History, Culture, Sports, and Nationalism: July 7-9, 2014

So far, Lindsay and I (Garv has had to work) have gotten into a great daily routine these last few days: wake up at 9:00 AM, get on the metro at 9:30 AM, arrive at the sights at 10:00 AM, lunch at 2:00 PM, tan or nap at 3:00, soccer at the sports bar at 4:00 PM, dinner at 8:00 PM, miscellaneous activities after.  The common theme linking these days has been history, culture, sports, and nationalism.  Here's a recap of our days:

Monday, July 7
Our sightseeing adventure for the day was a guided walking tour of Santiago through a company called Spicy Chile.  The tour started by La Moneda which was originally a mint (the Spanish word for coin is moneda), then the presidential palace, and now it houses several ministerial offices.  We happened to arrive early for our tour which was the same time as Chile's changing of the guard.  Chile's changing of the guard was more of a military parade, as seen in the pictures below:

Unlike in the US, the guards are not protecting the tomb of an unknown soldier, but regardless, these types of symbols and rituals are part of what makes a nation a nation.  After all, 240 years ago there was no such thing as America and Americans (meaning the USA and its citizens) or Chile and Chileans.  These countries and people originated during the course of colonial independence movements, but because they are relatively recent developments they must be maintained through a variety of means (national anthems, national museums, statues, national sports teams, etc).

Our tour was led by an aspiring actress named Sandy who led the tours as a part-time job.  She was very energetic, animated, humorous, and demonstrative, as might be expected.  Our tour began at La Moneda, went to several cathedrals, though downtown, and ended in Bellavista at a late famous poet's residence.  It gave us a very good feel for Santiago's downtown which came in valuable since we visited the area the next two days.  Below we're posing in a park or in front of a fountain Germany gave as a gift to Chile.

After the tour, we went to Patagonia Sur, took a nap, then went out for pizza which is detailed in my previous blog post.

Tuesday, July 8
Our next big sight seeing adventure was hitting the big museums.  Museums are also an example of how nations can be held together because they reinforce the history that is so important in building a group's identity.  There were four museums that I wanted to see and I expected each would take a day or two because I was expecting museums approaching the size of the Smithsonians, the British Museum of Art, or even 1/10th of the Louvre.  However, they were relatively small and we were able to see two in a day.

The theme for Tuesday was history.  We started at the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, which contained works--mainly a lot of pots and figurines--of American Indians south of the United States.  It recently reopened in 2013 after a two year renovation and it was very well done.  It was especially helpful that all the text was also in English.  When thinking of this museum in a nationalistic sense, it sends the message that Indians are a part of Chile's identity and I would compare it with the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC which opened in 2004.  Here are a couple pictures: the first is a Mayan statue and the second is with some quipu, the Incan record keeping system.

The second museum we visited was the Chilean National History Museum and it's one of the best history museums I've been to.  Unlike the Smithsonian's Museum of American History, the Chilean museum could be completed in two hours.  Moreover, there was an audio guide in English which helped immensely.  The museums was divided into eighteen time periods highlighting the major periods in Chile's history.  Since I knew very few details about Chile's history before coming here, this was the perfect museum to visit.

Our third major event of the day was watching soccer fans watch soccer--which is watching nationalism in action.  In this case, it was watching German fans (of which there were a significant number--the area Garv and Lindsay live in is full of expatriates working in finance on a temporary basis) go crazy in disbelief and the Brazilians fans sit in stunned silence.  It was not quite the soccer fan watching experience I'd hoped for.

That night we ate leftovers--I had the pizza.  Then we went to see The Fault in Our Stars which was really good (it was in English with Spanish subtitles).

Wednesday, July 9
Our next set of museums were the La Moneda Cultural Center and the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts.  These museums were not my style (and I love museums) and they certainly weren't Lindsay's.  They were both post-modernist.  Since I've been to graduate school in the humanities, I've been trained to understand post-modernism.  Basically, it means that all human knowledge and culture is "constructed" through the manipulation of language (discourse is the word post-modernists use), space, social norms, and relationships of power.  The best example of this is: Chile and the United States exist as nations only because they have been constructed by people.  Explained like this, it makes a lot of sense.  However, when it's time for post-modernism to be expressed in museums it's usually weird shit.  I could keep writing but I'm going to stop because post-modernism annoys me.  The bottom line is that the post-modernists got a hold of the La Moneda Cultural Center and the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts and arranged them in a way that was not accessible to the average person.  Lindsay thought they were really F-ing weird.  Fortunately, the post-modernists have been kept away from the history museums...

