Weekend of Fiestas Patrias: La Serena

The day of Fiestas Patrias (Thursday) was celebrated with the Chinese family who owns the restaurant. We went to the park and had a fatty asado (BBQ), basically eating meat for 4 hours straight. What a unique experience, celebrating a super-Chilean holiday with Chinese people. Funny thing is, none of us could communicate with each other with one language. The Chinese people spoke Hakka among each other; I only speak Mandarin; Richard (another EAP/UCSD student) speaks only Cantonese; and among Cui Xia, Richard, and me, we were the only ones who spoke Spanish. Therefore, there was five languages going on during the entire asado. I come from a family who speaks 3 different dialects, so I was very used to this.

But after Thursday, I had no other plans. I was going to go to a rodeo with my boss, but he canceled on us, so it left me with an entire weekend free and bored. I had to do something or else I was going to die of boredom. So, I planned a trip to La Serena in a matter of 3 hours! I thought of a few people who might be interested in going (Christy and Richard, after I convinced him to drop his literature class in order to come haha), called them, went to buy bus tickets (which was a miracle I even found any since during the Fiestas Patrias holidays all of Chile is traveling somewhere), looked around for hostels (and magically found one since every other hostel I called was full full full), and finalized the plans.

Mind you, La Serena is not close to Santiago. It's about a 6 hour bus ride away, the same distance from LA to Norcal.

We left at 8 p.m. and we arrived at 2 in the morning. We slept in the hostel and the next day, hopped on another bus 2 hours away to go to Valle Elqui.

The trip seemed to be characterized by bus rides. But at least the views were pretty.

We arrived in Pisco Elqui, a small town renamed with "pisco" in its name to popularize the pisco vineyard there. Pisco is a type of alcohol made from a special type of grape. The trip to Pisco Elqui was a bust, in my opinion. The pisco vineyard started charging $4,000 mil (~US$8) for its tours...when it used to be free including a free pisco tasting afterwards. Just for reference, a bottle of pisco that was sold at the vineyard was cheaper than the tour. Total ripoff. I don't even like pisco that much.

We just made our own 5-minute tour. And on our way to Pisco Elqui, we met 3 French people who were on the same route as us, so we quickly became friends with JC, Stefanie, et Loudeau (sp??). I tried to throw in a few phrases en français the entire time but it really hurt my brain! I only speak survival French. :( Sadly, we didn't get a picture with them even though we spent the entire day together. They were so helpful as they took care of the trip planning, getting tickets, getting buses, getting taxis, the bargaining, and basically did everything for us. And over dinner at the restaurant Yo y Soledad in Vicuña, we got to talk French and American politics and culture over goat meat, salad, and tea (well, that's what I ate at least. Goat=yummers). And for dessert, I ate pisco sour ice cream. Yummm.

More views of Pisco Elqui. Tiny, tiny town with not much to do.

Then, 1 hour away from Pisco Elqui is the city of Vicuña, which hosts a really great observatory called Mamalluca. It was such a pain to get the tour reservation since we were all last-minute planners, but the Frenchies came to the rescue and talked with the tour office and got them to get a tour for us 6. To get the best views of stars, it needs to be super dark, so this was the only foto I managed to take that didn't come out all black. It was pretty much pitch black up on the hill, and I don't believe I've ever seen so many stars in my life. I even saw cloudy-looking things in the sky, which I learned were galaxies that I was looking at! We used a high-powered telescope and I saw Jupiter and its moons through the telescope and some other stars (whose significance I do not remember). The Mamalluca observatory is significant because of its prime location in South America. The views weren't possible in any other part of the world, which made me feel very privileged to be there experiencing the sky, as it really looks without light pollution, or pollution in general. Cough cough, Santiago. The tour ended at midnight and we took a very expensive taxi ride back (~$13/person). I tried to sweet talk the taxi driver, but it didn't work in lowering the price. Oh well. We said goodbye to the Frenchies and regretted not getting their phone numbers or Facebook or something. :(

The next day, we explored La Serena. According to Lonely Planet, I had thought this was a more exciting town, but it actually isn't...even the residents I talked to said one has to leave La Serena for fun. Such deception, Lonely Planet! I'm learning to not trust what they say anymore...

Anyway, La Serena has a beach. A beach that one can't swim in because of dangerous currents. Not very exciting. But there was a lighthouse. Sigh. I miss Lighthouse the church.

Then we ate at Daniela II, a seafood restaurant that has an English menu full of typos. Good thing I read Spanish, haha. I ate merluza, which is Chilean sea bass. I didn't know it was gonna be fried, so I ate around the fry batter. Above is pebre (think Chilean salsa). Yum.

Richard left La Serena for Santiago early, so it was just me and Christy. We explored La Serena and went to Mercado Recova. It was very touristy, I saw so many gringos, and the products sold were all about the same. Meh.

