Pineapples and Koalas

Retrospective travel post 2: Budapest, Hungary and the Whitaker Conference

2010-05-30T13:26:00.000-07:00

We arrived into Budapest, Hungary under heavy rain, and went straight to the Intercontinental Hotel. It was the first time that I stayed at a 5 star hotel -- and trust me, it is worth all the hype. We had a fabulous view of the Danube, the Buda palace, and the chain bridge.

For the next three days, I stayed in the hotel with the other fellows/scholars and we each gave presentations. Luis got to wander around Budapest and take some pretty spectacular photos. The other people at the conference were a pretty diverse group, working on a mix of projects (although the majority was in Europe, especially concentrated in Switzerland and the UK).

I was able to bring Luis to our "cultural activities" which consisted of the Swiss Romande concert at the Budapest Palace of Arts (the orchestra was actually from Laussane, Switzerland, where three of the fellows/scholars were doing their projects...haha) and a wine tasting dinner cruise on the Danube. As a side note, I was surprised that Hungary had its own vineyards, but I cannot say that I am a fan. Their signature wine is the white dessert wine, which slides down the throat like honey...I can't believe it's drank to accompany equally sweet desserts.

Before coming to Budapest, I never thought about visiting Hungary. It's one of the places that I put in the I-know-it-exists-but-why-would-I-ever-visit-it list. I was definitely pleasantly surprised. There is a varied collection of sites to visit, including lots of art nouveau architecture (one of which was the Parizsi udvar, or the Parisian court, a hidden gem in the busy center of the Budapest shopping district) as well as some impressive religious buildings, such as the Great Synagogue, the biggest synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world (also where Zionism was born).

Perhaps more importantly, the food is pretty awesome. They are known for paprika and poppy seeds, and they really know how to use them! I was also surprised to discover that Hungary makes marcipan (made of sugar and almond meal), much like the Spanish marzapan. Szamos is a sweets company that makes delicious (and expensive) marcipan candies.

After the conference, we had about two days to ourselves to explore the city. I got to meet up with RP, a Hungarian guy I worked with three years ago, and we had coffee near Hero square.

Budapest is also known as the bath capital of the world, so one of the nights, Luis and I went to the Rudas Bath, a Turkish bath built in the 16th century located on the Gellért hill on the Buda side. It was co-ed night, and we stayed from around 11 pm until sometime past 2 am. It was really relaxing, but the water smelled strongly of sulfur. Some of the pools were scalding hot!!

Night view of the Danube and Buda palace from our hotel room.

Fishermen's bastion on Buda hill. One of my favorite places in Budapest!

National Opera House, where we saw the ballet rendition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Kürtőskalács (Hungarian chimney cake) being sold at the Buda palace. It's Hungary's oldest pastry and originally from Transylvania...super yummy!

We were scheduled to leave Budapest on Saturday, but some unexpected events unfolded...(cue suspense music).

Up next...trans-European adventure (and the damn Icelandic volcano)!

Retrospective travel post 1: Vienna, Austria (and to a much lesser extent, Bratislava, Slovakia)

2010-05-29T16:17:00.000-07:00

It has been quite some time since I posted...a lot happened in April and May, leading to some pretty unexpected events.

It all started April 8th, when I flew from Santiago, Chile to Vienna, Austria. There were two stops in the USA (where I gorged on fat-laden foods at the airport) and one stop in Barcelona, where I "picked up" Luis before flying into Vienna.

The Whitaker Conference for all the fellows/scholars was scheduled the following week in Budapest, Hungary, and I decided to stop in Vienna and Bratislava along the way just to see some sights. Vienna was fantastic. We stayed in a hotel near the shopping area and Naschmarkt (great fleamarket street with stalls selling HUGE sausages and cartoon-like cheeses...during the evenings the shops host music venues, and we saw a blues show in one of the restaurants). The palaces were amazing (Belvedere, Schönbrunn, and Hofburg), the opera was fantastic (we dressed up and saw L'elisir d'amore at the Staatsoper), and we even got to see the Wien Philharmoniker perform Beethoven's 5th and 6th symphonies (7 euros for standing room tickets!). It was a bit rainy during our 3 days there, but it was great nevertheless. I even got to see Camille, a girl from Paris I worked with 3 years ago who was in Vienna for Erasmus, a European-wide exchange program. Just walking around the city was amazing - the churches were very impressive and the shopping is fantastic (but alas...out of my budget).

The cheese sold at Naschmarkt was over 1 foot in length and width!!

Schönbrunn Palace. Not my favorite palace in Vienna, but still very impressive. It used to be the summer palace for the royal Hapsburg family.

THIS was my favorite palace in Vienna. The Belvedere! I liked it a lot more because it has a much more impressive (and varied) art collection. This photo is the back of Upper Belvedere, taken from the walkway leading to Lower Belvedere. The Upper one houses most of the impressive art collections, including an extensive Klimt collection (The Kiss is HUGE!).

Part of the Hofburg Palace. I think it was the Natural History Museum. The whole palace was very impressive, and covered a HUGE area...it included the Fine Arts Museum, the National Library, the Albertina, State Apartments, Spanish Riding School, and more museums. It was pretty daunting to walk through, and we definitely got lost. It was like a mini-city. I wish I had more time to explore, as we only got to see a small portion of the palace.

Before we knew it, our three days in Vienna were over. I was a bit sad to leave such a great city -- definitely worth it to stay a week or more! We took a bus to Bratislava, Slovakia to spend a half-day there before heading by train to Budapest, Hungary. Bratislava was a bit odd. The bad weather (rain and clouds) contributed to the grey atmosphere and the concrete buildings. The city center was a contrast of new and old, and you can definitely see the remnants of the communist occupation. I thought it was going to be dirt-cheap, but it was not. After spending about 3 or 4 hours in Bratislava, we were glad to be on the train to Budapest.

Next up...Budapest and the Whitaker Conference!

Giant 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile? Wait...I'm in Chile!

