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 :)

Valparaíso y Viña del Mar

Hello again friends and family!

I am sorry for the lack of posts for the last few weeks, but at the same time, I think it is a good sign that I have found myself otherwise occupied. Classes seem to be going smoother, at least for the most part. Certain things have still been a bit of a struggle, but I have made a few acquaintances/friends in my classes, and that has made it much easier.

Additionally, this past week of school was made easier by the fact that we had Thursday and Friday off. A three-day week followed by a four-day weekend really improves one's mood :) For the long weekend, my friends and I decided to take a short trip to the nearby city of Valparaíso. Our bus left Santiago around 9 am Friday morning, and we were in Valpo by 11.

Valparaíso is a port/coastal city that was of crucial maritime importance during the 19th century. The building of the Panama canal decreased the volume of commerce in the city significantly, but nevertheless, Valpo remains a prominent city for trade and the Chilean navy. It is a fairly large city, so two days didn't allow us to see a ton, but it is so close that we are certainly going to go back (especially once it is warm enough to actually swim in the ocean!)

Valparaíso

Valparaíso consists of many hills, all of which slope down to the sea. Unlike Santiago, where the streets are generally wide, paved, straight, and flat, the streets of Valpo are narrow, often cobblestone, twisting, and very very steep. We had quite the hike up to our hostel. However, the colorful buildings and street art made the climb worthwhile.

Typical street in Valpo

Our activities in Valpo consisted of wandering around looking for impressive views and murals, eating a delicious variety of food, seeking out fun "hole in the wall" type restaurants and bars, and, of course, the beach. On Saturday, we went over to the nearby town of Viña del Mar to check out its beaches and streets as well. Viña's beaches were great, but the town itself is mostly resorts and places that cater to tourists. As nice as it was, I preferred Valparaíso's more bohemian and down-to-
earth vibe.

                      

My friend Tiara and I at a restaurant called J. Cruz M. It served exactly one dish, the famous chorrillana (pictured below)

The beach in Viña del Mar

I really enjoyed getting to spend some time in another Chilean city because it allowed me to compare and contrast it with Santiago. As I already indicated when talking about the streets, Valpo was not nearly as methodically organized as Santiago. This was evident in other aspects of the city as well: all the people paid with change on the bus instead of the Bip! cards that we use in Santiago. Waiters were not nearly as attentive, and I just got a slightly more chaotic feeling from the place. I had heard that in other places in Chile, they make fun of people from Santiago for being too down-to-business and too rushed (much like the difference between big cities like Chicago and small towns in the south), and I could see why they would make such a comparison.

I have enjoyed hearing from all of you, and I really appreciate you reading my blog. More updates to come!

Highs and Lows

Today marks the one month anniversary of my arrival in Chile. I can't believe it. In many ways, I feel like I just arrived. In others, I feel like I have been here forever. I still have so much to experience in this semester, and I have already gathered a lifetime of lessons and experiences.

One of the reasons why I feel like I just arrived in Chile was that this past week was the first week of regular classes in my university: the first time I was in a classroom entirely filled with Chilean students. After getting very comfortable with the schedule and routine I had established the first three weeks here, I felt like this change sent me back to square one, and I was completely lost again.

My experiences in the Chilean classroom have thus far been quite different from classes in the US. For one thing, I was not informed of where my classes were actually being held beforehand, so I had to arrive at the university early in order to do some investigative work (aka ask about 50 different people) and locate the classrooms. Once I jumped that hurdle, I had to tackle the atmosphere of the classroom itself. Unlike in the US, all Chilean students in the same major and class take the same classes together every semester. Therefore, the Chilean students in my classes are all well acquainted with one another. I felt like quite the outsider. Secondly, since this is the second semester of the year in Chile, two of my classes have pre-requisites that the other students took the first semester. However, I clearly did not have the option to do so, and I therefore appear to be missing a good chunk of background material. This, coupled with the fact that I am taking these classes in my second language, produced a good deal of stress and confusion. Finally, my experiences with the Chilean professors has been much different than my experiences with professors at SLU. I am used to professors coming in on the first day of classes with syllabi and calendars that clearly outline the course requirements and schedule. I am used to professors introducing themselves and having the students go around and introduce themselves as well. In contrast, here, I don't even know the name of one of my professors. However, this is not to say that everything about my first week of classes was bad. I did get a chance to talk to some nice Chilean girls in one of my classes, and we made plans to work together on one of the group projects. I hope that in the next few weeks I can find a way to meet more Chilean friends and that I will get more comfortable with the classroom environment here.

Additionally, after such a stressful week, I got to unwind in the best way I could possibly think of... skiing in the Andes!!! My friends and I woke up around 6 am yesterday (Friday) morning to rent equipment and meet our group to head into the mountains. I have been skiing before, if you can count skiing at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin, but I had never skied in the mountains. What an indescribable experience. Even the drive up was nothing like I have ever done. The road up to the resort was a winding road that slowly crept higher and higher into the mountains. Looking down from the window of the bus made me slightly sick to see just how steep of a climb we were making. After about an hour and a half of twisting and turning, we finally made it to Valle Nevado, one of the best ski resorts in Chile. There were several of us in the group who had never skied before, or who were beginners like me, so we took a beginner lesson in the morning. After that, we were turned loose on the mountain. I quickly realized that the beginner runs in the Andes were more challenging than some of the harder runs I had done in Wisconsin. However, my prior ski experience served me well, and I managed to stay on my feet the whole day. I returned home that night exhausted, but completely exhilarated. I felt like I had been to the top of the world and back.

