Best pit stop ever
The fat lady has sung. It is over, three interesting and unforgettable months here in Chile are about to end. Though not finally yet, but in a matter of hours there will be one happy man on a bus to San Pedro de Atacama, from where I start my Bolivian tour just to come back in two weeks for the final goodbyes, and more importantly, the girlfriend. ;) Anyway, yesterday as all my duties here were done, it was time for the victory cigar I got from my French friends. I even shaved for the occasion, I figured that since there are other internationally famous Finnish monsters now, this one could retire already.
The past week was indeed a really shitty one, but hey, one can't enjoy all the time. Haven't had any trouble sleeping the past two nights as all the schoolwork was done. Actually some exams did not go all that well, but it was not a matter of lack of trying. Also, the actual progress of the thesis for this trip is still a big unknown, I got plenty of data and articles and people who can help me via internet, but I still wasn't too convinced myself (bearing in mind that I need to finish it in the fall...).
Now, as I am packing all my life in a backpack again, it feels a bit sad to leave. Then again, focus of this whole thing was not to study, but to make the trip so in that sense this was the best pit stop ever. This seems like an appropriate time to throw in some conclusions..
WHAT I AM GOING TO MISS ABOUT CHILE- The people. You just have to love them, and once again in 3 months I have had the pleasure of meeting some great people, some of which will surely be my friends for years to come.
- Quality of courses (ok, not all but some were by far among the greatest I have ever seen).
- The atmosphere of the house. So much for my bohemian life style.
- The "savage dogs" of the house. If it would not make me feel so insecure about myself, I could use the word "adorable" to describe them.
- Escudo (local beer).
Mi mejor amigo del barrio.
- Gym of my school. Too bad I didn't realize to take a photo, maybe later -it was big and overly well equipped.
- Big city life -living in a metropoly is just so different and it kind of grows on you.
- Wines. This place is wine heaven. Nuff said.
- Movies that are so cheap I was practically ripping them off at the rentals. I think I rented some 60 movies or so in 3 months.
- One of the cleanest, nicest, most secure and most effective metro systems in the world.
- Gas stove. Does wonders when you are cooking, as does having a big kitchen.
- The forbidden things here: a sign in the door of my local store says
no ingresar animales (don't take animals in) and under it is a picture of an elephant?!?! It is impossible to enter without smiling every time.
WHAT I AM NOT GOING TO MISS ABOUT CHILE- The room wihtout heating on those below zero nights (and no, it does not help to be a Finn, even ezkimos would not like that), freezing my butt off.
- Smog and the screaming
micros that spew out its main ingredients.
- 1,5 hour schooltrips that just annihilate you on a day that has classes from 8 AM to10.30 PM, completing it all into a mind-boggling 17-hour experience.
- Group workers that don't give a shit about deadlines in a place where just about every minute late costs you points. Or to generalize it more, promising one thing and not delivering. Enfuriating. At the last group work session I just had to take control. It can not be that difficult to assign responsabilities and put timelines to them. Now they think I am a control freak for teaching them some A's and B's about project work..
- Insta-coffee. These people have no clue about real coffee.
- The flip in attitude when people get into metros. Many turn into complete assholes, and despite the vastly imminent instructions to let people get out before you rush in, nobody gets the picture. I am generally on the bigger side here, so if I just get angry enough at the idiots I turn into an asshole myself and just ram the midgets out of my way -and blame the Swedes if someone asks.
- Local hot dogs.
Completo = hot dog with excessive mayo,
italiano = completo with excessive avocado and tomato (and mayo -colours of the italian flag..). You can not fit these babies into your mouth so you best eat them with a fork. Hot dogs. With a fork. You can not taste anything as there is too much of everything (but the meat).
- Pisco, the local grape liquor taken with lemon and egg white (Pisco sour) or coke (Piscola). Major source of headache even in small quantities. Pisco -I feel ya.
- Scooching in front of my computer with no table or chair. Does wonders for your back especially if you are writing a 20-page report.
- Not being able to talk about politics. A big no-no here. Strong opinions and often quite opposite. After renting a car to drive around central Santiago, talking about politics is the worst mistake one can make. Just was glad that when I had lunch at Pinochet's nephews' house (which I didn't know at the time) I did not open my mouth about politics.
I probably forgot something, but that is what came into mind at this point. This has been a ride, seriously a great experience to learn and understand everything and I am glad to have made the most of it. I will probably be logging off for a while now, but before that some pictures of "the last supper". Below is a photo with some friends from school: Benjamin (Chile), Maria Jose (Ecuador), Robin (USA) and Paola (Chile).
Boiling point
Red Bull consumption: up 250%
Coffee consumption: up 300%
Sleep: down 50%
Food consumption: down 80% (estimate)
Alcohol consumption: down 80% (well, Finland DID win the Eurovision song contest)
Sports: down 100%
The department of statistics is happy to announce that we can reject the hypothesis null of all exchange life in South America being laid back.
