What I'm thinking about now...

1. I think it is adorable that my husband toasted a tortilla in our toaster oven because we didn't have tortilla chips for dinner tonight (I ate them in yet another mindless example of how I am incapable of following a truly diabetic diet...)

2. I'm going to Wisconsin this weekend with my Aunt, for a family reunion. I need to get some photos printed to show our family. Should I bring my bathing suit. Should I check in some luggage? I wouldn't except that I hate the rules about liquids. I don't even wear makeup, but I don't want to stress out about whether or not I can put it in a carry on. I just hate that you have to pay a ridiculous amount of money for carry-ons now.

3. Which reminds me that I need to find my mp3 charger...

4. I'm getting obsessed with Twitter.
People who read this blog know I've had twitter for awhile (I got it after I saw it on Cindy's Blog) but the days pop culture events revised my twitter interest.

5. Chilean News article about Michael Jackson. My aunt and I talked about it earlier this evening- we weren't "shocked", just sad for his family.

10 Favorite Cities (that I've really been to)

I have some vents but I really want to blog positive so I think I'll put those in another post.
Instead, a blog meme.

10 Favorite Cities.

1. Santiago, Chile. Obvs. beautiful skyline and you don't have to own a car to live.


2. Los Angeles. Also obvs. I actually miss the rudeness when I've been gone too long.


3. Vegas. We got married here. It's a pretty neat place in small doses.














4. Rio de Janeiro.

awesome shopping, cheap, people walking around comfortable wearing bathing suits when they normally wouldn't.... people in Rio are generally super nice, even when they are robbing you. (I've never been robbed in Rio, note).

5. Hachinohe, Japan. The only Japanese city I know. Some say it's more country than city but they had a downtown. It is a good way to get to know Japan, in my opinion, and hell to the yeah I want to visit Tokyo and the rest of Japan now!!















a country that sells 20oz. cans of Diet Coke Zero earns a lot of stars in my book.










6. Buenos Aires. Best gnocchi, choripan, dulce de leche, and ice cream ever. BA is a brilliant place to eat. (and it's also pretty.)



7. I'm not going to lie. I actually don't LOVE Albuquerque. But we are running out of interesting cities that I love that I've actually been to. I grew up in Albuquerque. They have great Mexican food. And I see pretty in it the older I get. The key to loving Albuquerque is in visiting with money. Which I didn't have growing up. I almost substituted this with Santa Fe. But I have only been to Santa Fe once.


8. Dallas. Another one I don't really LOVE. But there are some good things. I like that everyone is so friendly. I like that they drink Diet Dr. Pepper like water. I like visiting Dealey Plaza with my husband to better understand the mysteries of the grassy knoll. Another city that is full of great food too.


9. Hollywood. It's a great place to people watch. But you have to pay to take pictures with people dressed up like action figures/dolls from horror movies/pirates.
















10. Malibu. Oh, Malibu, I will miss you when I have to leave you. It's weird living in Malibu, because Malibu is an unrealistic place even when you have money. But there are things I will miss! Like people leaving their cars ridiculously open and unlocked! Like random celebrities!

Like seeing Barbie doll colored cars parked at the grocery store!! (Honorable mention- that the main doctor at Malibu's Urgent care clinic advertises her skillz in plastic surgery and that the movie theater seats are LEATHA!!)

Milestones...

I belong to a forum for diabetics who are women and who are mothers or who want to be mothers. I'm not planning anything right now but it has been motivational for getting my health under control. Anyway, when your diabetes is under control, you tell everyone in the forum and they give you a dancing frog (so under 7.0 A1C). My A1C two weeks ago was a 7.8, which is the best I've ever had. It's a milestone and the forum members awarded me with a tadpole. I've been keeping it on my computer harddrive but I haven't been really keeping up with trying to do better. But posting it here might help me to stay focused (I've caved twice in the past week and had some french fries and I've decided to give up candy and cake, except for Mar.11 bday cake, for lent). I just feel like I have so many goals and things I have to do this year, and I think I've been putting the goal of being healthy on the backburner.

