I'm Blending!

Whoops! Can't believe I let another week go by. Sorry about that!

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So I'm almost a legitimate Chilean citizen.. meh kinda? After getting my student visa to come here, turns out I had a couple more things to accomplish. The first was a trip to the international police so that I could register my visa. Not really sure why? I thought they already knew I was here since I cleared customs...My Chilean dad and I woke up at the crack of dawn (literally.. the sun was not up yet) and we drove to the city. He wanted to beat all of the Peruvians - they try to immigrate here. After going to the wrong building first, we finally ended up in the right place and I got in line...behind 60 Peruvians.. My host dad really wanted to take a picture because he thought it would be hilarious. Oh boy. Next step is to get my ID card. Sergio is going to take me there tomorrow.

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The rest of the weekend went well. My parents left for a mini vacation together, so my friends Sophie and Hilary came over and we cooked dinner at my house on Friday. They almost killed me by turning on the gas in the oven and not lighting it (it's a manual stove...). Luckily, we caught that one pretty quickly. My host sister keeps playfully messing with me that I tried to burn the house down. Negative.

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Saturday night I went to a birthday party for Hilary's host brother. We got to meet a bunch of Chileans and my Spanish was spot on that night. (Woo Woo!) Times like those are so amazing and they are becoming more frequent! Today, I asked my host dad if I had improved in the last three weeks and he excitedly said "¡Sí!". That's always reassuring.

Campus Oriente

This week has been crazy. We started classes on Monday. These two weeks are meant for "window shopping"... So I went to as many classes as a possible could. My brain definitely hurts, but I understood everything!

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After all of that, I'm taking 4 classes. An econ class comparing the economies of Asia, Europe, and Latin America; a history class dealing with Latin America and Chile in the 20th Century; a class about short stories - love this professor; and an advanced spanish language class. I don't have classes of Friday which is going to be amazing! Probably the only time I'll have a schedule like this one.

The view of the Cordillera from San Joaquin - this is where all of my classes will be.

Arriving at this schedule has been difficult. Between super long excursions to the other Catolica campuses (there are 4), to dealing with the Chilean copy system - we've had many adventures.

Madeline and Abby with our trusty map!

Since yesterday marked my 3 week anniversary here, I decided to reflect a bit on some of the things I've seen here. Fun facts:

• People do the weirdest stuff on the Metro/Micro (the bus). This morning I saw someone with nose spray, another woman with eye drops, another plucking her eyebrows, and yesterday I saw a man trim his beard on the train? Odd?! YES! They also sell all kinds of things and perform. I have seen a guy selling bootleg DVD's, a bunch selling candy and chocolate, one playing the guitar, one selling little toys, and to top it off, today two guys got on my micro and started rapping? Epic.


• There are two types of ambulances here. The normal big ones and smaller vans. The tricky thing is that the bigger ones speed through traffic with their lights flashing - a la U.S. But the little ones just sit in traffic, even with their lights flashing. I guess no one cares about the little ambulances? Or they just don't have enough "Umph" to get through the traffic? Who can say...


• Rush hour here is absolutely ridiculous... At the start of the train line, people will be packed on the platform from the doors of the train all the way to the wall... the whole way down the platform. You have to wait to walk down the stairs. And when everyone gets on the trains and buses - it's the ultimate game of jenga/sardines. I have never been so squished in my life. They have people whose jobs are to push the people onto the metro so the doors can shut.


• Lastly, I feel like I will always look like a gringa here. No matter what I do/wear. But I did have an epic moment yesterday (hence the title of this entry). As I was waiting for the train to come at Vincente Valdés, a Chilean woman came up to me and asked how to get somewhere!!! I was so excited that she thought I might know! (I didn't actually know where the place was.. but that's not the point of this story).

Anyway, that's the gist of what I've been up to in the last week.