procrastinaction?

Got my essay ball rolling now... And just today received an email from the King's Spanish department kindly notifying me that the written exam for our year abroad, which we all thought was to take place in September, has actually been put online and we are all to do it and hand it in at the same time as our essays.

Bloomin marvelous.

So as an absolute distraction from my fury at the King's dept (which I will not explain, ie. starting ranting about, I will not), and procrastination from the work itself, [procrastinaction?] here is something visually enticing that has nothing to do with anything.

Photos from a Vogue Italia editorial, named Love is in the Hair (May 2010).

Just love it. Love it all.

happy birthday miss daisy walker!

She's so cool that she is literally spending her birthday in the dessert. [To, y'know, warm up a bit. Gotta keep the circulation going I suppose. Coolness can become life threatening?]

Here are some things you should know about her.

- Nicknamed Daisin, because she loves raisins.

- Dreamt a word into existence: Bigaboo, which now graces my favourite birthday present mug that I have here in Chile. Having to explain it means the word has spread to South America. [International acknowledgment must be of value to the OED... Definitely gonna get it in there one day.]

- Has been blonde, brown and red headed in the last 18 months.

- Is a very wonderful poet [betcha didn't know it] - MAKE THEM PUBLIC THE WORLD DESERVES TO KNOW!!!

- She buys me underwear and it's not awkward. That's the kind of gal she is / weirdly open friendship we have.

- Alcohol makes an undetectable difference to her behaviour. She's just permanently drunk on life, ok?

- Seriously amazing actress. Even when, as happened last year, she is so ill she probably should be hospitalised due to severe illness - seriously woman, how much of a natural are you??

- Does her name proud and walks like a walking machine - ie. a Walker. Haha?

- Is pretty much Santiago's go to girl about the Royal Wedding right now. Check out this article that she put together about Kate's dress.

- IS TWENTY ONE TODAY!!!

It's amazing, I know I could have said a lot more... But it's probably really weird and stalkerish to anyone who hasn't had the immense pleasure of actually meeting her?

Anyway, Daisy. Here is a "present" for you...

birthday lists pt. 6

For those of you who don't know, I am a very huge stalker fan of a young lady by the name of Grace Helbig. She is a youtube gal who puts out a video every weekday on her channel DailyGrace. I don't know what it is about her. I mean yes, she is funny, but maybe it's also the regularity of her videos, that in the end even when she's not being funny I still find her videos either hilarious or just endearing or something... Like she's my silly friend who I actually know.. Oh that's so Grace. Typical of you, Grace. Haha there goes Grace again.

It's not very cool of me, is it, really, no.

Anyway. Every Tuesday she puts out a video where she comments on comments that have been made on her various internet outputs. And when a new "viewser" comments she "hazes the crap out them to welcome them to the DailyGrace family"... I'll let her explain:

Today's video..



Therefore - my next birthday list addition is this.

That's right. A DailyGrace tshirt. Which handily comes on sale 5 days before my birthday. I'm not into merchandise but I am so. getting. this.

blackberry art

Found this photo from my old blackberry. The blackberry camera is so good. And my brain is so weird.

r.i.p. smiley culture

spiders

Just when I thought I was beyond being afraid of spiders... Turns out there's the Chilean recluse spider. It is super, super, dangerous. It bites you and you have to put ice on it to stop the venom moving round your body too fast, and get to the hospital pronto. It forms an ulcer that destroys soft tissue, but the bite may not be visible for up to seven hours after being received. The wound can become as big as 10 inches. 3-4% of cases result in death according to a study in Chile.

This guy can be from 8-40mm in size. Apparently to be absolutely sure that it is what it is, you should see if it has 6 eyes instead of the standard 8. Yeah right, like I'm getting that close to it, are you mad???

The spider likes the dark, hence being called the "corner spider", and can be found hiding behind picture frames or behind furniture. They don't bite unless they feel attacked. But they do sometimes crawl into clothes, especially if they're in a heap on the floor (like mine often are) or into beds. In these situations you attempting to use said item would be considered an attack.

Zelma was telling me last night that they are really quite common here, and the general attitude is if you see a spider, kill it. Feeling pretty grateful right now that I haven't been bitten to be honest, because I had a spider roomsharing with me for like 3 weeks, and just last week I picked up my hoody and there was a spider in it. I shook it out and let it go.

Unfortunately for me, I'm one of those people that upon hearing something, whether it be someone talking about bugs, or having a headache, or feeling like they're gonna throw up, I immediately think I feel the same thing. Last night in bed I was certain there were spiders in there with me. Not helpful.

