Chilling in Chile

Like the pun? It´s not very creative, I know.

Anyways, now that I have been here for about two months (I have finally lost track of exactly how long I have been here!), I thought I would post about the daily life to which I have become accustomed.

A typical morning starts like any other. When my alarm goes off, I ignore it for as long as possible, and then drag myself out of bed with the minimal amount of time required to get showered, dressed, and eat before I catch the bus to go to the university. My breakfast (practically) every morning consists of yogurt with granola mixed in, pancito (bread) with jam, and (instant) coffee.

Chilean breakfast

To get to the university, I catch one of the two busses that will take me to the metro. The micros (what the busses are called here) are usually pretty reliable, especially in the mornings when everyone is commuting, but the traffic can be unpredictable. In no traffic, I can be at the metro within 15 minutes. However, if the traffic is bad, it can take 30-40 minutes. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell which kind of day it will be, so I have to make sure I leave enough time in case it´s the latter. After I arrive at the metro station, I take Line 1, the red line, 10 stops (about 20 mins) to my university in downtown Santiago.

My university is called Universidad Alberto Hurtado, and like SLU, it is a Jesuit university. While at the university, I do the same types of things one would normally do at any university: Go to class, hang out and chat with friends, eat lunch, etc. One major difference between Chilean universities and US universities, however, is that no one lives on campus; everyone lives at home. My Chilean friends have been fascinated to hear that indeed US universities are more or less like what they see in movies, with all of the students living on their own on campus.

Cafeteria in the university

Courtyard of the university

After classes I will either grab lunch with friends, go to my service site in a neighborhood in the south of Santiago, or battle the evening rush hour on the metro, depending on the day. The evening rush hour is a horrifying thing to deal with. It lasts from about 5-8:30, and involves cramming as many people as possible into the metro cars, metro stations, and the micros. Personal space does not exist at this time. Even though I am used to it and know what to expect, I still hate when I have to leave school at that time.

After I get home in the evening, I will usually work on homework until my host mom comes home from work around 8:15. When she gets home, we either have dinner or "once", which is a snack type meal that consists of bread and tea. I love once, it is a great invention of the Chileans. It is best when we have just bought fresh marraquetas (french-bread like thing), and I make a sandwich with mashed up an avocado (Chile is the world´s second-largest producer of avocado and it is amazing) and cheese. I will probably try to recreate once back in the US.

So that is pretty much what a normal day looks like for me in Chile. Of course, no day is completely normal, so there are still plenty of surprises and variations :)