Chile 101

(left The Free Willy Society deep in thought: Pawel, Kamila, Margaret, Matita, and Anna during a riveting Common Seminar)

Santiago, Chile--

I first arrived on Chilean ground on March 28, 2007. My purpose was to write my doctoral dissertation in Philosophy at the new home of the International Academy of Philosophy at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Three weeks from today, I will be leaving to return to the United States and start a new job and life in the San Francisco Bay Area. The dissertation is in progress but far from finished. While I may have missed my personally established deadline, I'm happy to have a reason to come back for my dissertation defense and final exam. I have only touched the tip of the iceberg with respect to discovering what Chile has to offer, and knowing I will one day come back makes it a lot easier to leave.

While Chile will always have a special place in my heart, I am so totally ready to get the heck out of here! Let me tell you why: I am primarily a city girl, and unfortunately, the city in which I live (Santiago, the only real city in Chile) lacks precisely that one thing that I love about urban-dwelling: vitality. I am half-dead in Santiago. Maybe it has something to do with the pollution and resulting lack of oxygen in the air. My asthma has never been worse. Maybe it's the cold. Few places have central heating. I suffocate and shiver all winter long. And winter is LONG. Santiago is a city that more or less functions well. Services are readily available, traffic is manageable, public transportation is generally reliable. But it is a city that does not smile. I have often thought that the reason its pedestrians walk so SLOWLY is because they bear the weight of some unseen burden on their collective shoulders. (Then again, it could be that they are just oxygen-deprived and frozen, like me.)

On the positive side, even this city-lover will acknowledge that Chile may very well be the most beautiful country in the world in terms of natural beauty. It has everything: mountains, deserts, 'altiplano', lakes, volcanoes, rivers, islands, and sea, sea, and sea...I have seen only a fraction of what the country has to offer, but this fraction has left me breathless...the rough shores of Isla Negra, the unique foliage of Araucania and the Lake District, the amazing Antofagasta sunset, the moonscape of the valleys of the Atacama desert, the eerie loveliness of the island of Chiloe, the snow-capped grandeur of the Andes...everywhere, the Andes...the beauty of this country is engraved in my memory.

So, come to Chile! Just don't come looking for a party or a gastronomic adventure. Come to see what God can make when He really wants to show off.