Alethea D Eason's Blog
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Jun.28.2009
Leaving Mexican Twirlers (for lack of a better term) on a summer day in Valparaiso celebrating Mexican culture and the amistad entre Chile y Mexico.
Three weeks left to live in Chile. I haven't written as teaching and editing has taken most of my time and energy, but before I go I do want...
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Apr.12.2009
I'm writing as the sun is beginning to get low. A slow afternoon of not much going on. For lunch, we had salmon bought right from the fishmonger. One of them once told Bill he could come to her kitchen and cook anytime. I shared a bottle of wine with Bill. We rarely drink a whole bottle, but...
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Apr.04.2009
Last night we decided to take the coastal route on the bus ride home from Vina del Mar. We got off far enough from the steps that lead up to our house for a chance to walk along the breakwater. The tide was high and waves splashed over the rocks, their last wisps directly below us. The moon lit...
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Mar.24.2009
Sandra and Alberto, my neighbors, had their stolen car returned to them by the Carabineros, the official state police of Chile. Unfortunately, the stereo, the ignition, several personal items and some alarms that Alberto uses in his security business (irony, here) were taken, and the windows were...
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Mar.22.2009
Our neighbors, a woman with a bad back, a self-proclaimed black sheep of a well-known and wealthy family (they own one of the largest banks), and an old friend who just moved in with her, have called the Carabineros twice today. The first time was because of their stolen car. At 3 a.m., my...
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Mar.21.2009
The last day of summer here in Concon has been foggy and cold. We went to Vina today to eat at our favorite little restaurant (soup, pork and rice for 1,200 pesos, just a bit over 2 dollars a piece) and people were dressed in their winter sweaters and hats, with bufandas wrapped snugly around...
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Mar.18.2009
I´m taking a minute to write before I have to start teaching. Writing and teaching go hand in hand in many ways, but unfortunately TIME to write becomes an issue. My writing time at night is filled with correcting papers and reading the literature selections I have to teach. This especially...
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Feb.21.2009
We missed the UFO that flew over San Pedro de Atacama, a small village that not long ago had no electricity and was as far away from the modern world as you could imagine. It is now the most expensive place in South America to live, a mecca for tourists coming or going into Chile from Bolivia and...
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Feb.18.2009
Traditional Dancer from Los Diablos, Dancing Fraternity from BoliviaWe hadn't planned on going to Arica when we left home, but in Iquique we decided to go as far north as time allowed. It took five hours on the bus, a snap after our other marathon rides, while we passed more behemoth mines and an...
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Feb.16.2009
Festival Danza America Iquique/Chilean Folklorico- Polynesian Dance
Seven hours to La Serena, twelve to Antofagasta, and another eight to Iquique, all through exquisitely stark desert. In Copiapo, a large town which is a base for mining, I stepped off the bus to ask how long we'd be there....
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Feb.14.2009
Lonely Planet says there's not much to see as you travel through the desert between La Serena and Antofagasta, suggesting that a night bus is a good idea. The guidebook can be helpful but is so wrong on this account. The entire trip was fascinating as the vastness of the Atacama Desert, the driest...
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Jan.31.2009
El Oso, Puñihuil
A beautiful woman emerges from the sea. Fishermen who catch sight of la Pincoyo as she dances along the rocks are snared by her long hair, but she also saves Chilotes from drowning if their boat capsizes. El Picoy, her husband, summons her from the rocky shoreline to dance in a...
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Jan.29.2009
We swore off Chilean pastry in Puerto Varas. We'd had the good experience of finding a decent cake in Valdivia, but this was rare. We've had delicious meals at the homes of friends, but restaurant cuisine in general (except for the places my husband calls "working man cafes" that serve up...
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Jan.28.2009
This is our dear friend Pamela leaving Vina del Mar last year for what she thought would be a job as a nanny in Santiago. First she went home to the Lake Region in southern Chile to spend a month or so with her family, but now she's decided to stay, attend preuniversario and then marticulate to...
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Jan.27.2009
Valdivia I love Valdivia. It reminds me of Arcata, California with its university feel and clapboard houses. But it also feels like Seattle, though it's not right on the sea. The commercial and university areas are divided by the sapphire blue band of the Rio Valdivia. Streets are wide. The town...
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About Alethea
Alethea Eason is a writer, teacher, and free-lance editor.
Heron’s Path, a young adult fantasy novel, published by Spectacle Media Publishing Group as an eBook, will be available through Amazon in March, 2012. Set in an alternative universe of northern...
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Alethea’s Favorite Books
More often than not, the one I´m reading.
But:
The Land of the Grasshopper Song,
Bel Canto, Frog and Toad are Friends, anything by Connie Willis