For the final bit of nationalism, we went to a different sports bar to watch the other World Cup semifinal: Argentina versus the Netherlands.  Apparently both teams watched Brazil's debacle and played very conservatively so the match was very boring.  Even the Argentinian fans were bored, at least until they won on penalty kicks.  During the penalty kicks, it was very apparent that there were no Netherlands fans there though from what I've heard, most Chileans were rooting against Argentina because Chileans think Argentinians are arrogant.

Since I'd forgotten to take pictures since our visit to the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, Lindsay did snap one of me in the sports bar right before the Argentina-Netherlands match started.

Food, Drink, Time, and Money: July 5 and 7, 2014

Saturday, July 5
On my first night in Santiago, Lindsay, Garv, one of Garv's co-workers/friends, Diego, and I went to out for some drinks and a meal.  One of the distinct differences between Chile and the United States is that Chileans do everything--wake up, arrive at work, eat lunch, stop working, eat dinner, go to bed, go out on weekend nights--about two hours later than Americans (for me, this is ideal.  I like to go to bed late and sleep in).

We went out to an area called Bellavista, which is a restaurant and bar district.  We started our night, somewhat ashamedly at an "Irish pub."  We went there because it was the only bar with a significant amount of people.  We were "early" (9:00 PM) when we got to Bellavista so most of the bars were pretty empty.  One that we went into had no people there.  When I say no people, there were literally no people there.  I put Irish pub in quotations, because it really wasn't an Irish Pub, so it really wasn't a shame to go to an Irish pub in Chile.  I've found that an Irish Pub is sometimes a euphemism for bar and it was nothing like an Irish pub.  It was very much a Chilean bar.

I included a picture of the bill and you'll notice that I paid, $12,200 for drinks.  Not to worry, it only cost about $25.  You'll also notice the drinks called schop, which is tap beer, and copa vino tinto, which is a glass of red wine.

I've compiled a long list of types of food I want to eat while here: Chilean, seafood, empanadas, Peruvian, Argentinian, Patagonian (southern Chile and Argentina).  Chile is not a food culture.  What this is means is that you're not likely to find a Chilean restaurant in the US.  Other examples of nationalities that are not food cultures are American, British, Irish, German, or any Scandinavian.  That does not mean that they do not have distinctive types of foods, it just means that they're not as delicious as French, Spanish, Italian, Greek (notice they're all Mediterranean), Mexican, Chinese, or Japanese.

One of the highly recommended restaurants in Bellavita was Azul Profundo, a seafood restaurant.  The decor was a little cheesy as it was a slightly fancier version of the Outrigger (a restaurant in Okoboji).  The wine selection and food selections were not, however (not to dismiss the Outrigger because it is excellent and we eat there a lot since it's in our front yard at the lake--it's just not Chilean seafood).  We ordered a bottle of Carmenere, which is the most common grape in Chile.  I'd never seen it in the states, but I'm guessing that if I would look for it, I could find it.  It's very good and very much like a Malbec, which is my favorite wine.  As for food, I ordered mussels, scallops, and shrimp in cheesy quinoa.  It was delicious.

After dinner as Azul Profundo, we went to a bar in which an expatriate bar crawl would be rolling through.  We met some people from other places and shared our impressions of Chile.  Then we headed back to the apartment with detours for some gelato (I became hooked on it in Italy last summer) and to listen to a drum corps that was pounding away in the bar district and entertaining the late night revelers.