2010-03-09T15:34:00.000-08:00

February 25th (Thursday), I embarked on a what was supposed to be a carefree weekend in Southern Chile with Jenny. Our vacation was prolonged because of damages to transportation routes (highway and Santiago airport) that prevented us from coming back to Santiago/Valparaíso. We were in Puerto Varas (X Region of Los Lagos, or the Lakes Region) when the earthquake hit Saturday early morning (3 am or so?). It wasn't too strong where we were, and I would guess it was around a magnitude 6. The bed shook a lot, and we all evacuated the hostel, where we were spending the night. There were a few aftershocks that followed that night. The electricity and gas were cut off during the following day, and we had no idea of how bad the earthquake was until late Saturday evening, when we were in Chiloé, a large island in Southern Chile (Northern Patagonia region). By then, everyone basically heard about the 'catastrophic' earthquake that hit Chile (epicenter Concepción, a city south of Santiago, in the region of Bio bío). Ridiculous messages flooded my e-mail while I was still fairly clueless about the situation.

We had plans of flying back to Santiago early Monday morning, but saw on the news that the airport had major damages and no flights would be able to land for 72 hours or so. It took us three days to change our flight (long hold on the phone with LAN...and even longer wait at the office in Puerto Varas), and by then, the earliest flight to Santiago would be Monday, March 8th. Since we had no choice, we booked our flight, and decided to wing the next week in the Lakes Region...

For us, our trip was not affected by the earthquake (except for the flight change), and we really had a good time. A short day-to-day chronicle (with pics!) of our trip:

Friday, Day 1: We visited Saltos de Petrohué, Parque Nacional Vicente Pérez Rosales, and Lago Todos los Santos. The Osorno volcano (and the smaller, less-majestic but still worth mentioning Calbuco and Puntiagudo volcanoes) was truly spectacular!

Osorno volcano is the backdrop for the beautiful Petrohué waterfalls.

Saturday, Day 2: Despite the early-morning earthquake, we went to the Isla Grande de Chiloé and visited Ancud, Castro, the UNESCO World Heritage churches in Castro and nearby Nercón, and spent the night in Ancud.

Houses on palafitos (wooden sticks) in Castro.

San Francisco cathedral in Castro. One of the 16 UNESCO world heritage churches in Chiloé, and one of the hundreds of wooden churches built on the island!

Sunday, Day 3: Saw penguins in Puñihuil, about 30 minutes west of Ancud. The beaches were beautiful!

My first time seeing penguins in the wild! Islotes de Puñihuil, located off the coast of Chiloé, and meters from beautiful, secluded beaches. It's the only place in the world where Magellanic penguins and Humbolt penguins coexist.

Monday, Day 4: Waited a long time at the LAN office, toured around Puerto Varas and went to Puerto Montt in the evening to spend the night.

View of Puerto Varas from the look out point in Monte Calvario hill. German-style church with a beautiful lake and three volcanoes in the backdrop? Yes, please.

Tuesday, Day 5: Woke up bright and early and took a ridiculous local bus through the Cochamó valley, past Rio Puelo and on to Lago Tagua Tagua...and then immediately took the same bus back to Puerto Varas. The scenery was spectacular...and the total 8 hours in the bus was slightly more than tolerable.

Wednesday, Day 6: Visited Puerto Octay, about 20 minutes northwest of Frutillar, and also on Lago Llanquihue. We made it back to Frutillar in time for tea (we do love this town! and its kuchens mmm).

A typical Once completa, featuring tea, kuchen (delicious cake/pie like dessert introduced by German immigrants in Southern Chile), cake, and some baguette pieces with meat, cheese, avocado, and eggs.

Thursday, Day 7: Visited Osorno, a city an hour and a half north of Puerto Varas. It had some nice, old houses and handicrafts, but nothing more. We took a bus to Entre Lagos, a little town 30 minutes east of Osorno, then took a bus to Termas de Puyehue, famous hot springs close to the Chile-Argentine border about 30 minutes east of Entre Lagos. There were no more buses running east toward Parque Nacional Puyehue, so we hitchiked to the park entrance. We managed to hitchike back to Osorno after we took a small hike through the park to see Salto del Indio and Salto Anticuro.

Salto del Indio in the national park of Puyehue, about a 10 minute drive from the Chile-Argentine border.

Friday, Day 8: Visited Valdivia, a city two hours north of Osorno, in the region of the rivers (IX Región de los Ríos). The city was rocked by the biggest earthquake recorded in the world couple decades back (magnitude 9.5). It was a nice city nonetheless, and we celebrated Jenny's 25th birthday by going to the Entre Lagos chocolate factory!

The city straddles three rivers populated by obnoxious colonies of sea lions, vultures, and other animals.

Saturday, Day 9: Bussed back to Frutillar, where we spent the night at a nice, family-run hospedaje. We visited the Teatro del Lago, whose tagline is that it is the "southernmost opera house in the world."

The tell-tale trebel clef in Frutillar, on the shores of Lago Llanquihue with Osorno volcano in the background! Every year, Frutillar holds a music festival in the summer, and is known as the city of music in Chile.

Sunday, Day 10: Spent the day shopping in Frutillar and visiting the Museo Colonio Alemán. Went back to Puerto Varas and got ready for our last night in southern Chile!

Monday, Day 11: Upon arrival at the Puerto Montt airport, we were told that our confirmed flight actually did not exist (wait...what? why do we have a confirmation page then?). After slight arguing with the LAN lady, she shoved us into an earlier flight that departed that day for Santiago.

When we got to the Santiago airport, we were told that passengers are not allowed in the airport itself, due to damages from the earthquake. There were large white tents placed in the parking lot, and passengers (and personnel) went in and out without much (or any) security. Even bathrooms were lacking (a few port-a-potties here and there).

Valparaíso and Viña del Mar didn't sustain too much damage. Some buildings were in bad shape and have to be demolished, and people were a little worried. Over the next week, there were more aftershocks, with the biggest one around a magnitude 7. Last weekend, we experienced a Chile-wide (is that even possible? over 3,000 km...) power outage that lasted couple hours, as well as a false tsunami warning that had people frantic and running up the hills.

Hopefully, everything settles back to its normal state soon!

