebration known as the Pampilla, which is (outside of Santiago) supposed to be the biggest throw down for the Bicentennial in the country.  I have no idea what such a celebration would entail, but I am almost positive there will be an excessive amount of hot dogs consumed.