"Wow Wow Wow!"

(- in the words of Marco...)

I changed the background of my blog! I got bored of the brown and I thought I'd change it up a bit.

Busy week here on the Chilean home front as usual.

Monday was quite the day. We talked about human rights in the morning for the last day of our "Contemporary Chile" class. Human rights are still a huuuuge deal here today (See article from last week: Human Rights Advocates Pressure Piñera On Pardon Issue). The guy who taught the class was pretty interesting and then became even more interesting when we learned that he had been tortured during Pinochet's dictatorship.

Side note 1: Chilean politics are VERY controversial. With the right, center, and left (and each containing their own sectors within), there are so many opinions here, especially when it comes to the very complicated history involving the golpe de estado. (If you feel like reading some more, look up Chile's political history. Tricky stuff.)

Side note 2: Our class is taught from a left-center point of view. My host dad, Marco, is very far to the right [i.e. his views about Pinochet - the dictator - are a lot more positive]. He wants to sit me down and tell me the other side of the story, but we are going to need time, lots of time...

Ok, back to the present.

That afternoon, we took a field trip to Villa Grimaldi - one of the places where Chileans were interrogated and tortured during Pinochet's regime, the same spot were our professor had been tortured. Pretty powerful. He walked us through everything, step by step, in the same location. (They've now turned the site into a park since it was destroyed after Pinochet to cover the act. A few buildings still remain).

I can't imagine having to relieve that sort of pain.

After a day's worth of standing on my feet and walking around - I know I know, it's nothing in comparison to what he went through - I accidently took a 3-hour nap when I got home. My Chilean mom woke me up at 10 to make sure I was ok and give me dinner. She looked pretty concerned. They kept knocking on my door and calling my name for a while, but I slept through it all. Oops.

On Tuesday we had a Spanish placement test, toured around one of the universities, and I watched the U.Chile v. Chivas soccer game. Simple day.

I spent yesterday (Wednesday) figuring out my classes. It's quite the matrix with 3 universities to pick from through our program, so many classes, and an impossible econ department (sweet..).

Last night, we had a dance lesson in our living room. My host family knows two dance professors and they came to teach us the merengue, salsa, and tango. Sergio and I danced together and my host mom danced with my host dad. Sergio warned me before we started that he didn't dance.. it was definitely a struggle. I kept teaching him what to do. Surprisingly, I was the only one in the family who knew salsa! (Sergio gave up by this point, so I danced with the instructor. He told me that I should find a friend to dance with next time. Haha.)

Today, we visited the last of our 3 universities - La Católica. It's probably the one where I will take the most class. [Mom - it's the one that has the "U.S. campus feel" on the San Joaquin campus. That's where most of my classes will be.]

Lastly, I've been found out...

Sergio has noticed that I snooze my alarm like there's no tomorrow. Today was a little rough. I had to get up at 7:30 and it was freezing outside of my bed since my estufa had been off through the night. I mean, who can blame me? But he definitely got a kick out of the fact that 4 different alarms went off this morning.. oops. Paper thin walls can be troublesome.

-

Todavía estoy buscando para mi nave espacial...

Weekend with the Family

First off, to clear up some confusion about my safety...

1. No. I didn't get lost on the bus at 3 am. That was around 5:30 pm. And I knew where I was, I just didn't get off the bus in time.


2. When I return at night and it's late, I travel with my friends. We share taxis and each get dropped off at our individual houses.


3. My Chilean family takes great care of me. They have told me about all of the places that I should and shouldn't go. And we are always in contact with each other.

So fear not!

Other than that, this weekend was mostly spent in la casa with mi familia.

Yesterday, I woke up (muy tranquilo) and caught up with my true fam. As I was talking to my dad (Glenn), my Chilean dad (Marco) knocked on the door. My two dad's got to meet which was pretty interesting since my real dad only attempts to say aeropuerto and my Chilean dad has rusty English. There was a bit of a communication snafu when my Chilean dad told my real dad that he was "happy to have his sister in the house". He confused daughter and sister.. we all laughed.

After, I went to la feria with my Chilean dad (sometimes the men do the shopping...). La feria is basically a market that travels around, almost like a farmer's market. It's a lot smaller than la Vega, which we visited last week. He had me practice all of my Spanish fruits and vegetables. Next time, I'm supposed to buy them all...