Aftermath of the three-months hiatus

2010-02-22T15:23:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in three months, but I am back in action now (and with pictures, to boot!). A lot of things have happened since November.

1. Medical school Interviews! Incredibly hectic flying around and sleeping on friends' futons...two trips back to the US later, I found out that I got into medical school around Christmas, when I was in Sucre, Bolivia! I got into a couple places before I withdrew from all schools and decided on UTSW (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center) in Dallas, Texas for medical school. It is incredibly cheap with in-state tuition, great clinical foundations, and I'll be semi-close to home (but not uncomfortably close). School starts in mid-August!

2. December trip: I spent two weeks in Peru and Bolivia, traveling with Luis. We had a great time, and saw some amazing sights. In Peru, we went to (in order) Lima, Cusco, Sacred Valley, 4 day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, Puno, and the Uros Islands in Lake Titicaca. In Bolivia, we went to Copacabana, Island of the Sun (biggest island in Lake Titicaca), La Paz, Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaku), Sucre, and Potosi.

Here are some photos from our trip:

Women in Chinchero, Sacred Valley of the Incas near Cusco, Peru. The mountains, framed by puffy pastel-colored clouds, looked truly majestic!

After Three and a half day of hiking through the mountains (in two days of pouring rain), we finally reached Machu Picchu. The eerie (almost myth-like) clouds shrouded Machu Picchu in the morning when we arrived. The hike was definitely worth it!

View from one of the man-made floating islands of the Uros in Lake Titicaca. The inhabitants transport themselves from island to island by reed boats. The islands are super small...maybe 10 meters in diameter for a domestic island, and bigger for more "commercial" islands. There is an island with an elementary school for the kids (and a school-reed-boat).

View from our hotel on the top of the Island of the Sun in the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. The views were spectacular, and the long ferry ride through the lake reminded me of the incredible size of the lake.

I found this experience exceedingly amusing. From Copacabana (on the shores of the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca) to La Paz, there is a ferry boat crossing. The blue bus that is pictured above (with white letters) was our bus. It crossed the water in a flat plank while we (the passengers) crossed in a small motor boat. I heard that there are some buses on the bottom of the lake due to accidents, so I brought our passports and money with me on the motor boat.

Street graffiti in La Paz, Bolivia. For many Latin American countries, 2010 marks an important anniversary - the bicentennial of their independence! (also, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico...wow it was a bad year for Spain)

My absolute favorite city - Sucre, Bolivia! It was amazing, and I spent Christmas in the White City (a lot of the buildings are white).

Luis and I in Potosi, a town in Bolivia famous for its mines (lots of silver). Here we are after we got out of La Negra. It was a pretty heart-stopping three hour tour. The cave had crystallized arsenic, the air was thick and humid, and the infrastructure was not very hi-tech. We survived, nonetheless, and I don't think I'll be going into mines in the near future.

In Tiahuanaco (Tiwanaku), a really large archeological site. There used to be an ancient civilization that lived here before it was destroyed. It was another rainy day, and we had to hurry through the site, but I got a couple great pictures!

We ended our fantastic trip in Valparaiso and the famous new year's fireworks on the bay. It was a fantastic way to start 2010! Happy New Year's, everyone! (also, Chinese New Year's was just last week - year of the tiger!).

BOO! It's a porcupine!

2009-11-01T17:55:00.000-08:00

This post has nothing to do with Halloween. I thought it was fitting since it is Halloween weekend...I'm not much for Holidays though.

Anyways today I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, only to almost trip over a porcupine. Yes, a porcupine. I forgot that we (the house) have 3 of them. They were born couple months ago, and I saw them when they were 1 month old (when they were still huggable and kind of soft). I had forgotten about their existence since 1) they stay in the garden 2) they seem to be nocturnal 3) they scurry really fast and 4) they are sneaky like ninjas.

Well anyways, needless to say I was scared shitless. I remembered that a friend wanted to see pics and a video of the porcupine, so I quickly locked the porcupine in the bathroom and ran back to my room and got my camera.

I took some pics and one really short video. It scurries really fast and it's hilarious!! In the spirit of this Holiday weekend, enjoy!

I tried to feed it some lettuce. It didn't work. It just got really scared, made this grumbling sound and curled up :-(

And here is a video, if you fancy that sort of thing (it's really short! 30 seconds I think):

Failed attempt at exiting Chile and my adventure in the Andes Mountains

2009-10-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

This weekend is a 3 day weekend because of Columbus Day on Monday. I decided to make the most of it by hopping over to Mendoza, Argentina for a weekend shopping spree...

Well I took a bus at 8 am from Viña del Mar and by around 2 pm we made it to the Chile-Argentina border, which conveniently sits nestled amidst the Andes Mountains. It was still pretty early in the day, and the views were gorgeous:

However, all turned awry when I presented my passport at the Chilean exit point. The police asked me for a Chilean ID card, which I told them I did not have. They then told me that within 30 days of entering Chile, I was supposed to go to the PDI (Chilean version of the FBI) and the Ministry of the Interior to register my Visa and get an ID card of some sort. Well I never did that, since neither the consulate, embassy, my Visa, the websites, nor the airport officials said anything about Visa registry. Then the police said that officially, I am an illegal alien and cannot be permitted to exit Chile until I go to the Ministry and the PDI.

It would not have been so bad if:
1. I were not 300 miles from Valparaíso
2. I were not at 2000 meters altitude in - 5 degrees Celsius weather in the Andes mountains

The Chilean police dumped me and another passenger who also couldn't get by to the Argentinian border patrol to take care of. He had no idea what to do, and told us to hitchhike a ride out of the mountains.

Well it took me and the other passenger (named Hector) about an hour to finally see a car approaching. They were headed to Los Andes and Santiago, so we hopped into the car.

After we passed the Chilean checkpoint, however, it started to snow heavily. A blizzard warning was issued, and we became the last batch of cars allowed in the mountain pass. They call the blizzard "viento blanco" in Chile because everything is white and windy and you can't see a meter in front of your face.

As I sat in a car, seeing nothing but white outside, I seriously wondered when I was going to die that day.

