Pretty Southern

Tag: Chelsea Cook

  • Our Southern Girl in South America

    Chi-chi-chi-le-le-le- Universidad de Chile! It was my first South American fútbol match, nay my first professional soccer match ever, and I was trying my best to keep up with the chanting. I read up on the top Premier League goalscorers of all time. For an authentic experience like a true fan I studied football news at https://footballaustralia.info to keep up with the game. At first I was a little homesick as I thought about my constantly cleat-clad stepbrothers the whole time.

    But this game was one of the wildest, cultural experiences I’ve had so far in Chile. The fans of each team sing different songs throughout the entirety of the game. Although I tried so hard to learn the words of the jumbled Chilean screaming and singing, I could only join in for the more simple songs. To be completely honest, I was nervous about entering the stadium. I had heard a few horror stories of gringos getting harassed by rowdy fans, and my blonde hair isn’t exactly inconspicuous. Although it was a bit of a hectic, crowded squeeze, it was nothing compared to my daily 8 a.m. metro commute.

    Once we found some seats in the galeria (a.k.a. the cheap seats) the fans sitting around us were very warm and jovial. There were several children seated on their parents’ laps and shoulders, wearing a flag as a cape or singing the chants along with their siblings.

    Even Universidad de Chile’s younger fans know the words to the several different songs and chants during the game.

    This sounds really campy, but this is really the only reason I like sporting events: there exists this familial camaraderie between strangers that doesn’t exist in the streets and in the subways. I’ve experienced this multiple times at my 90,000-seat SEC alma mater football (not fútbol) stadium, but there was something about the singing that made this experience… meaningful. Here was a five-year-old bundled up in a Cinderella overcoat, a 13-year-old with braces, a 35-year-old man with long hair and back tattoos, and an elderly man with tan, leather skin and white hair, all singing the same song and whistling. It was as if that old man was once the five-year-old, and they have grown up in this culture that worships this sport all their lives.

    The sun sets over the Universidad de Chile vs. Bernard O’Higgins fútbol match at Estadio Naciona.

    Lying below the surface of this camaraderie, it’s important to mention Estadio Nacional’s tragic past. In 1973, the arena was used as a torture center for the military dictatorship under the infamous Augusto Pinochet. The transformation of the structure into a fútbol arena is a tangible testament to how Chile has been able to recover from this horrible chapter in her life.

    1973 was not that long ago, so many people in this city still speak about family members who were murdered or went missing. Many still don’t know what happened to them. Evidence and inscriptions by these family members are carved and written on parts of the stadium: a reminder that although victory after victory has been celebrated in this space, loss hasn’t been completely healed and forgotten. That Saturday may live to be one of my favorite days of our journey. I am actively accomplishing my primary goals and purposes of this trip: I am seeing new things, speaking a new language and even learning a few new songs to sing.

    [author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ChelseaCook.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Chelsea Cook is a journalist from Atlanta teaching English in Santiago, Chile. Check back each week to PrettySouthern for more of Chelsea’s adventures South of the Equator.[/author_info] [/author]

  • Our Southern Girl in South America

    This Fourth of July weekend, I had a lot of cheese. OK, not real cheese, because if you’ve ever been to South America, you’d know they haven’t mastered the art of cheese yet. I’m talking about sentimental cheese; standing in the middle of a crowded house party discussing how great America is kind-of-cheese.

    As an English teacher, it’s been pretty easy to make other American, English-teacher friends. Isn’t it funny? I came here to submerge myself in a foreign culture, yet I yearn to speak my own language with other natives. This was one of those occasions. A friend of mine from Houston decided that since Chile wouldn’t be recognizing July 4, and we would all surely be homesick this weekend, he would throw a party at his tiny 15th floor apartment. Our job was to bring a “very American” dish to share.

    As you can imagine, there was a lot of meat: homemade corn dogs, chicken wings, ribs and Carolina barbecue. I brought a cake in the shape of an American flag, with blueberries as the stars and strawberries as the stripes. When it was time for the cake, everyone hushed their chatter and wiped their meaty mouths. My Texan host made quite a scene of this cake. I was blushing.

    Hundreds of thousands of Chileans and tourists flocked to Santiago for Lollapalooza Chile to see such American acts as Kanye West, The Flaming Lips and The Killers. Also note the Coca-Cola sign in Spanish at the concert.

    Next thing I know, I was standing in the middle of an apartment in Santiago, Chile, belting out the lyrics and high notes to the star-spangled banner with 40 other English teachers. It was loud, it was off-pitch, it was probably a little obnoxious for his neighbors, but it was the most American I’ve felt in awhile.