When I was told about this last night my face of surprise was greeted with "what, so you haven't heard about this before?"

Um, NO.

Thanks for telling me, I suppose... Better late than never!

spanglish

I suppose the really good thing about having been here for almost 6 months is that I now forget what language I had a certain conversation in, or what language that article was in, or if we had subtitles on that film... That's not to say that I am 100% fluent; not by any means. But when I compare how I feel (or how I lack of feel) now, to how I did when I first arrived, it is seriously incredible.

I had a constant headache for a week straight when I first arrived just listening to Spanish all day. Watching television was absolutely no way to relax either, and unless I was paying someone 150% of my attention I had no idea what they were talking about. Making out words or themes in conversations that I wasn't involved in (background noise type stuff) was absolutely impossible.

It's definitely not as hard in church type situations where for instance you might split into groups to read a passage and think about certain things to do with it. In that scenario there is a context and you know that everything you hear will have something to do with what's in front of you. But just having a chat with someone can be a completely different matter. They can be telling you about their sister in Hawaii and then suddenly be reminded of this funny thing they saw on TV where this cat licked a tennis ball and chased it around the supermarket while dancing like a small monkey. In that situation, you might be screwed. Not only is your friend not so great a conversationist, but, oh wait hey, you realised YOU SUCK AT SPANISH.

When we went to Argentina last week I had a slight flashback as a guy in the hostel started chatting to me in [Argentinian] Spanish about his views on life [standard banter] and being t-total and consumerism and addiction etc. It was SO much easier to understand than Chilean Spanish -
a) because Chileans speak bad Spanish, and b) because, and I think this really could be true, once you understand Chilean Spanish you'll understand any accent the Spanish speaking world can throw at you.
- but it still brought back those memories of concentrating so hard just to work out the words that are actually coming at you, let along processing the deep philosophical/religious/life story point of the conversation. And then replying.

So, in short, I'm feeling super grateful that I can actually follow a conversation and reply with what I want to say without having a literal brainache. I am getting better at understanding jokes now too, which I take to be a very good sign!

¿Cachai?

birthday lists pt. 5

A FREAKIN' CHOW CHOW.

We saw this guy in Mendoza over the weekend. Pretty much made the entire trip worth it. He was surprisingly well-groomed actually, like his bear hair had actually met a brush and had a trim and all. But the blue tongue was the giveaway, and thank God Phil was there to man up and ask the owner if it was indeed a chow chow. Which led her to say "look how funny he looks like this" and got him sat upright on his back paws. He hardcore looked like a bear it was amazing.

My love of chow chows started when Joj and I stayed with a family who had one during a school trip to Spain. She was black and immense and called Lola (meant to be) and was just awesome. And huge and fluffy and a BEAR.

Definitely definitely definitely going to be my first dog.

Lily knows.

fruit

YES this is about fruit.

There are fun fruits here that people eat and make jam out of and make tarts with and they are pretty yummy.

We have a quince, or membrillo, tree growing in Zelma's garden and when the summer holidays are out kids buzz the buzzer loads asking for fruit from it. Having lived a sheltered London life my only experience of quince was of that "jelly" that slightly weird archaic people eat with cheese? [It is worth noting that I am now incredibly into eating sweet stuff with cheese. Quince jelly, any kind of jam, and honey too.]

Sadly for quince, it does tend to look a bit like apple's slightly deformed cousin...

Membrillo - quince

Haven't had one on it's own yet, which I feel sort of ashamed about, what with the tree outside... Zelma's downstairs making something out of what remains of this year's batch right now, jam I think.

There's also the custard apple, chirimoya. It goes so well with oranges that when you have them together it's called chirimoya alegre (meaning happy).

It has a soft, almost milky, taste but in a nice fresh way, and it has a really soft and melty flesh that you can kind of rip off of the fruit. I haven't had anything like it before.

Chirimoya - custard apple

There's also lúcuma, which I haven't tried actually, I know it first and foremost as an ice cream flavour [which is delish]. They sell it everywhere. Now looking at the photo I'm pretty sure I haven't seen them for sale as fruit in as many places as I have seen it frozen and in a tub next to Carte D'or.

Lúcuma - eggfruit (apparently?)

Another real ice cream fave is mora crema, mora being blackberry.

They also have non-furry peaches, and the very flavoursome durazno plátano (literally banana peach?), which are smaller peaches with a more white and pink colour scheme going on, rather than, well, peach. A favourite of Zelma's.

Durazno plátano

Ary and Danny have nisperos in their garden - loquats. The skins can be a little bit sharp so some peel them off before eating them. The stones are pretty big, really smooth and hard. The dogs eat them loads, sometimes a bit too much...