We started talking in the car, and the couple we hitchhiked with were nice, elderly Chileans who live a bit outside of Santiago. They asked us why we weren't allowed to pass, and I told them my story.

Hector, however, had a much more interesting story. You see, he is a convicted felon, and had a record with the Chilean PDI. When he presented his ID card and the border patrol looked him up, all his crimes showed up that were not resolved, and he was turned away.

Great. Not only was I stuck in a blizzard, I was stuck in a blizzard with a convicted felon.

It took us about 3 hours to get down the mountain pass. There were multiple heart-stopping curves and iciness along the way.

Here is a picture of how the roads were:

We finally hit Los Andes, a community closest to the Andes on the Chilean side, and me and Hector (who happened to be headed for Valparaíso as well...lucky me) took a bus home.

I sat back, and was happy that I would be home in 1 hour.

HOWEVER, another complication arose. The direct high way from Los Andes to Valpo was blocked, so the bus took an alternative route, and it took 4 hours to get home.

All in all, I got home at 1 am...at the exact same location I started off at 8 am the previous day.

It was a ridiculous adventure, and I am glad to be alive and not hacked to pieces.

I am also angry at the consulate for not telling me about registering my Visa. Shit is going to hit the fan this week when I try to resolve this issue with the bureacratic annoyance in Chile and Houston...

Fiestas Patrias

2009-09-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was a Chilean Holiday (Fiestas Patrias: 18th of September - Chilean Independence and 19th of September - Chilean Military Day). This meant a few things:
1. Over-eating of meat at asados (BBQ) and ramadas (outside fair)
2. Over-drinking of chicha (ale-type alcoholic drink made from grapes)
3. Lazying around all weekend
4. Parada Militar in Santiago (and the lesser known Anti-Parada-Militar Parade)

Here are some pics:

While I had lunch on Plaza de Armas, a group of young people (70 - 100 individuals) dressed as clowns (WTF) protested the Parada Militar. I think it was a general anti-Military parade. They blocked a street, and just yelled random things. The Carabineros (public policemen, dressed in green) came with some vans and a tank (!!). After about 10 minutes the Carabineros started hosing down the protesters with water that was sprayed from the military tank. Then they proceeded to arrest some people (totally manhandeled). The protestors were really young, I'd say average between 15 - 17 years old. The women Carabineros were SUPER scary looking. Eek!

The Parada Militar in Parque O'Higgins. Apparently tickets were necessary to enter the arena and sit on the bleachers. I didn't have a ticket but was in the first row at the fence, so got a semi-good view. Got too tired of standing after an hour and a half so left. It was kind of boring, but seeing the Navy/Military uniforms were kind of neat.

The coolest part about the parade was the airshow. I liked the first plane but it went way too fast for me to take a picture. I got this one though. Red White and Blue (Chilean flag colors)!

Some Chilean foods/drinks:
1. Asado: BBQ, usually pork or beef
2. Empanadas: local specialty is pino (minced beef with onion filling)
3. Anticuchos: blocks of meat and onion on a stick and grilled. Like a Kebab.
4. Chicha: alcoholic grape ale
5. Chirimoya: Chilean fruit. Looks like an Artichoke on the outside. White on the inside with black seeds.

Result of Japanese Elections

2009-08-31T12:32:00.000-07:00

Recently, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won the election against LDP (Liberal Democratic Party). I'm looking forward to what the government under DPJ would do with regard to China-Japan relations (but really, Sino-Japanese relations). Even now, years after World War II, China and Japan's relation is less than...stellar. I remember being in Japan in the '90s and the ethnic tension was still sky-high. The Machiavellian ideals of Japan were still in effect in the '90s, and national-glorification/opinion was regarded higher than historic fact. Even though now, Japanese media and print are more "open" (e.g. allowing the publication of) the atrocities that were committed by the Japanese government during WWII, there has never been an official apology from the LDP of Japan to any of its neighbors. This is where the bitterness lies. Although there are recognition and awareness in Japan now, there lacks responsibility for the actions.

Since WWII, DPJ has had better relations with China, and I hope that the Japanese government, in the coming months or years, will take this opportunity to make a formal apology. Even though an apology won't resolve everything, it is at least the first step in bettering relations in East Asia.

Foggy day

2009-08-13T07:12:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, a mystical fog enveloped the entirety of Valparaíso - all its hills, shore, and city. Everything seemed to move slowly as I gazed out the window. Fog has that effect, I guess. I grudgingly got up, feeling the effect of the fog already, and headed once again to Santiago, this time for a meeting with a doctor of Servicio Medico Legal in el Ministerio de Justicia (Ministry of Justice). There was another visitor from the US there, a forensic investigator from California who was helping the ministry with forensic work left over from the Pinochet era (with the desaparecidos during the dictatorship). Even though I desperately wanted to drill them on their work, I was there for another issue altogether.

As I headed out of the ministry building after the meeting and made my way through crowds of people to get to the subway, I ran into a large gathering that proved to be formidable to pass. I looked up and realized that a huge crowd had formed under an overhead, public TV screen that was broadcasting the soccer match between Chile and Denmark. The entire crowd (which blocked the automobile street) was hushed as Chile took control of the ball. Whispered gasps and hushed claps were silenced by the invisible power of the crowd. I shook my head and continued winding through statue-still people to get to the subway. I didn't want to stay when the game would end for fear of the inevitable stampede.

The bus ride back to Valparaíso was oddly tiring - it only lasted a bit over an hour. When I got to Valparaíso, it was drizzling, so I decided to take a micro back home instead of weathering (haha...) the 30 minute walk. I had forgotten that the streets were often one-way in the city, and by the time I realized, I was already well on my way up Playa Ancha. I desperately hoped that the micro would make a sharp U-turn at the university, but I was in no such luck. The micro wound all the way around Playa Ancha, the biggest hill in Valparaíso. As I wiped the dew from the micro window, I noticed that I had a panoramic view of the entire bay. The view was phenomenal and eerie. The ocean seemed to diffuse into the sky, its location a forgotten remnant of the place where the horizon used to be, now nothing but a blur. The only thing visible in the far distance was the perpetual circling of the lighthouse beam, its ray cycling like clockwork. It seemed like a scene from a movie, and I don't mean the cheap horror film type that Baltimore would remind one of but the independent film type that would be inspired by Virginia Woolf.