In the gondola heading up the mountain

 10, 827 feet

Three week anniversary!

Surprise! Since it is my 3 week anniversary of being in Santiago, I decided to do a video blog this week. Enjoy!

 The view from Pablo Neruda's house in Isla Negra

 Painting of Pablo Neruda

 Sign above the entrance to the house that says "I returned from my travels. I navigated building happiness."

 Photo of me on the beach in Algarrobo, with the Pacific Ocean and some cute Chilean kids in the backgroud.

The beach in Algarrobo

Bonus photo of the alpaca sweater I bought at an artisanal market here. I love this thing; it is so soft and warm. I am wearing it as I write :)

The Sounds of Santiago

This past week, I have been searching for a way to explain the Santiago I know so far. Whenever anyone back home asks me "How's Chile?" I never know where to start because there is just an overwhelming amount of information and processing going on in my head right now. Learning how to live in a new culture, while speaking a second language almost all the time is exhausting. So instead of using my brain to tell the story, I am going to tell it via senses; namely, sound. 

The most obvious sound I associate with Santiago is Spanish. I hear it at home, on the metro, in restaurants, in class, on the street, everywhere. And I don't just hear any Spanish, I hear Chilean Spanish. Chileans use all kinds of fun slang and expressions. My favorite expression to date is "andar a lo gringo", which literally translates to "walking as a foreigner", but is actually is an expression meaning "to go commando". Why not wearing underwear is associated with foreigners is not clear to me. However, this doesn't come up too often in daily conversation, so some of the other more commonly used words include "cachai?" (do you understand?), al tiro (right away), and the infamous "po" (a word without meaning that tends to be thrown in at the end of just about every sentence).

Strangely enough, another sound I strongly associate with Santiago is English. Although English is not commonly spoken here, the English language is strangely prominent. For example, my host mom and host brother listen to music almost all the time, and 97% of the time, it is music in English. All the stores play English music as well. And although my next example isn't necessarily a sound, there are a lot of signs and advertisements in English. It is kind of the "stylish" foreign language, like French or Italian can be in the US, so a lot of stores will write "sales" instead of "oferta" if they are trying to be stylish. The funny part is, a lot of times the things in English don't really say anything important. My favorite was a sign I saw for sale in the mall that said "Work hard and be nice". What great advice. 

Moving on with the sounds, another prominent one is the sound of street and bus vendors. Outside the metro every morning, there are vendors selling all kinds of things: food, scarves, socks, gloves, you name it. There are also vendors who will go on and off the buses selling things. The thing that surprised me so much about them was that it is actually relatively common for the Chileans to buy things from the street vendors. Before coming here, I had always associated street vendors with very touristy venues, and while certain areas have their fair share of that, everyday people buy everyday things from them.

These are only a few examples, but I hope they give you a little taste of my life here. Until next time, chao!

P.S. This photo was taken from a hill in the middle of the city called Cerro San Cristobal. We hiked up it on Tuesday, and got an incredible view of the city, and of the cordillera, the range of mountains in the background.

Greetings from Santiago

I just wanted to share a quick update with you guys about how things have been going the first week in Santiago. To be honest, there has been so much going on, and I have been here such a short time that it is almost impossible to explain everything. But I will do my best to give a short summary.

I arrived in Santiago very early Saturday morning after about twenty hours of flying and airports. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a rough start, since my luggage, along with the luggage of my travel companions Eric and Tiara, did not arrive in Chile with us. We spend about two additional hours in the airport giving them information about our luggage so that they could find it and get it to us as soon as possible. Afterwards, we all met our host families and headed home.

My Chilean family lives in Las Condes, one of the many comunes in Santiago. It is a nice, safe area, and we live in an apartment here. I have my own room, and it is very comfortable. I am thankful that although many homes in Chile do not have good heating or do not use the heat because it is really expensive, we have a good heating system, and my host mom does not like to be cold, so we use it quite a lot. 

Monday was my first day at the University. I am attending Universidad Alberto Hurtado, which is a Jesuit university, just like SLU. The faculty and staff were all very welcoming and helpful. I also met the other American students in my program. Other than Tiara, Eric, and I, there are three others. We are all taking a series of intensive Spanish classes together before our academic classes start at the end of July. In order to get to school, I have to use a combination of bus and metro. It takes me about 40 minutes to get to the university.

When I am not in class, I have been spending my time getting to know my new city.

This doesn't even begin to cover everything I have been experiencing, but I will post more soon! As we say in Chile, chao chao!

TTFN

Today is my last day in the U.S. for about six months! See ya later, America. Oh, and Happy 4th of July!