I got this email when I was wasting time on facebook (which very well might steal my soul). I'm going back to Japan so I've been raising money. I've reached my half way point, but I don't know how because I can think of 10 people that I know I need to talk to but that I have put off writing letters too. It's another goal.

I'm also taking Japanese, kind of. I'm sitting in on a class but I'm not really auditing it because I'm not paying for it, because the professor and his department have been really ridiculously graceful and generous. But tomorrow morning, there is an exam. I haven't studied and now I feel like I should talk to the professor and just ask him if I can not worry about this exam? I feel really bad, like I'm already wasting his time and like him grading my exam would be just worse. I feel like a flake.

Which brings me to my 10am midterm tomorrow morning. It's something else I haven't satisfactorily studied for. But I'm paying for this class, and I think I might be smarter if I studied and did well for it. But this is like the story of who I am as a student right now- I'm flaking on my studies and putting things off and hoping that I can just get by. It's not how I want to do things, and I'm probably being too hard on myself. I'm just really tired and stressed out.

Which brings me to my whole life right now. I finish school finally in December. My husband doesn't have a job and the US economy is not providing him with anything. We are talking about moving back to Chile or to another country, in general. Which freaks me out. The thought of moving to another country and changing my life so dramatically all by myself (with Dennis), so freaks me out that I feel like I'm almost paralyzed. It's like I'm sabotaging myself physically, spiritually, and scholastically because I'm terrified of the real world, of moving away, of the very very unknown. It's not that I don't have faith in God or in Dennis or in myself. It's that I'm just so anxious about this that I can't even concentrate properly. Me, who has to two hours early for a flight when they say be one hour early. Me, who has to show up 15-30min. early for a movie just because I want to pick the best seats possible. I turn into Godzilla if we miss one preview. Not knowing, not having a clue, not having any control.

I realize, as I type this, that this is what I'm doing. I'm so freaking out that I'm sabotaging myself. Which is absurd because I, of all people, know how amazing God is and how much things can change in one year. In less!

'Tis the Season...

'Tis the season for stressing out about papers. I have two papers that I have procrastinated on and one is due tomorrow evening. I have faith in myself, but I can't sleep because my papers are one thing that is going through my mind right now despite the sleep aids. This is what happened last night. I started freaking out about my term papers, especially the one due before Thanksgiving, and I spent the night working on it instead of sleeping.

Which has led me to believe and come to terms with the fact that I'm 26 and not 20 and that all-nighters are no longer feasible for me. I've also been thinking about how my undergraduate classmates stress so much about their grades. And I'm reminded that I really could care less about grades I received years ago so it doesn't really matter. The problem that I face is that in recognizing that my grades don't determine my self-worth, I find myself sometimes sliding into an apathetic and unmotivated academic attitude. If it doesn't really matter, why should I stress myself out. Unfortunately, stressing myself out at the last minute for things like papers is the key to my academic success. I always seem to triumph or at least slide by if I work up to the 11th hour.

My apathy towards school is really a symptom of a larger picture. Quite frankly, I have bigger issues in my life. Dennis isn't working, my hormones are freaking out, I'm worried about my dad, etc. And I am starting to think about life after school, where they really don't care what grade you got on a certain paper. I just don't want my apathy to turn into laziness and apathy in other aspects of my life.

So, I've been stressing myself out and thus I feel like garbage. Trying to pull an all-nighter didn't work and made me feel sick. So I was lying in bed listening to the rain outside, thinking instead about all the things that worry me. I'm worried about school. I'm worried about our future after I graduate. I'm worried about my diabetes. We want to have children, eventually, and I want to be healthy when we do that. In realizing that we will be moving a year from now, I am also realizing that "right around graduation" was when we keep telling people we will start trying to pop out kids. Which means I can no longer procrastinate and not take things like my blood sugars seriously. I have to care. So I find myself caring more about things like my diabetes than I do about my Old Testament Pentateuch class.

I can't sleep so much that I am actually trying to think of things to make for Thanksgiving. Typically, we get invited to a local family's house for the meal. Not family but church friends. This year we don't have invites and I'm actually a little relieved because in our early married years, we went to Denny's for Thanksgiving. A part of me (the part of me that is pushing towards being a real grown up), wants to make something on Thanksgiving. Not a turkey (we wouldn't eat it) but maybe some comfort foods (I'm thinking about deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, stuffing and a small small ham of sorts.) I'm debating on whether or not desert should be included as I am the only one who really eats sweets and Dennis isn't a big pumpkin fan. I'll figure it out but this is what is keeping me up at night.