Just before twilight, and 30 minutes after I boarded the micro, I was finally on my way back down the hill. I caught a glimpse of the bay again, and realized that the heavy fog, still wrapped around the entire city, gave Valparaíso the feeling that it were floating in air. Neither water nor air were distinguishable, and just then, I understood, on a minute scale, how this city was able to inspire the poetry of Pablo Neruda.

Santiago, or 20 ways to screw up endoscopy and how to find an Asian supermarket

2009-08-09T12:10:00.000-07:00

This past week was my first week at work. The building I work in is located in Playa Ancha, an area about 15 minutes away from where I live by micro (local bus). The area is full of university buildings, and I'm right next to a dilapidated house where they film scary movies and also across the street from the Chilean army, which makes me feel super safe.

Yesterday there was a capacitación (training) for endoscopy in Ñuñoa, a neighborhood in Santiago. I got up bright and early at 5 am and took a bus to Santiago. The training went ok, the morning presentations were kind of boring, but at least now I know what the inside of an endoscope looks like, and how to fix it when it breaks. The afternoon was composed of booths where we learned how to manage different parts of an endoscope. I also now know what a cancerous stomach looks like. Great. We went through all the technical parts of an endoscopy procedure, and also common ways that the procedure fails.

After the training, I was super hungry (ended at around 2 pm, and I hadn't eaten since 5 am). I checked my wallet and realized I brought only the Chilean peso equivalent of USD$20, which is just dandy. Didn't bring my ATM card either. I decided that instead of buying lunch, I would go to Patronato, another area of Santiago that is reputed to house an Asian supermarket. I had no idea what the supermarket was called, nor what its address was. Trusting my instincts, I ventured forward. By instincts I mean I asked every Asian person along the way about the supermarket. I figured that they would not steer me wrong, and I was not disappointed. I was super excited when I made it to ASSI (the supermarket), but realized that everything was super overpriced (ramen was more than $1.50 per packet...). I bought lots of noodles and furikake (Japanese rice-topping) anyways, and spent all my money. I was still pretty happy anyways.

Since I had no more money, there was no point spending more time in Santiago. I took a bus back to Valparaíso. The bus ride was a great 1.2 hours. The lower Andean hills were gorgeous, with majestic giant cacti climbing up the hills' facade. When I reached my destination, I walked home (may I again emphasize the fact that I had no money?).

When I got home I immediately made some ramen...and it tasted sooo glorious.

Valpo vs. Viña

2009-08-02T09:26:00.002-07:00

So yesterday I woke up pretty late (almost 11 am) to my cellphone ringing. I'm still not sure if I should answer in Spanish or English...a silly debate, really. Anyways it was Yike and Alberto, and we decided to walk around Cerros Alegre and Concepción and then have lunch nearby. Alberto drove the car, which I can't imagine being pleasant in Valparaíso. The neighborhood was really nice, and we stopped at a little bookstore/cafe to have lunch. Books are ridiculously expensive in Chile, and a lot of people go to Argentina on weekend trips to buy books. The cafes also serve huge sandwiches that have to be cut with a knife. That made me feel a bit odd, but when in Rome...

We then decided to walk around Cerro Bellavista, the next hill over, where La Sebastiana, Pablo Neruda's house, is located. It was really nice, although we didn't go into the house. There were marble slabs on the houses of the street where La Sebastiana is located, and the slabs had poetry quotations. I have yet to figure out why 80% of the slabs contain lines from Federico García Lorca (who isn't even Chilean) and not Pablo Neruda (who IS Chilean and whose house is right there...).

I really liked this mural - the hands look really great with the colors. The quote was about opening up the hands to the toils of the earth or something along those lines.

The houses are painted in bright colors. Here is a row of them just between Cerro Bellavista and Cerro Alegre (I think...). This picture is the location of the Wikipedia article on the city! Haha now I know those photos in Wikipedia are real.

Afterwards we went to Viña to go shopping (they needed groceries, I needed hangers and other things). The 'mall' was more of a large shopping center, and there was a ton of people. I thought things were going to be cheaper in Chile, but really, it's not cheaper by much. I paid like $2 for a hairbrush, $2 for a pack of 8 rolls of toilet paper, and $1.50 for 10 hangers. That kind of puts it in perspective (I think?).

Going from Valparaíso to Viña felt really strange. As people have told me, Viña is like Spain 20 years ago (architecture, fashion, etc). It's a lot more modern, with tall, fancy high-rises and large shopping centers. Valparaíso is dirtier and more run down. Right now, I prefer Valpo. Well, the hills of Valpo anyways. El plan (the flat, center-of-town area) of Valpo is worse than Viña because it's really dirty and the people look sketchy (it's slightly dangerous), but the hills of Valpo are MUCH more interesting than Viña, because of the art galleries, boutique shops, nice cafes, fun houses, and grafitti.

We also walked around the beach in Viña - it was gorgeous! The weather was super nice yesterday, and it didn't feel like winter at all! No one really swims in the ocean here because of the harsh waves, but it was nice nontheless.

I then went over to Yike and Alberto's apartment, which is in a high-rise in a neighborhood called Recreo, in between Valpo and Viña. The neighborhood is like a suburb in the US. We talked for a bit and watched the sunset. By the end, I couldn't believed that I had been walking around from 11 am until 7 pm. Pretty exhausting.

