VIVA CHILE

Just another example of American culture gone awry:

Conversation groups at IOM are often an opportunity to shout out whatever phrases the students know; often gleaned from American popular culture.

Last Thursday afternoon, Alejandra (IOM’s high-school English teacher) walked into the sala de ingles and Alejandro (a sophomore) shouted, “What’s up nig*er??”

I immediately went over and firmly told him that nig*er is not a word one uses in their daily, monthly or yearly vocabulary.

Alejandro responded by saying, “But I hear it in my music all the time.”

He didn't have the context or background knowledge to know better. It makes me wonder how many other extranjeros have listened to rap songs and taken what they hear at face value...


Futbol (soccer) in South America is a religion. An addictive religion at that. Saturday night brought on the World Cup qualifying match for Chile. They took on and conquered Colombia 4-2.

Our friends Trish, Ben and Melissa live in Plaza Italia, which is at the heart of Santiago and the central meeting point for all post-victory futbol celebrations. We're talking thousands of people, enough to shut down traffic in all four directions as well as bring police in full riot gear to the scene.

After Chile sealed the deal, we took to Plaza Italia to join Chilean masses in singing, dancing, shouting, jumping and all 'round chaos. Not ten minutes after we became part of the hoard did we happen upon a reporter and his camera man. He was surrounded by a crowd of excitable, screaming futbol fans. As soon as he noticed me (perhaps because I am a gringa), he wheeled around on his heels and thrust the microphone in my face. After a momentary second of confusion (probably apparent in my face), I shouted, "Woooo! VIVA CHILE!"

I thought nothing more of the experience until I received a call about ten minutes later from a fellow profe de ingles at IOM, Fransisco, excitedly telling me he had just seen me on Mega, a Chilean television channel.

The night went on. We made new friends. Laughed a lot. The fun really began, however; when we left the plaza and went to Trish's first floor balcony that overlooks the plaza. Each time a group of guys went by, we started cheering. They would all look up in surprise, notice a group of young, fresh ladies and drop likes flies. We probably re-enacted Romeo and Juliet at least 100 times. I received hundreds of air kisses. And because we were a balcony up, I felt free to tease those boys as much as I pleased. A no-risk situation. It was quite hilarious.

At one point, a young man with a steel drum and attached symbol started playing in honor of us while his friends danced around. A crowd of about 40 gathered to watch and join in while we waved and alluringly beckoned to the group below.

Monday was a holiday here so we reveled in a three-day weekend. Today, Tuesday, I heard from probably a hundred different students that they saw me on TV. A group of about 15 sixth graders went running up to me exclaiming, "Miss!! (pronounced 'Meeee-s') You're famous!!"

Too funny. I told Alejandra about it and she said, "Ohhhh. What a gringa thing to say!"

VIVA CHILE!!!!