Or my mind wanders to the stuff our church is doing for the poor people in the area and when they travel to Mexico. They have asked for blankets and I think I am going to give a bunch of blankets away. I came from a family that never ever through away blankets. I don't know why but blankets were just always valuable, even second-hand ugly and outdated ones. We have a few that we never use and don't need. I'm trying to downsize everything we own whenever I get the opportunity because as I've hinted earlier, we are probably moving.

According to Dennis, we will ideally stay in Southern California. It's the easiest way to move. He is looking at jobs in Florida and in Texas. If he cannot find any jobs, we are considering moving back to Chile. In Chile, Dennis can work as an online professor for a school in the states and get a job in Chile. Chile, as in every other place in the world, is economically freaking out. Someone needs to give my husband a job. We need health care and he needs to feel like he is providing again.

This list of things going on in my mind could go on forever. One of the things that I've been hearing again and again and trying to process is this idea of "God's timing". God waited until Sarah was 90 something before letting her have a baby. He waited YEARS before he got his people out of the desert to the actual Promised Land. And even after they arrived, they still had to fight for YEARS more to actually get the land. Things that happen in one or two verses in the Bible actually take a lot longer in real life. And so I'm told to be patient. God is all powerful and all knowing and has control and I just need to wait and have faith. It's just easier said than done. I can see, looking back on my life, times that I have felt God acting slowly and now those times seem to have gone by so fast. A week or even a year flies by and the person I was a year ago and the place we are in our life is just so different. But just every once in a while, it would be so nice to know for sure what is going to happen. More than what grades I'm going to get- where are we going to live? What will we be doing professionally? When will be start a family? I wish I could see God's plan instead of passively waiting on Him to act. It's frustrating and challenging and ever so easy to ask out loud "God, where are you? What are you doing? What is the point of this??"

Okay. I need to try to go back to sleep. I have to wake up early tomorrow to write this stupid paper.

Facebook in real life

Three things I know to be true:
1. I love facebook.
2. The British have yet again proved to be very very funny.
3. I will not un-tag or remove photos of friends just because THEY think they look bad. Tough. They are MY photos and my memories. (I've actually had a request to take a photo down from my young angst-filled emo nephew who is horribly embarrassed that I have a photo of him on facebook where he is smiling and looks clean and normal.)

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

PS:

POKE!!!! Juan Manuel, I will never ever ever remove this photo! One day when you find that Mormon girl you want to marry and have loads of kids with, you will thank me!! You look normal and handsome here!! (Plus, you CAN untag yourself from photos. duh.)

10 Predictions for the Next Four Years...

Haven't done this in awhile. Trying to get back into blogging and back into LIFE. (November started off as a really odd month... I've got a Vitamin D deficiency!!)

1. Obama will be heavily criticized for not being perfect.
2. We will get pregnant. (4 years is a long time.)
3. We will leave Pepperdine and California.
4. Dennis will indeed finally get a good job.
5. I will actually get a real job and thus have a real resume and real work clothes.
6. My brother will find a real, meaningful relationship with a girl who will probably get pregnant too.
7. Issues on gay marriage, war, immigration, the economy, health care, education-- none will really get solved.
8. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will break up.

9. Katie Holmes will have another Scientology baby.

10. Michelle Bachelet will not be re-elected as President of Chile.

News from the World.

Actually, just from Chile.
This was the photo on the front page of a Chilean news/entertainment/google site that I frequent. They seem to favor Obama and called McCain desperate. This is not Chile's official position and they are not officially endorsing any candidate. Feel free to insert your own captions to their choice of photo.


In other news, I was sick all day. Diabetes took one more for their team.

Jabbachelet and the Gobernator.

Today, the President of Chile visited with our Governor to talk about Education and some other things. It was interesting only because rarely are two political leaders in the same room who share names that I cannot say with a straight face. (Jabbachelet because some people compare Michelle Bachelet to Jabba the Hut and the Gobernator for obvious reasons.)

