Warning: graphic images of sick tonsils

Sometime in the near future I'll be posting a long, introspective and emotional reflection on my intense experiences at the public hospital. For now, though, I'm not in an introspective enough mood to do it justice. Today I was in the post-surgery unit. The patients were all super friendly, and mostly satisfied with the care they receive. One guy, an artist by profession who has FONASA A -- the most basic coverage that is completely free -- was super quick to say that he absolutely was satisfied with the care he received. Then he thought about it and added, "Well, when I was first admitted there was a shortage of beds so I had to spend a night in a chair. It was pretty cold. But the doctors are very nice."

In other news, my friend Reva has been getting some extra immersion in the public health of Chile. After visiting two doctors and being diagnosed and treated for both bronchitis and tonsilitis (or "amygdalitis" en espanol), she went through 3 weeks of antibiotics, discovered that the private doctors only take cash in this country (wtf?), and she's still left with tonsils that look like this:

Special shout-out to Dr. Gayla Zoghlin for helping us deal with this one via the internet and suggesting that this is, in fact, a serious needs-a-specialist kinda thing. Something about an abscess that might need to be drained (see the purple spot there?). Luckily for me, there are no privacy laws in this country, so while for Reva that means an annoying medical procedure, for me it means an awesome free show. Any bets on what color is going to come out??

And as Reva put it in her own words, "It always warms the heart to make someones blog because of your bacterially infested mouth." I'm so glad you all could share this with us.

Long update...Santiago, Pucon, and Volcano Pictures!

Before talking about Pucon, I just want to update you all quickly about Santiago. After two weeks I'm starting to get the feel of the city...I'm using the micros (buses) and the metro like a pro...at least around the streets I frequent...and during the daylight hours I've started talking walks (don't worry parents, only in the safe areas) to loose myself in the crowds and listen to the noises of the city. It's hard getting used to the pace of life here, though. Even when I'm just walking around for leisure, I always want to walk significantly faster than the Chilenos, and I get annoyed when I'm stuck behind them. My NYU friends (hi Sarah!) would probably drop dead here from the slow pace of the sidewalk traffic. After so much time in Boston and visiting NYC, I'm used to rapid-fire walking pace of American businesspeople and students. Now I get stuck behind men in fancy suits taking it really slooow as they walk back to the office from lunch, laughing and enjoying their cigarettes (everyone smokes here, sad news for the smog). I think we could definitely learn some from them, though. Why are we always in such a rush? Why not walk a little slower, let our heart rates settle and our anxiety subside for a few short minutes as we move from place to place? . . . this is why I'm a science major and not a philosopher, but you get what I'm saying, ya?


Anyway, on to PUCON:
I think the quote that embodies this trip came from Lauren M: "Where did you think we were going??" She said it several times...first when I wasn't sure I brought my bathing suit for the hot springs, then when I was shocked by the notion that we would need warm hats to wear during our hike, and again when I didn't have long underwear, and again when I didn't have gloves, etc. It's a lot of objects that don't seem to go together, of course I was confused!

To be fair, the last time I climbed a volcano, in Guatemala, it as really hot and there was no snow involved at all. I think I wore a tank top and shorts. I just didn't realize until the day before when they were fitting us for snow pants and ice picks and shoe clamp things that we were climbing a volcano that was completely covered in ice/snow. As in, a glacier. There's skiing in the later winter months. That kind of covered in snow. I was thinking like, a sprinkling of snow at the top. I don't know why...I could see from the town that the thing was huge and completely white, but I must have blocked it out somehow because the night before we hiked it I had to rush around finding a hat, scarf, sunglasses (there's no trees and the sun on the snow is inteeense). But I was prepared by the time the hiking began. We made it pretty far -- all the way to the cinder cone (about 5 hrs of hiking) but we didn't summit because Reva, who has bronchitis and was pretty stupid but brave for deciding to climb the volcano anyway, starting getting really sick. Going down was the best part (see pictures below).



And now, the volcano in pictures. I don't have pictures from the hot springs yet, but they were reeeally nice.