On the similarity of cooking and showering in Chile

2009-07-30T19:42:00.001-07:00

I have moved into my "apartment;" it's in quotes because it's not an apartment building (it's a house), but it sounds too weird to say house. The house is huge 3 story turquoise edifice made with a wooden frame. My room is huge with bay windows, but you can tell that the house is really old. There are 2 cats, 1 dog, and 1 rabbit and endless amount of plants (lots of cacti...I'm in heaven!). There is also a great garden with lemon trees, strawberry bushes, olive trees, and a big palm tree. Most importantly, the Pacific ocean is visible from my room (better seen from the garden). Well anyways, here are some things I realized today:

1) A 30 kg/50+ lb suitcase is impossible to lug up 4 flights of stairs by myself
2) When you bring that horrible suitcase to the 'ascensor,' these decades-old (dare I say..century old?) wooden external elevators to go up a hill, the lady will gawk at you and charge you double because the suitcase counts as a person...
3) Do not buy a lot of heavy grocery items when you have to walk a mile back home, most of which is uphill (ok...I caved in at around 1/2 the mile with damn groceries and took a colectivo, a shared taxi)

Once I got home, I was really excited to cook a hot meal (even if it was just pasta). I got everything ready, and turned on the stovetop...only to find out that it did NOT get hot. WTF I want my damn pasta. Well, I couldn't figure out what was wrong, so I settled on a sandwich instead. I was a sad, sad girl that moment. And pretty pissed.

Couple hours later, I wanted to make tea. GUESS WHAT? I can't boil water! Well I was in a shitty mood. Then, the guy from Uruguay who lives in the room next to mine came out, so I asked him if the stovetop ever worked. Then he showed me how they work in Chile. Apparently you have to turn the propane tank on (next to the oven) and then using a match or a lighter, physically ignite the stovetop. Hmm this strategy does NOT sound so safe, especially with the propane tank within 1 foot of the oven. Well whatever, I had my hot tea so I was fairly happy.

Yet another couple hours later, I decided to shower. Well I couldn't get hot water to work. I was super pissed. I let it run for over 5 minutes and nothing worked. Wondering if I had to go shower-less for the rest of my year in Chile, I got pretty pissed. I decided to ask the other guy who lives on the floor (he's Chilean) to see if I was missing some magic switch. Well, indeed I was. Behind the bathroom there is this sketchy closet type and...oh what a surprise, there was a PROPANE tank. There was a small box on the wall, and a really small hole in the box. Basically you take a match and light something in the small hole on fire. And that rotates and heats the water. Keep in mind that this was all done in the dark. Also I think I was supposed to wait a bit for the water to heat up, because while I showered, it oscillated between hot and cold and needless to say I was freezing by the end. Last time I take a shower at night...I'd prefer not to burn my hand off or freeze my butt off...what a great combination.

On a brighter note, I had a 70 minute conversation totally in Spanish today with the guy from Uruguay who lives next to me. He's the first Uruguayo that I've ever met and he looks European. We're going running along the coastline tomorrow afternoon, which inevitably means I will embarass myself with my pathetic athletic skills.

Tomorrow I will take some pictures of the area where I am living. It is called Cerro Alegre, cerro means ´hill´in Spanish. Valpo consists of countless hills on top of each other, with houses precariously perched on every edge imaginable. The two hills that are under UNESCO world heritage site protection are Cerros Alegre and Concepción, so they're pretty cool neighborhoods with nice cafes, art galleries, music halls, and bookstores.

I kind of don't want to go to work on Tuesday...just want to bum and enjoy the city for a year...oh well, c'est la vie!

First impressions

2009-07-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

I'm in Chile now!!

Some things that I learned on the way here (airport/plane):
1) Do not attempt to bring 13" blade knives in your carryon bag - security will most likely notice and laugh at you. Also, do not argue and give any excuses for said knives. It will definitely backfire.
2) If you have a 13 year old daughter (well, 2 of them), do not buy them iPhone, MacBook, iPod, Juicy Couture bag, and Coach shoes, because your daughers will probably turn into douche bags.
3) When a Chilean asks you on an airplane if you are Catholic, just smile and half-nod.

Here are some first impressions of various things:

Bogota airport: needs water fountains. I was almost dehydrated because I had no Colombian money to buy a drink and I decided (perhaps well) that I would refrain from drinking out of the faucet in the restroom.

Santiago from the air: the light pollution in this city is horrendous - I could see the light diffuse from the airplane! Glad I won't be spending too much time there!

Valparaiso: Some sort of combination of Quito, Ecuador and Zaragoza, Spain...a lot of the architecture is pretty European in the shopping areas...the houses are super colorful though. Messy like Quito, and the people are a combo of Caucasians and Hispanics. Saw some foreigners (white), and yet to see a black or Asian person on the streets. But then I've only been here for 3 hours. There are a TON of stray dogs, but these stray dogs are super cute - German shepherds, laboradors, etc. They bask in the sun in plazas, follow people around, sniff shoes, lick hands (I was licked twice), and kind of hang out everywhere. There are at least ten at any given moment within 30 feet of me. I was really tempted to pet them but didn't want to end up at the hospital on my first day here (would not make for such a positive impression).

Well I'm at one apartment hotel now, I'll go look at an apartment this afternoon (or tomorrow during the day) and hopefully it will be good so I can move in. I do NOT want to go extensively apartment hunting....this one looks good and it's within price range, so I may just jump on it without browsing all the other ones I found. Partly, I do not want to go to Viña tomorrow where some apartments are....call it laziness but the buses here are scary! Just like Quito buses where you jump on while the bus is still moving and it speedily rambles onwards to the destination over cobblestone and dirt....I almost saw one flip over on the way here!

"So how did it feel to live in a communist country?"

2009-07-24T18:55:00.000-07:00

Once again, it has been quite some time since I last updated. Since then, I have done some (perhaps noteworthy) things:
1) Graduated
2) Came home (Houston)
3) Had my aunt and cousin visit from China (they are still here)

My aunt and cousin came about 3 weeks ago, and have been living in our new house since. It's been pretty fun; my aunt is a great cook so we've been having fantastic noodles almost everyday. Mmm yum!

Yesterday, we (parents, brother, aunt, cousin) decided to go to San Antonio for two days. The joys of Sea World (in almost-100-degree-weather), fast food, and Natural Bridge Caverns (and the Safari next door) were unmatched. Yesterday, we spent more than seven hours at Sea World. My brother acquired yet another stuffed dolphin, and I acquired yet another attractive sunburn.