It was also interesting because my mother in law, who is in Chile, has no idea how big California is. She called yesterday to ask us to "please make sure to get photos". (Sacramento is only HOURS away!!) My mother in law doesn't even like Michele Bachelet that much, but the discussions about sending Chilean students to California for University studies have us all hopeful.

PS: I secretly like Bachelet but my husband despises her. Here is a video of her saying "Hasta La Vista" to Arnold, via the Chilean news. If you overlook the fact that students are being hosed and surrounded by tanks while protesting in the capital, under Bachelet's first term as President... then I actually find her to be charming and I admire that she is the first (not counting Peron's wife) female President of a Latin American country (and my favorite Latin American country too!!)

Por Que No Te Callas?

I have a mostly dislike relationship with Hugo Chavez. I've blogged about him as someone who I thought had bravery, to say that the US was taking over the world, basically. And then I started to see that he's kind of a dictator. He shut down a radio station in Venezuela, because they spoke against him. (So he doesn't like freedom of press). He put an end to Western Christmas traditions like Santa Claus because he doesn't Venezuelan culture to be infected by Western Culture. He's made some pretty chauvinistic comments against the female leaders of the world. And sometimes I think he's asking someone to assassinate him. (He is also currently trying to pass legislation to give himself total power in his country.)

So, I find the King of Spain's "Shut Up!!" quite refreshing.

111...

111 photos saved because my brother-in-law, Pancho, is amazing and found some kind of spywareCSI type program to save deleted photos off of memory cards. You will see many photos of Tomitito and the girls and even photos of us putting their bunk beds together. (And Loads of smiles so yeah, I think someone just got jealous....)

yes, Dennis is finally home after being gone since the end of August. It's nice to be back into our old routine.

And yes, I was very sad to hear that I had these deleted but I just kept reminding myself that I too have more memories than photos and it's not the end of the world.

but Dennis hasn't told the girls that we have the photos because he wants them to feel bad for a while longer.

And I've got a few videos but I'm not doing youtube yet.

short answer: I'm back.

I came home on Sunday morning and it took me all week to feel adjusted. I'm like satin pants. I don't travel well. I wrinkle. I had homework and makeup exams and I needed to re-adjust.

First: I did eat a lot less in Chile. Not just walking a lot. But eating less. But it doesn't matter because I've finally learned that when Dennis is gone (he's coming back tomorrow morning), that I eat a lot of crap. Like apple turnovers.

Second: I took over 100 photos and left the camera with Dennis last Saturday night. But let's all recap: I'm a stepmother to two teens, 14 and 15. Dennis called me on Sunday because they decided to take photos without asking Dennis, and (of course), they ended up deleting ALL OF MY PHOTOS.

yes, I'm serious. I'm annoyed, I'm not lying. But it's also true that memories are more valuable than photos and hopefully Dennis took some photos after I left so I can show everyone how cute the children in Chile are and also how good my brother in law is. He is officially in CANCER REMISSION and acting on Chilean night time novelas too!

Oh man. Good photos were lost. I really enjoyed my week with Dennis's family and with his girls, (who ended up moving in with us for the week because in short, their mom is a bit psycho). That's the drama that I alluded to earlier but didn't have brain cells to write about. Basically, she threw them out because they were acting like teenagers and maybe because she was tired of being a mom and also maybe because she was jealous that we were all having fun and that the girls enjoy time with me and with their dad. So when I left, the girls were with Dennis's mom and we had just bought them their own bunk beds. But yesterday, in short, the courts decided that the girls should stay with their mother. I think it sucks that the girls were thrown into this whole mess and I'm having a more difficult time then ever understanding how mothers can act like children are pets to throw away (read: I am having problems giving grace or being graceful.) Brittney and the girl's mother. Lumped into the same category. I could write a whole lot on this. But maybe the first step is to stop talking about it. Prayers for Dennis and for the girls, as the girls have kind of been tossed around and because it hurts Dennis to see them suffer.