Nispero - loquat

Anyhow. That was a post about fruit. I doubt I shall do one ever again.

manic monday

Obama is in Chile; unsurprisingly it's all over the news like a rash.

Doing a little catching up on the BBC news website, however, revealed to me
that Chile has actually already signed the nuclear agreement with the US
- it was meant to be done publicly on this visit,
but they decided to do it behind closed doors a few days ago...

Despite this: "The Chilean government has stressed the deal was about 
training nuclear engineers and not building a reactor."
And the Chilean Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno said
"Chile is not in a condition to have nuclear energy and 
what has happened in Japan has done nothing more than underline that situation."

People still pretty irked about it though.

I've been hearing weird stories about nuclear reactors being put into the sea
and contaminating the fish and how I now shouldn't eat fish
and avoid rain because rain is giving people cancer.
If anyone can confirm or deny these rumours I'd very much appreciate it
 because my source is freaking me out.
Luckily the Beeb doesn't seem to support any of these rumours.
But I might muy an umbrella just in case?

I finally got round to donating to an emergency relief fund for Japan.
I was doing some online window shopping which was
about to turn into actual shopping when I realised I did not need any
of the stuff in my basket and there was definitely a better place for my money to go...

Today I found Nihon Kizuna. It's a 50 track compilation album up for download
with music from all over the world, of the bass music variety,
and all the proceeds go to the Japanese Red Cross.
The album costs £10, but you can pay as much as you like for it.

Turns out there were two tremors last week, of which I felt neither. 

One on Wednesday at about 7pm, when Phil and I were on out way to Daisy's flat. 

We got there and Daisy said  "Woah, did you guys feel the terremoto?!" 

and we kind of just said "erm, no??" 

We think we might have actually been in the lift up to her apartment when it happened. 

The second one I slept through. Typical. Leaving my only terremoto 

experience as one time when I thought someone was 

kicking my chair gently from behind. 

Weirdly enough I also experienced a similar thing in the UK 

(remember that one time we had an earthquake!?!?)

But seriously. I'm not complaining. 

I'm by no means wishing a full on earthquake would happen right now.

And, good news, Ary is out of hospital. She came out on Friday which is great. 

She is still not 100%, as that can only really be the case by a miracle, 

or the surgery necessary to rid her of the diverticulitis 

(which she has been on the waiting list for since her first hospitalization for it 

about a year and a half ago). 

So please keep praying for her health.

andes

After near on 9 hour journeys there and back, we arrived back from our visa motivated trip to Mendoza, Argentina, last night.

All turned out fab - only downside being feeling a bit ill in the run up to the trip and while there dissuading me from eating steak and drinking red wine in abundance.

It's definitely a lot more European from what we saw, confirming rumours I had already heard. Generally Mendoza went down a real treat, but perhaps in the sense that everything felt that tiny bit more familiar, which is the sense of making the most of being on the other side of the world is probably not the right reason to wish you were living there in Argie and not here in Chile. [Clearly these are huge generalisations.]

The Andes were absolutely stunning. Particularly on the Argentinian side [I'm not being biased about this, I promise] - on the way there the sun had already set by the time we got out of border control, so I made the most of the way back by snapping photos the whole way. The mountains and the rocks became hypnotic, to the point things like 'wow, rocks are really underrated' and 'why didn't I consider geology as a career option?' started coming to my mind.

These photos don't even begin to communicate the awesomeness of being surrounded by mountains for what must have been about 10 hours in total.

going to mendoza

Yeah, that's about it. Heading to STG now, then to Mendoza with Phil and a colleague of his. Mendoza is the closest town outside of Chile to where we are - the perfect destination for renewing your 90 day tourist visa.

Back Sunday!

Pray our visas go ok...

Mucho cariño.
XOX

PS. Nearest and dearest - I have my UK mobile with me if you need to contact me or want to check I'm alive for any reason. And no, I didn't forget my passport. Yet.

love

We've looked at 1 Corinthians 13 a couple of times in the last week at various groups at church, by chance and in different contexts.

It's the most famous passage in the Bible about love, hands down [see below to read it].

It seems to me that it gets used and referred to so often at, for example, weddings, that we tend to link it only with romantic love [particularly verses 4-8a]. Like it's describing the kind of love we should have for our other half.

Obviously that is completely true.

But it's not just talking about a romantic love. The word for this kind of love that was used in the Greek, was agape. It is the same word agape that is used in John 3:16-

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

It's the same love we refer to when we read that "God is love." [1 John 4:8]

There are a lot of complex historic, semantic and theological issues that go behind all of this, but just as a surface observation, it was refreshing, enlightening and in a good sense challenging (the Bible does tend to be so) to read the passage again without a rom-com scenario playing out in my head.