Today we visited the Natural Bridge area, including the safari and the caves. The safari went well; there were too many deer, the ostriches were surprisingly fearsome, and the goats were smelly. The caves were a welcome escape from the heat. My dad and mom decided not to go down since they visited the same caves last year, and didn't feel like wasting $26.97 per person again. So it was my brother, me, my aunt and cousin who went into the caves. My aunt and cousin do not know English, which makes translating a whole lot of fun, especially when my Chinese vocabulary does not extends to such things as 'stalagmites' and 'stalactites;' needless to say, a lot of round-about phrasing and gesturing were used. Two ladies who were behind us on the tour decided to strike up a conversation with me. Once again, as with almost 80% of the conversation I have with strangers seem to go, the ladies were interested in my 'Asianness.' The typical benign questions emerged: where are we from, how long we've been in the US, if we like Yao Ming, etc. Then the awkward questions come up, like "is it true you can't have more than one child" and the ultimate question: "So how did it feel to live in a communist country?" It was odd that a sense of fear emerged from her question. I'm not sure if she expected some sort of tearful answer of repression and tyranny, but she seemed surprised (and not fully convinced) when I told her it was fine.

Actually, the 'communist' factor isn't too noticeable in day-to-day lives. Seems like a lot of people think that since China has a communist government, there is only one brand of toothpaste, one national bank, etc. Somehow the idea of communism has become a restriction on choices at every level of society, but that really is not the case. Not sure if it's leaky thinking from the Cold War era, but it's a new century now, and commerce and internationalism are both huge in China. Of course there are limits on personal freedoms - there are things you can't search for on Google if you're in China and any news is pretty skewed, but there are easily ways around such things, and people are more aware of history and current events than 'other people' (e.g. people in the US) think. I think as you go higher in the hierarchy, politics dictate more (unless you're in the 'unreachable' realm of the hierarchy, which includes famous people and the uber-rich businessmen from Shanghai and the like). Corruption and political power go hand in hand in China, but that's not a defining aspect of 'communism,' it's that way with every political system. Sometimes, when I get into arguments with strangers over Chinese politics, it seems to end up being more about derailing the idea that communism means corruption and tyranny. One can easily look at democratic governments too and see that those two 'red evils' exist there.

Well anyways, better get off a topic in which I'm not an expert...

Back to the cave story. When we got out of the caves, we were greeted by my parents, who have the uncanny ability to show up at the exact time and location of the tour exit. Perhaps they lo-jacked my brother (I've always suspected this). When we went into my dad's car, I noticed some grocery bags, and asked my mom what they were. Apparently, while we were touring the caves, my dad dug out cacti from national park grounds and put them into grocery bags to take home and plant in our yard. I quickly looked around to make sure no park ranger was wandering around just to catch unsuspecting cacti-thieves. We were lucky this time.

In light of the fact that I leave the US in 3 days, I should probably start packing...well, first I would need to unpack the boxes and suitcases from May/June...

Watch out for future posts! They will soon contain numerous pictures and (hopefully exciting) stories from Chile!

News from mom!

2009-04-29T18:23:00.000-07:00

Two days ago my mom called me to ask me when I will be flying back to Houston after graduation. I told her I wasn't sure yet. I asked her what she was up to today, and she excitedly told me that my dad and my 12 year old brother went to a park and picked two 'baskets' of blueberries. What?? In my three and a half years living in Houston, I NEVER went to pick blueberries in a park.

Then she proceeded to update me on what my family (mom, dad, brother) did since I last visited (November 2008):
1. Picked blueberries in a park
2. Schlitterbahn (Water/Amusement park)
3. Houston Rockets games
4. Sea World (San Antonio)
5. Galveston Beach
6. Six Flags

To put it into perspective, during my time in Texas, I have only partaken in numero 4 and 5 of the above, and that was once each during our first year in Texas.

On top of it, apparently my little brother has an iPhone (my dad has one too, but he can be forgiven). WTF.

My mom, at this point, realized that they have done so many 'fun things' without me that she tried to make up for it:

"Don't worry! We'll do fun things too!! We can go to Sea World!!"

Then she has a realization...

"Oh wait...it'll be too hot in the summer...well we can rent some movies!!"

No mom. Movies != Sea World, or the beach, or Six Flags, or even blueberries.

40 days and the ticker has started...

2009-04-10T17:54:00.000-07:00

It's been 4 months since my last post. To answer the question in my first post, I fail at this 'blogging' business.

40 days until GRADUATION! Crazy...

So what made me post today? Nothing too much really. I met this 57 year old hippie. I was coming back home from the CSC and in front of my building, on the steps, a man was sitting and his head was between his knees and he was kind of slouched. Just to make sure he's not dead, just had a MI, a stroke, or passed out, I asked if he was ok. Which lead to a 20 minute conversation. He was more or less comprehensible - his speech was a bit slurred, which he said was due to alcohol ("I don't have any problems...well except that alcohol thing" were his exact words). But whatever right. He was dressed exceptionally nicely (well-ironed khakis, solid shoes, and a plaid jacket). He talked about his years of youth. Mostly he rambled about church. I guess it IS Good Friday so it is a pretty fitting time to talk of such things. He goes to the Unitarian church. He kept saying "I need to go to church" like it was some sort of epiphany. Then he talked about spirituality and ... this is the craziest thing ... thanked me for being non-Caucasian.

The exact conversation that led to him thanking me for my ethnic-ness?
Him: I was walking in Charles Village recently and I was the only Caucasian on the entire block. There were Asians, Ethiopians, Latinos...and I was the only Caucasian.
Me: Oh really?
Him: I thank you guys for showing me the world.

Not sure what to make of that. Even more weird (perhaps?) was he asked me, in a really confused way "What are you doing here?" When he was the one sitting in front of my apartment building.

If I tried hard enough (and am actually a real humanities major instead of a pretend one), I think I can extract some sort of philosophical meaning out of this exchange, but I'm too tired and I want (need?) to read more about eukaryotic cells (damn MCAT).