Chile was a great experience. Even with mentioned crisis, I had a great week. We went to the Chilean version of Disneyland ("Fantasilandia") and my GOD you have not LIVED until you are riding on a rollercoaster that goes upside down and really fast and you hear a loud noise from the breaks and you think a pin just might come out of the ride because they really aren't invested in safety.

Chilean public transportation is another thing. Santiago has this new bus system that really sucks. Basically there are like 5 buses for the whole city so there are like 50 people minimum waiting in line. And so the first female President in Latin America has dropped in approval ratings of 35%. Dennis was stuck in Santiago (we were 2 hours away), because he was in the middle of a protest.

Let's see. What am I forgetting. My stepdaughter Cristina- when given 5 minutes to take what she can from her house, her most treasured valuables are her hamster (who is suprisingly soooo cute!) and her Kelly Clarkson CD (that new one that everyone seems to hate). She is also really addicted to text messaging. So that's a universal teen thing.

It's really nice to know that you can make a 14 and 15 year old happy by spending a dollar on those glow bracelets that they sell in the US for rave parties and Halloween.

Yes, so I still hate Hebrew. Missing my husband. Feeling weird that I'm actually in a routine now of being alone.

I DID get a "family photo" of the four of us at Fantasilandia but it's on a button so I think I can scan it but I've never scanned a button before.

Yapo ¿Catchei?

I´m still in Chile, at the internet cafe where my brother in law is the manager, and I could probably type out a huge entry but
a) the keyboards here are ridiculous. it takes me five minutes to figure out how to type my own email.
b)there is just too much going on. too much drama. good and bad. good--- My brother in law´s cancer is in remission!! And I might be losing weight because you walk everywhere (how did I forget?) and I had the flu and because food is just different here. Good but not as much. And you aren´t as hungry as you are in the US.

Did Britney Spears really lose custody of her kids? That is one think I miss- no gossip here! So I think I heard that she lost custody but I´m not sure.

I´m coming back on Sunday morning so prayers that I can get back into the groove of school easily!!

(OH there is so much to write about and not enough mental space!!)

I'm leaving in a half hour...

For the airport! To go to Chile! Woohoo!!!

10 Things I've Been Putting Off...

Muwhahahahaaaa perfect topic!!

Ten Things I've Been Putting Off....
1. Writing the journal for my field work credit
2. Going to storage to clean it out and toss stuff away
3. Really, seriously starting an exercise plan.
4. I'm putting off pregnancy. For about two more years.
5. I'm putting off deep cleaning our shower. I know that's gross. But it is seriously the one thing I hate cleaning.
6. We are putting off changing cell phone providers. I'd love to do it like tonight but Dennis wants to wait until after Chile.
7. I'm putting off making sure that I have my financial aid covered. It's such a lame process.
8. I'm putting off emails that I have to make before we leave (I have to email the girl subbing for me in Sunday School).
9. I'm putting off learning parallel parking and backing up on a hill (going up).
10. I'm putting off notifying the majority of people like magazine companies that our campus mail box address changed.

Meh. Basically, I'm leaving for Chile tomorrow. Yesterday was the first Taize service of the school year. It was quiet- not a lot of students came- but it was so meaningful to me to be involved in it. And today and yesterday were my last classes before I leave for Chile. So (YES!!!) I get a short break from Hebrew. Today, my only thing to to is to go visit some people from Pepperdine in the hospital. (I'm typing this out mostly because now I'm thinking "yeah, I should start that journal!!!")

YESS!!!!

I can count on the snarky humor of web-comics (see sidebar) to give me what I need to write.

Between you, me, and Jesus. And the other people who read this, I am feeling pretty iffy on how the whole "me re-meeting Dennis's family after four years" thing is going down. I'm sure I've mentioned it. See, back in 2003, I was like a dream size 10. Oh man, I miss those days. I was also really sick and having some serious depression issues and always getting things like seizures and infections... but oh how I took my waistline for granted. Anyway, even then I felt fat. Because in Argentina, the women are all a size 7 and under. And in Chile, they might find you a size 9.