Monday, July 7

From 10:00 AM to 1:00, Lindsay and I went on a walking tour of the city (more to follow in a later blog post).  After the tour, our guide recommended Patagonia Sur for lunch.  This sounded ideal as it would allow me to hit another type of food I wanted to try.  We arrived there at 1:30 PM, which would be equivalent to arriving for lunch at 11:30 AM in the US.  Even though it's winter here, it was about 60* F so we were able to sit outside.  My drink was a pisco sour del Patagonia.  A regular pisco sour is the national drink of Chile and is made of pisco, sour mix (go figure), and raw egg which is then shaken or blended to a froth.  It's very tart and one needs to be in the right mood to have a regular pisco sour.  In the Patagonian version, whiskey and and honey are added which dulled the tartness and was the perfect drink.  Basically, it was a whiskey sour (a BV and Squirt, Dad!) but the honey was a great touch.  For my meal, I had a vicuna sandwich.  Vicunas are wild relatives of llamas and alpacas.  It was similar to a ribeye steak sandwich that one could have in Iowa, except for the avocado smeared on it.

Apparently, I've gone all in on being a foodie.  So if that's the case I might as well go all the way...For dinner we went to a pizza place near Lindsay and Garv's apartment at about 8:30.  We had empanadas for an appetizer, which we've done for every single meal since we've been here since Lindsay is in search of the best ones.  Tonight's were the best so far because the dough enclosing the cheese tasted like a pastry.  And then the pizza was amazing--the combination of the dough, cheese, olive oil, and Italian salami made for the perfect greasy mess...

As I was composing this, I kept saying aloud how strange it was that I was talking about food so much.  And Garv made the comment that I've done a lot of eating since I've been here...But we've done some historical and cultural things and we'll be doing some more and I'm itching to write about them.

Llegada a Santiago: July 5, 2014, Day 1 Part 1

I'm in Santiago for about two weeks. Now that I have an iphone, I can take pictures so I'm going to do a little blogging or photo essaying or something about my trip. I'm in Santiago because Garv, my brother-in-law and best friend, started a job there in April.  My sister moved down in June after her school year ended.

 If I was a travel agent, I would count day 1 as Friday, July 4th to make my trip sound longer.  But most of it was spent in Atlanta's airport so I'll call that Day 0.  I had an eight hour layover there and I did accomplish something--writing a wrap up of genius hour.  I fully intended to accomplish more but instead I had Yuenglings in Terminals C, D, E, and F.  Hey, I'm on vacation.  My flight left Atlanta at 10:45 PM and I arrived (llegada) in Santiago at about 8:30 AM (Santiago is now the same time as Eastern Time).  So I'm counting Day 1 as my first day in Santiago.

Day 1 was expertly planned by Garv.  He lined up a driver to pick me up at the airport which was much easier than hailing a taxi.  When I arrived at their apartment, we took a selfie from their terrace to send to the parents, and then I ate a banana and a bowl of cereal.

Next, we walked up Cerro San Cristobal (St. Christopher's Hill) which was a great idea because I'd spent most of the previous twenty-four hours sitting on my ass.  On a clear day, one would have a great view of the city.  Alas, it was Big Ten football weather--gray and cloudy.  We didn't make it to the top because I didn't want to walk too far and repeat the infamous Grand Canyon experience (Lindsay and Garv once thought it would be a good idea to drive eighteen hours and then the next day hike down the Grand Canyon and back up.  The hike back up was me unleashing a torrent of F-bombs at them with nearly every step).  During the hike up Cerro San Cristobal, we made a new friend--a dog with a broken hind leg.  According to Garv and Lindsay, Santiago lets stray dogs wander.  This dog took a liking to us--we hypothetize it was because he liked that we spoke English.  The dog followed us most of the way up and all of the way down until we eventually shook him.

 We next walked to Fuente Alemana (German Fountain) for a Lomito (a pork sandwich concoction with avacado, cheese, tomato sauce, and some sort of other sauce) and schlop (draft beer).  It was exactly the type of meal I needed after a day of airport and airplane food.  The place was called German because there is a signifcant German influence in Chile.  And it's called the fountain because it served beer.

After the sandwich and fountain of beer, we went back to the apartment to watch the end of the Argentina and Belgium match and take a siesta.  The siesta felt amazing, mainly because I was able to sleep laying down instead of sitting up.  Then I woke up and took these pictures from the terrace outside my bedroom.

Now it's about 6:30 and penalty kicks in the Netherlands and Costa Rica match are about to begin.  Then at about 9:00 we'll go out to eat and have a few drinks.  They get a late start here...