Fotos del Norte

Huge picture post, as promised. Stay tuned for a detailed account of yesterday's ridiculous biking/hitchhiking/snow adventure.

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Gateway to the North.

Dramatic back-to-back camera pose at the VLT.

The VLT as seen from below.

You haven't seen a telescope enclosure until you've visited Paranal.

Lifting a "Hollywood rock" from Quantum of Solace. Or Bijan is much stronger than he looks.

Haunted train station. I wish.

The Milky Way from San Pedro. See tree in lower right for scale. Photo courtesy of Joey Brink.

A praying dinosaur, according to Professor Maza. Somehow I doubt the native people knew about dinosaurs.

Sand dune and light circles for dramatic effect.

Llama.

Dan searching for brine shrimp (a.k.a. Artemia salina) (a.k.a. sea monkeys).

Picturesque. But much much much colder than it looks.

Alpaca wool loom at an artisan shop in San Pedro.

Warning: children here lose their balls easily.

I guess obscene graffiti is pretty ubiquitous after all.

Silhouette of the 4 m telescope at Cerro Tololo. And a smiley moon.

Spelling out "Yale" in front of the Yale telescope. Aren't we clever?

Long exposure photography of the sky from inside a dome. Photo courtesy of Joey Brink (again).

Alma Libre

First update in a week. I haven't actually been slacking--though I admittedly haven't done any real work in a while either. My housemates (program-mates?) and I have been on a midterm excursion of sorts to northern Chile since Saturday, and the internet access has been spotty at best until now. Here's a summary of the trip to date:

Touring this part of the country has been quite an experience, from both the cultural and the astronomical point of view. We flew into Antofagasta and, after a quick stop at an enormous sea arch called La Portada, drove down to the aptly (and very creatively) named Very Large Telescope (VLT) on Cerro Paranal in the middle of the Atacama desert. Operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the VLT is composed of four 8.2 m optical telescopes at an altitude of 2,600 m and is one of the most powerful ground-based research telescopes in the world. It was an awesome privilege to be able to tour the facilities and see the telescopes up close, especially since I may end up working at the VLT at some point in my life.

Incidentally, the Atacama desert is the driest desert in the world and was used for the filming of the desert scenes in James Bond: Quantum of Solace. Not that we recognized any landmarks in the barren nothingness.

One anecdote worth mentioning from the VLT trip. A large group of high school girls from Colegio Antofagasta happened to be touring at the same time as us, and while we tried not to pay attention to them at first, this proved to be more and more difficult as they started to take photos of us and laugh as they passed by. By chance, we ended up in the same building later, and they started asking us about ourselves in broken English. Of course, we tried to respond in our broken Spanish, and after a bit of dialogue, they began asking for photos with Victor, Joey, and me (the three tallest guys in the group). That wasn't even the strangest part though. Later, while our group was watching an educational video about the VLT, the girls came back and began demanding photos with--you guessed it--yours truly. I indulged them of course, but I was truly perplexed. Perhaps I was the first Asian they had seen in person? In any case, it was an interesting and humorous experience, but one that I would rather not repeat.

After Paranal, we passed through Calama and went straight to San Pedro de Atacama, a small town of a few thousand inhabitants at most. All of the buildings were made out of adobe bricks and straw, including the hotel where we stayed, and it pretty obvious that most of the town's income came from tourists visiting for the local trekking, archaeology, sandboarding, lagoons, and volcanoes. We stayed in San Pedro for a full two days while visiting local cultural sites, including salt flats, el Valle de la Luna, and villages even smaller than San Pedro with nothing but llamas and artisan shops. The most memorable experience, though, was the stargazing session that we held on the first night. All of the aspects that made San Pedro inconvenient during the day--high altitude, thin atmosphere, and lack of modern facilities--made it an amateur astronomer's paradise at night. In particular, the Milky Way, which looks like a pale whitish blob from even the clearest sites in the northern hemisphere, stood out like pure spilled milk on a pitch black piano. (Excuse me as I wax poetic.) It was quite possibly the most beautiful sight I have ever witnessed.

Today, we visited two large radio telescopes: the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), both located in the middle of the hellishly dry desert that is northern Chile. It was cool to see the radio antennas just because they were so enormous, but it was even cooler to talk to the astronomers from all over the world who work there and spend their entire lives solving the mysteries of the cool (temperature-wise) universe. They almost made millimeter and centimeter astronomy sound exciting. Except for the whole altitude sickness at 5000 m part.

Anyway, if you've read this far, congratulations. The internet at this hotel is not permitting any image uploads, but I promise many pretty pictures with my next update. Bye bye!