I mean, then it wasn't so bad. And my obsession with various junk foods over the past year especially hasn't been so helpul. And I keep thinking "stop it. Your mother in law is not shallow. His family loves you." blah blah blah. Dennis loves me and thinks I'm beautiful. And when I am with him, I feel beautiful. But his ex-wife was a freakin' underwear model. Yes, she was a model 15 years ago pre-babies. And yes, I cheer inside because I've "beat her" on the age card (yes! I've got NO wrinkles!!!). Dennis doesn't understand why there is this part of me that I'm trying to kill off, that can't help but feel like I'm competing with his ex-wife. I don't even know what I'm competing for or if I'm competing by myself. I'm the one Dennis is married to. I'm afraid in part, that people will see "fat" and think "weakness of character" even though that's like the one thing I can think of that would really show weakness of character.

So I've been mentally beating myself up about this for about a month, and it's not easier when Dennis is gone and the apartment is super quiet and I've got my thoughts to wrestle with. I'm a good person. I'm genuine. And I genuinely like all of Dennis's family. I love his mom and I love the girls and I love the quirks of the chilean family that is so close and yet so distant. I love his family. And I'm worthy of their love and respect. So I need to leave the self-destructive-thinking Erin at home in Malibu. With the heavy shoes.

Prayers for me, that I love myself. And that I pat myself on the back for a change, instead of beating myself up. And prayers that even though I will probably be so nervous about seeing everyone, that I can relax once we've seen each other again because they are excited to see me and don't care about my cellulite. It's not like I'm going in a bikini.

(Seriously, this whole blog-tangent started because I was lying in bed thinking "It's a 13 hour flight to Chile. God, the first thing I'm going to need when I get off the plane is gonna be a diet coke and some of those Chilean bon-bons...")

My thoughts on 10 Political Figures...

Ten political figures and my thoughts on them

1. Michelle Bachelet. President of Chile. On one hand, I am very inclined to like Bachelet. As a person. She's the leader of a latin american country and so she has to rub elbows with the boys. And most of the boys don't let their women out of the kitchen. So kudos. But what has she done for Chile? Here, outside of Chile, we haven't seen much. And my husband is not a fan. Plus it is just too fun to say "Jabbachelet" instead of "Bachelet". Which isn't fair but hey, we all have stories of people making fun of our names.


2. Hugo Chavez. President of Venezuela, right? I know this: I have said that he is hilarious. And he is funny. But he's starting to act funny-scary and less funny-clown-act. He's BFF (or at least he thinks...) with Castro and he's on the news for all sorts of ridiculous rules like firing people or saying "no Christmas/Santa Claus in Venezuela because it's too US/Western World imagery". I liked that he had the balls to say that the war in Iraq was wrong but then I started realizing that he kind of always acts like he wants someone to assassinate him so that he can blame it on the US. And that creeps me out. But you know, they did start selling "chavito" dolls. Can I imagine Chavez hanging out with Barbie? He wishes...


3. Evo Morales. President of Bolivia. Also kind of funny. Funny looking. I think he is just trying to be friends with Hugo Chavez. It's funny that Bolivia is obsessed with being cool. They have a navy. And they are also landlocked. I see a lot of photos of Morales with Chavez and Castro. He's like the third wheel and it's kind of awkward....



4. Alberto Fujimori. I don't know how but Peru elected a Japanese guy to be their president. He left office and they figured out a little too late that he stole a whole lot of money from the Peruvian government. And now he's in a Chilean jail. What's funny is that a)Peru really wants Chile to let Fujimori go and return to Peru and b)Fujimori wants to be re-elected as President of Peru. Only in Latin America can you steal a whole lot of money, flee the country, be arrested, come back, and be welcomed/re-elected.

5. Felipe Calderon. Mexico's President. We have the same last name and we aren't related and it sucks (because he could totally be my rich uncle and I'd be cool with that.) But as a politician- I think he has his work cut out for him. He hasn't been in office for that long but he's got a country that's kind of falling apart, he has to maintain relations with the US and a lot of people are asking him to fix the immigration problem. And he has his OWN immigration problem because all of Central America is sliding into Mexico illegally (oh the irony). Plus, there is a gigantic gap in economy in Mexico and a gigantic gap in things like education- a substantial portion of Mexico doesn't know how to read or even speak Spanish. And I haven't really seen him do much about it. I know that there is an escalating violence problem in Mexico.

