A Range of Activities: Kaia's Life in the World: Happy Halloween!

Surprising enough as it may seem, the Chileans have been celebrating Halloween for the past 10 years or so. Although, if you look at the large number of commercials for credit cards and the many US products, it is less surprising to see that this up and coming capitalist country has found one more holiday to consume. The responses, needless to say are very similar to those in the US. For example: Most children, I would assume, would see the aisles of Halloween costumes and candy in the supermarkets and the booths of Halloween costumes in the street fairs as a fabulous opportunity to eat candy, dress up and act scary (btw, BIG benefit of celebrating Halloween in the southern hemisphere is that you won't have to wear long underwear under your costume!!!). Antonio sees it as a holiday that belongs to some other country and thus doesn't feel that Chileans should be trying so hard to "copy" it, and Ines, Antonio's sister, makes the kids that come to her door asking for a "trick or a treat" take off their masks before she gives them anything as she feels it is worshiping the devil. (She and her husband seem to be more conservative Catholics. He has told me on more than one occasion of the month or so he spent, 10 years ago, only able to speak and write in Hebrew/Arabic? and unable to communicate with anyone in Spanish as God had given him that gift.)

Anywho, the Chileans, even have a convenient four day weekend to take advantage of and celebrate Halloween as ironically, next week there are two Saints' days (yes, because of the Catholic holidays, they are able to more fully celebrate the devil-worshiping one). Most people are heading out of town or heading to the amusement park or beach for the extended weekend but Antonio and I are staying in Santiago. Antonio will be working at Jumbo, one of the supermarket chains, restocking the shelves as he did a few other holidays past. We were planning on joining the masses at the local amusement park, Fantasilandia, but so many people went that they had to close the gates to more visitors. They have decked it out with walking mummies and other gruesome haunts instead of plush-costumed actors, many skeletons and other authentic decorations, and, according to the website, some other fancy stage productions as part of the "Nights of Terror." They are open until midnight tonight! Our neighbor Soledad and her son Martín are there and promised to take pictures so it shall be fun to see them. I went to the non-Halloweened Fantasilandia two years ago when I studied here and enjoyed it immensely. I feel they have changed some things since so it should be fun when we do manage to go.

In general, I am not sure we will do anything special for Halloween. On Monday night there is a costume party at Golden Music, the salsa club where Antonio and I met. However, we do not have costumes at this current moment in time, and Antonio has to work all day Monday and Tuesday so we'll see what happens.

Here, as promised are a few albums to summarize the past few weeks and some of the other exciting moments. One of the more memorable was going to Juan Luis Guerra's concert on October 7th. It was awesome!! Here is a link to one of my favorite songs by him called "La guagua," or "bus" in the Dominican Republic which is where he is from. The song is one example of his fabulous ability to make a wonderful song out of social and political commentary. Another one of his songs says "turn off and lets go" referring to the global society's electronics addition. He is basically just the coolest guy ever!!! Did I mention that he only has one good eye and is 54 years old?

Health update: I think I am finally nearly over my cold that started nearly three weeks ago. After a week of sleeping, a trip to the doctor's, and several spoonfuls of cough syrup and decongestant, I think I'm down to the allergy-induced symptoms. Good grief! It's so hard to tell as the second wave of allergies has hit: the dreaded white fuzz that flies from the oh-so-many-trees-that-create-the-fuzz near our house. It's awful! I'm hoping to get the allergy test that the doctor ordered for me done soon so that I can see what else I'm allergic to besides the dreaded white flying fuzz and maybe get rid of this frustrating sore throat that won't seem to leave me be.

Weather update: The days can get hot around midday but everything cools off by evening and at night one needs a sweater usually to be comfortable.

Job update: Unfortunately, the one informal interview I had with a university's study abroad office didn't work out for a contracted one month position, but I will definitely apply to their full-time position once they create it at the end of December and if I still don't have a job by then. I am now on unit 11 of 20 so halfway done with my English-teaching accreditation! It looks like I will be helping my old supervisor from my Chilean internship out with her English once a week starting soon though so I'll have a wee bit of income, which is better than nothing. :) Fortunately, Antonio's father is extremely generous and hasn't complained yet about my presence. He's even given us metro card money on several occasions.

As Antonio's father Prudencio says, "Chau-chau!" Happy Halloween!

Love, Kaia (^_^)