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!

"Tell me about your weaknesses."

This is the most classic question asked at job interviews, and is one of the most difficult questions to answer honestly. After all, no one wants to admit to being weak, especially during a job interview. So you have to be creative and come up with a "weakness" that is actually a strength in disguise. Usually I say something to the effect of, "I'm too hard on myself," or "I expect perfection, even when it is unrealistic." And those are both true. But if you asked me that question today, here's what I would tell you: "I have a tendency to over plan and over prepare."

It sounds like a good thing, right? But honestly, that isn't always the case.

I have known that I was going to study in Chile for over a year, and I was thinking about it long before then. Hence, I have had a lot of time to research the country, the city, the university, the culture, the food, the holidays, the language, the weather, etc, etc, etc. If I thought it would be at all helpful, I would probably research what kind of lollipop the Chilean people most prefer. All of this investigation has left me really well-prepared... to spout out tons of random information about any of these various topics and pretend like I know what I am talking about. 

But I actually have no clue what I am talking about. I have never been to Chile. I can learn tons of random facts, but will they really help me in my everyday life there? To a certain extent, they will. It is definitely useful to know that I need to bring an converter/adapter for the outlets, and that when I arrive it will be the middle of winter. But at some point, all this information is going to fail me. I can't anticipate every conversation I am going to have, or every situation I am going to face. Those are experiences that I will have to deal with as they come along.

So my task until I leave is to shut my brain off (or at least the part that constantly plans), and put away the research. I would say I need to stop making lists, but honestly, that will never happen. I still have to pack, after all. The point is, the only goal I need to carry with me now is just to stop making goals and plans, and instead focus on what is happening in the moment.

Wish me luck!

¡Hola!

Hello! Thanks for reading my blog!

As you probably know, in early July, I will be leaving the United States and heading to Santiago, Chile for a semester abroad. I have known I wanted to study abroad since my mom first told me about the semester she spent in England during her college years, and needless to say, I am extremely excited that it is finally my time to go.

I decided to write this blog because I can't wait to share my experiences with you, my friends and family. I have never blogged before, but it seemed like a convenient way to share with everyone at the same time.

I haven't quite decided how often I am going to be posting,  mostly because I don't know what my schedule or life is going to look like in a few weeks. However, I will do my best to keep it up to date once I arrive in Chile!

That's all I have to say for now! Chao!