1) trauma and stress of being "extrañero" :: so the experience of not fully speaking the language is hard, no doubt. to be integrated, understand jokes, be able to play a variety of roles socially is something I had taken for granted in my life up until this point. To be able to move fluidly, posess verve and style, grace and wit - oh these things! I hope that by the end of my stay I will posess the ability to do all these things in this place with my mouth and mind fully in this other language. Harder I suppose since my hermanas both speak english fluently. Better that most people I've met do not speak english very well at all, so spanish is the way it goes. I've gotten encouragement from most people I meet. But when you meet someone, the requirements for speaking about yourself are very little - so they think I'm capable of speaking, but to be able to speak more in depth about what I do and am interested in is very very hard indeed. Matters of vocabulary and knowing the complex landscape of verb tenses by heart.
2) rancagua and small mountain town cuyo :: In the first or second week I was here, I can't remember exactly, Paula and I went to Rancagua, a smaller city about and hour south of Santiago. What streets! Signs made of copper, because this is an area with a strong mining significance. There we met a good friend of hers. He took us into Cuyo a small mining town in the Andes west of Rancagua. The first time I was IN the Andes! OH THESE MOUTAINS! A beautiful sight to see, but also devastating. It was very poor, and had resources, but many people live in shack-like situations with little to no insulation for the cold. Pan asado (bread) & empanadas sold for little to nothing on the side of the road. And the realization that the exploitation of the Andes is gigantic and constantly churning. The earth is so dry, the people work so hard here, it is plain to see. And yet nothing gets better for them, even after years of working in the mines. The level of environental awarness here is also a lot less than in the united states - recycling even in cities like Santiago is relatively new, within the past 5 years really becoming instated, but only in privileged municipalities like Las Condes, Providencia and the city center. Rancagua is beautiful, but tragic in this kind of way, where the mother earth is being killed and people hardly scoff at it. The dryness grows, and no matter how much water I drink, it still feels arid and dying at times, at times. A wonderful adventure that opened my eyes.
3) the beginning of formal language education & work :: in my second week here I began taking classes at Tandem Santiago with the hopes of dramatically increasing my rate of processing the language. I think its definetly helped a lot, but its hard to absorb and practice after class because I signed up under the condition that I intern with the school after morning classes for 5 hours. Not a hard internship: I'm doing some e-marketing and webdesign updates for their website. However, this time added to the ~hour it takes to bike there in the morning and back makes for extremely long and boring days. I've experienced little of the "culture" or nightlife/art exhibits as I would love to. And my language learning is devoted towards proper spanish rather than chilean spanish - two very different languages. Its amazing how specific chilean spanish is! So many ways of speaking, pronouncing and a pace of rhythm that is hard to keep up with at times. So it is! MAJOR GREAT THING ABOUT SCHOOL: I met Valeska P. who is a trapieze artist and lives in a communal setting similar to the copycat. Because of her...
4) XII Convenccion de Circo Chileno & Arte Callejero :: This past weekend I found out and was able to attend an awesome 4-day convention on circus arts. Tons of workshops and performances have led me today to have an extremely sore and hard to move body. However, I have now nearly mastered my handstand, have a greater appreciation for the physical body conditioning it truly takes to do gymnastics (oH how hard it is) and have learned 4 forms on trapieze, and have a basic knowledge of capoeira! Wow! No wonder I'm sore.... Classes began at 9 AM and lasted until 6PM with only a two hour break for lunch... that's about 7 hours of nonstop movement, and my body knows it. But thanks to this weekend I met some pretty sharp people and have a greater knowledge of what circus is in Chile.
The forms and exploration of the traditional circus forms have been, from what I've seen, devoted towards mastering and exploiting traditional crafts and forms of development. The clown makes fun of the gymnasts, who soak in all of the applause, and in their acts display physical prowess and mastery. But where was the challenging of gender forms? Where was the questioning of the circus tent, the role of the performer and audience? Where was the audience asked to do anything other than react stereotypically to the DEFINETLY IMPRESSIVE & REVERED techniques on display? There was a lack of criticality, and I wonder where it exists. Or, if it exists. These gymnastic and acrobatic forms are so time-consuming to develop and master, if its even possible for one to do so. I have an understanding for how a community of artists can become closed to different forms of art: simply by not working in a certain manner, one becomes ignorant of it. But for myself, I think a powerful way to continue utilizing the beautiful art of circus would be changing the structure of the show and the goal of the performances.
In any case I leave this weekend incredibly inspired for my own & the theatre's own explorations of art and physicality. I know now that I definetly want to train in a more disciplined and atheletic way: I think the next steps are signing up for classes at Circo Bufo (located in Nuñoa) which are relatively cheap and professional.
I also have found out about some awesome theatre thats taking place this week and next: surely a priority to see and apprehend more about this art scene!
I am also really missing everyone sorely. How can I stay here 6 months longer?! And more, how can I only stay here 6 months?? These are the feelings I constantly juggle. Please, email me and set up skype time, for it is super awesome to see faces of ones I love.