6. Vicente Fox. The ex-president of Mexico. He did some great things for Mexico but he's gone. He got the job because he was really really rich and, at least on TV and in comedy sketches, he's kind of like George Bush in Spanish- he's a cowboy/rancher/ "man of the people" who speaks really slow.

7. Antonio Villaraigosa. Mayor of Los Angeles. Has a name that's hard to say and hard to spell.
I voted for him. He's good at being on TV all the time and he's really good at being on the Spanish TV news, giving interviews. Has he done anything? I don't know but I do know that I always see him, especially whenever there is an issue that really affects how latinos vote. I have a lot of Conservative Republican friends who love pointing out that he failed the CA bar exam like 7 times. And I know he still has all of his gang tattoos. He relates to a lot of people and I think that is important.

8. Arnold Schwarchenegger. Why he is a politician, I do not know. But I voted for him too, the second time around. I like that he wants all children to have health care and like Villagarosa, he is always on TV most especially when it is good for a vote. My Liberal Democrat friends say he is an opportunist and my Conservative Republican friends say he is a liberal (he's a Republican).

What's hilarious--> you can buy a t-shirt at the Los Angeles International Airport with a photo of "the Governator".



9. Hillary Clinton. Senator of New York, right? I have a lot of Democrat friends who absolutely refuse to be associated with her. It's like she's so "in your face" that she's so not cool. I will stand my ground. I like her. She has ideas and a platform and isn't "nice" or "idealistic" (I just think Obama is too cute and too "green" and too MTV to lead us out of war...)


10. George Bush. I didn't want to write about my own President. But I can't think of anyone else. I don't like him and I'm not a fan. Some days, I think he's way too powerful and just, why is he making the decisions he is making? And then other days, I see him as kind of like a patsy and that everyone around him is making the decisions. I haven't fully decided. Maybe he's just the face of a whole national/cultural problem that I don't agree with or like. Chavez (see above) calls him "Mr. Danger"/a coward/the devil. I don't think he's the devil but there is just so much I don't like. I will say this: My grandpa voted for him because he thought he'd rather have a beer with Bush than with Kerry (and having kind of met Kerry/seen him really up-close and listened to him talk, I can kind of understand...) But I think a lot of people voted for Bush for similar reasons. Or maybe because he's against gays and abortion.

My first Chilean winter...

on top of "Cerro Santa Lucia" in Santiago, Chile- those mountains are freaking cold!!

*Dennis looks so young! I look so thin! I'm wearing Dennis's coat and the red/maroon "jacket" underneath is pretty much all I brought with me for my first Chilean winter!!!

On one of the forums I belong to, the question was posed "If you could write a book about your host country, what would you write about?"

I'm in the US but I have memories of Chile (I was there for 3 months), and it's a great memory to blog about! (the photo above is us in a Chilean restaurant! starving and weeks before marriage!)

I would definitely write about preparing for my first winter in Chile! My husband told me "bring your winter clothes"- I'm from Southern California and we just wear sweatshirts in the winter so I brough a very light jacket and some ugg boots and that was it! I was sooosososo cold!!! I remember seeing the Andes mountains from Santiago and then going to Los Andes, where his family lives and thinking "I'm so stupid!" There was a Uruguayan soccer team that ended up crashing in the Andes mountains- it was so cold and they were so isolated that they resulted to cannibalism to stay alive! ("Alive" is the movie of their story). I had seen the movie and I knew there was snow in Chile but it didn't connect that I would be freezing! I remember wearing like 3 pairs of socks at night and socks over my hands! And our apartment didn't have heat! just a little stove and a "heating mattress"! What was I thinking!

And just meeting his family- "gringa" is a term of endearment from his family to me (it's offensive to some Americans but I think Chileans don't mean it to be mean)- his mom calls me a "gringita". It was just so fun to talk to them and to live with them. They thought I was german or something (I have some german heritage) because they didn't know any americans and I kept saying "ya" instead of "si". They made fun of my accent and my spanish but I still felt so welcome! We are still close! I remember going with my mother in law to shop for a wedding dress, in this small small town (Los Andes)- we went to a costume rental place so I was trying on wedding dresses in this tiny room full of halloween style costumes!