Enjoy.

1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

nuclear

For those who don't know...

In the midst of the the aftermath of the 11/3 in Japan, Chile is still considering nuclear energy (bear in mind that like Japan, Chile is a seismic country). Obama is coming next week - and, not that I know much about it, there are talks of a nuclear agreement between the USA and Chile.

Anyhow, here's a short opinion piece from the Santiago Times, where Phil works.

Seems absurd to me.

twinings 4 lyf

Just opened a new box of Earl Grey brought over from the UK.

(Yes it is available here but it feels so much better knowing it's come from home...)

Dedicated to Ms. Daisy Walker.

sea hyun lee [the never-gonna-happen birthday lists pt.4]

Just so stunning.

via booooooom.com

calm

There have been no reports of deaths nor injuries through the whole of Chile following the country's experience of the tsunami.

I think the atmosphere here is very much of gratitude for the long period of warning and preparation. There didn't seem to be much panic - people abandoned the coastlines calmly and without frenzy at all, although there were stories of people in the areas worst hit last year taking as many of their belongings as they physically could out of their homes and up and beyond the hills.

After last year's events that doesn't seem surprisingly.

It seems that shall be all for my posting about this weekend's occurrences and their effect on Chile.

In other news, this coming weekend I shall hopefully be going to Mendoza - for visa renewal purposes, but also making the most of a weekend away eating Argentinian food with Phil. Who by the way has succumbed to the blogworld - albeit in a subtle tumblr disguise... Checkit.

Over and out.
XO

tsunami

The tsunami alert has officially been lifted throughout the whole of Chile.

Last night the tsunami hit some of the same coastal towns in the South. Talcahuano and Dichato were affected - two of the worst hit towns by the tsunami last year.

In Dichato there are reports that the water went up to 200 metres inland.

Puerto Viejo, in Caldera, a town in the North (that was not affected in last year's earthquake) had about 80 houses of fishermen destroyed when the waves hit.

In Iquique, in the North too, there were people on the beach sunbathing, hanging out, jogging, even surfing... before the alert was lifted. And even now they have lifted the alert they are still maintaining a state of evacuation of the beaches because the sea is still rising and falling metres. They interviewed one woman who was sunbathing who said that she didn't see why she shouldn't be on the beach. If she saw the waves coming she would run.

Meanwhile, off the coast of Mexico yesterday there was a strange phenomenon, whereby masses of fishes approached the beach. There are so many it looks like an oil slick. Apparently it was somehow linked to the tsunami/earthquake in Japan.

Still no news on the state of Reñaca and Valparaíso on the news... Going to have a twitter stalk to see if I can find any updates.

An article (in English) about the alerts in Latin America... Here on npr.org

Lots of love
X

being dumb

Waiting for news about the tsunami hitting Easter Island...

Ary's been moved from the 1st to the 4th floor of the hospital.

Been watching so much news, the videos are starting to imprint themselves on my eyelids.

So meanwhile...

It's as though Daisy and I have spent so much time together we've started getting bored of being ourselves around each other? I don't know.

www.youtube.com/lodacrap

on the news

Zelma woke me up this morning to watch the news about the earthquake in Japan, and the consequential preventative tsunami alert they've put us on here in Chile.

The funny thing about the news on TV here is that it seems to be hugely introverted. All the headlines seem to be about banks that have been robbed, children that have been found abandoned, oil and gas and public transport price hikes, in Chile. I think the only new I've heard about the Middle East on TV was about 3 weeks ago when the protests in Egypt were still fairly ripe, and that coverage only lasted about three days.

So when I saw this morning that we might be expecting a tsunami to hit today, it kind of sounded like Chile was being targeted by the forces of nature, and nowhere else. Because they really haven't mentioned anywhere else.

Thanks BBC news (and my friendly personal news services Daisy Walker and Phil Locker) for keeping me slightly more informed of the general overview of this situation outside of Chile...

What I did learn from the news today was from a geographer at the Universidad Católica, who was explaining how even tsunami waves of less than 50cm can still be extremely dangerous, because they can come in at a speed of one metre per second, sometimes one a half metres. Which is really fast. And is enough to sweep cars away, just from the sheer velocity of the water.

I'm going to go and visit Ary, who's in hospital at the moment, in a stable condition but on a lot of medication - she came down with acute diverticulitis, and this is the second time she's had it I think... But she's doing well. She has to be there for 7 days, resting and taking strong antibiotics and pain killers.