Relief

I altered my blog design because the old white on black color scheme was hurting my eyes (and everyone else's, I'm sure). I'm not too happy with the lack of borders in the sidebar, but I'll tweak that later.

Stand by for a real post shortly.

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Okay, so this has nothing to do with astronomy or Santiago, but today I discovered that the song "Awakening" by Switchfoot is simply amazing. The music video is well-crafted and original, and the lyrics resonate with me at overtones that I rarely, if ever, experience. Please enjoy.



Switchfoot - "Awakening"

Face down with the L.A. curbside
Ending in the ones and zeros
Downtown was the perfect place to hide
The first star that I saw last night was a headlight
Of a man-made sky but
Man-made never made our dreams collide, collide

Here we are now with falling sky and the rain
We're awakening
Here we are now with the desperate youth and the pain
We're awakening
Maybe it's called ambition
You've been talking in your sleep about a dream
We're awakening

Last week saw me living for nothing but deadlines
With my deadbeat sky but
This town doesn't look the same tonight
These dreams started singing to me out of nowhere
And in all my life
I don't know that I've ever felt so alive, alive

Here we are now with falling sky and the rain
We're awakening
Here we are now with the desperate youth and pain
We're awakening
Maybe it's called ambition
But you've been talking in your sleep about a dream
We're awakening

I want to wake up kicking and screaming
I want to wake up kicking and screaming
I want to know that my heart's still beating
It's beating, I'm bleeding
I want to wake up kicking and screaming (I want to wake up)
I want to live like I know what I'm leaving (I want to wake up)
I want to know that my heart's still beating (I want to wake up)
It's beating, it's beating
It's beating, I'm bleeding

Here we are now with falling sky and the rain
We're awakening
Here we are now with the desperate youth and pain
We're awakening
Maybe it's called ambition
But you've been talk, talking in your sleep about a dream
We're awakening a dream
We're awakening, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Converse

A compelling scene: six US college students sitting in the living room of a house on the outskirts of Santiago on a quiet and cloudy Sunday afternoon--one playing the Sims, one watching anime, one playing the Sims and watching anime, one reading, one creating light curves, and one blogging while contemplating the subtleties of life.

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I've been wondering about the graffiti on the streets here--or specifically, about the people who draw the graffiti. They're not the gangbangers of Los Angeles. Graffiti here is an art form, a channel for expressing ideas and creating visual meaning however possible. The artists probably spend a solid hour or two on even the simplest images, not to mention the quasi-murals that span the walls of entire building complexes. Yet for the most part, local pedestrians pass by without so much as a second glance. A variety of questions come to my mind: Who are these artists? What drives them? Do they care that their work is largely unappreciated day in and day out? Perhaps more pertinently, are there aspects and people in my everyday life back in the States that I take for granted instead of esteeming as I properly should?

I suppose these thoughts reflect a recurring motif in my life, the transcience of sensory experience and personal interaction. I feel the same way in Santiago as I do in airports and train stations: since I probably won't see 99% of the people I meet ever again, I wish I could find out more about their characters, their motives, their aspirations, and their life stories. Unfortunately, I lack the time and confidence to do so, but I try to make it up by (occasionally awkwardly) capturing moments of their lives through photography.

Significance.

More significance.

Who are you, Mr. Plant Waterer?

A conversation that I will never catch.

I wonder if this man enjoys his solitude.

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Yesterday, we took a weekend trip down to Valparaíso, Chile's cultural capital and primary seaport. The city was simultaneously magnificent and quaint, distinctly Chilean but with an interesting European twist. We toured by bus, ate at an upscale seafood restaurant, and walked through one of Pablo Neruda's three houses before heading back to Santiago. It hit me while standing on Neruda's third-floor balcony that I had never looked out across the Pacific Ocean before from anywhere other than Southern California. It was a little like catching up with an old friend, but still a bittersweet reminder that I won't be back home for a long time.

Bird mobile or immobile birds?

No one is too old to play with doggies.

Wine tasting at a winery. Delicious, according to my housemates.

Port Valparaíso and haze.

Couple on the street. Staring at the camera. Oops again.

Probably oil vessels, but just maybe ships embarking on a fantastic voyage.

Random hobby #13891: searching for unintentional optical illusions.

O_o

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It's hard to describe the way I feel right now in words, but I think the lyrics below, from John Mayer's "Clarity," do a pretty good job.

I worry, I weigh three times my body
I worry, I throw my fear around
But this morning, there's a calm I can't explain
The rock candy's melted, only diamonds now remain

So long, until next time.

Not Quite Insomnia

It's already 3:00 am, but after an hour and a half of lying in bed attempting to turn off my disordered thoughts, I've decided that it might be more prudent to write them down instead.