Anyone want to ski an active volcano? No thanks, we'd rather hike...(and the lifts don't open till July, which sucked because usually you don't have to hike this part, you just take the lift and start from there). It's about two extra hours of hiking.



Here's me, Reva, the other Lauren, Katie, Elizabeth, and our new friends from France and Brazil further up the volcano. Here is the remains of what used to be another chairlift...skiers don't go this high now unless they climb. It was destroyed in 1984 during the last eruption. Pretty cool, ya?



Here's Katie, me, and Lauren at the highest part we got to...you can see the cinder cone and the smoking hole. It was really cool. And cold. And exhausting! But the chocolate snacks we brought tasted ooooh so good. And then we got to climb back DOWN...



Did I say climb? I meant slide. It was AWESOME.


So that was Pucon! Now I'm back in Santiago, chilling at my house in Las Condes with the host fam. I had a quiz in my seminar today and tomorrow we have a quiz in our medical spanish class. Plus an essay due on Thursday. I think I'm going to try to compare FONASA (chilean public health insurance system) and Medicaid. I'm LOVING learning about the Chilean health system. It just fascinates me. Our professors keep saying that oh, Chile is just a developing country so of course we shouldn't expect such-and-such to be as good as it is in the US....or, the students are protesting because in developing countries, the education system isn't as good as in the US...etc, etc. It's hard to have our health and education systems with all of their many MANY problems put on such a pedestal. Everyone wants to know how it works in the US, and it's kind of sad when I have to burst their bubble by telling them that our health system fucks over a very, VERY large portion of the population on a regular basis. For example, a friend of mine from this program has a "pre-existing" heart condition, and because of it she can only get one kind of insurance in one state in the whole country, and so she can't move out of that state, and she has to pay an absurd amount of money for the coverage she does get. We're all created equal, but not equally healthy...so the insurance companies get to piss on the people who need them most. Because giving health care to the sick people would just make too much sense.

Ok, that turned into more of a rant than I intended but I'm too lazy to edit it, so enjoy! I'm going to go learn me some spanish. Adios!

- Lauren

Chillin' in Chile

This is going to be an entry mostly in pictures, because words can’t capture what I’ve been experiencing. This past weekend I traveled to Valparaiso and Isla Negra, which are costal cities an hour and a half or so from Santiago. At Isla Negra we saw Pablo Neruda’s favorite house. It’s incredible, and the views of the ocean are breathtaking. A picture’s worth a thousand words, so here you go. This is one of the many amazing views from his home. He also has a bunch of crazy collections in the house, of bizarre things from bugs to doorknobs.


We stayed the night at El Hostel Yoyo in Valparaiso. It’s a really colorful and lively place with guests from all over the world. I spent some time talking politics with people from France, Belgium, and the UK. It was a lot of fun. Here’s a picture of Kirsten and me by our beds at the hostel. Kirsten is my awesome new friend. She's staying in Santiago for 6 months, doing a semester after the summer program...I'm so jealous! Anyway, Valparaiso is a great city, built right into a bunch of crazy hills. Some of the parts of the city you have to take acendores (kind of like weird elevators built into the mountains) to get to the streets. Some were built in the 19th century, so they are awesome but creepy.




Finally, today we were back in Santiago and we decided to go to Cerro Santa Lucia, a beautiful hill that was turned into a park, with stairs and buildings leading up to a beautiful view. Here’s a few pictures of the trip up and the view from the top (note the mountains in the background!):



Anyway, other than all of that I've just been spending time exploring the city. I love it here so much. There's always new sights to see and places to go, and I haven't even left the metro red line yet... Santiago is a lot like an American city, but with lots of quirks that are purely Latin American. I do have to admit, however, that I am currently in Starbucks. I try to stick to the more authentic spaces but nothing else was open this late. Besides, it came with recommendations from my host sister.

Adios amigos! Thanks for the comments and emails.

- Lauren

After 2 days of orientation....

I've learned so much in just 2 days, mostly from talking with my host family but also in the culture/language classes. Mostly about communication...they aren't supposed to speak any english at all with me, even if they can (I think the papa does, but he won't admit it). I understand most of the time when they direct a question towards me and talk slower, but when they talk amongst themselves I get pretty lost. It's so strange to feel this sense of removal from my surroundings. I think it's a good experience, though, because it forces me to be more aware of myself, and to pay more attention to body language and facial expressions.