I doubt there's any atmosphere in Viña right now - people seem to be going about their daily business with normality, probably thanks to the forecast of its arrival.

We'll see how things pan out with the earlier places hit...

XOX

diet incompatible

As I mentioned when I first arrived out here, I eat all my meals (practically) with Zelma.

We have a light breakfast (mine a lot later than her's, standard), a big lunch, and then instead of dinner we have una once which is like tea I suppose. It's basically the same as breakfast - tea / coffee, bread with whatever's around, maybe some fruit...

But basically eating a lot of bread. A lot of fresh fruit and veg too... But a LOT of bread.

Anyhow. I have very little control over what I eat, which on one hand is annoying and was hard to adjust to, but at the same time has been kind of a good thing because I'm not thinking about it all the time or freaking out... I'm just getting on with life and not letting it get to me, despite my slight ballooning outwards.

However. Last week I did spend about 2 hours on Jamie Oliver's website looking up awesome recipes and saving them all so that when I get back to London I can cook like crazy and use up all my pent up kitchen energy.

Here are some of the things I am excited about:

Baked eggs

Swedish buns

Spinach and ricotta cannelloni

Mega chocolate fudge cake

Ultimate gingerbread

No doubt this will not help me lose the car tyre when I get back. Meh, I'll deal with that later...

quote of the day...

"We Chileans are very sweet. 
We are also diabetic."

Manjar. with. everything.

happy international women's day!

Learned a bit about this last night as Michael was researching it for school...

a) I never knew it existed.
b) This year is the 100th anniversary
c) It started in 1911 after a Socialist international women's conference the year before decided it was a cool idea the year before in Copenhagen
d) The first IWD had over 1 million people celebrating it in Austria, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland. [This was before facebook guyz.]
e) It was used for political means against WW1 and subsequently the USA didn't recognise it, because of Communist paranoia, until the UN did in 1977.
d) Now Obama's all over it like a rash.

100 years, 2 world wars, international women's suffrage later...

It's good to feel proud to be a woman.

Proverbs 31: 9-31

A wife of noble character who can find?

She is worth far more than rubies.

Her husband has full confidence in her

and lacks nothing of value.

She brings him good, not harm,

all the days of her life.

She selects wool and flax

and works with eager hands.

She is like the merchant ships,

bringing her food from afar.

She gets up while it is still dark;

she provides food for her family

and portions for her servant girls.

She considers a field and buys it;

out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

She sets about her work vigorously;

her arms are strong for her tasks.

She sees that her trading is profitable,

and her lamp does not go out at night.

In her hand she holds the distaff

and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

She opens her arms to the poor

and extends her hands to the needy.

When it snows, she has no fear for her household;

for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

She makes coverings for her bed;

she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

Her husband is respected at the city gate,

where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.

She makes linen garments and sells them,

and supplies the merchants with sashes.

She is clothed with strength and dignity;

she can laugh at the days to come.

She speaks with wisdom,

and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

She watches over the affairs of her household

and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children arise and call her blessed;

her husband also, and he praises her:

"Many women do noble things,

but you surpass them all."

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;

but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Give her the reward she has earned,

and let her works bring her praise at the city gate. 

cafe culture

Daisy came and spent the day with me in Valparaíso on Sunday, and we pretty much spent the whole day in 2 cafes up Cerro Concepción / Alegre.

Here is a taster of what our day was like.



She is the best.

XOX

a song for sunday

birthday lists pt. 3

I think it was Lily who first showed me something on Pedlars.co.uk - a UK online store that sells a ton of awesome retro-style and vintage stuff to clutter your home with.

I will buy this cushion I have been oggling since my first visit to the website.

They also have this cool moon wall light fixture thingy... I'll let them explain..

A wall-mounted light that looks, and behaves, like the moon.  Moon In My Room passes gently through the twelve different daily phases of the moon – changing phase every five seconds.  It can also be set manually to match the real moon. 

Coooooooooooool.....

office week

Been completely awol this week, and only realised today when I saw that it's Friday and I hadn't blogged since Monday.

We've been working hard at starting up the church office again, with the hope of having everything very clear and well organised. Hence although I've been on my computer all week, I've been spending my time writing manuals in Spanish on how to use the computer, access the email accounts etc, but for the most un-computer-savvy person imaginable.

So there isn't really a lot to say about this week in terms of fun things done!

Last night X Factor Chile started. I didn't manage to watch it, most unfortunately.

Also, photos from the Gospel Choir show came up on facebook - abbbsolutley hilarious seeing my face on the tshirts.

Here's a video that got put on youtube from the show - hoping to get my hands on a DVD!



X