It's crazy to think that I arrived her in Chile only a month ago! In some ways it feels like the time has flown by and in others it feels like it is crawling by, normally the former. This last weekend we went to Santiago for an overnight for a cultural class with our program that included a trip to El Museo de Bellas Artes - The Museum of Beautiful Art, and my CIEE short-story class met with a Chilean author who is starting to become well known - Alejandra Costamagna. She is a very interesting person and her stories tend to interconnect with one another, she recently finished a novel that branched off some of her short-stories that have already been published.
When we first arrived in Santiago we had the option to visit either Pablo Neruda's house there or to take a funicular to the top of one of larger hills to see the view of Santiago, the Andes, and the smog... I may get a picture up showing the view - pretty much once you get up to higher ground you can see the very thick layer of smog that covers the city and it only goes away after it rains and sometimes in the summer. With all of the hills around Santiago and the mountains the smog doesn't have anywhere to go for it to disperse. Makes me glad that my friends suggested that I study in Valpo instead of Santiago, I could not imagine what it'd be like to breathe that air every day for five months. Gross.
We'll see!While I was in Santiago I had the opportunity to finally meet one of my Chilean friends, Lucho in person after years of meeting and talking to them online through my friend Maggie who has also lived here off and on for a couple years. We didn't do anything really exciting, just hung out and drank some piscolas with two of his roommates and my friend Kareen. I'm hoping to get a chance to meet my other friends as well, either I'll visit them or they'll come here, maybe even both. :)
Other than that I tried to find an art store when we were there to find some decent sketchbooks since there isn't any stores like we have at home here, makes me really appreciate and miss Blick, Utrecht and Michaels. Anyway, after a thirty or so minute walk to find the nearest store we got there at about four to find out that it had closed at two - leaving me super bummed. Despite the failed adventure to get sketchbooks and any other art supplies, we kept it positive knowing that we got to know a little more about Santiago. :) I'm hoping that next time I'm in Santiago it'll be more convenient to get to the store while it's open, although it probably won't be for a few weeks when Courtnie and I plan to go to Brazil during what we *think* is a week off of school. We'll figure it out before we go of course, and while we do that we'll be working on fitting in a couple other trips around South America like Machu Picchu and Argentina - all depending on how crazy life gets here...
So, that's my update for you all at home and as always lots of love to you :)
De
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Things About Chile
So I realized that even though there aren't really any exciting things happening to me in Chile right now in this instant, there are still things that I can talk about and explain. Especially for those of you who are coming to visit me and those who wish to someday visit Chile.
One of the things that you notice right away here is that there are dogs everywhere. They're the Chilean street dogs. They could be your best friend, or your greatest enemy - so it's good to be careful with them. My experiences with them have been great, in most cases it seems like the dogs cling to American's because whenever a small or large group of us walk by, a dog will join us on our walk and cross the streets with us. Sometimes they will bark at people passing by whom they deem in some way or another a threat to us, once the person is far enough away so that the dog feels we are safe, it'll catch back up to us and continue walking by our side. Some of them can be really gorgeous "purebred" look-a-likes, gorgeous mixes, or some really ugly mixes and mutt (like a german shepherd mixed with a beagle?). I've said it many times already, and I'll say it many times more; I want to take them all home with me.
Mass transit here is definitely interesting. They have two terms for buses, the first is more for our version of city buses which they call "Micro/s", then for traveling buses like our Greyhounds are "Bus/es." Not too hard to figure out those differences, but that's as far as the "easiness" of the bus goes as far as we're concerned or are used to. There is no actual bus schedule, buses come and go within minutes and sometimes seconds of each other. Part of this is because there are so many different companies and the drivers are paid on commission, so the more people that ride a particular bus the more that driver makes. A lot of times the driver will have a friend or a partner ride with them and try to get riders on the bus, especially at night when people are leaving the clubs. Sometimes I feel like I'm being herded onto a bus with five different men yelling "Viña bus this way" in my ear. Also during the bus rides, the drivers let people on the bus to sell snacks or other items to the passengers on the bus - I've also heard of people singing or telling fake "my child is sick" stories to get money or tips as well.
Along that note, there are also street entertainers who will spend their day or night at a stop light and perform an act when the light is red in hopes of making tips. So far I've seen people throwing fireballs on strings, jugglers, magicians, you name it.
One thing that is highly visibly different than what I know back at home in the U.S. is that PDA can be pretty rampant here. Currently the weather is decently brisk and I see at least two couples making out on the streets per day, and I'm sure that number will increase as it gets warmer - especially on the beach. It doesn't bother me so much, but I've definitely seen it bother other foreigners here.