Perhaps for obvious reasons, it seems that I become much more attuned to global issues when I go abroad. It happened when I was in Beijing for two months last summer, and it's happening again in Santiago, though in a more latent form since I don't have hours of mandatory conversation every day here. I've started to spend a lot of time on Google News and NY Times, reading stories about North Korea, the Air France crash, the Gunn High suicides, H1N1 flu, the Tian'anmen cover up, GM's bankruptcy, and other current events.

It's pretty depressing. In today's world, there is an overwhelming infatuation with money, success, appearances, and instant gratification, and while none of these are inherently bad, they leave little room for love, patience, and mutual understanding. Are we as a society really progressing when we're more concerned with the features of the new iPhone than we are with two American journalists being sentenced to twelve years of hard labor in a modern-day concentration camp? Is a celebrity's sexuality really that important? If a tragedy in another country, or even another state, doesn't affect us in any way, does that give us the right to completely disregard it?

(I think the answers are nope, nope, and nope.)

I have no point to make, no grand conclusion to draw from my observations. I'm an optimist, and while both religion and personal experience tell me that human beings as individuals are imperfect, I'll be the first to report when a news story restores a part of my faith in humanity.

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On a lighter and less spontaneous note, I'm gratifyingly but not unexpectedly starting to understand the nuances of living in Santiago. I find happiness in little things like figuring out that I have to pull on the front gate while turning the key, being able to get to a destination by subway without looking at a map, getting a feel for prices without converting to dollars, and successfully ordering lunch without having to ask the waiter to repeat himself. Cooking at home is also becoming easier, though I can't say that our meals are as healthy as they should be. All in all, life is pretty good.

Chico Moderno

I'm really sleepy right now. My age must be getting to me. Rawr.

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On Thursday, our first real day without class or lab, the seven of us went on an all-day city tour which we apparently paid for as part of our program fee. (I would have liked to know about that beforehand, but oh well.) I learned a lot about the history and landmarks of Santiago, but the best part, once again, was interacting with the locals and observing how they react to tourists. I hope I can actually have a meaningful conversation with them one of these days, but first I need to improve my Spanish speaking ability.

An important building. I don't remember which one though.

Love graffiti on the streets of Santiago.

I guess sometimes policemen have to text too.

These high school students thought it was hilarious that we were taking their photos.

Statue of the Virgin Mary on Cerro San Cristóbal. It's way bigger than it looks.

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Yesterday was cool because Madeline, Bijan, Joey, and I got to drive up to the observatory at night and use the big telescope there to look at, well, whatever Professor Maza told us we should look at. It was pretty exciting to see the Southern Cross, Alpha Centauri, and NGC 4755 (a globular cluster), since they're pretty important and none of them are visible from the Northern Hemisphere. We also looked at Saturn, though the atmosphere made the rings hard to resolve.

Back during high school, I used to spend hours every night standing outside with nothing but a pair of binoculars and Starry Night running on my laptop in nighttime mode. I'd search for stars and constellations and use the binoculars to look at smudges in the sky that I imagined to be beautiful nebulae and galaxies. It was during these stargazing sessions that I decided that I wanted to dedicate my life to understanding the workings of the universe. Obviously, I've remained on that path in college, but I need experiences like yesterday's--standing back and just enjoying the beauty of the heavens--to remind me of why I enjoy astronomy.

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I slept in today (Saturday) for the first time in a week, but the day ended up being super busy anyway. After cooking pancakes for ourselves, we took the bus and subway down to the Central Market, which is sort of like the Farmer's Market in LA but indoors and much much bigger. We bought a bunch of groceries for the upcoming week, including salmon filets and assorted fruits and vegetables (mangos!).

As soon as we got back home and put away the groceries, we had to head out again for a classical music concert at the Universidad de Chile, which I really enjoyed despite the fact that they ended the concert with a Romantic era piece. (No offense to any Romantic fans, but I just think Baroque and Classical are far more interesting to listen to. I'm sure we can all agree that Contemporary is terrible.) Afterwards, Cecilia left us to find dinner on our own, which we ended up eating at a nice seafood restaurant called Azul Profundo. It was yummy, but I'm not sure the taste to expense ratio merits returning. We'll see. I accompanied Daniel home after dinner, while the rest of my housemates went off searching for a bar or club. But they're back now and apparently they had quite an adventure. More on that later.

Poor delicious fishies.

We discovered a street stand that sells what we affectionately call "meat sticks." They're delicious.

Market workers cutting paper. I think.

This man ate his soup very defensively.

More market workers. The guy in yellow noticed that I was taking the photo a moment before I pressed the shutter. Oops.

Bijan drinking delicious milk tea.