We also made it to Chile's version of "Home Depot".. which Marco called el sueño del hombre.. 'a man's dream'.

Once we got back with all of the fruits and vegetables, we had a huge family lunch (Juan Pablo and José Tomás - Marco's kids - were here for the weekend) and then it was time for the siesta.. i.e. nap time. After eating that much food, I definitely needed a nap.

Last night, I went to a salsateque with a bunch of the girls in the program (Swalk - this one was much better than the one we visited in Nashville the first week of orientation..) We had a ton of fun and all of the locals loved us.

Today, I went to la misa (mass) with my Chilean mom. It was a beautiful church. The whole mass was really interesting because I could understand everything, since mass is universally the same, but I couldn't say any of it because it was in Spanish...Maybe someday soon?

When we got home (after stopping at another market - my family is big on fruits and vegetables and having me try everything), we had a huge asado (roast). We all sat on the porch and admired the Cordillera and I experienced yet another rapid-fire family meal. There were so many types of meat, appetizers, fruits, and vegetables.. everything you could imagine. And everyone was talking a mile a minute (and on top of each other). I'm definitely getting better and understanding more. So I'm pretty pleased.

Marco Antonio, Me, and his son José Tomás

Me, Valeria, and Sergio

Me and my Chilean mom, Maria Cecilia

The Cordillera from our backyard.

Two of los perritos - Malu and Van Gogh

She Lives!

As promised, here's my very delayed update after a week's worth of Chilean craziness!

On Saturday, I finally met my host sister Valeria. She and her husband Tomás came over for lunch and brought their puppy Malu (she's the third of Dali and Gala's litter). This was a real test for my Spanish skills... luckily I made it through! And only had to explain something in English once. Pretty excellent for Day 4. As our lunch ended, everyone decided to take a siesta but I decided to figure out my next move: where to go for the night.

I decided to go to the theater with my friend Hilary and her host parents. They picked me up in their car and bantered back and forth the whole way there. It was hilarious, especially when we realized that our directions were wrong and we started driving around in circles, up and down the same streets looking for the place. The whole time, her host mom would add her two cents and her host dad would ignore everything she was saying. After unsuccessfully driving around for an hour with our own entertainment in the car, Hilary and I saw the most amazing/ridiculous sight: A drunk man on a horse, riding on the road. HA! Only in Chile.... he was swaying back and forth and cars were swerving around him. Priceless.

After giving up on the show, her parents decided to treat us at one of their favorite restaurants... a pizza joint. Who knew that Chileans loved pizza so much?

Finally we made it back to Hilary's to get ready to go out and her host dad took out his really powerful (and illegal in the US :D) laser pointer and showed us the stars. Turns out that since we are in the southern hemisphere, we look at a different set of stars. I guess I knew that, but I was really cool to see different constellations. Here dad showed us the southern cross, making sure that we knew if we were ever lost, we could use it to find south. Survival skills.

Soon after, we were out - carrete! - but alas, Chileans don't begin to go out until.. ehh 1? So we stayed for a little while and more people showed up and soon the discoteque was at full blast. Around 3:30, we got tired (it had been a long week) and we decided that it was time to go home. We got in trouble with the Chileans we had met because according to them, you stay out til 5 and then go to an after party somewhere else. A little ambitious for us on Day 4.

So I made it home safely, but as a stepped in my room I realized that the dogs had been there too. My pen had been chewed and my journal was no where to be found...

So here I am, 4 am - creeping around my house and looking for the dogs, trying to see if they had taken my journal and eaten it. No success. I had some weird dreams that night. Can't remember exactly, but they definitely involved my journal...
In the morning, I woke up and decided to look behind my bed... Alas! All was right in the world and the dogs didn't eat it! It just fell behind the bed... catastrophe avoided. Phew.

That day, I went with Marco to have lunch with his kids (José Thomás - 21, Juan Pablo - 18, and Alejandra - 12). They were great and we spent the whole lunch comparing things from Chile to things from the US. Juan Pablo, who can speak English, helped translate along the way. We ranged from Alejandra's love of Twilight (she asked me if I had ever met Taylor Lautner... haha) and Juan Pablo's obsession with Final Fantasy and WWF (those were a little harder for me to talk about.. but I showed him my best John Cena move) to September 11th and how I felt about the day. Quite the lunch.

