I have a friend! I know that sounds corny, but this is my first friend in Chile who is not from my school, and not a part of my family here, and not a connection from a friend from home. I guess the reason this is such a big deal to me is that in my head I think the people I know from school and home HAVE to be friends with me. They don´t really, but it is different when there is someone who is not connected to you at all and then you are friends. Her name is Lorena and I met her through chess. She is the only woman who plays chess in the plaza and we have hung out a few times when we see each other in the plaza. Well she asked me a few days ago if we could hang out this weekend and we did. We took a colectivo (a taxi) to Coquimbo which is the sister city to La Serena. We went to a bar called La babra negra (the black beard) and drank pisco sours as we talked about politics, life, love, and anything that came up. (She speaks English pretty well and I am glad for a break from Spanish for a few hours!)
She is actually a really interesting person. She is 35, and has one daughter who is 3 (the father is not in the picture at all). She is a lawyer who fights for causes, usually environmental or social causes. Her mother was arrested and almost tortured for being an informant here in Chile of a political party that was not accepted by the reigning authorities. She asked me alot of questions about my opinions as a citizen of the US. I was glad that I could represent an opinion other than the norm to her. She and I agreed that in general USians ( We cannot be called Americans because all people living in north and south america are American) are ignorant about what is going on in the world. She agreed with me though that we should be slow to place blame on them when the media shows very cafefully crafted stories. Okay, now I am probably going to offend people, but that´s okay. In general, I think people are. Many of my rhetorical criticism classes showed me that. Anyways, we talked about alot and it was really cool. It felt alot like home: having an intellectual conversation about philosophy and politics over a coffe (or in this case over pisco sour). It was also cool because I got a chance to share my opinion of religion with her and talk about the life Jesus led and what His message was about. It felt like home.
Anyways, we totally had a great time and in a few weeks we are going to go to her home in Tongoy with some other friends and spend the weekend at the beach. Once again, I think I am in a novel. This isn´t real life, it can´t be real, can it?
She is actually a really interesting person. She is 35, and has one daughter who is 3 (the father is not in the picture at all). She is a lawyer who fights for causes, usually environmental or social causes. Her mother was arrested and almost tortured for being an informant here in Chile of a political party that was not accepted by the reigning authorities. She asked me alot of questions about my opinions as a citizen of the US. I was glad that I could represent an opinion other than the norm to her. She and I agreed that in general USians ( We cannot be called Americans because all people living in north and south america are American) are ignorant about what is going on in the world. She agreed with me though that we should be slow to place blame on them when the media shows very cafefully crafted stories. Okay, now I am probably going to offend people, but that´s okay. In general, I think people are. Many of my rhetorical criticism classes showed me that. Anyways, we talked about alot and it was really cool. It felt alot like home: having an intellectual conversation about philosophy and politics over a coffe (or in this case over pisco sour). It was also cool because I got a chance to share my opinion of religion with her and talk about the life Jesus led and what His message was about. It felt like home.
Anyways, we totally had a great time and in a few weeks we are going to go to her home in Tongoy with some other friends and spend the weekend at the beach. Once again, I think I am in a novel. This isn´t real life, it can´t be real, can it?
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