I might also write about things like his father asking me if I was mormon (I'm not but I'm protestant and that's like equal to mormonism for a strict catholic LOL!) or how we were saving so much money that to go to mcdonalds or pizza hut was a huge treat for us (and it was american food!)

death is cultural....

They are showing Pinochet's dead body on TV. It's really weird and really gross. Is it a cultural, latin thing for people to walk by dead bodies and to touch the glass as if the dead person inside is a saint? I've seen it with other people, on the Spanish news channel. It's fascinating- you very rarely see dead bodies on the news in English, even in funerals. You might see the box but never the face. But in Spanish news, even on the early 6pm news, they show funerals with the open casket. I guess gringo culture suggests that death is so private that you don't show dead bodies and you are so much more reserved and removed. If an English and Spanish news station are both covering a shooting, for example, it seems as though the English (US) coverage would be just of the police and maybe show a body with a sheet but not the body itself. Spanish news not only shows the feet but the face and all of the blood (see news coverage of Valentin Elizalde, as just ONE example. Or the bloody mess of protests in Oaxaca!) It's just strange sometimes, to watch spanish-speaking news and see bullet-holes in cars and blood and bodies. And it's even stranger to see a bloated, pale dead body of an ex-dictator.

Dennis talked to his dad today. His parents were supporters of Pinochet, because he helped the Chilean economy, until they (with the rest of Chile) found out that Pinochet had money that belonged to the government, in US bank accounts. (apparently, Pinochet said "I'm not a dictator! I'm not corrupt!" and people believed him until it became clear that he was not only murdering people but also stealing national money.) Anyway, Dennis's dad said that things are pretty crazy in Chile and that people have not stopped reacting. I guess it is what we should expect to see in Cuba, in a few years. Dennis and his father have both said that this is the end of an era.

I am just an observer, living in a country where we aren't used to things like this happening (atleast not in my lifetime!)

And I'm also doing everything that I can to NOT study for the final exam I have on wednesday morning.

Monday blog Meme- "Monday Madness"

1. What song gives you the most holiday cheer? All of them. All of the church songs ("glooooooorriiiiia" and "all come all ye faithful" etc.) and the non- church songs like "have yourself a merry little christmas" etc.
2. Who is the hardest person to shop for on your holiday list? my husband. i wish that I could buy him really amazing expensive gadgets. I've always wanted to buy him a really fantastic palmpilot, for example. But I always end up getting him pajama pants and a sweater. (electronics are expensive and I do not have a credit card.)
3. When do you start your holiday shopping? Right after Thanksgiving. I try to give myself time for things to deliver home and prepare for things to get lost in the mail, because I buy everything online.
4. What food or drink do you love when it's cold out? (Recipes and recommendations, please!) chai tea is nice (it reminds me of pumpkin pie!). I can't drink things with a lot of sugar so I take what I can get.
5. What do you do to get rid of a cold or flu? mostly cold meds (pills and theraflu tea). when I feel really bad, I make Dennis buy me some diet sprite. Lately we've stocked up on extra soft kleenex and I've been making alot of warm soup for dinner.

mas...

"Gracias Viejo Pascuero por Llevarte

al Perro"

Pin8

Adios.

















Today, International Human Rights Day, is also a big day for Chile. The old dictator ("Tata" or abuelo or "bicho" or many many other words....) died. All afternoon we have been watching online, the public's response. Some people are sad or angry, either because they loved Pinochet or because they feel like Pinochet got away with murder. Many are convinced he is in hell, many are convinced that his death was a gift from the Virgin or "Viejo Pascuero" (Santa Claus). Many people seem to be relieved, because he symbolized over a decade of terror.
I'm not sure how Dennis feels- he didn't consider Pinochet a saint but he isn't celebrating his death either. Maye that's how it should be. But it's definitely culturally significant. (and frustrating- the news is covering a stupid Chivas futbol game more than this!!!)

This is also the beginning of finals week. Prayers needed for my greek exam on Wednesday!!

(Pin8- pinocho- another play on words of Pinochet.) Flickr searches for photos of today are the best!