On Monday, we had to take care of more CIEE business. Took pictures for school ID's, talked about the upcoming week, and went to an orientation for exchange students at U. Chile. Nothing super interesting. On the other hand, Abby, Madeline, and I went exploring after class to find Abby's new favorite cafe (a la JJ's at Vandy). As we wondered through the parks to find it, we came across ridiculous amounts of PDA. Turns out people will do anything here in public, no shame. Sometimes it's kinda odd...definitely not the norm in the US. I guess that's something to get used to? After that, Mads and I rode to our metro stop and the switched to our separate buses. This was my first time riding this bus, but I figured it couldn't be too hard, right?

WRONG! I assumed that it stopped at every stop. This is not the case. In order to get off, you have to push a button. Yes, yes I know this makes sense, but I didn't realize at the time. So the bus flew by my stop, turned right, and went about a mile down the street before it stopped again. Great... I crossed the street, hopped on another bus going the opposite direction and then hastily pushed the button. Too soon. I didn't want to miss my stop again! At point, I just decided it was easier to walk...

When I got home, I found that my mom had bought an electric estufa (heater) for my room. YAY! Turns out that winter here isn't too bad in the day, but at night it's rough because the temperature drops and central heating is really expensive here. Therefore, my house feels like an icebox. I've been sleeping in sweatpants, a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, and socks every night. Occasionally, I add leggings or a North Face.. or even a hat to the mix... Brrr. But the heater has done wonders - I think I am in love with it.. not really, but still.

The rest of the week has followed much of the same pattern. We had class in the morning - "Contemporary Chile" - where we learned about Chilean (the language of tchi-le), its history, and the poetes and artists here. That has been interesting, but the best part of each day is the field trip.

Tuesday we went to El Mercado Central and La Vega, two of the HUGE markets in the city. As a small pack of obvious "Estadounidenses", it wasn't surprising that around every corner, we heard so sort of cat call..6 girls (3 of them blonde, which isn't common here) and one teacher. Tough to avoid. Chileans are not shy about anything. The best one was when one called out "I can be your man!".. haha thank you for offering..


On Wednesday, we saw some historic structures and after a couple of us found a little restaurant in the "Wall Street" of Santiago. Let's just say there were only men in there and we got a bunch of odd stares. Who knows? Maybe it could become our new 'spot' and these men will have to get used to us...

Thursday was the best. We climbed to the top of Santa Lucia and we were able to see the whole city! It was the best day because it was post-rain, so the smog had lifted off of the Cordillera.

Today we visited one of Pablo Neruda's houses, hit up another cafe after, and then I saw Shrek 4 tonight (in Spanish of course!). Madeline, Abby, and I made some friends at the movie theater -and of course the first question was "where are you from?..." Haha I guess we're a dead giveaway since we talk much slower.

Like I said before, it's been a pretty crazy week. I'm pretty sure I saw the Chilean version of Justin Long on the metro. They played Madonna's "Celebration" - the techno version - on the train (Katie, that's for you!), I found more notes in the bags - "Can I hold him? But I would liiike to touch it", and Brett - I owe you about 5,000 punches. There are many VW's here and I've seen a couple dealerships.

Life is good. My spanish is definitely improving and I'm understanding more and more every day. We shall see what tomorrow brings!

I Promise I'm Not Dead...

Sorry! I will add a real update tomorrow!

Chilean life has been crazy busy, but the weekend is just around the corner. One more day of classes and field trips and I promise I'll explain.

But for now, I did add pictures :) Fun things to look at! Even though you'll have no idea what they are...

The Inaugural Post

If you hadn't already heard, I made it to Chile! With only a few complications...