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As expected, I've experienced several episodes of cultural shock during my first week in Chile. I suppose I'll end this entry with the two most interesting ones.

The first is the cheek kiss. You know, the whole thing where you touch your cheek to someone else's opposite cheek and make a kissing sound. (At least that's how it is with strangers. Apparently close friends and family members actually kiss the cheeks. *Shudder.*) I've seen it in movies that are set in Europe or South America, but I naively thought that nobody actually does it in real life. Well they do, and it freaked me out the first time it happened to me. Hopefully it'll become more second-nature as I adjust to life here.

The second is actually the opposite of cultural shock, in a way. The mall next to our house, Alto Las Condes, is such a perfect clone of American supermalls that I'm always a little disoriented when we visit. The brands, store names, and even some of the discount signs are in English, and the food court looks like it could have been lifted straight out of my mall back home (except that it has a movie screen and a couple Chilean restaurants as well). I understand other countries trying to replicate the success of American capitalism, but this is just taking it too far. I suppose that all I can do is to make sure that I experience true Chilean culture rather than languish in my comfort zone of familiarity through Alto Las Condes and the internet.

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Bedtime. Good night.

Variables and Vittles

I wasn't planning on updating until this weekend, but I think small, frequent posts are easier to digest than huge, infrequent ones. Also, I might as well update in my free time, which I may not have much of in the future, as it turns out.

I'm starting to get used to life abroad, at least to the extent that staying in a private house at the edge of Santiago with six other college students can be considered being "abroad." On Sunday, we went to Jumbo and, using money from a communal pot to which we each contributed $40,000 CLP (~$70 USD), bought what we considered to be enough groceries to last us a week. That night, we frustratingly discovered that another trip for at least as many groceries was in order. I really don't like going to Jumbo; it's enormous, crowded, and disorienting, not to mention pretty far away by foot. Live and learn, I suppose.

Dinner on Sunday night was pasta and wine. It turns out that three of us (including me) don't drink, but water is just as good in my humble opinion.

Dinner on Monday night was a personal creation of mine: chicken stew and dumplings. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture until we were nearly done.

Dinner on Tuesday night was instant pizza. Don't laugh, cooking from scratch is a lot more exhausting than you'd think.

We really like bread.

Fortunately, we don't have to make lunch on weekdays, since we eat at the observatory in a room called the "casino," which is sort of like a cafeteria but smaller and more like a regular dining room. Also, despite our initial grand plans for pancake and omelet breakfasts, mornings have devolved into cereal, fruits, and occasionally toast. It's hard to be motivated at 8:30 am.

In terms of academics, we have class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Lecture goes from 9:30 am to 11:00 am, then we get a brief coffee break before a T.A. review session from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm. Lunch goes from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm, after which we have a bit of free time, and we end the day with lab from 2:30 pm to 4:50 pm. It sort of feels like high school all over again, especially because of the early start, but at least I enjoy the material (for the most part). The one complaint I do have is that the information we've covered so far (e.g. distance scales, stellar parallax, and Newton's Laws) has been pretty basic, and mostly review from previous physics and astro classes. I suppose that's what I get for enrolling in a class numbered in the 200s after taking 300- and 400-level courses, but hopefully the material will pick up soon. In any case, the observing and data analysis are still completely new, so I'm willing to deal with a boring curriculum if I get to learn useful skills.

Main classroom building at the observatory.

One of the many telescopes at our disposal.

Celestial sphere diagrams or random circles and lines? I'm not quite sure.

Madeline and Denise in perfectly matching clothes. I like to think that it was unintentional.

Bijan working in our private room. They spoil us Yalies.

Not a particularly flattering photo of Santiago, but at least you know that I'm not in the middle of the boondocks.

Victor on a random children's swing that we found at the observatory.

The bus from the observatory back home can get pretty crowded.

A screenshot of our current project (creating a light curve for the variable star EH Librae). I'm going to be pretty darn good at Linux by the end of six weeks.

Possibly the best part of the day is being able to play with a random litter of puppies that a man at the observatory takes care of. They're mutts, and while I don't particularly enjoy being barked at by the unusually high number of stray mutts on the streets of Santiago, these puppies have not yet developed their aggresive instincts. And you know I'm a sucker for cute animals.

Aww look at those eyes.

"Play with me!"

One last point of interest. It appears that I either remember much more Spanish from high school than I expected, or have improved dramatically in the past four days, because I can follow most of the conversations that I hear between native speakers without consulting a dictionary or translator. Granted, my speaking is probably worse than a four-year-old's, but at least I know that I won't die if I get lost in the streets of the city one of these days. Yay?

Next update after our adventures this weekend, probably.