Other things that you notice around town are buildings that have patched up cracks in their walls or other small structural damage from the earthquakes earlier this year. Some buildings are completely shut down and evacuated until they either get fixed or torn down and rebuilt. Otherwise just some of the sidewalks are cracked and unlevel, but Viña was relatively unaffected by the earthquake. But at the same time, earthquakes and tsunamis are a frequent topic of conversation among Chileans - even with those who have been unaffected by them. We apparently had an earth tremor last week, but I never felt it :)
Chileans are HUGE party-ers, el carrete (relatively translated to the party or something like that) is the one thing that everyone does here and they tend to last all night. Bars don't close until at least 6:30 AM and most Chileans don't start going out until 1 or so to make it through the morning hours.
So yea, that's all I have for you all right now. I know that I'm kind of all over the place and all that, but hey - be glad I'm not going into writing ;)
One of the things that you notice right away here is that there are dogs everywhere. They're the Chilean street dogs. They could be your best friend, or your greatest enemy - so it's good to be careful with them. My experiences with them have been great, in most cases it seems like the dogs cling to American's because whenever a small or large group of us walk by, a dog will join us on our walk and cross the streets with us. Sometimes they will bark at people passing by whom they deem in some way or another a threat to us, once the person is far enough away so that the dog feels we are safe, it'll catch back up to us and continue walking by our side. Some of them can be really gorgeous "purebred" look-a-likes, gorgeous mixes, or some really ugly mixes and mutt (like a german shepherd mixed with a beagle?). I've said it many times already, and I'll say it many times more; I want to take them all home with me.
Mass transit here is definitely interesting. They have two terms for buses, the first is more for our version of city buses which they call "Micro/s", then for traveling buses like our Greyhounds are "Bus/es." Not too hard to figure out those differences, but that's as far as the "easiness" of the bus goes as far as we're concerned or are used to. There is no actual bus schedule, buses come and go within minutes and sometimes seconds of each other. Part of this is because there are so many different companies and the drivers are paid on commission, so the more people that ride a particular bus the more that driver makes. A lot of times the driver will have a friend or a partner ride with them and try to get riders on the bus, especially at night when people are leaving the clubs. Sometimes I feel like I'm being herded onto a bus with five different men yelling "Viña bus this way" in my ear. Also during the bus rides, the drivers let people on the bus to sell snacks or other items to the passengers on the bus - I've also heard of people singing or telling fake "my child is sick" stories to get money or tips as well.
Along that note, there are also street entertainers who will spend their day or night at a stop light and perform an act when the light is red in hopes of making tips. So far I've seen people throwing fireballs on strings, jugglers, magicians, you name it.
One thing that is highly visibly different than what I know back at home in the U.S. is that PDA can be pretty rampant here. Currently the weather is decently brisk and I see at least two couples making out on the streets per day, and I'm sure that number will increase as it gets warmer - especially on the beach. It doesn't bother me so much, but I've definitely seen it bother other foreigners here.
Other things that you notice around town are buildings that have patched up cracks in their walls or other small structural damage from the earthquakes earlier this year. Some buildings are completely shut down and evacuated until they either get fixed or torn down and rebuilt. Otherwise just some of the sidewalks are cracked and unlevel, but Viña was relatively unaffected by the earthquake. But at the same time, earthquakes and tsunamis are a frequent topic of conversation among Chileans - even with those who have been unaffected by them. We apparently had an earth tremor last week, but I never felt it :)
Chileans are HUGE party-ers, el carrete (relatively translated to the party or something like that) is the one thing that everyone does here and they tend to last all night. Bars don't close until at least 6:30 AM and most Chileans don't start going out until 1 or so to make it through the morning hours.
So yea, that's all I have for you all right now. I know that I'm kind of all over the place and all that, but hey - be glad I'm not going into writing ;)
Friday, August 13, 2010
Update? Yes. Anything new? Not really :)
So I know some of you want updates every so often, even if there's nothing really exciting to say. Pretty much life has been going on practically like normal, just in a different country. ;) I finally had my first full week of classes which started out at 8 courses, but I decided on one to drop right away. I signed up for two extra courses so it's pretty easy to drop, and it was a good thing that I did go that route because the course that I did drop was one that I had intended to take before, but after the first class I realized it wouldn't be a good fit. Plus it was on Pacific Asia, nowhere near my concentration! The one that I am taking instead (which was suggested by a student monitor who's job is to help the international students) is translated to something like this; Chile Integrates into the World: Processes of Internationalization. It seems interesting already and the professor is a lot less dry than the Pacific Asia professor. :) The other courses that I am signed up for are Advanced Spanish Writing, Traditional Chilean Dances, Hispanic-american Short Stories, History of 20th Century Latin America, Contemporary Latin American Poetry and Urban and Regional History of Valparaíso. I have an additional class in there as I'm deciding between the last two, was planning on the history one being dropped. But now that I've had that class I don't really want to drop it, but also don't want to drop any others. So I'm stuck, but I have until the end of the month to decide and if I chose to take it it just means I'll be coming home with 7 completed courses and have to pay an additional 500-600$ in tuition.... Sucks yes, but could be worth it.