On 'Good'

2008-11-27T19:47:00.000-08:00

Being home for Thanksgiving means a couple of things:
1) Too much free time pre-Thanksgiving (nobody has free time to hang out)
2) Digging up old books to kill time (after already killing 10 - 13 hrs/day by sleeping)

I stumbled upon a book by Iris Murdoch. "The Sovereignty of Good." From when I actually had free time to read philosophy books for fun. I started reading bits and pieces (parts I earmarked for whatever reason). What I find interesting (from a snippets I read today) is her specific identification of the concept of 'Love' as a philosophical entity. She mentions that many philosophers deter from the concept of 'love' as containing any notions of morality. Now that I think about it, she has a point. She mentions Kant and Plato - from what I have read of Kant, love isn't a focus of morality. And from Plato's Symposium, love is depicted not as a moral stronghold but more a form of weakness.

Some things Murdoch writes about this topic:

Love is the general name of the quality of attachment and it is capable of infinite degradation and is the source of our greatest errors; but when it is even partially refined it is the energy and passion of the soul in its search for Good, the force that joins us to Good and joins us to the world through Good. Its existence is the unmistakable sign that we are spiritual creatures, attracted by excellence and made for the Good.

Goodness is connected with the acceptance of real death and real chance and real transience and only against the background of this acceptance, which is psychologically so difficult, can we understand the full extent of what virtue is like. The acceptance of death is an acceptance of our own nothingness which is an automatic spur to our concern with what is not ourselves...Humility is a rare virtue and an unfashionable one and one which is often hard to discern. Only rarely does one meet somebody in whom it positively shines, in whom one apprehends with amazement the absence of the anxious avaricious tentacles of the self. In fact any other name for Good must be a partial name; but names of virtues suggest directions of thought, and this direction seems to me a better one than that suggested by more popular concepts such as freedom and courage. The humble man because he sees himself as nothing, can see other things as they are. He sees the pointlessness of virtue and its unique value and the endless extent of its demand...The humble man perceives the distance between suffering and death. And although he is not by definition the good man perhaps he is the kind of man who is most likely of all to become good.

When I first read some of these lines from Murdoch, I got some sort of religious feeling out of them. But they really aren't religious at all. Murdoch does devote a whole chapter to differentiating 'Good' and 'God.' She does propound many moral/ethical ideals that organized religion devotes itself to, but spirituality and 'Good' are universal entities that do not inherently have ties to religion - those fetters are mere social constructs formulated by centuries of the anxiety that is inherent in human existence.

She articulates, far better than I could ever do, what I think all people should strive toward: becoming 'good,' which necessitates, according to Murdoch, the refinement of love. What does it mean to 'refine' love, and how would one go about doing so? Earlier on in her work she mentions how this 'refinement' can occur, I think.

She writes,

We ought to know what we are doing. We should aim at total knowledge of our situation and a clear conceptualization of all our possibilities. Thought and intention must be directed towards definite overt issues or else they are merely day-dream.

I like the active-stance that she takes with regard to philosophy. Although I'm iffy on the idea of attaining 'total' knowledge, even of our own situations, it is what should be aimed for. Although she doesn't directly relate these two ideas (refining love and a consciousness of our situation), I think ultimately, if one were to refine love and thereby attain 'goodness,' one must gain complete consciousness of one's situation, and not only that, but be able to remove that newfound consciousness from the notion of 'self' in order to even have the possibility of understanding or becoming 'good.'

Re-reading Murdoch always produces different feelings depending on where I am in 'life' I guess. I read her first in early 2006, and then again n 2007, and now, approaching 2009, and every time, I was able to apply her words differently to whatever current state of being I was experiencing. I guess right now, I'm thinking about what I want to accomplish in life. Beyond the nuances and the specificities of my goals and desires (career goals, etc.), ultimately, I want to come as close as I can to refining 'love' and becoming 'good.' Keeping that 'bigger picture' mentality is helpful at times, especially during perceived detours in life.

On a lighter note, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Letdown

2008-10-24T20:48:00.000-07:00

For Systems Bioengineering III, we have a course website where the professor posts notes, homework, solutions, and such. Our 1st midterm exam is quickly approaching (Monday). Yesterday, as we (students) logged on to check for updates, we saw that the professor had posted "Exam 1 solutions." We all eagerly clicked on the link, hoping that the professor (or the TAs) had unknowingly posted the solutions to the exam.

What we didn't know was that the link actually connected us to a "Rick Rolling" song on Youtube.

There is a few horribly atrocious things that a professor could do to students. And this is one of them. A sense of humor is not appreciated ... especially in our eternally fragile state.

What I personally didn't know was what "Rick Rolling" meant. Quite pathetic after so many (that is debatable) years in the US. *sigh* Perhaps I'll write a guidebook on vital knowledge for living in the US, and instead of the citizenship examination that immigrants have to take, they can just get a copy of that guidebook. It would be more helpful.

Free food

2008-10-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

Thus far, I have lived off free food, friends' food, and random food for the last 13 days. Let's see how many more days I can go without cooking for myself.

Free food sources:
- Meetings that I have attended
- Meetings that I have not attended, but afterwards taken advantage of
- Friends who cook
- Roommate's mother who is in town
- Food I find (in offices, kitchen counter, etc.)
- Random formal-looking campus wide functions

I predict 4 more days.

Third Failure, or First Success?

2008-09-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

As the USA approaches the upcoming presidential election, we wonder if this will be the third failure (putting a Republican in office for the third time in a row), or the first success in eight years.

Actually, more importantly, will I remember to update this blog? Being the third blog I have started (the first two have...somehow dissolved into this thing called the 'web'), it would be good (and self-assuring) if it becomes relatively sustainable.

On to a slightly off-topic, a professor I have gave us some insight into pythons and mailboxes (and the woes of aging):

Professor: As we (the elderly) get older, our hearing worsens. I was listening to the radio news the other day, and the host was talking about terrorism that was going on somewhere. All I heard was "There have been increased incidences of terrorists placing pythons in residential mailboxes." I could not, for the life of me, figure out why terrorists would be stuffing mailboxes with pythons. Or how. It's quite difficult to stuff a python into a mailbox. Even a commercial one. Well, what I found out was that these pythons were actually pipe bombs.

In the spirit of 9 days after Chinese Full Moon Festival, here's a toast!