    In all seriousness, one of the most important things I’ve gathered from this journey is a greater appreciation of home. Not just because it’s what I’m used to.

    Yes, I miss the convenience of Target and Jewish bagel delis, but more than anything, I am so grateful that I get to call myself a citizen of a country that most other countries are striving to be. Although Chile stays true to its Latin American roots, the fashion, music, pop culture, and even architecture are all trying to be chameleons of American style.

    A stark contrast between old Italian and new American-style architecture in historical Plaza de Armas.

    Amidst the incredible amount of change Chile has experienced in the last 40 years, there are still many aspects of Chilean society that remind me how lucky I am to be a “gringo”. One of the issues that students are protesting now is their right to free education. Upward mobility is nearly impossible in Chile, because students who go to public schools and universities typically don’t get hired into high-paying positions. It’s a relentless cycle that, in the United States, would never be tolerated.

    I saw no fireworks this weekend. They are illegal here. I wasn’t on a boat in a lake in North Georgia, and I didn’t get to eat a slice of watermelon. This is my first Fourth of July that I’ve spent away from home. But to my surprise, it was also my most meaningful.

    [author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ChelseaCook.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Chelsea Cook is a journalist from Atlanta teaching English in Santiago, Chile. Check back each week to PrettySouthern for more of Chelsea’s adventures South of the Equator.[/author_info] [/author]

  • Our Southern Girl in South America

    My mother called me a bird. Last December, 18 days after I graduated college, I flew south for winter to sweaty Santiago, Chile, where the seasons are reversed and summer was just beginning.

    But warm weather wasn’t the purpose of my journey. It’s winter now (in late June) and thankfully my intentions and ideas have panned out. I’ve worked a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language)- certified English teacher for almost six months now, and my Spanish skills have finally progressed beyond speaking in the present tense.

    The actual distance is the strangest thing. There are times I’ve stood on the coast, with my ankles in the freezing Pacific Ocean, staring up and imagining where I am, envisioning myself as a dot on globe, almost 5,000 miles away from home. Like many Southerners, my friends are also my family and detaching myself from them was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. How the inventors of Skype haven’t won a Nobel prize is beyond me as it is the best invention of the 21st century.

    But rarely do I feel lonely. I was thrilled to discover that Chileans believe in the same Southern hospitality we’re accustomed to back home. It is quite common to meet someone at a bar one night then have them invite you over for dinner the next. Encounters on the street don’t stop at, “Hi, How are you?” but “Where are you going? And, how is your mother?” Every taxi driver, server, bank teller and grocery-store check out girl is fascinated with my reasons for coming here. They are also incredibly eager to use any knowledge of English that they have. Either that, or my Spanish is so bad that they’re choosing to use English.

    Chile is 70 percent Roman Catholic and colorful reminders line the sidewalks and corners of the beautiful ancient churches in Santiago.

    Chile’s enterprises have a great need for learning English to further interactions with the U.S. and the U.K. This is why teaching English is such a lucrative opportunity. However, everyday citizens have very little need, so knowing and using Spanish is much more of a necessity than I imagined. This demand alone has improved my vocabulary, but I’ve had just as many slip ups as success stories.

    One night, a Chilean acquaintance invited my boyfriend and I over for dinner at his apartment. He has one of the most incredible views in the city – endless urban lights, surrounded by the Andes mountains – so, language insecurities aside, we accepted the invitation. As the evening progressed, several more of their Chilean friends arrived, and with them, bottles of Cabernet and Carmenere, Chile’s vino specialties. At one point, I dropped my wine glass, spilling the wine and breaking the glass.

    In an attempt to apologize to our neighbor, I stood up and said, in Spanish,  “I am so embarrassed.” Well it turns out, the word for “embarrassed” (embarazoso) and “preganant” (embarazada) are extremely similar. So I actually said, “I am so pregnant.” Without a beat, and in perfect English, one of their friends replied, “Well, then you shouldn’t be drinking!”

    Yes, it was a laugh at my expense. But it was also one of my favorite memories of this trip so far. Join me as I attempt to put into words my experience of living in Chile’s southernmost nation as a girl from the South. I’ve already taught several of my students how to use “y’all”, and I’m not stopping there.

    [author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ChelseaCook.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Chelsea Cook is a journalist from Atlanta teaching English in Santiago, Chile. Check back each week to PrettySouthern for more of Chelsea’s adventures South of the Equator.[/author_info] [/author]