Then we went to the Japanese garden. Shout out to Moon Choi!

Can you figure out what the Japanese romanization is saying, Moo Moo?

The Japanese garden was tiny. Walking around the whole of it was probably less than a mile. The most entertaining was probably the ducks. The green ones, the baby ones. Yeah. Ducks.

Christy and I trying to look ecstatic to be in La Serena.

Thankfully, we talked to some locals to ask them what else there is to do in this fome (boring) town. We had heard on the streets of this Pampilla thing. People shouted it all over, it was written on buses, people waved us own and asked us if we were going to Pampilla. We asked locals, and found it was was this huuuuge and very famous fonda (Fiestas Patrias city-wide county fair-esque thing/party that takes place in cities all over Chile) that took place in Coquimbo, the next city over. We hopped on the next bus to get us out of La Serena!

Getting off the bus, this was what I saw. A huuuuuge gathering of people. Cars packed, major traffic, people all lined up to enter. Christy and I looked at each other and realized that this was where the party was at. Everything about this trip suddenly was worth it.

It was very Latin-American. It looked like it was a scene straight out of Tijuana. I had gone to another fonda earlier this week, but it was in a bougie part of Santiago (Las Condes) where the entrance fee was $8 (geez...) and everyone was upper class, and it was super clean and Illapu (a super famous Chilean band) played. This fonda, Pampilla, was much more down-to-earth and people came from all classes. It was lined with vendors selling pots, clothing, shoes, food, housewares, like a swap meet! Everyone squeezed against each other as there was barely any walking space. And the entrance fee was only $1. I again, was the only Asian in probably the entire fonda of thousands of people, so I got a lot of annoying comments throughout the evening. At the end of the night, I put my hood on to obscure my face so I wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb.

And I rode a horse for the first time! I see now why one needs balance. I felt like I was going to fall off. The huaso (Chilean cowboy) was very helpful and kind. And I think I committed treason by wearing my Argentina jacket during Chile's Fiestas Patrias. Oops.

And this random man was "performing" to try to get money. I started laughing when I saw him because he was so unimpressive. It looked like he took whatever he could find on the floor and just taped it on himself and danced around to get money. I don't think I'm too off in my guess. He wore a Chilean flag banner as a sash (probably hanging from the ceiling), grabbed some weeds and stuffed it in his shoe, and tied plastic bags to make a skirt.

And bathrooms were port-a-potties. 2 for $500?! What a deal! But after going 3 times, Christy and I realized that this port-a-potty deal was just getting too expensive...And we certainly didn't want to opt for the "VIP" baños and pay more.

Mmm, and fatty food like churros were sold.

This is the man behind the churro magic. Squeezing churro dough into a vat of boiling oil. He saw me and Christy and asked us where we were from. Christy told him the US. He believed Christy, but he didn't believe me. Quelle surprise. :(

I felt so patriotic after the singing of the Chilean national anthem followed by fireworks. This celebrating definitely beats out any 4th of July celebration. Chileans know how to party all week long.

And to close off the night, Mexican singer Pedro Fernandez performed! I didn't know who he was, but thankfully Christy knew him. Chileans went crazy for him. He was a really good performer, even if I don't like mariachi music. He played for more than 2 hours. I don't know where he got his energy, but my back was hurting like mad by 1.5 hours.

Just to get an idea of how huge the crowd was. Huuuuuge. And the last foto is a picture of a girl playing with her glowstick, and me playing with the light function on my camera. Yay. :) Okay, goodnight. This was a super long post to write!

Chinese food in Chile

Real Chinese food is impossible to come across. Sure, there are Chinese restaurants every 2 blocks scattered throughout Santiago, but all the food is severely lacking. Egg rolls taste like thick fried dough with salty cabbage pieces. Fried rice is white, dry, and crumbly. Mongolian beef does not have the salty-sweetness of soy sauce and sugar. Chow mein looks like stir-fried ramen noodles. You get the point. Sigh. The last time I had a real Chinese meal was from Momma Wu back in the US. :'( That was more than 2 months ago...

Until today.

I've talked about my Chinese-Chilean friend whose parents own 2 Chinese restaurants here. Her dad's restaurant is super close to my university campus, so after getting the address from her, I went there after class. I was greeted by a cute Chinese girl (Hua=Flower)and I explained to her I was a friend of Cui Xia's and I wanted to order something to go.

Me: What's good on this menu? I want authentic Chinese food.
Hua: If you want authentic Chinese, it'll probably be more authentic in the seafood section.
Me: (looking at how everything costs about $10...yikes.) How's the siu-mai?
Hua: Don't get it. It's really bad.
Me: Hmm (studies the menu for a long time).
Hua: If you want, you can eat lunch with us. The boss (Cui Xia's dad) will be coming in to cook for us in half an hour. He'll cook something authentic then.