The last week has been quite.. effective. As my friend Kata arrived here we did all the usual tours of Viña, Valpo and nightlife of Santiago and on the side I managed to pull off some 4 final projects and 1 exam that I am not sure that I have passed or not.. 2 days, 2 projects and 2 exams to go, not to mention that the thesis needs some work still to get to the stage I wanted to get to by the time I leave. Which is in 3 days (for two weeks and then back for a week). It is simply amazing how I can get myself into these messes from time to time. Some people never do learn. Like boiling water: it moves in a lot of hurry before it vaporizes off.
It's not as if the workload is THAT much, though the level of Masters' studies IS better here than in my university, I am sure of it now -and this already excludes the fact that I am operating in a foreign language that isn't english.. Also the other students spend their nights studying, whereas they pass their days studying as well (the last few weeks, that is) -unlike me, thus the fuss. But enough about the "life is hard" -whining as it will very soon be everything but hard, just to let you know why there have not been any mails or chats for a while. Here are some shots for the audience of the past week:
To celebrate the 26 years, I got to pick the food:
I trust you all know the brand below? If not, endulge yourself on your next visit to the licor store or Alko. Try out
el Casillero del Diablo, for instance. The name comes from the story the winemaker spread out that there was a Devil living in the wine cellar. This effectively stopped all thievery..
The grapes are small and look like fresh raisins because they do not want the excess water in them.
Valpo's "beautiful" docks, again, and Kata and me on the tour.
Out with the Finns again - I really did not have the time, but we just had to celebrate Lordi's victory! I put Ossi's and Kiki's links on the list for some more interblogging, by the way. Here we are with Markus and Ossi (he's the guy I knew from my KY times) in a great club, Blondie's, that was made from an old theatre and man it was huge! I mean, you have a hard time finding something like this in Europe as well.. Too bad the shots of the dance floor itself are too dark to put here.
Third-of-life crisis
Life expectancy of a Finnish male is 74.99 years (CIA The World Factbook). Third of the sentence is just about done, and suddenly I do not feel that young anymore. It would be easy to think that there are two thirds left, but at the time when you are at the crossroad you kind of start to see things from the other point of view. Or probably it is just the consuming lifestyle here with too little sleep, stress about the studies and too much partying that make me feel old.
Simo came back from Easter Island and we went out again with the newly discovered Finnish friends. The next day we were planning a trip to Viña and let's just say that we could not leave as early as we originally planned. But the sea air really did us good and we started to gain some colour in the face again. Since public cries for photos, here you go with some fresh shots. First one of the party and then Valparaiso, where we took a boat tour of the docks (not a very pretty place as you see -containers everywhere).
The sea lions had their own boat there (?!). Thanks to fishermen throwing leftovers to them, they hang around the dock though the water is really bad down there -I mean, I would not swim in it.
Finnish mafia and Dalai Lama
It seemed that Wappu, the first of may celebration would be totally boring here as I spent the two days working on my thesis, believe it or not. But then, as we were all a little down about not having any Wappu party, we sort of accidentally had one after all. It all started with just some BBQ, but then it somehow got out of control, you know how it is with some beers and a sunny afternoons.. So, we saved Wappu. Over and out.
It wasn't long after that that my friend Simo flew in from Argentina. He knew some other Finnish people here and now we really have a Finnish mafia in Santiago to counter-attack the French one. Yesterday I was having lunch in a party of four Finnish people and one French. The tables have turned. And just guess do we know people in common if I can find common acquaintances even with Swedish people.. The other Finns here are students of the Turku School of Economics and one of them was in the board of their student Union the same year I was in the KY board. Everything will change now for the rest of my stay, I'm sure of it. Don't know how this all goes together with the studies, but I'll have to work something out.
Anyway, as Simo, the lucky bastard who flew to Easter Island for a week, was here we went for some up-town partying together with the other Finns and some other exchange students. Rabbit for dinner in a fancy restaurant, preparty in a huge flat equipped with a quite decent balcony overseeing the richest parts of Santiago and afterwards a litte too many piscolas (Pisco and Coke) in a local club were just enough to give Simo the nice C U later for the morning flight. In the picture you have the Finns in the front, me, Kiki, Markus and Simo and in the background there´s Bob and whatwashername from Australia. Cups hold the treacherous Piscola.
The next day Dalai Lama was visiting Santiago and we had to see that, of course. The dude was sitting in front of a 2/3 full arena of people talking about peaceful interaction and compassion (here on the big screen, not enough zoom for a live shot, sorry). That Nobel really hit the spot there. He was a good speaker and took his audience though one small part of it (at least) was not really in the most receptive of modes thanks to some genuine Pisco headache.
Now I am getting back to the dark age of studying again for about 2,5 weeks -projects are piling up and thesis overload is imminent, but having to hurry is not that much of news for me. Just did not expect it to happen in exchange. The mid terms were quite two-fold: some subjects went really well and others not so good as I apparently do not know how to apply theories to everyday problems that well. A college degree after my MSc, perhaps? ;)