In other news... I really don't have any. I feel like I'm going to keep repeating myself on these things, which would be utterly boring and I don't want to do that to you all my lovely friends and family. :) I don't know if I mentioned this in my last blog, but since I have less commitments here in Chile I'm going to try and work on my drawing and artistic abilities.
Next weekend we are going to Santiago for a "cultural trip," whatever that means... The trip falls during a good weekend as it is my friend Pablo's birthday on Friday and he has invited me and some friends to his house to celebrate with him. I am very excited to finally meet the friends in person whom I've been talking to online for the last three or four years thanks to my lovely amiga Maggie. :)
Other than that, I don't really have much else to say. I'm excited to start tackling this semester, and seeing what I can truly do with what my lifelong education has taught me.
As always, love to you all!
-De
In other news... I really don't have any. I feel like I'm going to keep repeating myself on these things, which would be utterly boring and I don't want to do that to you all my lovely friends and family. :) I don't know if I mentioned this in my last blog, but since I have less commitments here in Chile I'm going to try and work on my drawing and artistic abilities.
Next weekend we are going to Santiago for a "cultural trip," whatever that means... The trip falls during a good weekend as it is my friend Pablo's birthday on Friday and he has invited me and some friends to his house to celebrate with him. I am very excited to finally meet the friends in person whom I've been talking to online for the last three or four years thanks to my lovely amiga Maggie. :)
Other than that, I don't really have much else to say. I'm excited to start tackling this semester, and seeing what I can truly do with what my lifelong education has taught me.
As always, love to you all!
-De
Friday, August 6, 2010
So it's now been two weeks since I've left home and I've got another four months left to go!
This week we went to the dunes in Con Con and a group of Chileans let us try out their sandboards which there are pictures of on facebook of course! It was so beautiful there! We caught the sunset and promised to go back again once we're more fit to climb those dunes! I never thought a bunch of sandy hills could be so amazing :P
Last weekend was a pretty crazy weekend, we went out every night and stayed out until at least two o'clock, through which my allergies turned into a cold by sunday and I've been trying to rest up ever since. I've almost kicked most of it I feel but now I'm down to the annoying can't stop coughing part. Lovely eh? Tonight we'll be going out again to one of the clubs we went to last week for two birthdays, one of the girls in our group, and a host brother's friend of another student in the group. Then we have an asado tomorrow in one of the parks, hoping that there'll be a lot of food and livery!
Other than that we "started" class this week, by which half of the classes didn't start yet or if they did the ones with Chilean students only the international students showed up. So I don't really have much to say about classes yet, we'll see how they turn out and hopefully I'll have more exciting things to say about them once we're into the semester here.
Other than that I've got nothing exciting to say so sorry guys!
Love you lots!
De
This week we went to the dunes in Con Con and a group of Chileans let us try out their sandboards which there are pictures of on facebook of course! It was so beautiful there! We caught the sunset and promised to go back again once we're more fit to climb those dunes! I never thought a bunch of sandy hills could be so amazing :P
Last weekend was a pretty crazy weekend, we went out every night and stayed out until at least two o'clock, through which my allergies turned into a cold by sunday and I've been trying to rest up ever since. I've almost kicked most of it I feel but now I'm down to the annoying can't stop coughing part. Lovely eh? Tonight we'll be going out again to one of the clubs we went to last week for two birthdays, one of the girls in our group, and a host brother's friend of another student in the group. Then we have an asado tomorrow in one of the parks, hoping that there'll be a lot of food and livery!
Other than that we "started" class this week, by which half of the classes didn't start yet or if they did the ones with Chilean students only the international students showed up. So I don't really have much to say about classes yet, we'll see how they turn out and hopefully I'll have more exciting things to say about them once we're into the semester here.
Other than that I've got nothing exciting to say so sorry guys!
Love you lots!
De
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