Last weekend C. and I traveled to Baltimore for an alumni reunion. His Chilean university Federico Santa María Technical University invited all of their alumni and faculty living in the U.S. to meet at John Hopkins to have dinner with the university president. It was a small meeting, only about 14 people. The group included several PhD students, some faculty, engineers, and at least one guy that worked at NASA.
Kissing all the professional people immediately upon meeting them was definitely weird. I know I will get used to it soon, but it somehow felt categorically different than meeting C.’s family or friends. Even though it was a a social situation it still was a little bizarre.
I made the faux pas of automatically using the informal tense when I met one of the faculty. My partner is the only one I speak with now, and it’s so easy for me to forget my formal tenses! I spent several minutes feeling embarrassed, but I’m pretty sure now that no one actually cared. When the meeting began the man to my left began introducing himself to the group and explaining his background and his work. He proposed that we go around the room and each introduce ourselves. Of course, he turns to me to start! I definitely didn’t feel ready to explain my research to the group, so I asked C. in Spanish, “Perhaps you can introduce me?” They were kind enough to compliment me on how I spoke that one sentence, and C. was able to explain my work in greater depth than I could.
Before dinner, we enjoyed 3 hours of power point slides updating us on the state of the university. It was information and Spanish-overload for me. I was exhausted by the end of it, but I can’t complain about more Spanish exposure. We learned about changes in admission, average test scores for incoming students, growth of different majors, name recognition rates, and were updated on every aspect of the university. Then, the heads of the alumni association for “ex-alumnos” in the U.S. suggested ways that their organization could connect better with the university. I was thankful that they had lots of figures and charts; I gained a new appreciation for the power graphics possess to cross language barriers.
I was very surprised to learn that the university is currently not offering classes because of the student protests. I knew that the protests were going on, but the full scale and impact had been lost on me. For some reason I assumed that a technical university would have been immune to the protests (because of some engineer student stereotype I must have?) and that classes would continue despite the disagreements. The most fascinating part was to hear the president speak about the negotiations with the head of the student body. Apparently the talks are very amicable and he’s empathetic; he too marched in student protests in his day. Yet, they don’t seem to be making much progress since students still aren’t attending school. I look forward to learning a lot more about the protests; I’ve seen some disparity in how different sources characterize the demands. Unsurprisingly, it has caused some issues with getting donations from alumni. Who wants to support a university that can’t get their students to attend?
After the meeting we crossed campus to a nice restaurant. Immediately all the engineers, including the university president, began reorganizing all of the tables and disassembling the projector screen in the room that we didn’t need. Many jokes were made about “how many Chilean engineers does it take to disassemble a projector screen?” The waitstaff walked in, slack-jawed to see the chaos of all the men moving the tables around and hitting the ceiling with the screen.
Dinner was phenomenal and delicious. There was a lot of advice for me – “watch out, Chileans will want to get you drunk for fun and you can’t taste the alcohol in Chilean drinks, especially the terremotos” (a drink that’s named earthquake for the famous Chilean earthquakes). When you ask for another, you ask for a replica or an aftershock. Many were envious that C. and I would be arriving just in time for the national holiday, which involves at least 5 days of the entire country partying dawn to dusk. We had intended to begin my visa process immediately upon arrival but it seems that the celebrations may delay any official paperwork until everyone is nursing massive hangovers the next week. I also was reminded of how much Chileans LOVE toasting to things. There were so many toasts made, including a toast for each organizer, a toast for “adopted” students (like myself), and even a separate toast for each major in the University.
At the end of the night I thanked the university president for dinner and he embraced me and said, Good luck, gringita. On our way back there was an unbelievable heat-lightning storm that lit the sky with the flickering intensity of a strobe light.
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The next day we had breakfast with the nice couple that let us stay at their apartment in Baltimore. We met them online through CouchSurfing. It was fun getting to know them and a treat to not have to pay for a hotel. We stayed right in the very heart of the historic district of Fell’s point with our kind hosts. We enjoyed walking along the water through the downtown, tasting the local hotdogs, and reading the Civil War information plaques. Perhaps the only drawback was their dog woke C. up in the morning by jumping all over him… an especially rude awakening for someone who hasn’t had much experience with dogs.
Sunday we went the the national aquarium, which was undoubtedly the highlight of the trip. C. had never visited an aquarium, and I certainly had never been to one so amazing. We saw a dolphin training session, a huge sea turtle up close, sharks, and a huge variety of beautiful aquatic creatures. We spent hours there looking at all the bright, colorful species and marveling at the diversity of our seas. It was beyond cool. We were like a pair of children, pointing things out to one another in amazement. I don’t think I’ve ever heard C. laugh as hard as when the dolphins waved to the audience and splashed everyone. The memory of his joyful belly-laugh still makes me smile.
The traffic on the way back was terrible, lasting 6 hours instead of 4, but we made it fun. It was definitely worth getting to have dinner with the UTFSM alumni and spending the day awestruck and giddy in the aquarium.
Pelo de choclo 