Anyway, today it rained. That's not a sufficient word for it. It RAINED. The streets turned into a river, I was soaked up to my knees, everytime a bus went by it sprayed water in my face. So of course today was the day that we were doing most of our orientation outside. We did an activity where we split into groups of three, and they gave us a location and an address and we had to use the public transportation to find it, and then explore the place we were given to answer some questions. My group went to Pueblito Los Dominicos (http://www.pueblitolosdominicos.com/). It was amazing, and we didn't even get lost finding it. The metro here is awesome, it's cleaner than the T, and really safe and efficient. I have to take it every day to get to classes, which I really enjoy. Of course, like a lot of cities, Santiago is very segregated and I haven't left the wealthy areas yet. We're going to later, to do a comparison of the public and private hospitals. I've heard it's a real eye-opening experience. Speaking of which, there's a ton of protests going on right now about the educational system. According to AP, "The protesters insist that an education bill sent to Congress by President Michelle Bachelet fails to meet their demand for greater national control over education and for free public transportation. Students currently pay one-third of the full fare." Don't worry, parents, I'm staying far away from it...the police here use tear gas, and I think over 200 students have been arrested.

In lighter news, I'm loving learning all the silly Chilenismos that they have here. My favorite is "pololo/polola" (boyfriend/girlfriend). Also, they say "guagua" for baby, which is funny because in other countries, "guagua" means bus. Part of my homework is to go over a few Chilenismos and typical foods and drinks (the alcoholic kind) with my family. It was a ton of fun. Tonight my host mom had her mother, cousin and niece all over. Along with the usual crowd that lives here we had a mini party with delicious cheese and ceviche, and my host mama provided practical examples of some of the drinks...so everyone had a good time with my homework.

OK, I think that's all for right now. Hopefully tomorrow it'll stop raining. I've heard that after it rains, the smog lifts and you can finally see the mountains clearly. I caught a glimpse today and it was breathtaking.

Much love to everyone!

- Lauren

Mi Familia Chilena

Hi again!

I survived my first day in Chile. Santiago is a great city from what I’ve seen so far. It’s industrial and modern, but also has cool colonial buildings in the mix. The people are friendly…I got a kiss on the right cheek from every member of my host family as I was introduced. The only thing that I don’t like about the city is the smog…Santiago is surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges, but I can’t see them except on very rare occasion when the smog lifts. It’s also sort of depressing to never be able to see the sky. When we were flying in it was literally like we were entering some kind of hidden land below the mountains magically tucked away from all view by this dense layer of opaque cloudy grossness. (Actually, from the sky it kinda looked pretty…)

I haven’t had classes yet, just spent the day chilling out with my host mom mostly. Right now we’re watching the news. There is really no escaping the democratic primary, but at least here they spend significant time on other things also. We just got back from the supermarket (the largest supermarket I have ever seen in my life…think bigger than Costco) where my host mother got me the most delicious ice cream (helado) I have ever tasted. It was mango-y and creamy and just general deliciousness.

My whole host family is really great. The father is an engineer and the mother is a businesswoman who paints and makes jewelry. They live in a Las Condes, the financial district of Santiago. The house is small, but cozy. There’s no central heating, though, which is the only real adjustment I’ve had to make. But there’s wifi so I might as well be in host family heaven. My host mother (Mary) also introduced me to this really weird but delicious drink called Ecco. It’s sort of like really watery coffee, but it’s made out of barley or something like that. Very weird, but tasty if you cover it in sugar and milk.

OK, a little about the family now. Mary and Bernardo have three children: a son named Erick who is an engineer, a daughter named Edda who is a biology professor (we get along really well, clearly) and another daughter named Lena who I haven’t met yet because she’s getting married soon so she’s always over at her novio’s house. Mary’s mother is living here right now, too. She and Mary are both really funny and quirky women. We have a lot of fun together…and there’re only laughing at me most of the time.

Since I slept through most of the day, that’s all I have to comment on right now. More to come later!