1. My expert over packing - I was under the weight limit! But everyone else has either smaller or less bags than I do... what else is new
2. The 12-hour flight delay in Dallas - Because of this, I flew through Toronto instead. (Interesting, right? Not quite on the way to Santiago..)
3. A long layover in Canada without Canadian dollars or a friend... Instead I took comfort in my last moments of phone calls and texting - especially when I was discussing the best inventions for solo travelers when they don't want to truck their carry-ons all over the airport...
4. After finally arriving in Chile, I made it through customs and declared all of my items. But unfortunately my packet of important papers stayed in the airport. Why? Because of my lack of sleep, excitement, and momentary brain lapse... Luckily, I used my expert "Get Smart" skills to sneak back into Chilean customs and retrieve it. I waited outside of the automatic doors and when someone finally came out, I ran through them - James Bond style - before they could close on me. Let's just say that the security man thought I was un poco loco.
5. And last but not least - I lost my travel buddy. After the issues with American Airlines, Abby switched her flight to connect through Atlanta... Although this seemed like a great idea because she would now be traveling with Madeline, her flight was delayed from Kansas City and she missed the flight to Santiago. About 36-hours later, Abby finally made it to Chile - but only after spending the night in ATL (at Madeline's house.. even though Mads was already here.. haha), dealing with more flight delays, and not sleeping on the plane.

But even with all of the traveling troubles - I still made it and Chile is amazing!

I am here with 34 other students - 6 boys and 28 girls - from schools ranging from Penn and Georgetown to Pomona and USC. I am slowly getting to know everyone, but it's tough - especially since 10 kids arrived late because of the Dallas troubles.

When we first arrived, we stayed in a hotel and took care of all of the necessary details for the start of a study abroad program. We bought cell phones, exchanged numbers immediately, discussed safety measures, tested the transportation and our "tarjetas de BIP!" (metro cards)... yada yada.. everything vital. And of course an orientation wouldn't be complete without a "Picture Scavenger Hunt" with all the Chilean words that we didn't know and an after-orientation drink: Pisco Sours.

Last night, I moved in with my family and I love them. I'm living in one of the upper-middle class, Santiago neighborhoods called "Las Condes". Santiago is split into many boroughs like New York. My family is very complicated... I have a Chilean mom and she has three kids - Sergio (26), Natalia (19), and Valeria (not sure how old she is... I'm meeting her tomorrow. She's married and lives with her husband. I did meet him tonight, but that's another story...) My mom is separated from her husband (for the last 11 years) and now lives with her companion, Marco (I think that's the best way to describe it). They've been together for 7 years. [Side note: Divorce was illegal in Chile until 2004.] Marco has 3 kids who live here every 15 days for the weekend. The rest of the time they live with their mom. The last member of the family is the niece who lives in the house during the school year so that she has an easier commute. I haven't met her either because the second semester in Chile hasn't started yet.

Sergio and I have our own wing of the house with two bedrooms and a bathroom to share. He's great - a Chilean version of Ryan. I have yet to meet his girlfriend, but I should soon.

Today was a Catholic holiday in Chile, "The Day of the Virgen del Carmen". Because of this, everything was closed and most people from Santiago left the city.. including my Chilean mom and Marco. (I had CIEE stuff to do.. so I couldn't go. Boo.) Instead I stayed here and unpacked so that I could finally get settled in. Sergio and Natalia went to go hang out with friends, so I had the whole house to myself. Me and the 4 beagles (two adults and two 2-month old puppies - they are all named after artists... Van Gogh, Dali, Gala, and Tara ). The night was quite eventful. The gate-bell rang twice.. First was my Chilean sister's husband. That was confusing because I had never met him before and I was wary to just let him in the house... but he proved himself to me and all was well. Then the garbage men came by.. for some reason he rang the doorbell but when I went out to talk to him (there was a locked gate between us - no worries), I couldn't understand a word he was saying.. so I just nodded my head and went back inside. Oops.. hope it wasn't important!

So that about sums up my last couple days. Which brings me to my final point... the Spanish here is ridiculous. People in Chile don't even consider their language "Spanish".. it's "Chilean". And boy is it fast. They speak so quickly, it's a wonder their mouths can form so many syllables in one millisecond. Jeez. So as I am trying to catch everything that they are saying.... throw in all of the Chilean slang.. and poof. It's crazy. But I am catching on.. and learning a lot of new words and phrases.

So I'll leave you with a lesson - a Chileanism. So that you can all learn with me.

Today's word of the day is carretear - to party. Hahaha. Ejemplo: Esta noche, Sergio y Natalia carretean con sus amigos y yo tengo la casa para mi mismo. Translation: Tonight, Sergio and Natalia are partying with their friends and I have the house to myself.