An offer for authentic Chinese food?!?!? How can I refuse?

I took Hua up on her offer. I studied in the restaurant and waited for Cui Xia's dad to arrive. While waiting, I got to chat with a lot of the Chinese workers in the restaurant. One arrived in Chile just a few months ago so he barely knew any Spanish at all. I also chatted with one of the Chilean worker's 4-year-old daughter, who spoke "Barney" Spanish (as Lily Han calls it. Props to her, haha) so I understood everything she said! Haha!

Lunchtime was spent with Chinese people while the restaurant was closed for the afternoon! :) I ate with chopsticks and rice bowls. On the menu was tomato + egg stir fry, pork, and stir fried lettuce (which I believe would've been better with Napa cabbage, but I ain't gonna complain!). I was so excited to be eating this food I ate two bowls of white rice...pang tze indeed. My stomach and heart are extremely happy.

During lunch, they commented on how well I spoke Mandarin despite being American. They also commented on how I hold chopsticks incorrectly and offered me a fork :( I asked them about why they came to Chile, what it is like to own a business, being Hakka Chinese (a dialect my dad's side speaks, but I don't), and of course: Mao Tze Tung-- a crucial part of the Chinese imagination, regardless of whether one sees him as evil or good for China. They were surprised I knew about him cuz I'm so American, but I have Daddy and Mommy Wu to thank for drilling in my mind that he was an evil, repressive, Commie dictator.

They even invited me to hang out with their family during Fiestas Patrias, Chile's Independence Day (and the only day of the year they don't work...)! Furthermore, they said anytime I want to eat Chinese food, to just come to the restaurant during the afternoon and I can have an authentic Chinese lunch with them. I feel bad though for others who want real Chinese food but can't get it because they don't have the Chinese restaurant hookups. I feel like I have Chinese aunties and uncles here now. I should get them some fruits to thank them :)

Chile and how the world is Chinese.

Disclaimer: "Chinese" here is used to refer to people whose ancestry lies in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan (where I hail from), and others of the Chinese diaspora.

Ever since I arrived in Santiago, I noticed the vast amounts of Chinese restaurants on every street corner. I became friends with a 20-year old girl named Cui Xia who works with her family in one of the restaurants. I always try to hang out with her, but her schedule is so busy working for her family's restaurant that she never has time to.

But today for once we got to hang out. Although our lives' directions are different, with me studying in college and her working indefinitely in her family's restaurant, something very important allows our divergent lives to intersect: being Chinese. No kidding. We talked for 1.5 hours about being Chinese. This was no silly conversation about how cool it is to be Chinese nor about how much better Chinese culture is to others. Rather, it was about how we juggle being Chinese while being a Chilean or an American. Simply where our parents came from gave us a common bond, despite growing up in completely different environments. Her parents work 364 days a year, taking only a day off during Fiestas Patrias, the Chilean independence day. She wants to study and learn about things that interest her in university classes, but she cannot because her family needs help taking orders in Spanish because her parents and her brothers speak very little Spanish. Even though my parents don't own a restaurant, it's very similar how we relate with our parents because we are the children of Chinese immigrants, children of people whose lives were implanted in an unknown country with unfamiliar people and barely speak the language. Those who suffered a lot to simply make a living. They want us, their children, to marry within the same ethnicity, to not marry wai guo ren (non-Chinese people). We are Chinese, but not fully. She is Chilean, but not fully. Chileans have told her to go back to her country. I am American, but I can't relate with families of people whose parents have been in the U.S. for over 40 years or more. I am undeniably Chinese in many aspects of my thinking, my culture, and my family.

Even still, there are differences in our lives as well. The mere fact that I'm from the US is a very privileged thing, I realized. I have a world-class education at UC San Diego; I can speak English (and like a Valley girl at that); I get USA financial aid to pay for my schooling (and studying abroad); my parents were college-educated and pushed me my entire life to go to college and get a PhD, even if they were working their tails off at their business. Never did they make me put my education aside to work to help out the family. With Cui Xia, however, her parents discourage her from going to college because they need her to work work work. Education, practically speaking, is just not feasible for her and it's a luxury she cannot have. She said she hates working at the restaurant because she's so bored, but it would pain her if she had to see her mom work by herself while she were not working and in school. For many Chinese-Chileans it is a system they cannot get out of: to work everyday for the rest of their lives to help out their families' restaurants with really no end in sight. Hearing about this made me realized that my state in life is so privileged. I have the luxury of living on my own, picking any major I want, studying in Chile, and having time to spend it how I want to. My parents aren't rich, and I have my share of money problems, but in the grand scope of things, I am lacking in nothing. I am blessed beyond what I deserve.